In verse 21 it says this, Not
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works? And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity." Now, you remember our Lord Jesus Christ described
the false prophets, and you know them by their fruits. And he
just got through talking about fruit. It's impossible for a
good tree to not bring forth evil fruit. It just can't do
it. But these folks, an evil tree cannot bring forth good
fruit, so evidently these were evil trees, corrupt trees bringing
forth evil fruit. To test anything or everything,
how will it appear at that day? You remember our Lord Jesus Christ,
He says that in verse 22, many will say to me, in that day,
that day, that day of judgment, that day when we have to face
God, that day when our life comes to a close, that day, when we
all have to appear before Christ. That day, that day is coming
for all of us. And then there's going to be that day, that great
day when Christ comes again. That day when the whole world
will stand before Him. The righteous will enter into
the joy of the Lord. The ghosts will depart from Him.
And let me show you something about that day. I want to show
you something about that day. I just want you to see this.
You keep Matthew 7, but look with me in 2 Timothy chapter
1. I want you to see something about
that day. 2 Timothy chapter 1. I thought of that this afternoon
as I was looking through my notes. And you know, our Lord Jesus
Christ, he said, you know, Paul told him this, he says, the hour
is coming, or the day is when God shall judge the secrets of
men's hearts by my gospel. By my gospel, by the gospel of
Jesus Christ. That's how he's going to judge
the secrets of men's hearts. And look what he said here in
verse 16, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 16, talking about that day. The
Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed
me, and was not ashamed of my shame. But when he was in Rome,
he sought me out very diligently, and found me. Now listen. The
Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that
day. In that day. The Lord grant unto
him that in that day, that day when he has to face Christ, that
day when his life come to end, that day whenever he faces God
Almighty, may he find mercy of the Lord in that day. And how
many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very
well. So wouldn't you like the Lord
to find mercy of the Lord in that day? But back over in our text over
here, back in Matthew 7, our Lord gives us a picture here
of persons as they will appear in that day. Then He will say
unto me, in that day, in that day, He gives us a picture of
how they appear in that day. And then He's going to say, depart
from me, I never knew you. This life, this life that we
live now, And all it consists of ought to be set in light of
that day. Our riches, our honors, our pleasures,
our successes, our ups, our downs, our lots, ought to be considered
in light of that day. Because we're going to, no matter
what we have, what we do, our successes, our failures, what
we own in this world, when we face Him in that day, those things
will not, if we cannot, if they keep us from being able to face
Him in that day, they're not worth having. Not worth having. And that's why we ought to have
anything that we cannot do without for Christ's sake. And we ought
to put it all in light of that day. That day. And all religious
professors and all religious duties should be put to this
test. How will they appear in that day? In that day. For God
tells us they're going to all be tried as if by fire. And you
know the only thing that will face the fire? It's silver and
gold and precious stones. Things that's worth something,
valuable. You know, everything else is going to be murder. And
what if it's silver? Christ is gold of His deity,
the silver of His redemption, and the jewel of the gospel.
Oh, these are the things. And the people our Lord here
is speaking about and telling us about, we're not open and
profane and gross, gross sinners. To the outward eye, they were
very good, very religious, very committed people. And ain't that why they appear
here? They didn't, you know, they wasn't using foul language.
They wasn't out here berating people. They wasn't out here
stealing off anybody. No, no. They went a long, long way in
religion. Look what it says here. Not everyone,
verse 21, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord. Down in
verse 22, Lord, Lord. And how many times did they use
the Lord's name here? They make an open profession.
They called Him Lord. Not only once, but twice. These weren't ordinary professors
of religion. They prophesied. He said, we
prophesied. That word prophesied means we
preached. We even not only prophesied,
but we told things that would happen in the future. And they
worked miracles. Oh, they worked miracles. So
we've done many wonderful works. Wonderful works. And they served
the Lord. They said, we're going to roll
up our sleeves and we're going to go to work for Jesus. We're
going to go to work for the Lord. And they were successful at what
they did. By all outward appearance, they
were very successful. Ain't that what he says here?
