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Good morning everyone. We'll continue our studies from the Sermon on the Mount and this will be the final sermon from the Sermon on the Mount. Yeah, and for that purpose we'll turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 7 and we'll read verses 24 till 29. Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 till 29. Let us read together Matthew 7, 24 to 29, let's read together.
And before we read, I just want to give you a caution that people who have small kids, please watch over them and please do not let them mingle with other kids. And yeah, do not, if they are crying, as it's good that you step out for a moment and come back in. Yeah, let's read together, Matthew 7, 24 till 29. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain, the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against the house, and it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on
the sand. The rain fell, all the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against the house, and it fell, and great was its fall. When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority, not as their scribes.” Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your precious word, and we come to you as needy people, in need of grace, people in need of your wisdom, so that, Lord, we may fashion our lives according to your word.
Please give us grace to discern your will from your word and also the grace to submit to your teaching. Give us grace, O Lord, that you would help us overcome all our weaknesses, all our facade, for we stand before you, Lord. We are accountable to you for the life that you have given us. Have mercy upon us, O Father.
May the fear of God come upon us. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. Overall, the Sermon on the Mount serves as an exhortation to live Christ-centered, kingdom-oriented lives that is characterized by God's wisdom. In the, in this concluding, Jesus uses a metaphor, again a metaphor of construction or building. And we see here, we observe two categories of individuals, one wise, another foolish. And initially, as you observe them, they may seem very similar, and however, at the foundational level, they have chosen the
divergent paths. The term for wise means one who has learned through practice to live prudently with discernment and who not only knows the truth, but also acts upon it. Who makes, you know, he orders his life according to the wisdom that he has learned.
The person intentionally lives out that life. And this person here is contrasted with its opposite, that is fool, originally moron. He hears the words but doesn't live according to it. He hears it Sunday after Sunday, probably he reads it day after day, but he doesn't live according to it. They may also have good Bible study lives, you know, they may look into the word, they may hear good sermons, but they do not order their lives according to the word, and the Bible calls them foolish. The conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount presents us with three vivid images. The first is the gate, as we have seen couple of weeks ago, contrasting the narrow gate with a broad one. And the second involves a good
tree that bears good fruit and the bad tree that bears bad fruit, and the third one, it depicts two houses. And if you have observed the first two images, or the first two images that we have seen, we see there that, no, it come with clear commands. For instance, the first, uh, image of gate, you see there a Lord gives a clear command that enter through the narrow gate, enter, or enter the narrow great gate. And the second one, he says that beware of the false prophets, be careful of the false prophet, watch out, as we have heard, spot the wolves. And in the final
image here, in the image of the building, there isn't a direct command, you don't find a command in this passage, but it's, there is an underlying encouragement to be wise rather than foolish, and emphasizing the importance of making wise choices according to the Word of God. In verses 24 to 27 we see two builders here, a wise one and a foolish one, and people who are seated here, we either fall into either of the categories. There is no middle ground, okay? Either you're wise or you're foolish. So by the end of the sermon, you for yourself, or decide for yourself, whether you're wise or foolish.
And there are two outcomes also, if you live a wise life and a foolish life, there are the two outcomes. So what, in, what's interesting is to note that from the outside the two builders appear to be doing the same thing, you know, what's that, building. The both seem to be building a house, and to a casual observer their houses might look quite similar. And the difference between the wisely built and the foolishly built houses isn't about how they look or how they appear from the outside. In fact, you, if you see that, the foolish house, the foolish one who builds the
house might even be more eye-catching or maybe even more decorative, much like the Pharisees’ public prayers, right? Public ways of fasting or giving or public piety that we have seen in Matthew chapter 6. The real difference is beneath the surface, in the strength of the foundation supporting the house and the person, right? And the foundation is invisible to a casual observer. Many of us attend gatherings on Sundays and other Christian events, and we, we are familiar with all the in jargon, right? And it can be challenging to distinguish between those who are genuine believers and those who are not. And all of us who gather here appear to be building Christian lives. However, some are not. Some are not building their Christian lives. Some individuals may believe that you are a believer, but that is not the most significant
aspect. The most significant aspect and what truly matters is what the Lord thinks of us, whether the Lord recognizes us as his people. That’s the most significant aspect. Will we be among those who cry out, “Lord,” and really say to some of us on that day when we stand before this throne, will he say to us, “I never knew you. Leave me, you who practice lawlessness”? Will he say that to some of us? Do you only have the veneer of Christianity, or do you truly have the substance? You may be born in a Christian home. You may have a good Christian name
right. And but do you have the substance of Christianity within you? There are two builders and two foundations. Any builder will tell you how vital and crucial the foundation is for the building, right? And any mistake made at the foundational level, in the foundation, will only worsen as the building goes higher, right? And the foundation, we know that, is very crucial. So the wise builder, he says, is the one who builds his house on the rock, on a solid rock. And the foolish builder, obviously, is the one who builds his house on the sand. So now, as we talk about the rock and
the sand, the two foundations, we should, we should know the difference. What’s the difference? How do you know if you’re building your house on the rock, which will, which will stand? And it gives it to us very clearly here. The one who builds on the rock is the one who hears the words of Christ. The one who builds his house on the rock is the one who hears, carefully hears the words of Christ and lives accordingly to those words. By those words he fashions his life, according to the words of Christ Jesus. He pays very close attention to the words of God and applies
to his own life. And the one who builds his house on the sand is the one who hears the words of Christ, who appears to be hearing the words of Christ but does not do them. Sunday morning he may be seated here, or she may be seated here, hear the words of Christ, maybe very attentive, maybe taking notes, but Monday to Friday, or not, Monday to Saturday, no, he doesn’t live according to that. He doesn’t live according to that. His life is not shaped by the word of God. His values are not shaped by word of God. His outlook on life is not shaped by
word of God. So do we, how do we know that? So now, to take note again, the both builders, they both hear the words of Jesus. And did you cast that they both may be part of the Christian community here. But again, you can’t see the foundation very easily. They both may know all the theological jargon. And so the foundation they’re building on depends on how they respond to the hearing the word of God. Therefore, brothers and sisters, the question isn’t whether they hear the word of God. It’s not even if they respect the word of God or respect it or believe it to be true.
That’s not the real question. The real question is, do they hear it? And do they do it? By it, do you apply the word to your life and live by it? That’s a question that you need to answer, that determines whether you are a kingdom citizen or not. So the, as the title of the sermon is, Beyond Mere Profession — Your Obedience Proves Your Kingdom Citizenship. Here the rock is a metaphor for Jesus. He says, “Everyone who hears these words of mine,” is equated to the house built on the rock. These words can be applied to all of the Scriptures, as our Lord is the author of all of the Scriptures.
However, here they specifically refer to the words in the Sermon on the Mount. Have you truly taken these words of Jesus to heart? As we have been hearing sermons or studying the Sermon on the Mount almost for a year now, how seriously have you taken the words of Jesus? How have you been fair fashioning your lives according to this, these words of Jesus? Are you living by them? Are you submitting to the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ? Firstly, we have seen the Beatitudes. It says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Do you see yourself as a needy person? Do you see yourself as a person in need of God’s grace? As you face life’s problems, as you face your own sin, do you feel the need of God’s
grace? Do you run to his throne of grace for grace daily? Are you going to the Lord for grace, or are you self-absorbed? Then he says, “Blessed are those who mourn.” Do you see sin as God sees it? Do you mourn over your own frailties? Do you see that your hope for your sins is only found in the person and the work of Lord Jesus Christ, or do you take God’s grace for granted? Do you take sin for granted? It — do you understand biblical suffering so that you can mourn rightly when you face suffering? And he says, “Blessed are the meek.” We have
observed that meekness involves the absence of pretension, absence of insecurity and self-absorption. And if we have known each other, we have known each other for a while, and we know that many of us here are easily offended. We are easily offended. We easily cry. We, we sulk over a little offense, over little things. We are quick to defend ourselves, right? And then we are, we are not, that means that we are not growing in meekness. We are not finding our satisfaction in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not growing strong inwardly.
