Sermon on the Mount – Building Our House on the Rock
Hymn 176
Long hast thou stood, O church of God,
Long mid the tempest’s assailing,
Founded secure on timeless rock
Rises thy light, never failing;
Shining that all may understand
What has been wrought by God’s command,
O’er night and chaos prevailing.
Let there be light, and light was there,
Clear as the Word that declared it;
Healing and peace to all it gave,
Who in humility shared it.
Ah, they were faithful, they who heard,
Steadfast their trust in God’s great Word,
Steadfast the Love that prepared it.
Let there be light, the Word shines forth,
Lo, where the new morning whitens;
O church of God, with Book unsealed,
How its page beacons and brightens.
Living stones we, each in his place,
May we be worthy such a grace,
While Truth the wide earth enlightens.
THE HOLY BIBLE
Matt. 7:24-27
Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Gen. 11:1, 4-9
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. … And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. . . . And the Lord said, . . . now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. . . . So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel. . . .
I John 2:15-17
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Rom. 8:6, 8-9, 14
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
John 4:24 NLT
God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Ps. 62:1, 2, 5-8, 11
My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation.
Ex. 3:1, 2, 7, 10, 13-14 KJV; Ex. 4:1-4, 6-8 NLT
Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law . . .And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him . . .And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; … Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: . . . But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you’? Then the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied. “Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back. Then the Lord told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out again, his hand was white as snow with a severe skin disease. “Now put your hand back into your cloak,” the Lord said. So Moses put his hand back in, and when he took it out again, it was as healthy as the rest of his body. The Lord said to Moses, “If they do not believe you and are not convinced by the first miraculous sign, they will be convinced by the second sign.
Ps. 18:30, 31-32 NLT
God’s way is perfect. All the Lord’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection. . . .Who but our God is a solid rock? God arms me with strength, and he makes my way perfect.
Ps. 89:26
Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
I Cor. 10:1-4
All our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
I Cor. 3:9-11, 18
For we are labourers together with God: . . . ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. . . . . If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
Phil. 3:3, 8
Put no confidence in human effort . . . . everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Matt. 16:13, 16-18
When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Mark 4:35, 36-39
When the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. . . . .And they took him even as he was in the ship. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
Ps. 61:1-2
Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Ps. 40:1-2
I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
Ps. 86:11; 87:2-3
Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion . . . . Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.
Rev. 21:2, 23-24, 27
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. . . . the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. . . . And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie:
Isa. 28:16
Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRITPURES by Mary Baker Eddy
SH 599:6-7
Zion. Spiritual foundation and superstructure; inspiration; spiritual strength.
SH 575:7-13
This sacred city, described in the Apocalypse (xxi. 16) as one that “lieth foursquare” and cometh “down from God, out of heaven,” represents the light and glory of divine Science. The builder and maker of this New Jerusalem is God, as we read in the book of Hebrews; and it is “a city which hath foundations.”
SH 577:12-19, 24
This spiritual, holy habitation has no boundary nor limit, but its four cardinal points are: first, the Word of Life, Truth, and Love; second, the Christ, the spiritual idea of God; third, Christianity, which is the outcome of the divine Principle of the Christ-idea in Christian history; fourth, Christian Science, which to-day and forever interprets this great example and the great Exemplar. Its gates open towards light and glory both within and without, for all is good, and nothing can enter that city, which “defileth, . . . or maketh a lie.”
SH 241:24-27
We should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is revealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is purity.
SH 201:7
We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away and “all things are become new.” Passions, selfishness, false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirituality, and the superabundance of being is on the side of God, good.
SH 262:27
The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man’s origin. To begin rightly is to end rightly. Every concept which seems to begin with the brain begins falsely. Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter, in mortal mind, or in physical forms.
SH 581:17-22
Babel. Self-destroying error; a kingdom divided against itself, which cannot stand; material knowledge.
The higher false knowledge builds on the basis of evidence obtained from the five corporeal senses, the more confusion ensues, and the more certain is the downfall of its structure.
SH 92:26-29
The foundation of evil is laid on a belief in something besides God. This belief tends to support two opposite powers, instead of urging the claims of Truth alone.
