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Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 28-3] The Lord Who Will Come as the Judge (Matthew 28:16-20)
(Matthew 28:16-20)
“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”
“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”
How are you today? Living in the world these days is very confusing and disturbing. The oil price has topped 60 dollars per barrel and many predict it will soon be over100 dollars. The legislation to permit insertion of barcode chips under the people’s skin has been passed in the United States. Also, we constantly hear news of all kinds of natural disasters and bird flu and other contagious diseases. It is truly a dismal world. It makes me think the end of the world is drawing near. Truly, the future of the world is depressing. Everything is hopeless. Everything in the world is depressing, including the economy and politics.
These days, our country is also stirred up because of the presidential election. Right now, our country Korea is stirred up with the possibility of whether the minority party candidate will become the next president or not, and the whole society is uneasy because the battle to seize political power is being raged intensely. The battle is being raged rampantly. The political people wanting and desiring to obtain any vestige of power think there is hope in this world. It is sad to see them struggling for the pleasure of their own flesh, not for the benefit of others. That’s why we must not follow the trends of this world. There really is no hope in this world, and the hope is only in Jesus Christ.
The Book of Revelation states that God will bring down seven calamities upon this world at the end times. Jesus receives the book of seven seals from God, the Father, and a calamity falls each time He opens a seal in turn. Up to fifth calamity, people will be able to bear the degree of their destructiveness, but the people will be forced to receive the mark from the time of the sixth calamity and the calamity will continue to fall from the sky. Suffering will be dreadful enough for a person to ask the mountain to cover him. Hail the size of one talent (about 40 kg. or 100 pounds) will fall from the sky and all kinds of diseases will go around and the people will be afflicted with sores all over their body. There will be martyrs at that time.
The calamity brought on by the seventh angel, the last, will move the continent plates completely. The islands will not be able to stay in place and the land will split and move and the geographical layout of the whole world will change. And a big star flaming like a torch will fall to the spring of water and many people will die because of its bitterness. God’s Word states that 1/3 of all living things and 1/3 of all the people will die then. Actually, this period we live in is the period that the Book of Revelation talks about as the period near the end times. The Word in Revelation is really depressing and this is that period.
After finishing the exhortation to the seven churches of Asia, Jesus took the Apostle John to the sky and showed him what would happen and Jesus manifested Himself as the King of kings. Revelation reveals to the Apostle John the scene of Jesus seating on the high throne, and of Jesus opening the seven seals as the Judge. Hence, the seven seals represent God unfolding history and the period of seven catastrophes. It says that there is the period of the white horse, the period of the red horse, the period of the black horse, and the period of the pale horse; and now is the period of the black horse. The period of the war and famine is the period of the black horse. It says that a quart of wheat will cost one denarius and three quarts of barley will cost one denarius in this age (Revelation 6:6). This period, the period of the black horse, is the period of famine when people have to pay much money to buy food.
And then the Antichrist will appear, and there will be a catastrophe, as he will kill many people and force people to receive his mark. And there will be martyrdom and rapture for the righteous in this period. The rapture will happen when the Lord descends and lifts up the righteous after the midpoint of the Great Seven Year Tribulation. The Scriptures say the righteous will be raptured and go to the Millennial Kingdom and the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, and the sinners will fall to hell where they will suffer eternal punishment.
Do you know what is written at the very end of the Scriptures? Let’s look at the last verses of the last chapter in Revelation together. Let’s read the verses 18 to 21 together. “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Amen.
When the Lord said “Surely I am coming quickly,” the Apostle John received the Word and replied, “Amen. Come quickly, Lord. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be upon all the people! Amen.” The Apostle John waited for the coming of Jesus. The righteous people who are born again of water and the Spirit await the coming of the Lord as well. When the Lord comes again, all the prophecies written in Revelation will be fulfilled exactly as they are recorded for those who have received the remission of sin. Those who have been born again with the water and the Spirit will never receive the mark of 666 and they will go to the Millennial Kingdom as its kings.
There is something we must do before such a time comes. We, who have received the remission of sin must make disciples of all the nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and be witnesses to the gospel to the ends of the earth. The only one remaining thing the righteous people must do through the end times to the time of the Millennial Kingdom is to share the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We shall keep our faith until the end times and live as kings for a thousand years in the Millennial Kingdom when our Lord comes to this world.
