All right, if you would like today, we're going to start our study together in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25. We're going to reread a portion of scripture that we had read recently as another part of the overall teaching theme that we've been pursuing together. We've been studying the whole thing that God's Word has to say to us about the end of all things, the end of the world, the end of history. what is coming in the future, what God's great plan is for the future, how all things are going to ultimately culminate in a specific, great, and final event. That event, of course, is the second coming of Christ, as we've seen in some detail, and that connected to the return of the Lord Jesus here to this earth, there are going to be specific things that the Lord Jesus does when He returns. He's going to raise people from the dead. Not just a few, not just certain select ones, He's going to raise everybody that's ever lived, ever breathed, or ever will. And then after raising them from the dead, He is going to, before His throne of glory and majesty, He is going to evaluate every single person's life. He's going to judge them in what is known, of course, as the Day of Judgment. We've identified, and it's from this passage that we started that identification, which I'll read in a moment again. We've identified that the Lord is going to, when He evaluates every person, He's going to do it in basic categories. He's going to separate, distinguish between all human beings, between the human race. He's going to group them into two groups. They're called in this passage the sheep group and the goat group. And what we've been focused on up until now is we've been focused on what the Lord is going to do with those in this passage that are identified as being on His right hand. Those who are owned by Him as belonging to Him in special covenant relationship, a relationship based on the salvation that He accomplished on the cross and in His resurrection. And the purpose for their judgment, of course, is that he's going to be judging the sheep for the sake of his own glory, ultimately, how he's worked in their lives, so that his name can be fully and ultimately glorified on that final day. And also he's going to be judging them for the sake of potential reward, evaluating their obedience to a specific assignment, or really what we could consider to be a set of assignments that's been given to each one of those sheep individually, what we've called our life assignment, and that the Lord is going to be considering, weighing and evaluating how we have responded to that assignment, what we've done with it, how obedient we've been to our assignment, how much of it we have fulfilled. And to the degree we've fulfilled his assignment in the way that he wants it fulfilled, with the perspective and the attitude of heart that he wants us to obey him in, to that degree, those will receive reward. And we talked last week in particular about some of the possibilities, the biblical possibilities of what the nature of those rewards are going to be. And it's an awesome thing to consider and to meditate on the possibility of what awaits for us on that day and on into eternity. But, as I've been describing, there is a second group, and there is another aspect of this judgment. So let's read from chapter 25 once again, this same passage, but we're going to shift gears and shift our focal point to those not on his right hand today, but those on his left. Starting in Matthew 25, we'll read from verse 31. 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 the left. 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. Then the righteous, and this of course is those on his right, the sheep, will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you and 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? 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. Then, and verse 41 is our shifting of perspective, as the Lord is now at the end of verse 40, he's in a sense, as we're looking at this in a brief overview, as we're following the Lord Jesus' teaching, he's concluded his judgment of the sheep. He's concluded his evaluation of all of those on his right hand. And then he shifts his attention, and as he shifts his, we're shifting ours with him. Then he will say also, 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. 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? 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. These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Now, from this passage, what I would like to do this morning is I would like to just introduce the concept of how the Lord is going to evaluate those on his left hand on the Day of Judgment, how he's going to evaluate and deal with the goats, and then, Lord willing, in the weeks to follow. And we, I'm anticipating maybe spending one or two additional weeks on this beyond today. But I want to talk about not just what's going to happen at the moment of judgment, but then the inevitable result or outcome of that judgment, and what eternity is going to be like for those that started on His left hand, just like we talked about the possibilities of what was eternity going to be like for those on His right. I think it's an important and necessary thing for us to do. But there's some hesitation and some difficulty in approaching or broaching the subject together. The Day of Judgment, I think we all understand this concept if we think at all from a biblical perspective. The Day of Judgment is kind of a good news, bad news proposition. It's a good news, bad news kind of situation. The good news is, of course, that there are going to be people that are going to be evaluated and who have their life considered by the Lord's perspective to be worthy of eternal reward and