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Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 10-9] Know Clearly That Jesus Is the Christ and Believe So Unwaveringly (John 10:17-27)
(John 10:17-27)
“‘Therefore My Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.’ Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings. And many of them said, ‘He has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to Him?’ Others said, ‘These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’ Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, ‘How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.’”
In John chapter 10, the Lord continued to tell them that He was the Christ. It’s written in verses 23-24, “And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, ‘How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’” When Jesus was on this earth, many Jews thought that they were being confused by Him. They thought that they were good Jews, but Jesus was now deceiving and misleading many of them to go astray. That’s why they demanded Jesus to tell them plainly if He was really ‘the Christ’.
The word Christ means to be anointed, which implies the approval of God the Father. Everyone who was approved, appointed and used by God in the Bible was an anointed man. The kings of Israel were appointed by God. The first king of Israel was Saul and the second king was David, both of whom were anointed by prophets. The ‘anointed one’ means that God has approved him. It means that his authority has been granted by God.
In addition to kings, prophets and priests were also all anointed. Sometimes olive oil was poured on the head of the person being anointed. When kings, priests and prophets were appointed, they were all anointed on their heads. Spiritually speaking, this means that God the Father poured the Holy Spirit on them and made them His people to carry out His work.
The Jews said to Jesus, “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” They had no clue that Jesus was actually the very Christ sent by the Father to carry out the work of saving all the people of this world from their sin. It was prophesied in the Old Testament, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” and the word Immanuel means God is with us. God the Father had promised repeatedly to send the Savior. This Savior is none other than Jesus Christ. The word ‘Jesus’ means ‘the Savior’ and the word ‘Christ’ means King. The Bible says that He is the King of kings, the Creator, and the Messiah who came to save us from sin, and He fulfilled the ministry of the Prophet by speaking this Truth to us.
The Jews said to Jesus, “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus then said to them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Even though the Lord had told them plainly, they refused to believe. He had told them countless times that the Father had sent Him, that the Father was working through Him, and that the Father approved Him. It’s written in John chapter one, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
The Bible speaks of this continuously from the very beginning. Jesus the Son of God, who came to save us from sin, made this world, came to shine the light of salvation to this world, and saved us by delivering us from darkness. God’s prophets in the Old Testament had also spoken of Jesus as the Messiah and Savior to come, and when the time came, Jesus Christ came to this earth through the body of a virgin. Having thus come, Jesus carried out His work of salvation as promised and spoke plainly that He was the very Christ, but the Jews refused to believe. So Jesus told them that God was His Father and that He had existed even before Abraham, but they still did not believe. There is very little that you can say to stubborn incredulous people to convince them otherwise.
So the Lord said in verse 27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus said that He is the Son of God, our Savior and our Creator and that He has saved us through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Those who believe in this believe that Jesus is the Son of God the Father, God Himself, the Creator, their Savior and the Messiah who has made them God’s sons and daughters from utter darkness. That is what we believe. We believe that Jesus is not only the Son of God, but also the Creator who made the universe and the Savior who has saved us. Those who don’t believe like this are not God’s sheep.
Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Those who believe that God the Father loved the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son believe that God the Father indeed sent His only begotten Son to this world as their Savior, blotted out all their sins with the water and the blood, and thereby has saved them. There is no reason why anyone cannot believe in this, as it is written: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). God has fully revealed to us what may be knowm of Him through the nature and His Word.
So if anyone recognizes God, then he will also recognize Jesus the Son of God. For us to be saved, Jesus had to come as the Savior, be baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, die on the Cross, rise from the dead, and become the Savior of those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. There was no other way. The only way for you and me to be saved from sin was for Jesus to be born on this earth, be baptized by John the Baptist at the age of 30, die on that Cross, rise from the dead, and through this has save us; and it is by faith that we reach our salvation.
Would we be saved from sin by living virtuously and doing good deeds? Between all the countless millions of people, what is so superior about us ‘the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit’ that we would be saved from our sins, become God the Father’s children, and be blessed in both body and spirit as the rising sun? There is no other way except our faith in Jesus. The Bible says, “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). This means that it’s impossible to attain salvation by believing in anyone else but Jesus.
It was said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” The Lord said that He knows us ‘the ones who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit’. Because of this fact we also know Him and follow Him. This is only natural. There are countless people living in this world, but some of them believe that Jesus is their Master, their Creator and their Savior, and that He has blotted out all their sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. On the other hand, there also are those who don’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, some people in this world believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit but others don’t. Whether people believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit depends on whether they are truly God’s children or not. Put differently, this does not depend on one’s will.
