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សេចក្តីអធិប្បាយ

Subject 18 : GENESIS

[Chapter 2-11] God-Established Church (Genesis 2:18-25)

God-Established Church
(Genesis 2:18-25)
“And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’ Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
 
 
God created the Garden of Eden, the Paradise. God created the Paradise and created all kinds of pleasing things in it and asked Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said, “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” This implies that the person who does not believe in God’s righteousness cannot live in the Garden of Eden. It also means that only the person who has been born again by God’s Word can live in the Garden of Eden.
God created the Garden of Eden, but He made it so that only those who have been born again can live in the Paradise. This Word may seem like there is a discrepancy but there actually isn’t. God created the Garden of Eden on this land and made it so that only the person who believes in God’s Word may live in the Paradise and the person who does not believe in His Word is expelled from it. Therefore, it is just. God arranged for us to go to the Kingdom of Heaven through the faith of believing in God’s Word.
Adam lived alone in the Garden of Eden at the time. Eve was not there at the time. But God was not happy to see Adam alone in His Kingdom. This implies that God desired to be together with His Son and us. God wanted to live with His Son and with those who have received the remission of sins and become the children of God in the Garden of Eden forever. God wanted the Garden of Eden to be filled with the righteous people. He made it so that we may live together in the Kingdom of God as we do now in this world. Jesus Christ does not live by Himself with God the Father and the Holy Spirit there. Rather, He arranged to live together with those who became the children of God by believing in God’s gospel, the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God wanted to live together with those who became the children of God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, those who have the Holy Spirit in their hearts. Therefore, God saw it was not good that Adam was alone in the Garden of Eden. And God decided to create a companion to help Adam.
Adam was the master of the Garden of Eden at the time. Adam named all the things in the Garden of Eden. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that became its name. And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Here, we must understand why God wanted to create the helper to Adam. Isn’t it better to be with another person than being alone? Even a man feels happier to be with his wife than to be alone. Therefore, God’s Word is correct both in the spiritual and physical realm.
Then, how did God create the woman? Adam did not have a spouse to help him and therefore God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam. Then, God took one of the ribs from Adam, and then He closed up the flesh, and made Eve from it. Then God led Eve to Adam. Adam then saw the woman and shouted out,
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.” And it is written, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:24-25).
Our God made God’s Church. How did God create the brides of Jesus Christ? God created them with a part of the body of Jesus. When God created Adam’s wife, when God created His people, He did not create them with the earth. Instead, God created Eve from the Adam’s rib. This means that God made us His children by giving us His only begotten Son Jesus Christ; He adopted us as His children through the sacrifice of His Son by remitting all our sins and giving us salvation. Therefore, God took one of the ribs from Adam and created Eve. God created Adam’s bride from God’s own. God created us with His love. Out of His love, God made us His people and His own children.
 
 