Then he says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Now, everyone has an appetite and a longing for something that shape our life and desires. And for God’s kingdom members, righteousness become the central. It becomes central to our desires. Do you long to be Christ-like? Do you want your life to be pleasing to God? Do we recognize our spiritual poverty and see God’s grace so that our life we would grow in his grace so that our lives would be pleasing to him so that our Father in heaven will be glorified the way we live here, are you growing in that hunger for righteousness?
Then our Lord says, “Blessed are the merciful.” You cannot receive mercy from a holy God, remain unchanged in how you treat others. The way you treat others when they hurt you. The way you treat others when they offend you. Are you merciful? Are you gracious? Are you willing to let go? Are you harsh? Are you condemning? Are you unmerciful? Forgiving others who have hurt us is difficult, and that reveals our shortcomings. And when we see our shortcomings, we should run to the throne of grace. We should cry to God for his grace enable us to live for his glory.
The point is we must long to live like Jesus. We must receive grace to be humble and we must receive grace to give grace to others. The Lord says, “Blessed are those who are pure in heart.” God cares more about our inward character. A disciple who sees sin and mourns to root it out to become pure, and such a person is a person who longs to see God. Unless there is a desire, a strong desire, day in and day out, to root out sin from your life, that means that unless there is that such a kind of a desire, you’re not longing for God. If you think that you can, you can be comfortable with this sin and that sin, if you reason within yourself and say that it’s okay to live with this sin, that means that you are not longing
to be with God. Then Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Self-seeking people cause strife. Meekness leads to peace. Insecurities, worries, discontentment, envy, and misreading of motives, they disrupt peace. Peacemakers rely on the Lord. They find their security in him and fit and the focus on pleasing him rather than promoting themselves. You know, then our Lord said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.” They said, “Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” There will be people in this world who will hate us for being followers of Christ Jesus. People will hate us for living our lives Christ way, will be persecuted for that. Our Lord, our Jesus Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, our master, he faced persecution and indicated that we would be, we would tread a similar path, and they along with
significant we will encounter tremendous opposition for following our Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus says, “You are the salt of this earth.” The people of God’s kingdom are in the world to influence others through the gospel and right living. The kingdom citizens are the signs of the new covenant, which he is establishing as witnesses in the world. Then Jesus says, “You are the light of this world.” The light should illuminate darkness, not hide it. Christians must live authentically as God’s children, distinguishing between light and darkness. The Lord’s path and the world’s path are different. There is no merging. There is no fellowship with the Lord’s path and the world’s
path. You are, you are either on the Lord’s path or world’s path. You cannot love the world while still being the calling yourself as a follower of the Lord. The church should keep as Christ-like character and let it shine. Why? So that before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. And then Jesus addressed the issues of anger, lust, oath-taking and retaliation, showing that obedience touches every aspect of our lives. We must address anger and contempt at the heart level, not just avoid murder or hurting others physically. We must guard
our hearts, the way we feel about others. We must guard our thoughts and eyes to prevent adultery at the heart level. We must protect our marriages by staying faithful to our spouses. We must maintain marital faithfulness and sanctity of marriage, avoiding lust and also avoiding divorce.
Single individuals should not exploit their singleness or think that they are free to do anything. They should live in God’s sphere and if you desire to marry, you should not prepare yourselves for marriage with all fear of God. And Jesus speaks about oath-taking, the promises. He says, “Let your yes be yes and no be no.” Be honest with your words. Anything beyond that, he says, that is straightforward, you know, it’s anything beyond the straightforward honesty is from the enemy, or is it from the evil one. Jesus says that. And remember, every promise that you make, every word that you attack, we do that in the presence and we are accountable to the Lord. And Jesus spoke about retaliation. We should never establish a system of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We must abandon any desire
or for vengeance, and instead show mercy. Pray for those who persecute us. Pray for those who curse us. We must be willing to give up our rights and display the kingdom of Jesus in the fallen world. Jesus also commands, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute us.” Our love is not directed only towards who show us love in return. Our love is controlled by the knowledge that the Father first loved us when we were His enemies and were in active rebellion against Him. If we were to show Father’s love, we should do the same. We should love the undeserving and we must also love by not expecting love in return.
