This could be called either a
similitude or a parable. It's a little bit longer. and a similitude, but it's anytime
our Lord says that he likens this unto that, it can be rightly
called one or the other, a similitude or a parable, and that's what
he speaks and says here in Matthew chapter 7. Let's read it, verse
24. Our Lord says, therefore, and
we'll see in a moment why he says therefore, why he's saying
these things. He says, therefore, whosoever
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." Now, our Lord here is concluding his Sermon on the
Mount, which is recorded from Matthew 5 all the way to the
end of Matthew 7. And he concludes that sermon
with these exhortations and warnings to hear and do what he had said
previously, and it includes also everything our Lord taught and
was to teach. And his exhortation is to hear
and to do, not just to hear only, not just to hear only. Christ
said that the hearer and the doer is a wise man or a wise
woman. Keep your place there in Matthew
7. In James chapter 1, verse 19, he exhorts us to be swift
to hear and slow to speak. James 1, 19, he says, Beloved
brethren and sisters, let every man or woman be swift to hear,
quick to hear, slow to speak. That's a real gift. We all like to have friends that
are good listeners to us, that will hear us out. I'm ashamed
of myself that I'm not a better listener. Perhaps you are, too. But look at verse 22. He says,
Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your
own selves. For if any be a hearer of the
word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural
face in a glass." Or that is, he sees something of himself,
the truth of himself, in light of the truth of God. Verse 24,
"...and he beholds himself, and goes his way And straightway
forgets what manner of man he was. In other words, he experiences
a little bit of conviction in seeing himself in the Word, but
quickly forgets about it, leaves and quickly forgets about it.
Now, he's not a doer of the Word. He didn't apply the Word to himself,
to his life. Hearing only is easy. It's easy to do, it's easy to
fake, and it costs nothing, hearing. It's easy to do in that it really
doesn't take much effort to hear, in the sense of just coming and
sitting down and hearing. Now, I understand that some of
you put out a little extra effort to come, like on Wednesday Because
you work and so forth. But really, no one really makes
any great sacrifice to come. Not in the light of what we heard
Brother Ken Wymer say about the man that walked five hours and
sat for three days to pick up a tape and then leave. Now, we've
got pretty comfortable cars. The biggest sacrifice we make
is we have to hurry to get there. That's the hardest thing for
us to do, to get there on time. Well, it's relatively easy to
do to hear, to come and sit and listen. It's certainly easy to
fake. It's real easy to fake. All you've
got to do is keep your eyes open and keep your face pointed toward
the preacher and every now and then go, or shake your head,
you know. And you've got him faked out
anyway. But some people don't make much effort at that, even.
And it costs nothing. Just to hear it costs nothing.
There's no real sacrifice made, like I said. Nothing lost by
just hearing. Nothing gained, but nothing lost. I'll give you an example. Say
we call our daughter to eat. Hannah, come to eat. And she
says, OK. And she goes on playing with
her toys. Did she hear us? Well, in a sense, yes. She heard
with this ear, didn't she? But that's it. She apparently
heard easy enough. There wasn't any effort for her
to be in earshot. I just got to yell loud enough
and she'll hear me. And she faked obedience. She
said, OK. It didn't come. She faked it and continued to
do what she really wanted to do. Hearing only didn't cost
her a thing. She just heard. Only when she
hears, Hannah come to eat, okay, and lays her toys down, what
she really is enjoying doing, and comes down those stairs and
eats. Only then will she have heard
really and committed. Heard and committed and profited.
Now, Christ said here in the text, he said, Whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them." What are the sayings of
Christ? Well, if everything that our
Lord said and did was recorded in books, the world couldn't
contain them, the scripture said. But he's primarily speaking of
what he said here on the mass. So turn back to, well, I'll just
browse through Matthew 5 through 7 with you and show you a few
things that he did say. Look at some of them briefly.
Now, we studied one time what are commonly called the Beatitudes.
