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Subject 22 : The Gospel According to LUKE
[Chapter 5-3] The Righteous Must Now Live a New Life (Luke 5:36-39)
(Luke 5:36-39)
“Then He spoke a parable to them: ‘No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
What Kind of Life Should We Live?
I am very happy that I have come up to this metropolis to preach God’s Word to you today. You were always in my mind, but this place feels like a little Heaven because I came to Seoul this morning and met the Pastor Youngwha Lee and his wife, the assistant minister, and all the members of the Church and also met the coworkers from our branch Churches throughout the country.
I must start with talking about soccer today. I played soccer with the brothers here and it was good because the wives of the pastors cheered us on a lot. I was able to show my soccer skills to them. I scored one goal today. I usually score a goal or two whenever I play a soccer game and I think that is because of God’s blessing and help. Actually, I could have scored five more goals, but it is regretful that I could not score any more because the brothers of my team did not pass me the ball. Next time, I think I could score not just one goal, but a few goals, because I believe the brothers will pass me the ball more.
My throat is a little coarse and that is not from preaching God’s Word. Unfortunately, my voice became coarse from screaming, “Here, pass the ball here” in the soccer field. They did not pass me the ball even though I begged them to pass the ball to me like that. I think they do not trust my soccer skills. Anyway, even when we play soccer like this, we really do it for the Lord. How would we be able to preach God’s Word properly if we were weak, our health was not good, and our physical body was broken down? Therefore, we played two games to strengthen our legs. Even so, I feel so energetic now that I feel like I could play another game tonight after the evening worship service tonight.
Let’s stop talking about soccer and start sharing God’s Word together now. We have read the Word from the Gospel of Luke today. Sister Younghee Lee expressed thanks to me while she was giving her testimony moments ago, and I am really thankful to her for caring for me like that. Really, how else would we have met if not for the Lord? How would we be so happy to see one another like this?
I have preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit all through this week. I ordinarily talk about the proper life of faith and many other things when I preach God’s Word, but I just preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit this week because there were many who have come here for the first time. Therefore, I came up here thinking that I would talk this one time about matters related to the proper life of faith today.
Let me ask you. Have you received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Have all your sins disappeared with no exception? Are you without sin? That is right. Our Lord saved you and me from all our sins. We can now stand before the Lord shamelessly like this because our Lord gave His flesh and blood to us and saved us from all the sins of the world. Our Lord has made us really blessed. Therefore, I give praise and deep gratitude to the Lord.
When I first came to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit before the presence of the Lord and received the remission of sins, I was very happy with the understanding that I do not have sin now. In addition, I also thought before the presence of God a lot about how I can really live a life only for the righteousness of the Lord like the Apostle Paul. Because the Lord blotted out all my sins at once, I had an earnest desire to live for the righteousness of the Lord instead of living just for my flesh. As time passes by and I think about the past, it really seems like a miracle that I am living righteously like this after meeting the righteousness of the Lord and I am so thankful for this.
Actually, we who have received the remission of sins by believing in the righteousness of God suffer various persecutions for the righteousness of the Lord and also hear nonsensical things; we fail to sleep all night at times and suffer many difficulties for the Lord because of the gospel. However, what other happiness is there? Really, I feel like there would be no joy of living if I did not live for the righteousness of the Lord, and I actually experience the work of the Lord allowing me to live for the Lord also. There are times when we cannot serve the righteousness of the Lord because our heart and flesh gets mixed up, but we have the desire to really live for the Lord in our hearts.
We must think about the life that is really pleasing to God. How could we serve the righteousness of the Lord properly and live the life of faith in the future if we become tied to sin again because of our weaknesses and shortcomings when we have received the remission of sins and become people who have nothing to do with sin? We cannot serve the righteousness of the Lord if we return to the past. Our Lord has made us perfectly righteous people. If that is the case, we must now do the work of serving the Lord and taking care of the lost souls. Thinking about the work of the Lord more than our own works and living the life of spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the life that is truly pleasing to the Lord. Such a life is appropriate for us who have become the righteous.
