[0:00] Good morning. It is so good to be with you all today and open God's word. To introduce the sermon, I'd like to reference a recent tragedy that occurred in February in Turkey.
[0:11] ! Over the last five years, there has been new construction in Turkey to build luxurious apartments. These buildings were to be built according to certain building codes that ensure the safety of the building and the residents.
[0:24] According to building codes, the buildings must be built in a safe manner that would prevent damage from any major earthquake. This could require various elements from simple foundation dampering or strengthening to motion dampering to build the entire structure on a shock absorber.
[0:42] To include the proper structural additions to buildings, it costs lots of money and could be quite expensive. In February of 2023, there was two major earthquakes and lots of buildings were turned into rubble and thousands were killed.
[1:03] Many of these buildings were supposed to be according to the code that would prevent them from falling during earthquake shaking. Unfortunately, that did not happen.
[1:14] And we don't have much information regarding the government, the building codes, or the developers. But there is evidence that hundreds of buildings were not built on safe foundations.
[1:25] When the earthquakes came, it caused widespread destruction. The earthquakes and the damage caused in Turkey is tragic.
[1:38] When earthquakes hit Turkey, the buildings demonstrated that they were not built safely to endure the quakes. What we build our lives upon is of great importance.
[1:49] If we build our lives upon the wrong things, it can have devastating effects for ourselves, for our families, and for our friends. But if we build our lives on the right things, it can have wonderful effects for ourselves, for our friends, and for our families.
[2:06] So today, in Luke chapter 6, verses 46 through 49, I would love for you to see that the Christian is a person who professes faith in Jesus Christ and evidences this faith in their actions.
[2:21] The Christian is a person that professes faith in Jesus Christ and evidences this faith in their actions. So our sermon text is from Luke chapter 6, verses 46 through 49, if you'll turn there with me.
[2:37] So Luke chapter 6, verses 20 through 48, is Luke's account of Matthew's sermon on the mount.
[3:01] The reason I word it this way is that there is much discussion whether this is the exact same sermon that's in Matthew summarized, or if this is an entirely different sermon with a different context, and he gave some of the same teachings.
[3:16] Regardless, we see a lot of the same stories in Luke that Matthew teaches. So the purpose of the sermon that Jesus presents in Luke chapter 6 is to teach someone what it means to be a Christian.
[3:28] And in it, a Christian does not live life for this world. So in Luke chapter 6, verses 20 through 23, the disciple is financially poor.
[3:39] He is filled with great sorrow. He is physically hungry. And he is facing persecution. All things that are hard in this life and do not give much hope.
[3:51] But his joy and his hope is not in this life. It is in the life to come. And while he is facing poverty and sorrow and persecution, his blessedness and abounding joy are in Christ and the kingdom that is to come.
[4:09] Toward the end of the sermon, Jesus begins to tell us what it looks like to follow Christ. What it looks like to be a Christian and to not be a Christian. And we come to one of those texts today in Luke 6, 46 through 49.
[4:22] Amen. Because of this text and the severity there, I would love for us to take a moment to examine our hearts, to reflect on our hearts, and pray for humility.
[4:34] So will you pray with me for just a second? Father, help us close ourselves with humility. Help us be humble towards one another.
[4:45] And Lord, help us humble ourselves under your almighty hand, that we can see our hearts today and our lives. And that this text would either be a great warning or a great assurance to us.
[4:56] In Jesus' name, amen. All right, starting in verses 43 for context. For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit.
[5:10] For each tree is known by its fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good.
[5:23] The evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you?
[5:37] Everyone who does come to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like. He's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.
[5:51] And when the flood arose, the stream broke against the house, and it could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground, without a foundation.
[6:07] When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. In this passage, we'll have three points.
[6:18] There's no need to write them down because we'll go through them one by one. Our first point is the profession of Lord, Lord. Our second point is the Christian's profession. And our third point is the false profession.
[6:32] So point number one, the profession of Lord, Lord. In verse 46, Jesus describes an individual that comes to him and calls him Lord, Lord.
[6:43] The repetition of one's name in scripture often communicates familiarity, a personal relationship. Some examples in scripture we see are in Genesis 22.
[6:54] Abraham is about to sacrifice his son. And as he's in the moment where he pulls the dagger up, God says, Abraham, Abraham. In Luke 10, when Jesus is visiting Mary and Martha, Martha is busying herself with tasks.
