All Sermons

Firm Foundations By Phillip McMurray

Luke 6:46-49

I think there was just so many things that you could pick out of chapter 6, but as I came looking through it and critically sort of trying to think where I should focus from tonight, these last four verses of chapter 6 struck me the most.
This little parable, which is more complete in Matthew, struck me as being the capstone to the whole of chapter 6.
And in two sentences we see chapter 6 starting off.
Luke gives us two confrontations with the Pharisees on two consecutive Sabbaths.
We see how our Lord then goes off and prays in the mountain.
He comes down and the next morning after that night of prayer, He chooses His 12 apostles as distinct from the disciples at large.
We then see that Luke gives us a cut-down version of the Sermon on the Mount, again which we see more fully in Matthew, and then He leads us right up to the final part of chapter 6 where we find that we are confronted with this parable, challenging us, making us think about everything that had been going on.
And so why I want us to look just at these four verses apart from the fact that you couldn't do justice to try to preach on 49 verses, I think in this one part we'll get the summary, the summary feeling of the whole of chapter 6, but I do commend the whole chapter to you.
Let's just read again those verses from 46 onward in Luke 6.
My Lord says, but why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?
Whoever comes to me and hears my saying and does them, I will show you whom he is like.
He's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock, and when
the stream rose and the, sorry, when the flutter rose and the stream beat vehemently against
that house and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.
But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without
a foundation against which the stream beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the
ruin of that house was great.
Pretty simple parable, isn't it?
It's fairly clear, fairly straightforward, and in that we see here some similarities.
And I want you to notice there's particularly three similarities we have between the two
men in our story tonight.
There's just two men and three very obvious and very clear similarities.
And the first similarity that we see tonight is that both men called Christ Lord.
Without the discerning of the Spirit of God and being just a normal observer, you would
have classified both men as being Christians, probably, probably, and from the inference
here, just by listening to their words, these two men seemed to be identical.
They obviously both had heard the Word of God, for they both had some understanding
of who Christ was, for they both called him Lord, and they both obviously been affected
to some degree by the challenge of the Gospel, because the Gospel challenge, surely, is that
our King is coming, that repent and believe the Gospel, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
And so the fact that they used the term Lord was evident that both of these men had had
some concept and some effect had been made in their lives from the Gospel, for they both
say that he, that Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, is their Lord.
They call him Lord to his face.
Well, that's our first similarity.
Like I said, very simple.
A second similarity is that these two men weren't very special men.
They were just normal, everyday men, for we see here the second thing, what do they do?
Both men build houses, a fairly normal, everyday occurrence.
And we see here that what Christ is referring to is that their houses were their lives.
And both men had a life, both men lived their life, and from what we can gather, both men's
houses, there was not much difference between them.
There wasn't a lot of difference when you looked at them physically from the outside.
There didn't seem to be a lot of difference, they were just houses.
Two houses, probably our Lord was referring to the classic Mediterranean style houses
where if you've seen one, you've seen them all.
Not like our society where we think of every shape and size, and I dare say it's changing
over there too.
But generally speaking, these two men looked very orthodox.
They probably went to the same church.
They probably listened to the same messages.
They were probably both good citizens.
They were probably both very respected in the society.
Both men's lives, our Lord is saying here, were very similar, they were like two houses.
Stand back at the top of a hill and observe their houses down along the way.
And there's no difference between these men.
These men were just the same, just normal men.
In appearances they seem to believe and they seem to live alike.
So that's our second thing.
But our third thing is, our third similarity that we have tonight is that both men lived
in the same place.
It seems fairly evident from the parable that this one major storm, this catastrophic event
of the flood and the storm and the vehement deluge of water, affected both men the same.
Both houses were subjected to the same things.
And what can we learn from this?
Surely we can see that both men, one didn't have more special treatment than the other.
Both houses were submitted to the same treatment, neither one had more preferential treatment
than the other.
Both men's lives were lived and both men lived under the same circumstances.
And generally speaking, both of them suffered and were put under the same storm as it were.
And we'll look at that a little bit more later on.
But that's about as far as the similarities go.
They both called Jesus their Lord.
They both built a house.
They both had a life that they lived, which to the outward observer was like two normal
houses, just ordinary normal houses.
And both men lived in the same general area.
