All right, Matthew chapter 7,
I've entitled the lesson this morning, The Solid Rock. Our
text begins in verse 24. It says, Therefore, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I'll 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. But everyone that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a
foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And 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, when I read this, probably what went through a
lot of people's minds is the chorus. Our little ones love
to sing. They love to say, with a house
on the sand, splat. But these verses are a whole
lot more than a children's song. These verses begin the conclusion
to the greatest message that's ever been preached. At least
the greatest message ever been recorded, for sure. These verses
are the Lord's conclusion. This is the way he's concluding
and summing up everything he said in his sermon on the mount.
In these verses, the Lord describes two men. Both men feel the need
for a record. They both have some sense that
storms are coming. They know they need a shelter
from those storms. At least they have some idea.
They need a shelter from God's wrath against their sin and judgment. They know they need a covering.
They know they need forgiveness. So they started doing what all
of us would do, building a house to be their refuge. And when
they were finished building, Both houses probably looked a
whole lot alike. You know, they may have been
neighbors in a neighborhood. You ever been in those neighborhoods
where all the houses look alike, you know? Could have been the
neighborhood like that. Couldn't tell much difference
by looking at those houses. The difference came from what
could not be seen above ground. The difference was the foundation.
One was founded upon a rock. It had a good, solid foundation.
The other house was built more quickly. Probably not much work
at all went into the foundation of that house. It was built right
upon the sand. It had no foundation. But the
walls and the windows, the roof, the door looked a whole lot like
the house next door. And then the same storms came
and hit both of those houses. Both houses were subject to the
wrath of God from above, the wind and the rain. Both houses
were subject to wrath from beneath. the floods, the corruption of
our sin that comes from within. And in those storms, the house
built on a rock stood firm. It didn't move. It wasn't changed.
And the house that was built upon the sand fell flat. And the Lord said, great was
the loss of it. It was a total loss. Now everybody
here knows full well the spiritual meaning of this parable. The
rock, the first house was built upon is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And our Lord is telling us that everyone who's built upon Christ,
they'll stand. They'll stand firm through the
storm of God's wrath against our sin, because we have a sure
refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ. And everyone who builds upon
the sand, the sand is man's works, his own works of religion. Everybody
who builds on the sands of man's work, their soul has no foundation. Because there's no substance
to man's works. Man's good works are lies. They're not good works. That's a lie. They're evil works. And the storm of God's wrath
will sweep away that refuge of lies. Those who build upon the
saint of man's works are gonna suffer a great loss. And when you lose everything
you have, you lose your soul. What do men give for a soul?
Well, they give in exchange for a soul. When you lose your soul,
it's a great loss, isn't it? Because you lost everything you
had. I want to look for a few minutes at these two foundations.
First is the rock, Christ Jesus. And I have several points about
this rock. Look first at Ephesians chapter 2. God's elect have a sure foundation
because of who our rock is. Ephesians 2 verse 19. because
of who our rock is. Ephesians 2 19. Now, therefore,
you no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation,
the same foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. Christ is the foundation, the
chief cornerstone And the whole church of God is built upon this
cornerstone, this foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
21 says, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth
unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Now all of the church,
all of God's elect are built upon the Lord Jesus Christ, all
upon him. Because he's the only one that's
got the strength to hold it up and not let it fall. Only Christ
has the power to make the whole church righteous. This is a holy
temple. Only Christ has the power to
make God's people holy. And this building will stand
forever. God's elect will never fall off of it. They'll never
be taken from it. They'll never crumble. They can't
fall because Christ has made them holy. You've made them righteous.
They can't fall because of who their foundation is. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. They can't be moved because he'll
never be moved. Right now, look back at Isaiah
chapter 28. Here's the second thing about this foundation. God's elect have a sure foundation
because of who laid the foundation. It's sure because of who our
foundation is, and it's sure because of who laid the foundation.
God Almighty laid it. Isaiah chapter 28 verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. Now who laid this foundation?
