Matthew 7:21-23

Introduction

What is Christianity?

If you were to look in the Bible and see how the early church practiced Christianity, you would see that a majority of the establishments that call themselves churches today have completely turned from this way to a way that is more acceptable to the world. Is the Christian faith something that changes with the culture or is the Christian faith timeless as the one is of whom the Christians place their faith in? A Christian can be defined as a follower of Jesus. The sad thing is that many of these churches call themselves ChAccristian have made up their own Jesus to follow, one who is okay with their sin and their way of life, even if it is contrary to what the Biblical Jesus taught. How could you tell who the Christians were in the time of Jesus? You saw them actually following Jesus. Their faith was not mere words but produced action on their part. This leads us to the question of how much of American Christianity actually “follows” the Jesus of the Bible and his teaching.

There is a group by the name of Barna that conducted a survey amongst Christian denominations on what they believe, and the results are astonishing.

According to this survey,

48% believe a person who is good enough or does enough good works can earn eternal salvation

44% claim the Bible is ambiguous in its teaching about abortion

43% maintain that when Jesus was on earth, He sinned

42% do not identify and confess their sins on a daily basis

40% do not believe that human life is sacred

40% accept lying as morally acceptable if it advances personal interests or protect one’s reputation

34% reject the idea of legitimate marriage as one man and one woman

34% argue that abortion is morally acceptable if it spares the mother from financial or emotional discomfort or hardship

32% do not thank or worship God each day

Despite the Bible being very clear on these issues, these people have rejected God and his teaching and embraced the law of the land all while still going under the name of Christian. Which leads us to the question, “Will everybody who calls themselves Christian be saved?” The text that we are going to be looking at today will be dealing with this question directly. Before we open up our Bibles and begin, let us go to the Lord in prayer.

Prayer

Matthew 7:21-23

English Standard Version Chapter 7

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

When looking at this text, we see pretty clearly the theme of saving faith. We see that not everyone who calls him Lord will be saved. We see that not everyone who prophecies, casts out demons, or performs mighty works in his name will be saved. In fact, on the day of judgement, he will tell these people to depart from his presence. As we look at this passage, we will see what saving faith truly is and what saving faith is truly not, and how you can determine if you posses it.

“Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

When I first became a Christian, I started going to a church that did something called “All In Sunday” in which it would mass baptize people at that church simply based on a quick profession. Do you believe Jesus is God? Yes, well then I baptize you for the forgiveness of sins. Simple as that. There are many churches that will say that if you pray this prayer and ask Jesus into your heart, you will be saved. The problem with this method is that it is superficial and there are many who have done this who will find the response on the day of judgement, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” You may be asking yourself, “What is wrong with this method?” Doesn’t the Bible call us to baptize people and believe in Jesus Christ? You are absolutely right. The Bible tells us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we will be saved and to make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. The problem is that they have organized salvation into a quick little process and then they pronounce that you are saved. Then people think that they can just go back to living how they were because they are already saved, already done all that they need to do to get to heaven. In other words, there is a lot of baptizing without discipleship. A lot of read and sign here without reading the fine print. If baptism was what saved, I am all with the concept of throwing everybody in the water. Lets get as many as we can in there. But that is not what saves. Genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is what saves. We see here in this text that just saying Jesus is Lord is not enough. Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of God. I know many people who calls themselves Christians that say yeah I believe in Jesus, and do nothing about it. If I believed that this building was on fire would I just stand here as if nothing pressing was happening? That would be foolish and would show that I didn’t really believe that the building was on fire. One who believes in Jesus also must believe that he means what he says. He has called us to action. Saving faith is a lifestyle, not merely a profession of the mouth. James tells us that faith without works is dead. If you consider yourself a Christian just because you profess that Jesus is Lord, this text tells you that you need to evaluate whether you are truly in the faith or not.

“Did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name.”

We just got done talking about how faith without works is dead and now will see that works without faith is also dead. Even if you were to prophecy in the name of the Lord, cast out demons, or do miracles, that in itself is still not enough to be received into the kingdom of heaven. The poll that we looked at in the beginning of the message said that 48% of people believe a person who is good enough or does enough good works can earn eternal salvation. What better works could you do than to prophecy, cast out demons, and perform miracles? This text right here is telling us that even the greatest works it not enough. It is absolutely impossible for us to earn our salvation. This also tells us that those who appear to be saved on the outside through good works can also be lost. Look at Judas for example. He was present at Jesus teaching. He was with the apostles when they were sent out casting demons. To the outsiders, he would have appeared to be a model follower of Jesus, but inside he was a devil. If you today have been counting on good works to get to heaven, I want you to think about what is being said here. If even the best works that have been done are not enough, then any of the works you have done will not be enough. If you have trusted in your works for all this time, your hope is in vain. You must believe in the Lord Jesus to be saved.

Then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Could you imagine spending all this time on earth thinking that you were saved by your works or your dead faith, only to get to heaven and here from Jesus “Depart from me!” On the day of judgement, when the sheep will be separated from the goats, the people of God from the people of the devil, that Jesus would say “Depart from me I never knew you.” That would be devastating and I according to that survey, it appears that quite a bit of so called American Christians will get that response. There are some here today that may get that response. Maybe people in our families that may get that response. If the Bible says it, we are to believe it, and it is clear from this very passage that this scenario is a reality. So what is the issue here? Jesus points out that these people were workers of lawlessness. These people said that they had faith in Christ, yet still lived in their sin. These people said they had faith in Christ yet still found it acceptable for babies to be murdered in the womb. These people said that they had faith in Christ, yet still found it okay for same-sex marriage. These people said they had faith in Christ but still found it okay to lie. Or maybe these are still people who profess the name of Jesus and are having sex outside of marriage. Maybe they profess Jesus and are constantly drunk. Maybe they are angry and abusive towards their family. Jesus says DEPART FROM ME YOU WORKERS OF LAWLESSNESS! Did you not read in the Scriptures where I said “No one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning.” Did you not read when I said “Though shall not kill and children are a heritage from the Lord, a reward. Did you skip over the verse that says ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ Or what about 1 Corinthians 6:9 that says, “9 do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” If you confess Jesus to be Lord yet practice these sins, you should expect to hear the depart from me you worker of lawlessness on judgement day. It says these people will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not mistake the practice of sin with sinning. The Bible says that none are without sin and also tells us that we are all sinners. If we tried as hard as we could not to be sinners, we could not do it, this is why Jesus had to come. This is talking about the person who knows of the sin in their life yet continues in it as if God has not commanded us to repent. Where there is sin in our lives, repentance is necessary. We should not take sin lightly because God doesn’t. It is because of sin that the son of God was nailed to the cross for his people. Those of us who confess Jesus to be Lord must look at sin for what it is, lawlessness, disobedience to the one who purchased us with his very blood. The workers of lawlessness are commanded to depart from Jesus because he never knew them. Not that he didn’t know of them or who they were but simply for the fact that they were not his, for if they were his they would not have continued in their rebellion.

The one who does the will of my father in heaven will enter the kingdom of heaven

What is the opposite of lawlessness? Obedience. It is the will of God that we are obedient to his commands. What is the will of God and how do we know what it is? Do we hear a voice from heaven speaking to us telling us what his will is? No! This is something that can be found in His word. It is also something that we cannot avoid. Ephesians 5:17 says, “Do not be foolish but understand what the will of God is.” I want to look at four key passages that I believe explain the will of God but there are many more in the Bible so I want to encourage you to seek them out as well.

John 6:40

English Standard Version Chapter 2

10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

So here we all would be guilty of breaking the whole law of God. God would go down the list one by one. Eternity in hell, eternity in hell, eternity in hell. All mankind would be condemned and separated from the love of God forever. This is you without Christ. What makes Jesus so special? We see from the survey in the beginning that a lot Christians think Jesus sinned but the Bible teaches us that he was actually the only sinless one. Being fully God and fully Man, he came to the world born of a virgin and kept the law perfectly his whole life. Not only was that enough for him but for all of his people. Just as David represented Israel and when he sinned in the consensus, they suffered for it, so Jesus perfectly keeping the law, all his people are blessed through it. After keeping the law perfectly he was nailed to a cross where God unleashed all of his wrath on him in place of the people he came to save. By faith in Jesus Christ, our sin was paid for by Jesus on the cross and his righteousness from keeping the law perfectly given to us so that we stand before God blameless. Not that we are righteous but that we are covered by his righteousness. This solves the dilemma of us being sinners and not being able to keep law. Faith in Christ is letting go of the fact that we can earn our salvation by any good thing we could do and trusting in his perfect work he did for his people. Faith in Christ is also letting go of all the sin in our life that has condemned us and believing that it was paid for on the cross by the savior. Faith in Christ is turning from that sin and living obediently to the master who has bought us with his own blood.

1 Thessalonians 4:3

For this is the will of God, your sanctification:

Now that we have believed in the Son of God and are saved and justified in the sight of God, the Holy Spirit is given to us that we might progressively become more like him. This process is called sanctification. It is the will of God that we should not only believe in him but long to live like him. Sanctification is a process that happens over time. We aren’t just saved and then all of our sin problems and struggles go away, but this is something that we work at through the power of the Spirit to overcome these things in our life. This happens in our lives until finally it is perfected when we are to receive our glorified bodies when he returns. As we read the Scriptures, we are convicted by the Holy Spirit of areas of our life that do not align with the will of God that need to be changed. As you take an inventory of your life according to the Scriptures, you will find that you fall short in many areas. If you continue in this sin, you will grieve the Holy Spirit that God has given you. If you are to fight it, you have the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead working in you to do so. Your sanctification is the will of God and extremely important to the Christian life.

1 Peter 2:15

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Not only are we to turn away from sin, but we are to seek to do good. I think a lot of people tend to hang out too much around the middle. They spend a lot of their time trying not to do wrong while completely forgetting to do good. Little do they know, the best way to not do bad is to do good. If you are having trouble with anger in your heart, what better way to solve that than by loving your neighbor. If you are having trouble with greed, what better way to solve that than by being generous. The truth of the matter is, we are called to be Gods representatives on Earth, to shine as lights to a dark world. The way the world looks at Christianity tends to be shaped by what they see in us. If they Christians who are selfish, hoarding all these goods for themselves while the rest of their community starves, does that show them the love of Jesus whom we follow? The two greatest commandments, Love the Lord your God with all your mind soul heart and strength and your neighbor as yourself. By loving our neighbors well, that is a testimony to the one who has loved us well by giving his life that we may have life.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

We are called to believe in Jesus, turn from our sin, pursue good works, and give thanks in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. We serve a sovereign God who is control of every last bit of the universe. There is not one thing that happens that is outside of his power or control. Everything happens according to his good plan although we may not always see it that way with our finite minds. No matter if the situation seems bad to us or good, we are called in all circumstances to give thanks to God. The way to do this I believe is finding the good in all situations because bad is inevitably going to happen. For example: If you cant stand your job and your boss is always yelling at you and you complain that life is so bad, you can always remember that not everybody has a job or a way to earn income so you must be thankful that God has provided a way for you to do so. What if you have cancer and you are going to die next week? You can remember that there are babies who don’t even make it out of the womb while 34% of Christians find it morally acceptable. You have had many more days of life than these. In whatever situation you are in, you can see Gods blessing in it despite what it may seem to you. Paul Washer says, “If everyone you have ever loved was taken from you, and your body lay rotting on a dung heap, and your name was slandered by friend and enemy alike, you should still find all the devotion you need to love, praise, and serve him in this one thing; he shed his own blood for your soul.”

Reflection

This text has shown us that all of those who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord will not enter the kingdom of heaven. We see that all of those who perform great works will not enter the kingdom of heaven. We see that all of those who call Jesus Lord are not known by him. Entrance into the kingdom of heaven depends upon one doing the will of God. We have discussed 4 different examples of the will of God, first and foremost believing in Jesus, our Sanctification, doing good works, and giving thanks in all circumstances. My goal in coming here to preach to you is to make known the way of salvation. I have seen so many in my own life who confess Jesus is Lord with their lips but their lifestyle says differently. I have had it on my heart for quite some time now to call this kind of error to attention and this week, here in the this message, I finally have the opportunity to do it. I don’t want to offer some kind of fake assurance such as (say this prayer and you will be saved), but present what the Bible says on the matter. I don’t want to leave here today without everybody in this room realizing that they are sinners in need of the grace of God. Some of you may already believe and live out your faith daily but our survey tells us that about 48% of people think that they are good enough to make it to heaven on their own which is heresy. With this being said, that we will not only be hearers of the word, but doers, its only right that I provide practical application in how you can diagnose your spiritual condition that you might not receive the message depart from me I never knew you on judgement day.

Application

The problem with the church and those in it today is that they have become just like the world and that survey in the beginning shows that. James 4:4 tells us, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world, makes himself an enemy to God.” What exactly does it mean by loving the world and friendship with the world? The world is influenced by the prince of the power of the air and it does what is contrary to the will of God. We can know what is wordly by knowing what is godly. If the Bible says thou shall not kill and the world says that its okay to kill babies, it is clear where the problem is. The problem is that we live in this world and a lot of times the world influences us into thinking and acting like it does. We will easily fall into the traps of the world if we are not spending time in the word of God. My challenge to you for your application is to separate yourself from the thinking and practices of the world and seek out the will of God. Are the things mentioned in the survey at the beginning of this message things that you have always believed are okay? If so, I want to challenge you to study what the Bible says regarding this matter and realize that no science or person will ever outsmart the will of God. Whatever science, politics, or people say is okay that the Bible condemns is sin and we should see it for what it is. Evaluate your life. Not everybody who comes to Him in that day saying Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of God but the one practices the will of God. Separate yourself from the works of the world, align yourself to the will of God. Believe in the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Turn from the sin that you have recognized in your life and pursue the good works God has called you to walk in. Finally, give thanks in all things. God is good whether you are rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy. No matter how bad life can be, if you truly believe in Jesus, you have eternal life in his kingdom, in the presence of your savior.