The Nations In Prophecy – Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. On our plane of existence, things sure are a mess.

Aren't you glad there's someone in charge who lives on another plane of existence? God's unseen hand is guiding the forces of history toward His conclusion. And through Bible prophecy, we can understand the last chapter of the story.

Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, Bible prophecy is not always easy to understand.

Can you make this easier? Well, Dave, you're right. There's a great deal of controversy regarding prophecy. Oftentimes, we might agree on what is going to happen, but we disagree as to when it's going to happen.

But here's the good news. It is not necessary for us to solve all those problems to benefit from prophecy. The reason that the Bible tells us what's going to happen in the future is so that we might live for the future and that our lives might be transformed as we begin to realize the momentous events that are planned for us.

At the end of this broadcast, I'm going to be giving you some contact info because I've written a book entitled We Will Not Be Silenced, and this is one of the last days that we're making it available for you. The purpose of the book, to help us to live faithfully in the midst of a world in which there's a great deal of confusion, but understanding always that God is in control and we represent Him on this planet. I'm sure you've probably heard the story of the boy who was reading a novel in the living room when his mother said, come help do the dishes. But he said, no, mom, I can't because I'm in chapter six. And right now he said, the villain, this evil robber, he's got someone pinned against the wall, and I have to see how it turns out. Well, as most mothers do, she persisted and finally, knowing he had to go, he just flipped to the back page of the book and he read it. And he said, you know, that robber, he's doing all right in chapter six, but is he ever in for a surprise when he gets to the last page?

Today we're going to look at the last page. You know that this has been a series of messages entitled God and the Nations. We've spoken about God's sovereignty in raising up leaders, God's sovereignty in bringing them down. We've also studied how one nation is used by God to judge another.

It's all been a part of the series. And now we come to a passage of scripture that tells us that God personally is doing the judging through Jesus Christ. It's what is called in the Bible, the judgment of the nations. And what we'd like to do in the next few moments is to give you five characteristics of the judgment of the nations, or I should say five features of that judgment.

And zero in particularly on the one that is most troubling to us. Namely, that it appears as if some people inherited eternal life because they were kind to others. And so we're going to have to unravel that particular passage with its mystery. So with that background, the passage is the 25th chapter of Matthew, where Jesus speaks about the judgment of the nations. And as we look through these features, I want you to notice that first of all, first of all, the time is at the glorious appearing of Christ. Matthew 25 verse 31, when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all of the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.

We have to take a moment to give you a timeline here. When you look at all of the prophecies of the Bible, it makes most sense to put them all together to believe that first of all, there's going to be a rapture of the church, then a period of great tribulation that lasts about seven years plus. And then you have the glorious appearing of Jesus to the Mount of Olives. And this is an appearing that is so beautiful that if you notice in chapter 24 of Matthew, I don't even have to flip to another page. It says in verse 30, at that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and a great glory.

That's the event that is spoken of here. And then after the time of the glorious appearing of Jesus, you have what is known as the Millennial Kingdom, which lasts 1,000 years plus. And then after that, you have a great white throne judgment given in Revelation chapter 20. So here you have the glorious return of Jesus. That's the time of this judgment. Let's hurry on and let's go to the place of the judgment.

Where does that happen? When the Son of Man comes in his glory with all the angels with him, he shall sit on his throne. Is this the throne of heaven? No, it says when the Son of Man comes in the throne of his glory, he's going to come to earth. The Bible says in the book of Zechariah chapter 14 verse 1, when he comes, his feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east.

And the Mount of Olives shall split in two, to the north and to the south, so that there shall be a very great valley. Jesus is actually coming to this earth. The people on earth shall see him.

Every eye that is still able to see at that period of time, every eye of all those who are living shall see him as he returns to this planet. You see in the Old Testament, those prophecies that were made about a glorious rule on this earth, they have never been fulfilled. Now some people bless them. They want to spiritualize them.

They want to make them into poetry. But some of us actually believe that God is going to literally fulfill them. For example, it says in Isaiah 2 that he shall judge among the nations and shall settle disputes among many different people, and they shall beat their swords into plow shears, their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Now those words evidently are engraved in the United Nations in New York, but I need to tell you in case you haven't heard it before, the United Nations will not bring that kind of peace to this earth.

