Okay, let's turn to the scriptures then and we'll look in particular at this parable in Matthew chapter 25 and the associated passage briefly in Acts chapter 17 where Paul is speaking to the philosophers at Mars Hill and he says that God has appointed a day in which he would judge the world through a man he has raised from the dead. And they took that statement as one that was worthy only of derision and scoffed at the thought that someone might be raised from the dead. But why should we think that it is impossible for God to judge the world if he is the maker of the world in the first instance and if he has raised his son in the second instance. And so last time we were talking on this theme of God and the nations, we saw that the Son exercised his authority over the nations through the gospel. And we saw that in a general example with the Apostle Paul as he said that he understood his ministry to be the bringing about of the obedience of the nations, that is the obedience of the Gentiles through faith in Jesus Christ. So as he travelled throughout the ancient world, he understood that that gospel would do something which would transform nations. And then we saw a very specific example of how that might work or how it does work out when we looked at Paul's ministry in Ephesus and how that place was the centre of worship of the great or terrible God Artemis, and how in that proclamation of the gospel that power base which had been established by the forces of darkness in that place was overthrown and through that proclamation we're told that the whole of Asia Minor heard the word. And so a couple of centuries later the temple of Artemis falls into complete ruin and disrepair and it's as though the Lord has defeated it by his word ever before the physical decay of the structure sets in. And so it is always that that gospel runs throughout the world and it does its work and it breaks down the spiritual strongholds, the spiritual power bases So we understand therefore, as Paul says, that our wrestling is never against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and forces of wickedness in heavenly places. And we saw also that Jesus Christ exercises that ministry continually through his presence with his people. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Even to the end of the age. And what I want us to look at together today is the thought that this age is a time-limited age. There is an end point which God has fixed. There is the end of the age. And that thought for us perhaps may seem a little remote. It may seem perhaps a little bit even mythical in its bearing because the end of the age seems perhaps so unusual for the way in which we would normally think about things. I think it's particularly the case in the situation where in most of our personal circumstances we're secure, we're well settled, we're not suffering the heat of physical or other forms of persecution directly, where we're not afflicted just daily by the possibility of death, for the sake of the name, and where as a society we're generally kept stable, government seems to operate fairly well. And so in those circumstances the thought of the end of the age grows somewhat dim. And if we do think about the end of the age, sometimes we think about it as Christian people really as an interesting piece of speculation. What's going to happen? What's the schema of prophecy? Who's going to come first? What's going to happen next? Who's going to be identified with such and such a figure in the Bible? And if we think about it in those terms we actually lose the real power of what the end of the age tells us in the scriptures. So with the Spirit's help today we'll try and concentrate on that which is not speculative and not wasting time just gathering information about the end of the age, but actually edifying to heart and mind. And one of the first things we notice in the New Testament is that that coming end, the end of the age, is spoken of in over 300 places. It's enormously important in the New Testament. Like you could hardly read a chapter on that average without it popping up somewhere. In other words, the thought of the end of the age informed everything that the New Testament writers had in their view. Like when they told us about the ministry of the prophets and when they told us about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, from their point of view they are not interested in what Jesus Christ did as a piece of history. They are interested in what Jesus Christ did as a fact which secures the end of the age. And now everything in history and all the action of Jesus Christ is bent towards bringing that end of the age about and securing the consummation of the kingdom and the last great day. Now from one point of view we can say that ever since the coming of Jesus Christ these have been the last days. That's what we're told in Hebrews, are we not? that in many portions and in many ways in former times he's spoken to us through his servants the prophets, but now in these last days he's spoken to us by his son. And when Peter is speaking on the day of Pentecost about the gift of the Holy Spirit, he says this is what the prophet Joel prophesied, that in the last days I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. But there is also a constant reference or constant references in the New Testament to the last great day at the end of the last days. We are in the last days. But that period of time known as the last days does not just go on and on and on and on and on. It goes on to an end point. And that last day is spoken of in different ways. It's spoken of as the day of the Lord Jesus Christ or the great day or the great and terrible day, or the day of the Lord, sometimes it's just spoken of as the day. And in reference to Jesus Christ, sometimes it's spoken of as his coming, and sometimes it's spoken of as his appearing, and other times it's spoken of as his unveiling, or his revelation. But everything centres on Jesus Christ and the last day. In a very real sense, Jesus Christ is the last one and everything