And for our Old Testament reading, please turn to the prophecy of Ezekiel chapter 33. And our reading will be verses 30 through 33. Ezekiel chapter 33, verses 30 through 33. Let’s give careful attention to this, because this is the very word of God. As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.
And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people. And they hear what you say, but they will not do it. For with lustful talk in their mouths they act, their heart is set on their gain. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument. For they hear what you say, but they will not do it.
When this comes, and come it will, then they will know that a prophet has been among them. And it won’t be difficult for you to see the connections to our New Testament text and the passage for this morning’s sermon as we turn to Luke 6. where our reading will begin in verse 46 and go to the end of the chapter. Luke 6, 46 through 49. Hear the words now of our Lord Jesus. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like.
He’s like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them, He’s like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.
Thus far the reading of God’s Word. Let’s go to him and ask his blessing upon it now. Father, Your Word is like a fire, it’s like a hammer that breaks the rock. Please bless it unto us, Father. Nourish our souls, because Your Word is also the bread of life. Feed us, please, and show us our Savior. Point us to Him, please, and may He be glorified as we consider the Holy Scriptures together now in His name. Amen. probably doesn’t come as any big surprise to you. For me, especially on a weekend like this, I might draw illustrations or introductory comments for the message from Army experiences, from military things.
And in the U.S. Army, failure to follow instructions is a very serious offense. But it happens on various scales, you know, when you’re in a training environment, maybe a drill sergeant or cadre at some school is teaching you a skill, teaching you a task. And then you do it, or you attempt it, but you don’t do it the way you were told, you might be critiqued, or even penalized in some way for failure to follow instructions. But on a more serious level and at a higher level, failure to follow instructions is essentially the same as disobeying a lawful order. And that’s very serious.
That is a violation that is punishable under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, fondly known as the UCMJ, laws that govern all military members, Army, Navy, everything, all the branches. So to not follow instructions as a member of the armed services is a very serious offense. So what about disregarding an order or commandment or directive from the Lord Jesus Christ? If to disobey the order of a superior officer or non-commissioned officer even, is so serious that he can be punished under the UCMJ, what about disobeying Jesus?
Well, that’s the complaint that he makes, is that people aren’t doing what he says. Now, in sermon preparation, one of the biggest challenges is coming up with a conclusion. Sometimes the hardest thing about writing a sermon is finishing it. How am I going to tie a bow on this? How am I going to wrap this up? How am I going to land the plane, so to speak?
Well, with these verses we read from Luke this morning, we have come to the end of what we call the Sermon on the Plane, as opposed to the Sermon on the Mount. I’m sure you’re aware that both sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, recorded for us in Matthew, and the Sermon on the Plain, recorded here in Luke, that we’ve been going through, both of those sermons begin with the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor, blessed are the poor in spirit.
That’s how both sermons begin. And both of them end with this parable, this parable about builders. And so what that does, because I’m not one of those who believes that these are two different records or two different accounts of the same message on the same day at the same time. I think Jesus’ teaching was similar everywhere he went. He taught the same things, and probably taught them in something of a similar order. So when you compare Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and Sermon on the Plain in Luke, what we’re getting is an overall pattern and flow of Christ’s preaching.
Neither of these, we call them sermons, but neither one of these could possibly constitute a complete transcript of one of Jesus’ teaching events. I was mentioning transcripts of the sermons here. Everything that’s said, even, you know, things that extraneous sounds like uhs and hmm, you know, that’s all gonna end up in the transcript probably. But that’s not what these are.
We don’t have every single word Jesus spoke that day on the mount. We don’t have every single word Jesus spoke that day on the plane, but the Holy Spirit sovereignly determined and breathed out through the human author, Luke, the exact elements of Christ’s teaching that he desired to be recorded in Holy Scripture for us.
And he also then chose the introductory words. placing the Beatitudes at the beginning of those discourses. And then he chose the ending words, these very somber words, sobering words about a man who built a house poorly. And when the torrents came, his house was destroyed. That’s how Jesus ends his Sermon on the Plain. It’s also how he ends the Sermon on the Mount. So did Jesus end on an up note? Would you say that with those words in verse 49 of Luke 6, that he wrapped up with good news? You can decide. Maybe there’s an argument that he did. He didn’t lay it out on a platter, maybe. But this apparently is how Jesus, on at least a few occasions, wrapped up his messages. with a loving and a gracious but very solemn warning. And what he teaches us in this conclusion to the Sermon on the Plain is that true disciples of Jesus Christ strive to live according to his commands. True disciples of Jesus Christ strive to live according to his commands.
And we’ll look at three points. First of all, point number one, true disciples and false ones, because both exist. True disciples and false ones. Number two, coming, hearing, and doing. which is the activity that’s described of the man who built his house on the rock. Coming, hearing, and doing. And then finally, number three, facing the last great trial. So, true disciples and false ones. Look at Jesus’ statement again in verse 46.
Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you? That statement indicates that already, at this point in Jesus’ ministry, there were false disciples. people who were following him, people who were attending upon his ministry and his preaching and his teaching, and yet they weren’t true disciples, at least not yet. Because among those who were attending to his ministry were what we might call non-doers, non-doers.
