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Toward the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7, he calls some people workers of iniquity or workers of lawlessness. Why did he call them this? And what is being communicated in this passage?
We will look at it straight ahead here on Grace in Focus. Thank you for joining us today, friend. This is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society.
We are located in North Texas, and we have a website, faithalone.org, where you can find out many things about us. You can read our articles. There are hundreds of them there.
And you can find out about our national conference and our regional conferences. That is faithalone.org. Now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Ken Yates.
Bob, we got a question from one of our listeners. And this is from John.
Okay.
And I know who this John is. And he said, hey, thanks about the mention on your previous podcast about the eternal rewards account. That was me.
That is him.
And I got that from him. You know, he talked about IRAs.
People thought it was the Equal Rights Amendment. No, it’s the eternal rewards account.
That’s right. We have IRAs here. Well, in the kingdom…
IRAs in the kingdom.
In the kingdom. And I told John, when he gave me that illustration, I said, well, I’m going to tell you right now, I’m going to steal it. I’m going to use it.
But evidently, we did give him credit. So I guess I’m not as bad as I thought. But anyway, he has another question, and it’s on the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7.
And I know we’ve discussed this on here before, but he had a… he has a question about it that I don’t think we can ask.
Matthew 7, 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, Lord of the Kingdom, but he who does the will of my father.
Right.
But he’s not asking about that part. He’s asking about the end part where he says, depart from me, you who what?
Well, in the King James version, it says you who practice lawlessness.
And I think he says in his version, he’s quoting, you workers of iniquity.
Well, you workers of lawlessness.
Workers of lawlessness.
Yeah. In this passage, as you know, Bob, what’s going on is that at the judgment, people are going to say, Lord, the great white throne judgment, there’s going to be people who say, well, didn’t we do all these great works? In your name, in your name, you know, and cast out demons, you know, whatever.
We would say, speak in tongues, heal the sick, you know, or evangelize or whatever.
Right.
You know, you can. And we can imagine there’s going to be lots of people like that.
Well, from within Christianity.
Yeah. Mormons, Jehovah Witness, even within evangelical churches where people believe they have to do good works in order to enter into the kingdom of God.
Right.
And that’s what these people are saying.
Right.
What do you mean we’re not going to be in the kingdom? Didn’t we do this, this, this, this, this? And every one of our listeners has people in mind who says, yeah, yeah, you know, people who believe in work, salvation, that’s all they’ve ever believed in, and they’re working their way to heaven, they’re going to be cast out.
Yeah, we’re concerned about those people.
Sure.
And we could actually use Matthew 7, 21 to 23 to help them see that their works aren’t going to get them in.
Right. And GES and other Free Grace people have pointed out that this is one of the main emphases here is that Jesus is showing that our works cannot gain us entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
Now the funny thing is Lordship Salvation people like to use this very passage to say that good works are required, and that the problem here is they didn’t have sufficient works.
There’s just not enough.
Right. And they go to the part about you workers of lawlessness or your workers of iniquity or you who practice iniquity, however you translate that. And they say, see, he’s saying that they’re sinners, not that they’re righteous in their behavior.
And so that’s how they pointed out. But that’s not the point at all, is it?
Right. And that’s John’s question. He goes, why does if they do all these great works, why does Jesus call them workers of iniquity, or workers of lawlessness, or you who practice lawlessness?
Okay, well the first question is, do they do these good works? And I would think they probably did, because at the Great White Throne judgment, you’re not likely going to be making stuff up, because certainly the Lord Jesus can play the tape. He’s got video of everything.
Right.
And so he can show your life. So they, I believe, are convinced they’ve done these things.
Yeah, isn’t that interesting, though, the things that they claim to have done?
Right.
Prophesied, cast out demons and done wonders in your name. And so, as Bob points out, obviously, there’s some people who do these things who know they’re charlatans, you know, the guys on TV who, you know, have the microphone or the earpiece in, and they’re getting the information and all that other stuff from somebody in a back room.
But some people actually believe they’re healing people. They believe they’re casting out demons. They may even believe they’re raising the debt.
Yeah, and they believe that they’re prophesying. I mean, you hear people all the time, you know, God told me this in cults, you know, but even in Christendom at large, you hear it all the time.
I have a friend who taught people how to prophesy.
Yeah.
He said, Look, if you have the gift of prophecy, that doesn’t mean you have it fully. So you need to learn how to get better at it.
Right. And so these people are sincere. I agree with you at the Great White Throne Judgment.
You know, didn’t we do all these things?
And Jesus doesn’t say, No, you didn’t do it.
Right.
What Jesus says is, Your workers of iniquity depart from me. Well, why does he say depart from me? Now, John doesn’t ask about that.
And John would agree with us, because I know him and his position is, the reason he says that is because they didn’t believe in him for what he promises, which is everlasting life. And so they think they’re working their way to heaven. Right.
That’s their problem. But his question is, why are they called workers of lawlessness, if they’re doing good works? Yeah.
Well, I think the answer is, we’re all workers of lawlessness, or we’re all those who do, I don’t like the King James translation, practice. It’s like we’re going out practicing iniquity, like we want to get better at it. No, we’re all those who do iniquity.
