ដោយសារការរាតត្បាតនៃជម្ងឺកូវីឌ១៩ និងការរំខានដល់សេវាកម្មប្រៃសណីយអន្តរជាតិ
យើងបានផ្អាកជាបណ្តោះអាសន្ននូវ "សេវាកម្មសៀវភៅបោះពុម្ពដោយឥតគិតថ្លៃ" របស់យើង។
នៅក្នុងស្ថានភាពបែបនេះ យើងមិនអាចផ្ញើសៀវភៅទៅកាន់លោកអ្នកបានឡើយ។
សូមអធិស្ឋានសម្រាប់ការរលាយបាត់យ៉ាងឆាប់រហ័សនូវជម្ងឺរាតត្បាតនេះ និងការដំណើរការឡើងវិញនូវសេវាកម្មប្រៃសណីយ។
សូមអធិស្ឋានសម្រាប់ការរលាយបាត់យ៉ាងឆាប់រហ័សនូវជម្ងឺរាតត្បាតនេះ និងការដំណើរការឡើងវិញនូវសេវាកម្មប្រៃសណីយ។
Subject 24 : Sermons for Those Who Have Become Our COWORKERS
[24-56] Take the Blessings Given to Jacob (Genesis 27:1-29)
(Genesis 27:1-29)
“Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, ‘My son.’ And he answered him, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Behold now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. And make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.’ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it. So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, ‘Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, ‘Bring me game and make savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the LORD before my death.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to what I command you. Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death.’ And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, ‘Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.’ But his mother said to him, ‘Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.’ And he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savory food, such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. So he went to his father and said, ‘My father.’ And he said, ‘Here I am. Who are you, my son?’ Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.’ But Isaac said to his son, ‘How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?’ And he said, ‘Because the LORD your God brought it to me.’ Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.’ So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. Then he said, ‘Are you really my son Esau?’ He said, ‘I am.’ He said, ‘Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so that my soul may bless you.’ So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Come near now and kiss me, my son.’ And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said:
‘Surely, the smell of my son
Is like the smell of a field
Which the LORD has blessed.
Therefore may God give you
Of the dew of heaven,
Of the fatness of the earth,
And plenty of grain and wine.
Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brethren,
And let your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
And blessed be those who bless you!’”
Dear saints, did you have a nice meal?
It is said the Scriptures are like a picture puzzle that conceals the righteousness of God. Even for me, the more I read the Bible, the more I come to realize this. The Scripture passage I have just read to you today also inspires me with the same comprehension.
Here, Isaac and his wife Rebekah appear, along with Isaac’s two sons, Esau and Jacob. Isaac grew old, so he called his older son Esau and told him to make him some savory food. Isaac intended to eat that savory food and bless Esau for the last time. But Isaac was very old and frail, and also had weak eye sight. And so, his wife Rebekah and his second son Jacob deceived their father, and Jacob instead received this blessing which the oldest son Esau should have received. This is exactly the outline of today’s Scripture passage.
Isaac Called His Older Son Esau
I think Isaac might have lost his eyesight due to his old age, but despite this he could have fully distinguished people’s voices and sounds with his hearing. So, it is difficult to understand why Isaac could not recognize Jacob who was disguised as his brother. Nevertheless, the Bible is the Word that places more focus on revealing the hidden righteousness of God than on recording certain historic facts. Therefore, through today’s Scripture reading, we must take a careful look into how this hidden righteousness of God is revealed.
When Isaac became old and his eyes grew dim, he called his older son Esau.
“Dear father, here I am.” He then said to Esau, “Son, I am very old now. I am on the verge of death. So, please take your weapons and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. And make my favorite savory dish and bring it to me. When you do this, I will eat it, and my soul will bless you to my heart’s content before I die.” Just as Isaac said this, Esau answered, “Yes, dad. I will,” and then he took his bow and quiver and went out to the field and started hunting. After He returned with the game, he made the best savory dish among all the savory foods that his father liked. But it was too late.
The Bible records things about God and about His servants; and His people also appear in the Bible. Furthermore, it records the providence that God will hand down His blessings to His people through His servants. And that is actually so. Of course, there are instances where God works directly by Himself, but God works even more through the servants He establishes on this earth.
In today’s Scripture reading, Isaac’s wife Rebekah overheard this discussion between Isaac and their older son Esau. But Rebekah loved her younger son Jacob more and disliked Esau. Thus, she wanted Jacob to receive this blessing which was meant for Esau. From a worldly perspective, Rebecca’s prejudice could be viewed as a mother who had shown favoritism towards her children.
