Luke chapter 6 and verse 46. There are many who claim to be Christians but their experience of grace and their personal knowledge of the Lord appears, at least outwardly, to be very superficial and insubstantial. And sometimes we feel that we ought not to judge others too much because we know how shallow and flimsy our own knowledge of Christ is and can be. And yet we cannot ignore passages like this in Luke's Gospel and in Matthew's Gospel, the parallel passage. We cannot ignore these passages in which the Lord confronts his disciples and his followers. And he presses us all to assess our spiritual life and to critically examine our standing in Christ. and test the foundation of our faith. The sad reality is that there are people who will stand in the judgment, who will say on that day, I just assumed everything was all right. I just accepted what my minister told me. I simply relied on what my church said. And I don't want any of us to be that person on that day in that place. And this is what the Lord is warning us against in this short passage. Actually, The passage, the parallel passage in Matthew 7 is even more probing, even more challenging than the verses that I'm going to read in a moment. In Matthew 7, verse 21, it says this. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Now, we know that the will of the Father is that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here again, in these verses today, we're not speaking of good works, but we're talking primarily about faith, about believing and about trusting in the Lord. Matthew chapter 7 goes on. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. by which I understand that there will be those who genuinely think that their souls are safe, but whose sins have never been forgiven. So hear what the Lord says by way of warning to those who name his name, but do so ignorantly, do so casually and without understanding. Let's read together, verse 46 of Luke chapter 6. And why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that without a foundation built on house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. I think the Lord is telling us two things here, just by way of introduction. The Lord is saying two things. Firstly, it's an insult to the Saviour. who is also our King, who is King of His Kingdom. It is an insult to the Saviour to affirm Lord, Lord in worship and prayers while having no burden for His glory, nor any true concern for our soul. The Lord is saying, why would you do that? Who are you trying to kid? Who are you deceiving? Because you're not deceiving me. I know your heart and you're only deceiving yourself. And the second thing that the Lord is pointing to here is this. Faith is a weighty matter. Now I'm not saying it's difficult, but I am saying it is important We know that faith is a gift from God and true faith is not in man's ability apart from God's grace. And yet when grace is given, it is the easiest, it gives the greatest delight to exercise faith and trust the Lord Jesus and to begin to explore the promises of God to his people. But faith in Christ is important, it is serious, it is meaningful, and it must be treated as such. And here's the point. Faith is not the bare profession that is made by those who are tricked into making a decision for Christ by freewill preachers. It is not a childhood ritual. It is not a denominational rite of passage, such as baptism often appears to be. It isn't dispensed by a priest or a pastor with the bread and the wine at communion. Faith is an informed turning to Christ for salvation. And look at what the Lord says in verse 47. He says there that it is a coming, it is a hearing, and it is a doing. It is coming to Christ with a sense of need, as a sinner sensible of sin is awakened to God's holiness. It's a coming to Christ with a sense of need. It is a hearing about forgiveness with God in the gospel through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and a discovering of the cleansing by Christ's blood and the peace that comes by his sacrifice. So it's a coming to Christ with a need and it is a hearing about Christ and his sacrifice in the gospel. a coming, a hearing, and a doing. It is turning, it is trusting, it is committing, and it is resting upon Him. Coming, hearing, doing. It's a spiritual work. It's initiated by grace through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and it is completed in a sinner's soul by the combined involvement of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But faith is a weighty spiritual matter of coming and hearing and doing. And the Lord says, as he goes on, he says, I will show you to whom he, now this is the person that he's speaking about, the comer, the hearer and the doer. I will show you to whom this comer and hearer and doer is like. He is like a man which built a house and digged deep and laid the foundation on a rock. So three things are said about this man. This man built a house. That means he made a commitment. He invested his time. He built this house. He invested his energy, his resources and his will into this enterprise. And that reflects a follower, a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. A follower of Christ is