Matthew 25:34

(Verse 34 onwards) Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For 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 and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?

This prepared for you from the foundation, of the world, is to be understood as of the foreknowledge of God, with whom things to come are as already done.

We have neither devised fictions of our own nor invented new fables; but from revelation and from what God who created the world has ordained, have beheld the pattern of the whole world—namely the Tabernacle prepared by Moses, which the New Testament consistently with this …

He beheld Adam sinning, but He foresaw his posterity acting righteously; He saw him being cast out from Paradise, but He foresaw that a kingdom had been prepared for him. And what is wonderful is this, that even before Paradise the kingdom had been made. …

All the perfect therefore who walk by this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, and at the judgment of God these shall of right hear Christ the Lord in the future state saying unto them from heaven: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit …

And when was the kingdom of which he there speaks prepared? From the foundation of the world, he tells us, as if he said, from the time at the beginning of the creation, along with the making of the heaven and the earth and the …

Then, in order that thou mayest see in another way also the justice of the sentence, He first praises them that have done right, and saith, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat," and all that follows. For that they may not say, we had it not, He condemns them by their fellow-servants; like as the virgins by the virgins, and the servant that was drunken and gluttonous by the faithful servant, and him that buried his talent, by them that brought the two, and each one of them that continue in sin, by them that have done right. And here, however, it is of an equal; for he compares rich with rich, and poor with poor. And not in this way only doth He show the sentence justly passed, by their fellow-servants having done what was right when in the same circumstances, but also by their not being obedient so much as in these things in which poverty was no hindrance; as, for instance, in giving drink to the thirsty, in looking upon him that is in bonds, in visiting the sick. And when He had commended them that had done right, He shows how great was originally His bond of love towards them. For, "Come," saith He, "ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." To how many good things is this same equivalent, to be blessed, and blessed of the Father? And wherefore were they counted worthy of such great honors? What is the cause? "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink;" and what follows.

Of what honor, of what blessedness are these words? And He said not, Take, but, "Inherit," as one's own, as your Father's, as yours, as due to you from the first. For, before you were, saith He, these things had been prepared, and made ready for you, forasmuch as I knew you would be such as you are.

He does not give honor or punishment until He has first judged. For He loves mankind and teaches us to do the same as well, not to punish until we have made a careful examination. In this way those who are punished after the judgement …

Or, they are called blessed, to whom an eternal blessing is due for their good deserts. He calls it the kingdom of His Father, ascribing the dominion of the kingdom to Him by whom Himself the King was begotten. For by His royal power, with which He shall be exalted alone in that day, He shall pronounce the sentence of judgment, Then shall the King say.

Then the king shall say to those who shall be on his right hand etc. Here he treats of the judgment. And first the sentence is promulgated regarding the good; second, regarding the wicked; third, the fulfillment is set forth. Concerning the first he does …

Inherit the kingdom - Purchased by my blood, for all who have believed in me with the faith which wrought by love. Prepared for you - On purpose for you. May it not be probably inferred from hence, that man was not created merely to fill up the places of the fallen angels?

Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand,....

13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. That in general which is to be illustrated is, the kingdom of heaven, the state of things under the gospel, the external kingdom of Christ, and the administration and success of it. Some of Christ's parables had shown us what it is like now in the present reception of it, as ch. xiii.

In these verses our Lord Jesus Christ describes the judgment day, and some of its leading circumstances. There are few passages in the whole Bible more solemn and heart-seaching than this. May we read it with the deep and serious attention which it deserves. Let us mark in the first place who will be the judge in the last day. We read that it will be “the Son of Man” Jesus Christ himself.

This is the holy love whose practical manifestations the King is about to recount in detail; and thus we see that their whole life of love to Christ is the fruit of an eternal purpose of love to them in Christ.

IT is exceedingly beneficial to our souls to mount above this present evil world to something nobler and better. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches are apt to choke everything good within us and we grow fretful, desponding, perhaps proud, carnal. It is well for us to cut down these thorns and briars, for heavenly seed sown among them is not likely to yield a harvest. I do not know a better sickle with which to cut them down than thoughts of the kingdom to come.

