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ስብከቶች፤

Subject 6 : Heretics

[6-10] Heal Bad Water with Salt (2 Kings 2:19-22)

Heal Bad Water with Salt(2 Kings 2:19-22)
“Then the men of the city said to Elisha, ‘Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the ground barren.’ And he said, ‘Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.’ So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, ‘Thus says the LORD: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’’ So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.”


Christianity Today Has No Life Because It Is Preaching False Gospels Rather Than the True Gospel


Churches nowadays are unable to correctly interpret and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit based on the written Word of God. Put differently, many people in today’s Christian communities are not preaching the Word of God, but their own thoughts. This is due to the fact that Protestant churches, which appeared in this world in the aftermath of the Reformation, believe in Christian doctrines that they had already made according to their own thoughts. Anyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can see that today’s Christianity is filled with false doctrines stemming from man-made thoughts. This has made it impossible for today’s church attendees to attain their goals. They attend church in order to listen to the Word of God and believe in it. And they are also trying to receive the remission of their sins and enter Heaven by believing in Jesus faithfully. However, even after believing in Jesus for 10 or 20 years, they see no change in body and spirit because their teachers are totally unaware of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As a result, many Christians are still seated in accursed places, as their sins remain intact in their hearts even as they believe in Jesus.
There also are some people who may seem to believe in Jesus faithfully at first, but give up their faith after a time, or come to regret that they believed in Jesus. There are many Christians who try hard to believe in Jesus faithfully, but only end up disappointed despite their effort. This is all because of the fact that even though these people have attended church, heard the Word of God, and believed in Jesus as their Savior, they were ultimately unable to receive the remission of their sins. So for them, believing in Jesus is as hard as carrying the Cross that Jesus bore. Since they have no joy in their hearts even as they believe in Jesus as their Savior, many of them pray fanatically to receive the Holy Spirit, only to find themselves seized by demons in the end and unable to avoid living as slaves to Satan. This is the consequence of the fact that countless Christians have misunderstood Jesus, and they have believed in false gospels rather than the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
Why is it then that so many people are unable to be saved from their sins despite believing in Jesus, and find themselves giving up their lives of faith after a time? And why do the so-called “good” Christians today end up being seized by demons? What explains this inevitable outcome for so many Christians? This is all because of the flawed faith of today’s pastors preaching the Word of God. Such pastors cannot lead their congregation to receive the remission of their sins and the Holy Spirit by believing in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross. It’s because these pastors are unable to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to their congregation, which would make it possible for them to receive the remission of sin and the Holy Spirit, that all their followers are actually drifting away from God even though they try to learn His Word. On the other hand, however, if a leader who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit preaches this gospel to people, then those who hear it will ultimately receive the remission of their sins into their hearts and the Holy Spirit as well. 


What Is the Word That Saves One’s Soul?

While God’s servant Elisha was staying in Jericho, its inhabitants came to him and said, “Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the ground barren” (2 Kings 2:19). The land surrounding Jericho was very fertile. The Israelites lived on farming, planting vineyards, barley, wheat, and so forth. There also were some who engaged in stock farming. Jericho was surrounded by a wide, fertile plain, but the problem was that its water was bad, and so the ground was not that productive. That’s why the people of Jericho had come to the servant of God with this problem and asked him to solve it for them.
All farming requires good water. Only when the water is good do the crops grow well and produce ripe fruits for harvesting. But if all the fruits fall before getting ripe in the middle of farming, wouldn’t this be a huge problem? Just how disappointed would a farmer be, if his crop were to fail not at the beginning, but after spending all his labor and effort to grow it? Water is absolutely indispensable to every living creature on this planet, to both animals and plants. Good crops and fruits are produced only when the water is good.
Likewise, today’s Scripture passage is speaking about people’s fruit of faith. People can be made righteous and enter Heaven only if they believe in Jesus and receive the remission of their sins. So if one does not have the Word of Truth that enables him to receive the Holy Spirit into his heart as soon as he receives the remission of his sins, such people can never bear any fruit before God. It is by believing in the baptism of Jesus and His blood that we are transformed from sinners to righteous people. Therefore, your heart must infallibly have the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that brings the remission of your sins. If you don’t have this Word, then your faith is an imperfect, flawed faith.
Most Christians are happy when they first believe in Jesus. But with passing time, after 5 or 10 years go by since they first believed in Jesus, they reach a point where they want to give up their faith in Jesus, all because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit that constitutes the righteousness of God. It is therefore critically important to clearly know and believe in the Truth—that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit—from the very beginning when you believe in Jesus for the first time. Otherwise you will become even more of a sinner, more hypocritical, and increasingly serve more as a servant of the Devil than a servant of the Holy Spirit, even as you may appear to be a good Christian. There are so many people like this in Christian communities. How could this kind of faith be the real faith? Today’s Scripture passage says, “The water is bad, and the ground barren.” God is saying this to today’s Christians. This passage is the Word of God that shows what kind of work is being perpetrated by those who are unable to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which enables one to receive the Holy Spirit, and are instead preaching an imperfect gospel.