[7:09] And she's jealous of Mary who's sitting by Jesus. And Jesus goes to Martha, Martha, Martha. In Acts 9, when Jesus speaks to Saul as he's heading to Damascus, he says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
[7:29] In all these instances and many more you see in scripture, there is a personal relationship that is intimate and intentional. Someone is speaking as if they know a friend.
[7:39] When this person comes to Jesus and says, Lord, Lord, they generally believe that Jesus is their master. They have confidence in their position as his servant.
[7:52] But Jesus' response is not what you'd expect from someone who calls him Lord, Lord. He says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you do not do what I tell you?
[8:04] The servant invokes Jesus' name as Lord and personally, but in his life, there is nothing to show that he is a servant of Jesus Christ.
[8:16] Turn to Matthew 7 with me and we'll look at the count with more details. Matthew 7, starting in verse 21.
[8:40] Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of the Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?
[9:00] And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. In Matthew's account, we have a little bit more information regarding the individual who says, Lord, Lord.
[9:16] This is a person who seems to have done great things for Jesus. They have prophesied. They have cast out demons. And they've even done mighty works.
[9:26] But when they come to Jesus and Jesus asks, why should I grant you into the kingdom? They say, I did this. I did these works. For us, it could be I led these Bible studies or I served in this role.
[9:40] They're basing their hope and their salvation on their works, on the things that they believe would merit them salvation. And we see Jesus' response to this person is, I never knew you.
[9:54] Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. It seems these individuals have done great things, but when it comes down to the eternal fate, they relied upon their works, not upon Christ's works.
[10:07] It was about what they did, not about who they believed in. And these so-called servants were generally hypocrites and did not truly love God. Brothers and sisters, this text burdens my heart.
[10:21] It reveals a reality that is devastatingly true today. It is this. There will be many people who say they are Christians, who would say, Lord, Lord, who will not be in the kingdom of God.
[10:38] It is not based on one's profession. It is not based on one's decision. It is not based on an aisle one walks that determines if they are a Christian.
[10:51] It is not based on the things you do for God that determines your Christianity. You could have served as a missionary for 20 years or be a retired pastor after 30 years and not be a Christian.
[11:05] Our Christian faith is based on the works of another. It is based on the God-man, Jesus Christ, and his life, his death, and his resurrection. In his great love, Jesus came to this earth and took on flesh.
[11:21] He perfectly kept the law, fulfilling every righteous requirement demanded. And he sacrificially went and died on the cross for sin.
[11:32] When someone repents of their sins and believes in Jesus Christ and his life, his death, and his resurrection, they are saved and will be justified and are justified.
[11:46] They've received Jesus' perfect righteousness for them. They no longer base their profession on what they did, on a confession of who they are, on an aisle they walked around, on a decision they made.
[11:58] They base it on Christ, on what he did. That's the difference. And they received the righteousness that he did perfectly for them. And their sin is attributed to Jesus in his death and paid for.
[12:11] We see this in 2 Corinthians 5.21. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
[12:23] The Christian's claim for heaven is not in anything he does. It is not in our theological knowledge, our faithful parenting, our righteousness, the good things we do for others, the long weeks of serving and toiling for good things, our careers, our degrees, our accolades, none of those things have claims on heaven.
[12:49] They do nothing to earn us a place before God. They are filthy rags. The Christian's only claim to heaven is the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and the substitutionary death on the cross for us.
[13:04] We are saved by works, just not our own. Our righteousness, as Luther has said, is an alien righteousness. It is foreign to us. It comes from outside of us and is credited to us upon repentance and belief.
[13:20] The 1689 London Baptist Confession summarizes this well for us. It says, Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness is alone the instrument of justification, yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving grace.
[13:42] And it is no dead faith, but worketh through love. Do you see that? That faith is resting and receiving Christ in his righteousness, in his works, alone.
[13:54] There's nothing else that attributes to our salvation. Yet, this faith that rests on Christ and his works is never alone. It is always evidence. There is always proof of it in other saving graces, in repentance, in faith, in works.
[14:08] But those works and those faiths and those repentants do nothing to justify someone that is only through Christ. When Jesus saved us by his life, death, and resurrection, God took our dead hearts and he's made us alive.
[14:23] Christians have new hearts that love God and seek to obey him. The new heart does not produce dead faith, as the confession says, but other saving graces.
[14:33] John Calvin's attributed to saying, faith alone saves, but that faith is never alone. While the good works do not merit anything for salvation, they do evidence salvation.
