Solid Ground for Sound Living
Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted
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We are at a point that is bittersweet this morning. We are at the end of our series on the Sermon on the Mount. In this last section, Jesus gives kind of a mic drop here. He says, “I have taught you the truth. I have taught you what you need to know. I taught you how you need to live. Now, it's up to you whether not you're going to receive it and whether you're going to obey it. If you receive it and you obey it, you're wise. You're going to prosper. You're going to be okay. But, if you ignore what I have said, if you disobey it, and you don't do what I say, you're going to fall and great is going to be your fall. It is our opportunity this morning to hear God's Word and it is our privilege to be able to interact with God's Word, but it is our responsibility to receive it and to obey it.
I love this time of year. I love Christmas. I love it for so many different things, but I love kids and I love how Christmas is seen so beautifully through their eyes. I'm so glad we have kids in here this morning. It is so good to see you all. I love how you see life. I love how you see Christmas. I love how you just have so much joy. I love how you just have fun. I have said it many times and my wife has definitely said it, that she has three kids to raise in our house and I being the biggest one of them all. I love talking to kids about God and about what they believe and what they've been learning in Sunday school.
A group of kids had the opportunity to be interviewed by their pastor. He wanted to hear what they were learning about the Word of God and their responses are interesting but also very humorous. One little boy said, “Well, God got tired of creating the world, so he took the Sabbath off.” A little girl said, “I know that Noah had a wife that her name was Joan of Arc.” One boy said, “Lots wife was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night.” Another little boy said, “Moses led the Hebrews through the Red Sea and they made unleavened bread without any ingredients and then Moses went up to Mount Cyanide and got the Ten Commandments.” One little boy said that he knew the Ten Commandments quite well, “The first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat that apple. The fifth commandment was to humor thy father in that mother. The seventh commandment was ‘Thou shalt not admit adultery.’” A little girl said that Joshua fought the battle of Geritol. Another girl said that the greatest miracle was when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed. If you have a kid, you know how much of a miracle that really is. Another girl said that King Solomon had 300 wives and 700 porcupines. One boy said that he thought the Epistles were the wives of the Apostles. My favorite is what a little boy said about marriage. He said, “A Christian should have only one wife and that's called monotony.”
These would be really funny if it wasn’t so tragic that many adults couldn't do much better. Biblical illiteracy is something that is growing in our country. People just don't know the Bible like they used to. What’s even more tragic is that there are many people who know the word of God but do not obey the word of God, who don't do what it says.
Jesus is completing his Sermon on the Mount and what He has been saying is what we have are principles for the Kingdom of God. The King has given us His principles and he says, “You as my followers, as the people of the Kingdom of God, this is how you to live.” He ends with saying that the most important thing is not just knowing what He said but doing what He has said and having that foundation of your life built on Christ; built on the words that He has taught.
Cherie and I have had the blessing over our twenty-five years of marriage to have owned four homes. Another blessing that we've built only one home. If you've ever built a home, you know how much of a headache that it can be. I thought we were just going to go into a place, and we would see all the homes that t they could build, and you just pick out one and they would say, “Okay, we're going to build it for this amount of money.” No, that's not what they do. The saleslady sat us down to go through all the things in the house that you can upgrade. So, we sat down in the little breakfast-nook of this model home, the same kind of home that we were going to build ourselves, to go through some the “upgrades.” She asked if we would want doors, and I said, “Yeah, we don't want strange animals just walking through our house. She said, “Well that's going to be extra.” You think doors would be a part of the cost, but it wasn’t. She said, “Do you want carpet?” “Well, yeah we want something to walk on that’s nice and soft,” and she said, “Well the basic is this...” Well, I thought the basic would be just fine, but it wasn’t “fine” for Cherie, so we had to pick out not just the color of carpet but the kind of carpet. I just thought carpet was carpet, but no it's not. I guess if we would've had my choice, it would have been that indoor-outdoor green carpet that you see on somebody's porch. So thank God Cherie was there to help us figure out what we needed to do. She then asked us about bathroom fixtures and what kind of toilet we wanted. I thought there was just one kind of toilet. I said as long as it goes down like this and not go up like that that is all I want.
The one thing that we didn't talk about was the house’s foundation. You would think that would be one of the things that you would want to make sure about. The foundation was the one thing that messed up with that house. I think that's the most important thing you want to talk about. Let’s talk about foundations. Let's talk about what kind of foundation you're going to have. Oh no we didn't talk about that, but we had to have the builders come back to the house three times to work on the foundation of the house.
