The following sermon was delivered on January 26th, 2025 at Free Grace Baptist Church in Paulsbo, Washington. The speaker is Roy Linberry and the title of the message is The Final Judgment. ...with me to the book of Isaiah chapter 58, Isaiah chapter 58. I will read this in your hearing this morning. Let us now worship God through the reading of His Word. Cried loudly, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet and declare to my people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways. As a nation that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the ordinance of their God, they ask Me for just decisions. They delight in the nearness of God. Why have we fasted and you do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and you do not notice? Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire and drive hard all your workers. Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one's head like a reed, and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord? Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house? And when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth, and your righteousness will go before you. The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. And then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry and He will say, Here I am, if you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness. And if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday. and the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones, and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins. You will raise up the age-old foundations, and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell. If because of the Sabbath you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord, honorable and honor it, desisting from your own ways and from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Amen. I pray that the Lord would add His blessing to the reading... Once again I say Amen. Let's continue this time again with the reading of Scripture. Please turn to Matthew chapter 25. We'll be reading verses 31 through 46 this morning. This is the final portion of this chapter and the final portion of this particular discourse that we've been spending so much time in of late. Let's open. Matthew chapter 25. Beginning in verse 31. Hear now the word of God. But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. And then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me." And then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? And when did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer, and say to them, truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. And then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in. Naked, and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. And then they themselves also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you? And then he will answer them. Truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Amen. Well again, I pray that the Lord would add His blessing to the reading of His Word and the preaching of it. As I've already said, this really brings us to a dramatic conclusion. It's the dramatic conclusion of the Olivet Discourse. We've been looking at this through Matthew chapters 24 and 25. And those chapters, if you remember, hopefully you do because I've been bringing it up basically week after week, they serve as an answer to the questions of the disciples, particularly concerning the destruction of the temple. What were those questions? When shall these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Now, it seems that the disciples were conflating the end of the age with the final judgment, with the end of the world, as it were. Now following Jesus' teaching, we see Him really setting the record straight and teasing these two things out. Now He began, if you remember, with signs of the coming judgment upon Jerusalem. All of these things had this near-term focus as we've walked through them. They were signs that the disciples themselves were to be looking for in order to know that the time was near. And in fact, if you remember in Matthew 24, He specifically said that all of those things would happen in that generation. But in chapter 25, the tone of the discourse changed. When we pick up in chapter 25, we see rather than looking at the near term, rather than saying that you need to look out, the signs are here, you're going to know that it's near, when you see all of these things, the tone shifts. The parables that Jesus uses speaks of long periods of waiting. The virgins fell asleep. while the bridegroom was delaying upon his return. And likewise, the parable of the talents pictures what? A master who went on a long journey and he returned after a long time. These parables speak to us of the New Covenant era, introduced in chapter 25, verse 1 to us as the kingdom of heaven. Verse 1, then the kingdom of heaven will be compared to ten virgins. And likewise we see in verse 14, for it is just as a man about to go on a journey. This was the change in focus at that time or from that time. So he's spoken of the judgment coming upon Jerusalem. And he says from that time, the kingdom of God will be compared to these things. The kingdom of heaven will be compared to these things. It's the period following the end of the old covenant age with the destruction of the temple and it takes us through to the final judgment which is where we find ourselves in the text today. But as a very quick review, let's remember that the parable of the virgins