Doing the Will of the Father
(Matthew 7:21-23)
By
Note: The text below was prepared for oral delivery
rather than for publication in print. As
such, be aware that sentence fragments are intentionally used and that this
document has not been edited to correct the errors in grammar, sentence
structure, etc.
Today we will be continuing
our study on the Sermon on the Mount so turn again to Matthew, chapter 7. While you turning let me introduce our topic
today by posing a few questions. Have
you ever attended or observed an awards ceremony (be it sports or academic
related, whatever) and felt empathy with those who after devoting so much of
their time and energy toward achieving a goal are caught by surprise as they discover
that they would not receive the reward they expected but rather it would go to
someone else? I often think of those who
train so many years for the Olympics and are favored to win the gold but are
shocked to discover their performance falls short. Perhaps some of you have tasted a similar
type of disappointment at some point in your life’s journey. We all experience let-downs and
disappointments. But when someone truly
dedicates themselves to a task, determines to outwork everyone, to painstakingly
prepare to succeed (more so than any of their peers), then the sense of
disappointment at not realizing their goal is even greater. They have paid the price they felt was
necessary, done their best, yet they come up short. Now that’s sad.
Fortunately, we learn much from
many of the failures and setbacks we experience in this life and often that
experience even sets the stage for future success. You’ve heard the quotes and clichés that are
used to soften such disappointments – quotes like, “This too shall pass” and “Tomorrow
is another day.”
But what if there were no 2nd
chances? What if there was no
tomorrow? What if that which we had
worked so hard for and expected to attain (but fell short of) had ramifications
that lasted forever? What if the
disappointing outcome had consequences that would never go away, that could not
be reversed? I’m speaking of eternity
and of the possibility of one being totally shocked to discover that they were
on what Christ termed the broad road that leads to destruction (spoken of in
Matthew 7:13), all the while having assumed they were heaven bound.
Imagine having full
confidence that you were going to heaven; only to discover too late that in
fact your destination was hell – eternal banishment from the presence and
preserving grace and goodness of God?
Now that’s more than sad! What
could be worse? That should be a
sobering thought. And so, this morning I
encourage us all to set aside all our temporal worries and care and take
nothing for granted as we see what God has to say on this very subject.
In our passage this morning, this
is precisely the solemn picture presented by our Lord as He asserts that, not
just a few, but “many” will die and face the judgment fully expecting to enter heaven’s
glory only to discover how tragically mistaken they are. Follow with me in your Bible as we look at
this description in today’s text, Matthew 7:21-23.
There Christ continues
saying, “Not every one 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. 22Many
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? 23And
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work
iniquity.
Now seeing that “many,”
such as these described here, shall receive this dreadful sentence from the
just Judge of all, it is incumbent upon us to accurately grasp what Christ
means as He communicates that the one who enters the kingdom of heaven is “he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Accordingly, I’ve titled this
morning’s message, “Doing the Will of the Father.” You may recall from last week that I made the
connection between today’s text with the verses immediately preceding this
passage where Christ’s warns us to “Beware of false prophets, which come to you
in sheep’s clothing...” And then here in today’s text, verses 21-23, He
describes these who prophesied in His name (prophets of old and as we
saw, likened in the scripture to preachers and teachers in our day). And His words reveal that for these of whom
He speaks, they will be exposed at the judgment to be false preachers, as He
declares, “…I never knew you...” I say this to point out again that these
false prophets described here, the very ones of whom we are to beware, were
sincerely deceived themselves as we learn from today’s passage. They thought they were on the narrow way that
leads to heaven to use Christ’s description back in verse 14. So while some deceivers may be intentional con-artists,
that’s not the description applied here.
As I said in the message previous to this one, they were sincere – just
sincerely wrong.
So let’s look at our
scripture text in more detail. I want to
begin by examining the description Christ gives of those who shall not
enter heaven beginning in verse 22 and then we’ll come back to verse 21 later. As we begin, recognize that unlike us, Christ
as all-knowing Deity is not subject to being deceived. Here, He is depicted
in His future role as the One who shall officiate as the just Judge of all the
earth. Notice He begins verse 22 with, “Many
will say to me in that day…” speaking of the day of final
judgment when each person’s standing before God shall be declared openly before
men and angels. This shall be a joyful
day for some but a terrible day for many such as these described here.
And notice that their plea at
this judgment begins in verse 22 with the words, “…Lord, Lord…” Now in verse 21 He had said that not everyone
that calls Him Lord shall enter the kingdom.
Contrast this with I Cor. 12:3 where Paul writes, “… that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost.” This asserts that no
man could call Jesus Lord unless it’s the Holy Spirit at work. To understand this, we must consider the
identity of the “Jesus” that they call “Lord.” Is it the Jesus of the Gospel,
the one identified in God’s word, identified even here in the Sermon on the
Mount as the one who came to fulfill the law and the prophets? Or is it a counterfeit?