They're in Matthew 5. verses one through eleven, including
verse twelve. That's the blessings of God's
work of salvation in somebody's heart and their life, of having
a poverty of spirit, of mourning over one's sinfulness, of being
humbled before God and hungering and thirsting after Christ. There's
some things here to be done. not only to be heard in a convicting
way, but to be done also. And then in verse 13, we studied
one evening on being the salt of the earth. You are the salt
of the earth. What that means. If you've lost
your savor, what are you going to salt? You're not going to
salt anything with it. Then we studied in verse 14 and
15 how that we're the light of the world, how that we're a reflection
of our Lord and how that we are witnesses to him throughout this
world. And then in verse seventeen through twenty, let's look at
this a minute. This is of utmost importance. Our Lord here is
speaking of entrance into heaven itself, the way, the way or the
entrance into heaven. He says in verse seventeen, he
says, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the I have
not come to destroy, but to fulfill all the law. He says, Verily
I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall not pass from the law till it is all fulfilled. By whom?
Me. Christ, he said. And whosoever
shall break one of these least commandments and teach men so,
he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever
shall do and teach them, who is that? Christ, and those that
follow him. shall be great, called great
in the kingdom." See, there's a hearing and there's a doing.
"'For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the finest men of that day, the most moral
and religious fellows, scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no
case enter into the kingdom of heaven.'" Now, we know that no
man, no woman can attain to that righteousness, not in themselves,
only in Christ. He's imputed righteousness. So here he's talking about justification
by faith, looking to him and him alone. So there's a hearing
of that, what he's saying there. You're guilty. And a doing, trusting,
believing in Christ. And then in verses 21 and 22,
and verses 27 and 28, he deals with a couple of commandments. Thou shalt not kill and thou
shalt not commit adultery. And there we're in Matthew chapter
7. And there he, Matthew 7, Matthew chapter 7, in verse 21, 22, 27,
and 28, he shows us how that the law is not merely the outward
keeping of it, but the law is spiritual. It requires perfect
keeping of it in thought even, not just in deed. That is, not
just not committing adultery with a woman, but not even thinking
about it. That if you thought about it, you're guilty. That
shows every man and woman's utter guilt before God Almighty, before
His holy law. We need to listen to that, though.
We need to hear that to the saving of our soul. And 21 and 22, that
if you're just angry with somebody without a cause, you've killed
them. That's the spirituality of the law. And then he talks
about, let me run over these real fast, in verses 33 through
37, he talks about right communications or speech, not swearing by anything,
by heaven, by God, by heaven, not even by a hair on your head,
but let your communications just be right and honest. Yes, no,
no more, no more. And then in verses 43 through
48, he talks about loving your enemies. And then in chapter
6, he says to take care, in verses 1 through 5, he says, take care
not to be religious so everybody will see you're religious. He
says, take extra care. And you know, I take this right
like it says, from the mouth of our Lord himself. He says,
take heed that you don't do your own before men to be seen of
them. And then he talks about prayer. And I take that for face
value. He says, when you pray, don't
be like the hypocrite who loves to stand and pray so everybody
will see he's standing and praying. Everybody will know he's a good
Christian and he's praying. Don't be like that. He says,
when you pray, get in your closet. Do it in private. Who are you
praying to anyway? Are you praying to be seen or
are you praying to be heard by God? And that's important we
need to learn that and then verses six through thirteen he talks
about true prayer he gives us the true example of prayer that
is praising God not asking for anything more than what we need,
that is, just daily bread. And most of that prayer is just
thanksgiving and asking Him to forgive us our sins. That's all
we need. Having food and raiment, being
content, and having our sins forgiven. That's the only thing
we need in this life, and to praise Him. And then he talks
about, in verse 19 through 20, he talks about true treasures
in heaven. And then, verses 25 through 34, gives warnings against anxious
care about the things of this world. Then chapter seven, he
talks about the danger of judging your brother. Verses one through
five, judging your brother, dangers of that, and verse six through
eleven, he talks about asking and receiving from God Almighty.
Verses thirteen and fourteen, the straight gate and narrow
way, that's him talking about himself there, the only entrance
to heaven once again. And then fifteen through twenty,
he talks about the false prophets, warning against false prophets,
and twenty-one through twenty-three, He warns against false professions
and hypocrisy. And then in verse 24, our text,
this is where he says, therefore, after all of these things, he
said, whosoever hears my sayings and doeth them, I will liken
him or her unto a wise man or woman. And whosoever here in summary
of everything that he was saying in those first three chapters,
you could put it, you could put it in under three headings, faith
and repentance, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance
toward God and faith in Christ. He deals with that specifically
in those chapters. And then secondly, he deals with
regeneration, how that unless God does something for you, you
must be born again. Unless God does something for
you, you can't do anything of yourself. how that God has to
begin the work and finish it. And then he speaks of self-denial,
how that if God has truly put the love of Christ in your heart,
you will deny, you will forsake all to follow him. So that's
a summary of what he's talking about there. Christ the only
way, regeneration, only if God makes a new creature out of you
will you truly hear with the ear and then do. of pure conscience
and faith unfeigned and self-denial. Faith without cost is not faith
at all. That's what he's speaking of.
