Two Builders

I guess technically it still is, but this will be our last installation of this particular series on the parables, and we are in Matthew chapter 7, beginning in verse 24 to the end of the chapter. Children, here are your questions for this morning.

First, why should we listen to what Jesus teaches? Two, what is the key difference between wise hearers of Jesus’ words and foolish ones? Three, what is the foundation of a house? Four, if the foundation of our life is faith in Jesus, where do we find instructions for building on that faith? And five, who is helping you to learn how to hear and do what the Bible teaches. Matthew chapter 7, beginning in verse 24, this is the word of God.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because It had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. For he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. There ends the reading of God’s word.

Let’s pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. You have spoken and we have heard and we trust that already you’ve touched our hearts. Lord, but as we move into the preaching of your word, we pray that you would continue to minister to us through your word, through your preacher. Please send your Holy Spirit to please help the preacher. And please help each one of us to hear from you this morning. And help us to respond appropriately to the message that you’ll bring to us.

We come to you in the name of Jesus. Amen. Some of Jesus’ parables are very simple, some are more complex. This is, in my estimation, somewhere in between. This particular parable is so simple and catchy that it can easily be applied to a children’s song. You all know, the wise man built his house upon the rock. You might know the hand signals that go along with it. And that’s a great way to teach children to remember scripture. But understand that this is also complex and deep at the same time.

This is not a Christian version of Itsy Bitsy Spider. It’s not Itsy Bitsy Spider. In fact, it’s radically different in Itsy Bitsy Spider. The spider keeps going round and round, but in this parable, There is a trajectory, there is a path, and one path, one way I should say, leads to life and health and eternity, and the other one leads to trouble and even destruction.

And so we want to maintain the simplicity of this parable, but also understand the depths and the seriousness of it. This has to do with matters of life, matters in this life, but also matters of eternity. It has to do with whether we belong to God or not. And what our lives are all about. It’s actually a very sobering parable.

It starts off with those who are obedient, who do listen to the Lord, but there’s warnings for those who don’t, and that’s actually the context. Jesus has been teaching, and he’s been teaching many wonderful and many positive things, so much so that the people are amazed at his authority, but there are also warnings. If you go back just a little bit in our chapter, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. That’s a warning, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. This is a very serious parable in a very serious context. You know, all of the Bible is the word of God, and we need to listen to every word of God’s word, but tune your ears to what Jesus says. In Luke’s record of this very parable, here’s how it starts. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you? There is a vast difference. One is hear and do. And those who aren’t going to hear and do God’s word are those who are going to pick and choose and think they can figure it out all on their own. And as Jesus says here and throughout scripture, we learn that that leads to devastation. So the parable itself, simple, two builders, and you can visualize it even in our own context, two builders with this graphic story.

One builder sets out to build his house and he builds on solid rock and the other builds on sand. I love the coast and I thought, well, how do those two things differ? And I’m sure that if you look back in those days, there were probably real examples of this, but I simply thought of two different coastlines that I’m familiar with. One is the main coastline, it’s solid rock. Nobody could put those rocks there, and they’re immovable, and they may wear out over time, but solid, solid rock. Then you look at the New Jersey coastline, mostly sand, and the erosion over the years will take the sand away, the beaches shrink, and the local communities will pay money to bring in more sand to rebuild the beaches, so there’s a place for people to hang out. but it will wear away again and it will wash away again. And just simply picture those two things. Build your house on one and it’s going to be solid and firm. Build your house on the other and it’s going to slip away when the sand shifts underneath. The first builder builds on solid rock.

He’s counted the cost of building to look at another parable. He’s invested well and he got to work securing a solid foundation on the rock. And then there’s the other builder. He wants to cut corners, wants to do it his own way. He wants to ignore even the fundamentals of building the groundwork that has to be in place to stabilize a building. The key word in this parable is doer or do. The one builder is doing what he’s supposed to do.