The first time I heard
someone talking about a counterfeit Christ, I dismissed that, knowing there’s
only one Christ. Well there is only one
but this idea of “another” or counterfeit Jesus is not absurd – it’s
scriptural. In Paul’s warning of false
teachers and preachers in 2 Cor. 11, in verse 4 he says they will come and
preach “another Jesus” and “another gospel.”
The Holy Spirit testifies of Christ as the one sent of the Father, both
God and man, who came to establish righteousness for His people and did just
that in His life and death on this earth.
And in time, to those for whom that righteousness was established and
imputed, the Spirit gives them life to look to Christ alone, and see that it is
His work of righteousness, made theirs by imputation, is the sole basis of
their acceptance before Him. Anyone who
calls Jesus ‘Lord’ apart from God’s revelation of this, His person and work,
are not doing so by the Holy Ghost. And such
is the case of these pictured in today’s text.
They, the “many” shall call “another Jesus” ‘Lord’ and it is in “his”
name (in the name of ‘another’ Jesus) that they performed the works which they
proceeded to plead before Him.
As we’ll see in a moment, their
plea for consideration based upon their own works exposes that it was “another
Jesus” in whose name they performed these works. In John 10:24-25 we read, “Then
came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to
doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25Jesus answered
them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s
name, they bear witness of me.” You see, you can’t separate what
Christ accomplished, His work, from His person.
So many imagine that all who call themselves “Christian” are trusting
the same Christ – for they do refer to the
same historical person who lived and died on this earth some 2000 years ago.
Yet Christ says it’s His works that bear witness of Him. If you misapprehend what He came to do and
did accomplish at
Some believe the word “Lord” is
repeated here (“Lord, Lord..”) to reflect their sudden sense of danger and the
desperation that comes over them. They
are met with an agonizing disappointment so they speak here in amazement, as
preachers and laborers who fully expected that if any were to be admitted into
heaven, they would have to be included in that number. They knew of their own sincere religious zeal
and efforts.
Now some will concede that
there are many nominal “Christians” who just play at church or make a show of
religiosity. And of these they reasonably
question whether or not they’ll actually enter heaven. But that’s not the profile here. He’s speaking of the preachers of the word,
active ministers doing things in the name of Jesus – at least as they knew Him
to be. And there’s not just one or two
of them but “many.”
And so their pleas follow as
they say “…have we not prophesied in thy name?”
Of course here is where we see the connection back to those of
whom we are to beware – false prophets – for they speak of prophesying. This would include the prophets of old who
were gifted with the ability to foretell things. If you have time later, refresh yourselves
with the stories of Balaam and Caiaphas and you’ll see that even wicked men
were given this gift of foretelling as it suited God’s purposes. But as we saw in the previous message, this
could also be applied to any who tell forth – who speak or teach others in the
capacity of preachers and teachers, associating themselves with the name of
Christ.
And then they cite, “…and
in thy name have cast out devils” As
scriptures record, demon possession was common in the times of Christ. And the power to cast out devils was given,
not only to the twelve apostles, but to others as well. Consider that Judas, as one of the twelve, was
also given this same power. It was also
given to the seventy disciples. And this
power was also given to some who did not follow Christ and His disciples. In Mark 9:38, John told Christ, “…Master,
we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us:.…” And by the account of Judas alone, we
know that this God-given gift was exercised by men who were ultimately exposed
as unbelievers. Consider the tragic
irony that a man who was able to cast out devils ultimately would be cast to the
devil and exposed as one of his (Satan’s) servants.
And lastly they plea, “…and
in thy name done many wonderful works?”
This refers to miracles and not just one or two but many. These apparently were granted extraordinary
gifts, just as Judas had received. They
possibly could speak in various languages or tongues, heal all manner of
diseases and sickness, etc. These were
gifts from God. We know that Judas had
the gift of preaching and was called to that ministry and to be an apostle by
Christ Himself. Yet ultimately, it was exposed
that he was not one of God’s elect but like these, a worker of iniquity. He had the power to cast out devils, could
perform miracles, do wonders in Christ’s name and yet, at last he was the one
who betrayed Christ. We see here that men,
even sincere, well intentioned men, will all find that such pleas and arguments,
even if they are as impressive as these cited in our text, will be worthless in
the Day of Judgment.
I want to share 2
observations with you pertaining to their arguments for these are very telling. First, notice that these men at the judgment,
with their eternal destiny flashing before them, lay their entire hope of
salvation upon what they have done in Christ’s name. And like the Pharisee that thanked God, they
credited God also because they were citing the use of gifts that they knew only
God could have given them. These things
they cite were considered most excellent gifts and were extraordinary in
nature. Think of that! They were pleading these works that God
had enabled them to do. They did all of
this in His name, not their own. So
what’s their problem?
