They did miracles in Jesus’ name. And they go to hell.
“I never knew you.”
Those are four of the most disturbing words in the Bible. As they should be. They are the chilling conclusion of a warning Jesus gives near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 7:21-23.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’’’
Probably the biggest reason those words are so disturbing is that they’re spoken to Christians.
Now by that term I don’t mean genuine, born-again followers of Christ. That’s not whom Jesus is speaking to. He didn’t cease knowing them; He said He never knew them.
He’s speaking to people who thought they were Christians and were likely thought by others to be Christians.
Therefore, we can take from this that some people who we think are saved are not.
That in itself is a foreign notion in the modern church. It simply does not occur to many of us that there is such a thing as false believers. Most of us never talk about that, and some of us are offended by the notion.
To us, all one has to do is say the name of Jesus, and they’re one of us. “If you love Jesus, we’re on the same team,” as Rick Warren said. Their credentials are further solidified if they have a famous ministry, are a major denomination or movement, or (and this is a big one) are celebrities. Celebrities don’t even have to say “Jesus”; the utterance of “God” gets them in. A single Christian-ish quote from a secular celebrity jumps them to the front of our attention span, ahead of the most godly theologians of all time.
Related video: How God defines Christian unity and division
We’ve lowered the bar so much that even a serpent can make it over. We’ve drastically widened the narrow road, and left the gate wide open and unattended.
Let’s look at the bar set by Jesus in Matthew 7. We see several characteristics of those whom He damns:
There are many of them
These aren’t fringe cultists. These aren’t the crazies who proclaim they’re Jesus Christ returned.
These are the mainstream. These are people in your churches. Respectable. Friendly. Popular.
They know the Bible, at least the out-of-context cliche verses.
These are people whose damnation would shock us — as it shocks them.
We can deduce all this from the further characteristics Jesus ascribes to them:
They called Jesus ‘Lord’
They weren’t vague about their faith. They weren’t shy with the name of Jesus.
They looked and sounded like Jesus-loving Christians.
They were good counterfeits, for a good counterfeit must look like the real thing. Jesus used several metaphors for those who appear to be believers on the outside but are dead on the inside: Wolves in sheep’s clothing. Whitewashed tombs.
They were inside the church walls, tares growing among the wheat.
But the church at large today does not bother to know the difference between right and almost right, as Charles Spurgeon put it. We’re happy to judge by appearances, like Samuel did when he said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him!” (1 Samuel 16:6).
They ministered in Jesus’ name
These people weren’t pew warmers. They were ministers, and they ministered in the name of Jesus.
That bears repeating, if only because it’s so stunning: These people who preached the name of Jesus go to hell.
As ministers, they have a following. Christians like them. Christians listen to their music, read their books, follow them on Twitter. Christians will get defensive if you raise questions about them.
They’re the teachers who turn itching ears away from the truth, as Paul warned Timothy.
Why are they popular? Well, there’s at least one thing that draws a following then and now: Signs and wonders.
They’re charismatics
They prophesied. They cast out demons. They did many wonders.
Jesus obviously isn’t talking about the John MacArthurs of the church.
Another disclaimer: I do not believe that all charismatics are lost, or that there aren’t any cessationists who are false believers. There certainly are.
But Jesus chose this wing of the apostasy for His teaching, and it’s a wing that is correlated with apostasy several other times in Scripture. False christs (anointed ones) and false prophets will show signs and wonders (Matthew 24:24), leading up to antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:9) and his prophet (Revelation 13:13).
The enemy uses signs and wonders because to many, they’re an irrefutable proof. We think, “They perform miracles, they must be for real!” That's how these condemned souls thought, too, because miracles were their defense. Don’t ever think that.
I’m not a full cessationist, but if I had to err, I’d much rather err on that side.
If God still performs signs and wonders, awesome, but as a church, we don’t need them. We have the unmatchable power of the full Gospel, and the sufficient equipping of the complete Scriptures. That is our sword against the enemy, but we are warned over and over that miracles are in his arsenal of deception.
They practiced lawlessness
One of the heresies popular among some charismatics is sometimes referred to as hypergrace.
It perverts the truth of salvation by grace alone into the idea that repentance, conviction and obedience have no part in the Christian life. Any suggestion that God wills for His children to obey Him is treated as “legalism” or “religion,” and those who preach that are “Pharisees.”
While hypergrace believers might not say so, they basically treat the entire written word as if it were the law of Moses: We’re not bound to it, they believe; not even the teachings of Jesus. Instead, they follow their prophecies, dreams and visions for guidance and governance.
This rejection of Scripture is lawlessness. So obviously ...
They didn’t do God’s will
There are a couple ways to interpret this, and both are relevant to us.
