PARABLES OF CHRIST
THE WISE AND FOOLISH BUILDER
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 7:21-27
JUNE 7, 1998
In the year 1905, two French psychologists named Theodore Simone and Alfred Benet established the first intelligence test accepted by scientists around the world. In the year 1916, an American psychologist named Lewis Terman at the University of Stanford took that intelligence test and modified it, adapted it for use here in this nation. That test began to be called in this nation the Stanford-Benet Intelligence Test. It was modified again in 1937 and then again in 1960. In this century, throughout the 20th century, the Stanford-Benet Intelligence Test has become the primary diagnostic tool used to discern a person’s intelligence quotient, or a person’s IQ.
Scientists tell us that intellect has very little to do with wisdom. Some of the most intelligent people in the world have very little wisdom. Some of the most intelligent people in the world, some of the people with the greatest IQs, are really very foolish in their behavior, in their lifestyles. Of course, some people with very average intellect have great wisdom.
The Bible tells us that wisdom is more important than intelligence. The world has not developed a test, a diagnostic tool, to discern degrees of human wisdom. But our Lord Jesus Christ, in our parable for today, gives us a tool through which we can discern true, genuine wisdom. Jesus tells us that those who build the structure of their life upon the foundation of His word, upon the rock of His word, are wise and those who build the structures of their life on sinking sand are foolish. This morning we are going to examine sinking sand. We’re going to examine some of the false foundations in this world. The first is wealth. There are many people in this world who build their lives, their security, upon wealth and who live in the pursuit of wealth.
In the year 1923 at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, seven of the world’s most wealthy men were gathered. In that group, there was Arthur Cutten, the agricultural giant, the greatest wheat speculator in the world. In that group there was Albert Fall, the multimillionaire who was a member of President Warren Harding’s cabinet. In that group there was Leon Fraser, the President of the Bank of International Settlement, a multimillionaire. In that group there was Ivar Kreuger who was the head of the largest corporate monopoly in the world. In that group there was Jesse Livermore, the great bear of Wall Street. In that group there was Charles Schwab, who was the President of the largest independent steel company in the world. And then in the group there was Richard Whitney, who was the President of the New York Stock Exchange. These seven men collectively controlled more wealth than the entire United States Treasury. And yet their lives ended in ruin.
Historians tell us that Arthur Cutten, the agricultural giant, the greatest wheat speculator in the world, died in bankruptcy and fled this nation in poverty. Historians tell us that Alfred Fall, the multimillionaire who had been a member of Warren Harding’s cabinet and was worth an estimated $20 million, wound up incarcerated and he was, in the last days of his life, released from prison that he might die at home. Historians tell us that Jesse Livermore, the great bear of Wall Street, committed suicide. They tell us that Charles Schwab, who was allegedly worth $200 million and who had once been the head of Carnegie Steel and once been the head of U.S. Steel and once been the head of Bethlehem Steel, died in bankruptcy and spent the last five years of his life borrowing money. They tell us that Richard Whitney, the President of the New York Stock Exchange, spent the second half of his life incarcerated in Sing Sing Penitentiary.
Of course, most of us in this room will never head massive corporations. Most of us in this room will never be multimillionaires. Most of us in this room will never attain great wealth, but Christ wants us to understand that the pursuit of wealth is a pursuit in vanity. Christ wants us to understand that there is no security in wealth. There is no ultimate fulfillment in wealth and ultimately wealth is simply sinking sand.
It was Jesus who told the story of the man and his barns. The man who had so much that he had to tear down his barns and build larger barns just to store his grain and his goods. That man, Jesus said, spoke to his own soul, saying, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink and be merry.” Jesus said the man was a fool, because that very day his soul was required of him and the things which he had accumulated, whose would they be?
You see, as James Dobson once said, “Wealth is just like the monopoly game. At the end it all goes back in the box.” Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” Mammon is the Aramaic word for money. You cannot serve both God and money. Each of you in this room know what you’re living for and you know who you are living for. If you take the name of Christ and you belong to Christ, then you do not live for money. You live for Christ. Jesus said, “Those who are rich towards themselves and not rich towards God will wind up in ruin.” Sinking sand.
Another false foundation is health. And there are, of course, many people in this world who find security in their health and spend a great deal of time thinking about health and pursuing health, people who say that if you have your health, you have everything. Of course, that simply isn’t true. It was one week before Easter when I was told by doctors that I probably had cancer. Barb and I went for a month believing that I probably had cancer. By the grace of God, doctors now think that I probably don’t have cancer, although they’re running further tests. But in this time, Barb and I have just been reminded how frail and fragile physical life is. The Bible says, “All flesh is like grass, all of its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls. The Word of the Lord that abides forever.”
In this past month or two, many of you have prayed for my health and I thank you very much. Some of you have sent me vitamins. Some of you have sent me herbs. Some of you have sent me various recommendations with regard to diet and with regard to exercise. I thank you for your loving concern. The truth is that I am not against diet or vitamins or exercise. The truth is I’ve taken vitamins for many years, and I’ve exercised for 23 years, jogging regularly. I’ve even, on occasion, tried to eat right. But ultimately there is no security in health. Ultimately there is no security in health.
