That pretty well
tied up the morning.  Jesus has been
teaching his disciples about a whole range of subjects involving the kingdom of God and now he ties it up with a pretty
bow and hands it to those who were listening and basically tells them, “You are
responsible for what you are going to do with what you have heard.” 

Christ knew the
reality of life, he realized that as persuasive as he might be that everyone in
his audience would have the opportunity to respond to his message in one of two
ways.   They would either accept it or they would
reject it.  In other words the people who
listened to Jesus Christ the Son of God preach had the same option that you
have today, either accept what you hear or reject it, there is no middle
ground.

These words come at
the end of the Sermon on the Mount arguably Jesus’ best known message.  It all started in Matthew
5:1-2 One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the
mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to
teach them.

And for the next one
hundred and five verses Christ shakes his disciples’ preconceptions of religion
to the very roots.  Everything they had
been taught, everything they had been led to believe, everything they had ever
seen was turned inside out.

Not content to have
his disciples think that his was an easy road to walk he spoke of problems, and
persecutions, trouble and tribulations. 
If Christ was preaching today we would say that he was
controversial. 

And so by the end of
the Sermon on the Mount Jesus brought people to the place that they had to
completely re-examine their ideas of happiness and success.  Where they had to review what they believed
and why they believed it.  And in so
doing he destroyed many of their concepts of the law, murder,  adultery, divorce, oath taking, service,
love, giving, prayer, fasting, money, holiness, worry, and judging. 

And the words of the
Sermon on the Mount were Red Letter words. 
This is the end of our summer series, not necessarily the end of summer,
there are actually 13 days of summer left. 
We started our Red Letter summer series a little before summer actually
started so only fair that we should end it a little before summer actually
ends.    

Probably the most
famous of Jesus’ Red Letter Words are those found in the Sermon on the Mount
which in many ways is the foundation of Christianity. 

He knew what he was
talking about.  From time to time I have
been able to teach as one who had authority. While I was in High School and
then again in 1984 and for a while in the 90s  I worked part time selling suits, and I spoke
with authority on that subject. 

Reminds me of the
story of the man who had stomach pains, went to doctors  and specialists, had x-rays and ultra sounds
but they couldn’t come up with a reason for his pain.  Well he figured that he was going to die, so
he decided that he’d go on a trip, and he went to a clothing store to buy a new
wardrobe, the tailor looked at him and said “You look like you’d wear a 42
jacket, 16 shirt, 33 sleeve, and a 32 inseam. 
A 7 1/2 hat,  11 ee  shoe and 36 underwear.”  To which the man replied “Ah hah you’re wrong
I only wear size 34 underwear.”  And the
tailor said “Oh no sir if you wore size thirty four underwear you’d always have
pains in your stomach.”   Now there was a
man who spoke with authority.

When I preach I try
to preach with authority.  And sometimes
when I’ve tried to teach with authority I’ve gotten in over my head.  But it was very obvious to the people who had
gathered around that Jesus had the authority and knowledge to preach that way.

Every once in a
while you will hear someone say “I don’t think they know what they are talking
about.”  And that’s fine if it doesn’t
matter, but those are words you don’t want to hear about your doctor, or your
lawyer or your plumber. 

And so to tie
everything together Christ does what he does so well, he tells us a story.  And he divides all the listeners of his
sermon into two categories. 

So often in Christian
circles today we hear that we are not to be judgmental, people say “But you don’t
understand, it’s not clear cut, you don’t understand the circumstances.” 

But Christ drew very
clear and decisive lines.  As my daddy
says, sin is black and white and grey is just a colour of paint.

And Christ tells a
story of two men, because one wouldn’t have been enough and three would have
been too many.  And these two men have
several things in common.  Just as each
one of us have several things in common.

1) They Both
Heard the Word.  Both of these men had heard what Jesus Christ
had to say.  The relevance of this
message has to be directed firstly at those who have heard the word.  And that isn’t difficult.   Much of the world has at least a passing
acquaintance with the bible and Christianity organizations like Wycliffe
continue to translate the bible into different languages and world literature
and others continue to translate the word into national dialects. But most
people in our country and our community have a least the opportunity to hear
the word.

