ដោយសារការរាតត្បាតនៃជម្ងឺកូវីឌ១៩ និងការរំខានដល់សេវាកម្មប្រៃសណីយអន្តរជាតិ
យើងបានផ្អាកជាបណ្តោះអាសន្ននូវ "សេវាកម្មសៀវភៅបោះពុម្ពដោយឥតគិតថ្លៃ" របស់យើង។
នៅក្នុងស្ថានភាពបែបនេះ យើងមិនអាចផ្ញើសៀវភៅទៅកាន់លោកអ្នកបានឡើយ។
សូមអធិស្ឋានសម្រាប់ការរលាយបាត់យ៉ាងឆាប់រហ័សនូវជម្ងឺរាតត្បាតនេះ និងការដំណើរការឡើងវិញនូវសេវាកម្មប្រៃសណីយ។
សូមអធិស្ឋានសម្រាប់ការរលាយបាត់យ៉ាងឆាប់រហ័សនូវជម្ងឺរាតត្បាតនេះ និងការដំណើរការឡើងវិញនូវសេវាកម្មប្រៃសណីយ។
Subject 15 : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the GALATIANS
[Chapter 2-1] Why Did the Apostle Paul Disregard the Legalists? (Galatians 2:1-10)
“Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain. Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.”
Why Do Many Christians Live a Life of Faith without Being Freed from All Their Sins?
All of us should know that most Christians are now being fooled by the so-called famous leaders in Christianity. Today, so many people are living religious lives, spiritually deceived by those who are famous. Therefore, we should not take such false teachers seriously. In current Christianity, those famous people ignore and do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, so their faiths are always meaningless. That’s why the faiths of the existing Christian theologians are highly fallacious.
The faiths of famous people in current Christianity is as follows: They insist that people should wash away their daily sins through prayers of repentance after believing in Jesus as their Savior. For that reason, their faiths are false faiths. It is greatly fallacious to say that Christians can wash out their sins by offering prayers of repentance. Since today’s Christians try to wash away their sins through prayers of repentance, while not knowing the true gospel of the water and the Spirit, they have come to believe and know the Savior in a mistaken way.
Therefore, we must deliver the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them. We must know that there is no other way to wash away our sins but to have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All people can be completely washed of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is crucial to know that it is wrong for people to think they can wash away their sins by prayers of repentance. Such faith that people can receive the remission of sins by offering prayers of repentance is truly groundless. It is no exaggeration to say that the lives of those who have such faiths are already dead for their faiths have traveled far from the grace of Jesus Christ, and as a result, they become ignorant and stand against the Truth of God’s salvation. Since they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they themselves have created the doctrine of repentance, which insists that believers can wash away their personal sins by offering prayers of repentance.
They must recognize that their faith is very erroneous because they assert that the doctrine of repentance is the only way to wash away their personal sins. But such people cannot free themselves from their sins at all. Therefore, they must try to receive the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, rather than by offering prayers of repentance. They must also recognize that only those who are born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the ones who can deliver the true gospel to every sinner on this earth. The most important thing the Bible tries to tell us is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. It is because Jesus has delivered all of us from our sins by coming to this world, receiving the baptism from John the Baptist to take all the sins of the world, and dying on the Cross. We must believe in the Savior, who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, in our hearts.
The leaders of today’s Christianity try to wash away their sins by offering prayers of repentance. They focus more on getting the blessings of the flesh rather than believing in the water and the Spirit. It is clearly shown in Galatians that their faith is wrong.
They are the spiritual blind, who rarely understand that they are blind. Jesus says, “They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:14). They try to teach their followers in their own way, without knowing the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. They must first believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to teach people correctly.
Those people who advocate the doctrine of repentance must first have a basic understanding of the elementary principles of Christ (Hebrews 6:1). However, they just believe in the blood of Jesus, His being the Son of God, and His Kingship. Put differently, they believe in Jesus as their Savior omitting His baptism. They believe Jesus Christ in a wrong way since they do not actually know Jesus Christ, who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. For that reason, their weak faith cannot help but to collapse, even by the faintest sound.