Rebekah Overheard and Allowed Jacob to Cheat the Blessing from Esau
Having heard all the words her husband was telling her older son, Rebekah spoke to Jacob saying: “You don’t have to go very far. Go to our backyard and bring me two choice kids of the goats. Don’t you think that I know very well what you father likes? I know what your father liked when he was young; I know what your father liked when he was in his middle ages; and also I know what your father likes now in his old age. I know it all. I know all too clearly, whether he likes lots of black peppers or just a little. I will make the savory food for your father, so you go on and bring me two choice young goats. Your father has decided in his heart to eat savory food your brother brings and give your brother a prayer of blessing before he dies. But I think that this should not be so. I would like for you to receive this blessing. So just do as I tell you. And then you will receive that blessing.”
Jacob then replied, “Dear mother, how can I act like my brother? My brother is a hairy man, but I am a smooth-skinned person without much hair. Even though my father cannot see very well, once he touches my body, I will be like a deceiver to him, and this I feel will bring a curse on me and not a blessing.” In spite of Jacob’s fearful words, his mother told him, “Trust me. Even if something goes wrong and should your father’s curse fall, I will receive it all on your behalf.”
And so, Jacob went to his backyard and brought two choice young goats according to his mother’s instructions, and then after killing them Jacob and his mother started cooking their meat right away. Esau was still heading away from their abode towards the hills, but in this home, the kitchen was already filled with sounds of chopping and dicing. A single baby goat has plenty enough meat for a full feast. Prepared just like the way her husband liked it. And so, Rebekah prepared the most delicious savory food ever. And then, she put the skins of the young goats over Jacobs’s arms and hands and on the smooth part of his neck and clothed him with the older brothers clothes. People with so much body hair have it growing all over the face, starting from the sideburns leaving out only the eyes, mouth and nose. It is as if they are hairy like monkeys. Esau probably was hairy like this. That was why Jacob had to hide his smooth skin and wrap the skins of the young goats around his hands, arms and neck in order to disguise himself as Esau. His mother spoke to Jacob, as she finished preparing the savory food for Isaac.
“Offer this to your father and ask him for a blessing.”
“What happens if he finds out?” he said. His mother replied, “If you are detected and found out to be a fraud and are about to be cursed, then let that curse fall on me. So do not worry. Just do as I tell you.” What happened afterwards? Jacob did what his mother Rebekah told him to do, and in the end, he received the prayer of blessing from his father.
From our human perspective, today’s passage might seem to be very bad indeed. It is because that mother loved only one son and coerced him to use one of her cunning tricks to deceive his father. If this be so, then why did God allow such a thing to be recorded? Is the Almighty God a God who can be found with faults from an ethical perspective, and be found with blemishes from a theological perspective? Absolutely not! I believe God recorded this account to teach us as humankind the truth about “How we as humankind can receive His blessing.”
As told by his mother, Jacob covered himself with goats skin, brought the prepared savory food and bread out to his father, and lied, saying, “I am Esau.” His mother Rebekah made him do this, not because she wanted him to receive such a blessing by fair or foul means even if it meant lying. Like this, what kind of faith do we need to go before God in order to receive His blessings? This is precisely what our God wants to tell us. In conclusion, Jacob received the blessing from his father. And the descendants of Jacob are still living well off, receiving this blessing even now. For your reference, the Israelites are all descendants of Jacob and the Palestinians are all descendants of Esau.
Isaac ate all the food and blessed Jacob who was disguised as Esau.
“And he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said:
‘Surely, the smell of my son
Is like the smell of a field
Which the LORD has blessed.
Therefore may God give you
Of the dew of heaven,
Of the fatness of the earth,
And plenty of grain and wine.
Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brethren,
And let your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
And blessed be those who bless you!’” (Genesis 27:27-29).
This prayer Jacob received from his father actually has come true today. And that prayer will continue to be active in the future as well.
Having smelled the scent on Jacob’s clothing, Isaac said,
“Surely, the smell of my son
Is like the smell of a field
Which the LORD has blessed.
Therefore may God give you
Of the dew of heaven,
Of the fatness of the earth,
And plenty of grain and wine.”
