The Great Separation Matthew 25:31-46

Everyone in this room has some familiarity with courtrooms.

We have images in our heads of wooden rows, a section where the jury sits, a section where the defense and accused sit, a section where the prosecution sits, and then in the front where the judge sits with the witness stand right next to him.

What takes place in these rooms is a trial. A man or woman has been accused of a crime and it is the responsibility of the prosecution to prove that the accused committed the crime.

The judge oversees the trial and the jury decides if the accused is innocent or guilty.

If the accused is found guilty, the judge decides the severity of the penalty. In our own lives, we have read about trials, we have seen them on TV, and some of you may have served on a jury yourself.

So we have some familiarity with the courtroom. Now hopefully no one in this room stands trial or has stood trial, but there is a day coming when everyone will stand before the judge of this world in the grand courtroom.

The judge of this world is Jesus Christ and he will not need witnesses to describe what kind of person you were.

He will know everything about you. Jesus is fully man, but he's also fully

God. And at the final judgment, he will have full knowledge of the life that you lived.

He will know if your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. He will know if you had works that were honoring to God or he will know the tragedy that every work one ever did was not for the glory of God, but was sinful.

And these are the works of unbelievers. None of their works are done for the glory of God. This morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, we are going to look at Jesus describe what the final judgment will be like.

There will be two types of people at this judgment. Those who pass the test and those who don't.

We will see this in Matthew 25, verses 31 through 46. So at this time

I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me there. And if you're using a red Bible, it's on page 988.

This sermon is titled, The Great Separation. And here's our big idea.

What this text is calling everyone in this room to do. And in this case is to understand something.

And that is this, understand that one day Christ will divide the true from the false.

Understand that one day Christ will divide the true from the false. And in this text, we're gonna see one reason why and I'm gonna reveal that reason why at the very end.

But before we jump into our text, let me give you a little recap of where we have been. Last week we looked at verses 14 through 30 of Matthew 25.

In that passage, Jesus transitioned from talking about the very end of the world and his return as he did from Matthew 24 to the beginning of Matthew 25, to talking about the final judgment.

A judgment that will coincide with his second coming. Now the second coming and first, both served a different purpose.

The Bible is very clear that when Jesus came the first time he came to save, not to judge.

John 3 .17 says, "'For God did not send his Son into the world "'to condemn the world, "'but in order that the world might be saved through him.'

"'But when he comes the second time, "'he will come to gather his people and to judge.'"

This section of Scripture in Matthew 25 explains the final judgment that is coming on this world. Last week we saw

Jesus explain the coming judgment through a parable. Once again, a parable is an illustration from ordinary life that communicates a spiritual truth.

In verses 14 through 30, the illustration that Jesus gave was of a master and his servants.

Before the master went away on a journey, he entrusted his talents of silver to his three servants.

To the first servant, he gave five, to the second, two, and to the third, one.

The first two servants, through business ventures, doubled the amount of talents given to them. When the master returned, he was pleased with them.

He told them, "'Well done, good and faithful servant. "'You have been faithful over a little. "'I will set you over much.

"'Enter into the joy of your master.'" The first two servants made a good use of their time while their master was away.

But for the third servant, it was a much different story. The third servant squandered the time given to him by his master and produced nothing.

The master returned and told him, "'You wicked and slothful servant.'" And then he said these words, "'Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.

"'In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'" The first two servants picture faithful followers of Christ who invest their life for Christ's sake.

While the third servant is a false Christian who never produced any true fruit for Christ.

His life was one of squandering the time given to him rather than living a fruitful life for the

Lord. This person instead pursued selfishness. Now that we have seen this,

Jesus once again continues with the theme of the final judgment in the remainder of this chapter.

Let's begin by seeing this in verses 31 and 32. These are the words of the

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

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.

And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on His left. Okay, we'll stop right there.

What Jesus is doing in verse 31 is describing His return.

He already described what His return will be like in the previous chapter in Matthew 24, verses 30 through 31 where He said, "'Then will appear in heaven the sign of the

Son of Man. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call. And they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.'"

