DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate
them, one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the
goats." Matthew 25:32.
JESUS Christ, the man of Nazareth, who is also the Son of God, was
crucified, dead and buried, and the third day He rose again from the
dead. After He had showed Himself to His disciples for 40
days–sometimes to one alone, at other times to two or three together,
and on one occasion to above 500 Brethren at once–He ascended into
Heaven. From the Mount Olivet, from the midst of His disciples, He rose
into mid air and, by-and-by, a cloud received Him out of their sight.
That same Jesus who is gone into Heaven shall so come in like manner as
He was seen to go up into Heaven. That is to say, in Person, in His own
risen body. The same Christ who rose into the skies will, in the latter
day, surely descend again. The time of His coming is not revealed to
us–"Of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels of
God," but the time is certainly growing nearer every day, and we cannot
tell when the hour shall be.
We are told that He will come quickly. It seems a long time since that
was said, even 1,800 years, but we remember that things which are slow
with us, may be very quick with the Lord, for one day with the Lord is
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. It is not for us
to know the times and the seasons. They remain hidden in the purpose of
God. For excellent reasons these times and seasons are unrevealed, that
we may be always on the watchtower, not knowing at what hour the Lord
Jesus may be revealed.
To the ungodly world He will come as a thief in the night and take them
unaware. But we, Brothers and Sisters, are not in darkness that that
day should overtake us as a thief. Being children of the day, we are
taught to be wakeful, and standing in the clear light, with our loins
girt, we ought to be always looking for our Master's appearing. Always
are we to be watching, never sleeping. Our text tells us that as one
result of His coming there will be a general judgement. I am not going,
tonight, to try and arrange the other events which will happen at the
Lord's coming.
It is probably true that at His coming there will be, first of all, a
resurrection and rewarding of His saints, a dividing of the 10 cities
and the five cities, according to the faithfulness of those who were
entrusted with talents. And at the close of that period will come that
last tremendous day of which Prophets and Apostles have spoken–
"The day that many thought should never come; That all the wicked
wished should never come; That all the righteous had expected long; Day
greatly feared, and yet too little feared By him who feared it most."
A day of fear and wrath! A day of destruction of the ungodly! A testing
day to all mankind! A day which shall burn as an oven! We may
tremblingly say of it, "Who may abide the day of His coming, and who
shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like
fuller's soap."
At that day when Christ shall come He shall judge all nations. There
will be gathered before Him not only the Jews, to whom the Law was
given, but the Gentiles, also. Not merely those nations who for many an
age have heard the Gospel, but those to whom it shall then have been
but lately published, for the kingdom of God must be published
throughout all nations as a testimony against them. Everywhere Christ
will have been preached and, then, from all regions, men shall be
summoned to stand before Him. Remember, not merely all the living
nations, but all the nationalities that have passed away.
There shall rise from the dead the hosts that perished before the flood
and those, also, who were drowned amid its awful surges. There, too,
shall appear the myriads that followed at the call of Nimrod, the
swarms of the sons of Japheth who divided the isles of the Gentiles,
and the hordes that marched to battle at the command of the kings of
Assyria and
Babylon. The dead of Egypt shall rise from their beds of spices, or
from the earth with which their dust has mingled. The tens of thousands
shall be there over whom Xerxes wept when he remembered how soon they
would all pass away. The Greek and the Persian, these, shall rise, and
the Roman, too, and all the hordes of Huns and Goths that swarmed like
bees from the northern hives. They all passed into the unknown land,
but they are not lost–they shall each answer to the muster roll in the
Great Day of the Lord.
The earth, which is now becoming more and more a graveyard, shall yield
up her dead and the sea, itself, transformed into a solid pavement,
shall bear upon its bosom the lonely ones who today lie asleep in her
gloomy caverns. All of woman born shall come forth from the prolific
womb of the sepulcher–myriads, myriads countless as the drops of the
morning, or as the sands of the sea shore. Multitudes, multitudes shall
be gathered together in the valley of decision! Their bones shall come
together and breath shall enter their bodies anew, and they shall live
once more. Long as they have slept in the tomb, they shall all rise
with one impulse and start up with one thought–to appear before their
Judge.
