Matthew 7:21-29

Week 4 Memory Verse
 

Enter by the narrow gate;

for wide is the gate and broad is the way

that leads to destruction,

and there are many who go in by it. 

Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way

which leads to life,

and there are few who find it.

Matthew 7:13-14

 

READ MATTHEW 7:21-29!

 

Jesus is winding up the Sermon on the Mount with a sobering warning.  Not all who call themselves a Christian will be saved.  A person may be a teacher, preacher, or a host of "many wonders" (vs.22) and not have a repentant heart or a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

"The Day of Judgment will reveal strange things.  The hopes of many, who were thought great Christians while they lived, will be utterly confounded.  The rottenness of their religion will be exposed and put to shame before the whole world.  It will then be proved, that to be saved means something more than making a "profession".  We must make a practice of our Christianity as well as a profession.  Let us often think of that great day.  Let us often 'judge ourselves, that we be not judged' and condemned by the Lord.  Whatever else we are, let us aim at being real, true, and sincere." -J.C. Ryle

 

The second warning Jesus gives is to those who "hear" and do nothing.  He says they are like a "foolish man who built his house on the sand." (vs. 26)    JUST HEARING IS NOT ENOUGH.  We must break off from sin, take up our cross, and really lay hold of Jesus Christ.  If we're going to be a " wise man who builds his house upon a ROCK", then we must be "doers as well as hearers." (James 1:22)

 

Jesus is the rock on which I want to build my whole life.  He is strong.  He is able.  He is unmoving, unyielding, and unchanging through anything that might come my way.  I love the song below, The Rock Won't Move by Vertical Church Band.  I've been listening to it everyday, and it goes so well with today's Bible passage.  Hope you enjoy listening to it !

 

When the ground beneath my feet gives way
And I hear the sound of crashing waves
All my world is washing out to sea
I'm hidden safe in the
God who never moves
Holding fast to the promise of the truth
That You are holding tighter still to me

The Rock won't move and His word is strong
The Rock won't move and His love can't be undone
The Rock won't move and His word is strong
The Rock won't move and His love can't be undone
The Rock of our Salvation

My hope is in the promise of Your blood
My support within the raging flood
Even in the tempest, I can sing
I'm hidden safe in the God who never moves
Holding fast to the promise of You truth
That You are holding tighter still to me

Woah, woah
Woah, the Rock of our salvation

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
The Rock won't move, the Rock won't move
When darkness seems to hide His face
I rest in His unchanging grace
The Rock won't move, the Rock won't move

TIME OF REFLECTION:

Using your Bible concordance look up some verses that refer to God the Father or Jesus as The Rock.  Write the verse down in your journal.  Here are some verses that I found!   

 

-Psalms 78:35 Then they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer.

-2 Samuel 22:32 “For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?

-Matthew 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.  This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?

-Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.