Resurrection & Judgments to Come

Transcript

GRM 1120
2/2/2014
The Resurrections and Judgments to Come
Sel. Scriptures
Gil Rugh

We've spent the last several weeks talking about the matter of the pre-tribulational rapture of the church. And if you put the chart up of the 70 weeks again. The pre-trib rapture is simply an indication the church began in Acts 2 following the ascension of Christ back to heaven in Acts 1, it will culminate with Christ descending in the air and calling all believers from Acts 2 down to that period of time, the living and the dead, to meet Him in the air. In that atom of time our bodies will be transformed, glorified into conformity with the kind of body Christ had after His resurrection. And we will be taken to heaven. Christ does not come to earth at that time, He meets us in the air and then takes us to His Father's house. That's followed by the 70th week of Daniel, a seven-year period divided into two 3½ year segments. That's followed by the return of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom, followed by the millennium, the thousand-year reign.

I want to lay out for you the resurrections of Scripture and then the judgments following along with those resurrections. So if you turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15. We'll use this as the foundation. I hope doing the two things, we're going to talk about resurrections and we're going to talk about judgments, so you set in place the overall scheme and then we'll put the judgments into that.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is talking about the resurrection of the body. And some false teaching had infiltrated among the church at Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 15:12, “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” 1 Corinthians 15:13 & 14, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.” Everything is tied to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. And if Christ was raised from the dead, that means others will be raised from the dead. How would the church at Corinth begin to accept some teaching that there is no bodily resurrection? Well, they don't take the Scripture literally, and so it's a spiritual resurrection. And we were dead in our trespasses and sins and now we've been made alive in Christ. So it's a spiritual resurrection and there is no future bodily resurrection was the kind of teaching going on. Paul says that's a denial of the truth of the bodily resurrection of Christ. And there is no salvation if Christ has not been bodily raised.

Down in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins.” You are not saved by sincerely believing a lie. Faith does not save you, faith in the truth that God has revealed brings salvation. Many people have faith in things they are willing to die for, but it will not save them. We tend to absorb ideas, as long as they are sincere, as long as they are earnest, as long as they really believe it. Paul makes clear, if Christ has not been raised from the dead, you are believing a lie. And believing a lie does nothing to take care of the penalty for your sin.

Then 1 Corinthians 15:20, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead.” That's a fact. And that guarantees that there is coming resurrection. Christ was fully man and in his death He paid the penalty for man's sin. And in His resurrection He demonstrated there is a coming resurrection for man as well. He compares it to Adam in verses 21-22. Then he says in 1 Corinthians 15:22-23, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order:” And he is dealing here with believers, the resurrection of believers. The clarity of this was important. Remember Paul wrote to the Thessalonians and said, I don't want you to be grieving about loved ones who have died who were believers in Christ because we have hope of seeing them again. So again the importance of understanding the bodily resurrection of the believer and its place in the plan of God. Something that we look forward to and anticipate.

1 Corinthians 15:23-24 says, “But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father.” Please put up the chart on the resurrections. We have a chart here that is based on this passage in 1 Corinthians 15. You'll note where the cross is, that's Christ the first fruits. Then those are Christ's at His coming which covers both the first phase of His Second Coming, which is in the air at the rapture, and then His coming to earth. We'll talk about the differences there in a minute with the resurrections. And then the thousand years, then comes the end when sin has been dealt with completely and is finally removed. That will not take place until the end of that thousand years. Then there will be a resurrection there. Christ the first fruits, we're familiar with that and we've put the verses up there from the four Gospels, the chapters, that talk about the bodily resurrection of Christ. And He was raised, the same body that was crucified was raised. He says, look at my hands, see My feet, see the wounds. They were there to demonstrate it's the same body that was crucified that was raised from the dead. And then the first stage of the Second Coming, the rapture of the church as we've been talking about. We have the church being resurrected there where it is caught up, and you have the arc where we come down. But we are caught up to meet Christ in the air and taken to heaven, then we will be coming back down with Him. The church is resurrected at that point. We have the church noted there. And that will include living believers, if the rapture were to occur now as we talked about, every believer in this auditorium would bodily, instantaneously disappear. And in that moment of time, quicker than you can blink your eyes, your body would undergo a change, called glorification, which would bring it into conformity with the kind of body Christ had after His resurrection from the dead. Just prior to that those who had died, loved ones who had died, their bodies had been buried, returned to dust, God will call them back to life and they will live again in those bodies. That's the resurrection of the church.