blessing forevermore. That's great and awesome, staggering news. But there's bad news, and the bad news is not everyone is going to be evaluated as belonging on his right hand. Not everyone is going to be in the sheep category. There's going to be a group of people on his left hand, a group that are identified as goats and not as sheep. Now, I think I can speak for all of us and say I would prefer to be on the right hand. I'd prefer to be named by the Lord as one of his sheep, rather than as one of his goats. And understand this, they both belong to him. Sheep and goats, they both belong to him. He's the creator of all, he's the owner of all, he's the Lord over all. But he identifies them differently, which tells us the two different groups are in a different kind of relationship with him. And when it comes to that day, that's going to mean something significantly different for all of eternity. And because it's a good news, bad news kind of situation, and we've talked to some extent, in some detail, about the good news part of this, all we're left is with the bad news. And so now is time for us to turn our attention to the bad news. And I say that with some hesitation only because it's important for us to stop and really come to grips with, as a people of God, are we okay with studying the bad news and studying it in the same kind of detail, the same depth, the same seriousness of mind that we approach the study of the good news portions of God's Word. In other words, we all understand this, we have a relationship with God, and because God has communicated with us, and the form of His communication is this written record of His messages to mankind that we know as God's Word, God's Bible, We recognize that the Bible contains just a lot of really, really good news information for our lives. But the Bible also contains some very difficult and hard to swallow information. Some information that just by human nature, we would have a tendency to shy away from and not want to talk about. I know And I think you probably understand this. I know that there are many churches in this present time, in our culture, in our society, large, well-established, popular churches, churches that, and here I'm not pointing the finger at any particular church, I'm just talking about an overall pattern that I've observed. that have chosen on purpose to never ever talk about what's going to happen on that final day to those who are on the left side of the throne of God. And to focus whatever attention is paid to that subject, to what's going to happen only to those who are on the right hand of the throne of God. Now why would you suppose that a church would choose to ever do that? And of course if a church is choosing to do that, it's generally speaking the leadership of that church that's making that decision. And are you aware that churches do choose that? I know of churches, and if I name some names, you might be surprised, where it's a policy, a decision of the church to say, we're never even going to talk about hell if we're talking about eternity at all. We're going to talk about heaven, but we're not even going to mention hell. Why would a church ever decide to do such a thing? There's a lot of reasons. There are a lot of motives for why these portions of God's Word, and the question is, is it because there's just a lack of mention about hell in this communication from God to mankind? Is there a lack of focus by the Lord Jesus, by Paul the Apostle, by Peter, by John, the other writers of Scripture? Is it that God Himself never focuses on this issue as He's communicating what He deems to be important and necessary to mankind? No, actually, out of all the people that teach in God's Word, the one individual that tended to teach more often about hell than anyone else was The Lord Jesus himself spoke about eternity quite a bit. He spoke about the day of judgment quite a bit. It was a common and recurring theme. And he didn't, when he did address the day of judgment, he didn't just address the good part, you know, the fun part, the enjoyable part, the hopeful part. He addressed the warning part, the part that the reality that there's going to be two groups and there's going to be different destinations and different different circumstances, eternal circumstances that are going to result from that day. Well, let me just offer you a couple of possible motivations why it would be, I'll phrase it in terms of temptation, why it would be a temptation to not address this stuff. Number one, it's just not very popular. You know, if you took a poll and said, you know, why do you go to church? What kind of stuff do you like to listen to when you come to hear a message on Sunday morning at church? You're not going to see on any survey of that kind from the people of God themselves. What I really am looking forward to is hearing a good solid message on the dangers of hell and eternal punishment. That's, you know, that's why I go to church. I want to hear those kind of things. It's not a very popular message among the people of God. And it's human tendency, you know, I'll give you a little insight into the heart motivation of pastors, teachers, and preachers. It's a human, natural motivation to want to tell people what they want to listen to. Because if I start talking to you guys about stuff you don't really want to listen to that much, and I do too much of that, what's going to tend to happen? At least from a natural perspective. You're not going to want to listen to what I have to say anymore. If you don't want to listen to what I have to say anymore, that means you're going to stop coming. If you stop coming, that means I'm going to be pretty soon speaking to an empty room, right? And, you know, just from enlightened self-interest and job security standpoint, you