When the series parables of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 7,
please open your Bibles. Matthew Chapter 7, it's actually
continuing. It's still the Sermon on the
Mount starts in Matthew 5, but it continues and we're still in
the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to pick it up from
verse 13 of Matthew Chapter 7 verse 13 says enter by the
narrow gate for why does the gate broad is the way that leads
to destruction. There are many who go by it
because narrow is the gate. Notice this please will you?
If you think Christianity is difficult, it is Jesus said so
difficult is the way which leads to life.
You ever heard life not meant to be easy?
Bible says that and there are few who find it tonight.
You found it then he says beware of false prophets who come to
you in sheep's clothing. Inwardly they are ravenous
wolves. You'll know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn
bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears
good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
That's how you tell what sort of belief and whether they are they
are false or true. A good tree cannot bear bad
fruit, nor can a bad tree, a cult, bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down, thrown
into the fire. Therefore now he said all this
every time you see you, therefore you ask what's it?
Therefore, based on what I've just said, Jesus says, therefore
by their fruits you'll know them.
You can tell if someone's a Christian by their fruits.
Now then he adds more detail. So we're seeing Jesus giving us
wisdom about and and remember he'd been preaching about the on
the Sermon on the Mount about the Pharisees.
Oh, I know we we give, we tithe, you know, you know, we do all
the right things and Jesus, no, no, it's it's not about what you
do action outside just that the thoughts of your heart, the
attitudes of your heart. They tell us who you really are.
And now Jesus adds some more. He says not everyone who says to
me, Lord, Lord, and notice this is the most, I think scariest
verse in the Bible. Not everyone who says to me,
Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom of heaven.
You say Jesus is Lord doesn't necessarily mean you're going to
go to heaven, but he and now here is the one who is going to
go to heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, day of judgement, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in your name cast out demons in your
name done many wonders in your name and then Jesus says I will
declare to them I never knew you depart from me.
You who practise lawlessness. Verse 24.
Therefore, here's another. Therefore, what's it there for,
based on what I've just said? Therefore, back on what I've
just said, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I
will liken him to a wise man who build his house on the rock.
And the rain descended. That's when things get
difficult. The floods came, the winds blew
beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on
the rock. Yeah, he's going to do a
comparison. But everyone who hears so they
hear these sayings of mine, what's the difference?
And does not do them. Will be like what a foolish man
who built his house on the sand. The rain descended, floods came,
all the problems of life difficulties, the winds blew
beat on that house. What was the difference?
His life fell apart. It fell, and great was its
fault. So it was when Jesus head into
these sayings that the people were astonished at His teaching,
for He taught them as one having authority and not as the
scribes. During the Sermon on the Mount
Jesus said, man it has been said and because the Pharisees never
quoted themselves, they would say Pharisee halal says this and
they quote But Jesus said it has been said, but I say unto you,
he was saying, Now listen to what I say.
In the closing paragraph of Jesus Sermon on the Mount,
Christ pictures two men each building their family home or
their lives. One man worked feverishly to
build his house and does not think about a solid foundation.
Up it goes to withstand future storms, floods, and winds.
Jesus calls. Jesus calls this man, verse 26,
the foolish man. There is another man.
He too is building his home, building his life.
He's called the wise man verse 24.
So the story is simple. The parable is simple.
Two men building their homes. 1 is wise, the other is foolish.
So what's the difference? But the story, though simple, is
a very real powerful and dramatic commentary on people
who know Jesus words and either do them.
That's the difference, or don't do them.
But the result between those people is worlds, and as Jesus
says, Lord, Lord shall not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Eternities apart. You could say the difference
between heaven and hell. In verses 13 to 14 we saw that
Jesus began the close to his sermon and he did so with an
invitation and by the narrow gate.
For why does the gate brought? It is the way that leads to
destruction. There are many who go in by it
verse 14 because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way
which leads to life and there are a few who find it.
We should say each time someone says I'd like to become a
Christian, we should we should lay out the warnings.
Guess what, everyone's going to get hard now instead of what
what do what do well meaning Oh, it's just going to be so
wonderful. You know, Jesus is going to come
here and you're going to walk on a bit of roses and they go home.
First thing that happens, there's division in the family.
They're called an idiot and what's, what have you done?
You go crazy and they go, oh, I, I went to church and I told her
and I reckon I'm, I've gone mad. They just treat me looking so
different. When you become a Christian,
when you become a follower of Christ, the world hates you.