So those are some of the sayings, very briefly, very, very briefly,
some of the sayings that our Lord is speaking of hearing and
doing. Well, what is it to hear his
sayings? What is it to hear the sayings
of Christ? Well, when you really hear something,
when you really hear somebody, you hear with attention. You hear with attention. Now,
it's obvious that some people don't hear at all. They don't
come to hear the gospel. They don't hear the gospel at
all. They won't hear it. They're not interested. It's
obvious that they don't hear with attention. And some people
hear sleepily or drowsily. In other words, they're not hearing
either. They're making a pretense of hearing. Only when you hear
with attention, when you perk up and listen to what is being
said. Secondly, when you hear what
is being preached as the word of God. Paul thanked God that
the Thessalonians heard the word, not as it as it was that year,
as the Word of God, but not as the Word of men, but as the Word
of God. And when you truly hear this
book, the preaching of the gospel as being the Word of God Himself,
It will make you sit up and pay attention. It will. Some little
spermonette by some cute little fellow is not going to get your
attention. And rightly so. I mean, it shouldn't. That's not worth hearing. But
the Word of God, and I've said this before, if a man just stands
up to read it, it ought to have our utmost attention. Right? Let him that hath ears, let him
hear. Christ said continually. And
it's to hear with trembling. If you do hear with the heart,
if God shows you in your heart, not just in your head, but moves
it down into your heart, that this is the Word of God, that
God's speaking, you'll hear it with trembling. You'll hear it
with trembling. The soul that sins should surely
die. Make it tremble. What am I going
to do? I'm a sinner. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. When you hear that as the Word
of God, make it tremble. Have I got to shed my blood?
Examine yourself, see whether you'll be in the faith. It'll
make you tremble. Am I in the faith? Do I believe Christ? Am
I trusting Him and Him alone? Trembling, to hear with trembling.
That's what God said, He dwelt with a man that trembled at His
Word, didn't it? Didn't it? Broken and contrite
and trembles at My Word. Not fall asleep, trembles at
His Word. It's to hear believingly. To
hear God's Word, to hear Christ's sayings is to hear believingly.
That is, to be in agreement with everything he says. I mean everything,
whether you like it or not. Well, that's a misnomer, isn't
it? If you believe it and agree with
it, you like it. That is, whether or not it hurts
you or not, whether it costs you or not. That's what it is
to hear believably, to be in full agreement with whatever
he says, whatever Christ says. It's to hear with the understanding.
You can't agree with what you don't really understand, can
you? And sometimes I think for the sake of just passing it off
and going on to something else when we really haven't understood
it, we really haven't taken it to heart. It's to hear with remembrance. When you hear Christ say, it's
to remember what he said. It's to apply it accordingly.
You remember what he said and you think about it. Like we read
there in James how that if a man hears and doesn't do, it's like
he looks at himself in a mirror, he looks at himself in God's
Word and turns right around and goes on and carries on what he
was doing before and forgot what the Word told him. It's to hear
with remembrance, not forget so easily. It's to hear subjectively. It is to take the Word of God
and examine yourself. to hear subjectively say, well,
do I believe this? Is this applying to me? And it's
to take the Word of God and hear it and to apply it to yourself
and knock yourself down with it, knock yourself out with it,
examine yourself with it. That's what it is to hear his
saying. What is it to do his sayings? Christ said, Whosoever
hears these sayings of mine and doeth them, call him a wise man
or her a wise woman. What is it to do Christ's sake?
Well, this is difficult to say the least. But one time they
came to our Lord and said, what can we do to do the works of
God? Everybody wants to do something
for God, they say, you know, he's serving the Lord. Is he?
