Judgments After the Tribulation

Transcript

GR 1566
05/02/10
Judgments after the Tribulation
Daniel 12:11-12, Matthew 24-25
Gil Rugh

We've come to the end of Revelation 19 and you may just want to turn there for a moment. What we had in chapter 19 was the return of Jesus Christ to earth, the destruction of His enemies assembled against Him, most well known by the name Armageddon. So the armies of the world, Christ returns from heaven, there is a battle and carnage everywhere. The birds of the air were invited to the feast. Verse 20, the beast was seized, with him the false prophet who performed signs in his presence by which he had deceived those who received the mark of the beast, who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. That is hell. We'll see more of that at the end of chapter 20. The rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh. So the armies assembled against Christ suffered total destruction. Then when we begin chapter 20 we'll have some events like the binding of Satan, some resurrections and the establishing of the kingdom.

I want to pause before we move on further in Revelation. At this period of time after the return of Christ to earth and the destruction of the armies of the world, and before the setting up of the millennial kingdom there is a period of time. Come back to the Old Testament to the book of Daniel. And we've come back to Daniel a number of times through our study to see passages related to what is unfolded in the book of Revelation. Chapter 12 opened up talking about the time when Michael the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, and Daniel's people would be Israel will arise and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time. And this great time of suffering as we have seen, down in verse 7, we are told it would be for a time, two times and a half time, or a time, times and a half time—3½ times, 42 months, 1260 days as we've seen, all referring to that last 3½ -year period of the 70th week of Daniel. Then when you come down to verse 11, from the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up. That happens in the middle of the tribulation. Remember in Matthew 24 Jesus said, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, the Jews need to flee because persecution will immediately break out. We're in the middle of the tribulation. So from the middle of the tribulation there will be 1290 days. Well 1260 days is the day period marking the 3½ years or the 42 months. We have an extra 30 days here. And then you'll note verse 12, how blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1335 days. Now we have 45 more days. So we have really 75 days in total from the return of Christ to the establishing of the kingdom. Because verse 12 when it says how blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1335 days, the blessing is if you arrive at the 1335 days you're going into the kingdom. And what will be going on during these 75 days which are broken down into two periods of 30 days and then 45 more days. We're not told specifically. We know some events that will occur. Why exactly they are broken down this way, we're not told. It's been suggested in the first 30 days there is a cleansing of the temple in preparation for its millennial use. We also have judgment that has to occur somewhere during this 75-day period from the return of Christ to the beginning of the millennium. And so the judgments may fit in here, perhaps in the first 30 days you have Israel judged and in the last 45 the Gentiles. Don't know specifically why the breakdown. But we do know these events will occur within these 75 days.

And I want to focus on the judgments that will occur here. Because the armies of the world have been gathered against Christ at Armageddon. Those opposed to Christ have been destroyed but there are other peoples in the world and there has to be a judgment among them to sift out believer from unbeliever, determine who will go into the millennium. And I understand there will be a judgment of Israel and a judgment of the Gentiles.

Back up to Ezekiel 20. God promises here in Ezekiel 20 to restore Israel to the land and rule over them. We'll pick up down in verse 33. As I live, declares the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out I shall be king over you. I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God. And what has happened when God entered into judgment with Israel after they came out of Egypt? They spent forty years of wandering while God destroyed those who would not believe in Him. So a time of judgment and of sifting to see who would go into the land. So he parallels that with this future time when God gathers Israel, He'll gather them into the wilderness again, this time for judgment determining who is going into the kingdom.

Look at verse 37; I will make you pass under the rod. I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. And the picture here of a shepherd evaluating his flock and sifting them out. I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me. I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn. They are gathered from wherever they are in the world into the wilderness, but they will not enter the land of Israel. They are gathered into this wilderness region for judgment and the rebels will be sifted out and they are not going into the land, they are not going to be part of the kingdom. Thus you will know that I am the Lord. That will have to take place during this 75-day period, the return of Christ and the destruction of His enemies at Armageddon, the setting up of the judgment, the gathering of Israel to the wilderness and the sifting out.

