Solid Ground or Sinking Sand? Matthew 7:24-29

Many churches have new buildings, but of course we have old ones. The building we stand in right now was built in 1923. The parsonage across the street was built in 1936. In the early 1950s, the annex, now known as the Matson Building, was erected.

So here we stand in 2020 in a building that has been here for almost 100 years and the other church structures not too long after that. To have old buildings is not necessarily a bad thing. Historic buildings that have been taken care of are antiques, while one not taken care of we call junk.

Sometimes things just need to be done away with. Old buildings are only a pleasure to have if they stand the test of time and are maintained over the long haul. There was an old church building in Milltown that was recently condemned because of a design flaw all those years ago when it was built.

Now when we look at the history of our church, these were built by the men of old who were members of this church. Elvin and Susan, you probably remember some of them. And Sean, who is a very good carpenter, in fact Mark Brooks has called him a master carpenter and I agree with that, has told me several times that the men who built these structures were excellent carpenters.

The proof of the quality of their work is in the pudding, right? And we're standing in the pudding right now. There are no major design flaws and the test of time has shown this. A building that is built right will last a long time.

You don't need to know much about carpentry to know that the most important part of the house or building is a solid foundation. It doesn't matter how nice everything looks that's built out from that.

If the foundation is bad, then the structure on which it was built will fail. Sean once told me that a strong foundation can last hundreds of years, maybe even longer than that. So in the building industry, building on a solid foundation can last and it's a must if you want it to continue over the long haul.

Now as we think about our lives, every one of us is building on something. Every one of us has a trajectory. The only way the trajectory is good is if you are being driven by the right influence. The foundation on which we build is incredibly important.

This cannot be overstated. The foundation on which we build determines the glorious path from the path of destruction. This morning, as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, we are going to once again see life described in two different categories.

We have already seen life described as two paths. Remember the wide path and the narrow path. We've seen two teachers described, a true teacher and a false teacher. We've seen two disciples described, a true disciple and a false disciple.

And today we're going to see two different foundations that everyone is building on. And there's only two in the whole world. So Jesus is simplifying this for us. So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 7.

We'll be looking at verses 24 through 29. And if you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on page 966. This sermon is titled, Solid Rock or Sinking Sand? And we'll begin by reading the text. So this is the grand finale.

Jesus is preaching the Sermon on the Mount. He's overlooking the Sea of Galilee. And this is what he says. Everyone then 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 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. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching.

For he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. This sermon is calling us to do this. Build your life wisely on the right foundation in order to forever stand. Build your life wisely on the right foundation in order to forever stand.

And we will see two principles how in this text. But before we jump in, I want to give a little recap of where we were last Sunday. I already mentioned that we looked at the two different disciples. And we looked at arguably the most sobering passage in the whole Bible.

What Jesus told the crowd is that many will come to him at the final judgment and believe themselves to be saved. But Jesus will deliver to them these frightening words, I never knew you. The clear mark of each of these people, according to the text, is that they were workers of lawlessness.

These people did not have spirit-generated works, but rather their works were false works not done for the glory of God. The plea for each of us is to examine ourselves. None of us want to be that person at the final judgment.

Now let's jump back into our text. We already read it. But let's begin by digging into verses 24 and 25. Jesus once again says,. So what we see in this text, in these verses, are Jesus concluding words in the Sermon on the Mount.

The group of people that Jesus has gone after more than any other are the Jewish religious leaders. These religious leaders made the same mistake that every false religion makes. They believe that you can earn favor with God through your own works, just like the Roman Catholic Church, as we talked about today.

But the one true religion in the world, biblical Christianity, teaches that salvation is by grace through faith alone. But this does not mean that works are not important. Works are not the reason that one is saved, but they are the evidence.

Once the Holy Spirit is given to someone at the beginning of conversion, true works will show up over the course of a person's life. So as we look at this passage, we have to understand this background.

