The Judgment of the Nations.
Perhaps we are justified in saying that we have, in connection with these words, the most vivid description of the last judgment to be found in the Holy Bible. We learn from them that, though good works cannot merit heaven, it is a solemn fact that God Himself has made the practice of good works the condition on which He will ultimately confer the rewards of heaven. At the general judgment men are to be rewarded, not according to their faith, or according to their feelings, or according to their professions, but according to their works.
I. Let it not be said that this doctrine involves the idea that man, by the practice of good works, may make God his debtor. Not so. As the present salvation of a sinner depends upon his exercising faith in Jesus Christ not because the exercise of faith in Jesus Christ merits such a gift, but because God, in His sovereignty, has been pleased to appoint the exercise of faith in Jesus Christ as the condition upon which the gift will be given; so a man's reward in heaven depends upon a man's own good works on earth not because the good works merit the reward, but because God has been pleased to make the practice of good works the condition on which the reward shall be ultimately granted.
II. "Come, ye blessed of My Father." The very word implies that the righteous are to be where Christ their Saviour is. The two are to live for ever in the glorious heaven. Do not overlook the word inherit.Heaven is an inheritance. It belongs not to strangers and aliens, but to children. God does not give it arbitrarily to whom, in His Divine despotism, He likes, chooses, but only to sons and daughters children. It is God's great patrimony, given to none except to members of God's great family. And then, finally, there is another word in the 34th verse, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." Heaven is not a world which by accident was once emptied, and therefore was fixed upon to receive the righteous and be their final home. Not so. It is a place prepared for them, designed and made for them purposely; and, therefore, perfectly adapted to make them happy. It is a great residence which God has built as the eternal home of His great family a residence in the decoration of which God lavished all His wealth and employed all His attributes, prerogatives, and powers. There is brightness in every eye happiness in every smile. Then the purest joy keeps endless festival and revels with unmolested freedom. There shall be no more curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb is in it. His servants shall serve Him, and His Name is written on their foreheads.
L. H. Tyerman, Penny Pulpit,No. 896, new series.
References: Matthew 25:34; Matthew 25:35. J. Keble, Sermons on Various Occasions,p. 100. Matthew 25:35. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxx., No. 1757; Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxv., p. 39. Matthew 25:36-43. J. Macpherson, Expositor,3rd series, vol. v., p. 461.