Climbing to Heaven on a Rope of Sand That the Winds of Eternity Will Blow Away

Well, I've got an important message for us tonight, friends, and I'm going to unburden my heart to you because I feel many today are deceived. The title of my message tonight, friends, is Climbing to Heaven on a Rope of Sand. I was listening to a fellow evangelist and he was sad.

He was sad because he just visited his best friend in the hospital and his friend had blood poisoning. The doctor said he could only live a few days. His situation was bad because of that blood poisoning.

And your situation is bad, friend, because you have a poison in your blood as well. When Adam fell, we fell. We each are born with a ruined nature and a bent toward sin.

If you don't believe me, just watch little children play and see their selfish nature come out naturally from them. Little Johnny got in trouble for what he did to his sister. His mother was scolding him and she said, Little Johnny, the devil's in you.

The devil made you pour water on your sister's new dress. The devil made you slap her and the devil had you even spit on her. And little Johnny answered and said, Mama, the devil may have been in the first two things, but it was my idea to spit on her.

Well, listen, friend, man is a sinner. You are a sinner. Billy Graham got saved in a gospel meeting where Mordecai Ham was preaching.

And Billy Graham at the time was a good, clean church member. And he got mad at the preacher for pointing him out. And calling him a sinner.

And later, Mordecai Ham said he never pointed Billy Graham out as a sinner. But the Holy Spirit sure did. Well, tonight, friends, the Holy Spirit might put his finger on you and convict you that you are a big sinner.

You look like a nice group of people. Some of you been church members for years. But this is what God has to say about you.

This is his description of you. In the book of Job, God describes your condition. In Job 15, 16, we read, How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water.

That means you can't get enough of sin. You drink it like water. It's not enough for you to look at one naked picture of a woman on the internet.

No, sir. You got to drool over a thousand until you're satisfied. You just can't get enough of sin.

You drink it like water. Listen to me. You're not a sinner because you sin.

You sin because you're a big sinner. And every one of you is a sinner. That's not me saying it.

It's what God says about all of us. For in Romans 3, 23, it reads, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So man is a sinner.

He's alienated from God. Then he goes to building. He tries to reach God through various ways.

He tries to build like the foolish builder found in Matthew's gospel, turning your Bible's friends to Matthew's gospel in chapter 7, beginning in verse 26. Jesus is the one speaking here. These are the very words of Jesus, friends.

He's been talking to a large group of people in a long discourse, and he's getting ready to wrap up his message. He ends it with the following parable. He says two men built a house.

One built his on a firm foundation. He dug deep into the rock. But the other man built his house on the wrong foundation because that man chose a foundation made of sand.

Listen to Jesus' words, friends. Listen to what he says. 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. When Jesus ended his discourse, he spoke with such heavenly authority and power from heaven that his audience left that place to return to their homes with that terrible scene fresh on their minds. They could actually see the crashing waves beating against the shore.

They could see the rising flood, the floodwaters pound against that house with violence. And as they walked along, the sound of breaking timber rang in their ears until the drowning cries of the victims were swept away to destruction. What a picture, friends, of mankind built on all the wrong foundations to reach heaven by their own means, by their own merits, by climbing a rope of sand that the winds of eternity would just blow away.

Jesus said, any who try to climb up to heaven other than by him, the good shepherd is a thief and a robber. In John 10, 1, Jesus says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, is the same as a thief and a robber. Listen, friends, the way to heaven is through Jesus.

He's a narrow way through a straight gate where you must press through. Men would rather steal up to heaven by an easier way, by less strict ways. So men climb up to heaven on different ropes.

They climb the rope of religion. The Jew, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Muslim, the Mormon, the Catholic, the Baptist climb the rope of religion to heaven. They wrap themselves in the robes of their religion and count it as righteousness.

They view religion as salvation. So they follow the tail end of that rope of religion all the way to the grave. And down they go.

They die in their sins because the rope of sand they climbed on is blown away by the winds of eternity. Others climb up to heaven on the rope of good works. They believe they're good enough for heaven because they're not bad enough for hell.

They climb a rope of good works, hoping that their good works will outweigh the bad. They believe that God keeps a giant scale right there at the pearly gates of heaven. And when you get there, all your works go on that scale.

And if your good works outweigh your bad works, then there you go, friend. You just pass right into heaven because the good outweighs the bad. But it doesn't work that way.

I'm telling you, one sin enough is to damn you and send you to hell. One lie, one item stolen, one lustful look, one lustful act is enough to send you to hell, friend. D.L. Moody used to use the following illustration of a man hanging off a cliff while grasping onto a chain.

And Moody would ask, how many links in the chain need to be broken for the man to fall to his death? Just one. Just the smallest one. The smallest little link, friend, is enough to send you to destruction.

One sin will send you to hell as well. And men try to climb up to heaven on the rope of good character. A daughter will save her deceased father.

Why, Daddy was a good man. He'd help anybody. I know he's up with God now.

Men and women try to climb up to heaven by good opinion of themselves. In a long track record of service, they'll say, Lord, Lord, didn't I do this for you? Lord, Lord, didn't I do that for you? But in Matthew chapter 7, in verses 22 and 23, we read, Jesus saying this to them, Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Listen, friends, others climb up to heaven on the rope of church membership. They mistake church membership for salvation. I asked an elderly lady why she was going to heaven, and she informed me it was because she'd been a member of the Methodist church for 30 years.

But church membership won't save you, friend. That too is just a rope of sand that will one day be blown away by the winds of eternity. And some climb up to heaven, hear me now, some climb up to heaven on the rope of theology.

They rest their doctrines. They rest on their doctrines. They trust their theology to get them into heaven.

There are many seminary professors in hell tonight, friends, because they trusted theology instead of trusting in Jesus. Listen to me. Some men climb up to heaven on the rope of reformation.

They examine their lives, and they make some good resolutions. They decide not to do this, and they're not going to do that anymore. And they clean themselves up a little bit to feel better about themselves, make themselves more presentable to others.

But they fail to realize that if they never sinned again, it wouldn't undo all the sins they've already committed. No, sir, that's just another rope of sand that will dissolve with the gusts of eternity. And finally, some men try to climb up to heaven on the rope of decision.

Listen to me, friend. They can point back to a time when they made a public profession of Christ by a decision they made. But decisions are just commitments that can be broken.

We decide to join a spa to work out. We decide to lose weight this year. We decide to do this, and we decide to do that.

But we end up quitting our decisions. The rope of decision has damned its multitudes through easy believism. Let me ask you, friend, is a person saved by a decision they make or by the regenerating work of the Spirit of God? You better get it right, friend.

You better hear me now. Do men climb to heaven? Do they climb on ropes of sand? Sure, they do. Some of you here are hanging onto a rope of sand right now.

It's dissolving while I'm speaking to you. Men try to climb up to heaven by means other than by Christ alone. But Jesus declares, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Here, Jesus answers the three greatest questions of the human heart. How can I be saved? Jesus says, I am the way.

How can I be sure? Jesus says, I am the truth. How can I be satisfied? Jesus says, I am the life. And in John 6, 35, Jesus declared, I am the bread of life.

He that cometh to me shall never hunger. And he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But the gospels for the hungry, the weary, the thirsty.

Let me ask you, friend, are you hungry for God? Are you sick and tired of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then come. Christ is the bread of life. He invites poor sinners to come to him and believe on him.

He's got a pure gospel promise to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own them as their Savior and Lord. Jesus says, in him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. That's Christ's reception of sinners.

Listen, friends, in my message tonight, probably it's one of the most important messages you'll ever hear in regard to your soul's destiny. For some of you have discovered the foundation you've been resting on, the rope of sand you've been climbing on. And that foundation is as rotten as a whole dead skunk.

And it stinks to heaven just as bad. Oh, God's spirit may convince you tonight, friend, that you've got nothing to hang on to because your faith is just a hole in the wall because you've been climbing to heaven on your own rope of sand. Are you here tonight hanging on to a rope of sand? Listen to me, friend.

Don't you want to know now before it's too late? Look, you're not in hell yet. There's still time for you, friend. There's time for you to repent and turn to God and believe on Christ.

Do not fault the preacher for being honest with your souls. Listen to me. I'd rather tell you the truth than try to make you laugh.

I'd rather see your soul in heaven than feed your lie and send you down to hell. Listen to me, friend. If you've been deceived, wouldn't you want to know it before you die, before you're cast into a devil's hell? I want you to know about it.

How many here want to know the truth about yourself, the truth of your conversion? Do you want to know if you're really saved? Listen to me, friend. Listen to me. You got to be born again.

You got to be born above. And washed in the blood. Oh, friend, don't you know you have to be born again? You got to have the life of God in the soul of man.

You got to have the reality of God inside of you. It's a divine power working on the heart through regeneration. Listen to me, friend.

It's not just a public testimony. It's receiving a revealed Christ where that revealed Christ changes a life, changes a heart from a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. Listen to me, friend.

A false faith's nothing but a hole in the wall. In a rope of sand is a rope of sand still. A spurious conversion won't get you to heaven, friend.

Mistaken reformation for repentance won't do. Listen to me. Mistaken church membership for salvation won't do.

I'm going to close this with a hymn. And as I sing this hymn, I want you to do something. Oh, please, won't you do it? Won't you get serious with God? God gets serious with those who get serious with him.

If you've been resting upon a false foundation of sand. If the Holy Spirit's shown you tonight that you've been climbing up to heaven on that rope of sand. And he's brought conviction to you tonight.

And if God has spoken to you, don't let this day pass without repenting of your sins and exercising faith in Christ Jesus. I plead with you, friends. Some of you here may not be here next year.

Some of you here may die this week and wake up in eternity. Wake up in a Christless eternity. Saddle it tonight, friend.

If you've not trusted this blessed savior, receive him now before it's too late. Look at that man on the cross, friend. Look at that man on the cross.

Look at that blessed man on the cross with his arms outstretched. See him there, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Look at that bloodstained savior for sin, friend.

Look at him. He says, look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Listen, friends. I know I'm a sinner and I need a substitute for sin. So do you, friends.

So do you. Saddle it with God right now as I sing. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand.