Turning your Bible please to
25th chapter of Matthew. We know the Lord said when the
Son of Man in verse 31, Son of Man shall come in his glory and
all of his angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne
of his glory. From the opening part of chapter
24 he began to ask answer questions that were asked of him. He told
them about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, and then he gave
them three parables that told them about the long interlude
between those early years, his being here, the destruction of
Jerusalem, the long period of time that we're now in, Then
in verse 37, he said, then, then. So there's a long period between
what took place from the early verses of 24 to this place in
25. But I want to take you to show
you what he takes them to after answering their questions. So
I want you to look with me in chapter 26. It says in verse
1, and it came to pass when Jesus had finished, and I like the
way Matthew puts that, all these sayings. When he puts all in
there, he means to say that there have been a lot of them, a lot
of these sayings, all these sayings. So there have been quite a number
of lengthy statements that he's made, all these sayings. Then
here's what Jesus said to the disciples. You know that after
two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to
be crucified. Where does the Lord take their
attention? To the cross. Men have questions
about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Appropriately so. But where should our attention
be? Upon the cross. How can you read the book of
Acts? How can you read the epistles of Paul and Peter, Hebrews, James? Jude, the Revelation, without
concluding that the focus is upon the cross. And yet, men
are talking about what's going on in New Orleans, and men are
going to talk about what's going on in your family, and they're
going to try to tell you how to be more loving and kind, and
all those things have their place. But I'm telling you the focus
is upon the cross. From the Old Testament to the
New Testament, the focus is the cross. So with that in mind,
I want you to consider what he said a few things about his coming. In his first coming, he came
in humility. In his second coming, it will
be in glory. In his first coming, angels announced
his arrival and attended his birth. In his second coming,
angels will serve him in his work of judgment. They will defend
and they will declare His glory. Our text is about two groups
of people in a parable-like language. If you look at the end of verse
32, you see in four words, sheep and goats. He's not talking about
sheep. He's not talking about goats.
He's talking about men. Two groups of men illustrated
by sheep and goats. So I want you to think with me
about these sheep and these goats. I want you to look with me to
several texts. that speak of the sheep and the
goats. But first of all concerning the
goats, I want to talk with you about the goats in the first
hour and the sheep in the second hour. To set it in context of
what the scriptures say as to why we would consider the goats,
it is with the background of the message of the scriptures.
So what is the message of the scriptures? Let me try to state
it simply. God elected a definite and limited
people for salvation from eternity. God saved them from the penalties
of their sins and justified them at the cross upon the single
condition of Christ satisfying the law and substituting himself
for those God chose. In time, God awakens or regenerates
those he elected and justified, causing them to repent of sin
and false professions of faith." Now, if you can wrap your mind
around those few thoughts, and you can develop in your thinking
the fuller meaning of those things, You have a grasp of the gospel. If you believe those things,
then you have a grasp of the gospel. But it leads us to a
question, and that is, what about those God didn't elect? What
about those Christ didn't die for? God didn't justify? The
penalties of their sins were not taken away. They're not awakened
to light and understanding, to repentance, and to true biblical
faith. What about them? Well, the Bible
has something to say about them, and in our text they are illustrated
by this parable-like description as a goat. So I want you to consider
with me a few passages in the first few moments here. Go with
me first of all to the book of Deuteronomy. Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the 29th chapter. The 29th chapter
opens up referring to the words of the covenant which the Lord
commanded to Moses. And in verse 2, Moses called
or spoke unto all of Israel, and he said to them, You have
seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt
unto Pharaoh. 29. 2. And to his servants, and
to all his land. Verse 3. the great temptations,
or trials, which your eyes have seen, the signs and those great
miracles." And in verse 4, you come to a startling statement. Yet the Lord has not given you
a heart to perceive, eyes to see, ears to hear unto this day. So you can be a professor at
a university or a seminary, and you can read of the acts of God
in the Old Testament and the acts of Christ in the New Testament.
and not have a heart to perceive or eyes to see. A man can stand
in a pulpit and open this book week after week, year after year,
and never understand and never perceive with his heart. Where
does this come from? The Lord has to give you eyes
to see. The Lord has to give you a heart to perceive. So I
say to you from the outset, don't be hard on your friends and neighbors
and relatives. They just don't have a heart
to perceive or eyes to see. And you can talk to them and
pray for them, but it's the work of God to cause them to have
eyes to see. Then I want you to look with
me to the book of Job. I'm just giving you just a little
inkling here, but look with me to the book of Job, just the
four Psalms. And look at chapter 17 of Job. These are the words of Job, and
in verse 1 he says, My breath is corrupt. Now think of that.
My breath is corrupt. I can't even breathe without
corruption being in me. My days are extinct. They're
limited, very limited. The graves are ready for me.
It's the way Job felt. And are there not mockers with
me? And does not mine eye continue
in their provocation? He's talking about his friends.
