this morning as we meditate in
his Holy Word. Let's turn to the Gospel of Matthew
chapter 7 and we'll read from verse 21 down to verse 27. So chapter 7 in the Gospel of
Matthew and reading from verse 21 down to verse 27. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth
the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to
me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils, And in thy name done many wonderful works, and then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye
that work iniquity. Therefore, whosoever heareth
these words, sorry, heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them,
I will liken him unto a wise man. which built his house upon
a rock. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and
it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and
it fell, and great was the fall of it. These words are of course the
conclusion of this glorious sermon that Jesus spoke to them when
he went up on the mountain and preached it to the multitude.
And they were wonderful words that he spoke. And there was
much instruction. And that instruction is on record
for you and me today. So we should be thankful for
it and recognise the relevance of it, because God's Word is
important. And it's important, really, especially
because we read in these words that I read to you just now,
from Jesus who said, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven. You know, we live
in a day and age when many people will pretend they're Christians. Many people will say they're
Christians. Many people will indeed utter
such words Lord, Lord and yet you see the reality is that they
may not be right with God. The reality is that they may
not know the true God and we're told here the Lord says very
solemnly and strikingly and we should not pass over it. He says,
many will say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. And then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye
that work iniquity. And I'm sure none of us want
to hear those words from Almighty God when we stand before the
judgment seat, when God says, I never knew you, depart from
me. What a terrible condemnation,
what a terrible position to be in, and one which we will never
be able to revoke, we will never be able to change, we'll never
be able to rectify, Quite simply because when such words are spoken
in each of our cases and indeed the world at large, time will
be no more. Put another way, the day of grace,
the day of mercy will have finished. And so how relevant and how important
it is that we hear God's word. These last verses, which I really
want to concentrate on, speak to us and it tells us, having
just spoken on those previous verses, the Lord then says, therefore,
Having heard those words of condemnation, having heard the situation which
will occur if we have acted in a wrong way and have not known
really Almighty God, he says, therefore, whosoever, that's
inclusive, isn't it? Whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine and doeth them. That means what it says. You and I are to be doers of
the Word. When we hear God's Word, we're
not to reject it. We're not to think, well, I needn't
worry about that. We're not to think, well, it's
not important to me. It doesn't speak to me. We should
realize that God's Word is directed to us. And therefore, if we hear
God's Word, and what a blessing that is. Just ponder for a moment. There are billions in the world
who have never heard the Word of God. And you and I are wonderfully
blessed, wonderfully blessed to hear God's sayings. We read some of those sayings
this morning in this seventh chapter. The whole Bible is really
the sayings of God. and to realise they are left
on record for our benefit, for our good, for our profit, but
also for our condemnation. See, God is a just God. God is a righteous God. And God has wonderfully blessed
every one of us here this morning to have been found in a Protestant
land, a land where we can freely hear the gospel, where we can
freely read the Bible. And therefore, we are without
excuse. You and I will never be able
to come and stand before that judgment seat and say, well,
I never heard the gospel. I never understood the gospel.
because you would have heard it, you may not have understood
it, but you would have heard it, and so what a blessing it
is to recognize the relevance of such words as they speak directly
to us. Therefore, whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them. It's quite a straightforward
statement, isn't it? And you and I stand before God
and you and I need to examine ourselves. We are encouraged
to examine ourselves. The Bible tells us to examine
ourselves as to whether we are in the faith or not. Because
we do need to have the wonderful evidence from God that we are
a believer, that we have heard his word, that it has entered
into our heart and we have received it as the Word of God. There's no excuse for us to turn
our back upon this great God and so therefore, whosoever,
whosoever, heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them. Well what a relevant word it
is and how important it is that you and I therefore are able
by God's grace to answer this question. Are we a doer of God's
Word? Do we follow God's Word? Do we desire to obey God's Word? Sometimes It may seem very difficult. Sometimes it may seem almost
impossible. Well, we must remember that we
have a God who is kind and gracious, who does come and instructs us
and does teach us as much, you know, in the Word of God that
we perhaps don't understand. But that's no excuse. We should
not Assume that because we don't understand something, we're excused
from it. We should be concerned that we
do understand the Word of God. That's really the whole purpose
of preaching the Gospel. The whole purpose why you come
to hear the Gospel preached, so that you may understand the
truth of God's Word. And that's a very important consideration. It's a great responsibility upon
those who preach the Gospel to come and bring the Word of God
and expound the Word of God and to teach the Word of God so that
those who are here have an understanding how tragic it is. if we go through
our life not understanding the Word of God and we're still not
concerned about it. Many people have spent their
life pretending to understand the truth of God's Word and have
never really understood it. It's meant nothing to them. It's
meant nothing to them. And so what a blessing it is
if God's Word speaks to your heart and my heart. And what
God's Word does, it changes us. Yes, God's Word gives life. And what a blessing when you
