“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 fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet 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, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
Matthew 7:24-27 NASB1995
We now reach the last words in the Sermon on the Mount spoken by Jesus and recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. He is admonishing the crowd to hear His words and act on them with this parable, to build that firm foundation of belief on the solid rock and not on sand. The crowd is probably torn between relief that the Sermon is almost over (is it time for a meal?) and a stunning realization that their brains are now full. They have heard so much wisdom and truth from this Son of Man that I am certain they are all trying to process it fully as they begin to disperse. Hopefully, a few who were literate took some notes (besides Matthew and few other disciples) and shared them, there were likely avid discussions on what it all means and the Pharisees were probably struck dumb, at least for a few minutes, by this perfect teaching.
But what do we do with this teaching? Basing your life on the nice bits in the Sermon on the Mount without fully submitting yourself to the will of God and taking up your cross to follow Jesus in every aspect means that you are going to fail. Your house of faith is built on a shifting sand foundation that will not survive the storms of this life. You are easily distracted by the attractions and turmoil of this material world. Instead, you must make Jesus the cornerstone of your firm and solid foundation of faith.
We attend a church now that uses contemporary Christian music in their worship. There is nothing wrong with that and many, if not most, of the songs are quite passionate and uplifting. However, when writing this, I flashed back to an old hymn that we sang quite often when I was growing up in a Lutheran church. The words of this hymn are perfect after diving into this beloved scripture and coming to the last words from the Sermon. We stand on solid rock, dressed in His righteousness! Written by Edward Mote (a British minister) around 1834, it is in the public domain and I can hear it as clear as day being sung in my head by a massed choir accompanied by a beautiful, booming pipe organ - The Solid Rock:
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name
When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
my anchor holds within the veil
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
His oath, His covenant, His blood
support me in the whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
oh may I then in Him be found
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
My next devotional will summarize what we should have learned from this in-depth dive into the Sermon on the Mount. Then I will tackle what has been called the “Mt. Everest” of the New Testament writings of Paul: Romans 8.