The Great White Throne shall be set on high, all pure and lustrous,
bright and clear like a sapphire, as one vast mirror in which man shall
see himself and his sins reflected–and on that Throne shall sit the
Son of Man. That same Jesus who was nailed to the tree and rose to
Heaven shall sit upon the Judgement Seat, appointed to determine the
cases of all mankind of every age. What an assemblage! No imagination
can compass it. Far as the eyes can see–yes, far as the eagle's pinion
can soar–the earth shall be covered with men like a field with grass
in the springtide! And there will they all stand with the Judge upon
the Great White Throne as the common center of observation, for every
eye shall see Him, and they, also, that crucified Him. And all the
kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.
It will be a motley throng, as you may well imagine, but the Shepherd,
the great Shepherd, the Judge, Himself, shall divide them. That
division will be the one work of the Judgement Day. He will divide them
as readily and unerringly as a shepherd divides his sheep from the
goats. Your business, tonight, shall be to draw the attention of each
one to that division, that each of you may enquire what will be the
result of it upon himself. I have thought it over on my own account,
and desire to think of it, still. I would bid my mind fly into the
future and see, for a moment, "the pomp of that tremendous day when
Christ, with clouds, shall come."
I would anticipate the verdict of that hour and I would think of the
dread alternative of Heaven or Hell. I pray we may all think of it and,
especially you who are unprepared for it, that you may at once fly to
Him whose blood and righteousness, alone, can make you hold up your
head in that tremendous hour. Three things we shall speak about–the
first is the division. The second is the Divider. And the third is the
rule of the division.
I. The first, then, is THE DIVISION. "Before Him shall be gathered all
nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divides his sheep from the goats." That is to say, first, they shall be
divided into two parts–His sheep and the goats. There shall be two
positions–He shall put His sheep on the right hand, but the goats on
the left. Is there no place for a third party? No, for the simple
reason that there will, then, be no third class. And there will, then,
be none for this reason–that there never was a third class!
I know there are some here, tonight, who dare not say they believe in
Jesus, but they would not like to be put down among the ungodly. Yet I
pray you remember that there are but two books–and in one or the other
of those two your name must stand recorded by the hand of God–for
there is no third book. There is the Lamb's Book of Life and if your
name is there, happy are you! If it is not there, your sins still stand
recorded in the book which contains the condemning evidence which will
seal the death warrants of unbelievers.
Listen to me! There are in this world, nowhere, any other sort of
people beside those who are dead in sin and those who are alive unto
God. There is no state between! A man either lives or is dead! You
cannot find a neutral condition. A man may be in a swoon, or he may be
asleep, but he is alive–there is no state that is not within the
boundary of either life or death! Is not this clear enough? There is no
state between being converted and unconverted–between being quickened
and being dead in sin. There is no condition between being pardoned and
having our sins upon us. There is no state between dwelling in darkness
and being brought into marvelous light.
One or the other must always be our condition–and this is the great
folly of mankind in all times–that they will dream of a middle state
and try to loiter in it. It was for this cause that the old Prophet,
standing on Carmel's brow, said, "How long halt you between two
opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him: but if Baal, follow him." And
it is for this reason that we have constantly to call the attention of
mankind to the great declaration of the Gospel–"He that be-
lieves and is baptized shall be saved: he that believes not shall be
damned." God has given to the preacher two hands, that he may set the
people on each side and deal out the Truth of God to two characters and
no more. Be not deceived about it, you are either on the way to Heaven
or on the road to Hell.
There is no "purgatory" or middle condition in the next world.
