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Subject 6 : Heretics
[6-25] You Must Live out Your Faith with a Pure Faith Like Stone and Mortar (Genesis 11:1-9)
“Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’ But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.”
Now, the people mentioned in this Scripture passage are all descendants of Noah. The Book of Genesis chapter 11 describes an event in which the descendants of Noah had built the tower of Babel. At that time, they used only one language, as it is written, “Now the whole earth had one language and one speech” (Genesis 11:1). In other words, people prior to the Babel Tower event used only one speech.
But as Noah’s descendants journeyed further and further from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, which is where Iraq is now located. There they sought to avoid getting scattered abroad and to make a name for themselves by building a tower whose top would be in the heavens with bricks. And so, those descendants of Noah came to build the Tower of Babel. And so, they started building the Babel Tower, but they started building the tower using bricks that they had made instead of stones and using asphalt instead of mortar. In order to make the tower tall, they used asphalt to tower up the bricks. However, because God did not like this work, He had scattered abroad all of humankind at the time by confusing their language.
God Hates Those Leading a Chaotic Life of Faith the Most
When the descendants of Noah arrived at the plains of Shinar, it seems that time hadn’t passed much since Noah’s family came out from the ark. Yet, they already wanted to depart from the Lord God. In other words, instead of depending on God, they wanted to live on their own without God’s help.
Noah was saved from God’s judgment of water by the faith of believing in the Word of God. And, Noah’s three children, Shem, Ham, and Japeth, and their wives were also saved by believing in the Word of God that Noah had told them. At that time, not only Noah’s family members but also all types of creatures on earth were able to receive salvation because of the special providence of God. However, the fact is that these descendants of Noah abandoned God soon after coming out from the ark and went against God in order to live on their own. We must understand how wicked and how mistaken their lives were before God.
For they distrusted God who had allowed them to be on this earth and had given them life and all the blessings, their act of trying to live on their own was such a grave sin before God. At the time, they built the Tower of Babel on the plains of Shinar, but it is said that they had used bricks instead of stones and asphalt instead of mortar in building it. According to the Old Testament, the altar of burnt offering for God was supposed to be built using natural stones only, and also, it is said that God accepts burnt offerings of sacrifice on top of such an altar of burnt offering. However, the descendants of Noah wanted to show off their power by building the Babel tower on their own accord in order to show off their power.
When we realize the righteousness of God and try to serve Him by faith, we mustn’t try to serve Him with human wisdom or scheme. When we believe in the righteousness of God and try to serve that righteousness, we must worship God with the faith of believing in the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit as it is. Only when we do so, will God be happy and will we also get to receive perfect salvation from the sins of this world. And only when we do so, will other souls be able to receive salvation from sin by having faith in the righteousness of God. However, human beings are putting efforts in living according to their own will by relying on their own powers and thoughts. Such people are the idolaters who worship gods other than God, and if they were to go a step further from there, the fact is that they would become the heretics that worship the golden calves before God like King Jeroboam and heap up God’s wrath.
Our Lord has saved us from all the sins of this world by the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. And, He finds joy from eternally receiving praise, respect and glory from those of us who have been saved from all their sins by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Yet, by building the Babel Tower people at the time had shown a disregard for the Divinity of God and had gathered together in a spiritual rally to go against the righteousness of God with their fleshly powers. And, we must realize that such acts are so very foolish before God. Through today’s Scripture passage, God is showing us the foolishness of all human beings.
As the number of Noah’s descendants grew, they could not but live widely dispersed. I think their original intent for building the tower was to have a central location where they could gather together whenever needed, no matter where they were living. So, if we were to think in terms of the flesh, their actions are all understandable. Nevertheless, the fact that they had collected strength in order to live for themselves by excluding God from their lives was a sin. People trying to show off their unity and power by coming together and building the soaring Tower of Babel is something that just cannot be ignored before God. Also, it is treason against God like worshipping the golden calves and an immensely great sin before God. For humans to try to live according to their own will by ignoring and excluding the will of God is also a great sin.
