কোভিড-১৯ এবং আন্তর্জাতিক ডাক পরিষেবা বিঘ্নিত হওয়ার কারণে,
আমরা সাময়িকভাবে আমাদের ‘বিনামূল্যের মুদ্রিত বইয়ের পরিষেবা’ বন্ধ রেখেছি|
আমরা সাময়িকভাবে আমাদের ‘বিনামূল্যের মুদ্রিত বইয়ের পরিষেবা’ বন্ধ রেখেছি|
এহেন পরিস্থিতিতে এই মুহুর্তে আমরা আপনাদের কাছে ডাকযোগে বই প্রেরণে অসমর্থ|
এই অতিমারীর যেন আশু সমাপন ঘটে এবং ডাক পরিষেবার পুনরাম্ভের জন্য প্রার্থনা করুন৷
এই অতিমারীর যেন আশু সমাপন ঘটে এবং ডাক পরিষেবার পুনরাম্ভের জন্য প্রার্থনা করুন৷
Subject 21 : The Gospel According to MARK
[Chapter 16-1] The Lord Has Given Us The True Salvation (Mark 16:1-20)
(Mark 16:1-20)
“Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, ‘Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?’ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His Disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.’ So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.’ So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.”
Dear fellow believers, how have you been these days? As you also know, today is Easter Sunday. Therefore, I want to preach a sermon on the issue relating to the resurrection of Jesus as well. I hope this hour will be a good time for us to think about our resurrection based on the resurrection of Jesus through the Word of the Lord. Today’s Scripture passage records the events concerning Jesus’ resurrection and what happened on the first day after the Sabbath. This is the morning of the very day Jesus was resurrected.
The Resurrection of Jesus Is Related to the Rest He Has Given Us
The important fact we can see here is that Jesus was resurrected early in the morning of the first day after the Sabbath day. That Jesus was resurrected on the first day after the Sabbath day like this instead of some other week day means that Jesus has created a new world for us by doing this.
Let’s think about this for a moment. What does the spiritual Sabbath mean to us the children of God who serve and believe in Jesus as the Savior? God created the entire universe and all things in it by the fifth day of creation and then He made man in the image of His likeness on the sixth day of His creation. And the Lord rested on the next day, the seventh day was the final day of creation. And God the Creator gave us the same rest that He enjoyed after creating the world and us. Actually, this spiritual Sabbath the Lord has given to us is an immensely precious blessing to all of us. Jesus Christ who came to this world gave us many things without reservation, but one of the greatest things among these is this very rest. That the Lord gave us this rest means that He filled our hearts with comfort and eternal relaxation. It means that God defeated Satan by the gospel of the water and the Spirit in this world which was filled with spiritual wars and battles overflowing with all kinds of temptations and sins and brought perfect rest into this world by ending these struggles. I want you to believe and accept that this spiritual rest that God gave to us is a great blessing.
As I just said, God enjoyed rest after creating the universe and all things in it. He was very pleased with man whom He had created on the sixth day, so He rested on the seventh day of His creation appointing this day the Sabbath day. In the Old Testament, we can see that God had regarded the Sabbath day as very important. One of the commandments God had stipulated in the Ten Commandments is to keep the Sabbath day holy. Hence, we can find many Scripture passages in the Old Testament that state how God blesses when His people keep the Sabbath day. Otherwise, He brings down curses. It means that because God gave His people such a blessed and real rest, not keeping the Sabbath and throwing it away or disrespecting it is akin to ignoring and disrespecting His love. The Sabbath day implies that God created man, and gave us true rest, and wanted to live with us eternally in Paradise.