"Purgatory" is an invention of the Pope for the filling of his cellar
and his pantry–and no more profitable speculation has ever been set
than the saying of masses and the robbing of dupes under the pretence
of altering that state which is fixed forever! Purgatory Pick-Purse was
the name the first Reformers gave it. But you will go to Heaven or to
Hell–and you will remain in one place or the other–for you have
either a character that is fit for Heaven or a character that is fit
for Hell. There is no character which can be supposed, if we understand
the Scriptures correctly, which would be fit for a middle place. And
neither is there any middle place prepared for it. "He shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:
and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the
left." The human flock will be divided into two companies.
Observe, next, that they will be divided readily. It is not everybody
that could divide sheep from goats. I suppose, according to your
ordinary judgement of goats, you could very readily tell them from
sheep. But one who has traveled in the East and even in Italy, knows
that it takes somewhat tutored eyes to know a certain kind of goat from
a certain kind of sheep. They are extremely like each other–the wool
of some sheep in a warm climate becomes so like hair and the hair of a
kind of goat is so much like wool, that a traveler scarcely knows which
is which–but a shepherd who has lived among them knows the difference
well.
So in this world, it is easy enough to tell the sinner from the saint
in some cases–you need no great wit to discern the characters of the
grossly dishonest, the drunk, the debauched, the Sabbath-breaker, the
profane. You know that they have no part among the people of God, for
they bear upon themselves the ensigns of the children of the Evil
One–the immoral are easily separated from the pure in heart. But
inside the Church there are a number of persons who have so much about
them that looks good and yet so much that is terribly inconsistent,
that we are quite unable to discover which is their true nature!
Thank God we are not called upon to judge them, nor even allowed to do
so. The most experienced pastor must scarcely attempt to do so.
Certainly, if he feels so much trouble about the matter that he takes
it to his Lord and asks for directions as to how to deal with these
tares, he will be told to let them grow on till harvest time, lest in
rooting up the tares he should root up, also, the wheat with them. I
talked, today, to a certain good man who labors hard among the poor in
the East end. He said, "We have a great number who profess to be
converted, but," he said, "I do not think that much more than one in
five actually stay and turn out to be really so.
"But," he said, "we have no trouble about them in the Church–no such
trouble as you would be likely to have with your people, because," he
said, "among the class of people who go to the Tabernacle there is a
feeling that it is right to go to the House of God at least once on the
Sabbath, if not twice. And if persons join the Church, there, they
will, from habit. continue to attend. But," he said, "the moment a man
of the poorest class ceases to be a Christian in heart, he ceases, at
the same time, to attend the public services, because there is no
fashion to keep him up to it. And so he follows his own tastes, stops
at home and loafs about, and in all probability gets drunk, or falls
into some other of the common vices of his class, and he is sifted off
at once."
In such cases the classes are easily separated. But among a more
respectable class of people, who do not drink and who observe the
Sabbath, you will have a number of people who remain in the Church,
though they have no secret piety, no real love to Christ, no private
prayer and, therefore, there is all the more danger. Now, dear Friends,
what we cannot do, and must not try to do, Jesus Christ will do easily
enough. The Shepherd, when He comes, will soon separate His sheep from
the goats. His eyes of fire will read each heart. The hypocrites in the
Church will tremble in a moment– instinctively reading the meaning of
that glance, as Christ, will, by that glance say to them, "What are you
doing, here, among My people?"
