THE TWO BUILDERS - Oswald Chambers
The emphasis in w. 24-27 is laid by Our Lord on hearing and doing. He has given us His disposition, and He demands that we live as His disciples; how are we going to do it? By hearing My words and doing them, says Jesus. I only hear what I listen for. Have I listened to what Jesus has to say? Have I paid any attention to finding out what He did say? Most of us don’t know what He said. If we have only a smattering of religion, we talk a lot about the devil; but what hinders me spiritually is not the devil half so much as inattention. I may hear the sayings of Jesus, but my will is left untouched, I never do them. The understanding of the Bible only comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit making the universe of the Bible real to me.
We speak of building ” castles in the air,” that is where a castle should be, whoever heard of a castle underground! The problem is how to get the foundation under your castle in the air so that it can stand upon the earth. The way to put foundations under our castles is by paying attention to the words of Jesus. I may listen and read, and not make much of it at the time, but by and bye I shall come into circumstances when the Holy Spirit will bring back to me what Jesus said am I going to obey it? Jesus says the way to put foundations under spiritual castles is by hearing and doing ” these sayings of Mine.” Pay attention to His words and give time to do it. Try five minutes a day with your Bible. The thing that influences you most is not the thing you give most tune to, but the thing that springs from your own personal relationship, that is the prime motive that dominates you.
” Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am ” but is He? Think of how we back out of what He says! “I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” We say that is all very well up to a certain point, and then we abandon it. If you do obey the words of Jesus, you are sure to be called a fanatic. The New Testament associates’ shame with the gospel (see Romans 1. 16, 1Peter IV. 12-13).
Our spiritual castles must be conspicuous, and the test of the building is not its fair beauty but its foundations. There are beautiful spiritual fabrics raised in the shape of books and of lives, full of the finest diction and activities, but when the test comes, down they go. They have not been built on the sayings of Jesus but built altogether in the air with no foundation under them. Build up your character bit by bit by attention to My
words, says Jesus, and when the supreme crisis comes, you will stand like a rock. The crisis does not come always, but when it does come, it is all up in about two seconds, there is no possibility of pretense; you are unearthed immediately. If a man has built himself up in private by listening to the words of Jesus and obeying them, when the crisis comes it is not his strength of will that keeps him, but the tremendous power of God ” kept by the power of God.” Go on building up yourself in the word of God when no one is watching you, and when the crisis comes you will find you stand like a rock; but if you have not been building yourself up on the word of God, you will go down no matter what your will is like. All you build will end in disaster unless it is built on the sayings of Jesus; but if you are doing what Jesus told you to do, nourishing your soul on His word, you need not fear whatever the crisis is. Every spiritual castle will be tested by a threefold storm rain, floods and wind: the world, the flesh and the devil, and it will only stand if it is founded on the sayings of Jesus. Every spiritual fabric that is built with the sayings of Jesus instead of being founded on them, Jesus calls the building of a foolish man. There is a tendency in all of us to appreciate the sayings of Jesus with our intellects while we refuse to do them, and everything we build will go by the board when the test comes. Paul applies this in 1 Cor. III. 12-13 ” Now if any man builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man s work of what sort it is.” It has all to be tested by the supreme test.
All that I build will be tested supremely, and it will tumble in a fearful disaster unless it is built on the sayings of Jesus. It is easy to build with the sayings of Jesus, to sling texts of Scripture together and build them into any kind of fabric. But Jesus brings the disciple to the test You hear My sayings and quote them, but do you do them in your office, in your home life, in your private life Notice the repulsion you feel towards anyone who tries to build with the sayings of Jesus. Our Lord makes no room for having some compartments holy and other compartments not holy, the whole thing must be radically built on the foundation.
this summing up is a descriptive note by the Holy Spirit of the way in which the people who heard Jesus were impressed by His doctrine. Its application for us is not What would Jesus do? but, what did Jesus say? As I concentrate on what He said, I can stake my immortal soul on His words. It is a question of scriptural concentration, not of sentimental consecration. When Jesus brings a thing home by His word, don t shirk it, e.g., something your brother has against you (Matt. V. 42) some debt, something that presses if you shirk that point, you become a religious humbug. The Holy Spirit’s voice is as gentle as a zephyr, the merest check, and you say, but that is only a tiny detail, it is much too trivial for the Holy Spirit to mean that; it is just that point, and at the risk of being thought a fanatic you must obey. When you are beginning to walk in the right way with God, you will find the spirit of self-vindication gets unearthed, trying to fulfil what Jesus says brings it to the light. What does it matter what anyone thinks of you so long as Jesus thinks it is the right thing to do so long as you can hear Him say ” Well done, good and faithful servant “?