Parable Of The Dragnet – B

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

Today on Real Life Radio.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:02

So listen, as a Christian, if I live my life believing, just believing Jesus, Jesus says, listen, there’s a heaven, there’s a hell, get the gospel out there. Look, I don’t need to focus on anything else. That was enough information for me. I’m going to go. I’m going to do this thing.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:20

This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. What if the greatest battles in life aren’t fought with swords and armies but with the struggles of the heart? What if the most defining moments of leadership come not from triumph, but from pain, betrayal, and humility? How do we handle being misunderstood or wronged? And how do we navigate the deep waters of authority, submission, and forgiveness? In A Tale of Three Kings, Jean Edwards takes us inside the lives of King Saul, King David, and Absalom, illustrating the powerful lessons learned from their brokenness and their failures. Through these kings, we discover that true leadership often comes through humility, suffering, and trusting God’s sovereignty, even in the most difficult seasons. This book will challenge you to reflect on your own heart, leadership, and your walk with God. A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. It’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues with his series called The Parables of Jesus with the message titled Parable of the Dragnet. Whenever Jesus spoke to the crowds, he often spoke in parables, a common sort of picture story that has a lot of facets to it. in this parable jesus teaches on something very powerful but not very popular you see this parable hits hard jesus is again sitting by the sea of galilee even using it in his message and serves as a warning as to the fact that there is an end coming and that no one’s going to escape it So today, Pastor Jack teaches that a dragnet gathers all the fish, but then the fish that aren’t edible, well, they’re thrown back. What Jesus is saying is that false followers may live among the true, but in the end, God’s going to separate them. Now, with his message called Parable of the Dragnet, here’s pastored Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:35

there’s going to be gathered some, circle the word some, this is amazing, some of every kind. Not everything is drawn up in the net, some of every kind. What does that mean? That means, listen, not everyone is saved. Listen, and this gets real technical, and even the some that are brought up in the net, are you listening? when it’s pulled up, there’s gonna be a dividing of the good from the bad. Wow, there’s kinda three groups of people. Those who are not in the net, then those who get in the net, and then those who are in the net, out of the two of them, the Bible says there’s a good fish and a bad fish. Uh-oh, what do you mean? Do you mean that people who are saved, they’re a good fish but they turn into a bad fish? Nope. Jesus has warned us over and over again. The wheat saw around them the what? Tares, the chaff, the false. The gathering together, there was the leaven that ruined the whole offering of the bread. The little leaven leavens the whole lump. There’s always, listen, in the kingdom of God, Jesus is saying when the net goes out, fish get in it. But in the end, it will be proven, it will be shown that not all the fish in the net are good fish, meaning there are pretenders and lookalikes and mimics in the body of Christ, in the church. Fake or false brethren, Paul called them. Imposters, you say, well, what church? The church, where? Everywhere. But not here, right? Here. Not in this service, right? Maybe. Think about it. I told you before. Jesus had a church of 12 people. One of them was a goofball. There’s a warning to this, and it’s very serious. And so the dragnet goes out. It’s a… Interesting thing, look at this. It says, and they gathered some of every kind. This does not mean limitation. It’s an observation. Jesus is not saying the gospel’s ability to save is limited. No, no, no, no. There are those who respond to the gospel. Again, in your note-taking, Bible students, what is excellent to this is, again, the parable of the sower and the seed. Do you remember? Jesus went out, and many people responded to the seed that was sown, which, remember, was the word of God. But in time, persecution arose and some of those, quote, believers gave up on believing. Remember? They weren’t real. Do you remember what the proof was? And the one that received the word on good soil with a good heart? They produced fruit. Remember that? It was the only one that produced fruit. How do you know if a Christian is a real Christian? By fruit production. It’s true. We are not to condemn anyone. We don’t have that authority. The Bible says, judge not lest you be judged. The word is condemned. It should say, condemn not lest you be condemned. But we are supposed to be fruit examiners in people’s lives. Jesus said, by their fruits, you will know them. Or by their fruit, you will know them. Okay? That’s very important. So, It’s an observation, not a limitation. Some of every kind got into the net. Revelation 5, 9, listen to this. Revelation 5, 9 says, and they sang a new song. This is John seeing heaven. And this is what they sang in heaven. You are worthy to take the scroll, speaking of Jesus, and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of, here it is, every tribe and tongue and people and nation. That’s the meaning of that verse in our dragnet parable. Out of every tribe. Not every tribe was saved, but people within every tribe. Do you hear that? It’s very important. Lockyer, in his commentary, writes this. Plying the sea, that’s P-L-Y-I-N-G, plying the sea with the gospel net, they were to fish for the souls of men. All those who have been caught by the gospel make it their aim to fish for family, friends, and foes alike. Have you found that to be true in your life? One of the indicators of a believer is that there’s a driving passion in your heart to have family members and loved ones become believers. Why? Now listen, we need to get this parable under our skin. I’m afraid that we’ve lost something in our age. If we begin to look around, now hear me out, this is for the believer, the non-believer’s not gonna like this, but believers, listen. We need to start looking at the lost in our lives, our friends, our family, and our foes. Not looking at them as friend, family, and foes, but look at them as lost souls. If we really, really believe the gospel, I’m not saying we don’t, but we don’t take it serious. If we knew what time it was on God’s prophetic time clock, if we knew that somebody that we know in our family If we knew that next Friday they’re gonna drop dead of a heart attack, what would you do about that? Would you call them up? Would you drive to their house? Would you finally get over your fear and witness to them? Because you know, now some people might say, well, Adam, I’ll just pray that he gets saved. Listen, that’s not, a heart that understands that hell is a reality will crawl on glass across this county, which is the largest in America, and tell someone about the love of God because hell is real and you care for them. If we love them, we’ll reach them. This church spends, I think, I actually need to be refreshed on the amount, but it’s somewhere around a million dollars a year to get the gospel to the ends of the earth. Why? Because hell’s real. If hell wasn’t real, why spend it? If hell wasn’t real, then why learn how to share the gospel? Are you with me? Jesus seriously died on the cross and he seriously rose again from the dead and he seriously spoke about heaven and hell because it’s a reality. But if we saw, you know, William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, he said, if I could suspend one Christian over the pit of hell for 15 seconds, they would never backslide all the days of their life. Think of that motivational.