Remember, that as the division will be made readily it will be made
Infallibly, that is to say, there will not be found among the goats one
poor trembling sheep left to be driven off with the unclean herd. When
Christ says, "Depart, you cursed," He will not say that to one sincere
but feeble soul. Ah no, you may condemn yourself, but if you really
have a living faith, the Lord will not condemn you. You may often be
afraid that He will bid you depart, but He will not. No
lamb of His flock shall be among the goats! The whole company of His
redeemed shall be safely gathered into their eternal mansions–
"Lord, those shall bear that day, so dread, so splendid, Whose sins
are, by Your merits covered over, Who when Your hand of mercy was
extended, Believed, obeyed, and owned Your gracious power; These,
mighty God, shall see without dismay The earth and Hea ven before them
pass away!" The sword cuts the other way, too, and therefore be sure of
this, that there will be no goat allowed to enter the pastures of the
blessed among the sheep! No unconverted graceless person will follow
the Great Shepherd to those living fountains, above, which afford
eternal draughts of bliss to the purchased flock. Though the sinner may
have led a sort of outwardly consistent life for 40 or 50 years. Though
he may have preached the Gospel and done many wonderful works, yet
Christ will say to him, "I never knew you." He will not be able to keep
on his sheep's clothing, then, or bleat any longer in sheep
fashion–Christ will know him under whatever disguise he may wear! He
will find him out and drive him to his own place, so that not a single
one of the accursed shall enter into the city with the blessed. It will
be an Infallible judgment! There is, therefore, good reason that we are
prepared for it. There is no bribing or deceiving the Judge and no
avoiding His tribunal. Oh, be ready to face that eye which will read
you through and through!
That division, when it shall take place, let me further beg you to
remember, will be very keen and sharp. Think it over, think it over,
for some of you may have to smart through it. Two men shall be in the
field, one shall be taken and the other left. There were two laborers
who worked together, they had guided the same plow and driven the same
oxen, but the one shall be upon the right hand and the other on the
left. Two carpenters at the same bench had handled the same hammer and
the same plane, but one shall be taken and the other left. Two had
served in one shop at the same counter with the same goods–and one
shall be taken and the other left–they were familiar acquaintances and
old shop mates, but one shall rejoice to hear the welcome "Come," and
the other shall tremble as he receives the dread sentence, "Depart."
Alas, the division will come closer home, still. Two women shall be in
one house–the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall
be grinding at the mill, that is, engaged about the household duties,
grinding the morning's breakfast corn–one shall be taken and the other
left. So you may be two servants in the same house, cook and housemaid,
one saved and the other lost. Two sisters living together under the
same roof, one brought into Glory and the other cast into shame. Two of
you may be dwellers under the same roof, eating bread at the same
table, drinking from the same cup and yet one of you shall feast at the
eternal banquets and the other shall cry for a drop of water to cool
their burning tongue! You would not like to be separated, but separated
you must be.
Alas, there will be a separation still more painful! Two shall be in
one bed, the one shall be taken and the other left–the husband torn
away from the wife–and the wife taken from her husband. Oh, there will
be partings, there will be partings and, consequently there will be
weeping, there will be weeping at the Judgement Seat of Christ! Not for
the godly, for in them the glory of their Lord will swallow up all
other thought, but for the Christless, the prayerless, the graceless.
Oh, the wailing of the children, and the wailing of the women, and the
wailing of the husbands, and the wailing of the fathers when their
children are saved, or their parents are saved, or their husbands and
wives are saved–and they themselves are cast out forever!–
"O there will be mourning Before the Judgement Seat, When this world is
burning Beneath Jeho vah's feet. Friends and kindred then shall part,
Shall part to meet no more; Wrath consume the rebel's heart, While
saints on high adore!"
The separation will be agony, indeed, to the lost! I could scarcely
have the heart to bid a man, "good-bye," if I knew that I should never
see him again. The worst wish I could entertain concerning the worst
enemy I ever had–though I do
not know that I have one in the world–would not go so far as to say I
wished I might never see him again. Since I hope I shall be where Jesus
is, I should like to see him, be he who he may, and see him there among
the blessed. But it must not be. It must not be if sinners will not
repent of sin if they persist in rejecting Jesus Christ. Unless you
believe in Jesus, the parting will be keen and cutting, dividing
between joints and marrow, tearing asunder marriage ties and bonds of
filial or parental affection–slaying all vain hopes forever. O
impenitent souls, I could weep for you! If you are linked in blood
relationship with the saints, it will not help you if you die
unregenerate! Though you were bone of each other's bone, and flesh of
each other's flesh, yet must you be separated unless you are one with
Christ! I entreat you unregenerate ones to lay this to heart at once
and trifle no longer!
