Matthew 7:27, commentary and pictures

Everyone who hears Christ's words and fails to obey them builds his character and life on sand, and when testing comes his house collapses completely while the obedient builder on rock stands firm. The rock is Christ Himself, His righteousness and atonement received by faith and shown in keeping God's commandments and doing His words in daily life. The sand is profession without practice, self in all its forms of self-righteousness, self-confidence and human wisdom, false human doctrine, and love of the world and undisciplined indulgence. The rain and floods and winds are the storms of temptation, trial, persecution, deception and shaking that test every life, and finally the judgment and wrath of God in the last crisis when it is too late to change foundations. Great was the fall means total wreck and eternal ruin, shut out from heaven and condemned, yet ruin may still be escaped now by fleeing to Christ, repenting and walking humbly with Him in true obedience.

Setting and Picture

This closing picture belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, given especially to the disciples while the assembled multitude also listened. It teaches the conditions of entrance into the kingdom, warning that calling Him Lord and claiming religious works do not suffice without doing the Father's will, a warning to be used in efforts to convert unbelieving friends and neighbors. It reaches people ignorant of the way of life and in error, opposing self-righteous human tradition with warning, appeal, and encouragement meant to uplift all who would come. The principles in Matthew 7 must be read and obeyed in order to have the life to come, by surrendering self to Christ, allowing Him to cleanse the heart and transform the character, and living so as to lead others to Him.

The seventh chapter of Matthew needs to be studied most critically again and again by ministers and church members for their own enlightenment and not to prove supposed faults discerned in other church members. The defects exposed in those whose thoughts are absorbed with the faults of others are very serious, and unless there are decided conversions, many who think they are lights will prove to be stumbling blocks. It must be studied every word as for life, together with James 2 and James 4:5-12 and James 5:13-20, so that hearers become doers of the word who obey God's law, have the work first done in their own hearts, practice the truth in daily life, and know and do the work given them to reach lost souls in these last days.

The imagery is drawn from familiar daily life, using a familiar event to teach spiritual truth and make ordinary experiences reminders of the spiritual and unseen. Winter torrents swept away houses on the grassy plain and the Galilean plains, while houses built on rock withstood wind, flood, and tempest. The house on sand could look altogether desirable and right, faultless and attractive, placed on level, pleasant ground near the water's edge, easy of access and surrounded by flowers. When storm and flood beat upon it, it falls completely and great is the fall, leaving debris and ruins like those standing in the same kind of location.

Those who hear Christ's words but do not obey them build on an unstable foundation and are overthrown when calamity comes, while obedience to His words through faith in Him is the secure foundation and rejecting them leads to ruin and loss of eternal life. Putting His teaching into practice is essential, for His teaching must be the foundation of character and life, and hearing without making it the foundation leaves life unable to stand when storms and floods strike. Building on sand means making a small spot of earthly land the highest ambition to the neglect of eternal interest, ending in a loss for which there can never be compensation. Building on the rock means securing the eternal above every earthly advantage by laying up treasure in heaven while working for necessary earthly sustenance, so that the storm beating on the house in sickness or adversity is met like a wise master builder who has made provision and is safe.

The house is the religious faith and profession of present truth without doing, and a life whose principles and character are not shaped by obedience to Christ. The sand is human efforts, and when the rain, floods, and winds come as storms of temptation the house falls and great is the fall because the soul is not riveted to the eternal Rock and does not endure temptation. This describes a larger number of professed believers for this time than those who diligently hear and do. The building represents the character each person forms through daily choices as God's building going up for time and eternity, and the storm reveals the work as it truly is.

Parents, teachers, and students are building character as a house for eternity, and they must see that their foundation is sure and then build firmly with persistent effort in gentleness, meekness, and love, so their house will stand unshaken both when the storms of temptation come and when the overwhelming flood of God's wrath sweeps over the world. They are to build on the Eternal Rock and use their God-given powers to form characters fit for useful service now and a higher life hereafter, for a character built without the foundation of God's word will collapse when tested. A coming storm will wrench every timber of the house and prove whether it was built in Jesus, who is the Rock, and only the one built upon that Rock is safe while any other building will prove rottenness and fall. Building so as to stand means building for eternity through a deep work of grace in the heart, bringing soul, heart, and life under the controlling influence of the Spirit of God, so that when self dies Jesus lives in the heart by faith and this brings happiness.

