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Sunday 03/02/25
Title: Not all who CALL Me “Lord” will enter the Kingdom
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Not all who CALL Me “Lord” will enter the Kingdom
Last week we began examining the living out of the Spirit within or the first requirements of the Great Commission, which is to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
This is the VERY FIRST STEP in keeping the Great Commission because you should not and cannot effectively lead others into the Kingdom of God, if you are not living it out yourself.
Jesus must be FIRST and preeminent in our hearts which requires us to place His kingdom reign in our own hearts above all other concerns and desires.
This is coupled with seeking rightstanding with Him in how we live our lives, because one can hardly call Him Lord and Master if they do not obey His commands.
THIS is the Spirit WITHIN.
Living this guards us against being the person who “has an external form of godliness, but who denies its power”. – 2 Timothy 3:5
The true power of godliness OR of the Kingdom OR of the New Birth OR of the Spirit within – is a transformed life which BEGINS with seeking first the rule and reign of Jesus in our lives – the kingdom of God.
If we do not have not the kingdom of God within, we cannot encourage the establishment of it without.
In order for our testimony to be powerful it must FIRST be lived! Which introduces our topic for this week and next step in the Great Commission or living out the Spirit within and that is to live under the lordship of Jesus Christ!
We will begin with a passage in Matthew 7:21,
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but ONLY the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
So basic belief in the facts regarding Jesus and His redemption work and mere confession of His lordship is not enough. Our faith in Jesus and confession of Him as Lord HAS to be proven by a life of obedience to Him.
Now there is a distortion of this teaching which goes off on the other side of the ditch doctrinally. It is an extreme version of the biblical teaching of “Lordship salvation”.
This extreme and distorted teaching claims that only flawless obedience will make and keep someone saved. There are branches of this system of belief which claims that every time we disobey, we forfeit our salvation and must get born again – again. If one were to die immediately after falling they would be eternally lost. THIS IS NOT BIBLICAL! It is also NOT what I am teaching here.
The scriptures clearly state that NO ONE is without sin and that if someone claims they are, they are either lying or simply do not know and acknowledge the truth.
What Jesus was saying here is clear, since we see how it was lived out by His disciples and they were – by Jesus’ Own admission in prayer before the Father ones who belonged to God.
The disciples bumbled around both in misunderstanding the teaching of Jesus but also in living them out. Jesus however, in His prayer to the Father recorded in John’s gospel said,
“I have revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word.” – John 17:6
So Jesus is not here talking about sinless perfection, but an ongoing pursuit of personal submission to His lordship in every area of our lives.
It is MORE than a simple and one time confession, but a serious belief that is THE PRIMARY and guiding principle of our lives. We LIVE OUT the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our daily lives. We sin often, but also bring our sins before Him in confession and move on in obedience to Him. THIS is what Jesus meant by “those who do the will of My Father”.
Now to swing back towards the middle where scripture actually is, let me also explain and be exceedingly clear…
Anyone who comes to Christ and then falls away from Him to the point where they systematically produce absolutely ZERO fruit from their union with Him and therefore offer no true testimony to the Kingdom is LOST!
Now we have unfortunately had to cover this many times here at our church, but because you all have not heard it before, but in keeping with the scriptural injunction to “continually remind” you of these things – especially because they run so contrary to what most Christians today believe because these truths are not largely taught today in the body of Christ.
So let’s quickly examine a few passages which address this state of barrenness in relation to being a branch connected to our Vine Who is Jesus.
John 15:5-6, “(5) I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me – and I in him – BEARS MUCH FRUIT, because APART FROM ME you can accomplish nothing.
(6) If anyone does not REMAIN IN ME, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up.”
As you can imagine there are ALL SORTS of proposals suggested as theological workarounds for the clear implications of this passage by those who regard “the eternal security of the saints” a solid New Testament tenant of the gospel.
We however, have determined to read and attempt to understand scripture as it is written regardless of our personal thoughts and desires – even if it requires us to accept as truth something we previously rejected.
The words “REMAIN in Me” mean something and cannot responsibly be ignored.
The word REMAIN being key.
The Greek word is meno and carries the general meaning of – To remain, abide, dwell and live.
While each of these words are very similar, if used in different contexts they could mean some very different things.
According to Dr. Spiros Zodhiates who is an eminently qualified Greek-American Bible scholar, a recognized authority on the Greek New Testament, a published author of 200 English works and 82 Greek works most of which were in-depth word-by-word commentaries on the books of the New Testament including the one I am directly quoting from, namely ‘The Complete Word Study Dictionary‘. He has this to say of this word AS IT IS USED IN THIS VERSE IN PARTICULAR.
