Saturday, July 15, 2017
GOSPEL NUGGET #518
The Pencil And The Eraser
I got this illustration from a video that I saw. I thought that I should turn it into something evangelistic.
You see, as the pencil goes on doing about his writing life, he oftentimes makes mistakes here and there, every now and then, making a mess of himself. But then the eraser comes along and erases it all for him. Each time, the eraser gets hurt and loses a little bit of himself, and then, eventually, he will go. He gave his life for the pencil, so to speak.
That pencil is you. The paper is your life. The eraser is the Lord Jesus Christ. We have made a mess of our lives. Strewn across the pages of our lives are the multitudinous sins that we have committed. Each page is dotted and blemished with sins. Our own efforts to cross it out only leaves darker marks on our lives.
Then the Lord Jesus came. To blot out our sins, He suffered the agony of the cross and lost His very life. What we could not do, He can and He will, if we entrust the cleaning up our lives to Him. Come to Him in faith and have your sins blotted out.
Saturday, July 1, 2017
GOSPEL NUGGET #517
The Prescription For Salvation: Faith Alone or Good Works Too?
Here's an unhealthy man plagued with some kind of a disease. And here are three physicians all coming to him to offer him their services.
Physician #1 says: "My prescription for you is this---'Act like you are well and you will be made well. Yes, act like you're good and you will be in good health. Yes, good works will do it.'"
Physician #2 says: "My prescription for you is this---'Take this medicine and act like you are well. The combination of both will cure you. Yes, it's this medicine plus good works that will do it.'"
Physician # 3 says: "My prescription is this---'Take this medicine, the very medicine that the others are prescribing you. Yes, it's proven effective. That alone will cure you. You don't have to act like you are well to get well. The medicine is enough."
My friend, there are people who say that salvation is by works. Still others say that salvation is by faith plus works. The Bible says that salvation is by faith alone in the Medicine (the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross). You take Him in by faith and you will be saved for there is only one medicine for a sinner's salvation; not our works but the Lord Jesus Himself---the Savior.
Ac 16:30 And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved...
Here's an unhealthy man plagued with some kind of a disease. And here are three physicians all coming to him to offer him their services.
Physician #1 says: "My prescription for you is this---'Act like you are well and you will be made well. Yes, act like you're good and you will be in good health. Yes, good works will do it.'"
Physician #2 says: "My prescription for you is this---'Take this medicine and act like you are well. The combination of both will cure you. Yes, it's this medicine plus good works that will do it.'"
Physician # 3 says: "My prescription is this---'Take this medicine, the very medicine that the others are prescribing you. Yes, it's proven effective. That alone will cure you. You don't have to act like you are well to get well. The medicine is enough."
My friend, there are people who say that salvation is by works. Still others say that salvation is by faith plus works. The Bible says that salvation is by faith alone in the Medicine (the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross). You take Him in by faith and you will be saved for there is only one medicine for a sinner's salvation; not our works but the Lord Jesus Himself---the Savior.
Ac 16:30 And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved...
Saturday, June 10, 2017
GOSPEL NUGGET 516
"We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'"
In a Creator-creature sense, God, as our Creator, is our Master, and we, His creatures, are His servants. It is our duty to obey and serve Him. His commands are just, right and good. Even our own consciences approve of it. We ought to do what is just, right and good. It is our responsibility. No one thanks a person for doing what he ought to do. We don't get brownie points doing it.
The doing of God's commands and serving Him are our duty. It is our responsibility. We don't get salvation points from God doing it. We don't cause Him to be indebted to us in the exercise of what we ought to do. We don't ingratiate ourselves to God doing our duty.
Many people believe that salvation is God's "Thank You!" to sinners who serve Him and do their duty. Not so. Salvation is God's undeserved favor, offered to those who don't deserve it, to be received freely by faith in the Savior and what He did on the cross.
Lu 17:7 "And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'?
8 "But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'?
9 "Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.
10 "So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'"
In a Creator-creature sense, God, as our Creator, is our Master, and we, His creatures, are His servants. It is our duty to obey and serve Him. His commands are just, right and good. Even our own consciences approve of it. We ought to do what is just, right and good. It is our responsibility. No one thanks a person for doing what he ought to do. We don't get brownie points doing it.
The doing of God's commands and serving Him are our duty. It is our responsibility. We don't get salvation points from God doing it. We don't cause Him to be indebted to us in the exercise of what we ought to do. We don't ingratiate ourselves to God doing our duty.
Many people believe that salvation is God's "Thank You!" to sinners who serve Him and do their duty. Not so. Salvation is God's undeserved favor, offered to those who don't deserve it, to be received freely by faith in the Savior and what He did on the cross.
Lu 17:7 "And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'?
8 "But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'?
9 "Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.
10 "So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'"
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
GOSPEL NUGGET #515
To think that the primary issue of God with a sinner is his conduct is to miss the deeper and graver issue of man's separation from God. Man's primary problem is not his need to be nice, sweet and charming. You can be all that and still be bound for hell.
Cempark is one of the nicest places to be in all the world. The people are calm, serene and quiet. They don't fight against each other. Year in and year out, there are zero crimes in the neighborhood. Practically, the residents are perfectly well-behaved.
Cempark is short for cemetery park. The whole place is a cemetery and the residents are all dead people. I don't have a problem with their conduct. They are all very fine folks to me. The problem is that they are all dead.
