Turn with me in your Bibles to
Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. Last week
I began preaching through this section of Scripture, beginning
at verse 31, concerning the judgment of nations. And I'm going to
continue that this morning. Obviously, this passage, one
that's familiar to most of you, if not all of you, Christ the
Judge coming in His glory the second time, His second coming,
in order to gather His people, His church, His sheep, God's
elect unto Himself. These are the ones whom He redeemed.
And then to judge the wicked. to judge all who are found without
hope. The hope. The one and only right
hope. And that is Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. We began in verse 31. This speaks
of the certainty of judgment. It's certainty of the second
coming of Christ. 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. The first time He came, I'll
tell you, when you look at it with the eye of faith from the
Word of God, it was a glorious time, the incarnation of Christ.
Turn over to Hebrews chapter 9 with me. It was a glorious
time. The coming of the Messiah into
the world, but it's nothing, it's nothing that the world certainly
would describe as glorious. And the Word of God doesn't set
it out this way. Here it speaks of it. speaks
of His first coming and His second coming. Verse 26 of Hebrews chapter
9. It says, For then must He, Christ,
often have suffered since the foundation of the world. That
speaks of the purpose and preparation of God in the everlasting covenant
of grace before time. But now once in the end of the
world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. Now the end of the world there,
that's the end of the age. Speaking of the closing of the
Old Covenant age and the beginning of the New Covenant age, that
word world there means the ages or age, this particular age. We live in the New Covenant age,
not the Old Covenant age. Men and women who try to bring
us back under the, well, you know, we say bring us back under,
we never were under the Old Covenant. That was for Israel. But we say
it that way. trying to get you under the old
covenant, that's a denial of Christ, the scripture says. Because
Christ fulfilled that covenant. And it's over, it's abolished
by way of fulfillment. And so now we live in the new
covenant age, and what marked that? Well, Christ appeared to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. His first coming,
he came to die. as a substitute and a surety
of his people to put away the sins of his sheep. And he did
that by the sacrifice of himself, by his own death. He was made
sin. He was made a curse. All of that
language speaks of him as a substitute and surety. Our iniquity, the
iniquity of his sheep was laid upon him. He became indebted
to the law for us. And then it says in verse 27,
and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this,
the judgment. Now we're talking about the judgment.
And verse 28 says, so Christ was once offered to bear the
sins of many. How many? I don't know. However
many God gave him before the foundation of the world. That's
not our business. That's why we don't count. As
far as the numbers game, God's the one who does the counting.
We read that in the book of Jeremiah a couple weeks ago, how the shepherd
passes his hand over the sheep and he counts them. That's not
our business, that's his business. But it's however many he represent,
however many for whom he died. And then, and unto them that
look for him shall he appear the second time without sin.
When he came the first time, he was bearing the sins of his
sheep and he put them away by his death. He was buried and
rose again the third day. He ascended unto the Father.
He's coming the second time without sin. That is, without burying
the sins of His sheep. Sin's put away. It's done away
with in the eyes of God's law and justice. We here on earth
still have to put up with the presence of it, the contamination
of it, the influence of it, the warfare with it. But when He
comes again, He won't be burying our sins. He already did that.
He suffered one time. By one offering, He hath perfected,
completed them forever that are sanctified. And so when He comes
again, it's not to put away sin, He's coming to gather His people
whom He redeemed. And He's going to judge the world
without sin unto salvation. Well, look back at Matthew 25.
