In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of making a decision between the broad way and the narrow way. He highlights Jesus' teaching that only a few will enter through the narrow gate. The preacher also emphasizes the reality of death and judgment, stating that every person will one day stand before God to give an account of their life. The sermon concludes with the message that the foundation of our lives should be built upon the truth of God's word and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that we must rest upon Him for salvation.

Matthew chapter 7 verse 24, and if you'll stand we'll take a look at it. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone 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. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. When he was come down from the mountains, great multitudes followed him. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you again for your word tonight, and we ask that as we come, Lord, to the close of this greatest sermon ever preached, greatest message, Lord, ever given to man, Lord, though it takes the rest of the word of God to understand it, this phenomenal sermon, Jesus, that you gave on the mount, we pray that as you concluded it, that the great conclusion of it would come to our hearts. And the importance of it, the absolute fundamental truth of who you are, and what we do with it, Lord, that you would bring it home to every one of our hearts, a great understanding of it. For Father, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as we have been going through the Sermon on the Mount, of course, by now the great principles of the Christian life have been very, very well stated, of course. And now Jesus, as he is closing off here in chapter 7, he has been going through a series of exhortations, essentially, exhorting us of the fundamental importance of following these things, not just simply listening to them and hearing them. But as Jesus says, in verse 26, everyone that heareth these saying of mine, and doeth them not. He's there, he looks and he says, it isn't, did you hear them? He said, what did you do with them? What happened with them? And here is, he's bringing home the applications. Now he's bringing home the great decision, essentially, to us of what do we do regarding whether are we going to follow the true prophets or the false prophets? For Jesus said, you know, he is through the Sermon a number of times. He said, you know, you have heard that it hath been said by them of old times, but I say unto you, he said that six or seven times to them. You have been hearing by the false prophets. One thing, I'm telling you another one. And as he straightened out the centrality of the gospel and the importance of understanding the reality of following with him. And over and over, I've seen, you've heard, but I say, and now he's telling us, you got to decide whether you are going to go the broad way or you're going to go the narrow way. And if we're straight as the gate and narrow as the way, and few there be that enter in there at their at, Jesus says. And here, Jesus is bringing home the great reality that one day, the Bible tells us that it's appointed to all men once to die. And then after that, the judgment. The one great thing that we know that is going to happen to all people is that they will one day stand before God to give an answer for their life. For all of the issues that are important, Jesus is bringing it down to this one central great reality that each and every man will one day give an answer for his life in this final judgment. And as Jesus talks about it here, he gives some astounding things. He says, there's a lot of people that will say, but Lord, Lord, didn't I? And he says, there'll be many, many people who spent their whole life thinking they were a Christian. They're not. And now, as he's closing it off, he's once again bringing home another application. There are the importance there of following him, obeying him, doing the things that will determine and define our eternal life. And here, Jesus, he gives this final illustration essentially of two men. Both of them contractors, you might say, so to speak. Both of them building houses. Both apparently believing they're Christians. Both, it would appear, at least they're professing Christians, as you would look at it. And when you look at them, they both seem to be ones, you might say, who study the things of God, study Christianity. They believe it's the right way of life. They've seemingly heard what they believe to be the gospel. They seem to profess it, seem to be disciples of it, building their life in a way that would be right before God. And yet, within this group, there's obviously a very clear difference between the two. One of them is God's child, and the other one is not, but thinks they are. An awesome sight, isn't it? What a thing to think of one day happened to us. Both men, when you look at them, on one hand, there's quite some similarities, I suppose you might say, when you would look at it. Both men seem to have the same desire. That is, both of them wanted a house. Something to protect their family, something in which to dwell. Both men seemingly almost picked the same geography. When you look at the picture here, as it's kind of described, it almost appears as if the houses, you know, are almost next to each other, very close. Both of them, I suppose you could say, for the sake of the illustration gives here, Jesus gives here, you might say, built their house the same design. You might look at the two, and they both had the same architect, same subcontractors, you know, all the way through. Had the same material, same design, same expense, same framers, maybe same plumbers, same electrical, same roofers, you