I want you to open your Bibles now to Matthew chapter 25. We continue in our study of the Olivet Discourse. Told you all in this section from 31 till the end of the chapter, I had three main points. Last week we covered point number one. Jesus will come in his glory. And we recognize from verse 31, but when the son of man comes in his glory, in his glory, this is a context which has been given to us from the sense of Ezekiel that Scott spoke about. Ezekiel was to be the watchman on the wall. He was to be that son of man, that prophet at that time, who was to be the one speaking to the people. And here in this recognition, it is the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is the perfect prophet, and He is speaking to the people. So as I read the text this morning, I want you to recognize you are hearing the words of the perfect prophet speaking to the people. Listen 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 one from 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, and I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, and 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 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 or 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 he will also 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. And 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 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. We continue in this context as the Lord speaking as the perfect prophet. He's given parable in context to give us an understanding that there is a coming day which we are to be awaiting, we are to be watching for, we are to be ready and alert. And while we are waiting, we are to be working. These two parables are now combined in the Lord Jesus speaking his final words. And we must remember that these final words are coming during the very week leading up to his death, burial and resurrection. Probably these words, this message was taught or preached on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday of the Passion Week of the Lord, the week of his sufferings that would be upcoming. They are given on that time, so it's very timely in its manner that the Lord Jesus would speak these things about eternity. For he would be. soon leaving them. He would not be walking among them as he had for these almost three years. He would not be there daily. He would not be there eating with them and conversing with them. He would become the once and only sacrifice. He would die. He would be raised from the grave on the third day. And then some 40 days later, he would ascend to be with the Father in heaven. So here he is, the watchman on the wall, the prophet speaking to the people, because he knows he's going to go away for a while, no longer there with them in physical body, and he's wanting them to pay close, close, close attention. He's told them, the temple will come down. That physical building means nothing. In all of its beauty, in all of its strength, in all of its grandeur, it will come down. In one sense, it will come down in the context of his death and burial and resurrection in three days. And in another sense, at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, it will finally be put to the ground. There will be no more use for a temple, for its sacrificial system, for any place of holies in the context of a high priest, for the one high priest would have done his complete and final work in atonement. And they would only be awaiting his second and final coming. So he has told them, the Son of Man will come in his glory. And that's what we spoke about last week, all of his glory. But secondly, this text says Jesus will gather all the nations. And we gave a brief discussion about that. We're gonna say a little bit more about it here, and then it will even unfold more as we work through the rest of this section. But we have to note Then in verse 32, it says, all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate them one from 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. So Jesus will gather all the nations. That's who the son of man is. When he comes, Jesus will gather all the nations. All nations and all peoples will be gathered before him. Whatever we want to say about nations that we don't understand and whatever we want to say about the past and questions we want to ask about who would have known this or who would have known that, how would they have known? How far did the Reformation go in the 1500s? How far did it spread? How far did it not spread? All those kinds of questions, whatever the answers may be to those things, whatever might be unearthed in some kind of understanding or some type of scholarly work that's put together to give us information about how far and wide the gospel went in one context or another. Jesus is giving no quarter to the idea that there will be not one person who will not be gathered before him. All nations and all peoples will be gathered before him. And they are summoned before King Jesus. They are summoned before King Jesus. We have to recognize when Christ finally summons you, you do not say no. You have to see this right here in the text. It is clear. When the Son of Man comes in all of his glory and all the angels with him, and then he will sit on his glorious throne, all the nations will be gathered before him. There's nothing here in the text that gives anybody a vote. It doesn't matter the nation, whether it's democratic or communistic. It doesn't matter whether it's got a dictator. It does not matter. Whatever the government is of those nations, whatever the gathering is of those nations, not one of them will get a vote. All peoples, all nations, all tongues, all tribes will be gathered before him. When Christ finally summons you, you do not say no. And when Christ returns, the summons will be swift and sure. We see the immediate sense of this in the text. But when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. We looked at other scriptures that gave us an indication last week that this is not something that's going to happen in some manner in which it can't be recognized. It will be swift and sure. It will be recognizable. And when he comes, many will