Why Christ Will Only Judge Everyone’s Works (Matthew 25:31-46).Sunday January 18, 2026
Intro:
The works that any of us produce that He sees as good have actually been produced by Him in partnership with you. He provided the wisdom, the power, even the motivation; but you did provide the faith and with it the will.
You are simply the branch of the vine who responded in faith to the expert hand of the farmer.
Isa 5:1-2 Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; […]
Christ is producing a wonderful crop in your life.
However, some say no to the Lord, and this is a warning to all of us:
Isa 5:2c Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.
Mat 25:31-46 You did … and you did not …
1. Christ identifies with His people so strongly that whatever is done to them is done to Him.
How we treat one another is how we treat Him:
Mat 10:40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
Joh 13:3 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me."
Pro 14:22 He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.
Pro 19:2 One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, And He will repay him for his good deed.
The Lord identifies with His own in a deep way.
2. Why works and not faith?
Dan 7:9-10 "I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire. 10 "A river of fire was flowing And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books were opened.
Judgment is divided into different stages. The first is the judgment of the church which we conclude to be sometime after the Rapture and before the second coming.
Rom 14:10 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God
1Co 3:13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.
2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Eph 6:8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.
Col 3:25 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.
Then comes the judgment that we have been studying in Mat 25:31-46 at the end of the Tribulation.
Then comes the judgment at the end, often called the GWTJ.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
Rev 22:12-13 "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. 13 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
Every one of them is based on deeds.
God is showing at each judgment that apart from Him you can do nothing:
Joh 15:4-5 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
Abide: remain (present tense) has a positional and a practical aspect.
The question for us is whether we would like to do something or would we rather do nothing?
His life is meant to be lived in you.
3. Christ came to overturn the world’s values and therefore its fruit.
He turned the world upside down and made a fruit not of this world.
Luk 4:5-8 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 "Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." 8 Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'"
The glory of the kingdoms of the world come from a different vine.
Christ refused Satan’s offer because He was waiting for a kingdom of a completely different kind. The foundation of that kingdom was Himself. Its glory would be love, joy, peace, and righteousness and grace.
His was a revolution.
4. Before Christ, the love of God for His own vineyard was revealed.
Through Abraham God made His own elect nation. The love of God would be shown to them and through them to the world.
Like any people, they needed leaders, and God called the leaders shepherds.
Eze 34:1-6 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, 2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? 3 "You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. 4 "Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them. 5 "They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. 6 "My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them."'"
The sheep are: sickly, diseased, broken, scattered. Compare in Mat 25:31-46: hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, in prison.
5. Conclusion: Fruit is always judged because faith in Christ produces it.
He is producing a wonderful crop in your life. Would you not want Him to uncover it before the eternal light? I tell you, it will be the first time you see it!
The life of the Lord Jesus is meant to be lived.
This is why your fruit, and everyone else’s, is judged. Faith in Him will produce it from Him. Only He can spot it purely.
Col 2:20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees …
Col 3:1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above
Col 3:9-10 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him
Col 3:12 chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of… |