know, in a sense of building all of this house. They might have, as you would look at these houses, they might appear exactly the same, you know, right down to the very little sign over the door, God bless this house. You know, and both of them, as you would look at the houses, you'd almost get the picture, they're almost identical. And yet, at the same time, Jesus doesn't see them that way at all, not even for a moment. One of them is truly a born-again child of God, the other is a pseudo-Christian. And yet, as you look at them, almost for the sake of the illustration, as Jesus gives it, it's almost hard to define the difference between them. You can't see any obvious differences, in a sense, in the illustration. By all the outward appearances, at any rate, there, it's very difficult to see or determine any real difference at all. And much like, I suppose, the false prophet and the true prophet. When you would look at the false and the true prophet, both of them say they're teaching the truth, leading people into the truth, both of them use the Bible. Both the true and the false prophet believe in God, or say they do. Both of them would talk about Jesus Christ in the way of following Christ. Both of them, I suppose, might believe in good morals, ethics, values, clean living. And you have to study even the true and the false prophet, sometimes very clearly, to detect the difference. And so, too, with many people that call themselves Christians. In the sense that you've got to look sometimes very, very carefully. And at first look at them. You know, when you look at the true Christian and the false Christian, they may look very, very much alike. And sometimes, the false Christian even puts the true Christian to shame. Sometimes, when you look at them, their values may be even as good or better than a born-again Christian. They may have ethics, they may have morality, they may have all sorts of standards that are very, very impressive. They may be even higher standards. They may even have greater legal things that they kind of keep and hold on to. Sometimes, many Christians say, well, we can do this and we can do that, and God's grace is there. And they may look and even live better, on the surface, more righteously. Sometimes, when you would look at those that seem to embody themselves within what they might call the family of God, whether it could be a Mormon, it could be a Jehovah's Witness, it could be Christian scientists, it could be all sorts of others that are within it, and you would try to observe them. Many times, in their homes, the ethics, the family, the values, the way that they may do business, their honesty, their integrity, they may be outstanding. They may be somebody that, when you look at it, they've got great biblical truths on which they hang and have acquired their values, their ethics, their moralities, the way they built their lives. They maybe have a chapter and verse for every stud in the wall, you might say. For every, you know, aspect of the wiring that goes through, and all the connections in the roofing, it may be something that they can look and say, the Bible taught us how to put this roof up here. And they may actually have biblical references and have followed scriptural truths all the way through the construction of their house, their relationships, their marriages, their families, their business practices. Everything that is around them might be very right, very biblical, very, very good, and kept to the letter of the law, kept wonderfully, kept very, very well. They may practice biblical principles in their marriages, raising their children, in all the aspects of their life. And next to a true born-again Christian, where Jesus is making quite a difference here, you might even look at one and say, what right do you have to judge them? Look at their family, look at their fine children, look at their home, look at their values, look at the way that they do business. Well, say whatever you want to, but as far as Jesus is concerned, he divides them right down the middle, doesn't he? He looks at one and he says that it's God's, and the other one isn't. Very simple, very clear, very obvious from God's perspective. From heaven's perspective, there's no struggle at trying to determine at all which is which, which is okay. In God's analysis, when God sits down and he evaluates and he judges, though you and I, you know, could put together a huge panel that could never agree on anything as to who is and who isn't, obviously and clearly from God's perspective, when he sits there in heaven, he isn't going to have any trouble. Every human being, when they stand before God, will be easily, simply, quickly definable to God. God isn't going to sit there and have to say, you know, I got to ask you a few questions. I can't make up my mind about you. I just go back and forth. You've got so many great strengths. You've got some really good stuff, but I've never understood this. No, maybe we as a panel might do that. God won't have that. He'll have something that he knows, that he knows, that he knows as deep and as rigid and as true and as honest as anybody can know anything. And here Jesus separates between the two. Doesn't have any problem. And he makes it very clear, though, and I suppose this is the important aspect of this illustration that Jesus gives, is that ultimately in his decision-making, in his evaluation, it doesn't have anything to do, essentially, with what's above the ground. Just that simple. When you look at here, you know, what is really going on as Jesus is evaluating it, it's not on the outside. It's what's under the skin. It's what below the ground, you might say. As Jesus gives this illustration of these two men building their houses, one of them is upon a rock and