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Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW

[Chapter 25-9] It Is Our Duty to Preach the Gospel (Matthew 25:31-46)

It Is Our Duty to Preach the Gospel
(Matthew 25:31-46)
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
 

The Lord will come someday without fail. This world will be destroyed at the time that God has decided, and a new world will come. Even if you think that this can be said by anyone, I say it again. It is clear that the Lord will come in His time. When He comes, He will speak to us just as it is written in today’s Scripture passage.
U.S. President George Bush announced, “In the future, I will bring back many U.S. forces that are stationed overseas for the profit of the nation.” This means that he will keep his hands off of affairs that have no relationship to U.S. interests. The United States is the biggest superpower that controls the world. The real circumstances now are that no country can look bad to the U.S. because its words are loaded with power. Saying that he will bring many soldiers home means that America will not put its hands in affairs that are not beneficial to America and its people. Put differently, the U.S. will strongly deal with countries that challenge and oppose it, but besides that, it will not take part in problems of no interest and attention to itself. Aren’t there internal wars or regional conflicts that develop in small nations? This means that the United States will not participate much in the wars that arise in those countries but will devote its strength to international relations that are related to its national interest. 
If that happens, what will happen to this world? Will a lot of wars arise or not? Of course a lot of wars will arise. American citizens want the same thing. And the fact that such desire has arisen in the heart of the U.S. president is God beginning to show the signs that will arise in the last days as recorded in the Bible. It is previewing a lot of wars where “nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” If the U.S. takes its hands off of other nations and withdraws its forces, “nation will rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom,” and many wars will break out, such as border clashes and economic and religious conflicts.
Since the U.S. is still taking part in international relations in Northeast Asia (including our own country), wars don’t break out in this area and peace is maintained. The U.S. has played a large role. However, it says in the Bible that wars will arise in various places, and “nation will rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom.” If America has that kind of a strong position against every conflicting issue, I believe many wars will arise. No matter what, the time is coming in the last days when wars and confusion will arise everywhere in the world, and through this, everyone will fall into terrible circumstances. Under the assumption that the last day will come soon, we must spread the gospel.
In Matthew 25, the Lord spoke about many parts. He talked about everything: the signs of His coming, the state of this world before He comes, the state of the universe, how we must deal with things while having the proper kind of faith, and how all of God’s servants and saints must work faithfully with faith and the talents that God gave them. If we look at what is written in Matthew 25, we can all know the conclusion of the earth that God has planned.
 

Our Lord Will Discern People When He Comes to This Earth in the Last Days

If we look at today’s Scripture passage of Matthew 25:31-36, the Lord is speaking of the events that will transpire when He comes to this earth with His angels. After this world is ruined and there is extreme tribulation and the event of the rapture, the Lord will come; He said that when He comes, He will sit on the throne of His glory. It is written, “He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.”
At that time, the Lord will say to those sitting on His right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” This means that the Lord accurately divides and judges those who will receive blessings and those who will receive curses. He says to those on His right hand, “Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Isn’t this Kingdom that is prepared Heaven? And there is a place prepared for the wicked; it is hell. Hell is a place different from the Kingdom prepared for the people of God, and it is a place where no one should want to go. It is obvious that there is a blessed Kingdom and a cursed one when we see the words in verse 41: “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
As shepherds separate their sheep and the goats, the Lord said that He, too, would separate people when He comes to this earth. The Lord told those on His right hand to inherit the Kingdom prepared for them. Therefore, the people of God or, in other words, those who have received the remission of their sins, are people who will receive blessings and inherit that Kingdom prepared for them before God.
The Lord said to those on His right hand, “I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” However, those who will receive blessings (the righteous or the sheep) doubted. In verse 37, those who will be blessed asked the Lord, “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?” Then, the Lord said, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Here when it says, “sheep,” it is speaking of the righteous and people who have no sin by having received the remission of their sins, and when it speaks of cursed people and “goats,” it is speaking of sinners. The Lord said, “When I was hungry, you gave Me food, and when I was thirsty, you gave Me drink,” and several other things, but when did we do that, and what is He speaking of? The Lord is approving our spiritual labor by describing it in physical terms.
Then, what does the Lord mean by saying, “When I was hungry and had nothing to eat, you gave me food”? There are many people searching for God in this world, and there are many souls that seek to listen to the Word of God and receive the remission of their sins. When these people were starving because they did not have the spiritual nourishment of the Word of God, the righteous nourished them by spreading the gospel, which is God’s Word, to them, saved them from sin, and therefore they received salvation through hearing the Word of God and were filled by it. The Lord said those things. If you want to know what the righteous should accomplish on this earth, it is giving food to people. “Food” is referring to spiritual nourishment. Spreading the Word of the Bible that God gave is giving nourishment to people. These words in the Bible have been recorded as text, but they are essential to people’s souls. These words in the Bible are the souls’ nourishment. In other words, the Word of God is food that people must eat daily. Therefore, those who have not received the remission of their sins receive salvation, are filled, and their souls receive abundance because the righteous who have received the remission of their sins feed them spiritual nourishment. This is what that means.
 


