And every one who hears these my words and does not do them, he shall be likened to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand;
The Sermon on the Mount closes with two builders side by side. This verse describes the second one. He listens to everything Jesus has just said, then builds his life as though he had not heard a word. The question the verse forces is not whether a person has heard Christ, but what hearing has produced.
The foolish builder is not an outsider. He hears Christ, and hearing changes what is expected of him.
If someone does not hear, you cannot speak of building at all. Hearing brings responsibility with it. Here it is: "and does not do them." John 13 says, "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." God will not reward us for knowing alone, though it is a blessed thing to be "filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding." He rewards us for doing. "Blessed are you if you do them."
Sand is not nothing. It looks like ground, and a house does go up on it.
On the other hand, the one building on sand hears the words of the Lord Jesus. But he fails to take them to heart in a way that leads him to obey them. He is still considered to be building. He simply builds on sand: the shifting uncertainty of men's thoughts, with no solid basis of fact. Judgment will sweep this away. The greater the pride and effort put into building the house, the greater its fall.
Nothing in the verse faults this man's building work. His mistake is that he never asked what was underneath.
The foolish man's thoughts do not go very deep. He builds a house as it pleases him without considering the foundation. In 'building our lives' there is a great temptation to value the things we can see. We then neglect the deeper matter of the foundation, which is essential to a life for God. Everyone who hears and knows the words of Scripture — the commandments of the Lord — and does not follow them acts like the foolish man.
Some people call Jesus Lord and mean nothing by it. This verse shows why. Fruit comes from a life received from Him, and where that life is missing, nothing grows.
It is not redemption only that sinful man needs, but life eternal. In Jesus only are both found, and the believer receives both. Many profess His name and boast of redemption in Him, the forgiveness of offences, but never think of present life in Him. They deceive themselves… They say, Lord, Lord; but they are false to His name. Had they believed, they would have had life in His name, and brought forth fruit of righteousness.
The obedient life does not save anyone. It shows what a person is resting on.
Useless indeed is the profession of the lips — the saying, "Lord, Lord" — unless the life confirms it. Not that the best life will justify before God, or save in the day when everything that can be shaken will be shaken. But it is still evidence that Christ is the foundation of the soul — the foundation of a house built secure against all the storms that can strike it. Faith in Christ must, of course, be real. But the more real a person's faith in other things, the more complete the delusion. The surer and more fatal the ruin that awaits him. "The ruin of that house is great."
The house on sand stands while the weather is fine. The test comes later.
It would indeed be better to have no house at all than to have one built on sand. Agreement in the mind, bare belief, is only a sandy foundation. Then the hurricane of death comes to those who only profess His name. The rain falls, the floods come, the winds blow and beat on their house. How terrible when the veil of their self-deception lifts and their house falls — too late ever to be rebuilt on the Rock.
- Heard. The foolish builder is a listener. Hearing Christ's words brings responsibility. The reward comes for doing them, not for knowing them.
- Shallow. He never asks what is under his house — he builds as it pleases him, on the shifting uncertainty of men's thoughts.
- Hollow. Saying "Lord, Lord" without present life in Christ is self-deception. Where there is no life, there is no fruit of righteousness.
- Evidence. Obedience does not justify anyone, but it does show that Christ is the real foundation of the soul.
- Great. The house stands until the storm hits. The more real the misplaced confidence, the greater the fall. Better no house at all than one on sand.
and the rain came down, and the streams came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and its fall was great.
The Sermon on the Mount ends with a collapse. Two men build, the same storm hits both houses, and only one house stands — so what makes the difference?
Both builders work. Both put up something that looks like a house. What separates them is out of sight, and it only matters when the weather turns.
In both cases we are shown the builder of a house. The house is the place of his affections and his rest. Above all, as we see it here, it is his shelter and refuge from the storm. Now for the stability of a house the foundation is the matter of first importance. If the foundation is not firm, no matter how solidly the house is built: it will go with the foundation. Christ and His words are here the rock that abides; all else, whatever its nature, is but sand. While the fair weather lasts, the house on sand may well look better than the house on rock, and the man who trusts it may enjoy a passing triumph. Too soon! And when the storm comes, it is too late to put things right.
The foolish man is not described as lazy or wicked. He simply never asked the one question that mattered.
The foolish man's thoughts do not go very deep. He builds a house as it pleases him without considering the foundation. There is a great temptation in 'building our lives' to put importance on those things that we can see outwardly and neglect the deeper matter of the foundation that is essential to a life for God.
The sand is not nothing. It is what a man builds on when he hears Christ's words and does not obey them.
The man building on sand is the one who hears the words of the Lord Jesus and then fails to take them to heart and obey them. He is still building, but only on sand — the shifting uncertainty of men's thoughts, with no solid basis of fact. Judgment will sweep this away. The greater the pride and effort put into the building, the greater the fall of the house.
Good works make the same sand. A person can work hard at building and still be building on himself.
Many are building upon their own works, imagining that they have in them a sufficiently strong foundation. They are badly deceived, for their works are only shifting sand. The day is coming when the winds of judgment will blow, and the floods of righteous wrath will lift up their voice. Then their empty hope will perish, their building will collapse, and they themselves will have no shelter for ever in a lost eternity.
The foolish builder heard every word. His deception runs in one direction only.
Think of the man who likes to listen to nice sermons and explanations of truth, but has no concern that his life should be governed by what he hears. Clearly he is not likely to deceive anyone else. Even the unbelievers he comes into contact with will soon detect how unreal he is. But he may sadly deceive himself.
The bigger the confidence a man misplaces, the bigger the ruin.
Not that the best life will justify before God, or save in the day when everything that can be shaken will be shaken. Still, such a life is evidence that Christ is the foundation of the soul — the foundation of a house that stands secure against every storm that can hit it. Faith in Christ must, of course, be real. But the more real a person's faith in other things, the more complete the delusion, and the surer and more deadly the ruin waiting for him.
William Kelly writes on the same story in Luke's Gospel. He asks who is most at risk.
The man who has heard and not done is like someone who built a house on the ground, without a foundation. That is exactly what has marked the Christian world and Judaism then and since. The stream broke on that house, and at once it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. So it will be. The heaviest blow of the Lord returning in glory will not fall on pagans who have never heard. It will fall on the baptized who have heard the Gospel and not obeyed it.
The doing that marks the wise man is the evidence of faith, not a substitute for it.
This parable does not teach salvation by works. No one can stand before God on the basis of his own works but only as he has faith in the Lord Jesus. Then the life will be followed by works of faith. Such is one of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. A mere profession without faith is worthless but on the other hand there is no true faith without works.
- Foundation — the two houses differ underneath, not on the surface. Whatever is not Christ and His words is sand.
- Fair weather — for a while the sand house can look better than the rock house, and its owner enjoys a passing triumph.
- Self-deception — the hearer who never obeys fools no one but himself. Even unbelievers soon see he is unreal.
- Storm — rain, flood and wind show what was really there. By then it is too late to change foundations.
- Great — the ruin matches the trust a person placed in it. The more real his faith in anything but Christ, the more complete his collapse.