With y'all been a long time since I've been back here and certainly appreciate it. I remember going to McKenzie back in the 70s and preaching there for Brother Pascal and having such a good time there. He liked to laugh. He did. He liked to laugh. He liked to hear a good story. And he had a heart that was joyful. Now he could be, you know, amen. Okay, but he did like to laugh and I told some jokes and he liked them. And I come from down on the coast. My family, Fayard, how many of you know of any other Fayard but me? Well, you know my wife. She was a bowing, The Fayards came to America in 1729 on a ship called Lafayette. And my great, great, great, great grandpa's name was Jean-Baptiste Fayard de la Lancette. I cut off that de la Lancette. But his wife's name was Francois. And they weren't British. You know, they were Frenchmen. And my grandma on my dad's side. She was quite a bit Cajun. She would get upset with us children and say things I never did know what they were were and I don't want to know. Because she would really get upset with us. Grandma's get upset with grandkids I mean. They do and they discipline them. I remember getting in the fire and you don't know what a fire and yes. and getting in the fire ants and get them little sores that would come up, them little bumps, you know. And then we'd scratch. And she'd take what's called Dr. Tishner's. Anybody remember, anybody know about Dr. Tishner's? It's way down on the coast. It was used, the first antiseptic ever used on the battlefield was formulated by Dr. Tishner. And he used it for the Southern Army, thankfully. And when we'd scratch, she'd put that stuff all over there. And I think a brother, Raymond Johnson, we would do a war dance. I mean, we really would. We'd get we'd get to going on that. But anyway, I've grown up. We went to school with Charlie Boudreaux with Renee a bear and that spelled Herbert. Uh-huh, you know what I'm talking about a bears and all of that bunch But I grew up around that so that's in my heart, you know I can talk like this better than I can any other way, but you know, you don't do that everywhere But I remember and y'all remember hearing about Hurricane Katrina Uh-huh Hurricane Katrina Man, it wiped out my grandma grandpa's house just completely destroyed it. They lived on the bayous they were in the Triangle type deal and by use came out and just wiped the house out and all of that and my good friend over in Louisiana named Boudreaux He is a shrimper, and he was out on the boat thinking about what to do after the hurricane and so When he got back home. He got his wife two little dogs and Two little dogs. And he said, I'm getting ready to go back out. While I'm going, you name these dogs. And she said, OK, I'll do that. So when he got home, he said, what do you name them dogs? She said, I named one Timex and one Rolex. He said, why did you do that? She said, they're watchdogs, aren't they? Oh, man, I enjoy my people. Amen. But I like Kentucky. I pastored up here for quite a while in Marion and in Murray. And God's been good to us through the years. And now we're in this shipping ministry and shipping the Bible all over the world. And thank the Lord for that. Take your Bibles today and turn with us to Matthew chapter 13 and verse number 47. Matthew chapter 13 and verse 47. And I want to speak on the subject of the parable of the net. The parable of the net. Matthew chapter 13 and verse number 47 where the Bible says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind. And I want you to remember that. phrase and gathered of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels and cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world, the angel shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just. Verse number 50, and shall cast them, the wicked, into the furnace of fire, There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. In this parable, we find several things. It's delineated in this way. First of all, the fishnet. The fishnet represents the true churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I hear the word church, it doesn't mean everything that's got a steeple. Because everything that has the name church is Not a church. A church is a body of believers who have been baptized by immersion under the right authority. I believe that churches ought to start under a right authority. I don't believe you can just go and plop down somewhere and get some people together and say, this is a church. I believe in succession. I'm not link chain, but I believe that there has been a church of the Lord Jesus Christ since the days on the seashores of Galilee. And that church exists today. And I use that word church in the institutional sense of the churches of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So the fishnet represents the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ who are preaching the gospel. then and now the fishermen that we find in this parable they're the disciples of our Lord now in our day and then in that day they are the disciples of the Lord the fish are those who are caught in the net those that are caught in the net And then we'll learn about the separation, the judgment, where they are separated by the Lord, where the fish are separated. After we would drop the troll out in the Gulf of Mexico, my papa and I, and drag that troll, had boards on it that would be weighted on one side, and then they would go out and spread the mouth of the net. On the bottom, you had weights that kept it down along with the boards that kept it down. And on the top, you had floats. Everybody I guess here has seen a picture of a net with floats on it or have actually seen one somewhere. Well, once you put it down, the floats would open the mouth and the chain and the weights would keep the bottom of the net down on the floor of the gulf. And