Signs of the Times Pt 5

You've got to find the pedal. Oh, my. Come on now. I'll get it now. I'm good. Once I've found the mic, well, sorry about that. Would you all stand? You would think I didn't see well, wouldn't you? I want to welcome you this morning to Calvary Chapel. Also, those of you who are joining us online, we welcome you. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity this morning to gather again on the Lord's Day.

Actually, every day is the Lord's Day. But this first day of the week, we recognize the Father interceding for us. And we thank you because we need prayer, Lord. We need you. We give you worship this morning. We come just as we are, Lord. We ask that you'd move in our hearts, Lord, that you would help us let go and let you be in control. Help us not be inhibited, but just relax.

I know I can certainly yell at a football game. My family. My family sees my reactions in various things. And, Lord, so may I react to you in worship this morning.

Worship you in song and study your word, Lord. We lift our time to you. Your mercy, your sovereignty, Lord. Faithfulness to us, Lord.

You bless our time, Lord. You may be seated.

At me, yes. At me, yes. On the top side of the earth.

Lord, we give you praise. And we thank you. We especially need to trust you. We know that times can get hard. It's possible. But your faith.

You've taught us this morning that we may be what you want to teach us as Ryan comes to teach this morning. We thank you that we belong to you.

Father, we thank you for redeeming us. As you hung on that cross, your shed blood flowed, paying the price for our sins. We thank you, Lord Jesus. And we thank you that you rose from the dead. You walked among those folks. Those many, many people that saw you. And there is that time you ascended up in the glory of Christ as you'll return. Would you all stand?

Lord, just thank you for this, Lord. May we love you with all of our hearts, Lord. Just as we are, our flaws, our failures, and all those things, Lord. And you love us.

I've come.

I can say.

Jesus. And as we continue our worship service, as we study your word, would you bless us, Lord? Would you give us open ears to hear? And eyes to see. Be harsh to perceive that which you have this morning. Because you first loved us, we love you. And that would be the motivation that we want to have to obey you and to serve you, Lord. And we thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Let's have fellowship, guys.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seat. Grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Glad you could be here this morning. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Over on the left-hand side of your bulletin, a few things to take note of are the studies that are going on throughout the week. There's one small change that has happened to those weekly studies, and that is that the study that takes place on Thursday nights that Gary Moore is leading, they have decided to switch to the second and the fourth Sundays of the month.

Or second and fourth Thursdays of the month. Excuse me. Thank you. Sorry about that. Second and fourth Thursdays of the month. So take note of that. And then the other thing I didn't get in there as far as weekly events is that tonight is our monthly intercessory prayer time down at the other end of the hallway for Sunday of the month. So from 6 to 7, we'll be praying down in the agape room.

Over in the middle section of your bulletin, ladies, a couple of things to take note of. First of all, there's a women's breakfast coming up this coming Saturday at 8 a.m. at Daisy Mays. So ladies, take note of that. And then also I've been telling you about the conference that's coming up on December the 3rd from 9 to 3. At Calvary in Wellington, there is a sign-up sheet out in the hallway there by where you get your bulletin.

So if you're interested, again, free of charge. But they want to know about how many to plan for for lunch. So if you're going to go to that, please sign up there. And then for the young adults, the ones that attend the college and career group, Lewis is going to be taking them up to Wichita for another worship night on the 19th. A couple of things. A couple of things that are also not in your bulletin.

Actually, one other thing. I need to invite my wife up to share about a ministry need that we have here at the church. So my lovely wife.

We're coming up here because we need a little help in twos and threes ministry. So if you are someone maybe 13 on up and you might be interested in working with twos and three, three-year-olds, it's a neat ministry. We have a lot of cute little kids. And in there, but we just need a couple of extra hands. The way it works is we rotate every week. We have about a four or five week rotation, depending on how much help we have.

So you just take like one week a month. It's kind of bridging the gap between nursery and Sunday school. We kind of get them ready to go to Sunday school, but it's not super involved. So there's not a lot of planning and things like that. But it is a little bit more organized than the free for all. That is the nursery. So. If you think that that might be something that you would want to do, and you've been here for a little while, come see me.

Okay. And then, hey, look, it's, it's fill a box. Phil, you look like you're in a hurry this morning. Well, hey, while you're, while you're depositing your box, I have a question for you. What does the A stand for in fill a box?

Fill another box. One day you'll meet my brother. Who's your brother? Okay, okay, sounds good. Sounds good. Okay, very good. And then just a reminder, there's a handful of spots available to go down to Dallas in a couple of weeks to work at the distribution center. And then for those that are signed up or if you're interested in signing up to do that, there's going to be a meeting at the other end of the hallway right after service to go over some of the details about hotel rooms and stuff like that.

