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᛭ INI ᛭

Doesn’t Jesus know He’s upsetting our apple cart? He says things that will get Him killed. He speaks against you, what your flesh wants to be true. He speaks against everything the world puts forward. He speaks against what the devil wants. He speaks against our human assumptions about religion.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Think about that! “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Um, wait a minute! Don’t you cry out, “Lord, Lord?” “Lord, help me!” “Lord, save me!” “Lord, have mercy upon us.” Where do you stand then? Can anything be more terrifying? But that’s just a shot across the bow!

Jesus doesn’t want you to doubt the genuineness of your faith. He never “breaks the bruised reed, quenches the smoldering wick”. Jesus is up to something far more diabolical, as far as our human thinking is concerned. But for those of you who are just hanging onto Jesus for dear life, and just barely at that, just betting your eternal farm on Jesus, this will all turn out to be a very comforting text for you. In fact, that’s why the devil would have us stop here, so your doubts about Jesus saving you can hang around neck of your faith and choke it to death.

The Lord Jesus wants you to have doubts, too. Not doubt Him, but faith in Him, rather doubts about human works! Didn’t you hear what He said?!? What He call “prophesying in His name,” “casting out demons in His name,” “doing many mighty works in His name”? He called them “lawlessness”! He called them sin! Unrighteousness! Evil! He called those who did them “workers of lawlessness”! He tells them, “Depart from me!” He says, “I never knew you.”

That doesn’t make any sense. When Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruits,” it’s hard to think of better fruit. Wouldn’t “prophesying, casting out demons, and mighty works” be considered “good fruit” from a “good tree”? Jesus answers, “Absolutely not! Evil fruit (καρπούς πονηρούς). Rotten tree (δένδρον σαπρόν).These are unworthy, offensive, and damnable works! They are lawlessness. These works are contrary to my Law and unholy in My sight! These works are sin. ‘Sin is lawlessness.’ (1 Jn) They are not My prophets, not My exorcists, not My workers. They’re false prophets, saboteur exorcists, workers in the employ of the devil.” (See, that’s why they want Jesus dead!)

“It can’t be so!” We think! We always want to salvage our works, especially before God. They’re our identity!—how good a job we do: your position on the team, your grades, your yields, your kids, your life. We do the same thing with God’s Law. We follow the lead of the white devil. We aren’t fooled too often by the black devil who offers sins that are openly against God’s Law, at least, not at first. Instead, the devil comes clad in white, speaking sweet nothings into your heart: “You’re a pretty good person. Against your lust and gossip, place your church attendance. Against your lack of church attendance, you’ve got this going for you: you’re nice and kind and understanding.”

Jesus attacks works, and He says they are evil. Not just the good works of the laity, but the good works of the clergy—pastors! He attacks the best works that we think can possibly be done for Jesus. He attacks them because of the trust we place in them. “We did all this awesome stuff for you Jesus! Let us in!” “Go away! I never knew you!”

Preachers who lay out all the great things that you can do for Jesus, who chime in with principles Jesus has for you to do for Him, who peddle all your dreams that Jesus would fulfill for you as you fulfill your obligations to Him—all those preachers are rotten trees. All those who trust in such things are dead trees. They are without fruit, lifeless, shriveled up, not just dry—petrified, turned to stone. “And by their fruits,” their sermons, “you will know” those false prophets, Jesus says. If your wondering about the people who gather around such preachers: well, best case: “lost sheep without a shepherd”; worst case: they have “itching ears” for what is false.

So, what’s to be done? “Not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord,” will enter.” “The one who works works will not enter,” either. So, who will enter? Who then can be saved? Can you be saved? The Lord’s hemming you in, hemming the false preachers in, with no way out. There is no way of escape. Trust works and you’re out; preach works as a way in, and you’re out. The best works we could think of are sin. “All our righteous deeds are like an overflowing septic tank” (Is 64) Even the best works according to God’s Law are sin when faith is in them rather than the Lord. “For whatever does not come from faith is sin.” And so there’s no way out, or rather, no way in apart from Jesus, apart from faith in Him. So, good news:

EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES “LORD, LORD!” WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!

That is the glorious comfort of this text, dear saints of God. What you do, even if it’s supposedly great and magnificent, doesn’t get you into the Kingdom. That also means that if all that you’ve done isn’t all that great, if it’s terrible, if it’s all misfires, miscues, mishaps, sins against God and one another—Lord, Lord, I am “a poor, miserable,” that is, destitute, penniless, broke “sinner.” It means that you get into the Kingdom. “To the person who doesn’t do good works but instead believes in God who declares the ungodly innocent—that person’s faith is credited to him,” to her, to you “as Christ’s own righteousness.” (Rom 4)

EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES “LORD, LORD!” WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!

Because it doesn’t matter what you do or have done or will do, could do, should do for Jesus. It’s all a matter of what Jesus has done FOR YOU. His works not yours are what count. He is your righteousness, your redemption, your holiness. (1 Cor 3) He is all that FOR YOU, in your place, on your behalf. What He does is credited to your account, and all your filthy sins against Him and those in your life, all the best that you’d dredge up for Him to cover it up or make up for it. He says that mess is His not yours, and then He suffers punishment and condemnation on your behalf.

And this is what the Scripture means, when God says, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hos 6) That is He desires His mercy FOR YOU, not your sacrifice for Him. He desires faith in God rather than your offerings toward God. The false preachers will turn this sideways so that your ears are filled with other things—many high and lofty things. But they are not Christ for you. They are not life, but death. Not precious stones or silver or gold (1 Cor 3), but rather hay and straw, even “manure” as Paul would say elsewhere (Phil 4).

EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES “LORD, LORD!” WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!

Because it is the Lord who brings you into the Kingdom. You have been brought into that Kingdom already, “transported out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, in whom you have redemption, the forgiveness of all your sins.” (Col 2) You were brought into Christ Kingdom already at the Font. He announces your heavenly citizenship in every faithful sermon, for a faithful pastor is nothing other than Christ’s own ambassador, saying that you are reconciled to God, you are forgiven. Your passport’s been given, your visa approved, reapproved, re-reapproved—each time you hear “By the command of Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.” (Just there it happened again! An absolution!) You are prepared for the feast of the Lamb in His eternal kingdom each time you eat and drink His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. For whoever believes His Words has exactly what His Words say: “forgiveness of sins.”

This is so because your sins won’t keep you out, and your sins, your good works, lawlessness, won’t get you in.

EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES “LORD, LORD!” WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!

As Jesus promises elsewhere, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (Jn 6)

᛭ INI ᛭