Many people today claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. They listen to His words and build their spiritual houses. Some are building wisely. Some are building foolishly. What makes the difference? It’s the foundation. It is critical that we take the time necessary to dig down and build on the solid rock. If we simply build in the shifty surface sand, we’re in grave danger.

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the most deadly hurricanes in United States history. It was the sixth most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the third largest ever to make landfall in this country. Katrina formed on August 23, 2005 and by the time it slammed into the Gulf Coast of the United States it devastated much of what was in its path. Media coverage of the storm was extensive, both as it approached the coast and in its aftermath. Particular media coverage was given to the city of New Orleans. Due to its massive size, Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast as far as 100 miles from its center. It was the eleventh tropical storm, the fifth hurricane, the third major hurricane, and the second category 5 hurricane of the storm busy 2005 Atlantic season. At least 1,836 people lost their lives in the storm and its successive flooding, making it the deadliest hurricane since the great Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928. Estimates of damage ran to $81.2 billion – the costliest in US history. Criticism and finger pointing for lack of preparedness was everywhere but the fact was that many simply did not heed the warnings of the storm’s approach and paid with their lives and property.

As devastating as Katrina and other storms have been to mankind however, there is a storm approaching us that is far worse. I refer to the storm that Jesus Christ warned about in the last words of His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. We’ll look at those words today.

This message will bring our series, Learning from the World’s Most Famous Sermon to a close. I’ve called today’s lesson, Getting Ready for Life’s Greatest Storm. After some of the finest teaching about preparedness man could ever know, Jesus closes His sermon with this grave and sober warning in Matthew 7:24-27.

Is your spiritual house ready for the storm Jesus refers to? I hope it is. But how would you know? What should you do? Please pay attention as we look more closely at Jesus’ final words in this important passage of Scripture.

Let’s notice first:

Though the Lord speaks of two groups of people who respond differently to His words, it is important to realize that both of them hear the warnings. They "get" His message.

"Everyone who hears these words of mine,." He says. Jesus isn’t speaking of those who have never heard His words. That issue is covered elsewhere in the Bible. He isn’t speaking of those who refuse to listen. Those, too, are dealt with elsewhere. If you and I are listening to His words now and perhaps have been through these previous sessions we’ve spent with the Sermon on the Mount, and perhaps even beyond that, then we have heard the things we need to hear to reach the right conclusion.

It is a wonderful thing when people are willing to listen to the words of the Son of God. We rejoice when we find such people today. If you are here listening to His words for the first time, the one-hundredth time, or the one-thousandth time, it is a good thing that you are willing to listen.

Many in Jesus’ day and ours revere His words and admire the wisdom reflected in them. They will pause respectfully and listen politely when His words are read. They may even say they subscribe to them. Certainly when Jesus said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine" He had in mind those who were and are open to His words, willing to give the courtesy of listening.

But the commonality ends as the "hearers" Jesus speaks of are suddenly split into two camps: "Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them" – that’s one camp - and "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them" – that’s the other camp. The great dividing factor is the doing and the not doing – or we could say, the obeying and the not obeying.

Jesus words here are similar to those He spoke in verse 21 of this chapter which we covered in last week’s sermon: "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven."

Doing the will of the Father and acting upon Jesus words are one in the same.

James wrote about some of those who hear but do not do in James 1:22: "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." Delusion in hearing is a big problem because by definition, if you’re deluded you don’t know it! If you knew of your delusion you wouldn’t be deluded. So "hearers who delude themselves" are people who think everything is OK because they are willing to listen. They don’t realize that Jesus expects them to act. They firmly believe that hearing is all there is to it. In the context of the church, they come, they sit, they listen, they leave – and that is the end of it. They take no further action.

James adds these words in verses 23-24: "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was."

The mirrors of that day weren’t the highly reflective sprayed glass versions we use today. The mirrors of the first century were crudely polished metal – sort of like the dim metal camping and backpacking mirrors we have today. If you’re going to figure out what you really look like in a mirror like that you’re going to have to look long and hard with the aim toward seeing what is really there. A quick glance and departure using a polished metal mirror leaves you no wiser than you were before you looked.

Jesus’ words back in our text in Matthew 7 describe two groups of hearers: "Doing hearers" and "non-doing hearers." With that in mind let’s look next at:

Jesus likens these two kinds of hearers to two men, each one building a house. As the Lord uses the language of a parable, the two houses correspond to the lives of real people. The builders are described as "a wise man" and "a foolish man."

When completed, probably neither house looked defective to the casual passerby. I say that because the significant difference was below ground, in the foundations of the houses. Foundations are not readily visible.

