The Destruction of the Nations, Part 5

Selected Scriptures

We're going to be considering tonight the fifth in our series on the destruction of the nations and if you you're your Bible, you might turn to Matthew Chapter 25.  Matthew Chapter 25 deals with the subject the judgment of the nations, the judgment of the nations.  I'm going to make some introductory comments and then we'll look at Matthew Chapter 25.

The Bible says "be sure your sins will find you out."  And thus is stated a very, very important fact  There is no way to escape the judgment of sin.  It is inevitable.  It is inescapable.  In Romans 1:18, the Bible says, "For the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness."  None escapes.

Sin has its moment, but so does inevitable judgment.  In the Psalms there are many statements to the same effect.  In Psalm 90, verse 8, the Bible says "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy face."  In Psalm 139, verse 11, the scriptures say, "If I say surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me.  For I think I can hide my sin in some darkness in God's eyes it shall be light."  In Psalm 140, verse 11, it says, "Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth.  Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him."  There's no escape.

In Proverbs Chapter 13, verse 21 says, "Evil pursueth sinners, but to the righteous good shall be repaid."  Evil pursueth sinners.  In Isaiah Chapter 3, verse 11, the scripture says "Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him."

Those are just a few suggestions of the biblical principle, "be sure your sins will find out."  There is no way to escape judgment.  With God there is no such thing as unfinished business.  And God always deals with sin, for He's a holy God.  And as we are living in the end of age by all the signs that we can see around us, we see that not only is judgment impending, but at the same time, sin is speeding up in its great climax.

And man, if we were to characterize him we might say he's like somebody who's on a runaway train, and the train is plummeting down a mountainside, the breaks have gone out, there's nobody really in control, it keeps going faster and faster with increasing speed and inevitably at the bottom there's going to be a terrible crash.

And the Bible says that in the last days civilization's going to be like a runaway train and that men's sin will increase and increase. Evil men shall become worse and worse.  The mystery of iniquity that is sin as it's never been seen before will mount and mount until the train of humanity plummets faster and faster toward the inevitability of the judgment of God. 

It's interesting though as you look around the world, everybody on the train seems to be having a party.  It seems to be that man have no idea of how fast they're going towards judgment.  They have no thought of restraint, of holding back.  They don't realize what is inevitable and yet the Bible says judgment always comes, you'll never escape it, because God always finishes His business and His business with sin is always judgment.

Now, the climax of all of this judgment that man is racing toward is the return of Jesus Christ.  Christ is going to come back to execute final judgment.  This is even indicated in...as far back as the Psalms in the Old Testament.  We've read a couple of verses.  Let me just take your attention to a couple of more.

Psalm 96:13, "Before the Lord for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth.  He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with His truth."  Verse 9 of Psalm 98, "Before the Lord," closing off verse 8, "for He cometh to judge the earth with righteousness shall He judge the world and the people's with equity."   Equality.  The Old Testament then says, "The Lord will come in judgment."  There is no escape from sin. 

Now tonight we want to look in our study at this coming judgment.  The judgment when Jesus Christ returns to earth is the final feature of really the times of the Gentiles or the history of the nations.  Now we have discussed many things about the destruction of the nations.  We've discussed the times of the nations.  We've discussed the ruler of the nations.  This great one coming that is called antichrist. We've discussed the religion of the nations, how there's going to be a false church.  And we've discussed the alignment of the nations and the war of the nations and we went into Armageddon and what's going to happen in detail last time.

Now tonight we want to talk about the judgment of the nation.  Everything peeks out when Christ returns.  We covered last time how that Armageddon is going to happen.  And at the close of the time known as the tribulation the great battle of Armageddon takes place.  At the end of that battle Christ comes, and when He comes, He comes in judgment.

The judgment of the nations then occurs at the end of the tribulation period.  The church is going to be taken out of the world seven years of terrible tribulation, then Christ returns to set up His kingdom and He comes in judgment.  Now I want you to notice five things tonight about this judgment.  The judge, the time of judgment, the place of judgment, the subject of judgment, and the judgment itself.

We'll begin with the judge.  And in your Bibles look now at Matthew Chapter 25 and let's see the judge.  There's coming a judgment who is going to be the judge?  Matthew 25 beginning at verse 31,  "When the Son of man shall come in His glory," and we'll stop right there. 

Now this is going to be the time of judgment.  It says, "when the Son of man shall come," down in verse 32, it says "he shall separate the nations.  In verse 34, "He shall introduce some into His kingdom."  In verse 41, "he shall introduce some to judgment."  Now the judge clearly in this situation is the Son of man.  "When the Son of man shall come in His glory." 