SH 448:5-7
Evil which obtains in the bodily senses, but which the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if evil is uncondemned, it is undenied and nurtured.
SH 234:32-3
Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.
SH 593:18 (only)
Rock. Spiritual foundation; Truth.
SH 454:4-9, 11
The understanding, even in a degree, of the divine All-power destroys fear, and plants the feet in the true path, — the path which leads to the house built without hands “eternal in the heavens.” . . . . That evil or matter has neither intelligence nor power, is the doctrine of absolute Christian Science, and this is the great truth which strips all disguise from error.
SH 368:31-32; 369:5
When fear disappears, the foundation of disease is gone. In proportion as matter loses to human sense all entity as man, in that proportion does man become its master. He enters into a diviner sense of the facts, and comprehends the theology of Jesus as demonstrated in healing the sick, raising the dead, and walking over the wave. All these deeds manifested Jesus’ control over the belief that matter is substance, that it can be the arbiter of life or the constructor of any form of existence.
SH 136:1-6, 9-14
Jesus established his church and maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught his followers that his religion had a divine Principle, which would cast out error and heal both the sick and the sinning. He claimed no intelligence, action, nor life separate from God. The question then as now was, How did Jesus heal the sick? His answer to this question the world rejected. He appealed to his students: “Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?” That is: Who or what is it that is thus identified with casting out evils and healing the sick?
SH 137:16, 299; 138:14-15
With his usual impetuosity, Simon replied for his brethren, and his reply set forth a great fact: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” That is: The Messiah is what thou hast declared, — Christ, the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and Love, which heals mentally. This assertion elicited from Jesus the benediction, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven;” that is, Love hath shown thee the way of Life! . . . . And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter; and upon this rock [the meaning of the Greek word petros, or stone] I will build my church; and the gates of hell [hades, the under-world, or the grave] shall not prevail against it.” In other words, Jesus purposed founding his society, not on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God-power which lay behind Peter’s confession of the true Messiah. It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the sick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm of harmony. The supremacy of Spirit was the foundation on which Jesus built.
SH 484:6-11, 15-16, 24
Question. — Does Christian Science, or metaphysical healing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmerism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism?
Answer. — Not one of them is included in it. In divine Science, the supposed laws of matter yield to the law of Mind. . . . Drugs and hygiene oppose the supremacy of the divine Mind. Science must triumph over material sense, and Truth over error, thus putting an end to the hypotheses involved in all false theories and practices.
SH 269:21
The testimony of the material senses is neither absolute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of the prophets, and on the testimony of the Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none. All other systems — systems based wholly or partly on knowledge gained through the material senses — are reeds shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock.
SH 326:12
We must forsake the foundation of material systems, however time-honored, if we would gain the Christ as our only Saviour. Not partially, but fully, the great healer of mortal mind is the healer of the body.
SH 483:22
Christianity will never be based on a divine Principle and so found to be unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry, nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built upon the rock, Christ.
Hymn 293
Rock of Ages, Truth divine,
Be Thy strength forever mine;
Let me rest secure on Thee,
Safe above life’s raging sea.
Rock of Ages, Truth divine,
Be Thy strength forever mine.
Rock of Truth, our fortress strong,
Thou our refuge from all wrong,
When from mortal sense I flee,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
Rock of Ages, Truth divine,
Be Thy strength forever mine.
Christ, the Truth, foundation sure,
On this rock we are secure;
Peace is there our life to fill,
Cure is there for every ill.
Rock of Ages, Truth divine,
Be Thy strength forever mine.
Hymn 71
Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God;
He whose word cannot be broken,
Formed thee for His own abode:
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
By salvation’s walls surrounded
Thou mayst smile at all thy foes.
Round each habitation hovering,
See the cloud and fire appear
For a glory and a covering,
Showing that the Lord is near.
Thus deriving from their banner,
Light by night, and shade by day,
Safe they feed upon the manna,
Which He gives them when they pray.
See, the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal Love,
Well supply thy sons and daughters,
And all fear of want remove.
Who can faint, while such a river
Ever shall their thirst assuage,—
Grace, which like the Lord, the giver,
Never fails from age to age?