Parable of the Householder

Alright, the parable that we're gonna look at is the parable of the dragnet.

Let's just start by reading verses 47 through 50.

It says again:

The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea and gathering fish of every kind. And when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad fish or the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age, the angel shall come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and we'll cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be weeping and wailing or weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So let’s think about this parable in isolation.

• And I know that we know from this chapter, there's a series of parables that we've been given, and we know that, first of all, because it begins with the word again.
• And so he is referring again to the same subject that he has already been teaching on.
• And the setting has changed marginally.

Whenever the chapter began, he was speaking to a multitude.

But in verse 36, let's look at verse 36, it says:

then he left the multitudes and went into the house, and his disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the tears of the field.

And so we see it a change in the setting there in verse 36, where he went into a house and it says, his disciples came to him.

• Could be just the 12 or it could be a larger number.
• Sometimes the disciples refer to all those who are following him, frankly.
• Because it was in a house, I think this is the 12 that came to him.

They came to him and asked him a question about the parable that he had just taught to the multitude.

• So the settings changed.
  • It's a small, intimate setting. The disciples are there.

And Jesus, when they asked him to explain the, the parable he did, he explained that to them.

• And then he gave them two other parables.
• In fact, two of my favorite parables.

And then he came to this one.

• My Bible has a heading for it called a dragnet.
• But, this is a unique parable talking about what he says here is the kingdom of heaven.

Now, the kingdom of heaven is not a new subject for Matthew.

• In fact, Matthew has referred to the kingdom of heaven over and over and over.
• He's unique in that term, but he's not unique on that subject.
• Mark and Luke, even John in chapter three.

But the New Testament is full of teaching about the kingdom of God, and so is the Old Testament.

• They were fully aware and fully conscious of the concept or the promise of the kingdom that was coming.
  • So much so that whenever Jesus was crucified, you remember, he came back and as the resurrected Christ, he was with his disciples for 40 days.
  • And during those 40 days, in Acts chapter one, it says, he taught them about, guess what the kingdom of God. Verse six of that chapter shows a little bit of what's going on in the disciples mind.

And in the thinking probably of the Jews in general, the disciples said, after Jesus taught them for 40 days about the kingdom of God, then they said, are you gonna set it up now?

• Is this how you're gonna introduce the kingdom back to Israel?
• They had a very clear opinion about the kingdom of God, but it just wasn't exactly right, although they thought that it was, I'm sure they thought it was thoroughly biblically informed, but that's why Jesus spent so many, so many hours teaching them about the kingdom.

And if you go back through chapter 13, you see all of these different parables that are so different.

• I mean, you have the difference between wheat and tears sewn in a field and leaven in a lump of dough.
• You have a pearl of great value.
• You have a vast number of different kinds of parables or comparisons.
  • And in each one, Jesus says, the kingdom of heavens like this or the kingdom of heaven can be kept compared to this.

So it's a little strange as we think about how in the world are all of these things alike.

• Thankfully, Jesus gives us help.
• And in this text, in this parable, he really does give us a lot of help.
• He tells us exactly what he's emphasizing.

And so let's look at the kingdom of heaven is like, it's like what?

• Whenever we first hear that, we say, oh, the kingdom of heaven's like a dragnet.
  • It's not like a dragnet.
  • It's like the parable of a drag.

Listen to the, all of the conjunctions plugged into these two verses.

Verse 47 and 48 is the parable.

• This is what it's like:
  • He says, it's like a dragnet cast into the sea
  • and gathering fish of every kind.
  • And when it was filled, filled, they drew it up on shore
  • and they sat down
  • and gathered the good fish into containers,
  • but they, the bad they threw away.

So the kingdom of heaven is like the process of catching fish in a drag net, processing them, keeping what you need to keep and throwing away what you need to throw away.

• It's the kingdom of heaven is like that whole picture.

And so we need to, we need to understand that the disciples, when they heard that, I mean, they knew immediately.