be comforted by his coming. Revelation 21, three through four gives this context. Many will be crowned with an eternal inheritance at his coming. Revelation 21, five through seven. but many will be cowering under the weight of holiness at its coming. Now I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this here because we're gonna unfold some of this as we move into the rest of the text. But you have to recognize the rest of the scripture gives a context to the swiftness and the surety of the coming of Christ and that there will be those who are comforted and they will be crowned with this eternal inheritance. Many also will be cowering under the weight of the holiness of God at His coming. Remember last week we said He will come in all His glory. And in His glory is that revelation of His holiness in a way that man has not seen it prior and recognized it prior. It's interesting in Revelation 20, 15 and 21, 8 of the cowering concept, the scripture calls unbelievers in that day cowardly unbelievers. You want to see why Jesus is giving this kind of a caution, this kind of a warning, standing as the watchman on the wall, the perfect prophet? Because when he comes in all of his glory, he will bring all of his holiness with him in a context not yet revealed. It's not that it hasn't been there. It's not that it's in gradients. It's not that it needs time to mature and grow in some way. No, it's in revelation. It will be revealed in that way which man has never seen. And so the unbeliever is called the cowardly unbeliever. Why? Because they had heard. They had heard of this Christ. They have heard of who he is and heard of his coming. And instead of believing in him, they resorted to what was the easiest thing to do, in the sin nature, to trust in themselves. Well, not only are they summoned before King Jesus, but they are confronted with the truth of the one King Jesus. They are confronted with the truth of the one King Jesus. We have to note here, it's interesting that this sense, Robin brought it out, there is one God. When we looked at first Timothy, there's one God. The context that Scott read about in Ezekiel 33, the watchman is telling of the one God. And here, In the coming of the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus will confront every single nation and every single individual with the truth of the one King, the Lord Jesus, the Christ, the one living God in three persons. It's an important thought because pluralism will be finally disclosed as fatal fiction. Pluralism, the idea that there's many gods. The idea that you can have this sense of, well, that person can believe in that God, and that nation can believe in that God, and that group of people can have their own God, and I can have mine, and you can have yours, and we all have our own God, and we'll all be okay, because our own gods will get together, and they'll all tell us we're okay. On the day that the Son of Man comes, it will not be like that. Pluralism will be finally disclosed as fatal fiction. If you believe in there being many gods to save you, when the Lord Jesus comes, that myth will be dispelled and all will see it as fatal fiction. You know, fiction can have its place, right? Some of you know I'm not a big fiction reader, but my family, they are big time readers and they read all kinds of things, including fiction. And they have all these conversations about the things they read and I sit and I listen and I have no idea what they're talking about. Because I'm boring. I generally read history and theology and that's about all I read or I'm really boring sometimes and I read manuals of Greek and lexicons and things like that. If you knew me when I was younger, you'd know that's a real oddity, because I never would have picked up a book like that and just read a lexicon. I do that kind of thing now, and I do it sometimes for enjoyment. Well, fiction is not a bad thing. Fiction in and of itself is not a terrible thing. It can give us good things that we have in this world that illustrate things to us about the life around us. But there's a coming day where everything will be set right, and anything that is fiction will be disclosed and put away with, and one of the main things is pluralism. No more thinking that there is more than one God, there is only one God. One God. One of the old Baptist writers put it this way, he said, The ancients all inclined to think that every nation must, of course, have its own deities. But there is only one God for all nations and only one mediator and final judge. And he was speaking of the Lord Jesus. There's a point, two points of application here. Firstly, all the talk considering who should be in charge will be over. when King Jesus comes. There won't be any discussion about who's in charge. America's running the world. China's running the world. That conversation's going on right now. We have it. Jesus is reigning. He is the reigning king of all things, but this will be a day where that is revealed in such a way where all the argument will be over. His rule and reign will be revealed in such a way and put into its actual physical authority in such a way that all of that will be over. There'll be no more discussion. There'll be no more debate, no more books written about who might be in charge or what is the authority we have in life in the cosmos. How does all of that work? No, no, no, no, no. It'll all be over. That'll be done. There'll be one question. Are you on his right or are you on his left? Second point of application. All the ideas regarding who or what should be worshipped will be over. It's not only about who's in charge but who's gonna be worshipped. None of these other gods will be worshipped anymore. None of these idols will be worshipped anymore because there is only one God and it will be revealed in such a way that all the nations will know. whether it's an eastern nation that has certain gods from its own religion, whether it's a southern hemisphere nation that has gods of its own religion, whether it's a western nation that has made itself its own idol and formed its own religion of humanism, or whether it's a religion of the state, statism, as Francis Schaeffer called