Build Your House on the Rock

Matthew 7:24-27

turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 7:24 and we will read our next parable. As Steve is going through Psalm 119, talking about the value of God’s word, I want to continue our thoughts on that idea. The value of God’s word, and the authority of God’s word. They go hand in hand.

Let’s read the parable together. (Read Matthew 7:24-27)

As always, it’s important to understand the context. This parable is directly connected to the verses before. We see “therefore” starting the parable. So, we must ask ourselves, what is, therefore? The previous section talks about the difference between true followers and false followers.

He talks about the broad gate and path and the narrow gate and path. Few find the narrow way that leads to life. We have the good and bad trees bearing good and bad fruit, then arguably the scariest verses in the Bible, verses 21-23. Those who believe in their good works apart from doing God’s will, will be denied by Jesus and enter eternal darkness and unending flame.

Now therefore, He gives this parable.

So, we have two individuals, one is wise, one is foolish. Notice they both build houses. These houses represent building our Christian lives. I would argue, based on other parables such as wheat and tares, remember they look identical, these houses probably look identical, you cannot tell them apart. It’s true that many unsaved individuals live a so-called Christian life, from the outside.

Many unsaved people can go to church every Sunday, can give in the offering, can pray to our God who doesn’t hear them, they can fellowship, they can serve in the church, they can read their bibles daily, they can do all those things and still not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Notice what Jesus says in verse 23. He didn’t say, you didn’t do this, you didn’t do that, no it’s I never knew you. I don’t know who you are. I didn’t have a relationship with you. So, both men in the parable build houses representing a Christian life. The big difference, the foundation, and it’s directly related to doing God’s word or not doing God’s word.

Submitting to God’s word is believing what it says, placing our faith in what it says, mainly the Gospel. Anyone can read the Bible; anyone can read the Gospelmessages in here and still choose to not obey it. There’s a lot of people like that in the world, according to verses 21-23 in Matthew 7. Unsaved people who think they are Christians only to be turned away in the end. Because they may have heard the words, but they didn’t do them.

The key difference between the wise man and foolish man. The wise man hears Christ words and does them. He puts them into action in His life. The Bible says repent of your sins and believe in the Gospel, which means believing in the works, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for your salvation and nothing we do. The person who not only hears that but does it, is saved.

The foolish manhears the words. But he does not do them. No repentance, no faith, therefore, no indwelling with the Holy Spirit, no conviction, no stirring, just empty dead faith. Like the house built on the sand. Seems like a good house, but it’s empty and is loose and shallow, just like it’s foundation.

The second soil, right? Grows a nice plant, looks pretty good. But it was on loose soil, with no depth. The sun scorched it. The persecutions in life drive the false Christians away.

And Jesus likens doing the word of God to the man building his house on the rock. The Greek word here is petra. It means a huge, massive rock or even a ledge or cliff. Remember where Jesus is standing? This is the end of the sermon on the mount. He’s standing on a cliff or ledge talking to the crowd.

(Next Slide)What is the rock? The exact same Greek word is used by Jesus in Matthew 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock (petra) I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

The Roman Catholic church along with others grossly misinterpret this verse. They say Peter was the first pope and that this verse confirms it, Christ builds his church upon Peter. That’s kind of how it sounds right? Well, context and the Greek language can help us out here. First the context. Surrounding this verse, Jesus asks the disciples, who do people say that I am? Peter says you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. It’s all about Christ, not Peter.

Now the Greek. You remember Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter? Well Peter is Petros in Greek, it means a small rock or stone. Petra = the large, massive cliff made out of rock. Immovable.

So, if we read it with the Greek involved, Jesus says you are a stone and upon this huge rock, I will build my church. See how Peter and the rock are two different things?

(Next Slide)Ephesians 2:19-22 Jesus is the cornerstone, the cliff, the rock that He will build His church. Jesus is the head, not Peter.

(Next Slide)(Matthew 16:18) Peter and the apostles are the first stones placed on top of Christ, for sure. And if Christ put Peter as the head, as the cornerstone, we would all be in danger. Peter was not perfect.

Why the cornerstone analogy? Well, if you aren’t familiar with building. They did this back then and they do it still today, in fact, my father and I had some experience with a cornerstone when he helped me lay a stone foundation for my house.

I was about 20 or 21 years old so very impatient. My dad started at the corner, and he took so long laying this one brick, the bottom cornerstone. He got his level out, leveled it like 78 times it felt like. I was like, dad come on, why so long on this one brick. His exact words: This brick has to be perfect, or else the whole wall will be off. If that cornerstone was off by a millimeter, it would throw the whole wall in a different direction. And at the end of the wall, it could be several inches off.