I know that some of you, growing up, were probably familiar with the nursery rhyme, “Ring Around the Rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” Most kids who say that nursery rhyme have no clue as to the meaning. Most adults have no clue as to the meaning, but the nursery rhyme is very old and it comes from the middle ages. It comes from the time when the black death, the bubonic plague, swept across Europe and Asia. From 1347 to the year 1400, a minimum of 40 million people died. And, of course, it was a time when medical knowledge was primitive and people lived in superstition and fear. Most people throughout Europe believed that the black death was caused by polluted air in their lungs. So they took ashes and they put them in spoons and they sniffed the ashes, trying to induce sneezing, thinking that through sneezing they could purge the polluted air from their nasal passages and from their lungs. They would hold hands and they would gather and walk around rose gardens believing that the fragrance of the rose bush and the flowers would neutralize or compensate for the polluted air that was in their lungs. They would take petals from the rose and they called those petals posies and they would put them in their pockets and they would carry them around with them. Throughout the day they would smell those posies, thinking that they would ward off the black death. But in the end they all fell down. In the end, they all fell down.
I hope you understand that diet and vitamins and exercise it’s really all just ashes, rosies, and posies. Ultimately, we all fall down. It is inevitable, because the death rate is 100% and there is no security in health. It is sinking sand.
Some people look to power. Of course, we live in a world where many women and men seek power, some more subtlety than others. I think most people in this world are concerned that the nation of India and the nation of Pakistan have recently detonated thermonuclear bombs and perhaps the world feels a little less safe than once it did. But it is true that nations seek power. It is true that most nations in this world want to be respected throughout the world for their power.
This is not only true of nations, of course. This is true of individual people. In the fourth century before Christ, Alexander the Great conquered Persia. The conquest took more than two years. Alexander the Great conquered Persian city after city. His soldiers began to grow weary because of all the plunder they were carrying, plunder seized from cities that they had conquered. The plunder they were carrying began to just wear them down. Historians tell us that there came a point when Alexander the Great had all of his soldiers gather and throw all of that plunder that they were carrying into a pile. He burned the pile. That which would not burn, the gold and the silver, he buried. Because Alexander the Great really wasn’t that much interested in wealth. What he sought was power.
This has been true throughout history. Most of us in this room would have no expectation of ruling a nation or an empire or a kingdom. I think most of you have no expectation of ruling a large corporation, some kind of conglomerate. Maybe you just want to head a small business or maybe within a corporation you want to become a department head. But be careful of the pursuit of power.
King David, we are told in two passages in scripture, in 1 Chronicles 21 and also in 2 Samuel, chapter 24, took a census. 1 Chronicles 21, verse one, tells us that King David took that census by the enticement of the devil, by the enticement of Satan. He gave into that temptation, took the census of the people of Israel and the people of Judah, and God was angered. God became angry and His judgement came upon David. David was allowed to choose between three different judgements: famine, war, or pestilence. He chose pestilence and plague came upon the land.
Some have wondered, “Why? Why was God so angry? What was wrong with David taking a census of Israel?” Some have said, “Well, the problem was David’s ego and pride. Perhaps he just was prideful regarding the number of people that he ruled and reigned over.” And that certainly is a possibility. But we know that in the ancient world, kings and governments only took a census for one of two reasons. They took a census for the sake of taxation, to fatten the treasuries of their kingdom or empire, or they took a census for the sake of conscription, to conscript able-bodied men into the military in order that the nation might go to war.
Since the Bible tells us in 1 Chronicles 21 and in 2 Samuel 24 that David instructed his military commander Joab and his sub-commanders to conduct this census. Most Bible scholars believe that David was seeking conscription, building his military forces, building his power, building his might. God wanted David to understand that’s sinking sand. Jesus said, “You know how the rulers of the gentiles loved to lord it over them and their great men loved to exercise authority over them. It shall not be so amongst you. He who would be the greatest among you must be the servant of all. Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give His life, a ransom for many.” So don’t seek power. Seek service. That’s what Christ would say to us this morning. Don’t seek power. Seek service. If you seek power, make sure that you seek it only for the sake of service.
Of course, Satan is subtle and our hearts are easily corrupted. There is another false foundation and that false foundation is pleasure. Of course many people in this world seek fulfillment through pleasure, what the Bible calls “hedone” and what philosophers call hedonism. I think we live in a culture and most of the western world offers cultures that are rooted in the pursuit of hedonism and the pursuit of pleasure and the seeking of fulfillment through pleasure.
It was 4,000 years ago when the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were reduced to ashes by the judgement of God. Those twin cities, most archeologists believe, remain buried today deep beneath the Dead Sea. Some Bible scholars have asked the question why. Why did God destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah?
