Please turn back in your Bibles to Matthew 7. I'll go back and re-read a few
of those verses that we read, beginning in verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, and this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking of that future
and final hour. 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, ye that work iniquity. That 23rd verse contains the saddest most eternally awful words. They are so final. And they will be spoken by the
righteous judge. He'll say to these here described, I never knew you. I never knew you." What does he mean when he says,
I never knew you? We view what he says here in
the light of all scripture. And we know by what we read in
many other places that Christ as God is omniscient. He is all-knowing. Hold your place here and turn
back to Psalm 139 and listen to the psalmist. He says, O Lord, thou hast searched
me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting
and mine up rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word in my tongue. But lo, O Lord, thou knowest
it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto
it." The psalmist is saying that whatever
it was, whatever he thought or said, wherever he was, whatever
he was doing, God knew it. He knows all things. And when we hear what Christ
says here in Matthew 7, I'm sure that this statement would be
amazing to most people that he would even say such a thing.
They might even say, my Jesus would never say such a thing. And maybe it would be even more
amazing when you consider those to whom he says it. They're described in verse 22
as many. Many. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord. These people called upon Him
even in that hour as their Lord. Lord, Lord. And not only that,
but it says, this is what they say, Have we not prophesied in
thy name? We preached in your name. We've given testimony in Your
name. We've witnessed, as men say,
in Your name. Not only that, and in Thy name
have cast out devils. We've literally cast out devils
in Your name. And in Thy name, done many wonderful
works. They were wonderful to us. They
were wonderful to others. We fed the poor. We took in the
homeless. We've done one thing after the
other. Wonderful things in your name. But he says, I never knew you. I never knew you. And if you stop and think for
just a minute, how shocking will that be to these many? How disappointing How utterly awful will it be
to them, with all their claims and all their hopes and all their
evidences, to hear the righteous judge say, I never knew you. He knows all. And He knows all
that is in all people. He knows all in all men and women. John 2 says that Jesus did not
commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not
that any should testify of man, for he knew what is in man."
He knows everything. He's the omniscient God manifest
in the flesh. And when he's speaking to Peter
in John 21 and asking Peter questions concerning Peter's love for him,
Peter says this, he says, Lord, you know all things. You know
all things. You know that I love you. And then in Hebrews 4, we read
this, he says, neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the
eyes of him with whom we have to do. No secrets. No hidden motives
from the all-knowing, all-seeing Lord Jesus Christ. And then when
the Apostle John writes in I John 3, he says to these believers,
he says, for if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart
and he knows all things. He knows everything. Nobody will
ever provide him with information. No one will ever take him by
surprise with something that they do or say or think or whatever. He knows all things. And yet he says to these in that
hour, I never knew you. And when I read that in the light
of everything else we know about God in the scriptures, I have
to believe that this knowledge must be different. And it is. It is. Because he means here what we
find expressed many times in the scripture. He means here
to know with relationship. There's a difference in knowing
about somebody and knowing somebody. It means to know in the sense
of having an intimate relationship of special love. All of you knew my dear wife,
but none of you knew her in the same way and in the same relationship
that I knew her. I knew her in a relationship
of love. And that relationship of love
has been pictured for us and described so many times in the
Bible, beginning with the first couple. Because in Genesis 4, it says,
And Adam knew his wife, knew Eve his wife, and she conceived
and bare Cain and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord. There would be others who would
be born, the very man that she gave birth to. It may well be that he had a
wife. And they were in that special
relationship and union of love. Because the apostle Paul, when
he's giving instruction, concerning husbands and wives, he didn't
give a big seminar on marriage or love in the marriage relationship. He simply said this, husbands,
love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. He's in a special relationship. He knows the church and he loves
the church in this unique and distinguished way. And he says,
husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave
himself for the church. You remember whenever those wicked
men of Sodom came to Lot's door and tried to take the angels
that were visitors in his house, he offered them his own daughter,
saying, she's never known a man. There's a big difference. And
there is the difference of distinguishing grace in this relationship, in
this love, and in this knowledge that Christ has for His church
as compared to and contrasted to those who are not so. Turn over to John chapter 10. John chapter 10, and listen to
the great shepherd himself. Listen to the Lord Jesus Christ
here in John chapter 10 and verse 14. He says, I am the good shepherd
and know my sheep. He obviously knows of, in the
sense of omniscience, he obviously knows who the goats are, these
Pharisees and others like them, that he says, you're not of my
sheep, but he says, I know my sheep and am known of mine. And then he gives a further description
of what that's like. He says, as the Father knoweth
me. Oh, what do you suppose the Father
knows about the blessed Son of God? Would you not say that is a different
knowledge, a different relationship, a different union than any other? And yet, that's what Christ uses
as the example. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And to let us know. That what
he's talking about is a knowledge and a relationship of love. Look at verse 17. He says, Therefore
doth my father love me. He knows me. Meaning he loves
me. And I love him. And I give this
as an example to all my sheep and to everybody else to know
that this is what I'm talking about. I love my sheep. I love my sheep. In verse 27, he says it again,
my sheep hear my voice and I know them. I know them, and they follow
me." You know he's talking about more
than just knowing about them. He said, I know them. And this
has to do with Christ's special relationship and his love for
his elect people, his love as they are described by this name
in John 10, his sheep. I know them. I know my sheep. And not only that, God pictured
this relationship in his relationship to an earthly nation by the name
of Israel. He dealt with them differently.
