How to Be Wise and Not a Fool

Matthew 7:24-29

Main Idea: Obedience to God’s Word is paramount for anyone who wants to be wise and follow Jesus.

1. Build Your Life on the Strong Foundation of God’s Word (7:24-27).
   1. Know the Word and obey the Word, and you will be wise (7:24-25).
   2. Know the Word and disobey the Word, and you will be a fool (7:26-27).
2. Listen to the Teachings of the Son of God, Not the Wisdom of Men (7:28-29).
   1. The words of Jesus are amazing (7:28).
   2. The words of Jesus have authority (7:29).

Every person has a source, or multiple sources, of authority that informs and shapes their worldview. This authority influences how we think, act, and live. It may even determine how we die. Norman Geisler accurately points out,

The truth is that a worldview is like colored glasses; it colors everything at which we look. It is a grid through which one views all of life. As such, it helps form our thoughts, values, and decisions. The tragedy is that most people do not even know what their worldview is, how they got it, and how important it is in their lives. (Phillips, Brown, and Stonestreet, Making Sense, vii)

How we get our worldview comes back to the issue of the authority we follow. Although it is possible to expand this study with a more in-depth and sophisticated look at this issue, the sources of authority that mold and shape our decision making and way of life can be boiled down to four: reason (I think), experience (I feel), tradition (I have always done), and revelation (God says in his Word). One or more of these authorities will govern how we live.

We are going to grant ultimate authority in our lives to the source we believe provides reliable knowledge and wisdom for life’s decisions. James, the half brother of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, says there are two types of wisdom in life: wisdom from above that comes from God and wisdom from below that comes from man and (sometimes) Satan. In James 3:13-18 he helpfully contrasts the two types of wisdom for our edification.

James is not the only person to simplify life in this twofold manner. Jesus did it first, and it would not be surprising if James got his insights from his brother and what he taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7:24-29 concludes one of the greatest sermons ever preached. It also provides an appropriate end to chapter 7 where Jesus and Matthew make several contrasts:

• The narrow gate of life and the wide gate of destruction (7:13-14)
• The good tree that has fruit and the bad tree that is fruitless (7:15-20)
• The genuine confession of the obedient and the false profession of the disobedient (7:21-23)
• The solid rock of wisdom and the shifting sands of foolishness (7:24-27)
• The teachings of the Master and the teachings of men (7:28-29)

Seeing clearly and choosing between these options requires wisdom. One can define true wisdom as the ability to see life from God’s perspective and then to act accordingly. Jesus gives us God’s perspective in the Sermon on the Mount, concluding his sermon with the final contrasts and set of choices each person must make. This last teaching has two sections, each containing one paragraph divided into two parts.

Build Your Life on the Strong Foundation of God’s Word

Matthew 7:24-27

Jesus was an expert teacher in every way. One particular characteristic of his teaching skills was to tell simple and easy-to-remember stories that contained profound truth. One such story concerned two men who built what would appear to be two similar houses. The only difference was the foundation. One man wisely chose to build his house on a rock, a solid foundation. The other foolishly chose to build his house on sand, a shifting foundation. The end results could not have been more different. In both instances the story points to how one responds to the words of Jesus.

Know the Word and Obey the Word, and You Will Be Wise (7:24-25)

Jesus intends for this story to apply to any and all who hear his words. The word “everyone” (Gk. pas) makes that evident. When he prefaces the story with “these words of mine,” Jesus is not setting (and never does) his words against or in opposition to Holy Scripture, which Matthew 5:17-20 makes clear. He certainly has a different hermeneutic from that of the scribes and Pharisees, but there is absolutely no difference between the words of our Savior and the words of Scripture in terms of reliability, authority, and sufficiency.

Jesus notes two qualities of the “wise man.” First, he hears the words of Christ, which refers in this context to the words of the Sermon on the Mount. Second, the wise man does them. He obeys them. This sounds similar to James 1:22-25, which says,

But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.

To hear God’s Word and then obey these words is to be like a wise home builder who constructs his house on a rock-solid foundation. Why is he called wise? Matthew 7:25 informs us that the storm of judgment is coming. As David Platt writes,

We must hear Jesus. When he says that there is a storm coming, he is not talking about what we so often identify as the “storms of life.” Those storms are real and they are painful—storms like cancer, divorce and losing a loved one—and the Bible certainly addresses them. However, Jesus is referring to a cataclysmic reality, a final and utterly devastating storm of the future judgment of God. (Exalting Jesus, 100)

Charles Quarles points out that the word translated “wise” (phronimos) “appears a total of seven times in Matthew and most frequently describes one who wisely prepares for the coming of the Messiah through faithful service and obedient living” (Sermon, 343). The storm of God’s judgment is coming for all. We must ask ourselves if we will be able to stand when that day comes.

A basic theological truth runs throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation: revelation brings responsibility. The more you hear and know of God and his Word, the greater is your responsibility when you stand before him in judgment. Those who are wise will both hear his Word and obey his Word. When the storm of eschatological judgment comes, their house will not “collapse, because its foundation was on the rock” (v. 25). Hymn writer John Rippon got it exactly right: “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.”

Know the Word and Disobey the Word, and You Will Be a Fool (7:26-27)

There is an unfortunate contrast in verses 26-27 to the wise man of verses 24-25. Jesus calls him a foolish man (v. 26). At first glance there do not appear to be any differences between the two. John MacArthur notes at least four similarities between the wise man and the foolish man: both builders heard the gospel, the same sermon, the words of Christ; both proceed to build a house after having heard the same message; both apparently built their houses in the same general location; and both built houses that were similar, at least outwardly (Matthew 1–7, 481–82). The difference between the two is their foundation, their obedience to the Word.

