Who Were The People Jesus Was Addressing To In Matt 7:21-23? Follow Up.
Question : Yes Jesus spoke in Matthew 7:21-23 about many people on the judgment day saying, "22 ...‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" Could these above people have been saved only for a period of time and after that have fallen from grace to go to hell? Once a person is unsaved after being saved, they come in the disguise of "chosen people" and would not do what pleases the Lord but will practice lawlessness. Salvation is not a one time event it is a life long process which is why God said that the last will become first and the first the last.
Answer : Greetings in Jesus name! I believe the lost and unsaved are the same. But those who get lost after their salvation from God's sweet fellowship because of sin, Jesus has told that not even one He ever loses. He goes after that one lost sheep that has got lost in sin and bring back to his fold without fail. It is the foolishness of the sheep that takes them to get lost in sin, but it is the faithfulness and wisdom of the Shepherd who searches it and finds again to bring it in to His fold once again (Matt 18:12-14; 2 Tim 2:13). A person is either saved for eternity or not saved at all, no man can get saved and then get lost again because of sin as Jesus has paid once and for all time the price for all the past, present and even the future sin of the believer to the Father in heaven who demands perfect justice (John 19:30; Heb 10:12, 14, 17-18; Eph 5:2). But the state of the unsaved who are in the disguise of "chosen people" cannot do what pleases the Lord because only God has the ability to produce fruit and much fruit within a believer when he or she is connected to God in their spirit because of salvation and chooses to abide in Him through the teaching of Jesus voluntarily by choice, and so the unsaved would not do what pleases the Lord in their everyday life until they get saved (John 15:5; Matt 12:33-37).
But salvation is a one time event in which God transfers forever a lost human to become saved forever, by conveying him from the domain and power of darkness to kingdom of the Son of His love (Col 1:13), darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God (Acts 26:18), so we were formerly darkness, but now we are forever Light in the Lord (Eph 5:8; Matt 5:14). Also God has sealed us believers with His Holy Spirit until the day of rapture and has given Him to us as a down payment guarantee that one day we are surely going to rise up with the new nature without sin to please God for eternity ahead (Eph 1:13-14). Jesus or the apostles never spoke about God unsealing the seal of the Holy Spirit anywhere in the Scripture. So a person who is really saved cannot get unsaved according to the Scripture. The one time event of salvation has made God to forgive all our past, present and even future sins once and for all time to perfect us forever at that time itself positionally (Eph 4:32; Heb 10:16-17, 14). The believers according to the Bible have been sanctified once for all through the offering and body of Jesus Christ (Heb 10:10). If even a slightest trace of our behavior can make us lose our salvation, then salvation is not by faith at all (Rom 4:4). In other words, our salvation is either from starting to end is by faith, or not by faith at all if any kinds of works are added after we are saved. Salvation is received when we do not work but instead believe in Jesus who justifies all ungodly sinners who accept themselves as sinners and express to God the need of the Savior Jesus that God has provided, at that point of time our faith is accounted for righteousness and therefore God imputes righteousness in God's heavenly record of ours once forever to make us be written as His child apart from our works (Rom 4:5-6). In other words, if salvation is lost it cannot be a gift of God at all (Rom 6:23). So once God saves us truly, He keeps us like that forever because salvation is not a fruit bearing process but rather a event that leads to bearing fruit which is a process (Heb 12:2; Php 1:6).
Could these above people have been saved only for a period of time and after that have fallen from grace to go to hell? No way it is possible. As I said before, a person can truly one time get saved for eternity ahead or remain in unsaved condition the rest of their lives by failing to humble themselves as sinners before God and believe Jesus as their Lord and Savior to appropriate the free gift of salvation that God provides through Jesus His only Begotten Son (John 3:16). You can read in detail to understand what is falling from Grace really mean in this following post of mine : http://www.apostolicrevelation.info/2011/07/does-falling-from-grace-means-losing.html. God's grace is strong enough to save even the vilest sinner from all sin and take him or her to God's paradise to spend the rest of their lives for eternity to be with God.
