The Most Terrifying Words Ears Can Hear, Part 1

The Bible: A Book of Consolation and Terror

0:04 The Bible that most of you hold in your hands or have placed on your laps at this very present moment is a book which is filled with some of the most consoling, some of the most comforting, some of the most reassuring words imaginable. I doubt there is anyone here who would even begin to attempt to measure all of the comfort and consolation that has come to distressed minds and hearts through such words as, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Or the words of the prophet, Fear not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. Or the words, My grace is sufficient for thee. Or the words, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

1:08 And to those few parts of text could be added dozens upon dozens in which the consolations of God to His people are clear, profuse, specific, and we may say in a very real sense, every one of them is soaked in the blood of the everlasting, covenant, and comes to us throbbing with the undying life of God Himself.

1:41 But it's equally accurate to state that the Bible is a book filled not only with some of the most consoling, comforting, and reassuring words imaginable, but it is a book filled with some of the most terrifying, sobering, and frightening words imaginable. It is the book from which we read such words as Outer Darkness, Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, The smoke of their torment ascending up forever and forever, Bind them hand and foot and cast them into outer darkness, Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, And all that is evil, and all that is evil, and all that is evil, and all that is evil, and all that is evil, and all that is evil, and all that is evil, and all that is evil, and all that is evil, and all that is evil, and all that is evil, and all that is evil, On and on we could go. From the same book that is filled with such consolation come words that are terrifying, but like those gracious words that are sealed in the blood of the everlasting covenant and throbbed with the very undying life of God Himself, so the frightening words are also words which have their very essence

3:05 and life in the veracity, the changelessness of the living God.

The Terrifying Words of Matthew 25:41

3:13 And though there is pitiful ignorance concerning the Bible in general in our day, it is accurate to state that where there is some acquaintance with the Bible, it is top-heavy with respect to the words of consolation, the words of comfort, and the words of assurance. And as I have contemplated how best to minister the word of God to you this day, I've been constrained to focus your attention not upon some of those gracious words. We've examined many of them in recent weeks and months as we have been opening up the gracious provisions of God in justification and in adoption and in sanctification. But this morning I want to direct your attention to a text from which I've preached some two or three times in the course of seventeen years of ministry amongst you as a people. That text is found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25 and verse 41.

4:26 Matthew's Gospel, chapter 25 and verse 41.

4:34 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.

4:53 And as we examine this text in its setting this morning and God willing again this evening, we shall do so under the general heading of the most terrifying words human ears can ever hear. The most terrifying. The most terrifying words human ears can ever hear. Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.

Terrifying Because of the Speaker: Christ's Majesty and Might

5:28 Consider with me first of all the fact that these words are terrifying because of the one who speaks them. If these words were spoken by a man said, If these words were spoken by a man said, a madman, some poor demented fiend, who as an expression of his own imbalance of mind and perversity of heart was careless in pronouncing a curse upon fellow creatures, we might treat them with indifference. We might even be able to afford the luxury of ignoring them. But what makes these words terrifying is because the one who speaks them is not a demented fiend. They are not spoken by such a person nor by the devil, but they are spoken by our Lord Himself. And they are spoken by our Lord who is set before us in this particular passage in a two-fold dimension. He is said set before us, first of all, in the majesty of His person and then in the might of His

6:45 position. And I plead with you to hear these words this morning, not because I am speaking them, but because of the one who originally spoke them and the one who will speak them in the last day. Notice, first of all, what the passage says. The verse 41 says concerning the majesty of the person who speaks them. Verse 31.