I grew up near a settlement in Northern California called Project City. It was named that because it is where the workers lived who built nearby Shasta Dam between 1938 and 1945. When I was a teenager there were many small houses in the area leftover from the project days. The local fire department referred to them as "dam shacks." Characteristically these houses had no foundation and no insulation because they were never built with the intention of lasting beyond the days of the project. When the dam was complete, the workers moved on and sold these houses to others moving into the area. The new owners would paint them, wallpaper them, and plant lawns in front of them. Treated this way a dam shack provided a decent looking dwelling for a low income person. But they were death traps whenever they caught fire.

I preached in Project City for twelve years. At one point during that time I taught and baptized a fellow named Lonnie. He and his wife lived in one of these "dam shacks." Lonnie was an alcoholic, but when he decided to become a Christian he pledged to put the booze behind him. It was a struggle for him, however. He went on a binge one night and his wife left him. In his sorrow and loss over her he went to the liquor store and bought some whiskey. Lonnie took the liquor home, drank it while smoking in the house, and fell asleep. The cigarette caught the house on fire and once it got going it consumed the whole place in a matter of minutes. Though fire department personnel arrived, Lonnie could not be saved. He died in the fire.

As the city grew, incorporated, and established a city government, one of the first orders of business was to begin to acquire these defective houses and destroy them because in reality, with their floor joists lying literally on the top of the bare ground, they were not safe. So it was with the house built on the sand in Jesus’ parable. It didn’t look defective to casual passersby – any more than the dam shacks for Project City. The danger Jesus mentioned wasn’t from fire. It was storms. Yet as long as there was no rain, strong wind, or flood, each inhabitant probably felt pretty good about the house he had built. The builder of one house however, had taken the time to dig the footing for a foundation that went right down to bedrock. To that bedrock he anchored his house. The other man, with the thought of saving time and effort perhaps, or just not seeing the need for a lot of "unnecessary" digging, just laid the stringers out on the top of the sandy ground and started building.

Many people today claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. They listen to His words and build their spiritual houses. Some are building wisely. Some are building foolishly. What makes the difference? It’s the foundation. It is critical that we take the time necessary to dig down and build on the solid rock. If we simply build in the shifty surface sand, we’re in grave danger.

So what is the "rock" Jesus refers to? By His own definition, the rock is His word or, as He puts it, "these words of mine." Think back in your mind through the words of the Sermon on the Mount. They tell of a kind of life that is very different from the world around. The beatitudes, loving enemies, controlling lust, saying no to the love of money, putting His kingdom first, judging and discerning truth from error – all these things and others contained in the Sermon on the Mount make up what Jesus calls "these words of mine." But it goes beyond that because Jesus taught other things during His ministry that should not be excluded. He also authorized His apostles to bind and loose teaching on earth. The "rock" Jesus speaks of would also then include the rest of the New Testament. He’s speaking of a life built on the teaching of the Bible.

What then is the "sand" Jesus refers to? Sand compared to rock is unstable and shifting. This is probably a reference to the changing and shifting philosophies of men and perhaps man-made religion. Remember, He has in His audience the scribes and Pharisees who were notorious for substituting their own traditions for God’s word. For us living today this would mean that we should build our lives on the unchanging and non-shifting standard of God’s word, not on the ever changing ideas, teaching, and speculation of men.

"Why would people build a house on shifting sand, anyway?" someone might ask.

One reason might be that it is easier and less time consuming. "Modern people just don’t have the time to excavate to get to bedrock, especially when there seem to be much easier ways to do it," someone says. The movement is on these days for church leaders who want to attract more people, to edit, abbreviate, water down, and reduce what Jesus taught to make it more acceptable and "user friendly." Such men encourage people to build their houses on sand because digging and anchoring to solid rock takes more time than many modern church goers are willing to spend. It is also popular these days to substitute talk about the latest theories of psychology and sociology – Dr. Phil stuff and Oprah type stuff which appeals to the feelings rather than the intellect, takes little effort or involvement, and just "seems so right" to those who care little for the words of the Son of God. "Surely these things seem much more "relevant" than the 2000 year-old book that is the Bible," they think. Yet these substitutes are often the very shifting sand that Jesus refers to. I say that because they come and go. Today’s fad very quickly becomes tomorrow’s addition to the reject pile – then it’s off to something or someone else. The word of God, my friends, doesn’t change. It is as relevant today as it ever was. But it takes time to dig down and anchor to it. Many are simply unwilling to do that.

Why would some build their houses on shifting sand? Another reason might be that others who have done so seem to be doing just fine. "I know plenty of people who have happy and satisfying lives who never crack a Bible," they say. Yes, that is probably true, but to really know if something is wise or foolish in this context, you must also look at such people when the trial and pressure is on. Only then can the true value be known. It wasn’t until "the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew" that the true strength of each house was seen in Jesus’ parable. No house leaks when the sun is shining.

