Matthew

[0:00] In dependence upon the Lord for his promised hell, I venture to speak in his name from the words found in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, reading verse 43.

[0:22] The forty-third verse in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

[0:45] Now, this is the concluding part of the parable of the wheat and the tares, the explanation that Jesus gave concerning it.

[1:04] But I cannot possibly speak from this word without observing also the contrast which it makes with the previous verses.

[1:22] These are the words of him who spoke as never man spoke, who spoke with all the authority of God himself, and who spoke with such definite and decided accents.

[1:45] Would you dare to doubt that this is the truth of God? Would you call God a liar by denying what his beloved Son so plainly declared?

[2:05] The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.

[2:25] There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Were not our hearts so hard, surely we should feel the truth of these things very keenly.

[2:41] For they are true. Nothing could be more certain than those things which the Son of God himself so plainly declared.

[2:56] They come to us still with all his authority. As I mentioned before, this parable is very similar to that short, very searching and solemn parable that is later in the chapter from verse 47.

[3:18] We have very similar words in conclusion to that. The Savior speaks of a net, a dragnet, the net of the gospel and its preaching, the ministry of it, that it gathers in.

[3:39] A mixture of good fish and bad, which is literally rotten, corrupt. There is not at present that distinction between them, but those who are affected by the gospel and are brought in together by it.

[4:02] These are mixed often. It is only in the end of the world that there is that separation. When it was full, they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

[4:21] So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.

[4:37] There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now, dear friends, you have heard once more the truth as delivered by the blessed Son of God himself.

[4:56] No wonder he said, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. How very solemn are these matters.

[5:08] How very close and how very distinct and final and complete will be this separation which is to be made.

[5:20] It is without any distinction of class or of nationality, of honor in this world, of any kind of status.

[5:33] The separation is entirely one of character. It is the good from the bad. It is the wicked from the just, severed for all eternity.

[5:48] Now, surely, dear friends, we ought all to consider these things most carefully. Now, at the end of this particular passage, the Savior speaks of the righteous and their glorious future.

[6:15] Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. First, we must notice the occasion of this.

[6:26] The Savior says, Then. There is evidently a particular time coming when this word will be fulfilled.

[6:38] The purpose of God will then be complete. The Savior frequently spoke of this time, of this day, when he should return, when he should judge the world in righteousness, when he should himself sit as a king and a judge.

[7:08] when he shall, using the other figure, divide all nations as a shepherd that separates the sheep from the goats.

[7:22] Now, this day is certain to come. Again and again, Jesus says, these things shall happen. of course, there are those who, as predicted in the scripture, say, where is the promise of his coming?

[7:43] For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were since their creation. But Jesus says, so shall this be at the end of the world, that the conclusion of this age, these things will not possibly continue forever.

[8:09] There is coming this time, this very necessary time, when there shall be this complete and everlasting separation of the people of God, those whom the Saviour has redeemed by his blood and sanctified by his spirit, and those who remain impenitent and who die in their sins.

[8:44] Then, there is to be this certain separation. as clearly as words can express it, the Saviour himself, the everlasting Son of God, has said it shall be so.

[9:08] Now, what a sin it is to doubt that his word will be fulfilled. How sinful it is to be careless and casual when we face such solemn certainties as this.

[9:30] Then, the time is coming. It is certain in the purposes of God, and it is fixed in his counsels.

[9:43] We do not know when that time shall be. The Saviour often taught that lesson in words like that.

[9:55] Watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to stand to escape these things which shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.

[10:11] Watch ye therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. Secondly, we have the righteous, the characters especially referred to in this verse.

[10:30] Who are the righteous? They are those who are righteous, not in their own eyes as the Pharisees were, but in the view of an infinitely holy God.

[10:47] And they are certainly not righteous by any deeds of their own. The scripture most plainly testifies that.

[11:00] That God as he looked down from heaven and viewed all the inhabitants of the earth, his verdict was this, there is none righteous, no, not one, none righteous by their own works.

[11:17] What is it to be righteous? I have often spoken to you of this. It means to have a righteousness which satisfies the holy law of God.

[11:33] We read how one God said, a lawyer came to Jesus and said, what should he do to inherit eternal life?

[11:49] And the Savior said to him, what saith the scripture, what does the law teach? And he said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy might, thou shalt love thy neighbor with thyself.

[12:12] And Jesus said, thou hast answered right, this do and thou shalt live. But that is absolutely impossible for us to do in our sinful state.

[12:27] Who can possibly claim to have come anywhere near that righteous standard, the perfect standard of God's holy law.

[12:39] Certainly there is no hope this way. God has declared that by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight.

[12:52] He is a righteous, therefore, by imputation of the righteousness of another. That holy law must be fulfilled.

[13:05] It cannot be overturned, it cannot be set aside. God himself will not abrogate his own righteous law or change it or lower the standard at all.

[13:21] But the Lord Jesus himself came to fulfill all righteousness, as he said in the prophecy, lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, thy law is within my heart.

