I'll be very, very thankful when
we can all meet again. This is very, it's not good for any
of us to not be able to meet. We were blessed to visit with
Daryl and Joyce and Joe McSherry just a few minutes this week
and enjoyed that so much. Shirley and Gary with me again,
and I appreciate them Shirley takes care of the Facebook and
setting us up But if you have your Bibles with you this morning,
I want you to turn to Luke chapter 6 Luke chapter 6 And there's a two house builders
I want to talk about two men that build houses and And most
of us know what it is to build a house. We've built houses.
We've had houses built. We've had it owned to houses. And so we know what it is about
building a house. But if you'll look in Luke chapter
6 in verse 43. I'm going to start there. and pray God's blessing upon
the services today. For a good tree bringeth not
forth corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit. For every tree is known by his
own fruit. For if thorns Men do not gather
figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of
the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is
good. And an evil man out of the evil
treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For
of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. And why call
ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever
cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will
show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built
a house. and dig deep, and laid the foundation
on a rock. And when the flood arose, the
stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it,
for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth
not, is like a man, that without a foundation built in house upon
the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and
immediately it fell. and the ruin of that house was
great. Let's pray together. Our Father, the precious, blessed,
glorious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the
day. Thank you for your mercies and
grace. Thank you that we've had no bad
news from our brethren, that all of our brethren are still
able to meet and to worship. And Lord, we're so blessed to
be able to still meet, even if it's like this, to still be able
to preach and the saints be able to gather around the Word of
God and sit in their homes and be able to listen to the gospel
of the grace of God in Christ. I thank you for the church. I
thank you for my brethren. Thank you for Lantana Grace.
Thank you for those who hear. God bless us today together,
as we seek to honor and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. In His
holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, let's look
back here again. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
puts every man in one of two classes. He puts them in good
trees, a good tree bringeth forth good fruit a corrupt tree bringeth
forth evil fruit and then he says why would you call me Lord
and Lord and do not the things which I say to do and then he
talked about a good man and an evil man he talked about what
was in each one of their hearts You know the treasure, he said
there in verse 45, a treasure. Our treasure is in our hearts.
Our Lord Jesus Christ says, where your treasure is, that's where
your heart is. Well, our treasure is in our
heart. That treasure means something valuable, precious, worth something. And a good man, out of the good
treasure of his heart, he brings forth good things. Good things. And the evil man, he's got a
heart too. But his treasure is evil. It's not any good. It's corrupt. It's rotten. It's not any good. And then look what he said, for
out of the abundance of the heart, where that treasure is, what's
in your heart? Whether it's good treasure or
evil treasure, whatever's in your heart, for the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. What's in your heart, that's
what's going to come out of your mouth. And so our Lord Jesus
Christ, He has talking about these people and these two men,
these two classes, and how He describes them. And He's talking
about man in general, mankind, men and women, like you and me.
