Matthew 7: 21 – 23
The Scariest Words You Never Want To Hear
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!’
In case you are just joining us, let me inform you that Matthew was the first apostle who put down on paper the words and acts of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The second person who wrote about the earthly life of our Messiah was Mark who received his information from Peter. Approximately 15 years after Matthew’s Gospel was in circulation the disciple Luke came back to Israel and interviewed eye witnesses. He interestingly lists in two different parts of his text what Matthew had originally addressed. Let’s see what he wrote also.
Luke 6:46, 46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?’
Luke 13:26-27, 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’
Today’s topic to me is the scariest of all verses. Can you imagine going all through life thinking you are a Christian and then find out from our Master that He never knew you as one of His. Wow!
In these couple of verses our Adoni Yeshua – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ now widens His words to include all who profess to be disciples. He declares that a man may be totally orthodox in what he says, but that that is not enough. The true test of whether a man is acceptable to God will come out in his life. A faith that does not result in obedience is no faith at all. These are solemn words of our Holy King Jesus and we dare not water them down.
Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father, Who is in heaven.
Our Lord Jesus now faces all His disciples with the question of their genuineness. It is not sufficient to call Him ‘Lord, Lord’. (He repeats the words, and then the idea, twice for emphasis). Words and outward gestures are not sufficient, even when they demonstrate a kind of submission to Him. In order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, it involves submission to His Father’s will. That is actually only commonsense. For entering under the Kingly Rule of Heaven must involve precisely that, submission to His Father’s Kingly Rule.
Here in this verse ‘Lord, Lord’ does not necessarily indicate more than the respect due to a revered Teacher, although its repetition indicates urgency. But it is in verses 22-23 that it clearly signifies more. Thus He is simply pointing out here that acknowledgement of Him is no guarantee of their security. The only security lays in a genuineness of heart that result in a genuinely changed life.
What you were in this life has got to change. For example if you are an alcoholic, the power of the Holy Spirit will change you. You will walk away from alcohol.
Note the change to ‘My Father’. All the way through the Gospel it has been ‘your Father’. But here He Is dealing with matters of distinction between true and false disciples, and He does not want there to be any doubt about the fact that God is only the Father of those who are truly disciples. In such circumstances He never says ‘our Father’. The use is building up to what follows, which is the result of the very fact that His position before the Father is unique. Thus He wants them to recognize that the Father is not their Father in the same way as He is His Father. It would not necessarily be something that they would grasp straight away. But remembering His words they would eventually recognize more and more of their meaning.
Today, even believers do not know The Lord’s Prayer. How about you? If you say it is, ‘Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.’ – you are wrong.
The disciples ask our Master and Ruler to teach them how to pray. This was His response. If you want His true prayer to the Father, it is listed in the Gospel of John chapter 17, “spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Then after His personal prayer to His Father and ours our Lord Jesus then prays for His Disciples.
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. 9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
Lastly our Creator Lord Jesus Prays for All Believers
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
Note how these verses match The Lord’s teaching on how to pray to the Father. ‘Hallowed be Your Name’ (Lord, Lord), ‘Your Kingdom come,’ His Kingdom’s Totally Rule, ‘Your will be done’ (he who does the will of My Father), on earth as it is in Heaven (Who is in Heaven).’ It is those who in response to this prayer have entered under His Kingly Rule, and have commenced doing His will on earth, who are truly His. It is not enough to call Him ‘Lord, Lord’. There must be a personal response in the heart. They must have experienced the powerful activity of His righteousness in their lives.
Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Your Name, and by Your Name cast out demons, and by Your Name do many mighty works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who work iniquity.
Suddenly our Lord Jesus brings them up short with a new revelation concerning Himself. ‘In that Day’ is a prophetic phrase which indicates any day when ‘the Lord’ will call men to account in varying circumstances. It is used of historical periods of judgment, it is used of the coming and effectiveness of the Coming One, and it is used of God’s final Day. It is this last which our Lord Jesus has in mind here. Here then ‘Lord, Lord’ must be given its full and deepest meaning. They are to recognize His authority and uniqueness and bow to it.