Foundations are important. Foundations are essential. If you don't have a good foundation, you don't have a good house. No matter what kind of carpet you have, no matter what kind of doors you have, without a good foundation the house is going to be sure to fall. What Jesus is doing here is that he is speaking about the importance of building on a foundation. Now, he was a Carpenter. He was a son of a Carpenter. He could talk about a well-built home, but I don't think he would have spent this time talking about just houses. He knew what he was talking about here. He's saying the foundation is important, not just the foundation of a home, per say, but the foundation of one’s life. What is your life being built on? The foundation of your life is important because without a good foundation, just as a building will fall without a good foundation, your life will fall without a good foundation. Jesus uses two men, a wise man and a foolish man the talk about the right foundation versus a wrong foundation. The foundation that Jesus is talking about here is Himself and His teachings. The words to us is the Word of God, the Bible. If your foundation is strong, and if your foundation is on His Word then you're going to be good. In his sermon Jesus taught a lot of things about life but the principles of living here are the King's principles. If you want to know how to live your life, you better go to the right source. If you're going to talk to somebody about building a home you better go talk to a builder, a good builder. If you're going to talk to someone about how to build your life, you better go to the one who created your life, who made you. Who better to tell us how to live our lives than the one who created us. This is this is how your life needs to be lived. Jesus taught on the principles of living Kingdom lives. These are the King’s principles for Kingdom people. We can go back and see that he taught us about how to view ourselves. He taught us how we are to have the right kind of attitude starting with the beatitudes in Matthew chapter five. He taught us how to live our lives. He taught us how to deal with anger and with lust. He taught about marriage and divorce. He talked about how to get along with others and how to reconcile with others. He taught about how to forgive other people. He taught us how to pray and what we are to do with worry and about trusting God, and so much more. The word of God through the teaching of Jesus here is the foundation for those who build their lives on Jesus. But those who build their lives opposite of God and opposite of what God says, pay a great price.
Jesus often used stories to make important points. Let's look at the similarities and the differences between the wise man and the foolish man and let's see how they came out.
1. Both Heard the Word, But Only One Obeyed
1. Both Heard the Word, But Only One Obeyed
Notice that both the wise men and the foolish man heard the Word of God. Verse 24, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man…” Then, verse 26, we see the opposite, “And everyone who hears the words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man…” The wise man and the foolish man both hear the word of God, but the difference is that the wise man obeyed the Word of God.
What good is it for someone to have knowledge but don't do anything with it? What good is it for somebody to have the Word of God but it never makes an effect on one’s life.
Imagine if there was a doctor who had the answer to the current pandemic of COVID-19 but never acted on it, and never produced a vaccine. How horrible would that be? What good is it for that doctor to know how to fix the problem but never fixes the problem?
I have heard people who have entered college and seminary age 19 and are still in there at the age of 40. What good is it to know a lot of stuff but they're not doing anything with it. What good is it to have information and you never are going to use it. You see, the thing is that you got many professing Christians who know a lot about the Word of God, who go to Bible study after Bible study, but that’s all they do. I know people who attend every new Bible study that Beth Moore puts out, but you have to search for them with the FBI and CIA to try to find one of them to go and help bring people to Jesus and go out on mission.
What good is it to have all the information about the Bible but don't do what it says. James says exactly the same thing in James 1:21-25, “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
Loved ones, don't just read the Bible. Don't just study the Bible. Don't just memorize the Bible. Yes, do all of those things, but do what it says. The Bible says that God says we are to forgive, so forgive. If God says to be reconciled, then be reconciled with others. God says pray, so pray. If God says follow Him first and foremost, then seek first the Kingdom of God.
The most important part of Bible reading and Bible study is not just getting the information, it is applying what you have taken in. The Bible has become a foundation for your life when you do what it says and only when you do what it says.
Continuing to look at the similarities and differences between the wise man and foolish man both not only heard the word but also…
2. Both Had Storms, But Only One Made It Through
2. Both Had Storms, But Only One Made It Through
There are different seasons in nature and just like places on earth that have dry seasons and wet seasons, they have times of drought and times of great rainfall, so our lives have times of prosperity and times of adversity. There are trials and storms in life that come to us and are inevitable. As Job said, “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Trouble comes to the lives of all. It is not when they come or how they come or where they come, what we need to understand is that storms do come. Jesus didn't say if these storms came to these two men, but he said when. It has been said that you were either going into a storm, you're in a storm, or you're coming out of a storm. Storms in life are going to happen. I hurts to say this whether you're a Christian or not, there will be good times and there is going to be bad times. Mark Lowry talks about the phrase in the Bible in the King James which says, “it came to pass.” So, if you are having a good time right now and everything is going alright, it will pass. But, if you're going through a difficult time, it will pass.