That division, dear Friends, remember, will be very wide as well as
very keen, for the division will be such as will be represented in its
distance by Heaven and by Hell–and what a distance is that! The
distance between God and Satan! Between happiness and misery! Between
Glory and everlasting contempt! Between infinite joy and boundless
sorrow! Between songs and weeping! Between triumphs and wailing,
feasting and gnashing of teeth! If the only division would be such as
might arise from difference in degrees of Glory, (if such there is),
one might still pine to have the companionship of our dear ones–but
the difference is between Heaven and Hell–and Christ says of it that
there is "a great gulf fixed" so that they that would pass from us to
you cannot and neither can they come to us that would come from there.
The distance will be wide as eternity, the separating gulf will be deep
as the abyss and impassable as Hell.
And, remember, the separation will be final. There is no flinging a
bridge across that vast abyss. Damned spirits may look down into that
dread gulf, into the unutterable blackness of its darkness, but they
will never see a hope of crossing to the land of the blessed. The key
is lost–they can never come out of the dungeon of despair. "Forever,
forever, forever," is written upon the chain which binds the lost
spirit! No hope of restoration was ever indulged by a man in Hell and
it is idle to dream about it now. Of all figments of the imagination,
it has the least support in Scripture. The lost sinner is forever
separated from Jesus and from the disciples of Jesus, however near akin
in the flesh those disciples may have been to him. Unalterable and
eternal is the separation!
Beloved, these are such weighty things that while I dwell upon them I
feel far more inclined to sit down and weep than to stand up and speak
to you. The theme causes me to feel the weakness of mere words and in a
measure makes me lose the power of expression, for what if any ofyou
should be lost forever? It was a touching thing to me, yesterday, when
I saw a Sister in Christ who has been my hearer for many years. She
told me that she was decided for Christ by my saying, when I went away
last time, that perhaps I might never address you again and might find
a grave in a foreign land. I felt that it might be so at the time I
uttered the words, though I am glad that they have not been fulfilled.
She thought, "Well, he has been preaching to me these many years, and
if I die unconverted, I shall never see him again." And then it flashed
across her mind, "How much worse to feel that I shall never see the
King in His beauty! I shall never see the Savior!" And she was thus led
by the Holy Spirit to give her heart to Jesus. Perhaps the Lord may use
the thought of this separation to move some of you to say, "I will come
to Jesus and I will rest in Him." O Lord, my God, grant it may be so,
for Jesus' sake!
II. We have spoken about the division. We will now have a few words
about THE DIVIDER. "He shall separate them, one from another." Christ
Jesus will be the Divider of the race of men into two parts and this I
am glad to know, because, first of all, this will be the occasion of
lasting, yes, of eternal joy to all the saints. No child of God will
ever have a doubt in Heaven, but it is necessary that they begin their
bliss with a very strong assurance of Divine Love, or else, I think,
they might.
Unless God had ordained the method at which the text hints, I could
well imagine myself in Heaven saying to myself, after I had been there
a little while, "Oh, can it be, can it be that I am here? I do remember
the sin of such a day and the shortcomings of such an hour, and my
murmurings, and my unbelief, and all my departures from my God, and am
I here, after all?" I could imagine, if there had not been the means
used to put an end to such a possibility, my saying, "Surely I am to
taste this only for a moment that I may be driven to my due deserts,
after all, that my Hell may be made the more terrible because I have
seen what Heaven is, and that my hunger may grow the more intolerable
because I have eaten of the bread of angels."