The other builder is not doing what they’re supposed to do. They both have the plans. And in the plan, you might say in the blueprint for life, there is a foundation. And the one understands that, the other one ignores that. But they’re both hearing.

And Jesus says, rains will come, storms will come, trouble will come. And the first one will stand firm. The first building will stand firm in the greatest of storms. But when the rains come and the storms come, The waters rise and trouble comes on those who have not built their foundation on Jesus Christ and are not building on the principles and precepts that God gives in scripture.

There is going to be a collapse. At some point, there will be a spiritual collapse. And if it’s not in this life, it will be in the next. I wanna focus on the wise builders, but it does, strike me that many people can so confidently build their lives according to their plans. But we’ll find out in the end, it’s all for naught.

But the wise builders understand that there is this blueprint for life, and they understand that there needs to be, first of all, this foundation, this first thing, this foundation to hear the gospel and believe. I know I referred to this last time, but Jesus says this about the first thing that has to happen regarding faith and building on faith.

He says, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give to you. For on him, God the father has set his seal. Then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. That’s the foundation of salvation. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That’s the absolute essential. Jesus came to save sinners.

That’s what we all need to hear, and some of us have come to faith at different times in life, but even for those who are among those who were raised in the church, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as long back as they can remember, they need to remember they need to keep building on the foundation that God has given and using the materials that God has given.

Think of young Timothy as Paul is instructing him in 2 Timothy 3. Here’s what he writes, and it applies to all of us. It applies to the young in faith to keep building on what they know. Here’s what he says, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Foundation. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. That is building on the foundation of faith. And so what follows in the Christian life, resting on the foundation of Christ, is that building.

Now, I know I repeat this a lot here, but I can’t think of any more quality construction materials than what we call the means of grace. And if you’re not pursuing the means of grace, you’re going to have a shaky structure. What are the means of grace?

You need to use these things regularly. The Word of God. Be in the Word of God. Study it. Absorb it. Know it. Apply it. Be in prayer. You are dependent upon God. You’re dependent upon the Holy Spirit to keep you steady, to keep you going. Be in worship. Be in worship. Be with God’s people, praising the God of your salvation. That will build up your soul. Be in fellowship with God’s people. Be in accountability structure with God’s people. Mention the sacraments.

If you’ve been baptized, remember the significance of your baptism, your inclusion in the covenant of God and all the privileges that come along with that. And then as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper and look forward to that, let that feed your soul, which will bring you back to the foundation of Jesus Christ giving himself for you. And you’ve rested your faith in him, but also your commitment to live your life more fully for him. So a foundation upon which you’re constructing your life, building on the truth.

Don’t get it backwards. Sometimes we want to, even as Christians, live our lives backwards, sort of figure things out ourselves and then go to God and try to understand. Proverbs 9.10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is insight. That’s where we begin. Let me jump back to Psalm 119. I won’t read it in its entirety, but if you know Psalm 119, it is structured for memorization according to the Hebrew alphabet, probably directed to young people, if you can imagine that. Can you imagine memorizing Psalm 119? I’ll just read the first two letters of the alphabet. the sections under those letters. Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways.

You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. I will praise you with an upright heart. When I learn your righteous rules, I will keep your statutes.

Do not utterly forsake me. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. With my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies, I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word.”

If you know this about Psalm 119, it has every possible version of God’s word in it, different forms. And as you work through the psalm, you’ll recognize that it touches on every area of life. It certainly touches on faith that the believer trusts in God and trusts in his word. We have the most basic form of a summary of God’s word when we recite the creeds, the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, but we have the whole counsel of God in scripture. And it applies to every area of life. So it obviously has to do with our true Christian faith, but it has to do with our morality. You know, there really doesn’t need to be a lot of questions about what is right and what’s wrong if you believe God’s word is God’s word. But the typical problem with all of us is not hearing, not reading, but doing. So the word informs our morality. It informs our intellect. How do you mentally process things?

