What are you building upon the foundation that is given you by God? Are you living to yourself? It is entirely possible for Christians to do that. Or are you living for Him? Are you using the talents, blessings, opportunities, influence, and wealth that He has given you to build Christian character and bring men to the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior?
Now there is one last point here, and it is a point for Christians. What are you building? Oh, you are on the foundation all right. Christ is your Savior. But do you know that it may be possible for Him to be your foundation and yet for you to go through life building things that are worthless and that will not remain as fruit for eternity, even though you will be saved personally?
The second important point to be seen in these verses is this: A life built upon Jesus Christ will stand. That is a simple point, of course, but we need to have it clear in our thinking and to get it planted deeply in our minds. A life built upon Jesus will stand, even in the midst of the tribulations of this life or the judgments of eternity.
In these closing words of His sermon Jesus was stressing the importance of an adequate foundation, and He is asking the question, "What is your foundation? On what do you build?”
We come to the very last words of the Sermon on the Mount, the section in which Jesus Christ pictures the difference between those who hear His teachings and do them and those who hear His teachings and do not do them as the difference between a wise man who builds his house upon a rock, and a foolish man who builds his house upon sand. It is a picture that all people know. And it is one that most of us have sung about, in one hymn or another, since the time we were children.