And our Lord here, he goes on to distinguish between those
wise men and foolish men. But look what he says here in
verse 47. Three things he describes about
the wise man and the man. First of all, he said, whoever
cometh to me, whoever comes to me. That's the first thing where
he says, talking about a good tree, a good treasure, and a
good man and his heart. He says, you know, first thing
he does is he comes to me. And then he said he hears. He
hears. And that word hear there means
to understand, hear with understanding, hear with comprehension, hear
with faith. And then he goes on to say, who
does them, or does, comes to me, hears me, and does what I
tell him to do. That's what he says, hears my
sayings and does them. Three things, coming to Christ,
hearing him, understanding what he says, and then obeying him
and doing what he says. Now that's what he's talking
about. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our Master, He's
our Lord, He's our King. And as our Lord Jesus Christ,
He orders our days, He orders our lives. And He's ordered this
situation the way it is. And we have peace about it and
we rest in it. And one of these days it'll be
over. And all to come to a Savior. That's what it's talking about,
coming to Him. We come to Him as a Savior. We come as a Savior. We come as a Lord. We come as
one who saves us from our sin. And we come to hear Him. I've
come today to hear from the Lord Jesus Christ. You come and gather
around your home today and you're listening there wherever you're
listening and however you're listening to hear Him. To hear
what He has to say. Then we come to Him as our teacher,
as our prophet, as one who's going to teach us and instruct
us. And we come to Him and say, Lord,
whatever your will is, please reveal it to me. Teach me, O
Lord, of Thy way. And then we come to, as what
I said, is to obey Him as our master. How can we know that
we've obeyed Him? and that we've been taught of
God. We count Christ as to be our wisdom. That's how we know
Christ is our wisdom. God made Christ our wisdom. And
I tell you what, when we say He's our wisdom, He's our wisdom
in how we're justified before God. He's our wisdom in the scriptures. He's our wisdom in this world. We don't look to the world. We
don't look to the things of the world. And we count the wisdom
and knowledge of Christ above all else. That's why Paul said,
I count all things but done for the excellency, excellency of
the knowledge of Lord Jesus Christ that I may win him and be found
in him. And I tell you, Christ is the
wisdom and power of God to us. But here our Lord Jesus Christ,
He talked about two trees, two men, good man, Corrupt good good
free corrupt free evil man evil treasure good treasure And now
he's going to talk about two men who build houses two men
who build have their house builders And they're they're just set
out to build them a house and he talks about these and these
are two great classes of men and Those who believe, those
who have come to Christ, those who hear what He has to say,
and thus what He tells them and obeys His Word, look to His Word
as their guide, as their instructor, and they're taught of God. And
then there's those who live, walk in their own sight, live
in their own light, and live by what they think is right.
And again, our Lord said, whosoever comes to me, Oh, come to Christ. Come to Christ. They're making
much out of Easter today and the resurrection of Christ. But
we make much out of Christ every time we preach. Not just His
resurrection, but Himself. Now He's risen and He sits at
the right hand of God. Whosoever comes to Me, our Lord
said, hears Me and does what I say. I'm going to look what
He said here in verse 20 47 again, and I'll show you this person
and what that person is like You want me to tell you what
he's like the person that comes to me? Here's me and does what
I tell him to do and obeys me and Loves me and bows to me Look
what here's the first way. He says about him He says like
unto a man This is a wise man. He's like unto a man which build
a house and He's building a house. His house is already built. But
how did He build that house? Well, He digged deep and He laid
the foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, the
stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it,
for it was founded upon a rock. And I tell you what, this shows
us about those who come here and do. Our Lord said, He's like
unto a man who built a house. The house is built. He built
a house. Well, how did he build that house? Well, it said he
digged deep and he laid a foundation. And he laid a foundation on a
rock. You know why he digged deep? Because he knew that if
he had a foundation that nothing would destroy that foundation. And I tell you what, we don't
want, we do not want a shallow salvation. We don't want a salvation
that's just surface. We don't want a salvation that's
just right on the top. We don't want a shallow salvation.
We want a salvation that's based on the foundation of the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. And I'll tell you something about
this man who digged deep to build his house and laid it on the
foundation of a rock. He had no faith. He had no faith
in a sand. He had no faith in building on
the earth. He had no faith in the sandy
foundation of human reasoning, of human morality, talking about
how good they are and all of that. He has no confidence and
no faith in marriage. Somebody talked about how worthy
they are. You hear people say all the time,
how worthy this one is and that one is. Well, there was a man
that came to the Lord Jesus Christ and he had a servant. And that
servant was sick unto death. And the Lord Jesus said, they
said, well this man is worthy. He's done much alms for our country.
And our Lord Jesus said, I'll go. And that man said to the
Lord Jesus Christ, he was a centurion. He said, Lord, you don't need
to come to my house. They told him he was worthy.
But he said, I'm not worthy that you should come unto my house.
He said, all you've got to do is send your word and heal him,
because I'm a man of authority. And I say, Come here or go there
and men do what I tell them to do. So all you got to do is say
the word. And that's what our Lord Jesus
Christ is talking about. This man had no reason to have
merit. He had no faith in what merit.
He believed that he had to get on a rock. And I tell you what,
he wouldn't even start to build till he got down to the rock.