all kinds of things would come into that net. Cigar fish, they look like a cigar. Cow fish, they look like a little cow. Stingrays, we always cut the stinger off. that knife-looking thing. I had one that was that long one time, kept it for years, and I guess Hurricane Katrina got it, too. We'd catch all kinds. My papa said, for everything on the earth that lives, there's something in the sea that's likened unto it. So we caught all kinds of things in the net. You know what's gonna happen with the churches of the Lord Jesus? We will get in all kinds of folk. Amen? We'll get in, thank the Lord. I've got some friends who were formerly drug addicts, but now they're saved. And they're members of a New Testament church. There'll be drunkards who'll come to know the Lord, hallelujah. And then there'll be some just plain old sorry That's what I was. Religious but lost. And they come into the net. They hear the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection and come unto the Lord. Those who are caught in the net, and then there's a separation. The separation is where they're divided out. They're separated out. In our parable, they're separated by the Lord. He separates the good from the bad. I'm not good, but the Lord is good. And therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a what? New creature. Amen. New creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. That's my life's verse. Well, that's what's happened to me because I got caught in the net, amen? And so there's separation. When we would bring the net up the trove, we would lift it up in the air, had a bag on it that was tied, where everything that came into it would go into that bag, and then we would open it, and everything would fall out on the deck. And then we would tie it back, and we would put the boards back over, put the troll back over, and drag for two hours. During those two hours, we were separating the good from the bad. The good from the bad. Now, the number one good thing we were after were shrimp. Any of y'all like shrimp? Hallelujah. Man, just give me a shrimp etouffee. And I'm a happy man. Fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, shrimp, shrimp. Love them. Love them shrimp. But we'd be sorting all that. If we caught, like I said, a stingray, we'd just cut, pop him in the head, throw him overboard dead. Didn't want him, or cut his stinger off and throw him back in. but we separated from the good, the good from the bad. We kept the good, but we threw overboard the bad. And the seagulls, maybe you've seen pictures of seagulls around a fishing boat. You know why that is? Because some things are being thrown over and the birds come down and eat that. There are illustrations of that in the Bible where the birds come down and eat the flesh. And we find that. And then the net, we find it examined in chapter 13, verse 47, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net. That's what the Bible speaks of here. There's the kingdom, there's the church, and there's the family. We have those that are spoken of in the Bible. The net, as I said, represents the true churches of our Lord Jesus Christ who are preaching the gospel of the death, burial, and the resurrection. Preaching the Bible doesn't necessarily mean preaching the gospel because people are only saved by hearing about what Christ did for sinners, how that he died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried and how that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and let me say this about our net that we had it was not invisible Can you imagine trying to catch Shrimp and fish in an invisible net There is no such thing as an invisible church We don't have an invisible church When I pastored, I had some members that were almost invisible. You hardly ever saw them. But the church is local. It's visible. You can see it. And you can feel it in worship. The churches are of different sizes. Some nets are small nets. Now, we used to use a cast net to go down front of Beauvoir. How many of you know what Beauvoir is? Beauvoir is the last home of Jefferson Davis. The last home. That's where he lived before he died and then he was taken up to Montgomery and then now he is buried over in Richmond, Virginia. But that's where he lived. And my papa and I, when we weren't out on the boat, we were out in the water anyway. And we would wade out there and cast a cast net. And we would catch a fish called mullet. Mullet. But Steve, you know what a mullet is. And that's not a haircut. But we'd catch mullet. We use that so it was a small net that we used for catching mullet to use a larger net We've got boats down on the coast called pokey boats They catch a little fish called a pokey and that fish stings Terrible we have a plant close by us. It's called a pokey plant and they process those into dog food and cat food and When the wind is wrong, I don't want to say right because When it's wrong, you can smell it. And it stinks. They're all kind of fish. And they're all kind of churches, amen? There's no doubt about that. And so there are different capacities, capacities that we have in these nets. And true churches make up a network that reaches the world. We work together. Boats work together you have boats that work together and bring in the fish and shrimp to the factory Let's look at the fishermen Matthew 13 verse 47 the net was cast into the sea who cast it into the sea. I Think Peter James and John did Amen It was cast into the sea. I So we need to get the, listen, we need to get out of our comfort zone. And we need to cast the net into the sea of the world. And that's what we see there. So the true churches make up a network that reaches the world with the gospel. Dr. J.R. Graves, I've been to the grave of graves. If you go to Memphis, Tennessee, And you go with the Elmwood Cemetery you can go to J.R. Graves