GOSPEL LIGHT #692

 
Question: "Why doesn't God just save everybody?"

Reply:

Closely related to salvation is also man's need to be reconciled to God. You get one you get the other. Reconciliations are not forced. They are offered. A forced reconciliation is no reconciliation at all. Genuine reconciliations are freely entered into by both parties. In His sovereignty, He allowed man to make a free choice made possible by His enabling grace.

On God's part, God is calling everyone to be reconciled to Him. The problem is --- not everyone wants to repent and be reconciled to God.

2Co 5:20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

How about you? Have you repented and trusted in Christ for salvation and reconciliation with God?

GOSPEL LIGHT #691

Job 35:6 If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him? 7 If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand? 8 Your wickedness affects a man such as you, And your righteousness a son of man.

A lot of people think that we scratch God's back if we do good and righteous things; that we are doing Him a favor. Now, He owes us and must repay us with salvation. 

Nope. God is not injured or lessened by man's sins. Nor does He profit or become greater by our righteousness. These only affect our fellowman. Salvation is not a divine payment issued to us for doing God a favor. Salvation is by grace (Eph 2:8, Romans 6:23). Grace means favor granted to those who deserve the opposite. 

In salvation, it is God who scratches our back even though we deserve to be pushed and kicked around with divine judgment. 

GOSPEL LIGHT #690

The Gospel According To My Electric Fan 

Standing a few feet from me is an electric fan. It's not only a device for creating currents of air, he's also a great preacher of the gospel. 

Every day He reminds me of the great spiritual facts that death means disconnection and that plugging into life is as essential as the provision of life.    

* Death means disconnection --- Just as the fan would eventually die out when unplugged from the power source so man will eventually physically die because he has spiritually plugged out from God through sin. 

* Plugging into life is as essential as the provision of life --- Just as an unplugged fan remains dead no matter how nigh it is to the power source so a sinner remains spiritually dead if he is not connected to the death of Christ through faith. After all, what's an available life source if you are not plugged to it? 

May I add? My fan looks sleek, shiny and all, but, to me, it's completely useless without the currents of life flowing through it. In the same way, we may look winsome and charming to people but if we don't have the currents of eternal life in us we are still dead as dead can be in the sight of God.

GOSPEL LIGHT #689

 Why Do Unbelievers Go To Hell?

Reply:

"Believing" as required in the Bible is not mere mental assent. To be precise, "believing" in the Bible means trusting, relying and leaning on what Christ did on the cross for our sins. It's the spiritual hand that makes use of the atonement that God provided on Calvary's cross.

The same way a critically ill and infirm man will not be healed if he doesn't avail of the only medicine that could cure him, so a sinner will not be saved if he doesn't appropriate by faith the only atonement for sin that the Savior provided on the cross. What's crucial and critical is the payment for sin and our connection to it. And believing or faith is that saving linkup.

GOSPEL LIGHT #688

The Loneliest Man Who Ever Lived On Earth 

Mr 15:34 "...Jesus cried out..'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'"

The loneliest Man who ever lived on earth was a Man named Jesus Christ. When He needed help the most, there was no one. He was completely alone...forsaken, abandoned and alienated from God.

The only thing He had with Him was all the sins of the world laid on Him. No man who ever lived on earth was ever forsaken by God in the level and degree which God forsook the Lord Jesus Christ here. 

Why? God forsook Him so that you would not be forsaken. 

Make good use of what He did for you at the cross. Don't waste it. Trust in His death on the cross for your sins and enjoy eternal union with God. 

GOSPEL LIGHT #687

Mr. Reliable Is Really Able 

Ro 10:11 ... "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

A lot of people have been put to shame because the ones that they were pinning their hopes on failed them. Yep...bigtime! Here they were boasting, glorifying, and oozing with confidence about a certain person or company, and yet, in the end, the person or the company failed to deliver; they got into a huge letdown. Imagine the disappointment, the discomfiture, and the shame they must have felt. 

That's something that will never ever happen if you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for your salvation. The Deliverer will never fail to deliver. The Savior will never fail to save. The Redeemer will never fail to redeem. 