From a human perspective, it didn’t seem all that bad in their own eyes to try to build the Babel Tower. Rather for them, it seemed even better. However, the fact is that from God’s point of view, such acts were too evil and didn’t seem good. Because of this incident, they became imprisoned in an eternal chaos as traitors who were trying to keep a further distance from God. Hence, the Babel Tower incident in which people were trying to unite amongst themselves by excluding God was the most wicked and insolent sin of people having tried to stand before God on their own power without relying on Jehovah God. Because it was the sin of idolatry, relying on something other than God, it was the sin that God hated the most.
God Destroys the Babel Tower of Chaos People Had Built
Just as God had given new life to Noah by saving him from the judgment for sins, by giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our Lord has saved those of us who believe in this gospel Truth once and for all from the sins of this world. We are able to go on living confidently by the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given to us by the Lord. As we raise our eyes by the faith of believing in the righteousness of God, for us to be living in the grace of God is in itself glory to God, and to us, it brings great blessings and peace. God found joy in such faith and in such a belief as ours. Those who are living by faith relying on God and His righteousness are those that have gained true faith and true peace.
However, many people are trying to live with fleshly powers that come from their thoughts and strength instead of relying on God and His righteousness. Something like that is a greatly wrongful sin before God. God finds joy in people who believe in and follow the Word of God with a pure heart, just as Noah did as God spoke with him. Put differently, God finds joy in people who have faith like that of Noah.
We can see how pure and genuine Noah was before God through the Word of God. By that, Noah had built an ark for one hundred years, having faith in the Word of God. If Noah hadn’t had the faith of believing in the Word of God with a pure heart, he would not have been able to build an ark for one hundred years. People at the time must have ridiculed Grandfather Noah as a fool. They had treated Noah as a crazy person, saying to him in accordance with their own thoughts, “No matter how hard rain had fallen from the sky, in my entire lifetime, I have never seen even that little hill over there in front getting submerged underwater, yet how can something like the entire world getting submerged underwater happen?”
However, because Noah, in his heart, believed in God and His Word, the fact of the matter is that he had the faith to build an ark for one hundred years. And at even that, he had built it according to the ark design told by God. Noah’s entire family had devoted everything into the work of obeying the Word of God, that is, the work of building the ark. Thus, he was saved from the world under destruction by the faith of believing in the Word of God, but what is more, he was able to save the lives of his entire family.
Even though Noah’s genuine faith must have been told to his descendants, but the fact is that people who were then gathered in the land of Shinar were trying to go on living by making a name for themselves with their own strength by building the Babel Tower and departing from the bosom of God. And that was why God had scattered them and confused their language so that they may not complete the Babel Tower. Thus, that is the reason why we are going through the hardship of translating the Word of God into all the various languages of the world right now.
Back then the language was one, so everyone was able to communicate with each other without any problem. It is the case that God had allowed people to live well with one another by giving people the same speech. Yet, the fact of the matter is that they had fallen as builders of a wall between God and them, instead of inheriting the genuine faith of their ancestors. God finds most joy in people building altars of genuine faith. When we read the Scripture passages in the Book of Exodus, it is said, “And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it” (Exodus 20:25-26). But, what I would like to ask you is why they had made bricks in order to build the Babel Tower. The fact that they were building the Babel Tower is indicative of the fact that they were trying to distance themselves from God spiritually by relying on their own physical strength.
Even now, some people try to understand God’s love and salvation within the framework of their own fleshly thinking and try to believe in Him with a faith of imaginary pregnancy. All such people try to confirm their religious experiences as being born again within their own thinking and saying according to their own fleshly thoughts, “If I believe like this, I am sure I will be saved. Being born again of water and the Spirit must mean this.” Everyone has thoughts deriving from the flesh, but fabricating their salvation with such thoughts on their own and then making it firm is a gravely mistaken belief. And so, they go on to say, “I will get to Heaven by receiving salvation from sins by believing only in the blood of the Cross,” but the fact of the matter is that such thinking becomes the sin of standing against the righteousness of God. You must realize how foolish it is to be sure of salvation on your own with the thoughts derived from your own flesh.
