He's trying to get all of this stuff off of His chest - and then He ends with this. These are His last words to everybody, and here's what He's doing. He's saying: at the end of the age, I'm going to judge the whole world - and this is how I'm going to do it. He's letting everybody in on how He's going to judge the world - pretty important, so watch what He says:
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit on the throne of His glory”.
This is obviously talking about at the end – “...and all the nations shall be gathered before Him, and He shall separate them one from the other, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. And indeed He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left.”
“And the King shall say to those on His right...” - which by the way, when you're standing in front of Jesus one day, that's where you want to be! When you stand in front of Jesus one day, move to your left - kind of inch your way that way!
“Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”.
So He says: you guys on the right - come on in. It's been prepared for you since the foundation of the world. This is why: for when I was hungry, you gave Me food. When I was thirsty, you gave Me drink. When I was a stranger, you took Me in. When I was naked, you clothed Me. When I was sick, you visited Me. When I was in prison, you came to Me.
Now watch the heart of the righteous...
“Then the righteous shall say to Him Lord: when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and took You in, or naked and clothed You? When did we see You sick or in prison and came to You?”
In other words, they're going: we didn't know You were there! We didn't know that by putting other people first, You were there. We didn't know that You were the hungry guy, or the sick guy, or the naked guy, or the guy in prison - we didn't know that! We were just doing it because it was the right thing to do - to put other people first.
Jesus says to them: “And the King will answer, and say to them: truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, you did it to Me.
Then He shall say to those on His left: “Depart from Me you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
There's the lake of fire - not Gehenna (Hades). Death and Hades get picked up and thrown into the lake of fire.
Depart from Me you cursed, into everlasting fire - prepared for the devil and his angels. In other words, it was never My will for you to go there - tt was prepared for the devil and his angels, and this is why they get sent there:
For when I was hungry, you gave Me no food. When I was thirsty, you gave Me no drink. When I was a stranger, you did not take Me in. When I was naked, you did not clothe Me. When I was sick, or in prison, you did not visit Me.
And then they will answer Him saying: Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty, or a stranger or naked, or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You? Then He shall answer them saying truly I say to you inasmuch as you did not do it for the least of these you did not do it to Me.
Now here's the end of this sermon: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life” - and He ends it, and He goes off and has Passover.
So let me ask you a question tonight. Search your own heart. Don't think about anybody else, just search your own heart. This is the most powerful question I could ask you:
7) If you had to face Jesus today, based on this passage - would you be on the right, or would you be on the left?
Closing PrayerNow Lord, You're the best; and we're so challenged and moved. The Lord spoke to me last night about this particular sermon and He told me that healing would come in repentance.
If you've been paying attention tonight, no one could possibly think that we have all this together. If anybody is thinking: yeah, I've arrived at this - actually that's evidence that you haven't - that healing would come in repentance.