know, maybe I'll just edge away from that kind of material. I won't focus on that. I won't talk about that as much. But you know what? We can't afford We can't afford to do that as a people. We can't afford to do that as a church. I can't personally afford to do that as someone that has been given his own assignment from the Lord. In spite of the fact that it's not a very pleasant focal point in scripture, and really what I'm intending to do in our study the next couple of three weeks, Lord willing, I want to look at the details of what this is actually going to mean on that day and every day that follows for all of eternity. And it's not a pleasant consideration. It really isn't. I'm not looking forward to it myself from the standpoint of just my personal enjoyment of proclaiming certain aspects of God's word. I really, really do enjoy the privilege that I have to proclaim certain parts of God's word. I just get a thrill and I enjoy it. when I have the ability and the opportunity to proclaim certain truths of God's Word. There are other truths that I feel an obligation to communicate to you, and I will fulfill that obligation, but I don't look forward to the proclamation. It's not something I enjoy doing. This is definitely right up there at the top of the list of things that I don't enjoy talking about. And I don't mean like near the top. This is the number one least enjoyable thing that I have an obligation to talk to you about. Another aspect in regards to why people would choose, I'm talking about spiritual leaders would choose not to focus on this, it's not immediately relevant to your lives, what I'm going to be talking about. Now it's ultimately and eternally relevant, it's just not immediately relevant, meaning as we talk about eternal punishment and the possibility of eternal punishment either for you or someone else, It's not something that you grab hold of and say, okay, this really helps me with my life right now as I'm living at this very moment. Now, I hope you'll see as we go through this, there is relevance spiritually. There's a reason why God wants us to focus on eternity as we've talked about in the last few weeks, I hope. All of you have taken away some spiritual profit from the close consideration of the day that your life will be evaluated for possible reward. But there's also profit, spiritual benefit, to us considering what is waiting for those who are going to be on the left-hand side. God could have easily left this part of the message out, just told us the good news part and surprised us on that day with the bad news. But he chose not to do that. He's laid it out in very graphic detail for us to consider and be impacted by now. So there is relevance, but it's not something that's easy to grasp the immediate relevance of it. And so what happens is churches tend to focus on things that are more immediately relevant. You know, I'm going to give you a teaching on the 10 ways for you to have a happier life today. You know, put these 10 things into practice and you'll never have problems in your life again. I'm not going to talk to you about hell and eternal punishment and things of that nature, because it's just, as I said, it's not as easy to grab hold of and seeing how it applies to your life. Another is, of course, it's an offensive message. As I go through this in the next couple of three weeks, I will offend some of you. I know I will. So, you know, all I can say is deal with it. I'm going to offend some of you. Some of you won't be offended. Some of you are ready for what I'm going to have to say. You're going to be able to receive it as this is what God has communicated to us. But because the nature of the message itself is offensive, the problem for a leader, a pastor, a teacher, a proclaimer of God's Word in delivering an offensive message is what? There's a possibility that you'll identify the offense with me. You know, and be offended at what I had to say to you about this subject. And I, you know, I could become a focal point of your personal offense. And that's a risk that I have to take. That's a risk that I'm called to take. The risk of potentially personally hurting your feelings. offending you, and I don't mean just feelings like a light, surface-level thing. I'm talking about, I could, in the next couple of three weeks, challenge the core of your perspective about eternity. That's a possibility. And in challenging that, I could upset your personal eternal apple cart. You know, I could actually turn something upside down without you knowing in advance that I was going to do that. And in the moment of that whole perspective being turned upside down or inside out, there can be a deep hurt that results. And that is a risky thing for me. And then, of course, culturally there's the issue, and I think this is a bigger factor than we sometimes acknowledge. It's a kind of message nowadays in our culture. I mean, outside these walls, because I think this group is in a different perspective, generally speaking, about this kind of stuff. But in our culture, our wider culture, if I were to be given an opportunity, me, I'm given an opportunity, it just unexpectedly comes my way, to be interviewed on, let's say, Larry King Live, okay? and I'm going to represent the Christian community. You know how they'll have at different times, they'll have different theme shows, and they'll interview people that represent different communities. I'm going to represent the Christian community, and the theme happens to be eternity. What's going to happen after you die? And, you know, they have a New Age representative there on the panel, and they have, you know, a Buddhist representative, and they have a Hindu representative, and they have me representing the Christian community. And it comes my time to speak after the other