The Righteous Fill Spiritually Hungry and Thirsty People by Giving Them the Bread of Life


“I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” As the righteous properly work on this earth, they are actually giving life’s nourishment to the spiritually hungry and thirsty and filling them. In other words, the righteous feed people groaning because of sin so that they are not thirsty and hungry again by spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them and having their hearts cleansed through faith. This is what the people of God do. We who are righteous must do the work of also helping those people who have gone astray, lost their way, and therefore are wandering about by spreading the gospel of salvation that is from Jesus Christ to them. When they are spiritually naked or, in other words, when their righteousness is all broken and they have nothing to be proud of, we have to clothe them in God’s righteousness. 
Therefore, the Lord spoke of the work that we who are righteous should do for the souls while living on this earth. By us spreading to souls the fact that He eliminated all of the sins of the world and that He took charge of all of mankind’s sins, they wear the garment of salvation and righteousness and can stand firmly before God and live without shame. When people’s souls were sick, we also treated them through the Word of God. When they were in jail, too, we went to them; caring for others, nourishing them, and treating their illnesses are things that the righteous must do.
God told those doing these things to inherit His Kingdom. Sometimes people also take these words and think that they will receive rewards and remuneration for caring for people physically. But it says in today’s Scripture passage in verse 40: “And the King will answer and say unto them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” In these words, “one of the least of these My brethren,” it isn’t talking about physical brethren; it is referring to spiritual brethren. We who have received the remission of our sins through the water and the Spirit are spreading the gospel of salvation to many people in this world and feeding spiritual bread to them so that they may receive the remission of their sins and be healed of the wounds of their hearts. We are doing these things for these people in the world who are looking for God and want to receive the remission of their sins by accepting the Word in awe. All the people of the world are sheep that have lost their way; we are spreading the Word of Truth and the Word of life to them. Therefore, we help these people to eat the nourishment of life and be filled, receive salvation from sin, wear the clothing of righteousness, enter the Church, receive God’s protection, and through receiving His special intervention in the Church, stand firmly on this earth.
The Lord said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). The Word of God is not related to the flesh. If today’s Scripture passage was really about physically taking care of people, we who are righteous might not even be able to do the labor of physical relief as well as sinners. People who have not been born again are active in sending rice and clothes to our brothers in North Korea, and they are involved in several kinds of service to society; are there people like that among us the righteous? Have any among you sent clothes and rice to North Korea? We haven’t sent either to them. But we will send our books to them when it becomes possible. If you want to look at it from a physical perspective, it is impossible for us to receive the Kingdom of God as a reward. That is ridiculous.
So, why do those people give physical aid to others? The reason is in order to receive physical help themselves when they need it. Or, they think such activities would be counted as their merits when they stand before God. The Catholic Church gives a lot of help to vagabonds and the lame. The Catholic Church is the place that does the most of that work. Looking at it from that angle, when have the righteous gone to them and helped, fed, clothed, and sheltered them? Brothers and sisters, have we done a lot of that? Looking at it like that, God would have said to those who did that work well, “You are they who will receive rewards.” 
But the people who will inherit the Kingdom of God and receive blessings are not that kind of people. On the contrary, they are among the group of people that, after hearing reproof from the Lord that they had not done so, ask, “When did we not do so?” The Bible cannot be understood by reading just one verse. If one intends to properly understand the Word of God, he must hold to the will of God that penetrates the whole Bible; he must look at the Old and New Testaments, he must look at the context before and after, and he must know the intent of the heart of Jesus Christ who said those words. If he looks at it that way, it is clear that today’s Scripture passage isn’t talking with a focus on the flesh. Of course, it isn’t saying that we should not physically care for other people. When it says, “I was in prison and you came to Me,” it can also mean that the saints cared for one another when they suffered hardships.
What do the righteous do until the Lord comes to this earth? They do the work of clothing the naked and nourishing the hungry. This is the work that we are doing right now. In other words, we spread the gospel, spiritually nourish people, pray for them, share fellowship with them, and lead them. The Lord told us to do this work and said that we should do that work. The sheep in today’s Scripture passage are you and I, the born-again.
 


