Judgment of the Sheep and Goats

And it doesn’t matter how you look at it. There’s basically two ways to look at this and I’ll mention those briefly, but it doesn’t matter which one you pick. It doesn’t scratch all the itches. And so I could just skip it and go to 26, but we’re not doing that. We’re just going to stay in 25 and you know, if we mess it up, we mess it up.

But it’s difficult because, and it’s not something I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anybody preach from this passage myself. You might have, but I don’t know that I ever have because maybe because it’s it is a difficult passage. And so let’s read it starting verse number 31 and go down to verse number 46. Now I said all that to kind of preface it because it is a difficult passage.

So the take that I’m that I have on this passage is probably going to be if you’ve ever heard anybody teach or preach on this, it’s probably going to be a little bit different than what you’ve heard. But I’ll explain the reasons as I go because I want to get into some practical things with it as well. So starting verse number 31, the Bible says this, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats.

And you think about that, that’s it’s called the parable of the sheep and goats, but that is literally the only mention of sheep and goats in the passage. Verse 33 or verse 33 continues it and he shall set the sheep on his right hand by the goats on the left. And then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was unhungered and you gave me meat, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee unhungered and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was unhungered and you gave me no meat, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you took me not in, naked and you clothed me not, sick and in prison and you visited me not. Then shall they also answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee unhungered or a thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them saying, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Would you pray with me this morning? Our Lord, once again we come to you now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and we ask you to meet with us as we study your Word.

We’ve had time to fellowship and Lord we hope that we have more opportunity to fellowship today as we go throughout the day. We’ve heard songs sung, we have sung songs together to remind us of the truths of Scripture. Now as we look at your Word, Lord, let our hearts be open to receive what it says with meekness and with humility. Lord, guide us as we study your Word.

Help me, Lord, to say the things, the very things you want me to say and that your people would hear them in the way that you want them to be heard. Lord, we just commit this whole time to you knowing that you have said, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. So we pray for your power and your might and your spirit to be among us because we ask in Jesus name, amen.

Thank you, Thomas. Now let me just go ahead and state to you because we’re kind of doing a little bit of teaching, a little bit of preaching at the same time, okay? The parable of the sheep and goats or this passage from 31 to 46 is sometimes called the judgment of the nations and obviously because the Lord mentions verse 32, and before him shall be gathered all nations.

Now the time period we’ve seen, just to kind of give you a little bit of background, the coming of Christ, the second advent of Christ we find in chapter 24 and then from the second part of chapter 24 or the latter part of chapter 24, it gets into these various events kind of related and I say related, I just mean they’re kind of associated with, loosely associated with the coming of Christ.

For instance, the judgments all happen at that time. As far as we know, there are no judgments that God has performed up to this point because obviously Christ hasn’t come. So the judgments that we read in chapter 24, chapter 25 that are mentioned in parable form, those are yet to happen. And we also have saw the wise and foolish virgins and that’s primarily related to the coming, the immediate coming of Christ and who’s left out and who’s kept in and those kinds of things.

I’ll not rehash that. And so when we get to this point, this is a picture of a judgment. Now the typical way that this is understood, and I’ll just state it and I’ll give you the reasons why I think that there are some issues with it, which is why I’m going in the direction that I’m going and think that it’s referring to something else. But it’s typically portrayed like this, the judgment of the nations.

Christ returns in his second advent to set up his kingdom and just prior or just right around the time he sets up his kingdom, he holds a judgment in which the nations of the world are judged and they are judged as to whether they will be allowed to proceed into his kingdom as a part of his millennial kingdom, which is a real thing, a real thing, or whether they will be barred from his kingdom.

Okay, everybody with me? Judgment of the nations. And then that then is the criteria rather that is used as we see in this passage to determine whether those nations are allowed to go into the kingdom or excluded from his kingdom will be the treatment that those nations gave to the people mentioned in the passage, which I’ll mention that in a minute. And so the nations in this passage are understood to refer to like France or Britain or Uganda.