They suffered the same general things.
There was not one preferential thing that happened to this man that affected him uniquely
and specifically different to this man.
Both men suffered, or both houses suffered, and as we'll see later, both men were under
the same actions.
But what are the differences?
And that's where we see what our Lord was driving at.
The similarities are very evident.
But what are the real differences that we see in this parable?
If we look at these men and we start to understand that we're not just talking about two houses
now.
We're not just talking about two physical structures which in our heads we can understand
something of when we look at what happened in the earthquake just in our city.
We know the effect of a shaking of the ground.
We know what a natural catastrophe will do to two different houses if they construct
a difference.
But we want to have a look tonight at what are the differences that our Lord was highlighting
between these two men here, these two men who outwardly seem to be like you and I tonight.
You and I are all here together.
There's no obvious difference between any one of us tonight.
Our Lord wants us to think about these things and He deliberately puts it at the end of
the Sermon on the Mount when He's gone through the life of a believer, when we've seen the
confrontations He's had with the Pharisees, when we've seen Him call His disciples out
to be His apostles.
What are the differences?
Well the first and I think probably the most crucial of them all is the difference between
real words and empty words, real words and empty words.
You see our Lord was deliberately highlighting the massive difference that there is between
the scribes and the Pharisees which we see there, the two Sabbaths, they deliberately
were out to just get at Christ.
They were by their great pretentious gowns and their words and by their actions were
deliberately trying to show off their religious prowess and trying to take our Lord on head
on and yet our Lord was saying that that's an emptiness that a real changed heart wouldn't
do.
A real change of heart means that the words Lord have real action behind them.
Anyone who loves the Lord has a true changed heart.
Real words, real calling and saying Lord, Lord is the one who comes and who does them.
Real words, real words produce action.
That's the difference between the empty words, between the one man and the other man is action.
That's the only difference.
They looked the same, they probably dressed generally the same, they probably ate generally
the same things, they did good things.
They were in all manner of natural observances from a long distance the same.
They were the same in everything it seems except when it came to their actions.
One man had it.
One man we see there, he's the man who takes God's word and he acts upon it.
He says Lord, he says Master, he says you are my King and walks in it and acts and takes
the word of God and acts upon it.
The other man says Lord, Lord.
That's about it.
There's no actions with it.
It's just something that happens with the lips, something that happens from the outside
of him and as we've seen it's just like looking at two houses.
They look the same from the outside but the real difference is like the fruit we read
about here before.
A good tree, a good tree brings forth good fruit.
That's why you know that there's a difference between this tree and this tree.
This tree brings forth fruit.
It's good fruit, it's sweet to taste and this tree over here brings nothing but garbage.
That's how you know the difference.
When they're both out of season you wouldn't be able to tell but when the fruit comes,
when the words come out of a man's mouth, that's when the difference comes.
When the words and the actions or the lack of actions that follows it, that is the difference.
Well that's the first difference.
Well the second difference is that one man's foundation was firm and the other man as Matthew
refers to it is on shifting sand.
We've said it lots of time and I want us to get this clear in our mind because I think
it's crucial that we understand that the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian doesn't
necessarily have to be much outwardly.
Through outward appearances both these men built lovely houses but yet the wise man had
used an immeasurable higher specification in the building of his house.
The wise man had acted upon God's Word and had taken God's Word as his rule for his life
and practice.
The wise man had taken God's Word and had followed it and had built his life and had
built his house carefully with the designs and the purposes of God before his eyes.
He was like the wise man that we read about in Psalm 1.
He followed, he didn't want to follow the normal way, he didn't sit in a seat of a scornful
but he meditated upon God's Word.
He took this building of his house seriously and with great effort and we notice that to
dig down deep into the rock, to lay a foundation of the rock was something that took a lot
of effort.
This man took the Word of God seriously.
He took it to heart and he evidently worked and the sweat of his brow must have been great
for his desire was to follow the specifications that Christ had laid out clearly in the Word
of God and he would not rest until he had the foundations on the rock.
Until he hit the rock, he was going to dig and dig and it says he dug deep so that he
could get upon the rock.
You see, his whole security, the whole basis for his house, the whole security that his
house enjoyed was the fact that it was founded on the rock and the whole security of his
actions before God was the fact that he was grounded and he was standing and resting firmly
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, this man's whole existence was crucially based upon the fact that he had hit bedrock.