He says in Amos 3, you only have I known of all the families of
the earth. Didn't he know about the Hittites,
Hivites, Jebusites, all the Canaanites? Well, sure he did. But he had
a special relationship. special knowledge of this nation
of people. He said, ye only of all the families
of the earth have I known. And then Paul, he writes the
same thing, the same thought. If you look over in II Timothy,
In II Timothy chapter 2, listen to what Paul says in verse 19,
because he's writing this concerning some in the professing church
to whom he's writing who have erred. They made false profession. They pretended to be something
that they weren't. They pretended to be followers
of Christ, but they showed themselves otherwise. Look at what he says in verse
19. He says, nevertheless, though
all these have done that, he says, nevertheless, the foundation
of God stands sure having this seal. What is this seal? The Lord knows them that are
His. You see that? The Lord knows
them that are His. He hadn't just identified them,
but He knows them in the sense of everlasting love and in the
sense of covenant relationship. He has a connection to them that
He does not have with all people. He'll never say to them, I never
knew you. No, He keeps saying this, I know
you. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. And one reason that He knows
them that are His is this, He's known them from old eternity. He's known them a long time.
He's known His people before they ever existed physically. He's known them before they ever
breathed a breath in this life or took a step in this world. He has known them in this relationship. He has known them long before
they ever know Him. As a matter of fact, They've been betrothed to him.
They were given to him. Just like some of those old relationships
in the East, maybe some continue to this day, wherein a bride
is given to a bridegroom before she's ever even born. These were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Turn over to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Surely this
is exactly what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 8 and
verse 29. He says, For whom he did foreknow He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Now, a lot of folks try to limit
God's predestination to things or what's, but in the Bible,
Although it does include all things and all the what's, it
has to do with whom. For whom he did foreknow. What kind of knowledge is that?
Is that merely to know ahead of time? Or to know, as some
have tried to make it be, to know what these individuals are
going to do? Is it to know that they would
choose him, that they would believe on him? Absolutely not. That's not foreknowledge in the
Bible. Foreknowledge is an act of God. an attribute of God? It has to do with the love of
God. He foreknew these people. He did predestinate all things
concerning them to bring them into a perfect conformity to
the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew them. He foreloved them. That's what this means. I know
them. I've known them a long time.
I've known them before time. And without a doubt, he knows
their number. He's not in wonder who'll be
saved. He wasn't in wonder who he'd
come to die for. He already said, I lay down my
life for the sheep. Somebody said, well, the Bible
says it's a numberless number, a number that no man can number. That's exactly right. But God
can. And he has. He foreknew these
people. He foreloved these people. He
knew them in the sense of covenant mercy and grace. He knew them
and purposed to do them good. They'll never take Him by surprise. He knows them individually. Why? Because He wrote their names
in His book. That's how the Lord's people
are described. They're described as those who
had their names written in the Lamb's book of life before the
foundation of the world. He said, I know them. I know
who they are, and he knows where they are now, and he knows their
age, he knows their character, he knows even the hairs of their
head are number. That's knowledge. I know all
of you. But I don't know how many hairs
you have in your head. I know some of you are like me.
