Jesus coming to Judge!

Matthew 25:31-32

Matthew 25:31-32, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. Olivet Discourse, the sermon of our Lord on his Second Coming in Matthew ²⁴ and 25.

The Bible says very clearly that there is no way to escape sin.

Numbers 32:23, But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out.

God is aware of all sin. All sin must be punished. God therefore stands in the place of a judge who must execute punishment.

Psalm 90:8, You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.

What may appear to be secret to us is well lit in full view of the gaze of God. Nothing escapes Him.

Proverbs 13:21, Evil pursues sinners, But to the righteous, good shall be repaid.

The consequence of sin is like the shadow that cannot be shaken. They never escape it.

Isaiah 3:11, “Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” Judgment is inevitable for sin. There is no question about that.

Romans 1:18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, Not some, but all. The wrath of God is revealed against all of it.

Romans 2:9, “tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile.” No one escapes judgment on sin.

What about Christians?

Christians have the marvellous privilege of having their judgment placed upon the substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian’s sin is judged. Your sin is judged even if you are a believer. By God’s marvellous grace and your act of faith in Jesus Christ, you become one of those whose sin is judged in Christ.

For those who wonder why Jesus died on a cross this is the answer. Jesus Christ died there bearing the sins of the world. He carried guilt and sin which was not His own but had to be paid for, and therefore when a person puts his faith in Christ by God’s design, his debt is thereby paid in that very act of Christ.

On the other hand, for the world of people who do not receive Jesus Christ, who do not accept His lordship and His atonement for their sin, they themselves will bear the punishment for their own sin. The worldwide, people make choice.

They make a choice between receiving Christ as the one who paid the penalty or paying the penalty themselves. That is the simple decision that faces every soul.

Scripture repeatedly warning to those who do not come to God for forgiveness, and who do not trust in the work of Christ. The warning is repeatedly given to them that they will die in their own sin, having to pay the penalty for it.

God has warned not only in word, but He has warned in very vivid judgment. When Adam sinned, there was a judgment of massive proportions that should once and for all settle the issue of how God looks at sin. One sin committed by one couple devastated the entire human race. There is the judgment of the flood. God looked at the earth and men and women were so utterly sinful, the earth was so extremely corrupt, creation had become so totally polluted that He drowned the entire world except for eight righteous souls.

Throughout the history of the world, there have been devastating judgments on nations, cities, and individuals which are recorded in Scripture. All these stands as signposts warning people that God judges’ sin, that there is no escape from that.

Hebrews 9:27, And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,

There is no way to escape the inevitability of the judgment on sin. Anyone who believes that by some good work, or righteous deed God he will, apart from Christ will overlook their sin is completely wrong. Scripture warns regarding this again.

The judgment that is referred to in this particular passage is that final judgment on the earth that occurs at the second coming of Jesus Christ. The judgment of all judgments. A severe and irreversible judgment. The judgment when the Son of Man comes in His glory, to sit on His glory throne, to establish His kingdom, will be a judgment on all the peoples.

At that point there will be a separation of the righteous from the unrighteous, irreversibly and eternally.

Matthew 25:46, And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

We are looking at judgment.

Matthew 24 and 25, these two chapters form one single sermon preached by our Lord. It is our Lord’s own sermon on His second coming. The disciples asked Him in Matthew 24:3 to describe His coming and establishing His kingdom. They wanted to know about it.

When is it going to be?

What are going to be the signs? Jeus is telling them all that they need to know about His second coming. He has taken us all the way to the point of His second coming. He has given us the leading signs, spoken about the time in which it will happen, told us that no one can know the exact day or the exact hour.

He has described the sign in heaven, the final sign of His coming as He appears in heaven. Now Jesus tells us about the coming itself and the attendant judgment. When the Son of Man comes, He will then sit on the throne of His glory, He will then gather all the people, He will then separate them and the ones on His right hand will go into the kingdom according to V 34.

The ones on His left hand will go out of His kingdom forever. V 46.

The chronology of the Lord’s sermon now this is up to the establishment of the millennial kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 20:3-4, and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

The Lord Jesus will come to establish an earthly kingdom of a thousand years’ duration. Satan will be bound for a thousand years. The saints will reign with Christ a thousand years. The Lord Jesus is going to come back.

• He came the first time in humiliation.
• He comes the second time in glory.