Others will fail you. You will fail you. But He will never fail you. You have placed your trust and confidence in the One who is Mr. Realibility Himself. Mr. Reliable is Really Able. Go! Venture out to Him! Boldly trust in Him and His death on the cross for your salvation! 


  

GOSPEL LIGHT #686

 Is Christ Precious To You?

1Pe 2:7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious...

You can be moral, religious, and maybe someone who has mouthed the sinner's prayer, and yet if the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross are not precious to you, you are still not a Christian.

Your morality may be tinged with Christian morals or your religiosity may be colored with Christian tenets but if that's all there is to it, you are still not the real McCoy.

A genuine Christian is someone who finds Christ and His work on the cross of great value and worth; the same way a drowning man finds a lifebuoy that he is clinging to for dear life valuable and essential --- not out of dry formality, to conform to people's expectations and conventions, but out of sheer necessity. Christ. Precious? As in honest-to-goodness precious? What say you?

GOSPEL LIGHT #685

Have A Break --- Relax and Rest On Christ 

At least 150 verses in the Bible teach that salvation is through faith alone in Christ. Faith not works. 

When it comes to salvation God wants you to relax. Yes, relax in God's grace. Rest in the finished work of Christ on the cross. You've been working really hard for salvation? You are so tired already and heavily laden? Have a break. Chill. Relax. Unwind and take a good rest in Christ's finished work. Shhh! Hush! Consider what He did and take it easy. Rest easy on it. Enjoy!

GOSPEL LIGHT #684

An Outline Of Salvation From The Shadows The fact that God in the Old Testament required only a sacrifice for sins tells a whole lot about the way of salvation. For the Old Testament rituals were representations of the real; mere shadows of the substance.

But, from the shadows, you can make out the outline --- salvation is based on a sacrifice nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. God did require good works and good character in the Old Testament but in no way did they figure and play a role when it comes to dealing with sins. Only the sacrifice counts. Only the sacrifice matters. Only the sacrifice was considered. Only a sacrifice was required.

Being shadows and representations, their only weight and value lie in the fact that they point to the ultimate sacrifice --- the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

GOSPEL LIGHT #683

The Man Who Will Come Running To Christ You will never appreciate and see the value of what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross if you haven't seen how helpless and how powerless you are in saving yourself.

You will never see how helpless and powerless you are in saving yourself if you haven't raised a "No-sin-at-all" policy in your heart.

And you will only put up this internal policy if you have deemed God as Someone who is worthy enough and important enough to be taken seriously.

Without these, you are still an unrepentant sinner, no matter how religious and moral you may be. And the lake of fire will be filled with people who are religious, people who are moral; people who are all that, and yet, unrepentant still.

Show me a man who has taken God seriously; show me a man who has taken sin seriously; show me a man who realizes that he is helpless and powerless in saving himself, and I will show you a man who will come running to Christ for salvation.

GOSPEL LIGHT #681

Ps 62:2 He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.

A huge storm is threatening and looming. You are in the middle of nowhere. No man-made shelter is strong enough to withstand this ferocious storm. It will surely obliterate everything in its path. But, where you are, there is a massive boulder nearby offering refuge to anyone who would come under it. You make a run for it and deposited yourself in it. You sit down there on dry ground and watched as the storm rolled through. When the storm was over, you came out of it totally unharmed and unscathed, while everything around you was ravaged and devastated. Thank God for the rock!

This is a picture of salvation. That huge and ferocious storm is God's impending judgment against us sinners. That massive boulder is the Lord Jesus Christ. That act of depositing and hiding in the rock is faith. 

Good works, charity, and religiosity have their proper place. But they are no shelter against the storm. Even if you do so many good deeds, even if you are liberal with charitable works, even if you are religious, without that rock, you will perish in the storm. 

That rock alone could save you. The death of Christ on the cross for your sins is your only hope.  

GOSPEL LIGHT #680

1 Cor. 1:24 ... Christ ... the wisdom of God How is the Lord Jesus Christ the wisdom of God? He is the wisdom of God because through Him God solved the greatest problem of all --- SIN. How, in the world, can God justify the ungodly and through it all remain just? The solution? God established the Lord Jesus Christ as the sinner's representative and substitute. He died for the sinner and He died as the sinner. He resurrected for him and as him. How is the Lord Jesus Christ the wisdom of God?

