Empty words from an empty heart

வெறுமையான இருதயத்தில் இருந்து வெறுமையான வார்த்தை

Abraham David John • 27 May 2022

Matthew 7:21-27

Matthew 7:21-27, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ 24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” 28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the

people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. To have your thoughts dominated by The Sermon on The Mount for as long as live. This has shaped many people and in so many ways including me. I thank God far more for the privilege of preaching these things.

Last week we saw Matthew 7:21-23. This week we will see Matthew 7:24-27. In Jakarta, we were constantly made aware of the need for a good foundation on a house. Earthquakes have a way of cracking foundations, and floods have a way of washing them away altogether.

Whenever you want to build something it’s very necessary that you consider the possibility of an earthquake or flood. Here in London we do careful soil tests, examination of the ground, compacting the soil in order to make sure that the foundation is going to stand. Building subsidence check is almost mandatory when we buy house here in London. So we are very used to that.

In Palestine the weather is dry and arid for the most part. When it rains the land really can only absorb so much. When the rain comes in a flood it turns into just a flood. Houses are washed away. Building plan or program in the land of Palestine you would need to have the planning and preparation.

What may look like a wonderful place to build a house, firm footing in the summer, in the winter becomes a raging torrent that wipes away whatever edifice has been placed there. Now Jesus has this in mind in verses 24 to 27.

He pictures two men that build a house, probably in the dry bed of a stream somewhere in a valley. V 26, Foolish man thinks little about what might come and he works feverishly on the house, but has absolutely no thought for the foundation.

V 24, Wise man, also building a house, seeks to be sure that the foundation is built upon solid rock. We have a simple story. Two men build houses;

one is wise and
one is foolish.

V 24, “Whoever hears,” V 26, “Every one that hears.” These are the people who hear. They hear the message, they listen, they understand it. The wise ones do something about it the fools do not. Jesus is closing the sermon with an invitation.

Matthew 7:13-14,

The invitation is that enter into the narrow gate onto the narrow way that leads to life. But it won’t be easy to do that for two ultimate reasons. One is false prophets and Two is false profession.

You will be deceived by others and
You will be deceived by yourself.

It’s part and parcel of human nature to cover up its faults and defects. The Lord is saying that you must enter through the narrow gate.

But it won’t be easy because in Matthew 7:15-20, there False prophets will be deceive you by trying to keep you from entering the narrow gate and sending you on the broad way. Also it won’t be easy because you will tend to be self-deceived.

V 21-23, “There are those who say but don’t do.” They simply have a verbal profession. They have just a verbal profession. They say. They don’t do. V 24-27 there are those who hear but don’t do. Head knowledge without a heart knowledge.

The first group has empty words. The second group has empty hearts. People can be deceived either way. A mere verbal confession you just keep saying it until finally you had convince yourself it must be true even though there’s no evidence.

Or a head knowledge which seems to suffice for a real heart relationship.

There are people who think they are Christians because they say so much about it. There are some people who are deceived into thinking they are Christians because they know so much about Christianity. V 24-27, the Lord again reminds us that the standard of righteousness is required for entering the Kingdom of God.

Unless your life is built on that standard, no matter what it looks like and no matter what you know in your head and no matter how feverishly you conduct your spiritual activity, when the flood comes you are going to get washed away if all you have is a head knowledge.

The Jews had developed a system of works, righteousness, a humanly devised system of self-stimulated fleshly efforts that fell far short, and God came along and offered them a true righteousness. But before they could receive the true righteousness they had to note the bankruptcy of their own system. That is the reason they had to come with a Beatitude mentality.

V 24-27 is contrast between two people who hear.

Some hear and obey, and
Some hear and disobey.

The illustration used is two builders.

Remember these words are addressed to those who profess to know God, who think they are in the kingdom, and Christians.

V 24, “Whoever hears these sayings of mine.”
V 26, “And every one that hears these sayings of mine.”

V 24, “This one built his house,” V 26, “This one also built his house.” They listen and they are involved in certain spiritual activity. They both belong to the visible body of believers, They both possibly read Scripture, They both possibly attend meetings at the church, They both are busy framing some kind of spiritual value system, They building up some network of spiritual activity.

