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In this message we come to Matt. 25:31-46, the Lord’s word concerning the judgment of the nations.
In the first two sections of the Lord’s prophecy of the kingdom, the Lord covered the Jews and the church. At the end of this age, the people on earth will be in three categories: the Jews, the believers, and the Gentiles. The word “but” at the beginning of verse 31 indicates that what is spoken from verse 31 to verse 46 is another section, the section concerning the Gentiles. When the Lord’s prophecy turned from the Jews to the church in Matt. 24:32, the word “but” was used to indicate this change. The same is true in Matt. 25:31.
If the Lord’s prophecy had covered only the Jews and the church, it would not be complete, for there would be nothing about the nations. In order to make His prophecy all-inclusive, the Lord had to say a word about what would happen to the nations at the close of this age. Many Christian teachers have mixed up the Lord’s word in the three sections of the prophecy of the kingdom, with some applying the verses concerning the Jews to the church. Both the word to the Jews and the word to the Gentiles have been applied to the believers. Many have taught that the judgment of the nations is the final judgment that the Lord will execute upon us all. In the past I heard certain Christian teachers warn us not to be goats. We were told to love the poor and suffering ones so that when the Lord Jesus came back we might be regarded as the sheep. Otherwise, He will consider us the goats. Thank the Lord that in His prophecy He used the little word “but” in two crucial places, in Matt. 24:32 and in Matt. 25:31. This word indicates that the prophecy turns from the Jews to the believers in the first case and then from the believers to the Gentiles.
Verse 31 says, “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He shall sit on His throne of glory.” The Son of Man is the title of Christ for His kingdom, the Messianic kingdom (Matt. 13:41). His judgment here in these verses is a preparation for that kingdom.
The coming spoken of in this verse is the open aspect of the Lord’s coming. It will be the continuation of His coming mentioned in Matt. 24:30. His glory comprises the glory of His divinity (John 17:22-24), the glory of His humanity (Psa. 45:3), the glory of His resurrection (John 7:39; Acts 3:13-15), and the glory of His ascension (Heb. 2:9). The throne on which He will sit is the throne of David (Luke 1:32-33), which will be in Jerusalem (Matt. 19:28; Jer. 3:17).
Verse 32 says, “And all the nations shall be gathered before Him.” All the nations are all the Gentiles who will be left at Christ’s coming back to the earth after He destroys at Armageddon those Gentiles who follow Antichrist (Rev. 16:14, 16; 19:11-15, 19-21). They will all be gathered and judged at Christ’s throne of glory. This will be Christ’s judgment on the living before the millennium (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1), differing from His judgment on the dead at the great white throne after the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15). This judgment on the living will occur after His judgment on believers at His judgment seat in the air (Matt. 25:19-30).
Verse 32 says that the nations, the Gentiles, will be gathered before Him. When the Lord spoke of the ten virgins, however, He did not say that they would be gathered. Rather, He said that they came. As we have pointed out, coming denotes rapture. In speaking about the slaves who received the talents, the Lord also said that they came. But the nations will not come; they will be gathered. In a parable equivalent to the parable of the sheep and the goats, the seventh parable in Matthew 13, the fish are also gathered out of the sea. All the nations will be gathered to Christ’s throne of glory to be judged there.
Verses 32 and 33 say, “He shall separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand and the goats on the left.” This indicates that the Lord is the Shepherd not only of the believers (John 10:11; Heb. 13:20) and the Jews (Psa. 80:1; Jer. 31:10), but also of all the Gentiles (Psa. 100:1-3). The sheep will be gathered to His right hand, the place of honor (1 Kings 2:19; Psa. 45:9).
