Latest / Reformed Thinking / Built to Stand: Hearing Christ and Doing His Words (Matthew 7:24–27)

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Built to Stand: Hearing Christ and Doing His Words (Matthew 7:24–27) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We're about to start a deep dive
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into a section of scripture that so many of us know but maybe
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don't feel the full weight of. We're looking at the very end of
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Christ's Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew 7, verses
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24 through 27. You probably know it as the
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Parable of the Two Builders. And it really is a master class
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in how to conclude a sermon. I mean, think about it.
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Jesus has just spent three chapters laying out this vision
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for Kingdom life. A righteousness that has to go
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beyond the external. Way beyond it.
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He's talked about the heart, about prayer, money, anxiety.
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And he doesn't just, you know, wrap it up with a nice summary.
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No, it's a confrontation. It is.
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He brings all his warnings together, the 2 gates, the two
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trees, the false professions, and he channels them into this
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final stark contrast. So our goal today is to figure
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out why he uses this metaphor. Construction and catastrophe.
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Right to push everyone listening toward a decision.
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It's about looking past what's visible, past the religious
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activity and getting down to the hidden foundation.
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That's the key, the hidden foundation.
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And the tension is all right there.
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In that hiddenness, you have two people and they're both doing
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the same thing. They're building a house.
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From the outside, you might not be able to tell them apart.
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Same design, same paint color, They might even be on the same
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construction schedule. But the real issue isn't whether
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you listen to the truth. It's not even if you admire how
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beautiful Christ's standards are.
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The whole thing hinges on whether his actual words become
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the the governing structure of your life.
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And what we're going to see is that when you stand in front of
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Christ's teaching, there's just no neutral ground.
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You can't be a spectator. The only question left is what's
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still standing after the storm hits.
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And the storm always hits. It always does.
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OK, so let's unpack this. The first thing that jumps out
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at me, and it's almost jarring, is how similar these two men
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are. At the beginning.
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Jesus repeats the same phrase for both of them.
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Everyone who hears these words of mine, he says it for the wise
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man, and he says the exact same thing for the foolish man.
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What is that telling us about who this is aimed at?
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It's telling us that this is an inside job, so to speak.
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This is an indictment of religious proximity, of just
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being around the truth. So this isn't for the person
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who's never heard of Jesus. Not at all.
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He is speaking directly to the people who have been sitting on
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the hillside listening to this entire sermon.
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This isn't a contrast between, you know, the secular person and
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the religious. It's.
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Between two kinds of religious people.
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Two kinds of hearers. They're standing at the same
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door. They have the same privilege.
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They're getting direct, unfiltered teaching from the
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Messiah himself. So the wise builder didn't have
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some secret source of information.
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No. And the foolish builder didn't
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fail because he, you know, skipped that day's lecture.
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They both heard the same radical claims.
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They both stood under the authority of the same king.
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That that should hit home for anyone who grew up in the church
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or anyone who sits in a solid Bible teaching church every
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week. It should, because it just
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demolishes the idea that we're safe by association.
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We get comfortable thinking that if we're just around the truth,
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if we know the right theological words, then we must be OK.
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That we've absorbed it somehow. And Jesus is saying that's a
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lethal self deception. He will not allow the comfort of
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being familiar with his words to be a substitute for the hard
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work of obeying them. So we have to draw a line
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between hearing and believing. And between association and
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allegiance, I mean, think of it this way.
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Both builders were using, let's say, Christian blueprints, OK?
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They were building lives that looked on the surface like they
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belong to a follower of Christ. But the real difference was
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buried. It was underground.
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And the fact they both have the same opportunity makes the
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foolish builders end so much worse.
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It makes it a tragedy. His ruin isn't because he was
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ignorant. It's because he heard Christ
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speak with absolute clarity and then chose to ignore it.
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He chose neglect. And we also need to 0 in on the
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specific claim Jesus makes. He locates the final authority
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not in some general spiritual idea, but in these words of
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mine. That kind of self reference
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isn't just advice, that's a claim of sovereignty.
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It is absolutely a kingly declaration.
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He's not just appealing to the past, saying remember the words
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of Moses or the prophets taught, even though he honors them.
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He's the focal point. He is, He puts his own teaching,
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this very sermon forward as the non negotiable standard for
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judgment. So when you hear these words,
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you're not just getting some good moral counsel that you can,
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you know, think about and maybe add to your life plan if it
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works for you. You're hearing covenant demands.