it. No one will worship the state anymore. No one will worship these false idols of whatever religion there may be. All the ideas regarding who or what should be worshiped will be over. Because when he comes, he will be seen and known for who he is and all will bow before him. Well, we say all nations and peoples will be gathered before him, summoned before the king, confronted with the truth of the one king. But now we understand in this text, all nations and peoples will be separated by him. All nations and peoples will be separated by him. Now this phrase here in verses 32, the end of verse 32 into 33, this is kind of an ongoing theme that has unfolded more from 34 to the end of the chapter. So what you read here It's kind of an opening to what will be taught by the Lord Jesus when he gets into verse 34 and you'll get a widening view of the picture here of him preaching or teaching in this moment. But I think we have to recognize it in its implications here and its context that all nations and peoples will be separated by him. There's only one remarkable difference between these two groups. That's the sheep and the goats. One group has believed in the commands and promises of the one holy God. They believed in the days of old, they believed in the promises of God. Those who had not walked in the time of Christ or not walked during or after the time of Christ, but they were still believing in the promises of God. They believed in a Messiah to come. The group that lived during or after they believed in the Christ who had come and who's coming again. This group, in its sense, will be the ones that are called the sheep. For they believe in the one Jesus, the Christ. Some believe in those promises not having full revelation and understanding. Others believe having had that explained to them. It shows the building guilt of all the nations. that God was giving them a display through the nation of Israel that he had a people for himself. And for centuries and millennia, they hated those people and they warred against them. And they did not see rightly that God was saying, I am the one true living God and I have my people and you need to bow before me and me alone. When the time of that display and that foreshadowing was over, the Christ came. He came to this very earth and he walked on this earth perfect in every way, never sinning, not even in thought. And those who had seen the promises of old and had believed that God would grant rest, They were believing in that Messiah to come. But then there are those recognizing the word given to them about the very Christ himself, where he is displayed properly. Isn't it interesting that the gospel continues to go out some 2,000 years after Christ's life and death and burial and resurrection? There's lots of religions that have times of sway and move and back and forth and they're always transitioning. But the one interesting thing about Christianity is the message always stays the same when it's a true gospel Bible believing message. It never changes. It's always about the person of Christ. It's always about the Son of Man, the Son of God. And that one group on the right, the sheep, they will have believed. But then there's another group that refused to believe. And they refused to believe in the commands and promises of God. When God gave them the display of Israel, they hated the display. When God gave them the context of the law, they hate the law. When God revealed his son to them, Even some among that very nation of Israel, they hated the revelation of the sun. And to this very day, nations rail against Christ. Even our own nation, which we like to think is some greater version of something, whatever that may be, look at it. We're not bowing the knee to Christ. as every branch of our military has moved in its upper echelons and it's just feeding downward to just totally come to a place to where there's no identification of what's male or female, to just completely go against the creation ordinance, to accept that which is an abomination of homosexuality, much less transgenderism. We live in a day where murderers are given 30 plus years that we would feed them and take care of them when it is fully known what they did to people. And they sit, and they wait, and sometimes they die before they're ever persecuted or, excuse me, executed for what they did. You think this nation has bowed the knee? Look at it. We scoff at God. We hate Him. We look at Him and we say, we will do what we want when we want. And this is seeped even into the church, sadly. For many are espousing today, if you will not accept things like homosexuality and transgenderism, you don't know the love of God. I would say this nation and many of its churches need to repent and turn to Christ. Because if this nation and its people don't repent and turn to Christ, we will be a part of that group that will be on the left. The ones that the Son of Man says, depart, depart. We see this picture begin to unfold that believers will be standing at the judgment. They'll be right there at the judgment. Believers don't miss the judgment. They're right there at the judgment. And they will be moved to the right. Unbelievers will be right there standing at the judgment and will be moved to the left. As one writer noted, being thus placed, each person knew immediately that he was a saved or a condemned person. That believers too are standing before that throne knowing why they are there. Don't think that this will be esoteric or strange or nobody will know what's going on. They will have every understanding All of us, believer or unbeliever, will know in that moment what is happening. It will be so obvious that the one true king has come to exert his final authority in its full consummation. The believer may be comforted. But the believer's plea will be nothing to do with himself. He will know of his own sin and know that it has been righteously remedied in Christ Jesus. And we're about to see an unfolding picture where even the unbeliever knows. but they still function in that state of self-righteous denial. If you're not sure about the judgment and the picture of it, Romans 14.10 says, but you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. Believers don't escape that judgment. 2 Corinthians 5.10, 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. What the believer has done good or bad starts with believing in Christ and denying self. It's not your own self-righteousness or working yourself into heaven. The first and foremost question is, have you believed, repented of your sin and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you from the dead and the guilt of your sin? Are you still trying to prove to yourself and other people that you are going to be okay and fine because you're a good person, you're righteous in and of yourself? I say to you this morning, not one of us is righteous. Not one of us is good, the scripture says. We're not even good. Scripture says we don't even seek God. This is why you ought to be amazed at the grace of God, that even one of us would be saved by his glorious grace, free and merciful to us as sinners. Why would you not believe in that grace? What holds anyone back is their own self-will and stubbornness from that sin nature where they keep trying to say to themselves, I'm good, I'm okay, and I'm certainly better than that guy. Well, I wanna begin in this third point this morning. I'll be honest, I don't know how far I'll get, but this is a good beginning point to think about this. Third point, Jesus will speak as the king. Jesus will come in his glory. Jesus will gather all the nations. Jesus will speak as the king. Jesus will speak as the king. Verse 34, then the king will say to those on his right, Then the king will say, now I want you to get the picture. Here's the king, the one king. Now, we might say we, it may not bother us to be in the presence of, you know, the president or some king or somebody. We may say that. Well, he's just another man. He's just another person. Doesn't bother me. Fine, fair enough. But I guarantee you, you go into the Oval Office and you're standing there in front of the President. Whatever you think of the President, doesn't matter to me. You might have your thoughts about him and all those kinds of things. But there'll be a moment of awe as you kind of stand in the Oval Office. That would be a little bit of a moment of awe. When the King, the Lord Jesus comes, it won't be a moment of awe. Because he will come and he will speak. and the words he will speak will be so plain, so real, so truthful, that everyone will stand in the very awe of his presence and glory. The awe will be so great that not even the unbeliever will speak against him. Even believers will be caught in that awe in that moment. because he will speak to them. He will call those on his right to come to him. I want you to think, because the king can usher you into his presence or the king can send you away. And to be sent out from the presence of the king because you have been deemed unworthy is no small issue. And yet, to be deemed worthy is an amazing context. And you are not worthy in and of yourself, you are worthy because of the imputed righteousness of Christ. The sheep will be called to come to him, and specifically, the sheep will be called to inherit the kingdom. 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. He says, you're blessed. This means you've been given grace. Grace that you didn't earn or deserve, but you've been given that grace. You've been called into his presence and you've been called safely. Maybe you had a moment as a child that you remember that you knew in that moment you did something really, really wrong, and one of your parents found out about it, and you were not looking forward to them finding out and calling you to them. Because when you heard their voice, Brandon, son, where are you? Come here. You knew, I don't want to go. Maybe if I don't answer, they'll think I've gone somewhere else. Or maybe you remember them calling you and thanking you for something that you did. And you remember walking in their presence, being thankful that you could come safely. So it will be with the Lord Jesus that those sheep, the ones on his right, will be called to inherit the kingdom and inherit it safely. We have to recognize that this kingdom is not a gift. It's not a gift. It's an inheritance. That's even greater than just a gift. Romans 8, 16 through 17, the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, that doctrine of adoption. We've talked about it several times before, being adopted in the family of God. We're no longer of our father, the devil. We are now in the family of God. He says if we're children of God, then we're heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Christ will call us to inherit the kingdom with Him. We are in Christ and we will be called to inherit the kingdom with him. We are fellow heirs with Christ. And he says, this is true, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him. Titus 3, 7, so that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. There's plenty of other scriptures we could go to, but I just give you some context there. This idea of inheriting the kingdom, it's not a gift, it's an inheritance. I could walk up to anybody on the street and give them a gift. Haven't you at some point in time in your life had someone come up to you that you didn't even know, you never knew them at all, and they needed some kind of help and you gave them something, whether it was $10, $20, or whatever it was, you gave them something, or maybe you went and bought them some food and you gave it to them, but you didn't know them. No, this is different. This is an inheritance. This is only given to children of the one who own the kingdom. We have been made fellow heirs with Christ. We have been brought in to his family. We are adopted children. This kingdom that Jesus references is an inherited kingdom. The kingdom Jesus references is a prepared kingdom. Think about this for a moment because verse 34 gives a context to tell us this is the blessing of the Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you. You have to first and foremost understand it is the kingdom that was designed before the foundation of the world as the text says. Whatever this kingdom is, it was designed before the foundation of the world. And