Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
July 18/21, 2002
Pastor Brian R. Keller

 

In the name of Christ Jesus, dear fellow redeemed people of God,

 

Over the past several weeks, we have talked about religious persecution.  God does not want us to give up our faith or deny our faith in Christ even if we would be persecuted and threatened with death.  But today, we turn that lesson right around to examine the other kind of religious persecution.  Sometimes overly zealous Christians get the upper hand in their little corner of the world, and come up with the idea that maybe it would be a good idea if we persecuted unbelievers.  Sometimes this idea begins with a good intention.  They think, “If these people are going to perish in unbelief, maybe we should force them to believe.”  In history, there were those who tried to force people to believe this or that doctrine through threats or torture.  Sometimes, they even went through with putting them to death, saying, “Well, if they wouldn’t believe, we should rid the Earth of them.”

 

Today, we learn that they do not have God’s approval for doing that.  God would most certainly not have us putting people to death because of what they believe or don’t believe.  God would have us carry out proper and loving Church Discipline.  God would have us warn our members when they become trapped in known sins, and God would have us exclude impenitent unbelievers from the congregation as long as they will not repent.  But God would not have us putting people to death, and ending their time of grace.  And while we should go by what people say and do, we should certainly not pretend that we can know what is in people’s hearts.  That we leave completely to Jesus, because:

                                                   CHRIST WILL JUDGE ON THE LAST DAY!

 

1.  He knows what is in each heart.

“Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7).  When it really comes down to it, we must all admit that we cannot look into the heart of another.  There are people all over the world.  Some of the people are believers in Jesus, and some of the people are unbelievers.  That’s what our Savior taught in his parable.  The unbelievers are the weeds, and the believers are the wheat.  And the LORD knows which are the believers and which are the unbelievers.  And on the last day, Christ will separate them just like that, with no problem at all!

 

We might think that we know some believers, and we might think that we know some unbelievers, but we don’t have perfect knowledge because we cannot look into people’s hearts.  I might be very sure that a man is a believer.  He might attend church regularly, confess that he believes in Jesus, and serve on the Church Council.  He might even be a called worker!  And all through life, this person might seem to me to be a believer, but what if he was secretly a hypocrite?  What if he had me fooled?  And what if he really didn’t believe in Jesus?  Well, he would never fool our Lord.  Our Lord knows every heart, and our Lord would know all along!  On the other hand, there might be somebody who lives down the street who seems like an unbeliever to me.  But really, he might turn out to be a believer.  It’s possible to fool me.  It’s possible to fool you. But it is not possible to fool our Lord.  He knows what is in each heart.  And he will judge on the Last Day!

 

Right now, the Roman Catholic Church is really going through a crisis.  I don’t mean to pick on them, but some of their members are really struggling with what they are reading in the newspapers about some of their priests.  In case after case, people say, “I would never have guessed that he would do that.”  The Roman Catholics are not alone in this rude awakening.  All kinds of churches are affected by this, including Lutheran churches, and WELS churches.  Sometimes, you can be fooled.  A member or a called worker might not be what you think.  It happens in the world too!  Sometimes it happens that a President is quite different in private from what he is in public.  What can you say when someone fools you like that?  What you can say is that you can fool me, and you can fool others, but you cannot fool Christ!  He knows what is in each heart, and he will judge on the Last Day!

 

2.  He will sentence unbelievers to “the fiery furnace.”

I know that this is not a popular idea today.  I don’t know if it ever was.  I know that many churches don’t want to talk about this, and many people want to deny it.  And I know that some people want to argue about whether or not it will happen.  But this is clearly God’s holy Word!  Christ will judge.  And he will send unbelievers to “the fiery furnace.”  And if you know anything at all about the Bible, you know that means that they will go to hell forever.