So those are the things that are going on, I think. Let me double check. Yep, those are the things that are happening. So if you would make sure that you're. If your mobile device is silenced and for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 96, Psalm 96, again, looking at the new American standard. If you need a copy of the new American standard Bible, there should be one in a row around here.

So as you are turning to Psalm 96, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's word, I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 96. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples.

For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols. But the Lord. The Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name.

Bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in holy attire. Tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar in all it contains. Let the field exult in all that is in it.

Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy. And read verse 13 with me. Before the Lord, for he is coming. For he is coming to judge the earth. For he will judge the earth in righteousness. And the peoples in his faithfulness. And Father, we do praise you for who you are. And Lord, thank you for the song that we were able to sing unto you this morning.

And so Father, as we spend time in your word, talking about the subject of judgment, Lord, may you begin to open our hearts and minds to exactly what it is that you want for us to learn. Father, I ask that where our hearts need conviction, that your Holy Spirit would do that work. Lord, where our hearts need comfort, I pray that you would move. And Lord, where we need taught, I pray that your Holy Spirit would be our teacher this morning.

Taking away all the things that are of me and leaving only the things that are of you. Father, we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the gospel of Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. Today we come to the last in our series, part five of the signs of the times. And so as we come to this last section of this series,

I thought it good to perhaps build a little bit of background and remind us where we've come from over the past five weeks with this series. It all started with the disciples asking Jesus a question. It actually started a little bit before that. Jesus and his disciples have been in Jerusalem for the week of the Passover. This is the last few days right before the crucifixion of Jesus.

He's gone in. He's driven out the money changers in the temple. He has rebuked the religious leaders for their religion that lacks heart. Their religion that lacks humility. And now as they had left the temple on one particular day, a couple of days before his crucifixion, on this particular day his disciples were taken aback by the beauty of the temple as they left.

And they said, would you look at that beautiful structure of the temple? And Jesus said to his disciples, don't you see? Not one stone will be left upon another that will not be thrown down. And this of course caused the disciples to do some thinking. And so as they left Jerusalem that evening and were on their way out to the Mount of Olives, it says that Jesus sat down and his disciples began to ask him questions.

They said, Lord, when will these things take place? What will be the sign of your coming? And what will be the sign of the end of the age? And so Jesus begins to give them a panorama, a rundown of history that will take place from the time of his ascension until the time when he comes again. It started off with some of those signs. Some of the signs like wars and rumors of wars.

Some of those signs like persecution. Some of those signs like false messiahs, false prophets, and all of these different things that will arise. Earthquakes, famines, pestilence. And all those things are simply the beginning of labor pains. He says, but there's one particular sign that they'll pay attention to, and that's the sign of the Antichrist. That there will be an Antichrist that arises.

He calls it the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel that will make a covenant with the nation of Israel for seven years. But in the middle of that seven years, he will establish himself as God, will set himself up in the temple to be worshipped by the people. And at that point, there will be a great tribulation in the world, scripture tells us, such as has never been seen before and will never be seen again. So great that if the days were not shortened, no flesh would survive.

But for the sake of the elect, the Jewish people, those days will be shortened. And as Jesus laid that out, he said, then at the end of that tribulation, there will be great signs in the heaven, the sign of the son of man. And then the son of man will descend from heaven and will arrive on earth and will establish his kingdom. It says that the angels will gather the elect from the four corners of the world.

In other words, from all over the world. Now, after he tells us about that second coming, all the signs leading up to it in the second coming, he spends the rest of chapter 24 and where we up to where we are right now in chapter 25, telling parables, urging people, urging his disciples, two things urging his disciples. First of all, to be ready. That's what we talked about last week.

Remember, we talked about readiness, readiness that begins with salvation, readiness that includes an active and living relationship with our Savior and abiding relationship with our Savior and readiness that means having a heart that is constantly filled with the Holy Spirit. But then we also talked about faithfulness because the parables that he told spoke of faithfulness, faithfulness and using the time and talents that God has given to us to occupy until he comes to do the work of the kingdom until he comes to establish the kingdom. And so now as he has laid all of these things out to us, we come now to the judgment of the nations. And as we look at this judgment of the nations in verses 31 through 46,

there's really two things that we're going to see. We're going to see the scene set for us, all of the details that we know of when it's going to take place, and then we'll see the actual judgment itself. And so what I want to do is, I want to take some time to talk about those two things, but then we'll spend the rest of our time bringing some application to our hearts and lives as to what this means for us today. And so we pick up in verse 31 of chapter 25, and this is what it says.

But when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep. From the goats, he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. The king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed of my father and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see you a stranger and invite you in? Or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick and in prison and come to you? The king will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones,

into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they themselves also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty

or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you? And he will answer them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Now as we look here, we see the scene that is set for us. The scene that is set for us,

first of all, comes with a time stamp. When will this take place? Well, it tells us right there in verse 31, it says, but when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne, so when does he come in glory? Well, we've already been told in chapter 24 of Matthew that Jesus will return in glory at the end of that tribulation period.

So we have that time stamp. I believe that it will take, that this particular judgment will take place at the end of the great tribulation when he comes again. Now, I think it important to take just a moment to define the judgments that are mentioned in the Bible because there's three different judgments that are mentioned in the Bible. If you don't keep your judgment straight, then you're gonna be in real big trouble as you look at these things, right?

Three judgments are mentioned in the Bible. The first judgment that's mentioned in the Bible is referred to as the Bema Seat Judgment. The Bema Seat Judgment is what Paul talks about in the book of Corinthians where he says, we will receive rewards for the deeds that are done in the body. The Bema Seat Judgment is where you and I, as believers in Jesus Christ, those whose faith are in Jesus, and who have been walking according to the things of the Spirit, that's where we will be.

We'll be at that Bema Seat Judgment. It's not to determine who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. It's to determine rewards based upon the giftings and talents and how you've used them in this life. That's what Paul tells us. The second judgment that's mentioned is the Great White Throne Judgment. The Great White Throne Judgment is mentioned at the end of the book of Revelation.

You see, after the tribulation, according to the book of Revelation, there will be a thousand-year period that most refer to as the Millennial Kingdom. It will be on this earth, but Jesus will rule and reign. We as believers will be there with him, ruling and reigning with him. And at the end of that thousand years, because Satan will be bound for that entire thousand years, at the end of that thousand years, according to Revelation, Satan will be loosed and will be allowed to seek to gather an army and come against the Anointed One.

At that point in time, the Messiah will defeat him, and he will be cast into the eternal lake of fire. At the Great White Throne Judgment, the basis will be whether or not your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life are the ones who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. The ones written in the book will go on to eternity with Christ.

The ones not written in the book will go on to the second death, eternal hell. Then there's this third judgment, which is what we're looking at here today, the judgment of the nations. This, again, I believe, takes place, according to what it says here, at the end of the tribulation period. It will deal with those who have survived the tribulation period. Some will be believers who became Christians

during that tribulation period, and some will be those who continue to reject, no matter what they saw around them, continue to reject Jesus Christ during that tribulation period. Now, as I told you when we started this whole thing out, we're going to be talking about not everybody agrees on the interpretation of Matthew chapter 25. As a matter of fact, there's a really good chance that a handful of you in the crowd this morning are going, I don't agree with you. That's okay, you're entitled to be wrong.

I'm just kidding. We can agree to disagree, right? Listen, we may not agree on some of these things, so here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do the best I can to present what this says according to the way that I've studied it and according to my best understanding of Scripture. But then, as I promised you, when we get to the end, I will keep the main thing the main thing,

and I will tell us how I feel like the things that we learned this morning affect our relationship with Jesus Christ. Okay, deal? All right, so we know the time stamp, according to what this says, will be at the end of the tribulation when Jesus comes. We also see that there's a location that's mentioned. It says in verse 31, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Again, if you're a studier of Scripture, and you should be, you should ask yourself a question right now. Where's this glorious throne? That's a great question. I'm glad you asked. If you were to look at Joel chapter three, you don't need to right now, but you might just write at the margin of your Bible. If you were to look at Joel chapter three, you would see that in Joel chapter three,

it says that God will, that the Messiah will establish a throne in the valley of Jehoshaphat. We would also know it as the Kidron Valley. And according to Joel chapter three, when he establishes this throne in the valley of Jehoshaphat, he will then judge this. He will judge the nations, which is why we pretty well know that's where this throne is going to be established.

But we not only have the time, we not only have the place, but we have the actual event. And it tells us that there will be a separation. Notice what it says. Verse 32, all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. You see, at this time of judgment, there will be a great separation that takes place.

Just like happens all the time. You see, Jesus, one of the things that he does is he causes separation in the lives of people because he forces us to make a decision. Those who will follow him and those who will decide not to follow him. And this time of judgment is no different. As a matter of fact, he gives them an illustration that they'll understand distinctly.

He says, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. An interesting thing takes place. According to what I've read about shepherds and the flocks that they would have, when they would go throughout their day, they would have both sheep and goats in their flocks. And as they were grazing, they would all graze together. But when they came in at night, they both kind of needed two different climates, right?

The sheep needed to be a little bit more separated out because their wool kept them warm at night. The goats, however, tended to like to huddle together for warmth because they don't have as much wool. And so at the end of the night, or at the end of the day, before he would put the sheep and goats away from the night, he would separate them. You can imagine how it went.

