In these 16 verses, every word
is spoken from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and
records the certainty of His return to this earth to make
a great separation. A separation between God's elect
people, called sheep, and the rest of fallen humanity called
goats. So that's my message today, sheep
and goats. When he comes in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, time will be no more. He's not coming to plead with
men. He's not coming to negotiate
with men. He's not coming to debate with
anyone. He's coming to make a great separation. And every man, woman, boy, and
girl who's ever lived or shall live till He comes will have
part in this great separation. Christ likens Himself in verse
32 to a shepherd. who knows his sheep and will
make no mistake. He has the ability, he is well
qualified, and he alone is qualified to make this great separation. I don't know who is and who is
not the Lord's people. I know who is and who is not
religious, and so do you. He's going to make this great
separation on another basis. Sheep and goats. In verse 31,
He refers to Himself as the Son of Man. Christ has forever been God the
Son. Deity. But He was made flesh. conceived of the Holy Ghost in
a virgin's womb, and as the Son of God, being
made flesh, born of a woman, He became Son of Man. He's not the Son of Man. This
is one of His favorite titles for Himself in the Gospels. He's
not the Son of Man in the sense that He had an earthly father.
Not in that sense. He's the son of man in the sense
that he took upon him a body of flesh and became a man. And he, in that body of flesh,
walking this earth, was exposed to all that any of us are exposed
to, with the exception that he knew no sin. He experienced the
pain. the suffering, the shame. He experienced everything that
you experience in life. He experienced the wages of sin,
which is death, even though He was no sinner. 2 Corinthians
5, verse 21, He was made a sin for us. Then having lived, died, risen
from the grave, He ascended back into the glory from whence He
came and forever dwelt. And yet He rose and ascended
back in a greater glory. His essential glory as God the
Son was always His. But in His ascension, He is highly
exalted, given a name which is above every name, His is now
a mediatorial glory. Having walked where we walk and
conquered death, hell, and the grave, He is well qualified to
make the great separation when He comes. He will return, verse
31 said, in His glory. But not only has He the ability
to make this great separation, He has the authority. All judgment is given unto Him,
unto Christ. Matthew 28, 18, He said after
the resurrection, just before He ascended, all power, meaning
authority, is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. He's not coming back as the lowly
Nazarene to walk the shores of Galilee in His sandals and to walk the streets of Jerusalem
a peasant as nobody. He's coming as the King. Verse
34, then shall the King say, He's coming as the Lord. Verse
37, Lord, When saw we Thee, and hungry?" He's the Son of Man, He's the
King, He's the Lord. He's coming with authority. He's
coming, again in verse 31, in His glory. A glory that's rightfully
His. And shall sit upon the throne
of His glory. Contrary to much popular teaching
today, He does not need to sit bodily upon a material throne over in Jerusalem. Notice it's not a throne of gold
or of marble. It's a throne of glory. That's
His throne. He's coming in the awesome glory
that belongs only to Him. And He'll sit there and rule
there. Men have dramatized this throne into a place, but it's
position, it's power. He's one with the ability, the
authority, the awesome wisdom to make this great separation. Christ the Shepherd refers to
God's elect in verse 32, as his sheep and the rest of humanity as the
goats. I challenge you to study this
passage for clarity about many things. He makes several distinctions
between the two, the sheep and the goats. Verse 33 is the separation
itself. He shall set the sheep on His
right hand, but the goats on the left. To the sheep, in verse 34, He
says, come. That's a beautiful word. To the goats, in verse 41, He
says, depart. That's not beautiful. You need to understand this morning
that in that day, He will say to you personally, one of these
two words, come or depart. Concerning the sheep in verse
34, He says, Ye blessed of My Father. That's beautiful. To the goats, in verse 41, He
says, ye cursed. That's not beautiful. And you'd better know this morning
that in that day when He comes, He will say to you personally
one of these two things, blessed or cursed. In that day, everyone will be
assigned to a prepared place. A place prepared for them. Including you and I. Watch for
the word prepared. In verse 34, to the sheep, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
It's been yours all along. In verse 41, to the goats, depart
from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Don't read yourself out of that.
The word for angels here is messengers. It's not just fallen angels,
angelic beings. But humans possessed of such
spirits, void of the Spirit of God, so
that they are messengers of Satan. All who follow and represent
the purposes of Satan in this world to fight against God. You do that in your individual
life. It's all unregenerate humanity
she was talking about. So those who are not sheep are
the devil's angels, messengers, and followers. Now before I speak
briefly about three things in this passage, I want to assure
you that in spite of all that men
say in this day and time, the only hope For wretched sinners
like you and I, is the sovereign grace of God in Jesus Christ. You are not going to twist God's
arm and convince Him that there's anything in you worthy of not
being put into hell. Rather, there is everything in
you that makes you a fit subject for hell. So any salvation there is, and
all salvation there is, is of God's sovereign good pleasure. That's grace. That's grace. If you think you deserve salvation,
that would be justice. And you'll find out better in
that day. If you think you can earn salvation, that's wages. That wouldn't be grace. If you've
earned it, that's wages. And you ain't earned enough to
keep yourself out of hell. If you listen to most false preaching
today and try to back God in a corner, That's blasphemy. And He'll damn you. He's not
at your mercy. You're at His. But if you're brought and only
God can bring you to understand and confess that you don't deserve
Him and His salvation, your heart is so dirty so filthy. Your mind and even your conduct
is so ungodly. Unless He brings you to understand
that and brings you to plead for mercy, then there's no hope
for you. But you that came here today
for any reason other than the right reason. If you came here
because Somebody else wanted you to come. That's no good.
