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“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
— Matthew 7:24 (NIV)
The central issue in this passage is not whether we hear the words of Jesus, but what we do with what we hear.
This is one of the most searching statements that ever came from the lips of the Lord Jesus. It divides all who come under the sound of His teaching into only two categories: the wise and the foolish. The dividing line is not knowledge. It is obedience.
The lyrics of this song simply echo and expand this teaching of Jesus:
The subject, then, is foundations. Not appearance. Not gifting. Not religious activity. Foundations.
Jesus reveals a principle that governs every life:
This is not optional. This is not for “advanced” Christians. This is the basic, unavoidable law of spiritual construction. You are building. You are on some foundation. You will meet storms. And the outcome is already determined by what you are standing on.
“Let us look at what the Word of God says.”
> “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
> — Matthew 7:24
Matthew 7:24–27 is the climax and conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7).
### Who is speaking?
The speaker is the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God. He is not giving suggestions. He is not offering religious options. He is pronouncing the constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven. At the end of the sermon He brings His hearers to a decision.
The people who heard Him “were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Matthew 7:28–29). His authority did not come from human ordination. It came from His identity as Son of God.
### Who is He addressing?
He is not speaking to pagans. He is speaking to people who are already religious. Many of them were Jews who believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Some had followed Him up the mountain; they had listened to His teaching, perhaps for hours.
So in modern terms, He is addressing “churchgoers.” People who listen to sermons. People who read Scripture. People who say, “Lord, Lord” (Matthew 7:21).
Right before this parable, He has warned:
> “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
> — Matthew 7:21
Then He gives this picture of two builders to illustrate that warning.
### What is the situation?
The Sermon on the Mount has presented:
He has laid out a radically different way of life—one that contradicts both paganism and religious hypocrisy.
Now He says, in effect:
“You have heard My words. The issue now is what you do with them. Your response will determine whether your life stands or collapses when the storms come and when the final judgment comes.”
The picture is simple yet profound:
The difference was not in the storm. The difference was in the foundation.
We will look at two key Greek words: “rock” and “hear.”
### 1. “Rock” – πέτρα (petra)
In Matthew 7:24–25, “rock” is the Greek word petra.
> “...built his house on the rock (petra). The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”
> — **Matthew 7:24
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