And do you know what that rock is? Paul said, there's no other
foundation laid than that which is laid, the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalmist David says, you know,
he has picked me up out of a horrible pit. and set my feet upon a rock
and established my going. And I want to read a verse of
scripture to you out of Isaiah 28 and verse 16 talking about
that rock. Our Lord Jesus Christ is that
rock. He said upon this rock I'll build
my church. Talking about himself. He wasn't
talking about Simon Peter, he was talking about himself. But
in Isaiah 27 28 and verse 16 it says this therefore saith
the Lord Lord God behold I lay in Zion in the church for a foundation,
a stone, a trident stone, a precious cornerstone, and listen to this,
a sure foundation, and he that believeth shall not bake haste,
that means he won't be confused, he won't be mixed up, he won't
be Confused in any way and I and our Lord Jesus Christ himself
said in John 15 5 without me you can do nothing But now first
of all, he did he know he had to have a foundation on a rock
And he didn't believe in anything else other than I had to have
a foundation or rock and he spared no trouble to get at that rock
it says there he dig deep and Now our Lord Jesus is speaking
this and showing us not that we have to do the digging, but
he's talking about how I liken this man who hears my sayings
and comes to me. And he said he digged deep. What
did he dig? What was he talking about here?
Well, he digged past the flesh. He learned that in his flesh
there's no good thing. He had no confidence. He lost
all confidence in his flesh. He digged deep past the pride. Oh my, he was so proud of his
own righteousness, so proud of his own goodness that he dig
down past that pride. Oh my, he couldn't stand that
pride in himself anymore. He dig down past the superficiality
that he had always experienced. He dig down past his prejudices. Oh, his prejudice, and all of
us have these prejudices about how we make judgments and decisions
based on what people say, do, and things like that. And then
he digged down past the false teaching. Oh, false teaching
that he believed. that he might even taught himself.
He digged deep past traditions, all the traditions he had. Oh,
we know about traditions. You know, I remember going to
a service one time, and I heard the gospel, and I seen how things
were done. And I came back and told the
congregation, I said, everything we've ever done, we've done because
we've seen that's the way it's always been done. And beloved
God, in His sovereign mercy, save us from traditions. Traditions
of men. Traditions of churches. Traditions
of preachers. Traditions of false realities. And I tell you what, and He dig
down past the heart deceiving. You know, our heart is deceitful
above all things. And one thing I do know about
a man who's laid his foundation on a rock, and he knows his heart
will deceive him. Oh, it'll deceive him. It'll
make promises that it can't keep. It'll make vows that it can't
keep. And he's afraid. You know what? He fears more
than anything. He fears his own heart. He fears how his heart
might deceive him yet. And he digged down peace past
his hypocrisies. He digged down past his relationships. Is this relationship going to
keep me from Christ? I don't want nothing to do with
it. Is this relationship going to keep me from having a foundation?
I don't want it. Don't want it. When Paul, God
saved Paul on the Damascus road. He says, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's room and called me by His grace.
He said, I immediately conferred not with flesh and blood. You
know what he meant by that? I didn't go home and ask my mother
and my daddy what I ought to believe. That's what he says. You know, the first thing somebody
does when they start hearing somebody preach the gospel, they'll
go home. Mama, I heard this fellow preaching
about God's sovereign election. I heard him preach about grace.
And I heard him preach about salvations of the Lord. And that
man's free will don't have anything to do with it. Man's decision
don't have anything to do with it. Church membership don't have
anything to do with it. And he said, what do you think
about that? Oh, honey, listen, don't you go back and listen
to that fella. You know we got that. It's up to us whether the
Lord saves us or not. It's up to us whether we let
him into our heart or not. I'll tell you what, we don't
confer with flesh and blood. No, no, our Lord Jesus Christ,
we dig down past relationships. And if any relationship that
we have keeps us from Christ, we dig down past it. Then I'll tell you what, and
there's some effort put in digging. I'll tell you what, when God
starts dealing with a man, he wants to know. He got to find
out, he wants to know the truth. Oh, I've been deceived long enough,
digging deep. You know, you got to get down,
beloved, and get past all this flesh, and all this superficiality,
and all this hypocrisy. And I tell you what, Paul says,
examine yourself whether you be in Christ. When he said examine
yourself whether you be in the faith, he's talking about examine
yourself whether you believe Christ. If Christ is your foundation,
if Christ is who you're trusting, if Christ is who you come to,
if Christ is who you believe, if Christ is who you do what
he says to do. I tell you what, keep letting
nothing, nothing. Oh, I tell you what, Don't let
anything, anything keep you from Christ and that foundation that
He is. And our Lord goes on and said
He's like a wise man because He built His house upon a rock.