The beating wind and tempest are trials that test Christian character, and the fall is the collapse shown by unseemly cracks in a defective daily life, without steadfastness of purpose, continually leaning to self-indulgence and self-excuse, like a tottering wall bowing over ready to fall to ruin. By contrast, a soul riveted to the Eternal Rock by most diligent warring against sinful thoughts and feelings expressed in words stands firm under the storm because its foundation is sure.

Hearing and Doing

Everyone who hears Christ's sayings and does them not is the foolish builder who built his house upon the sand. When the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house, it fell, and great was the fall of it. This stands in direct contrast to the wise man who hears and obeys and builds upon a rock, whose house fell not and does not fall.

A life built by hearing without doing collapses when trials come, and its fall is terrible and its ruin complete. The storm reveals the sandy foundation underneath, which is careless or prejudiced treatment of God's truth, self-righteousness, and reliance on human wisdom instead of God's wisdom. Ruin comes from following one's own ideas and plans and the suggestions of one's own mind, while safety is found only in placing the feet in Christ's footsteps and following the orders He has given. The storms thus expose the failure of a life not founded on obedience to His teachings, making the verse a lesson about character building. The wise foundation is Christ, with His righteousness accepted as the only hope of salvation.

There are two classes, and the foolish builder is one of them. Hearing alone is not enough, for the words must be heard with the purpose of obeying them. They must be received into the heart in living faith and done as evidence of discipleship, for merely hearing or enjoying righteousness cannot withstand trial. Doing the Father's will is the evidence of a life built on Christ, and when adversity comes the house not so built falls and its ruin is great.

This applies even to those who honestly think they are doing God service while working at cross-purposes with Him, because they are not doers of His Word. A character built on anything other than God's word — human ideas, invented forms and ceremonies, or works done apart from Christ's grace — cannot endure, and the fierce tempests of temptation sweep away its shifting foundation and leave the house in ruin. Indifference to evidence and stubborn resistance to shining light leads to the sandy foundation and ruin, while Christ, the I AM who was in the pillar of cloud and speaks now to those receiving light, gives light because He does not want any to perish. Those who are hearers and doers have their house riveted upon the eternal Rock, so secure that one such soul can no more perish than all heaven can be swept away.

The Secure Foundation

The rock is Christ Himself, the eternal Rock and chief cornerstone, and the only sure foundation for character and life. To build on Him is to accept His righteousness as the only hope of salvation, and to rely wholly on His atonement, pardon and sustaining support so that the life stands firm when calamity, floods and fierce temptation test it. Those who hear His words and do them through faith in Him have their house riveted upon that eternal Rock so securely that one such soul can no more perish than heaven itself can be swept away. To fall upon that Stone is to give up self-righteousness and come to Christ with childlike humility, repentance and trust in His forgiving love, becoming living stones through connection with Him, since personal effort to shape and polish character can never make anyone a living stone apart from that union. Hearing without doing leaves the house on an unstable foundation that is overthrown when the storm comes, and its fall is terrible, ending in ruin and loss of eternal life.

Building on the rock means hearing Christ's sayings and doing them, shaping the life by obedience to God's law and will made known in the commandments. That obedience is tested in exact conduct in behavior toward God and His law, in words spoken in the family circle and the spirit shown toward believers and unbelievers, in home life and in business life with fellow men, for God is particular about these details and will bring every work into judgment. Mere profession, religious claims and even impressive works cannot replace doing the Father's will, and to seek the crown while refusing a known command of God is not striving lawfully. When rain descends and floods come and winds blow and beat upon a disobedient life built on sand instead of character after the divine similitude, it falls and great is the fall, for thus God deals with both men and angels who disobey.

Building on the rock also means making God's living Word and its doctrines the foundation of study and life rather than changeable, pleasing scientific theories. It means hearing God's Word, receiving it as truth in living faith, searching the Bible, meditating on its precepts, obeying the light already known and putting into practice what God commands. God's power in the Word enables that obedience, and following it brings greater light, incorporates its teaching into the life until character is transformed into Christ's likeness, and gives the life a secure foundation. Faith firmly rooted in Christ and Bible truth can stand when tested by temptation, deception, heresy and false doctrine, while refusing God's law and clinging to sin or cherished indulgence separates the soul from God and leaves the house to collapse completely when rain and tempest strike.