He was not resting upon anything in himself.
His house that may have only been a story above the ground, he was going to go as deep
as it took to get to firm and solid ground.
This man was a wise man for he trusted and his whole love and desire was in the Lord
Jesus Christ but yet how much this is a contrast to the other man.
His interests lie in himself.
The shifting sands were those sands of man's traditions, of man's religion, of man's opinions
and what greater example that we have right here is the Scribes and the Pharisees.
Their whole system was built up upon their traditions, upon their exterior, upon the
superficial outward appearances.
Yes, they wanted a quick fix.
They didn't want to have to dig deep and go through self-debasing and lowering of themselves.
They wanted something that was as good as other men or even better if they could to
all outward appearances for little effort, for little work, for little sweat of their
brow.
They built up a security in a house that looked like their neighbours but oh, how foolish
they were for the difference is immense.
This man's house was built on self-will.
It was built on self-fulfilment.
It was built on self-sufficiency and self-satisfaction and self-righteousness.
It was full of his own opinions.
Shifting sand always moves but what happens to our opinions?
Today it's one thing, tomorrow it's another.
These opinions move and so does our tradition, so does the outward forms of men and yet this
man was quite content to build his whole life, to stake his whole life upon, his whole house
in the imagery we're using, upon a flawed foundation.
What a fool.
What a foolish man.
Yet because there was no evidence of a transforming work of the Lord Jesus Christ in his heart,
we see that this man's end was great.
Let me read what AEW Pink says about this.
He says about these people, about people you've got to remember that we're not talking about
necessarily people right out there.
We're not talking about prostitutes or about people that we would put right down there.
The Lord was speaking here to two people who look the same and this is what AEW Pink says
and it's very pertinent.
He says, they bring their bodies to the house of prayer but not their souls.
They worship with their mouths but not in spirit and in truth.
They are sticklers for immersion or early morning communion yet they take no thought
about keeping their hearts with all diligence.
They boast of their orthodoxy but disregard the precepts of Christ.
Multitudes of professing Christians abstain from external acts of violence yet hesitate
not to rob their neighbours of a bad name by spreading evil reports against them.
They contribute regularly to the pastor's salary but shrink not from misrepresenting
their goods and cheating their customers, persuading themselves that business is business.
They have more regard for the laws of men than those of God for his fear is not before
their eyes.
Do you get the picture?
These two look the same but yet their differences were great.
Well the third difference and probably or it is definitely the most lasting difference
between these two men is the difference we see when the storm comes.
What happened when the storm come?
One lasted the distance and one was just destroyed in an instant.
It says that it fell immediately.
You see both these men lived their life, both these men built up their house, they said
Lord, Lord, they called him Lord and yet both men died.
Both men, it is evident here that our Lord is referring to the judgment.
Both men had died and both men came before the judgment and remember we said earlier
that both men faced the Lord, that the same storm beat upon both houses and so both men
stood before God.
Yet what a terrible destruction came upon the foolish man for he now comes before God.
He now comes before this one who has called Lord, Lord but all his life he brings now
before God and he brings it before the judgment seat of God but it cannot stand an instant
of the wrath of God, it cannot stand an instant of the pure and mighty gaze of God and it's
destroyed in an instant just as we can imagine a great tidal wave wiping out this house.
There's no form in it, there's no strength in it.
This man had nothing to sacrifice to God.
He had nothing to atone for his sin, he had nothing to give to God and so God's wrath
and his anger just beat upon this man and this man was destroyed in a minute and was
sent to a terrible damnation in hell.
Those are serious things.
This is an eternal difference we're talking about here.
This difference severed this man forever and ever and ever from the one who he called
Lord.
He had come and he'd said Lord, Lord and yet in an instant when that storm hit, when the
judgment of God comes and God stands here before him, the heat of almighty God's wrath
upon sin just consumed him in an instant.
What a fool, what a foolish man.
And yet what about the wise man, how do we apply then this other house?
This man he had dug deep and he had laid it upon a rock but yet his time to die comes
and he comes and he faces the wrath of God but why doesn't he be consumed in a moment?
