Today we want to continue the series Kingdom Experience that we started and we've looked at quite a number of things. We started with: A Stone Rejected Cornerstone and the Kingdom. Then we moved on to: The Parable of the Sower. And then we moved on to: The Parable of the Wheat and Tares, then to The Parable of the Mustard Seed, and to The Parable of the Hidden Treasure, and then to The Parable of the Leaven. So today, we want to continue the series. And we'll look at: The Parable of The Dragnet. You know, when I was thinking about it initially, I was thinking the word dragnet is actually a net that is used to drag. Do you know why? Because before, I was thinking the dragnet is one iron, one big machine, one device. Because the word looks sophisticated.
But in the long run, it is just a net that is used to drag. When you throw it into the water, then you drag the net towards yourself, before you know it, you are likely going to catch a lot of fishes. So, some dragnet could be very big. Some could be small, but they are usually big. So now we want to look at the parable of the dragnet and how it affects us as kingdom citizens and how it shapes our kingdom experience. What does it tell us? What does it teach us? Does the Bible that says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ as appear to all men? Am I correct? There is a verse of the Bible that says: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ has appear to all men, teaching us…” , The grace has appeared and that grace is teaching us.
Now this word or this phrase the parable of the dragnets, what does it intend to teach us as Kingdom citizens? So now let's go to Matthew 13, I'm sure many of us are aware that we've been on the chapter 13 for a while. Matthew chapter 13:47-52. The Bible says:
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, 48 which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, 50 and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” 51 Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?”
You know, beginning from the first parable to this last one, He said, have you understood all these things? The purpose of this parable is to build your understanding, believing that if you could understand these things, your life will change. So, we can quickly summarize that our lives are basically about our understanding. The kind of life we live is a function of our understanding. If you can understand differently, then we can do or live differently. Some people when they step on their legs, the next thing they do is to slap the person that step on them. Some people will not slap, they will curse the person that step on them. It is simply because they don't understand any better. How you choose to react, how you choose to respond, how you choose to relate to people around you, people in your family, people in your office, people in your community, in your streets, is a function of your understanding. If only you can understand more, you will relate more or you will relate better.
So, when we look at ourselves today, and we ask that truthful question: How do I relate with people around me? How do I carry myself in this kingdom? What is the manner of my life as a citizen of the kingdom? When you ask those questions, you must then be sincere to draw a line between how you are living and then the things you understand. So, if you want to change how you are relating with everybody, or you are responding, how you talk, how you do your things, then you must change your understanding. That is important for us to remember.
But again, if we go that verse 47 again, and we bring it down to verse 50, we will realize the usage of the word past tense. Look at it: Again, the kingdom of heaven… we're talking about the kingdom of heaven that is present. The Kingdom of heaven is not a past tense do we remember? The Kingdom of heaven is not like Dinosaurs that we cannot find again. They say in the age of the myths and the time of the legends. Unlike the legends that have past and the myths that have gone, unlike the dinosaurs and the dragons that can't be found, the Kingdom of heaven is a present continuous tense. The Kingdom of heaven was there yesterday, before you were born, the kingdom of heaven was on ground the day you were born. When you die, the kingdom of heaven will be on ground. When you have been long-buried, the kingdom will remain.
When you resurrect in eternity, the kingdom of heaven continues. It is not a kingdom that start with Buhari and ends with Buhari. It has started before you knew it and it will continue when you can't remember anything again. So, look at it. It says the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet. Let's look at it that was cast. It is not like a dragnet that will be casted or that will be cast. It says it's like a dragnet that was cast into the sea. We must understand that that sea represents something else. It is not necessarily a literal sea. The same way the dragnet is not necessarily a literal dragnet. But the Bible says it was cast into the sea, and gathered. So, it something that has happened. It has gathered some of every kind and when it was full, they drew to the shore and sat down and gathered the goods into the vessels but threw the bad away.
Now, this is something that has happened, that has taken place, so to say, but the Bible says, as it has taken place, so shall it be when this age is coming to an end. It says the angels of God will come; they will separate the wicked from those who are not wicked. Then you will ask: Why did God have to wait to the end to separate the wicked from the good? If they ask you: don't you want the wicked people to be separated from you right now? I am sure you will say yes. Nobody wants to stay with the wicked. The Bible says suffer no witch live. Do we understand? But the Bible says it is going to happen, the separation will not happen now. It will happen in the end.
