In Matthew 25 again, let's pray.
Our gracious Father, we pray, Lord, that you would help us
today as we consider this most solemn text of Scripture about
our Lord Jesus Christ coming as King and judging this world. We pray, Lord, that you would
teach us how we can be saved in that day. tell us about Your
Son, tell us about our Savior, and how we must flee to Him and
be found in Him. And Lord, we pray that You would
be with us in all that we do, that You would give us grace
to do Your will, to look to Your Son and glorify You in all that
we do from our heart, not seeking our own recognition, not trying
to gain acceptance, which Christ alone can obtain for us, but
Looking to you in all things, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Matthew chapter 25. We're going to pick it up there
at verse 31, and read to the end of the chapter. I've entitled
this message, The Coming King. The Coming King. Verse 31 of
Matthew 25, 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
divideth 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,
saying to them on his right hand, Come, ye 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. 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
to 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 to thee? And the king shall
answer and say to them, these are to the sheep, Verily I say
unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least
of these my brethren, you have done it to me. Then shall he
say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed,
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I wasn't hungered, 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 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
to thee? And 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. There was never a scripture more
solemn in all the Word of God than this. The Lord Jesus Christ
is coming again. And when He comes, it will be
the end of the world, the end of time. At that time, He's going
to gather all people. who have ever lived across this
globe and across history, all time, gather them together and
he's going to divide them into two groups, only two, and he's
going to put the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his
left. And then He's going to issue His final judgments. And
each group, each person in each of those groups will depart into
their final destination. He will assign them. He will
command them. Those who were on the earth who
despised His word and would not hear Him and obey His gospel
will then obey Him. They will have to depart from
Him forever. And so I want to consider this section of Scripture
and ask the Lord to apply it to our hearts, because it's the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ. First I want to consider here
first what He says when He appears. Notice in verse 31, "...when
the Son of Man shall come in His glory." The Lord Jesus Christ
is going to come. There's no doubt about it. We
might not know the time of His coming. That's certainly uncertain. That one thing we don't know
is when He will come. The one thing we do know is that
He will come. That's the certainty of it. He
will come again. In Matthew 24, where we have
just been studying verse 30 and 31, it says, and they shall see the Son of
Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and
He shall send His angels with the great sound of a trumpet,
and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds
from one end of heaven to another." That's the certainty of His coming.
He is coming again. And then the second thing I want
you to see here is that the first time when the Lord Jesus came,
He came as a baby. He came in weakness and in obscurity. Few people knew that He had come,
even though the angels announced that it was to the shepherds
that night. He came as a servant, and He came bearing the sins
of His people. But the next time He comes, it will be final. It
will be visible to all, and it will be glorious with power.
It will not be as a baby, it will be as the King, the King
of all. King of all men, King of all
things. The King who rules on His throne
now will become visible to all, and they shall see Him. Every
eye, according to Revelation 1-7, will see Him. every eye. So it's not going to be a secret
coming, it's going to be a public coming. It's not going to be
a secret rapture, there is no such thing. There's going to
be a public coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His glory,
in all of His power, and no one can stop Him, no one can stop
His will, and no one can disobey His word at that time. And then,
the next thing we see here is that when He comes, He will come
with His angels. Notice they're called His holy
angels. Not here it doesn't say His holy
angels, but they are in other places called His holy angels.
They're His holy angels because He created them. They're His
holy angels because He is the Lord God. And they're His holy
angels because they worship Him. Hebrews chapter 1 in verse 14
says, "...the angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister
for them who shall be heirs of salvation." Heirs of salvation
are those who are inheriting salvation. Inheriting what God
determined to give them. And so the angels are ministering
spirits. That means they're servants.
Servants to those the Lord is going to save. Servants to those
the Lord has saved and is saving. And so if the angels who come
with Him are His servants to those for whom He died, those
that He's going to save, those He is saving, those He has saved
at this point in time, you can see the importance that the Lord
places on His people. These angels were created And
they're strong. They're mightier than we. They're
spirits. They're not affected by all the
sin. They're not weak like we are.
