Luke 06.46-49 What
we will study this morning in the Sermon on the Level (part 06)…01. Confession Not Profession (Luke 06.46); 02.
The Wise Builder (Luke 06.47-48); and 03. The Foolish Builder (Luke 06.49).
01. Confession Not
Profession (Luke 06.46)
Continuing on with the theme about false teachers, Jesus
speaking to His hearers, asks “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
(Luke 06.46)
The Greek word for “Lord” is (G2962) kuriov kurios and it means one
who is supreme in authority, master. Jesus does not want His hearers to be
like the false teachers that He has been talking about. He is warning His
hearers that confession without profession is no real faith at all (James 01.21-27;
James
02.14-26). The emphasis that James places in James 01.21-27 and James 02.14-26
is on the false claim of faith, and that true faith is proved by what you do in
response to what Jesus did for us on the cross and in the grave. To live in the
opposite way of what you confess to be your conviction is blatant hypocrisy.
You can confess all day that you love Christ, but if your actions don’t display
your love for Christ, you are living a lie.
Making a simple profession acknowledging that Jesus is Lord
is not enough. Faith is revealed in our obedience to the Lord’s commands. We
don’t really love Him and believe Him to be our Lord, our Master, if we don’t
do what He says. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”
(John 10.27).
If it never makes a difference in how we live, calling Jesus our Lord is a
hollow, contradictory statement. This is demonstrated in Malachi 01.06-14. Jesus said
that “he who
does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
(John 03.36)
because “Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name
perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare
to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”
(Matthew 07.21-23)
Many people who have a confession without profession are like the five foolish
virgins in Matthew
25.01-13 who didn’t believe that He was coming soon and were locked
out of the wedding feast.
But Jesus said “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and
to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20.28; Mark 10.45) Jesus demonstrated this after
washing the disciples feet, “Do you know what I
have done to you? You call Me Teacher
and Lord; and you are right, for so I
am. “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to
wash one another’s feet. (Being willing to humbly serve one another) “For I gave you an
example that you also should do as I did to you. “Truly, truly, I say to you, a
slave is not greater than his master, nor is
one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. “If you know these things,
you are blessed if you do them.” (John 13.12-17)
John in his epistle of 1John writes that our love for God is
demonstrated or proved by our obedience to God (1John 02.03-06; 1John 02.29;
1John
03.04-11; 1John 05.01-04), our love for others (1John 02.09-11;
1John
03.14-18; 1John 03.23-24; 1John 04.07-21), not loving the
world (1John
02.15-17), and James writes, “do you not know that friendship with the world is
hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world
makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 04.04)
To illustrate this point, Jesus talks about two different
builders. In Matthew’s account (Matthew 07.24-27), Jesus refers to these two
builders as wise/prudent and foolish.
02. The Wise Builder (Luke 06.47-48)
The phrase “dug deep” (Luke 06.48) seems to speak of the deep heart
searching that marks genuine repentance. Jesus states that the wise man is the
one who trusts Jesus to be His Lord and Saviour (Romans 10.09-13), who hears what
He instructs in His Word and does them. This is the way that we are to live and
build our lives upon, the Rock of Jesus. Those in the Roman Catholic Church
teach and believe that Peter (G4074. Petrov Petros and it means a
detached stone or boulder, or a stone that might be thrown or easily moved)
is the rock that the church is built on. Paul tells us that Jesus is our
foundation stone, not Peter in 1Corinthians 03.10-15. The Bible tells us that
the only foundation for salvation is Jesus Christ, who is the rock. The Greek
word for “rock”
in Luke 06.48 (twice)
is (G4073) petra petra and it implies a rock that is a sure foundation (Matthew 07.24-25;
Matthew 16.18;
Matthew 27.51;
Matthew 27.60;
Mark 15.46).
(cf. Vine, W.E.; Merrill F. Unger (1996-08-28). Vine’s Complete Expository
Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words: With Topical Index (Kindle Locations
52395-52405). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.) In Luke 20.17-18 (see also Matthew 21.42-45; Matthew 21.42; Mark 12.10-12; 1Peter 02.06-08), Jesus declared that He is the foundation, the
corner stone, which was foretold in Psalm 118.22 and Isaiah 28.16. Paul states that
Jesus is the foundation, the corner stone of the church (Ephesians 02.20).
Throughout the Old Testament, we see that God is referred to
as the Rock (Deuteronomy
32.04; Deuteronomy 32.15; Deuteronomy 32.18; Deuteronomy
32.31; 1Samuel 02.02; 2Samuel 22.02; 2Samuel 22.32;
2Samuel
22.47; 2Samuel 23.03; Psalm 18.02; Psalm 28.01;
Psalm 78.35;
Psalm 95.01;
Isaiah 26.04;
Isaiah 30.29)
Peter speaking to the Sanhedrin said that Jesus is the Rock, that “He is the
STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no
other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be
saved.” (Acts 04.11-12 see also 1Peter 02.05-08)
Luke 06.48 “and could not shake it” in the Greek (ουκ
ισχυσεν σαλευσαι αυτην) implies that the storm did not have enough
strength to shake the house. The phrase “well built” in Luke 06.48 should be translated as “for it was founded on the rock”, which
is Jesus. When the test comes, with the flood rushing in like the waves of the
sea, pulling and tugging at the foundation of that house, but the house remains
standing because it is built on Jesus. This is a man who trusts in Jesus as His
Lord and Saviour (Psalm 125.01-02).
03. The Foolish Builder (Luke 06.49)
Here we see the result of a man who has no profession with
his confession. His building was built foolishly on the sand (Matthew 07.26)
“without any
foundation” (Luke 06.49). When the storm hit, his building “immediately
collapsed” (Luke 06.49), it just fell in. Jesus then states
that “the ruin
of that house was great” (Luke 06.49), which in the Greek is an old word for a rip or fracture, and is
used in the medical field to describe the laceration of a wound. This
is the only time it is used in the New Testament. The foolish man builds
upon what he thinks is best, following the carnal values of this world.
Jesus here gives us an illustration of two houses that look the
same from the outside, but were different because of their foundation. It would
be easier to build on the sand instead of working upon the hard and rugged
rock.
In the Book of Exodus (Exodus 17.04-06), while the children of Israel
were wandering in the wilderness, they became thirsty and they started to
complain. Moses then records for us the miraculous provision of water for 2 or
3 million people in the desert. Paul tells us that God provided water daily for
His people from this rock that Moses struck, “For I do not want you to be unaware,
brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the
sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate
the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were
drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”
(1Corinthians
10.01-04) This is the first time that the word “rock” is mentioned
in Scripture. Moses used the same staff that struck the Nile River in judgment
(Exodus 17.05;
see also Exodus
07.20) as he did to strike the rock. In the judgment of our sins,
while Jesus hung on the cross, bearing our grief’s and sorrows, He was “Smitten of
God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53.04), so that He could fulfill His
promise of “whoever
drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that
I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal
life.” (John 04.14) and “If anyone is
thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” (John 07.37) Once our Rock was “Smitten of
God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53.04), the water of
eternal life is now freely available to all who come to drink (Revelation 21.06).
The last command written in the Bible, “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one
who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who
wishes take the water of life without cost” (Revelation 22.17) so that “whoever drinks of
the water that I will give him shall never thirst” (John 04.14).
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