VALUELESS
PROFESSION
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom
of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. “Many will
say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your
name perform many miracles?” Matt.
7:21-22
This is one of the most solemn things the King of John 13:13 ever said.
Profession of allegiance is absolutely valueless. We all
believe that. To hear the law and words of God, and to disobey, is the most
terrible kind of profanity of which man can be guilty. This does not need
arguing, but simply restating, because of its terrible solemnity and its most
searching application. You have perhaps heard somewhere of men and women using
profane language, and you have said, they are taking the name of God in vain;
it is a terrible sin. It is. But when you prayed, “Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done," unless you had let His Kingdom come in your life,
your profanity was worse than the profanity of the man on the street, your
blasphemy was more terrible than the blasphemy of the child of the slum. Jesus
said, "In that day"—the
light of which flames over all these days if we have but eyes to see—"In that day" He will say to
the man who says, "Lord, Lord,"
but does not obey Him, "I never knew
you." Yes, the blasphemy of the sanctuary is more awful than the
blasphemy of the street.
To pray, "Lord,
Lord," and to disobey Him, is of the very essence of villainy. That is
what Judas did; kissed Him, and betrayed Him! If these words of Jesus have
startled us with their severity; let us know that there is a profound reason
for that severity.
Finally as to the issue. This, perhaps,
is a more searching word still. "Many
will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by
Thy name cast out demons, and by Thy name do many mighty works? And then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work
iniquity."
Listen to what they say. "We have done." Yes, they had
done everything but the Lord's will.
They had hoped to make up for disobedience to His will, in personal
life, by doing many things for Him in their church, their city, and in the
world. Mark well what the King said of the whole of such activity. "Workers of iniquity."
So that if it should be that we who
have prophesied in His name, yet disobey Him in the individual and personal
matters of our own life; if we should preach about these Words of Wisdom of the
King, and yet not submit to the King in all the details of our life; what then?
Our preaching is iniquity, our casting out of demons is a sin. All service is
rejected, except the service rendered by such as are themselves doing the will
of God. Christ will say to such; "I
never knew you," which does not mean, I did not know about you, I do
not know your name, I did not watch your life; but, "I never knew you;" there was no intimacy, no comradeship,
no fellowship between us. You took My name to make your name; you took My name
to work your miracles; you took My name for certain self-centered purposes; but
you did not know Me, and I did not know you.
Here is the imperial King, in these
last utterances of His Words and Wisdom, standing in the light of "that day" which is to
be—claiming His throne, His pre-tribulational work, claiming that His verdict
will be the final one, claiming that the final sentences will fall from His own
lips.
What shall we do in the presence of
these words? We had better take ourselves to some lonely secret chamber and
read them all again. We had better say, have we ever come through the strait
gate? Have we been misled by some false spirit of prophecy, which says the
correct thing, and lives the wrong life? Have we been saying, "Lord, Lord," and failing to
do the will?
Do you think this is all hard and
harsh? It is the hardness and the harshness of the Infinite love. “Narrow is
the gate, straitened is the way—" beware of anything that is false in
the prophet, beware of saying, "Lord,
Lord." Let the light of "that
day" flash; and the thunder of it arrest; and the fire of it
affright; yet know that He will save us from the things that harm and blight
and curse and spoil. May these words with which He closes His Manifesto of Words
and Wisdom come into our life as a new fire, as a new force of purity.
Lastly, notice the second division
of the paragraph. There is an alternative of issues. We need especially to
remember the majesty of these last words of Christ, the marvelous claim He
makes. He says, in effect: You must all build character. This is the day of character
building. This is the day in which, in our systems of education, and of philosophy,
we are discussing character building. The King ultimately recognizes the
importance of it. He says: Every man
builds. There is a common quantity in this final illustration—the fact of
building. But notice the difference. It is not in the men who build; or in the
materials with which they build; but in the foundation on which they build. The
foundation is everything. We may build with the same materials, and with the
same structural correctness upon sand as upon rock; and all through summer
days the buildings both appear to be all right. But summer days do not exhaust
the days. There are days of pelting rain, of sweeping winds and hurricanes; and
those are the days that will test our buildings. Therefore, it is not so much a
matter of the man building, not so much a matter of the material, but of the
foundation.
Hear, then, the imperial claim of
Christ. He says: Take these sayings of Mine and build on them; and no storm can
destroy your building. Hear these sayings of Mine and disobey them—and remember
that this has nothing to do with the man who has never heard them; he is not
here in view at all; this word is not to the heathen, it is to the man who
hears and disobeys, the man who has seen a vision and dreamed a dream, the man
who has heard the infinite music, and will set his instruments to catch the
tune—you can go on building, and we may look at the structure and say: What is
the use of Christianity? That house is as beautiful as this; this man's
character is as beautiful as the other's. But observe it, wait, wait! Soon
there will come the storms of sorrow, of bereavement and of temptation, and
then presently "that day;"
and unless there be rock foundation, the fair superstructure will be spoiled
by the sweeping storm. The King stands before all of us as He closes His Words
and Wisdom, and says, "These sayings
of Mine;" build on them; and no storm can wreck your building.
We know all this to be true. We are
not discussing the Person of Christ. We are not discussing the larger question
of the work of Christ. We pause now where He ended. "These sayings of Mine." We know perfectly well that if
we build on them our character will be such that no storm can wreck it. And if
we will not, if we, having heard the sayings, do not obey them, there is no
foundation upon which we can build a character that will weather the storm and
stand to the very day of destiny.
We thus end our study of the Kings Words
and Wisdom, listening first to a sublime claim, that His teaching is such
foundation that no storm can disturb it; hearing also a message of hope, that
here is stability on which we may build, knowing that our building will abide;
and finally impressed by a solemn warning, that mere knowledge is of no value
in the day of storm and flood.
When presently men shall rest in
perfect peace, it will be within the sacred circle of this unfolding of law.
May God grant that we may be not
hearers only, hut doers of the worn of the King. . (James 1:22; John 13:13)