the other is on sand, and that makes all the difference in the world. That's the total determining aspect about it. Luke chapter 6, verse 48, Jesus said, He is like a man which built a house, and he digged deep, and he laid the foundation on a rock, and when the flood arose and the stream beat vehemently upon the house, and he could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. And here in Luke's, you know, evaluation of Jesus' statement here on it, he looks there and he says, here's somebody that they dug deep, and they dug deep until they got to bedrock. They went down, they laid a foundation upon a rock. And here as he looks there, he says, then this is the determining factor. And one will ultimately stand or fall. One will either be wise or foolish. A wise man builds his house and a fool. A man who is just an absolute fool is somebody that has made a terrible mistake here as he looks at him. And you might say, what makes him such a fool? Why is it that one of them, and I suppose both of these men in one sense, you might look at it, they both worked just as hard in many ways. Cost them the same, you might say. You know what it was, you know, they got the 16 inches on center on all the studs in the walls and things. They maybe got all of the, you know, the right engineering done on the roof for the, you know, the load to hold the snow load or to all the other aspects about the house. It may be engineered the walls and it may be where all the electrical is grounded and all the plumbing, you know, flows in the right direction sort of a thing and downhill and everything else. They may have plenty of water, you know, pressure to run the house and everything. But when it comes down to it, both of them can work awfully hard. They can sweat. They can put out all the energy in the whole world building the thing. But when it's done, one of them followed the rules and the other didn't. And it's almost as if one of them wanted a house and then almost to get on with other things. He didn't have the time for the foundation. Didn't have it. One builds, you know, and he, and maybe he looks at it. He says, this is all I need. This will get the job of living done. And it's something there that a lot of people, sometimes I think when I look there at what people believe, and I'm not here to make fun or ridicule, you know, any religious systems particularly. But to me, when I look, for example, at the foundations of Mormonism, when I look at the foundations and the truth of what God, where Joseph Smith got all of his information, well-proven, very, very thoroughly documented, no question about the fraud that went on in his putting together the religion. Now, I don't mean that as a cheap shot. I mean, it is an honest accusation. It's well-proven. And anybody that wants to go to the roots and look at the foundation of it and look at the Mormonism, you can do the same thing with Mary Baker, Eddie in Christian Science. You can do it the same thing with Russell and Rutherford and Jehovah's Witnesses. You can do it when you want to go and you look and say, where did they come up with this? How did they come about with these things of which millions of people are living under them and believing them and going to church and building these unbelievable homes, building these huge churches, dwelling inside of these religious systems and they've got great structure to them, great all sorts of other things. But when you look down, what is it upon? What's the foundation of its existence? Is it God from, you know, all the way through? Is it God's presence? God's power? God's supernatural revealed truth? Or is it something there? You got some mud. You got a lot of man's thinking. You got a bunch of clay. You got a bunch of things there that isn't. That as it's built in many of these theologians from the various religions trying to defend them, they will even acknowledge you. They made a lot of mistakes. And, you know, when Joseph Smith declared that there was people running around on the moon, well, he kind of slipped on that one. But somehow and other people don't say, wait a minute, this is the guy that also read these plates from Moroni. Might be Maloney, you know what I mean? So it could possibly be in a sense there, but they don't look at it. They don't look at the foundation. They don't want to really know deeply all the way. And this is the terrible thing. A lot of people, you know, they remind me of me at Christmas, you know, or something to where, you know, you get a toy for your kids. And on the outside of the box, it's just kind of a little thing that says, you know, requires some assembly, you know, or something. And look out for those. You open it up and you realize you need an engineering degree, you know, to put these things together. And you only got 10 minutes to do it because the kid's sitting there pounding his foot, saying, I want to ride it. And so you don't sit there and read the instructions. Not if you're, you know, I mean, you haven't got any time to really read them, you know, and sort of thing. And also, but even particularly when you're really intelligent, intelligent people don't need to read instruction. And not particularly if you're as intelligent as I am. In fact, I am smarter than any of those things because I am so good at putting things together. I even end up with extra parts when I'm done. I don't even need some of the stuff that they put in there until you want to use it. Then all of a sudden you'd realize, uh-oh, I think those parts fit somewhere. And the tragic thing is, is that there are literally millions of people that have put their entire life together and the parts don't fit, but yet they say, well, it works okay for now. Not realizing the only issue is, does it work eternally? Does