Luke chapter 6 and verse 46. There are many who claim to be
Christians but their experience of grace
and their personal knowledge of the Lord appears, at least
outwardly, to be very superficial and insubstantial. And sometimes we feel that we
ought not to judge others too much because we know how shallow
and flimsy our own knowledge of Christ is and can be. And yet we cannot ignore passages
like this in Luke's Gospel and in Matthew's Gospel, the parallel
passage. We cannot ignore these passages
in which the Lord confronts his disciples and his followers. And he presses us all to assess
our spiritual life and to critically examine our standing in Christ. and test the foundation of our
faith. The sad reality is that there
are people who will stand in the judgment, who will say on
that day, I just assumed everything was all right. I just accepted
what my minister told me. I simply relied on what my church
said. And I don't want any of us to
be that person on that day in that place. And this is what
the Lord is warning us against in this short passage. Actually,
The passage, the parallel passage in Matthew 7 is even more probing,
even more challenging than the verses that I'm going to read
in a moment. In Matthew 7, verse 21, it says
this. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Now, we know
that the will of the Father is that we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so here again, in these verses
today, we're not speaking of good works, but we're talking
primarily about faith, about believing and about trusting
in the Lord. Matthew chapter 7 goes on. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils? And in thy name done many wonderful
works? And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. by which I understand that there
will be those who genuinely think that their souls are safe, but
whose sins have never been forgiven. So hear what the Lord says by
way of warning to those who name his name, but do so ignorantly,
do so casually and without understanding. Let's read together, verse 46
of Luke chapter 6. And why call ye me Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth
my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built
an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, the
stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it,
for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth and doeth
not is like a man that without a foundation built on house upon
the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and
immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. I think the Lord is telling us
two things here, just by way of introduction. The Lord is
saying two things. Firstly, it's an insult to the
Saviour. who is also our King, who is
King of His Kingdom. It is an insult to the Saviour
to affirm Lord, Lord in worship and prayers while having no burden
for His glory, nor any true concern for our soul. The Lord is saying,
why would you do that? Who are you trying to kid? Who
are you deceiving? Because you're not deceiving
me. I know your heart and you're
only deceiving yourself. And the second thing that the
Lord is pointing to here is this. Faith is a weighty matter. Now I'm not saying it's difficult,
but I am saying it is important We know that faith is a gift
from God and true faith is not in man's ability apart from God's
grace. And yet when grace is given,
it is the easiest, it gives the greatest delight to exercise
faith and trust the Lord Jesus and to begin to explore the promises
of God to his people. But faith in Christ is important,
it is serious, it is meaningful, and it must be treated as such. And here's the point. Faith is
not the bare profession that is made by those who are tricked
into making a decision for Christ by freewill preachers. It is
not a childhood ritual. It is not a denominational rite
of passage, such as baptism often appears to be. It isn't dispensed
by a priest or a pastor with the bread and the wine at communion. Faith is an informed turning
to Christ for salvation. And look at what the Lord says
in verse 47. He says there that it is a coming,
it is a hearing, and it is a doing. It is coming to Christ with a
sense of need, as a sinner sensible of sin is awakened to God's holiness. It's a coming to Christ with
a sense of need. It is a hearing about forgiveness
with God in the gospel through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
and a discovering of the cleansing by Christ's blood and the peace
that comes by his sacrifice. So it's a coming to Christ with
a need and it is a hearing about Christ and his sacrifice in the
gospel. a coming, a hearing, and a doing. It is turning, it is trusting,
it is committing, and it is resting upon Him. Coming, hearing, doing. It's a spiritual work. It's initiated
by grace through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and it is
completed in a sinner's soul by the combined involvement of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But faith is a weighty spiritual
matter of coming and hearing and doing. And the Lord says,
as he goes on, he says, I will show you to whom he, now this
is the person that he's speaking about, the comer, the hearer
and the doer. I will show you to whom this
comer and hearer and doer is like. He is like a man which
built a house and digged deep and laid the foundation on a
rock. So three things are said about
this man. This man built a house. That means he made a commitment.
