The Judgement of the Sheep & Goats

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Amen, you may be seated.

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If you would, open your Bibles to the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 25. Gospel according to Matthew chapter 25.

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And we're in verse 31. Matthew 25, verse 31.

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Matthew 25, 31. Hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then

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He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

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And He will place the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. And the King will say to those on His right, come, you who are blessed by my

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Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food.

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I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you clothed me.

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I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. And the righteous will answer

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Him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you, or thirsty, and give you a drink?

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And when did we see you a stranger, and welcome you, or naked, and clothe you? And when did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?

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And the King will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

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Then He will say to those on His left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

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For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me.

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Naked, and you did not clothe me. Sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me. And they will answer, saying,

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Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?

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And He will answer them, saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

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And these will go into, away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

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As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired Word, let's pray together. Lord, we come before your glorious Word.

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These are words spoken by you, God. This is your revelation in the world and history, this is your truth.

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These are certainties. Lord, whatever confusion there is in the world, this is certain.

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Your Word is a sure foundation. It is the plumb line, it is the standard.

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And this is what will come. We pray, God, you'd bless today as we hear your

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Word from you. We pray you'd speak by your Spirit, guide us, teach us, challenge each of us where we need to be challenged, transform us, renew us.

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Please get the teacher out of the way. Let Christ increase and let me decrease, in Jesus' name, amen.

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So, not exactly a popular thing to be preaching on in the modern evangelical context, right?

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I mean, oftentimes you walk into a church today and I often say it looks like a Cold Play concert, right?

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You come in, you get emotionally charged and, you know, the pastor will oftentimes open up maybe a, a verse or two that might have some encouraging implications to it.

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And so you might get a moment to read the verse and you get about a 27 -minute long story about the pastor's life and a neat way that this applies or something like that.

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And it needs to be that way because we can't go over 30 -minute sermons because that would be a sin. We're in trouble.

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But we're talking today about eternal judgment. Now, I want to say, when you first think about this, that this is about, this is about judgment.

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This is about people going into eternal punishment. When you first consider that, you think, well this could be really a very terrorizing subject and terrifying subject.

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People can abuse this and of course have abused texts about eternal torment and eternal punishment.

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People have used hell to scare people into the kingdom sort of a thing. But when we really consider the truths that are here within this text about Jesus as judge, as king, about eternal punishment and eternal life, there are really aspects to these truths that both heal and bring peace to God's people.

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Not just the kind of peace we're anticipating to come in the future, but peace for today right now because we live in a fallen world.

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There are injustices all around us. There is evil all around us. There's evil around us and then there's, of course, evil within us that we perpetrate.

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There's brokenness. There is trauma. There are wounds that many of us are still carrying to this day.

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And I want to actually encourage you to consider that this discussion about eternal punishment and eternal life can bring healing to you now and hope to you right now.

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And so, of course, there are truths here that you need to contend with. If you're in this room right now and you don't know Christ, you haven't bowed the knee to Him as Lord, you haven't trusted in Him as Savior, yes, the promise and certainty of eternal punishment and eternal life ought to challenge you to consider, to actually look within, to think, to meditate, to actually consider your destiny, to consider where you're at with God.

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Are you reconciled to God? Do you have peace with God? Because here's a certainty right here. You will stand before the king.

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There will be a division. There will be eternal life and there will be eternal judgment.

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That's where the world is going. There is no question about that. Jesus is God in the flesh. His word is sure and true.

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And the promise of eternal judgment and eternal life is certain. It's not a question.

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You know, many, many of you guys have probably heard recently that the famous hip -hop artist DMX had an overdose and a heart attack and overdosed and was essentially in a vegetative state from,

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I think, last Friday or two Fridays ago is when it happened. Well, I had the opportunity to witness to DMX.

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James is like, oh yeah, Rough Riders, yeah, X is gonna give it to you. No concept right now what's going on here.

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I had a — this will mean something to some people in here, OK? I had an opportunity to sit down with him on a number of occasions and get to know him and preach the

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Gospel to him and witness to him. And one of the things that I emphasized with DMX when

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I talked with him and preached the Gospel to him was that all the fame, all the money, all that he thought he was in his identity as this world -famous hip -hop artist with all these best -selling albums and all the rest was ultimately meaningless because who he really was was an image -bearer of God, accountable to his

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Creator and what he needed was peace with God. What he needed was peace, peace with God. He needed to repent and to trust in Christ truly as Savior and as Lord.

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I spent a lot of time with him trying to minister to him and trying to talk him through the Gospel and the last words that he said to me when

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I told him he needed to repent and trust in Christ, to come to Christ because he needed to be reconciled to God.

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All the money and all the fame and all the movies and all the music was gonna fade away. He was going to die and there was gonna be a judgment.

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He needed to turn to Christ to live. The last thing he said to me was, that's what's up. That's what's up.

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Now of course, I don't know where his heart was and ultimately what that did in his life.

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We need to face the fact that we're mortal, that we're in God's world, this is His world and the certainty of judgment is just that, it's a certainty.

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And this passage I think gives hope to believers and it should challenge those who don't know Christ. But I know there's questions, look, there's —

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I'm gonna say about this particular passage, there are some elements to this that are kind of tough. We have to be honest with ourselves as Christians and as exegetes as we're unpacking the text of God's Word and trying to hold it all together.

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I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this today. There are aspects to this that are kind of difficult to manage in terms of like, how does this work exactly?

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Where do you place it in terms of timing? Because okay, here's what I mean by that in terms of difficulties with the text that everyone has to contend with.

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The timing of the kingdom. Here Jesus is saying when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then

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He will sit on His glorious throne. Well, what we know about Christ is that when He actually ascended,

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He said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, go therefore — because it's all mine now — go therefore, and He says of course what?

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Disciple the nations and baptize them, teach them to obey. So He has all authority a long time ago.