7:14 Verse 31 — But when the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all the nations. Verse 41 — The one who speaks the words of verse 41, and who is the one is the one described in the majesty of his person in verse 31 under the title, The Son of Man. Now this term, The Son of Man, has its fundamental roots in that passage in Daniel's prophecy, chapter 7 and verses 13 and 14, in which Daniel sees in vision this personage who is called the Son of Man, who comes into the presence of the Ancient of Days and to whom is given an everlasting kingdom. And this title, Son of Man, became in the lips of our Lord his own favorite personal designation of himself. And the Jews understood that it was a term that referred not primarily to the reality of the humanity of Christ,

8:42 but it referred to the fact that the one who stood before them as man was nothing less than the God-man. This is evident from Matthew chapter 26, if you'll turn over just a page or two in your Bibles. In the incident recorded at our Lord's trial, we read in verse 63, And the high priest said unto him, I adjure thee or charge thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou art the Christ, that is, the Messiah, the Son of God, that is, God the Son, the one who shares in the very essence of the Godhead. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said. In other words, Precisely what you have asked in my question. I am the Christ, the Son of God.

9:49 Thou hast said, nevertheless. I say unto you, henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his garment, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy. What further?

10:12 The need we of witnesses behold now ye have heard the blasphemy. Well, you see, in their minds the blasphemy was a claim to deity couched in the identity of himself as the Son of Man. And so when our Lord describes the coming day of judgment in Matthew 25, 31, and says that the Son of Man shall be the judge, in that day he is pointing to the majesty of his person as God incarnate. He is pointing to himself in all of the glory of that which he is as a divine being who has become man. And that, you see, is what makes these words so terrifying. If they were words simply woven into a man-made religion, this book, out of motives of trying to get people to take spiritual reality seriously, we could discount them. But these are the words of the Son of Man, who speaks in all the majesty of his person as God incarnate,

11:35 and it is he who will say, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. The word, the words are terrible, not only because of the one who speaks them being this one who is majestic in his person, but the passage indicates he speaks them in the might of his position. And that position is described, first of all, as that of the exalted Lord and King of glory, and secondly, as the appointed judge of the world. Look at the language again of verse 31.

12:14 Verse 31, When the Son of Man shall come in his glory,

12:21 then shall he sit on the throne of his glory. And the person sitting on the throne is then called, in verse 34, Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand. And then further on in verse 37, Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry? And those terms, glory, King, and Lord, point to the might of his position from which he will utter these words.

13:04 He will speak them from his mighty position as the exalted Lord and King of glory. While the Son of Man shall come in his glory, When the Son of Man was here in the days of his flesh, his glory was primarily and for the most part veiled. When people looked upon Jesus of Nazareth, all they saw was someone who had about him all the commonness of a peasant of that particular area of Palestine.

13:41 He was crucified, the Scripture says, through weakness. And the last, sight the world had of Christ was that of a bloody, battered, broken corpse hanging on an instrument of execution. But the next sight the world will have of Christ is one in which there will be the bursting forth of all the manifested brightness of what He is. See the language? The Son of Man shall come in His glory. In other words, the context of His coming will not be weakness. It will not be the veiled majesty. It will be the unveiled, shining forth of that which He is in Himself. That which the disciples saw upon the Mount of Transfiguration for a moment.

14:45 And it so overwhelmed them as to baffle them and drive them to the earth, stunned and shocked. John tells us in Revelation 1-7, every eye shall see Him. And He then will occupy that position of the exalted Lord and King of glory. A position which He now has, and it's openly seen to the host of heaven, the twenty-fourth Son of Man.

15:16 John tells us in Revelation 1-7, every eye shall see Him. And He then will occupy that position of the exalted Lord and King of glory. A position which He now has, and it's openly seen to the host of heaven, the twenty-fourth Son of Man.

15:26 Close to the right hand of the Father after His conquest in death and resurrection, the cry goes out, Who is this One who is coming? The cry is, Who is the King of glory? And in heaven He is seen, in that unveiled glory. And inwardly, in the hearts of the saints, He is recognized in His glory. 2 Corinthians 4-6 But He is veiled in that glory to the eyes of men. The God of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving. The Scripture tells us that when He comes with His royal retinue of angels, His heavenly entourage of all of these hosts of heaven, He shall come in His glory. And the might of His position will be nothing less than that of unrivaled lordship and of unrivaled kingship.

