Now in that passage that Brother
Joe just read, Matthew chapter 25, let's stay right there. His last section of Matthew 25
beginning at verse 31 going through verse 46. The title of this message
is The Judgment of Nations. The Judgment of Nations. It says here in verse 32 before
Him, before Christ shall be gathered all nations." You know, the Lord had spoken
much of His second coming, His return in His glory, as recorded
in chapters 24 and in chapter 25. For example, in chapter 25, you
have the parable of the ten virgins. You remember the parable of the
five foolish virgins and the five wise virgins? The five foolish
were those who had a profession of faith in Christ, but no true
heart grace, no true heart faith. It was just an outward profession.
They had a profession, but no true confession, as one old writer
said. And when the Lord came back,
they were found wanting. They were found lacking. And
then the wise virgins were those who were true believers. Those
who had truly been empowered by the Spirit of God to have
true faith in Christ. And then he brought out the parable
of the talents, where he entrusted the talents the things of the
grace of God. The Bible tells us to be good
stewards of His grace. And how one of the servants was
so lax that he didn't use his talents for the glory of God.
And of course, when the Lord came back, he was found wanting.
And again, you see an issue there of having a profession of faith,
but no true heart-regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. And
that seems to be a common theme there. Well here in verse 31
he begins talking about the judgment. He's talking about the judgment
that will take place at his second coming. There's some commentators
who believe that this is talking about judgment as I heard in
one message, judgment of the living Gentiles only. And the
reason he says that is because that word nations in verse 32
is a common word in the New Testament That is translated in most times
as Gentiles. But here he's speaking of the
sheep and the goats. And you know who the sheep are.
That's the sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll talk about
that in just a moment. That's all the elect of God,
true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the goats are those
who were passed over, those who never come to faith in Christ.
I know the Lord taught that his sheep are to be found among all
nations, Jew and Gentile. He spoke of the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. And then he said, other sheep
I have which are not of that Jewish fold, them also I must
bring. Why must he bring them? Because
he died for them. He said, I give my life for the sheep, not just
for the Gentile sheep, not just for the Jewish sheep. He gave
his life for all the sheep. If you want to answer the question
in the Bible of who, for whom did Christ died, it's very clear. He died for his sheep. Who are
his sheep? Well, that's what this, this
passage is, this is one of the many passages that describes
the sheep. Over in the book of Isaiah chapter
53, Isaiah is speaking of the sheep of the Lord. He said, all
we like sheep have gone astray. He said that God had laid upon
him the shepherd, Christ, the substitute, the surety, the iniquity
of us all. All who? All the sheep. And then
we read that passage there in the opening of our service today,
Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. Now is he your shepherd? Well,
if he is, the psalmist said there, I shall not want, I shall not
like anything. Here in this passage, we see
the goats like a lot, don't they? Number one, they lack righteousness.
Here in verse 40, he talks about, to these shall go away into everlasting
punishment. Who are they? The goats, the
curse. And then the righteous unto eternal life. He says, who
are the righteous? They're the sheep. How are the
sheep made righteous? Not by their works, not by their
efforts, for by grace are you saved. Through faith, that not
of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. In fact, by nature, there's no
difference between the sheep and the goats, because we all
fell in Adam, and we're all born dead in trespasses and sin. And
the only way the Bible teaches that you'll know who a sheep
is or know that you are a sheep is when the Lord says in verses
like this in John chapter 10, He said, My sheep hear My voice. Now what does that mean? It means
they'll hear the gospel. It'll be the power of God and
the salvation to them. They'll see their sinfulness
and their depravity And they'll take sides with God against themselves. Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? And they'll run to Christ for
all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all righteousness, for all
eternal life, for all final glory. They'll see that He is there
all and in all. That's the sheep. And then He
calls them righteous. They're righteous in Christ.
We have no righteousness but Christ? Now that's so. Don't fool yourself on that issue.
Don't imagine yourself to be more than what you are. What
more could we be as we stand before God in Christ? We're complete
in Him, the scripture says. But you know, men and women have
always tried to seek righteousness and holiness within themselves.
