I'm in Matthew chapter 25, the
25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Now the passage that
I would like to read, and with little comment, most of you don't
believe that, but I plan to come back and try to do on this passage,
verse 31 through 46 in Matthew 25, the message will actually
be an attempt to do an exposition of these verses. These are some
of the most wonderful and yet most awful words to be found
anywhere in the Bible. You'll see what I mean. Our Savior
is speaking. He's roughly three days from
the cross. He speaks of but two classes
of persons. One is called blessed and the
other is declared cursed. And anywhere you find human beings
in this whole wide world, anywhere, there are only but two classes
of persons, those who are blessed and those who are cursed. You
and I cannot change that. This is God's work. He saves
His people from their sins through their Redeemer, the Lord Jesus.
And those persons can never be anything but blessed. They're
blessed before they even know it. This blessedness took place
in old eternity. But God's children, called here
in this passage His sheep and the righteous, Only find it out
as they come to live on this earth, and at whatever point
God is determined to reveal himself to them, then they'll become
acquainted, hopefully, with the fact that they're blessed. The blessed man. You know, the
book of Psalms begins with, let's see, how many verses? Nine or
ten, maybe, maybe a little more, describing the blessed man. Do
you know who that blessed man is in Psalm 1? It is the Lord
Jesus. And everybody that's in Him is
blessed. Eternally blessed. Can't be altered,
can't be changed. You can't cause it to happen
and you can't lose it. Blessed. But this other word
is also fixed and unalterable. And it is cursed. Now, without
further comment, let's read Matthew 25, 31. 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. Now, He's already, excuse
me, one exception. Here it is. I'm sure. He's already seated on a throne
in glory. But this is judgment day, ladies
and gentlemen, and he'll be seated as the judge of the whole universe. Then, when he returns, shall
he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him, in his
presence, at his bidding, shall be gathered all nations And he
shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides
his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, that's the hand of favor and blessedness, and
the other on the left. Then, then shall the king say
unto them, on his right hand. Don't miss that, the right hand.
Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry. I'm changing the tenses of some
of these words just to make them more readable and hopefully more
to be remembered. I can read you the straight King
James, but I've been doing this other so many years, I don't
know if I can do it where you could understand me. For I was
hungry, these are the Savior's own words, and you gave me meat
or food. 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."
Now listen very carefully to this next statement. Then shall
the righteous, called earlier what? The sheep. Then shall the
righteous answer their Savior saying, Lord, When did we see
you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? When did
we see you a stranger and took you in or naked and clothed you? Or when did we see you sick or
in prison and visited you? And the king, the king shall
answer and say unto them, verily, amen, 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." Now mark that fact. These people
had no clue that by doing acts and deeds of charity they were
doing it to their Savior. They never understood that and
they're amazed that He tells them all the things that they
have done. The believer, and let me emphasize
every believer, sees no value in his own work. The only work
to be blessed is the work of the Redeemer in us and then through
us. This whole religious world has
gone plumb stupid over trying to get people to do this, that,
and the other so they can win rewards, so God will save them
for this, you know, so the church can thrive and all this stuff.
And it is poisoning the minds and hearts of men. And the real
true meaning of this book cannot be known because they're blind. The blind leading the blind,
and both fall into the ditch. And you better find out, and
I had better find out, if what I'm telling you is the truth.
And the only way I know to do that is go to this book. These
people were amazed that our Lord would say such things about them.
All right? Verse 41. Then shall He say unto
them on the left hand, earlier called the goats, depart from
Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels. For I was hungry, 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. Now watch this reply. Then shall they also answer him,
saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister
to you? 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. And these, the goats and
the cursed, shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into life eternal. Now the word everlasting in verse
46, and the word eternal in the Greek New Testament are precisely
and exactly the same words. Now why our translators decided
to translate one everlasting and the other eternal, I do not
know. But they have exactly the same meaning. First of all, verse
31, Matthew chapter 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." That day has not yet come. Some people speak about the Lord
Jesus returning to this world and only a select few people
knowing it. I don't believe that for a second.