They're coming with the Lord Jesus Christ, attending His coming
with Him in order to bring His people, to serve Him in that
function, to bring His people to glory. and they will achieve
their assigned task. And it shows the importance the
Lord Jesus Christ places on His sheep, that He would make these
angels to glorify Himself and as servants for His people. There's
no higher creature than the angels. The men were made lower than
the angels by their sin. But God designed for His people
to inherit all things with Christ, and therefore has put the saints
of God above the angels." And we could look at several scriptures
for that, but because the Lord has, in fact, look at Hebrews
chapter 2, just real briefly. Hebrews chapter 2, it brings
this out. It says, in verse 5 of Hebrews
2, He says, for unto the angels
hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we
speak. Not to the angels. God hasn't put the world to come
in subjection to the angels. But one, in a certain place,
testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
Or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him
a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory
and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands.
This is a prophecy in the Old Testament from Psalm chapter
8. And he says, Thou hast put all things in subjection under
his feet. For in that he put all in subjection
under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. That's
to man. But now we see not yet all things
put under him. All things are not put under
man. Man is subject to death. He's subject to disease. The
devil seems to have power over him at his will. The world influences
people. There's so many things that men
are obviously not in charge of things. The earth itself is not
subject to man because of the storms and things that can take
his life, buildings fall on him, all kinds of things. But we see
Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death. Though man, destined to rule over all things, isn't
in that position, we see the Lord Jesus Christ, who is. Because
He was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death for
a little time, Now He's crowned with glory and honor, and the
reason He was made lower than the angels for the suffering
of death was that He might, by the grace of God, taste death
for every son." For every son that the Lord had chosen. It
says man here, but the word man isn't in. It's just a word that
was filled in. The word is actually just every.
And if you read the verses after that, it's every son. The Lord
saves every son He chose to adopt from eternity. So back in Matthew
25, the angels are coming with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
Lord Jesus Christ rules over them. He is as much greater than
the angels as the Creator is greater than the creatures. He
is as much greater than the angels as Him that is worshipped is
greater than they that worship Him. He is as much greater than
them than the Son of God is greater than the angels. Never did God
say to any angel, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
thee. And so we know that these angels
are coming with the Lord Jesus Christ. And He will also come
with His saints. The saints who have died and
are asleep in Jesus will come with Him. 1 Thessalonians chapter
4 brings it out and so does 1 Corinthians 15. The dead in Christ He will
bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. He'll come with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when He comes, He will command,
He will raise their bodies from the graves. And their bodies
will be joined with their spirits, the spirits of just men made
perfect. And they will be in the air with the Lord. And those
who are living at that time will be caught up together to be with
the Lord. And we shall forever be with
the Lord from that point forward. And so He comes again, He's coming
with His angels, He's coming with those saints who have died
and gone before, and He's going to raise those saints who are
now living to their immortal bodies and give them a body like
His glorious body. But notice how He comes, His
character and how He comes. He comes as the King of Glory. He came the first time, as I
said, in lowliness and meekness, this time He comes in power.
He shall come in glory. And the first time He came was
private, this time it's public, and every eye shall see Him.
The Son of Man shall come in His glory. It says in Revelation
1-7, Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him,
and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth
shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen. And so we know
the Lord is coming, we know He's coming as King, He's coming with
His people who have gone before, and with His mighty angels, His
holy angels, and they will bring His people to be with Him. They'll
gather His elect from the four winds. And then it says, in verse
32, that when He comes, He shall gather all nations and He shall
separate them. So the first thing we see here
is that when the Lord comes, He's not only gathering His people,
but He's gathering all people and He's going to separate them.
There's a division that's going to be made. He discerns between
cattle and cattle, between sheep and goat. And I use that word
cattle and cattle from Ezekiel chapter 34, where the Lord says
that He judges between cattle and cattle. He discerns between
the sheep and the goats, between the rams and the he goats. And
that's what the Word of God does. Remember in Hebrews chapter 4,
it says the Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. God's Word discerns. The Lord knows those that are
His, and He discerns between them, and it's His Word that
separates one from the other. Christ will separate all people.