[13:45] It was always in his heart. As the Ten Commandments were preserved intact, in the Ark of the Covenant covered with gold, so typical of the Lord Jesus Christ, so the law was kept in all its perfection by the Son of God himself.

[14:12] Now, dear friends, that righteousness is the only one that can ever make us righteous. righteous are those who are justified through faith in the righteousness of Christ, who have come to see that their own righteousness is nothing better than the filthy rags, that it cannot possibly satisfy the view of infinite justice and perfect holiness.

[14:45] righteousness. Now, that righteousness is unto all, and upon all them that believe, all those that trust, not in their own works at all, but entirely in that obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life until the very moment of his death.

[15:13] It culminated in that sacrifice that he made. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.

[15:28] He is the perfect lawful fellow. Our dear friends, are you righteous in this way, the only way?

[15:40] Amen. Amen. Amen. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

[16:02] That righteousness is put to his account. It is imputed to him as though he himself had fulfilled the law in all its perfection.

[16:14] It is transferred to his account. And so the apostle said as he preached to those at Antioch and Pisidia, I think it was, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and through him he that every one that believeth is justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.

[16:48] They only are righteous. Now the radiance of the righteous is thus declared, then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun.

[17:06] this is a remarkable expression. The righteous do shine in this present world.

[17:20] But it must be confessed that often it is a very poor light. It is perhaps more like a faintly flickering candle than the sun shining in its strength.

[17:38] There is so much in this present life to restrict and to hinder that shining. Remember that recently we considered the Savior's exhortation to his people who are called the light of the world.

[17:57] Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

[18:08] They are exhorted to shine now but at best it will be comparatively little in comparison with this shining in the text.

[18:21] Then the devil will no longer tempt them. The sin that surrounds them in this sinful world and often so chills their hearts and dampens their faith and their love that will be gone.

[18:46] There will be this very necessary separation from all that offends and them that do iniquity. They will be separated best of all from the sin now dwelling in them which causes a constant conflict, a daily battle.

[19:07] Then they will really shine. There will be nothing left to prevent them from shining in the brightness and the glory that is here expressed.

[19:23] Now this shining as the sun is shining with the likeness of Jesus Christ.

[19:36] When he trod this earth, for the most part, his glory was very much veiled in his humanity. For the most part, it did not shine brightly to a physical eye.

[19:57] But there was that one particular occasion when he took Peter and James and John up on the Mount of Transfiguration and there we read that his countenance did shine as the sun.

[20:14] There those three favored disciples saw the divine glory shining through the humanity of his body.

[20:29] When John again saw him at the Isle of Patmos, he records concerning it his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength.

[20:43] So clearly this shining is like the shining of the sun of God himself. It is a conformity to the likeness of the holy son of God.

[21:01] Of course we cannot say that it is in any way equal to that. But it is certainly of the same nature though of a far lesser degree.

[21:16] glory. His inherent glory, his own everlasting unchanging glory as the son of God will always be far brighter than that of angels or the righteous of the saints of God.

[21:44] But that yet they shall shine like he does. John says when we shall see him, we know that when we shall see him we shall be like him.

[21:57] We shall see him as he is. And the righteous will reflect the glory of Christ himself because they will have been transformed into his likeness.

[22:14] Now what a favor this is. Does it mean anything to you? Is this what you desire? Is one thing to desire to escape the flames of hell?

[22:29] One thing to desire to be found in that place of peace and rest and joy in heaven?

[22:43] But the vital matter is do we really long to be holy? Is there a real attraction in being like the Savior?

[22:55] Are we daily panting in his likeness to appear? And as it is the glory of the sun, the radiance of the sun, it clearly means an intense one.

[23:15] The sun shines very brightly in the heavens. It is really too intense a light for us safely to gaze upon.

[23:27] sun. Although it is at such a great distance, there is such an intense burning of the gases of the sun that all this distance away there is such a radiance, such an intense brightness.

[23:48] and so it will be. With the saints in light, their hearts will burn intensely with love to the Lord, and their souls and their bodies will shine with this glorious light.

[24:13] for there certainly is a glory in the sun. It is set in the heavens for us to observe.

[24:26] Those wonders of the sky constantly testify to the eternal power and Godhead.

[24:38] The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork, day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night showeth knowledge.

[24:52] Constantly the skies above us, especially when the sun shines, they testify of God, of his wisdom and power, of his glory.

[25:09] There is a beauty, therefore, glory in creation as a result of the shining of the sun and the glory in the sun itself.

[25:22] And there is the glory of holiness which will cause these saints of God to shine in their ransom spirits, glory in that perfect holiness to which they will be brought.

[25:43] The apostle wrote of that in his desire for the Thessalonians as we read, I pray God that your whole body and soul and spirit be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[26:01] And so often we read of this, that it is the purpose of God to present his people faultless in the presence of his glory.

[26:12] That at that great day they will be holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. They will have the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to them.

[26:28] And by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit they will be conformed to the holy likeness of Jesus Christ. And what a beauty, what a glory there is in that to a spiritual eye.