God is our Savior, the Truth, the Way and the Life. God is the Truth. Yet despite this, people cannot reach their salvation because their hearts are evil and full of doubts, and so they neither believe in nor recognize the righteousness of God, His love and the gospel of the God given water and the Spirit. But God is perfect. He said that He knows us. God knows all about us. There is no reason why we should not be able to follow Him. Does God lack anything that we would be unable to believe in Him and follow Him? Does Jesus Christ lack anything at all?
Those in this world who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit do not believe in ‘this gospel’ because they are not God’s sheep. You may then wonder, “Did God choose some but not others?” The Bible says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God loved the world so much. It does not say here that He loved some but not others.
Of course, we may be able to find the notion in the Bible that God loves some people but not others where it is written, “Yet Jacob I have loved; But Esau I have hated” (Malachi 1:2-3). Those whom God loves are those who are like Jacob. Those whom God hates are those who are like Esau. Who are these people then? Those who are like Jacob are weak and deceitful, but they know themselves well and so rather than relying on themselves, they rely on the faith of their parents of the flesh—that is, they believe in the Lord God.
But people like Esau don’t see any need for the God of their fathers and mothers. They believe in their own bows and their own arrows. People like these shoot and kill a wild boar and carry it home over their shoulders, to make a special meal and boast about how they shot an animal today and brag about their own strengths and abilities. But we must know that God hates those who are arrogant like this trusting in their own fleshly strength. Viewed spiritually, these kinds of people don’t need to believe in the righteousness of God, since they think that they themselves are good, righteous, upright, strong and smart, while everyone else is unrighteous and just plain stupid. They are convinced that those who believe in Jesus are weak and fragile, and that only the feeble believe in and rely on God, while strong people like themselves have absolutely no need to rely on God. It’s these kinds of people whom God hates. How smart could they be even if they were so smart? They would be dead in five minutes without breathing. What is there to be so arrogant about really? They are like midgets arguing over who is tall, when they cannot even survive being infected by one tiny little bacterium.
So God hates such people and loves those who know their insufficiencies and rely on God totally. Although God does love everyone in this world, He abhors those who boast of their own merits even doing this before His very presence saying, “I have no need for your help. I can live well on my own strength thank you very much; perhaps it’s I who really should be helping you.” God calls them arrogant and conceited, nothing more than the Devil’s servants.
So we see that there are two kinds of people. There are those who know their insufficiencies and weaknesses, and who really desire to rely on God. Those who know that Jesus Christ sent by God the Father is not only the real God who created the Universe and their true Messiah who has saved them, but also the Lord of life who has given them everlasting life—it is to these very people whom God gives true salvation and everlasting life too through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God loves such people who believe in the God-given Word exactly as it is, and who rely on God and follow Him because they are insufficient, for God knows all about their weaknesses.
So those who really know their shortcomings and listen to the Word of God say, “I believe in God no matter what others say. I rely on Him. The more I know Jesus Christ, the more majestic and precious He is.” Such people are blessed before God. However, those who don’t or refuse to believe in the righteousness of God think that they are too smart say the following, “Jesus cannot be the Son of God. Did He not call Himself the Son of God? So doesn’t this mean that He was made by God? If He was made by God the Father, how can He not be a creature, but divine?” Such people who believe in their own strengths, money, wisdom, and intelligence are all foolish people.
God spoke about fools in Psalms, saying that those who do not realize their honor are like the beasts that perish (Psalm 49:20). In order for God to make human beings His children, He created them in His very image. God allowed hardship in this world so that people would look for Him, rely on Him and thus receive the God-given blessings to be born again and enjoy everlasting blessings and eternal life. It is for this purpose that God made them, and yet some people still do not recognize this, don’t realize their honor, don’t realize and don’t rely on the honor of God. Such people are doomed to perish. They are not God’s children. The Lord said this many times while He was on this earth.
In John chapter 10’s reading today Jesus said, “Therefore My Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” In other words, the Savior said that He would lay down His life on this earth. God the Father loves Jesus like this because our Lord accepted all ours sins by being baptized and laid down His life on the Cross, because He carried out the work of saving us from sin in obedience to the will of God the Father. Jesus’ life is not something that anyone else could take away, but it is something that He laid down of His own will. He said that He would forsake His life for the sake of His sheep and His people. He said that He had the power to lay it down and to take it up again. This means that Jesus received such powers from God the Father.