Have we not seen people that are wicked? Have we not seen people that are witches who are also taking strategic positions in the church? And sometimes we ask ourselves, is it that God is not aware that these people are wicked? And why are they deacons, why are they called elders in the church? The Bible says when it was full. Sometimes when the children of Israel want to go into battle, God will say “don't go to fight with this kingdom. They are not good people. I understand, but their sins are not yet full. So, when a person’s sins are small, he thinks because he's alive, he has escaped. Living is not an escape.
Look at Cain and Abel. Cain decided to kill his brother. And when God showed up, God said Where is your brother? Look at lie, so that you will know that from murder, lie also came in. He said to God, I don't know. Where is your brother? I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? That was lying. So, when God’s judgment came upon him, what happened to him? He said he was going to be walking around like vagabond on the earth. And he was like, God, God, this punishment is too much. God said don't worry. I will put a mark on you. So that anybody that sees you will not kill otherwise, the kind of punishment I've released upon you. I've determined for you, is such that should attract your death, your separation from the earth. But I have put a mark upon you. So, you will just be like a dead man walking.
Does it mean God has wiped away his sins? Does it mean there wouldn't be punishment for the blood of Abel that is crying unto God? There will be punishment. But it is going to be a kind of punishment that is delayed. It has been determined, but it is delayed. God is not going to think about what he will do with Satan. God is not going to think about what He will do with the demons. He already determined their end. Any human that decides to follow Satan or follow the demons, you have simply decided to side with the determined end, so your own end is also determined. Look at it! Your end is determined but your middle so to say, people will think you are okay.
Sometimes we look at the corrupt people in our societies. Sometimes they even wear white babariga. They look clean. When you see their hands, not like my own. They look cleaner. I don't know whether they go to one place to wash their hands and their legs. When they wear sandals or slippers, everything is clean. In the heart, they are dirty. They are killing, they are maiming, they are depriving people, they are oppressing people, but they wear babariga. Some of us wonder, is there no God in heaven to judge these people? Their end has been determined. It is about the parable of the dragnet. The net has been thrown into the sea; it has drawn to the place that we are; species of every kind.
So, you will see some people that behave like animals. You will see people that are good, you will see people that are bad. You wonder why they are all with us? I'm sure we still remember the parable of the wheat and the tares. We wonder why God would allow the tares to also grow with the wheat. But God knew what he is doing. The same thing with the parable of the dragnet. The net has been thrown; it has attracted all manner of people. And yet, instead of the people that have been attracted to change their lives, they think because they are alive, it means God is not angry with them. You know, I was briefly on Twitter at a point in the morning. And I saw this man that many of us know, Charly boy. You know, when I say Charly boy, he's not a boy. Charly boy is a grandpa.
Now, some people were criticizing him for something; I think a pastor was criticizing him that the way he is living, he is going to hell. He now replied the pastor on Twitter in pidgin language; who tell ulna say I wan go heaven? And if you see something that looks like a staff or a stick that he was holding, you will see the head of that thing, it is like the shape of a beast. You know the way he does his things. You ask him, has he ever been to hell before? The answer is no. But he says who tell ulna say I wan go heaven? So, there are different species of people. Their ends have been determined. A man cannot be serving Satan and still be telling you; he wants to go to heaven when He knew his master was chased from heaven. So, wherever the master is going, that's where he's going.
But the man happens to be among us who are desiring to go to heaven. So, when we look at him, we wonder why is he prospering even though he is not going to heaven? But the parable of the dragnet says you should wait for the end of the age. Some people have shared certain things online too, that they will commit so much sin, that when God or the angel wants to punish them, the angel would be too angry. And instead of throwing them inside fire, the angel will throw them beyond the fire. So, they will land in heaven. Some people get confused, we are too plenty on the earth, where will God get that time to be judging everybody one after the other? It will happen.