Sermons Affect the Hearts of the Hearers

It’s clear that no matter how good any Christian’s faith may be, he is bound to be influenced by those who preach the Word of God to him. Therefore, for those who preach the Word of God, whether or not their congregation would receive the remission of their sins from God depends on whether or not they preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel that enables one to receive the remission of sin and the Holy Spirit. God’s servants are now preaching the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, having first believed in this gospel that enabled them to receive the remission of their sins and the Holy Spirit. 
In contrast, for the pastors who do not preach the gospel that enables people to receive the Holy Spirit, all their sermons are invariably nothing more than sermons on ethics and morals. These are not sermons that contain the Word of the water and the Spirit. Even from now on, therefore, all Christians must listen to the Word of God and the gospel sermons that enable them to receive the Holy Spirit.


The Liars Who Are Feeding Bad Water

However, even at this very moment, countless pastors remain incapable of preaching the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, for they themselves do not know this Word that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit. If preachers know the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and preach it correctly, then their congregation will receive the remission of sin from God and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and thus restore their peace with God. When a preacher of the Word of God explains and preaches the Word concerning the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross, the Word that enables the hearers to receive the Holy Spirit, then they will be freed from their sins and their relationship with God will be restored properly. In contrast, if the preacher does not preach this Word of God regarding the water and the Spirit, then for those Christians who learn from this pastor, their sins will not disappear from their hearts even as they confess to believe in Jesus as their Savior. 
To enable people today to really receive the Holy Spirit, the preacher must know and teach exactly how God has saved us humans from the sins of the world through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and how He has remitted away our sins. But not just anyone can give such sermons. These sermons can be given only by those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit based on God’s Word of righteousness. The only gospel that enables people to receive the Holy Spirit is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Many pastors say to today’s Christians, “Jesus shed His blood and died on the Cross in your place. That’s all. There is nothing more to teach about His salvation.” So they only keep saying, “Believe in Jesus as your Savior. And be a good person, spreading your faith in the blood of the Cross.”
As such pastors cannot preach the Word of the water and the Spirit correctly from the pulpit, they are turning all their congregation into religious formalists and leading them straight to hell. Unless these preachers preach the Word that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit, no one among the congregation can ever receive the Holy Spirit. Yet despite this, some people say, “Well, I am not influenced by any preachers.” But you must realize the fact that every Christian is influenced by the faith and knowledge of the pastor preaching to him. So you must examine yourself to see if the sermons you are listening to are really coming from someone who knows the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
There are many Christians today who are stumbling from drinking bad water. Many people say that although they had attended church before, they are no longer leading a life of faith. In its description of Jericho’s bad water and its barren land, today’s Scripture passage is telling us that if Christians do not listen to the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit until the end, then it will be inevitable for them to be cast into hell for their sins. The Bible says that the reason why so many Christians were unable to bear the fruit of salvation despite believing in Jesus is because they were unable to hear the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Many Christians have not heard the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit with their ears, the gospel that enables them to receive the Holy Spirit, and so they give up their faith halfway. The reason for this is because even those who had preached the Word of God to them had not heard the Word of the Truth that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit, and even if those preachers heard it, they did not believe in it, and instead gave dogmatic sermons to their congregation according to their own thoughts. 
There are many people in this age who believe in Jesus. But how many of these Christians can be classified as true fruits of faith? As a result of not hearing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, many Christians renounce their religious lives after a time, and even for those who hold onto their dogmatic faith until the end, their souls perish away in a sinful state, and therefore they end up falling into hell. Such phenomena are actually all too evident in Christian communities. The so-called “servants of God” do not know His Word of the water and the Spirit, and therefore they are not preaching this Truth correctly. As a result, they are sending countless people who believe in Jesus as their Savior straight to hell. This is all because of the fact that the faith and gospel of these preachers are not correct. So just how tragic is this? After all, you believe in Jesus to receive the salvation, to attain the remission of your sins, and to enter Heaven. What a tragedy is it then that even as you believe in Jesus, far from entering Heaven, you will actually be cast into hell as a sinner? If you are under such a preacher, then you must escape from him as soon as possible.