And I tell you when He found that rock, it says He digged
deep and He digged deep and laid the foundation on a rock. On
a rock. He didn't stop before He got
to the rock. Huh? No, no, no, no. I'll tell you what. He digged
down and he laid the foundation on a rock. And when he found
that rock, and oh, when you see Christ, and God Himself said,
the Lord our God is our rock and our salvation. Christ is
as a rock in a weary land. Christ is that rock that was
smitten and the water came out of it. And I tell you what, beloved,
when you see that rock, and you know that rock, you got to have
that rock. Oh, you got to, your house got
to be built on that rock. Huh? He wasn't satisfied when
he saw the rock. He got down, he saw that rock.
I said, oh look, there's the rock. Oh, I see it, I know it, I can
feel it even. But oh no. He had to have a foundation. He said, I got to be on this
rock. Noah is like Noah. He prepared
an ark. He prepared an ark to the saving
of his house. Abraham, you know why he took
Isaac upon the mountain? Because he had come to Christ. He had heard what God said. And
he digged deep, his foundation was on a rock. And that's why
he said, I and the lad will go yonder together and we'll worship.
And you know what he said? We're coming back again. He knew
that God was able to promise, persuaded with what God promised,
he was able to keep it. And beloved, we're God's building.
Paul said, I'm a wise master builder. I've laid the foundation,
which is Christ, and no man can lay any other foundation. And
I tell you what, and I tell you what, he says, you lay on this
foundation and when the fire tries it, it'll stand. If it's
wood, hay, and stubble, it'll burn up. It'll burn up. And oh
my. And he's a wise man because he
built his house on this rock. And look what happened. He wasn't
disappointed whenever he had built on this rock. He didn't
have no disappointments, no regrets whatsoever. How do you know?
Well, look what happened. He laid that foundation on a
rock and then there's a flood come. And a flood arose. Flood come. And that flood got so bad that
the stream come down beating on that house. Beating vehemently,
fiercely, greatly. And listen to what it said. Could
not shake it. didn't even shake it. Why? Because it was found up on a
rock. Couldn't even shake it. I tell
you what, beloved, if you're one of God's sheep, you can't
run a sheep off. You can't destroy a sheep. You
know how solid it is, your foundation is? It's founded upon a rock,
and that rock is Christ. It's as solid, it's as glorious,
and it's as sure as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is. And
again, in Isaiah 28, In verse 17, look what it says.
This is what God said about this business. He said judgment, oh
here's where you're going to have to have the foundation.
Because right after He talked about Christ being this foundation,
the foundation that He laid, He said, judgment after this
foundation is laid, I'm going to lay it to the line, that plumb
line, that you know, see if that wall is straight. See if that
wall has not got any crooks in it. And I'm going to lay righteousness
to the plummet. And the hell is going to come,
and listen to this, it's going to sweep away the refuge of lies. And the waters shall overflow
the hiding place. But when he come upon this house
here, didn't even shake it. Didn't even shake it. No wonder
David said, he hath picked my feet out of the miry clay, and
set them upon a rock, and established, established my goings. And I
tell you what, the flood of God's wrath Oh, it can't shake this
house because we've already suffered the wrath of God in Christ. Satan's
malice, Satan's hatred, Satan's despising God's people, that
can't destroy it. God said, He said, the gates
of hell shall not prevail against His church. And the stream of
flesh, our old flesh, as rotten as it is, it can't destroy this
house. Sin, oh my goodness, sin can't
destroy this house. The world can't destroy this
house. False doctrine can't destroy
this house. And let all of them be lehemiah
upon that house. And that house won't be shaken.