In the Past, We Were Also Hungry Spirits


You and I were also that kind of people in the past. Weren’t you hungry spirits? It’s a fact that we were hungry spirits. We really didn’t know where to go and were wandering on a precipitous mountain. All of us were people who had entered the forest of religion and were wandering about. We are people who were born on this earth, didn’t know where to go, and lived recklessly, and we were people who couldn’t be spiritually nourished, were always thirsty, had really empty hearts, and were hungry.
We were people with nothing. There is a Korean rice cracker that’s empty on the inside; we were people like that. There was nothing in our souls. We didn’t have Jesus Christ, the words that He spoke, Truth, or anything. We were people who lived while following blindly where our flesh led, what it saw, and what it thought. Only madness was in our hearts. We were people who could do nothing but die. We were people who were dying because we really had nothing to eat for our spirits, people who would suffer destruction after living as strangers in this world, and people who couldn’t wear the garment of righteousness and were always tormented in sin. You and I were people living with those kinds of difficulties.
But Jesus Christ came to this earth, received His baptism, took charge of all of the sins of the world, and died on the Cross thus paying for us. He took charge of all of your and my sins. Thus, He saved you and me from the sins of the world. We became the people of God by faith in that Truth. And people who have received the remission of their sins continuously do the work of filling the stomachs of the hungry, giving refreshment to the thirsty, receiving people who have become strangers, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting those in prison until the Lord comes. We who are the righteous do this work. God continues this work now through the righteous.
When the Lord comes at the last day, He will bring back to life all of the people who have lived on the earth. He also will gather all the nations and divide them into two sides as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats. He will divide all of them to the right side and to the left and impartially judge them. He said to those on His right hand to inherit the Kingdom of God. Telling them to inherit the Kingdom prepared for them is giving them Heaven. Why? Since we received salvation and did these worthwhile works while we lived on this earth, God cannot but give us His Kingdom. He cannot but give a reward to His people who are standing at His right hand.
 


We Live the Life of the Righteous that Gives Spiritual Nourishment to the Hungry until the End


And it is the duty of the righteous to do this kind of work while living on this earth. The duty of the righteous is to spread the gospel to nourish the lives of those who are starving and thirsting for spiritual nourishment, suffering destruction, and going to hell. It is the will of God that the righteous having done this work should inherit the Kingdom of God, and He will surely do that. This world will end sometime and everyone will someday come to stand before God. The righteous will stand before God after having done this work, and will come to receive the reward related to having done this work. That’s what these words mean.
We would like it more if the Lord came quickly. But if we think about it again, it doesn’t matter to us when He comes. Since He will definitely come at the end, it doesn’t matter when He comes. We merely have to clearly know what our duty is and then do it. I believe that this is the duty of the righteous. Besides, what kind of expectation or hope can there be in a world that is being ruined? The only thing for us to do is to do our best to carry on the duty we must do. It suffices to calculate in advance what rewards the Lord will give us, think of what we have to do, and wisely do it. I think that it suffices for us to faithfully do what we have to do, properly think of what we should think, and meet the Lord after doing what we should do.
Brothers and sisters, we are spreading the gospel to the whole world. This work is what we have to do. Giving drink to the thirsty and food to the hungry is spreading the gospel to the whole world. According to the information reported by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, there are 271 nations, dependent areas, and other entities. In them, how many hungry people do you think there are? We have currently spread our book to most of the nations and self-governing entities. Through the words of the gospel that we spread, they are being filled and receiving salvation. They ask us to send them other books besides the ones we sent them if there are any.
What are you and I doing? What do the righteous do until the Lord comes? The Lord will say to us, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” There are a lot of people in the whole world who are still looking for God. We are doing the work of spreading the gospel to them. Is there anything for us the righteous to do besides feeding them the nourishment of life by preaching the Word of God? There is nothing else besides this. We are here for this, and if we do it diligently, when the Lord comes, He will praise us as nice and loyal servants, allow us to stand in the ranks of those who will receive rewards, and give us blessings. God gives us blessings, and it suffices for us to inherit the Kingdom prepared for us when He tells us to.
The work that we the righteous do is the work of feeding with the nourishment of life (the gospel of Truth) and saving people who are spiritually starving, naked, cannot help but go to hell, and who cannot become righteous even if they want to. This is the work that God determined and that He does for everyone in the world through you and me who have first received the remission of sin. We are doing this work by putting our hearts into the work that God does. Everywhere in the world needs us to do that work. The righteous people are always doing this work of sharing food. The ministers and workers of our Mission make money by running some businesses and serve the gospel with the money. Isn’t this the work to feed, clothe, and fatten the people of God eventually? You and I are living for that.
 