There is a right way to build and a wrong way. In verse 24 and 25, Jesus tells us the right way to build. In verse 24, he tells us two important things that a believer must do. They must hear the Word, and they must live the Word.

What this means is that mere intellectual agreement is not enough. That was the problem of the false disciple. There was intellectual agreement, but there was no works to show the genuineness of the person's faith.

So one can intellectually say the right things and not really be saved. You can sign a doctrinal statement and say, yes, I believe that, but not really be saved. And the question Jesus wants everyone to ask is this, has the Word that you have heard and believed gone into your heart?

What do I mean by your heart? I'm not talking about the organ that pumps blood to the cells of your body. What I mean by your heart is your inner self, your mind, your will, your desires, your emotions.

My old pastor has said things about our inner self that I found very helpful and are very true. He said, we do what we do because we want what we want. We also feel what we feel because we want what we want.

Think about that.

We do what we do because we want what we want. We feel what we feel because we want what we want. If we don't get our way, we're sad. If we get our way, we're happy. And that's where our mind has to dictate things.

Our mind is the captain. So if our emotions lead us into sin, our mind tells our emotions, no, I'm not going to go there. One's desires rule one's life. And if you have good desires, it's going to be a good life.

Live for God. If you have bad desires, it's going to be a bad life on the wide path. As Jesus said earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter 6, verse 21, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

You can tell one's course of life by their desires. What Jesus says in verse 24 is that the one who hears the word and desires to follow is the wise man or woman in this world. So in other words, when you hear the Bible preached or when you read the Bible, what does it do to you?

Do you see following Jesus as the best path? Or do you see it as only part of your life? But your treasure is really somewhere else. If it's just a part of your life, then the treasure is somewhere else.

I remember when I was younger, I remember going to church and not caring about the sermons, not listening to the sermons. I was looking forward to the football game after the sermon. My treasure was football at that time.

It was not Christ. And by God's grace, He pulled me from that and He said, No, this is your treasure. I am your treasure, not that. What this has done to me is that when I hear the word, I do experience delight in God.

I delight in what He has done and I delight in what He calls me to do. I mean, not perfectly, but I can honestly say that it's there. And I know that for the one who follows Him, he or she not only escapes judgment, but also has glories that await you in the age to come.

Now, the obedience is not perfection. I say that all the time. But it's worth repeating this. As one author has said, it's not the perfection of your life, but it is the direction of your life. What direction are you going?

Is it a good direction or is it a bad direction? The true Christian is the one who little by little goes in the right direction. This is what the Bible calls maturity. The true believer hears the words and does what it says.

The foundation of the believer is Jesus Christ and we follow Jesus by following His word. In this passage, when Jesus says, He who hears these words of mine and does them, the words He's referring to is everything He's said so far in the Sermon on the Mount.

But by extension, we can say it's everything He said in the New Testament and everything His apostles wrote in the New Testament and everything the Bible says, including the Old Testament. That's the foundation.

The foundation is the 66 books of the Bible. And those who build their life on this foundation are in a wonderful position. And it's my prayer that this is the story, that this is the path of everybody in this room.

Verse 25 gives us this image of rain, floods, and wind beating against this house. This house that was built on the right foundation. Think about houses and buildings that have stood for hundreds of years.

I'm fascinated with old homes and old buildings and maybe you are too, especially ones that are historical, that there's something significant about them. Ran and I, on our honeymoon, visited Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, Virginia.

It's known as Monticello. The back of the home is pictured on the nickel. So that's interesting. And as we visited the home, it was very impressive. Jefferson had many talents and one of his fascinations was with European architecture.

The home has a Roman feel to it since he designed it after structures in Rome. This house was built in the early 1800s. It stands on a mountain overlooking the town of Charlottesville, where the University of Virginia is that he founded.

And over the last two centuries, think about how many storms this house has endured. Thousands of storms. And since the foundation was strong and the structure was built well, this house has shown itself to be true through the test of time.