• These were fishermen that had undoubtedly used this process to gather fish before.
• If you're a fisherman, well, maybe if you are a commercial fisherman, this wouldn't be true.
  • But if you're a fisherman, it's likely that you've never used this method to catch fish.

This was a unique method.

• It was a, a huge net with floats on the top of the net and weights on the bottom of the net.
• It would be deployed by a boat or maybe two boats, and they would take it out in the sea and set it, and then they would come back to shore.
• And people on the shore would pull ropes a rope that would connect to all four corners of this giant net.
• And they would draw it to shore drag and drag and drag.
• And whenever it would come to shore, that net would catch everything in its path.
  • It says all kinds of fish, but it would not only catch all kinds of fish, it would catch anything in the water, anything floating, branches, seaweed, trash.
  • I mean, it caught everything and drug it on shore.
• And then the tedious and meticulous and time consuming process would begin where they would have to sort through everything that was in that net and they would sort through it, save some fish, throw some fish away.
• I mean that process, that picture is the whole process is what the kingdom of God is like.

And so let's look at how that applies, because we could take that in lots of different directions.

• The wonderful thing about this passage is that verses 49 and 50, Jesus tells us what he's trying to emphasize with this parable.

Remember, there are hermeneutical principles and in fact, literary principles about how we are to understand metaphor and how we're to understand parables.

• It is a familiar story that's used to communicate a clear idea.
• What makes it a clear idea is whenever the author tells you what it pictures, and that's what he does in verses 49 and 50.
• So let’s make that turn and look at what he says here.

Verse 49 says:

so it will be at the end of the age.

Now, that tells us one thing right there, because whenever we think about the kingdom of God, it has many aspects.

• There is a sense in which God's kingdom is at work in us right now, but there is a sense of the kingdom that is eschatological.
• That is what's gonna happen at the end.
  • And whenever these guys thought about the kingdom of God, that's what they thought about.
  • They thought about this Messiah coming and establishing his kingdom where he is the unrivaled king whenever they thought of the end of the age.
  • And when they thought about the kingdom of God at that point, that's what they thought of.
  • They thought of the unrivaled kingship of the Messiah.

But there was another aspect of that, part of the kingdom that this text emphasizes.

• So it's not just at the end of the age, but it specifically narrows down to Jesus coming back, not just as conquering unrivaled king, but as the ultimate judge
• Because you see there in verses 49 and 50 that there's gonna be a time when everyone is parsed out between the righteous and the wicked.
• And the wicked will be sent to everlasting damnation in hell.

And so as we look at this verse 49, it begins with a setting, okay, it's at the end of the age.

But the next thing is so fascinating.

He says:

the angel shall come forth.

Whenever I think about the end of the age, I don't think really about angels much.

• This idea about angels, that, it appears from what Jesus says here, the angel shall come forth.
• And it, this translation says, take out the wicked from among the righteous.

Yours may not use the word take out the word translated as takeout is, and that's a fine translation, but it means to separate, in fact, this is the very word where the Pharisees, the name Pharisees came from.

• This means to separate, this is the same word that Paul used about himself in Romans one,, when he says, I am set apart for the gospel.
• It really is an emphasis on the separation, the distinction between the righteous and the wicked.
• And it appears that the angels are the ones engaged in this.

And that, that confuses me a bit because one Corinthians chapter six verses one through three, you're familiar with that text.

• It's where Paul is telling the believers at Corinth that they should not take their disputes among believers and settle them in the courts of the world system.
  • Don't let unbelievers be your judge.
  • He's telling them you settle it on yourself.

But one of the things he says in the first three verses of that chapter that really sparks my interest is that he says, don't you know that we will judge angels?

• Well, if we're gonna judge angels, the emphasis is that the angels are gonna be somehow involved in this process.
• And it appears almost as if they will be part of the judging process.
• I know you probably already know the answer to this, but I think this way.

