Father, You are mighty and You are holy and You are worthy as we have sung of Your greatness. And we think of Your return that we so eagerly await and long for. And Lord, when we read about that, we read about the book of Revelation in Matthew 24, 25, We just see these awesome things that are going to happen. Stars falling from the sky and people dying by the millions and all these massive, massive things that are so much bigger than us. Oh, Lord, we must be on Your side on that day and not Your enemies. Lord, You've given us this passage of Scripture to ensure that that happens. I pray that it would. I pray that You would speak to us by the power of your spirit and awaken us to the realities of that day. We pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The triumphal entry never happened. It never happened. He rode into Jerusalem on a colt, yes, but not in triumph. In tears. Palm Sunday was Not a happy day. It was a very somber, heartbreaking, tragic, sorrowful day. The Bible never actually uses the phrase triumphal entry. That's just a traditional phrase that we've come up with to describe Palm Sunday. But there's two problems with that phrase, triumphal entry. My first problem with the phrase is the word triumphal. The other problem I have with it is the word entry. Other than that, I think the phrase is fine. Both of those words are misleading. It was not triumphal, and it was not really an entry. The word entry actually conveys the opposite of the word that the Bible uses to describe the significance of that day. And to explain what I mean by that, I have to show you something about the structure of the Gospel of Luke. So turn back to Luke 9. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those first four books of the New Testament, they are biographies of the life of Jesus, right? As biographies go, they're a little odd. They're a little strange because they focus mostly on just the final weeks of Jesus' life. For example, Luke. Luke is a long book, 24 chapters, and yet Luke races through Jesus' birth, his grown-up years, his first 30 years of his life, and his whole public ministry, the three years of that, all of that in chapters 1 to 8. And then you get to chapter 9. By chapter 9, we're only a third of the way through the book, and Luke is already telling us about the very end of Jesus' life. The reason I had you turn to chapter 9 is because Luke 9 is a very pivotal chapter in the book of Luke. If you're going to understand the gospel of Luke, you've got to understand the role of chapter 9. Starting in verse 28 of Luke 9, we read about an event known as the Transfiguration. where Jesus went up onto a mountain with three of his disciples and his appearance changed, his clothing became as bright as a flash of lightning, and Moses and Elijah appeared with him suddenly on the mountain and were talking with Jesus. Have you ever wondered what they were talking about? I'll tell you, I know exactly what they're talking about. It says right there in verse 31. It says they spoke about his departure which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem." Now, two words, very important in that verse. The word departure and the word Jerusalem. Moses and Elijah miraculously appear with Jesus on the mountain, and the three of them had a conversation about Jesus' dramatic departure, His big exit from this world, which would be brought to fulfillment where? Jerusalem. Right. So now what does Jesus do? He has this conversation on the mountain, the transfiguration, then he comes down off the mountain, then what does he do? Skip down to verse 51. As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. So this great dramatic exit from this world that Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus about, this grand exit that's going to take place in Jerusalem. It's an exit from this world to where? What does it say in verse 51? The time approach for him to be taken where? Up to heaven. So Jesus is going to leave this world through the exit door marked Jerusalem, and he's going to be taken up to heaven. And so in Luke 9, what's happening is Jesus is going about his ministry, all of a sudden he looks at his watch and says, it's almost time for my departure, it's almost time for me to leave, I better get to Jerusalem. Because that's where I'm leaving from. And so he resolutely set out. He wasn't going to be deterred. And everything from here on in Luke, from here all the way to chapter 19, all of it takes place during that final journey down to Jerusalem, where Jesus is going to make the grand exit. So the whole heart of the gospel of Luke is just... He's got us anticipating Jerusalem. Jerusalem, that's where we're going. And things pop up along the way that try to distract Jesus from that, and He won't be distracted. Even the king summons Him. I want an audience with... And Jesus is like, nope, nope. I can't do that. I can't be bothered. I'm on my way to Jerusalem. He will not be deterred. He will not be distracted, redirected, detained. No detours. He is headed directly to Jerusalem. He's not going to pass go. He's not going to collect $200. And all through these ten chapters of this trip down to Jerusalem, Luke keeps on mentioning these little geographical markers that if you know the area, if you're a reader back then, then it would be unmistakable. They're landmarks letting you know, oh, we're getting closer. We're getting closer. Okay, that's near Jerusalem. Now we're getting closer. The whole time. So it's just building suspense. Ten chapters, building suspense. Okay, now flip ahead back to chapter 19. In chapter 19, after these long ten chapters of suspense, finally this journey comes to a conclusion Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. By the time he gets there, there's a large crowd of disciples who are following Jesus. He has been gathering this crowd on the way, and they're traveling with him. They are believers, and they love him, and they are excited about this arrival in Jerusalem. All their lives, they have read about the Messiah coming to the city of David. This great son of David would someday arrive, and they knew the story. He would take his throne, he would set it up in Jerusalem, and he would lead the nation of Israel into a glorious, splendorous age, the Messianic age, a time of great peace and joy and glory. And at that time, the throne of David would be established in the capital of Israel, Jerusalem, the city of David, the city of God, Mount Zion, the city of the great king. after all this talk about Jerusalem, and then they're traveling with Jesus, and finally, you imagine yourself in that crowd, you get close, you can see the city, you can see the gleaming white stones, and you're like, finally, it's gonna happen. It's about to happen. The Messiah is about to enter into the city of David and set up His eternal glorious kingdom promised throughout the Old Testament. This is what we have been waiting for. And they're fully expecting a triumphal entry. And it's no surprise that they thought that the whole