"And He will come again with glory to judge, both the living and the dead." So the Scriptures teach and so we confess in the Nicene Creed. Jesus will return again as our judge. Judgment is what we spend our lives trying to avoid. We bristle in defensiveness at the slightest criticism. Don't judge me! We even retreat behind Bible passages like "Judge not" in an effort to excuse ourselves from the truth. We don't want to be judged and if it means that we can escape being judged we'll forgo judging others. We live in a time when exercising moral discernment is confused with being judgmental. Tolerance of anything and everything is considered to be the supreme virtue and so to use the title of the recent book by Robert Bork, we continue to slouch toward Gomorrah excusing the vices of others lest someone also brings to light our failures. We refrain from rendering judgment and so expect not to be brought under judgment. But there is a judgment that is coming from which we may not excuse ourselves. It is the judgment of the Lord who will come at the end of time to judge all nations.

There will be no avenue of appeal from that judgment. The verdict of the King will be final. You will hear one of two verdicts. You will hear that word of divine pardon: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" or you will hear the words of that dreadful sentence: "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." There will be no plea bargaining and the judge will not grant any suspended sentences. His Word will stand for all eternity.

Then it will be too late to escape the outcome of unbelief. No excuses will suffice. Jesus answers the complaint of the goats, "Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?" saying "...inasmuch as you did not do it to the least of these, you did not do it to Me." The wrath of God which is even now being revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness will be brought to consummation. There will be no more opportunities for repentance and faith. God's judgment will be made plain as He says "Depart from Me, you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Occasionally, someone says that they can't accept the doctrine of hell because it is inhumane. Of course, it is inhumane. God never intended hell for human beings. He prepared it for the devil and his angels who rebelled against Him and brought that rebellion into His good creation. Those who insist on living life apart from God, get it there way for all eternity. That is hell.

It is from that hell that Christ Jesus came to save us. The same Lord Jesus who will come at the end as our judge came first as the baby of Bethlehem and the man of Calvary. He came in our flesh and blood to answer for our sins. He came to bear the punishment that we deserved in His on body on the cross. He came to deliver us from the condemnation of the law by fulfilling the law for us and suffering under the law as our Substitute. He is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world and He has prepared a kingdom for all who cling to Him in faith. Those who are in Christ by faith have already passed from death to life. Listen to what the Lord Jesus says in John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." That is why Paul can proclaim in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

The sheep of the Lord's hand, that is, those who hear the Good Shepherd's voice and follow Him, are not standing under condemnation. They are the blessed of Jesus' Father, for they hear His Word and keep it. They trust in the Gospel which declares that they have a Savior who, out of His everlasting love, has atoned for their sins. They believe Him when He says "Your sins are forgiven you." God has plunged their sins into the depths of divine forgiveness. All that He sees when He looks at believers is the righteousness of His Son. That is why the Christian can approach death and the Last Jufgment not in fear and uncertainty, but in confidence and peace. Theologian John Stephenson puts it well "Salvation is not determined by the degree of inherent righteousness which the believer has attained in the course of his struggle to live a sanctified life, but by clinging to the external righteousness of Christ apprehended by faith. This is not to say that the faith that lays hold of Christ can exist for a moment without its being the fount of all manner of good works...even if these good works, as in the case of the penitent thief, consist of nothing more than patient acceptance of merited punishment" (Eschatology, 109).

Those who are not in Christ face judgment according to the Law that demands more than any sinner can render. Just as the Last Judgment for the believer will bring to light the faith by which he lived, so the final judgment discloses the unbeliever's rejection of the Savior and the condemnation under which he or she lived. Again listen to the words of Jesus in John 3: "He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (John 3:18).

The Lord's return in judgment will uncover both faith and unbelief. His words will reveal both the sheep and the goats. The sheep are those who heard and trusted the Good Shepherd's words--that is evident in their care for the least of Jesus' brethren. The goats are those who rejected the Good Shepherd's words--that is evident in their lack of attention to Jesus' brethren. The sheep are not saved because of their good works and the goats are not condemned because they lack these good deeds. The presence of the good works in the lives of the Christ's holy sheep and the lack of those good works in the lives of the goats are signs either of faith or unbelief. The sheep were self-forgetful of these good works; they couldn't even recall doing them. They were not tokens that they used to get themselves into heaven. They were the fruit of saving faith, not the cause of salvation. And likewise for the goats, their failure to care for the least of Christ's brethren was rooted in their unbelief.

We do not know when our Lord Jesus Christ will return to separate the sheep from the goats. But we do know that He comes now. He comes to us today with His Word of Absolution to speak the verdict of the Last Day ahead of time. In that word of forgiveness, He declares to us that He has taken away our sin by His blood and so frees us to live in Him as the sheep of His pasture and the people of His hand. He comes to us in His Holy Supper to feed us with His body and blood to digest and consume in us all unbelief and uncertainty. So come now to His Table, trusting in His promises so that at the Last Day you will receive His invitation "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.