Settling for Sand

Well, one day you're going to stand before me, and it will not matter then that you used to call me Lord.

I know your heart, and the evidence that you did not care about my word is that my word never made it into your life. See, he's claiming here to be the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 33 and verse 22, for the Lord is our judge. See, Jesus isn't just talking about a sermon here.

He's talking about a future summons. Hello and welcome to Wisdom for the Hearts. Stephen Davey has been working through a series from Luke 6. Today, we come to the final lesson in that series. Through the course of life, we all decide what kind of foundation we will build our actions and our lives upon. Jesus commands us to build our lives on the foundation of his inspired word. He compares that solid foundation to the sandy, uneven, shifting foundations of the world. For us, our foundation is the unmovable, unshakeable, unchanging foundation of both the person and the preaching of Jesus. Today's message is called Settling for Sand. I invite you one last time to chapter 6 in the gospel by Luke, and I want you to notice that Jesus is going to change his tone, his demeanor. As far as I can tell, I imagine him here beginning to point his finger at individuals in the crowd. We're now at verse 46 through the end of the chapter, but let's just take a look at this first phrase where Jesus now says, "'Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you?'"

Why do you? Notice that. Now, the word Lord can be understood as a title of respect. It would be like calling a man sir in our culture today, but it can also be understood as a claim of deity or divinity. "'Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you?'" Now, the doing related to what he is telling goes back to the sermon. They've been listening as he's been preaching for some time, and he's been turning everything upside down as we've learned together. So now he comes to the end of his sermon, and he says, "'Why are you calling me Lord with your lips, but not with your lifestyle?'" Now with that rather blistering declaration, Jesus moves on to warn them of a future disaster, not just in this life, but in the life to come. And he's going to do this by giving them, and you all know this, this is a compelling illustration that closes his sermon, and he creates this illustration from the lives of two men who were involved in home construction.

First up is a genuine disciple. He's constructing a house built to last. Look at verse 47. "'Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and then does them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock, and when a flood arose, the stream broke against the house and could not shake it because it had been well built.'"

Literally, it was built to last. Now over in Matthew's parallel account, he simply says the builder built a house. Luke here gives us some of the construction details. This builder is digging through the sand, digging through the topsoil, and laying a foundation on the rock where he reaches. He's digging down until he reaches bedrock. The distinguishing mark between the genuine disciple and the pretender isn't where they live, isn't what kind of house they live in, what it looks like, what the materials are they used to build it, or even the fact that they're both experiencing perhaps even similar storms.

The distinguishing factor in this illustration is that one of them is anchored to the rock, and the other one is anchored to sand. The genuine disciple has anchored his life on a rock foundation. The rock, again, refers back to Jesus' opening comment. This is the person who hears my word and puts that word into work.

In other words, this disciple's house, his life is tethered to the word, the words of Christ. I couldn't help but think of that classic hymn of the faith written in the mid-1700s. A pastor by the name of John Rippon published a hymnal that included the poem. As an aside, John Rippon pastored the same church for 63 years.

Get that. I'm only at 35, 63, which means we have every reason to believe we're going to actually finish the gospel by Luke. John Rippon matched an anonymous poem to a secular American melody when he published it, but you'll recognize perhaps the lyrics that came from Luke chapter 6. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word. What more can he say than to you he hath said? To you for refuge, to Jesus have faith. That soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Now with that, the Lord shifts our attention to the pretender.

The professor of Christianity, but not the possessor of Christianity. Verse 49, but the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great. And again, evidently, the builder built a house in the same neighborhood and it's the implication here, it's the same style built with the same material. The only thing is this builder skipped over the foundation part. He didn't dig through the earth, he just built it on top of the dirt. Matthew uses the word for sand.

That would have been that top layer wherever you build. He just skipped the foundation, built that house on top of the sand. We're not told why he would do such a thing. Maybe he wanted to save a little time, a little effort.

Maybe it was cheaper this way. Maybe the latest trend is building on sand. Maybe other people lived in houses built on sand and other mad happened to them.

Or maybe we've never seen a storm like that in this neighborhood. So I'll save the effort and I'm not going to worry about it. Keep in mind, beloved, that before this storm arrives, each of these houses looked like each other. But in this illustration, the point Jesus is making is that very point. Pretenders care more about what they look like, what they appear to be in public. Image is everything.