And here some will look to Him for hope in that dread Day. But they look without hope.
They have such confidence. They had such a high opinion of themselves. They had ‘spoken prophetically’ in His Name, but it was their own words and ideas and wisdom that they had spoken, they had ‘cast out demons’ in His Name (but without themselves submitting to Him and His Name), they had done ‘mighty works’ in His Name, by utilizing the methods of such wonder-workers, but these had not resulted from the power of God. It has been shown that remarkable effects can result by arousing people’s ‘faith’ without it signifying anything spiritually, for so many of people’s problems and illnesses have a psychological root, and the body is attuned to respond to a positive attitude.
So here were prophets and wonder-workers who had made use of the Name of Jesus, fully confident in their right to do so, believing themselves to be disciples, and had convinced at least themselves that they were successfully carrying on His ministry. And they therefore expected to have Jesus’ support.
I like to use the terms ‘sent’ and ‘went’. You see some were ‘sent’ by our Lord and never ‘went’. As in this case some ‘went’ and were never ‘sent’.
Where then had they failed? They had failed in two ways. Firstly in that they had failed to be ‘known’ to our Lord Jesus. He had not appointed or approved them. They had not submitted to Him. There had been no establishment of a personal relationship with Him. This was an indictment indeed for God’s promise concerning the last days had been that all would know Him, from the least to the greatest, and would therefore be known of Him as He forgave their sin and no more remembered their iniquity. We can compare how God had said of Abraham in chapter 18 verse 19 of Genesis, ‘for I have known him’. That is what happens when God knows men. Thus not to be known by our Lord Jesus was a sign that they were none of His.
Secondly, they had failed in that His failure to know them had been revealed by their ‘working of iniquity (lawlessness)’, which may simply mean that they had neglected The Lord Jesus’ teachings concerning the Law. Thus they had not sought to do the will of His Father. Their minds had been fixed on their own agenda and their own ideas. God had not really been in their thoughts.
Note how closely they appeared to have paralleled the Apostles. They too had preached in His Name, they too had cast out demons and done wonderful works, but how different had been the attitude of their hearts. All the Apostles, save one who would later be exposed, had done it out of love for Christ.
There are many like these ‘false prophets’ today. Turn on the television. It may even be true of some successful ‘spiritual healers’ who operate in the name of Jesus, but are self-appointed and not known to Him. They reveal what they really are by the lives that they live, the large houses that they possess and the model of their cars. Hey, while the rest of the world suffers, they get angry that their salary is only a million dollars a year. Our Lord Jesus leaves us in no doubt as to the two questions that we must ask ourselves. Are we known to Him? Have we repented and come humbly to Him and to the foot of His cross? Have we received His cleansing in ‘the blood of Jesus’ as 1 John 1.7 teaches? Are we seeking, however unsatisfactorily in the short term, to do the will of His Father? Is that where our heart is? For it is where the heart is that counts. Is it our desire to do His will? Do we grieve when we fail to do His will? For no man or woman who is truly known to The Son of God, our Lord Jesus can fail to desire to do His Father’s will, even though it be a struggle in which they often fail. And if we glibly proceed on our way without being concerned about His will then we need to heed Paul’s words as he penned in 2 Corinthians 13.5, ‘examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Do you not know that Christ is in you, unless you be in a condition of being rejected? It is no good saying ‘Lord, Lord’ if we do not desire to fully obey Him.
‘Depart from Me.’ Had He just said ‘Depart’ we may have seen this as simply indicating that our Lord Jesus had some position of authority in Heaven and was acting on behalf of Another. But ‘Depart from Me’ is more significant. It indicates that central to the eternal kingdom will be our Lord Jesus Christ. To enter there is to be with Him. And to be commanded to depart from Him is to lose all hope, because all centers on Him.
My guess that if you are following these teachings somehow you have ventured forth to share the word of God with others. As your brother in Christ Jesus, I thank you for your labor of love. I encourage you to continue daily to petition others to surrender all to the only One Who has eternal life.
It is therefore, fitting, to end with one of the most famous verses. I get our kids to sing and memorize this important Scripture truth. John 3:16, “16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
