Well hear now the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter seven, verses 24 through 29.

"Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and does them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house. But it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them, will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes."

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Well, a few weeks ago, I mentioned that my daughter is learning right now to play the clarinet and anyone who starts learning a wind instrument, there's sort of this initial hurdle that everyone has to go through where you're just trying to be able to especially control your mouth. What's called the embouchure, the the control you have to blow into the instrument. You can't just blow right in without training yourself to do this. Um, otherwise, clarinet's going to squeak. A Trumpet's not going to do what you want it to do.

Any wind instrument needs this trained embouchure to make a sound. And and I'm proud to report what I told her a couple of weeks ago that as I listened to her, she's really sort of passed that first hurdle. She's worked hard to being able to move from from just this initial stage where you're trying to get used to the instrument. So I said, honey, it sounds like a clarinet. This is this is wonderful. You've passed that first stage. But what I, what I told her is that as, as big of a jump that is from the hurdle to, to to being able to now being able to play notes on a clarinet and make clarinet sounds. I said, you're always going to be working on this embouchure. I used to play the saxophone, so I know something of what that is, but, but, but the difference between being a good musician and being a great musician and being a great musician and being an elite musician is always about working on that embouchure, trying to make the right tone come out. The difference, even for the elite instruments or instrumentalists like the the first chair and the second chair clarinet, the difference is always going to be have some part to do with your embouchure, your control, what you are doing with your mouth. Now, I think as Jesus closes out, uh, the sermon on the Mount, what he's telling us is something different that just as a as an instrumentalist, as a musician, can never get beyond certain fundamentals, like an embouchure.

So we can never get beyond Jesus. As Jesus closes out the sermon on the Mount and we come to the end of chapter seven, we're seeing a couple of things being declared to us that Jesus and he's declaring us in the last part of the sermon on the Mount, that he is the most basic, most fundamental part of Christianity. To become a Christian begins with a true recognition of who Jesus is. But we never, over the course of our life, no matter whether we are just beginning in the faith or whether we are talking about the most wise, mature, godly saint in the world, we never get beyond Jesus. We are always working. There's always more to learn, always more to grow in him throughout the rest of our lives and off into eternity. We never get beyond Jesus and he tells us this. He tells us that he is the Alpha and the Omega. He tells us that he is the beginning and end. He tells us. The scriptures tell us that he is the cornerstone as well as the capstone. He is the foundation as well as the pinnacle of our of our lives. We never get beyond Jesus. And in this last passage, the finality, the closing out in Matthew's Gospel of the sermon on the Mount, uh, we are seeing that Jesus is declaring himself to be the faithful rock, the faithful foundation underneath us, as well as the faithful Lord with authority over us.

Our big idea as we complete our study of the sermon on the Mount, is this that Jesus is faithful, under and over God's house. Jesus is faithful under and over God's house. So three parts to this sermon.

1. God's Son under God's house
2. The world's sand under the world's house
3. God's son over God's house

God's Son under God's house

In verses 24 and 25, Jesus gives the first part of this illustration, this parable, whatever you want to call this here. But he says, everyone, then notice that second word there. Then this word then, or therefore is signaling to us that Jesus is drawing all that he has said in the whole sermon on the Mount to a close. He's really building on everything, and we're going to try to draw together some of the strands of his teaching as we study this particular passage. He's bringing everything to its said to its conclusion. What's interesting is if we look at just the previous passage, what we looked at last week, there's another contrast that's still going on, but it's a slightly different contrast than we saw last time.

If you remember verse 21, there was a contrast between the sayers and the doers in the last passage. 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. Not the sayers will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the doers. Well, now the contrast is a little bit different. Jesus is talking to everyone, specifically everyone who hears these words of mine, everyone who hears his words. And the contrast is if everyone is hearing these words, the contrast is not what people say, but whether they do something with Jesus's words. So it's similar, but it's a little bit different than what we saw previously. And what Jesus is saying is that the wise will do one thing with Jesus's words, and the foolish will do another thing with Jesus's words. If we are wise, Jesus says, we will do his words. Now that's an awkward thing to sort of say. It sounds a little funny even in the original, but that's what Jesus is giving us here, that we will do his words. And so we have to wrestle with what exactly that would mean. But if we do his words, Jesus says, we are like the wise man who builds his house on the rock. Now one commentator, Leon Morris, is is probably very correct, largely correct when he says that this idea of building a house, it's the idea of living your life.