It's because his confidence and his stand was based on Christ because now and he had
his feet solidly secured upon the Lord Jesus Christ and suddenly when God looked upon him,
Christ was there as his sacrifice.
The wrath of God was appeased because of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
These two men were just men but one had the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ to take
the beating of the punishment of God and as we know and as we've heard from this pulpit
time and time again, our Lord is the one who has taken that sin and he has taken it like
that rock would have no doubt taken the great impact of that storm and would have cushioned
and taken upon itself all the pressure of that storm so our Lord, when this man died,
when this man stood before God, the wrath of God had been appeased because of Christ.
The sacrifice of Christ was the one that allowed him to pass through unscathed by the searching
eye of God, unscathed into eternal security, into eternal life, into eternal glory.
It is a simple parable my friends and I have just one simple question for our second major
point or third major point and that is what do you call Christ?
What do you call him?
Do you call him Lord?
Do you refer to him as master, as your sovereign?
You've got to think about this clearly because our Lord then puts you right down the barrel
with this parable tonight but before we look at that, if you just call him Jesus, if Jesus
to you is just a historical figure like Benjamin Franklin or Winston Churchill or John F Kennedy,
then really even if you have an abstract knowledge of God, an abstract knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ, there is hope for you my friend.
You are in a dangerous position because you've built a house with none of God's specifications.
These two men at least in outward form had a form of godliness.
You my friend have just gone the total opposite direction and so you are in a deadly position
but I call upon you before you die to look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Get the Bible, this is his word, this is what the wise man took and he read it and he looked
upon it and he looked to his God for help to build a life that was based on the Lord
Jesus Christ.
So my friend, what hope have you got of standing that storm of God's judgment if you don't
even know who Jesus is, if you don't even claim on your lips to know the Lord then surely
you are in just as deep trouble as the man who just built it upon the sands of religious
experience, on the sands of tradition and that just washed away in a moment.
You're doomed, you're doomed if you stay there, if you stay where you are your foundations
will be swept away and so the only thing I can say to you is trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ, learn who he is, take those scriptures and start tonight to read it for yourself,
to understand what it is that our Lord calls upon men to do, to understand what sin is,
to understand what it is to repent, to understand what it is to have a knowledge of our sin
and to want to repent of that sin, come to the Lord Jesus Christ, come and start building
a life upon a rock before your day comes when the storm of God's wrath meets you, forsake
your own foundations and build upon the rock Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, but ignorance
is no excuse is it, ignorance is no excuse but neither my friend and let me underline
this tonight, neither is empty words, this whole parable was based upon men who knew
the Lord Jesus Christ and yet one of them had empty words because they're deadly, now
you're probably many of you here tonight, I know a like me and that you have grown up
in a church, you've grown up listening and hearing about these things and you know the
books of the Bible and you know all about the Lord Jesus, you couldn't say that you
didn't know who he was, it would be impossible for you to deny the fact that you know about
the Lord Jesus Christ, you couldn't say that you didn't know who he was, you couldn't say
the Lord Jesus Christ, but what do you call him, what do you call him, is it just a habit
to say he's the Lord Jesus Christ, is it just a habit, just a term that we use in prayer,
we use Lord as a comma, as a pause between our phrases in our prayer, dear Lord this
and Lord that, do we say Lord so uncarefully, empty words, empty words, empty words, empty
words are dangerous words because you're building a nice house and I can't tell, probably anyone
around here can't tell, no one can tell the difference between these two houses until
the storm came, I can't tell, you can't tell about someone else, only if Christ is really
your Lord and your master, do you have hope, calling upon him as Lord in an empty and thoughtless
manner, he's deadly, he's deadly, there's enough Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees
described in the first four books of the New Testament to say he's the Lord Jesus Christ,
he's the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the Lord Jesus Christ,
to absolutely convince anyone that a head religion, an outward religion is just setting
yourself up for destruction, for destruction, so beware my friends, beware the outward side
of man, never interested Christ, never interested Christ, never, what makes you think that he
would be interested in yours or mine, exteriorness, if that is all that you have, it's the heart
of a person, our Lord said it's if you obey my words, that's what he's interested in,
so don't just build a nice exterior, people 2,000 years ago did it, but they're dead and