And in the time of the New Testament, this Sabbath day entails more concrete meaning of true rest by the Lord Jesus. The full meaning of the spiritual Sabbath manifested in the eternal sacrifice of Jesus, who came to this world, took all the sins of mankind away personally through the baptism of water that He received from John the Baptist, died on the Cross, and was resurrected from the dead. The righteousness of God that Jesus Christ had fulfilled with His baptism and His blood has precisely brought this new life and the true rest that the Lord has given to you and me. Actually, the Lord was resurrected from death after dying on the Cross in order to give this true rest to us who believe in Jesus. In order to save us perfectly, Jesus received the baptism and also died on the Cross. So, God the Father also raised His Son up from this death for us. Put differently, in order to give true rest in our hearts, the Lord has accomplished all these works of salvation by coming to this world and receiving the baptism, dying on the Cross, and being resurrected from the dead. Therefore, this rest which the Lord has given to us is not just some ordinary comfort that people of the world speak of, but it is an eternal rest that dwells in the souls of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have received this true rest and eternal relaxation by receiving the remission of sins into our hearts because of our Lord who came to this world.
However, some people still cannot receive this true rest due to the dregs of sin in their hearts even though the Lord had already given them this perfect rest. They engage in spiritual war against these sins that remain in their hearts and are always fearful that they might face destruction due to these sins. God often lamented in the Old Testament that His people did not want to enjoy this true rest even though He had already given it to them. The Lord also told His people to stone to death anyone who would violate the Sabbath day.
To help your understanding of this, we will look in the Book of Exodus chapter 31 from verse 12. It is written, “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed’’” (Exodus 31:12-17).
Not only in this Word from the Book of Exodus, but also in the Words of the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Ezekiel of the Old Testament, we can see that God said that He will bring down calamity upon anyone who did not keep the Sabbath day. One example of this is the story of a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath day while the Israelites were in the wilderness. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to the entire congregation. Then God said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp” (Numbers 15:35). So, as God commanded Moses, the entire congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death (Numbers 15:32-36).
Because I am telling you this and I have mentioned the Sabbath day several times, those of you who have come to our Church for the first time might think, “Does this church belong to the Seventh Day Adventist Church?” We are absolutely not of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. We are just re-confirming the meaning of the Sabbath day according to the Scriptures with the purpose of thinking again about the Sabbath which is the day before Jesus was resurrected, and He was resurrected on the first day after the Sabbath day, and not just any other weekday.
But why does the Scriptures put so much importance on the Sabbath day like this and even said that those who did not keep it shall be stoned to death? There are actually people among the Christians who treat this Sabbath day as very important. They say, “You must absolutely keep the Sabbath in order to receive salvation from God. You must not do anything on the Sabbath day.” This sect is the so-called “the Seventh Day Adventist Church.” And we do not need to pay much attention to them because their claims are merely man-made doctrines based on their arbitrary interpretations. But the important thing here is to realize the true meaning of God’s Word, and not to put so much importance on the Sabbath day like those from “the Seventh Day Adventist Church.”
Our Lord came to this world to make all the people of this world, including you and me, sinless. In other words, the Lord has come to make us the people of God and take us to His Kingdom in order to live with us there eternally. The Lord came to this world and took over all our sins by receiving baptism and carried these sins in our place and even received the penalty of the Cross for this purpose. The Lord was resurrected in three days after dying on the Cross like this and witnessed His amazing work of the resurrection for forty days and now sits at the right hand of the throne of God the Father again. Jesus fulfilled all these works of salvation for the sole purpose of re-making sinners into the perfect children of God.
Then, dear fellow believers, where could we find the evidence that we have really become the children of God through such a ministry? The true rest inside you and me is the true evidence of this. The fact that we feel and experience this true rest and comfort is clear evidence that the Lord has made us who had been sinners into His perfect children. True blessed rest is found inside our hearts and that is why we give thanks and praise to God. In order to give us such carefree rest, the Lord gave us salvation. Therefore, we can say that we have received this rest due to the Lord’s ministry of salvation and His great love towards us. This is the very reason the Scriptures put so much importance on the spiritual rest and the Sabbath day.
In order to give this true rest to our hearts, the Lord came to this world, received the baptism, bore the penalty for our sins by being crucified in our place, shed all His blood from His heart, died on the Cross, and then He was resurrected from the dead. The Lord who went through such difficult processes for us gave this true rest into our hearts by giving us the remission of our sins.
