'Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth
them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon
a rock.... 25. And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine,
and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which
built his house upon the sand.'--Matt. vii. 24, 25.
Our Lord closes the so-called Sermon on the Mount, which is really the
King's proclamation of the law of His Kingdom, with three pairs of
contrasts, all meant to sway us to obedience. The first is that of the
two ways: one broad, and leading down to abysses of destruction; the
other narrow, and leading up to shining heights of life. The second is
that of the two trees, one good and one bad, each bearing fruit
according to its nature; by which our Lord would teach us that conduct
is the outcome and revelation of character, and the test of being a
follower of His. The third is that of our text, the two houses on the
two foundations, and their fate before the one storm; by which our Lord
would teach us that the only foundation on which can be built a life
that will stand the blast of final judgment is His sayings and Himself.
Now, there are many very important and profound links of connection and
relation between these three contrasted pictures, but I only point to
one thing here, and that is that in all of them Jesus Christ most
decisively divides all His hearers--for it is about them that He is
speaking--into two classes: either on the broad road or on the narrow,
not a foot in each; either the good tree or the bad; either the house
on the sand or the house on the rock. Such a sharp division is said
nowadays to be narrow, and to be contradicted by the facts of life, in
which the great mass of men are neither very white nor very black, but a
kind of neutral grey. Yes, they are--on the surface. But if you go down
to the bottom, and grasp the life in its inmost principles and essential
nature, I fancy that Jesus Christ's narrowness is true to fact. At all
events, there it is.
Now, following out the imagery of our text, I wish to bring before you
the two foundations, the two houses, the one storm, the two endings.