Distinctions Between the Judgments

Transcript

GRM 1067
1/22/2012
Distinctions Between the Judgments
Selected Verses
01/22/12


We're looking at the judgments of Scripture. It is a truth founded by God, Hebrews 9:27, it is appointed unto man once to die, after this comes judgment. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. No one can escape judgment. We're talking about personal judgments. For example Jesus Christ judged sin at the cross and that's foundational, but that's not the focus of what we've been talking about in judgment. The seven-year tribulation leading up to the Second Coming of Christ to earth is a time of judgment, but we're not focusing on that right now. We're focusing on the times when people will personally stand before Jesus Christ and be judged by Him.

Now let me say something before we move into the judgments themselves to remind you. All the judgments of Scripture are based on works. All the judgments of Scripture are based on works. But you understand no one will be saved on the basis of their works. Turn with me to Matthew 12:33, we'll just break in here, we'll be talking about some preceding material in a little bit. Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you being evil speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. You note the connection here. Words reveal what is in the heart. The heart is the root and the center of all that we are. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.

Now that might sound like, well people are saved on the basis of how they talk. By your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. But we have to take it in the context. The end of verse 34, for the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. We can be judged on the basis of our words or other actions because that is a revelation of what is in our heart. In Mark 7 Jesus said, it is out of the heart of man that proceed all kinds of sin. Jeremiah said that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it? Then we have the response, I, the Lord, search the heart, I try the _______________.

So Jesus is speaking here of the condition of the heart. But all the judgments are based on works because our works reveal the condition of our hearts. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Those who practice righteousness are of God, those who practice sin are of the devil, 1 John 3. So don't get confused. We're going to be talking about judgments on the basis of works because our works reveal the true condition of our heart and whether we have experienced the transformation of God's grace.

Why don't you put the chart of the resurrections up for us, put us in order again. We are focusing on three events. There are three times judgment occurs, personal judgment where individuals appear before the throne of Christ to be judged. We looked here at the Rapture of the church. We're looking at three things in our judgments—the time of the judgment, the subjects of the judgment and the results of the judgment. So the time of the judgment of the church is here when the church is raptured. We're caught up to meet Christ in the air, then we stand at the bema seat, the judgment seat of Christ to be rewarded for what we have done. It's not a judgment to determine our eternal destiny, that's settled, but it's a judgment to determine the rewards that will be bestowed upon us for faithfulness. We noted like in 1 Corinthians 3 our works will be submitted to the fire and only what has been done for the honor and glory of our God will endure. And we'll be rewarded on that. So the time is the Rapture, the subjects are just the church, those from Acts 2 down to this point. The results, rewards for us.

The second personal judgment takes place here at the Second Coming of Christ to earth. That's what we're going to talk about in our study in a moment. That includes Old Testament saints who will be resurrected, tribulation saints. It also includes the living who are alive when Christ returns. We haven't put those on here because this is a chart of the resurrections, but it's the time when judgment occurs as well. So we have those who have come through the seven-year tribulation who are alive at this point who will be judged to determine who will go into the kingdom. And then you have resurrected Old Testament saints and tribulation saints who will be judged at this time as well.

The final judgment here, the last judgment of Scripture is the Great White Throne judgment. And that takes place at the end of the thousand years.

We're focusing on this point right here, the judgment of those who are alive on the earth when Christ returns and then Old Testament saints and tribulation saints who will have been raised from the dead.

Come back with me to Ezekiel 20, and we're going to pick up with verse 33. As I live, declares the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you. I will bring you out from the peoples, gather you from the lands where you are scattered with a mighty hand and 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. As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness in the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God. I will make you pass under the rod and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me. I will bring them out of the land where they sojourned, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the Lord.

You see what is going to happen at the judgment here of those Jews alive at this point. They are brought before God to be judged, but the rebels will not go into the land, they will not be part of the kingdom. It's a sifting judgment. The picture of the shepherd with his rod having the sheep pass under, and he evaluates and separates them out. It's a separating judgment of the Jews, determining who will go into the kingdom.

Come over to Malachi 3, we will pick up with verse 1. Behold, I am going to send My messenger, he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple. And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. Note this now. But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, He will purify the sons of Levi, refine them like gold and silver so they may present to the Lord offerings of righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old, as in former years. Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, the adulterers, those who swear falsely, those who oppress the wage earner and his wages, the widow and the orphan, those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me, says the Lord of hosts.

