I trust you brought a Bible with you this morning, and if you have, I invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 7 again, as was read for us just a moment ago. Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 to 29. It was in the year 1174 that the Italian architect Bonanno Pisano began work on what would become his most famous project. a separate standing bell tower for the cathedral in the city of Pisa. The tower was to be eight stories and 185 feet tall. After the construction began, the builders quickly discovered that the soil was much softer than they had anticipated, and the foundation, at only 10 feet deep, was far too shallow to adequately hold the structure. Before long, the whole tower began to tilt or to lean, and it continued to tilt or lean until finally the architect and the builders realized that nothing could be done to make the leaning tower of Pisa straight again. It took 176 years to complete the Tower of Pisa, during which time many things were done to try and compensate for the tipping and tilting building. The structure was reinforced and the upper floors were even built at an angle to try to make the top of the tower look straight, but nothing worked. Amazingly, the tower has stood for over 800 years. But because the tower has been ever shifting and increasingly tilting, engineers have calculated that without the extensive restoration work over the last 30 years, it would have toppled by now. Ironically, the Italian word Pisa means marshy land. And the tower was built on a shallow and shifty foundation. In Matthew chapter seven, Jesus told a parable of two men that built a house, one upon a rock, the other upon the sand. And of course, we know the rest of the story, don't we? I've printed for you there at the top of your notes, says we begin a new year full of hopes and dreams and ambitions and aspirations and good intentions. We must take heed to how we build, lest we lean or even topple to our own destruction. So this morning, just as an occasional message of the new year, we'll begin a new series, a new book study, but from Jesus' parable, this morning in Matthew chapter seven, I prepared a message titled A Firm Foundation. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, and then we'll study the scripture together. God in heaven, We are so thankful for your divine, infinite wisdom, the wisdom of our God that has created and sustained all that is, that orders our lives sovereignly, providentially, We thank you, Lord, for your wisdom. Lord, we know you've called us to be faithful, and we desire to be found faithful, not just as we conclude this calendar year, but as we look forward to a new calendar year. Lord, perhaps the year in which you will return for your church to catch us up and away as your bride, that we might hear, well done, good and faithful servant. And Lord, now as we have so many good intentions, even perhaps New Year's resolutions for the coming year, we understand that we must build on a firm foundation. I ask that you'd help us understand the instruction of this parable this morning. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. It's most important for us to begin studying Jesus' parable in Matthew 7, verses 24 to 29, but looking at the greater context of the scripture this morning. It is in Matthew chapters five, six, and seven that Jesus presented the famous Sermon on the Mount to his disciples and to the multitudes around him. In fact, turn back to chapter five, Matthew chapter five, verse number one, and seeing the multitudes, he, that is Jesus, went up on a mountain And when he was seated, his disciples came to him, Matthew chapter five, verse number two, then he opened his mouth and taught them. If you have a red letter edition of your New Testament, you'll notice that Matthew chapters five, six, and seven are all printed in ink. Red ink, that is. It's printed in red ink, indicating to us that these are the very words of Jesus. And his Sermon on the Mount here in chapters five, six, and seven are not necessarily long. It's not a long sermon, just a couple, two, three pages in my Bible, but it's proof that a sermon does not need to be long to be meaningful, you understand. And Jesus preaches this Sermon on the Mount in chapters five, six, and seven, but it's packed with important instruction for righteous living. Following then his teaching in chapters five, six, and seven, Jesus exhorted his audience to respond to what they had heard. Look at chapter seven, verse number 24. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine, whoever hears this sermon of mine and does them, verse 24. Look at verse 26. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine or this sermon of mine and does not do them, Those who heard Jesus' sermon that day were his disciples. We just read of that in chapter five, verses one and two. They were his followers, his supporters, his students. Perhaps they even said amen once or twice in the course of his sermon. But hearing these sayings or hearing this sermon was not enough. Jesus called them to a point of action. Jesus now is saying to them, you've heard my teaching, you've heard my message, my doctrine, what will you now do with it? You've now heard the preaching. Will you practice what has been preached? And like any good sermon, Jesus calls his hearers to a response. And he did that by telling them a story, a parable of two men who each built a house. It begins, of course, with number one, the wise builder. The wise builder, verses 24 and 25, therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man. "'who