Really, what hope do we have in this day and age? There really is no hope in this world. We have named our Church in Chooncheon City the Hope Church to hope for the second coming of the Lord, to hope for the Millennial Kingdom, and to hope for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now, the only thing we must do is to share the gospel to the ends of the world. We must share the gospel to the whole world even if the world comes to an end. Our Lord said, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). That’s why we do not need to worry too much even if the world comes to an end. We just need to believe that our Lord will come, and hence we have to prepare our hearts and share the gospel of the water and the Spirit until the day of the Lord’s coming. God’s workers should get married and do ministry, baptize the born-again in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, make disciples of all the nations, share the gospel of the water and the Spirit, do our best, and live triumphantly in the world. We just need to live in that manner and go to the Lord when He comes again.
How the events of the world will unfold is obvious. It will happen exactly as it is written. The beginning of the end of the world will happen with the wars and famines. That will be the beginning of the Great Tribulation, and there will be the receiving of the 666 mark at about the middle of the tribulation and those who reject the mark will face death, and the Lord will come and lift us up to the sky soon after that. At first, the taking of the 666 mark will be voluntary, but then they will make it impossible to buy or sell anything without the mark, and those who don’t receive the mark to the bitter end will face death.
At that time, the Antichrist will appear and tell all the people to worship the Antichrist, but we will resist him until the end. The world will be united as one nation with Antichrist at the center, and the stamping of the 666 mark will be required to govern the united people. The Antichrist will rise as the leader of the whole world and this individual will be very skillful in politics. He will have all the people of the world stamped with the mark on the right hand or the forehead to have control over them. Actually, the work of stamping the mark is secretly under preparation. They will have everything ready and try to gradually create a positive atmosphere with a less offensive method for stamping the mark. But those of us who have been born again of the water and the Spirit will not receive the mark until the end because the mark is the ticket to hell. We will be raptured if we just endure until the coming of the Lord, and He will take us.
As it is written in Revelation 14:13, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on,” the tribulation will be very difficult to endure. But, we are not afraid because the Lord promised to be with us until the end of the world. We will face the end after living in this world sharing the gospel as we do now, and the one thing that is clear is that the Lord is with us. That’s why we don’t have much to worry about. But the thing we should be concerned with is how we should live in this period when the end is drawing near. The earth has run its course and the tribulation is drawing near, so the important challenge is how we should live if we want to keep the faith. We should share the gospel to the whole world until we enter the paradise, the Millennial Kingdom, and the Eternal Kingdom of the new heaven and the new earth. The last task we must do is to give all our efforts to expanding God’s Kingdom before we meet the Lord.
There will be many difficulties to come. We must live with faith now, so that we will be able to endure until then. And the Scriptures say that those who live according to faith will be kept from the hour of trial to endure the tribulation (Revelation 3:10). That’s why we need to live with faith. During the end times, we need to keep our faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in our hearts and keep our hearts firm instead of causing disturbances in the Church because of the fear of the tribulation. I am sharing this to inform you beforehand of the period to come so that you may be prepared with faith, not to scare you by emphasizing the tribulation of the end times and to tell you to bring all of your material possessions to the Church. I don’t want you to bring all your money, house, or land to the Church. Rather, I tell you to be good stewards of your wealth and serve the gospel well when the time of the Lord’s coming is near so that you may have no concern with food and other basic necessities. I don’t have any other ulterior motive for you.
I just think about how we can share this gospel of the water and the Spirit domestically and abroad and to your family and how we can have more souls listen to the gospel. I think that our challenge is to help all the people of the world understand and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And I believe in this.