It's the the course and the conduct of your life. And, and inevitably you're going to be building a house somewhere. The idea is. But the question is, where are you going to build it on the rock, or are you going to build it on the sand? And the idea, the strength, the benefit of building on a rock is that a rock is a house built on a rock is able to withstand the brutal storms of life. And there's sort of this image here. As the rains fall, the house will not fall. That's sort of what Jesus is saying here. But what then is this rock? Well, throughout the Old Testament, God is regularly called the rock of his people. If you grab the sermon notes, I have a bunch of different scripture references. I didn't count them, but it seems that there was ten, 15, 20 something like that. Scripture references where God is called the Rock of his people. So Jesus is in some sense very clearly alluding to that and saying, this is what it means to build your life on God. But notice what he says here versus what he said even in the previous passage. Again, in the previous passage, he says it wasn't just those who say, Lord, Lord to Jesus who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father. Back in verse 21, the one who does the will of my father.

Well, now look here in verse 24, what Jesus says. Everyone then, who hears these words of mine hears these words of mine, not just hears these words or hears my words. This is a very emphatic way to put this. Everyone who hears these words of mine, Jesus is. The conclusion of the sermon on the Mount, is focusing the spotlight finally on him. We've seen so many times where Jesus is just sort of just out of the spotlight. He's teaching something, but not directly drawing the attention to him. He stops that at the end of it. The conclusion to this sermon puts Jesus right on center stage and says, understand these words of mine will signal your life or your death, your salvation or your destruction. And ultimately what the rest of the New Testament is going to tell us is that it's not just teaching about something apart from Jesus. The teaching of Jesus even more puts Jesus on center stage. The teaching that we must respond to is the teaching about the person and the work of Jesus Christ. In other words, we must build our lives on him. And Jesus is saying that to build our lives on him is to build our lives on the rock. Because Jesus Christ, God's Son, is the Rock. He is the foundation underneath and supporting God's house, the church. Now, anyone who's ever owned a home knows how important a foundation is.

When we bought our current house about a year ago, it was in a very much a seller's market. So to buy the house meant that we couldn't get an inspection on the front end. We just had to sort of take it on faith and sort of look around as best we could and make an offer, because if you wanted an inspection, that means that they would not go with your offer, but would go with someone who inevitably would make an offer without requiring some inspection. So through the purchasing process, we were worried about the foundation. And then we had our inspection all turned around after we bought the house, and thankfully there was no problem with the foundation. But we did. Over all of this work, discover one issue that the concrete of the backyard patio had begun to settle. Not the foundation, thankfully, just a slab of concrete in our backyard. And it slanted so much that settled so much that it actually began to slant back toward the house. Now, there are a couple of reasons for this. Around 25 years ago, when they were building the house, we were told they must not have packed the soil down as far as they needed to. Now that'll work okay for a while, but over time things are going to settle. The problems will come out over time. And then not only that, but they didn't build the kind of downspouts they needed to carry the rain away from the house.

So every time it rained, little by little, the rains would fall down and a little bit of flood would come up and it would start to pack down that soil more. And when even erode the soil more. And what started as no problem at all now means that rain is flowing back toward our house, which is a very bad situation. It's going to be expensive to replace this concrete, all because there was negligence 25 years ago and how this was constructed, and there was ongoing negligence not to take the proper care of the house. And again, for a long time there was no problem. But 25 years down the way, we're seeing problems, problems that are going to have to be fixed or bigger problems are going to result for it, because a foundation is something that you never get away from. When you're talking about some of those main foundational issues, they are important at the beginning, and they continue to be important all the way through the course of your life. And if this is true of our houses, how much is this more true for our lives and for whether we build our lives on the Lord Jesus Christ? We never get beyond the foundations. We never get beyond Jesus. But of course, the next thing that Jesus is going to tell us is to remind us that Jesus, his his teaching, his person, his work is not the only option on which we might build our lives, because the world offers all its own options.

Options that initially seem glamorous and fulfilling. No problems here, but over the course of time, the problems begin to assert themselves. They may not appear right away, but ultimately they must, because ultimately, the way you live your life will be exposed as either. As you're building your life on the rock that leads to your salvation, or you build your life on sand, that one day will be washed away. So now we come to the second part of this sermon, The World's Sand under the World's House in Matthew seven, verses 26 through 27.

The world's sand under the world's house

Look what Jesus says here, and listen to how similar, how parallel this is written to the first two verses. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. Now, as you can hear, this is going back and forth. This is very closely related to what Jesus spoke in the first two verses in verses 24 through 25. There's only a couple of differences. Obviously. There's the exchange, the wise men for the foolish man, the rock versus sand and things like that. But the biggest difference comes in the way that Jesus is explaining all of this is in the difference between in verse 25.

Notice it says that the winds and the rain beat on that house, or literally fell on that house. And in verse 27, notice that in the ESV it's beat against that house or or stumbled against that house is really the closer translation. To fall on and to stumble against are the two ideas. And one commentator, R.C. Lenski, says that these are a contrast of relative strength. Uh, the first house, the house on the rock. We're reading about something much stronger than the second house, the one built on the sand. Lenski writes this. He says, the idea suggested is that the house on the Rock withstood all the pounding of the winds and the waters, while the house on the sand gave way as soon as the tempest stumbled against its foundation. So the idea here is that to build your house on the rock is not just better, and not just marginally better, but the house built on the rock can withstand the greatest fury of storms that can ever pass across it. Whereas the house, built on sand as seemingly structurally sound as it may seem, until those rains come, when they do come, it's going to fall easily. The rains will fall and the house will fall with it, and great will be its fall. So what then, is this sand? What should we understand? If Jesus is the rock, what is the sand? Well, as Jesus defines it, it means building your life on anything other than his words.

That's what Jesus says. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them. So to build your life anywhere, apart from the Word of God is to build your life on sand. Now this is where we have to remember what Jesus has said again, that therefore or then earlier in verse 24 tells us that Jesus is bringing all of this to a close. So think about what Jesus said earlier about the legal mindset and the gospel mindset and the passage where at the beginning of this chapter where Jesus said, just judge not that you be not judged. That idea that if we try to understand that our standing before God depends on my righteousness, I'm judging according to what I think my righteousness will be. And I'm judging you to what I see your righteousness being compared to mine. Well, if I think I can stand according to that, eventually I will fall. That may work for a while, but that is to build my life on stand. The only proper rock is the gospel mindset that looks to Jesus Christ, his blood and righteousness, to receive that righteousness as a solid rock by faith. Or think about what Jesus said about the wind gate and the easy way. It's like a path. 11 some of you at Indian Cave State Park, some of you told me that you have traveled down that trail as well.

It begins easily enough, but very quickly. You're up into rugged terrain territory. It looks simple on a map, but though the way is easy, that leads to destruction, Jesus talked about. Nevertheless, the way of the transgressor is hard. It is rugged. It will wear against you and lead to your destruction. Or it's like Jesus talked about following the teaching of the false prophets who twist God's word, whose lives themselves produced rotten, diseased fruit, and your life will produce rotten, diseased fruit as well, if you follow what they teach. Or in the previous passage when Jesus talked about word righteousness, your words are not magical. You cannot simply say Jesus is Lord and be saved, but you're also. Your works are not meritorious. They don't merit you anything, earn you anything before God. Uh. You cannot do even great things for God and think that your works are going to save you. The only solution is Jesus's righteousness and blood that you receive by faith alone for your atonement. All of these would be plots of sand that are sold by various real estate agents, trying to peddle you the ways of the world. But in this world today, one of the biggest plots of sin that we're always surrounded by is something called radical individualism. If you look at the world around us, radical individualism is the insistent that each and every individual person may and must define the terms by which he or she lives his own life.

Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy really captured this idea in 1992, when he wrote this. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Now, if you think about that, he's saying liberty means that I may define for myself my own concept, my own way of living, my own existence. Well, that's a lie that we have heard from the very beginning. This is what the serpent said to the man and the woman. If you eat of the fruit of the tree, you will be like God, knowing good from evil. You can define your own terms of living. And the Bible exposes this lie and says, as solid as that foundation seems to be, this is sand. This is not liberty. It is slavery to sin. And so, ultimately, the hearts of radical individualism is a rejection of the creator and the goodness of his created order. Well, 30 years after that opinion was written, radical individualism saturates every aspect of our culture. Entertainment, marketing, social media, and particularly radical individualism has grown to bare abundant rotten fruits in the area of sexual immorality. It's all around us all the time. We're in the beginning. God created man in his own image, male and female. He created them. Radical individualism insists that I define my own existence, including the ability to reject the body and the maleness that God has given to me if I feel differently about it.