The second time He comes, He comes to set up His kingdom. But before the kingdom can begin, it must be determined who can go into the kingdom and who must be kept out. All the people are then gathered together, and the Lord puts those in the kingdom who belong and out of the kingdom who do not belong. That is the judgment we see here.

We are looking to the second coming of Jesus Christ and a time of judgment, because of the analogy that’s used, as the judgment of the sheep and the goats.

In our previous studies we have noted that Jesus wouldn’t tell them the exact day or the hour.

Matthew 24:36, 42,44, ⁵⁰ and 25:13, five times He has said no one knows the day or the hour. We cannot know the specific moment.

The implication of that is to be ready at all times. The Lord has announced again and again that nobody knows the day and nobody knows the hour, nobody knows the specific moment. The intent of that is that means that everybody at all times has to be Ready. The Lord says, I will give you some general signs, and even a few specific events, that are going to take place in the time of tribulation just before the second coming.

But the exact day and the exact hour, no one knows. Therefore, it is incumbent on all generations and all people to be ready at all times. The death of anyone is the final moment for them. That is the equivalent of the second coming.

When a man or a woman dies, immediately the decision of their eternity is sealed, and disposition is made. It is appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment.

Judgment as seen here at the second coming of Christ will be just for those people who are still alive when He returns. Those who have already died have already faced the inevitability of irreversible judgment. Whenever a person dies, their eternity is fixed either in heaven or in hell. Those who are still alive, who have survived all the rest of the events of the tribulation at the coming of Christ must then be judged. Some to be taken into the kingdom, some to be shut out.

This judgment that we see here, the final judgment. All people at all times need to be ready should that hour come in their generation. The judgment of the sheep and goats, though it’s given a tremendous amount of space in Matthew, appears in no other gospel. Mark, Luke, and John don’t deal with it. It isn’t because it’s not significant, it is highly significant.

The repetition of a given passage in the gospels doesn’t necessarily comment on its importance. It does tell us, however, something about the purpose of the author. Mark’s purpose was not to present Christ as King. Luke’s purpose was not particularly to emphasize Christ’s Kingship either and neither was John’s.

The gospel which is intended to present Christ as King is Matthew. This is the reason why the great emphasis of the second coming comes in the gospel of Matthew because Matthew is wanting to present to us the triumph of the regal King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew is the one chosen to give this passage.

Matthew has focused primarily on Jesus as the King of Israel, King of glory, the one with the right to rule, the majestic one, the regal one. That has been his emphasis. It falls into three basic categories.

• a) Jesus as a King Revealed.

First, Matthew treats the King revealed. Matthew unfolds Jesus as a regal person in His birth. Whereas Mark treats Him as human. Mark emphasizes His humanity. Luke talks about His servanthood. John emphasizes His deity. Matthew’s emphasis is on His royal character, His Kingship.

Matthew emphasizes that the King is being revealed. For example, it is Matthew that has His ancestry traced from a royal line.

It is Matthew who has His birth being dreaded by a rival king who is threatened by another king coming on the scene. It is Matthew who makes great emphasis on the wise men, who are oriental king makers, who come and offer Jesus’

homage and present Him royal gifts. It is Matthew who emphasizes that He has a herald to announce His coming as kings always did. It is Matthew who tells us that in His temptation, as it reached its climax, Satan offered Him all the kingdoms of the world knowing that indeed He was entitled to them all.

It is Matthew who emphasizes that Jesus proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount the standards of His kingdom. It is Matthew who uses the miracles of Jesus as His royal credentials, who emphasizes that His teaching was the royal law, that His parables are the mysteries of the kingdom of which He was the King.

He is hailed by Matthew as the Son of David, a royal name. He claimed royal rights as the Son of God. He made a royal entry into Jerusalem and claimed absolute sovereignty. He told a story about a king’s son, and He told it about Himself, and it’s recorded in Matthew.

While facing the cross, Matthew records that He looked beyond the cross to the reigning and the glory that would follow.

It is Matthew who emphasizes His commanding power over legions of angels. It is Matthew who records for us His last words, “All power has been given unto Me in heaven and in earth, go therefore” He is commanding as a monarch who has all authority for such a command.

Matthew makes a great emphasis on the Kingship of Christ being revealed.

• b) Jesus as King Rejected.

Secondly, on the Kingship of Christ being rejected. Matthew all the way through not only presents the regal character of Christ but also shows how He was rejected as King. Before He was born, His mother was in danger of being divorced.