Now, as we look at this passage about the final judgment, there are some differing views concerning how many final judgments there actually are.

Before I explain this, let me tell you the timeline of the end once again. What is going to happen?

The first thing that's going to happen is that the church will be raptured. And this will happen before the final seven -year tribulation.

And once the church is gone, the Antichrist is going to have no problem ruling the world, taking

His throne. For seven years, He will reign. And once the seven years are over, then

Christ will return. He will defeat the Antichrist and the false prophet. He will throw them into the lake of fire.

And once this happens, Christ will set up His kingdom. And then the transition comes to Him reigning for 1 ,000 years.

Now, some believe that before the 1 ,000 years, there will be a judgment. And the judgment will be over those who survived the tribulation.

What we have seen in previous sermons is that about three -fourths of the world will perish through the cataclysms that take place during the final seven -year tribulation.

But there will be those who survive it. In this view, what will happen is that those who survived the tribulation will be divided into two camps.

The believer and the unbeliever, as we read in verse 32, the nations are before Christ.

And at this time, He will discard of all the unbelievers. Verse 46 describes them as being sent to the lake of fire.

While the believers enter the Messianic kingdom where Christ will reign for 1 ,000 years.

Now, what is interesting is that during the millennial kingdom, there will be unbelievers present.

Isaiah 65 describes the millennium and verse 20 of that chapter says, the sinner 100 years old shall be accursed.

So the question is, how do unbelievers get into the kingdom if they are all eliminated during the judgment before the millennium begins?

The answer is that the same that survive the tribulation will live during the millennium in unglorified bodies.

Those who have unglorified bodies will have children. And just like in the present, these children are born sinners in need of being saved.

As Christ reigns, some will believe in Him, while others will not. And this is when people are like, how in the world can anybody not believe in Christ when

He's reigning on the throne? It's going to be so obvious that this is the truth. But we must understand how rebellious the human heart is.

Romans 1 says that people are without excuse because it's so obvious that there is a

God. It's so obvious that the Bible is true. And what people do in our world is that they suppress the truth.

The truth is right before their eyes and they want nothing to do with it. And in the millennium, this is how it's going to be.

The truth is going to be right before their eyes. Christ is going to be on the throne. He is going to be reigning.

And yet, there will be people who don't want Him still. And they will rebel.

And they will live for their own selfish desires in the millennium.

What is interesting is that Satan is going to be released from the pit after the 1 ,000 years are over.

And this is where I need to remind you that before the 1 ,000 years, Satan is cast into the abyss where he will remain for 1 ,000 years.

And what's going to happen during the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ is that this world is going to see unprecedented peace and prosperity because Satan will not be here to push forward his evil agenda.

The very evil agenda that we see in this world right now. So this is going to be a wonderful time.

Where Christ reigns. And there will be peace and prosperity. But what's going to happen is that these unbelievers who lived during the millennium are going to be there at the very end of the millennium.

And what's going to happen is that Satan is going to be released from the pit. And he's going to come out.

And he is going to lead these people against Christ for one final time.

When we read the Bible, what we see is that Satan really has three different defeats.

The first defeat happened 2 ,000 years ago when Christ was crucified and then he was raised from the dead.

His second defeat is during the final seven year tribulation where he possesses the Antichrist.

And while he possesses the Antichrist, what's going to happen, as I've already said, is that Jesus is going to return to the earth and he is going to defeat

Satan through the Antichrist being thrown into the lake of fire.

And then at the end of the 1 ,000 years when he's released from the pit, he's going to gather up these people to rebel against Christ one final time.

And then this will be his final defeat. And what the end of the Bible says in Revelation 20 is that he will be thrown into the lake of fire.

He will be defeated once and for all. So the millennium will start with no unbelievers, but there will be unbelievers at the end who will be defeated along with Satan.

So this is the first view of this judgment that takes place before the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ.

But there is another view that does not see a judgment before the millennium, but only sees one judgment and that is after the 1 ,000 years.