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Covenant demands. They call for repentance, they
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require faith, and they insist on obedience.
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They are designed to shatter the illusion that you can follow
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Christ while still being the ultimate authority in your own
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life. So hearing in that sense is
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actually a high stakes activity. It's risky.
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It is. Scripture always treats hearing
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the truth as something that increases our accountability.
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You don't get credit just for being in the room.
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Not at all. We see this all through the Old
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Testament prophets. Think about Ezekiel.
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God tells him the people love to come and listen to him.
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They treat it like entertainment.
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Exactly. God says they hear his words
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like a beautiful song sung by someone with a lovely voice.
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They enjoy the sound of it. They might even discuss it
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intellectually afterwards. That they have no intention of
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doing what he says. None.
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The hearing satisfies a religious craving, but it never
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bends their will. It's a performance for them.
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And James picks up on that same theme.
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He warns about being a hearer who deceives himself.
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The danger isn't always a flat out rejection of theology.
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No, the danger is often this quiet, subtle self deception
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where the act of listening itself becomes the evidence of
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your spiritual health. That feels particularly relevant
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today, with endless access to sermons and podcasts and books.
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It's a huge spiritual hazard. A person can collect notebooks
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full of sermon notes, listen to all the best preachers, argue
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theology online, and have incredible doctrinal precision.
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And still be building on sands. Still be building on sand.
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If Christ's words aren't actually governing the small,
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ordinary choices of their life, we're in danger of turning the
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King's authoritative command into well into content.
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Content that we consume. We consume it, we critique it,
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we enjoy it, but all the while we're resisting the specific,
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costly things the King is telling us to do.
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So the listening can become a kind of spiritual anesthetic.
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It makes you feel good. It quiets your conscience
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because you feel like you're doing something religious by
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taking in all this truth. But at the same time, it
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protects your autonomic it allows you to listen without
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ever having to yield. So this shared privilege, this
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fact that both builders start in the exact same place, it forces
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you to look past the external stuff.
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It's not about your church attendance or your reading list.
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The question becomes, what has the hearing produced?
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Has it actually LED you to fight sin?
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Has it reordered what you value? Has it exposed your desire to be
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in control? Or has it just been dated that
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you've downloaded without it ever changing the direction of
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your will? That's it.
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When both builders hear the same Christ, the difference in their
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destination can't be blamed on a lack of opportunity.
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It comes down entirely to the hidden response of the heart.
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They had the same privilege, but they made a different decision
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about obedience. And that's the divide.
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OK, so that shared starting point really sets the stage for
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what you just called the decisive divide.
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The entire spiritual future of these two men turns on one
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little phrase. Yes, and it defines what wisdom
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actually is. In this context, the whole
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contrast isn't about the quality of the teaching they heard, it's
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about the quality of their reception.
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So the wise builder hears these words of mine and does them.
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And the foolish builder hears these words of mine and does not
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do them. That's the knife's edge.
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This is where Christ just slices right through all the religious
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window dressing. The difference is submission,
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not just intellectual agreement. He's coming directly against
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this assumption that the Christian life is basically just
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about agreeing with the right ideas, or feeling a certain way,
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or even just saying the right words.
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We saw it just a few verses earlier with the warning about
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crying Lord, Lord. And that warning in verse 21 is
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really the interpretive key for this whole parable.
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He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the
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Kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father
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who is in heaven. And the people he's describing
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there weren't just making a simple confession, they were
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claiming to do amazing things in his name.
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They were prophesying, casting out demons.
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Spectacular stuff. But their words and their
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actions were disconnected from the one thing that mattered.
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Genuine, obedient submission to the Father's.
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Will, which is revealed in the words of Christ.
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Which is revealed in the words of Christ the Son.
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So the doing here isn't a call for more impressive religious
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performances. It's the simple, practical
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evidence of a heart that has actually bowed to Christ.
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It's a faith that treats his words like commands, not like
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suggestions. So let's get practical when we
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talk about doing What does that look like day-to-day if we pull
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it out of the construction metaphor?
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It's the pattern of a surrendered life.
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It's the direction you're headed, even if you stumble.
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So if you've really taken Christ's words to heart, then
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when those words point out impurity in your life, your
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response is to repent and turn from it.
