“I NEVER KNEW YOU!”
Matt. 7:21-23
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Dick Van Dyke once described Mahatma Gandhi.
2. He said, “Gandhi walked barefoot everywhere, ate very little, and often fasted, leaving him thin and with very bad breath.”
3. Thus he is often thought of as a “super callused, fragile mystic plagued with halitosis.”
B. TEXT
1. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Cor. 5:10.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matt. 7:21-23.
C. THESIS
1. If you’ve accepted the full blown creed of evolution, then you believe that what happens to you when you die is no more significant than what happens to a tree when it dies.
2. It's over. You’ll go out of existence. You’ll feel nothing, know nothing, you’ll have no consciousness.
3. But if you believe the truth of the Bible, that there is a Creator God, and that what separates you from whales and chimpanzees is not mutations, chemicals, or a thumb, but being made in the image of God, then you probably know there’s a life after death, and existence after the grave.
4. We all will die, but death is just the doorway to another life that’s not 70 years, but eternal. You’re not just a hunk of flesh with cloth on it, you’re an eternal spirit-being living in a body.
5. But death is not extinction; we’ll all stand before God and give an account of our lives, and to be judged by His righteous standard.
6. We’re going to take a few minutes to look at that examination Day, and see what will give us a passing grade.
The title of this morning’s message is “I Never Knew You!”
I. ALL WILL STAND BEFORE GOD & BE JUDGED
A. LOST & CHRISTIANS WILL BE JUDGED
1. Rev. 20:11-13,15 says, “11 And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away….12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened…and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
2. HUMOR.
a. One old Grandma sat on her couch with her Bible in her lap, reading and praying.
b. Her grandchild walked into the room. “Grandma, after all these years, what are you doing still reading
the Bible?”
c. “I’m Cramming for my finals!” the old woman quipped.
B. EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE THERE!
1. Can you imagine when God takes hold of history and empties it?! When every man who ever walked the streets of ancient Babylon, of Rome, of Hollywood & Washington D.C. must account for himself? When “What happens in Las Vegas doesn’t stay in Las Vegas!”
2. Every king over England, the caliphs of Baghdad, the maharajis of India, the emperors of China, the Presidents, the billionaires -- are all going to stand before God one day! Can you imagine that?
3. Even the Supreme Court justices will stand that day before the Infallible Judge.
4. There are 2 different judgments: one for believers (Bema) and the last for unbelievers (GWT) separated by 1,007 years -- after the Rapture, the 7 years of tribulation, and the 1,000 reign of Jesus Christ.
5. The lost will suffer punishment in the lake of fire; but believers will be spared because of the blood of Christ. Christians will be safe from eternal death.
C. NOTHING WILL BE HIDDEN
1. The Greek word for "judge" is anakrino an-ak-ree'-no, which means to “investigate, examine, enquire into, scrutinize, sift, question; determine the excellence or defects of any person or thing.”
2. SCRIPTURES
a. “For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.” Mark 4:22.
b. “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.” Luke 8:17.
c. “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” Rom. 2:16.
D. IT WILL BE TERRIFYING TO STAND BEFORE THE ALL-POWERFUL GOD THAT DAY!
1. C.S. Lewis in his Chronicles of Narnia series portrays the Lord Jesus Christ as a huge, incredibly strong Lion.
2. Quoting Lewis: "As the Lion passed by they were terribly afraid He would turn and look at them, yet in some queer way they wished He would." Naturally one would be nervous meeting a lion! The question was asked to one who knew this Lion well, "Is He safe?" I find the answer both wise and startling: "Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course He isn’t safe. But He’s good. He’s the King, I tell you."
3. Think how powerful God is! The most powerful thing we’ve ever produced is the atom bomb. The most powerful atom bomb ever constructed was the "Tsar Bomba," with explosive force of 50 Megatons of TNT.
4. But think of the power God has. We think nothing of our Sun, but every second it produces the explosive power of 1.8 BILLION “Tsar Bombas” bombs!
5. And our Sun is tiny when compared to giant stars such as Vy Canis Majoris. Some are as big as our entire solar system. Then expand this picture to the entire universe.
6. The Mighty Creator who made all that is powerful beyond our understanding. He made from the macro of the universe to the micro of the DNA’s 3 billion base pair design of the human being. God’s into the details!
7. PROSPECT FOR THE LOST. Rev. 6:15-17,
“15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” NKJV
II. SURPRISED BY GOD’S STANDARD
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Some people’s surprise is amazing.
2. The Associated Press carried the story out of Nashville, Tenn. a few years ago of a Patrolman who stopped a car that was a total wreck.
3. It had 3 flat tires. Every window had been broken out, & the roof was caved in, indicating that it had rolled over. This car had been wrecked, but it was still going down the highway.
4. When they stopped it, the woman who was driving expressed surprise that her car had been wrecked.
5. In fact, she said she didn't realize that she had been in an accident until she started to roll down the window to talk to the arresting officer. When she saw that the glass was shattered, she knew that something must have happened.
6. When finally admitted that she had had 2 or 3 beers. But the alcohol breath test revealed that it had to be many, many more than just 2 or 3. [Ben Merold]
7. Somehow, she was surprised by her state. Matt. 7:21-23 tells us that on Judgment Day people will be surprised that they aren’t allowed in heaven. Why?
B. THE MAJORITY CAN’T BE WRONG?
1. Most people think that if they don’t commit any heinous crimes – bank robbery or murder – that they’re going to heaven.
2. This idea is based on the fact that they are “normal, average people” – and surely God would be unjust to damn the majority of humans to hell.
