The House on the Rock - Part 6
Matthew 7 (KJ2000)
24 Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
As we continue our discourse on the teaching of Jesus in the verses above, let us summarise our thoughts thus far.
Jesus differentiates between two men who both hear “these sayings of mine”. These men hear the same teaching, and the only difference is that one “does them”, and the other “does them not”. We are not told that one hears and believes the right doctrine and the other hears and believes wrong doctrine. Of course, it would be awful and dangerous to believe wrong doctrine, but that scenario is not even under consideration here.
We observed that to anyone inspecting them, both houses would look identical in form and utility. The man Jesus calls foolish, would not seem to have built a house that is any different from the house built by the man Jesus calls wise. In fact, the building of the foolish man would seem to have gone up with less trouble, because it would be cheaper and faster to work on the sand than to work on the rock. The foolishness of those who are not doers of God’s Word is always a closely guarded secret, which is only revealed when they have to face the storms and the challenges of life. Before that, they always seem to be smarter than those who are doers of the Word.
We also observed that to be able to do God’s Word, we need to hear, to understand, and to remember God’s Word.
But there is another scenario that we will consider for the rest of this week. This is the man who has heard the Word, understands the Word, remembers the Word, but does not do it. It is this man that James describes as “deceiving his own self”.
In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had heard God’s instructions, understood God’s instructions and remembered God’s instructions. In fact, Eve understood and remembered the instructions so well that she corrected the serpent when he misrepresented what God had said. Yet, when it mattered most, she disobeyed God. Does this call to mind many who can tell you exactly what the Word of God says and can even correct wrong doctrine when they hear it, but still disobey the Word?
Paul seems to be familiar with this sort of thing:
Romans 7 (KJ2000)
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now, here’s something many of us can relate to. We do not always do what we know to be good, we do not always avoid doing what we know to be evil. And we can’t always blame this on ignorance of the Word, or a lack of understanding of the Word, or failure to remember the Word. There seems to be something else complicating what should really be a simple process. Paul calls this something else, “the flesh”.
Romans 8
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
In the next couple of days we’ll examine how the flesh sometimes hinders us in our quest to obey God.
Continue in grace!