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You don't just agree that purity is a good idea.
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No, you actually fight for it. When Christ commands you to
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reconcile with someone, you go and do it, even if it's
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humiliating and you feel they don't deserve it.
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When he calls for honesty, you tell the truth, even if a lie
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would be easier or more profitable.
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Exactly. It's the slow, steady work of
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being shaped by the demands in the Sermon on the Mount.
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Seeking purity of heart, refusing to manipulate people,
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praying in secret for God's glory, not for public applause,
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forgiving people who have hurt you.
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And it's. Not about being perfect.
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It's not about sinless perfection, we are all flawed
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builders, but it is about a consistent pattern.
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The pattern is this. When the king speaks, the true
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disciple yields. They don't argue, they don't
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negotiate. They obey.
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Which means the main danger Jesus is warning about is this
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very specific kind of religious self deception.
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Believing you're safe just because you've consumed good
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theology. Or because you're active in
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religious routines. That's the most deadly kind of
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barren hearing. Because it's so sophisticated.
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It is. It can mask itself with a lot of
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activity. The person building on the sand
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might be the first one to praise a powerful sermon.
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They might be involved in all sorts of ministry that looks
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impressive. They might love to debate fine
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points of doctrine. And they might even be very good
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at pointing out the spiritual failures in other people.
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Oh. Absolutely, but all that
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busyness can be a smokescreen, a diversion from the plain
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personal commands of Christ that would actually require self
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denial. Like what?
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Like refusing to give up a secret sinful habit, or avoiding
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a difficult conversation to make peace with a family member.
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Or, you know, cutting corners financially at work.
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Baron Hearing keeps up the appearance of construction, but
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it refuses the radical surrender that obedience requires.
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So the question is whether Christ's words had actually made
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it into the will, into the heart, or if they've just taken
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up residence in the mind as interesting ideas.
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That's the absolute key. The divide isn't between
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builders and non builders. Everyone is building something
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with their life. The divides between those whose
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hearing leads to real, even if imperfect, obedience.
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And those whose hearing is just a dead end, an intellectual
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exercise. A closed loop.
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Christ's words will not leave you neutral.
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They will either claim you and direct your life, or they will
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stand as a witness against you on the last day.
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The only kind of hearing that Jesus called wise here is the
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hearing that bends the knee, the hearing that becomes doing.
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OK, so this focus on doing leads us right into what is probably
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the most sensitive theological question in this whole passage.
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If Jesus connects standing firm through the storm, which points
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to final salvation, if he connects that to doing his
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words, how is that not a form of salvation by works?
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It sounds at first read like he's making everything depend on
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our obedience. And that is an unavoidable
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question. You have to wrestle with it if
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you're taking the text seriously.
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And you know, if you were to just RIP this one parable out of
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the Bible and read it in isolation, you might very well
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conclude that Jesus is setting up a legalistic system.
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Do these things and you will be saved.
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Right. But we can't do that.
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We have to read the end of the sermon in light of everything
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that came before it. And what has the whole point of
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the Sermon on the Mount then? To show that nobody can keep the
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law perfectly. It's been to show the complete
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inadequacy of human works. He's pushed the law from an
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external checklist to an internal heart issue.
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Anger is murder. Lust is adultery.
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He has systematically proven that our own righteousness is
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bankrupt. So if the condition for standing
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is perfect obedience to the Sermon on the Mount, then
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everyone's house is going down. Everyone is the foolish builder.
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Everyone's life ends in collapse.
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There are no exceptions. And we also have to remember the
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verses that come right before this parable, Matthew 7.21 to
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23. The people who are turned away
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are not people who are lazy. They're the ones boasting about
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all their spectacular religious works.
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Yes, that context is the absolute key to getting this
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right. They were doing all these
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things, prophesying miracles, and what does Jesus say to them?
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I never knew you. I never knew you.
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That tells us Their problem was not a lack of effort.
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It wasn't an insufficient number of good deeds on their resume.
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Their failure was a lack of a real saving relationship with
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the king. He's not saying sorry.
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You only cast out nine demons and the minimum was 10.
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No, he's saying you never had the foundation of genuine faith,
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and therefore you never produced the obedience that flows from
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it. So the doing he's talking about
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in our parable can't be the cause of their acceptance.