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He said that before He ascended, and of course we know that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father now. He's on David's throne.

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He's the King of kings and Lord of lords now, amen? And yet,

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Jesus is talking here about coming, and He'll sit on His glorious throne, and so there are timing issues, like how exactly does this work out?

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What does it exactly look like? I'll give you one thing to think about in terms of like how, how this works is a challenging thing.

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There are elements here that are not actually discussed. Like for example, we have in other parts of Scripture that you will be accountable for every word, every thought.

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The deep recesses of your heart, the anger towards your wife or spouse, the jealousy, the bitterness, the, the sin, the, the raging, all of that, you're gonna be held accountable for that.

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Either you are an unbeliever and you're gonna answer for it and go to eternal punishment, or you're a believer and that was punished in Jesus, right?

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Yes? But there's elements to judgment in terms of God's Word saying there are books opened and people are judged by what's in those books.

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Now that's a deed kind of judgment. This is what you did, you're gonna answer for it, there's judgment according to that.

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And then there's another book, a book of life, and everybody whose name is written in that book of life from the foundation of the world, those are the ones that go off into eternal life.

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There's election there, there's predestination there, there is grace there, the sovereign hand of, of God and His grace and salvation.

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But there's questions that we can ask about what does judgment look like? And I don't know that we're ever really gonna have an answer because this is a, this is a

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God who is not like us. He is not bound by time, He is the all -powerful

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God and the all -knowing God. I don't know that our creaturely brains can fully understand the concept of final judgment, which the

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Bible says there will be final judgment. The just and the unjust will be raised, there will be a separation and judgment.

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But a good question to ask, is, is there a line for this judgment? Is there a line?

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Do you, right? I mean, if you think about, watch this, just don't yell out what your sins are here, okay?

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But if you think about your own life and all of your sin, just today or this week, or some of you from this past hour, no

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I'm just kidding, okay, all right, I'm teasing. If you just think about sin in your own life and you're gonna have to be held accountable for that before God as a human being, if that's what takes place, is there a line on the day of judgment?

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Do we wait for everyone's judgment to take place and then, okay, next up, sort of a thing, next up? That's gonna take a very long time.

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What exactly does it look like? Well, I think there's aspects of this that are incomprehensible in terms of us with our three -pound creaturely brains, there's difficulties here.

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There's other aspects in terms of, here's Jesus talking about coming in judgment, this is clearly a consummation moment for the

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Kingdom of God. But we see in Matthew chapter three, the text that we're in, the book that we're in, John the

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Baptist comes in and the first words out of his mouth are, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

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Repent for the Kingdom of God is what it means, is at hand, it's at the fingertip reach, it's right here.

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Jesus, when he comes out of the wilderness, is preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and that the Kingdom of Heaven, the

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Kingdom of God is at hand. In Matthew chapter 12, verse 28, he actually challenges people who are challenging him.

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They're saying, yeah, you're casting out demons, of course you are, because you're working with the devil. You're in league with Satan, that's how you're getting these demons out of people, because you're with him, essentially was the argument being made.

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And Jesus challenges them back. In Matthew 12, 28, he says, if I cast out demons by the

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Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. So that's an if -then question.

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If A, then B. If Jesus casted out demons by the Spirit of God, which he did, then the

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Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God had come upon them. But that was before cross and resurrection and ascension and before 70

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AD. We also have, of course, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, Jesus says there at the ascension that all authority in Heaven and on Earth had already been given to him.

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We, of course, see in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 28, in that period between the ascension of Jesus and the destruction of that old covenant order.

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The temple was still standing, they were still doing sacrifices and the priestly duties and all the rest.

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In Hebrews 12, 28, we read that God is about to shake the heavens and the earth, referring to that old covenant order, because we were receiving a

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Kingdom which could not be shaken. So I think the best way to look at this is this way. Some of you guys are like,

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OK, I'm trying to follow you. The Kingdom of God has a commencement and it has a consummation.

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Is Ki — is the Kingdom of God here today now? Yes. Amen. The Bible teaches that through and through.

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It cannot be disputed, Jesus is on that throne of David, the Messianic Kingdom has arrived.

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But is it finished? It's not finished. There is ultimately a consummation.

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This is progressive throughout history. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, referring to Psalm 110 .1,

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it says He must reign until what? Every enemy is placed under His feet as a footstool for His feet.

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And then finally, death will be defeated and then it's where Jesus delivers the

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Kingdom to the Father. There is this victorious and final consummation to the

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Kingdom of God in history. So there are timing issues there. Again, I'm not gonna spend a ton of time on that today.

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However, we need to consider this. The Bible is very, very clear through and through that there is a final judgment.

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We see that in the Old Testament, we see it in the New Testament, the New Testament, we have Jesus referring to it.

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We have clear indication that it was, of course, the established belief of the early Jews. I'm gonna show you one of those passages.

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Go to John chapter 11, quickly, John chapter 11. This is, of course, a section that we've dealt with before.

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This is the famous scene, I think we just did it last week with Lazarus. This is

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John chapter 11, verse 24. Start actually in verse 23,

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Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Remember, Lazarus has just died, he's in that tomb.

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Four days he stinketh and it says that Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him,

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I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

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This is, of course, what Jesus tells her where the foundation of that is. He said to her,

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I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

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Do you believe this? It's clear, of course, that the Jews had that belief of final judgment, a day of resurrection.

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And of course, we see that in this moment between Martha and Jesus. She knew her brother was gonna rise again at the resurrection on the last day.

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But the fact is, there is gonna be a final judgment. We read today from Psalm chapter 9 in our reading of the psalm before the church body today.

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There's an indication of a final judgment that God is going to establish justice and he's gonna actually bring justice.

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But I'm gonna talk about this issue of judgment and justice. This is where I think this passage becomes vitally important for us as believers, not just in terms of trying to scare people into heaven one day, because that has happened to so many people.