16:22 But then He will also come in the position of the appointed judge of the world. Notice again verse 31. When He comes in His glory and the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory. Amen.

16:41 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

16:41 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

16:41 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

16:41 Amen. Amen. Amen. That emphasis again is found in verse 32.

16:49 And before Him shall be gathered all the nations, and He shall separate them the one from the other, as the shepherd separated the sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep on the right hand, the goats on the left. Then shall the king say, you see all the way through this passage, the activity of God, God the Father almost pales into total non-existence. And it is the activity of the enthroned Lord.

17:23 Why? Because it is this to which He was appointed by the Father, as He Himself said in the fifth chapter of John's Gospel, verse 22, For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son. Verse 25, Verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son to have life in Himself. And He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is a Son. Of man. And here our Lord testifies to the great reality that He is the appointed judge of the world. And when our Lord made these claims in the presence of His enemies, as

18:24 He did in this passage, they did not forget His words. Early in His ministry, as recorded in John 2, He said, Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. And it's interesting that at His trial...

18:40 And then again at His crucifixion, they taunted Him with those very words. Years later, several years later, when they're trying to get some witnesses, whose witness will agree and result in His condemnation, they bring up these words. They say, Here's the man that said, Destroy the temple and I'll raise it up in three days. He's a temple desecrator. Let's get Him on that account. And then we read further on in Matthew's Gospel that when He hangs upon the cross, He will be crucified. And then we read further on in Matthew's Gospel that when He hangs upon the cross, He will be crucified. And then we read further on in Matthew's Gospel that they taunt Him with the same words. Thou that destroyest the temple and in three days raise it up, come down from the cross. They didn't forget His words. And can you imagine what fun they must have had with these words? All judgment has been given unto me. These

19:29 words, Don't be amazed, you people. The hour is coming in which I will speak, and every dead man in his tomb will come forth and stand before me. And I will speak to you. And I will determine his eternal destiny unto bliss or unto woe. Can you imagine what fun they must have had with those words when they saw His battered, bruised, bloody, broken body upon the cross? If they taunted Him with such words as, I will build this temple, how they must have had a heyday with His words. I will summon you out of your tombs. And they see that immolated body upon a cross, the head bowed in death. He dies in self-imposed, self-embraced weakness. But the Scripture tells us that the

20:37 resurrection was the validation of this claim in John 5. For in Acts 17 and verse 30 and 31, we read He was born again and died in that body . For now He is a honorable man. And He has been named as a righteous child by His virginity, and by His mercy He has been exalted from all of Israel. And He has been called unto the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of heaven. His name is G-d. And His word has arisen from the dead, and He has brought His son into the life of Christ. I think this is in the subjection of the catechism of the Bible, not the catechism of the gospel that is coming.

21:13 In the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. to the delight of our hearts two Lord's days ago. But the resurrection is unto the validation of Christ's claim to be the judge of the entire world.

21:32 And so the thing that makes these words terrifying words is that the one who speaks them will speak them from that position of the majesty of His person and from the might of His position as the appointed judge of the world. My friend, the only plea I make for a hearing this morning is that you're going to have to stand before Christ and hear Him talk to you. And you better hear what He says to you now in His word while the door of mercy is still open.

Terrifying Because of the Number of Recipients

22:15 Because there is no choice in that day you must hear the word of the judge when He summons you into His presence. Consider with me then in the second place that these are terrifying words not only because of the one who speaks them but because of the great number to whom they shall be addressed.

22:42 Because of the great number to whom they shall be addressed. Look at verse 41 again. These words depart from me ye cursed into thee. eternal or everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

23:03 It would be frightening if they were to be spoken only to the Hitlers and the Mussolinis and the Stalins, to the Darwins, to the Voltaires, to the Humes, to men who have butchered men's bodies with their hands or have butchered men's souls with their ideas. If only the heartless, cruel murderers and the godless, atheistic philosophers were to hear these words, that would be tragic enough for any creature. Any creature of God made in the image of God with the capacity to know and enjoy God, for any one creature to hear the words, depart from me into the company of the devil and his angels, would make them the most terrifying words anyone could hear. But the passage indicates that they will be spoken to more than the Hitlers and the Mussolinis and the Stalins and the Darwins and the Voltaires and the Humes. The passage says they will be spoken to all who are set on the one hand of the Lord of glory in the day of judgment. Look at the text, verse thirty-two.

