GOSPEL NUGGET #424

The Necessity Of A Sacrifice

Our acceptability before God does not depend on who we are and what we do. Rather, our salvation and acceptability before God depends entirely on the acceptability of our sacrifice.

It's all about the atonement, the atonement, the atonement. It's all about the sacrifice, the sacrifice, the sacrifice. We either make it or break it at this one great crucial issue. This is the pivotal point---the deciding factor.

God demands a sinless sacrifice. The problem is we can't provide one. But God, in His great love, sent the Lord Jesus Christ to be the sacrifice for our sins.

And the only sacrifice for sinners that God can accept is the sacrifice that He Himself provided.

Now, there you have it. Here you are a sinner before a holy God. In yourself, you will be doomed forever. But there's the great sacrifice that God Himself provided for you.

What are you going to do with it? It's your only chance. It's your only hope of being actually accepted by God. Will you stand behind it, rely on it entirely, for your actual acceptance with God?

Will you trust in Jesus and what He did on the cross for your salvation?

GOSPEL NUGGET #423

Great Men Reduced To Nothing When They Saw God's Holiness

Job was probably the best man in his day in terms of morality. And yet, when he saw God's majesty and holiness he saw himself vile:

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.
Job 40:4 "Behold, I am vile; What shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth.

The prophet Isaiah, again, we can say, was probably one of the best men in Israel, if not the best man in his time. But when he saw God's holiness, he saw how unclean he was:

Isa 6:3 And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!"
Isa 6:5 So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts."

The apostle Peter considered by many as the first pope saw his sinfulness when face to face with the holiness of the Lord Jesus:

Lu 5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"

If Job, Isaiah and Peter saw and realized that in spite of their seemingly impressive moral record before man, were not good enough for God, how much less are we who are down there in the ladder of morality.

The man who is most white on the face of planet earth would appear as dirty white when face to face with God's holiness. We are like bright candles at night that appear as nothing when exposed under the full blazing sunlight of a noonday sun.

None of us measures up to His holiness and standard. We are all found wanting. If ever God should accept us, it is only through the sinless sacrifice and offering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

It is only through Him and what He did on the cross that sinners can be accepted by God.

GOSPEL NUGGET #422

Why Do People Reject Jesus?

You don't feel the absolute necessity to go to a doctor if you think you are perfectly fine. The doctor's clinic would be the most boring place in the world to you.

However, once you are made to realize that there is something in your body that requires immediate medical attention, and that your condition is fatal, I tell you, Dr. so and so would be most precious and valuable to you.

You will never forget his name. You will keep coming back to him for as long as your condition requires. You know that your life depends upon his skill.

Many people reject Jesus and find Him of no value at all in their lives because they are blind to their need of Him. They don't realize and see that their condition absolutely cries out for Him for their well-being.

But once they are made to realize that they are sinners in the sight of God, spiritual criminals, who are helpless and powerless to save themselves and that any moment they die they could go into an eternity of doom, I tell you, Jesus and what He did on the cross would be most precious to them. They know that their eternal destiny hangs upon Him.

Have you seen your utterly helpless and powerless condition to save yourself? Has the Holy Spirit made you see your actual condition as God sees you?

And, as a result, have you found Christ Jesus and what He did on the cross for you valuable? Have you seen the fact that He is your only hope of salvation, and that being so, you put your entire trust in Him for salvation?

GOSPEL NUGGET #421

GE 48:14 But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands, although Manasseh was the firstborn.

(Read the rest from verses 17 to 20 in your own Bible)

The blessing of the right hand was considered a greater blessing. Since Manasseh was the eldest son, Joseph thought that he should receive the greater blessing. But Jacob intentionally crossed his hands and placed his right hand on Ephraim and gave him the greater blessing.

Spiritually, it is the same with salvation. Just as Jacob crossed his hands to set aside the first birth in preference for the second birth, so the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ set aside the first birth in favor of the second birth.

The Bible teaches that If you want to enter into the blessings of salvation, you must be born again. As they say: "If you are only born once, you will go to hell. But if you are born twice, you will be saved and be with God forever."

Our natural birth caused us to be in Adam. The new birth causes us to be in Christ. And it is Christ who is appointed by God to be the heir of all things. Be in Christ by being born again. Be born again by putting your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross for your salvation.

GOSPEL NUGGET #420

The Holiness of God, The Sinfulness of Man and The Need For A Sacrifice

God’s holiness is not only like a wall around Him that repulses sin and sets Him apart from it, His holiness is also like a fire and a lion that burns and goes against sin.

