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Let's open our Bibles together to Matthew chapter 25 for our last message in this chapter and the last message in the series on "Signs of Christ's Coming." We've been looking at the Olivet Discourse, chapter 24 and 25 and we come to a conclusion in that text in our lesson today.
The Bible has so very much to say about judgment, so very much. It is a major biblical theme. In Psalm 7:11, the Bible says "God is angry with the wicked every day." And maybe that's the reason why the Bible has so much to say about it because God is so continually concerned about judging sin. In Psalm 1 verse 5 it says, "The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment."
I suppose that most folks think that judgment is pretty much an Old Testament message, but that is not the case. The message of judgment is equally important to the New Testament. And in a very real sense, it is even more dramatically presented in the New Testament than it is in the Old Testament. People look at the Old Testament and say, "Well, there you have an angry God, destroying peoples, destroying nations, creating great wars. But in the New Testament isn't God presented as a God of love?"
Well, the fact is God is presented as a God of love in both the Old and the New and God is presented as a God of judgment in both the Old and the New, there's no difference. In fact, if you study the Old Testament carefully, you will notice something. Primarily the judgments of the Old Testament have to do with temporal judgment, that is judgment on earth. They focus on what happens to man in the world. Where judgment in the New Testament focuses on eternal judgment, what happens to man in the after life, the next world. The Old Testament may talk about a nation being destroyed, or a man losing his life or being cut off from the world. It emphasizes the fact that God rise...raises up and puts down certain individuals, certain powers, certain peoples, but it focuses on them in terms of their temporal existence. You come to the New Testament and the primary emphasis turns to being that which focuses upon the eternal aspect of judgment, the after life. I mean, you do have in the New Testament temporal judgment like the death of Ananias and Sapphira, the sudden blindness of Elymas the sorcerer, the terrible death of Herod Agrippa who having been smitten by the angel of the Lord was eaten by worms and died, you do have the temporal judgment on Jerusalem predicted which is as much a temporal judgment as the prediction of devastation to come to Babylon and Ninevah in the Old Testament. You do have in the New Testament temporal judgment, "Woe unto you Chorazin, woe unto you Bethsaida," Capernaum's devastation and destruction. Those things are in the New Testament. But the emphasis of the New Testament is on the eternal judgment, is on the consequence of temporal judgment, not just that you may lose your life but that you will lose your soul forever. That's the New Testament emphasis.
John the Baptist, for example, in the New Testament preaches, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Not some present wrath but some future wrath. And he said the chaff will He burn with unquenchable fire. And John the evangelist said, "He who does not obey the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God rests on him." And you go to the book of Acts and you hear the Apostle Paul and he's presenting truth to Felix and it says he argued about justice and self‑ control and future judgments so that Felix was alarmed. And you read the Apostle Paul, how that he says to the Romans that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and so forth. And you read Paul saying, "The Lord is the avenger." And then you go to the epistle to the Hebrews and you read there about a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries, a fearful prospect of judgment. You read about a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, a blazing fire, a darkness, a gloom, a tempest. Many, many things to do with judgment.
And then summed up in the words of Hebrews, "Our God is a consuming fire." You go to James and James says, "Judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy." And 1 Peter, "For the time is come for judgment to begin with the household of God and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" And in 2 Peter, you read about swift destruction, condemnation, destruction. You read about punishment until the day of judgment, destruction again, the doom of darkness, the heavens and earth being destroyed, the destruction of ungodly men. You go to the little epistle of Jude and you read that Sodom and Gomorrah serve as an example of a punishment of eternal fire when the Lord will come with His holy angels to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
And then you go to Revelation and it's more eternal judgment. It bristles with judgments. The wine of God's wrath poured unmixed into the cup of His anger, torment with fire and sulphur, the smoke of their torment going up forever and ever, no rest day or night, the angel swinging his sickle into the earth and gathering the vintage of the earth and throwing it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And out of the mouth of Christ a sharp sword by which He judges and rules. And you read of the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, of the second death of the lake of fire and so forth and so forth.
So, the New Testament focuses tremendous emphasis on judgment. And it isn't just in the Acts and the epistles and the Revelation, it's in the gospels also. Because no one said more about judgment than Jesus did. He taught about it over and over and over. He spoke of sins that wouldn't be forgiven. He spoke of the danger of losing one's soul forever. He spoke of perdition. He spoke of destruction. He spoke of hell, of fire, of wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth, of outer darkness, of torment. The awesomeness of facing eternity apart from salvation. His words are intense, they are inescapable. They are dramatic.
So we are not surprised when we come to Matthew 25 that in the climax of His sermon on His Second Coming, it too has a warning about judgment. In verse 41 He says, "Depart from Me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." And somebody might say, "Well, I thought Jesus was a person who shared love with everybody, I thought Jesus was one who was kind and good, what is all of this about an everlasting fire and cursing? And then again in verse 46 about everlasting punishment."
Well, to answer it as simply as I'm able, it is a warning that comes out of love. Love warns. I mean, that's basic, love warns. If there is something to avoid it is loving to warn someone to avoid it. It is not loving not to warn them. We would not say Jesus was a person who shared great love if He didn't warn us about that which could eternally damn us. It is love that warns. So the fact that He gave so many judgment warnings does not minimize but rather maximizes His love. There is no harshness in Him. There is no coldness. There is no unfeeling attitude toward the destiny of men, but over and over and over again a warning against unbelief, a warning against judgment. And so wherever you are in the New Testament, you...you feel this constant pressure of impending judgment. It is a focus that comes again and again and again that men might be drawn to salvation not only by the attraction of salvation's benefits but by the horrors of the alternative judgment.
So, the disciples are saying to Jesus in this passage, Matthew 24 and 25, "Tell us about Your Second Coming. Tell us about when You set up Your Kingdom." They don't know it as the Second Coming because they don't imagine He'll go back and come again, but we call it that. "Tell us about the establishing of Your Kingdom. Tell us about when You come in Your glory. Tell us what it's going to be like when You reign as Messiah. What are the signs and when will it happen?" they say in verse 3 of chapter 24. And so He answers them. He gives them all kinds of preliminary signs and then says the exact moment no one knows so everyone needs to be ready, everyone. Why do you need to be ready? Because when He comes there will be with that coming an irreversible and eternal judgment. And that is the final climax of His message. Verse 31, "When He comes He will judge." Verse 32, "Separating all people into two categories called sheep and goats." The sheep go into the Kingdom. The goats are kept out. We don't know when that's going to happen specifically. Oh, there are signs, but when it happens it will be too late for any changes then. So the Lord is saying you should be ready...you should be ready.
As I've said before, when any person dies they immediately enter into that judgment right then. And the decision of their eternal destiny is rendered. But for those who are still alive when Jesus comes, at the moment of His coming that judgment will take place. So He says "When I come, I come as a judge, not only as a King. I come to determine who is allowed to enter My Kingdom."
And so, even here when the disciples are saying, "What is the sign of Your coming and when is it going to happen?" He ends with a warning. So typical of His love. And He says, in effect, "I want everyone to know the signs, I want everyone to know I'm coming so that everyone will be ready when it comes, when it happens."
Now we've looked at the judge in this judgment, the Son of Man, verse 31. We've looked at the time of the judgment, after the close of the Tribulation when He comes in glory to set up His Kingdom. We've looked at the place of judgment where His glory throne is, that's in Jerusalem. We've looked at the subjects of judgment, verse 32, all the peoples, all the ethna, all the ethnic groups, everybody all around the world that's still alive. And now we want to look this morning at the process of judgment, how does this judgment occur?
Well, notice verse 32 says "All the nations are gathered, all the peoples are gathered, everybody from everywhere all over the earth that's still alive is brought into Jerusalem and He separates one from another." He separates them into two groups, analogous to a shepherd dividing his sheep from his goats. Shepherds do that in that land. If you ever go there even to this very day, I was there a few months ago and saw it again, you see mixed herds of sheep and goats all over the hillsides. Shepherds divide them. They divide them very often for feeding and they divide them very often for resting. They move them together and then separate them. And that is necessary because sheep and goats do not feed well together and they do not rest well together. And the reason being the sheep are basically docile, gentle, easily led and easily scared. The goats are unruly, rambunctious and almost fearless and they create all kinds of problems for the sheep. And so a separation needs to be made.
And in the same way that a shepherd would sort his sheep from his goats, so the Lord Jesus Christ in His coming will separate believers from unbelievers, believers to be taken into His Kingdom to join the glorified saints out of the Old Testament, Tribulation and the church who are going to be there in glorified form with new bodies fit for earth and heaven. He's going to take those who are living who are represented here as sheep into His Kingdom as well. The goats are put out of His Kingdom.
Now notice verse 33 and see this analogy taken a step further. "He shall set the sheep on His right hand, the goats on His left." Now this tells us something right away. The right hand is the hand of blessing. The right hand is the hand of honor. The right hand is the hand‑‑are you ready?‑‑of inheritance...of inheritance. That is the preferred hand. The sheep here are preferred in the analogy. As I said, they are submissive, they are gentle, they are docile. The goats are unruly and rough and rugged and so forth and they represent those who are the non‑blessed.
