While presenting the Gospel on the streets of a California city, we were often interrupted about as follows,

” Look here, sir! There are hundreds of religions in this country, and the followers of each sect think theirs is the only right one. How can poor, plain men like us find out [...]]]> H.A. Ironside wrote:

While presenting the Gospel on the streets of a California city, we were often interrupted about as follows,

” Look here, sir! There are hundreds of religions in this country, and the followers of each sect think theirs is the only right one. How can poor, plain men like us find out what is really the truth?”

We generally replied something like this,

“Hundreds of religions, you say? That’s strange; I have only heard of two.”

“Oh, but you surely know there are more than that?”

“Not at all, Sir, I find, I admit, many shades of difference in the opinions of those comprising the two great schools; but after all there are but two. The one covers salvation by doing; the other, all who have been saved by something done. So you see the whole question is very simple. Can you save yourself, or must you be saved by another? If you can be your own saviour, you do not need my message. If you cannot, you may well listen to it.”

Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  (9)  Not of works, lest any man should boast.  (10)  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

1 Corinthians 1:21-24 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching [...]]]> Everything boils down to Jesus Christ – He is the Rock of the Christian belief and a stumbling block for every other belief. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:

1 Corinthians 1:21-24 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.  (22)  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:  (23)  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;  (24)  But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

The people of the world consider believers in Jesus Christ to be foolish. They think that we are ignorant, brainwashed idiots to follow someone who they have never seen. They mock our Saviour and state that it is foolish to have faith. Even atheists have faith, but unfortunately their faith is not in God or Jesus Christ. Their faith is in themselves and the things around them. Those of you reading this are probably sitting down. How do you know that chair will not fall apart? How do you know someone did not come in earlier and loosen all of the bolts? Or that they had not rusted through on one of the legs? You probably never considered that either of those two things could happen. Why? Because you have faith in the quality of that chair. Recently at a parade, I had faith in the chair I was sitting in. We have had that chair for a few years now and I have used it many times. I was sitting in it before the parade started and I shifted in the chair a little when suddenly the fabric gave way and I sank down into the frame. I trusted the chair and it let me down. And that is precisely the difference between trusting in Jesus Christ and trusting in people or things: people or things will fail you and let you down – Jesus Christ will never fail you or let you down.

You cannot trust in your works or actions to get you into Heaven, because you cannot trust yourself. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that our hearts are deceitful and we can all too easily deceive ourselves. We probably lie to ourselves more than we lie to anyone else. Jesus Christ never lies — He is absolute Truth, in fact, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We can never do enough to merit salvation, we simply need to trust in Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross. He only needed to be sacrificed once for our sins. Amen!