All people who have lived throughout history. All people who were
then on the earth. All people who have died. All
those who are living. All people will be gathered.
Every man, woman, boy and girl ever born will be called forth
to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. All nations will be gathered. There will not be one left out.
It will not be a secret coming. He will set his sheep on the
right hand and his goats on the left. Now this is, again, this
is the most solemn thing in all of Scripture, isn't it? That
the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who walked this earth in humility,
who came here as a servant, who spoke God's word as a prophet,
and laid his life down as the Lamb of God, offering himself
as the High Priest to God's people. He's going to come again, and
this time, as the King. As the King. And He will divide
His sheep. He will divide them from the
goats. He'll call them out in the New Testament. It says that
in Romans chapter 8 that the sons of God will be manifest
at that time. We can't see. We can't tell who
they are. We can't discern who is a child of God and who isn't.
We can take their word that they believe in Jesus. We can look
at how they love the Lord Jesus Christ and have some sense of
it, but we can't be certain, can we? But the Lord knows, and
He's going to make it known. This creation, all of creation
will see who the sons of God are. He's going to glorify them.
He's going to identify them. He's going to make known they're
His. And He's going to separate them as the wheat was was going
to be separated from the tares. Remember that parable? The wheat
and the tares in the same field? And he told his servants, don't
try to separate them now. Wait until the harvest has come.
Then I'll divide. I'll separate. I'll take the
tares out. The angel will take the tares
out and burn them in fire, but the wheat will be gathered into
my barn. And like the net, The kingdom of God was like a net
that was cast forth, bringing in good and bad. The Lord will
separate the good from the bad then. The five wise will be separated
from the five foolish virgins. The faithful servant from the
unfaithful servant. The sheep from the goats. Now,
I want you to consider what John 10 says about the sheep for a
moment. The sheep, it turns out, have
always been sheep. Now, we might be surprised by
that. We might think that the Lord makes people sheep who were
not sheep before, and He makes people goats, or leaves people
as goats, and maybe they can become sheep. But that's not
the way the scripture reveals it. The sheep were always sheep. They were always sheep. Remember
the parable in Luke 15? The shepherd noticed that there
was one sheep missing out of the fold. So the shepherd went
and found his sheep that was lost. When he found it, he put
it on his shoulders and carried it home and put it in the fold
and called his friends to rejoice with him over that one sheep
that was lost. And that sheep represented all his people who
in themselves were lost by sin. Lost under the bondage of sin
and Satan and the law. Subject to death. Subject to
eternal damnation. Had it not been for the Good
Shepherd who came and found them and brought them back. So all
of God's people are sheep. In John 10 it brings this out
many times over. The sheep are always sheep. The
goats are always goats. The sheep don't become goats
and the goats don't become sheep. The sheep were Christ's sheep
before He came into this world. Before He laid His life down
for them. When the Father gave Him commandment
to lay His life down for His sheep, they were His sheep then.
And they were his sheep before he called them. But he says here
in John chapter 10 verse 11, I'm the good shepherd. The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Most of the sheep
haven't even been born yet. Well maybe, I don't know, the
Old Testament sheep. But there were some in the Old
Testament, many in the New yet to be born. So he is going to
lay down his life for all the sheep throughout time. The sheep,
who are they? The Lord knows. He says in verse
15, No, verse 14, I am the good shepherd,
and know my sheep, and am known of mine. And as the Father knoweth
me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the
sheep. Listen to verse 16, and other
sheep I have, which are not of this fold. Okay? There's some
who are not part of the group that was standing in front of
him. People could recognize them. I have those sheep. They're mine.
And what is he going to do? He says, "...and these also I
must bring, and they shall hear my voice. There shall be one
fold and one shepherd." These sheep that had not yet been brought,
were the sheep the Lord had before they were brought. He's going
to lay his life down for them. Verse 17, "...therefore doth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take
it again." No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father, to lay down my
life for the sheep. And then look at verse 26. Actually look at verse 24. Then
the Jews round about him, said to him, How long dost thou make
us to doubt? Isn't that the way men view God?
