Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on August 18, 2024.
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Audio Transcript
If you’ll take your Bibles now and turn to Luke chapter six, verses 46 through 49, as we’re looking today at two foundations, Luke chapter six, verses 46 through forty nine. It’ll be on the screen, but it’s even better if you turn in your Bibles or there’s a pew Bible there in front of you that you might follow along. I’ll begin reading. In verse 46, Jesus said, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don’t do the things I say. I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words and acts on them.
He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it because it was well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river crashed against it and immediately it collapsed and the destruction of that house was great. May we ask the Lord to guide us in our understanding of his Word?
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. We know that it accomplishes its purpose. Help our ears to be attentive, to listen today, to hear what you have to say, and let your spirit reveal to us in our hearts decisions that we need to make or changes that we need to make that we might reflect your son more fully, more wonderfully in this world. In his name we pray. Amen.
Jesus starts out with a warning. In verse 46, he says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don’t do the things that I say. Jesus is talking to a group of people that are professing followers of him. And from what others can tell, he’s calling or she is calling Jesus, Lord, Lord. But he’s given a warning here that people that are only verbally followers of Jesus Christ, but there has been no change in their heart that leads to obedience to God’s Word.
There is reason to doubt whether that person is truly a believer. So Jesus, out of concern, not out of condemnation, but he wants people to really think, am I just a follower of Jesus Christ in word, or does it show in the way I live and the way I act? Now, please listen today as we’re going through this, we’re not saying that living like a Christian and being obedient to God’s Word is what saves you. No act of obedience, no hundred percent obedience can save you. What saves you is placing your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
And as a result of that there’s obedience to God’s Word. Not externally, but there’s obedience to God’s word because there’s been a change in your heart. There’s been a rebirth, there is a new life. Let’s go to Matthew 7:21 23. And we find here that Jesus gives further explanation about what he is meaning.
Here in Matthew 7:21 23 we read this. Not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we drive out demons in your name? And didn’t we do many miracles in your name?
Jesus says, at that day of judgment, I will announce to them, I never knew you depart from me, you lawbreakers. So there’s a contrast here. There’s the only the one phrase and there’s the the many. Jesus is referring to that narrow is the path, narrow is the gate that leads to salvation, but broad is the pathway and the road that leads to destruction. And the many are going down that broad pathway because they haven’t truly placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
But it’s the one, it’s the individual, the smaller number, that’s following the narrow path that truly are his followers. Now what’s interested in the many here is that they have these very demonstrative, showy things that they’re doing. They’re prophesying in the name of Jesus, they’re driving out demons in his name, and they’re doing actual miracles in his name. Everyone else looks on and says, certainly this must be a true follower of Jesus Christ because of these great and mighty things that they are doing. But what Jesus is saying, these great and mighty things, even though they’re done in his name, if somebody has not placed their faith in Jesus Christ, these are fake followers.
And there are people in the world today that claim to be Christians, knowing that they are not Christians that are doing these showy things for ulterior motives or for their own growth in the world or their own acceptance. And there are also people that may be doing these things. And we’re going to see today that they’re self deceived. They think that they’re believers because of their outward life, but they haven’t really placed their faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is telling us that the people that are true believers will be doing the will of the Father in heaven.
And once again, I emphasize it’s not doing the Will that saves the people. But it’s a desire to do God’s will because there’s been an inward change in their heart. Let’s look at Matthew 6. 9, where we have the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus disciples had said, teach us how we are supposed to pray, not what we are supposed to pray.
And it’s fine to say the Lord’s Prayer, but it isn’t so much about the exact words. But Jesus is telling them how to pray. What should be included in their prayer. And the part that I want to point out to you today is the part that’s underlined, but let me read it. Therefore, you should pray like this.
Our Father in heaven, your name is honored as holy. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The will of the Father should be the goal of our life. In both our words and in our deeds. We should follow the example of Jesus Christ.
Even though he was God in the flesh, he didn’t do things according to his will. He didn’t speak speak according to his will. He says that he listened to the Father, and whatever the Father told him to say, that’s what he spoke. Whatever the Father asked him to do, that’s what he did every day. He was praying in this manner.
God, show me today what your will is for my life. And he was obedient to that. Seeking the will of the Father should be a part of every prayer that we pray. But what we tend to do, instead of saying, God, what is your will? Let me do that.
We tend to say, God, this is what I’m planning to do today. Would you please bless this? Or we say, God, this is what I’m planning to say to someone today. Would you please bless this. The proper thing is to say, God, what do you want me to do?
What do you want me to say to this person I am speaking speaking to? We tend to spend most of our prayer time asking God to do things for us. Let me read that one more time. We tend to spend most of our prayer time asking God to do things for us. But what we need to do is spend more time asking him what he wants us to do to do for him.
Seeking God’s will. It’s an evidence of being a true follower of Jesus Christ. So Jesus gives us this warning. It’s out of concern for us, but then he gives us hope. He tells us that there is a path to certain stability in our life.
