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Foundations
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone SDA Church, CA, USA
Delivery: 2008-03-01 22:40Z
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2008-03-01 22:40Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kirl-foundations.php
We have all heard the saying, “Keep it simple.” As Christians who want to understand the will of our Lord, who desire to grasp how the world our Creator made actually works, it is no surprise that we tend to develop detailed understandings of things. Unfortunately, some criticize us for trying to understand.
Perhaps they have a point. If we understand, then with God’s help we can find ways to express the right ideas and do so wisely, to the point. Sometimes we will want to respond in detail when the person we are conversing with is seeking a much shorter kind of explanation. A thoughtful, short explanation will often lead to greater interest in these important topics, but a poor one may reduce interest.
When we talk about salvation, sometimes we need to bite our tongue. Keeping our explanations simple is part of serving the Master. If we love others, we will not try to do a “one size fits all” approach, but instead will try to match the answer to the understanding and interest level of the person who is asking.
Paul often offers the kind of lengthy, comprehensive explanations some of us may be used to dealing in. But I want to suggest that there is a place also for the shorter, more straightforward explanations offered by none other than Jesus Himself—even though these will often tend toward a certain kind of “ideological incorrectness.”
Today we consider one such short passage. We could call this presentation, salvation according to Jesus.
Our text is Luke 6:46-49, and is as follows:
And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to Me, and heareth My sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
Let us not miss that there are only two situations discussed here. One where Jesus is truly one’s Lord, and one where Jesus is falsely claimed to be one’s Lord. That is, what you have here is the contrast between the true Christian and the false Christian, as we shall see,
Jesus points out two things which are incompatible: (1) Calling Him Lord, while (2) not doing what He says. Whenever we are seeking to influence others for the kingdom of God, and our lives include incompatible claims and actions, those who see the dissonance will be at risk for refusing to take our claims seriously. To reverse this, then, our actions serve to validate or to invalidate our claims in the mind of the evaluator. God may intervene and keep them from seeing the dissonance, but there is no guarantee of this. And we who make the claims and then dishonor our Lord by our actions can be responsible for influencing a soul to balance in the wrong or right direction.
Coming to Jesus
Fortunately, there is a solution for this inconsistency, which Jesus outlines—A simple one. Let us consider what Jesus says it means to accept Him as Lord.
First, “whosoever cometh to Me.” The first requisite is that one come to Jesus. That sounds simple enough. But it there is more going on here. Jesus says, “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44). Again, Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” (John 12:32). Paul saw this too. “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance” (Roman 2:4).
These texts affirm that it is not in you, it is not in me, to come to Jesus. In our own power we could never come. We do have in us still an inkling of the image of God. We do still have a capacity for goodness, even an appreciation for it. Consider: Even we who are evil desire good gifts for our children (Matthew 7:9-11; Luke 11:11-13). Even we who are evil can be drawn by goodness (Romans 2:4). Jesus is “the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). Yes, everyone gets lighted by Jesus, everyone gets a view of the life and goodness of God. And all men know of God and choose according to conscience (Romans 1:19-21; 2:14, 15). The creation, the stars and sun even, night and day, preach to every man of the glory of God (Psalm 19:1-6).
Yes, God is constantly drawing, and fallen men are constantly being lighted, being drawn, preached to; they even manifest, dare we say it, some goodness in desiring good gifts for their children. The image of God in man is dimmed and marred, but not entirely lost; it may be restored (Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:49; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Colossians 3:10;). Man is depraved but not totally; he is degenerate but not unregenerable; he is lost but not irretrievably, for still he may be found; he is sold under sin but not finally, for he is redeemable still. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. There is being lost and there is being lost. I was lost in the forest once in eastern Oregon when I was a teenager out hunting with my father. Eventually I found my way back. In our spiritual case, we cannot find our way back on our own, but Jesus can find us. Praise God, we can be found!
We must come to Jesus. But in coming we recognize that that is only possible because He is drawing us. Now if He is the light which lighteth every man, then every man is being drawn. Being drawn is not the same as coming though. John 3:20 explains.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Every man is exposed to the light, but some prefer evil to light and refuse to relent of evil; they choose darkness above light. They scamper out of any light, they refuse to come to it. They reject the first step: coming to Jesus, and they never become Christians.
Hearing Jesus’ Sayings
The next point, is hearing Jesus’ sayings. How do we hear Jesus’ sayings? Is it hearing Jesus’ sayings to walk into a church, listen for 15 minutes, hear a coercive altar call, urging one to accept Jesus or burn forever in hell, and then walk down the aisle to the front and repeat a formula of words that the preacher insists upon?
