St Matthew 7:15-23/Jeremiah 23:16-29/Romans 8:12-17
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven.
We need to let these words have their way with us. Let them sink deep into our fallen, perverse flesh. Let them route out all that lurks within our depraved hearts and minds. And then, by God’s grace, spew that vile from our mouths in Confession and be cleansed from without by the sweet Word of Absolution.
The popular view of heaven, perpetuated by television specials, is that all decent people go there when they die. It is not so. Heaven is not the repository of all the dead minus the truly heinous; the Hitlers and Stalins and Dahmers of the world. Heaven is not even the abode of most of the dead, sadly. For most men in this world do not cry to Jesus, “Lord, Lord.”
And without Him, apart from His Name, no one enters heaven. It does not matter how pious or sincere or good a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Mormon is. No one comes to the father except through the Son. There is no other Name under heaven by which we are saved.
Repent. Heed the warning. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons. “As surely as I live,” God says, “I would not see the sinner dead. I want him turned from errors ways, repentant, living endless days.” (LSB 614:1)
The reality is sin is a wily seductress. She corrupts the hearts of men. She turns father and husbands into craven, lying, sneaks who seek their thrills in the dark and destroy their children and their wives. It is not merely the arrogant, or the rich, or the weak who are susceptible. It strikes the Ministers and the Laity, men and women, adults and children, rich and poor. Sin turns us inward, fills us with anger, lust, and greed. It never delivers. It never satisfies. It only breeds discontent while it hardens consciences with multiple excuses.
Repent. Pornography kills. Gossip destroys. Pride crushes all virtue. No man can stand up again the Law. It is a standard, a demand, too perfect and too holy for us. Any comparison, any measurement we make with our lives is damning. The Laws always accuses us; always kills. Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven.
But notice this: those who are saved, those who are entering into the kingdom of heaven, are not saved by saying, “Lord, Lord;” by pointing to their works: Did WE not prophesy, did WE not cast out demons, did WE not do many mighty works? No. Those who are being saved, who are entering the kingdom of heaven, are those doing the will of the Father who is in heaven.
Jesus is playing with words here. Consider our Lord’s words to His disciples after feeding the five thousand: 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.” What can you do to enter heaven? Nothing. To do the work of God is to do nothing. It is only to believe, that is, to receive the One whom He has sent to be a sacrifice for your sin. It is not to cast out demons and feed the poor and prophesy. It is to have demons cast out of you by Holy Baptism and Holy Absolution. It is to be fed in the Holy Eucharist. It is to hear the preaching of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of your sins.
Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s skins. Inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You’ll know they by their fruits. Wolf trees produce wolf fruit. Sheep trees produce sheep fruit.
That is to say, as Jeremiah proclaimed, “False prophets preach false doctrine. Stay away from them. Don’t listen to them.” They are ravenous wolves. Ravenous wolves devour. They eat. How can you tell a wolf in sheep’s skin? Not by his actions, for he hides himself among the flock. But by his voice. False prophets preach false doctrine. They scratch itching ears and stroke fleshly egos. You do not hear the Good Shepherd’s voice when they preach. And though they claim to love the Law, since they point to their works, Jesus confesses to them, Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.
So where can those abused by ravenous wolves find rest? Where can those broken by the Law find healing? Where is help for those who cannot help themselves, who are accused and dying? Rest here, ye weary ones, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, the True Prophet. Hear His voice through the mouth of His prophets.
He has come into the world and taken up your Flesh in order to fulfill the Law for you, in its entirety. He has not come to condemn you or accuse you. He has come to save you. He has reconciled you to the Father. He has declared you righteous. Not for any merit or worthiness or faith in you; not by your calling out, “Lord, Lord,” but from His Fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy alone. He has intervened on your behalf. He has done the work of God for you.
For the will of His Father for you is that you turn from sin, repent, confess, and throw yourself upon His mercy. The will of His Father for our Lord is that He go to the Cross as a sacrifice for your sins and that His love wash and cleanse you until you are Holy as He is. He has called you by name, brought you to Himself through the waters of Holy Baptism. He has planted and nourished your faith.
It is not the will of the Father that you will pay for or even answer for your sins. The Lord has answered for you. His will is that Jesus do your work and pay your penalty so that you would receive the benefit and reward. Those that do the Father’s will, that is, those who are washed in His Blood, who eat and drink the gift of the Holy Cross, the cup of wrath turned to the Cup of Salvation, they enter and abide in the kingdom of heaven. By grace they call Him, “Lord,” but only after He has called them by His Name.
Dear friends, you are there now, in the Kingdom. For behold, the kingdom comes when your heavenly Father gives you His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace, you believe His Holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. In other words, His kingdom comes to you when His Word is faithfully preached. And by His Word He gives you His Holy Spirit, and He Himself bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. His Word of forgiveness, God the Holy Spirit, preach to your troubled conscience that you are redeemed, forgiven. It gives you a good conscience, a clean conscience.
Sin is dangerous and it is frustrating. Living by faith is a gut check, a test of patience and endurance; suffering with Christ that we may also be glorified with Him.
Lawlessness is always a temptation. It tries to tell us that we Christians are missing out, being denied something, that the pleasures of the flesh could be ours and could satisfy. And many a false prophet will scratch our itching ears with whisper that these things are okay; that God just wants you to be happy; It shall be well with you.
But it is a lie. The girls in the pictures aren’t interested in you. The guy who supplies your pills is not your friend. Your live-in fiancé does not love you or he would not be destroying your reputation and serving his own lust. You need the Law to have its way with you. You need to be accused and exposed so that you would see your desperate situation for what it is and cry out to the only One who can help you, the only One who does love you, the only One who saves: Jesus Christ our Lord.
You do not cry, “Lord, Lord, look what I have done,” but you cry out, “Lord, have mercy!” And our Lord wields the hammer of His Law for the sake of mercy. He kills in order that He might give life.
And the Tree of the Cross has produced the greatest fruit of all – even the very elixir of Life, the Body and Blood of the Son of God. By faith you are grafted into this Tree and He into you. Come, while His kingdom is here, eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins, and yearn evermore for that Day, when He shall not say, Depart, but Come, you blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven.
We need to let these words have their way with us. Let them sink deep into our fallen, perverse flesh. Let them route out all that lurks within our depraved hearts and minds. And then, by God’s grace, spew that vile from our mouths in Confession and be cleansed from without by the sweet Word of Absolution.
The popular view of heaven, perpetuated by television specials, is that all decent people go there when they die. It is not so. Heaven is not the repository of all the dead minus the truly heinous; the Hitlers and Stalins and Dahmers of the world. Heaven is not even the abode of most of the dead, sadly. For most men in this world do not cry to Jesus, “Lord, Lord.”
And without Him, apart from His Name, no one enters heaven. It does not matter how pious or sincere or good a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Mormon is. No one comes to the father except through the Son. There is no other Name under heaven by which we are saved.
Repent. Heed the warning. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons. “As surely as I live,” God says, “I would not see the sinner dead. I want him turned from errors ways, repentant, living endless days.” (LSB 614:1)
The reality is sin is a wily seductress. She corrupts the hearts of men. She turns father and husbands into craven, lying, sneaks who seek their thrills in the dark and destroy their children and their wives. It is not merely the arrogant, or the rich, or the weak who are susceptible. It strikes the Ministers and the Laity, men and women, adults and children, rich and poor. Sin turns us inward, fills us with anger, lust, and greed. It never delivers. It never satisfies. It only breeds discontent while it hardens consciences with multiple excuses.
Repent. Pornography kills. Gossip destroys. Pride crushes all virtue. No man can stand up again the Law. It is a standard, a demand, too perfect and too holy for us. Any comparison, any measurement we make with our lives is damning. The Laws always accuses us; always kills. Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven.
But notice this: those who are saved, those who are entering into the kingdom of heaven, are not saved by saying, “Lord, Lord;” by pointing to their works: Did WE not prophesy, did WE not cast out demons, did WE not do many mighty works? No. Those who are being saved, who are entering the kingdom of heaven, are those doing the will of the Father who is in heaven.
