There's nothing like watching dirt get shoveled on top of a casket to make you take measure. In that moment you're able to push out all of the noise and silliness and false hope of the vanity of life and frozen in that moment ask a very important question. What makes a life meaningful? The question is obviously very pressing and important because once the dirt is being shoveled on your grave, there's no chance for a redo. It's moments like that, it's so important to just linger in and reflect upon because they give us the opportunity to check in with ourselves and say, how are you doing? How are you living? Are you building a life according to Christ? Help us think about that question this morning. I'm returning to a text we've examined before and one which is well known to us. But what specifically I want us to listen to is the chapter He brings us this challenge in that moment of pause and reflection, when everything is slowed down and the distractions are cleared from our minds, and the clutter is cleared away, and we ask a simple question, and Jesus gives it to us this morning Himself. Why do you call me Lord? And you don't do what I say. Jesus is addressing those who profess to be His disciples, and yet, their life betrays their profession. And so He challenges them about true discipleship. Jesus' point here is that true disciples not only confess the truth, they live it. True disciples not only confess the truth, they live it. Let's unfold that in two parts this morning. The challenging question about discipleship, and the challenging teaching about discipleship. And first of all, we have the challenging question about discipleship, and we've already read it. It's verse 46. Why? Why do you call me Lord, Lord? You don't do what I say. This question is searching, it's challenging. Jesus is leading these disciples, the people in this audience, to evaluate themselves in view of what he has just proclaimed. And one of the things that he is going to bring before them is what they are saying, the words they speak reduced to mere performance words. You know what performance words are? Performance words are the words that are said just right, but ring hollow. To get at what Jesus is saying here, we need to situate ourselves in the context. And so, the context is Jesus has been preaching a sermon, and the very word that's used in the outset of verse 46 indicates us that Jesus has moved from exposition now to what we would call application. And so what he is applying is the words he's just spoken here in this sermon. You can see that context for yourself back in verse 17, where it says, So we know what the context is here. It's Jesus' sermon on the plain. It's very clear to us this is not the Sermon on the Mount, and the reason we know it's not the Sermon on the Mount, even though the substance of this message has tremendous overlap with what we find in that Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, is that Luke goes out of his way to tell us that Jesus is not on the mountain. In fact, he's come down from the mountain, and he now stands on a level place. He stands at a plain, and in that great plain, he proclaims a bold message. And as you skim over the highlights here, you can see the substance of this. This constitutes the words that Jesus is thinking about in His question in verse 46. And so, we have beatitudes. He says, Blessed are those who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God, in verse 21. Blessed are you who hunger, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep, you shall laugh. But it feels from there, this is very command-heavy. Command heavy. And it comes in machine gun style. Verse 27. Love your enemies. Do good those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other. Whoever takes your coat, don't withhold your shirt. Give to everyone who asks of you. Whoever takes what is yours, don't demand it back. Love your enemies. Do good. Lend. Expect nothing in return, and your reward will be great. And your sons, you'll be sons of the Most High. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful." Then at the end of it all, just to make sure that we understand that this is not the proclamation of neo-legalism, Jesus clarifies how it is that a person lives like this, as we see in verse 45. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good. And the evil out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil. You see, Jesus gets to the bottom of it and he says it's about the nature of the heart. True discipleship begins with regeneration. It's not something that you can just sort of follow or practice. Christianity is not the religion of legalism and actions and works and just doing things mindlessly and by rote. Christianity is about being born again and from above. And Jesus is saying the only way a person can live up to the calling and the demands of discipleship is if they've actually had a real and genuine experience of grace. But the fact is the people here whom Jesus addresses claim to have had that. That's why the question here is so penetrating. I would have you notice here in verse 46 when Jesus addresses them, you, He's speaking to the very same people we find described in verse 17. And what does it say about them? There was a large crowd of His disciples. You see, that's people who claim to follow Christ. Claim to have had an experience of divine grace. We see they were probably earnest disciples because we learn that they had come from where? Well, Judea, Jerusalem, the coastal region of Tyre, Sidon. They've come from all over. Everyone that's there in that crowd that day had spent a lot of energy to get there. At some level, that tells us that there's an earnestness about them in following Christ. That they clearly identify as His disciples. We also learn something in verse 18 that might just tell us more about them and why He's challenging