I Never Knew You!

Matthew 7:21-23

“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. 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?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

The scariest verses in the Bible are not about Satan's kingdom, hell, lake of fire or demons or the signs that are going to be there before the coming of the Lord.

But the most terrifying words of Jesus are to the religious people, the Church people who prayed, who cast out demons, who did wonders and supernatural works in His name, who appear to be godly but lost in their relationship with Him.

Is any lostness worse than remaining lost while believing you’re not lost?

Who is the worst deceived? Those who finally travel the broad way to destruction after wasting the earthly life and rejecting God, or those who sang Christian songs, prayed Christian prayers, and sat under countless Christian sermons along the way and ended up in destruction?

I never thought such a thing would ever happen until I read these verses that came out from the very mouth of the Holy Lord. Many who say they are Christians, they break bread with the believers, they praise and worship the living God, they are engaged in services that bless many, they do wonders and supernatural works in the Lord’s name- the Bible says some of them could end up in hell. These are the words glowing as if engraved in fire, Jesus’s own words giving us a transcript of the eternal destiny of some on the judgment day!

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. 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?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21–23).

I read it again. And again. No verse had ever scared me like this one before.

I realized that I could be one of the “many.”

You could be like so many sermon-hearers, Bible-readers, and synagogue-attenders of Jesus’s day: lost in a dream, traveling toward hell in church clothes.

“As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched” (Isaiah 29:8).

At the end of the greatest sermon ever preached, Jesus exposed three possible deceptions (three fake dreams) that many professed Christians hold up over them to claim their entry to heaven!

1.CORRECT DOCTRINE IS NOT ENOUGH

First, Jesus shows the insufficiency of having the right doctrine — of the one who would say, “I know and, thus, I am saved.” Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” These men and women were addressing him with the appropriate term, “Lord” (Greek kyrios), the characteristic title for God in the Old Testament — and so he was.

Calling him Lord proved their orthodoxy, they may have thought. They knew something every child of God knew to say. They did not approach him as a mere prophet or religious teacher; they addressed him as exalted majesty. They knew the Scriptures, the books to read, and the truth to follow. But calling on him as Lord did not open the kingdom of heaven to them. As the scene shows in full sobriety: knowing the right verses, scriptures or doctrines is not sufficient for eternal life.

You can believe the right things but still be lost.

James 2:19 “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.”

- Demons have perfect theology

- They believe God exists

- They know Jesus is Lord

- They recognize His authority-

- what they lack is submission

Confessing Jesus as Lord is not enough but surrender to His Lordship and allow Him to be Lord over everything.

Faith that does not move the heart, change the will and shape obedience is dead faith- Correct doctrine that never transforms life is mere informational- but not salvational.

b)The Church that had everything right- and still lost Jesus.

In Revelation 2 Jesus speaks to the church in Ephesus- They had sound doctrine/Discernment against false teachers/Moral discipline. But Jesus said they had abandoned the first love for Him.