Don’t get sold a bill of goods

Imagine always wanting to attend a big event, like the Super Bowl or a Taylor Swift concert, in person.  You look for tickets at a price you can afford, and BAM, you land on a site that is almost too good to be true.  There are the tickets you want for a price well within your range, and the seats are great, too!  So what do you do? You plop down your money (enter your credit card info) as fast as you can so these don’t slip away to someone else.  Then you sit back and wait for the big day, to attend that event you have always dreamed about attending in person!

You arrive at the gate, tickets in hand and all prepared for the big event.  Only, there is a problem; your tickets are fake!  Someone sold you a bill of goods with no goods attached!  They took your money, your dream and your entry into the event of a lifetime away with a fake.  You argue, you plead, you offer to buy real tickets, but to no avail.  As you trudge back to the car there is a flood of emotions and thoughts.  How could someone do this?  Why would someone do this?  And eventually, how could I have fallen for this, because I knew it was too good to be true.  

This is the bill of goods Satan wants to sell to anyone that will listen and consider.  The face value of the ticket to heaven is responding to Jesus in repentance and faith, trusting His death, burial and resurrection alone.  It requires you to surrender your sinful will for His righteous will over your life.  And Satan comes in with another offer, just be good.  Just try hard to be better than all those around you.  How could God condemn anyone who tries really hard to do good, be good and treat others in good ways?  Yet, this is a fake ticket — a bill of goods — about entrance into God’s presence.  

The religious leaders didn’t want to embrace Jesus as the Messiah, nor did they want to trust Him.  They wanted to trust the ways they had been attempting to be good in the eyes of God.  Our parable this past week is clear, the authority Jesus (and John) spoke with was from heaven, not from the minds of men or the mouth of Satan.  And those that trusted Jesus, whether they be the worst of the worst (harlots/prostitutes or tax collectors — workers for the collecting of money for the hated Roman Empire), if they trusted Jesus, they entered heaven.  Not just before, but instead of those that trusted their own feeble attempts at being good.  

There is but one name, one way by which you may be saved. That is the name, person and work of Jesus!  You cannot get there on your own efforts, merit or goodness.  You must trust Jesus alone.  Don’t let Satan entice or sell you a bill of goods!  You will miss far more than that special event, you will miss eternity in the presence of God.

Pressing on…

Ron Tipton, Senior Pastor