Now turn in your Bible for a moment and I want you to go to this passage, because I want to show you some things to John Chapter 5.  John Chapter 5, now we know that the judge is the Son of man or Jesus Christ as He was called the Son of man.  Verse 22 of John 5 says, and these are the words of Jesus Himself.  "For the Father judgeth no man.  But hath committed all judgment unto the Son."

Now go down to verse 26, "For as the Father hath life in Himself, so He hath given to the son to have life in Himself and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of man."

Now here Jesus says that it is He who has been granted by God the right to be the judge.  Now I want you to notice an interesting thing, and I think there's a lot of doctrine in it.  It's implied.  Verse 27 says "That He has given the right to judge because He is the Son of man."  Now why is He called the Son of man? 

In verse 25, He is called the Son of God.  It says, "Verily, verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live."  Let me give you a simple illustration of why I see the Son of God in verse 25 and the Son of man in verse 27.

In verse 25, its speaks of His ministry of resurrection.  Now that takes a divine miracle, doesn't it?  That takes the intervention of deity.  And so when the Bible speaks of resurrection it speaks of Christ as the Son of God, emphasizing that He has the power to do the miraculous, raise men from the dead.

But when it speaks in verse 27 of judgment, it doesn't emphasize His deity.  Why?  Because judgment requires no particular miracle.  You say what do you mean by that?  I mean this, that in the case of judgment, Christ really doesn't have to do anything.  The Bible says "whatever a man sows, that he reaps."  The Bible says, "the soul that sinneth it shall die."  And the implication of scripture is this that if a man just lives his life the way its going in sin, God doesn't get involved at all, He merely brings upon Himself the inevitable consequence of sin.

God doesn't have to do anything.  God merely pronounces the verdict that the man himself has brought to pass in his own life by his own sin and rejection of Christ.  So it never says that Christ has been given judgment and He's going to kill people and He's going to do all of these things actively.  It simply indicates that He as the Son of man pronounces a verdict and that verdict is based upon what man himself has done and therefore God does not need to exercise any miraculous power.

We've illustrated this before from Romans and other portions of the New Testament where you have statements about the wrath that comes on sin.  And very often it doesn't even attach to God.  It just says dewrath, dewrath.  And what it seems to be indicating is that there is a principle in the universe that when a man violates, he throws himself into chaos.  Now if I jump off a 15 story building, God doesn't have to kill me, that's the point.  The fall will do fine.

If I take a gun and put it to my head and blow my brains out, God doesn't have to be involved at all.  And the same thing is true in terms of the moral law.  There is...it's just like there are physical laws that take over, so there are moral laws and if a man lives a life in violation of moral law, he brings on himself the consequences of that life.  And so we see Christ portrayed as the son of man insofar as He does not have to be active deity and perform a miracle of judgment.  There's no miracle to it.  The man lived in sin, he'll die in sin.  The soul that sinneth it shall die.  God doesn't even need to be involved.

God is involved in redemption.  Now all judgment then has been committed to the Son of man who is Jesus Christ.  In the upper room the night before His death, Jesus told His disciples He was going to go away.  But He said, I'm not going to stay away, I'm going to return.  He came back after the resurrection, he went up on a mountain side and he ascended into heaven and two angels stood there and said, "Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into heaven.  This same Jesus you have seen taken up from you shall so come in like manner as you've seen Him go into heaven."

Jesus kept saying, "I'm going, but I'm coming back.  I'm gong, but I'm coming back."  Do you believe He keeps His promise?  I believe it.  He's going to come back first as a bridegroom.  Who's His bride?  The church.  Then He's going to come back as a judge.  We talk a lot about the love of God.  We talk a lot about the grace of Christ. We talk about the joy of the Holy Spirit, but tonight we have to talk about judgment.

And when Jesus comes back the first time, it's as a loving bridegroom to gather His bride, but when He comes back for those that are not a part of His church it's inflaming judgment isn't it?  And I want to show you some scripture passages.  I know that you need to know them because God put them in the word of God.

Listen to the.  Just jot them down, don't try to follow them.  Jude 14 and 15.  Listen to this "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam," that's a long time back, "prophesied of these saying," this is Enoch, here's the first prophecy ever recorded.  You know what it was about?  Listen, "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints."  The first prophecy ever made was the prophecy of the coming of Christ in judgment.

"He comes," verse 15, "to execute judgment upon all and to convict all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."  Now that's a...there's a lot of ungodlies in there, four of them.

