The Danger of Self-Deception
Matthew 7:21-23
We are quickly coming to the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Jesus has been teaching His disciples about the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus has shown that God’s kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness. Christ has systematically laid out for us what righteousness looks like throughout this sermon. He began with the beatitudes, pronouncing the blessings of those in the Kingdom of Heaven. He said, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 5:3). They recognize their spiritual bankruptcy before God. They mourn in repentance over their sin (Matt. 5:4). They humbly submit to God in meekness (Matt. 5:5). They hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God (Matt. 5:6) and Christ promises that they will be filled (Matt. 5:6). Their lives are marked by being merciful, purity, peacemaking, and even rejoicing in the face of persecution for the sake of Christ (Matt. 5:7-12). They are light and salt in this world (Matt. 5:13-16).
Jesus spends the body of His sermon describing what this righteousness looks like – in a practical sense – in the life of one of His followers. They uphold God’s law as it is fulfilled in Christ (Matt. 5:17-19). Their righteousness exceeds that of the most religious people in Jesus’ time, the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:20). Their righteousness is not external conformity to the commandments, but an internal righteousness of the heart. It means to live without bitter anger, lust, deceit, unfaithfulness, or revenge in your heart (Matt. 5:21-47). They are perfect even as their heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48).
Jesus taught that they do their righteous religious acts like giving, praying, and fasting without the slightest desire for personal glory (Matt. 6:1-18). They love God’s favor more than the things of this world (Matt. 6:19-24). They are free from worry because they seek first God’s Kingdom and righteousness (Matt. 6:25-34). The righteous have a humble view of self that keeps them from hypocritically judging others (Matt. 7:1-6). They love others as they want to be loved (Matt. 7:12).
The standards that Jesus has outlined for the Kingdom of Heaven are exacting. You might even call them “narrow”. Who, then, could ever be righteous enough to get into heaven?!! Well; no one could – not on the basis of their own efforts. So, in God’s goodness and grace, He gives it to us as a free gift when we ask, seek, and knock. That was Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 7:7-11.
And that brings us to the conclusion of Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 7:13-27. His concluding words constitute a very serious call to those who hear to respond rightly to what He has taught. He warns them to enter through the narrow gate and take the hard way that leads to life; not through the broad gate and the attractive way that leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13-14). He warns them to be on the alert against false prophets who would lead them in a different way than He taught, calling them “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Matt. 7:15-20). Later, He will warn them that those who hear what He says but do not act on it, are like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand only to see it crumble and fall apart when the winds and waves of life strike against it.
And it’s in this context that Jesus spoke the words of our passage this morning (Matt. 7:21-23). He speaks sobering and serious words. Remember, these words came from the mouth of none other than the Son of God who will be the Judge of all. And I remind you that He spoke these words, not to a bunch of hard-hearted atheists or to wicked pagans, but to those who considered themselves His followers and religious. Listen to them again:
21 “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. 22 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?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matt. 7:21-23).
Here is another word of warning. Christ describes another common reason people are kept out of the kingdom of heaven—self-deception. Yes, some are deceived by false prophets (Matt. 7:15-20), but others deceive themselves. There are true disciples of Christ and there are false ones.
The reality of false and true believers is reiterated throughout Scripture. In Matthew 25:1-12, Christ describes ten virgins—five with oil and five without. When Christ, the bridegroom, returns, the five without oil try to enter the wedding banquet, but Christ says to them, “I do not know you.” Also, in Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus says at His return, He will separate people like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Both call him Lord, but only the sheep enter into eternal life, the goats go away to everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:46). In Matthew 13, Christ describes the kingdom as wheat and weeds (Matt. 13:36-43) and as good fish and bad ones (Matt. 13:47-50)—all representing the reality of true and false believers in the church.[1]
It is because of this reality that Scripture commands us who claim to follow Christ to, “be even more diligent to make your call and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10) and to, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves,” (2 Cor 13:5).
