What Will God Judge? One Simple Act to Please God

Reverend Leo H. McCrary II

One does not have to guess or presume what God will judge of us? The question we must answer today is whether we are carefully doing as He desires.

Introduction

God’s judgment is in sight in my message for today.  I feel it’s incredibly important that Christians understand that God will hold us accountable for our works.  So, we ought not think we will escape His judgment, just because we’re a Christian.  Therefore, it is important that we know what pleases God so that when we stand before Him, we can rest assured.

A Warning to All

I am going to share with you a day of future judgment that Jesus presented to the disciples.

In Matthew 25:31-32, Jesus told the disciples, “When the Son of Man (that is Himself) comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

The day of this future judgment, Jesus makes clear, will be at His second coming.  The Second Coming of Christ is not to be confused with the rapture of the church.  The Second Coming will follow the period of the Great Tribulation, and the Great Tribulation will come after the rapture of the church.  Because this judgment will happen after the rapture of the Church, the sincere believer of today won’t face this judgment.

This may lead some of you to wonder, ‘Why are you preaching about this judgment if we aren’t going to be a part of it?’  I’m sharing this judgment with you because Jesus presented this judgment to His disciples, those of His day, and to all of us today.  

Jesus presented this future judgment to serve as a warning that God will judge.  God will judge, whether that judgment is at the judgment seat of Christ, the judgment at the Second Coming of Christ, or at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15).  Not only does Jesus show us that God will judge, but He also shows us what will be judged.  So, with this warning, we ought to prepare ourselves for when we stand before the Lord.

God’s Future Judgment

The beautiful thing about this warning is that you and I don’t have to guess or presume what God will judge.  So, let us pay close attention to what Jesus presents to us in this judgment.

In Matthew 25:32-33, Jesus tells us that both the good and the wicked will be judged.  To be clear, “all the nations” judged in this judgment are the nations that will come through the period of the Great Tribulation.

The sheep represent the faithful during the Great Tribulation.  While the sincere believers of the church will have been called out of the world prior, the gospel will emerge during the Great Tribulation.  During the Great Tribulation, new saints will emerge and walk by faith, therefore, becoming another fold of Christ.

Yet, there will be those who will reject the gospel and live wickedly.  The wicked are represented by the goats, standing on the left of Christ.  Now, let’s pay close attention to what Jesus judges of both groups.

In Matthew 25:35-36, we will see that Jesus will judge the sheep for when He was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, and in prison.  Jesus will say to the sheep, “I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.”

In Matthew 25:42-43, we will see what the goats will be judged for.  Jesus will say to the goats, “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.”

Question:  Will Jesus judge the sheep and the goats for different things?  Jesus makes it clear that both the sheep and goats will be held accountable for the same thing.  What we see being judged in this judgment is whether or not one had compassion in their heart!  Did one love and care or not, is what is going to be judged in that day.

God, I want to make clear, is only concerned about whether one loves or not. God is not concerned about how much wealth one gains in their life.  God is not concerned about how much power one has gained in their life.  No, God will judge whether or not one loved Him wholeheartedly, and whether or not one had compassion for their neighbor!  

We have been repeatedly told that this is what God wants from us!  Jesus said that the great commandment is to love God, and the second is like it – to love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matt. 22:36-40).  If you truly desire to prepare yourself to stand before the Lord, again I say, you don’t have to presume what God will judge of you.

A Concerning Parallel of Present and Future

The significance of that future judgment is that it shows how terrible the period of the Great Tribulation will be.

Future tribulation

During that period, the Antichrist will appear, and he will deceive many and lead them into great wickedness (2 Thess. 2:8-10).  As prophesied in Daniel 7:21, the Antichrist will make war against the saints of the Tribulation, and he will prevail.  The saints of the Great Tribulation will be persecuted, and many will even be martyred.

Those who dare to help and to care, especially for the saints, will live in great fear of facing a similar fate.  The Antichrist will take no pleasure in those who won’t serve or praise him.  Something we take for granted, like giving someone a cup of water, will be like a miracle.

Yet, those who choose not to live in fear, but rather, will choose to love and have compassion for others, will be rewarded.  They will hear from Christ, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt. 25:34).”  They will receive this wonderful reward because they will have loved Christ (Matt. 25:40).

A present period of concern

The future judgment paints a truly concerning parallel to the present.  While we don’t live during the period of the Great Tribulation, we would be lying to ourselves if we said there was no tribulation in the present.  

There is much tribulation – hurting and suffering – in this present day as lawlessness is already at work (2 Thess. 2:7).  Many are doing their best to create much civil unrest to turn one against the other.

As Paul told Timothy, the times of peril are here as people are overtly selfish, greedy, proud, blasphemers, slanderers, unloving, and unholy.  It’s not simply that people are saying vile and wicked things; they are doing vile and wicked things.  There are people taking pleasure in firing and laying off people from their work.  There are wicked people taking pleasure in their pursuit of power at the cost of the lives of others.