We do not have anything to worry about ourselves because our Lord has saved us. We do not need to worry about eating and making a living, becoming sinners again, and we do not even have to worry about going to hell. Our Lord not only saved us from sin, but He also took all our worries upon Him. Therefore, we can now live for the Lord with all our efforts. We have the privilege and ability to live for the Lord, and we also have responsibility to live for the Lord as well. Remember this. You and I who have received salvation must give our hearts and body with firm faith and serve the Lord only.
Our Lord Who Saved Us from Sin Is Our God
That God is our Master. Jesus Christ our God is the Master who has authority over us all. Who is the true God for us? It is Jesus Christ who came to this world, saved you and me from sin, and become our Master. He is our God that we must serve wholeheartedly. He is our God who deserves to be worshipped by us. It is an upright faith to profess that serving our Lord only is the right thing to do.
Think about it. What else in this world is worthy for us believers who have received the remission of sins to worship? What is really worth doing in this world? What is the thing that we who have become righteous must surely do in this world? It is none other than serving the Lord. I believe the most upright thing for us to do is serving only the Lord who saved us perfectly from the midst of all sins, removed all our worries, concerns, fears, and gave us the blessing and opportunity to work for the righteousness and entrusted us with the work of serving Him. I believe that is the proper thing to do. You feel the same way, right? Yes. It is so good for us to serve the Lord for the rest of our lives.
The Word from today’s Scripture passage from the Gospel of Luke says, “Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.” It would be terribly wrong if we who have received salvation would go back to a life of the past. It is a really erroneous faith to serve the Lord and go on living the way we used to in the past after receiving salvation by believing spiritually.
Our life must be a completely new life after receiving salvation from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The way of life is different from the past. If you have really received the remission of sins and the judgment of your sins have really ended, then there is nothing for you to worry about for your flesh or to work so hard for yourself. Do you understand what I am saying? It means that we who have received salvation do not need to worry so much and work so hard for our flesh. Take a look at the Word again. The Lord said clearly, “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.”
Our life after receiving salvation should be a life of serving the Lord who has become our Master with faith, serving the gospel the Lord has entrusted to us, and really serving the truly righteous thing. Otherwise, we would not be able to follow the Lord or receive the blessing from the Lord. If we continue to live without throwing away the way we used to live in the past after receiving salvation by faith, then it is not a life appropriate for the born-again saints. All of us used to live only for our flesh before being born again. It means that all of us used to live only for ourselves then. That is true. Before being born again, we used to live according to our desires of the flesh and also live with worries and anxieties to fulfill those desires. We used to live only for ourselves, for our flesh.
However, it must be different now. A life of living only for oneself after receiving salvation from sin, a life following after one’s own desires only is definitely not a life appropriate before the presence of God. What is the reason? We cannot live only for ourselves because we now belong to Christ Jesus. The Lord has made us His own by His atoning sacrifice: He took all our sins upon Him by personally receiving the baptism for us, received the judgment for those sins, and died in our place. Remember this. We who have been born again must live a life serving the Lord and serving the gospel through God’s Church. I am saying that praying for the salvation of other souls and living the righteous life of serving the gospel in unity with God’s Church is the truly appropriate life for the born-again saints. If we continued to live only for ourselves even after being born again and just lived for the desires of our flesh, it would be a totally inappropriate life for the righteous and the born-again saints.
The Lord said, “It is wrong to take a new garment and mend it together with an old garment. It would only tear up the new garment.” Though we are really lacking, we who have been born again must live a life of serving the Lord and serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That is pleasing to the Lord. If we continued to live with such faith of the past even after being born again, it would be like tearing the new garment and mending it onto an old garment. If we received salvation by faith but continue to live the way we used to live, we cannot live out our faith that is united with God’s will. If we have received salvation through the Lord, then we must also live for the Lord, for the gospel, and for the righteous work. Do you understand this?
Our Lord gave us a new life, His flesh, His blood, and saved us and took the judgment away from us. There is no judgment for us because of Him. Our future is all guaranteed because our Lord has received the judgment for our sins vicariously on the Cross. That is right. A happy future is guaranteed for us the righteous who have been born again. Not only in the far future but also even now, our Lord helps and blesses us when we live with faith and live for the righteousness of God.