it work forever? Here, both of these houses under normal weather conditions apparently did absolutely fine. Under just normal living conditions, normal seasonal things that happen, the normal issues of life, you could take the Christian, the true Christian, born-again Christian, you could, you know, line right up next to him all sorts of other religious people and let the regular, the rainfalls and the just and the unjust and the regular storms, the regular trials and the regular issues and you can have as many non-Christians sometimes live through the seasons of life almost as good, if not sometimes as well or better than the Christian. And you look at these houses and apparently they did just fine through life, the regular seasons of life, so to speak. But you see, these people, the ones that built it upon the sand, they didn't realize that the most, the most, not just a most or a, you know, important quality, but the very most important aspect of the construction had really nothing to do with the daily issues of life. It had nothing to do with, you know, this house, when it was to be built and when it was designed, it was designed for the great specific reason of standing strong in the day of eternal judgment. This is the house Jesus is describing here. This is not just simply kind of a place to dwell through our three score and ten here. This is a house that is built directly with the sense that one day a storm is going to come like no storm has ever dreamed of coming. There is going to be a rain and there's going to be winds and there is going to be, you know, a tornado that is going to come upon my life called death, unlike any other thing I have ever confronted. And that's what my life must be built upon. That day in mind, that issue in mind. This home was built not just for the daily, as I said, the normal conditions. Both of them seem to live through those conditions just fine. But one of them was built for a specific day and it was built, you know, for a day of judgment, not just thinking about the ordinary conditions. And it's something that this is something, though, where the other man realizes this is why I want to build my house the way I'm building it. The regular conditions of life, you know, in the regular weather, those are fine. And both of them kind of seem to stand up pretty good through those things. But one real aspect, you know, of the house when it comes down, the only aspect, as far as Jesus is concerned, about it is the foundation. He looks at that and he says that is going to determine the great storm, the real storm, the inevitable storm that every human being knows is coming. I don't know what's going to happen to the economy this year or next year or the next few years. I don't know what's going to happen in the world. I don't know what's going to happen with wars. I don't know what's going to happen with the nations. I've got some pretty good ideas prophetically. I don't know the timetable for them. But one thing I do know is one day the Bible says God is going to close up creation as a vesture. He spoke it into existence. In Hebrews chapter 1 tells us God will close it up as a vesture. He created and He's one day going to end it. And everyone that He created, that lived within it and was created by Him is going to stand before Him. And then that's the determining issue of all of life. And was the house built for the final judgment or not? And you know, you can have all your regular little seasonal patterns that everybody can live through. But these are, this isn't a hundred year flood conditions or a thousand years or you know, this is eternal flood conditions that Jesus is talking about here. And you see one man has built his house as he kind of did it all. He built his old house with not really that there's a true final building authority that's going to inspect the job. No, this guy, he really didn't need a structural engineer, so to speak. He knows everything he needs to know. This house works. It works for my friends. It works for my neighbors. Everybody around me is living in these houses. And it's a reasonable house. It's structurally fine or whatever, you know, and besides, we've never had a flood like you're talking about in this area. Maybe in some other place they need to how, you know, build a house for floods. And we've never had a recorded earthquake in this place here. So what do you need to build them with those standards for? And that seems to be the way a lot of people live. The answers that they really have in life is they even have their religious life, is their spiritual life. It isn't all about one day standing before God and being, you know, accepted in God's presence eternally. Their issue is, is there, you know something? When I stand before God, I built my house right. Everywhere, you know, I'm not afraid to stand before God. Every stud is 16 inches on center here. Every, it's all got, you know, three nails, you know, down there at the bottom. It's got three nails at the top. You know, there are fire blocks in between and all the walls here. It's properly insulated. The wiring is good. The snow load is effective. They can, they go through the whole thing, but they look down at the foundation of what it is truly all about. As I said, one of them, you know, is a man there that he's just thinking about this life and this works, works for me. But the other one looks, and he says, I want a house that's going to last and last and last. And it's going to last through anything and the greatest storm that'll ever happen. That's what Jesus is talking about. A man that built his house upon the rock. Well, look at the rock. It's pretty simple who that is in a moment. But until we realize that that's the issue. When I was up in San Jose, there was a man in our