[0:00] Good. Well, we're going to turn now to our Bible reading for this morning, and Willie will be preaching a bit later in the service on this passage.
[0:10] So please turn to Matthew chapter 25, if you have a Bible with you. Matthew 25, and we're reading there from verse 31.
[0:26] Matthew 25, and reading from verse 31. Matthew 25, and reading from verse 31.
[1:00] Matthew 25, and reading from verse 32. Then the king will say to those on his right, And when do we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
[1:40] And when do we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it for one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.
[1:56] 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.
[2:11] 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, you did not visit me.
[2:24] Then they also will answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or in 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 it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.
[2:45] And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Amen. And may God bless to us his word this morning.
[3:05] Well, do turn with me, if you would, if you have your Bible, to the passage that Paul read for us there at the end of Matthew 25, which is all about righteousness and the real exposure of the last day.
[3:21] This is the last section of the Olivet Discourse we've been studying together, Matthew 24 and 25. And just a few days later, Jesus will be crucified.
[3:34] And having declared the last days that the prophets had longed for and had foretold that they had begun in his kingdom, and his kingdom being at hand, having laid out so clearly what the expectations are to be for all of these last days, he says it's the birth pangs of the new creation.
[3:55] He's talked about the actions and the attitudes that will prepare his people for his coming at last in glory. But now at verse 31 here of chapter 25, he turns to spell out with stark clarity what will surely be the experience of all people on this earth, on that last of the last days.
[4:15] The great day which, in our ESV Bibles, it's rightly entitled in the heading of this section, The Final Judgment. Now I must say right at the outset that this is perhaps one of the most misunderstood and misquoted of all the teachings of Jesus, especially within the church today.
[4:38] I'm astonished at how often I've heard evangelical churchmen completely abuse this text. And certainly I think if you ask many people, if you ask the man in the street what this passage is all about, they'll say, well, what Jesus says really matters is being kind to the poor and the marginalized and the hungry and the sick and so on.
[5:01] Do that and God won't judge you. You'll go to heaven. And they might very well quickly add they don't believe God would actually judge anybody anyway and certainly not them.
[5:13] But friends, any such idea that that is what Jesus is saying here just fails to take God seriously at all. And it totally fails to take Jesus' words right here seriously.
[5:25] It fails to read them intelligently and in their context here in Matthew's Gospel. And we mustn't fall into that trap. Now, when we take Jesus' words here seriously, we can't avoid the fact that what he describes here in the great discourse is the great exposure of that last day and what will be an experience of final separation of all humanity in this world.
[5:54] And the world on that day will find itself shocked, shaken to the core to discover that it has been totally mistaken as to the grounds of that judgment.
[6:09] And on that day, there will be no debates, there will be no answering back, there will be no negotiation. There will be simply a great exposure, a great unveiling of the truth about God's judgment.
[6:21] And that judgment will be absolute in every way. See, our world today loves ambiguity, doesn't it? The worldly church loves ambiguity.
[6:33] Gray areas, balance, middle ground, seeing all sides. But Jesus' words here don't show any ambiguity, do they? They're stark, they're clear, they're unambiguously binary, that word that is so shocking to the modern ear.
[6:49] Look at verse 32. It speaks about absolute separation. Sheep from goats. The blessed, verse 34, from the cursed, verse 41.
[7:03] The righteous, verse 37, from the unrighteous. These are the kind of statements that are despised, aren't they, by our contemporary culture today? And so often by the contemporary church today.
[7:16] But here they are. On the lips of gentle Jesus, meek and wild. And at the climax of his public ministry, these are his last public words to the world.
[7:29] His first public word, at the beginning of the gospel, was repent. And his last words describe the vivid reality of heaven and hell.
[7:43] And his message is absolutely clear. The only thing that matters on that day is will you be found righteous in that real exposure on that last day.
[8:01] Well, once again, friends, the only way to be prepared for judgment on that last day is to listen now to Jesus Christ, who is the judge of all. So let's listen here.
[8:14] As in this passage, he insists we take four things with the utmost seriousness if we're going to be prepared for that day. First of all, we must take absolutely seriously the approaching certainty of this great separation in judgment.
[8:28] Look at verse 31. The first word is not if, is it? It's when. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will sit on his glorious throne and he will separate people, sheep from goats.
