The very One whom men slew is the One who is to be their Judge. Death is no avenue of escape from meeting Him as the Judge, for He will judge the dead. There is one way, and only one, of escaping judgment at His hands; that is by accepting Him as Savior now. I must either know Him as the blessed One who took my place and died in my stead on Calvary's cross and who bore my sins in His own body, or some day stand before the bar of justice and hear my doom from His lips. He will be either the sinner's Savior and Substitute, or his Judge.
Reader, do you know Him as your Savior? Happy are you if you do, for then you will never come into judgment. But if you are a stranger to Him in His grace, His judgment must inevitably overtake you some day. He will judge both the living and the dead, but not at the same time.
We who know Him as our Savior await that blessed moment when He will come and take us all Home to be with Himself in the Father's house. And, as we noticed in the last issue, we shall then have all our works brought into review before Him. Then all that has been done just to please self will be loss, and everything done for Him will be rewarded and be gain. This will take place after we are safely in heaven.
As soon as all the Christians are taken from the earth to be with Christ, the world will begin to feel God's judgment which will be poured out on it with increasing fury. During those days of world-wide trouble, wickedness will rise to unprecedented heights, and then shall appear the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven to personally execute vengeance on them that know not God (2 Thess. 1:7-97And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (2 Thessalonians 1:7‑9)). When He comes out of heaven, the saints who will have been taken there will come out with Him as the "armies which were in heaven." Then the two leaders in man's consummate wickedness will be taken alive and cast into the lake of fire, and great multitudes will be slain by the sword of Him who is "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords" (Rev. 19:11-2111And I saw heaven opened, 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. 12His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 17And 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 unto the supper of the great God; 18That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. 19And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20And 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. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Revelation 19:11‑21)).
After the Lord Jesus, as the Son of man, has cleared away many who will have risen up in rebellion, He will establish His throne of judgment on the earth to judge the living nations. This judgment session is described in Matt. 25:31-4631When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:31‑46).
"When the Son of man shall come [or, shall have come] in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations."
It is after He has already come as the lightning striking swift judgment on His enemies, that He will establish the "throne of His glory." Then all of the living nations on earth are to be judged before His tribunal. It is definitely an earthly scene, for there will be no nations in heaven; and it is not the time of the judgment of the wicked dead, for when they are raised to be judged, nations will have disappeared. Here the ones who will appear before His throne are the Gentile nations alive on the earth at that time. (As for the Jews when He comes, He will deal with them separately.)
The evidence on which those of the nations are to be judged is different also. They will be judged according to the way they treated "His brethren"—the Jewish messengers—who will have gone throughout the world after the Christians left it, preaching the "gospel of the kingdom." While most of the Jews will apostatize, and accept antichrist, there will be a faithful remnant who will believe in the coming of the true Messiah; these will go out everywhere telling the good news that He is coming. Their message will be much the same as that preached by John the Baptist before Christ came the first time. At His first coming, Christ was rejected and the coming kingdom was postponed, while Christians were gathered out of the world for heaven. But when the Christians are taken to heaven, then the "gospel of the kingdom" (Matt. 24:1414And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:14)) will be resumed by faithful Jews. These Jewish messengers, called by Christ "My brethren," will suffer much persecution and many will be martyred. Among the Gentiles, faith in God and the coming King will be evidenced by the manner in which the message and the messengers are treated. It will still be true that "without faith it is impossible to please God."
It may be needful to remind some that this preaching of the "gospel of the kingdom" is not a second chance for those who now refuse the "gospel of the grace of God." For those who in these lands refuse Christ as Savior now, God will send a "strong delusion, that they should believe a lie," for the purpose that they who refuse grace "might be damned" (2 Thess. 2:10-1210And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:10‑12)). But there are millions on earth who have not heard the "gospel of the grace of God." By far the greater part of mankind on earth are outside of any profession of Christianity For these, the Jewish messengers will carry the good news of the coming kingdom of Christ. These few faithful Jews will do in probably not more than seven years what Christendom had failed to do in almost two thousand years; they will preach this gospel in "all the world." The Gentiles who believe the message will show their interest in its messengers and at the "throne of His glory" will hear "the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. 25:3434Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: (Matthew 25:34).
Here the Son of man is called the "King," and in addressing those on His right hand He calls them "blessed of My Father." They will not know God in the relationship of their Father, as believers in this age do, but be blessed by His Father. Another mark of difference from that which belongs to Christians is that the kingdom (earthly) was prepared for them "from the foundation of the world." The believers now were chosen in Christ "before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:44According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (Ephesians 1:4)).
It is beautiful to see how the "King" will credit the "sheep" with having done for Himself personally whatever they did for even "the least" of His messengers; He will so identify Himself with these Jewish "brethren."
It was a similar lesson that Saul of Tarsus learned on the road to Damascus when he heard the Lord say to him, "Why persecutest thou Me?" That persecutor of Christians had to learn that when he molested them he was persecuting "Jesus" (Acts 9:1-51And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. 3And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: 4And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. (Acts 9:1‑5)). And contrariwise those who had despised the messengers of the "King" will be shown to have refused the "King" Himself.
Another point to be noticed is that the "goats" on His left hand—those who refused the messengers bearing the "gospel of the kingdom"—will be sent away into "everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (v. 41). The lake of fire was not prepared for men but for the devil and his angels; and yet, how sad that rebellious men who will not have God's grace are to share it with them.