committed to Christ because he knows the seriousness of the matter that he is dealing with. And he is building for the future. He is building for his eternal future as he builds this house. The second thing that the Lord says of this man is, not only did he build a house, but he digged deep. That is, he digged until he discovered the truth. He listened intently to the gospel. He studied the word. He reasoned and he laboured to find out the truth so that he would not be deceived or mistaken. Now it may be that such an individual had a number of false starts. Maybe he got tangled in law works and in church rules. But the point is he kept digging. He wasn't satisfied until he found that for which he searched. He wanted peace of conscience. and he digged deeper until he found it. He would not be satisfied until he found Christ, until he found Christ in the gospel, until he learned forgiveness, and mercy, and grace, and redemption, and reconciliation. The third thing the Lord says of this man, he built a house, he digged deep, and he dug until he hit rock. And when he had something solid, or rather, when he had someone solid to build upon, he built his house on the foundation that is Jesus Christ crucified. It really is a beautiful similitude, this, that we have before us in these couple of verses. Don't get hung up on the fact that there seems to be lots of doing here. because salvation is supposed to be all of grace. Salvation is all of grace, but it is an unfolding process of incidents and encounters in a sinner's experience that leads us first to conversion and then to growing in grace and a knowledge of the truth that is in Jesus. Paul talks about that in Ephesians chapter 4. We learn Christ and we learn him as we are digging deep. We learn him as we are building this house upon the solid rock. We grow, or let's say to use the analogy, we keep building our house upon the solid rock of the Gospel truth. Jude says, building up yourselves on your most holy faith. And like any good house, it is only started with a firm foundation. Building upwards only then begins. It isn't finished without cost, without further commitment, and without determination. And if I can press the analogy just a little bit more, there will always be a need for maintenance and upkeep. A believer's life is an active, continuous engagement with and building upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins at conversion as far as our experience is concerned and is more or less vigorously pursued for the whole of our lives. We dig deep to find the Lord. but we go on labouring in our desire to know Him better and to discover Him more. And this learning Christ gives stability and protection and comfort and peace in the rising storms of life. When the tides rise, when the floods come, when the winds howl and the storms engulf our little building, does it move? No, because it's grounded firmly upon the one who holds us in the palm of his hand and has promised never to let us go. The contrast which the Lord gives to emphasise the moral and meaning of his parable is a perfect foil. This man, too, the other man, has a house. And he built it, not according to knowledge of Christ. He did not come, he did not hear, and he did not do. And this shows us that there are many who have a zeal for spiritual things. They speak with religious language. They present themselves as successful house builders. But they've never digged deep. They've never found the rock. They did not build on the foundation which is Christ and they never knew him. And what's more serious, he never knew them. The streams that beat vehemently are trials of life. They're temptations of the devil. They're weaknesses in our flesh. And these buffet and they press against us like floodwaters seeking an entrance into which they can run. And such pressure soon undermines an insubstantial structure, a building without foundation, and the collapse and the ruin of that building will be total and complete. Let me say this in closing. I'm always aware that the Lord's people often have sensitive hearts whenever such passages are read. Lessons that are designed to rouse the sleepy can sometimes disturb Christ's little ones. And then when troubles do come, you feel as though your house is shaking and you think that it's about to fall into ruins too. Well, that is not so. Listen. The stream beat vehemently upon that house with foundations and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. and that rock is Christ. Hebrews speaks of a different rock, the one that followed the children of Israel through the wilderness and watered them for 40 years. In truth, it's the same rock. The Lord Jesus Christ is the rock who keeps and strengthens and protects and nourishes and refreshes his people. The lesson here is to be sure to obey what we hear, to dig deep and to labour for that which satisfies and to know that these things we learn about concerning Christ, his goodness, his grace, his mercy, his love, will keep us safe. when the evil day comes and when the waters of Jordan rise against our souls. Make no mistake, the Lord's people on the rock will endure to the end and he who gives grace now shall give glory hereafter. Amen.