focuses on him. And until that great last day, the Bible tells us that we are living in an area and time of conflict. This is a present evil age, says Paul. And John tells us that the rulers of this age are passing away. And the form of this age is passing away. And Paul tells us that we're not to be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And we still pray, do we not, in the Lord's prayer, thy kingdom come. We still look for the coming of that last great day. And throughout the New Testament, the New Testament congregations were urged to look to that day with great hope and great assurance and not to be troubled because some had come saying it had already appeared. And in contrast to that, the teaching in the scriptures tells us that that last great day is going to be incontrovertible. It's not going to be done in some dark and secret corner or hidden away so that someone might say, here is the Christ or there is the Christ. And you have various passages of scripture which emphasise how public and how universal that last great day will be. Jesus himself says, then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man. and all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four corners from one end of heaven to the other. You remember after Jesus was taken up in the ascension the angels said to the disciples as they stood looking men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way just as you've seen him go, that is bodily, visibly. And in Revelation chapter 1 we're told, behold, he's coming with the clouds and every eye will see him. Those who pierced him and all the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, Amen. So when the Bible speaks about that last great day, it's speaking about an incontrovertible revelation which affects the whole of the created order. Now if we had space and time this morning we could unfold perhaps what that last great day would mean and very briefly you could say it would mean a number of things. It would vindicate Jesus Christ as the great King and Lord of all. When all of the nations of the earth have taken their stand together against the Lord and against his anointed, that last great day says to all of the principalities and powers and all of the kings of the earth, no, this is my son, this is my anointed one and all of your assessments of him and all of your opposition against him have accomplished nothing. But that last great day will also be, as we've read in Jesus' words in Matthew 24, the gathering together of his church from all of the corners of the earth, so that they will be finally glorified and finally conformed to the image of the sun. But also as that reading from Matthew chapter 25 tells us, to which we'll turn again in a moment, It is a day of final judgment on the enemies of the Son of Man. And there is a separation as one might separate the sheep from the goats in Matthew chapter 25. And there is a final and inescapable revelation of what's what, of who's who. It's when the secrets of men's hearts are disclosed. It's when those who have feigned allegiance to Christ find that their allegiance is not true. Many will say in that day, Lord, Lord. And it's a day when finally and completely all of those forces of darkness which have worked continually behind the scenes to stir up the nations and to drive forward their rebellion against the Lord and against his anointing. It's a time when they are forever cast out of the presence of the Lamb where their activity can no longer influence any of the events of history. Now when we speak about it in those terms, unless we're assured in our consciences that the one who comes is the Lamb of God, then that day will be a day of terror. Even as we've spoken about it this morning, I'm sure there's been a flutter in our own hearts. But when the New Testament writers look to that great day, they don't see it as something to be feared. Just keep a finger in Matthew and turn back to Titus or turn forward to Titus. This is Titus chapter 2 verse 11 for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope, notice the statement, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us. Who's the one coming for us? the one who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. This is not a day to be feared, beloved. It's a day to look forward to with great rejoicing because when we see him we will be like him because we will see him as he is, says John. And as he comes As the son of man for us, he comes as the one who has actually borne our sin and borne our judgement. That's why by the way, the reading that Martin brought us ran on into Matthew chapter 26. Notice in Matthew chapter 25 verse 31, when the son of man comes in his glory and all his angels with him, he will sit on his throne. He is coming as the great cosmic judge. But then notice in chapter 26, when Jesus had finished all these words, he said to his disciples, you know that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man, the same phrase, is to be handed over to crucifixion. In other words, he's saying to the disciples, I believe there's a deliberate connection between the son of man statement in chapter 25 verse 31 and the son of man statement in chapter 26 verse 2. Yes, as you see the son of man coming, understand that the one who's the son of man who comes in the last day is the same one who has been crucified for you. And in the end, when the kings of the earth hide or seek to hide in the caves and under the mountains and they say to the rocks, fall on us, they're trying to hide from the wrath of the Lamb, we're told in the book of the Revelation. So this great day figures as the great object of hope in the New Testament. It is the thing to which the church looks and longs. It is the thing for which the church prays. It is the thing to which all of their attention is devoted, the coming of the great day of the Lord. And when we look at those parables in Matthew chapter 25, the parable of the ten virgins and then the parable of the talents Then finally the parable of the sheep and the goats. There are some characteristics