Is Your Church Leader Teaching You the Gospel That Enables Your Soul to Receive the Holy Spirit?

It’s said that there are over a billion Christians on this planet earth, and yet tragically, so many preachers remain incapable of bearing any fruit of salvation, for they are not preaching God’s Word of the water and the Spirit exactly as it is. By mixing the Word of God with this world’s ethical lessons in their sermons, these preachers have made people’s souls ignorant only to perish away. What would you do if your pastor had prevented souls from being saved, and blocked them from hearing and knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, thus making them all perish away? This is the reality of Christianity today. Do you know and believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit?
Even though today’s Christians all believe in Jesus, they remain unable to be saved from their hearts’ sins. That’s because there is something wrong with the contents of the sermons to which they are listening. It’s all because they have not heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables them to receive the Holy Spirit. For Christians today who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they cannot help but make the following confession common to all: “I have not been saved, even though I believe in Jesus.” This is akin to what was said in today’s Scripture passage: “The situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the ground barren.” Is this something negligible? The passage describes what was happening in Israel in the days of Elisha, but it also describes what is happening to Christians all over the world today, showing that they are also now in such a spiritually barren situation. 
Although we are prone to think, “Faith is up to each individual; it has nothing to do with anyone else preaching the Word of God,” the Bible says that this is not the case. It makes clear that no matter how fertile the ground may be, if the water is bad, then the tree cannot bear any fruit. Likewise, if preachers cannot correctly preach the Word that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit, then the congregation cannot receive the remission of their sins nor the Holy Spirit. In contrast, if they preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to their congregation, then the Bible says that they will bear good fruits without fail. 


The Bowl That Holds the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit

Many of today’s Christians say that even though they think they have been saved from their sins by believing in Jesus, they are too ashamed to call themselves righteous people. This is all because there is something wrong with the gospel that their leaders have. So for all those who confess, “Although I believe that I have been saved from sin, my heart still remains sinful,” they must realize clearly that the contents of the sermons they are listening are problematic. It’s all because their preachers have not preached to their congregation the Word of the water and the Spirit, which is God’s Truth. 
To see how Elisha solved this problem, let’s turn to 2 Kings 2:21-22. “Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’” So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.”
Whoever speaks the Word of God to you on His behalf must believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross without fail, and he must preach God’s Word by this faith. The Lord said in Matthew, “New wine must be put into new wineskins.” And our Lord also said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Before being born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we were clearly sinners, but now, by believing in the perfect gospel that Jesus Christ fulfilled with the baptism he received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross, we have become righteous, redeemed people. 
Therefore, from the servants of God who have become new vessels by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, sinners must hear the gospel Word that enables them to receive the Holy Spirit, and believe in this Word. Only then can they receive the remission of their sins into their hearts. To heal one’s heart from the illness of sin, he must listen to and believe in the true gospel preached by the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You must put the Word of faith in the bowl of your spirit and spread it around. The salt here refers to the Word of God found in the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament is all about the promise of God that our Lord would come to save us, while the New Testament records the Lord’s actual fulfillment of this promise. So the salt mentioned in today’s Scripture passage is the gospel Word that enables you to receive the Holy Spirit.
It was said, “Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, ‘Thus says the LORD: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’’” We have to interpret and understand this passage spiritually. I am not exaggerating this passage. What I know now is that when those of you who wholeheartedly believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit preach the Word of God, Christians who hear this gospel Word from you are made completely righteous by believing in God’s Word, and are able to bear fruits before God. In other words, those who hear with their ears the gospel that enables them to receive the Holy Spirit—that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit—rather than the gospel of the blood of the Cross alone, are made forever righteous to become God’s children whose hearts are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This passage that we just read is being fulfilled exactly as it is even now. It teaches that if sinners really want to receive the remission of sin into their hearts, then they must look for the preachers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel that enables them to receive the Holy Spirit, and hear the Word of God from these preachers. 
Therefore, for your spirit to be renewed, you must believe in the Word of the water and the Spirit and come into the presence of God. You must infallibly come to those who believe in the gospel Word that enables you to receive the Holy Spirit. When you come out to stand before God, you must take His Word, the spiritual salt. Pastors must also remember without fail that unless they have the Word of God, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and preach it by believing in this Word of God exactly as it is, their listeners cannot receive the remission of sin but live as sinners even as they believe in Jesus, only to be forsaken by God in the end. With the gospel that just preaches the blood of the Cross alone, your sins can never be blotted out. You must remember clearly that the gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit is the very gospel of which the Bible speaks. 
Those who have received the remission of their sins believe that by “thus” being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus shouldered all their past sins, present sins, and even future sins; that He went to the Cross and was condemned by being crucified; and that He has thereby blotted out all their sins once and for all. So when we clearly and by faith preach to those who still have not received the remission of their sins, saying, “Since Jesus also bore your sins and was condemned on the Cross to make atonement, your sins have already been washed away, and therefore you have no sin,” the Truth that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit is also delivered to these people. And as this gospel Word enters them, they, too, receive the remission of their sins just like us. To all those who still have not been saved even after believing in Jesus, we must sow the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God’s Truth. 
If Christian leaders today were to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit exactly as it is, then everyone would all receive the remission of sin. The remission of sin is not received just because a preacher is an excellent speaker. It is only when the preacher preaches by faith the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the real gospel of God, that those who believe in it are saved from their sins. If you have preached the gospel to someone once, but this person stubbornly refused to receive the remission of sin, then you must admonish him by faith one more time to try to make him understand the Word of God, sow the Word of the baptism of Jesus and His blood once more, and preach using examples so that he may understand. 
When the person thus understands the gospel message with his head first, he can then realize in his heart also, “Ah, that is so true. I have no sin. My sins have disappeared.” That Elisha in today’s Scripture passage healed the water by sprinkling salt implies that it is when we preach the gospel Word that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit that people can attain the remission of their sins. The gospel that has made us sinless with the baptism of Jesus and the Cross is none other than the gospel of salt of which today’s Scripture passage speaks.


