In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me you workers of lawlessness.” Here, towards the end of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount we hear this great warning, this dire and dread statement of condemnation. I never knew you – you false prophets, you wolves in sheep's clothing, you hypocrites and liars and bad trees – depart from Me, get away from Me, back, back with you, down into hellfire and damnation with you. It is a most serious warning, and one that we ought to pay attention to. So today, to begin, we need to spend some time pondering what it means to be a worker of lawlessness.
Now, if I just say “lawless” to start, our first thought is probably that of an outlaw, a criminal, a bad dude. Someone who is engaging in outright immoral wickedness and illegal behavior. And yes, that is part of this idea of Lawlessness. Don't go and try to be evil. We get warnings against open and blunt wickedness elsewhere in Scriptures as well – Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Running around wantonly ignoring the 10 commandments, any of them, is not good. But this isn't really the point that Jesus is making here – not precisely. Jesus is talking about “lawlessness” - not being unrighteous, not being wicked. And Jesus, in the Gospel, isn't merely issuing a warning to people who acting outwardly and openly in defiance of God. No, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven.” No, this warning of Jesus, this warning against Lawlessness isn't a warning against all those bad people out there and don't you people go and join in their wicked reindeer games – flee that junk, get away from it. That's a fine warning – it was Paul's warning in 1st Corinthians after all – but that's not quite the nail Jesus is hitting on the head today.
No, this lawlessness is something that is much more subtle, much more cunning and harder to spot. This lawlessness is something that even people who brag about their works can fall into. These workers of lawlessness are people who can claim before God Almighty that they prophesied in Jesus' name, and cast out demons in Jesus' name, and did many works in Jesus' name. Yet, Jesus still calls them workers of lawlessness – there's something deeper going on here.
What is lawlessness? Let me quote from Salvation Unto Us Has Come – it's my favorite hymn, we had it last week during communion – if I had my druthers we'd sing it over and over until you all had it memorized, but I'm not going to do that with any hymn, especially a 10 verser. However, it is one of the best summaries of the Christian faith we have, and I'll direct your attention to verse 3, which says, “It was a false, misleading dream, that God, His law had given/ that sinners could themselves redeem, and by their works gain heaven. The Law is but a mirror bright, to bring the inbred sin to light, that lurks within our nature.” The scriptures show us that we sinful people can take God's Law, God's good and wise Law, and we can use it wrongly. We can use the law lawlessly, apart from it's purpose, to our detriment and doom. And one of the most simple ways that we do this is we abuse the law by thinking it shows us how we can earn, how we can work our way to God, how we can work our way to salvation. We're not saved by what we do – we are saved by Christ Jesus and His death upon the Cross. Our relationship with Jesus isn't based upon what we do, but rather what He has done and how He comes to us. And the workers of lawlessness get that all wrong – didn't I do this, Jesus, and didn't I do that, Jesus, an oh, I did it in Your name. Me, me, me, I, I I – see what I did. Sorry, I don't know you, you worker of lawlessness.
Paul notes in 1 Timothy 1 the following: Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient... God's law has a definite purpose, and one that is often misunderstood. It's not to be used to get us closer to God, but it's to show us our sin, to make us know the folly of our actions, to curb us from terribly destructive and harmful acts and to drive us to repentance. But it cannot and will not ever save. The law is good – being kept from great shame and folly is a good thing. Order in society is a good thing. But it doesn't save, it doesn't redeem.
This is why Paul says in Romans, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” We can mishear this in English – Paul isn't saying that the law is destroyed or done away with – rather, the end, the ends, the goal, the point of the law is this – to drive you to Christ. The Law, used lawfully, will show you your sin so that you repent and cling to Christ for righteousness. Christ and His righteousness is the end, the goal, the point, and always has to be. Is it not? I mean, when I preach a sermon, I do proclaim God's law – we routinely look at the Scriptures and God's Word and it does proclaim the Law, it talks about our actions – and we see them, we repent, we learn what we are to fight and struggle against in both the world out there and in our own lives and hearts... but we don't stop there. We don't “end” there, because that's not the end, not the stopping place of the Law. The Law's goal, the law's endpoint is to drive you to Christ and His righteousness. To where on the final day and you see Jesus you don't say, “Look at what I did, Jesus” - you proclaim, “Thank you Jesus, for You have saved me from my sin!” The song is “Jesus loves me, this I know” - not “I love Jesus, see my works.” But the temptation, the siren song of the false prophets that Jesus warns us against today to do to just that – to turn the focus away from Christ and His death upon the Cross for you, and rather on to your works, what you do for Jesus.
And it's a subtle shift – because you do do things for Jesus. As a Christian, you do live for Jesus, you do strive after showing love to your neighbor. I would certainly hope that you all try to be good and diligent in living out your lives and your God given vocations this week. But that's a result, that's what spins forth from the fact that Jesus has died for you, and the Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel and given you the gift of faith, and then everything that Jesus has done for you spills out in your life. Again, listen to Paul from 1 Corinthians 15 - For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Even Paul has to check himself – everything is by Grace, it's about what Jesus has done – and He did it well, I worked harder than.. oh, wait, wait, wait – woah Paul, woah – not I, the grace of God that is with me. What we might want to call “my works” aren't really “mine” as though they come from me or belong to me. Anything that is good in me or good that comes through me comes from the Grace of God, the free gift of God. Come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith – the one who begins our faith and who brings about it's completion.
And this, my friends, is how God enables you to spot false prophets – people who talk falsely about God, who talk falsely about Jesus. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Hear what Jesus is saying here – there will be false prophets, but you judge them, you look to the fruit. And again, don't just fall back into simple morality here when thinking about fruit – that's not the fullness of what Jesus is speaking to here. Hypocrites and hucksters can produce all sorts of nice seeming works. Rank unbelievers can do social good, can engage in civic virtue. No, look at the fruit. If it's a grape, it has to come from the grape vine... and if it's not giving you grapes, it's the wrong plant. If they are to be true prophets of Christ Jesus, then the fruit that they will be giving you is Christ Jesus. He is the vine, you are the branches, abide in Him and you will bear much fruit – much Jesus. Much of Jesus' love. This is why Paul was determined to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified – because that's the point, that's the truth, that's the goal.
When you hear a sermon, when you hear someone start talking about Jesus or God or what have you – and I include hearing me here – a good, simple thought to have is this: Did Jesus have to die on the Cross for what I just heard? This talk, this sermon, this speech, whatever you hear – did Jesus have to go to the Cross for it to work, for it to make sense. Is Christ Jesus dying and rising for you the heart, the center, the point of everything, or was Christ the Crucified pushed off into a corner and ignored? If Christ isn't the point, it was a bad sermon. A false sermon. A lawless sermon. One that doesn't get to you know Jesus – because Jesus is and always is the One who comes down from heaven and for our salvation goes to the Cross. And people will give all sorts of Lord-Lord talks, Jesus and God and Country and Apple Pie rhetoric – but if it's not Jesus came into this world to die for sinners, of whom I am chief – it's a load of bunk. Maybe somewhat useful or practical bunk, but still bunk nonetheless.
And it's not what Jesus wants for you. Jesus does not want you to depart from Him – and this is why He in fact comes to you Himself – He comes to you where He has promised to – in His Word, His true, full, and complete word proclaimed lawfully and full of the sweetness of the Gospel. He comes to you in Holy Baptism, He comes to you in His own Body and Blood in the Supper (beware when people downplay what Jesus does for you in Baptism or the Supper!) - He comes to you because He does in fact know you and you know Him, and as His sheep you listen to His voice declaring His love for you, that He has died for you, and that you are forgiven by Him. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
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