that are the same in all of those parables. Firstly, there's something that emphasises the unexpectedness of the day. You don't know the hour. There is something also that emphasises the contrast between those who are prepared and those who are not. is the fact of rewards and judgments. You notice the sheep by the way have no negative thing uttered against them. Those on his right are welcomed into the kingdom and all they hear ringing in their ears as they come in is what they've done and the astounding thing to them is that they've done it and they didn't realize they've done it. So unselfconscious are the acts of love amongst the brothers and sisters. So this great day is a day of sifting and sorting. It's a day of judgement. It's a day of separation. It's a day which brings all of what we call human history to its conclusion. Now all of that from one point of view is just information. It's New Testament material you can read yourself. But let's just ask this question. What difference would it make if that day were not coming? What difference would it make if that day were not coming? Or to put the thing in a different way, what difference does it make that that day is coming? From one point of view, if that day were not coming, then nothing matters. No action of genocide, no cruelty of one race or nation to another, no individual sin, nothing matters if that day is not coming. Because if there is no judgment before whom the whole of humanity appears and that last great day. Then the law means nothing to God and if there is no law from that point of view there is no God or if there is no God there is no law. But if that day is coming it means that everything, absolutely everything is accounted for. And that probably doesn't mean as much to us as it meant to the New Testament churches where they had no other recourse than the coming of the Son of Man. We always have something else that we can fall back on. some other system of security, some other government channel that we can follow through, some other legal process, some court of appeal, some something that we can follow through where we feel as though at least we can get a fair hearing. But in the vast history of humanity over all of its millennia, that is a very unusual situation to find ourselves in. And for the most part, the church has always been on the fringes and the marginalised element consisting of those who are neither noble nor great nor rich and consisting for the most part of those who have no say in any situation that matters. And so it's a great thing to be a person who lives knowing that in the end the actions of Herod and Pontius Pilate and all of those who might oppose themselves to the Lord and against his anointed, none of that escapes. It is a day in which the enemies of God are brought to their end point, where they are given over to their enmity and their hatred, and that giving over of them to their enmity and their hatred is their eternal judgment. Because as they come, or as the Son of Man comes, they see him as the Son of Man, and they've rejected him as the Son of Man, and so where can you go if you've rejected the forgiveness that comes through the Son of Man? What can you do with your sin if you've rejected the only one who is the mediator between God and man? And so, from that point of view, their sins are retained. And that's their hell that it is. Their worm dies not, we're told. But what difference does it make to us Well, from John we know that those who have this hope in themselves purify themselves, even as he is pure. That is, as that day is set before us in the Scriptures time after time after time, and as the object of that day is the gathering in of the whole Church, and the glorification of the Church, so it be conformed to the image of the Son of God, that great hope which is before us, acts within our heart and soul by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be a great mechanism by which we hate sin. and by which we hate those things which so easily entangle us and they cause us to be stretched out in longing for that great day when all of the sufferings of this present life will pass away and all of the uncertainties of this. How could you live if we didn't have the assurance of that day? But let's ask a question another way. What does that great day got to do with the nations? Well in Matthew chapter 25 we are told that all of the nations come together. That Jesus the judge, the son of man sitting to judge, judges the nations. And upon what basis does he judge them in Matthew chapter 25? The basis is, what have we done to those who are his brothers? Matthew 25 is not primarily about how we help the poor generally, or the hungry generally, or close the naked generally, or visit the prisoners generally. It's about how we relate to his brothers specifically. So much so that he could say, to the degree that you've done it to the least of these, my brothers, you've done it to me. Now, nations does not exclude individuals. It's not as though there's nations or individuals. All of the individuals of all the nations will be gathered. But there is something about national identity and national character which is in view here as much as our individual responsibility and participation in that. And there is something to do with the way in which the messengers of the gospel have been received. Because those who have received you have received me, says Jesus. And those who have rejected you have rejected me, he says. And so the lake of fire that you read about verse 41 is prepared for the devil and his angels. In other words, this is not some situation prepared for those who are innocent bystanders, caught up in the crossfire of the clash of the kingdoms. This rejection of the Son of Man means that they have rejected the only possible means for the giveness of their sins, so they stay constituted on the side of the enemies of the Son of Man. They take their stand together with the surrogate king whose opposition against the Lord and against his anointed has been the driving force behind all of the wars and