You know why? That's why Paul said, don't be
tossed about with every wind of doctrine. The house, that
soul who's built upon the Lord Jesus Christ is as stable as
the power of Christ himself. as His salvation, as His good,
as the eternal God gave us in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why Paul said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded! that that which
I've committed unto him against that day, that day when them
storms come, that day when them trials come, that day when heartaches
come, that day when a virus comes and we can't worship together.
He said, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that what I've
committed unto him against that day He's able to keep it. Oh, He's able to keep it. And
oh beloved, with Abraham, He said, I know God's able to perform
what He promised. And that verse of scripture we've
used in the last two sermons and out of Jude 24, He is able
to keep you from falling and to present you flawless before
His presence and His glory. And I tell you the gates of hell
shall not prevail against Him. 2 Timothy 2.19 says the foundation
of God standeth sure. What is it? The Lord knows them
that are His. Oh, bless His holy name. Let
me give you now, here's the foolish man. Here's the man, look what
down there in verse 49. Let's look at what's up with
him. Look what's up with him now.
Oh my. He hears, but he that hears.
He's heard. He heard. He heard, oh yes, he
heard. He heard. He heard what I've
already said. He said he heard, he that heareth. But how do we know he didn't
hear with understanding? How do we know he didn't hear
with faith? And he doesn't do. He doesn't
do. He that hear and doesn't do.
He does not do what Christ said. Now, he's a fool. He's a fool. You know, James said it like
this. Don't be a forgetful hearer of the word. Don't be a forgetful
hearer of the word. But do the word. Hear the word. Obey the word. And that's one
thing we do. We look at this blessed book.
We look at this blessed book and we read it to find out what
God says. And what Christ said. And you
know the thing that stands out more than anything in these verses
here is that our Lord Jesus Christ said, He that cometh to me. He
that comes to me. And here's my sayings. Here's
my sayings. You know what? Let me tell you
some of the sayings of our Savior. You know what he says? Come unto
me, all ye that labor. He said, I'm the way. We lost
the way in Adam. He said, I'm the truth. We lost
the truth in our father Adam. And I'm the life. We lost life
in Adam. Christ is the way he says no
man this is a saying of his no man comes under the father but
by me he said the works that I do they
testify me and you know our Lord Jesus Christ he said he if any
man is thirsty let him come unto me he that believe Moses believe
me before Abraham was I am For what good works do you take up
stones to stone me? We're not taking up stones to
stone you because you didn't do something good. Because you
blasphemed, making yourself God. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
God. He said, oh, if you hear me,
you hear my father. If you receive me, you receive
my father. You receive my father, you receive
me. And so our Lord Jesus Christ,
that's why he said, that's why he said, he that cometh to me
and hears, hears my word. Hears my word. And that's what
we're doing. We come to hear his word. And
then, beloved, we look at it and say, Lord, what is it? And
that's the first thing we do. You know when we talk about doing
something? Coming to Christ. Coming to Christ. Coming to Christ. And God gives
us faith to come. Gives us the ability to come.
And then look what He says about this man in verse 29. But he
that hears, he hears. But he don't pay any attention
to what he hears. He's not interested in what he hears. It has no effect
on him what he hears. He doesn't believe what he hears. Oh, he don't believe what he
hears. But oh my! But this man built
a house too. But do you know the difference
between him and the other fellow who laid a foundation? This man
didn't have a foundation. He says, he's like a man that
without a foundation built a house. They both built houses. One had
a foundation. It's on a rock. The other foundation
was on the earth. But let me tell you something
about this man. He knew he needed a house. Oh, I've got to have
a house. Oh, I've got to have a house.
He knew there would be storms. And he put some considerable
effort forth. But he didn't put the right effort
forth. First of all, he disregarded
the rock. He wasn't interested in the rock.