[14:48] There is a place for them. When believers do good works, it makes Jesus look beautiful. So, the long weeks of serving, the faithful parenting, the hard work that you do to provide for your families, those things make Jesus look beautiful.
[15:07] The 1689 Confession summarizes good works in this way. These good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruit and evidence of a true and living faith.
[15:19] They are fruit and evidence of a true living faith. Though good work, through good works, believers express their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, build up their brothers and sisters, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouth of opponents, and glorify God.
[15:40] Believers are God's workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works, so that they bear fruit, leading to holiness, and have an outcome of eternal life. So, as I said in the beginning, the Christian is a person who professes faith in Jesus Christ and evidences this faith in their actions.
[15:58] Christians. This leads us to the parable in Luke chapter 6 to describe the individuals who hear the word. If you'll turn back to Luke 6 with me, we will stay there the rest of our time.
[16:09] when I first began preparing for this message, my main point was the Christian life is a life of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, life, and godliness.
[16:30] But as I studied it more, I became convinced that the passage teaches that the Christian is a person who professes faith in Jesus Christ, and this faith is evidenced in their actions.
[16:42] The passage is about the profession of the individual. Here we see the Christian life is not a life of no law, but of delight in God's law. John 15, 23 says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word.
[16:57] Our obedience to God's commands is the delightful duty of our love to God. The person who has believed in Jesus Christ shows their faith through their actions.
[17:09] J.C. Ryle, regarding this passage, says, the object of the parable is not to teach the doctrine of justification, that the rock or the foundation we're building on is Christ, but instead, it is to teach the folly of the Christian profession unaccompanied by Christian practice.
[17:26] It is to teach the folly of Christian profession that is unaccompanied by Christian practice, and the certain ruin to such profession must lead to, if persisted then. So the parable is not about justification, it's not about we are building our foundation on Christ, but more it's about the profession.
[17:45] It's not about justification, it's about demonstration here. Jesus is talking about what it means to be a Christian, not who we base our lives upon, but how our lives are built up in Christ.
[17:56] That's why we see it's the person who hears the word and either believes in it and does it, or the person who hears the word and does not believe in it and does not do it. But it's all based on the person saying, Lord, Lord.
[18:08] So this leads us to our second point, which is the Christian's profession. In the parable, the first person mentioned is the person who hears God's word and does what it says.
[18:25] If you look at verse 47 with me, it says, everyone who comes to me and hears my word and does them, I will show you what he is like. And in this part, this person is the one who digs deep and lays a foundation.
[18:40] We see throughout this parable, there are multiple elements involved in laying the foundation. First, there is a cost involved to laying a foundation. There is a blueprint to how to do it and there's the benefit of being a Christian or of doing it well.
[18:55] So first, let us look at the cost of being a Christian. The man in the parable had to choose the best place to dig. They had to dig deep through rock and dirt and to lay a proper foundation that will endure the storms.
[19:10] Surely, this work was grueling and this time, they did not have machinery to do the hard work, but instead, they did it with their own hands. It took time, it took blood, sweat, and tears to put a house down properly back then.
[19:27] The same is true for the Christian. To be a Christian, there is a cost to be counted. It is to see God's word as the supreme standard for our lives. As a Christian, we are not our own, but we're bought with a price.
[19:40] When we profess faith in Jesus, it is not merely a profession of sincerity or of association with Jesus. Our profession of faith in Jesus Christ is the casting of ourselves on Jesus as the only means of salvation and life.
[19:58] This faith flows from the abundance of the heart and forever changes our lives. Christians no longer live for this world and themselves, but for Christ. Everything we do should be to serve His kingdom and His glory, not our kingdom and our glory.
[20:16] J.C. Riles summarizes the cost of being a Christian well. Like the house built on rock, it may entail Him pains, labors, and self-denial.
[20:26] To lay aside our pride and self-righteousness. To crucify the rebellious flesh. To put on the mind of Christ and take up our cross daily. To count all things but loss for Christ's sake.
[20:39] All this may be hard work, but like the house built on the rock, such religion will stand. So some questions for reflection. Have you counted the cost the cost of being a Christian?
[20:52] Do you live in such a way that you're picking up your cross daily? Does your life reflect pride and self-righteousness or humility? While the cost of being a Christian is great, there is a blueprint for this work and there is great benefit we receive from it.
[21:10] So second, God gives, God has given the Christian a blueprint, a way in which to do this. In the scriptures, Jesus is called the foundation on which no other foundation is laid.
