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Zero Social Gospel in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Part Two)

Part One

Earlier in Matthew 7:15, Jesus commanded and warned:  “Beware of false prophets.”  False prophets send their victims down the broad road that leads to destruction and away from the narrow road that leads to life eternal (Matthew 7:13-14).  The false teaching from false prophets varies, yet with the same goal of keeping their prey on the broad road.  One of these varieties is something called the “social gospel.”  Its proponents use the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25:31-46 as their proof text.

The part of the parable of Jesus in His Olivet Discourse in Matthew 25 most referred by social gospel advocates is verses 35-40.  Jesus again is teaching concerning the time right before He comes and sets up His kingdom.  He identifies those from the tribulation period who will enter His kingdom.  Entrance into His kingdom is a common theme all through Matthew, since Jesus presents Himself as King or Messiah.  Many places in the New Testament deal with this time on earth.

Salvation comes only by grace through faith.  Those Jews saved by grace through faith during the tribulation period before Jesus sets up His kingdom will exclusively manifest certain characteristic at that time.  One of those traits, a fruit of conversion, is their loyalty to other saved Jews.  This is akin to the Jerusalem church in Acts shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus.

No middle ground existed between Christian Jews in the first century Jerusalem church and their Jewish opposition there.  You were with the church or not with it and being with it meant rationing and sharing their physical belongings for mutual survival.  Non-participation marked unbelief.  The future tribulation period, the time of Jacob’s trouble, will show a similar demarcation between believing Jews and their alliance with the rest of the world against Christ.

Verses 35-40

The believing population when Jesus comes will have survived the tribulation, which engendered alarming needs.  Jesus mentions six of them:  hunger, thirst, alienation, exposure, sickness, and imprisonment.  Revelation 13 says that those who do not receive the mark of the Antichrist cannot buy or sell.  Believers are fugitives, running for their lives.  Helping them likely is illegal and punished severely.  Only believers will help believers.

The kingdom of Jesus Christ is for those who are with Christ.  It’s not for those who merely profess, “Lord, Lord,” and then don’t do what He says (Matthew 7:21-23).  It isn’t arbitrary.  If you are with Him, then you are in fact with Him.  When Jesus returns at the second coming, He will deliver those with Him, saving them from the tribulation persecution atrocities.

The care and supply of fellow believers in the tribulation is the care and supply of Jesus.  Jewish tribulation saints will have done it unto him when they did it unto these.  Those are the merciful who obtain mercy (Matthew 5:7).  They are also the pure in heart, because their conversion is real.  This isn’t an act with them, as seen in their loyalty and commitment to each other as unto Christ.

Social Action?

1 John 3:14-17

Jesus isn’t saying that they come into His kingdom because of their commitment to social action.  He is saying that what they did unto these, they did unto Him.  Commitment to Jesus Christ in the tribulation period will manifest itself in commitment to fellow persecuted believers.  1 John 3:14-17 reveal this truth, that the life, light, and love of God abides in those who love the brethren:

14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

John wrote his first epistle that believers might have complete assurance of their salvation (1 John 5:13).  One sure mark of true conversion among others is love for the brethren.  This isn’t seeing just anyone in need, but seeing “his brother in need” (verse 17).  This parallels with Matthew 25:35-40 and the Jerusalem church in Acts 2-5.  Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21).

Not Just Talk, But Action

Tribulation era saints will not shut up their bowels of compassion toward their brethren.  It is axiomatic.  Believers will love the brethren.  If they don’t, this reveals they are not one of the Lord’s own.

According to Matthew 7:21-22, belief is more than saying, “Lord, Lord.”  People might talk a good game, but those who know Him, will not just love in word, but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18).  That is a true test of faith, not mere verbiage.

The Olivet Discourse and Jesus’ record of the judgment of nations in Matthew 25:31-46 doesn’t describe social work.  It isn’t about feeding and housing lost people.  It is truly about the care of believers, who very often suffer for righteousness’ sake.