Dear fellow believers, what do you think these words really mean? It means the hearts of the righteous that care for the Lord is essentially the same as the blessing from God which is shown through them. Indeed, God allowed us the righteous to receive this dew from heaven as well as the fatness of the earth. God has clothed His servants and all the saints of the world with plenty of grain and wine. Also, He made all the peoples of this world serve them by exalting them over these worldly people. Sinners are bound to come and kneel before the saints who have genuinely received the remission of sins in their hearts. This is not an imagination; it will surely become a reality in substance. Whoever curses the righteous who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will be cursed, and whoever blesses the righteous who have been born again will receive all the blessings. Such blessings will come down upon no one else but the righteous. It will be as if such blessings had come down upon Jacob in today’s Scripture passage.
When We Believe in and Follow the Word of God, We Receive the Blessings of God
Then, how can you and I receive such precious blessings? By having faith in the righteousness of God, we can receive it. Even though Isaac was blind due to his age, he still had a sense of smell, hearing, and touch. He would know who someone was by just touching and smelling. Even if Jacob was disguised in goat’s skin, it was very hard to expect Isaac not to distinguish human hair from goat’s hair. Even if Esau was a hairy man, all furry like a goat, would human hair be like that of a goat? Do you think Isaac did not know the feel of human body hair and the feel of goat hair? Would he not know the smell of goat hair and the smell coming from his son’s body?
But the Word of God does not speak like this. This story, which we cannot possibly understand according to our human thinking, is a Word about how we can receive the blessings from God. Just as his mother told him, Jacob wore his older brother’s clothes, hid his smooth parts of his body with goat hair, and then went before his father. As a result, his father recognized that Jacob was Esau and gave him the blessing.
What does this mean? It means that as we go before God without having faith in the righteousness of God, we will never be able to receive this blessing. Just think about this. If we do not believe in the salvation and the love with which God has saved us, how will we be able to receive these blessings? Far from blessing, will we not receive a curse instead? Jacob was blessed by his father because he believed in his mother’s words and was able to go to his father.
You and I are the same. If we were to go before God without having faith in the righteousness of God, then we will only be receiving a curse. Jesus Christ came down to this earth and saved us completely. This Son of God who loves us came down to this earth in the form of human flesh. And He as our unblemished Lamb took on all our sins by being baptized. He then died on the Cross carrying all the sins of the world, and then was resurrected from the dead. We must go before God with this faith in this God who has saved us out of His infinite love for us.
If we go before God without this kind of faith, asking, “O Lord, please accept me as I am,” what do you think we really receive from Him? What will happen if we were to go before God in our state of lack day in and day out without having faith in the righteousness of God? We will be receiving many curses. God will crush us to death at once. He will say to the angels who are carrying iron rods in their hands, “Just strike them down.”
If this be so, how should we go before God? We must go before Him as sinless saints, the righteous, and the children of God who can satisfy His heart by believing in the righteousness of God wholeheartedly. We must go before God with such faith, having made our hearts righteous by putting on the righteousness of God. Otherwise, far from receiving these blessings, we will instead be receiving a curse. Today’s Scripture passage is telling us this clearly. It teaches us that although we may be lacking and weak, if we were to go forth with this pure faith of believing in God, we will surely be receiving these blessings. Can you now understand what this passage is saying?
It is actually so. Jacob was able to receive such a blessing from his father because he went before his father with his older brother’s name, clothed in his brother’s clothes, and simulated the hair his older brother had. Because Esau’s clothes had his peculiar scent, his father smelled Jacob but did not doubt that he was Esau, and thus, the father was sure that the one who came before him was in fact Esau and then blessed him under the name of Esau. However, who was the one that actually received this blessing? It was Jacob, not Esau. Jacob thus received that prayer of blessing. Only by his bold faith was he able to actually receive it.
Dear fellow believers, we are the same. Only when we go forth in the name of Jesus Christ, just as Jacob had done in the name of Esau, and only when we go forth by faith of believing in the righteousness of Jesus Christ can we receive the blessings from God. It is said that the father knew the scent of his son’s clothes. In Israel, it is usually the first born son, that is, the eldest son, who receives more blessings. No matter how troublesome the eldest son may be, most parents like the eldest son the most. I don’t know why this is so, but I think they show more attachments to the eldest son because he is the very first child they had in their marriage union. It is because first things give more joy, whatever they may be. Perhaps for this reason, parents like the firstborn so much, even if he is a mess. However, they don’t seem to set their affections on those born afterwards that much. With about ten children, parents would not care for the children following the eldest, saying something like this, “If you want to live, live. If you don’t want to do so, then don’t.” In the past, it was common for parents to have more than ten children, and in some cases, about half of them died. Still, the parents considered the first-born son as the most precious among the many children they had.