The first prophecy ever given in scripture was given in terms of a direct prophecy, there's an implied prophecy in Genesis 3:15, but the first direct prophecy was given and it's not even recorded in the Old Testament, here it's eluded to was given about the coming of Christ in judgment.  When He's going to come against ungodly men.

I want to call to your attention another passage in the Old Testament, in Isaiah, it's Chapter 63.  One of the most fearful passages you'll ever read in your life.  Listen, "Who is He that cometh from Edom with died garments?  This that is glorious in His apparel traveling in the greatness of His strength.  I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save," and here God has a dialogue with Himself.  He says "Who's coming, who's coming, and He says it's I."

"Why aren't thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like Him who treadeth in winefat.  Well, I have trodden the winepress alone and of the peoples there was none with me for I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled on my garments and I will stain all my raiment."  The question is why do you look like you've been stepping on grapes?  Why are you so covered with that blood colored?  And He says, I'm coming to stamp out judgment.

"For the day of vengeance is my heart and the year of my redeemed is come.  And I looked and there was none to help and I wondered that there was none to uphold.  Therefore for mine own arm brought salvation unto me and my fury had upheld me.  I will tread down on the peoples in mine anger and make them drunk in my fury.  I will bring down their strength to the earth."

That's severe language.  I don't know if there's any more severe language than that in all the Bible.  It's difficult for me to even think about it, to even read about it, and to know that men and women wills suffer the judgment of God in rejecting Jesus Christ.

You know when you read something like that immediately some people are shocked and they...they always contemplate Christ as a very gentle, meek, lowly Savior kind of the babe of Christmas thing and you don't think about Him as the coming judge.  Believe me friends, the marvel...no, the marvel the wonder is not that He comes as judge, the wonder is that He came as Savior to sinful men.

I could read you Isaiah Chapter 34, maybe I'll just read you a couple of verses.  Again, a fearful passage.  Isaiah 34, verse 2, "For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, His fury upon all their armies, He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter, their slain also shall be cast out and their stench shall come up out of their carcasses and the mountains shall be melted with their blood and all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved and the heavens shall be rolled together like a scroll and all their hosts shall fall down, all the stars, as the leaf falleth off from the vine like a falling fig from the fig tree."  Speaking also of the demons.  "For my sword shall be bathed in heaven.  Behold it shall come down upon Idumea.  God's first going to judge heaven, the demons, then earth, then upon the people of my curse to judgment.  The sword of the Lord is filled with blood.  It is made fat with fatness and with the blood of lambs and goats and the fat of kidneys of rams for the Lord hath a sacrifice and a great slaughter."

God is coming in judgment.  Jesus Christ is the judge.  In Daniel Chapter 2, we call our attention to two verses 34 and 35.  And remember the image that symbolizes Gentile world power?  It says, "Thou sawest until a stone was cut out without hands which smote the image upon its feet that were of iron, clay, and broke them to pieces.  Then were the iron and clay and the bronze and silver and gold broke into pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floor and the wind carried them away that no place was found for them and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." 

You say what's all that?  Jesus Christ is seen as a stone who comes and smashes the world empires and takes and sets His kingdom which fills the whole earth.  Judgment.  In the New Testament we find the statements of the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians Chapter 1, verse 7, "And to you who are troubled rest with us.  When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels inflaming fire taking vengeance on them that no not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Now there you have the criterion regarding judgment, "Them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."  Paul said at the end of Corinthians "that God wanted us to know that if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema.  Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power."

In Acts Chapter 17, verse 29, "For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like gold or silver or stone carved by art and man's device don't worship idols.  The times of this ignorance, God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent."  Why?  "Because He has appointed day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained."  And who is that man?  It is that man who has been raised from the dead, Jesus Christ.

Becoming judge is described in detail.  Turn to Revelation 19.  Revelation 19:11, and here is a portrait of the judge.  "And I saw heaven longer."  The last time heaven opened was in Chapter 4 and you know what happened then, all the saints went in.  Now it's going to open again and they're all coming back.  Two times heaven opens in the book of Revelation once for the rapture and once for the second-coming.

"I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and He that sat upon him was called faithful and true and in righteousness He doth judge and make war."  The idea of a white horse is really significant.  Roman generals, whenever they would win a great battle would always return from conquering an army riding on a white horse with all their legions behind them and they would come up the via socra.  Right straight up the main street of Rome which ran from the forum to the temple of Jupiter which was on Capita Lea Hill, and this was the great procession, the conqueror riding the white horse.  And here comes Jesus Christ the conqueror. 

