I have pleased God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
Gospel of Matthew chapter 7 and we'll read verses 24, 25, 26
and 27. So Matthew chapter 7 from verse 24 to verse 27. Therefore,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,
and doeth them, I would 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. It's very wonderful that God
gives us some beautiful pictures in the Word of God. Pictures
that we can easily understand and it conveys to us not only
a natural picture but also it is a deep spiritual picture that
is set before us. So we should be very thankful
that we have such a picture before us today. The picture is, of
course, naturally of a person building, a wise person and a
foolish person. And the wise person builds upon
a rock and the foolish person builds upon the sand. Now, you young people might understand
that These verses are towards the end of what we call the Sermon
on the Mount. And it's only called that because
Jesus went up into a mountain and he preached this sermon in
chapters 5, 6 and 7. But also there is a very similar
sermon in the 6th chapter of Luke. and that's referred to
as the sermon on the plain because there Jesus came down from the
mount and preached that sermon and it will be good for you hopefully
spiritual profit but also interest when you go home to compare the
two sermons and see what comparisons there are and how they differ
in some places I'm sure you'll find it naturally interesting
and hopefully you'll find it also a spiritual blessing. Well, the account here is the
final paragraph, really, on this sermon. It's quite a long sermon,
although if we read it, it probably wouldn't take us more than half
an hour at the most, probably less to actually read. So it's
not quite as long as we might think, but there's a wonderful
amount of instruction in it. And what the Lord Jesus says,
as he comes towards the end, in verse 24, he commences, therefore,
and that means to remember what's gone before. All the words which
have gone before, he says, therefore, because of that, whosoever, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I would liken
him unto a wise man that build his house upon a rock. So as we have the Bible to read,
it's not just a mere historical account, it's not just a mere
account of anecdotes or various proverbs and sayings, We should
realise that it is, and all of us need to realise it, it is
the very Word of God. It's that which God breathed
into writers in the Old Testament and in the New Testament to write
His Word. So we should realise that this
is not the Word of man, man wrote it, but under the influence of
the Holy Spirit of God. Now, I hope that rests in our
heart and we realise the relevance and the importance of it. So
we shouldn't pick it up and casually read it and put it down and forget
what we read because it is God's Word to each one of us. And when we try and analyze that
simple statement to realize that the God of the universe, the
God who just spoke the word world and the universe into being,
that world God who has created all things in the world, every
single thing, you are made, God has created. And if you think
of the miracle really of every single birth, to realise the
complexity of it, not only humanly, you can look at it naturally
in all the animals that live on the earth and all the plants
and flowers and trees that grow, they all emanate from the power
and the Word of Almighty God. And if you and I rightly consider
that, it'll give us some little indication of the greatness of
God. That God whom you and I have
to deal with. We should not think that God
is somebody who can just be dealt with lightly, cast aside, of
no real relevance. My friends, you and I have to
deal with Almighty God. Every one of us has to deal with
Almighty God. You may say, well, why is that?
Very simply, because you and I have a never-dying soul, which
will live forever, either in heaven and either in hell. So there's two places. And into
one of those places, all of us will spend eternity. Now surely with such a truth,
which it is to realise that we should not therefore just trivialise
the great truth of God, but we should thank him that he's given
us such wonderful and gracious and blessed and direct instructions
for us. And that's why we have this tremendous
statement, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth
them. It's not a question of just hearing
and then forgetting about them. We often do, sadly. But that is not what we read
here. Because if we are to be amongst
those who are wise then we shall read these words and we will
understand what they mean, the sayings of God, we'll hear them,
and we will then desire to follow them out. Now, if you do go home
and read these three chapters in Matthew, and that one chapter
in the sixth of Luke, and it's only part of a chapter, it's
quite a long chapter, and make this comparison, and to see what
God tells us what God commands us to do. Because these words
are very great and yet very true. Whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine. Remember they're not the sayings
of man, they're God's sayings and they have a relevance to
every one of us. And therefore, let us not ignore
them and think, well, I'm just going to carry on because I don't
believe all that's said anyway. And I've got my own views anyway.
And I'm going to follow those. Well, you and I need to be very
aware that we are in the presence of Almighty God in everything
that we do and think and say God knows about. And we would
have to give an account for everything. So let us not just brush aside
the great truths of God. Well, we have these two types
of people and there's two pictures. And as I've said, the comparison
with Luke 6 is very worthwhile. And there's just two inferences
I would make without going through it in detail. First of all, the
first occasion here is where the Lord says, and he says, I
would liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a
rock. And in Luke's account, we're
told that the man he dug deep, That means it wasn't just a trivial
digging. It wasn't just a trivial thing
to find out. It needed a lot of research.
It needed a lot of digging to make sure that they were on,
got down to rock. From an engineering perspective,
we refer to a good rock base as bedrock. That means the rock
far enough down to have a really good solid basis which can't
be moved. And so that's the first influence,
inference. And the second is referring to
the other person who built his house upon a sand and the account
in Luke says he just built his house upon the earth. And we
see we didn't dig at all. He wasn't worried really. It
was nice, and it looked alright, and he just dug it. He didn't
dig it, he just built it on the earth. Well, we have then the
two pictures. One, the need for digging, and
the second, to make sure that digging gets down to a solid
foundation, and that solid foundation needs to be a rock, because otherwise
it's likely to be destroyed when the rain comes and the winds
blow and the flood comes it's likely to be destroyed well that's
the natural picture now the spiritual picture obviously is fundamental
to us and that means that we should desire to have our hope
our spiritual hope of eternal life not founded upon something
which is easily come by and which is of no value. But we need to
find that our hope is based upon a good foundation. And therefore
it needs to be dug through all that which is of the flesh. Today, there is a lot of fleshly
religion. We might say, put it this way,
what can be termed an easy-believing religion. People would say, all
you have to do is to believe in Jesus, and everything's going
to be all right. And that's one of the great fallacies
in the day and age in which we live. And the fallacy also, it
relates to creation. People say, well, you needn't
really worry about that. All you have to do is to believe
in Jesus. But the fundamental error is this. People don't realize
that in creation, man and woman were created, and what did they
do? They sinned. They disobeyed God. And that was the great problem.
And therefore, they needed then to be delivered from their sin. And you see, if creation didn't
matter, then you see, original sin doesn't matter. And therefore,
we very quickly come to that picture where we needn't worry
about sin, it's irrelevant. the reality is it's very important
and that's why here in this account we have this picture of digging
down onto a rock and indeed in Luke's case digging deep and
that means to dig through that which is just peripheral that
which is just on the surface because we need to dig down through
all the layers perhaps of our sin different things different
layers and we may think perhaps well I've dug through that and
I understand that was wrong and therefore I've done what I need
to do well digging deep means what it says it means not easy
work you see a shallow dig is very easy And especially as you
and I are digging in the sand, it's a piece of cake to dig,
isn't it? In the seashore, you can dig on the sand and it's
very, very simple. Well, to dig deep, to get down
through all the rubbish and all the topsoil and the bits of rock,
et cetera, which aren't the real solid rock, is hard work. And so it is in a spiritual sense. It's hard work. to get through
all that which is necessary to get through and to observe all
that which is just of the flesh, that which is just of our own
providing and all the many sins that we've committed. God reveals
to us our sins, not all at once. Generally speaking, it's as the
Word of God tells us, here a little and there a little. You see,
if God was to show us all our sins to begin with, we would
absolutely sink under it. But the Lord shows us our sins
little by little. And what that develops within
us is to demonstrate that we're not a little sinner, but we are
a great sinner. We won't be like the Pharisee
who was content with his religion. We'll be like the publican who
pleaded with God to be merciful to him. So here we have then
this picture of whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth
them I would liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon
a rock." Well, I hope all of us here want to be wise people. Wise men, wise women, wise children. We don't want to be foolish.
And you may say, well, why is that? Very simply, we don't know
how soon you and I will lose our life. We may all be healthy,
we may all be well and yet the Lord can come and take our life
very, very quickly. It doesn't matter how fit we
are. I read in a paper this week about,
there were a couple, a man and I think his girlfriend were in
bed and he just was a wonderful cyclist and he'd done some tremendous
feat and accomplish it and won it and done very well and he
was only in his 30s and he suddenly died in his sleep. Appeared to
be a very fit man. You see you and I can't rely
upon our fitness. The Lord knows the day when our
life will be taken. when God will say in each of
our lives with us time shall be no more and we shall be out
of time into eternity now the great important issue is therefore
that we are wise people and if we are wise people we will hear
what God says and we will do what God says. It's a great discrepancy
in a day and age in which we live with people saying and not
doing. And yet how necessary it is that
we are doers of the word and not hearers only. James in his
little epistle speaks about that. We mustn't just be hearers. We
should be thankful that we are hearers. But just hearing won't
save our soul. We must be doers. And what a
blessing then if we are doers by God's grace. As God gives us that strength
to do His will. But we're not to ignore that. We're not to turn away from it.
We're not to think it's irrelevant. Now, again, let us not forget
that we have a great enemy, the enemy of the devil, who will
pretend to us it's not important in any event. I don't think that's
right and you needn't do that. don't worry about that in it
there's plenty of time in your life anyway but as I've said
there may not be plenty of time and therefore may be found as
a doer now if we are a doer we will be digging down through
the layers of our sin and it won't be we won't want to stop
until we come to that place where we find this blessed, good and
solid foundation. The rock. You may say, well,
what is the rock? Well, the rock is pictured in
the Bible on so many occasions as showing to us the rock is
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and I need to be founded
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The hymn writer has it right.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Well, this morning, the great
question surely is, are we standing upon the rock? Or are we just
on the sand? Are we pleased with our religion?