There's a change. If you truly are born again, all
of a sudden you're not welcome to enter the narrow gate onto
the narrow way that leads to life.
Jesus told us it would not be easy for two basic reasons.
False prophets would deceive many.
Oh no, you don't have to worry about that.
Hey, Jesus loves you. You know it's all good.
No, just carry on and they would send you on the Broadway.
Many people will falsely profess Christ and deceive themselves.
Jesus said there would be people who verbally profess to belong
to the Kingdom of God but won't do what Jesus said.
The reality is, Jesus said that they are not true Christians.
We could say the first group deceived by false prophets have
empty words. Paul warned us in in the last
days. Perilous times would come.
People would reject the truth and they would drift after those
who would scratch them behind their ears.
That feels. I felt so good.
Remember, coming to church is not about feeling good.
You know, if you went to hospital, I've come to the
surgeon because I just want to
feel good. Well, let me just get this big
needle and like go to the dentist.
It's not like I've come to the dentist because I just want to
really feel good. You know, I feel happy.
No, it's to get something fixed. The second group, they're worse.
They're not deceived by prophets.
They're deceived by themselves. And they have all the words, but
they have empty hearts. Again, in verses 24 to 27, Jesus
reminds us again of God's standard of righteousness.
What is that? The Sermon on the Mount says?
God's standard of righteousness to get into heaven is what you
know, what perfection you go, Well, no one can get into
heaven, correct? You need Christ's righteousness
upon your life for you to get into heaven.
That's what the cross is about. He exchanged, he took our sin
upon himself, remember, and he put his righteousness upon you.
So when God the Father looks upon you, he sees you are
covered by the blood of Christ, which as we take communion for
the remission of what all our sins, unless your life is built
on God's standard, you won't last stones and you know world,
the world's going to get worse. I read today, just tonight in
the South China Sea where many of our Australian Navy people
say if there's going to be a war, Australia will go to war
with China. That's what our own sailors are
saying. Because they're they're armed,
they're not just having toy bullets, blanks, they are
actually armed sailing in the South China Sea.
But right at this moment, the US, I can't remember the name of
the aircraft carriage, just lost my mind, part of my mind.
They and some other vessels are in the South China Sea too, and
it says the American ships are there and the Chinese ships
aren't moving. Watch this space.
Unless your life is built on God's standard, you won't last
storms and your life will be washed away by the flood, as was
the billions who heard Noah's preaching 120 years of it but
refused to repent and turn to God.
Because the only way you come into the Kingdom of God is to
repent of your sins, call on God and ask Him to forgive you and
then receive the forgiveness of Christ.
And not carefully. Jesus says it does not matter
how much you know. Yeah, I've come across people
who actually study the Bible. They're atheists.
Don't know if you've ever come across people.
I have, You know, you go out to these functions.
And when I was with the police, we used to go a lot of the
dinners and things and sit with people.
We we had no idea. And.
And like. Oh, yeah.
Well, I actually, I've studied the Bible.
I studied at university. I did this.
Oh. So you believe it?
No. And so people, they, they can
know all about the Bible. And there are, then there are
the other group of people who are busy and then we see them.
It's kind of like the Australian culture.
They're a great person. They'll go to heaven.
You know what, they're always at the soup kitchen, they're always
cutting someone's lawn. They're always doing that.
They're they're great. They're nice people, always
doing something to someone. It's not how feverishly or busy
you conduct your spiritual activity.
So the two builders, the two builders according to Jesus have
both heard his message, heard his words.
Then at the end of verse 24 and 26, we said we read of the two
men building their houses. Both have listened and both are
involved in spiritual activity. Can't tell any difference
between the two. Like the four types of hearts
and the parable of the sower on the sea.
The first parable we did, you know, each one of the four types
of soil all heard the word, All of them.
But only one type of the soil received the word and then bore
fruit in its lives. One out of four.
Maybe they both belong to the same church, these two men.
Maybe they both read the Bible. Maybe they attended the same
meetings. But there's one huge difference
between the foolish one and the wise one.
What is that? One man is wise because he
builds on a rock. The other man is a fool because
he builds on sand. And note with me too, once the
houses are built, you can't tell what's under the under the
house. Both beautiful houses, House A
exhibit House B exhibit 2 builders, beautiful job.
They look amazing. Both both lovely.
What Jesus is saying is very simple.
Many people hear Christ teaching, but it's those who
obey his teaching that get into the Kingdom.
