What does the Bible say about "the one who does the will of my Father" (Matthew 7:21)?

But in our text, which closes the sermon on the Mount, it is another truth: not redemption (which was not there the object) but the absolute necessity of obedience in all who call Jesus Lord. To say Lord, Lord, without doing His Father's will, is worthless. Many shall say in the future day of account, Have we not prophesied through Thy name, and through Thy name cast out demons, and through Thy name done many works of power? But He will answer, I never knew you: depart from Me, workers of lawlessness. It was hollow profession, whatever the works of power, which only aggravated the guilt and will add to the endless remorse. There was no life possessed in Christ, and consequently no obedience, to which every believer is sanctified (1 Peter 1:2). Without holiness none shall see the Lord (Heb. 12:11). The point is here that obedience is indispensable from each one that bears His name.

Hence the Lord concludes, "Whoever therefore heareth these my words and doeth them, I will liken him to a prudent man which built his house upon the rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and fell upon that house, and it fell not; for it had been founded upon the rock. And every one that heareth these my words, and doeth them not, shall be likened to a foolish man which built his house upon the sand; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and fell upon that house, and it fell, and its fall was great" (Matt. 7:24-27).

It is not redemption only that sinful man needs, but life eternal. In Jesus only are both found, and the believer receives both. Many there are who profess His name, and boast of redemption in Him, the forgiveness of offences, but never think of present life in Him. Alas! they deceive themselves. To the defiled and unbelieving, whatever they profess, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works deny Him. They say, Lord, Lord; but they are false to His name. Had they believed, they would have had life in His name, and brought forth fruit of righteousness. But not having Christ as their life, they had no fruit unto holiness, and never grew because they had no true knowledge of God. Life, life eternal, as a present ground for serving God in obedience, is as essential as redemption. Woe is to such as have neither. Still more bitter is the woe of such as deny either: they are enemies of the truth.

The essential thing is doing the will of His Father which Christ was revealing. As He said in John 5:24, where life eternal was in question, "Verily, verily, I say to you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath life eternal." These are the persons who, having done the good things as possessed of life now, rise for the resurrection of life (ver. 28). Equally peremptory is the Lord's word here. No profession without corresponding course of life can avail; nothing less or other than doing His heavenly Father's will. And who so competent to reveal as the Son, who left (as He tells us in John 16:12-13) many things, beyond hearing then, for the Holy Spirit to announce when He came?

It is clear that, as in the entire discourse, not a word is said about the new birth, still less redemption. The Lord is not here preaching to sinners how they were to be saved; He is teaching His disciples how to walk before the Father that is in the heavens. How does He view that vague and multitudinous profession, which is a burlesque of Christianity, though now so popular, on the one hand through histrionic ceremonies and gaudy shows and religious fables, and on the other through appeals to the intellect and to the imagination by oratory or reasoning. There may be seeming devoutness and profuse earnestness; but without living faith in Christ, neither is God known nor is self judged. The Lord insists on true obedience.

But as this exceeding value of God's word is capable of being abused into a school of dogma, and consequently of mere knowledge, the next verse summons us habitually to reduce the word to practice. "But be word-doers, and not hearers only, deluding yourselves." This is the great business of every day. Our Lord had already enforced His most solemn warning against the same self-delusion. "Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens; but he that doeth the will of my Father that is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out demons, and in thy name done works of power? And then will I avow unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work lawlessness" (Matt. 7:21-23). The word must not only be heard but produce fruit accordingly. To hear the Son is the urgent call of the Father, but it is to form the new life in obedience; otherwise it is to mock God and delude ourselves. And hence the grave caution here.

Many of these profess even a knowledge of the Lordship of Christ: their lips are able to form the words, "Lord, Lord," but they shall not in reality enter the kingdom of heaven: this is only for those who do the will of the Father, which can be true of none but the redeemed.

They say they have prophesied in His name. If it is true that by the power of His name they have cast out demons (as Judas was given authority to do), this is not proof that their hearts are right before God. The doing of wonderful works cannot substitute for the reality of faith in the Son of God.

To many who claim to have done wonderful works in the Lord's name, the answer of the Lord will be most solemn, "I never knew you." At no time had they ever been believers, for there is no possibility of one being born a new and yet afterwards lost. In answer to their claim of wonderful works, they are called "workers of iniquity."

Ver. 21 shows us that these were evidently self-deceived. It was quite right to Call Him "Lord" as He says of His disciples in John 13, "Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well; for so I am." Yes, He was, and is, the Lord; and all through this portion He speaks with authority, not only as the great Teacher, but also as the Judge. Every one of the human race shall have to do with Him. In the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. But here, in Matthew, it is of those who make profession and call Him Lord by lip only. Scripture plainly reveals that profession alone will not suffice; there must be much more than profession. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord," and this is practical holiness. "The grace of God that brings salvation" teaches us (and you cannot divorce the doctrine from the grace) "that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." There is the danger of making everything of the profession. I think there is often a mistake in dealing with souls as to this. It is thought to be the great thing to get people to say 'I believe.' You should get them to believe, and, to this end, present Christ. But there must be subjection to Him, to His will, to His word. It is true that we who are the Lord's are "elect, according to foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." That is, we are set apart by the Spirit, the very first moment He begins to work in us, not only to the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, but also to the obedience of Christ.