While it is true, that believers withstand the trials of life, this passage is not referring to the trials of life, but rather the final judgment. We know this because in the previous section, Jesus talked about people standing before Him at the final judgment.

As one author has written, whether once religion is true or false, one day it's going to be tried. And that trial will prove with absolute finality what is wheat and what is chaff. Who have entered by the narrow gate to walk the narrow way and who have entered by the wide gate to walk the broad way.

As I mentioned, if you are truly building the right foundation, you will have works that show it. James 1 .22 says, Be doers of the word and not hearers only. Deceiving yourselves. These verses are describing the final judgment.

And a while back, what I showed you in our sermon series on the end times, I showed you that the final judgment will be a judgment of works. Now one receives entrance into heaven only based 100 on what Christ has done, as we've said many times today.

But one's faith will be shown to be true through righteous works. The believer will have them and the unbeliever will not. As the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 .10, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

The judgment seat of Christ is the judgment for believers. While the great white throne judgment described in Revelation 20 is the judgment for unbelievers. At the judgment seat of Christ, every person present there will be a true believer who produced some good works, some spirit-generated works in their life.

Everyone there will have at least somewhat built their life on the solid foundation of Christ. Some better than others, but the foundation on which one's life was built will show the solid foundation.

The believer's life will resemble the solid foundation of a building. Since the foundation is there, this foundation sent the believer on a path that will show at the judgment. The believer will be like the house that stands over the centuries as the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew on that house.

Believers will not fall at the judgment as God examines the works that were built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. So we are to build our life wisely on the right foundation in order to forever stand.

And the first principle how in verses 24 and 25 is to live according to God's sturdy Word. That's the first principle. To live according to God's sturdy Word. The second principle is this. We are to avoid worldly philosophies that will sink you.

To avoid worldly philosophies that will sink you. Let's read again verses 26 and 27. As Jesus says,. 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. Jesus hearers, as he's preaching this sermon, would have understood what he was saying because of the geographic area in which they lived, known as Galilee.

Galilee was located in northern Israel. And one author I was reading said,. During the hot summer months, the sand around the Sea of Galilee was hard on the surface. But a wise builder knew that he needed to dig several feet below the surface to the bedrock in order to establish the foundation for his house.

So the firm ground on the surface would have given the illusion that the ground was solid and then someone would build it. But once the season changed and the ground softened as the rain came, the structure would not hold.

The foolish man would not dig deep enough and over time this would show. So Jesus once again gives this imagery to communicate the negative part of this section. Jesus already described the wide path earlier in the Sermon on the Mount and said that many travel down it.

The many are the ones who do not build on the right foundation. In the previous section, Jesus already told us about those who are going to receive the worst surprise of all. To hear the words, I never knew you.

Now these are the ones that Jesus has primarily in mind as he talks about these foundations. These are people who told Jesus we did all these works, but Jesus calls them workers of lawlessness because none of their works were spirit-produced and done for the glory of God.

One of the most interesting parables in the Gospels is known as the Parable of the Sower. And this should be very familiar to people in this neck of the woods, right? Farmers. The Parable of the Sower.

In this parable, Jesus describes four seeds. The seed represents the Word of God and people's response to it. The seed that parallels what Jesus says in this verse is the second seed. In Matthew 13, verses 5 and 6, Jesus said,.

So, we see this clear picture here. When the seed is planted, it looks like all the others that are rooted deeply in the ground that will produce a nice, beautiful crop. It looks like it's going to bear fruit, but it doesn't.

Elvin, you probably had a few of these over the years, right? Just below the surface, there's a rock. And at first, the soil looked good as the seed grew into a crop. But since the soil was only on the surface and there was no root, the crop withered away over time.

That's why you need a good farmer, right? Someone who knows what they're doing because they don't make that mistake. Now, as Jesus teaches this, he knows there are pretenders in the faith. He knows that throughout the Old Testament, there were people who looked to be true believers, but they did not bear good fruit, showing they were not real.

