Right. Standing or sinking. Everybody
in this world is either standing on the rock or sinking in the
sand. That's the long and the short
of it. So which one am I? Which one
are you? That's the self-examination that
we should all continually do as we read and study and God's
Word and pray that the Lord will make it effectual to our hearts
and our minds. Every time I study for a message
or deliver a message, I pray, Lord, don't let it go past me. Don't let it go in one ear and
out the other. Because you know that's possible.
And unless God is pleased to really empower the Word to our
hearts, our minds, our consciences, It'll do us no good, will it?
Somebody says, well, we've got to apply it to our lives. Well,
that's true, but it's the Lord who applies it to us. But as
he concludes the Sermon on the Mount, think about this. In verse
24, you've heard this passage preached quite a bit. But think
about it this way. We need to hear it over and over
again. And he says, therefore, now, keep it in its context,
therefore, what is it there for? Well he's showing in conclusion
that this whole issue of salvation is not a matter of the believers
or the sinners works or trying to establish a righteousness
of your own but it's a matter of God's grace through the righteousness
of Christ. Now you remember the whole Sermon
on the Mount is delivered to the lost religious jews mainly
now his disciples were there too christ disciples were there
but it's mainly delivered to the lost religious jews who had
been taught wrongly by the pharisees and the scribes that's why he
points them out he says remember back in matthew five twenty unless
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the pharisees you shall in no wise enter in the kingdom
of heaven." Well, what righteousness were the scribes and Pharisees
teaching? Well, they were teaching righteousness by the works of
these people under the law of Moses. It's the same kind of
thing that Christ taught in the parable of the Pharisee and the
publican. You know, the Pharisee, he thanked
God that he was not like other men, that he didn't do certain
things, and that he was diligent to do other things. And that
was his righteousness before God. These in Matthew 7, 21 through
23 that we looked at last week, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied,
preached in your name, and in your name cast out devils and
done many wonderful works? That was their righteousness
before God in their minds. And now what Christ is going
to show and conclude with here is this, that what these unbelieving,
self-righteous, religious, legalistic people had been taught is the
sinking sand of a false gospel. You're standing on sinking sand. My hope is built. All other ground
is sinking sand. That's where that hymn comes
from, this passage here. So he says, therefore, verse
24, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them. Now, what are his sayings? Well,
everything I've been telling you. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be
added unto you. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. If the Holy Spirit brings us
to see our sin and depravity and the impossibility of us establishing
a righteousness with or without the help of God, then what are
we going to do? Well, we're going to seek it
where it is. He's going to show us Christ crucified, risen from
the dead as the Lord our righteousness, and we'll be filled because we'll
come to Him. He's the bread of life. He's the water of life.
Well, our thirst for righteousness will be quenched. Our hunger
for righteousness will be filled because it can only be filled
in Christ. And that's, I've always told people, you know, years
ago I was preaching here and there was some visitors coming.
They came two or three, four times. And a man told me, he
said, you know, I believe the Spirit's working with that fella.
And I said, well, I can tell you how you know if it's the
spirit of God. And he said, how? And I said, well, if it's the
spirit of God, he can end up nowhere else, but where Christ
is preached, where Christ righteousness is preached, because nothing
else will satisfy the spirit convicted soul hunger. If you
can be satisfied under the preaching of a false gospel, If you can
be satisfied under the preaching of work salvation, conditional
salvation, then I want to tell you something, you're not being
driven, motivated, inspired, or enlivened by the spirit of
God. That's an evil spirit. You all agree with that? That's
an evil spirit. The Pharisees, with all of their
religion, with all of their supposed law keeping, because that's what
they claim, we have Moses. Remember in John chapter 5 what
Christ told him about Moses? Let's look over there just for
a moment. It's real interesting because this is the theme of
the Sermon on the Mount. That righteousness cannot be
attained by your law keeping. It can only be attained by looking
to Christ and that's what his sayings are all about. That's
what he said, you know. Somebody said, we keep his sayings,
do his sayings. Back up in Matthew 7, 21, he
said, he that doeth the will of my father, which is in him.
Well, what is the revealed will of God? What did he say? And
people look at passages like that and say, well, I better
start being a moral person. Well, you better start being
a moral person if you're not. But that's not what he's saying
here. He says that in other places, that every believer should live
a life that's honoring and glorifying to God and helpful to others.