Ver. 22. The Lord does not deny that they had prophesied. It was possible for a wicked man to do so. Balaam prophesied magnificent prophecies, but he perished with the enemies of the Lord. Caiaphas also prophesied. It is possible to understand all mysteries, and yet not be saved. It is well for us to take notice of what is said here, "In Thy Name have cast out demons." A man may be a wonderful preacher, and used of God to the conversion of souls, but yet have not life in his own soul! Paul says, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away." He is referring to the Grecian games. He does not mean that he feared his being reprobate, for he ran, not as uncertainly, nor did he beat the air, but that if keeping under of the body did not go along with his service, it would but prove him a counterfeit. It was the apostle's way, when enforcing the unpalatable rather than the pleasant, to apply the former to himself as illustration. But where it was matter of what was pleasant, he loved to bring in others by way of example. "In Thy Name done many wonderful works." All this might be true. A man might indeed be used to turn a lot of drunkards into respectable citizens, and yet, sad to say, be lost! "I never knew you." But the Lord does know them that are His (2 Tim. 2:19). There is no such thing as a child of God being "lost." "I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand," is what the Lord Himself has said. How emphatic! Yet one may be a mere professor, able to speak of wonderful deeds he has done, and yet have no love to Christ!

And now note, in closing, the solemnity of His words. The supremacy of Immanuel shines out here. "Not every one that says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he that does the will of My Father who is in the heavens." He looks down the ages to the last final judgment when He will have to say, "I never knew you." Their estimate of their service will have to give place to His, that which they thought works of power will then be seen as evil, and the result will be their final doom. How deeply solemn for all who take part in the service of the Lord! Trafficing in holy things is perhaps the worst sin of all.

Mark the words "hearing" and "doing" in verse 24 and compare with verse 21: "Whoever therefore hears My words and does them, I will liken him to a prudent man." Here again in the simplest of words is the cleavage set forth. There are two builders, two houses, two foundations, two storms, and two results. Let us note the solemn finish. "And every one who hears these My words and does not do them, he shall be likened to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand; and the rain came down, and the streams came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and its fall was great. Blessed are they that through grace belong to that kingdom which cannot be moved, who, founded on the rock of ages, are secure for time and eternity."

The Lord is showing, from ver. 24 and onwards, that the great thing is to have the right foundation, that which will bear all testing. It is true that it is not enough to hear, it is "Whosoever hears these sayings of mine and does them." In Luke, it is, "Whosoever comes to me," etc. The coming would speak of faith. You get this in Hebrews, "He that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek, him." It would go to show that if there is merely hearing and not doing, the root of the matter is not there. In the case of Simon Magus, he heard and he believed when he saw, and yet he had no part nor lot in the matter; there was no faith in him. Hearing, with the doing also, supposes reality; and nothing but reality will do for God. Here it is evidently reality in contrast with mere profession.

And therefore the Lord closed His words with the parable of the two houses. Both builders, the wise and the foolish, were hearers of the words of Jesus but only one was a doer of them — and that one was the wise man. The parable does not teach salvation by works, but salvation by that living faith which leads to the works. If we cast our minds back over the Sermon on the Mount we shall realize at once that nothing but genuine faith in Him could induce anyone to do the things which He taught. We shall also realize how fully His teachings verified His own word in Matt. 5:17. He has given us the fulness of the law and the prophets, while adding fresh light as to the Father in heaven; thus preparing the way for the fuller light of grace that was to dawn as the fruit of His death and resurrection. The authority with which He announced these things was what struck the people. The scribes relied upon the earlier Rabbinic teachings, while He spoke the things that He knew from and with God.

Then He points plainly to those who should inherit with Him His kingdom by association with Himself in His work for them and persons who like Himself should be the rejected ones, who would have been the means of deliverance to Israel but who should become their supplanters because of their unbelief. Having in plain unmistakable words pointed out what should characterize those who are to enter into His kingdom, namely, doers of His Father's will, being identified with Him in the work of which Jonas was the sign (vers. 38–42; 46–50), Jesus next proceeds to lay the same thing before the people in parables, showing the reason for the failure in the earthly thing was not in the word, but in the people; that the same power that had wrought so mightily hitherto could continue the work until not a foe remained, but it needed faith and so long as there was unbelief and sin unjudged among the people God, would not answer nor deliver them. (Compare 1 Sam. 14:20, 37; Matt. 13:1-23.)

Here the Lord calls they who are eternally damned 'ye that work iniquity.' Literally it means 'workers of lawlessness'. For the Jews listening to His words in this passage are disregarding and trespassing the law of Sinai. Such is also the meaning of this word in Hebrews 10:17 where it is mentioned together with 'sin'. In other references lawlessness signifies more than that, for example in 1 John 3:4, where we read: 'Sin is lawlessness' (N.Tr.). Lawlessness in this verse is rebellion against the will of God which is binding upon every man. Lawlessness therefore is the true character of every sin. So 'those who work iniquity' are not the only guilty ones but all who do not want to submit to the will of God even if they have accomplished great things in the name of the Lord during their lives.