So you see again it's a sifting judgment. For I the Lord do not change. Therefore oh sons of Jacob, you are not consumed. It's the grace of God, it is faithfulness to His character that means there will be a remnant of Jews that survive and go into the kingdom. The judgment will sift out, determining who does and who does not. The announcement of the coming messenger looked forward to the first coming of Christ and then down to the Second Coming of Christ.

Turn over just a few pages to Matthew 3. John the Baptist who was sent before the Lord to prepare the way, we are told in Matthew 3:1, in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So he is coming to announce the soon coming of the Messiah, the coming of the Messiah. The establishing of His kingdom would mean judgment. And then we're told from a quote from Isaiah that he, John, is the one that Isaiah prophesied about, the one who would come to prepare the way of the Lord.

When John saw the religious people coming, they are caught up in the emotion and excitement of what is going on. But they have not indicated any genuine repentance. So verse 7, when he saw many of the Pharisees and Saducees coming for baptism he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Imagine how popular that is. If we had some unbelievers come to our service today and I pointed them out by name as he did. You Pharisees and Saducees, you brood of vipers, who warned you to come here? I guess they won't be back next week. Well, John made some enemies and he will pay with his life eventually.

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. You see the point. Bear fruit, manifest in your deeds that you have truly repented and turned from your sin and placed your faith in God and the coming Messiah. You are preparing your heart for His arrival. It won't be enough to be a descendant of Abraham to spare you coming judgment. Verse 10, the ax is already laid at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me I baptize you with water for repentance, as an indication of repentance. But He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The fire there refers to the fires of judgment as he talked about in verse 10, the tree that does not bear good fruit is cast into the fire. Verse 12, His winnowing fork is in His hand. In biblical times they had the fork, you with farm backgrounds would be familiar with how this would be done. But they would spread the grain that had been harvested out on the threshing floor. Then they would throw it in the air and the lighter chaff would be blown off and the heavier grain would fall down. So His winnowing fork is in His hand, He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor. He will gather the wheat into the barn, He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

So John comes and announces the coming of the Messiah,, that's a time of judgment. You better be ready. He will separate the righteous from the wicked. The righteous will go into the kingdom, the wicked will go into hell.

Now let me say something here. As John preaches this, obviously this didn't happen at the first coming of Christ. The Old Testament, and this is true through the gospels until you have a change and further indication like starting in Matthew 13, did not separate out the first coming of Christ and the Second Coming of Christ. That is not unfolded until the New Testament. So John the Baptist did not know of a first coming of the Messiah, then a 2,000 year gap and a Second Coming to earth. So for him as well as the Old Testament prophets, and John is the last of the Old Testament prophets, he is announcing the coming of the Messiah and with that, coming judgment. There will be judgment on the nation for their unbelief, but this separating judgment will not occur until the Second Coming of Christ. So as God gives further revelation in the New Testament things will be clarified.

Come over to Matthew 12. We're going to look at Matthew 13 but I want you to see the context. Context is essential in looking into the Scripture. I hope you can follow this as we move through this study because many verses are pulled out of context that result in confusion in the church and wrong practices being brought into the church in matters relating to coming judgment. Matthew 12 marks a conclusion of a major section of the book of Matthew. With the end of Matthew 12 Christ's offer of the kingdom to Israel is done, the door is shut. There is no opportunity from this point on for a national change of mind. What happens here, Matthew 12:22. In the first part of Matthew 12 Christ shows that He is superior to all associated with the Old Testament. But in verse 22 He healed the demon possessed man who was blind and speechless, mute. The crowds were amazed. The Pharisees, verse 24, said, this Man casts out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. Another name for Satan. Oh that was a mighty miracle but the power for it didn't come from God, it came from the devil.

Verse 28, if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. You'll note what He is saying here in this statement. He's really saying, I'm casting out these demons, doing these mighty works by the Spirit of God. You are saying I'm doing it by the power of the devil. Verse 31, therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. What had they just done? They had called the work of the Holy Spirit the work of the devil. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come. He is announcing judgment on this generation of Jews and on the nation. And they stand at this point. They come under judgment. Then He reads the verses we read earlier on judgment of works as a manifestation of what is in the heart.

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was something related to the earthly presence of the Son of Man. And you could be confused and not recognize Him as He walked this earth as a man. But there is no excuse for the nation Israel not to see the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit being carried out through the Son of Man. And so here you have judgment descending on the nation Israel as far as their being set aside in the plan of God. And from here on Matthew will talk about Christ moving to Jerusalem.