And Jesus emphasizes on the authentic faith, that authentic faith goes beyond external religious practices. He warns against performing acts of righteousness at public level to show off, right? Like giving or praying or fasting merely to be seen by others, to be, to be applauded by others. Instead, these should be done sincerely. Everything that we do in a Christian life should be done sincerely unto the Lord. And the Lord’s Prayer here, as we have seen, that it’s a model prayer for approaching God with reverence, seeking his will, asking for daily provision, forgiveness and protection from temptations. And we
must earnestly seek God by fasting, and the emphasis is that we are sincere before the Lord, we know on, we know our need of him, and we depend on him as long as we live on this side of eternity. And the teachings of giving, we see that also in the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord calls for us selfless generosity. We should not hold money for ourselves, we should not spend on ourselves, we should be wise spenders of the resources that God has given us. We should, yes, save for ourselves, we should enjoy, but also we should give, we should needy, we should give
to the work of the Lord. We must hold our possessions lightly and be willing to contribute to the needs of the needy and of the kingdom as well. We must not store treasures on earth but in heaven, and we must seek God's kingdom and his righteousness first. And Jesus speaks on anxiety and worry. When we live as God wants us to live and are generous and seek God's kingdom and righteousness, we need not live in anxiety, we can trust in God's provision. When anxiety arises about material needs, we must consciously redirect our minds to focus on seeking God's kingdom, studying his word, trusting his care
for us. When you handle the money and the resources that God has given you in the righteous way as described in Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 till 24, and also the ways the other portion of the scriptures helps us and show us that we need not be anxious, God will take care, he will make a way. And it doesn't mean that we will have, we will not have difficulties and struggles in this life, but we can joyfully rest in God's grace and his provision. And and Jesus also talks about judging others in Matthew chapter 7, using the metaphor of removing the plank
from one's own eye before addressing another's speck. Remember the way you weigh other the people, the sins of other people, the way you weigh the sins of other people, remember that the Lord will take into account. He will take every word that we speak into account. If your judgment about people isn't right, and if you handle other people's sin in a wrong way, brothers and sisters, we stand condemned before God. You avoid certain people because you have made a judgment in your mind that a particular person is not worth your time. Even the thought that you are better than others or the feeling that you are not like others is a deception. It's a deception. Some of us are very good at criticizing others, weighing up the faults and failings of other people. We are good at that. But supposing somebody pays back in the
same way, how do we react? Do not make assumptions about people. Do not ascribe motives to people. Do not hold opinions or pass judgment on others, for God will judge us. And this is a sign that we do not understand grace, this is a sign that we haven't understood grace. We should always recognize that our judgments about people can be flawed because we are flawed people, because we are not God in the first place, and only God can know our hearts, and we cannot be certain about the motives of people. The sermon concludes, the Sermon on the Mount concludes with contrast between the not with
the narrow and the wide gates, good and the back route, wise and the foolish builders. Jesus emphasizes that true discipleship requires not only hearing his words but also acting upon his words. This is a summary of the Sermon on the Mount. I want to ask you a question, how careful were you in applying to your own life situations? Do you, are you taking these words into consideration? Now we may observe that the call here is to apply, the call here for us from the Lord is to apply the teachings of Jesus, not just to hear them, not just to say that we believe in them
the call is to apply the teachings of Jesus, and that is discipleship as described in the Gospel of Matthew. You remember the Great Commission that the Lord has given us in Matthew chapter 28. Once again, Great Commission, what's the part of Great Commission? Huh? Make disciples. And what, what is making disciples, what, how does making disciples look like? Teaching them to observe what he has commanded. That is the essence of discipleship, brother, sister, teaching them to observe what he has commanded, to obey, to live by them, to fashion our lives according to the teachings of Jesus or teachings of God's Word. That is the
essence of discipleship, not just merely growing in the knowledge, brothers and sisters. And some of you may recall that when we studied the book of James, we saw how James reiterated the words of Jesus, you know, the teachings of Jesus. And this is exactly what James emphasizes in James chapter 1 verses 22–25 and also chapter 2 verses 14 to 26. He urges his readers to be not only be hearers and intellectual cognitive believers — the point is that even demons know the truth, they acknowledge the truth, right? — but doers of the word who possess both faith and works are
the true followers of Jesus. You know, if you're not, if you're not living by the Word of God, if you're not shaping our lives according to the Word of God, there's no difference between us and demons. I'm not saying that, I'm not saying that, the Word of God is saying that. Even do demons do the same thing. Remember what John said in 1 John chapter 2 verses 3 and 4. I request one of you to read those verses, 1 John chapter 2 verses 3 and 4. Right?
How do we know that we know him? How do we know that? How can we be sure that we belong to him? Is when we live by his words, when we obey his commandments. Right? And if we say that, “Yes, I know him,” but we do not live according to his word, the point is that the truth is not in us. We are called liars. But we are not his people.
Right? The only proof that we belong to Jesus is that we live by his words. That’s the only proof, brothers and sisters. And as we come back to this text here in Matthew chapter 7, in the Greek text there is a repeated word called poi— poio. Was that poio? You don’t have to know that. In English it is used in various ways for doing, making, bearing fruit, producing, or declaring, practicing. And that word was used at least 20 times in the Sermon on the Mount. Particularly it’s important in chapter 5 verse 19, chapter 6 verse 1, chapter 7 verse 12, 7 verse 24, and
this is often repeated in the Sermon on the Mount. I think this is one of the key things of the Sermon on the Mount and the key themes is this, it did and this, and this determines whether we belong to Jesus or not. First let’s read chapter 5 verse 19. Chapter 5 verse 19, Jesus says, “Whoever keeps and teaches them,” the word keeps here is the poio, whoever keeps is the word. And chapter 6 verse 1, disciples are not to practice their righteousness in a certain way, not to practice, poio, again, like the Pharisees. They are not to practice their righteousness like the Pharisees.
And chapter 7 verse 12, the important golden rule is based on doing right. And again he says here, “Treat,” again poio, “treat people the same way you want them to treat you, but this is the Law and the Prophets.” Treat again, in 7, chapter 7 verse 24, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts,” poio, “acts on them.” So this is a, this is a, this is a dominant thought in the Sermon on the Mount. Whoever keeps the Word of God, whoever obeys the Word of God, whoever practices the Word of God, right, whoever acts upon the Word of God,
they are the kingdom citizens. They are the kingdom citizen. Not because you are born in a Christian family, not because you have some fancy name, Christian name, no. Not because you are attending a church. No, not even because you know all the theological jargon and your head is swollen with all theological truths. No, that’s not the proof. The proof that you belong to Jesus is that you pay careful attention to the words of the Scriptures. You pay very careful attention. You give time to understand the will of God from the Word of God. You read them, you understand them, and you apply them to your life. You struggle, yes, but you pray, you seek his grace so that you, your life is aligned with God’s truth. Brothers and sisters, that alone is a proof that you are a kingdom citizen. That alone is a proof that you belong
to Jesus. Otherwise, brothers and sisters, we are the people like those who are building our houses on sand. Is going to sink one day, is going to sink. And throughout this there is focus on how a kingdom citizen or a disciple of Christ Jesus is called to act or live in a certain way, and all of this highlights that the heart of Christian discipleship is truly about living in accordance with Jesus’ teachings and demonstrating genuine righteousness. The wise and the foolish are distinguished on the basis of how they respond to Jesus’ teachings. His disciples are called to live their whole
lives, are called to build their whole lives upon the teachings of Jesus. They live and shape their lives in this world according to the teachings of Jesus. The English Puritan, Matthew Mead, in his book, The Almost Christian, says, “There are very many in the world that are almost Christians.
Many are near heaven and yet are never nearer. Many are within a little of salvation and yet shall never enjoy the least salvation. They are within sight of heaven and yet shall never have a sight of God.” And he continues to say, “There are two sad expressions in Scripture which I cannot but notice of in this place. The one is concerning the truly righteous.
The other is concerning the seemingly righteous.” Righteous. It is said of the truly righteous, “He shall be saved,” and it is said of seemingly righteous, “He shall be almost saved.” He’s a hypocrite who shall go to hell through many fair hopes of heaven. That is the almost Christian. Are you a Christian or almost a Christian? Many years ago there was a controversy called the lordship controversy, or the lordship salvation controversy. It’s also called as easy believism, if you’re not fairly familiar with it. The idea is that you can accept Christ as your Savior and you need not submit, you do not call him as your Lord. He can become your Lord
at the later point of in your life, and this is also called as easy believism. And it refers to that, the belief that the salvation requires only intellect, intellectual assent that Jesus Christ died for your sins and you confess your sins to him without accompanying any change in lifestyle or repentance or commitment. That is a false theology. Scriptures teaches that you can’t accept Jesus as Savior without surrendering yourself to his lordship. When you accept him as the Savior, he is your Lord. Now we may grow in the understanding that he is our Lord, that’s a different thing, or there may be
areas in my life where uh where he should become the Lord. I may grow in that. But the point is that he is the Savior from the beginning. And you should desire to obey his commands, as obedience and belief are often linked in the Scriptures.
Look at John chapter 3 verse 36. John chapter 3 verse 36. I request one of you to read. I want you to make a careful observation in this passage, or in this verse. John chapter 3, verse 36. I request one of you to read it very clearly and loudly.
What do you observe here? Do you observe anything here? Anything else? Right, those who believe are those who obey, right? Obedience and belief are linked together. Believing in Jesus should lead to obedience. True faith, it always shows through in obedience. You might struggle, but you will still obey. That's why it's crucial to regularly study God's word, understand God's word, submit to God's word, and let the God's word guide your life. If you're not taking time daily to meditate on the Scriptures and follow the are neglecting the vital aspect of your Christian life. I want to ask
you this question. How is your study of the Scriptures? How is your study of the Scriptures? That shows where you are. How seriously are you taking the word of God? Are you consistently neglecting the word? Not just reading a verse, like you read a verse in the calendar, right? Not simply reading the verse or saying a prayer, but if you consistently neglect the word, ignore what it says, and lack desire to do what Jesus instructs us or long for his holiness, may I say that you may not be a believer yet. Maybe you are almost a Christian, but you're not a Christian. How do we
know that? We know them by fruit. We know them by fruit. Some people may know the Bible inside out, you met, you may, you might always see them reading the Bible, but unless you internalize the word, unless you submit to the teachings of the word, you won't grow in Christ likeness. Unless you start living by the word, you are not obeying the word. See, Jesus is not teaching here about the way of salvation or the way to enter the kingdom of heaven. He's not saying that the way to enter the kingdom of heaven is by good works of obedience, for the whole New Testament offers
salvation only by the sheer grace of God through faith. What Jesus is stressing here is, however, is that those who truly hear the gospel, their faith in Jesus will always obey him. The only proof that you are a true believer, the only proof that you are a kingdom citizen is that you obey King Jesus.
That's the only proof. There are two builders, two foundations, and finally two outcomes. I want you to see that he says storms will come to both of them. The wise builder who builds on the rock will experience storms. The foolish builder who builds a house on the sand will also experience storms. Both of them face rain, floods and wind beating them, again, beating against them. So, brother, sister, friends, storms come for all of us because we live in a broken world.
If you believe that following Jesus will bring ease and comfort, prosperity, brother and sister, that is a false teaching. That Jesus and or his apostles never promised that, never taught that, is another gospel, that is the another gospel of another Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount said that you will be persecuted, you will be insulted, and the response of his kingdom citizens should be, you should rejoice and be glad. There will be worries in life. How should you live when there are worries of life, when you're, when you're surrounded with, struggling with all kinds of anxieties? You should pray and seek his face. But the difficulties that come into life reveal your foundation. It will reveal your foundation, is go, brothers and sisters, is going to sift many in our community. Not everyone who says
Lord, not everyone who sings hallelujahs are the followers of Jesus Christ. No, those who build their lives intentionally on the teachings of Jesus and the Word of God are the followers of Jesus Christ. They will stand the test of times and they will not face the wrath of God. They will not be condemned with the rest of the world. On the contrary, the foolish man hears the words of Christ but does not do them, does not act upon them. He is a hearer only and he is deceiving himself, and he is a person who hears faithful gospel preaching, maybe faithful exposition of God's Word
he has a word again and again but never obeys, never fashions his life according to his word. If he are the word regularly and live as you like, you are deceiving yourself and your end will be destruction. Your end will be destruction. And there is a certain outcome based on how the wise and the foolish live in this world. And several biblical texts employ the image of flood and rising waters and storms to symbolize the coming wrath of God. You see those pictures in Genesis chapter 6, even in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah chapter 23, Jeremiah chapter 30, Ezekiel chapter 13. And to a person
who does not respond to the gospel and will not submit to live under the Lordship of Jesus by obeying his teachers, obeying his teachings, judgment day will arrive like a terrifying storm. When it comes he will fall, he will be condemned. The greatest narrow in the sense that Jesus is the only way. You cannot believe everything that world believes and still follow Jesus. You must believe that all humans fell in the transgression of the first parents, which is called the original sin. All humans are totally depraved and helpless in the eyes of God, and unless God saves people through the redeeming work of Jesus
Christ, people cannot be saved. Our good works, our charitable works, our religious works cannot help us, cannot help us earn righteousness before God, or give us a right standing before God. We will always come short of all short of God’s glorious standards. This age will come to an end and Jesus will judge every sinner. Jesus will come again and fully establish his kingdom. This earth and heaven will pass away and there will be new heavens and new earth. If you are still a non-believer, do not be deceived by the majority who followed darkness. Christ is the way, the truth and the life. He
died for sinners who deserve to perish under God’s severe anger. He satisfies God’s justice by suffering under the punishment that we deserve. He died and rose again on the third day to make those who believe in him right with God. He alone will lead us to life. So brothers and sisters, it is essential to build our lives on the strong foundation of God’s word, hearing it and obeying it. That’s the only way of life for Christians. Finally, I just want to mention this, verses 28 and 29 of Matthew chapter 7. “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes.”
Jesus’ words are the very words of God. Jesus’ authority exceeds that of any prophet or a scribe. No one ever taught like Jesus. And at the start of this series on the Sermon on the Mount, we have seen that Jesus is the king. He is teaching as the king. He is setting out rules for his kingdom.
Christ the Messiah, the eternal God-man. And the sermon ends. And when it ends, it says that when Jesus has finished these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. In some versions, they were astonished at his teachings. The teachers of the law taught derivatively, that is by referring to the authorities.
But Jesus taught with his own authority. And those hearers who heard Jesus were amazed, they were astonished. And when Jesus finished the teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, the crowd was astonished at the teaching. And the word here, astonished or amazed, is in the imperfect Greek tense, which means it signifies an ongoing action. Here, it is an ongoing feeling, an ongoing sense of amazement that gripped the people. Even after they left, they were left with this sense of awe and astonishment.
Remember the words of those two disciples who were on the road to Emmaus. After Jesus opened their eyes to understand the scriptures about him, they said these words in Luke chapter 24 verse 32. He said that, “Were our hearts not burning within us when he was speaking?”
Jesus spoke with greater authority. The teacher, the Lord Jesus, is unlike any other teacher who has gone before him. And any other teacher who will come after him. His authority resides in himself. His authority is as of God. And these are the words of God. So brothers and sisters, again I want to put this plea before you. Do not take your life for granted. Do not take your Christian existence for granted. Either you are building your Christian life or you’re not. Either you’re following Jesus or you’re not. The only proof that you’re following Jesus or the
only proof that you’re a follower of Jesus is that you are taking every word of the Bible seriously, and you’re shaping and you’re fashioning your life according to that word. And as you struggle, you seek his grace earnestly so that you will be able to live by his word. And that’s the only proof that you are a believer. That’s the only proof that you belong to Jesus. Nothing else, nothing else. So let’s stop deceiving ourselves. Let’s stop taking God’s grace for granted. Let’s surrender to his kingship. Let’s pray. Ah, Father, we pray that you give us grace. Help us see where we stand. Help us see if you are in faith or not in faith, and we see if we are truly of Christ Jesus or not.
Help us see whether we are truly Christians or almost Christians. We pray that you would work in us. And help us, Lord, build our lives according to your word. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen. Thank you.