them the way He does. Because it says, they had come to hear Him. That's good. and to be healed. Now, because they've come to be healed, it shouldn't be a strike against them. Remember that great thing that Jesus said. I didn't come for the healthy. Praise God for that. Because if Jesus only came for the healthy, all of us would be sinking right down to hell. Jesus, I didn't come for the healthy. I came for the sick. There's nothing inherently wrong with the sick and the broken coming to Him and seeking healing. But the concern that Jesus has is that they're only about the external and the surface things. They need to seek and dig down into the heart to see whether what they want in Christ is spiritual. And so Jesus challenges these disciples now with the question in verse 46, and the very way he frames it indicates to us that he has real concerns. He says, what do you call? Call means attribute. Call means attribute something to someone. We have an example of Jesus using this word in Mark chapter 12. He quoted from Psalm 110.1, the words of David. It says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. And in context, Jesus says that David calls him Lord. That is his son. David calls his son Lord. And what Jesus is saying there is David attributes to his Son that which is unthinkable, Lordship. That He's divine. Jesus takes the attribution of David about Christ and He presses the point to the Pharisees. He says, I'm not blaspheming because I don't reprimand those who call me Lord. Attribute to me Lord. See, this is the language that is being used here. To call means to attribute. And the verb call is in the present tense. So it's not just that they did it once. This is a profession of faith. They claim to live their life this way. We are among the people who are in the class of those who keep on calling me, The next thing that we see here is emphatic. It's the pronoun me. Because literally this text reads me. You are calling. And whenever you put the pronoun in front of the verb that way, you're highlighting and you're making emphatic. So Jesus is putting himself in the spotlight and he's saying, whatever it is you're attributing, you are attributing it to me. You're saying this about me and the thing that they are saying, and this is the linchpin that holds together the confession, Lord, Lord, Now, here's where your famous liberal scholars and some of your very confused evangelical commentators seize upon the language and they know that Lord was a term of respect. It was a term of dignity. And for these disciples to come to him and call him Lord, Lord only meant that they thought of him with reverence. But clearly, Jesus is recognizing the thing that they are confessing about Him is true. They're not calling Him little El Lord, as if Master. They're calling Him God. And we can make that case for no other than the simple reason that Jesus says they are being held accountable to do His words. Well, who under heaven I command you! You see, clearly, Jesus knows His words are full of authority because He is God. And He has the right to be obeyed. So just imagine their confession of faith. They have come to Him with the most orthodox, airtight confession of faith you can imagine. It's filled in by the Nicene Creed. I get that. But it's all the same. You keep holy, Lord. Lord. I want us to understand this morning, people of God, that's not what Jesus is concerned about. Jesus is not concerned that they have confessed the right thing about Him. Their mouth confesses what is true. The problem that Jesus has with them is what they confess rings hollow Because as much as they keep repeating the right thing about Christ, their words are betrayed by their life. These are performance words. And now Jesus notes their failing performance as you read on in the text. Why do you call me Lord, Lord? And do not do what I say. Notice the conjunction and connects both sides of the verse here. It makes very clear that whatever follows here is inseparably connected to the confession. He's saying you're saying the right thing and you're not doing the right thing. You don't do my words. What are the words? Well, the words are everything that Jesus just spoke in the sermon. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, let them have the other also. Give to anyone who asks. Love your enemies. Do good. Live. Don't expect anything. Be merciful. Those are the words. And Jesus says, you keep calling me Lord, Lord, and you disrespect my lordship by not doing what I said. You identify as disciples, but you live like somebody else's people. Jesus asked the question for a reason. The reason is to confront people who identify as disciples. And that question comes across the centuries with all the same force and weight and gravity that it had in that very day to those people who were listening and heard it from Christ's very own mouth. The question is for us, does our life match our profession of faith? Are we confessing Jesus Christ as Lord, but not submitting to Him as King? Have we sought to separate Christ and His offices? The great office of Christ that we all love is the office of priest, that He shed His blood. That doesn't mean that he's not a prophet who speaks powerful words and it doesn't mean he's not a king that is owed subservience and obedience. In fact, the very basis of that lordship is the fact that he shed his blood. So that holds together inseparably now with the way we're to live for him. If we love the blood of Jesus Christ, we must love the words of Jesus Christ. We must love to seek obedience to Christ even though our sinful nature holds us back every step of the way. I'm well aware of that. Jesus is not preaching neologism, legalism, or Gospel. He's pressing home the claims of Christ. If we love Him, Jesus says we'll do His commandments. Because it shows that we've been changed by Him. So that's the challenging