He created mankind with representative heads (Adam and Christ). That, though, man was condemned in Adam, he can also be redeemed through Christ. Man's folly says: "I can saved myself by my good works and good character. Nope. Trust in God's wisdom for your salvation. God's wisdom says that you can only be saved through the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross.

GOSPEL LIGHT #679

Neither Too Bad Nor Too Good To Be Saved  
The absolute efficacy and necessity of Christ's atonement on the cross are shown in the fact that the worst of sinners could be saved by it and that the most moral of sinners cannot afford to be without it.

Do you think you are the worst of all sinners? Too bad to be saved? Christ's atonement is powerful enough to save you. Do you think that you are situated high up on the ladder of morality? Too good to need salvation? You can't be saved without it. Your morality will not do.

GOSPEL LIGHT #678

He Loved Us More Than He Loved His Own Life 

The Lord Jesus loved us more than He loved His own life. The proof? The cross of Calvary. He did not mind what would happen to Him. He risked His own life. He neglected Himself. For what? For our eternal welfare and well-being. 

And we ought to love Him the same way. We ought to love Him more than we love our own selves. This can only be possible if the kind of love He has in Him is overflowing in our own hearts. 

Love like this is supernatural. It's beyond us. It is supernaturally imparted upon trusting in Him for salvation. 

Ro 5:5 and that this hope never disappoints, because God's love for us floods our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. WNT 

Joh 7:38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing (trusting) in Him would receive;

GOSPEL LIGHT #677

The Emperor Who Had No Clothes and The Self-Righteous Sinner 

There was this emperor who loved fine clothing. He was the perfect patsy for two swindlers to inveigle him to weave for him the finest clothing ever. Not only was the clothing beautiful, majestic and elegant; it was also magical --- only the eyes of fine men and women could see it. To the rest, who are stupid, it will appear invisible. 

On the day of the great procession, the emperor marched in front of his entire kingdom...completely naked...wearing nothing but his pride. Everyone could see it. But for fear of being thought of as stupid, they all, nonetheless, sang his praises. Until a child blurted out the naked truth "But he doesn't have anything on!"

The story is made-up of course. But Hans Christian Andersen's story here is a perfect illustration of a self-righteous sinner. The words of Revelation 3:17 is an apt description of the bankruptcy of a self-righteous sinner: "... you say, “ I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked."

The self-righteous sinner thinks, swindled of the truth and hoodwinked by Satan, that he is fine. He doesn't know that, in the eyes of God, he is anything but that. It takes the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit to make him realize that he is a sinner in need of the robes of righteousness, which he could only be attired with, by faith in Christ.

 

GOSPEL LIGHT #676

When it comes to salvation, at least two things are essential: 

a) First, there must be an acceptable sacrifice for all your sins
b) Second, you must be connected to it 

With regard to the first, the Lord Jesus came and died for all our sins. And God demonstrated that He has accepted His sacrifice by raising Him up from the dead. 

With regard to the second, you can be connected to His sacrifice through the bonds of faith. The moment you trust in His death on the cross is the moment that connection has been made. Faith is simply the conduit pipe that connects you to the fount of salvation. 

The sacrifice is there already done and provided for you. Now, make the Cross Connection. Trust in it for your salvation. 

GOSPEL LIGHT #675

Why is the Lord Jesus called "The Lamb of God?" 

Joh 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

The lamb was a sacrificial animal used in the Old Testament to symbolically atone for one's sins. All the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament were only pictures and symbols. They all point to the Lord Jesus Christ and what He will do on the cross. 

The Lord Jesus Christ is "The Lamb of God" because He is the ultimate and real sacrifice that God appointed and provided for our sins.  

He is God's propitiation and God's provision. 

He is portrayed as "The Lamb" because He is God's propitiation for our sins. 
He is provenanced as "of God because He is God's provision for our sins. 

And God wants you to personally make use of Him as your sacrifice for your sins. He wants you to stand behind Him as your sacrifice; He wants you to trust in Him and what He did on the cross for your salvation. 

GOSPEL LIGHT #674

Banking on Death-Bed Repentance

The longer you delay repentance the harder you will become toward it. Sin has a hardening effect. The "repentance" you plan on doing when you are close to death is "attrition." Not genuine and true repentance in the sight of God.

