(Preached by Rev. Ivan Foster (Rtd) at the SGAT meeting, Lisburn – 24th September 2026)
It was back in May of last year that I spoke on Matthew chapter 24. Then I did point out that chapter 25 is the continuation of what is often called the Saviour’s ‘Olivet Discourse’ in chapter 24.
The very first word of chapter 25 ties in with what had preceded it.
It follows on with what the Saviour had said in chapter 24, where He gives us a view of Jerusalem.
“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto . . .” The Saviour is giving us a picture of the circumstances that will prevail amongst professing believers at the time when the events He had outlined in verses 14-43 of chapter 24 were taking place.
From there to the end of chapter 24 and on into chapter 25, He sets forth the prevailing condition of the “the kingdom of heaven” at the time just before His return in power and great glory.
Watch a video of this sermon below:
As we begin our study of chapter 25, please observe:
I. A SLEEPING IN INDIFFERENCE
“While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept,” Matthew 25:5.
1. This indifference was seen among all that professed faith in Christ. “They all slumbered and slept”.
The ‘all’ included those who were mere ‘professors’ and not true ‘possessors’ of the grace of God. Note that it is a time when 50% of professing Christians are not genuinely saved.
That would surely indicate that the pulpits were failing to separate the ‘sheep from the goats’!
It also suggests that standards were so slack that there was no challenge presented to the ‘foolish’ professors.
Today
I have to say that such is the spirit abroad today! A person professing to be a Christian is currently permitted to virtually go unchallenged when their words and actions are NOT what, but a short time ago, was the required behaviour of a Christian.
What would have had a person challenged and disciplined is today tolerated and ignored by those whose duty it is to preserve the Bible’s standards of conduct amongst the flock of God!
2. The indifference had them set aside their duty, which was, to go forth to meet the Bridegroom. They should have been holding up lamps as a token of their readiness to meet the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, coming to claim His Bride.
An example of the spirit of ‘readiness’ is given us in Acts 28:14-15 with regard to Paul’s journey as a prisoner on his way to Rome to stand before Caesar.
“Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.”
These disciples obviously had been expecting Paul’s arrival and upon hearing of his approach, went out to meet him.
The signs that the Saviour has given us and which indicate His approach, are as the reports that the disciples in Rome were listening for and acted upon. That is how it ought to be with us.
But instead, sadly, there is a spirit of sleep and indifference abroad today amongst Professing Christians! The attendances at the meetings here indicate that!
3. The reference to tarrying indicates man’s perception of what is happening. Note these two verses. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly,” Romans 5:6.
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” Galatians 4:4.
God had a ‘timetable’ regarding the first advent and He did not turn aside and deflect from it. So it is with the second advent.
Men may deem the time as being long as a result of the Lord ‘delaying’ His return but He shall come on the day and at the hour appointed by the Father.
Remember
Remember what the Saviour said to the disciples when they asked of the time of His return.
“It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power,” Acts 1:7. Christ will return at the time appointed by God the Father. If there appears to be a delay, Peter explains the long time being taken by the Saviour. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” 2 Peter 3:9.
Not slackness or delay but longsuffering toward ‘US’ His elect, whom He will gather in before He returns.
4. Before the Lord returns there will be a return to a believer’s first duty. “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. . . . they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut,” Matthew 25:6-7, 10.
Heaven’s call
The Lord from Heaven will awaken the church generally, the stirring of the genuine will stir the ‘professors’, to His return and the genuine believers, who have oil in their lamps, will act in the spirit of their first love! While the witness of The Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony may well play a part in that, it will be divine grace that will bring about the awakening!
What a blessed time that will be when there will arise a joyful awareness that the Lord is near!
That will be a return to the spirit and expectation of the early believers. “Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come,” 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10.
It is not that they expected Him at any minute, but they lived with ‘lively awareness’ and longing for that great event.
To that same watchfulness we are commanded! “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh,” Matthew 25:13.
This ‘call’ from Heaven will initiate a great revival. Indeed, here in Matthew 25:6 is a definition of REAL revival.
“And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” A consciousness of the Lord’s return and our readiness to meet Him is a feature of a revived and restored Christian.
It is the BEGINNING of the blessing mentioned in Ezekiel 34/26.
II. A SETTLING OF ACCOUNTS
We move now to the verse 14. Please note that the Saviour likens His departure to glory, to a “man travelling into a FAR country.” Thus the believer is told that the time will be long before He returns.
When will we learn that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God”? (2 Timothy 3:16) That includes the word FAR!
1. God’s servants are gifted and equipped differently, according to the will of God. He “delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability,” verses 14-15.
That indicates that while we all have to work and serve the Lord we are not all appointed to the same manner of service. That being so, how wrong it is to envy someone who seems to be engaged in a higher calling than us? It is our duty to simply ‘do what we can’, as did the woman who “poured” the “spikenard very precious”, on the Saviour’s head, Mark 14:3.
2. Our labours for the Lord are likened unto trading. “Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two,” Matthew 25:16-17.
Such an analogy is most instructive. There is not one of us who does not understand ‘trading’. It is by trading our money with ‘traders’ that we obtain what we eat and what we wear, what we live in and how we travel, etc! Thus we are engaged almost every moment in trading. When we switch on a light, use a household appliance, it all involves trading.
In like manner we are to be ever ‘trading’ with what ‘talents’ the Lord has given us. By engaging with all our powers, in the study of God’s Word; the seeking of His face in prayer; the public worship of God at the appointed seasons and in the place pleasing to Him; the witnessing to others of His mercy and grace and salvation.
Such is ‘profitable’ living!
“Treasures of wickedness profit nothing,” Proverbs 10:2. There is the profit of peace and joy, an eternal reward for those who serve God.
“Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go,” Isaiah 48:17.
3. Earnest and obedient Christians can expect a reward. We should not act out of a desire to obtain a reward, for that would be entirely the wrong motive for seeking to serve the Lord. Rather we act out of love for Him. But on the basis of what the Lord says, we can and should expect a reward. What an award awaits the faithful believer, whatever they have done for the Lord!
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord,” Matthew 25:21. Note that though “a few things” had been accomplished for the Lord, a “ruler over many things” in the midst of “the joy of thy Lord”, is the reward.
Rewards
In passing I might point out that ruling over many things is the enjoyment of the reward in the millennial reign of Christ (Revelation 20:4) and the “joy of thy lord” is the reward experienced in the “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13) where “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away,” (Revelation 21:4).
4. Let the careless and indifferent take note that the reward of such is most dreadful. “And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” Matthew 25:30.
There is a terrible price to be paid by those who treat the religion of God with indifference and carelessness. The pew forsaken on the Sabbath or on prayer meeting night for a place of pleasure will demand a heavy toll. Beware of carelessness, one and all!
What an incentive is here given us to be ‘up and doing’ for the Lord!
III. A SEPARATION OF THE SHEEP FROM THE GOATS
“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats,” Matthew 25:31-32.
The Millennial Kingdom starts and ends with judgment. First the professing church and then the unconverted! The 1000-year reign of Christ is marked by ‘JUDGMENT’.
“Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this,” Isaiah 9:7.
But what a busy day is that day of the Lord’s return!
1. I believe that this separation takes place at the moment of the Lord’s return. Please remember that “God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so,” Genesis 1:11. That was an instantaneous act by the Lord Jesus for “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made,” John 1:3.
There is a multiplicity of things taking place simultaneously, or at least in very quick succession, when the Saviour returns!
Just consider Zechariah chapters 12 and 14 for an indication of the things that will take place, at time of His return.
This scene before us is but one of the mighty functions the Saviour will carry out on the occasion of His return.
We are used to the slowness of man. Governments take years to investigate an incident and oftentimes some of those awaiting an answer, die before any conclusion is reached. The recent ‘post office scandal’ is but one of many such enquiries that ended in that manner!
2. The sheep and goats represent those who are represented by the wise and foolish virgins at the beginning of the chapter. We are considering the Saviour’s dealings with the true believers and the false believers from all the nations of the world. How many there are who think that a thin veneer of religion, sometimes as thin as merely two religious acts, baptism and confirmation, or an occasional visit to a church and a sitting down at a communion service, is enough to make them a Christian!
Rituals
There are multitudes of religious rituals that many confidently believe will qualify them for heaven, but sadly they are ‘goats’ deceived by the devil!
It must be remembered that the Saviour said: “I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He then repeated that truth with emphasis. “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” (John 3:3, 7).
How many ignore this but will find out to their eternal cost that it is true!
3. Here is the moment for which each child of God must surely be longing. “And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” Matthew 25:33-34.
That which has been prepared of God since the foundation of the world must surely be an unspeakably glorious place!
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear with regard to, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
4. It is to be noted that there is a great contrast between the opinions of these two groups with regard to themselves. One group see themselves as most undeserving of anything from the Lord while the other actually argues with the Lord that His poor view of them is wrong.
Distinguishing mark
This division has ever distinguished the believer from the unbeliever but never more so as on that great day.
Let us live with a deep consciousness of our unworthiness and the unspeakable mercy and grace of our Saviour.