The people Jesus is addressing to were not saved at all, even though they were called to ministry and therefore with the calling anointing over their lives, they were prophesying, casting out demons and doing many wonders all in Jesus name which was working for them because it has been given as a gift of God in their lives. God never takes back the calling and the gift that comes along with it, but on the day of judgment everyone will have to give account to the Lord for how each one have used it all whether for themselves or for the glory of God (Rom 11:29; 2:5-6; 1 Cor 4:2; Eccl 12:14; Rev 20:12). The wrong thinking of their unsaved mind was making them to believe that because they were doing God's work in a powerful way, they will be saved to be in heaven because of that. But little did they realize that God is no respecter of person and that He wants all now to repent by acknowledging themselves as sinners and receive the salvation of God by believing Jesus as their Substitute before God (Acts 10:34; Rom 2:11; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). No one can get saved by their works before God and not even one human, but God justifies freely the ungodly who does not work but believe God to be saved by the blessedness of God's grace (Rom 4:5-6). These unsaved men who were powerful to do great works for God did not even realize that when they work and want to get justified before God, actually they are making God as debtor to them. God owes no one anything. God has clearly conveyed in His Word that He is no man's debtor to pay them back with salvation for their work (Rom 11:35; Job 41:11). In fact if these unsaved men had humbled themselves before God, He would have revealed that if they keep working for Him thinking that they will get saved because of it, their wages will be death as it becomes a debt before God (Rom 4:4; 6:23). But the mind of these unsaved false apostles, deceitful workers were so full of pride like their master Satan who transforms himself as an angel of light, they were transforming themselves in to apostles of Christ by working themselves up by the anointing upon their lives and creating an image to the world around them as ministers of righteousness which they were not really inside because of lack of salvation within them (Rom 11:13-15). Such people's ministry and life will not go alike, Jesus admonished all believers to see the fruit of the ministry and life of the minister, and then find them out to reject them if they were false and accept them if they were true and support them and the ministry they do in whatever way we can by helping them tangibly through providing material things and finance (Matt 7:15, 20; Rev 2:2; Heb 13:7).
Last but not the least, the verses which says, "So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen." (Matt 20:16) is not talking about the process of salvation instead it speaks about the equal privileges after salvation to all believers to earn reward for eternity based on the motive with which they work for God after they are saved. You can read about it in detail in my following article : http://www.apostolicrevelation.info/2011/04/parable-of-workers-in-vineyard.html. The above verse in Matt 20:16 clearly says that all believers have the same spiritual blessings in the heavenly places stored for them in Christ Jesus, so that by working in faith they will be able to receive supernatural strength to convert all those spiritual blessings in to an eternal reward for their eternity in heaven (Eph 1:3). In other words, many are called by God to work with His strength in His vineyard of this earth, to work with the pure motive of only pleasing God as His bond servant and with out expectation of any earthly reward but committing it all in to His hands for Him to decide and lead them, but actually very few who choose to work to please God alone will become chosen to receive great reward from God. That is the actual meaning of the above verse in its right context.
Much Blessings...
Answer : Greetings in Jesus name! I believe the lost and unsaved are the same. But those who get lost after their salvation from God's sweet fellowship because of sin, Jesus has told that not even one He ever loses. He goes after that one lost sheep that has got lost in sin and bring back to his fold without fail. It is the foolishness of the sheep that takes them to get lost in sin, but it is the faithfulness and wisdom of the Shepherd who searches it and finds again to bring it in to His fold once again (Matt 18:12-14; 2 Tim 2:13). A person is either saved for eternity or not saved at all, no man can get saved and then get lost again because of sin as Jesus has paid once and for all time the price for all the past, present and even the future sin of the believer to the Father in heaven who demands perfect justice (John 19:30; Heb 10:12, 14, 17-18; Eph 5:2). But the state of the unsaved who are in the disguise of "chosen people" cannot do what pleases the Lord because only God has the ability to produce fruit and much fruit within a believer when he or she is connected to God in their spirit because of salvation and chooses to abide in Him through the teaching of Jesus voluntarily by choice, and so the unsaved would not do what pleases the Lord in their everyday life until they get saved (John 15:5; Matt 12:33-37).
But salvation is a one time event in which God transfers forever a lost human to become saved forever, by conveying him from the domain and power of darkness to kingdom of the Son of His love (Col 1:13), darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God (Acts 26:18), so we were formerly darkness, but now we are forever Light in the Lord (Eph 5:8; Matt 5:14). Also God has sealed us believers with His Holy Spirit until the day of rapture and has given Him to us as a down payment guarantee that one day we are surely going to rise up with the new nature without sin to please God for eternity ahead (Eph 1:13-14). Jesus or the apostles never spoke about God unsealing the seal of the Holy Spirit anywhere in the Scripture. So a person who is really saved cannot get unsaved according to the Scripture. The one time event of salvation has made God to forgive all our past, present and even future sins once and for all time to perfect us forever at that time itself positionally (Eph 4:32; Heb 10:16-17, 14). The believers according to the Bible have been sanctified once for all through the offering and body of Jesus Christ (Heb 10:10). If even a slightest trace of our behavior can make us lose our salvation, then salvation is not by faith at all (Rom 4:4). In other words, our salvation is either from starting to end is by faith, or not by faith at all if any kinds of works are added after we are saved. Salvation is received when we do not work but instead believe in Jesus who justifies all ungodly sinners who accept themselves as sinners and express to God the need of the Savior Jesus that God has provided, at that point of time our faith is accounted for righteousness and therefore God imputes righteousness in God's heavenly record of ours once forever to make us be written as His child apart from our works (Rom 4:5-6). In other words, if salvation is lost it cannot be a gift of God at all (Rom 6:23). So once God saves us truly, He keeps us like that forever because salvation is not a fruit bearing process but rather a event that leads to bearing fruit which is a process (Heb 12:2; Php 1:6).