Come over to Matthew 24. We're in the Olivet Discourse, the discourse given on the Mount of Olives in Matthew 24-25. We've come back to this section numerous times. One of the major discourses of Christ during His earthly ministry. It focuses on His Second Coming. In verse 3, as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to Him privately saying, tell us when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age. And so He talks about matters relating to the tribulation we've discussed, down through verse 28. Verse 15 we referred to, when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and so on. Verse 21, for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now nor ever will be. So you have that seven-year period divided into two halves, marked in the middle by the setting up of the abomination of desolation in the holy place in the temple in Jerusalem. We've seen that.

This period will conclude with the Second Coming of Christ. So verse 27, just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. We saw that in connection with the invitation in Revelation 19 for all the birds of the air to come and feast on the bodies. Verses 29-31 talk about the return of Christ. Verse 30, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. All the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. He'll send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they'll gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Now with that He's talked about the overview of the sign of His coming, those signs of the tribulation period, that seven-year period with particular attention on the last 3½ years. That's the sign of His coming, climaxed with His return. Now you have a series of parables and illustrations to tell them about the importance of being ready for the coming of their Messiah, starting with Chapter 24 verse 32. You have the parable of the fig tree and when its leaves come out and so on, you know summer is near. So verse 33, so, too, when you see all these things recognize that He is near, at the door. What all these things? The things He just talked about through the first 28 verses, basically, of this chapter. I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. I take it when He says this generation, the generation that see these things, verse 33, when you see all these things, the things related to the 70th week of Daniel. The generation that sees those things will not pass away before the Messiah returns. Heaven and earth will pass away but My words will not pass away. I mean, this is sure, this is settled, and there is no chance for any change of any kind.

Of the day and hour no one knows. For the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah, just to highlight some of these things. In the days of Noah they were going about their business and the flood came and swept them away. So, verse 39, will be the coming of the Son of Man. There will be two men in the field, one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one will be left. This is not talking about the rapture of the church, the rapture of the church occurs before the tribulation. It is not dealt with in the gospels, the church has not been revealed. In fact those taken in this account will be taken in judgment. They are gathered out from the believers and will not be going into the kingdom. So one will be taken, one will be left. And the one left gets to go into the kingdom in the analogy here, in the picture.

So they are warned, be on the alert, you do not know which day your Lord is coming. And we don't want to lose the point that is being pictured here. You'll have these things going on through the tribulation and the Jews and anybody reading this and believing Jews as they read this, they'll say, we're getting near the coming of the Lord. They need to be careful that they are not ignoring the obvious because you don't know when your Lord is coming. And if the head of the house had known when the thief was going to break into his house, he would have been ready. Verse 44, therefore you must also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think. This doesn't mean He is compared to a thief; the point is the surprise of His coming to those who are not ready and watching.

Then you have another account, the faithful and sensible slave who his master put in charge of his household. Blessed is the slave, verse 46, whose master finds so doing when he comes. He'll put him in charge of all his possessions. Now you see you're going to be going into the kingdom; you're going to have blessings and responsibilities. But the evil slave. Verse 50, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him, at an hour when he does not know, cut him in pieces and find him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You see the sifting out. You have to be ready, you better be prepared or else you will be caught unprepared and it will be too late.

Then you come into chapter 25, the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom, five foolish and five prudent. The five prudent had prepared their oil lamps with oil, the five foolish hadn't prepared, and they didn't have any oil for their lamps. They can't go out at night and meet the bridegroom. Now this is not the church waiting for the return of Christ, these are friends of the bridegroom. There are multiple virgins here; they are not called the bride. This is not the church here, this is Israel. And the five prudent pictures believing Israel prepared for the coming of their Messiah. During that seven-year tribulation and particularly toward the end of it they have come to believe in Him and they are anticipating His return. The five foolish were not prepared. So you see what happens, verse 10, while they were going away to make the purchase the bridegroom came. Those who were ready went with him to the wedding feast. What did we read in Revelation 19 when Christ is ready to return and heaven opens and He returns to earth? Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast.

And be on the alert, verse 13, you do not know the day nor the hour. So you see the constant reminder through this section. You had better be prepared, you had better be alert, and you had better be on the watch. Heaven and earth will pass away, my words won't pass away. I'm coming back and those who aren't ready won't come into the wedding feast, they won't be part of the kingdom.