While God often works in ways which surprise us, for which reason we can rule little out, it is still very difficult to accept this as hearing Jesus’ sayings. God&rsquuo;s kingdom does not rely on force in this way. God does not scare people into mouthing formulas of words. People followed Jesus voluntarily or not at all. People who are forced to believe do not believe. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot persist in loving the world and at the same time be a true follower of Jesus because in a moment you were placed under substantial psychological stress in a setting of social pressure and in fear you did what was expected of you. There must be a change of heart freely made, voluntarily accomplished.
God neither lies nor forces, neither sneaks nor cheats. When a person is choosing how he stands in relation to God, our Maker never goes around the free will that He endowed us with. A man must hear Jesus’ sayings voluntarily.
Hearing Jesus’ sayings also will mean an investment of time. Jesus was no shallow or superficial teacher; His sayings are thoughtful and deep. Some have spent their whole lifetime studying Jesus’ words. To truly hear you must invest time and energy. We mentioned that first, you have to come to Jesus. Some think they are hearing Jesus’ sayings but in coming they have not come to Jesus but some other teacher. Jesus warned “many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:5). Oh yes, many come to Jesus, but they do not come to Jesus. They come to an impostor, a false teacher, some other sacharinized, glossy representation whom they take to be Christ or a teacher of His principles.
But this goes under the previous heading—coming to Jesus—you say. You say I have misplaced it in addressing it here under “hearing Jesus’ sayings.”. And I reply, No, this is precisely where it belongs. For it is the business of the hearer to hear carefully and evaluate intelligently. God expects you to use what He has given you. The person who comes must weigh what he hears to know whether he is hearing Christ or antichrist, God’s anointed or one self-anointed.
In other words, the listener is making an investment. He is spending from out of his most limited resource: time. He is paying a price to hear. He could be watering the flowers, or listening to a song, or reading a book by some philosopher to whom the learned have ascribed greatness. He could be listening to the popular religionist down at the town square. Who is this he is listening to? How very easily it rolls off our tongue that we have listened. But we sometimes give our best energies to other things, and when we actually have an opportunity to hear a word from God, the cares of this world choke us, and our hearing is very poor. Hearing, we say again, requires an investment.
And consider the following:
No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have (Luke 8:16-18).
When God starts showing you truth, He is beginning a process. He will show you more and more. For this reason then, we are to take heed how we hear. If we do not hear with a receptive heart, we may find some reason to reject what we are hearing. We may have thought that being a follower of Christ would only cost us relatively little, but discover that it costs everything. We may feel that we have great possessions. We may chose materialism over truth, this world over God’s kingdom, antichrist over Christ. Yes, we need to take heed how we hear!
Some would like to reduce the Bible-study aspect of Christianity, focusing on the social aspect in the service of what they call “soul-winning.” They would like to reduce the Bible-study to more of an ice-breaker function for the building of social bonds, and harvest these connections to increase church membership. But for one who would follow Jesus’ counsel to hear His sayings, the study of what His revealed will actually is, can never be reduced in scope. His Word changes us. Peter said, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). God is growing each follower. If, that is, he will invest something in hearing Jesus’ sayings. Are you taking advantage of the meetings of the church in order that you might hear Jesus’ sayings?
Doing Jesus’ Sayings
The third word that Jesus offered was that one who would follow Him must do the things that He says. This idea is echoed again and again in the Bible. For example, Paul said, “(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Romans 2:13). James offers, ”be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).
It is not enough to come to Jesus and to hear His sayings. Unless one does His sayings, He is not their Lord. There is no argument around this, no explanation that can justify hearing but not doing. If one is a disciple then one does what the Master says. Again, it is free choice. God does not force His children to follow Him, to obey Him, to love Him, to be like Him. He illumines and offers and they choose what they will invest in being a Christian. Too often we want the pearl of great price at a discount. We take a two-thirds approach to God, thinking that we can come to Him, and hear His sayings, and then that we will not be required to do those sayings; that we can still be a Christian because, after all, we have come, we have listened.
But Jesus warns us. We recall His initial words in this teaching: “Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” The Christian religion that is often placed in front of people is constructed of numerous philosophical concerns, teachings that offer carefully reasoned escapes from obedience. Such is ever the result of amalgamating the things of God with the things of man. A religion is constructed that is at peace with the world in every way that counts, but that sounds high and pious. This is marketed to the people, and all other options are written off as radical or fanatical, as dangerous, legalistic, not true Christianity.
But the words of Jesus are plain; we are to do what He says. With His word He offers power. Only our choosing to do it stands in the way. Let each one ask himself if he is doing Jesus’ sayings, and ask it deeply.
