How would you build a house? Would you build on sandy ground or on solid ground? A foolish man builds his house on the sand. The wise man builds his house on a rock, a solid foundation. We are told in Matthew 7:23-26 to build on a firm foundation.
How would you build your house—everything all at one time or one stone, brick or board at a time? When building a physical house, we want it to be on a firm foundation. We should want the same with our spiritual house.
When we become Christians, we build our lives one step at a time on Jesus and His Word. Jesus is our standard—not anyone or anything else. Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 11:1 to imitate him as he imitated Christ. This is how we build a house on a solid rock. Let us build our houses on the Rock of our salvation.
We are to build our lives on Jesus and His Word. Jesus is the pattern to be followed, just as a builder has a blueprint to erect a house. If the plans are not followed exactly, the dwelling will not come out right. If we do not follow the plan of salvation as has been set before us in the Scriptures, we will not be saved. The pattern is to hear the Word of God (Romans 10:17), to believe it (John 8:24), to repent of our sins (Luke 13:3, 5), to confess Christ as the Son of God (Romans 10:9-10) and to be baptized into His death, burial and resurrection for the remission of sins (Romans 6:3-5; Acts 2:38). Then lastly, we are to remain faithful (Revelation 2:10). If we do not follow this blueprint that God has set before us, we will fail. One’s house will be built on the sand. It will not stand the storms of time. If we follow the Word of God, then the house will be able to withstand any storm that is put before us.
Jesus is the firm foundation as stated in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11. He is the Chief Cornerstone. If we reject Him as our Chief Cornerstone, our lives will surely collapse (1 Peter 2:6-7). Without Jesus and the Word of God, there is no solidness in our lives. We need Him to complete our lives. Since our goal is eternal life, we must follow the Word as God has instructed.
We all have one date we will keep. It does not matter if we die or if we are still alive when Christ returns, we will stand before our Judge on the Day of Judgment. Since we are not robots, we have been given a choice of which road to take (Matthew 7:13-14) as we decide where to build our house. If we choose the broad path that leads to destruction, we will be building on the sand. This means we have not obeyed God’s Word. We then will hear, “Depart from me you who work iniquity” (Luke 13:27). Also, Matthew 25:41 says, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (NKJV). Unfortunately, we will reap eternal punishment if we build a spiritual house on the broad way to destruction. Do we really want to hear these awful words from our Judge on the Judgment Day? If not, get off the broad path. I don’t want to be on this path and build my house on the sand. I also do not want anyone else to hear these terrible words. So, let us all make the right choice.
Jesus wants us to choose the narrow path that leads to our heavenly home. If we do this, we will hear the sweet words of our Judge Jesus say, “Enter in thou into the joys of thy Lord, thou good and faithful servant.” According to Matthew 25:34, Jesus will say, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” This is my prayer and my desire for all in the Day of Judgment to hear these wonderful Words of our Lord. So, let us all make the right choice and build our houses on the Rock. “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
