According to the calendar, spring arrives at 12:15 PM on Tuesday, two days from now. Easter arrives two weeks from today. So, naturally, I’m going to open this message by talking about Christmas.

          Imagine with me for a moment the best Christmas party ever. There is a 10-foot tree in the center of the room. You can smell that it was freshly cut just a day before. It is beautifully adorned with lights and other decorations and it is topped with a beautiful angel. Under the tree are gifts for everyone.

A festive collection of Christmas music is coming from the speakers while the aroma of goodies from the oven moves you to inhale deeply and appreciatively. Through the windows, you see snow softly falling. This is going to be a great evening!

You’re there working the party. All the preparations are made, and the guests are beginning to arrive.

• You cheerfully say, “Merry Christmas,” as you greet each one.
• You point to the tree with pride because you helped decorate it.
• You are glad that scrooges and grinches weren’t invited because they could wreck an evening like this.
• You help distribute the gifts as the evening draws to a close.

After the final guests depart, the hosts call the team together to congratulate them and reward them for a job well done. You beam with pride as each name is called and you feel some nervous anticipation because these hosts have a reputation for astounding generosity.

Then you’re confused because your name isn’t called. It must be a simple oversight. Things like that happen. You approach the hosts discreetly to inquire about your reward, but they don’t recognize you. In fact, they say that they don’t know you at all. With w tinge of panic, you tell them that you helped decorate the tree, greeted the guests, delivered refreshments to the tables, and helped hand out gifts. Again, they say that they don’t know you and again you protest.

They respond that they hadn’t hired workers for the evening; long ago they’d invited friends with whom they share life. And only those who responded to that invitation could receive the recognition and reward. Unfortunately, because you won’t back down, they have you escorted out.

          That sounds like a sad an unfair little story. Unfortunately, it’s one that will probably play out repeatedly when humanity is called to give an account of their lives before the Savior, Jesus Christ.

          Let’s look at the next to the last section of the Sermon on the Mount to unpack this idea some more. We’ll be in Matthew 7:21-23. 

          While you’re getting there, let me say a little bit about the larger context of these three verses. They make up the next to the last section of the Sermon on the Mount – the largest single recorded teaching of Jesus we find in the Gospels. The Sermon takes up all of Matthew chapters, 5, 6, and 7. It is Jesus’ own words about how life should be lived God’s way. In a word, when life is lived God’s way, it is lived differently.

Let’s look at the next section now.

Matthew 7:21–23 (NIV84)

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

          This may be one of the saddest passages we find in the Bible. It illustrates spiritual truth that is unyielding and heartbreaking. Honestly, it seems callous and unfair. However, we must understand it so that we know what it takes to be right with God.

          Jesus begins by saying, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” That is a startling statement which immediately raises the question, who can enter the kingdom of heaven? In this message, I’ll start with the answer to that question and then address why the people in this portion of Scripture couldn’t do so.

          Who can enter the kingdom of heaven? Who can be assured that they are in God’s good graces? Jesus says it’s only those who do God’s will…and that’s where we need to be careful. Because we understand that to do something means we are active, that we are not sitting idly by, if we’re not careful, we can misunderstand Jesus’ words to mean that we must earn our salvation by doing good and godly things. But that’s not what Jesus meant.

          Salvation, being right with God, being in God’s good graces isn’t something that is ever earned. It is a gift of grace that has been offered to every human being who has ever lived. Again, it is a gift. We hear and use the word gift so much that we should be reminded of its definition: A gift is something given voluntarily without payment in return.[1] The very nature and definition of a gift mean that it is offered without strings to the recipient. When it comes to salvation, or being right with God, or being in God’s good graces, the gift has been offered and the only question is whether we will accept it.

          So, what does it mean to do God’s will? If we do a search of the Bible and look for the phrase God’s will, we find that it only comes up eleven times—once in the Old Testament and ten times in the New Testament. Of those eleven instances, only three describe God’s will as something we should or should not do.

• Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about God’s will—that we should be holy and avoid sexual immorality and learn to control our bodies instead of living in lustful passion like those who don’t know God (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5).
  Is that what Jesus meant?
• Paul also wrote to the Thessalonians that God’s will is for us to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances
  (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17). Is that what Jesus meant?
• Peter wrote that we should live in such a way that our honorable lives silence ignorant people who make foolish accusations against us
  (1 Peter 2:15). Is that what Jesus meant?

I think those three instances describe how we should live our lives after we know Christ as Savior. They do not describe how we attain salvation, or how we get right with God, or how we come to be in God’s good graces.