That's the bottom line. I need to pastor Israel referred
to it in Second Corinthians. I need to examine my life and
see if I'm a hearer only and not a doer as well.
Because if you are, you deceive yourself that you are a
believer. While I went to church, I heard
the message didn't make any difference the way you lived.
James chapter one verse 22 But be doers of the word, and not
hearers only deceiving your own selves, James says.
James goes on to say, For if any, be a hearer of the word,
and not a doer, he is like unto a man, beholding his face and
glass. He beholds himself, he sees, and
he goes away, and he forgets all about what he looked like.
But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, Christ,
and continues therein, he is not a forgetful hearer, but he's a
doer of the work. In other words, I live my life
now driven because I know what Christ has done for me.
I haven't forgotten about it. Jesus said the storms that come,
and we're all going to face storms.
Everyone of us, all of us will face a big storm.
It's called death. And that will reveal the truth.
Who is wise and who is foolish. But you don't want to have it
revealed after death too late. So Jesus highlights our
similarities in the story. First, both men build a house.
Both were involved in spiritual activity that has to do with the
Kingdom of God. Both build the houses in the
same location, I believe, because we're told both houses
were subject to the same storm, same winds, same flood.
Thirdly, both of their buildings are so similar we can't tell the
difference. But Jesus says the only
difference was in their foundation, what the houses were
built on. So we look at the foundations.
Verse 24, it says that one man build his house upon a rock.
It's the Greek word Petra. It's a rock bed, solid rock.
The wise man build his house on a rock bed.
One Corinthians 311 Paul says for no other foundation can
anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
So he's to be the foundation. Verse 26 says the other man
build his house upon the sand. It's the Greek word, come on,
that is his house is built on sand, just like the beach, beach
sand. The false prophets, by the way,
in verses 15 to 20, they're the real estate agents selling you
the sandlots. Come and build here.
Come and live your life here. Jesus rebukes the religion of
the Pharisees in his Sermon on the Mount because they had no
regard for spirituality of soul. Theirs was all outward.
Jesus said, yeah, yeah, all nice and white, painted like, like
the dead man's tombs. You're all nice and white on the
outside, but inside you're full of death.
They had no purity of heart. They had no integrity, and their
behaviour was not in obedience to God.
They were building their big spiritual structure on sand.
But the wise man, he builds his life on rock.
Verse 24 What does it mean to build your life on rock?
You know what does that actually look like?
It is that we are building our lives on everything God tells
us. Psalm 18, Verse 2 The Lord is my
rock. The rock is Christ on Peter 26,
He is the chief cornerstone. That's part of it.
However, in the context of Christ's sermon, there is more
to building on the rock than just saying, Oh my life is built
on Christ. Because verse 24 and 26 tell us
plenty who The Who the rock is. Jesus said, Whoever hears these
sayings of mine and does them qualify, I will liken him unto a
wise man to build his house upon a rock.
That's the difference. It is the people who hear and do
what Christ commanded that build their house on the rock.
So a young couple are thinking of getting married.
They start a relationship. Sorry.
They start, they begin seeing one another.
They see what the Bible says about how we should conduct
ourselves. We're not married, you know, so
we shouldn't have any premarital sex.
We shouldn't be living together. We should be separate.
And then they prepare. So they prepare.
How are we going to live? Are you the right person that
I'm to marry? Let's pray about, you pray
about. I'll pray about.
Let's go to God, see what God says about the matter.
You see, that's how you're building your house upon a rock.
You don't just go, oh, he's lovely or she's fantastic.
Doesn't work that way. The Lord is saying that the
person who only hears God's word but doesn't act on it is
building on sand. So what does the sand represent?
If Jesus is the rock, what's the sand represent?
Here's what the sand represents. Human will.
This is what I'm going to do. I know the Bible says that this
is what I'm going to do. OK, It's opinion.
Well, I've spoken to my friends and they say what I should do is
this. Everyone lives together, so we
should live together. And attitudes, the world's
attitudes. A foolish person builds his life
on the shifting sands of human philosophy.
And this isn't interesting. How the study of human
philosophy has changed since you went to school.
How come? How come it, How come the
raising of children has changed again, again and again and
again? Oh, we've done a great job,
haven't we? That's why I love the Bible.
Doesn't change. God doesn't change.
Truth doesn't. See, truth doesn't change.
Philosophy does, Pastor John Miller says.
What is philosophy? He says it's a blind man put in
a dark room, told to look for a black cat that doesn't exist.
He or she who builds on sand listens to God's Word.