You make us to doubt. If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. If you had told us plainly, we
would have believed. We have the power to believe ourselves,
and you hadn't told us plainly. But that's not the problem. Jesus
answered them, I told you, and you believe not. The works that
I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But you believe
not, because you are not my sheep. As I said to you, my sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." You see the
difference here? Sheep hear the Master's voice. Sheep are brought. Sheep are
kept, and sheep will never perish." Look at the next verse, "...I
give to them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of My hand. And My Father, which
gave them Me, is greater than all. No man is able to pluck
them out of My Father's hand." How did these sheep become the
Lord's sheep? Well, the Father gave them to
the Lord Jesus Christ. My Father, which is greater than
all, He gave them to me. He gave them to me. But how did
these sheep become the sheep of the fathers? Well, look at
Ephesians chapter 1, for example. There's several places that say
how they become God's sheep. All things belong to the Lord's,
but not all are blessed as sheep. Ephesians 1 verse 4. According as He, God the Father,
has chosen us in the Lord Jesus Christ before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. He chose us as sons by Jesus
Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace. wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved." How did the sheep become His
sheep? God chose them. When? Before the foundation of
the world. Did He just choose them as independent
of the Lord Jesus Christ? No, He chose them in Christ.
Chose them with Christ. He chose Christ, His Son, to
be the Christ of God and gave His people to Him then when He
chose. It was all one act, one eternal act. There was never
a time in eternity, there was never a time when the sheep were
not the sheep of God the Father. Look at Colossians chapter 1. Colossians 1, he says in verse
12, "...giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet..."
The word meet there means made us, conformed us, made us suitable,
made us fitting to be called. He says to be made partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. To whom is an inheritance
given? It's given to the children, to
the sons. How did we become heirs? How did we become those who inherit
as sons? God the Father chose us. He adopted
us. The word adopt means to choose.
He adopted us. He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. And He made
us, in that choice, He made us suitable, fit. conforming us
by His choice, setting us apart from all the rest in humanity
to be made partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. This
is the thing. If we don't understand this in
scripture, we can't understand really any part of the Bible. When we read the Bible, it will
become a complete mystery to us until we see that the Lord
has a people. And to those people, He's giving
everything with His Son. He chose them in Christ and He
gave everything to His Son and to them with Him. This is an
eternal purpose, 2 Timothy 1.9, that He has saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. God's will doesn't change. It
doesn't start up at some point in time and go forward from there.
It has always been. And God's choice of His people
has always been. So the sheep have always been
the sheep by the Lord's choice, and He gave them to His Son when
He chose them in Christ. Many ways it's spoken of. Not
only were they called sheep, but they're called the Bride
of Christ. When it says in Revelation 13.8 and 1 Peter 1 verse 20,
it says that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
That means before time began, in the purpose of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ was killed substitutionarily. God laid the debt of his people
on him and he bore that debt as his own and paid the punishment
for it in satisfaction to God. before the foundation of the
world in the purpose of God. Therefore, he had to die for
his people in the purpose of God, those people for whom he
died before the world began. They were his. And it was them
that he espoused to himself in his love of marrying them, his
engagement to them before time began. And then he came and he
gave himself, he gave his life for who? Not for another woman. He gave his life for his bride,
his wife. He gave himself for the church.
He purchased the church with his own blood. Acts 20, 28 and
Ephesians 5, 25. And he did it in order to have
them for himself. They were his. Just as Jesse
gave to David his son, the sheep, to care for them. And David was
out caring for them, defending them from the lion and the bear.
So the Lord Jesus Christ was given all the people of God as
David was given those sheep by Jesse. The Lord Jesus Christ
was given the people that he would save from the lion and
the bear, the lion of the devil, the bear of all of our enemies.
and saved us from Goliath, from all these things. Our Lord Jesus
Christ by Himself purged our sins and brought us to God. He
nailed the handwriting of ordinances that was against us to His cross,
taking it out of the way, and spoiled principalities and powers,
bringing us to Himself. This is our Lord Jesus Christ.