SPEAKER 1 : 10:06

Wow.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:10

In Mark 1, verse 16, Mark 1, 16 and 17 says, “‘And as he, Jesus, walked by the Sea of Galilee, “‘he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, “‘casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. “‘And then Jesus said to them, “‘Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.'” And they immediately left their nets and followed him. You see, the church and its preaching of the gospel is to do this to the ends of the earth. We are, every one of us who are believers are now fishers of men’s souls. Don’t you kind of like that? I like that. It’s kind of, ooh. What do you do? I fish for souls. I’m a soul fisher. Hey, what are you guys gonna do tomorrow night? We’re gonna go out and fish for souls. Doesn’t that sound amazing? It is amazing. It is amazing. It’s amazing also to realize the global effectiveness. Just think, Jesus was announcing, this is kind of cool if you’re a skeptic in the house, keep this in mind. Jesus said in this parable that the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, the church age will be like A dragnet that will make its way through the seas. Again, through the Jewish eyes, they would have said, wow, the message he’s talking about, it’s gonna go all the way around the world. And it’s gonna indiscriminately be deposited in the minds and the ears and the hearts and the lives of Jew and Gentile alike. Pretty amazing. Isn’t it amazing that Jesus said that 2,000 years ago? You think he knew about the internet back then? Yeah. He’s God, he knew, he was waiting, someday Al Gore’s gonna invent it and it’s gonna be amazing for the gospel. He knew what was coming. And it’s the age that you and I are living in, it’s being fulfilled, prophecy. Even tonight. I mean, there’s a few of us here right now, but think about the audience that’s on the other side of their computers right now. We hear estimates, I don’t know what’s up, but from the company that processes this stuff in LA, on Wednesday nights, they tell us 35 to 45,000 people attend this service every Wednesday night. Well, if that’s true, that’s the gospel getting out. God is using technology. He’s always used technology. The second thing is this, the parable of the dragnet, the good, the bad, and the ugly, is the understanding of the world, the understanding of the world, and that is both good and bad. And they, that is the fishermen, you’re gonna learn that the fishermen, in the mind’s eye of the disciples will be converted to angels, sat down and gathered the good into vessels but threw the bad away. Jesus is saying, Understand this regarding the world and the understanding of the world is that the world someday is going to be dealt with. Jesus is saying this. Now, our emotions say no to that. You understand that? It’s natural. Our human emotions say, no, that’s not going to happen. It’s just not going to happen. We naturally do this. I don’t want to hear bad news. Why, okay, what are you implying? I don’t wanna hear it. Meaning what, that it doesn’t happen? Or you can’t cope with it? The truth is you can’t cope with it, so I don’t wanna hear it. If I don’t hear it, it doesn’t exist. Now if you’re a bummer to be around like I am, Ask anybody on staff or anybody that knows me, Jack, do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first? Which one? Always, always I want to hear the bad news first. Always. When somebody says, well, you know what? I know you’re going to tell me later, Pastor Jack, didn’t you learn this in math? I don’t care. If somebody says, well, it’s 96% or whatever round up, not me. Listen, I always want the bad, I want it, how much is this gonna cost? Well, you know, it looks like it’s gonna cost 100 bucks. In my mind, I’m thinking, yeah, right, how about 150? I want the bad news, I wanna prepare for the bad news. You say, man, that’s scary. Listen, look at me. Growing up, when I got my first checkbook, If something cost me $17.35, when I would write, you know, in my little ledger there, what’s that thing called? You know, in the back, remember back? The young people are going, what? What are you saying? You know, you write a check and you go to the back and you register. You’d write it down. I would always write in that it cost me 18 bucks. You laugh. Let me tell you, I met my wife one day and she goes, do you know how much money you have in your bank account? How do you do this? Because in my mind, I always make it worse. Blesses my heart. Why? Because I know I’m prepared. I’m prepared.