Then seven years later, approximately, Christ will return to earth and we will return with Him. At that point in time, at the end of the seven years but before the beginning of the thousand-year kingdom, Old Testament saints, tribulation saints, Old Testament saints are those who were saved before the beginning of the church in Acts 2, connected with the cross there, right about that time. The church began shortly after His crucifixion. All Old Testament saints, believers in the truth God had revealed. Tribulation saints are those who had come to trust Christ during that seven-year period following the rapture of the church. They are also resurrected at that time.

Come back to Daniel, let's read these two passages because they are foundational to the rest of what we'll say. Go to Daniel 12. At the end of Daniel 11 we were talking about this seven-year period, in Daniel 11, beginning with verse 36. Then the king will do as he pleases. The king who will do as he pleases, we sometimes refer to him as the willful king. That's the one who will become dominant in this seven-year tribulation, talking about events of that seven-year tribulation. Same man we know of as the little horn talked about in Daniel 7. Then you come down to Daniel 12:1, “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, [Michael the archangel has chief responsibility for the oversight of the nation Israel] will arise. And there will be a time of distress such has never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.” And that time of distress is particularly that last 3½ years, the second 3½ -year period that we have there, that 70th week of Daniel. The last half of that is a time of particular trial and difficulty for the nation Israel as we saw in Daniel 7. This willful king, the little horn of Daniel 7 will break his seven-year agreement with Israel, the covenant he established at the beginning of that seven years will be broken in the middle. Then there is a time of tribulation like has never occurred.

Everyone who is found written in the book will be rescued. How will they be rescued? They will be rescued by the return of Christ to earth. Remember Matthew 24? Jesus said if He didn't return to earth at the end of that seven years, allowed it to go on, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, His chosen ones, He intervenes at the end of the seven years. Everyone found written in the book will be rescued. We'll say more about that but it's an indication that He returns here to spare some who have become believers during that seven years, particularly talking here about Jews. Remember the 144,000 were sealed—12,000 from every tribe in Revelation 7 will make it to here, along with others.

Note Daniel 12:2, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life,” Now note, he does not say everyone will be raised, but many will be raised, and those who are raised at this time will be raised to life. We're talking about a resurrection of Old Testament saints raised to everlasting life. There is another group, Daniel 12:2 “but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” And they are separated here because as we've seen again and again in prophetic passages in the Old Testament, the time is not clarified for us. So you have events talked about as though they were right together, the first coming and Second Coming of Christ, without any clarity that there is time in between. Well here in verse 2, in the middle of the verse, there is a thousand-year period that is not revealed until later in the New Testament. Those who are raised to everlasting life are raised at the second stage of the Second Coming when Christ comes to earth and Old Testament saints are raised. The others who are raised to disgrace and everlasting contempt are the unbelievers who are raised at the end of the thousand years. So you have an indication of the two resurrections there, but the timing of it is not set out. That awaits later revelation.

Come over to Revelation 20, the last book in your Bible and getting close to the closing chapters, Revelation 20. Remember Revelation does something for us that is so helpful and puts the revelation about future events now in a sequential order. I was reading the past week of a man who was ridiculing the idea that Revelation would put things in a sequential order, he was ridiculing the whole idea that you would take these promises of God, this guy claims to be a believer, may well be but he is confused. You shouldn't take all this stuff literally. But you are in a world of confusion if you don't.

Revelation, the book started out the first three chapters talking about the church, then the church is removed after chapter 3, at the rapture taken to heaven, we saw it in heaven in chapters 4-5 represented by the 24 elders. Then with chapter 6 you have the unfolding of this seven-year period, the resurrection of the church at the rapture and the Second Coming to earth. That covered chapters 6-18. In chapter 19 Christ returns from heaven to earth. And we'll say more about that in a moment.

Then you come to chapter 20, and we've seen this in our studies, you have the thousand-year millennium, that thousand-year period. Verse 4 tells you there is a resurrection here, Revelation 20:4 “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God; and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image ,and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand.” That takes us back to events of that last 3½ years, in Revelation 13 he told us about. Jesus warned about it, the image that would be established in the temple in Jerusalem of this beast, the antichrist, the willful king, the little horn, all names for the same person, the lawless man from 2 Thessalonians 2. So during that seven-year period many of those who became believers will be martyred but now they are resurrected. That's why we have Old Testament saints, those prior to the church, and tribulation saints, those after the church is raptured during that seven-year period.

