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If you have your Bibles this
morning, I invite you to turn to the Gospel according to Matthew
chapter 7. And as you're turning to Matthew
chapter 7, this is our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and he is
bringing this sermon that he preached on the Mount to a conclusion. And as he's drawing to a conclusion,
I want you to notice in verse 24, he starts by saying, therefore. Therefore, you always look at
what's before to see what therefore is therefore. And as we look
before what went on before, our Lord is repeating a principle
that he has been teaching throughout the Sermon on the Mount. And
he's putting the application in a different form at the close
of this sermon. Just about everyone is familiar
with This passage of scripture, like the young people sang, the
wise man and the foolish man, one built his house upon the
rock, the other one built his house upon the sand. This all
correlates with what our Lord has been teaching all along.
You notice what it says in verse 13, our Lord said, enter ye in
at the straight gate. For wide is the gate and broad
is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leads unto life, and few there be that
find it. Our Lord then taught, believers
ought to be cautious. because there are false prophets. There are wolves in sheep's clothing,
as it says in verse 15. Beware of false prophets which
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves. Our Lord taught how we are to
know them. It is by their fruits. He gives
the illustration of a good tree and a bad tree. A good tree brings
forth good fruit, The bad tree brings forth evil fruit. You'll know them by their fruits. And then what we find in verse
21, he speaks about those who make a false profession of faith.
Verse 21, he says, not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?
And in your name have we not cast out devils or demons? And
in your name have we not done many wonderful works? Then our
Lord has this saying, which is very ominous
in that judgment day. He says, I'm gonna profess unto
them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. What we see is in this passage
of scripture as we continue in verse 24 through 27, is the danger
of hearing the word of God and not doing the word of God.
Verse 24 says, therefore, whosoever hears 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. And everyone that
hears these sayings of mine and doeth them not, shall be likened
unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And
the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall
of it. Here's the danger of self-deception. People will come and hear the
word of God. People may even read the word of God. but they
do not put into practice the word of God. Many people might
delight in certain portions of scripture of the word of God,
but they don't want to hear all the counsel of God. They do not
want to apply the word of God in their life. What our Lord
is teaching us here is the difference between a true Christian, a genuine
child of God, and one who makes a false profession, one who is
not a child of God. The word of God has much to say
concerning wisdom and the wise person and foolishness and the fool. Just to give you a contrast of
these two, just to give you just a portion of scripture, over
in Psalm 107, I want you to notice down in verse 43. Psalm 107 in verse 43 says, whoso
is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand
the loving kindness of the Lord. That's the wise man. Notice back in verse 17. Fools,
because of their transgression and because of their iniquities,
are afflicted. Notice over in Proverbs 1 and
verse 7. In Proverbs 1 and verse 7, the
Word of God says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge. Then it says, fools despise wisdom and instruction. In chapter 3 of the book of Proverbs,
down in verse 35, the Word of God says that the wise will inherit
honor But fools get disgrace. You see here the contrast between
the two and it's throughout scripture. There is the wise man, there
is the fool. And our Lord picks up these sayings and these teachings
and he puts his own definition to a wise man and to a fool. What we have seen is a broad
picture of our Lord's teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. But
I'd like for us to look at this a little bit more in detail.
And notice in particular that there are two men. There are
two houses. There are similarities between
the two men. And I want to point that out
right now. Notice in verse 24. The Lord
says, I'm gonna liken him unto a wise man, the one who hears
these sayings of mine and puts into practice or does these sayings
of mine. He's like a wise man who built
a house upon a rock. And the word of God says in verse
26, and everyone that hears these sayings of mine and doesn't do
them shall be likened unto the foolish man which built his house
upon the sand. These two men, they both had
the same desire to build a house. They want a home, a place where
they can have comfort, a place where they can have shelter.