Oh, I have believed it in the past. I believe about every position
on the, on the second coming that you can imagine, but it
doesn't square with scripture. When the Lord Jesus comes, it's
going to be the final day. That's the end of time and the
beginning of the new eternity to come. every eye shall see
him, and every knee shall bow to him." Now concerning that
day, when our Lord returns, verses 32 and 33 are directly tied to
that statement in verse 31. Let's make sure we understand
this. This is none other than the King of kings and Lord of
lords, who is coming to take a seat as the judge of this universe. He'll judge every human being,
every last single one. There's only two classes, you
remember, the left hand and the right hand. Verse 32, and before
Him shall be gathered all nations. Now some people like to take
this passage say that it's talking about just the judgment of Christ
professing church, of which there are some true believers and some
who are not really believers but profess to be so. Christians
in name only. But I just, I can't seem to get
it to Some of the statements in here I just can't get to work
out when I put that limitation on it. For example, right here
in verse 32, before him shall be gathered all nations, all
of them, and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd
divides his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. This seems to say
that the very first thing on Judgment Day is separating the
precious from the vile, the righteous from the wicked. Several statements
throughout our Bibles refer to terms similar to this and to
this day, separating the precious from the vile, V-I-L-E. This is the Lord Jesus in His
glory as the judge of this whole world and everybody in it, of
every generation and time from start to finish. All right. Can you bear with me and look
at a scripture? Let me give you a similar statement,
though it's put in a different framework. I'm turning to John
chapter 5. It's a different framework. but
it is nonetheless speaking of the same person, our Lord Jesus
Christ, and of this glorious office that belongs to none but
him, our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus. This is the very
point that got Paul into such hot water with all the teachers
and philosophers that were gathered on Mars Hill in Acts chapter
17, When Paul spoke to them and said that God has appointed the
Lord Jesus Christ to be the judge over everything and everybody,
he said, and he gives this evidence that he's done so, when he raised
Christ from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is
declared in that passage to be the guarantee that He is raised
from the dead to tell every man and woman on the face of this
earth, this is your judge. This is your judge. All right,
John chapter 5, verses 22. Let's read that one first. In
this whole passage, beginning back at verse, well, beginning
at verse 19 through verse 27, All of these things show the
perfect equality of the Lord Jesus with the Godhead, with
the Father and with the Spirit. And verse 22 says, For the Father
judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son. That's plain, isn't it? Look
at verse 27. Here's an interesting slant.
Very important too, by the way. John 5, 27, and has given Him
authority to execute judgment. Now watch this, because He, Christ,
is the Son of Man. Now He's also the Son of God,
but the Father cannot give God the Son anything. They're equally
God and can never be anything but equally God. They can't go
backwards or forwards. They are what they are and it
is unchangeable because it is absolute perfection in the deity. But when it comes to the human
nature of our Lord Jesus, now remember, He's only one person,
but He's got two entirely distinct natures. He's the Son of God,
that's His divinity. He's the Son of Man, that's His
humanity. And yet these two natures have
only just one person. But here we are told that this
judgment is His. Why? Because He is the Son of
Man, the Son of Man. All right, let's go back to Matthew
25. And I can tell you that about two-thirds of what I've got written
down here, as far as some scriptures to look at, we're not going to
make it. But I can't help it. That's just how it is. I may
try to work on this again tonight. All right? Verse 34. Let me give
you the key verses all at one time. Verse 31. The king and his glory. Verse
34. The king and his sheep. Verse
41. the king and his goats. Now,
preacher, did you say his goats? Oh, indeed I did. Everything
belongs to Christ. Everybody belongs to Christ. He does not treat goats like
he does sheep. He did not redeem goats. He redeemed
sheep. And all the redeemed must be
saved. All right, that's in verse 41.
Now in verse 46, this is like the concluding remark. This is
the end of the passage. It is the king's curse and his
blessing. Earlier, it came the blessing
first and then the curse, but here the order is reversed. All
right, so it's verse 31, 34, 41, and 46. Everything hinges on those four
statements of scripture. All right, here's the second
one, verse 34. The king and his sheep. Then shall the king say
unto them, watch this now, on his right hand, come you blessed
of my father. Now that word, blessed, is not
in the future, it's in the past. They're already blessed. Well,
how long have we been blessed? Forever. Forever. There was a
Savior before there was ever a sinner. Christ was the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world before creation ever
took place. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, come you blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. All right, now let's quickly
review verses 35 through 40. This is most important. This
one subject in these verses is the most misunderstood subject
in religion to this day. It has to do with the believer's
works, his works. Where does he get them? Here's
a question for you. Do all sheep have them? If one
does, they all do. Ladies and gentlemen, there's
a perfect equality among believers. They're all saved the same way.
They're all sinners. They're all undeserving and hell
deserving. Only the merit and deservings
of Christ bring such blessing as this. All right, let's read
it again. For I was hungry and you gave
me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave me,
I'm sorry, I read that wrong. 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. Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, When
did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and
clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and came
unto you? And the king shall answer and
say unto them, if I wrote this, you might be suspicious
of what it says. But I'm reading for you the words
of our Savior Himself. Whatever He says is. He says
that His sheep are not conscious that they've done these things
to the honor and glory of their Savior. When a believer prays,
he's ashamed of his prayer. When he preaches, he's ashamed
of his preaching. When he teaches, he's ashamed
of his teaching. How could God use anything so
lousy and sorry as what I do? If you don't know anything about
that, I'd be awfully surprised if you're even born again. I'm
telling you, this is how it is. And people that want to stop
you on the street or in the foyer or on the porch or wherever and
tell you what all they're doing for God instead of telling you
what Christ has done for them, they've missed it, ladies and
gentlemen. Missed it. Been there and done that, haven't
you? All right, one verse of Scripture, Isaiah chapter 26. Oh, I can't count the Scriptures
that are in our Bibles to this same end. While you're finding
Isaiah 26, Philippians chapter 2 says, oh, I can't even quote
it now. I had it on the tip of my tongue.
