Did
He say that? Yes, certainly. Many of us may have chosen not to hear it.
It is because we may have thought that the words of Jesus have become
obsolete:
Mat 7:24 KJV 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:
In practice, we would never build our
house or building without solid foundation. Sadly, today many lukewarm
believers and churches are building their 'house' on the sinking sand.
Of course, the believers do not build real houses; they build lives, as
well as the lives of others. We can also think of our doctrine, our
belief, our principles, and our value system as the 'house' too. Why? It
is because we don't have it overnight; we need to build on it slowly
and gradually and it is always based on the foundation which we have
already built or obtained at the very beginning. Undeniably, Jesus is
that rock or foundation which has been given to us by grace. But, now we
must build our house and it will requires great effort to build the
principles of God into the lives of the people:
Heb 5:12 KJV For
when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach
you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are
become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 6:1-3
KJV Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us
go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works, and of faith toward God, (2) Of the doctrine of
baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead,
and of eternal judgment. (3) And this will we do, if God permit.
Did
Paul mean to cast away the foundation? No, how can we cast it away if
it is the foundation of our 'house' (or principles). What Paul meant was
to (continue to) build on the foundation; he would not want us to keep
on building on the foundation or on the 'ground level' forever. Please
imagine, what will happen if the building engineers and the construction
workers need to build on the ground level or the first level of the
building for 10 years when they are supposed to build a 50 storey
building? All of them would be fired or sacked from their jobs !
In
the kingdom of God, we may not be asked to build real houses or
buildings, but we are asked by the Lord to build on the words of God or
on His doctrine. If we tell people that the foundation and everything on
it is His finished work, and therefore, we have no more things to
build, we are lying. We are not preaching or believing in the gospel of
the kingdom of God that Jesus preached. If we depart from His words or
gospel, how can we be the preachers who can save? No, His words will
judge us as the 'preachers' who bring sinking sand. 'Preachers' - that
is a polite description of ourselves. But, if we are prepared to face
the harsh truth, we should read all His words (whether we like it or
not) before it is too late:
Mat 7:15-26 KJV Beware of false
prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves. (16) Ye shall know them by their fruits. .. (21)
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven. (22) Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
.. (23) And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. (24) 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 .. (26) 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:
(After my lunch, I find that I must continue before I lose what I saw as quickly as how it came to my mind during my lunch ..)
I
thought of why Jesus used the illustration of a house to describe doing
His sayings or doctrine. Beside knowing that it requires time, I
realize now that it also requires great efforts too. The 'house' gives
us the image of great efforts from the construction engineers and
workers too. It reminds me of the cross which must be carried by
everyone who follow Him too (see my previous post:K040).
Hence, I
will never give the false impression of the gospel by telling the people
that believing in Jesus and following Him is all about 'easy grace',
finished work of Jesus, or effortless success in our whole life. I have
mentioned in K040 that many are called to repentance and many find it
easy to get an invitation to the 'wedding' too, but few are chosen.
Preaching a gospel that is effortless or preaching that it is ALL ABOUT
'hyper grace' or 'radical grace' with no more work for us to do is never
the gospel of Jesus Christ as we are told to build the doctrine and
principles of Christ like building our house with care and effort.
Hence, any grace or anything which is geared or orchestrated to remove
the teaching or doctrine of Christ is lawless deception and it is not an
overstatement to say it.
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