22. Fall Not
Matthew 7:24-25
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. 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.
The conditional promise is that your house shall not fall. If you hear and do these sayings, then the house you build on that rock will not fall when storms beat against it. The house on the rock is contrasted to the house on the sand = the one who does these words is contrasted to the one who does not do them. Both are houses and both hear the words of Jesus. Only one does them. Keeping God’s Word and obeying the commandments are key conditions to standing strong through all the storms of life.
Of course, no person by himself can even come close to doing the sayings of Jesus recorded from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Therefore, no one enjoys the promise of a house that doesn’t fall. When I realize that I am the one who is missing out on a stable life I repent of failure and receive forgiveness by faith in Christ who does these impossible sayings for me. Life according the Sermon on the Mount is ideal, idyllic and paradisiac; it is a lifestyle we can only dream about and only rarely get a glimpse of. Who can be that good and righteous? Only Jesus. The impossibility of living such a life does not diminish the strict requirements of holiness and perfection. But God has pity on us and sends His Son.
The “house” in this metaphor can refer to many things. House can mean: 1) our inner character, 2) our whole life, 3) our family, 4) any voluntary association grouped together for any purpose, 5) any local or national government or institution, or 6) a local Christian congregation. Just to take this promise and apply it to a strong and stable marriage and family is incentive enough for us to hear the Gospel and believe it.