You have less than you used to have for sure. But that's knowledge. That's an intimate knowledge. That's an all-inclusive knowledge. He knows exactly where they are,
who they are, and he never mistakes one of them for another. If I send you amongst strangers
and I tell you one of them's name is such and such, you'll
have to do a lot of research and a lot of asking and questioning
in order to find out who they are and who the one I'm sending
you for is. But if you know them, you can walk right straight to
them. You won't make any mistakes."
He said, I know them. I know them. And he won't be
surprised in heaven. He's not going to be surprised
at what they do on earth, especially as it pertains to a confession
of Christ. He said, All that the Father
giveth me, they'll come to me. If all that the Father's given
me, I've kept all of them, and none of them have I lost, I've
given unto them eternal life. Each and every one of these sheep
that I know, they'll never perish. As a matter of fact, this is
what eternal life is about. It's to know me. It's to know
God. And He knows them because He
came into this world to save them. You see all this foolishness
about Christ coming into this world to do something universally,
to do something to all men possibly, that is so contrary to this book. He came into this world to save
them and to die for them and deliver them because he knows
them. If I were to tell you to run
out of this building this morning and go to lay your life down,
put your life in harm's way to see if you could save a fellow
by the name of John Doe somewhere, you say, are you crazy? But if I said, you go and leave
this building, Richard, if I said, if you go and save Ivy, she needs
help. You go. You know who she is. You know her in a unique family
relationship. That's what our Lord came to
do. He said, I know them. And he knows them because he
went to the cross and died in their very place. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. Who are they going to be? I don't
know. But he does. He knows. I do what he commands me. I preach
the gospel to all people. Because I don't know who his
sheep are. But he knows them. He knows what it'll take to bring
them. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep and his death is the death that is the special act
of all eternity, the act of special love for them that nothing will
ever exceed. He knows them because he's their
substitute. He came to stand before divine
justice in their place. He came to stand and be the surety
who stood for them from old eternity to pay their sin debt. It was
always upon Him because they were always in Him and one with
Him in God's sight. Oh, He knows their sins. Because
He came to die for their sins, came to save them from all their
sins, came to bear the penalty of their sins in His own body
on the tree. He offered Himself a sacrifice
for their sin and He put them away. I know them. The Lord knows them that are
His. Why? They're His. You ever think about
that? They're His. They're His not
only by creation, oh, but they're His by redemption. You've got something you possess
and you possess it because you bought it. Don't you know what's
yours? You buy something that's special
and unique And somebody comes along and breaks in your house
and steal it, and the sheriff's department comes and brings you
into their evidence room or their stolen goods room, and here are
all these various items laid out. Don't you know what you
possess? You look at that item. You say,
that's mine. Well, how's it yours? I bought
it. I paid for it. I know what I
bought and paid for. Have you ever said that to somebody? They're trying the old bait and
switch on you. No, I know what I paid for. Christ knows what
He pays for. He knows who He died for. You
see, it says the Lord knows them that are His. They were given
to Him by the Father, He's redeemed them by His precious blood, and
He knows them, and this is the cause of their being brought
to know Him. He said, "...and am known of
My..." I don't think we maybe get the
significance of that. Because here are all these folks
who claim to know Jesus. Oh, we know Jesus. That's not
my question this morning. My question this morning is,
does Jesus know you? They said, we know Jesus. We
know Jesus. Yes, we've known Jesus for a
long time. He said, I've known of mine,
but the truth is you can't know someone without knowing something
about them. Christ has a distinguishing word. Paul
said in Romans 10, he said, how can you believe on him of whom
you've not heard? And here are a mass of people
who claim to believe on Jesus, as this Matthew 7 describes,
and many, but they don't know him. And
my friend, if you don't know who he is, He doesn't know you. That's just plain and simple. You say, well, I know Jesus. I know who He is. But you see,
the only way these know who He is, the only way they can be,
as He says, am known of mine. How do they know the true Christ? Has God set us adrift out here
with nothing but our eyes and our ears and our senses to determine
the way, to determine who He is and all these things? No. He's given us an objective standard. And when the Spirit of God reveals
Him to us, It will be news. That's what the gospel is, good
news. But it will, without a doubt,
be news. They know him because he brings
to them the true gospel and he brings to them his spirit to
reveal the truth to and in them. And they know him because he
gives them the gift of faith to believe what he says about
himself. You see, those in Matthew 7 and
verse 23, they didn't know Him. They didn't know Him because
if they had, they would have never sought to stand before
Him and be accepted by Him on the basis of what they did. Their
works. Now, they didn't say, Lord, Lord,
let us in. Receive us unto yourself and
into your kingdom because we quit doing all these things.
