Now would you turn with me please this evening to that passage that we read, to the Gospel of Matthew and chapter 7. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 7. We wish to consider this evening the words that we have in verses 26 and 27. 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. You will remember that at the opening of this chapter, the Lord brings to us a verse that is so often quoted. It's so often quoted when you speak to men and women about their souls. And it seems to be the retort that they place their strength and their confidence on. Judge not that ye be not judged. Well, by the time that we begin to process through this chapter, the Lord is bringing before his hearers this firm and distinct path that those to eternal life will follow. And he's reminding those that go on a broad road that that will lead to an eternity. of the lost. And then we come to this portion here from verse 24 on and it is a parable of two builders. And these two builders are representing two kinds of people. They are representing two kinds of people out in Glasgow this evening. Maybe they're representing two kinds of people within this church this evening. You see, we are told about something. We are told that there is a great storm that brews. And this storm comes and it blows. And it blows with ferocity and with fierceness. And this storm is really speaking about the trials of life. It is speaking here, as he mentions in verse 15, it's speaking about false prophets that come. It's speaking about persecutions that come. But you see, ultimately, this storm is speaking about the great hurricane that comes at the end, death itself. That, friends, this evening, is the last enemy that you and I will face. And you know, there are many things that are uncertain in life. You know that, and I know that. You know, this evening as we proclaim the truth of the gospel, as we have begun this message this evening, it might be our friend who will pronounce the benediction at the end could be taken into eternity. We have no certainty of life, but one thing is absolutely certain, and that is death itself. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, here he comes and he is preparing us for that. And you notice here that there is one man and he builds his house. And he builds it in such a way that the foundation is built upon a rock. You might not know anything about construction this evening, but surely the one thing that you will know that is absolutely imperative is that if the foundation is firm, the foundation is secure and solid, then there will be no subsidence, there will be no wavering, there will be no crumbling of the fabric of the walls. Because you see, it's built upon a strong foundation. This man is described as a wise man because when the storms came, the storm of trial, when the storms came, the storms of persecution, When the storms came, the storms of doubt. When the storms came, the storms of incurable disease. When they came, he did not crumble because his hope was built upon a firm foundation. It was built upon the rock. And friends, that rock was Christ. That is why he was a wise man. That's why he was a wise man. But what can we say about this other man? This man that could not say, for me to live as Christ and to die as Gideon, what can we say about him? Well friends, when the reaper, the grim reaper, would come to his doorstep, His foundation was not secure. There are four things we will attempt to deal with this evening. The first thing is this. There is a sliding foundation. A sliding foundation. And then there is a sentence which was inevitable. And thirdly, there is a series of false arguments that come to our mind. Unfortunately, this man had a sorrowing eternity, a sliding foundation. Why was this man foolish? It is a principle in Bible interpretation. When we come to deal with a parable, that the parable is always less than the real thing that it represents. It is always less, because a parable by its very nature can only give a broad outline, can only give something of an illustration. You see, if we hold that, what this man has at the end, is a lot worse than what this parable might suggest to us. You see, his foolishness was that he built his house upon a sandy foundation. A sandy foundation. You see, from the end result of what would happen in the storm, we can then work back to see the foolishness of this man. Now, we might come and we might say, what could we use the sandy foundation for? Well, you know, maybe in the summer months when the weather is bright and when all seems fine and you go along to the shore and you might put up a windbreak to keep away the breeze. And as the windbreak is up and the breeze is not too strong, it'll withstand the breeze. But it doesn't take much of a breeze to blow down even the windbreak. Even the tent will not hold on a sandy foundation. Well, if that is so, friends, What about the foundation of the building that we are hoping to reside in for all eternity? If our hope is built upon a sandy foundation, it will indeed crumble. You see, there can be many foundations that we build our hope on. There is, of course, the moral man's foundation. And the moral man will build his hope for eternity upon his morality. That's what he will do. And it might be a morality that he prides himself in. It might be a righteousness that he looks to have within himself. Now you will remember the account of the two brothers, known as the parable of the prodigal son. And we know all of the account of the prodigal. We know that here he is, he's in the father's house and he has all of the wealth and he takes a share and he goes down. Isn't that interesting how it's presented to us? He goes down. You know, the scripture often speaks about going down, going down into Egypt. He went down into this far country. Down speaks about the world. He's going down. And he wasted his substance. And when the money was gone, he begins to feed with the pigs, with the swine. Oh, something that was a total abhorrence to the Jew. There is where he is brought to. But he is brought to somewhere even lower. He's brought to the ends of the earth. And when he's brought to the ends of the earth, he says, I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. And I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. And he goes. But you see in that house, There was a moral man. Oh, he was an upright man. He was a religious man. He looked down upon the sin of his brother. You see, you can see him there. He was in his diligent work in the field. Do you know all of that uprightness that he had? It kept them from going into the feast. Friends, this evening, can I ask you this? Is there someone here, and deep down in your heart, that is you? And you are building your foundation and the edifice of your hope for eternity upon that moral sand. And it's giving way. And