reminds us to keep watch to ensure that we are to be found ready at the coming of the bridegroom. It's a reminder for us to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, it's a reminder for us to be certain of our calling and our election. And failing to do so, you may be found to be a false convert. You may be found to be shut out at the coming of the bridegroom. That's what happened to those foolish virgins who were unprepared for the length of time. They were unprepared for what this kingdom period would bring. And so that when the bridegroom came, they were found to be lacking, unprepared. and so the door was shut after the bridegroom returned and they were not allowed in. Keep watch then, he says. Watch out for yourselves. Ensure that you are in the faith, for you do not know when he is coming. Now the parable of the talents is Jesus' directive not just to be faithful in our stewardship of His things, but to think in terms of investment into the future, investment into the Kingdom of God. That's what we looked at last week. Remember that the smallest act of faithfulness, the smallest act of faithfulness can reap dividends unmeasurable over the course of time. So that even things which may feel mundane and insignificant now, if they're done in faith, they may be the small deposit upon which God gives unthinkable growth. We often think of our faithfulness and our stewardship, but we isolate it from the investment into the future and what's happening. It's just about, am I being faithful right now? But the parable of the talents gives us a broader perspective, not just to think about am I being faithful right now, but there's a purpose behind it. My faithfulness right now, even in these very small things, may very well have dividends that are being paid out into the Kingdom of God into the future. Who knows what the Lord is going to do with even the smallest act of kindness and mercy or speaking the Word of God into the life of somebody that you work with or a family member. We don't know what He's going to do, but we're called to be faithful with it and to look at it as an investment into the Kingdom. In fact, the only condemnation that we see in this parable, it's not coming because the person was given little, nor is it for having only little increase. The only condemnation in that parable came because of the servant who was being wicked and lazy, who was not even willing to expend the smallest amount of effort to increase that which had been entrusted to him, that which had been given for stewardship for the glory of Christ. Both of these parables have a couple of things in common. First, They give us instruction. He gives instructions to the believer during this kingdom or new covenant age. tell us to watch ourselves, to ensure that we are prepared for His coming, so that we are not found to be lacking, not to be found unprepared. They teach us what we ought to do during this time, investing in and seeking for the growth of the Kingdom of God, to be seeking to increase that which has been entrusted into our stewardship. But not only that, secondly, both of them assume that there are tears among the wheat. Both of these parables assume that there are tares among the wheat, those who appear to be a part of the church, but they are found in the end to be unconverted. You've had not only the ten faithful, the ten wise virgins, but you had the ten unwise virgins. In the end, they were found to be unconverted. They were not allowed into the kingdom. We found the unfaithful steward of the three stewards who, in the end, was cast out, and even that which he had been given was taken from him. And finally, both of these parables are capped off with pictures of blessing and judgment. Blessing to those who are faithful, blessing to those who are found to be in Christ, who are found to be prepared, who are found to be faithful with that which they were given, and a judgment to those who were not. Now that judgment becomes the focus now of this final section of chapter 25. So both parables end really with these statements on blessing and judgment. And now at the end of the chapter, Jesus expands on that idea of judgment. So I'll look at the following headings. The judge, number one, we'll look at the judge. Number two, the judgment of the sheep. And number three, the judgment of the goats. So we'll look at the judge himself, the judge. the judgment of the sheep and the judgment of the goats. Now, judgment isn't a popular topic. And it's not even a particularly fun one to address. In fact, if there was a topic that is probably the most unpleasant to address, it would be the topic of judgment. But it's in the scriptures. So it must be preached with the same fervor as everything else. This is, by the way, one of the blessings of working through the Scriptures and the Bible in a consistent manner, is it eliminates the possibility of just simply skipping over things or avoiding those things that might be tougher to interact with and tougher to deal with. But the concept of judgment is throughout the New Testament. And so we must interact with this. We must engage with the idea of the coming and final judgment. Now here's something that's interesting for you, whether you've taken a chance to look at this or not. Many people who seek to sort of divide the Old Testament and the New Testaments, they speak of preferring Jesus, who is this gentle Savior, as opposed to God of the Old Testament, as He's revealed in the Old Testament, as one of wrath and judgment. Have you ever heard that? Have