Who laid this stone? The Lord God did. He laid the
foundation of his people and the believers foundation is perfect. It's because of who laid him,
the perfect father, and who it is, the perfect son. And this
is the only foundation. The father, all wise, knows everything,
doesn't he? If he chose his son, he laid
his son to be the foundation of his people, there must not
be any other way for sinners to be saved. Is that right? Has
to be, doesn't it? Then all other ground, all other
hope, Any other foundation is nothing more than sinking sand.
They can't save anybody from their sin because of who laid
the foundation. The Father did. Thirdly, God's
elect have a sure foundation because Christ is a tried stone. That's what Isaiah says here.
He's a tried stone. Nobody was ever tried like the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was tried by the law and found
to be perfect. He kept it perfectly outwardly
and spiritually. Remember, a great part of our
Lord's Sermon on the Mount was to show us that the law is spiritual.
He kept the law spiritually in heart and desire and motive.
He was found to be perfect. Now, the law is going to try
you and me, too. We're not going to be found to be perfect, are
we? The only way we can be found perfect, the only way you and
I can be found innocent is to be in Christ. He's the one who
was tried by the law and kept it. Christ was tried by Satan. Remember, as he was going to
the cross, remember what he told his disciples? Satan hath nothing
in me. He's got nothing in me to work
with. There's no sin. There's no sin in him at all.
Now Satan's the accuser of the brethren. And we give him plenty
of ammunition, don't we? Plenty of ammunition. But none
of his charges against God's elect can stand. Because Christ
is making them up. So there's nothing in him, in
Christ, that Satan can work with. Then Christ was tried by men.
The Pharisees looked and looked and looked and looked and couldn't
find anything that they could accuse him of, could they? Our
Lord even just dealt with them heads up. He said, which of you
convinces me of sin? Not one of them. Pilate tried
him, didn't he? And he had to say, I find no
fault in this man. He was tried by men. And Christ was tried
by the father. And what did the father say of
him? This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. I laid
this foundation and I'm mighty pleased with him. Perfect. And
then Christ has been tried by ages of sinners. I forget where
we were. Jan and I were driving down the
road past this goat farm, as Brother Fortner calls them. And
she said, you see that sign? I said, yeah, I saw it. And it
said, have you tried Jesus? Like, well, if you tried everything
else, you know, if you try. When I say Christ has been tried
by ages, that's not what I mean. I don't mean, well, we tried
Jesus. No. He'd been tried by ages of sinners
who cast all of their hope of salvation upon him. They cast
all of their soul upon him. And he never fell. No. You and I are weighed into balance
and found to be one thing. Christ was tried and found to
be perfect. And everybody who trusts him,
everybody who's built upon him has everlasting life. Fourthly,
God's elect have a sure foundation because Christ is a precious
stone, a precious cornerstone, Isaiah says. The Lord Jesus Christ
is precious. His righteousness, His obedience
is so precious that it makes all of His people, a number no
man can number, makes all of them righteous. His blood is
so precious. His blood pays the sin debt of
all of God's elect. His blood is so precious, He
washes His people, all of them, blind as snow, without spot.
Christ is the precious cornerstone. You know, something that's rare
is valuable. Something that's one of a kind
is called precious because it's rare. Well, Christ is precious
because He's the only foundation. He's the only hope. He's the
only foundation that will never fail. He's the only foundation
that gives eternal life. And that's why, unto you therefore
which believe, He is precious. He is preciousness itself because
he's your only hope. And then God's elect have a sure
foundation because Christ is the sure stone. He says it here. He's a sure foundation. Christ
is the sure foundation because of who he is. He's one with the
father. He cannot fail, can he? Christ
is the sure foundation because of what he can do. He saves to
the uttermost, all that come unto God by Him. Christ is the
only one who can keep us from falling, and He's the only one
who can present us faultless before the fall. He's sure because
of what He can do. Christ is a sure foundation because
of where He is. He's accepted at the right hand
of God. He's sure then. And everyone
who's in Christ, everyone who's hiding in Christ, everyone who's
built upon Christ, will find safe refuge from the storm of
God's wrath against our sin. Nobody, nobody who believes on
Christ will suffer any loss whatsoever. That's what he says at the end
of verse 16. He that believeth shall not make haste. He won't
make haste. Now that doesn't mean the storms
won't come. Oh no, the storm, the same storms are still going
to come to the believer and unbeliever alike. Verse 17, Judgment also
will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail
shall sweep away the refuge of lies. Remember I told you that
man's works are lies? It's a refuge of lies. Saying
my works are good enough that God will accept, that's a lie.