Salvation made up by one’s own fleshly thinking is called imaginary salvation. If Christians were to fall into an imaginary salvation, they would then fall into a chaos from which they can never turn back. If so, what difference is there between such faith and the faith that builds the Babel Tower before God? Such faith is extremely fleshly and greatly wrongful before God. Christians these days believe their own fleshly thoughts and are convinced on their own that those thoughts constitute a sound faith, but it is something gravely mistaken. Most Christians firmly believe in the doctrines of Christianity only, following their own thinking instead of listening to the Word of God. However, that is far different from the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must not believe in our own thoughts absolutely, but instead, we must always believe in God within the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Whoever it may be, if anyone tries to follow the doctrines derived from human thinking, his faith cannot but go wrong. Christians today believe blindly in the formula for salvation that they have created with their fleshly thoughts under the pretense of Christian doctrine. That is why when the gospel of the water and the Spirit reaches their ears, they regard it as preposterous instead of understanding it properly. That is why people must believe in the proper salvation from the beginning. Having faith in the righteousness of God by believing in the Word of God with a genuine heart is what constitutes a proper faith. The Lord said to us, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). We must realize the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit and genuinely possess the faith of believing in that Truth. Also, we need to genuinely believe and accept in our hearts the gospel of the water and the Spirit spoken to us by God. A genuine faith is nothing but believing in the righteousness of God, and such genuine faith is the faith that makes God truly happy. That is the faith that God approves. By basing our faith on the written Word of God, we must believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
How Could Christians Have Made Such False Doctrines!
People in spiritual chaos are making Christian doctrines by adding their fleshly thinking to the Word of God. One of the representative Christian doctrines is the Doctrine of Sanctification, and this doctrine led to the creation of the doctrine of the prayers of repentance. In other words, the doctrine of the prayers of repentance is a sub-doctrine of the Doctrine of Sanctification. Christians today offers prayers of repentance when they commit sins against God in order to cleanse their sins.
However, such faith is to believe in a wrongful Christian doctrine created by human thinking. Furthermore, Christian leaders, having created Christian doctrines with their own thinking, are asking every believer to believe in those doctrines, but this is something gravely wrong. These days, Christian leaders who haven’t yet been born again are leading numerous people into death by interpreting the Bible within their own frame of thinking and then turning that into doctrines.
When a person believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, sins disappear, and thus, the person gets to receive the Holy Spirit as a gift. However, people who do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, quoting the passage, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8), go on to teach erroneously by saying, “No one can know whether or not oneself has been born again or has received the Holy Spirit. It is the case that one gets to be born again by the Holy Spirit at one time or another so long as one continues to believe in Jesus as the Savior.” They give teachings that are so preposterous because such people do not yet know about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, yet. And it is also because those people, as the spiritually blind, have fallen into chaos, for even if they did hear about the gospel, they do not believe in it nevertheless.
Those who teach such false doctrines inside Christianity right now are the spiritual blind. And, the fact that most of Christian leaders are the spiritually blind who have fallen into such chaos is a great problem. But, the greater problem is the fact that people who teach such false doctrines today do not know very well for themselves how false all the words that they speak out are. Even so, they continue to hold firmly onto their wrongful thinking. Therefore, most people these days who profess that they believe in Jesus do not know how they are born again by having faith in Jesus.
These people’s faith has nothing to do with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. For that reason, they do not possess the evidence for their faith by the Word of God. They put forth the blood shed by Jesus at the Cross as the only evidence of their salvation. Such people haven’t yet been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. These people have sins in their heart. Isn’t that so?
If the sins remain in their heart, such people are sinners before God. Sinners are those who are still separated from Christ. That is why God has said a person has to be born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But, those who neither know nor believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit go on saying, “I certainly do not know when a person becomes one of the born-again, but what is clear is that a person who believes in Jesus will be born again someday.” Like so, these people are holding on to their arbitrary faith and volition that were solidified by their wrongful thinking. As for such people, they must have their faith and spirit be healed by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only by doing so, they will be able to realize the fact that the manufactured Christian doctrines within current Christianity are the by-products of false and chaotic human thinking.