The first is the certainty of sanctification, of how we live our lives as followers of Christ. The people in this passage may have been hearers of the word but not doers, thus deceiving themselves.
To be sure, works are not the cause of our salvation, but are the evidence of it, so much so that we’re identified by them. The difference between the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 is the works they did. God works in His people to do His good pleasure. The Holy Spirit bears fruit, and the branches that do not are thrown into the fire.
But as we’ve seen, these people were active ministers; they did works. So the second approach is that the works they did were not God’s will. They were their own.
They set the agenda. They did what was right in their own eyes. They gave people what they wanted.
They bore fruit, but it was bad fruit, a telltale sign Jesus teaches earlier in Matthew 7.
They added to Scripture, perhaps calling it a “box,” or that God was “bigger” than that. Their prophecies were not from God, but they claimed them as revelation, as something “new.”
But the Bereans teach us that Scripture is the ultimate standard of authenticity (Acts 17:11). Nothing is from God unless verified in the written word.
We are not free to worship as we choose; we are called to worship in spirit and in truth. His word is truth.
The Bible includes stunning stories of judgment when those who knew God worshiped Him outside of His will: Cain. The sons of Aaron. The golden calf.
Of course, that’s evidence that they really didn’t know Him at all.
Jesus did not know them
One of the most common words charismatics preach is relationship. They’re all about a relationship with Jesus, not a religion.
It is a relationship, of course. But what we see in this teaching is the relationship must be founded upon the word of God, on hearing it and doing it.
If the relationship they speak of drifts from the boundaries of Scripture, then they are forsaking the relationship that Jesus defines. In that case, they have no relationship with Him other than judgment. They do not know Him, and that means He does not know them.
They are false converts. They think they’re saved, others think they’re saved, but they’re not.
So, what should we do?
Examine
The purpose of this writing is not to make you doubt your salvation. God wants His children to have assurance.
One of the ways He imparts that assurance is teaching us to examine ourselves, “to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). An examination is a test, and here are some questions we should quiz ourselves with:
Is your faith rooted in the Scriptures, or do you chase mystical encounters and experiences?
Would you be content if you never saw a miracle?
Are the Scriptures enough for you, or do you seek more revelation — something new?
Does a deeper relationship with the Lord mean going beyond the Bible?
Do you think clinging strictly to the written text is putting God in a box?
If you had to defend your Christianity, would you appeal to your ministry as proof?
Do you consider ministries to be genuine because they’re popular?
Judge
We also must examine others. And yes, I mean judge.
“Judge not!” you say. The cherry-picking of Matthew 7:1 is a prime example of how the false believers described here rip verses and half-verses out of context. Just like “touch not the Lord's anointed!” That’s how these wolves keep the deceived sheep in line.
We know “judge not” does not mean we should refrain from examining and, if necessary, correcting errant beliefs. We know this because the word of God repeatedly commands us to do so.
By instruction and example, God tells us in His word to examine everything carefully (1 Thessalonians 5:21), test the spirits (1 John 4:1), judge prophecies (1 Corinthians 14:29), search the Scriptures to see whether something is true (Acts 17:11) and beware of false prophets (Matthew 7:15, the same chapter that begins with “Judge not”).
Here are some helpful questions when examining others:
Are their ministries known for their Bible teaching, or prophecy and miracles?
Do they claim new revelation?
Do they place an emphasis on consumeristic words like “experience”?
Do they employ creative methods, thinking the Bible is outdated for today’s culture?
Do they defend their beliefs by shifting the burden of proof to the critics (“How do you know it’s not God”)?
Do they consider obedience to the Scriptures to be legalism?
Do they call critics Pharisees?
How popular are they, and why?
Do they fit the profile from Jesus’ warning in this passage?
If we find falsehood in our examination, then our orders are to note and avoid them (Romans 16:17), do not receive them (2 John 9), do not put up with them (2 Corinthians 11:4). Zero tolerance. These are all things many Christians call judging, so a good first step is to stop abusing that verse.
The firm foundation
God gives us these tests out of His tender, loving care for His sheep, to protect us. He fills His word with these warnings so we will not be deceived by those who come to steal, kill and destroy, who enter the sheepfold by some other way. We need to stop ignoring them, so we will not hear those four horrifying words.
Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount with an illustration of the difference between the saved and the lost: His word. “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock,” He said (Matthew 7:24). His word is the rock on which we stand. His word is our firm foundation. If we heed it, we will not fall.
Conversely, if we stray from His words, our fall will be great (verse 27). Our house will collapse, because it had no rock, and never did.
That is the Lord’s teaching on how to be granted entrance to an everlasting, joyful rest with Him: Stick to the Scriptures. May we never wander from them.
