 Imagine for a moment the great day of judgment. The Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh and in all glory will be seated on his throne. All the saints, all the angels from all of history will be present, a gathered assembly of all creatures. All the lost will be present as well. On that day, the books will be opened, the book of life and the word of God. And on this day, all that was wrong will be settled completely. All that was right will be recognized and properly rewarded. All people, all people will be judged without partiality and with all fairness. There will be no secrets, no need for any extra investigations, no conspiracies. Everything will be known, everything. This day is the day that everything will be settled, everything. Our God is all knowing. He knows all things. And for some, this day is going to be a joyous day. All that was wrong will finally be made right. All people who love God will see his glory displayed and will sing praises to him in joy. But for some, but for most, this day is the most fearful day imaginable. And you personally, you personally will be there. Every single person in this room will be there on that day. And it forces you, it forces you to consider and what way will you be there? It forces you to consider your experience on that day. And our text today will cover the experience of a large amount of people on that day. And this text, this text is particularly powerful because of the way that Jesus preached it. He preaches here from a negative standpoint. He shows you how you are to be now by showing you what not to be. And that's extremely important in a culture like ours and in a church like ours. Although our culture is becoming secular by the moment, many people still claim to know God. Just about everyone in this room claims to know God. You go out, you go door to door. Most people's doors you knock on. We live in the Bible Belt will claim to know God. And in fact, in some circles, including in this church, it's unpopular to boast, to walk around boasting that you don't know God, right? That's not something you'd boast about around here saying, oh, I don't know. Oh, I believe in a flying spaghetti monster, right? So everyone is religious. Everyone is religious. Everyone claims to know God. So even those of you who would openly admit that you're not converted, you still have a form of religion about you. The fact that you're even sitting in this room listening to me preach this sermon to you shows that you have a form of religion about you. And because of that pressure to have some religion about you, you're naturally going to have people who hold to a false view of religion for various reasons. And for those people, many times the best way to teach them the correct way of religion is by exposing the false way of religion. And that's exactly what Jesus does here. So let's read the text again together. Looking at verse 21, Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So the title of our sermon this morning is flee false religion, flee false religion. So this particular text is seated at the end of the sermon on the mount. And in the sermon on the mount, Jesus gives us an exposition of the law of God. And it's not just an exposition of the law of God, though. It's also a kingdom ethic. Jesus shows us what the citizens of the kingdom of God look like and what they don't look like. He explains if you're going to be a citizen of the kingdom, your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. He explains how kingdom citizens don't just have outward holiness, they have heart holiness. They don't just refrain from physical adultery. They refrain from the adultery of the heart in Matthew chapter five. Also Matthew chapter five, they don't just refrain from physical murder. They refrain from anger from which the physical murder arises. They don't pray to be seen. They pray from the heart. They don't idolize money. They have the Lord as their treasure. They don't retaliate or simply avoid their enemies, but instead they love their enemies. He shows us not just what the law requires, but he also shows us these things in the language of them being the practice of the Christian. These things that we see in the law of God and the Sermon on the Mount, they're not just, it's not just Jesus saying, hey, look, you're wicked. He is saying that, but he's also saying these things are the practice of the people who are my people. My people, as a practice, live this way, not with perfection, but this is the pattern of their life. So at the end of the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus gives us a series of warnings. He warns us first against false prophets. He says that we'll know them by their fruits. And then he warns us of false disciples, and that's what this passage is. And then he warns us of apathy or complacency when we hear the word of God preached and we don't do it. He says that person who hears and doesn't do it, it's like the person who's built his house on the sand. This text is a warning. This text that I'm preaching to you from this morning is a warning against false disciples, a warning against false Christians. And we should take it very seriously, very seriously. So in this text we'll consider three points. In verse 21, our first point will be flee from a false profession, flee from a false profession. Our second point in verse 22 will be flee from a false foundation. And our last point in verse 23 will be flee from the fate of the lawless. So let's take another look at verse 21 where we consider how we must flee from a false profession. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. We see here that Jesus starts by making a very strong statement. He makes it clear that not all people who profess that he's Lord will enter his kingdom. He actually takes it a step further. If you're noticing, he uses the name Lord twice. And this shows extra honor. These people are showing extra honor to him by calling him Lord twice. They're trying to make a statement by saying Lord twice. And doesn't just leave us there. In fact, he explains that the ones who actually do go to heaven are the ones who actually do what the father desires for them to do. So he makes it very clear here. It's not just the professors that go. It's the doers that go to heaven. And we have to be very careful at this point here, right? Like we're on dangerous grounds because to some saying something like that may sound like a workspace salvation. You might ask, is Jesus saying that I need to do something to get to heaven? Is Jesus saying that I need to perform some work to get to heaven? Well, let's remember the context. This is the Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus isn't talking now about how to get to heaven. He's talking up to us about what the person who gets to heaven looks like. He's talking about what true conversion looks like and what's false conversion looks like. He's not saying you get to heaven by doing the will of the Father. He's saying all those who go to heaven, they look like this. These are the evidences of someone who is really saved. When God saves someone, it always, it always looks a certain way. And the Bible defines that for us. It always looks a certain way. And Jesus is saying, Jesus is telling us how you can tell if you're the real deal, if you're really a Christian. So consider the seriousness of what Jesus is saying here. This is life and death. This is life and death. And he's drawing a very clear contrast. In fact, the contrast is so clear. He's making it so clear that you can't bend the rules. You can't look at this text here and say, well, maybe. Well, I know, but there's no buts. It's a very clear contrast. It's black and white. He's saying you either do or you don't. So it's a clear call to self-examination. So this morning, think deeply about your own conversion. Think deeply about your the state of your own soul. Also think objectively about your own conversion. Notice here that Jesus is speaking objectively. He's not he's not speaking fancifully. He's not speaking with feeling. He's giving clear criteria. Well, we don't pay our bills subjectively, right? The company, the power company sends a letter to your home. It tells you exactly how much you should pay. There's no if fans or buts there. You either pay the amount or you don't. And Jesus is speaking objectively as well. He says, you're either a real professor who does or you're a false professor, professor who doesn't. So and consider what kind of society we live in. We live in a culture that magnifies what people say above who they really are. So we identify ourselves in our society as certain types of people. Well, we choose what we want to be and we say it with our lips and then no one's allowed to say any different, right? That is really common now with sodomites and and so-called transgender people. What do they say? I was born this way, you know, my body is this gender but you know, in my heart, I'm this gender, right? But there's less extreme ways of doing that, right? That's that's really extreme. I don't know anybody in here like that. But some people say, I'm kind. I'm good hearted. You ever notice like people who give public apologies? You know, maybe some athlete does something foolish and they release a statement and they say, yes, I want to apologize to everyone whom I may have offended. That's not who I am. You know, I've made some mistakes, right? It's like that's not who you are. It's like, no, that's exactly who you are. You are, you are what you do. You showed us who you are with your actions. But the worst way, the worst way of giving, of speaking of yourself and not understanding who you really are is when you call yourself a Christian and you're really not a Christian. Many people call themselves Christian and it's far different from who they really are. So what about you? Do you merely say that Jesus is Lord, but you are not doing the will of the Father as a practice in your life? Are you one who both says and does? Are you one who has drawn near to Christ with your lips, but your heart is far from him? Or are you one who is a true worshiper? You worship him on the outside and you worship him on the inside. Like we could stop right here. Jesus could have stopped right here. That's enough, right? That's enough to understand what we're getting at. But he's very gracious to us and he decides he's going to give us some examples. He's going to give us some details about how that might look, how a false professor might look to give you more information to understand your state before God. So in verse 21, Jesus condemns the false professors and he doesn't tolerate just saying and doing. So we must flee from a false profession. And that was our first point. But in verse 22, we also see that we must flee from a false foundation. So let's see what details Jesus begins to give us in verse 22 together. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? Isn't it interesting how on one side Jesus tells us that the only ones who do the will of the Father go to heaven? But on the other side, these people who are speaking to Jesus on that great day, these people are actually pointing to stuff that they do. They're pointing to many mighty works. So Jesus is obviously getting at something, isn't he? He's obviously trying to show you something here. There's a difference about these people's works and the will of the Father. So Jesus says that they prophesy. This means that they speak under divine inspiration. And that could be either foretelling, prophesying of the future, or it can be foretelling, like what I am now, preaching the word of God. Some of these people also cast out demons in his name. And most of us have never done anything like that, right? Then Jesus gives us a bucket of things. He says they're going to refer to many mighty works. You name it. It's mighty. They've done it. They're going to speak of it to them. And the text here doesn't give us any reason to doubt that these things are true. Like, he's not saying that these works are fake. He's not saying that they didn't prophesy. He's not saying that they didn't cast out demons in his name, or that they didn't do mighty works. These things were really done. We see examples in the Bible of people who do mighty works. They're not Judas do mighty works. Right? Balaam prophesied. Right? So there's something different here. There's something different about these people's works. So notice the profession that they make here. They claim that he's Lord, like we said before. So he says, he said in verse 21 that just because you say Lord, Lord, that doesn't mean you're going to go to heaven. And these people here in verse 22, what do they say? Lord, Lord. Right? They claim to be Christians. Who else but a Christian? Who else but a professing Christian cast out a demon in his name? Who else but a professing Christian call him Lord? So these aren't these. This isn't your run of the mill atheist speaking. This isn't your Hindu or your Muslim. These are professing Christians that Jesus is talking about. And these people, they not only claim to be Christians, but they claim to be Christians who've done more than just about any of us have done. These people look like good Christians. These people are impressive Christians. These are the type of people who you may have looked at or do look at and think, man, I want to be like him. Look at that mighty work that he does. I want to be like him. Look at that mighty work that she does. I want to be like her. These are people who look good, real good, really impressive. And where do these people place their faith in their selves, particularly in the things that they've done? And that's interesting, right? Because in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes it clear how the Christian thinks of himself. Does he say in Matthew chapter five that the Christian is rich in spirit? No. He says that the blessed are those who are poor in spirit, who hunger and thirst after righteousness. These people are full, man, real full. When you read the Sermon on the Mount, you see how extensive the law is. And you could easily see how no one could ever keep his law perfectly. You could never ever be good enough to commend yourself to God. But these people do commend themselves to God. They point to their works and they look at Jesus and they say, look at me. Look at me, Lord, I've done this. What's the deal? I've done these things. Also look at the nature of their works. Are they pointing to things from the heart? No, they're pointing to things that they've done on the outside. They're pointing to public works. Not even all of these works are commanded. Like, do you cry and weep at night if you're a genuine Christian over the fact that you haven't cast out a demon yet, right? Apart from preaching his gospel to the lost, none of these things are requirements, right? That's the only thing in this list, prophesying. And that's in a narrow sense here. So this is the epitome. This is the supreme example of false conversion. These people have false faith and they have false repentance. They have faith in themselves and repentance toward what others can see. And it's not faith in Christ and it's not repentance toward God. There's no heart holiness here. And this is what the Pharisees look like. Jesus said they were whitewashed tombs. If you were, if you were an Israelite in that time, you would, you would look at the Pharisees and you would say, man, I want my kid to grow up like those guys, right? It's almost the, I'm going to pick on Tim Tebow, right? I don't know Tim Tebow from Adam, but you know, he's, he has a wholesome persona. Think of the most wholesome person you can think of. And that's how the people thought of the Pharisees. They outwardly prayed. They tied their mint and their cumin for everyone else to see. They fasted so that others will be in awe of them. They drew a lot of attention toward themselves and their prayers. They thought that they were righteous. And why, why did they think that they were righteous? They thought that they were righteous because of their outward works, their outward works. In fact, in Matthew 23, we see that they kept the minutiae of the law and then neglected the weightier matters of the law. And, and they even made up their own works. They have their own hand washing rituals and all kinds of things. So, so what, what was their heart like? The heart was dead. They had all kinds of stuff on the outside, but their heart was dead on the inside. And it's easy. It's easy to do that in the church today too. It's easy to do that here. You can teach or preach. You can sing. Maybe you have some ministry niche, some specialty people look up to you for. You may be really, really good at evangelism. You may be really, really knowledgeable. You may not have cast out a demon, but there's some work, some work that you have if you're, if you're one of these people that you like to put on display. And you may not be as extreme as the Pharisees, but you're after the same thing. You're after the same thing these people are. You want to manufacture your own righteousness. You like the attention and you do things to draw this attention to yourself. And some people do it with their lips. They're very loud and they're brash and they're always talking about their exploits. Others