Matthew 7:21

Matthew 7:21

In Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21 Jesus talks about the danger of being doctrinally sound, without having experienced true salvation in Jesus Christ. Jesus had just warned us that there are false prophets. Now He is warning us that there are false Christians. He is giving the warning so that you may examine yourself to make sure that you are in the faith. He said, "Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

Only God knows for sure who are the real Christians, because true belief is in the heart and only God sees the heart. There will be some surprises in heaven; there is no doubt about that. Some individuals whom everyone thought were the best of Christians will not be there, and some individuals whom everyone thought were the worst of sinners will be in heaven. Remember when Jesus said that the “first shall be last and the last shall be first”?

Jesus said that only those who do the will of the Father shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. What is the one great criteria for determining if a person will be allowed into the kingdom of heaven? Jesus called it "the will of the Father." Is it to keep the Ten Commandments? No. Is it to go to church and to pay your tithes? No. In verse 22 Jesus says that neither is it to prophesy in His name, or to cast out devils in His name, or to do many wonderful works in His name. None of these things could possibly get you into the kingdom of heaven.

But in verse 23 Jesus tells us the one requirement to be allowed into the kingdom of heaven. He said, "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity." The one requirement for entering the kingdom of heaven is to know Jesus Christ. If the Spirit of God has convinced you of your sinfulness and introduced you to Jesus Christ, if you have turned from your sins and turned to Jesus and met Him in that way; then you ‘know Jesus’, and you are one of the few who will be permitted to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Of course knowing Jesus is the beginning of the Christian life. Things do not end with knowing Him. And so Jesus said in Matthew 7:24 and 25, "Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."

Notice first of all that if you follow Jesus you will have some difficult and sometimes painful opposition. Jesus said that the floods will come and the winds will come and beat upon the house. In other words, “All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” And "in the world you shall have tribulation." You will not be kept from the trials that our flesh is heir to. As a matter of fact you will have spiritual opposition if you make it your goal to live according to the philosophy of life that Jesus gave.

If your foundation is Jesus Christ, then no matter how bad it gets and no matter what happens, you can know that the final outcome will be positive; because Jesus said that after the storms came, "it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."

It is important to hear God’s Word. Life will disintegrate without it. Therefore, we read God’s Word, we study it, we memorize key verses, and we listen to others teach it. But it is not enough to hear God’s Word. We must also put it into practice, because Jesus said "whosoever hears these sayings of mine and does them." Whenever you study God’s Word, you must always do so with the intention of applying it to your own life or you will fall into one of the categories of the parable of the sower where the seed did not take root, but was wasted.

Be careful of losing your opportunities to grow in God’s Word. If you have an opportunity to hear His Word, do not take it lightly. Listen to the warning that Jesus gave. In verses 26 and 27 of Matthew chapter 7 Jesus said, "And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

Opportunities to know the Lord or to follow Him more closely must be taken seriously. If you have had such an opportunity, it is because God has singled you out and offered you His guidance. Should you not take it, it may be many sins and many sorrows later before you have such an opportunity again. Proverbs 1: 24, 30, and 31 says, "Because I have called and you refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded;... they would none of my council: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices."

There are so many people in our society today who have major emotional and mental problems. Many of these problems can be traced directly to a departure from the ideas and philosophies taught by Jesus Christ. The philosophies of the world do not work. They destroy. One of the great evidences of the godly origin of the Bible is the fact that its philosophies and teachings work. In practical matters of daily life you will see the teachings of the Bible fulfilled. You can pick up the newspaper almost any day and read about horrible things that people do, and the horrible consequences that they suffer from their actions; and they might as well print in bold letters on the front of the newspaper, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap." Or as Jesus said, "every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man."

Matthew chapter 7:28-29 says, "And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." The Sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. And we are just as astonished by the teachings of Jesus, as these people were who first heard them almost 2,000 years ago.

The scribes were no match for Jesus. Their legal interpretations of the Old Testament, their ceremonies, their rules and regulations were no match for the grace, love, and wisdom found in the teachings of Jesus Christ. It truly was amazing. Jesus spent most of his youth in the small northern Palestine town of Nazareth, doing manual labor in the home of a modest carpenter. He did not attend the theological schools of His day. He did not have riches or power. He was not a king, a general, or the head of any human organization. He did not write any books. He simply spoke the truth as no one had ever done before. And those who seek the truth find in Him, the final and complete fulfillment of their spiritual needs.