Okay, sheep, sheep, goat, goat, goat, goat, sheep. And he would separate them this way. One would be on the right hand, one would be on the left hand. And at this point in time, his disciples would have gone, ah, we know exactly what you're talking about. Because remember, where is he right now? On the Mount of Olives. What are there potentially around right now?

Probably flocks and herds, right? And so as he says this, they know exactly what he's talking about. So this scene is set for us. But now comes the judgment. Now there's two different groups. One's on the right and one's on the left. He separated them like a shepherd separates sheep from goats. And notice what he says. The first ones he deals with are the ones on the right.

And he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. And then verse 34, the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. Before the foundation of the world. I'd like you to take note of how he refers to them. He refers to them as those who are blessed by his father. Referring to the fact that these sheep are the righteous ones.

But the thing I really want you to take note of is where he tells them to be separated unto. The kingdom that has been prepared before the foundation of the world. There's something about lines like that in scripture that are a great comfort to me. Because it tells me that everything that God has prepared is not his plan B. Everything that God has prepared,

he's not just making up as he goes along. He knew everything that was gonna happen. He knew exactly how it was gonna happen. And he has a plan for everything that's gonna take place. Because the kingdom that he's going to usher these sheep into is a kingdom that has been prepared before the foundations of the world. Now, I think that this speaks to us. If you'll bear with me for just a moment.

I think that this speaks to us about two different things that take place. Number one, I'm reminded that all of the things that are going on in the world right now are not catching God off guard. God is not just trying to figure this thing out as he goes along, right? Have you ever laid out a plan and nothing on earth is going according to your plan and you're like, okay, we'll just figure it out as we go along.

And everybody else in the world knows you're just figuring out as you go along. And it's kind of a stressful day. Have you ever been through that? I call it Monday, right? And so you got this whole plan laid out. Nothing's going right. Just figuring it out as you go along. Well, sometimes as we're looking at history right now, we're kind of going, is God just kind of figuring this thing out

as it goes along? He's not. Nothing that's happening right now is catching God off guard. None of it's taking him by surprise. Even though every now and then we're like, whoops, didn't see that one coming. Didn't think that was what was gonna take place next. On the big scheme of things, God knew. Matter of fact, he's orchestrating it. But that's not the point.

That's not only true on a national and global scale. It's true in your individual life as well. Some of you may feel like things are catching you off guard. I did not see this coming. I did not plan for this in my life. I wasn't expecting this in my life. But you know what? God was. God knew that that was coming. God knew that that was gonna happen. And it didn't catch him off guard.

It didn't catch him by surprise. As a matter of fact, he already has a plan for how he's gonna deal with it. He already knows what he wants to do in your life in the process of whatever thing just caught you off guard. And so if you're in that place of just going, I wasn't planning for this. I didn't think that this was what was gonna happen. This was not according to plan A.

Just know that God knew. And he already knows how it's gonna work out. And he already knows what he wants to do in you. Because listen, what does Ephesians tell us? It tells us that you are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which are prepared, listen, beforehand that you should walk in them. None of these things are catching God off guard.

The kingdom has been prepared before the foundations of the world. But then notice the criteria by which he says entrance into this kingdom is for. Notice what he says, verse 35. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me.

I was in prison, and you came to me. This is an interesting statement. This is an interesting statement that Jesus makes here, right? And if you're not careful, we can misinterpret this. Because he just said your entrance into this kingdom is based upon the good works that you've done for him. And if we're not careful, we can go, oh great, does that mean salvation is by works?

No, because that would violate everything else scripture says, right? Matter of fact, it would violate Jesus' own words. What did Jesus say? John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes, whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Therefore, we know he's not talking about a salvation by works.

So what is he talking about? I think what he's talking about when he says this is a fruit that is produced in the life of a believer. You see, here's what we need to understand. During the tribulation period, though the Holy Spirit will be working differently than he is in the church right now, he will not be indwelling the individual believers. He will come upon some

of those believers who are not willing to do a work. And there will actually be a great revival that takes place during that tribulation period. And those that come to faith in Jesus Christ during that tribulation period will begin to live out their faith in Jesus Christ by doing good to others, by showing love and compassion to the last and to the least, by showing compassion to the nation of Israel. It will be an outworking of their faith, because after all, what does James tell us?

Faith without works is dead. You show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works. And so the righteous are going to ask. He said, you're going to have done all of these things for me, therefore you get to go in the kingdom. But the righteous are going to say, when did we ever see you like that? When did we, verse 37, see you hungry and feed you,

or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? The king will answer and say, truly I say unto you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. Now we learn something interesting here.

And what we learn here that I think is a principle that carries throughout the rest of scripture is that the things that we do for others are not just what we do for others. The things that we do for others are actually ultimately certain. They are actually ultimately serving the Lord. Remember we've talked about this quite a few times. If you serve people,

people will wear you out. If you serve others, other people will wear you out because they will take advantage of you. They will complain about the way that you serve them. You will not do it correctly. None of those kinds of things. However, if you serve God, and by serving God you serve other people, well God's never going to let you down. He's always going to reward you properly.