God Poured the Holy Spirit upon Us

 
God bestowed the Holy Spirit upon us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God created the spiritual Eve. In other words, God wanted to make His Church. From the beginning of His creation, God wanted to plant His Church where the people who have received salvation and thus become His children live together and praise God. It means that God wanted to make His Church where His brides live together. God made Eve who would live with Adam. God first made us sinless people to make us the brides of His Son, the true God. How did God make each one of us His bride? How did each one of us become the bride of Jesus Christ? God blotted out all our sins to make each one of us the bride of Jesus Christ spiritually. Only the person who does not have sin can dwell together with God and live with Him. That’s why God took away our sins. The Lord wiped out our sins clean.
We must become the wife of Adam by faith. Adam signifies Jesus Christ spiritually (Romans 5:14). We must not have sin if we want to become the bride of Jesus Christ. That’s why our Lord came to this world and received all our sin upon His flesh through His baptism and received the judgment in our place. The Scriptures say, “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept,” and this is the Word of revelation that the Lord would suffer the sacrifice to atone for all our sins.
God has blotted out our sins. God made us His children through Jesus Christ who is a part of God the Father. God put Adam to a deep sleep and then He took one of Adam’s ribs and made the woman from it. A son is his father’s other self, isn’t he? So Jesus Christ was the part of God the Father Himself. It is saying that God the Father made us through His Son who is a part of Himself.
When reading the Book of Genesis, those who don’t have the Holy Spirit do not understand what it is talking about. The Word that says God created Eve means that God created God’s Church. However, some people question why this Word can mean that. Therefore, we try to interpret this Word according to the commentary in the Scriptures, for example, Ephesians 5:22-33. There are enormous amount of Truth and spiritual revelation in the Scriptures. However, those who do not believe in God’s Word cannot receive salvation from sin even if we disclose the revelations of God clearly as they are and show them before their eyes one by one. It is because the flesh is flesh and the spirit is spirit.
Adam saw Eve and said, “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” God called the woman Eve. Eve means the “mother of mankind.” God calls us the saints because we have been cleansed of all our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And God’s Church is the gathering of the saints. 1 Corinthians 1:2 says, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.” So, only those who have become the righteous by believing in God’s Word, those who have been made sinless through Jesus Christ, are called the saints. The Scriptures now declare, “She shall be called Woman.” What an amazing Truth it is! God calls us the saints after we have received salvation in Jesus Christ. The word “saint” means a person who is without sin and therefore holy. So the word “saints” means the holy people of God.
The last part of today’s Scripture passage says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” It is natural for a man to leave his parents spiritually. It is right for a person to leave one’s parents of the flesh and live as a righteous person by going to Jesus Christ and receiving the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do you understand this? A person born in this world in flesh should not just live as a human being, but also marry Jesus Christ through the gospel of the water and the Spirit and live with the Savior Jesus Christ. It is appropriate for us to become one body with the Lord by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and become God’s people and the saints of the Kingdom of God. And the Scriptures say, “They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” As a married couple is not ashamed before one another, the people who have truly received the cleansing of sin are not ashamed even if one’s own shortcomings and weaknesses are revealed before the Lord.
In the Book of Genesis chapter 2, God made the saints and formed the Church. God created Adam in the Garden of Eden and made him live in the Paradise by eating the fruit of the tree of life. This is the Truth. It is the God’s will that there is no way for us to live in God’s Kingdom unless we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. A person who is not born again by the gospel of the water and the Spirit definitely cannot live in the Garden of Eden. And God made it so a man cannot possibly become righteous through his own fleshly thinking. We can become born again only through Jesus Christ. As Eve was made from a part of Adam’s body, our salvation is fulfilled in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that was accomplished by Jesus Christ. God perfected our salvation through His Son Jesus. Not even 0.001% of our own effort can go into our salvation. A person cannot become holy through any effort; and sin is not remitted by offering prayers of repentance, saying, “Forgive me of this sin! Oh, Lord, please forgive my sins.” If one insists that he has received the remission of sins through his own effort, then it is not the salvation made from one of Adam’s ribs. That is an insistence akin to the assertion that God took the substance of the earth and made Eve from it.
 
 