it will give way at the end of time. Of course there might be somebody and that's not you. You just really in the back of your mind you're thinking about life. And it never has occurred to you that death will come. You see, perhaps you're looking around in the congregation and you're seeing others and their hairs are growing grey. And you're thinking, oh, they are heading towards eternity. It is necessary for them to make their calling, their election sure to build their foundation upon the rock. I don't know about you this evening, but friends, the most solemn thing of all, the most solemn thing of all, is to walk behind a white coffin. It is solemn. It is somber. It is a reminder to us that not all reach those three score years and ten. Build your foundation upon the rock. There are some, and they have a fear, and the fear is not so much about eternity, But the fear might be about what their friends would say, and that's not always young people who think that, what their friends would say if they built their foundation upon the rock, upon Christ himself. They would worry about what their neighbors would say. That is particularly so maybe in more rural parts, but it is so here as well. Maybe it is what the family would say. Oh, the importance of this. For the storms to come, to have a sure foundation. You see, this man here was foolish because he rejected Christ himself. That's what the Lord is teaching. See, Christ is the only rock. You remember, the Lord asks the question later on, whom do men say that I am? You remember how the disciples answered, oh, some say that thou art Elias. Some say that thou art one of the other prophets. But he says, whom do ye say that I am? Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus says, flesh and blood had not revealed this unto thee. He says, thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Upon this rock, upon the truth that he was the Christ, That is the rock upon which the people of God are built. One thing as I was thinking in the afternoon about this series of verses here, this couplet of verses, it struck me that As we have it brought before us that this was a foolish man and the man before was a wise man because he built his house upon a rock, that there is nothing here in verses 26 or 27 that would lead us to conclude that this man was not a religious man. There's nothing to lead us to that conclusion. You know, today people often think if somebody is religious that they are a Christian, that they have exercised saving faith. Well, you know, there are a lot of people out in Glasgow this evening, and they are religious people. But that is the extent of their religion. They will turn up at the house of God, they will engage in the worship. But you see, the heart has not changed. And here this man might well have been, and indeed he would have stood out from the crowd all the more if he was one that had never turned up at the synagogue. But there is nothing that leads us to conclude that. What we are to conclude is this, that he was sheltering in a sand-based house that would not stand. And friends, the awful thing is this, that he thought he had a structure, but he didn't. Isn't that the fearful thing? He thought he had something, but he didn't have it. Many, many years ago, certainly long before my time, I've just heard the story recounted. The Isle of Skye had a question meeting. One of the men at the question meeting was asked to speak to the question. And he got up and he opened his spectacle case to find his glasses and they were not there. And that is how he started the question. He says, oh, wouldn't it be a fearful thing that on that day of judgment that we were opened up and there was nothing there. There was nothing there. You see, friends, here was a man that believed that he was building a proper foundation. And on the day of the great eternity, was opened up and there was nothing there. He was foolish because he rejected Christ. We see secondly, that there was a sentence which was inevitable. What was the sentence that was inevitable? It was the end of the house. The end of the house. When the wind came, whether it was the first gust or the second gust, the wind came and all that he had built was demolished. You know, the hardest thing perhaps to discuss with men and women is their souls. People often say that it is a private matter. And in a sense, salvation is a personal matter. But you know, the ministers of the gospel are charged to speak to men and women. When your minister received a call to this congregation, and that call was signed, what did the signatories to that call sign their name to? They signed their name, I entreat thee to take charge of my soul. That is a weight and a burden that is immense. But friends, that was what was asked. And so when, There is a word that comes and there is the pointing to death and eternity, the need to make our preparations, to make our calling and election sure. We have that responsibility to bring that word. And so Christ here is bringing the word to those who are listening to him on this day. And we read into chapter 8 for a particular reason because we see here in chapter 8, and this leper in chapter 8, we see here the outworking of what takes place in verses 24 and 25. Here was a man who did indeed build his house upon a rock. You notice what Jesus does? Jesus touches the leprosy. That which man would not do, lest he be unclean, Jesus comes and he touches the leprosy and the man is made whole and he has to go to the priest to receive that certificate, as it were, from the priest so that he might go into the assembly again. Well, that is what Christ does in the gospel. He comes and he touches us so that we are made clean. And he comes to bring us eternal life, spiritual life, resurrection from the dead, life that shall never end. You have a wonderful picture of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. It's a beautiful picture because it's a wonderful account of what the Lord did for Lazarus, but also the instruction that we get from it. You will remember that Lazarus' friend had been lying dead for days, and Jesus calls him forth And Lazarus comes forth. Just as this centurion comes here and he says, well, just send the word. And we know it's going to be done. Jesus calls him forth. Lazarus, come forth. And when Lazarus comes forth, he comes forth bound, we are told, hand and feet. The grave clothes that had been placed upon him, they are still there. They're still around his hands, they're still around his feet, they're still around his body. And you see, that was a reminder to Lazarus, it was a reminder to all around, that while Lazarus would now be raised from the dead, the death was going to come to Lazarus again. Now contrast that with what we read in John chapter 20 about Jesus himself. We read that when they peered into the tomb, there they