He didn't care about the rock. He didn't care about having a
good solid foundation for life. He didn't care about having a
foundation built on Christ and built upon God. And oh, he disregarded
the rock. He heard of the rock. Because
he heard the same thing the other man did. He heard the rock. He
heard of the rock. He believed it was best to build
on the rock. Oh, I should. I should build
on that rock. I really should build on the
rock. But he said, I think I can build me a house just as well
without it. I can build me a house. Oh, I
can build a house as good as anybody. I don't need people
tell me how I need to build a house. I know there's a rock and I ought
to get on that rock. But you know really, I really,
you know, I know how to build a house. And I know how, you
know, my house won't take near as long to build as it did that
other fella. And no storms is gonna come.
But you know what his problem was? He thought within himself. He
believed himself. He trusted himself. He trusted
his own reasoning. He trusted his own belief. He trusted everything. You know,
he was spoiled through vain philosophy. He was deceived in himself. He
that heareth these sayings of mine, you know over there he
says, he that trusted himself deceived his own heart. He deceived
with himself, and he was wise in his own eyes. Oh, let them
fellas do the way they want to, but I'm going to do it my way.
He was wise in his own eyes. And you know our Lord Jesus Christ,
He talked about Himself being that rock. And the Jews, you
know, they stumbled over Christ. He was a rock of offense unto
them. Thou Lord Jesus Christ. They
rejected the chief cornerstone, but they went on building a house.
They built a house established upon their own righteousness.
You know, they bypassed the righteousness of Christ. And they said, you
know, Peter said in Acts chapter 4, he says, the building The
cornerstone which the builders rejected, God hath made the same,
the chief cornerstone. And our Lord Jesus Christ said
they stumbled over that stone. And they stumbled over that and
He said this is the Lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes
that He laid this foundation. And I'll tell you what, they
rejected the chief cornerstone. And you know whenever you build
a foundation, you start with one corner. And you get that
corner straight. And then you build the whole
foundation from one corner. And that corner's gotta be right.
And here this fella here, he had that chief cornerstone. You
know in Spurgeon Lady's Tabernacle, they brought in a special cornerstone
to start that tabernacle on in London. Out there he had a special
cornerstone brought in to start that building on that foundation.
And beloved Christ is that chief cornerstone and these fellows
said, listen we got a house, we know how to build a house.
We know how to build a house. We know how to keep the law.
We know how to dress. We know how to attend church. We know how to read our Bibles.
We know how to pray. We know as much about religion
as you do. Oh, we got it all figured out.
Got it all figured out. I seen a fellow this morning.
They got a... He's having drive-in services. Cars drove in from
everywhere. And he said, put on your flasher
lights. Let everybody know that you're in need and you're here
because you have your flashers light on. He stood out there
and preached to that bunch of people in them automobiles in
a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. You reckon they worship God?
Building a house on the earth. Building a house on the earth.
I tell you, beloved, You know, if you're going to end up with
the Lord Jesus Christ, you have to start with the Lord Jesus
Christ. If you're going to be on the
right foundation when you face God in eternity, you better be
on Christ. And if you don't start with Him,
you certainly won't end with Him. But oh, He began to build. Look what it says. He's like
a man that without a foundation he built a house. Oh, he began
to build. But here's his problem, he built
without a foundation. Built without a foundation. He
laid it on the earth. He never even digged him out
a place to lay a block or anything. He just laid it down on the earth. He wanted a house. He needed
a house. Wise enough to know he needed
a house. Foolish enough to build it on the earth. And let me tell
you something about him. He had no faith in what he couldn't
see. You know, he didn't want his
foundation to go out of sight. So we walk by faith, not by sight. But he wanted to live by sight.
He wasn't interested in having a foundation that you couldn't
see. Oh no, down on that rock. And his whole house, his whole
house was a matter of appearance. That's what he was interested
in more than anything else, in appearance. What it looked like,
what it looked like. That's what our Lord told about
the Pharisees. Oh, you Pharisees, you're beautiful
on the outside. Oh, you're beautiful on the outside.
But you know what you are on the inside? You're full of ravening
and wickedness and evil. And I tell you what, beloved,
and I tell you, you appear righteous unto men. But oh my, you're just
like a grave, put a grass over it, flowers on it. But down you
dig down, get down in that grave and what you got, dead bones,
rottenness, corruption. That's what he's talking about.