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It's one of the things you say to the kids, like the grandpa takes the child, puts the child on the knee and says, now, there's a place with eternal fire and torment and gnashing of teeth.

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Do you want to go there or do you want to spend heaven — spend eternity in heaven with God for all eternity?

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Which one do you want? And the little kid says, I'll take the heaven, please. And the grandfather says,

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OK, I want you to repeat this prayer with me. And the person goes through her entire life thinking, well that's where I was saved one day because I prayed this magic prayer.

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My grandfather told me about hell and torment and gnashing of teeth and so I prayed that prayer. So I've been a

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Christian since I was five. No transformation of their life, no love for the brothers, none of those things take place but they have this fiction that they believe that they were actually brought to faith in that moment because they were really scared into heaven and away from the idea of hell.

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But this whole idea of judgment, final judgment, actually has a way to bless the world today and bless believers today, as I said.

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You see, the glory of the Christian faith is this — here it is, ready? Justice will be done.

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That is the glory of the Christian faith. And you know what's amazing? Is that we live in a time right now where we actually have this collision of worldviews completely on display.

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We have unbelieving thought and much of it today is Marxist ideology today trying to establish what people call justice or social justice versus, of course, the

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Christian worldview that has an ultimate and objective standard of justice, not only in terms of what you should do to punish but what people ought to be doing to love — you see, justice isn't just punitive.

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It's also what is right to do at all times. Christians have that because we have the word of God.

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But we have a collision today in so much conversation about social justice and equity and all these different things.

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Justice is the buzzword of today. But what we know from Scripture is that God will establish justice.

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He is the God of justice. His throne is established on justice. He will not ignore any injustice or sin or evil.

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There will be a day where there is a reckoning. And that is something that is unique to the

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Christian faith. Justice will be done. Now why is this unique? Well, if you think of it in terms of today and what we're actually coming into conflict with, unbelieving thought has no foundation for justice.

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Listen to me on this. Please hear me on this. This is so, so important. When you hear all these cries for justice from those who do not know

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God, they do not have a foundation for the cry of justice. Now don't get me wrong.

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Every person today that is an unbeliever crying out for justice is doing so because they have a basis.

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They're made in God's image. It's inescapable. This is God's world.

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They know there is a right and there is a wrong. There is justice and there is injustice because from the deepest recesses of their souls and minds they know the true

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God. They know the value of image bearers of God. So it's, it's unavoidable.

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You can't escape it. However, unbelieving thought has no foundation for it. Why? Well, let me just say, and we've said it many times before, protoplasm in a godless universe that is purposeless and unguided, accidental protoplasm has no moral obligation for anything whatsoever.

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What one bag of stuff does to another in this cosmically indifferent universe is morally irrelevant.

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The unbeliever who cries out for justice is in fact co -opting the

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Christian worldview because they cannot escape it. They know that there are things that are right and wrong but unbelieving thought can't give it to you.

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If my grandparents were fish, I have no obligation to anything else in this world because what happens just happens.

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There is no right, there is no wrong, there is only blind and pitiless indifference.

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That's what Dr. Will Provine said, who is now a creationist and he's dead. He's an atheist.

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Unbelieving thought has no foundation for justice. Unbelieving thought can't give you justice in the future either because it has no, it has no foundation for justice.

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It has no foundation for judgment. Human beings are just accidents, nothing matters. There is no goal to history.

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Get that. There is no goal in unbelieving thought in history because everything is purposeless.

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Everything is unguided. Everything doesn't matter. It has no meaning.

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There is no guidance to history. There is no sovereign over history. So there is no goal to history.

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Whereas the Christian worldview says God is the sovereign. He's sovereign even over this fallen and broken world that he condescended and came into to save sinners.

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He carries everything along to its intended destination and purpose. And history has a goal.

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It is the glory of God. And history also has a goal of the glorying in God's justice.

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See, there are two attributes of God that will be glorified on the last day. What are they?

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Grace and what? Justice. Everyone say it with me. Grace.

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And justice. Grace and justice. On the final day, people will go to eternal punishment because they deserve it.

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Because they wanted it. Because they hated God. Because they lived out their passions and desires and they didn't want

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God even in their thinking. And when God gives to them their ultimate end, what they wanted,

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God will be glorified in His justice. And for the part of His people, the sheep, who had a kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the world, with a lamb slain before the foundation of the world, whose names are written in the book of life before the foundation of the world, they will be glorying in God's grace because they spend eternity with Christ in eternal bliss and delight, glorifying

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God. And they will do that because of one thing, grace. Nothing in them.

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They do so because their identity is that they are sheep. And the shepherd knows his sheep.

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And he lays his life down for the sheep. The Christian worldview has a foundation for a future with justice.

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Unbelievers can't make sense of it. And I want to say this, it's something that Pastor James has brought out a lot over the last year, is that unbelievers, even though they can make no sense of their claims and cries for justice, they try to pull justice into the now.

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Why? Because they don't have this. They don't have Matthew 25.

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They don't have a day where Christ will actually take the nations and actually speak to the sin and to the injustice and the evil.

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And He'll say to some, depart, and He'll say to some, come. They don't have that. They have no goal of history and yet they cry for justice, so what do they do?

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They try to grab justice and pull it into the now. They try to say justice now.

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And their justice now ends up being perverse abuse of other image -bearers of God.

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Their justice is no justice. It's not from God's mouth. It's not from His revelation.

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And so oftentimes there's evil that's happening in the world and people say, let's have justice. And so what they do is they lower the standards of justice to punish other image -bearers of God.

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Why? Because at least we have the satisfaction that there is justice in somebody's being punished.

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Because they don't have this day. They don't have what you and I have, that there will be a day of reckoning and vindication.

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And unbelievers today, with all the cries for justice, end up only with injustice and perversions.