But there is a tremendous difference. One is wise and one is a fool because one builds on rock and the other builds on sand. The foundation is invisible.

What our Lord is saying here is very simple. Lots of people hear Christ’s teaching but only the ones that do them are in the kingdom. There are many people who hear, but if you examine your life and it’s all a hearing and not a doing, don’t deceive yourself into thinking you are a Christian.

The Lord says that only the storm is going to manifest the truth, and then we will find out who is wise and fool.

1. Similarities

Both individuals build a house.
Both involved in spiritual activity.
Both involved in something that has to do with the kingdom of God.
Both build their house in the same location, because the same storm hits both houses.
Both, True believers and false believers invariably live side by side.
Both build it in the same way, because the Lord says the only difference is the foundation. He doesn’t imply that the house itself is any different.
Both people build a house,
Both build it in the same place, and
Both build it in the same way.

They carry a Bible and a notebook and they go through certain prayers and they do certain activities, and maybe they give some money to the Lord. All looks very much the same until you come to the real crux of the matter. The foundation is very often not visible once the building is up.

Only an honest and careful soul-searching self-examination can reveal the truth. V 24, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house

on the rock

The Greek word rock is Petra, meaning rock bed. The Greek word Petros, means a stone or a boulder. V 26, “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on

the sand

The word for sand in the Greek Ammon, means sand, or seashore sand. There are two cities named in Jordan they are Ammon and Petra.

Petra is a city literally made out of rock. You enter into the city you can go through a little channel. One person could guard the whole city. You could only get in through one little crack in the cliffs. The entire city, which still stands today, is carved out of the rock, Petra.

Ammon, you only see sand. Every place, sand.

A man is wise to build on rock bed. A man is a fool to build on the shifting sands of the sea or the desert. There are some land agents selling lots on the sand, and they are in Matthew 7:15-20. The false prophets set up a real estate office and sell sand lots.

A man is a fool to build on sand, because when the storm comes it will undermine the sand. V 27, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” V 25, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

Powerful rebuke of the religion of the Pharisees. They had no regard for spirituality of soul. They had no regard for purity of heart. They had no regard for integrity of behaviour. They had no regard for obedience to God.

They were building their big spiritual structure on sand. They prayed, fasted, and gave their alms, but only as a public show to parade their supposed spirituality and try to enhance their reputations. They had a religion of externals and that is sand.

They bring their bodies to the house of prayer but not their souls. They worship with their mouths but not in spirit and in truth. They boast of their orthodoxy but disregard the precepts of Christ. Multitudes of professing Christians abstain from external acts of violence, yet hesitate not to rob their neighbours of a good name by spreading evil reports against them.

They misrepresenting their goods and cheating their customers persuading themselves that business is business. They have more regard for the laws of man than those of God for His fear is not before their eyes.” Sand, false foundations.

They didn’t come through the narrow way. The broad way that leads to destruction is all sand.

What is a rock? The rock is God. You are literally building your life on God.

Psalm 18:2, The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

We could say the rock is God, but so would the Pharisees. They would say that. Or we could say the rock is Christ. Christ says Peter is the chief cornerstone. Paul says He is the rock. But there are plenty of people who say they have built their life on Christ. It’s got to be more than that.

Most commentators take it to be God or Christ. But I want to take it a step further. V 24, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house

on the rock

What is the rock? It is obedience to the Word of God. God is a rock! Christ is the chief cornerstone. These sayings of Mine become the rock bed foundation of the church, the true church, the redeemed church.

Matthew 16:13-18, When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men

say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

What was the ‘Petra’, the rock bed foundation? It was the Word of God. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Upon that affirmation of truth I will build My church. The petra of Matthew 16 was the Word of God, and I am convinced that the petra of Matthew 7 is also the Word of God.

Acts 20:32, “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

It is the Word of God that is our foundation, and it is the Word of God that provides the material for the building as well.

Jesus is saying the person who lives a life where he only hears and never does, has sand.

What does the sand represent?

Human will,
Human opinion,
Human attitudes,
Human philosophy.

Even though you listen, you don’t do it then you are not on the rock. On the other hand the wise man, who hears the Word of God and builds his life on God’s Word, has a rock foundation. A life of obedience.

John 8:30-32, As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. ³² And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

They heard, they listened, they took it in, they accepted it. But Jesus said to them, ‘If you continue in my word, then are you my real disciple.’ It isn’t just the hearing and the believing. It is the continuing in obedience to the Word of God.

That’s the rock. Don’t be deceived. Unless you build your life on biblical truth you are deceiving yourself.

James 1:22, But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

This is what our Lord is saying in The Sermon on the Mount. If you hear it and don’t do it you are self-deceived.

James 1:23-24, For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. If you are not doing it, it’s not having any effect on your life or your destiny.

Colossians 1:21-23, And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled ²² in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Truly saved are the ones who continue in a life of obedience.

1 John 2:3, Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

The Lord is saying don’t be deceived. The apostles are saying don’t be deceived.

Titus 1:16, They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. If you go around claiming to be a Christian and there’s no obedience then there is no legitimate salvation. So building on the rock beloved is obeying. Look at your life, examine it. Is it a life that longs beyond any other desire to obey the

Word of God? Or is it disobeying and always and ever and constantly justifying that disobedience? So obedience is the key word here.

The only validation you will ever have of your salvation is a life of obedience. It is the only possible proof that you really recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Obedience is the only validation of your salvation. It is the only possible proof that you recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Because if there is no obedience then you are confessing Jesus is Lord is just so much verbal exercise.

So Jesus is presenting the kind of life built on a rock.

What kind of life? Life described in the whole sermon. Life that has a biblical view towards self, the Beatitudes. Life that has a biblical attitude toward the world. It sees itself as something to preserve the world and light the world, not be a part of it.

It is the attitude of the Bible toward the Word of God. Not changing it, not altering it but accepting every jot and tittle of it. Jesus is presenting the kind of life built on the rock that has a biblical attitude toward morality, not trying to get away with everything you can. Not external but internal.

A biblical attitude toward

Words, what you say

Deeds, what you do
Motives, the reason you do what you do.

A biblical attitude toward money, things, people, everything Jesus spoke in The Sermon on the Mount. If your life is committed to obedience to these things then you are on the rock. Salvation is a recognition of a divine standard, a subsequent overwhelming sense of sinfulness, a pleading for God’s mercy to receive His righteousness because you desire to fulfil His Word.

People say, “I am coming to Christ, and I want to be saved but I don’t want to get into all that obedience.” Then they are not a Christian. People say, “I know they were saved because of such and such but they never come to church and they are not interested and they are upset with the church.” The fact of the matter is they probably don’t know Christ and they are self-deceived.

2. Differences.

One built the easy way
Other built the hard way

It’s very easy to build on sand. You don’t have to dig, you don’t have to do anything. Just like going on the broad road, you just go on with all your garbage.

A) Fools are always in a hurry.

Proverbs 29:20, Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him. I am not any good with my hands at building things, but one thing I know that if you do it right the first time you don’t have to do it again.

It is easy to build on sand. You don’t have to dig, you don’t have to prepare. The fool is always wants a short cut, quick results, quick evangelism.

No time for soul conviction,
No time for building a deep sense of God,
No time for teaching the doctrine of sin,
No time for building a sense of conviction,
No time for coming to grips with your soul before God.

Nobody builds a tower until he counts the cost, no wise man.

B) Fools builds the easy way.

Not only he is in a hurry but because he is basically superficial. How many people do you know who proclaim that they believe in Christ, who said they heard the gospel and accepted it, and there has been absolutely nothing in their life to give evidence of that. Superficial.

We live in the age of superficiality. Millions name the name of Jesus. But it is a shallow shifting sand, and when they don’t get their instant upper from Jesus anymore. Their house begins to collapse and they look for another sandy place to build another house that isn’t going to stand either.

Christianity has become so superficial. It just irritates to hear some of the presentations of Christ that are supposed to be legitimate. Sermons that have absolutely nothing to do with the gospel, and then you give an invitation at the end and people are accepting who knows what.

There’s no deep ploughing,

There’s no spadework, There’s no foundation, There’s no brokenness of heart.

How does wise build it?

a) No Hurry

On the other hand, while the foolish man is in a big hurry the wise man is not.

Luke 6:47-48, Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: ⁴⁸ He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. He went for the rock of the Word of God. He blew the sand away, the sand of human opinion and self-will, and he went for the rock of obedience to God’s Word.

What does it mean to dig deep? You are not in a hurry. No light confession. Some people present the gospel so poorly!

Those who claim Christ as their own are willing to dig deep. They have thought out the responsibility. They don’t rush into some profession later to rush out of it again, or be thrown out in final judgment. They count the cost.

They consider what they are doing. There is a digging deep. There is no hurry.

Matthew 13:20-21, But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. So many times. “I profess Christ. I am a Christian.” as soon as you start laying on them the Word of God and what it demands, they are gone. They don’t want it.

But that is not the way it is with one who digs deep. He digs deep to the rock bed of God’s Word in order that he might obey.

Luke 9:57-62, Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” ⁵⁸ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” ⁵⁹ Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹ And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The people who come rushing in and then, all of a sudden, when you start to lay the standard of following Christ down, they want to get out again, are not fit for the kingdom.

Why? They didn’t come the narrow way. So first of all, those who dig deep are not in a hurry. It’s not superficial.

b) Maximum effort

Those who dig deep show a desire to give a maximum effort. Men are always drawn to the easy path, the easy way.

Sometimes we make the gospel so easy that it’s no gospel at all and it’s no conversion at all. One large church in America in one year had 28,000 conversions on paper, baptized 9, 600 people, and had 123 added to the church.

The problem is not the difficulty of follow up. The problem is the difficulty of conversion. We are trying to follow up people who never were redeemed to begin with. The person who digs deep desires to strive to enter in. He takes the hard things.

c) Teachability

But His commandments, beloved, are not grievous. They are blessed, and we fulfil them not out of law but out of love. The Pharisees weren’t teachable. You couldn’t tell them anything. They didn’t even want to hear it. There’s so many people like that. They profess Christ but they don’t want to hear what that demands.

They don’t want to hear what that requires. They don’t want to count the cost. They don’t want to learn the right way to build their life. They want to go on their own ideas and their own goals and their own self-will and their own designs, and their own purposes and go down their own little channel.

When you go to them and try to teach them what is right to do, they don’t want to hear that. It’s not because they are unteachable Christians, it’s because they are false Christians. That’s what our Lord is saying. The one who digs deep,

empties himself of self-righteousness,
empties himself of self-sufficiency,
knows he has nothing, and
overwhelmed with his sin.

He makes the maximum effort to strive to enter in. He makes the maximum effort to place the Word of God in his heart that he might not sin. He is interested in a genuine love relationship with Jesus Christ, not a routine of spiritual activity.

He does not build on visions.
He does not build on experiences.
He does not build on supposed miracles.

He builds on the Word of God, and
He builds for God’s glory not his own.

Many people want spiritual power Simon in Acts 8 is the perfect example before us. They just aren’t interested in living according to God’s standards. They want to know what Jesus can do for them. They want the good things, chasing signs and wonders, not committed to Christ at all.

3. Judgement

What happens in the end? V 25 &27, the day of reckoning is going to come. One day a storm came and it was obvious what house was on the rock and what house was on the sand, and someday there’s going to come a divine accounting.

God is going to blow the wind of judgment and rain the rain of judgment and sent the flood of judgment. When God does some are going to stand and some are going to fall.

Whether your religion is true or false it’s going to be tried, Whether you are chaff or wheat, The chief winnower is going to come to separate the chaff and the wheat. He is going to blow the wind of judgment, and those who have built their lives on the rock are going to stand.

What a wonderful promise?

1 Thessalonians 1:10, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Why? Because our faith is genuine.

1 Thessalonians 1:8, For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. Your faith is genuine so you will be delivered from the wrath to come. There is going to come a judgment time.

Revelation 20:11-15, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled

away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

The final great white throne judgment. That is a day when there will be echoing through the corridors of that judgment hall, “Lord, Lord,” and echoing back the reverberation of His reply. “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

People are deluded. Satan is a liar. Satan is a deceiver. Satan’s ultimate deception beyond any deception is to make someone believe they are a Christian when they are not. Because if you don’t know you have got the problem, you are not looking for the answer anymore.

The day of judgment is coming and you better look at your life.

Look at the foundation.

They may be respectful of Christ,
They may be orthodox.
They may be fervent,
They may be active in private devotion,
They may be active in public proclamation,
They may be busy with spiritual activity,
They may be building a religious life right in the same community with true believers.
Their little house may look exactly like their house,

but when the judgment comes it will be devastated because it’s on sand. Dearly Beloved, I only can tell you out of the heart of love that I have that you should go back and check the foundation. So Jesus’ unequalled, unparalleled masterpiece of oratory ends with a devastating warning and it ends with judgment.

The final word of the sermon is at the end of verse 27, “and great was the fall of it.” Do you want to know how to present the gospel? The gospel every single time must end with a warning of doom to the one that rejects. It has to end that way.

It calls for a decision. I ask you today.

What is your decision? Are you sure you have chosen the right way?

Proverbs 30:12-13, There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness. ¹³ There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.

They just think they are.

How do you know? See what your life is built on, see if you are in any of these lists.

Ephesians 5:5-6, For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. You can say all you want and you can claim to have heard it all, and it will be nothing but empty words and empty hearts.

Now there are times when all of us may stumble into a sin, but if these are the patterns of your life, you are not in His kingdom. Don’t be deceived.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

The thing is that this is always a deception. Look at your life. Do you see yourself in any of those lists? We all sin. We are not talking about that. But if those are the pattern of your life, those are the things which characterize your living you are not in the kingdom.

Who then is saved? V 14, “Few there be that find it.”

Conclusion

So our Lord confronts the empty words and the empty hearts of those who professed to be in the kingdom but were not.

What was the result of the sermon? Say a sermon like that this morning, our prayer room was so filled couldn’t even deal with the people in both services.

What was the response this day? A great revival!

Tremendous conversions? No. V 28-29, And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Do the people were converted? No!

They weren’t converted.
They were “astonished.
They were awed,
They were amazed,
They were dumbfounded,
They were bewildered.

It blew them away that anybody could stand up there and say all of those things with such power, and authority.

How did the scribes do it? They just quoted other people. They were fallible and they stacked up a lot of other fallible people as their source. Jesus blew them away. Every dimension of human life was touched in an economy of words that was breath taking. They had never heard such deep insight into the law of God or the sin of man. They had never heard such fearful warnings about hell, hellfire and judgment.

They had never heard anybody who so confronted the religious leaders of the time. They were utterly shocked that He didn’t use anybody else as an authority but seemed to stand upon His own authority. They were shocked. You should be more than shocked, more than amazed. You should be converted.

That’s what Jesus is after.

They never heard anybody speak the truth like He did.
They never heard anybody speak of divine matters with such clarity.
They never heard anybody speak with such love.
They never heard anybody speak with such absolute utter and total power and authority.

But they didn’t respond the right way. They couldn’t believe that a Man would say He was the fulfilment of the law. He was the determiner of righteousness, He was the corrector of the scribes and Pharisees. They couldn’t believe that a Man would claim to be the way of life, that a Man would claim to be God Jehovah, that a Man would claim to be judge of all, the one who could come and make judgment on everybody. They couldn’t believe that a Man like this could say He was the King.

All they got was astonishment.

What’s your response? Your eternal destiny depends on it. Your life is either built on rock or sand, on disobedience or obedience.

Charles H Spurgeon is at the close of one of his sermons. He said, “Before you leave this place, breathe an earnest prayer to God, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner. Lord, I need to be saved. Save me. I call upon Your name. Lord, I am guilty. I deserve Your wrath. Lord, I cannot save myself. Lord, I would have a new heart and a right spirit, but what can I do?

“Lord, I can do nothing, come and work in me to will and to do of Your good pleasure. You alone have power, I know, to save a wretch like me; to whom, or which should I go if I should run from You? But I now do from my very soul call upon Your name.

Trembling, yet believing, I cast myself wholly upon You, O Lord. I trust the blood and righteousness of Your dear Son. Lord, save me tonight, for Jesus’ sake.’ ”