[26:47] Dear friends, as we meet together in this way, this is one of the great purposes for which we should come. The apostle says, we beholding as in a glass, that is the looking glass of the gospel, beholding the glory of Jesus Christ, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into his likeness from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

[27:24] If we rightly see the glory of Jesus Christ in the gospel, we shall be gradually changed into his likeness.

[27:38] And that likeness will be perfected then, that great day when the Saviour returns. Now, dear friends, is this sanctifying work going on in your hearts?

[27:54] Do you really long for the holy likeness of Jesus Christ? Do you hate that sinful likeness of Adam in which you and I and all of us were born into this world?

[28:12] Is it your great desire to be conformed to the likeness of God's dear Son? For such are those who shall shine as the sun.

[28:30] And that shining is a constant shining. The sun is always the same. As far as we can view it, we do not always see it, but we know that the sun is constantly shining in just the same way.

[28:50] It is always burning with that intensity and shining forth in that great brightness. And so it will be with the saints for all eternity.

[29:03] This will not be, as I said, it is often now like a feeble, flickering light of a candle that might seem almost extinguished.

[29:17] No, it will be like the constant blazing glory of the sun. It will not change anymore.

[29:28] That glory, that glorious shining of all the saints in light will continue forever. And so it is also an everlasting light.

[29:44] we read that word in the prophet for the suffering saints of God. For the days of their mourning shall then be ended.

[29:59] Thy sun shall no more go now. Neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light.

[30:12] the days of thy mourning shall be ended, because of his light. See, it is said concerning that holy city of God, the church in its perfect state, that the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

[30:37] It is his light that is reflected in them, that is seen because of their sanctified characters. His light shines in that glorious city that is amongst all the redeemed saints of God in their perfected state.

[30:59] And this is a pure light. The sunlight is pure, purer than many other lights. It is a most wonderful light for which we should be deeply thankful.

[31:15] It is indeed a pleasant and a good thing for our eyes to behold the sun. It does send such a cheer upon this gloomy world.

[31:27] But oh, what joy there will be found amongst those in this perfect, sanctified state, all shining with the pure light of sparkless, glorious holiness.

[31:46] Then shall the righteous shine forth like the sun. You might say, well, is this, can this really be so?

[32:00] Is it possible that we, for all so sinful in ourselves, should ever be transformed to such a state?

[32:13] Well, the Son of God himself has said that it shall be so. All those who are righteous, however sinful they may feel, however they may daily mourn over their vileness, vileness, all those who are righteous, are going to shine like the sun in this glory, in this perfect holiness.

[32:41] May we indeed be found amongst them. If we are the righteous, we shall be there and inherit that wonderful inheritance of the saints in light.

[32:58] And finally, here we read, of the realm in which these righteous shall forever shine.

[33:09] It is in the kingdom of their father. Jesus referred, as we see in this gospel again and again, to the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God.

[33:24] But here there is a slight change. It is the kingdom of their father. father. What a precious title that is.

[33:35] It is their own father's kingdom. Truly, it is the kingdom of Jesus Christ, where he reigns as king of kings and lord of lords.

[33:49] But it is written that he will yield up the kingdom to his father at the end that God, the triune God, may be all in all.

[34:03] Now this is the kingdom of their father, of God, who is love. And thus, the kingdom is one of perfect love.

[34:18] Now it's exactly opposite to that terrible place where there is this constant gnashing of teeth, where all those who are lost are so angry, so furious with each other.

[34:37] Such bitterness and despair there. What a contrast. Here there is in the kingdom of their father, the father of all the righteous.

[34:51] They are his children and they will shine forever for his glory and praise. And God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

[35:07] The apostle says even concerning the present state of his own ransomed spirit now. He says now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face.

[35:23] Now I know in part, then shall I know even as I also am known. There will be that perfect light, that glorious liberty, that wonderful love.

[35:38] God is the God of peace, of love, truth, of glory. Thus the righteous shall shine in the kingdom of their father.

[35:55] The Savior here pronounces it to be so. This is the truth, the fact of the matter, as he himself could declare it to be.

[36:07] we have a similar expression back in the book of Daniel, when it was so revealed to him that those who are thus saved in the last chapter of that prophecy, they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever.

[36:42] Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

[36:55] Now surely this word should bring deep concern to any who are unrighteous. You have no righteousness, yet to plead in the presence of God.

[37:09] We know not how soon this then shall be. It is certain to come. The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout. He will come.

[37:23] Will you be found righteous in his sight? Do you plead from day to day the perfect obedience of the one lawful fellow?

[37:35] Can you through faith claim it as your own, the righteous? Oh, what force they have to rejoice in the prospect of this.

[37:48] It is so certain, here is indeed, the promise of God that it shall be so. They will shine in robes of salvation and light.

[38:01] Oh, what wonderful glory there will be. Far beyond any words of mine can express it. But here is the precious truth of God.

[38:13] Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Son in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

[38:26] Amen. Amen. Amen.