He says that, but not to be saved, not to be made righteous. He
says, don't do that for that reason, you see. But look here
at John chapter five in verse 39. He says, search the scriptures. For in them you think you have
eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And you
will not come to me that you might have life." Well, why wouldn't
they come to him? Because of what he said. What
did he say? Well, he told them, he says,
your righteousness is of no good. And go on, he says, I receive
not honor from men, but I know you that you have not the love
of God in you. I'm come in my father's name
and you receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. How do you know if you have the
love of God in you? You'll receive Christ. And if you don't receive
him as he is identified and distinguished in the word, you don't have the
love of God in you. You may have some kind of a religious
love, But it's not the love of God. John in 1 John's been talking
about that. Verse 44, how can you believe
which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh
from God only? Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. Now they weren't trusting Moses
the man. They were trusting in their law
keeping, the law of Moses. And he says, for had you believed
Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if
you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?
Now that's the same thing. Look back over here, Matthew
7, 24. Those are his sayings. Why was the law given? It was
given to show them their sinfulness, their depravity, their utter
inability to keep the law, to be righteous, to put away sin.
And it was a schoolmaster that drove them to Christ. In other
words, even that law. Somebody said, well, Christ wasn't
in the law. Well, now you better look back.
You know what was included in the law, don't you? The blood
of sacrifice, the altar, the tabernacle, the mercy seat. Who's
that? That picture's Christ. And that's
what that law was given for. The Ten Commandments was a point
of conviction to show you, you're a sinner. And if God ever gave
you what you earned or deserved, it'd be death and hell. And your
only hope is the blood of sacrifice, the lamb, a priest, the high
priest to represent you, a surety. that priest laying his head upon
the head of the sacrifice, the blood of sprinkling over the
mercy seat, who is Christ, propitiation, a just, satisfying sacrifice. Those are his sayings. He never
said to anybody, now you do your best and God will shine on you.
He never said that. Now he did say do our best, but
not for that reason. Is that clear? Now, as he goes
through, he says, the one who does his thing, the one who believes
his gospel, trusts Christ, and follows Christ, he says, I will
liken him, I'll compare him unto a wise man which built his house
on a rock, and that rock is Christ, the rock Christ Jesus. There
was a, you all have heard of the denomination called Reformed
Baptist? Have you ever heard of them?
There was a Reformed Baptist preacher, and the word reform,
as they use it, there's a Reformed Baptist, Reformed Presbyterian,
they reach back to the Reformation, and they have the doctrines of
the Reformation, and when you're talking about, you know what
we talk about, TULIP, or the five points of Calvinism, those
are doctrines that were kind of resurfaced during the Reformation
against the Catholic Church. But I'm not reformed in that
sense. In other words, I do agree with
those doctrines because they're biblical, they're gospel doctrines.
The Reformation that I like to talk about is the one you find
in Hebrews chapter 9, when he talks about the time of Reformation.
I think that's the only time in the Bible the word Reformation
is used. And what's that talking about?
It's talking about the time when Christ came to fulfill the law
for righteousness. That's the Reformation that I
like to talk about. The gospel has always been the
way of salvation. Well, this Reformed Baptist preacher,
he was preaching in a meeting one time and he said this, he
said the Christian life, he was describing the Christian life,
and he said the Christian life is something like this. He said
it's like walking on a tightrope. And you know how a tightrope
walker has those poles to balance them. And he said, on one end
of the pole is the imputed righteousness of Christ, and on the other end
of the pole is your righteousness, your works. And that's what the
Christian life is like. Well, a gospel preacher got up
after him, and he just flat out said it. He said, no, the Christian
life is not like walking on a tightrope, balancing between Christ's righteousness
and yours. The Christian life, here's what
it's like. It's standing on a rock. the rock Christ Jesus and his
righteousness imputed alone and that'll never fall. You don't
have to balance that out. You understand that? Because
Christ has already balanced it. You know what iniquity is? It
means it won't balance. Like the scales of justice. You
don't have to balance it out because if you're in Christ,
blessed is the man whom the Lord imputed not iniquity. You have
a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and
justice. You're standing on the rock. This is all my hope and
plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand. So that's the issue. He said,
I'm gonna compare this, the one who stands on Christ, who clings
to Christ, I'm gonna compare that man to a wise man. Now he
is wise because he has the wisdom of God. The Bible says the scriptures
are able to make you wise unto salvation. Without the scriptures
and the power of the Spirit, you don't have that kind of wisdom.
