በኮቪድ-19 እና በዓለም አቀፉ የመላላኪያ አገልግሎት መዛባት ምክንያት ‹ነጻ የታተመ መጽሐፍ አገልግሎታችንን› ለጊዜው አቋርጠናል፡፡
በዚህ ሁኔታ ምክንያት በዚህ ጊዜ መጽሐፎቻችንን ለእናንተ መላክ አንችልም፡፡
ይህ ወረርሽኝ በቅርቡ እንዲያበቃና የፖስታ አገልግሎት እንዲጀምር ጸልዩ፡፡
ይህ ወረርሽኝ በቅርቡ እንዲያበቃና የፖስታ አገልግሎት እንዲጀምር ጸልዩ፡፡
Subject 24 : Sermons for Those Who Have Become Our COWORKERS
[24-66] Let Us Live for The Righteousness of God (Genesis 30:25-43)
(Genesis 30:25-43)
“And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, ‘Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.’ And Laban said to him, ‘Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake.’ Then he said, ‘Name me your wages, and I will give it.’ So Jacob said to him, ‘You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the LORD has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?’ So he said, ‘What shall I give you?’ And Jacob said, ‘You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages. So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.’ And Laban said, ‘Oh, that it were according to your word!’ So he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks. Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock. And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.”
This Is the Last Age
My fellow believers, when will our Lord return? He will return when He wants to return. When will our Lord come back? He will come back exactly as He said He would come back. The saints will be raptured when the seven trumpets are blown, and the Lord will return after pouring the seven bowls out on this earth. Do you believe this? I have taught you what will happen in these last days. My teachings are based exactly on the Word of God. As a servant of God and your leader, I myself have prophesied about the end times according to the written Word because I believe in this Word and not by anything else that comes from my own thoughts. Indeed, there is nothing else for us to do except to believe in God’s Word exactly as He said. And all that we have to do is just preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit diligently until the day our Lord returns.
My fellow believers, as the Spirit of God dwells in our hearts, He enables God’s servants and saints to know what is going on, and to know why the wicked instruct others to stand up against the leadership of God’s Church. Recently we ordained new pastors, and I had a feeling that there might be a great revolt against God’s Church. As such thoughts came to me while ordaining these pastors, I prayed to God, “Let all who are rebellious rise up, so that those who want to leave us would leave, and those who want to join with us would join us even more tightly and spread the gospel even more vigorously.” It makes no difference whether those who intend on leaving us do so with a farewell or not. We have no other purpose but to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit together. And some days later, some members including a pastor left us after creating a great commotion. We don’t want to eject such agitators from our meeting from on our side unilaterally. What is surprising is that such antagonists always caused commotions on their side first and then left us blaspheming against God’s Church.
My fellow believers, I am not some cult leader. I am just one of God’s people just like you, a worker of God who believes in and serves the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I am someone who believes in and follows the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God, and so are you all. Isn’t this true? As you all know well, our Church started in Sokcho City when the Lord led me to a community church of ex-Catholics. I preached the gospel to them, and that community church became the Church of God. Then some saints suggested to me that I should start a new church with them apart from the ex-community church. If I had been a greedy man pining for worldly fame and money, I could have established another church separately with some brothers and sisters that followed to me. If I had done this, God’s Church would have been split in two from the beginning. I would have been happy to minister in a new church if I were just interested in my own welfare. If I had preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit for greed then that would have corrupted our faith long ago.