So, what does it mean to do God’s will? To answer that question, I want to look at verse 23 again. In dismissing the false followers, Jesus said, “I never knew you” and that, my friends, is where we begin to understand what God’s will is.

God’s will isn’t first and foremost something we do (although it is an important aspect of how we live as Christ followers). First and foremost, God’s will is found in who we know…or better yet, who knows us.

John recorded these words of Jesus: Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (John 17:3, NIV). God’s will does not begin with doing, it begins with knowing. Anything less is unacceptable!

Many of you have been at Trinity when my two best friends have visited and spoken here. Their names are Scott and Garland. 

• How many of you know Scott?
• How many of you know Garland?
• Do you think Scott knows you?
• Do you think Garland knows you?

( Sermon on the Mount picture)

At the heart of this issue is what it means to know. When Jesus said, “I never knew you.” He was saying, “I never had a relationship with you.” They may have known him in the way many of you know Scott and Garland. They may have known him in the way many of us know people at church, at work, at school, or in any number of settings. Often, when we say we know someone, we mean that we know who they are; we mean that we see them occasionally; we do not mean that we have an ongoing meaningful relationship and connection with them. Do you understand what I’m saying?

When it comes to salvation, being right with God, being in God’s good graces, the key is a relationship, not activity. It’s not what we do for God, or in the name of God that puts us right with him. It’s not what we do at all; it’s what he has already done for us.

The people Jesus dismissed are people who seemed to have impressive resumes that would put them in God’s good graces.

• They were respectful of Jesus.
• They spoke in his name.
• They said they’d driven out demons and performed miracles in Jesus’ name. (Scripture makes clear that false miracles exist. Some are demonic in nature while others are human manipulation.)

The problem is that they seem to have done everything except God’s will. It’s one thing to profess loyalty at the moment; it’s quite another to practice it every day.[2] These folks may have fooled many people, but Jesus always knew the truth that they’d never had a saving relationship with him.[3] Their profession was verbal. It concerned their lips, but not their life.[4]

          Interestingly, Luke records this same section and he quotes Jesus as saying, “Why do you call me Lord and not do what I tell you?”

Scripture is clear that God has put eternity into our hearts. We long for something else, something better, something more substantial than anything in this life can provide. The trouble is that apart from God, we don’t know what we’re longing for, so we try to satisfy that longing with all the wrong things—not necessarily bad things, but temporal things that can never satisfy eternal longings.

Our hearts are crying out for God and we often don’t even know it. Paul wrote that “there is no one righteous, no one; no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:10-11). All have sinned and fallen short of God’s standards (Romans 3:23). The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13).

Paul did not say that everyone who works in the name of the Lord, or who attends church in the name of the Lord, or who gives in the name of the Lord, would be saved; he said everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.

Today’s portion of Scripture is the third of four sections Jesus uses to wrap up the Sermon on the Mount. Each of these sections draws a contrast between only two possibilities…

• The Narrow and Wide Gates
• True and False Prophets
• True and False Disciples
• Wise and Foolish Builders

Each of these sections is essentially a different version of the same message: When it comes to spiritual truth, there are only two options—Jesus, or not Jesus. And only of the options is the correct choice.

With the four conclusions, Jesus told those who would follow him that the way would not be easy. It wouldn’t be the way of the religious leaders. It wouldn’t be the way of religious hypocrites. It wouldn’t be the way of the crowds. It would be God’s way, on God’s terms. And by pointing this out, he was telling them that they had a choice to make. The time for a decision had come.

That is still true today. You and I don’t come to God on our terms, we come on his terms…and his terms are found in the person of Jesus Christ who gave his life to be our Savior.

The only question is, will we follow him on his terms? They begin with acknowledging our sin, believing in God’s gift of grace, confessing our sin, and deciding to follow Christ. They continue as we learn to live our lives on his terms as they are revealed in Scripture. That’s when and where “doing” comes into the picture.

Pastor Kristin has been playing the song, “I Have Decided.” As she begins to sing it, if it is your desire to follow Christ, please stand with me. You might be making that commitment for the first time or you might be renewing your commitment to Christ; it doesn’t matter. Stand and pray with me. Those of you know how to pray, tell God what’s on your heart. If you don’t know how to pray, repeat after me.

[1] Gift. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/gift (accessed: March 17, 2018).

[2] Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel According to Matthew (pp. 178–179). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.

[3] Blomberg, C. (1992). Matthew (Vol. 22, p. 133). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[4] Stott, John. The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (The Bible Speaks Today Series) (pp. 207). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.