He says, Lord, we've cast out devils in your name. Do you reckon
they really cast out devils? But it says, we did it in your
name. And they were known for their energy, great energy. They
were active in many, many ways. They said, we've done many wonderful
works. We were working for you, Lord.
I can't tell you how many wonderful works we did. How many there
were, I don't know, but I know we've done many, many, many of
them. And oh, they were diligently
orthodox. They did everything in the name
of Christ. Look what it says here. He says in verse 22, Lord,
if we're not prophesied in your name, in your name cast out devils,
in your name done many wonderful works. Three times they said
in your name. In your name. In your name. So it means more than just taking
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Evidently they took the Lord's
name in vain. Evidently they used His name
not as it should have been used. Not in a way that would honor
Him and glorify Him. Because they said we've done
it in your name and the Lord says I never knew you. You used
my name. You used my title. But yet you say, I did it, I
did it, I did it, I did it. And all beloved, listen, they
kept it up for a long, long time. You know, how many people are
going to face the Lord in this moment? How many are going to
face the Lord? How many? You know, they kept
it up for a long time. Nobody discovered that they were
false prophets. They didn't know it. The people
they preached to didn't know it. The devils they supposedly
cast out didn't know it. The church they belonged to didn't
know it. The only person who knew actually who knew where
they were was the Lord Jesus Christ. And knew what they were. Oh, nobody did not consider their
inconsistency. The Lord Himself didn't openly
disown them while they were living in this life. While they were
out using His name, while they were saying, Lord, Lord, He did
not, never once say, now those fellas are false. He never once
says, watch out for those people. He don't give us a description
here of false prophets. He said, they hang around the
straight gate. And you tell a false prophet because he don't have
any straight gate and he's preaching. These people were interested
in devils, but they wasn't interested in the gate. They was interested
in preaching, but they wasn't interested in the narrow way.
They was interested in preaching, but they wasn't interested in
their converts. And the Lord himself didn't own
them. Christ doesn't just own people in this world. This is not the world you get
paid in. There's multitudes and multitudes
of people who's got more than we can ever imagine. But this
is not the world we get paid in. Even us as God's children,
this is not the world we get paid in. We're not looking for
a payday. But this is not the world where
we're going to get the evidence that we're one of God's children.
If somebody sees me someplace, they're going to look at me and
say, now there's a preacher. He looks like a preacher. He
dresses like a preacher. He talks like a preacher. And
he's a good preacher. They don't have a clue what I
am. The only way they're going to
know anything about me being a preacher or being a believer
is if I tell them. And I'll let them know where
some subject is brought up and I begin to talk to them about
it. But these folks weren't like that. They went around using
the Lord's name all the time. In my name we've done this thing. Oh, we've been working and working
and working and we've done it all in your name. And oh my, they weren't made
a laughing stock of. People didn't ridicule them and
laugh at them by using the Lord's name without results. So you
keep that. Look with me over in Acts 19.
Here's some fellas that cast out some devils. In Acts 19.
Here's some fellas that cast out some devils. Be very skeptical of fellas that
cast out devils. I read a little story this week,
and it's probably not true, but it's worth telling. It's worth
telling right here. There's this preacher, you know,
he said, anybody who needs prayer, come up here at the front. Just
a big healing preacher. He said, come up here at the
front. Come up here, I'll lay hands on you. Well, this fellow
named Leroy got in line. Oh, Leroy got in line. And oh,
he's a big old black felon, this preacher, you know, stuck his
finger in his ear, put his hand on his head and went to praying
for him. Whoa, heaven to hear, heaven to hear. He said, why
do you want me? He said, I want you to pray for
my hearing. Okay, stuck his finger in his ear, put his hand on his
head. Oh, went to praying for him. And then he got back and
said, how's your hearing? He said, I don't know, it's not
till next Wednesday. That's the way these fellas are.
Come on up, we got something for you, we can do something
for you. That's the way these people were.
They wasn't laughing stock. But look here in Acts 19. Here's some fellas that took
it upon themselves. They're going to cast out some devils. Acts 19, 13. Be uncertain of the vagabond
Jews, exorcists. took upon them to call over them
which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We
adjure you, or we command you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches.