Listen, you want to do something for God? What is it to do the
work of God? What is it to do the sayings
of Christ? Well, our Lord gave the answer. He said, this is
the work of God. This is the greatest work of
God. Not only is it God's work, but it's the work in you that
you must do. This is the work of God, to believe
on Him whom God has sent. That is, to cast your soul upon
Him. to rest in him." He said, really,
that's really not doing anything, is it? It's just resting. But
it's hard to rest sometimes. Paul said in Hebrews, labor to
enter into that rest. In other words, we're such self-righteous
Pharisees by nature, trying to work our way to heaven. It's
labor to try to get ourselves to quit working and just sit
down and say, Christ, okay, if you've done it all, there's nothing
for me to do, is there? That's a labor to get rid of this old
self-righteous attitude that we have. Phariseeism. So believing with the heart is
the first work. Not only is it God's work, his
gift, but it's a work in you. God doesn't believe for us, but
he gives us the gift of faith, enabling us to believe and trust
in Christ. And faith without works goes
dead. James said that. He showed me your faith without
your works, I'll show you my faith by my works. So it's to
believe with the heart and do with the hand, isn't it? And
it's to trust Christ alone and serve him alone. chiefly, supremely. True faith is trusting Christ
alone, not what I've done, but what he's done totally for me
by imputing his righteousness to me and taking my sin upon
him. That's trusting Christ alone.
And serving him alone is not like those Pharisees praying
to be seen or tithing so God will bless you and this and that
and the other, but serving him out of a heart full of gratitude
and love for what he's done for you. Serving him because he is
worthy to be served. No other reason. That's true
service. Acting out of love and not duty. Not out of duty. We need to do what we do out
of true love and appreciation for what Christ, who Christ is
and what he's done. To do his things is to do all
he says. What did Mary say? Whatever he
says to you, think about it. No. Yeah, we must think about
it. We've got to count the cost.
But she said, Whatever he says unto you, do it. Well, I can't. Try it anyway. Ask him to help
you. Christ said, Without me, you
can do nothing. Right. But in Christ, I can do
all things. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. Well, to keep Christ, to do Christ's
sayings is to keep his sayings. This is a difficult task in itself,
without God's constraining grace and restraining grace. We'll
forget what he told us, like little children, you know, forget,
just turn right around and forget exactly what he said. It's to
keep his sayings, keep them to heart, and to keep our hand to
the plow. Terry, unless God keeps us, we'll
not be kept, will we? We'll fall every day, unless
we're kept by the power of God unto salvation. We'll turn back. We'll be like Lot's wife every
day. We are in sin, but unless God
keeps us, keeps our hand to the plow, we'll turn back and we'll
not be fit for the kingdom of heaven. Well, look at the text
again in Matthew 7, verse 24. Those are a few of Christ's sayings
and something of what it is to hear his sayings and do them.
That's very briefly. Oh my, there's sermons on each
one of those parts of this verse. But he says, "'Whosoever hears
these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a
wise man which built his house upon a rock.'" built his house
upon a rock." What is meant by building our house on a rock? Well, the house, our houses,
and most of you here probably own houses. I'd say most of us
in here own a home of our own. Our houses are everything to
us, really, in this life. Everything we have is pretty
much invested in our houses. Our houses are our place of rest,
our place of relaxation, our place of enjoyment. Be it ever
so humble, there's no place like home, you know, the old saying
goes. Our house is our shelter. from storms and whatever. It's
our family dwelling where our families get together. It's our
investment. It's really our treasure. We've
got more money invested in our houses than they're worth, that's
for sure, but more money invested in our houses than anything else.
It's our abiding place, our houses, our abiding place. Spiritually
speaking, though, Christ is speaking about a different house. He's
speaking about Life itself. Life itself. Or salvation. It could be thought of in many
different ways. Salvation, but that which pertains unto eternal
life. Building your life, your soul,
that is your soul, casting your soul upon a rock. That man is
a wise man. Christ said the wise man builds
his life, casts his soul, casts his person upon the rock. Oh,
what's the rock? Well, it ain't prudential. The
rock, the Scripture is clear concerning who the rock is, and
it speaks of the rock over and over throughout the Old Testament
and the New Testament. Now, understand this. The Scripture
says, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that
build it. We quoted it a moment ago. Without
Christ, we can do nothing, unless God builds the house, unless
God starts and finishes the work. We can't do anything unless God
gives us the grace like a little child. He reveals himself to
us. He gives us all the strength,
all the understanding, all the knowledge, all the know-how.
He does it all for us. We're incapable, we're too weak
to do anything of our own. And except the Lord build the
house, they labor in vain that build it. Scripture says, except
the man be born from above. He'll not enter the kingdom of
heaven, except God gives spiritual life, except God begins a work,
we'll not have true life. So understand that from the outset,
that building a house, it's not something we do, building this
eternal life. We're not building eternal life.