Then, here we have in verse 32, And before Him shall be gathered
all nations, That's the nations of the world. And he shall separate
them. Here's the great and final separation
of all. He says, separate them one from
another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. Now
there is a sense in which his sheep, while here on this earth
have already been separated out, We could say we were separated
out in sovereign electing grace before the foundation of the
world, but we don't know that. And we don't know who they are
until we're separated out by the Holy Spirit under the preaching
of the gospel. And that we're separated in redeeming
grace on the cross. Again, He bore our sins. He took
our sins unto Himself. He paid our debt in full. He
accomplished righteousness for us. And then we're separated
out by the preaching of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 9 speaks
of that, where he talks about those who receive not the love
of the truth, but he says, but we're bound to give thanks all
the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification,
separation, of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
Christ. And that is a separation. But
while here on earth there will always be false professors, false
professors of Christ. There will always be sheep, true
sheep, and then there will be wolves in sheep's clothing, goats,
that's what he calls them here, He's going to separate him, he
says, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. And we
talked about that last week. These sheep are the elect of
God, chosen before the foundation of the world, whose names are
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And the Bible uses this
symbolism quite often. Christ as the great shepherd,
the good shepherd, the chief shepherd, and his church as his
sheep. That's why we love Psalm 23 so
much. The Lord is my shepherd. Shall
not want he makes me like a sheep to lie down in green pastures
all of that. It's a beautiful song and King
David he was a shepherd before he was a king wasn't he and He's
a type of Christ Christ the Good Shepherd gave his life for the
sheep. He was elevated as God man to the lordship of He always
had it as God. He didn't lose it. He's God.
He's the second person of the Trinity. But He veiled that glory
in human flesh for a while. And as God-man, He's elevated. Lord of lords. King of kings.
And Christ is here doing the work of a king. He's judge. His glory. But He first had to
do the work of a shepherd. He had to come the first time
to put away our sins. But now He's doing the work of
King. Here He is in His glory. And then His sheep are the ones
who are saved by the grace of God in Christ. Saved by grace. That's what a sheep is. His sheep
are those whom He redeemed with His precious blood. His sheep
are the ones whom He regenerates by the Holy Spirit. His sheep
make up His church. Remember when He was sitting
by the seashore with His disciples. And he looked at Peter. They'd
gone back to fishing, because they didn't know what to do after
he died. And he gathered them together.
He appeared before them. He began to teach them. And they're
sitting there on the seashore. And he says, Peter, do you love
me? Peter said, Lord, you know I love you. John 21 is where
this is. And he said, feed my lambs. He said, Peter, do you
love me? Lord, you know I love you. Feed
my sheep. And he said it again, feed my
sheep. That's what he called a sheep. Well, these goats, he
said he's gonna separate the sheep from the goats. Now, one
thing you see here is why the Bible, the gospel itself is so
offensive to the natural man. It doesn't give him any glory,
doesn't give him any dignity, doesn't give him any goodness
to claim, does it? And you know, really that's true
of both sheep and goats. Because a sheep, what is a sheep?
Well, a lost sheep is a dead sheep. That's really what a lost
sheep is. You take a sheep and put him
out on the back side of the jungle or the desert, and that sheep's
not going to survive. The only way that sheep's going
to survive is if the shepherd comes out and gets it and brings
it home. And so there's no glory or dignity
or goodness in us. If we're saved, we're saved by
grace. through faith in Christ. And it's based on His blood and
His righteousness alone. He is our dignity. You could
say it that way. I have dignity, but it's not
in me. It's Christ. He is my honor. He's precious
unto His people. He's our glory. And not ourselves. Not our experiences. I could
probably impress you with some experience I had, but it wouldn't
do you any good. But I've preached Christ to you,
that would be a lot of good if God brings you to faith in Him.
And then you see these goats. The goats are those whom God
leaves to themselves, to their own way and their own wills and
their own works. If you want to know what a goat
is, it's man in his nature, left to himself. God chose His sheep
and passed by the goats. There's no difference in them
by nature. No sheep is chosen or saved because he or she deserves
it or earns it. That's right. It's mercy. It's
grace. If God gave any of us what we
deserve or earn, that'd be eternal damnation. That stands forever.
That stands forever. You say, well, when I finally
get to heaven, then I can earn it. No, you'll sing worthy is
the lamb. That was like, that'll be your
song. That'll be your heart. Now a lot of people say, well
that's not fair to choose some and pass by others. But you know
that's not true. That is not true that it's not
fair. You remember I've told you several times in the past
few weeks, the dilemma comes into play when you make the statement
that God saves sinners or God forgives sinners. You've got
a problem there. Because you've got to deal with this question,
how can a holy and just and righteous God How can he remain holy and
righteous and just and save a sinner? He must judge according to truth.
I hear these preachers talking about the doctrine of imputation
as if it's some kind of a fiction or play-like thing. There's no
play-like or fiction with God. He judges according to truth,
however He does it. What God sees is the reality. What I see sometimes isn't. and
what you see sometimes in. But when God, it's a reality.