So don't worry about the foundation. What's underground is not nearly as important as what is above ground, what people see. And these are the people in this illustration that Jesus is referring to earlier when he says, you're calling me Lord, Lord. Like Matthew's gospel elaborates on the fact that these people are not only religious in their vocabulary, they're religious in their service.

They're involved. They're doing all sorts of things in the name of Jesus. But in the final analysis, they do not know who Jesus is and they do not care what Jesus says.

It's all image. So Jesus says that they can be identified as those who know his word but care nothing about his will. They listen to Jesus here give this, you know, little lecture, but they're not about to let Jesus change their lifestyle. In the past few years, church leaders have come up with a new term for religious pretenders. They're called cultural Christians, which is why they will attend church on a Sunday morning.

And Monday morning, it will make no difference in the decisions they make, in the life they live, in the relationships they have. Jesus will not have his words put into work. Their faith, James will call in the New Testament, is dead. Now, this particular author referred to this text here in Luke's gospel by writing, Jesus is not preaching to atheists here. He's preaching to people who had religion embedded in their lives. They could say Lord, Lord without any hesitation. So today, he writes, cultural Christians are not atheists.

They believe Jesus was born in Bethlehem and his mother was Mary. They have words like faith and hope hanging in their homes for decor. They think prayer should return to schools and appreciate celebrities thanking God during an acceptance speech.

They nod with undiscerning approval when political candidates and sitting presidents end their speeches with the words, God bless America. But ask who this God is, and he will be a generic God. He will be a national mascot who cheers for the home team, a God who never demands repentance, self-sacrifice, obedience or submission. To cultural Christians, Jesus is a lucky charm.

He's someone to put behind a wheel during a crisis but then left on the side of the road until the next one. Cultural Christians do not tell others about the gospel because it would be offensive or too extreme to suggest that someone is a sinner who needs saving. But don't think too poorly of them. Cultural Christians admire Jesus. They just do not follow him. That's the closing illustration of Jesus' sermon.

He says, you're listening to me preach, but you have no interest in what you practice. Now keep in mind that in this closing illustration, everything is fine with both homes until one event occurs. And it seems to imply that the same event occurs to both homes at the same time. And that one event is a storm. And this storm reveals everything. Go back to verse 49 again, the middle part. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.

It's interesting in the original language even as translated in the English text I just read from the English Standard Version. The last word in Jesus' sermon is this word great. It's the word mega that we've adopted by transliterating it into the English language. Mega. This was a mega catastrophe. This was a mega collapse. In other words, this is an incredible total catastrophe. I want to paraphrase it by reading to you how Peterson does it in his paraphrase that I think is a wonderful paraphrase.

He says this. Jesus said, if you work these words of mine into your life, you're like a carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it. It was built to last. But if you just hear my words in Bible studies or church and do not work them into your life, you're like a carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. And when the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards.

It was a total loss. Can you just imagine this scene here on the plateau? Jesus has been preaching, and we're not giving a whole sermon manuscript. We're actually just giving the cliff notes to his message. But in both Matthew's account and in Luke's account here, this is how Jesus ends his sermon. The ruin of that house was great.

It was a mega disaster. Period. End of sermon. There's no blessing, you know. Enjoy lunch.

Have a nice day. Now that house was completely destroyed. And he walks away. You remember that little chorus you learn perhaps if you grew up in the church on this text, you know, the wise man built his house upon the rock. And then you get to that stanza, you know, for us kids that was the most fun stanza. You know, the foolish man built his house upon the sand.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand. You know, the rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up.

You want to say it with me? The rain came down and the floods came up. And the house on the sand went.

This is our favorite part. Splat. End of sermon. Splat. Sermon's over. This is shocking. Some of these people standing here listening to the Lord and he finishes.

I'm sure they're kind of looking around. I would believe that because John says after this sermon, many disciples chose not to follow him anymore. This was it. Some believed. I would imagine those that chose not to follow him were probably among those that would have thought, you know, my life is not ending in disaster. In fact, my life's never been better. My house is strong. Things are good in my life.

This was the confusion at the outset of Asaph's Psalm in Psalm 73 when he complained to the Lord, unbelievers who reject you in your glory. They're prospering. They're growing fat.

