GOSPEL NUGGET #457

Ge 12:14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful.
15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house.
Ge 12:16 He treated Abram well for her (Sarah's) sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

Abraham was treated well by Pharaoh for Sarah's sake. Abraham became exceedingly wealthy because of her. It was Sarah's beauty, but it was Abraham's blessing.

Picture of salvation alert! It is exactly the same with the salvation of a sinner. A sinner is spiritually bankrupt before God, but, God, because of Christ, can bless him "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ."

A sinner is someone who is spiritually hideous to God, he deserves nothing but judgment. But God can treat him well, not because of him, but because of Christ.

Abraham was treated well because of his connection to Sarah. In the same way, we will also be treated well, saved by God, if we are connected to Christ by faith in Him and what He did on the cross.

Are you connected to Christ? Has He become your "Sarah" to God?

GOSPEL NUGGET #456

In a very famous hymn written by Isaac Watts way back in the 1700s, he wrote the following: "Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God!"

Anyone who knows the salvation of God in Christ could not agree more. The saved cannot say that he saved himself by his efforts for salvation is "not of works" (Eph. 2:9).

He cannot assume that it was his character that did it "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 6:23).

He cannot assert that it was his religious achievements that caused it for prior to salvation, his righteous deeds are like "filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6) and "rubbish" (Philippians 3:8) in God's sight.

His claim to salvation is in none of these. For salvation is not founded on all of these. Rather, salvation is based on what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross. His boast is not on self and what self has done but on what the Savior did on the cross.

Is He your boast? Is He your salvation? Have you trusted in Him alone for salvation?

GOSPEL NUGGET #455

What Have You Been Doing All These Years Why You Haven't Found God Yet?

You're now twenty or thirty or even forty something and you haven't found God yet? What?!!? What have you been doing all these years? Did you even seek for Him? What kind of a fool are you why in all these years you're still there?

Twenty, thirty and forty years is a pretty long time. How careless you are with your soul. You will be the one to blame when God, in judgment, will strike you dead. You wasted all those years.

God is not hard to find when one seeks for Him with a repentant heart. Every truly seeking soul will find Him in Christ Jesus.

He will realize that he is a sinner in need of salvation and that it is only through Christ and what He did on the cross that he can be reconciled to God.

GOSPEL NUGGET #454

Ex 15:22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

Ex 15:23 Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah..

Ex 15:25 So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet...
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In verse 25, we see a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the tree that made the bitter waters sweet. Spiritually speaking, we are like the bitter waters. We are spiritual criminals who are totally unacceptable to God.

But the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for us. He provided a payment for all our crimes against God. And at the moment of trusting in Him and what He did on the cross, He imputes to us His own righteousness, making us totally and perfectly acceptable to God. In ourselves, we are bitter. In Christ, we are made sweet.

Notice two things here:

First, it was only when the Israelites realized their needy condition that God showed the tree. In the same way, the message of the cross of Christ will remain obscure to us, if we haven’t seen our needy, helpless and hopeless condition in saving ourselves.

Secondly, the mere existence of the tree was not enough. It had to be thrown into the waters for the waters to be made sweet.
In the same way, the availability of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and the fact of His death on the cross for us will do us no good, if it is not applied to us.

It is at the moment of faith, of trusting in the Savior and what He did on the cross, that we are saved.   

GAL 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”—

2CO 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

GOSPEL NUGGET #453

Sin is man's greatest problem. Here's why. What are the problems that usually plague man today? Let's name a few:

* Financial problems
* Family problems
* Relationship problems
* Crimes
* Corruption
* Diseases

One hundred years from now, you won't be bothered by these problems anymore because you'll be dead. But there's one perennial problem that will haunt you for all eternity if you don't avail yourself of its solution today.

That problem is separation from God because of sin. Every single sin is a spiritual heinous crime against God with life sentence in the lake of fire as the penalty.

Settle this problem now by coming to Christ in repentance and faith, trusting in what He did on the cross for your salvation. He died for your crimes and rose again from the dead.

GOSPEL NUGGET #452

Ex 15:2 The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation... 

Notice the words: “...He has become my salvation.”

It is an acknowledgment that they cannot save themselves and so “He” (the Lord) must be the source their salvation.

Sadly, many people today are saying instead: “I, me and myself have become my own salvation. I can save myself by my good works, by my being religious and by my good character.”
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It is nothing but pride and a delusion. It’s like Israel saying: “I can defeat all of Pharaoh’s armies. I can divide the waters for me to safely pass through. I will wear my Nike shoes and just do it. I can save myself.”

No. No. No. Salvation is of the Lord. And He (through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ) must become your salvation in order for you to be saved.

Has He become your salvation by coming to Him in faith, trusting in Him and what He did on the cross alone for salvation?  

GOSPEL NUGGET #451

Ex 14:2 "Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea.
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Researchers who went and explored the actual site specified in this verse discovered that this land area is actually a cul-de-sac. It is a dead-end. God led them to a place where it was humanly impossible to escape.

From the human standpoint, Israel’s position was a hopeless case. They were actually cornered. In front of them was a sea, behind them were the Egyptians coming after them, flanking them on the sides were mountains. And it was all God’s plan.

God intentionally placed them there to make them realize how helpless and hopeless they were in themselves in saving themselves from the Egyptians. At this point, all they could do was look up, stand still and totally rely on His mighty saving arm to deliver them. Their only hope was Him.
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In the salvation of a sinner, God always works toward this end. He seeks to bring us to the end of ourselves and make us realize that we have always been like that ever since----helpless and hopeless in ourselves to save ourselves.

Spiritually speaking, we can’t escape God’s judgment. We are all cornered. We are all shut up in one corner awaiting destruction. Our only hope is the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus manifested when He died on the cross for our sins.

Spiritually speaking, have you been at your Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; in front of Baal-zephon, opposite it, by the sea?

Come to Christ. He's your only hope.