We stopped drinking and smoking and cussing and running around
and doing all these kind of things. Oh, no. Most of us have sense enough
to know that that would never be a basis. But look what they
offer. We've preached in your name.
And we've cast out that old wicked devil in your name. And we've
done all these wonderful works in thy name. You see, any sinner at any time
who would dare offer up to the Lord Jesus Christ as a basis
of their acceptance with God or as a basis of their improvement
before God. They do not know Him. Because He says, is not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saves us. You see, no sinner with the knowledge
of God, with the knowledge of Christ Himself, with the knowledge
of themselves, would ever, in any part, to any degree, Seek to stand and be accepted
by God and have a hope of heaven based on anything about them. And if you do, you don't know
Him. And you've never known Him. And
therefore, He's never known you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity." The very thing that men and women, especially religious
men and women, the very thing that they call good and right
and acceptable to God and to have the praise of God, those
very things he called iniquity. That is not equal to the righteousness
I require. I never knew you, ye that work
iniquity. And everyone who at this moment
is seeking to stand on that basis, they give evidence at this point,
at least, that they don't know him and
therefore he doesn't know them. That is so sad to think about. Oh, they worked so hard. They
acted so kind. They gave so much money. They
spent so many hours working and doing and giving and sacrificing
and abstaining and all these things. And they've been told
by all these false prophets that God's going to bless them because
of it. God's going to honor what they
do. God's going to accept their persons. And now they're standing
before the judge himself and he says, I never knew you. Because the only way that we
can know God and the only way he can know us is through and
by the blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The only way we can go to Him
is in Him who is the way. The only way we possess eternal
life is in the knowledge of Him who is life itself. not by works of righteousness
which we have done. No man shall be justified by
any of the works of the law. And yet people are trying to
fall down before these preachers who are offering them, demanding
of them the law as their rule of life. But it can neither save nor sanctify. It can't make you righteous. and can't make you better, only
Christ can. Only God in grace can. And if you think that God is
going to accept you, if I think that, if I think He'll take us
into His holy heaven because of any of these things, we don't know Him and we don't
know grace. Turn over to Galatians chapter
4. Galatians chapter 4. Galatians is an epistle, a letter
that was written by the Apostle Paul to some churches that were being
infiltrated, I guess you might say, by those who are trying
to take and add to the gospel. They were trying to take grace
and add works to it. They were trying to take Christ
and tie Moses to him. So Paul writes this letter. And in Romans chapter 4 and verse 8, look at what he
says. How be it then, when you knew
not God, you did service unto them which by nature are no gods? You worshiped gods that were
not God. But now, after that ye have known
God." How? In Jesus Christ. He's the only way we ever know
God, and He's the only way God can be known. After you have
known God, or rather, are known of God. You see, it's not really my knowledge
of God that saves me. It's His knowledge of me. His
special, saving, unique knowledge of a sinner in covenant grace. But now, after that ye have known
God, or rather known of God, How turn you again to the weak
and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? They're trying to make you go
back and observe the Sabbath day and the sacrifices and the
rituals and the ceremonies and all these things when Christ
came and died to set you at liberty. Why would anybody, say by the grace of God in Jesus
Christ, anybody who truly knows God, or rather, as Paul says,
are known of Him, why would you want to go back
to that which puts you in bondage rather than in liberty? Christ brings to liberty, not
bondage. And he saves and sanctifies by
his grace and not by these works of law. Who doesn't know God? Who isn't known of God? Christ says, ye that work iniquity. It's amazing to me that all these
people in this world, under the umbrella of what we'll
call professing Christianity, They have more to say. Well,
let me say, first of all, most of them know nothing about an
imputed righteousness. They don't. It doesn't matter how many times
it's spoken of in the Bible. It doesn't matter how many times
it's pictured in the Bible. Ask them about it. They know nothing about imputed
righteousness. They know nothing about what
God means when he speaks of Abraham in Romans by the Apostle Paul
and he says, Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him
or accounted unto him for righteousness. They know nothing about any kind
of righteousness except that which the creature somehow is
enabled to perform. As a matter of fact, so many
of them believe basically this, that salvation and regeneration
is simply God enabling you to get better and better until the
point that you're righteous enough to enter into His presence. But the Bible says blessed. is
that person to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without
works. I'm going to tell you, it's going
to be Christ or nothing. It's going to be Christ is all
or nothing. It's going to be salvation in
Him or damnation in anything else or plus Him. we need to think about what he calls iniquity. And he says, I know my sheep
and am known of mine. His sheep are brought to know
something about him. I was reading, I've heard People
mock this term. I've heard preachers mock it. They mock the term saving knowledge. What reminded me of it is, I
was reading something by old brother John Gill, and he used
the term. And this is the kind of thing
they say. We're not saved by knowledge, we're saved by Christ.