He separates the sheep from the goats. He knows His own. And
so we see all these things about how He knew them even before
the foundation of the world. They were given to Him. He knew
them. He died for them. He not only
knew them in His atoning work, but He knows them in the works,
in the grace that He gives to them. Now, here we see that in
the verses that follow in Matthew 25. He says, "...then shall the
king," in verse 34, "...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." Isn't that what we just said?
The Father has prepared a kingdom. What is a kingdom? All the wealth
of God the Father is represented by a kingdom that He gives to
His people. Who can tell what's in that?
Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the
heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that
love Him. This is God the Father, out of His riches of glory, has
prepared for His people all things. All things. To give to them in
Christ. This is a kingdom. God the Father
prepared. And the Lord Jesus Christ speaks
of it as a kingdom prepared for these. He's the King in that
kingdom. So they had to be His people
in order to receive it. In verse 35. And then He gives
this commendation to them. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the judge, who doesn't lie, who doesn't speak in hyperbole, who
doesn't exaggerate the truth. He speaks according to truth,
and he says, I was hungry, and you gave me meat. I was thirsty,
you gave me drink. I was a stranger, you took me
in naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me.
I was in prison, and you came to me. And then the righteous
shall answer, Lord, when saw we thee hungry? and thirsty and
all these things. When did we do any of this? And
the Lord says, if you've done it to the least of these, my
brethren, you've done it to me. Now, I think about this because
the fact of the matter is, is the sheep, sheep are humble people. The sheep recognize themselves
to be sinners saved by grace. They recognize the fact that
if there's any good that the Lord has done, it's His grace
that has worked that good out of their lives. And so they can
take no credit for anything. They can't take credit. Their
being there and being called sheep, they can't take credit
for that. God chose them before the world began. They can't take
credit for the kingdom they're about to receive. It's so disproportionately
vast in His treasure. Who could even think of earning
that? And they certainly can't take
credit for all the grace that was given them to do these things
the Lord Jesus Christ here points out. Why did they do them? People are concerned about the
exterior things. But God is concerned about the
interiors. I was watching them build a building
out near where we live. And they've been working on it
for weeks now. And there's still no building
there. Because it's all in the foundation and underneath the
ground that they're doing all this work. The electrical and
the plumbing and the drainage and the foundation. It's all
got to be put in place. It takes a long time. It's that
interior work. When God's sheep do something,
they do it from the heart. That's grace. No one can produce
that in us. Our heart, by nature, is desperately
wicked, deceitful above all things. Who can know it? Out of the heart
of man proceeds evil thoughts. That's what we are naturally.
But the Lord has given us something. What has He given us? He's come
to us in the gospel. He's preached the Lord Jesus
Christ to us as all of our hope, all of our sin bearing, all of
our righteousness. All of our standing before God,
He's everything for His people. And sinners, saved by His grace,
like the woman in Luke chapter 7, fall down at His feet, pouring
out their tears, pouring over Him all that they have, that
He might be glorified, that the fragrance of that ointment on
Him might be made known, so that He might be made known to sinners.
We want Christ, in His saving grace, to be made known to sinners
like we are. We think, the Lord saved me.