The Sandy Foundation

Sand is hearing the sayings without doing them, so that when rain falls and floods rise and winds blow and beat on the house it collapses and the wreck is utter. Calling Lord, Lord is worth nothing without doing the will of the Father in heaven and representing Him in life and character. Even prophesying in His name and casting out devils and doing many wonderful works gives no entrance into the kingdom without obedience, but ends in rejection as workers of iniquity. Seeking the crown while refusing a known command made plain in the commandments is not striving lawfully, for religious claims and impressive works cannot replace doing what is willed. The house is religious faith and profession of present truth without doing, built by mere human efforts and not riveted to the eternal Rock, so it cannot endure temptation when the storm of trial comes. This describes those who hear the truth brought by the prophets, preached by the apostles, and presented in the teachings, yet do not accept and practice it, and they are a larger number among professed believers for this time than those who diligently hear and do. Escape from such profession without practice calls for self-denial and self-sacrifice, confession of sin, reconversion and sanctification in soul, body and spirit, growth in faith and grace, a righteousness exceeding outward righteousness, and use of means to save souls perishing in ignorance instead of dress and selfish indulgence.

Sand is also self in its many forms, beginning with careless or prejudiced treatment of truth, self-righteousness, and reliance on human wisdom instead of divine wisdom. Ruin comes from following one's own ideas and plans and the suggestions of one's own mind, while safety is found only in placing the feet in the appointed footsteps and following the orders given. Building on human ideas and opinions, on forms and ceremonies invented by men, or on any work done apart from grace, as was done in former days, is building on shifting sand. A counterfeit righteousness from a heart unchanged cannot withstand test and trial, for those who trust such a foundation are overcome when fierce tempests of temptation sweep it away and leave the house a wreck. True service requires consecrating all that one is and devoting everything to glory, for many who think they walk toward heaven go astray because they have not given up all to obtain eternal life.

Sand is further the false teaching and human doctrine on which faith is made to rest instead of the living Word. Building on changeable, pleasing scientific theories rather than on God's Word leaves the house to collapse completely when tested by storm, and great is its ruin. Accepting false teachings and turning from doing the will from a sincere heart brings spiritual ruin under the forces that test the foundation, so the call is to take a stand against darkness and obey. Those who have accepted such teachings must choose to do the will and stand decisively against the power of evil rather than remain vulnerable to forces that lead astray. A movement that discards foundational truths, removes God from its teaching, abandons the truths supporting faith, and relies on human power builds a structure and organization like a house on sand that storm and tempest will sweep away.

Sand is worldliness and undisciplined character that treats divine requirements as less important than worldly interests. Making a small spot of earthly land the highest ambition to the neglect of eternal interest ends in a loss for which there can never be compensation, while securing the eternal above every earthly advantage lays up treasure in heaven even while working for necessary sustenance. Love of the world, wealth, ambition, pleasure and appetite, with superficial training and indulgence, leaves no self-denial or self-control, for will, intellect, emotions, appetites and passions must be brought under divine control and not left to self-indulgence. Loose and dishonest dealings show building on sliding sand rather than on the Rock, for wealth and worldly success provide no refuge when the great tempest comes and the false foundation is swept away. A life marked by sin despite profession of godliness rests on false confidence and will collapse when tested by sickness, adversity, trial and finally judgment, yet turning from sin and relying on Jesus gives strength, peace, grace and victory.