God Took One of Adam’s Ribs and Made the Woman from It

 
This is saying that God made us through Jesus Christ who was in the Father’s bosom. God the Father blotted out all our sins through Jesus Christ. We the righteous are the purely perfect masterpieces of God. If even 0.001% of human elements entered into our salvation, then it cannot be perfect and a complete creation of God. In other words, our sins do not disappear just because we have asked God for forgiveness. The notion that a man becomes clean through the effort to become holy is the untruth that came out of human thought. We become the children of God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and becoming clean. Not even an iota of human effort has contributed to God’s salvation. Nonetheless, people offer prayers of repentance to receive the remission of sin even after believing in Jesus, because they do not know God’s Word well and they don’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That is a doctrine that really violates God’s Word.
Do our sins disappear just because we offer up prayers of repentance? Those who believe in such a doctrine are people who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our hearts become cleansed by the faith of believing in the fact that Jesus Christ blotted out all our sins. The Word in the chapter 2 of Acts of the Apostles says, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.”
We receive the cleansing of sins through faith. We receive the remission of sins through the faith of believing Jesus Christ because we can never receive salvation through our own merits. Everyone receives the salvation from sin and becomes the wife of Jesus Christ by believing in the perfect salvation that God made from one of Adam’s ribs. Everyone becomes the bride of Jesus by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and becomes one of the true people of God as a result.
Through today’s Scripture passage, we must understand the Word of God that teaches us that God the Father made the His Church and the saints. We must understand correctly how God made us God’s people. And we must also understand what God’s Church is like. God’s Church is the place where those who became God’s people through God’s Word come together and give worship service to God. God’s Church is the place that is sanctified by God’s Word. God took a rib from Adam and made Eve and then closed up the flesh. Eve is purely made only with one of the man’s ribs.
As recorded in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” Jesus Christ came in the flesh of a man and saved us from all our sins. Jesus Christ actually saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God took one of Adam’s ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. This refers to the part that tells us how God made us, God’s Church. We must understand the fact that God has made us the members of His Church.
Then, when we ask what God’s Church is and what sort of person a saint is, we can say that the Church is the place where the saints who have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit live together. God’s Church is the place we worship Jesus Christ and live with Him, and it is right for God’s people to depart from their parents and go before Jesus Christ and receive salvation. It is written in today’s Scripture passage, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh,” and this means that we should unite with God’s Church which is the body of Christ and join together with God’s Word. The person who has received the remission of sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit is a saint. God said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh,” and whoever unites himself with the Church that is the body of Jesus Christ can now become one body with Him.
Jesus Christ has saved us through His Church. Jesus Christ works in all areas within God’s Church, the body of Christ. Whether a person receives salvation or not is determined by whether he unites himself with God’s Church or not. Therefore, the person who goes against God’s Word is against God and becomes distant from God.
God talks to us about “joining” together. God is talking about joining together after He has perfected our salvation already. So God says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” God has fulfilled everything. God made His Church and His saints. God made Eve and brought her to Adam; and He made the man leave his parents and join together with his wife to be joined into one body.
You and I must truly join together with God’s Church. If we want to truly become the wife of Jesus Christ, then we must join our hearts together with the Church, the Bride of Christ. We must join our hearts together with God’s saints and join our hearts together with His servants. This is the true union. We the born again who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must get rid of human thinking, throw away all the evil, filth, and unbelief that we have inherited from Adam and join together with God’s Church, the body of Christ. And we must join together with the leaders of the Church. We must understand how important this union is. We cannot become one body with Jesus Christ if we don’t join together with His Church.
To unite with the Church is the secret to become one with Jesus Christ. Becoming one with Jesus Christ is the short cut to all the blessings of Heaven. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have become God’s children, become one with Jesus, and become the sons of God as Jesus Christ is the Son of God. There are many Christians who have not joined together with God’s Church; and there are many churches that are not of God’s. When you do not join together with God’s Church, you cannot become one with the Lord and you become distant from God. Aren’t there people who are standing against you? They become distant from Jesus Christ when they don’t join together with us who have truly been born again. That’s why Jesus Christ said, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23).
The Lord gave the authority to forgive the sins of people to God’s Church. Although Jesus Christ blotted out all the sins of the world, it is God’s Church, the body of Christ, that preaches the good news that Christ has blotted out all the sins. God’s Church carries out this work. In other words, God’s servants carry out this work. People would be heading straight to hell if God’s servants shut their mouth tightly. Therefore, I hope you understand how important it is to join together with God’s Church. You must understand how important it is for you to join together with God’s Church that God approves, the Church that the Holy Spirit is working in. Therefore, you must learn to join together with the Church.