SPEAKER 01 : 15:37

You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.

SPEAKER 02 : 15:52

So listen, as a Christian, if I live my life believing, just believing Jesus, Jesus says, listen, there’s a heaven, there’s a hell. Get the gospel out there. Look, I don’t need to focus on anything else. That was enough information for me. I’m gonna go, I’m gonna do this thing. Well, you know, I’ve been thinking and my emotions tell me there is no hell. Ain’t gonna listen to that. Number one, you don’t know better than Jesus. Number two, if there’s no hell and he died on the cross, what was in his mind? What is he thinking? Of course there’s a hell. And he doesn’t want anybody to go there. But Jesus is saying there’s gonna be a day when the fishermen Just like on the shores of Galilee, divide the fish up. He’s going to introduce us now to the interpretation. Look at point number three, the separation from the world. And this is an ugly thing. And so it will be at the end of the age. You say, what does that mean? That’s a good question. What does that mean? The angels will come forth.

SPEAKER 1 : 17:01

Wow.

SPEAKER 02 : 17:02

Jesus is saying this. Separate the wicked… from among the just. The end of the age, Bible students, write this down and spare you a lot of grief. What’s the end of the age? There’s two interpretations. Good scholars on both sides of the fence. Are you ready? Number one interpretation is this. At the end of the age, in the context, It demands that the end of the age is when, listen, the church was born at Pentecost to do what? To preach the gospel to the ends of the earth and then when the church is removed, this is a good argument, when the church is removed in the rapture, then the seven year tribulation begins which the Bible says the world is evangelized by the church or who? The Jews, perfect. The church is gone. There are no church age saints or believers in the tribulation period. The Jews, beginning with 144,000, begin to evangelize the world. So the first interpretation is, in the context, it demands that the age that is going to end is the church age, which is a great argument. And so that when that happens, there’ll be a separation. Well, there certainly will be a separation. The church will be raptured. Those who have died in Christ will be 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18, resurrected. There certainly is a separation from the just and the unjust, isn’t there? But that’s not the only separation. Another view is this, that the end of the age will be at the end of the opportunity to receive the gospel. Are you guys watching me? You have to watch my hands because I’m not… able to adequately articulate it with my mouth. Pentecost, church is born. Gospel is preached via the church. That’s one and that’s a good interpretation. But the same gospel that the church preached is the exact same gospel that the Jews will preach. It’s not a different gospel, same gospel. How much longer will that go on? Well, we don’t know the difference or the time span. The Bible doesn’t say. If the rapture happened tonight, when would the seven-year tribulation begin? We don’t know. The Bible doesn’t say. It could be the next minute. It could be 10 years after that. We don’t know. But we know this, that when the rapture takes place and God focuses back on Israel, and Israel becomes the evangelistic tool to the world, and by the way, a number so massive gets saved during that period of time, John says no human will be able to count them. I believe in my technology, or my technological age, that not even a computer can figure it out. John says you can’t count them. That’s awesome. that the age means when the gospel is no longer preached. When will the gospel no longer be preached? When Christ returns in the second coming and establishes his millennial reign. You won’t be preaching the gospel, you’ll be able to look at the gospel sitting on his throne in Jerusalem. The millennium, the Bible says it’s a 1,000 year reign of Christ. He has to do that. By the way, do you guys realize, if Jesus does not sit on the throne in Jerusalem according to the Old Testament prophecies, then we’ve got the wrong Jesus. That’s how vital it is he has to return. He has to sit on the throne of David. He’s not on that throne tonight. He’s on his father’s throne tonight. Exciting, huh? There’s a lot of