and I read God's Word and it speaks to our heart. And it condemns
us. And it encourages us. And it
directs us. how to act and what to do and
what to say. The Word of God gives us everything
that you and I need for this life and for the life which is
to come. So here we have then these words
of the Saviour himself recorded for our eternal good and benefit. And so here we have this grand
statement again, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth
them, those then who come under this category, this is how they're
described. I will liken him unto a wise
man. which built his house upon a
rock. Well, I hope all of us want to
be numbered amongst those who are wise. Not numbered amongst
those who are foolish. We want to be numbered amongst
those who are wise. So, Jesus tells us, I would liken
him unto a wise man. So, if you and I hear God's Word,
remember, whosoever heareth and doeth them, we will be likened
unto a wise man. Well, again, it's good sometimes
to just pause and ask ourselves whether you and I are wise men,
wise women, wise children. Are we wise or are we foolish? I would liken him unto a wise
man. which built his house upon a
rock. Well, why does God bring in such
an illustration as this? Well, we have a natural house,
our flesh and blood is a natural house, you might say, and we
need a spiritual house. We need a spiritual building. We need a spiritual knowledge. to know that our souls are right
with God. And therefore, if we have that
blessing, it is to realise what our building, our spiritual building,
is founded on. It's obvious, isn't it, to all
of us, that any natural building must have a foundation. If there's
no foundation, it's very unlikely that the building will last,
the building will stand, and it's important. But there is
a foundation. And it's just interesting that
in the account, what we term, this is the Sermon on the Mount
in Luke's Gospel, the sixth chapter, it's considered the Sermon on
the Plain because Jesus preached it on the plain. And in that
account, we're told this, that the man who designed to form
this good foundation, he dug deep. He didn't just dig a few
shovelfuls out and get rid of, perhaps, a little of the soil.
He dug down until he got onto a very good, firm foundation. And we could believe he dug down
until he reached the rock. Well, here we have then the same
statement, really, without quite the detail. and whoso heareth
the sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a
wise man which built his house upon a rock. So how important
the foundation is, and how important it is for you and me in our religion
to have a good foundation, a good beginning. Now we can ask ourselves
perhaps what that is, What do we need for a good foundation? Well, it's described here as
a rock. And we have in the Word of God
the wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ being that
rock. And so the foundation of our
religion needs to be founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And what that means is this. That religion is therefore not
founded on things that we have done, but it's founded upon things
that Christ has done, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what
we need to find ourselves resting upon. And that means the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The truth is that you and I are
unworthy sinners. We've sinned. We are sinners. And therefore, if we were to
build upon our own religion, it would be faulty. Because it
wouldn't have a good foundation. It would have a sinful foundation. And that would never stand the
test which we read of here. But we can bless God that he
has provided his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be that wonderful
foundation and to realise that it is illustrated as a rock. And of course, as we know, naturally
a rock is very substantial. A rock doesn't move. A rock is
very firm. And that's just the same as our
glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing moves Him. He
is eternal. He's firm. He's firm. And so we're told then in this
account that how important it is to have a foundation upon
a rock, having a foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
reason why it's important is this. Initially, it might look all
right. We have the illustration which
follows. Because we're told in the 26th
verse, And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth
them not. You see, there's the two types
of people. The people who hear God's Word and follow it. The people who hear God's Word
and don't follow it. One are wise, and the other are
foolish. And you and I come under one
of those two categories. This morning, everyone here is
either wise or foolish. Well, the Lord speaks about those
who are foolish. He tells us this, Everyone that
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
likened unto a foolish man. It's good, isn't it, just to
think then about ourselves. Always remember that religion
is personal. You and I have to stand as individuals before God. No one can stand
in our place apart from our great and glorious Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We can't rely on ourselves. We can rely upon what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done. So if we are, therefore, here
in the Gospel and not doing those things that we are commanded
to do, we're listening to ourselves. We're listening to ourselves.
Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not,
shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon
the sand. Now let's just pause for a moment. We have these two illustrations,
don't we? Rock on the one hand and sand on the other. And we
understand about rock, don't we, being very firm and good.
Well, sand also, initially, may appear to be very good. Sand
can be a very good foundation. But when something occurs, then
it's not. And we're told what's going to
happen in this case. In the case of this man building
a house upon the sand, when the rain descended, and the floods
came and the winds blew and beat upon that house it fell and great
was the fall of it you see a house can sit on sand a sandy foundation
very well until the rain comes until the floods come and then
it destabilizes it and it becomes not a good foundation at all
and very quickly it moves and very quickly it vanishes away. So no longer does it hold up
the building upon it. What happens then? The building
naturally comes crashing down. My friends, the illustration
is so true with regard to our spiritual life. If we're building
on a foundation which is not the law of Jesus Christ, it's
just something of our own understanding. We might think it's very easy.