Verse 34 says, “Then the King shall say to those on His right hand. Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” After the judgment at Christ’s throne of glory, the sheep will be transferred into the millennium to be the people under the kingly ruling of Christ and the overcoming believers (Rev. 2:26-27; 12:5; 20:4-6) and under the priestly ministry of the saved Jews (Zech. 8:20-23). In this way, they will “inherit the [coming] kingdom.” In the millennium there will be three realms: the realm of the earth, where the blessing of God’s creation, as mentioned in Genesis 1:28-30, will take place; the realm of the nation of Israel in Canaan, from the Nile to the Euphrates, in which the saved Jews will rule over the whole earth (Isa. 60:10-12; Zech. 14:16-18); and the heavenly and spiritual realm (1 Cor. 15:50-52), where the overcoming believers will enjoy the kingdom reward (5:20; 7:21). The kingdom which the sheep will enter will be the first realm. The blessing of the first realm in the millennium, the blessing of God’s creation, was prepared for the sheep from the foundation of the world, whereas the blessing in the third realm, the blessing of the heavenly and spiritual kingdom, was ordained for the believers before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-4).
The whole earth is under God’s administration, which is for the carrying out of His economy. God’s economy is to recover the earth and to establish His kingdom in a full way on the earth. God is more interested in the earth than in the heavens. According to the Bible, God’s intention is to leave the heavens. He desires to come down from the heavens and set up His kingdom on the earth.
In the kingdom of God as the sphere of God’s administration, there is the need for three kinds of people: the priests, the kings, and the people or the citizens. The prophecy concerning the kingdom given by the Lord on the Mount of Olives concerns God’s economy to bring in His kingdom. This final word tells us the result of God’s activity on earth to establish His kingdom. The result is that God will obtain three peoples, the priests, the kings, and the citizens, with whom He will have a complete kingdom. The nation of Israel is like a woman in travail to deliver the remnant of Jews who will be the priests during the millennium. Zechariah 8 reveals that the Jews will be the priests during the coming kingdom. They will teach all the nations to serve God. There will no longer be any idolatrous worship. The believers, covered in the second section of this prophecy, will be the kings, and the citizens will be taken from among the nations. How wise the Lord is, including all of God’s economy in a prediction just two chapters long!
Very few Christians have seen that God judges people according to three things. Even the fundamental Christians believe that God judges people only according to two things — the law and the gospel. According to the law, every descendant of Adam is condemned to perish. But according to the gospel, every believer in Christ is saved. Thus, perdition is according to the law, and salvation is according to the gospel. However, there is yet a third thing according to which God will judge people. This is the eternal gospel.
During the persecution under Antichrist, for the care of the believers who will be left on earth, an eternal gospel will be preached to the nations (Rev. 14:6-7), as illustrated by the parable of the net in Matthew 13:47-50. The Lord will then judge the nations, not according to the law of Moses nor according to the gospel of Christ, but according to the eternal gospel. This is a matter of God’s dispensation. Those who listen to that gospel and treat the suffering believers well will be blessed and reckoned as righteous (v. 46) to inherit the kingdom (v. 34), but those who do not will be cursed (v. 41) and perish for eternity. The gospel of grace (Acts 20:24) brings eternal life into the believers (John 3:15-16) that they may live by God’s life, whereas the eternal gospel brings the sheep into eternal life (v. 46) that they may live in the sphere of God’s life.
The eternal gospel will tell people to fear God and to worship Him. It will say nothing about repentance or believing. The gospel we have heard is absolutely different from the eternal gospel, for we were told to repent to God and to believe in the Lord Jesus. The gospel of grace says nothing about fear or worship; rather, it emphasizes repentance and believing. Furthermore, the center of the gospel of grace is Christ.
In addition to the law and the gospel of grace, the eternal gospel is the third thing according to which God will judge people. All those who are perishing are judged according to the law, the saved ones are judged according to the gospel of grace, and the nations gathered before Christ’s throne of glory are judged according to the eternal gospel. Matthew 25:31-46 is concerned neither with the law nor with the gospel of grace. Christ will not separate the nations according to the ten commandments or according to their repentance and belief in Him. Rather, He will separate them according to the way they have treated the least of His brothers according to the eternal gospel (v. 40). Those who treat the least of His brothers in a good way will be “sheep” (vv. 34-40), but those who do not treat them well will be “goats” (vv. 41-46).
