Sermon on the Mount
Part 8
“The Surest Foundation”
Matthew 7:24-29 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”
_________________
As we come to the close of The Sermon On The Mount—The Greatest Message Ever Preached—we’ve seen that Jesus covered virtually every key area of life:
From the Beatitudes and the Kingdom character qualities that bring blessing…
To how to handle persecution, to our purpose as salt and light…To keeping your heart free of anger, hatred, and lust.
Then the command to love our enemies, to the necessity of forgiveness, and to the right motives for prayer, fasting, and giving.
Then Jesus moved to the importance of what your treasure is, and of not serving money over God, and of not worrying about your life.
Then in chapter 7 he taught about the right and wrong kind of judgment, the importance of persevering in prayer, the two roads to life, and the reality of true and false Christians.
______________
And now we come to the grand finale—Jesus’s final word to wrap it all up is on the importance of your undergirding foundation.
He uses the illustration of a house and the foundation its built on.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”—vs. 24
The house in the illustration is your LIFE.
It includes everything that makes up your life—your worldview, ethics, morals, beliefs, and the principles that guide you when making decisions.
Your house also includes your walk with God, your earthly relationships, your eternal destiny and your divine purpose.
Jesus said that all these things that make up your life should be built on and flow out of the teachings he just delivered in the Sermon on the Mount—as well as the rest of God’s word.
If you not only hear them but put them into practice, your house will be built on a rock foundation!
And that foundation is Jesus Christ!
________________
The key is not just hearing them, but DOING them, obeying them, making them the non-negotiable guiding lights of your life.
The Apostle James wrote:
“And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. So don’t fool yourselves. 23 For if a person just listens and doesn’t obey, he is like a man looking at his face in a mirror; 24 as soon as he walks away, he can’t see himself anymore or remember what he looks like. 25 But if anyone keeps looking steadily into God’s law for free men, he will not only remember it but he will do what it says, and God will greatly bless him in everything he does.”—James 1:22-25
So it is when we put Jesus’s teachings into practice (as well as the rest of the whole Bible’s teaching) that we will be blessed!
_____________
Then NEXT the Lord addresses the storms that inevitably come and beat on both the foundation and the house you’ve built to test how wise you were as a builder!
“25 And the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house;”
This is a big storm!
The word “beat” means to “rush violently upon, to slam against.”
This is a storm that brings you to your knees, just like the disciples in the storm at sea cried out to Jesus,
“Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”—Matt 8:25
The storm Jesus describes comes in stages—first rain, then a rising flood, and to top it all off, howling, destructive winds that all together slam against the house, threatening to destroy it.
________________
But we note in the parable that the houses fate isn’t dependent on what color of brick was used, or the beautiful landscaping, or whether it is one or two story, or about what kind of wood its framed with….
No, it’s fate is decided by one thing only—the foundation it’s built on!
Paul the Apostle says this about foundations in 1 Cor. 3, “God, in his kindness, has taught me how to be an expert builder. I have laid the foundation and Apollos has built on it. But he who builds on the foundation must be very careful. 11 And no one can ever lay any other real foundation than that one we already have—which is Jesus Christ.”
Paul says if you’re wise you will build your house on the rock foundation of Jesus Christ!
_______________
Now, whereas Jesus talked about a storm testing the foundation, Paul talks further in 1 Cor. 3 about our foundation also being tested when we give an account of our life to God:
“13 There is going to come a time of testing at Christ’s Judgment Day to see what kind of material each builder has used (to build their life). Everyone’s work will be put through the fire so that all can see whether or not it keeps its value, and what was really accomplished. 14 Then every workman who has built on the foundation with the right materials, and whose work still stands, will get his pay. 15 But if the house he has built burns up, he will have a great loss. He himself will be saved, but like a man escaping through a wall of flames.”
So every wise man and woman starting out in life should lay the foundation of Jesus Christ, and then build their life on His teachings.
Jesus promised that the house built on Him will survive the fiercest storm:
“The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”
_________________
Then the Lord tells the sad tale of the person that hears His words but doesn’t follow through by living it out, obeying it, doing it.
“26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”—vs 26-27
Jesus says this person built their foundation on SAND.
Though having heard of Jesus, they don’t receive Him as the Savior, Guide, Lord, and Teacher.
They say they believe in Him but their lifestyle says otherwise.
Instead of doing what Jesus taught, they embrace worldly philosophies and beliefs as their guiding principles.
They choose secularism, ungodly, worldly morals, false hopes, unbiblical beliefs about God, eternity, heaven, hell, what life is about, why we’re here, and so on.
They build a worldly worldview, patterned after the false thinking of a fallen world.
They don’t live for God, they live for self.
They turn a deaf ear to the Lord’s warnings and take lightly his goodness to them.
They build their life on false hopes regarding their soul, the afterlife, and what will one day gain them entrance into heaven.
Even though the outward, visible house may look extremely impressive and gain the admiration of everyone around them, one day the storm comes.
It may be a great financial storm, or a marital storm, or a medical storm, or some other unforeseen, pounding storm that beats against the house you’ve built and it cannot stand because the foundation is bad!
—Very quickly the foundation of sand is washed away by the flood and the whole house crashes!
Notice the Lord’s emphasis—it didn’t just crash during the storm, it fell with a “GREAT CRASH.”
The beautiful house built on a faulty foundation collapses with a bang.
What looked so impressive comes crashing down and the story is told—they built on sand.
We see it all the time—Movie stars with gajillions of dollars, fame, and fortune suddenly die of a drug overdose, or lose all their earnings, or we read of just how miserable they are as people.
The image presented is not the reality that was.
Or there is the business tycoon that seemingly has the world by the tail and suddenly takes his own life, or loses everything in the stock market, or is shown to be involved in some kind of crime.
And at that moment they have no idea who to turn to or what to do as they wake up in a pile of ashes.
They had a great looking life on the outside, but the foundation doesn’t serve them in time of storm.
________________
But the ultimate crash comes when a person faces God to give account of their life.
Romans 14:12 “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”
At that solemn moment the sand they built their life on is quickly washed away.
They stand naked and helpless before the God to whom they must answer for how they lived the life God gave them.
Jesus was not the foundation of their life, and they did not build their life around Him.
Suddenly they realize their hopes have been false, their beliefs were wrong, and they spent their entire life chasing illusions.
And at that awesome judgment their house “falls with a great crash.”
________________
In closing, notice the reaction of the people to Jesus’s teaching: “28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”—vs. 28-29.—In other words, they realized Jesus was the real deal!