So that's the way I teach.

So look at second Thessalonians chapter one, look at verse seven.

• We're stepping right into the middle of a sentence, but we're headed someplace, and it'll make sense, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well.
• Listen, this is the part I want us to hear.

When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, inflaming fire, listen to this dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord.

So the angels will be involved in this process.

• They won't be the judge.
• They'll be instruments and agents of retribution by God, by Christ.
• The Lord will be the judge.

John chapter five makes that clear, but the angels will be involved.

• Now, what's a little uncomfortable to me is that it takes these angels to do this job.

What are they gonna be dividing?

• They're been dividing between the wicked and the righteous.

Now, I mean, I struggle sometimes with discerning the difference between what is good and what is best.

• But I mean, surely I can know the difference between what is wicked and what is righteous.

So why would it take the angels to be able to tell us that the truth is 'cause neither one of us can accurately discern the difference between wickedness and righteousness in other people.

• We can't. We just don't have the ability to discern that it's gonna take them.
• It's gonna take a supernatural being to discern that difference.

I'm afraid whenever we get to heaven, we may be in store for a little bit of a surprise by who is there and who is not there.

• And the reason I say that is Matthew chapter seven, you're familiar with the text, Matthew seven verse 25.
• Jesus says, many.
  • That's an important word to catch.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did I not prophesying your name and in your name, cast out demons and do many miracles?

And you remember what Jesus said, he would say, he says, but I will say, depart from me.

I never knew you. You who practice lawlessness.

I think many in our circles.

• It may surprise us when we get to heaven.
• I think we'll be surprised also.

Whenever we see what works, we do go up and smoke.

One Corinthians chapter three talks about our works being tested with fire, and it's the quality of the works that will be tested.

•  I think heaven's got a lot of surprises in store for us.
• This difference between the wicked and the righteous, though it's an interesting line, and it's a little bit troubling.

It's also troubling because whenever you look at the same idea in the explanation that he, you remember as soon as the disciples in Jesus got into the house, the disciples were saying, Hey, give us, uh, an explanation of the parable you just told us.

• And Jesus gave him that parable.
• That parable is about God's judgment.
• Ultimately, it's very similar to this one.
  • And in that one he says again that he's sending his angels and they will gather the wicked.

But it's interesting to see where he gathers them from.

• In verse 39 of the same chapter where he is describing this other parable.
• We verse 39, it says, and the enemy who showed them is the devil.
• The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

Okay? So he is still setting up who's who in this parable.

• And then in verse and we'll read 40 and 41, therefore, just as the tears are gathered up and burned with fire, so it shall be at the end of the age, the son of man will send forth his angels.
• Notice where they'll gather these out of, and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks.
• And those who commit lawlessness, they're gonna take him.
• They're gonna get people who are lawless out of God's kingdom.

We gotta be careful about what we take from this, because he's already told us about this in verse 37.

• He told us in verse 38 that we read just a minute ago where he's going to get these tears.
• The tears grew in the field, and the field is what?
• It's the world.
• It's not the church.
• It's not the kingdom, it's the world.

And so whenever we're told in verse 41 that his angels will come and gather the lawless out of his kingdom,

• I believe he started about his kingdom in a larger sense.

In a grand sense, we know that Satan is the prince of the power of the air.

• He's the prince who's the sovereign over this earth.

We can never get far away from that truth, that God as creator and God of the universe, he is the sovereign.

• Everything is his kingdom. And he has no peer.
  • Satan is not his rival.
  • Satan is his subordinate.

And so whenever we think about him sending the angels into his kingdom, I think he's talking about the broader sense that he's going just like this picture in the dragnet, the the judgment is coming to all.

• He's gathering everyone.

You remember what Revelation 20, verse 13 says, it's talking about the great white throne judgment.

And he says, in this great white throne judgment:

the sea will give up its dead, the dead that are in it, death and hell or Hades will give up the dead that are in them, and everyone will be judged.