That just isn't there. Now I know when God the Holy
Spirit brings his sovereign power into the life of a sheep, one
of God's elect, there's a great change within. Oh, I tell you,
it's a change that we really can't hardly describe. We're
born again by the Spirit. Regenerated it is a the Bible
kind of puts it in these terms. It's a resurrection from the
dead Born dead in trespasses when the Holy Spirit gives us
life. We're resurrected from the dead
we have ears and we didn't have before and I can boy I can identify
with that. I used to when I first started
here in the gospel. I Didn't hear it with a spiritual
ear. I can guarantee you that I heard it with a rebellious
ear That's right, with an ungodly ear. What I heard I didn't like,
didn't want, wanted to get out as soon as I could get out. Couldn't
get out soon enough. And then it changed. I didn't
change it. I couldn't change it. No man
can come to me, Christ said, except the Father which has sent
me. Draw him, I was drawn. by the power of the spirit. And
he gave me new ears. Ears I didn't have before. And
then I heard it differently. I heard something. It started
out this way with me. I said, you know, I need to hear
more of that. I didn't even know why, but I needed to hear more. And then I couldn't get enough
of it. And that's why the sheep are those who feed on the green
pastures. And that's what it's about. In
this passage, and I tell you what, first of all, let me say
that it would do you a lot of good to study this passage. It
would do me a lot of good too. And I'm certainly not going to
get through all of it here, but I want to give you kind of an
overview of it. Look at verse 31. Here's the
certainty of Christ's coming. When, not if, but when the Son
of Man shall come in His glory. This is Christ's second coming.
This is when He comes in glory. to gather his people unto himself
and to judge the nations. He's coming again. We don't know
exactly the time of his second coming, but we know he is coming
again. We're to live in expectation of it. We're to live our lives
just like he'll come before I get through. That's how we're to
live our lives. I don't know if he's going to
come before I get through. I don't know if he's going to
come tonight, tomorrow, whenever. Maybe a hundred years from now.
A hundred years is nothing to God. One day is a thousand years
and a thousand years is a day to God. He's eternal. He's timeless. He's infinite. I can't get a
hold of that one because I know nothing but time. That's why
I wear a watch. That's why I got a clock up there.
That's why you're all praying that I'm aware of the time. That's
what we are. Everything we do is subject to
time. But God's not. So, you know,
I don't know if He's coming back today, but I know He's coming
back and I know that as a justified sinner, that's what I am. And if you're in Christ, that's
what you are. You're a sinner saved by grace, justified by
God in Christ, washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness.
standing perfect before God in Christ. And that's appropriate
to the judgment now, isn't it? Remember 1 John 4, 17, that we
can have boldness in the day of judgment. Herein is our love
made perfect because we can have boldness in the day of judgment
because as He is, so are we in this world. How in the world
could we make a statement like that without embarrassment unless
it was referring to our standing in Christ based on His righteousness
imputed to us? I am as He is. I know this. I know my love for you and for
God doesn't even come close to His love for you and for God,
for His people and for God. It doesn't even come close. Oh
my soul, would you compare your love to me and to your brethren
and to God, to Christ's love? Would you do that? Can you say,
as He is, so am I in this world, in that way? You know, there
are folks who think they can. But that's nothing but self-righteousness.
That's all it is in pride. I'm not even on the scale with
Him. And one proof of that is I have
to struggle so much in these areas of love. I wrote an article
in the Bulletin about that. A couple of weeks ago I was reminded
of a preacher who publicly stood in his pulpit and slandered me.
Called me a false preacher. And my immediate reaction to
those things is not to love him. Does that disappoint you? Well,
I'm sorry. But it's not. Now listen, it
should be. It really should be, but it's
not. My immediate reaction is to wring his neck. And that's
sin. Now aren't you glad that Christ's
reaction to our being His enemy wasn't to wring our necks? Perfect. You mean to tell me that I'm
going to try to stand up here before you and lie and tell you
that my love is like His love? where it doesn't even compare.
And yet I can have boldness in the day of judgment. How can
that be? Because I stand in Him who is my righteousness and my
holiness. We studied this morning, Sunday
school. He's my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption. My sins were laid upon Him. And
the debt that I owe to God's law and justice was paid in full
by Him. And I can say it without embarrassment,
as He is, so am I right now. Not in my character and conduct.
