June 2, 2002 Matthew 7:15-28
15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21 "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
Several months ago I had driven by a “house for sale” sign right west of Wanamaker School on 10th Street. When I saw this sign posted, it looked like the dream house for me. The first thing I considered was price. I figured that the price would be right - because it was a real dump - the grounds were all full of refuse and the house looked run down. But the location was nice. There were at least several acres of land available with woods surrounding it - and the house itself was built up on a hill. It wasn’t far from church and right near school.
Location is very important when it comes to choosing a house to live in, right? Location determines price. If your house is in a bad location you might have to drive too far to work or might have flooding in your basement. If you’re in the right location, your house could sky rocket in value. Jesus states that location is all important when building your spiritual house as well. As a matter of fact, the location of where you decide to build your spiritual house has life or death consequences - eternal ones. And so Jesus encourages us to build our houses on the Rock - Jesus Christ.
Build Your House on the Rock
I. By practicing what Jesus preached
I’ve never personally built a house. I’ve had it explained to me and seen pictures of how it is done. Let me tell you, it doesn’t seem like something I’d want to do for a living. Even with all of the modern day equipment that is available today, you still need to haul cement, nail forms together, lift bricks and wood, and do a lot of detail work as well. I was amazed at how much work it just took to put up a room in our basement.
Jesus wants us to think in terms of building a house when it comes to being and living as a Christian. If you’ve ever stopped to think about how we do it, there’s something missing, isn’t there? We put a lot of work and effort into building up a nice foundation - making sure our kids are well grounded in Scriptures through eighth grade. But then for some reason we tend to have a mind set that since the foundation is poured the house doesn’t need to be built. It’s like we’re happy to live in basements. Sure, we could live in a basement and survive just fine. That’s how my wife’s grandmother grew up. But after a while they decided to build up and expand on the house - life would be better that way. That’s how God wants our spiritual homes to be - continual projects in the making. When building a house, it takes time and effort. If you only spent one hour a week building a house, it would take a long time to ever finish that house. If someone only spent one hour a week building his house, you would have to conclude that either it was not a priority in his life or he was lazy. Would God say the same of us? Are you content to live in the basement with just a foundation - coming to church once a week or month and being content with that? Do you have a desire to build up your spiritual home? Or do you live with the mind set that since you went through Bible Information Class or confirmation you’ve done “enough”?
Today Jesus gives us some building tips. He provides some solid brick and mortar for good house building. What are the bricks and mortar? Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The bricks and mortar are first of all HEARING the words of Jesus and then putting them into PRACTICE. In other words, first of all we need to hear God’s Word and study it on a regular basis. But it isn’t enough just to buy the materials and let them sit. If we just left the cabinets sit in the basement and never put them up, they wouldn’t do much good, would they? You have to sooner or later put the work into putting the materials up. It takes work to do this. Reason would tell us then that the more I hear the words of Jesus - the more bricks I will have to build with. In other words, the more I practice the God’s Word, the bigger and stronger my house will become. When Jesus tells us to pray, then we are to go home and actually pray. When Jesus tells us to avoid sexual immorality, then we are not supposed to put ourselves in compromising situations or have sex outside of marriage. When he tells men to be the spiritual leaders of the household, then he wants them to be the leaders. Are you doing what God says? Or just listening?
One thing you have to be cautious of, however, is what kind of material you are going to use to build. Jesus gives us a specific warning as to the material we are to use when building our spiritual house today.
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
The spiritual house of a Christian is more than lifeless bricks and mortar. It is living body and soul. And so Jesus illustrates this in saying that we need to be careful what we swallow. Watch out for false prophets he said. They may come to you in sheep’s clothing - but what kind of fruit are they producing? Is it good fruit - that edifies your soul - or is it only fruit that has gone sour and full of worms? In other words, Jesus wants us to make sure that the advice and the words that we are being given are Biblical - that they are properly applied and in accordance with God’s Word.
Why? Cheaper doesn’t always mean better. If you put a lot of time and effort into putting up a faulty or cheap product, experience dictates that you will sooner or later have to tear down that house and start all over again. When I was growing up I remember my mother buying grass clippers after grass clippers at a garage sale - this was before the weed whacker was invented, when you had to kneel down and use a big grass scissors to do the clipping. Inevitably, they were all mostly too old to do much good. By the time it was all done we could have bought a new one for the cost of all the used ones. So if I remember correctly, we finally splurged and got a new one. The same goes with our spiritual house. It isn’t enough just to buy and add on any materials if the price is right. Don’t you want to use the best and the strongest - no matter what the cost or the price or even the looks? You can’t just build with the cheapest and closest and fanciest materials available. You need to build with the Word - the pure Word - unadulterated by human reason and faulty application. This is key to building a strong house - be careful to what materials you use.
II. So your house doesn’t fall
When I saw that “house for sale” sign, I thought that I had found the ultimate house. But since the grounds had “no trespassing” signs on it, I couldn’t go and take a good look at the house. Even though everything looked good from the outside, I couldn’t really go and inspect it. This is essential when buying a house - and not just to look at the walls and the grounds - but one of the most important things to do is to get down in the basement, dust away the cobwebs - and inspect the foundation. It’s not the most glamorous job in the world, but it’s the most important. That’s what Jesus said in today’s text.
Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Jesus didn’t credit the standing of the house on the building, but on the foundation. His words are clear. Our salvation is not based on our works, but on the foundation of our faith - Jesus Christ the solid rock. After having come back from the beach in Ocean City, MD, I had a hands on idea of what it means to build your house on sand. There was a building going up three doors down from where we stayed. They couldn’t just build these homes on the sand. They had to dig down and lay cement pillars for foundations. Why? Because sand is shifty - it doesn’t provide a solid basis. And sand is on the shore of the ocean - which often times brings high winds and great storms. If you need a solid foundation anywhere, it’s on the ocean front. And so Jesus says, in life you will have many storms and tempests - and it is at times like these that you most definitely need a solid foundation.
Why is this so important to have a solid foundation? Look at what Jesus says. Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ He then went on to say - everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
It’s hard for us to imagine someone having a seemingly huge spiritual house - being able to chase out demons and do miracles - and yet having no foundation. But Scripture is full of these examples. Take for example Judas. Do you think Judas chased out demons in his time? You bet. The Bible makes mention of Caiaphas, an UNBELIEVING high priest - making an unknowing prediction about Christ. Balaam - a heathen soothsayer, was given the words and ability to bless the Israelites, even though he wasn’t even a believer! The seven sons of Sceva were able to chase out demons in the name of Jesus. On the surface of things, these men would have appeared to be very godly men with huge amounts of faith. But their foundations were not solid and they came down with a crash.
In Luther’s time, it was a popular thought that the Carthusian monks were the most saintly men in the world. They would wear special gowns, sleep on hard beds, and live in seclusion up in a cloister! The world of his day looked at this as a great and awesome thing. Today, people are drawn to the huge ecumenical services. If a Catholic and an Episcopal priest are up front in their gowns, along with a black Baptist minister and a few Lutherans and maybe even a Muslim - “oohhh,” the world says, “that’s great!” Many are impressed with the Donnie and Marie image of the Mormons - “oohh”, they say, “what happy families they have!” Others are impressed with huge youth groups or a preacher who quotes a lot of Bible passages. It all looks good when people can quote God’s Word so readily. It’s really sad to see the thousands to millions of people who really are building impressive and beautiful palaces of seeming righteousness - donating time and money to the poor - building shelter for them - taking care of nature - and being seemingly great neighbors and citizens. But the sad thing is that without the foundation in Christ - it’s worth garbage in God’s eyes - and they will only end up in hell when the fires of Judgment Day come calling.
Why? It doesn’t seem fair. Imagine if you had an employee that only did work to be seen by the boss. And then, every time your employee saw you he said, “did you see the great job I did on that project?” It wouldn’t take long for you to realize that they were only doing their job for a raise and recognition. No matter how “good” of a job they did, when they constantly bugged you for recognition and tried to compete against others for the top spot, you couldn’t help but get angered by their selfish motivation. In the same way, the prophets who did miracles only for recognition and promotion - from God or men - will be rejected on Judgment Day! Why? Because their foundation is greed and selfishness.
Jesus is the only foundation that is able to weather the storms of guilt - the waves of shame - the winds of temptation that come crashing on our shores every day. Think of Peter for instance. He had just deserted Jesus at the time that Jesus needed him most. His guilt was overwhelming, almost to the point of death. If he had run to the bottle, it wouldn’t have made him feel any better. If he had tried to punish himself by running away from Jerusalem and never coming back, he still couldn’t hide from his guilt that was raging in his soul. The only rock that he could find shelter in was when Jesus said to him, “I died for you - feed my sheep.”
Isn’t that the greatest foundation we have in life? Isn’t it great to know that no matter how great of sinners we are, how small our spiritual shacks are - how weak our buildings are - that when we have a storm coming - we always have a shelter to run to in the basement - with our foundation on Christ. When God’s wrath comes crashing to shore, Jesus gives us shelter. When the devil comes battering on our buildings, a few shingles may fall off, we may lose some windows, but the foundation will remain. When the tornados of temptation carry away our thoughts, we can still find shelter from the storm. Even though our homes could be bigger and better - and our lives of righteousness are far from where they could be, we still have the assurance of salvation through faith in Christ. And so we sing, “on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”
The sign that said, “house for sale” just west of Wanamaker school had no phone number on it. After several weeks of calling around, however, I was finally able to get the price. The lady who I asked then told me, “two hundred and fifteen thousand dollars.” My jaw about dropped. I couldn’t afford that for at least another forty years. It didn’t look THAT expensive. Come to find out, it was a different house for sale, and my “dream house” wasn’t even on the market. It was kind of sad to have my “dream house” fall to pieces, but I haven’t lost any sleep over it anyway.
The nice thing about our salvation, is that it doesn’t cost a bit, and that it isn’t a dream - but a reality. First of all, He has given us a solid foundation of love and forgiveness through faith in Christ. It’s a foundation that is free and more solid than any foundation in the world. Today, Jesus has delivered some bricks and mortar in our yards, telling us to “beware of false prophets” and “practice what I preach.” Brick by brick and word and word we have the ingredients to add to our shacks, making them into bigger and better homes. We have the potential to have great buildings of love - towers of joy - and castles of peace. As long as we build our houses on the Rock, it can be a shack or a mansion - either way - it will endure the storms and we will have a mansion in heaven. The question is, which would you rather live in right now? A shack or a mansion? The bricks are here and so is the foundation. The only question is - do you want to take the time and effort to build on it? Amen.
