Matthew 7: Saying “Lord, Lord” Is Not Enough

Introduction

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” Bertrand Huetz admits right away that this is “a rather delicate message.” He went back over it very early that same morning, and he stays close to his notes to pass on what the Lord showed him.

He invites us to picture the great day when all peoples will be gathered before the throne of God. In the crowd are people full of confidence: they preached, prayed for long hours, saw miracles, cast out demons. They stand before Jesus “with their file in hand,” convinced they will be welcomed with open arms. Some of them will nevertheless hear: “I never knew you.”

The preacher does not want you to read this text with fear, or to walk away thinking you are not saved if you have welcomed Jesus. He wants to read it honestly and ask one question: what should the life of someone who has been transformed look like, so that one day God can say to them, “good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your lord”? He answers with five points.

Outline of the Message

1. Four Warnings at the End of the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 7 concludes the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus leaves four warnings there.
First warning (verses 13 and 14): enter through the narrow gate, that is, pay attention to the gate you take and the road you walk.
Second warning (verses 15 to 20): beware of false prophets, dressed like sheep but ravenous wolves. The preacher opens a parenthesis: “Be wary of what circulates on social media. There are good things and there are less good things. Sort through them. But read the word of God instead.”
Third warning (verses 21 to 23): it is not those who say “Lord, Lord.”
Fourth warning (verses 24 to 27): build your house on the rock rather than on the sand.
Jesus ends with this series of alerts because “the greatest danger is not openly rejecting God, but the greatest danger is believing you are on the right path and yet being on the wrong road.”

2. Being Known by God

Those who are turned away say: “Didn't we prophesy, cast out demons, do miracles?” Their question should have been: “Didn't we love you? Didn't we seek to know you?” Everything is in the doing, nothing in the attitude of the heart.
Jesus says: “I know my own, and I'm known by my own” (John 10:14) and “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).
Paul writes: “But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him” (1 Corinthians 8:3).
In 2 Timothy 2:19, God's firm foundation bears this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.” The preacher recalls what a seal is: a stamp that guarantees authenticity, certifies ownership, or closes something so it cannot be tampered with.
This does not mean we are perfect: “I am the first not to be. If you have doubts, ask my wife.” But his desire is to turn away from iniquity.

3. Repentance Must Be Part of Our Lives

In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14), the Pharisee parades what he does: “I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.” The tax collector, standing far away, beats his breast: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” He is the one who goes down to his house justified.
Many people in church compare themselves with others and tell themselves: “After all, I'm no worse than he is, I'm even better than he is.”
Paul knew where he came from. He calls himself the worst of sinners, “of whom I am chief,” but adds “I obtained mercy” (1 Timothy 1:15-16). He considers himself “the least of the apostles” because he persecuted the church (1 Corinthians 15:9). He writes: “For the good which I desire, I don't do; but the evil which I don't desire, that I practice” and “I am a wretched man! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?” (Romans 7:19, 24), before declaring: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
The further Paul advanced in sanctification, the more wretched he felt: he did not compare himself with others, he drew near to God and realized his holiness. The preacher warns against the opposite excess, wallowing in misery. We were sinners, we were saved by grace, and we came through repentance.
He regrets seeing people come to Jesus with no conviction of sin at all, with only “the intellectual knowledge of a Jesus who, dying on the cross, gave his life for them.”
David, confronted by the prophet Nathan about his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, acknowledges his sin. His repentance is expressed in Psalm 51: “Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts.” The preacher comments: not denial, not “it's everyone else's fault,” but truth. “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.”
Saul, by contrast, looks for excuses. At Gilgal, he does not wait for Samuel to offer the burnt offering and tells him in essence: you came too late (1 Samuel 13). Then he spares Agag and the best of the Amalekites' livestock, on the pretext of offering them as a sacrifice (1 Samuel 15). Samuel answers him: “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22).
“When I love Jesus, I obey him.” The new birth comes through repentance: by realizing the holiness of God, we realize our wretchedness, and we measure the immensity of his grace.

4. A Tree Is Recognized by Its Fruit

“I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).
In the natural world, we recognize each other by physical traits or by voice. The preacher tells of a prayer line at Phare FM: a listener asks him for Samuel Peterschmitt's phone number. He gives it, and the man's voice changes: “Ah, so you're the one who gives my number to everybody!” It was Samuel Peterschmitt himself.
“If I recognize you because of your physical features in the natural world, I will recognize you in the spiritual world if you bear fruit.”
This fruit is the one in Galatians 5:22. It is not found first in doing, but in the ability to resemble Jesus in character. Jesus does not say “you who served a lot” or “you who know many verses by heart,” but “good and faithful servant”: two fruits of the Spirit, goodness and faithfulness, and a third in the place he brings us into, joy.
“If you are no different from others, then go into the world.” The preacher confides that as a young man he was “a great sulker,” able to go two or three days without speaking to his wife: “But God made me patient.”
If years go by and you are still just as impatient, hot-tempered, stingy, or sulky, if you cross the street to avoid helping the wounded man, “then stop saying Lord, Lord. Or else say it to mean: Lord, change who I am today.”
The cursed fig tree (Mark 11:12-14) has always puzzled him, since it was not the season for figs. His answer: “The fig tree was a liar.” It wore leaves and made people believe it bore fruit. Right afterward, Jesus enters the temple, meant for prayer, which had stopped being a place of prayer (Mark 11:15-17).
“Don't pretend, don't say ‘Lord, Lord’ when behind the leaves of your appearance there is no fruit at all.”