The Life That the Holy Spirit in You and Me Demands


What does the Spirit in your and my hearts demand of us? Does He tell us to eat and live well? If we live like that, the Spirit is uncomfortable and He raises the warning bell to our souls that we are like pigs who are happy to just eat. But how would He feel if we spread the Word to souls, serve the gospel with the money we have made through our hard working, associate with them, pray for them, help them be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, and help them live well? Since the Spirit supports us by saying “you’re doing well,” we follow suit and are happy. Even if it is physically difficult, it is not spiritually difficult. Aren’t you the same? That is what the Spirit does. It is not what you and I are doing; the Holy Spirit inside us, God’s Spirit, is doing it. Since we have God’s Spirit, we can gladly do that work. 
Since we believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have become the children of God, and since we are the children of God and the righteous, we are doing righteous work. We are helping everyone to be clothed in the garment of salvation by spreading the gospel of salvation that is the nourishment of life. And we are caring for them and leading them even in difficult times. These things are all in our lives. God gave this to us, and we are doing it. Some may do this work not knowing that this is the duty of the righteous; if they know this fact, they will be able to do it more clearly and surely. That is the way it is. The Lord said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). We the righteous are overanxious because we want to share what is good. It almost seems crazy.
Let’s apply today’s Scripture passage physically for a second. Then, it is right to share food and clothes with the needy. People in the Catholic Church physically give materials to the poor and care for them, but honestly speaking, those things are actually done for themselves. “If I take good care of this person, God will give me a reward and save me even if I am insufficient. And He will let me go to Heaven.” They have that kind of heart and they do that work in order to obtain salvation. But what are we like? We have already obtained salvation. Even though we have already obtained salvation, we are doing good will to others. We are not doing that work in order to receive salvation. Are we doing this for us? No. So, who is it done for? It is done for others. It is all done for others. Are you the same or not? We’re the same. Are brothers and sisters spreading the gospel, working hard to earn money, and doing the work of God in union with what the Church has done for them? No. They are all done for other people. Even if they are people who really deserve to go to hell a million times, the work that we do for those souls is because the Holy Spirit in your and my hearts has given us that desire. That is what I believe. That is the way it is.
We are now doing this work thanks to the Spirit. Since we have received the remission of our sins and are doing this work, in the future we can receive the Kingdom of God prepared for us. We have already done a lot of this work. There are also many times that we faint because we get exhausted while doing these things. There are also times when we say, “Not only can I not share it with people, but I, too, will die now.”
But God said to us, “What is the duty of the righteous? It is to take care of the others spiritually.” So, we the righteous are doing the work of spiritually nourishing souls and spiritually caring for them. The righteous will inherit the Kingdom prepared for them. The righteous including you and me do this work until they inherit the Kingdom prepared for them. But if there is anyone among the righteous who does not do the work of feeding and clothing souls, abandons receiving the reward of the righteous and only lives for the selfish part of himself then he will be excluded.
The parable of the talent is written before today’s Scripture passage, and we have to keep in mind the words about the person who received one talent. The person who received one talent and returned one talent as it was has nothing to do with God. Since he lived and did everything only for himself, he hid God’s gospel in the ground. He buried the gospel only in his heart and never showed it or shared it with others. What will happen to that kind of person? God will take away even what such a person has now, and send him to the cursed place with the hypocrites. 
This talent refers to everyone’s individual abilities. We have abilities that God gave to each of us individually. In regards to taking the abilities that God has given us and using them in the work of sharing nourishment for souls, it doesn’t matter if we gave support from the back, stood in the front, or were in the middle; as long as we united our hearts with the Church and did that work then we will receive the same reward. But the person here who received one talent didn’t do that. What did he do? This person hid the gospel in his heart after he received it and ended there. And he had nothing else to do with it. There is nothing that this person did to work for the gospel or do the work of righteousness. He devoted all of his energy to his own work only, lived and ate well himself, and died. He is a person who obviously accepted the gospel, but he made a huge mistake: He lived only for himself. The Lord said that this kind of person would be appointed his portion with the hypocrites.
On the other hand, people who are united with the Church and lived for other souls stand in the ranks of those who will receive blessings. These people did the work of sharing the nourishment of life with people who did not have eternal life, clothing them in the garments of salvation, leading them by the Word if they were lacking even after putting onto them the garments of salvation, and helping them obtain strength amongst difficulties and live righteous lives. Therefore, God told these people to inherit the Kingdom prepared for them. A person who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and is born again cannot live only for himself if he does not have his own conscience seared with a hot iron before God. If you have genuinely believed in this gospel and have been born again, you are the righteous, and the people who cannot help but live for other people are the righteous.
We do not say like the slogans of moral rearmament movements or social reformation movements, “Let’s live for others” or “Let’s work this way. It’s the right thing.” Spiritual work doesn’t progress if one starts that kind of campaign. Since the Spirit is in your and my hearts and we have received noble things before God, it suffices for us to live following the desire that arises to live for people who have not been able to receive the remission of their sins. God has already fulfilled everything in order for those people to receive salvation because He loves their souls. God gave us hearts that say, “God already saved those souls so that they could receive salvation if they just believe when we spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them. It suffices for us to just spread the Truth to them and for them to just believe.” Therefore, we do so. It isn’t that we are compelled to do it because someone suggested it saying, “Let’s do it.” We are actually rendering good deeds. Doing so is proper.
So the person in the parable of the talents who received one talent is odd. That kind of person is an odd kind in which one may not even exist among 100 people who have received the remission of sin. This kind of person is one that God deals with specially. He records such people in a special register and treats them specially. “You hid the talent that I gave you in the ground. When the time comes, I will make an accounting.” When the time comes and the Lord sits on His throne and makes an accounting, they will be cast into eternal hell. I don’t think that there are very many people like that among them who have been born again through the water and the Spirit. 
It is not right for a righteous person to live only for himself, throw away the gospel after being tricked by Satan, or not to pursue the purpose of his life in proclaiming the gospel. It is proper to unite ones heart with the work that the Church does even if one is insufficient. However, there are some people who have wicked intentions and slander and kick against the Church. It is obvious that those people will be judged at the last day. That kind of person may not even be one among a hundred of those who have received the remission of sin, but I think it would be nice if there wasn’t even one.
 