And everybody else can say whatever they want to and remember what we say to people that say, I don't like the way you're serving. You say, talk to my boss because that's who I'm working for. Right? And so he says, as much as you do it to the least of these, you've done it unto me. Ah, but now come the accursed, the ones on the left. As I mentioned at first service,

that's not a pun, that's just a happy accident. All the accursed people are on the left. Verse 41. Then he will also say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. Oh, that's a terrible thing to hear, isn't it? You know what's the most terrifying thought in the world? The most terrifying thought in the world to me

is standing before my savior, standing before the one who created me and have him say, depart from me, accursed one. You see, that has a certain aspect of purification in our hearts, doesn't it? Because it should cause all of us to say, Lord, am I on your right or am I on your left? But I want to point out something secondary to you about this verse. Notice what it says.

He will say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, take note of this next part, which he has prepared for the devil and his angels. We need to understand something. We need to understand that hell is a very real place. I, um, shared with first service. When I was in Bible college, there was a group of students who found that they were smarter than everybody else

and they got drawn into a false theology and the false theology was this. False theology was that hell was not eternal. That, that hell doesn't last forever because what kind of a God will send you to a hell that doesn't last forever? So they end up having to have a meeting with the head of the college and he said, listen, you just need to understand and showed him all the places in scripture where it talks about the fact that hell is eternal.

And, um, I said, I think the best thing that we can do is just part ways. We have a disagreement and ultimately it's just going to lead to factions within the college. And I think the best thing we can do, we're not going to kick you out, but we do think that the best thing for you to do is, is to withdraw. And the students agreed. We're on a different page.

We feel like the best thing that we can do is withdraw from here. And so they left. And I don't know what ended up happening to them, but I remember thinking, how can you read scripture and come up with that? How can you, how can you read scripture and come up with that idea? But you know, what's continuing to happen in the world today and the world today, there is less of a,

and less of an understanding, not only that hell is eternal, but there's less of an understanding that there actually is a hell in their scholars that have written books about the fact that God just keeps loving you until you never actually go to hell. That seems to go against what he just said here, that hell is a real place, but we need to understand something. Hell was not created for us. Hell was created for the devil and his angels.

You see, judgment is God's strange work. It's the last thing that he wants to do, but he will do it. The reason why he'll do is because he's a righteous God. And if you do not choose to align yourself with Jesus Christ by putting your faith in him and walking with him, then you automatically are choosing to align yourself with the devil and his angels. And you will be where the one that you're following is going.

He'll allow you to go to the place where you've chosen and notice the criteria for it. He says, For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in. Naked, and you did not clothe me. Sick and imprisoned, and you did not visit me. And they themselves also will answer,

Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or imprisoned and didn't take care of you? He will answer, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. Same criteria is used for judgment here. Because you see their fruit proved that there was no real faith in their hearts.

You see their fruit proved two things. Number one, that they didn't have love in their heart. But even more dangerous, that they were indifferent. That they were indifferent to the things of God. And they were indifferent to the needs of the people that were around them. And so he tells about this judgment that will take place. Where there will be a separation.

Those on the right will go into eternal righteousness. Those on the left will go into eternal judgment. As a matter of fact, it goes on to give the extent of the judgment in verse 46. These will go away. The ones on the left into eternal punishment. But the righteous into eternal life. Each of those should do something in your heart. Knowing that there are those who will go into eternal punishment should do two things inside of you.

Number one, that it should create a purity inside of you. Knowing that those who have not put their faith in Jesus have a destination. And that destination is eternal punishment. It should cause you to go, do I really belong to Jesus? Because listen, this is something you don't want to get wrong. This is something you don't want to be wrong about. But the second thing that it should do for you is it should create in you a desire to tell other people the truth.

A desire to share the goodness of who God is with everyone else around you. Because you need to have the understanding that if they don't know Jesus, that is their destination. But lest I leave you feeling hopeless, remember those who are the righteous will go into eternal life. And listen, brothers and sisters, that's our hope, right? Again, it should do those exact same things to us.

Number one, it should cause a great hope to stir up in our hearts. Knowing that this place is not our home. We have eternal righteousness ahead of us, an eternal home that's ahead of us, which it should also make us want to make sure that everybody around us knows. Hey, this is the truth. I want you to know the truth so that you can walk in the truth so that you can be with me.

So he lays out all of this aspect of this judgment that will take place at the end of the tribulation. Now, as I said before, not everybody agrees on this, right? Matter of fact, if I read 10 different commentaries, there were 10 different opinions on a lot of the details of this. There were 10 different opinions on who the people are. There were 10 different opinions on when it will take place.