To show you the importance of this, when Jacob‑‑for example, there could be many illustrations of it in the Old Testament‑‑but when Jacob set out to bless his grandsons, his son Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And when Jacob set out to pronounce the blessing on those sons, he was very cautious on which son he placed his right hand because that very simple act of placing his right hand on that young man indicated that he was the heir, that he was the child of inheritance, that he was the line, if you will, of blessing. And so you remember that he crossed his hands in order to be sure that he got his right hand on Ephraim because the setting of the right hand symbolized blessing and inheritance. And that's what you have here. The sheep, the docile easily led responsive needing to be cared for sheep represent the saints. And they are put on the right hand, the place of blessing.
Now notice verse 34. "Then shall the King say to them on His right hand..." and we'll stop there for a moment. In that great climactic day when Jesus comes and He's ready to set up His Kingdom. He has landed in Jerusalem. His throne is there. He's going to rule the world. In His coming, you'll remember, He destroyed all the armies of Armageddon, He defeated all the nations that were fighting against Him. In a terrible bloodbath He comes the victor. And having defeated all of His enemies, having come back to reign, He establishes His throne. He collects all these people together and on His right He puts the believers. They are separated. And He says this to them, "Come‑‑literally, come here‑‑come to Me, come into My Kingdom, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." That's what He says to the sheep. To the believers alive at His Second Coming, they have lived through their earthly life, they survived the holocaust of the great Tribulation, they're still alive physically, they have to know what happens to them now and so He says, "Come into the Kingdom, you will remain alive, you will not die, you will live the way you are, you will go into this Kingdom." Actually they don't have to do anything. They're already here on earth, the Kingdom has come on earth, they just keep living. And they'll live as they lived before physically. They'll live though under the rule of Jesus Christ in His glorious Kingdom.
Notice it says, "Then shall the King say unto them..." This fits Matthew's emphasis. This is the King. And he finally really overtly calls Him the King because He now is coming in His Kingdom. He has called Himself, verse 31, Son of Man. Back in chapter 24 verse 30, twice Son of Man, a term of humiliation. But now Jesus calls Himself King. And He says, "Come to My right side." By the way, in Greek, Roman and Talmudic sources, the good people in any kind of a judication, any kind of a trial situation, always went to the right side of the judge. So this fits that pattern.
"Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the earth, or the world." Now this is a key interpretative thought and I want you to get this, it's so important. He is inviting them into the Kingdom, on what terms? Well, many people have sort of had difficulty with this passage because they say, "Well look, it says in verse 35 and 36 that they were...you fed Me when I was hungry, you gave Me water when I was thirsty, you took Me in when I was a stranger, you clothed Me when I was partially clad, you visited Me when I was sick and you came to Me when I was prison, and doesn't that teach salvation by works? Isn't He saying you can come into the Kingdom because of your philanthropy? You can come into the Kingdom because of your basic human kindness? You can come into the Kingdom because of all the social action that you were involved in? This seems rather problematic. Are people going to go into the Kingdom because of their social orientation?"
There's far more to it than that, beloved, far more to it. And that's all bound up in verse 34. People who get confused here some how miss verse 34 because verse 34 makes it very clear the basis of their entrance into the Kingdom. It's extremely clear. First of all, "Come...here comes number one point...ye blessed of My Father." That emphasizes the source of their salvation. You are blessed of My Father. You are entering into the Kingdom because My Father has determined to bless you. Here you have sovereign grace beautifully expressed. By the way, the phrase in the Authorized "You blessed of My Father" in the Greek literally says "My Father's blessed ones." You are coming into My Kingdom because God predetermined sovereignly to bless you. He redeemed you out of His sovereign love. So verse 34 expresses the innate reality of redemption and salvation and justification. And then it says, "Come you who are the blessed who belong to My Father, inherit...inherit," which implies something very important. You inherit something because you are born into a family, right? It implies again that they belong to the family of God, to which you belong by faith. You inherit what is yours because by faith you have become a joint heir with Christ, if we can sort of borrow Paul's thought in Romans 8.
So, you are the elect by sovereign grace, the chosen to be blessed by the Father. And you are those who inherit because you belong to the family by faith, you are sons of God. And so you see the source of salvation and you see the gift of salvation given to those who are the children of God. Further it says, "Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you." And that again emphasizes the selectivity of salvation. When God prepared the Kingdom it was for you that He prepared it. You were chosen, you were ordained to this, you are those whom the Father designed to love. So you have the source of salvation in the Father's blessing, desire to bless, you have the reception of salvation in the faith that brings you into the inheritance, you have the selectivity of salvation in the fact that the Kingdom was prepared for those people. Let me tell you something, whoever it was prepared for are going into it. God isn't going to lose any and He knows who He prepared it for.
And then a further thought. It was prepared from the foundation of the world. Now that emphasizes the eternal covenant that God made with Himself to redeem a people selected before the foundation of the world. Who are these people going in? They're not just people who got involved in social action. They're not just people who did good deeds on the earth. These are those chosen from the foundation of the world by sovereign God to receive His grace and be blessed and who responded by faith and became His heirs in the family. And all of that soteriological richness is compacted in verse 34. And that can't be missed, that can't be missed. The good deeds mentioned in 35 and 36 are not the primary emphasis. The primary emphasis in identifying these people is in verse 34. The good deeds are the fruit of the redemption defined for us in such simple yet profound terms in verse 34. And the people who get confused by this passage get confused because they perhaps haven't looked as closely as they ought to look at verse 34. And looking at verses 35 and 36 alone might provide some difficulty.
A parallel to the verse, verse 34, is in 1 Peter 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." In other words, the emphasis again in 1 Peter is that God did it, God blessed, by His mercy chose us, gave us an inheritance, that's why we're redeemed and that's essentially what verse 34 is saying. The real fact of salvation is in verse 34. The proof of it is in verse 35 and 36. They are only outward evidences of an inward sovereign grace.
So, the justice...now listen...the justice, the fairness, the equity of what the King does in bringing these people into His Kingdom, the justice of His act is manifest in the deeds that these people demonstrate. But it isn't the deeds alone that qualify them. It's their redemption which issues in those deeds. So when He says come in on this basis, He is judging them according to their works but only insofar as their works are a manifestation of the redeeming act which God foreordained in their behalf.
The Lord wants this not to be a secret. He isn't saying, "Come into My Kingdom because you know and I know that you're Christians, even though nobody else knows." He is saying, "You come into My Kingdom because you're the chosen and it's obvious that you're the chosen because this is how you have lived." And may I encourage you folks again in this passage as in so many other passages, the mark of salvation is always the same, it is manifest righteousness. And in this particular case, it is manifest righteousness revealed in one area and that is love...love, selfless love.
Notice verse 35, "I was hungry," here's the reason, because "I was hungry and you gave Me food. I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked‑‑or actually ill clad or improperly clothed, not stark naked‑‑and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came unto Me." Six things are mentioned: hunger, thirst, distrangement, improper clothing, sickness and imprisonment. And He says I know you belong in My Kingdom because you met all those needs in My case. You ministered to Me in those areas. You did. You ministered to Me.
You see, the Kingdom is for people who do that for Christ. Yes, the Kingdom is for people who minister to Christ in that way, who supply need...whatever that need might be. And in that culture that's what the need was. People could be hungry and have no food, they could be thirsty and need a drink. They could be strangers without a place to stay, ill clothed and needing proper clothing, sick and needing someone to come and attend to their sickness, in prison and needing someone to come and visit them to find out why they were there and work to get them out. That's what they needed in that day. Frankly, some of those needs still exist even in our day, but in our culture a lot of those needs are being met but people have a lot of other needs, a lot of other hurts, a lot of other problems, a lot of other anxieties. And He is saying you demonstrate to Me that you are people of the Kingdom chosen by the Father because it is your objective to meet those needs. Well, that's pretty straight stuff. In fact, He says you've done it to Me. The Kingdom is for people who do that for Christ. That indicates there genuine salvation.
Well, the response of the people in that day is quite amazing. Verse 37, now watch this, "Then shall the righteous answer Him saying,.." now stop there for a minute. Who answered Him? The good deeders, the good doers, the philanthropists, the social activists? "Then answered Him...who?...the righteous." And that is not just forensic, that is it's not just declared righteousness, it's real righteousness. It's imputed righteousness. And here again we are reminded that the reason these people do this is because they are made righteous in Christ. And this is the outflow of that miracle. It's the righteous, it's the blessed of the Father, it's the inheritors of the Kingdom, it's the predetermined and foreordained who demonstrate their righteousness in good deeds.
"And they say, Lord, when saw we Thee hungry and fed Thee, or thirsty and gave Thee drink, when saw we Thee a stranger and took Thee in, or naked and clothed Thee, or when saw we Thee sick or in prison and came unto Thee?" They say, "Wait a minute, You haven't even been here...You...You, when did we do that to You? When was that that we did that? When were we ever so generous to You?"
"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto Me." What a statement. Who are His brethren? Well, Hebrews 2:11 and 12 says He's not ashamed to call us who believe His brethren. I believe He's referring to the redeemed people. I believe He is simply saying this, whatever you do to meet the need of a fellow Christian, you do to Me. Is that not right? Because he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:17. Nevertheless I live yet Christ lives in me, Galatians 2:20. Paul celebrates that again and again, we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Christ is in His people. What is done to me as a Christian is done to Him. He is so intimately identified with me.