Jesus is playing with words here. Consider our Lord’s words to His disciples after feeding the five thousand: 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.” What can you do to enter heaven? Nothing. To do the work of God is to do nothing. It is only to believe, that is, to receive the One whom He has sent to be a sacrifice for your sin. It is not to cast out demons and feed the poor and prophesy. It is to have demons cast out of you by Holy Baptism and Holy Absolution. It is to be fed in the Holy Eucharist. It is to hear the preaching of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of your sins.
Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s skins. Inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You’ll know they by their fruits. Wolf trees produce wolf fruit. Sheep trees produce sheep fruit.
That is to say, as Jeremiah proclaimed, “False prophets preach false doctrine. Stay away from them. Don’t listen to them.” They are ravenous wolves. Ravenous wolves devour. They eat. How can you tell a wolf in sheep’s skin? Not by his actions, for he hides himself among the flock. But by his voice. False prophets preach false doctrine. They scratch itching ears and stroke fleshly egos. You do not hear the Good Shepherd’s voice when they preach. And though they claim to love the Law, since they point to their works, Jesus confesses to them, Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.
So where can those abused by ravenous wolves find rest? Where can those broken by the Law find healing? Where is help for those who cannot help themselves, who are accused and dying? Rest here, ye weary ones, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, the True Prophet. Hear His voice through the mouth of His prophets.
He has come into the world and taken up your Flesh in order to fulfill the Law for you, in its entirety. He has not come to condemn you or accuse you. He has come to save you. He has reconciled you to the Father. He has declared you righteous. Not for any merit or worthiness or faith in you; not by your calling out, “Lord, Lord,” but from His Fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy alone. He has intervened on your behalf. He has done the work of God for you.
For the will of His Father for you is that you turn from sin, repent, confess, and throw yourself upon His mercy. The will of His Father for our Lord is that He go to the Cross as a sacrifice for your sins and that His love wash and cleanse you until you are Holy as He is. He has called you by name, brought you to Himself through the waters of Holy Baptism. He has planted and nourished your faith.
It is not the will of the Father that you will pay for or even answer for your sins. The Lord has answered for you. His will is that Jesus do your work and pay your penalty so that you would receive the benefit and reward. Those that do the Father’s will, that is, those who are washed in His Blood, who eat and drink the gift of the Holy Cross, the cup of wrath turned to the Cup of Salvation, they enter and abide in the kingdom of heaven. By grace they call Him, “Lord,” but only after He has called them by His Name.
Dear friends, you are there now, in the Kingdom. For behold, the kingdom comes when your heavenly Father gives you His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace, you believe His Holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. In other words, His kingdom comes to you when His Word is faithfully preached. And by His Word He gives you His Holy Spirit, and He Himself bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. His Word of forgiveness, God the Holy Spirit, preach to your troubled conscience that you are redeemed, forgiven. It gives you a good conscience, a clean conscience.
Sin is dangerous and it is frustrating. Living by faith is a gut check, a test of patience and endurance; suffering with Christ that we may also be glorified with Him.
Lawlessness is always a temptation. It tries to tell us that we Christians are missing out, being denied something, that the pleasures of the flesh could be ours and could satisfy. And many a false prophet will scratch our itching ears with whisper that these things are okay; that God just wants you to be happy; It shall be well with you.
But it is a lie. The girls in the pictures aren’t interested in you. The guy who supplies your pills is not your friend. Your live-in fiancé does not love you or he would not be destroying your reputation and serving his own lust. You need the Law to have its way with you. You need to be accused and exposed so that you would see your desperate situation for what it is and cry out to the only One who can help you, the only One who does love you, the only One who saves: Jesus Christ our Lord.
You do not cry, “Lord, Lord, look what I have done,” but you cry out, “Lord, have mercy!” And our Lord wields the hammer of His Law for the sake of mercy. He kills in order that He might give life.
And the Tree of the Cross has produced the greatest fruit of all – even the very elixir of Life, the Body and Blood of the Son of God. By faith you are grafted into this Tree and He into you. Come, while His kingdom is here, eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins, and yearn evermore for that Day, when He shall not say, Depart, but Come, you blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. Amen.
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