How simple is this passage then? Those who believe in the Word of God understand that Jesus did not die because He was ‘powerless’. Although it’s true that Jesus was crucified to death on this earth, it was not because He was powerless.
Let’s turn to an example in the Bible. On the last night before being arrested, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives to pray, and while He prayed to God the Father to let His will be done, Judas came to Jesus accompanied by Roman soldiers and the chief priests. They came armed with swords, spears and torches. Judas then kissed Jesus. When the Jews greeted each other in those days, it was customary for them to wish peace to one another, saying ‘Shalom,’ and hug and kiss on both cheeks. This confirmed that they were not enemies.
Judas had told both the chief priests and the Roman soldiers that whomever he kissed would be Jesus whom they were looking for. The Bible describes this scene of Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane as follows: “Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, ‘Whom are you seeking?’ They answered Him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am He.’ And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Now when He said to them, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:3-6). Did Jesus try to attempt escape from them, or did He willingly give Himself up? He showed no resistance to His arrest, so that He could lay down His life for all of us.
The Lord is the Master who created the whole universe and all of mankind. The Roman soldiers could not prevail over Him with arms and weapons. Even if they had a million-strong army, Jesus could kill them all with a single utterance of His Word right on the spot. If He did this, they would all have died instantly. It’s not because Jesus was powerless that He was arrested by the chief priests and the Roman soldiers and beaten by them. The Lord laid down His life willingly because He had taken upon all our sins once for all by being baptized, because He had to bear the condemnation of those sins, and because He could save us from sin, and to obey the will of God the Father He gave up His body on the Cross and died there in our place. The Life of Jesus was laid down and taken up again by Himself. That is how He has saved us ‘the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit’, by being baptized, dying on the Cross and rising from the dead for us. Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can receive everlasting life and the remission of sins.
But those who don’t or refuse to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit come up with all kinds of excuses for their disbelief. They say, “How can I believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? The Bible is the history of the Jews, and so how can I believe in it as the ultimate Truth of salvation?” They protest so vehemently even though their intelligence pales in comparison to the wisdom of God. They are foolish and ignorant, and what is worse they are so very stubborn. But they keep coming up with one excuse after another and stubbornly refuse to believe in God.
Through all the things that our Lord did on this earth ‘in the name of Jesus’, we can see that He is indeed the Son of God. Did He not go to the Mount of Olives to pray before He was crucified? Even though Jesus was God, He knew very well just how terrible it would be for Him to be crucified on a Roman Cross. That’s why He prayed and earnestly asked the Father to take away His cup of suffering if possible. Since Jesus had shouldered all the sins of the world, He had to be crucified to bear the condemnation of these sins, but He still asked His Father if it were possible to make mankind sinless without Him being crucified.
But God the Father cannot lie and He cannot abolish the law of salvation and judgment that He established. Man speaks with a forked tongue of different things with his one mouth. While people may make promises and change them, God’s promise can never be altered. So because God had said that the wages of sin is death and that He would infallibly judge and put to death all those with sin, He decided to send His Son to deliver us from sin and death. And by making Jesus receive baptism from John the Baptist; God had passed all our sins to Jesus once for all. Thus the Father had to render His judgment of sin on His Son Jesus Christ. In other words, He had to put Jesus to death in a physical way. This was none other than the terrible suffering of the Cross. That’s why Jesus obeyed the will of God the Father.
When we look at what the Lord did when He came to this earth, we can see who God the Father really is. Although none of us have ever met God the Father with our naked eyes, we can still know who He is. In other words, through Jesus we see none other than God the Father. God has enabled us to realize, “Oh! That’s who God the Father really is. He is the God of love. He is the Savior. He is the Messiah. He is the God of mercy. But He is also the God of justice. He saves those who deserve to be saved and judges those who deserve to be judged without fail.” In short, through Jesus we can know who God the Father is. So those who believe in Jesus accept God the Father, and those who believe in God the Father can receive Jesus as their Savior.
Those who acknowledge the love of God can recognize Jesus as their Savior who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I acknowledge that Jesus is my Savior. I am not trying to coerce you to have faith. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God the Father, but at the same time He is also my God and my Savior; I believe that Jesus has saved me from sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit; and I believe that Christ shouldered all my sins by being baptized, died on the Cross in my place, and rose from the dead again on my behalf to bring me back to life. Do you also believe in Jesus like this?
