Be Wise

Matthew 7:24-27

Therefore…

A picture of the warnings

False Teachers(7:15-20) & False Professors (7:21-23)

You will be known by the fruitfulness of your life, a righteous heart produces righteous works. Not everyone who claims to know Christ will enter his Kingdom, but only those who do what he says and are known by him.

The Parable of the Two Builders - throwing an illustration alongside the teaching, a picture illustrating the lesson

The Sermon on the Mount is a call to genuine faith and righteousness.

Concluding the sermon, the parable calls us to find ourselves in it; to examine the foundations we have built upon.

Do not deceive yourselves, hear the word of Christ and do it, building your life on the solid rock.

The Parable of the Two Builders

Similarities

Both Built Houses - They wanted the same thing, building a house, a life, to dwell in security. There is no difference in desire.

Both Built in the Same Location - They were both by the river, you can picture a fertile valley, fed by a flowing stream

Both Faced the Storms - For both the rains fell, the floods came, and the winds blew against the house. These storms represent the trials and tests of life.

Differences

One Built on the Rock - Luke 6, the wise man dug deep into the ground, until he found bedrock, and laid the foundation of his home upon the solid foundation.

I like that picture, he dug until he found something that would not move, to provide stability. It might have taken days or weeks, but in the end it was worth the wait - it produced a lasting house.

One Built on Sand - The foolish man laid no foundation for his house

He was in a hurry - no time to wait, but wanted results immediately. “Let’s get right to it” was his motto. How many of us have the tendency to skip over the instructions, and only refer to them when something goes wrong?

When the storm came, one house stood and the other fell, and great was the fall. A great fall, devastating, shattering, crushing.

The Key

What does Jesus say is the Key difference between the wise and foolish builder? It’s not the location, not the building material, but whether a foundation was laid upon the clear instruction of the Lord: Hearing and Doing what Jesus has said. Both heard the teaching, but only the wise man did what he heard, while the fool did only what he wanted, and obedience to the Lord made every difference.

Building On the Rock.

Do you know a genuine righteousness; received by faith in Jesus Christ; a faith that is demonstrated in obedience.

Hearing the Sermon on the Mount.

What Has Jesus Taught - Summary of the Sermon

Let your good works shine as a light; to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees; to be holy as your Heavenly Father is holy, turning the other cheek, forgiving and being forgiven, remaining faithful in all relationships, giving, praying, and serving not for man’s praise but for God’s; seeking first His kingdom and righteousness.

Accepting this as the Word of the Lord

His word is true and authoritative. To accept Christ’s teaching as the very word of God, worthy not just of our admiration, but of our study, our understanding, and our faithful application of it.

Like the wise man, to dig deep into the word, that we might build our lives upon it. 2 Cor 10:5 Bringing every thought captive to obey Christ - shaping our worldview, our outlook on life, on the Word rather than the wold.

Doing the Sermon on the Mount

Hearing does no good if we do not apply it, and do it in our lives

Those who hear and do build their life upon God’s word.

“The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith. The two are opposite sides of the same coin.” A. W. Tozer

Those who hear and don’t do - build their life upon their own desires, their own plans, their own ways

James 1:22 tells us they deceive themselves. There are multitudes of those who profess faith in Christ, but do not obey Him. They begin with Christ, but sit down in the midway to heaven, and that will never bring them to their journey’s end.…

Where are you?

Practical Doing the Sermon - What does it actually look like?

Christ’s teaching on the law requires us to approach with humility, honestly, and repentance. To recognize how we have not, and in our own strength, cannot keep the law of God or attain the righteousness of His kingdom, which leads us to cry out for mercy, to be poor in spirit, to mourn our sin, and to ask, seek, and knock for the righteousness He has achieved for us.

Christ calls us to Hungering and Thirsting for Righteousness, reordering our desires, looking for God’s approval rather than man’s, living to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth, living by God’s standards rather than the world’s.

Doing Christ’s words means to build your life upon his unmoving, unchanging truth - to desire and pray for holiness and to strive after it - that you might know Christ and be known by Him.

The Call to Obedience

Obedience is the response to our salvation, not the reason for it. Obedience is faith in action.

Christ is not speaking of either the object or ground of saving faith, but of something far more probing and revealing, and we throw everything into the utmost confusion if we confound the two things.

The Lord’s commands reveal the Lord’s heart - when we do what He commands, we come to know Him, to delight in Him, and to enjoy Him more and more

Obedience to the word of Christ will bring an inward revelation of the Godhead. A. W. Tozer

The Lord gives what he commands

The Christian life is full of demands. I face demands to be a sacrificial husband, a present father to my children, a loving neighbor, and a faithful employee. I have a choice every morning: I can rush into the day attempting to meet the demands of Christ on my own, or I can call to mind that his invitations often begin in disguise. What life demands from me, Jesus desires to be for me, if I will ask and receive.