He had three friends with him, and these friends They didn't
put salve on his wounds, rather they provoked him, and he called
them mockers and provokers of him. Verse 3, lay down now, put
me in a surety with thee, his appeal to God, who is he that
will strike hands Here is what I want you to see, verse 4. For
thou hast hid their heart from understanding, therefore shalt
thou not exalt them. In verse 4, you have hid their
heart from understanding. God hides the hearts of men from
having understanding. So they cannot see, so they cannot
perceive, they cannot gather, and they cannot take in the message
of the scriptures. Then I want you to look with
me to the book of Romans, chapter 9. Is there a more startling,
a more confrontational text to put your eyes upon than this
text? Some say when he said in verse 13, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated, that means that he loved Jacob more than
Esau. He loved Esau less than he did
Jacob. Well, that's to put deep. degrees upon the love of God. Well, however you look at it,
he didn't love him enough to save him. That's what it means.
So you say that he loved him less if you want to. What it
means is, he didn't love him enough to save him. And the Scripture
describes that as holding him up with a hatred toward him. Now, what men say about that
when you take that position is they say, well, that's not the
kind of God I worship because the kind of God I worship loves
everybody. And if you say that He loves
some and He doesn't love others, then that means that God is unfair.
That's why Paul asked the question in verse 14, that men will say,
is there unrighteousness with God? Is there unfairness with
God? Is there inequality with God? Because in men's thinking,
there ought to be a being who loves everybody and wants kindness
to be bestowed upon everyone. How does Paul respond to that? Well, he quotes from Exodus 33,
where God clearly described and declared, I will have mercy on
whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. You see, the mercy of God and
the compassion of God is a function of the will of God. You cannot
separate God's mercy and God's compassion from His will. He
wills His love. He directs His love. He directs
His compassion. You and I, unfortunately, don't
have that kind of ability, but God does. Verse 16, here's how
Paul concludes it. It is not of Him that wills.
What is he saying? It has nothing to do with your
will. Salvation is not of your will. Getting God's compassion,
getting God to have mercy on you has nothing to do with your
will. Salvation is not God's will and
man's will together. That's what Paul is saying. It's
not of him that wills. And if you think that it does
have to do with your will, then you're like those that he described
in Colossians 2 who are will worshipers. You worship at the
throne of your own will. You not only attempt to worship
God, but you're also worshiping yourself. You've made an idol
of yourself. If you include your will as a necessity in bringing
salvation to yourself, it has nothing to do with your will.
Nor of him that runneth. What's that? That's works. It's
not how hard you run, how fast you run, how long you run. It
has nothing to do with your works. Not at all. So it has not to
do with your will. It has not to do with your works.
Paul concludes, but God that shows and demonstrates and carries
out his mercy. Then he used Pharaoh for an example.
Pharaoh was raised up for the very purpose. Here's a nation
that God made it to be what he would have it to be. He made
Pharaoh to be what he would have him to be, to be in the position
that he was. for Israel to be in the position
they were in. They went through hardship and
heartache and hurt and pain. And here, why? We're told, so
that he could demonstrate his power and authority in Pharaoh.
The permissive will of God permitted Pharaoh to rebel against God. And he did. But the secret will
of God, if you study Pharaoh, which we have, the secret will
of God was that God hardened his heart and he could not repent.
So both of those are true. God permitted him to remain hard
against God, but the secret will of God kept him hard in his heart
so he could not repent. I'm talking about goats now.
Pharaoh was a goat. He was raised up for the purpose
of being a goat and God demonstrating His power in him. Man might say,
I don't like that. That has nothing to do with it.
That has not one thing to do with it. What we like, what we
don't like has nothing to do with it. Verse 18, therefore
he has mercy on whom he will, he hardens whom he will. That's
his secret will, see. Verse 19, then you'll say to
me, why is he at fine fault? Who has resisted his will? Verse
20, no man has a reason to reply against God. Shall the thing
that formed say to him that formed, why have you made me thus? Who
makes men to differ? That's the question that Paul
answers in 1 Corinthians. And the answer is that God makes
men to differ one from another. It's God who makes some bow and
understand the gospel, turn from their false professions. Verse
21, he goes to the potter's house. He uses the potter as an example.
This is a parable-like illustration. He takes the same lump. He works
with it. He doesn't like what it is. He
casts it down. It becomes flat. It's a vessel
of dishonor, he calls it. He takes another and he works
with it, and that's a vessel of honor. He says that God takes
men from the same lump, so those who have an understanding of
the gospel certainly have no reason to be prideful, arrogant,
boastful, haughty. God, in verse 22, willing to
show His wrath. See, He's willing to show His
wrath. He's not only willing to show His mercy, He's willing
to show His wrath. We're talking about goats now.
To make His power known, endured with much longsuffering, the
vessels of wrath. fitted to destruction. Here he
is. He is the potter. He has vessels
that are determined to receive his wrath. They're fitted to
destruction. But this word fitted that is
here is a word that's like a joint. And it has a preposition added
to it that used to intensify it. And so what it means is a
perfect joint. The older we get, those of us who are, we know
that our joints are not that perfect. Used to didn't hurt
in our joints. Now we hurt in our joints. This
is a perfect joint of the body. This is what you picture of.
And so it's fitted to destruction. But this is also a middle voice. And the middle voice indicates
that the vessel of wrath fitted itself to destruction. So here's
what this means. God determined the vessel to
be a vessel of wrath, and then the individual's attitudes and
actions were perfectly in line with the will of God for that
individual. So Pharaoh was raised up to be
a vessel of wrath, and then his attitudes and his actions were
perfectly consistent with what God willed for him to be and
to do. And so when men hear and have
an some inclination toward the gospel and then go back to where
they were, their actions show they are perfectly fitted to
what God designed them to be. I'm talking about goats. I'm
talking about those who will not listen to the gospel. And go with me to the 11th chapter. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for. What was that? Well, he was seeking
for righteousness. He's always seeking for righteousness.
A just standing before God. That's what Israel National Israel
was always seeking for. And their understanding was that
they would do it by their will and by their running. That's
what they thought. Just like people in our culture
think that it's done by their will and by their running. That's
why Paul said that. And that's what Israel thought.
But they didn't obtain what they sought for. Just like people
in our culture. do not obtain what they are seeking
for, which is righteousness, a just standing before God. But
the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." The
word blinded is the word for hardened. They were hardened.
And it is one of those point action verbs that takes in all
of the history of Israel. It looks at national Israel as
though it happened in an instant. And then it's passive, which
means they didn't do it. The secret will of God hardened
them. So it could have been translated
here, and the rest were hardened by God. I know men don't like
that language, but I'm telling you, that's what it says. And
then I want you to look with me another place, and we'll go
back to our text. I want you to go with me to the
book of Jude, the little book of Jude, just before Revelation.
Look in verse 4, for there are certain men crept in unawares. What that means is they came
in the back door, or they looked like one thing when they were
something else. They looked like they were with
us, but they weren't with us, is what Judas said, who were
before of old ordained And that word ordained is the word for
right grapho, and then he put the preposition on the front
of it which means before. It was before written what that
means, to this condemnation. Before written to this condemnation. Now, that time he used a perfect
tense, which means that it happened in the past, it has a present
and ongoing result. They were before and are now
and ever shall be written to this condemnation. It's also
passive. They didn't do it. They were
acted toward. Passive. They were ordained by
God to this condemnation. And the end result will always
be one thing. They will turn the grace of God
around backwards. They'll turn it into looseness
or lasciviousness. They will play loose and free
with the grace of God, is what that means. The end result of
all error is that men consider it conditioned upon something
else than Jesus Christ and Him alone. Now, there is the test
of all things. Is the grace of God conditioned
alone upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's
the end of it. I'm talking about goats. Go back
with me to our text. I want you to look with me in
the last verse of chapter 25. And I'll tell you what he does
in verse 46 of chapter 25 in Matthew. He gives the thesis,
the main point of what this discussion is all about. Here's the thesis.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment. Who is
these? That's the goats. But the righteous
into life eternal. There are four things that are
taught here about punishment. First of all, punishment is for
men. These. These goats, these men,
when you take all of the scriptural consideration, some of what I've
shown you and other things as well, it's for men. Second of
all, punishment is later, shall go into, shall go away into. It's in the future. Punishment
is not now. What happened down in New Orleans,
for whatever reason, however it happened, And I say to you
that God is not unrepresented in anything that occurs in His
creation. There's nothing out of His control.
But that's not eternal punishment. That's going to come later. That
is later. Were there some elect there?
I've wondered that. Perhaps you have as well. That we don't know.
I don't know of anyone there. There could have been. But I
know that hard times can fall on the just and the unjust. So
I'm not going to say, I know it's a vial in a wicked place,
but does that mean that we're at the end of the world? No,
I don't know that. I know that punishment is later.
That's what the scriptures teach us. And here's the third thing
that it teaches, and that is that it is without end. It's
eternal. It shall go away into everlasting punishment. There's
no end to it. And then it's real. I know that
punishment is real. This word has to do with torment
that is here. Everlasting torment is what this
is all about. The consideration of last things,
like we have in chapter 25, brings us face to face with the sovereign
will of God. You cannot escape it. If God
is a sovereign God, then he's bringing all things to conclusion
as he has purposed it to come. We don't know when that will
be. We don't know exactly how it will come about. Men will
always have questions about it. But it brings us face to face
with the God who is in control of everything in this universe. When shall these things be? How
will these things take place? What will be the sign of these
things? The end of it all is that these shall go away into
everlasting punishment. Thank God there is good news.
The righteous into life eternal. We best understand something
about righteousness and who the righteous are, something about
this good news that is proclaimed in the scriptures. Let us pray
for those who do not know the gospel. Let us declare it to
them as we are able and give an opportunity. We don't know
who the sheep are. We don't know what the times
are. But as long as time endures, let us be about the business
of being faithful to the gospel conditioned on Christ alone.
Let's stand together and pray. Now, Father, we thank Thee for
Thy Word. How precious and true, so relevant, so up-to-date, so
necessary to understand. Lord, deliver us from our darkness
and ignorance. Let us not be hard, but let us
be tender toward the gospel, your precious, wonderful grace
that you've conditioned on Christ. Enable us to worship for Christ's
sake.