I don't have that kind of wisdom. Think about it, the wisdom of
God in devising a way in which he can be both a just God and
a savior. Job asked the question, how can
a man be just with God? How is that even possible? We
often hear preachers quote this Proverbs 17 verse, Proverbs 17,
15, which says that those who justify the wicked and condemn
the just, both are an abomination to God. And so they'll say, well,
God cannot justify the ungodly because he would be an abomination
to himself if he did that. Here's the problem though. Number
one, God says he justifies the ungodly. Read about it in Romans
chapter four. Sorry, I didn't mean to shout.
But that's what, God says it. And number two, that's what the
gospel is all about. It's the revelation of the mystery
of God, how God only, God alone can do what man cannot do. Besides,
if man does that, he can't do it, first of all, if man would
justify the wicked and condemn the just, If man were to do that,
number one, he'd have to do it on an unjust ground. Somebody
said, well, he's just being compassionate. Yes, but justice was not satisfied. Somebody used the example of
a mother in court. Her son had committed a murder.
And she stood up in court and begged the judge, let me take
his place, let me take his place. Well, the thing about it is if
the judge didn't do it, but if he did, it wouldn't be justice.
And secondly, if they let that fella go, what's he going to
do? Nine times out of 10, he's going to go out and do the same
thing again. Somebody said, well, that mother's love would change
him. Maybe, maybe not. But see, that's not the way God
does things. He justifies his people on a
just ground. And that ground is the righteousness
of his son whom he appointed. See, that's what, for a just
ground, you need three things. You need a God-appointed substitute
who is able to do what's required and who is willing to do what's
required. And that's Christ. And there's
the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1, Christ is the
wisdom and the power of God. So he says now, he says, the
rains descended, verse 25, the floods came, the winds blew and
beat upon that house and it fell not. Why? Because it was painted
with pretty paint? Because of the window curtains
or the carpet or the, oh, that was solid wood floors these days,
isn't it? Everybody's got to have wood
floors. Did they have the most beautiful wood floors? No, it
was founded upon a rock. The rock Christ Jesus. That's
why it didn't fall. That's why none of us will fall
if we're in Christ. God cannot charge us with sin
because he charged our sins to Christ, our surety. God charges
us with righteousness. As long as we stand in him, we
won't fall. If we stand on our own or partially
in him or partially on ourselves, which cannot, we'll fall. standing
on the rock, looking to Christ, the author and finisher of our
faith. Now look at verse 26. He says, everyone that hear these
sayings of mine and do with them not, they don't believe the gospel.
They don't believe in Christ. They don't follow him. He said,
I'll compare them. They'll be likened unto a foolish
man, which built his house upon the sand. Well, what is the sand? It's any other way. other than
the way of God's sovereign grace in Christ. That's the saying.
It can be the way of immorality. Now, I say that with a grain
of salt for this reason. Listen, in my life, I've known
some immoral people in the eyes of men now. You understand what
I'm talking about? I'm talking about on this vertical
plane here, all right? I mean, horizontal plane, I'm
sorry. Get my geometry mixed up. on this horizontal plane.
I'm not talking about in the eyes of God. You know, I told
you last week, somebody challenged me on making this statement that
total depravity doesn't mean that everybody's as bad as they
could be. I'm talking about as we compare to each other. I mean,
there are religious people, charitable people, and then there are just
total perverts, aren't there? Now, in the eyes of God, none
of us are righteous in ourselves or are able to be righteous in
God's sight by our word. None of us. They always use the
example of Adolf Hitler and Mother Teresa. In the eyes of men, Mother
Teresa was a much better person than Adolf Hitler. But Mother
Teresa was no closer to righteousness in God's sight than Hitler. Now
this is the kind of message that people hate. They don't want
to sit, they don't want to admit that. The Bible says in God's
sight there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that
do a good, no not one. Christ looked at a young man,
who I believe probably was a Pharisee, who had tried to keep the law
of Moses from his youth up and claimed to have done so, and
Christ told him there's none good but God. You're not good.