The treatment of Christ’s brothers that will be the subject of the judgment before the throne of His glory will take place during the great tribulation when the believers will suffer the persecution of Antichrist (Rev. 13:6-7; 20:4). All the sufferings in verses 35 through 39 will betide the believers who are left for the trial (Rev. 3:10) during the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21). According to Revelation 14, during the great tribulation Antichrist will force God’s people to worship him. At that time an angel will preach the eternal gospel warning the people to fear God and not to mistreat His people. The Christians that will be mistreated by Antichrist will be considered by the Lord His little brothers. The bigger brothers will have been raptured, and the little ones will be left to pass through the tribulation. Antichrist will mistreat them, persecute them, and imprison them. Thus, they will be short of food and clothing, and many will be ill. But a voice from heaven will say something like this: “Fear God and worship Him, and don’t do anything to harm God’s people. Those who fear Antichrist instead of God will perish.”
God deals with the unbelievers according to the law and with the believers according to the gospel of Christ during the age of grace. But at the end of this age, the three and a half years of the great tribulation, God will send an angel to preach a specific gospel, the eternal gospel. This is a dispensational matter. Then, after Christ has judged the believers at the judgment seat in the air, He will come with the overcomers to destroy the armies of Antichrist, save the remnant of the Jews, and set up His throne of glory in Jerusalem. Then all the living Gentiles will be gathered before Him to be judged. By the judgment seat in the air, He will clear up the situation among the believers. By descending to the Mount of Olives He will clear up the situation among the Jews. Finally, at His throne of glory He will clear up the situation among the nations. He will judge them not according to the law or according to the gospel of grace, but according to the eternal gospel, according to how they have treated His little brothers during the great tribulation. Acts 10:42 and 2 Timothy 4:1 both say that Christ will be the Judge of the living and the dead. Christ will judge the dead at the white throne after the millennium. But He will judge the living at the throne of His glory before the millennium. The judgment according to the law for eternal perdition depends upon how one deals with God, the judgment according to the gospel for eternal salvation depends upon how the believer deals with Christ, and the judgment according to the eternal gospel for the “sheep” to inherit the millennial kingdom depends upon how they deal with the Lord’s little brothers.
Verse 41 says, “Then He shall say also to those on the left, Go from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” This fire is the fire in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14-15). The “goats” will perish in the lake of fire after Antichrist and the false prophet (Rev. 19:20) and before the Devil and the resurrected sinners (Rev. 20:10, 15). This is part of the fulfillment of Revelation 14:10. The lake of fire was prepared for the Devil and his angels, not for man. However, if any man follows the Devil to oppose the Lord, he will share the lake of fire with the Devil and the fallen angels.
The sheep will receive the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. But the Christians who will be kings during the millennium will receive what was predestinated from before the foundation of the world. The portion of the sheep will be simply to enjoy what God has created from the foundation of the world. In the millennial kingdom there will be a heavenly part and an earthly part. The heavenly part will be the manifestation of the kingdom, the kingdom of the Father. The Jews will be in the center of the earthly part as the priests, and around the Jews there will be the sheep, the saved nations, as the people. We, the overcoming believers, will share in the spiritual enjoyment of Christ and in all the heavenly blessings. Our enjoyment will be heavenly, spiritual, and divine. But the enjoyment of the “sheep,” the restored nations, will not be heavenly or spiritual. Rather, it will be the blessing God gave men when He created the earth, the blessing lost by Adam’s fall. I am glad that we are in the best category, the category of the kings. The Jews will be in the earthly part, but we shall be in the heavenly part. Our portion will be to exercise authority over the nations. How I thank the Lord for giving us this clear view of the millennium!
In the prophecy of the kingdom neither the section concerning the Jews nor the section concerning the Gentiles is related to life. But the section concerning the believers, the church, is very much concerned with life. As we have pointed out, we need to be faithful, watchful, and ready, and we need to be wise and prudent. All these are indications that we must be full of life. Life is with us. Hallelujah, we are the life people!