church up there who his father had worked, you know, a whole career, was getting ready to retire. In fact, a number of years earlier, just planning his retirement in the Monterey Bay area. He bought a lot there that just looked out over the Monterey Bay there, the ocean, just a beautiful place with that's where he's going to build his retirement home. And he came around time to getting close to retirement. And so he goes over, you know, get some plans and turns them into the city. And he's going to start building this house. And the city comes back and says they want a bunch of seismic work and they want a bunch of extra soils analysis and compaction stuff. And he was angry. So what do you mean? He went back and forth with them and he fought him on it. But then the city still said, you're not getting a building permit until you do this. And he had to pay thousands of dollars and go hire this company to come in and do this silly work. But when the information came back, he found out that he had to go down almost 30 feet. I mean, here this place, it had been so settled in, there were huge trees growing there. There had been, he had this place and he's looking at it, wouldn't look at this place. There's trees, there's huge things been here for many, many years, hundreds of years of growth here. And now you're worried about if a house will make it. And when he, when they came back and showed him that his house, if he built it as originally designed, as it began to settle, the foundation would crack, everything would have been absolutely destroyed over a period of time. Cost him over $100,000 to then go down, to get literally the bedrock, to put solid, you know, concrete, you know, things going down into it to build the house upon it. But it was something there that he had close to a million dollar home, I believe he was putting on this thing. And to imagine had he put a million dollars, his entire life savings for his dream home on something only to watch it give way. And he fought it. They forced him. They said, you will not build it unless you do it this way. Well, God doesn't fight with people. He does tell every one of them, though he says, however, you build your life and if it is upon the sand, I don't care what it is you build, you know, going up. If you don't build it right, going down. And the the ultimate thing here is that what is why this is so important is as far as God is concerned. When you look at this, why is the foundation so important? And it's very simple. You see, as Jesus is speaking here, he wants us to know you and I were not married. We were probably we were not created for the house. We were not created for marriage. We weren't created for Christian marriage. We were created for Christian families. We were created for Christian homes. We were created for Christian values, for Christian business, for Christian ethics. We were created for Christ. And there's a big difference between the two. One of them is a series of principles of human behavior by which you build relationships and you maintain relationships and you deal which are very important and very good. And those will help you through this life. But they were not the reason I was made. I was made by God, for God, to be with God, to be filled with God. I was made to belong to him eternally. And there is as far as God's concerned, we look at marriages. And yes, there's wonderful things for good Christian marriage, good Christian homes, good Christian ethics, good Christian values that are in the Bible that we ought to practice. And if we do, our lives are going to be blessed. But the issue here is that do I sit there and realize above all else, I was not just created to get through this life and put a roof over my head and have a nice hunky-dory time. I am created with an eternal aspect of which this life is a vapor. The three score and 10 that we have here in light of eternity, it's a flash in the pan. It just comes and goes. And yes, we will maybe look back and realize from an eternal perspective for a few flickering moments, I was married, but in heaven, there's neither marriage nor given in marriage. We won't be producing children. We will be living with God. And unless and as far as God is concerned, as I enter into an eternal relationship, what religion is to be all about, a relationship with God. Unless I look there and realize this is the primary issue of all of life. And here Jesus is simply saying, listen, yes, you've got each other. That's wonderful. I want to help you with each other. And yes, you've got business. That's wonderful. I want to help you with your business. And yes, you've got crops to grow. You've got homes to build. You've got things to do. I want to help you with all that. And I do and I will. But you were made by God in His image. And until you realize the very need of having Him above all else, Christ is our life. Christ is our home. Christ is our eternal existence. And until something happens where I settle it on that, and when I also then begin to build and I look and realize that everything I would build upon, my own effort, my own energy, my own righteousness, my own commitment, it's sand. My own goodness, my own consecration, God, I'm going to build and I'm going to build it good and I'm going to try hard and I'm going to be wonderful. God says, no, you aren't and no, you won't. You can't dig deep enough on your own to get a foundation. The most costly aspect of the home is the foundation. It's the whole basis of the home and it is something that we cannot do. But as the Bible says, that no man can build on any other foundation than that which is already laid. It's already done. For me to try to build it or redo it is ridiculous and it's a denial of the sufficiency of Christ. But when I look at