They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. You see we have the same pattern as we have in Daniel 12, these to everlasting life and the rest to everlasting contempt. They are separated but we are not told how much time divides the two. Now we are told. There is a thousand years between the resurrection of those to everlasting life and the resurrection to those for destruction.

Blessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resurrection, over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. The first resurrection is a quality of resurrection, it doesn't occur just at one time, but the first resurrection includes all believers. With the resurrection of the church prior to the seven years and the resurrection of Old Testament saints and tribulation saints at the end of the seven years, you have the resurrection of every believer who is going to be resurrected, it's done. Now there are some believers who haven't been resurrected, we'll deal with those in a moment, but all those who are going to be raised to life, get glorified bodies, they've been raised. No unbelievers have received resurrection bodies yet. They don't get raised from the dead, unbelievers, until the end of the thousand years. We have unbelievers mentioned. And so the rest of the dead aren't raised for a thousand years.

So the first resurrection includes the church, it includes Old Testament saints, tribulation saints. The Old Testament saints would include those before Genesis 12 as well that weren't part of Israel but were part of the believing family, like Enoch the fifth from Adam who is referred to in the book of Genesis as well as in the book of Jude. Clearly a believer. Noah, another example. People like that. They are all resurrected. The rest of the dead don't live for a thousand years.

Then after the thousand years, verse 11, there is another judgment, this is the last judgment of Scripture. That's the resurrection of unbelievers. Revelation 20:11 “And 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,” And everyone who appears at this judgment is thrown into the lake of fire to suffer torment forever and ever. We'll say more about that with the judgment. But every unbeliever. This is the last judgment of Scripture. People tend to talk about the last judgment and they'll be talking about different judgments. We want to come back and talk about the judgments associated with the resurrections and judgment not part of the resurrection. So connected with resurrection there is judgment.

When the church is raptured at the first stage of the Second Coming which we spent so much talking about. You can put that back up there for a moment, we'll be putting the judgments in here now. When the church is resurrected, caught up to meet Christ in the air, they will be judged, all of us as believers, part of the church. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5, I want to be sure you understand this is a different judgment and it is given a different name. 2 Corinthians 5:6-7, “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord_ for we walk by faith, not by sight_” How do we know that? If I were to die today, how would I know that I would be immediately in the presence of God? I believe what God has said. We are of good courage, I say, and rather prefer to be absent from the body and be present with the Lord. That's the best thing. We grieve when a loved one dies, but they don't grieve. And in our grief we have hope, we're glad for them, and we often say, I'm glad for them but I'm sorry because I miss them. We have grief, there is a separation but for the believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

So our desire whether living on this earth or in the presence of the Lord, we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. Why? 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. That word bad might be better translated worthless, whether good or worthless. This is not a judgment for sin, this is the judgment for faithfulness. And the particular word for judgment here is for us as believers in the church. We must all appear before the judgment seat. The Greek word translated here judgment seat, we carry over into English as bema, the bema seat. It's the judgment where we come before the Lord to be rewarded for our works, recompense for our deeds, the things we have done as His children in faithfulness to Him. It's not to determine our eternal destiny, that was determined when we placed our faith in Christ. This is to determine rewards given to us for faithfully serving Him.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 3, we'll spend a little bit of time here because it is important to us, this is the judgment where we will appear. You don't want to waste your life saying, I know I've trusted the Lord and sometimes we just seem rather . . . God has said there is great reward for us in faithfulness to Him. What greater reward. If I'm going to heaven . . . How many times do we hear, if I'm going to heaven that's all the reward I need, as though God didn't know what He was talking about. I may not appreciate the importance of my faithfulness to Him here, but when I stand before Him at the bema seat I will understand how important it was to have been faithful, diligent.

So 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, “According to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” I'm only talking to you, the church at Corinth, the believers there who are building on the foundation of Christ. This doesn't have anything to do with salvation by works, it has to do with faithfulness in the lives of those who have placed their faith in Christ. He is the only foundation. If you're not building on Christ, you are building on sand and you will be appearing at the judgment of unbelievers in the last judgment of Scripture. If any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work, and that stress on each denotes the individuality of the judgment. Each man's work will become evident. The day will show it, it is to be revealed with fire. The fire will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved so as through fire.

