The Final Separation

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Matthew 25:34-44

Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father…

I. THE DIVISION.

1. They shall be divided into two parts — the sheep and goats. There shall be two positions, on the right and on the left hand. There will be no third class. There is no state between being converted and unconverted.

2. They will be divided readily. It is not everybody that could divide sheep from goats. They are extremely like each other: the wool of some sheep in a warm climate becomes so like hair, and the hair of a kind of goat so like wool, that a traveller scarcely knows which is which; but a shepherd who has lived amongst them knows the difference well. The eye of fire will soon separate the sheep from the goats.

3. They will be divided infallibly. Not one poor trembling sheep will be found amongst the goats.

4. That division will be keen and sharp. The husband torn away from the wife.

5. It will be very wide as well as keen. The distance between happiness and misery.

6. The separation will be final.

II. THE DIVIDER. "He shall separate." Jesus will be the Divider.

1. This will assure the saints of their right to heaven. He said "Come."

2. This will increase the terror of the lost, that Christ shall divide them, Christ, so full of love, would not destroy a sinner unless it must be. He also has power to carry out the sentence.

III. THE RULE OF THE DIVISION. The great division between the sons of men is Christ. He is the divider and the division. The rule of the division is —

1. Actions.

2. Actions about Christ.

3. The actions which will be mentioned at the judgment day, as the proof of our being blessed of the Lord, spring from the grace of God. They fed the hungry, but sovereign grace had first fed them.

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