WISE OR FOOLISH 

MATTHEW 7:21-28 

          The Bible has a lot to say about fools and their actions.   Psalm 53:1 says,   the fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and their ways are vile.  Proverbs 1:7 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”  And Proverbs 18:2 says “A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions (and doing what he wants).”  The Bible also gives many comparisons between someone who is wise and someone who is a fool.  In Proverbs 10:14 it says “Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin”. Proverbs 14:9 says “Fools make sport of sin, but goodwill is found among the upright.” Finally Proverbs 21:20 says “There is treasure to be desired and oil in the house of the wise; but a foolish man spends up his treasure.” 

          Here in Matthew 7:21-28 in an attempt to explain the importance of doing God’s will as opposed to just hearing it, Jesus offers this comparison between a wise man and a foolish one.  Jesus needed to teach the importance of doing God’s will because the Jews thought and taught that it was more important to hear God’s word than to do it.  It is obvious to me that many in America feel the same way.  For churches all over America are full this morning as on every Sunday morning.  Millions go to church and hear God’s word and millions return home and do nothing with what they heard.

So in an attempt to teach the importance of doing God’s will, Jesus began by saying first of all that “not everyone who calls me Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Why is this so?  The Greek word used here for Lord is ‘kurios’ which means one who is supreme in authority, controller, master, or owner. 

LUKE 6:46

          Jesus is asking here, “why do you call me supreme ruler and master, yet you do not do as I say”.”  Your actions contradict your speech.  If we do not do as Jesus says then he is not controlling us and therefore He is not our Lord.  What Jesus in saying in verse 21 is that “No person who is merely professing faith in me and my atoning work will be saved.  In order to be saved one must do the will of my Father also.”  Confession is important, but mere confession is not enough.  Some of you might say to me “I was told that if I confess Romans 10:9-10, I would be saved”.

ROMANS 10:9-10  

          One is to confess with his mouth that which is believed in his heart not in his head.  Then verse 10 basically says that which is believed in the heart will result in righteous living.  The heart is a very important word here.  Heart here means the inner man; your inner most person, the center of who you are. 

PROVERBS 4:23

          Protect your inner man, because it is the source of who you are.  All of life flows from not only our physical heart, but even the more from our inner emotional and spiritual heart. Out of our heart flows who we are.

MARK 7:20 – 23

          Jesus told these people that these evil actions are in the heart of man and flow out of our hearts.  What we do reflects what is in our hearts and what is in our hearts reflects what we believe. 

LUKE 6:45 

If our heart is good we will do good and righteous things.  If our heart is evil we will do evil and corrupt things.

So in Matthew chapter 7, the point Jesus is making is ‘don’t call me Lord, but refuse to do as I say.  Don’t call me Lord and continue to live out the evil that is in your heart because I am not your sovereign ruler, or your controller.  In short, Jesus is saying to us, ‘Don’t give me lip service and think it will get you into heaven.’  Those who truly confess Christ as Lord will live up right before God and will seek to do God’s will in their lives.  That is what Jesus did.   In John 4:34 Jesus said “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”  What sustains me is doing the work of the Father and completing the task.

MATTHEW 7:22

          These listeners came back and said, “Have we not preached, ministered and worked miracles in your name.”  All these things are in the will of God, so what is the problem?  Notice that Jesus neither denied nor confirmed that they had actually did anything.  Jesus simply answered I don’t know you.  One might ask, “How could they do all these things, especially miracles, without knowing Christ? 

          We must remember that in the ancient world miracles were a common thing.  However, most miracles were associated with healings and casting out demons.  It was then believed that all sickness and infirmities were a result of demonic possession.  Cures for many illnesses were sought through exorcism.  If a man believed that he was demon possessed and thus sick, all that was needed for a cure was to cast the demon out.  Whether they truly did these miracles or not, does not really matter because Jesus told them to depart because He did not know them.  It does not matter what works you have done, whether in the name of Christ or not, works alone will not get a person into Heaven.  Jesus told them I don’t know you.  They had no relationship with the Lord.  They had done good works, but had failed join the family of God.  Again, there are millions all over America who are just like these Jews.  They give excellent service to their church each Sunday and are always willing to do whatever the Pastor asks of them.  They love their church.  They give service to God without giving their hearts to Him.  You see salvation requires both commitment in heart and in action.  We must both hear, or submit to God’s will and carry out God’s will in our lives.  To illustrate the importance of both hearing and doing the will of God Jesus tells the parable found in verses 24-27.

MATTHEW 7:24-27

          There are a couple of points that I want to make from this parable.  First, note that both men heard the Word.  What this says to me is that they were both presented with the same opportunities.  It is a foolish person who will not take advantage of every opportunity that God gives him.  In fact, one of the factors that will determine whether we are successful or not is how we manage the opportunities given to us by God.  The foolish man did not apply God’s word to his life and thus missed out on the opportunity to be a successful home builder.  When we hear God’s word but do not apply it to our lives, we also miss out on the opportunity to become all that God wants us to be.

          Second note that both men faced the same obstacles.  They both faced rain, floods and strong winds.  Sometimes in life it appears to us that some have an easier life than others.  Although, we all face different circumstances and different trial, different does not necessarily imply easier or harder.  You may look at someone else’s trial and think that it is easy, but to the person going through, it is not easy.  Whatever the enemy uses as a source of temptation for you is no harder to bear than the next man’s source of temptation.  But we who are committed to God can turn to His word in our times of temptation, need, trial and tribulation.  We can put our trust in God and rely on 1 Cor. 10:13 which says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”  Whatever rains, floods or winds God allows in our lives, He knows before He allows them that we are able to bear them.

          Both men had equal opportunity and equal trials and tribulations, yet one was successful and one was not.  One is called a wise man and the other is deemed foolish.  Did you ever wonder why Jesus would refer to a man building a house in the sand as foolish?  This man is called foolish because he did not plan ahead.  His selection of a location for his house did not show any foresight.  In Palestine there were many gullies which in the summer time were pleasant sandy hollows.  In the summer this sand looked like a perfect location for a house.  But in the winter one would come to understand that this dried, cracked soul was actually the bed of a river.  So when the heavy rains came and the gully was flooded, the foolish man lost his house.  He did not loose the house because of the kind of house he built, but because he put his trust in the wrong place.

         There are still many who put their trust in the wrong places, money, jobs, good health, families, children, etc and through they may appear to be having a good life, it will one day come crashing down on them because they did not put their trust in the one true foundation, Jesus Christ.  Jesus says that one who hears the word, but will not do it, is a foolish a man who does not think ahead when selecting a location for his house.  The man who hears God’s words today but does not act on those words, shows that he is not forward thinking.  He can not see that danger is at the door and that he is headed for destruction.  He is always one breath from Hell’s fire and eternal destruction, but ignores that fact.  Such a person, Jesus calls a foolish man because he hears God’s word; God’s word of death and the coming destruction; God’s word of the gift of eternal life, but does not act on it.

We all stood at that point one day, but thanks be to God we have turned to Christ as our true foundation.

TITUS 3:3-5

          Look at how Paul describes us, foolish, disobedient, deceived … If you are not saved today and you have heard the plan of salvation before, then one of these fits you.  But God’s love for you has brought you here so that you can hear of God’s mercy and grace and turn to Jesus Christ, the true foundation.  Don’t be like the foolish man and end up destroyed.  Be a wise man and accept the opportunity to be saved today.