Go with me, if you would, to
Matthew 25. I love that song. Every time we
sing that, in the middle of the song, I'm thinking, I hope it's
right now. I hope he comes right now. Come right now, quickly,
before the song ends. I love that song. Matthew 25, and let's begin reading
in verse 31. When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He
sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered
all nations And he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd
divided his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Or I was in hunger and you gave
me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger and you took
me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was
sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came
into me. Then shall the righteous answer
him saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered and fed thee,
or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and
took thee in, or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick
or in prison and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and
say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done
it unto one of the least of these my brethren, You have done it
unto me. Then shall he say also unto them
on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was in
hunger and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
no drink. I was a stranger and you took
me not in. naked and you clothed me not,
sick and in prison and you visited me not. Then shall they also
answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered or a
thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did
not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them saying,
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the
least of these, you did it not to me. And these shall go away
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Now, our Lord is speaking here
of two groups of people. He called one group sheep, and
he called the other group goats. He referred to the sheep as righteous
and he referred to the goats as cursed. And these people all
represent God's elect and those that God did not elect. He said the sheep, God's elect,
were going to inherit the kingdom of glory that was prepared for
them before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation
of this world, God knew exactly who was going to inherit the
kingdom of glory. It was prepared for them. And he said they were going to
inherit it because, all right, the sheep, you're going to inherit
the kingdom. And he said, it's for this reason
right here, because look at verse 35. Four, I was in hungered and you gave
me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger and you took
me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came
into me. That's the reason why. So he
said, the sheep are going to survive the judgment and are
going to inherit glory because they did those things. And he said, the goats are not
going to survive the judgment. And they are not going to inherit
glory because they did not do those things. All right, now here's a very
interesting thing about this declaration. Here is a very interesting, we
would all be wise to really take note of this right here. Our Lord said on the day of judgment, The sheep are going to hear that
they did those things. And they're going to be shocked
to hear that. Because they're going to have
no idea that they did them. All right. This is this is a
key on the day of judgment. The sheep are going to hear that
they did those things. And they're going to be absolutely
shocked because they had no idea that they did that. When did
we do those things? And he said on the day of judgment,
the goats are going to hear that they didn't do those things.
And they're going to be shocked. Because they're going to have
no idea that they didn't do those things. Now, seeing and hearing that,
will cause us to realize that there has to be something that
we don't naturally understand about this. It would be pretty easy to know
whether or not in the course of your life you gave food to
the hungry. This would be pretty easy to
know. If you gave food to the hungry or a bed to the homeless,
or close to the destitute. It'd be pretty easy to know whether
you visited somebody who was in the hospital or visited somebody
who was in prison. That's why the goats will be
shocked when they hear that they didn't do that. They'll say, yes, we did. We
did do that. And we did it in your name. Turn
with me over to Matthew chapter seven. Matthew 7 verse 21 says, not
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father,
which is in heaven. What is the will of the father
in heaven? Well, if we just answer that
based on Matthew 25, it sounds like humanitarian efforts. If
we just answer that based on our text this morning, it sounds
like humanitarian efforts. Good works toward men. Well, our Lord right here is
going to tell us that that's not it. That's not it. Verse 21, not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name, preached in thy name? You ever heard somebody
stand up and in Jesus name, you ever heard that? In thy name,
we've cast out devils. In thy name, we've done many
wonderful works, good works toward men. Verse
23 and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart
from me ye that work. Iniquity. He said that was all
sin. That's what he said. All of your
preaching. Can a man's preaching be sin before God? Can a man's
preaching be sin before God? Absolutely. Absolutely. He said all of your preaching
and all of your soul winning, all of your soul healing, all
of your humanitarian efforts, all of your mission trips, all of your soup kitchens, all of your church fundraiser
yard sales. He said it was all sin. It was all iniquity. Gabe, are
you against humanitarian efforts? No, I'm not. No, I'm not. Not at all. If someone shows
up here hungry, we'll feed them. Somebody's hungry, we'll feed
them. But if a person thinks that doing
humanitarian efforts is enough to please God and enter into
His kingdom, that person is going to be shocked on the Day of Judgment.
