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Subject 11 : The Tabernacle
[11-20] The Altar of Incense (Exodus 30:1-10)
(Exodus 30:1-10)
“You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood. A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width—it shall be square—and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around. Two gold rings you shall make for it, under the molding on both its sides. You shall place them on its two sides, and they will be holders for the poles with which to bear it. You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you. Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations. You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering; nor shall you pour a drink offering on it. And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement; once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD.”
The Altar of Incense Was a Place of Prayer
The altar of incense was made of acacia wood, and it was square, measuring a cubit (45 cm: 1.5 feet) in both its length and width, and 2 cubits in its height. Placed inside the Holy Place, the altar of incense was overlaid with gold in its entirety, with a molding of gold all around it. Four rings of gold were placed under its molding to hold the poles used to carry it. On this altar of incense, nothing else but only the holy anointing oil and the sweet incense were to be used (Exodus 30:22-25).
The altar of incense was where the incense of prayer was offered to God. But before we pray at the altar of incense, we must first find out whether we are qualified to pray to God at this altar or not. Whoever seeks to be qualified to pray to the holy God must first become sinless by washing away his/her sins by faith. To do so, one must be cleansed of all his/her sins by the faith of the burnt offering and of the laver.
God does not hear the prayers of sinners (Isaiah 59:1-3). Why? Because God accepts only those who have been washed of all their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because God has washed away all our sins by the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. God, in other words, is pleased to hear only the prayers of the righteous (Psalms 34:15, 1 Peter 3:12).
The Nature and Reality of All Human Beings
When we look closely, we see that all human beings, including you and me, were fundamentally born as a sinful seed, and therefore they all sin. Each and every one is a seed of evildoer. Because people were originally born with sin, they cannot help but live their lives doing evil deeds. Think about yourself, whoever you may be. We can admit before God that we had been evil ones who could not avoid but be cast into hell. Above all, when we judge our acts before God, we come to recognize that in accordance to the law of God declaring the wages of sin to be death, we simply cannot escape from His righteous judgment of sin.
Because what comes out of the hearts of human beings is just evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, pride and foolishness, and so on, they do these things whenever they are given a chance (Mark 7:21-27). How can the hearts of human beings, who were fundamentally born as a seed of evildoers and cannot help but sin whenever circumstances allow and opportunities arise, ever be shameless before God? It is impossible through man-made efforts. But there is one and only faith that allows us to have no shame before God, and it is here. We must all know and believe in the truth made of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, the truth that enables us to be washed of all our sins and therefore stand before God with no shame. As such, all of us absolutely need the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
None of us could deny the fact that we were all bound to hell for our sins but only admit this fate. And for those who recognize before God that they are bound to hell, it is not so difficult to believe in their hearts in the salvation that God has given them. When we face God with truthfulness and sincerity, we cannot deceptively hide our hearts from Him, and so we come to acknowledge the justice of the righteousness of God. Everyone is positioned in such a place that they cannot avoid but be punished for their sins by the righteous judgment of God.
The righteous law of God that declares the wages of sin to be death is not a law that all sinners can skirt around with their own thoughts or religious faith. Because the Law of God is detailed, exact, and just, it forces whoever stands before it to admit that he/she is bound to hell for his/her sins. All sinners come to realize that they cannot escape from God’s judgment even for the smallest of their sins.
Therefore, we are in need of a Savior who delivers all of us from sin, and we have to find out who this Savior is. This is Jesus Christ, the Savior of the entire mankind. He is the Savior who came to this earth, who was baptized by John to take upon the sins of the world, who bore the punishment of the iniquities of all sinners by being crucified and shedding His blood, and who has thereby saved us from all our sins.
All of us had misunderstood that receiving the remission of sin would be extremely difficult. In fact, we had thought that we could be saved only if we know the Bible in its entirety, or that our salvation required some kind of good deeds. But the truth of salvation given by God was different. This truth of salvation opened and showed the way for us to be saved from all our sins by examining our consciences before the Law of God, recognizing all the sins that are found in our hearts, and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This truth was foreshadowed in the door of the Tabernacle.
Mankind’s remission of sin comes from the truth of precious salvation fulfilled through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. It is by believing in this truth that all can receive the eternal remission of sin once for all. To do so, everyone must recognize that they are all bound to hell for their sins and believe in the gospel manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, thereby receiving the remission of their sins all at once. The gospel that God has given us is the gospel that is found in the gospel of truth held in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen.