He says the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and
the waters shall overflow the hiding place, and your covenant
with hell, or with death, shall be disannulled, and your agreement
with hell shall not stand, when the overflowing scourge shall
pass through, then you should be trodden down by it. See, the
storm of God's wrath against our sin still must fall. But if we're hiding in Christ,
when that wrath falls, the believer will be saved, because that wrath
has already fallen on Christ our substitute, and we'll be
saved. And the storms of this life, they're still gonna come. Sickness, heartache, hatred,
Persecution of the flesh, both from without and within. Those
storms are still going to come. But the difference between the
believer and unbeliever is this. Those storms will drive the believer
even closer to Christ. It'll make us hunker down even
closer upon the rock Christ Jesus. Those storms will make the believer
seek Christ even more. They're not going to be seeking
a refuge. The unbeliever is just going to seek a refuge in the
storm. That storm makes the believer seek Christ more. It makes us
bow in submission to him even more. It makes us pray even more,
makes us read the word even more. It makes us cling to him even
more tightly. That's why God sends the storms
for his people, to drive us closer to Christ. Those storms are still
going to come to the believer, but the believer's comfort is
twofold. Number one is this, when the storm comes, this is
what we know. Our God's the one controlling the storm. He's controlling
it. And number two, our comfort is
this, Christ is our foundation. See, we won't be moved. We shall
not be moved. We won't be moved because Christ,
our foundation won't be moved. That's the first foundation.
Well, the second foundation is the foundation of the saint of
man's works. The man's works are any religious,
moral thing We think, God's gonna be happy with me if I do that.
God's gonna accept me more quickly than somebody else because I
did that. That's man's worst, it's sand. That sand could be
keeping the law. Now we know we can't keep all
the law. So you know what men do, they
pick out parts of the law, their favorite parts. And their favorite
parts, well they think they can keep and they think, well I just
have to keep part of the law. God says no. No, you got to keep
it all. I have a very dear friend. He's
a grandfather. And he tells his grandchildren,
he said, Oh, I take a shower so much faster than y'all because
you don't have to wash every part every day, he says. And
their mothers and their grandmothers say, Yes, you do. Yes. That's
what God says. No, you can't just keep part
of it. It's got to be all. It's got to be all of it. Our
works is sand. It could be thinking, oh, I got
the right doctor. Those folks down the road don't like me.
I got the right denomination. It could be our good works. We
think, oh, that was a work of love or kindness. It could be
what our Lord warned us about. We looked at last week, preaching
in his name, casting out demons in his name, doing many wonderful
works in his name. All those works of what we do
that we trust in, that's sin. It's sin. And I know that so,
because look how Isaiah describes those who are not built upon
the rock, Christ Jesus. Verse 14, Isaiah 28. Wherefore,
hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people,
which is in Jerusalem. Now the scornful, the disobedient
people are those who have refused to believe on Christ. They insist
they got to have at least some of their own works in this thing.
They got to. They heard the Word of God, but
like James said, they were hearers only. They didn't do it. They
did hearing the Word did not make them believe on Christ when
they heard Him preached. And when they heard the gospel
preached, they were scornful. They mocked when they heard that their
best works are filthy rags. They said, that can't be. They
heard those works you're trusting in, that you think, oh, makes
you so righteous. Those are the works that deserve
damnation. And they mocked. They scorned at that. They mocked
when they heard, you need God to choose you. God chose a people
to save. And those people and only those
people will be saved. You need God to choose you because
you could never choose him. And they mocked. They said, I
can choose you any time I want. They mocked when they heard,
Christ must die. You need Christ to die for you,
for your sin, to put away your sin. And they mocked. They said,
my sin's not that bad. They mocked when they heard the
Holy Spirit must give you life and he must give you faith in
Christ or you cannot believe. And they mocked. They said, I
can believe God anytime I want to. I can believe anytime I want
to. They mocked. They're scornful. They're disobedient.
They trusted. And the only reason that they
would not trust Christ is they didn't think they needed him.
So they built their house upon a sand. Now verse 15. Here's
why you're scornful. Because you've said, we've made
a covenant with death. And with hell are we at agreement.
When the overflowing scourge will pass through, now they know
the storm's coming. When the overflowing scourge will pass
through, it should not come unto us. For we've made lies our refuge. And under falsehood have we hid
ourselves. See, they built their refuge
on the sand of their own work, their own decisions, their own
goodness. And the Lord calls those good
works, the very best religious moral things we can do. The Lord
calls them lies and falsehood. There's no truth to that. Who
do we think we're kidding when we tell people we're righteous
because of what we've done? That God will accept us. Who
do we think we're fooling? That's falsehood. That's lies.
But that's what they built on, isn't it? And the very same storms
fell on those trusting in their own works as those who are trusting
in Christ. Verse 17. Judgment also will
I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet and the hail shall
sweep away the refuge of lies and the water shall overflow
the hiding place. Now those built on the rock when
those storms came, they stood firm, didn't they? But look what
happened to these who built on the sand of their own works.
And your covenant with death should be disannulled. Oh, you
had a covenant, but it's going to be disannulled. And your agreement
with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then you should be trodden down by it.
You're going to fall. And the fall of that house is
great. It's a great loss because it's
a total loss. They lost everything they had.
They lost their soul. Now you may have noticed I referred
to those who are built upon the rock. as God's elect. You know why they're on the rock?
God put them on the rock. You know why they're built upon
the rock? Because God built them upon Christ and he settled them
upon Christ Jesus. God did that. And it has to be
that way. Salvation is of the Lord. God must do all the work of salvation,
both for us and in us. and we're helpless to do any
of it. We are totally, completely dependent upon God. Salvation's
of the Lord, isn't it? God put his people on the rock. That's how they found themselves,
on the rock. But, Matthew says, the wise man is the one who built
his house on the rock. That's what it said, isn't it?
The Lord said, there in Matthew, the wise man is the one who built
his house there. Luke says the wise man digged
deep. He worked hard to lay his foundation
on the rock, Christ Jesus. Now, God did all the work, right? Salvation is of the Lord. We're
totally dependent on the Lord to do all the work of salvation,
but now we can still do some building. We can still work hard
at this matter of seeking the Lord. We can work hard in prayer. Begging the Lord to be merciful.
We can work hard. I understand it takes some effort
to be in the worship service, but now we can make that effort. And we'll do it if we need Christ.
If you need Him bad enough, you'll be here. You'll find a way. We can work hard at digging down
in the sand. We can work hard at digging down
and get past the sand. of our own works, constantly
digging down, constantly looking away from our works and looking
to Christ. I don't, I don't do much digging
or sandcastle building when we're at the beach, but what little
I've done, I know this, when you dig a hole in the sand, it's
constant work. The sand keeps falling down and
you got to constantly be shoving that sand out of there. I believe
that's what the Lord's talking about there. Constantly digging
down in the sand, looking away from our works, getting rid of
the sand, and looking to Christ alone. Salvation is not as easy,
believe it, as you hear false preachers talk about today. You
hear them on TV and how in, it's lies, it's falsehood. How in
the world can they look in that camera and say, now you repeat
after me and you'll be saved. Salvation is hard won. It's hard won by striving to
enter in, striving to enter that straight gate. Now, the Lord
says this wise man, he heard the words of the Lord and he
did do. He didn't just hear him and go
home and say, what game's on TV this afternoon? No, he did. And you know what doing God's
Word is? When hearing it and then doing it, you know what
doing God's Word is? It's believing. It's believing. But why do we believe? We got
to go back to where salvation is of the Lord. Why is it that
anybody believes Christ? It's because the Holy Spirit
gave us faith to believe in. Faith is the gift of God. It's
God which worketh in you, both to will and to do. that gives
good pleasure. Why is it we do God's word? Because he's the one that gives
us faith. But now we can still be doing some digging in this
manner. We can avail ourselves to the
means of grace. Faith cometh by hearing. We can
avail ourselves to the preaching of the gospel. This wise man,
he's not wise. It's not because he's smarter
than the rest of foolish flesh. All flesh is foolish and dead.
My flesh, your flesh, and everybody else's flesh is foolish, dead
flesh. But this man in the parable is
wise because Christ is his wisdom. And we can avail ourselves to
the means of grace and be where Christ is preached because there,
under the preaching of the gospel, under the preaching of Christ,
God just may be pleased to make Christ to be unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. That's doing
God's work, it's obeying Him by believing Christ. But building
on the sands of man's works, that is plain old disobedience. There's no other word for it,
it's utter rebellion. Refusing to believe on, refusing
to rest in Christ alone. Now here's these two men. Two
foundations, two houses, two different results when the storms
come, right? Everybody, everywhere has a refuge
of some sort. All do. And what I want to know,
what I want to know for myself and what I want you to know for
yourself is, am I built on Christ? Or have I built my hope on the
saints in my works? Which one is it? It's one or
the other. Which one is it? I want to know, don't you? Well,
here's how you can tell, and I don't have time to go back
through the whole Sermon on the Mount, but here's how you can
tell. If you're built on Christ or not, does the Sermon on the
Mount describe you? Remember, I told you this many
times as we began our study in the Sermon on the Mount. I believe
that this has been going on since before. I didn't. I meant to
look. I think this has been going on
since before Christmas. We've been looking at the Sermon
on the Mount. And you remember when we started, I kept telling
you this over and over and over again. The Sermon on the Mount
doesn't tell us what we ought to be. The Sermon on the Mount
doesn't give us things to do. We've got to do this in order
to be saved. How we ought to act. The Sermon on the Mount
tells us what God's already made his people in Christ. The Sermon
on the Mount tells us Christ is all. Now believe him. Look away from yourself and look
to him. Quit trusting in yourself and
trust in him because he is all. The evidence, the only evidence
you'll ever find that you're built upon Christ is this, it's
faith. If you believe Christ is all
you need, then you're built upon this solid rock. The evidence
that you're built upon Christ is you find that you're poor
in spirit. You find you have no goodness
of your own, so you trust Christ alone. The evidence you're built
upon the rock Christ Jesus is you mourn. You mourn over your
sin because you cannot make it go away. So you trust Christ
alone. If you're meek and submissive,
you're submissive to the righteousness of Christ and not your own good
works. And if you're submissive so that you bow before God and
you beg him for mercy, you beg him for righteousness, knowing
God owes you nothing but wrath. but you're gonna beg Him and
stay right there, then you're built upon the rock of Christ
Jesus. If you hunger and thirst after righteousness, because
you don't have any of your own, and you need Christ to be your
righteousness, you find yourself needing Him, needing to hear
of Him, then you're built upon the rock of Christ Jesus. If
you don't think the law is given to be something that you can
keep, But you think the law has given it. You look at yourself
and you think the law, the only reason that the law is there
is to show me how sinful I am, because I can't keep any of it.
I need Christ to keep it for me. Then you're built upon the
rock of Christ Jesus. I could go on and on and on with
all the different points our Lord's made in this Sermon on
the Mount, but let me sum it up by saying this. If you find that you're so despicable,
that you're so sinful, that you're so weak, that you're so nothing
and you need Christ. You need Him. He's your only
hope that any of these things could be fulfilled. He's got
to do it for you. He's got to do it in you. If
that describes you, then you're built upon the rock, Christ Jesus.
And if you think that you can do something to kind of stand
on your own or to strengthen your standing before God by what
you do, then you're not built on Christ at all. Because it's
not Christ plus you. It's not the rock plus the sand.
It's Christ alone. God help us to be built on Christ
alone. The Lord bless that too.