Look at what the Bible says: so, shall it be, it is not so might it be. It says so shall it be at the end of the age. The angels, the Bible didn't give us their total number. Does anybody know how many soldiers China has? If you don’t have idea, but you know it is not small, it is in millions. I think North Korea also has minimum of 1 million soldiers, minimum. Countries of the world have soldiers. Nigeria has a lot of Armed Forces men and women. Do we do protest in Nigeria and then we wonder how come police is able to arrest everybody that protest. You think we humans are plenty? Wait till that time to see how plenty the angels are. So plenty that they can attend to all of us one by one. Don't forget, this is eternity, nobody's rushing to go to office.
You're like, my life is a long story. I don't know where I will start. And they will be like, start from the beginning. We have your time. We cannot afford to tell ourselves, I'm just one in a billion. God does not even have my time. If God doesn't have your time, he has angels that have your time. How many of us could say on this earth, I really saw Satan? Not we particularly, how many humans can really say I Satan as a human. What they are actually seeing is representatives of Satan. So, if Satan can distribute himself across the world with his agents. Why do you think Satan that left heaven with a third of heaven and left two-third yet in heaven, that the heaven does not have much more than what he has? The Little he took out of heaven is enough to go around the earth. How much more those who are there in heaven?
Please they will have our time. A book will be opened before each one of us. And everything we've done on this earth, is going to be there. The things we did in the secret, the angels will see it. Things we did in the open, they will see it. The things we did and we have forgotten they will show us. The Bible says the wicked will be separated from the just. You know, this is alarming and I want us to meditate on it. I'm a fish farmer. So, if I want to do sorting, and I have a lot of fishes in the water, I want to separate all of them into two ponds. I will likely start with the fewest number. You don't want to start with the largest number. Oh, maybe there are two groups. Maybe you have this one 2500, this one, 500. You don't want to start with the 2500 and say I have a big water; I want to pack 2500 fishes from the water and then leave the 500. It is going to be problematic. Why not pack the 500 and leave the 2500.
So, when the Bible says the wicked will be separated from the just, that means even though we think wickedness is everywhere, the just are more than the wicked. To God be all the glory. That's shocking for me. Because we could get to a point that we think everyone on the earth is wicked. Wickedness is too much, everybody's wicked, everybody's bad. And God will keep telling you, I have remnants, I have remnant, I have preserved remnant for myself. God is not foolish. If the devil is trying all he can to win people to his own kingdom, God is not idle, God is not sleeping, God doesn't slumber. So, you are not the only just person. God has a lot of just people.
So, the plan of God is to remove from us those who are unjust. And he says and cast them, those wicked people they will be removed and will be cast into the furnace of fire. What does this teach us? Let us not look at the way people are living around us and we say if this person can sin, I should be able to sin to now. If this person can fall, I can also fall. In fact, the way I see it, nobody is standing around me. If this pastor can misbehave, what stops me from misbehaving. The Bible finished the book of Revelation like this: Those who are unjust, let them be unjust still. Those who are righteous, those who are just, let them be just still. It says: “Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to each one.
That word each means even though we are 1 billion, there is a reward for each of us. Number 999,999,000 is a person, either male or female. You know, I was watching one particular something on YouTube, it is a military training. They call it jungle in the U.S., they train soldiers who wants to fight in jungles. It is not every soldier that can fight in the jungle. So, when they come, it doesn't matter your rank, once you come for that course, you forget your rank, you forget your name, you pick a number, they give you a number. So, they address people by their number… number 23 or number 24, there's only one and so you know yourself. If they say number 23 you are dismissed, you simply get out of the training. You won’t say “who is number 23, they didn’t mention my name.” You have a number.
When the Bible wanted to talk about the beast, the Bible says the name of the of the beast is the number of a man. Who says we don't have number. If there are 372 trillion people that has ever come to this earth, you have your own number. There was a time you came; your number was mentioned. When you return, you're going to appear before God in your number. If the Bible can say the hairs on our head, the way they are plenty, they are all numbered. It means we are all numbered. When your number is called, it is not your husband that will show up. When your number is called, it is not your father that will show up, it is not your mother, it is you yourself. You will appear and account for how you have lived your life, the choices you've made, you will account for it.