So you see here this judgment is not to determine your eternal destiny, this is where you would come, we might think of an athletic event, this bema seat refers to, that kind of judgment scene. And there the medals are distributed, the rewards are given for faithfulness of service. If we're building with wood, hay and straw, worthless things, it won't survive the fire. There will be people there, believers, but their life has been wasted, frittered away. They've done things but they've not been done in obedience to the Spirit, allowing the Spirit of God to use them in the greatest possible way with the gifts that we are to exercise, that he'll talk about in such detail in chapters 12-14 of this same letter to the Corinthians. Some say, I'll still be in heaven, that's good enough for me. Sometimes you see people and you see what they are doing with their life and you say, they don't understand how serious it is, don't take into account the consequences, they haven't considered what it will mean. We try to tell our kids certain things. Why? Because they are immature and they don't think it matters. I'm enjoying what I'm doing today and that's fine. They don't see the benefit. We say, you will someday. That's what God has done, He hasn't given us all the details here. But when God says it will be worthwhile, when God says He has a reward, we will know there is a difference and say, what mattered? What was important? We have the little phrase, only one life, 'twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last. It carries a great truth.

That's what Paul is talking about, warning the Corinthians. You could be spending your life wasted. This is the time we have to build rewards, I don't have it beyond here. My salvation is settled but now I have a few short years of this earthly life to live for the Lord, to serve Him, to pour myself into it. I don't want to be distracted. The world is living for what they can get today, the rewards of this life. But that's not what matters to us and how we are to live our life.

One more passage, back up to Romans 14:10, “But you, why do you judge your brother? [This is talking about relationship among believers.] Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before [the bema of God,] the judgment seat of God.” Talking about believers. Romans 14:12, “So then each one of us shall give an account of himself to God.” So that warning. So there is a judgment. We know it happens for the church immediately following the rapture because remember when we studied Revelation 19, the Second Coming of Christ? And we have the church addressed as the bride of Christ, clothed in white linen bright and clean, which is the righteousness, the righteous deeds of the saints. So we know the church has been judged, rewarded, we are clothed, not just in the righteousness of Christ, but in the garments that reflect our faithfulness and so on.

So the bema seat will happen when we are caught up to meet Christ in the air. It won't be to determine our destiny, but it will be to determine our rewards.

All right, that's the judgment of the church. We're going to come to the end, the second stage. When Christ returns to earth, we have the resurrection of Old Testament saints and tribulation saints. I take it their judgment will occur at that point also because they are raised to rule and reign with Christ. And involved in the rewards, perhaps among other things are they rule and reign and the responsibility entrusted and parceled out. And as it is indicated there in Revelation 20, it would indicate that the rewards have been bestowed. So the judgment for Old Testament saints and tribulation saints who have died occurs when they get their resurrected body. That's at the Second Coming of Christ to earth.

Now let me pause and switch gears. Now you see it's important we just don't talk about the last judgment. When we talk about the last judgment, it will be of unbelievers at the end. These are different judgments. We have seen two kinds of judgment, two groups judged—the church following the rapture, resurrected saints from the church; and resurrected Old Testament saints and tribulation saints at the Second Coming. But there is also a judgment that will occur on those who are alive when Christ returns, the second stage of the Second Coming. When Christ comes to earth, there is a judgment of living that occurs there. We don't have that on our chart because that chart was just prepared to show when the resurrections occur. So don't get confused. There will be people following the rapture of the church, all believers have been removed from the earth, but there will be people saved during that seven-year period—Jews and also some Gentiles. When Christ returns to earth, He indicates He will set up a judgment of those who are alive on the earth at the time of His return to the earth. It becomes very important for understanding the kingdom and so on. The judgment will be twofold and it will be separate. There will be a judgment of the nation Israel, Jews who have lived through the seven years. Some will have trusted Christ, some will have not. Then there will be a judgment of Gentiles.