Now, we share the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the whole world. Right now, there aren’t many people who accept the gospel, but the harvest will be huge in the days to come. About 4000 people visit our homepage every day. But how little is that compared to 60 billion people in the world? But the Lord said, in the end times “I will set forth two olive trees and share the gospel vigorously again in the end times.” That’s why I believe there will be many who will come to believe at that time and also many will suffer martyrdom. I believe that if we plant the seeds by now sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, all those who don’t receive it now and persecute us now will come to believe it when disasters will be rampant. When there is a change in weather conditions in and on the earth and earthquakes erupt, I believe that many people will remember the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have shared and finally come to believe in the gospel of the Truth because the Word in the Book of Revelation states that an uncountable number of people clothed with white robes will come before the Lord (Revelation 7:9-14) The Apostle John who recorded the Revelation knew this fact, too. It means that there have not been many who have received the remission of sin in the world, but an uncountable multitude of people of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues will believe in the midst of the tribulation and receive salvation through their martyrdom. There will be many in the future who believe in the gospel that we have shared if we share the gospel powerfully now when we are able to.
This gospel will be preached throughout the world because this is the Lord’s will. Jesus can reach far from the top of the roof even if a few of us speak of this gospel in seclusion. All we have to do is spread the good news, “You will go to Heaven only if you are born again of water and the Spirit. That’s why you need to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.” I believe, then, many people will receive the remission of sin at the end time. That’s why we are continuously sharing the gospel in the situation we are in and doing our best to share the gospel through our literature ministries to nations abroad.
We should not become restless even though the time of the Lord’s coming is near, and we should live each day faithfully and diligently and mindfully share the gospel. We must use everything for the evangelization of the gospel with one mind. Just maintaining our present status is good enough in the world and giving all to the Lord for the evangelization of the gospel is the best thing to do. We just have to go to the Lord when the Lord comes after we give our mind, thought, and time for the preaching of the gospel. Though we may use the material things God has allowed to us for whatever needs we have in our lives, we must not forget that we should give to the Lord as much as we can. No matter how much material wealth we accumulate in this world, we will not be able to use it when the Lord comes. It is actually a blessing to be able to give while it can be used for the worthwhile work of preaching the gospel. I can tell you with a clear conscience that we should meet the Lord after serving and sharing the gospel bountifully while also living amply. There is no ulterior motive in my heart even as I advise you to live a life of giving yourself for the gospel. Perhaps you may not believe it. I have a clear conscience before God. My conscience is without shame before the Lord because I have believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, kept this gospel and shared it to all the people, and gave my all to this lifelong work.
Our Lord resurrected and said to the disciples before His ascent, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20). And He promised, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” What is the final command that Jesus asked, with the Father and the Spirit, for us to do? What is it that He asked us to obey? It’s that we should make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And also teach them and have them follow all the things the Lord taught the disciples to follow. This is our Lord’s last will.
People leave a will before dying. Some are afraid they might not be able to leave a last will when they are come upon by Alzheimer’s disease, so they record their will on a recorder. Like the people who have last things to say to their children, we must remember that Jesus left a will after being resurrected and just before ascending to Heaven. He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” It means that we should believe in the Word of God and live by faith.
When I say “I have a clear conscience,” I mean I never omit the baptism Jesus received whenever I preach the gospel. I have never preached the gospel without His baptism just to gather more people. And I will never do this in the future as well. Believing in Jesus without the baptism that Jesus received is worthless. The Book of Revelation, the last book of the Scriptures, says that God will erase the name from the Book of Life if a person omits even one part of the Scriptures. And it also says that God will add to him the plagues if anyone adds even a little to the Word of the Scriptures (Revelation 22:18-19). Having the plagues added or having the name erased from the Book of Life means going to hell and receiving eternal suffering. Therefore, everyone should believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit exactly as it is.
How delighted one may be if the person received the verdict of “not guilty” to a sin that bound him to feelings of guilt and shame and troubled him every single day? The feeling of liberty would be indescribable. Every single person suffers from sin committed from the heart, sin committed through our actions, and sin people are born with. How happy those people would be if someone told them, “You have no sin.” People believe without a second thought even if someone says, “You have no sin now” while sharing only the gospel of the blood on the cross instead of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Evangelicals preach such a gospel. However, it is useless to believe only in the blood no matter how fervently one believes in Jesus and calls out His name if he omits His baptism in his faith. We must definitely follow this command that Jesus has given to us. We must remember His command to give baptism in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and keep our faith firmly.
The Lord came to this world and asked us to keep two ceremonies. One is the Holy Communion. The Lord said, “Take, eat; this is My body. Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). The other ceremony was giving baptism in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Lord gave to us this rite of giving baptism in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Every Church must keep these two ceremonies.