They both had the same desire with building a house. They both,
if you look at this very carefully, you can see they're both in the
same area. Now how do you find that? looking
carefully in this passage scripture. Notice the weather pattern. The
same weather pattern that hit one house hit the other house. They're in the same general area. These houses, there's only one difference brought
out about them. So we would assume that these
houses are pretty much identical by design. They have the same
windows. They have the same door. They
have the same chimney. They have the same design as
far as in the architect of the outside of the house. There's no difference mentioned.
But there are some differences mentioned, though it's not mentioned
concerning the design. Outwardly, they look the same. but they're not. It's the same principle that
our Lord just taught concerning the sheep and the wolf. The wolf puts on sheep's clothing. He's trying to look like a sheep. Outwardly, they may look the
same, but there's a deeper problem. They are not the same. There
is differences there. Notice in verse 25 once again,
this wise man, he built his house upon the rock. Now look over
in Luke chapter 6 if you would, a parallel passage of scripture
concerning this Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord states in verse
48, he says, he is like a man which built a house. And notice Luke adds a little
different perspective. He says, and he digged deep He
dug into the ground and laid the foundation on a rock. So
when the flood rose, the string beat vehemently upon that house
and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. The wise man put much more effort. He dug deep and he built his house upon a
rock. The foolish man, the Word of God tells us, it just says,
he built his house upon the sand. There was no effort put forth
as far as a foundation. In Luke chapter 6 and verse 49,
the Word of God says, but he that hears and does not is like
a man that without a foundation built a house upon the earth.
Here he just built the house. There is no foundation. Have
you ever seen a house or a building built with not a stable foundation. What generally happens is the
house starts cracking and eventually falling apart over time because
of no foundation. The foundation that Matthew says
that the foolish man had was he built on sand. Well, that's
no foundation at all. Sand is constantly shifting.
Luke says there was no foundation. Here are some differences. There
is one who is wise. There is one who is foolish.
But I want you to notice the characteristics of a foolish
person. As you look through Scripture, as you look at this passage of
Scripture in particular, one of the things that stand out
about this foolish man is that he does these things in haste.
In other words, he wants to build his house and he wants that house
built as quick as he can. It doesn't matter about code,
doesn't matter about code enforcement, doesn't matter about certain
principles or anything, let's build the house, I just want
the house to build, so I can be comfortable, so I can have
a roof over my head, let's get her done. That's basically his
attitude. That's characteristic of the
foolish. Listen to what the Word of God
says over in the book of Proverbs. Over in Proverbs 28, Proverbs 28 and down in verse
20. The Word of God says this, a
faithful man will abound with blessings but whoever hastens
to be rich will not go unpunished. Notice it's the quickness to
get something done, to hurry up and do in Isaiah 28. Isaiah 28 And down in verse 16, the word
of God says, therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am the
one who has laid a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. Whoever believes
will not be in haste. Now that means to be in a hurry. Here's a sign of a foolish man.
A foolish man is always in a hurry. Have you ever played the fool? I must confess, there's times
I get in a hurry. I got to remind myself I'm on
the Lord's timetable. Same with you. A foolish person
is always in a hurry. They're not patient. They like
to cut corners. Brother Steve, you used to be
in the real estate business. Have you ever seen a builder
that cut corners? Oh, man. They want to get it
done. Get the job done as quick as they can. It doesn't matter
about all these little things that you can't see. It's what's
seen that will get us through this job and get us out of here
on to the next job. Well, the problem here with the
foolish person is they want it done so fast that they have no
foundation at all. The foolish man has no time to
listen to instruction. He's impetuous. You know what
impetuous means? It means to act without thinking. In other words, you just gotta
do, you gotta do, you gotta do. You men, you know what I'm talking
about, especially. When you get one of them things, one of them
kits with all the instructions that's got 15 pages of instructions,
and half of them's in Japanese, and half of them's in Spanish,
and half of them's in English, and you know how that long, big,
here's how to put it together. Forget that. And you start putting
it together, and you know what you end up usually doing? Going
back to the instructions. Men like to be able to do it.
But here it is wise to seek instruction. You need to think before you
act. Instead of acting without thinking.