It says, “They shall become one flesh.” We have become the brides of the Lord and the servants of God by becoming one with Christ. We must understand how important the union with Him is. Do you think you have become who you are just with your own strength? Do you think you had perfected yourself thoroughly to become His bride when you received the gospel? When you do not join together with the Church, the living water of life does not continually enter you and you become completely dried up. The branch dries up and dies when it is not attached to the vine.
God raises His people and His workers to establish them as His servants. God works in His Church through His servants in His hands. We often experience really unusual things in the Church. One of our ministers told me that he had seen God working together with him and helping him many times as he was ministering at the mission fields after graduating the Mission School. And he said that he had not appreciated the Church while he was here, but after spending some time alone in the mission field, he yearned so much to be with the Church, and therefore, he was so thankful to God for actually coming to the Church and listening to the Word. That is what “union with the Church” is all about: God’s servants who have believed first must join together with God, and those who have believed later also should join together with them. Then, God fills their shortcomings and makes them His workers, the stars of the sky. Those who have united with the Lord are the stars that brighten the darkness of the night. God supplies the material things and works within the people who have joined together with the Light. That is the amazing thing.
God is making us His servants. We must stay still until God establishes us as His servants. And there still is order while He is molding us into His servants. God works in the Church through all the parts of the body. The Scriptures say, “But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16).
Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. Through the head, each member of the Church receives the command, stays connected, and supplies the necessities to one another and receives strength from each other while living with faith. Living with faith in this manner is the union with the Church. You come to understand what is “joining” together, right? We must join together and preach the gospel. Within the order, within the Word, within the Truth, we must preach His Way by joining together with Jesus Christ.
God has worked upon us. It is still a wonder when I think how God led me to this gathering. I had never even dreamed of coming to this congregation. I was in a Catholic hospital about 25 years ago. At the time, I stayed in the hospital run by a Catholic Church for 9 months because I was suffering from a sickness. There were many nuns at the hospital. The director of the hospital was a nun and I became upset when I heard the content she was teaching to the patients. I thought, “This is not right. What thieves! They may be healing the sickness of the body but they are taking the souls to hell. How can such a thing happen?” And the righteous anger rose up in my heart. So I prayed to God sincerely, “God, please save them. Please deliver them from this trap. How can such a terrible thing happen in this world? How can they give a piece of bread and have the soul destroyed?”
During the 9 months, I realized keenly that I should save these Catholic believers. I did not attend the mass too often. I went by the chimney behind the kitchen during mass hours because it was a cold winter. I used to sit on the straw bag and prayed. And I studied during the 9 months that I stayed there. I read many books of the Saint Damian or Francisco. There was a library there and I read so many Protestant books and Catholic books during the 9 months. I mastered what Christianity is all about while I stayed there. I just ate and read books every day. They told me to become a priest. But I told them I don’t want to do so. They told me that they would throw me out then. I told them, “Go ahead and throw me out if you want. But I will tell you as straight from my heart.” But they came to like me later. And I was completely cured and able to study all I wanted during the 9 months. I prayed there, “God, save them. Help me to share the gospel with these Catholics.” And although after much time has passed, I came to meet you, the gathering that has come out of Catholic Church as I had prayed.
After coming out of the Catholic hospital, I enrolled in a theological seminary, got married, and served the Lord, but I was disappointed again while studying theology. Teachings of the seminary were so full of nonsense that I experienced unspeakable confusion and conflict. In seminaries, you don’t have to learn anything but just achieve the necessary credits. If there is one thing I learned spiritually, it’s that I can’t do anything if I do not know God’s Word. And I realized that I really didn’t know the Scriptures; and I realized that I could not escape from my level because I didn’t understand anything about the Word regardless of how much I read the Scriptures. So I began to contemplate deeply in the Scriptures.
At that time, I agonized so much because of my sin and the more I believed the more troubled I became owing to the sins in my heart. I was suffering so much from my personal sins that I read so many books to quench the fire of agony with greater understanding of the Scriptures, but I could not but close the books eventually. I used to read the Bible with pure heart and searched through other references when there was something I didn’t understand, but I couldn’t find the answers even though I searched through all kinds of theological books. I searched through reference books with hope to find something, but there was no answer. I was very disappointed. All those famous figures in the Christian community didn’t know anything. When I wanted to search for the answer to something I didn’t know, there was no answer. It was the same with all those worldly renowned preachers and theologians. All their popular books were the same. So, I packed up all those books and put them away in a storage room.
I was really distressed with the sins in my heart, but there wasn’t anyone who could lead me to the solution. There were many professors and senior pastors who were recognized as the men of faith who really knew the Scriptures well. I tried to listen to their teachings and tried to find the clues to the answers, but I couldn’t. Therefore, I did not submit to any famous theologian that I met. I refuted them with the Word when any of them did not speak based on the Word. When I talked with the open Bible, I did not back off from anyone regardless of how famous they were. They became speechless and they were awed and amazed that there was none like me in the Christian community those days. But the sins in my heart did not actually disappear. It was useless even though I shared fellowship with them and conversed with them on specific points with the Word.