You know, that’s how, in other words, when you read it like that, that’s how you have to understand that word nation. So the idea is America here, and I’ve heard you’ve probably heard it judged or preached like this. America will be judged based upon how it has treated these brethren of Christ in this passage. That’s how it’s often described. And so then we get to one other thing, which is who the brethren are, because if you’ll look down at verse number 40, and the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

And so here’s the statement. The statement is the brethren of Jesus are the Jewish people. And so the treatment of America or France or Uganda or Cambodia or whatever, whatever those nations, although just as a note, the word nation in scripture does not necessarily refer to the political boundaries of a country. The closest word that we use is race, an ethnic group, right? Which sometimes that aligns with the way the political boundaries are cut.

So the idea is if a nation, if a country, we would say if a country treats the Jewish people well, they will be allowed into the kingdom, and if not, they’re not. So that’s the typical understanding of it. And I want to show you why that’s, that I’m going in a different direction. And listen, if you have a different view, this is one of the most difficult parts of Matthew in my opinion.

And so I’m okay with that. So I’m not going to fight you over it. But the probably the biggest issue with that, there’s two primary issues. But the first is that the people who are excluded from the kingdom are actually thrown into the lake of fire. And so if you’re, say you’re a part of France, if that’s accurate, you’re part of France, and because France mistreated the Jewish people, everybody in France is thrown into the lake of fire doesn’t really mesh with the rest of scripture.

Okay, that’s one thing. The second thing is the way to understand the nations. Without question, without question, we’re dealing with eternal matters. We’re not just dealing with who’s going to be in the millennial kingdom of Christ and who is not. How do we know that? Well, verse 46, look at what it says, if you would. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.

So we’re looking at lake of fire, eternal death, or eternal life, not just the millennial kingdom of Christ, which is not the same as eternal life. But we’re dealing with big time eternal issues. Can everybody see that from verse 46? That’s clear enough. And so we go to the word, we have eternal matters in view here. And we know that people, what determines, we know from other parts of scripture that what determines if a person goes to heaven or hell is not what nation they belong to.

In fact, the church of God is made up of people of every kindred and people and tribe and nation, right? There’s going to be people from South Korea and North Korea. There’s going to be people from Cambodia and there’s going to be people from China and there’s going to be people from every nation and group of people on the earth. And that’s not determined by what country they’re a part of, although a lot of Americans would probably like it if they could get to heaven because they held an American passport, but that’s not the way it works.

That’s not the way it works. Now the other thing I’ll mention before I get into the core of it is you notice, you’re seeing this thing repeat over and over, these two groups. You see it in the wise and foolish virgins, right? You see the two groups there. You see it in the parable of the talents because we know that there was a couple of men that were faithful and then there was another man who wasn’t.

And of course he was punished and we saw that last Sunday. But the foolish virgins, five were lost and five were saved. And then you have the talents, the faithful, they were saved, if you will. And I’m not going to rehash all that because we were all here. And then you have the one who was punished, right? And we saw that as well. But here you have the kind of dual thing as well.

You have some are lost and some are saved. Some are goats, some are sheep. And so you see this kind of repeating pattern in all three of this section and it’s actually throughout scripture. And it reminds us of an important point before we get too much into it, which is this, that one day, and this is a judgment now, at one day the Lord is going to separate this mixed group of people.

Right? Now again, you saw it with the, you remember the ten virgins last Sunday morning and how each one had their little lamps, their candles, right? And so all of them looked like they were prepared, but all of them were not. Right? You remember that? And it wasn’t revealed until Christ came. Well, here you have the same kind of idea is you have sheep and goats and they’re all in one big flock.

And I did a little bit of research on that. Why would you mix the sheep and goats? And there’s all kind of like agricultural reasons you do that. Sheep have some strengths and goats have others. So they mix them. But when it comes down at night, they have to separate them because sheep can sleep outside because they have wool and goats have hair. And so goats have to be inside where it’s warmer or at least in a sheltered place.

