It is estimated that more than one hundred thousand sea birds are killed every year by flying against the lighthouses along the coast. They strike the shining lights, as they flash across the stormy sea, with such force that they instantly drop into the waves and are cast up dead on the shore.
How strange it is to think of these poor birds losing their lives by running against that which has been set up to save life. Yet such is the case, and it only tells what is being done by sinners every day and every hour.
The gospel lighthouse has been set up by God to guide lost sinners to the haven of safety, the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of being guided to salvation, however, many are lost because they fly against the light. They reject and oppose the gospel and drop into the dark waters of judgment to be cast up on the shores of a lost eternity.
Are you sure that you are not flying against God's light? You may know the gospel well. You may have heard it, read it, sung it, and you probably know others who, by believing and receiving it, have been saved. But have you yourself been saved? That is the great question. The light that guides the storm-tossed sailor to the harbor becomes death to the birds that fly against it; the gospel of God, by which believers are saved, becomes death to the rejector.