The wise man seeks instruction, therefore he wants a solid foundation
is what we find in this passage of Scripture. He's building a
house but he wants something substantial and he wants it to
be durable. He wants a solid foundation,
therefore his house can stand. The foolish man who is a false
Christian He is self-centered, self-focused. He's gonna do what
he wants to do and he don't want nobody telling him what to do.
His own self guides his own thoughts and his actions to whatever pleases
him. That's a self-centered person.
It's a foolish person who does not listen to instructions. When
it comes to spiritual matters, the foolish man is one who will ask, if they come to
church, well, what's in it for me? How's that gonna help me? What am I gonna get out of this? They do not take heed to the
Word of God. And if they listen to the Word
of God, they pick and choose what the Word of God they wanna
listen to. You ever run into that type of person? There are
people who literally pick passages of scripture that they like,
but they discard other passages of scripture. In other words,
they don't wanna hear certain things. If it's about the love
of God, I wanna hear about the love of God. But if it's about
sin, I don't wanna hear about sin. There are actually preachers
who actually say that's what they do. They will not, cover
certain portions of Scripture because it might offend somebody.
And we want people to leave our church feeling good. Well, let
me tell you something, that ain't this preacher here. We need to
preach the whole counsel of God. But there are some people that
just want their ears tickled. They'll pick the love portion
of Scripture, but they'll leave off the judgment portion of Scripture.
They like the good verses that talk about being happy and feeling
comfortable and making me feel good. But they don't want to talk about
sin and the holiness of God. God's Word is constantly under
attack. People trying to undermine it,
pick and choose it, and this type thing and the other. As
Lydia and I went to the Creation Museum, or actually we went to
the Creation Museum a few months ago and the Ark just about a
month ago, what we saw is that they emphasized how people are
trying to undermine the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis. Why is that? Because there you
have a foundation. The foundation of the word of
God. It talks about sin and how sin entered into this world.
And how death came by sin. and all have sinned, and therefore,
you know what, it's appointed unto man once to die. That principle
is laid out in the very first chapters of the Word of God.
And we must come face to face with that. The foolish man does
not want anything to do with that. They don't want to hear
about holiness. The false professor, the one
who makes a profession of faith, hears the Word of God, but they
do not apply it to their life. They hear how they're a sinner
and they bristle at that and they don't want to listen to
that. They hear how they must live a holy life and how they
must pursue holiness and peace without which no man can see
the Lord is what the word of God says. That's what God says. We must pursue holiness. Holiness is something that ought
to be highlighted in a child of God's life. But the foolish man has no desire
to know the Lord. He just wants to be happy. He
just wants to be comfortable. In chapter 7 and verse 21, which
we read a minute ago, here's why this passage is spoken Our
Lord says, not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven. Just because you say Lord does
not make you a child of God. Our Lord puts a condition upon
that and explains it further in verse 24. When he says, therefore,
whosoever hears these sayings of mine and doeth them, he does
what the Lord says, he is the wise man. Here is the child of
God. Now, this is not teaching a worked
salvation. This is not saying that if you
do what the Bible says, then you're saved. You cannot save
yourself. If you're dead in your trespasses
and sins, spiritually dead, you need to be quickened or made
alive. That's only a work of the Spirit
of God. And He works taking the Word of God, convicting a person
of their sinfulness and how they're separated from God and the wrath
of God abides upon them and they feel the conviction of that sin
and they turn by faith and trust in Christ. That turning is a
repentance. A turning from the ways of sin
and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then what happens
is there's a desire to live a life of obedience. You see, here is
the fruit that's produced from a right profession. You shall
know them by their fruits. The Word of God says it's not
of works, lest any man should boast. It's not by doing, doing,
doing that you're going to get to heaven. There's no one that
can do, do, do enough to get to heaven. Genuine faith produces works. The Word of God says in Psalm
11 verse 3, If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the
righteous do? If there is no foundation and
the foundation is torn down, what can the righteous do? What
is our foundation? I want you to look over in 1
Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3, look down in
verse 10. There in verse 10, the Apostle
Paul is writing and he's saying, according to the grace of God,
which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the
foundation. Now remember Paul is talking
particularly to the church at Corinth. First and second Corinthians
is written to the church at Corinth. And what is Paul saying? He's
saying to this church at Corinth, I have laid the foundation, and
another builds their own. But let every man take heed how
he builds thereupon. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Jesus Christ
is the foundation we're built upon. The church at Corinth,
New Life Baptist Church. It's built upon the foundation
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this
foundation of gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every
man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare. There's
coming a day of judgment, a day of testing. There has to be the right foundation.