You're not going to be able to pass the blame to somebody else. “Lord Jesus, I failed because…there will be no because. The dragnet that was cast, and that was gathered, the Bible says it attracted every kind, you have simply remained a kind on the earth. A kind means a type. If you are good, you are a type of good, if you are evil, you are a type of man that is evil. So don’t say the reason why I'm going to hell is not because I really want to go to hell, it is because of this and that. It is not about because, it is you being true to your own kind, your nature. So, this is the call for us to revisit our kind. Are you good, the Bible says if you are good, be good still. You know, apostle John got to a phase that it was hot. He says if you are evil, he didn’t beg the evil man to be good. He said be evil still, the unjust still.
We've come to a point that we can't be pampering ourselves; we have to tell ourselves the truth. If you continue this way of life, this is where you will end. If you don't change the way of your life now while you are alive so that you will no more be bad, you will now be good. At the end of time, you are going to be punished. We can't wish it away. We can't fast and pray away this judgment. Satan has not been able to overturn the judgment of God upon his life, he is going into hell fire, it has been determined and we can determine our own. We can make the right choice.
There is hope for a tree that is cut down because at the scent of water, it will spring up again. When you cut a tree down, if you can be allowing water to be falling on that tree, there is a chance for that tree to grow up again. But a tree that has been fully uprooted from the ground and you shake the root very well, and you made sure that the root doesn't touch the ground, it doesn't touch water, there is no more hope. That is like a man that has been thrown into the furnace of fire, where the person will continue gnashing his teeth for the rest of his life. There is no more hope. But while we are on this earth, and there is breath, and we are hearing the word of God, there is hope. From today, we can make a decision that I have been wicked, I want to be good. I've been unjust I want to be just; I've been careless, I want to be careful. I've been ungodly, from today, I want to be godly.
If you can do that, then you have changed your own destiny. Before your destiny was fire. But now, since you have changed your decision, your ways of life, you are not going to end into the fire again, you are getting into eternal life. You will reign with Jesus; you will have abundance of life in Jesus’ name. I believe God has spoken to somebody. And perhaps, there is somebody that really wants to talk to God. I don't want to continue this way of life. I don't want to end where my forefathers ended. I don't want to end where my four mothers ended, where nobody knows them. Where there is nothing good that is mentioned about them when they were alive. Even now that they are no more, people don't mention them very well for anything good.
I don't want to be like those who have gone ahead of me, who, even though they are still alive, we know that they are going into eternal judgment. I want to be on the path of righteousness. I choose Jesus and I choose to follow him all the days of my life. I don't want to follow vanity. I don't want to seek my glory. I don't want to follow vanity. I want to follow Jesus. I don't want to be a kind that is like the people of God, a kind that is like the people of the world. A kind that is confused. I want to choose to side with Jesus. I don't want to be thrown into the lake of fire. I want to reign with Jesus. I want Jesus to be my Lord and my Savior. I want Jesus to be my father, I want Jesus to be my Lord. So that where he is, there I can be also.
I don't want to lose it. I don't want to miss it. I don't want to follow Satan into hell. I want to follow Jesus. I want to reign with him. In the name of Jesus, help me, Lord Jesus. Help me, Lord Jesus. Let me not be carried away by the carelessness in my society. Let me not be carried away by the bad things that people are doing around me. Let me not think because they are living in bad, that means anybody can live in bad. I don't want to follow bad influences. I want to follow the influence of Jesus. So that where he is, there I can be also. I hope we are praying. I hope we are praying. I hope we are talking to God. I hope we are talking to God.
It is not him that have started, it is him who finishes. He who finishes well. He who finishes strong. It is not important that you gave your life to Christ in the 70s in the 80s. In the 90s. Are you still in Christ Jesus today? Or do you have your future with Satan? Have you joined yourself with the agent of darkness? Or have you remained in the kingdom of light? This is the time for you to reconcile yourself with your father. Lord Jesus, we choose you. We don't want to follow after the vanities of our time. We choose you. We choose you Lord; we want to reign with you. In the name of Jesus. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. In Jesus’ mighty name we have prayed.
Amen!