He's called faithful and true.  Why?  Because He keeps His promise and tells the truth.  And He's coming to judge and coming to make war.  Do you remember back at the Red Sea in Exodus Chapter 15 when God destroyed Pharaoh and his horses and chariots and the whole thing?  Do you remember what the children of Israel cried?  "The Lord is a man of war." 

When judgment comes God will judge.  Look at verse 12 and see something else about the judge.  "His eyes were like a flame of fire."  You say what does that signify?  Penetrating, probing into the deepest recesses of men's hearts that He might judge rightly.  "He had many crowns."  Why man crowns?  Because He is King of Kings and what?  And Lord of Lords. 

And notice he had a name that no man new.  And verse 13 says "And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood."  You say where did that blood come from?  First of all, that's the garment of war and that's the blood of His enemies.  You know this isn't the first battle that the Lord has fought.  There have been many.  They have been stained with blood throughout the years.  The battle of the cross stained his garments with blood.  They'll be stained again.

His name is the word of God and that tells us who it is, Jesus Christ.  "And the armies that were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean."  That's us in the Old Testament saints.  "Out of his mouth goeth the sharp sword that with it He should smite the nations."  What is the sword of His mouth?  It's simply His word.  "For the word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword."  It's His word, it's His spoken word which He speaks in judgment.

Isaiah 11:4 says, "And He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked."  So He comes in judgment and then He rules with a rod of iron.  Absolute unyielding judgment and "like crushing grapes he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God and He hath on His vesture, His thigh a name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords."  There's the judge.

The judge is Jesus Christ.  Now secondly, what is the time of judgment?  When does this tremendous and fearful vengeance happen.  When does this judgment take place.  If you're back in Matthew 25, you're in the right spot.  Matthew 25:31, gives us a couple of timed designations.  "When the Son of man shall come in His glory."

All right, we know when it's going to be.  It's going to be when the Son of man comes in His glory.  When's that?  It's not the first time He came, right?  The first time that He come in glory?  No, He came in humiliation.  The second time He comes, He comes in glory.  The first time He came in humiliation, but you know there was judgment the first time He came only the judgment the first time was on Him. The judgment the second time will be by Him.

What was the first judgment?  The cross when He bore sin.  There's coming a second one when He returns to the earth, and I believe this is the consummation of the times of the Gentiles.  The times of the nations.  We've been talking about the world is going to fall into a final phase of the revived Roman empire, the European confederacy, Daniel and Revelation both indicate a ten nation confederacy.  We see that happening around us.  The great battle of Armageddon is going to begin to focus.  We see that what we told you last week is all coming to pass in the Mideast war.  The king of the south, Egypt, fighting against Israel.  The king of the north, Russia, coming down against Israel.  The great armies to the east coming in and we see all of this.  This is all going to come together at the end of the tribulation and we're seeing the previews now.  And they're pretty real.

But at the end of tribulation all of this, the revived Roman empire with a ten nation confederacy to the great nations moving to battle at Jerusalem, it is at that time exactly that He comes.  And you have to go back to Revelation 19 again to see this.  In Revelation 19:17 it tells us, "I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven come and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God."

Here the angel calls together the birds of the air, carrying birds.  "That you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men free and enslaved, small and great, there's going to be a feast for birds.  And I saw the beast or the antichrist and the kings of the earth, all the nations gathered at Armageddon and their armies gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse and against His army."  That's a rather futile war. 

"And the beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image and both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."

Verse 21, "The remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat on the horse with sword proceeds out of His mouth and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."  That's how the battle of Armageddon ends.  Christ comes down and all the armies are slaughtered right there.

Now that has to be at the second-coming of Christ.  He didn't do that the first time He came.  He has to do it the second time He comes.  "When He shall come in His glory."  In Psalm 2, we have a most interesting preview of this.  Verse 1, Psalm 2, "Why do the nations rage and the people imagine a vain thing?"  Why is there all this mess in the world?  How do you explain the mess the world's in?  Here's how.

"The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed."  You know why the world's in a mess?  Because they're ungodly and they've rejected Christ.  "Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us."  All the nations are going to fight God.  Take counsel against the Lord and destroy God's power and break God's bands and so forth and so on and what is God's reaction?

Verse 4, "He that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh."  And it doesn't mean funny.  It means that God treats it with foolishness.  Can they believe that they can do that?  "For He shall have them in derision.  Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath and vex them in His great displeasure."  And watch what He does.  He says, "Yet have I set my k