We come this morning to the final words of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus was no ordinary preacher, and He doesn’t end with a promise. He ends with a threat, with a warning. The foolish man’s house fell with a great fall, with a great crash.
What does this picture have to teach us? What does it have to say about the topics which the Lord Jesus has addressed over the course of this Sermon on the Mount? Well, the great lesson here is that simply hearing and approving this Sermon is not enough. You might have really enjoyed hearing everything Jesus had to say. You might think it’s all very good, and just what the world needs. But according to Jesus, that response is completely and totally inadequate. If you walk away saying “What a great sermon,” and that’s it, then you are what Jesus labels a “fool.” This is not an intellectual judgment, but a moral one. You are a person who doesn’t care to do the right thing, in Jesus’ estimation, if all you do is mentally and verbally approve of His wonderful Sermon on the Mount.
To ram this point home here at the end of His sermon, He draws a verbal picture of two builders building two houses, and He contrasts these builders and their houses with each other. What I hope to show you is that this picture warns us that hearing and obeying what we hear from Jesus is the foundation of the Christian life, and that if you don’t have it, then you don’t have a Christian life at all. Let me say that again: Hearing Jesus is not enough. You have to hear Him and obey Him — or, He declares, you are not a Christian at all.
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Caleb Nelson grew up in Ft. Collins, CO. Born into a Christian home, where he eventually became the eldest of 11 children, he has been a lifelong Presbyterian. He professed faith at the age of six, and was homeschooled through high school. He then attended Patrick Henry College...