Sad to say. But in His character and conduct. In His righteousness. So He's
coming in glory. And I don't know when, but He's
coming. He says He's coming here in verse 31 with all His holy
angels with Him. That's the heavenly host. The
Apostle Paul gives us more information, you can read about that in 1
Thessalonians 4, where he talks about how the dead in Christ,
those who are asleep in the Lord, those whose spirits are with
the Lord now, that they'll be coming with him. And then, then
those who are left alive on earth will be caught up with him. That's
what people commonly refer to as the rapture, because that's
what that word means. And I know there's a lot of myth
and a lot of speculation revolving around the term and all that.
I'm not going to get into all that. You don't have to be astute
on a lot of these issues that people are harping about and
writing books about and separating over. That's not the issue with
the judgment. Here's the issue with the judgment
for me and you. Do we have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice? I heard a preacher say one time,
he said, when I get to the judgment, I don't want justice. I want
mercy. Well, my friend, I'm sorry. Because
when you get to the judgment, it'll be justice. Now you mark
it down. God's not going to deny, forget,
or pervert his justice. That's right. Well, how is justice
gonna declare me righteous? I'll tell you how, in Christ.
And you know what that is? That's mercy. Now, put that together. Why do you think the Bible, what
is it, Psalm 89? Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. They're together, you see, they're
not opposites. In Christ, justice and mercy
have come together. Because we have a substitute,
we have a surety, we have a righteousness in Christ. So, all of this is
the certainty of His second coming. It's in His glory. He shall sit
upon the throne of His glory. Turn to John chapter 5. That's
the throne of His judgment. His judgment. Look at John 5
and verse 17. And I'm just going to go as far
as I can go as time allows and I'll pick up next week on this.
But I tell you now, this is worth studying, isn't it? These are things, you know, there's
some people getting ready to meet the Lord. And that right
soon. Maybe some of us young people.
I said us young people. Maybe some of us younger people. How are we going to meet the
Lord? Now, that's the issue. Now, look here at verse 17. Now,
listen to how this is put. He says, But Jesus answered them,
My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Now, you know what he's
talking about. He had just healed an impotent man on the Sabbath. And these self-righteous, unbelieving
Pharisees were so offended that he would do such a work on the
Sabbath. You're not supposed to work on the Sabbath. Is that
what you're concerned with today? Well, Christ is our Sabbath,
folks. That's another several messages, isn't it? But here,
they were so concerned that the healing of the infinite, I didn't
mean anything to them. You broke our Sabbath. Well, and I keep
referring to preachers I've heard. I heard another man preaching
from that passage said that Christ was God and he had the right
to break his own law. No, no, no, no, no. No, no. You cannot break the law. God
cannot break His own law. Christ did not break the law
of the Sabbath. What happened here, you see, man takes the
things of God and he perverts them. And that's what the Pharisees
had done to the Sabbath. They had turned that Sabbath,
which was made for man, the scripture says, not man for the Sabbath,
it was supposed to be a good time of rest for those people
in that day under the old covenant. But they had taken it and turned
it into a legal burden system of work salvation. And they had
all kinds of traditions that rose up around it. That's the
way we do. God doesn't stop us. And so they
accused him of breaking the Sabbath. And of course, the penalty of
that under the old covenant was death. But he hadn't broken the
Sabbath. If you go back and read the law of the Sabbath under
the old covenant, you'll find two things. The Sabbath, the
law of the Sabbath never, never forbade acts of necessity or
acts of mercy. And what an act of mercy to heal
an impotent man. Christ didn't break the sack.
Christ kept the law perfectly. He is the impeccable Christ.