my life and I'm able to look and realize, Lord, you are everything. And what you did to give me a foundation to die upon the cross, to bear my sins, to forgive all of my iniquities, to look at me and say, I forgive you and I love you. And that's something, by the way, hopefully every one of us know. Hopefully as we're sitting here tonight, there's not a one of us that we do not know deeply within our heart. Jesus Christ is the hope of the world and of us. Individually that I can look around and not say, how have I done? How do you like the framing? What do you think of the roofing? Nice interior. How do you like it? But we look at that and realize no matter how good it is, what is my life? When the storm comes, when death comes, when the final analysis come, what holds me up? And when I look there and realize that's to where the price has been paid by Jesus Christ. Him alone. As somebody once said, I heard the words of love. I gaze upon the blood. I see the mighty sacrifice and I have peace with God. When I look there and realize my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. My life is based on him and him alone. And as Jesus, you know, the is closing out the sermon, you know, and talking about a wise man, he's talking about a fool. In Proverbs, it says there that a wise man, he seeks and he covets wisdom for the gain thereof is better than fine gold. That the wise man wants to look and say, is my house built on the foundation of Jesus Christ? It's that simple. And when you and I tonight, where are you? Where am I? Is it something that, you know, with many people it's done early. You know, it's done at the beginning. We try to get it. An interesting thing as you look at people at the farther they get through construction. If you've ever noticed this, the older somebody gets, the less likely they are to respond to the gospel. They've been building a long time. Hey, I got a lot of walls. I got a lot of stuff here done and you want me to go down to the very foundation and start all over? I don't think so. That's why statistically, most people when they become Christians, they're younger. After the teenage years, every year a person gets older after they're a teenager, the less likely they are to give their life to Christ because the more they've already built and they just want to say, hey, look, I've done a lot of work in my life. I've done a lot of building. I've done, I'm a long way through the project. I don't want to go back and look at the foundation. And sometimes, God has to bring a, you might say a pre-flood flood. Imagine with many of us, the way we kind of came to Christ is kind of, we were building along. We were fine. Everything was pretty good for normal conditions. And sometimes God has to bring something that just shakes it. I had a nephew. I still had, I didn't have, I have. You know, a wonderful young man when it comes to ethics and values and morals and a good husband and a good father and wonderful qualities and wonderful human being. You can't, you can't look at anything he's done and have accusation against it, essentially. Just wasn't a Christian. Graduated from college, went through his life, going through things. Didn't need Christ. Now, wonderfully, God in his mercy, just kind of let the economy shift and let things start underneath him to where his life really starts getting shaky. And only, and then he moved back, he was back east. And his wife, wonderful Christian, loving, praying, caring. His daughter, wonderful little Christian, precious little girl, no doubt loving, caring, praying for daddy. Meantime, he's going along, things are fine. He was so nice, he'd go to church with him. Didn't believe it, but he'd go to church because he didn't want, he was a nice guy. And nice guys go to church with Christians. And they sit there and they don't let anything bother them because they don't believe that stuff. They don't need it. And there they sit. And yet, finally, something had to shake. Lo and behold, the mother and daughter were shaken to the core and my niece and her daughter, when the pastor who'd given all their call, every service they ever did, and all of a sudden, he gets up and he walks down. And somehow or another, finally, need Christ. Finally realizes my life is hopeless outside of Christ. How long that takes, I don't know. But whatever it is, there's a fellow I don't want to look at him tonight so much, but he's sitting down here who I haven't seen for years. He went to my church in Redland, sat and listened to me. Priest, phenomenal sermons, powerful sermons, tremendous sermons, folks. Ones that I'll tell you, you'd think in hell, they were just listening to this begging they could come back and listen to it. But it was that good. It didn't faze him a bit for years. His wife, a wonderful Christian lady, would bring him and he'd sit there. Bank vice president, I got it all together. Finally, I'll never forget, one Sunday, I gave him all the call and he looked at it and I thought, oh no, I'm ready to go to heaven. Comes to Christ. Couldn't believe it. I've wondered for years, is he still around? Is he still walking with the Lord? A few months ago, I pick up a paper and I saw his paper, name in the paper, in the criminal wanted, no, in the starting a new bank thing and part of the thing. And I thought, Lord, how is he doing? And I look out here at night and here he's sitting here. So I can hardly wait to find out from his wife. She'll tell me the truth. But anyway, but when we look where, where is our life? What is the very foundation of it? This is what Jesus has got to say. And, you know, I think the saddest thing every year, how to every year, you know, when the weather turns, it seems like every season we sit here in California and we watch as the news, when