By believing in and propagating doctrines fabricated by wrongful human thinking, people go on mass-producing heretic Christians like themselves. They say, “No one knows whether anyone has been saved or not. Only God knows who is saved. And also, regarding people going to Heaven or hell, it is something that only God knows.” They are in such chaos because they don’t know the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
God has given people the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that is, the Truth that allows people to truly be born again. And as for those who have accepted this Truth, He had them know whether or not they themselves have received the remission of sins and whether or not they themselves will go to Heaven. That is the Truth spoken in the Bible. God has granted true remission of sins to those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and along with that, He had them receive the true salvation by giving them the divine Holy Spirit as a gift.
Yet, if one were to say that only God knows about receiving the salvation and going to Heaven, it would just be a result deriving from the ignorance of not knowing about the Truth. People these days who claims to believe in Jesus without knowing about the gospel of the water and the Spirit are all possessors of chaotic faith leading a life of faith within the framework of their own fleshly thinking. Christians right now who believe only in the blood of the Cross are those that believe in God by having made up all the doctrines of Christianity such as the Doctrine of Sanctification with their own fleshly thinking and then having made up their own salvation, Heaven, eternal life, and even God within that doctrinal framework.
In today’s Scripture passage, the fact that they had made bricks and had used them in place of stones refers to the faith of today’s Christians who believe only in the blood of the Cross. Christian doctrines as of current created by fleshly human thinking are wrongful. They console themselves saying, “Because I have believed in Jesus as the Savior, I will surely be born again at one time or another! Also, because I have offered prayers of repentance, sins must have been cleansed!” They do not possess any clear evidence of the Word of God regarding their sins having been cleansed, but instead, they go on thinking wrongfully with their fleshly thoughts, saying, “As I have begged for forgiveness by offering prayers of repentance, I guess God will forgive me for my sins.”
Such faith is wrongful. Such faith is so wrongful before God, and it leads people into becoming the spiritually blind. We must genuinely believe in the written Word of God, instead of having the sort of faith that we have made up with fleshly human thinking. God scatters abroad those who try to conjure up their own salvation with fleshly thoughts and then erect it high. Our life of faith is to believe in the written Word of God. We must receive salvation and live out our faith genuinely by the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When we look at today’s Scripture passage, it is said that the descendants of Noah had made and used bricks instead of stones and asphalt instead of mortar, but these bricks and asphalt are devices made by people on their own. But no one can cleanse himself of his own sin, no matter who that person may be. People’s sins can only be cleansed by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God the Father has given us through His Son, Jesus Christ. What should our faith be like then? It must be the faith of believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit genuinely. We get to receive salvation only by doing so. We must go on revering God by the faith of believing in the fact that the Lord had come by the water and the blood to save us from the worldly sins and in the fact that Jesus Christ is the true God who has created this world and the entire universe. Instead of just knowing about the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our heads, we must genuinely believe in this gospel with our hearts.
Those who do not believe in and follow the gospel of the water and the Spirit genuinely aren’t the ones who truly believe in and follow Jesus Christ. We mustn’t believe in our salvation by making it up with our own thoughts of the flesh. Truly, we must genuinely believe in the salvation that God has made with the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts.
It isn’t the case that we created God. We must believe in God who has been in existence even before all eternity. We must know and believe in God Himself who has been in existence even before all eternity, and furthermore, we must lead a life of faith by knowing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given to us. We must truly know God by the faith of believing in the written Word of God, and we must lead a life faith before God with that faith. You must live out our faith by believing in the Word of the Truth that Jesus Christ, who is God, has given to us all. The fact of the matter is that we must lead a life of faith by genuinely believing in the fact that the Lord has saved us who had been sinners from the sins of the world by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And therefore, we can profess boldly that He is our Savior and our Guardian.
God wants us to genuinely lead a life of faith. Rather than leading a life of faith by knowing God with only our heads, God also wants us to know His love and to believe in and follow Him with our hearts. What God wants from us is the faith itself that believes in the Word of God genuinely. God expects from us the faith of believing in what He has given us as it is. God whom we believe in isn’t someone who has been created by us. He was in existence even before the creation and even before all eternity. And, it is He who has created us and has presented Himself on this earth in order to become our Savior when we were drowning in sin. The Lord has also delivered us from the sins of the world and the sins in our hearts through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and has protected us. He wants to give everyone the eternal everlasting life by bringing each back to life forever.
Noah’s Descendants Built the Babel Tower on the Wild Plain in the Land of Shinar
The plain in Shinar is presumed to be somewhere in the country of Iraq now. That country does indeed have many plains. Mountains are scarce there, but instead, deserts are spread out far and wide. When the descendants of Noah arrived at that immensely vast place, they probably had thought, “So many of us have gathered here. God has given us this land, so let us gather here and go on living by farming. Let us not scatter, but rather gather our strength together.”
If they had relied on God by spiritual faith, they would have said, “Let us live before God by faith. Let us not use the means and the ways of a human being, but rather, let us enjoy the God-given blessings. And also, let us go on living before God with thankfulness. Let us not go on living by using the means of humans, but rather, let us receive God’s help and guidance! Isn’t it true that people prior to the days of grandfather Noah had died because of the flood by thinking wrongfully and thus being wily before God? Let us go on living by having thrown away our wiliness! Look what God has given us. Farming will surely go well here. Let us till this land, sow seeds, build houses, and live like this. Let us just build rural houses and then live out our lives praising the glory of God.”
All they had to do was that, but regrettably, they did not do so. There were few distinguished people among them, and they came to hit upon an excellent plan, like, “With a land like this, I believe we can live on our own without God. I think we can go forth without God.” An idea like that comes from the flesh of people. It probably was the case that those few people conveyed their thoughts to the others gathered there at the time, saying, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4).
Just as someone had mentioned that idea to people, everyone started to respond positively, saying, “That is right. That is truly correct, so instead of just speaking out, let us take action.” And so, understanding one another, they started the work of building a tower. “Then, the motion to execute has been resolved. From this moment on, we will start. Now, we will organize groups in order to complete the work as follows: ground digging and transporting group, fire keeping group, firewood collecting group, mud kneading group, brick making group, brick transporting group, brick laying group, asphalt making group, asphalt scooping and transporting group, and asphalt pasting group. Fall in by groups!” They had people lined up like troops under military review, and then, they started to work systematically by having appointed a leader for each of the groups.
These people had built the Babel Tower with thoughts coming out from their fleshly heads. However, these people’s faith was a wrongful, secular, demonic and religious faith. A religious faith refers to a faith that has been created by human beings themselves. People wanted to avoid getting scattered abroad and to try to live well by building the Babel Tower whose top is in the heavens. They had tried to go on living by relying on a faith that came from inside their heads. However, such a faith that believes in the doctrines coming out from their heads is a false faith before God that leads them to be scattered abroad. Thus, that is precisely what is the harm of a religiously based faith.
The true genuine faith of believing in the righteousness of God isn’t something that we have made up with our heads, but rather, it is the faith of accepting the gospel of the water and the Spirit as it is. The faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit isn’t something that has been made up by people themselves, but rather, it is the faith of believing in the true gospel that God has planned and realized for us in Jesus Christ. Believing in the Truth that God has given us as it is written in the Word of God is the true faith.
You Must Renew Your Faith by Believing in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
As for someone who has harbored a wrongful faith by believing in the doctrines created by human beings, what must he do, then? He must revert back to the faith of believing only in the Word of God by crumbling down what he had believed, that is, getting spiritually crushed once more. Raw material for a brick is dirt. Just as bricks become dirt when crushed, such a person must turn back his doctrinal faith into the proper state of faith that genuinely believes in the Word of God. And from now on, he must not embrace such a wrongful faith with his thoughts of the flesh.