question. And now we have the challenging teaching about discipleship and it's based on a very clear message. And we can see that in verse 47. He says to those disciples now, everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I'll show you whom he is like. You start with the word everyone. It's as all-inclusive as you can get. There's no other way to say everyone than everyone. And it modifies all of the verbs here. We have three different verbs. We have come, we have hear, and we have act. And so it would say everyone who comes, everyone who hears, and everyone who acts. They're distributed to all three of the terms, and it means in every case. The conjunction and yokes all the verbs together, which means that they hang together on a string. They hold together. They are things that cannot be separated from one another. They are things that must hold together simultaneously. They are things which form a pattern. And so everybody in the class of disciple would be the kind of person who comes, would be the kind of person who hears, and the kind of person who acts. This is the genuine mark of the disciple. We know that because Jesus has asked the question, you don't do what I say. And now He is saying, let me clarify for you and make it painstakingly clear. I'm going to show you who the real disciple looks like. Notice the verbal actions. Come. It's a profession of faith. Jesus uses it here. Comes to me. Comes to thee. It's an expression of faith. It's a confession of faith. Maybe a couple of examples in Luke's Gospel will indicate that to us. Luke 9.23 says He was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after Me, He must deny Himself and take up His cross and follow me. What would it be to come after Him? It would be to profess His name and to confess Him as their Savior and Lord. The same thing would be true in Luke 14.27. He who does not carry his own cross and come after me. He can't be my disciple. So, come after me is a rough equivalent of confessing Jesus, the coming to him by faith, the calling upon him for salvation. The next word here is really obvious. Here would be obedience. It's somebody who takes the word of God and understands that these words are to be revered words. These are inspired words. They are heavenly words. They are God's words. They are authoritative words. And the one who hears them, hears them with their full way and divine authority, and acknowledges them as the very Word of Life. I think these disciples did that, by the way. I think as they listened to Jesus' sermon, that they hung on His every word. I don't doubt that. But it's the last thing that really gets you. Because Jesus says, does them. Acts on them. Does them. You see what Jesus is doing is He's parroting the language of v. 46 when He says, and do not do what I say. Now he's saying that everyone who's truly my disciple, he comes, he hears, and he does. You see, the genuineness of discipleship is manifested not just by our confession, not just by our hearing and attributing all the right theological things to say about the Word of God. We should be grateful when people do that. We should be grateful that people say all the right things about the Word of God, that it is truly divine, that it is truly inspired, that it is truly infallible, that it is truly authoritative, that it is truly sufficient. But Jesus says here's the next thing we do when we really believe that statement. We're doing it. And so this is what genuine discipleship looks like. Jesus says He's just like this. But then comes a vivid illustration. He says, I will show you whom He is like. You know, I guess one of the things that is attractive about Jesus is the way that He speaks. It's so simple. I think it's pretty clear already what Jesus is driving at when He speaks in the challenge of verse 46 and when He speaks in the clarifying tones of verse 47. But just in case we missed it, you know, I'm going to give you a picture. And the picture is one that's not too hard to identify with even though we're not all construction workers. I'm glad we do have some union workers in here that work construction and work with their hands. That's wonderful. I love it. Every church should have that. But even if we didn't do that, I think we have some sense of this. We've all grabbed a shovel and I hope turned dirt in the ground before. So Jesus says, I'm going to show you what this disciple looks like. And you know, He says, he's just like this man who was building a house. He dug deep and he laid a foundation on the rock. There's a lot in here and you know, I think we have to take all of this language in metaphorical and symbolic sense and it has to match the context. Jesus is clearly not talking about literally some guy building a house. I think in view of the context, it's fairly straightforward for us to say, the house is your life. The house is your life. The man is building his life. Right? I don't think that should be disputed. So how does he build his life? Well, Jesus says he's got to put it on a foundation. But in order for him to get it on that foundation, he's got to exercise some real spiritual elbow grease. And so Jesus says, or our translation says, who dug deep, Well, you know what's interesting? In the Greek here, it doesn't say dug deep. It says dug dug. It's a piling up of verbs for the sake of effect rhetorically. It's to reinforce the strength and the sense of the action. This is saying that the person who would be a disciple who truly follows Christ is the person who takes out the axe and the pick and the shovel and they expend spiritual diligence and energy building their life. What's in view obviously here is a reference to the topography in the land of Palestine because the surface of the land was a thin layer of dusty kind of dirt. but beneath it was this bedrock of limestone. And so what Jesus has in view is digging straight