No sinner can survive in the direct presence of a holy God---His holiness will break out against him. God's holiness is a big problem for sinful humanity. His holiness makes Him unapproachable to sinful man.

God, in His holiness, demands that He must be approached through a sacrifice. And not just any other sacrifice but a sinless sacrifice.

Some people ask: "Why is it that God does not come out in the open in His fully glory for all the world to see?" That would be catastrophe for sinful humanity. We will all die. No sinner can be in the direct presence of a holy God and see Him in His full glory and survive.

He did come 2000 years ago. He clothed and covered Himself with humanity so that sinners can make direct contact with Him and not die.

And then, He went to the cross, offered Himself as a sinless sacrifice, He satisfied the demands of God's justice, holiness and wrath, and now sinful man can now approach God through Him (Jesus Christ).

It is only through the Lord Jesus and what He did on the cross that God can be approached and for sinners to be with Him forever and ever.

Have you trusted Him and what He did on the cross for you?

GOSPEL NUGGET #419

Ge 46:33 "So it shall be, when Pharaoh calls you and says, 'What is your occupation?'

34 "that you shall say, 'Your servants' occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,' that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians."

Ge 47:5 Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, "Your father and your brothers have come to you.

6 "The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land; let them dwell in the land of Goshen.

Even though Joseph’s family were totally unacceptable to Pharaoh because of who they were---they were despicable shepherds hated by the Egyptians, Pharaoh still accepted them and brought them to enjoy his abundant favor because of Joseph.

In the same way, even though we are unacceptable to God, despicable sinners that we are, God accepts sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Lord Jesus, we find acceptance with God and enjoy God’s boundless blessings.

If you are seeking acceptance with God, come to the only way through whom you can only be accepted---come to Christ.

God does not accept sinners because they do good works, because they do religious activities, because they did sacrifices and penances. No, He accepts sinners through Christ’s merit and work on the cross.

Come to Him now in faith, trusting Him and what He did on the cross for sinners like you.

GOSPEL NUGGET #418

“It is not against good works that we contend but simply faith in them.”
---Martin Luther

Often we are misrepresented as saying that Christians are no longer to do good works. Nothing could be further from the truth. No, on the contrary, we encourage good works. We exhort every single Christian to abound in good works.

What we are saying is exactly what Martin Luther said above: "It is not against good works that we contend but simply faith in them." Good works do not save. It's the Savior who saves. Good works have their proper place in the Christian life. But they are out of place if we make them our savior; if we put our trust in them to save us.

The Bible does not say: "For God so loved that world that whoever does good works and puts their trust in them shall not perish but have eternal life."

Yes, do good works but put your trusts in the Savior and what He did on the cross for your salvation.  

GOSPEL NUGGET #417

What God Wants From You As A Sinner

God wants you to take Him seriously. So seriously that you hate sin in your life. That in you there would be this desire to be perfectly righteous in His sight beginning in the inward parts, in your heart. Not just external righteousness but internal righteousness. He wants you to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

And that in the process of desiring it you realize that you are powerless and helpless in yourself to attain it by your own efforts. You attempted over and over again to be perfectly righteous in His
sight but failed time and time again.

He wants you to realize that you are spiritually bankrupt. He wants you to be humbled. He wants you to mourn over your condition. He wants you to stop asserting yourself that you are worthy of salvation.

To sum it all up, He wants you to repent. To change your attitude towards God, change your attitude towards sin and change your attitude towards self.

And then, He wants you to look away from your helpless and powerless self to the Savior He provided and view Him and what He did on the cross as your only hope of acceptance with God and salvation, realizing that salvation is given as an undeserved favor and a free gift of God to those who are not worthy of it.

Mt 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart...
Mt 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...
Mt 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit...
Mt 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn...
Mt 5:5 Blessed are the meek...

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

GOSPEL NUGGET #416

Ge 45:17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Say to your brothers, 'Do this: Load your animals and depart; go to the land of Canaan.

18 'Bring your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.

20 'Also do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.'"

23 And he sent to his father these things: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey.

Jacob was blessed by Pharaoh for Joseph’s sake. Jacob did not do anything to deserve the royal benefits and goods given to him, but still it was given to him because of Joseph.

In the same way, God is offering to us the spiritual blessing of salvation not because we deserve it but because of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just as Jacob was blessed for Joseph's sake, so a sinner is blessed by God for Christ's sake---what He did on the cross. But, like all offers, it must be received and accepted on our part.

God is offering to us now the blessings of salvation, redemption and forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can receive it the moment we put our trust in the Savior and what He did on the cross.