In these verses our Lord Jesus Christ describes the judgment day, and some of its leading circumstances. There are few passages in the whole Bible more solemn and heart-seaching than this. May we read it with the deep and serious attention which it deserves. Let us mark in the first place who will be the judge in the last day. We read that it will be “the Son of Man” Jesus Christ himself. That same Jesus who was born in the manger of Bethlehem and took upon him the very form of a servant; who was despised and rejected of men and often had not where to lay his head; who was condemned by the princes of this world, beaten, scourged and nailed to the cross—that same Jesus shall himself judge the world when he comes in his glory. To him The Father hath commited all judgment. ( John 5:22 ). To him at last every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord ( Philippians 2:10–11 ). Let believers think of this and take comfort. He that sits upon the throne in that great and dreadful day will be their Saviour, their Shepherd, their High Priest, their elder Brother, their Friend. When they see him they will have no cause to be alarmed. Let unconverted people think of this and be afraid. Their judge will be that very Christ whose Gospel they now despise, and whose gracious invitations they refuse to hear. How great will be their confusion at last if they go on in unbelief and die in their sins! To be condemned in the day of judgment by anyone would be awful; but to be condemned by him who would have saved them will be awful indeed. Well may the psalmist say, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry” ( Psalm 2:12 ). Let us mark in the second place who will be judged on the last day. We read that before Christ “shall be gathered all the nations.”

IT is exceedingly beneficial to our souls to mount above this present evil world to something nobler and better. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches are apt to choke everything good within us and we grow fretful, desponding, perhaps proud, carnal. It is well for us to cut down these thorns and briars, for heavenly seed sown among them is not likely to yield a harvest. I do not know a better sickle with which to cut them down than thoughts of the kingdom to come. In the valleys in Switzerland many of the inhabitants are deformed and dwarfish, and the whole of them wear a sickly appearance for the atmosphere is noxious, and is close and stagnant. You traverse those valleys as rapidly as you can and are glad to escape from them. Up yonder on the mountain you will find a hardy race who breathe the clear fresh air as it blows from the virgin snows of the Alpine summits. It would be well for their frames if the dwellers in the valley could frequently leave their abodes among the marshes and the fever mists and get themselves up into the clear atmosphere above. It is to such an exploit of climbing that I invite you this morning! May the Spirit of God bear us as upon eagles' wings that we may leave the mists of fear and the fevers of anxiety and all the ills which gather in this valley of earth, and get ourselves up to the mountains of future joy and blessedness where it is to be our delight to dwell world without end! Oh may God disentangle us now for a little while, cut the cords that keep us here below, and permit us to mount! We sit, some of us, like chained eagles fastened to the rock, only that, unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would, perhaps, if it came really to the test, loath to have it snapped.

The King - That is, the Lord Jesus, the King of Zion and of the universe, now acting as Judge, Luk 19:38; Joh 18:37; Rev 17:14; Rev 19:16. Blessed of my Father - Made happy or raised to felicity by my Father. See the notes at Mat 5:3. Inherit the kingdom - Receive “as heirs” the kingdom, or be received there as the sons of God. Christians are often called heirs of God, Rom 8:17; Gal 4:6-7; Heb 1:14; 1Jn 3:2. Prepared for you ... - That is, “designed” for you, or appointed for you. The phrase “from the foundation of the world” is used to denote that this was appointed for them in the beginning; that God has no new plan; that the rewards which he will now confer on them he always intended to confer. Christ says to the righteous that the kingdom was prepared for “them.” Of course, God meant to confer it on “them.” They were individuals, and it follows that He intended to bestow His salvation on them as individuals. Accordingly, the salvation of His people is universally represented as the result of the free gift of God, according to His own pleasure, bestowed on individuals, and by a plan which is eternal, Rom 8:29-30; Eph 1:4-5, Eph 1:11-12; 2Th 2:13; 1Pe 1:2; Joh 6:37. This is right and consistent with justice; because: 1. All people are by nature equally undeserving. 2. Bestowing favors on one does not do injustice to another, where neither deserves favor. Pardoning one criminal is not injuring another. Bestowing great talents on Locke, Newton, or Paul did not injure me. 3. If it is right for God to give eternal life to his people, or to admit them to heaven, it was right to “determine” to do it, which is but another way of saying that God resolved from all eternity to “do right.” 4. Those who perish choose the paths which lead to death, and will not be saved by the merits of Jesus. […]