built his house on the rock. "'And the rain descended, the floods came, "'and the winds blew and beat on that house, "'and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.'" The symbol, letter A, the symbol, a house that was built. And the beauty of this parable is that we don't need to make a quantum leap back to the first century manners and customs to understand this meaning. The symbolism or the picture of Jesus' parable is very self-evident, it's very clear to us common in every culture, the building of a house. And the imagery of this parable is in fact so clear that we don't need to be an engineer or a contractor to understand its meaning. In fact, even children might understand this picture. So we've put it to music. The wise man built his house upon the rock. And the house on the rock stood firm. In fact, there's even motions that go with that children's song. And so we understand the symbol or the picture of the parable. But unlike the shallow foundation of the leaning tower of Pisa, remember it just 10 feet deep, would you know how deep the foundation of New York City's Twin Towers were? Before they fell, they were 70 feet deep and were resting on solid bedrock. And for that reason, the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center towers there, when they were struck by the airplanes on September 11th of 2001, they didn't fall due to the foundation, but rather the burning jet fuel up in the superstructure of those towers that then collapsed from the top down upon themselves. But the foundation was solid. And Jesus' symbol or picture or illustration in this parable is of a house that was built. The stability of that house was that it was built on a foundation of rock, let her be. The stability is the foundation on the rock. Now there are two sources of stability that I would submit to us here. First is the teachings of Jesus Christ. The first point of stability is the teaching of Jesus. The focus of Jesus' parable on this text is the teaching that he had just given them. The Sermon on the Mount and the precepts and the principles of our Lord preserved for us here in the scripture are a solid foundation for life. In John chapter 13 verse 17, Jesus said of his teachings, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. But it's more than what's printed in ink or in red ink. It's more than the red letters of the gospels. It's the whole of the scripture. It's all of the word of God. It's the full counsel of God. In Psalm 119, David described the stability of a life founded upon God's word. And I would submit to you this morning that if you want to be stable in life, anchor yourself, ground yourself to this book. Never mind the stock market, never mind the government, never mind human relationships, a job, a career, nothing can offer you the grounding or the stability that you need in life like the teachings of the Holy Scripture. Folks, they are given to us by inspiration of God and they are profitable. So make this book, make God's word your food this next year. Make it your map this next year. Make it your foundation this next year and be Bereans who search the scriptures daily. and you will find stability in the teaching of God through his word. It's not just, however, the teachings of Jesus Christ here at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, and secondly, it's the person of Jesus Christ. Now, here is the common error that perhaps all of us make at times. The error in interpreting this parable is perhaps that we can have complete stability in Christ's teaching without Christ, that's the error. Because this parable follows a substantial body of Jesus' ethical teachings, some have asserted that it's the morals of Jesus' message that are sufficient. And to a degree, Jesus' ethics or his morals provide for a stable society even as our nation was founded. But I declare to you that Christianity does not consist of a moral code of conduct, rather the gospel message is of life in Christ's person. not just following his doctrine. Certainly, the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the Word of God are a stable foundation or a rock, but in a greater way, he is our rock and our foundation and our stability. I'll give you a few scriptures here. Ephesians chapter two, the Bible says, you are built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus himself. as the chief cornerstone. Acts chapter 4 verse 11 says that Jesus is the stone whom the builders rejected, which has become the chief cornerstone. And then also in 1 Peter 2, see I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone. And the one who trusts in him, that cornerstone will never be put to shame. Now to you who believe the stone is precious, I hope Jesus Christ is precious to you as a believer. But to those who do not believe, the stone the builders rejected has become, in fact, the cornerstone, the irony of that. So the hymn writer put it this way, our hope should be built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. We dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Christ is the solid rock on which we stand. All other ground is what? Sinking sand. I want me to read for you a story that many of you may identify with. It's a story from Dr. Joseph Parker of London, England, the noted English preacher, who for many years proclaimed the word of God in the great city temple. And he tells in his autobiography that there was a time when he gave too much attention to the modern theories of his day. Now just to put this into context, Joseph