Oh, when the auditor leaves from our annual audit, man, our administrative team is high-fivin'. Partly because, well, again we got a clean audit this past year, and our ministry's been blessed with that year after year, and partly it's just because it's over! They worked pretty hard to be ready for all the things the auditor wanted to check out.
In the business world, and sometimes even in the Christian world, audits aren't always happy. Auditors can find things that get you in trouble with your boss, with the government, even with the law. Audits uncover hidden secrets.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Audit of a Lifetime."
Now, I have a meeting scheduled with the auditor in the future. Except, I don't know when it is, because the appointment is with The Auditor, and only He knows when my audit of a lifetime is going to be. Fact is we're all facing the audit of our lives. Our word for today from the word of God in Romans 14:12 says "...each of us will give an account of himself to God."
There will be no exceptions, "...each of us." There will be no excuses, "...will give account of himself to God." No blaming your spouse, your parents, your kids, your friends, your coworkers. I will answer for me and me alone. Also, there will be no secrets. "God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ" - Romans 14:12 says that. The Auditor knows every website we've ever visited, every e-mail or conversation we've been involved with, every sin we thought we got away with.
Many times I've seen a road sign with these stark words: "Prepare to meet your God" (Romans 14:12). Since heaven's all-knowing Auditor will expose everything about my life, it actually makes sense to work on what I'll face in His presence. The Auditor has let us know what He'll be auditing. I'd like to know that now.
Now, I know He'll be auditing the words I speak. Jesus said so: "Men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless (or worthless, that means) word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned" (Romans 14:12). All our words, including the gossip, the angry stuff, the putdowns, the dirty stuff, will be there to meet us on the day of judgment and there will be no denying my own words.
The Auditor's also going to examine why I do what I do. The Bible says, "Wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts" (Romans 14:12). I'm not too excited about those new full body scans that they're installing at airports; they reveal what no one else can see. But that's nothing compared to God's full heart scan at the judgment seat. No matter how good what I've done may be, it will burn if my real motive was me, not Him. God cares a lot more about why we do than what we do. If it wasn't for His glory, if it wasn't because of pure love, it will never survive the audit.
Then Jesus said, "Give an account of your management" (Romans 14:12). The audit is going to be about what I've done with what He's given to me: my money, my influence, my home, my abilities, my opportunities. I'm suspecting that a lot of us are going to be feeling the shame and sadness of what might have been, of how much we could have done and should have done.
And then there's this really sobering warning of what's going to come up at the audit. "When I say to a wicked man (the Bible makes it clear that's all of us), 'You will surely die,' and you do not...speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood" (Ezekiel 3:1
. Whew! God will confront me with all the people I didn't tell about Jesus, whose eternity depended on hearing about Him.
I guess the hardest-hitting exposure at the audit of a lifetime will be about what we do with Jesus. The Bible says about Judgment Day, "...the books were opened. Another book was opened which is the Book of Life...If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Romans 14:12). What an unspeakably horrific moment.
Jesus checks the Book of Life to see if a person's name is there. If it's not, it's too late. It's entered there when you pin all your hopes on the Christ who died on the cross for your sin. If you never have, you can have your name put in His Book today by giving your life to Him.
The Auditor's told us how to take the dread out of the audit. It says, "If we judge ourselves, we would not come under judgment" (1 Corinthians 11:31). Face it now so you don't have to face it then. It's no wonder He's so deeply interested in how we live our life. He's pretty heavily invested with His blood.
You know, it is not easy being a Christian in a dark world. Yet, God the Son , that is Jesus, commanded us to be the light of the world. That is sometimes very uncomfortable because we as people like to be accepted and we don't like ridicule. Yet, we are given a great reward, eternity with Christ in Heaven, and we are given things that we are commanded to do while we have this time of life here on earth. To speak out to a Christless group of people, whether it is on a message board or in your own neighborhood does not come naturally to us. Yet, we are obligated to see the souls of these people in spite of how they treat us and like Jesus, we are to have compassion on them and attempt to give forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how that He loves them, and took all their sins and my sins upon himself and PAID FOR THEM ALL on the Cross of Calvary with His own blood.
He did that so you and I could be washed clean in the precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus, the LAMB of GOD for sinners slain.
It is all HE asks of us who have trusted HIS Finished WORK on the Cross and HIM to save us from our sin and iniquity. Tell others. Do not let them go blindly into eternity without knowing the Savior. He died for them just as much as he died for you and me.
Jesus said "He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" In 2Peter 3:9 the Bible says that "He is not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance".
Friend, that is YOU today!
Jesus said "Behold, NOW is the ACCEPTED TIME, Today is the DAY of salvation".
Won't you place your trust for your eternal soul into the Lord Jesus today? Don't put it off another second for you know not what day your soul will be required of you. The Bible says "it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the Judgment"
Don't go to the Judgment Seat without Christ as your ADVOCATE, your defense lawyer, your savior. He died for YOU. All He asks is for YOU to come and ask HIM and HIM alone, to forgive you of your sins and to be Your savior.
Place your trust in Jesus Christ TODAY before you go into eternity without HIM.
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