Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Mt 7:21-23

Hi Zule,

The following brief passage is taken from “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount” by Martyn Lloyd-Jones (page 517). He is specifically dealing with the verse you quoted, Matthew 7:21-23.

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Matthew 7

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.


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“First of all He says, ‘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.’ That is the proposition. But then he goes on to illustrate and elaborate on it. ‘Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,’ etc.

The most important thing from the standpoint of exposition is that we should take these two parts together, that we should not isolate verse 21 from verses 22 and 23, as some have been tempted to do, but that we take all these verses together and regard them as the laying down of the proposition, and the demonstration of its implication. The importance of doing so is seen when we are reminded that certain people, taking verse 21 on its own, have argued that what our Lord is really teaching there is that, in the last analysis, what matters is not so much what a man believes as what he does. It is a quotation often used by people who like to put up faith and works as opposites. They ask: ‘Did not He say, “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”?’ The emphasis, they maintain, is upon the doing. And then they propound their whole doctrine of salvation by works. ‘Some people’, they say, ‘are always concerned about doctrine, and everlastingly talking about it; but it is not a man’s doctrine, but what he does, that really matters’. They misuse verse 21 in that way because they isolate it from verses 22 and 23. But the moment you put them together you see that the object of the statement cannot be to contrast belief and works, because our Lord says about the works in verses 22 and 23 precisely what He says about the belief in verses 21 and 22. It is important, therefore to take the text in its context and not to isolate it.

No, the message here is not to emphasize works at the expense of belief; it is something much more serious than that. It is, rather, to open our eyes again to the terrible danger of self-deception and self-delusion. That is what our Lord is concerned about here. It was the same general theme in the previous paragraph. There the danger was considered in terms of our being misled by false prophets because of their sheep’s clothing, and the attractive character of their doctrine which is so deceiving, and so subtle. Here, our Lord proceeds to show us the same thing, not now in the false

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by Martyn Lloyd-Jones