I said they don’t know what the Bible exactly says, for they are the spiritual blind. For example, they don’t know what the Bible means by the four colors on the gate of the Tabernacle. The gate of the Tabernacle was to be woven of four kinds of thread; the blue, purple, scarlet threads, and fine woven linen (Exodus 27:16). The truth that was shown in these four colors manifests the gospel of the water and the Spirit. However, among the Christians who believe in Jesus as their Savior, many are totally ignorant about the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. As a result, they have misunderstood the perfect salvation of Jesus, which saved us from all our sins once and for all, according to their carnal thoughts. That’s why they have been delivering the wrong messages and misleading all the people.
Believing that Jesus is our Savior without knowing the mystery of the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the same as a blind man trying to figure out that he is standing next to an elephant, just by fumbling about one of its legs. It is written, “For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, made by a weaver.” I have published two books on the Tabernacle, entitled “The Tabernacle: A Detailed Portrait of Jesus Christ.” Every detailed statute and pattern of all instruments of the Tabernacle manifests the mystery of Jesus Christ and His perfect ministry of salvation. The screen gate of the Tabernacle was also showing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that is, the righteousness of God. In short, the truth of the four colors on the gate of the Tabernacle was the shadow of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is clearly manifested in the New Testament.
People cannot accept the real truth since they are more interested in earthly desires than the truth of God that is shown in the blue, purple, scarlet threads, and fine woven linen. Thus, they are trying to deteriorate the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the real Truth of salvation. Many people make the mistake of believing in Jesus as their Savior to achieve their earthly desires. God really wants them to know His true love and just salvation through the colors that are shown on the gate of the Tabernacle; but the reality is different.
On the contrary, they make false Christian doctrines that keep them away from the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. They have no other way but to believe in such erroneous doctrines because they don’t know the true gospel that can substitute the prevailing doctrines. So in the past, they believed and thought that God had the gate of the Tabernacle woven of four kinds of thread in order to hide the secret of salvation from us. However, God wanted to show and propagate the gospel of the water and the Spirit in better ways, which is the truth of salvation, by shedding the spiritual light on the gate of the Tabernacle that was woven of four kinds of thread; the blue, purple, scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. It is God’s will to save all mankind from sin by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, He is pleased to show us the true and definite salvation by the four colors of the thread on the gate of the Tabernacle.
Nowadays, Christian leaders are misguided about the blue, purple, scarlet threads, and fine woven linen that were used on the gate of the Tabernacle. They think it is God’s will to hide the secret of salvation, lest people find the righteousness of God easily. As a result, Christians mistakenly believe that one does not know if he is saved or not, and that God is the only One who knows of one’s salvation. The erroneous Christian doctrines, such as the doctrine of election and the doctrine of repentance, have been fabricated in such a context.
There have been so many people, especially among the Christian leaders, who have confused the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit with the doctrine of repentance. What we have to know clearly is that God wants us to understand in depth the gospel of the water and the Spirit through the four kinds of threads that were used on the gate of the Tabernacle, rather than hiding the truth from us. To show the meaning of salvation, Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist and died on the Cross in order to save us. We must recognize that the pattern of the four-colored woven gate was to let all people know the salvation from sin by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must know that the pattern of the gate foreshadows the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Like this, God showed the gospel of the water and the Spirit on the door of the Tabernacle in the times of the Old Testament, but ordinary people could not recognize the revelation easily. God had to use those who believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the witnesses to the Truth that the remission of all humanity’s sins was shown on the gate of the Tabernacle.
Even now, many people assert on the prayer of repentance to be the means of achieving salvation, but this is a deadly wrong faith. They insist on this because they do not recognize the Truth that is shown on the four colors. Therefore, the pictures of the Tabernacle they made are generally shown in the color red. The other colors are rarely or never found. This is because they believe that only the blood of Jesus has washed away their sins. They have laid stress only on the blood of Jesus, and what is worse is that they added the doctrine of repentance to their erroneous faiths. For that reason, not many Christians know that the doctrine of repentance is wrong. Thus, they assert strongly on the man-made doctrine that people can wash away their sins through prayers of repentance. Due to such a wrong Christian doctrine, many souls are dying out by falling into spiritual confusion and sin.
