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“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he 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 I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you evildoers.”  Then you will began to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me.’ But why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?”  Matthew 7:21-23, Luke 13:26-27, Luke 6:46 Greek New Testament (Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition)

This subject has been very heavy on my heart lately.  While walking a country road early this morning in Darrouzett, Texas and seeking the Lord on this matter, the Holy Spirit moved deeply within me and caused me to become even more sober and solemn about these issues that are before us today.  Charles Finney was hated by many because he taught this same teaching everywhere he went.  The teaching I am making reference to is the teaching that not all the Christian’s will make it into heaven in that day. And I’m talking to the “Christians” who choose to live their lives however they see fit after their initial salvation experience.  Many people are “Christians” in name only; for their hearts are far from the Lord.  Yet these have deceived themselves (James 1:22) into thinking that they’re ok and going to make it.  This is an affront to God, and to Christianity in general, and is anti-Christ to the core through and through.  I don’t know what gospel they’re reading but it’s a different gospel than that which was delivered unto me through His word, and in the Spirit.

Please notice in the above scripture text several things:

1. They called Him “Lord.”  Last time I checked 1^st Corinthians 12:3, it said a man cannot call Jesus “Lord” except if it be by the Spirit.  These people who said unto Him, “Lord, Lord” were Christians.  These are people who confessed Him as Lord.  He just wasn’t their Lord.  Like Judas, the Lord was just another  teacher, another prophet, another man to them.  (Judas never called Him Lord).  But Judas healed the sick, cast out devils and did all kinds of things in His name.  Hmmmmmmm…interesting.
2. These ones even prophesied in His name.  Last time I checked 1^st Corinthians 12:8-10, this is one of the nine gifts of the Spirit.  Yes, these people are definitely Christians.  Because only Christians can operate in the true gifts of the Spirit.
3. These people cast out demons in His name.  Last time I read mark 16:17, this was one of the signs that followed a “BELIEVER.”
4. These people were doing many mighty works in His name.  They were in ministry even; they were running food pantries, they were passing out bibles, they were involved in missions and building churches and orphanages, they were teaching God’s word.
5. They ate and drank with Him.  In other words, they even took communion on Sunday mornings when the communion plates came around.
6. They heard Him teach (by Christ speaking through other men) in their streets, in their home towns, in their churches.

These people drew near unto Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.  They were very busy doing things for Him and working for Him, but they never really knew Him.  They never developed a relationship with Him.  When He said to them, “I never knew you,” this word “knew” in the Greek means to have an intimate relationship with.  He tried to have one with them; they just never wanted to have one with Him.  Because in their hearts, they loved their sin and pleasure more than they loved Him.  He said in the above scripture text that they were evildoers.  Jesus said in Matthew that evil is in the heart and comes from the heart.  In other words, these people looked real good on the outside with many leaves to be seen.  But inside they were evil and self-seeking and self-serving and had no fruit to give Him when He came.

But notice His words “but he who does the will of my Father.”  This then should lead us to ask and to search out what His will is.  Let’s read a few verses about what the will of God is for you.  But before we do, I want to give a verse from Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  In other words, if your mind is not renewed, then you cannot know or prove what the will of the Lord is.  So then I admonish you to come out of the world and touch not the wicked thing with your hands, your eyes, your mind, or your heart.  God said to “touch not the unclean thing and then he would receive you.”

1^st Thess. 4:3 says, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his own vessel (your body) in sanctification and honor.”  So then we now know that the will of God is your sanctification.  Brethren (which means sisters also), this is a matter of the heart as it has always been.  If you’re involved in lustful thoughts, pornography, adultery, fornication, sexual vices, lying, stealing, judging your rulers or your spiritual elders, etc; then all these outward signs are just symptoms of an inward sickness.  And if you are involved in these or suchlike, then you will not make it.  I will say it again so that there is no misunderstanding; you will not be allowed into the kingdom of God.  The word has so much to say on this issue, that it would take me two hours of typing verses just out of the New Testament alone to show this.  If a man will just spend the time and read the New Testament through from a decent translation then he would see these things for himself in every single epistle with the exception of a few of them.

 

Yes, it’s true…”God is not willing that any should perish” – but most will according to what the Lord said.

Yes, it’s true…”God is not willing that any of these little ones (children) should perish” – but some will.

Yes, it’s true according to Paul in Romans 11:12 that God will cut you off if you do not continue in His goodness.  Have you forgotten what our brother Jude said in verse 5? “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.”

 

I’m amazed at the amount of people who think that just because they’ve done what Romans 10:9-10 says that they think they are ok.  You should probably look at those verses again very closely and you will notice that they deal with one thing and one thing only…your initial salvation experience.  Because one day a greater than you will come and will take the armor in which you trusted (Luke 11:22).  What is this armor?  An armor is something that covers and gives one a sense of security and protection.  This is the lie that many believe because of false teachers and their own deceived hearts:  that they’re ok if they just believe that Jesus is Lord and that He arose from the dead.  And this is a lie from satan himself, the father of lies. You are to be bearing fruit unto Him, and if you’re not…then according to the words of our Lord Himself your branch will be thrown into the fire.  Now God knows the hearts of all men and according to Proverbs He weighs all things when coming to a conclusion.  He takes into consideration your age, your upbringing, your spiritual acuity to perceive truth, your thoughts, motives, and intents, your conscience, what you were taught and how you were taught…but at the end of the day it is your responsibility to be doing what you know to be doing.

