02.01.2026 Sunday Sermon – Rev. Jeungbok Lee
Text: Matthew 7:21–23
Title: Those Who Practice Lawlessness
Matthew 7:21–23
“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. 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 workers of lawlessness (those who rebel against the will of God).’”
In the previous sermon, we shared the Word concerning false prophets who prevent God’s people from entering through the narrow gate and walking on the narrow path. With sweet and persuasive words, they capture our hearts and hinder God’s people from entering the narrow gate and walking the narrow way. If we listen to and follow the teachings of false prophets, we will not be able to walk the narrow path of carrying the cross and following the Lord. Therefore, God’s people must always possess discernment to recognize false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing. First, we must pray to God to grant us discernment, and then we must examine the fruit they bear. We must not judge them by whether they please our emotions, whether they are popular, or whether they have large numbers of followers.
We also applied this to ourselves through the illustration of “branches that bear beautiful fruit” being grafted into a “good tree.” Through the disobedience of the first man, Adam, we, his descendants, became fundamentally bad trees. Therefore, we are unable to bear beautiful fruit on our own. However, our gracious God sent Jesus Christ, who is the good tree, and God grafted all who accept Jesus Christ as their only Savior into that good tree. As a result, though we were originally bad branches, having been grafted into the good tree, we are now able to bear the beautiful fruit of the Holy Spirit.
This is today’s message.
1. Those who deceive themselves and say, “Lord, Lord”
If false prophets deceived God’s people with false teachings and prevented them from receiving life, then those who say “Lord, Lord” in today’s passage are people who deceive themselves and thus fail to obtain life.
They were completely unaware that they had no relationship with God until the moment they stood before God’s judgment. This happened because they did not realize that their religious activities were not done according to God’s will but were based on their own standards and self-satisfaction.
1.1) The reason they deceived themselves is that they started from the wrong starting line—“works”
The core of the Christian faith is that salvation is received through faith in Jesus Christ. Human works have no influence whatsoever in the matter of salvation. The only way is to believe in Jesus Christ, whom God has given by grace. However, those who say “Lord, Lord” place the starting point of their faith in their own works.
Matthew 7:21–22
“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. 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?’”
We must take this warning seriously. It tells us that on that day, many people will mistakenly believe they lived as true believers simply because they called on the Lord’s name. Works are the result of salvation, not the condition for salvation, and we must not claim at the judgment seat that we have done God’s will as a basis for salvation. Please remember that no work can earn salvation as a reward from God.
1.2) The starting point of doing God’s will is believing in the One whom God has sent
John 6:28–29
“Then they said to Him, ‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’”
We tend to think of God’s work as something large, such as becoming a missionary or a pastor, or something smaller, such as serving in the church choir or as a teacher. However, the most fundamental work of God is believing in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son whom God has sent. In this sense, everyone who comes to worship with faith is doing God’s work. Service without faith, therefore, is a faith that has gone astray from the very beginning.
1.3) Works without faith cannot please God
Imagine someone who prepares a delicious meal and presents it to the king. However, the king becomes furious and punishes the cook. Why? Because the cook prepared the food with a filthy body emitting a terrible stench, wearing clothes that looked as though they had never been washed, using dirty hands, while constantly coughing and wiping a runny nose. No matter how great his effort was or how delicious the food might have been, to the king it was nothing but a repulsive offering.
Likewise, works done without having one’s sins washed by the blood of Jesus Christ can never please God. Rather, such people will receive the judgment of being “workers of lawlessness.”
Habakkuk 1:13
“You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong.”
1.4) We must clearly understand and be fully convinced why faith must be the starting point
We clearly know that among unbelievers there are people who are highly moral and compassionate. Many such people exist both within the church and in other religions. We also often hear criticism that Christianity claims to be the only path to salvation. However, if the fundamental problem of sin is not resolved, such goodness is no different from the food prepared by the unclean cook in the illustration we just heard.
Therefore, in order to do what pleases our holy God, we must first resolve the problem of sin. No matter how compassionate a sinful human being’s good deeds may be, they are merely like unclean food before a holy God.
2. Who are those who serve in the Lord’s name without faith?
2.1) Those who are naturally diligent and devoted due to their character
This is an area where I myself sometimes feel confused. Some people are naturally kind and compassionate by temperament. Whether they attend church or belong to another organization, such people work very hard. As a result, we often praise them as people of great faith. Some of them even become church leaders and act as prophets, preaching in the Lord’s name. In some cases, they cast out demons in the Lord’s name and perform many mighty works in the Lord’s name. However, because their starting point was not grounded in faith, they will receive the verdict on the last day that they practiced lawlessness by not following God’s will.