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It can't be the ground they stand on.
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It has to be the evidence, the necessary expression of an
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acceptance they've already received by Grace.
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That's it. And this is where that classic
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Reform distinction between justification and sanctification
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becomes so critical. Without that framework, this
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passage becomes a real problem. It either pushes you into a
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paralyzing legalism or into a cheap grace that makes obedience
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optional. Let's break that down
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Justification. First, OK, Scripture is
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absolutely clear on this. We are justified, declared
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righteous in God's sight by grace alone, through faith alone
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in Christ alone. It is not based on our works.
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Romans 3, Galatians 2, Ephesians 2.
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They all hammer this home. Our righteous standing before
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God is based on Christ's perfect righteousness being credited to
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our account. And we received that by faith.
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The Westminster Confession calls justification an act of God's
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free grace, given to us not for anything we have done, but only
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for Christ's sake. So if the wise builders House
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stands because his good deeds bought him a plot on the rock,
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then the entire gospel is undone.
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But the other side of that coin is just as critical.
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The kind of faith that receives Christ's righteousness is never
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a dead, abstract, do nothing faith.
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Never. It's a living, active, dynamic
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force that will, by its very nature, produce change.
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So if justification is the root of the tree.
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Then sanctification is the fruit that grows on it.
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Ephesians 2 is the classic text. Verses 8 and 9 say we're saved
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by grace through faith, not by works.
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But then verse 10 immediately says we are God's workmanship
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created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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Works are the purpose of salvation, not the cause of it.
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They are the unavoidable purpose.
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And James is even more blunt. He says faith without works is
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dead. It's a corpse.
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So when Jesus makes this contrast between doing and not
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doing, he's not giving us a Plan B for getting right with God.
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He's describing the essential character of a true living,
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saving faith. I've heard it said that a tree
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doesn't bear fruit in order to become alive.
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It bears fruit because it is alive.
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That's the relationship. So obedience in the context of
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this parable is like the thermometer.
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It doesn't generate the heat, but it reveals that the heat is
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there. A great way to put it, it
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doesn't earn your union with Christ.
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It proves that the union is real.
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And we understand it that way. The parable becomes this
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powerful tool that corrects 2 huge errors that are always
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trying to creep into the. Church always on the one side on
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the other. Let's take legalism first, yeah?
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How does this passage shut down the person who is trusting in
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their own religious performance? Legalism score.
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Belief is my good behavior, my diligent rule keeping, my
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impressive ministry. That's what secures God's favor.
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Christ just wrecks that idea by pointing to the people who are
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doing spectacular things in His name.
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And he says I never knew you. Their performance was off the
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charts, but the relationship is non existent.
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So your obedience, no matter how impressive it looks, is not the
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basis of God's favor, it's the grateful response to it.
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Yeah, and what about the other era?
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Antinomianism. The idea that since we're saved
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by grace, it doesn't really matter how we live.
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Antinomianism says I made a decision for Christ, I said a
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prayer, so my ticket is punched. The pattern of my life now is
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irrelevant to my salvation, and Christ comes against that with
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everything he has in this parable.
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He calls it foolishness. He says a barren hearing, a life
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that calls him Lord but refuses to actually obey his words, is a
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spiritual delusion that is headed for catastrophic collapse
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under judgement. You cannot genuinely trust the
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King for salvation while simultaneously refusing to
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submit to his rule. The 2 are inseparable.
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So the purpose of this whole parable isn't to make sincere,
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struggling believers doubt their salvation.
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No, not at all. Its purpose is to be a
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demolition charge against the false assurance of the
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complacent, the nominal, the person who thinks religion is a
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substitute for relationship. Saving faith is a foundation,
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and a foundation, by its nature, has to shape everything that's
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built on top. Of it, it has to The builder who
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stands is the one who's doing, is the visible proof of an
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invisible reality, a heart that has been made new and has
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surrendered to Christ as King. The foolish builder, whether he
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knows it or not, wants Jesus as a helpful advisor or maybe a
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fire escape from hell. But not as Lord.
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Not as the King who has the right to command his total
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costly allegiance. Jesus's logic is inescapable.
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If you have truly received my words, your life will begin to
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bow to them. And that bowing will be proven
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real when the storm comes. So let's shift our focus a bit.