If such a fear were possible, behold the answer to it. "He, the Judge,
the Judge, the Judge, Himself, has said, 'Come, you blessed of My
Father.'" That Judge cannot be mistaken, for He is Jesus the Infallible
Son of God! God Himself has
blessed His chosen and Jesus tells them so in the most plain
terms–"Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you." Since Jesus has decreed this everlasting happiness, the child
of God cannot doubt throughout eternity! That voice will sound forever
in his ears, sweeter than music of flute or harp or dulcimer! "Come,
you blessed of My Father." Why, it will be the very basis of the bliss
of Heaven to think, "Jesus bade me come. Who shall ask me the question,
'How came you in here?' Did not He admit me? Who shall question my
right to be here? Did not He say, 'Come, you blessed of My Father'?"
Do you not see that it is a choice and comforting fact that we shall
not divide ourselves at the last, nor shall an angel do it who might
err, but the Divider will be Jesus, Himself, the Son of God! And,
therefore, the Glory which He metes out to us will be most surely ours
and we may enjoy it without fear. But then, note on the other hand,
that this will increase the terror of the lost, that Christ will divide
them. Christ, full of infinite Love, would He destroy a sinner unless
it must be! He that would have saved Jerusalem and wept because it must
be destroyed! The guilty city was resolved to perish, but as her Lord
pronounced the sentence, He wept! When I hear of a judge putting on the
black cap to condemn a man, I like to read in the papers, "The judge's
voice faltered and he was evidently unable to suppress his emotion as
he uttered the sentence of death."
What right-minded man could be otherwise than moved when compelled to
deliver his fellow creature to the gallows? But no judge on earth has
such compassion for his fellow man as Jesus has for sinners! And when
it comes to this, that He says, "I must do it, I must condemn you,"
then, Sinner, it must be so, indeed! When Incarnate Love says, "Depart,
you cursed," you must be cursed with an emphasis. You must be infamous
beings, indeed, when He, whose lips drop blessings as lilies drop
sweet-smelling myrrh–when He calls you so! There must be something
very horrible about you that He should bid you, "depart." And, indeed,
there is an abominable thing in you, for unbelief in God is the most
horrible thing, even in Hell!
Not to believe that God is Love is worthy of the utmost condemnation.
You will have to say, if you are lost, "I was condemned by the most
loving Judge that ever sat upon a judgement seat. The Christ that died
lifted His pierced hands at the very moment when He said, 'Depart, you
cursed!'" Yet there is something more, though this might be enough. If
you should be lost, as God forbid you should, it will infinitely add to
your terror to know that you were condemned by One who is infinitely
Just. You will feel that the Christ who condemned you was the holiest
of Men, in whom was no sin and, besides that, He is pure and perfect
God, so that you will not be able to quibble at the sentence. Neither
will there be any question about a new trial–your own conscience will
make you feel that the decision is final, for it is just–and you will
be too well assured of its reality and certainty, for He who will
pronounce that sentence is the God of Truth. He said, "I am the way and
the truth." You would not have Him for the way, but you will find Him
to be "the truth." And when He pronounces you cursed, cursed you will
be beyond all question!
Once more, if He that condemns you is the Christ of God, you will know
that He has power to carry out the sentence, for all power is given
unto Him in Heaven and in earth, and the government shall be upon His
shoulders. And if He says, "Depart into everlasting fire," into that
fire you must go. If He declares that the fire shall never be quenched,
depend upon it, it will burn on forever. And if He decrees that the
worm shall never die, that worm will live and gnaw to all eternity, for
He who gives forth the sentence is able to make it good. Remember how
He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but My Word shall never pass away"? Firmer than the rocks shall
stand the irrevocable decree–"these shall go away into everlasting
punishment and the righteous into life eternal." My soul trembles while
I thus proclaim Jesus as the Judge whose awful voice divides the
sinners from the saints.
III. Lend me your ears but for a minute or two longer, while I notice,
in the third place, THE RULE OF THE DIVISION. Did you notice where the
division is made? It is very wonderful to notice–very wonderful,
indeed! The great division between the sons of men is Christ. Here are
the sheep–there are the goats. What separates them? Christ! He is the
center! There is no great barrier set up, as it were, on that last
tremendous day, but He, Himself is the division. He shall set the sheep
on His right hand and the goats on His left.