They have everything they want. And he says, even in their death, they don't suffer pain. I don't get it. And then he gets to the end of it and he says, oh, then I saw their end. See, Jesus isn't just talking about this brief life. He's talking about the life to come. This is more than a sermon.

This is a warning. Now in Matthew's account, he adds the words of the Lord. He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my father. You don't get in by working his will. You get in and the evidence that you're going there is you want to do his will. Doesn't mean you're going to perfectly complete it.

Doesn't mean you're never going to fail. But this is the direction your toes are pointed. And Jesus, he says, you're not going to get into the kingdom of heaven unless you put my word to work.

And you have to think for just a moment. Jesus isn't just talking about a coming flood. He's talking about your eternal future. I want you to see this, but get the implication here in this verse. Everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father.

Not everybody who says that. In other words, here's the implication. He is saying, I am the gatekeeper to heaven. You're going to say to me, Lord, Lord, but just because you say that doesn't mean I'm going to let you into heaven, which means Jesus is saying he's letting people into heaven. Who does he think he is?

This is audacious. He's more than a preacher now. He's the ruler of everlasting life. Jesus says further, you know, many are going to say to me on that day, what does that day mean? He isn't even talking about this day. He's talking about that day when many people will be in the presence of Jesus.

And when is that day? Well, that's the judgment day when all of the unredeemed will stand before the divine judge. It's described over in Revelation chapter 20, and Jesus is announcing here in his sermon on the plateau that that judge before whom many will one day stand happens to be himself. You see me now, but one day and so far it's been 2000 years later, one day you're going to stand before me and it will not matter then that you used to call me Lord.

I know your heart and the evidence that you did not care about my word is that my word never made it into your life. See, he's claiming here to be the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 33 and verse 22, for the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. See, Jesus isn't just, you know, talking about a sermon here. He's talking about a future summons. And he himself will declare this ultimate, final, crashing, devastating collapse.

It may not have happened during the lifetime of these who here, but it will happen then. And the house of cards will come crumbling down. This is a severe warning, my friend. This is severe.

There's no middle ground here. The life you're living is either going to stand or collapse, and it all depends, it all hinges upon what you do with the words of Christ. Let me describe it this way. You hear the word of Christ today. You hear the word of Christ, and only Christ perhaps knows in your heart you are saying, I can take it or leave it. Or you hear the word of Christ and he knows you are saying in your heart, I cannot live without it.

That's the difference. My friend, I urge you today to stop settling for sand. Your house might look as good as anybody else's. You might have come in here today to hear the word of Christ thinking, my life's just fine.

It's just as good as anybody else's. Truth be told, you're building your life on the stuff, the sand of earth. And I would invite you, if that's you, and you know in your heart if it is, to repent of your sin and invite Jesus Christ today to take a wrecking ball into your life and crash that flimsy house down and build in its place a house anchored to the word of Christ. It's your only hope. It's your only hope. Didn't you join the rest of us sinners who have been redeemed who are saying, on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is what?

Sinking sand. Make that decision today before it is eternally too late. Recently I read that if you live to the age of 70, that's awfully young, but if you live to the age of 70, over the course of your lifetime you will have made 1.8 million decisions. 1.8 million decisions. That's a lot of decisions.

Big and small. Let me assure you that one decision, one decision will matter more than all of the other millions of decisions combined. And that is the one decision that you get to make about the word of Christ.

Will it matter? Listen to Jesus predict the future of those who believe genuinely and then act upon it. I'll read from his sermon once more, everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them.

I will show you what he's like. He's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream broke against that house, could not shake it because it had been well built.

How like that. By the grace of God and the gospel of Christ which you believe, you, genuine disciple, you are built to last forever. With that we bring this current series to a close.

This is Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen Davey has been teaching from Luke 6 in a series called The Sermon on the Plateau. If you missed any of the lessons in this series, we've posted them to our website.

If you'd like a CD set of this series, we can help you with that if you call today. It's also available on our website. Call us at 866-48-BIBLE or visit wisdomonline.org for information. Between now and our next broadcast, we have a free resource available for you this month. Stephen wrote a booklet entitled Blessed Assurance. In it, he answers the question of whether or not a Christian can lose his salvation. All you need to do is visit wisdomonline.org. There's a link right on our homepage that will take you to it. The next time we're with you, Stephen will be in Titus 3. Join us for that next time, here on Wisdom for the Heart.