Building on sand is naturally easy. To dig a foundation is
easy. But you see, when the storms
of life come, it won't stand. It'll collapse. My friends, you
and I need Our faith not to be founded on a foundation that's
going to disappear when the storms of life occur. We want a foundation
which is going to be firm and solid, which will stand when
the storms of life come. And the storms of life will come. I don't think you and I will
just sail through life on an easy charter, you and I will
find that our journey through life is not easy. And the Bible
tells us very clearly that's so. When the Lord Jesus spoke
to his disciples in the upper room and he concluded that again
another wonderful sermon and he said in that sermon the conclusion
of it that it is through much tribulation you and I shall enter
the kingdom that means our life will have many difficulties but
he says be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." What that
means is, if we have a foundation which is founded upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, then when troubles come, which they will, And don't
think you and I will be exempt from them. The Bible is very
clear. We will have troubles to face. But if we are founded upon this
wonderful and glorious foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ, it
won't move. It won't move. It's firm and
strong. And however hard the devil attacks
us, we shall not be moved off it. So we see then really very
clearly the benefit of having a good foundation and that foundation
being on the Lord Jesus Christ and to realise what a favour
and what a mercy it is to have a real religion. It is a God-given
religion. And it's a religion which is
founded upon a rock. And that really leads us to appreciate
what it means. It means that the Lord Jesus
Christ has done all that is necessary to redeem our souls. You and I could never satisfy
the demands of God. You know, you and I have sinned,
haven't we? I don't think that's very hard to understand, is it?
If you look into your heart, look into your words, look into
your actions, you'll have to conclude, well, I have done perhaps
one thing wrong, or two things wrong, or perhaps many things
wrong, but you won't be able to be able to say, well, I've
never done anything wrong. And therefore, you will have
to come to confess that you have sinned. And if you sin, we will
need those sins to be removed, those sins to be taken away. And you may ask the question,
why is that necessary? Well, I'll tell you why it's
necessary. Because heaven is a holy place. And what does that
mean? That means there's no sin in
heaven. That means that you and I can
never go and come into heaven if we have any sin. And therefore
you and I need all our sin to be removed. All our sin to be
removed. And you and I cannot remove it.
We cannot remove it. It sticks to us. It's there. It's evident. disobeyed God. You see, we haven't followed
His word like we are instructed to here. Heareth whose ever,
heareth the sayings of mine and doeth them. We'll have to put
our hands up and say, well, I'm guilty, Lord. I haven't done
everything that I should have done. I haven't followed the
commands of Almighty God. I've been disobedient. And therefore
I'm guilty. And therefore I need to have
my sins cleansed, washed away, taken away. And I can't do it. But there's one who can and one
who has. And that is none less than the
great and glorious Saviour, who is the rock of our salvation. So if we are dependent therefore,
upon what Christ has done. We're standing on a good foundation. We're on a rock. And the devil
won't be able to push us off it. He won't be able to remove
us from it. He won't be able to move the
rock. Because Christ is the eternal
rock. Yes, oh what a great foundation
this is. And what a great blessing it
is for you and me today if we are blessed to recognise that
as we have this simple illustration here of this need to first of
all hear God's Word and do God's Word and to be found those who
are therefore founded upon a rock and not those who ignore God's
Word and turn away from it. What it means is surely you and
I are to come to our God. We're guilty. We need to come
to our God. We need to confess our sins.
We should never pretend that we're righteous. But what a blessing
when the Holy Spirit shows us we are unrighteous. And we need,
therefore, to be cleansed of our sin. And what a blessing
it is, therefore, to be able to come to our God. Word of God tells us, isn't it?
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. It's gracious invitation, isn't
it? Gracious words. and as perhaps
we may feel, to be heavy laden because of our sins, realising
that we're guilty, realising that we can't go to heaven in
the condition we're in. We need our sins to be removed
and we need to know that our feet are firmly upon the finished
work of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who stood in our
place He bore the punishment due to us instead. Isn't it glorious to think that
God, nonetheless, because Jesus Christ is God, He's the second
person in the Trinity, He's equal with the Father and with the
Holy Spirit, and to think that He stood in our stead to bear
the punishment due to us and that punishment was paid. He
paid it and the cost was an enormous cost. It was his death. He gave his life as a ransom
price to deliver you and me from the wrath of God, the wrath to
come. Oh, my friends, what a debt we
owe, surely. What a great blessing it is to
therefore have an understanding. If God has given us a spiritual
understanding to realise the necessity of standing upon this
rock, the rock Christ Jesus, and relying not upon what we've
done, not on works, as any man should boast, but we're standing
upon that rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my friends, what
a blessing, therefore, if God, in his eternal love toward us,
eternal love toward us has given us that desire that concern we
can say that grace that free unmerited favor to be found on
this rock and to have therefore heard the sayings of God whosoever
heareth his sayings of God and doeth them because we look to
the Savior I would liken him unto a wise man which built his
house upon a rock. Well, how necessary it is that
every one of us is found with this good foundation, this good
beginning, that our feet are firmly placed upon the rock Christ
Jesus. So then, whatever comes into
our life, and there will be, as I've said, difficulties and
trials and temptations, and of course we'll have to face that
great enemy, that enemy of death, as we pass out of time. But I
think in all these situations, We are blessed with that wonderful
favour of being granted that blessing of building our house
upon a rock. So we didn't collapse. Yes, we
were relying upon what Christ has done. Where's your faith
this morning? Are you relying upon the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Are you rejoicing that the Lord
Jesus Christ was crucified in your place? He bore the punishment
instead. What a wonderful favour that
is. And what a blessing to be on
this side and not on the other side. The other side, of course,
is described so very clearly. Everyone that heareth these sayings
of mine and doeth them not. Well, in our lives, there's been
a time, hasn't there, when we've not obeyed God's Word. When we've
ignored it. We shut our ears. We shut our
eyes. We haven't wanted to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ, but can we truly thank and praise God this
morning if our spiritual eyes have been opened, open to see
ourselves as a hell-deserving sinner and have fled for refuge
to lay hold of eternal life, fled to the Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and not therefore be left as one of those who heard
the sayings of God and have not done them. We would have been
like that. Are we still like it this morning?
You see, I can't tell. It's only you that can answer
that question before God. Because it's only you that can
look into your heart. And God that looks into your
heart. I can't. And no one else can. But God can. And you can. And what a blessing
this morning. if we're able to look into our
heart and observe that by the grace of God we have heard his
word and we have been given grace to follow and to do his word
and to turn away from all that which is evil and wrong and to
follow a despised and crucified man. And so everyone that heareth
these sayings of mine and doeth them not, shall be likened unto
a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And remember,
it's only when the storms of life occur that there's this
collapse. Initially it looks very good
and very sound and very easy and perhaps sometimes we think,
well, I haven't had to dig very much, but I'm on this good foundation. You may be deceived. My friends,
don't give in to Satan's temptation and say, well, that's enough.
You needn't do any more. You can still carry on with your
old life and still enjoy those things of the world. The grace
of God will turn us. Turn us. And you know, when God
turns us, We are turned. You know what that means? We
go in a different direction. We turn about. God moves us. We're turned. If God turns us,
we shall be able to say, and I shall be turned, and you and
I will. And what a blessing we are. And so here we have this
statement. Who doeth him not shall be likened
unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house. And
it fell. And it fell. And great was the
fall of it. And you know, I can't then rectify
it. It's fallen. It's collapsed. Tragic, isn't it? If we have
heard the gospel, turned our back upon it. No, I'm not going
to listen. I'm not going to hear it. because
it's going to stop me doing things that perhaps I wanted to do. Well, it's a great blessing to
be made willing in the day of God's power to take up our cross
and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no better path
and we can be sure that such a path will end in glory. So where do you and I want to
end up when we finish our life on this earth? Which I'm sure
we realize we all will. None of us will live eternally
on this earth. We should all pass out of time
into eternity. And what a blessing to have that
good hope like the Apostle Paul did and was able to declare quite
clearly for me to live is Christ. and to die is gain. That was the reality of the Apostle
Paul's religion. And what a blessing if it's the
reality of your and my religion. So as we ponder this account
here that the Lord gave to the multitudes to realize the relevance
of it. They're not idle words. Now, the words of God. God's words are not idle words. God's words are eternal words. God's words will never fade away. What a blessing, therefore, to
have our hope built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness,
to know that He gave His life so that you and I might receive
life. We have to say surely what a
wonderful Saviour, what a wonderful God, should have looked upon
me utterly unworthy. We're not worthy of any notice
but what a blessing if God has looked upon us and to use the
spiritual, scriptural expression has come and called us by His
grace, called us out of the darkness of nature into the glorious light
of the everlasting gospel, so that by His grace, when we hear
the truth of God, read the truth of God, and we are doers of them,
and we recognise the wonderful favour then, have been numbered
amongst those who are wise and who are built upon the Rock,
Christ Jesus. Amen.