How do you KNOW?

How do you KNOW?

Matthew 7:21-23 (KJV)
²¹  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
²²  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
²³  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

I’ve decided that if I was a real preacher, I would probably be one of those “fire and Brimstone” preachers.  That, by the way, would be a good thing. J  I’ve talked several times on the above verses, but everytime I hear or read them again I always come away with words that I feel  need to be spoken.

One of the biggest decisions you have already made at this point in your life is whether you believe in Jesus as the Son of God and whether you have started a relationship with Him.  Hands down, that is the biggest decision you have made.  Believe it or not, if you have not made a decision to follow Jesus then you HAVE made a decision to follow the world.(Satan)  Ok let’s dive into today’s verses…..

In verse 21, He makes it clear that not everyone who claims to be a Christian will enter into Heaven.  He follows it up with, only the doers of God’s will are saved.  In other words, you can say a sinner’s prayer 20 times per week if you want, but if you are just reciting a prayer rather than turning your life over to God…….you may have cause for concern.

Now……Who will claim to be a Christian at the end, and not really be one?  Well, it won’t be the Atheist….it won’t be the Hindus….it won’t be the Muslims….it won’t be the Buddhist.  Then who is He talking about that will claim to know Him, but really won’t?  By common sense reasoning one would have to think that it will be the ones in church.  They are the only ones who would think that they knew Him. Right?  People that said a prayer, but never read His word, or talked to Him in prayer.  Basically those that never had a relationship with Him.  It says “ whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life”.  It doesn’t say “whoever says a prayer in 4^th grade…ect…” 

Only YOU know right now whether you have a relationship with God.  Think about relationships you have in your life.  If you say you have a relationship with someone, but never spend any time with them….is that really a relationship?   If you say you know me, but I have never met you or talked to you…I probably won’t know you…Right?  My point is this….Jesus says “depart from me, for I never KNEW you”.  We have to have  a relationship with him.  If we don’t, it should be easy for us and others to see that we don’t know Him.  Our fruits will tell us anything we need to know about our salvation…Remember this verse….”you will know them by their fruits”.

So at the end when you are standing in front of God ….What will you say?  Are you going to say things like…”I went to church every Sunday”  “ I tithed 10% every month”  “ I taught Sunday school”?  All of these are good things but  they will not get you into heaven.  He knows you or He doesn’t.  In the end, no amount of pleading will get you out of judgement for not being saved.  If you don’t know if you are saved, it may be that you are not….Tell God you are sorry for your sins….Tell Him you want to know Him…Thanks him for sending Jesus to take YOUR punishment…Thank Him for giving you the chance to live your life for Him.  Now imagine all of your sins are in a bag and you have been dragging them around your whole life……Now, just drag them to the foot of the Cross and leave them there because that is where they were taken care of by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

If you just said that prayer, you will find that you will have an inner desire to get to Know the one that saved you.  Because of that inner need, you will get to know Him and He you.  You no longer will have to wonder whether you are saved or not!

Praise God!