Do you begin with the creator God? One of our youngest children’s programs at our church is Creation Explorers. And it’s all about understanding that God is the one who made all this and all the glorious things in creation and all the creatures. When you look at the stars of the heaven, when you look at the sun and the moon, when you look at the earth, when you look at the intricacy of the human being of all kinds of things, where do you start? Do you start with science and try to analyze and say, I think I might be able to figure out how this happened?

No, you start with a creator God. The believer intentionally puts on You might say glasses or spectacles of scripture and sees everything through the eyes of what God has revealed. And so whatever we’re learning, whatever discipline it might be we’re learning, our intellect is informed by scripture. God does not need to prove himself. As Francis Schaeffer put it, he is the God who is there. He is the God from all eternity. He is the God who has no beginning. He’s the God who’s made everything. He doesn’t need to prove himself to us. We’re his creatures.

So as we learn and as we grow and as we observe the world, we learn through what he has told us. Scripture, our knowledge of God, informs our emotions. That may sound odd, but we’re all people of emotions. We all have feelings. And however you describe them, you have feelings, but God informs those as well.

How many times do you read in scripture about the peace that God gives and that only God gives, that shalom? That’s depths of your person, your emotions. Think about how many times you’ve heard, do not be anxious. deals with your emotions. Why wouldn’t you be anxious? It’s because you’re in God’s care, and He’ll never leave you or forsake you. He’ll always keep you. Don’t be anxious. Don’t be worried. Be at peace. That peace comes through Jesus, but it’s maintained through life as we trust in Jesus. It informs our decisions. It keeps us in check from making bad decisions. The Word is a guide. Our knowledge of God is the beginning of our understanding.

I want to take this in a little bit of a different angle than I normally would have when I preached through Luke and when I preached through Matthew, because by request, I had been asked to preach a sermon that addressed parents in particular in raising their children.

It was in an evening service. And I didn’t want to re-preach it. Not only that, I couldn’t remember which sermon it was. So I kind of was off the hook there. But I had been asked to preach that again at the beginning of our new education year. And I wasn’t being disobedient. I just couldn’t remember what sermon it was. But I had also been asked recently to address our parents in the church, especially parents of young children. And so I wanted to address building instructors.

There are many influencers, there are many educators. The world is a school and our children will learn from someone that they’re exposed to. And if you have any sense of what the real world is like, it is not the wonderful bubble that we sometimes live in in our church and in this area. You begin to expose yourself to the world and you recognize that the influences and the teaching of a fallen godless world, even though there may be some elements of common grace where people actually say some right things and come up with some good ideas at the core, it is not going to build their faith in Jesus Christ, no matter what they do. And so we have a choice. Are we going to let the world inform our children? Or are we going to take advantage of the resources of the kingdom of God?

Qualified teachers who know and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and understand that the Bible is the authority for all of faith and life. Now, it’s not saying that they shouldn’t get educated elsewhere in different disciplines, but I’m talking about the core.

There are people who will influence our children. Within the context of the kingdom, one of them is going to be your pastor. with limited influence through exhortation, through preaching the word. Hopefully, even our children, the youngest among them, will be getting something out of the services. It’s why we have children’s questions. It’s why I try to make things understandable. But limited influence. Then we have our Sunday school teachers.

Wonderful context in which our children can learn, sitting there, learning under a loving teacher, hearing the word of God, being able to answer or ask questions and get answers according to God’s word. That is such a great context. Our other children’s programs as well take advantage of those things. Those are things that God has provided.

But no one, understand this, no one has influence like parents. sometimes grandparents, depending on the context, but no one has influence like parents and grandparents. If we are not doing what we’re commanded to do by God, we are neglecting the welfare of our children’s souls. You may or may not be familiar with Deuteronomy chapter six. I’m going to read it for us. Instructions to covenant households, believing households, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

And when the Lord God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob, to give you with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, And when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you.