You can have all the good manners and right conduct in the world but if you have not trusted in Christ and what He did on the cross for salvation, you will still end up in hell, forever separated from God.
First things first, come to Christ, have life and be reconciled to God!
Monday, May 29, 2017
GOSPEL NUGGET #514
“Joining the jihad is our way of taking a shortcut to heaven.”
These are the words of Islamic jihadists. Islam teaches that in order to secure heaven and be joined with the Houris or the beautiful women of Paradise, one must be a martyr for Allah. That is, one must be involved in a holy war or jihad and die in it. In the Hadith of Muslims, one of their sacred books, it says that that a martyr's privileges are guaranteed by Allah; forgiveness of their sins with the first gush of their blood.
In other words, you are saved by sacrificing and giving your life to God, shedding your blood for Him. Salvation is not free. It must be earned at the cost of your life-blood.
How different it is with the way of Christ! He Himself sacrificed His life to God for us. He gave Himself to make salvation free for us all. Salvation for free at the cost of His life-blood.
Come to Christ for salvation so free. Come to Christ---God's only cut to heaven.
Friday, May 5, 2017
GOSPEL NUGGET #513
Can You Really Trust And Count On Yourself To Make It To Heaven?
Many people bank on themselves, who they are and what they have done, to make it to heaven and be with God forever to enjoy Him. They have faith in themselves and in their performances even though they admit that they are sinners.
Can a criminal be confident about his case before a thoroughly just judge who knows all about his crimes personally? Can a sinner be positive and upbeat about his record before a holy and just God when even his own conscience accuses him of his sins and transgressions?
Face to face with the Ten Commandments, with all its demands that includes perfect obedience even down to the inward motions of our hearts, can we really be satisfied with ourselves and be bold with ourselves that we will be saved?
If pride and self-righteousness are set aside, truth be told, we know that we can't make it. We can't trust in ourselves to be saved. We have failed so many times. We have missed the mark that God wants us to hit all the time. It's an open and shut case---we are sinners, plain and obvious, deserving judgment.
No, we cant rely and trust in ourselves. But God has given us the Lord Jesus Christ, our Representative and Substitute. He died for our sins and rose from the grave. In Him, not in ourselves, we can put our trust for our salvation. Have you?
Many people bank on themselves, who they are and what they have done, to make it to heaven and be with God forever to enjoy Him. They have faith in themselves and in their performances even though they admit that they are sinners.
Can a criminal be confident about his case before a thoroughly just judge who knows all about his crimes personally? Can a sinner be positive and upbeat about his record before a holy and just God when even his own conscience accuses him of his sins and transgressions?
Face to face with the Ten Commandments, with all its demands that includes perfect obedience even down to the inward motions of our hearts, can we really be satisfied with ourselves and be bold with ourselves that we will be saved?
If pride and self-righteousness are set aside, truth be told, we know that we can't make it. We can't trust in ourselves to be saved. We have failed so many times. We have missed the mark that God wants us to hit all the time. It's an open and shut case---we are sinners, plain and obvious, deserving judgment.
No, we cant rely and trust in ourselves. But God has given us the Lord Jesus Christ, our Representative and Substitute. He died for our sins and rose from the grave. In Him, not in ourselves, we can put our trust for our salvation. Have you?
Saturday, April 29, 2017
GOSPEL NUGGET #512
Werewolves and Villagers
The game Werewolves and Villagers is fun. The villagers must identify and hunt for the werewolves before it will kill all of them. The werewolves only come out under the cover of night when everybody goes to sleep. In the daytime, they look pretty normal, they don't show their fangs, they pretend like they are ordinary folks in the village.
This is a picture of us all. There is a werewolf in all of us. In God's sight, none of us is a villager. We know that we are spiritual werewolves deep within. We know what we did in secret under the cover of night when no one was looking no matter how we deny or cover it. We are "...brute beasts...to be caught and destroyed. " 2 Peter 2:12.
We may ascend the stairs of respectability in the village or in society. We may be voted as the Most Outstanding Villager Of The Year but at the core of our being we are all sinners. We have devoured someone at least at one point in our lives either in outward behavior or in our hearts and minds.
What we need is a new nature. We need to be transformed. And that can only take place if we are transformed into a new creature by faith in Christ. Come to Christ in faith and be born again into a new creature, yes, into a true villager in the community of God's people and village.
The game Werewolves and Villagers is fun. The villagers must identify and hunt for the werewolves before it will kill all of them. The werewolves only come out under the cover of night when everybody goes to sleep. In the daytime, they look pretty normal, they don't show their fangs, they pretend like they are ordinary folks in the village.
This is a picture of us all. There is a werewolf in all of us. In God's sight, none of us is a villager. We know that we are spiritual werewolves deep within. We know what we did in secret under the cover of night when no one was looking no matter how we deny or cover it. We are "...brute beasts...to be caught and destroyed. " 2 Peter 2:12.
We may ascend the stairs of respectability in the village or in society. We may be voted as the Most Outstanding Villager Of The Year but at the core of our being we are all sinners. We have devoured someone at least at one point in our lives either in outward behavior or in our hearts and minds.
What we need is a new nature. We need to be transformed. And that can only take place if we are transformed into a new creature by faith in Christ. Come to Christ in faith and be born again into a new creature, yes, into a true villager in the community of God's people and village.
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