Parable of the talents. A man went on a journey, called his slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. He gave five to one, two to another and so on. Then he returns and the one who had wisely used the amount his master gave him, verse 21, his master said to him, well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master. These Jews understand this, the coming of the Messiah. What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Here you are put in charge of many things. Remember what Jesus had promised His disciples, to sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So these kinds of blessing that the Jews were well aware of. Enter into the joy of your master. The same with the one who had received less money but had been faithful with the amount he had received. He gets the same commendation. Verse 23, well done, good and faithful slave, you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master. But there was a slave who did nothing with what his master had given him. And so, verse 30; throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I take it each of these accounts that we've just touched on anticipate the return of Christ in the context of Israel and the Jews because in verse 31 we make a change. The Son of Man when He comes with His glory, note verse 32, all the nations will be gathered before Him. So now we have a separating out of the nations, the non-Jews. So He has drawn a succession of pictures, illustrations, parables for the Jews on the necessity of being ready, being prepared. The blessings will come for those who are prepared for the coming of their master, their Messiah. And the disaster that will come upon those who are not prepared.

We come to verse 31, but when the Son of Man comes in His glory. That hasn't happened yet, it's a yet future event, and all the angels with Him. And we noted this ties to what we saw in Revelation 19 where we the redeemed will be with Him and the angel of heaven as well will be with Him. Then He will sit on His glorious throne. But we're not in the kingdom yet, we're still in that 75-day period. And this glorious throne is a throne of judgment. And from what follows as we'll see, I take it Israel has already experienced their sifting. We'll see here with the Gentiles what happens with the unbelievers in Israel, they have been executed, physically killed. Now we're ready to turn attention to the Gentiles. Awesome scene when you think about it. These are the Gentiles now. The armies of the Gentiles have been destroyed at Armageddon, but there are people from all over the world now that have to be gathered and brought before Him for judgment. All the nations will be gathered before Him. I take it these are living people just as in the accounts relating to Israel that we read were relating to Jews alive at the return of Christ. There is no resurrection involved in these judgments yet. We're focusing on those alive. We'll talk about the resurrection as we move into chapter 20 in connection with the kingdom. But this is a sifting of those alive on the earth at the return of Christ. Those prepared for His return, those caught off guard as we saw in the account. Now here all the nations, all the Gentiles from all over the world now are gathered before the throne of Christ. What an awesome event.

Israel first brought to judgment. And that follows the order we've been through. Now the Gentiles brought before Him. He will separate them from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Then what kind of picture for Israel, remember when we saw in Ezekiel 20 where the rod of the shepherd lifts out the sheep. The rebels in the picture are going to be destroyed and those who belong to Him spared to go into the kingdom. So you have a division take place, the sheep and the goats. He'll put the sheep on the His right, the goats on the left. You'll note here there are only two groups—the sheep and the goats. There are not the undecided, the neutral.

Back up to Matthew 12:30, he who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters. There is no neutral ground. You see it is a clear divide. We like to blur issues; Jesus says there is no blurring of issues. You are either with Me or against Me, you either gather with Me or you oppose Me and scatter. That's it.

So when you come to the judgment of the nations here, as we saw with Israel there were those who were prepared and those who were not prepared. Now it says nothing about people half-prepared, half-ready, partly ready. That means you are not ready at all. So here the sheep and the goats, divided into two groups.

And note what He says, and four things are said back in Matthew 25 verse 34 about those on the right. The king will say to those on His right, come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. He addresses them as you who are blessed of My Father. And their position is a result of the blessing of God upon them. We've seen often in our studies that salvation is a result of God's grace reaching out to rebellious, sinful people. So immediately He identifies them as those blessed of My Father. And He says to them, come, inherit the kingdom. Inherit the kingdom. This is their promised inheritance, the kingdom. They will inherit the kingdom. These Gentiles are going to enter into the kingdom and be part of it. The Jews will be the focal point in the kingdom; they are the key people, the key nation. But the Gentiles, believing Gentiles, are privileged to enter into the kingdom. Again, we're talking about the earthly kingdom that He is going to establish. He has His glorious throne set up upon the earth, every living Gentile now is gathered before Him. And He has divided them into two groups and He tells those on the right, you are blessed of My Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you. When God planned the kingdom, we talk about the kingdom's Jewish character. But you understand the kingdom was prepared for Gentiles also because ultimately all believers are going to be part of the kingdom, Gentiles as well as Jews. And that's what is going on here. It's a kingdom prepared for you, it's an inheritance promised by God to those who love Him, belong to Him.