stuff yet to come. It’s gonna be awesome. Jesus’ main driving point to this is that, number one, there’s false dwelling among the true, And that the end of the age will separate them both. And you think about that for a moment. It’s amazing to realize when Jesus says he’s gonna send forth the angels, you guys, that means that the dispensation’s gonna change. We are in what’s called the dispensation of grace right now, or the church age, or the kingdom of God age. Watch this. The age of grace will come to a conclusion as the church knows it, as the world knows it. Right now, all around the world and every nook and cranny of this universe for that matter, everyone is benefiting from the age of grace right now. God is being patient and for 2,000 years he’s been like this. He’s been waiting. Now look, you know how you and I have always wondered, why doesn’t God do something? There’s children being molested and I heard about a mother who Didn’t want her child to see the evil of this world, she said. And so she took a straight edge razor blade and cut the eyes of her child out so the child would never have to look at evil. And you say, where was God? Why didn’t he send an angel and knock that woman out? I understand that. Do you understand? You think you’ve got a hard time with it? God is like this. He’s waiting. He’s waiting. See, as humans, we want God to intervene now and stop this injustice. Oh, let me tell you something. He is going to move, and when he moves, the world will be in absolute shock. Where’s God when, how come this evil? He is going to show his righteousness to the world. And you know how he does it? You’re not gonna like this, this is too bad. He will expose his righteousness by this very holy thing that you and I know nothing about. In fact, the whole world right now is blessed by this time of grace, because he has not even yet ever in the last 2,000 years revealed his righteous wrath. His wrath is coming.

SPEAKER 01 : 23:16

pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Dragnet. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a series that highlights the teachings of Jesus while he was here on earth and will continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

SPEAKER 02 : 23:39

Everyone, it’s almost impossible to keep up with what’s going on in the world today. I think we’ve all come to that realization. My goodness, just the news regarding Israel and Israel’s neighborhood. We’re looking at what’s going on in North Korea. We’re seeing what’s happening in China and other parts of the world. It’s just overwhelming. But I want to encourage all of you. Be in the Word of God now and more systematically than ever before. In fact, as we are in this season of maybe the first quarter or second quarter of the year, I want to encourage you to join me actually at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, 5 a.m. Pacific Time, and whatever time zone you’re in you can join me at my facebook page live for five minutes as we are praying together with people all around the world and you can leave your prayer request right there you can leave it in the comment section and people will be praying for you so listen with all that’s taking place in the world you don’t have to walk through this alone there’ll be others with you to pray with you and love on you but friends more than ever If you draw near to Jesus and practice the presence of God more and more, it means you’re going to have to turn some things off and minimize the distractions. You will see some pretty miraculous things start to happen in your life. So I encourage you to do that very thing. So listen, 5 a.m., you can do it. West Coast time, 5 a.m. For those of you who are in Cape Town, South Africa, it’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon. And listen, we’d love to have you. And even if you can’t be with us live, you can always view it, pray with us, and leave your prayer request there at the comment section.

SPEAKER 01 : 25:15

The Lift Daily Prayer. That’s every day on Pastor Jack’s Facebook page. That’s at 5 a.m. Pacific time, so don’t miss it. Make it a habit if you would. Come get prayed for and join Pastor Jack in the Word. That’s the Lift Daily Prayer every day this year on Pastor Jack’s Facebook page. Be sure to join us. You’ll enjoy it. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.