Well, secondly notice what
they did not say. There was not one word
indicating their reliance on what Christ had done and suffered – only what they
had done. In all of their zeal, humility
and religious activity, they fail to plead the only thing (the one
thing) that makes all the difference – Christ Himself – the mercy and grace of
God revealed in Christ, based upon His righteousness being imputed or reckoned to
the objects of His mercy. As we’ll see
in the passage that follows this one, their entire claim to salvation and
heaven’s glory was built upon the wrong ground – a faulty foundation.
Now consider this, if these
who were granted miraculous gifts of the ministry that are no longer present
today, who were preachers, studying and presumably laboring in “His” name – if their
argument is declared useless by the judge of all, how silly and arrogant we all
were when we dared to imagine that any requirement or condition we could meet
would pass muster or make the difference.
No, He requires righteousness – perfect obedience and the extraction of
an infinitely valuable payment where the least sin is found. Apart from that, a holy God cannot accept a
sinner. And that righteousness only
resides in Christ and is made the sinners by God’s merciful accounting of it to
him.
I once imagined that God
enabled me to believe on Christ – enabled me to put my trust in Him as I knew
Him to be at the time – but this passage proves the futility of imagining that
anything God in reality enables you to do will contribute towards your
acceptance before Him. These folks
didn’t imagine God had enabled them – they really were enabled by God to
do the works they cite. So they plea
these works in rivalry with (and in opposition to) that which Christ came to do
– even the least of the commandments.
Don’t dare approach the judgment imagining that anything other than the
merit of what Christ accomplished could commend you unto a holy God. To do so is in rebellion to the doctrine of
Christ – of salvation conditioned on Him alone.
And that, their false doctrine (basing their hope of eternal salvation
on something other than or in addition to His one righteousness) is the fruit
brought forth by the corrupt tree mentioned a few verses back, typifying the
false prophets of whom we’re warned to beware.
Well, in verse 23, Christ
pronounces His verdict as he says, “And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Now Christ, as omniscient God, He
knew who they were. In fact here we see
He knew them to be workers of iniquity – bringing forth evil fruit out of the
evil treasure of their own heart –not a new heart that had been brought into
subjection to this Lord. Psalms 1:6
reads, “For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of
the ungodly shall perish.” I
think this is the sense conveyed here when Christ says “I never knew
you.” He never knew them for their way
was not the way of the righteous. What terrifying
words to the unsuspecting! It is as if
Christ is saying, “I haven’t known you with affection reserved for my sheep
from everlasting. I never knew you as
one for whom, in time, I died, and called by name. I never knew you to seek after me as do my
sheep – not after the
He is declaring that he would
not admit them into his presence and glory, but commanding them to depart – an
eternal death sentence. Here as judge,
Christ pronounces their banishment from his presence – and without his
restraining hand, his absence is hell itself.
It’s the place the Bible says is prepared for the devil and his angels. Why? – Because they were “workers of
iniquity.” They may not be adulterers,
murderers, drug addicts, sexual
perverts, thieves or any other outwardly profane sinner, but in that they preached
(or believed) salvation to be based upon something in addition to Christ and
Him crucified, they are justly declared to be workers of iniquity.
Well as Christ has already
said, though they are fewer in number, there will be some who enter in the
strait gate and the narrow way that leads to eternal life. And as verse 21 tells us, these are those “…that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” What is it to do the will of the
Father which is in heaven? Notice, that
the verse following our text for today, verse 24, begins with a similar
description as it begins, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine, and doeth them…” Accordingly,
I plan to develop this subject further in my next message, but for now, I just
wanted you to first consider what “doing the will of the Father” means in its
context.
I believe that one’s
understanding and teaching on just what is meant here – to do the will of the
Father – is an excellent indicator as to whether or not he is deceived by the
subtle deception of the wolves in sheep’s clothing spoken of back in verse 15. Doing the will of the Father is cited by
Christ as an identifying characteristic of those who will enter heaven. So your understanding of what this means will
mirror your understanding of all that Christ has been teaching, His sayings or
His doctrine – the doctrine of Christ of how acceptance before God and entrance
into heaven is gained.
Your understanding of what is
meant here by “…doeth the will of my Father…” (in this context) reflects your
doctrine, your fruit, and thereby exposes it to be from a good tree (true
doctrine held by one to whom God has revealed His truth) or a corrupt tree
(false doctrine – trusting in something else), to use Christ’s earlier metaphor
of the tree in explaining how we are to distinguish the true from the false.
Many (really most) believe
that doing the will of the Father refers to the outward sincere efforts by
sinners to keep God’s commandments, in spite of all that Christ has said
earlier in this very sermon exposing the utter impossibility that we, as
sinners, could measure up to the standard of perfection required for acceptance
before this holy God. We need a perfection
that He alone is able to accomplish and did accomplish – a work that He makes
clear is one that He, exclusively, would perform.
In the next message, as we
look at verse 24 and what is meant by those who “…heareth these sayings of mine,
and doeth them…”, I hope to address some of the more subtle forms which
this insistence to look within for the fulfillment of some requirement or
condition may take. I will spend more
time exposing the nature of the fatal error held by those who misunderstand what
this “doing” refers to. But for today’s
message, we’ll stay focused more on just what it is to do the will of the
Father? Simply put, it is to believe on the
Son. This belief is evidenced by having
adopted His doctrine – of seeing that all of salvation is conditioned on Him,
with no contribution whatsoever from you the sinner. And it’s to abide in that doctrine – the
doctrine of Christ.
In the immediate context, He
had just warned us to beware of false prophets whom we could identify by their
fruit – their doctrine. If we glance
down to the end of the Sermon and look at verse 28, it’s recorded there, “And
it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were
astonished at his doctrine:” So
we see the tie-in there which suggests all that Christ had taught – these
sayings – to declare how salvation was based upon the one righteousness He came
to produce (and would produce) – how this constituted His doctrine – the
doctrine of Christ. Now in the context,
seeing that Christ begins verse 24 with, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine, and doeth them…”, it is clear that He is continuing the thoughts
expressed up in verse 21, suggesting to us that doing His “sayings” is
equivalent to to doing the “will of His Father.” So in essence, He is saying that these who do
enter heaven doeth His doctrine.
Now, how do you “do” doctrine? You believe it. We know this to be the case, but it doesn’t
merely hinge on the logical deduction I just made from the immediate context. Let’s consider the very best commentary on
scripture – other scriptures. Be turning
to John chapter 6. While you’re turning,
let me mention that last week, Mark Pannell brought an outstanding message from
Romans 6 that I would encourage you all to listen to if you haven’t
already. And there in Romans 6:17-18, we
have recorded, “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18Being
then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” See
scripture speaks of obeying doctrine as an act (a “doing”) by those who have
been made servants of righteousness.
Now over in John 6 let’s read
more of the scripture’s commentary on itself.
Look with me now down at verse 28.
It reads, “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work
the works of God? 29Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work
of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” Not believe on just anyone, but this
one sent of the Father for a specific purpose – to accomplish salvation for His
people – to be the end or fulfillment of all God required to be reconciled to His
people.
Stay with me in John 6 and look down at verse 39: There Christ says, “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. 40And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, (for whom that beam has been graciously removed from the eye of their understanding) and believeth on him, (Him – not one who simply makes salvation possible but one who accomplished it) may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. Again, we see the Father’s will vitally connected with believing on Christ – trusting Him for all of salvation, based on His works, not works done by us nor works He enables us to perform. No, He gets all the glory.
And then in the next chapter,
John 7, verse 16, we read, “Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine
is not mine, but his that sent me. 17If any man will do his will,
he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” Again, we see that doing His will is connected to knowing
the doctrine – it is to trust solely in the doing and dying of this precious
Savior sent by the Father – the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
It’s clear that many shall be
surprised at the judgment if they approach God based on something other than or
in addition to that which Christ came to accomplish and did accomplish at
We all enjoy varying degrees
of success in this life, but everyone’s life journey is also met with
disappointing surprises along the way. And
we’re glad that there’s always been a tomorrow.
But friends, that’s not the case at this final declarative judgment of
which Christ speaks. I don’t want to be
surprised there and I’m sure you don’t either.
So take heed of God’s way of salvation and reject that way which
naturally seems so right to us as fallen sinners – that most popular way
wherein we imagine salvation to be conditioned in some way or to some degree on
something that proceeds from us. To
“stay the course” on the road upon which we all initially begin our religious
journey is to ultimately be found in the company of these who hear the most dreaded
words of Christ, “I never knew you…depart from me...”
In Hebrews 9:27-28 it reads, “And
as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28So
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that
look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Those sins which Christ had no part
in producing, but which were imputed to His account – He put them away
completely. The debt is paid. And when He returns again, those sins will
not present – they’re gone, non-existent before God’s judicial bar of
justice. Their iniquities are not
charged to them for whom He died, for they were charged to their
Substitute. So look to Him who by His one
offering justified for ever all those for whom He lived and died. It’s a done deal. So, trust in Him alone, based upon the
righteousness He accomplished. That’s
doing the will of the Father.
Footnote from the author: While this sermon was prepared and delivered
by me, I often utilize the commentaries, study helps, and teachings of others
to supplement my own prayerful study of the scriptures. Since this document was not originally
prepared for publication in print, please excuse and recognize that it was
unfeasible to properly identify and credit all of the various original sources
used to develop the content herein.
Ultimately, it is my sincere and foremost objective to accurately
present the gospel of God’s grace found in the only infallible source, God’s
word itself – the Bible.