Here, Isaac smelled the scent of his older son’s clothes and gave him the blessing:
“Surely, the smell of my son
Is like the smell of a field
Which the LORD has blessed.
Therefore may God give you
Of the dew of heaven,
Of the fatness of the earth,
And plenty of grain and wine.
Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brethren,
And let your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
And blessed be those who bless you!” (Genesis 27:27-29)
Know That the Blessings of God Have Fallen upon the Believers of the Righteousness of God
If the servants of God wish to achieve something in their hearts, our God will fulfill it without fail. When the Lord’s Day service is about to finish, pastors would say a benediction like this: “I pray that God the Father who has saved us from all our sins will bless all the saints and servants doing His work.” We do this because God has promised that He would give us whatever we wish, and also, I have faith that if we were to firmly believe in His blessings with all of our hearts, we will actually receive these great blessings. After having smelled the scent from our garments of righteousness, God will bestow upon us these great blessings. All we have to do is to receive our salvation by faith and to defend this heavenly faith which is in our hearts. It is because God looks at this faith in our hearts more than anything else. If we have a heart of having received the remission of sins, God will see that faith in us and then bless us. Among Isaac’s blessings, there is one passage that goes, “This field has a smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.” And this means that God bestows blessings upon us the righteous having looked at the field of our hearts, that is, all the thoughts coming out from the center of our hearts.
God gave Jacob His blessings in today’s Scripture passage, and He has also given us these same blessings as well. There isn’t any difference. God already promised these very same blessings in this New Testament era. Just as Isaac blessed his son after having eaten that savory dish, God will bless you and me as well if we live for the righteousness of God. Truly, God has bestowed upon you and me these very same blessings that He had bestowed upon Jacob. The faith of believing in this fact is tremendously important. If you live by faith saying, “God has blessed me. Then God will always bless me,” God’s blessings will fall upon you who actually do believe.
Think about the moment right after we received the remission of sins. We were truly anxious and worried, thinking, “How will I ever go on living in this troubled world?” I also had thoughts such as, “I cannot live well even if I work every day. Yet, if I start attending Church services several times a week, how could I live by working?” But what is the reality? Because God has actually blessed His people, and through that blessing, we can be well off like this. Things will go well because God has been looking after all the work that we do, and also all the work that all the other righteous people do. This blessing says, “Therefore may God give you of the dew of Heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine” (Genesis 27:28). In other words, God will give us all the blessings of Heaven and of the earth. We must have this kind of faith without fail. All the blessings of God will actually be falling upon us if we live for the Lord with this correct faith.
But what will happen if we do not believe in God and go on living without having faith in these God-given blessings? We will try to live out every day by human means and by its ways. Yes, we will try to live by using our own human means and ways, not living with the correct faith by united our hearts with God. But we know very well that such a life is never right. Therefore, you and I should lead our lives by seeking help from the Father only by faith and in that faith.
The blessing God had bestowed upon Jacob is actually the very same blessing that He bestows upon you and me today. Therefore, by our faith of believing in God, you and I must make that blessing ours. Truly, dear fellow believers, we must believe in this genuinely. There is only one reason why God blesses us. He blesses us as the Jacobs under the name of Esau, the eldest son.
It Is Extremely Important to Believe in the Righteousness of God
What reason was there for us to receive God’s blessing? The reason is that you and I have wholly become the children of God by having faith in the righteousness of God. There is no other reason than this. In today’s Scripture passage, Isaac found joy in the savory food which was prepared by his second son who had brought it to him under the name of his first son, and after eating that savory food, he blessed this son.
Then what about us? You and I have received from God the blessing of being born again by believing in Jesus Christ. We were given the blessing of becoming God’s children through our faith in our Lord for having saved us by being born on this earth, taking all our sins onto His flesh by being baptized, dying for us on the Cross through crucifixion, and being resurrected from the dead. Yes, this is correct. When we go before God the Father with this correct faith, God the Father will happily accept this faith of ours and give us these blessings. Please bear in mind that this is the only way we can actually receive these blessings.
That is why having faith in the righteousness of God is something extremely important to both you and me. If you believe in the righteousness of God, then you must live by that faith, and then rely on God by that faith. Do you have such a faith? This is critically important to you and me. If you have this faith, you will live by faith and you will receive the blessing as well. But if you don’t have this faith then you cannot receive anything blessed from God but rather you will receive curses in your life.