24:20 Verse thirty-two. Verse thirty-three. Verse thirty-two. Verse thirty-two.

24:24 Verse thirty-two. Verse thirty-two. Verse thirty-two. of Revelation 2011 through 15 which is perhaps the most accurate commentary on this verse all the nations means literally all humanity before him shall be gathered all the nations he shall separate them the one from the other as the Shepherd separates the sheep from the goats these shall set the sheep on the right hand of the goats and the left now notice then shall the King say to them on his right hand come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for I was hungry and he gave me to eat I was thirsty and he gave me to drink I was a stranger and he took me in naked and he clothed me I was sick and he visited me I was in prison and he came to me then shall the righteous answer him saying Lord when saw we thee you you

25:27 I was hungry and fed thee or a thirst and gave thee drink and when saw we thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee and when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee and the king shall answer and say unto them verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren even the least ye did it unto me then shall ye say to them on the left hand depart from me ye cursed do you see the specific identity of those who are separated as the goats on the one hand they are described by our Lord as all who have not entered into a vital relationship of faith love and obedience to the king which makes it proper for the king to own them as his brethren

26:27 all who have not entered into a relationship of faith and love and obedience to the king which makes it proper for the king to own them as his brethren all such are called in this passage those who are separated as the sets they they shall hear the words depart from me ye cursed Our Lord Himself tells us who it is that He accounts as His brethren in the 8th chapter of Luke's Gospel, verses 19 to 21. We are not left to our own surmisings on this matter. There came to Him His mother, that is, His earthly mother, Mary, and brethren, that is, His half-brothers. And they could not come at Him for the crowd. And it was told Him, Luke 8 and verse 20, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to see Thee.

27:33 But He answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these that hear the word of God and do it.

27:46 Our Lord here says that He owns no one as His brother, but that person who hears His word in faith and in obedience and castles. Cast Himself, as it were, into the mode of that word, to be governed by that word. And implicit in this entire passage in Matthew 25 is the great truth that when one comes into vital relationship with Christ so that Christ owns him as His brother, as part of His family, He also comes into vital relationship with all the others who are in that family and their children. Their treatment is regarded as their treatment of Him.

28:37 And He says to them, He says, As He did it not to the least of these, He did it not to Me. As He did it unto these, He did it unto Me. Do you see the identity of those who are in the King's favor? Christ owns as his brethren? Whom does he own as his brethren? Only such as hear the word of God and do it. Those who embrace the word in faith and in obedience and manifest the reality of that embrace by coming into a life of submission to the word in the fellowship of his people. But now is that all we have in the scriptures? That general description of those who are probably likened in this passage, though it is not explicitly stated that the unrighteous are the goats and the righteous are the sheep? We generally assume

29:41 so because the people of God are called sheep again and again in the scriptures. Do we have simply that broad general description of the great mass of humanity who by no stretch of the imagination give any evidence of this attachment to God? Is there any specific delineation of that great flock of goats? Well the Bible does in other places describe those goats. They are not all of the same color and stripe.

30:20 Some of them are of one stripe and some another. And in the time that remains this morning I want you to consider with me very seriously the following. 1. The great mass of people is the same as the great mass of sheep. The great mass of sheep is the same as the great mass of sheep. The great mass of sheep is the same as the what the Word of God says concerning some of those various categories of the goats. And this is what makes these words so frightening. Because if the Word of God is true on this point, and it is, these words will not be spoken to one or two or to a dozen or to a hundred or a thousand.