All those kinds of things. And as I shared with you, my goal is not to get you just to believe like I am. My goal is always to keep the main thing, the main thing. And so what I want to do is I want to spend the last about 20 or so minutes just sharing with you some personal application that I think is really important to help us keep the main thing, the main thing.

Five points that I think that we should draw. I think that we should draw out of this section that hopefully will do work in our hearts to help us keep Jesus is the focus. Ready? Number one, judgment is sure. Judgment is sure. You know, the old saying, right? There's two things in life that you can count on death taxes, right? Well, I would tell you there's three things in life you can count on death,

taxes, judgment. Everybody's going to stand before God. We live in a world that doesn't want to believe that right now. As a matter of fact, what's everybody's favorite line? You can't judge me. Or to quote that great theologian, Miley Cyrus, only God can judge, right? Some of the most theologically sound things she's ever said. Only God can judge. And it's true.

God can judge and he will. Because all of us are going to stand before God. You see, when I stand before God, I don't want to be standing saying only God can judge. I want to be like mercy, right? Because he's going to. And we can be sure of that. But you see, we live in a culture right now that doesn't believe in judgment because we live in a culture right now that doesn't believe in laws.

We were at the men's conference yesterday and a group of us pastors were sitting around talking, having sometimes edifying conversations. Sometimes it was just dumb. But anyway, we had fun. And for the most part, we had to fight each other. And one of the things that we talked about was that no one gets punished anymore. Have you noticed that? It, it just doesn't seem that those who commit crimes actually ever pay for their

crimes. Actually, it kind of feels like right now that crime pays, right? And the reason why it feels that way is because we are living currently in a somewhat lawless society. And so when you go to a lawless society and you tell them you will have to stand before God in judgment, they say, no, I won't. What's he going to do? Which is why we have to make sure that people understand you will,

you will have to stand before God. You will have to give an answer. You will have to give an account for the things that you've done, and you will have to give an account for what you believe. You can decide that you don't believe in God all you want to. Doesn't make him not real. You can decide that you don't believe that judgment exists all you want to. It doesn't mean it won't happen.

Judgment is sure. Number two, our faith is revealed by our fruit. Our faith is revealed by our fruit. We talked about this just a second ago. The criteria was what have you done to the least of these? What have you done for the least of these? The easiest thing in the world to claim is to be a Christian, right? Because you can't prove it. There's, there's no like litmus test for being a Christian.

You can't, you know, you can't give somebody a little swab in their nose and be like, Nope, tested positive for faith or is there, but maybe there is a litmus test for being a Christian. Maybe the litmus test for being a Christian is what does your life say? Maybe that's actually the litmus test for being a Christian. And quite frankly, that's kind of what scripture tells us, right?

Is that I can tell you what kind of person you are. I can tell you what your faith is like just by watching you act for a little while, just by hearing the words that come out of your mouth, hearing the things that you talk about, hear the things that are the most important to you. As a human being, I enjoy watching people. It's one of my weaknesses as a human being.

I love watching people. It's one of my weaknesses in life because I end up with a creep stare. Sometimes you can just ask my wife every now and then I'll go because I find people fascinating and she hits me on there. You're doing it again. You have the creep stare going on. I'm like, sorry, do you see what's happening here? Do they expect anything different at this point in time?

Right? Like Arkalala is just amazing, right? Arkalala and the fair, like that's just a mechanical bull ride for crazy people, right? And so they come out and they wear their crazy like a badge. And I'm just like, I don't care if there's a parade. That guy's here, right? And so, so anyway, I've had this issue for a really long time. When I worked in Kansas City,

working groundskeeping, I was the only guy under the age of 50 on my crew. And so I tend to just hang out by myself quite a bit. I'd go to lunch by myself and I'd sit at the Einstein brothers bagels, right? Man, I love the Einstein brothers sidebar. Anyway, so I'd sit there and there's like a bar right by the window. And here's what I started doing. I started watching people.

And as I would see how they would dress and see how they would act, and all those kinds of things, I would try, I created a game for myself. I would try to figure out which car was theirs. And so I'd watch them. 75% of the time, I got it to where I could nail someone's car. I'd just watch him, listen to like, you're a Jeep guy, right? Like, you're a Mercedes guy.

You know, I could start nailing that about people. Why? Because their lives reveal who they are. The way that you act has a tendency to reveal your character. One of the things that would irritate me more than anything in the world when I was working construction is when a guy would talk like a sailor. Just every other words, the F word coming out of his mouth.

He'd tell the dirtiest jokes. And he'd find out I'm a Christian. He's like, yeah, me too. Isn't God good? I'm like, no, you're not. I mean, I hate to get harsh here, but at some point in time, the words of your mouth reflect the attitude of your heart. You're like, Ryan, that's judgmental. Jesus said it, not me. He said out of the overflow of the heart, what?