Before I met this community church I was going through hard times. For a year and half after I lived in Sokcho City I cried to God so often by the seaside. I used to ask God, “Lord, am I not Your servant? I am Your servant, am I not? Why then have you sent me to such a desolate place that has no righteous people? Why must I suffer so much like this?” While praying to God like this, I realized that God had sent me here because there was not one church preaching this gospel of the water and the Spirit. So it dawned in my spirit that I must spread this gospel here. And I thought to myself, “I will preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit not only to everyone in Sokcho City but to the entire world some day, and when I take souls to Christ, I will have them washed from all their sins as white as snow with this genuine gospel.” God really awakened me to such a great spiritual responsibility. This is why I have been preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit to this very day. Although there are people in this world who criticize me, but I simply ignore this because I am only interested in the gospel. Indeed, my sole interest is in preaching the Lord’s gospel, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
At that time there were some people among the newly born-again who asked me about the rapture. A man named Cyrus I. Scofield had taught about the “so-called” doctrine of pre-tribulation rapture to people all over the world, and many Christians believed in his teaching not knowing what it really means. But his teachings on the rapture had many errors when compared with the Bible. So, as his hypothesis could not be proven by biblical evidence, many people asked me about the rapture. I told them, “I am not too sure. But one thing is crystal clear, the rapture will not happen before the tribulation nor after it but in the midst of it. This is all I know.” I could not prove this biblically at that time but since then I have gone deeper into this matter and have discovered the truth. I have written two books on the Book of Revelation and anyone who wants to know more about rapture can have the correct knowledge on this issue through these sermon books. Isn’t this true?
Some Christians are too preoccupied with the rapture, obsessed about when and how it’s going to happen. But this should not be our primary concern. After all we are not eschatologists who try to fix the date of the Second Coming of the Lord. Will we stop everything we are doing and just wait for the day of Jesus’ second coming? What will we do when the Lord does not return on the day we think He is going to return? Will we set another date and wait some more? Those who believe in Scofield’s theory of rapture—that is, those who believe in the doctrine of pre-tribulation rapture—have routinely predicted the day of the Lord’s return, only to see that day arrive and pass. Such unfulfilled predictions have been around the world. They have occurred in the United States, in Britain, and in our own country as well.
These people always say, “Jesus will return at such and such hour on such and such day.” Think about it? Will Jesus come in broad daylight? Will He come even when the plagues of the seven trumpets and of the seven bowls have not arrived yet? The Bible says that He who is to come will come with a trumpet sound as it is written, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). What more needs to be said when the Bible says this so clearly? Let me make it quite clear here that the doctrine of pre-tribulation rapture is absolutely non-biblical.
I need to neither raise nor lower myself. My sole concern is to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world. This Great Commission will surely be fulfilled by pooling everyone’s strength together. It’s only because I realized the gospel of the water and the Spirit is before you that I am preaching this gospel to you, and it’s because God speaks to me that I am leading you. I am trying to protect you from those wishing to devour you, and I am guiding you so that you may be able to carry out righteous work in the presence of God. We are united together to save souls from sin. I have therefore no other purpose. I have no other desires. Some of you may think that I am ruling over you. But I have no desire whatsoever to lord it over you, and I am tired of explaining myself when it comes to such issues. You and I are the same before God. All that I want is to live righteously in this world, I have no other desire.
I am so thankful that the Lord met with me through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Recently there were some unfortunate incidents that occurred unintentionally. As you may know well, one of our pastors and a few of his followers left the Church gnashing their teeth. However, I have to clearly speak out what must be said. I believe that God is trying to speak to us through such unfortunate incidents so that we may be more watchful. In the days to come, even more of you will fall apart. I believe God has allowed these unfortunate incidents to occur so that He may refine our faith to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit on this earth even more, to prepare for the Great Tribulation, and to get ready for the coming Kingdom of the Lord. Do you also believe this my fellow believers? What do you think? Is this how you think? Does this serve to you as a warning?
Some of you are wondering how such strange things could have happened, right? However, those who really have received the remission of sins never betray the Lord. And those who have driven out idols such as Asherah and Baal from their hearts never do such a thing that Judas Iscariot had done. What are these idols? They are gods of fecundity and prosperity. In other words, the worshippers of Asherah and Baal are following after the values of this world. Such idol worshippers must be cut off from the people of God. I mean, someone who has not forsaken them can turn out like this even if he has received the remission of sins. Therefore, you and I must make sure that we cast aside our fleshly greed. The Lord is our righteousness; only the Lord is our King; and only He is our happiness, our blessing, and our glory. When we realize this and believe this, then the Lord will provide us all with the things which is good and needed. As long as the Lord is with us, we have no more wants.
Where Did the Righteousness of God Come from?
We have been born again by believing in the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit. From whom were we born? Of course, we were born from God. But the reality is, whether we like it or not, we humans cannot help but commit sin from the day of our birth to the day we go to stand before God—that is, from cradle to grave. However, because our Lord loved us and had compassion on us, He came to this earth and blotted out all our sins.
