Empty Hearts
Matthew 7:24-29
 
Take your Bible with me and let's look together for the last time at Matthew chapter 7:21-29.
 
We've already discussed verses 21 to 23, and tonight we’ll focus on verses 24 to 27 and then a comment or two about the closing. But they all fit together. 
 
21-29
 
Everyone is aware of the need for a good foundation for a house. We have a lot of ground movement here because of the Arbuckles, and the humidity and dryness and soil conditions all have an impact. 
 
In Palestine, it's dry and arid and when it rains the land saturates and it floods. And so in a building plan or program in the land of Palestine you'd need to take that into consideration. 
 
Jesus has this in mind in verses 24 to 27. He pictures two men that each builds a house. One man thinks little about what might come and he works feverishly on the house but has absolutely no thought for the foundation. He is called a foolish man, in verse 26.
 
The other man, also building a house seeks to be sure that the foundation is built upon solid rock. He is called a wise man in verse 24. And so you have a simple story, two men build houses, one is wise and one is foolish. And what seems as a very simple story is in fact a startling, shocking, powerful commentary on people who have a head knowledge but an empty heart.
You'll notice that He says in verse 24, "Whosoever hears," and in verse 26, "Every one that hears." These are the people who hear. They hear the message, they listen, they understand it, the wise ones do something about it the fools do not.
 
Now remember Jesus is closing the sermon with an invitation, and the invitation is in verses 13 and 14. And the invitation says in effect, enter into the narrow gate onto the narrow way that leads to life.
 
Complicating the decision is the deception of false teachers, and convincing ourselves that we are right with God because of what we do and how we act. 
 
So He says, first of all, there are those who say but don't do in verses 21 to 23, they simply have a verbal profession. They say they belong in the kingdom, they say they know Christ but they don't do what Christ said.
 
And then in verses 24 to 27 there are those who hear but don't do. They have a head knowledge without a heart knowledge.
 
The first group has empty words; the second group has empty hearts. And people can be deceived either way, a mere verbal profession you just keep saying it and saying it until finally you've convince yourself it must be true even though there's no evidence.
 
Or it can be a head knowledge which seems to suffice for a real heart relationship. There are some people who are deceived into thinking they're Christians because they know so much about Christianity.
Just like there are people who think they're Christians because they say so much about it.
 
Now in verses 24 to 27 the Lord again reminds us that the standard of righteousness is required for entering the Kingdom of God, and unless your life is built on that standard no matter what it looks like and no matter what you know in your head and no matter how feverishly you conduct your spiritual activity when the flood comes you're going to get washed away.
 
So what the Lord is saying here is very simple. Lots of people hear Christ's teaching but only the ones that do them are in the Kingdom.
 
That's the bottom line. There are many people who hear, but if you examine your life and it's all a hearing and not a doing don't deceive yourself into thinking you're a Christian. In fact the Lord says, only the storm is going to manifest the truth, and then we'll find out who's wise and who's a fool.
Now there are several similarities between these men. 
 
First of all, both individuals built a house. , They're both involved in spiritual activity, they're both involved in something that has to do with the Kingdom of God.
 
Secondly, it's apparent that they both build their house in the same location, because the same storm hits both houses. They build a house and they build it in the same area or the same location, because they're both subject to the same storm.
True believers and false believers invariably live side by side, they're on the same block, they attend the same church, they go to the same Bible studies and they are so similar in the building they build that they are indistinguishable to most people.
 
Thirdly, they apparently both build it in the same way, because the Lord says the only difference is the foundation. 
 
He doesn't imply that the house itself is any different. Both people build a house, they build it in the same place and they build it in the same way. In other words they carry a Bible and a notebook and they go through certain prayers and they do certain activities and maybe they give some money to the Lord, and really it all looks very much the same.
 
Until you come to the real crux of the matter and that's the foundation which as I said is very often not visible once the edifice is up. And only an honest and careful soul searching self‑examination can reveal the truth.
 
You see Jesus is trying to get the Pharisees to come off of their proud, high tower and look at their own lives and see how really bankrupt they are. Because that's the only place you can tell the tale. One builds on rock at the end of verse 24, petra, that means in the Greek a rock bed. It is the same word Jesus used in talking to Peter about building the church. 
 
And the other builds on sand, verse 26. The word has a very simple meaning in the Greek. You know what it means? It simply means sand, like sea shore sand; shifting sand.
Now a man is wise to build on rock bed, a man is a fool to build on the shifting sands of the sea or the desert.
 