Earlier Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 10:40:

He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

He also told them in His upper room discourse in John 15:18:

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

True believers standing with one another against the onslaught of the world is a mark of saving grace.  It is the fellowship of Jesus’ sufferings that Paul mentions in Philippians 3:10.  It is going with Jesus “outside the camp, bearing his reproach” in Hebrews 13:13.  Those believing in Him are joining that and will characteristically or habitually join that.  This is confessing Jesus before men (Matthew 10:32).

Thrill Seekers and the Lazy

In John 6, thrill seekers followed Jesus to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and He fed the multitude.  He told that gigantic crowd that He would not keep feeding them, so they all defected.  Everyone wanted a free meal, not Jesus Christ.  Jesus turned to His disciples and asked if they would also go away.  For the group, Peter said, No, you have the words of eternal life.

Jesus did not go running after those who defected.  He also didn’t fail because He didn’t keep feeding them.  His plan is not the temporal bread, but the eternal bread.  It isn’t social action.  Instead, Jesus said in John 12:8, “The poor always ye have with you.”

In fact, Paul warns against giving food to those who won’t work.  The provision of food for those in the future tribulation era is not giving food to homeless on the street.  Both Old and New Testaments teach a kind of quality control.  Paul represents this in 2 Thessalonians 3:10:

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

The Bible won’t contradict itself.  Social action, this feeding the unbelieving hungry day after day, does not jive with 2 Thessalonians 3:10.  In the end, preaching that God saves those who do the deeds of feeding and sheltering the homeless is preaching salvation by works.  Adding that as a requirement nullifies grace and makes someone a debtor then to do the whole law (Galatians 5:1-6).  It corrupts the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Even the law itself doesn’t manifest this program or represent this as a lifestyle.  It isn’t even a requirement of the law, let alone the gospel.

More to Come

The Place of Fear in a True Church and With True Worship

I’ve read recently, “Fear is not a virtue.”  A company called, American Virtue Clothing prints “Fear Is Not a Virtue” on its clothing.  Heather Delapi argues that “fear” isn’t found in the lists of virtues of scripture, hence is not a virtue.   The English word “fear” is found 385 times in the King James Version of the Bible.  I have read all of those verses, but I haven’t sorted through everyone of them to find how many times fear is rebuked or admonished and how many times it is extolled or commended.  There are both.Fear is a virtue.  No godly person lives without fear.  It is a necessity for pleasing God.  Just because it isn’t listed as fruit of the Spirit doesn’t mean that it isn’t a virtue.  It is dangerous and wrong to say it isn’t a virtue.  Why would I even write this?  I’ve taught through Acts all the way through once, and in great detail about halfway through the whole book about five times.  I’m teaching and preaching through it again right now as we evangelize and plant a church in Southern Oregon.  When Luke writes under the inspiration of God to describe the basics of the church of Jerusalem in that classic passage in Acts 2:41-47, he writes in Acts 2:43 an attitude of that first church:

And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

“Fear came upon every soul.”  This verse got my attention again on this subject, so I’m writing on it.  This same morning as I was preaching the end of the book of Acts, in Sunday School I started a short series on “The Detection and Correction of Doctrinal and Practical Error.”  In my introduction I quoted what Jesus said in Matthew 10:28 and elaborated about its part in that subject.