Jesus gave us the Sermon on the Mount here in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. If you want to be a follower of Jesus you must return to these teachings often, in order to keep them on your mind and to remember what your goals need to be. Your will find here the greatest of ideals to strive for, and at times the most difficult of challenges; but whenever you succeed, you will also find the greatest of rewards. Whenever you fail, you can be assured that He is willing to forgive you, and to give you once again the same challenge to follow Him. There is so much in the Sermon on the Mount: the beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, the golden rule, the command to love our enemies, the offer of confidence instead of worry and anxiety, the two ways, the two foundations, what He taught on material possessions, judging others, anger, lust, marriage, and the warning against false teachers.

Matthew chapter 8:1 says, "When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him." Not only did Jesus teach, but He also put into practice the things that He taught. In Matthew chapter 8 Jesus has just finished His sermon, and then He went about doing good. He taught us by what He did, as well as by what He said. In each of the incidents in the life of Jesus there are spiritual lessons for us to learn.

The first person that Jesus met when he came down from the mountain was a leper. This meeting of the leper with Jesus is told in Matthew 8:2, 3, and 4. "And behold there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you will you can make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said unto him, See thou tell no man: but go thy way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them."

There are several things that we can learn from the leper. There is the faith that the leper put in Jesus. The leper knew that he had a serious problem, and he knew that Jesus could solve any problem, and so he said to Jesus, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." Jesus is still a miracle worker. There is nothing too hard for Him. We can come to Jesus just like the leper did, knowing that He has the power to solve any problem, and to help us no matter what our distress.

Leprosy has been a terrible disease during most of the history of the human race. It is only recently that an effective treatment for the disease has been used. Often lepers were outcast and confined to leper colonies for the entire duration of their lives. I recently saw a documentary about a leper colony on a small island of the Hawaiian Islands, and a few of the lepers who were originally banished to that island still live there. You may have read the book or seen the movie “Ben Hur.” In that book, the mother and sister of the main character contracted leprosy and suffered horribly as outcast inmates of a leper colony. As if the sufferings of their disease was not enough, lepers also suffered the agony of being rejected and despised and isolated from the rest of the human race.

This leper had probably been accustomed to people withdrawing from him, being afraid of him, and rejecting him. Such a striking contrast it must have been when Jesus welcomed him. Verse three says, "And Jesus put forth His hand and touched him."

We are all like the leper in a symbolic way, because we all have the disease of sin. The disease of sin will mar our souls and our spirits. The disease of sin is a horrible and frightful disease that will result in us being banned forever from the Kingdom of God, unless we have the good fortune of being touched by Jesus; because there are no cures for the disease of sin except for the miracle of forgiveness. If we come to Jesus and say, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean", we know that His answer will be, "I will, be thou clean."

After Jesus had touched and cleansed the leper, Jesus gave the man his first instruction. In verse 4 of Matthew 8 Jesus said, "See you tell no man." If you have ever looked at gospel pamphlets, you have probably noticed that often after explaining the gospel, the author will give a list of things to do for someone who has become a new convert. Never will you see listed what Jesus told this man. The real lesson is that you are an individual and God’s will for you is in many ways going to be different than God’s will for someone else.

There must always be a place for freedom and individuality in the following of Christ. One of the big problems with creeds, theologies, ceremonies, and denominations is that people can get too easily tied up in doing and saying things because of the traditions of men, and not because of being led by the Spirit of God.

The second person that Jesus met after finishing the Sermon on the Mount was a Roman Centurion, a soldier who was in charge of 100 men. The story is told in 9 verses, Matthew 8: 5-13. Let’s read those verses now. "And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum there came unto Him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Truly I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, "Go thy way; and as you have believed, so be it done unto you." And his servant was healed at the same hour.”

Just as we learned from the leper, we also learn from the Roman centurion. There are several things about the leper and the centurion that are similar. They both came to Jesus. They were both outcasts of a sort. A Roman soldier would have been hated by most of the Jews in the Palestine of 2000 years ago. Both situations involve a disastrous physical condition, the leprosy of the leper and the paralysis of the centurion’s servant. And both men had faith in Jesus. As a matter of fact the faith of the centurion was so strong that Jesus made an amazing statement about him. In verse 10 Jesus said, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." Out of all the people who lived in Palestine during the time of Jesus, this man, who was not even a Jew, had the greatest faith of all.

The leper and the Roman soldier had faith. Jesus said that they would sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Abraham was called the father of faith. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived before the law was even given. The requirement to please God and to enter the kingdom of heaven has always been the same. It was the same before the law was given, it was the same when the Israelites lived under the law, and it is the same now in this time when we wait for the return of Jesus Christ. The requirement is faith. Everyone who ends up in the kingdom of heaven will have this one thing in common: they had faith. And everyone who is kept out of the kingdom of heaven will have this one thing in common: they had no faith.

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