Back in Matthew 18 He says, "When you receive one such little child," Matthew 18, I think it's 4 and 5 there, "When you receive one such little child in My name, you receive Me." And He means there not a physical child but a spiritual child. When you receive another believer and you open your arms and you meet their need and you embrace them and you take them in and you strengthen them and you encourage or you help them or whatever, you accept them, you do it to Christ. Whatever you do to another believer, you do to Christ. That's the bottom line. That's the simple yet profound truth that the Lord is endeavoring to communicate. Whatever you do to a fellow believer, you do to Christ. It's that simple. And that is a truth that is oft indicated in the texts of Scripture.
"He that receiveth you, Matthew 10:40 says, receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me, receiveth Him that sent Me." Boy, that's another dimension. When you open your arms to a fellow believer, you're receiving Christ. And when you're receiving Christ, you're receiving the Father whom Christ resen...represents. It's a tremendous thought. What you do to another believer is what you do to Christ.
And so He says to these who are gathered on His right hand, who are the chosen of the Father, your choice, your sovereign grace, your election, your redemption and your imputed righteousness has caused you to demonstrate the love of God to the people of God. And I see that. And that's the external mark of your genuineness and I take you into My Kingdom.
Now may I back up a little bit in the passage since we've covered it and say this? It is always manifest righteousness that marks a true believer in Scripture. It is always the product of the life that demonstrates the reality of the life. It is what James says, faith without works is...what?...it's dead...it's non‑existent.
Now let me take it another step. There are going to be some folks gathered in the final judgment who are going to say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name and in Thy name cast out demons and in Thy name done many wonderful works?" Matthew 7:22 and 23. "And the Lord says, Then will I profess unto them, Depart from Me, you who worked iniquity, I never knew you."
"Now wait a minute. We prophesied in Your name, we cast out demons in Your name, we've done many wonderful works in Your name, and You're telling us You don't know us?" You see, there's none of that criteria here. He doesn't say, "Oh, I saw you cast out demons, I saw you prophesy greatly, I saw you do many wonderful works." Listen to me, it isn't those monumental successes outwardly that demonstrate the proof of true salvation, it is that day‑to‑day routine grace kindness goodness demonstrated toward believers in need that proves the case. And there are going to be lots of folks in the line saying, "Look at all the greatness, look at all the grandeur, look at all splendor, look at all the wonders we did," and He'll say, "I don't know you." And there will be some folks who did the daily routine simple acts of love and therefore manifested the indwelling presence of the living God. And that's exactly what Jesus meant when He summed it up in simple words, He said, "Love one another‑‑John 13:35‑‑as I have loved you, by this will all men know that you are...what?...My disciples." The proof is in manifest love, in the routine things of life, in the caring for those who have need.
You say, "I never met anybody who was naked so that I could put clothes on them, but if I did I would." That's the heart attitude. But maybe you've met somebody with another need, have you met that need? That's how you examine yourself to see if you're in the faith. That's the test in the end. It's similar in Romans 2, isn't it? Where it says God, in verse 6, will render to every man according to his deeds, to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, honor, immortality, they'll receive eternal life. You see, He doesn't say the ones who did all the phenomenal things, that had the big meetings and the big miracle workers and so forth and so forth. He says it's to those who by patient routine well doing. It's just the goodness of life that flows out daily, the faithful discharge of humble duty in the day‑to‑day things that demonstrates genuine salvation.
Like Peter says in 2 Peter 1, it's having virtue and godliness and brotherly kindness and love. It's showing that unselfish consciousness, that unaffected selflessness. And let's face it, even though we look at ourselves and we say, "Well, I see that sometimes, so I know I'm a Christian," we aren't really happy with what we see most of the time, are we? I mean, we really indulge ourselves. Look at last week for you, as I look at for me last week. What did you do last week to meet the need of someone else? What did you do to set aside a comfort, something you really wanted to do or you wanted to have to put in the hands of someone else something they needed? Time? Prayer? Thought? Instruction? Love? Kindness? Food? I don't know. Did you go visit anybody in the hospital? Did you go to a prison to see someone there to see how you could help? Maybe they have a family they need care for that family, I don't know.
You see, basically saved people, redeemed people, righteous people, people who belong to the Father manifest the Father's characteristics. When Jesus came into the world He did too. And when John the Baptist sent a messenger to find out whether Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus responded by saying this, "You tell John that the poor have the gospel preached to them, that cripple people walk, that deaf people hear, that blind people see." In other words, He didn't say, "Look, tell him about this big miracle, tell him about that stupendous thing," He just said tell him that it must be God because I'm going through the world meeting the needs of hurting people. I'm helping people. That's God's heart.
And that's the way it is with believers. If you belong to Jesus Christ there's a...there's a giving attitude. I mean, I'm concerned about this. I'm concerned about it not only in our older generations, I'm concerned about it in our younger generations. I'm concerned about it with our young people. Because we live in an utterly indulgent society and many of us who are a little bit older sort of have a little more sane view, but kids are coming up just bombarded with indulgences so that everything is consumed by the eye, the ego. And we lose touch with the fact that we ought to be giving ourselves away.
Service rendered to another Christian is a mark of a Christian. And service rendered to another Christian is an act toward Christ and that's an act toward God and that's proof of your salvation. And I'll tell you something. These people who are standing there at that moment when Jesus comes will have survived the Tribulation and the Tribulation will have generated some dire need, some dire need. There will be hungry, thirsty people. There will be homeless people. There will be shattered and devastated families and lives. There will be desperate people. There will be imprisoned people. There will be deathly sick people. All of those things will come out of the Tribulation in very clear and bold relief. And when that happens to the family of God, it will be the believers that come to their rescue and they don't care whether they're identified with the family of God, they don't fear the consequence of that. They'll pay the price.
So, ask yourself the question: if you were brought before that tribunal, which you will be, all of us face the Lord some day, will He look at you and say, Yes, you're blessed of My Father, Yes, you are to come into My Kingdom in your glorified form, Yes, you belong there among those who were chosen before the foundation of the world because I see in your life the love of the Lord, I see you reaching out to other people, I see you sharing and meeting needs? And it's a very important question.
What are you doing for someone else? I mean, what are you doing for someone else? That's the simple question. What are you doing? Anything?
Well, these dear people, I love their attitude. It's so humble. They're not only good, they're basically humble. They say, "When did we ever do that?" Oh, they don't say, "Oh yes, of course, Lord, yes...yes, we have a plaque on our wall, "philanthropist of the year", we understand that, yes." There's none of that. They don't know what He's talking...what do You mean?
You know, the true Christian is going to read that and say, "O God, I failed." And if that's what you're saying in your heart, then maybe you do belong with that group. Yes, I look at my own life and I say, "John MacArthur, have you ever fed somebody that was hungry? Yes. Another brother in Christ? Yes. It's better, to be honest with you, if my wife does it, they like it more. We work together on it. Have you ever given someone a drink when they needed it? Have you ever taken a stranger in and given him lodging? Have you ever taken someone who didn't have proper clothing and purchased that? Have you ever gone to the sick to comfort them? Have you ever gone to the prison? Yes, yes, Lord. But I mean...not what I should have done." Don't you feel that way? I mean, woefully beneath what I should have done. And I love the brothers, you just...I just become insensitive sometimes. I want to meet needs. I want to feed people the Word of God. I don't have a lot of people in my society, Lord, who don't have clothes. I don't have a lot of people who don't have food. We've got a system in America where most of that stuff is covered. But there are other needs and we meet those needs if we love and if we love we show we belong to God because God is love and He sheds His love abroad in the hearts of those who are His children.
And John says, "If you see your brother have need," 1 John 3:16, "and you close up your compassion, then how dwells the love of God in you?" I mean, do you live for you or for others?
Well, He says you're to come into My Kingdom. You not only are good and kind and demonstrating the love of God but you're humble, too. "And you who have done it unto the least of these My brethren, you've done it unto Me." That's such a beautiful thought. Christ identifies with the least of His brethren, the least, the most insignificant, the most inconsequential life is intimately integrated with the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. You look at some saints and you say, "Oh, they're nothing, I'm not going to waste my time on them, or their personality doesn't appeal to me, or I don't want to get involved in that situation." That's Christ identified with that person. The least...and the least are usually the most trouble. Have you noticed that? They take the most out of you. It's the most prominent who need the least help. It's the least who need the most. God help me to help all of us, to show ourselves to be His children through this.
And the rest of the people are on His left hand. What happens to them? Verse 41, "He'll say to those on the left hand, Go away from Me." Come here, you on the right. Go away, you on the left. "Go away, you cursed, you damned and devoted to destruction, go away into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Hell was prepared for the unredeemable devil and his angels who fell and there was no plan to redeem them. They who were once pure and holy in the presence of God, chose unholiness and there is no way to reverse that, there is no remedy for that and so God prepared a place for the devil and his angels in everlasting fire and that was for them. But men have chosen to identify in their rebellion and they go there by choice to a place not even intended for them, for God created man for fellowship with Himself.