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We've talked about the action of doing, but now let's look at the
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structure itself. The houses are not distinguished
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by their curb appeal. It's all about the hidden
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reality underneath the foundation.
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We're looking at rock built discipleship versus sand built
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religion. And that difference is totally
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invisible until the pressure comes from the street.
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They might both look like solid, well built Christian lives.
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They use the right language. They're involved in the
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community. But one is resting on the
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unshakable authority of Christ's words, and the other is resting
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on, well, something flimsy and self chosen.
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So let's define our terms. What is the rock in this
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context? It has to be more than just a
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general belief in God or even an intellectual agreement with the
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Bible. The rock is Christ's word,
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received by faith, embraced as the final authority, and
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therefore put into practice. It is the posture of submission.
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Luke's account of this parable adds a really helpful detail
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here. It does, Luke says.
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The wise builder dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.
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That image of digging deep is so important.
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It implies effort. It implies that laying a proper
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foundation is hard work. It's not the easy option.
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It's the slow, costly work of repentance.
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It's about confronting the truth about yourself instead of making
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excuses for your sin. It means choosing what Christ
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says over your own comfort, over your preferences, over what's
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convenient. So building on the rock means
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taking Jesus seriously right at the points where our culture and
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even some parts of the church want to soften his message.
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That's the heart of it. Building on the rock means you
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let Christ's words have the final say when they expose a sin
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you love, A secret habit, a bitter attitude, a sharp tongue.
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It means you pursue reconciliation when your pride
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is screaming at you to hold a grudge.
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Or you choose to be generous when your bank account is
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telling you to be selfish. The rock is the conviction that
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Christ is Lord and His words are the fixed, unmoving standard,
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even when, especially when they make us deeply uncomfortable.
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The stability comes from something outside of us.
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You don't create the Rock, You just build on it.
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You build on it because you recognize it's the only thing
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that won't shift. It's not sustained by your mood
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or your effort. It's sustained by God's own
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truth. OK, if that's the rock, then
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what's the sand? We know it's unstable, but what
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does it look like when it's all dressed up in religious clothes?
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Sand is anything, literally anything, that we substitute for
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genuine submission to Christ's Word because it's easier to
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manage. And it can look a lot of
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different ways. 1000 different ways.
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That's why it's so deceptive. On one hand, it can be just, you
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know, a worldly life that's been sprinkled with a little bit of
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Christian terminology. But far more often and far more
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dangerously in the Church, Sand is a highly sophisticated,
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orthodox sounding religion. What do you mean by that?
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I mean, a religion that loves correct doctrine is a badge of
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identity. A person who treats theology
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like a hobby or a sport. They love to argue.
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They love to be right. But they resist the practical
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demands that the doctrine makes on their actual life.
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They resist it with everything they have.
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So the sand could be having an outward morality but no inward
21:33
repentance, or it could be building your whole Christian
21:37
life on emotional experiences and subjective feelings instead
21:40
of the objective written word. So when the feelings are strong,
21:44
you feel secure, and when they're not, your whole house
21:48
shakes. The foundation is your emotional
21:50
state, not Christ. Other examples of sand, building
21:54
your life on the approval of your Christian friends.
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When that community changes or you move away, your faith
22:00
collapses. Or building on your own
22:02
performance. How much you pray, how many
22:04
chapters you read, how many ministry activities you leave.
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That's all scaffolding. But the heart can still be
22:09
completely self ruled. So the common denominator for
22:12
the foolish builder is a refusal to yield control.
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A refusal to yield at the point where it cost them.
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Something where Christ's Lordship clashes with their
22:20
deepest desires or their personal convenience.
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And the scary part is that sand can look so solid when the
22:25
weather is good. It can look great, A sand built
22:28
life can be very impressive. The person knows all the right
22:31
answers, they're involved, they look the part, but the
22:34
foundation is ultimately self referential.
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My preferences are the real judge of Scripture.
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My comfort level determines the limits of my discipleship.
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My feelings are the measure of what's real.
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And because sand is always shifting with the culture, with
22:49
your circumstances, it's only a matter of time before the
22:52
pressure comes and exposes it for what it is.
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So the parable is really a merciful act of unveiling.
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It is. Christ is showing us that the
22:59
real difference isn't how Christian 2 lives look on the
23:01
surface. The real difference is whether
23:04
His Word has actually reached that hidden place where you make
23:07
your deepest choices, where your foundation is truly laid.