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

The word fear used by Jesus in the second half of the verse is an imperative.  Jesus commands us to “fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  At the same time, Jesus says “not to fear.”  The most important problem about “fear” is what you fear.  Everyone should fear, and not just God.  Some of the same people who say “fear is not a virtue” ironically “fear them which kill the body.”  Actually less than that, they fear the “influencers” in the world and then they don’t fear who they should fear, who the Bible says to fear.  They don’t want to fear them even though they fear the world in many obvious ways by how they act.  They fear the opinion of Black Lives Matter, fear the woke crowd, fear the absence of an apparent worldly style, or fear irrelevance according to the spirit of the age.The cure for a sinful fear is a righteous fear.  Many passages prove fear a virtue.  It’s a terrible hermeneutic and contradiction to biblical teaching to say and teach that fear is not a virtue.In Acts 2:43, fear characterized the Jerusalem church.  So also did love, but fear is the first listed.  Love isn’t mentioned at all in verses 41-47, but it’s described in the next three verses (vv. 44-46) in their communal living.  Fear comes first though.  It is the Greek word phobia.Acts 2:41-47 provide the basics of the first church.  Success of that first church, and as a template for all other churches since, depends upon fear.  In the Old Testament, a crucial theme of the Old Covenant was fear, especially represented by the three words: Hear and Fear.  God expected His people to hear what He said and to fear Him.  Sure, God wants other responses, but fear is non-negotiable.There is a trickle down from there.  People who do not fear God will not fear their parents, will not fear their husband, and will not fear their employer.  Now, you read that, and you think, fear shouldn’t be a part of leadership anywhere in the world.The chastening of the Lord in Hebrews 12 is for the purpose of what?  Man doesn’t want to be chastened, he fears it, so he changes in his behavior.  That’s why in Proverbs the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.  On Mt. Sinai, when God gave the law, He showed Himself in a fearsome way with lightning and thunder.  When Ananias and Sapphira were killed by God, great fear fell upon people.  This was what God wanted.When Paul told Timothy that God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear, He meant like Jesus, fearing he who is able to destroy body.  Like Proverbs 29:25 says, the fear of man bringeth a snare.  “Be not afraid,” which is said so many times in the Bible, means “be not afraid of people, the enemies of God, those who criticize you to get you to stop believing and practicing the truth.”Anyone who tries to conflate fear of man with the fear of God and say that fear shouldn’t be a virtue is either very deceived or lying.  He shouldn’t be a teacher.  Ephesians 5:33 says to the wife that she should see that she reverences her husband.  That word “reverence” is the same word phobeia in Acts 2:43.  That word is found 93 times in the New Testament, so it is very common.  When Romans 13:3 says that ‘rulers are a terror to evil,’ that again is phobeia.  I’ve found that very often today professing Christians don’t respond to the terror to evil except with rejection, but they respond to the terror of being canceled by worldly or liberal friends.Ephesians 6:4 reads:  “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.”  That’s right.  The boss needs to be feared too and trembling.  That seems even more extreme.  This is a fear that is a virtue, because it is a virtue again and again in scripture and there are many more places that teach this.Fundamental to acceptable worship is that it is reverent, which always relates to fear.  The creatures in the throne room of God are reverent.  There is always an atmosphere in the presence of the Holy God, even though it is more than that.  Psalm 40:3 says, “And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.”  The saving response of an unbeliever to the true and sincere worship of God’s people is fear.  Unbelievers see true biblical worship and they fear.  Fear goes along with keeping a place or an attitude of reverence to God.

Are We Living in the Last Days? The Right Approach to Biblical Prophecy

The Bible is a prophetic book.  That alone is an amazing statement, because it is the only prophetic book in the world, because it is the only one written by God.  Prophecy has a lot of purposes, a major one being a validation that that the Bible is in fact the Word of God.  As you open the New Testament, it is easy to see the importance of prophecy all over it.  God wants us to take it seriously.

The first page of the New Testament in Matthew, a genealogy, is related to prophecy, because the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants are prophetic.  The genealogy proves that Jesus is a fulfillment of those predictions.  Then you get the Isaiah 7:14 prophecy that says that Jesus is a fulfillment of that.  Then you have the magi setting off looking for the Messiah based upon what?  Prophecy.  Then there are four wondrous prophecies in four different geographical locations in the second half of Matthew 2 that confirm who Jesus is.  Matthew 3 talks about John the Baptist, himself another fulfillment of prophecy.