I knew many things besides the gospel of the water and the Spirit and that was the problem. I realized that everything I knew was nothing but garbage, and laid down everything before the Lord and prayed to God sincerely. I surrendered to God and started to examine my faith. Then I happened to hear the Word in a revival meeting at a church. They preached the gospel, saying, “Because Jesus carried the sins of the world, all your sins of the past, present, and the future have been blotted out already.” But, in fact, that is the teaching the Evangelicals always preach. I was not distressed because I did not know this.
So I asked one of the brothers who was being trained in the meeting to share the gospel to me. Then, he explained the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle from the Old Testament and then came to the New Testament and asked me to read Matthew 3:13-17. While I was reading the passage, the Holy Spirit took away the scales from my spiritual eyes. “Oh, by having done thus, God said it is appropriate to fulfill all righteousness! Jesus took all the sins upon Himself by receiving the baptism!” I stopped the brother who was about to say something and just fell deeply into the Word. The pebble stone of the Truth fell in the lake of my heart. A serene ripple started to spread throughout my heart. “Ah, God has fulfilled our salvation through this ministry.”
Then I looked at John 1:29 again: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” And I calculated. When someone commits sin, we call that sin “the personal sin,” but distinguishing our original sin from our personal sin is useless. When a person is born, it is actually normal for the person to be distressed because of sin. Do you distress over the evil thoughts you have harbored in your heart? Are you really conscientious to feel agony whenever you harbor evil thoughts? No, you are not. I have committed a lot of sins so far. All the sins I had committed from the age of 1 to 10, from 11 to 20, and all the sins of my life should be included in the sins of the world, but I thought Jesus took away just my original sin and I still had the personal sins. But, all those sins were completely removed with the Word, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Through the baptism of Jesus that He received in the form of laying on of hands, all of my sins were passed over onto Jesus’ back along with the sins of the world. My heart was completely freed from the sin. My heart became cleansed as white as snow. And the Holy Spirit came in my heart after that.
After that, I realized all the things that I had learned were just leaven and not righteous. And I told people whether their faith was right or wrong in the light of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, I was not able to stay with the coworkers of the past. I was actually a very gentle person. But I fought so much with so many people after I received the remission of sins. I started preaching the gospel after the sins of my heart were removed. Many people began to accept into their hearts the message, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
But, those who returned to their old church after receiving the remission of sins said strange things like, “Who in this world can be without sin? Now, I just can’t believe it.” I said, “Then, let’s go. Let’s go to meet the pastor of your church. Let’s sit down and have a talk. If Jesus took away the sin, there is no sin. To say there is still sin is just your opinion.” I used to argue so much that I couldn’t be polite to the people who were rejecting the gospel obstinately. I had to fight them because they were continuously killing the people who had received the gospel. Therefore, I had engaged in so many spiritual fights. I was hurt so much that I wanted to die when I was pushed back because of the strength in their numbers. I was hurt because they jumped on me with the strength of the denomination even though I had the Truth. I wanted to curse at them and say, “You dirty cowards.”
But God made me preach this gospel throughout the world. After many turns and twists I ended up living in a small port city called Sokcho in the northeastern part of Korea. My family had a difficult time financially as well and the wind blew so hard and my heart was so desolate and lonesome. The city was actually like a rural area at the fringes of the big cities that I grew up in. I cried out to God, “God, I cannot live in this kind of city. I am not cut out for living in this kind of small town. God, I had always lived in big cities. How can You tell me to live in a rural area like this? Have You forsaken me? Why did You send me to a place like this?” But, the Lord did not forsake me.
At first, I didn’t know why the Lord sent me to that city. I prayed, “God, please give me a job, God please give me a home” because I had nothing to live on. I couldn’t find a room for rent because I didn’t have money. I lived for God’s gospel, for this Truth, but I had to provide for my family at the time. So, I had to earn money. I started ministering a Church, but I didn’t even have a single believer in the Church at the time. I prayed, “Ok, that’s fine. God, I don’t have money and I don’t have anything. Can a preacher of the true gospel throw away his child and his wife? No, I can’t do that. Give me money. I don’t know how much I need, but give me money. Give me money to rent a small room and give me a job.” It’s easy to talk about this, but you don’t know how hopeless and frustrated I was at the time. I could not even sit still to pray. I walked back and forth from one end of Sokcho City to the other end of the city with a bag and prayed.
God gave me courage and wisdom to overcome my difficulties and to make money. When I committed all my difficulties to God, He guided me and made me live. I didn’t do anything. But God gave the material blessing to me. Ever since I started to live by faith, God bestowed material blessings upon me. I prayed for even greater blessing. “God, please give me a house. Give me a big house. I want to start a Church if You give me a roomy house. I don’t have any money, but please do this.” I prayed with faith before the presence of God and God gave me a home. God gave me an inexpensive and roomy house, so I paid the rent for it with the money I had saved. I lived there and started a family Church, and before long, I rented a church building on the outskirts of the city. Whatever I did prospered because I did it with the faith that God had already fulfilled it. And then I met you the Messiah Church members who came out of Catholic Church. So I threw away everything I was ministering with, and officially started the Mission School starting from last January. Some Evangelicals told me, “How could your church prosper by ministering like that? It will never happen.” But I started the work of the gospel by faith, saying, “How can it fail if God is with me. You will see that the power is in Jesus Christ not in a human being. If God works with our Church, everything will be accomplished. Laugh all you want, but I don’t laugh at you. But, wait just a little while. Your mouth that is sneering now will become speechless.” And God truly worked miraculously to make them speechless.
