What is your response?

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2012 · 27 May 2012

Let's look together for the last time at Matthew 7. We began a look at the closing portion of the Sermon on the Mount and we want to finish that study tonight. I have to admit that there are so many thoughts in my mind about this section of Scripture as I meditate over this message. I want us to focus on verses 24 to 27 again and then a comment or two about the closing verses.

Beginning at verse 24 our Lord climaxes the sermon by saying, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. 28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”

Here in the United States we are constantly made aware of the need for a good foundation on a house. Earthquakes have a way of cracking foundations and floods have a way of washing them away altogether. Careful soil tests are done, examination of the ground, taking out expansive soils and replacing it with new soil in order to make sure that the foundation is going to stand.

And it was the same in Palestine. It's dry and arid for the most part but when it rains the land really can only absorb so much, and when the rain comes it turns into a flood. Houses are washed away in the same manner that we've seen it here. And so you would need to have the same kind of planning and the same kind of preparation that you have here.

Now Jesus wanted to explain this in verses 24 to 27. One man thinks little about what might come and he works hard on building the house but has absolutely no thought for the foundation, and he is called a foolish man, in verse 26. The other man, also building a house wants to be sure that the foundation is built upon bedrock, and he is called a wise man in verse 24. And so you have a simple story, two men each building their own house, one is wise and one is foolish.

What seems like a simple story is in fact a shocking commentary on people who have head knowledge but an empty heart. Notice that He says in verse 24 and 26, "Everyone who hears." These are the people who hear the message and they understand it, but only the wise ones do something about it, the fools do not. Understanding that Jesus is the final judge of all people makes this parable of the builders on rock and sand an astonishing reality.

Now remember we said to you this evening that Jesus is closing the sermon with an invitation, in verses 13 and 14. And the invitation says in effect, enter into the narrow gate that leads to life. But it won't be easy to do that for two main reasons, one is false prophets and two is false profession. You will be deceived by others and you will be deceived by yourself.

So we all live under some illusions and it is part of human nature to cover up its faults and defects. So it won't be easy because you will tend to be self-deceived. First of all, He says there are those who say but don't do in verses 21 to 23, they say they know Christ but they don't do what Christ said. And this dichotomy indicates that they're not legitimate.

And then in verses 24 to 27 there are those who hear but don't do, they have head knowledge without heart knowledge. The first group has empty words the second group has empty hearts. There are some people who are deceived into thinking they're Christians because they know so much about Christianity. Just like there are people who think they're Christians because they say so much about it.

Now in verses 24 to 27 the Lord again reminds us what standard of righteousness is required for entering the Kingdom of God, and unless your life is built on that standard no matter what it looks like and no matter what you know in your head and no matter how feverishly you conduct your spiritual activity when the flood comes you're going to be washed away if all you have is a head knowledge.

You see the Jews had developed a system of works, righteousness, a humanly devised system of fleshly effort that fell far short, and God came along and offered them a true righteousness. But before they could receive that true righteousness they had to admit the bankruptcy of their own system, and that's why they had to come with a Beatitude mentality.

Now these words again are addressed to those who profess to know God, who think they're Christians. Now brothers and sisters let me add that lots of people hear Christ's teaching but only the ones that do them are in the Kingdom. That's the bottom line. There are many people who hear, but if you examine their life and it's all hearing and not doing. In fact the Lord says, only the storm is going to manifest the truth, and then we'll find out who's wise and who's foolish.

You see Jesus is trying to get the Pharisees to come off of their proud high tower and look at their own lives and see how really bankrupt they are. Because that's the only place you can tell the tale. One builds on rock at the end of verse 24, petra, that means in the Greek a rock bed. And the other builds on sand, verse 26, the word is in the Greek ammon, it means sand.

Now a man is wise to build on rock bed, only a fool will build on the shifting sands of the sea or the desert. The false prophets will try to sell you plots of sand. A man is a fool to build on sand, because storms will undermine the sand, verse 27, and the house will fall and be destroyed. But when it is built on rock and the foundation is solid so storms can come and it isn't going to fall.

Again we see a rebuke of the religion of the Pharisees. They had no regard for spirituality of the soul, they had no regard for purity of heart, they had no regard for integrity of behavior, they had no regard for obedience to God, and they were building their spiritual structures on sand. They prayed, sure, and they fasted, of course, and they gave their alms for sure but only as a public show to parade their spirituality and try to enhance their reputations. They had a religion of externals and that is sand.

Multitudes of professing Christians abstain from external acts of violence yet do not hesitate to rob their neighbors of their good name by slandering them. They tithe regularly but do not shrink from misrepresenting their goods and cheating their customers persuading themselves that business is business. They regard the laws of man more than the laws of God for they do not fear Him. This is building on a foundation of sand; they didn't come through the narrow way.

The broad way that leads to destruction is all sand. But others build on the rock at the end of verse 24. When you say you build your life on the rock, what are you saying? Well, the rock is God and you are literally building your life on God. In Psalm 18:2 it says, "The LORD is my rock." Or we could say the rock is Christ. Peter says that Christ is the chief cornerstone. But there are plenty of people who say they've built their life on Christ.