However, God gave the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all people so that they could get saved from sin and have the opportunity to become God’s children. When I was designing the cover art of my book on the Tabernacle, I asked one of the deaconesses of my church to knit the blue, purple, and scarlet threads, and fine woven linen into the miniature of the screen gate of Tabernacle. Why did I do that? It is because the four colors that are shown on the screen gate of the Tabernacle show the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. So, I wanted to testify the ministries Jesus had done to save all of us from sins, by using these four colors.
It is written in the Bible that Jesus has come to this world by the gospel of the water and the Spirit (1 John 5:3-7). Jesus was clearly showing the Truth of eternal salvation through the four colors on the gate of the Tabernacle. Put differently, we could definitely understand our salvation by recognizing Jesus’ ministries manifested through the four colors on the gate of the Tabernacle.
Then, what does each color manifest? The blue thread is the truth that implies the baptism of Jesus received from John, which He bore all the sins of the world once and for all. The purple thread shows the truth that Jesus is the King of kings and the Son of God. The scarlet thread manifests the truth that because Jesus had taken all the sins of all humanity by receiving the baptism from John, He sacrificed Himself for our sins by shedding His blood on the Cross. The fine woven linen shows the truth that Jesus washed away all our sins as white as snow once and for all through the blue, purple, and scarlet threads. Like this, we came to realize that God had revealed His true salvation of the gospel of the water and the Spirit through these four colors shown on the gate of the Tabernacle. Now, people can know and receive the true remission of sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are preaching.
From now on, many people will be able to know the true salvation through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. However, there are countless Christians who, without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, still insist that they can receive the remission of sins by offering prayers of repentance. Professing Jesus as their Savior, they have their own faith, which relies on the prayer of repentance. However, their faith will fall down since it is not based on the Word of God. They are people who give consequence to the sayings of some famous theologians rather than to the Word of God. Such people are trying to satisfy their carnal desires by relying on the teachings of the Christian leaders.
However, such teachings have nothing to do with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and are therefore nothing but empty sayings. We all must know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must also recognize that the faith of those who believe in the prayer of repentance as the means of washing away their sins is wrong. It is truly sad to see those kinds of people. Not knowing the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, they deceive themselves into believing in the doctrine of repentance that was made by their carnal thoughts.
Paul Submitted the Gospel That He Believed in
In Galatians 2:2, it is said that the Apostle Paul went to Jerusalem and submitted the gospel he believed in to the people. Paul did so because there were people who believed in their own doctrines rather than the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Paul believed in.
There were some who tried to use God’s Word as a subject of dispute. We must be careful in delivering the gospel of the water and the Spirit to so-called famous leaders in Christianity. They are the people who have the vested power in Christian community. We must listen carefully since their words are very cunning. The Lord admonished, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6). But unfortunately, such leaven still prevails in Christianity all over the world. We must preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to win the souls by removing such leaven. Only then can sinners receive the remission of sins by hearing and believing in the true gospel.
People all over the world will be able to clearly understand what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is all about when they read my books on the Tabernacle. In these books, I clearly tell how God revealed His true salvation through the blue, purple, and scarlet threads, and fine woven linen used for the Tabernacle. I tried to include the illustrations of the Tabernacle and its instruments to explain the authenticity of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, since it may be hard to understand when it is only said in words. You should know that the truth shown in the blue, purple, scarlet threads and fine woven linen was the shadow of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Also, you should recognize that this true gospel clearly shows us how the remission of sins is actually accomplished.
People who most severely bothered the Apostle Paul while he was preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit were those who had the faith of self-contentment. They were ones that believed in the circumcision of the flesh. They appreciated such physical circumcision more than God’s Words, and believed so.
All the male Jews in those days had to be circumcised since they were physically the descendants of Abraham. Physical circumcision was a traditional law of Judaism. However, we must remember that this is the time of the New Testament and the age of proclaiming the gospel of the water and the Spirit, not the time of physical circumcision. The Apostle Paul repeatedly warned the circumcisionists of their faith because their faith was wrong: They despised and discarded the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit while they held onto the physical circumcision.
Actually, they are the false brethren who came into God’s Church secretly by stealth to spy out our liberty that we have in Christ Jesus. That is why they physically circumcised the believers who were saved from their sins. They tried to achieve their physical desires by taking away the liberty of the believers who had received the remission of their sins. So, Paul said, “And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you” (Galatians 2:4-5).
The faith of the circumcisionists was as follows: They believed in Jesus as their Savior, but they thought that if one had not been circumcised, he could have not been God’s people or the descendents of Abraham. The credulous believers in Galatian churches welcomed them. We must know that even now, those who have such legalistic faiths are acknowledged as good teachers inside the Church.
But the faith of the Apostle Paul, who preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit, was as follows: He believed in both the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and His blood of the Cross. He preached only the gospel Truth so that the truth of the gospel might continue with the believers in Galatia.
He declared that those who seemed to be something added nothing to him. There are still many people who are holding onto their legalistic faiths. They like to teach the doctrine of repentance, and don’t give much help to people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That is why the Apostle Paul told the believers of Galatia to know deeply about the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He also said that believers should take heed of the false brethren who come to God’s Church by stealth without having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
In the Early Church, the Believers in Galatia Wrongly Believed That They Had to Be Circumcised Physically
The faith in the doctrine of repentance is equivalent to the erroneous faith of the circumcisionists of the Early Church age because the former is the invented doctrine of evil leaven originated from human thoughts. We must know the contradiction of the prayer of repentance.
We can wash away all our sins only by believing in the Gospel of the water and the Spirit with pure hearts. We must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, purely as it is. We must not add anything to it nor take away from it. However, like the ones of the Old Testament who believed in physical circumcision, Christians today have a very wrong faith, which advocates that one can wash his sins by offering prayers of repentance.
Therefore, we must know for sure what the precious Truth of salvation the gospel of the water and the Spirit is, and preach it to all people. What the Church of God must do is propagate this gospel Truth. We should help the deceived Christians who are holding onto the doctrine of repentance so that they might be delivered from all their sins. This is why we should preach the true gospel all over the world. Now is the time for you to know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, especially if you do not know about the Bible out of your ignorance about the gospel Truth.
Even we, who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, gain more harm than help from the ones who are of the legalistic faith. Legalists cannot give any spiritual help to the people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given. The faith of today’s Christians who try to wash away their sins through prayers of repentance is the same as the circumcisionists of the Early Church age, which only brought about spiritual confusion to many people.
The doctrine of repentance is not derived from the Bible. It is a wrong dogma derived from human thought. Whoever believes in Jesus without knowing the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit cannot help but to become a physical circumcisionist. We get to see people getting flustered inside a theoretical frame of Christian doctrine after they learn about the prayer of repentance. For example, liberation theologians interpret the Bible as follows: “As Moses had liberated the Israelites when they were under the slavery of the Egyptian Emperor, Christian leaders should also try to free the oppressed from their miserable conditions.” What nonsense this is!
If one doesn’t know the gospel Truth, he cannot but hold onto some favorable religious doctrines. Even in the times of the Apostle Paul, the circumcisionists were busy showing off their righteousness according to the Law rather than accepting the Son of God as their Savior. In this age and time, the famous Christian leaders lay stress upon the prayer of repentance, which is equivalent to the physical circumcision. They know only the Law of God, but do not know Jesus Christ as the true Savior who came to this world by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They stand against the Truth whenever they face the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But it is imperative that they should believe in Jesus as their Savior who came to this world and saved all of us from sin by giving the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
The Apostle Paul warned us to stay away from the faith of the circumcisionists. We must know the implications of his warning. The most important thing is for us to attain the Truth of salvation by learning the gospel of the water and the Spirit manifested in the Bible. Mere knowledge is of no use if it does not pertain to the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must be the evangelists who lead sinners to God with the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
There is no need to look up to the Christian leaders if they do not believe in Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I ask them, “Do you truly know the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Is it the gospel of the water and the Spirit that you believe in? Or is it only the blood of the Cross and prayers of repentance?” Now, we must be determined to propagate the gospel of the water and the Spirit to more people.
Even Christian Leaders Don’t Know the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
I will tell you about one incident that I have actually experienced.