I didn’t know at first, but God had a plan for us and gave me the burning heart to save those at the Catholic hospital while I was hospitalized there, and God had a plan for me to meet you who were having a separate meeting after coming out of the Catholic Church. Therefore, everything was within the providence of God. Understanding and believing the providence of God, and following it is joining together with God.
I have sometimes received rebuke and heard all kinds of strange things at times. But I have always been humble before God. God has allowed me to have bitter experiences that there have been at times some people who interfere with the preaching of the gospel instead of joining together. I also came to know and believe that being persecuted for the Lord is the glory before God, that it is wrong to try to avoid persecution, and that living with faith is upright. I came to realize that we couldn’t fulfill God’s work by doing something on our own. All things are absolutely under the authority of God. When God lifts something up, then it shall be raised, and if God brings it down it shall be brought down, and human cannot do anything by itself. God taught me that humans cannot do anything by themselves, and the Lord taught me that a person couldn’t stand by oneself even if one tries to stand on his own. The Lord taught me that the only essential thing is having faith.
Whenever someone says he wants to leave our Church and preach the gospel on his own, I say go ahead. But he should first check whether his heart is truly joined together with God or not. God will work through him if his heart is joined together with God and it will crumble after a while if it’s not joined together with God. First of all, it is important to have his heart join together with God. God will work through him if his heart is joined together with Him.
Will you join together with God no matter what difficulties you face? It is hard to say everything, but can you imagine how much difficulty and pain there will be in following the Lord? Would you believe if I told you that I could not rent a room for my family because I did not even have 30 dollars? Can you imagine how painful it was? Even those who did physical labor earned 30 dollars a day at the time. But does it make sense that a servant of God was suffering because he didn’t have 30 dollars for monthly rent? But, God worked in the midst of that financial difficulty and guided me until now. I am so thankful for this, and I can testify boldly that “the righteous shall live by faith” because I have a living testimony.
We are honorable because God has led our Church. We are without shame before God no matter what people say. We didn’t just come into existence. But, rather, we came about within the providence of God. That’s why we are very proud without shame. It means that there is God’s will in everything we do.
I give thanks to the Lord for making us join together with Him, and that God has prepared many people who will join together with this Church. I know well that there are many who will be against the Church while there are many who will join together with the Church. God will work through the people who join together with the Church. We have to join together with His Church as it is written, “And they shall become one flesh.”
Our God has led us to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So we have been born again and become the saints who join together with the Church that God dwells in. In His Church, there is no sin. The Scriptures say, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” The more we come to understand God’s world the more we become unashamed; and the more we come to know Jesus Christ the more our shame for our shortcomings is removed. We are not embarrassed even though we are naked before God when all of our basic nature has been exposed before God. The more our basic nature is revealed before God, the more our shame disappears. If we try to cover our shortcomings, we become more shameful about them. When you hide your appearances, when you try to hide your weaknesses and transgressions they actually make you fall into darkness instead. It is good for our sins or weaknesses to be exposed because they have already been eradicated in Christ. Our God made it so we can live a new life in Christ.
People say many words that have nothing to do with God. Their words have nothing to do with us. The Scriptures say that Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and the person who joins together with God dwells with our Lord until He returns. I believe that we will walk with God throughout the rest of our life. We will surely go to the Kingdom of God if our flesh dies while walking with God. Some of you will hear that “So and so walked with God for 60 years.” If this is the case, you will have dwelt with God longer than I have dwelt. Give your life to the Lord and walk with Him. I will also walk with the Lord until the last day of my life. I will walk with the Lord until I die even if the Lord takes me before His coming.
I have faith. I do not believe this world will last too long. I believe the time is near when the Lord will come to fetch us. I will live with faith before the Lord until the last day when I will go before Him. Because we live in the end times, we must join together with the Lord in our hearts instead of losing focus; and we can commit everything else to God and just live for the Lord and the gospel by faith. When evil thoughts and carnal mind come up, turn from the evil thoughts and remind yourself with the faith that the Lord is coming soon and that we will go to Heaven when He comes again. The heart seeking to live for the flesh is merely a fleshly and wicked heart. I believe in the fact that it is upright to live the few remaining years for the Lord more diligently, share the bread of life with people, and plant Churches and raise up and send God’s servants. I want to be a faithful servant of God who works together with my coworkers, not alone, and open up ways for the workers to work well before the presence of God. I want to become the servant of God that feeds the bread of life to the sheep. I am thankful to the Lord who has given me this heart.
 