[8:45] That day is an approaching certainty. Now, of course, our world doesn't believe in any coming judgment like this. Unless, of course, it's the dooms day of natural judgment and calamity due to climate change or whatever.
[9:00] And, of course, the convenient thing is that we're told that can be muted by campaigns for carbon taxes and net zero and more windmills and all the rest of it. We're quite keen on judgments like that. And we know how to virtue signal our righteousness for that.
[9:15] But a coming moral judgment by God who tells us how to behave and who will hold us to account for it. We don't like that idea.
[9:28] And so we decide how we want to live. And we decide what is virtue and what is vice. And we decide it according to our own personal truth, our own personal morality.
[9:42] That's why somebody said Jesus' words, judge not and you will not be judged is perhaps the favorite Bible verse of this generation. Of course, it's taken totally out of context. It's taken to mean, oh, well, each to his own.
[9:56] There's no judgment from God, then I'm not accountable to anyone, am I? Just myself. I'm free. I can act as I want. I can do it my way. But you see, much as our society loves to collude in that fantasy, it is fantasy.
[10:11] It's not true. If we live as if there were no judgment, then we're not actually free because what that means is there can be no justice. If we all do as we please with no fear at all of being held to account, that isn't real freedom, is it?
[10:24] That's chaos. Just imagine how that would be on the roads if there were no rules for driving or if there were no sanctions at all for dangerous driving. If no one kept any rules at all, it would be mayhem, wouldn't it?
[10:39] Well, it's just the same in the moral realm. Our society is increasingly throwing off restraints that come from any sense of accountability to a God who will judge.
[10:51] And what do we see? Do we see all the people living life in peace as John Lennon sang? If we imagine that there's no heaven and there's above only sky, are we surrounded by happy, contented families?
[11:05] Are we surrounded by strong and lasting marriages? Are we surrounded by trust and integrity right through public life? Are we surrounded by peace and prosperity and happiness overflowing in the world?
[11:16] No conflict. What you tell me, it's not what I see. No judgment means no restraint. It doesn't mean freedom.
[11:26] It means bondage and chaos. And no judgment also means ultimately there can be no meaning and purpose in life. What's the point of the artist's creativity if there's no one to judge his artwork and its value and its worth?
[11:42] What's the point of all the scientists' labor if there's no one to judge the value of her discoveries? What's the point of doing anything meaningful in life at all if in the end it's all meaningless, if it's not just worthy or unworthy, it's just indifferent?
[11:59] We've consigned the whole idea of ultimate judgment in life to the dustbin and the results are that there's no moral restraint or no recklessness.
[12:10] There's no meaning. Just pointlessness. Well, no wonder that our society today is characterized by both moral recklessness and intellectual apathy at the same time.
[12:27] We hardly need more than just our own eyes and ears, do we, to see the sheer folly of our world that rejects all such concepts. But of course, we have got more than our eyes and ears. We have God's revelation. We have the words of Jesus right here telling us not to be such fools.
[12:41] God's day of judgment, God's day of final separation is an approaching certainty. That's the relentless message all through Christ's teaching.
[12:54] And repeatedly, we've seen it in Matthew's Gospel, in the Sermon on the Mount. How does it end? Separation. The healthy tree and the bad tree. The wise and the foolish builder. The people who say, oh Lord, Lord, but do nothing and the people who actually do the will of God the Father.
[13:11] The parables in chapter 13 of Matthew's Gospel all end in separation. The wheat from the weeds, the good fish from the bad, the evil from the righteous. And so again here, so very clearly, because this is the central message of the New Testament Gospel.
[13:29] You saw that last time. Peter tells Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, that's what Jesus commanded the apostles to preach to the people. That he, Jesus, is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
[13:44] Paul says exactly the same thing to the intellectuals in Athens and Mars Hill. God has fixed the day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed and of this he has given us all assurance by raising him from the dead.
[14:00] That's what it means to preach Jesus and the resurrection. That's the significance of the resurrection. It fulfills the promise of Psalm 2 and many other scriptures that God has set his king on Zion's hill with a rod of judgment in his hand to judge the whole earth.
[14:20] Paul says that explicitly in Acts chapter 13. Jesus is the judge and he shall come again in his glory says verse 31 here. And then he will separate from all the nations the righteous from the wicked.
[14:41] And so Paul Christ's apostle tells us we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Hebrews says to us it's appointed for man to die once and then comes judgment.