Could these above people have been saved only for a period of time and after that have fallen from grace to go to hell? No way it is possible. As I said before, a person can truly one time get saved for eternity ahead or remain in unsaved condition the rest of their lives by failing to humble themselves as sinners before God and believe Jesus as their Lord and Savior to appropriate the free gift of salvation that God provides through Jesus His only Begotten Son (John 3:16). You can read in detail to understand what is falling from Grace really mean in this following post of mine : http://www.apostolicrevelation.info/2011/07/does-falling-from-grace-means-losing.html. God's grace is strong enough to save even the vilest sinner from all sin and take him or her to God's paradise to spend the rest of their lives for eternity to be with God.
The people Jesus is addressing to were not saved at all, even though they were called to ministry and therefore with the calling anointing over their lives, they were prophesying, casting out demons and doing many wonders all in Jesus name which was working for them because it has been given as a gift of God in their lives. God never takes back the calling and the gift that comes along with it, but on the day of judgment everyone will have to give account to the Lord for how each one have used it all whether for themselves or for the glory of God (Rom 11:29; 2:5-6; 1 Cor 4:2; Eccl 12:14; Rev 20:12). The wrong thinking of their unsaved mind was making them to believe that because they were doing God's work in a powerful way, they will be saved to be in heaven because of that. But little did they realize that God is no respecter of person and that He wants all now to repent by acknowledging themselves as sinners and receive the salvation of God by believing Jesus as their Substitute before God (Acts 10:34; Rom 2:11; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). No one can get saved by their works before God and not even one human, but God justifies freely the ungodly who does not work but believe God to be saved by the blessedness of God's grace (Rom 4:5-6). These unsaved men who were powerful to do great works for God did not even realize that when they work and want to get justified before God, actually they are making God as debtor to them. God owes no one anything. God has clearly conveyed in His Word that He is no man's debtor to pay them back with salvation for their work (Rom 11:35; Job 41:11). In fact if these unsaved men had humbled themselves before God, He would have revealed that if they keep working for Him thinking that they will get saved because of it, their wages will be death as it becomes a debt before God (Rom 4:4; 6:23). But the mind of these unsaved false apostles, deceitful workers were so full of pride like their master Satan who transforms himself as an angel of light, they were transforming themselves in to apostles of Christ by working themselves up by the anointing upon their lives and creating an image to the world around them as ministers of righteousness which they were not really inside because of lack of salvation within them (Rom 11:13-15). Such people's ministry and life will not go alike, Jesus admonished all believers to see the fruit of the ministry and life of the minister, and then find them out to reject them if they were false and accept them if they were true and support them and the ministry they do in whatever way we can by helping them tangibly through providing material things and finance (Matt 7:15, 20; Rev 2:2; Heb 13:7).
Last but not the least, the verses which says, "So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen." (Matt 20:16) is not talking about the process of salvation instead it speaks about the equal privileges after salvation to all believers to earn reward for eternity based on the motive with which they work for God after they are saved. You can read about it in detail in my following article : http://www.apostolicrevelation.info/2011/04/parable-of-workers-in-vineyard.html. The above verse in Matt 20:16 clearly says that all believers have the same spiritual blessings in the heavenly places stored for them in Christ Jesus, so that by working in faith they will be able to receive supernatural strength to convert all those spiritual blessings in to an eternal reward for their eternity in heaven (Eph 1:3). In other words, many are called by God to work with His strength in His vineyard of this earth, to work with the pure motive of only pleasing God as His bond servant and with out expectation of any earthly reward but committing it all in to His hands for Him to decide and lead them, but actually very few who choose to work to please God alone will become chosen to receive great reward from God. That is the actual meaning of the above verse in its right context.
Much Blessings...
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