Dear Moore Christian Assembly and other friends,

In the last post I focused on the first verse of Psalm 127: “Unless the Lord build the house…” Now, if you know the whole verse then you also know that I did not finish it. The verse ends with the phrase, “they labor in vain who build it.” This means that Solomon is telling us that there are two basic ways that we can build houses.

We can build the house God’s way or we can build it our own way. To build it God’s way, we must take every thought and action captive to the Word of God for the glory of God; to build it our way, all we have to do is trust in our own flawed intellect, experience, and feelings. When we decide to build the house our way, we end up laboring in vain, the very thing Solomon warns against. We are certainly called to labor but not in vain. We are called to labor in a way that shows the greatness of God’s wisdom in building the house. The only way we can do this is to follow God’s instruction.

There are dire consequences when we decide to ignore God’s instruction and turn to our own pragmatism when making daily decisions. There are consequences when we build on hatred and not on love; when we build on pride and not on humility; when we build on selfishness and not on selflessness. In his commentary on Psalm 127, Matthew Henry wrote, “If the model and design be laid in pride and vanity, or if the foundations be laid in oppression and injustice, God certainly does not build there.”

Men have been trying to build their own city instead of the city of God since the beginning of history. We see it in Genesis 11 with the tower of Babel; we see it with the building of the Roman empire; and we see it today in the biomedical field with the issue of eugenics, such as human cloning and gender selection. Considering that God brought down the Tower of Babel and utterly decimated the Roman Empire, things do not look good for all the man-exalting systems that are in the world today. The last verse in the book of Judges is a fitting moniker for our society today: everyone did what was right in their own eyes!

But this is also true of the evangelical church in America. In Luke 6:46-49, Jesus reveals to us the fate of those who do what they think is right in their own eyes. They build their house on the sand, which is no foundation at all, and when the storm comes the house collapses immediately. The ruin of this house and of the man is great! However, for the wise man who built his house upon the rock of Jesus Christ, the result was much different. The storm came to his house as well but the house stood strong. Why? It was dug deep into the Word of God.

So, what was the major difference between these two men? Notice that they both heard the commands of Christ. However, only one of them both heard and obeyed these commands. The crucial difference is found in obedience. In fact, Jesus Himself tells those who do not obey His commands not to even bother calling Him Lord. What a sobering thought this should be for all of us.

Our duty is quite clear: Habakkuk 2:12 gives a warning to all those who choose to build up this city of man: “Woe to him that builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity!” As Christians, our passion must not be found in the building of the city of man; a house that is built on sinking sand. Rather, our desire must be that God would build His city on the foundation of our faith in Christ; a faith that leads us to love and obey the law of God. Then, when the storms come (and they will come), the house that is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, the Rock, will stand to the glory of God.

Soli Deo Gloria

Dear Moore Christian Assembly and other friends,

It seems appropriate that, for this first post, I should explain why I chose to title this blog, “Unless the Lord Builds the House.”  This is not intended to be a blog about how to set forms for footings and foundation walls; it is not about how to pour a concrete foundation; and it is not about how to frame floor joists and roofs.  This blog is going to be dedicated toward the building of the house called “family” and the greater house called “church.”

The title of this blog comes straight from the first verse of Psalm 127.   Psalm 127 is all about the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture.  It is about the biblical principle that the Holy Bible contains everything we need for all of life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). What Solomon is telling us in Psalm 127 is that God will only be glorified in the building of the “house” when we employ the principles that He alone dictates.  If we want to have strong families that honor God then we must build that house on the commands of God. If we desire to see churches fulfill their God-given role as salt and light to a dark and dying world then we must build that house on the Word of God.

One of the most important aspects of building a physical house is the laying of the cornerstone.  The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone that is set in the construction of a masonry foundation.   This is the most important stone since all other stones will be set in reference to this all-important stone.  Ultimately, this stone determines the position of the entire structure.

For a spiritual house, this cornerstone is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In Psalm 118:22, the Psalmist tells us of a stone which the builders refused; this stone became the chief cornerstone; the stone referred to in this verse is Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior. Jesus Himself tells us this in Matthew 21:42.  In Acts 4, Peter tells the rulers and elders in Jerusalem this very same truth about Jesus being the cornerstone.  In verse 12, Peter tells them, as well as us, exactly what this means: “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

The bottom line is that we are all building houses.  We all have a role to play in the building of the family and the church.  Where do we get our marching orders for building these houses?  Our instructions must come straight from God Himself, through the Word of Jesus Christ, and illuminated by the power of the Holy Spirit.  May we all embrace the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. May we all embrace the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture.  May we all embrace the doctrine of the infallibility of Scripture.  However, all these doctrines are meaningless to us if we do not actually live by the very book we claim to be inspired, inerrant, and infallible.  May we all lovingly embrace and rejoice in the sufficiency of Scripture!

Sola Scriptura!