So you come to Matthew 13 and you have a series of parables. What happens with the parables? Why does He start to address the crowds using parables? Verse 10, His disciples came to Him and said to Him, why do you speak to them in parables? He answered them, to you, My disciples, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. To them it has not been granted. Verse 13, therefore I speak to them in parables, because while seeing they do not see, while hearing they do not hear nor do they understand. And this fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah which He goes on to quote.

So you see judgment has descended on the nation. Now the clarity of Christ's teaching and work is further clouded to them. Now He is addressing them in parables. Parables bring two things alongside one another like an illustration. But they can't sort it out. The disciples couldn't sort it out. They ask Him, like down in verse 36. Then He left the crowds and went into the house and His disciples came to Him and said, explain to us the parable of the tares of the field. And He does. But you'll note the crowds aren't here.

So they've heard this parable, illustration if you will, but they don't make any sense to anybody. And then Jesus leaves the crowds to go on their way in their confusion. Their opportunity, the nation has forfeited the opportunity God gave them to receive their Messiah. So judgment has descended on the nation.

These parables which refer to the mysteries relating to the kingdom, this is new material revealed that is not revealed in the Old Testament. And part of what is going to be revealed, remember I told you in the Old Testament the first coming of Christ and the Second Coming of Christ are seen together, one event. Now these parables are going to begin to reveal that there is going to be a space of time between the first coming of Christ and the Second Coming of Christ. And He'll talk about some of the events that will take place. These parables cover a period of time from the first coming to the Second Coming because Christ interprets the first parable and He says He was the sower in that parable. But these parables go all the way from here, the work of Christ, all the way down to here, the Second Coming because we're going to talk about His Second Coming. So it's talking about events that are going to happen in here as a result of the nation's refusal to receive Him as their Messiah.

Just look at a couple of these parables quickly. Down to verse 36 where we picked up a moment ago, the parable of the tares of the field. And you'll remember without going and reading the parable, a man sows good seed in his field but then at night the enemy comes, his enemy, and sows darnell, tares in the field to try to ruin and confuse because what we call as tares, the darnell, looked a lot like the wheat. So the point was to ruin the harvest because he couldn't get sorted out here the good grain from the bad grain. And obviously they were doing it manually and just created all kinds of problems.

The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. So you see we start out here with Christ. By what's going on, since this will continue down to His Second Coming, the sowing of the seed through His representatives. So a period of time here. The field is the world. Important to recognize the wheat and the tares are sown in the world, not in the church. Back earlier in church history there was confusion of this and so there was some teaching going on that we ought not to try to sort out believer from unbeliever in the church because the wheat and the tares should grow together and then Christ will sort it out. That's not what He is talking about, He doesn't say the wheat and the tares grow together in the church. The church is not in view at all in Matthew 13. The disciples have no concept of the church, no idea of that. He's talking about the world.

So the field is the world, the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom. The tares are the sons of the evil one. So you see what is happening here. There is going to be time, there are going to be believers and unbelievers mixed together here in the world. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, the reapers are the angels. So now we see we go from the first coming of Christ when the Son of Man began this sowing to the Second Coming when the harvest will take place at His direction by the angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned, and that's what they had to do when they tried to sort this out, throw away the tares and preserve the wheat. So the tares are gathered up and burned with fire at the end of the age. For the Jews this is the end of the age, right here, the Second Coming of Christ because they only saw one coming of Christ. And then they saw the kingdom. So the Messiah would come, there would be judgment, there would be the kingdom.

Now that part of the revelation is true. Christ will come, He will come to suffer and die, He will come to rule and reign. But then Revelation reveals He won't do that at the same time. Doesn't change the fact He will come and suffer and die, will come and rule and reign. New revelation reveals there will be a space of time so that the judgment will not take place at the first coming, it will take place at the Second Coming.

So verse 41, the Son of Man will send forth His angels, they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, those who commit lawlessness, thrown them into the furnace of fire. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. You see where we are going. So gathering them out of the kingdom is so that they won't go into the kingdom because as a result of the judgment here the wicked will not be allowed to go into the kingdom. They'll be cast into fire. The righteous will go into the kingdom.

