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The Saddest Words in the Gospels

Matthew 7:21-23 – “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!’”

            Perhaps the saddest words in the Gospels are recorded in Matthew 7:23, “depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”  Hell will be a place of departure.  I heard someone say some years ago, “Hell will be a place of continually going away from the presence of God.”  Our cry today should be the same as Moses in Exodus 33:15, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.”

            We cannot live without the presence of the Lord.  His presence brings joy, peace, and comfort.  There is healing in the presence of the Lord.  Without His presence there will be no joy, peace, comfort or healing.  Hell will be place of separation.  Dr. Herschel Ford writes, “Hell means separation from God’s presence and from God’s blessings.  Hell means separation from our loved ones who are at home with God.[i]

This is the individual who rejects God.  This is the one who chooses a life of sin.  This person refuses to yield to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and has learned to tune out the voice of those who love them and desire to see them saved.  The Lord takes no pleasure in the words, “Depart from Me.” He is a loving God.  II Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Our loving Father has provided a means for our salvation. I Timothy 1:15 says, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”  Jesus spoke more about Hell than He did about Heaven.  He doesn’t want us to go to this horrible place.  What must we do to be saved, so we can spend eternity in Heaven?  Psalms 145:18 gives these instructions, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.”



[i] Ford, Herschel, Simple Sermons on Great Christian Doctrines, Baker, 1953, Page 114.

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