It is God who works in you, both in the willing and in the doing
of His good pleasure." Now here it is in the plainest words possible. Isaiah 26 verse 12, Lord, You
will ordain peace for us. Why is that? For You also has
wrought all our works In us. Every last one of them. All of them. Now if you want
a backup passage, we don't have time to look at it. John chapter
3 verses 19 through 21. Alright, here's the third thing. Back to Matthew 25. Y'all determined
for me not to make it. Verse 41. And then the verses
that explain it are 42 through 45. Verse 41, now you noticed
how their frame, their language and approach are exactly the
same. Back in verse 34, then shall
the king say. Verse 41, then shall he say unto
them that are on the left hand. Now in this sense, left is not
good. Depart from me, you cursed. into everlasting fire. Well, preacher, I don't believe
there is a hell. Well, you will. The Savior certainly
believed it, and I'd take his word over anybody else's. God
couldn't send people to hell. Well, there's a good many passages
in our Bible that tell us that he did and tell us about what
happened. So if you don't believe the book,
you surely can't believe him, and neither could I in that same
circumstance. In verses 42 through 44, these
people are the exact opposite of what he says of those following
verse 34. Let me read quickly what he says.
I was hungry. You didn't give me any food.
I was thirsty. You gave me no drink. I was a
stranger. You took me not in. Naked, you
clothed me not. Sick and in prison, and you visited
me not. Then shall they answer unto him, saying, Lord, the same
bewilderment, the same amazement, when did we see you hungry or
thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did
not minister unto you? They could recite. They could
talk until your ears fall off about what they've done for the
Lord. You can't be a stranger to this if you live in this world.
In Harnett County, North Carolina, to be sure, we got more dead
works religion than about any place on the globe. Dead. Dead. You can't know God. without knowing ourselves. Woe is me, Isaiah said, for I
am undone. These people do not believe that
they have not served Christ in their works, but the judge says
you have." All just one scripture right here in Matthew, so you
can't complain about that too much. Back in chapter 7, I know
we've looked at these verses I don't know how many times and
I suppose we'll do it some more. Matthew chapter 7, here's that
same category to which these verses that we're now considering
is directed. This even has statements in it
that are more closely associated with what we might imagine this
to be comprised of. Matthew 7, verses 21, 22, and
23. Here's the first question before
we start reading. When is this? It is judgment day. Judgment day. The Lord Jesus,
in His infinite wisdom, perfect, glorious mind, just looked ahead
of time and describe for us what will take place on Judgment Day.
Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many. Just a few verses earlier,
when he's talking about the straight gate, he's talking about a few.
But now he's talking about many. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied or preached in your name? And
in your name have cast out devils, and in your name done many wonderful
works. And then will I profess unto
them, depart from me, you that work iniquity, And now the other
three words that I left out, I never knew you. They professed to know Him, but
He said, I never knew you. And as most of you know, the
word knew here is sometimes translated loved. Is it possible the Lord
Jesus said I never loved you? Well, not according to the churches
that are ignorant of the things of which I speak this morning,
because one of their most precious doctrines, which isn't true,
is that Christ loves everybody. That ain't so. If God could help
you to see it, you'd understand this. Can't be much to his love
if the people that he loves, some of them are in hell. So
how come you're not going to hell and they are? Well, I made
a profession. I made a decision. I was baptized.
I take the Lord's Supper. Okay, one more verse. Verse 46,
46. These shall go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous, the righteous unto life eternal. I need one more scripture before
we wind this up. If you turn to John chapter 5
again, these are not the verses that we read earlier, but are
right after that. Now those words in verse 46 of
Matthew 25 are both the king's curse and the king's blessing. Here it is stated in quite a
different fashion and a very strong gripping statement indeed. I'm referring to verses 28 and
29 in John chapter 5. John 5, 28 begins, this is just
after that statement about our Savior being the judge, because
He is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming, and that hour is described in Matthew 25, the hour is coming
in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice. and shall come forth." Now watch
this. Here it is. Here's exactly what
we just read. They that have done good unto
the resurrection of life. That's the sheep in Matthew 25.
And they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Now my dear friends, one single
sin not covered by the blood of Christ is all that it'll take
to damn our souls. Well, how good do you have to
be to be in the resurrection of life? It says those that have
done good, better than any of us could be or all of us together
could be. We have to be as good as our
precious Savior. That's what God demands. absolute
perfection, nothing less. Therefore, this book proclaims
everywhere from Genesis to Revelation, salvation is of the Lord, from
beginning to end and all in between. That's just how it is. Alright,
thank you for hearing me. Now,