tumult amongst the nations. So those who stand on the last day and find that they are not invited in to the kingdom, are those who actually have aligned themselves and stay on the side of the rejection of Christ. So in that sense the judgment is simply the giving over to what they have always wanted. There's no innocent party here that hears a verdict in the last day which is anything other than what they wanted. But the messengers of the Son of Man have come And the messages have either been received or rejected, persecuted or welcomed and embraced. And as those messages have come and their message has been received, so salvation comes to that house and so the blessing of the forgiveness of sins rests upon that house and the blessing of the Son of Man rests upon that house. and the fullness of the inheritance of the Son of Man comes to that house, but where that messenger is rejected and the message is rejected, then everything that is contrary to the blessing comes upon them. Not out of spite or out of indictiveness, such is a very unworthy way to think of the wrath of God in the last day. But it's the just exercise of the giving over to that which our hearts have always wanted. Now we can't speak about these things in a vacuum, can we? Because as we sit here today, all of us know, individuals, families, nations, people groups, where there's a battle for the receiving or rejecting of the Word of God. We can't talk about this thing even if we don't have tears in our eyes, at least in our hearts, with the somberness of it. But I don't think we could imagine on the other hand, a world in which that last day did not come. And it's not something which is the opposite of the cross. As though in the last day God does something there by some other means that he was not able to do in the cross. The last day is actually the full pitch revelation of what has happened on the cross. And the wrath that comes at the end is the wrath of the lamb who was crucified. And from the church's point of view, by those by grace who have received the message and received Christ in the message, it is the full flowering of everything that's happened already in the cross. Have we in the cross died with Christ and been raised with him? Yes. Is that seen in the last day? Yes. Have we in Christ been watched and sanctified and justified? And the answer is yes, but we know it by sight in that last day the full flowering will be there and it will be by faith. Do we live in this current creation as though the last day is tied intimately with the cross or do we see it as a separate thing? Beloved, the last day is the full flowering, the full revelation of everything that Christ has accomplished on our behalf. and conversely it's the full demonstration of what happens where that message is rejected, where the lamb is rejected. Where can you go with your sins? What possible hope can there be for any other means of forgiveness if the son of man who's been crucified is turned away? You've basically said, I will deal with my own sins, thank you very much. And God says, to your own sins you shall go. So beloved, in the closing minute, I just want us to bring through to us, if we can, the comfort and assurance of what it means to have that day before us. Because in Christ, because of the fullness and the totality of the judgment on our sins in his cross, in Christ that day is not a day of punishment. Writer to the Hebrews makes a remarkable statement. He says when he comes again, he comes without reference to sin. to those who eagerly await him. And do we think that when he comes, he's going to come somehow as the old headmaster used to come into our school and we'd all cringe because he'd carry in his right hand a long thin cane. Those days have gone, have they not? But it doesn't remove the fear of judgement from humanity even if we remove a headmaster. And sometimes we can look at the coming of the Son of Man and we can think of that, but what if in the action of that Son of Man who has gone to be crucified with us, all of our sin has been taken away. Let me read to you a wonderful statement from the Heidelberg Catechism. If you've never read it, you should. It comes in many different versions. How does Christ's return to judge the living and the dead comfort you? It's a good question isn't it? How does Christ's return to judge the living and the dead comfort you? In all my distress and persecution I turn my eyes to the heavens and get this phrase and confidently confidently, a waiters judge, the very one who has already stood trial in my place before God. What a magnificent statement. I wait from heaven as a believer, you wait from heaven as a believer. The judge who has already stood trial in our place before God. And so he comes for us without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await him. And he comes to secure in us the work which he's begun by his Holy Spirit now. He's come to secure in sight and in reality for eternity that which we live by by faith now. He's come to fill us with himself and conform us to his image and at the very same time he has removed the whole curse from me, the statement goes on to say. I confidently as waiters judge the one who has already stood trial in my place before God and so has removed the whole curse from me. and mercifully all his enemies and mine he will condemn. But me and his chosen ones he will take with him to the joy and gladness of heaven. It is so good to have an assurance of an eternity in which all of the powers of evil can never again under any circumstances threaten the peace of his people. You'll be in a situation which is totally unlike anything that you know now. Now everything is secure. Now the kingdom is that you cannot be shaken. But you hold that by faith, don't you? And every day you wobble. That day you'll know it by sight and there won't be any wobbling for all eternity. And so can we confidently together as people of faith await as judge the one who's already stood in trial in my place before God. And can we await him who has removed the hold of the curse from us. Amen.