Depart From Me I Never Knew You...How To Know That Won't Be You | ask Theocast

If you ever wondered at the end of your life, you were going to hear those dreaded words from Jesus, depart from me, I never knew you. You should probably stick around. We're going to look at Romans 7 and we're going to show you how that passage should actually give you hope and not fear.

Jesus’s Warning in Matthew 7 Is for the Self-Righteous

Stay tuned. Hi, I'm John. I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church and host of Theocast. This is Ask Theocast, where we answer your questions from a Reformed and pastoral perspective. If you find this video helpful, be sure to hit that like button, that helps us out, and subscribe and hit the notification bell.

That lets you know when our next video comes out. This is a question we get quite often and I have heard this asked over the last six to seven years and I've heard all kinds of different explanations and I've heard people tell me they've heard all kinds of sermons on this.

And the best way for me to answer this for you is to actually walk you through Jesus's words and allow them to speak to you the truth. Matthew 7 should actually give you hope. It should not make you afraid.

Most people hear these words, depart from me, I never knew you, because they think Jesus is talking about their performance and they didn't perform well enough or their faith wasn't genuine or they didn't say the prayer right or they weren't baptized right.

I mean, it depends on your denominational background of what it is that you're worried about Jesus casting you away. But who is Jesus casting away? He clearly is somebody away. He's rejecting them. It's probably helpful to know who he's rejecting and in the end, you're going to hopefully realize that you don't meet that category, especially if you're worried about it.

Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged

So in chapter 7 verse 1, Jesus begins right away pinpointing who he's talking to. He says, judge not lest ye be judged. And who is it that loves to judge people? It's not someone who's worried about their salvation.

Typically, it's self-righteous people and that's exactly who Jesus is going after. He's going after those who see themselves as righteous enough to not need Jesus as their righteousness. I'm just going to say that up front.

We're going to let the text prove it here in a minute. For with judgment you pronounce you will be judged and with the measure you use it, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your eye?

So, he's talking to the religious, self-righteous Pharisees, those who are standing by, and he's like, yeah, you're doing a great job of pointing out the problems of the sinners of those who follow me, but you can't even see the massive problem that is preventing you from coming to me.

And he even says, or how can you say to your brother, let me take out the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your eye? You hypocrite. First take out the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Hypocrite towards what? He's saying those of you who think you're righteous, you need to repent of your righteousness. You are not righteous. And then he says something very interesting. He says, do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

What does he mean by that? Well, you have to kind of keep reading, but his point is the hope of Christ to those who are self-righteous, it's like throwing it to dogs. It's like throwing it among pigs because they don't see its value.

It's a waste. So, let's keep going. He says this in verse 7, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened unto you. For everyone who asks, receive. And the one who seeks, find.

And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Do you know what righteous people don't do? They don't go to the Father and they don't ask of him what they need because they have provided it and produced it himself.

So, to the weary and to those who think that this may not be appropriate, he says, or which one of you, if his son asks of him bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will he give him a serpent?

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? What does he call them? He says they're evil because that's the description of how they should see themselves.

And it is true. We are evil in comparison to who Christ is and what we need of Christ. So, listen, Jesus is going to go ahead and just lay down the law to the point to where you are suffocated by it and the only solution is to abandon self and cling to Jesus.

The Narrow Gate, False Prophets, and the Call to True Righteousness

Verse 12, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them for this the law and the prophets. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.

And those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few. He is not saying it's, well, those who can figure it out or those who work hard enough.

He is making a comparison saying it's only those who are truly righteous who find it. And who are the righteous? Well, it's not those who are self-righteous. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So, he is pointing out, he's saying these people who are claiming righteousness, who are claiming to be the prophets, they are wolves and sheeps.

And he says, pay attention to their fruit because their fruit is the evidence that they aren't producing the righteousness that comes from Christ, but they're producing the righteousness that comes from the flesh.

So, he says, thus recognize them by their fruits in verse 20. And right after the false teachers, who does he point to? This self-righteousness. Now, he deals with the actual passage that we've all heard and been afraid of.

“I Never Knew You” and the Works of Lawlessness

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. And on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?

And they will declare to them, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Oh man, so powerful. He's saying those who do the work of the Father, those are the ones who make it in and those who don't.

And what is the work of the Father that sent him? The way in which he describes it as it relates to the kingdom, it's those who believe and put their trust in Christ. It has nothing to do with their performance.

It has everything to do with Jesus. Why would Jesus say there are certain works that gain you righteousness into heaven and reject their righteousness? Because your own righteousness cannot get you into the kingdom.

And so he points to their claiming of righteousness and says, it's full of lawlessness. It's full of sin. In the end, who does Jesus point to? Where does he finally end this conversation? He points to himself and he says this, everyone who then hears these words of mine and does them, does what?

Believes in Jesus. Because what has he told us to do at this point? If you go back, what is he pointing to? He is the source of our salvation. So it can't be, if there's any work that gains us salvation, then we are saved by works, not by faith.

But Jesus is the embodiment of our redemption. So he says this, he is like a wise man who built his house on a rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house. And who's the house?

Christ is the house. But it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

When the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, it fell and it was a great fall of it. So Christ, our rock, sorry I misspoke, but not the house, Christ is our rock.

And where do we build our foundation? Where do we find our hope? It's Jesus. And if you don't build your hope on Christ, you have not the foundation that will stand in the day of trials, what he's saying.

Confidence in Christ, Not in Our Works

So ultimately, he is talking about two people in this whole entire illustration of Matthew 7. Those who are self-righteous, who are judging, who see not the need to seek God through Christ, who point to their own self-righteousness as the way in which they shall enter in the narrow gate, and those who see themselves as sinners, and those who see themselves as without righteous, who see themselves as evil, and reach out to the Father through Christ and say, we build our hope on Christ the solid rock.

At that point, we can have full confidence. He will never say to us, I never knew you. So we go back to John 6 at this point, and he says, all that the Father gives to me will come to me, and all who come to me I will never cast out.

And how do we know that we have come to Christ? Well, John, if we back up even farther, John 3 says that if we believe on him who was sent, that's how we know. It's our faith, not in our righteousness, but it's our faith in Christ's righteousness on our behalf.

That's how we know. Hopefully this is encouraging to you. If you truly believe that you are a sinner, you cannot save yourself. Your righteousness has no value. Even after your salvation, you should never look to your obedience as to the ground of your salvation.

It can encourage you. It can strengthen your faith, but it's not why you're saved, and it's not how you're going to be saved. I would encourage you to go watch our video we did on the perseverance of the saints or the preservation of the saints, where we talk about it's God who preserves you, not your good works.

So at the end of your life, Jesus is going to say, I never knew you because you didn't do enough works, or you weren't faithful enough, or your faith wasn't strong enough or genuine enough. I'll leave you with this one question.

How much faith do you need in order for you to prove or to see that you truly are the child of God? How much faith does Jesus say you have to have? Well, he uses the idea of the faith of a mustard seed, but I would answer that any faith.

If you can say that Jesus is my only hope, and without him I am damned forever, then you cannot say that on your own power. The spirit had to give it to you. Trust in the words of Christ. The self-righteous shall not be saved, but only those who trust in the Christ, the righteousness of Christ.

Hopefully this was helpful. We'll see you next time.