[14:58] And that judgment Jesus here tells us plainly is an approaching certainty. And so friends if we don't proclaim that if I don't proclaim that I'm not proclaiming the gospel of Jesus and the resurrection because that is the New Testament gospel.
[15:16] But the second thing we must grasp about this coming judgment and separation is it's awesome completeness. Verse 32 says it's an approaching certainty for all nations all people.
[15:29] When the Son of Man comes it will be a display of awesome sovereignty. as Lord of all the cosmos. His throne spans the universe and he will pronounce a verdict on the whole world on that day.
[15:45] The language used here comes from the Old Testament from the prophet Daniel in Daniel chapter 7 where Daniel is shown in a vision centuries before the triumph of the Son of Man and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and tongues should serve him.
[16:07] Jesus has spoken that way before back in chapter 19 where he spoke about a new world literally the regeneration of all things when he would sit on a glorious throne.
[16:20] And so here he is verse 34 the king and all the nations are before him just as in chapter 24 verse 30 he spoke about all the tribes of the earth seeing him coming with power and great glory amid his angel train.
[16:34] This great judgment is awesome in its completeness. A totally comprehensive judgment of all peoples by one judge alone.
[16:45] The son of man the king of glory Jesus Christ. And of course that too is scandalous isn't it to our culture's pluralistic outlook today.
[16:57] But Jesus is quite plain what he means. He is the unique judge of all the earth and he will judge all with awesome completeness.
[17:10] Of course that was also a great shock to his Jewish heroes in the first century. They certainly believed in judgment. They certainly believed in separation of the sheep from the goats. But what they thought it would be was a separation of Israel from all the other nations.
[17:23] Israel the sheep and all the other nations the goats. But Jesus speaks very differently here doesn't he? He's not speaking about a separation of the Jews from the Gentiles.
[17:35] He's speaking about a great sifting of all nations. Israel and the generation and all the Gentile nations. And from out of all of these he says there will be sheep and goats that will be righteous and the cursed.
[17:51] And that will be just as shocking to the tribes and the nations and the religions of the world on that day to discover that it will not be that some are judged by Allah and others are judged by Buddha and others are judged by Moses and others are judged by Jesus.
[18:09] No look at verse 32 before him before Jesus will be gathered all the nations. He will separate from all the nations one from another to blessing and cursing.
[18:20] there will be only one glorious throne and it is the throne of the risen and exalted Jesus Christ. That will be a great shock won't it to the suicide bombers whose utterly misguided wickedness thought that it would lead them to commendation by God.
[18:44] No. It will be a great shock won't it for a Hitler for a Stalin for a Pol Pot and many other like them who thought they were beyond all accounting on earth and could do as they pleased.
[18:58] And that reality the throne of the glory of Jesus Christ will face every one of us also every one of us. And it may prove a great shock to many who also thought that they knew Jesus.
[19:14] Gentle Jesus meek and mild. Jesus is a teacher of love. For them that just means soft sentimentalism. Love that affirms all behavior.
[19:25] However much it is utterly against God's clear word. And never challenges that. Never judges that. But listen. Listen to the real Jesus. Verse 41 here.
[19:35] He separates. He calls and he says to some depart from me you cursed into the eternal fire. He is an awesome sovereign and complete separation.
[19:51] Jesus is the sovereign judge of all people. And it's a judgment that is awesome in its completeness. He's the king of all nations and he will pass his verdict on all on that day.
[20:09] But before we move on notice that in this sovereign and complete separation there is a distinction to be made between these two destinies that Christ as judge declares upon men and women.
[20:24] Look at verse 34. It's quite clear. Those who are blessed are blessed by God's sheer grace aren't they? They inherit a kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.
[20:37] So clearly there cannot be any merit involved on their part can there? It's an inheritance that was prepared by God eons ago long before they even existed. And that's what the reformers in the church were so clear in stressing.
[20:53] And so the confession of faith of our church the Westminster Confession states that those who are so predestined unto life are those who God has chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory out of his mere free grace and love.
[21:11] But verse 41 look it's not exactly parallel is it? Notice Jesus doesn't say that the eternal fire is prepared for the wicked from the foundation of the world.
[21:24] It's prepared for the devil and his angels not for humanity. Hell was not created for men and women. God takes no delight in the punishment of the wicked.
