The Parable of the Final Judgment - Are we sheep or goats?

Take your Bible turn to Matthew 25. Matthew 25, we were there last week, so you know right where we are. We're gonna be in verses 31 to 46. Of course we're still in these parables that deal with judgment, many different truths about judgment, and then we've also seen that these parables teach us some other things that we can't apply to our lives. I really can't get over how the parable of the unforgiving servant and the parable of the tenants taught us so much about forgiveness, and not just forgiveness and unforgiveness, but how unforgiveness can turn into mistreatment and resentment and all kinds of other sins.

Of course we did learn that the parable of the tenants teach us that God judged Israel for rejecting the promised Messiah. But I have thought many times how that teaching about forgiveness and unforgiveness is much needed. Last week we were studying the parable of the talents, and we really saw two points of teaching. First we learn how we are responsible to God for how we use our talents that he's given us. We learn that we are to use those talents that God's given us to bring profit for God. And if you do not know what talents are, and if you do not know what this profit for God means, you need to get that teaching.

You need to get that teaching. Then second we learn that those who do not use their talents to bring profit for God are judged. They are thrown into the outer darkness where they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You can summarize those things by saying that the parable taught us the tragedy of wasted responsibilities and the truth of a definite judgment. Now I wanna touch on something. I'm gonna come back to it quite a few times, and this is something that we might need to see more than we know. Remember the one who did not bring a profit for God with his one talent. This was last week, the parable of the talents.

Remember the one who did not bring a profit for God with his one talent. The parable says that he was judged for not using his talent to bring a profit for God. Remember he buried it in the ground. He was called wicked, he was called lazy or slothful, and he was called wicked and lazy for not bringing a profit for God. Now a question. Does this somehow teach a salvation of works? Think about the parable. He was judged for not producing a profit. So somehow does this teach a salvation of works? Now last week I pointed out that there were three parables in Matthew 25 that teach certain things about judgment.

And remember that I said the context of these parables tell us a lot. Jesus taught these three parables near the end of his earthly ministry just before the cross. And the point of all of these parables was preparation. Jesus was preparing his disciples. He was calling them to be wise in their Christian living, in their ministries, and in all of the opportunities that lay before them. He was calling them to live wisely so as to be prepared to give an account before God. And he was teaching them certain things about judgment that pertained to the lost. So Jesus was preparing his disciples.

And look, if Jesus was preparing his disciples for their ministries, their opportunities, and their lives that lay ahead of them, then shouldn't we take this teaching so as to be prepared? Do we not have ministries? Do we not have opportunities? Do we not have so many opportunities in front of us? And we need to think about that. Now I wanna get us to our passages. Let's read verses 31 to 46. This is quite a bit of scripture. And we're not gonna read all of this throughout the message. I'll come back to a few verses. But I do want us to read these verses together. Verse 31 to 46.

Now when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all of the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my father "inherit the kingdom prepared for you "from the foundation of the world. "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. "I was naked and you clothed me.

"I was sick and you visited me. "I was then in prison and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer him saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? "Are thirsty and give you a drink. "And when did we see you a stranger "and welcome you or naked and clothe you? "And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?" And the king will answer, "Truly I say to you, "as you did it under the least of these of my brothers, "you did it to me." Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you cursed into eternal fire "prepared for the devil and his angels. "For I was hungry and you gave me no food.

"I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. "I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. "Naked and you did not clothe me. "Sick and in prison and you did not visit me." Then they will answer, then they will also, then they also will answer saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, "or a stranger or naked, or sick or in prison, "and did not minister to you?" Then he will answer them saying, "Truly I say to you, as you did not do it "to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." And these he will throw away, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous, that would be the righteous to eternal life.

Now here in this teaching, if you'll notice we have a short parable, really short. Now we have quite a bit of verses. There's a lot of teaching here, but the parable is really short if you pay much attention to it. But notice what we have here. The parable or the illustration or the story that's right here in front of us is about a sheep. It's about a shepherd, it's about sheep, and it's about goats, and it's about a separation of the sheep and the goats. So we need to ask what this picture is, what this illustration is, and what these things mean. And all throughout the parables, we have seen Jesus use agricultural illustrations.

