The Sheep and the Goats

By Tom Sirotnak

In Matthew 25, Jesus says that He is coming back one day. On that day He is going to separate the sheep from the goats: "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all of the angels with Him then He will sit on His glorious throne and all of the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And he will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. And the King will say to those on the right, 'Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the foundation of the world.... Then He will also say to those who are on the left, 'Depart from Me you cursed ones into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.... And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." The lake of fire was not created for you as a human being; it was created for the devil and his angels.

You were created to worship God, to serve him, to please Him and to have abundant life in Him.

But if you rebel and resist the hand of God; if you are disobedient to His calling; if you want to run your own life and do your own thing; if you say, "God, get out of my face!" - then the only place out of the presence of God is hell.

You will choose it and send yourself there because you rejected God. Jesus is saying: "You bid me away from your presence while on earth, and now I bid you from mine.

Depart from me you worker of iniquity."