Category 1: The Stubborn and Willful Goats (Impenitent Violators)

30:51 They will be spoken to multitudes, some of whom I fear sit in this building this morning. First of all, let's consider those that I'll call the stubborn and the willful goats, all impenitent violators of God's holy law. The Word of God clearly teaches that the God who made us has placed us under strict obligations to keep His holy law, that law which was inscribed on our very constitution when we were made in Adam and when we were made in God. And when we were made in Adam, which though defaced and blurred and marred and greatly obscured because of sin, yet the remains of it are still there in the actings of conscience, bringing accusation for evil and approbation for good and always an accusation that has reference to God.

31:50 That law which was epitomized in those ten words spoken by God Himself from Sinai, those words summarized in the great Damascus, by which He says this, if I remain in the presence of God in our heart and God and our neighbor as sowess, what will happen to the man who willfully and deliberately and continually violates the dictates of the remains of that law in his conscience? What will happen to the one who knows God's holy law as set forth in those ten words who? I won't. God says in the day of judgment, all such will hear the words, depart from me, ye cursed. Look at the text. One of them was read in the Sunday school hour, 1 Corinthians

32:44 chapter 6, verses 9 through 11. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Will the judge say to the unrighteous, come ye blessed? Will he say to the unrighteous, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world?

33:11 No, no. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Then he specifies the unrighteous, neither fornicators. That's the general word. The word for sexual impurity, it brings within its scope, it's our English word translated as pornography. Neither pornographers, pornea, sexual impurity of every kind, those who say my body is my own. I don't care that I was made to reflect God's image. And in my sexuality, as we heard in the previous hour, to secure some accurate representation of that image. My body is my own. God says to such who give themselves to fornication of whatever kind, be not deceived. They shall not inherit the kingdom of God, nor idolaters.

34:19 Those who make a god of anything but the living God who says thou shalt have no other gods before me, those who make a god of their money, a god of their face, a god of their body, a god of their reputation, anything that becomes the preoccupying focus of my life, that's my God.

34:41 No idolater shall enter the kingdom of God, nor adulterers, those who violate the sanctity of the marriage bed, those who have said, forsaking all others, I cleave to you, and who are adulterers. Adulterers either willfully in the practice that touches the external, or in terms of Matthew 5, who willfully and deliberately give their minds to impurity, who may never bed down with a woman other than their wives, but who deliberately and willfully commit mental uncleanness and adultery, nor effeminate homosexuals of all stripes, whether lesbian, homosexuals of all genders, male homosexuals, any kind of open perversion of the I-thou-male-female designation of man as image-bearer, it's one of the worst and most blatant denials of the creatorhood of God. For God has said, I will make them male and female, and the lesbian or the homosexual says, Almighty God.

36:01 I'll defy you at the point of my sexual identity. I'll re-create myself and this person after my own likeness and after my own perverted desire. Nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, not just the ones who operate in the Lower East Side of New York, where they switch blade and take a man's wallet, but men who sit, in their offices, with four-hundred-dollar custom-made suits, and are thieves, who rob their employees of their due, who rob their employers, who rob the government by illicit manipulation of figures and funds, thieves, blue-collar thieves, white-collar thieves, respectable thieves, shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Thieves. People who take that which is not rightfully theirs, nor covetous. Those whose hearts are always burning for one more thing, one more car, or one up in

37:23 terms of the status of the car they now own, one more thing in terms of some appointment in the home, some commodity within the home, covetous. The heart is never at rest in God. It is always restless in its pursuits. It is always restless in its pursuit of things.

37:42 God says covetousness is idolatry. Nor drunkards. Those who have given themselves to a pattern of alcohol dependence. Who have taken God's gift and abused it and made themselves its slave.

38:04 Nor revilers. Those whose tongues constantly cut and wound and slash. Nor extortioners. And there are subtle forms of extortion.