But you, cursed, you devoted to destruction, you who have rejected Me, go away into everlasting fire. That speaks of separation, depart from Me. It speaks of association. Go with the devil and his angels. It speaks of isolation. It's a place of darkness. He says back in verse 30, it speaks of duration, it's everlasting. It speaks of affliction, it's fire.
Imagine, imagine that scene. Go away, you chose it. Why? "For I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you took Me not in, I was naked and you clothed Me not, I was sick and in prison and you visited Me not." In other words, you never demonstrated the love of God which is the mark of the manifestation of His presence. You never revealed a changed life. You never showed love for the brethren. He's not talking about the milk of human kindness, you never gave yourself away to meet the needs of other redeemed people.
And they say to Him, "Well, wait a minute, Lord. When did we see You hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick or in prison and didn't minister to You? Why if we had known You were around, we would have done that. When did we ever see You?
"Then will He answer them saying, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to Me." Never with the proper motive, never with a heart of the love of God do the unregenerate minister to the saints. You didn't do it. Now isn't that amazing? People are saved because they're chosen by God. They're damned because of what they don't do. They're saved because they're the blessed of the Father, chosen before the foundation of the world to inherit. They're damned because of what they don't do.
You remember the virgins? It didn't say, "And five virgins went into the wedding and five were shut out for being vile, immoral, ugly, gross, evil, wretched sinners." No, it wasn't what they did that left them out, it was what they didn't do. They didn't get any oil. The point there was that they didn't have oil. It was something they didn't have, they didn't do. Not something they did that damned them. There's nothing you can do in terms of sin, no matter how gross that sin is that results in your damnation, it's what you don't do. It's the failure to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's the same with the servant. The third one who got one talent, it wasn't what he did, it was what he didn't do. He just buried it and paid no attention to it that damned him and sent him to outer darkness.
The virgins weren't vile they were just negligent. And the servant wasn't immoral, he just did nothing. And people are damned to hell by what they don't do. And what they don't do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the absence of righteousness. It is the absence of the love of God that comes through faith in Christ. It is the absence of those kind of deeds that demonstrate righteousness and demonstrate God's love. It is the absence of the sin of...it is the presence of the sin of unbelief, the absence of faith.
Well, they die right there on the spot in that moment. You say, "How is that death going to take place?" The closest we can ascertain is in Zechariah 14. "The day of the Lord comes," verse 4, "His feet stand on the Mount of Olives, there is a valley created, the nations come in it to be judged, the Lord is King over all the earth," chapter 14 verse 9, the Lord is King over all the earth. There's one Lord. His name is one. And then the judgment falls. It says the plague with which the Lord will smite all the peoples, their flesh shall consume away while they stand on their feet and their eyes will consume away in their sockets and their tongue will consume away in their mouth.
I don't know how that happens but in that moment, the people on His left will be consumed instantaneously. They leave the earth. They go to everlasting fire. "And these shall go into everlasting punishment. But the righteous‑‑there they are identified again, not good doers but the righteous whose righteousness is manifest in good deeds‑‑they go into everlasting life." The words "everlasting" and "eternal" in the verse, I don't know why they translated that same Greek word two ways. They're the same. "Everlasting punishment" is just as everlasting as everlasting as "everlasting life."
People want to say, "Well, the punishment isn't eternal, is it?" Well, if it isn't neither is the life. But on the other hand, the life is eternal and so is the punishment. It is everlasting punishment where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched, where the smoke of their torment goes up forever. No Kingdom for them. They leave the earth. They're gone from the earth, never to return, to go into eternity without God. At the end of the thousand years they come back for their final sentencing. But this is an irreversible judgment, everlasting punishment. The righteous, they go into the Kingdom in physical bodies. You say, "Well, what's going to happen to them?" Well, what they enter into is an eternal life. So if their physical body dies, they'll just be glorified instantaneously because they've entered into also an irreversible eternal blessing.
So, our Lord brings His sermon to an end with a warning. Yes, He's coming. When is He coming? We don't know the exact moment. Men should be ready at all times because irreversible judgment will occur when He comes. On the one hand will be the sheep who have embraced the Savior and been made righteous and have received the love of God which they manifest. On the other hand, are the goats not made righteous, not possessors of the love of God therefore unable to manifest it. They are set apart. The sheep come into the Kingdom. The goats are destroyed from the earth to eternal punishment.
That's the choice of every soul. That's how eternity will be, just two places. And every person whoever lives on the face of the earth will be in one or the other. You will. And it may not be just the issue of what you do, your deeds will damn you. But they need not. It's what you don't do, it's a refusal to come to Christ that ultimately pronounces the final course. So the message of our Lord is, I'm coming in glory to set up My Kingdom, I want to bring into the Kingdom those who believe in Me. That's the cry.
Father, we thank You this morning for Your Word to us, refreshing our hearts by pulling us away from the world and all of its noisy din and all of its myriad voices and distractions. And yet at the same time, Lord, instilling in our hearts an awesome overwhelming sense of fear as we realize the severity of what awaits those who do not know the Savior. Father, it's a mark of true believers that they're loving and they're humble. It's a mark of non‑believers, in a sense, that they are non‑ loving. They don't have the love of God shed abroad in their hearts reaching out to other saints and they're not humble. They don't know why they should be left out. Father, we pray that those who are true saints will have that affirmed in their hearts and those who are not will have that affirmed as well so that they can take the step of faith in Christ.
With your head bowed in a final moment, between you and the Lord do a little spiritual inventory. Is your life in His control? Have you received salvation? Do you know if you were to face God in the next moment that you would be hearing Him say, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world?" If there's any thought that you might hear "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels," then you...you need to confess your sin and embrace Christ.
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I'm at the National Archives in Kew for a few days last-minute research for my forthcoming book 'Portsmouth's Second World War Heroes'.
I've been going to Kew since 2004, when I was working on my undergraduate dissertation. Since then I've been back there working on Magazine articles, family history, journal articles and just random self-interest stuff. I've looked at Admiralty, War Office, Ministry of Defence, Air Ministry, Board of Trade, Treasury, Foreign Office and other Documents. Theres something pretty enigmatic about anywhere where you can walk in and choose from 11 million records and order one of them to read – many written in the vary hand of luminaries like Winston Churchill, Nelson or Monty.
Kew is an enigma all of its own. Its always had a nasty case of change-itis, and its obviously an insitutional thing. In the time I've been going there the registration desk has moved at least four times, the first floor help desk has been revamped three times, the restaurant about three times, the museum once, as well as the cyber cafe. Most Archives and Libraries could only dream about being able to change things so often. Whilst improvement is no doubt a good thing when its genuine, you can't help but think that a lot of the changes at Kew are classic cases of 'Emperors new clothes in a governmental setting'. And why oh why do they insist on having such a politically correct menu? The restaurant used to to great roasts, Lasagnes… food like that. Today, however, the most palatable thing I could find was Morrocan spicy meatballs and spaghettti. Which has played havoc with my stomach!
My first visit to Kew was to a rather sedate government archive repository, attended by professional researchers and the more serious family history enthusiasts. But since the Family Records Office at Islington closed and was merged with Kew, the TNA has become a mecca for family historians. Even more so with programmes like Who do you think you are?. Whilst I think its great that so many people are interested in history of any kind, it must be frustrating for the staff at Kew. From what I've seen more people seem to turn up at Kew without a clue than those who do. And then of course there are those who think they can just turn up and someone else will do all the donkey work for them… A lot of friends and family have mentioned going to Kew, but its the kind of place where you need to know exactly what you're looking for before you go. And thanks to their online catalogue and research guides, its pretty easy to do so.
So wh0's been getting the Kew treatment today? None other than Wing Commander John Buchanan, Flight Lieutenant Patrick McCarthy and the Venables Brothers – all of whose places in history should now be that much more in context thanks to the relevant RAF Operational records. Tomorrow I plan to finish off with Buchanan's time leading a Squadron during the Siege of Malta, and then looking at Sapper Ernest Bailey and Operation Freshman, War Office casualties on the SS Portsdown, the Royal Navy's policy on the sending of Boy Seamen to sea after the Royal Oak Disaster, and the Royal Marines Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisations.


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The following sermon transcript does not match the video version of the sermon—it matches only the audio version. Here's a brief explanation why.
John MacArthur routinely preaches a sermon more than once on the same date, during different worship services at Grace Community Church. Normally, for a given sermon title, our website features the audio and video that were recorded during the same worship service. Very occasionally, though, we will post the audio from one service and the video from another. Such was the case for the sermon titled "I and the Father Are One, Part 2," the transcript of which follows below. The transcript is of the audio version.
Let's open our Bibles this morning together and we do so with great joy to study God's word and to learn His truth, what a privilege. Let's open to Matthew 23. This morning we come to the last few verses of this very, very powerful Chapter. We're going to look at verses 37-39. But I want you to just kind of hold your place there for a moment and I want to set up if I may in your thinking a scene that will help you grasp the very great significance of this passage. Let me begin by saying no one could possibly have a greater love or a greater compassion for the nation Israel than a truly committed Christian. And that's the way I feel.