They were an agricultural society, so using stories, illustrations, things like this about farmers and fields and seeds and shepherds and goats and sheep was very relatable to his disciples, really all of the Jews. Using stories of grapes, vineyards, vineyard owners, and tenants was very relatable to those that were listening. And here, Jesus is using a shepherd, sheep, goats, and the separation of those different animals to teach spiritual truth to his disciples. But we need to see the real and the practical side of these things.

In their day, shepherds would keep sheep and goats, and it was common for them to graze them together out in the fields. As far as value was concerned, the sheep were more valuable than the goats, but they both had value in their society. They were worth money. And at night, when the animals were brought in from the fields for protection, they would usually be separated. They did this because the goats needed to be warm at night, but the sheep preferred to be more open. They were less susceptible to the cold.

So Jesus uses this simple, but everyday illustration, the imagery, the illustration here of sheep being separated from goats by a shepherd. These things are simple, even for us to understand, but this illustration communicates so much truth about judgment. So I think we have a good grasp on the parable, and now I wanna show you how we're gonna divide the verses. We will look at this parable or this block of scripture in two ways. We will look at the setting of the judgment, and then we will look at the proceedings of the judgment. This will be easy for you to follow. The setting of the judgment, and then the proceedings of the judgment.

And I think you can see the major theme is judgment. So number one, the setting of the judgment. Now this is before we get into the actual parable. Verse 31, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, "and all the angels with him, "then he will sit on his glorious throne "before him will be gathered all of the nations." Now the context will help us here. This teaching is an answer to a question that his disciples asked him earlier. In chapter 24, verse three, we see that the disciples asked Jesus when the end would come, and what will be a sign of his coming at the end of the age.

So Jesus is addressing their question, and he gives them a whole lot of truth about judgment. So first, I want us to see who the judge is. Jesus tells them who the judge is, and we see this at the beginning of verse 31. Here we see that Jesus reveals who the judge will be. He points to the fact that he is the judge, and he refers to himself as the Son of Man. Now this should be easy to see. This title was the most common title that Jesus used for himself. And this should not be surprising to us. John 5.22, we see that the Father does not judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son. So Jesus was showing them who the judge would be.

We see who the judge is, it's Jesus. And then second, when the judgment will take place. Jesus shows them when the judgment will take place. That's at the end of verse 31. Here we see that this judgment takes place when he comes in his glory. Now I don't know if you've noticed this, but right here is where we get into some very deep water. This is when we get into the end times. This is when we get into what's called eschatology. And there is much debate as to when this judgment will take place. Now here is how I'm going to approach this.

The major point of this teaching here is not so much when this final judgment will take place, but the fact that the final judgment certainly will take place. Let me repeat that. The major point of this teaching is not so much when this final judgment will take place or to give all of the details about the final judgment. But the major point is that the final judgment certainly will take place. I ran across something that the Bible commentator, Jim Boyce gave that really helped me here. In his writing on this parable, he makes some good statements that I believe will keep us on track here.

He points out that most views on the end times, this would be eschatology. Most of the views, they have three major points of emphasis. First, the return of Christ. Second, the resurrection of the body. Third, the final judgment. That's a very brief summary of the views. Now here's my point and why I bring this point up, this teaching up, what Jim Boyce says. No matter our eschatology, no matter our views on the end times, we can all agree that there will certainly be a final judgment. Of course, when these things happen is important, but that's not the major point of this teaching here.

The fact that the judgment certainly will happen is the major point of all that Jesus is teaching. So we see when this judgment takes place. What does the text say? This happens when the Son of Man comes in his glory with his angels and he sits on his throne. So Jesus has explained who the judge is. He's explained when the judgment will take place. And now third, he explains where this judgment takes place. This is right there at the end of verse 31. Here we see that this takes place on his throne, which speaks to his authority. As one commentator said, this speaks to his judicial authority. Yes, judicial authority.

