Sorting It All Out

Introduction:

As a parent, one thing you have to learn to do is to sort things out when your kids get into a tussle over something. You might not have been in the room when it happened, but you hear the voices begin to raise and then you hear the house being rearranged and before you know it, you have swiftly come into the room to act as judge, jury, and arbitrator all in one.

You listen to the first child tell their story or what happened, and then you hear the other side. You evaluate the evidence and then you pray to God that you made the right decision.

I know that I am an imperfect judge. I have once or twice punished the wrong child for a crime that they did not commit. I did the best I could, but sometimes my best is not good enough.

However, praise God, He never gets it wrong. He is going to come one day and sort it all out. He is going to come one day and put an end to evil and right all of our wrongs.

This morning, we are going to take a look at what will happen on that glorious and fearful day.

Matthew 25:31–46 ESV

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Pray

We’ve been covering Matthew 24-25 for a few months now, it seems, and we’ve finally arrived at the end of the discourse.

You may have felt like the message was similar in every message: Jesus is coming back!

Some passages taught us that Jesus would come sooner than expected.

Some taught us that Jesus might delay longer than expected.

Some passages taught us that we need to be found faithful when Jesus comes.

Others taught us that no one knows when Jesus will return, but only the Father.

Here I want you to notice a shift that happens.

1. The Certainty of the King’s Return (v.31)

Matthew 25:31 ESV

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Notice that verse 31 begins with the word “when.”

Jesus is speaking with certainty that He will be coming back.

So often when we speak with people about our future plans, we will speak under the assumed condition that we would like to do something “if it is possible.”

If time permits:

I would like to go on that trip

Have that party

Get this project done

We may speak of these things as if they are certain to happen, but never know for sure if we will do them.

Jesus is not speaking in vague generalities. He is saying “when” these things happen, the next course of events will happen.

Our world doesn’t really believe that Jesus is coming back. They don’t believe that the king is coming.

If they did, do you think that they would do the things they do?

Illustration

My wife and I had the opportunity to get away this weekend, just the two of us, and go to see a performance of Beauty and the Beast in Atlanta at the Fox Theater.

We had a great time, but we also found out that parking downtown is a little sketchy. We stayed overnight and wanted to make sure that we got a good, clean hotel. We managed to do that, but what I did not plan on was parking.

Now, we are cheap and don’t like to pay more than we have to, so I was not going to do the valet parking. I drove down into the garage where valet was and asked were the self-parking was.

We were redirected to what we thought was the hotel’s lot, only to find out that it was a general parking lot for all of the area. You could pay to park overnight, and there was even a sign that said overnight parking. However, there was another sign that had a warning that there was high crime in the area and no overnight attendant to watch the lot.

We had one of those moments where your gut tells you this might not be the best idea. We even were going to chance it, but I believe God intervened and my Google Pay wouldn’t connect to let me pay for the parking.

About that time the car next to us unloads with a bunch of people who had been ingesting some “herbal supplements” if you get my drift. We were certainly getting theirs!

We decided to go to the garage parking next door that actually had a gate and an attendant.

But then as we were walking back to our hotel we were confronted with the realities of the different people who lived downtown and it truly broke my heart to see the type of lifestyle that these people live.

I was not being judgmental; I was simply assessing the fruit. It is discouraging to see people who live so far from God.

But, do you know why they live this way with no fear of God’s judgment? It is because they don’t believe the King is going to return. In fact, they don’t even believe that there is a King at all!

Application

What about you? Do you believe in the King?

Do you believe that He is going to come back?

How would you live your life different if that ever-present reality were before you?

2. The King is Going to Sit in Judgment (v.31-32)

Matthew 25:31–32 ESV

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Notice that Jesus is going to return in a much different way than He came at His birth.

Very few knew Jesus had arrived when He was born. He was tucked away in a place where the animals were kept because there was no room for His family to stay and for His mother to give birth.

No one would give up their place for Him.

However, when Jesus returns, He comes with the hosts of Heaven. He comes with glory and all of the angels with Him.

Then, a throne is set before Him to sit on.

Illustration

Thrones are interesting pieces of royal furniture aren’t they? We don’t have them in this country, because we are a democracy with no king.

They are usually ornate and highly decorated pieces. They are fancy chairs, if you will. But they have a purpose. They demonstrate the rule of the one who sits in them.

Thrones are not for pulling up next to the table to eat your food.

Thrones are not for kicking back and relaxing.

Thrones are a symbol of sovereignty and authority.

They are made for Kings to sit and for their subjects to appear before them.

Jesus is going to sit on the throne and rule over His subjects.

Notice that verse 34 says that, “before Him will be gathered all nations.”

Don’t miss this. You and I might pass over the fact that a king does not sit on a throne that is over every nation, only their own nation.

When our President goes over to visit the King of England, he does not bow before the King or kneel before His throne. We are an independent, sovereign nation. We do not kneel.

That is not a matter of disrespect, but in fact, it would be disrespectful to the sovereignty of our country for our leader to bow before another king. It would symbolize that the nation before whom our leader might bow is somehow sovereign over us.

Application

Well, when Jesus comes, he sits on a throne and all the kings of the nations are gathered before Him. They all kneel. They all bow.

They do not get a choice in the matter.

Turn with me for a moment to Psalm 2 and let us read it together.

Psalm 2 ESV

1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Notice that there is a warning God gives to the nations.

They must bow down.

They had better not try to plot a rebellion.

They will be shattered

The same warning goes for you and me. Everyone must give an account to Jesus one day.

Are you ready for that day to come?

How terrifying does it make you feel to know that you will be accountable to the King?

How might these people that Jessie and I met on the streets, or that you meet, live differently if they knew they would be held to account for their deeds.

It won’t be a slap on the wrist. It will be an eternal sentence without the possibility of parole.

3. The King is Going to Sort It All Out (vv. 32-46)

As we return back to our passage in Matthew, note that the King is a Shepherd-King.

Verse 32 says,

Matthew 25:32 ESV

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

Throughout the course of a day, a shepherd would grace the sheep and the goats together in the same fields. However, at night, when the sheep and the goats were brought in, the shepherd would separate out the goats from the sheep. The goats were removed from the sheep because they would often be hostile towards the sheep.

What Jesus is teaching us here is that in this world, the field if you will, we are grazing together - the sheep and the goats. One day, the goats are going to be separated out so that they can no longer hurt the sheep.

As we read the rest of these verses, it might seem like we are judged based on our works.

Our salvation is never by works of the flesh, but by faith alone.

However, Jesus is showing us that our works declare our faith.

If a person has true faith in Christ and the work He accomplished for us on the cross, we will have a love for other people that demonstrates itself in action.

Jesus says that when we serve others, it is as if we are serving Him.

In the same way, for the goats, when they refused to help others, they are turning their backs on the Lord.

It is not the action that defines the person. It is the action that reveals the person inside.

You act the way you do because of what you believe and who you are.

Jesus is simply going to bring it to light.

Conclusion

The issue at hand is what will happen to us when we are sorted out?

For those who had saving faith in Jesus, they will have their burden eased and they will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, as David wrote in Psalm 23.

For the wicked, they will be sent away from the sheep and from the Shepherd into eternal punishment.

I want you to see one more distinction, or similarity I should say, in verse 46.

Matthew 25:46 ESV

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

Notice in this verse that there is a parallel.

Context drives interpretation. We always look to the immediate context first to understand something.

It’s like if I were writing you a letter and I started off by saying Bob is a great guy. He does all kinds of nice things.

The he that I am referring to is Bob and you know that from the fact that I was just talking about Bob in the immediate context.

Well, here the immediate context tells us that there will be eternal life for those who are righteous. They will get to spend forever in Heaven with the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep.

However, notice the parallel here for those who rejected the Shepherd.

They will get eternal punishment.

Inasmuch as Heaven is forever, Hell is also forever.

Recently Kirk Cameron went viral for his doubt about an eternal, conscious torment.

I give him credit for something, though he misunderstood the Scriptures.

We’ve already seen how the context here would tell us that if Heaven is forever, so is Hell.

That concept bothered Kirk. It wasn’t that He is not a believer, or that He does not love Jesus.

I would dare say that He has probably led more people to Jesus than most of us ever will.

What bothered Kirk was the horrible reality of Hell. He wanted to try to soften the blow, not by suggesting that Hell is not real, but by limiting the time and scope of how long Hell is.

You see He instinctively knows from Scripture that if Hell is eternal, that is a most horrible sentence.

We have people who are sentenced for crimes and the sentence doesn’t seem to match the crime. I saw on the news the other day of a person who was sentenced to 7 years in jail for taking the life of another person.

That doesn’t seem like justice to me. You can end someone’s life, not in self-defense, but in the act of committing a crime and get off so easy. You can take the life of another and you get to serve a little jail time and get out?

That bothers our sense of justice. However, we must consider that God is completely holy and just. He thoroughly punishes the wicked.

Their crimes are high treason against the King. They have committed an eternal crime that demands an eternal sentence.

You see if a prisoner is given a sentence of 7 years, each year they serve is credit towards their overall sentence. When 1 year passes, they have 1 year credit and their sentence is now reduced to 6 years.

You don’t get any credit for time served in Hell. 1 year still leaves you with an eternity left to pay.

Can you fathom how long an eternity is?

For those who are in Heaven because of trusting in Jesus, it is an everlasting bliss. We get eternity in Heaven because Jesus took our eternity of hell upon Himself on that cross.

But for the goats who did not believe, those who do not believe today, they will spend an eternity paying for their own sins.

They will seek to pay a debt that can never be satisfied.

This reality bothered Kirk. He tried to change what he believed to make it easier.

It doesn’t work that way.

The reality of an eternal Hell should motivate us to do a few things.

Trust Jesus as your own Savior.

Lead others to trust Jesus as well.

Live in gratitude for what Jesus has done.

Remember this morning that the King is coming.

There is a song the Gaither’s sing that has a chorus that goes like this.

O the King is coming The King is coming I just heard the trumpets sounding And now his face I see O the King is coming The King is coming Praise God, he's coming for me

Praise God, He’s coming for me. Amen!