Matthew 7:23

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. AND THEN WILL I PROFESS UNTO THEM, [ homologeesoo (G3670)] - or, 'openly proclaim'-tearing off the mask -- I NEVER KNEW YOU. What they claimed-intimacy with Christ-is just what He repudiates, and with a certain scornful dignity. 'Our acquaintance was not broken off-there never was any.' DEPART FROM ME (cf. Matthew 25:41). The connection here gives these words an awful significance. They claimed intimacy with Christ, and in the corresponding passage, Luke 13:26, are represented as having gone out and in with Him on familiar terms. 'So much the wo...

23._And then will I confess to them _(482) By using the word ὁμολογήσω _, I will confess, _(483) Christ appears to allude to the vain boasting, by which hypocrites now vaunt themselves. _“ _They indeed have _confessed _me with the tongue, and imagine that they have fully discharged their duty. The _confession _of my name is now heard aloud from their tongue. But I too will _confess _on the opposite side, that their profession is deceitful and false.” And what is contained in Christ’s _confession? _That he never reckoned them among his own people, even at the time when they boasted that they were the pillars of the church. _Depart from me. _He orders those persons to go out from his presence, who had stolen, under a false title, an unjust and temporary possession of his house. From this passage in our

21-29 Christ here shows that it will not be enough to own him for our Master, only in word and tongue. It is necessary to our happiness that we believe in Christ, that we repent of sin, that we live a holy life, that we love one another. This is his will, even our sanctification. Let us take heed of resting in outward privileges and doings, lest we deceive ourselves, and perish eternally, as multitudes do, with a lie in our right hand. Let every one that names the name of Christ, depart from all sin. There are others, whose religion rests in bare hearing, and it goes no further; their heads are filled with empty notions. These two sorts of hearers are represented as two builders. This parable teaches us to hear and do the sayings of the Lord Jesus: some may seem hard to flesh and blood, but they must be done. Christ is laid for a foundation, and every thing besides Christ is sand. Some...

Verse Matthew 7:23. _WILL I PROFESS_] ομολογησω, _I will fully and plainly_ _tell them, I never knew you _- I never _approved_ of you; for so the word is used in many places, both in the Old and New Testaments. You held the truth in unrighteousness, while you preached my pure and holy doctrine; and for the sake of my own truth, and through my love to the souls of men, I blessed your preaching; but yourselves I could never esteem, because you were destitute of the spirit of my Gospel, unholy in your hearts, and unrighteous in your conduct. Alas! alas! how many _preachers_ are there who appear _prophets_ in their pulpits; how many _writers_, and other evangelical workmen, the miracles of whose labour, learning, and doctrine, we admire, who are _nothing_, and worse than nothing, before God, because they perform not _his will_, but their _own_?...

PROFESS UNTO THEM - Say unto them; plainly declare. I NEVER KNEW YOU - That is, I never approved of your conduct; never loved you; never regarded you as my friends. See Psalms 1:6; 2 Timothy 2:19; 1 Corinthians 8:3. This proves that, with all their pretensions, they had never been true followers of Christ. Jesus will not then say to false prophets and false professors of religion that he had once known them and then rejected them; that they had been once Christians and then had fallen away; that they had been pardoned and then had apostatized but that he had never known them - they had never been true christians. Whatever might have been their p

EXPOSITION MATTHEW 7:1 (2) As anxiety about the things of this life hinders us Godwards (Matthew 6:19), so does censoriousness manwards (Matthew 7:1), our Lord thus tacitly opposing two typically Jewish faults. Censoriousness—the personal danger of having it (Matthew 7:1, Matthew 7:2), its seriousness as a sign of ignorance and as a hindrance to spiritual vision (Matthew 7:3), even though there must be a r

THEN WILL I PROFESS UNTO THEM,.... Publicly before men and angels, at the day of judgment, I NEVER KNEW YOU; which must be understood consistent with the omniscience of Christ; for as the omniscient God he knew their persons and their works, and that they were workers of iniquity; he knew what they had been doing all their days under the guise of religion; he knew the principles of all their actions, and the views they had in all they did; nothing is hid from him. But, as words of knowledge often carry in them the ideas of affection, and approbation, see Psalms 1:6 the meaning of Christ here is, I never had any love, or affection for you; I never esteemed you; I never made any account of you, as mine, as belonging to me; I never approved of you, nor your conduct; I never had any converse, communication, nor society with you, nor you with me. The Persic version reads it, "I have

While we are reading, let us also be adoring at the same time, for the. words of Christ have a gracious divinity about them; they are infinite; they are omnipotent. There is a kind of life in them; a life which communicates itself to those who hear them. Our Saviour did not preach sermons: he preached texts; all his sermons are full of golden sentences, not hammered gold leaf, like those of men, but they are ingots of solid gold, and the gold of that land is good, the most fine gold; there is none like it. Thus he preaches in the seventh chapter of Matthew. Matthew 7:1. _Judge not that ye be not judged._ Set not up for critics, especially in the act of worship. Probably there. is no greater destroyer of profit in the hearing of the word than is the spirit of carping criticism. Mat

WORK INIQUITY sin, lawlessness. (_ See Scofield) - (Romans 3:23). _...

CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The Judgment of Righteousness.(Matthew 7:1 .) 2. Warning against False Prophets.(Matthew 7:15 .) 3. Warning against False Professors. (Matthew 7:21 .)_ The chapter which follows contains the last words of the great discourse of our Lord. The contents of this chapter are very instructive and form a most fitting end of the declaration of the King. The first few verses contain a warning against judging. We have in the beginning of the chapter something which is altogether different from the last section of the sixth chapter. There we saw the heir of the Kingdom in the midst of the world, how he is to trust in and depend on the Father and seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, h