“Of the relation in which one person or thing stands with another, chiefly in John’s writings; thus to remain in or with someone, i.e., to be and REMAIN UNITED with Him, one with Him in heart, mind, and will; e.g., with ‘en’ and the dat. of person. Examples include John 6:56; 14:10; 15:4-7; 1 John 2:6; 3:24; 4:15-16)”
This teaching makes it abundantly clear that Jesus Himself taught that once united with Him as a branch is with a vine from which it grows, it CAN in fact CHOOSE to not state in that state of union. The result is an utter failure to bear ANY fruit – because the ability to bear fruit comes from that union ALONE.
In the same way that you cannot leave a room you were never in, you cannot remain in a relationship you were never in.
Since any doctrine to be adhered to MUST be established by more than one reference we will look ever so quickly at Hebrews 6. It would be a matter of unprecedented ease to spend weeks pointing out many, MANY New Testament scripture which further prove the truth of this but I’d done this before and such is NOT the purpose of today’s teaching. So we will restrict ourselves to these two for today -and it is only out of respect to those who may listen to this message online without knowing other verses that I do this.
I will begin by telling you that regardless of what many may say about these words, there are several IN CONTEXT statements IN THE BODY of these verses that clarifies that these people being addressed and duly warned are in fact New Covenant believers and I will point them out as we are reading. If someone is reading them on the website I have placed them in BOLD and have UNDERLINED them for sake of clarity.
Hebrews 6:1-10,
“(1) Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity, not laying this foundation again:
repentance from dead works and faith in God, (2)
teaching about ritual washings,
laying on of hands,
resurrection of the dead,
and eternal judgment.
(3) And this is what we intend to do, if God permits.
(4) For it is impossible in the case of those who
have once been enlightened,
TASTED the heavenly gift,
become partakers of the Holy Spirit, (5)
tasted the good word of God and
the miracles of the coming age,
(6) and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding Him up to contempt.”
Now the author of Hebrews draws an example from Old Testament references found in Psalm 72:6; Deuteronomy 32:2.
“(7) For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God.
(8) But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; its fate is to be burned.
(9) But in your case, dear friends, even though we speak like this, we are convinced of better THINGS RELATING TO SALVATION. (10) For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name, in having served and continuing to serve the saints.”
Just to be abundantly clear that eternal salvation is what the writer has in view here he clarifies that by saying that he is convinced of better things regarding these people – things which in stark contrast to what he has been addressing – things which relate to salvation!
Commentators Jamieson, Fausset & Brown say that the word “rejected” includes the suggested meaning that such rejection is the result of having been tested. Meaning, not only are these people barren in regard to fruitfulness – the Lord of the Harvest inspects them personally – testing them to see if such was the final word regarding them
The result is these fruitless ones are declared “Reprobate” … which is to be rejected by the Lord.
Regarding the words “nigh unto cursing” means on the verge of being given up to its own barrenness by the just curse of God. This “nigh” softens the severity of the previous “It is impossible,” etc. (Hebrews 6:4, 6) in that there may be those who are freshing in this state who are not yet actually cursed.
If you will indulge me in yet one more example from scripture – from the very teachings of our Lord Jesus Himself.
Luke 13:6-9, “(6) Then Jesus told this parable:
“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.
(7) So he said to the worker who tended the vineyard,
‘For three years now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it I find none. Cut it down! Why should it continue to deplete the soil?’
(8) But the worker answered him,
‘Sir, leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it. (9) Then if it bears fruit next year, very well, but if not, you can cut it down.’”
As in many of Jesus’ agriculturally based examples, the Father is the husbandman and Jesus Himself is the worker (as are we). I think this example clarifies the teaching.
If after a sustained period of inactivity and fruitlessness, a child of God is given a final period where increased solicitous care is poured out upon them, in the effort of producing fruit they remain barren, they are cut down, removed from the vineyard and summarily burned.
This addresses ALL that is in the verses above, including the personal inspection of the Father.
Now lest someone who has themselves been in a period of sustained fruitlessness fear they are already cut off let me encourage you!
The scriptures, when talking about this sin, present it more as a progressive work which whittles away at the believer’s allegiance and devotion to Christ and which culminates in an outright denial of Him.
It is the type of sin which, if it has been committed there would be no regret of it or fear that it had been done. Any light which had previously been theirs due to the presence and work of the Holy Spirit would no longer be present. Quite literally, they would be incapable of truly grasping their lost state.
Blessings!
Tri