One of the reasons some people come to Christ in times of crisis is that they wake up and realize that the life they’ve been building offers little or nothing in time of severe trouble.

A third reason some might build their houses on sand is because they don’t really believe the words Jesus spoke. Politely they listen, but then they go and do what they want, not what He taught. They don’t really believe it and simply don’t want to do it. It is too much of an imposition on the way they want to run their lives.

So how would a person begin building the foundation of his or her life on the solid rock of Christ’s word? Of course that’s what we’ve been talking about all these weeks we’ve studied the Sermon on the Mount. But to begin one must first get into His kingdom. That happens when we hear and accept His words and recognize Him for who He is - the Son of God come to earth to reveal what God is like. But it goes farther than that. A person must be willing to confess this belief before others. There must be a willingness to turn away from sin as Jesus defines it and turn toward Him in obedience. This is called repentance. One must then submit to be baptized in water according to His commandment for the forgiveness of sin. From there the person begins a life of learning to live for God – building it on His principles and His teaching. Yes, all this takes time, just as building any foundation takes time. It involves more than just a passing glance in the mirror. It takes a commitment not only to learn His word but to do the things that are learned. In time, however, as I know many of you here can testify, stability begins to rule in your life. Confidence against life’s biggest storms sets in. Your life doesn’t fall apart every time there is a crisis and you are confident against life’s greatest crisis – the Day of Judgment.

We’ve considered the hearers and their houses in this final passage of the Sermon on the Mount. Now need now to consider:

"The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against" each house, Jesus said.

This storm could refer to either of two things. It could refer to the struggles and trials of this life – things like serious illness, loss of a loved one, betrayal and divorce by a mate, or any number of devastating issues that are all too common in life.

Having the foundation of your life anchored firmly to the rock of God’s word in times like this can give hope and stability when it seems like everything around you is being washed away. Even in the face of death the true Christian knows that it is not the end of life – but actually the beginning of a life far better.

Far more likely than the trials of this life though, I think Jesus was referring to the great trial of judgment. That is what He was talking about in the verses immediately above these in the text. Remember what He said in verse 22-23? "Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"

When Jesus said "on that day" He was referring to the Day of Judgment. So, too, I believe that is what He is talking about in describing this storm that beats against each house. It is the storm of the ultimate judgment of God.

At this point I have a confession to make. Conventional wisdom among preachers often dictates that a sermon is ended on a positive note – something that gives hope and encouragement. I really like to do that and try to practice it whenever I can. However, I want you to notice the final four words Jesus used to end the Sermon on the Mount. They are in verse 7. Do you see them?

Speaking of the house built on sand He said, "Great was its fall." Those were the words that He left echoing in the ears of all those who listened to His sermon on that day so many years ago. "Great was its fall." Not a very positive ending, is it? Yet this is the Son of God speaking. If He ended negatively, then that is the way it should have been done.

So how great is the fall that results when you don’t build your life on the solid rock of Christ’s words? Listen to what the rock of God’s word says:

Matthew 25:46: "These will go away into eternal punishment."

Revelation 19:20: "These… were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone."

Revelation 21:8: "Their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

These verses and many more like them tell us just how "great" the fall is when the storm of judgment slams into a person whose life is built on sand.

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life," wrote Priscilla Jane Owens in the well-known hymn of the church.
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift, and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift or firm remain?

Will your anchor hold in the floods of death,
When the waters cold chill your latest breath?
On the rising tide you can never fail,
While your anchor holds within the veil.

Perhaps you are confident today with the house you are building. If so, that’s great. I hope your assessment is true and accurate when compared to God’s word. But perhaps you know, even as you hear these words today - that you’re building on sand. You’ve known it for a long time but now, for a moment at least, you see it clearly. If that is the case, what will you do? Leave things as they are and face a torrent that will sweep you away into a Christless eternity or start building a new house on the solid rock of Christ’s teaching?

If you would like to commit yourself to building your life on the teaching of Christ, or perhaps having fallen by the way, you would like to recommit yourself to the same, why not step up to the front here and let it be known? I say step up to the front because sometimes you need to take an open stand while your mind is in the right place. (How many times do we think, "I need to do that someday!" But someday never comes.) If you make it known that you wish to start living for Christ or recommit yourself to Christ, we’ll help you with Bible study to get you started. If you’ve never been baptized we’ll show you how important that is in scripture and make arrangements to get it done.

Whatever your need, as the music begins, if you wish to make it known, step out and tell the rest, "I want to build my house on the teaching of Christ." Will you come and do that?

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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