Building on Solid Sure Ground

Introduction

As we wrestle with the concept of reconstructing faith which offers hope for those of us struggling with our doubts and giving us the tools to separate the truth of Jesus from broken human systems. The aim here is that we begin or continue to lean on foundational truths.

Last week we dealt with the idea of manmade religion which does not necessarily exclude Scripture or Christian philosophy language. It may very well have elements of Christianity, elements of biblical terminology and yet be completely foreign to the truth of Scripture. Jesus accused the pharisees of doing this, Paul battled false teachers who were doing this, and we still have that issue today.

Consider that Satan attempted to tempt Jesus with His very words just taken out of context. If we do not worship and live according to His actual words and meaning we are indeed involved in a manmade religion. Today we will dedicate our time building on Solid Sure Ground.

Matthew 7:24–27 (LSB)

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

25 “And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and fell against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.

26 “And everyone hearing these words of Mine and not doing them, may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

27 “And the rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Because our passage begins with the word therefore, I think it wise that we at lease see what Jesus said before the use of this parable.

The “therefore, oun in Greek” is a conjunction that indicates result. It implies the conclusion of a process of reasoning.

So accordingly, or consequently if A and B then C. It is a logical conclusion to a set of circumstances.

Matthew 7:21–23 (LSB)

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?’

23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

So now comes the therefore. In conclusion Jesus presents two open options. The crowd had heard what Jesus had to say. And consider that this is the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. So Jesus had a lot to say. Now, every hearer has a decision to make and Jesus makes it clear what the natural consequences of their decision will be.

They could build on the rock (or stone). Or build on sand. Please get this. they did not get to define what a rock was. That is why Jesus used a definite article “the”. So, not a Rock but The Rock.

And Jesus was not saying anything new that He did not say already through the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 28:16 (LSB)

16 Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.

Build on the foundation and do not deter from it.

The Rock is the Lord Himself. He is the foundation

But the foundation is offensive

Romans 9:33 (LSB)

33 just as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And the one who believes upon Him will not be put to shame.”

So sinking sand refers to anything that is not build on the foundation of Jesus Christ by what He has said and what He meant when He said it.

The moment you start building outside of Christ you begin to have unstable footing, everything becomes unknowable. You are carried away by the latest wind of doctrine according to Ephesians 4:14.

One example,

https://youtu.be/BWtGzJxiONU?si=2q-vHkmDW3krZarC

Genesis 1:27 (LSB)

27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 2:22–23 (LSB)

22 And Yahweh God fashioned the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

23 Then the man said, “This one finally is bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called Woman, Because this one was taken out of Man.”

An educated district Judge nominated to the supreme court does not know what a woman is. She is a woman but she does not know that.

She does not know what an adult human female is. That is sand.

The foundation is Christ and it is impossible to make Christ palatable to those who are disobedient to the word. To them, Christ is offensive

1 Peter 2:6–8 (LSB)

6 For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes upon Him will not be put to shame.”

7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, This has become the chief corner stone,”

8 and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this stumbling they were also appointed.

All of the foundational things that Jesus has been talking about, in that if you do not do what you have heard or learned from him you will sink when the storms come, and the storms always come. We are not the first generation who has been forced to double down on the firm foundation, look down and make sure we are standing on the rock.

We know some of the foundational departures that the apostles had to contend with:

Galatians 3:1–3 (LSB)

1 O foolish Galatians, who bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

2 This is the only thing I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Paul had to refute this foolishness by taking them back to the foundation.

By the 4th century the culture in and around the church, they began to shift again. There was this thing that started to assert itself. The philosophy that Christ was a created been and not truly God.

The logical conclusion to the argument of the deity of Christ is that to deny His deity would be to deny His sufficiency to save. And if He is not God then the Holy Spirit is not God and all of this is a departure from what the Scriptures assert.

Between 318 - 381, the church formulated, based on the foundational teachings of Jesus and all of his words in Scripture what we have come to know as the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; by who all things were made…

A few hundred years later with the union of church and state and the rise of the papacy, we see a significant departure from the rock, from the solid foundation. And because of building outside of the the foundation continued for so many centuries, the foundation itself was lost. And all of the atrocities of the middle ages took place, all in the name of Christ who said,

Matthew 15:9 (LSB)

9 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’”

Eventually what became known as the reformation during the 16th century took place which was a reconstruction of faith. A return on building on solid sure ground. On the foundation of Jesus Christ as mandated in the Scriptures

1. Sola Scriptura: Scripture alone is the inerrant and sufficient Word of God

2. Sola Gratia: Salvation is bestowed by God’s grace alone

3. Sola Fide: Salvation is received through faith alone

4. Solus Christus: In Christ alone

5. Soli Deo Gloria: To the glory of God alone

Some five hundred years later there is still another departure from the rock where society cannot define what it means to be a woman. And many professing Christians are going with the flow.

Even here at the bridge and every church needs to do this, pay attention to the things that the culture wants to infringe on the church that could cause us to loose sight of where we are building.

That is the reason why we made our belief statements more robust.

We BELIEVE in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; and in the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God.

We REVERENTLY RECEIVE the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and believe them to be the inspired Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

We BELIEVE in the Lord Jesus Christ, who in the beginning “was with God,” and “was God,” that “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).

We BELIEVE the Holy Spirit has led me to repent of all my sins, and to turn from them, and to obey Christ where He says, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).

We BELIEVE in the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment of all people. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

Back to the parable, the house represents religious life, worldview, belief systems that drives one’s actions.

The rain is most probable divine judgement or even just life. One theologian puts it this way,

MacArthur Study Bible NASB (Commentary)

Only the house built on the foundation of obedience to God’s Word stands, which calls for repentance, rejection of salvation by works, and trust in God’s grace to save through His merciful provision

1 Corinthians 3:10–11 (LSB)

10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.

11 For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Doing, living out what Christ as said is equivalent to building on the Rock. It is a sure foundation and when the winds of life and judgement come you will stand.

But no matter how many sermons you hear, how many worship songs you sing, or how much you read the Word, if you are not doing, living that out, according to Jesus, when trouble comes your house will fall and that with a great fall.

there was a shooting this week in a winder high School…