you heard people speak of that? Oh, just give me gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This Jesus, this gentle Savior. But boy, that God of the Old Testament, boy, we don't want anything of that. Because He is all about judgment and wrath. But here's what's interesting. Almost everything that we know of hell comes from the mouth of Jesus. Have you ever thought about that? Almost everything that we know of hell from the scriptures comes from the mouth of Jesus himself. He is the one who spoke about hell far more than most people realize. He himself is the judge. He himself is the one who will make that final judgment. He's the one that we've just read, separating the sheep from the goats, the one who will invite the sheep into blessings of the Father, and the one who will say, depart from me to the goats, as they are cast into eternal punishment. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's look at the judge, verses 31 through 33 of our chapter. But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on His left." Jesus uses for Himself here the title, Son of Man. And he uses that title as the judge of all of the nations. Now, the fact that Jesus is the judge shouldn't surprise us. That's thematic in the New Testament. Hopefully, we all understand that. That's a very interesting thing when people try to show a preference for Jesus as if Jesus has nothing to do with judgment when Jesus himself is the judge. John 5, verse 22 says, "...for not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son." Acts 10, verse 42 says, "...He ordered us to preach to the people and solemnly to testify that this is the one who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead." So here we're told that Jesus is the one who's been appointed by God to judge the living and the dead. Fast forward seven chapters, Acts chapter 17, verses 30 and 31. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring that all men everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof by raising Him from the dead. And Jesus is the man through whom God judges the world because He has been appointed as the judge. All judgment is given to Him. Again, 2 Timothy 4, verses 1 and 2. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by His appearing and His kingdom. preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. Jesus is the judge and he calls himself in this picture that he's giving of the judgment, he speaks of the son of man. When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. And the son of man is a very great title for him to be using here. It has overtones of both his humanity and his deity. When you hear that term son of man, it has overtones of humanity and deity. The humanity piece is usually pretty easy for us to ascertain. Son of man. He's born of a woman that he's truly man. And being truly man, he is fit then to judge mankind. Being truly man, he is fit to judge humanity. just as his humanity has made him a perfect high priest, it also makes him the perfect judge. As the one who's been tempted in every way as we are yet without sin, the one who perfectly obeyed the law which we have disobeyed, he can not only sympathize with our weaknesses, sympathize with the weaknesses of humanity, but he can also then stand in judgment of those who died in their sin. He is the Son of Man. He is the Judge. But this title also hints at His deity and His kingship. In fact, we see that right here in our passage. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and the angels with Him, what will happen? He will sit on His glorious throne. Here is His kingship. He will come and sit on His throne. But the title, the title son of man actually comes from the book of Daniel chapter 7. Now you've heard this passage a number of times before, but recognize again the concept of deity and kingship that we see because this is where he ascends into heaven and he's given a crown, he's coronated. This is where he's given his kingdom. We read this, I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming and he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion. glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." Here's the Son of Man, the King of all the earth, the one who upon His ascension into heaven, into the throne room, He approaches the Ancient of Days and He has given this rulership, this kingdom, He's given this throne from which He will judge all of the nations. And so that at the end of time, when the Son of Man comes with His glorious angels, when He comes in all of His glory, He will sit on His glorious throne in order to judge the world. Having conquered death, having conquered sin, having risen from the dead, and having ascended into heaven, He has been crowned King, and as such, He has all judgment and all authority over all of the earth. And you'll notice even in our chapter here, he's referred to as the king. It was verse 34 say, then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed of my father. Verse 40 is the parallel for the goats. The king will answer, excuse me, verse 40 is his answer to them. The king will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. He then turns into the corollary for the goats. But the idea here is that kingship and judgment cannot be separated. The one who is the ruler of the land, the monarch, has all judgment within his jurisdiction. And so Jesus, as the King of all of the earth, as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, has all judgment given into his hands. He is the one judge of all