The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit as Described in the Book of Romans

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-4).
This passage from Romans says to us, “There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” It also tells us that even though our flesh is too weak for us to ever reach righteousness by keeping the Law, God the Father sent His Son in the likeness of the sinful flesh of man, passed all the sins of every human being onto the Son’s body, and placed them on the flesh of Jesus. Jesus has saved all sinners from all sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood of the Cross. In other words, when it says here, “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did,” it refers to the very remission of sin that was accomplished by the baptism of Jesus and His blood. This is the gospel that enables you to receive the Holy Spirit, and this is the true gospel of Jesus.
What does the Law demand? The Law sets out requirements for our lives, saying, “You shall live like this.” Yet we are incapable of meeting the Law’s demand. Those who try to reach righteousness by keeping the Law will be cursed, just as the man who tried to rebuild Jericho from ruins and set up its gates was cursed (Joshua 6:26, 1 Kings 16:34). Then why did God give us the Law? He gave us the Law for us to know what sin really is. When we look at God’s commandments, we can discern what is good from what is evil. The Law itself is holy, just, and good (Romans 7:12). When we examine the God-given Word of the Law, every Word is right enough. Since God is the Creator who made us, it is only fitting for us to worship only God and listen to His Word. But do you really have the ability to obey the Word of God? You should consider this first before you attempt to keep the Law. Are you really able to keep the Law of God?
When the Bible says, “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did” (Romans 8:3), it means that it is God who has fulfilled the gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables every believer in this gospel to receive the Holy Spirit. While all the Law of God is right in its entirety, because mankind’s flesh is too weak, it’s simply impossible to keep this Law. Whenever we face God’s Word of the Law, we say amen in our hearts and minds and agree that every statute of the Law is right, but in reality, our flesh cannot keep the Law as commanded. Even though our hearts and minds may be able to follow the Law, our flesh cannot obey it according to the Word, nor can we practice it as commanded.
However, the Bible says that what man could not do in his weak flesh, Jesus achieved it. In other words, by making Jesus receive His baptism from John the Baptist, God the Father made Him bear the sins of the world, and by making Jesus shed His blood on the Cross, the Father at once washed away all the sins committed by weak sinners. Put differently, through His baptism and His blood on the Cross, Jesus has washed all sins from the sinners of the world, thus delivering them from condemnation, and saving them from all curses. This is the gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables people to receive the Holy Spirit. Did God say that your flesh can be justified by keeping the Law? No, He said that no one can achieve this, for everyone’s flesh is weak. For every sinner, it is only when he believes in and accepts the salvation that Jesus Christ has brought through His baptism and blood, that he can receive the remission of sin into his heart. 