All must believe in this gospel of truth, for if they do not believe in the truth held in this gospel, then they cannot be freed from their sins. But those who believe in this truth of salvation that God has fulfilled with the gospel of the water and the Spirit are worthy enough to be saved from all their sins and become God’s own children. As such, to become the ones who can go before God and pray to Him, we must first believe in the truth of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of the remission of sin. When we are saved from all sins by knowing the true gospel and believing in it in our true hearts, we then become qualified to pray to God. The faith that enables us to pray to God is attained by believing in our hearts the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel from God.
It is wrong to try to pray to God without the faith that knows and believes in the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread manifested in the screen door of the Tabernacle. Such faith is akin to committing the sins of blasphemy and mockery against God. How could we become God’s enemy by refusing to believe in the truth manifested in the Tabernacle in our hearts?
When you refuse to believe in Jesus Christ who came by the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, it is a shortcut for you to garner the enmity of God. This is an act of horrendous unbelief that stands against God. The souls that continue to commit the sin of despising the holiness of God are those who do not believe in the salvation that God has fulfilled for them but believe according to their own thoughts and on their own accord. Such souls are the ones who, covering themselves in the garments of fig leaves called “hypocrisy,” despise God’s love and mercy.
But you must realize that though these people may be able to deceive their own hearts, they cannot escape from the judgment of God. Those with such unbelief will be condemned to suffer the terrifying punishment of sin by the righteous law of God. Why? Because they sought neither to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit with which the Lord has blotted out their sins, nor to believe in this gospel.
When our consciences are filthy even in our own eyes, how can we hide our sins from the holy God? This is simply impossible! Anyone who seeks to hide his/her sins will be left out of God’s love and mercy. Those who deceive their own hearts will end up as the devil’s evil servants who deceive God and their fellow human beings. The very notion that they can somehow deceive God just by blindfolding their own eyes is a reflection of their arrogance coming out of their conceited thoughts. In fact, those who rely on their own thoughts are the ones who challenge the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and who seek to become Satan’s servants out of their own volition.
People must realize that though they may be able to deceive their own hearts, they can never deceive God. And they must change their minds to believe according to the Word of God. How could everyone wash away their sins without believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? As it is written that the wages of sin is death, no sinner who deceives his/her heart before God can ever escape from the judgment of God. If we acknowledge the Law of God, then it is clear that we are all bound to hell for our sins. As such, all those who seek to come out to God must be saved by believing in the truth of the gospel manifested in the door of the Tabernacle.
However, because many have failed to realize the fact that they are to be condemned for their sins, they have also failed to accept into their hearts the gospel of salvation that has come by the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and, as a result, they are all heading to hell. Regardless of whether they are already Christians or not, those who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will face the same punishment. As such, we must not deceive our own consciences before our God, but yield in our hearts to the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and acknowledge and believe in this gospel of truth.
We Must Cleanse away Our Sins by Believing in the Word of Truth
People have two consciences: one is the conscience of the flesh, and the other is the conscience of faith with respect to the gospel of truth. We must be honest to these two realms, but of these two, we cannot fail to have, in particular, the conscience of faith that recognizes the gospel of truth. We must examine the conscience of our faith before the Word of God; believe that Jesus accepted our sins by being baptized, was condemned on the Cross, and has thereby saved us; and wash away, by this faith, the sins of our consciences. It angers me that even when this is the truth that cannot possibly be any more definitive, there are still people who do not believe in the gospel of truth.
There is an order of faith to cleanse our consciences. First, we must recognize and confirm the fact that we are bound to hell, and second, we must believe in our hearts that our Savior came to this earth, was baptized by John for our sins, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and has thereby saved us from all sins. Sinners must be saved from their iniquities and receive eternal life by their faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is thus manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread.
Despite the fact that we must be save from our sins, some people still do not believe, even as they know about the remission of sin fulfilled through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. How can they do this? Surely, they must be responsible for all the consequences of their own unbelief. If we had just known the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread but had not believed, then we would still be sinful, and if we are still sinful, then would we not have to be judged for our sins according to the law of God? Each and every one of us, male or female, all had to be saved from sin by believing in the heart in the truth of salvation that God has fulfilled through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread.
People must have the kind of faith that saves them from their sins. They must have the faith that only believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do you believe in the gospel manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, that the Lord bore all our sins by being baptized and has saved us with His bloodshed on the Cross? When you think of yourselves first, do you admit the fact that you were indeed destined to hell? Do you realize that even as we were bound to hell, the Lord has nonetheless saved us from our sins with the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread?
