Firm Foundation
“Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock.” Matthew 7:24
Obedience should always follow our hearing the word of God.
Both men in Jesus’ parable about the sure foundation heard the words, but only one of them added obedience after hearing, and by this act built on the true and immovable foundation.
Both men built houses very much alike so far as the superstructures were concerned. But there were two kinds of ground. There was a valley, which was dry and pleasant in the dry season when the men were looking for building sites. Then there were high rocky lands. One man decided to build in the valley. It would cost less. It would be easy to dig. It was more convenient and easily accessible. the other man built on the high ground. It would cost more, but it would be safer.
The two homes went up simultaneously, only that the one in the valley was finished long before the other was. The families moved into their new residences and were quite happy for a time. But one night there was a storm. The house in the valley was carried away with its dwellers; the house on the rocks was unharmed.
The pictures explain themselves. He who built in the valley is the man who has only knowledge and profession, but who really has never built on Christ as a foundation. the other man, who built on a rock, is the man who has true faith in Christ, confirmed by loving obedience. The storms that burst are earth’s trials that test every life, and then the tempests of death and judgment. The mere professor of religion is swept away in these storms, for he has only sand under him; he who is truly in Christ is secure, for no storm can reach us as we are hidden in Christ.
It will be a terrible thing to cherish a false hope of salvation through life, and only find out in eternity, too late to build again, that we have no foundation under our hopes.
“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:11