Oh, no, we're not working on eternal life. We're not working
out our salvation in that sense. We're examining ourselves. to
see if we have this salvation, to see if we have this faith. But when God begins this work,
when God lays the foundation, you can be sure the work's going
to continue. He said that in Philippians 1,
was it? That he that hath begun a good
work in you will perform it. He'll get the building finished.
He counted the cost. Christ said in another parable,
which of you intend to build a tower that doesn't first sit
down and count the cost? Well, I wanted to establish that
first of all, that we don't do any building in this thing of
salvation. We don't have anything to do in our salvation. Uh huh. Uh huh. I don't know. I don't know. you. We're going to go ahead and get
started. We're going to go ahead and get
started. We're going to go ahead and get
started. God chose us, God elected us,
God gave us faith in Christ. Christ had to come down here
and die for us, pay our penalty, give us his imputed righteousness,
and go back and intercede for us. He had to do it all. We didn't
have anything to do with it. We just simply believed on him,
and that's the gift of God. But we're the building. We're
all built up together, the Scripture says. Faith, and I don't misunderstand
what I'm saying. is the materials and the tools
by which God builds us up. And God's Spirit is the one that
works in us. He's the builder. We're the building. Faith is the materials. And God's
Spirit is the builder. He's the one that works in us.
So you see, we're out of the picture here, really. We're out
of the picture. The rock. Let's get back to that.
What is it to build your house on the rock? The rock is none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says, the Lord
is my rock and my fortress. That rock, Paul said, when the
children of Israel drank from that rock in the wilderness,
Paul said, that rock is Christ. He's Christ, from whom if any
man drinks, he'll have the water of life, a well springing up
in it. To build your house upon the rock, Christ Jesus is to
rest your eternal soul, invest your life in him and him alone,
in him and upon him. He's the rock. Listen to these
characteristics of a rock. You'll appreciate that. Christ
is the rock. A rock is strong, it's firm,
it's immovable. It's immovable. It's a good place
to put your house. It's not going to move. It's
not going to shift. It's a rock. It's going to be there. It's
been there a while and it's going to stay there. It's a good foundation. Scripture says, other foundations
can no man lay than that which is laid. It's already been laid
a long time ago from the foundation of the world. Christ Jesus, he's
that rock. A rock, you know, you can live
Turn with me to Exodus chapter 33. You know, you can live, not
only can you build your house on the rock, but if you choose
to do so, you can live in a rock. Look at Exodus chapter 33 with
me. This is great. This speaks of
Christ, none other. You remember Moses? Ask the Lord to show him his
glory. Now, the Lord had done many wonderful
works in the eyes and the sight of Moses. Many, many wonderful
works. The parting of the Red Sea and
all of these things. And yet Moses said, Lord, show
me your glory. In other words, I want to know
what you are really like. I want to know who you really
are." And you know, the Lord gave him this answer. He said,
OK, I'll show you my glory. And he says in verse 19, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee. I'll make my goodness pass. That is my graciousness. I'll
proclaim the name of the Lord. Who's that? Lord Jesus Christ
before thee, that name which is above every name. I'll be
gracious. That is, I'll give the gift of
salvation to whom I will be gracious. Nobody deserves it, but I'm going
to freely bestow it upon some people. And I'll be merciful. I'll show mercy on whom I will. It's my prerogative. I don't
have to be merciful to anybody. All men are dead in trespasses
and sin. I don't have to show mercy to
anybody, but I'm going to because I'm a merciful God. And he said,
but Moses, you can't see my face and live. No man can see me and
live, but you can see me somewhere in somebody. Look at it, verse
21. And the Lord said, Behold, there
is a place by me." You remember when we studied about the place
the Lord thy God chooses to set his name there? Who's that? That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And who's this place? By him. That's the rock of Christ Jesus,
and that's what he says. There's a place by me, and you'll
stand upon that rock. You'll see me in that rock of
Christ Jesus, and you'll stand on it. And not only that, not
only will you build your hopes of eternal life upon him, but
verse And it will come to pass, while my glory passes by, that
I'll put you in the rock, too, by faith, on it and in it, and
cover you with my hand while I pass by. And I'll take away
mine hand, and you'll see my back parts, my back parts. So not only can you live on it,
build your house on the rock, you can live in the rock You
know, David was a man after God's own heart. It says one time he
went down into a cave and everybody was distressed and in doubt and
in debt. Went to David in the cave, in
the rock. David, a picture of Christ, was
in the rock. Well, rocks come from the earth,
don't they? Christ was a man. He was a man. And rocks come from the earth,
that is, they're low, they're dug out of the ground. Christ
was a man, he was meek and lowly. But rocks are also on the high
and lofty mountains, aren't they? Christ is God, he's God Almighty,
and he's high and lofty, the Holy One. Not only is he a man,
meek and lowly, but he's God, high and lifted up. Rocks are
strong places of defense. They're impregnable. They used
to build fortresses on cliffs that stuck out in the ocean,
cliffs, big fortresses and castles out of stone, out of rock. And
most of them back in the old days were impregnable places.
If you were coming by sea, you weren't going to take that place.
And Christ is our defense, isn't it? will not be moved in him."
You know, I like the name of this town. I think it's providential
I came here. I'm going to dwell in a rocky
mountain. I like the name of this place.
You know, I like to go up Up on Church Street is about the
highest place around, I think, up on Church Street. I like to
walk up there and you get a tremendous view all the way around you if
you look all around you, a pleasant view. You can see afar off from
up on Church, from the church on Rocky Mount. Well, faith in
Christ, when you stand on Christ, that rock, it's a pleasant view,
joy, unspeakable. In Christ, it'll enable you to
see things that you never saw before, right? It'll enable you
to see afar off by faith, see your end in Christ, eternal life
in Christ. Rocks are durable. and they're permanent. Like we
said, that foundation that no man can lay in Christ Jesus,
it's already been laid. Rocks are durable. These rocks
under our feet, they've been there a long time, a long time,
from the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ is sane yesterday,
today, and forever. He's that eternal rock. And rocks Have you ever driven down the
highway and seen where they cut through a mountain, and if it's
a wet, damp day, sometimes you'll see water coming out of the middle
of those rocks, won't you? Quite often rocks and springs
come out of rocks. Quite often water and springs
will come out of rocks. Christ is the fountain of life. when God told Moses to smite
that rock and bring forth water. That's a picture of Christ that
was smitten and wounded and bruised for our iniquities. And out of
Christ, his blood flowed, blood and water, the Scripture says,
while he hung there on that cross. And in that blood, in that water,
was eternal life. Those that drank of that life-giving
fountain. have eternal life. And then God
told Moses later on, don't smite the rock anymore. Don't smite
it. Christ is only killed once. He's
only offered once. And then he went back to sit
at the right hand of God. He's only crucified one time. Catholicism crucifies him over
and over with the mass and so forth. You'll crucify Christ
afresh. Uh-uh, he's seated. Now all you
have to do, like Moses, is speak to the rock. And when you smite
the rock in direct disobedience to God, like Moses did, you incur
the wrath and the anger of God. You're dealing with God's salvation. You don't kill Christ to praise.
He's been offered once. Once. You speak to Him. You speak
to Him. Now, notice this, though. Here's
a warning. Rocks are dangerous, too. If I stumbled and fell right
here and hit my head, it wouldn't hurt me too much. But you go
out in a parking lot on concrete and stumble and fall and hit
your head, that will kill you. And the Scripture speaks of that.
I don't know where that's found, but it says if any man stumbles,
Christ is called a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, isn't
it? You refuse to be planted believing
Him and Him alone, and you stumble and fall, you'll be broken. You'll
be broken in pieces if that rock falls on you. And someday that
rock is going to come. Christ is coming. He's going
to fall and bury. You talk about people that were
buried under that freeway. Wait till God comes and just
steps His foot down, and the rest of this mess will be buried
for good under that great rock. Well, to build, to invest, to
devote, to establish your life in Jesus Christ is to forsake
everything and everyone else for Him. It's to commit yourself
and your possessions to Him. It's to seek Him first. First. Now, this is no real mystical thing,
people. This thing of faith, believing
Christ, is no real mystical thing that you have to go through so
much of this and so much of that to know if Christ is the one
hope of your life, that you're pursuing him above all else. You ought to know, the Scriptures
say, we repeat this over and over again, know ye not your
own selves. how that Christ be in you, except
you be reprobate. He exhorts us to examine ourselves
to see whether we be of the faith. This is no mystical thing. We
ought to know whether or not we know Christ and love Him. If we don't, oh, we better not
get sleep until we find out. This thing's too serious. If
you don't know and not that really concerned about knowing, then
you don't know. Right? That only makes sense.