And Christ always
lays responsibility on the person who has heard the word.  When Christ spoke of the sower in Matthew 13
he once again emphasised the necessity of hearing the word.  Regardless of the soils reaction to the seed,
the seed was never the less there.  All
too often we place the onuses on the church or the preacher.

Christ laid the
responsibility for a response on the hearer. 
If I failed to preach the gospel, if I failed to lay it on the line
concerning salvation, if came to Cornerstone every Sunday and I never mentioned
your need to embrace Jesus, then I might be responsible for your eternity, but I
have preached that you need Jesus Christ to be saved, that you need to repent,
and so from this point on you is paddling your own canoe, and once you have
heard it once it is in your court.

Christ never
commanded the disciple to go to extraordinary measures to ensure that people
got saved.  He commanded them to preach
the gospel, but he said in Matthew 10:14 If any
household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its
dust from your feet as you leave.  Everyone
should get to hear the gospel, but as Oswald J. Smith asked, “Should some hear the gospel twice before others have
heard it once?” 

Some people insist
that the church has an obligation to hound people into heaven, especially their
kids.  Uh-huh we have an obligation to
preach the gospel, we have an obligation to encourage Christians, we have an
obligation to represent Christ to a lost and dying world, and everyone in that
world should hear the gospel once.

But you have each
heard the gospel; your eternity is not in my hands or anybody else’s.  I have spoken the words of God, and you have
chosen to respond by either rejecting or accepting them.  Don’t ever try to lay a guilt trip on me
about your lack of salvation, or the lack of the salvation of anyone else in
this church.

In the parable of
the soil Jesus said, “The sower went forth and sowed.”  But the sower wasn’t credited when the seed
landed on the fertile soil, nor was he criticized when the seed landed in the
rocks, he just went out and sowed.

Both of these men
were in the crowd, they both heard the words of Christ, they had equal
opportunity to respond.  We may not have
the chance to sit at the feet of Christ today, but his message continues, and
his word continues.  Through personal
evangelism, through preaching, through the 
scripture.  Jesus Christ is still
speaking to people today, young and old, rich and poor, religious and non-religious.  And they are still accepting him or they are
still rejecting him.

2) They Both
Reacted to the Word.  They were both doers.  They didn’t stand still in life.  Both men built houses and of course the
houses that were constructed were allegories of life.  Both men after hearing Jesus Christ speak got
on with living.  And in their lives I’m
sure there were many similarities.  They probably
had a wife and family, probably had an occupation, a job of some kind.  They would have had concerns, and
worries. 

Because admit it or
not, like it or not, we have a lot in common with those of the world.  The bible says that we are in the world but
not of the world.  But many would deny
that we are even in the world.   Yet we
have so much in common with those who have never accepted Jesus’ offer of grace.  Pain, suffering, triumph, heartache, we laugh
and we cry.

A decision to follow
Christ does not exempt us from living, it doesn’t pull us out of the arena of
life.  Instead Christ said in John 10:10 My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. And
that is the point, when the world sees just how the Christian deals with life,
and tragedy and even ultimately with death we are a witness.

3) They Both Had
Tribulations.  The greatest common denominator in the human
race is tragedy.  None of us will ever
escape tribulation.  It will always find
us one way or another.  Death and tragedy
are non-selective, we are told that the rain falls on the just and the
unjust. 

A number of years
ago a young man by the name of Scott McNaughton was stabbed and killed outside
of a bar here in Halifax.  It seems that Scott’s
wife and young daughter had been away for the weekend and he went out with a
couple of the boys and ended up in an argument over somebody else’s girlfriend
and was stabbed to death. 

Scott’s father was a
friend of mine, another pastor in Truro. 
I wonder if even for a moment Scott’s assailant considered the pain that
he would inflict on Scott’s Christian parents?

In both cases here
the bible says  The
rain came in torrents and the floodwaters rose and the winds beat against that
house.: in both cases the exact same tribulation fell upon each
man.  Now that isn’t the way it usually
is, usually our tragedies are uniquely ours. 
But even if the circumstances aren’t always identical the fact remains
that we will all suffer in this life.