And because of that lesson years ago, I understood quickly why Jesus is referenced as the cornerstone. Because He had to be perfect. And if you want the church to be seen as perfect in God’s eyes. His household, Then the cornerstone that He builds upon it, had to be perfect.

So, the wise man in the parable builds his house, his Christian life on the foundation of Jesus Christ and His word, the perfect cornerstone.

The foolish man can do all the Christian things, build a Christian life that looks Christian from the outside, but what didn’t he have? The foundation of Jesus. He rejected the chief cornerstone.

(Next Slide)1 Peter 2:1-8 Peter seems to echo the words of His master using stones as an analogy. Peter quotes a lot of Scripture where God uses this analogy elsewhere. (Read)

So, the foolish man back in the parable, has rejected the choice stone, Jesus Christ and He has become a rock of offense and of stumbling. And why does he stumble according to Peter? (Read 2:8b) They stumble because they are disobedient to the word.

The wise man and foolish man. They are clearly the saved and the unsaved. You have to have Christ as the foundation or your whole house will be off. If you don’t have the foundation, you can’t enter heaven. In this context, they don’t even build on solid ground.

In context remember, starting in chapter 7:13, narrow gate, wide gate, bad trees, good trees, those who claim to be followers, but no relationship. Now we see wise men, and foolish men. But we also see this in the parable itself, in verses 25 and 27. The rain descended, the rivers came, the winds blew and fell against each house. The same storm hit both houses.

The wise man’s house stayed. Because it was built on the rock. The foolish man’s house fell and great was its fall. It echoes the voice of Jesus 4 verses before. Depart from Me, I never knew you. And great was their fall.  

Before we go further, I want to put this parable in a geographical context. Because when us Americans think of sand, we think of the beach right. Well, we need to think what the first century people in that area were thinking. Notice Jesus doesn’t say the ocean came against the houses, no it’s a river.

Next slide:Show the wadi cliffs and the river bed.

You have to have the foundation of Jesus Christ; how do you know if you have the foundation? Do you obey the word of God, not just read it, but obey it. Does it convict you, does it stir you up, does it change your thinking? Do you see yourself start living it out once you read, study, hear it and understand it. Is your faith growing, is your relationship with Christ growing? That can only happen if we are obedient to God’s word.

(Next Slide)James 1:22-25 22But become doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was. 25But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.

.1 John 2:3-63 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5but whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

An urgent warning by these two men for those who do not keep God’s commandments. James says you want to be blessed in what you do? Be a doer of the word. John says you want to know you are saved? Only those who desire to do God word are. To those who keep His word, meaning we read it, but it also changes us, maybe slowly, over time. But it does change who we are and what we do.

Examples: I used to lie like it was no big deal. I used to gossip and slander as if it was a natural human reaction and normal table talk. But because I came to Christ, His word keeps my tongue at bay and my eyes forward. Something I could never do on my own power. Is God’s word changing you?

Now for those who have the foundation. I know I have Jesus; I have the foundation. What does this parable do for me? Some Christians have the foundation, but then that’s seemingly it, they don’t build adequately or lazily. No real deep study, not a whole lot of growth in their knowledge of Scripture, or their knowledge of Christ. I’m saved, I have the foundation, I have Christ. Why do I need to know a lot? Why can’t I just read my daily devotional verse each day and be done?

The same reason you don’t look at your spouse or your kids for 20 seconds and then be done with them the rest of the day. You love them, you want to be with them, you want to cherish those moments. It’s the same with Christ. We love Christ, we want to cherish our time with Him so we dwell in Scripture, getting to know him more each time we open these pages. You don’t have to be bible scholar, but you should desire to get to know Christ more.

(Next Slide)1 Peter 2:2 long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

2 Peter 3:18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

(Next Slide)Proverbs 24:3-4

Could be true of a physical house. But these are proverbs, poetic language. By wisdom our spiritual house is built. Our spiritual life, our Christian life. It’s firmly established, on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

And then. Everything stops. No, let’s keep going in verse 4. If you read and study Scripture, you gain knowledge, biblical knowledge. Knowledge of Christ. And as you read and study Scripture, your spiritual house is filled with beautiful, ornate furniture. Filled with precious and pleasant riches. Were not talking physical prosperity like the prosperity gospel preachers. But we are talking spiritual prosperity. Our spiritual life can grow and become precious and pleasant.

So, Christians, if we have the foundation, if we have the house. How are we filling them? How are we continuing to build our spiritual life each day? We should never stop building and never stop filling it with godly stuff. Our foundation in Jesus Christ is firmly established, great! We can’t stop there. We need to add on, we need to fill it with furniture and appliances, and pictures, vases, other wonderful things which is all referencing our knowledge of Scripture and the things we do for the kingdom.

