“I know you not…….”

“Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do.   When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God's message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!’  Then I will say to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!’”   Matthew  7:21-23 GNT

In Matthew 7:21 -23 we are taken to the final judgment.  We are at the Great White Throne and we are seeing some of the people who are confronting Jesus at that time.  

They are saying unto Him, "Lord, Lord, here we are, we are the ones who were religious people."  Peter calls this day the day of the judgment of ungodly men and the phrase that he uses, "ungodly men," may seem like a very difficult phrase in view of the fact that these are religious people.

There is an awesome silence at this judgment.  Then the silence is pierced by the words of Jesus as He says in verse 21, "Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do. “ 

 Here we have the condition for entrance to the Kingdom.

What is that condition?

How can a man enter the Kingdom of God?  First of all, it's not the ones who say, "Lord, Lord."  But it's those who do the will of God.

In Matthew 25:1 -13 we have a very interesting story of the ten virgins.  They were invited to the feast.  Five of them came and they were prepared by…...”bringing oil and having it in their lamps.”  The other five were foolish and they were not prepared.

Matthew 25:11tells us the door was shut and the five who were unprepared are on the outside and do you remember what they said?    They said, "Lord, Lord, open to us."  And the Lord of the feast says, "Verily I say unto you, I know you not."

Interesting, isn't it, that they were invited to the feast.  They had heard the gospel; in a sense symbolically they had heard the proclamation, "Come to the feast."

 This is an illustration of God's call to the world. They were even prepared to the extent that they had their lamps. They even had the right clothes on. They even arrived at the meeting house.

But they were not prepared, or ready therefore they were not allowed in. Sadly, their cry was the same as it is in Matthew chapter 7, "Lord, Lord, open to us."  

But He says it is not those that say, "Lord, Lord," but those that “do My will.”

What a solemn warning.

At the end of that parable Jesus says, "Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man comes."