And if the foundation is not there, what's going to happen? I believe in the teaching of
our Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 7 of Matthew. He tells us what
will happen when there is no foundation there. Here is the
biggest difference between the two houses and the two men. The wise man built his house
upon a rock. With all the devastation that
has happened in North Carolina, North Carolina has been as far
as in recovery, because it was so widely devastated by the Hurricane
Helene, they weren't expecting such a devastation, literally
wiped out towns. You've seen pictures, the news
don't report it that much, but there are people suffering, thankful
for people like Samaritan's Purse that are reaching out, that are
helping. One of the pictures that I saw on Facebook had the
river just overflowing. And as it's rushing through because
of this great storm, things are devastated, but on this rock
that's right above the river, that this river's rushing around,
is a house that's standing firm. I thought, man, what a picture
of what our Lord is saying. There are some houses, I read
one, Franklin Graham was visiting the area yesterday in a helicopter
the day before, and he talked about how one house was literally
flooded all the way to the ceiling. Can you imagine? That means total
loss. But what our Lord is talking
about here is you must have the right foundation. And if you
don't have the right foundation, When trials come, and there will
be trials in life, when storms come, you'll be like the man on the sand whose house fell flat. Great was the fall of it. In
other words, that house is like your life. It represents the
foundation. And when trials come, if you're
not on the right foundation, there's destruction. I knew of a man quite a few years back. He had a good family, three kids. The man was raising his family
in church. He told me when I went out to
play tennis with him one day, he said, I'm gonna die young. I said, oh, how do you know that? He says, I've got heart problems,
and I was told it was from birth. I think he died at the age of
33. Left three young children. Those kids, were kind of tossed about in
life. One fell completely away from the church. Nothing to do
with the Lord. He's an unbeliever, atheistic
in his thinking. I'm telling you, it is important
that you have a strong foundation. Are you building? on a solid
foundation? Is your life built upon the rock? How can you know? What we have is Jesus telling us that he is
the word, he's the living word. What we have And the Bible is
the written word. Hear that song as we sang it
just a minute ago, how firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, is laid
up for your faith. It's in his word. Here's why
Satan hates the word of God. Here's why he undermines the
word of God. Here's why he likes to twist
truth just a little bit, because if he can get you twisted a little
bit in truth, You started down a slippery slope. And pretty soon you have no foundation.
How can you know? You're building upon the rock.
Let me ask you a question or two. Are you open to the Word
of God? I mean, I'm talking about the
whole Word of God. Even when the Word of God cuts
you a little bit, it hurts. Are you open to it to the point
where you are willing to simply say yes, Lord, to his will, what
he's demanding of your life? You remember what Jesus said
back at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter
five, around verse 20, 21? Unless your righteousness exceeds
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not
enter into the kingdom of God. What's Jesus saying? You gotta
pursue holiness in your life. Do you desire to live out the
Sermon on the Mount? We've gone through this portion
by portion. Does your heart desire to put
that into practice? Let me get detail with that. It's not enough to refrain from
adultery. The one who's pursuing righteousness
doesn't even want to look with lust upon another. Is that your heart's desire?
We live in a very technologically advanced society. where images flash before the
screen before you can click off. I ask you, do you desire to live a holy life
in this sinful world? Do you desire to pursue after
holiness? I'm not saying you're gonna be
perfect. You're gonna have failures, but if you're a child of God,
you acknowledge your failures. You'll acknowledge your sin and
you'll mourn over sin, but you desire to live for Christ. Do you desire to know Him more? Do you desire to know Christ?
