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The Book of Luke, The Sermon on the Mount – Love Your Enemies, Part – Lesson 82
Psalm 127:1, Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it:
I Cor. 3:16, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Luke 6:46-49, And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? 47Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: 48He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. 49But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
Prior to these verses Jesus Christ had preached that a good tree brings forth good fruit while a corrupt tree brings forth corrupt fruit.
A man without Christ, a man without the new heart that Christ gives, is a corrupt tree and as a corrupt tree he will naturally bring forth corrupt fruit.
A tree is known by its fruit and in the same way a man is known to the Lord by his practicing that which the Lord says to do.
A man is known to the Lord by his obedience.
When some came to Jesus calling him Lord, Lord, he told them to depart from him, calling them workers of iniquity, and telling them he never knew them.
He never knew them because they did not do or practice what Jesus Christ told them to do.
For a man to call Jesus Christ Lord in an honest way means that that man is a doer of the word of Jesus Christ.
Any man can call Jesus Christ Lord, but Jesus Christ only answers to the man that does his word.
To call Jesus Christ “Lord” and not do what he says to do is to bear the fruit of a hypocrite, a pretender.
The use of the title “Lord” only fits with a doer of the word of the Lord.
Those who call him Lord, Lord without obedience to his word are corrupt trees and corrupt trees can never be in his presence and therefore Jesus Christ commands them to depart for he never knew them.
He continues his sermon by telling us to whom a person is like who will hear him and obey him and it is a story about two houses.
It concerns houses built that reflect the life of the builder and is concerns upon what that house is founded.
God is the great builder and he created every man and woman to also be a builder, for to live, means to build.
We see in this passage that there are only two kinds of builders, not three or four or a multitude as the world would have you believe.
The world preaches “Different strokes for different folks.”
But the message of the Bible is that there is only one house acceptable in God’s sight.
So Jesus presents for our consideration two builders.
There are builders that prepare their houses for the future and there are builders that do not prepare their houses for the future.
The builder that prepares for the future prepares for the inevitable but the second builder thinks that all things will stay the same as the day the house was built.
He thinks that since the house stood on the day it was built it will therefore stand forever.
Peter writes about some of these foolish builders and he calls them scoffers.
He writes in II Peter 3:2-6, Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
They do not believe the account of scripture that puts the lie to their belief that judgment will not come, for Peter continues.
5For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
The foolish builder says “I am building my house in this place where it is high and dry and the sun is shining and all things look good.
He seems to think that bright and sunny days will never cease.
Young people are especially susceptible to this lie of Satan.
Young people need to look around at the houses that have fallen down, houses that have been built without the foundation of Jesus Christ.
Some of your friends that graduated with you may already be on the road to ruin because they are building their life without the foundation of Jesus Christ.
But the foolish builder asks, “Why go through the trouble of constructing a deep foundation here.”
All is right with the world.
No need to put myself through such difficulties.
But the wise builder does not judge the present day as the only day for which to build his house.
The treasure of his heart; deposits of the word of God, gives him foresight, and makes him to be a cautious person, a preparing person, a person who recognizes and prepares for the inevitable.
He knows that fair, cloudless weather will not last.
The rainy season is coming with the inevitable floods and washouts.
This wise builder knows that there will come a day when the rains will beat against his house.
The wise builder knows that the stream will rise and will flood upon his house and he knows that there will be no time to take measures to save his house when the flood comes upon him without warning.
So he digs deeper and deeper until at last he touches rock bottom.
And upon the rock that God had hidden deep below the earth he attaches his house and trusts in that rock and that rock alone for whatever he builds must have that foundation to maintain the house through the flood.
One builder pays now in a lengthy time spent attaching his house to the foundation while the other builder in neglecting this foundation will eventually lose his whole house.
So what do we have in this story? We have two builders of houses.
We assume the houses they built were no different from each other.
I suppose that both builders used strong materials and both used good workmanship.
From the outward perhaps both houses appeared strong for we know that when one fell the fall was great.
It was a mighty house.
Both houses suffered through the same calamity.
The rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon each house with the same force.
This passage uses the word vehemently to describe the flood that came to destroy both houses.
That word means to tear towards, to burst upon.
Jesus Christ is describing a flash flood.
Flash floods are so described because they come without warning.
Flash floods came upon both houses without warning and gave the occupants no time to prepare for the onslaught.
This story is meant to convey the idea that if any preparation was made to prepare for such an event it had to be done some time ago apart from this event.
And that preparation had to do with the foundation that these houses were built upon.
And because of the lack of preparation one house fell and due to preparation the other house stood.
What was the difference here?
The difference was certainly not the houses.
From an outward appearance both houses looked substantial, both looked like they were built to survive a great flood.
What caused identical houses to react differently was the foundation upon which the houses were built.
It was not the house that revealed the weakness, but it was the foundation upon which the house was built that revealed the weakness.
One was built upon a foundation and the other was built upon the earth and this fact was only revealed by the flood.
Before the revealing storm both houses looked safe.
The house that was built upon the rock represents everyone who comes to the Savior, listens to his words, and takes them to his heart as a treasure and guards them with all his might.
He withdraws those treasures that put into practice whatever Jesus commands, for he has placed his trust in him.
The house that was built upon the rock was built upon the foundation of trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
It was built upon the foundation of God’s word as given by Jesus Christ for he said clearly that the man who hears my sayings and practices them resembles the house built upon the rock.
But the house that was built upon the sand was built upon the foundation of leaning to thine own understanding.
The house that fell was a life that was lived apart from Christ and his word.
It was a house that said “No God for me.”
It was a life built upon a view of the world that was constructed by the eyes alone and apart from faith in God.
It was a house built by favoring one’s own understanding.
It was built upon a vain foundation for the Bible tells us
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
All other ground, all other foundations are sinking sand.
Without the light of the word of God other ground is attractive and popular.
The foundation of church attendance, the foundation of a moral life without repentance, the foundation of tradition, the foundation of the intellect, of a modernistic faith that waters down the Gospel to a message without power.
These houses are built near the rock, and many times appear more stable than the houses upon the rock and will withstand the moderate winds of trouble, the small floods of adversity, and may give some sense of security throughout their life.
But the supreme test is the final flood of death.
For both houses were subjected to the raging storm.
God did not protect the house that was built upon a rock from the raging storm.
Neither will God keep the storm away from the righteous for it is appointed unto man once to die.
But the righteous, whose house is built upon the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, will withstand the storm of death but every house not built upon the rock will collapse.
So Jesus Christ ends his Sermon with this story and tells us to be that house.
He tells us to be that one who comes to him and hears his sayings, but not only hears them but practices them.
And only the house that comes from that life will be able to survive any of the coming storms.
All other houses built on the sand, which is any foundation of life other than Christ will fall and the fall of that house will be without remedy.
Paul writes in I Cor 3:11-15, For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 13Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. 14If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. |