The Bible says, who shall lay anything to the charge? To God's
elect. Who shall impute any sin to God's
elect? It's God that justifies. Now
that's reality, folks. That's not fiction. That's not
play like. But now you look at me, you might
see something that you would judge by sight as less than a
justified person. Especially if you catch me at
the right time. or a spiritual person. But God knows the reality. So the dilemma comes is how is
God going to save a sinner, a sheep, and still be God? Well, the answer
is by his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ had to die
under the justice of God. But now let me say this. I'll
tell you why it's not fair that God choose a son. I'll tell you
why it is fair. Because God is always fair. He's
always right. Paul dealt with that in Romans
9. But if God were to damn every one of us from the first person
to the very last, there'd be no dilemma there because that
would be God only giving us what we deserve. And yet God purposed
to save a people. Now you can argue with that if
you want. But I'm not going to. I know what this book says. I'll
be honest with you. You know, if the God that I hear
preached in most pulpits today, if that God was truly God, I'd
never read this book because he's not in this book. I'd find
somewhere else to go, some other book to get. Because the God
that I hear preached from most pulpits that I hear, he's not
here. He's not here. Like Paul on Mars
Hill, we gotta preach the unknown God, don't we, to people. And I'm not just saying that
to be critical. I'm saying that because it's true. It's true. The only hope we have as sinners
for salvation is to be declared righteous at the judgment. And
the only hope that we have of being declared righteous is to
be found in Christ. There's no other hope. Paul wrote
that, that I may know Him and be found in Him, not having mine
own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. In verses 35 through 40, he gives
the identification of the sheep. But before he does that, in verse
34, he gives us the ground of it all, the ground of salvation,
the ground of mercy. And listen to how he puts it.
Look at verse 34. He says here, then shall the
king say unto them on his right hand. Now this is the foundation,
the cause, the ground of their judgment as being justified. being declared not guilty, being
righteous. The king said to them on his
right hand, that right hand is the right hand of acceptance.
Now how is a sinner accepted before God as taught in the Bible? We are accepted in Christ, in
the beloved. Not accepted any other way. Not
accepted any other way but in Christ. You remove Christ from
the equation, you have no acceptance with God. You have nothing but
separation and wrath from God. Am I right? That's right. That's the only way. So when
you speak of the right hand, you're talking about God reaching
out for his people, bringing them in, in Christ. This is the
right hand of honor. That right hand of honor, what
honor do we have but Christ? This is the right hand of fellowship. How do we have fellowship with
God? In Christ. That's what that verse in 2 Peter
1, 4 means. We become partakers of the divine
nature. We're brought into fellowship
with the very divine nature himself. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit through Christ. And then it's the right hand
of judgment and the judgment says not guilty. I think I mentioned
this last week, when they sat at the judgment table and they
brought a criminal in and the evidence was brought against
him, if they extended their right hand, that means he was exonerated.
That means he was declared not guilty. The left hand means guilty. Well, this is the right hand
of justification. How is a sinner justified before
God? Only in Christ. Justified by
his blood. justified by His righteousness
imputed and received by God-given faith. So then he says in verse
34, Come ye blessed of my Father. Now how are we blessed? Not by
our works. He didn't say, Come ye blessed
by your good works. He didn't say, Come ye blessed
by your religion. He said, Come ye blessed of my
Father. That Father there is the God of grace. That's the
God who justifies the ungodly. That's Abba Father. How does
Abba Father justify a sinner and bring a sinner into his family?
Look over at Galatians chapter four. That word Abba, you've
heard that word. It's used two times in the New
Testament. Romans eight and Galatians four
here. Look at Galatians chapter four.
And what it does, that word Abba, I think it was brother Tim James
who made the statement one time, it's kind of like saying Papa,
Papa. And it's a term that describes
a special relationship between the father and his children.
And it doesn't exist with everybody. Not everybody can call him Abba
Father. You can try, but here's how we come to a point in our
lives as sinners saved by grace where we can say Abba Father.
And listen to verse 4. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law. That verse is full of truth. God in the fullness of the time.