Same thing down in verse 47. The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, gathering fish of every kind. When it was filled, they threw it up on the beach, sat down and gathered good fish. But the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, take out the wicked from among the righteous, will throw them into the furnace of fire. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So with the Second Coming of Christ there will be a sifting judgment. Now here we're just told the angels gather the wicked out, the righteous go into the kingdom. The point is the wicked are separated out from the righteous. That's for judgment. They will appear personally before Him because all men must appear before Christ, every knee must bow before Him. God has given all judgment into the hands of the Son, John 5 says. Passages we've looked at.

Come over to Matthew 24. Now the context here is crucial. Matthew 24-25 are a unit. It's called the Olivette Discourse because Matthew 24:3 says, as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to Him privately saying. So on the Mount of Olives He gives this teaching to His disciples, the Olivette Discourse, the discourse on the Mount of Olives. He has told them when they came out of the temple shortly preceding this, Matthew 24:1, that there wouldn't be one stone left upon another. So the disciples want to know, when will these things be, the end of verse 3, now note this, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? The end of the age for the Jews of course is here when we're ready for the kingdom. That's the next period of time. The end of the age is when Christ comes to establish the kingdom. He's answering that question. So He goes on to talk to them about the 70th week of Daniel, this period of time right here. Now He hasn't talked about the Rapture of the church, He won't talk about that. They want to know about the end of the age and the sign of His coming. Well the end of the age, His coming, is preceded by this 70th week of Daniel as we've talked about a number of times.

So He talks about that. Down to verse 15, when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, He goes on. So He gives an overview of some of the things in the tribulation, this seven-year period. And He focused on this middle period, the abomination of desolation. We've talked about that in our earlier prophetic studies. And He goes on to talk about the tribulation of those days. They climax, verse 27, by telling them if they tell you the Messiah has come, He is over here, come see Him; or He's over there, go see Him. He says, don't believe it because the next time I come to earth it will be like this. Verse 27, just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall and so on. Some of this stuff we've looked at in our study of the book of Revelation.

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. Then He sends the angels and they gather the elect from one end of the sky to the other. So the separation out of the elect and the non-elect, those going into the kingdom and those going into the fires of judgment.

Now we're going to have a series of parables. The parable of the fig tree, and the point is like we would see trees. When you see the buds on the trees, you know summer is near. That's the point. Now keep in mind here, the parable of the fig tree. When you see the branches become tender and it puts forth its leaves, you know summer is near. So you, too, when you see all these things. What things? Well the things He talked about in the first 31 verses leading up and climaxing with His return. The seven years tribulation events, all that goes on in these seven years. When you see these things taking place, including the abomination of desolation and the intense persecution and everything, recognize that He is near, at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. What generation? I read some men who said, He can't be talking literally here because that generation passed away. Some would say a generation would mean that He's talking just about the judgments of 70 A.D. and . . . No, this generation. Which generation? The generation that sees all these things. What all these things? The 70th week of Daniel things. You just can't jump in someplace and pull something out. So the generation He's talking about is the generation that sees the events of the 70th week of Daniel. If a generation is 40 years, the people who are in that seven-year period, they are not 100 years away from the return of Christ. They are somewhere less than seven years away from the return. And when you get to the serious part of the last half, you are less than three-and-a-half years away from the return of Christ. So that's the generation.

Many of you read The Late Great Planet Earth and in there Hal Lindsey made an error. He said that the fig tree represents Israel and Israel began to blossom when they became a nation in 1948. So one generation from that, 40 years, is 1988. So we know that the Lord will return by 1988. That's not what the context is about. It made exciting preaching for the time until 1989 came. But the context, it's the generation that sees the tribulation.

Now verse 36, of that day and hour no one knows. They don't know the exact day and hour, that's the point, but if you are a Jew living here and you've seen all this going on and the abomination and the intense persecution, you know He is coming soon. You don't know the day or the hour, but you know He is coming soon. That's the point.

Then it will be like the days of Noah. Verse 37 begins with, for the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah. This is not talking about the Rapture. The Rapture of the church, that's going to be revealed in the future but nobody knows anything about the church, there is nothing here about that. The “for” here connects with what has gone on before. For the coming of the Son of Man. What coming? The coming to earth to establish His kingdom. That's all He has been talking about, that's all they know about. In those days before the flood, coming judgment. What happened? Before the flood the world was involved in all its activities, then the flood came upon them in the days of Noah and wiped them out except for Noah and his family.

