The Rock

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

THE ROCK

Matt 7:24-27

24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." 

NIV

Here we have that therefore again. We would have to revisit everything he had just being saying to get the picture of the therefore. Don’t judge, remember the speck and the plank. Don’t cast the truth of the gospel on those who trample on it. Ask, seek and knock, look how much more God gives us good gifts. Enter by the narrow gate, but only a few will find it. And finally remember not all who say, Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom, because they are only giving God lip service, but their hearts are divided. Now we come to the therefore. If we put these teachings into practice, if we actually live by them we will be building our lives upon the Rock.

2 Sam 23:3

3 The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me:

NIV

Ps 71:3

3 Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

NIV

There are other scriptures that refer to Jesus being the rock as well, but the point he was making is that if we say we believe in God, if we confess that Jesus is Lord and the Savior of our lives, then we should live as such, putting our faith in him as well as doing those things he tells us. If we do not judge, and we do not go looking for the faults of others, especially while we have so many of our own, and we stop sharing the gospel with those who refuse to listen and indeed degrade the truth of God and we walk that narrow path which leads to the narrow gate, then we are building our lives upon God, upon Jesus. But if we ignore his words about these matters then we are simply fools who are building our lives upon our own concepts of what we think is better, which is sand and our lives will be blown away down the broad road to destruction. Because he had the Pharisees to compare true living for God to, we now have those who act religious, those who have placed their list of do’s and don’ts on their refrigerator so they can keep track of how well they are doing, well maybe they put them on the bulletin board at church. We have all those who say they are Christians, but live just like everyone else, pursuing after fame and fortune, or maybe just fortune. We have those who chase after the material goods of life, but claim to follow Jesus. We have the Pharisees to compare ourselves to as Jesus did. Have we been building our lives upon the same things they have, or are we actually building our lives upon the Rock, upon Jesus. We simply cannot add Jesus to our existing life which we have been building on the sand. We have to trash that construction and start a new life, a new building on the Rock, All the materials we had been using to build on the sand simply will not be any good for our new construction project. We have to put off the old, get rid of all the old stuff and put on the new. Start completely over with all brand new material which we find in the word of God. We cannot use both together, they are incompatible material. If we are to survive the storms of life, if we are to make it through the tough times, we need to build on the Rock of Ages.

Jer 17:5-8

5 This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

NIV   

The first half is about those who build their lives on the sand, on the ideas of their own thinking, who trust in themselves more than in God. The second part refers to those who build their lives on the Rock. When we draw all our nourishment for life from Jesus, from the word, then we will make it through no matter what life brings our way. It does not matter how difficult situations we face, our lives are not build on sinking sand.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand. This is from an old Lutheran hymn

Let us build only on the Rock.