[21:23] He is also called the chief cornerstone in Ephesians 2.20 and 1 Peter 2.6. It is true that Jesus is our foundation and cornerstone. It is through his person and work that our salvation alone comes.
[21:35] But in the scriptures, there's other talk of foundation. So in Ephesians 2.20, it says that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
[21:47] In the early church in Acts 2, it said that the church was devoted to the apostolic teaching. In Ephesians 4.5-6 says the church grows up into Christ through the truth, through God's word.
[22:01] John 17.17 says, Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. While Christ is the chief cornerstone, we are building our lives in Christ through his word, according to these passages.
[22:15] It is his word that is the materials by which we build and which we labor to put our building upon. God's word is the ordained means by which we build our lives upon.
[22:27] It is his word that reveals the eternal word, Jesus Christ. And as we build our lives upon the word of God, the truth grows us up. In fact, John 17.3 says, we experience eternal life through knowing God.
[22:43] And this knowing of God is both propositional in our knowledge of him and our intellect and understanding him and knowing doctrine, but it is also experiential in how we experience that doctrine.
[22:57] If we know Jesus and we know what his word says and we think it's wonderful, but we don't do it, we don't practice it in our lives, at our work, in our parenting, then we're not experiencing the fullness of life that is in Jesus Christ.
[23:11] We're going to experience eternal life presently now through his word. But this looks forward to the blessed and happy life to come. So as we now know him in his word, we build our lives upon him, upon his word.
[23:27] It is, we're going to slowly enjoy this life that is in Christ. We'll understand Christ more and as we understand him, we'll experience him in our lives. So when you are parenting and you are speaking truth to your child, it helps train them up in what God says.
[23:43] In our marriages, when things are hard, instead of going against one another, if we speak truth to one another, and that is what governs our marriages, we are going to slowly enjoy this life more and more.
[23:55] So this leads me to three primary ways in which we build our lives upon God's word. Number one, we build our lives upon the truths found in God's word.
[24:07] It is in the truth of God's word that reveals the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is through the truths of God's word that he gives us means to fight our sin, to trust God and his promises, and causes us to grow.
[24:23] Hebrews 4.12 says that God's word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing the division of the soul and spirit, of joint and of morrow, and discerning the thoughts and intention of the heart.
[24:37] Notice in this passage when it says God's word is living and active is that his word is actively working. It is not a passive working in our life, but when we take God's word and we know it and it's in our hearts, it is actively and effectively working in the believer and making them more alive and completing the work of salvation that God has begun.
[24:59] David Powelson says in scripture, God comes in person. We participate by hearing and responding. When you consider how you form your day, consider the way in which you are embracing God's word and keeping it.
[25:14] Is God's word the first thing you put in your heart in the morning? Does his word renew your mind and help you love him and others well? Do you memorize and meditate on his word?
[25:27] Does his word flow from our mouths? What we think about and spend our time doing is often what we talk about and invite others into? Number two, we build our relationship on God's word or our relationships on God's word.
[25:45] Throughout scripture, healthy relationships, healthy marriages, and healthy families are built on the abiding word of God. As Christians, the way we practice our faith is through loving God.
[25:57] If God is our delight and his word is in us, it overflows into our lives and in our relationships. Not only is this the best blessing we bring to our relationships, it's also commanded of us.
[26:10] Friends are supposed to speak truth, love, forgive, bear with one another, be kind to one another, and have compassion. Husbands are supposed to lead their wives or to love their wives and wash them in the word.
[26:24] Parents are to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. The word of God is the cement of healthy, thriving relationships. So my question on this point is, does the word of God submit your friendships, marriage, and parenting?
[26:43] Number three, we build our church on God's word. The church is a new covenant community. It has come into existence through God himself calling us and speaking life into our hearts.
[26:56] According to Ephesians 4, 15 through 16, it says, Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so it builds itself up in love.
[27:17] The means in this process of how the church has grown into Christ and becomes more Christ-like and is built up in love is through the truth. It begins, speaking the truth in love.
[27:30] The church is built up through God's love and his word so that it can mature us and so that we can exalt Christ in how we live. God's word is the nourishment to his church, but it is also the proclamation of his church.
[27:44] It's what comes out of them. Being a Christian has a great cost but we have been given God's ordained means to help us. When we hear his word, our obedience is our joyful delight, a joyful duty and responsive love to him.