Of course, you cannot become blessed like this when you first received the remission of your sins. If you started following the Lord after having been truly born again, hardships will sure to follow, and you will also have many persecutions and experience much pain. And only after having gone through all such processes, you will become someone whom God truly finds joy in. Just as Isaac in today’s Scripture passage gave the blessing after having smelled his son’s clothes, God will bless you by acknowledging the authenticity of your faith. He then only approves you, saying, “Faith has truly been set firm in your heart. Also you are a man of faith. You really do have your trust in Me.” Dear fellow believers, do you understand this? Rather than having impertinent and wavering thoughts, you must understand that it is absolutely imperative for you to have faith in the righteousness of God only if you really want to be blessed.
Most days we are sharing words about the righteousness of God. Worldly people do not know this righteousness of God very well. How then can one obtain this righteousness of God? We are unable to be enlightened of the righteousness of God by ourselves alone. If we want to know the righteousness of God correctly more than anything else, we must genuinely attend God’s Church.
Look at Jacob’s life. Was he able to receive the blessing from his father because he was exceptionally wise? No, this was not the case. If Jacob had gone before his father pretending to be his older brother on his own, he would have been easily detected and would have been rebuked by not only his father but his mother as well. However, Jacob exactly obeyed what his mother told him to do. Because his mother took charge of this work and ordered him what to do in detail, Jacob was able to receive his father’s blessing without any curse. Jacob’s mother Rebekah said to Jacob, “Go to our backyard and bring me two choice kids of the goats. I will make this savory food your father really likes.” And as Jacob obeyed his mother’s words, he received his father’s blessings. I am saying here that Jacob was able to receive these blessings because his mother guided him in this blessed way.
Yes, this is true. In order for you and me to receive these blessings, we are in absolute need of a mother’s guide. What does this mother stated here mean to us? It represents none other than the Church. Almost all the married women mentioned in the Bible symbolize God’s Church. Yes, this is true. Without the role of the mother, no one can receive any blessings. Even after having received the remission of sins, one will not be able to receive any blessings without the role of the mother. When the mother directs and guides us, we must go on living by believing in such things the mother says wholeheartedly.
Let’s think about this account again. If Jacob who pretended to be Esau had been detected by his father, he would have received a curse, but he was not detected, resulting in him receiving the blessing. According to his thinking, both possibilities would have been equal, 50/50. But according to his mother’s thinking, it was 100/0. Jacob’s mother said to Jacob, “If you fail, I will take full responsibility, and I will receive all your curses.” Think about this for a moment. If his father grants these blessings, he would be the one to receive all of them, and even if his father would have brought down curses, it would have been the mother who would receive them. And so, under these circumstances who wouldn’t be able to carry out that task? Let’s consider for a moment that Jacob was found out by his father. He would have said, “I may be blind, but do you think I would not know this?” Chances of this happening were extremely high, but even so, it was his mother who was going to take full responsibility for such an outcome. Thus, as long as he did exactly as she had instructed, and by him believing in it, he was going to be receiving all these blessings.
In like fashion, all the people in this world must meet the righteousness of God, and then they must be led by God’s Church, receive its instructions, do as ordered, obey as told, and believe in and do what they are taught. Only by doing this can they meet God properly and also possess this precious righteousness of God. This is the very source of being able to receive these divine blessings from Heaven and all the blessings of the fatness of the earth. Every person of faith, including Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, lived according to their faith in the Word of God.
God said to Abraham,
“I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).
What do these Words mean? It means that God will stand as the Guarantor for His righteous people. And so, those who persecute the righteous will only bring destruction upon themselves. For those who torment us the righteous; if we make up our minds and say to them, “You are incurably bad. Therefore, you need to be taught a lesson,” then they will actually face tremendous troubles. But if we were to retaliate by other physical means, we would be taken in by the police. God will take care of it on our behalf. He will either strike them down or inflict upon them a serious injury. He will perhaps have their legs broken. He will do this for sure. But the thing is, if He were to do that to everyone who torments us, many people will then die. Please, do not worry too much. God will investigate it fully, and He will do this on our behalf. God will punish them on our behalf by having examined them thoroughly, saying, “This man deserves it. But I will take pity on that man.”
God’s Church Is Playing an Important Role
In today’s Scripture passage, the role of the mother was extremely important. The mother even had to prepare this savory food the father liked so much. If the mother had prepared just any kind of food, it would have only stirred up anger in the father. What would have happened if she had prepared a rubbery noodle instead? As the father ate, he would have said, “How come it’s so difficult to chew on this?” His vision wasn’t very good because of his age, so would his teeth have been otherwise? No matter how much he would wriggle and chew with just his front teeth, the noodles would not taste any better. And so, would he not have just gotten angry and said, “I told you to bring my favorite food to me, but what is this? You eat all of it yourselves,” and would he have withheld the blessing?