You know what that word means? It means he cannot sin. He was
incapable of sinning. He had a human nature, but it
wasn't a fallen, depraved nature like we got through Adam. But verse 17 says, but Jesus
answered them, my father worketh hitherto and I work. Therefore
the Jews sought the more to kill him because he not only had broken
the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father making himself
equal with God. Now we say God is our father,
but we say it in a different way than our Lord said it. He
is our father, we who are saved now, we who are his sheep, he's
our father by electing grace, by redemptive grace, by regenerating
grace, adoption. But what he said was he and his
father were equal. God was his father by nature. He's the son of God by nature. He is God in human flesh. And they understood what he was
saying. I had professors in seminary who didn't understand what he
was saying, because I had one who told me that Jesus of Nazareth
never claimed to be God. Well, the Pharisees, they heard
him. At seminary, THD didn't hear him. But they did. And he said, you're
making yourself equal with God. You see, if I were to make myself
equal with God, you know what the Scripture calls it? It's
blasphemy, obviously, but the word that the Scripture uses
for that is robbery. Philippians chapter 2. When it
talks about Christ, he thought it not robbery to make himself
equal with God. Why wasn't it robbery for him?
He wasn't stealing God's glory to make himself equal with God
because he is equal with God. He is God. Now for me or you
to do that would be robbery. You see that's why we have a
human nature. We don't have a divine nature.
Now you don't. You have a new life from God,
a new heart. But you don't have a divine nature.
There's nothing about you by nature that's divine. That's
robbery. I'm telling you. You think about
what I'm saying. We're sinners saved by grace.
We're human beings. We're not little gods. We're
not little divinities. There's no such thing. But he
was, he is God. And he says in verse 19, then
answered Jesus and said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto
you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the
father do, for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the
son likewise. Now what he's talking about is
two things. His equality with the father
by nature, and his subordination to the father in his person as
the redeemer. He submitted Himself to the will
of the Father. The will of the Son and the will
of the Father are the same thing. There is no difference. But He
submitted Himself under the will of the Father. Why did He do
that? For our salvation. For our redemption. He became
a servant, you see. He had to be a servant. In order
to redeem His sheep, He had to serve. And how did he serve? Well, as a substitute, as a sin
bearer, a sin offering, a sacrifice. Listen, Galatians 4.4, but when
the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son made of
a woman, that's his condescension in the flesh, human flesh without
sin, God in human flesh. And then what's the next phrase?
Made what? Under the law. You see, the reason
we need redemption is because we're lawbreakers. We're sinners. And the one who redeems us must
come under the law as our surety, our substitute. And he has to
serve in that way. Isaiah 53 is Christ the suffering
servant of Jehovah. He's called the servant of Jehovah
in prophecy all over the place. He had to serve. And that's a
mind-boggling thing, isn't it? God, the Son, serving. And He made Himself of no reputation. That's what He's talking about
here. Verse 20, He says, For the Father loveth the Son, and
showeth Him all things that Himself doeth. And He will show Him greater
works than these that you may marvel. Now, He just healed an
infinite man. That's a great work, isn't it?
But he's going to show you greater works. And you know what I think
he's talking about there? I think he's talking about his work on
the cross. That's a greater work. That's
the greatest of all works. In that work, you see every attribute
of Almighty God honored. How God can be just and justify
the ungodly. Now he says in verse 21, for
as the Father raiseth Raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them,
even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." That's regeneration
and conversion. Wow, that's a great work, isn't
it? That's a greater work than healing an impotent man. Just like blind Bartimaeus, he
gave blind Bartimaeus sight. But the greatest work that he
did for blind Bartimaeus was the forgiveness of his sins,
giving him spiritual sight. to see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. That's a greater work. The parting
of the Red Sea, what a great work. But I'll tell you a greater
work is the shedding of the Red Sea of the blood of the Son of
God incarnate on Calvary. That's a greater work, isn't
it? And then he says, He says in verse 22, He says, For the
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son. Now that's what we're talking about in Matthew 25 there. Coming
in His glory. It says over there that He's
going to be seated upon the throne of His glory. This is all judgment
committed unto Him. He earned that right. How did
He do it? By obeying the law unto death. By redeeming His
sheep. And He says, now listen to this. Now you want to know
the issue of judgment? Here it is. Verse 23. That all
men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He
that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which is sinning. Verily, I say unto you, he that
heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life. There is the issue. Honoring
the Son is the issue. honoring Christ, now and at judgment. How do I stand before holy God
when I in myself deserve nothing but damnation? How do I stand
before God? I must stand in Christ honoring
the Son. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's it. That's the issue.