gone, they've faced the storm of God's wrath and they're punished now for 2,000 odd years
because of that, millions and millions of people would believe that they have a fine
and an admirable house, don't fall into the same trap that we've seen here tonight, don't
fall into it, be careful about getting too comfortable with things, without thinking
about them, all I can say is repent, repent and trust the Lord and call him Lord that
obey him, they are linked, they are linked together and we see it so clearly here, and
a servant's heart is an obedient heart, if you call him Lord which means you're the servant,
then surely we should obey him and that is my final encouragement to you who know the
Lord Jesus Christ and who are like these men, this man here, who've dug to the rock and
I know that my feet are upon the rock but I tell you my knees still shake at times but
this man's life was built upon the rock and so I just encourage you who know him as Lord,
I know our feet shake, I don't think that it says here that this man's house probably
wasn't shaken at times throughout his life but the fact is that it could not shake it,
it could not destroy it and we have a confidence in our God surely that guarantees us that
we have eternal life, let us rejoice in that my friends, that's the first thing, let us
rejoice if we know the Lord then we are bound up to that rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Christ is our rock of eternal salvation and if we are on him, if we are grounded in him
then we are secure, we don't have to fear death, if we were to die our Lord's blood,
our Lord's sacrifice is like the shield that shields us from the wrath of God, it's been
done, in him we have salvation, rejoice in that because the devil will tempt us, he will
say look you're just like everyone else, often times you'll show up how your paint works
worse than your neighbours but it's not the exterior brethren, it's not what we are on
the outside that matters here, it's the foundation that we're built upon, look to that, trust
our saviour for the devil is coming, he would have us look at the exterior of this one or
that one or this or that or the other, go down to the basement and have a look what
you're built upon, if we're founded and secure upon the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ then
though the devil may point out many things that are true, that we are sinful, that we
are wicked, that we do have evil desires still, yet we know if we're in Christ then
he is his blood and it's his sacrifice that will keep us and secondly, I guess it's fairly
obvious from the passage, brethren obey your Lord, fairly obvious but our Lord here says
why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do the things which I say, if we claim to
be his and if we are his then never get tired my friends of serving the Lord. Remember what
we've heard just last week wasn't it in Hebrews 12, about how we ought to strengthen our arms
that hang down and our feeble knees and to look and to see that Christ has finished,
the work and to be continued and go on, go on and keep looking to him and obey Christ
and go on forward, trusting him because Jesus is the author, the foundation of our faith
and he's the finisher, he's gone before us, let's follow in his footsteps, let's obey
him tonight and may we be found in him, each one of us when that storm comes. We've seen
lots of rain this week and we've seen lots of wind but it's nothing compared to when
we die and to our searching eye of our God and so I do pray that tonight as I aim to
have done to challenge you about the foundation of your profession, what do you profess to
be, what do you profess to be, who do you profess to be? Well I do pray that from tonight
onwards if not before you'll trust solely upon the Lord Jesus Christ and find in him
a rock that never moves and that will keep you to eternity. Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, how we praise your name that there is a rock of refuge, there's
a rock in which we can base our eternal security upon and dear Father I do pray tonight that
each and every one here will be done with basing our lives upon the opinions of self,
upon the opinions of men, upon the traditions and upon religion and upon these terrible
shifting sands of human and earthy things and that Father we will build a life upon
the Lord Jesus Christ and that Father when that time comes for us to die and for us to
face our mighty God in heaven that we will have a secure foundation that will keep us
through into eternal life and oh Father I pray that if there be any here who trust in
themselves and who have been found tonight to have a foundation which is flawed and which
will dam them in hell, I do pray Lord that you would please show them yourself that they
would see that an outward form, an outward prettiness is nothing, that it is just death
and is just a sure ticket to hell. Oh Lord I pray that by your Holy Spirit you would
open our eyes and our hearts that if we are yours we will serve you more fervently from
this day and if we are not yours, oh I pray for your Spirit that it would stir up the
hearts of each one, that Lord you would not let us go but Father that you would reform
us and work upon us by your Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.
Our final hymn tonight is 574, 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 has said, you who
unto Jesus for refuge have fled. From verse 2 onwards we notice that it's really, or at
least down to verse 5, it's what our Lord will say to those and can say to those who
are trusting upon him. I pray that this will be the response of your heart as we sing this
tonight. Thanks.