Those who do not believe that Jesus is really God, and who don’t or refuse to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, are neither God’s sheep nor His people. There is no need to resent God’s way of salvation. Why? Because God loves everyone equally, He has indiscriminately blotted out everyone’s sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. For His part, God the Father has blotted out all sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit through Jesus Christ. What kind of people would then believe in the love of God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and what kind of people would not believe? Those who are like Jacob believe in God’s love and the gospel of the water and the Spirit, while those who are like Esau do not believe. Can you understand this?
Are you spiritually a Jacob or an Esau? Are you cunning in your flesh? Are you not in fact quite cunning? Don’t you have many evils and weaknesses? Are any of you like Esau? Those who are like Esau say, “I’m muscular like this, I’ve taken various supplements, and I think I can do anything if I make up my mind to do it. So I don’t need to rely on the love of God and the God given gospel of the water and the Spirit. I don’t believe in anything else but my own strength. So I can do anything. I despise religious people. I especially look down on anyone who claims to have been saved from sin by believing in the righteousness of God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They are all idiots!” In reality, it’s actually these very people who are the foolish ones. For communism, materials are its gods. Communism is a materialist ideology. So its adherents only seek after materials. Even though there is a God who made these materials, they don’t rely on this God but these materials.
Who then are the blessed by God? They are those who are like Jacob. When I consider myself, I am like Jacob. One of our ministers once lifted a barbell weighing 80 kilos with one arm and asked for a heavier weight, saying that it was too light. I imagine with both arms He could have easily lifted 160 kilos. If this minister only relied on his strength, he would have become a man like Esau. However, he relied on God and continues to do so even though he is such a powerful man, and he has led the saints by faith instead of relying on himself.
How about our bodies and spirits? Are we overflowing with strength? Are we such people who are full of own abilities, wizards at making money, don’t lack anything including fame, have no need to rely on anyone else, and call those who rely on God complete idiots? We know that this is not who we are. We are all insufficient.
Human beings may seem like great achievers, but they are actually nothing. It’s often said that people’s dreams change as they grow old. A kid may dream of becoming the President, but his dream turns less ambitious as he grows older, wanting to become a doctor later on, then a public servant and then just wishing to have any job at all. We must know how weak our flesh really is, how powerless we are, and how insignificant we are before God; we must realize His love and the gospel of the water and the Spirit He has given us. It’s these kinds of people who rely on God.
If anyone has any strength at all, it’s God who has given him this strength. People like Jacob live by relying totally on God. And being saved by believing in the love of God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit is also achieved by relying on God. It is simply impossible for anyone to attain salvation on his own strength. Relying on God and His work is what faith is all about. Relying on God to help us even in our everyday affairs is also faith. Why? It is because we know the omnipotent power of God. This is what our living Lord is saying to us today. The Lord has fulfilled all righteousness with His baptism and blood, and now sits at the right hand of the throne of God the Father as the living Savior of all who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When Jesus was on this earth, most people at that time could not believe that He was their Savior or Messiah. Did everyone not believe then? No, many people did believe. But there were more people who refused to believe. In this age also, the question is whether one believes that Jesus is the Savior who was born on this earth, took upon the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist at the age of 30, was crucified to shed His blood to death, rose from the dead again, and now sits at the right hand of the throne of God and is still alive. Now as before, many people do not believe in Jesus as their Savior, and even those professing to believe in Jesus preach ‘only’ His death on the Cross rather than the gospel of the water and the Spirit. However, there also are many who believe in this Truth. We the true believers believe and profess that Jesus took upon our sins by being baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and has thereby become our Savior. His baptism means that He bore our sins. His death is our death to sin and destruction, and His resurrection is our resurrection. As we rely on Jesus Christ, we are sinless for He has saved us. I am sure that you also believe like this.
Why am I saying these things? It’s to ask you if you really believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and our Savior who has saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, do you really believe that Jesus is our Savior? I’m asking you to truly believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I’m admonishing you to believe that Jesus is the real God, the Creator and our Savior.