And I'll tell you something, that's the only thing that's
going to impress God. Now I know, now there's more on the judgment
there in John 5, but I'm going to come back to that in another
message. But go back to Matthew 25 now. Now let me just give
you some things to think about, and then I'm going to come back
and go into more detail on this passage, okay? Now it says in
verse 32, now here he is on his judgment seat, in his glory,
he's coming back to gather his people unto himself. And he's
going to judge the nations. He's going to judge the world
in righteousness. It says, before him shall be
gathered all nations. I believe that's talking about
everybody. And incidentally, this is no secret second coming
now. This is the Lord coming. And
it says, he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd
divided his sheep from the goats. And he'll set the sheep on his
right hand, but the goats on his left. Now there's the great
and final separation of all things. Christ will gather before him
all nations. Remember over in Matthew chapter
24, I think it's in verse 14, he's talking about before the
end comes the gospel must be preached in all the world for
a witness unto all nations. Same word. And then shall the
end come. Well here it is. That's the beginning
of the new covenant age right there. what he's talking about.
He said that nation shall rise up against nation. Well, there's
nothing new about that. Nation has always arisen against
nation. What he's saying there is that in the time of the end,
that the world will go on like it always has. It's always going
to be a mess. This fallen, sinful world will
always be a mess. There will always be wars, pestilence,
rumors of wars, all of that. Just like in the days of Noah.
It's not going to change. And some people say, well, it's
gotten worse. Well, yeah, we're living in it. Well, it's gotten
worse. And that's just the way it is.
This is a fallen, sinful world. We can improve technology and
make it a little more convenient, but we cannot change the heart
of men and women. Only God can do that. And then
he says that they'll come against the people of God, these nations,
But he said, but the gospel is going to be preached in all the
world, unto all nations, and then the end comes. Now that's
the beginning of the gospel age. That's already started. That
began back at Pentecost. Because there were Jews and Gentiles
gathered there, and then the gospel was shot out, catapulted
out into the Gentile world. And over the years, the gospel
is being and has been preached all over the world. Though in
small groups, small doses, but it's been all over. And that's
what's happening here. So here, over in Matthew 25,
this is the end of the gospel age. This is when Christ comes
again. Now the gospel's being preached to all nations. And
here he comes back to judge the nations. And most agree, as I
said, this is describing the judgment. Christ is judged. He'll
separate his people from the rest, and he'll declare before
the whole universe his glory and the salvation of his church.
And they're called his sheep here. He says he'll separate
the nations. And he'll separate them one from
another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. I was listening to a man preach
on this message a couple of weeks ago, or this passage a couple
of weeks ago, and he said, well, he said, I don't really believe
there are any goats. I believe everybody's his sheep. And I
thought, are you reading the same Bible I'm reading? I mean, that doesn't even make
sense to an ignorant man. But no, there's sheep and there
are goats. Right here they are. He says it. And then he talks
about it. All people are not his sheep.
He said in John 10, my sheep hear my voice. We will go into
more detail on that later on too. My sheep hear my voice. They follow me, he said. What
is a sheep? A sheep is one who has been chosen
and redeemed by the shepherd and in time that sheep hears
the voice of the shepherd and he follows the sheep and he is
kept by the shepherd. Remember he said they shall never
perish. The sheep here are those who
shall never perish, John chapter 10. The goats are perishing here,
you see, under damnation. And what is the standard of this
judgment? Well, the Bible teaches the standard
of judgment is the righteousness of God. Acts 17.31. coming a day when the Lord will
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
in that he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead." Christ is the standard. That's what
that says. He's the judge and he's the standard.
So there are two groups here. Now, the right hand here, verse
33, is the right hand of honor and acceptance and of of being
declared not guilty. You know, when they had courts
back then, it was said that when the judgment was made, if the
judge extended his right hand, that means that the man or woman
was not guilty and they could go free. If the left hand was
extended, they were condemned. They were guilty. So here on
the right hand, that's the right hand of power. It's the right
hand of grace. It's the right hand of acceptance
in Christ. It's the right hand of justice.