I find myself almost inordinately favoring Jewish people. And I guess it has to do with the fact that all the favorite people in my life are Jewish, Jesus, Paul, Peter, Moses, Abraham, and a few folks here at Grace Church, many in fact. And I have such a great heart for Jewish people. I...because they're God's special people. And a great sense of compassion over the plight of Jewish people. I feel in my own heart the pain of their unbelief, the pain of their persecution. The tremendous distress of a people who down deep inside believe they have a covenant with God and can't understand why it never turns to blessing. But why it always seems that they're under a curse. A people who believe themselves to be unique who believe themselves to humanitarianly sensitive and yet seem always to be oppressed, always beleaguered, massacred, persecuted, harassed and asking themselves why. Why?
I had the privilege a few months ago of being in the land of Israel and everywhere you go in that land you are overwhelmed with the fact that those people have known centuries and centuries and centuries of difficulty. You can see the remnants of the devastation of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. when you look at the western wall, which is all that was left after the city was raised to the ground at the order of the Roman emperor. And here and there across that country, you see the remnants of their wars and their terrible slaughters, remnants that run from ancient times to very modern times. All the way from rubble of a city to tanks overturned and sitting in the desert, reminders that the battles are still raging in that part of the world.
This people has suffered like no other nation in history. And it seems so strange that all through these centuries God has preserved them. They're never exterminated. They're never wiped out. They're never even lost in the process of inner-marriage. They just keep perpetuating themselves, and yet it is a perpetuation and punishment. It is a continual existence in chastening and you can see it written all over them all the time. Why? Why? They cry out to a heaven that never answers. Why? If indeed we are the covenant people, if indeed we are the chosen, if indeed it is us to whom they oracles of God are committed. If we are the people of the adoption and the promises and the covenants and the law and the services and of whom even the Messiah came or is to come, why? Why have we suffered so?
Let me give you a little bit of background. The contemporary picture of the Jews in suffering really begins with the destruction of Jerusalem. In 70 A.D., Titus Vespasian came the Roman General, sieged the city and before it was over, over a million Jews were killed according to Josephus. Two years before that in 68 A.D. the Gentiles of Caesarea had slain 20,000 Jews and captured thousands more and sold them into slavery. And that really began the 2,000 years of holocaust that the Jews have suffered.
For example, around that period of time in one single day, the inhabitance of Damascus slit the throats of 10,000 Jews. It wasn't long after that, a couple of centuries, that a man came into power by the name of Theodosius. And Theodosius, under his reign, developed a legal code. And that legal code has inherent in it anti-Semitic viewpoints which state the inferiority of the Jews and unfortunately Theodosius legal code penetrated all of western law so that there was built in from that fourth century period and anti-Jewish feeling underlying much of western culture. The sad history really took on unbelievable proportions in the crusades. The first crusade occurred in 1096 and I'll just give you a brief background. You can remember your history course. The crusades were basically supposed to be holy pilgrimages on the part of the western European Christians. And I used the word Christians loosely because they were not Christians in the true sense, but only in the name of religion. And they decided to march to the holy land to recapture the holy land from the pagan Turks who possessed it.
The holy land had fallen into the control of the Turks and they thought that was a desecration of the Christian holy places. Now the fear that they had was that as they went back and laid claim to that the Jews would then make demands on them. And the Jews would want also to lay claim to the land. And so to prevent the Jews from exercising any of that, they just went across Europe and massacred all the Jews they found. So here they are in the name of Christ massacring Jews across Europe.
Now that might give you a little idea why the Jews have a distaste in their mouth for Christianity. Secondly, why the very word crusade conjures up all kinds of evil things to a Jew. So the crusades were a very disastrous event. Let me tell you what they did basically. They would go into a town, they would find a Jewish settlement. They would find a small group of Jews or a large group in a town. They would give them very often two choices. Choice number one convert to Christianity and be publicly baptized. Choice number two, die. What happened was many Jews who didn't want to do that died. Many others falsely converted to Christianity to save their lives. Some of the Jewish leaders tried to prevent false conversions and so they told the people you're better off dead and in many towns and villages, the people committed suicide as families when they knew the crusaders were approaching their village.
They were guilty of no crime, they were victims of unbelievable persecution. In one particular case that I read about this week in one village, at least, some of the women and young girls decided that they would rather die than go through what would happen in the crusades and many of them didn't have the option of being baptized. It was just a question of being killed. And so they loaded rocks on these young girls tying them in their garments and dropping them in the river so that they would drown rather than be in any way humiliated by the crusaders.
They were accused of crucifying Christian children. They were accused of drinking then the blood in the Passover of Christian children which they executed. All kinds of unbelievable horrors. In the city of Verns later famous because of Martin Luther. The Jews refused to be baptized, so they were murdered by the mob and their corpses were dragged from one end of the city to the other to desecrate their bodies. In 1236 still in the time of the crusades, there were several of them, they went into two villages, the crusaders did Anjou and Poitou and they trampled 3,000 Jews under their horses hooves, and the worst was yet to come.
In England, there came to be a king by the name of Edward the I and under him the Jews were somewhat safe. They by now had scattered all over Europe and the dispossession of Jerusalem and their land. And they found their way into England and they had a modicum of safety there for a while until a Dominican monk, in the Roman system, the Dominicans were a very well-known and proud group, a Dominican monk decided to study the Hebrew Scriptures in order to convert to Roman Catholicism. In the process, he became converted to Judaism and was circumcised. The result of that was that the Roman Catholic Church was irate, the Dominicans felt that they had been betrayed and disgraced and so they sought to take vengeance on the Jews and they did.
They expelled them from Cambridge, laws were passed against them. They were charged with counterfeiting coins. They were hanged. They were exiled. They were made, those who weren't hanged or exiled to wear a badge saying, in effect, I'm a Jew. A badge of inferiority. In London, they took Jews and they tied horses to their extremities and sent the horses in opposite directions ripping their bodies in half and then hanging the remnants of their bodies on the gallows for all the town to see. Finally, around 1290 the king made a decree that if any Jews were left they were to be expelled. The fled, the went further into Europe into France, which already had expelled Jews under the reign of Louis the XI, but by now had released a little bit of its animosity and so the Jews could find at least a place to stay in France where they could live. They too had to put either a red felt or a yellow cloth badge on indicating they were Jews so everyone would know they were inferior.
That didn't last very long. Within about 15 years after that, Philip the Fair expelled over 100,000 Jews from France. Some of them managed to hang around and stay and when the terrible black death came in the 14th Century, the plague that went all across Europe and tens of thousands of people were killed with that terrible plague, the Jews were blamed. And it was said that the Jews had poisoned the wells in France and caused the black death. And so they began again to kill the Jews. One entire congregation was together meeting and they burned them all in that one place.
As a result of this they fled further and this time they fled to Poland and to Russia. And in our contemporary time today we know about Polish Jews and Russian Jews, very commonly. They were chased there. Poland really became a homeland for them. It was in Poland that they established Talmudic schools. It was in Poland that they built seminaries that they did much of their work and so forth. They then came into great conflict with the Roman Catholic Church in Poland and there was tremendous persecution there. They pitted themselves on one occasion against the Cossacks in a war which the Cossacks won and therefore, the Cossacks took out their vengeance on the Jews and massacred them.
Some of them managed to flee to Spain, but historians tell us that Spain could be "the hell of the Jews," and the two people who heap the most hatred and horror on the Jews were a king and queen by the name Ferdinand and Isabella, who were the same two in power commissioning Columbus to sail, who later found the western hemisphere. So while they were giving the world the benefit of the western hemisphere, they were doing all they could to massacre the Jews in their own country.
One of the things they did in Spain that's inconceivable is they found the names of proselytes who had converted to Judaism under the influence of the Jews and if they were dead, they dug up their graves, desecrated their bodies and confiscated all the property of their heirs to make sure no one every proselyted to Judaism. This was the mark of being a Jew. All across Europe Jews became known as maranaused, swine. A mark had to be warn in Spain by every Jew compose of a series of flaming crosses. Finally in 1492, when Columbus was sent west, the Jews were sent east out of Spain. The ones that wound their way to Russia to this day have been persecuted. And we've all read about the terrible, terrible plight of Soviet Jews, haven't we? I mean, folks, it's been 2,000 years like that for these people. You can back up a little bit in the middle of the 17th Century, the first persecution broke out in Poland. That had had some safety there for a couple hundred years and then it all of a sudden changed.
Germany began to massacre Jews. Periodically through the centuries Germany had done that. Accusing them again, also of using Christian children's blood for their Passover. And the German Catholic Church said that they took knives, the Jews did, and pierced the host in the mass until blood poured forth. In other words, they excused them of stabbing the body of Christ. Persecuted and massacred them for that. So the anti-Semitism just flowed through western civilization finally in a contemporary setting reaching somewhat of an apex in the terrible Dryfus affair in France when Dryfus who was an officer in the army was put out of the army and humiliated as a traitor simply and only because he was Jewish. An unjust accusation of treason meant to get all Jews out of the high ranks of officers in the French army.
Now in spite of all of this, the marvel of it all is this. You have all these centuries of endeavors to exterminate the Jews; and by the time you come to World War II there are 16.5 million Jews in Europe. So while God is allowing all of this, God is not allowing it to exterminate this people. So they are perpetuated in punishment. And then, of course, Hitler came and then the unbelievable, indescribable Holocaust exterminated nearly six million Jews. Only this time there was a difference.
