Sermon on the Mount Wise and Foolish Builders

Matthew 7:24-27
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise
man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds
blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a
foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the
winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (24-27)
There are two gates and two roads: the narrow way that leads to life and the broad road that
leads to destruction (7:13-14); now Jesus concludes with a story of two builders: the wise
man who built his house on the rock and the foolish one who built upon the sand
Between these two analogies Jesus warned the disciples of false prophets (7:15-20), and
then warned them that many so called followers were actually false disciples (7:21-23)
The false prophet invites us to take the broad road one that is not offensive to our pride
Those who listen to the false prophet and take the broad road have no understanding of our
sinful nature and no awe for the holiness of God; consequently there is no need for
propitiation for sin, so we have a gospel without a cross and discipleship without
repentance or obedience
The problem with the foolish builder is that he does not really desire to know God; he
wants Gods blessings, but he does not want God (Martin Lloyd Jones, Studies in Sermon,
559)
Lukes record of Jesus words begins with Him saying: Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord,
and not do what I say? He who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into
practice is like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on
rock(6:46-48
The false prophet and false disciple build a house without digging a rock-based foundation
The true foundation is based upon the love of God who was in Christ reconciling the
world to Himself (II Corinthians 5:19), upon Jesus who knew no sin yet became sin for
us (II Corinthians 5:21), who proved His love for us in that while we yet sinned Christ
died for us (Romans 5:8), and whose resurrection conquered both sin and death (I
Corinthians 15:55)
In Christ we see both Gods response to our sin problem and His solution for healing our
sin
But those on the broad road ignore our sin and Gods holiness by saying, God loves you
and you may do as you please or there are many paths to God and Jesus is one of them
But Jesus of the narrow road says: I and the way, the truth and the life no one comes
to the Father but by Me (John 14:6); and whoever wants to be My disciple must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow Me; for whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for Me will find it (Matthew 16:24-25)

 Note that the difference between the two builders is not that one heard the words of Jesus
and the other did not both the wise man and the foolish man heard these words, but the
wise man is he who hears Jesus words and puts them into practice
Just as the narrow way leads to life and the broad road to destruction, so the house built on
the rock will stand and the house built on the shifting sands of human wisdom will fall
with a great crash