Luke 6:46-49 ESV
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
This was Jesus Christ speaking. And he was speaking to a great crowd of his disciples, so apparently not just to the twelve, and to a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, etc. For they came where he was to hear him speak and to be healed of their diseases. And this was right after he had spoken to them saying, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
So, he began this section of his talk with the question, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” And this reminded me of what is recorded in Matthew 7:21-23 that Jesus said:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
So, obviously doing what the Lord tells us to do, in practice, is critical to our salvation and to our eternal life with God in heaven. And so this is why he asked this question, and why he then gave this parable to teach them and us the importance of obedience to the Lord. For, contrary to what many are teaching today, we can’t just make a one-time profession of faith in Jesus Christ and now all our sins are forgiven and now heaven is guaranteed us when we die regardless of how we live.
So, if we are those who are listening to the Lord and if we are heeding and obeying what he teaches us we must do, then we are like a man who built his house on a solid rock and not on sinking sand. We are those whose lives are firmly planted in the Lord and in his teachings and in walks of obedience to the Lord and who are not wandering here and there, following this teaching or that, still playing with sin, still having no solid direction we are headed. But our eyes are fixed on Jesus Christ and on following him.
So what that means is that we are those who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and who have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So now we are walking (in conduct, in practice) according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh. Sin is no longer our master. Jesus Christ is now Lord and Master of our lives. It doesn’t mean we are perfect, but that we are obeying our Lord and we are living holy lives.
So, when the storms of life come against us, not necessarily literal storms, but trials and tribulations and persecutions, etc., we are then able to stand firm in our faith on the solid ground of God’s Holy Word because our trust is in the Lord and not in human flesh and not in the weak and miserable philosophies and teachings of men in their deceitful scheming. But this I believe also refers to the judgments of God, that those who are walking in obedience to the Lord will withstand the judgments and will be saved.
But then there are those who hear the Word of the Lord but they don’t put it into practice in their daily lives. They are like the one James wrote about who looked at his face (character, heart) in a mirror and then just walked away and willfully forgot (denied) what he looked like (James 1:22-25). He built his house on the dirt or on sinking sand (no solid foundation). And dirt reminds me of the filth of this sinful world. So when the storms of life or the judgments of God came against his house, it immediately fell, and the ruin of that house was great!
So, what this is teaching us is the same thing that is taught us over again throughout the New Testament, and that is that genuine faith in Jesus Christ results in genuine repentance (turning from our sin) and walks of obedience to our Lord in living holy, godly, and righteous lives, in the power of God, to the glory and praise of God. But those who are still sinning, in practice, do not have that genuine faith and they are not in fellowship with God and they don’t know God even though many profess that they do.
And the Scriptures teach that those who are still habitually sinning against the Lord, deliberately, and in practice, and who are not obeying the Lord, in practice, will not inherit eternal life with God. They will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. They will not be saved from their sins because they never left their lives of sin behind them but they continued in them. And so it won’t matter what faith they professed with their lips, because lip service only does not give us a free ride into heaven.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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