“Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father, who is in heaven.” Matthew 7: 21
DRIVING THE NAIL
We have here the conclusion of this long and excellent sermon (Sermon on the Mount) by the greatest Preacher that ever existed, the scope of which is to show the indispensable necessity of obedience to the commands of Christ. This, in fact, is designed to “drive the nail,” that it might be fixed in a sure place. He speaks this to His disciples that sat at His feet whenever He preached, and followed Him wherever He went. The religion He came to establish is in power, not in word only (1 Corinthians 4:20).
But, therefore, something more is necessary: Christ’s law was laid down when He said, “not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; the kingdom of grace, and glory.” Ahh! It is an answer to that question, “Who shall?” is an answer to that question of Psalm 15:1. Who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle?—the church militant; and who shall dwell on thy holy hill?—the church triumphant.
So, you see, Christ tells us it does not suffice to say, “Lord, Lord” in word and tongue, to own Christ for our Master, and make professions of Him accordingly in prayer to God, and in discourses with men. But Jesus shows, by plain reasoning that an outward profession of religion, however remarkable, will not bring us to heaven or shorten our journey.
NO POWER!
There may be persistence or demands in prayer, and prayer requests, “Lord, Lord,” but if inward impressions be not answerable to outward expressions, we are “as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal” 1 Corinthians 13:1. This does not take us away, however, from saying “Lord, Lord,” from praying and being earnest in prayer, from professing Christ’s name , and being bold in professing it, but from resting in these, in the “form of Godliness,” – without the power!
It is necessary for our happiness to do the will of God, which is the will of His Father in heaven—which will is: repent of sin, that we live a holy life, that we love one another, and keep His commandments. Saying and doing are two things, often parted in conversation of men: he that said, “I go, sir: and went not” Matthew 21:30.
Grace will bring a man to heaven without working miracles, but working miracles will never bring a man to heaven without grace. Secret haunts of sin, kept under the cloak of a visible profession, will be the ruin of the hypocrites. They that would not come to Him to be saved must depart from Him to be damned.
NOT LEGALISM
So hence, the Sermon on the Mount is not primarily a statement of principles for the Christian church (which was yet unrevealed), nor an evangelistic message for the unsaved, but a delineation or description of the principles that would characterize the Messianic Kingdom Christ was announcing.
The twelve disciples of Jesus had just been chosen and the sermon was directed primarily to them. However, some of it was heard by the multitudes. Ahh! But later Israel’s rejection of her King delayed the coming of His kingdom.
The warning is pertinent, “I never knew you” in the sense of “know with favor,” or “acknowledge.” Psalm 1:6; Amos 3:2
Many Christians, however, even now having given their allegiance to the King and having been made spiritually to anticipate some of the blessings of His kingdom (Colossians 1:13), may see God’s ideal in His sublime discourse and will assent to its high standard.
The sermon of Jesus is addressed to believers and presupposes faith in Jesus as Messiah. This is not legalism! No works founded upon mere human effort are of any spiritual value, but faith in Christ the Rock brings about that regeneration which manifests itself in godly living. So, how is it expressed again? “I never owned you as My servants, no, not when you prophesized in My name, when you were at the height of your profession, and were most extolled.”
AWESOME!
The Lord knows who are His—we do not! This intimates that if He had ever known them, as the Lord knows them that are His, had ever owned them and loved them as His, He would have know them, and owned them, and loved them to the very end. But he never did know them, for He always knew them to be hypocrites, mean, and rotten at heart, as He did Judas; therefore, says He, “depart from me” Matthew 25:41. Hmm—If a preacher, one that casts out devils, and wrought miracles, be disowned of Christ for working iniquity, what will become of us, if we be found such? Awesome! Woe unto us!
At God’s judgment bar, a profession of religion alone will bear out any in the practice and indulgence of sin. Therefore let everyone that names the name of Christ, depart from all iniquity. . . and not repeat it; abandon it!!
CHRIST’S SAYINGS:
Jesus, moreover, shows by a parable that hearing these sayings of Christ will not make us happy if we do not make a conscience effort of doing them; but that if we hear them and do them, we are blessed in our deed (Matthew 7:24–27).
The hearers of Christ’s Word are, therefore, divided into two classes—some that hear and do what they hear, others that hear and do not. Christ preached now to a mixed multitude, and He thus separates them, one from the other, as He will at the “great day when all nations shall be gathered before Him” (Matthew 25:32).
Christ is still speaking from heaven by His Word and Spirits, speaks by ministers, by providences; and of those that hear Him, there are two sorts or classes:
1) SOME THAT HEAR HIS SAYINGS AND DO THEM—Blessed be God that there are any such, though comparatively few.