What the world calls transgenderism is a is a tragic state of confusion. And the world says, understand. Just build your life there. That's where you will be satisfied. That's where you will find peace. Pursue this by chemical alterations and bodily mutilation. They say you will find happiness there. But this is sand. Understand that the world tells us all of these things where we can be happy, and the church has to say, Jesus says, this is not a place you can build your life. There's a warning here. If you're struggling with confusion in these areas, we want to help you with this. We want to show you what the Word of God says about the priceless treasure that God has given you in creating you, male and female, to go deeper into that confusion will not result in salvation, but in lostness. Radical individualism has also particularly attacked the sanctity of marriage. And Jesus has talked about all of this through the sermon on the Mount. The sanctity of marriage, which in the beginning God instituted, so that a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife, and that the two shall become one flesh, that there becomes one place alone for the expression of sexual intimacy. Radical individualism encourages has encouraged for many years divorce under any circumstances without biblical grounds for doing so.

And the promise of our culture is that if you are in a bad marriage, if you are in an unhappy marriage, you will be happier to just sever those marriage bonds. And Jesus warned us about that, didn't he? That divorce is something that God hates. He warned us about this in this sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, this is sand. You will not find freedom and satisfaction. This will lead to misery. And also radical individualism justifies the pursuit of every sexual desire before marriage, outside of marriage, with multiple partners, with members of the same sex in ways too shameful to speak about, on and on. And again, the promise is that if you just give yourself to these passions, these desires, you will find fulfillment and satisfaction and happiness. But brothers and sisters, this is sand. And of course, connected to all this is sexual promiscuity leading to pregnancy. And so radical individualism also champions abortion, the promise that we will be happier by killing unwanted children. But again, this is sand. Now, we don't say any of this to beat up on people who are struggling with issues, who are guilty with these, guilty of falling into these sorts of sins. We say this because Jesus is warning us that there are a thousand ways that we can build our lives apart from the Word of God, a thousand ways that we can conduct the course of our lives that seem satisfying, that seem to provide fulfillment, that seem to provide stability.

And ultimately, when the rains come, those houses will fall in a moment. What Jesus is telling us about is to pursue these is to pursue destruction. That where you are wounded, where you have sinned. In these ways there is healing on the rock of Jesus Christ that we want to hold out to all those who are hearing this gospel. But we want to warn you by Jesus's words, because in our generation, as in every generation, Jesus's voice is continuing to issue a clear warning that everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. But remember, Jesus does not only give a warning, he gives an invitation here. Everyone then, who hears these words of mine and does them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The church must proclaim Jesus's words to warn about the dangers and the damages of the sand. But by this warning, the church holds out Jesus as the rock, the one who's teaching, the one who's life, the one whose accomplishments provides forgiveness and cleansing and healing through his gospel, the Gospel of Christ crucified, dead, buried, resurrected, and ascended to the right hand of the father. No matter where you have been, no matter where you are today, no matter what you have done, Jesus continues to be the rock, the foundation upon which you can build your life for salvation.

Because while continuing to build your life on the sand will destroy you. It is never too late in this life to turn to Jesus, to begin building your life on the rock of the foundation of Jesus Christ our Savior. Now this is where Jesus concludes, and in every generation we have to ask, what is the sand and our generation? But with this warning and invitation, Jesus is concluding everything that he has said in the sermon on the Mount. We're called to listen to him. We are called to heed him. And in these final two verses we have sort of an instant reaction. These are the reactions of the crowds as they've listened to Jesus. What we're seeing here is that Jesus is not only the rock, the foundation underneath which and upon which the church is built. But we see that Jesus is the son who is set in authority over God's house. That's the reaction of the people. Look at the third section, God's Son over God's house in Matthew seven, verses 28 through 29.

God's son over God's house

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. For he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. Now in this section. It's interesting. There's a phrase here. It's really just one word. It's hard to bring out in English. Several translations, including the English Standard Version, doesn't even try to bring it out.

