Matthew 7:21-23
~18 min read
💭 Consider this: The true believer is a doer of His will—How intentional are you in aligning your decisions, habits, and desires with Scripture?
TRANSCRIPT
Our text for tonight's message is taken from Matthew 7:21–23.
Allow me to read for you Matthew 7:21: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
How can we know for sure that we are saved? How assured are we that we will enter the kingdom of heaven? The assurance of salvation is a very important topic. Actually, there are three possible situations regarding the assurance of salvation.
Firstly, it is possible for a person to be saved, or a person who is lost and he knows he is lost. That is the first situation. Secondly, it is possible for a person who is lost and yet he believes he is saved. In other words, he is deceiving himself. Thirdly, it is possible for a person to be saved and yet not be sure that he is saved. Lastly, it is possible for a person to be saved and he is sure he is saved, because he has the biblical assurance of salvation. And this is the very thing we desire every one of us to have — a biblical assurance of our salvation.
In the preceding verses, Jesus warns us about the wide gate that leads to destruction, and He wants us to beware of false prophets who would deceive us about the way of salvation. And then now Jesus warns us about ourselves. In other words, it is not only the false prophets who can deceive us about the way of salvation — we ourselves can deceive ourselves too. And this is what we want to learn from this passage.
The title of our message is The Folly of a False Profession.
I. The Paying Of Lip Services
Our first point is: The Paying of Lip Services, beginning with the first part of Matthew 7:21: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."
The word “Lord” can be used as a title of respect and honour given to any political, military, or religious leader, or even teacher. But for the people to say “Lord, Lord“ and then with reference to the kingdom of heaven, it suggests much more than just human respect and honour, because the word “Lord” in both Hebrew and Greek is also a word that denotes divinity.
In the Old Testament, the word Lord means Jehovah — a name for God. In the New Testament, the citizens of the Roman Empire were required to confess Caesar as Lord, which means Caesar was divine. When the Christians refused to do that, they were persecuted and even put to death. So for the people to address Jesus as Lord means to profess Him as the only true God. Notice these people did not privately profess Jesus was Lord, but they did it publicly. How do we know?
The next verse tells us that they even prophesied in His name, which means people could hear their messages. They even cast out devils and done many wonderful works in the name of Jesus Christ. So these people publicly professed that Jesus was Lord.
Is there anything wrong with this profession? No. In fact, if a man refuses to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, he will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The true believers will always acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. But that is only one part of the equation.
Romans 10:9–10 says: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
In other words, you can be 100% right in what you say about Christ. You can be 100% accurate about the nature of Christ, His person, His atoning work on the cross, His resurrection, and His return. You may even be a defender of His Word and yet not be saved. Why? Because you do not believe in your heart.
Salvation is a supernatural work. It is the wonder-working of the Holy Spirit. It is a deep-seated conviction based on the truth of the Bible. It is to believe in your heart — in the inner man — that Jesus Christ is truly your Lord and your Saviour.
Here Jesus was not speaking about the atheist, the agnostics, the pagans, or the heretics. He was speaking about people who were seemingly religious. People who called themselves Christians, people who had deceived themselves into thinking that they were on the road to heaven, when they were actually on the broad way to hell.
So firstly, the paying of lip services is not enough to save you.
II. The Performing Of Works
Secondly, The Performing of Works is also not enough.
Look at Matthew 7:22–23: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." In that day is a reference to the Day of Judgment.
2 Timothy 4:1 says: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." The Judge is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus said, "Many shall say to me in that day..." They will stand before Him and say, ‘Lord, have we not done this? And have we not done that?’
If Jesus was speaking about the great white throne judgment, these professing believers — who are not true believers — would have already spent centuries in hell awaiting their final judgment to be cast into the lake of fire. Can you imagine? Even then they are still desperately trying to impress the Lord that they were zealous, active, and diligent in their religious works. ‘Lord, we have prophesied in your name. We have cast out devils. We have done many wonderful works. Don't you remember us?’
Jesus did not indicate whether these false believers had actually prophesied accurately, or whether they had actually cast out demons, or whether they had actually performed many wonderful works.
There are three possible explanations for the claims of these false believers.
A first possibility is that these false believers may be allowed to do those amazing works by God's power. In the same way, God put words into Balaam's mouth even though he was a wicked and false prophet. In John 11:51–52, before Jesus was crucified, He was tried by the wicked high priest Caiaphas, who, by God's providence, he also prophesied. This is what the Bible says: "…he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad."
A second possibility is that those amazing works may be accomplished by Satan’s power. Remember, Satan is also a powerful adversary. Jesus Himself predicted in Matthew 24:24: "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."
A third possibility is that those claims were simply fake and not true. Let’s presume they did prophesy, and they did wonderful works. Then the question is — isn't that a good thing? Today, you can watch high-profile preachers and faith healers preach the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel on television, on the internet. They will call upon the name of Jesus Christ. They will claim to have the gift of prophecy, the gift of healing, and the ability to perform signs and wonders. They can appear on live television night after night and month after month, but never once preach the true gospel, because they are preaching a different gospel.
As 2 Corinthians 11:4 says: "For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." The word “another” is another of a different kind.
You may ask: how can a preacher graduate from the Bible seminary and yet not be born again? How can a minister be preaching the word of God and counselling the church members and yet not be born again? How can a man be attending Sunday School ever since he was a child and then sitting in the pews week after week, serving in the various ministries of the church and yet not be born again? Can that be possible? Most certainly.
Martin Luther was one of the most prominent figures in a Protestant Reformation. Soon after Luther entered into the monastery, he became popular and respected, and he was ordained to the priesthood. He studied the scriptures and he became a doctor of theology. He lectured from the books of Psalms, Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, and Titus.
If anyone had asked Luther at that point in his life, ‘Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God?’ he would have answered, ‘Of course I do. I've always believed.’ ‘Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?’ ‘Yes, I do.’ ‘Do you believe that Jesus would come again and judge the world?’ ‘Yes, I do and I tremble at the thought.’
Yet at that point in his life, Luther did not know the Lord personally. Jesus was God but not his God. Jesus was Lord but not his Lord. Jesus was the Saviour but not his Saviour. He was not born again. He was not a believer until he was convicted by the wonderworking of the Holy Spirit.
So the main point is that there are people who would profess that Jesus is Lord, and there are people who would perform wonderful works, but they do not belong to Christ regardless of what they say or do.
Jesus emphatically said, "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:23) That is very strong language. Jesus did not say, ‘I knew you for a while, but you fell away.’ He said, ‘I never knew you.’ In other words, you had never belonged to me. You were never a believer. "Depart from me" means to be eternally lost, eternally separated from God.
Notice Jesus used the word “many”. So not just a few, but there would be multitudes and multitudes of professing Christians who are not born again. They are lost.
There's nothing more tragic than this — for someone who thinks he is a child of God when he is on this earth, but when he stands before Christ on the day of judgment and he hears the Lord say to him, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:23)
Perhaps he might say, ‘But God, I have visited the poor. I have served in the ministries. I have given much money to charity.’ It doesn't matter if those things may be seen as wonderful works in the eyes of men. But because the heart was unconverted and all those things came out of a heart that was not cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter. They will be works of iniquity.
Some people have made decisions to receive the Lord Jesus Christ based on their own human understanding, will or efforts — sometimes to please their believing parents or to please their believing girlfriends — or during a gospel rally. They put up their hands and walked down the aisles just because everyone was doing it and they did not want to be the odd one out.
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