38:19 And the list is not complete, but notice the language. None of these shall inherit the kingdom of God. Now, my friend, if you just stop and think of all the people you know in your own little circle of influence who fit one of these descriptions,

38:37 I ask you the question, are there few or many who are going to hear those words, depart from me, I never knew you? If the Word of God is true,

38:50 then this that is so frightening is the great number of those that I've called the openly stubborn and rebellious goats. You find them described in Galatians 5, 19-21 in similar terminology. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness. And then he goes on to deal with other forms of sin that are parallel.

39:16 To this passage, Revelation 21, 8, be not deceived, the fearful, the unbelieving. And listen, kids, you know what's put in the midst of all those terrible sins, murderers and sorcerers? Listen, all liars. Listen to me, kids.

39:33 God says liars, liars, liars. Those that deliberately and willfully deceive their moms and dads. Those that willfully and deliberately cheat, school, and who will not repent of their lying. Lying's become a way of life.

39:53 God says they'll hear the king say, depart from me, you cursed, I never knew you. Anyone who willfully, deliberately, continually indulges that which is in opposition to God's holy law, and does not repent and set out in a path of reformation and conformity to the Word of God. If the Word of God is true, and it is, all such will hear the words, depart from me, you cursed. Doesn't it make them frightening words?

Category 2: The Smug, Prissy, Mincing Goats (Self-Righteous Religious People)

40:30 If there is that great class of the goats, the stubborn, headstrong, rebellious goats. But there's a second category of the goats, and what I would call the smug, prissy, mincing goats, all self-righteous religious people, epitomized in the Pharisees of our Lord's day. Listen to what he says. There's nothing there except what he says about them in Matthew's Gospel 5, verse 20.

40:58 Here are the words of the gracious Son of God. He says in Matthew's Gospel 5, verse 20. For I say unto you, accept your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. You must have a righteousness that is not just a little bit more of the same kind of what the scribes have. They've gone this far, you must go a little further. No, no, you must have a righteousness that is of a wholly different kind than that of the scribes and the Pharisees." And he says, unless you have it, you'll never enter the kingdom. And if you don't enter the kingdom, you're going to hear the words, depart from me, ye cursed. What was the problem with the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? Two fundamental

41:48 problems. It rested on a wrong foundation, and it was constructed by wrong principles. And you see it all right there in Luke's Gospel, chapter 18. The Pharisee comes into the temple to pray, and he lifts up his face to heaven and says, I thank thee, God. I'm not like other men. I don't do this, I don't do that, I do this. What was he saying? He was saying, my righteousness by which I am accepted before God is comprised of what I am and what I do.

42:19 And God says, accept your righteousness, exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. My friend, let me ask you a very pointed question this morning. Have you ever come to that place where in the depths of your being, as much as you know your own name and have any other aspect of valid self-consciousness, you've come to the place where from the heart you've been able to say, if I'm ever to be accepted in the sight of a holy God, who demands perfect righteousness before he can enter into communion with any creature, I must have a righteousness of another. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. My holiest deeds are stained with sin. My righteousnesses are as filthy rags. In other

43:18 words, if you take in the posture of the publican described in Luke 18 who would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven but beat upon his breast crying, God, be merciful to me the sinner. And that's a graphic description. That tells us that is would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven. And it shows us that is would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven. It is the indication that if all his mind and body were bent or bent, he would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, let alone stand erect and proud and self-confident like that foolish Pharisee. My friend, do you know anything of that posture in the depths of your soul, standing in the presence of a holy God bent over in the brokenness of true contrition? Do you know anything about that? Do you? If

44:11 you don't, my friend, you're in dangerous ground. Accept your righteousness, exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus said you will never enter the kingdom of heaven and you may be resting on a wrong foundation like a Pharisee, thinking what you are and what you've done. Comprised of your heritage and training and upbringing and background and religious performance and ritual is enough to get you acceptance with God. You have it on the word of Jesus. That's not enough. And then they constructed their practical righteousness on wrong principles. They were far more concerned with the external than the internal, far more concerned for little piddling details than the great principles, far more concerned for the external than the internal, far more concerned for little piddling details than the great principles.

