<p>6:49 <i>But he that hears and does not do is like a man that built a house upon the earth without a foundation, against which the stream broke- and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great</i>- The Jews who rejected the Lord Jesus are described as builders in Mk. 12:10; Lk. 11:48- and to unwise builders in Lk. 14:28.&nbsp;</p><p>he Lord spoke of the rejected at the judgment as being like a house against which &quot;the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell&quot;. Floods (of the ungodly), winds (whirlwinds), smiting, a falling house- this is all language taken from Job's experiences. He went through all this&nbsp;<i>now</i>, just as each righteous man must come to condemn himself in self-examination&nbsp;<i>now</i>&nbsp;so that he won't be condemned then. Flesh must be condemned, each man must come to know his own desperation. And if he won't do this, the judgment process at the last day will teach it him.</p><p>The collapse of time around the events of the judgment would explain this equation between the gathering and the judgment. The wicked will &quot;immediately&quot; feel that the house of their pseudo-spirituality has totally collapsed, as soon as the rain of judgment comes down (Lk. 6:49). The 'rain' will be a symbol of blessing for the righteous, and of judgment for the wicked. Likewise the cup of wine is another double symbol- of blessing, and of condemnation. Yet we know that there will be a <i>process</i> of condemnation- they will argue back with their Lord, expecting a reward for their good works&hellip; but underneath, &quot;immediately&quot; from their first knowledge of the Lord's return, there will be this sense of total collapse within them. The judgment passages which speak of the rejected apparently confidently demanding a place in the Kingdom in reward for their good works must be read with this fact as background.</p><p>The man who hears and does not appears to be building- he has the sensation of going some place in his spiritual life. He <i>did</i> dig a foundation- in sand, where it is easy to dig. But the Lord said that he built &ldquo;without a foundation&rdquo; (Lk. 6:49). Are we <i>really</i> hearing and doing- or just going through the motion of it, experiencing the sensation of appearing to do it?<br />In the parable, the flood which came was like the day of judgment. This fits in exactly with the way Christ used the figure of the flood to describe His second coming in Mt. 24. Peter does the same in 2 Pet. 3. The beating of the stream upon the house on a rock is a truly apposite figure for the day of judgment. It certainly implies a process of judgment, in which the unworthy will experience a gradual collapse of their spirituality. For the man with the firm foundation, the flood of the parable would have been a worrying experience. Would the house stand up to it? In many of the parables, we can profitably speculate as to likely details of the story. The wise man would have remembered his hard work on the foundation, not with any sense of pride or self- gratitude. But he would nevertheless have been aware of it. Our real spiritual effort will be so valuable in that day. Only then will we realize the extent of the fact that there can be no short cut to true spiritual development. A man cannot be crowned, unless he strive lawfully.&nbsp; The Lord's parable was no doubt partly based on Is. 28:17, which speaks of the day of judgment being like hail which &quot;shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters (which) shall overflow&quot;. The spiritual house of the foolish builder was a lie, effectively; an appearance of real development which deceived men. For externally, men cannot know anything about the different foundations of houses built side by side. We are left to imagine the details of the parable. The foolish man would have run outside and watched his house being beaten down and washed away. He would have thought of trying to do something to stop the destruction, but then given up, realizing it was too late. The foolish girls saw that &quot;our oil <i>is</i> running out&quot; (Gk.). The unworthy will have that terrible sense of their opportunity and spirituality ebbing away from them. The impression is given in the parable that the two houses were next door to each other; again confirming our feeling that this parable is about different attitudes to the word within the ecclesia.&nbsp;</p><p>Condemnation will be tragic- the ruin is &quot;great&quot;. Not only for those individuals, but for the Father and Son and all of us who view it. These are the final words of the Sermon. The Lord ends on the note of the possibility of condemnation, despite His many positive, upbeat and encouraging words about the certainty of salvation. The tragedy of the future we might miss is simply so great that the Lord felt He had to say this. It isn't mere negative psychology. The eternal reality of the issues before us are such that we can do nothing else but let the Lord's concern and earnestness ring in our ears.</p>