Sitting on a Sink Hole

I recall hearing Leonard Ravenhill say that of all church members in America, he believed only five percent of them were saved. He said that twenty-five years ago. I believe if the old boy could come back now and see the evangelism of our day, he'd lower that number even further.

When I was a little boy I visited a relative who kept a glass bowl of colorful fruit sitting on their dining room table. Well I was hungry and I wanted one of those red apples, so when they left the room I reached out and grabbed one out of that bowl. Boy was I a goof.

It was nothing but plastic, full of air, with red dye on the outside. Plastic fruit was popular back in those days, in the early 1960s. But nobody told me it was fake and not the genuine article.

And that's the trouble in many of our churches today. We have many church members who appear sincere in their religion on the outside, but who are like that bowl of plastic fruit. They look good on Sunday morning, but all they have to hang on to is an empty religious profession.

And they're not genuinely saved. They are on the wrong foundation. The title of my message this evening, friends, is Sitting on a Sinkhole.

And my text can be found in Luke's Gospel in chapter 6. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We'll be in verses 46 through 49. Well let's look in our passage from Luke as we hear Jesus describe two foundations that men stand upon.

For there are only two. You're either on one or the other. Even in your ignorance, you stand on one of them.

Let me read the word of God to us at this time, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Let me pause here, friends, to say that a follower of Jesus will come under all the rights and claims of the gospel on their lives as they follow a crucified Christ in a life of discipleship. But too many have gotten out their pocket knives and have whittled out a God who won't get in the way of their daily living.

Well, let's continue with the words of Christ Jesus. 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 digged 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 a house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. I will stop there.

In Florida we have something called a sinkhole. A sinkhole is where the foundation of a house gives way, and it's sucked down into a large hole because the ground in Florida is just sand. But it's still sand with cement on it, and nevertheless sometimes as sand gives way and down your house will go, I fear many today in church are sitting on a sinkhole with hell below.

George Whitefield was full of good religious works, and he was sitting on the wrong foundation until he read a book that altered his life. The book was given to him by his good friend Charles Wesley, and it was written by a Scotsman by the name of Henry Schugle, and the title of that book was The Life of God and the Soul of Man. Whitefield realized he had missed Christ and was not generally born again.

He was sitting on a foundation of sand, and after he was converted his cry became, You must be born again, and he shook two continents for God and revival with that message of regeneration. Whitefield realized a sincere convert is one on a firm foundation who has experienced the work of God upon their heart, they have undergone a saving change in their soul, they not only profess Christ but possess Christ and stand upon that firm foundation. But a foundation of religious sand will soon wash away.

Let me ask you, friend, what foundation are you standing on? Will it hold up in a storm? The only foundation is Christ the rock on which I stand. All others are sink and sand. Are you sitting on a sinkhole? Let us pray.