He is the judge because God made him judge. And like I said earlier, God has given him this judicial authority. So we see where the judgment will take place. This takes place before Christ and before his judicial throne. And then the fourth thing he showed them, who will be judged? This is at the beginning of verse 32. Notice what the beginning of verse 32 says. Before him will be gathered all the nations. Now we see this word nations, all of the English translations we use, use this word nations. Now, if we're not careful, we can misunderstand what this means. This word nations simply means peoples.

It means peoples, races, ethnicities, nationalities, all peoples. So we see who will be judged. The text says that all peoples will be gathered before him and before his throne. So in summary right here, we see the setting of the judgment. Jesus is a judge who will judge all the people, all races, all ethnicities, all nations. But it is a must to see that these are individuals and not groups. These are not Canadians. These are not Americans. These are not Germans or Japanese. These are individuals. And we see where this takes place. This takes place before judge Jesus and before his authoritative judicial throne.

And we see when this takes place. This judgment takes place when he comes in his glory with all of his angels and when he sits on his throne. Now at this point, I wanna give us a couple of lessons that I think we all need here. First and foremost, we must accept the fact that there will be a day of judgment. When he comes with his angels, he will sit on his throne and he will judge all peoples. So we must accept this fact. And you know to me, I think there are four ways people deal with this fact. First, some deny this day even exists. Some deny that there is a final day of judgment. They just deny it. And then second, some ignore this day.

Maybe they will admit it if you press them in a corner, but they ignore it. So to me, some deny it. They completely deny it. They'll say things like this, I just don't believe my God is that kind of God. And then some, maybe they will admit it, but they just ignore it. And then there's some, some will procrastinate in preparing for the day. They'll procrastinate. Well, that day is in the future, but they procrastinate in preparing for the day. And then there are few who embrace that day and they prepare for the day. Give you a real life example. The magnitude's a little bit different. We know it's tax season, right?

We might procrastinate in preparing our taxes, right? There are some that don't procrastinate. They know that that date's on the calendar, right? If we procrastinate, we get in a bind, right? So to me, there are four ways people deal with this fact. Some deny the day exists, some ignore the day, some procrastinate in preparing for the day, and very few embrace the day. And they keep that on the forefront of their thinking and they prepare for the day. Now the second thing I want us to see, how do we deal with the time of this day? I brought this up earlier and I'm circling back around to it. How do we deal with this day?

We have different end times views. Within true biblical Christianity, we have different end times views and positions and opinions. And look, these are not doctrines, theological positions or opinions that we divide over or we leave a church over. I'm gonna say that again. These things are not doctrines. These are not theological opinions or positions that we divide over or we leave a church over. Now I'm gonna explain this to you a little further. And as a matter of fact, this is kind of another sermon for another day.

But I want you to see, in ranking or prioritizing doctrine and theology, we can rank them according to importance and having this ability with wisdom and maturity is a must. Al Mohler, who was the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he wrote a wonderful article in 2005 that helps here. The article is called, and I'm quoting, a call for theological triage and Christian maturity. You can find it on the internet. It's a short article. I encourage you to go get it. I have a copy. It's very, very good. Again, one day I'm gonna come back to this.

But in the article, he gives what he calls first order doctrines, second order doctrines, and third order doctrines. Let me repeat that. He gives first order doctrines, second order doctrines, and third order doctrines. Now first order doctrines, they are the most fundamental truths of the faith. To deny first order doctrines is to deny the faith. Let me give you an example. The Trinity. If you tamper with the Trinity or alter the Trinity, you've denied the faith. You have left what's called Orthodox Christianity. The full deity and humanity of Christ.

If you do not embrace that doctrine, you have stepped outside of the boundaries of Orthodox Christianity, the authority of scripture, the way men are justified by faith and faith alone. If you do not have a view of justification that is by faith and faith alone, you have some system of works. There's something you've tampered with there. You've stepped out of bounds of Orthodox Christianity. That's just a few. But second order doctrines are doctrines that believing Christians can disagree on, yet still be Christian.