We can also fill it with junk. The worthlessness in life. Bad TV, bad movies, the bad side of social media, hobbies that we idolize. Whatever it may be.

You think about it for a moment. You build a physical house. Just walls and a ceiling. A good foundation, it’s not going anywhere. And that’s it. No furniture. No pictures, no appliances, no bed to lay down on, you have to sleep on the hardwood floor. No blankets. Would life be pretty hard? Would anyone find that enjoyable? What about a hoarder house? A lot of us think that’s disgusting but the truth is spiritually, some of us probably have a spiritual hoarder house. We need to clean that out and put in godly material.

On the flip side, imagine having all the building materials, an endless bank account to spend on whatever couches, and beds, and appliances and fine art or whatever else you wanted in the house to live easy and rest comfortably? I’m not talking a prosperity gospel here, it’s an analogy, bear with me. Also it’s always clean, very little junk, floors are swept. The point is, would that be a much easier more enjoyable house to live in?

The reality is, when it comes to building our spiritual house or spiritual life, we have all the precious building materials right here. And infinite amount of building materials. So, keep building, keep learning, keep studying. Keep your house clean with Scripture and not worldly nonsense.

Yea, there are some things in here that we might not understand, that’s okay. I don’t know what half the buttons do on my dishwasher, but I still put it in my house, ill figure it out later as time goes on. I don’t know exactly what this verse means, but I’m going to trust God and figure it out later.

(Next Slide)1 Cor. 3:10-15 I mentioned these verses in a previous parable, but they apply well to this parable also.

Paul is taking the parable or the analogy that Christ used. Christ is the foundation. Christ gave us the two main characters of the analogy. The saved person with a strong house who obeys the word, and the person who doesn’t obey the word and has a house that falls.

In this context, Pual is talking to the Corinthians and at the very beginning of this chapterhe calls them infants in Christ, and brothers. He says they are saved Christians, in verse 3, he calls them fleshly and living as mere men, meaning they are Christians living like unsaved people, fleshly people. In this context, he charges them to grow! Grow up! In your salvation, grow in your knowledge, grow in your spiritual maturity. And then look what he ties it to. Building a house.

The Holy Spirit through Paul kind of introduces us to a third character in this analogy and adds some extra weight to it. I’m not saying this is directly tied to the parable. But Paul does use the analogy.

So, the effort we put in here for God’s kingdom and our spiritual life, we are building on the foundation of Christ, our spiritual house, and remember, we can build with different materials. Some of them are worthless and will get burned up. Some are good and will stay and we will get a reward for them. But even if some get burned up, we still have the foundation. Paul says but we will still be saved. So, let’s build our house with good materials, let’s build with gold.

Building with gold is loving God so much that we dwell in his word, become learners of Christ, grow our walk with Him, obey His word, be submissive to it, and we go out and do the things he tells us with a glad and joyful heart keeping our eyes on Him.

Some Christians sadly, might hear these things and think, I’m good where I’m at. If I get into heaven, that’s good enough for me. And I’m sure we have all thought that at one point or another. And I’m sure that’s what Paul was thinking that the Corinthians would think when he wrote this. He probably thought, maybe this won’t get their attention, so I’m not going to stop there, he adds on the next few verses, verse 16 and 17.

(Next Slide)Read 1 Cor. 3:16-17

Now in case that doesn’t hit you like it should, let me explain it for a minute. Some of your bibles might say temple of God but that is a pour translation. That Greek word there is (na-hos) which literally means the part of the temple in which God resides. It’s better translated “Sanctuary” The sanctuary was the Holy of Holies. 1 Kings 6:16

When the Templewas built and instituted, this is the place that God dwelled among His people. It was so holy, set apart, so serious, that one person, the High priest, which was chosen by God, could only enter once a year and never without blood. If He did any part of the process wrong or went in without the right blood: dead.

This was all a picture of us entering the heavenly temple when we die, because we enter with the blood of Jesus, the lamb of God that satisfied His holy wrath, we can be saved. But not only that, because God now says that the temple is done, the holy of holies as a physical place is gone, we now are the place that God resides. We are the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, God Himself.

Do we understand the implications of that? How serious the Holy of Holies was and is? That’s why Paul says, do you not know this?

- Btw, quick side note. That’s why God shows us in Scripture that sexual sin is set apart as a more grievous sin, because any other sin is done outside the body, whereas sexual sin is done against your own body which is the: sanctuary of God.

But, back to building our houses. If our body is the sanctuary of God, and we are to be building our spiritual life, shouldn’t we keep trying to add on, to stack up, to keep updating and filling our life, our spiritual house with more and more godly material that honors God?