people. And then this final judgment that we see here is the long-awaited consummation of His kingdom. When we speak of His kingdom, we speak of it being inaugurated in His first coming. We speak of it being consummated or completed and brought to completion, to perfection in His second coming when He will judge the living and the dead. So we see that Jesus himself as king is the judge. Now let's look at the judgment of the sheep. The judgment of the sheep. The king will say to those on his right, those are the sheep, come you who were blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, you invited me in. naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to me. And the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see all of these things and not take care of you? When did we see these things and take care of you? The king will answer, verse 40, say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. Jesus is saying, you did all of these things for me. When? When did we do all of these things? When did we see you in these conditions and take care of you? Well, notice, first off, let's back up just a little bit. All of the nations are gathered before him. This is the judgment. All of the nations are gathered before him. There is no one who escapes this judgment. There are some people theologically who would separate this particular description of judgment from the final judgment. I haven't found an argument that is satisfactory to try to do that. I think it's very clear, particularly as we follow the contextual flow of the Olivet Discourse. From that very time, Jesus gives those signs on what to expect, the destruction of Jerusalem, and then from that time forward, he describes the kingdom of heaven and what that will be like, which is consummated here, then in this final judgment. But there are none who will escape the final judgment. Listen to the description of this judgment in Revelation 20. This is verses 11 through 13. Then I saw a great white throne, Notice the language here. I remember when He comes, the Son of Man and Glory, He's going to sit on His glorious throne. Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, The books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds. There is no escaping the judgment. It is universal. It extends to all men. But you'll notice here in our passage that the people are divided into two groups. They're divided into two groups. There's the sheep and the goats and no others. Don't miss that point. When He divides the nations for judgment, you're either on the right hand or on the left hand. You either belong to the sheep or you belong to the goats. This is the dichotomy of Christ and the dichotomy of the Gospel, which is this. You either belong to Him or you don't. There is no middle ground. You cannot ride the fence when it comes to Christ. You cannot ride the fence when it comes to the Gospel. There's nobody who is in between, who's halfway saved. There's no third or fourth groups. There's nobody who's mostly there. You remember, well, maybe you don't remember the scene from The Princess Bride where Wesley is pronounced to be mostly dead, right? Well, the scripture says that everybody is all dead until they've been made alive in Christ. And if you've been made alive, there is nobody who is mostly alive. You either belong to Christ or you don't. Jesus himself said that there is no middle ground. He who is not for me is against me. So many people want to find this middle ground, they want to create this third category, so that the judgment for those people would not be maybe quite so harsh. So many people want to think that they can, well, I'm not openly antagonistic or opposed to Christ and to the gospel, therefore there must be, isn't there a place for such a person? Well, yes, there is a place. And it's on the left, with the goats. Jesus makes it very clear that there is no middle ground. He divides into the sheep and to the goats and at the judgment every person will find themselves at his right hand or his left hand numbered with either the sheep or the goats. The sheep, of course, being a picture of believers, being a picture of those who are converted, those who are joined to Christ through faith. Psalm 79 verse 13, so we your people and the sheep of your pasture will give thanks to you forever to all generations we will tell of your praise. John chapter 10, famous passage, the passage of the Good Shepherd, where Jesus is spoken of as the Good Shepherd. He calls himself, here in verse 14, I am the Good Shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me. Even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus died for the sheep. Likewise, those who do not belong to Christ cannot be called His sheep. John chapter 10, very same chapter, a few verses later. As the Pharisees are arguing with Him in verse 25, Jesus answered and said, I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my Father's name. These testify of me. And then in verse 26, He says this. He says, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. You don't believe because you are not of my sheep. I laid down my life for the sheep. You don't believe because you are not of the sheep. And they will find themselves in that final day numbered among the goats. The goats are those who are not of Christ's sheep. Now, the judgment of the sheep comes, and it's very favorable. What an amazing thing to hear. What does He say? As soon as He separates them on His right and His left, He says to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. They