That's the time appointed by God before the foundation of
the world. God sent forth his son. That's the son of God. That's
the second person of the Trinity. That's God, the son, his son
by nature. You see, we who are children
of God, we're sons and daughters of God, but not by nature. We
are by election, by redemption, by regeneration, new birth. But
there's nothing divine about our nature. We're human. We might
be saved humans, regenerated spiritual humans. Our human nature
as saved humans is controlled by the Holy Spirit and we have
a new spirit and spiritual life. But there's nothing divine about
you or about me. But there is Him. He's God. He's
equal with God. Made of a woman, that's His incarnation.
That's His humanity. Made under the law, that's the
fact that all of my salvation is conditioned on Him. He became
responsible to pay my debt to the law. The law had a hold on
me and a matter against me, but Christ took all my accounts and
they were made his. That's imputation. Now why did
he do it? Verse five, to redeem them that
were under the law, to pay the price. And what was the price? His blood. You're redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. in order that we might receive
the adoption of sons. Out of that redemption price
paid, righteousness established, comes the adoption of sons, and
because you are sons, I love this, look, and not in order
to make you sons, but because you are sons, ladies, that's
just generic there, that's talking about all the children of God,
Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit comes, because you are a child of God, made so by the
blood of Christ. You see, the Spirit's work is
the fruit of what Christ did. Because you are sons, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. Crying
what? Abba, Father. There you go. Now you're blessed of the Father. You come to the Father through
the Son. No other way to come to Him. He said, I'm the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by
me. What is your right and title
to claim to be an adopted child of God? I'll tell you what your
right and title is, the blood and righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Nothing else. Don't add anything else to it.
Don't take anything away from it. If you do, you're corrupting
the simplicity that's in Christ. So go back to Matthew 25. Come
ye blessed of my Father. Outside of Christ, the only state of man described
in this Bible for a sinner outside of Christ is the word cursed. But in Christ we're blessed.
And not just with some blessings. Ephesians 1, 3, we're blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Now look at verse 34. Notice the next word. Inherit
the kingdom. Oh, inherit. What does that mean? Inheritance is a free, listen
to this. Inheritance is a free gift given
through a legal process. That's what an inheritance is.
If one of your ancestors passes away, father, mother, grandfather,
grandmother, son, and they've accumulated a great amount of
wealth, they write up a will and testament, and they bequeath
that to you. That means they give it to you. And when they die, what has to
happen? There has to be an executor of the will. And you have to
go either to court or to a lawyer, to a lawyer's office, Your will
has to be read and all that legal process has to take place based
on the death of what the Bible in Hebrews 9 calls the testator. That's a free gift that's given
to you through a legal process. That's what an inheritance is.
You didn't earn it. They may think you deserve it. But now this inheritance is one
that we don't earn and don't deserve. It was freely given
to us through a legal process. And what was that legal process?
The death of the testator, who's that Jesus Christ crucified.
He died. He earned it. He accumulated
it all. He amassed all that wealth of
spiritual glory and grace, salvation. He died on the cross, bequeathed
in the eternal electing grace, and we get the benefit of it.
That's what an inheritance is. So in other words, what I'm trying
to get you to see is before we launch into these verses about
being clothed and being fed and all that, the whole foundation,
the whole context of this, and that's the whole Bible, is grace,
grace, grace. And you know what happens? People
who don't have a heart of grace, a heart for grace, when they
get to Scriptures like verse 35, where I was hungry and you
fed me, I was naked and you clothed me. They don't know anything
about grace, so what do they do? Well, you're either earning
your place in the Kingdom of God, you're earning your salvation,
or at least you're earning your rewards, plural. Which the Bible doesn't even
use the word rewards, plural. It's reward, singular, for the
people of God. And it's the reward of grace.
Who earned it? Christ did, not you, not me. I'm not up here today preaching
you to earn my rewards. If I were, I would hope that
I'd have the good sense to sit down. I'm not doing that. That's not
what I'm doing it for. That's my nature. Sinful nature
would do that. But that's not what I'm here
with. I do get the why me syndrome sometimes. Lord, I'm up here
preaching, why you gonna let them get at me all the time?