three have already given their spiel about what eternity is going to be like. You know, the Buddhists, he sees an endless round of birth and rebirth, and the Hindus something very similar to that, and the New Ager, you know, tracking right along the same lines. And then I come out of the blue and I say, well, you know, what I really believe, Larry, is this, that there's going to be a conclusion to all of history, the Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ, the man that was born in Bethlehem, the man who lived 2,000 years ago, he is going to return to planet Earth as a glorified, resurrected, all-powerful, with all authority, Lord, over all of the Earth. And he's going to end history, and he's going to erect his throne of judgment, and he's going to separate all human beings into two basic categories, sheep and goats. One is going to be blessed with eternal reward, the other is going to be assigned eternal, everlasting punishment. What's the impression I'm going to make? What happens in our culture is that people that dare to talk along those lines publicly, they're caricatured like a cartoon figure and made fun of. It's just easily dismissed. You believe that primitive, outdated perspective. We've evolved way beyond that kind of concept. We're so far beyond that now. How could you be so ignorant as to believe that kind of thing? And so there is a natural tendency, even for those who believe and proclaim the truth, to just not want to be made fun of and to not want to be looked at in that kind of light. I don't want anybody to look at me and see me as a cartoon character, a caricature of some real spiritual weighty person and someone that has some real perspective to offer to this culture. But the reality is the culture is just going to react that way no matter how you want to be perceived. So you might as well, as far as I see it, you might as well just Speak what the Lord has given you to speak and let the chips fall where they may. Let the Lord deal with the results. Let the Lord deal with how the culture responds to you. I mean, of course, we want to speak in an intelligent way. We want to speak in a in a way that in a language that the culture understands. But at the same time, you can't afford to compromise the essence, the substance of what it is that God has given us to communicate for the sake of being acceptable to the culture. Turn with me for Matthew 25, if you would, to Acts. Chapter 20. What I'm doing today, as I said, is I'm basically just introducing this concept. I'm going to speak very little about the actual event of the Day of Judgment today. I'm just talking about the idea of why we need to talk about this. Why we need to talk about it in the way that we're going to be in the next couple of weeks. And I'm doing this, again as I said, because of the real lack of this kind of communication that goes on in the Christian community today. Acts chapter 20, we're going to read here an account of Paul the Apostle's life story. He's nearing the end of his personal ministry. God, through the Lord Jesus, gave to Paul, on the road to Damascus, a life assignment. And that assignment was that he was called to be an apostle and to take a specific message that the Lord Jesus gave him and to take it to all of the known world at that time. And Paul carried out his assignment. In fact, he in another place testifies about himself and says that I have I have finished the course, the course being as though his assignment were a racetrack that the Lord had given him to run in a specific amount, a distance that the Lord had given him to run. And Paul's testimony was, I've finished the race. I've completed my life assignment. And we're reading in this story, as Paul nears the end of his assignment, he's under arrest right now. He's under arrest by the Roman Empire. He's being transported through the Mediterranean basin back to the city of Rome. He's going to stand trial before Caesar himself, and it's ultimately going to lead to Paul's execution for the sake of the gospel. And Paul knows this. He's aware of it. The Lord has given him a preview of what's awaiting him. And as he's traveling on the way, it's a circumstance in which the ship that they're traveling on stops at certain locations along the route. And Paul has the opportunity as the ship stops to actually send out messages, have individuals from the Christian community that he's connected with to come and meet with him, for him to be able to give his last concerns and thoughts to them, knowing that he's not going to see them again. This is one of those accounts. This is a meeting between Paul Again, he's under arrest, but he's traveling to Jerusalem, and this is a meeting between Paul and the elders of one particular church, the church in Ephesus. We'll read from verse 17. From Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials, which came upon me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, bound in spirit, I'm on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Paul, in giving his own testimony here, uses a phrase twice, and it's the exact same phrase as he wrote it in the Greek language, and it's even written similarly in our English translation. He repeats the phrase in two key verses, and I want to emphasize this phrase in terms of what I am planning to do in the next couple of weeks. It's in verse 20, and it occurs again in verse 27. Let me read those two verses back to back without the other verses in between. Verse 20, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house. In verse 27, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Now, Paul here is identifying what he has done with his own assignment and part, an essential part of his life assignment from the Lord Jesus that was given to him on the road to Damascus. is the