Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!"

"Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'  And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.  But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell.  And great was its fall."

- Matthew 7:22-27

In recent readings, we have been going through the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew chs. 5 -- 7.  In our previous reading, Jesus taught:  "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.  Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Therefore by their fruits you will know them.  Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."

 "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'  And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"  Here's a warning that we are not going to be judged by good works, or even by phenomenal capacities for working wonders!  There is much more to God's judgment than being impressed by outer wonders that may impress other people, and there must be more to us than that.

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.  But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell.  And great was its fall."  It seems to me this is as stark a warning as possible regarding God's judgment of who we are.  My study bible tells us:  "Hearing the gospel alone is not enough, for salvation is based not on hearing alone, nor on faith alone, but also on doing the things spoken by Christ." 

In today's lectionary reading, the Epistle is from Ephesians 2.  St. Paul writes, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (4-10, NKJV).  I think it's important to remember the humility that is displayed here:  we were created for good works.  We are not saved by them.  Put together with today's Gospel reading, that means that our faith, appropriately manifested, is to create us as persons in God's image that is a pure gift to us -- persons who are capable of the good works that God has in mind for each of us.  Thereby, in the Judgment, there is none that "should boast."  It is a question of our faith creating in us the capacity to be the persons that God calls us to be.  To my way of thinking, those "good works" prepared beforehand in the eternal reality of God, of heaven and the Kingdom, may be each and every one unique to each creation of God, each of us as individuals -- and St. Paul will go on to teach how we are all different yet serving the same Body and Head, as Christ also indicated in His last appearance to Peter and John in the Book of John.  When Peter asks Jesus, "What about this man?" Jesus more or less tells Peter to stick to what he is supposed to do, and that it doesn't matter to Peter what Jesus tells others they are to do.  To my way of thinking, this is a clear affirmation of St Paul's words and the correct understanding of today's part of the Sermon on the Mount.  We are to do what He teaches, and that teaching assumes the most intimate dimensions for each one of us:  "good works" are those things that manifest not by the impression they make, or even what is praised as a miraculous gift -- rather, they are the things prepared for us beforehand, the "good works" we grow into via faith in Christ and His word, even as it may manifest to each of us to do the particular works God has in mind, just as we each are unique in creation, with particular talents or capabilities.  Even the capacity for silence is also a great gift in the manifestation of the image of Christ meant for one capable of silent prayer which may save many others, and bless a world.  Let us remember how much love is behind and contained in all of these teachings, that are meant for each one of us, even as unique creations of God.  Let us pursue with faith the person God creates us to be, not the image the world may tell us we are supposed to be.   When Jesus says, "I never knew you,"  He is talking about a personal experience, true encounter.  It's in that relationship that we find the works that may be "prepared beforehand" - in the eternity of Christ - for us to do.  It is His words that we must truly follow.