Seek First the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness
The Lord said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). What does this Word mean? It means that the Lord helps and blesses us in every realm of our lives when we live for the righteousness of God. God intervenes and blesses all aspects of the life of the righteous. The Lord has really resolved all our problems.
However, what would happen if we felt inadequate even though the Lord has done everything for us like this and did not live for the Lord, did not live for the gospel, and instead desired to live for ourselves. The Lord takes His hands off such people. The Lord tells you and me, “I have saved you and blessed you. Therefore, live for the gospel that I have entrusted to you. I will take care of your work and you do My work. Lend Me your hand and give Me your mouth, heart, thinking, wisdom, physical body, and your time. I will bless you. Therefore, do My work.”
The Lord cares for us. He definitely cares for the righteous and blesses them. I mean that He loves you and cares for you. The Lord truly intervenes in all our endeavors, helps us, really leads us to upright path, and also gives us blessings. There is none who has not received the blessing of God among the people who have become righteous and have lived with the guidance of the Church. There is none who has not tasted the Lord’s help among them. We the righteous will continue to taste the Lord’s blessings and receive even more blessings in the future. However, if we felt ourselves inadequate to serve the Lord and only thought about ourselves and only tried to live for ourselves, the Lord would say something like this, “You are not proper. I will stop helping you even though you have received salvation. You bless yourself from now on. I will bless the saints who care for Me.”
I want you to absolutely remember this: Serving the Lord after being born again is like serving yourself. You must know that the life of serving the Lord is proper and we must believe and live according to that faith. Do you understand? Do you really want to live a blessed life? Then, care for the Lord. Care for the gospel. You and I serving the Lord and the Lord caring for us and serving us is the true fellowship between the Lord and us. That is the upright life for us, the saints of Christ. Our Lord always blesses us after we become born again. The Lord blesses us in our daily lives and also blesses us in our spiritual life of faith.
What is a church life? A church life is the born-again saints getting together and joining their hearts together and serving the Lord together. However, what would happen if a sinner pastor and Christian sinners who have not been born again came to God’s Church and tried to join together with the righteous saints? The Scriptures said such people would not be joined together. The faith of being born again that was received preciously before the presence of the Lord would become polluted if the righteous allow them to join in God’s Church. Saints who have become righteous through the Lord must dwell in the Church of God and join together among the righteous people only.
What would happen if we compromised ourselves in order to go to the sinners’ churches to fellowship with them? If we think, “It will be okay if I just make a little concession and tolerate a little. It will be okay if I took a little loss. I just have to pray the way I pray even when other people weep and scream and offer prayers of repentance for the sins they have committed today,” and just sit there like a good-natured man or woman, then our faith of the righteous will also become filthy. It is natural for us to become dirty when we go to a dirty place. There are some people who have been born again during this week and born-again people have been increasing continuously, and those born-again people must surely come and live out their faith in God’s Church as a new garment and should be joined together with a new garment.
All churches are not the same in God’s eyes. There are two sorts of churches in this world: Church of God and the church of the world. The Bible defines the latter as “the synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 3:9). It is the same with Christians. Not everyone is the same just because one believes in Jesus. The righteous must dwell in the Church where the pastor is born-again, his wife is born-again, the assistant minister is born-again, and all the believers are born again. The righteous must join together with the other righteous people and praise God, give thanks, profess testimony, rejoice, serve the Lord and the gospel, pray to the Lord for the lost souls, pray for the brothers and sisters, pray for God’s servants, and join the hearts together and stick together in God’s Church that is doing God’s work as the city of righteousness. Then, you can receive all the blessings that God wants to give through that true Church.
What did the Scriptures say about us righteous, the people who have been born again? It identifies us as new garments; it says, “Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). No matter how we had lived before and what is our heritage, all people who know and believe the salvation that our Lord has saved them has now become new beings. Therefore, you and I have all become new beings. Do you understand? You are definitely not an old thing. We have been new beings ever since we were born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our old self died at the same time we became born again.