Parker was a contemporary, a friend of Charles Spurgeon. If you can picture that. Men were reasoning and speculating and undervaluing God in his word and he found himself, as he read their books and mingled in their meetings, losing his grip intellectually upon the great fundamental doctrine of salvation alone through the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was getting swept up in the philosophies of man in his day, now 150 years ago. But he tells in his autobiography that came into his life the most awful sorrow he had ever had to bear. His devoted wife whom he loved so tenderly was stricken and in a few short hours she was snatched away from him. He was unable to share his grief with others and walking through the empty rooms of his home with a breaking heart His misery felt for some footing in modern theory, and there was none. I've copied for you there in the back of your notes what he wrote when he addressed a company of his church folks. He says this, he says, my brethren, in those hours of darkness, in those hours of my soul's anguish, when filled with doubt and trembling and fear, I bethought myself of the old gospel of redemption alone through the blood of Christ. The gospel that I had preached in those earlier days, and I put my foot down on that, and my brethren, I found firm standing. I stand there today, and I shall die resting upon the blessed glorious truth of salvation alone through the precious blood of Christ. Dear friend, I would say to you, this next year, this coming year, be a wise builder. What do I mean by that? Be a wise builder. Make the superstructure of your life this year built on a stable foundation of Jesus Christ and his word. None of us can predict or control the craziness that may happen in 2025. The absurdity that we might see or hear on the news. The consequence or calamity that might happen in our own personal lives, our health, our family. Where do we turn, where do we go? We go to Jesus Christ, his person, and his teaching. Ground yourself there as a wise builder this next year. Verse 26, however, tells us of Another, everyone who hears these sayings of mine, verse 26, and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. This, of course, is number two, the foolish builder. The book of Proverbs describes the foolish man as one who doesn't listen or take heed to counsel. For example, a son who doesn't hear the instruction of his father. Jesus describes the foolish builder here as one who doesn't take heed to the teachings of Jesus. You've heard these sayings of mine, Jesus says. You've heard my sermon on the mount. and yet you don't take heed, you're a foolish builder, and I would call this the disrespect. The disrespect, and it's disrespectful, and follow my thinking on this as I prepare my outline in my own head, it makes sense, see if this makes sense to you. It's disrespectful when one disregards the teachings or the warning of an authority. In such is the case here, look at verse 29. Matthew 7 verse 29, it says that he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In fact, verse 28, so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at his teaching. There was something qualitatively different to Jesus' teaching, verse 29, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. They recognize the authority of Jesus' sermon in Matthew chapters five, six, and seven, and there's no greater authority in all of the universe than Jesus. With his spoken word, he created all that is and brought it into existence. By that same word, he can put creation into chaos. We call it a natural disaster. And Jesus, by that same living word of his power, sustains everything that is. How foolish are we? How disrespectful are we when we have been taught by divine authority, we have read, we have learned his word, and we reject it in our daily living? We are hearers but not doers. The same words that control creation preserved for us in the scripture ought to control our lives. but we're foolishly disrespectful if we don't heed what we've heard. If you were to call me or stop by my office, visit with me for pastoral counseling, and I invite you to, you're always welcome. I love to get a phone call from you or to spend time with you, but prepare yourself, be ready to hear the word of the Lord. Not Pastor Matt's opinions or his great ideas, but what God says in his word. That is a philosophical, pastoral, philosophical commitment. Thus says the Lord. But many times, after showing clear Bible teachings, some will say to me, yeah, Pastor Matt, I know what the Bible says, but. But Pastor Matt, see, in my situation, that won't work. I know what God has said, and I hear what you're telling me, Pastor Matt, but I can't do that now because it's too late. Or, well, my circumstance is different, or, but what if? That's not disrespectful to me. You can take or leave what I say, but what do we do when it's the holy word of God that has called us to a point of obedience? And not to dump on you, I'm guilty of this as well. I'm foolish at times. I may disrespect or disregard God's word to my own peril because I am wise in my own eyes. Which really gives me then number two. It's not just about disrespect. It's about the destruction. And I want you to look at the scripture text, verse 27. You know it well. Look at verse 27 and notice the destruction in verse 27. It's not damage. It was a great fall. It was not a small problem. The wind and the storms and the hardships of circumstances here turned the house on its head as if it were a house of cards. You see, the