When Peter preaches on the Day of Pentecost, almost every point he makes relies on prophecy.  When the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs, what is that?  It is a fulfillment of the prophecy of John the Baptist, Acts 1:5, which is repeated by Jesus before He ascends into heaven.  When the unbelievers mock what’s happening in Acts, Peter defends it with what?  Prophecy.  He refers to Joel 2:28-32 in Acts 2:17-21 to kick off his sermon there, explaining to the audience what’s going on.  He starts:

15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God

It is such an unusual, outlying event, outside of the norm for comprehension, Peter makes the connection to the Old Testament.  This gigantic crowd wasn’t all drunken.  This is what Joel was talking about, and Peter says that what was occurring there on the Day of Pentecost was “in the last days.”  Generally, when people say, “We’re in the last days,” they mean something different than what Peter says, so that becomes confusing.  Peter’s usage of the last days is the correct usage and it’s what we should imitate.

We’re not waiting for the last days.  We’re already in them.  Peter was saying that he and his audience were in them.  1 John 2:18 says,

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

“Last days” or “last time,” which is the same terminology, is ironically a terminology from Old Testament prophecy.  That’s what is supposed to get us up to speed is the Old Testament usage.  Here are some places:

Isaiah 2:2, And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

Jeremiah 23:20, The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.

Ezekiel 38:8, After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.

Daniel 10:14, Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.
To the Jews, the last days were the Messianic era, when the Messiah had come and was in operation.  To God, this began when Jesus came the first time.  This launched the last days.  It’s also why Peter can be using a passage with amazing astronomical events and say they are referring to the Day of Pentecost, when those things didn’t take place.  What they experienced on the Day of Pentecost, I like to call the “sample pack.”  It’s like when you go to Costco and you taste a sample, so that you’ll be receptive of the whole box.
The last days had arrived, because Jesus had arrived with the accompanying miracles, wonders, and signs.  The ones on the Day of Pentecost are in the same program as those that will appear when Christ undoes the seals during the seventieth week of Daniel, what we refer to as the seven years of tribulation.  What the audience in Acts 2 understood as the Messianic age, that Joel was prophesying, was already started.  This was the prefulfillment of that with the ultimate fulfillment later.  In one sense, it’s all the same event with book ends, Jesus coming as Savior and then Jesus coming as Judge.
The magi were anticipating the coming of Jesus.  Believers today should be anticipating the second coming.  How do you interpret what you read in the prophetic passages?  Look at all of the prophecy of scripture and compare.  The prophecies will give you clues.  Revelation is symbolic language, as revealed in the first verse with the word, “signified.”  Prophecy uses symbolism, but that isn’t freedom to treat it like your Gumby doll.
If God can do astronomical events, like He will according to Joel 2, then He can do the smaller, albeit plainly divine, ones of Acts 2.  That’s the push-back and explanation from Peter.  These things are occurring because we are already in the last days.
I believe we are meant to look for the fulfillment of prophesies that haven’t been fulfilled.  We are required to be scriptural with this and not to speculate.  If we are speculating, we should say we’re speculating.  When someone asks, do you think we’re in the last days, they are meaning something other than what that phrase means.  I don’t like to give them an answer that reaffirms their wrong view.  A better question is, do you think that some of what we see happening portend to unfulfilled prophesies from scripture?  I say, yes.
Let me give you an example.  Revelation 13:17 says,

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

I think it is good to make an application of this with what we see happening today.  The world economy will be centrally controlled in a totalitarian way.  We can look today how this might be applied.  We can see it can happen.  That is a good application of that above verse.   How does one man control everyone?  Can technology give this capacity?  We should point to that, look at the contemporary examples.  That doesn’t contradict what I see New Testament authors do with Old Testament prophecy.
Prophecy in scripture is real.  We should take it literally.  That doesn’t mean we don’t take the symbolism into consideration.  We do.  We understand the symbolism based on comparing every passage with every other passage of the Bible.  It gives us enough clues to understand.  This is hard to be understood like Peter said about Paul’s prophetic passages (2 Peter 3:16).  It can be understood though.  As preachers or teachers in the church, we should want people to understand the prophecy and how the yet unfulfilled parts should be understood.
We should oppose globalism, because it looks like the one world government and church of the antichrist.  There is a tension here.  If we really want the Lord’s return, perhaps we could hasten it by supporting the one world government.  The elimination of borders is a contemporary issue that relates to prophecy.  We should use prophecy to make that application.  This is right thinking.  This is a good use of the Word of God.
Let me give you two more examples.  The Apostle Peter prophesies how the world will end in 2 Peter 3:10.  That’s how it will end.  This results in my denying the contemporary climate change teaching.  That is an application to the world we live in, based on what Peter said.  It says a lot more than that, but we shouldn’t ignore it.
The culture of the United States and then the world is deteriorating.  This looks like a trajectory toward total apostasy.  It has affected a hearing of the gospel.  Let’s be honest.  When Isaiah went to preach to apostate Israel, he couldn’t get a hearing.  We are in similar times.  These are times like Noah was in.  Man is of the same nature he’s been since the fall.  We can say that we’re getting closer to the end, because we see this trajectory.  We don’t want it.  We’re still being faithful, but we’ve got to make the application.  People need to know.
Much more could be said.  We don’t want to stretch scripture beyond what it’s saying, and in that sense, just use scripture.  We should preach what the Bible says and apply it, including the prophetic passages.