find ways to manufacture their actions in subtle ways so that they can be commended either by men or even by their own minds. So just like the Pharisees, people like this tend to ignore the evidence of their dead heart. It's not just that you have a niche, right? You sing, you evangelize well, you do some public thing well, you do some religious thing well, but some people do religious things well and the rest of their life is devoid of Christ. You can speak swelling words when you're with men, when you're with the people of God, but your home life is a wreck. It's because of your sin. You're really religious and well regarded by others, but you harbor those secret sins in private, the ones that only God can see, the ones that your wife and your kids don't know about, the ones that your brothers don't know about, your sisters don't know about. You're always present at the church, but during the week there's no desire for his word or for prayer. There's no desire for the things of God. And even when you do read or pray, it's not with a humble heart seeking to learn, seeking to be changed, seeking the work of God in your heart. It's not from a heart seeking to glorify God. It's from a heart seeking to earn something from God. Are you that person? Is that you? Is that your heart? Is what you have here just a facade, just a mask that the Lord will one day uncover? Some folks, some folks aren't quite as brazen, but they'll still trust in their works. You may trust in a moment of sincerity you've had in the past. Maybe you walk down an aisle after a church service, or you pray to sinner's prayer. And I know it's, that's not something we usually have to say around here, right? Like we're a church where most people wouldn't openly say, I know I'm saved because I recited a sinner's prayer, or I know I'm saved because I walked down an aisle. But many people, even in a church like ours, would still look to a past decision or some experience to make themselves feel like they're righteous. You can trust in that decision or that experience as if it were a sinner's prayer. Maybe you did some nice things for some people, some type of ministry work. I'm telling you, if you look at those things, you fall into the same trap as these people. You will stand before God. You will stand before God and you will be pointing back to your works. And I'm telling you, if these people couldn't get to heaven by casting out demons, surely you won't get to heaven because you had a moment of sincerity. These people's works were mightier than yours. So again, what about you? I know you wouldn't say openly that you're trusting in your works. But are you trusting in your works? I know you wouldn't say, I pray to sinner's prayer and I walk down an aisle. But are you trusting in a moment of sincerity that you've had in the past? And don't think about what you would say about yourself. Think about what Christ would say about your heart. What would Christ say you're trusting in? If you're like these people, you set your footing on a false foundation and you must flee from a false foundation. And that was our second point. So let's look at our last verse together, verse 23, where we'll see our need to flee from the fate of the lawless. Verse 23 says, And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So now we see Jesus proclaim publicly the most terrible words that someone could ever hear. I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Can you imagine yourself there? Can you imagine those words being said to you on that day? Can you imagine knowing that once you hear those words, there's nothing that you can say to change it. There's nothing that you can do to change it. There's nowhere that you can run to change it. Can you imagine that even though everyone thought you were a Christian, everyone thought you were a Christian? Everyone may have thought you were a good Christian, a phenomenal Christian. Can you imagine the shame of standing before God and having those words said to you this is the ruler of the universe who knows all all of your secrets and he can't be fooled even even if you have many mighty works and he doesn't care again that he they simply called him lord he doesn't care about that he doesn't care that they did all of these things they did some stuff on the outside but their hearts their hearts were never changed see the whole sermon on the mount addresses that like we said before right adultery physical adultery adultery in the heart physical murder murder in the heart these people need needed a new heart if you're one of these people you need a new heart you need a heart that would not just practice outward holiness but inward holiness these people need to be circumcised not just by their physical foreskins they need to be circumcised by the foreskins of their heart these these people need to be like david who in Psalm 51 said he'd give he'd give a sacrifice a burnt offering for god if he would delight in it but he says the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit and a contrite heart these people weren't poor in spirit they claimed to have something but really they had nothing when jesus says depart from me you workers of lawlessness he's actually a quoting psalm chapter six on verse eight and in that psalm david is it is referring to his enemies let's turn there together the sixth psalm psalm six verse eight and a faithful jew he would have heard jesus's words saying depart from me and and he would say man that sounds familiar that sounds familiar to my ears so psalm six eight says this depart from me all you workers of evil for the lord has heard the sound of my weeping the lord has heard my plea the lord accepts my prayer and consider this in verse 10 all my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment so um so these faithful jews who are familiar with this scripture they would see that jesus is taking david's statement here about his enemies and now he's applying that to himself jesus isn't just referring to these people as some folks who didn't get the right idea he's quoting this psalm to show that these people are actually his enemies these people these lawless people aren't just confused people they're not just they're not just self-deceived they're an enemy against their lord so back in matthew back in matthew chapter seven jesus says these folks are workers of lawlessness and at this point we can see exactly why right they thought they were practice they thought they weren't practicing lawlessness because they were able to point to mighty works they're like see you want me to do the will of the father look at my mighty works but their religion their mighty works where it weren't counted as righteousness were not counted as righteousness these people focused on the outside again not the heart what they what they should have done was they should have counted their mighty works as rubbish like the apostle paul that they may gain christ these people drew near with their lips but their hearts were far from him they weren't poor in spirit like jesus talked about these people considered themselves rich in spirit they didn't hunger and thirst for righteousness from the heart they wanted the mighty works again they weren't circumcised from the foreskins of their heart it was only the flesh only the flesh you see thinking of biblical conversion these people don't show true faith and true repentance it's thinking of faith they may have knowledge of christ they may have the conviction that what jesus says is true that these people don't trust in jesus christ they trust in the things that they do thinking of repentance they may do many mighty works but repentance isn't simply the works in and of themselves your outward works may or may not be a fruit of repentance where does repentance start starts in the heart works produced from a heart of godly sorrow like we see in 2nd Corinthians 7 that's where repentance work where repentant works come from anything else is penance it's like a roman catholic it's not repentance and it's easy for us to look at folks like that like the roman catholics and we show them the errors of their ways right but you can be a reform baptist who has a roman catholic heart a heart without godly sorrow a heart without repentance from the heart is a lawless heart it's a heart that is at enmity with god also here christ says he doesn't know them and obviously christ knows who these people are right he knows all things so he's not saying i don't know who you are who's this guy what's his name he's not doing that this is a knowledge of intimacy that christ is talking about the same way that we say adam knew his wife eve or something that i should say the bible says adam knew his wife eve we know that adam knew who eve was that's implied but when we say he knew his wife eve that knowing was an intimate knowing showing their their intimacy as husband and wife so the question is does christ intimately know you does he know you can you honestly say yes he knows me or are you one of the lawless ones see don't don't be like these people you must flee from the fate of the lawless if you're like one of these people i i exhort you to turn to christ on the cross christ paid the penalty for sinners like yourself and in his resurrection he's proven his power to give you new life and when god saves he saves to the uttermost he produces a new heart he produces a new heart that will genuinely repent that will exhibit faith in him and those people that he saves just like we're saying this morning they're his delight he exalts and sings over his people and i pray that you exalt and sing of your savior how shameful how shameful would it be on that day to stand before him and to not have anything to say and having had the word of god in front of you all this time i can't even imagine what it would be like so consider consider your ways if you're not a believer this morning and when i say not a believer i mean not a genuine believer i'm not talking about a professor or someone who agrees i'm talking about someone who does along with their belief that's what a real believer is if you're a christian today and you're able to say man praise god he has he's changed my heart praise the lord praise the lord revel in your savior revel in the fact that this is not you have this message on your lips tell it to your children tell it to your neighbor tell it to your coworker have this warning always on your lips tell it to your brother and your sister and your small groups when you fellowship together revel in your savior and praise him and remember that you're his delight so turn to the lord today consider the state of your soul let's pray oh god i pray that all those in here who are not yours that they would consider that they will consider your words lord you are very clear that those who merely say and do not do are not yours lord may you produce hearts in these people who are not yours now make them yours produce hearts lord in them that would repent that would believe that would do your will from the heart lord god for all of us who are yours lord thank you i remember lord i remember hearing this text preached when you saved me from this very text i was one of the false religious who was an enemy of yours i evangelized i went to church i was a goody two shoes and i was lost and i praise you lord for my salvation i praise you for the salvation of my brother so lord do your work through your word this morning and save all those who you have prepared for such a thing and may your name be glorified my lord in jesus name we pray amen