In Matthew 7:21-23, Christ describes those who profess Christ as Lord but are excluded from the kingdom. These are people who called Jesus Lord, prophesied, cast out demons, and worked miracles in Jesus’ name. And yet, they are shut out of heaven. They were self-deceived about their salvation—they thought they were on the way to heaven, but they were really on the broad way that leads to destruction. These people were not just lied to by false prophets, they were lied to by their own hearts. Based upon their religious involvement they have convinced themselves that they are headed to heaven, and they are wrong.
I want to make three points as we consider Jesus’ words today in Matthew 7:21-23. First, we see the startling reality; second, the surprised reaction; and third, the supreme ruling.
1. The Startling Reality
When I read this, one of the things that jumps out to me in this passage is the phrase “on that day” (Matt. 7:22). Jesus spoke of a particular “day”; and that “day” is the context of the events that He is describing. What is “that day” that Jesus is talking about?
This coming “day” is a day like no other. It’s the day that all human history is heading toward. All people have an appointment on that day and not even death can excuse them from it. It is the Day of Judgment.[2] The Bible repeatedly warns us to be prepared for that “day”. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Acts 17:31 says, “. . . He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Romans 14:12 says, “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.” 1 Corinthians 4:5 says, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts…”
Jesus wants us to consider judgment day. It is coming. Christ will judge. Some will be welcomed into heaven and others will be shut out. Some have their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and others do not. Some go to eternal life and others to eternal punishment. For some, it will be a day of joy and reward. The apostle Paul looked forward to it. Near the end of his life on earth, he looked back upon all the hardships and persecutions that he suffered in his service for Christ; and he regretted none of it. He was able to say, “. . . Nevertheless I am not ashamed, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” (2 Timothy 1:12). He wrote, “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:8).
Not only does Jesus teach about the reality of the day of judgment, He shows it will be a startling reality. In Matthew 7:21, Jesus teaches, “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.” We all love to sing the gospel hymn, “When We All Get to Heaven” but the startling reality is that not all are going to be in heaven.
The word “Lord” is a translation of the Greek word kurios, and it was a title of great honor. It can be translated “Master”. The Greek word kurios was also the word that was used to translate the Hebrew name “YHWY” – the most sacred name of the God of Israel. And when we remember that these words will be spoken by people as they stand before Jesus Christ on the great day of judgment, there can be no doubt in their minds as to who He truly is! They will testify THEN that He is “Lord” in the sense that He is YHWY, the second Person of the triune Godhead, the very Son of God in glorified human flesh! And seems to be that they testified the same thing BEFORE that “day”.
It’s right to call Jesus, “Lord”. In fact, Paul even says that “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom.10:9). No one can be saved without confessing the truth about Jesus—that He is Lord. But clearly, Jesus warns us that mere confession alone is not enough! In Luke’s version of this teaching, Jesus says, “But why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
On that great “day”, many will be in for a terrible shock because they will have counted on being allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven simply because they confess Jesus as “Lord”. In fact, they apparently even called Him “Lord” with great zeal, strengthening their profession by doubling it: “Lord, Lord“. But Jesus warns that not all those who profess Him as Lord will enter.
There is a terrible danger in making our own profession of the truths of the faith the thing that we ultimately trust in. We may have accurate knowledge of the truth in our heads and be able to profess the truth with our mouths accurately, and yet still not enter the kingdom of heaven. What a shock this will be to some on that great “day”. No one will be able to enter the kingdom of heaven without knowing and confessing the truth about Jesus, but His own words show us that the profession of truth alone will not prove to be enough.
In Paul’s letter to Titus, he writes about those who “profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” James 2:14 says, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” And those are the people Jesus is speaking of here. They claim to know God. They claim that Jesus is Lord, but the words of their mouth are as far as their commitment ever goes. And that is why they won’t go to heaven.
Jesus says that the one who goes to heaven is the one “who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Confessing Jesus as Lord is required, but it is only valid if it is accompanied by obedience. If you say Jesus is Lord, but you don’t obey Him, then your confession is a lie and you have deluded yourself. The only people in heaven are those who confess Jesus is Lord and do the will of the Father.