At this time, when Jesus is teaching, he knows that when the church is started, down the road, the people in the church by their life will show that there was no authenticity to their faith. Some of these people will abandon church altogether, and others might stay around, but the life lived will not be a life lived for God.

Now, these are professing Christians that I'm talking about. But earlier I mentioned that everyone on the wide path, whatever they believe, are the ones who are building on the wrong foundation. Think about how many different beliefs there are in the world.

There's too many to count. There are false ideas, false philosophies, and false religions that people build their life on. I mean, we see that right now. You turn on the TV, listen to the radio, it's right out there for us to see.

People are building their life on all these different things. And it's sand. The foundation is sand. And you know what all these people have in common? They think they're building on solid ground. It's the second seed in the parable of the sower.

But there's a rock below it. It's going to wither away. And they're building on sand. Any Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, or any other false religion thinks they are building on the right foundation.

But this isn't just about false religions. Some people don't care about religion. But everyone is living for something. Everyone is building on some foundation. For some, it's a successful career. But it's self-focused.

To others, they are building a family.

Which is good.

But their highest treasure is in God. It's their family.

That's sand.

To others, it is a foundation of friendliness. But it's not a godly friendliness, but a worldly one. When you only like those who like you. And you don't love your enemies. And even in your friendships, there's no depth to it.

Believers have depth in their friendships. Unbelievers often have friendliness. It's shallow. And this occurs, the friendliness thing here, it occurs when one would never correct anyone, but you just want everyone to like you.

But Luke 6 .26 says, Woe to you when all people speak well of you. We need to be honest with people, right? And say things in love. And you do that if you're a good friend to someone. To others, they want to be known as a champion in whatever they do.

But when one does this for yourself, it is not built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist said this, he said Christ must increase, but I must decrease. But the one who lives only for their own success says I must increase.

I must build. I am building my life. And to glorify God is not even given a thought. Or if it is, it's just a fleeing thought. I remember in college, I read the book by Stephen Covey titled, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Now Stephen Covey is a Mormon. And there are a lot of good principles in this book that Christians can learn from.

However,.

You can be successful in whatever you do, but if you don't build on the right foundation, none of that will matter in the end. You can get all sorts of awards.

And admiration,.

But it won't matter if you built on the wrong foundation. What Jesus says in verse 26 and 27 is that those who build their life on sand will have it all come down in the end. It will just crumble. The life that one lived may have looked spectacular to the surrounding world, but it came down at the judgment and Jesus said, depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.

As I mentioned, I've visited many historical monuments and even homes of famous Americans who lived a couple hundred years ago. And when people look at these, what they say is success. History recorded this person because of their achievements.

And their achievements are celebrated. Thomas Jefferson listed his achievements on his tombstone. You know what they are? Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and the father of the University of Virginia.

Interesting, he didn't mention the President of the United States. At the time, he didn't think it was that important. Look at how important it is today. There are also many monuments that recognize people's achievements.

Now it is good to recognize their achievements, things worth celebrating. This is not just for the believer who did wonderful things like Martin Luther, who we celebrate today. We can even celebrate the achievements of an unbeliever if God enabled them to do some good things in this world.

Not through the Holy Spirit, but God's common grace. God's common grace means that He even helps unbelievers do good things. This person is not saved, but they still can do some good things. Historical monuments are on our minds right now because they have been torn down in many places in recent months.

And it goes without saying that to do this is foolish. Now if one wants to take down the monument of a truly bad person, no one will object to that, right?

Hardly anyone will.

But when George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are being taken down, that's utterly foolish. Most of the people who have been taken down, it's very foolish. We should remember the good of our past. But people who got some things right, but they did not build on the right foundation of Jesus Christ, their earthly success will not make them stand at the judgment.

Many down through world history have built on the wrong foundation.

The end of the Bible.