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So here's what I wanted to encourage you with. Come with me now. We have a day of judgment. It's coming.

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It's coming for all of us. If you're in Christ, you have been freed from condemnation and shame and guilt.

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Jesus absorbed the justice of God, the wrath of God, and exhausted it in Himself in place of His people.

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So there's no fear for us in terms of that day. We come to that day as sheep with a destiny of eternal life.

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And all that we get from the Father, either reward or lack of reward, hear me on this, I believe is the kind of thing that would take place between a father and a child.

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You're in the Father's house, so whatever judgment takes place there is not a judgment of a stranger and being casted out, it's the judgment of a father to a child and its reward or lack of reward, but there is no condemnation.

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But when you consider these glorious truths of a day of judgment where everything will be set right again,

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I want you to consider this. This was one of the primary things I would use to minister to people with.

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Many of you know that I was a pastor at a drug rehab for many years. I sat in front of literally thousands of people.

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Every day my schedule was jam -packed, back -to -back with appointments, on top of group counseling, all these things took place, and I want to tell you

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I cannot repeat from this pulpit the things that I heard in people's lives.

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The kind of trauma, the kind of evil. There were times where I would listen to somebody's story, they'd leave my office and I would just sit there in tears, broken, crying.

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I went through a period, I've announced this many times before, I went through a period of, of, of depression. For about six months

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I would just find myself pulling the car over and just weeping and crying because I had to hear the worst of the worst of this world on a daily basis.

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Things that I wish I had never heard. And what I used to tell people to minister to them through these horrible stories in this fallen world is that Christ provides a foundation to respond to this, to heal you.

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How so? Because Jesus gives us meaning to our pain. Listen to this. Many people in this room have been traumatized, you've had people do all manner of wicked and evil things to you, you have experienced some of the worst of the worst that this world has to offer, and Jesus provides a meaning to our pain, how?

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Because only with God's Word and His revelation does any of it matter at all. In other words,

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I can't complain about the evil that I heard every day at this hospital if this revelation isn't true.

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If this person in front of me is just stardust in an unguided universe, then all of it is meaningless, it means nothing.

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It never will, it's just noise. But everybody knows that is not true.

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And what I would tell people is only by embracing Christ, the

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Gospel, trusting in Him and having His Word, can you actually call what happened to you evil.

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You don't need to hear it from a Christian pastor, just read Richard Dawkins. Richard Dawkins, when he talks about how there is no ultimate meaning to any of this, nothing is really wrong.

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I once challenged Dan Barker on my radio show, he's one of the most famous atheists of the last generation, there's, there's a group of them,

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Dr. White debated him I think two or three times. I once challenged Dan Barker on my radio show when

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I really pushed him in his worldview and pushed him and pushed him, he was trying to use all these emotional arguments and there's so much evil and there's so much pain in the world and look at this evil thing that God allows in this world and all the rest.

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He was using these emotional arguments to draw on the heartstrings of the Christian. And when I challenged his worldview and got him to admit that he believes that human beings are nothing but cosmic broccoli,

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I said, what's wrong with broccoli oppressing broccoli?

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And the answer was, well, ultimately nothing. And I said, well, then in your worldview, rape isn't really wrong, right?

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It's just something that happens, right? And he said in the cosmic picture, rape isn't wrong.

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It's just something that happens. There's no foundation, only with Christ do you have a meaning to your pain.

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Because only with Christ can you say this is objectively evil. This is something that is unjust and Christ has an answer for it.

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Not only does he have an answer for it and give you a foundation for your pain, but this, we're doing in our catechism right now,

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Pastor James is talking about the humiliation of Christ. Him entering into this world and this evil and enduring all that we endure, he joins us in our pain.

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Do you hear that? Not only does God define what is evil and unjust, but he steps into this world and what does he do?

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He actually experiences the evil and injustice that we do. What can you put into Jesus' lap and ask him to answer that he hasn't felt himself?

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What? Betrayal? Abandonment? Physical abuse?

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Torture? Lies? Slander? Injustice?

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Falsely accused? Jesus is God in the flesh. He is the just one and he enters into an unjust, perverse world and experiences all that we have on the way to that cross to redeem us.

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He doesn't just stand above you to look at your pain, he entered into your pain. And this day of judgment provides a foundation for hope and peace for the believer.

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Remember, we have an answer with Christ and this truth and this certainty about the future of the world.

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He gives meaning to our pain, He joins us in our pain. And finally, here it is, this is what

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I use all the time, He will answer it. You see, this text isn't just about scaring people into hell.

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This text is hope. The history is going somewhere and the

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King will be on His throne and He will answer people for what they've done.

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All the evil that's taken place in the world is going one of two places. It either went to Christ on the cross for the sake of His people, to exhaust the wrath and justice of God, to forgive

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God's people, or it's going to be answered by the perpetrators of that evil. So what's happened to you?

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What kind of betrayal, what kind of lies, what kind of abuse, what kind of evil have you endured, are you enduring, or we don't even know yet will endure, here's the answer,

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He will answer it. There will be an answer. So I believe that this passage gives us fundamentally that when we hear this story about a right hand and a left hand and sheep and goats, eternal punishment and eternal everlasting joy and reward and righteousness, this gives us hope and peace because it gives meaning to it all.

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But how does this heal and bring peace? Just consider this.

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The world, slander, gossip, lies, physical abuse.

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Some of you have endured, even family members who distorted their relationship with you and abused you, maybe emotionally, maybe physically, spiritually abusive people, injustice and evil in the world, tyranny, tyranny that's happening all over the world today, theft, rape, murder.

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Here's what this passage does for God's people, for the saints. It will be answered.

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That's a certainty. So the hope that I have is whatever evil has been done to me is that God will have the final say.

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He will put it right. There is not one instance of evil, sin, and injustice that will be left unanswered.

