Two Builders - Matthew 7:24-27

Our good God provides a perfect foundation

Good evening. Please meet me in the gospel of Matthew. In chapter seven, our text for this evening will be from verse 24 to verse 27. Hear the word of God.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall. because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

Please pray with me. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask that As the wise builder hears your word and does your word, Lord, I pray that your word now would rest on our hearts and our minds, that we would be wise in what we do with our lives and the way we build our lives up. Lord, please strengthen us by your Holy Spirit to be doers of the word. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. So I've been told that the most important part of building a small or a large house is the foundation. Upon building a home, the foundation is the first and the most integral part of the process. I found that no wise home builder would dare build on a weak foundation for fear that all of the work put into the house and all of the building would be for naught. That without a strong foundation, regardless of the value and strength of the materials used, the house will be weak and susceptible to damage and even destruction. And this is the wisdom that you can find in a vocational or a worldly sense. However, the principle is one that I think will help us as we look at this parable of our Lord. Jesus says here in this parable that everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Well, what are these words of Jesus that he is referring to here? To find these, we need to look at the context that precedes this parable And that is the most famous sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. And at the close of this sermon, we read Jesus' words, that everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. So tonight, Lord willing, I want to show you from this parable that the wise man is the one who hears Jesus' words and like a wise builder builds his entire life on them. That the wise man is the one who hears Jesus' words and like a wise builder builds his entire life on them. I will have three points to cover. Number one, our good God provides a perfect foundation for us to build upon. Point two, the wise builder builds to endure the storms that he knows will inevitably come. And point three, the wise builder has great reward and the foolish builder has great destruction. Our good God provides a perfect foundation for us to build upon. Please look again at verse 24 with me. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. In showing the primacy of his word, Jesus uses this parable of the two builders to communicate to his people the absolute necessity and importance of hearing his words and doing them. And what great imagery there is in this parable that shows us that a love and adherence to God's word results in the ability to weather the storms of life and the destructive elements that will come. And that a disregard for and ignorance of his word will result in destruction when those storms and destructive elements come. This parable of Jesus functions to reveal a deep spiritual truth to us that people who hear his words and live according to them are like wise builders Wise builders that know that building on a solid foundation will ultimately lead to stability and that a refusal and ignorance of his words and not building on the solid foundation will lead to destruction. For example here, Jesus tells us in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount how we can live the blessed life. He goes on to tell us that we are what we are to do and what we are to be, how the law is fulfilled and broken in what we do and even in what we think, how we are to view our family as well as our enemies, how we are to pray, where we should lay up treasure, how we are to deal with anxiety, what we are to do unto others, and in short, how we're to live every moment of our lives. Of course, he does not address every possible scenario, But his words can be applied to every single decision that we must make in every God-ordained moment. He tells us how to build a life pleasing to him and full of blessing to others. One of the most comforting and amazing things about this is that it takes the guesswork out of our lives. We know what we're to do in situations that we find ourselves in. And just a few examples from the Sermon on the Mount, when we're mistreated for being Christians, we should rejoice. God tells us, Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount how we should pray. We don't have to guess how to do that. He tells us when we're anxious that we should trust that God will provide for us like he does for the birds of the air and like the flowers of the field. How we should be humble when we see the faults in others. We should see our own as greater. And he tells us how we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us. So we see that when we hear and do the words of God, we are wise, we will be wise. And we will be able to build our lives on the solid foundation of God's word. As James says in his epistle, we should be not mere hearers of the word only, but doers of the word. And this won't be easy as we live in this world with its worldly influence in our lives. And we will have to put great effort into living by God's words rather than those of the world. And like the building of any house, it will take work on our part, but we have the blueprint how to do so. Which brings us to point two, the wise builder builds to endure the storms that he knows will inevitably come. Read with me verse 25.

And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

And what else are the rain and the flood and the wind in this parable but destructive forces that cause a house to fall? Looking back through the Sermon on the Mount, we see these destructive forces are mentioned and Jesus tells us how they can be overcome. The destructive forces of pride and lust, retaliation, anger, anxiety, and cruel judgment are likened to the destructive forces of nature that can wreak havoc on a home. The rain, the floods, and the wind. You don't have to be a Christian for long to know that becoming a Christian doesn't make you immune from these things. In fact, becoming a Christian seems at times to intensify these things. At times it will seem like life is too difficult, and life wasn't as difficult until we became a Christian. And you have to fight against the worldly wisdom that tells you that these things are okay to do. It's okay to be anxious. It's okay to be lustful. It's okay to be prideful and angry. But knowing that we have this battle before us should make us increasingly aware of the foundation that God has built our faith upon. We should cling more closely to this foundation, knowing that if we don't, we shall surely fall. We either live according to God's word or the world's word. And we have no right as Christians to argue with what God says in his word. After reading back through the Sermon on the Mount, we see what Jesus commands us to do. And these things are hard. And they'll be impossible without the Holy Spirit indwelling and empowering us to be obedient. If you're anything like me, you struggle with many of these things on a daily basis. But I hope that Jesus' words ring in our ears and make us want to turn from worldly wisdom that would tell us that we can be prideful and lustful and angry and anxious and harsh judges. That the wise man would have none of that. That we would have none of that. That we would take God at his word and not the shifting word of the world. That we would see that God has spoken and his word stands unmoved like a solid rock. And that is what will provide a strong foundation for us to weather the storms of life. I love to listen to old hymns and one of my favorite old hymns is from John Newton, Begone Unbelief. There's a line I think that is so important and rings in my ears constantly.