This message was recorded November 28, 2021. The speaker is David Simpson. Now we take our scriptures and we turn to Matthew and chapter number 13. Matthew 13, don't forget that next week we will observe the Lord's table and we will have a meal together, simply a pitch in dinner, whatever sounds good to you, I'm sure will be great to us. I plan to bring, haven't done this for a long time now, plan to bring my beans next week. So some of us like beans and And Jay used to make them back so many years ago. And then I tried to fill in the gap, help a little bit. But I plan to do that. So that's going to be my little contribution next week to our dinner. And whatever you think of would be great to go with that. Matthew chapter 13, we are moving along now a little bit in our study of the parables. Kind of gotten some feet under what we're doing. Jesus is telling and foretelling what His disciples and we should expect from the time He first came until the time that He comes back. It's a history lesson before it was history. Now these aren't historical events, but they are wide-sweeping characteristics of this lengthy period from the time that he was here upon the earth until the time that he does return. We've had now 20 centuries, so we're in our 21st century since our Lord declared these, and there are 8 parables that are here. We are in number 7 today. The first 4 of these are very disturbing when you think about them, and then the last 4 are very encouraging. So I want you to think about these as they go through. What are we to anticipate? What are we to expect during this time? Let me give you again what we've studied. First of all, Jesus told us that we should expect rejection. The parable of the sower is telling us that only the purposed and the prepared soil will receive the gospel of free grace, and therefore the rest will reject it. He gives different pictures as to how they will reject it and fall away from it. Some will start with it in some weeks, some months, some years, and then they will fall away. But rejection. And then the second parable is the parable of tears. And that is a parable that tells us there will be hypocrisy in this period of time. And what do I mean by that? Well, I mean churches will outwardly look and often sound like they are gospel believers, but they are not. So being very careful because the tares and the wheat look very similar in the early stages. It's only in the latter stages that they look different. But in the early stages where we're generally looking, we cannot tell the difference. So this whole age is characterized by hypocrisy. So by the time they had walked away from the first century, so not long, hypocrisy and ritualism was abundant. And the churches had lost their early zeal and simplicity. Hypocrisy. And the third thing, The parable of the mustard seed is a parable that tells us this age will be characterized by abnormality. And the abnormality that he describes is one of swelling numbers and budgets and programs, and they indicate not God's blessing, but they indicate God's absence. God is not a part of it. And then the fourth one, so I've talked about the parable of the sower, the parable of the tares, the parable of the mustard seed, and the parable of leaven is that this age will be characterized by apostasy. What is apostasy? Apostasy is coming in among those who are true believers and then causing corruption within the whole body. So as yeast permeates, the whole body in time, this leaven will permeate the whole body of truth and corrupt the entire body. So apostasy. So those four things, rejection of the gospel, hypocrisy, abnormality, and then apostasy. Those four things. And I would simply say to you, the closer one is to the message of truth, but it is not the truth, the greater the deception." So the most simple thing that a person could say to come to the gospel is say, just believe. I read it in one of my readings this week. This was in Psalms, and the way he put it was that The only way to get out of that is repentance. He didn't talk about faith, but repentance. So he made repentance to be the condition. So the most simple thing, repentance, faith, can look like it is the gospel, but it is not. But then after he's talked about these four, these four things, then he begins to talk about something better. So those are bad. That's the time in which we're living, still there, we're still in it. You look around us and you tell me if what you see is not those four things. It's what I see. But now then he's talking about something better, infinitely better. And there's the parable of the hidden treasure in verse 44. And that parable is the parable of Christ purchasing the church. And those who are purchased are redeemed They do nothing more than glorify their Redeemer. They know they brought nothing. They know they did nothing. They know they have nothing. So all they can do is glorify their Redeemer. And then you have the parable of the precious pearl, and that is Christ calling the church. And those who are the called rejoice in the one who called them and the calling that brought them to the gospel. They know they had nothing to do with it. They know if they were left to themselves, they would still be out there amidst all of that corruption that Jesus just described in those first four parables. So they rejoice in that calling. And then you have another one here, and it is the parable of the net. So Christ purchasing the church, Christ calling