Sorry, thank you for trying, but you're not going to do it. Only Jesus is going to do it. And he's actually going to rule. You say, well, where are we going to be? Well, if we're raptured, we're going to have glorified bodies. We may come with him. You'll notice that the scripture says all the angels are coming with him. In ancient days when a king traveled to another country, the King of France or the King of England, perhaps 1000 or more people accompanied him. Butlers, cooks, all kinds of various servants. There would be advisors, people who would be like soldiers guarding the presence of the king, what we call today the secret service.

All of those would go with the king. And when Jesus comes to earth, what a descent it is going to be. And the Bible also talks about us coming with him at this glorious appearing when Jesus comes to this earth. That's where I believe it's going to take place. So we've looked at the time, we've looked at the place.

Who are the participants? Let's pick it up in verse 32. It says, all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from the other as a shepherd separates sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. The imagery is that of sheep and goats. The people like sheep and goats.

Now it says all the nations, ethne in Greek from which we get the word ethnicity or the ethnic differences. All of the ethnics usually referred to in the New Testament as Gentiles. All of these people are going to be gathered before him.

Who are they? They are ones who have survived this great tribulation. Remember rapture, tribulation, glorious appearing of Jesus Christ. They've survived the great tribulation and now they are going to stand for judgment. Whenever I would hear about the judgment of the nations when I was a child, I used to think that to all the nations would come up before God like Canada, like the United States and then you'd have them go into one column or another just like on election night here in the United States where you have all of Illinois going democratic and you have all of California going.

You know there was a little boy who said daddy, daddy do people still tell fairy tales today and his father said oh yes, yes, yes and those fairy tales usually begin with when I am elected I will. But the judgment of the nations is not like all of the nations going in one column or another. It is an individual judgment as you can see. All of the people the Bible says are gathered before him and you have some who are sheep and you have some who are goats and they are going to be set apart by the Lord and they will have two separate eternal destinies. You know you can go to Israel today if it were safe and you could see shepherds still doing this because sheep and goats graze together during the day and oftentimes at night they are separated for various reasons and the shepherd stands in front of the herd and as it comes toward him he takes his rod and he taps the sheep perhaps on the right and they go to the right and he taps the goats on the left side of their head and they go to the left and that's the imagery that Jesus is using for this final judgment. Who are the participants? The sheep and the goats.

Another feature is the purpose of this. What is the purpose of this judgment anyway? Now we have to look at the text very specifically in verse 34 it says these words. Then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father take your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. It's to determine who is going to go into this millennial kingdom over which Jesus Christ will reign and all those who go into the millennial kingdom in this context are believers and they're still going to have their earthly bodies. They will have to die someday and be resurrected because the scripture does say that in the millennial period there's going to be longevity a child shall die being a hundred years old but the total curse has not yet been lifted and flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God so these earthly bodies cannot live in an eternal existence so what you have is Jesus here separating those who are wicked into one place and those who will enter into the millennial kingdom will enter into the kingdom that has been prepared since the foundation of the world. The goal is to determine who enters the kingdom over which Jesus shall rule. Well we've looked at the time the glorious appearing the place which is earth the participants the sheep and the goats the purpose who goes into the kingdom but now we come to really the thing that has troubled us at times the most about this particular judgment and that is the basis upon which they are judged.