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Which brings us to the next part of the story, the part that no
23:13
one can avoid the storm. And the way Jesus describes it
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is so vivid. It's comprehensive.
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He piles on the language. The rain fell and the floods
23:24
came and the winds blew and beat on that house.
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It's not just a light drizzle. No, this is an all out assault.
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Pressure from above with the rain, pressure from below with
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the floods and pressure from the side with the winds.
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There is absolutely nowhere for a weak spot in the foundation to
23:39
hide. It will be found out.
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And it's crucial that we see the storm is not selective, it hits
23:44
both houses. With equal force.
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This just destroys any idea that if you're a true believer, if
23:50
you're building on the rock, you'll have an easy, comfortable
23:52
life. The health and wealth idea.
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It demolishes it. Building on the rock doesn't
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make you storm proof. The wise builder isn't spared
24:00
the trial. He is secure through the trial.
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So the storm's main function is to reveal what's real.
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That's its purpose. Storms don't create foundations,
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they expose them. They reveal what was there all
24:11
along. A lot of people's religion seems
24:13
very strong when the sun is shining and life is good.
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But the real test is what's left standing when the storm hits.
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And we can think of the storm in a couple of ways.
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First, as the providential trials of this life, the
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suffering that God allows. Right.
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The testing of our faith that Peter talks about.
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These trials are the Crucible. When life puts the squeeze on
24:34
you, a financial disaster, a painful betrayal, A chronic
24:37
illness, what's really inside is going to come out.
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So a sand built religion will react in certain ways under that
24:44
kind of pressure. Predictable ways, Anger at God
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trying to bargain with him, or just sinking into bitterness and
24:50
cynicism because the good feelings they were relying on
24:54
are gone. If your foundation was your
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career or your health and those things are taken away, the whole
24:59
structure just collapses. But the rock built life, while
25:02
it's definitely shaken, doesn't fall apart.
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It doesn't disintegrate because it has a solid place to stand.
25:08
The wise builder feels the pain and the fear of the storm, but
25:11
the house doesn't collapse. Why?
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Because it's stability comes from the King and His word, not
25:16
from the builder's own strength. And this is where hearing is
25:19
proven to be due. This is the proving ground when
25:22
obedience isn't a theoretical idea anymore, but a costly,
25:26
painful choice. When you have to forgive the
25:28
person who betrayed you. When you have to choose
25:31
integrity, when a lie would save you.
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That's when you find out what your foundation is made of.
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God shakes everything that can be shaken so that what cannot be
25:39
shaken will remain, and that is Christ Himself.
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But given the whole context here, the end of the sermon, the
25:46
judgment language, the storm has to mean more than just life's
25:49
trials. Oh, it absolutely has to point
25:51
to the ultimate storm, the final judgment.
25:54
The total ruin that's described for the foolish builder points
25:57
beyond just having a bad year. It points to the final
26:00
reckoning. The moment when God's judgment
26:02
exposes the truth of every single life.
26:05
The imagery's designed to wake us up to that eternal reality.
26:09
On that day, all the staffling comes down.
26:11
Your reputation won't matter. Your religious activity won't
26:14
impress anyone. The only question will be, were
26:17
you truly founded on Christ? Were you trusting and obeying
26:20
Him? And when you see it that way,
26:22
you realize what a deeply merciful warning this is.
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Christ is describing the horror of the collapse now so that we
26:28
can avoid it then. He's giving us time.
26:31
He's giving us time to soberly examine what we're building on,
26:35
time to dig deep, to repent of any superficial faith, and to
26:38
make sure our lives are truly secured on His authority.
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The question isn't if the storm will come.
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It will. The question is, is your
26:47
foundation His Word received by obedient faith?
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And this leads to the 2 outcomes.
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They are stark and there is no middle ground.
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It's a binary conclusion. For the wise man, his house did
26:57
not fall because it had been founded on the rock.
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For the foolish man, his house fell, and great was the fall of
27:03
it. The hearer is left with no Gray
27:06
area. It's one or the other.
27:08
Let's look at the wise builders outcome first.
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Perseverance, the reason the house stands, is all about the
27:13
foundation, not the builder's own strength.
27:15
The focus is entirely on the rock.