We have become a new thing in the Lord. We must now do righteous work of God because we have become new things. It means that we want to do God’s work because we have become new beings. All saints who have received the remission of sins desire to do something new. They really want to do new works that are different from the things they used to do according to their old way of life. Our Lord gives such a heart inside the hearts of you and me and also actually makes us do such works. The Church becomes new, a person becomes new, a pastor becomes new, an assistant minister becomes new, their wives become new, and brothers and sisters become new. All those newly born-again saints want to meet and fellowship with each other in the Holy Spirit. What is the reason? It is because they all have become new. It means you have become new beings.
However, what would happen if a person did not know that he had become a new thing and underestimated himself too much? He would think, “I like this old church better even though I have received the remission of sins” and live exactly according to the old way of living. He does this because he does not know who he is. As the Scriptures say, “Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new,” you and I have already become new creatures in Christ. We must correctly understand the appearance of our selves who are like that. It is natural that the born-again saints do not want to go to the old church that they used to go to after they become born again and received the remission of sins. Is there anyone who cannot do this because that has become a habit?
There was a general called Yoosin Kim in the Shinla Kingdom during the Three Kingdom Period of Korea. Before he became a general, he loved a hostess. His parents rebuked him for this, and he promised them not to hang around her saloon any more. One day, coming back to his house on his horseback, he was dosing off because he was so tired. When he woke up, contrary to what he was thinking, the horse he rode brought him to her saloon habitually. Therefore, he got angry and cut the neck of the horse with his sword at once. Then, he returned home on foot and never went to her saloon again.
Some of you are constantly trying to go back to the old ways habitually, but you have to remember that you have actually become a new being already. You have already died and your old friends are no longer your true friends now. As God’s Word here, the new thing and the old thing must never be joined together after becoming born again. Hasn’t the Lord said, “They should not be added together”? They cannot be added together as the Lord said. A sinner and a righteous saint can never be united together. I do not know how strong your endurance is, but you cannot be added together no matter how much you endure and can bear it all patiently. The righteous and sinners are like water and oil. That they can never be mixed together is the truth.
Do you think hopefully that you will be able to unite together with them if you endure a little bit? Are you a god? Are you saying that you can join together with an old thing through your own strength when God Almighty has already made you a new being? It cannot be joined together. When a righteous person and a sinner get together, they will start fighting within one hour into their meeting. A new thing and an old thing do not fit physiologically. A new thing cannot be united together with an old thing physiologically. God said clearly that they should not be united together. Do you understand? You must understand.
But, what would happen if one did not know his status even after being born again and did not even know his way home and go into a church of sinners that has not received the remission of sins and say together with them, “Lord, please forgive this sinner”? Such person is pretending to be humble and praying before the presence of God like that even though he knows that he is not a sinner. Such a person will eventually become arrogant. And when he becomes arrogant like that, the Truth of being born again which he had will also become all for naught. He comes to behave just like those sinners. Make sure of this in your mind. You will surely come to say, “Lord, I am a sinner” just like other sinners if you who have definitely received the remission of sins joins together with the old things even though you have become a new being.
What does this mean? It means that a righteous saint who has received the remission of sins falls to the status of a sinner again. He eventually betrays the Lord. Then, he begins to dislike meeting the righteous after that. He will not even want to see the appearance of the righteous. He becomes a sinner again because he rejected the work the Lord has done, because he did not obey the Lord’s Word and follow with faith, and because he did not believe in the Lord’s Word with his heart. There are so many people like this around us.
We Must Throw Away All the Righteousness of Our Flesh
It means that we must throw away our selfishness, our own strength, our own pride, and our own human love. Our old selves have all died already. They have all received the judgment. They were all disposed to the garbage dump. You who have been born again must now hear the new Word in God’s Church and fill your heart with new faith. A person who has become a new being must fill himself with new things. He must be filled with the things of the Kingdom of Heaven. A righteous person who has received the remission of sins must fill himself with things of the Kingdom of Heaven, with spiritual things.
