Gospel Encounters No. 12
BUILD TO ENTER
Matt 7:21-29 (KJV):
21 ¶ Not every one that says unto me, “Lord, Lord”, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?”
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.
24 ¶ Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. §
‘SPIRIT-FILLED’ BELIEVERS CHALLENGED!
Always we are encouraged to look at the context and the content when looking carefully into scripture, thus making sure that we grasp what God is saying with the dialogue. We are constantly listening. . . but just how much of HIS WORD do we actually hear? The ‘Lord, Lord’ speaks of those who have known the Lord Jesus Christ with some testimony of growth. They have obviously received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and are moving in the gifts of the spirit especially prophesying and deliverance. However they still mange to ‘do their own thing’ when it comes to Father’s will. These gifts and callings of God are without repentance — a change of thinking that will build their house aright. The first paragraph shows that Jesus was teaching on entering the Kingdom of Heaven. The second paragraph illustrates how it is to be accomplished.
TESTING TIME IS HERE
Note: We are to do the building of our house upon the foundation of our choice. The tests will come from outside of us, which are likened to rain, floods and winds, to see if our house will stand up to pressure from our circumstances. God sends the rain upon the just and the unjust . . . God sends the proving trials or tests NOT the devil!!! In the same way God’s word and thinking is available to all.
A rock is many grains compacted together compared to sand where the grains represent many ingredients that are not compacted together. i.e. many people with many differing ideas about God and the Kingdom He has, rather than knowing Him which genders a unity of rocklike strength . . . a unity of spirit, not beliefs! Also sand speaks of the thousand of separate and disjointed thoughts that fly through our minds yet never seem to congeal into one solid rocklike solution or direction. A house (life) built on such will collapse under pressure.
All life needs rain (water) which genders more life, but too much produces a flood and creates hardship and death. All life needs air which genders more life, but too much air (winds) causes damage and hardship.
Rain + floods = water . . . wind = spirit (same word in the Greek, PNEUMA) . . . these two — water and spirit — are necessary for entering into the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). Each one has to be born of water and of the spirit. Even a newborn babe is born out of water and takes their very first breath and they live!
HEARING IS MORE THAN JUST LISTENING. The wise and the foolish listen, but only the wise hear what the Spirit is saying now (2 Peter 1:12).
THE WISE BUILD ON THE UNCHANGEABLE
Words spoken by Jesus were heard by both types of builders. The effect of those words were twofold; one group heard them and they heard them as life and they simply found themselves doing what was required. They knew that when God spoke, it was a command and it was His will being expressed. They had a complete trust that what God decreed would be to their best interest even though they could not fathom why at that moment. They trusted His words without adding anything to them. They had a desire to show their love of the Lord by doing what He said. Their renewed minds were relaxed in His desires; they did not want to change any word or try a short-cut which would have basically have been replacing His desires with their own.
These ones believed, trusted and acted and thus demonstrated that they were moving in the mind of Christ. Their thinking was derived from God’s thinking; they had the correct mindset and ‘Kingdom Logic’ which would enable them to ENTER into experiencing the Kingdom of God and advance to the Throne where they would be involved with the ruling and reigning of Christ of which they are a part.
A REVELATION OF HIS PRESENCE
Christ is the ‘Solid Rock’! Big deal! Even the devil in his religious cronies can quote scripture, but that will have nothing to do with entering into the kingdom of God. Knowing the scriptures that tell about God is a lifeless expression of those trying to walk in the spirit. There has to come a revelation that the foundation to one’s life is truly Christ, the Living Word . . . not just as a belief but as an experience of knowing His presence and knowing that His mind within will control all aspects of one’s life.
Jesus is talking about a ‘24-7’ ‘lifestyle’. ‘These sayings’ refer back to the ninefold BE-attitudes mentioned earlier in the chapter. They make up the characteristics of those ‘sons’ apprehended by God through a revelation of Himself and His will. .As the Kingdom of God is a people here on earth who move 100% in the mind of Christ, their whole thinking has taken a paradigm shift from their own way to His. . . they DO the will of Father who is in their heaven, their spirit. They have come to the place where they can hear His word to them (not the black ink on the white paper of their bibles!) and prompted by the relationship that they have with Him, they simply do what He speaks. This way of life gives one a security, that even the severest of poundings by adverse circumstances, they can never be moved.
THE FOOLISH BUILD ON THE UNRELIABLE
No wisdom at all . . . not a shred! Their house will look as good as the other one built upon the rock. Their building program will advance much quicker than the building on the rock. Democracy is not God’s way but rather theocracy when His word is heard and done. Galations 3:3 describes a foolish man as one who began in the spirit and then went on to build by the law . . . including the demands placed upon ourselves. Psalm 14:1 ‘The fool has said in his heart, there is no God!’ [‘There is’ being in italics is not in the original text]. The foolish man has refused to do what God has spoken. They do not actually say ‘No’ to God out right, but they show the same result by doing their own thing which they themselves, believe is wise and even His will in the matter! All Church fellowships built upon the sands of laws and constitutions will collapse when the times of testing come. Every individual who leans upon his own understanding of who God is and what He is doing, will likewise have to hit the ‘panic button’! The ‘fall’ of such institutions will certainly be great. A great many will be disappointed and bewildered and will begin to search out the truth that will set them free from their collapse. Man’s educated thinking is not sufficient for entry into the Kingdom of God for he is devoid of revelation including that of knowing what God is saying about them.
JESUS HAD KINGDOM AUTHORITY
J.B.Philips N.T. says ‘the people were astonished at the power behind the teaching’. Jesus was the first to experience the Kingdom of God on earth. He walked AS His Father . . . He declared that He and His Father were one. . . one Spirit and thus one thinking. Jesus was the visible expression of the invisible God. He was the Son of God and that relationship coupled with His ‘direct line’ with the Father, enabled Him to speak with tremendous authority that stood out from the religious teachers of that day. He ruled Himself and thus was able to rule — have authority — in His day to day living. By contrast, the scribes always had to have a ‘letter-word quotation’ to substantiate their views! Sound familiar in today’s Church-world?
NOW WE ARE THE SONS OF GOD . . . IF
Jesus is the ‘Pattern Son’ for all who will build upon the rock. ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus’ (Philipp.2:5). Each ‘son’ has a genuine complete surrender of all self effort of trying to do what God has already done for each. We have the mind of Christ and have been the given the grace to walk in it.
“Father help me to hear your voice clearly that I might be built into your house where You dwell without any substitutions from my own puny intellect”. §