This time it wasn't hatred based on religion. It was hatred based on race and that was a whole new thing. It had always been religious until Hitler or most always. Now it was based on race and secular society picked up the legacy of religious anti-Semitism and gave the world racial anti-Semitism. And these people still suffer from it even today. It's tragic. Now all of that to say this, why? Why? And that is the question on the lips of Jews throughout their history. Why? Why is it this way with us? Why so long do we suffer?
The answer is in our passage. Look at verse 37. "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them who are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chicken under her wings and you would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate." Stop there at that point. What do you mean your house is left unto you desolate? The Lord Jesus is saying Jerusalem, nobody is going to plow your ground anymore. Nobody is going to cultivate your field. No one is going to plant the crop. No one is going to concerned about noble vine. No one is going to water you. No one is going to prune you. No one is going to build a hedge around you. No one is going to protect you. You are on your own left to the elements.
It's very similar to Isaiah Chapter 5 where Isaiah said to Israel just before the Babylonian captivity, a holocaust of another kind. Earlier in their history, Isaiah says God made you all that you could be. God planted you a noble vine in a very fertile hill. He put a mote around you. He protected you. He did all He could to preserve you to cause you to bring forth grapes and you brought forth sour berries and the judgment of the Isaiah was and now God's going to take away your hedge and no rain's going to rain on you and you're going to be left to the elements and whatever's going to happen is going to happen.
For 2,000 years nearly the nation Israel has had to live its life without God and without His protection, that's the difference. Why is it the way it is? Because God has removed His protecting hand. He has preserved them as a people. He has left them unprotected from all the holocausts that the world could bring to bear. Why? Because of what it says in verse 37. Jesus came and said I wanted to gather you. I wanted to protect you. I wanted to bring you under my wings and you would not. That's the issue right there. Why? Because they refused their Messiah. That's right, because they refused their Messiah. You want to hear something very, very important historically? If the Jews had received Jesus Christ, the kingdom would have come; therefore, in rejecting Him, they have gotten what they have gotten. Jesus said He came to bring the kingdom. They refused the king, they forfeited the kingdom, they got what they got.
Instead of entering into the blessing of God, God took His hand of blessing off and left to the fate of an evil world. They have suffered immeasurably. Another way to say it is in the words of 1 Corinthians 16:2:22 where Paul says "If any man love not the Lord, let him be Anathema. If any man love not the Lord, he's cursed. He is cursed. If any man love not the Lord, he is cursed. Privilege was given to Israel unequal to any privilege ever given to any nation, unbelievable privilege. And with it came tremendous responsibility. Now we have gone through 23 chapters of the gospel of Matthew, 23 chapters of the coming of Messiah. His birth, His ministry, His message, His miracles, His call and His cry to Israel; 23chapters, and the sum of it is this. When it's all said and done and the Messiah has come in human flesh and He has taught and He has healed and He has preached and He has loved and He's demonstrated all that God is, they reject it totally, totally. And He says that's it. You are desolate.
Now this passage closes the sermon of Chapter 23. It is a sermon, its one sermon this Chapter, and it's the final sermon the Lord ever gave publicly. And it is a sermon against false spiritual leaders who have lead the nation to this point of rejection. Who have led the nation in their sin. It doesn't mean that the people weren't as guilty. They were for following, but nonetheless the leaders led them there. And so the chapter is against those leaders. It is a furious diatribe against those leaders. But it ends with this pathos. It ends with this grief. It ends with this lament, because though God is going to judge that nation by removing protection and letting Satan go full blast at them.
And may I suggest to you something very important here. You say God has His hand of protection off a lot of nations, that's probably right. You say why is it worse with Israel? Because Satan wants to exterminate Israel more than other nation, because they are the nation in the plan of God which Satan wants to thwart. Therefore, for God to remove His protection from Israel is to expose them to the worst furies that Satan could ever bring upon any nation, because he desires to eliminate them so that Christ can never inherit them and fulfill the promise of God to them, you see.
So these false leaders have led the people in a rejection of their Messiah. And God has removed His blessing. But the heart of God is grieved as ours ought to be. We don't gloat over that. God says I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. In Jeremiah Chapter 13 God speaks through Jeremiah the prophet and calls for the people to glorify Him and to obey Him and then says and if you don't mine eye will run down with tears. You see? This does not make God happy. This grieves Him. Now last week we looked at verses 34 to 36 and we saw there the imminent condemnation.
We saw there that God says because you have rejected the Messiah, because you have filled up the cup of sin and guilt, because you've not only rejected the Messiah, but all the prophets of the past, you have cumulatively rejected all of God's revelation. You have all the Old Testament in front of you. You have all the preaching of John the Baptist. You have all the ministry of Jesus Christ. You've rejected it all. You've filled the cup in verse 32. That's the image there. You have filled the cup of wrath to the brim. This is it. And the cup that it took centuries to fill is going to take centuries equally to pour back out.
They filled it up with centuries of sin. It's being poured out with centuries of chastening. You say well, how could this group of people be guilty of the sins of the past? Because they knew the sins of the past and didn't learn from them, they inherited their guilt. Because they not only didn't listen to Jesus and the apostles, they didn't listen to John before Jesus and the prophets before John. They accumulated the guilt of all of it because they followed in the sins of their fathers never learning lessons their fathers pain and deprivation and punishment should have taught them. So they had a cumulative guilt.
They had rejected full light, full revelation. They had come so far as...in the words of Hebrews 6 to be exposed to the whole of the gospel, tasting the heavenly gift. Being partakers of the Holy Spirit's power and of the things of the age to come. In other words, they had a full revelation of Christ and they rejected and said He was from Satan, He was from hell, He was from the pit. And they, therefore, became the apostates of all apostates rejecting the accumulation of all revelation to them, which are summarized, epitomized, and maximized in the coming of Jesus Christ.
So He says because of this, verse 36, all these things are going to come on this generation. This is the most guilty generation in the history of Israel, because it rejected the light that had accumulated through thousands of years of divine revelation. And it's all going to come on you. You have filled up the cup and now it's going to poured out. And it started in 70 A.D. in that terrible destruction of Jerusalem and it's still going on right now. Still going on right now.
And you want to hear something else, folks? It will get worse. That's right. The persecution of Israel isn't over. The hand of God is off and Satan's doing his thing. And you want to know something? There's a time described in the Bible as the tribulation, the great tribulation. It's also called the time of Jacob's what? Trouble. We're going to learn more about when we get into Chapter 24, but that is going to be a holocaust like no other holocaust Israel has ever seen. The worst is yet to come. The cup is still being poured out.
Now may I say as footnote here, that doesn't mean that because that nation as a nation is going through this with the hand of blessing off and Satan doing all he can to destroy them to thwart the plan of God. That doesn't mean that individual Jews can't come to Christ. They can and they do and they will. Because always God has His, what? His remnant, always, always. There are some true Jews who see the Messiah, but for the whole, for the nation, for the greater part, terrible time of judgment.
Now we said verse 34 to 36 could be called imminent condemnation. Imminent in the sense that it's coming immediately and it didn't. In 30 some years it started. But the second thing, and what I want you to look at today is intense compassion, verse 37 and 38. From imminent condemnation to intense compassion, and this is an outpouring of grief equal to the outpouring of wrath. It is the climax of great emotion and compassion. It provides for us an essential balance and an essential understanding of the character of God and Christ. We have heard furious words of judgment. And now we're going to hear words of grief. God never rejoices in punishment in the sense that He gloats over the doom of the people.
No, He is grieved and so we read in verse 37, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem," and there is pathos in the repetition isn't there? Those words are filled with sorrow. And if you parallel that passage, for example with the Luke 19 passage where it says"And when He was come near He beheld the city and wept over it saying if thou hast known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace, but now they're hidden from thine eyes." He wrote in that day of triumphal entry, that Monday of the passion week and He saw the city and began to weep and weep and weep and say oh if you only knew. If you'd only known who was here, who was visiting you, but you didn't know and now you can't see. Your eyes are blind.
So He sorrowed, He wept tears and it may well be that He wept here again on Wednesday as He had on Monday when He cried "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem." The tears of lament over a people about to have the hand of God's protection removed from them, to be turned over to Satan who more than other people would want them to be destroyed. Just the idea of the repetition is interesting. Very often in Scripture repetition like that is an indication of great emotion. For example, "Martha, Martha," in Luke Chapter 10, verse 41 or in Luke 22:3, "Simon, Simon," says the Lord. Or in Acts 9 from the voice out of heaven we hear "Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me." Or perhaps best 2 Samuel, the cry of anguish and the heart of David over his son. He says, "Oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, if only I had died for you oh Absalom, my son, my son."
And so that repetition is the repetition of grief, the repetition of emotion. And so He says, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem." And He characterizes the city not as the city of peace, not as the holy city. He characterizes the city with present participles. "You who are killing the prophets and you who are stoning them who are sent to you, that's the city you are. You are the city that kills prophets and stones messengers." What a characterization of the holy city.
People who prided themselves on being the city of God, the city of purity, the city of peace, the city of God it's called the city of killers. In fact, later on later on in the book of Revelation God calls Jerusalem Sodom and Egypt. Sodom, perversion, Egypt pagan. So Jerusalem is the Sodom, the Egypt, the murderous city. It's not the holy city. It's not the city of peace. It's not the city of God. It's not beautiful for habitation. It's not lovely among all the cities of the earth. It's not Jerusalem the golden. It's Jerusalem the killer, Jerusalem the murderer. And the present participles are most interesting who are killing the prophets. They were about to kill Him and He was the supreme prophet. Who are stoning those who were sent to you, they would also very soon after they killed him, kill Stephen and they would stone him to death. They weren't through doing it.
They were still doing it. They were definitely the sons of their fathers in terms of where we see earlier in the Chapter verse 29 to 31, they deny that they would kill the prophets and yet they're doing it. They think they're better than their fathers who did that, but they're not. If you remember their fathers had wanted Jeremiah dead. They hated Jeremiah because he spoke the truth. They wanted to get rid of him. Justin Martyr in Dialogues of Trifo says they sawed Isaiah in half with a wooden sword, the prophet of God. Apparently, they murdered Zechariah the prophet between the temple and the altar. I mean, they killed the prophets rather than hear their message. And so they are characterized as a city of murderers and indeed they were because they were about to murder the Son of God.
Earlier in a parable back in Chapter 21 the Lord had said you're like a group of tenant farmers who've come into a vineyard that someone else owns and when the owner sends back his servants to give you a message, you kill the servants. And finally after you've killed all the servants, the owner sends the Son, you kill Him too. That's the kind of people they were. They were killers of those who spoke the truth and represented God. Unbelievable. Murderers of the righteous. Now you ask the question, why has Israel suffered so long? This is why. Because for so long they rejected God. For so long they killed His messengers. For so long they stoned those that were sent. Finally, they filled the cup up when they executed their own Messiah. And God says, that's it, you are desolate. I take my hand of blessing off and all hell will break loose on you. Culminating in the tribulation time when Revelation tells us the mouth of the pit is open and the demons that for centuries have been bound are released to run ramped across the earth.
And you have not only the persecution of men, but the persecution of hellish supernatural demons, culminating this terrible time of Jerusalem's chastening. By the way, it's important to note that Jerusalem here is a symbol for the whole nation as it was very often in the ministry of the prophets. When He says, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem," He gathers up in Jerusalem's symbolic use the whole of the people and the nation. And then you see the heart of the Savior. Look what He says.
"How often would I have gathered thy children together?" I wanted to bring you into safety. Like we read in Psalm 36 this morning, I wanted you to come unto the shelter of my wings. I wanted you to be protected. I didn't want to take my hand of blessing off. I didn't want to expose you to the elements. I didn't want to leave you unprotected. But often I wanted to gather you. Does He mean just when He visited Jerusalem? No, John...the gospel of John records His several visits to Jerusalem, but He isn't only referring to that. He's saying how often? In other words, it's a way of saying so many, many times I wanted to gather you. In fact, all the time of His ministry, He wanted to gather them. He wanted to gather them. He wanted to call them to Himself. "Come unto me all ye that labored heavy laden, I'll give you rest."
Even as He dies on the cross, He gathers a thief into His arms who is willing to believe. I mean, that's the way it was until they silenced His voice in death. He was always wanting to gather them and gather them into protection, into safety from judgment. And then He gives a beautiful analogy of that, "even as a hen," and the word in the Greek is actually a bird, "gathers her chickens or little birds under her wings." It's kind of like a little farmyard maybe and little hen and some little chicks. And the hen looks up and sees a chicken hawk flying across, gathers those little ones into protection in a private corner where she can't be seen and they can't run around unprotected and unwitting to be consumed by that preying bird.
Or maybe a storm is approaching and a crash of thundering and lightening, she gathers those little ones in the warmth of safety. The Lord would have done that. There's a beautiful intimacy here. There's a tenderness here. It isn't just some theological thing of which He speaks. It's something very personal, very intimate, very warm. He wanted to give them security and the key to the whole deal, underline it in your Bible, the last part of verse 37, "and ye would not." That's the key. You wouldn't do it.
Let me just say to those of you who tend to be hard-line Calvinists, I find no absolute determinism in this verse. I find no fate here. I find no predetermined destiny here without thought for a response. I find here that God would, but you wouldn't. That's what I find here. And somewhere in the midst of that incredible apparent paradox of sovereignty and volition, we've got to see this passage. "I would," He says. "How often I would have gathered, but you would not." And every soul that spends eternity outside the protection of God, every soul that spends eternity in hell is there because they would not, they would not.
The gospel gives no place for absolute determinism. Go back to the parable of Chapter 22, verse 3. The king sent forth servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come. And again He characterizes the time in which He lived in the people of Israel. You got called, you got invited, but you wouldn't come. You refused to come. You find it in the parable of Luke 14. A certain man gave a great supper and called many. "Come for all things are ready," and they all with one consent began to make excuses. I have bought a piece of ground. I have to go see it. I pray have me excused. Another said, I have yoke of oxen, I have to prove them. Have me excused. Another said I've married a wife, I can't come. So the servant came and showed his lord these things and the master of the house said all right. Then go in the streets and lanes of the city and bring the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind. In other words, if the ones that were supposed to come don't want to come, we'll just go take anybody that will. They wouldn't come.
There's no determinism there. I would, but you would not. Man's choice, don't ever forget it theologically, man's choice is as much a part of salvation as is God's choice. You would not. You would not. And anyone who goes to hell goes there because they would not, they would not. In this sense, grace is resistible and every person responsible. And so we see the heart of Christ. Look at verse 38,"Because you would not," He says, "behold," and that's an exclamation which involves surprise and shock, "your house," oh that's important. He before had called it "My Father's house," hadn't He? Now He says it's your house. It's been so desecrated now and He's talking probably about the temple which was the House of God and that was where He was right then. Your house is deserted. God just left.
To put it in Old Testament terms, Ichabad, the glory hath departed, you're on your own. You're a desert, your house. And in speaking of the temple that way, He included the city and the whole nation. God's protection is gone. In fact, in this age, God has a new house. The church is the house of God, 1 Timothy 3:15. The rest is desolate He says for you. Some time ready Deuteronomy 28. I wish I had time to do that. Deuteronomy 28:15-68, and there you will find that very early in the Pentateuch when God first established His relation with His people, He said if you turn from me, here's what'll happen. And they did it and that's exactly what happened. You read Deuteronomy 28 and you'll see it fulfilled in the history of Israel.
So here Christ rejected Israel because Israel rejected Him. Now may I add again as I said earlier, the gospel is still opened to individual Jews. On the day of Pentecost 3,000 Jews were saved. Later on, many thousands more were saved. Jews have been saved throughout all history. They're still be saved today. There are still many of them whose hearts are opened to the gospel of Jesus Christ. God will always have remnant. Individual Jews can come, but as a nation, God has removed His hand of blessing, and they're exposed.
And just what Jesus said would happen, happened. In Luke 19, verse 43, Jesus said to them, "The day shall come upon you that your enemies shall cast a trench about you and compass you around and keep you on every side...keep you in on every side." He was talking about the seize of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. And they'll lay even with you...lay you even with the ground that has flattened you. Your children within you, they'll not leave in you one stone upon another, because you knew not the time of your visitation, you didn't know when God came in the form of Jesus Christ, because you didn't know that, your city's going to be devastated.
And Josephus says the city was raised to the ground. Nothing was left but one prominent tower and a part of the western wall and the city was so flattened and so leveled not one was thrown upon another that a visitor coming to the area would not know that it was ever inhabited. It happened and it set in motion the centuries of Israel's unprotected devastation. It's a divine payoff folks for rejecting Christ and cumulative sin of a nation killing prophets, stoning the messengers of God. So sad, so heartbreaking. You say, is that end? Bless God it isn't the end.
Imminent condemnation, verse 34 to 36. Intense compassion, verse 37 and 38, and finally, insured conversion, verse 39. It's not the end. Insured conversion. Oh what a great verse. "I say unto you, you shall not see me anymore." Stop at that point. Jesus says, I'm gone. This is the end. Farewell from your Messiah. Your rejection is final and it was proven final because when the apostles came and preached after Christ was gone, they wanted them dead too. Nothing changed. It's the end of the call for Israel. They refused the grace of salvation when it was offered to them. His mission to them as Savior as a nation has ended. You want see me anymore, I'm gone.
That's the end. You say wait a minute. That's the end? Is that the end of Israel? You shall not see me anymore. Period, paragraph. Is there where the verse ends? It doesn't end there. If it ended there, it would dramatically change all of our doctrine, all of our theology. It'd be over with. I'll tell you something else it would do. It would make us doubt that we could ever trust God again. Because if He said to that nation, you will never see me again, then He's just broken some pretty strong, some pretty strong promises.
My Bible tells me in the Old Testament that He promised them that He would regather them. That ultimately he would be their Savior. That ultimately He would be their king. That ultimately they would come into a relationship with Him. That ultimately all the promises and covenants would come to fruition. If my Bible ended at the word henceforth or anymore, and there's nothing more for Israel, I've got to rethink the whole Old Testament and the character of God who made promises He's now not going to keep, but it doesn't end there.
It says this, what's the next word after henceforth or no more? Until, not unless, but until. "You're not going to see me anymore until," now there's hope in that. Just put a little circle around the word until. There's hope in that. You say you mean there's going to be an until? You mean there's going to be a time when something happens? That's right. "Until you shall say blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." You say what does that mean? Well, what does that mean?
Well, back in Matthew 21:9 when Jesus rode into the city in His triumphal entry and they were hailing Him as the Messiah, they were crying verse 9, "Hosanna to the Son of David," and they said this, from Psalm 118:26, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." That was a cry meant to identify the Messiah. Messiah was the coming one. That's the Greek text. The coming one, coming in the Lord's name or in the Lord's behalf or representing the Lord. Blessed is a perfect, always blessed, blessed in the past, and continually blessed. The always blessed coming one who comes in the name of the Lord. In other words, you're not going to see me ever again until you recognize me as your what? Messiah. That's what He's saying.
Until you recognize me as your Messiah. You say are they going to do that? Yeah, they're going to do that. They sure are going to do that. Go back to Zechariah, next to the last book in the Old Testament and watch these profound promises. Zechariah 12:9, Israel's history, now listen folks, Israel's history is going to get worse and worse and more tragic and more tragic in the future. You can read about it in Daniel. You can read about it in Revelation. You can read about it in Matthew 24 as we will very soon. It's going to get worse and the world is going to be massed against that people.
But all of a sudden Zechariah promises, verse 9, Zechariah 12, "It shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." Oh what a reversal. Now all of a sudden Israel's invincible. "And I," verse 10, here's the key, "I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitance of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication," grace and blessings, responding to their great need."And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for Him as one that is bitterness for his firstborn."
You know what's going to happen? When they have...when the cup is empty and the wrath is fully poured out, God is going to turn the tables and God is going to destroy the nations that come against Jerusalem. And on Jerusalem pour out the spirit of grace. And the scales are going to come off their eyes and they're going to look again at the one they pierced. Who's that? Christ. And they're going to mourn as for an only son. Is He an only son? Yes, because there was only one Messiah and they're going to say oh, oh, oh, now we see. Now we understand why our history's been like this. Now we understand it all. We mourn for we have killed the only son, the firstborn, the Messiah. And it's unbelievable what'll happen. The bitterness, verse 10 says, the mourning, verse 11, more great mourning in Jerusalem and other places all down through verse 14. All over the land and the families there's mourning. Oh all these years of all this because of what we did. And the grief is overwhelming. And the sense of sin totally consuming.
Israel's going to come to that place. You say how do that come to that place? Because God pours out on them on the spirit of grace and supplication. God gives them grace to cry out to Him for blessing and mercy. And in that day verse 1 of Chapter 13, Chapter 13, verse 1, "In that day, there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitance of Jerusalem for sin and for cleansing." God's going to wash them. Going to wash the whole nation, clean them.
"In that day," verse 2 says, "all the names of idols are cut out of the land." Never remember again. All the false prophets and unclean spirits are going to go. God's going to save His people. Glorious, marvelous. The end verse 9, when it's all said and done,"a third part will come through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, test them as gold is tested, they'll call on my name, I'll hear them. I'll say he is my people. And they'll say He, the Lord, is my God."
Listen, you know what happens when that happens? When they look on the one they've pierced and they see Him for who He is and they say blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, that's our Messiah. That's our Messiah. Jesus said in Matthew 23:39,"Then you'll see me." You won't see me until you say that. When you say that, then you'll see me. They say that in Chapter 13 of Zechariah. Look what happens in Chapter 14, verse 3, "Then shall the Lord go forth." When they have said it, He comes. "And His feet stand," verse 4, "on the Mount of Olives before Jerusalem on the east and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in its midst towards the east and toward the west" and so forth.
Where's He going to come when He comes back? Where's He going to come? The Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. It's going to be right after they say, blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord. As soon as they recognize the Messiah, they're going to see Him. You say well, is that really going to happen, John? One final passage, Romans 11. It has to happen. It has to happen. There is no question about it. Romans 11:11, "I say then," Paul says, "has Israel," he's talking about Israel here, "stumbled that they should fall?" In other words, have they stumbled that they should fall permanently? God forbid. Listen, they haven't stumbled to fall permanently. God forbid. No.
Further on, verse 23, the end of the verse talking of Israel,"God is able to graft them in again." It's as if they're a branch cut off. They can be grafted in again. They're not fallen permanently. They can be grafted in again. Will they be? Verse 26,"So all Israel shall be saved." Verse 27, "For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins." Not if but what? When. So the time is coming of insured conversion. Oh what great hope, great, great hope. So the Lord ends this sermon with hope. You say but John, that's all a big national lesson.
What does it have to do with me? Just this, listen to me. If God has chastened and punished and cursed by abandoning His own beloved people Israel, what do you think is going to happen to you if you reject Jesus Christ? Do you think you'll fair any better who are not His people? Don't be proud. This lesson of a nation in history can be reduced to a lesson for a man and a woman in this moment of time. For it must be said to you as well, if you love not the Lord you are cursed. The principle is the same whether a nation or an individual. You make a choice. The Lord seeks to gather you into the safety of His love and salvation. Will you or won't you allow that to happen? He would, but in so many cases you would not. And bring upon yourself the same abandonment you're left to Satan's devices. Let's bow in a closing of prayer.
Someone put it in perspective in writing a poem about Christ. It says, "He wept alone and men passed on. The men whose sins He bore, they saw the man of sorrow's weep. They'd seen Him weep before. They ask not whom these tears were for, they asked not whence they flowed. Those tears were for rebellious men, their source the heart of God. They fell upon this desert earth like drops from heaven on high, struck from an ocean tide of love that fills eternity. With love and tenderness divine those crystal cells or flow, tis God that weeps through human eyes for human guilt and woe. The eye of God is downward bent still ranging to and fro, where ere in this wide wilderness there roams a child of woe. And if the rebel chooses wrath, God mourns his tragic lot. Deep breathings from the heart of God, I would, but you would not."
Father, we pray that there's no one here in hearing this message that says I would not. I will not to believe, not to receive Christ. I turn my back, oh God, what a cursed place to be. May hearts turn to the Savior and receive what He offers the blessed salvation. While your heads are bowed before we close, if you don't know the Savior, open your heart to Him.


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The positive symbolism of American-style justice – bringing 9/11 terror suspects back to the scene of the crime – marked the Obama administration's bold decision last year to try the suspects in lower Manhattan, just five blocks from where the twin towers fell.
But the cost and practical reality of trying accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged Al Qaeda lieutenants in New York City proved, in the end, too large a burden. The Obama administration on Friday acknowledged that it has abandoned Lower Manhattan idea and is looking for other sites in New York.
The administration says it's making a pragmatic move and is sticking by its basic and most important premise: To try the men in a US civilian court instead of in a military tribunal.
But how the seemingly inevitable cost and security scenario escaped the administration in the first place is a key question, and one that gives both supporters and critics a clue into how the president and his cabinet shapes and makes decisions.
Pragmatism – or indecision?
To many, Obama's decision shows a welcome pragmatism in sharp contrast to President Bush's stubborn go-it-aloneness, Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn told Bill O'Reilly on Fox News "The Bill O'Reilly Show" Friday night.
Critics call the turnaround a rookie mistake, evidence that the administration is led by ideology and is heeding bad advice. They say the switch is part of a growing list of political missteps as the President's ambitious progressive agenda runs up against constituent backlash in even liberal enclaves like New York and Massachusetts.
"The seemingly hurry-up decision to move the trial to New York City and the equally abrupt decision to move it away from there smacks of federal officials acting before thinking," writes Peter Roff of US News & World Report. "It projects indecision, which might be OK when discussing the right way to count the impact the stimulus has had on job creation but is positively irresponsible when it comes to the war on terror."
2,000 metal barriers in Lower Manhattan?
Cost became a major factor. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's estimate of $200 million in yearly costs to the NYPD for dogs, snipers, and overtime began to overwhelm the plans. Many New Yorkers also worried that the city that would once again become an inviting target for another attack.
Moreover, a trial in Manhattan would mean cordoning off heavily-trafficked areas with 2,000 metal barriers, upsetting daily life in Soho, TriBeCa, and Chinatown – areas directly affected by the 9/11 attack itself.
"In my view, trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City presents an avoidable danger, very large costs, and undue burdens on the city," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) of California, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote to Obama.
Supporters say Obama simply did the right thing.
"The White House and the Justice Department are simply being responsible by taking newly-documented concerns into account," writes the Washington Post's Eva Rodriguez.
On the other hand, the decision adds to criticism of the president's governing strategy, and whether he's really in touch with public opinion.
"[The NYC trial decision] had a touch of arrogance, going against the grain, and a bit of the out-of-touch attitude that has plagued the Obama presidency." writes Luisita Lopez Torregrosa, on the Politics Daily website.
Where to now?
Though officials wouldn't discuss locations under consideration, experts have suggested Governors Island, which is a former military base in New York Harbor (video tour here); the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; or Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y., the Associated Press reports.
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