the church, this is Christ gathering the church. This isn't individual fishing, this is net fishing, which the disciples knew very well and understood very well. So I'm gonna read verse 47, 48, 49, and 50. That's where we find this particular parable. Again, Jesus said, The kingdom of heaven is likened to a net, and that net is cast out into the sea, and it gathered of every kind. Which when it was full, it drew to the shore, and set down, and gathered the good into the vessel, 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, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Now, this net and this casting and this gathering, it's one thing. And that is what in the past has called, and I like the name, it's the general calling. It's the calling that goes out to all. And I want to talk about that general calling for a minute, but I need you to keep your place here because we'll come back to this, by and by. But I want you to look with me over to Matthew 20 and verse 16. Some of you are ahead of me already, you know what I'm going to talk about. 16, rather, of chapter 20 in Matthew, Jesus said, So the last shall be first, and the first shall be last. I'm going to stop right there. If you'll go back to verse 30 in chapter 19, Jesus said, Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. And then Jesus gives a parable. It's the parable of the vineyard. And we'll come to the parable of the vineyard by and by. And we'll talk about this all over again. I'll be a little bit more thorough with it. But when Jesus says this, he means this is what I was talking about. And so this parable explains and tells that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. And so he explains what it means, and generally, and this, when Jesus said that, that followed the incident of the rich young ruler. So the rich young ruler you thought would be first, but in fact he would be last, meaning not at all. When he says last, it means not at all. And then those that are second or last, they'll be first. And this probably refers mostly to the Jews and the Gentiles, that the Jews were first, but really they're last. And the Gentiles are last, but really they're first. And I don't know if you can put that together in your mind or not, but he's saying that what it appears outwardly is not what it is in reality. And then he makes this statement, at the end of verse 16, "...for many be called, but few chosen." Then I want you to look over to chapter 22 where Jesus said that again. In verse 14, "...for many are called, but few are chosen." Now some think that in the text that this is where Jesus said that, and it's not back in chapter 20. But I have never understood why it can't be in both places, why he didn't say it both times. So that would be my position, but I wouldn't argue with anyone. It says it, and that's it. Many are called, but few are chosen. So what does this mean? Many are called, but few are chosen. Well, the many that are called, this is the general calling. This is the calling or the preaching of the gospel that goes out to everyone. so that we are glad, happy, rejoice in any opportunity to tell anyone, no matter whether they are a Jew or a Gentile, it doesn't matter if they're rich or poor, it doesn't matter the color of their skin, it doesn't matter their social or financial standing, it does not matter. We're glad to tell anyone about the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We're glad to tell them about the God who is sovereign in all things, including the salvation that he has for sinners, and that Jesus Christ came to this world to save a people, for God to be glorified by those people. I'd be glad to tell that to anybody. wouldn't you? Well, that is the general call. It goes out to everyone. It applies to Jews and to Gentiles. Many there are who are called. Let's go back to our parable. You don't have to turn in your Bible back there, but let's go back to our parable. When they threw out the net, Let's say that they were fishing for shrimp. Probably not, but let's say they were. But when they threw the net out and they brought it in, what did they have? Well, they had a bunch of shrimp, but they had some oysters, and they had They had all kinds of slippery things that they might have had in there. They're moving all around, and they look at all of those things, and they pull them up, and they look at them. And what do they begin to do? Well, they begin to take the oysters and the crabs and the slippery things, and they begin to throw them back in the water, back in the water. And then what's left is what? The shrimp. So, in the first thing, they sent out the general calling, and they brought in everybody, and everybody came. And then, last, it is the definite call, and that is the definite call of those who are intended for. And then Jesus said, for many are called, like all of those fish, all those sea urchins, but few are chosen. So the few that are chosen, that would of course be just the shrimp that are left. So the few that are called from among the Jews and the few that were called among the Gentiles. What does the word chosen mean? What does that word chosen mean? Well, if you understand it and you like for God to be sovereign, then you love it. But if you don't like it to be God to be sovereign, then you don't like it at all. But the word is not hard to understand. It's made of two words. Let me tell you what they are. The basic word is the word kaleo, which means to