Having different positions here do not put you out of bounds of the faith, but these doctrines can create significant divisions and boundaries between believers and churches. Let me give you an example. Baptists and Presbyterians. We would disagree on the understanding of baptism. The issues surrounding the roles of women in the church. Some churches are opening the doors for women to serve in what we would call pastoral positions, while others may not. What I'm showing you is this. These are issues we can disagree on. And usually when you disagree on these kind of issues, it does create boundaries and divisions.

And again, you can be different here and still be within the bounds of Orthodox Christianity. But third order doctrines are doctrines over which Christians can disagree, yet remain in close fellowship and even be in the same local church. These things can cause some to divide from a local church, but they should not do so. I'll give you an example. The positions and the opinions and the debates surrounding eschatology or end times. Now let me read you something that Al Mohler wrote in this article. He's speaking about eschatology.

And I'm quoting, "Christians who affirm "the bodily, historical, and victorious return "of the Lord Jesus Christ may differ over timetable "and sequence without rupturing "the fellowship of the church." Let me read that again. Christians who affirm the bodily, historical, and victorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ may differ over the timetable and sequence without rupturing the fellowship of the church. And I'm continuing. "Christians may find themselves in disagreement "over a number of issues related to the interpretation "of difficult text or the understanding of matters "of common disagreement.

"Nevertheless, nevertheless, standing together "on issues of more urgent importance, "believers are able to accept one another "without compromise when third order issues "are in question." Now what's Al Mohler saying? And I believe saying wonderfully, you don't divide over third order issues. And I don't believe we're gonna do that in the life of our church. And the reason I take the time there is because that's one of the issues here. Eschatology, end times, when Christ is coming back. So the setting of the judgment. Jesus is the judge, he will judge when he returns in his glory with his angels, he will judge when he sits on his throne.

And we must accept that this day is on God's calendar and we must be ready. And that's the main point of the verses. And then number two, the proceedings of the judgment. And this is at the end of verse 32, on down to the end of the teaching, verse 46. Now here's where we get into the parable, the agricultural illustration. Here we see the shepherd and he's separating the sheep from the goats and we see what these things represent. Now Jesus makes this plain. Now look at verse 32, the end of verse 32 and verse 33.

And he, this is Jesus, will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. So on the day of certain judgment, Jesus will simply separate people just like a shepherd separates sheep from the goats. He will place his sheep on his right, but the goats will be on the left. Now a couple of questions. First, who are the sheep and the goats? We will see this plainly when we get into verses 34 to 46. We've already read them, so you probably already know.

But the sheep represent believers, true believers, and the goats represent the lost or non-believers. But second, what is the significance of this right and left? This is simple and it has meaning. In their culture, the right side was the preferred side. Simply the right side is for the believing righteous, but the left side is for the non-believing wicked. So with that in our minds, let's look at the proceedings with the judgment. We see that Jesus deals with those on his right first and then those on his left. So first, notice the inheritance of the righteous. I'm not gonna read all of these verses, verses 34 to 30.

The inheritance of the righteous. Notice that Jesus says that those on his right come and they inherit the kingdom prepared. And what does he say? For you. And this is none other than Christ's future kingdom and glory. But notice why the righteous received this inheritance. In verses 35 to 40, Jesus said it was because of the good works that they did unto him. And that's what he said. You did these things unto me. They gave food, water, and clothing to the poor, the suffering and the needy. They even ministered to the ones in prison.

And Jesus said the things that they did for the poor, the suffering and the needy, they actually did those things unto him. But the question I asked earlier of the parable of the talents, does this right here somehow teach a salvation of works? Do these two parables somehow teach a work salvation? Again, notice why the righteous received the inheritance. Look at verse 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. Here in verse 34, we plainly see that this inheritance was prepared for the righteous when?

Before the foundation of the world or before time in human history. Let that sink in. And this may surprise some of you, but this is a clear reference to the doctrines of election and predestination that we studied in Ephesians chapter one. But we must go back to the question. Is this somehow a salvation of works? By caring for the poor, the needy, the hurting, did they somehow earn salvation? Well, the answer is no. Simply their inheritance was based on two things and it is important for us to see this. First, the inheritance of the righteous was prepared before the foundation of the world.