into that limestone to that which is granite-like and solid. And so what Jesus is saying, the person who would build his life according to Christ and as a true disciple would be the person who doesn't shortcut They spend their time with painstaking diligence, clear the dirt and clear the land, so that they get right down to the bedrock and the foundation. And you see, in view of the context, I can't imagine that that rock is anything but Christ. I can't imagine that rock is anything but Jesus Christ and the fullness of his offices. How do you build your life? Well, you've got to build it on top of Christ. You've got to build it on top of Christ and His truth. And so, the thing that I believe Jesus is saying here as He's reproving false discipleship, is He's saying that the believer who takes care of his life is the person who is constantly bringing it into contact with Christ and His truth. So He's building His life upon the blood of Jesus Christ. He's constantly taking his sins and all of his failings in the Christian life, he's constantly taking them to the Rock, which is Christ. But Christ is not just a priest. He is a prophet and he is a king, so he speaks words, and he is the Lord of Lords, he is our King, and so the person that builds his life is building it upon the threefold office of Christ. Now, here's the thing. No one was checking their watches this day because of what Jesus said next. And when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against them. You see, here's where all the yawns stop. Here's all the silly concerns about life stop. Because what Jesus is saying here in this moment makes every difference in the world to your life. How often have you heard this message? Well, more than once or twice. But the question is, are you doing it? And the way you know whether you're doing it is how your life holds up when calamity comes. And that's exactly what Jesus is speaking of here. He said, when a flood occurred, What is he thinking of here? He's thinking about the very world that they experienced themselves. And that world was such a world in which they didn't have Doppler radar, where they couldn't turn on their television set or radio and find out the latest satellite imaging forecast. And so you could wake up in Palestine and it could be a perfectly pristine, blue, not a cloud in the sky day. The next thing you know, you'd look up and you'd see a puff of smoke on the horizon. I kind of know what that's like because as a young man I worked on a ranch in the plains of Colorado. And you'd look off to the west into the majestic Pikes Peak and you'd see a little puff of cloud there and you'd think nothing of it. You're out in the middle of nowhere digging holes for fish. Two hours later, you start to feel drops of rain upon you. Because in that amount of time, here came that cloud and it built into a thundercloud. And the lightning strikes the ground there, which I had never seen before in California. And when it starts to rain, creeks and rivers form in the middle of the desert. That's what he's saying. You could wake up in Palestine on that kind of a day and plan the best outdoor party you could imagine. with balloons, and a jumper in the front yard for the kids, and the barbecue in the back, and everything that you'd ever wanted. And you woke up that morning, and you said, praise God, it is the perfect day for this. And then comes that little puff of cloud. And that cloud comes, and it doesn't just rain a little. The language here is so vivid. It said a flood occurred, and then a river. You see, that's how it works in Palestine, where it's dry. When the rain comes down, the little creeks turn into river, and the river turns into a tsunami. And whatever in its way gets destroyed. Unless it's built right. That's what Jesus is referring to, and the language here is violent. He says, when the flood occurred, the torrent burst against it. And it couldn't shake it. That language is violent, strong language. And here's the thing Jesus says, and it's almost a surprise the way it emerges in the original. It stood firm! It stood firm! And the reason is obvious, and that's because all of the care and the labor and the diligence that was put into building a life upon the rock. You see, people of God, this is why Jesus' teaching about discipleship matters. Because rivers and torrents come. And they shake your life. The wonder of Jesus' statement is that when you follow Christ and you submit to His Lordship, something wonderful happens. It's that you may be shaken. Your heart may even get broken. that your life won't get ruined. And so people of God, this is how we build. We build our life upon the Word. We build our life through prayer. We build our life in worship. We build our life in conjunction with the community of the saints. And when we build according to Christ, our lives stand. It's not because of our effort and because of our labor and because of our diligence. It's because of the faithfulness of God. It's because of the faithfulness of God that when He promises that He will sustain you when you apply yourself to the means, it will matter. I probably told you this story before, but I went and visited a man in the hospital who was dying of a very peculiar disease. One, there was no expert in any of the hospitals in the Inland Empire that knew about it, so they had to call over to UCLA. They had to bring in the best experts in the area. They found one man who knew about it. Do you know what his answer to that man was? You're going to die. Imagine nobody knows what's wrong with you except one man and he's the one that you think may bring you a hopeful answer and his answer is you're going to die. The man had spots coming out of his skin like a leopard all of a sudden. It was the strangest thing. As he sat there upon that hospital bed, I said, you know, I'm really struck by your demeanor. He