could see the grave clothes lying. See, death was never going to take hold on him because he had been raised from the dead. And he lived it forevermore. And that is the life that his people have. That is the life that those who are on that rock have. That when the hurricanes of time come, when there is a beating upon that rock, that house will stand. And it will stand for eternity. We see here in the third place that man can indeed make fake arguments. And we know that it was very likely that the Lord Jesus Christ would face the same arguments from man as we hear today when there is a rejection to the gospel, you remember here, and it's quite a thoughtful word, it's something that I find very difficult. When we're told not to cast our pearls before swine. That is something in many ways that the preacher of the gospel finds difficult. because he will want to bring the truth. He will want to continually bring the truth, even to those who will come and they will disregard it, will close their ears to it. You know how it is often the case. that for years there is a closing of the mind and a closing of arguments in the gospel. I suppose when we think about this man here, there's nothing to suggest, and indeed there is everything to suggest otherwise, there's nothing to suggest that somehow this house that was built upon the sand was less in grandeur than the house that was built upon the rock. This wasn't one of the, like a garden shed, it wasn't a shack. This was something that we are told that it was a house 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. He built his house, so he had built this great structure upon the sand. Remember what the prophet says. Judgment will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep away. The towers, the towers of Fawcett. That is quite a consideration to us. I've spoken to many men, many women in this city, indeed back in the islands where I minister. And many will bring excuses. They will bring excuses not to attend church, Or they will maybe not always express them so cogently, but it will be because something has happened in their background. And they will not come to the church, they will not profess faith, because you see there is this great shadow in their background. Remember what we said last evening, and I suppose in many ways if there is Nothing that you take away from these days, please remember that text. That the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed us from all sin. All sin. There might be somebody, and you're saying within your heart, but you don't know me. My sin is so great. Just for a moment, pause and ask yourself the question, is your sin so great that the blood of Jesus Christ and the death of Christ upon the cross cannot atone for it? If that is the excuse, if that is the false argument, then that is the conclusion of what you are saying. This evening, is it a case that you're a murderer? David murdered Uriah. Is it the case this evening that you're an adulterer? David committed adultery with Bathsheba. The blood of Jesus Christ cleansed us from all sin. Maybe you're saying, I have built enough of my house to be content because you see, I don't have much by way of sin. Indeed, I have hardly any at all. Well, if the righteous be scarcely saved, where does that leave you? Where does that leave you? Oh, friends, it is vital that we are not like the man in 26 and 27. but were like the man in 24 and 25. And with this, we end. There was a sorrowing eternity. Because you see, the house crumbled. The house crumbled. All that he had trusted in crumbled. Here was a man who was now going out into eternity. You know, he might have had his wealth, Even in death itself he might have had the ease and death. But that is no indication that this man was going out into an eternity of eternal bliss. You remember Psalm 73. Quirassif looks and he sees these people before him. And he sees these ungodly men and he says, There's no bounds in their death. Indeed, they have it easy. You see these people and they're engaged in all sorts of wickedness and debauchery and they have it easy. You see they have wealth, they have substance, they have security. You see that godly Christian lady And she has nothing. Every time she moves, she's in pain. Every time that she turns on the heating, she's thinking of the cost. Oh, she has had trouble and heartache in her family. See the danger of envying those who have their house upon a sandy foundation. What does Asaph say? Well, he says, I go in. He goes into the sanctuary, he sees the latter end. It's a sorrowing eternity. And friends, the great tragedy would be that if there were any, and they were in this building this evening, and they have had the instructions faithfully proclaimed to them over many years and they were to go out into the winds with a house built upon the sand. Now what has all been an indication to us? Well all that is an indication to us is not to have a sorrowing eternity, but to have a happy eternity. to have one where we know that when we enter in, there's going to be no more pain. There's going to be no more sorrow. We are told that there's no crying in heaven. None. See those aches, those pains, all of the concerns and cares you have, the pain of your mind? When you go into eternity, you're not going to have that in Christ. Because as we said today, there will be a gathering around the throne. And we'll see him who is in the midst. And there, there is that city with foundations, whose builder and whose maker is God. And friends, what a contrast we have here. in 24 to 27. It would indeed be a lovely thing to be able to deal with both of these issues in the one sermon and yet there is such a contrast and such a difference. But you see those for yourselves. You see how the Lord lays out the right way and the wrong way. The right building and the wrong building. The right foundation and the wrong foundation. Don't build your house upon sand. Don't build your house upon something that will not sustain you for eternity. Our friends, let me say this. Do not let it be so that you're going out into eternity based upon a shallow hope, and that when there is an opening up of that day, there's nothing there because you weren't in Christ Jesus, the Lord. We pray, as Dr. Kennedy prayed in Dingwall well over a hundred years ago, As he looked out and he could see in the balconies of the church, the Sabbath school as they had come in, the young ones as they had sought around. Oh, may it be so that everyone in this Sabbath school this morning will indeed be in eternity with Christ. And friends, I will go forth from this communion season praying that every soul in this congregation this evening will indeed be those who are in Christ, who will sit at that great marriage supper of the Lamb when Christ himself is there in the midst. May the Lord bless his word to us. Let us pray.