This one judgment is the judgment of unbelievers at the great white throne judgment and the judgment of believers at the judgment seat of Christ.

Now every Christian, of course, believes in this final judgment where all people down through history will stand before Christ.

But not every Christian believes that there is a judgment that precedes the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ.

They see this judgment in Matthew 25 as the same event as the judgment described at the end of Revelation.

But whenever we read the Bible, we always want to get the plain meaning of the text. If we read this text the way we are to read all of Scripture, then we should see this scene in Matthew 25 as a separate judgment that takes place before the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ.

Verse 31 says that Jesus is returning and then verse 32 brings us right to the judgment.

It is right after His return. Now that being said, this judgment has the same features as the final judgment at the very end as we will see.

So as we look at this judgment that only those who survive the tribulation will be at, we must remember that this is what the final judgment will be like.

So this text applies to everyone. But as we understand this event that takes place after the seven year tribulation and before the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ, let's see what

Christ will do at this judgment. Let's see this in verses 33 and 34. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.

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.

What you will notice is that there are two images used to describe two different types of people.

The two images are two different animals, sheep and goats. Sheep are used to describe believers while goats are the image used to describe unbelievers.

What is interesting is that sheep and goats are related in the animal family. They look somewhat similar, but they have several differences.

Sheep have wool while goats have hair. Sheep don't usually have a beard while goats do.

Sheep make a bah sound while goats make a bleat sound. While they are in the same animal family, they are distinct.

Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, we have seen Jesus describe sheep with a positive connotation.

In Matthew 7, Jesus says that false teachers disguise themselves as sheep. That is, they disguise themselves as true teachers.

In Matthew 9, sheep are described as those who have hope. They just need a shepherd.

In Matthew 10, 15, and 18, sheep are described as unbelievers who will become believers.

They just need to be found. In the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, sheep are always described as believers.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus describes his sheep as those who have been called out of this world by God, and he is their shepherd.

So you want to be a sheep. You do not want to be a goat.

In this Gospel, Jesus has used different images to describe believers and unbelievers.

We have already seen him use the agricultural image of wheat to describe believers, while unbelievers are described as weeds.

In the Gospel of Matthew and other places in the New Testament, believers are described as those in the light, while unbelievers are described as those in the darkness.

Now what is going to happen right before the millennium begins is that a great separation will take place, and this will be massive with all the people present.

Another way to say a great separation is that there will be a great sifting. What's interesting is that this language has been used recently as we've seen the alarming number of people who have compromised, especially within the

American church. As persecution has rose, as pressure from the government has come, we've seen a lot of people compromise, and it doesn't mean everybody who's compromised is an unbeliever.

It just shows us where they are, but certainly some of them are unbelievers, and it's been refreshing to see some stand, and so we're seeing, oh, these are sheep, and these are compromised sheep, and then these are goats, but at the end of the age, there's going to be a great sifting that takes place.

Everyone alive at this time is going to find out who is real and who is false, who is righteous and who is wicked.

Who is saved and who is condemned. Jesus is going to make it clear who are his and who are not by dividing all the people.

All the nations will be divided into two categories, the sheep and the goats. What the first half of verse 33 says is that Jesus the judge will place the sheep on his right.

Why does he put them on his right? He puts them on the right because in ancient times, to be at one's right hand was the place of honor.

In Matthew 22 .44, we saw not too long ago, Jesus quotes Psalm 110 verse 10 that says, the

Lord said to my Lord, sit in my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.

What the text is saying is that the Messiah is going to sit at the right hand of the Father.

To be at the right hand is to be at the place of honor. On the other hand in our text, to be on the left is to be in the place of dishonor.

Now the sheep, that is the believers, will be on his right, while the goats, the unbelievers, will be on his left. And at this point, everyone will know who belongs to God and who does not.

Who is heaven bound and who is hell bound. As this big separation takes place,

Jesus will give a pronouncement to those on his right. He says this in verses 34 through 36.

I've already read 34, but let's read that again. 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. For I was hungry and you gave me food.

