***The Wrong Way

One day my dad and I decided to go in different directions to take care of some business matters. As I was giving him directions to his destination, I pointed down the street and said, “Go west…”

“That’s east,” he interrupted. Somehow he had gotten turned around and was totally disoriented.

And that’s when the argument started. I pointed to the late afternoon sun that was setting in the west but no matter how hard I tried, I could not convince him of the truth. Finally, I referred to the ultimate authority; the book; the travelers “bible.” I opened my Thomas Brothers Guide and showed him where we were, where he wanted to go and how to get there.

He studied the map for a few moments, closed the book, pointed west and arrogantly declared, “I don’t care what the map says; that’s east.”

My dad was sincere but he was wrong. Sure, I could have been more sensitive and allowed him to go the way he thought was right. But that would have been foolish and unprofitable.

Almost everyone will say they want to go to heaven when they die but most of them do not care what the guidebook says about how to get there. They don't want to be told about sin and repentance and atonement. They just want to go their own way. But it would not be very loving to allow people to travel a life-time journey down the wrong road and miss their desired destination all in the name of sensitivity and tolerance. Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death.”

God has provided a way for His people to be saved from wrath and spend eternity with Him in heaven but we can only get there His way. That way is by biblical saving faith in the finished work of  Jesus Christ alone; we cannot earn our way into His favor by our own good works.

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)