Building On The Rock Series

Our message today picks up where we left off, where Jesus warned us about false prophets who are ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing (cf. Matthew 7:15-20). When I preached from that passage, I began with the fairy tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” and the wolf as our opening illustration. This morning, I am going to start us off with another fairy tale that involves a wolf; which is the tale of “The Three Little Pigs.”

Once upon a time, three little pigs set out to build a house. The first little pig was lazy, and so he built his house out of straw. The second little pig was somewhat lazy, but he worked a little harder and built his house out of sticks. The third little pig was wise and industrious, and he built his house out of bricks. Well, one day a big bad wolf came along and thought the pigs smelled like a tasty snack, and so he huffed and puffed and blew down the first two houses. But, when he came to the third house made out of bricks, it could not be blown down. And, I will stop there to keep the story short.

In our passage today, Jesus warns again about the false prophets, telling us that those who heed their message are unwise, building their life and eternal hope on an unstable foundation; and like the two little pigs who built out of straw and sticks, those who listen to the false prophets will be devoured by those lying, ravenous wolves. Not to mention, the false prophets will be destroyed as well. If you have ever read “The Three Little Pigs,” then you know that the wolf dies in the end. So, with no further ado, let us get into this passage!

They Thought They Knew the Lord (vv. 21-23)

21 Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” 23 And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

I find these verses to be some of the hardest in the Bible; the thought that we could serve Jesus our entire life, calling Him Lord, and still wind up going to hell. And can you imagine the pain of Jesus saying, “I never knew you!”

Years ago, I wrote a letter to my favorite Bible commentator Warren Wiersbe, asking him if he would read a book that I had written and write a review. My response card was returned in the mail with a short hand-written note. It began with the words, “I don’t know you.” He then went on to explain that he could not write a review for someone with whom he was not acquainted, and knew nothing about their character. I understood, but those words cut deep – the words “I don’t know you.” That hurt! And so, I can imagine how tragic it would be for Jesus to say those exact same words! And, by the way, I kept that response card, as it was signed by Wiersbe himself!

The false prophets and their followers professed to know Jesus. Some of them probably thought they really did, and that He knew them in return. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” They had the “confession” part figured out. But what about “believing” in Jesus as Lord; truly believing in Him with their heart? And we often say that true belief will overflow in kingdom service. Well, these people claimed to serve Him as well! They prophesied, cast out demons, and did miracles – all in His name!

In verse 24, which we will see in a moment, Jesus made a contrast between “hearing” His words and “doing” them; which you could make the same contrast between “professing” Jesus and “serving” Him. In James 2:20, we read that “faith without works is dead,” and so we might conclude that perhaps their profession of faith was not accompanied by service, and therefore, their faith was not genuine. However, “those [who would be] rejected in the judgement were both sayers and doers! They said, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and they did many religious works.”(1) We know that faith and works should accompany each other, so what seems to be the problem?

In verse 23, Jesus said to them, “Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” The word lawlessness in Greek is anomia, which means, “The condition of one without law – either because ignorant of it, or because violating it.”(2) This word can also be translated as “iniquity” and “wickedness.” There are two possible explanations as to why Jesus declared them as practicing lawlessness. First, maybe they claimed to know Jesus and did religious works, but behaved poorly in private; living lives of hypocrisy. This was a problem with the false prophets to be sure, and perhaps their followers learned this lawless behavior from them.