There is only one case of "death-bed" repentance, if we may put it that way, in the Bible --- the robber on the cross who repented. Someone said in effect: "One case so that no one may despair, but, only one case so that no one may presume."

Here's the result of the survey--- There are many cases of sinners who repented in the Bible. The Bible records at least 4,000 years of human history. Yet, there is only one case in inspired history that God truly recognized as genuine when it comes to near-death repentance.

If you delay repentance for some other time, perhaps on your death-bed, what made you think that yours will be a unique case?

GOSPEL LIGHT #673

Only Two Religions 

People are confused and mixed up today because they say "There are too many religions and too many religious groups in the world!"

Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, all the religions in the world could be basically categorized into two: a) The religion of Self and b) The religion of the Savior. 

All religions in the world, except one, are basically saying: "Self must do this and self must do that in order to earn a good standing for oneself to make it." 

There is one religion, however, that's different. Its message is this --- "You cannot earn a good standing for yourself. You are unable to save yourself. The good news is that the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins and was raised again from the dead. Through what He did on the cross for you, you can freely obtain a right standing with God and enjoy Him forever and ever."

The religion of Self says: "Do something!" The religion of the Savior says: "It's done!" All you have to do is to place your confidence in what the Savior did."  





 

GOSPEL LIGHT # 672

 Why I Don't Fear The Lord's Coming

Before, I was deathly afraid of the Lord's coming. Now, no more! I anticipate it and wait for it. I want it to take place in my lifetime. People in New Testament times were eager for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Php 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Re 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! 2Ti 4:8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Before, I was in fear and trepidation because I was looking at myself and how I fared spiritually. No matter how I tried I realized that I will never be good enough --- I will never ever measure up. I could never be confident about my performance.

The difference-maker is my discovery of Calvary.

In the cross of Christ, I found a divinely-approved payment and settlement for all my sins. I am confident that what He did on the cross for me will never fail me on that great and awesome day when I finally see Him face to face.

His First Coming is the reason why I'm not afraid of His Second Coming.

GOSPEL LIGHT #671

Wise For A Lifetime --- A Fool For All Eternity 

There was a man who only had a week to live in his house before he would move into his new home where he would reside for the rest of his life. Absurdity of absurdities, instead of focusing on his new dwelling, he devoted his time, energies, and resources to furnishing his old house that he was about to vacate.  

It's a made-up story. It never really happened. But, you know, in one sense, that is a true story in many people's lives. Many people take great pains to provide for this life. "I don't just think of this year. No, I think ahead. I think and plan for 40 years from now." They would say.

The problem is that that's all for them. They never think and plan for the next 40 million years or the next 40 billion years or the next 40 trillion years and more. They are wise for a lifetime but a fool for all eternity.

My friend, be truly wise. Don't just think of this year. Don't just think of this life. Think of the life after this life in eternity. 

Avail yourself of the eternal life that is in Christ Jesus. He died for your sins and was raised again from the dead. That if you repent and trust in Him, life eternal will be yours.  
 

GOSPEL LIGHT #670

How to trust in Christ for salvation?

The Bible does not explain how to trust Christ because trusting in Christ for salvation spontaneously follows by "spiritual reflex" (as I call it) the moment a sinner sees his helplessness in saving himself and realizes the sufficiency of Christ's work on the cross for one's salvation. The man who sees that he is in a hopeless building, engulfed and swallowed whole by a raging fire, would just instinctively jump into a sure and stable safety net waiting for him below, knowing full well that it alone could save him. He doesn't ask "how do I jump in there?" No, he just does it. Pushed by his own necessity. He is more concerned about getting himself deposited into the net than anything else in the world.

GOSPEL LIGHT #669

 A Melting Candle Is Just Like The Lord Jesus Christ

A melting candle is a picture of unselfish and self-giving love. There it is giving itself away for the good of all around it; whereas, before, there was darkness, now there is light.

There, on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ "melted" and gave Himself for us all that the way of salvation might be paved and lighted --- that sinners might find their way to God.

The way to God is not dark, dim, and impossible to find...if you go by the light of what Christ did on the cross for you.