 

Paul, in speaking to the Hebrew Christians in chapter 2 said this, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”  Did you know that most of the “Children” of Israel in the wilderness went to hell?  Why is this?  Because they did not believe Him or His word.  Jesus said that if you believed Him, then you would obey Him.  He also said that if you really loved Him, then you would keep His commandments.

 

Brethren, I can’t tell you how deeply I see this truth.  I see it inside and I see it in His word.  And I have come to see that every single writer of the New Testament addresses this issue.  But yet people are still blind to the truth.  They put their trust in what their own heart says, or what a preacher told them, or what a book told them.  The bottom line is that men love their sin and they love living in it, and many use His name as a cover for their conscience.  And now their consciences are seared over and they’ve lost the conviction that was once there.  Oh…the things that men will do and say to soothe their consciences and excuse their sin.  I have to tell the truth as I see it and as I understand it.  And I see it today as plainly as anything I have ever seen.  Other men have seen this too.  I didn’t understand how they saw it until just recently.  Men like Charles Finney, John Darby, C.H. Spurgeon, Finis Dake, David Wilkerson.  They saw this same truth and spoke on it and wrote on it often.

 

I fear that maybe even some reading this today may not make it.  Only you and the Lord know the real truth.  Isn’t it interesting how all 12 of the disciples on the same night in which the Lord was betrayed asked him “Is it I?” when He said that one of them would betray Him.  Every single one of them had a Godly fear rise up in them as they examined their own hearts and saw that it was possible that it could be any one of them…otherwise they would not have asked Him one by one, “Lord, is it I?”

 

Brethren, I have such a Godly fear of God today that if I were to even try and explain it to you, you would tremble.  When I even think of His sacrifice, I tremble with fear.  When the slightest temptation to sin comes, I tremble with fear at the very thought of offending Him and smearing His sacrifice. It is no longer an issue of battling the temptation, it is an issue of fearing God with every fiber of my being and running from evil as if my very life depended on it.  I have seen the light and it has illuminated my soul, and I pray it will do the same thing in you.  Jesus was heard because He feared God, the scripture tells us.  He feared God!!  Do you fear God today in this way?  Some would say that “perfect love casts out all fear” and to this I would say that you are correct in the context of where that is written and in the context of what is being spoken about.  But when you “see” God…you will have a fear of Him that will change your life for all of eternity.

 

The Jews told the Lord that their father was Abraham.  They trusted in the fact that because they were his offspring they were safe.  But what did the Lord say to them?  “Abraham is not your father, for if he was your father, then you would believe me.” Notice how much trust they put in Abraham and in Moses.  Their trust was based upon a name and this was all.  They were so deceived and deluded.  They actually thought that because they were Abraham’s children then they could live however they wanted and make it into the kingdom of God.  Jesus Himself told them that they would end up in hell because they trusted in the wrong thing.  I fear that many today put their trust in the statement “I’m a child of God, I confessed Jesus as Lord, therefore I’m safe.  You are only “safe” if you love Him with all of your heart and are producing fruit unto Him and obeying Him.  If you don’t love Him this way and if you’re not pursuing a relationship with Him…then I’m afraid you will not make it!!!  See and remember that I have told you the truth.  Some will be angry with me…I don’t care anymore.  I’m answerable to God to say what I feel He wants me to say.  And He has delivered me from the words and the faces of men.  And like Peter and John said, “I cannot help but speak those things which I have seen and heard.”

 

Look at what happened unto the “children” of Israel in the wilderness.  God swore that none of them would enter into His rest because they disbelieved.  How was their disbelief seen?  By their disobedience to His word and what He had commanded them to do and how He had told them to act.  Your actions will far outlive your words.  You will remember what I said in last week’s briefing, “the only difference between the sheep and the goats was what they did…and did not…DO.  No longer put your trust in an experience that happened many years ago if your life is not proving the fruit of that experience.  Brethren, the door to the ark is closing again.  If there is sin in your life and you’re not living right, then repent while there is still time and run from Sodom and never look back.  Read Romans and Hebrews with an open and sincere heart and see if all these things I have said today are not so.  And remember that the “rewards” are based upon our works for the Lord; but whether we even make it or not is based upon our heart towards the Lord.  Next month when I go through the New Testament, I’m going to write all those passages down that pertain to this very issue before us today so that you will see how important it really is and that your very life and soul depend on it.  Even as I write this, my heart is being stirred in song towards His glory:

 

Oh Lord, how can it be,

That some will just not see?

To believe a lie so vile,

To soothe a conscience free

 

Most of the children Lord,

Did fail to enter in

Their hearts were just not towards you Lord

For they surely loved their sin

 

Lord, I would ask today

Their consciences please touch

Your word of truth bring extra light

And for them to love You much

 

All the things in which they’ve trusted Lord

Just show it as a sham

And let them once again repent

And turn towards this Man

 

Do a very searching work

In their hearts and in their mind

Help them to believe again

Quickly Lord…while there’s still time