At the Inauguration of President Clinton, Tony Campolo told the nation that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of their lack of compassion and their lack of love and they did not reach out to the poor and to the needy. And certainly this is true. In Ezekiel, chapter 16, the Bible makes it very clear that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were very wealthy but they had no heart for the poor, no heart for the needy, no compassion. That was part of the reason for the divine judgement but, of course, not the only reason. We know in Genesis, chapter 19, that the event that immediately preceded the judgement of God upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah was an attempted homosexual gang rape of angelic beings.
Of course, when we go to the books of 2 Peter and the little book of Jude in the New Testament, we’re told that the primary problem of Sodom and Gomorrah was the problem of “ekporneusasai.” “Porneia” is a Greek word which refers to immorality. It oftentimes was used to describe sexual immorality, but it always described hedonistic sins, sins relating to pleasure. Ekporneusasai means “to give sway,” “to give yourself up to porneia,” “to give yourself up to pleasure,” “to give yourself up to the pursuit of pleasure.” This was true of Sodom and Gomorrah.
I think it is somewhat true of our nation today and I think judgement cannot be far away. Of course, pleasure is a gift from God. Each of us have a capacity for pleasure by the will of God. We are to subject that desire for pleasure to the commands of God so that sex is a great gift from God, meant to be opened within the context of marriage. Whenever it’s opened outside of that context, we cheapen it, we taint it, and we do damage to our souls.
Food is a great gift from God, but it’s not meant to be abused in gluttony. The Bible, of course, condemns drunkenness. And certainly we are a nation that is sexually promiscuous and a nation that eats too much and a nation that drinks too much. We are also a nation that is just fascinated and preoccupied with entertainment. And so many of us just fill every free moment with some form of entertainment, perhaps movies or perhaps sports. There’s nothing wrong with movies per se and I know that many of us love sports, but the problem in this nation is so many people have so given themselves to some form of pleasure that they have no time. People just don’t have time to serve Christ. They don’t have time to serve His church and His kingdom. They don’t have time to volunteer because they are so busy with the pursuit of wealth and the pursuit of pleasure. Sinking sand.
So Jesus tells us this morning to make sure that our lives are founded on the rock, the rock of His word. He said, “Whoever hears My words and does them, I will tell you what he is like. He is like a wise man who founded his house upon the rock. And the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, and the house stood firm because it was founded on the rock.”
Frank Sinatra just recently died, and you all know that. He made famous the song, “My Way.” It is said that that song was sung at his funeral service, “My Way.” Of course, that song is tragic. If you read the words to that song, the words are tragic. If you do it your way in life, it’s all going to be sinking sand. If your life is going to be built on a rock, on THE rock, you need to do it His way and I need to do it His way. We need to live in submission to His word.
The USA Today newspaper, just last week, had a feature story on the Bible. According to the USA Today, the Bible has never been more popular with regard to sales. The average household in this nation has three Bibles now and 58% of the people in the United States of America, according to the USA Today, believe that every word in the Bible is absolutely true. Incredible. But this report also said that most people in America do not read their Bibles and they have a very poor knowledge of what’s in the Bible. And, of course, most people do not live by scripture and in accordance with scripture and the warning of Christ is in this parable.
I would not want to leave you with the impression, however, that the rock is simply the Word of Christ. The rock is Christ Himself. The Bible tells us clearly Jesus is the Rock of Ages, the answer to a life that is secure and fulfilling and eternal. It is not simply in struggling to obey the word of scripture but it’s in knowing Jesus—knowing Jesus and then seeking to follow His Word. It would be a mistake if you left this place and you thought, “I just need to obey the word and I’m going to be blessed eternally.” That’s putting the cart before the horse. You have to begin with a relationship, a commitment to Jesus Christ and the person of Christ. And then, out of that loving relationship, seek to follow His word.
You know, as we close, I’m reminded of a story concerning T.E. Lawrence. I think many of you are familiar somewhat with the life of T.E. Lawrence. T.E. Lawrence was born in Wales and educated at Oxford University. He received degrees in archeology and in near eastern studies. It was T.E. Lawrence who was better known as Lawrence of Arabia and helped the Arabian people come out from under the oppression of the Ottoman Turks. T.E. Lawrence, in his own writings, describes how at the Versailles Conference in 1919 following World War I he brought with him Arab men to the city of Paris. T.E. Lawrence says that these Arabians were amazed at what they saw in the city of Paris, and they were most fascinated by water faucets in the hotel rooms. You could just turn a faucet and the water came pouring out. These Arabians had never seen anything like that. T.E. Lawrence writes that when he returned to Arabia with these men, he discovered that one of the men had taken the water faucet from his hotel room with him. He actually believed that it would work in Arabia, that he could just turn it and somehow water would magically come out. He didn’t understand the plumbing that was behind it and he didn’t understand the whole concept of source.
I hope you understand today that the Bible apart from Christ, apart from the person of Christ, is just like that detached water faucet. It’s Jesus who is the Rock. It’s Jesus who is the Source. If you’ve not come to Christ, you need to come to Him today because everything else is sinking sand. And then coming to Him, resolve that you’re going to live your life day-by-day, moment-by-moment by His word. Let’s close with a word of prayer.