Uh, if you have a King James version, you might see it in your Bibles as something like. And it came to pass. Um, and it's a phrase, a little word here that's saying that's used at the end of all of five of Matthew's discourses, of Jesus's discourses in the Gospel of Matthew. But what it's signaling is right here, where you're coming to the end of one of Jesus's major sections of teaching. And at the end of this section, the summary is not only did it come to pass that Jesus finished these sayings, but the crowds in reaction were astonished by this because Jesus did not speak as the scribes spoke. Now, now, what does that mean? What does it mean that he was teaching as one who had authority and not as their scribes? Well, the scribes are those who are copyists, right? They are ones who copy down the law, which means that their authority comes from the fact that they faithfully pass on someone else's authority. In these scribes case, uh, the fact of the matter is, these scribes were passing on Moses's authority. They were continuing to copy down and pass on Moses's authority. Moses, the one who brought down the law of God from another mountain, Mount Sinai. What's fascinating about the sermon on the Mount, and we talked about this at the beginning, but it bears repeating that the sermon on the Mount is deliberately written to compare Jesus to Moses, and to show Jesus's greatness over his superiority over Moses, that in the previous passages and in Book of Exodus, where Moses went up on a mountain to receive the law from God, Jesus goes up on the mountain.

We read that in Matthew five verse one at the beginning of the sermon on the Mount to teach the people. But Jesus is one who has authority, more authority than the scribes who simply passed on Moses's authority. But if we think about the implications here, it's more authority than Moses himself. Because remember, Moses didn't descend down from the mountain teaching of his own wisdom to the people. Moses brought tablets up so that God could write his word directly on those tablets that Moses could then pass to the people. And here think of everything that Jesus says. Think about this previous passage. Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and think about how often Jesus says, but I say to you, you have heard this, but I say to you, but I say to you at every turn Jesus has been showing he is not someone lesser than Moses. He is not simply another Moses. He is greater than Moses. He is God's son over God's house. Now, in this connection, it's so important to think about Hebrews chapter three, verses three through six, where the author of Hebrews makes this point so abundantly clear. Listen to the language about Moses and houses being built. In Hebrews three verse three, we read, For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house.

Jesus is talking about building a house. As much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. God's Son over God's house and we are his house. If indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. The idea of building a house that Jesus has been talking about. It is not simply the way I individually leave my individualistic life. When we talk about building a house, we are talking about the establishment, the redemption, the deliverance, the salvation of all God's people, God's house, the household of the church. Because in the church we never get beyond Jesus. He is the foundation upon whom we are built, and he is the Lord who exerts his authority as a son over that house. How then do we apply this? And not only this, but the whole sermon on the Mount? Well, Jesus, at every turn in the sermon on the Mount is confronting us with what we believe about him, whether he is talking about himself indirectly or now directly as that comes to the forefront.

The question is, do you love him? Do you trust him? Do you seek salvation from him? Do you obey him? Do you hear and do these words of his? If not, what will you do when the rains and the winds and the floods come? What will you do with the last great storm of life? When death finds you and you are ushered immediately before the presence of his glory for your judgment, what will you say before him on that day? If it finds you even this day? There's an incredible warning here. But an even more incredible invitation. The invitation says Come to Jesus and be saved. Now, in the Old Testament I mentioned that God is often talked about Iraq, but there's another rock that is spoken about prophetically. Uh, the prophet Isaiah writes in Isaiah 28 verse 16 prophesying the words of God, where God says, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Now who is this stone of stumbling? Who is this rock of offense? Well, the New Testament writers, and even Jesus himself cites that prophecy as written about Jesus. They explained that this stone of stumbling, this rock of offense, is Jesus Christ himself. And this is the foundation that Jesus is urging us to build our lives upon. But it's interesting to see how the New Testament writers apply that particular prophecy about Jesus as the rock of our salvation.