There is a common element in these two ceremonies. The Lord gave the bread and the wine to us in the Communion. Giving the bread signified that the Lord received His baptism upon His body and took all our sins upon Himself and washed them away, and the giving of the wine signified that the Lord gave His life to us by shedding His blood and dying on the Cross.
The ceremony of baptism that the Lord established has the same significance. The Lord told us to give baptism in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit when we share the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all the nations and have them receive the remission of sins and make it possible for them to be disciples. The Father planned this salvation and the Son Himself fulfilled the Father’s plan by coming to this world and receiving His baptism and shedding His blood on the Cross and being resurrected, and the Holy Spirit comes to the hearts of the believers of the gospel as the Counselor and puts seals on them to say, “Yes, your faith is right,” and confirms their faith.
That’s why we believe in and preach Jesus’ Divinity, His birth, baptism, death, resurrection, and His second coming. No matter how lacking we may be, we believe that all our sins of humanity have been transferred over to Jesus by His receiving baptism. We also believe and preach that Jesus paid off all the sins of the world when He received His baptism and shed blood and died on the Cross. The person who shares this gospel of Truth is truly the one who possesses a clear conscience.
The one who has a conscience of a thief says he doesn’t have any sin even though he omits the baptism of Jesus and only shares the blood on the Cross. They hold the logic as follows: “When a couple gets married, isn’t the couple married even if they don’t feel like they are married even after getting married? Though they don’t feel it, marriage is a marriage. The evidence of the marriage is that they call each other ‘darling.’ Though there isn’t a feeling of marriage, marriage is a marriage. In the same manner, one has received salvation if he believes in Jesus even though there isn’t confirmation in his heart. If one receives Jesus as one’s Savior and calls Him ‘my Lord,’ this is the very evidence that he or she is saved.” Many in the world believe so and share the gospel in this manner. But, actually, that is sheer nonsense.
The Lord took all the sins upon Himself by receiving His baptism. That’s how all our sins were transferred to Jesus, and we live without sin and share the gospel of the remission of sin to people. How can there not be sin but for the baptism of Jesus that took all our sins upon Himself once and for all? Believing only in the blood of Jesus is taking one element out of the Word of Jesus and, thus, those who share this half-gospel will have his name removed from the Book of Life. That is not sheer nonsense. You must not just believe in the blood of the Cross.
The thing we must do in this world until the second coming of our Lord is to make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We must give baptism as the sign of faith and make disciples of those who answer yes to the question, “Jesus gave you the remission of sin with the water and the Spirit. Do you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit?” Then, all we need to do is just teach them to continue sharing the gospel. This is the only thing we have to do.
If Jesus says that He is coming, there is nothing we could do to stop this. And if Jesus decides to come, we can’t say, “Please wait just a moment. Be patient. Come a little later. I have not made all the money I need to make yet. Come later. I have not lived through all my life. Come later.” Such silly pleas won’t make a difference because He will come if he says He will come and He will go if He says He will go. The Scriptures say, “God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19) The Lord is the Truthful God who promised to save humanity and actually saved them perfectly.
Because of this, for us who live in the end times, the thing we have to remember is that we must live in this world preaching the gospel until that day. This is the only thing we must do, the only thing we must keep, the only thing we must be concerned with, and the only thing we must serve. There is nothing else for us. What else is there? What can a man do before God just with his own power and effort? There is nothing a person can do with human strength to go against what God has planned. You and I alike just have to believe in the Lord’s promise that He will be with us until the end of the world and devote ourselves to sharing the gospel throughout the world as He has commanded us. Is there anything else besides just believing this? What else should we do in the end times? Things are changing year to year. Really, things are changing very, very fast. The time of the Lord’s coming is drawing near. Put all your effort in to sharing the gospel. And continue to prepare for the preaching of the gospel. Prepare your faith, keep your faith, and share the gospel.
