Solid Rock Or Shifting Sand?

Text: Matthew 7:24-27

Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)

Date Preached - (06/03/01)

Introduction:   

Imagine everything you have worked for being swept away in a moment.  That is the picture of a life of disobedience.

There are teachings in the Sermon on the Mount which are hard to receive, difficult to live, and impossible to comprehend by the natural mind.

To assure His hearers that He was serious about them living in the reality of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ concludes His discourse with an illustration teaching the importance of genuine obedience and the folly of disobedience.

“Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine”

EXAMPLES:

- Blessed are the poor in spirit

- Love your enemies

- Life of secret prayer

- Lay up treasure in heaven (investing in eternity)

- Seek first the kingdom of God

- Judge ourselves first (Mt. 7:1-5)

The illustration is of houses built on two very different foundations.  The wise man builds his house on a foundation of rock and the foolish man builds on a foundation of sand.

Christ’s listeners living in Palestine understood this illustration vividly, for they were subject to flash floods in the river valleys that could wash away the limestone base rapidly and destroy a home not founded on the bedrock below.

Explain the remainder of the illustration and application.

Now the two men are similar in that they both hear, they both exercise free will, and both are accountable for their choices.

Very little at times separates believers and unbelievers.

Hebrews 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

We also see very clearly the contrasts between Obedience and Disobedience in this illustration.

Here are three simple contrasts:

I. Obedience is Wise; Disobedience is Foolish.

A. The Wisdom of Obedience

WISE – sensible, prudent

Psalms 111:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

Proverbs 24:3  Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:

James 1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

What is that wisdom?

LOOK UP & READ James 1:21-27

Luke 11:28  But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

John 15:10  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

John 15:14  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

B. The Folly of Disobedience

Psalms 14:1  The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

Jeremiah 8:9  The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

Simple obedience to the commands of Scripture is wisdom.

ILLUS: The son of a missionary who was spared from the imminent danger of a python because he immediately obeyed his father.

The world says you are a fool to obey God’s Word, children to obey parents etc.

Yet in I Cor 1 The Bible says the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God.

In James 3 there are two kinds of wisdom:  God’s and that which is described as “earthly, sensual & devilish”.

II. Obedience is built upon a Solid Foundation; Disobedience is built upon a Shifting Foundation.

A. Solid Rock

Luke 6:48 says he “digged deep”  When you hitbedrock you know you have a solid foundation.

The ROCK of course is Jesus Christ.  The foundation of the believer’s life!!

Isaiah 28:16  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

1 Corinthians 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

Psalms 18:46  The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

Deuteronomy 32:31  For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

Matthew 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

1 Corinthians 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

He is the foundation of a life of obedience, in your marriage, child-rearing, vocation, and ministry.  In everything you do!!

Colossians 2:7  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

B. Shifting Sand

Luke 6:49 tells us that this is no foundation at all “without foundation”.

What is this shifting sand?

The changing philosophies of the world.

Colossians 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Pragmatism

Relativism

Emotionalism

Good Times/Pleasure

New Age = Old Lie “Ye shall be as gods”  Gen 3:5.

What makes it a house of disobedience?  The materials used to construct the house or the foundation on which it is built?

ANSWER: The foundation.

You rest your salvation on a good foundation by actual obedience.

“Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it,  anything but – live for it.”

How would others describe our Church?    Bible-believing?  Bible-preaching?   How about Bible-Obeying???  

Time we started living the KJV

A grief to any preacher is that many will not come to hear the message, and that many who do never live it.

It’s OK to say Amen, but how about living an Amen!!!

III. The Preserving Nature of Obedience; The Perishing Nature of Disobedience.

A. Preserved through the Storm

Rain –

Floods – enemies of God’s people

Isaiah 59:19  So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

World, Satan, Antichrist

Ultimately the floods speak of God’s judgment.

Winds – Adversity, or threat of adversity

False Doctrine

Ephesians 4:14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Jude 1:12  These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

B. Perishing in the Storm

Prior to the storm, this house seemed to stand.  But the foundation had not yet been tested.

All foundations will be tried, but only one will stand.

Proverbs 12:7  The wicked are overthrown, and are not: but the house of the righteous shall stand.

Psalms 1:4-6  The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6  For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Conclusion:     (Review)

GREAT WAS THE FALL OF IT!!

In an instant it collapsed and was washed away, completely and irreversibly wrecked and ruined.

ILLUS: Scenes from the aftermath of Mt. Penatubo eruption (June 1991 – Philippines).

STRESS – The suddenness of the unsaved man’s calamity.

Hebrews 10:31  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.