GOSPEL LIGHT #746

Understanding Divine Acceptance Through the Prodigal Son

I am assuming that you know the story of the Prodigal Son. Let's apply the story to a sinner's acceptance and salvation. After all, the Lord Jesus told this story when the Pharisees and the scribes complained "This Man receives sinners and eats with them."

Now, this son asked his father for his share of the inheritance and then set off for a distant country. In the far country, he squandered all his wealth on reckless living and ended up in poverty and hardship. At this point, he came to his senses, and decided to return home, hoping his father would accept him as a hired servant.

He practiced his speech saying: "'I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants."'

This is how we usually think of the situation. We think that we must put up a good performance first, we must be a servant first, before God would accept us.

And so, the story goes that he got up and headed back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him, was filled with compassion, ran to him, hugged him tightly, fell on his neck, and kissed him.

At this point, the son began his speech, saying "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son." But he could only get this far. His father interrupted him by saying to his servants "Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry." The father did not even hear the part of the son's bargain where he was about to offer himself to serve as a hired worker to be accepted.

Without any service and good works to show, he was accepted and embraced and welcomed with a feast. 

My friend, it's not about who we are and what we do for God. No, rather, it's about who He is to us and what He did on the cross in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that determines our acceptance before Him. 

All we need to do is to show up in repentance. 

GOSPEL LIGHT #745

TEKEL 

"Tekel" is one of the words supernaturally written on the wall during Belshazzar’s feast, as described in Daniel 5. The writing was a divine message indicating judgment. It was a message to the proud monarch, Belshazzar, which means "You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting."

The word could very well be applied to us! On each of our walls is written the word "Tekel." We have been weighed and have been found wanting. 

The Bible says: 

Ro 3:23 ...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Ro 3:10 ..."There is none righteous, no, not one;

Ro 3:12 ...There is none who does good, no, not one."

Isa 64:6 ...all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags...

How we need the righteousness that comes from God. This is the only way whereby we will not be found wanting --- the righteousness of God deposited to our spiritual account through faith in Christ.

GOSPEL LIGHT #744

We All Need "The Fourth Man" To Be Saved 

Da 3:23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
 24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, "Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" They answered and said to the king, "True, O king."
 25 "Look!" he answered, "I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were thrown into a blazing furnace. They fell into the fire still bound. King Nebuchadnezzar was amazed. He quickly asked his counselors if they had not thrown three men into the fire. The counselors confirmed that it was true. Instead of three men, Nebuchadnezzar saw four men walking in the fire, unharmed, and noted that the fourth looked like a supernatural being. The New King James says here that "the fourth is like the Son of God."

Just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were spared in the fiery furnace by the divine presence, we too are facing a time of judgment to come. In the face of such a horrifying reality, we too need "the fourth man" to be saved.
 
"The fourth Man" was the pre-incarnate Christ Himself. The Bible says in Romans 8:1 "There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."

This "fourth Man" came and died on the cross for our sins that if we put our trust in Him, we will be saved.