There is something you must remember at the time of the Lord’s coming. You must not submit to the Antichrist and his followers who tell you to receive the mark of the beast at the end time. When they tell us to receive the mark on our body, all we have to do is not to receive it. Certainly, they will threaten our lives when we say we will not receive it. If we submit to the pressure, that will be the end for us. This world will not be a place worth living any longer then. Full-fledged disaster will fall on earth in the end time. Hail the weight of one talent will fall, fire will fall from the sky, all kinds of disease will go around, and people will not be able to live on earth. Will happiness await you even if you receive the mark? The world will soon come to an end, regardless of whether you receive the mark or not. If you receive the mark so you could live just a little longer, you will receive the punishment of the eternal hell. Therefore, you should keep the faith in order to resist receiving the mark.
In a word, the world will become ruined by the disasters. Earthquakes will erupt, sickness will go around, the hails will fall, and wars and riots will rise up everywhere. Because the world will be in such chaos, a strong charismatic leader will rise out of this and he and his followers will try to implant an electronic chip inside everyone’s body to have control over them. Then, everything will be over. There is not much hope even now, but there won’t be any hope then. It won’t be necessary to try to please Antichrist and his followers to live just a little longer, saying, “Oh, please give me a break. I’ll do everything for you.”
I am preparing myself to live without the support of the government and the market. Knowing that the end is drawing near, I am going to prepare for it. How am I going to prepare for it? That’s a secret. Regardless, we just need to go back to the traditional ways of farming and be able to live even if we can’t buy gasoline and the electricity is cut off.
These things will probably happen in the end times. There will be cars with a loudspeaker going around the neighborhood announcing, “So and so in such and such address, please come out and get your mark.”
“Oh, no, I won’t receive that. Why should I receive that? I don’t want to.”
“Then, you won’t get any food ration.”
“Even so, I will not receive that.”
“Then, what would you eat to survive?” “Don’t give it to me if you don’t want to. I will just starve.”
“We’ll see if you receive the mark or not. You will definitely receive it if we don’t give you food. So, make it easy on yourself and just take the mark.”
“If you don’t want to give me food, don’t.”
The world will be in turmoil and will be ruined to such an extent that people will not be able to live in it anyway. It is wiser to keep the faith until the end and go to the Lord’s Kingdom and it is stupid and foolish to betray faith just to have one more meal. Our body may feel it is unbearable but we shouldn’t worry because the Lord will be with us at that time.
It was not long after the Korean War when I was a child and there wasn’t much to eat because the whole nation was in ruins. Surviving was very difficult. It was hard to get rice. We will suffer even greater starvation at the end times, but our faith will never waiver because the Lord will be with us at that time. The Lord said that He would always be with us until the end of the world. Don’t worry because the Lord will give us wisdom and a way to live in that time. We must do our best to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit in this day and age just so that we could keep our faith until the day we will go before the Lord.
The Lord is with us even now. The Lord is with us when we are prosperous; the Lord is with us when we are laughing and enjoying ourselves; and the Lord is with us even when we are struggling and having a difficult time. Isn’t it the same with you? The Lord is with you when things are going well and the Lord is with you when you are struggling. The Lord is always with you, right? The Lord promised to us, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Therefore, don’t worry too much about the end times and just bear in mind that we should preach the gospel now while we still can share the gospel. We just need to publish more books so all the people will come to know this gospel of the water and the Spirit, and upload more electronic books on our website, and faithfully do all that we can and meet the Lord. Not knowing that this is the end times, not believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and continuing to live with sin is the biggest problem.
When the Antichrist appears at the end times and says that we must take the mark, those who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will be the first to line up to get stamped. They will laugh at those who do not want to get stamped, and they will say “Don’t they know they will die if they don’t get stamped. I will be the first to get stamped.” Even those who have believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will be denied by the Lord if they voluntarily receive the mark. The Lord will say, “You deny me? I also don’t know you either. Your salvation is nullified! That’s it!”
We can overcome the end times sufficiently with the strength the Lord gives us. The Lord tells and teaches us clearly what to do. At that time, it will seem like we will not be able to withstand the persecution, torture, and intimidation. But the Lord who is within us will give us courage in our hearts and say, “Be strong and courageous. I am with you. You will soon be with me in paradise.” Then we will say, “Hey! You sons of the Devil! Kill me if you want. I praise Jesus as our patriot Kwan-soon Yoo shouted out Korea’s independence while she was in prison during the colonial period of Japan. Threaten me all you want. I will not even bat an eye.”