Shocked. Romans 3 verse 20 says, By the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. Ephesians 2 verse 9 says, Not
of works, lest any man should boast. Titus 3 verse 5 says,
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, That's not what gains a sinner
entrance into the kingdom of God. And that's not what our
Lord was talking about when he described what made the difference
between the sheep and the goats. All right, then what was he talking
about? What is the difference? What is it that will cause a
sinner to come before God acceptable? All right, I'm just gonna go
ahead and tell you what it is. Punch line of the message right here. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is the message of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. It's faith that clings to the
good news of Jesus Christ and him crucified. Bear with me back
to Matthew 25. Let's read this again, seeing
the gospel being described right here. All right. Verse 34. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand. Come, you blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world, for. I was hungered and you gave me
meat. Is that not what the gospel does
for God's people? It feeds the soul with living
bread. The gospel feeds God's people. The gospel is one beggar telling
another beggar where he found bread. If you're hungry, there's
bread here. It feeds the soul with living
bread. Our Lord said, I am that bread. God's people feed on Christ,
the bread of life. He said, Peter, if you love me,
feed my sheep. Isn't that what he said? If you
love me, feed my sheep. How do I do that, Lord? What
do I feed God's sheep with? The message of the Lord Jesus
Christ crucified. The gospel of Jesus Christ. What is the gospel of Jesus Christ?
It is finished. The finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, you tell them to open
up their mouths wide and I'll fill it. I'll fill them. Lord, give us this day our daily
bread. Let us feed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want, honestly, today, right now, I want to feed on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 35 says, I was in hunger
and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. The gospel cries. This is what
the gospel cries. If any man thirst, let him come
to the Lord Jesus Christ and drink. Let him or her come to Christ,
the living fountain of water, the fountain of life. The fountain that poured out
of the rock that was smitten. What a picture of the gospel
that is. Christ is that rock and Moses was that law that had
to smite. And because the rock was smitten. Water poured out, the living
water poured out. And the people of God drank and
they drank and they were so satisfied. The gospel is water to a thirsty
soul. That's what it is. A soul's thirsty. I just love it when someone comes
out of false religion. And they don't know what they're
not hearing, but they know they're not hearing something. And they're
empty and just a sponge ready to soak up the truth. And Christ
makes them ready, and they hear it, and it's what it is. Water to a thirsty soul. The
gospel is milk to a babe in Christ. God's sheep drink the sincere
milk of this word. We soak it up. We drink it up.
Verse 35, he said, I was an hungered and you gave me meat. I was thirsty
and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took
me in. That's what the gospel does.
And that's who the gospel is for pilgrims and strangers. That's who the gospel is to hold
your place right here. We'll flip right back, but go
to Ephesians two. Ephesians 2 verse 11, Wherefore remember that you being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel. and strangers from the covenants
of promise having no hope and without God in the world. But
now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made
nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath
made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us. having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, or to
make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, in
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. and came and preached peace to
you which were far off and to them that were not. For through
him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Verse
19 says, now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of
God. The gospel is the message of
strangers who were taken in. He opened up his home. He took
us in. Strangers who were taken in and
given a home and adopted to be a part of the family of God.
That's what the gospel is. How were God's people adopted
to be a part of the family of God? It was through a payment. A payment in full. It was the
payment of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what adopted
all of God's people into his family. That's what accepted
all of them in. That's the gospel. That's our
gospel. Go back to Matthew 25. Verse 35 says, I was in hunger
and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger and you took
me in naked and you clothed me. What does the gospel clothe God's
people in? What are God's people clothed
in? It's the very righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The spotless garment of His perfection. Can you imagine that? Can you
envision that? Being welcomed into glory, every
soul is to put on that robe of righteousness. Looks just like
Him. Spotless garment of holiness. Every child of God wears the
holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Christ was robed in our
sin, we were robed in His righteousness.
Verse 36, he said, I was sick and you visited me. That's what
the gospel does. It visits the sick and the afflicted
right where they are. It visits them right where they
are. Where are they in the sickness of their sin? That's where they
are in the prison of their captivity
to sin. That's where they are. Verse
36 says, I was in prison and you came to me. What happens
when the gospel comes to a prisoner bound by the prison of his own
sin? What happens when the gospel
comes? Here's what happens. It sets the prisoner free. It
sets the prisoner free. When the truth of the gospel
comes, it sets the prisoner free. I love that song, The Comforter
Has Come. I love that song. Verse three
in that song says, Lo, the great king of kings, with healing in
His wings to every captive soul a full deliverance brings. And
through the vacant cells, I just love envisioning that scene,
it's a whole line of prison cells, all the doors wide open, nobody
in them. Through the vacant cells, the
song of triumph rings, the Comforter has come. The message of the
gospel comforter, Jesus Christ, has come. Sheep cling to that
message. Sheep plead that message. Goats do not. Goats do not. The unbelieving, here's the other
message, alright? The unbelieving message of goats
is a message that does not feed nor fill the hungry soul. There's no food there. There's
no spiritual food there. It's just husks. That's all it
is. And they leave men and women
empty. They leave them scrounging for
something more. Never satisfied, always looking
for something more. There's got to be something more.
Do sheep say that? No, sheep say Christ is all.