It highly concerns us all to do what we hear of the sayings of Christ. It is a mercy that we hear His sayings: “Blessed are those ears” (Matthew 13:16, 17). But, if we practice not what we hear, we receive that grace in vain.
To do His sayings is conscientiously to abstain from the sins that He forbids and to perform the duties that He requires. All the sayings of Christ, not only the laws He has enacted, but the truths He has revealed, must be done by us. They are a light, not only to our eyes, but to our feet, and are designed not only to inform us of our judgments, but to reform our hearts and lives; or do we indeed believe them, and remember them, but we do not live up to them?
Observe that it is not enough to hear Christ’s sayings, and understand them, but to hear them and remember them, hear them, and talk of them, repeat them, dispute for them; but again we must hear and do them. “This do and thou shalt live” Luke 10:28. Those only that hear, and do, are blessed (Luke 11:28), and are akin to Christ (Matthew 12:50).
2) OTHERS WHO HEAR CHRIST’S SAYINGS AND DO THEM NOT—Their religion rests in bare hearing, and goes no further; like children that have rickets, their heads swell with empty notions and undigested opinions, their joints are weak, heavy and listless; they neither can stir nor care to stir, in any good duty; they hear God’s words, as if they desired to know His ways, like a people that did righteousness, but they will not do them (Ezekiel 33:30, 31; Isaiah 58:2).
Thus they deceive themselves, as Micah, who thought himself happy because he had a Levite to be his priest, though he had not the Lord to be his God. The seed is sown, but it never comes up; they see their spots in the glass of the Word, but wash them off (James 1:22, 24). Thus they put a cheat upon their own souls; for it is certain, if our hearing be not the means of our obedience, it will be the aggravation of our disobedience. Those who only hear Christ’s sayings and do them not, they will not make it to heaven.
TWO BUILDERS—TWO HOUSES
The above two classes of hearers are here represented in their true characters, and the state of their case, under the comparison of two builders; one was wise, and built upon a rock, and his house stood in a storm; the other foolish, and built upon the sand, and his house fell.
The general scope of the parable teaches us again that the only way to make sure work for our souls and eternity is to hear and do the sayings of the Lord, spoken in the Sermon on the Mount, which is wholly practical. Some of them seem hard sayings to flesh and blood, but they must be done, and thus we lay up in store a good foundation for the time of the end. . . which is “at the door” (1 Timothy 6:19); a good bond of God’s making which secures salvation on gospel terms, “Speak Lord for Thy servant heareth.” 1 Samuel 3:10
Every one of us has a house to build, and that house is our hope for heaven. It ought to be our chief and constant care “to make our calling and election sure.” Ah! But for many it is the furthest thing from their thoughts; they are building for this world, as if they were to be here forever but take no care to build for another world. Such is a “housing crisis!”
IMPREGNABLE ROCK
There is a rock provided for us to build this house upon, and that Rock is Christ. He is laid for a foundation, and no other foundation can be laid (Isaiah 28:16). He is our hope! (1 Timothy 1:1). Christ in us is such that we must ground our hopes of heaven upon the fullness of Christ’s merit, for the pardon of sin, for the sanctification of our nature. There is that in Him; as He is made known, and made over to us in the Gospel, which is sufficient to redress all our grievances, and to answer all the necessities of our case, so that He is a Saviour to the uttermost!
The Church is built upon this Rock, and so is every believer. He is strong and immovable as a rock. We shall not be made ashamed of our hope as He carries our burdens. There is a remnant, who, by hearing and doing the sayings of Christ, build their hopes upon this Rock, and it is their wisdom. Christ is the only way to the Father, and the obedience of faith is our only way to Christ, to them that obey Him and to them only.
RULES OF RELIGION
Jesus is the Author of eternal salvation. Those that build upon Christ, who, having sincerely consented to Him as their Prince and Saviour, make it their constant care to conform to all the rules of His holy religion, and therein depend entirely upon Him for assistance from God, and acceptance with Him, and count everything but loss and dung that they may win Christ, and be found in Him. Building upon a rock requires care and pains; they that would make their calling and election sure must give diligence. They are wise builders who begin to build so as they may be able to finish (Luke 14:30).
SAND CASTLES
There are many who profess that they hope to go to heaven (some thinking that they are on the way), but despise the Rock, and build their hopes upon the shifting sand, which is done without much pain, but it is their folly. Everything besides Christ is sinking sand. Some build their hopes upon their worldly prosperity, as if they were a sure token of God’s favour (Hosea 12:8).