[21:39] His desire we're told repeatedly is for all to be saved to be what he created them to be. But it is recalcitrant human beings who refuse that God honoring true destiny.
[21:56] And such as again the Westminster Confession states so carefully God will pass by and ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sins to the praise of his glorious justice.
[22:12] God is absolutely sovereign in his judgment of humanity but he is absolutely just. No one who suffers loss on that day will be able to blame anyone else but themselves says Jesus.
[22:28] That's clearly his teaching here. And that brings us you see to the third thing and that is that on that day the world will be shocked by the astounding criteria for this great separation.
[22:45] judgment will be seen to be absolutely just because Christ's judgment on the people of the world on that day will be based on the verdict that these people themselves have placed upon Jesus Christ before that day.
[23:03] It will be based on clear and incontrovertible evidence. Evidence of our works. 4 verse 35 all these things he speaks about in these following verses feeding and clothing and visiting and so on verse 40 you did to me and 4 verse 42 all of these things you did not do likewise verse 45 you did not do them to me the judgment according to Jesus will without question be according to our works what we did or did not do this is where people often get very confused and go wrong on the one hand some say well look here's clear evidence that the priority in the church must be social action social concern social justice doing these sorts of things as Desmond Tutu once put it whether we fed or did not feed the hungry or clothed or did not clothe the naked whether we visited the imprisoned or did not that is what will decide our destiny but on the other hand you get those who know very well that the
[24:14] Bible teaches clearly justification is by faith alone and so they're very wary about any talks about works they found this passage very difficult and rather embarrassing so what are we to say well first let's be very clear the New Testament knows absolutely no conflict whatsoever between asserting both that justification is by faith alone judgment is consistently to be said to be by works Jesus is very plain in Matthew chapter 7 verse 21 it's not by words saying Lord Lord but by works doing the will of the father that you're saved Matthew chapter 16 verse 27 again he says when the son of man comes in glory he will reward each according to what he has done just as he says here many other places the apostles are no different Paul says in Romans chapter 2 God will render to each according to his works it's not the hearer but the doer of the law who is justified so
[25:19] Paul agrees with the apostle James who says the same thing judgment is by works but that is because what we do is what shows really clearly what we are because real faith works always real faith can be seen and felt James says faith without works is dead it's not there you see you tell me you're a Frenchman but you can't speak any French I say well you're a fraud you tell me you're a grapevine but you produce only thistles I say well you're a fraud that's Jesus point real fruit is evidence of real faith because it's faith alone that justifies but that faith that justifies is never alone otherwise it's not real real faith you see is like real generosity it's one of those things you can't have in theory you can only have it in actual practice you can't be a theoretically generous person can you it's just in practice that you're very stingy now that means you're not generous at all because a generous person actually gives and so it is with real faith you see our actions our priorities in life display our real motivation and they betray very easily our true attitudes of heart and that's
[26:44] Jesus constant message you see it all through his teaching the parables that we looked at last time show it very very clearly the virgins who were prepared for their bridegroom showed their honor for him by their preparation the presumptuous unprepared ones well they just revealed their scorn for the bridegroom the servants who were responsible for caring for their master's people or who were ambitious in expanding their master's purpose they showed their heart of love and honor and trust for their master for those who hated the master's people and neglected his purpose well they just showed their lack of love for him and that's the heart of the issue here that is the one criteria for judgment on that day and it will astound many the world over this is the issue have you loved and cherished and honored Jesus Christ as lord and master the enthroned
[27:48] Jesus Christ will face every single one of us on that day and he will say what was your verdict in life upon me see this passage is not at all speaking about general philanthropy it's not at all speaking about whether we campaigned and helped the poor and the suffering in this world absolutely not Jesus is quite clear and specific here he judges all people according to their verdict on him and that verdict on him is displayed by the people of the world in their attitude to well to whom verse 40 these my brothers in verse 45 the least of these his brothers as you did it to the least of these my brothers you did it to me or verse 45 as you did not to the least of these my brothers you did not do it to me well there you are somebody might say that means everyone doesn't it so if you help the poor and the needy and the sick if you help your fellow man