Now, that which parts us tonight into two portions is our relationship
to Jesus Christ. On which side of Christ are you, tonight? I want you
to question yourselves about that. If you are on His right hand, you
are among His people. If you are not with Him, you are against Him, and
so are on His left hand. That which parts the saint and the sinner is
Christ. The moment a sinner comes to Christ he passes over to the other
side and is numbered with the saints. This is the
real point of separation. Christ stands between the Believers and the
unbelievers, and marks the boundary of each class. When Aaron stood
between the living and the dead swinging the censer full of incense,
what separated the dead from the living? Remember the scene before you
answer the question.
There they lie! There they lie, I say, stricken with pestilence! The
unseen avenger has slain them in heaps. But here are the living,
rejoicing and safe. What separates them? The priest standing there with
the censer! Even thus, our great High Priest stands, at this moment,
between the living and the dead, while the incense of His merits
ascends before God and makes the most real dividing wall between dead
sinners and those who are alive unto God by Jesus Christ. Christ is the
Divider! Christ is, Himself, the Division. But what is the rule by
which He separates the people? The rule of the division is, first,
actions. Actions! Did you notice that? He says nothing about words. He
dwells upon deeds of mercy, "I was hungry and you gave Me meat. I was
thirsty and you gave Me drink. I was naked and you clothed Me." These
are all actions.
Now, perhaps you would have liked the Judge to have said, "You were in
the habit of singing hymns out of 'Our Own Hymn Book.' You were known
to talk very sweetly about Me and call Me, Master and Lord. You were
accustomed to sit at the Communion Table." Not a word is said about
these things! No, nor is anything said about ceremonial actions. He
does not say, "You used to bow before the crucifix. You reverently
stood up at one part of the service and knelt at another. You walked
round the Church singing the processional hymn." Nothing is said about
these performances, only common actions are noticed–"I was hungry and
you gave Me meat. I was thirsty and you gave Me drink." These are all
commonplace matters. Actions will be the great rule at the Last
Judgment.
I am not preaching, now, contrary to the Gospel, but only repeating in
other words what our Lord, Himself, has said. "We shall give an account
for the deeds done in the body, whether they are good, or whether they
are evil," is the statement, not of the Law, but of the New Testament
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Those that have done evil shall go
away into eternal punishment. Are we, then, saved by our works? By no
means! Yet our works are the evidences of our being saved–and Grace
will bring out these evidences in our lives if we possess them. A
Magistrate judges by the actions as proved upon evidence. It is true he
may and will have respect to the motive which urged the action, but
first of all the actions, themselves, must be before him in evidence.
And so here the King mentions the actions that were done.
Let us notice that the actions which were the rule ofjudgement were,
all of them, actions about Christ. I want you to carefully note this.
The Lord says, "/ was hungry and you gave Me meat. I was thirsty and
you gave Me drink. I was sick and you visited Me." This summary is made
up of actions about Christ. I will, therefore, earnestly put this
question to each of you–What actions have you ever done in reference
to Jesus? "I am a Church member," says one. I will not hear about that
just now, because the Judge will not say anything about it. I am glad
you are an avowed disciple, if you are honestly so, but do your actions
prove that you are really so? That is the question. Have you ever done
anything for Christ? Have you ever given anything to Christ?
Could Christ say to you, "I was hungry and you gave Me meat. I was
thirsty and you gave Me drink"? Now, I know some professors of whom I
fear that Jesus Christ could not speak thus, for He cannot speak that
which is not true. Their pockets are hermetically sealed, like tins of
Australian meat–even the smell of their money never reaches Christ's
poor. Give meat to a hungry man? Not they! Let him go to the parish.
Give clothes to a naked man? Not they! What do we pay taxes for? The
idea of giving anything to another, or doing anything for another,
without getting paid for it or praised for it, seems to them to be out
of all character!