Others build upon their external profession of religion, the privileges they enjoy, and the performances they go through in that profession and the reputation they have gotten by it. They are called Christians, were baptized, go to church, hear Christ’s word, say their prayers, angelically sing hymns, pay their tithe, and do nobody any harm, but, if something they neglect, it will cause them to perish, God help a great many! This is the light of their own fire, which, with a great deal of assurance, they venture; but it is all sand, too weak to bear such a fabric as our hopes of heaven.
LAST ENCOUNTER
There is a violent storm—a tempest coming that will try what our hopes are bottomed on, will try every man’s work (1 Corinthians 3:13); and will discover the foundation (Habakkuk 3:13). Rain, floods, winds, tsunami forces, will beat upon the house; it will be shaken, terror will prevail! The trial is sometimes in this world, and with more frequency. And when tribulations and persecution arise because of the Word, then it will be seen —who only heard the Word, and who heard and practiced it. Then when we have occasion to use our hopes, it will be tried whether they were right, and well grounded, or not. However, when death and judgment come, then the storm comes, and it will undoubtedly come, how calm whatsoever things may be with us now. Then everything else will fail us but these hopes, and then, if ever, they will be turned into everlasting fruition!
Those hopes which are built upon Christ the Rock will stand, and will stand the builder in stead; when the storm comes, they will be his preservation, both from desertion, and from prevailing disquiet. His profession will not wither, his comforts will not fail; they will be his strength and song, as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast. When he comes to the last encounter, those hopes will take off the terror of death and the grave; will carry him cheerfully through the dark valley; will be approved by the Judge; will stand the test of the great day; and will be crowned with endless glory (2 Corinthians 1:12; 2 Timothy 4:7, 8). Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching; so doing, so hoping (Luke 12: 37).
That those hopes which foolish builders ground upon anything but Christ, will certainly fail them on a stormy, wind-swept day; will yield them no true comfort and satisfaction in the time of trouble, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment; will be no fence against temptations to apostasy, in a time of persecution. When God takes away the soul, where is the hope of the hypocrite? (Job 27:8). It is as the spider’s web and as the giving up of the ghost. He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand (Job 8:14, 15).
It fell in the storm when the builder had most need of it, and expected it would be a shelter to him. It fell when it was too late to build another. “When a wicked man dies, his expectations perish” (Proverbs 11:7) and then when he thought it would have been turned into fruition “it fell: and great was the fall of it” Matthew 7:27. It was a great disappointment to the builder; the shame and loss were great.
Hence, here is the supreme importance of building upon the right foundation. The man whose house collapsed was at fault, not because he failed to labor, but because he did not use the rock—the Rock—Christ Himself (1 Corinthians 3:11) and His teachings, His sayings, “These sayings of Mine.” (Matthew 7:24, 26; Luke 6:47). The higher men’s hopes have been raised the lower they fall. It is the sorest ruin of all that attends formal professors; witness Capernaum’s doom.
THE ULTIMATE QUESTION
The question finally arises, perhaps, when we are told what impressions Christ’s discourse made upon the auditory or hearers present. It was an excellent sermon and it is probable that He said more than is recorded; and doubtless the delivery of it from the mouth of Him, into whose lips grace was poured.
Well, they were “astonished at this doctrine!” Matthew 7:28. They were filled with wonder! As Jesus spoke, the crowds were in rapt attention, but when He ceased, tension relaxed and amazement engulfed them. Observe that it is possible for people to admire good preaching, and yet to remain in ignorance and unbelief, to be astonished, and yet not sanctified. The reason was because the scribes pretended to as much authority as any teachers whatsoever, and were supported by all the external advantages that could be obtained, but their preaching was mean, and flat, and jejune. They spoke as those that were not themselves masters of what they preached. The word did not come from them with any life or force. They delivered it as a schoolboy says his lesson.
The scribes, in lecturing, appealed repeatedly to the opinions of distinguished rabbis and to traditional interpretations. How tedious compared to Christ’s authoritative “I say unto you!” (Matthew 5:18, 20, 22). But Christ delivered His discourse as a judge gives his charge! He did indeed, “dominari in conscionibus—deliver His discourses with a tone of authority.
His lessons were law, His word a word of command. Christ upon the mountain showed more true authority than the scribes in Moses’ seat. Thus when Christ teaches by His Spirit in the soul He teaches with authority. He says, “Let there be light, and there is light” (Genesis 1:3).
“What the church needs is to be doers of the word. This will lead a large number to many other places, towns, cities, where people have not had the light and opportunities that you have had. Many souls are now hanging in the balance. They are not with Christ. They are not gathering with Christ. Their influence is divided. They scatter abroad. Many houses now supposed to stand secure will fall. The Lord declares that He will not accept divided service.” –Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 126
This is THE HOUSE! A hearty Amen!
John Theodorou
USA