However, there are so many Christians who still have not realized this ministry of salvation and say, “God, I still have sin in my heart. I am a sinner before the presence of God.” God would then answer such people, “Everyone who profanes the Sabbath shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among My people.” In other words, whoever does not acknowledge and accept this Lord-given rest can no longer be His child. It means that he shall be cut off from His people. It also means that the Lord will absolutely judge those who repeatedly flaunt their foolishness even after knowing that He had blotted out all their sins and that He had given them this true rest, saying, “God, I am a sinner again. You have NOT blotted out all my sins.”
Every Christian must have an accurate understanding and conviction concerning this true rest the Lord has given. This is the reason why God speaks much about the importance of the God-given rest and the Sabbath day through the Scriptures. As you can see in the Book of Genesis, the Lord states that He rested on the seventh day after creating the universe and all the things in it and that He bestowed blessing on this day and made this day holy.
The Lord really was resurrected from the dead and saved us perfectly and gave you and me the blessings of true rest and holiness and also gave us the remission of sins. Our Lord also gave us the grace of ruling over all things of this world and taking from it whatever we need. There is no blessing that we have not received which has not come from God the Father. I am saying the Lord has given us all these blessings that we are enjoying.
Dear fellow believers, as we now celebrate Easter Sunday we must not just spend this Easter singing praises, “Jesus is resurrected! Hallelujah!” and eating delicious food as if it was a seasonal holiday. You must know the fact the Lord was resurrected means that you and I have received this new life through the resurrected Lord and that the Lord has given this perfect remission of sins and peaceful rest into the heart of every genuine believer. Jesus Christ who took over all the sins of the world by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist and received the penalty on the Cross in our place was resurrected on this very day. And the Lord was resurrected perfectly by His almighty power and bestowed this rest of the heart and the blessing of the remission of sins to everyone who believes in Him. The resurrection of the Lord includes all the amazing ministry of salvation for you and me like this. If a person cannot realize this great truth which is contained in this resurrection of the Lord although he claims to believe in Jesus, he as a result cannot enjoy the blessing of becoming a perfect child of God no matter how ardently he believes in Jesus. I repeat the purpose of the resurrection of Jesus was for Him to give new life and true rest to you and me.
Our Salvation That Manifested in the Tabernacle System
We will look at the Word from the Book of Exodus chapter 27 verses 9-19 together.
“You shall also make the court of the tabernacle. For the south side there shall be hangings for the court made of fine woven linen, one hundred cubits long for one side. And its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets shall be bronze. The hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be silver. Likewise along the length of the north side there shall be hangings one hundred cubits long, with its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of bronze, and the hooks of the pillars and their bands of silver. And along the width of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits, with their ten pillars and their ten sockets. The width of the court on the east side shall be fifty cubits. The hangings on one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets. And on the other side shall be hangings of fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets. For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, made by a weaver. It shall have four pillars and four sockets. All the pillars around the court shall have bands of silver; their hooks shall be of silver and their sockets of bronze. The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits, the width fifty throughout, and the height five cubits, made of fine woven linen, and its sockets of bronze. All the utensils of the tabernacle for all its service, all its pegs, and all the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze” (Exodus 27:9-19).
In this Word, God told His people to make the court of the Tabernacle first, and in this court they should build the Tabernacle, the House of God wherein He would dwell. They probably needed many materials to build the Tabernacle at that time, but today I will only speak about the meaning of the wooden pillars and white linen. Even these days, we must first set up pillars securely first in order to build a wooden house. Like this they needed pillars for building the court of the Tabernacle where God shall dwell. At that time they used wooden pillars, and the height of each pillar was about 2.5 meters. To build the court of the Tabernacle, they first had to erect 60 wooden pillars along the four sides, planting them firmly on the ground by connecting them with each other with hooks and bands, and then they put white linen around it very meticulously. Therefore, no one could look into the court from the outside. God told them to make the court of the Tabernacle like this so that people on the outside would not see what was inside and what the people inside were doing unless they entered through the gate. Even these days when we go the countryside, we can sometimes see how people have erected posts like pillars and put white sheets all around it by securing it to these posts. This very Tabernacle of God that appears in the Word must have looked similar to that.