As we go back to the text, Luke 6:46 through 49, what we’re going to see here is that there are three things that are evident in the life of someone who truly follows Jesus Christ. First is they come. Second, they hear. And third, they act. All three steps are here.
They come with interest in Jesus Christ. They come to a church service. They come to a revival service. They listen on the radio. They read God’s word.
They’re like, hey, I want to know more about Jesus. And then while they’re there or while they’re reading, they hear the words of God, what it means to be saved, what God desires for their life. But that person who is truly a believer that is on a path to certain stability in their life, then is going to act because they’ve accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And out of the abundance of joy and thankfulness in their heart, they want to obey what God says this. Let’s read the passage.
I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. And this is the stability now that Jesus promises. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it because it was well built. With the warning, Jesus gives us hope we can be like the one and choose not to be like the many.
But it doesn’t come from our own outward struggle. It comes from building up on the rock. This isn’t talking about a physical house, even though it makes sense to build your house on a good foundation. This is talking about our spiritual life that we choose not to build on just dirt or just on sand, but to make the effort to dig deep. Not to dig shallow, but to dig deep and lay the foundation on the rock.
Now, there are some places where the rock bed is so deep that they will dig down and they’ll put in a big concrete whatever that becomes kind of a semi foundation. But they’re not digging down and they’re not building on the surface. Jesus is asking us to dig deep and lay the foundation not on just a rock, but on the rock. And we know that the rock is Jesus Christ. And if we build on any other foundation or if we don’t build on a foundation at all, we’re not going to have the stability that Jesus promises.
Now, it’s interesting here because it talks about this flood coming, and it’s coming because of a river that’s overflowing its bank. So this house is built on a river that we should recognize could rise, it could fall, it could flood. And this is about our life in general. All lives have a river that goes by them. They’re going to be times that there’s going to be flooding.
There’s going to be times that there’s going to be drought. And the only way to be prepared for those times is to recognize you need to build for what might happen. And Jesus Christ says to build your life on on Him. The hope then is evident in our lives when we build our faith on Jesus Christ alone, that our heart is changed. And then we become these few that we’ve come to Jesus, we’ve heard Jesus and we act on His Word.
And when it talks about acting there means that we complete what he’s acting, ask us to do, and we also continue in it in a day to day basis. It’s not just a once and done type thing, the path to certain stability. Let’s go to James 1, 22, 25 and we get a further description of this where James is telling us that just hearing God’s Word is not evidence that you’re a believer just wanting to hear God’s Word. You can do all the Bible studies you can possibly do, but James is telling us that someone that really is taking this to heart, something’s going to change on the outside of their life. That’s why James says be doers of the Word and not hearers, only deceiving yourselves.
Because if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.
But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it and is not forgetful here, but a doer who, who works and this person will be blessed in what he does.
If I look in the mirror in the morning and I have black stuff all over my face and I walk away and I do nothing about it, it was completely worthless for me. To do what? Look in the mirror. When we read God’s Word, when we understand what, what he is telling us for, then to walk away and not do anything about it is what Jesus or James is talking about here. Just hearing, just being interested, but not acting shows that a person has not placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
What’s interesting here is that those two words up there, deceiving yourselves. We think about Satan deceiving us, but Scripture tells us we’re capable of deceiving ourselves. People can think that they’re believers and be a hundred percent convinced and be 100% convinced wrongly. And when we look at them, we can see because they don’t live any differently than the rest of the world. And they keep deceiving themselves by saying this.
I am a Christian because of blank. And that blank could be filled in with anything. But if it’s not filled in with Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. He was buried and rose from the dead so that I can be forgiven and have a restored relationship with God. If that’s not what someone puts in the blank, they’re deceiving themselves.
If that blank is anything other than what I just said, then that person is deceived. And the sad thing about it is other people can come along and affirm that person and their self deception and say, yeah, because of blank in your life, you must be a believer. What are some things that people fill the blank with? They might say, I’m a Christian because my parents were godly and they brought me to church every day of my life. And someone else comes along and says, I know that you’re a Christian because your parents already brought you to church and we knew they were godly people.
You can’t fill the blank with what your parents did. Someone else might say, well, I’m a Christian because I got baptized, but there’s no change in their life. There’s no doing according to God’s word. And then someone else comes along and says, yeah, I remember I was at your baptism. You have to be a Christian.
Those people are deceived in thinking that something they did or something their parents did saved them. That blank has to be filled with you believe in Jesus Christ alone. Someone might say, I’m a Christian because I’m a good person. I do more good than other people. I’m better than that person over there.
I do lots of things at my church. I do lots of things for my community. If that’s what you’re filling the blank with, you are deceived yourself. And the sad thing is other people will say, yeah, I know that you’re a believer because you work at this and you work at that. You know, you’re such a good person.
You can only fill the blank with one thing to have stability that’s certain in your life. Jesus Christ, his death, burial and resurrection is the reason why I am saved. And if you believe that there’s going to be and outward evidence of change in your life, Jesus gives us two parables here to help us get a better picture of what he’s talking about. Let’s Go back to verse 47. I will show you what someone is like who comes to me.