We live in a day when people make light of one day having to give an account of their wicked works.  To make light of standing before God is to live not fearing the Lord’s judgment.  Are we truly that great to not live fearing God’s judgment?

At the forefront of this period of great concern are the deceivers whom Jesus warned us of.  Jesus warned, “Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”  In this present moment, many are heeding the words of an antichrist message and following it to the gates of hell!

Rather than taking in the stranger (one who is not known or different), they push away out of fear and disdain.  Today, the antichrist message desires separation, segregation, and ‘nationalism’, rather than compassion and unity in community.  

One must not be fooled or mislead themselves.  God will judge these actions!  You may proclaim yourself to be a child of God and a Christian, but God will hold you accountable for your actions.  Those who move wickedly against their neighbors, the Lord will have them depart from Him into everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:41,46).  

Therefore, I encourage one to turn from their wicked ways!  I implore one to stop following and heeding the words of false teaching.  Many stand in positions of leadership today, claiming to be of Christ, but Christ is absent in their works; you must turn away from them!

Preparation to Stand Before God

We must prepare ourselves to stand before the Lord.  To prepare ourselves to stand before God, we must carefully observe and obey God’s desire.

Care for the hungry and thirsty

 Let’s take a look back at the first of my key verses for today’s message.

The Lord will ask if we have cared for the hungry and the thirsty.  God has given us the power to help, and if we have the ability to do so, we ought to feed the hungry and those who thirst.  We ought to show compassion and mercy to help those in need.  One of the most vile and wicked things I’ve seen in this, ‘the richest land in the world’, is the refusal to feed the hungry.

On a spiritual level, when we have the ability to help feed a famished soul, we ought to do it.  Again, one of the most vile and wicked things I’ve seen is when the ‘righteous’ refuse to feed the souls of the famished.  Has God given to us so that we don’t give to those who are spiritually famished?  If there was ever a time for the child of God to impart grace that was given to us, today is that day. 

Take in the stranger

Along with the hungry and the thirsty, God will ask if we have ‘taken in the stranger’.  This is such an important topic to touch on, especially in this present day.

To “take in the stranger” doesn’t necessarily mean to invite a stranger in your home to stay with you.  Generally, to “take someone in” means to welcome and to accept them; it means to love and to care about them.  To “take someone in” means that you have embraced them.

Strangers are often the most abused, mistreated, forgotten, and unaccepted.  Strangers aren’t known, and what one does not know or understand is what one fears.  Yet, how we choose to treat the stranger says a lot about us and our “Christianity”.  

This reminds me of what the old folks used to say when I was growing up about how we ought to treat strangers.  They would always say, ‘You never know who you are entertaining; You could be entertaining one of God’s angels.’  How true they were – Christ is the stranger.

In Leviticus, we will see where God gave the children of Israel statutes for how they were supposed to treat strangers.  In Leviticus 19:33-34, the children of Israel were commanded not to abuse and oppress the ‘alien’ in the land.  By alien, the Lord spoke of a foreigner or a stranger.

In Leviticus 23:22, God commanded the children of Israel not to glean their fields.  In other words, the children of Israel weren’t supposed to harvest all their crops to there was nothing left.  God instructed the children of Israel to leave food in the fields for the poor and the stranger to be able to gather for themselves.

Imagine that – caring for strangers!  Oh, what a difference the world would be today if we truly cared for the stranger!  What a difference this land would be today if we truly cared for those who may be from a different part of town, or from a different land altogether!  We must prepare ourselves to stand before God, and we do this through compassion!

Care for the poor, the sick, and the less fortunate

Along with the hungry, thirsty, and the stranger, God will ask if we have cared for the poor.  

This is a reminder to us what Christianity is and what it is not.  Many mistakenly identify Christianity as a religion, and bad-faith actors move like Christianity is a religion.  As we saw in my sermon – Do Unto Others – Jesus told Peter that Christianity is a service of doing what is just all the time!

James taught that pure and undefiled religion (sincere faith) is to visit orphans and widows in their trouble.  True Christianity is a service of care to those who are most in need; it is a service of helping, supporting, and uplifting.

Turning someone away when we are able to help is not Christ-like.  Nowhere in scripture do we see Christ ever turn anyone away from Him.  So, why should His followers turn away and not care for the poor, the siick, the hungry, the stranger, and the less fortunate?

A Need for Correction

As I said at the beginning of this series – A Moment of Rebuke – a correction is needed in present-day “Christianity”.  

We are not to make the burdens of another heavier.  The assignment given to us by Christ is to invite others to come to Him whose yoke is easy and burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30).  How we treat those who are most in need will say a lot about us and our Christianity.  

It is concerning to me to see how many “Christians” are choosing to mistreat their neighbors, and therefore, are mistreating their Savior.  How can one dare claim to be of Christ but not lift a finger to love, to help, and to support one who is most in need? We must break away from the message and way of antichrist. 

We must not fall short in judgment because we chose to live without Christ in our hearts.  God will judge our hearts, and He will judge our works.  Therefore, we must prepare ourselves today by loving and having compassion on everyone, but especially those who are crying out for help today.