We must believe in the Word written in the Bible as it is. Our God is who He is, and we must believe in our hearts that God is who He is as He is. God has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit that becomes the foundation of our faith, and He has become the Rock of faith and the Truth of salvation for us. Jesus Christ has saved us from the sins of the world by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Lord had come down to this earth in the flesh of man and has saved us from all the sins and judgment by His baptism He had received from John the Baptist and the blood of the Cross. To believe as it is in the gospel of the water and the Spirit by which God has saved us from the sins of the world ― such faith is the faith, like a rock, that forever does not change.
We must believe in our hearts the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit itself as it is. We must receive the salvation from sins and lead a life of faith by accepting into our heart, as it is the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God has given us. The gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit isn’t something that we have created but rather it is something that God has given us. You must live out your faith by believing in this gospel Truth, just as you have believed in God who had existed even before the creation and His Word as it is.
Today, we took a look at passages in the Book of Genesis chapter 11 verses 1-9. These passages aren’t the Word of God that was needed only to the people of those days, but rather, they are the Word that we all humans need for all eternity. It is because the Word of God is the eternal Truth. Through today’s Scripture passage, the Word of God isn’t only saying that the people’s faith back then was wrongful but also saying that it is also wrongful to be pursuing such faith even at the present time. It is saying that the faith of believing something made up by human thinking is wrong. We must break down all that were created by our fleshly thoughts. It means that we must now blot out the false doctrinal faith that has prevailed inside Christianity.
A doctrinal faith is a faith in which the Word of God is mixed with fleshly human thinking. That is why the tower is called the Babel Tower. The Hebrew word “Babel” means “confusion (by mixing).” What has been created by mixing together the pure Word of God with human thinking which is impure is a mixed faith that is the faith of the Babel Tower. We must break down such a faith quickly. Although we have led a life of faith up until now, if there still are things made up by our own fleshly thinking, then we must break them down without fail. Christianity has created wrongful doctrines. The fact is that today’s Christian doctrines have all been made up by human thinking. Therefore, we must scatter away all these wrongful doctrines by the faith of believing in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The history of Christianity in Korea has not been that long. Nevertheless, Christianity in Korea greatly revived in a short period of time, and currently, Korea has become a world-renowned Christian nation. However, even though Christianity in Korea seems to have greatly revived as such in numbers, but the reality is that when we look at its core, there is no Word of the Truth. Rather, we are able to see that there only exists the completely dogmatized faith. That is why the current mainstream Christianity has to be destroyed.
God reproaches the wrongful Christian doctrines. People have created false doctrines of salvation by mixing in their own thoughts with the Word, but God wants to crush such a faith. God has said that He will curse those who try to rebuild the city of Jericho that He had brought down. Like so, if one were to rebuild the faith of the Babel Tower, he will be cursed.
Also, in Europe for over 1,000 years during the Middle Ages people had continued to create wrongful doctrines with fleshly human thinking. The Roman Emperor Constantine I made Christianity the official state religion of Rome by issuing the Edict of Milan (AD 313). And then, he forced his people to believe Christianity. Afterwards, at the First Council of Nicaea, church leaders from the Eastern Roman Church and the Western Roman Church came together and created some of the current Christian doctrines, though not all. From then on, Christian doctrines have been added one by one to the tower of doctrine. All such doctrines are those created through the addition of human ways of thinking. Christian doctrines created by fleshly human thinking seem all too firm.
Buddhism has Buddhist doctrines of its own, and even though they stem from human thinking, they aren’t as systematic and unified as the Christian doctrines. Through official recognition, Christian doctrines stand tall next to us as a tower that is all too firm. That is why Christianity professes itself to be the foremost world religion. However, it isn’t just one or two people who had been destroyed in spirit and in flesh after having adhered to the Christian doctrines like that. Jesus Christ is the God of Salvation who has come to us by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but people are greatly grieving and are in despair rather because they, by believing in the Christian doctrines that they had made up with their own fleshly thinking, weren’t able to have their souls escape from the sins.
In the end, Christians, having believed in the Christian doctrines and having followed their fleshly thoughts, received a tremendous wound in their heart. It was because of the brick-like faith that human beings had created by themselves. What God wants from us isn’t a brick-like faith. Instead, God wants from us the faith of believing in the pure Word of God as it is. In other words, God wants from us the faith of genuinely believing in Jesus Christ who has come to us by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Also, the Lord tells us to have the faith of believing in the baptism that He had received from John the Baptist and His blood shed at the Cross.
Jesus said, “If one were to build a house on the rock, that house will not fall, but the houses built on the sand will fall.” If a person believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, his faith will not fall because it would be like a house built on the rock. However, if a person were to build a house of faith with brick-like doctrines, that house will fall. It is because a brick-like faith refers to a house of faith built with human thinking. Our Lord wants us to build a house on the rock by genuinely having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Lord told us to build a house of faith by the faith of just genuinely believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit; the Lord told us to lead a life of faith genuinely; also, the Lord told us that God has created the heavens and the earth and that Jesus Christ is God Himself and the Son of God the Father, and He has told us to genuinely believe in the fact that the Son of God has saved us from the worldly sins by having come to us by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
God came down to this earth as a human and blotted out completely the sins of people once and for all by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Lord wants us to believe in this gospel Truth genuinely. The Lord wants us to receive the true salvation by accepting, as it is what is written in the Scriptures by genuinely entering into the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our faith must be the purity itself of having faith in the Word of God. We must not mix together the faith of believing in the Word of God and the faith of believing one’s own thoughts. We must believe in our hearts the God-made gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit as it is written in the Scriptures. We must accept the written Word of God purely as it is in our hearts. We must not create false Christian doctrines by using our own thoughts. We must accept the seed of life that is written in the Scriptures as it is and bear the fruit of salvation as it is, and then, we must return the glory to God. This is what a true faith is and what a true belief is.
We Must Wholeheartedly Believe in the Word of God Which Came by the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
When we sing praise, it is important to sing in tune and in rhythm, but what is more important is for us to praise with all our hearts. In other words it is something that we sing praise out of gratitude from the bottom of our hearts toward God for His having saved us and having given us all the spiritual blessings in Heaven. We must be pure in heart regarding all the work that we do in serving the Lord. You must realize how beautiful and good it is to lead a life of faith genuinely. You must experience what it is like to genuinely believe in the righteousness of God.
We must believe in accordance with the Word of the Scriptures as it is and express our faith through praise. Also, when we are listening to a sermon, we the listeners must believe the Word at once with our hearts. Just as the people of Israel guided by Moses ate the meat of a lamb rapidly with a belt on their waist and a staff in their hand during the Passover when they were leaving Egypt, we must believe at once with our hearts when we hear the Word of God.
However, when people listen to the Word of God, instead of listening to the Word as it is, they like to believe by mixing the Word with their thoughts once more and then altering the Word into something like a Christian doctrine. Then, their faith stops growing because it is a dead faith instead of being a living one. You are invited to a certain house for a meal, but if you were to refrain from eating the food, smelling, rummaging, and saying, “What are the ingredients? Will it kill?” wouldn’t you be insulting the one who has treated you? Truly believing in the host and eating with gratitude, saying, “Wow, it smells great. It must really taste good,” are what makes the one who has invited you happy.
When we are leading a life of faith inside God’s Church, we mustn’t take in the Word of God with our head as we listen to the Word at the Church or receive admonition of faith from someone. We mustn’t analyze the Word of God with our heads, but rather, we must first accept it in our hearts and then wholeheartedly understand the Word of God. Even when we are sharing fellowship with other saints, if they speak according to the will of God, we must accept their words with our hearts, saying, “Oh, you are right. It was truly wrongful of me to have done that. I got it now.” When your brothers and sisters share fellowship with you, you should first accept it with pure and humble heart, and then, in the Word of God, you have to organize their exhortations and admonitions. In doing so, there is a great benefit for you.
Of course, a thought could arise in you: “I think that’s not the case, but that brother views me differently.” However, it is a proper attitude for us to first accept the Word of God humbly and purely because we can think about it from my viewpoint at any time later on. We have to listen attentively to our fellow believers when they share the Word of God in any sort of way. If we were to not accept the Word of God in our hearts genuinely, then that would be the end of our life of faith. If we do not genuinely accept the Word of God, we cannot receive salvation from sins, so when someone, regardless of whom, should speak anything about the Word of God, we must accept it with a pure heart. When we do so, that Word of God becomes ours.
Noah’s faith was passed down to his son, Shem, as well as Japheth. It is because they had believed and saw their father, Noah, as their spiritual leader with a pure heart. Ham did not accept Noah’s words in his heart. Because he had concluded in his own thinking, “Our father is old. How can our father be the leader? Our father cannot be my leader!” It is the case that even though his father had told him about the Word of God, he didn’t accept it genuinely in his heart. And so, that is why Ham had mocked Noah when he saw his father, who had been working on the vineyard, drunk in wine and laying uncovered, saying, “I should have known. Alas, what a plight the so called leader is! He is sleeping all uncovered. Tut, tut, … If someone should see our father looking like that, our house will surely lose face, for everyone else is saying that our father is the servant of God.” And so, Ham went to Shem and Japheth and told them this fact.
However, Ham ought to have seen Noah as the servant of God and accepted that fact in his heart. As for those who accept the leaders with their heart, their faith will grow unnoticeably. And, such people get to receive the God-given blessing without being aware of it themselves. The faith of believing in the Word of God grows in their heart. And thus, later on when they speak of something, they go on to say words that are exactly the same as those of their leader, and they go on to live with faith that is exactly the same as that of their leader.
Dear fellow believers, it is said, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Only when you hear the Word of God that the servants of God tell you by faith, does true faith arise inside your hearts. Only then, does the true faith grow in you. You know the passage in the Book of Psalms that goes, “It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments” (Psalms 133:2), right? It is saying that the Holy Spirit speaks the Word of God to and through the servants of God. It means that God speaks to us through His servants. The fact is that the sermons made by the servants of God are precisely what God is telling you all.
Because the word of a certain preacher is the Word of God, if we were to accept the Word of God into our hearts when we are hearing the preacher’s words, it becomes a great strength and nourishment for us spiritually. As for those that genuinely listen to the words of the preacher and believe at once in their heart, God allows them in that moment to understand the Word with depth, to possess the power of spiritual discernment, and to realize what a proper faith is. Even if such people do not study the Bible to write reports or read countless books, they get their problems resolved right away. A true faith accepts the Word of God spoken through the servants of God as it is with a pure heart.
Our faith becomes upright when we believe in the Word of the water and the Spirit. A genuine faith is the faith of believing in the Word of God as the Truth. A false faith is a faith that one has concocted by adding on his fleshly thoughts to the Word. God uses well someone who accepts, believes in, and obeys what is written in His Scriptures as it is. Such a person is so good for God to use. God shapes that kind of person into whatever He wants. He does it as if He were a potter creating whatever form he so desires using a single lump of clay. The Lord is the Potter and we are the clay that is entrusted to be formed by His hands. No matter how He guides us and speaks to us, we must become servants that genuinely believe in and obey Him.
And so, what I want to say to you at this time is that you should never create a faith of your own by using your own fleshly thinking. As I perform my ministry work, I have the belief that the Word of God is the Truth. I don’t work clamorously. I just go on reading God’s Word, and when He reveals to me His will regarding a certain matter, I say, “Dear God, as Your will is like so regarding this matter, I will do so.” Servants of God obey what the Word of God commands. If you also do believe in and obey the Word of God, God will open the way, and He will also allow you to grow as the workers of God.
Our hearts must be pure when we believe in the Word of God. We must lead a life of faith genuinely with the true faith of believing in the Word of God. Only then, can we defeat the heretics that prevail inside today’s Christianity and save the souls there by the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
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