assignment to proclaim what he calls here, the whole counsel of God. What that essentially means, I think that's pretty self-explanatory, but essentially means he's called to declare the essence of the message of the entire book. everything that God wants to communicate to mankind. The whole story, the whole picture. Not picking and choosing like going through a buffet line, the things that are particularly tasty to him or to his listeners, but choosing to lay out the whole course. Like a parent sitting down to feed a meal to a child and on the plate are tasty things like, you know, meat that the child likes to eat and potatoes and Bread and Brussels sprouts and broccoli and lima beans and all of those good things, right? Zucchini cooked to a mushy consistency. And, you know, some of that may sound appealing to you adults, but I'm trusting that to our younger people here that that's not a particularly appealing word picture. The idea is that there are some parts of God's Word, again, that are not particularly palatable to our taste. There's images that describe this, as the prophet Ezekiel at one point was given his life assignment from the Lord, and he saw in an actual vision of the Lord in which he saw a scroll. And on this scroll were words from God written on the front and the back. And the Lord spoke through an angel to Ezekiel and he said, take this scroll and eat it. And Ezekiel began to take the scroll and eat it in this vision as the Lord assigned him to do, which indicates the inward consumption of the message that the prophet is required to make before he can then digest it and repeat it to those that need to be given the message. So as Ezekiel is eating the scroll, it describes that in his mouth it was sweet to the taste, sweet like honey. But in his stomach it turned to bitter and it upset his stomach. And the idea is that what Ezekiel was given, his particular assignment, was a message of coming judgment. A message that the people of God, that he was going to be proclaiming it to, it was sweet to his taste because as he first Receiving it inwardly, he recognizes this is God's Word, this is a message from God. But as he begins to digest the meaning of the message, what God has actually communicated, it's bitter to his heart, it's bitter to his inward man, because this is a message of calamity that's coming. This is a message of impending doom and judgment. And so, you know, is Ezekiel in a position given this assignment to eat the scroll and then digest it? Is he in a position to say, I'm sorry, Lord, I don't like the taste of this or I don't like how this is sitting on my stomach. I'm not going to eat this anymore. He doesn't have an option. He's a man under assignment. He has to communicate what the Lord has given him to communicate. And what Paul is communicating here to us and to the Ephesian elders directly is that By implication, he had to face a temptation. And this is one of the great temptations that any messenger who represents the Lord in proclaiming God's Word ever has to face. And it's the temptation to shrink back from declaring to the people of God and to everyone else the whole counsel of God, the whole message. And Paul says that he had to face that. And when faced with that, he made the right choice, thankfully. Praise God that Paul did not shrink back, as he says in verse 17 or verse, the first one was verse 20, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable. Now, we understand that, you know, the message of the judgment of the sheep is going to be a profitable message for us to hear and the possible future rewards that the sheep will receive. But is it profitable for us to hear? in the same detail, with the same focus about what is waiting for the goats on that day. It absolutely is profitable because it's by God's design, part of his communication, part of his word to us. And then in verse 27 again, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. The idea of shrinking here is to take a step back. When there's a clear sense that rather than stepping back, we should be stepping forward. And it's a social issue that every man of God who proclaims the Word of God has to deal with. Do I step forward and do I say what God has given me to say or do I step back? Do I shrink back from declaring the things that I know you're not going to be comfortable to listen to? So I'm saying this today not so much as a... I hope you understand my motivation. I'm not saying this in order to in any way pat myself on the back and say, OK, I'm going to give you the straight story here, even if no one else does. I'm just saying to you, I don't have a choice. I don't have an option. I have an obligation since I have the privilege of talking about what happens to this one group. and how they're blessed forevermore. I have an obligation to talk to you about this other group and how they are not going to be blessed. They are going to be punished forevermore. And we will, as I said in detail, look at this. Let's turn to one other passage of scripture from Paul's testimony, 2 Timothy chapter 4, if you would, please. Paul uses an interesting, as we're turning there, 2 Timothy 4, he uses an interesting phrase in the Ephesians passage that may have caught your ear as I was reading it, or your eye as you were following me. Whereas he said, because I did not shrink back from declaring the whole counsel of God's Word to you, therefore, he said, I'm innocent of something. What he said was, I'm innocent of the blood of all men. innocent of the blood of all men. And the implication of that is this, and this is what weighs on my heart as we consider, and I have to consider this regularly, you know, what kind of things do we talk about next? What kind of things do we study together on Sunday mornings next? What should we focus on next? What should I direct your attention to? Paul was innocent. He was able to proclaim his innocence. And he's thinking about the day that he'll stand before the Lord. He's thinking about his own evaluation before the throne of God, how he fulfilled his assignment. And he says, I'm innocent of the blood of all men because I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God's word. What's the implication of that statement? The implication is that if he doesn't proclaim the whole counsel of God's word to the people of God, he will be what? Guilty of the blood of some. That's the implication. Now, exactly what that means is probably the scariest thing that any proclaimer of God's word has to consider before they stand up to proclaim the word of God. Exactly what that means. I'm not even professing to know exactly how the Lord is going to deal with an individual that he's assigned to be a messenger of his, a proclaimer of his word, who will stand in his presence on that day and give an account for having shrunk back and not declared the whole council, and as a result, stands before the throne of God guilty for the blood of some men. I don't even want to go there. I don't even want to think too much about the implications of that, other than I want to be just jarred enough by that consideration to say to myself, at a heart level, I don't ever want to go there. I don't ever want to be in that kind of a position. This is the essence of what Paul is talking about here in 2 Timothy 4. We'll read from verse 1. He's considering his own assignment. He's considering the day that he will be evaluated and he says to his young co-worker Timothy, 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 in his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction for the time will come when when they will not endure sound doctrine. Now, you've heard me read this passage before if you've been here any length of time, but let me just reemphasize this detail. It's an important one for us to catch. Who is they here? The bad guys, the unbelievers, the people that don't want to hear any of the message anyway. The people that are sleeping in this Sunday morning could care less to hear any part of God's Word proclaimed to them for any reason? No. This is you. Now, I'm not saying you will be just like this. This is the church. This is the people that are there to hear the message. The people that are motivated to listen to what the messenger has to say. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. I don't know if you've fully come to grips with this yet, and so I'm trying to overemphasize here this morning, in hopes of catching your heart and mind with a specific perspective. Sound doctrine is something that has to be endured. It's not easy. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate, excuse me just a minute, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. Their own desires are, I don't want to talk about hell. I don't want to listen to hell. I don't want to listen to the day of judgment as it applies to this other aspect, this non-pleasant aspect. And everything that's going to flow out of that for all of eternity. I don't even want to think about that. It's just too unpleasant. So give me something instead. What would I give you instead? I would give you something that would tickle your ear. Now, you'll never, ever actually experience me physically tickling your ear. But it's a word picture. What am I describing here? I'm describing giving you something that, you know, is going to make you... When you tickle someone, what do you do? What do you do when you tickle someone? Your motivation is to get them to laugh, to enjoy themselves, to have a good time. I tell a few jokes, get you going, get you rolling in the aisles, make sure you have a good time, send you on your way. You'll come back next week, bring a little bit more money with you. Next time, you know what I'm saying, drop a little bit more in the box on your way out. That's what I'm talking about, tickling your ears. Now, my option is, on the other hand, to just fulfill my assignment. And I'm not just talking about me. This extends to every person that stands in this kind of role. fulfill our assignment. And when we do fulfill our assignment in the way that God wants it fulfilled, it means the proclamation of sound doctrine and sound doctrine has to be endured. How many times listening to me over the months, weeks, years, whatever it's been for you, have you felt like, I don't know if I can endure any more of this. Come on now, you know, that's true. And I, you know, Look, this is serious stuff, but this is what we're all going to be faced with on the final day. So as far as I'm concerned, if it requires some discomfort now in order for us to not be discomforted then, then it's well worth whatever measure of discomfort we have to pass through in order to get into a more spiritual perspective about these things. So for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. Now, this is a possibility for the people of God to do this, churches to do this, on any range of different topics. But this is most possible on this one topic. Meaning turning away from the truth of the Day of Judgment, turning away from the truth of there being both groups of sheep and goats, turning away from the truth of what it's going to mean for all of eternity for the goats following that Day of Judgment. What it means that there's going to be an eternal punishment of a group of people forever and ever and ever following the Day of Judgment. It's a temptation for us to turn away from that truth and to turn aside to what? What are we going to insert in place of the truth? Myths. And what are myths? Culturally speaking, you know, every culture has them. The Greeks have their set of