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Why? Because we have Matthew 25. Because we have a day of judgment. So how can final judgment heal us and bring us peace?

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How does it, how does it do it? What can you rest on? I want to point you to two passages, you don't have to necessarily go there, you're probably familiar with these,

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Romans chapter 12, verse 19. The Apostle Paul talks about our dependence not being in our retaliating when evil is done to us, but he says, leave it to God, for vengeance is mine, saith the

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Lord. There's your hope. When you see evil being done to you, when you experience it, when you hear the slander and the evil and the reviling, people are lying about you, maybe even lying about you in court, here's the answer for the believer that brings hope and peace.

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Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. God's going to answer this. Oftentimes injustices are done in this world and they're even done to Christians, and the answer is this.

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Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. They will not get away from it.

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And number two is from 1 Peter 2, 23, it's from the Lord Jesus. We don't have this from the

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Gospel of Records, but Peter, through divine inspiration, tells us this in 1

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Peter 2, 23, that when Jesus was on that cross, crucified, suffering, and He was being reviled,

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He did not revile in return. He uttered no threats, but He kept entrusting

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Himself to Him who judges righteously. How does Jesus endure that kind of evil?

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Here's a man suffering, beaten, crushed, bruised, bleeding, suffocating, back ripped open, openly mocked, and at the foot of the cross, people are reviling a dying man who has the nerve of something like that.

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Who has that kind of death of hatred to stand at the foot of a cross with a dying man and revile

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Him? And Jesus was right. They were wrong. They were the evil ones.

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They were the ones who were telling lies. They were engaging in deception, and they're reviling the

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Holy One of Israel, God Himself on that cross coming to redeem sinners. And how does Jesus not respond and retaliate?

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It says He kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.

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You see, Jesus knows the whole story. He knows the truth about now. He knows the truth about the future.

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He knows there is a just and righteous God on His throne, and He knows there's a day of justice.

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And so Jesus doesn't have to revile in return or retaliate or respond, because Jesus knows, even with all the fictional court cases going on in the world and even in His own time and what

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He had to endure, there will be a day of court where only true justice is done and established.

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And so how can Jesus endure that? It says He kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. How does that help you endure false accusations?

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How does it help you endure the evil in the world? I think like that, you have a day of judgment where it's all gonna be answered.

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Let's go through the text here in Matthew 25. If you look in verse 31, verses 31 through 32,

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I'll let you get there. It says, when the

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Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.

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Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

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So clearly, this is judgment of the world, because Jesus mentions the nations are gathered before Jesus.

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So this is a global, not local, but a global judgment. It's of the nations.

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This is the judgment of the world. The nations are all there. Now, you'll note that it says that Jesus is gonna separate the sheep from the goats.

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This was something that they would have understood in their day. We don't maybe understand it very much today at all, let's be honest. But they would have understood this, because oftentimes, the shepherd would allow the sheep and the goats in the daytime to sort of graze together.

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And oftentimes, they rather kind of look alike, maybe. Some of them might actually be kind of familiar and look the same.

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The sheep and the goats would often graze together and spend time together. However, at nighttime, the shepherd would actually have to divide them to break them apart and to create those two different groups.

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Why? Well, goats don't have the same kind of coats that sheep do, and so they couldn't endure the coolness of the night or the very cold nights.

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So the goats had to be separated from the sheep, because the sheep could endure that kind of weather, but the goats had to be put somewhere to keep warm.

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So when Jesus is giving us this story of the future, he's telling people in the same way a shepherd separates the goats out from his protected flock.

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That's what it will be like when I have the nations before me. It will be that kind of thing, clearly making a line between what is a goat and what is a sheep.

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These have, listen, this is key, two different identities. A sheep is not a goat.

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A goat is not a sheep. They must be separated, and there is a clear line between what is a goat and what is a sheep.

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A goat doesn't become a sheep, a sheep doesn't become a goat. You know what they are, and you separate them.

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That kind of division was understood by them, the separation of the sheep and the goats.

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Notice here also, in this text, that the sheep here have a destiny, everlasting life.

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The goats also have a destiny in this passage, and it is eternal punishment.

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There is eternal life, and there is eternal punishment. Now I wanna say something here about the sheep, because this is a theme throughout the

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New Testament, it's a theme in Scripture, and that is that Jesus has a very intimate, close, distinct relationship with the sheep.

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I wanna read this to you from John chapter 10. This is one of my very favorite passages, it's about Jesus as the good shepherd.

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I'm gonna read it to you, because you need to hear how does Jesus talk about the sheep. You got this instance here, where he has a kingdom prepared for the sheep before the foundation of the world.

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They enter into everlasting life, but he calls them sheep, and he calls himself the shepherd.

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I want you to hear what Jesus says about the sheep. In John 10 1, he says, truly, truly,

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I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

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But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens the sheep, hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

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Isn't that awesome? He calls you by name. That is the close, intimate connection that Jesus has for the sheep that he places on his right hand, is that he knows who they are.

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There's no confusion. He knows, get this, his own. And he calls you by your very name, the same name that's in the book of life from before the foundation of the world.

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There's no confusion here, there's no determining on the day of court, at the end of the world, how does this all work out,

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Jesus knows his own. And it says in verse four, when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

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A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of a stranger. This figure of speech

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Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly,

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I say to you, I'm the door of the sheep. All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them,

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I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy,

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I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

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He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

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He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I'm the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.

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Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep.

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If you trust in Jesus Christ, if you know him, you truly know

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Christ, you're a sheep. And he knows you. And he calls you and you follow because you listen to the voice of the shepherd.

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And notice what he says here, he says he lays his life down for the sheep.

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This is the intimate relationship we have with Jesus. When he says on the last day there will be sheep and there will be goats, that's how

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Jesus responds to, reacts to, lives for his sheep.