How did He blot them out? Having come to this earth incarnated in the flesh, Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist and took on all our sins. Jesus then carried all these sins to the Cross, was condemned by being crucified, and rose from the dead again. He thus fulfilled the righteousness of God for us. The righteousness that we have—that is, the fact that we have been justified to become God’s sinless people—was attained all because God gave us His righteousness and because we believed in this righteousness of God.
Our everything has come from God. All the righteousness we have did not come from ourselves but it came from God. In other words, it is God Himself who made this perfect righteousness and gave it to us. The Bible says that He was delivered for our offenses and that He was raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). Indeed, after creating this universe and mankind, He wanted to make us sinless, to make us righteous, and to make us His people. God Himself then came to this earth as the Savior incarnated in the flesh of man. Having thus come to this earth, He was baptized by John the Baptist to fulfill the righteousness of God, carried the sins of the world to the Cross, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and through this He has become our Savior. God has given all His righteousness to those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He has indeed justified us and made us completely righteous.
If this is true, then are you a righteous person or a sinner? Everyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is clearly a righteous person. By nature, we could not help but commit sin from the moment we were born on this earth. Because we were all born with the twelve kinds of sins in our hearts, we could not avoid but continue to commit sin until the day of our death. Isn’t this true?
Despite this, God has clothed us in His righteousness through His love and salvation. He has also given us all the blessings of the world. Put differently, when Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God Himself came to this earth, He saved us from all sins through His water and blood, and He has now clothed all of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with His righteousness that was fulfilled by His work of salvation. By believing in this righteousness of God, we have received God’s righteousness and all His blessings. Even though we could not help but remain sinners for the rest of our lives, we have now become righteous people. We have become sinless. Thanks to God, you and I have become God’s own children, and thanks to God we have become righteous people. This true righteousness that we now have has all come from God. This is why we are doing very special works. We are carrying out extremely important works. We are, in other words, doing the work of spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit that holds the righteousness of God.
Jacob Built His Own Family While He Was Seeking Refuge at the House of His Uncle
Jacob had deceived his brother to receive his father’s blessings. As a result, he became a fugitive and fled from Esau. So, with his mother’s advice Jacob went to her brother and sought refuge there. And it’s there that he married his uncle’s two daughters. To marry one of them, he worked hard for seven years, and to marry the other one, he worked for another seven years. In this way, he ended up having two wives. Originally, Jacob just wanted to marry one of his daughters, but his uncle gave them both to him. It’s written that the uncle said, “It is better that I give her to you than giving her to another man.” Though this is very strange, it is nevertheless what the Bible says.
To be honest, there are many parts in the Bible that I find difficult to understand. How can anyone say to his own nephew, “It’s better that I give my daughter to you than to anyone else”? Take a look at people today. Is there anyone who says such things to a relative? No, of course not! They say that in-breeding between closely related family members almost always leads to a child born with serious genetic defects. Such children then tend to face serious developmental problems. So in this age, marrying one’s relative is frowned upon. However, in the age of the Old Testament, this was an acceptable custom. I am also sure that God wrote this account in order to teach us a spiritual lesson that we should not mix our faith with that of the non-born again.
At any rate, Jacob worked at his uncle’s place for fourteen years, and as a result of his labor he gained two wives and many children. However, Jacob noticed that while he had no possession at all, his uncle was a very wealthy man, possessing herds of cows, sheep, and goats. The uncle had all kinds of livestock.
Have you ever seen livestock grazing in the pasture? I have been to Mongolia and seen so many cows, sheep and goats there. When the shepherd goes before, the animals follow him. Sheep, goats, and cows recognize their owner. I once heard that Mongolia has the highest number of livestock on per capita basis. Anyways, Mongolia has a lot of livestock and its air is very clean as well. For your information, our gospel is being preached in this country. I earnestly pray that God will save the people of this country in both body and spirit, and that He will bestow many blessings on those who unite themselves with our Church there.