the rains and, you know, when the floods come to where these multimillion dollar homes sitting right on the ocean, you know, that have got, I mean, some of the most beautiful homes in the state, in these fabulous homes, hundreds and hundreds of dollars a square foot, marble floors and gold plated faucets and, you know, beautiful stuff all the way through the finest materials in there, inlaid, you know, you know, walnut and pecan and extravagant woods used in building these beautiful libraries. And yet the sand begins to give and the guy is sitting out there watching his backyard as it's going in while he's looking over, trying to grab his chandeliers, you know, out of the house and his pictures off the wall while he's watching his entire house go down like a bunch of, you know, cards into the ocean as it just folds into nothing. It had nothing to do with how much it cost, how much effort, how good all of the engineering was from the foundation up. It had to do with the reality it is not upon a rock. And a lot of people go through this life and they've got some beautiful lives and they've got some well-constructed homes, they've got good integrity, they've got good qualities, they've got good things. But they haven't had something happen and realize the only thing that is important eternally is not how good of a husband or father I've been, not how good of a builder I've been, not my honesty, not my integrity. I'm not saying that those aren't important. But the final analysis is he that has the Son has life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And either I can say my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness or I'm lost or I'm hopeless and it's done. And when we realize there, as Paul says in Corinthians, he says, for no other foundation can no man lay than is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And something that sometimes and I think is a good thing for us to do is stop and look, is this what life is all about to me? To know God, to know His love, to know His mercy, to know His power. The evangelists oftentimes in past revivals, sometimes to today, we think they were very harsh because people like Charles Wesley, John Wesley, Whitefield, literally they would examine, they wouldn't let somebody call themselves a convert until they had been examined, until they had confronted them and they had a deep conversation and they were counseled that they understand totally that Jesus Christ is our only hope. His blood upon the cross is their sufficiency. His work. And they wouldn't even let them join. They wouldn't let them come in until they had been almost interrogated. Do they truly know Christ? While back when I'm talking to the team from Gospel for Asia, of which they were telling me on how that they'd recently done a baptism. I believe it was for 13,000. 13,000. And many of those, now there are literally hundreds and hundreds of churches over there wanting to affiliate with Calvary because a lot of Calvary has been so involved in many ways with K.P.O. Hannon and with these churches being planted over there, but thousands of them. And I'm sitting there saying, now guys, I got to ask you something. I mean, how do you know? I mean, 13,000 people. How do you know they're saved? I mean, when you got a massive thing like that and you're baptizing them. Oh, they said, no, no, no. We won't, all those 13,000, they weren't baptized until they had walked with Christ for a minimum of six months. And then they were all individually discipled and taught and went through a class with their pastor before they were presented for baptism that they indeed understood and that they had revealed the life in Christ. I thought, wow, we don't do that. You know, and things, and in a sense of, you know, and the revival is sometimes of old. They just thought it was so important that they could look at somebody and say, is this who you are? Where is your eternal life? Because one day the Bible says everything that can be shaken will be shaken. Every one of our lives. And either something has happened to where we realize the rains will descend. Interesting, just one thing here before we close. But George Gallup, Gallup polls, you're very familiar. That probably the most recognized pollster in the country has done just a poll that just came out last week. It's this recent of just last week. But 72% say their lives have meaning and purpose because of their faith, according to this new Gallup poll just publicized last week. And then in the nation's spiritual index as they call it came out of there, 74.7 out of a possible 100%. But 74.7 as they went through a list of questions felt that they are fine. Essentially, overall health, you know, they believe that 77% believe that the hope of a nation is on a spiritual health. They believe that life is 72% life has meaning and purpose because of faith. Faith is involved in every aspect of life. 60% of the people say in this poll that taken by Gallup, 80% said they were Christians. Only 6% say they were non-Christians and the others were some mixture of other things. 80% of our country. I'd just like to know, are 80% of your friends saved? 80% of the people in your neighborhoods saved? 