Let's look at the judgment of living Jews when Christ returns. So you have the judgment of the church at the rapture, then we have the living at the Second Advent. So come back to Ezekiel 20, we'll take a passage from the Old Testament and a passage from the New Testament. In Ezekiel 20 God has been talking about, through Ezekiel the prophet, His dealings with Israel and Israel's unfaithfulness and the necessity of God's judgment on them. And you come down to verse 33, terrific statement. The problem when you don't take the Bible literally, you miss the beauty of what God says. Israel has a future as Israel. Look at Ezekiel 20:33, “As I live, declares the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you.” That period of time he's talking about, with His mighty hand, His outstretched arm and His wrath poured out, is that seven-year period, and particularly the last 3½ years, as that's the time of great suffering for the nation Israel. I will be king over you. Now you are going to fight, but you can't win. Isn't it amazing how people can be, to think they can fight against Almighty God and win? It's a characteristic of sin. The devil to the very end is going to try to fight against God as though he could ever win. God says, I will be king over you.

Now there is a word of warning in this, it will be with a mighty hand and outstretched arm and wrath poured out because it's going to take that to bring Israel finally to its knees. But I will be king over you. That's the encouraging part. His word will be fulfilled.

I will bring you out from the peoples, gather you from the lands where you were scattered with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. Where we are is at the Second Coming to earth. That last 3½ years is the time of suffering, God's wrath poured out like it has never been done before. That will result in all Israel being saved, come to that time. Doesn't mean every Jew will be saved, there is going to be a great turning to Christ, but there is going to be a large number that do not turn.

So this is what we're talking about, where we are here. He has brought them through the time of wrath, now in Ezekiel 20:35, “and I shall bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I shall enter into judgment with you face to face.” Where are we in the wilderness of the people? Look at Ezekiel 20:36, “As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God.” What happened to Israel? After they were delivered from Egypt in the bondage, they continued to rebel, God said they couldn't go into the Promised Land. So they wandered in the wilderness for forty years until everyone over the age of 20, with a couple of exceptions, died. Now God says, I am going to bring you back into that wilderness again for another judgment. And this judgment is similar. Some at this judgment are not going into the land. Do you know what that means? See what comes next after that second stage to the earth? The kingdom. I'll enter into judgment with you in the wilderness just like I entered into judgment with you in the wilderness after Egypt. And that generation didn't go into the land and some here at this judgment are not going into the land. That's what it means.

Ezekiel 20:37, “And I will make you pass under the rod, and I shall bring you into the bond of the covenant; and I shall purge from you the rebels and those who trespass against Me; I shall bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the Lord.” They are going to be gathered over to that region, Sinai and that wilderness, but they're not going into the land; they will be excluded by the judgment. Indication here there are Jews that live up to the Second Coming of Christ to earth, are alive at that Second Coming, they are not going into the land. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Come over to Matthew 24-25, the last part of chapter 24 and then into chapter 25 He's talked about the tribulation period, we've been into Matthew 25, down through Matthew 24:28. Then you have His return in glory, then He is going to tell them about being ready. Now He is talking to Israel, there has been no revelation of the church age. Ready understanding of that. He's talking to the nation Israel here and His coming again. Verse 37, it will be like the days of Noah, for in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying, giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark. They did not understand, the flood came and took them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man. Do you know what He is saying? Some of the Jews are going to be like it was in the days of Noah; when Noah was building the ark. This is not a picture of the rapture, for who got carried away? Who did the flood come and take away in verse 39? Unbelievers. So this is a picture of the judgment that will come and sweep away the unbeliever.

There will be two men in the field, one will be taken, one will be left; two women at the mill, one will be taken, one will be left. The one taken is taken in judgment, the one left gets to go into the kingdom. That's the point. Just like we saw in Ezekiel, He'll bring them into the wilderness but they are not all going into Israel, the land, which meant you are excluded from the kingdom.

You come down, be ready for His coming, unexpected coming upon them at the Second Coming here. And then you have an analogy of the slave, a faithful slave and an unfaithful slave. And the unfaithful slave, the end of verse 51 to save time, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Why? He is cut in pieces, ___________, he is executed. Unbelieving Jews are executed, they are not going into the kingdom.