You must realize that it was to take care of all our sins that the Lord came to this earth, was baptized, and shed His blood. To blot out your and my sins, our Lord came to this earth incarnated into the flesh of man, accepted at once all the sins of the whole humanity onto His own body by being baptized by John in the Jordan River at the age of 30, and bore the condemnation of sin once for all by being crucified and shedding His blood. All at once, God has remitted all the sins of those who believe.
We can be saved from all our sins by believing in the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. We must examine and confirm whether or not we have truly been saved from all our sins by this truth. We must have the faith that believes in Jesus Christ who came of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread as the Savior. As the Bible says, “With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). Romans 10:17 also declares, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
This Word of Christ tells us that we are saved by believing in the salvation fulfilled with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. The remission of sin is not something that is attained by believing with our own thoughts, but it is something that is taken by believing in our hearts in the salvation that has come of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. The faith that can truly deliver us from sin is the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Must we then pray to God by placing our faith in this truth? Of course! We have to always give all prayers and supplications in the Spirit, having girded our waists with the truth (Ephesians 6:14,18). But what, then, is this truth?
It is the gospel that tells us that our Lord came to this earth to save us, was baptized by John the Baptist at the age of 30, carried all the sins of the world, was crucified on both his hands and feet, was spit at, shed His blood, and has thereby washed away our sins. We must confess that it is by our faith in this truth that our remission of sin has been fulfilled. Our Lord has saved us from our sins by being condemned for the sins of the world through His baptism and the blood of the Cross.
“Lord, You loved me so much that You have made me God’s own child.” This is how we must confess our faith. When all that we had was just sin, our Lord has still given us the qualification to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by blotting out all our sins through His baptism and crucifixion. We must all believe in this truth and receive eternal life.
What reason is there for you not to believe in this truth? As for me, I would have had nothing to say even if the Lord was not thus baptized to save me from my sins, and yet for my own sake, He was in fact baptized, shed His blood, and has thereby saved me from my sins. And so I believe! There is no reason why all of us should not believe in this gospel. It is clear that if sinners do not believe in the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then they will surely be cast into hell. But I want each and every one of you to be saved now from sin by believing in the gospel of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread.
There was a time when I myself had remained a sinner even as I professed to believe in Jesus. Wanting to be a good Christian, I tried very hard to have no shame under Heaven. But contrary to my wishes, I kept on sinning time after time; the only consolation was that when I compared myself to others, I thought I was at least somewhat better than them. However, my conscience kept telling me that I still had sin, and since the wages of sin is death according to the law of God, I was someone who was bound to hell for my iniquities.
After a decade of my weary and legalistic life, I was almost dead spiritually. However, God awakened me by grace that Jesus Christ was baptized for me and took upon my own sins. He took upon not only my sins, but also all the sins of everyone in the whole world. He then bore the condemnation of these sins by carrying them to the Cross and being crucified and dying on it, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become my true Savior who lives even now. When I came to know this gospel of truth, I could not but believe in it. And by believing that Jesus Christ has become my God of salvation through His baptism and His bloodshed on the Cross, all my sins have been washed away. I have received the remission of sin into my heart by faith.
It is not because I knew well about all the Word of God that I received the remission of my sins, but I was remitted of my sins because I knew the sins of my own conscience, passed these sins onto Jesus Christ through His baptism, and believed in my heart that Jesus was condemned on the Cross to pay the wages of my sins. It is because I have received this remission of sin that I am now living my life preaching the gospel. You and I are the same; there is no difference between us in reality.
Just like you, I had also been heading to hell, and just like you, I have also received the remission of sin by believing in the same gospel of the water and the Spirit. By believing in the gospel with which the Lord has blotted out our sins, you and I alike have both been saved by faith. So I give my thanks to the Lord. It is because in this way we now have the conscience of faith by receiving the perfect remission of sin through the water and the Spirit that we are now able to go to God and pray to Him as His own children have received the remission of sin.
As the Bible tells us that the fragrance for the altar of incense was made of the holy anointing oil and the sweet incense, Jesus has made us clean by washing away all our sins with the holy gospel of truth. In the ancient age of the Old Testament, the people of Israel had to make this incense and burn it on the altar exactly as God had commanded. So inside the Holy Place, incense was burnt and its aroma rose up everyday. This incense means praying to God.