80% of the people that you live and work around? I don't know. I got to go check out my neighborhood. I'm in a wrong neighborhood here. There's some wonderful people. You know, sort of a thing, but it's something where 74% believe that God is actively involved in their life. 67% believe that faith in Jesus Christ is their hope. 67%. Now, you just look at this. Say, where are these people? Where do they? We need to import them. We need some more of them around here or something, wherever they all are. I don't know. But the thing is, is this tells me that there are massive numbers of people who are building their house and it's going through seasonally fine, but eternally, they're in trouble. How's your house tonight? Not the outside, but when you tear up the carpet and you go down and you look, is it something where you can look at it and who you are starts with, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And God said, let's make man in our image. And God said, the day in which thou sinnest, thou shall die. And God said, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Is it something where you can look in the foundation of your house as chapter and verse and the blood of Christ all over it, the sacrifice, the atonement, the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ. That's the foundation. And the rest of it ought to be affected because that same Jesus who gave his life for us is the one who gives himself to us and helps us build the rest of it. But how the, but the ultimate thing is, is do I rest upon him? Do I rest upon him? Where are you tonight? Let's pray. Dear father, we do thank you for your love and your goodness. And we ask that as we close out this message, that Lord, your heart for us would be brought to us, the Lord, that we would realize that is the word of God says that Christ died not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. There is not a person here tonight that you did not die for. There is not a person here tonight that cannot have this foundation. For God so loved the world. And Lord, even as Paul says that God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. Lord, that we should look and realize tonight. You look at every one of us. You say, I'm not willing that I'd lose any one of you, but every one of you would come to me. Provided the way of forgiveness. And Lord, that we could look and realize in the final analysis, there's only two people really in the room. You and us. Not where we've been and what we've done and how hard we try and who we've impressed and how good our morality or integrity or our promises were kept. But we'd look there and realize at the very core of our being. Have we found that the only one that's any important is the love of God? And if I ever come to realize your love forgives me, your love adopts me, your love atones for me, your love looks and says, you may be fine in this life with the people around you, but if you want to spend eternity with me, it's free to you. Though the price was everything to Jesus Christ upon the cross. And Lord, if anyone would think they're going to go to heaven on any other foundation than the sacrifice of Christ, may they know they're hopeless. And Lord, I pray that even tonight as we close, maybe there's some that would look and say, you know, I'm not. I don't know that my house has had this foundation. I've got a lot of biblical truths and a lot of principles, and there's a lot of wonderful blessings. I've been through a lot of seasons, but I don't know if I'm ready for this storm. And Lord, I pray that right now, if they want to look and realize it's just you and them, even tonight, though there's others around, you look at them and say, I love you. And I forgive you. And I want you so desperately. I'd die for you. And Lord, I pray that even now they could open their heart and come to you and realize how great your love is. And even as we're praying, maybe that's where some of you are to say, Don, pray for me. I want to receive Christ tonight. I want to know I'm his child. And if that's where you are, wherever you are, I'd like you just lift your hand. I want to pray for you. You want to invite Jesus Christ. God bless you. Down here in the front. Any others? You want to give him your life. You in the back, in the side. Any others? You want to give him your heart. The two of you over here. Three over in the back there. God bless you. Any others? Tonight, you want that foundation. God bless you down here. Just give you another moment before we close it. But maybe there's somebody tonight you realize, I want to be able to stand just alone with God and realize I can look at him and say, I love you. Thank you for all the blessings, all the goodness, all the things in life. But I want you more than any of them. And tonight you want to know that Jesus Christ is in your life. Any others before we close? God bless you in the very back. Another moment before we close. If he's speaking to your heart, give your life to him. He loves you. Respond to him. Father, we thank you for your love. And we thank you, Lord, for your goodness. And I just pray that each one right now that has lifted their hands and maybe others that haven't, but would look and say, Jesus, I know I'm ultimately going to stand before you. But I don't want to stand before you as judge. I'd rather tonight stand before you as a sinner who stands before his savior. Just thank you for forgiving me. And if it's my choice, which it really is for every one of us, we will stand before you, but it's our choice whether we'll stand before you as a judge or a savior. That you give to us. You can build your house on sand or upon a rock. But Jesus, may we come and realize that my life is sand outside of you. And you, Jesus, are the rock. And I just pray tonight for each one that has opened their heart. May they just respond to you. Lord, may they find themselves, giving their heart and their life to Jesus Christ. So we praise you and thank you. And even if tonight you have raised your hand, I just want to pray and give you the opportunity to respond and follow me in this prayer, if you would. Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me on the cross. I ask you to come into my heart. Cleanse me from my sin. For I receive you now as my Savior and my Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.