Hell is a terrible place!  One thing that makes hell so frightening is that you can never get out.  There are no exit signs in hell.  Once you are there, you are there forever.  No one gets out.  No one is rescued.  There is no second chance.  Our Lord Jesus calls it “everlasting punishment.”  And that is no joke!  The torment was so bad that the rich man only asked for a drop of water to cool his tongue.  He did not get it either.  And he did not get out.  If you want to escape the everlasting torment of hell, this is the time to get serious about that!

 

This life is our time of grace.  This is the only time when people can be converted from unbelief to faith in Christ.  Once this time of grace ends, a person is locked in for all eternity.  And Christ will send unbelievers to hell.  Those who had no time for Christ will find that he has no more time for them!  Those who wanted nothing to do with Christ will find that he will have nothing to do with them forever!  This is a solemn warning to all people: repent and believe in Christ today, or spend eternity in hell.  It is not a cheerful message, but it is God’s Word.  We have no right to speak differently.  The Bible is very plain. Unbelievers who end this life in unbelief are going to go to hell forever.

 

We may shudder when we realize that we could have perished too!  If Christ had not saved us from our sins, we would all have perished.  If God had not brought us to faith, we would have perished.  And if God would not preserve us in faith, through his Word, we would perish in hell.  But thanks be to God, we believers will not perish!  And thanks be to God that Christ will be our Judge!  Believers have nothing to fear from Jesus, because...

 

3.  He will take believers to heaven.

It is actually comforting to know that Christ will judge, because he is our dear Savior.  He is the one who came to Earth to save us.  He is the one who lived for us that perfect life that we could never live.  He is the one who died on the cross, in our place, atoning for all of our sins.  He is the one who won peace with God for us.  He is the one who purchased our forgiveness, and sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts.  He is the one who will say, in the end, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matt 25:34).  He is the one who prepared a place for us in heaven.  What joy we will have on that Day, Judgment Day, the Last Day, the Day when Christ returns!  How thankful we ought to be! 

 

We could never give an offering too large when compared to God’s gift of salvation to us!  We could never serve God too much for saving us and giving us eternal life in heaven!   We can never thank or praise God enough for redeeming us from sin!  But don’t let that stop you from praising God with your very best!  A mother’s heart is warmed and cheered and thrilled by a picture that her child made in school.  In a similar way, our Savior is pleased with our fruits of faith, our offerings of praise.  That child’s picture, stuck to the refrigerator with a magnet, may not be among the greatest art pieces of the world, but to that child’s mother, it is the finest, most wonderful piece of art.  After all, it came from the pen, the pencil, the crayon, or the painted finger of her dear child.  That’s how our Savior regards our offerings, our stewardship, and our praise.  Our best attempts at praise may not be all that great, but God dearly loves us as his own adopted children.  He loves to see us hearing his Word, doing and supporting mission work, praying, singing hymns, and serving him day by day.  We are expressing love for our Savior, who loved us and gave himself for us.  We love God who loved us first.

 

And he will love us to the end, dear believers.  He will take all believers to be with him in heaven.  Heaven is so great that we can’t even imagine it!  We’ll shine like the sun as heirs of the kingdom.  We’ll enjoy indescribable pleasures.  We’ll be with our Savior and see him, face to face.  We’ll be with the holy angels and all other believers.  It will be a happy reunion of believers when we get to heaven!  It will be perfect!  Everything will be perfect.  Perhaps this is nothing new for you.  Perhaps you have heard it all before.  But may we never tire of hearing how we will be in heaven.  And may we never tire of the gospel which feeds our faith. 

 

But, of course, the only ones who are going to heaven are believers, and believers only.  So, if there just so happens to be someone here who has managed to fool us, rest assured that you cannot fool Christ.  I hope that there is not one hypocrite here, but if there is, take warning today!  Christ knows.  He will judge on the Last Day.  He will not make a mistake.  Only believers will be in heaven.  May we all be believers so that we will all be there in that perfect world forever!  And may many more be brought to faith as we reach out with God’s Word.  After all, faith comes from hearing the message of Christ crucified.  “He who has ears, let him hear!”  Amen.

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