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He lays his life down for them. Notice also in 25 -33, it says, and he will place the sheep on his right but the goats on his left.

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This is really important in this day, doesn't mean much to us today, but in scripture you see it's predominantly a right -handed culture.

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There's a lot of things in reference to the right hand. If you're, if you're right -handed, you have all your fingers, you're capable and able to work and all those, all those things.

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Everything is in reference to the right hand. The position of being on the right hand was a position of honor and glory.

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So instantly, Jesus makes this very clear connection of intimacy with the sheep but also that he puts them to a place of honor and, dare

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I say, glory. He puts the sheep on his right hand and he puts the goats on the left hand.

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That's an important element here that would have made a lot of sense to them in terms of the goodness of this relationship of being a sheep.

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They were put to a place of honor and privilege and glory. The right hand of the king and the left hand is for the goats.

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Notice also in 2534, it says, then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

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So what does Jesus say to the sheep that he's placed in this position of honor and glory and privilege?

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What's he say? He says this. Note this, it's important because there's going to be a contrast in a moment between the sheep and the goats.

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The king says to the ones on his right, this place of honor and privilege, he says to them, come.

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He invites them. There's an invitation to him. This is the relationship he has to the sheep.

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He says, come, whereas when he speaks to the goats, he says, depart from me.

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To the sheep, he says, come, and he says, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world, and to the ones on his left, he says, depart from me.

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On the one, the invitation to the sheep, come to me, and he blesses them. On the other hand, he says, leave me.

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Depart from me, cursed. A very sharp distinction between come and depart.

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But notice he says, blessed by the Father, with a kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world.

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Get this, because this is hashtag Calvinism. That's a theme through Scripture.

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Read Ephesians chapter 1. The Father predestining a people for salvation, choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

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Same thing that we see throughout Scripture, but especially here about this judgment on the last day,

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Jesus says, the Father prepared this for you. Get this, there is no confusion about the identities and the personalities of these sheep.

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They are known by Jesus, they are invited by Jesus, and he says, it's the

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Father who prepared this kingdom for you. No, not some nebulous group of humanity, he prepared it for you when?

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Before the world began. This story of grace and salvation in your life as a child of God is something that was prepared long before you learned about it.

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Before this world was, the Father prepared a plan for you.

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Christ's sheep, the ones he knows, the ones he calls by name, the ones he lays his life down for, but it says, blessed by the

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Father, a kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world. So watch, it goes right hand, sheep, left hand, goats.

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Right hand, come, invitation. Left hand, leave, depart from me. Right hand, blessed by my

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Father, kingdom prepared before the world began, and then on the left hand to the goats, Jesus is gonna say, cursed, and he says to go into hell created for the devil and his angels.

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But this whole story of God's sovereign election of the sheep, you can see Ephesians chapter 1,

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John chapter 6 is one of my very favorites, where Jesus actually says, I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of Him who sent me.

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That Father who prepared for you before the foundation of the world, are you seeing this theme through Jesus' ministry about His people?

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Jesus says I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him, who's that?

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The Father who sent me that I should lose nothing, none of all that He has given to me.

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Who did He give to Jesus? These sheep. The blessed ones, who have a kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the world.

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Jesus was on a mission not to lose any of His sheep, and this is that moment of reckoning, this is that moment of a division of the nations and humanity.

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There are the blessed ones, there are the come ones, and there are the cursed ones, depart from me ones.

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Jesus is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. History, here it is, ready?

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Has a goal. It has a goal, it has a purpose, it has a meaning to it.

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This passage should bring the believer hope and peace. Now look at 25, 35 through 39.

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The text says for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

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I was 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

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Him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger or welcome you or naked and clothe you?

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And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them, truly

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I say to you as you did it to the one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

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I want to make a note on this. This is really powerful. This is what hit me really, really hard, especially this last week.

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I'm going to, I'm going to share with you what sort of consumed my thinking this week. The sheep and the goats are both surprised.

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Did you catch that? The sheep and the goats are both surprised, apparently not by identity and destination, but the sheep and the goats are both surprised because what was done in them was done unconsciously.

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They weren't aware of it. They couldn't help it.

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You see, I'm going to emphasize this. It's really, really important. The sheep are surprised by Jesus saying you did this to me because they weren't even aware that it was something that they were doing.

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And the answer is, I think, found in this because that's what sheep do. Sheep love the brethren.

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Brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ do these things for one another because they love brothers and sisters in Christ.

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But listen, Christians aren't doing these things to score points with God. They're not saying, well, you know,

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Jesus says if you do it to them, you're doing it to him, so I'm going to score some points with Jesus. They don't even realize this moment where Jesus displays that he's going to emphasize this with the sheep and the goats, what was done to God's people.

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He says to the sheep, he says, you did this to me, and they're surprised, when? What are you, what are you talking about?

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Here's why. Because sheep, followers of Christ, disciples of Jesus, those who are regenerate, those who are filled with God's spirit, they love the brethren.

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They do these things because they love one another. That's, that's the unique characteristic of the body of Christ.

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At least it's supposed to be. But I wanted to note something very powerful here, because I think if you want to unpack this faithfully, you've got to see, like, well, who are the brothers?

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Because Jesus says, when you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, he emphasizes that, my brothers, you did it to me.

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Well, we don't have to go far in Matthew to figure out who does he think his brothers are. If you look at Matthew 12, just move back a bit,

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Matthew chapter 12, who are these brothers? Who does Jesus call brothers?

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In Matthew chapter 12, verse 46 through 50,

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I think it's the passage that irritates many Roman Catholics who claim that Mary was perpetually a virgin.

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It says, while he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside asking to speak to him.

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But he replied to the man who told him, who is my mother and who are my brothers?

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And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.

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For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my mother, is my brother and sister and mother.

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Jesus makes a distinction between his blood family, which he isn't disregarding, but he makes a distinction between his blood relationships and the relationship with his people.