Do we think we've got all that we need and we can rest and take
it easy? Or are we still digging? Are we still desirous to get
down to the solid rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to have the
evidence that we are standing upon Him. Him, on Christ, the
solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. It's a great truth. It's very
important that you and I therefore don't stop. we don't think well
I've got far enough now I don't need to know anything else I
know it all God's shown me everything well you may be surprised you
may find you had to be shown more things more evil in your
heart more wicked thoughts wicked desires perhaps wrong words perhaps
wrong actions perhaps things that at one time you didn't worry
about at one time you thought you were quite at liberty to
do those things in actual fact they seem to be quite all right
and didn't seem to be any problem with them and therefore you ventured
into them and you did them, you didn't seem to have any wrong
effect from them? Well the great question really
is this, did it bring you nearer to Christ or did it take you
farther away? See that's really the great need
that you and I have is to have the evidence that we are resting
upon the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ because if we're not if
we come short if we've stuck short then you see the Word of
God here describes what will probably happen to us He says,
first of all, this wise man, I would 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. Now, in a spiritual light, that
means that you and I will have many battles to fight. as we travel through this world.
It won't be easy. There'll be much opposition.
And we have a great adversary, the devil, who goes about in
two ways, either as an angel of light or as a roaring lion. And in the day and age in which
we live, he often goes about as an angel of light. And he
pretends to us, well, There's no harm in doing that. It's quite
all right, really. You can just proceed. There's
no problem. You won't come to any any dangerous
situation. Well, that's a ploy wherein he
is very subtle. Remember, he always has been
subtle in his approaches and he always will be. And he is
today. And we should be aware of his
subtleties. in the way that he approaches
us. He says, well, there's no problem
there, there's no harm there, you can do it. Again, the test
is, and it's a very good test, it's a very necessary test, does
it bring us nearer to Christ or farther away? And you know,
if it is to bring us nearer to Christ, The test will also be,
as the Apostle Paul so beautifully said in that third chapter in
the Philippians, that it brings us into fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And naturally we tend to think,
well of course that means, you know, a nice, happy and pleasant
and wonderful freedom. Well, the Apostle Paul knew what
it meant. And he tells us, fellowship with
his sufferings. You may say, well, why is that?
Because it brings us into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we enter in, in some
measure, only a small measure, it will only be a small measure,
to realize what Christ suffered in order that you and I, might
receive the forgiveness of all our sins, we might be freed from
that condemnation which says, the soul that sinneth, it shall
die. It's very clear, isn't it? It's
a very simple statement. It's a statement the devil doesn't
want you to hear. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And every one of us needs to
be delivered therefore from our sin. And we can't take away our
sin ourself. No, we're under the condemnation
of that great statement, the soul that sinneth it shall die.
And that means unless our sins are taken away, unless we are
standing upon that rock Christ Jesus, we shall fail at last. It'll be a disaster for us. Now
then, we have the kindness of God to give us therefore this
picture to alert us to the truth. And as I've said, the devil doesn't
want you to read it. But we are reading it this morning.
And then the Lord goes on. to say, and every one that heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not. Well, we read a few
sayings. There's a lot more sayings. And
what's our answer to that? Well, the answer here is, and
doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man. As I've said, you and I are either
wise or foolish. And this foolish person, the
illustration shows us, is someone that built his house upon a sand. Now then, built on a sand and
everything looks all right. Everything looks all right. Now
I'm sure we've all sat on the, been down to the seaside and
a beautiful sandy shore and we probably built what we call sandcastles
or other buildings in the sand and it's been a nice easy job
to do relatively so. The sand's easy to dig and we've
dug and we've built and there's been a lovely sandcastle or whatever
and there it is and it stood there and we think this is wonderful.
And so it has until the tide comes in and there might be a
rock alongside it. It might be a rock we've been
sitting on. And the tide comes in and very quickly that lovely
sandcastle is destroyed. It doesn't stand anymore. The sea comes and washes over
the rock. It can't move it. The rock is
solid. The tide goes out. The sandcastle's
not to be seen. Not a trace of it. The rock is
still there in all its magnificence. Well, that's really what it's
like in a spiritual sense. And that's why we have this picture
of the foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, and
the rain descended. It wasn't until 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. Well, that's a very
simple illustration, isn't it? As we commence by saying we should
thank God that we have such a very wonderful and simple picture
for us to understand. two illustrations and you and
I need to be in that first illustration and not in the second that we
are founded upon a rock. I like to refer sometimes to
the book of Psalms which gives us some very good pictures and
illustrations and The psalmist David also gives us a picture
in the 40th Psalm and he tells us this, I waited patiently for
the Lord. Now our problem is sometimes
we get impatient. We get impatient. And we want
to rush things through. And we want a very clear confirmation
that everything is good in our lives. Well, the Lord has His
pace. He has His timetable. And my
friends, His timetable is a good one. I waited patiently for the
Lord. He didn't become impatient. And
He inclined unto me. Who? The Lord. inclined unto
him and heard my cry. See, that's the great blessing.