More spiritual fruit to add into our lives? What does this look like practically? Filling our life with more prayer, more Bible reading, more Bible Studying, more fellowship among other believers, more obeying what God’s word says. And to know that you have to know Scripture. It’s making a choice to end our pursuit, our focus on the American dream. If it happens, it happens, that’s fine, if God blesses you with that, great.

But all that stuff should be a byproduct, a blessing from God, not our focus. We should labor in getting to know our Savior. What we put our time, money and energy towards is what we will become.

Our focus should be on God conforming us to His Son through His word. That is His will. Romans 12:1-2

It’s making a choice to stop living for us and living a life for God. Every day, we need to wake up with an attitude of prayer, go straight to God and say God, I don’t care what happens today, I want to do your will, I want your glory to be seen, I just want You.

Because what we do here, all that we do: matters. Again, I’m not saying don’t do these things but think about it for a second. When our house is going to be tested by fire and we stand before the judgement seat of Christ, Jesus is not going to be excited with me that I worked on my golf swing and have a decent shot. Jesus is not going to be excited that we can name every OSU football player by name and number or that we watched every game in our lifetime.

Again, do those things, but don’t let it interfere with godly kingdom work or growing your relationship with Christ.

Are those things building with hay or straw or wood? Not all the time, there’s a time for rest and activities. But if there’s an opportunity to serve, or we have a brother or sister in need of something and we can only come together and help during a game. What are you going to choose? Where’s your heart at? Test yourself.

Why build your house with gold? Why fill it with furniture and precious items, all referencing the godly kingdom work and the study of Scripture we do down here, why?

(Next Slide)Well, several reasons, but one big reason, Paul says in the very next verse, verse 16, you are the house of God. You are the holy of Holies. The place where God dwells. Now that’s all God’s work at first, He saves us, He set’s us on the foundation of Jesus, and our life is now the stone structure if you will, as the sanctuary of God. Now, how are we going to treat it, how are we going to decorate it, or add on or fill it?

(Next Slide)Second reason we need to build well. Our house, our spiritual life, is going to be tested by fire. 1 Cor. 3:13. And our works will become evident. Paul says if they burn up, you will suffer loss, but not salvation. No this is a believer’s judgement. What will remain is everything we chose to do for the glory of God and His kingdom. Whether that be serving, or giving, or discipling, or evangelizing, or choosing to grow our knowledge of Christ instead of indulging in worthless things.

- What’s going to get burnt up is all the worthlessness we choose to put into our lives just like the Corinthians. Or the work we do but with wrong motives. Maybe we choose to serve Wildwood in some capacity, but we do it out of pride rather than joyfully submitting to God and serving His church for His glory. That’s like building with hay and straw.

- 1 Corinthians 13:3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

- If my buddies asked me to skip church to play golf, or skip a ministry opportunity to play golf, it would be tempting, for sure. But it’s the Scriptures that will keep us grounded. And we say no, golfing is fine for other times, but I’m going to choose to build with gold here. To build my spiritual life, to grow and to fellowship, and to serve one another, which is what Jesus calls us to do in His word.

(Next Slide)Third reason we should build well. Like we said before, Jesus is mentioning a storm, a raging river that is coming. And remember I said: both houses, the one on the rock and the one on the sand, are in the same storm.

And when that same storm comes, those who have built on the rock, they aren’t afraid, their house isn’t being shaken. There’s no reason to fear or be anxious during the storm, because they know the weatherman.

They believe in the promises of God. They believe in Romans 8:28 that God will work out all things for good to those who love Him.

This parable also shows us that God does not promise us a way out of the storm, He doesn’t promise we won’t experience the storms. But He does promise, if we obey His word, everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, then the storm won’t shake you.

That’s the difference the Word of God can make in our lives.

The foolish guy didn’t have the foundation, his house in the same storm, immediately collapses. Now there are ways to apply storms in Scripture to trials from God. But in this context, in this parable, it represents the final storm of divine judgement. Only those who have the foundation of Jesus will stand and enter into heaven. Those who reject the saving power of Christ alone, their house will fall, and great is it’s fall.

(Next Slide)To wrap this all up. Check out your spiritual foundation. Is it built on the foundation of Jesus Christ and His word alone? Or is it loose and shallow, believing in works and religion and whatever else you want to throw into the foundation. Because that foundation is not secure.

And then, if you have the foundation of Christ Jesus and His word. How are you continuing to build your spiritual house? How are you growing your spiritual life? Are you adding to it daily, using the resources available? Are we filling it? With what? With nonsense? Or with godly material? Are we obeying the Word of God and being doers of it? Are we living a life for ourselves? Or living a life for God?