In the age of the New Testament, for you to burn this incense in the Holy Place, you must first believe in the gospel of the truth and receive the remission of sin into your hearts. In other words, it is by believing in the gospel of truth that one can burn the incense of prayer. How else could we burn incense in the same way as it was burnt during the Old Testament’s time? When such utensils of the Tabernacle as the altar of burnt offering and the altar of incense are not lying around before us now, how could you and I make incense and burn it on the altar? We can burn the incense of prayer by faith, for Jesus Christ has blotted out our sins and saved us. Because our hearts have been cleansed by faith when we received the remission of sin, we can now burn incense rising up to God with our fervent prayers.
We believe that by our wholehearted faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit all our sins were passed onto Jesus Christ, and that Jesus Christ vicariously bore the condemnation of our sins in our stead. Your and my hearts have thereby become all clean. Since all the sins in our hearts were passed onto Jesus, our hearts have become, by faith, completely clean all at once. If all your sins were passed onto Jesus through the baptism that He received from John, then all your sins were washed away and blotted out once for all There is no longer any sin left in your hearts. Because our sins were blotted out and cleansed away by believing in the gospel, we can now go to the holy God and ask for His help. That we are able to pray to God is premised on our faith, that we have received the remission of sin by definitively believing in the gospel, which is now at the background of our sincere hearts.
Brothers and sisters, go to the altar of incense and pray incessantly. “Father, please help me. This is the situation that I am in, and this is what I need. I want to spread the true gospel and live righteously, Father. I want to live virtuous life fitting for someone who has truly been remitted of sin. And I want to bear the fruits of righteousness. Give me faith in You. I want to live my life according to Your will.” Like this, asking for one’s needs is what prayer is about. It is about asking for God’s help according to His righteousness.
You probably have various passions and desires as well. Because we have been made righteous by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has justified us, it has now been made possible for us to ask God for all things with our prayer. Those who are able to pray to God for His help are the happy. Now that all of us have received the remission of our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there is no doubt that we can all pray to God.
Those who, by their faith in God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit, have received the remission of sin into their hearts have at least become qualified to go to the holy God and ask for His help. And all the born-again believers inevitably and instinctively come to pray for the Father’s help in their lives, as a child makes a cry for help to his/her parents when he/she is in trouble. Their faith that has brought them the remission of sin is not only the faith that enables them to call God as their Father, but it is also the faith that enables them to pray for the Father’s help at all times as His own sons and daughters. Because God has indeed become our own Father by our faith, we are now fit to ask for His help through our prayer according to our needs.
I do not know, of course, what your personal prayers have been or how they have been met by God after you’ve received your remission of sin. But what I do know is that when we pray to God to enable us to unite with His Church and spread the gospel, He surely answers our prayer. It is in this process that we come to pray for others. At first, everyone prays only for the needs of his/her flesh. But by the works of the Holy Spirit, we come to realize that we are in urgent need of prayers for others, and thus we come to devote ourselves to pray for the salvation of other souls and the spreading of the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world. Why? Because the prayers of the born-again saints are led by the Holy Spirit. The Lord has told us, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).
But among the born-again, those who are still spiritually immature do not know how to pray for the right things, for they have not yet experienced God’s answer to their prayers. This is because they still do not know how powerful is faith in God’s righteousness. Those of little faith not only do not know whether their prayers will be answered or not, but moreover, they are haunted by doubts.
As such, they must pray together with those who believed prior to them. Those whose faith is young are hesitant to pray to God. And when they do pray, they only ask for what they want—“give me, give me, give me.” But if the young in faith unite with the Church even without any great faith in God, they can still learn what the true prayer is, for their predecessors of faith in the Church are praying for the righteousness of God. Also, because the Holy Spirit gives the faith of prayer to those who are united with the Church, they gradually come to pray for the righteousness of God. “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16).
The faithful prayers of the born-again who have the right to pray to God avail much. The prayers of those who have faith in God are actually answered by Him. When people pray to God, for their prayers to be answer by the Father, they must first believe that God is their own Father, and that He answers their prayers exactly according to their faith. As such, when the predecessors of faith unite together and pray for those who are following in their footsteps and for the righteous works of the spreading of the gospel, they come to experience great works. If you stand next to your predecessors of faith who believe in God, you will be greatly helped in your faith. Because God knows that we are in need of much help not only with the grace of salvation but also in other aspects of life, He answers our prayers. This is why we all need the faith that is united with God’s Church.