destruction here wasn't because of a flaw in the superstructure of the building, in this case, it was because of a compromised foundation. The house was built on sand, and we understand the illustration. It was on October 17th, 1989, many of you will remember this, that a massive earthquake struck the San Francisco area, and the people there gave a lot of thought to the foundation on which their houses were built. Buildings built on solid ground sustained much less damage than those built on filled-in areas. The double-decker freeway in Oakland collapsed because it had been built on land that was filled in. It all looked the same at the time of the building, but not at the time of testing. On the other hand, the south pier of the Golden Gate Bridge sits directly on top of the San Andreas Fault, yet it was undamaged in that quake because the weight of the bridge rests on the two towers deeply embedded into the rock beneath the sea. Isn't that something? Of course, some of that is foreign to us here in Minnesota. We don't experience earthquakes, but you understand the teaching. So, Jesus, at the conclusion of his sermon, he gives a parable of the wise builder who built on a firm foundation, the foolish builder who built on the sand. And in each case, some building was happening. And those builders are described as either wise or foolish by what they did with what they heard. You see it there in verse 24. The one who hears and does them, verse 24, I will liken him to a wise man. Verse 26, the one who hears and does not do them will be like a foolish man. And so the hearing and the doing or the not doing renders one wise or foolish. Okay, but. What of those, and again, this is just inside Pastor Matt's head, right? As I study and I prepare, it occurs to me, what if the one who doesn't even hear at all? What if the one who doesn't hear because they will not? If anyone is more foolish than the one who hears and does not practice what he hears is the one who refuses to hear at all. Okay, now this is not in the text, but a third point I'm gonna give you to complete your notes. I'm gonna call it the non-builder, just for lack of a better term. The non-builder, and this isn't only in my head. I've borrowed this from the head of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who wrote of such people. I'm calling it the non-builder. It's there on the back of your notes. Follow as I read. There are tens of thousands to whom the preaching of the gospel is as music in the ears of a corpse. They shut their ears and will not hear. Though the testimony concerning God's own Son and eternal life and the way to escape from everlasting wrath, to their own best interests, to their eternal benefit, men are dead. Nothing will secure their attention to their God. To what then are these men like? They may fitly be compared to the man who built no house whatever and remained homeless by day and shelterless by night. These are the non-builders, I'm calling them. Spurgeon continues. He says, when the worldly trouble comes like a storm, and we experience it every year, last year and this next year, worldly trouble comes like a storm, those persons who will not hear the words of Jesus have no consolation to cheer them. When sickness comes, they have no joy of heart to sustain them under its pains. And when death, the most terrible of storms, beats upon them, they feel its full fury, but they cannot find a hiding place. They neglect the housing of their souls. And when the hurricane of almighty wrath shall break forth and the world to come, they will have no place of refuge. In vain they will call upon the rocks to fall upon them, the mountains to cover them, but they shall be in that day without a shelter from the righteous wrath of the Most High. That's the non-builder, you see. Folks, you've heard a thousand sermons. I've heard the same ones because I've preached them, right? You know a thousand scriptures. And I know them too. We've read them. We've studied them. What do we do? There are three options. We can heed what we've heard. That's the wise builder. We can hate what we've heard. That's the foolish builder. Or we can harden our hearts so that we do not even hear at all. That is the non-builder. So we look forward to the new calendar year. We all have plans. We don't know what a day will bring forth, and there are uncertainties, and there are risks, and there are fears, and certainly some of our dreams will not come to pass. Some of our fears will come to pass. What do we do? We build our lives on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ and His Word. And I would charge you and challenge you this year, run to Christ. Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you so much for the simplicity and the clarity of Jesus' teaching in his Sermon on the Mount, in this parable of the wise builder and the foolish builder. God, I pray for my dear brothers and sisters in Christ here at Fourth Baptist, that they might be men and women, children who build on a strong foundation, or that they heed what they hear, I pray, Lord, that you would bless them for that. Lord, perhaps there are some here who have been foolish, or Lord, perhaps there are some who refuse to hear and have no intention of building at all. I pray that Your Spirit would take Your Word and burn it into their minds and their hearts, Lord, and draw them and compel them to not just be a hearer but a doer of Your Word as You've given it to us. May we in every case run to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, in whose name I pray. Amen.