Who do you trust? Do you trust the government? Your employer? Your spouse? How about yourself? Do you trust yourself? Who do you trust in this life? Who would you trust with your life?
A more important question is who do you trust for your eternal salvation? Do you trust Buddha? Do you trust Muhommad? A priest? Your preacher? Yourself? Maybe you say you trust God. Our money says “in God we trust.” A Barna poll taken in the summer of 2011 found that over 90% of American’s believe in God.
So do you trust in God? Do you trust in the God of the Bible? This may sound like a silly question, but a lot of people say they trust in God. But the god they trust in overlooks their sin of choice. What I mean by that is some people have made a false god for themselves. How many times have you heard someone say, “My god wouldn’t judge anyone” or “My god wouldn’t send anyone to Hell?”
You may think why does it matter? It matters greatly. In the Bible, God says, “I never change.” God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is merciful, loving and full of grace. He is equally perfect, Holy and just. The God of the Bible has a very high standard. In fact His standard is perfect, the Ten Commandments.
If you are following any of the false religions of the world or if you are following a false god that you have made up to suit yourself, then you will be judged by the Ten Commandments on Judgment Day. Jesus warned us of this in Matthew 13:40-42 when He was explaining the parable of the wheat and the tares. He said, “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Jesus is very blunt here: He is going to cast those who do iniquity into Hell. Iniquity means sin or lawlessness. The apostle Paul said in Romans 7:7 that he would not have known what sin was except for the law. That is God’s Law, the Ten Commandments.
If you are not trusting in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior when you die, you will be judged by God for your sins and the standard will be the Ten Commandments. You won’t measure up. How can I be so sure? Because we have all broken the Ten Commandments. We have all lied, most of us have stolen something, most of us have used God’s name in vain at one time or another, we have all coveted something or someone at one time in our lives and we haven’t always put God first in our lives – in our thoughts, in our words and in our actions. We are all guilty of breaking the Ten Commandments.
What I’ve just told you here is bad news if you are not a follower of Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ is the Good News. God gave us the Ten Commandments to show us that we can not measure up on our own. We cannot save ourselves. So God sent Jesus to walk on this earth over 2,000 years ago. Jesus lived a perfect life. He never sinned in thought, word or deed. He did what none of us can do. Then He was bruised for our iniquities and died a horrible, painful death on the cross. Jesus who knew no sin, became sin for us. He took our sins upon Himself while He hung on the cross. He died and was buried and rose again on the third day. He defeated death, Hell and Satan.
You may say, “yeah, I’ve heard all of this before. I’ve heard about Jesus since I was a little kid.” The problem is it isn’t enough to just intellectually know this. You have to accept it. You need to cry out to God and say “God be merciful to me … a sinner.” Ask God to save you, turn away from your sins, this is called repentance and put your complete trust in Jesus to save you. Ask Him to lead your life from this day forward. Salvation is a free gift from God, but you have to accept it. Repent, turn away from your sins and put your faith in Jesus and in Him alone. Won’t you do this today? The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Don’t trust in anyone else (including yourself) for your eternal salvation. Trust in the only One who can save you, Jesus Christ our Lord.