Let’s return to the Word. Having married two wives and they bore Jacob many children. But it was Leah who bore him the most children; his second wife Rachel was barren for a long time. As Rachel was unable to conceive, she cried before God. God then opened her womb up and enabled her to give birth. Who is the son that she bore? It was Joseph. When Rachel gave birth to her first son, she said, “God has taken away my reproach. The Lord God shall add to me another son.” So she called his name “Joseph” that means “Jehovah has added.” Having thus begotten Joseph, Jacob wanted to now leave his uncle.
Let’s Look at What Jacob Did to Gain Independence from His Uncle
Having begotten many children Jacob now sought to go on his way away from his uncle. Given the fact that he had lived with his in-laws for fourteen years, it was about time that he wanted to go on his way. A Korean proverb says that no man should ever live with his in-laws even if he has a bag of wheat. However, unlike in the past, many young Korean men nowadays actually want to live with their in-laws. And young married couples do not want to have any kids. In the old days, it wasn’t unusual to see a couple having and raising a dozen children. And when there were many children like this, it was common for a few of them to die. Ask the elderly in your neighborhood how many siblings they have. Almost all of them will say to you, “I have seven. Actually I had 10, but 3 of them have died.”
Take a look at Jacob in today’s Scripture passage. How many wives did he have? He had four. Including his first and second wives, as well as their maids, Jacob had no less than four wives. Yet even though he had so many wives and children, he still had not been able to go on his way. So wanting to go, Jacob then talked to his uncle. Actually, before this happened, he had a dream. God appeared in his dream and said, “I am your God.” In this dream Jacob saw rams leaping upon the flocks that were streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted (Genesis 31:10). After God showed Jacob these things, Jacob told his uncle that he wanted to go on his way, saying, “Send me away, so that I may raise my own family.” His uncle then said, “Name your wages, and I will pay you.” Jacob said, “There is no need to set big wages. You don’t need to pay me. I just ask you to agree to my proposal. Of your herds and flocks, let me take as mine all that are spotted, speckled or brown. Every animal that is not speckled and spotted—will be yours. But before we begin, remove all the animals that are spotted or speckled and keep them for yourself. Give me as my wages only the spotted sheep or goats that are born from mating completely with white animals from now on.”
His uncle was an expert rancher. So he thought about Jacob’s proposal. If a spotted goat is mated with a white goat, it’s highly likely that some of its offspring will be spotted, others will be white, and still others will have black goats. But what will happen if both goats are white? It will probably bear white offspring. So, thinking that Jacob’s proposal was quite advantageous to him, the uncle accepted this proposal pleasantly.
What did Jacob do after this? Jacob used certain trees to breed more spotted animals. Actually, I am not that familiar with trees. Evangelist Junghee Yun’s father is attending this meeting, and he is a tree expert. Let me begin by asking him about these trees. Though I don’t know much about the trees, I believe in this account. That’s because this is what the Bible says, and I only have to preach the Scripture exactly as it is. But to help you understand, I am going to ask the tree expert there. It’s written in Genesis 30:37-38, “Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink.” It says here that Jacob took the branches of green poplar and almond and chestnut trees, and peeled them to expose the white strips. Let me ask Evangelist Yun’s father. When you peel green poplar branches, do you get white strips? Do you also get white strips when you peel almond trees? What about chestnut trees? Are white strips exposed when you peel them off? They are all white underneath? I see, thank you for that answer. I asked just to make sure.
Jacob worked hard to gain his own flocks. After grazing in the field, the flocks came to the watering troughs to drink. And Jacob knew that the flocks mated while drinking and that as a result they produced their young. This was the flocks’ habit.
What did Jacob do then? Whenever he saw strong and healthy livestock mating, he placed these peeled rods of green poplar and almond and chestnut trees, with white strips exposed, in front of them in these watering troughs so that the livestock could see them when mating. In other words, Jacob placed the peeled rods with white strips in front of the flocks when they were about to mate. Since the flocks also had eyes, they saw these rods. And strangely, when these flocks gave birth, spotted lambs were born. Spiritually speaking, this implies that when God shows us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must believe that this gospel is the true gospel.