Verse 39, they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man. Two will be in the field, one will be taken and one will be left. The one taken is taken in judgment, just like it was in the days of Noah. The flood came and took them away. So this is like we saw in Matthew 13, the angels will come and separate out the wicked to take them away because they are not going to be left to go into the kingdom. One will be left, the one left goes into the kingdom. Two women grinding at the wheel, one will be taken in judgment, removed. So that they can't go into the kingdom. One will be left.

So the point is be on the alert. You don't know which day your Lord is coming. This is in the context particularly addressing the Jews and their question about what will be the sign of your coming, your return to earth to establish the kingdom? And then He gives the story of the slaves, the faithful slave and the unfaithful slave. And what happens to the unfaithful slave? Verse 51, they will cut him in pieces, assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Going to hell, not going into the kingdom. So all Israel are the slaves of God in the sense they are part of the nation He has chosen. But within that nation there are the faithful slaves and the unfaithful slaves. And the unfaithful slaves are doomed to destruction and exclusion from the kingdom.

The parable of the ten virgins, that picture here of the oriental wedding. Remember the bride is the church. We were caught up here and in heaven but the Jews' interest is over here. Remember John the Baptist said, I'm not the bridegroom, I'm a friend of the bridegroom. We're over here. When He returns from heaven, we saw this in Revelation 19, the bride has made herself ready, the marriage has occurred. We're coming now for the marriage feast and so the friends and all are invited.

You have the virgins, they took their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom. They are not the bride, they are attendants here. Five of them were foolish, five were prudent. The foolish took their lamps but they didn't take oil. These little oil lamps. That was foolish because they don't know when the bridegroom is coming. If he comes at night and you don't have any light, how are you going to see? So the wise ones, the prudent ones take oil. While the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. The point of the problem is not we shouldn't be drowsy and sleeping as we look for the return of the Lord because everybody slept, all ten. Even the prudent, wise. One is going into the kingdom, that's not the point. The point was being prepared. So while they slept the bridegroom came, there was a shout at midnight. Come out to meet him. They all got their lamps ready. But the foolish couldn't light their lamps because they had neglected getting oil. And so they had to go search for oil.

Verse 10, while they were going away to make the purchase the bridegroom came. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast. Where are they going? Into the wedding feast as we saw in Revelation 19-20, into the kingdom. The door was shut. Later the other virgins came saying, Lord, open up to us. He said, truly I say to you, I do not know you. They don't belong to Him. That's the point of the parable.

Verse 13, therefore be on the alert. Be prepared for the coming of your Messiah. You don't know the day or the hour. He is addressing Israel here. You can say by application we're preparing and looking for the Rapture and we want to be ready, too. And there are places in the epistles that talk about that. But we don't want to lose the context here of what Jesus is talking about. He is addressing the Jews and they are wondering when He is going to return and establish the kingdom. That's what they are looking for. That's what He is talking about.

Then you have a parable of the talents, which was money. And different amounts of money were given to different slaves. And they all got a lot of money, even the one who got one talent. That's 15-20 years of a working man's pay. So that's a lot of money to be entrusted with. And it demonstrates faithfulness again. And the unfaithful slave, what happens? Verse 30, throw the worthless slave into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He's not going into the kingdom.

See the points of these? You be ready and when the Messiah comes, there will be judgment. And that judgment will mean some will be cast into hell and some will go into the kingdom. You better be ready. Talking to the Jews.

Now you come to verse 31 and somehow the church just goes out into fantasy land here because we don't pay attention to the context. But when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And we're going to break down more specifically judgment here. But the judgment focused on now, we've given examples and the Jews knew about this from the Old Testament, John the Baptist had preached about it, the judgment on Israel and believing and unbelieving Jews. What about the Gentiles? Well all the nations will be gathered before Him. We're talking about the Gentiles now. He will separate them one from another. Now these are the living Jews. What happened here, we had the Rapture of the church, all believers are gone. You have a space here where there is not a believer on the face of the earth. But very quickly people come to believe by the grace of God. There are 144,000 sealed in the early part of the seven-year tribulation, Jews who will be believers and thus will testify to the grace of God. There is an angel who flies in mid-heaven with the eternal gospel that is to cover the earth. So the gospel will be preached, people will be saved, Jews and Gentiles during this time. Now this judgment here is to sort out who are the saved and who are the unsaved.

He will separate them from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Same thing that He'll do with Israel in Ezekiel 20, like a shepherd making the flock pass under the rod, separating out here the sheep and the goats. He puts the sheep on the right, the goats on the left. The king will say to those on His right, come you who are blessed of My Father. Inherit the kingdom. So you see what this is going to do, it's going to separate between Gentiles now who go into the kingdom and Gentiles who do not go into the kingdom. Inherit the kingdom. We don't have the kingdom back here anywhere in its final sense. It's not established until here. You inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundation of the world. This has been God's plan from before the creation. But when He started the creation of the world, the foundation of the world would be its beginning. But sin interfered and we've had this long history. But nothing can thwart the plan of God. And so this is the point, they'll inherit the kingdom.

Why? For I was hungry, you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, you invited me in. Naked, you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison, you came to me. Then the righteous will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Thirsty and visit you? All of that. Verse 40, the king will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me.

This has become the foundation for the church getting involved in all kinds of social programs. Helping the hungry, feeding the poor because doesn't Matthew 25 say that when you do this, you do it to Christ? What's the context? Who are we talking about? Where are we? We are not at the last judgment of Scripture, that won't happen for another thousand years to here. This is the living who came through the tribulation. Being judged on what basis? Matthew 25:31ff is just talking about Gentiles, the nations here.

When did they do it to one of these brothers of mine? That's not all the poor and all the needy. That's the Jews who have been so intensely persecuted through here and multitudes of them have come to salvation here as we get toward the end of this period. Genuine Gentile believers who showed compassion and concerned and helped the Jews because they recognized as they became believers and understood the Word of God and understood where they are in the plan of God, they helped the Jews during this period. Similar to what we have seen of people who helped the Jews during the Holocaust, hiding them, giving them food and so on. Just giving a much smalled example of what will take place in the tribulation. That's what he is talking about here. I mean, the context. People quote and say, well, I was hungry, you have me to eat. The church is being absorbed into a social ministry rather than a gospel ministry by a misunderstanding of this.

I am appalled. I'm going to read you some examples, these are just from evangelicals who claim to be Bible-believing Christians, believe the doctrine we do. Here is an example of a man who was the head of a mission, an evangelical mission in the States when he wrote this. Now he is a professor at an evangelical seminary that you would know if I mentioned it. Here is an editorial he wrote in their mission magazine. When Christ returns, He tells us He will reward those who loved Him and served Him. Come, He will say, 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. I needed clothes and you clothed Me. For whatever you did to one of the least of these brothers of Mine you did it to Me. And he references Matthew 25:34-40.

Here is what he says. While the spiritual condition of our hearts is of eternal importance, God also cares deeply about our physical and emotional needs. That is why our mission has so many ministries with both physical and spiritual facets. We have literally hundreds of programs sponsored by our mission that meet physical and spiritual needs at the same time. Now wait a minute, we are not on thin ice, we are on water here. Just because you quote Matthew 25, now you've taken a whole mission organization into wedding the gospel to social programs on the basis of Christ said, when you gave food to one of these brothers of mine. Aren't we going to examine and say, what is the context talking about here? Is this just all the poor anywhere?

Gets worse. Here is from a book published by an evangelical publisher. Again, since this is just one of many I won't mention the publisher or the name of the person. There is a sense of mystery in Jesus' words to His disciples in Matthew 25. The Olivette Discourse is one of the primary teaching passages of Jesus recorded in the gospels. In it He spoke of the end of days, the coming of the kingdom and the need to be ready for these things. Okay so far. He spoke of end time judgments as the dividing of sheep from goats. So you see what has happened here. He has collapsed all the judgments of Scripture into one, as though there is only one end-time judgment. He gathered on His left, those were the goats, sent into eternal judgment. And the word echoing in their ears, I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink and so on, Matthew 25. Then on the right the righteous man. And he quotes, I tell you the truth, you did it for one of the least of these brothers of Mine. You did it for Me. And that's referencing of course Matthew 25.

Then he goes on to say, can you imagine yourself refusing food to your Lord if He came to your door hungry and in need? Would you refuse Him lodging even if your home were already crowded? Is there a prison so mean and degrading you would not visit if you knew your Lord Jesus were incarcerated there? There is mystery in these words of God's Son and warning. For the truth, we begin to realize, is that Christ comes to us. He DOES (and does is in emphasis here) come to us a thousand times a day. He comes to us as the poor, hungry and thirsty homeless, imprisoned, ___________ and oppressed.