time. Jesus' entire ministry, what has He been preaching about? One topic. What does Jesus go around preaching about, it says? He went around preaching the kingdom of God. He's preaching about the kingdom. And so it's no great shock that His disciples figured the full final form of the kingdom would appear as soon as He entered into the city. This is it? This is it? Well, when Jesus saw that they were thinking that, He had to correct that, and so He corrects it with a parable. Luke 19, 11. He went on to tell them a parable because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. And he said, a man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So the guy in the parable, he's a nobleman, he's a noble birth, but he's not king yet. And in order to be crowned king, he has to travel to a distant country. He's going to be gone For a long time. That's the point. In the ancient world, if you go to a distant country, you're gone a long time because you're walking. There's no airplanes. He's going to be gone a long time. And Jesus wants them to understand this is not his grand entrance. He's here to make a grand exit, not entrance. He's going to leave. He's like the nobleman who left his servants and his subjects and his whole realm, left them behind and went away for a long time to a distant country. But before he leaves, he addresses two groups, two different groups of people, the servants and the subjects. And a lot of people miss the point of the parable of the minas because they don't recognize these two groups. The servants are in verse 13 and the subjects in verse 14. In verse 13, it says, he called 10 of his servants and gave them 10 minas. Put this money to work, he said, until I come back. Then in verse 14, he says, but his subjects hated him, and they sent a delegation after him to say, we don't want this man to be our king. So the servants are given a task, and the subjects voice their rejection of him as king. We don't want this man as king. Now, if you do that, you better hope the guy doesn't end up becoming king, right? Because that's not good for your health. But that's exactly what happened. Verse 15, he was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money in order to find out what they had gained with it." So that's the part we looked at last week. That's the rewards day. That's judgment day for believers. Some servants got more reward than other servants based on their faithfulness, varying levels of faithfulness. But all were generously and lavishly rewarded except for the one who did nothing. He had no faithfulness at all. set his mina aside and he is harshly rebuked and even what he has is taken away. He cared so little about the king and so little about his kingdom, it turns out he's not even a servant and he does nothing and he is harshly rebuked. Okay, so you read this parable in Luke 19 and by the time you get to the end of all that, you've pretty much forgotten about the subjects, right? Because that takes up, that description of the rewards takes up the whole thing and by then you've forgotten about these subjects. But Luke reminds you in the closing verse of the parable Verse 27, but those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me. And that's the end of the parable. That is a downer ending for a parable. It's sad. These people, they could have had lavish reward just like the servants, but instead they chose to rebel and reject this man as their king. And so his first act as king when he gets back, after being crowned, is to reward those who are faithful servants, and his second act as king is to slaughter his enemies who rejected him. So, that's the parable. Now, let's go back to this event. You're traveling with Jesus, you're one of his disciples, you're about to enter into Jerusalem, you're excited, and all of a sudden he stops the procession and turns around and says, let me tell you a story. And you're scratching your head, you turn to the guy next to you, what is the point of this story? Guy says, I don't know. I'm not sure. It's a story about three categories of people. You've got the faithful servants, you've got the unfaithful servants. Faithful ones are lavishly rewarded. Unfaithful one is rebuked and gets no reward at all. The subjects who are slaughtered when he returns. And all this takes place at this long delay where he goes off to this far place to get crowned and come back. I don't know. I don't know what to make of this story. If Jesus is the king in the story, what is this long delay? What is that? And where is this distant country that he's going to go and be crowned? And who are these subjects who end up being slaughtered when they reject him and then they get slaughtered? Who is that? I don't know. Maybe he'll explain it when he gets into town. And then that's the end of that. And at this point, we should get the account of the traditional events of Palm Sunday. Here's where we read all these familiar events. where Jesus commandeers the cult and gets on, he's riding in there, and we've talked about this before. A few years ago I preached on this same passage on Palm Sunday. And I explain the significance of each one of these things that he does, the cult and the palm branches and all that. So I'm not going to get into all that again now. You can get that sermon if you want. The one thing I will mention, though, is the writing into Jerusalem on a cult was huge. That sent an unmistakable message, because that was how David installed Solomon as king. Back in David's time, there was a rebellion and someone else was trying to usurp the throne, the time Solomon was supposed to take the throne. And so David quelled that by putting his son Solomon on a colt and riding him right through the heart of Jerusalem. And when he did that, that solidified Solomon as king. And so anybody who knew their Old Testament would know exactly what this meant. When Jesus rode a colt through Jerusalem, he made it crystal clear. He was going to be their king. It was a statement. He's saying, I'm the Messiah. I am the son of David. Like it or not, I'm going to be your king. And I'm going to reign. Okay, now, all that happened. Right here, though, is where most people miss what the Scripture actually says. I told you the triumphal entry never happened. There was a crowd praising Him, waving the palm branches, saying, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, and Hosanna, and all that. That crowd was not the people of Jerusalem. He hasn't entered into Jerusalem yet. Look very carefully at what the Word of God actually says in verse 37. It says, "...when they came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives..." This is prior to entering the city. "...the whole crowd of..." What? "...disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles that they had seen. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord." These are Jesus' followers. They're His disciples. Not just the twelve, but the whole crowd of disciples. The people that have been following Jesus all along. And that's who's praising Him. And that's confirmed again in verse 39, where some of the Pharisees of the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke who? Your disciples. So He's still approaching. Hasn't gone into the city yet. The disciples are praising Him, and that's a wonderful thing. The people of Jerusalem were not this fickle crowd that you've heard about all your life where Jesus rides in and this crowd, they praise Him but it's phony, it's not real. They praise Him on Sunday but a few days later they're saying, crucify Him and they turn. That never happened. The crowd of Jerusalem never did praise Jesus. They never did accept Him as King. In fact, the next three verses here, Jesus pronounces judgment on them for rejecting Him as their King. It was Jesus' disciples that praised Him. And Jesus accepted that praise, by the way. That's just as a side note. Jesus accepted praise. He accepted worship, which really bothered the Pharisees. The Pharisees said, rebuke them, because they're giving you praise that only should go to God. They're worshipping you. That's blasphemous if you're not God, so tell them to stop. And what did Jesus say? Jesus replied, oh, you know, you're right. Come to think of it, I'm just a regular human being. They should not be worshipping me. No. No. He said, verse 40, I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. That's how essential it is that I be worshipped as God. Now that is, anybody who says that Jesus never claimed to be God, they just haven't read their Bible, at least not with their eyes open. I mean, if you want to see how strong this claim is, just Put it in someone else's mouth. Imagine if I said this. What would you think if somebody were worshipping me as God and you said, Darrell, don't you think you should say something? And I said, if they stop worshipping me, it is so essential that I be worshipped as God that if they stop, the rocks will cry out in worship. Wouldn't that seem a little odd to you? This is a strong claim to deity. Anyway, so it's His disciples that do this, not Jerusalem. Palm Sunday was not a triumphal entry. It was the beginning of Jesus' exit from this world, to go off to a far-off place, heaven, to be crowned king. Jesus was going to die, rise from the dead, ascend into heaven, be crowned. There He would be declared with power to be the Son of God, Romans 1-4. And then after a long delay, He would return. And when he returns, it's going to be judgment day for everyone, both the servants who wanted him as king and the subjects who rejected him as king. The servants will be evaluated based on their service and rewarded based on their faithfulness in furthering the king's interests with the resources entrusted to them, and the subjects will be brought before him and slaughtered. Why? Why the slaughter? Why ruin a great story? Why put a downer on a great day? With this, is Jesus some kind of vindictive, angry tyrant that just takes pleasure in punishing his enemies? No, not at all. Look at the next verse, verse 41. As he approached Jerusalem and he saw the city, he wept over it. He wept. And the word wept, that Greek word, it's literally wailed. The emphasis of that term is on the noise being made. This isn't just a few sniffles and dabbing his eye a little bit. These are loud sobs and great heaves of deep sorrow. Jesus is not riding into town triumphantly, grinning from ear to ear, happy because He's fooled by some kind of phony, plastic, insincere worship from a fickle crowd that's about to crucify Him. That's not what's happening. He's riding into town wailing and sobbing. in heartbroken grief. Imagine this. This really happened. This is a true story. This actually happened. Imagine if you saw this. You're part of this crowd of disciples, and he starts crying, and you get into town, and you're expecting this big, glorious, triumphal entry, and instead, he starts crying. And the whole crowd of disciples falls into a stunned silence. And so the only sound you hear clap, clap, clap, clap of the cult and the wailing of Jesus stops. Why is he crying? Is it because he's thinking about, he's about to die? No. No, these are, these are tears of compassion. It wasn't about what was going to happen to him. It was about what was going to happen to them. He wasn't crying because he felt bad about being rejected. He was crying because he was heartbroken over the punishment that was going to come on them for rejecting him. The fact that they were going to be slaughtered. They're the subjects in the parable. He knew they were going to reject him as king. They had rejected him as king and they were going to have to be punished when he returned and it just broke his great infinite heart. In verses 43 and 44 he goes on to describe the bloodbath that was going to take place about forty years later in 70 A.D. The Romans came, they surrounded Jerusalem, cut it off, starved them out for about four years and then finally went into the city and just wiped them out. No mercy. Old, young men, women, children, everybody slaughtered. And that's not even the worst part. The worst part was that 70 A.D., that was just an illustration of the real judgment, the final judgment that will take place when Jesus returns as King at the Second Coming. Make no mistake, 70 A.D., don't let anybody ever tell you that 70 A.D. exhausted God's wrath. It did not. It's just an illustration. It's a very limited picture of final judgment. And so Jesus weeps, and I have to tell you, I studied this this week and I was studying about this, weeping, and I just had to ask, why are there not loud sobs and heaves of sorrow and streams of tears flowing from my eyes, tears of compassion flowing from my eyes every time I preach about Judgment Day or about hell? What is wrong with me? God forgive me for being so heartless and dull and falling so short of Jesus' compassion. Oh, that I were more like Him. in my affections." This is so serious. In the ancient Mideast, When a king paid a visit to a city and it was a peaceful visit, he would come traditionally riding on a donkey. Don't think of a donkey as a lowly, humiliating thing. Believe it or not, a donkey in those days was a royal mount. It was. It did not diminish the king's greatness or his majesty at all. It wasn't a humble thing. What it did do, though, was send a message that the king was coming in peace. He's coming in peace. Jesus rode this donkey into town. When He did that, He was saying, I am going to be crowned your king. I'm the son of David. I'm going to be crowned. I'm coming now gently, peacefully, patiently, not to judge, not to punish, but to save. I'm coming gently for now. For now. But that's not always going to be the case. I'm going to depart, I'll be crowned king, there'll be a long delay, and then I'll come back, and when I return, there is literally going to be hell to pay for those who were not faithful servants. Next time, it's not going to be on a donkey. I'm going to come on a war horse, and I'm going to bring judgment on all those who were not faithful servants while I was