[28:57] God will help and reward you but no that is not what Jesus is saying the question is who are Jesus brothers and sisters that's the real question and we know the answer because Jesus himself has told us the answer repeatedly through this gospel chapter 12 verse 50 of Matthew he's emphatic it is not every man it's not even his natural mother and brothers and siblings what does he say whoever does the will of my father in heaven he is my brother and sister and mother it's Jesus true followers who are his brothers and sisters in chapter 23 verse 8 he tells his disciples that they are all brothers that they all have one father in heaven the people who belong to Jesus who are taught by Jesus they are his brothers and sisters just as after the resurrection in chapter 28 verse 10 he tells the women at the tomb go and tell my brothers to go to
[29:59] Galilee and there they'll see me and we're told the disciples went to Galilee and indeed saw Jesus you see what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 25 has nothing whatsoever to do with any concept of the brotherhood of man or any such thing he is not saying that general do-gooding and philanthropy and caring for people will bring a positive judgment on that day far less is he making the point as one evangelical commentator maintains that quote the judgment is an indictment of the church for its lack of social involvement as kingdom members in fact it is the exact opposite of that it is not an indictment on the church for its lack of care for the world it is an indictment of the world for its failure to love and care for the church of Jesus Christ the people of Jesus Christ Jesus is warning here the people of the world of all nations that they will be judged according to their reception of Jesus brothers his followers his people and that's because their reception of them as his messengers reflect their reception of his message the gospel of his kingdom and their verdict on that is what clearly displays with utter clarity their verdict upon him he says that's exactly what
[31:31] Jesus taught his disciples back in chapter 10 of Matthew as he sent them out on mission do you remember he said that among both Jews and Gentiles they would find both acceptance and rejection and Jesus said in chapter 10 verse 40 whoever receives you and your message receives me where he gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple of Jesus a brother will by no means lose his reward why because you are doing it for Jesus when you do that says the same in Matthew chapter 18 whoever receives one such child in my name receives me and he gives a real warning too doesn't he see that you do not despise one of these little ones better to be cast in the sea with a millstone around your neck than to harm even the least of Christ's little brothers and sisters that's the message right here in Matthew 25 it's so clear the only criterion that will matter on that great day of judgment will be whether you have a real and living relationship with the
[32:43] Lord Jesus Christ whether the judge of all the earth has already become your personal savior and Lord so that you really are brothers and sisters part of his real family will the bridegroom when he comes know you on that day that's the question so that Jesus will say to you verse 34 here come you who are blessed by my father and you see the presence or the absence of that real relationship is revealed in how you have responded to Jesus Christ in this life and that will be visible that will be seen in how you have behaved towards Christ's people and the message that they bring from the Lord Jesus himself who is the only savior the only judge of the whole wide world and on that day
[33:43] Jesus is showing us here many will be astounded that that is the criterion on which they will be judged and as Jesus said back in chapter 24 verse 30 many among all the tribes of the earth will mourn when Jesus faces them with that truth that despite the love and the grace and the mercy that has been offered to them in the gospel by Christ's brothers by his people they scorned and abused and rejected the message and the messengers and didn't even think twice about it verse 44 when did that happen they'll say well Jesus will say in your supercilious dismissal of the least of these you scorned and you rejected me just as others will say in verse 37 Lord what did we do we just did our duty we just loved our brothers and sisters as we should do and Jesus will say to them yes and all of that showed your real love to me your unselfconscious love and service to my people tells me beyond all doubt that my love really is in you that my father's grace and mercy has touched you and changed you and made you one of my people yet there will be great astonishment on that day according to
[35:11] Jesus there's one last thing that we can't ignore either about that day and that is what Jesus says here about its abiding consequences the destiny decreed on that day will be irrevocable and eternal I said there's not a clear parallelism between Jesus words about heaven and hell here in terms of the intended destiny for men and women the kingdom is prepared for his people hell was prepared for the devil and his angels but there is clear parallelism here in his words about the nature and the duration of these two destinies that lie beyond that great day of separation in every way Jesus says these two things are the antithesis of each other it's blessing or cursing it's a glorious kingdom or it's an eternal fire verse 46 it is eternal life or eternal punishment there are some today even fine
[36:25] Bible scholars that I respect who want to deny the equivalence of these two things they rather speak of annihilation of the wicked rather than a punishment that endures forever but it just seems to be impossible to deny the absolute nature of the antithesis that there is here look at verse 46 life by its very definition if it's eternal it must be unending and the punishment Jesus speaks about is parallel to that eternal and Jesus speaks elsewhere about hell as having a worm that does not die and a fire that is not quenched and John the apostle sees in the revelation in revelation 14 the smoke of torment going up forever and ever and they have no rest day or night from from the wrath of God so I cannot see how everlasting life is not mirrored here by the dark shadow of everlasting death a conscious horror of perpetual judgment but whatever we say we must surely say at least this that