Worse than that, she was in danger of being stoned as an adulteress. It could have been that His life would have been snuffed out before ever He could have reached the throne. At His birth all Jerusalem was troubled, and Herod who was threatened by the thought of another king on the scene sought to kill Him. In the plains of Bethlehem, no longer after the angelic choir was absent and silent, those little hills began to ring again, but it wasn’t with the songs of angels, it was with

the weeping and the mourning of mothers who were crying as their babies were being slaughtered. As Herod attempted to stamp out the would-be king by obliterating every child under the age of two. It is Matthew who tells us that Jesus had to escape for his life to Egypt. When He came back to His own homeland, He hurried away to live thirty years in obscurity in a non-descript off-the-road village called Nazareth where He was without honour and where on one occasion the people of the city itself tried to throw Him off a cliff and kill Him.

Matthew makes a point of telling us that even His herald, John the Baptist, was imprisoned and eventually his head was chopped off. It is Matthew who reminds us that Jesus had no place to lay His head. He was accused of being a drunkard.

He was accused in Matthew of being gluttonous. He is accused of being from hell, from Satan, having a demon. Matthew records His own parables, they mark out the rejection that was thrust against Him, how it was desired by people to take His life, to kill Him as they had killed the prophets who spoke about Him.

Even in His death it is Matthew who has Him say, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” In one of the other gospels,

then, is the regal presentation as complete or is the rejection as complete as it is in Matthew.

• c) Jesus as King Returning.

Matthew presents Him not only as the revealed King and the rejected King but as the returning King. Matthew chapter 24 and 25, there is this great sweeping sermon of our Lord about His second coming. It is not the first time it is mentioned in the gospel of Matthew.

It is mentioned before this on several occasions in our Lord’s conversations with His disciples. It was of major importance to the Lord and of major importance to Matthew as well.

Matthew 16:27-28, For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. 28Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

Matthew 19:28, So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Jesus has spoken about it before to the disciples, but now in a great sermon embracing two chapters, the Lord speaks of His second coming. Matthew records it as the completion of His presentation of the royal character of Jesus Christ. He is coming as regal reigning sovereign King! This is the message.

When Jesus comes, in the moment of His coming there will be an instantaneous judgment. When He comes there will not be any gap of time for people to decide what they want to do. V 31, “When the Son of Man comes.” V 34, “Then shall the King say,”

When He comes, He judges. There is no reason to assume an interval. Daniel seems to see a period of days. The tribulation is to be 1260 days, three and a half years, but Daniel says before the establishment of the kingdom there will be 1335 days. There are 75 days from the end of the tribulation to the establishment of the kingdom in Daniel’s prophecy.

In those 75 days often we ask the question What happens? It may be that Jesus comes a few days after the end of the tribulation, if we are going to be technical, or a few weeks

after it. Or maybe He comes and His coming and all that happens in that event takes a period of time. The point here is, once He comes, whatever that period of time involves, it does not involve an opportunity for people to make a decision about Christ. That will already have been made.

Whatever judgment may come could well come if Christ came at the end of the tribulation, instantly brought about judgment, it could be that that period of time of 75 days is a period of cleaning up after judgment. Maybe it’s the time of Ezekiel talks about having to take much time to bury bodies. Maybe that begins at that time, because there will be a devastating war at Armageddon and a devastating and vengeful judgment of God when Christ returns. Maybe there is a mop up operation before the kingdom begins. We don’t know what fits in that time, but it doesn’t mean that when Christ comes at the beginning, people still have 75 days to get their act together.

When He comes, then He judges. It will be no different than when an individual faces death. There is no way to change what happens then. Death crystalizes into eternity. The decision made regarding Christ in time. So will the second coming of Christ.

There will be no further opportunity for unregenerate people to make a choice. We will see more about that as we move ahead. When we see who goes into the kingdom and who is shut out, that will become very clear to us. 1. The judge.

Who is the judge? Who is the one who comes to be in charge of this judgment?

John 5:22, For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,

John 5:26-27, For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, 27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.

Matthew 28:18, And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

The Father delegated judgment authority to the Son. He delegated authority over the church to the Son, so that the

Son can command the church to go into all the world and do this. The Son also is responsible for judgment. It is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ who is the judge. V 31, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.

The Son of Man who is none other than Jesus Christ. The most familiar, the most common, the most used title by Jesus of Himself is Son of Man. He called Himself that all the time. That was His choice title for Himself. There were several reasons for that.