But this passage explains further specifically what the rock is. Is it "everyone who hears these sayings of mine," builds his house on a rock? No! "Everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does them builds his house upon a rock." So what is the rock? It is obedience to the Word of God. That's the rock. Our Lord is saying here is that practicing these sayings of mine becomes the bed rock foundation of the true redeemed church.

Look at Matthew 16:13-18, "13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

“18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” And what was this rock (=petra)? This bed rock foundation is the Word of God, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Upon that affirmation of truth I'll build My church. The petra of Matthew 16 is the Word of God and similarly the petra of Matthew 7 is also the Word of God.

So what is our Lord saying? He is saying that the person who lives a life where he only hears and never does has only sand. And what does the sand represent? It represents the ever-changing human will, human opinions, human attitudes and the shifting sands of human philosophy. On the other hand the wise man who hears the Word of God and builds his life on God's Word has a rock foundation. And that means a life of obedience to the Word of God that does not change.

In John 8:30 it says, “As He spoke these words many believed on him." Now that's a good thing, "many believed on him." They heard, they took it in and they accepted it. Verse 31, "But Jesus said to them, if you continue in my word, then are you my real disciple." It isn't just the hearing and the believing it is the continuing in obedience to the Word of God, that's the rock. In James 1: 22-24 it says, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

That's what our Lord is saying in The Sermon on the Mount, if you hear it and don't do it you're self-deceived. "23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” In other words if you're not doing it, it's not having any effect on your life or your destiny.”

In Colossians 1:21, 23 we read this, "And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled.” Now this is great. He's reconciled you, but read further in verse 23, "if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard.” In other words, the truly saved are the ones who continue in a life of obedience.

In 1 John 2:3, "And by this we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." Now I'm not the one saying this, beloved, the Lord God is saying this, the apostles are saying this. Don't be deceived. Titus 1:16, “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” If there is no obedience, there is no legitimate salvation.

So building on the rock is obeying, look at your life, examine yourself, do you long to obey the Word of God? Or are you disobeying and constantly justifying that disobedience? The only possible proof that you have your salvation is a life of obedience; it is proof that you really recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That is the heart of the message.

So what kind of life is that? It's a life that has a Biblical view towards self, the Beatitudes, that has a Biblical attitude toward the world, it sees itself as something to preserve the light the world and be in the world but not be apart of it. It is the attitude toward the Word of God, not changing it, not altering it but accepting every word.

Jesus is presenting us the kind of life that has a Biblical attitude toward morality, not trying to get away with everything you can, not external but internal. A Biblical attitude toward what you say, toward what you do and toward the reason you do what you do. A Biblical attitude toward money, toward things, toward people, toward everything He's touched in The Sermon on the Mount.

What are pastors going to do with the new wave among Christians of people who aren't married and yet living together? Salvation is recognizing the divine standard, a subsequent overwhelming sense of sinfulness, a pleading for God's mercy to receive His righteousness because you desire to fulfill His Word.

People don't say, well I'm coming to Christ, and I want to be saved but I don't want to get into all that obedience stuff. Then you're not a Christian. People say to me, well you know so and so I know they were saved because of such and such but they never come to church and they are not interested and they're upset with the church. More likely they don't know Christ and they're self-deceived.

The Pharisees weren't teachable; they didn't even want to hear it. There are so many people who profess Christ but they don't want to hear what that requires, they don't want to count the cost and they don't want to learn the right way to build their life. They want to go on their own ideas and their own goals and their own self-will and their own designs, and when you go to them and try to teach them what is right to do they don't want to hear that.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 says that, "Jesus, has delivered us from the wrath to come." Why? Because our faith is genuine! There is going to come a judgment time, Revelation 20 specifically tells us how that's going to happen. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." That's the final great white throne judgment, and that is a day when you will hear “Lord, Lord”, and His reply, "depart from me, I never knew you."

Listen, Satan is a liar, true? Satan’s ultimate deception is to make someone believe they're a Christian when they're not. Because if you don't know you've got the problem you're not looking for the answer anymore. The Day of Judgment is coming, so you should look to see what the foundation of your life is.

Proverbs 30:12 says, "There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, but is not washed from their filthiness." Now there are times when all of us may stumble into a sin, but if these are the patterns of your life, you're not yet in His Kingdom.

What was the result of Jesus Sermon on the Mount? What was the response that day? Was there a great revival, tremendous conversions? No, verse 28, "It came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were “converted, no”? No they weren't converted, they were "astonished; for he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes."

They were astonished, they were amazed, they were bewildered, but in the Greek text it literally means they were struck out of their senses, in the vernacular it blew their minds. They had never heard such wisdom, they had never seen such depth, and every dimension of human life was touched in an economy of words that was breathtaking.

They had never heard such deep insight into the law of God or the sin of man. They had never heard such fearful warnings about hell and judgment, they had never heard anybody who so confronted the religious leaders of the time. They were shocked that He didn't use anybody else as an authority but stood on His own authority.

And that's where it ends. They were shocked, but they didn't respond the right way. They couldn't believe that a Man would claim to be God Jehovah, that a Man would claim to be judge of all, they couldn't believe that a Man like that was the King, and so all they showed was astonishment.

What's your response? Your eternal destiny depends on it. Your life is either built on rock or sand, on disobedience or obedience, and that is the only available verifier of the legitimacy of your faith. I pray to God that your faith is in Christ. Let's bow in prayer.