And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of
the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered,
And said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? And
I'm sure that that's the way these fellas were. Who in the
world are you fellas? And the man, in whom the evil
spirit was, leaped on them and overtook them. There's one man
that's got so many devils in him that he overcome six men
and whipped six men so that they fled out of that house naked
and wounded. Now, you want to tackle somebody
that's got a devil in them? I ain't going to tackle nobody
that's got a devil in them. Somebody asked me here a while
back, and you know, they talk about all these people that have
devils. There's as many people that's got devils in them today.
They do. Why do you think all these people
on these drugs, and all these people in pornography, and all
these homosexuals, why do you think they got in them? It's
not natural. Make them so perverted, make
them so mean, make them so cruel. What's in a man that makes him
abuse a little child? It's the devil in him. It's the
devil in him. And only God can change a man
like that. And people say, the devil is
in those people. And I can't cast them out. You
can't cast them out. Only God can do that. And oh,
here they was. They said, we're going to, they
expected. These people kept it up for a
long time. Nobody knew they was false. Nobody
knew that they was irreligious. Nobody knew they wasn't Christ.
They didn't know they belonged to Christ. And they expected
the end of the kingdom of God. And they clung to that false
hope all the way to the end. And look what it says there in
verse 22 of Matthew 7. And they even dared to say it to the Lord.
This is what the Lord said. He says, Many will say to me,
say to me. Me. Talk to the Lord Jesus Christ. Many will say unto me. Unto me. Talk to me. And tell me. Who knows the secrets of men's
hearts? Who knows what men do before
they do them? Who knows His people before the
foundation of the world calls His own sheep by name. Many will
say to me in that day. They'll talk to Christ Himself
and say, Lord, look what we've done. There's something wrong
here. Oh, they were fatally, fatally
mistaken. Fatally mistaken. Their lives
betrayed their tongues. They said, Lord. Their tongues
said one thing, but their lives professed something else. Ain't
that what our Master says? In verse 21, Not everyone that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of God,
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
He said, that's the only thing that matters. You know, he was
in the house preaching one time. And his mother and his brothers
come out and they sit somebody and say, your mother and your
brother are standing outside, they want you to come outside.
And he says, who is my mother? Who is my brother? He that doeth
the will of my Father, that's my mother, that's my brother.
And what, let me say, what is the will of God that our Lord
is talking about? Well, let's look in John chapter
6 and see if we can find out a little something about the
will of God, doing the will of God. Because that's what our
Lord said here, only those who deal the will of God. It's not
everybody that says Lord. It's not everybody that calls
me by name. It's not everybody that's out here preaching. He
said, he that doeth the will of my Father. Well, what is that
will? Look at John 6.37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Now watch it. For I came down
from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that
sent me. Now, and this is the Father's
will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. Now watch this, that's one will
that he'll never lose nothing. The Lord, the Father gave Him,
He's not going to lose Him. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him, may have everlasting life. Do you see the Son? Do you see Christ? Do you believe
on Christ? That's the will of God. He said,
He that doeth the will of my Fathers wills to see me, know
me, believe on me, trust me, and I'll keep you, and I'll preserve
you, and I'll not lose you, and I'll raise you up at the last
day. I'll raise you up when you're
in the ground. I'll raise you up! I'll raise you up to my Father. I'll raise you up and set you
among the highest saints. I'll raise you up and make you
acceptable to God. I'll raise you up and make you
holy. I'll raise you up and make you righteous. That's how I'll
do that. That's my Father's will that
I do that. And oh, I'll see the Son. I'll
raise you up. He raised us up out of my reclaim
and set our feet on a solid rock. And He raised us up where we
can go in the Father's presence. He raised us up where we got
confidence that our sins are gone. Raised us up where we have
a righteousness that's the very righteousness of Christ Himself.
That's the Father's will. You see Him? You believe Him?