Declaring that person not guilty. Why? Because of the shepherd. He's going to divide him as a
shepherd divides his sheep. The shepherd laid down his life
for the sheep. And the left hand is the hand of dishonor. It's
the hand of condemnation. It's the hand of rejection. That's
what he's saying. And then he says in verse 34,
then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come
ye blessed of my father. Now, where'd the blessing come
from? Came from the father, didn't come from the sheep. He didn't
say here, come ye who have done so well in life that you're blessed.
No, he said, come ye blessed of the father. That's grace. The blessing is those who are
blessed of God with eternal salvation in the Bible are the recipients
of God's grace in Christ. They didn't work for it or earn
it or deserve it. That's what a blessing is. And
how do you know that? Well, he says, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. This is the eternal
realm of salvation before the foundation of the world. God
chose them in Christ and sent Christ to die the death of a
testator. Remember Hebrews chapter nine.
So that we'll receive an inheritance. Now you don't earn an inheritance.
You don't work for an inheritance. How do you get it? You're born
into it. Somebody else earns it, works for it, and dies and
gives it to you. That's an inheritance. That's
a legal transaction. Peter said it's an inheritance
incorruptible. and it cannot be taken away.
So it's an inheritance. And notice it's a kingdom prepared
for you. It's not a kingdom you prepare.
It's not a kingdom you build. It's a kingdom somebody else
prepared and built for you. Christ did it. It's prepared
from the foundation of the world. These sheep are those whose names
are written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation
of the world. And this kingdom was a preparation. This great
supper, you might say, as one old writer said, is not a potluck
dinner. Don't bring your own dish. Don't
bring your own righteousness. Don't bring your own works. They're
not needed. They're not wanted. It's already
prepared. The table's prepared. It's spread
forth. Christ did it. He did all the
work. He did all the suffering, all
the bleeding, all the dying. All the righteousness is His.
And his sheep will come into the table. Now, the controversial
passages in this, and I'm not going to get into this big time
today, but I'm going to come back later to these next verses,
where it talks about the works of believers. He says in verse
35, I was hungry 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 unto me. And then shall
the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry,
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 these 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've done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, you've done it unto me. Now you know that people
take verses like that and they preach salvation or at least
rewards by works. That's not what it's teaching.
Mark it down somewhere where you can read this, where it can
remind you. What he's talking about in those
verses is evidence of our union with Christ. Not the cause of
salvation, not the ground of salvation, not what works do
for you, earn for you, or merit for you. He's talking about the
fruit of salvation. The work of God, remember, for
by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. What's the next
word? Unto good works. Not because of. But there's more
to it than that about these works. It's not just the works themselves.
It's works that evidence faith in Christ. It's works that evidence
union with Christ. And I'm going to show you that
when we get to that. And then he says in verse 41, then shall
he say unto them on the left hand, depart from me you cursed
in the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
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 in. naked and you clothed me, sick and in prison, and you
visited me not. Then shall they also answer him,
saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or a thirst, or a
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister
unto thee? And then shall he answer them,
saying, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it not unto
one of these, the least of these," they're talking about his brethren,
you did it not to me. Now I've heard preachers go to
that passage and now say, you see there, If you're not a born
again Christian, you can't visit the sick and you can't feed the
hungry and all. Now do you believe that? Now
let me tell you something. I know a lot of unbelievers who
do a lot of feeding of the hungry and clothing the naked and visiting
the sick. I know a Hindu. You couldn't
keep him out of the hospitals in Louisville, Kentucky from
visiting people. He wasn't a Christian. He visited everybody. And I've heard people say, well,
if you're not born again, you just don't do these things. You're
too self-centered. Now listen to me. There are people, and
all of us by nature are self-centered. Don't get me wrong. I know that.
I know our sinfulness. But I know unbelievers who are
charitable, kind, generous people. What's he talking about there?
He's talking about these issues that evidence lack of faith in
Christ. No union with Christ. You see? And that's the issue here. Now,
we'll go into that more. But here's the issue of judgment.
Do I honor the Son? Am I in Christ? Am I found in
Him, whom to know is life eternal? All right.