Reason number one was that it confirmed His humiliation. It affirmed that it was an incarnation, that God had come all the way to being man. It was an affirmation of incarnation, of submissiveness, of the servant heart, the servant spirit, of coming not to be ministered unto but to minister and give His life. He became one of us.

Son of Man emphasized His condescension, His humiliation, His identification, His understanding, His sympathy with men. He became what we are. That was one reason He used it.

The second reason that this was a good choice and common to our Lord’s use was that it tended to be less offensive then if He were to call Himself Son of God all the time. If He were to call Himself Son of God constantly, He would have created more hostility than He did, at least initially.

Calling Himself Son of God continually in front of the Jewish leaders would have fomented problems beyond the problems He had. Of course, after three years of ministry they finally took His life with great hostility. It is very likely that had He continually called Himself Son of God, the whole plan could have been brought to a halt a lot earlier and things that God had intended to accomplish would not have been accomplished.

That kind of conjecture is only conjecture since He didn’t call Himself Son of God but may explain to us some reason why He didn’t. Thirdly, if He had called Himself continually Son of God, not only would His rejectors have been more angry, but His friends might have been more pushy.

Had He called Himself Son of God or had He even called Himself King, had He called Himself all the time Messiah, there would have been even a greater pressure put upon Him by the people to take over the kingdom, to take over and rule, to dominate, to overthrow the Romans.

I believe Son of Man was the lowest title, the lowest profile that Jesus could take. It is a denial of any significant title. It is simply saying, “I am one of you. I am a son of man.” It is true He was also Son of God. It is true He was also King of Kings, but had He paraded those things outwardly, it would have changed the whole series of events.

Jesus communicates Himself as Son of Man to emphasize His humiliation and identification, to deflect hostility and to deflect those who would force Him to become a King, as obviously many wished to do and even tried to do in Galilee.

There is another reason. Jesus chose to use Son of Man because it provides such a profound contrast to the titles that He will have when He comes in His glory. It helps us to understand the distinction between the first and second coming of Christ.

It provides a marvellous contrast, which contrast is pointed up to us here in Matthew chapter 25. V 31, He calls Himself Son of Man. V 34, “Then shall the King” V 40, “And the King shall answer.”

It isn’t long now in this message before He turns from Son of Man to King. But He starts out with Son of Man so that they might know who the King is. If He just said, “When the King shall come,” somebody might say, “it is other than Him.”

Jesus says, “When the Son of Man comes, then will the King say” and He affirms that He is both Son of Man and King.

• Son of Man, humble and humiliated.
• King, glorious, sovereign, reigning, judging, and establishing His kingdom.

Here He turns a corner. Very significant. He does not call Himself King up to this point. He tells a parable about a King’s son. He tells a parable about a King who is God the Father. But now He calls Himself King. It is time to talk about His return. It is time to talk about His reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It is time to look beyond humiliation and beyond see the one who will come in blazing glory. The emphasis is on the kingship.

Matthew 24:3,privately to His disciples. He maintained the privacy of His message about Kingship.

Even when Pilate later said to Him.

John 19:33-37, Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” 37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Not to say that the people didn’t get the message, because when He was crucified they put a sign over Him that said “Jesus of Nazareth. King of the Jews.”

John 19:19, Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

They knew He claimed that. But He did not antagonize them, and He did not strike a constant chord in the hearts of the political zealots by referring to Himself as king.

He downplayed it and called Himself Son of Man. That is not to say He was not King but that He was judicious in calling Himself by that title. Here with the privacy of His disciples, having been found on the Mount of Olives, as He has left the temple ground and now talks with them in the privacy of the evening. Monday before His Wednesday crucifixion, He shares with them that He indeed is the Son of Man who is also the King who will come and judge to establish His kingdom.

When He comes in His glory to set up His earthly millennial kingdom, He will have to make a judgment about who goes into it and who is shut out of it. Since the kingdom is the only thing that will exist on the earth anybody not in the kingdom won’t be on the earth.

We will see that next week. They will go into everlasting punishment. We as a church, Christians, this is no message invented by anybody. This is the message of Christianity since the gospels were written. The church waits for the coming of Jesus Christ.

The world, while not necessarily being ready for it, is waiting for it also.

The world may not realize how fast they are accelerating toward their own doom, but that is exactly what the Scripture says.