Sometimes it’s
tempting to think that if we are believers that we will be exempt from the
troubles that plague the world, but that’s not the case.  Our commitment to Christ doesn’t give us a
“Get out of life free” card.

But along with the
similarities there were differences as well. 

1) Their Reactions
Were Different.  The first thing we said about the men was
that they reacted.  And they did, but
they reacted in two different ways.  One
based the remainder of his life on Christ’s teachings.  What was it that Jesus said about the first
man?  “Therefore anyone who hears my
words and follows them.”  The words that
Jesus was talking about included but were not limited to the Sermon on the Mount.  They encompassed everything he taught
from  “for God so loved the world, to take
up your cross and follow me”, these were the Red Letter words.

And the teachings of
Jesus Christ became the philosophy that this man determined to live by.  How he dealt with his friends, family, work
associates and enemies.  This determined
how he prayed, how he gave and how he served.

His relationship to Jesus
Christ and his obligations to Jesus Christ were of paramount importance.  Today we would say he was a fully committed
follower or Jesus Christ.

On the other hand
the second man chose a different path. Christ described him as everyone who
hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice.  There was no response to the claims of Jesus Christ,
he heard the words, he understood what Jesus was saying but his prime concern
was himself.  He was ultimately looking
toward instantaneous gratification.

We really don’t know
why he chose that path.

a) Maybe He Didn’t
Believe Christ when he said I
am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through
me.  Maybe he thought that was a little
narrow.  Maybe he thought there must be
many other ways as well and opted to follow one of those.

b) Maybe He
Thought He Had Plenty Of Time To Get Things Straight. We all do that to one degree or another. But
as the man said the only problem with waiting until the eleventh hour is if you
die at 10:45.  A number of years ago a
good friend of mine, Ed Newell, died of cancer. 
At his funeral in lieu of a eulogy his pastor read the letter that Ed
had left to be read. That is one way of making sure that the preacher says what
you want said at your funeral. And in it Ed said, “Don’t wait for the deep water to come, every one of us needs to get right
with Christ now.  Not tomorrow and not
next week but now.”

c) Maybe He Felt
Like It Just Wasn’t Worth The Effort, kind of like the kid who fritters away his time at school, because he
doesn’t think it’s worth his time and then ends up in a dead end job and can’t
understand why.

We don’t know why he
chose not to follow Christ but we do know that’s the direction he took.

The biggest difference of course was in 2) Their Fates Were Different.  One
house stood up to the flood, storms and trials and one didn’t it is just that
simple.

One man had the
inner resources “which only Christ can give” to stand up to those
tribulations.  And the other man relying
totally on himself collapsed.  It is interesting
to note that the means that Christ uses to differentiate between the two men
was not, one was good and one was bad. 
It was not that one was moral and one was immoral, it was not that one
was religious and one was not religious. 
It wasn’t that one was right and one was wrong.

Instead it was the
same terms he used in describing others who would hear his message ant that was
wise and foolish.  Christ brought it
right down to where the rubber meets the road, and said that the spiritual
decisions that count in this life are not just decisions of the heart but also
decisions of the head.  And in those
decisions of life God has provided all the information we need to base our
choice on.  Some will make the right
choices and some will blow it.  But they will
make their decisions and will be judged wise or foolish because of it.

There is no other
way that we can separate them.  And
remember that wise and smart don’t always go together.  But what was in the difference?  It wasn’t the message, that was the same.  And it wasn’t in the house as far as we know
it was the very same type of house.

Instead the
difference lay in the foundation that the house was built on.  One winter morning in New York I looked out the window into the
back yard and there was an enormous pine tree lying across my back yard.  It had been pulled up by the roots, they had
spread out for meters in all directions but they had no depth.

It wasn’t just on
rock it was dug down deep and laid on rock. 
The rock here signifies in the physical sense stable ground, secure
ground, and in the spiritual sense represents our anchoring ourselves to Jesus Christ.

In I Corinthians 10:4
Paul refers to Christ as the rock. As a
child growing up in Europe I’m sure that my
parents took me to the ruins of every castle ever built on the continent.  And I can still remember those castles that
had been literally carved out of mountains. 
Bearing mute testimony to the finality of rock.