"Lord, Lord!" "I Never Knew You" Mt. 7:21-24

please in your Bibles to Matthew chapter seven chapter seven familiar words or on conflation in this evening Matthew chapter 7 verse 21 my thoughts were brought to the stacks as most of you know part of my work is gauge and apologetics so next month or willing the debating Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Allah and saved the wall is a student of Ahmed Deedat and as I've been reviewing some of his materials discuss some DVDs and males day in fact but he did a debate last year it was painful to watch the debate unfortunately because there really wasn't any Christian response offered which was very very frustrating but in the process the Sheikh of all went to this text that's a text we all know very well let's let's take a look at it and then I'll let you know what he had to say about it as well in concluding the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says not everyone saying to me Lord Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven but the one doing the will of my father who is in heaven and I think we could properly render that will enter into the kingdom of heaven many will say to me on that day the day of judgment Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name too many mighty works and then I will that's literally I will confess I will declare to them I never knew you depart away from me you who are working lawlessness now this tax as I mentioned very very well-known to us it preaches but what was interesting was the utilization that I had never heard before shake a wall looked at this and he said well do Muslims call Jesus or do Jews call Jesus Lord now who are the only people that would be saying Lord Lord Christians and Jesus says to them depart from me I never knew well I've never really thought of it quite in that way and so I started thinking about it and it's interesting sometimes we hear tax and we just we've grown up with them and if you've been fortunate enough to be raised then you've seen text like this and you've heard text like this and you're accustomed to a particular context it's a little bit like another unusual perspective of run into or we run into unusual perspectives sometimes early responses to go oh that's weird which is a much of response in a situation especially but I just recently ran into the fact that one of my former debate opponents at dr. Bart Ehrman has a really unusual perspective he talks about the son of man and he believes the son of man is someone other than Jesus the Jesus did not identify himself as the son that he was talking about an eschatological figure who was going to be coming in the future of the son of man who's become and you sort of go it wasn't trial of Jesus they asked to man he says I am them you will see wonder how folks come to some conclusions that they do but what that makes you do is think through well why is it that I believe that and sometimes within the context of the church if we don't bump into some of these things and I know that I provide you with a lot of bumps very regularly you don't think those things through well going back to this text there is no question that Muslims and Jews do not say Cody Cody Cody asks Lord and Christians do but was that a proper application attacks well of course it was but how would we respond to it how would we understand this tax will notice it says not everyone saying to me Lord Lord when you have not everyone it's a given that to enter into the kingdom of heaven you need to acknowledge the king of the kingdom of heaven and that is Jesus I need to acknowledge him as Lord the point of Jesus's words here is not there's something wrong with addressing Jesus as pudding but that there needs to be a consistency between the profession and the action notice two words saying to me words saying is a present participle of excellence it's the one saying so not everyone saying that you have the one saying to me there's gonna be a group of people who say to Jesus Lord Lord but that is not sufficient in and of itself then after the word but you have the one doing and it's a direct parallel with the one say and so you have two groups here one is a subset of the other you have a larger group of those professing that Jesus is Lord there's a lot of those folks a lot of folks will say yeah he is Lord but there is a subset of those people they also say Jesus is Lord but they are also doing the will of my father who is in heaven they are the ones who enter into the kingdom of heaven what's difference between the two well as I thought about this tax we have an illustration the next two verses but there's another section of Scripture that just kept coming to my mind as I thought about these people who say one thing with their mouth but there is no corresponding reality in their life that was James chapter 2 this is the exact same emphasis the James makes in James chapter 2 we talked about people who say they profess faith but there's no corresponding reality in their life and James asks the question James 2:14 can that faith the spoken faith that when you asked what's your evidence of your existence has no evidence to offer can that kind of faith say that we've we've got over John James chapter too many times before and we know all the abuses of the text there's all sorts of people running around out there that wanted use James to present works righteousness and everything else we recognize that that's a problem but sometimes we sort of allow it to sit on the shelf a little bit or they want to listen what's saying because it's uncomfortable what it says there needs to be a consistency between what is spoken from the mouth the one saying Lord Lord well if Jesus is Lord then there needs to be a resultant activity doing the will of my father who is in heaven and all of the descriptions provided many will say to me in that day the day of judgment why would they say it to him because he's the challenge he's the one that because of his unique position of being the god man can be the perfect judge many will say to me on that day Lord Lord did we not do these things did we not prophesy in your name and that's not necessarily just the idea of some kind of I I prophesied that the stock market is going to go up and down in the future that's next time did we not speak forth in your name did we not cast out demons did we not engage with spiritual activities in your name did we not in your name do that's the same group were there the doing two mighty works works of power errors doesn't the Lord's response is not to say though you didn't it's not to say no you um you're lying but say them Jesus response is not to argue the facts of the case because there's no evidence these people are lying they they did things so you see we would be wrong to think that when Jesus talks about the difference between saying and doing that just any old doing is what he has in mind it's not the idea of doing activities and being religious and doing good works remember the doing was the doing of the will of the Father it was now some might say ah and then we can leap out of Matthew 7 over to John chapter 6 and people say what should we do they work the works of God which is says that's the work of God that you believe on him of the ascent and therefore we don't have to worry about activities and actions at all I'm almost really uncomfortable when we do a lot of context popping yes in response to those who want to work the works of God Jesus offered a corrective work the works of God until you do the first thing he demands of you and that is faith in the one whom he has sent but keeping the right balance the biblical balance between profession and activity absolutely vital in the scriptures provide us with so many examples see in James 2 we see here we see it the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2 if we will just quote the whole tax I think most people in this room are probably quote by memory