The foolish man hears the words of Christ but “doesn’t act on them” (v. 26). He is a hearer only, and he is deceiving himself. He is the person who hears faithful gospel preaching week after week but never changes. He hears the word again and again but never obeys. Perhaps he even gets a master’s or doctoral degree to teach the Bible, but he is never transformed and made new (2 Cor 5:17). He thinks that because he has a form of godliness he is safe. In actuality, he is headed toward a horrible and an eternal destruction.

Building on sand means hearing the Word and disobeying it. It is foolish and makes you a fool. If you build on sand by being disobedient to the gospel (cf. Rom 1:5), judgment day will arrive like a terrible storm. When it does, the house will fall. It will be said, “and great was the fall of it” (v. 27 KJV). Quarles notes that the image of the storm was a familiar one for eschatological judgment in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Texts like Jeremiah 23:19-20 say,

Look, a storm from the !

Wrath has gone out,

a whirling storm.

It will whirl about the heads of the wicked.

The ’s anger will not turn away

until he has completely fulfilled the purposes of his heart.

In time to come you will understand it clearly.

Jeremiah 25:32 adds,

This is what the of Armies says:

Pay attention! Disaster spreads

from nation to nation.

A huge storm is stirred up

from the ends of the earth.

Texts like Isaiah 28:16-22; Ezekiel 13:10-16; and Matthew 24:37-39 seal the deal that final judgment is in view in this passage (Quarles, Sermon, 345–46).

Jesus warns his listeners by saying, you deceived yourself into thinking you will be ready, and you are not. You thought listening was enough. You thought superficial allegiance, casual and comfortable Christianity, would suffice. But on that day you will discover you were wrong. Charles Spurgeon says of the fool,

Yet though he was industrious, he was foolish. . . . The crash was terrible; the sound was heard afar. . . . The overflow was final and irretrievable. Many heard the fall, and many more saw the ruins as they remained a perpetual memorial of the results of that folly which is satisfied with hearing, and neglects doing. (Exposition, 46)

I read this and am haunted by the words of Revelation 14:11 and its picture of hell: “And the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night.” It is essential to build our lives on the strong foundation of God’s Word, hearing it and obeying it. Proverbs 12:7 reminds us, “The wicked are overthrown and perish, but the house of the righteous will stand.” And Proverbs 14:11 provides a fitting complement: “The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish.”

Listen to the Teachings of the Son of God, Not the Wisdom of Men

Matthew 7:28-29

Sinclair Ferguson is spot-on when he writes, “Jesus did not preach [the Sermon on the Mount] in order to be admired for his homiletical skills. He preached it to produce obedience” (Sermon, 171). Verses 28-29 summarize the crowd’s response to the sermon. The conclusion itself looks back to the beginning of the sermon in 5:1-2. Together they provide natural bookends to the sermon. There is no word or indication of the listeners being wise obeyers to the teachings of Jesus. The response of the crowds—I fear like many others—is more superficial than substantive. It is only skin deep. The heart, at least for many, is unchanged. There is no greater tragedy than for someone to meet Jesus, hear his words, and walk away astonished and amazed but still unchanged.

The Words of Jesus Are Amazing (7:28)

Jesus has concluded the sermon. Matthew has provided a condensed and accurate summation of what was certainly a much longer address. Verse 28 simply says, “The crowds were astonished at his teaching.” Eugene Peterson colorfully paraphrases in The Message: “When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this.” The word “astonished” could be translated “amazed,” and it is a recurring theme in Matthew (cf. 13:54; 19:25; 22:33). It is an imperfect verb, which Osborne says “depicts an ongoing feeling of wonder as they went home” (Matthew, 276). Their amazement continued for a while.

The source of their amazement was his teachings (Gk didache). The focus here is on content, whereas the emphasis in verse 29 is the manner in which Jesus taught. His words stunned them, blew their minds. John 7:46 cannot be improved upon: “No man ever spoke like this!”

The Words of Jesus Have Authority (7:29)

The teachings of Jesus stood in stark contrast to those of the religious scholars of the day, “the scribes.” These spiritual guides taught by a derivative authority. To validate their doctrine, they would appeal to the authority of their esteemed and respected rabbinic predecessors. Jesus’s authority, however, resided in himself! Even the liberal New Testament scholar Georg Strecker gets it right when he writes, “Because the [authority] of Jesus is named as the reason for the astonishment . . . a specifically christological assertion is involved here” (Sermon, 172). This teacher, the Lord Jesus, is unlike any other teacher who has gone before him and any other teacher who will come after him. His authority resides in himself.

Quarles draws attention to the importance of the word “authority.” He notes that “it introduces a prominent theme in the next major section of the Gospel (8:9; 9:6, 8; 10:1)” and that “it also anticipates the conclusion of the Gospel as a whole (28:16-20) in which Jesus insists, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth’” (Sermon, 358). The authority of this teacher is none other than the authority of his own deity. Spurgeon says it so well:

He spoke royally: the truth itself was its own argument and demonstration. He taught prophetically, as one inspired from above; men felt that he [spoke] after the manner of one sent of God. It was no fault on their part to be astonished; but it was a grave crime to be astonished and nothing more. (Exposition, 46)