TWO BROTHERS, Raul and Sergio Gonzalez, each worked hard and saved every spare bit of cash. They hoped to get ahead by investing in real estate. They took their first step in this direction when they combined their savings and delivered a sealed bid on a building with six apartments which was being auctioned off. The building needed work—lots of it—but the two were capable and willing.
The dreams of the two seemed to be coming true when they received notice that their bid had won. The transaction was completed, and they became the happy owners of the property.
A week later, a city worker tacked a demolition notice on the front of the building. The brothers had unwittingly bought a building which was condemned to be torn down because of asbestos contamination.
Raul and Sergio sought to recover their money from the auction company. They claimed that they were not informed the building was condemned to demolition when they had bought it. The sales representative responded by drawing the attention of the brothers to a line in the sales brochure which read, "Rooms: 000."
He pointed out that by this statement they should have understood that they were not buying the building at all but only the land. The brothers replied that they had read that line, but since they could see the building, which definitely had rooms in it, standing on the property, they had believed the statement was a typographical error.
However, the situation was past straightening out. The sale was final. The brothers had spent their savings, placed their hopes and wishes on that which was condemned.
Raul and Sergio Gonzalez received a harsh awakening when they discovered that they had bought a condemned building. Many people are headed for the same type of bitter discovery, only on a far greater scale. Are you one of them? Are you living as though the only real estate you will ever know is on this earth? Are you seeking to lay up for yourself the pleasures, possessions and properties obtainable in this life with no thought of the life to come, with no regard for God? Then, when you die you will be ushered into a Christless eternity.
Why? Because a sentence of condemnation is written over you: And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. You ignored the one remedy which was able to save you: For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned.
What is required of you? Only to see your sinful condition and come—come believing—to the Savior of sinners. If you die without Christ, you will have sealed to yourself an irreversible doom. Come to Christ today, so that you stand no chance of making a firsthand discovery of what it means to pass into eternity in a state of condemnation.