Here is my words and acts on them. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when that flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it because it was well built. The wonderful promise here from Jesus is pictured by this first parable. And we’re not talking about a physical house, we’re talking about an eternal house.
We’re talking about a spiritual home that we have throughout eternity. The person that has this, they’ve dug deep, they’ve given a lot of thought to this. They’ve made a firm decision that Jesus Christ is the foundation of my life. He is the rock that I am building upon. And that person’s whole life is then set upon being obedient to Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father.
That person has set up their life, they’ve provided for their family, they’re establishing permanence in their home, not physically, but spiritually. They’re digging deep, they’re not digging shallow. It takes effort, it takes time, it takes expense. But Jesus tells us that it is worth everything. They laid the foundation, not, not just a rock, but they laid the foundation on the rock.
They sought out to put their house, their spiritual house, in the exact place and the only place for that is Jesus Christ. Once again, they they built by a river. Rivers can flood, rivers can have low amounts of water. But they were prepared because they were ready for any storm in life. And their house would stand firm because their faith was in Jesus Christ.
But there’s Also, in the second parable, a path to disastrous instability. Verse 49. But the one who hears and does not act.
There’s an interest in Jesus. There is an attempt to learn more about Jesus, but there’s no follow up. There’s no making him the foundation in their life. The one who hears and does not act is like the man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river crashed against it and immediately it collapsed.
And the destruction of that house was great. With the certainty of the blessing. In the first parable, Jesus gives a warning about certain doom and certain failure for those who do not build their life on Him. The rock, the sure foundation. Just think how foolish it would be if you built a house and you didn’t take time to build any type of foundation.
Or someone came and told you this is the worst place to build. There’s nothing to build your foundation on. And this place floods all the time for you to go ahead and build a house there. Jesus is saying, that’s foolishness. How much more foolish it is for us spiritually to do the same thing.
The person in this parable, he hears, but he doesn’t act. It’s like someone who reads the blueprints for the building of a house. This person has read the blueprint for the building of his life, which is God’s word. And he reads there about the possibility of floods and earthquakes and tornadoes, but he doesn’t build according to the plan. God’s word is the blueprint for our life.
It tells us that how to build a lasting home, an eternal home. And we are deceiving ourselves if we don’t build according to God’s word. Verse 49. Again, the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house just on the ground, without any foundation at all.
It isn’t even that this person is built on the wrong foundation. He’s just not even thinking about the next life. He’s just building wherever the view looks nice or wherever things are the cheapest and the easiest. This person has no foundation. They have no plan.
They’re going through life basting their eternity on sinking sand, on mud, on no foundation. And just as the other house had a river that goes by it that they recognize, it could flood or cause problems, this person is also building beside this river, saying, oh, I’m not worried if the river will ever flood. I’m just going to build my house here anyway.
It’s been made obvious to the builder that they need to build accordingly, but they are not doing anything about it. You know, God has given us all warning in the heavens, in creation. Jesus came and spoke to us, God in the flesh. And now we have the Bible and it’s all instructions about how we need to build our life on the foundation of Jesus Christ and what he did for us when he died on the cross for us.
How is your house built today? Which of the two columns, as we look up here, where does your life fit? Are you like the one? Are you like the first house? You’ve come to Jesus because you’re interested in him.
You’ve come to hear what he has to say through his word or the testimony of others. And you’ve gone beyond that. You’ve acted upon it. You’ve placed your faith in Jesus Christ alone. You’ve told God, God, I know I’m a sinner.
I know that I need some foundation other than what I can build. I want to build my life on the foundation that your son provided for me through his death, burial and resurrection. Jesus promises you that you will be unshaken and you will have eternal stability.
Therefore, when the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it because it was well built. But if that’s not where you are, you’re on this other side. You’ve been interested in Jesus. You have heard his words, but you’ve not responded to his call for salvation. There’s no action in your life if that hasn’t happened, just as certainly as the first home builder will be unshaken and have stability.
Jesus says, you will collapse and there will be great destruction once again. We’re not talking about a physical house here. We’re talking about our spiritual house that God is providing for all of those that have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. Because in the end, when the flood comes, Jesus says immediately it collapsed and the destruction of that house was great. Question 1.
Have you built your house on the foundation Jesus Christ in? Question 2. Are all three evidences there in your life so that you know for certain you’re not deceiving yourself into thinking that you are Christian when you really haven’t built your life on Jesus Christ? So I’ll leave you with those two questions today. Either you should be encouraged by the message or you should be challenged by the message.
But the challenge should be to make a decision today.
Hunter’s available. Matt’s got his name tag on today back there. Anybody with a name tag, please speak to someone after church today. Pull us aside. Even if I’m here in the line and you want to talk about this, you know I won’t stand at the door.
I’ll walk off and share with you. But we want everyone to leave today with certainty that they’re going to be unshaken and stable in their life throughout eternity. May we pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your concern for us that you give us these warnings. We also thank you even more for the promise, Father, that we don’t have to live this way, but we can have a change that we know will last forever because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
In his name we pray. Amen.