LORD LET ME BE A KEEPER!
Matthew 13:47-51, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord."
I believe that God’s net is already running this morning and there is no doubt that every man, woman and child is already caught in his net. We are just waiting for the moment when the net will be drawn to the shores of Jordan and then the separation will come.
I can remember a number of times, in fact it was the majority of times, when I would go fishing and come home empty handed, or perhaps with only one fish or two. There is always the really big fish that is just so elusive. He always strikes but never is caught. He may take the bait but somehow manages to give it back.
I haven’t had the opportunity to be a boat for a long time, but I have done a little pond fishing. I’m so “good” that I rarely go out without catching something, even if it is a “limb brim” or a “snag fish”. But really, I just about always do catch something. The problem is that not all are “keepers”.
I remember the last one like that. I saw it roll on top of the water as it hit that top-water bait I was using. Just a little slow twitch here, a little bob there, a short run, stop, short run, stop, over and over again. No fish alive can resist my method and this time was no different than the rest.
When that fish rolled and took off with my bait it felt like I had hooked at least a 5-pounder.
He was a real fighter and it was a struggle to reel him in. He ran all over the pond, and I though I would actually lose him from all the tension on line and the stress on the fishing rod, but I didn’t lose him. I fought him good, wore him down, holding tension on the line as I let him run back and forth tiring himself out, pulling in on the rod and then reeling slow so I wouldn’t break the line, repeating that over and again, until finally, in exhaustion, I had reeled him to the bank! I was in for the shock of my life. I wondered if I didn’t pull him out of another fishes’ mouth because it was so small that he looked like the bait had swallowed him. I remove the hook and cast him back into the water like so much garbage, thinking to myself, go grow up and send me your older brother.
It seems that I catch a lot of those type – the one’s that aren’t “keepers”. They start out well, put up a little fight, but when it comes down to it, they just aren’t strong enough, big enough or mature enough to be a keeper.
Now I don’t know about you but when God’s net pulls us to the shore, I want to be a “keeper”. The fish that I catch that get cast back into the water will live to see another day but those who are cast away from God’s shore won’t fare so well. They will be cast into outer darkness and go from the “frying pan” of this life, into the “fire” of eternity without God. I DEFINITELY WANT TO BE A KEEPER FOR GOD!
I see a lot of people who get caught in God’s net who seem to be keepers but I soon begin to wonder if they are going to make the final cut or not. Thank God that I’m not the one who will make that choice. If I were, I suppose all the fish that I liked would be keepers and everyone else would be trash fish.
But God is no respecter of persons and he will be absolutely just in his decision on who will be a keeper.
God is not going to look at your bright and shiny exterior color. He won’t care how much talent you have, or how beautiful your appearance may be. He won’t even care how much is in your bank account. All God will care about is what kind of heart do you have and whether you have surrendered that heart to Jesus Christ, his only Son.
There are a lot of people who get caught up in church for a while. They will seem like real fighters and will put a lot of energy into being a part of the body of Christ. But it doesn’t take long until you find them wearing down. First they begin to miss church once in a while, then regularly. Then they won’t come at all, or if they do they hang out in the back of the church or in some place other than the sanctuary so that they won’t have to feel the convicting power of the Holy Ghost when the Word is preached.
I sometimes think that we should have a pulpit on both ends of the sanctuary and then maybe even have a “special service” in the other areas of the church from time to time so that people will never know where to go to be safe from having to sit and hear God’s Word. We could alternate between pulpits in the church and then we would never know whether the front row would be back, or the back would be the front, or the other areas would be live and those in the sanctuary would be the ones listening and watching by camera.
People who don’t have enough commitment to sit in the sanctuary and listen to the Word of God certainly won’t be keepers when God pulls his nets to the shore. I’m convinced that if won’t don’t love God enough to “suffer through” 30 minutes, or an hour, of hearing his Word go forth, then we surely don’t love God enough to be a keeper.
What we have to remember is that God’s net will catch every fish. Just because we are a part of the crowd in the net doesn’t mean that we are going to end up in the right place.
Every one of us will go through that selection process. One by one, by one, we will stand before the Lord and he will examine our lives, our hearts and our motives. If every part of our character and every motive that drives us to attend his house is not driven by our love of Jesus and our desire to serve him, then we will be cast aside like trash fish.
Friends won’t matter then – it’s only you and God. Mother, father, sister or brother, no one, will be able to stand with you and pull you through. They will have to come through on their own, just like you.
So how do I become a “keeper” for the Lord? By surrendering your will to God’s will and then living for Jesus like he really is your Savior and not just in name only.
There are a lot of people who claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior but when it comes down to where the rubber meets the road, where is there commitment and love for him? Church is the last thing on their mind. Living for Jesus is a real drag for them. They would much rather hang on to the things of this world and hang out with the other trash fish than to draw closer to God and live holy before him.