I serve the Lord. I do not serve the Lord with my own strength, but I serve the Lord only with faith because the Lord made me serve only the righteous Lord. God has given me abundant blessings. I do not want to serve the things of the world any longer. I do not want to serve the things that will all perish in the future. I want to serve the Lord, work for the Lord, do righteous works, and do the work of God that would be remembered for a long time. You also want to do so, right? Yes, you are. The Lord is our Master and the precious Savior for us. There is no one in the world who is more precious than the Lord. Even my wife is not more precious than the Lord is. It is the same with my children. It is not that I just think like that, but it is actually like that. I cannot help but love the Lord because only the Lord actually blesses me. I believe absolutely that the Lord takes responsibility for all things related to me and blesses me.
The only thing for me to do in this world after receiving the remission of sins is to serve the Lord Himself and live only for the Lord. I live for the Lord. I live for the Lord now instead of living for myself. Although I am lacking in ability and have many shortcomings and I do not even work well, but one definite thing is that I have the faith that professes that living only for the Lord is the right thing. I believe clearly that it is right to serve the Lord only. Do you also believe like this? I believe the Lord will help you who are like that in all things and also bestow His grace upon you.
I am very thankful. I died to the world when I was born again. There is nothing I have to do for myself in this world. It also means that there is nothing I have to do for the things of the world. I have become a new creature by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I have nothing to do for myself any more and there is no work to do for the world because the Lord has done everything for me already. Truly, the only work I have to do is for the Lord only. There is nothing for me to do for myself. This is true. This is not nonsense.
I am not saying this to urge you to serve the Lord. I am saying this because it is actually what we have to do. Really, if we live only for the Lord and if we believe that it is right to live like that, then the Lord who has much love blesses all the works that we do and let us fulfill them. The Lord gives all His blessings of the dew of Heaven and of the riches of the earth as well to us who serve the Lord. God blesses us all abundantly in order to receive more glory and more serving from us. Do you believe this?
I have so many shortcomings. I sometimes think, “Am I serving the Lord now?” I do not like myself at those times. There are times when I really, really do not like myself. However, when I get a hold of my heart with faith again and confess, “I will live for the Lord only. I may not be able to do a great work, but it is proper for my faith to live only for You,” I can believe the Lord again and I can live with faith in things God has allowed me. I want you to really remember this. For all the believers who have received the remission of sins, the really upright life is to live for the righteous thing and to live for the Lord.
It is not an upright life for a person to live only for himself even after being born again, and continue to live only for oneself even though he has grown a little. Right after receiving the remission of sins, when a person was a newly born baby spiritually who just received the remission of sins, he can care for himself because he does not know much about the proper life of the righteous. And the Church also understands him. The Church gives love and prays for him who has not received the understanding yet. However, it is not right for a saint to continue to live for himself even when he has grown up a little. No one can have compassion and understanding for him at that time. A spiritually grown-up person never lives for himself.
However, when I look at a person who lives only for himself even though much time has passed since he has been born again, I think, “What a child! Would God bless such a person? It is really a big concern. His faith has to grow somewhat.” A person is never like that when his faith has grown at least a little. However, there are many people around us who have such faith of a little child. They are people who do not care about anything but themselves. They cannot care for God because they are still held bondage to such things like what they should eat and drink in this world and what they should wear. Of course, for the people who have a job, working really diligently to serve the Lord and caring for their family is right thing to do before the presence of God. It is because living a diligent social life in one’s own position is not a life of living for himself only.
Many people still do not live a life for God. When I tell them, “You have received salvation, would you share the gospel to other people around you? Live in unity with the Church,” they answer “No” without hesitation. God says to such people, “Isn’t it right for you to do righteous work in the world? Isn’t the life of joining together in preaching the gospel, praying, and working hard and doing the truly righteous work upright? How could I bless you if you do not do this and live only for yourself? I would give you rewards and blessings if you did the righteous works in union with God’s Church, right?”
Do you know how merciful our Lord is? Our Lord waits for us patiently, provides everything we need, and blesses us. He does this because He wants us the righteous to come to His Kingdom after living a life worthy to be called righteous. It means that He wants us to live like His children before coming to His Kingdom. God wants nothing from us because everything in the entire universe is God’s. That’s right. God tells us to live an upright life and waits for us in order to bless us as His children. It is because He wants His children to do well and live an upright life. God cannot bless someone even though God wants to if he always does unrighteous things. God does not bless such a person because God knows that he would do even more unrighteous things if God blessed him nevertheless. However, the Lord blesses us if we live for the Lord and live for truly righteous thing. God blesses us to make us live abundantly in this world and also makes our life affluent in body and spirit.