The important thing about storms is being prepared for when they do come. You don't wait until the middle of a hurricane to start boarding up your house. We've seen this here in South Carolina. We live in a state that has coastline and whenever there's a storm that threatens the coast, you will see people boarding up, people putting sandbags out, and you see people making sure that everything is secure as much as they possibly can, and they get out. We have seen the governor order that both eastbound and westbound lanes all go in the same direction away from the coast. The best thing to do is prepare before the storm comes.
It's interesting how Jesus used illustration of rain, flood, and wind to give a picture of the different kinds of storms that come in life. Sometimes our storm is just like rain, constant little problems that drip, drop, drip, drop. Then you have the flood, which are those brooding dilemmas that seem to continue to seep in to fill up and displace our lives. You know that they're always there, just creeping toward your door. Then there are storms like the wind which come unexpected and come unannounced. These come into your life and just blows in and blindsides you. You don't even see it coming, but it hits you like a ton of bricks. But, Jesus says if you are prepared, and you have the right foundation, no matter what happens, whether it ends in your death on earth or whether it ends in some sort of loss, you're going to make it spiritually. You're going to make it with God, if you have a life that has been based on the foundation of God and His Word. Those who survive the storms of life are those who have the foundation of God and his Word under them.
This is not just true for individuals, but this is also true for churches. If a church is biblically sound and there's some sort of thing that comes up, some sort of tragedy, some sort of great storm that comes in somebody's life in the church. The Bible says that we all are part of the Body of Christ, and if one hurts, we all hurt. If we are based on the foundation of the Word of God, we can make it. We know how to encourage one another. We know how to meet other people’s needs. We know how to pray, because we have learned and are applying the Word of God. We are basing our lives on the Word of God.
This also applies to families and marriages. The Bible doesn't say this in these exact words, but it's very true that the family that prays together, stays together. It is also true that the family that obeys the Word of God together, stays together.
Cherie and I fight sometimes, and we have had in the past some knock-down drag-outs. There are times when we didn’t go to bed mad, we just stayed up and fight. We have had some long-lasting disagreements, but one thing that has never come up is divorce. I'm not putting ourselves before you on a pedestal and for you to say, “Oh, look at them!” I want you to know the testimony we decided a long time ago and that was that divorce was never going to be an option in our marriage. I love what Ruth Bell Graham said about her relationship with her husband, Billy Graham. She said, “We never talked about divorce. Divorce was never an option. Murder maybe, but not divorce.” If divorce is always an option, you're not basing your life and you're not basing your marriage on the Word of God.
It's really sad that divorce statistics say that the divorce rate among professing Christians are equal to those who do not classify themselves as Christian. Of all people to whom divorce should not be heard of, it shouldn’t be heard among God's people. It’s another sermon for another time, but the Bible says that the relationship between a man and wife is like the love that God has for the church. Our marriages are like a picture of God's love for his church. He says, “I will never divorce my church;” therefore, you should never divorce your husband or your wife.
Yes, God has grace and God has mercy. God has forgiveness when we do make mistakes and when we do sin. But, his command to not get a divorce still stands. I can’t tell you how many times I've seen family after family after family who have been troubled beyond just the divorce. Problems lingers into years and years of havoc and years and years of problems. These are sad results of having the Word of God and knowing the word of God, but not building our homes, our lives, and our marriages.
When problems come to our lives, families, marriages, and the church, where are foundation is makes all the difference. I love the story of Charles Spurgeon talks about a gentleman who was always amazed that his servant was full of joy at all times. One day, the man said to his servant, “I can't think how it is you are always so happy in the Lord, and I am often downcast.” The servant responded, “Sir, I throw myself flat down on the promise- there I lie; you stand on the promise- you have a little to do with it, and down you go in the wind comes, and then you cry, ‘Oh! I am down;’ whereas I go flat on the promise at once and that is why I fear no fall.”
You see, it's not just being founded on the Word of God, it’s that you trust in the Word of God. If we have got the Word of God, and he says that this is how you are to live, this how you perform, and this is how you are to trust in me, you better lay flat, flat down on God's Word and God's promises.