And yet, according to Jesus himself, they called him Lord, Lord. And when you see a name doubled like that in scripture, usually it’s intended to be a sign of affection. And so R.C. Sproul makes the point that when Jesus describes these people as coming to him and saying, Lord, Lord, it’s as if they’re trying to express an affinity with him and a closeness. It’s as if they’re saying, we’re friends. And so you can understand why Jesus would ask, why do you call me Lord? Lord, why do you address me in that way?
But don’t do what I say. In Christ’s own day, and in every age, there are false disciples. There are people in our lifetimes, in every era of the church, every generation, there are people who say, Oh, I believe in Jesus. I’m a Christian, but they don’t live according to the words of Christ. In Matthew, chapter 15, verse 8, Jesus, hearkening back and quoting from the prophecy of Isaiah, said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. So in our day, and in every age, many profess faith, but they show no concern to obey Christ. They don’t seem to have any great concern to do that. And that is the difference between being a true disciple and being a false disciple. Do you do what he says?
Are you a friend of Jesus? What do you think of yourself that way? Scripture says, and we sing, that he’s a friend of sinners. Are you a friend of Jesus? John 15, 14, he says, you are my friends if you do what I command you. Do you love Jesus? John 14, 21 says, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.
It brings up the idea that a person could know Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord. And I’m very ashamed to say that when I was in college, some of my Christian friends and I sometimes described other professing Christians in that way. A lot of times it was in the context of discussing a relationship that somebody was in, you know, we knew somebody who was a believer, who was a Christian, and he started, he’s dating somebody. And, you know, somebody might say, Oh, is she a Christian? And on more than one occasion, the response from one of the guys would be, well, she knows Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord. In other words, she made a profession of faith, but she wasn’t really living like a Christian.
And I say I’m ashamed to say that because I’ve probably shared that same mindset with them at the time. I hope all of us by now have matured out of that and come to see that there’s no such thing as knowing Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord. But at the time, my friends and I, in our immaturity, didn’t sufficiently weigh Christ’s words, like what we find at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
Somewhat parallel to what we’re looking at here in Luke, Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. And then he goes on to say, on that day, he’s talking about the day of judgment now, on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And I will declare to them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. See how that phrase, that label, workers of lawlessness, contrasts with the idea of doing what Jesus says. So it’s not possible to have Jesus as Savior if you’re not endeavoring to obey Jesus as Lord. True disciples of Jesus Christ strive to live according to his commands. And I use the word strive deliberately, because that’s not to say that any single follower of Jesus, not any of us or anyone else, is perfect in their following of Jesus.
None of us is perfect in our obedience to him. Often we’re far from it. In fact, I guess theologically speaking, we’d probably have to say we’re always far from it. But we strive for it. And no one is ever saved by their own works of obedience. We have to stress that we have to clarify that because that’s obviously true. No one is ever saved by works of the law. Remember, what we read is our call to confession. So we’re not saved by what we do.
But when a child of God is seeking and striving to do what the Lord Jesus says, striving to do what he tells us, striving to obey his commands, that, that effort, that desire that comes from the heart is fruit of saving faith that has been given by grace. And it’s the evidence, it’s the mark of a true disciple. So our second point then is coming, hearing, and doing. These words, these verbs appear together in verse 47.
Throughout this sermon, throughout Jesus’ teaching over the course of his earthly ministry, he taught consistently about two ways. a broad way that leads to destruction, a narrow way that leads to life. He taught about two gates. He taught about two kinds of trees, a healthy tree and a diseased tree. He talked about good fruit and bad fruit.
So these pairs, these alternate conditions, we might say, that he used to illustrate principles of his kingdom are now They’re joined by this illustration of two builders. One man builds a solid, enduring house. Another builds a house that is destined to collapse. And the wise builder, the one who’s building that house that’s going to endure, we see in verse 47, he’s doing three things.
He’s coming, he’s hearing, and he’s doing. He’s coming in the sense that he comes to Jesus. Everyone who comes to me, Jesus says at the beginning of that verse. What a gracious Savior we have, who summons us, who invites us to himself. Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. I’ll give you rest. I’ll give you rest from trying to get into my Father’s favor by your own works, by works of the law. You can’t bear that burden anyway. I’m going to give you rest from that.
Come to me,” he says. And I would say that coming to Jesus, like repentance, is not a one-time event. Ever since your conversion, when the Spirit effectually called you, When you were transformed, you came to Jesus. But coming to Jesus is something we have to do every day. So the wise builder is coming to Jesus. He comes to Jesus. He’s also hearing. He hears Jesus. It’s critical. It’s imperative. It’s indispensable.
When Jesus was transfigured, also when he was baptized. God the Father spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son. And on that mount of transfiguration, he said, this is my beloved son. Listen to him. And then doing. And that’s the essential and absolutely necessary capstone to all of this, coming, hearing, and doing. In other words, doing what Jesus says. What matters most is obeying the words of Jesus. When we get to Luke chapter 8, we’re going to read an account where Jesus is teaching.