A while back, an acknowledged foreign missionary visited me. He was the kind of person who did not know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. I asked, “What can I do for you?” and he said he had something to say to me. He said he heard some bad things about the gospel that I was preaching. So I proposed to have fellowship in the Word to resolve his doubt. That was how we started to have a biblical debate.
First, he raised a question in argument, saying, “How can you say you have no sin in your heart?” So, I said that we became to be without sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Then he insisted that my faith was wrong by quoting the Scripture passage in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He said, “How can a person say he has no sin when the Bible here urges us to confess our sins? Didn’t God say He will pardon our sins if we confess them?”
So, I replied by quoting the very Scripture passage: “Yes, God says, ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ Then, does this passage mean that God forgives us little by little in the progressive form whenever we ask for His forgiveness? Or, does He mean by this passage that He will wash away all our sins, including the sins confessed, if we confess our sins by believing in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, since the gospel of the water and the Spirit has already blotted out all our sins?” I told him that only the ones who have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can confess themselves to God rightly for they have confidence in the Truth that the Lord has already blotted out all their sins once and for all with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Then, he backfired at me by saying, “Then why did the Apostle Paul say he was the worst among the sinners?” I gave him the answer: “You should not interpret the Bible passage without considering its context. When Paul said, ‘This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief’ (1 Timothy 1:15), he said so recollecting his past behaviors that he had committed sins as the worst sinner among all while standing against the Lord Jesus because of his ignorance. He said this because he was thankful to God for saving him from sin and making him one of His workers. Paul was saying this while recollecting his past and being thankful to God.” I told the missionary that Paul said he was the worst among the sinners because he recollected on his behavior for standing against Jesus in the past.
We had a debate for about two hours. He tried to go against God but could not win the Word of Truth. The real winner from this discussion was the one who believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I answered his questions through the Word of God and he could not but realize his ignorance as the debate went on. He said he had judged me to be a heretic because of the bad rumors about me, but now he didn’t think so. He was also one of the leaders of a famous international mission organization.
There are so many people among Christian leaders who do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They do not want to surrender themselves to the gospel of the water and the Spirit because they are extremely famous inside the Christian community. They think their legalistic faith is right. But it is absolute nonsense. Their minds are full of spiritual misunderstandings because they have not yet met God’s true servants who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Nonetheless, they too must receive the remission of sins by accepting the gospel of the water and the Spirit. How can you teach another, when you have sin in your heart? We are the people who can deliver the message of the gospel of the water and the Spirit even when we meet renowned people in the Christian community. We have no reason to be afraid of those people who don’t know and therefore go against the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is because they are only famous outside the gospel of the water and the Spirit that our Lord has given us. No matter how famous they are, they need to surrender themselves to God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit as soon as possible for their pride is of no use before God’s just judgment for their sins. I am not saying that I am better than them, but trying to tell you the truth: The prevailing legalistic faith of today’s Christianity is very wrong. The leaders of such faiths are not the light of the world, due to their ignorance of the gospel power of the water and the Spirit. For that reason, today’s Christian faith has no influence over society.
They spiritually have not given anything to us, just like Paul said the famous ones who seemed to be something, added nothing to him. They only give us confusion. That is why the Apostle Paul testified that the legalistic faith was greatly erroneous. The Apostle Paul wanted to deliver the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all people. He did not surrender to those who had legalistic faiths, and rather, delivered the true gospel to them.
The Apostle Paul declared the gospel of salvation clearly to the people of his day. At the same time, he blamed those who had faith in physical circumcision. Some of you may think, “Why was there a need to deliver the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them when they already believed in Jesus as their Savior?” However, the problem with Galatian churches was that many believers of the Early Church had the faith of physical circumcision. This was way far different from the faith of Paul. However, you must recognize that only the ones who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the children of God. The people who held onto physical circumcision are equivalent to those who say they can wash away their sins by prayers of repentance.
The Apostle Paul was a person who personally met Jesus and became His disciple. He was a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures of the Old Testament. He might be one of the most versed disciples, since he was educated under Gamaliel, the great Rabbi. Put differently, he was a specialist in the Law of God, and therefore was very knowledgeable about the bad effects of physical circumcision. That is why he was able to tell the Gentiles about the relationship between the legalistic faith and the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Paul indicated that the problem of the believers in Galatia was that they put too much importance in the physical circumcision and in observing special days and months. That was the typical phenomenon of the legalistic faith. Like those circumcisionists, today’s Christians do not acknowledge much on the wrongness of the prayer of repentance. However, now we know how wrong it is to have a legalistic faith that advocates the doctrine of repentance.
The Bible says that the legalistic faith started to spread both in Jerusalem churches and Galatian churches among the people who thought that they had to keep the law of physical circumcision and the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day starts from the sunset of Friday until the sunset of Saturday. They were acknowledged as good believers when they kept the statutes of the Sabbath day. They had to keep not only the Sabbath day holy but all the other annual feasts of the Old Testament. However, Paul did not teach us such legalistic faith. In Galatians chapter 2, there is a part where Paul rebukes Peter for having the legalistic faith.
Even now, the Israelites think and believe that they must be circumcised in order to be the descendents of Abraham and the people of God. That is why they continue to perform circumcisions. This was the background of the legalistic faith. The legalists laid the more stress on the annual feast ceremonies of the Old Testament and thought that the converted Gentiles should also be circumcised and keep the Sabbath day holy as well as all the other feasts like the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. This made the Early Church believers lose the gospel Truth, the essence of salvation. For that reason, the Apostle Paul thought that the legalistic faith would become a big obstacle to the advancement of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
What did the Early Jerusalem Church obtain by concentrating on the commandments and ceremonies? As the Apostle Paul worried, it only resulted in losing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He tried to correct their legalistic faith for its fallacies, but he could not do anything since so many Early Church believers were holding onto such a faith. Paul always wished that the Truth of the gospel might continue with them. But the things he worried about have occurred inside the churches of this world. In Christianity today, the legalistic faith prevails while the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit fades away.
Hence, we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and preach this gospel that saves us from all sins. The Apostle Paul shared fellowship privately with those who were of reputation, lest the advancement of the gospel should be interrupted. Such consideration is essential for the work of God. We also must disregard the legalists for fear that our preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit might turn out to be in vain. We must remember that the doctrine of repentance is something that was made out of human thought and that it is the source of false faith.
All the Christian doctrines, which are different from the gospel of the water and the Spirit, only confuse the minds of people. Now, all of you must know that it is better not to learn about the wrong Christian doctrines than to learn them. We must learn the Word of God properly from the ones who know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. By that, we receive a big benefit for our souls. We must remember that believing in the man-made Christian doctrines surely harms our souls.
So many people now live without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Had they known and believed properly in this true gospel, they could have received the remission of sins and have led countless other people to be saved from sin. We must throw away the legalistic faith that we have mistakenly learned when we get to know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Isn’t it so hard to throw a useless thing away in the house even though it seems natural for something nice and new to come in? Like this, we must throw away the wrong knowledge and learn the correct knowledge that belongs to the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. We must know how many people have come to be cursed by God due to their legalistic faiths.
When the Apostle Paul visited the Jerusalem Church, he concluded as follows: “God has entrusted the Apostles of the Jerusalem Church with the duty of preaching the gospel to the Jews, while I and Titus to the Gentiles.” It was suitable for Peter or Jacob or John to deliver the gospel to the Jews, since they were Jews themselves. That is why Paul concluded that it was right for them to propagate the gospel to the Jews and for Paul and his disciples to propagate to the Gentiles.
We who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can correct the legalistic faiths of people who believe in the prayer of repentance. Can we change the culture of Israel? It is impossible. However, it’s okay if they get to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We just have to deliver the message of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, putting their culture aside. They will receive the remission of sins if they come to know and believe in Jesus through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Once they receive the remission of sins, all we have to do is lead them to live by faith by sharing fellowship and casting away the harmful things individually for their faith.
I would like to conclude this sermon.
The ones who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have nothing beneficial to us, no matter how famous they are. We must live a life of faith by believing in this true gospel. Also, remember that only the ones who believe in and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the true disciples of Jesus Christ. We must respect the ones who serve the gospel Truth, which says that Jesus has blotted out all our sin with His baptism and blood of the Cross. We must disregard the ones who have the legalistic faith, but respect and believe in the sayings of those who have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit at any position and situation.
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