It would take too much time today if I talked all about the Tabernacle system in detail. Therefore, I would like to talk just about the meaning of the wooden pillars from now on. If the white linen signified “the holiness of God,” each wooden pillar signifies the Truth of salvation that Jesus had accomplished by coming to this world. How can a pillar mean this? I want you to listen carefully to what I say from now on although it might be a little complicated. When we look at a wooden pillar driven into the ground to constitute the court of the Tabernacle, something that looks like a cap covered the top of each pillar. And on this lid, there were hooks so that they could connect with each other with bands. They could also bind these pillars with rope by securing them to bronze pegs. The wooden pillars would fall over as soon as any strong wind blew if it just stood alone. Therefore, they covered the top of each pillar with a silver lid with hooks so that they could connect the pillars with the bands and tie it with rope to the solid bronze pegs into the ground. Let’s look at the lower part of the pillars now. There was also a socket on the lower end of these pillars to make them stand firm. And these sockets were made of bronze, unlike the bands. Yes, this brings to mind something that looks like a tent that we put up when we go camping, doesn’t it?
Let’s clarify what we have just talked about: The lids that covered the top of these wooden pillars and the bands were made of silver, while the sockets that were to support the pillars were made of bronze. What then does each of these metals namely, silver and bronze mean in the Bible? Silver signifies the grace of God and bronze signifies the judgment of God. In other words, we can say that the silver lid on top of the wooden pillars used for the Tabernacle signifies the grace of salvation that Jesus Christ bestowed upon us, that is, the fact that Jesus took all the sins of this world upon Himself by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. Then what does the bronze socket on the lower end of the wooden pillars signify? It means that after Jesus took all our sins upon Himself like this, Jesus then carried all these sins to the Cross and received the judgment and penalty in our place.
Dear fellow believers, have you come to understand this? Even a wooden pillar that was erected to build the court of the Tabernacle manifests clearly to us the truth that Jesus has saved you and me like this. Each wooden pillar of the court of the Tabernacle shows the grace of salvation that our Lord has bestowed upon us who have committed sins like this. Jesus Christ came to this world and saved us perfectly by taking all our sins upon Himself by receiving the baptism and being resurrected from the dead after dying on the Cross. This was already prophesized about and decided upon when God instructed His people in detail how they must build the Tabernacle in the Old Testament.
We would not have received salvation and become the children of God if the Lord did not take all our sins upon Himself through His baptism. We would have still remained sinners if the Lord did not take all the sins of the world upon Himself and all by Himself and did not receive the penalty for those sins on the Cross. Jesus Christ who was resurrected from the dead had thus fulfilled all the ministry of salvation perfectly by giving this blessed new life to us who believe in Him like this.
We must keep in mind the illustration of this Tabernacle that appears in the Book of Exodus, and also what these pillars signify. To build the court of the Tabernacle, they needed wooden pillars; and each pillar was planted on a bronze socket, and they had to cover the pillar with a silver lid. And I repeat that the silver lid and the bronze socket signify Jesus Christ taking the sins upon Himself through the baptism and receiving the penalty of all those sins in our place. Furthermore, they signify that Jesus Christ gave us new and eternal life by being resurrected from the dead after dying on the Cross like this. Through the pillars the Tabernacle, we must understand and reconfirm again the importance of the baptism of the Lord, the blood He shed on the Cross, and His resurrection. Today is Easter Sunday, and we must not just eat boiled eggs and utter formalistic words like, “Jesus was resurrected. We will also be resurrected and receive a new life. With Easter Sunday upon us, let’s become the light of the world and the salt of the earth.” We should not just go through Easter Sunday like one of our normal seasonal holidays.