The Lord cherishes those who are serving the gospel the most. The Lord pointed to Maria who poured fragrant oil on His head and said, “Wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her” (Mark 14:9). We have now become precious children of God because our Lord saved us. Almighty God the Father calls us His children. Do you believe this? Yes, that is right. We are all God’s children. In addition, the Lord tells His children to live a life worthy of His children. That is right. A King must live like a king. A righteous person should live a life worthy of a righteous person and a blessed person should live a life worthy of a blessed person. God will take care of our every need when we live like that. You and I must know such truth clearly.
We live with faith even though we have shortcomings. No matter how lacking our works are, everything we do turns out to be right and blessed; and everything we do is approved before the presence of God if we live with faith. You and I have really received God’s blessing. However, what happens if we do not live by faith? We become people who have no relationship with God’s blessings. We just pass away after trying hard by ourselves.
Therefore, we must first know what the upright thing to do is and also do the proper thing according to our faith at proper times. In order to live like that, we first need to have the faith of believing with the knowledge of what is right and how we should live. There is no saint who has gone wrong by following the Lord. There is no one who has gone wrong among the saints who have lived a life of following the Lord after believing in Jesus and being born again.
However, what happens to people who seek after the Lord without being born again? There are many people who have been destroyed. There are so many people who are going to hell. The people who believe in Jesus without being born again become destroyed so terribly that everything will be destroyed completely. It means that the people who follow after Jesus without being born again even though they believe in Jesus will all be destroyed completely and devastatingly.
On the other hand, there is none among the born-again who have followed after the Lord’s Word that has been destroyed. Is there anyone who has been destroyed? I know this well. The Lord never lets the person who follows after Him be destroyed. I know that there is no one among people who have been born again that the Lord has really allowed to be destroyed. Why is this the case? It is because our Lord that we believe is the omnipotent God, the Almighty.
Let’s look at verse 37. It says, “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.” The wine here signifies joy. For believers who have received salvation, there is new wine, new joy. There is a line of lyric in our hymn book that goes, “♬My new joy, My new joy, ♪The Lord who saved me, My new joy♬” There is new joy like this for the saints who have been born again. It is not an old joy. It is definitely a new joy.
The New Wine Must Be Poured into New Wineskin
Righteous people who have new joy must come to the new Church, the Church of God’s righteousness. If we pour new wine into old wineskin, the old wineskin would rip apart, the new wine would be wasted, and the old wineskin would also not be usable. We the righteous must dwell in the Church that has pastors and assistant ministers who preach the remission of sins clearly, a Church where ministers, ministers’ wives, and the believers who have received the remission of sins are gathered together. Do you understand? Only then, our new joy will be maintained until the end; joy will be added unto that joy; and God’s grace will manifest even more abundantly. All the blessings of God’s Church manifest as our own blessings. It means that all the blessings that have been bestowed on the Church will transform as our own blessing.
The righteous that have attained new joy must really come to the born-again Church. Only then, will they live properly, only then, they will receive God’s blessings. It says here clearly, “And no one puts new wine into old wineskin.” It means that new wine should always be poured into new wineskin. If we poured new wine into old wineskin, because the new wine would tear the old wineskin, the wine would spill to the ground, and old wineskin would also become useless too. New wine must always be poured into new wineskin. People who have received the remission of sins must certainly come to the Church that enables people to receive the remission of sins. This is the absolutely clear Word of God. God tells us to come there because God has something to say and He has blessings to give to us who have become righteous.
And not all the blessing is over just with the fact that we have received the remission of sins. The remission of sins becomes the foundation for receiving all the blessings and the criteria for all things. For example, when a person who has met such qualification dwells in a born-again Church, God blesses all his life, his thinking, his faith, his heart, and his deeds. People who have tasted such blessing of God always stay in God’s Church because they know that they cannot be destroyed when why they believe like this.