5. A Faith That Is Not Compartmentalized

Compartmentalized faith is “the faith of Sunday and Tuesday night.” Our faith must be visible 24 hours a day.
The preacher acts it out: a Christian arrives at church after an argument with his wife in the car. Some already lose their tempers in the parking lot, others elbow their way to their usual seat. Then they put on “the Christian's coat”: big smile, raised hands, holy kisses. They look like the fig tree covered with leaves.
On the way out, they hang the coat back on the coat rack, and the argument picks up again in the car “word for word.”
This people draw near and honor me with their mouth and lips, but their hearts are far from me (Isaiah 29:13, paraphrased).
Do we keep the same peace when circumstances are hard? Do we keep praising the Lord? Do we keep the joy of bearing witness, or do we stay silent when the chance comes?
“Keep a Lord for church, but take a Lord for the outside.”
On vacation, he had asked God for an opportunity to witness, a “film of life” in his pocket. During his jog, a lady of 70 or 75, lost, asked him for directions, and he was able to walk with her and talk about his faith. This week, a telemarketer called him, and he felt God say to him: “Aren't these opportunities that I'm giving you?” The man promised to watch the service.
From one Sunday to the next, we must walk joyfully, glad to have been found worthy to proclaim the Gospel.

6. God, My Favorite, Even When It Costs

The fourth point: “God is my priority, my essential, my favorite.” The preacher includes himself: God remains our favorite “as long as what he asks of me requires no sacrifice.”
“It is easy to say Lord, Lord when it costs you nothing, or in the end costs only your surplus.”
The poor widow (Luke 21:1-4) gave two small coins. She could have given only one and no one would have blamed her. She chose to give everything she had, what she needed to live on.
“Let's be consistent.” Our songs are like prayers: when we sing “Yes, take everything, Lord,” are we ready for him to do it?
Paul and Silas, in prison in the middle of the night, praise God (Acts 16:25): the essential thing for them was not physical freedom, but loving the Lord and doing his will.
“You can love God in theory. But if every time there is a conflict between God and your comfort, comfort always wins, then that reveals something.”
The life Jesus gives us through his sacrifice “does not belong to us, it belongs entirely to him.”

7. Hunger for the Word, and a Verse of Three Names

The last point: the absence of spiritual hunger. “When we no longer hunger for this wonderful word, then we must ask ourselves some questions.”
In the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), the wise ones stored up a reserve of oil. This oil was not there to light up their works: it was kept to light the way for the bridegroom when he came. It stands for what we prepare in secret, the relationship with Jesus so that we may know him better.
“Eat the word of God. Hold it close to your heart. Build up reserves of verses.” He tells of teaching verses to a fifteen-year-old girl from church: John 14:6, John 3:16, then the shortest one, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). She remembered the verse, but not the reference.
He looked for the shortest verse of the Old Testament and found it in 1 Chronicles 1:25: “Eber, Peleg, Reu.” Three names, whose meaning he gives.
Eber means to cross over, to pass to the other side: to pass to the other side of those to whom God might say “I don't know you,” to step out of your comfort zone and say “Lord, take everything.”
Peleg means division, separation: to separate yourself from a world “that has nothing to offer us.” Following Jesus sometimes brings divisions, and he has experienced it in his own family. “We are in the world, but no longer of the world. Let's not be ashamed of Christ.”
Reu, an ancestor of Abraham, means friend of God, companion, shepherd, beloved. Abraham was not perfect, but he was the friend of God. “He is the vine. We must stay close to him to bear fruit,” so that one day we hear: “good and faithful servant.”
The message ends with a prayer and an invitation to receive Jesus. The preacher mentions a family he received in his office the previous Friday: “They came in lost, they left saved. They came in captive, they left free.”

Key Takeaways

The greatest danger is not openly rejecting God, but believing you are on the right path while being on the wrong road.
Repentance is part of the Christian life: we do not compare ourselves with others, we stand before the holiness of God.
A tree is recognized by its fruit: resembling Jesus in character matters more than appearance and activity.
Faith is not hung on the coat rack when leaving church: what Jesus is at church, he must be on the outside.
God is our favorite when it costs, and hunger for his Word is fed in secret.

Personal Reflection

When you think about your relationship with God, do you look first at what you do for him, or at knowing him and being known by him?
Do you sometimes compare yourself with others to reassure yourself, instead of standing before the holiness of God?
Which character trait has not changed in years: impatience, anger, sulking, stinginess? What would you like to ask the Lord about it?
Is there a “Christian's coat” that you put on Sunday and hang back up on the way out?
In what area does your comfort win out over God, and what reserve of oil are you preparing in secret this week?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Jesus mean by “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter”?

For Bertrand Huetz, Jesus is warning those who believe they are on the right path because they preached, prayed, or did miracles. Their assurance rests on doing, not on relationship. The greatest danger is not openly rejecting God, but believing you are on the right path and being on the wrong road.

How can you recognize a Christian who bears fruit?

A tree is recognized by its fruit. The preacher draws on Galatians 5:22: the fruit of the Spirit is not found first in doing, but in the ability to resemble Jesus in character. In “good and faithful servant,” he points out two fruits of the Spirit, goodness and faithfulness.

Why did Jesus curse a fig tree when it was not the season for figs?

Bertrand Huetz explains that the fig tree was “a liar”: it wore leaves and made people believe it bore fruit. Right afterward, Jesus enters the temple, which had stopped being a place of prayer. Appearance is not enough: Jesus looks at what is happening deep in the heart.