The point is, everybody's gonna be judged.

• That's the point in the field and the tears and the wheat.
• But that's also the point in this dragnet that nobody escapes.
  • Nobody can get around the, the dragnet.
  • Everybody is encircled.
  • Everybody is brought in, everybody's gonna be examined, and everybody gives an account.

The angels are gonna bring 'em in.

• They're gonna take out the wicked from the righteous, you know, they'll take out the wicked from among the righteous.

Now, by the way, I do wanna point this out.

• I made a big point of how this is not the kingdom in its truest sense or in its most specific sense.
• But we do know that among God's people, there are always those who claim to be but are not God's people.
  • I mean, we know that that's the way it always is.

We've already talked about Matthew chapter seven, but if you talk earlier in the chapter, Jesus is the one who warns that there are those who come in who are wolves in sheep's clothing.

• They are false teachers with the expressed purpose of deceiving and pulling some away.
• In that picture in Matthew chapter seven he's not talking.

Do you know whenever the cartoon where the coyote, he's got the little sheep skin on and he sneaks into the sheep and he looks like one of the sheep, and really he's trying to steal a sheep, but the sheep dog always catches him, right?

• That's not what he's talking about by sheep's clothing here, sheep's clothing.
• That's what shepherds wore.

And so whenever Jesus says that there was somebody in sheep's clothing that were actually wolves trying to devour the sheep, he's talking about shepherds people, false teachers who were pretending to care for the sheep.

• But really what they were doing is they were devouring the sheep.
• Their purpose was to deceive and destroy.

And Jesus said, you gotta be careful because there are always gonna be those within the body who claim to be God's people, but are not God's people.

• Some are there because they are deceived, they are mistaken.
  • They think they are believers, but they really aren't.
  • There's others that are there for the purpose of deceiving others.
  • And we need to be alert to that, careful to that.

The only way that we can know that, the only way that we can know that is by the spirit of God.

• Jesus warns us in Matthew seven that you'll know 'em by their, you'll know them by their fruit.
• But we've seen a lot of false teachers produce a lot of false fruit that look convincing.
  • So we need the spirit's guidance on that.

Well, the end of this is whenever the wicked and righteous are divided, the ultimate end is that the wicked are gonna be cast into, into hell listen to what it says here:

and we'll cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I don't know about you, but that makes my hair stand up on end.

• I mean, that is, that is serious.
• In fact, that same description is repeated over and over and over in the gospels.

But there are some other descriptions.

• There's some other descriptions of what hell is even within the book of Matthew in chapter eight and in chapter 22.
• And in chapter 25, hell is described as outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth outer darkness.

The picture of outer darkness is isolation.

• It's outside the society. It is outer darkness.

Revelation chapter nine describes hell as a bottomless pit prepared for the devil in his angels.

Second Thessalonians chapter one verse nine, second Thessalonians, chapter one, verse nine.

 and these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.

So not only isolation and outer darkness, not only is it bottomless pit,

• it's separation from God eternally and eternal destruction.

Jude and two Peter two described it as, palpable black darkness.

• And all of them describe this, this physical agony, this torment represented by gnashing of teeth.
• Then this internal agony, this internal torment represented by this weeping.
  • So it's a, a physical and an emotional torment.
  • It is eternal, it's continuous, it's conscious, it's horrific.
    • And it's so bad that Jesus repeatedly goes over this and over this and over this so that we can know how bad it is and how badly we don't want to go there.

So what we ought to do with a to, in a response to a, to a passage like this is recognize, my goodness, I gotta do some self-evaluation and make sure that's not me in this parable.

• And not only should it cause me to make sure that I'm not going there, I ought to be telling others to make sure they don't go there.

But, but before we get there, before we finish, there is a part of this that really puts a chill up my spine.