In our thinking, it may seem like our Lord does not help us much. But He actually cares for us very much and helps you and me very much. Our Lord actually bestows much blessing upon us. Think about it. Could you and I have met like this and live together in the Lord if the Lord did not bless us? We would not even be able to talk like this. I also can preach the Word to you with healthy body like this because of the Lord’s blessing. We must believe what great blessing the Lord has given to us and what great grace the Lord has bestowed upon us.
As the Scriptures said, “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17), you and I must live with faith. We receive blessing through faith and obey God with faith. We obey the Word of God with faith, receive blessing through faith, and do righteous deeds by faith. Faith is the first, faith is the second, and faith is the third. Faith! Faith is everything. Starting with Abraham, the forefather of faith, all the righteous people have lived with this faith until now.
Beloved believers, have you received the remission of sins? Do you believe the Word that says, “New wine must be put into new wineskins”? Now that we are born again, let’s continuously taste new joy, the joy that is like a fountain, eternally within the born-again Church. People who have become new wine and a new being must have new plan of life even in relation to the blue print of their spiritual life. Our Lord has dotted a totally new plan for you and me.
Do you live by the faith of believing in the righteousness of God? Do you do things with faith? Do you speak with faith? Do you pray with faith? Do you look to God with faith? Our Lord guides us believers perfectly to the right path if we just believe in God and pray with faith, obey with faith and live with faith, and also join together with the Church by faith. Therefore, all of us must live by that faith.
However, what happens to a person who does not live with faith after being born again? He murmurs incoherently, “Right. That is right. Everything is right. But, I don’t know exactly what to do,” like a dying chick that has eaten rat poison. Everything is difficult and painful when you do not abide in the Church, when you do not live by faith, and when you do not live out your faith. Everything becomes fine when we live by faith and God receives glory and we receive His blessings when we do it with faith, but life is tiring and stressful like hell because we do not do it with faith. We then always come to think like, “What joy? Where is joy? What is good? The pastor always screams every day and it is tiring to serve the gospel every day. It is really irritating, really.”
Believe in the Lord with your heart. You will definitely not feel irritated and painful. This Word of God is really the blessed Word. Our Lord is saying this so that we who have been born again may not fall into wrong path and be swept away with the current of the world. Let’s pay attention to the Word the Lord has spoken to us today. We must never again do such things like being attached to an old garment or going and living in an old wineskin. Do you believe this?
Today’s Word is not difficult to understand, right? It is an easy and clear Word to understand. The Scriptures say, “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’” A person who has not been born again does not even request that joy because he does not know new wine, because he does not know new joy. Do you understand? Such a person does not like to come to the born-again Church because he could never know the new thing, because he has never experienced the true taste of the new thing.
Of course, he will sometimes have a desire to come too. The Holy Spirit whispers to him when he is just sitting in his home.
“I want to go. Do you want to go? Get up. Let’s go.”
“Well I feel a little awkward going there.”
“What do you mean awkward? Let’s go.”
Our Lord who has so much love even urges a person who has not been born again to go together with Him. However, most people who have not been born again like old wine instead of new wine. In the world, old wine is better. However, how is the wine of the Kingdom of Heaven? New wine is the true wine in the Kingdom of God. If we have tasted the wine of the Kingdom of God, we would not be able to drink old wine of the world because of the smell. We would think, “How filthy! What did they do to make it taste so bad? I’d rather not drink it.” We cannot even drink it like that. Have a taste of the wine from Heaven. It is so fresh and aromatic. Isn’t that right?
I have really delivered the Word lightheartedly today.
Let’s serve the righteousness of the Lord together. Serving the righteousness of the Lord is the life appropriate for the born-again. And seek help from the Lord. Then the Lord will surely help you. Our Lord loves us and stays with us until the end of the world instead of throwing us away after we have been born again: He helps us, blesses us, and protects us forever.
That is right. The Lord is the just God who always takes responsibility for us. Let’s give praise for such love of our Lord. Let’s give thanks. Let’s pray before the Lord with thanksgiving before the presence of God. “Lord, we praise You. You have saved truly many souls during this week also. Lord! Please take hold of us! Please protect us. Give us faith, take hold of us, protect us, and lead us so we may serve You properly. Bless all of us, our Lord.” Amen.
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