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

I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.

What you will notice at the beginning of verse 34 is that Jesus is not only judge, he's also king.

Many down through church history have correctly identified Christ as prophet, priest, and king.

But he is not only those, he's also judge as we see here. What he tells those on his right is that they are to inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for them since the foundation of the world.

Now what kingdom is Jesus talking about? The immediate kingdom he is talking about is the millennial kingdom.

But once the 1 ,000 years ends, then comes the eternal kingdom. Jesus actually describes this transition in 1

Corinthians 15, where he says that he is going to deliver the kingdom to his

Father. In other words, he's going to deliver the messianic kingdom, which happens during the 1 ,000 year reign.

And he's going to deliver it to his Father as the transition happens to the eternal kingdom.

So as we look at this, the sheep are blessed as they get to enjoy fellowship with Jesus, first in the millennial kingdom, and then forever in the eternal kingdom.

This is your bright future as a sheep. Think about how wonderful this is.

Praise be to the Lord. What the end of verse 34 says is that this kingdom was prepared for these blessed people before the foundation of the world.

This kingdom was prepared for these specific people. It's important for us to understand that before you chose

God, He chose you. This is what Scripture teaches. As Jesus told

His disciples in John 15 -16, you did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.

Scripture teaches that He chose you and during your life when you hear the Gospel, you believe in Christ and then you bear fruit for Christ.

This is the one who will inherit God's kingdom as verse 34 describes.

Now what is it about these sheep that makes them so different? That makes them special?

From the goats? Let's look at this again in v.

35 -36. Jesus says, I was hungry and you gave

Me food. I was thirsty and you gave Me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed

Me. I was naked and you clothed Me. I was sick and you visited

Me. I was in prison and you came to Me. Remarkably, what

Jesus tells the sheep on His right is that they cared for Him during their lives. They cared for Him by feeding

Him, by giving Him drink, by welcoming Him when He was a stranger, by clothing

Him when He needed clothes, by visiting Him when He was sick, and by visiting Him when

He was in prison. What Jesus presents here is a person who cares about the needs of others.

This person did not say, not my problem. I don't have time for this.

This person did not live for selfish pursuits. This person spent his or her life serving others.

The examples that Jesus gives of helping those in need shows that this person was others -focused.

Philippians 2 -4 commands believers to live this way. That passage says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Jesus gives this judgment to the sheep on His right.

He commends them for the way they lived their lives. They did not live lives of selfish ambition.

They lived servant -focused lives. Many of you in this room have met

Brian Stout. He's a missionary in Croatia and our church supports he and his family.

When I think of people I know who represent this servant life, Brian immediately comes to mind.

Brian would be the first person to tell you that he's not the most intellectual. He's not your straight -A student who is brilliant.

But what Brian loves to do is share the Gospel with unbelievers. And many years ago, he was called to the mission field.

He was first called to the mission field in Macedonia in 2006. Even though he is not the most brilliant person there is, in order to share the

Gospel, his passion, he had to learn a new language, which is incredibly difficult.

But he learned Macedonian, and the Lord produced much fruit from Brian's efforts in Macedonia.

I visited Macedonia in 2012, ten years ago, and I could see the fruit that God was producing through his ministry there.

Now, Brian, you might think that he learned the language so he's good. He'll never have to learn a new language again.

Now he can be comfortable sharing the Gospel because he mastered the Macedonian language.

But this is not what happened. God calls His people to do hard things, and what

Brian noticed is that his asthma was getting worse in Macedonia. The capital

Skopje is polluted and not a good environment for one who struggles with asthma. Brian realized that the

Lord was leading him away from a place where he had adjusted to the culture, made many, many friends, a place where his family was comfortable, a place where he knew the

Macedonian language well, a place where he poured out his heart and thought he would stay forever.

What happened is that the Lord led Brian and his family to Croatia to a place right on the sea where the air was much cleaner, where it would be better for his breathing.

But think about this. In Croatia, they speak a different language. And Brian is not the quickest at learning a new language.

But he went where God called him because he wants to see unbelievers come to faith in Jesus.

So for the last few years in Croatia, Brian has been adapting to a new culture, developing new relationships, and learning the

Croatian language. This very day, Brian is preaching a sermon from Psalm 19 in Croatia.

Preaching is hard enough. But can you imagine preaching in a language you were just introduced to for the first time only a couple of years ago?

No thanks. That's incredibly difficult. But he does all of this because he loves

God and he loves people. He has a servant's heart. His life has been one of doing what

God has called him to do. It has been a life of meeting other people's needs. The greatest of needs is being used by God to save the lost.

Brian would be embarrassed that I shared this about him, but I enjoy saying this about a dear friend of mine who lives out what this text is describing.

Brian and people like him are the sheep who will hear these words from Jesus. The Lord at the judgment will list off the things that one did for His sake.

Now as I've already mentioned, there is the final judgment that every one of us will stand at. And that's after the 1 ,000 years.

But here, we are looking at this judgment before the 1 ,000 years.

But again, this is similar. He's going to be looking at your works. What's interesting is we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

But God cares about our works. Anybody who has faith in Christ and has the

Holy Spirit will have God honoring works in that person's life. And when the sheep on Jesus' right hear

Him list all of these things done for Him and even to Him, this is how the sheep will respond in verses 37 -39.

Then the righteous will answer 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 and welcome You or naked and clothe You? And when did we see

You sick or in prison and visit You? The sheep know, of course, the life they have led.

They know that by the grace of God, they were able to do things for the Lord. But to their surprise, as we read, is who they did these works to.

What they say is when did we see Your needs and provide these needs?

This is how Jesus answers them in verse 40. He says, and the king will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these brothers, you did it to me.

So Jesus considered the work done to a certain people as being done to He Himself, as if He was the one in need.

What the Lord did is put certain people across the path of these sheep, and these sheep passed the test by caring for one's needs.

Jesus identified in such an intimate way with the least of these brothers that He considered a good work done to them as a good work done to Him.

So the question we need to ask is who are the least of these brothers that Jesus describes whose needs were provided for by the sheep?

What we know from this text, as verse 32 says, is that all the nations are standing before Jesus. This includes

Israel. So what group of people does Jesus identify with intimately? Well, the answer is two different groups, the church and Israel.

Let me first mention the church. The New Testament describes the church as Jesus' bride. When Saul persecuted the church and Jesus appeared to him on the

Damascus road, Jesus said to Saul, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Why did he say me? He said this because he so closely identifies with the church.

Since the church is his body, that to persecute the church is to persecute him.

Jesus feels the same way about Israel. We need to remember that Jesus Himself is an

Israelite born from the tribe of Judah. He is Israel's Messiah. He is the

Lord. When the Lord called Abraham Christ along with the Father and the

Holy Spirit, made the covenant with Abraham that this nation would come from Him, to bless

Israel is to bless Jesus. To persecute Israel is to persecute

Him. Just as it is with the church. If you persecute the church, you persecute

Jesus. Now what I explained several weeks back is that Israel is the focus of the final seven year tribulation.

Jeremiah 37 calls the final seven years the time of Jacob's trouble.

Another name for Jacob is Israel. Remember God named Jacob Israel. During this time, at the very end, during the final seven year tribulation, the

Antichrist is going to persecute Israel. He will persecute Gentile believers, yes, but his focus will be on Israel.

Satan hates God's ancient covenant people and he possesses a man known in scripture as the

Antichrist, the beast, the little horn. He goes by lots of titles, the man of lawlessness.

And this man's plan through the power of Satan will be to destroy every

Israelite. This will be a great time of trouble for Israel as Jeremiah 30 verse seven predicted.

During the final seven years, Israel will have great needs. And the sheep that Jesus describes in this text will help them in their darkest hour.

The sheep here represent Gentile believers who helped Israel during the final seven year tribulation and believe in Israelites who helped their fellow countrymen.

This will bring to fruition an ancient promise. The promise that the

Lord made to Abraham in Genesis 12, 3, what the Lord told Abraham is, he who honors you will be blessed.

Who's the you? Israel. This is the context of this passage.

And this is how it's been down through history. Nations are judged when they persecute Israel. And this is how it's going to be at the end.

They're going to be seen as you did not help my ancient covenant people. Therefore, you will be judged and others will have helped them and they will be blessed.

So the sheep did good to persecute Israel during the seven year tribulation, when they had great needs, when they were experiencing enormous persecution from the

Antichrist and his people. But there's another side to this. And that is the story of the goats during this period.

The goats lived opposite lives. They did nothing to help Israel, Jesus' brothers.

Let's read this in verses 41 through 45. 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 me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.

Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they also will answer 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?

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

So the goats on Jesus' left hear that Jesus' people, the people of Israel, were before them.

They were in need during the greatest crisis that has ever hit this earth. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 24?

He said that no one would survive if these days had continued.

It was that bad. And remember, I said three -fourths of the population perished during the final seven years.

And Israelites cried for help, but the goats did nothing to help them.

They left them to suffer. The people that Jesus closely identifies with, the people that mean so much to Him, mean nothing to the goats.

They did not help those most in need, but overlooked them and instead were selfish, going their own way, only concerned about their own needs.

Only concerned about their own pursuits. And the result for them is punishment, as Jesus says in verse 46.

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

This is a sobering picture. Everyone who survives the tribulation stands before Jesus, and those who are goats show through their faithlessness and absence of works that they didn't belong to Him.

They did not have the credentials to enter His kingdom like the sheep did.

As many of you know, my family and I about a month ago took a trip to Florida. We drove to Florida and we drove back.

That's not the first time I've driven to Florida. When I graduated from high school, a good friend of mine and I, we drove down to Florida.

And what we did on this trip is we went to a Marlins baseball game in Miami.

Neither of us had ever been to this city or this stadium where they played.

So we didn't know where to park. As we drove close to the stadium, we noticed a bunch of cars lined up turning into a parking lot.

So we lined up too. After waiting for a while, it was our turn to turn in to meet the attendant at the gate.

He asked us if we had a pass. And we of course said no. It was really a comical scene because this was the entrance for the players, the front office, and all the

Marlins employees. And we drove in in an old Geo Prism while all these fancy cars were driving in.

We did not have the credentials to get into this special parking lot.

So we turned around and left. At the final judgment, whether it's this judgment before the millennium or the great white throne judgment at the very end, the

Goats will not have the credentials to get into God's kingdom. The credentials are to have the righteousness of Christ, which comes through one having faith alone in Christ alone.

And to show your true faith, you will have shown good works in your life. These are the ones who receive entrance into the kingdom.

But the Goats will receive the due penalty for their unbelief and fruitless life.

This is the story for everyone in life. It is either eternal blessing or to be under an eternal curse.

It is either eternal life or eternal punishment. The choice is before everyone.

The choice before everyone is to choose life or death. And the Bible calls you, choose life.

Choose life. One chooses eternal life by believing in Jesus.

The one who believes in Him bears fruit, and those who do not will never bear fruit.

As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, a good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

And these works are going to be shown at the final judgment. Jesus won't be fooled. He knows who are real and who are not.

He knows who have passed the test and those who have failed. True followers of Christ care about what

Christ cares about. In the narrow context of this passage, that is caring for the most persecuted during the final seven -year tribulation,

Israel. But what does this look like in your life? One application is to bless

Israel. Yes, that's the first one. The call to bless Israel from Genesis 12, 3 must be taken seriously by us.

We should pray for the people of Israel. We should evangelize them when we get the chance. And we as a church are now supporting a

Jewish missionary, Trevor Rubenstein, who lives in the Twin Cities, and his desire is to evangelize the

Jewish people so that they believe in their Messiah, Jesus. We need to do what we can to bless

Israel in different ways. The people of Israel are very dear to God's heart and they need to be dear to ours as well.