Jesus really came to this world in human flesh and took all our sins upon Himself by being baptized in the Jordan River when He turned thirty. After that, He became the true Savior of those who believe in Jesus Christ who was resurrected in three days after He died on the Cross to pay off all the wages of all their sins. The bronze socket supporting the pillar of the Tabernacle signifies the Lord receiving the judgment for sins in our place. And as the silver lid of the pillar signifies, the Lord covered us with His grace of salvation. We must therefore believe that Jesus Christ was resurrected like this to save sinners like us and to give us new life. We must understand that the resurrection of the Lord is His promise to save our souls and lead us to the eternal Kingdom of God and to live with Him eternally even though our physical bodies shall die. Beloved saints, as we greet this Easter Sunday, I earnestly want you to believe in this promise of salvation which God has given to us and put your hope in the Kingdom of God and become the people of faith who give heartfelt thanks to Him by faith. It is clearly a wrong faith to just utter and think in simple terms, “Jesus died on the Cross during the period of Lent. It must have been horrible for Him. But He was resurrected on Easter Sunday. Halleluiah! Amen.” We must always understand clearly in our hearts the truth that Jesus Christ died for the penalty of our own sins, not someone else’s sins, and that Jesus Christ was resurrected to give us new life.
It is an absolutely clear truth that our Lord was resurrected and saved us from our sins perfectly and also gave us this true rest and a new life. The Gospel of John records that the resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples and said, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” and it says, “He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:21-22). Exactly as it is written, our Lord gave us the Holy Spirit as a gift after He was resurrected. It is clear our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the Holy Spirit and makes us perfect and glorious.
Then how can one receive such a blessed Holy Spirit? It is not that difficult. A person has already received the Holy Spirit if the person believes both in the baptism of Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross. Anyone can receive the Holy Spirit as well, not just the blessing of the remission of sins, but by having faith in His baptism and His death on the Cross.
Then let’s see what kind of faith a person must have to receive the Holy Spirit through the Word of the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 verses 13 to 17.
“For Thus, It Is Fitting for Us to Fulfill All Righteousness”
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:13-17).
As you can see, it states clearly here that when Jesus came up from the water after he had been baptized, He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighted upon Him. The heavens were opened when Jesus came up from the water after receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. And the voice of God came from Heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Dear fellow believers, we must first receive the remission of sins in our hearts in order to receive the Holy Spirit from God. It’s because our heart must be spotlessly clean without any sin in order for the Holy Spirit to dwell in that empty space. Then how can we receive the remission of sins in our heart? As we know well already, we must believe in the baptism the Lord received. We can receive the remission of all our sins once and for all only if we believe in the fact that all our sins were passed onto Jesus when He received the baptism from John the Baptist who was the representative of humankind. This is akin to the fact that all the sins of the Israelites were passed over onto the scapegoat when the High Priest laid his hands on its head in the Old Testament (Leviticus 16:21). And God only gives the Holy Spirit into the hearts of those who have received the remission of sins like this. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God to those who have received the remission of sins by believing that Jesus came to this world and took all our sins by receiving the baptism.
When Jesus was receiving the baptism, He went down under the water, signifying His death on the Cross in place of all our sins, and His subsequent emersion from the water signifies His resurrection. That is, to believe in the baptism of Jesus is to believe in His every act of salvation―His baptism of water, His blood of the Cross, and also His resurrection. Therefore, the blessing of the remission of sins is given to a person who believes in this baptism that includes all the ministry acts of the salvation of Jesus Christ, and that person also receives the Holy Spirit into his heart by faith. The very faith which enables us to receive the Holy Spirit is the faith of believing that all our sins have passed over to the Lord through the baptism He received in the Jordan River. The Old Testament has already told us that the Lord had saved us perfectly through the implication of the pillars of the Tabernacle. And as this Word states, Jesus Christ indeed came to this world in the New Testament era and took all the sins of humankind by receiving His baptism, received the penalty for those sins by being crucified to death on the Cross, and became our perfect Savior by being resurrected in three days after His death. If you believe in all these Words and the Lord’s ministry of salvation that is manifested through the Old and the New Testaments, the Holy Spirit of God will also descend like a dove and alight upon your hearts.
