Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders
Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn't fall, for it was founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn't do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell—and great was its fall. Matthew 7:24–27
By "rain" here, and "floods," and "winds," He is expressing metaphorically the calamities and afflictions that befall men; such as false accusations, plots, bereavements, deaths, loss of friends, vexations from strangers, all the ills in our life that any one could mention. "But to none of these," says He, "does such a soul give way; and the cause is, it is founded on the rock." He calls the steadfastness of His doctrine a rock; because in truth His commands are stronger than any rock, setting one above all the waves of human affairs. For he who keeps these things strictly, will not have the advantage of men only when they are vexing him, but even of the very devils plotting against him. And that it is not vain boasting so to speak, Job is our witness, who received all the assaults of the devil, and stood unmovable; and the apostles too are our witnesses, for that when the waves of the whole world were beating against them, when both nations and princes, both their own people and strangers, both the evil spirits, and the devil, and every engine was set in motion, they stood firmer than a rock, and dispersed it all.The wise were those who build their lives on Christ, not on any worldly form so many are doing. So many seem to build their supposedly Christian life on anything but the real Truth of Christ. The power of reason is so strong in many that they become as god's to themselves. They decide what the rules are based upon their own way of believing. It is a form. a shell of godliness, but is shallow and without power. They do not have the approval of God upon their heart. They know nothing of the assurances the true believer experiences when they follow the Lord. These have been deceived by the great deceiver of mankind, the Devil. To these, the Bible has been largely ignored. Or they have not divided the Scriptures so it all fits together without contradictions. Their supposedly educated reasoning is so wonderful, that in fact they make their own laws, and worship themselves. These have not built their house upon the eternal rock of Christ, but upon the sand of their own ideas. Or they have picked out some of the Bible truth, according to their own liking, and left some other vital facts of the Bible out. This is building on sand. Their house will not hold up in the time of testing, of the trials of life