They hear it, but they're not established on the rock.
Yeah, I know what the Bible says, but we're not doing it.
I'm not going to do that. I know the Bible says this is
how I should raise my children, but you know, I don't believe
that. Well, I think there's a better
way. The wise man that hears God's
word and builds his life on it. He's building on a rock
foundation. He lives the life of obedience.
I love that when I first got saved, how long I first got
saved, there are things we didn't know about what to do
about giving, about tithing about, you know, grace offerings
about serving in the in the church and things.
And every time I came up, the gifts that are there speaking in
tongues. Oh, did I mention that other
things like that and they're that are in the Bible and I went
well, if they're in the Bible and God says that's what we're
to do. I've got to change my mind.
I've got to do what the Bible says.
You know, it's a life of obedience.
John 830 Jesus said as he spoke these words, many believed on
him, says that as Jesus spoke, many believed on him.
They listened to Christ. And in verse 31 of the same
passage in John 8, Jesus added, but he says, oh great, he added,
if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples Indeed.
You see, if we just hear and believe doesn't mean anything
because you know what the devil does?
He hears, he believes that make him build a life built on the
rock. No, James says, no, it's when we
continue to obey the word of God that we build our lives on the
rock. James told us that be doers of
the word, not hearers only. In other words, if you are not a
doer of the Word, then it is not having any effect on your life
or destiny. It's not changing you.
You're not changing to the word. Building your life on the rock
means obedience. Again, examine your life.
Ask yourself, do you desire more than anything else, more than
anything else, to obey the word of God or do you continually
justify yourself whilst you're living in disobedience?
We're going through Daniel. They never justified themselves
ever. Daniel didn't.
Neither did Shadrach, Meshach or Abednego.
Never said, well, things are tough.
You know, we're we're away. We don't have our family,
there's no temple. And listen, we don't have
friends around us. Who's to know?
No, no, no, That's what we're learning, how to live righteous
in a fallen world. The apostle John really hits at
home and he says our obedience, our obedience is a sign of our
salvation. If you want to know how can I
tell if someone's a Christian, I recommend you read first John,
second John, and 3rd John, but particularly read very carefully
and slowly. 1 John, Throughout Christ's Sermon on the Mount,
the obedient life is described by Jesus.
He is the obedient believer. He says you assault, you are
light and you're in the world, but you're not part of it.
It does not seek to alter the Bible.
I don't seek, well, I know I don't like this part of the
Bible. I don't seek to alter my moral
standards on living are based on God's word, not what you know
the the fashions of the day say, but of the foolish man.
You see, it's easy to build on sand.
It's easy to go along with everyone else because you don't
have to dig. It's no effort.
Now we lived in Coogee at one time we put up a fence and the
boys were across the net and Israel were I don't have food,
ain't living some or younger. We dug one side.
It was solid limestone. It took us 3-4 days and it
killed us and we're trying to put super 6 fencing into the
ground everywhere. It was just so it was just, it's
hard. You have to dig, but that's the
way of life, the way of life on the Broadway.
It's easy, easy Christianity, easy.
Just go to church and don't, and just live like everybody else
and go to church. You can do what you want and
carry all the garbage with you. You don't have to change or
anything. Now a fool builds this way for
two reasons on sand. One, he's in a hurry.
Proverbs 2820 A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but
he that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
A fool is always looking for shortcuts and quick results.
I worked with the man in the Department of Education who was
originally a Carpenter and then he went into teaching manual
arts and then supervisor Superintendent.
I said, you know, So what? What was the big deal for you
learning how to be a good Carpenter?
He said this easy, don't learn the tricks of the trade, learn
the trade. People say no, no, you'll learn
the trade. Learn the trade.
Jesus says no one should build a tower until he has counted the
cost. We should say that to someone.
Every time they say, I think I want to become a Christian,
well, there's a cost. Luke 1428.
The one who builds on the sand is superficial.
They say they believe in God. They accept the gospel.
If there's no evidence in their life to confirm it, we can't
tell when their house begins to collapse.
They just look for another Sandlot to build.
The wise man is not in a hurry. That's one of the greatest
lessons I've learned in my life. Whenever I made mistakes, I was
always in a hurry. My biggest mistakes was always
made in haste. If you have a decision and it's
a big decision, I don't care if it's a big small decision and
someone says hurry up, make that decision.
Stop, not pause. I'm not.
No, since I hear that alarm bells go off.
Now. Danger.