If you came here thinking you're doing God a favor, that's no
good. He don't need you. You need to understand that. Clearly. Grace is the undeserved favor
of God to those who are His sheep and called His elect. This grace is prompted by nothing
he finds in his sheep. Then it would not be undeserved.
It would be deserved. Not only are Christ's sheep undeserving,
they are ill-deserving. It's not that there's nothing
in us to move God either way. If God could be moved by us at
all, He'd be moved to damn us, not to save us. So we're ill-deserving. The beautiful
thing is, God's choice of His sheep was in the shepherd. It's in the shepherd's purity.
The shepherd's sinlessness. So God's grace, and not our religion,
not our works, not our anything, God's grace is our hope of everlasting
life. Already given to His sheep in
Christ. A kingdom already ours. A kingdom
prepared specifically for you from the foundation of the world. And with all that said, I'll
just throw this in. I'll make no apology for belittling
Today's religion that's got God trying to help you make up your
mind. You made up your mind in the Garden of Eden. You were
exactly in substance what your father Adam was. That rebelled
against God. Shook his fist in God's face
and said, I'll be my own God. I don't need you. So you made
your decision. You made up your mind. in the
Garden of Eden. What was it? You'll go to hell
if He'll let you. That's what you decided. You'll
go to hell if He'll let you. And some of you this morning
are on your way and you think He's letting you and He may let
you. But that's your decision. That's your decision. I'll go
to hell if He'll let me. That's the decision you've made.
And His grace To invade your stubbornness and break you, that's
your only hope. That's the only help for wretched
sinners like you and I. Now, three things. Number one
in this passage. Number one is grace missing. Grace missing. The reason I've
just strongly emphasized that salvation is of the Lord, it's
by His sovereign grace alone, is this. This is one of the numerous
passages in the New Testament that seems to teach salvation
by works. And if you read it apart from
the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, that's all you'll see. And this can be very confusing
if you're not established in the principle and the truth of
God's grace. So this is number one, grace
missing. Let's just look at it. It seems
to be stated so clearly here that salvation is by works. He says in verse 35, I was hungry
and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was naked and you clothed me. Now, not literally, you don't
have to take that to the stream. He's saying I was of a poor family. We didn't have much. He's the
Lord of glory. He had everything, but in this
world, he lived among peasants and poor. And he said, you've
helped me, you've ministered to me. Sickened, you visited
me. Imprisoned, you came to me. That's
a lot of good, positive commendation to these sheep. And seemingly,
on this basis, he says to these, you're approved of God. You've passed the test. You've
made the grade. And you're accepted. God knew
what kind of a person you'd be. So He chose you, and I'm proud
of you. And the goats, He said, you didn't do all these things, and therefore you're rejected. Where is grace? It's seemingly
grace missing. If those who behaved honorably
are accepted on that basis, And those who behave dishonorably
are rejected on that basis. Where is grace? Grace is missing. But is that true? It's not true. Where is grace? Number two, my
second thought, grace manifests. We are soul works oriented. We understand that man got into
trouble by something he did. Our father Adam in the Garden
of Eden. And it stands to reason that man can get out of trouble
by something we do. We are soul works oriented. We look at this scripture. And
we're consumed with the character and the conduct of the two, the
sheep and the goats. And we fail to consider why it's
that way. Now I'll tell you what modern
religion says. They say the sheep decided to be sheep and the goats
decided to be goats. That's not what the Bible says. There's not any grace manifesting
that. We fail to consider the character
and the conduct of the Lord, the King, the Shepherd. manifest. The only difference
between those on the right hand and those on the left is the
difference He put. That's His grace manifested.
He told the Israelites way back in Exodus 11, verse 7, that you
may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the
Egyptians and Israel. That's the only difference there
is, is the difference the Lord puts. Men here today, the only difference
between you and the lowdownest, rascal, drunk, dopehead, thief,
murderer, whoremonger, the only difference between you and Him
is the difference the Lord put. It wasn't you. And you dear sisters here today,
the only difference between you and the lowest street walker,
tramp, whore in this country is the difference the Lord put.
It wasn't you. That's this whole message of
grace. It's not you. It's not you. Paul said to the
Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 4, 7, For who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Why do
you act like you are any better than anybody else? If the Lord
had withheld his hand, You'd be as low as they come.
The Lord makes the difference. He instructed Noah to build an
ark. You all remember that story?