People just, you're not good, not in the eyes of God, okay? Now, you know, in the eyes of
men, you're better than the thief that hung on the cross, see? But in God's eyes, neither one
of you are good. And if you're gonna get any righteousness
or goodness from God, it's got to come through His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, as surety and substitute based upon His
redemptive work. So, This sand is any other way. Now it may be a way of morality
in the eyes of men, religion, sincerity, charity, it may not
be. I've known some immoral people
in the eyes of men, in my own eyes, but I've never had anybody
come to me who thought that their immorality was going to save
them or recommend them unto God. But here's the point. Who's he
talking to here? He's talking to a religious crowd
here. He's talking to people who had been taught to keep the
law, to attain righteousness by their works. And here's what he's telling
them. You're standing on sinking sand. You're going to fall. And he
says in verse 27, the rain descended, the floods came and the winds
blew and beat upon that house and it fell. And it doesn't matter
how it appears to men. It may be like the Pharisees.
He said, you do indeed appear righteous unto men. That's how
you appear to men. But you don't appear that way
to God. Just like these in Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Lord, haven't we preached in
your name? Now that appears righteous to men. Haven't we cast out demons? That appears righteous to men.
Haven't we done many wonderful works? that appears righteous
to men, but how does it appear to God? Depart from me ye that
work iniquity, I never knew you. You see, the most moral person,
the most religious person, the most dedicated person in the
eyes of men without Christ is nothing but a worker of iniquity. You remember John said that men
hate the light? Because their deeds were evil.
That's the light. And that's the deeds that are
evil. Man's self-righteous intent. Somebody said self-righteousness
is the greatest sin. Well, okay, I can agree with
that. Because it doesn't give glory to God. It denies Christ. It exalts sinners. And he says
it's built upon the sand. The rain descended. The fall,
it fell and great was the fall of it. Think about that. Great
was the fall of it. Well, all who build their houses
on the sand of false religion, salvation by the works and the
wills of men, salvation conditioned on sinners, are the same as those
workers of iniquity up there in Matthew 7, 21 through 23.
They're the very same, no difference. They are all to whom God imputes
sin. And that's their workers of iniquity.
And they stand before God without righteousness, because righteousness
can only be found in Christ. Salvation only in Him. And those
who stand upon the rock, they're those to whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works. You know, let me conclude with
this. You know, over in Psalm 32, which Paul quoted in Romans 4
about blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputed not iniquity.
I want to conclude this with this. You know, back over here
in the last two verses of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew
728, It said, it came to pass when Jesus had ended these things,
the people were astonished at his doctrine. I think that's
very telling, very interesting. They weren't astonished at his
appearance. Read Isaiah 53 sometime. How he appeared, you know. Man
of sorrows, acquainted with grief. They weren't impressed with the
halo that these Renaissance painters draw around his head. Now, in his life, as he went
through his public ministry, there were many who were astonished
at his miracles. When he fed the 5,000, when he
walked on water, when he raised Lazarus from the dead, they were
impressed with that. But for many of them, it went
no further. And just the miracles didn't
go to him and his message. Some of them, they were impressed
with the miracles, but then when they heard his doctrine, turned
and ran. Cut bait and run, so to speak. But these people were astonished
at his doctrine, his teachings, the truth. And verse 29 says,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribe.
