What He Will Do with the Wicked, Part 1

In this part of the sermon: He reviews previous sermons in the series, reiterating that Christ's return is certain, central, climactic, imminent, indefinite, and unknowable in its exact timing. He also…

The events clustering around Christ's return are likened to slices of a pie, with the return itself at the center, helping to organize the manifold events without imposing a strict chronological order.

Of the events that cluster around the coming of our Lord Jesus. And I've used the illustration or analogy of a pie. And if the circle of the pie is every event which Scripture says will be found connected with the return of Christ, and the center is the return of Christ himself, then I find it helpful to think of the three major slices in the pie. In no particular order.

11:06 - 11:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: All that are in a state of physical death in the tombs, rotting on a mountain trail somewhere, eaten by the sharks in the belly of the sea, the hour is coming in which all those who are dead shall hear His voice and shal…

The story of Jesus calling Lazarus from the tomb illustrates Christ's sovereign power to call the physically dead to life, serving as a parallel to His voice raising all the dead at the final judgment.

in which all those who are dead shall hear His voice and shall come forth. Does that language remind you of another section in John? You remember in John chapter 11? Jesus stands by the mouth of Lazarus' tomb.

22:18 - 22:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: At the return of Christ all who are not in Christ shall at the judgment throne of Christ be openly identified tried condemned and banished by Christ into a place most horrifically described in the very words of Christ.

The parable of the wheat and the tares (darnel) illustrates that in this life, true believers and mere professors are indistinguishable to human eyes, but Christ will infallibly separate them at the end of the age.

two of the kingdom parables in Matthew 13 focus upon this reality here Jesus says he will employ the cooperative effort of angels in this work of identification separation slash identification there is the parable of the wheat and the tares as some of you know the tares were darnel that in the process of growing they look so much like wheat that if an untrained eye were to try to pull out the weed the darnel they would pull up the wheat as well and our Lord uses that parable to say no a time of infallible identification is coming in the last day

42:25 - 43:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Don't you ever in seasons of serious self-examination make your usefulness in the ministry of the lord of the nations a measure of your state in grace this text should forever put the cap on any notion that a man should …

Martin uses the example of preachers secretly indulging in pornography to illustrate how iniquity can be cherished in the heart and not known to men, yet seen by the omniscient judge, validating Christ's judgment in Matthew 7:23.

and they were never thrown out of the church and never banished for their open godless lives where would they be? where was the iniquity practiced? obviously in the thoughts and in the motives and in the secret hours when the wife was in bed the kids were in bed and he sneaked down to his study and through a few clicks his eyes were drinking in pornography preachers are doing this by the hundreds across this country if you don't believe me write to dr dobson and ask for the documentation of their hotline of pastoral counseling if you think this is just pastor martin rhetorical overkill

59:31 - 60:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not toy with issues of unforgiveness, as Christ will validate His identification of you as wicked by demonstrating a tight-fisted spirit of unforgiveness.

The imagery of the 'house despot' (master of the house) shutting the door in Luke 13 illustrates Christ's final act of banishment, where those outside, despite their protestations of proximity, are denied entry to the heavenly banquet.

Here the identification and the judgment comes to us under the imagery of the house despot is a literal rendering of the master of the house. He's the oikos despotos. He is. He is the house despot. And he's been sitting inside by the door inviting, inviting, inviting. But now a time comes when he gets up. The Lord of the house shuts the door. All who are in are the ones who have been welcomed, owned as rightful guests at his banquet. He goes on to say that in that banquet there'll be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they'll come from east and west and north and south. What John sees is the great...

66:07 - 66:50 Read in full sermon