You come into Matthew 25, the parable of the ten virgins. This is not the church, these virgins are not the bride, they are waiting for the bridegroom. Remember the rapture of the church follows the oriental wedding. The bridegroom comes to get his bride, the one is his betrothed, so He comes in the air, the bride meets Him and He takes the bride to His Father's house where the marriage is consummated. Then we have the return to earth, the bride's home, and we saw that in Revelation 19. The marriage of the Lamb has occurred and now we're coming for the marriage feast, which will be the kingdom. And what do you have? Here you have Israel pictured with the ten virgins and the picture is waiting for the return of the bridegroom with His bride. We don't have ten brides waiting here, but these are the friends of the bridegroom. Remember John the Baptist said, I'm not the bridegroom, I'm a friend of the bridegroom. I'm not the groom, I'm not the bride, I'm a friend.

Five of these virgins were ready, five were not. Verse 10, those who were ready, the middle of the verse, those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast. That's what we have announced in Revelation 19 at the Second Coming. This bride has made herself ready and now He is descending to return, and some of the living Israelites are not ready. Those who are ready will go into the kingdom, the others call, Lord, Lord, open to us. And He says, I don't know you. They are excluded, they are closed out.

The parable of the talents, the same kind of picture of faithfulness, servants who are faithful. Again, Israel pictured here. What happens to the unfaithful slave? Matthew 25:30, “And cast out the worthless slave into the outer darkness, in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” You are either going into the kingdom or you are going to hell, there is no middle place. So that's the judgment of Israel. No unbelieving Jews are going into that kingdom and no unbelieving Gentiles, other nations.

So you come to Matthew 25:31, “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him,” that's His Second Coming and that's part of the context we've been talking about but He's been focusing on Israel. So now He backs up to remind us, we're talking about when He comes, He talked about it for Israel being ready. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Note this, all the nations will be gathered before Him. We've dealt with the nation Israel, now we deal with the nations, all the rest. So you see separate in judgment. The nations are gathered before Him, He'll separate one from the other, the sheep from the goats. Some people talk about this as though it's the last judgment, all kinds of confusion comes out of not being careful in understanding this. Where are we? We are at the Second Coming to earth, we're judging those who are alive at the Second Coming. These nations, now, non-Jews are gathered.

The King will say to those on His right, come, you who are blessed of the Father, inherit the kingdom. We're not in the kingdom, we're ready to have the kingdom established and now you can go into the kingdom prepared for you, because all believers will be part of that kingdom in one way or another. I was hungry, you gave Me something to eat; thirsty, you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, you invited Me in; naked, you clothed Me. How many times, I am so . . . You know, if people don't know anything else about the Bible, they'll know, judge not that you be not judged, and Jesus said if you feed the poor and the hungry, you are feeding Him. It becomes the foundation for social programs in all kinds of churches.

That's not what He is talking about, look at the context. He has returned to earth at the end of that horrible seven-year period when God's wrath has been poured out on an unbelieving world and particularly on an unbelieving nation to bring the nation to its knees. They say, when did we clothe you? When did we feed you? When did we visit you in prison? Not what He says down in Matthew 25:40, “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.” What is He talking about? Mankind? No. What have we just talked about from Matthew 24 to this point in Matthew 25? The Second Coming of Christ to earth, the judgment on Israel. All that's left now are believing Jews standing here. The others have been executed, we've had the judgment of Israel. Now the nations, the Gentiles are gathered. To the extent you did it to one of these brothers of mine. Who are His brothers? What nationality is Jesus? He is a Jew. For the last 3½ years, an evidence that Gentiles have truly trusted Christ is that they will be willing to put their life on the line to help the Jews, particularly these believing Jews.

That's not just going out and feeding the poor today. I'm not saying you should never take dinner to someone in need or give to someone. But that's not what this passage is talking about. We just can't pick out a Scripture, there we are, feed the poor, take care of the naked. Yes, that's what the church ought to be doing. That has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with that. It has to do with the judgment of living Gentiles and they are evaluated on how they treated these precious believing Jews in their time of great need, particularly during this last 3½ years of the coming tribulation.

And what happens to the unbeliever at this judgment, the Gentiles? Matthew 25:41, “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.” Same thing. No unbelieving Gentiles are going into the kingdom. Matthew 25:46, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” When you are shut out of the kingdom here, your eternal destiny is clear. Living believers are going into the kingdom, unbelievers are executed. That means there is no other chance.