God prepared an inheritance for his people before they were ever born. God determined these things before time, before human history, and not according to or because of time in human history. The sheep did nothing to earn this inheritance. And then second, the inheritance of the righteous was based on their birth. Now this is not a racial birth or a familial birth, but the spiritual birth. They received this inheritance because they had been born again, therefore they were true believers. So the question must be asked. Did they somehow earn their inheritance because of their works? No.

Did they receive this inheritance because they were elect people of God before time in human history, before the foundation of the world? Or did they receive this inheritance because they savingly believed in Christ? Well the answer to those two questions is yes. I love how Jim Boyce helps us here. Here he kind of ties all of these three parables together. Remember I said that all of these three parables go together? Let me read you something that he says in his book. Again, he's speaking of all three of these parables.

He says, "We must not forget at this point "that there has been an earlier story, "the parable of the five wise "and the five foolish maidens or virgins "in which the emphasis has been on the faithful watching "and waiting of the five wise young women "for the bridegroom. "Their watching and waiting corresponds to faith. "So we cannot take these accompanying stories "as teaching that faith in Christ is unnecessary. "Christ believed in faith. "Still these stories do round out the picture "by showing what kind of faith it is "that actually waits for the bridegroom. "It is not a dead faith. "A dead faith saves no one. "It is a living faith.

"In that Jesus is one with the apostle James who said, "What good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith "but does not have works? "Can that faith save him? "If a brother or a sister is poorly clothed "in liking and daily food and one of you says to them, "go in peace, be warm and filled "without giving them the things needed for the body. "What good is that? "So also faith by itself, "if it does not have works, it is dead." And the second, the inheritance of the wicked. Verse 41 to 46, I'm not gonna read that. Notice that Jesus says that those on his left, he says, "Depart from me." He says they're cursed.

And then he sends them into what? Eternal fire. But notice why the unrighteous received this inheritance. Immediately Jesus says it was because they did not feed, clothe or minister to the poor. They did not minister to the hungry. They did not minister to the needy. He says it was because they did not visit the sick in the needy in prison. But the question, did they not receive an inheritance and glory with Jesus because of their lack of good works? Again, this sounds like he's getting towards some kind of a work salvation. But the answer is no. Jesus was not saying they were judged because they did not perform certain good works.

He was saying that they were judged because they did not savingly believe in Jesus and they did not give evidence of having faith, saving faith by producing good works. I love what John MacArthur says here. He ties all of these parables together. And again, I'm glad we have time. This helped me and I think it'll help you. And I'm quoting, he says, "It is significant that the marks of lostness "Jesus mentions here are not gross sins committed, "but rather simple acts of kindness not committed.

"The five foolish virgins who had no oil for their lamps "were not shut out of the wedding feast "because they were morally wicked, "but because they were unprepared for the bridegroom. "In the same way, the slave with one talent "was not cast out in the outer darkness "because he embezzled the master's money, "but because he failed to invest. "Also in the same way, a person who is shut "out of the kingdom of God is not condemned "because of the greatness of his sin, "but because of the absence of his faith. "It is not that those who were damned to hell "are equally wretched and vile.

"Their common reason for damnation is a lack of faith." But notice a fact about the inheritance of the wicked. Verse 41 says, "The lost, those were the goats, "they are cast into eternal fire, "and it was prepared for the devil and the angels." Look at verse 41. Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire." What does it say? "It was prepared for the devil and his angels." This tells us that hell was prepared for Satan and his angels, and not for people. And this leads us to an important teaching here. There is no scriptural evidence that God predestines people to hell.

God does not elect or predestined people to hell. Sinners end up in hell because they reject saving faith, which is the most sinful of all sins. Simply the sheep will inherit that which was prepared for them long before time in human history. And their inheritance was based on grace through faith. And the goats inherent an inheritance that was prepared for Satan and his angels. And their inheritance is based on their refusal to savingly believe in Christ. You see how it all comes together? So, in summary, we see the proceedings of the judgment. The righteous are separated from the wicked, like sheep and goats.