gone." And then he broke down in tears. What happened on Palm Sunday was not a triumphal entry, it was a tearful exit. It was the king weeping in heartbroken compassion for the subjects who were inviting disaster on themselves by rejecting him as king. But, make no mistake, the triumphal entry, I told you it never happened? It didn't, but it's going to. There's going to be a triumphal entry. Jesus was crucified, He did rise from the dead, He did make His exit from this world, was taken up into heaven and gloriously crowned King in heaven and is going to return to establish His reign and His faithful...reward His faithful servants and punish His enemies. That's going to happen, that is certain. If you want to read about the triumphal entry, don't go to Luke 19. If you want to read about the triumphal entry, go to Matthew 24, verse 29. Jesus describes His triumphal entry. He says, immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. And at that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect. That's the triumphal entry. Is Jesus gentle and patient? Yeah, for now. But not forever. Not forever because there's a rebellion he has to deal with. The rebellion of mankind, rebellion of all of humanity. The rebellion of mankind against God is described in many places in Scripture. One of them is Psalm 2, which is just a psalm I really love. So much to this psalm. But in Psalm 2, 3, it says, here's the people speaking to God and His Messiah. They said, let us break their chains and throw off their fetters. The idea that God and His Messiah would give us commands and tell us what we have to do and tell us how we have to live and everything. People think that's like handcuffs. That's like being in prison. I don't like that. I want to break free of that. I don't want to have to follow His rules. I want to be the captain of my own life. And I want to decide what will make me happy. I want to decide what will make me fulfilled. And I want to pursue, give my life to pursuing that stuff rather than pursuing God. That's the rebellion of humanity. We trust ourselves and our way more than we trust God and His way. That's the rebellion that's born in the heart of every one of us that we're born that way, with that rebellion in our heart. I don't want to call the shots. This is just mankind declaring the very thing in the parable of the Midas. We will not have this man to be king over us. We don't want him as our king. So there's a revolutionary war going on against God and His reign and His Messiah. It's global, it's all of mankind. But it amounts to nothing. Verse four, the one enthroned in heaven laughs and the Lord scoffs at them. He sees this uprising and he's like, what kind of a lame, cheesy uprising is that supposed to be? And verse five, he says, then he rebukes them in his anger, terrifies them in his wrath, saying, I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill. That's Jerusalem. This is Jesus being crowned king. Verse nine, he says, you will rule with an iron scepter and you will dash them to pieces like pottery. Now the last two weeks I have preached about Judgment Day, mainly focusing on what it's going to be like for believers on that day. But most of what Scripture says about Judgment Day isn't focused on believers, it's focused on unbelievers, what it's going to be like for them. So let's take a look at that. Turn to Revelation 20. In Revelation chapter 20 verse 4, we read about the resurrection first of the righteous, where Jesus said that there will be a time...He mentioned the resurrection of the righteous in Luke 14 and 14, that's going to be the time where we receive our rewards. Then, a thousand years later, the rest of the dead come to life, Revelation 20, 12. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And in verse 13, the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and the death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them. Every single human being who has ever existed or ever will exist will rise from the dead. And they'll all be there. Now, can you imagine this scene? Humanity, all of it. Literally every human being that has ever existed or ever will exist will be there. You picture the scene, the billions and the sea of humanity. If you've ever been to like a Broncos game, it's just overwhelming to be in a crowd that big. That's just not even anything compared to all of humanity. And you just picture this, and that's staggering, but what's even more staggering is there's something else there that's even greater, so much greater that at first John doesn't even notice the people. He doesn't even know the sea of humanity because there's something else that's just even bigger, far bigger. Look at the first thing John notices in verse 11. It says, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. Now that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture is very clear. And there He is, crowned in His final ultimate glory, seated on this throne. This throne is so awesome, all of humanity is dwarfed by it. Isaiah says all the nations are like a drop in a bucket compared to God. The judgment throne of Christ is so awesome. It says here that the earth and the sky fled from His presence, but there was no place for them. His throne is so massive, so intimidating, so awesome, so powerful, that the whole creation, the earth and sky, everything that's created, sees it and just gets scared to death and wants to hide, but can't. The point here is everyone who's there will cower in fear and try to hide, but it'll be like Saul in the baggage, right? They won't be able to hide. People who think that they're going to stand up to God on Judgment Day, sometimes you hear people say that. I get to Judgment Day, I'm going to tell God a thing or two. No, God is going to tell you a thing or two, then he's going to pass sentence, and it's going to be over. When Jesus came in his humiliation, he stood before Pilate. On this day, Pilate will stand before Jesus and give an account. And so will Herod, and so will Caesar, and President Obama, and every human being that's ever existed. Everybody. This throne towers over every human authority that exists. Every power, it carries universal jurisdiction over the entire created order. Everything, it overrides every decision made by any lower court, any lower power. Its summons is irresistible. Its verdicts are final. It cannot be overturned. All of its judgments and verdicts are perfect. There will be no argument. Every mouth will be shut. Every mouth will be silenced. Why? Because of the books. Look at verse 12. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what was done as recorded in the books." So these books contain a record of all of our sins. Every last sin, everything you've ever done is written in these books. No sin will be overlooked. God is keeping meticulous records so that the perfection of His verdicts can be seen as being perfect. clearly seen by all, all the countless sins, things you've long forgotten, things you thought you got away with, things that are... they're all written in these books and they will all be brought up against you on Judgment Day if your name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The documentation will be there and so every mouth will be silenced. There's no argument. The proof will be right there. Jesus described Judgment Day in a parable in Matthew 25 and at the end of that parable He made it very clear there's only two verdicts. Verse 46, they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. If your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, you will go to eternal life because all the deeds written in that book will show that you indeed lived your life for Jesus Christ. You weren't perfect, but the whole goal and trajectory of your life was to bring Him honor. That was your life. And you will receive eternal life based on your works. Now, you don't receive eternal life because of your works, but your works will be the proof that you had faith and that you were born again. We see that numerous times in Scripture. One example is Romans 2 verse 6, God will give to each person according to what he has done to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, He will give them eternal life. But to those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. Only two verdicts. You say, What about the people who...they're Christians but they, you know, they invited Jesus into their heart as their own personal Lord and Savior and all that, and they've done that, they prayed the prayer, but they haven't lived for Christ. They didn't really follow Christ in their lives. What about them? Answer? Very simple, they're not Christians. They're not Christians. They're the people in Matthew 7. They're the worthless servant who gets rebuked. And they're the people in Matthew 7.21 where He says, "...not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will...does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and drive out demons and perform many miracles? And then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you away from Me, you evildoers." They didn't live a life devoted to carrying out the will of God, the desires of God, and so their relationship that they have with God is a mirage. It's not even real. Those people who have invited Jesus into their heart as their Savior and they meant it with all their heart, but they never really did follow Jesus as a disciple, they're in for a horrible surprise on Judgment Day. Jesus is going to call them evildoers. Now, does that mean true Christians are perfect? No, not even close. But it does mean that our whole life is a striving to follow the Word of God and to follow Jesus' way. And when we fail, we repent and we turn back to God. That's the pattern in the Christian life. And when a person lives like that, that is evidence of true faith, which means their name is written in the Book of Life. And if that's the case for you, all your sins will be forgiven and there will be no condemnation for you on Judgment Day like there will be for everyone else. Why? Because you earned it? No. Because your life is marked by Christ honoring words and deeds that are proof that there's been a change in you, that you've been born again. But if there isn't a life showing that, a life that brings glory to Christ, then it means your name's not written in the book. In verse 15, if anyone's name is not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. What happened to the lake of fire? Verse ten, they will be tormented day and night forever. It's an awesome statement. They won't be burned up, they'll be tormented. When I said a minute ago there'll be hell to pay, I didn't mean that as a figure of speech. I would never use that as a figure of speech because hell is just way too serious a matter to minimize it by comparing it to the little hardships we have in this life. The subjects of this king who did not accept his kingship over them are punished with ultimate punishment. And it's forever. It's forever. There is no such thing as purgatory. There is no second chance. Your fate on judgment day is sealed the moment you die. Nothing can change after that. Hebrews 9.27, man is appointed to die once and after that face judgment. Now there are people who teach that the torment won't go forever. After a while you'll just burn out, you'll just go out of existence. That's the doctrine known as annihilation, people that teach that. You just get annihilated, you go out of existence. But Matthew 25, 46 says they'll go away to eternal punishment and the others to eternal life. The punishment is just as eternal as the life. It's the same eternality. And this is not the punishment of extinction, it's the punishment of torment. Revelation says the smoke of their torment goes up forever. And if you skip ahead to the very end of the book of Revelation when you get to the eternal state after everything is all said and done, after the Millennium, after the Final Judgment, after it's all done, and then the New Jerusalem comes and we're in the eternal state. At that point, Revelation 22 verse 15, the wicked are still in existence. In eternity, verse 15, outside the New Jerusalem are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. They're out there. They still exist. They're still sinning. They're still accruing more guilt. Now, I wrote up a more detailed argument against annihilationism because that's just a big topic now and I put that in the appendix of the sermon notes because it's just more and more of a topic. More and more people are latching on to that because hell just seems to be so incredibly harsh. I mean, forever, unending torment, no possibility of parole, no possibility of relief for all eternity. It's just too horrible to even conceive of or think about. And the argument is, that just contradicts the nature of God. Would a loving, kind, gentle, compassionate God really do that to anyone? Even His enemies? It doesn't seem like He would in our culture because our culture has so twisted the nature of God and diminished His character and the understanding of God's greatness and His goodness and His holiness and His wrath and His justice. Our culture doesn't even conceive of those. They don't think that's greatness. They don't think that's godlike. When our culture invents the ultimate being in their fantasy world and they create the ultimate being, you know who they invent? Santa Claus. What is Santa Claus like? Just this person that's nothing but jolly and happy and useful for getting the stuff that I want, but who never interferes in my life, never makes any major demands. That's what our world imagines God to be like. That's what they want. He's not like that. He's not. The true God, the God that actually exists, is awesome. He is fearful. He is infinitely good, which means He has to have an infinite wrath against evil. Do you understand that? The better you are, the more you hate evil. Do you know that? If you see evil take place and it doesn't bother you, something's wrong with you. If you see someone torturing a baby and you laugh, you