If a salesman comes to our house
and he's trying to sell, you got to sign today of your deals
only. OK.
Come walk, man.
I walk him out the door and I say see you later.
I don't want to talk with you. Don't make decisions, any
decision in a hurry. God is never in a hurry.
You go. Well, what if I miss out?
No, you don't miss out if you obey the will of God.
He dug deep. The wise men dug deep.
He dug deep for the rock. What's that?
God's word? What does God want to know about
this? He blew away the sand of human
opinion and self will. He counted the cost.
Later in Matthew 13, the parable of the sower of the seed, verse
20 to 21, there were Stony places where the seed fell.
I'm a Christian person, but as soon as the the demands of God's
words, it's difficult. You mean I've got to go to
church all the time? You mean I've got to pray or
read the Bible? You mean I can't do this, can't
do that? Stop.
No, you can do all that stuff, just can't be a Christian.
This is a choice. The wise man gives maximum
effort. Those who dig deep show a desire
to give maximum effort. Let me give you the figures from
a crusade, recent crusade, they're startling.
You know these massive crusades, 28,000 people professed
conversion on paper. At this crusade 28,000 people
came and said you don't want to have Jesus sin, sin his prayer.
9600 people were baptised. So it's dropping fair bit. 123
people only were added to the church, 123 out of 28,000.
Again the problem, the problem is not the difficulty of follow
up, it's the haziness of true conversion.
We cannot follow up people who were never redeemed.
It's not going to make any difference.
People say well we have to get converts and do a follow up
programme. No, why can't we just leave them
to the Holy Spirit? When I got saved, when Helen got
saved, we didn't need a follow up programme.
We needed restraining from doing too much.
We were, we just, it was everything.
Our lives changed. We were born again in a real
conversion. In a real conversion, God will
do his work. The person who digs deep is also
teachable. I wanted to learn everything.
I didn't know anything about the Bible.
I needed to know what do I do? How do I live?
How am my husband now? How am I to be a father?
How am I to be a worker? How should I work?
The Pharisees weren't teachable. You couldn't tell him anything.
The person who digs deep gets rid of his self righteousness
and self sufficiency. It's all finished.
It's nailed on the cross. He knows he's not commendable
and it's and he's overwhelmed by his sin.
That's what I was, and you strive to enter into the narrow
gate, and you place Scripture in your heart so that you won't sin
again against God. Psalm 100 and 1911, David says
thy word. I hid in my heart that I might
not sin against you. So what happened when the storm
came? What are the storms?
Floods of sickness, floods of poverty.
You lose your job, disappointments, all that didn't
work out, relationships, bereavements, death.
These are storms. They're all going to hit your
house, all going to hit your life.
Everything's going to be revealed in the storm.
Everyone in this world will encounter a storm.
Once sent from God, some will stand and others will collapse.
Great. Was the fall of the man built on
Santa. I've got some other things I was
going to finish off, but I want to finish on this.
Pastor Israel and I went to Hollywood Hospital today.
We caught up with Leon, saw him, he's had his operation.
Pastor Israel prayed with him and we read some scriptures and
we talked with him. And I've got to tell you, he was
smiling. His skin colour was good.
He's put on some weight. He's changing his what he's
eating, hoping to be home soon, maybe in a week, two weeks,
We're not sure yet. We don't know.
But I said to Leon, suddenly you've been in hospital
basically around about a year. Is that long time anyway, eight,
well, eight weeks, that part there.
But he's been sick longer anyway.
So he says, well I've been in the Bible.
So I said, and I shared with him, you now have been through a
dark time in your life. You could have said why?
How come? But he was there smiling at
peace with God. So the storm came, hit a 16 year
old kid, flood came. His house was not built on sand.
He could have been angry, upset. How come me, why?
Why can't I end up losing weight?
Look at me, I can't get out of bed.
Can't do this. But you see, because his house
is built upon rock, his salvation is sure he's going to
come out of this and he'll have a greater understanding and
experience of of the traumas and storms of life at just the age
of 16. You see, the difference is found
out when the storm hits. I pray that you're aware that
your life is built upon the rock and that's not sitting on sand.
Let's pray. Father, we ask for your grace
and mercy to be with us. Lord, let us realise that a
faith that cannot stand trial is not a faith to be trusted in
that, a faith that costs nothing in the sense of religion and
consists in nothing but hearing and not doing.
There's a faith that gives us nothing or our faith is in you,
in your work. And Lord, we're so thankful that
you never forsake us nor leave us.