grave. And you say why would you do that because. I think we ought to honor. Men of God of the past. And remember who they. were and their influence jail grave said this the kingdom of Christ is a definite organization set up for a definite purpose and constituted a definite material his true church I believe that I believe we have a net we can work with and we need to be doing that Matthew 13, 47, the net was cast into the sea. Who cast the net into the sea? The fishermen did that. If you don't get outside of those doors and tell others about Christ, you're not casting the net into the sea. The world is the sea. And we're to cast the net into the sea. casting it into the sea. And there's something else unusual about these fishermen. The fishermen who cast the net into the sea were once fish themselves. I'm talking about true churches. We were fish. We were floundering. Amen. And then the Lord drew us in. Amen. And that's what we did with the net. We drew it in. And the Lord draws by the Holy Spirit. All is vain except the Spirit of the Lord come down. There has to be a working of the Holy Ghost of God. There has to be a moving of the Holy Ghost of God. So the net is cast by fishermen who were at one time fish themselves. Now these men are called fishers of men. Fishers of men. The Bible speaks of that. Fishers of men. In Matthew 4, 19, it says, and I want you to note it here, the words of Jesus, and he saith unto me, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. You say, well, I don't know, God's gonna save his elect and he'll do it in his way and all of that, but he uses means. Amen? And the Bible says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. You are to be concerned about those that are lost. Matthew chapter four, verse 19 says, and I want you to make note of these words, Follow me, follow me, follow me, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Now, the fishermen who follow the Lord Jesus and fish, they're called wise. You say, where does it say that? It says it in the book of Proverbs. It says it in the book of Proverbs. In chapter 11, verse 30, where the Bible says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. Now, we know God has to draw, but he uses men to cast the net. Do you agree with me? He uses men to cast the net. One thing that you never want to be is hardshell. Amen? We're not hardshell. We believe in the sovereignty of God, but we believe in means. We believe in getting the gospel out. And these faithful ones are going to shine one of these days. At home we talk about cutting the shine, but we're going to shine, the Bible says, And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." Daniel 12, 3. I don't understand all about that, but I do understand it. We are to get the Word out, go into all the world, and preach the gospel. all the world. That's why we put Bibles on board ships and Scripture portions on ships. Why? So we can go into all the world. And we preach to them, we talk to them, but we also give them the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by thee, what? Word of God. Comes by the Word of God. Oh, dear friend, we need to get the Gospel out. The field is the world. Matthew 13 38 the field is the world the good seed is the children of the kingdom but the tears are the children of the wicked one you know sometimes we would catch something that would tear our net we catch something after a hurricane they were catching cars and it was easier to catch a and get a Volkswagen bug up than it was a Cadillac Eldorado But all of those, I mean, all that, a lot of stuff was just pushed out at sea and a lot of logs and stuff out there. And we'd have to deal with that kind of thing. All kinds of things are in the sea, in the sea. The net is cast, the gospel is preached. And that's why missions is so very, very important. And I want you to notice this in Acts 1.8, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Come upon who? The church. After that the Holy Ghost, the church was gathered. After that, the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto," what? What do you fellas tell me? The uttermost part of the earth. That's why we're missionaries. That's why we have a commission. Mark 16 and verse 15. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to all kinds of fish, to every creature. Now, who did the captain say that to? Now I'm talking about Jesus as the captain of our salvation. Who'd he say it to? He said it to the fishermen. And if you're saved, you're a fisherman. Keith back there, he knows about Jug fishing. Minus Cox used to love to fish, love to fish. And put those jugs out and catch the fish. Fishermen, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. We find in Luke 5, 4, now when he had left speaking, he said to them, launch out into the deep. I've been in some deep water. And let down your nets. You gotta put the net out. You can't keep it on the deck. In other words, if you keep it in the ship, in the boat, you're not gonna catch anything. If you stay within the confines of the church and you don't get out, You're not going to catch anything. Oh, yeah, there'll be those who will come and hear the gospel and be saved. But we are told to go into all the world and preach the gospel. We're to get the gospel out. That's what we are committed to do, commanded to do. Launch out into the deep, he told Simon. Let down your nets for a haul. And Simon said this and this is what a lot of our churches are saying. When I say that I mean folks that believe in the sovereignty of God who believe in what the Lord has to do. Simon the Lord spoke to Simon and said launch out into the deep. And let down your nets for a draught, a draught's a haul, a draught's a bunch. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all night, and have taken nothing nevertheless at thy word. At thy word, I will let down the net. Will we let down the net at his word? He said, well, we're comfortable in here, but we're not comfortable out there. Well, you ought not be comfortable out there, but you've got to get out there to do the fishing. You've got to. It's what the Bible tells us to do. How can you do it? Well, you can do it by personally being out there, but you can do it through home and foreign missions, amen? You can do it through missions. You may not be able to climb the gangways and get on board the ships or go and work with the Coast Guard or do other things like that, but you can help others that do. You can help others that do. Then we find in Matthew 13, 47, the last part of it, that they gathered of every kind all kinds of fish do you know I've talked I've spoken to Japanese fish fishers of men you know I've spoken to African fish Mexican fish Russian fish Ukrainian German Egyptian and most recently Ethiopian 95th 96 nation now You say, why do you keep count? I keep count because I want to know that I'm fishing. Amen? Hey, you go fishing, a lot of you count the fish you got. I didn't get any of those, the Lord gets them, amen? But I want to know where I'm going, what I'm doing. Because I want to reach the world, go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. The Ethiopian, I was telling some of the folks about it, the Ethiopian, he had never thought, he never thought he'd meet a Christian coming to the ship and being able to get scripture for him. But what a blessing that is. All kinds. The gospel, net, is to be cast over everywhere you say this is going to be redundant go you and all the world preach the gospel to every creature I think sometimes we've got to be beat over the head before we get the message amen sometimes we hear it but we don't hear it the Bible says that they cast the net into the sea you can't get a fish, you can't catch fish without going fishing. Follow me, the Bible says, and I will make you fishers of men. And Jesus said to them, come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men. It's in there over and over and over. And then we find there's a separation of those fish. We spoke a little bit about it earlier. But no matter how good a fisherman you are, you'll catch something you don't really want sometime, amen? You'll catch a fish that's not good. Now, y'all like catfish. I like catfish. I like it grilled with some of Tony Sachery's put up on there. And then, I don't want Texas Pete, I'll take it, but I want some Tabasco. Amen? And just kinda dab it on there. And that's good. I love gumbo. I like oysters. We used to dredge for oysters growing up. I like fishing. I don't get to do it much. Don't do it much. But you're gonna catch some fish. But let me say this about saltwater catfish. You don't want them. We don't eat saltwater catfish. They're not good. But there are some other catfish, like pond-raised Mississippi catfish, that are excellent. And you can have you a good supper with them. They sat down, gathered the good into vessels, cast away the bad. The good fish The Bible says they're trophies of grace. It's not because you're any good. Because in this flesh there dwelleth what? No good thing. No good thing. No good thing. The good fish are trophies. I was in a place over around Plummerville, Arkansas the other day, and they had these fish that were up there, somebody had caught. Some of y'all might have some in a house, I don't know. You caught a trophy. Fish. Do you know that we're trophies? We're trophies. Ephesians 2, 7 says that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. He chose us, he separated us from others, and no matter how hard the fisherman may try, he's gonna get some bad ones. I mean, it happens. Benjamin Keech, someone quoted Gil, Last night, and I like Keech, I like Gil, but Keech said this. He said, a net takes fish out of their element. You know what the Lord did when he saved me? He took me out of my element. That's what a net does. So those sinners who are spiritually and savingly wrought upon by the preaching of the Word are taken out of the element where they lived and loved to live before. Taken them out of that. Out of a course of sin and wickedness. and such die presently to sin and to the vanities of the sea of the world." Thanks to Calvary, I don't go there anymore. Thanks to Calvary, I don't have a taste for it. How about you? There are things I used to do, but I don't do it anymore. I don't want to do it because I have new taste buds. The Lord's given me good meat. There are a lot of verses that deal with this thing of separation. It may be that you're here and you do not know the Lord, and I pray God would do a work of grace in your heart. Matthew 13, 49, so shall it be at the end of the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just. evildoers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord they shall inherit the earth. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment." Revelation 20 and verse 13, and the sea gave up the dead which were in it. and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This church has a responsibility to get the gospel out. I thank God for the printing ministry. I've been helped through the years by the printing ministry. That's outreach. But we individually need to be involved in getting the gospel out. If you do not know him, I pray that you'll be caught in the gospel net. I pray that you will see Christ as the one and only hope and help. I like casting the net. I like getting the word out. I like being there when souls are birthed into the kingdom. How about you? How about you? So I just, I don't have a heart for it. You need a heart. Somebody told me one day, well, I gave my heart to Jesus. No, he don't want your wicked heart. He wants to give you a new heart. Amen? Amen. All right, brother, you come ahead.