And so they separate them at night. One day the Lord is absolutely going to separate the sheep from the goats. And I mean that in the broadest sense. In other words, although in this world you look at people and everybody’s got a religion, everybody’s got a church, they go to whatever, even in our congregation, right? We just see a bunch of people in church. And that’s the way you have one big flock.

But the truth is, is that in a mixed multitude like the scripture describes, there are some who are lost and there are some who are saved. That’s why, listen, I don’t go to this particular subject or theme on purpose. It comes up out of Matthew over and over and over again. This mixed multitude when the Lord will separate the lost from the saved, those who are truly born again and those who just look the part.

The Lord is going to separate. And that’s just a fact. That’s a fact of scripture. And this separation is that. Now all along the Lord knew which people were the sheep and which were the goats, even though it wasn’t apparent maybe at the time. But it was never a mystery to God. And so you see this repeated thing. The Lord is going to separate. 2 Timothy 2.19 says this, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal.

The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Now in that verse, 2 Timothy 2.19, it’s in the context with teaching about false teachers. What do you do about that? I mean, false teachers are as abundant as true teachers. How can we tell the difference? Now we can examine their teaching, and we should. We should be a little cynical of teaching and examine it and test it, prove it by the scripture.

Right? Right? We should. But when you have, you know, that’s all by degrees, right? There’s some that are more than others. And how do you make sense of who’s who and who’s saved and who’s lost? And that’s always a question we ask. It’s not, well, is he saved? Is he so saved? You know, and you look at, you know, Rick Warren, or you look at this guy and that guy, you know, is he saved?

And there’s no way to know. There’s no way to know. The Lord knows. That’s what this verse is telling us. There are people among the church, if you will, that present themselves as true servants of God that aren’t. And the fact of this separating the sheep from the goats reminds us that he is going to make a distinction. One day that distinction is going to be made.

Nobody is going to get in because they are in some way associated with someone who has true faith in Christ. It’s just not how it works. But it also reminds us that among the people of God, going all the way back to the beginning, there’s always been this characteristic of the faults among the true. You saw it when they came out of Egypt, faults among the true.

You’ve seen it throughout scripture. We’ve seen it in the parables. The parable of the sower has faults among the true. It’s just, it’s everywhere. Remember the parable of the nets when they caught all those things and they threw out the bad and kept the good. That’s the idea, faults among the true, faults among the true. This again, I know I said this last week, but again, I’m not trying to find this.

Find yourself. Make sure that you have eternal life and that you are truly a believer in Christ. That you are born again and you have the proof of it as you have the spirit of God in you without question, without doubt. Because this is a real thing. Now, if you’ll look at verse number 31, the Bible says this, when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations.

All nations. Now, this is the part where the word nations is understood to be, to be like, you know, like I said, like France or Belgium or, you know, whatever. But nations in scripture, you’re actually very familiar with the word nations. I’m going to read you some verses and I just want you to listen to them. Of course, you can write them down if you like. But I want to show you how the scripture uses this phrase, all nations.

Matthew 24, 9 says this, then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. Matthew 24, 14, this is in the chapter previous to this. Actually the same basic discourse. And the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come.

Matthew 28, 19, you’re very familiar with this. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost. Now, now take that as an example. All nations. Now, we often think, well, that’s, you know, France, that’s Belgium. But is that only like you, you go, you land at the airport, you meet a Frenchman at the Charles de Gaulle airport in France, you pass out a gospel track, you share the gospel, you’re good.

Is that what that’s talking about? Is it talking about just you land there, you give it the gospel to at least one person of that group and you move to the next? No, no, no, no. When the Bible says all nations, the Lord’s saying he wants everyone, regardless of their ethnicity to hear the gospel, to know the gospel. Is that not the idea behind the Great Commission?

Go ye therefore and teach all nations. That means all people, regardless of their ethnic background. Everybody with me? Mark 11, 17. And he taught them saying, is it not written, my house shall be called of all nations, the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. Luke 24, 47. And that repentance, again, the Great Commission, and remission of sin should be preached in So whereas we read this word nations and we think geographical boundaries and we think of countries kind of as a whole, when the Lord uses it, he’s just referring to people without distinction, human beings, everyone, everyone.

All nations means everyone. And so when you go back here and you see it here in verse 32, this is one of the reasons why I’m taking this take on it. And before him shall be gathered all nations. So I don’t see in this a representative of France. I see this as all French people. I don’t see this as a representative of America, but I see it as all Americans.

You know who’s also included in this all nations? The Jewish people, which is often how this is viewed. The Jewish people are part of all nations. Now you notice what happens in verse 33. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Now follow this carefully because I want you to get it. When shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was an hungered and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we the in hunger and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink?

When saw we the stranger and took the inn or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we the sick or in prison and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Now as I said, one of the primary reasons people view this as this is a question of France’s treatment of the Jewish people is they interpret the nations as France instead of people and then they also interpret brethren as Jewish people.

Now Jesus was a Jew, no question about that, he was a Jewish person. But I want to run just a couple of references. There’s only a handful of times where Jesus uses the phrase brethren referring to my brethren in this way. Now we know Jesus had brothers and sisters in the flesh, right? We know he had brothers and he had sisters. We know that, the scripture says it.

And so Mary bore other children beside Jesus from Joseph. So he did have flesh and blood brothers and sisters. Now go to Matthew chapter 12 if you would. Matthew chapter 12. The reason this is important, although it might seem like a small point, is because it affects the entire, because this is the criteria of the judgment, who the brethren of Jesus are. Matthew 12 verse 47. Now who are the mother and the brethren here?

Is Mary and Jesus physical, half brothers and sisters, right? All right, everybody on the same page? So if there’s ever a time where Jesus would say, my brethren, this is they, right there, this is it. Notice what he says. He says, but he answered and said unto him that told him, who is my mother and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, notice that, and said, behold my mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother.

Jesus identifies his brethren right here, okay, very clearly. In other words, it’s more than just flesh and blood. Those that he counts as his family, it says, whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven. Raise your hand if you’ve done the will of God. Well, none of us have done the will of God. We’ve all blown that. That was a trick question, sorry.

I laid a snare for your feet. So if that, you know, none of us have kept the will of God perfectly for sure, right? But yet, there are those among us who are the brethren of Jesus, that is, we’re his family. How? Because remember, the first point of the will of God is to believe on Jesus Christ who is sent by the Father. That is the first will of God.

We think of the will of God as will I go to be a missionary or will I have this job or buy this car? No, no, no, no. The most important question of the will of God is whether you have, you remember, the will of God is what God wants, God’s desire. That’s what the will of God is. And God’s greatest desire for every person here is that each and every person might personally put their whole faith and trust in the Savior that the Father sent into the world that you might be saved.

That is the will of God. And in comparison to that, I don’t think the Lord gives a hoot at all of whether you have a Chevy Tahoe or a Ford Expedition or I don’t think that matters at all compared to this first question. So, the real question is am I in the will of God? Well, do you have the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Are you born again?

Because if you are, you’re his brother. You see that? You’re his brother, a part of his family. Look at Matthew chapter 28. Matthew 28, verse number 9. I’m sorry, verse 10. I’ll read verse 9 to get the context. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them. This is after his resurrection, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him.

Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid. Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. Now, Jesus could be referring to his flesh and blood brothers, but I don’t think he is. I think he’s talking about his disciples, which is the same brethren we saw in Matthew 12, right? His disciples. Go to John 20. Verse 17. This is also after Jesus’ resurrection.

Jesus said unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my father and your father, and to my God and your God. Well, brothers and sisters, we have read all of the references in the gospels where Jesus uses the term my brethren. In every case, he is referring not to his flesh and blood brothers, and he is not referring to even his ethnic group, the Jewish people.

He is referring to those who believe, believers. You see this? Now, go back to Matthew 25, because when you look at Matthew 25, and you see where he says my brethren in verse 40, if you say, well, that’s obviously the Jewish people, well, no it’s not, because the same person that in the other three times says my brethren, he’s referring to his disciples and those that believe, here the same person is saying my brethren here.

So what I’m saying is, if you’re going to say it’s the Jewish people, you have to kind of impose that. You have to bring it in from the outside, because the scripture indicates Jesus says that not referring to his flesh and blood, or especially, in fact, there is no reference where Jesus refers to the Jewish people as brothers, even though they are. It is only his disciples.

Now, why does that matter? Because that reorients this whole thing. Now it’s, if you take those things that I’ve said, now it’s not a judgment of France about how they treated the Jewish people, it’s a judgment of all men, and what the Lord is particularly examining is their treatment of those that believe on Christ. That’s a completely different thing, is it not? Now go to Acts chapter 9.

So remember in the parable, just as a reminder, once we get through this, I’m telling you, we’ll wind it up. It’ll come in for a landing pretty quick. When Jesus is in this judgment, the sheep and the goats, he says, he said, you’re blessed coming to my kingdom because you fed me when I was hungry, gave me drink when I was thirsty, visited me when I was sick, visited me when I was in prison, when I was a stranger who took me.

There’s service and ministry that’s happening to his brethren. Everybody on the same page? That’s what he’s looking at. And then when the goats come along, he says, you didn’t do all of those things. And they say, what are you talking about? When did I do that? Or in the case of the goats, when did I not do that? And Jesus says, when you did it to my brethren, you did it to me.

You know what he’s doing in that case? He’s identifying himself with his brethren. He’s saying, we are one. You did it to them, you did it to me. That’s like, it’s sort of like saying on the playground, you hit my brother, you hit me. Right? That’s kind of like what the Lord is, he’s identifying with those that believe in him. Acts chapter 9, this is on the road to Damascus where Saul of Tarsus meets Jesus, verse 4.

So verse 4 says, Saul, he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, notice, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Now by this time, Jesus has been ascended and in heaven for years. How is Saul of Tarsus persecuting Jesus? Because that’s what he says, you’re persecuting me. Well it’s very simple.

Saul was persecuting Christians. He was persecuting believers. And so when Jesus appeared, he says, you’re persecuting me. They are mine. They are my brethren. They are my family. You’re touching them, you’re touching me. So when we go back to Matthew 25, now it’s not so foreign, is it? Now the Lord is looking at these people, all nations, and he’s examining, he’s putting particular focus on how they treated his people, how they treated his people.

So that is where we get into the focus of the judgment back in Matthew 25, which is this. The focus of this judgment, of this account of this judgment, is how this world, the nations, have treated God’s people. In other words, God is taking note and keeping records of how his people are treated by others. Now what’s interesting though, we might look at that and say, well that’s talking about the world, that is those who do not know Christ and how they treat us, and that’s true.

But you remember, there are sheep here. In other words, there’s people that will have eternal life, and the Lord is also looking at how they treated his brethren, his people. Did you notice that? So what is the Lord doing? Here’s what I’m trying to bring it down to, put it in your lap. How you treat God’s people is something of great concern to God. How you treat the people of Christ is something that matters to the Christ of those people who he calls my brethren.

You say, well I am a Christian. He’s still looking and paying attention. You see, we cannot lightly sin against our brothers and sisters in Christ and somehow not sin against Christ himself. He’s paying attention. And that’s the negative, but the positive is this, whatever service you do for your brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord receives it like you’re doing it to him.

That opens up a whole avenue of ministry. A lot of people, maybe I’m just speaking for myself, I always think of ministry as actually taking the gospel to the mission field, but that is not all that’s ministry. The Lord, notice what he says there, you fed me when I was hungry, you gave me drink when I was thirsty, you took me in when I was a stranger, you clothed me when I was naked, what else is in there?

You visited me when I was sick, you came to me when I was in jail, of course that would be on your mind, right? All of these ways are ways of ministry and God is paying attention. God is paying attention, but not only that. For those who do not know Christ, the goats in this passage, the Lord is paying attention to the way they treat Christians too.

It matters. He takes it personally. Jesus takes the way we treat believers personally. This is why we cannot lightly harm the people of God. This is why we cannot lightly harm the people of God, even as a believer and as an unbeliever. The judgment when an unbeliever stands before God, you think the Lord is going to give him a pass that he slandered the name of a child of God or persecuted him or threw him in jail?