The Storm and Fall

The rain, floods and winds are the storms of temptation, trial, adversity and hardship that beat upon every house and test every foundation, exposing whether character has been built to stand. Hearing without doing leaves the life unable to withstand that test, and when the rain descends and the floods come and the winds blow the house built on sand collapses in terrible ruin. The storm reveals the insecure foundation, showing that careless or prejudiced treatment of truth, self-righteousness, and reliance on human wisdom instead of obedience to Christ's teachings and God's law cannot endure. This warning belongs especially to God's people in the last days, for whom the test discloses failure of a life not founded on doing what Jesus taught.
The same beating storm includes persecution, opposition, deception, false doctrine, heresy and the shaking of all that can be shaken, which sweep away a foundation not firmly rooted in Christ and Bible truth. Pleasing but specious errors, the sentiments of infidel writers, and trust in human sentiments rather than the Eternal Rock leave the soul with nothing to stand on when the tempest strikes. Those riveted to the Living Rock, the cross of Calvary, the Bible and present truth, and established in a Christlike character, stand firm and are not led astray, while houses not fixed on the eternal Rock have their foundation swept away. To climb onto that Rock requires effort, the exercise of every ability and every spiritual nerve and muscle and all mental and spiritual powers to understand the Word of God, the incarnation of Christ, and the great plan of redemption.
The storm is finally the judgment, the overwhelming flood of God's wrath, the agitation now shaking everything as events hasten the day of God, and the last crisis when every sandy house falls too late to change. Parents, teachers and students are building character as a house for eternity, and only a symmetrical character built with firm, persistent effort in gentleness, meekness and love will stand unshaken both now and then. A superficial, circumstantial religion without thorough conversion of heart, built on sliding sand with speculations, unholy principles, erratic movements and human calculations, will not stand the trial of that day but will be weighed and found wanting and swept away. Souls whose house is upon sand will then see a terrible revelation of ruin for eternity, which is why the warning must be given with intense earnestness while there is still time.
Great was the fall means total wreck and complete collapse, eternal ruin rather than mere temporal loss. It is the end of the foolish class, everyone who hears Christ's sayings in Matthew 7 and does them not, whose house falls when rain and flood and wind strike it. Many houses now supposed to stand secure will fall in this way, ending in Christ's rejection, being shut out of the holy city and heaven, and condemnation by the law whose principles were professed but walked contrary to. Profession without practice, even saying Lord, Lord, prophesying, casting out devils and doing wonderful works without doing the Father's will, does not give entrance into the kingdom but ends in I never knew you, depart as workers of iniquity.
The fall is hastened by divided service, for the Lord will not accept a divided influence that scatters abroad instead of gathering with Christ. It is hastened by self-deception, honestly thinking to do God service while working at cross-purposes with Him, being quick to discern others' faults while blind to one's own, persisting in one's own way, and being deceived by the enemy while thinking to do the Lord's work. It is hastened by clinging to self-confidence, carrying hereditary and cultivated traits that can never enter the kingdom, refusing to obey the commandments, refusing to be corrected, refusing to humble the heart, die to self, and covenant by sacrifice of will and pride. Even one act of disobedience and one little disregard of a Thus saith the Lord weakens power to see the sinfulness of the next act, darkens light once precious, stops the promised blessing of the Holy Spirit, and lets Satan take charge of mind and soul to God's great dishonor.

Doctrine and Application

The fall of the house proves that the Old and New Testaments together are the only truth, the sure foundation and rule of all doctrine and of all life, which can never fail or deceive, and whoever builds by maintaining pure preaching without adding anything contrary will stand against all powers of hell, while every human doctrine and vanity set against it will fall before God. What is built on any other foundation collapses when tested, for teachings opposed to Scripture cannot stand before God, while what is founded on His word endures all opposition. To reject His law and honor a counterfeit sabbath is to build on sand, and the collapse comes at judgment when it is too late to change, a ruin hastened by the failure of religious teachers who lead souls to perdition. That sandy foundation is trampling His holy requirements, setting aside His precepts to secure the favor of the world, teaching others to transgress, and seeking to compel His people to profane His Sabbath, and when the law is revealed as the rule of judgment the builders are condemned by the law they despised and see with awful distinctness that they are without excuse. Too late, from ministers down to the least, they see that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the seal of the living God and that they have been fighting against God, and their horror and despair, with the terrible responsibility and loss of teachers who professed to guide souls to Paradise yet led them to perdition, is the great fall whose doom is to hear, Depart, thou wicked servant. The teachings and messages held since 1844 rest on solid foundation and therefore stand firm through trials and challenges, and cannot be overthrown when the storm beats upon them.

The seventh chapter of Matthew belongs to the instruction ministers and members most need to study critically again and again, every word as for life, together with James 2 and James 4:5-12 and James 5:13-20. That study is for self-enlightenment and individual benefit, to read and obey in order to have the life to come, not to prove supposed faults discerned in other members, for defects in those absorbed with others' faults are very serious, and unless there are decided conversions many who think they are lights will prove stumbling blocks. Obeying means surrendering self to Christ to cleanse the heart and transform the character, having the work first done in the own heart, practicing truth in daily life, and knowing and doing the work given to reach lost souls in these last days so that others are led to Him. The truths of the word are a platform braced by solid timbers, a foundation built by the Master Worker that will stand storm and tempest, and efforts by one high in responsibility to loosen its timbers by presenting doctrines that deny the past experience of God's people cannot overthrow it. Watchmen who ought to stand on the walls of Zion must therefore not sleep or keep silent but take decided action against such teaching, and students are to be taught to make the Bible the foundation of all study and the basis of education in schools, becoming wise unto salvation by knowing what is required and understanding truth for this time.

Parents, teachers, and students are building character as a house for eternity, and they must see that the foundation is sure and then build firmly with persistent, firm effort in gentleness, meekness, and love, so the house will stand unshaken both when storms of temptation come and when the overwhelming flood of God's wrath sweeps over the world. A symmetrical character so built will stand, but every character built on sand will fall, and the fall is great because the ruin is for eternity. The young are warned not to build on sand by yielding to self-indulgence, but to bring will, intellect, emotions, appetites, and passions under God's control. Success requires laying the foundation first rather than building at the top, and that foundation is formed through discipline and experience in everyday duties, which education alone cannot provide. Teachers who join worldly influences with the work of God and mislead the young are not building on the Eternal Rock, and their work will fail when its results are judged and they face its consequences before God.

The same warning reaches all who desire to be first and to rule in the church, who must gain deeper consecration and make diligent work for their own salvation or they will be unprepared to enter the holy city. The great fall is being deceived by the enemy while thinking to do the Lord's work, refusing to obey His commandments and refusing correction, carrying hereditary and cultivated traits that can never enter the kingdom, discerning others' faults while blind to one's own, persisting in one's own way instead of humbling the heart before God and dying to self, until led on to be forever lost. A movement that discards foundational truths, treats the Sabbath lightly, removes God from its teaching, and relies on human power has a sinking foundation without God that cannot withstand trial, and when storm, flood, and tempest strike the structure collapses and is swept away. Its teachings and organization are like a house built on sand, destined to be washed away because reliance on human power cannot sustain the work. Those urged to reopen Battle Creek College in Battle Creek must therefore hear God's messengers and, as wise builders, build on the Rock rather than on sinking sand.

Doing the Word is tested in exact obedience in behavior toward God and His law, in words spoken in the family circle and spirit shown toward believers and unbelievers, in home life and in business life with fellow men, man with man and neighbor with neighbor, for God is particular about these details and will bring every work into judgment. Hearing alone cannot withstand trial, and Christ's sayings must be obeyed by cultivating patience, kindness, and forgiveness, by doing all possible good to high and low, rich and poor, happy and oppressed, and especially by kindness in the family through acts of courtesy and love to father and mother, husband, wife, and child. That life looks to Jesus to catch His spirit and live in the light of His goodness and love and reflect His glory upon others, with no harsh rough word spoken, no impatience manifested, and no spirit of recrimination indulged. Neglecting Christ's work, including helping those in need and seeking and saving perishing souls, leaves the spiritual house insecure and hastens its collapse. Building a very fine structure on sand means working earnestly on a wrong line that seems right, with wrong ideas and confused false conceptions of God-appointed work, because the work did not begin at the heart, while building on solid rock means the heart is right with God and subjected to the Spirit of Christ, so the whole life is purified, refined, ennobled, and sanctified, and religion becomes a thing of the heart and not mere externalities kept out of the work.

The collapse under trial reveals the sandy foundation of careless or prejudiced treatment of God's truth, self-righteousness, and reliance on human wisdom instead of God's wisdom, and its fall is terrible and complete. Mere hearing, saying Lord, Lord, and even prophesying and doing wonderful works in His name is valueless without doing the will of the Father in heaven, and ends in rejection from Christ, when the time for discussion is past, the irrevocable sentence is pronounced, and the outwardly religious who wove self into all they did, priding themselves on morality, influence, higher position, and knowledge of truth and expecting commendation, are shut out from heaven by their own unfitness for its companionship. Since what lies ahead is unknown, the only safety is walking with Christ with hand in His and heart filled with perfect trust, keeping close to the Saviour, walking humbly with Him in His meekness with self hid with Him in God, and taking hold of His strength to make peace with Him. Escape requires covenant with God by sacrifice of will and pride and earnest prayer seeking the Lord with whole heart and soul, knowing Christ savingly by being vitalized with spiritual knowledge, hearing in faith with earnest heed so the words are not let slip, and practicing what He says. The coming storm that will sweep away unstable lives and reveal ruin too late to change is therefore reason to warn people now, while there is still time to flee, repent, and begin reformation in the heart.