I Never Knew You

Sunday Sermons

Mark Dunagan
02/24/11 - Sunday Evening

I Never Knew You

“Not everyone who ways to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

A Sober But Needed Wake Up Call

As I read the above three verses, here is what catches my attention:

Mere belief or even belief with verbal confession is not enough. The people condemned in this section clearly address Jesus as Lord, and equally confess Him
The problem that Jesus addresses here is not a little problem, but a big and widespread problem. He specifically says that many will claim allegiance to Him and yet He will reject them.
The people here did not merely think they were saved, it appears that they were certain they were saved—and yet they were lost.
When Jesus says, “I never knew you” this indicates that one can go through their entire life, be busy in religious things, be very involved, and yet never have actually become a Christian. This verse always reminds me of very zealous and active people in the denominations who profess faith in Christ, who feel that God is absolutely with them and working through them, and yet have never been baptized for the remission of their sins.
The verse equally has an application to actual Christians. These people ardently say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy…cast out demons…perform many miracles?” Other passages also point out that Christians, yes, genuine and real Christians can end up lost (Hebrews 10:26).
Observe that these people are shocked at their lost status. They did not perceive themselves as being unfaithful. In fact, they could point to all the things that they had done “in His name”. In modern terms, they had been attending, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, been involved in classes, and maybe even talking to people about Christ and so on.

“You who Practice Lawlessness”

The present participle indicates constant character, “they who always work”. The term “lawlessness” means, “the violation of law”. The “law” in the context is the will of the Father. Let us learn the lesson, the violation of the will of the Father on one point, cancels out all the other “good things” that one is claiming. We learn here that a person can be doing all sorts of religious things and perhaps obeying God in certain areas, and yet still end up lost because they were practicing lawlessness in another areas. The word “practice” seems to suggest that these very religious people who believed in Christ, yet had refused to submit to Him completely. There was an area of their life that was in rebellion; they were refusing to give up something sinful.

“God is More Merciful Than That?”

When Christians deal with Matthew 7:21-23 or some other passage that talks about hell, some people get upset and argue, “I think God is more merciful than that!”

When you hear someone say, “I think”, remember, they are valuing and expecting you to value their own ideas as more trustworthy than God's own words in writing. If they had a verse they would give it to you. The very fact that they must resort to an “I think” and then ramble for awhile indicates that they are not committed to adhering to the will of the Father. On this point, they are more interested in their own will.
When I hear the above response, I want to say, “Will you show me in Scripture at what point God became what you think He is today?” I do not find Him ignoring rebellion in the Old Testament. And neither do I find Him ignoring rebellion in the New Testament. I know that He did not become something different than Jesus presents Him to be in Matthew 7:21-23, because God is still the same when I read Hebrews 2:1-3! In fact, in the last book of the Bible God still is making it clear that a deviation from His will is serious and will not be ignored (Revelation 21:8 “and all liars”; 21:27 “nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it”).
In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus equally reminds us that nothing is going to change concerning God’s standards. He does not say, “I might say this to them”, rather He is empathic, “Then I will declare to them”.
I must also remind myself that there are no second chances or do-overs in the verse. Remember, these are apparently very religious and seemingly sincere people, and yet they are not given a second chance.
If this is the type of judgment that professed Christians will face—then what hope have those who do not even believe in Christ? Obviously—none! “And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?” (1 Peter 4:18).

“But God will Always Forgive Me”

There are a number of passages that remind us that we can study the topic of forgiveness and come out with a completely wrong idea about it:

The thought that God is merciful and will forgive in the future, is never a license to sin right now, ungodly persons "turn the grace of our God into licentiousness” (Jude 4). I know that Jesus spoke of forgiving someone seventy times seven and He said, “And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent’, forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4). Yet by giving this statement, Jesus is not recommending that we continually sin against people or that we continually sin against the same person. The same Bible that has this passage, equally condemns those who willfully sin after they have received the knowledge of the truth (Hebrews 10:26). Luke 17 was given to impress us with the need to forgive those who repent and to avoid the danger of sinning by limiting our own forgiveness. This passage was never intended to give the idea that sin isn’t that serious, or that forgiveness is something easy and cheap for us or God.

The Right Response to Forgiveness

“For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12).

God’s past forgiveness of my sins should encourage me to avoid sin in the future. The person who says, “Oh well, God will always forgive me” does not understand the price of their forgiveness. Sins that we commit sometimes so casually brought an intense beating, scourging and painful death upon God’s Son.

“But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed…But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

One problem that we can fall into, is to think that since all this suffering happened in the past, that whatever sins we commit from now on and in the future does not really cost God anything because they have already been paid. God sees this as an ugly attitude. Sins committed after the cross do not cost less, rather, to go on sinning casually is to, in effect, crucify Jesus all over again (Hebrews 6:6). In fact, a couple of chapters later, sinning casually or flippantly is spoken of as trampling under your feet Jesus, and regarding the blood shed for you as worthless (Hebrews 10:29). May it never be. Let us instead treasure this, the most precious gift and most meaningful expression of love, you will ever be given.

“Well, You Can’t Tell a Book by Its Cover”

This attitude found among men is also found among some of God’s professed followers. The idea is that while I might not be living right at the moment, and I might have some sins that I have not forsaken, yet even though there are areas in my life that are in rebellion to God, since God knows my heart, He knows that I am sincere, and will save Me in the end. Someone has noted that such a popular idea is not found in the Bible, for it is of the devil. This is the devil’s gospel. For Jesus said the exact opposite, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15). The cover says everything, for the fruit reveals like nothing else, what the tree really is. Sin that is not forsaken simply reveals that a heart that is not in submission to God. Sin that is not forsaken reveals a heart that does not completely love Christ (Matthew 22:37).

The Challenge Jesus Laid Down

”If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). In other words:

If you really love Me, you will not miss out on opportunities to learn of Me and worship Me (Hebrews 10:24).
If you really love Me, then you will forsake and renounce any acts, words or thought patterns that violate My will.
If you really love Me, you will place honoring My words far above of what you might want to do at any given moment.
You can show Me you love Me by not watching that movie or listening to that music that insults and violates My values.
You can show Me you love Me by not looking at things on the Internet that caused Me to be hung upon the cross.
If you love Me you will wake up every day, pick up your cross, deny yourself, and put My will ahead of your will: Luke 9:23-25
If you love Me you will listen to Me, rather than lying preachers or lying friends who try to encourage you that you are fine the way you are and that you have nothing to worry about, and that God won’t punish anyone.
If you love Me, you will be urgent in trying to reach others, so that they don’t end up shocked at the judgment—and look over and say to you, “Hey, why didn’t you try to help me? Some friend you were!”
If you love Me, you will realize that the person who really loves you is the person who has the courage to talk to you about your sin and encourages you to forsake it: Luke 17:3
If you love Me, you will not label the person who insists on following the will of the Father as judgmental, rather, you will label them as spiritual and loving, and maybe even the best thing that ever walked into your life.

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017