We’re all sinners. He’s basically saying, you’re sinners.
Yeah, they’re coming before him saying, we’re righteous. We deserve to be in the kingdom because we’ve done all these righteous deeds. Right.
Implicitly, aren’t they claiming sinlessness?
Sure.
And Jesus says, no, you’re workers of iniquity.
Now, maybe they’re not claiming sinlessness. Maybe what they’re claiming is, our good works far exceed our bad works.
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The point I think that Jesus is making here is the only way you would have a claim on the kingdom based on your works is if your works were absolutely perfect.
Which they’re not.
Right. Now, a lot of people in Christianity don’t agree with this, but you remember Jesus said when he was asked by some of the lawyers and some of the religious leaders, and he said, do this and you will live, because they had brought up one of the greatest commandments. And so he said, love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbors yourself.
And so they said, great. And he said, do this and you will live. Well, what does that mean?
Well, in the Old Testament, it meant if you do these things, you’re going to have fullness of life now. But they were asking about what they needed to do. At least the reason for them asking about the greatest commandments is they wanted to get into the kingdom that way.
Right.
And so he’s saying, okay, do that and you’ll live. And what he meant was perfectly. Well, since there’s not a single person on earth, there’s nobody who goes from conception to the grave without sin.
Without a whole bunch of sin. Right.
Therefore, when they stand before the Lord at the great white throne judgment, they can’t claim that they were sinless. Now, they can point to some good works they did, but that doesn’t mean they’re also not sinners. So John’s question is a good one.
You can be a person who’s done good works and be a sinner. And by the way, isn’t that all of us?
Absolutely.
Everybody at the Judgment Seat of Christ is going to be like… None of us at the Judgment Seat of Christ are going to be saying, wait a minute, we should get into the kingdom because we did X, Y or Z. Even if we died out of fellowship with God, and even if we died now believing in work salvation, right?
Let’s say we fall away and we believe in work salvation, we die that way. The moment we die, we’re like, oops, I realize I was wrong. It’s just by faith in Christ, and we’re going to know that we’re corrected, and we have the right thinking at that point.
And this is also related to me, the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus, and Jesus says, well, you know the commandments, and the guy goes, oh, yeah, I’ve done all those.
And he only gives him, by the way, the second half of the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, and he doesn’t mention the Tenth Commandment, which is, you shall not covet.
Right.
And that’s when the Lord says, okay, give it all away.
And so here’s a guy that we don’t know if he became a believer or not, but let’s assume…
Who are we talking about? The rich young ruler?
The rich young ruler. Let’s suppose somebody…
Yeah, he went away sad, but he could have come to faith.
Yeah, if he came to faith, great.
In fact, I think it’s quite possible.
I do too, because the Lord was reaching out to him and loved him. And so, okay, but what if he didn’t? He’s the kind of guy who would be one of these guys and say…
Because he’s deceived, but he thinks he keeps all the commandments, or at least those are the five that Jesus gave. Well, didn’t I do all these things?
Yeah, well, like, wouldn’t the Apostle Paul be that way? He said before he came to Christ, he was blameless according to the law. Now, of course, that’s blameless in terms of the pharisaical interpretation, not blameless in the sense of Matthew 7, 21 to 23, because there’s no such person.
And so, to answer John’s question, the workers of iniquity are the workers of lawlessness here. One of the points that Jesus is making is you’ve deceived yourself, thinking that you are righteous enough, through your righteousness, to get into the kingdom, when in actuality, you’re not. You’re a worker of lawlessness.
And by the way, at the Great White Throne Judgment, the books are opened.
Revelation 20, 11 to 15. There are books and a book. So the book is what book?
The book is the book of life.
And what does the book of life contain?
The names of those who have believed in Jesus for eternal life.
Okay. So if you’re not in the book, where are you going according to Revelation 20, 15?
The lake of fire.
Yeah. Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. But the books are not the same as the book of life.
The books contain what?
The works of the people that are there.
The works of the deeds. And so the Lord’s going to examine all this. Now, what we don’t get in the Great White Throne judgment is an explanation of why the books are opened at all.
Why not just open the book of life and that’s it? I think the reason is, number one, you have to show these people that they indeed are sinners. Because if there was a person there that was perfect, they could get in on the basis of, I didn’t need the blood of Christ.
I didn’t need to believe in Jesus.
I don’t need to be in the book of life.
I don’t need to be in the book of life because I never sinned. But there’s a second reason why, and that is because do not be deceived, God does not mock whatever a man sows that we also reap, Galatians 6,7. And so there has to be accountability at the Great White Throne judgment.
The more light people rejected, the worse their torment will be. The worse their deeds were, the worse their torment will be. So some people are going to have a better experience in the Lake of Fire, some worse, but it’s all going to be torment.
Right. And so these books are going to show that they are indeed, even though they deceive themselves, workers of lawlessness.
Right. They’ll see it there. And I’m convinced that Matthew 7, 21 to 23 is the Great White Throne judgment.
Well, John, we appreciate the question, and if I steal anything else from you in the future, I may or may not give you credit for it. So thanks for the question. And in the meantime, everyone.
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The preceding has been a listener-supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society.
