Psalm 23:1-6, “He restores and leads me in the right path for His name sake…”
Today’s message is a continuation of the sermon from last week, and we will start from verse 3, “He restores my soul; he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name sake.” “Restore” means reinstatement from its deprived state, rescue from damage or brokenness, or being placed again in a former condition. Therefore, it means more than just a rest. It means that our shepherd, Jesus, intentionally comes to us who are on the path to death, brings our souls from the brokenness, and leads us to the path of life and righteousness. In other words, our good shepherd, Jesus, came to lead us back to God and lay down his life for us. But the question is why? Why did Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, come down and die to bring us back to God? Because we deserve such sacrifice? Because we are worthy, or are we special or precious enough deserving of such honor? No! But for His name sake! Because of His attributes, because his name is love, mercy, and grace. Because God is love and full of mercy, God could not bear to see humans perishing without being rescued. That is why, for his name sake, God restores our souls at his own expense! Our salvation is not without price. It is never cheap grace!
At this point, we must know another critical point about God: God’s characteristics cannot be compromised. God’s name and His attributes cannot be compromised. People tend to focus on God being the love but forget that God also has the name and attributes of justice and righteousness. God’s justice demands payment for the sins committed by humans, which is death. If God is made up of love only, then God could say, ‘o.k. I will forgive you. No matter what you do, I can forgive you. You do not have to do anything; you are all forgiven.’ But it does not work that way because God is also the God of justice. The God of justice demands payment for our sins, which is death. Sinful human beings must pay that payment with eternal death going to hell, but God is loving and merciful; God sacrificed His own Son, Jesus, to pay for that death penalty vicariously with his own death for sinful humanity to rescue them from eternal damnation. Christ’s death satisfied God’s demand for the payment for our sins. Again, God’s forgiveness for our sins is not without price. Christ’s death was the payment.
I cannot emphasize enough how strictly God demands the payment for our sins from us, either by accepting Christ’s vicarious death for our sins or by paying the death penalty on our own with eternal damnation in hell. If we accept that Jesus Christ had paid the death penalty for our sins, then we do not have to pay the payment on our own. If we do not accept it, however, then we must pay the death penalty by ourselves being in hell eternally.
So, please do not think that our children, grandchildren, or anyone for that matter will be all right even though they do not accept that Jesus had paid the death penalty for them because God is love. They must acknowledge that they need Jesus to be saved and accept Him as their Savior. There are many Christians who cannot accept that loving God will throw anyone in the lake of fire eternally. I struggled with that myself. Whenever I meditate on Christ’s suffering being in torment on my behalf at his crucifixion and after, I become more and more aware of how horrible it is to be in eternal torment while thanking Jesus Christ more and more for suffering in hell in my stead. I once asked God, “God! In your mercy, could you somehow shorten the eternal death penalty being in hell to three or four thousand years of being in hell, and after that, the torment will come to an end? How can they be in hell eternally?” God told me, “God’s name cannot be compromised. If I could do that, I would not have sent my Son to die for humanity. God’s absolute justice demands the death penalty in hell. God’s justice must be satisfied even with His own Son’s death because no one was qualified to pay for the sins of humanity. God’s justice is absolute, and Heaven and Hell exist eternally without compromise. On another note, do not think that God and Jesus are separated as you are separated from your own children. They are one in Trinity. When Jesus suffered, God suffered. God did not cruelly send His Son to die without Himself being affected. That is why we say God Himself came and died for you and me, sinners. What love, what grace have we received from God!!!
Also, when we really think about it, it is not God who throws people into the lake of fire; it is their own choice, choosing death over life through Jesus. When I visited this woman in the ICU at the hospital the other day and asked, “Do you believe in Jesus?” she answered, “I’d rather do without Jesus!”
We need to pray for our own family members, friends, and people who do not know Christ. God’s mercy and grace will follow the people for whom their loved ones have been prayed in intercession. But they will ultimately have to make their own choices when they still have a chance. The problem is that we do not have a sense of urgency when praying for our loved ones, children, grandchildren, and spouses.
I want to share a Buddhist view of “unsaved” people from the reincarnation cycle I shared three years ago. Buddhism teaches reincarnation, the endless life cycle until one is finally liberated from the cycle of one life after another. They believe that according to how humans live in this present life, a human can be born as a cow, pig, dog, or human in the next life. Suppose one does not make it in this life. In that case, they will be given another life cycle to liberate themselves from the unending life cycle, entering into nirvana, into the state of completion/salvation. With that brief introduction about Buddhism, Buddhism illustrates those who are not liberated, or “unsaved” in our terms, likening them to people who are in a burning house but do not know it. Imagine people in a house that is burning but not knowing it, –that is how Buddhism depicts unsaved people. Isn’t it ironic? Supposedly, Buddhism teaches countless opportunities to redeem themselves, going through endless life cycles. Yet, they have a sense of urgency when it comes to depicting unsaved people, — how rightly urgent is it to save people who are in a house that is burning?
Do we have this sense of urgency when seeing unsaved people? We have only one life to live, unlike Buddhists! What is worse, we do not know when our lives will come to an end. It could be any day or time, yet we do not have a sense of urgency. Do we truly grasp the meaning of not accepting Jesus’ sacrifice that was done on our behalf? It means a lake of fire, eternal hell! Do we truly believe that there is heaven and hell? If your child is in the house that is burning, but this child of yours does not know it, what would you do? Would you say, ‘Hello there, do you see the house is burning? If you don’t come out, you will die. It is your choice to come out or not! Or would you scream at the top of your lungs to come out of that burning house? Most of you will scream at the top of your lungs. Then, how much more should we scream at the top of our lungs, praying for their salvation? Do we pray for the salvation of our loved ones?
Our good Shepherd restores our souls at his expense. He laid down His life to save us for his name’s sake. It is the good news that we ought to accept while on this earth. Otherwise, it might be too late. May God open our eyes to see the reality of eternal hell awaits those who do not accept Christ’s love for our salvation!!