God’s Building Code

They will tell you that if you are going to build, there are codes you must abide by.

Some people have a problem because they have a hard time following instructions.

The building codes are given for every builder to build by. One of the most important things in building any building is to have a good foundation.

Illus: Recently, the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” was finally reopened to the public, after having been closed for almost a dozen years. During that time, engineers completed a 25 million dollar renovation project designed to stabilize the tower. They removed 110 tons of dirt, and reduced it’s famous lean by about sixteen inches. Why was this necessary? Because the tower has been tilting further and further away from vertical for hundreds of years, to the point that the top of the 185-foot tower was seventeen feet further south than the bottom, and Italian authorities were concerned that if nothing was done, it would soon collapse. What was the problem? Bad design? Poor workmanship? An inferior grade of marble? No. The problem was what was underneath. The sandy soil on which the city of Pisa was built was just not stable enough to support a monument of this size. The tower had no firm foundation.

Listen, when building, you must have a firm foundation.

Illus: Before the World trade Towers were built, they had to dig seventy five feet deep into the earth to find the right kind of soil to build on.

You can not build on sand; if you do you are asking for trouble.

Many times we get aggravated when we want to build a home and we have to get a permit to build. But once you stop and think about it, it is for our good that we have building codes:

• It is good for our safety

• It is good when we buy a house to know it was properly built, meeting all the building code requirements.

As most of you know, Christ was raised in a carpenter’s home. I am sure back then they did not have building codes as we have today, but it is evident from the scriptures that the Lord knew there was:

• A WRONG WAY TO BUILD

• A RIGHT WAY TO BUILD

It is possible that when Christ was in His teens, He built things with His own hands in His father’s shop. We are never told of anything He built, but we can rest assured that He did some building somewhere. He who created the heavens and earth with HIS WORDS, as a carpenter also built lovely things with HIS HANDS.

As we think of Christ, with His knowledge of carpentry, we can easily imagine Him standing before a large crowd, telling them HOW THEY SHOULD BUILD THEIR LIVES upon a solid foundation.

Notice, in our text He speaks of BUILDING and He also speaks of a STORM. You see, a wise builder does not build for the sunshine. He builds with a storm in mind.

Illus: After hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, and the levee was knocked down and water flooded New Orleans, they all recognized that the levee was built for a Category #3 storm not a Category #5 storm. If the levee had been built for a category #5, New Orleans could have survived Katrina.

A good builder knows you do not build for the BEST TIMES, you build for the BAD TIMES!

In this passage, it is implied that the storms of life are something we can depend on. Whether or not we survive them depends entirely on how we build our lives.

Notice in our text, Matthew 7:24-27, the Lord shows us there are two builders.

• Both are building a house

• Both choose a foundation

• Both experience rains, floods and winds beating upon their house

They are similar in many ways. However, in some ways they are not similar at all. For example...

• One survived the storm

• One did not survive the storm

We see ...

I. THE WISE BUILDER

Look at Matt. 7:24-25, we read, “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.”

Notice that the Lord begins this passage on building, with words of admonition. “...WHOSOEVER heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him UNTO A WISE MAN...”

The word “WHOSOEVER” is used to let us know:

• It does not matter who you are

• It does not matter who you might think you are

IF YOU DO NOT BUILD ACCORDING TO GOD’S WORD, YOU ARE IN TROUBLE!