The word ‘Christ’ means the ‘anointed One’ who fulfills the will of God the Father—that is, the One who saves us from sin. As God the Father sent His Son Jesus Christ to this earth, He took upon all our sins by being baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and thereby saved us from sin once for all. You must believe clearly that Jesus Christ is ‘the Christ.’ A few people have started to believe in this, but why do so many Christians still refuse to believe in this Jesus? The reason is because they open the Bible and receive only teaching of morals and ethics, and their leaders tell them to practice virtue. “Give a lot of offerings. If you serve a lot and do a lot, you will be honored in the church and become a deacon or an elder.” This in a nutshell is what they teach. Since Christians are encouraged only to compete against each other, they are not interested in who Jesus really is and how He has blotted out their sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but instead they just want to keep doing things on their own all to be commended and approved.
That’s why they are perishing away spiritually. Simply put, spiritual fraud is rampant where the teaching of the gospel of the water and the Spirit is missing. It’s the same as the multi-level marketing schemes. What is multi-level marketing scheme or simply put a pyramid scheme? Someone forms a sales organization, subscribes more and more people into it as salesmen or saleswomen, and makes a lot of money for himself very rapidly. Churches are the same. “If you evangelize and bring in a lot of people, your rank in that church will go up.” This is what pastors are really saying to their congregations. If a church attendee evangelizes a lot, makes a lot of offerings, and works hard for the church, then he is approved regardless of whether he has received the remission of sins or not. That’s why today’s Christianity has turned itself into a mere worldly business. It is a gathering place of charlatans defrauding each other using religion.
I believe that Jesus came to this earth 2,000 years ago to save us, took upon all our sins by being baptized at the age of 30, was crucified to death while shouldering the sins of the world, rose from the dead, and then ascended to the right hand of God the Father. Jesus Christ has therefore become our perfect Savior by coming to this earth by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You must all believe in this. You must know it clearly and believe in it. If you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you will most certainly be saved. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is worthy of believing together with Jesus. Because we are weak, it is worth relying on.
If we believe in Jesus and the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we will be saved and become God’s children. When a baby turns one year old, he should be able stand by himself and take his first step, and this brings a great deal of joy to his parents. Likewise, after becoming God’s child, if you walk step by step according to the will of the Father and His pleasure by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, your faith will start growing as you listen to the Word, then this in its self makes you the object of God’s love. This is not achieved by offering something of your own.
Just how different is the gospel of the water and the Spirit from the gospel of the Cross is when compared with each other? People do not know the difference between the two gospels, but they are in fact fundamentally different from each other. How wonderful would it be if pastors in this world were to preach and teach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the congregation and thus blot out people’s sins first, and then tell them to serve the Lord? But that is not what they do, but instead they just teach catechism and baptize anyone who attends church unconditionally. When a church member serves well, pastors make him a deacon, and if he is even more slavish and hypocritical, they make him an elder. If someone in the congregation fails at business, they tell him to go to a seminary saying that God is calling him through these hardships. Something is wrong here. Does a Christian go to a theological seminary and become a servant of God only if he turns out to be a failure?
We must know and believe clearly that Jesus is our God and our Savior. We must believe like this clearly. As the Bible says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” we must unmistakably know ‘this Truth’, that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Otherwise we will go straight to hell from our warm church pews. A famous pastor once said that while those outside church were going to hell because they did not know Jesus, the Devil takes countless Christians to hell from church pews. Even though this pastor had no clue as to how to be born again, his words were right literally because he knew that there were lots of Christians who were not born again. What do I mean when I say that countless people are going to hell from church pews? It means that even though people attend church regularly, those who don’t or refuse to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will most certainly go to hell.
So what is the most urgent thing that you must know and believe in? It is none other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit. One must first be born again before he can grow in his faith, and then he can do what is right and serve the Lord. Only if you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, receive the remission of sins, and are born again spiritually, can you then really grow up. How then is it possible to grow spiritually when you are not even born again yet? Does a baby grow in the womb even when the mother is not pregnant?
This is called imaginary pregnancy, a condition in which a woman shows all the signs of pregnancy even though she is not actually pregnant. This happens to animals as well. My dog once had this condition. Her abdomen kept enlarging as though she were pregnant, but when I took her to the veterinary surgeon; they told me that she had imaginary pregnancy. Even animals go through this. When it comes to salvation, there are many Christians who display this salvation imaginary. It’s ridiculous. They imagine themselves to have been saved even though they still have sin saying, “Jesus, You are my Savior. Even though I am sinful, because I believe in You, You approve me as being sinless.” This is preposterous.