 

We Are One with Jesus Christ

 
Today’s Scripture passage talks about truth that God has given His Church to us. How did God’s Church manifest in this earth? The Bible says that the Church came about through Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father as it is written, “The LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:21-23).
How was God’s Church established on this earth? God’s Church was born through the people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit because Jesus Christ came to this earth and blotted out all our sin at once and cleansed us. The word “church” is “έκκλησία” (Ekklesia) in Greek, meaning “the gathering of the called out from the world, the spiritual Egypt.” We have become the children of God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit at once, being called out from the power of darkness. Therefore, God’s Church is the place where the people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit gather together to serve God and His gospel. That’s why Adam looked at the woman and said, “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh.” This passage shows us that God loves us, His Church. Jesus saved us humans from all the sins all at once to make us God’s children, and God’s Church is the place where His children gather together and do God’s work.
The Scriptures say, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” A man leaves his parents and joins together with his wife to make a home. Like this, we have become the children of God by joining together with Jesus Christ. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you also must become one body with Jesus Christ and the servant of God.
It is natural that Adam seemed lonely to God. So God made a helper comparable to him. The LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of the ribs from Adam and made it into Eve for him. God gave Eve to Adam because God saw Adam was alone and did not think it was good. God said, “I will make him a helper comparable to him,” and made the helper for Adam. God made Adam go to sleep and then took one of his ribs, and this means that God saved us with His own Son.
 
