Four Houses

Matthew chapter 10 reading at verse 11 and into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter inquire who in it is worthy and there abide till ye go thence and when you come into a house salute it and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you. Verse 14 and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you hear your words when ye depart out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet. Now back a few pages to chapter 7 reading at verse 26 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 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.

Now over a little further chapter 27 Matthew 27 reading at verse 15 now at that feast the governor was want to release unto the people a prisoner whom they would and they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas therefore when they were gathered together Pilate said unto them whom will ye that I release unto you Barabbas or Jesus which is called Christ. For he knew that for envy they had delivered him when he was sat down on the judgment seat his wife sent unto him saying have thou not nothing to do with that just man for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him but the chief priest and elders persuaded the multitude and that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. Now I'm sorry but I want to read one more Luke's Gospel chapter 10 reading at verse 38 now it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

Now the Lord will bless to us these few verses as long as what we've been hearing. I can only hope and pray that there might be someone in our gathering tonight in view of the message that we have just heard in view of the soon coming again. What's it going to be like when the Savior gives the shout? I've often wondered where will we be when the Lord gives the shout? Am I going to be remembering the Lord and the breaking of bread or am I going to be asleep in my bed in the blackness of night? We don't know but I'm thinking that what if we are in the daytime and we are sitting in our house together and families with families with a divided home boys and girls in that particular home not saved they're not sheltered by the blood and perhaps maybe sitting there enjoying one another's company and all of a sudden something happens that they didn't hear the voice but mom and dad did and God disappeared quicker than I can say it.

I've often wondered what's going to happen when riding in a car. I've often wondered what it's going to happen when in the blackness of night when we're all asleep. If you ask me personally he's going to come at midnight.

I can't prove that but I think he's coming at midnight. There's too many things that happen at midnight and while at midnight all is quiet all is dark. Midnight here is altogether different time.

The sun is shining across the pond. Here the sun is set but in a moment what happens if he comes at midnight? The usual hustle and bustle the next morning. Mom trying to get the lunch ready.

Mom trying to get the kiddies out to school. Mom trying to get everybody hustled out and have a house all arranged. The normal chores in the morning.

Mom has disappeared. Dad has disappeared and you're left. Young boy let me ask you something.

What are you going to do five minutes after this dawns upon your mind? Five minutes later what are you going to do? We read of five, four different houses. Four different houses in our Bibles and thank you all for staying and we only pray that there might be someone that will trust the Savior tonight. Four different houses that will say just a little word about.

The first house was a worthy house. It was a house that was worthy of acceptation because they gave ear. The second house is a wasted house.

It was a house that was wasted because it had a bad foundation. The foundation was wrong. The foundation was sinking sand.

The third house was a worried house and every every mom and dad had to be worried especially if they knew the truth. Pilate and his wife both of them together convinced that Christ is perfect. Convinced that he's innocent but both of them were worried.

They had a right to be worried and the last house was Martha welcomed her him into his house. In 1932 there was a family that went to the doctor here in Blue River. The last name of that family was Stanitska.

There's a young man sitting up here in the third row named Brent. Your grandparents? Brent's grandpa and grandma. And some of you younger ones might not know or appreciate this but Brent's grandpa and grandma went to the doctor.

From the doctor's office right across the street was a tent. There was a tent that was trying to preach the gospel and the doctor Mrs. Stanitska says what's going on across the street? Oh the doctor says just a couple of men preaching to empty chairs. I know the feeling.

Mrs. Stanitska said we're going to go visit that tent. The next night or was it two nights later Mr. and Mrs. Stanitska visited the tent. The very next night they went back again and I'm not sure if anybody, if Charlene could give us some of the updates, but I'm not sure how many professed.

Maybe nobody in that. Nobody, right? Nobody professed. That's why I thought nobody professed in that first series.

But the tent came back the very next summer and God moved. God worked. And a marvelous move when men and women came and they heard something that they never heard before.

They heard how that I could have my sins forgiven and I could be ready for that day when this Lord Jesus steps to the air and take his waiting people home. There was several that professed that very next summer and of course that is the beginning of the testimony at Blue River in 1932, where rather the next summer was 1933 and the gospel then blossomed out from there. I mention that for this reason.

Mr. and the message. They went to the tent. They heard the men preach.

They responded with a positive yes and they went to hear more. Isn't it a wonder that the Lord Jesus says, any man that receives me, any man that receives my disciples and they hear my disciples, I will count them as a worthy house. I'm ever so thankful tonight friend that my parents received the gospel.

I should say that my grandparents in the year of 1925 heard the gospel at a little place called Heightsville. Don't plan to go there on your vacation. The only thing that's there is a cemetery and a gospel hall and it's surrounded by cornstalks.

So there was nothing there that attracted, nothing there that attracted the human eye. It was simply a little building and that building was simply a place where people, those German people, would come from the south. They would come from the north.

They came from the east and the west and the place was packed. The place was packed with people and my grandfather said if that man Oliver Smith knows what he's talking about, it's the best news this country has ever heard. My grandmother Christofferson was the first one saved in 1925.

She says to Oliver one night, I'm not going to be at the meeting tomorrow night Mr. Smith. I have to go to the PTA meeting. I am president of the PTA meeting at the Presbyterian Church and she says I have to be there to lead the PTA meeting.

Good, I'm glad you told me Mr. Smith says. I'm glad you told me but before you leave Leona, would you please tell them how you got saved. Mr. Smith was no dummy because Leona Christofferson told those ladies at the PTA meeting how she got saved.

Three days, it only took three days. Three days later she got a mail, got an envelope in the mail. Dear Leona Christofferson, by 100% elected by 100% volunteer amongst the board members, you have been relieved of your duties of the president of the PTA and we have elected someone else to lead the group.

Mr. Smith knew exactly that's what was going to happen. She responded, some of you boys and girls sitting here tonight, this afternoon I've heard this truth so many many times and from better men by far and tonight still on the road to eternal ruin. You know friend that the Savior is coming.

You know that there is not going to be an open door forever. You know that there is judgment at the end of a pathway without Christ. You boys and girls are so loved, so prayed for, so longed for and yet you linger, yet you linger.

It was a worthy house. Thank God for anybody here tonight that list listening and longs to have sins forgiven. There's a boy that lives across the street from the Ankeny Gospel Hall.

He's not a boy. He's about 35 years of age living with a live-in. His name is Tevin, not K, not Kevin, but Kevin with a T as in tractor.

So it's Tevin and I'm not sure what her name is. Tevin, nice to see you. Glad, glad you came to the door.

I'm glad that when I knocked you responded because I have something to give you. I want to give you a little invitation. We're having a gospel meeting here right over in that building.

You can throw a stone through the open window if you like. It's that close. Come on over Tevin and come on over having a little cookie afterwards and we'll have a little time to talk.

No thank you Al, with a bit of rough language. There's a for sale sign now on Tevin's yard. The house is for sale.

I have wondered about that dear man and his girlfriend. Is it possible that within a stone's cast of a place where he could hear a message that would give him eternal life, is it possible that I have to dust the shoes, dust my shoes off? Not a worthy house, not caring, no interest. But tonight friend, because of the worthy house, you are a people that are people that is highly favored.

Marvelous to think what a favor. If you live in the Blue River area since 1933, especially since that particular time, hundreds, maybe shouldn't say hundreds, but dozens of people have been saved since that initial plunge when the gospel came. Thank God.

In our second reading we read of a wasted house because there are people that are wasting their life. There are people that are absolutely have the wrong foundation and the wrong foundation is something that they are putting up with themselves. Sand has no foundation.

It is easily washed away. If the foundation is wrong, let me ask this question, if the foundation is wrong, how can anything else be right? And if the foundation is built on what I do, if the foundation is built on me, is built on self, if the foundation is built on something that I have something to do with, the foundation for sure is wrong. This foundation only tells me something, that if men and women are going about to establish their own righteousness, that the righteousness that is of self, it's a righteousness that will not stand the test of the searching eye, the searching eye of God.

It's a wasted, it's a wasted house and rather than being favored, the house is going to fall. My first funeral that I ever was asked to take, second funeral that I was ever asked to take, was of a man who fell. Did he have the truth? He was born and so close to the Hampton Gospel Hall and he was there and heard it, but he said no.

He built on something that was altogether his own thinking. I'm going to just wait until the proper time. Give me just a little longer for the world looks now so bright.

When I feel that I'm dying, I'll be saved, but not tonight. And that night, tonight, that night, not tonight, was tomorrow and to that man tomorrow never came. And I stood by that casket and I could hear the cries of others.

You know, dear boy, if you don't get saved, you're gonna break your mother's heart. Dear girl, if, if the preachers have to speak at your funeral and they have no assurance of your salvation, you'll break your mother's heart. She'll never get over it because I have talked to mothers who have lost a child 25 years before and they're still not over it.

Dear friend, will you not listen? Will you not respond this night? May the Spirit of God touch your heart, bring you into a knowledge today. As we were reminded last night, come now. Come now.

And God in his rich grace and mercy has given you another 24 hours and the now of yesterday at this time is now the now of today at this time. I am wondering if there's going to be another now tomorrow at this time. It's a wasted house.

Multitudes are going down to death and eternity because of a wasted house. Doing the best they can, thinking they have all kinds of time, trying this and trying, believing this and believing that. I am my own God.

Nobody has to tell me that I have to get ready because I am my own boss. I can do what I want to do. It's me, myself, and I. And this world is a sick, sick world right to the core, all because of me, myself, and I. Our third reading had to do tonight with a worried house.

Pilate is in a pickle. Pilate is in such a pickle that he cannot think of how he's going to get rid of this difficulty. He sees the people.

He's convinced of Christ's innocency. Luke 23 will tell me that. He is totally convinced that this man, as he stands before him, that the Lord Jesus is perfectly innocent.

I find no fault in him. Pilate's wife is rushing up to him in a dream. God speaks in dreams in a very, very vivid way.

And in a dream, she was given this message. Tell your husband, have nothing to do with this man. Keep your hands off of him.

Do everything you can, but don't condemn him. Wash your hands of a matter, but this man is innocent. And as she rushes up to Pilate, her beloved husband, have thou nothing to do with this man.

Pilate looks over the crowd. What then shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ? And from the mob, from the crowd, in unison comes this searching, stabbing cry. Crucify.

Crucify. You and I haven't a clue what a man has to go through under crucifixion. We don't understand how a man can survive even the whip.

How can he survive the scourging? Oftentimes, even in the scourging, the organs are laid open to the point where they can be seen. That is only the beginning of the real crucifixion. And off toward to Golgotha Hill, and up the hill as I have it pictured in my little mind, they led him.

They led him to Calvary. And as they led him to Calvary, there was a man one day, one day come up and carried his cross. The weakness of Jesus physically, they did not want him to die before they got to the Skull Hill.

And a man was quickly put up the Lord's cross upon him to carry it to Golgotha. When they got to Golgotha, there they crucified him. The hairs pulled from his face, the crown of thorns placed upon his brow, the nails driven through his hands.

I have heard of men and nailing in the roofing job, in the roofing business, these automatic nailers that are so useful and so fast that a roofer can easily put a nail through your hand. I have talked to one man who that happened to. He said, I never want to do it again.

That nail through the hand. Dr. Gibbs, I asked Dr. Gibbs one night after a gospel meeting in Ferndale, Dr. Gibbs, is it possible for a man to have a nail through his hand and not break a bone? Now, Dr. Gibbs said, not a chance. Mr. Gibbs, I'm sorry to tell you but you're wrong.

Because I can prove to you, he said, 27 bones in a man's hand. How could you ever put a nail through it and not break a bone? I said, Mr. Gibbs, will you look at this passage? Not a bone of him was broken. His mouth was stopped.

Dr. Gibbs never got saved. He was a doctor to the Christians in the Lakeshore area. Never got saved.

What's it going to be like for that man? The Savior had the skull. The Savior's hair was pulled. The crown of thorns upon his brow beat into his brow.

Isn't it a wonder that Pilate and his wife were worried? They knew, Pilate knew exactly the suffering and the torture and the horror that this man was going to go through. And yet, he did not ignore. Yet, he ignored the cry of his wife.

You know, I'm just thinking just now, it's not that I don't know what to say. I'm just thinking right now, after being told the love of God, the matchless grace of God to mankind, after being known, after knowing what you know, after understanding what you have seen in the lives of others, they have trusted Christ. They have sung happy day.

They have gone around and told others what a wonderful thing salvation is. You have seen that. You have known that.

You know exactly the joy that others have. And yet, tonight, you know all these things. I hope, friend, you're worried.

I hope, friend, you're so worried that you can't sleep tonight. I hope you're so worried, friend, that you leave everything else aside, all the responsibilities that you have and seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near. Because Pilate never got saved, his wife never trusted Christ.

Where do you think they are tonight? Where do you think they are? They were once worried. They were once concerned. They once were filled with fears.

Our second house fell. Our third house was filled with fears. Our fourth house, oh, what a wonderful thing if it would be possible if some would come, even like Martha came to the door.

The Lord Jesus knocked at the door, and as Martha went to the door, she welcomed him into her house. Wouldn't it be wonderful tonight, dear boy? I can almost feel it. If somebody would come up to one of the brethren after the meeting this afternoon and say, I trusted the Savior.

I trusted the Savior just before Mr. Christofferson was speaking. Oh, what really happened? Well, I understood something. I understood as Martha welcomed him into her house.

I understood. That when the Lord Jesus paid the price for sin, when he opened the life's gate, that all may go in, that I could go in. It was me, Anthony Peck, in the year of about 1988, sitting in a tent.

Anthony Peck is listening to the preacher speak about Genesis chapter 22. The ram, the Isaac is on the altar. And if Isaac is on the altar, that means death.

The altar that was there built. Isaac is taken off the altar. And as Isaac is taken off the altar, the ram is put into the altar.

And the very knife that was raised to slay the son is now going down, plunged into that ram. And the blood flowed from that ram. And the little tail of that ram was busy flowing, and all of a sudden, legs and tail stopped.

Anthony Peck came to back at the end of the tent meeting, and he said, Anthony, how's the gospel feeling to you? Oh, he said, I thought tonight was the best night. Tell me, Anthony, what happened tonight? Oh, he says, if that ram doesn't die, Isaac has no chance. And as soon as I thought about Isaac having no chance, I thought, if the Lord Jesus doesn't die, if Christ doesn't die, I've got no chance.

And he trusted the Savior right then and there. And tonight, dear boys, dear girls, what is it for you? Is it going to be forever and forever a wasted house? Is it going to be a house that fell? Is it going to be a house that's filled with fears? Or is it going to be a house? Or is it going to be a house that welcomes him into your house? Says somebody, how do I welcome Christ into my house? Well, listen, let me just quote a little verse, and see if you fit into it. For when we were yet without strength, in due time, or at the right time, now, for when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

Is there anybody here? Raise your hand if you're not the ungodly. Of course you wouldn't raise your hand. So everyone would agree with God that I am the ungodly one, saved and unsaved.

If Christ, then, if you're the ungodly, all right, one simple question before I stop. What did Jesus do for the ungodly? He did something. What did he do? And if he did it for the ungodly, will you trust him? Will you simply trust him? Only trust him.

Only trust him. Only trust him now. He will save you.

He will save you, and save you now. Shall we pray?