2.2) People whom God uses temporarily
Some people, despite having no faith in Jesus, exercise the power to cast out demons in the Lord’s name. Others proclaim God’s prophecy without worshiping God. If we were to evaluate them based on what they do, we would praise them as exemplary believers. However, because they acted in the Lord’s name without faith, they are workers of lawlessness.
Let me give you some examples.
Judas Iscariot — He was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, and in Matthew 10, Jesus sent him out for the sake of the gospel. When Jesus sent out the disciples, He gave them authority to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons (Matt. 10:18). Judas Iscariot, as one of the Twelve, also received this authority and performed signs and miracles. Yet instead of accepting Jesus as his Savior, he betrayed Him.
Jesus’ evaluation of him was this: “It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Matt. 26:24).
Likewise, even today there may be those who perform signs and wonders without accepting Jesus as their Savior. Therefore, we must not place our trust in someone simply because they perform power and miracles in the Lord’s name. Instead, we must first confirm whether they are people of true faith who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Balaam — In Numbers 22, he prophesied like a prophet of God, yet he was a Gentile diviner who did not truly believe in God. He lived at the time when the Israelites, after forty years in the wilderness, arrived on the plains of Moab east of the Jordan. Balaam delivered prophecies that faithfully conveyed God’s words, and he was used as a mouthpiece of God. However, what mattered most to him was material wealth. When King Balak of Moab offered him a great reward to curse Israel, he gladly set out to do so. But God prevented Balaam from cursing Israel and instead made him pronounce blessings. Though he did not serve God, God used Balaam to bless and prophesy over Israel.
In the end, however, Balaam, blinded by greed, advised King Balak to entice the Israelites through Moabite women to commit sexual immorality and worship their gods (Num. 31:16; Rev. 2:14). As a result, the Israelites fell into idolatry and immorality in the plains of Moab. Balaam was eventually killed by the Israelite army, and his name became synonymous with a wicked prophet even in the New Testament.
2.3) Those who obey God based on their own interpretation of His will
1 Samuel 15:20–23
“And Saul said to Samuel, ‘I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.’
And Samuel said, ‘Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.’”
The starting point of pleasing God is faith. Likewise, the life that pleases God is a life of complete obedience to His Word. We must not be like King Saul, who added to and subtracted from God’s commands according to his own thinking. God calls such people disobedient—those who practice lawlessness.
2.4) Even among us, there may be those who work in the Lord’s name without faith
Scripture describes such people as having hearts like rocky soil.
Matthew 13:20–21
“As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself (faith that believes in Jesus Christ as Savior), but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”
Rocky soil does not mean soil mixed with small stones, but soil covering a large rock. If the layer of soil is thick enough, the plant that grows from the seed may survive for a long time—sometimes even for years. But when tribulation and persecution come, it eventually falls because it has no root. There are such people in the church. They serve the church and sing in the choir. However, when they encounter hardship, they give up attending church because they have no faith (no root), and they are ultimately revealed to be fruitless. In some cases, there may even be people who work in the Lord’s name as pastors despite having no root (faith). When they stand before God’s judgment, it may be revealed that they did not do the will of God.
3. Conclusion
Today’s words of Jesus shake us to the core and awaken our faith.
What could be more terrifying than living a religious life calling on the Lord, only to hear Him say, “I never knew you”?
This is not a warning directed at the world, but a warning directed at us who are inside the church. It is a warning to those who worship, serve, dedicate themselves, and even minister in the Lord’s name, yet lack the true root of faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus makes it clear that all such zeal will be revealed on the last day as “lawlessness.”
Therefore, today we must examine ourselves:
Do I truly believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior?
Is the starting point of my faith grace, or works?
Am I living in a relationship of walking with the Lord?
Do I hate sin and live a life of repentance?
Through this examination, beloved brothers and sisters, you will be able to be assured that you possess true faith. That assurance will allow you to receive today’s message not as a message of fear, but as a message of hope. And it will enable you to live today with the hope that, when you stand before the Lord on the last day, you will hear Him say, “I know you.”
As a final exhortation:
Let us not be people who merely cry out, “Lord, Lord,” but people who live as those who do the Father’s will with a confident faith grounded in the assurance of forgiveness of sins. May you become blessed saints who will share in the Lord’s joy on the last day. I bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray. (End)