think it's funny, you're sick, right? I mean, you're an evil person, if that's true. What if you see them torturing a baby and it bothers you just a little bit? You're still evil, it's just not quite as evil as the first guy. But the better person you are, the better heart you have, the more it's going to bother you when you see that. Right? The better you are, the more evil bothers you. How good is God? He's infinitely good. How much does evil bother Him? He has to have an infinite wrath. If He's infinitely good, He has to have an infinite wrath against evil. And not only that, but how bad is evil anyway? How much guilt does it cause you to deserve? The seriousness of a sin is measured, in one part, by who the sin is against. Who is it you're hurting? If I step on a cockroach, nobody cares, right? It's no big deal. If I strangle a cat, that's different. Then something's wrong with me, right? Why? Why is that different? Well, because a cat is a higher order of being than a cockroach. If a rapist gets punched in the nose by somebody, gets a bloody nose, we maybe don't get to lose a lot of sleep over that. But if an innocent little two-year-old gets punched in the nose by someone, That's outrageous. That makes us mad. Why? Because the baby's innocent. The degree of evil is measured in one part by how innocent the victim is. If you hurt someone that's innocent, that's bad. What if the person's not only innocent, but they're deserving of honor. What if they're great and they deserve honor? Then it's even worse, right? If you suppose a soldier who's a hero and he goes out and he throws himself on a grenade to save all his comrades and he succeeds and he survives but he loses both his legs and he comes home in a wheelchair and people spit on him. That's bad, right? That's worse than just spitting on a regular person because this guy deserves a medal. He deserves honor and he's being dishonored. That's bad. The more worthy the person of honor, the more worthy they are of honor, the greater the sin of dishonoring them. How worthy is God of honor? Infinitely worthy. How serious is it to dishonor God? It's an infinite sin. It's the worst evil there is. Dishonoring God is the worst evil imaginable. It's worse than torturing some child. It's worse than murder. It's worse than any other thing you can think of. It is the most wretched evil there is because God is so great and so worthy. One single act of dishonoring God deserves eternal punishment. And we're finite beings, so to pay an infinite price in hell, the only way a finite being can do that is through infinite time. It has to go forever. See, the reason hell seems so extreme to us is, I think, because we have such a low view of the worthiness of God's greatness. We don't understand how serious sin is. We wouldn't question hell if we understood how worthy God is. God's wrath against sin? It's awesome. Why would He kill His Son if it were not A big deal. That's how serious sin is. He killed his son, Jesus. God's wrath against sin is awesome. It's awesome. You just read the Bible. Adam and Eve commit one sin, and God just condemns the entire universe and shatters it with a curse. That's how much He hates sin. And you and I have committed not one sin, countless, and how many sins have we committed, how many times have we done things that we knew we shouldn't do, failed to do things we knew we should do, said things that were sinful, thought things that were sinful, felt things that were sinful. We have had thoughts in our minds, if we were honest, we've had things we wouldn't admit to our closest friend, they're so vile. We are deserving of so much punishment And so when Judgment Day comes, people that are going to be there on Judgment Day, they're going to know better than to offer any kind of excuse. Because everything will be brought to light so that the wickedness of our sin will be so absolutely manifestly obvious that every one of our excuses will be just so clearly invalid that it won't even cross our minds to try and offer them. Every mouth will be silenced. For the condemned There will be no defense, no appeal, no parole, no partiality, no favoritism, no mercy, no grace, no compassion, nothing. And if you're not a follower or a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, your name's not written in that Book of Life, friend, take today's sermon as fair warning. This is God's mercy. The fact that you're in this room right now hearing this, this is God's mercy. and His grace and His patience has brought you here today to hear this warning so that you can repent and be forgiven before it's too late. This world is filled with fools who are betting their eternal destiny on the idea that there will be no final judgment, no ultimate accountability, no justice. They're betting, they're risking their eternal destiny on the idea that their Creator can be safely ignored. They've convinced themselves that when Almighty God issues a command, it's optional. That's a bad bet. They've convinced themselves that it's okay for them to pass judgment on God's commands, to pick and choose, the ones that they like, the ones that they don't like, and decide if they want to follow them. The insanity of that will be evident on Judgment Day, but it'll be too late then. As soon as judgment begins, it's going to be instantly clear, God is not grading on a curve. You're not going to be able to say, well, at least I didn't do that, I'm not as bad as her and I didn't do...you know, and I didn't...that's not going to fly at all. None of that's going to happen because it's not a relative judgment. Every moment of your life will be measured against the perfect standard of the very holiness of God. And where it falls short, we'll be deserving of punishment forever. How can God be loving and compassionate and kind and also just and holy and full of wrath? How do those go together? If you want to see how they go together, what that looks like, just look at Jesus. Just look at Jesus, what He's like. He's riding into Jerusalem, wailing in sorrow. You tell me, if there's no wrath to come, what is there for Him to weep about? If the punishment is no big deal, What is there for him to weep about? And if there's no love in his heart, why is he weeping instead of laughing over the destruction of his enemies? See, they meet. The nature of the Lord Jesus Christ goes to the infinite extreme of holiness and wrath and justice, and it goes to the infinite extreme of love and kindness and compassion. And those two extremes meet, and the intersection of those two extremes, meeting in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, causes Him to ride a cult into Jerusalem, waving a flag of peace, but warning against coming wrath. Please notice what Jesus offers them. This is what Jesus came in His first coming to offer, verse 41, as He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it, and He said, if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace. That's what He came to offer. The phrase translated, what would bring you peace, that's