Luke 6:46-49--Build Your House on the Rock

Luke 6:46-49
English Standard Version
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Build Your House on the Rock
46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 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 that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 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.”

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I mentioned this passage last time as one of the kinds of "judgments" that we are called to make, so that we must obviously have one kind of judgment spiritually to discern truth from error and one kind of fruit from another kind of fruit, but there is another kind of judgment, namely condemnation, that belongs only to Christ as the Righteous Judge of both the living and the dead.

The opening question here though is one we gloss over and I don't want to today.  "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?  Now that really sheds some light on Matthew 7:21-23 and what it means to be "lawless" there.  We were on track when we assumed that "lawless" meant those who act as if there is no Law, or those who live in disobediences to the Law they have been given, and that this stands in contrast to Jesus' statement, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

Then Jesus teaches them how everyone will know the difference in the end between the man who hears the words of Jesus and obeys them and the man who hears the words of Jesus and does not do them.  The one who hears the words of Jesus and puts them into practice is like the man who digs deep to build his house on the sure foundation that is bedrock.  His faith that is built on the Word of God and the Word of the Lord will be unshakable, unmovable and able to withstand the trials and storms that will come trying to weaken or destroy that man's faith.  Jesus calls this man a wise man for laying a good foundation.

But the  one who builds a house without laying a firm foundation is foolish.  He will spend a lot of time and effort into making something look beautiful, but if you build on loose ground that will easily wash away (like the sandy beachfront property that so many people love), then when the storms come the house will fall with a great crash and everyone know that it wasn't built on anything of substance.

So it will be in the final judgment, but this also points to a reality of today as well.  There is something we call perseverance of the saints.  That is that God who is the one built us up (He's the one that built His Church on the Solid Rock, we are not the builders here) will bring us safely through all the trials and tribulations.  It is not something that we do to ourselves, but something that He has promised us, that those who are of the one true faith will stand one day in the congregation of the righteous, but we also see that no matter what came their way men like Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel had faith that was tried and tested and they did not falter or collapse, even under the threat of death.  Their faith was built upon obedience to the Word of God--first they all did not eat the meat that was sacrificed to idols, then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down to the Nebuchadnezzar's  golden image, and then they kept praying to the LORD despite the edict from Darius the Mede.  Daniel and these other three Jewish men risked their lives multiple times to be obedient to the word of the LORD from early on when they were still called "children" until they are old and near the end of their days in the case of Daniel.  I encourage you to go back and read the declaration made in Daniel 3 and how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had a faith that was unshakable and they did not need to think about their response--they were going to obey God, and not man and would rely on God to save them, but even if He did not, they would not bow down.

We see the same thing in the book of Acts chapter 5 when the Sanhedrin tries to command the apostles that they can no longer teach in the name of Jesus.  Verse 29 of chapter 5 says, "29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. "  We too must obey what we have been commanded to do, even when we are threatened with physical harm, being shunned by the community, other kinds of mistreatment, loss of freedom, or loss of life.

These are the words of Jesus in how we can know who is genuine and who is fake because the Lord Himself will build His church on the foundation that is Christ.  No other foundation will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ.  There is no true faith without both true obedience and perseverance.