They
profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient,
and disqualified for every good work. (Titus 1:16)
(for not
the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law
will be justified; (Romans 2:13)
What
horrifying 4 words from such a loving God! Think about it, in the verse below
God says “in that day”. I believe Jesus is talking about in the day when a
person departs from this world and is taking up to meet his Creator, God says
“I never knew you; depart from Me”. I want to never hear those words spoken to
me. After hearing those words you know that all true hope is now lost and you
will forever be spending the rest of eternity in the lake of fire to be tortured
and tormented… FOREVER! There is nothing you can say that can reverse that
judgment brought on you by a just and loving God. It will be the only time that
there will truly be no hope at all.
Today we
are looking into the twentieth topic on the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is teaching,
which is “I never knew you”. Matthew 7:21-23… Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father
in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your
name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you
who practice lawlessness!”
Take a look
at the verse above (Romans 2:13). Notice it says the doers of the law are
justified. Now, if we compare this scripture with this passage in Matthew, one
might say didn’t they “do” the will of God and yet God says depart from me? There
is one thing to understand here. And that is the heart of Christ. The heart of
Christ is always LOVE. To be
in the will of God, it will always, without fail, have love at the core of it.
To do something that seems right and noble may be good by our standards but if
we really take a good hard look at the core reason and our motive of doing good
things, they must be out of love.
One might
say, didn’t I prophecy and teach Your Word? Didn’t I lay hands on those who
were sick? Didn’t I go on mission trips to experience the despair of the poor
and needy? Didn’t I tithe to the church for You? Didn’t I visit those who are
in the hospital? Didn’t I read the bible every day? Didn’t I speak in tongues?
Didn’t I do the things You did? And He will say “I never knew you, depart from
Me you who practice lawlessness!”
That very
last part of Jesus statement I believe is key. They practiced lawlessness. See,
we now go back to why I started writing “The HEART Of Christ” in the first
place. It’s Love that is woven in and out of God’s law. Without love you are
nothing and what you do is counted as worthless. Without love it is counted as
lawlessness. And that is what some who call themselves christains practice.
True, Jesus did do all those things but it was out of complete and pure love
that was and still is acted out from His emotion of compassion that comes from
His grace. That action of love is mercy and that my friend is the HEART of
Christ!
Dear saints, I don’t want to
speak harsh just for the sake of speaking harsh. But, I do want the Word of God
to be spoken without compromise. I truly want to get your attention. It is a
very scary and horrible thing to get to the end of it all and realize that you
have missed it. I want you to hear that passage from Matthew 25:21 “Well done, good and faithful servant;
you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.
Enter into the joy of your lord.’ All
because you truly gave you whole life to Jesus and did the will of the Father
out of love for His people.
Reflection:
After hearing those words “I never knew you” there
is absolutely no hope at all! However, we do have hope in the here and now! We
have hope from a very loving and compassionate Savior and His name is Jesus
Christ. He is very patient with us, but please dear ones, don’t wait to find
out why you do what you do. The HEART of Christ needs to be dwelling within
you.
Challenge:
Ask God to search your heart.
Ask Him to give you true compassion for His people and for those who are lost
and without hope. Don’t do it with the desire to gain something for yourself.
Go out into the world and be a light in the darkness. Go out and seek out
someone who has a need, but do it with the intention of wanting to help him or
her. Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself how you would want to be
treated and go beyond to treat them better than that.
-Doug McGowan
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