are called those who are blessed of the Father. and it is theirs to inherit the kingdom of God and its fullness. Though we're already citizens of the kingdom, it's only in its full consummation and perfection that we will truly experience the beauty, the grandeur, the glory of our union with Christ and our reconciliation to the Father, to truly understand what that means. And I believe that a large part of that is going to be because only then will we truly know in full that which we preach in truth, the true holiness of God. Only then will we truly understand fully what that means. Only then will we truly see how terrible our sin actually is and understand how little anything that we do could possibly merit. That there is nothing that we could possibly do that would give anything, any kind of merit to show favor to God. I think we will truly in that day, far more than even today, now recognize how wicked and evil our sin, how heinous it is in God's sight, and truly recognize how holy and righteous He is. So we will experience the kingdom really in a whole new light. We will experience that beauty and the glory of our union with Christ to its fullest. And then notice that the kingdom here is prepared for the sheep from the foundation of the world. Not just inherit a kingdom that I built or that I prepared a long time ago, but it was prepared for you from the foundation of the world. of the world. It's personal. Giving the saints this inheritance has been the plan of God from all eternity. to give them this inheritance. Romans 8, verses 16 and 17, we read, "...the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we also may be glorified with Him." And what Paul is drawing out here is this picture of Him as our elder brother. And that if we're joined to Him, if we belong to Him, if we're children of God, then we're heirs also with Christ. Joint heirs, co-heirs with Jesus Christ Himself. So that we would inherit that very kingdom. Now what's really interesting about the judgment of the sheep here is that Jesus points to something very particular, not exactly what we would probably expect Him to point to. Look at what He points to for their judgment. He says that they invested themselves in His welfare. They invested themselves in his welfare. I was hungry, you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was naked, you clothed me. I was sick, you visited me. I was in prison, you came into me. He says, you invested yourselves in my welfare. Now, of course, they don't remember doing these things for him, and so they ask about it, and Jesus clarifies it. He says, when you did these things for my brothers, then you did them for me. When you did these things for my brothers, you did them for me. Now, I don't want you to mistake this as a command to just generic charity. Certainly the Bible speaks to us over and over again about God's concern for the orphan, for the widow, for the downtrodden, for the oppressed. And we ought to be concerned with that generically. We ought to be concerned about the suffering of mankind that should be in our sights and in our minds. But that's not the focus here. The focus here is very specific. He doesn't say, as often as you did this for somebody, for people, for sons of men. He says, as often as you did this to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them. To one of these brothers of mine? Well, who are his brothers? Thankfully, we don't have to look far because Jesus answers that question. If you remember, At one point, he's in a house and disciples come up to him. Hey, your mother and your brothers are outside. Matthew chapter 12, verse 48, he answers. He says, who is my mother and who are my brothers? and stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, Behold, my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother." Now we see here that he's not speaking specifically and only of the twelve, for the twelve were all men. He's speaking of his disciples at large. Remember, he had far more disciples than just the 12. The 12 were his closest, but he's speaking out to his disciples. And he says, behold, my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of my father in heaven, he is my brother, my sister, my mother. What Jesus says is my brother is the one who does the will of the father. My brother is the disciple, the one who follows me, the one who gives himself to me. And we could go down a whole rabbit hole in terms of what that entails, right? Because Jesus said that it wasn't easy to be his disciple, that there are certain things. If a man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. It's not an easy road. It's not simply somebody who names the name of Christ, but rather somebody who is given over to Christ. One who is joined to Him by faith. So His brothers are His disciples. His brothers are His people. Paul teaches the very same thing, Romans 8, 29. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. Why? so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren." So he becomes the firstborn among many brothers. Who are those brothers? Well, they're the ones that God foreknew, the ones that were predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Those who follow after Christ, those who are transformed and made anew in His image. Those are His brothers. Again, Hebrews 2, verses 11 through 15. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified, so we're talking about Jesus and we're talking about His people, He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father. For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brethren in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. So those whom He has redeemed that He calls brethren. that are His brothers. What Jesus is commending them for is how they received and treated Christians. Now, in contrast, the judgment of the goats is for not receiving and blessing Christians. Now, this may have some very specific applications to missionaries, but all Christians are Christ's brothers and all are heralds of the gospel. And therefore, The question here was about how people responded to Christians. How did they treat the people of God? You say to me, wait a minute now. Is the judgment going to be about salvation by works? Certainly not. Works are the evidence of saving faith and so all works that are done in faith are an objective standard by which Christ can judge faith. Christ alone as the perfect judge can judge faith by works that are done in faith. But we see that concept in James chapter 2. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of works, faith was perfected. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. James was not teaching another gospel. James is pointing out a very specific biblical truth. You show me faith without works and I will demonstrate my faith by my works. Faith without works is dead. Saving faith results in a transformed life. It results in works that are done in faith. and therefore, as the perfect judge of all the earth, Christ can look at those works done in faith and He judges the very faith of His people. Even the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, it exalts the faith of the saints, but what is it doing? In exalting the faith of the saints, it's pointing to what they did in faith. By faith, they did these things. But notice that all of the works pointed to speak specifically to a person's concern for Christ. What you did to the least of these, my brothers, you did to me. The heart of this judgment is that of care and concern for Jesus Himself. So let me say this, a person who loves Christ, loves His body. And the one who does not love his body does not love Christ. Nobody can rightly claim to love Christ while hating the church. 1 John 4 verse 20, If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And so earnestly does Christ identify with His church, which has been united to Him, that that which is done to the church is done to Christ Himself. So that He can say, to the extent that you did these things to my brothers, even to the least of them, you did it to me. And if you need a little bit more to understand that, think of the crime of Saul who would become the Apostle Paul as he was persecuting Christians, persecuting the church Acts 9, verses 1-5, Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and he asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And then what happened? As he was traveling, it happened, as he was approaching Damascus, And suddenly a light flashed around him, and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. This is the extent that Christ aligns Himself with the church who has been united to Him, so that that which is done to His people is done to Him. To persecute the church is to persecute the Lord. To love the church is to love the Lord who bought her and gave Himself up for her. And so we see this in the final judgment. This isn't really specifically looking at this work and that work. Rather, what Jesus is doing is He's looking at those works that pointed to whether or not they loved Christ by how they treated His body. by how they treated his people. The same thing goes, let's move on to the judgment of the goats, the same thing goes for them. We see the corollary here to that which was done for the sheep. The judgment of the goats is awesome and terrible. They receive an unfavorable judgment which is truly beyond description. It's very easy to speak of the blessings for the Christian. It's very easy to talk of eternal life. It's very easy to speak of eternal peace, and comfort, and goodwill, and joy, and all of these things. But that is not what's given to the goats. They receive this unfavorable judgment. They're pronounced accursed. This is the very opposite of blessings. Verse 41, he will say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. Think about this. As blessed as the sheep are in their union with Christ, so also the goats are accursed in their separation from him. To the extent that we magnify the blessings of the sheep, so also is the depths of despair and judgment upon the goats. and their destination is the fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." We see that in Revelation 20 verse 10, the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. This is the same end for the goats to be to be cast into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Don't miss this, that both the blessings of the righteous and the judgment of the wicked are eternal. This is not annihilation. You may have heard people try to teach that where a person ceases to exist in judgment, but rather what we see in the scripture is that their torment goes on forever. Hell is described in the Bible as an eternal fire. It's described as torment. A place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. A place where the worm doesn't die and the fire is not quenched. And many people try to avoid these truths of judgment, thinking that they're too cruel and they're too unbecoming of the God of the Bible. But I'll say this, on the contrary, God is only good and there