The Bible says, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus. You and your household will then be saved. Whoever receives Him, those who believe in His name, He gave them the right to become God’s own children. Does this then mean that anyone is saved if he just receives Jesus in whatever way they decide?” No certainly not. Exactly how do we receive Him then? We receive Jesus only if we accept that He has saved us by coming to this earth by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must have a clear understanding of when, where, how and why Jesus became our Savior. Salvation is reached only if we believe in Jesus with this clear and sound understanding. Is it okay to just say that we believe even if we don’t really understand?
You can receive Jesus Christ properly only when you know in detail what He has done for you. If some complete stranger passed by your house, would you just recklessly open the door and welcome him in warmly? No, of course you won’t. You would instead say, “What are you here for? What brought you here? If you don’t have any business, please go away.” Just as you would not welcome such a stranger to your home, likewise Jesus will not welcome anyone who does not really know Him. Unfortunately today’s Christians do not really know Jesus even though they all claim to believe in Him and carry on like they do. They are, in essence, claiming to trust a total stranger. But such blind faith without understanding is useless; before you can really believe in Jesus, you must first understand what He has done to save you.
You must clearly realize that Jesus is your Savior who came to this earth by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You must believe in this Truth. You shouldn’t just wildly claim to believe in Jesus and preach about Him and do not actually know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This gospel of the water and the Spirit is dynamite. It brings the joyful news that the Lord has blotted out all the sins of the world. Yet too many Christians are ignorant of this true gospel and say that anyone can be saved if he just believes in Jesus blindly.
When these kinds of Christians are asked, “Since you believe in Jesus, you must be sinless, right?” they say, “No, that’s not necessarily the case. Although I believe in Jesus, I still have sin, because no one is without sin.”
“Then what do you do about the daily sins you commit?” They reply:
“I’ve already obtained the remission of my original sin by repenting, but I have to continue to offer prayers of repentance every day to receive the remission of my personal sins.”
“So then you are telling me that you have sin?”
“Yes, I still have sin in my heart.”
How can there be any sin left if the gospel of dynamite has already exploded and destroyed everything? This means that ‘Christian sinners’ still do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. These people really have no idea that Jesus is the Son of God and our Savior. The Lord came to this earth as the Son of God and spoke the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit as the Prophet. And as the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, He bore all the sins of mankind on His body ‘once for all’ by being baptized, shed all His blood on the Cross while shouldering the sins of this world, rose from the dead, and has through this saved us completely. We must have a clear understanding of this Truth and believe in it plainly. We must admit this gospel Truth with our hearts.
Do you acknowledge the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit? While you should believe in God with your heart, this does not mean that you can just arbitrarily throw away your head and allow yourself to be overwhelmed by your own emotions. If tears well up, don’t let your own emotion overpower you. Why do you need to cry? You may be true to your feeling when you shed tears, but once the tears dry up, you will have a different feeling. When you cry, you feel overwhelmed by grief, but what happens when you stop crying? Does this feeling not disappear in little while? Don’t you find yourself laughing at some funny TV show? Emotions change, but what about knowledge? Does it also change? No, it doesn’t. What about the gospel Truth? Does the Truth change? No, it does not. That’s why faith is not just about our emotions, but it is founded on our knowledge of the gospel Truth and our will to embrace this Truth. In other words, we must first know the Truth before we can believe in it and accept it willingly.
We must know the righteousness of God. We must know about righteousness, about sin and about judgment. What is the righteousness of God? It is the work of salvation that Jesus Christ has fulfilled for us. What is sin then? Not to or refusing to believe in this righteousness of God is the greatest sin. Not to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the most grievous of sins. The greatest sin is not to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Creator and the Savior, and not to believe that He came to this earth to save us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What about judgment then? It is the final judgment awaiting everyone: Whoever does not believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit will be cast into the everlasting fire of hell, but whoever believes in this Truth will enter into - everlasting life.
The Truth of salvation is plain and clear for everyone to understand and to believe in it. If you think it’s too late, think again; there is still time for you to turn around even now and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All that you have to do is just listen to the Word now and believe in it. That is what faith is all about. Faith is always ongoing. It doesn’t matter whether you have been a Christian for a long time or not, but what matters is whether or not you believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit right now at this very moment.
I trust and pray that you would all believe in this true gospel and receive the remission of all your sins once and for all.
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