Why? For His own purpose. For His
own glory. In spite of my sin. By His own
work. He did it. He did it. That's
all I can say. The Lord is good. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. So the sheep are like that. That's
their attitude in life. And God says, the Lord Jesus
says, you saw me hungry and you fed me. You saw me thirsty and
you gave me drink. I was naked, and you clothed
me, sick, and you visited me, and in prison, and you came to
me. But when? When, Lord? Look at John chapter
6. John chapter 6 and verse 35. Jesus said to them, I am the
bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." What
is the food? What is the drink that we give
to the thirsty and the hungry? Is it not the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified for sinners to the glory of God and their
eternal salvation? Isn't that the only thing we
have? We have this treasure, Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 4, in earthen vessels. that the excellency
of the power might be of God and not of us. We're not sufficient
for these things. Our sufficiency is of God. We're
servants. We don't preach ourselves. We
preach the Lord Jesus Christ and ourselves, your servants,
for Jesus' sake. Remember Abigail in 1 Samuel
25, 41? Let me be a servant to wash the feet of the servants
of my Lord. There's nothing we want more
than to give the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to a hungry,
thirsty, naked, imprisoned, captive stranger to the truth of God. Give the gospel to them. That's
what we want, isn't it? There's nothing that rejoices
the heart of God's people more than when they're able to take
what God has given them and to speak about it or to do something
for God's sheep Because of what the Lord has done for them. Just
to do something. Remember Dorcas in the book of
Acts? She just took care of... I can't
remember which book it was in right now. But she just did things
for the saints. She was just constantly making
things for them. Because she had a heart of service.
Because these were the Lord's people. If the angels of glory
were created and assigned this task to be servants to those
who shall be heirs of salvation, Hebrews 1.14, how much more? We who were sinners, saved by
grace, are to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 John 3.16 We ought to lay down our lives
for the brethren. Let me read that. 1 John 3.16.
I'm not quoting it right. 1 John 3.16 says this. He says, Hereby perceive we the
love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. There's the recipe.
God, in His Son, has given Himself for us. Given Himself to us. And now we've received everything.
We have everything in Christ. We don't do anything to obtain
from God, because He's given it all to us freely, out of His
grace. But what we do, we do that men
might know the goodness and the greatness and the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We're saved to the praise of
the glory of His grace. And so that's what we do. We
take as beggars, we tell other hungry, thirsty, naked, strange,
imprisoned beggars about the food of our Lord Jesus Christ. And who are these that are imprisoned?
The captives. Remember in Luke chapter 4, the
Lord Jesus Christ was sent to preach deliverance to the captives.
to set the captives free. We were redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ, redeemed from sin, and from Satan, and from
the curse of the law, from the bondage of the law, from death,
the grave, and hell, from all things that are sin, brought
upon us, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. And so we tell
sinners that. There's freedom. Where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. And the Spirit of the Lord does
nothing but preach Christ and Him crucified. And so the righteous
say, Lord, when did we do this? He said, if you've done it unto
the least. That sinner who seems the least
likely. to be the object of God's saving
grace. You took the gospel to that sinner. That was me. How could it be
you, Lord? Because if you've done it to
one of the least of these, you've done it to me. He that toucheth
you toucheth the apple of my eye. Zechariah 2, I think, verse
8. The Lord's people are one with
Him. He's the head, they're the body. He's the husband, they're the
bride. He's the foundation, they're
the stones in the temple. They're the temple, He's the
God who dwells in the temple. They're one with Him. One with
Him by divine election. One with Him as their federal
head in the last Adam, who stood for them, and sacrificed Himself
for them, and in His obedience gave all for them. One with Him. And He loves them. And if anything
is taught from this scripture, it teaches us this, the sheep
are the most precious thing to Christ in all the universe. that
the Lord Jesus Christ would give himself for them, and these angels
would be ministers to them, and he would reward his saints for
the grace given to them, that they would take what God had
entrusted to them and give it to those who were his sheep.
They gave it to them. When we fellowship one with another,
look at Hebrews chapter 10. When we fellowship with one another,
when we speak of the things the Lord has done for us, and we
hold them precious, and set them before one another in our conversation,
in our attitude, in all that we do, when we bear one another's
burdens, what do we do? We fulfill the law of Christ.
Hebrews chapter 10. He says, In verse 19, "...having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath
consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh,
And having in high priest over the house of God, let us draw
near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed
with pure water, sprinkled with the blood of Christ. The gospel
is the water that, mixed with the blood and sprinkled by God's
Spirit onto our conscience, so that we receive from God Himself
a testimony in our conscience that the blood of Christ is sufficient
to satisfy God and to cleanse us from all our sins, let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering." Why?
Because we're strong? No. Because He is faithful, that
promised. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching."