• Did you catch it? It's there in verse 49.
• It says where it'll be: at the end of the age that the angels shall come forth and take out the wicked from the righteous and the wicked.

Go to hell.

• My spine is kind of a crescendoing echo in my brain that starts in Psalm 14 and kind of reaches its zenith in Romans three 10.
• And it says, you know what?

It says:

there is none righteous, not even one.

If there's none righteous, if there's not even one righteous, and yet the angels are gonna come and separate the righteous from the wicked, then I'm without any hope if I'm gonna be judged on that basis.

• And by the way, whatever you look at second Thessalonians, 2:7, 8, 9, whenever you look at that, and you look at so many other passage,
• Matthew 16:27 says, we're gonna be judged by our deeds are according to our deeds.

Those passages just run a chill up my spine because, because if I'm judged on my deeds, I'm damned, I can't do enough righteousness to undo the contamination of the sin that is already present, the same's true with you.

• And, so we need to know, how do we escape from this hell, how do we escape from this which we've earned?
• There's good news. You know, the hope that we have is that Jesus bore my sins for me.

Isaiah 53:5:

He was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquity.
The chastisement of us for our sins fell on him.

 

My goodness. And then the wonder of two Corinthians, chapter five, verse 21:

He made him (Jesus) who knew no sin to become sin on my behalf.

What a gift first John four 10:

this is love that God sent his son to be the propitiation for my sins.

• That's that word right there.
• Propitiation is one of the most wonderful words in scripture.
  • It means that Jesus absorbed the wrath of God.

For me, that's wonderful news.

• That means that there's no more wrath available for me there.
• As you know, Romans 1:8:

there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Because Jesus has absorbed the wrath of God for me, because he did that.

• He saves me from hell.
• He keeps me out of hell.

But the wonderful news is he didn't stop there.

I stopped at 2 Corinthians 5:21, but the rest of that verse says:

God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we could become the righteousness of God in him.

Not only, not only did God remove our sin or literally impute our sin to Christ, he also imputed Christ's righteousness to me.

• That's what, that's what Romans five 18 says, that Jesus, the he perfectly obeyed the law so that that righteousness could be applied to me, so that now not only do I not go to heaven, I mean not only do I not go to hell, I go to heaven.
• I can go to heaven because he has declared me righteous, not just declared me righteous.
• He's made me righteous.
  • So my righteousness will never measure up.
  • My righteousness would never earn me the right to be gathered with the righteous.
  • But when Christ's righteousness is applied to me, that is perfectly sufficient.
  • So I'm not included in the wicked that are sent to hell.

The truth is, some of us on this might be, if you have not trusted Christ, if you've not repented of your sins and trusted in Christ, that's where you're headed.

• The the gift of salvation is receiving that gift.
• It's recognizing your desperate need.

It makes me think of Luke 18, I think it's verse 14 or 13.

• You remember that story?
• It's the public that's at the temple, and he won't even lift up his eyes and pray, but keeps his head bowed and beats his breast and says:

have mercy on me a sinner.

And Jesus says, today, that guy went home Justified.

• It's another one of those beautiful words in scripture.
• It means that God has done the work in him that we've been talking about.

That's the good news. That's the good news of the gospel.

• That's what we need to get out of this.

But, the wonder of this salvation that's made available to us is that it's given as a gift, but it needs to be received.

• Second Thessalonians chapter two verse 10 talks about those who are perishing.

And it says:

those who perish, perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

It's a love that's given.

• It's even an awareness of your sin that's given.
• But we've gotta receive that, and we've gotta embrace that.
• And if you will, you can be gathered with the righteous.
  • If not, you're gathered with the wicked.

I'm gonna pray and then we can go to questions.

QUESTIONS:

How do we know as children of God that we will not be separated from the righteous? If Jesus will say to some, I never knew you.

It's a good question. I mean, that's a concern that we, I mean, you can't read Matthew seven without being concerned about that question.