All of Us Must Believe in the Perfect Gospel


I am satisfied with the righteousness of God. Because the Lord was baptized by John the Baptist for me, shed His blood on the Cross, and saved me from all my sins, my heart is fully content. However, there was a time when I had also believed only in the blood of the Cross. In those days, I could not be satisfied by this half-gospel. Everyone is the same in his utter inability to live according to the Word of God. This inability is inherent to everyone’s weak flesh, regardless of whether he is a Christian or not, and whether he is a born-again person or not. This applies to all of us, you and me alike. No one can live according to the Law of God. What does this then mean? It means that every human being cannot help but turn into a sinner before the Law of God. How, then, can the entire human race be freed from sin? Can it be freed by offering prayers of repentance? No, it’s impossible to be freed from sin through one’s own prayers of repentance. Is it written anywhere in the Bible that we can be freed from sin by offering prayers of repentance? No, that is written nowhere.
Only our faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ makes us free from our sins. When Jesus was baptized, He said that He fulfilled all the righteousness of God (Matthew 3:15). At that time, through His baptism, Jesus bore all the sins of the world, including each and every one of our sins, all at once. If this is true, if Jesus in fact took upon all the sins of mankind through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, then it can only mean that your sins, my sins, everyone else’s sins, and even the sins of the people of Jericho here were all passed onto Jesus once and for all when He was baptized by John the Baptist. 
All the sins that Christians commit out of their insufficient flesh were also passed onto Jesus Christ at once. It’s because our sins were passed onto Jesus Christ once and for all that we believe in God; it’s because we believe in this Word of Truth that we have been freed from our sins and become holy; and it’s because all our sins were passed onto Jesus that we have come to receive the Holy Spirit by believing in the perfect gospel with our hearts. If the sins of this world were not passed onto the body of Jesus through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, then how could you and I reach our salvation by believing in Jesus? 
Jesus Christ is the God of the entire universe. It’s written in the Book of Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and it’s also written, “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” Similarly, John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and John 1:3 says, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” 
As such, Jesus, who came as our Savior, is God Himself in essence. It had been prophesied beforehand through the Prophet Isaiah that to save us, God Himself would be born from the body of a virgin incarnated in the flesh of man. About 700 years after making this promise, God fulfilled it exactly as He had promised. And when the Lord came to this earth, He was baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, in order to save us from all our sins, since our flesh is too weak to reach salvation on our own. 


Do You Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit as the Truth?

Jesus, the only begotten Son of God the Father, accepted all the sins of this world once and for all and washed them all away. And He shed His blood on the Cross for us. By doing so, He has made the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit forever sinless. Jesus has made us holy, who believe in this gospel. He has made all its believers righteous. About 2,000 years ago, our Lord bore all the sins of mankind once and for all, all your sins and mine, by being baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus took upon Himself all of mankind’s sins, for both His believers and non-believers alike. Therefore everyone who believes in Jesus correctly is saved from sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
The gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit is the Word of God that is put in a new wineskin. As this gospel, God’s real Truth, has been sowed in the hearts of sinners, God has made it possible for them to be saved from the sins of the world. 
How did the Lord say that He has saved us from the sins of the world? The Old Testament writes about the endless sacrifices that were offered by the people of Israel, whereby their sacrificial animals of atonement accepted their sins through the laying on of hands and bled to death in their place. Like these sacrifices, our Lord came to this earth as the Lamb of God, received His baptism, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become the Savior of all who believe in Him. Weren’t your sins and mine then passed onto Jesus through His baptism? Of course they were. Because of our weak human flesh we could not reach righteousness by keeping the Law, but Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of God for us by taking upon the sins of the world through His baptism. 


Believe in the Real Gospel of the Water and the Spirit!

