The Verdict You Don't Have To Wait For

1:00 PM, Tuesday, October 4, 1995 -- America comes to a sudden stop. Everyone was waiting for the O.J. Simpson verdict. Nine months of probably the most watched and analyzed trial in history, and suddenly the jury's got a verdict in four hours. And then Judge Ito announced that we couldn't hear the verdict yet -- ah! It was placed in a sealed envelope, and we'd have to wait until the next day to find out. Everybody's guessing and buzzing about -- then as the verdict hour arrived, America stopped to hear it. There was a huge power surge in New York City, as thousands of TV's came on at once, and all across the country, usually busy streets were strangely uncrowded. They said long distance calls suddenly dropped by 60%. Now the verdict will probably be debated for years, but one thing is sure, we were obsessed with knowing what the verdict was.

Well I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have "A Word With You Today" about "The Verdict You Don't Have To Wait For."

Now your life probably wouldn't have been any different no matter what the verdict for O.J. Simpson, but there's a verdict that really does affect you. It determines where you will spend eternity. It's God's verdict on you -- Was I good enough? Will I make it to heaven when I die? Guilty or Not Guilty with God? Well, see the verdict is not in a sealed envelope. It's in an open book, and I've got it right in front of me here. You don't have to wait to find out God's verdict on you.

Our word for today from the Word of God - Romans Chapter 3, Verse 19. It says, "Every mouth will be silenced. The whole world held accountable to God. No one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law..." That means doing good things. Chapter 3, Verse 10, "There is no one righteous, not even one..." No one's not guilty. Verse 22 says, there is no difference, "for all have sinned..." Verse 23 says, "...And fall short of the glory of God." The verdict is in on each of us -- Guilty before God. We have broken His laws over and over. We've hijacked the life our Creator gave us and run it ourselves. Really, we've been our own God. And not only is the verdict in, the sentence has been pronounced. In Romans 6:23 it says, "The wages of sin is death". Now some are going to try to plead the good they have done - it's not enough, no one is righteous, not one. See a death penalty cannot be paid by doing good, someone has to die. Our sin leaves us condemned in the court room of God. The sentence in a word -- is "Hell." But this reading of the verdict is followed by this amazing offer of a pardon. It says in the next verses, that we are justified, freely, by God's grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus through faith in His blood. In other words, someone has come to pay your death penalty -- God's own Son.

See our only hope of ever being right with God, of ever going to heaven, is placing all our hope in Jesus Christ, the One who died as our substitute. You see, if you think that your religion or your goodness is going to satisfy God's verdict, the Bible says it won't. Jesus died so He could forgive your sin and erase it from God's book, and trade the death penalty you deserve for the eternal life you don't deserve. But you do have to put your total trust in Him to be your Savior.

If you never have, if you're not sure you have, don't risk another day without Him. I'm going to give you an address in a minute, and I wish you would write to me so I can send you a letter and some material that will help you be sure you know Christ. See, the bad news is you're guilty before God. We all are, and the sentence is death. But if you belong to Jesus Christ, because you have put your trust in Him, you can have the Son of God as your defense attorney before His Father, and a guaranteed verdict of NOT GUILTY -- free to go home to the heaven He has prepared for you.

YOURS FOR LIFE!

If you would like to know more about what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, or if you want to know for sure that you belong to Him...

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Last Update: 03/09/1997

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