And those disciples would have immediately had a picture in their minds. This was a picture, an illustration that they could identify with, and a picture that would have driven all of this home in their minds. And in these proceedings, we see that the righteous receive an inheritance prepared for them before time in human history, and it's based on what? By grace through faith. And the wicked receive an inheritance prepared for the devil and his angels, and it's based on their rejection of Jesus. And to me, there are four ways that people deal with this type of judgment. Some deny that God would judge people like this.

They'll say stuff like this, "Well, this isn't a God of love. "This isn't a God of love that I know." Well, this is the God of the Bible. Some develop some other type of judgment. They have some other kind of judgment. What they do is they say stuff like this, "Well, if I'm gonna accept a judgment like this, "this kind of a judgment is for like terrorists "and rapists and child molesters." But some believe this teaching, but they ignore it. They just don't wanna think about it.

They'll say stuff like this, "Well, it's just not healthy for us "to think about these things." And then there are a few, they believe this teaching, and they keep it on the forefront of their minds is motivation from many things. But a couple of questions here, couple of blunt questions. First, are we sheep or are we goats? Are we sheep or are we a goat? We gotta ask that question. And the second question is this, what are we basing that answer on? I'm sure if we had a show of hands, you would say, "We're sheep." We would all raise our hand and say, "No, we're a sheep." Well, what are we basing that answer on?

We can't say that we know we are sheep because we feed, clothe, and care for the poor. We can't say we are sheep because our Christian service. In Matthew 7, verses 21 to 23, we see that on that day, it's the text says, "Not everyone who says, "'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom." And on that day, many will say that they did good Christian works. But Jesus will reject them. Not because of the quality or quantity of their works. He rejects them because, the text says, he never knew them. Simply, they did not have saving faith.

They had faith in what seemed to be sincere faith, saving faith, but they did not have saving faith, which made their serving faith illegitimate faith. So the proceedings of the judgment. There is an inheritance for the righteous and an inheritance for the wicked. The righteous receive an inheritance, not because of their good works, but because of saving faith, which produces good works. And the wicked receive the devil's inheritance, not because they have no works, but because they have no saving faith. Their works are sin and lawlessness because they do not know Him.

And we must accept that this day is on God's calendar and we must be ready. That's the main point of the verses. Now I wanna close the parable in the previous parables by giving five points of observation here. Now I've touched on some of this, but this will kind of wrap us up. This will finish us up. So five points of observation from this parable in the previous ones. First, there is a day of reckoning for all. All nations, all tribes, all peoples will be separated, just like sheep and goats. And then second, there is a day of judgment based on works.

You might say, "Pastor, you have emphasized "that there's no such thing as a faith-based works." No, listen, there is a day of judgment that is based on works. Remember the parable of the talents? We are judged by what we do with our talents, our responsibilities, our opportunities. So in a sense, we are judged based on our works. We are even rewarded based on our works, but our salvation is not dependent on our works. We are saved by grace through faith, Ephesians 2.8-9, but true saving faith will in fact produce works. James 2.17 says that faith that is not accompanied by works is dead faith. So one of the lessons here is this.

There is a judgment based on works. We are rewarded and given even more responsibility because of our works. And then number three, there will be no excuses before judge Jesus. No man will be able to offer up any excuse before God. Here we see no excuse flies. In the parable of the talents, no excuse, no excuse would fly. The parable of the 10 virgins, no excuse would fly. And then number four, there will be a complete surprise from the wicked. It's plain to see in all three of these parables, the wicked are completely shocked to find out that they are not right with God. And notice something, they are shocked throughout all eternity.

Number five, there will be a division of the dead for forever. There's no do over and there's no second chance. Now I have been ending these titles with a question. The parable of the final judgment. And the question we have to ask is, are we sheep or the goat? Are we the sheep or are we the goat? I pray that we're all sheep.