It's prepared for you from the foundation of the world. No change in the plans of God. From the creation God had planned a kingdom for His people. The focal people in that would be His people Israel but it also includes us who are believing Gentiles. Now we're not talking about the church here, but these are Gentiles who have come to faith during the seven-year tribulation. We've noted the church has been removed before the tribulation. We talk about them a little bit when we get into chapter 19. There are other resurrections that we will connect to the resurrection that has already occurred with the church. These are people alive physically on earth. They have become believers during the 70th week of Daniel. Evangelism has been going on among the Jews, among the Gentiles. God is at work in mercy and grace in bringing salvation. And now you, who have come to believe, enter into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So I take it this kingdom has been the focal point. We become confused. Now we have a spiritual kingdom. You understand He doesn't say, you've been in the kingdom. Isn't it wonderful? These are believers, now they get to go into the kingdom. They haven't been in the kingdom. Now you can inherit the kingdom, this is what was promised. We get the idea we're in the kingdom now and it’s a spiritual kingdom. Things change with the first coming of Christ. Nothing changed. Here we are promised when He returns in glory, sets up His throne, now He is deciding who can inherit the kingdom. They haven't been in it yet; they haven't been part of it yet because it hasn't been established because you have to have the king.

So that's what is going on. We are in that 75-day period. So that's why he says, blessed is he who comes to the 1335th day. From the middle of the abomination of desolation, because whoever comes to that has passed through the judgment and is going into the millennium.

Verse 35. Now He tells them how the judgment is meted out, determining factors. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited Me in, naked and you clothed Me. I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to Me. I was going to bring you an article to read, but I left it at home. One person, head of a Christian organization, quoted this, verses 35-36 and said, this is why our ministry has a focus on the physical and emotional needs of people. That's what Christ was concerned about. That has absolutely nothing to do with this. How many people come to this passage, and this is why we ought to be involved in social programs and social action and helping people. Understand, where are we when Christ is talking here? We're talking when He is sitting on His glorious throne after His glorious return to earth, the nations of the earth, those alive at that time, are gathered before Him. That's not us. We will have been removed from the earth seven years earlier and they are being evaluated.

I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in. Naked and you clothed Me, sick and you visited Me. I was in prison and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did you see you a stranger and invite you in? Naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? You'll note they are called the righteous and as the righteous they are doing certain things. They don't become righteous by doing these things, but they manifested their righteousness in their life. Same thing we've been talking about in our study in Romans, the transformation of life that comes as a result of salvation.

Come back to James 2. In the context here we're talking about how you treat a brother or sister. And James is particularly concerned with Jewish believers, He is writing to the twelve tribes of the dispersion as he addresses them in James 1:1. He's writing to Jewish believers scattered outside of Israel, the land, the twelve tribes of the Diaspora. So verse 15, if a brother or sister is without clothing, in need of food and one of you says, go in peace, be warmed and filled but you don't give them what is necessary, what use is that? So faith that has no works is dead. Genuine saving faith manifests itself in action. We won't go and look at the verses in Romans that we’ve been going through, that we are saved by faith apart from works.

So these works are not what made these people righteous, but they manifested that they had entered into the righteousness that God had provided for them in Christ by their action here. And it's more than just a general action because you'll note these people say, we don't know what you are talking about. You say enter into the kingdom, inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You did all these things to Me. I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat. I was thirsty, you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, you invited Me in; naked, you clothed Me. I was sick, you visited Me; I was in prison, you came to Me. Everything is done to Him. But how could they be done to Him, they said? Lord, when did we do these things? When did we see you hungry and feed you? When did we see you in prison?