The mouth speaks. You see, the things that we wear on the outside reflect the faith. That we have on the inside. And so I have a question for you. What is your life screaming at the people around you? You see what you do when you come in here on Sunday, that's not really your life. It's a small part of it, but your life is really what you're going to do. The moment you walk out this door and go out,

go throughout the rest of your week. And as you go throughout the rest of your week, it doesn't matter how loudly you sang on Sunday. It doesn't matter how many notes you took in your Bible. It doesn't matter how much you read. It doesn't matter how much Christian is. You could speak around the people of God. It doesn't matter if you could locate all of the places in scripture and come

up with a really good idea of why you disagree with me on that chapter. What matters is, is the faith that you proclaim on Sunday morning, affecting your life that you live on Monday afternoon, because you see your faith is revealed by your fruit. What kind of fruit is your life producing? As far as morality is concerned, are you living a moral life? What kind of fruit is your life producing?

As far as the words that come out of your mouth, is it all love and kindness? What kind of fruit is being produced in the way that you serve other people? Do you love the least of these? And do you show that by the way that you care for people? Because your fruit reveals your faith. Number three, we are called to care for the last and the least. You know what's kind of fascinating is that

almost all the things that we've been talking about in the book of Matthew are sort of coming together in these two chapters. Have you noticed that? So many of the teachings of Jesus are being reflected in what he's telling his disciples, because he tells them you're to love the last and the least. Do you remember when the disciples came to Jesus and they said, Lord, who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Do you remember how he responded to them? Pulled aside a little child. He said, I tell you that if you are not converted and become like one of these, become like a little child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Then he goes on to say whoever receives one of these has received me. Why? Because in the culture of that day, kids were the last and the least.

Kids were the ones that couldn't improve your social standing. They couldn't improve your bank account. They still can't. They can't improve any of those kinds of things. Kids were the ones that were to be seen and not heard. And yet Jesus says, but I tell you, if you don't accept one of these, it's the same as if you haven't accepted me. Because he calls us to love the last and the least.

And I have a question for you. Are you willing to serve someone who will make your reputation a little questionable? Are you willing to love someone that the rest of the world may look down on? Because listen, it's easy to love the people that will do something for us, right? It's easy to serve someone who will give us something in return, whether what they give us in return is monetary,

whether what they give us in return is material, or whether what they give us in return is that social standing. It's easy to serve the people that will do something for us. It's a whole other thing when I serve someone who makes me look bad. Because hanging out with them might cause people to ask some questions. I was listening to David Hawking teach on this last night,

and he brought up a really interesting point. Around the turn of the last century, around the early 1900s, there was a theology that began to spring up. It was called the social gospel. The social gospel turned Jesus from being a savior into a social reformer. And so there was less emphasis on the cross and the blood and all of those kinds of things, true salvation,

and more of an emphasis on the gospel is becoming a social reformer. And the whole idea is that we get away from the blood of the cross and we get more into the works of the gospel. Now, Christians responded to that by beginning to hold up the truth of the gospel even higher. Those that were fundamental Christians started really promoting the true gospel over the social gospel.

Only something unfortunate began to take place. The unfortunate thing, this is what Hawking pointed out, the unfortunate thing that began to take place is that while we corrected the theology, we threw out all of the service. And too many of us as fundamental Christians in the Western culture today are really good on our theology, but we're really bad on our service. Because all of the things that the social gospel talks about as far as taking care of the poor, taking care of the needy, and loving the last and the least, are true.

They just left out the gospel of Jesus Christ. They just left out the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now we're unfortunately sometimes doing the same thing. We're big on the gospel, but we're leaving out the service. When was the last time you served one of the last and the least? Because Jesus says, as you do it unto them, the least of these my brethren, you've done it unto me.

Number four, we are called to love the Jewish people. We are called to love the Jewish people. This feels like an odd point to be made, but I think it's an important point to be made. Let me explain to you why I think that this is an important point to be made. First of all, the Jewish people are God's chosen people. As a matter of fact, we would probably all claim that we serve Jesus Christ

and we love Jesus Christ. Am I right? I feel like most everybody here is going to say, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ. But what we sometimes forget is that Jesus Christ was not just the Messiah. He's a Jewish Messiah. As a matter of fact, basically what you're saying is your best friend is a Jewish carpenter. Therefore, you should love the Jewish people. Paul loved the Jewish people

while he was one himself. He absolutely loved the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, he loved them so much that he said, I wish that my people, the nation of Israel, would be saved. I wish myself to be accursed for the salvation of my people. That tells us that it must be a pretty important thing. And if you don't believe that, then let's go back to Genesis chapter 12.