Now that’s the old covenant. That is the Old Testament. Those words still apply. Tragedy is that so many of them did go after false gods. But think of this, people. We have more, believe it or not, than the people of Israel did when God spoke audibly. We have the whole word of God. We have the whole counsel of scripture. We have the gospel. We have the gospel and parents have the responsibility, the duty to teach their children the gospel truth.

I would suggest that what we’re really talking about here are disciple makers or mentors. Disciple makers and mentors. And so three aspects of that, one is a disciple maker and a mentor will be equipped with the truth, will know what to teach. But that’s not all that a mentor or a disciple maker does. Someone who’s discipling someone leads them and teaches them. And by the way, is observable, is to be an example.

Think of a mentor or a disciple maker who’s a bad example, who doesn’t live by what he teaches, basically saying, do what I say and not what I do. I sometimes wonder if anything is worse than a hypocrite. And I’ve said it often, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but our children have a special hypocrite radar. And we can try to fool them as much as we can, but they’ll know. if we’re not being genuine.

So we need to, as mentors, live ourselves the life of Christ, but then to show, to actually show the way, showing how to apply, that I think is the hardest thing. In fact, it’s almost easy to explain things, It’s okay to take questions and answers that we do okay with, but to show how to live the Christian life is not so easy sometimes. But how do we take our children and walk with them? I think that’s part of what Deuteronomy is saying, right? It’s your whole context of life, you’re showing them.

When we first moved to Hamilton, And we got our house in order with a lot of help. My obvious next priority, something absolutely essential that I did was to build a tree fort. When you have three young boys and you live in Hamilton, you need a tree fort. The girls were already old enough. And my plan in my mind was to show the boys how to swing a hammer, how to construct a tree house, how to do everything.

But I’m not a good mentor. I’m not a good teacher in that respect. And so you know how it goes. You end up just doing it yourself. You want to make a really cool tree house for your kids, and you kind of do it yourself. and you don’t really show them how to build.

Now, thankfully, all three of my boys have become much better builders than I am. But I started thinking about that illustration in the context of showing our youth how to live for Christ. And I wish I had done a better job with my children, all of them, in doing that. walking them through life’s lessons, walking them through the hard stuff. Hopefully, they’re all better spiritual builders than I could have ever made them into.

And so qualified teachers, disciple makers, mentors, but then attentive students. Our young people, first listen to Jesus. Listen to Jesus. Be hearers and doers, not pickers and choosers. Disciples, following Jesus. Learning from wise people who you can trust. Young people, you can hear the preacher. And you can hear the teacher. And you can hear the parents that you have, or your grandparents, telling you the truth. And you can even hear Jesus. And you’ve heard Jesus, right, from these living words in scripture.

But if you don’t act on them, and you don’t do them, your life’s path is in danger. And so the first thing I’ll repeat is to rest in Jesus, on the foundation of salvation provided by him, given by grace, received by faith. But then build on that faith by immersing yourself in the word and prayer and worship and fellowship, building on the principles, the truths that God has given to you.

There are some people who think they’re living solid lives, very confident, but they’re actually living on shaky ground with shaky structures. And it will be a different story when the storms come and when trials come. And it will certainly be a different story when the judgment comes.

But may it be for all of us, and including our children, that the cornerstone on our building is emblazoned with established in grace through Jesus Christ. You can fill in the year if you can. Established in the grace of God through Jesus Christ, built on a solid foundation for life, unshakable now, standing firm in Christ and with him forever. Let’s pray. Lord our God, we thank you so much for the truth of your word, and we thank you for the truth that our lives can be firmly founded in salvation through the rock Jesus Christ, Lord, we thank you that we have access to all the means of grace that you’ve provided to build upon that foundation. We pray that each one of us would take full advantage of what you’ve provided for us. Lord, we pray that for the very youngest among us, that they would know you early and that all the days of their lives they would build on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Lord, help each one of us to not be so arrogant, to think that we can pick and choose what we want.