And I tell you what, and he looked around and he said, you know
my neighbors, being my neighbors, the neighborhood I live in, we
all got the same houses. I don't say, you know my neighbor's
house is a pretty house, my next door neighbor's house, all our
houses is the same. They're all like this. So why
should he worry? They aren't worried. The pastor
tells them not to worry. Well, they walked an aisle. They
shook the preacher's hand. They signed a card. They joined
the church. They got baptized. They prayed
the sinner's prayer. They teach Sunday school. But oh my, he said, all my neighbors,
everybody where I live, they all got the same houses. They
don't seem to be worried, they're nice looking houses, good houses. The preacher, he walks around
and says, boy that's a nice house you built there. Oh my, but when
you start inspecting their houses, You know Gary Williams and his
son Obie, they inspected houses for a while and the economy went
bad and people weren't buying houses, but they inspected houses.
And when we sold our house down on the farm, they came and inspected
that house. And they made a list of things
that needed to be fixed. And then the house we bought,
there was a house inspection. A man come out there and went
over that house from top to bottom, underneath, everywhere around.
And they inspected that house. And whatever they found wrong,
they said it needs to be fixed. They'd say, this has to be fixed. And you know when you start inspecting
their houses, when the gospel starts inspecting their houses,
when the word of God starts inspecting their houses, and you point out
the obvious flaws, that wall is a little crooked here, that
window don't let no light in. That house is settling on one
side and raising up on the other. There's some cracks in the ceiling.
You ain't got a good foundation. That house is starting to crack,
starting to move. You start pointing out the flaws.
You say, oh, I appreciate you pointing that out to me. I'll
get that fixed right away. No, no. You know what they do?
They get mad. They get angry. They get angry. Oh, my. They get upset. Who in
the world are you telling me about how my house is? You got
no business telling me about my house. They get angry, they
get upset. You know what they'll say? You
build your house your way and I'll build my house my way. That's what they'll tell you.
They say, well listen, you go ahead and build it your way and
I'll build it my way. Oh my. And I'll tell you what,
beloved, That's a sad, sad day. They're going to be so disappointed
when their house falls. And it'll fall. It will fall. It will fall. You know, it's
obvious to see the flaws in the house. Oh, so obvious to see
the flaws. First of all, the first flaw
it has, it ain't got a foundation. Ain't got a foundation. And a
house without a foundation, I mean it will move all over the place.
It will move all over the place. And I tell you what, the more
beautiful the house they seem to think they have, the more
beautiful the life that they seem to live. The world beautiful
the works without Christ. Oh, they think that their house
is nice They've got it decorated. Whoa, they've got it decorated.
So nice. They got a cross over here on
the wall They got a picture of Jesus over there. They got a
Bible right in the middle of the coffee table They've got a little cross on
their lapel Got one around their neck They stick one out in the
yard and you know they put a purple scarlet robe around it. And then
they talk about the cross, talk about the cross, talk about the
cross. But they never talk about the Christ of the cross. And
so they have this beautiful life. And oh, they walk by and they
see their cross out in their yard. And they see those three
crosses up on a hill. And they'll say, oh ain't that
so pretty. Oh, that's so dedicated. They're so committed. Oh, I tell
you what, I tell you that fella's really got faith. Look at him,
he's building crosses. That fella, what a dedicated
fella he is, carrying a cross across the United States. They got this beautiful life,
this wonderful life, this life that people say, boy, look what
a man, look what a person, look how dedicated, look at that big
building they got, look at all the people that come to hear
them preach. And oh my. The more beautiful,
the more the life that a person has without Christ, the more
dangerous, the more fatal it is. Our Lord says, you know that
this well-pleasing in the sight of men is an abomination in the
sight of God. Beware of building when you should
be digging. Your house may please the eyes
of men, But you know God talked about the heart and the fruit
and the tree and the treasure and the mouth. But I tell you what, the difference
between Him and that man who dig deep, look what the difference
was. Look what the difference was.
He laid his foundation upon the earth. against which the stream
did exactly like it did to the other house that didn't even
shake it. The stream did beat vehemently, hard, strong, fast,
furious and immediately, I mean immediately, immediately it fell. It fell, that house fell. And the ruin of that house was
great. Great. Oh my. There they are. They're standing
out in the middle of this storm. And the storm's beating. And
they ain't got no place to hide. They ain't got no refuge. They
ain't got no shelter. They ain't got no house. His
hopes were suddenly destroyed. And immediately it fell. He was
earnest. Oh, he was so earnest. He labored
to build. Oh, he took his free will and
I mean he began to build and build and build and he built
him a good foundation, he built him a good house. Oh my, he loved
the songs, good old fashioned songs, you know, I'll fly away.
Oh my, listen, if anybody makes it to heaven, surely I will.
He labored to build. He wasn't a lazy person. He wasn't
indifferent to his need of shelter. He did his very best. But that was the problem. It
was his very best. Not God's. Not God's. and his best was without a foundation. Well, I tell you, beloved, we
have to build on the blood and righteousness of Christ, build
on the person of Christ, on the atonement of Christ, on the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, on what he did and the work he accomplished. You know, that's what we build
on. We build on the righteousness of Christ. The blood of Christ. The atonement of Christ. The
person of Christ. That glorious God-man, that person
that's full of compassion and grace and mercy. And everyone
who ever came to Him, He blessed them. If you had a need, you
came to Him, He met your need. And I tell you what, He told
Martha, Martha, she said, Oh Lord, why don't you get my sister
Mary to help me? He said, Mary, Mary, Martha,
Martha, you're covered about many things, but one thing is
needful. And that's Mary, and I'm not
going to be taken away from her. One thing's needful. And that
rich young ruler that came running to him and asking him what he
must do to be saved. And our Lord told him. And you
know what he said? One thing thou lackest. One thing
thou lackest. Beloved, it's too late to build
another house after the storm comes. Huh? Too late. When that stream comes and that,
them things come and that house goes. And that's why churches,
they turn over all the time. Congregations turn over. You
know why? People come, get right so right
with God, then they go back out in the world and another bunch
comes in. It's just turning over and over and over. It's too late
to build a house. But let's close with a hymn.
I believe everybody there knows it. My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I know it's on 272. Gary,
you come up here and lead that. You come up here and stand here
and lead that. Yeah, you come up here and lead that song. We'll
sing this song together. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but holy On Christ the solid rock I stand All other
ground is sinking sand All other ground is sinking sand When darkness
veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath is covenant, His blood
support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul his way
he then is all my hope and stay on Christ the solid rock I stand
on All other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking
sand. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, oh may I think In Him be found, dressed in His righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before His throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Well, folks, God bless you. The
Lord bless you today and keep you. If the weather gets real
bad this evening, I won't be back. And you all understand
that. But I love you. God bless you. And Lord willing,
I'll see you tonight unless something changes. And then Wednesday night
too. Oh boy. Oh my word. I'm glad I was built on that
foundation. Oh my. Yeah, he built this. It's
his foundation. He laid it. And he built this. He laid the foundation. And that's
what David meant. He said, he had picked my feet. You know, in Bunya's Pilgrim
Progress, When he got ready to go over, old Mr. Ready to halt, he got ready to
go over and he threw his crutch away. And he started to cross
the river, you know, to get across the river. And he got out there
and boy, I tell you what, his head started going under, he
didn't think he was going to make it across. And all of a
sudden he got out there and his foot hit on a rock. You know, he's floundering around,
floundering around, didn't know he was going to make it. But
he hit that rock. And he walked the rest of the
way over the bay just like that. Did you turn this off? I told him I was coming to church and I was preaching. serving audio. Kitchen Creek was watching. Yeah,
they, I tell you what, there's a, I
tell you, and there's folks that can't go to meetings, that's
what they're doing. I mean, even, even, you know, they're not meeting
down there. Where's that? Oh, the kitchen? I know some watch Greg or watch
Todd first and then turn over and watch us. I know Steve and
Kim said they did that the other night. Stop. Stop.