the same phrase a few chapters earlier in Luke 14, 32, when Jesus tells a story, a parable, about a king who is, he's got his army, he's approaching another army, and he sees that other army, he's like, wow, I can't handle this, I can't win this battle, this is no good, I better just send a delegation to seek terms of peace. That's the same phrase, identical phrase. See, before the day of wrath arrives, in the first coming of Jesus, he came to offer terms of peace to rebellious mankind. The picture here is Jesus approaching Jerusalem, He's like a king who is coming to a rebellious city, a hotbed of rebellious resistance against His rightful authority. And instead of just wiping them out like any king would do, He offers them all total amnesty, total...just...full pardon for everyone there if they just would agree to His terms of peace. They just lay down their weapons and agree to the terms of peace. You say, what are the terms? What are the terms? Well, can we agree on this? The terms are whatever the king says they are. This is not a debate, it's not a discussion, it's not a vote. We are the guilty rebels, he is the merciful king, he dictates the terms. And what has he dictated? What are the terms of peace? Well, he demands that you give up something that is absolutely worthless in exchange for something that is absolutely priceless. Those are the terms. Okay? That's the gospel. The worthless thing that he's requiring you to give up is the car keys of your own life. Calling it your own shot. Independence from God. That is something that is utterly worthless. Running your life, it's worthless, but it seems precious to us. It seems so precious that there are people who would rather die than give that up. There are people who would rather go to hell than give that up. They would rather die than submit to God's commands because they just love being the captain of their own ship, or at least pretending they are. Of course they're not. They're not in control of anything, but at least it seems like they are. And that's worthless. That is worthless. My life with me at the helm, with me in the driver's seat, is worthless. The places I drive this car are not going to bring me any ultimate happiness or fulfillment. They're not going to honor God, which means my life will be utterly worthless, wasted, no ultimate value. Me hanging on to the car keys of my life me wanting to control my own life, that is the weapon, that's my weapon of seditious rebellion against God that I need to lay down. He created me. My life belongs to Him. Then He purchased it, it belongs to Him again. It's His, not mine. If I live my life for myself, for my own preferences instead of His, then I'm stealing from the King and I'm committing treason. So the terms of peace for me is to lay down my weapons of rebellion, my own self-determination, to let go of that worthless thing and exchange that for something that is absolutely priceless, namely favor from God. And not just a little bit of favor, the very favor that He has for His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That much favor. That means everything Jesus gets, I get because I am connected to Jesus. Every bit of affection God has for Jesus, He has for me. That means all my sins, every one of them, forgiven, forever forgotten, and Jesus' perfect life is credited to my account. Those are the terms. That's the exchange. You say, well, that sounds like a good deal. How does that exchange made? What do I have to do? Belief. It's just through faith. If I just simply trust Jesus Christ so much that I trust Him more than I trust myself, I trust His way so much that I'm willing to place my whole existence into His hands, put myself at His disposal, let Him call the shots in my life instead of me calling the shots. If I trust Him like a guide so I'll follow Him, so that I read His Bible, and when I read His Word I don't judge it based on, well, you know, maybe I'll see if I agree with this. But rather, if it says it, I believe it. It's God's Word. It's truth. Just because it says it there. If I approach His Word that way, if I trust Him that way, then I will no longer be His enemy. Instead, I will be at peace with God. I'll close with this. There's nothing more certain than Judgment Day. It's going to happen. Not believing in it won't make it go away. It's going to happen. That's decided. The only thing that's not decided yet is whether you will be on that day a servant or a subject. And if you're a servant, what kind of servant? If you're not living your life for the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, again, take this sermon as yet another instance of His compassion and patience and love for you giving you yet another chance to get your name written in the book of life and escape the judgment before it's too late. And if you are a servant and you're a faithful servant, you will be richly rewarded for what you have done in this life with the resources entrusted to you. And if you're not a faithful servant, if your mina is just somewhere off to the side collecting dust, take warning. And if you are exempt from the wrath to come and you're a faithful servant, let me ask you this, what is your attitude toward the people around you who are lost? Who are rocketing towards judgment day without Christ? Is there enough compassion in your heart? Is there enough Jesus-like compassion in your heart to urgently warn them? and tell them about the terms of peace? I tell you, preaching this sermon, I mean, studying for this sermon these past couple of weeks, it's just changed the way I've been looking at people. I go to the drive-thru at McDonald's, I see the girl giving me my change, and I just picture her standing on Judgment Day without Christ. And it's just a heartbreaking thing. It just makes me want to tell everybody the terms of peace. God, give us compassion like the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for these terms of peace. We would be so utterly lost if You had not provided salvation for us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You for granting us forgiveness. Lord, give us compassionate hearts for the lost like Jesus demonstrated on Palm Sunday. Let our hearts break, Lord. When you go out and hand out those invitations today, let our hearts break for the people we see. And we pray for mercy for them, that they would become servants and be exempted from judgment. We pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Just take a couple minutes here before we dismiss. Any questions about the sermon? Okay, so first question, what are the minas? I think the minas represent the resources that God has given you to advance His Kingdom. So your spiritual gift, your arms and your legs, your ability to serve Him, your ability to serve His people, your mind, your ability to understand His Word, all the resources you have that you can put to work, you can invest for His Kingdom. I think that's the mina. Okay, the question is, why does he tell them to bring the subjects in front of him and slaughter them? Why does he use slaughter instead of an image that seems more like torment? The answer is, he does use torment-type images in other places. I think the slaughtering shows the severity of it and the ultimateness of it and the irreversibility of it and the fact that it's connected with death. because the torment in hell is called the second death. And so we have that imagery, but we also have imagery in almost identical, I mean, a very, very similar parable, the parable of the talents in Matthew 24. And there, the worthless servant, it says, verse 28, take the talent from him and give it to the one who had the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more and he'll have an abundance and he who does not, even when he does have, will be taken from him. and throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." So there it's not extermination, but unpleasant situation where they're thrown. So you have both images in Scripture because it is a form of death, but then there's other passages that let us know that it's not the kind of death that means you go out of existence, but there's conscious torment. Great question. So the question is, is hell really a place of torment or could it be that it's just God withdrawing His presence from you, removing His presence from you? And I would say it would be impossible to make those two things different. If God withdraws His presence, His presence to bless, if He withdraws that 100 percent, what does that leave me with? What pleasure am I left with? What joy, what fulfillment am I left with? Nothing. There is no goodness from any other source than God, right? None. And so if God removes all of His blessing, all of His goodness, you are left with nothing but the worst imaginable torment. That's all there...it could be, because anything less than that would be blessing from God. That's exactly right, and I think that's the danger, is if you say, oh, hell, all it is is God removing His presence, the average unbeliever is going to say, so what? I don't even want the presence of God. I'm doing fine without... They don't realize they're benefiting from the presence of God in many ways on this earth, and so it's a dangerous way to present the gospel, to say it that way, to try to soften it, because all it does is make it so it's nothing for them to be afraid of. Yeah, good point. So the evil people who are outside of the gates of New Jerusalem, they're called the dogs, outside are the dogs. Why dogs? Why not people? Clearly they are people. I mean they're doing, if you'll see the list of sins, they're not sins that dogs commit, they're sins that people commit. And so they're people. But they're called dogs because the dog represents that which is ultimately vile and unclean. The picture there is they're They're so unclean that they cannot approach the presence of God. That's what uncleanness means. You're not able to approach the presence of God. They're unworthy to be inside the city because they are dogs. It's a metaphor to picture them as these... Don't picture your little cute poodle with a sweater on on your lap at home. This isn't what would come to mind. These are the mongrel, scavenger, dangerous, filthy, unclean creatures that would have been despised in that culture you know, that roamed around the garbage dump and that's where they belonged and they wouldn't be in the city. So that's the picture. Okay, the question is, what about that servant who's the unfaithful servant who doesn't do anything with his mina? Does he squeak by or is he included in the slaughter? This parable doesn't say, but in another similar parable, he's included in the slaughter. He's thrown out where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth and outer darkness. And so I believe this servant is lost. And I think the reason Jesus There's actually three categories. You get the faithful servants, the unfaithful servant, and the evil subjects who are his enemies. And I think there's a reason for those three. It's because Jesus always wants to warn us that just because we're not the atheist rebels who are shaking their fist at God and totally rejecting Jesus in this life, just because we're not in that group, just because we come to church and we read the Bible and we pray and we acknowledge Jesus as our Lord doesn't necessarily seal the deal that we're going to be safe on Judgment Day. It could be we'll still be lost on Judgment Day if we're not faithful servants. And so there's a call to be faithful, and it's a very striking call, because I believe that last servant is lost. Okay, so how does the resurrection... if our souls are already in heaven, how does the resurrection work? What happens is your soul goes to heaven. When you die in this life, your soul goes to heaven, your body goes in the ground. And so you're existing in heaven without that body. Now, I don't know what kind of thing in body. Some people have suggested maybe in heaven during that intermediate state before the second coming, you've got some sort of temporary body, or maybe you're just a soul without a body. We don't really know how that works. But you don't have your body. It's still in the ground. And then after the second coming, well, at the second coming, when Jesus arrives at the second coming, what's going to happen is the dead in Christ will rise. the bodies that are in the ground will be gloriously resurrected and glorified like Jesus' incorruptible body and reunited with your soul, which is in heaven. That's going to happen and then we're going to accompany Jesus. It is great triumphal entry on that day. Okay, so why do we always hear that at the triumphal entry it was actually a triumphal entry and that all of Jerusalem praised Him and they were a fickle crowd? Why do we hear that? I don't know. I just think that they're not reading it very carefully. It says the whole crowd. And He's nearing Jerusalem. And people just don't... It just happens in Scripture. Sometimes tradition takes over. The same reason on Christmas you have the Magi there at Jesus' birth. And they don't show up until much later in the text. And so we've just got to be careful to not take our theology from greeting cards or plays. People that write plays the theologians, necessarily. So it just happens. We just need to read Scripture so carefully and not accept something just because it's always what you've always heard. Yes, there was a large crowd. The crowd of disciples was indeed a large crowd. By the time he gets to Jerusalem, it's a multitude. It's a big, big crowd of disciples. No question about that. And a lot of it was because of the resurrection of Lazarus. And all of Jerusalem did come out to see him in Matthew's account. It says when he finally does enter the city, they do come out. The whole city comes out to see him. But it does not say that they praise him. The only thing it says that they say is they ask, who is this man? Who's the guy on the coat? And then the disciples answer and say that's the Messiah. But there's no record of any response after that.