As we come in a time of need, as we're digging down to get
to this rock and we need to hear the voice of the Saviour. And
here we're told, and he heard my cry and he brought me up also
out of a horrible pit a slightly different illustration. Nonetheless,
we can see how God heard the cry, out of the horrible pit
and marry clay. And that could have quite easily
refer to his own religion, relying upon that which he provided. And he realized that he couldn't
get out of it himself. It's easy to fall into a trap
that Satan sets for us, that terrible trap that Satan set
for Adam and Eve, because he questioned whether God had said
so. And my friends, you and I need
to be very aware that the devil still questions us. That's why
we need to be founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the
Lord heard The cry of the psalmist David. And he tells us, he, the
Lord God, and you and I will find man will not suffice. It's the Lord God we need. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit and out of the Maori clay and set my feet upon
a rock and established my goings." He was therefore founded now
upon that rock and he was now established in the truth of God. He realised that the M�ori clay
would not support him. To be found in a pit would be
of no benefit. He needed to come out of it,
delivered from that which was of the flesh. And then we're
told, And he hath put a new song in my mouth. And what was this
song? This is the evidence of the work
of God in our souls. This is the evidence the Lord
has placed us on a rock. The Lord has placed us on himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ. and he hath put a new song in
my mouth, even praise unto our God." When deliverance comes,
when we have the evidence that we're on the rock Christ Jesus,
that we've dug down to this deep place, passed through all the
layers of our sin, and we can say, on Christ, the solid rock
I stand, it's a place for a new song in our mouth and praise
unto our God. And there must be praise to God
for what he's done. Praise to God for putting us
on this rock. If there's no praise, surely
we need to question whether that which we thought emanated from
God, in fact, only emanated from ourself. even praise unto our
God. You know, we'll desire to praise
God. We'll desire to praise God for
all that He's done. We'll desire to praise God to
realise that He, the great Saviour of sinners, has died for us upon
the cross. He's taken away all our sins
and we are indeed washed in the blood of the Lamb. We are clean. Great God, I'm clean. Oh, what a place. What an occasion to praise God. And what's the effect? Many shall see it and fear and
shall trust in the Lord. We are on this earth as His witnesses
to testify of His grace, to testify of His love and to testify of
His mercy in redeeming such an unworthy sinner. What a blessing
then, if you and I come to this situation and realise the wonderful
truth of it. In the 18th Psalm, we read this. David says, well let me read
the first verse. It's a wonderful Psalm, this
18th Psalm. He says, I will love thee, O
Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer, my God, my strength. in whom I will trust,
my buckler and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower,
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, So shall
I be saved from mine enemies. The next verse says the sorrows
of death compassed me and the floods of ungodly men made me
afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed
me about the snares of death prevented me in my distress. I called upon the Lord and cried
unto my God. He heard my voice out of his
temple and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Well, David was rejoicing in
his savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I won't read them now because
there's not time really, but you go home. You've got a bit
of reading to do today. If you go home, and read the
61st and the 62nd psalm and you'll find there the psalmist speaks
very much there about Christ being his rock and the 62nd psalm
really is a bit similar to the 40th truly my soul waiteth upon
God from him cometh my salvation confidence in his God. You see, you and I may wait,
but we're looking forward to receiving this blessing of his
salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. And as you read on, it comes
down, I shall not be moved. Yes, you have that confidence
in God. What a blessing it is, my friends,
today, if you and I have confidence in our God. And we recognize
this great truth contained in these verses with this picture
of a person doing the will of God, a picture of the person
not doing the will of God. And let us not forget that the
blessing is to be obedient and not disobedient. And to hear
what God the Lord says. We're blessed with a Bible to
read. It's not a book to read and put down and it has no effect
upon us. It's a book to read and a book
to assimilate and a book to pray over. that God would incline
our hearts to walk in the light of His countenance, to come and
know ourself as a needy sinner, and to find the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ, as that one who is all-sufficient, who came
into this world to die that death upon the cross in order to be
our substitute He bore the punishment instead. What a Saviour. Surely we can come and say, worthy
is the Lamb that was slain. Well, it's a wonderful little
picture. May we remember it, may it be
a blessing to us, and may we indeed rejoice and joy in the
God of our salvation. Amen.