Back to Matthew 25 verse 40, then the king will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even to the least of them, you did it to Me. Who are these brothers of Mine? I mean, we make this humanity in general. Well, that won't work. They are distinguished from the sheep here. Now you'll note, we have the sheep and the goats and the sheep, the ones on His right, are called blessed of the Father and told to inherit the kingdom. The ones on the left are going to be sentenced to hell in a moment. Who are these brothers of Mine? Well who is left? Who had been called before this glorious throne for judgment? Verse 32, all the nations will be gathered before Him, all the non-Jews. So the nations, all the Gentiles living at the return of Christ are divided into two groups before the throne of Christ—the sheep and the goats. Now the sheep are told they have treated Christ as they should. How did we treat you this way? Verse 40, to the extent you did it to one of the least of these brethren of Mine. They just can't be Christians generally because if they are Christians generally who are the sheep? He's addressing the sheep. And you treated with kindness and cared for these brethren of Mine. Well the sheep are believing Gentiles. Who are they treating with kindness? They are treating with kindness the believing Jews. Remember the Jews have already experienced their judgment. I take it the order follows here as the first part of chapter 24 walked us sequentially through. Then we had the dividing out of the Jews. Now the only ones left among the Jews here are believing Jews. So you have Gentiles divided into believer and unbeliever and you have believing Jews who have come through the tribulation, trusted in Christ, passed the judgment as those who will go into the millennium, and now they are here to witness the judgment of the Gentiles. This is so fitting. The Gentiles who have so relentlessly persecuted them, attempted to destroy them, and now here is believing Israel assembled to watch them be judged.

So I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine. These are not just poor and needy people in the world, these are believing Jews who were under such intense persecution during the tribulation, as the devil, particularly during the last 3½ years poured out everything he had in an attempt to destroy the Jews. The instruments that he used were unbelieving Gentiles, the beast and his followers. So now here are these Gentiles and the kindness and acts of caring for the Jews. What did they do? They put their lives on the line. You know we have just a little taste of it. In some parts of the Muslim world, to be pro-Jewish is to put your life on the line. And Hitler's Germany, to treat the Jews with kindness and protect them and provide for them was to put your life on the line. In the tribulation it will be far more intense. Only believers would do that, believing Gentiles. So it's how you treated believing Jews. They are Christ's brethren, as Paul referred to himself and referred to fellow Jews as his brethren according to the flesh. They are fellow believers.

Back up to Matthew 12:48, who is My mother and who are My brothers? Stretching out His hand toward His disciples He said, behold My mother and My brothers! Whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother, sister, mother. Never refers to just the world, the poor and needy as His brethren. It is fellow believers and here it is Jewish fellow believers who are distinguished from the Gentiles who are sheep and goats. And the sheep and goats are being evaluated on how they treated His brethren, a third group. You eliminate all the Gentiles, that leaves you with believing Jews.

Back to Matthew 25:40, to the extent you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me. So believing Gentiles, even though as believers they'll be under persecution, it will be nothing like the persecution the Jews are experiencing. And so their acts of kindness. The Jews, the believing Jews, just puts themselves at greater risk. But because they are believers and they now grasp something of the plan of God they treat him with kindness.

This is serious business here at this judgment. Look at verse 41: Then He will say to those on the left, depart from Me accursed ones. Understand there is no middle ground here; those who do not belong to Him are accursed ones. Into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. And you are followers of the devil, you are of your father the devil, you always do the desires of your father as we read in our earlier study today in John 8, and you will join in the destruction prepared for your father. It's eternal fire. How sad it is that some who claim to be evangelicals, Bible-believers have begun to deny the existence of an eternal hell, not for any exegetical reasons. They are honest; it's just too horrible a concept for me to accept. That's not a good reason to change your theology. This is serious business. Hell is more awful than I can imagine, but it is eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; and so all those who are followers of the devil will join him.

Why? I was hungry, you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, you didn't invite Me in; naked, you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, you did not visit Me. Then they themselves will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, imprisoned, didn't take care of you? He will answer them, truly I say to you, to the extent you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. Now again this is not salvation by works, this is genuine salvation manifested in works and under the intense time of the tribulation. True believing Gentiles will manifest the reality of their salvation, commitment to Jesus Christ by putting their lives on the line in an additional way. Not only as believers themselves, but now those who will put themselves out to protect believing Jews and manifest the work of God in their lives. Unbelievers will not do that, true believers will.

So back in verse 37, the righteous will answer Him, they have manifested their righteousness but they have been justified by faith by how they treat the Jewish people. We run around, grab a verse, feeding the hungry, feeding the poor, and we're off running, thinking we are doing the work of God because we're caring for the needy. And quite frankly what we're doing is squandering the resources of God that He has given to us for the promoting of the gospel and the reaching of the lost on feel-good projects that do nothing to rescue the perishing and bring life to the lost.