• In Jude one, verse one it says:

Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: 

That same word is used in verse six:

is kept in eternal bonds, under darkness.

It's talking about something else, but it's the same word.

• And then the same thing is used in verse 24.
• So those who are kept in verse one, verse 24 is described like this:

Now to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless and with great joy to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory and majesty, dominion and authority before all time.

Now forevermore, the point is, there is only one way that I can be kept.

• It's by him.
• He's the only one that can keep me.
• I can't even keep myself.
• I'm not able to keep myself in right relationship with him.
• He has to keep me there.

Colossians two, six says:

as you therefore received Christ, Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

So how are we to walk in him?

• Same way we received him.

How did you receive him?

• Did you clean up your life?
• Did you make sure you're doing all the things right that you could?

No, you received him by repentance and faith humbly saying, God, there is no way I can do anything to get me out of this mess.

• I am dead in my sins. I am unable to come to you.
• I come to him in humble repentance and faith, and that's the way I walk in him.
• And then he keeps me. Does that make sense?

In verse 48, the good fish are gathered into containers, but in 49, the wicked are taken out from among the righteous. Are these the same event or different stages are perhaps just a, chiastic way of stating this one event?

That's good observation.

One thing that I would say about this is what Jesus said.

• He's is pointing to the judgment.

Now, in verse 30, What he says about the wheat and the tears, he describes what's gonna happen to the righteous.

• But in this parable, his focus is not on what happens to the righteous.
• His point is, at the end, at the end of the age, in his judgment, he is going to come and the the wicked are gonna be judged.
  • That's his point.

And so the fact that the righteous, we're not told what's gonna happen to the righteous, I think it's just part of what he's saying.

When the Bible says Christians will judge angels, does this include fallen angels?

Yes. I think that's who it's talking about.

• I think he's talking about the fallen angels that will be judged.
• It's pretty startling thought to think that you and I as believers will be a part of that process and, and what part, I'm not real sure, but we will be involved in that process judging the fallen angels.

If I was baptized as a child but became lost as an adult, is it necessary to be baptized again, to rededicate my life to Christ? Or is repentance what I need or both?

• I think a very accurate way of describing this because you can be baptized as a child before you were ever lost, at least before you ever knew you were lost.
• But as an adult, you said you became lost.

I take that to mean as an adult.

• You were baptized as a child, but as an adult you wandered off and got into all kinds of stuff.
• And at some point as an adult, you became aware that you were lost, which by the way is a gift from God.
• And in the recognition that you were lost, then you came to Christ.
• Or hopefully you've taken that step when you become aware of your lost condition, that's the miracle God's drawing you to, that you would repent and put your faith and trust in him to cover that sin.

That's the wonder of recognizing your lostness, because now you know I can't do anything to fix my problem, but I need a savior.

• If you don't need a savior, you know, if you're not deserving of hell, you don't need a savior.
• And so the lostness, um, the recognition of your lostness, I think calls you to repent and belief.

And then yes, I would be baptized again.

• The first baptism was just getting wet.

How do you answer someone who asks me why I've been given the gift of understanding, of understanding truth, but they don't believe they've been given that gift. Why did God choose to reveal truth to me and not to them?

The easy answer to that is, I don't know.

• But you see a reflection of that very statement earlier in this chapter.

In Matthew chapter 13:11 it says to you,

it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.

What are we supposed to do whenever we have a gift like that, when God's spirit within us has spoken his truth to our heart in a moving, maybe even life transforming way?

• What are we supposed to do with that?
  • Well, just like Abraham, you remember Abraham was blessed for what purpose?
  • To bless others.
  • God blesses us to bless others, we're given an understanding of truth, and we're we're called on to communicate that to other people.

So you were given truth.

• And the reason you were given truth is because God is trying to make adjustments in your life, but also he wants you to tell others hope that makes sense.

Is the kingdom of heaven an ongoing process that is happening now?

There is a sense in which the kingdom of heaven is active in me.

