Are You Practicing Lawlessness?
1) False believers who practice lawlessness will not be in heaven.
“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes 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!’” Matthew 7:16-23
2) All lawless people will be judged and cast into hell.
“The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Matthew 13:38-43
3) False religious leaders will be judged for their lawlessness.
“Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and
dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind
Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of
them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full
of dead men’s bones
and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous
to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Matthew
23:25-28
4) Believers will be murdered by lawless people at the end of the age.
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:9-14
5) By faith in Jesus Christ, a person’s lawless sins are forgiven.
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted
for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the
man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are
covered; Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.” Romans 4:5-8
6) Believers will use grace as a means for righteousness.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. Romans 6:15-19
7) Believers will not have lawless people as their close friends.
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. 2 Corinthians 6:14-16
8) Unrighteous people will follow a future lawless world leader.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12
9) Laws exist for lawless people according to sound doctrine.
But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. 1 Timothy 1:8-11
10) Jesus Christ has redeemed believers from lawlessness.
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14
11) Believers will be tormented by lawlessness but will be delivered.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. 2 Peter 2:4-10
12) Believers will not practice sin which is lawlessness.
Whoever commits sin also commits
lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides
in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no
one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is
righteous. He
who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the
Son of God was manifested, that
He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever
has been born
of God does not sin, for His
seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 1 John
3:4-9