Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 7:26-27

"And every one that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof." — Matthew 7:26-27 (ASV)

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.

He was a great hearer, but he was a bad doer; yet he thought that he was a good doer, for he built a house. Alas, the house was on the sand! There was no real obedience to Christ, no true trusting in him; and so, when the time of trouble came, and trouble will come even to the hypocrite and to the false professor, we read of his house, It fell: and great was the fall of it, because it could never be built up again. It fell hopelessly; it fell forever; therefore, Great was the fall of it.

The mere hearer is in a poor plight. He, too, is a house-builder. The hearing of the Lord’s sayings sets him to work—work designed to provide him with shelter and comfort. He built his house.

He was practical and persevering, and did not begin and leave off before completion. Yet though he was industrious, he was foolish. No doubt he built quickly, for his foundation cost him no severe labor. His excavations were quickly made, for there was no rock to remove. He built his house upon the sand.

But trials come even to insincere professors. Are we not all born to trouble? The same kind of afflictions come to the foolish as come to the wise, and they operate in precisely the same way, but the result is very different.

It fell. These are solemn words. It was a fine building and it promised to stand for ages, but it fell. There were minor faults in the fabric, but its chief weakness was underground, in the secret place of the foundation. The man built his house upon the sand. His fundamentals were wrong.

The crash was terrible. The sound was heard far away. Great was the fall of it. The ruin was final and irretrievable. Many heard the fall, and many more saw the ruins as they remained a perpetual memorial of the result of that folly which is satisfied with hearing and neglects doing.