Jesus said that many will come to Him in the last day
and will be shocked when He says, I never knew you!
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.
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?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:
depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23
I saw a quote this morning from Charles Spurgeon:
Great hearts can only be made by great troubles.
Great faith must have great trials.
Hogwash. Pride is what is great in those statements.
We will never have a great heart or faith without the Lord Jesus.
We are nothing without Him.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.
John 15:5
To know Jesus is to exalt Him, not ourselves.
We do not become great by doing anything.
We may become great in the Kingdom if He finds our works to be unto Him.
People who do not know Jesus do not understand this concept.
Nothing we do counts for anything,
only the things we do that are valuable to Jesus, that is, what He asks of us, whether in His word or on a personal level.
Obedience is better than sacrifice.
A whole lot of people sacrifice a lot to Jesus.
That is not what a relationship with Him is about.
A relationship with Jesus is keeping Him as the most important in our lives.
He’s not interested unless we are doing our deeds unto Him,
for Him, and not for anyone else, including ourselves or fellow humans.
To become great by doing things for Him, if that is our motive,
we are missing it.
Scriptural References:
And Samuel said,
Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
1 Samuel 15:22
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments,
and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them,
the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:19