Sermon: The Parable of Two Houses (Luke 6:46-49)

The Parable of Two Houses Sunday, July 26th, 2026 Ninth Sunday After Pentecost Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Luke 6:46–49 Prayer O Father, we thank You for the preaching of Your Son, our Lord Jesus. Please grant that we may become obedient doers of the Word as true disciples, rather than being Christians in name only. Rid us of our self-deception, our hypocrisy, our blindness to our sins. Remove the planks from our eyes, that we may see more clearly whether the house that we are building has a foundation, or not. We ask for Your Holy Spirit now, in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction Ten years ago, I was living in Jacksonville, Florida. And if you don’t know where Jacksonville is on the map, it is on the northeast coast of Florida right by the Atlantic Ocean. And so you can imagine living near the beach has many perks, that is, if you like the sun, and sand, and salt water, and swimming, and beach volleyball, and good BBQ. You can find all that in Jacksonville. However, living by the beach also has some downsides, namely hurricanes. In fact, in Jacksonville we have something called “Hurricane Season,” which runs from June-November, with storms usually being the worst from August to October. So for about half of the year, there is always this possibility that a tropical storm will develop in the Ocean, and then depending on its severity, and how close it comes to land, you might be fine, or you may have to board up your house, leave the state, and drive to Georgia (as some of my own friends and family have had to do on occasion). Now in the 2.5 years that I lived in Jacksonville, I was blessed to never have to evacuate because of a hurricane. However, right after I left Florida, and moved to the rolling hills of Moscow, Idaho, Hurricane Irma hit the Atlantic coast. Hurricane Irma was a Category 5 tropical storm, and 5 is the highest category of tropical storm there is. 134 people died in Hurricane Irma, and there was about $77 billion dollars of damage done. At its peak the winds were blowing at 180 mph. which made Irma the third-strongest hurricane in the Atlantic, ever recorded. When that storm hit, some people called it “Irmageddon,” because it was  as if the world had ended in those places. Well in our text this morning, Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Plain with a very serious warning. And that warning is, a storm is coming. It does not matter who you are, or where you live, a category 5 hurricane is coming, and if your house is not ready and in good order, there will be death, there will be damages. You will not have a home to come back to. For as Jesus says in verse 49 the ruin of that house was great. And so there are really two big questions that Jesus places before us in this passage, and those questions will form the outline of our sermon: 1. Why don’t you do what Jesus tells you to do? 2. What kind of foundation, if any, is your house built upon? So, 1) Why don’t you obey Jesus? And 2) Does your house have a foundation that can withstand the coming storm? Starting in verse 46, Jesus poses this first question saying… Verse 46 – Q1. Why don’t you obey Jesus? 46And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? This is a question that you must ponder for the rest of your life. Why don’t you obey Jesus like he tells you to? First observe that Jesus is directing this question at professing believers. This is not a question for atheists, or secularists, or worldlings, it is a question for people like you: baptized Christians, sitting in the pews, singing the Psalms, going to church, taking communion, and hearing the Word of God every week. So this question is aimed at all of us who profess Jesus as Lord. Second, observe that the question is Why. Why do you call Jesus Lord Lord, and then not do what your Lord says? Do you have a good answer to that question? When Jesus asks Why, He wants you to be a little self-reflective. He is telling you to go look in the mirror, look at your past, look at the story of your life up to this point and think about how you got here. And then after that self-examination, explain to Jesus why you have not obeyed the one you profess as Lord. So how well do you know yourself? How well do you understand your own heart, your motives, your intentions, your goals, your duties, your temptations, your relationships, your past? Do you understand the story-arc of your life and where you are within it? Because if you lack this self-knowledge, you will not be able to answer this why question accurately. You will be living in a fantasy world, and not in reality. You will be your blind-self leading your blind-self into a ditch. You will be like a doctor trying to do heart surgery with a chainsaw and a blindfold. It’s not going to go well. Self-deception is a massive problem for us. As James 1:22 says, But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. So we need God’s help, we need the Word of God, we need pastors and parents and wise and virtuous friends to tell us what we cannot see. Why don’t you obey Jesus, what is wrong with you? Well let me give you a place to start. You can discover just by asking this Why question, that at least some of the answers might be ignorance, forgetfulness, laziness, a lack of real knowledge in our minds. Perhaps we’ve heard the golden rule but don’t remember the golden rule, and so we never stop to think in the moment, “How I can love this person in front of me as myself?” “How can I do good to my wife, or husband, or children, like I would want someone to do good to me?” Or take another example, we don’t remember that we are supposed to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, and so we get angry, we get defensive, we lash out at the people who hurt us, rather than doing what Jesus says, namely, turn the other cheek, when they revile you, bless them. Let all your speech with seasoned with the salt of grace. Or, we forget the gospel: that God forgave the infinite debt of our sins, and so we withhold forgiveness from others, exacting justice from our debtors, while expecting mercy from God. Jesus has something to say about that! He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy. (James 2:13). 