When we pray for the things that please God, our faith is greatly emboldened. As spiritual children emulating to pray eventually come to take such prayers as their own and mature, we can also come to pray to God the Father for our own problems later on. Those who by doing so truly believe in God then come to walk by faith on the path following the real truth. As the Bible tells us that the righteous shall live only by faith, they come to live not for themselves alone, but for the salvation of other souls.
How did we earn the qualification to pray to God? We earned it by being born again through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by God. It is only to those who have received the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the boldness of faith enabling one to pray to God the Father is given. Faith is a gift from God. To earn the qualification to pray is to receive the great blessing of faith from God.
Among the many Christian believers on this planet, how many of them do you think are qualified to pray with such faith? Not many! One of the most blessed gifts from God is, first of all, that we have come to have the faith that has saved us from our sins with the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. And the second is that we have received the power and qualification to pray to God as His own children; and third, that we have come to have the faith that allows us to live as God’s workers.
God Does Not Answer the Prayers of Sinners
Some sinners, even as they profess to believe in Jesus, pray to God to blot out their sins by climbing some mountain and shouting out the name of the Lord incessantly. Even in cold and windy nights, they still climb the mountain, covering their bodies with plastic sheets, and though they are often fearful, they still pray fervently with all their devotion. But their prayers only ring hollow into the empty space.
Though they pray all night long, they have no faith whatsoever that God would really answer their prayers. The reason why they pray so devotedly in spite of this lack of faith is because they pray to show off to others, merely as an exhibition. Their prayers are unanswerable prayers. In fact, they know in their conscience that their prayers are not reaching God, for they still have sin in their hearts. Because they are yet to receive the remission of their sins, there is no answer to their many prayers, no matter how much they pray, cry and wail, scream on top of their lungs, and do all kinds of things to ask God for what they want.
What they need to realize is that the prerequisite to pray to God is met only when they first receive the remission of sin. But because many sinners have no alternative until they come to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they cannot help but continue to live their lives of faith as sinners. When people are not cleansed once for all by believing in their hearts in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord, then their prayers are in fact all in vain. Whenever sinners try to pray to God, their consciences shout, “You think your prayers will reach God? Dream on! They’re all in vain!” So even as they keep praying to God, “Give me this, give me that,” their prayers are actually futile.
“Before you pray to Me, first receive the remission of your sins.” This is God’s will. When those who have not received the remission of sin pray to God, they realize out of their experience that their consciences do not consent to their reason. When sinners pray, they keep saying, “Give me this, Lord, and give me that also,” but there is no answer to their prayers. Far from it, their consciences only tell them, “No way! Your prayers will go unanswered, because you are sinful!” When even in their own consciences sinners cannot tolerate their faith, how could they possibly deceive God, how could they be approved by Him, and how could their prayers be answered? Sinners are simply not qualified to pray to God. Far from it, even their own hearts distrust their prayers.
Our Prayers Begin to Be Answered When We Become Righteous by Faith
But the prayers of many who had been sinners before begin to be answered once they receive the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread of the Tabernacle. Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in the center of their hearts may be insufficient on their own, but they can go to God by faith, and by faith they can boldly pray to Him, asking Him for their needs. When those who have received the remission of sin by faith pray to God according to His will, then they come to pray in boldness.
But when they are praying for their own flesh, they at times feel unsuitable. We the righteous are the happiest when we pray for the spreading of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, for the souls of others. When we pray for the dynamic spreading of the gospel, snared by no hindrance of the flesh, then we can overcome the obstacles of our limitations through prayers of faith. But at times, we feel frustrated when we are unable to overcome such obstacles by faith. In times like these, all that we can do is pray, and believe that God will eventually answer. And sure enough, in time we witness that this prayer is indeed answered by God.
What we must do is pray and then wait, not wonder in impatience why our prayers are not answered right away. God wants us to pray by faith, and we believe that if our prayers are in harmony to God’s will, then He will answer them when the time comes. And when we receive the remission of sin by faith, and when we pray by faith in our lives, then we will see at first-hand experience that many of our prayers are indeed answered.
But have you lived by faith like this? If so, then you can truly pray to God. When we examine ourselves once more, we realize that we are bound to hell, and we also realize once more that we can be qualified to pray only by receiving the remission of sin through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As such, we must remember for sure that those who can pray are those who have received the remission of sin by believing that the Lord has blotted out all the sins of their entire lifetime with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Among those who have not yet been born again, there are many people who are so proud of themselves. What about you? Do you have anything to be proud of? Are your arms strong? Are your legs strong? No matter how strong our bodies may be, they cannot even withstand common cold viruses, nor can they resist for long any marginally strong physical force, belying their true weakness. Do you realize just how weak human beings are? We can die from a single mosquito bite, or drop dead hit by a falling stone while walking. We are nothing. If someone utters a single phrase that wounds our pride, our hearts can be hurt so much that we become half-dead. Is this not the case? Of course it is!
How many people die before even turning 60? There are countless people who die even before reaching 30. Such weak beings are none other than human beings. The everlasting strength of human beings can be found nowhere. Should such weak beings, then, be hardened only in their hearts and not believe in the Word of God in the center of their hearts? Having nothing to be proud of, nor pretend to be strong at—this is what human beings are.
As such, we must realize our own weaknesses, recognize our insufficiencies and sins, believe in the gospel of truth fulfilled through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread in our hearts, and thereby earn the qualification to pray to God. We must have faith in God. To have this faith that pleases God in the center of the heart, people must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but there are many who still do not believe in it. Could you have earned the right to pray to God from another gospel other than this gospel of the water and the Spirit? Could your sins have been blotted out had Jesus, coming to this earth, not taken upon your sins by being baptized for your sake? Could you have passed your sins of the heart onto Jesus and washed them away without believing in the baptism that Jesus received?
The answers are no, no, and absolutely not! It is because Jesus shouldered the sins of the world with the baptism received from John that He was crucified and bore the condemnation of all sins with His own blood. Could you then have been saved without the baptism of Jesus and the Cross? Of course not! That Jesus was baptized was to take upon our sins once for all and wash them away, to cleanse away our sins. And that He was crucified was to bear the punishment of our sins. It is by believing in this truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have been remitted of all our sins.
Thus, we can go to God at any time and boldly confess, “Lord, I am this insufficient, but because You have saved me with Your water and blood, I am now sinless. You came to this earth, at once took upon all sins by being baptized, carried these sins of the world to the Cross, was punished for them, and rose from the dead again. And by doing so, Lord, You have truly become my God of salvation. It is with my faith in this truth that I believe in You.” When we keep our faith, in other words, we can always go to God and pray to Him despite our insufficiencies. We can pray for the expansion of His Kingdom, we can pray for our brothers and sisters, and we can pray for the other souls that are yet to receive the remission of sin.
It is only when people believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that they can always be without any shame under the heavens. But not having this faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, some people might try to fill the void with something else—you should realize that such efforts are completely futile. This is why their hearts are distressed and tormented, turning their lives unbearable. Whether in the truth or lies, everyone wants to believe in something. Consider yourselves.
Examine yourselves to see whether you really believe in the Lord with the faith that believes the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or whether you do not believe in this gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Lord has blotted out your sins with the water and the blood—if you believe in this, then, would there still be sin in your hearts? If you truly believe, in the bottom of your hearts and spirits, in this gospel of the water and the Spirit, then there is surely no sin at all. With your wholehearted faith in this truth, receive the true remission of your sins now.
Because God has given us our remission of sin through the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, we have now received this everlasting remission of sin. And because of this, those who believe in this truth have become God’s own children, clothed in the grace that enables them to come forth to Him. Therefore, we have to love one another, understand each other’s insufficiencies, serve the works of God until the end, and then go to Him and stand before His presence.
Those who have received the remission of sin love all sinners. The hearts of the righteous desire every sinner to know the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and be born again. But there is a certain kind of people who cannot actually love people. These are the obstinate sinner—Christians who deceive their own consciences of faith and delude themselves into thinking that they believe in God even as they still remain sinful.
By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and receiving the remission of sin into our hearts, we must all defend our consciences of faith. Let us run our race well until the end, keeping our consciences of faith and not losing our faith. And when someone seems to be going through a hard time spiritually, then help each other and hold one another steadfast. No matter what happens, the righteous must not leave the Church. If the righteous leave God’s Church, they will die immediately. Leaving God’s Church is like losing your own home. Losing your home is losing your refuge, and so your hearts will find neither rest nor comfort anywhere, and you will die in the end.
God’s Church is a place where His sheep are fed and given rest and relief. As such, when the sheep lose their strength and become too weary, God’s Church helps their hearts to be strengthened by hearing the Word. When you accept the Word by believing in your hearts, then the Holy Spirit in you will rejoice, your hearts will also be strengthened, and, as the final result, you will receive eternal life.
All of us the righteous give our thanks to God. We thank the Lord, for in order to qualify us to pray, He has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Hallelujah! I pray to the living God that He would enable us to trust in Him and live by faith.
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