That false, unbelieving message of goats, that's a dry well. Looks like a well, there's no
water in it. It's a dry well that claims the
promise of water, but it's just not there. It has men and women
sending down buckets, drawing up buckets. Nope, send it down
again, draw it up again. Never quenched, never satisfied. Our Lord told that woman at the
well, he said, if you knew who I was, you would ask of me. You would come to the well of
the water of life. And he said, I give you living
water and you would never thirst again. You'd drop your water
bucket. You'd get rid of that water bucket
and you would cling to me. That unbelieving message of goats
provides no home to come into and rest. There's no place of
rest. There's no place of rest. It's
a building that they're always working on. That's what the false
message, that false unbelieving message of goats is. It's a building
that they're always working on. It's never finished. Therefore,
there's never any rest. That unbelieving message of goats
is a filthy rag robe. It's full of holes, rips and
holes that can't cover. It's a righteous, it's a self-righteousness
that cannot cover. It's a remedy prescription that
cannot cure any sickness. It's a promise of pardon that
doesn't have the ability to remove one prisoner from his or her
cell. That's the difference. That's the difference. If a soul
is cast out, it's gonna be because that soul is clinging to that
false message of lies. All of God's sheep are crossed
with the paths of the truth. All of God's sheep are given
the faith of Jesus Christ himself to believe that truth and cling
to that truth. The warning has gone out that
any message other than the gospel message of the finished work
of Jesus Christ, it's a message that cannot save. It cannot save. Paul said, woe is unto me if
I preach any other message than the message of the finished accomplishment
of Jesus Christ. And woe is unto all of us if
we believe and cling to any other message. than the message of
the finished accomplishment of Jesus Christ. He saved his people,
period. It's done. Turn over to Ezekiel
34. Ezekiel 34. Verse 1 says, Ezekiel 34 verse 1, And the word
of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against
the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith
the Lord God unto the shepherds, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel
that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed
the flocks? You eat the fat and you clothe
you with the wool. You kill them that are fed, but
you feed not the flock. The diseased have you not strengthened? Neither have you healed that
which was sick. Neither have you bound up that
which was broken. Neither have you brought again
that which was driven away. Neither have you sought that
which was lost, but with force and with cruelty you have ruled
them. He was talking about the message
that was preached to them. He was talking about the message
that they were preaching. The message that could not do
any of those things for them. Only the gospel of the life of
Christ and the death of Christ and Christ being made to be the
substitute for his people. Only the gospel of Christ. Bearing
all the sin of his people. Suffering all of the punishment
for the sin of his people. Satisfying the debt owed to God
for the sin of his people. Only the gospel of that accomplishment
in Christ, by Christ, unto Christ, only that glorious gospel can
feed and clothe and strengthen and heal and bind up and bring
again. Only that gospel. Only the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 61, he said, the spirit
of the Lord God is upon me. Because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified." That's what the gospel
does for men and women. That's what it does. Our Lord
told the disciples, you go show John again how that the blind
receive their sight, the lame walk The lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel
preached to them. Spiritually speaking, that's
what the good news of the finished work of Christ does for men and
women. Now there's one final component
to this. Go back to Matthew 25. Now, if we don't get anything
else out of this, let's get this. Let's ask the Lord to help us
get this. The gospel is all about what Jesus Christ has done for
us. But in this declaration, our
Lord said, you did it to me. Didn't he say that? You did this
to me. How's that possible? What does our Lord mean by that?
Here's how it's possible. Here's what our Lord means by
that. Everything that God has demanded of us, Christ has done
for us. Christ has satisfied for us. Christ has supplied for us. On the day of judgment, and this
is truly glorious, on the day of judgment, the books are going
to be opened. Of everything that every man
and woman has ever done. Everything we've done in this
life. And because Christ was made to be the substitute for
his sheep, they get his book. That mean anything to us? They
get his book. On the day of judgment, every
soul here is going to be holding a book. And if Christ was made to be
our substitute, we get to hold his book. He got the books of his people
on the cross of Calvary. And the books were opened and
he was judged. And now because of that, we get
his book. And everything that he did is
charged to us. Everything that he did. is charged
to us. That's why it's going to be said
of all the goats they didn't do it. It's because they did
not receive the righteous record of his book. The righteous record
of Christ, and that's why all the sheep are going to be shocked.
All the sheep are going to be shocked. When when the book is
open and it says this is what you did. When did I do that? You fed the hungry soul. You
gave water to the thirsty soul. You took that stranger in. You
set that prisoner free. When did I do all that? All of
God's people are going to be shocked to hear what they've
done. And it's because every glorious work of Jesus Christ
will be applied to their account. That's the gospel message that
saves. That's the message that saves
and all of God's people will believe it. And they'll cling
to it all the way to glory. I pray we are among them. Amen.