45:00 Or they were far more concerned with the eyes of men than the eye of God. And you see that right through chapter six of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says to His own, do not. Your righteousness is like the scribes and Pharisees. They want men to see them, He says.

45:13 Your concern must be what your father sees when you give, when you pray, when you fast. It's what your father sees that counts in true godliness. Furthermore, in Matthew 23 he says, these Pharisees are all the time scrubbing the outside of the cup and of the platter. Imagine a hostess in this building who's had company once a week for six months, and every time she takes out her best china, and after every time she's served tea, she carefully polishes the outside.

45:44 Oh, she's so meticulous, but never once did she wash the inside. Jesus said that's what the Pharisees were like. As surely as that cup would be browned with the stains of the tea that had been drunk by all the guests, so Jesus said you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, but within are full of extortion and excess. Jesus said you must have a righteousness that is of a different kind than that of scribes and Pharisees.

46:15 You must rest on a different foundation, and you must construct a righteousness of practical godliness upon different principles. It's the eye of God that matters, not the eye of man. It is the heart, and not primarily the external. Let me ask you as you sit this morning, do you know anything of that?

46:37 As you sit here today,

46:40 are you more concerned about what the elders know or don't know than what God knows?

46:47 Are you more concerned what your wife knows or doesn't know than what God knows? Are you more concerned what mom and dad know or what God knows? I wonder what would happen if in the next 15 seconds God would give me a chance to say, give the power to someone in this building to take what you really are on the inside and flash it on that screen behind us. I fear some of you would crawl under that seat in shame, because it's not that sense of genuine humility and that sense of ongoing poverty of spirit which marks every Christian that would cause him to say, I don't want anyone to know what my heart is, but who at the same time, that he says that, is crying out in his closet before God, cleanse me, oh God, give me a pure heart, purge my sin. Not talking about that. Talking about some of you sitting here today who are perfect Pharisees, willfully, deliberately, in a calculated manner, living a double life.

48:09 And as long as the eyes of wife and mother and father and friends and elders see what appears, acceptable, you're happy, because that's all you're concerned about. You don't care what your father sees. You don't care what almighty God knows, because you're a stranger to communion with him. You see, the true child of God is far more concerned about what his father knows than what men know, because he knows it's what his father knows that determines the reality of his communion with his father.

48:49 And anything that mars that communion, is a source of grief and pain, but not a Pharisee. As long as he's in good standing with those around him, all is well. I say these are terrible words. If they're going to be spoken to all the stubborn goats, all those openly impenitent, rebellious sinners described in those passages I've read and quoted in your hearing, what a frightening number.

Category 3: The Self-Deceived Professors of Christianity

49:19 Then if we add to it all of the smug, prissy, mincey, rinsing, self-righteous, pharisaic goats, the numbers and the ranks are swelled. And then they're swelled even greater when we add to it all the self-deceived professors of Christianity, those who seek to have the benefits of the cross of Christ, who will not bow to the demands of the crown of Christ. This passage says that the goats are damned for what they didn't do. Don't forget it.

49:54 Inasmuch as ye did it not depart from me, they're damned for what they didn't do. And what didn't they do? They didn't manifest that they had a bond of living attachment to Christ in terms of how they acted to His people. Inasmuch as ye did it not unto the least of these, my little ones, ye did it not unto me, depart from me, ye cursed.

Category 4: The Sleeping, Lazy Goats (Indifferent to the Gospel)

50:22 Perhaps they could speak long and loud about when they trusted Jesus, when they made a decision. My friend, your decision means absolutely nothing unless it was the occasion of your being brought into vital union with Christ so that you hear and you do the Word of God. For He says, Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Oh, the self-deceived religious goats, who seek to have the benefits of the cross without bowing to the demands of the crown, who claim to believe, but who have no evidence that they've repented, who profess to be saved by the blood, but who give no evidence of being sanctified by the Spirit. If we add to the number of the goats all of those, the words become more and more terrible. And finally, if we add to the number all those that I call the sleeping goats, the sleepy, lazy goats, those that are indifferent, indifferent to the gospel call to repent and to believe. Oh, no, they're not like those stubborn, willful goats, openly, violently trampling underfoot the law of God.

