"The Wicked Sent into Judgment"

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Matthew 25:41-42: Then He will also say to those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, inito the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink: I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.

A major theme of the book of James is that works show your faith. We are not saved by works, but without works our faith is dead. There is a great tension there, and the dominant thought in the Church until the Reformation was that works determine your salvation.

Here we have the reverse idea in Jesus prediction of what it will be like at the beginning of the Millennium. Jesus repeats all that had been said in the previous paragraph that a lack of works is the visible proof of a lack of faith.

I am grieved week after week by those who promise to come to church but do not get there. While they may fool us, there is a just God who looks at the intents of the heart and can see whether the faith professed is merely a bluff or sincere. If you have a sense of the fact that you are a wicked sinner and deserving of judgment, you will not want to miss one opportunity to praise and serve the Lord.

Denise and I delight in spending Christmas with a couple and their children who live about an hour away. It is a delight because after 20 hours of marriage counseling and a lot of changes made in their lives I performed their wedding four years ago. The wedding took place at the Occidental University Chapel overlooking the Pacific Ocean (at Malibu). It is the only time I cried at a wedding, and that occurred as I listened to the vows that they wrote each other. In those vows they quoted several things that they had learned in their counseling sessions. They were vowing to obey that which they had learned. A couple of years ago at Christmas, they said that when an argument was brewing, the retort was: What would Pastor Ron say? I know how that made me feel--no better present could have been given,

Jesus in this paragraph shows that He demands the same thing--obedience to His Word. We are to follow His teachings and that steadfastness shows our commitment to Him. Reading your Bible, worshipping at church, witnessing, giving your tithes, and helping the poor are all earmarks of a vibrant salvation. The absence of that is a cause of real concern. This is the time to start taking inventory on your own life. Do what Jesus would have you to do!