Sound The Trumpet : _The Biggest Gamble

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“_The Biggest Gamble”
by Hugh W. Davidson
April 21st, 2020

I had to go to the mall three or four days last week and was really surprised at the number of retired people who gather there every morning. I think there's probably around two or three hundred of them. A few of them go there to walk and the rest are just sitting around enjoying the fellowship with their morning coffee. The strange part was the ritual they seemed to follow as they got their coffee and then sat down in groups of anywhere from two to eight, most of them started scratching their lottery tickets. My personal opinion is that a lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math. I mean, your chances of winning anything substantial is about ten million to one.

All I could think of when I saw them scratching their tickets was: 'what an empty existence.' I mean, here are people who are closing in on the end of their days and yet they all seem to be focusing on winning a pile of money. As I watched them, I couldn't help but wonder, what were they trying to do? Are they hoping to enjoy it in the time they have left or leave it to their kids. I think most of their children would much rather have the memory of parents who loved them more than any amount of money to remember them by.

The people at the mall are an awful lot like the people in the Bible who came to Jesus in John 12 and their main concern was to show Him how good they were. And it is amazing when you think about it, all these people who had the chance to ask Him anything, all they wanted to do was to ask questions in order to show Him how smart they were. And rather than compliment them on their knowledge, or argue with their misunderstandings, Jesus ignored what they were asking and gave them both a word of encouragement and also a subtle rebuke when He told them to walk in the light, and then He warned them about the coming darkness.

You see, their unbelief wasn't based on the fact that they didn't understand what He was saying, or hadn't had enough of the truth, but they didn't believe in Jesus intentionally. I mean, they had decided not to believe. Their unbelief was an act of their will. I've seen people who've rejected the gospel and they said, "I'm sure it's true, but the cost is more than I'm willing to pay." So, now see, it's not a case of their not understanding or not believing what they heard, but it's that they were not willing to accept Jesus for who He is and what He demands.

So, these people, like many others rejected Jesus with their eyes wide open. After all, they heard His teaching and saw His miracles but they just didn't care. Do you know that there are thirty-six specific miracles recorded in the New Testament as well as a few places where it indicates that many more had been done that were not recorded. This tells us that Jesus performed miracles day after day and every miracle demonstrated that He was God. He showed His Lordship over the forces of nature as He walked on water, calmed the storms and told trees to dry up. He healed every kind of sickness and disability to the point that some Bible teachers believe that He totally eradicated disease in Israel during His three and a half year ministry. And then He demonstrated His power over Satan and all the evil spirits and finished off His ministry by showing that He had power even over death itself as He raised Lazarus. And so, the unbelief of these people was nothing less than deliberate. I mean, how can anyone watch all this happen and then say they don't believe. I think it wasn't so much that they didn't believe as much as it was that they wouldn't believe.

Their attitude of unbelief reminds me of Pharoah in the book of Exodus where it says he hardened his heart at the sight of the first of eight miracles that Moses performed and then during the last couple of miracles it was that God hardened his heart for him. And I think the same thing happens to unbelievers today. First, they refuse to believe and then in the end their hearts are hardened and they can't believe.

People tend to think strange thoughts as their hearts get hard. I've met a few who said things like, "Well, when I get to heaven I've got a thing or two to tell God about what He allowed to happen to me." And when someone says something like that their problem is certainly not a lack of faith. They believe there is a God and they believe they're to stand before Him.

Do you know what the problem with their logic is? They THINK they're going to get into heaven not because they believed in Jesus but because God owes them a free ride in order to pay them back for the miserable time they had on earth. They ignore the fact that God has provided a plan of salvation and they focus on the suffering they had to endure and how they think that God owes them something for all they had to go through.

Can you imagine what heaven would be like if all these bitter people were given a free pass based on what happened to them on earth? I mean, they'd spend all of eternity whining about how much they suffered and how unjust God was and the rest of us would have to be gracious and listen to them. Let me tell you folks that would not be heaven.

I think there is a time for everyone to respond to the message of the gospel because sooner or later God will say, "Enough is Enough." I have no idea when that is and personally, I don't think I'd want to try to find out.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13