Verse 46, these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life. Could the contrast be any greater? These will go away into eternal punishment, the righteous into eternal life. Eternal is eternal. People like to say, I don't believe the punishment is eternal, I don't believe the fire is eternal. Then what makes you think the life is eternal either? We're talking the same word. I choose not to believe in eternal hell but I believe in eternal life. On what basis? Because I don't like to believe in eternal hell. Well now I set myself up to decide just on the basis of how I feel. Well some people don't feel like they need to believe in Christ to be saved. Are we going to change scripture because of how they feel? These are matters of eternal importance. I can't grasp the awfulness of an eternal hell. I'll be honest, I can't. I can only dwell on it for a certain amount of time and I think I have to stop. Where does this go? It's more awful than my finite mind can grasp. But I have to say, eternal life is more wonderful than my finite mind can grasp, too, but I'm not going to throw it overboard because of my peanut brain. This is the living God telling us how it is.

Come back to Matthew 24:35 again, heaven and earth will pass away but My words will not pass away. We don't want to miss the point. Heaven and earth will pass away, we're going to have a new heavens and a new earth. My words will not pass away. Every single one will be fulfilled. So when I read of the awfulness here of people being cast into an eternal hell prepared for the devil and his angels, I believe it. Just like I believe when he says that believers here at this judgment will inherit the kingdom and receive eternal life, I believe it. I walk by faith, not by sight. I've never seen heaven, I've never seen the kingdom that will be established, nor have I ever seen hell. I believe it because God said it. Period.

So we have the picture here of where we are with these judgments. So somebody runs you to Matthew 25 you say, I'm familiar with that. We ought to start in chapter 24 and see where we are and what we're talking about. And this judgment particularly is a judgment of living Gentiles. It only includes living Gentiles, the sheep and the goat judgment. This is not the last judgment of scripture, not if you take scripture literally. This is a judgment of a select group of people—Gentiles who have survived the seven-year tribulation. This is not a judgment of all unbelieving Gentiles. Gentiles who were killed at Armageddon are not at this judgment. Gentiles who died in judgment during the tribulation are not at this judgment. This is only Gentiles who have survived the seven-year tribulation and are alive at the Second Coming of Christ, not destroyed at Armageddon. All these nations, these peoples, non-Jews, are gathered before His throne for a determination of who will go into the kingdom and who will not. Those going into the kingdom inherit what God has promised to those who believe in Him. It's for the righteous. The rest are killed at this judgment. And those are ones who are going to spend eternity in hell. Their final sentencing is yet future but basically they've been found guilty and condemned to hell. They will experience a resurrection at the end of the millennium for their final sentencing. Just understand this is the judgment of the living Gentiles. We saw in Ezekiel 20 there is a judgment of living Jews; we saw that sifting out in the preceding account.

Now we're ready to go into the millennium because we know who is going in. There will be some details at the start of Revelation 20 with the binding of Satan and so on, there are some resurrections to occur, but as far as determining who is alive at the Second Coming and who is going into the kingdom and who is not, that's determined. We're ready for the final activity, there are resurrections, there is the binding of Satan, and we have the establishing of the kingdom in chapter 20.

What a glorious future we have. These are real events. We won't be sitting under this judgment, we will have returned with Christ. We will be part of this awesome event. During this 75-day period, all this going on, peoples from all over the world gathered to be judged. We're going to be present, we have returned with Him and I take it we will be observing the wonder of these events and be present as glorified saints to observe what is being set up and who is going into the kingdom in their physical bodies, even as we will be going in glorified bodies. We'll talk more about that in chapter 20.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for great grace. Thank you for a salvation that, Lord, is part of your eternal plan. That you have promised a kingdom. A kingdom that you have prepared for us who believe in you from the foundation of the world. A kingdom which your people Israel will be at the center. But we will share in that kingdom, we will be there as the bride of Christ, we will rule and reign in that kingdom. We'll have eternal life. Lord, you've unfolded a marvelous plan. How good it is for us to be reminded there is no middle ground. He who is not with Me is against Me. All humanity is divided into two groups—those who are with Christ and those who are against Christ. May we not forget that. Every person we deal with, every person we talk to, every family member, every friend, and every co-worker is either for Christ or against Him. And only the marvelous salvation you have provided in Christ can take a lost person doomed to an eternal hell and cause him to be born again, receive the righteousness of Christ and eternal life. Use us to convey that message even in the days before us. We pray in Christ's name, amen.