Do you desire to live a life in whereby His name is gonna
be glorified in my life and through my life and that the glory of
God might spread because I desire to live for Him? That's building upon the rock. He is the living word, He is
my foundation. And his written word affirms
that foundation. Because of that, I will tell
you in my life, Christ is my hope. He's my help. He's my Lord and my Savior. He
is my friend. He is my comforter. He is a help,
a very present help in time of need. He's my foundation. I wanna close with a passage
of scripture, actually a couple, one we'll go back to our text
in a minute, but over in 1 John, 1 John chapter two and down in
verse three. I'm asking are you built upon
the firm foundation? Verse three in 1 John chapter
two says, and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his
commandments. You can know that you know Him.
How? If we keep His commandments.
He that says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments, is
a liar, and the truth is not in Him. But whoso keeps His word,
in him barely is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we
that we are in Him. You can know that you know that
you know is what the word of God is saying. He that says he
abides in him or dwells with him ought himself also to walk
even as he walked. We are to walk as Christ walked. We are to walk with the Lord.
That is what God has called us to. The wise man built his house
upon a rock. He dug deep. He put forth effort. The rains came. Trying times
came. The floods came. The winds blew.
It seems like his feet are kicked out from under him and beat upon that house or upon
that life. But it fell not. For it was founded
upon a rock. But if you hear the sayings of
our Lord and you do not do what he says, you're likened unto
the foolish man that built his house upon the sand. The rains
came, troubling times. Everybody's gonna have troubling
times. You're gonna have troubling times in this life. You're gonna
have aches and pains, you're gonna have bad news. You're not guaranteed a bed of
roses. The floods come, devastation,
winds blew, beat upon the house and that house fell. That life
destroyed and great was the fall of it. What our Lord is teaching us
in this passage of scripture, we sing that song and we kind
of sing it with joy because it's a child song, yet it's a passage
of scripture But I want you to notice it's a warning from God's
Word. Let's not be frivolous with the
Word of God. Make sure your house is built
upon Christ. Only then can you withstand the
storms of life and ultimately the judgment that is coming someday. Do you know Christ as your Lord?
Christ Jesus came into this world, lived that perfect life. God the Father sent the Son because
He loved this world so much, so much that He gave. His Son gave His life, was buried, but there ain't no
grave that can hold Him. came back to life after three
days, victorious over sin, over death, over the grave, and he
says, as long as I live, you shall live also. That's the life
we have in Christ. Let me tell you, he lives forever,
and he's coming back again someday. Do you have that hope in your
life? If you've never put your faith
in Jesus Christ, I pray that you see your sinfulness how you're
separated from God because of that sin, and how you deserve
God's wrath, and how Christ took that wrath upon himself for our
sins, that we can have life, the abundant life, full life,
and everlasting life because of him. Let's stand and go to
the Lord in prayer. Our Father, as we see your word, as your son proclaimed it in
that Sermon on the Mount, we see it as a great caution
of how many have a false hope. They think they're doing things
in your name. Lord, we pray you help us to
be wise with the wisdom that comes from you. We pray for those that are foolish,
that are trusting in their own ways, their own wisdom, their
own thoughts, their own desires. We pray that you'd help them
to see the destruction of their life as it's coming because of
their sinfulness. Lord, we pray that you would
light up their heart with the gospel showing forth our Lord
Jesus Christ in faith in him, how he gives life eternal to
all that come unto him. We ask in this invitation that
you would be glorified for Christ's sake. Amen. We're gonna sing in times like
these, and in this invitation time, if any have needs, concerns
about your life, would you please come forward, seek help. We are
here to help in whatever way we can.
Wise & Foolish
Series Matthew
| Sermon ID | 102124334245766 |
| Duration | 39:02 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Matthew 7:24-27 |
| Language | English |
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