And by the way there are a lot of sand peddlers in the world. They're in verses 15 to 20. The false prophets set up a real estate office and sell sand lots. A man is a fool to build on sand, because when the storm comes it will undermine the sand, verse 27, and the house will fall and it'll not just topple the thing will really fall. But when it is built on rock and the foundation is solid the storm can come and it isn't going to fall.
 
Now that brings me to an interesting thought: What is the “rock” referenced at the end of verse 24? When you say you build your life on the rock, what are you saying?
 
Well, we could make a case for the fact that the rock is God you are literally building your life on God, and that of course is true. In Psalm 18 verse 2, "The LORD is my rock." We could say the rock is God, but so would the Pharisees, they'd say that.
 
Or we could say the rock is Christ. Christ, says Peter,  is the chief cornerstone. Paul says He is the rock. But there are plenty of people who say they've built their life on Christ. It's got to be more than that.
 
And frankly most commentators take it to be God or Christ. But I think there is more there than that. Notice what the verse says: "Whoever hears these sayings of mine, and (what?) does them, builds his house upon a rock." What is the rock? It is obedience to the Word of God. That's the rock.
 
Yes God is a rock, yes Christ is the chief cornerstone. But I believe that what our Lord is saying here is simply this, these sayings of mine become the rock bed foundation of the church, the true church, the redeemed church.
 
He is saying the person who lives a life where he only hears and never does has sand. And what does the sand represent? Human will, human opinion, human attitudes, the shifting sands of human philosophy. Even though you listen you don't do it you're not on the rock. On the other hand the wise man who hears the Word of God and builds his life on God's Word has a rock foundation. And that means a life of obedience.
 
So building on the rock beloved is obeying, look at your life, examine it, is it a life that longs beyond any other desire to obey the Word of God? Or is it disobeying and always and ever and constantly justifying that disobedience? So obedience is the key word here.
 
And by the way, the only validation you will ever have of your salvation is a life of obedience. It is the only possible proof that you really recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I'm going to say that again because that's the heart of the message. Obedience is the only validation of your salvation. It is the only possible proof that you recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Listen: if there's no obedience then you’re merely saying empty words that come from an empty heart. 
 
 
 
So Jesus is presenting the kind of life built on a rock. What kind of life is it? Read the sermon!!
 
It's the kind of life that has a Biblical view towards self, the Beatitudes, it's the kind of life that has a Biblical attitude toward the world it sees itself as something to preserve the world and light the world not be a part of it.
 
It is the attitude of the Bible toward the Word of God, not changing it, not altering it but accepting every jot and tittle of it. Jesus is presenting the kind of life built on the rock that has a Biblical attitude toward morality, not trying to get away with everything you can, not external but internal.
 
A Biblical attitude toward words, what you say, toward deeds, what you do, toward motives, the reason you do what you do, a Biblical attitude toward money, toward things, a Biblical attitude toward people, everything He's touched in The Sermon on the Mount, and He's saying if your life is committed to obedience to these things you're on the rock.
 
Now we've seen the similarities let's see the differences. Now watch this,
 
one built the easy way the other built the hard way.
 
It's very easy to build on sand, just like traveling on the broad road. You just go on with all your garbage, have a great old time, lots of room, do anything you want, plenty of tolerance, and this is the way it is with the fool.
 
It doesn’t take any commitment; no investment of time or money; just jump in and join up and come when you want to and do what you like. 
 
How many people do you know who proclaim that they believe in Christ, who said they heard the Gospel and accepted it and there has been absolutely nothing in their life to give evidence of that?
 
On the other hand while the foolish man gets his house up and is off to the party, the wise man is a different story. In fact in Luke 6:47 and 48, the parallel passage it says, that the wise man, I love this, dug deep. Oh, that's good, dug deep to the foundation. He went for the rock of the Word of God he blew the sand away. The sand of human opinion and self-will and he went for the rock of obedience to God's Word.
 
Now what does it mean to dig deep? First of all it means you're not in a hurry, no quickie conversion, no light confession. Those who claim Christ as their own are willing to dig deep, they have thought out the responsibility, they don't rush into some profession later to rush out of it again, or be thrown out in final judgment, they count the cost, they consider what they're doing, there is a digging deep there's not a hurry.
 
Think about the parable Jesus told of different types of soils in Matthew 13. He says, "But he that received the seed in stony places is he that hears the word and immediately with joy receives it. But he has no root so he endures for awhile, and when tribulation and persecution arise because of the word immediately he is offended, and he runs away."
Oh I profess Christ, I'm a Christian, and as soon as you start laying on them the Word of God and what it demands they're gone, they don't want it. Well that's not the way it is with one who digs deep. He digs deep to the rock bed of God's Word in order that he might obey.
 
So first of all, those who dig deep are not in a hurry. It's not superficial.
 
Secondly, those who dig deep give a maximum effort. Men are always drawn to the easy path, the easy way. And I think sometimes we make the Gospel so easy that it's no Gospel at all and it's no conversion at all. How else can we explain those who profess to be saved, and never follow through? 
 
The person who digs deep desires to strive to enter in, he takes the hard things, he makes sure he’s building on the rock. His eternity depends on it!
 
And what happens ultimately?
 
Well, according to verse 25 and verse 27 the day of reckoning is going to come. Now this just sums up the whole of judgment. 
 
What it's simply saying is, is one day a storm came and it was obvious what house was on the rock and what house was on the sand, and someday there's going to come a divine accounting. That's what it's saying, God is going to blow the wind of judgment and rain the rain of judgment and sent the flood of judgment, and when He does some are going to stand and some are going to fall.
 
Whether your religion is true or false it's going to be tried, and whether you're chaff or wheat is going to be found out. Someday the chief winnower is going to come and He's going to separate the chaff and the wheat, He's going to blow the wind of judgment and those who have built their lives on the rock are going to stand. Oh what a wonderful promise it is.
 
There is going to come a judgment time, it tells us in Revelation chapter 20 specifically how that's going to happen, "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those, things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hades delivered up the dead that were in them; and they were judged every man according to his works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
 
That's the final great white throne judgment, and I believe that is a day when there will be echoing through the corridors of that judgment hall Lord, Lord, and echoing back the reverberation of His reply, "depart from me, I never knew you."
 
The day of judgment is coming, you'd better look at your life.
 
 
 
Now the final word of the sermon is at the end of verse 27, "and great was the fall of it." Listen, if you want to know how to present the Gospel, the Gospel every single time must end with a warning of doom to the one that rejects. It has to end that way. It's not, well if you don't come to Christ you're certainly missing a lot of nice things. It calls for a decision.
 
What was the result of the sermon?
 
verse 28
 
All they did was analyze it. They were astonished, we could use a lot of words for that, it means they were awed, they were amazed, they were dumbfounded, they were bewildered, but I looked it up in the Greek text and it literally means they were struck out of themselves or they were struck out of their senses, in the vernacular it blew their minds. It blew them away, that anybody could stand up there and say all of those things with such power, authority, such dynamic and not do it like the scribes.
 
They had never heard such wisdom, they had never seen such depth, they had never understood such scope, every dimension of human life was touched in an economy of words that was breathtaking. They had never heard such deep insight into the law of God or the sin of man. They had never heard such fearful warnings about hell, hellfire and judgment, they had never heard anybody who so confronted the religious leaders of the time. They were utterly shocked that He didn't use anybody else as an authority but seemed to stand upon His own authority.
 
 
And that's where it ends. They were shocked.
 
But that's not the way it ought to end for you. You should be more than shocked, more than amazed, you should be converted. That's what Jesus is after.
 
They never heard anybody speak the truth like He did, they never heard anybody speak of divine matters with such clarity, they never heard anybody speak with such love, they never heard anybody speak with such absolute utter and total power and authority.
 
But they didn't respond the right way. I mean they couldn't believe that a Man would say He was the fulfillment of the law, that a Man would say He was the determiner of righteousness, that a Man would say He was the corrector of the scribes and Pharisees, they couldn't believe that a Man would claim to be the way of life, that a Man would claim to be God Jehovah, that a Man would claim to be judge of all, the one who could come and make judgment on everybody, they couldn't believe that a Man like this could say He was the King, and all they got was astonishment.
 
What's your response? Your eternal destiny depends on it. And the hymn writer says, "In every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the vale. When all around my soul gives way He then in all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock I stand; All other ground is sinking sand." Your life is either built on rock or sand, on disobedience or obedience, and therein is the only available verifier of the legitimacy of your faith. I pray to God that your faith is in Christ.
 
Let's bow in prayer.