If you realize that he is life, you'll pursue him. You'll pursue
him, and you'll not be satisfied. You'll not let him go like Jacob
until he has blessed you, until he has said like the psalmist
said, saying to my soul, I am thy salvation. Lord, I am not
content with a mere fain religion. That is, religion with feigned
words and feigned lips and coming on Sunday morning and playing
the part. I'm not content with that. I
want to know the true and living Lord. I want to know if my sins
are forgiven. I want to walk with Him, talk
with Him, be spoken to by Him. You ought to know. You ought
to know. If you don't know, I exhort you from God's Word to not rest
until you find out. True faith will be tried. Mark it down from God's Word.
It will be tried and proven. And if by God's grace you are
in and on the rock cross Jesus, you trust Him and Him alone,
you're seeking after Him above all else. Look at the text again,
back in Matthew 7. If by God's grace He has planted
your feet upon the rock, Christ Jesus, by his grace. Look at Matthew 7, verse 25. "'Come what may, you're going
to stand.'" And this is going to prove it. He said, if you
built your house upon the rock, he said, the man that built his
house upon the rock, the rain descended, floods came, the winds
blew and beat upon the house. What are those rains? Well, it's
trials from God Almighty. God chiefly tries us. God first and foremost. He tries
us. He tries us in many different
ways. Floods. It says the floods came. That's
trials from the earth. That's trials from men. Trials
that come up from people and things. Then there's winds. The winds blow. That's perplexing
trials. Trials you don't know where they're
coming from. You think, is this the devil? Is this me? What is
this? You know, some of you have had
these trials. What is going on with me? I don't
know what's happening here. Depression, sadness for no apparent
reason, and so forth. Winds of trials that come from
you don't know where. Now, those in Christ, by faith,
standing upon Him, the Scripture says, let any of these trials
come, and they will. God's promised they will. your
house, your faith, the profession of your faith. Reign trials from
God, trials from men, trials from wherever, from within. You'll
never perish. Christ said you'll not fall.
It fell not, because why? Because he prayed through? No, because he's a better Christian
than somebody else? Because he just tried a little
harder? No. Why does it say? Verse 25. Because
it was founded upon the rock. Simply. Founded upon Jesus Christ. As long as Christ, somebody said
this, are you saved? I say this over and over again.
I may repeat it every service. Are you saved? Well, is Christ
at the right hand of the Father? Yeah, well I'm safe, because
that's who I'm trusting. As long as he sits right there,
unmoved, my rock, my defense, my representative, my mediator,
the one who intercedes for me, my savior, bleeding his blood
for me. As long as he sits right there
at the right hand of God, approved of God, accepted by God, Well-pleasing
to God, and I'm in Him? Yes, sir, I'm saved. I'm in Christ,
the Rock. As long as Christ, my Rock, stands
sure, then I stand secure in Him. Verse 26. But everyone that
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish
man. A foolish man. Well, let me hurry
here. There's one true hearer, that
is, the man who hears and does. We established that. A true hearer
is one that hears and acts accordingly. There's two types of foolish
hearers, though. One, those that hear with the ear only, and like
the text said, go their way and quickly forget what they heard. But it just went in here and
just rolled around a little bit and they went out that ear and
they went on their merry way. They quickly forgot. The second
type of foolish hearer is those that hear. They hear and they
understand. There are people that speak scriptures
like in Romans 9. It talks about God foreordaining. Choosing, Romans 8, God foreordaining,
foreknowing, predestinating, choosing, electing, all these
words that men despise that are clearly in the Scripture. There
are people that see those. They hear, in other words, they
hear what it's saying. They see it, but they won't believe
it. That's the foolish here. I hear
that, I see it, but I don't care what it says, I ain't going to
have that. Well, man, that's just God's Word. I don't care.