What is the will of the Father? Jesus has just taught about it in His Sermon on the Mount. It is to live in the righteousness of God from the heart. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” Only the righteous will enter the kingdom of heaven. And that is why we must be desperate for the salvation that Christ provides through His death and resurrection. In John 6, when they asked Jesus, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” He answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” We need Christ. And we don’t just need to say He is Lord with our mouths, but we believe it in our hearts. That means we submit our lives to Him as Lord and live in obedience to His word.
So we see the startling reality of the judgment.
2. The Surprised Reaction
In Matthew 7:22, Jesus says, “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?’” Notice that Jesus says “many” are in this group. These are those Jesus has already said are the “many” who enter through the wide gate and take the broad road.
When it comes their turn to stand before God, they are going to do everything in their power to convince Him that they should get to go to heaven. And notice they start by talking about all their religious deeds.
To “prophesy“, refers to the act of “telling-forth” the word of God. Jesus is speaking here of those who presume to preach and teach others ‘in His name’. Many will expect that, because they did so, they will enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And it may even be that what they taught and preached was the truth! But even teaching and preaching the truth is not enough. Think of the Old Testament prophet Balaam. He was an evil and deceitful man, who was motivated by greed and personal advancement (Numbers 22). And he was eventually killed among the wicked (Num. 31:8). And yet, he was a prophet, and the words that he spoke were truly the words of God. Or think of those who Paul said were preaching in the city of Philippi while he was in prison. He said, “Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife . . . supposing to add affliction to my chains” (Phil. 1:15-16). But nevertheless, he rejoiced that “Christ is preached” even by those who were trying to bring him down. They preached a gospel that truly could save others, but their own motives were wrong.
Jesus says that many will make the claim that they prophesied in His name and that, for this reason, they will expect to be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven. But Jesus warns that they will only have deceived themselves in thinking this. Prophesying is not the requirement for entry into the kingdom of heaven—nor is it the primary fruit of righteousness.
He also says that many will say to Him on that “day”, “Lord, Lord, have we not . . . cast out demons in Your name . . .?” But just the fact that a man casts demons out of people by the name of Jesus proves nothing about the man himself. There were some in the Book of Acts who attempted this. Some Jewish men watched the miracles that Paul performed in the name of Jesus; and they “took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches’” (Acts 19:13). The seven sons of Sceva attempted this and got badly beaten up by the demon-possessed man! (Acts 19:14-16).
Jesus even says that many will say to Him on that “day”, “Lord, Lord, have we not . . . done many wonders in Your name?” They will even make the case that they were ‘miracle workers’ for Jesus; and will expect that, on that basis, they should be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus even tells us elsewhere that, in the last days, “. . . false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). But the Bible warns us that even the coming of the Antichrist will be “according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). Once again, Jesus warns that many “miracle-workers”, who perform wonders in His name, will be in for a shock on that great “day”.
Note that, in each case, they insisted that they did these things ‘in Jesus’ name’ – that is, as if for Him and in the advancement of His cause. Many, many people are doing such things even now. And because of these things, they fully expect that they would be allowed to enter into the kingdom of heaven on that great day. But Jesus shows that they are self-deceived.
We have the startling reality of the judgment, the surprise reaction to Jesus’ judgment and finally,
3. The Supreme Ruling
But Jesus says, “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you …'” To say that He never “knew” them doesn’t mean that He had no cognitive recognition of them. It means that He had no relationship with them. In the original language, He places the emphasis on the word “never”; and He was essentially saying, “Never, at any time, have I had any relationship with you.” And then come those awful words; “. . . Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!‘” They thought they were doing great things in His name; but as far as He was concerned, they were acts of lawlessness.