Living holy is not so much in what you do as how you think! You can abstain from every appearance of evil, never watch a bad movie or TV show, never drink a so called “adult beverage”, never do a lot of things that we preachers preach against and the Bible speaks against, and still not be “living holy”. True, all of those things are supposed to be manifest in your life if you are holy but they aren’t what make you holy at all. You can’t earn holiness anymore than you can earn salvation.
In other words, you aren’t a keeper, a holy man or woman of God, because you do the right things; you do the right things because you are a holy man or woman of God. Holiness is a condition of the heart and soul resulting in total surrender of your will to the will of God. Holiness is a condition of the heart that controls the mind and tells the body what to do and not to do so that it may please God and not offend the Word of God or the righteousness of Christ.
If your heart is right with God and you truly love Jesus with all your heart, no one will have to ask you whether you are living right or not. There will be no condemnation in your heart, no conviction spirit that nags you every time to sit under the preaching of the gospel, and there will be no desire to get up and run as quick as you can to escape the altar call. You will actually look forward to those times when you get to hear God’s Word brought forth.
Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Can you see the key to being a keeper in this verse? We must walk after the will of the Spirit of God and not after the desires and will of the flesh.
The flesh desires comfort, entertainment, sensuality, fun, food, excitement and hates boredom, commitment, and most of all, discipline. None of us likes to discipline ourselves. We don’t even like the sound of the word.
DIS – sounds like something to cast aside like dismiss, discount, disembody, discourage, etc.;
I – sounds like “eeww”, a nasty taste;
PLINE – sounds like I need a lot more backbone, or spine, than I’m willing to give.
We hate “Discipline”, and yet without it, we will never be anymore than trash fish, caught in God’s net, to be cast aside when the harvest comes.
Now I’m going to ask you the same question that Jesus asked his disciples, “Have ye understood all these things?” I don’t know how we could make it any more understandable. Jesus’ words were simple and to the point, but he still asked that question. Have you considered why he would ask this question to those disciples who had followed him for so long, especially with a large number of them being commercial fishermen before their call to follow him?
These men were not morons. They were not bumbling idiots. They had intelligence. Why would they not understand such a simple parable?
The fact is that they did understand and Jesus knew it but I believe that he still asked them to show us that we are to leave nothing to chance when it comes to telling people about Jesus and the final judgment of souls. It’s too important to their eternal soul and we must make sure that even the simple-minded, whose hearts and minds are blinded by the cares of this life and sin in their heart and the distractions of that the devil brings before them will have no excuse to not know the truth.
Jesus had already told three other parables to point out the fact that hearing the gospel, receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and then walking and living by faith according to the true love that we have for Jesus were so very important.
Parable of the tares and the wheat – God will separate those who are his even though they may all grow together, get all twisted together and hard to separate one from another at times. God’s Word is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and with the sword of his Word God will separate the weeds from the wheat.
Parable of the treasure found in field that was worth everything he had meaning that there is no price to heavy to pay to get the Salvation that Jesus offers.
Parable of the Pearl of Great Price, that was worth everything. Our whole life is spent in searching for better things, better times, better heath, better marriages, better relationships, better cars, better homes – better everything. It never ceases to amaze me that we seek to always better ourselves but if we are not careful we will miss the greatest prize of all – eternal life. This life is but a vapor while eternal life is just that – eternal. We seek after those things that are temporary only to lose it all in a short time. The eternal life and salvation that Jesus offers is worth everything and anything that you may have to give up to receive it, a million times over.
So the question remains, “Do you understand what Jesus is saying to you this morning about the final separation that is coming soon.”
The net is being pulled in right now. It won’t be long until we will be pulled to the banks of the Jordan River in death, or be pulled to Heaven’s shore in God’s net. When you get there will God choose to keep you as a useful and profitable servant, or will he cast you aside like a trash fish?
My prayer is that you will be a keeper! When we get to that shore I don’t want to see any of us go from the fires of this life to the flames of the next. I want to see us all changed into robes of righteousness and given a new body to dwell with Christ forever in Glory!
Are you a keeper this morning?
If Jesus were to pull your net in right now, where would you spend eternity?
If that great separation were to begin, and, really, it already has, before you leave this sanctuary, would you hear Jesus say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Or, would you hear him say, “Depart from me, I never knew you. Cast him into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth?”
When that day comes and the separation begins in God’s final eternal judgment, as we stand before him, one by one and judgment is passed, we will only be able to answer as the disciples did when Jesus asked them if they understood.
We will have no excuse then. No justifiable reasons to give in our defense. We will already know where we are bound. When the final judgment is passed our only answer will be, “Yea Lord”!
Yes Lord – your will be done. I have made my choice and now I must live or die eternally by that choice.
Make the right choice this morning. Don’t be cast aside. The net is closing in and soon it will all be over. Choose Christ. Choose life eternal. Choose to be a “keeper”.
Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording, including sermon titles, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these sermons. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and/or quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
