“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 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. 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. 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.” (Matthew 7:24-27 ESV)
Now, in context, Jesus was teaching on all sorts of subjects like hypocritical judging, false teachers, those of false faith in Jesus Christ, doing unto others as you would have them do to you, entering the narrow gate and not the wide gate, and the fact that giving lip service alone to the Lord is not enough for you to get into heaven and to be saved from your sins. For it is not those who make professions of faith in Jesus Christ who have heaven secured for them, but it is those who are actively doing the will of God the Father.
And so next we have another one of Jesus’ parables, of sorts. For Jesus liked to give pictorial illustrations of biblical truth to bring his messages home to the people. And I believe he still speaks in parables with pictorial illustrations that we can see and hear in our minds if we truly are listening to him. And he will speak to us just through situations we go through in life, and he will show us through these real life parables the truths from his word, perhaps in ways we did not understand them before.
And there are many preachers who use these same types of methods of explaining biblical truth, who will tell stories as sermon illustrations in order for us to connect with the message and to make it personal and practical to our lives. But not all of them are following Jesus with their lives, and not all of them are truth tellers, so we must be discerning. But the point here is that we should not fear allowing the Lord to speak biblical truth to us in other and practical ways other than just directly through the Scriptures.
So, we have these illustrations in order for the Lord to get across to us what the message is he is conveying. For I think we can all picture someone building his house (or having his house built for him), and we can picture that house on the rock. And we have all seen rain, I think, and so we can picture rain falling down from the sky on the house. And even if we have never physically seen a flood, we may have seen videos and pictures of floods, and so we can certainly picture that, too, in our minds.
And so what he is picturing here is the life of someone who not only hears the words of the Lord, but who puts them into daily practice. He or she is someone who, when the storms of life hit, will not fall. Now this is not saying that no Christian will ever fail, but that if we are truly people who are really listening to the Lord, not just with our ears, but with our hearts and with our minds, and if we are truly actively doing the will of God, and we are not compromising with the world, our faith should stand secure because it has been founded on the Rock, Jesus, and it is not of the flesh of man.
But the message here is parallel with the message about the narrow gate versus the wide gate, and the hard way versus the easy way. And it is parallel with Jesus’ words about lip service and how that will not get us into heaven, but it is only those who are obeying the Lord, in practice, who will enter the kingdom of heaven. And it is parallel with Paul’s teachings on the subject of what we practice, for if sin is what we practice, we do not have eternal life with God, but if obedience to our Lord is our practice, we do.
So, when Jesus said that everyone who hears these words of his and does not do them (does not put them in practice) will be like the foolish person who built his house upon the sand, he is not saying that we are going to live in absolute sinless perfection or we are out. For when we read the Scriptures in their full context the message becomes quite clear. It all comes down to what we practice. If sin is what we practice and not obedience to our Lord, then when the judgment of God comes, we are not going to make the cut.
So, we can definitely say here that these are present and active verbs, i.e. that it is everyone who is hearing the words of the Lord and who is not doing them, for this has to do with what we practice. Just like in Matthew 7:21, for in the Greek it is “not everyone saying to me,” and it is “the one doing the will of the Father.” And this is all throughout the New Testament writings that this has to do with what we practice, which is where our Lord draws the line in the sand, so to speak. So we are not condemned for one sin, but we are condemned if sin is what we practice and not obedience to our Lord.
So, please make sure that the house you have built and are building, by faith in Jesus Christ, is on solid biblical ground and not on sinking sand. For many people these days are building their salvation and eternal security upon the lies of the enemy and upon Scriptures taken out of context. So, even if they think they are going to heaven, they will not, because their house was not built on Christ and on this word, taught in context, but on half-truths and twisted truths and on alterations and dilutions of truth being passed off as real truth.
For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for the sake of Jesus we are denying self, dying daily to sin, and walking in obedience to his commands, then we have the hope of eternal life with God (see Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Galatian 5:16-21).
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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