And therein the Lord put a difference. He instructed Noah. He gave him
the knowledge. He gave him the ability. He gave
him the energy. He gave him the desire. The Lord
made the difference. Noah didn't make the difference.
Left to himself, he would have went to hell like the rest. The
Lord made the difference. And he calls Noah, inspired Noah, moved Noah to
build the ark. And then the Lord invited Noah
and his family into the ark. In Genesis 7-1, the Lord said
to Noah, Come thou and oil thy house into the ark. That's eight souls. Eight. Him and his wife, his
three sons and their wife. Eight souls. Eight were invited. Eight came
in. Nowhere do you find in the Scriptures,
and you've been taught this all your life, nowhere do you find
that God told Noah to preach for 120 years and get as many
people as he could to come. No, no, no. The Lord made the
difference. Eight souls. And He sent the
rest to hell where they belonged. And where we all belong. except
for His grace. He makes the difference. Now
in this text, Matthew 25, it's the Lord who administered grace.
Had He not, it all acted like goats and we'd all have been
goats. But God. Grace manifest in claiming
His sheep. Number three, and we'll be through,
is grace ministering. According to this passage, the
sheep acted like sheep, and the goats acted like goats. The sheep never acted like sheep
in order to become sheep. Forget that. They acted like
sheep because they were sheep. Their conduct was not the cause
of grace received, it was the effect of grace received. It's the nature of a new creature
to behave like a new creature. Not that we don't make mistakes,
we all do. But generally, the behavior of
a sheep is like a sheep because he or she is a sheep. So much for folks running with
the world, living like the world, acting like the world. and come
into church ever so often and expect us to believe they're
a Christian. Forget it. Forget it. Sheep follow the shepherd. I've seen so very many young
folks. I'm about to get sidetracked
here, but I've got to do this. Young men, young ladies brought
up in a Christian home to honor God And they get ready to get
married, and here's what I hear. Well, he said he's a Christian. She said she's a Christian. They're going to come to church
with me. And it's not but just a little
while till they're both out yonder
in the goat country. Now if one's a sheep, the Lord
will discipline and care for his own. But sheep can mess up. And you young folks here today,
you don't want to marry no goat. He smells, he or she smells like
a goat, acts like a goat, because they are a goat. Get that in your head. Any low-down boy that wants to
get a hold of a godly girl or vice versa will say they're a
believer just to get what they want. But I challenge you, young men
and ladies, you look it over real good until there's proof
in the life that they're sheep instead of goats. Now here's the beautiful thing
about grace ministering. In this passage, the sheep weren't
even aware they were doing right. That's beautiful. They said to the Lord in verses
37 and 39, when did we do all these things you're commending
us for? We don't remember any of that. We're not conscious of having
treated you in this worthy manner. When did we do it? And Jesus
said, Verily I say unto you, which verily means truly, truly
I say unto you, And as much as you did it unto one of the least
of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me." He's saying the way you treat
the sheep is the way you treat the shepherd. We're not independent individuals
in that sense. We're part of Christ's flock. of other sheep is our treatment
of the shepherd. That's what's important about
the unity of God's people and love one for another and respect
one for another. The same grace He's administered
to us is ministering in us. His treatment of us governs our
treatment of Him and others. We love Him because He first
loved us. If a man say, I love God and
hateth his brother, he's a liar. You say, I wouldn't call nobody
a liar. God did. If a man say, I love God and
hateth his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? People read this passage that
we're in this morning, Matthew 25. People read this and then
try to reform their behavior in order to become sheep. That's
not it. That's not it. The grace of God
administered to the sheep in regeneration, the forgiveness
of sins, and everlasting life. That same grace lives in the
sheep, ministering daily to the Lord and to others. So as I've
said so many times, fully on your so-called professional faith,
I don't give a rip how many aisles you walk down. As old Dr. Caldwell used to say, I don't
care if you've been baptized so many times, the tadpoles know
your social security number. And I don't care if you've joined
every church in this county. The question is, do you have
a heart for the Lord this morning? If you do, He gave it to you. And if you do, it will control
your life. Well, I know this is wrong, but
I'm going to do it. Well, I know I want to go to
church today, but I think I'll do something. If you have this heart, God-given
heart and desire for Him, it will control your life. And that alone is the determination
of whether you belong on His right hand when He comes or on His left
hand. And He'll make no mistake. Sheep don't run with goats. Sheep need a shepherd. Goats
don't. Sheep need the green pastures of God's Word. Goats feed out of the garbage
dump of this world. Sheep need clean, clear water. Water of life. The fountain's springing up.
Goats will drink muddy water. And in closing, I'll say God
the Spirit didn't just look around and pick
these two animals to illustrate this. But before the world was created,
God purposely created sheep. I'm talking about the animals
now, to be exactly what they are. And he created goats to
be exactly what they are. And he did that in order to illustrate
for us what he's recorded here in this
passage. and to illustrate exactly to us who His elect are and who's
left in their sins to perish. And that's the message today.
I trust God will put it in your heart to seek Him. Amen.