Why would we be afraid of death? We will soon go to the Kingdom of Heaven and live with the Lord forever. If we stand firm against them in this manner, the servants of Devil that were threatening us will be more scared. Then, they will probably say, “I will kill you right now. You, senseless fool,” and shoot and kill us. And we will die at once.
Will the Lord lose against Satan the Devil? Actually, the battle we are fighting is the battle between the Lord and Satan the Devil. We are not fighting against some physical being. Rather, we are fighting against the spirit that has taken the power of the air. The Lord promised that He would be with us until that day. Therefore, all we need to do is to believe in His Word and be faithful to the work He entrusts us with until the end. And then we just have to meet the Lord. All we need to do is go to the Lord when He calls us. What more could we do?
What strength do we have to do anything spiritual? We who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and without sin should live for the benefit of other people with faith. Let’s diligently preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, believe firmly in God’s Word, and firmly establish the Truth of the water and the Spirit while we live in this world. That is the happiest life. Do you understand this? The thing I want to advise you is that you need to meet the Lord after truly believing in God’s Word and diligently sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only the day of God’s judgment before the Lord will await you, and you will lose everything if you invest all of yourself in the world as if you will live in this world for thousands of years. This is not a threat. I am saying this for your own good.
No matter how wealthy we are and how much power we have, can we live without food? No matter how hard we try, can we survive if there are famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places? No, we can’t survive. A few years ago, there was an earthquake in a big city in Turkey and almost all the people in the city died from the disaster, and the earthquake continued to erupt even afterwards. How about the Indonesian tsunami of last Christmas season? Even our country is not safe from the earthquake these days. It has the right circumstances for an earthquake to erupt some day, and our country will some day experience a terrible disaster even though our country has not had a huge disaster until now because God’s grace has been with the righteous people like us. Before the terrible disaster erupts, we need to help more people believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and receive the remission from their sins.
I am telling you this to prepare yourselves for that time, not because I am scared and worried or because I want to have you donate more money by scaring you. I am not at all concerned. All of us who have been born again of water and the Spirit will share the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout our lives even if the end of the earth is coming tomorrow. I am saying that we shouldn’t have our hearts set on this world in order to spend our remaining time to do the righteous work.
Do you know how to grow big sweet potatoes? I will now do a lecture on growing big sweet potatoes, so please keep your ears open and listen carefully. First, plant the sweet potato bud carefully and grow the sweet potato sprout, and then plant the burgeoning sweet potato bud carefully in the furrow. They store water when the rain comes and take root deeply underneath the earth. As the runners grow, the roots underneath the earth become longer than the runners and stretch out all over the furrow. And the sweet potato runners get entangled here and there and the whole sweet potato furrow is soon covered with the sweet potato runners. As the runners stretch out, parts of each runner take roots again to bear sweet potatoes. But the sweet potatoes are grown small if we try to grow all of the sweet potatoes in the furrow. Therefore, the farmer must hold up the end of each runner and pull it up if he sees that the runners have stretched out enough. Then the small roots are cut apart from the original runners. If the farmer regularly lifts it up and puts it back down, then five or six big sweet potatoes will grow from each runner. A good sweet potato farmer grows it in this way. Actually, I went to a sweet potato farm when my brother was living there. At that time, my brother told me this. I am telling you this from recollection of what I heard at that time.
The spiritual life of believers is the same as sweet potato farming. If we waste all our concerns on everything that comes our way, we will not be able to give our hearts to the most fundamental and important work of preaching the gospel. When a righteous person has much interest in worldly things and his own fleshly concerns, he will reap much carnal fruits from those concerns, but not be able to have concerns for the preaching of the gospel and will not be able to live for other souls. We must concentrate our concerns on the gospel. We should dust away trivial things of the world and don’t let them take root in our hearts. We should give all of our hearts to believing in and preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That is truly the righteous person’s life.
That’s why I am continuing to entrust you with the work of the gospel. We need to do much work for the gospel if we don’t want to have our minds take root in the world. When I say “Let’s get together quickly and go out to share the gospel. What are you doing now? Let’s forget the nonsense and let’s plant Churches quickly,” it is to keep your heart from drifting to the worldly things. That’s the same with me. If I lose my heart to this work of the world and this work for my own flesh, I can’t serve the gospel and nothing will get done spiritually.
