Lately I have been struck by the great number of people involved in gambling for high stakes. This tendency to indulge in this gambling isn’t limited to a single class of people but includes men and women from every income bracket and every station in life. They seem perfectly willing to place their entire future-even more than their present life—at risk in a mad gamble.
Their willingness to get involved in such dangerous gambling is due in large part to the one who is promoting and overseeing the large-scale gambling venture. He is an incredibly clever “con artist,” without a shred of honesty or integrity. He is at the absolute pinnacle of his chosen profession. As far as ability to fool people is concerned, he is utterly without rival.
Here is the strangest thing about the game he runs: Nobody else ever wins! Yet he has people so convinced that they can “win big” that they rush to place their bets with him. They go lightheartedly to play the game, but without exception, they leave not “broke” but broken.
You see, these people aren’t just betting the paychecks they receive at the end of the month, nor even all their savings and assets. These would be but trifles compared to what they have placed on the table. They are betting their never-dying souls. They are gambling that they will be just fine at death if they ignore the claims the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has over their lives.
The crooked dealer who gets men to gamble with their souls is Satan, the Master Cheat of the universe. He is a master of every ruse to get men to disbelieve that Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God. He knows that if a soul dies in unbelief, it will spend eternity with him in hell. In his malicious heart he wants as many as possible to go out into the darkness, not from any fondness for them, but from his bitter hatred of God, who is light and love.
DON’T gamble with your soul! If you go on and never give the Lord Jesus Christ the rightful place in your life, you certainly are gambling. Unless you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, He Himself said, “Ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:2424I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. (John 8:24)). To “die in your sins” means that you will be sent away to the dark prison house of hell to be punished for all eternity. “These shall go away into everlasting punishment” are the sad words that will be spoken about all those who die without the Savior. What a high stakes game you are playing if you are living without a saving faith in Jesus Christ!
You can quit that high stakes gambling by believing with all your heart on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is infinitely worthy of your trust. He has done so much to win your faith and love. Believing on Him is not a gamble at all: It is a sure and certain guarantee of eternal life.
It is only through faith in the Son of God that any member of the human race can ever be saved. Souls are saved by faith alone. They are not saved by faith and a combination of something else, such as faith and good deeds, or faith and charity. God has made the gift of salvation to be received solely by faith. He has done this so that all the glory should go to the One to whom it is truly due, that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The possibility of being saved if you never come by faith to the Lord Jesus is zero. But thank God, because He sent His Son into the world, everybody who comes to Him in faith can know with absolute, 100% certainty that they are saved.
Don’t gamble another day with your soul. Every day is a gift of God, and you cannot be certain that you will have another day. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Prov. 27:11Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. (Proverbs 27:1)) is God’s advice to you from the Book of Proverbs. Come to Christ today, and the horrible gamble with your soul will be over.