myths. Ancient Greek culture, the Romans had their set of myths. The Norse people had their set of myths. The American Indians had their set of myths. Every ancient culture has their own set of myths. Why is that such a common human phenomenon that we're going to have a set of myths that we base our spirituality and our religious practice on? Why? Because, you know what? I have this thing in my heart that makes me need to be religious because I'm made that way. I'm made in the image and likeness of God, so there's an inborn desire to be religious, to worship, to orient myself spiritually. But the truth is just too uncomfortable, so I'm going to substitute my own preferences. for what the truth actually is. And I'll keep doing the things that I'm made to do, but I'll do it along the lines of what I'm comfortable with accepting. I'll create my own perspective in its place. But, Paul says to his young co-worker Timothy, And it's you in contrast to those who will do otherwise in this role of teacher and proclaimer of truth. You be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. And the idea here is, of course, Timothy had his own assignment as one who was given responsibility to stand and proclaim these things. From there, if you would, I'd like to just read one last portion of scripture. Turn to the Book of Second Corinthians. We'll end here today. Why is the bad news spiritually profitable for us? And it is even for those of us who hope with all of our hearts that we're going to be on the right hand and not on the left, that we're going to be part of the sheep and not part of the goats. There is a profit to us. First of all, what if And this is a worst case scenario for anyone that this might apply to. What if, just in the farthest reaches of our imagination, what if you and I happen to be among the spiritually deluded in this world, and the Christian community I'm talking about? Because we know the world is spiritually deluded. They live their entire lives in a delusion. But the problem is there's even some within the Christian community that are deluded, that think that the Day of Judgment for them is going to be something to look forward to, not a day of dread, not a day of awesome and horrible expectation. And yet the Bible is very clear, and we'll look at some of these passages in the next week or so, that there are those who think that everything is going to be fine, but get there and will be shocked and surprised at how things were not fine for them. Well, if we happen to be in that group of those who are spiritually deluded, who think we're fine with the Lord, but we really aren't, you desperately need to hear this message that we're going to be focused on. But, what if you're not in a group of spiritually deluded people? What if you're part of the true sheep of God? What if you do belong to the Lord? Well, your ticket is punched, so to speak. You're heading for heaven. There's no detours. There's no way that you're going anywhere else. The Lord has laid hold of your life. He owns you. He has secured your eternal future. And you are safe. So, your ticket's punched. You're fine. You're safe. Who cares what happens to the rest, right? As long as I'm safe. You know, it'd be kind of like one of those people that was on the Titanic. As long as I get my spot in the lifeboat, that's all that matters. Who cares about all the rest of the women and children that are left on the boat and are going to sink to doom as long as I get free and get loose. We understand that the Lord wants us to think about these things because there is a reality that most are not Ticketed for heaven and that's the reality. That's part of the bad news The majority of people that are alive today and have ever lived are not Going to heaven Now the ones that have lived before we can't do anything about it's beyond our grasp at any level But the ones who are alive today we have some responsibility for it And the focus of this, the looking at this, the consideration, the meditation on this, is something that the Lord intends to shape our perspective so that we'll be motivated differently the next time we have a conversation with one of those individuals. We'll look at our conversations with them from a different perspective than we would otherwise. We will consider all of our relationships and all of our activities in a different light than we would without this perspective. You've heard me give this, maybe you've heard me give these numbers before. They did a survey, you know, there's always someone doing some kind of spiritual survey, religious survey. And out of all the people they surveyed about different spiritual issues, one of the questions they asked is, do you believe in the reality of hell? Do you believe hell is a real place, a real eternal experience in the future? And surprisingly to me, honestly, this was a surprise, about 70% of the people that were surveyed in this particular survey I was reading did say, yes, I believe in the reality of hell. So, you know, that's a bigger number than I thought I would have expected. But then they asked a follow-up question, which was, I thought, very appropriate. How many of those 70% that believe in the reality of hell, how many of you believe that you personally are heading there? Less than 1% believe they were actually heading there. Now, there's something wrong with this picture, because in terms of just the way the Lord Jesus describes it, he describes it in terms of two paths, a narrow path, few that find it, that leads to salvation and eternal life. A broad path, wide, that leads to destruction. Many there are that walk on it. And he's contrasting few and many. And yet, less than 1% of even those who believe... Now, of course, the other people that don't even believe in the existence of hell, they don't believe they're heading for hell either. So it's really far less than 1% of the total population that believes they're actually ever going to arrive there. So, let's look at this together in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We'll end with this passage today. This is again, all of these passages we're looking at are descriptions Paul's own testimony Paul's own perspective as he was given his assignment and my hope is that they're shaping Passages for our perspective as we consider ours our assignments. We're reading from 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 I would like to read the whole chapter but for the sake of time because we're right for the end of our time today I won't read the first few verses the first few verses are talking about eternity and talking about what is waiting on that day. But we'll pick up this conversation about eternity in verse 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. Now, the word that Paul uses here, fear, is a Greek word, phobos. You may have heard me mention this before. It's a word which means terror. We get our psychological terminology, phobia, from this Greek word, phobos. And it means to be terrorized by something. Paul says, literally, and don't soft-sell his wording here. His wording was chosen intentionally. He says literally in verse 11, therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we are motivated to go out and persuade men. It's the perspective of what's waiting that gives Paul motivation to have different kind of conversation and communication and interaction with the people around him in his life. We are made manifest to God, and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are of sound mind, it is for you. These are things, being beside himself is something Paul was often accused of, meaning he was accused of being somewhat off kilter, you know, somewhat wacky, because He lived a little bit differently than the average person lived. He thought differently, talked differently. So he says in verse 14, For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore, from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh. Yet now we know him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God. who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. This is Paul's life assignment, the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. And this was God's plan, His intention. The world is set against God and against His purposes and against His Son. But his plan was to reconcile the world to himself. He accomplished it through the death of his son. But the story doesn't end with the act of Christ's death on the cross alone. There's an essential element here, and that is the message about what God has done in Christ has to then be proclaimed to a world that doesn't really want to hear the message, and is set at odds with God. And that ministry, that assignment, is what Paul calls this ministry of reconciliation, that God is in the world, reconciling the world in Christ to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He is committed to us, the church, the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. I want to end this introduction to the to the consideration of the Day of Judgment and to the consideration of eternal punishment that follows for a certain group on one side of the throne on that day. with this emphasis, which is Paul fully got this, he fully saw this, he understood this, and it motivated him to live differently, to speak differently, to act differently. It motivated him to consider that the Lord had assigned to him this ministry of reconciling people to God, as though it were God himself inside of Paul the Apostle begging people to be reconciled to God. And the whole idea here is that the recognition that this day is coming, this judgment is sure and certain, it will take place, it will happen, but hear the message, respond to it, you don't need to be on the left side, you can be part of the right. And how people respond to that is between those people and God Himself. But the ministry of reconciliation comes and is motivated by a clear perspective of the seriousness and the importance of that day. We'll end here today, and then next week what we'll look at is the actual day itself, what it's going to be like for those on the left hand side. And then if we don't finish, we'll take one more week and we'll look at the following week, what eternity is going to be experienced as by those individuals. Let's pray. Father God, as we've just stopped and considered not only the fact of that day and the fact of what will follow, but our own relationship to that information, that our own relationship to that message that you have delivered to us in the form of your word. And I pray, Father God, for your grace upon each one of our hearts and upon our minds, that we would be a people who embrace all of your word, that we would be a people who do endure sound doctrine, that we would not be a people that yield to the temptation to have our ears tickled or to only take those portions of God's word that are pleasant and palatable to us, but that we would listen to you in everything that you communicate to us and that we would be impacted rightly, affected rightly by it. Our perspectives would be shaped by it. And I pray, Father, that you would then motivate us to truly fulfill our assignment in the ministry of reconciliation that you're carrying out between yourself and this world. I ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. The copyrighted product of Tree of Life Christian Church of Canoga Park, California. You are welcome to pass this message along to others, as long as it is not sold, and it is passed along unaltered in its entirety, with source credit given to Tree of Life Christian Church.