THE CRY OF THOSE REFUSED ENTRANCE TO THE KINGDOM

THE CRY OF THOSE REFUSED ENTRANCE TO THE KINGDOM

Now look at the cry of those refused entrance in Matthew 7:22: “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’” The cry of the people is an outburst. When Christ in judgment says that not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord,” is in, suddenly there’s an outburst—a plea from the hearts of those people. They cry out and say, “But we’ve done all these things.” Many people are going to hell, eternally disappointed because they thought their religious performance was enough to save them. 

Millions of people depend on their morality, their good deeds, their baptism, their church membership, even their religious feelings. There will be many church workers in hell, many pastors, and sad to say, many teachers in so-called religious schools. I’m sure many of them are going to say to Christ, “Christ, it’s us, we prophesied in Your name.” But Jesus will tear off the sheepskin and lay bare the ravening wolf. That’s exactly what He’s been talking about in Matthew 7:15–20, where He reveals the false prophets—those who claim to have reality and have it not.

Luke 13:25–30 adds tremendous weight to this point: “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.” What a picture of that same day—of those who are cast out because all they had was the name of Christ without the reality of faith in Him. How sad to see them outside crying to gain entrance.

I’m reminded of the people in the days of Noah who must have been doing much the same thing. They were banging on the doors of the ark trying to let Noah know they finally believed what he said was true. They wanted to come in but they could not.

Do you have only a form of godliness? Do you know the Lord personally? Do you see yourself at the Great White Throne with your feeble excuses? Jesus told Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). What does it mean to be born again? It simply means receive Jesus Christ and believe God to make you a new creation, born eternally into His family. 

When Nicodemus came to Christ he had a lot to commend himself for. He was a religious man; he was the teacher in Israel. You would think with all the religious steps he had taken, Christ would have said, “Nicodemus, you’re such a great guy, you’ve gone so far, you’ve had such a fantastic life, you’ve done many wonderful things, all you need to do is take one more giant step and you’re in.” But Christ was really saying, “Nicodemus, you’ve done everything there is to do religiously. Now forget it all, go back and be a baby—be born all over again.” He didn’t need to take another step in the process; he had to start from the beginning.