says, I don't know what it is, but I feel okay. And I said, you know what that is? It's applying yourself to the Word and the sacraments for a whole lifetime. In that moment, God is with you. That's the torrent. The torrents come and it won't be the same for everybody. But the fact is when we apply ourselves in that way, there's strength for it. You see, what makes this all so important though, people of God, is the fact that not everybody does this. Some people who claim to be disciples spend their whole life pretending. And for the life of me, I don't know why. I've never known why people want to fool me. Because if you fool me, you didn't really do much. Because you didn't ever fool God. Why do people waste their time fooling? No one's fooled. And notice here the terrible reality of what Jesus speaks of here, because Jesus knows there are people who confess his name who are seeking to fool him. And Jesus says, you won't fool me. You won't fool the Lord God Almighty. He goes on in the vivid illustration and picture of true discipleship, and he contrasts it now with that which is counterfeit. The one who has heard. See that? Heard the words. He came. He said all the right stuff. He heard. Oh yeah, I believe in the inspired, infallible, inerrant word of the living God. Sixteen ounces of the pound. This is all true. And has not acted accordingly. Jesus is calling out counterfeit, false professors. I hope there aren't any here this morning, but if there are, you need to listen. If there are false professors here this morning, I need you to listen very carefully, because this is what's coming for you. It's like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation. The torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed. Notice the picture here, verse 39, 49, it says, This person builds his house on the ground without any foundation. What's different? Well, what's different is there's no dug-dug here. See? There's no dug-dug. Jesus said, "...as I command, who dug on a foundation." There's no dug-dug here in verse 49. This man thought he could cut He could cut through all of the hard work. He could make a shortcut of things. He could get it done fast. Well, he didn't dig down. He just slapped the house up on the surface, packed on a roof, and he started barbecuing in the backyard as he watched his poor neighbor out there with the pick and the shovel and the 100 degree heat, day after day after day, trying to build that house on a foundation. And he looked like the smart one, didn't he? Well, he probably claimed that he had all kinds of evangelical blessings coming down upon him and his brand new house with a two-car garage and a swimming pool in the back. And we know that means you're blessed to God because you've got a lot of stuff, right? Everybody knows that. We're all for happy Christianity and fun Jesus and nothing bad said. That's this guy. Oh, he confesses Jesus. Oh yeah, I love Jesus. But Jesus as well, do you? Because if you did, you'd have built upon me. But you didn't build. Cutting corners never helped. And Jesus shows why. A torrent burst against that house. It was a sunny day. And all of a sudden, that man heard an alarming sound. And that was the sound of thunder. And the gray clouds rolled over. And the torrent burst against it. And Jesus doesn't leave it for us to fill in the blanks. No. He puts the picture of calamity right in front of us and He says the ruin was great. All talk and no action leads to spiritual destruction. False discipleship ends in spiritual ruin. Let me take you back to the graveyard this morning. I watched dirt get thrown in the casket. There's no changing. And I thought, what is the measure of a life well lived? What is it? Do you want somebody to stand over your casket and eulogize you as a great man? I hope not. Or a great woman? I hope not. I don't think that matters to any one of us here What you want is to say, here lies somebody who is under the blood of Christ. They tried to live their life according to Him. And so this question here is a powerful one because it's one that doesn't allow us to walk away from this room this morning without asking a real question of ourselves. What is the measure of your life? What is the measure of your life? I didn't ask about your parents. I didn't ask about your brother or sister. I didn't ask about your husband or wife, your grandfather, your grandmother, or your uncle who's a preacher. I only asked about you. What is the measure of your life? How are you building? That question demands an honest answer and the reason it demands an honest answer is because the torrent is coming. And it will expose whatever path it is you've chosen. You can't negotiate with it. You can't fool it. And you can't start building when the torrent is coming. And so we either stand sound and firm, or we build on the surface. I plead with all of you here this morning while the sky is still blue, dig, dig. Now let me say this as I conclude. I'm very grateful that your testimony here this morning is that Jesus is Lord. And you said that because of the grace of God. And I'm very thankful to know that about you. And so my admonition to you this morning is pretty simple. Make double effort to confirm your profession is being matched in your life. Make sure your profession is matched in your life. And if it's not you, and you know it's you this morning, and you know who I'm talking to, if there's that person here, I need you to start dig digging. I call upon you with all of the love and earnestness I can plead with. Start digging. Build your life upon Jesus Christ. His shed blood, His powerful Word, and in submission to His sovereign kingship. There's no other way to live. Because as you do this, you can be sure when the torrent comes, your life won't be swept away in ruin. It will be crowned with the grace of Jesus Christ. May God bless your dig digging.