Beloved saints, I will ask you again. When and how did Jesus take your sins upon Himself and made you receive the remission of sins in your heart? Yes, the Lord took all our sins including our descendants sins, and of all the people of this world, upon Himself when He was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. How many sins do we who were born as a mass of sin commit while living in this world? We commit so many sins continually until the moment we die. But Jesus took all these sins away and blotted them out once and for all and gave us the remission of sins. Just before the Lord was baptized, He said to John the Baptist, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). What does it mean by “fulfilling all righteousness” here? It means that the Lord took all our sins upon Himself. It means that while the High Priest passed only the yearly sins of the Israelites onto the scapegoat by laying his hands on its head in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament the Lord came to this world and took upon Himself all the sins of the entire human race, from Adam to the last person who will be born at the moment of the end of the world, by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist and carried all these sins to the Cross and received the judgment all for these sins. The reason Jesus was crucified and died on the Cross was exactly to pay off the wages of all our sins that He had taken upon Himself through His baptism. Therefore, after saying, “It is finished” at this very last moment and dying on the Cross, Jesus was resurrected from the dead in three days and gave the remission of sins to those who believe in this Word and also gave them the Holy Spirit as a gift.
Dear fellow believers, we have received the remission of sins by believing in the baptism of the Lord. We have received the remission of all the sins we commit with our filthy flesh and made clean as white as snow just by having faith and believing in the baptism of Jesus. As the Lord spoke to us by the pillar of the court of the Tabernacle in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ put on us the grace of the blessed salvation by taking all our sins upon Himself through His baptism and receiving all the judgment for those sins. Jesus died on the Cross in order to pay off the wages of our sins and became our true Savior by being resurrected from the dead. Dear fellow believers, do you believe this? Our souls that could not but enter the path of death consequently due to our sins became alive again through faith of believing in this baptism.
We can receive the remission of sins into our hearts and also receive the Holy Spirit of God at the same time when we believe that Jesus Christ took all our sins upon Himself through His baptism and received the penalty of those sins in our place by being crucified to death on the Cross. The Holy Spirit of God can dwell in our heart when we believe that Jesus was resurrected from death and became our perfect Savior.
The Lord said, “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” (Romans 8:1). Although we are insufficient beings with so many sins, we have become the perfect children of God who have received a new life from the Lord because the Holy Spirit dwells in our heart. As you and I greet this Easter Sunday, we must understand clearly how the Lord saved us and how He gave us this new life. Jesus Christ was resurrected and gave us eternal life. As He was brought back to life again, our souls will also be brought back to life again. Because of the Lord, we have already received a new life, and we will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and live happily there praising God eternally. I want you to know that we receive such blessings by faith of believing in the resurrection of the Lord.
Dear fellow believers, I want you to believe in your heart that the Lord has given us this new life by being resurrected from the dead. And I want you to live with the hope of entering the Kingdom of Heaven by this faith.
The world is actually very depressing. In a short while, this world will become even more depressing due to the flood of sins of this generation. How can we who live in such a depressing world which is full of sins escape from this and receive the perfect salvation and new life? There is no other way. We can receive salvation only by faith of believing in Jesus Christ. We cannot receive the remission of sins into our hearts, receive salvation and become sanctified by offering up our prayers of repentance. How can all our sins be resolved by offering such prayers of repentance when we are insufficient humans who commit so many sins on a daily basis. Anyone who says, “We can receive the remission of all our sins we commit if we just offer these prayers of repentance” are religious swindlers. They are merely swindlers who just take away believers’ hard earned money. It means that they are swindlers like the way a street vendor dressed in a fine suit sells fake watches.
The only way for you to receive salvation from your countless sins is to have faith in the baptism of the Lord. I give my heartfelt thanks to God who came to this world, took all our sins by receiving the baptism, paid off the wages of those sins on the Cross, and gave us a new life by being resurrected from the dead. I give thanks to God who gave us this salvation, the true rest, and also the Holy Spirit.
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