And one of the great tragedies is that a lot of churches don't really care about Israel. They don't have the strong words that the reformers did against Israel, like Kelvin and Luther.

But a lot of people just don't care and they wonder about churches like ours who do care. Like, you guys care too much about Israel.

We do not. We need to care about Israel because Scripture is very clear about God's great plan for them.

They will not only be saved in the end, as Paul says in Romans 11, but they will be restored to their land.

And Christ is going to reign from Jerusalem. And all the promises made to Israel, the

Abrahamic promise, the Davidic promise, the New Covenant promise, will be fulfilled in the millennium where Christ reigns from the throne.

So we can live out this text this way by blessing Israel. But how do we apply this more broadly?

Because we can apply this more broadly. There is a common theme with the works done by the sheep and the works not done by the goats.

There are many different works that we can do for God to show our true faith, but the works mentioned here are helping those in need.

It is helping those who are able to help because of their close proximity. In Matthew 22 -39,

Jesus tells you to love your neighbor. Your neighbor is someone who is close to you. It might be helping someone in your family who has a need.

It might be helping your neighbor next door. It might be helping the weak and vulnerable in our community.

Are there people that you know that hardly have anything? They don't have a friend. They don't have many needs.

The Lord wants you to meet the needs of those in need. The least of these.

One specific focus that Jesus wants us to have in our journey through life is to help fellow believers.

As he said in Matthew 18 -5, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.

The child in this text is a fellow believer. And by receiving a fellow believer, by helping a fellow believer, you are receiving

Christ. You are doing it for Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote something similar in Galatians 6 -10.

He said, Do good to all, especially those of the household of faith.

We need to know the needs of others in our local church. We should ask, How may I help?

I am delighted to see this already happening here at Eureka Baptist. But by the grace of God, we are to do this more and more.

The sheep in this world have works to show that their faith is true. Jesus notices these works and when he points these out at the final judgment, he will deliver the sweet pronouncement as this world's judge.

He will say, Come, you who are blessed by my Father.

Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Every person will either dwell with God forever in eternal bliss or be cast out forever to the eternal fire.

The sheep in this world live for Christ. And the one who lives for him does not live for selfish pursuits, but lives a life of blessing others.

Understand that one day, Christ will divide the true from the false.

That's our big idea. Understand that one day, Christ will divide the true from the false. And in this text, we have seen one reason why.

That reason is that the others focused works of the believer will stand out from the selfish works of the unbeliever.

The others focused works of the believer will stand out from the selfish works of the unbeliever.

The sheep will have lived that life. Not perfectly. Okay, not perfectly.

But this fruit will be there where they care about the needs of others.

Well, the goats will have one thing in common. They didn't live for other people.

They lived for themselves. You must understand that you will be in the grand courtroom one day.

And the Lord Jesus will deliver an accurate verdict on your life because everything

He says is precise. Everything He says is true. The question is, what will that day be like?

My prayer is that everyone will hear the sweet words that we have seen the last two

Sundays. Well done, good and faithful servants. Enter the joy of your

Master and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

What sweet words that will be. Now, next Sunday, we start to see the life of Jesus on earth winding down as the plot to kill

Jesus heats up. Right now, we're in Holy Week here in Matthew.

And we're going to see everything heat up here in the coming weeks as we march toward Easter Sunday.

And we are going to finish Matthew on Easter Sunday at the beginning of April. So the next two months, we're going to be in Matthew 26,

Matthew 27, and Matthew 28. And I look forward to going through that with you. But at this time, let's close in prayer.

Father in Heaven, what a treasure Your Word is. It pierces our hearts.

It shows us our sin. It shows us how much we need Christ. It shows us the life

You called us to live. And my prayer is that everyone who can hear my voice would live this.

Would first have faith in Christ and then have the works that sheep have of meeting the needs of others.

Israel, fellow believers, those in need, that's my prayer for the people in this room, for the people who hear my voice.

May no one be a goat. May no one be thrown into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

But may everyone receive entrance into Your Kingdom and reign with Your Son Jesus Christ forever.