3. But many times, the majority of humans have been known to be unspeakably evil.
4. A new study of 1940’s Germans came out in 2001 that showed that the “AVERAGE” German DID KNOW that Adolf Hitler was killing the Jews in massive death camps; men, women, & children.
5. The camps were all over Germany and many Germans worked in them and newspapers frequently talked about them. The German people were complicit in the murder of 6 million innocent people. Robert Gellately’s book about it is entitled, Backing Hitler.
6. So even by our unjust standard, the German people “as a whole” were guilty of murder. But they didn’t consider themselves criminals, but loyal citizens.
7. Might it be that we too can’t perceive our own sin? Might God see the pride, the evil imaginations, the selfishness, the greed, the pleasure-seeking idolatry of our hearts and think us too far corrupted to occupy heaven? 8. What does God see? Romans 3:10-18,
“There is no one righteous, not even one; 12….there is no one who does good, not even one.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways….18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
9. So ARE the majority of people “OK” before God just because they are a majority? Not at all!
Jesus said, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Mt. 7:14.
“Someone asked [Jesus], “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” Lk. 13:23-24. “Only the remnant will be saved” Rom. 9:27. Noah & 7 others saved!
10. GOD IS MORALLY PERFECT. HOLY.
God is nothing like us. We are contaminated by sin; God is separate from sin, pure, holy, morally perfect.
11. Hab. 1:13, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.” Job 15:15, "the heavens are not clean in His sight." “With You the wicked cannot dwell” Ps. 5:4, NIV 1983.
C. MISTAKEN NOTIONS OF WHAT A CHRISTIAN IS
1. But the Lord said there’s going to be surprise at the Judgment Seat. People will be saying, “But Lord, there must be some mistake!”
2. “I was a good parent for my kids. I taught Sunday school. I paid my tithes. I was a good citizen. I went to prayer meetings. I was a regular member of the church. Surely there’s a mistake! I must be one of the ones You approve!”
3. But the Lord will answer, “But the one thing that really mattered you didn’t do. It’s all about relationship! You never tried to get to know Me. I don’t know you. Go away from My presence.”
4. NOT GOOD WORKS. “No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law” Rom. 3:20. If salvation could come any other way, then Christ died for nothing!
5. THE KEY: KNOWING CHRIST. Matt. 7:22, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.’”
6. Is this an isolated text? No. In Matt. 25:1-13, when the foolish virgins were shut out of the Wedding Banquet, they said, "Lord, Lord, open to us." The Groom (Jesus) answered, "I know you not."
III. HOW DO WE GET TO “KNOW” THE LORD?
1. The Greek word “ginosko” (trans. ‘know’) means
there’s a relationship between the person knowing and the object known. It’s not simply knowledge, but experiential.
2. Paul said, “For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings” Phip 3:10, AMP. Ver.
3. Moses said, “"Teach me your ways so that I may know you!" Ex. 33:13.
A. STUDY JESUS IN THE SCRIPTURES
1. “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about Me” John 5:39.
2. “Wherefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” Gal. 3:24.
B. SPEND TIME APART WITH GOD, SOLITUDE
“Be still and know that I am God” Ps. 46:10.
C. FEEL AFTER HIM IN PRAYER
1. “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’” Acts 17:27-28.
2. WHY CHRISTIANS GIVE UP ON PRAYER
a. THEY SETTLE FOR MINIMUM EXPERIENCE WITH GOD
b. THINKING THEY HAVE ALL THERE IS
c. LITTLE EFFORT PRODUCES LITTLE RESULTS
d. PRAYER REQUIRES FEELING AFTER GOD
D. DEVELOP A HEART THAT PURSUES HIM!
1. The Lord sought out David because he was “a man after his own heart” 1 Sam. 13:14. IF LOVE WOMAN, PURSUE HER.
2. “My soul follows hard after Thee” Ps. 63:8.
E. WANT GOD MORE THAN ALL EARTHLY THINGS
“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ” Phip. 3:8, NIV.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A lady who had been on the Titanic before it sank said that the people who were on deck were getting pieces of ice from the iceberg, throwing them around, and even putting them in their drinks. People can be so close to judgment and yet not know.
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2. Imagine you’re speeding along – 30 mph over the limit. The police pull you over and begins to write out a ticket, when suddenly you cry out, "Hold on officer! I think you ought to know that I mowed my neighbor's lawn this morning. And not only that, I helped a little old lady cross the road."
3. "Well, I didn't know that," says the policeman. "Why didn't you say so in the first place? That's two good deeds, and one bad deed. I guess I better let you go."
4. How likely is that to happen? Not very. The policeman doesn't care what good deeds you've done - he's still going to book you for the Laws you broke.
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5. There are some germs/ viruses/ disease that water can’t wash away. In many cases, the only way to get rid of their corruption is fire. They can’t be washed away, they must be consumed away. Fire is our most effective purifying agent against the enemy of disease.
6. In 1665 London was in the grip of a terrible plague, the horrors of which may still be felt through the pages of Pepys and De Foe. The disease germs were hiding and breeding and multiplying everywhere.
7. In the following year a Great Fire broke out, and the plague-stricken city was baptized with fire. The most secret haunts of the contagion were annihilated, and London once again became a place of beauty, peace, & health.—Dr. J. H. Jowett
B. THE CALL
1. Likewise, there’s nothing we can do to rid ourselves of sin. But God has provided the ultimate remedy: the Blood of Jesus!
2. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [But] If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…. and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:8-9,7.
3. Let’s all repent of our sins and work on a new relationship with Jesus. Pursue Him, feel after Him, make Him more important than all else!