Let me say something else here since some of you asked about it. We have two kinds of people in the kingdom now. We have resurrected saints who get glorified bodies, from the church, Old Testament and tribulation. They have glorified bodies, they are going into the kingdom. We have living Jews who were believers who survived the tribulation, they are going into the kingdom in their physical bodies. Now we have non-Jews who became believers during the tribulation and survive, and they are going into the kingdom in their physical bodies. So some ask, does that mean we will all be living in the kingdom? I'll be there in a glorified body, my next door neighbor may have a wife and children and they are in physical bodies. Well, the element of truth in that is not necessarily they will be your next door neighbor on the same street, but we will be in the kingdom together. Now when you stop and think about it, that's not such a problem. Christ is going to be on earth, He's going to be ruling and reigning. What kind of body does He have? A glorified body. John was in his physical body when he saw Jesus in Revelation 1, he saw Him, he talked to Him. That's not really a problem. I take it there are angels here today, not you sitting out there, but God's angels here. I mean, they are servants on behalf of those who have been redeemed, we saw in Hebrews, but we don't see them. But there are times in the Bible where for God's purposes He had them manifest their presence. So we can be manifest in glorified bodies. Doesn't mean we will be residing on the same street, perhaps we'll be residing in the New Jerusalem in heaven or suspended above the earth as some have speculated, since when the New Jerusalem comes down to earth after the millennium, it comes down out of heaven to the earth, and it's adorned as a bride. That's why we refer to it as the bride city because we will have a key place in there. Maybe that's where those in their resurrected bodies will be.

Furthermore, we go through the thousand years as we have talked about, to summarize this, no unbelievers are going into that thousand-year period. But during that thousand-year period the people who went in, in physical bodies, are going to have children. Those children will be born with sin natures. Now the devil won't be present because he is bound, the environment will be perfect, there will not be any sickness and so on. So these children are born in a perfect environment, but they are born with a sin nature. At the end of that thousand years in a perfect environment under a perfect King with no influence from the devil, these people have been seething. They haven't liked being held down, but they have been obedient because they are afraid of the immediate punishment. But when Satan is released and allowed to go out and give people a choice, the number in Revelation 20 is like the sand of the sea that votes to have Satan as their king rather than Christ.

Fire comes down from heaven and we have the last resurrection and the Great White Throne at the end of Revelation 20, where the dead, small and great, are raised to stand. They are judged out of the books of their works. But they are not saved on that basis. The Book of Life is there, the Book of Life is the record of the names of those who belong to Christ. The book of the works is there because all the judgments are on works. This is not to determine whether they are going to hell, everyone at the Great White Throne is going to hell, it's to determine the degree of suffering in hell. Those who knew the Master's will and didn't do it will be beaten with many stripes, the one who didn't know the Master's will and did not do it will be beaten with few stripes. Like Jesus said, greater light brings greater responsibility. At the judgment, listen to this, it will be more tolerable for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, Jesus said, than the people of the cities He went to. And you understand at the Great White Throne it will be more tolerable for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than it will be for anyone here who has not placed his faith in Christ because you have had greater light, the fullness of light of the Gospel.

Keep that in mind when you share the Gospel. Something always happens, we are a savor of life to life and death to death. Every time a person is exposed to the truth, they have opportunity by the grace of God to respond in faith to the truth of what God has done in providing salvation in His Son. Every time they reject that there is a further hardening of their heart and mind and they incur greater responsibility because of that exposure to the truth. And that is fair, it is fair and right that sinners be cast into an eternal hell, it is fair and right that they be judged according to opportunity. So God is a just God. There is no escaping judgment for people in this auditorium, everyone here will either be judged following the rapture of the church because you are a believer, or you will be judged with the unbelievers at the Great White Throne. You can't escape judgment. Praise God for the salvation He provided that has delivered us, brought His grace. Now if we grab on and think, everything I do with my life matters for eternity as His child. I want to store up treasure in heaven, the reward to be received from Him as a well done, good and faithful servant. Enter in to the joy of your Lord.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for great grace, grace that is not limited to the Jews, to the Gentiles, to people who are rich or poor. Lord, a grace that is freely offered to all. How gracious you are to have brought us together today to hear your Word. Lord, in this group there are those who have responded in faith to the grace offered, to salvation, believing in your Son. And Lord, there may be some here who have not yet responded to that grace. May this be a day they see the glorious truth that there is a Savior who loved them and died for them. We pray in Christ's name, amen.