call. And there's a preposition put on the front of it, prefix. And it's out. Ek is out. So it is to call out. It is to call out. It is the one's chosen. It was a word that they used from, it was a military word for them, which meant that you were chosen to go into the military. Or it was a political word, which meant to choose one over another. So it is to select one or more from a larger number. We ought to, if anybody ought to be able to understand this, Americans ought to be able to understand election, because every two years at least, we have a very significant election. And we vote for people to go into our Congress, into our Senate, and we vote for people in our local elections, and every four years we vote for a president, we ought to be able to understand election. And so it means, well, I choose this one and I don't choose that one. Well, that is the word that the Bible uses to say this very thing, that many are called truly. The general call goes out to the many, to everyone, but only a few from among them are actually chosen. I want to show you a verse that's pretty similar, right here close, look over in chapter 24, that is pretty similar to our parable. In verse 31, Jesus is talking about, He's really talking about what is going to happen when Jerusalem is destroyed in 70 AD, but it is a picture of the last days. So in verse 31, he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together, who is elect, same word, from the four corners of the wind, from one end of heaven to the other. Now, the Bible knows, God knows, Jesus knew that the earth isn't square. He knows it's not square. He knows that it is circular. My goodness, he made it. So he knows that it's circular, but it's a way of the speaking of everywhere. He's going to call His elect and bring them from everywhere. But if you don't believe that Jesus believed in election, then why would He use this word? Why would He use the kind of words that He used, many are called but few are chosen? Certainly He believed in election. Now all any preacher or all any believer can do with another human being is extend the general call. So I want us to go back to the book of Acts and I want us to see this general call that is extended by Paul the Apostle. Paul did five things. We can kind of limit it down to five things. He goes into Athens. It's a beautiful, beautiful place, big city. Connie and I have been there. We've looked at pictures of it. I still like to read about it. He went into Athens, and everywhere that he would look, there were various gods of this kind and that kind, various idols. And Paul apparently was very bothered by it. So the first thing he did when he went up to the Areopagus where he was going to be able to speak, because they would gather and they would give people a chance to speak to them and they would consider what they had to say. So he went up there to speak to them. The first thing he did was to identify the problem. In verse 22 it says, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious. That is a long word. I'm not going to try to pronounce it for you. But it is a word that means too religious. Too superstitious means too religious. You are excessive in your religion. Is it possible to be too religious? Well, apparently it is, because you are excessive in your religion. And yet the fact is, look on down to verse 23, you're ignorant. See it down there toward the end of verse 23? Therefore you ignorantly. Well, you're ignorant. You don't know. So you can be very religious, but you're also very ignorant. And one of the ways I know that he said is in verse 25, because you worship what is made by man's hands. You worship idols. And we read, Brother Randy read to us that you have eyes, but you can't see. You have legs, but you can't walk. You have hands, but you can't handle. They worship with their hands. Idolatry, listen to me carefully, idolatry is the religion of imagery. It is the religion of imagery. So today, in our day, people wear fashionable crosses and they have lovely angels. They have them in their yards. We're coming up on the time of the year. They'll bring their angels from out, put in the yard, their basements, their attics. Poor little angel's been up in that dark attic all this time. Now they're gonna bring it out, put it in the yard so everybody can look at it. And what are they showing? They're showing that they're very religious. And they're moved by that. And they'll have their little scenes with donkeys. I mean, churches are going to go to, so-called churches, going to all kinds of trouble over this next month to have somebody to play Mary and somebody to play Joseph. And they'll take shifts. And some of them will be there for a couple of hours, and somebody else will come in there for a couple of hours. And if they can find somebody with donkeys, by George, they'll have those donkeys out there. And it'll look just like Jesus is there in Bethlehem. What is that? It's idolatry. It's idolatry. It is the religion of imagery. It's the religion of images. No different from our day from their day. When Paul preached to the world, he declared, not God's love, not God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, As the present day Mr. Graham now says on television and tries to lead people in the most simple, little, ignorant prayer that could possibly be prayed. But what did Paul begin with? Not telling everybody God loves you. You never hear that. Not in the New Testament ever. Jesus never said it. Luke never wrote it in Acts. The apostles never said it. What did he begin with? Well, he began with God's attributes and God's character and God's sovereignty. So the second thing he did after identifying their problem in verse 24, he identified the Creator. Verse 24, God hath made the world and all things therein. Now think how the intellectual world of our day would rebel against that. because they really don't believe that this world has a creator. They may believe in a higher being. I listen to a podcast. You wouldn't think I would, would you? But I do. I listen to a podcast. And this podcast, he advertises something. I don't know what he's advertising. One of the things he asks is, do you believe in a higher power? And I always want to say, no, I don't. I believe in God. I don't believe in a higher power. I believe in God. Well, God, He didn't say how power made the world, did He? He said God made the world. I believe in God. And He begins with this very fundamental thing as identifying Him as the Maker. And the word made here is the word poeo. And it simply means, as it's translated, He created. God is the originator and the author of all things, animate and inanimate, things celestial and things terrestrial. What I mean, things on the earth and things in heaven, things that have life and things that don't have life. God made them all. He didn't wind it up like a clock, and now He's just watching it run down. He is the personal creator and the personal sustainer of this world. God made all things and all things that are therein. Now, the third thing that He did, He identified their problem. He identified God as the creator, and then He identified the universe as sovereign. Look in verse 24, He made the world, all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth. dwelleth therein, not in temples made with hands." He talks about then their idolatry. Verse 26, going along with this sovereign, He made one blood of all nations, all men the face of the earth. And then this, He determined the times before appointed, the bounds of their habitation. Let me say a word or two about this. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. As the Lord of heaven and earth, it means not a star falls, but He didn't put out its candle. It means that not a raindrop falls, but that He didn't send it. It means not a ray of sunshine comes to warm the earth, but that He didn't send it. Psalm 50 verse 10 says, For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. meaning they are mine. Now the hills are his and the cattle are also his. You may have a title to it, you may have a loan against it, but don't you ever forget it's his. The house you live in, it's his. The car you drive, it is his. Everything you have, every stitch of clothes you have, it is their his. There he is. Everything is his. That's what we're being told here. And Thomas understood that. So when Jesus came walking into that room and he saw the handprints, what did he say? My Lord and my God. Jesus is both Lord and God. So when he says here he made the world Lord of heaven and earth, That's Jesus, Lord, and God. And then look at this. I love the way he says this, determine the times beforehand appointed. That word determined is a word from which we get the word horizon. It means to designate. So he looked down through the corridors of time. He determined all the horizons and he marked them off. That same word is used in Acts 2 and 23 for the determinant counsel. and the foreknowledge of God, the determinate counsel. And then this, he appointed, and that word means to arrange, with a preposition on the front of it, meaning beforehand, to arrange beforehand. So it's similar to the word predestinate, not exactly predestinate, but it is to arrange beforehand, it's to prescribe or prearrange or to predestine, and then to be worked out by providence. So God did what he did with a mind that is so intelligent that we cannot possibly figure out what God is doing at any particular time. That's what Ecclesiastes 3 tells us. But He still is a God of predestination. And then the bounds of their habitation. It means that He has fixed the boundary. He's fixed the boundary of your life. He's fixed the boundary of my life. When I look back at my life and I try to figure it out, I can't exactly do it. I can see certain things that I've done, things that I never thought that I would do. And one is that I've been your pastor for nearly 30 years. I never would have thought that, never could have figured a thing like that. I don't know if anybody ever looks up my name. You know how you can look up people and see where they are? And it says of me that is a pastor of a little church in East Tennessee. And that's all they would see about me. That's all they would know about me. There's a lot more than that, but that's all that anyone maybe would know about me. The boundaries of their habitation. Rome lasted for a while. It was there for God's planning, but then it went away. Israel was there for a while, but it came to an abrupt end in 70 AD. Men are trying to revive it. Certain people think that God's going to raise it back up and make a kingdom out of it. It's not so. He may be doing certain things with Israel. I'm not against Israel. I support it politically. I do. But I don't believe it has anything to do with what's going to happen in the end of time. God's going to bring it to an end in the way that He wants to. It's pre-determined. Now, this is quite upsetting to those who worship according to the God who is responding to man's will, but to those of us who believe in God's sovereignty, it's comfort to our hearts. It's comfort to our hearts. America will go as long as God intends for it to. We hope it goes on, don't we? But we don't know. We just don't know. He has set the boundaries. Here's the fourth thing that He did. In verse number 28, He identified the God of providence. For in Him we live and move and have our being. The word being is the word I-me, which means to be. This is our existence, our definition, our portion in this world. I mentioned Ecclesiastes 3. It's a chapter devoted to God's providence, and at the end he says we all have our portion. Here's the fifth thing he did. He identified the need of every man to repent. Very end of that word, it's time for all men everywhere to repent. That's the general call. The general call is to respond to this God who is the creator, and it is time for all men everywhere to repent. So I say to you, I say to myself, I say to all who have an ear to hear, it is time to repent. And that word means a sweeping change of the mind. I'll say one more thing that he did, and that is that he told them about judgment, because it is appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained. Now he's finally gotten down to where he's about to tell them about the man that God has ordained. And he begins to do that, and he's telling them about his death and his resurrection. I wish we could hear him go on, because I think he would tell them about the righteousness that Christ earned, that every man must have, and what God did with that righteousness to justify his people. Because that's what he preached in the gospel when he preached it to Rome. But what did they do? They laughed at him, they scorned him, they turned him away, and what fools they were. They were absolutely fools because Paul left Athens and he never went back there. And poor Athens was left in their total darkness when they had a man there that could have told them about this God and about his son and his salvation, and they turned it away. That's the general call. But the general call saves no one. It saves no one. There must be the definite call of grace. Apparently there were some who heard the definite call because at the very end it says that there was a woman and there was a man that identified and there were some others. It went with him. So it wasn't in vain that he was there. He was there by God's providence, but the vast number of the Athenians didn't hear what he had to say, and Luke didn't record any more in God's sovereignty. The most relevant message we can proclaim to our generation is that God is sovereign and that He is sovereign in grace. Now go back with me to our text. That is the general call. Now let me try to bring this to a conclusion. it tells us that he gathered every kind. So this is a picture of the general call of the gathering of every kind. And when it was full, and what that means is the end of the age. It's like the parable earlier when he talked about sleeping, it's the passing of time. So when it was full, he drew it to shore and he sat down and he gathered the good from the bad. So think of it this way. He gathered every kind. But there are really only two kind. Right? Every kind, but there are really just two kinds. There are the good and the bad. Who are the good? Well, that's the ones whom He chose, whom Christ bore their sin, those to whom He imputed that righteousness that Christ earned, and those to whom they are called to the knowledge of this grace and this salvation. They are the good. The bad are everybody else. And the only thing that is left for them is judgment at the end of the age. And I could talk about this judgment, but it's not hard to see. He cast the bad away, so shall it be at the end of the world, in verse 49. The just from the unjust, you see that? The wicked from among the just, see at the end of verse 49? and shall cast them into the furnace of the fire, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And that weeping and gnashing of teeth is going on at this moment, in that place of torment. And at the end of the age, when he speaks of that final judgment, I don't understand exactly what that judgment is going to be like, but I know I don't want to be a part of it. I want to be one of those that He calls the just here. This parable presents Christ gathering His church throughout the whole period of time from His first coming until His last coming. Now we have one more parable next week. The Lord willing, I'll talk about it. And it's a parable that encourages and challenges and exhorts us. So I'll say to you one more time, standing condemned in Adam and cursed by the law, God sent His Son to satisfy justice and fulfill the law. On behalf of God's chosen before time, Jesus Christ became their substitute. He earned righteousness in their behalf, and the Father accepted and reckoned that righteousness and justified them. This justification is salvation. That's why it's so important. This righteousness was earned by His blood and not without His blood and not before His blood, but by and in connection with His blood, His people were redeemed and justified. So what do we do? We keep on singing hymns like the one we're about to sing. He leadeth me, O blessed thought, O words with heavenly comfort fraught, whatever I do, Where'er I be is still God's hand that leadeth me.