Both men had heard the same word and they have both gone through the same storms.
3. Both Had Built, But Only One Had Something That Lasted.
3. Both Had Built, But Only One Had Something That Lasted.
The wise man’s house lasted because it had a sure foundation; it was built upon the Word of God, Jesus, and His words. The foolish man's house fell with a great fall because it did not have a foundation at all. How sad would it be to come to the end of your life and you realize that you've been living your entire life for something that had no foundation. You lived your entire life but didn't have anything to show for the years that you lived. The saddest people to seem to be those who are in their seventies, eighties, and nineties, who look back on their life with regret and they say, “I had all of this time and I have all these things, yet I have nothing to show for it.” “I lived my entire life for my business but had to retire; they forced me out. What do I have left?” “I lived my life for my kids, but my kids grew up and they were moved out of the house. Some of them turned their backs on me. Some of them didn't want my help anymore. Some didn't want my attention anymore. What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” Listen, kids were never meant to be the foundation of our lives. I love our kids, but they were not made to be the foundation of my life. I love what I do for living, but it's not the foundation of my life; even though I'm in God's work. God is the foundation of my life. It's not my hobby. It is not in in playing golf. It is not in hunting. It is not in stuff, because just as we saw just a few weeks ago, rains come, rust comes, winds blow, people come in and steal stuff. If all of your hope and all of your life is based on stuff, it could be gone in just a moment. It only takes a fire, it only takes a thief, it only takes a big gust of wind. Only one lasted because he built on something that is foundational.
In conclusion, I want to help you know how to be a wise guy; how to be a wise person. As I said application is the most important thing. How do I live my life as a wise person?
First, make sure you apply what you read in God’s Word. On the back of your bulletin there's a little box for you to write sermon notes. I'm not saying you need to write down everything I say, but here's what I want you do with that little space. At the end of the message, write down action points, things that you will do in response to what you have heard from the Word of God. When you hear a sermon and when you read the Word of God or when you study the Word of God, at the end of your Bible study, at the end of your Bible reading, at the end of Sunday School, or at the end of a sermon, right down “my action points” and here's how I'm going to do.
Second, make sure you apply what you read in God's Word. Remember to make sure you don't move off the foundation of God's Word.
You can move a house now. If you don't like where you're living, you can just have your house moved to another location. We were serving in another church and someone donated a house and the land it was on to the church. The church wanted to do something with that land the house was on and we talked to the family to see if they were okay with us selling the house and having it moved off somewhere else. We didn't want to destroy the home because it was still good. They said that it would be fine, so we sold the house, and somebody came and had it moved to another location. It’s okay to do that with a home, but not your life. If you're basing your life on the foundation of the Word of God, don't look anywhere else than where you are as the best location. “Location, location, location,” they say is the rule in real estate. Listen, “location, location, location,” is the rule of having a foundation that is secure in your life, so stay with God, stay with his Word, and don't be off looking to your left or you're right for something better. Don't be listening to somebody say, “I've got a better way to live your life. I got a better way that you need to follow. You need to follow these 10 points and you'll have a better life.” God's Word tells us how we are to be living. Listen, Doctor Phil and Oprah don't know squat about your life. Only God, the Creator of your life knows what is best for you.
Third, make sure your foundation is Rock-solid. How do you live to be a wise guy or a wise lady? Make sure your foundation, from the very beginning is rock-solid. Make sure your foundation is the Lord Jesus Christ. The most important decision you have right before you is, what am I going to do with Jesus? Am I going to base my life on my good works to get me into heaven or am I going to base my life on the foundation, the sure foundation with a 100% guarantee to get you into heaven and through this life.
I know that on my best day, when I'm the happiest and there is no grumpiness about me, even on my best day I can't live my life to the degree that will get me a ticket into heaven. Jesus not only loved His best day, He lived his best life, He lived a sinless life so He can get you in to heaven. He died for you to take care of all your sins and rose again to give you eternal life. You better base your salvation, your foundation on the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that both the wise man and the foolish man had similar homes. They may have looked very similar on the outside, but the difference is what they were founded on.
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is what sinking sand,
It is not just enough to know about Jesus. Jesus said in Luke 13, that there will be people who will say, “You taught in our streets. We heard you teach! We ate at potluck fellowships with other people who have heard you.” But this is not enough. It is not enough to know about Jesus or to have heard about Jesus. It is what you do with Jesus personally. You have to have a relationship with Jesus Christ for he is the only salvation. He's the only foundation.