Now, selfishness is as much opposed to the spirit of the Gospel as the
cold of the northern region is to the warmth of the sun. If the sun of
Christ's love has shone into your heart, you will love others and you
will show your love to others by desiring to do them good in all sorts
of ways. And you will do it for Christ's sake–for Christ's sake–so
that when He comes, He will be able to say, "I was hungry and you gave
Me meat. I was thirsty and you gave Me drink. I was sick and you
visited Me. I was in prison under reproach and you came unto Me." What
have your actions been with regard to Christ? I pray you, Brothers and
Sisters, who are one with me in the profession of allegiance to Christ,
judge yourselves by your actions with regard to Him, as I, also, will
judge myself.
Now, notice that Christ, as it were, inferentially, tells us that the
actions which will be mentioned at the Judgement Day, as the proof of
our being the blessed of the Lord, spring from the Grace of God, for He
says, "You blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from before the foundations of the world." They fed the hungry, but
Sovereign Grace had first fed them. They clothed the naked, but
Infinite Love first clothed them. They went to the prison, but
Free Grace had first set them free from a worse prison. They visited
the sick, but the Good Physician, in His Infinite Mercy, first came and
visited them!
They evidently had no idea that there was anything meritorious in what
they did. They had never dreamed of being rewarded for it. When they
stand before the Judgement Seat, the bare idea of there being any
excellence in what they have done will be new to the saints, for they
have formed a very low estimate of their own performances–and what
they have done seems to them too faulty to be commended. The saints fed
the hungry and clothed the naked because it gave them much pleasure to
do so. They did it because they could not help doing it–their new
nature impelled them to it. They did it because it was their delight to
do good and was as much their element as water for a fish or the air
for a bird! They did good for Christ's sake, because it is the sweetest
thing in the world to do anything for Jesus.
Why is it that a wife is so kind to her husband? Because it is her
duty, you say. All very well, but the real reason is because she loves
him so intensely. Why is a mother so careful over her baby? Is there
any rule or act of Parliament commanding mothers to be fond of their
little ones? No, there is no act of Parliament. There is an act of God
in the bosom, somewhere, passed in the chamber of the heart, and the
mother cannot but be kind. Now, when the Lord puts a new nature into us
and makes us one with Jesus Christ, we cannot help loving His people!
And, seeking the good of our fellow men and the Lord Jesus Christ will
be, at the Last Day, an evidence that there was love in the heart,
because love was shown by your actions. May God grant that when the
Judge of all shall come, we may be found renewed in heart and full of
love through the power of His Holy Spirit.
"Oh," says one, "I wish I had that renewed heart which would produce
such actions." Jesus can give it to you! You will always live for self
in some sense or other until you are saved–even the most philanthropic
who have loved their fellow creatures best, without religion–have
generally sought their own esteem. And the verse is true concerning the
praise of our fellow creatures–
"The proud, to gain it, toils on toils endure;
The modest shun it but to make it sure." But when you receive a new
heart you will not live for the approbation of your fellow men. Then
your alms will be done in secret and you will not let your left hand
know what your right hand does. Then, when you do your kindnesses, it
will not be that others may publish abroad the announcement that you
have visited the sick and clothed the naked, but your deeds will be
done behind the door and in the corner, where none shall know of them
but your God and the grateful recipients of your bounty.
You will quietly put into the treasury the two mites that make a
farthing and think yourself unobserved, but One who sits over against
the treasury, who knows your heart, will take good note of it. Your
Lord will accept what you do because you do it out of love to Him–and
at the Last Great Day, while you blush to hear it, He will tell it to
the angels and to the listening hosts of earth and Heaven–and swing
wide the gates of immortal bliss and let you in, according to the
promise of His Grace. God bless you, Beloved, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Matthew 25. HYMNS FROM "OUR
OWN HYMN BOOK"–846, 362, 360.