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41 Then He will also say to those on the left hand, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting 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 take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me." 44 Then they also will answer Him, 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, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch 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 everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. ~ Matthew 25:41-46
Today, we complete our study of Matthew 25 which is a part of what is known as the Olivet Discourse. As the name suggests this teaching was given by the Lord Jesus while on the Mount of Olives. The previous chapter, Matthew 24, provides for us a framework regarding the end times. In that chapter the Lord Jesus laid out the events of the last days in considerable detail. The next thing to happen on God's end times calendar is what we refer to as the Rapture of the Church. A good interpretive principle to remember while studying the Bible is the separation between the nation of Israel and the Church.
After the Rapture of the Church when God will take believers in the Lord Jesus out of this world to be with Him in heaven, the seven year Tribulation will begin. The purpose of the Tribulation will be to provide the nation of Israel one last time to come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. After the Tribulation is over, the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will happen. He will return to this earth to set up the 1000 year millennium. During that time God will fulfill all of the promises He has made to Israel down through the ages.
In v.41-43 of today's passage we read, "41 Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting 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 take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'"
In our previous study we began explaining the parable of the sheep and the goats. Whereas the sheep represent those who believe in the Lord Jesus as their Savior, the goats represent those who have yet to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. In v.41 the Lord Jesus will speak to those on His left, the goats, the judgement they chose when they rejected the truth. Due to this, nobody should ever be sent to Hell, but they will be sent there. At the beginning of the Millennium, it will be the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who will tell the goats to depart from Him. He will do this because they will yet be in their sin which curses one from God's presence. For those whose sins are not forgiven, unfortunately, they will spend their eternity in hell away from God.
The primary difference between the sheep and the goats is that the sheep have come to the place where they admit their sinfulness and that they realize their need for the Lord Jesus to be their Savior. As a result of believing in the Lord Jesus as their Savior, God's Spirit will have come into their lives making their once dead spirit alive to God. As evidenced in these verses, the very presence of God's Spirit in a person yields a heart that causes them to show compassion to people who are in need.
In v.44 of today's passage we read, "Then they also will answer Him, 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?'"
In response to the judgement the Lord Jesus will render on those not "born again," the goats will question Him with amazing astonishment. Nothing reveals more sharply the radical difference between God's judgment and man's judgement than this story of the sheep and the goats. Even "good deeds" are shown to be what they are in the searching light of His truth. Good deeds that are not born out of a heart indwelt by the Lord Jesus Christ are not truly "good" deeds. They are carefully planned deeds born out of the hope that they will earn favor with God. Unless our sin is forgiven by God, we have no hope beyond this world and we could never do enough to merit His favor. This is why the Lord Jesus came to die on the cross so that our sin could be forgiven.
In v.45-46 of today's passage we read, "45 Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch 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 everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels who before time rebelled against God in heaven. These angels who were once holy in the presence of God, chose unholiness. Since there is no remedy for their fallenness, God prepared a place for them in the place of everlasting fire. When mankind chose to identify with the rebellion of the devil, he sealed his fate with the devil in hell for eternity. That is, until the Lord Jesus died on the cross. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross He broke the chains for man to enter into a personal relationship with God. But, man feels most safe in his sin with himself at the helm of his life. For those who chose the way of the devil and death God had no choice but to let them go their own way. So, by choice, man assigned himself to a place not even intended for him.
There is only one way to avoid the natural judgement of the truth. It is to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. Those who have not come to the end of themselves and have not received the Lord Jesus into their hearts, they will not be able to access the presence of God in the end. Due to the fact that they lack the very presence of God in their lives, they will not know eternal life. But, those made perfect in the eyes of God because the righteousness of Christ has been applied to their believing souls, they will not only spend their eternity separate from sin and death, they will know the kind of life that God intended for man from the very beginning.