 
Let’s Put on the Garment of God’s Righteousness
 
The Scriptures say that Adam and Eve were not ashamed even though they were naked. Actually, a married couple is not ashamed to be naked. They are ashamed a little at first, but they are not ashamed because they know each other so well afterwards. A newlywed couple sometimes argues at first because of the differences in character and personality. But the arguments decrease as time passes by and they begin to understand each other better. The things they argue about aren’t actually anything of importance if they know each other well, but because the husband is prone to be authoritative while the wife also tries to uphold her pride, they usually end up fighting. Then, the husband gives up when the wife becomes upset. All they have to do is apologize to one another and be reconciled with each other, but the argument drags on for a long time because they do not want to apologize. Anyway, when a man and a woman get married and become a couple, they are not ashamed before one another even though they are naked.
The Scriptures say, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” The word “naked” here does not signify physical nakedness. It refers to spiritual nakedness. The garments imply the etiquette, ethics, and prestige of the flesh. When you cast off all these garments, then you can say all the things in your heart without shame. Then the distance between one another is narrowed.
How amicable and comfortable the relationship would have been if a married couple had thrown away the garments of heart from the beginning of their marriage? But they find it difficult because they put on the outer shell of heart for a long time against one another with egotistical pride. I also had much hardship. I used to be wide-awake and energetic for work after midnight. So it was very difficult for me to work productively when there was someone at my side. When my wife was sleeping in the bedroom, I used to take a whole bunch of materials to my study room and work with a cup of tea and something to eat on my table. And soon it was already 2 or 3 in the morning. So, my wife told me, “You didn’t marry me, you married Jesus. You didn’t marry me. You married the work, the literature ministry.”
But, these days, I live in the room at the corner after we have moved to our church building. I am so bored and lonely. Before I moved in, I just had to open the door and there were a kitchen and a restroom, but now that I live in this corner room, I have to walk a long while to talk to my wife. So I try not to go to my room because I am lonely there. I say, “Honey, what are you doing? Let me stay here for a while,” and my wife replies “Why? Why don’t you just leave?” I say, “Is it not okay if I stay here a while?” She responds, “I am sleepy. Why are you staying?” And I say, “Let me just stay for a while. I want to watch TV here and see you a little too.” My wife then replies, “You didn’t marry me. You married Jesus to do His work. Just go to your room. Leave.”
So, I changed my strategy these days. I pull her ears and tell her a funny story and she starts laughing. At least she doesn’t tell me to leave when I make her laugh, but my habit of sleeping late still keeps me awake late. I am used to sleeping alone and I can’t fall asleep when we are together. Then I leisurely walk to my room. I can fall asleep when I am finally in my room. I feel comfortable falling asleep when I tuck myself under the blanket or over the blanket in my room, or go to sleep when I put my feet on top of the stack of blankets, or just go to sleep in whatever position I want because it just doesn’t go well with my constitution for me to sleep when there is someone sleeping next to me or when I have to sleep quietly.
It is written, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Living together as a couple is pretty obvious, so they must take off the garments of their heart. When a couple gets married, they are not ashamed of anything because they know all about each other. In the same manner, there is nothing to be ashamed because of our sins if we join together within God’s Church with heart. It is quite normal for a couple to have no shame between them. Likewise, there can’t be shame when we join together with God’s Church. A person who has not joined together with God has a lot of shame, but not the person who has joined together with God. We don’t need to be ashamed because of our weaknesses if we join together with Jesus Christ. We are not ashamed because we have become one with Jesus Christ spiritually.
But a saint becomes ashamed and darkened if he doesn’t join together with God’s Church. The saint becomes darkened thinking, “What would the brothers and sisters or the minister think of me if they get to know my shortcomings?” But God gives His Church to us and asks us to join together with the members of the Church. We must join together with God’s Church. God works through His Church. He makes us live by faith through the Church. Actually, we must be able to talk frankly about our weak points to God. One should say openly to God, “God, this is who I am,” about all the things in his heart by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
There is no shame if we join together with God. We need to have the faith of believing in God’s righteousness, saying, “We have shortcomings. But You, my God, loved me like this. You accepted me as Your wife. You are my husband and I am Your wife and I don’t have shame before You. The person who has joined together with God’s righteousness is not ashamed. The shortcomings my spouse has, I also have them, and the weaknesses I have, my spouse also has them as well. Therefore there is nothing to be ashamed of if they have really joined together as a couple in a marriage. That’s because a couple is joined together as one.
We the saints are the spouses who help God. God’s Church is the organization that carries out God’s will. And a wife is actually the spouse who is to help her husband. A wife does what she wants to do through her husband, and her duty is to support and help the man. When a husband has decided on the upright path, it is the duty of his wife to support and help it. The couple that has become one in a spiritually sane faith must seek the same goal. And then there aren’t many things to argue about if they love one another and care for one another in flesh.
Likewise, we can serve and support the Lord’s work faithfully as His brides when we join closely with the Lord and the Church. I hope all the saints and servants in our Church join together with God and give glory to God.