Jack was glad to get checked into a nice hotel room on the fifth floor. He was extremely tired from the trip to Pittsburgh and his busy day. The bed looked very inviting to him, and he wasted no time in heading there for a good night’s sleep.
No more than two hours had passed when smoke alarms awakened him out of a sound sleep. As Jack stirred, he wondered, Where am I? Maybe this is only a dream. But he quickly knew this was for real when a voice over the loudspeaker announced, “EVERYONE SHOULD LEAVE THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY! PLEASE BE CALM AND EVERYONE WILL BE OKAY. THANK YOU.”
Jack jumped out of bed; he wasn’t dreaming! It was the real thing! He quickly decided he wasn’t going to go outside dressed in his pajamas! Maybe I can come to the Lord Jesus “Just as I Am,” as a favorite song of mine says, Jack thought, but it would be embarrassing to be seen without tidying myself at least a little. As Jack quickly put on his day clothes and ran a comb through his hair, he had the nagging thought that he should get going, especially since he was on the fifth floor and the smoke smell was getting worse. Grabbing his shoes in the darkness, Jack was out the door!
He was one of the last to arrive downstairs where everyone was waiting in the hotel lobby. Smiling to himself as he looked around, he thought, Man, I’m sure glad I don’t look like these people—crazy hair, funny-looking pajamas—I’m sure they wouldn’t look this way in public if they had a choice. As the people stared back at Jack, however, a disturbing thought swept over him: I never looked in the mirror ... what if they are thinking the same thing about me?
It didn’t take long before Jack was relieved to hear that the smoke was, in fact, a result of food being left too long in a microwave oven in one of the rooms. Everything was now under control.
Back in his room, Jack got ready for bed a second time. But first, looking in the mirror, he noticed that the front of his button-down shirt looked a little lopsided—he had missed the top button. Then he saw his feet with shoes on from two different pairs. Now he was sure that others must have thought he looked funny too! As Jack dozed off to sleep, he thought of the many other people in the lobby just like him. They all had the same problem.
The Bible says, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)), and that God must one day judge sinners. Yet, just like Jack thought he could tidy himself to look better in front of everyone in the hotel lobby, many people think that they can do good things to look better before God. In the end, Jack discovered that he didn’t look any better than the other hotel guests after all.
Everyone who thinks they can “tidy” themselves before God by doing good things will soon find that they are wrong! The Bible says, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)). Another verse in the Bible really straightens out that matter: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to [God’s] mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:55Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5)).
Only by believing on Jesus, God’s Son, who already came to earth and took the punishment for every sinner who will believe on Him, confessing their sin to God, can sinners escape punishment in the lake of fire and go to heaven. We are thankful that in Jack’s case the fire was not real, but the fire of hell is real!
If the hotel fire had been real, Jack could have lost his life by waiting too long to escape from the building. More importantly, as Jack would want you to know, every sinner who waits too long to accept Jesus as his or her Saviour will be lost forever in the lake of fire.
Have you trusted in Jesus, thereby escaping the fire and judgment for your sins? Is Jesus your Saviour? Or are you waiting like Jack did, trying to make yourself look better? If you wait any longer, you may be too late!
ML-07/31/2016