Okay? So off in the margin of your Bible, you might write Genesis 12. Because this is a really important thing to pay attention to. And Genesis chapter 12 was the call of Abram. Right? You might know him as Abraham, but it was the call of Abraham. And God said, I will bless you and make you a great nation. And I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you.

Now that tells us that there's a promise in the way that we treat the nation of Israel. There's a promise in the way that we treat the Jewish people. Which, B-T-dubs, is where the nation is going to get them. Our nation, the United States of America, is going to get themselves in really big trouble if we ever stop supporting the nation of Israel. Right now, I think the only reason

we're still together as a nation is because we have continued to support the nation of Israel. But the moment that that stops, I promise you, the nation will fall apart. Because the only place of blessing we have left right now is that we still support the Jewish people. And that's what God calls for us to do, to love the Jewish people. You're like, well, I don't even know if I know any Jewish people.

You can pray for the peace of Jerusalem. You can begin praying for the Jewish people. We have a missionary group that we support here. They're called Chosen People Ministries. I've shared about them before. And they have this philosophy. If you reach Gentiles with the gospel, you will reach Gentiles with the gospel. But if you reach Jewish people with the gospel,

you will reach Jewish people with the gospel and Gentiles with the gospel. Why? Because God loves His chosen people. And we're called to love them as well. Let me share with you a little story from David Hawking again. He shared a story about teaching about this at a church in New York. He said he spent some time there teaching about the importance of loving the Jewish people.

And he said there was a young man there about 12 years old. The young man, all he could think was, I don't know any Jewish people. Wait, yes, I do. There's a neighbor down the street that's a Jewish guy. What can I do for him? Well, all I know to do is mow his yard. So he chucked his little lawnmower down to this guy's house and starts mowing his yard. And the guy comes out and he goes,

what are you doing? He says, well, I'm mowing your yard. Why? Because the pastor said we're supposed to love Jewish people and you're the only one I know. So I'm going to mow your yard today. So the next Sunday, this guy comes up and he goes, why are you telling kids to mow my yard? I said, what are you talking about? He said, well, this kid shows up and he mows my yard.

And he says, it's because you told him to love Jewish people. And he says, yeah, it's because God loves Jewish people. And I started showing him in scripture, the Messiah, the real Messiah. I said, you know what? That guy got saved because somebody loved him. You may not know anybody that's Jewish by cultural background, but you can be praying for the people of Jerusalem.

You can be praying for the nation of Israel because brothers and sisters, we have no idea what it's like to be in that nation where every day you wake up and think, I wonder if somebody's going to hurl missiles at us today. Number five, the results of judgment are eternal. The results of judgment are eternal. And this is the one that we're going to close with because I think it's the one that will hopefully resonate within our hearts.

Are you ready to stand before your savior? Are you ready to stand before Jesus? If you stood before him today, when you look at your life and say the fruit of your life and the faith of your life reveal that you belong to me. Now we need to understand something. When we stand before Jesus, it ultimately is going to come down to, are you covered in the blood

of Jesus Christ or not? But our lives reflect the faith that we have. Are you ready? I'm well aware of the fact that every time I speak to a group of people, somebody's still not saved. Somebody still hasn't come to that knowledge of Jesus Christ. And today's your day of salvation. Today's the day for you to do that. Because listen, we're playing for big stakes here.

We're playing for big, big outcomes here. And they're eternal. Amen. Well, as we're gathered here this morning, as you can see, we have the trades up here. It's the first Sunday of the month. And so it's communion Sunday. So I'd like to spend just a few moments talking to us about communion. Actually, I'm hoping that the ushers are gathering the young people.

Hold on, they have a message for me. We're working on it. Okay, go ahead and keep the doors closed, and I'll talk to these guys while you get them together. So as we gather here this morning, it's for communion Sunday. And in just a moment, they'll bring the kids in. But before the kids come in, I just want to share with us the importance of what we do on communion Sunday.

Inside of these little trays are two cups. They're stacked together. And in the bottom cup is the cracker, and in the top cup is the juice. In and of themselves, those are the most basic things that you can have. And in and of themselves, there's nothing magical. In and of themselves, there's nothing mystical. What's important is what those things represent.

Because what those things represent is the very basis of our faith, the very basis of who we are as believers in Jesus Christ. Because that little cracker represents the body, the body of Jesus Christ that was broken for us. It was broken for us when he took those 39 stripes. It was broken for us when he took all of the bludgeoning to the face. It was broken for us

when they put the crown of thorns on his head. It was broken for us when they put the nails in his feet. And it was broken for us when they put the nails in his hands. Pause right there. Come on in, kiddos. Perhaps the back room. Come on in. Locate moms and dads. Jeff, I think his folks may be in the back. Eli, they just keep coming. Right behind you, Eli.