He invested his time. He built this house. He invested
his energy, his resources and his will into this enterprise. And that reflects a follower,
a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. A follower of Christ
is committed to Christ because he knows the seriousness of the
matter that he is dealing with. And he is building for the future. He is building for his eternal
future as he builds this house. The second thing that the Lord
says of this man is, not only did he build a house, but he
digged deep. That is, he digged until he discovered
the truth. He listened intently to the gospel. He studied the word. He reasoned
and he laboured to find out the truth so that he would not be
deceived or mistaken. Now it may be that such an individual
had a number of false starts. Maybe he got tangled in law works
and in church rules. But the point is he kept digging. He wasn't satisfied until he
found that for which he searched. He wanted peace of conscience. and he digged deeper until he
found it. He would not be satisfied until
he found Christ, until he found Christ in the gospel, until he
learned forgiveness, and mercy, and grace, and redemption, and
reconciliation. The third thing the Lord says
of this man, he built a house, he digged deep, and he dug until
he hit rock. And when he had something solid,
or rather, when he had someone solid to build upon, he built
his house on the foundation that is Jesus Christ crucified. It
really is a beautiful similitude, this, that we have before us
in these couple of verses. Don't get hung up on the fact
that there seems to be lots of doing here. because salvation
is supposed to be all of grace. Salvation is all of grace, but
it is an unfolding process of incidents and encounters in a
sinner's experience that leads us first to conversion and then
to growing in grace and a knowledge of the truth that is in Jesus. Paul talks about that in Ephesians
chapter 4. We learn Christ and we learn
him as we are digging deep. We learn him as we are building
this house upon the solid rock. We grow, or let's say to use
the analogy, we keep building our house upon the solid rock
of the Gospel truth. Jude says, building up yourselves
on your most holy faith. And like any good house, it is
only started with a firm foundation. Building upwards only then begins. It isn't finished without cost,
without further commitment, and without determination. And if
I can press the analogy just a little bit more, there will
always be a need for maintenance and upkeep. A believer's life
is an active, continuous engagement with and building upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. It begins at conversion as far
as our experience is concerned and is more or less vigorously
pursued for the whole of our lives. We dig deep to find the
Lord. but we go on labouring in our
desire to know Him better and to discover Him more. And this
learning Christ gives stability and protection and comfort and
peace in the rising storms of life. When the tides rise, when
the floods come, when the winds howl and the storms engulf our
little building, does it move? No, because it's grounded firmly
upon the one who holds us in the palm of his hand and has
promised never to let us go. The contrast which the Lord gives
to emphasise the moral and meaning of his parable is a perfect foil. This man, too, the other man,
has a house. And he built it, not according
to knowledge of Christ. He did not come, he did not hear,
and he did not do. And this shows us that there
are many who have a zeal for spiritual things. They speak
with religious language. They present themselves as successful
house builders. But they've never digged deep.
They've never found the rock. They did not build on the foundation
which is Christ and they never knew him. And what's more serious,
he never knew them. The streams that beat vehemently
are trials of life. They're temptations of the devil. They're weaknesses in our flesh.
And these buffet and they press against us like floodwaters seeking
an entrance into which they can run. And such pressure soon undermines
an insubstantial structure, a building without foundation, and the collapse
and the ruin of that building will be total and complete. Let
me say this in closing. I'm always aware that the Lord's
people often have sensitive hearts whenever such passages are read.
Lessons that are designed to rouse the sleepy can sometimes
disturb Christ's little ones. And then when troubles do come,
you feel as though your house is shaking and you think that
it's about to fall into ruins too. Well, that is not so. Listen. The stream beat vehemently
upon that house with foundations and could not shake it, for it
was founded upon a rock. and that rock is Christ. Hebrews
speaks of a different rock, the one that followed the children
of Israel through the wilderness and watered them for 40 years.
In truth, it's the same rock. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
rock who keeps and strengthens and protects and nourishes and
refreshes his people. The lesson here is to be sure
to obey what we hear, to dig deep and to labour for that which
satisfies and to know that these things we learn about concerning
Christ, his goodness, his grace, his mercy, his love, will keep
us safe. when the evil day comes and when
the waters of Jordan rise against our souls. Make no mistake, the
Lord's people on the rock will endure to the end and he who
gives grace now shall give glory hereafter. Amen.