So those are the three necessary items: coming to Jesus, hearing the sayings of Jesus, and doing the sayings of Jesus. If that describes your experience, then you have described how Jesus is Lord.
Foundations
It is of interest to us that after urging us to come, hear, and do, Jesus did not move on to the next topic, but instead offered a parable. We already heard it. Two men are presented; each is building a house. One digs deeply and lays its foundations soundly. That is a house that cannot be shaken. The other man, builds his house without even a foundation. Disaster comes and the house falls immediately, and is swept away in toto. Let us consider some features of Jesus’ description.
First, notice that both men are building a house. And after all, everyone is building a house. Each one of us is developing character. Each person is toiling, investing time and energy. So it is not a question of building or not building; it is a question of how we build.
Next, we notice that both men built their house next to a stream. When Jesus offered this saying, the streams were almost entirely subject to the workings of nature without human intervention. We have dams today that can control the run off and if wisely operated can usually prevent any kind of serious flooding. But when Jesus spoke this, none of that existed. Here is what was in the mind of the listener: Every rainy season the streams rise and flood. This was a regular, expected, anticipated event. The exact timing of the flood, the very day, was of course, not predictable. But this was beside the point. If you built a home and you built it alongside a stream, you simply knew that when the rainy season came, the stream would overflow its banks. Part of life was planning and preparing for this. No one should have been caught by surprise.
Just as the building of the house is like our building of character, so too it is of interest to us that both men built their house beside a stream that would flood. They built in a place where they were exposed to danger. Really, all of us live in a world of sin; all of us are exposed to risk. We may do what we can to limit that risk, but it cannot be completely removed. We know that there will be trials and testing times in our lives. We know that the world is not always so kind to us as it seems to be at present. A crisis may soon come, one unlike any that human beings have ever experienced. Indeed, the scenario we find in Daniel and Revelation tells us that at the arrival of apocalypse so long foretold, we will face trials unprecedented in the human experience. Then we ask, do we realize that we are building by the stream? That, if the prophecies are true, the stream will rise and beat vehemently against the house that we are building?
Here is the point: it is not if the stream will overflow, but when. We are not preparing for a surprise crisis. The timing is still a question; that is in God’s province. But the building part, the preparation part, are in ours. And it is a matter of faith—whether we believe in the sayings of Jesus or not—whether we will prepare as He has taught us to.
One man digs deep and lays the foundation of his house upon the rock. Now look at the description of the other man. It says he builds a house. But how much digging does it describe him doing? None at all! He is building, spending some energy. He is building next to a stream that overflows its banks regularly. And yet, he does not dig at all. His house is positioned on the surface.
Someone might liken the rock that is built on to Jesus Christ. That is true in other illustrations; it does not fit here so well. Remember, both men in the illustration came to Christ; both men in the illustration heard His sayings; but only one man did anything with those sayings: The man who believed Jesus acted in faith on what Jesus said. He came, he listened, he acted. The other man came and listened, but he was not diligent to do. He built his house superficially. A life that is founded on the rock is a life with all three components: coming, hearing, doing. A life that is founded on the sandy precipice is one where the person has come and listened but not applied himself to doing the sayings of Jesus.
Conclusion
And so, the time of testing comes and it comes to every soul. Then our opportunities, our investments, come into full play. How faithfully we have prepared is now seen. There are no shortcuts or forensic-only elements here. Jesus does not come and shield us from our own foolishness. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). And so at last the stream rises and beats vehemently. The testing time comes to every soul and his work (and we use that word intentionally) is revealed. “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is” (1 Corinthians 3:13).
God is not mocked, and character development does not take place in a day. And the preacher asks you, How are things with you and Jesus? You come, you listen. But are you doing what He says? Are you ready for the shaking when the stream rises? Are you digging deep? How much are you investing in your Christianity?
If you want to be in the kingdom, you must come, hear, and do what Jesus says. That is salvation put quite simply. Nor does Jesus in this parable warn of the dangers of legalism, although He does warn of the dangers of presumption. Why do we call Him Lord, Lord, and do not the things that He says? What do we expect when the stream rises and our house is tested?
We must have a foundation and that foundation is coming, hearing, and doing. No more, no less. No, not to earn our salvation. Is that keeping it simple enough? May the Lord bless as we build, and may we beware of artful, golden words that would lead us to neglect digging deep for our foundations. The flood is coming, the stream will rise. And Jesus asks us why we are calling Him Lord, and pleads that we do the things that He says. Hear ye the word of the Lord. GCO
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