Everything Done for the Gospel and the Other Souls Is Ultimately Done to the Lord


The people who inherit the Kingdom prepared for them in today’s Scripture passage are not people who lived for their own profit. They took care of other people when they were naked and had nothing to eat. When did you and I care for all of the people in the whole world? When did we take food and give it to people who had none? So the righteous here asked the question: “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to You?”
The Lord said to them that asked, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” We spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the world. There are many people in this world who are low and wretched and there are many who have no hope and no power. Among them, those who accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit revealed in the Word of God that we spread to them receive salvation. Thus, they become the people of God and your and my brothers and sisters. They also inherit with us the Kingdom of God that He prepared and become the people of God who will go and live there. 
So, what is it like? So, we have done the work of nourishing all of the people in the whole world. It is work done to people, but our Lord said that the work done to people is the work done to Him. Why? God harbored a clear purpose for mankind and created this universe and us humans. Since His purpose is to make all people His children in Jesus Christ and give them the blessings of eternal life in Heaven, we are the ones who have received such blessings and live the lives that match God’s purpose toward us. Therefore, we are becoming blessed people who inherit the Kingdom prepared for us even before the foundation of the world.
Our spreading the gospel to all of the people in the world who are low, humble, and sorrowing is done to the Lord. What I have done to you was done to the Lord, and what you are doing to the Church is being done to Him. Ultimately, things done for the gospel and for the other souls are done to whom? They are done to the Lord. Just as rendering loyalty to a company is work done for the president of that company, things done for the Church and the saints are things done for God. Is it that way or not? It is that way. Going to a company, making a plan and faithfully doing the work is work done for the company, and to whom is work done to the company done to? Aren’t they done to the owner of the company? Just like that, everything we do is done to the Lord.
So you and I inherit that Kingdom. The Lord gives us who have done such work the Kingdom prepared for us. He called it the Kingdom prepared for us. If we prepared a gift or something, we would call it a gift we prepared for someone. Just as a certain millionaire in this world may develop an island, make it beautiful for his beloved, and give it to her, the Lord made the Kingdom of Heaven for His children and gives it to them when the time comes. That is the Kingdom prepared for them. The Lord said He would give us the Kingdom prepared for us. So, the Kingdom prepared for us refers to the Kingdom where everything has been prepared.
 


