PART TWO - “House on the rock and house on sand” (Matthew 7:13-29)
Summary of last week:
• Both the house on the rock and the house on sand look the same on the outside. That is, just by looking at people’s actions it is hard to tell whether they are true believers, or those that Jesus would call “evil”.
• Jesus says that those who do the “will of the father” are the ones who will enter the kingdom of heaven, and these are the ones who are building their houses on the rock  that “will of the father” was to:

“believe in the son and have eternal life” (John 6:38)
This means to realise that with our human efforts it is impossible to reach the tree of life and eternity with God, and rely solely on the works of Jesus, on the grace of the cross and fall flat on the face in front of God. That’s what it means to do the will of the Father, that’s what it means to believe.
The will of the father does not involve us helping God to achieve his goals… It is for us to submit to him, give our lives to him.
• This was a parable to teach us that it is not what we do that matters, but why we do things that matters. All the things you’re doing…. Who is it for? Is it for your glory or your gain? Even the things that look selfless, if it’s ultimate for your gain it is no use.

• So the ones that build their houses on the sand were those that are founded on themselves. Self-glorifying, self-confident, self-motivated, self-seeking.

• Whereas “the rock” is what?.... Jesus.

False teachers
So the job of the preacher is to expose and reveal the truth of sin in the sheep, teach submission in front of the grace of Jesus Christ, to destroy the faith that the sheep have on themselves. But false prophets, false preachers do the opposite – they say things to encourage the pride of churchgoers, to make them believe in themselves, so that they can plunder the energy, possession and hard work of the churchgoers.
<READ Matthew 7:15-20>
Keep in mind that the false prophets are wearing sheep’s clothing and that their objective is to plunder like wolves. When it says sheep’s clothing – these are not the really crazy Reverend Moon from the unification church or people like that. It is clear that those people are wolves. Then who does Jesus mean with “wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing”? Those preachers that really look genuine, righteous, clean and honest, but who are actually plundering the sheep.
The plundering here doesn’t just mean the possessions of the sheep, but the truly scary plundering is plundering the life of the sheep.

… So how do we tell the true preachers from the false preachers?? Jesus says, by the fruits…
What kind of fruits?
What kind of fruits is Jesus talking about? The kind of fruits that Jesus is talking about are special fruits that people of the world cannot produce. What is that?
That fruit is faith
The word “faith” itself implies a major premise of self-denial. If you trust yourself, if you have faith in yourself, how can you have faith in someone else?
Faith begins from self-denial.
Like this, faith produces self-denial, and Holy Spirit works to produce other fruits within us…. And these are given to us in Galatians.
<READ Galatians 5:22-23>
Are these fruits abundantly hanging from your tree? Are you confident in producing these fruits? Probably not. That’s because these are fruits of the Holy Spirit. These are fruits that only the Holy Spirit can produce inside of you, and these fruits are not all produced the very moment that you believe in Jesus Christ, but will be completed when the kingdom of God is completed.
Important thing to note here is that for these fruits to be produced within us, first and foremost, all the fake fruits that I had produced from the wrong foundation will need to be thrown away. The fruits of all the works I used to do for my glory in front of people, all the works I used to do to claim a prize or a reward from God will first be chopped away.
Pastor Kim thinks that because of this, how this looks like in a true believer’s life is that the diligent religious activities and hard work starts to be hidden away. That is the power of the Word of grace. The word of grace is living and active, so it exposes and destroys our fake fruits, our fake works.
When this self-denial takes place in a believer’s life, to others it might look like that person is going through trials, or lost their passion, or lost their love for God. (True for Kev!!!)
This happens because all the fake motive that we had is being stripped away…. And only the truth remains that our love for God was really our love for ourselves… and when this truth is revealed, it reveals the darkness within, it reveals all the coldness within, all the dirt within.
And then…. the grace of Jesus Christ who covers that ugliness shines through.
Who bears the fruits?
Who did the Lord say will bear the fruits?
<READ John 15:4-5>
Like this, in order for us to bear any fruits, the first thing that needs to happen is for us to realise that we are beings that absolutely CAN NOT bear any fruits that God demands by ourselves. And we must realise that we are bad trees that have been grafted (glued, merged) on to the only good tree, who is Jesus.
<READ Romans 11:24>
Those who understand that they’re bad trees are the ones who will put their trust in Jesus, who will build their house on the rock. Those who still don’t understand this are the ones who build their houses on the sand.
Then we can also better understand the parable that Jesus speaks of just above today’s passage, the parable of narrow gates and the wide gates.
<Matthew 7:13-14>
Here you can see the narrow gate and the narrow road that leads to life. This narrow road is the same as the one in Genesis.
<Genesis 3:24>
This is the same road. It says narrow road, but in reality it’s more like a road that no one can get through.
People just simply think that the narrow road and narrow gate means a tough life, and the wide gate and wide road refers to a comfortable life. So people who sacrifice comfort for a life of discipline and service…. But that doesn’t make sense as we know.
So what constitutes a true narrow road and narrow gate?
Life of denying one’s confidence in one’s own ability, denying one’s value, denying one’s power, diligence etc; and seeking only the grace of Jesus Christ, and falling flat in front of Him. That is the narrow road. Not anyone can get through that road. Because it involves being cut, and believing and trusting only in Jesus.
<John 10:7>
<John 14:6>
Jesus is the narrow road and He is the narrow gate. No one can get through this road, this gate without knowing the grace of Christ.
Not only that, this road and gate called Jesus is not a door you can go through if you want to, and if you try hard. You can only go through it by the choice of God.
<Luke 13:24>
The characteristic of these people is that:
• No confidence in their own good works, so they do not appear to produce many things
• They keep thinking about everything they do, reviewing whether the motive is truly the right motive to glorify Jesus, or to glorify themselves.
• They find that all their good works is motivated by themselves, so they become more and more broken.
• If they do find true love within themselves, they realise it’s not of themselves, but produced only by the spirit of Christ, so they do not become proud
So they are constantly thankful, embarrassed and broken.

Conclusion
• False prophets = House on sand = bad tree = wide gate = Me
• True prophet = House on the rock = good tree = narrow gate = Jesus