The word that Jesus uses to describe their acts is one that combines the Greek word for “law” (nomos) with the prefix that negates the word (a – ); thus, they are called those who work “anomia“, that is, “lawlessness”. Why does Jesus call them that? We must always remember that the most fundamental doctrine to the idea of salvation is a belief in what the Bible teaches us about sin. And here’s where God’s holy law comes in. If we will not take the law of God – expressed for us in the Ten Commandments – seriously, then we will not take sin seriously either. “I’m not so bad!”, we’d say – even though the law of God clearly reveals that we ARE “so bad”, and that we have sinned horribly before a holy God. And if we won’t take God’s condemnation of our sin through His law seriously, then we certainly won’t take seriously the doctrine of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for our sins either. And if we will not take His atonement seriously, neither will we personally accept God’s offer of salvation by faith in His cross.
Jesus taught us that it’s the sinner who beats his breast in sorrow and says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13), that walks away justified in God’s sight (Luke 18:14). But we will not sorrow over our sin before God if we reject the condemnation of our sin by God’s law. Rejecting God’s law also means rejecting the idea that we are desperately in need of a Savior. If we reject the need of a Savior, we will not trust in Christ for salvation.
In that sense, I believe those who try to earn their way to heaven by their profession of Jesus alone, or by their performing of good deeds in His name alone, have rejected God’s law, and it’s condemnation of their sin. If they believe that they’re not lost in their sins, then they believe that it’s within their power to work their way into God’s favor. In that sense, they are “lawless”.
Jesus says, “I never knew you . . .” And here’s how we enter into heaven. It’s through a relationship with Jesus, where He knows us.
Did you notice at the beginning that Jesus says that “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven . . .”? And did you notice that He said at the beginning what is required? He goes on to say, “Not everyone . . . But he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Two things are required in this passage: (1) doing the will of His Father, and (2) being “known” by Him in the sense of having a personal relationship with Him.
And these two things are two sides of the same coin. You do not do good works to enter into heaven. Nor do you enter by merely laying claim to Jesus’ name. You enter into heaven through a personal relationship with Jesus Himself. But once in that relationship, you show the reality of it by a life of obedience to Him. Jesus once said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:27-29). As Paul wrote: “. . . The solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:19).
Jesus is trying to open the eyes of the self-deceived. It’s not about who you know, it’s about who knows you. It’s not about what you say, it’s about what you do. And everything you do is useless, if it is done on the wide road. The point is: don’t convince yourself you are saved because you are religious. Take the truth of Scripture and the righteous standard of God and evaluate your life by it and see if Christ is in you. Because there are many who think He is, and He is not.
According to Jesus, there will be people from this room, who right now think they are headed to heaven, who one day will be shocked to find out otherwise. And if that is me, I would rather find out now, instead of then.
That great “day” is coming. What are you trusting in to enter into the kingdom of heaven on that day? Do you trust in simply professing the truth that Jesus is “Lord” as if that’s all that is needed? Jesus Himself lets you know today that merely professing the truth about Him will not be enough to save you then!
Or do you trust in doing great works “in His name”? Jesus is the almighty Son of God. He certainly doesn’t need you to do good things for Him! And He certainly isn’t impressed when someone goes out in His name when He did not commission them! Again, Jesus lets you know that if merely doing things, even great things, ‘in Jesus’ name’ is what you count on, then you are in for a terrible surprise on that great “day”.
He lets us know that only one thing will prove to be enough; and that is that we hear Him say to us personally, “I know you. I have a relationship with you. I recognize you as My own.” We enter into that relationship by faith, when we (1) confess that we are needy sinners before a holy God, (2) place our faith, not in our good deeds or accurate professions, but in the Lord who died on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins, (3) rise up and follow Him daily in obedience to His commands.
——————————————————
[1] Gregory Brown, Marks Of True Faith (Matthew 7:21-29). https://bible.org/seriespage/34-marks-true-faith-matthew-721-29
[2] Greg Allen, Those Jesus Never Knew. https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2005/061905.htm#f1. I drew from some of Allen’s insights as I developed this sermon.