• Frankly, the kingdom of heaven is active in every believer as they submit to him, as they submit to the Lord of that kingdom.
• But in another sense, the kingdom is coming still.
  • And in that sense, we're praying that the kingdom will come because, because we want the king to come and the king comes when the kingdom comes.

Does that make sense?

When the angels are sent to separate the wicked from the righteous, will they be recognizable as angels? Will we know what's happening?

Now we're getting into some eschatology here.

• We have to, I have to go with opinion on this some, but I believe as believers we will not be down here when the angels come to bring retribution on the wicked.
• And certainly at the judgment we will be there and we will know, we will know the right, we'll know the angels from everybody else.

I know you're thinking about the passage that says that we can entertain angels unaware in the book of Hebrews.

• These angels won't be, we won't be unaware of them.
• I think even the wicked will recognize them as the angels.

Will the people who are in outer darkness see those who are in heaven?

No. Now I know whenever you think of that question, maybe when you think of that question, you think of the rich man in Lazarus and Lazarus.

• The rich man lifted up his eyes and saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, and he asked for Lazarus to dip his finger in a cup of cold water and quench his thirst.
• But the outer darkness that's described here,  and in the other stories like the 10 virgins and the other stories that Jesus gives that use outer darkness as a description of God's ultimate judgment, it represents isolation, social isolation.

And that social isolation would also prevent them from seeing anything familiar,  including people that they know.

• So I would tend to say to that question that people in outer darkness, people in hell will not see anyone in heaven, just like those in heaven will not see those in hell.

And someone has said before, of course, we won't see them in hell because that we're gonna be in a place where there's no sorrow.

• And if we could see them suffering in hell, then we would feel sorry for them.
• But I'm not sure that that's accurate.
  • Their place in hell will be glorifying God according to Romans chapter nine.
  • And, I don't think we'll be able to see hell and I don't think hell will be able to see us in heaven.

When God judges the righteous, is he judging our obedience and works? When God judges the righteous, is he judging our obedience and works? Will we have consequences for not obeying?

That might be a good one to end on.

Whenever you look at one Corinthians chapter three:

Starting verse 12, it says, now, if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each man's work will become evident for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire. And the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work, which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. But if any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss. But he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire.

So what's gonna happen, apparently, and I'm just taking from that and doing it real briefly, my works, everything that I've done down here is gonna be tested by fire in heaven.

• My works are gonna include all of my works.
• But primarily the thought is my good works are gonna be tested.
• And some of those good works that I think are such good works, they're gonna just go up in smoke because the quality's not there.
  • The motivation was wrong.

I don't know how many times I had talked about the fact that that our motives, or at least my motives, are almost always mixed.

• It's almost never pure.
• I want it to be, but it's almost never pure.
• And so those works that are tainted with bad motives are gonna go up in smoke.

The consequences of not doing what we should is gonna be that they go up and smoke.

• There are no other consequences.
• The consequences to my sins are wrath from God.
• And he's already vented that on Jesus.
• He didn't have any left to vent on me.
  • And so whenever I get to heaven, the sin or the, the impure motives behind my good works, the consequences are gonna be smoke.

And by the way, I'll say this, and I know we're pressed for time, but whenever I was a kid, I remember hearing a preacher talk about this passage and he talked about how whenever we get to heaven, all the believers are gonna be there, here at the bema seat, at the judgment and all of our sins, one by one.

• We're gonna stand before God and all our sins are gonna be put on a screen.
• I mean, as a kid, I was thinking, oh my goodness, I don't think I can endure that.
• I'm not sure I wanna go to heaven.
• My sins are not gonna be on a screen.
  • Your sins are not gonna be on a screen.

There might be a lot of smoke whenever it's my turn, but you're not gonna see any sins on a screen.

• That's gonna be the consequences.
• I won't have as much to glorify God in heaven.
  • That's the consequence.