Matthew chapter 7 and verse 24. Here's a familiar little passage,
I think, for most of us. The Lord is speaking, it's the
end of the Sermon on the Mount, and 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 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. And it came to pass, when Jesus
had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his
doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and
not as the scribes. Amen. May the Lord bless this
short reading. A wise man in this world is one
made so by faith. The Apostle Paul explains true
wisdom as being made wise unto salvation through faith which
is in Christ Jesus. And he tells us that this wisdom
as it is revealed to us in scripture, is not the wisdom of men, but
the wisdom of God. True wisdom is spiritual understanding. It is believing the gospel and
learning of God's grace and peace in Christ. True wisdom is a heavenly
gift And again, it's Paul who tells us that Christ is made
unto us wisdom, just as he is our justification and sanctification
and redemption. That little verse from the end
of the first chapter of 1 Corinthians is a very important passage,
but we're told there that Christ has made unto us wisdom by which
we understand spiritual understanding and regeneration. True wisdom
of spiritual things. And all who have been made wise
receive God's wisdom. They are spiritually quickened.
They're brought to hear about salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. They learn the truths of the
gospel, the doctrine of grace. They are given divine understanding
and an appreciation of spiritual things. To a greater or lesser
extent, that is the truth for every child of God. They hear
it. the gospel, they believe the
gospel, and then they share that gospel. So much so that thereby
God's church and God's people display wisdom in spiritual matters,
in their worship, in their fellowship, in their coming together, in
their conversation, in their lifestyles. A wisdom that will
long outlast the vain passing wisdom of this world. And this
is what is meant when in Proverbs it says that he that winneth
souls is wise. That is, he that believes and
professes Christ and the gospel truth for the good of others
and bears witness and testifies to these things is a wise man,
is a wise man or woman in the body of Christ. True wisdom is
a living spiritual experience. And in our verses today, the
Lord Jesus Christ, as he comes to the end of this Sermon on
the Mount, speaks in parable form of a wise man whose house
is built on a foundation of solid rock, enabling it to withstand
natural storms. But of course, this is a spiritual
application. And the spiritual application
is that faith founded on Jesus Christ will withstand spiritual
storms and withstand the storms of life. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is God, the rock of our salvation. And this is a compelling and
very suitable title for our Lord Jesus Christ, our saviour to
assume. It speaks, the rock speaks of
strength and usefulness and stability and endurance and protection
and even richness. It begins in Moses' own testimony,
when Moses was writing in the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter
32, he's bearing personal testimony to the things of God. And Moses
says, he tells us, he, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
God, he is the rock. his work is perfect, for all
his ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is he. That was the testimony of Moses,
the man with whom God spoke face to face, the man who had been
in the company of the Lord Jesus Christ and was spoken to and
spoke to the Lord as a man speaks to a friend. And Moses testified
that the Lord Jesus Christ was the rock. And that is a title,
it is a type, a metaphor, a picture that has continued throughout
scripture, recognising this quality of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
he is the rock. And Christ the rock is powerfully
typified by the rock that gave fresh water to the whole nation
of Israel in the 40 years of its wilderness journeying. Paul,
the apostle, says that that rock was Christ. It followed the people
in the wilderness, or it typified Christ. And rock is a common
title for Christ in the book of Psalms, where he is called
the rock of my strength, the rock of my salvation, the rock
of my defence, the rock of my refuge. so that our Saviour was
known as the stone that the builders rejected. He was known as the
precious cornerstone laid in Zion by Jehovah. He's a foundation
stone, a tried stone, a sure stone. He's a rock of ages. And wise men and women place
their trust in this rock, in this one Christ. And in so doing,
they may be likened to a man who builds a house on solid ground. Their faith is built on a solid
foundation, a foundation of divine truth. Their faith is built on
gospel promises, And wise men and women found and build their
trust in Jesus Christ, resting the weight of all their troubles
on Him. They fix on Him, they fasten
themselves on Him, and thereby they endure and withstand when
times of trial come. even the very gates of hell cannot
prevail against them. And the clear and obvious difference
between the wise man and the foolish man in the Lord's parable
was the house of the wise man stood and withstood and endured
the storms that came against it while the house of the foolish
man fell down. And I think that there are important
lessons for us here. Our faith, brothers and sisters,
our faith is not theoretical or ornamental. It is practical,
it is useful, and it is applied. As we learn concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ, we are building Week by week, day by day, year
by year, we are building our resistance and our defence so
that we are able and equipped to deal wisely with the storms
and the trials of this life. And the Lord says in this little
parable that the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and the life of the wise man was subject to all the
same trials as the life of the foolish man. His house was subject
to all the same natural phenomena, natural conditions. But while
the house of the foolish man fell down, The house built on
rock stood firm. A life that is fixed on Christ
endures. Now just what these storm elements
of rain and flood and wind signify. I would not be definite. The Lord doesn't explain what
each individual item or element might represent. Some say that
they are assaults of false doctrine. Some suggest that they are the
temptations of Satan, or the persecutions of the world, or
maybe the corruptions of a man's own heart. And I'm sure that
in a sense it is all of these things and more. Because the
storms that believers face are a mix of physical, mental, spiritual
attack. Anything indeed that disturbs
our spirits and threatens our joy and exercises our faith might
be likened to this storm of the rain and the flood and the wind. They say that wind and rain will
find a way to penetrate through the smallest crack and many of
us find this to be true. And so the Lord's people are
subject, like any other, to the trials and temptations and the
losses and the upsets and the weariness of our physical and
our spiritual state. Take David, for example. When
he lost his child by Bathsheba, he mourned the loss of that baby. and we might well say that the
rain descended in David's life. His daughter was raped by her
brother and the wind blew in David's life. He mourned his
sons Amnon and Absalom and the floods rose in David's life. David knew a whole lot of personal
tragedy in his life, but he endured these storms and his faith did
not fail because it was founded on Christ, the solid foundation. And David was wise to know and
to submit to the sovereign will of God, trusting that God's way
was best. When Daniel saw Jerusalem destroyed
and he lost his family and he was carried as a child into exile,
into Babylon, with the sacred vessels from the temple, when
he was brought into the king's palace to serve there for the
rest of his life, he must have grieved for his circumstances
and his state and his losses. And the floods came, but he endured
the storms and his faith did not fail because it was founded
on Christ, the solid foundation. Daniel knew God's sovereign will
and he trusted in Christ. He believed that the Messiah
would come. And maybe we feel anxious about
our own lives, about our little fellowship, about the state of
the gospel, about the smallness of gospel testimony in this age
in which we live. When the Apostle Paul was brought
to Rome to be tried, he wrote to Timothy saying, no man stood
with me, but all forsook me. And perhaps in writing that,
he was reminded of Elijah who wrote, Lord, they have killed
thy prophets, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. And if
he was reminded of Elijah, then no doubt he would be reminded
also of the Lord's reply to Elijah. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven
thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. You see, for all the Lord's people,
there are fierce, chill winds that blow, whether it's Job or
Jacob or Joseph. Winds of wicked works, false
doctrines, small witness, loneliness, isolation. But all these examples were examples that were given
where the wise man trusted the Lord. Their faith was well founded,
their confidence was in God. God who was faithful and a work
that would be effectual. So that when the rain descended
and the floods came and the winds blew, their houses stood firm. And it is the same Lord, the
same faith that characterises the Lord's people today. And
the outcome will be the same as well. David said, the Lord
is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. David's Lord is
our Lord and founded on Him, we too. shall be able to stand
in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Amen.