That's another type of foolish hearing. They hear, but they
refuse and go on their merry way. And all these people, these
types of hearers, some people don't hear at all and they're
building their house on sand. Some people hear and they're
building their house on sand. Some people fake obedience and
still go on building their house on sand. Now, you know, they
had that earthquake and California recently. Do you know, you've
seen the news, you've seen it, that they're going to build those
houses right back where they were? Can you tell me men aren't just
totally fools, total fools and ignoramuses? They're going to
build that highway that collapsed and killed all those people and
all those houses right back where they were. And experts say the
big one ain't here yet. Well, they're no more ignorant
than the man or the woman who doesn't place their faith in
Christ and Christ alone. They're no more ignorant. They're
no more foolish than the men or women who devote their lives
to shifting sands of this world. It's shifting. Have you ever
gone to the beach and got you a handful of sand, that powdery,
sugary sand down in Florida somewhere, got scooped up a big bunch of
it? You can't hold on to it, can you? It'll go right through
your fingers. I mean, you'll not come up with
half of what you, you'll not keep half of what you came up
with. That's the sands of this world, isn't it? You ain't going
to hold on to it, that's for sure. Build a sandcastle, you've
seen some of these elaborate sandcastles? Well, one little
bucket of water will knock that down. And people saw one little,
you know, God just kind of shaking the earth a little bit will knock
our little sandcastles down. Well, especially though, verse
27, this man that builds his house upon the sand, verse 27,
when the rain descends, when God Almighty starts to reveal
or discover his faith. You know, trials don't give faith,
they reveal it, whether you have it or not. You know what? Trials
don't give faith, they reveal whether or not you have faith.
And when a trial comes from God, Trials, that is reigns, come
down from above when God tries your faith. If you've built your
life, you've built your job, your home, your life around your
job, your home, your child, whatever it may be, God's able to take
it from you. You say you're a disciple of
Christ, you rest in Him and Him alone, and He's all you need. He's all in all to you, that
you really love Christ more than anybody else. Well, let's find
out. Let's take that house. Oh, wait a minute. It didn't pan out too high, or
whatever. It can get, it can hurt sometimes.
It can really hurt. Truth, trials will hurt. That's
trials from God. And the man whose house is built
on the sand of his own works, his own silly little profession
and feigned religion, when God, when a trial comes from God,
he'll forsake that in a minute. In a minute. Floods, trials of
persecution from men out on the job. So you're a Christian, huh? Well, you know, persecutions
from men or pleadings and affections from your family and so forth,
tugging at you. We, I tell you, our professions
just aren't worth much. It's almost as if people are
looking for excuses not to worship God. I mean, a dog dies and somebody
has to stay out of church. It's old Uncle Harry's birthday.
Forget about worshiping God, we're going to celebrate Uncle
Harry. So that reveals us for what we
are. affection of men and things of
this world. That's trials from beneath, floods,
winds, trials from who knows where that blow your way. Well, you know, in the same sense,
we're looking for an excuse to quit this whole thing by nature.
You let the preacher, whatever, get mad at the preacher or whatever.
I'm quitting that place." That's what you wanted to do all along,
evidently. You know, if you can quit to
Christ and the gospel over the way a man wears his hair who
doesn't have hair, then you never love Christ anyway. You're just
looking for a good excuse. How come you're not worshiping
with us anymore? Didn't you know what he said
to me? Well, I don't know what he said to you, but man, you're
preaching the gospel, and you've got to have the gospel. Gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. I don't care. Evidently, you
do. That's winds. You know, it could
be wind of doctrine. Any little doctrine come along,
blown away by it. Some new flash-in-the-pan preacher
come down the road, you know. I've seen some new guy that's
on TV now, Lee, I think is his name. He's got this prayer arm.
He prays all night long. You better believe he'll tell
you about it, too. Last night I prayed all night
long. And now send me your hundred dollars." And they're following
him. You know, any old guy that comes
down the pike, in his own name, you'll follow. But some simpleton
preaching just the Word of God, quit him in a minute. Well, verse
27, I've got to quit. He says, "...rain, flood, winds
blew, beat upon that house, and it You can mark it down from
that right there. She's coming down. This false
profession, anybody's false profession, it will not stand. Every foot
will slide in due time. Why? It ain't on a rock. And
great was the fall of it. Oh, my. Great was the fall of
it. And I say this to any ahumpty-dumpty,
any faithless egghead. All the king's horses and all
the king's men ain't going to help you one bit. There's a scripture
that says, don't put your trust in chariots and horses and so
forth. Only the king is the one that's
going to pick up a broken egghead. Only the king himself. Well,
scripture says, he that hath the Son hath life. That's pretty
plain, isn't it? You built your faith in Christ
or in Christ plus? Well, what was I going to say?