51:42 No. They're not like those smug, prissy, mincing, self-righteous Pharisee goats. No. Nor are they those who name the name of Christ by deceiving themselves by living a life of willful and perpetual disobedience and impenitence.

52:03 They just sit in a place like this week after week, and they hear the gospel preached. They almost like to hear a man preach it with earnestness and zeal. That's why they're here. They don't want to go to some church where people just stand up and whisper a few nothings about God and the Bible and religion and do good and be nice.

52:23 No, no, no, no. They want the pure gospel preached, and they want it preached earnestly and fervently. But the great and fatal problem is this. You do nothing about it.

52:34 And the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 1 and verse 8, Christ will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on all those that obey not the gospel. You know what you need to do to hear these words? Just do nothing week after week when you hear the gospel. Just do nothing.

52:53 Just sit there and do nothing. Do nothing. Do nothing. And the Scripture says He will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on all that obey not the gospel.

53:07 We're not here just working up a sweat, going through a performance week by week, dear people, when we urge, when we plead, when we entreat, when we warn, when we, with all the fiber of our being, call you to repent and to believe. And to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. These are matters of life and death. And if you will not repent and believe, have it upon the testimony of the Word of God.

A Call to Flee from the Wrath to Come

53:41 Going to that day and that condition, you'll hear Him say, Depart from me, cursed. I never knew you. God willing, tonight, we'll take up two more strands of truth from the text. But I close this morning with this question, and I trust God will burn it into your consciousness.

54:04 Are you going to hear those words? Depart from me, ye cursed. My friend, if you fit any of those four categories, that present condition is not transformed by nothing short of becoming a new creature in Christ. As sure as you sit here this morning and hear my words, you're going to hear the Lord of glory say from the throne of His glory, as the appointed judge, and King of the universe, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

54:46 Will you hear those words? Will you hear those words? You go on openly defying God's law, and as sure as you sit here, you'll hear them. Go on, a Pharisee, you'll hear them.

55:08 Go on, a self-deceived religious professor of the knowledge of Christ, you'll hear them. Go on insensitive and indifferent to the call to faith, you will hear them. But my friend, you need not hear them. And the reason the Lord spoke them and put them in His word is that hearing them in the word, we may never hear them in the great day.

55:35 For the one who is the Son of Man, seated upon the throne of His glory, is the one who comes to that throne by way of a cross, and He died upon that cross because He took judgment seriously. He so believed in this day that He went to the cross to take, as it were, the very pangs and agonies of the hell that will await those who come to that day. He went to the cross to bear in Himself the wrath of God against sinners. Don't just write this off with so much preacher's enthusiasm.

56:16 Don't write it off as mere religious rhetoric. Would to God that I could so speak the words as to make you feel the frightening reality of them. But God the Holy Ghost must do that. But I have sought in faithfulness to warn you.

56:34 The most terrifying words human ears can ever hear, may God grant that you will not hear them. And it's only in Christ that you can avoid them. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we confess in Your presence that Your Word sobers us when we contemplate these great issues of judgment and the world to come.

57:17 We thank You that You've not left us in darkness, that You've not deceived us, You've not allowed us to stumble along with no light as to that great day. Be pleased to take what has been expounded and preached in this place today and make it fruitful in causing some to flee from the wrath to come. We pray for those who are indeed Your people who rejoice this day that they will never hear those words because they have fled to Christ. They have been joined to Christ.

57:56 They are part of the family of Christ. They are those who hear the Word of God in faith and do it in the spirit of evangelical obedience. Lord, for such, give a renewed sense of the seriousness of our responsibility. Give us a quickened and deepened concern for sinners that are yet in their sins.

58:20 Make us zealous in our efforts to proclaim the Gospel to men. Make us compassionate and tender as we plead with men to flee from the wrath to come. Seal then Your Word to our hearts, we pray, through the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.