The Born Again and Those Not Born Again Will Not Receive the Same Reward


Where will we go when this earth is ruined? There is no other place in this universe where people are living besides this earth. Some people say that there are aliens. There are also a lot of preachers who believe in the existence of aliens. That means that on another planet in this universe, there is another form of intelligent life other than mankind. Even though I have never traveled around the universe, I know that is not a correct faith. Jesus Christ was born on this earth. Therefore, besides life on this earth, there is nothing. God made His plan for this earth and then made the earth. That’s what I believe. 
When this earth is ruined, God will establish a new Kingdom, but that Kingdom of God is different in concept from the nations on this earth. The Lord’s Kingdom is one established in Heaven. In other words, the Lord picks a special star and lets the people of God live there. He said that when this earth is scorched, this earth and everything in it will become new and He will let us who are the righteous live there for a thousand years. That is the Millennial Kingdom. He also said that, after a thousand years, the first heaven and earth will pass away and He will give us a new heaven and a new earth that are prepared for us (Revelation 21:1). He will make a new world; God will give His children the Kingdom prepared for them to live. We will inherit the Kingdom prepared for us. We are people who will inherit the Kingdom prepared for us even when this world is ruined. You and I are all like that and the blessed people who will inherit the Kingdom prepared for us because we have been born again through the water and the Spirit.
But there are people who are not like this. In Matthew 25: 41-43, it says, “To those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’” They also asked the Lord some questions. “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?” Then, the Lord said, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” 
People who have not received salvation do not know. They are spiritual blind men. Cover your eyes for a moment. If you cover your eyes, you can’t see anything. If you cover your eyes with just one sheet of paper, you can’t see anything. If you cover your eyes with just one band-aid, you can’t see anything. 
It seems as though the difference between faith that lets souls be born again and the faith that makes people blind is really small, but the results are enormous. Since people don’t know about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they can’t receive salvation, they groan under sin, and therefore, they ultimately cannot serve the Lord. We are people with opened eyes because we know what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is and believe in it. Since we have already received the blessing of eternal life freely from the Lord, we freely share it with others, and since the Lord has made us laborers, we do the work of planting the seed of the gospel even if it is hard. We think we will reap a lot at the harvest and must now plant a lot of seeds of the gospel. Since this kind of life is a life that puts us in line with the purpose of God, we receive blessings from the Lord.
The places people will enter are different according to their faith. The Lord said to those who have not been born again, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Even in Christianity, there are countless numbers of children of the Devil. Among those who profess to be servants of God, most are not servants of God but are servants of the Devil. In other words, it is not an exaggeration to even say that Christianity is full of servants of the Devil and people who follow their words. These people are not proud of God’s righteousness but are instead proud of their own, and they are merely people who have chosen Christianity among many religions they could have chosen. These people enter the everlasting fire prepared for them.
There are people who say, “There is no hell.” Jehovah’s Witnesses say, “There is no hell. Hell in Hebrew is ‘sheol’ and in Greek ‘hades,’ but those words merely mean grave. It is also referred to as ‘Gehenna,’ but Gehenna is a word that originally pointed to the Valley of Hinnom, a place where trash and dead animals were placed and burned.” Is this teaching from the Word of God? Is there any single line that God spoke falsely in the Bible? But to put it clearly, there is hell. The Lord said in Mark 9 that hell is a place where even the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48). And He said He would “gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” There is clearly a place of Heaven and a place of hell. There is clearly a place where hell exists.
So he who truly lived for the Lord on this earth will inherit the Kingdom prepared for him, and he who did not live for the Lord will receive the curse of everlasting fire prepared for him. We humans will all receive rewards before God when we die, but the born again and those who are not born again will not receive the same reward. Also, the reward of those who have been born again and live for the Lord united with the Church even though they are insufficient and the reward of those who do not unite with the Church cannot be the same. He who boycotts the gospel receives a reward, but it is the reward of everlasting fire. On the other hand, the person who believes in the true gospel and lives by faith receives the Kingdom of God as a reward. The Lord said, “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” That means that the righteous enter into eternal life. 
Brothers and sisters, do you know what eternal life is? It is never dying but living forever. Eternal life doesn’t get sick, doesn’t wither, doesn’t become weak, gets better and better, and is a life that never dies. Eternal life refers to enjoying riches and happiness while living eternally like God who made us. Endless punishment refers to hell. The place where one receives eternal punishment refers to hell.
It doesn’t matter to us even if something happens to this earth someday. The duty that we the righteous have to do is feeding souls with nourishment, clothing them, and caring for them. Where do we do that?” We do that work to the whole world. This is the duty that the righteous must do. Do you understand? The righteous never people just give physical nourishment to others. It is true that the righteous have to also physically care for the righteous. But what the Lord really wants is for them to work for the gospel and unite together to spread it. God gave us the righteous the Kingdom prepared for us as a gift. Do you believe it? Yes. You and I receive the Kingdom prepared for us. 
Brothers and sisters, it is hard, isn’t it? I, too, know that it is hard for you and that you are working hard. But all of the things that you are doing are God’s work. You must know that God acknowledges you doing His work and gives you the Kingdom prepared for you as a gift, and you must live in that hope. In the future, the condition of the world will become difficult to the point that people who are not born again will worry about how they will live, but there are happy people who live sufficiently blessed lives in grace. You, the saints in God’s Church all over the country, all of the people of God scattered all over the world, and I are those happy people.
There are some newly born-again saints in the Church. While they dwell in the Church, they will experience how much of a difference there is between the life of a person who has received salvation and the life of one who hasn’t. You will really experience the things of which you have only heard. People who have genuinely received salvation are happy for the end to come. But a person who hasn’t received salvation will fear the end coming. That is because the closer the end comes, the closer the day will come that they go into eternal punishment or, in other words, the everlasting fire. The day that sinners enter fire is approaching closer everyday.
 