Cancel Culture and Religious Persecution

Everyone should cancel something.  I remember canceling my subscription to Sports Illustrated when it started publishing the swimsuit issue.  I understand the marketing aspect of that issue.  Sports Illustrated can make more money with the issue than without, so they’re willing to lose the lesser number of subscribers for the greater number.  Sports Illustrated could stay in business.  This isn’t canceling Sports Illustrated.  They stay in business.  I’ve canceled it, because it’s the right thing to do.

Amazon, the behemoth corporation, canceled a book by Ryan T. Anderson, that was published three years ago.  Joe Biden becomes president and Anderson’s book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, is canceled.  Amazon suddenly wouldn’t allow it on.  I understand, he can sell the book, but Amazon doesn’t own the internet.  In particular, Amazon cancels a book, which isn’t politically correct.  It cancels a point of view closer to a biblical view.  Silencing a biblical point of view we would understand as persecution.
When you read the book of Acts and look at the history of persecution, you can see a rising trajectory.  In Acts 2, opponents of the truth mocked the believers as drunk with new wine (Acts 2:13).  Mockery is a root level persecution, but it also portends of things to come.  We’re already to mockery in this country.  It’s hard to make an exact comparison, because Rome and Palestine were not democracies or republics.
More than ever people think you’re silly for being a Christian.  You see the look in their faces.  This is especially in the big cities, the blue areas.  It’s everywhere though especially related to true biblical Christianity.  If you dress modest, carry a Bible, so that they know you’re a Christian, you are marginalized, excluded, and unfriended.
Second in Acts 4 was threatening.  Authorities threatened the disciples about talking.  Evangelism is more difficult.  The Covid-19 has affected this.  People are more emboldened to say you can’ talk to someone about the Lord if he doesn’t want it.  I understand the laws about trespassing.  I’ve been kicked out of two apartment complexes and threatened at another housing complex.  We still have opportunities.  I’ve noticed a difference, that’s what I’m saying.
The third step was imprisonment.  This is when the government punishes someone.  That’s happened too.  I would compare this to government policy even short of throwing someone into jail like what occurred with Peter and John in Acts 4.  This is the man in Colorado who wouldn’t bake a cake.  This is a child punished in the public school for saying a biblical truth.  This is the outlawing of biblical child discipline.  This is the exclusion of biblical doctrine in the state schools.
Fourth in Acts 5 was beating.  Peter and John were beaten for their testimony for Christ.  Peter and John of course rejoiced because they were counted worthy to suffer for His name.  The government is punishing people, but not with actual physical punishment.  However, there is a threat of unofficial physical punishment for those who stand for the truth.
Fifth is the killing of first Stephen in Acts 7 and then James in Acts 12.  Before that, Jesus was crucified.  I think we’re a ways off from being put to death in the United States for preaching Christ.  Maybe that won’t even come until the Antichrist reveals himself.  Right now you’d be killed still in several other countries and the United States does not have a policy of standing for those people.
Cancel culture is religious persecution.  It’s not at the level of beating and death, but it is in that trajectory, as seen in the book of Acts.

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