That's blasphemy, that's not interpreting the Bible. To say that every time a poor person comes and asks if I can help him, that's Jesus coming to me asking for help. Every time someone is sent to prison and I go to visit him, I'm visiting Jesus in prison. How can you write some of this stuff and claim to be an evangelical and then have a publisher of works that is supposedly evangelical and it is connected to an evangelical school publish this stuff?

This is a complete reversal of our normal understanding of ministry to the poor. Because Christ gave His life for us, because He gives His love without measure, we gladly serve Him by taking His love to those who are impoverished. But here He represents Himself as the poor. Our usual formulary is Christ comes to us, we go to the poor. But here it is Christ comes to us, we go to Him. He is the poor.

This is how the church gets entangled then in all kinds of social programs. And this is pervading evangelicalism. Not just other places, it will be in our city, too. We don't get excluded. And pretty soon we wonder, why don't we do good things? Why don't we help people? And now you have mixed it.

It gets worse, one more article. This is from a debate held at an evangelical seminary between two evangelicals. One is saying that social justice is an essential component of the gospel and the other that it is not. Is social justice an essential part of the mission of the church? One of the evangelicals in this debate, and that's what I'm going to focus on, said, yes. And this man disagrees with those who say that the gospel is preaching the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. He says the gospel is about both personal salvation and social justice. He criticizes churches who present an atonement only gospel. That's not the true gospel. If you don't preach salvation by faith in Christ plus social action and social justice, you're not preaching the true gospel.

He gives an example of two churches in the Chicago area where this debate took place. What they are doing is bringing good news to the poor every day. When he was asked, what is the good news they are bringing if it isn't Christ? They are bringing healthcare to people who don't have it. That's good news to people who are poor and don't have healthcare. Now where do you cross the line, we are no longer dealing with true believers. What does being an evangelical mean? When Paul condemned the Galatians so strongly for mixing something with the gospel, he said those people are cursed to hell. Anathema. And what happens, and it happens again and again in church after church and I am extremely concerned because whenever you mix something with the gospel, the gospel is diluted and rendered powerless. And it's a way the devil works to nullify the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation. And so we get caught up and you know what happens? The church wins the admiration of the world because they do so many good things. They help so many people. They are concerned not just about themselves but about the poor, about the needy. I can't tell you how many invitations I get. People call and say I'm in need, and I wonder if the church would help. They want this or that. And the question is why would you call the church for that? I can help you with your spiritual need which is your greatest need. Well right now what I really need is money for gas. Is that what the church is for? I'm not saying individually we don't help. But we need to be careful We pull a verse out of context in Scripture, then we move the church into action on that basis. Just like this man quoted from Matthew 25 and said, that's why our mission has hundreds of programs where we join social action with the gospel.

But wait a minute, we need to back up. You are misusing that verse of Scripture. That's what happens. We think, prophecy, that's only about future things and does it really matter exactly how this all gets worked out. All we want to do is live for the Lord here, but I have to live for the Lord in obedience to His Word. If you love Me, you will do what I command you is what He said before He left them. We as the church are obligated, it sounds hard hearted and we start to feel guilty that we should be doing something for our community. We do, we bring them the gospel which brings to them the life of Christ. We do something that no other organization, no other religious system. Roman Catholics are great with social programs. Well, they might as well, that's the best they have to offer. We have the eternal gospel of Jesus Christ, we are doing what no one else can do. That's not hard hearted, that's not unloving. That's bringing to the world the salvation of the God who provided His Son to be the Savior. We don't want to lose focus of what we're about.

This judgment here of the living is to determine who will go into the kingdom, which Jews are going in and which Gentiles are going in. Very significant and very important. But it's not talking about a universal judgment on the basis of how we treat the poor around us or the needy around us. It's talking about the Jews under persecution in the 70th week of Daniel who come to salvation and need the help of the Gentile believers who will be God's instruments to help preserve them so that they can go into the kingdom that God has prepared for them.

Let's join in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for your grace, your love, your provision, your Word. Lord, we would be diligent in our study of your Word, diligent to show ourselves approved workmen, approved students of the Word because we handle it accurately and correctly. Make us careful, make us serious. Lord, these are matters of eternal importance. We want to function according to your will in every area. We want to be a church that honors you, we want to honor you with our individual lives. Lord, you have unfolded the future so that we might function accordingly, prepare ourselves well. How thankful we are that as the church we are looking for the return of Christ from the air. Lord, we believe that might come very soon and so we, too, would be alert and ready. May that be true of us today. We pray in Christ's name, amen.