fusions chapter two verses eight nine but verse 10 says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them that's the relationship salvation all of grace and then that same sovereign God who saves predestined that we are to walk in live in the realm of good works works that are marked by desire to glorify God of obedience to his revealed will coming back to the Matthew 7 notice of Jesus's response is not to say you didn't do those things and then I will confess I will declare I will make a solemn statement I will confess to them I never knew I never knew and I don't know that there could possibly be more frightening words in a novel script because you really what this raises is the issue of self-deception I wonder how many people are gonna stand there go there is so much danger in giving people a false hope and giving them only a part of the gospel the I've got my ticket punched I'm going to heaven mentality of so much of evangelicalism today and so many people are going to hear these words I did this I did that activity in the name of Jesus without the knowledge of Jesus is empty provides you with nothing remember how many times I've talked to you about my my professor you know everything there is to know about Jesus but you have to know Jesus relationship I never knew you depart from me workers of lawlessness workers of iniquity they were saying we work this we work that we did religious things but outside of having the proper relationship with God which can only be available through the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ and knowledge of communion with him it's an it that's what he says I never knew not contrast those words for those of you who were here Sunday morning with what we looked at in John chapter 10 and what Jesus says to his sheep and about his sheep what does he say I know them a reciprocal relationship certainly puts a little bit of a stick in the spokes of those who say you can once be truly a believer know Christ he knows you he could never say the words of Matthew chapter 7 verse 23 someone who had once been one of his sheep he knows his sheep he says I never knew so these were never a sheep and so if you see the balance you see how if we can we allow all of the word of God to speak there is this beautiful balance on the one hand work salvation all those Gospels those false Gospels that put everything in the hand of man not possible can't be we have to have a divine Savior we need to have to have the sovereignty of God you need to have faith coming from the hand of God it has to be God's work very clear on the other thing those people that present the salvation that is primarily just a tipping of the hat toward God showing up the church once in a while Lord Lord did I not do this Lord Lord did I not do that I have AIDS but my faith cannot demonstrate its existence the word says never do you far from me can that kind of faith say the answer is now what's the tendency of manual it's always to fall off the narrow path and truth one side of the other become the Rotarians they pick up on the stronger when they heaven doesn't matter how you live on the one side or end up their work salvation and the Anathem of the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter one the others the word provides us perfect balance now as you interact with people they're always going to be tugging at you from one way or the other that's one of the reasons why we emphasize being here the regular basis you hear the word of God preached you hear the balance it's presented in so many texts and it builds you up it gives you balance but it also never allows you to avoid that the difficult capacitance if I doubt there's too many people sitting in front of me that look at this and go yes it's one of my favorite texts I just I love contemplating those people standing before God and hearing I never knew we don't come we don't enjoy certainly we recognize the justice of God and all those other things but there are certain taxi they contain hard words and they contain words that if we're honest they make us understand why the Apostle Paul says examine yourself to see whether your the faith because you see there's always this tendency in our hearts toward self-righteousness isn't it there can we not all confess sometimes we catch ourselves and we're going yeah but I see that person over there but that's not me I do this hopefully protect yourself or save yourself like she's the only reason I stand before you to buy your grades so there's something right that's something we should be doing every single second of every single day never experiencing the freedom and peace rejoicing of all those other things but there's everything right and always keeping in our mind not everyone who says but the one doing what's desire desire if my heart is to be the one doing the will of my father I want that to mark my every action is that my passion what really excites my heart pleasing God please bless me it's not the word does not provide us with example after example after example of test love that text the first John 5 these things we've read you may know that you have eternal life what's these thing it's to best to the book of first John that talks about not loving the wild and loving the Brethren and not walking in the darkness were walking in the light so we ask ourselves two questions one of those who just said by one of those who does because it's high nature a quote just started for with some of you were last time I told it we're about that time so I had a friend who was an interesting friend Kelly remembers over Davis Wally total Wallington wall Ito was an interesting fellow Wally taupe gave one of our early cats a mental imbalance I'm not sure how he did it but he sort of ruined that cat force he always tabled us for a few days I've married a fellow traveled around the nation in a beat-up old car that like two hundred and ninety eight thousand miles or something maybe AMC that's ten thousand he remembered with an unseasonal but he was a missionary to the Mormons primarily I learned a lot about how to pass out tracts and handle Street witnessing situations from wallet and while he told was the last person to die in the Los Angeles Riots when the riots took place he decided to go out and preach thrivers that was one she was standing outside and like an A&P store or something like that trying to preach to the people that had smashed in the windows were stealing all the TVs they beat him into a coma from which he never came out and I think about eighteen months later to die never having recovered but I learned from wall-e an answer to that James to text when you're talking to the Mormons and it's not anything new because really it's pretty much what's in the Westminster catechism I remember it's a shorter longer something like maybe but in talking about the nature of saving faith talked about how saving faith is never alone and so while he did with that is he said you don't go Baba to become a sheep you go Baba because he borrows she what he meant by that was you could wrap yourself wool get down on all fours and crawl I'm going Baba all you want doesn't make you cheap reasons sheep goes baa buzz because it's his nature to go bop bop that's why you do it because there's sheep Christians do good works because it's their nature they've been changed it's a divine thing that God has done in saving us he changes us from the inside you can wrap yourself with all the good works you can in the name of Jesus do all sorts of things but unless this has happened less he knows you unless there's regeneration then you're just a person down on all fours wrapped in wool like Baba it doesn't reflect the inner yeah it's that inner reality very you

Channel: DrOakley1689

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Keywords: Bible, theology, Reformed, Gospel, Baptist, James, White

Id: 3c0AcWahFhU

Length: 25min 27sec (1527 seconds)

Published: Thu May 20 2010