If you want to receive a blessing from your father, you must bring something that your father finds joy in and likes to eat. Then like this, what kind of food do you think our God will like the most? God’s favorite food is none other than our faith of believing in His righteousness just as it is. He enjoys very much our faith of believing in His Son having saved us from all our sins by having come down to this earth. God feels very satisfied after having eaten that savory food of our faith. Just as the old Korean folks feel satisfied after having eaten our traditional food to their hearts’ content, so God feels such joy in having eaten the faith which we have offered. There isn’t anything else we can offer to satisfy God’s heart.
The Only Way to Receive the Blessings from God Is to Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
Our God the Father sent down His only Son to this earth for you and me. It is written, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God sent His only Son to this world and had Him blot out all our sins when He took them up when He was baptized. He was then crucified on the Cross where He died receiving the full judgment for them. He was buried and was resurrected from the dead. God the Father blesses us after accepting and having this savory food of our faith when we go before Him with this very true faith, that is, the faith of believing in this Son who blotted out all the sins of the entire humankind. This faith of believing in Him having blotted out all your sins and mine, and this faith of believing in His Son having saved us from all our sins by the baptism He received and His shed blood of the Cross, by having received all these judgment vicariously. This is the only absolute Truth for our salvation. There is no other way except this for us to receive these blessings from God. We cannot receive such blessings by donating much money, doing many good deeds, or giving up one’s life for Jesus.
What about those people involved in religious wars right now? They die or kill others for their earthly gods. Their gods may accept such devotion, but our God the Father will never accept such behavior. Please bear this in mind. God will accept with joy only the faith of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The only possible way for us to receive God’s blessings is to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and then offering that faith back to God. People in the Bible who believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit actually received God’s abundant blessings. And we also continue to be well-off on this earth with those blessings which were given by God. It is said, “Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, Of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of grain and wine” (Genesis 27:28). People of the world say it is difficult to live these days, but God will surely bless the righteous. This is precisely what God tells us today.
Let Us Receive the Blessings by Faith
I am sure that you have understood today’s Word of God very well. You don’t know just how many times I have preached about this. Still, I expect that this sermon has reminded you of this truth of how we can receive blessing from God. I want you to believe that God has given us the very same blessing that He had bestowed upon Jacob. Believe that God has given you these very blessings. And as you live out your lives on this earth, and as you live for the Lord with this faith, you will be able to experience these abundant blessings from God in your lives. Yes, this is true. We must possess such faith without fail.
Dear fellow believers, haven’t you received the remission of sins yet? God bestows blessings only upon those who have received the remission of sins. After having received the remission of sins, have you been living for the righteousness of God by believing it? If you are doing this before God, then you will receive these very blessings which God had bestowed upon Jacob. We must have such a faith. If there is no proper faith, you will start to hold grudges, become temperamental, and your everything will become a failure. For people who genuinely live for the Lord, they have at least secured their blessings with that faith. And when they do something, God actually gives them these blessings which are appropriate for that work. Yes, this is so. If we believe in God and live for Him and His righteousness, we will surely receive His blessings. What I am saying is if God has already given us these blessings, we will surely be experiencing these blessings. We will progressively continue to experience what He has already given us. This is how we become blessed.
Dear fellow believers, I want you to know and believe that all people receive such blessings from God who believe in this Word and the righteousness of God. Many people living in this world hope to receive God’s blessing by pouring forth their own sincerity, but with such things, we can never receive the blessing from God. The God-given blessing is a blessing we receive by having faith in the righteousness of God that has saved us completely through His only begotten Son. We receive these blessings from God by believing in that love with which God loves us.
Thanks to the Lord, many of you who are sitting here have already received these blessings. But despite having received these blessings, there are many people who go on with their lives in this world in vain and in much misery, unaware of having received these blessings. People who have received the remission of sins must live for the Lord without fail. Although there are hardships and lots of persecution when the righteous people live for the Lord, they will be able to endure all these things with their true faith, and also, they will really be able to remove the dregs out from their hearts by uniting themselves with God. When you wholeheartedly unite with God, He will grant such blessings to you. He will grant such blessings to you for sure. Dear fellow believers, do you believe in this? I give thanks to God for having granted us these blessings of having faith in the righteousness of God.
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