[37:42] Jesus here paints a picture of abiding consequences of this judgment which are either infinitely wonderful to be desired above all things eternal life or infinitely terrible awful unspeakable and you see that's why those who mistake this passage so greatly just want to turn it into a challenge to the church to more social action and so on that's why they are so utterly wrong dangerously wrong of course Jesus has concern for the poor and needy everywhere of course he expects his followers to show that too back in Matthew chapter 6 he assumes that giving and generosity and so on is part of our lives and we should never neglect that but is that ever Jesus priority in his teaching just look down to chapter 26 verse 11 you'll see his answer the poor you will always have with you he says but you will not always have me what about your response to me that is the crucial issue above all and all the way through
[38:55] Jesus ministry his emphasis and concern is always with that personal relationship not with the things of the world but with a relationship to God with a relationship to him right at the very start of the gospel we're told by the angel in chapter one Jesus came to save his people from their sins not from their poverty or their oppression or their alienation or anything else but from their sins and his constant priority was to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom in which alone salvation from sin is to be found the priority was to call disciples to follow him in repentance and real faith the greatest compassion that we see Jesus himself displaying is back in chapter 9 verse 36 for lost sheep in their sins and he calls his disciples to pray for the Lord to send laborers into the harvest field to bring those lost sheep back through proclaiming the gospel and he goes right on in chapter 10 to send his disciples out to preach the gospel and he says their response to you and your message is the response to me that's always
[40:06] Jesus absolute priority because that is what will decide people's eternal future and we must be careful mustn't we to preserve this real perspective of Jesus on eternal life and being saved from eternal punishment nothing nothing could possibly matter more yes of course the church is to make not just converts but disciples who obey everything that Jesus commands which includes of course as Paul puts it doing good to everyone especially to those who are of a household of faith and no doubt to the most vulnerable to the most fragile of all including the unborn child all of these things are gospel issues because faith must work and faith without works is dead but you see it's so easy and it's so tragically common for churches and for
[41:07] Christian organizations to drift into merely being focused on things of this life and this world to lose sight of the absolute priority of Jesus for things eternal and we need to be careful not to drift I still remember Isaac Shaw our friend the director of the Delhi Bible Institute speaking about the huge flood of money that came into Southeast Asia including India after that terrible tsunami on Boxing Day in 2005 but he said there was no such flood of money ever even from Christians for gospel mission in these lands because Isaac said we've all seen the video of the terrible aftermath of the tsunami but no one has seen a video of the terrible aftermath of the day of judgment the eternal devastation of hell friends that is what
[42:09] Jesus is picturing for us here in these verses the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels a place of eternal punishment and also the kingdom of blessing of joy of eternal life there is a judgment there is a day of absolute separation make no mistake it is an approaching certainty otherwise Jesus is a liar and a fraud it will be awesome in its completeness he will judge all nations and all people it will astonish the world and its criteria the one thing alone that matters is knowing and loving Jesus Christ and being part of his family and it will have abiding consequences there will be irreversible eternal separation that's why the first words of Jesus public ministry back in chapter 4 of Matthew are a word of warning repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and the last public word here carries just the same warning repent now turn to him for salvation now because you will certainly stand before him one day you will all experience every one of us judgment at his hand on that day when everything everything is laid bare before his glorious throne and only one question will matter then will you be found righteous in the great exposure of that day friends the only way for anyone anywhere to be prepared for that coming day is to listen to
[43:52] Jesus and to respond to him heart mind and soul now today don't ignore him you also must be ready says Jesus for the son of man is coming and at an hour you do not expect be ready for that day by listening to the Lord Jesus Christ and by responding to his call today today let's pray Lord help us we pray to be true listeners and true learners of your gospel in all its fullness and may we be those who read and mark and learn and inwardly digest your words of truth so that by patience and the comfort of your holy word we may embrace and ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life which you give us in our savior
[45:00] Jesus Christ the Lord hear us and help us for Jesus sake amen