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Who is my brother and sister and mother? Those who are believers, those who are disciples of Jesus, who do the will of the

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Father. Again, Jesus isn't disregarding those blood relationships, but if you really think about this, there were people who were related to Jesus by blood who probably were goats.

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So what's the most important relationship with Jesus? Blood relationship, there were lots of people related to Jesus by blood, but the relationships that had the most consequence, have the most consequence, are the relationships of those who will be with Jesus for all eternity.

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And who are those? The people who do the will of his Father, those who actually know

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Jesus. Jesus says, these are my brothers. And so Jesus calls the ones on his right.

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He calls them his sheep, he calls them blessed, he says the kingdom was for them before the foundation of the world, and he says those sheep are his brothers, which is a shorthand way of saying brothers and sisters, this is my family.

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But he says actually this, when you did it to them, my brothers, you did it to me.

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Jesus is so, get this, he is so deeply connected to the body of Christ and his people that he actually sees something done to his brothers as something done to him.

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And that is, that is a challenging thing. Because you know, you see it elsewhere, you watch, you see it in the inverse, ready?

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The positive, you fed me, you clothed, by the way, clothing me was not a scandalous thing in that day, it was the poor that were generally unable to clothe themselves properly, right?

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They were the ones looking for more to wear because they were maybe more cold or whatever the case, they didn't have enough funds to properly clothe themselves.

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And so Jesus is actually saying, when you feed them, when you, when you visit them, when you clothe them, when you care for my brothers, you're caring for me, the inverse is true as well.

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We know the famous story, right? The apostle Paul is zealous, he's trying to destroy the church, he says in Galatians chapter one, but when he's confronted by Jesus, what does

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Jesus say to Saul? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

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Acts chapter nine, verse four, it's true both ways. Whether you are positively blessing and loving

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Christ's brothers, the sheep, or whether you are persecuting God's people, either way, you're doing it to Jesus.

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That's how closely and intimately connected Jesus is to his people. That's how much you matter to him.

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You're in Christ. And so a blessing to God's people is a blessing to Christ.

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A curse to God's people is cursing Christ. You see that in Scripture, and that is a challenging thing to think about.

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But here's what's interesting, they couldn't help it. They weren't seeing it.

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Why? Because that is a natural thing for sheep to do, they act like sheep, not like goats.

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They naturally love the brethren. I'm gonna read you this text, you're probably familiar with it, you can familiar, familiarize yourself with it later if you want, but it's in 1

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John chapter three, 1

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John chapter three, verse fourteen. This is powerful.

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He says this, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

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Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

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But note that first part there, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. So an indication, ready, that you're not spiritually dead.

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Mark this, an indication that you are not spiritually dead is that you love

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God's people. You want evidence? You want fruit of whether somebody really is a believer?

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John says here, here's how you know you've gone from death to life. You love God's people.

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And what's amazing in Jesus' story of the last day and this final judgment is that He highlights, it's not the only thing taking place in judgment, but Jesus purposed to make sure

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His church understood in judgment there is this moment of vindication of who they were in a sense because of what happened in their lives, but they're completely unaware of it.

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When did I do that? They did it because they love the brothers. They couldn't help it.

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They're unsuspecting. They're unconscious of it. They just do it because they love the brothers.

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But I want you to see the contrast.

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The sheep couldn't help it, but look at 25, 14, not 14, sorry, 41.

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I guess I was dyslexic there. Then He will say to those on His left, depart from Me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave

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Me no food. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me naked, you did not clothe

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Me sick and in prison and you did not visit Me. Then they will also answer Him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to You?

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Then He will answer them saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.

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Notice that. The sheep couldn't help to do what they were doing, it's what they did and they were unconscious of it.

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They weren't even aware. They just did it. But the goats, because of the nature of who they were, were also unconscious of it because they didn't care.

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It wasn't a part of their makeup. They weren't aware. They're equally surprised by Jesus' challenge.

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Just like the sheep are surprised, the goats are surprised. Why? It wasn't on their mind, they didn't care.

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And so Jesus emphasizes the difference between the two. But note that Jesus says to the goats, depart.

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He says to the goats, cursed. He says to the goats, not blessed but cursed.

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And He says, depart from Me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

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Much could be said about that. I'm going to resist the temptation to do so. But I want to emphasize some important points here on this.

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We're going to, we're going to wrap this up. Persecution against Christians is persecution against Christ.

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Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Blessing and caring for and loving the brothers of Christ is doing it to Christ.

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That's a challenging thing to think about, brothers and sisters, that Jesus on the final judgment is emphasizing this relationship

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He has with His people, that what you do to them, you do to Me. Now watch.

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I think all of us can instantly hear something like that and think to ourselves, oh, I know what the world's doing.

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I get that. I understand people sin, there are false believers in the church, there are goats who are not really sheep within the church.

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They think that they're believers, they're not really believers, they've never really turned to Christ and trusted in Jesus. Maybe they fall into apostasy.

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We can think about tyrannical governments that persecute Christians, the underground church in China, brothers and sisters in China today, right now in this very instance, being raped, being tortured, being abused, starving, cold, in cells, in dungeons.

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We can think about all those things of the abuses of the unbelievers to the body of Christ. And we can say, oh, there's a point of contact,

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Jesus is gonna answer that, they were real, they're doing it to Christ. That's how intimately connected to His people is, it's gonna be answered,

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Jesus will have an answer for those unbelievers doing all that stuff to God's people.

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But I think the real challenging thing is to think about this in terms of us as Christians, the body.

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It's clear that believers are supposed to ultimately be unsuspecting and unconscious of all this stuff, they just do these things to care for God's people, to love

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God's people, to sacrifice for God's people. But what does it mean for God's people, us,

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Christians? If Jesus has such a high level of concern for His brothers, for His sheep, that He says, what you do to them, you do to me, what does that mean to us?