Oh, my. Well, back over again. And they
used the name His disciples used. Lord. Lord. Lord, Lord, but they
didn't possess the nature of His people. They used the same
name that His disciples used. But they didn't possess the nature
of His people, of His disciples. They didn't possess the nature
to obey, the nature to do His will. Our Lord Jesus Christ said,
why, Luke 6, verse 46, why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not
the things which I say? Why do you? And oh, they prophesied,
but they didn't pray. They cast out devils, but the
devils weren't cast out to them. They attended to marvels and
miracles, but not to the essential things. What are essential things?
Repentance. Repentance is essential. What
is repentance? Repentance is a change of mind.
Repentance is a change of mind. Godly sorrow leads to repentance.
And when we talk about repentance, it's a change of mind. Now, when
repentance is, we change our mind about God. That's the first
thing we change our mind. God's not like we thought He
was. He's like He is. Holy, immutable, and sovereign.
We change our mind about ourselves. We're no longer righteous in
our own righteousness. We no longer stand in our own
strength. We see ourselves utterly unable to do anything. Why don't
we change our mind about ourselves? We change our mind about how
God saves a sinner. Not by our works, not by our
free will, not by our might, not by our strength, not by our
sincerity, not by our resolve. We know the salvations of the
Lord and He gives it to us. If you don't know it to us, you
get by grace that we're saved. We change our mind a little bit
about How the Scriptures, what God says about Himself, that
we change our mind, and it's a radical change of mind. When
we, oh my, how many of us thought of God for so many years, and
then when He showed us Himself, our mind changed drastically
to see Him as He is. And you used to think, we used
to think that our works and our righteousness and our obedience
was what made us more holy and more acceptable. That we could
be more holy than somebody else by how we lived. And then when
God showed us ourselves and our sinfulness and our inability
and our powerlessness, then we have a radical change of mind
about ourselves. And so then if you have a radical
change of mind about yourself, there's only one thing you can
do. If you have a radical change about how God saved the sinner,
you throw yourselves on Christ and say, Lord, save me or I perish. They're more interested in performing
miracles than they are of the essential repentance and all
the essential of faith. Faith. If you have repentance,
repentance and faith go together. If you have a change of mind,
it's because you have faith. And you cannot have faith without
having a change of mind. They go together. Ain't that
right? It's faith, as you've seen, that
makes you change. But you can't change without
faith. And repentance and faith go hand in hand. I believe you, Lord, your God,
high and holy and lifted up. I believe you, Lord, that I've
sinned and come short of the glory of God. I believe you Lord
that in my flesh was no good thing. I believe you Lord that
I have no hope but you. So I'm going to believe, I'm
going to cast myself on you. That's what we're talking about.
And this new birth, that's essential, new birth is essential. That's
life. Life, God puts the life of Christ
in you, puts the life of God in you. And He puts the seed
of Christ in you, and the life of God comes up in you. And you
begin to cry out just like a newborn baby when it's born. It doesn't... In evidence of its birth, it
starts crying. And when we have this birth,
this new birth, and God gives us this life, this quickening
from the dead, then we start crying out, Oh, Father. Oh, Father. Oh my! They attended to marvels
and miracles, but not to essentials. Repentance and faith, new birth.
They worked wonders, but our Lord called them workers of iniquity. They called themselves wonder
workers. Wonder workers, what's such a
good name for them? He's a wonder worker. That's
what they said with that many wonderful words. He's a wonder
worker. Our Lord says, you're not a wonder worker, you're a
worker of iniquity. And then, beloved, they found
out just how wrong they were in the most awful way and in
the most awful time. They found it out from the one
they called the Lord Himself. The Lord Himself is the one who
pronounced it. They said, Lord? Lord, not everyone's going to
enter into the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. But many
will say to me in that day, have we not preached, prophesied
in your name? And in your name cast out devils,
in your name done many wonderful works. and the solemnity of what
our Lord Jesus Christ said here. He said, I never knew you. Now we know. What does that mean? Did not Christ know who they
were? Did not Christ know what they
did? Did Christ not know their hearts? So when He says here,
I never knew you, He says you were never mine, no matter how
religious you were. I never had that intimate acquaintance
with you. You were never my beloved, and
you were never mine. I never knew you. I never drew
you to my bosom. I never made you to know my love. I never made you to know the
power of my blood. I never made you to know the
joy of my righteousness. I never made you to understand
what it was to be born from above. I let you go on. You had a Bible
in front of you. And you misused it, and you abused
it, and you used it in the wrong way. And you've done lots and
lots of things, but you've never done anything for my glory. You've
never done anything for my honor, for the will of God and the glory
of God. And oh my! They used his name,
but he himself had been left out of their religion. And oh, the terror of what it
meant. Look what he says, not only did
I, and oh, I'm going to bring a message on this, where Christ
says, the profession of Christ, I will profess. We profess lots
of things, but this is what Christ professed. When Christ professes
something, you can mark her down. He said, then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. And then the terror of what it
meant. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Depart from me. Depart from me. Depart from me. Depart from me. Go away. Go away. Go away. Depart. Go home. You are a worker of
iniquity. I can't let workers of iniquity
into my kingdom. I can't let workers of iniquity
have fellowship and communion with me in God. And oh, the awful truth of what
he said. They were utter strangers to
him. That's what it means, I never
knew you. They were utter and absolute strangers to him. He
had not chosen them. He had not communed with them.