27:17
The house stands because it had been founded on the rock.
27:19
It's not because the builder was a moral superhero who never made
27:22
a mistake. It's because the foundation
27:24
holds. So the fact that the house
27:25
perseveres is the result of having a true foundation, not
27:29
the price you pay to get. One precisely this speaks so
27:32
clearly to the doctrine of the perseverance of the Saints that
27:36
those who are truly in Christ will be kept by Christ.
27:39
The security of the house comes from the Savior, not from the
27:42
skill or consistency of the person living in it.
27:45
And that's a huge comfort for any true disciple who feels
27:48
their house shaking in a storm. The point isn't that you won't
27:51
feel the winds or hear the Thunder.
27:52
You will, but you are protected from a final total collapse.
27:57
That security is external to you.
27:58
It rests in the unmoving rock, who is Christ.
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The Builder was wise simply because He chose the only place
28:04
of real safety. His obedience, though it's
28:07
always going to be imperfect in this life, is genuine.
28:10
And it's proven by his ongoing repentance and his refusal to
28:13
just give up and make peace with his sin.
28:15
The house stands because it's real.
28:17
Living allegiance is connected to the only thing in the
28:20
universe that can't be moved, the Word of God made flesh.
28:23
OK, now for the other outcome. The foolish builders ruin The
28:28
phrasing is so chilling. Great was the fall of it.
28:32
That word great seems to carry so much weight.
28:34
It's not just describing the size of the pile of rubble, it's
28:37
describing the shock, the tragedy, the absolute finality
28:41
of it. This is a total irreversible
28:43
ruin. And Jesus aims this message
28:45
right at the heart of confident self deception.
28:47
That's the target. The foolish builder didn't build
28:50
on sand because he wanted to fail.
28:52
He probably thought his house was fine.
28:54
He lived in it. It looked good from the outside.
28:57
The collapse is this devastating revelation that his whole life
29:02
was built on an illusion. A life built with religious
29:04
materials and energy, but without any true submitted
29:07
allegiance to the king. And this takes us right back to
29:10
that judgment scene. People will be stunned on that
29:13
day because they confuse their religious identity with a real
29:15
relationship. They mistook knowing things
29:18
about Jesus for actually knowing Jesus.
29:19
Then this took hearing for obeying.
29:21
Sam built religion can create a life that looks house shaped, It
29:25
has a moral exterior, a Christian personality, regular
29:28
church routines, but it has 0 structural integrity to
29:32
withstand God's testing. When the storm of judgement
29:36
hits, the sand just washes away and the entire thing implodes.
29:40
So Christ's description of this great fall isn't just to scare
29:42
us, it's to wake us up. To wake us up now, while we
29:47
still have time to stop trusting in the sand of our own efforts
29:49
or our own profession. While there's still time to dig
29:52
deep and find our only real assurance in the person and
29:55
words of Christ Himself. The warning is this false
29:59
assurance is lethal to those who only look like they're founded
30:02
on Him. So we get to the end of this
30:04
incredible sermon, and Jesus doesn't leave us with a nice
30:06
gentle suggestion to be good people.
30:08
He leaves us with a stark, merciful summons.
30:11
A command. Really to abandon any security
30:13
we might be trying to find in our own efforts or just by being
30:16
around Christian things, and to build our entire lives on Christ
30:19
and what he has said. The Parable just perfectly
30:22
reveals how easily outward religion can look like the real
30:25
thing. The house can seem fine sitting
30:27
there on the sand until the storm comes and shows what's
30:30
really underneath the final Test, whether that's a painful
30:34
trial in this life or the last day.
30:36
It won't be about how religious we looked when things were easy.
30:39
Or how many Bible verses we could quote.
30:41
It will be about whether our foundation was truly Christ and
30:44
the doing. The obedience is the proof that
30:47
the foundation is real. And that brings us to our final
30:50
thought for you to take with you.
30:52
Christ's words here are a call for just radical honesty about
30:57
where you are placing your security.
30:59
The question we have to ask ourselves isn't how much of my
31:02
life can I keep for myself while still being a Christian?
31:04
No, the question is, have I truly yielded my life to His
31:07
words, building on the only thing that will stand true.
31:11
Confidence isn't found by looking at how well built our
31:13
house is. It's found in the certainty that
31:16
we have surrendered completely to the Rock Himself.