We talk about Sunday school, the powers that be, right? You think those guys who make those sheriffs, individual police officers, those mayors, those magistrates who using some technicality of the law are going to get off from God when they persecute God’s people? You know in Britain this is actually happening, free speech is being of Christians now, specifically. They’re not on the street lambasting Islam and Islam, although it would be true, you’re an apostle of false religion.

They’re not even doing that. They’re saying Muslims need to turn to Christ. That’s what they’re saying. And they are being, listen, prosecuted. You think those guys who are finding some technicality of the law are going to get off before Christ? They’re not. The Lord is taking note. He is taking note. The way we treat God’s people, whether we’re saved or not, matters. And the Lord’s going to bring it back up one day.

Now go back to Matthew 25 if you would. I just want to say this, what a blueprint for ministry. Brothers, sisters, if you’re looking for something to do, let me back up, just put it in reverse and go at it again, okay? I hope you’re looking for something to do if you have the ability to do it. All of us have some ability or another, but I hope you’re looking for something to do.

But if you are, we’re going to assume you’re looking for something to do. Look at this passage and the things that Jesus lists that these people did to his brethren and use that as a blueprint. There is a lot that you can do to minister to the Lord. Remember ministering to God’s people is the same as ministering to Jesus. That’s how he views it. So if you’re looking for something to do, there is something to do.

There are ways that you can serve. I think the biggest problem is not that we have nothing to do, the biggest problem is that we have no desire to do at all. And that’s a big issue. But if you just set this out, who can you clothe? Who of God’s people can you clothe? Who can you go visit when they’re ill, when they’re down, when they’re discouraged?

Maybe not sick in the body, sick in the heart. Who can you send a note to? Who can you visit if they’re in prison? I’ll get back to that in a minute. Who can you take in? Who can you feed? Who can you hungry? Listen, we’re not just talking about general do-gooding. This is specifically for God’s people and this is a solid, sound New Testament truth. There are ways that you can serve by serving God’s people.

We have people in our church who cannot, they literally cannot get out. They cannot get out. They cannot leave the facility where they are. They can’t really leave home. The only way they ever see anybody’s face is if somebody goes to where they are. That’s this right here, is it not? Man, you have an opportunity. Now these saints here that we read in chapter 25, all of them are in a bad way.

In other words, this is describing saints who are suffering, saints who are in these bad conditions. They’re naked, they’re sick, they’re in prison. Why would a saint be in prison? There’s only one rightful reason a saint would be in prison, is if they were put there for Jesus’ sake. Look if you would at Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Verse 1. Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, that’s in Matthew 25, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember them that are in bonds, that’s in Matthew 25, as bound with them, and them which are suffered adversity as yourselves, as being yourselves also in the body, also in Matthew 25. You know it’s done by verse 1 though, it’s love. And this is where you get to the whole thing here. You know what the Lord is talking about, especially for the sheep? It’s talking about loving your brother.

That’s really what we’re talking about here. Back in Matthew 25, look back, I know we’re flipping a lot, I hang with you, we’re almost finished, Matthew 25. Some people would read this and would take this, what I say, and they would say, well this is teaching somehow works salvation. In other words, it doesn’t matter if I believe in Christ, I don’t believe in Christ, or whatever my life is, none of that matters, so long as I treat Christians right, I can go to heaven.

Well we know that, we know, you come at that point, you know that’s not the case. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It says in verse 46 that they have life eternal. You only get life eternal by putting your faith in Jesus. So that is obviously the wrong way to understand that.

You see what I’m saying? John 3, 16, John 6, 47, verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. That’s the only way to get it. Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 John 5, 11, and this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is by doing good to God, no, by this life is in His Son.

Revelation 20, verse 15, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. So is your name in the book of, the lambs of the book of life or not? See, that’s what determines it, but okay, that’s why you see in verse number 34, come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Verse 46 calls that life eternal. Then you go to verse number 41, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And then it says, verse 46, they go into everlasting punishment. You see, the way each group here treated God’s people is indeed in some way related to where they stood with God. In fact, I would say it was an effect of it.