When I am writing a book, if there is a manuscript that I have to finish urgently, I am concerned with it very much and I can’t sleep until it is finished. Married sisters in Christ, you have given birth to a child, haven’t you? Writing a book is similar to giving birth to a child. When women suspect pregnancy and go to a hospital for a checkup, they hear “Congratulations, you are pregnant.” Then, what pain a pregnant woman goes through until the birth of her child? A pregnant woman goes to the hospital regularly for a checkup, goes to the hospital whenever she suspects something out of the ordinary. A pregnant woman is so careful that she may listen to classical music that she normally wouldn’t listen to even if she were paid, reads classical novels that she never touched before, and tries to have good thoughts if possible. She takes care of her swollen stomach so well that she wears loose clothes that have good air ventilation. She is cautious with her thoughts and body until the day she gives birth. It takes a lot of concern. And what pain she goes through on the day she gives birth? When she gives birth, she suffers pain many times greater than that of a cancer patient. Then, she can finally sigh in relief after that. I believe it is the same with our effort to publish our Christian books and to serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Isn’t it the same with you? When you have some plan, aren’t you anxious with concern for it until it is all finished? We are even more concerned with it because the work we do is God’s work, not the things of the flesh. We can’t relax our mind until we bring to the Lord many fruits of salvation after we fulfill our responsibility of sharing the gospel throughout the world that God has entrusted to us. We have to do the farming of the gospel well. Do you understand this? We must do the farming of the gospel well and give the harvest of the gospel to the Lord when He comes, saying, “Lord, here is your harvest.” What is important is not whether the souls receive the remission of sin right now or not. Rather, the very important thing is that we should obey the Lord’s command, that is, “Preach the gospel of the water and the blood”; that we should share the gospel of the water and the blood, and give baptism in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit to those who have received the remission of sin as He commanded us; and that we should teach them and help them follow after the Lord’s command faithfully. Whether they receive it or not, we just do as the Lord commands us.
I went to a hospital today to share the gospel with the patients there, and while the person invited to the gospel listened attentively, the person next to him became quite upset and showed displeasure. And the person who was listening to the gospel said, “Don’t worry about him, he was like that yesterday, too.” Though we’d be happier and more joyful if they are receptive to the gospel, we are not concerned if they like it or not because we have the conviction in our mission of sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit in obedience to the Lord’s command. Our job is to do the best with all our hearts to continue the work that our Lord has entrusted us with, and whether the people believe and receive the remission of sin or not believe and continue living as sinners is the responsibility of the people who hear the Truth from us. Sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit is for the people who have not received the remission of sin, but, at times, people who hear this just don’t know this. That hurts our hearts greatly, but we will not stop the Lord’s work of sharing the Truth of the remission of sin, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, to people all over the world. This is the work entrusted to us and I believe this work will unfold according to the will of the Lord who has sent us.
Those who are born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit live on this earth to fulfill the Lord’s will. That’s why God’s Church is here. The Church is an organization established to do what the Master commands. The Church is not an institution for the world or for the things of the flesh. The Church is the institution to fulfill the Lord’s work. That’s why we the members of His Church live with the purpose to fulfill the Lord’s commands until the Lord’s coming. And we shall not lose faith of believing in the Lord’s Word until the end. Then, there is nothing to worry about regardless of when the Lord comes.
In a short while, the disaster will come before your eyes as it is written in Revelation and you will feel the reality of the Word through your skin. Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, endure a little longer and give your hearts to the gospel and let’s share it throughout the world. Do you understand? If we live out our faith, praying not to betray our faith at that time, we will never lose to Satan the Devil. But, if a born-again person does not stay with God’s Church and seeks a totally individualistic life for one’s own happiness, the person will fall to the Satan and receive the mark when the time comes to stamp the mark.
We must understand clearly what will happen in the future. We must live in this world with the understanding of the consequences. Do you understand that whatever we do, we must live in the present with the correct prediction of the consequences.
Whatever we do, we must live for the gospel of the Lord. We may keep our faith if we understand that we have been predestined to live for the gospel and follow and live with faith. We must not forget our duty until the end.
Let’s not be concerned with anything, and let’s preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit until the day of the Lord’s coming. Halleluiah!
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Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission