The Saddest Words Spoken
Notes
Transcript
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.’
I can remember years ago, I had a meeting that required an overnight stay. We had to make our own reservations, and I found what appeared to be a good deal online. I made the reservation and received my confirmation email shortly after. Later that month I left home, traveling 8 hours away, and pulling into the hotel where the reservations were made. Now, I had the confirmation email in my hand, walked up to the front desk and they did not have a room. No one by my name was listed. I did not have a room. I thought I had done everything right. I thought all the proper arrangements had been made. But one small problem existed - I had relied on the wrong things. I placed my confidence on something I though was reliable, only to learn it had let me down, there was no follow through and no room was reserved. Unfortunately they didn’t have any other rooms and I had to try to find a room at another hotel close to our meeting area - with hundreds of other people who had made proper arrangements. Now, I got lucky - I found a room close by and was able to avert any further problems. But…what if I had not been so lucky? There is a great thing about life - we can roll with the flow - we have the ability to adapt - we can usually change our direction…up to a point.
Here’s a scary thought. There will be many sitting in churches today that will think they have their eternal reservations made. They may even be working within the church, thinking their activity is an assurance of their salvation. Jesus addressed these concerns of the attitudes of the Pharisees earlier in Chapter 7.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Following the way of the Pharisees, or in today’s terms, the “church”, is equated to a wide gate. The Pharisees were too focused on doing the “churchy” things - following all the laws they had self-created as they pretended to interpret biblical law. Too many churches today are more worried about whether the members are following the “churchy” things, following the self-created laws of what a good church member should be following. We have so many “sacred cows” in today’s churches that we have forgotten about following Christ’s example - the small gate and narrow road - evangelizing to a lost and dying world and bringing others to the saving knowledge of Jesus. The “easy route” - doing what we’ve always done just because it’s what we “do”, leads to destruction, but following Jesus will lead to evangelism, discipleship, spiritual and numerical growth in our churches. But the question is, do we care? Are we willing to change? Why is this so important? Because we don’t want people who think they have been saved, have done miracles in the name of Jesus, and who will meet Him face to face as a stranger. My question to you today is this - are we more interested in doing the “churchy” things or are we truly interested in our and our fellow brothers and sisters within the church making the right arrangements for heaven?
False Faith
False Faith
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.
In the end, when our life is over, we ALL will face Jesus. One of two things will happen, we will either face the judgment seat of Christ as saved or we will face the great white throne of judgment as unsaved. At this time, it will not matter what we think of our salvation, it will not matter what others think of our salvation, it will only matter what God says. Our final test is what matters - what will Christ say of the relationship we have with Him?
It may be easy to learn “religious” words, do “religious” things, live a “Christian” life, memorize Bible verses, sing praise and hymns, but still not obey God’s will. The only way we can prepare for this time of judgment is by doing God’s will. We can’t just hear or study His Word, we must also do them.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
Obedience to God’s will is the test of true faith in Christ. Words and works are not a substitute for obedience.
False Works
False Works
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?’
What day is this describing? While the exact day is not revealed, we can point this date to be a time of judgment. Regardless of which day this describes Christ tells us that a false profession will only last until judgment comes. Sometimes this failure happens when there are trials of life that we deal with. Many people have professed faith, only to deny that faith when life becomes spiritually difficult or we must make significant spiritual investments. But those trials will pass - this verse probably refers to the final judgment before God, and the main focus we can take from this verse is our profession of faith will be ultimately tested before God. Those whose faith has been proven will stand. But those who have professed to trust Christ, but have not obeyed God’s will, will be condemned.
We see a picture of those who have come face to face with God placing their faith in their false works. When they come before God, they act as though they know Him.
“Lord, Lord” - they recognize who He is, but then they start telling God of all they have done. Just think and be honest: How can anyone ever stand before the Supreme Being and Intelligence of the Universe, before God Almighty, and claim anything? Nothing we will ever do could be acceptable payment for our sins with the exception of our true profession of faith, yet these claim all they have done in the name of Jesus. Didn’t we prophecy in your name? Didn’t we cast out demons in your name? Did’t we do good work in your name? Notice they know the power of Jesus, but Christ was merely the instrument by which these men proclaimed, but - they had no real connection with Christ.
They were false prophets, as described in verse 15. “False prophets” does not only mean false preachers who proclaim a false gospel, but primarily false professors of faith in Christ.
Their inward nature has not changed; they merely wear the outward guise of a sheep. They call Christ “Lord” and even do religious deeds, but they have not been saved! How do we detect these false believers? “You will know them by their fruits” (v. 16, NKJV). What fruits does Christ seek? He seeks: (1) the fruit of the Spirit, or Christian character as described in the Beatitudes and Gal. 5:22–23; (2) the fruit of the lips, testimony and praise to God (Heb. 13:15); (3) holy living (Rom. 6:22); (4) good works (Col. 1:10); (5) lost souls won to Christ (Rom. 1:13). Professing Christians may be involved in religious activities and pretend to be saved, but if they are honestly born again, they will reveal these fruits in daily life.
Note that they are surprised at the judgment! It is possible to fool ourselves! Satan blinds the mind and deceives people into thinking they are saved.
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
When Christ returns, millions of professing Christians will be surprised to find out they were never saved at all! Spiritual results can even result from unspiritual men.
Even though they claimed to know God, they did not have a personal relationship with Him. There was never anything in common between God and them. They were claiming to have done some remarkable signs and wonders. Their whole confidence was in these works, but as spectacular as they were, they were not authentic. Speaking words or performing miracles do not necessarily show God is involved.
False Security
False Security
Christ never knew the false professors—not personally. False professors do not know Christ personally; they do not acknowledge His redemption and their need for His redemption. They never come to Him for personal salvation. Therefore, Christ never has the chance to know them. In the Day of Judgment He is tragically forced to pronounce the truth: “I never knew you”. All the works these false believers had done, Christ calls “lawlessness”. When we look at the term lawlessness, it is a quality trait of the person. To go even further, it is a bad quality - they are morally corrupt - because they are in direct defiance of God’s law. As a result, these false believers are separated from God for eternity. They are now experiencing the great gulf that will separate believers from unbelievers. Even though they professed to know Jesus, many will have to leave God’s presence. No matter what they claim, God sees them as they truly are. Sinful. Never having truly accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. We are told in
19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
The message in the word depart is a message that can save us. We must accept Christ, and turn away from our sin, making a personal choice to follow Jesus. That way we will never have to hear the saddest words to ever be spoken. “Depart from me”…for eternity.
Conclusion
Conclusion
A profession alone only shows just how inadequate our understanding of God and ourselves really is. It shows just how centered we are upon our own ability and goodness. Profession alone does not do God’s will. Profession alone is “a form of godliness, but denies the power thereof” (2 Ti. 3:5).
The works done by a person trying to make themselves acceptable to God, trying to please God, things he is receiving a blessing because God accepts him because he does good and lives right. This thinking puts our faith in our own goodness and ability, and Christ is not honored.
But true works for God, a work because we trust God and believe Christ died for our sins and rose again to give us life makes us want to do works. Not because of our own ability, but because of what God has done for us. Christ has done so much for us, that we want to surrender our life in service to Him.