Those who did believe on the Lord Jesus Christ loved their brothers and sisters in Christ, and those that did not believe in Christ simply did not love them. This distinction between loving Christ’s brethren and not is something clearly seen in scripture. Listen to these verses, 1 John 3, 14, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

1 John 3, 17, but whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? So now love has feet. It’s not just nice words. Now you’ve got to open your pantry if somebody has a need. Remember, I was naked and you clothed me. I was hungry and you fed me.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink. That means you’re opening up your pantry. That means you’re picking them up and you’re taking them to the grocery store and you’re buying some stuff for them because they’re in need. You with me? 1 John 4, 20, if a man say I love God and hated his brother, he’s a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

From this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. 1 John 5, verse 1, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that believeth, that loveth him, that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. Listen now, by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.

You see, not only is this passage a blueprint for ministry if you’re looking for something to do, the people of God need help and you’ve got to have your radar on looking for people that need help. And you don’t have to call the pastor and say hey can I do this. If there’s a need and you have the ability to fulfill it, do it. Don’t get clearance, do it.

Do it. Put your radar on. But you know what, there is, if you’re going to actually minister to God’s people, they’re in a bad way. That’s what these people being described are. They’re in a bad way. You know, that’s going to be hard. You know, it is hard to sit beside the bedside of somebody who’s ailing and somebody that’s close to death. That is no fun. You know, it is hard sometimes to serve people in this way.

It’s hard to be there for people. It’s hard to walk people through difficult times in their life, but that’s one way you can minister. You know, if you’re going to minister to someone out of your goods and they have a physical need, you’re going to have to spend some money or some time. If you’re going to visit somebody who’s in prison and you say, well we live in America, okay yeah, forget that.

There’s no guarantee that we will not be visiting our brothers and sisters in Christ in prison or in jail in America at some point. But you know, there’s risk involved in that. You know the people that came to visit, Paul, they were taking a risk. Are you willing to risk something to serve God, to minister to Jesus by means of ministering to his people? It’ll cost you something.

It’s not free. Somebody’s got to pay for it and that’ll be you. But you’re doing it to Jesus. You’re doing it to Jesus. I want to close with verse 41 because verse 41 is a striking verse.

Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, these are those who did not love God’s people. Did you know loving God’s people is a mark of a true Christian? You know there’s only about four biblical marks whereby you can know for certain that you have eternal life. The Holy Spirit in you, you have the Lord’s chastening when you sin, and you love God’s people. There’s probably a couple more but those are the three big ones.

Not the warm fuzzy feeling, not even answered prayer. God’s answer to prayer is for people that don’t know him too. Those are the three big ones. If you love God’s people, that’s a sure mark that you are God’s child. But if you don’t, it’s a sure mark that you’re not. That’s what I just read in 1 John. Notice what he says in verse 41, depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

It reminds us that the lake of fire, eternal judgment is eternal. There’s no end to it. There’s no way out. Once a person goes there, they’re there forever. It’s called eternal punishment in verse 46. But it never was prepared for the people who go. In other words, it was never God’s intention that humankind, the object of God’s sacrificial love, unimaginable and indescribable love, it was never his intention that they be punished in the lake of fire.

It wasn’t prepared for them. It wasn’t for them. And that shows you, that gives you a glimpse into God’s heart, does it not? What is God’s desire? It was never for man to be punished. But man is punished, a man, a woman that refuses to trust in Jesus and deal with his sin problem before God, this gaping chasm between him and God. That person is aligning himself with the enemy of God in everything that is right, which is why he’s going to the place where that enemy is going.

Is that a happy thought? No, I don’t like talking about that. It’s terrible. But terrible does not make it untrue. So I want to ask you as part of the invitation, are you in a place where you found a place to serve God by serving his people? Are you looking for a place to serve? Or maybe the question is, are you among the sheep or among the goats?

It’s an important question to consider. It has eternal ramifications. Let’s pray together.