Describes the dreadful scene of all who built their life on sand. This is what it says. Revelation 20, verses 11 -15. This is the Apostle John. The vision he saw.

He said,.

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. From His presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them.

And they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

So in verse 27 of Matthew 7, when Jesus says, Great was the fall of it. This is what He's referring to. The fall of everyone who built on the wrong foundation will be great. It will be tragic. Words do not do justice to say how horrible it will be for the cursed when they stand before God and realize their whole life was built on sand.

They will realize they built on the wrong foundation. And this is a common experience. And sometimes we see people in life who had a lot of success. They were loved by the world. And something happens.

A big scandal happens. Something happens where everybody looks up at the person and says, everything just came down. And we see stories like that. At the judgment, that will be the case for everybody who built on sand.

It will all just come down. And nobody wants that to be their experience. But the one who knows Jesus Christ builds on the right foundation. And this will not be your experience. So this sermon is calling us to build our lives wisely on the right foundation in order to forever stand.

And we do this by building on the sturdy word of this book right here. Building our lives on the Bible. On Jesus Christ. And if you do this, you will avoid worldly philosophies. And you'll spot them. And you'll resist them.

And so many of the problems we see in the wider church today is people are not building on the sturdy foundation, but they're letting other things in. And that's when problems happen. Verse 28 and 29.

We're going to close with these two verses. This is the end of the Sermon on the Mount. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teaching. For He was teaching them as one.

Who had authority,.

And not as their scribes. The people were used to receiving teaching. Remember, He's preaching to mostly Jews here. They were used to this teaching. But they're like, this is different. When our scribe teaches us, does it hold any authority?

Because all they're doing is quoting other rabbis who are trying to understand the Old Testament, but so many of their interpretations were faulty. And there was no authority with what they said. When Jesus speaks, He speaks as the prophet of God.

He is God Himself proclaiming the words of God. And they're like, we haven't seen anything like this. So they were astonished at His teaching. And when God speaks, it demands a response. Everybody on planet Earth has to answer to this book.

This is the highest authority there is. It doesn't matter how high anybody is in government, or how famous they are, or how loved they are by the world. Everybody has to answer to the Bible. Because it is the highest authority.

And when Jesus speaks here, what it says is He spoke as one who had authority. And so, this demands a response from us as well. We are called to live as kingdom citizens now. That's what we've seen throughout the Sermon on the Mount.

And the only one who will dwell in God's kingdom forever, in the future, are those who live like His citizens on earth now. And by God's grace, may we do this. May we be those who stand at the final judgment.

Because we built on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. And those who do this realize, as the old hymn says, all other ground is sinking sand.

Like the old hymn.

All other ground is sinking sand. Now next Sunday, we will be looking at the section after the Sermon on the Mount. We spent a lot of time, chapters 5 through 7 of Matthew is known as the Sermon on the Mount.

Now we're going to get back into the narrative where Jesus is on the move and we're going to see many of His mighty works. Next week, we're going to see Him cleanse a leper and see what we need to see in that passage.

And as Sean mentioned, two weeks from today, we're going to have the Harvest Festival. And that sermon is going to be very different from any sermon I've ever preached. And the whole service will be different from anything we've seen here in a while.

So we look forward to that. But next week, I hope that we'll see this and be fed once again. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in Heaven,.

Lord,.

Everyone must answer to Your Word. There are only two foundations. And my plea, Lord, on the behalf of everyone here today, is that everyone would be building on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. And the only way people can do that is if they have a genuine relationship with Christ.

And so my prayer, Lord, is that everyone here would have a sincere, rock-solid relationship with Jesus Christ. That people would trust Him as their Lord, Savior, and Treasure. And that our lives would show it, Lord.

And that we would have that assurance of salvation. That at the judgment, we won't hear the words, I never knew you. But that we would hear the words, Well done, good and faithful servant. Because we built on the right foundation.

The foundation of Jesus Christ. And it's in His name we pray,.

Amen.