Jude 1:14-15, Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” Goes all the way back to Enoch, the seventh man from Adam, who could see ahead in the wisdom of God revealed to him that there would come a time when the Lord would come in final judgment on all men on the face of the earth. Indeed, it will happen. That is the promise of the prophets.

We wait for the second coming. The remarkable thing about Christ is not His second coming. The amazing thing about Christ is not His return. The wonder of wonders is not that Jesus will come in glory and judge the world.

The amazing marvellous incredible indescribable mysterious truth is not that He will come the second time, but that He came the first time to do what He did.

It is amazing that a holy God came to forgive sinners, not that a holy God comes to judge sinners.

• The wonder is not the second coming.
• The wonder is the first coming.

He condescended to redeem us, to love us when we were unlovely, to provide a salvation into which any man can enter, any woman can enter by a choice. The wonder of wonders is that He stooped to be what we are, that He stooped to die our death, to bear our sin, to be separated from God. That is the wonder of wonders.

The fact that He comes back to judge sin is not remarkable at all. That is only utterly consistent with His nature. In the Old Testament we find that God has always been a God who judges sin. We are not surprised at all that He is going to come and ultimately do that and finally do that and deal with sin in a final way.

What is remarkable is that He came to redeem sinners who were worthy only of His judgment. He will come and we should not be so surprised that He will, since He is an infinitely holy God. When He comes to judge, it is going to be a scene that language has strained to attempt to communicate.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-8, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When He comes, He will come with all His mighty angels, and He will come in flaming fire.

Matthew 24:29-30, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

The Lord turns out all the lights in the universe, absolute blackness, and then appears the sign of the Son of Man in blazing glory coming out of heaven and as He comes the light is so blinding.

Revelation 6:15-17 that men and women cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them, to hide them from the face of the wrath of the one who comes.

They cannot withstand this unveiled unmitigated, unrestrained, unhindered, and unveiled glory. Christ will come and not alone, but with His mighty angels in flaming fire. He will take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power. He will be glorified in His saints and admired in all of them that believe. There will be a dividing and vengeance and punishment to those who do not obey.

There will be glory, honour, reward, and respect toward Him for those who do know Him through Christ the Saviour. This is the judgment that occurs at His coming. It’s indescribable, but He comes with all His holy angels.

Jesus Christ comes with His saints as well.

Colossians 3:4, When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

When Jesus comes back, the saints who have already gone to be with Him, either by Rapture, or during the tribulation, the saints already with Him, the spirits of Old Testament redeemed saints, all are coming in the glory of His second coming to establish His kingdom.

Revelation 4:1, After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” I believe that door was opened so that the raptured church could go in. Now the door is open so that the already raptured church can come back in glory, as we read in Colossians 3:4.

Revelation 19:11, Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.

The door is opened again. The one coming on a white horse simply symbolizing triumphal procession. The Roman general returning from victory would ride up the Via Sacra from the Forum to the Temple Jupiter on a white steed demonstrating his victory.

Christ comes as a conquering King with white garments because He is holy and pure. He is faithful and true. He is just and true to His word in executing judgment.

Revelation 19:12-16, His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the

armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a [g]sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

It is the blood of many battles. It has been stained by many enemies defeated before. He has come in bloody vengeance long before, many times before throughout history. He comes in blood stains that have been gathered in other judgments and certainly gathered at the cross.

The judge is identified. He is the faithful and true, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. He comes with a host of heavenly beings in blazing unveiled glory and the world sees this in the midst of the blackness that has come about by the judgment of God. That is the coming of Jesus Christ.

Now when He comes, it is then that judgment takes place. It is too late then for any decisions to be made. This is why the call goes out in the parable of the virgins you better have oil before the bridegroom comes. Because when

the bridegroom comes, if you don’t have oil, you can’t run out and get it or the door will be shut, and you won’t get in. There is no second chance any more than there is after death. V 31, “When the Son of Man shall come.”

It is at the time of the second coming, and we have made that point clear. Since we do not know when that is exactly, we must be ready at all times. When He comes in His glory with all the holy angels with Him, not some but all of them. Ten thousand times ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, an innumerable number.

When He comes with all of them and all His glory and all His saints and when He sits on His glory throne is the time this judgment takes place. No one ever needs to ask when the judgment of the sheep and goats is. It is obvious when it is.

It is when He comes in His glory with His angels and takes His glory throne, overthrows all the armies of the world, all the sovereigns of the world and establishes His own kingdom.