There’s people all around Him. No one can reach Him. And someone says, Oh, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you. They desire to see you, but he answered them, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.
Obeying Christ’s words is obeying God’s words. Luke 11, 27 and 28. And as he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed. But he said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. So obeying Christ’s words is the most important thing.
Not to obey God’s word or the words of Christ is the epitome of foolishness. So bearing good fruit, as we heard about back in verses 43 through 45, ultimately means putting Christ’s words into practice. That’s what it means to bear good fruit, doing His Word, doing what He says. So the person who comes to Jesus, who hears Him and does what He says, is like a man who lays the foundation of his house on the rock.
And as the text says, when the rain comes, and when the river bursts upon it, the text says, it could not shake that house. I love the way William Henderson described it. He said, when the violence of the elements is completely spent, there stands that house, none the worse for all the punishment it has received. Reason, it was well built. Its foundation was resting on rock.
It’s right that we address Jesus as Lord because he is Lord. And life depends on doing what he says. And as Jesus’ half-brother, who later on became a pastor in the church in Jerusalem and actually wrote, under the inspiration of the Spirit, one of the books of the Holy Scriptures, as he put it in the first chapter of his letter, talking about James, of course, be doers of the word and not hearers only. Come to him, listen to him, and do what he says. That’s number two. And finally, point number three, facing the last great trial.
Jesus speaks of floods arising, Streams breaking against houses. What does it symbolize? What do those floodwaters represent, in other words? they can represent and be applied to various what we might call storms of life, stresses and trials that we encounter in the course of this life as as followers of Christ or not. And someone whose house isn’t built on the rock may fall away when crises come. when those floodwaters of life come crashing in, in times of trouble, times of persecution. In the midst of the cares of the world, many people fall away. So those floodwaters can refer to all kinds of crises, trials that we undergo, temptations that come upon us, bereavement, even death, even as we face death, that could be one of those trials.
And the one who builds on the rock will not fully or finally fall away in the midst of any of those. The one who builds on the rock will receive grace for every trial, or as it says in the Hebrews, will receive grace to help in time of need. God provides grace according to the needs of the day. And when the trials come, when the difficulties arise, when the storms batter you, if you’re building on the rock, you’ll receive grace in the midst of those storms.
But I think it’s, it’s clear that the day of judgment, that great day, that last day is the supreme final test, the supreme storm, we might say, it’s the grand divine final crisis. And that’s what’s primarily in view. So, we can apply this principle in these verses to whatever trials we may be experiencing even now. But the ultimate example and what it ultimately points to is the Day of Judgment. That bursting river is the judgment of God.
Now, building Well, is hard work. Why else would someone build a house on the ground without a foundation? Well, it’s easier, it’s quicker, it’s less trouble. To dig deep, go down to the rock and lay the foundation of your house there. That’s hard. It takes time.
But the person who obeys Jesus will be secure in the day of judgment. So to dig deep, as it says in this parable, to dig deep and to lay the foundation on the rock, that’s all that really essentially means is to trust in Christ, to believe in Him. He is the sure foundation. That’s why I titled the sermon The Sure Foundation, because that’s what Christ is. I thought it was a very thoughtful choice of an offertory that Nicole came up with, playing the church’s one foundation. She saw the foundation theme that was kind of woven through all this. Christ is the sure foundation. No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the destiny of the person who builds his house on the rock, who digs deep, He’s trusting in Christ because he’s building the foundation of his house, the house of his life on that rock, which is Christ. That person’s destiny is completely opposite of the destiny of the one who is the unbeliever. He’s symbolized by the one who built the house right on the ground with no foundation. And the text says his house will fall immediately. And our ESV text says its ruin will be great. or as the NIV puts it, its collapse and its destruction was complete. No recovery, no undoing of it. Only catastrophic, unthinkable loss.
So this Closing remark from Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain teaches that how we respond to the words of Christ has ramifications for eternity. Because everyone who comes to Jesus now comes to Him, hears Him, obeys Him. Everyone who comes to Jesus now will hear Him say, Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom which has been prepared for you. Those who had no concern to hear Christ’s words or do them, they’re going to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus say, depart from me.
So maybe you feel like the sermon on the plane seems to end on a down note. It’s not necessarily uplifting. But these are vital words. These are words we need to hear. And in truth, they are words of good news. And I think Hendrickson captures that too. He said, in reality, the announcement of the unbelievers tragic end is a manifestation of Christ’s mercy and implied serious invitation to repent extended to all who are still living in the day of grace. The invitation is still there, it still goes out to anyone who is able to hear. And I close with the words of J.C. Ryle.
Let us strive so to believe and so to live, so to hear Christ’s voice and so to follow him, that when the flood arises and the streams beat over us, our house may stand and not fall. and in Christ Jesus, that will be so. Let’s pray. Oh, Lord God, may we be diligent to build on the rock, which is Christ. Thank you for making him the sure foundation, the head and cornerstone. Lord, help us daily to come to him. Help us carefully to listen to Him, and zealously to seek to do what He says. Give us grace for all these things. We know that You will, and so we pray this confidently in Jesus’ name. Amen.