He had not approved of them. He had not cared for them. He
had not called them to himself. And oh, and the solemn, solemn,
of what he said. His sentence would never ever
be recalled, altered, or ended. It stood for all eternity. Depart
from me. I never knew you. Depart from
me, you workers of iniquity. And that sentence stands for
all eternity. But now wait a minute. I'm not
going to read you like that. Our son, he does know. Huh? He said, I know my sheep. Ain't
that what he said in John 12? Look at 2 Timothy 2.19. Let me
show you this. 2 Timothy 2.19. You know, oh, Some he does know. Oh, they repent and thank Him,
trust Him, love Him, need Him. His brother Larry prayed, I need
You every hour. I need You, Lord, I need You.
And that's what we do. We fill our need of Him. They
didn't fill their need of Him. We fill our need. I need Him.
I need Him. Do you need Him? And He knows
us. Look what it says here in 2 Timothy
2.19. Here's some fellas, but look
what it says in verse 17, let's show you this. And their word,
these ungodly men, their word will eat as a canker, or a gangrene,
of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have
erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrows
the faith of the Son. There's some fellas, you know,
that's going to hear that woeful word at the last day, Hymenaeus
and Philetus. I never knew you. Watch this,
nevertheless, even though they were, even though they overthrew
the faith of the Son, nevertheless, the foundation of God stands
assured. Having this seal, the Lord knows
them that are His. We sometimes get ashamed of ourselves,
the way we are, but the scripture says Christ is never ashamed
of us. I'm not ashamed to be called their brother. I'm not
ashamed to be called their God. And he's got this seal. And a
seal is a stamp. You know, we have to go get something
notarized, and they put a stamp on it, you know. A seal on it.
That's why God says, He said, having this seal, God puts a
seal on it, a stamp on it. And it's got this big seal on
it, you know, they got the presidential seal. Well, this is the seal
of God. God puts a seal on this thing,
His standpoint. I know them that are mine. Oh, this is the thing. Does the
Lord Jesus know you? The church knows you. The school may know you, the
world knows you, but does the Lord Jesus Christ know you? Does He know you? Does He call
you by name? Do you hear His sweet voice? Oh, do you hear Him? Oh, blessed, blessed Savior,
gracious, eternal God, how wonderfully gracious, merciful, kind, forgiving,
loving You are. Lord, don't let anyone, anyone
here ever hear those words depart from me. Don't let anyone here
ever hear those words, I never knew you. May everyone here tonight, may
you in your sovereign mercy and grace open every heart, every
mind, every soul, and bring them to where they
know you, and that you know them. Oh, granted, for Christ's sake.
Oh, Lord, we can't bear the thought. We don't want to bear the thought
of ever hearing that word, I never knew you. Oh, God, make us all
to know you. Make us all to know you. Because
you know all about us. You know who we are. You know
what we are. You know what we've done. You
know what we think. You know what we feel. You know
what we're going to do tomorrow. So Lord Jesus, let us know You.
Let us know You. Because if we know You, it's
because You know us. And we thank You for it in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.