Jacob showed the peeled rods with white strips only when healthy flocks were mating, and when weak flocks mated, he removed these rods. So when pure white lambs were born, they were weak and frail. In contrast, how were the spotted lambs? They were strong the moment they were born. Jacob’s uncle came and saw this situation. As for the newly born lambs, the ratio was probably around 5:1. For every five spotted lambs there probably was just one white lamb. The uncle might have thought, “How did this happen? It’s probably just a fluke.” But the flocks continued to give birth to even more spotted lambs. What eventually happened? The number of white sheep—that is, his uncle’s flocks—declined, while the number of spotted flocks, which belonged to Jacob, grew by leaps and bounds. Jacob then took these flocks and escaped from his uncle. What did Jacob say to his uncle earlier? He said, “My righteousness will answer for me. Let every flock that is black, spotted, or speckled be mine. This shall be my righteousness. They shall be mine.” And true to his word, Jacob was successful and became a very wealthy man, and he got the independence he sought.
The Believers in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Are Different from Ordinary People
My fellow believers, what does today’s account of Jacob teach us? It tells us that God’s people are different from this world’s ordinary people. It means that God’s people are special. They have, in other words, put on God’s special love and have faith in His righteousness, and as a result have made this special righteousness of God their own. This is what today’s Scripture passage is teaching us is all about. Remember this, my fellow believers. Those who have received the remission of sins—that is, those who have received the righteousness of God and possess it—are able to achieve special and unique accomplishments on this earth.
Take a look at Jacob in this account. He put out the peeled rods only when healthy flocks mated and removed them when weak flocks mated.
How does this imply to you and me who are preaching the gospel on this earth? When preaching the gospel to hearts that have been properly plowed and who sincerely fear God, how should we treat them? Just as Jacob showed the rods, we should preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit clearly and exactly to them. In other words, we preach both the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross in detail. In contrast, the other Christians who, despite wanting to hear the gospel, actually try to establish their own human righteousness, saying, “I used to do great ministries in my past life.” How do we treat such people? What should we speak about to such people who neither fear God nor have faith in His Word? We set aside the Scriptures and speak only about sins in their hearts.
My fellow believers, we are undoubtedly born-again people. You and I are very special people in God’s sight. We have been chosen in Jesus Christ. We are God’s children, His workers, people of grace, and heirs to inherit Heaven. In short, we are to inherit everything God has. Do you believe this? We are indeed very special people.
Because We Have Received the Special Love of God, We Do Not Preach Just the Blood on the Cross
My fellow believers, we are special people. We have received God’s special love, and we have been saved by believing in the special gospel of the righteousness of God. Just as Jacob and all the people of faith in the Bible were special, so are we the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit special people. Jacob increased his flocks through a very special and exact means. The same goes for us as well. When we preach the gospel, we don’t just preach the blood of the Cross, but we preach the special gospel that proclaims both the blood on the Cross and the baptism of Jesus.
What would happen if you believed only in the blood of the Cross? Your future sins will never be resolved with only the blood of the Cross. Nor will your human insufficiencies and weaknesses be settled. Should we then offer prayers of repentance every day, even though Jesus clearly said that He took away all the sins of the world? Should we cry every day? Should we crucify Jesus every day? No, that is all nonsense! God has given you and me this special salvation and clothed us in a special grace. This is what all of us must grasp here.
My fellow believers, the righteousness you and I have has come from none other than God Himself. Indeed, you and I now possess God’s righteousness. Therefore, you and I are righteous people. We have become the just. Even though we will continue to be insufficient in our flesh until death, we still are clearly the righteous. We are sinless. Isn’t this true, my fellow believers? Of course it is so! What happens when we admit our insufficiencies? We should know that the Lord has already taken care of all our insufficiencies along with every sin that we will ever commit in the future no matter what.
However, even though the Lord has clearly made us completely righteous like this, what will happen if we deny the fact that He has remitted away all our sins with the water and the Spirit? This very sin constitutes the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. What is this sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit? It is the sin of denying the works of salvation that God has done for us. While every other sin is forgivable, this sin is the unpardonable sin. Although one can be remitted from all sins, if he commits the sin of blaspheming the Spirit, neither God nor man can turn it around. No one can do anything about this sin. Such people have willingly volunteered to go to hell. And if we associate with such people and are influenced by them, we will also end up going to hell with them.
Those Who Believe in the Perfect Righteousness of God Are Spiritually Perfect
Am I then saying these things because I am worried that you would be prone to be depraved by such people? No, this is absolutely not the case. If we were so vulnerable to die from their poison—that is, if God’s salvation were so insecure—then we might as well say that God has not really saved us. What did God say about the righteous? He said that we won’t die even if we are bitten by a serpent and drink the venom of a viper (Mark 16:18). But don’t let a serpent bite you just because of this. This is not what this Word means. It means that no matter how the demon-possessed try to deceive us, we the righteous are never deceived to drink Satan’s poison. Isn’t this so true? Like this, although we are insufficient in our flesh, spiritually, we are perfect. We are complete.
From time to time I see my human shortcomings. So I try not to be pretentious. Of course, I get upset when someone shows me disdain, but I have no desire whatsoever to raise myself up on a pedestal. What if I raise myself up only to see someone else bring me down? Nothing would be more shameful than this. So when I am dealing with the people of this world, I pretend to be dim-witted. I say to them, “Yes, I really am good for nothing.” However, when anyone disparages me over my spirituality or faith, I say to them clearly, “I don’t care what you say, for God has truly saved me!” I am a completely righteous man no matter what others might say; do you think that just because someone says something about me, I am somehow 99 percent righteous and 1 percent sinful? No! We are perfect! We are perfect and complete in God’s sight.
The Righteous Are Unafraid of the End Times
God is now training you and me. He is training us so that we will be ready for the difficulties that will arrive in the end times. In the end times, there clearly will be people who will try to seize us and deliver us to death. We will personally experience such things in the future. I have a feeling that when the gospel is completely preached and the end times arrive, someone very close to me will betray me and deliver me to my death. But I’ve already braced myself for this. Who this person is, I still don’t know. But it may unfold like this. “Reverend, I need you to accompany me to somewhere.”
“Where?”
“I got called in to show the city hall, and I was told to make sure to bring you with me.”
“Ok then; let’s go.” I would know what all this was all about by just by hearing that voice, but I’d still go with him.
“Reverend, are you disappointed that I am doing this to you?”
“No, why should I be? It’s what you have to do, so do it quickly.”
When I get to the city hall, the officers there would ask me, “Do you have sin or not?”
“I have no sin.”
“How come you can say that you have no sin?”
“That’s because God has saved me perfectly.”
“But we’ve examined your personal file and dug out a lot of dirt on you.”
“Even so, I have no sin.”
“How can you say that you have no sin when you have so many flaws? Isn’t this a bit strange?”
“It may be strange to you, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am sinless.”
“But still, aren’t you sinful? If you say you have sin, we will release you, but if you keep saying that you have no sin, we will imprison you.”
“Do whatever you want to do, for I am sinless.”
“In that case, we will have to put you in jail. The law clearly stipulates that everyone who claims to be sinless must be jailed.”
I’d then be imprisoned, but even in that jail I’d still sing the same praise that we are singing now. And then I will be put to death by them. My fellow believers, it’s shortly after such things unfold that our Lord will come. I have no fear of death; on the contrary, I look forward to it. What do we say about martyrdom? We have written in one of our praise songs, “Our martyrdom is our reward.” When this time comes and you don’t want to die, then don’t die. Hide yourself in a sewage pipe trying to save your miserable life. But do you really want to live like that, when hail falls from the sky, earthquakes strikes and extinct volcanoes erupt all over, rivers and oceans turn into blood, and there is nothing to eat that even rats are starving to death? If you have the Holy Spirit in your heart, then you will embrace your martyrdom waiting for the coming of the Lord and praying, “Lord Jesus, come soon!”
Are you thinking to yourself, “Gosh, why is the pastor speaking about the end times again?” But this point has to be made because there are so many preachers today who are deceiving people with the doctrine of pre-tribulation rapture. Why is the doctrine of pre-tribulation rapture still so popular? It’s because those who believe in pre-tribulation rapture think that they will go to the Lord without suffering from the Great Tribulation. This hypothesis can hush their fears of the Tribulation. However, they are then bound to be careless with their present lives of faith. My fellow believers, we must not believe in the doctrine of pre-tribulation rapture, but we must only preach this gospel properly.