because he's not looking at them and saying to them, turn around and look at what you just came out of, I'm giving you that, no. The kingdom is referenced here as something that was prepared before the foundation of the world. It was prepared in the context that there would be something different to the kingdom they inherit. I don't want to inherit this particular present context of the world and the cosmos because it's falling and failing. It's dying. It's in downgrade. Even the very stars are in downgrade. The planets are in downgrade. Our Father is not going to give us something that's a clunker. We have to recognize that this kingdom is not only prepared in its context, the spiritual nature of that kingdom, the physical nature of that kingdom, but specifically here it's in reference to this kingdom being very clearly for those who God chose before the foundation of the world. This is the kind of language that often gets pastors in trouble. It's that terrible doctrine of election or predestination. I'm thankful to have served the church for over 20 years that I've never once, never once been taken to task for properly teaching this beautiful, wonderful doctrine of God's grace. The church was founded that truths like this were very important for the whole of the gospel and our understanding. We may not fully grasp God's eternal decree. We may not fully grasp what God has done in his sovereignty, choosing many to salvation and choosing others to condemnation and leaving them to their selves. But what we do know and what we do understand is that if God had not elected anyone, no one would be saved. Because we've seen the doctrine of depravity for what it is. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. I dressed up today. Did you see? Is my tie straight? Sometimes it's not. See? I dressed up today, I look pretty good, right? I mean, some of you have seen me look worse. What is it in me that's worthy? That I could put a suit and a tie on and look presentable? I took a shower, I don't smell too bad. Is that worthy of the kingdom? I haven't physically murdered anybody in my whole life. I'm 50 now. I've gotten through many of these trials and I haven't physically murdered anybody. Aren't you proud of me? I brush my teeth. I say nice things, a lot of the times. I speak nicely to most of you all. I'm kind. Why don't you hear how good I am? But that's not the standard. The standard is absolute perfection, and I don't have it. I'm not even close. The things that I think in my mind, I would be ashamed sometimes for people to know. It's what is behind these eyes that's scary. There's been times that I've held all kind of words back. There's been times I've held all kind of anger back. Even to the point I was so good at it, nobody knew I was really angry. See, y'all would be shocked. Some of you know me a long time. I'm a pretty passionate person. You can't believe the kind of things that I don't say. Oh, but you're a pastor. You're not supposed to be like that. No. Apart from God's grace, I'm a wretched, awful sinner. and God would be within every right of condemning me for eternity. If he had not loved me first and chosen me first before the foundation of the world, there would be no hope for my salvation. And I'm absolutely amazed because there is no reason that he should have chosen me according to my understanding. I don't deserve it. None of us deserve it. See, this kingdom is a prepared kingdom. It's prepared for those who God chose before the foundation of the world. The kingdom itself was prepared and the people were chosen before the foundation of the world. Both are true. The scripture tells us both are true. I ask you, Do you understand how glorious God's grace is that he would save sinners like us? Are you still amazed by his grace, or have you kind of gotten over it? When you come to a text like this, you have to stop for a moment and go, whoa! Whoa unto me, for I am undone. I do not deserve his mercy. I do not deserve his grace. All I deserve is condemnation and death and hell because God, in my own way, in my own time, I hated you with my heart. I hated your law. I hated your purposes. I wanted to live life my way. Even as a child, I wanted it to be about me. But you, oh God, You, in your benevolent, eternal grace, you chose many. I don't know how many the many is, but it's gotta be a lot. There's a lot of history and a lot of time. And God is so immense, the numbers are probably immense. But however many it is, millions upon millions that he is saved by his grace and for his glory. He did it before the foundation of the world. It's an amazing thing. I pray this morning you will not walk away without recognizing the amazing grace of God. And if you've not been reminded of it in a while, I hope you'll be reminded today. for the inheritance of this kingdom is not just a gift. We have been adopted into the family of God, and we've been adopted in that family because God chose a people for himself before time began. And he did it by his grace, unmerited favor to sinners like you and I, something we do not deserve, and yet he gave it anyway. When you hear that message, why would you not believe in the Son of Man? Why would you not trust Him today? Remember, the Lord Jesus is speaking. He is the watchman on the wall, telling you what will happen. All nations will be gathered before Him in all of His glory, and all those nations will be separated by Him. And there will be some who will be on his right and some who will be on his left. As the Hebrew writer has said, today, do not harden your hearts. Today, do not harden your hearts. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bow before you, giving honor and glory to you for the immensity of your being beyond what we can fathom. And yet it gives us a picture of the immensity of your grace to sinners like us. As we come to the table in just a moment, bring us to a remembrance of your son, the Lord Jesus. That we would be those who repent and believe in him alone. And we would walk in lives of repentance. So that we will show that we are children of God. and we will look forward to our inheritance with Christ one day. It's in his name we pray. Amen.