[28:00] When we obey, there is great benefit. So, thirdly, there is great benefit for the person who hears God's word. In the parable, the individual is building their lives on the good foundation.
[28:12] When the storm comes, it does not destroy his life. The flood here is understood as suffering. When suffering comes, the person who has faith in Jesus Christ and has built their lives upon his word endures the storm.
[28:28] When suffering comes to us, our response to suffering demonstrates our faith. When the storms rage against us and the firings of suffering burn, it reveals the genuineness of our faith, God uses the agonizing events and the overwhelming grief to care for us.
[28:49] In those moments of greatest affliction, our lives show the surpassing power and worth of God who loves us and who comforts us. He is our refuge and our strength.
[29:01] He is our helper and the upholder of our life. When we experience the griefs of this world and our heart is downcast and our clothes are full of tears, we can say with a deep and abiding joy, hope in God for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
[29:24] The Christian receives great benefit because he will weather the storms of life with hope in God and in his word. The Christian's life is built on the word of God and will evidence their faith and their action.
[29:37] true Christian profession is always accompanied by Christian practice. So we've talked about the person who says Lord, Lord, we've talked about the Christian profession, now we're going to go back to this person who's saying Lord, Lord and does not do what he says with the false profession.
[29:53] That is found in verse 46 and 47. Or, sorry, 48 and 49. This type of person is the one who hears the words of Jesus and does not do what he says.
[30:05] he is the person with no foundation. This person professes to be a Christian but their actions do not evidence their faith. In the parable, the person built their house but did not dig a foundation.
[30:19] So when the flood came, their house was totally destroyed. The parable teaches that it would be foolish to build a house with no foundation because in that area when floods come, it would destroy a house.
[30:31] So the obvious point here is that there's foolishness in building a house and no foundation. The point Luke wants us to see is that there is folly of one who professes Christ as Lord but does not live for him.
[30:47] This parable is a warning to the hypocritical Christian, to the person who says Jesus is Lord, who says they are a Christian but their life doesn't show it, that there's nothing to bear fruit of it.
[30:59] This person claims Christ but their building does not reflect a house built on God's word. True and living faith always evidences itself in good works and adorns the profession of the gospel.
[31:14] So a question I have for you is does your life demonstrate your faith? Is your profession evidenced in your action or are you a building with no foundation that if trials came today you would fall?
[31:28] I pray everyone here today professes faith in Jesus and that this is seen in their life and if it is not this is a moment to heed the warning of the parable.
[31:40] Verse 49 says the ruin of that house was great. For the person who hears God's word and does not do it his life reflects his belief. It is the person whom Jesus will say to them one day I never knew you depart from me you worker of lawlessness.
[32:01] The fate of the false professor is much worse than physical death. It is much worse than a destruction of a house or the destruction of a ten story apartment in Turkey. It is spending an eternity in hell.
[32:14] Hell is the eternal punishment of God's justice on sin. It is described as a place of weeping of gnashing of teeth and where the worm does not die.
[32:29] The passage is a clear warning to all who profess Christ to examine their lives and to be confident that you are in Christ and your life evidences it.
[32:41] But if you today find yourself outside of Christ you look within and you do not see fruit. There is nothing to show for your faith. There is hope. There is a living hope and his name is Jesus Christ.
[32:54] So today you can flee. You can flee from the destruction and ruin to come that is great. And you can find salvation in Jesus Christ in his life in his death and in his resurrection.
[33:07] Like the parable there is no hope for the person who does not place faith in Jesus Christ. Because this world does not offer them anything. There is no hope in this world for a life to come.
[33:20] But it will all be destroyed one day. If you build your life on anything but Jesus you will be left hopeless and there will be great ruin. In conclusion the one who hears God's word and does it will endure the storm and be welcomed into the blessed and happiness kingdom.
[33:40] There is a great and wonderful kingdom to come that is full of forever blessedness peace and joy with our Savior. Savior.
[33:51] The one who professes faith in Jesus as Lord but does not do it is the one who will experience a great ruin and a miserable end awaiting them.
[34:05] Our lives always evidence our profession. So let us be those who believe in Jesus and demonstrate our faith in our lives. So I'd love to end this time with giving you some verses from the hymn How Firm a Foundation.
[34:18] Two verses in verse number one and number three in your hymnal if you want to look them up later. How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
[34:34] What more can he say than to you he hath said to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled. When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply.
[34:50] The flame shall not hurt thee I only design the dross to consume and thy gold to refine. Pray with me.