2 Peter 1:9 warns against this gospel forgetfulness saying, For he who lacks virtue and the fruit of the Holy Spirit is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. And so forgetfulness is an enormous hindrance to obeying the words of your professed Lord. And then on top of our own ignorance and forgetfulness, then there is the additional problem of our bodily state. Our physical desires, passions, concupiscence, infirmities, pains and pleasures that can obscure our ability to think rationally, logically, clearly in the light of faith. Paul says in Romans 7:23-24 of this fleshly power, But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Only Jesus. Only Jesus. An example of giving in to this desire for sensible goods includes all the sexual sins, fornication, lust, adultery. And then sometimes more subtly we simplycling too tightly to money as our security, or our health, or some toy or hobby that we think we cannot do without. We forget that Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:8, And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. Are you content? Or perhaps you value too highly some earthly relationship, your job, your reputation, the esteem of other people (all good things). But we forget that Jesus said, Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, sad, and hated. Whereas a Woe (a danger) is upon those who are full, laughing, and self-satisfied. When you breathe the air of Babylon all day long (and by Babylon I mean America), it can choke out Heaven’s breath within you. And that is exactly what the world, the flesh, and the devil are conspiring to do: they want to choke out and quench the fire of the Holy Spirit within you, that supernatural love we call charity, without which you cannot see God. And so are you guarding this Divine flame? Do you treasure the sanctifying grace that the eternal God has placed within you? The whole Trinity of persons who reside in your soul? Because if you do not keep your heart with all diligence (Prov 4:23), the cares of this world will stomp you out! Jesus will describe a couple chapters later, in Luke 8:12-14, the different kinds of people who call Jesus Lord Lord and how they die in their sins. He says in the parable of the soils, Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. And the ones on the stony ground are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; but these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. And the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. And so you see, there are many reasons why people hear the Word of God, call Jesus Lord Lord, but then do not obey. Do you know what your reasons are? Whatever you come up with, we can basically reduce all those reasons down to three: 1) ignorance, 2) forgetfulness, and 3) selfishness. That covers just about everything. 1. If you are ignorant, perhaps it is because you never stop to listen and listen closely with all of your attention, you don’t try to understand what Jesus is telling you, because you don’t want to obey, you don’t want anyone telling you what to do. Of such people it says in Psalm 14, The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good. 2. But most of you are not ignorant at all, and that makes your disobedience even worse, because James 4:17 says, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. Ignorance can excuse you a little (1 Tim 1:13), but once you have been told, and told again, once you have recited and understood the Ten Commandments (as we do every single week), you are now responsible to do them. And so worse than ignorance is forgetting what Jesus told you to do. And this is why David says in Psalm 1, and Psalm 119 (and many other places) that memorization and meditation on God’s Word (day and night) is how you avoid sin. He says in Psalm 119:11, Thy word have I hid in mine heart, That I might not sin against thee. And what does Jesus say right before posing this why question to us? He says in Luke 6:45, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. So what is in the treasure of your heart’s memory. What do you dwell in, and think about, day and night? For the blessed man of Psalm 1, it is the Word of God. And so also for every true disciple. It says in Romans 8:5-6, For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. So some of you need to confess to Jesus today, “the reason why I don’t obey you, is because I don’t value your Word enough to think about it and remember it.” Forgetfulness and laziness are your why. 3. Now this third reason, selfishness is really at the root of every other sin (including ignorance and forgetfulness). Selfishness, or more properly speaking, inordinate self-love (also called pride) is where you imagine that everything revolves around you, rather than God. The Bible calls this sin by many names such as being self-willed, prideful, haughty, exalting yourself over others, etc. And so while Jesus says seek first the kingdom of God, the proud man seeks first his own kingdom, he seeks first his own desires, and thus makes himself his own “Lord.” This is the chief sin of our day, we imagine that we are self-made, self-determined, self-actualized, and so we worship our own selves. And this selfishness is a kind of coup d’état, a revolt, against reality. Because who has all authority in heaven and on earth? King Jesus. And so to exalt the Self over Christ is to deny the crown rights of King Jesus. It is functionally to deny that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. And the Bible calls that denial of reality, idolatry, blasphemy, worshipping a false god. Think about what we you doing when you make Yourself the center of the world. You are imitating the devil, Satan, the father of lies. Listen to how Isaiah 14 describes the fall of Lucifer. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. In the garden, Satan tempted Adam and Eve to do what he had already done, make himself like God apart from God. And this just cannot be done. Because we are creatures, and Jesus is the Creator of all. When your life becomes all about elevating yourself, moving up in the world, you imitate the devil who fell from an exceeding height. Whereas what did Jesus do? Jesus came down, Jesus descended, Jesus took to himself our mortal flesh, he suffered and died for a world that held him in contempt and despised him. Jesus forgave those who crucified Him, and Jesus subjected his human will to his divine will, and that perfectly. And so are you obeying Jesus when he says, follow me, imitate me. In Luke 14:11 he will say to his disciples, For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. So do you know why you don’t obey your Lord? Do you think you can go on living in disobedience, and that without eternal consequence? In case you are unsure, Jesus is now going to give you a window into your future. And he does this by telling the parable of two houses. And in this parable, the houses represent a person’s life and eternal destiny. And behind this parable looms the all-important question which is, Can your life withstand the storm of final judgment? Jesus says… Verses 47-49 – Q2. Does your house have a foundation? 47Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: 48He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. 49But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. First observe what is common to both men in this parable. If we look closely, we will see that there are three things they have in common: 1. Both men hear Jesus’ sayings. 2. Both men build a house. 3. Both men have a storm hit their house. Apart from that, everything else is different. One of the first differences we should notice is that the man who builds his house upon a rock, is said to do three things in verse 47, Jesus says, Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them,I will shew you to whom he is like. So the wise man comes to Jesus, hears Jesus, and obeys Jesus. Whereas the other man (the fool) only hears and nothing more. So what is signified here by coming to Jesus? Well, this is most certainly referring to faith in Christ. Jesus says to the unbelieving Jews in John 5:38-40, But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. And so notice coming to Jesus is believing in Jesus with a living faith, and in the next chapter, Jesus promises in John 6:37, All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. So have you come to Jesus with a living faith (a faith that works by love)? Do you have His word abiding within you? Is that Word bearing good fruit in your life? If not, then perhaps you have not actually believed. James 2:26 says, faith without works is dead. To profess Jesus as Lord Lord and then to not do what he says, is exactly what James is talking about. That’s a dead faith and it cannot save you, quite the contrary, it will only make your condemnation worse. Now if we look at the story of what this faith-filled disciple is like, Jesus assigns to him three actions. And if we put them in order of execution they are as follows: 1. He digs deep, 2. He lays a foundation on a rock, 3. And then third, he builds his house on top of it. So what is signified by these three actions in the parable? Digging, laying a foundation, and building. How does this relate to our real spiritual development? First, let us think about digging. If I hand you a shovel, and say go and dig the foundation for your new house, how long do you think that will take? Without an excavator, withouta tractor, or a skidsteer or a backhoe, you’re going to be digging for a while. And Jesus says, the true disciple digs deep. Moreover, you know, the bigger the house, the taller and wider the house, the deeper and wider you must go with your foundation. Now in Luke 16, Jesus will tell the Parable of the Unjust Steward. And in that parable, when the steward is about to be fired it says, Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. And so here we have verified this idea that digging is both laborious and humbling work.Not all are willing to dig. And so I think rightly the best commentators on this passage identify digging with humility. To dig into the earth is to humble yourself, it is to get down and spend time with the worms. To dig deep is make yourself base (very low), and despised, even nothing, because you know what 1 Corinthians 1:28-29 says, But God has chosen…the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. God loves the humble, the nothings, because only when your soul is empty of your ego, can God come and fill it completely. And so while many are too proud to dig (they tell themselves there is no storm to come, I can drop my RV here on the sand), true disciples dig deep, we seek to decrease so that Jesus may increase within us. It says in Proverbs 3:34, Surely He scorns the proud, But gives grace to the humble. And in Psalm 149:4 it says, For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation. The kingdoms of this world are built on pride, and pride comes before a fall. Whereas the Kingdom of Heaven is built through the humility of Christ, and that is why God’s kingdom shall ever endure. So if to dig deep is to humble yourself, we can say that laying the foundation is to knowing the love of God in Christ. Paul says in Ephesians 3:14-19, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love [that’s the foundation], may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And so the true disciple has no other foundation but the love of Jesus. Of course, ultimately it is God who lays this foundation within us. It is He who gives grace. It is He who pours out His love into our heart by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). And this is part of the mystery of salvation. Paul says in Philippians 2:13, it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. So that whenever you humble yourself, it is God who has first granted you humility. Whenever you dig deep and lay a foundation in His love, it is God who is pouring that spiritual concrete. And then when you build your house, as Psalm 127 says, Unless the Lord builds it, you labor in vain. So you know you are working with God to build your house, when  your life only exists for His glory. Then you say with the Apostle Paul, I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. So are you co-worker with God in the building of your life? Are you rooted and founded in charity (in friendship with God)? Does the edifice of your soul look more and more like Jesus with every year that goes by? Or have you left your first love, and become pre-occupied with other things? Conclusion Remember what is common to both men in this parable? A vehement storm is coming. And so who are you more like in this parable? Are you humble, is love your foundation, and are there good works of charity adorning your house? Jesus says in John 14:21, He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. So do you want to see the face of God? Are you actually looking forward to that hurricane of final judgment, because like a flood of fire, it will burn away everything ugly, everything corrupt, everything sad, everything evil, and crooked, and perverse shall be destroyed, and then only what is true, and good, and beautiful, built on love, shall remain. May God grant you to humble yourself, to be rooted in His love, and be a doer of His Word patient until the end. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.