Let's read the text. You'll notice that the king says in verse 35 to the sheep who go into the kingdom 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. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit 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 we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothed you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The king will reply I tell you the truth whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine you did it for me and we want to say wow. I suppose if you believe that salvation is by works this would be the clearest passage that you would have in all the Bible to argue that way that if you do good deeds you get to go into the kingdom you get to heaven if you do bad deeds you're excluded but that would be a mistake to draw that conclusion for a number of different reasons first of all because the Bible so clearly teaches in other passages that it is not by works by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight we can't be saved by good works for the simple reason that the only works that God ultimately accepts are the works of his beloved son who is perfect and unless we put our trust and faith in Jesus we will be excluded even if we happen to do some good works that is clearly taught in the Bible a simple fact is that the best deed in all the world is not an answer to our deep depravity and our sin but we read this and it seems as if the basis of judgment was indeed what they did with these brothers of Jesus and then we ask ourselves well you know if if good deeds were the way to heaven what about somebody like Ted Turner didn't he give a billion dollars to charity or something like that yet he claims to be an atheist I mean what happens to him this makes us look at the text a little bit more closely doesn't it let's put it all in context who are these people anyway and these brethren during the period of great tribulation the Bible says that there are Jews that are converted to Christ multitudes of them revelation chapter 7 says 144,000 and it even lists the various tribes from which they come and it says that they are sealed and they are servants of God and catch this they have their robes washed in the blood of the lamb well during the great tribulation antichrist is ruling antichrist is forcing everyone to take the mark of the beast and if you do not take the mark of the beast the Bible says that you cannot buy or sell you couldn't go to jewel or dominics to buy a loaf of bread unless you go through some kind of a scanner or some kind of an indicator that that says that you have the mark of the beast and so all that you can possibly do in that situation is somehow survive and these Jews who may be the brethren about whom Jesus speaks these Jews were helped by gentiles by the ethnos and and they were helped because the only way that they could survive is by help and in doing this the gentiles whatever problem they also had to buy or sell because they'd have been ones who didn't receive the mark of the beast either but but they at least had some kind of wiggle room whereas during the period of tribulation the Jews are specifically targeted by the greatest hate and satanic campaign in history so for these gentiles to help the Jews is definitely a sign that these are gentiles who also believe in and trust the messiah and they do not take the mark of the beast and and their good works their good deeds are obviously an indication of of who they are and who they are loyal to and so jesus says as a result of that you did this to my brethren you visited me in prison you clothed me and because of that you will enter into the kingdom now hang on to that for a moment as we look at the goats and see what happens to them you'll notice it says in verse 41 then he will say to those on his left depart from me you who are cursed into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels for i was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat i was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink i was a stranger and you did not invite me and indeed i needed clothes and you did not clothe me i was sick and in prison and you did not look after me they will also answer lord come on now when did we see you hungry or thirsty or stranger needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you and he will reply i tell you the truth whatever you did not do for one of the least of these you did not do it for me and then comes the most ominous verse in this whole chapter that should give us chills then they will go away to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life my friend i want you to pause for just a moment and consider what we've just heard the time is going to come when people are going to have to take sides we here in america oftentimes think to ourselves that we can be indifferent and we can so to speak ride the fence the day is coming a day of judgment when absolutely we must take one side or the other that's the reason i've written a book entitled we will not be silenced in the midst of all that is going on in our culture it is so important for us to speak to know what to speak to understand what is happening in our culture and then relate it to the scriptures i sure hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because this is one of the last days we're making this resource available for you here's what you can do go to rtwoffer.com that's rtwoffer.com or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337 now because i believe that this is so important and that this resource will be helpful for you i'm going to be giving you that info again but i want to emphasize from my heart to yours today we are deeply grateful for those of you who help us with this ministry through your prayers and through your gifts remember the book we will not be silenced go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 time now for another chance for you to ask pastor lutzer a question about the bible or the christian life dark days may be ahead for america but exactly why is a matter of some debate a listener named john has posed this question pastor lutzer in your book on is god on america's side you make a case for the downfall of america because of immorality wickedness ungodliness and so on however not once that i could remember did you speak of genesis 12 3 and the curses that come to nations that curse israel another prominent pastor and author released a book a few months back in it he argues that america has been blessed because of her support of israel and will soon be cursed because america is beginning to turn from israel this does not seem to be what you argue in your book so who's right well the quick answer john is that both of us are it is true that in my book i don't make any reference to america's treatment of the jews many other authors have emphasized this i wanted to emphasize that even apart from that america i believe is headed for judgment i believe that we are a nation under judgment because you can't really explain what is happening in washington unless you realize that there is some national blindness that is going on in this country and so this book was written as a warning to america because of those things now i do agree that one of the reasons that god blessed america is because of our support of israel however i do not take it to an extreme like some people do there have been those who have tried to say that every time we have not supported israel we've had a national disaster so they've tried to correlate our support of israel with natural disasters i don't think that we can do that it is very difficult for us to read the fine print of god's purposes but at the same time you're right i think that we should continue our support of israel and perhaps that support is one of the reasons why god has blessed us but even apart from that we are internally self-destructing because of our own wickedness thankfully in the midst of this the church has been called by god to be faithful and to represent jesus christ in the world no matter what happens and that's the bottom line for you and for me thank you john for your question thank you pastor lutzer for that answer if you'd like to hear your question answered go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on ask pastor lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337 that's 1-888-218-9337 you can write to us at running to win 1635 north la salle boulevard chicago illinois 60614 running to win is all about helping you find god's roadmap for your race of life erwin lutzer has brought part one of the nations in prophecy the last in a six-part series on god and the nations next time join us for more about properly interpreting prophetic scriptures thanks for listening this is dave mccallister running to win is sponsored by the moody church