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Doesn't it challenge you? Like the things that you're saying behind closed doors about a brother or sister in Christ, the lies that you're telling about another

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Christian, the hateful behavior, the jealousy, the strife, the faction building, the abuse, the nasty words, the hatefulness, the betrayal, the abandonment of that person when they need you the most?

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That Jesus actually says, you do it to them, you do it to me.

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Does that firm up your commitments more to loving the brethren, right? When you think about the text where it says, outdo one another with honor, love one another with genuine affection, without hypocrisy, outdo each other with honor, love one another submit yourselves to one another, all of that, you're like, okay, praise

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God. But consider the stakes. Consider the stakes.

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When you see believers, people who profess the name of Jesus so easily being destructive in their relationships with one another, people so easily willing to lie about one another or to stab somebody in the back or so easily willing to create factions and divide relationships or believers, listen, who just don't care to serve one another.

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One of the greatest blessings of this church body, I have never seen, and this is not because I'm the pastor of this church and I've never seen a church like this that we'd know.

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I have never, I've been a Christian for a long time, I have never seen a body of believers so willing to sacrifice for one another, so willing to lay their lives down for one another, so willing to give things up for one another, so willing to serve one another, so willing to love one another, and so willing to be hospitable towards one another as I have seen at Apologia Church.

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It truly is an inspiring thing to watch. A need pops up and the church just, wha, jumps onto that.

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And I praise God for that. Let's never end that kind of sacrifice and that kind of love.

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It's a powerful thing to see how we love one another here. And I think really the driving force behind that ought to be a genuine love and affection for one another, but consider the stakes.

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Consider the stakes. We know what it means to positively love one another here at Apologia Church and in the body of Christ globally, but the inverse is also true clearly.

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He's so connected to His body that what you do even in persecution or dare

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I say evil and sin and slander or wickedness is equally also done to Christ.

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Does that firm up your commitments to not sin against one another?

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Does it help you to keep a gate over your mouth? You see,

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I thought about this in terms of this week I was challenged, oh my goodness, where have

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I been loose with my lips? Where have I not sacrificed for somebody?

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Where have I not showed love for Christ's brothers? Where have I not been available?

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Where have I entertained gossip that was coming across as concern?

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Aren't we good at that as Christians? Admit it. We say, oh, they're just concerned about this person.

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It's just gossip, it's just slander, it's just lies. But remember this, you might see this person as less than you, not worthy of your love and affection, and you might think it's easy to trample on them and it's insignificant.

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There's a day of judgment where that's gonna be answered. You did it to them, you did it to Him.

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I think that's a powerful motivator for us as believers because clearly it's not supposed to be something we're doing as Christians.

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Clearly what we're like, I'm gonna serve this person because in reality I'm doing it for Jesus, not for them.

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That's the wrong motive. Like it happens to be the case that you're doing it to Christ, but the motivating thing is a genuine love and affection for God's people.

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So the question is this, do you love God's people? People say things like, you know, I don't like church,

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I don't love the church, there's too much sin in the church, too many people, I've been hurt by the church, I've been spiritually abused by the church.

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I understand that, all of it may be true. I understand the pain, I understand the trauma,

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I will confess that the greatest pains I've experienced in my entire life have been from professing

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Christians. I get it, but I love God's people.

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It was A .W. Tozer that said, God's people are not perfect people, but they're the best people.

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They're the best. People say, I don't want the church, I just want me and Jesus, I don't need the church.

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Well, then you don't know Jesus. Then you don't know Jesus, because if you don't love other believers, then you are not, are, you're still dead.

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You're still dead. And Jesus magnifies in this text that the last day there will be a reckoning about what happened to God's people.

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It happened to Him. But I want to end on this point, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

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Yes, you're going to die, I'm going to die, and it's OK. No fear of death.

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I found that as I grow closer and closer with Jesus, the less and less I care about dying.

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I, I, I don't want to leave my family, I love my family so much, I don't ever, ever want to not be there for them, but the truth is,

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I'm good. I am so good. If I die, let my, if I die, would you let my funeral, please cry, but, but would you let my funeral be something that is about the gospel and victory, and I'm good.

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I promise you this, while you're shedding tears if I die, I promise you this, I am so good.

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I am so, so good. And it's a destiny for all of us. If you're a believer, no fear of death, you know

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Christ, you're a sheep. What did you hear from Him? Come, come, come, there's an invitation, and there's everlasting life, but yes, the inverse, the cursed, the goats, they have a destiny of eternal punishment.

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And so you have to come face to face with that. That's it, I'm not going to scare you into hell. I don't think it's appropriate.

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You need Christ because you need Christ, because He's true. He's right, He's King, He's Lord, you need

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Him. You're made by God, you're a creature, and you're a sinner. And you need to repent and believe the gospel.

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That's the call of the gospel, repent and believe. Trust in Christ for forgiveness and salvation. That's the call that goes out to everybody.

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And just know this, mark my words, you will remember them someday. There will be a day where you remember this message, maybe it is recalled to you that you heard from a minister of the gospel that life and salvation is available in Christ, freely by God's grace, through faith in Jesus, repent and believe the gospel.

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That's the call. And those words are going to be resounding in your hearts and minds as a place of peace and a point of peace for all eternity, or those words will resound in your hearts and minds while you are being eternally punished as a goat, as a sinner, as a lost person, as an unbeliever.

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So that's the call, repent and believe the gospel. Amen? Let's pray. Father, I pray that you bless the words that went out today for your glory.

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I pray that Christ would be exalted. And I pray for anyone in this room that does not know Christ as Savior and Lord, that you'd open the eyes of the blind, remove hearts of stone, save and save mightily

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God in Jesus' name, amen. We're going to come to the table of the Lord now. Jesus, the night of His betrayal.