Let’s All Unite to Work for the Gospel and Receive the Same Reward


Brothers and sisters, let’s be of good cheer and work. A CEO in our country said, “The world is vast, and there is a lot to do.” The famous CEO who made this wise saying failed to make payments and was ruined, but we are not like him. You and I do God’s work with His things. We do work as servants of the Tabernacle. 
Brothers and sisters, I believe that many people will receive salvation in the future. If one person receives salvation out of all of the souls in the whole world, that person gets 200 or 300 copies of our books and shares them with others. So, as one person is born again by reading one of our books, he bears 200 or 300 times as many magnificent fruits. In this manner, the Lord spreads the gospel to the whole world. By giving everyone the opportunity to be born again, He brings back the people who will come back before God, let’s everyone who will listen to the gospel hear it, and saves them. God does this work through us, and it is hard for us who do it, but if we endure just a little longer, you and I will inherit the Kingdom of God.
Brothers and sisters, let’s all unite to work for the gospel and receive the same reward. Let’s concentrate our efforts on this and work a little more. The more books that come out in the future then the more people become nourished. There are many people around you, too, who are worthy of being nourished. 
If everyone works with all of their might with their God-given parts and serves the Lord, the Spirit in our hearts is then glad. It isn’t something to just complain about as being hard; it’s good for us to share fellowship with one another and care for one another when there are hardships. Then, we come to work for the gospel until the day that the Lord comes, come to follow Him, and ultimately come to stand in the ranks of those who will receive blessings. 
Let’s live that way. Hallelujah!
 
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SERMONS ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW (Ⅵ) - WHO ARE PRESENTED WITH THE BEST LIFE?