Really, there are two aspects that are so important as we think about Jesus as the foundation under whom rests our lives, rests upon. And Jesus is the pinnacle, the one who has authority over his church in terms of Jesus as the foundation. Now we are told in Romans nine verses 3233, to believe in Jesus as the rock of your salvation, for your righteousness, for your justification. Again, we are not saved by our words. We are not saved by our works. We are saved by the blood and righteousness of Jesus alone. And only those who look to Jesus in faith will be saved on that last day. And Paul writes this in Romans nine verses 30 to 33, he says, what shall we say then, that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it? That is a righteousness that is by faith. But that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone as it is written. Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Isaiah 28 verse 16 is being quoted there. The question that Jesus confronts us with yet again is, are you trusting in your words to save you? The simple profession of your mouth? That's good.

It's important to confess that Jesus is Lord, but apart from heart faith, it is not enough. Are you trusting in your works to save you? Remember, those just aren't the kind of roots that you can sink deeply into Jesus to trust in your works. Those aren't roots that sink deeply into Jesus to draw off of him. Faith alone looks to Jesus. Or do you see the world according to a legal lens? I will be right with God if I can prepare and establish for myself a righteousness of my own. I'm a good person. I do these things and I don't do those things. These things will not save. These things cannot save you. You cannot attain a righteousness by your works because Jesus is the only foundation, the only rock of your righteousness. But in the church, this isn't just the entryway. In the church, we never get beyond Jesus. Just as wind musicians never get beyond working on their embouchures the control of their mouths. So also we never get beyond Jesus in our lives through the course of our lives. Jesus is the rock of our salvation for holiness, for our sanctification. And it's Peter who makes this point. Peter in First Peter chapter two, where Peter writes that not only is Jesus a rock, but we also are living stones. He writes, being built up as a spiritual house, there's that house language again, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For it stands in Scripture. And then he quotes Isaiah 28, verse 16, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame. Our lives are not built on Jesus as individualistic individuals, declaring for ourselves our own terms of existence, but we are brought and stacked in careful coordination with and against the the foundation, the cornerstone. Jesus Christ, as God Himself is bringing us, not as individuals but as individuals into a household being built up as a temple where God is offering through Jesus Christ holy sacrifices. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone rejected by the world, but he is the only hope for our holy living. And so in first Peter chapter two, verses 11 through 12, just a few verses later, where Peter applies this, he he writes this. He says, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation, the day of judgment. Since we are sojourners, this world is not our home. Since we are exiles, we are seeking another home, and therefore we are living according to the rules and the laws of that home, our heavenly home.

Therefore, we must abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against the soul. The world promises. This is the gospel according to the world right now, that you will be satisfied by pursuing your pleasures, pursuing your passions wherever they may lead you, and consumerism and sexuality and whatever the world promises that you will find fulfillment there. And the scriptures expose that lie. The words of Jesus spoken through his apostle Peter, show us that giving yourselves to those passions will only wage war against your soul. It will not be for your life. It will be for your destruction, because those promises are sand. What you build may stand for a brief moment. It may stand for today. But what will happen on the day of visitation? What will happen on the day when the storm comes? Now, this doesn't mean that Christianity is mere moralism. It's just about living good lives according to good rules. We are not saved by our words or our works alone. We are saved by the blood and righteousness of Jesus alone. But what Jesus has been calling us throughout the sermon on the Mount is that our fruits should flow up from roots of faith that are grounded and rooted in Jesus Christ as our foundation and as the source of life. It means that Jesus is the narrow gate by whom we must enter, and that Jesus is the hard way by whom we must order our lives.

We must receive him at the beginning as we look to him for his righteousness by faith alone. And we must follow him as he leads us, by his grace and strength and power into holiness. Because through Jesus we will escape the wrath of God coming on the final day. Through him we will be saved so that through all eternity. We will never get beyond Jesus. As we look to him, as he continues to purify us, as he continues to draw out our radiance, as he continues to unfold the glory of God for all eternity. Oh, will you be there on that last day? The question is, will you hear these words of Jesus and believe them and do them? Let's pray. Heavenly Father. Every one of us is so liable and so prone to deceit. We want to believe what the world sells. We want to believe that what the world offers us will satisfy us. Father, open our eyes. Shine the light of your word. To see things as they are. To see the coming fate of what it would mean to build our lives on the sand. And we pray. Would you help us? By your grace, would you give us faith? To build our lives on the rock of our salvation, the stone of stumbling, the rock of offense, the Lord Jesus Christ who was rejected by the builders. But through his crucifixion, death, and resurrection, you have made the cornerstone and the capstone. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.