is no cruelty with Him. We ought not to be thinking to charge Him with cruelty because of our human faltering understandings of what this means. That's why I say I think that we will understand far better in eternity the true holiness of God. We may think that we have Him elevated to His proper place, but I bet we're not even close. We may think that we think rightly of man and sin and we understand how bad it is, but I bet we are not even close. The problem is with our view of goodness. If we're honest with ourselves, we often think man to be far better than he actually is. We like to justify our own sin. We like to justify ourselves. And sometimes we like to justify others around us simply because we don't like to think of what the Scripture says of those who are lost. But God is holy. God is righteous. And He will uphold His law with justice. And He will, as the Scripture says, judge the world in righteousness. His judgments will be right. They will be just. And let me say this. While it's common for us to criticize those who shy away from the doctrines of hell and the doctrines of judgment, the sad truth is we often don't believe it either. We talk about it and we pay lip service to it, but we often don't really believe it. Listen how Jonathan Edwards describes this. He says, wicked men will hereafter earnestly wish to be turned to nothing and forever cease to be so that they may escape the wrath of God. Do we believe that? Do we believe what the Bible says about judgment? Because if we did, if we didn't just pay lip service to it, I'll ask you this, how much more effort would go into your investments into the kingdom? How much more would we be praying for the lost? How much more would we be acting for the sake of the Kingdom, and for the growth of the Gospel, and for the conversion of the lost all around us? How much more would you put into your relationships with your family and friends? How much more Gospel-centered would be your conversations with your children? In truth, we often downplay the terrors of God's wrath in our own minds. And it can cause us to become lazy and apathetic. Now as Jesus closes out the Olivet with judgment, we must be struck with two simple truths. Number one, God is just. His law cannot be broken without divine justice coming to bear on the sinner. Because He is just. and that justice is seen in the holy wrath that endures forever on those upon whom it comes." Those that die in their sin will experience the eternal wrath of God. And lest you be thinking Well, why should it be eternal? Shouldn't there be some time when that debt is paid off? Recognize this. The scripture nowhere indicates that sinners who are under the judgment and wrath of God cease to sin. That they ever become lovers of God. So that their sin continues forever. Their hatred of God continues forever. So we see judgment and we ought to recognize that God is just. But the second thing we ought to recognize is that God is merciful and gracious. That God is merciful and gracious. He holds out His hands all day long to a rebellious and a disobedient people. In fact, Christ Himself, the One who pronounces judgment upon men, stood in the place of sinners and underwent that very wrath of God on their behalf. That is the gospel, that He underwent the wrath of God for the sin of somebody else, of millions and billions of other people. He stood in their place and He took that wrath upon Himself, so that even as the one who judges and the one who will pronounce judgment on those who have died in their sin, so also has He taken on the judgment. that mankind deserves. So that those who are united to Him through faith will not come into judgment, but will inherit the kingdom and the blessings forever. Those who are united to Him through faith will not come into judgment, or certainly not into condemnation in that judgment, but they will inherit the kingdom and the blessings forever. And so we proclaim Christ not only because it's our duty, but because it's the only way for people to escape the terror of God's eternal judgment and to find eternal life, peace, joy, and blessings. May the knowledge of this judgment drive us to faithful stewardship of that with which we've been entrusted. Let's pray. Our God and Father, again, we express with grateful hearts our gratitude that You have not left us in our sin, that You have not left us without a witness, without Your Word, that You have given us Christ Jesus, who loved us, who died, who gave Himself up for us, so that we might live to Him, and that we might experience eternal fellowship with You. And Father, even as we meditate upon the blessings of our salvation, may we recognize the terrors of judgment that awaits all of those who have not bowed the knee to Christ, those who have not been united to Him through faith, those who have not been resurrected to a newness of life. And Father, we pray that that would spur us onwards so that we would be active in our evangelism, active in our ministry to those who are lost. Father, may our hearts and our minds be filled with compassion for the lost. May we seek to minister the gospel to them in whatever ways possible in the opportunities that you give us. May we be found to be faithful stewards of that with which you have entrusted us. And we pray that in all of these things, you would receive the honor and glory and that Christ's name would be magnified in our midst. We thank you for the blessings that we have. We pray now that you would use us for the honor and glory of Christ and his kingdom. Amen.