Or we're not saved by doctrine, we're saved by a person. That's just stupid. Because you can't separate the
two. You can't separate the person
from his work. You can't separate the truth
as it is written in God's word from him who is the truth. You
can't separate the word of the truth of the gospel for him who
is the word. How in the world could we ever
know him that is true without his truth? That sounds so pious and it's
really so ignorant and so self-righteous. Of course, his people are given
saving knowledge brought to the knowledge of the
truth. And in the knowledge of the truth,
they see the true one. When my wife passed, I don't have your bodily presence
anymore. And sometimes I just get so lonesome. And the only consolation, apart
from God's grace and mercy to me, In a more natural sense,
all I've got is the remembrances. All I've got is that knowledge
of the truth about her and their experience together. How could
I know her now without it? How could I delight in her now
without it? We're brought to know Him, which
is life eternal. And to know Him as He reveals
Himself to be in the Gospel. Because you see, to really know
Him, as that old song says, is to love Him. To know Him in truth is to love
Him. And you see, that's what God
does in the Gospel. That's what He does by His Spirit.
Paul's saying, Now we have received not the Spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given unto us of God. Things, all blessings
in Christ Jesus. And we know Him, and He knows
our needs. He said, don't take any thought
of tomorrow, fret about what you don't have, bread and water
and all these clothes and raiment and stuff like that. He said,
the Lord knows what you have need of. Why? Because He knows
you. And He knows all our weaknesses
and our trials. The psalmist said, for He knoweth
our frame and He remembers that we're dust. And we know Him through fellowship. Peter said He's given us exceeding
great and precious promises. that we might be partakers of
the divine nature. That word partakers there means
fellowship, intercourse. This is how we know him. This is how we have fellowship
with him through his exceeding great and precious promises. He didn't make us little gods. We fellowship with him when we
read his promises, study his word, hear his gospel. And some of these very ones who
claim to know him, they claim that the knowing of
grace would only lead a person to sin. But the apostle said, The Lord
knoweth them that are his. And let them that name the name
of the Lord, do what? Sin all they want to? No. Depart from iniquity. You see, if we know Him, and
if we're known of Him, we don't deny that we sin. We don't think
we can sin all we want to. We grieve because we sin more
than we want to. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 8, verse 3,
and he says, If any man love God, The same is known of Him. If any person truly does love
God in Jesus Christ as He is revealed in this book, that person is loved of God. And the fact that he brought
this sinner to love him as he is, as he reveals himself, and
as the whole of his salvation, that is the evidence that he
not only loves him, but he knows him in this special sense. You see, he knows us if we know
him. If we know Him in the truth and
love Him as He is in the truth, He knows us. None that Christ knows whatever
have hope or expect to stand in that hour in any of those
things. that he called iniquity. He says to them, depart from
me. I never knew you. God help us to know him. Because if he brings us to know
him, you can count on it. He knows us. He does. Father, this day we give you
thanks for your blessed, wonderful truth. For your darling Son,
our Savior, who is the Lord, our righteousness, and we have
no other. Who is our hope, and we have
no other. Who's our peace and our salvation,
and we have no other. We thank you and we pray in our Savior's name.