In the Gospel of Luke chapter
6 is the story or parable which our Lord told of two houses,
one house built on a rock and the other house built on the
earth or the sand. And a great storm arose and a
flood arose and beat upon each of these houses and only one
of them stood. Only one of them withstood this
terrible tempest, and it was the house built on the rock.
And the house built on the earth fell, and great was the fall
or ruin of that house. I read to you from Luke chapter
6, the Lord Jesus Christ says in verse 47, Whosoever cometh
to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you
to whom he is like." Stop right there. Every word is significant. The Lord says, Whosoever cometh
to me, and heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them. Do you know what the first work
of God is? He that doeth these sayings of
mine. The Lord, in chapter 6 of John,
some people ask the Lord, what shall we do? that we might work
the works of God. Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent." Oh, salvations by grace. By grace are you saved
through faith. And that is not of yourself.
It's a gift of God. If anyone believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ, God has given them that faith. God has given them
repentance. God has given them life. He that
believeth on the Son hath life." Faith is a result of life given
by God through the preaching of His Word, the incorruptible
seed of God. And the work of God, which He
accepts, is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
first thing. And all works are based upon
His work. Well, He said here, "...whosoever
cometh to Me..." Stop there. We need to dig deep and find
out what faith really is, what our hope is really built upon.
He said, Whosoever cometh to Me. Now in John chapter 6, our
Lord said, All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. And him that cometh to Me I will
in no wise cast out. In verse 45 it is written in
the Prophets, Isaiah 54, verse 13, They shall be all taught
of God, or that is, His children. All his children are taught of
God, and every man therefore that hath heard and learned of
the Father cometh to me, Christ said, cometh unto me. Many come
to church. The true Christian comes to Christ. Many come to see or be seen. The true believer comes to hear
Christ's word, to see Him, His glory, His person, His work.
Most come out of habit or duty or because of tradition, or for
entertainment, or to socialize. God's true people come to worship
the Lord. Three things in Philippians 3,
verse 3, it says of the people of God, the true concision, the
true people of God, they worship God in spirit. They really come
to church to worship God, and they come rejoicing in Christ
Jesus, and they have no confidence in the flesh, no trust, no hope
in anything about themselves, in anything they have ever done,
in any experience they've ever experienced. Their hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. On Christ
the solid rock they stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All right, our Lord said here
in this parable, all that come to me, whosoever cometh to me,
and heareth my saying, they come to Christ, they worship him,
they come to hear him, they hunger and thirst after Christ. He said
that before this. Blessed is he that hungereth
and thirsteth, hungereth after him, after Christ, the bread
of life, Christ, the water of life. They come to Christ to
be forgiven, to be healed, like blind Bartimaeus. He said, I
want to see. I want to see thy glory, like
Mary Magdalene. I want forgiveness of sin, like
the leper. Lord, I want to be clean, the
Syrophoenician woman. Lord, help me." Whoever comes
to Christ, they come to Christ. That's who they come to. He that
cometh to me, heareth my sayings. They've heard. Christ said, Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest." They've labored. They've labored in this world,
and religion, and their works, and can't do enough to satisfy
God. Well, they hear of Christ. They
hear the gospel, and they come to Christ. to rest from their
works, to cease from their labor, to rest in Christ the Lord their
Sabbath. They've heard His saying. They've
heard Him say, come unto Me, I'll give you rest. Christ the
ark, Christ their hope, Christ their salvation. Well, our Lord
said, He that cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth
them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man which
built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a
rock. And when the flood rose, a stream
beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it for it
was founded upon a rock." He says he's like a man, this person
is like a man that built a house, dug deep and laid his foundation
on a rock. Now every house is built by some
man. This is exactly what Hebrews
said. Let me read to you from the book
of Hebrews chapter 3. It says that every house in verse
4 is built by some man. He that built all things is God,
is God. And it says in verse 6, Christ
is the Son over His own house, whose house are we? That is,
all who come to Christ, all who believe Him, all whom Christ
came to save, all whom God gave to Christ to save. He is the
one who built the house. The Scripture says, except the
Lord build the house, they labor in vain to build it. You can't
build, you can't save your own soul. Listen to 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. Turn there with me if you have
a Bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul
said in verse 6, I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave
the increase. Neither is he that planteth anything,
neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. He went on to say, we are laborers
together with God, but you are God's husband. Husband, you are
God's building. Salvation is of the Lord. All
who have heard God's Word, born again, begotten by the truth,
they all know and believe they've heard His Word. They've heard
that salvation is of the Lord and they know that. They know
that. It's His Word. All of it. It's
His will. It's His choice. It's His righteousness.
It's His blood. It's His power. It's His Holy
Spirit. Anyone who talks of their free
will, Anyone who talks about their decision, how they decided
to let go and let God, anyone who talks of their works, anyone
who talks about they accepted Jesus, they made Him Lord, they
don't know the Lord. They haven't been built on this
foundation of salvation of the Lord, on Christ Himself. They
haven't heard His Word. They haven't heard His voice.
Their salvation is built on something they have done, not what God
has done. Their salvation is built upon
their will, not God's will. Their choice, not God's choice.
Their righteousness, not Christ's righteousness. In Matthew chapter
7 is the same story, but a longer account. The Lord said, Not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.
But he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven.
Remember, I quoted to you, this is the will of God, Christ said,
which hath sent me. to do His will, to finish the
work. And everyone that seeth the Son
believeth on Him, Christ said, I will raise him up. Many will
say unto me, Christ said in that day, many will say, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name, preached in the name of
Jesus, in thy name cast out devils, in the name of Jesus be ye healed,
in thy name done many wonderful works? Then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. He never knew them. He never
loved them. He never chose them. For whom He did foreknow, He
did predestinate. Whom He did predestinate, He
called by this gospel. Whom He called, He justified
by faith. They believe Christ. They believe
the gospel. They believe the truth. And whom
He justified, He glorified. They see His glory. Those who
plead their own works, those who say, Lord, Lord, I've done
this, I've done that. Christ never knew them, loved
them, chose them. They were never born again. And
they never knew Him. They never heard His Word. Else
they wouldn't talk about what they've done. They wouldn't plead
anything they've done. They'd plead only the merits,
the person, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. People, if somebody
came out and saved you, you were drowning, you were going down,
and someone came to save you, And He died saving you. When
you were brought back to shore, you sure wouldn't talk about
you accepting that person. You wouldn't tell people. You
wouldn't go everywhere telling people how you let Him save you.
Oh, no. You would sing the high praises
of that One who died to save you. You would say, He saved
me, not I let Him. In Luke chapter 6, our Lord said,
this is salvation. And a man's house is built, dig
deep. People, if you dig deep in this
Word, you'll find out that salvation is of the Lord and every jot
and tittle of God's Word from Adam to Zerubbabel is built on
Christ the solid rock. To Him give all the prophets
witness. Like the story of Zerubbabel. Do you know that story in Haggai
and Zechariah? It's all about Jesus crying,
like all the Scriptures is. Our Lord said the foundation
is the rock Christ Jesus. There is no other foundation
that can be laid than that which is laid, which God laid, which
is Christ Jesus the Lord. Before the world began, God willed
and purposed the salvation of His people, a kingdom, gave it
all to Christ to do the work, placed it all upon His shoulders,
It's all founded on the person and the work, the success of
Jesus Christ. And when He was hanging on that
cross, you know what He said? This is the capstone of all that
He did. Like Zerubbabel laid the capstone
with cries of grace unto it. Our Lord Jesus Christ hanging
on the cross after finishing the work of salvation for His
people, after putting away transgression, all the sin of all His people,
He cried, It is finished. foundation was laid on Christ,
and the top stone was laid by Christ, and He did it all, all. Jesus Christ paid it all. And
that foundation is Christ. And when the flood arose and
the stream beat vehemently upon that house, it could not shake
it. People, God's going to shake this world and everything in
it. Peter said, everything in the earth will be burned up,
the works of everyone. The wood, hay, and stubble spoken
of in 1 Corinthians 3, It's all going to be burned up. Everything
that man has done or everything we think that we have done for
God, wood, hay stubble, our works, all burnt up. They're sinking
sand. What is your hope built upon?
It better be built on Christ the solid rock. Verse 49 says,
But he that heareth and doeth not, believeth not, is like a
man without a foundation. He built his house on the earth.
All his hopes, all his desires are things on the earth. All
his hopes, all his hope of heaven with God is his works, his faith,
his morality, his deeds, his goodness, and that will be tried,
and it will fall, and great will be the ruin thereof. What is
your hope built upon? As the song says, my hope is
built on nothing less than the Lord Jesus Christ's blood and
righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on the Lord Jesus Christ's name. How
about you? Christ is the solid rock. Amen.