My fellow believers, today’s Scripture passage says that when Elisha cast salt into the source of the water, there was no more barrenness, regardless of whether it was muddy water or even rotten water. It’s written, “Thus says the LORD: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’ So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.” (2 Kings 2:21-22). Jesus accepted all sins by being baptized. This then means that all your sins were passed onto Him. This is the gospel that the Bible speaks of, the gospel that enables you to receive the Holy Spirit. It is the very original gospel. Do you then have sin or are you now sinless? You have no sin. Has your soul been healed by faith or does it remain unhealed? It is all healed now.
Because mankind’s flesh is too weak before God, no one can avoid being cast into hell, nor can anyone live according to the will of God. However, if anyone believes in the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross, then he can be saved from sin. Salt does not change. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit never changes. Salt prevents rotting. It is Jesus who has thus fulfilled all the righteousness of God. Jesus has saved sinners once and for all through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables us to receive the Holy Spirit forever protects the faith of its believers. Do you believe this? 
Elisha put salt into a new bowl and cast it into the source of the water. The water was then healed. Like this, with the gospel that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit, our Lord has saved all who believe in this gospel. The Lord has saved sinners through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If anyone believes in this gospel that enables him to receive the Holy Spirit, he will be saved from all sins. 
Jesus has saved His believers by coming to this earth by the water and the blood (1 John 5:4-8). What we could not achieve in our weak flesh, our Lord achieved it for us. Through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Lord has saved us from all sins. He has thus healed us in both body and spirit. Therefore it is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are saved. Yet because Christians today are listening to bad sermons, they get disappointed even as they believe in Jesus, they remain sinners even as they believe in Jesus, they are sad even as they believe in Jesus, and they are cursed even as they believe in Jesus. However, God has healed every sinner with the gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables us to receive the Holy Spirit. 
I’ve been to many countries, from Japan to China, Taiwan, and Russia, and I’ve met many Christians there. But because the gospel Word that they had heard was not complete, they were all invariably unable to receive their salvation from sin. Even though they had heard the Word of God and believed in Him for a considerable time, every one of them was still a sinner. However, when I preached the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that enables everyone to receive the Holy Spirit, they, too, were saved as they accepted the gospel of the remission of sin right away. This gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel that enables everyone to receive the Holy Spirit, and it is also the product of God’s work and compassion toward us. 
The Lord heals the hearts and spirits of those who have been hurt by sin. When the redeemed servants of God go to sinners and preach His Word by faith, and when these sinners believe in it innocently, then they will all be saved from their sins, regardless of status or circumstances. Anyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is no longer a slave to sin. Even though we cannot help but commit sin again, we will never turn into sinners again. That we cannot help but commit sin in our weak flesh, and that we are therefore inevitably bound to hell, are set by the law of sin and death. However, through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables us to receive the Holy Spirit, our Lord has saved us from the law of sin and death. I praise the Lord who has saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
Were all your sins passed onto Jesus Christ by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Of course they were! Has Jesus saved us from all our sins? We have indeed been healed in both body and spirit by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Just as Elisha had healed the water of Jericho and turned it into good water, so has our God also healed you and me, who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and transformed us from sinners into righteous people. He has saved us from all our sins, so that we, who had once been bound to hell, can now enter Heaven. The Lord has saved us perfectly from all sins. I praise the Lord who has saved us from all our sins.


What Those Who Have Put the Holy Spirit in New Vessels Must Do 

What is it that we must do in this age, as those who have the gospel of the water and the Spirit? As someone who has received the remission of sin, you must take the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit to those who still do not know this Truth, and labor to sow the real Truth into them. This work must be carried out by the righteous who have received the remission of their sins. 
My fellow believers, there are many people on this earth who believe in Jesus. But even as they believe in Jesus, they are falling into despair, for the gospel that they believe in and preach is corrupted. This is a common occurrence everywhere in the entire world. Even though they have learned about Jesus and His blood on the Cross, they still remain sinners. And their hearts remain unchanged to this day. What is clear, however, is that God achieved what we could not achieve because of our weak flesh: Our Lord has made us His believers sinless by accepting all the sins of the world through His baptism. Do you believe in this, my fellow believers? There is so much work to do in this world.
We must spread this genuine gospel all over the world. We must preach this gospel of Truth even to those who are worshiping golden calves. Yet this is not an easy task; it takes a lot of effort and hardship. Even so, we cannot afford not to carry out this work now. Countless people remain unable to become righteous even as they believe in Jesus as their Savior. You must realize that myriads of souls are perishing away, all because they have not heard the gospel that would enable them to receive the Holy Spirit, and you must therefore renew your strength again and preach this gospel to those who belong to heresy.
Indeed, those who have become new vessels must put salt—that is, the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit—in their hearts and spread it to people all over the world who are thirsting after this gospel. Let us all preach this gospel of Truth by faith.
 
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Heretics, Who Followed the Sins of Jeroboam (I)