As the day approaches, what are we doing? We're meeting together,
exhorting one another, telling one another, again, the wonderful
things of our Savior, who is Himself wonderful. Look at Ephesians
chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, he says
the same thing. He says, wherefore, in verse
8, when he ascended up on high, after he had conquered death
and all of our enemies, he led captivity captive and gave gifts
to men. Now, that he ascended, what is
it, but that he also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth. He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill
all things. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ." The ministry, whenever
you see the word ministry, think of someone who takes food and
serves others. Or like the example of the word
deacon means like someone who's in the bottom of the boat rowing
on the oars. That's what a service is. God
is serving His people. He's perfecting the saints for
the work of the ministry. Serving God's people, the Lord's
sheep. For they had to find the body
of Christ. It's His body. He's one with them. If you've
done it to me, one of the members of my body, you've done it to
me. until we all come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge
of the Son of God, into a perfect man, one church, one body, unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that henceforth
that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and
carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of
men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
We need to hear the gospel so that we're not deceived by these
things. But doing what? Speaking the truth. What's the
truth? It's the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ speaking the truth in love. We may grow up unto Him,
into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. You
see that? That's what I believe. that Matthew 25 is speaking of.
The sheep didn't know that when they were speaking to poor, wretched
sinners, as poor, wretched sinners, saved by the grace of God, that
they were actually feeding the hungry and the thirsty and clothing
them with the righteousness of Christ. Because the Lord does
that work in them. And we do it with gladness in
our heart, don't we? You can't hardly suppress it.
It's like a wine bottle. It's about to burst. You just
want to share the wonderful things God has done for you by Christ.
He saved me when I didn't even know what salvation was. I didn't
even know I needed a Savior. He saved my guy's grace. He told
me that He's my all. God looks to Him and Him only.
And that's all my salvation. They didn't know it. Didn't know
it was you, Lord. Remember what Hebrews 13 says?
He says, I'll read it to you. Hebrews 13, 1, he says, "...let
brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
And then he goes on and talks about other things. You don't
know. When we declare the gospel, when
we fellowship with one another, this is the Lord's work. This is what He has us to do.
To pray for one another, bear one another's burdens, encourage
one another, exhort one another, as long as you see, while you
see the day approaching. But here, back in Matthew 25,
He says in verse 41, Then shall He say also to them on the left
hand, Depart from Me, you cursed. into everlasting fire prepared
for the devil and his angels?" God prepared hell for the devil
and his angels. Men, by their will and their
disobedience, make themselves worthy of hell. 42, for I was
unhungered, you gave me no meat. You see, those who are not the
Lord's sheep, they don't have any hunger. They don't have any
thirst. So when they come to a hungry
person, they don't recognize hunger and thirst and they have
nothing to give. So how could they actually give
them? There's all kinds of charitable organizations running around
the world feeding the hungry. And clothing, hospitals and things
like that. Does that make them the Lord's
sheep? No. Because what the Lord has
to do with here is giving to the glory of Christ for the salvation
of His people. The only bread and water that
we have. The bread and water and wine
of the gospel. In fact, look over at Matthew
26. I'm looking at the same page in my Bible. Look at Matthew
26 verse 26. As they were eating, Jesus took
bread. and blessed it and break it and
he gave it to the disciples and said take eat this is my body
and he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying
drink ye all of it this is my blood of the New Testament which
is shed for many for the remission of sins we take the things of
Christ and declare them this is his body his blood eat drink
live And so these goats had nothing to give. They didn't recognize
thirst and hunger when they saw it. And they had no interest
in the eternal things of Christ. And so he says, when you saw
one of my poor, wretched sheep lost, He just passed by. Just like the priest and the
Levite and the Samaritan in the story of the Samaritan. When
the man who had gone to Jericho was beaten and all of his clothes
ripped off and wounded and everything. The good Samaritan, the priest
and the high priest, they just passed by. Nothing to give. We can only give the Lord Jesus
Christ and we can only give Him when the Lord has given Himself
to us. And so these answer, and they say, Lord, when did we see
any of these things? Of course they didn't. And He
says, you didn't do it to the least of these, my brethren,
now go away. You evidenced by what you didn't
do that you were not the Lord's sheep. Whereas the sheep, by
what they did, the Lord Himself keeps an account of what's done
to His people. And He's going to use that and
His judgment to show those who are His. He's going to do it. So we naturally think in our
legal minds, well I need to get out and do some things in order
so that I might be in that accounting. That's entirely thinking wrong.
If we get nothing from this scripture, understand this. When we stand
in judgment, the king knows the sheep. The king has already answered
for the sheep before his father with his own blood. I lay my
life down for the sheep. Why did he lay his life down?
Because the Father commanded him. But why did the Father command
him? Because justice had to be satisfied
in order for God's love and grace to be shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost. God is holy. He will do nothing
but what is holy. He only saves in a holy manner. He only saves for His holiness.
If it's not holy, God won't do it. God saves sinners in a holy
way. in a holy salvation and a righteous
way. And the Lord Jesus Christ had
to lay His life down for His sheep that He might make us holy
to God. By one offering He has perfected
forever. He has sanctified them by His
one offering of Himself. And so He did this. And so we
must understand that when we stand here before the King, who
is the judge Our only answer, our only plea, is that He answers
for us. We don't have an answer, do we?
Do we have the wisdom to answer God in judgment? Not at all. Do we have the righteousness?
No. How about the holiness? Are we
able to redeem ourselves? No. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who God has made into us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. You see? That's how we're saved. That's how we're made holy. That's
how we have a Savior. Of God. And how do we know? Well, the Gospel is declared
to us. That's the way we know. We're
sinners. The Gospel says so. And then He tells us about our
Savior. He says, look unto Me and be ye saved. All the ends
of the earth. One more scripture. Look at Isaiah
chapter 45. And I'll let you go. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't think you're going to be
able to produce these things. Don't go out and build a hospital.
Don't go out and start an orphanage. Don't go out and start a charitable
organization in order to put yourselves in and among the sheep
here. Isaiah 45. Look to Christ. And as a hungry sinner, as a
naked sinner, when you find yourself clothed in the righteousness
justified by the blood of Christ, you will worship God, and you
will come to Him, and you will want to declare the goodness
of your Savior. But look here in 45.21, "...tell
ye, and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together,
who has declared this from ancient time?" He's asking these idolaters
and his people. He says, go declare this. Who has declared this from ancient
time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? Ever
since the beginning, this is what God's message has been.
And there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. That's the mystery of the Gospel.
A just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. And
now listen to this command. One of the most precious verses
in all of Scripture. Look unto me. And be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn
by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth, in righteousness
and shall not return, that every unto me, every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the
Lord have I righteousness and strength? Even to him shall men
come. And all that are incensed, that
means infuriated against him, shall be ashamed. Those who despise
the Lord Jesus Christ in the day of judgment, they're going
to be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified and shall glory. That's our glory, isn't
it? That's our trust, isn't it? Isn't our only trust is that
the Lord Jesus Christ stood and now stands and answers for us?
Isn't that it? In your conscience, do you find
anything else that can satisfy, that can quiet your conscience,
than to know that all my hope is that when Christ died, God
received Him for me, and now receives me as Him? We don't
have... It's too big to be able to claim
that unless God said it. But we're sinners. And God sets,
in contrast, the depth of our horrible need in light of His
glorious grace, and He tells sinners, look to Me. These words
here in Isaiah, they're the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look
to Me. He says so in Romans chapter
14. He says in Romans 14, none of
us live to himself verse 7 none die to himself whether we live
we live to the Lord whether we die we die to the Lord whether
we live therefore or die we are the Lord for to this end Christ
both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of
the dead and the living But why dost thou judge thy brother?
Or why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, here I'm going
to quote it now, Isaiah 45, 23, As I live, saith the Lord, every
knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
That's the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then every one
of us shall give account of himself to God. My account is this, Lord, Answer from me. Let's pray.