We know the period of time just following the tribulation. The great tribulation will be triggered by the abomination of desolations. Then will break loose all the events described in Matthew 24 and in Revelation 6 - 18.

All those things break loose in that period of time, we get closer and closer to the coming of Christ. Then the sky goes black, and the sign appears. Some day and some hour around that time, the Son of Man will come. The exact day, the exact hour we don’t know. But it will be at the second coming that the judgment takes place.

So, men will either be judged at the moment of their death, or if they live till the coming of Christ, be judged at the moment that He comes. 2. Place of Judgement.

What is the place of judgment? V 31, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.

Where is His glory throne?

Where is the throne promised to Jesus Christ?

We need only to look at Isaiah and remind ourselves of a familiar passage.

Isaiah 9:7, Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. He will reign in a thousand-year kingdom but when the thousand-year kingdom is over, He will continue to reign throughout all of eternity in the new heaven and the new earth.

• There will be a thousand-year kingdom on this earth,
• Then an eternal kingdom in a new heaven and a new earth.

As He reigns upon the throne of David. It is the throne of David.

Where is the throne of David? It is on Zion.

Where is Zion? In the city of Jerusalem.

Luke 1:32, And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be

great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” He will reign in the city of Jerusalem. That will be a real historical event and an actual geographical location.

Zechariah 14:4, And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south. A valley is created. When Christ comes His feet touch the Mount of Olives, right across the hill from Zion, right across from the capital, from Jerusalem, from the temple mount, from the holy place and the Holy of Holies. The place then will be Jerusalem.

What is this about touching the mountain and splitting that Zechariah talks about? He creates a great valley in the second coming that stretches all the way from the north part to the south, as the mountains are divided, and all the way from the west to the east, this huge valley is created right there. Which means that Jerusalem

is going to be devastated as it exists now and restructured for millennial glory.

Why is that valley created?

Joel 3:11-17, Assemble and come, all you nations, And gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. 12 “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. 13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow— For their wickedness is great.” 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness. 16 The Lord also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the Lord will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel. 17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, And no aliens shall ever pass through her again.” Harvest always speaks of judgment. Here is a time for judgment. Here is the time for the nations to be judged.

• It is not a valley where they make a decision.
• It is a valley where God makes a decision.

There will be no time for decisions then by men. The decision is whether you go into the kingdom, or you are shut out, and that’s God’s decision, not men.

• It isn’t man’s day.
• It’s the Lord’s Day.

There will be the instant sanctification of the land, the instant sanctification of the city, that holy mountain which God has designed for Himself. The Judge is the Lord Jesus Christ. The time is at His second coming. The place is Jerusalem.

There will be an actual throne and an actual ruling by a Christ who will come in like manner as you have seen Him go, that is physically, bodily, to reign on this earth. 3. Subjects of the Judgement.

Who are the subjects of the judgment? V 32, All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. All people. All the people that are still alive.

Who are these people? They didn’t go in the rapture of the church because they were unredeemed, so they were left in the tribulation. But during the tribulation, Revelation 7 says 144,000 Jews will preach the gospel all over. During the tribulation, Revelation 11 says two witnesses will proclaim the message.

Then it tells us there will be an angel who will preach the everlasting gospel all over the globe. They will hear it from men and angels as well. During that period, people will respond to the gospel, an innumerable number of Gentiles will be saved, it says in Revelation 7.

All Israel will be saved, in Romans 11. During that period there will be saved Jews and saved Gentiles. Those people will be persecuted by the Antichrist. Many of them will survive his persecution. They will be alive at the end. There will also be the ungodly. The ungodly will be devastated by the judgments of God during that period. Some of them will survive.

At the end of the tribulation time you have saved and unsaved people, from all over the globe, who have survived the judgment of God and the holocaust of Antichrist. They have lived through the plagues. They have lived through the disasters, the diseases, the wars, the wrath of Christ and the wrath of Antichrist.

They have lived through the judgment on the armies at Armageddon, and there are still multitudes left. But all of those who are left, who haven’t faced God in death to be judged. will now face Him in His second coming. All the people.

Either a person faces God in death for judgment or at the second coming of Jesus Christ. If you are counting on waiting till then, remember this, it is too late then. When the bridegroom comes, if you don’t have oil in your lamp, the door will be shut, and you will never get in.

There is no second chance. What happens here is irreversible!