Let’s return to the Word. My fellow believers, we are perfect people. Jacob in today’s Scripture passage originally had many flaws, and he had been a cunning and deceptive man. Despite this he was greatly blessed by God. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants are the people of faith who had the same faith that you and I have. Just like these people who served God wholeheartedly, you and I have specially put on the righteousness of God, and as a result, have become wholly righteous and completely perfect people. We are carrying out very special work. In short, we are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You and I ought to realize clearly that we are such special people.
My mind is preoccupied with the question of how we should preach the gospel in the second half of this year. We need to consult with each other and hold prayer meetings over this question, and I ask you to serve the Lord devotedly when you return to your respective churches. The ministers will also get together to consult and pray over it, and they will work with a plan.
My fellow believers, even though we are insufficient, God is perfect. And this perfect God has given us His righteousness. The righteousness that you and I have is none other than the perfect righteousness given by God. It will therefore last forever. Each and every one who has this righteousness will overcome the world, overcome the Devil, overcome oneself, and prevail. Do you believe this? You will not be deceived by anything.
Now in This World, There Is So Much Work of God to Do
Countless Christians in this world are deceiving and are being deceived. As a result, they have turned into mere religious practitioners. What are we adhering to? Is it some religion or faith? It is faith. Indeed, we are the people of faith who live by faith. We believe that God has made you and me perfectly righteous, and it is by this faith that we are preaching the gospel to save people. Isn’t this the right work to do? Of course it is! There is no other work in this world that is more right than this. What amazing and perfect salvation has God given to you and me? What wonderful blessings has He given to us? What marvelous and righteous work has He made us carry out? As people like this we must be always mindful of doing spiritual work before God.
There still are many people on this planet who must receive the remission of sins. I’ve been to Mongolia, and this country also has many such people. We met some Korean missionaries there, but these missionaries are so pathetic. They told us that we could never come to their school because they had been taking care of the people there for seven years. There is a Christian college established by Korean missionaries, but they don’t allow us to visit them. It’s so ridiculous. Think about it. The gospel field should be open to anyone to sow the gospel seed. Just because these people are there, do they preach the gospel to everyone? In fact, they failed to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to anyone, not even one single person, for they did not know this genuine gospel. Yet despite this, they did not allow us to visit their students. The native teachers there also said to us, “We’ve benefited so much from these missionaries, and so you shouldn’t try to encroach upon what they have worked for.”
My fellow believers, there indeed is much work waiting for us throughout the whole world. Jacob here took the rods of green poplar, the almond and chestnut trees, and peeled white strips on them, and whenever his flocks and herds mated he placed them in front of them. In other words, he induced his livestock to breed spotted animals by using a special method of stock-farming. What does this imply? It means that if you and I have indeed been saved from this world by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then the next step for us is to invariably preach this special gospel. This is exactly what God is saying to you and me.
My fellow believers, no matter what, you must never commit the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. If you are insufficient, then just admit that you are insufficient and have committed sin. Then at that very moment, the righteousness that the Lord has given you and me will shine and make all your darkness disappear. It will make you whole again. It will make you perfect. Even though you and I stumble and fall throughout our entire lives, God has clearly made us perfect and righteous.
When did this God bear all your sins and mine? He bore them all when He was baptized, and carried these sins of the world to the Cross. He was condemned for all your sins and mine by shedding His precious blood. This is how God has saved us perfectly. How could we then believe in the words of the unrighteous and follow them? To be frank, what they say is ludicrous. They talk about what famous theologians have said, but it’s ridiculous. “Go ahead and attend a hundred seminaries if you wish. It will all be useless, for what I say from reading just one chapter in the Bible is better than your teaching.” My fellow believers, the righteousness of God is far superior to the intellect of man. And it is extremely superior to any human learning. Don’t you agree?
My fellow believers, in the years to come, Satan will keep on attacking us on such issues from mainstream Christendom who don’t advocate the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He will attack your weaknesses as well. In times like this, you must remember without fail that the righteousness of God has become your righteousness. And I ask you to think of God’s work, the work of the Spirit. Set your mind on the work of saving souls. God has already completed your salvation and mine. Think of the work of salvation that God has done for these souls. When we thus set our minds to saving souls in our lives, remembering how God told us to preach the gospel and by what method, and how God works in our lives when we do His bidding, then all our weaknesses will also be covered. As the righteousness of God fills you, you will neither stumble nor fall. And you will become a worker of righteousness who glorifies God and be someone who turns countless people to the right path. You will become a perfect worker before God.
My fellow believers, the world is indeed big and there is so much to do. This is what Woo Jung Kim, the founder of a global company called Daewoo said. I don’t know where he is nowadays, but he left some very compelling words: “The world is big and there is much to do.” I find this saying so persuasive. The world is big. Korea is big too. It’s next to impossible to travel through every nook of Korea. Then how wide is this world! And in this world there is so much to do. We must save everyone, black and white, Christian and non-Christian, wise and foolish, arrogant and humble, young and old, the ambitious and desperate alike. So I ask you to set your mind only on the spiritual work of saving souls. Think of the work of the Spirit rather than the work of the flesh.
When we are mindful of the work of the Spirit, we will have clear discernment because our thoughts are led by the Spirit. What did the Lord say to us? He told us to be mindful of the things of the Spirit rather than the things of the flesh. And He also told us that while the work of the flesh brings death, the work of the Spirit brings life and peace. If we are mindful of the things of the Spirit, we will do the work of the Spirit, but if we are mindful of the things of the flesh, then we will do the work of the flesh. Depending on what we think about and what we believe, our bodies and acts will move accordingly. Do you believe this? That is what we are like. I am not a special man. If there is something tasty but injurious to my health, I’d be glad to eat it. Everyone is like this. What sets me apart then? It’s that I am still mindful of the work of the Spirit. Like this, as long as you and I live in this world, we must always be mindful of the things of the Spirit and carry out the work of the Holy Spirit.
I want to pray for the lost souls, pray for our bothers and sisters, spend the rest of my life think about spiritual work and carrying out righteous work, and then go to meet God. I want all of us to live a righteous life. I want you all to live a perfect life together with me. Though at times my insufficiencies are exposed and though greed rises up in my mind from time to time, but I am nevertheless someone who has become perfect by believing in the righteousness of God, I will live the rest of my life courageously and even more righteously. It’s because I have been justified and because I am now a righteous man that I can live a righteous life. Although there are many flocks and herds, I want to raise a special flock just like Jacob did, rather than just bland and ordinary flocks. In other words, even though there are many souls in this world and many Christians as well, I want to raise the righteous that are sufficiently qualified to stand before God by receiving the remission of sins; send such souls to the Lord; and go to Him after doing this work.
I for one hope and pray that our saints and ministers will never be shaken by anybody or have anything disturbing us but continue to do what we are supposed to do. What is this work that we are supposed to do? I believe that everything will be fine if we diligently carry out what the Lord asks us to do. Even if something unexpected happens, I am sure that God will be with us and resolve it for us righteously.
Can anyone become a leader just because he wants to become a leader, and can anything be achieved just because one wants to achieve it? If God tells us to do this work, then we ought to do it; and if God tells us to work in that position, we then ought to work in that position. That’s it! Is there anything more to it? No, there is no more to it than obeying God.
Some traitors left us slandering me as a usurper of this Church. Ever since meeting the Lord, I have never had any private greed to this very day. I really have no personal ambition at all. I have absolutely no intention to gain anything from you. All I want is that you live a righteous life, that you are blessed by God in both body and spirit, and that you help the souls that still have not received the remission of sins to attain their salvation. This is my sole desire, I have no other wish.
If I were to live my life just like any other Christians, I would have given up my faith long ago. If my faith had been merely religious, believing only in the blood of the Cross, being sinful everyday, and receiving the remission of sins by offering prayers of repentance on a daily basis, then I would have been spiritually dead, asking myself, “Why did I believe in Jesus just to go through all this trouble?” But my fellow believers, this is not the Jesus that you and I believe in. We are of those who have the righteousness of God, for we believe in His perfect righteousness.
I am profoundly grateful to God for giving us His righteousness and for the fact that you and I have come to have this righteousness of God. I pray to God that He will use us and bless us even more to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit, this special gospel of God, all over the world.
I give all my thanks to Him!
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