I do that, but that's just unbelief and sin and selfishness and pride
and self-righteousness and every other evil, wicked thing you
can think of. That's all that is. I know better because God's
taught me better. But here's what he said, inherit
the kingdom. And what an inheritance it is. Paul said in Galatians 3.18,
it's an inheritance of promise. In other words, you don't earn
it. All the promises of God are in Christ, yea, and in him, amen.
In Ephesians 1.11, it talks about the Holy Spirit is the earnest
of the inheritance. He's like the down payment, the
guarantee that the inheritance is coming. In 1st Peter 1 and
verse 4, he talks about how it's an inheritance incorruptible.
Look over there and read that just a moment. 1st Peter 1. Listen
to how Peter describes it. This is something. He says in
verse 3 of 1st Peter chapter 1. Listen to this. Verse 3. 1st
Peter 1. He says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant
mercy, you see there? There's mercy, hath begotten
us again unto a lively or living hope. How? By the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. Not because of your free will
or your decision. And he says, to an inheritance
incorruptible. Boy, that's a good inheritance,
isn't it? It's incorruptible. And undefiled. It's undefiled. It's a perfect, holy, sinless
inheritance. And I'll tell you why you can
know that that's true. It's because we didn't have anything
to do with it. Because if we had anything to
do with it, it'd be defiled. We defile it. And then he says,
and that fadeth not away, can't be taken away, can't diminish,
reserved in heaven for you, literally for us. It's a reservation. You've got the confirmation number.
Here it is, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You got a reservation. And then he says, who are kept
by the power of God. That's an inheritance. All right,
go back to verse 34, Matthew 25. It's inherit the kingdom. Now notice the next word, prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. Do you notice that? It's not something you're in
preparation of right now. You're trying to prepare it now.
I hear these people say, well, Well, do as much as you can because
you're stocking up in heaven and you'll get more in heaven
than somebody who's not doing as much. No. That's not scriptural. This is prepared. As one of the
old writers said, this is not a potluck dinner. Don't bring
your own dish. This is the gospel. Everything's prepared. Who did
the preparation there? The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Prepared from the foundation of the world? How
could you prepare? You weren't even there then, were you? None
of you look that old to me. No. Well, I was there in the person
of Christ, my representative. But He did the preparation. He
did the doing. He did the dying. That's what
it's all about. His death, His burial, His resurrection,
His intercession, And it's prepared. It's grace, you see. And it's
from the foundation of the world. Now there's the ground, the foundation,
the cause of a sinner's justification before God. But, now listen,
there's also fruit and evidence of a sinner's justification before
God. A sinner's salvation. And so
look at what he says. Look at verse 35. He says, I
was hungry and you gave me meat. Now this is after verse 34. You
see, don't forget verse 34. Don't forget all that's been
said before. That's what people do, don't
they? They read verses like that and they forget what's before.
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, you clothed me. I was sick, you visited me. I
was in prison, you came unto me. Now those are works. That's what
they are. But he's not talking about works
by which sinners earn or deserve salvation or works by which sinners
earn or deserve their rewards. That's not what he's talking
about. He'd already saddled that issue. Come ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. He's not even saying that anyone who does any of these
works is a true sheep. I've heard parts of this verse
quoted in different contexts. As if, well, if anybody anywhere
at any time shows any charity towards anybody, then they're doing it unto Christ.
Remember, look here at verse 37. He says, Then shall the righteous
answer. Now, who are the righteous? Well, he just described them
up here in verse 34. They're the sheep. They're the
ones whom who are accepted by the right hand of the king, blessed
of the father, who've inherited the kingdom, prepared for them
from the foundation, they're justified, they're sinners saved
by grace. And he says, then shall the righteous
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee in hunger, and fed
thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger,
and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? 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." Well, they say, when did we ever
do these things to you? Now, I've heard some say, well,
you know, when we do these things, we don't even know we're doing
them. Well, that's crazy. And that's dishonest. Now, be
honest. If somebody's hungry and you
give them something to eat, you know you're doing it. And don't
lie about that. If somebody's naked and you give
them your coat, you know you're doing it. In fact, I'll challenge
you, try to forget it. You can't do it. But that's not
what this is about. Here these sheep are standing
before Christ at judgment. Now here's the issue. What are
you going to plead as your right and title to enter the Kingdom
of Heaven? Now, if you know your sin and
you know Christ, I'll guarantee it's not going to be the fact
that you fed a hungry person or clothed a naked person or
visited a person in the hospital or any of that. I hope you do
those things. I hope I do those things. But
that is not my right and title to enter Heaven. Compare this
verse to Matthew 7, verse 21. There will be many in the kingdom
of heaven. Not everyone that saith, Lord,
Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But they that do the
will of my Father which is in heaven, many will say unto me,
Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Haven't we cast
out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? Nothing wrong with any of those things, but that's not
my righteousness before God. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Visit the sick and the afflicted.
But that will not make you righteous before God. That will not remove
your sin. That will not pay for your sin. And you'll know you've done it.
But you'll also know that's not your righteousness before God.
Christ is. And what are they asking here?
Well, when did we ever do it to Christ? Well, He's teaching us
a grand lesson here. However you treat His children,
His saved ones, His sheep, He takes it personally. That's what
He's saying. When you gossip against His children,
you're gossiping against Him. When you slander His children,
you're slandering Him. When you shun his children, you're
shunning him. When you neglect his children,
you're neglecting him. And again, now look here, look
at verse 41. He says, then shall he say also
unto them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed in everlasting
fire, prepare for the devil and his angels. And he says, now
I was hungry and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty, you gave
me no drink. I was a stranger and you took
me not in. Naked, you clothed me not. Sick, in prison you visited
me not. Then shall they also answer him,
saying, Lord, when saw we thee in hunger, or a thirst, or a
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister
or serve unto thee? And 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. Now here's what he's talking
about. He's not saying that anyone who does these things is a true
sheep and anyone who does not these things in essence or neglects
these things at times is not a true sheep. That's not the
issue. Here's what he's talking about. He's talking about evidence
of union with Christ. He's talking about works ordained
by God not to earn salvation but because of salvation. For
by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
But we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
He is talking about works that honor Christ, exalt Christ. Done by sinners, saved by grace.
He is talking about works done out of love for Christ and His
people. Works done in connection with
our testimony and witness for Christ. Works that evidence the
genuineness of our faith in Christ. It's faith that works by love.
And these works identified these people, these sheep, with Christ
and the people of God when they're in need. And especially in these
times, listen, when some of the servants of Christ were in distress
because of their testimony of the gospel. and they lacked the
necessities of life, lost their jobs, lost their means of making
a living, had to go hungry, had to be kicked out of their homes.
These here, these sheep supplied them with food and with clothing
and with housing and especially in those times of persecution.
And they showed not only love to Christ and for his truth,
but love for the people of God and for the truth of God as they
were identified with him. These who didn't do it denied
Christ. I'll guarantee you, you will
find unbelievers who feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty,
visit the sick, very charitable people, build orphanages, but
it doesn't identify them with Christ. And let me turn you to
one more scripture here and I'll close. Look at 1 John 3. Now he said over here in verse
46, these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous unto eternal life. You see, in the situation of
the goats, what's he doing? He's exposing the deeds of men
without Christ. Look at 1 John 3 and verse 11. Well, let's go to verse 10. He
says, In this the children of God are manifest. And what he's
talking about is clinging to Christ, looking to Him forever.
and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God. What is it to do righteousness?
It's to live a life by the grace of God, looking to Christ, resting
in Christ. Neither he that loveth not his
brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another. Now look at the example he gives.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. You might say one of the least
of Christ's brethren. And wherefore slew he him? Why
did Cain kill Abel? It's because his own works were
evil and his brothers righteous. That's what Christ is talking
about in Matthew 25. Cain, when I was hungry, you didn't feed
me. When I was naked, you didn't clothe me. What was your problem,
Cain? Here it is. He saw that the testimony
of Abel condemned him. The testimony of Christ. Did
Cain clothe anybody? Feed anybody? I don't know. I'd
say he did. I'd say he did it to his own
children, his own family, maybe to others. But I'll tell you
what he did show in all of his actions that he didn't know,
believe in, or love the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the issue. Am I in Christ? He said in verse
13, marvel not my brethren if the world hates you. We know
that we've passed from death unto life because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. That's the plain and simple of
it. It's not, it's not just the works themselves, but it's works
that identify a child of God with the heavenly father in Christ.
All right.