In other words, he taught them not as, now let me give you my
opinion. Or this is what I think. He taught
them with the authority that this is God's word. We have that little outline I
like to repeat. Christ is the word of God. He's the personification of the
word. In beginning was the word. And he's the word incarnate,
the word was made flesh. And he's the subject of the written
word and the preached word. So he is the word of God. But
he spoke without authority. And so when you hear that kind
of authority, you have to think about it to a point to say, now
you think about it, he says here, he says, You're either on the
rock, standing on the rock, or you're sinking in the sand. Now,
which one am I? Which one are you? Well, as I
said, those who are on sinking sand are the same as those who
are workers of iniquity. They're those who are on the
broad road that leads to destruction. Those who are standing on the
rock, they're the good fruit. that comes from the good tree
of Christ, the grace of God in Christ. They're on the narrow
way that leads to eternal life, the straight gate. Well, you
remember over there in Psalm 32 in verse two, now how do I
know if I'm standing on the rock or sinking in the sand? Well,
the Holy Spirit inspired David to write these words. It says
in Psalm 32 too, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity, All right, that's a sinner's justification before
God. That non-imputation of iniquity. He does not charge me with my
sin. How do I know that? Well, the Bible says if I'm elect,
God doesn't charge me. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. And
that's upon the basis of the death of Christ, the obedience
unto death of Christ as my surety and substitute. Who can condemn
me? It's Christ that died. yea rather is risen again and
is seated at the right hand of the Father ever living to make
intercession for us. So when he says blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, he means blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works, that's the righteousness
of Christ imputed. That's my justification before
God. That took place in the mind of
God in eternity. All based upon what Christ would
do in time. because all the promises of God
in him are yin and yang. But then David went on to say,
now how do I know that I'm part of that number which God does
not impute iniquity? And know that I'm standing on
the rock, how do I know that? Well, David went on to say, now
listen to this, he said, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Now what does that mean? Whose
spirit? Well, he's talking about people
who have spiritual life from God. You see, the imputed righteousness
of Christ is the ground of my justification before God, which
ensures that he is the source of spiritual life in the new
birth. And that's what David's talking about. God not imputing
my iniquity to me, imputing righteousness to me, that's my justification
in his legal court of justice. The fruit, the result and effect
of that is that at some point in time, I'm going to be born
again by the spirit. I'm going to have spiritual life.
And how do you know that? He says, well, in whose spirit
there is no guile. Well, what is guile? You ever
thought about that? Well, guile is the deception
and dishonesty of self-righteousness and religious pride by which
unbelievers are deceived. That's what guile is. We're all
born that way, aren't we? We're born dead in trespasses
and sin. We walk according to the prince
of the power of the air, the things of this world. We're all
born with guile. Spiritually dead, that's the
absence of spiritual life. Even in our religion, listen,
in my false religion, there was nothing in me but guile. Because
I didn't know Christ. I was ignorant of God's righteousness
going about to establish one of my own and not submitting
to the righteousness of God in Christ. That's guile. That's the problem with these
people here. That's the problem with all mankind
by nature. We're not honest about our sins
and our depravity and our inability. We're not honest about God's
justice. We believe that God will save
us if we do our part. Whatever denomination we went
to, there were particular conditions put on. God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. Now
it's up to you. It's conditioned on you. You've
got to make them. Somebody said, I'm going to talk
about this in the message, when they wrote that book, How to
be Born Again. Well, the answer in the book was, you believe,
and as a result, God will give you spiritual life. You're born
again. Well, that's not true. That's guile. Because, see, guile
is dishonesty. And if God the Holy Spirit makes
me honest, here's what I'll admit to. That if God hadn't chosen
me, I would have never chosen him. That if God left me to myself,
to my own quote, free will, unquote, I would never receive Christ.
I would have gone my merry way to eternal damnation. If God
would have, that's being honest. What does the Bible say? None
good? No, not one. None righteous? No, not one.
None that seeketh after God? No, not one. Now the Holy Spirit brings a
sinner to be honest about that. And to be honest about how God
justifies the ungodly. Listen, if it weren't for Christ,
the blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ in Peter, where would
we be? We'd be in hell forever. Now let's
be honest about it. That's what David's talking about.
When he says, in whose spirit there is no God, he doesn't mean
by that that a Christian never tells a lie. David told some
lies, didn't he? We shouldn't lie, but we do.
And sometimes we have to fight to be able to tell the truth,
to be bold enough to tell the truth, don't we? But he's talking
about when the Holy Spirit gives life to a dead sinner, of which
Christ's righteousness imputed is the source of it. The body
is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.
See, our life is the resurrection life of Christ and he imparts
life to us in the new birth based upon Christ's righteousness imputed.
Is that right? And then he, through the word
of God, he makes us honest about who God is, about who we are,
and about who Christ is. Now how do I know that I'm standing
on the rock or sinking in the sand? I'll tell you how I know.
I don't have any other hope. No matter how I appear to you,
I've got no hope of salvation and eternal life and glory and
forgiveness and being justified before God, but Christ's righteousness
imputed. Now that's it. That's why that's
my favorite hymn. I really mean it. My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's
the rock Christ Jesus, all right.