ကိုဗစ်-၁၉ကပ်ရောဂါနှင့်အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာစာပို့လုပ်ငန်းဝန်ဆောင်မှုများပျက်ပြားခြင်းကြောင့်ကျွန်ုပ်တို့၏ 'အခမဲ့ပုံနှိပ်စာအုပ်ဝန်ဆောင်မှု' ကိုယာယီရပ်ဆိုင်းလိုက်သည်။
ဤအခြေအနေ၏အခြေအနေအရကျွန်ုပ်တို့သည်ယခုအချိန်တွင်သင့်အားစာအုပ်များမပို့နိုင်သေးပေ။
ဤကပ်ရောဂါသည်မကြာမီကုန်ဆုံးပြီးစာတိုက်လုပ်ငန်းပြန်လည်စတင်ရန်ဆုတောင်းပါ။
Subject 24 : Sermons for Those Who Have Become Our COWORKERS
[24-42] God Desires to Accomplish His Will through The People of Faith Who Trust in the Servants of God (Genesis 24:1-20)
(Genesis 24:1-20)
“Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, ‘Please, put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.’ And the servant said to him, ‘Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?’ But Abraham said to him, ‘Beware that you do not take my son back there. The LORD God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there.’ So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter. Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, for all his master’s goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. Then he said, ‘O LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.’ And it happened, before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her and said, ‘Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.’ So she said, ‘Drink, my lord.’ Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink. And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, ‘I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.’ Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.”
Today’s Scripture passage reads: “Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, Please put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
When we look at this Scripture carefully we see Abraham trying to get his son Isaac married and entrusted everything concerning this marriage to his old servant. Abraham had this trusted servant bring back for him the bride-to-be for his son. We see Abraham entrusting not only his son’s marriage but the management of the possessions and wealth of his entire household to this servant. The reason for this was that Abraham knew that among the many servants he owned, this old servant was the most trustworthy and had the exact same faith he had.
What does this all mean to us? It means that God accomplishes His work through people who have the same faith as that of Abraham, our father of faith. He desires to accomplish His work through those who have this same faith as Abraham; this genuine faith was passed down intact through the people of faith like this old servant of Abraham. This also means that God establishes His Church through people such as these.
When Abraham wanted to have his son be married, he was not living in his home land but was far away abiding in the Land of Canaan. While living there, he had begotten Isaac and he obtained much wealth. However, his son Isaac had now grown up and needed to be married but Abraham was now very old. And so, he called his most trustworthy old servant and asked this servant to swear on his death that he would fulfill his wish. In this Scripture reading, to put a hand under a thigh and to make an oath has such a meaning.
In this manner, Abraham had his old servant make an oath as he approached his death: “You will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” Abraham requested that his servant go to his home country and find a suitable wife for Isaac his son and bring her back.
God Desires to Accomplish His Will through the People of Faith Who Trust in His Servant
God desires to fulfill His will on this earth through people of faith like Abraham. And so, the person that appears next is the old servant who had the same faith as that of Abraham. What kind of person was this old servant? He was someone who as Abraham’s servant had been with his master his whole life and had believed and served in Abraham’s God as his own God. And Abraham had entrusted the marriage of his son to this old servant of his. This represents the fact that God desires to establish His Church through such trustworthy people of faith. This is truly so. God desires to establish the Church of God through those who have the same faith as Abraham and through their faith in His righteousness.
And so here Abraham made his old servant swear an oath. He said, “Do not on no account take a daughter from the Canaanites for my son. You must go to my family and there you must take a wife for my son Isaac.” But then, the old servant asked Abraham a question. His question was, “What if I try to take a wife from my master’s family but the woman that is chosen will not be willing to follow me to this land. Am I to take my master’s son there?” In response Abraham said, “Beware that you do not take my son back there.” He said not to take his son back there even if his future wife said that she would not come.
What does this Scripture passage teach us? God is teaching us through this that you and I must not return to our past; not to return to Ur of the Chaldeans. It is written: “But Abraham said to him, ‘Beware that you do not take my son back there. The LORD God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there.’ So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter” (Genesis 24:6-9). Here, God clearly spoke that He would give the descendants of Abraham the Land of Canaan that Abraham was presently abiding in, and not his former home country, that is, Ur of the Chaldeans.
God desired to carry out His work through this old servant of Abraham. In other words, God desires to establish His Church through people who have the same faith as Abraham. There is one very important thing here that God had requested of Abraham and that is to “Go to your family and bring one of your relatives and marry your son off to her to have them continue on your lineage. But you should not ever go back to the former home country of your flesh.”
The old servant obeyed the words of Abraham and finally arrived at the city of Nahor. Nahor here, as it is mentioned in Genesis chapter 11, was the brother of Abraham. Let’s all take a look at Genesis 11:10. The genealogy is given here and it is as follows: “This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Salah. After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber. After he begot Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg. After he begot Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters. Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu. After he begot Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters. Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug. After he begot Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. After he begot Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah. After he begot Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters. Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot.”
The father of Abraham was Terah. Terah had three sons and they were Abraham, Nahor and Haran. And so, Nahor was the brother of Abraham and from the same family. God had spoken, “Bring back a daughter from your relatives, and have her be married to your son.”
Dear fellow believers, as you know, there are many passages in the Bible that we humans simply cannot fully understand. But today’s Scripture passage is one that can be sufficiently understood even from our human standpoint. Abraham obtained a daughter-in-law from the same family as himself, a descendant of Shem and the granddaughter of Nahor. This was the will of God. In this manner, God considered it extremely important for His servants to continue on His perfect lineage of faith. For this reason, in order to obtain a daughter-in-law from his own family line, Abraham gave his old servant ten camels and every other precious thing and sent him off to Mesopotamia to arrive at the city of Nahor.
The passage reads: “Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, for all his master’s goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. Then he said, ‘O LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master’” (Genesis 24:10-14).
The old servant of Abraham arrived there and prayed to God asking that he would be able to meet the woman who was to be the daughter-in-law of Abraham. And, if we continue on in the Scripture passage, we can see that this prayer was answered by God exactly as he had requested. It is written: “And it happened, before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her and said, ‘Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.’ So she said, ‘Drink, my lord.’ Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink. And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, ‘I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.’ Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels” (Genesis 24:15-20).
God Does Not Desire That the Righteous Be Intermingled with Sinners
After God judged the world through the Flood of Noah, He had His lineage passed down through the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth. And, He absolutely did not want any other family bloodlines to be intermingled into this line. God’s desire was to keep the lineage of this pure family intact that He had blessed. This is because God has His servants, those who truly believe in Him and do exactly as He commands, and they inherit the blessings of Abraham. He also establishes His Church through such servants of His. As we all know well, Abraham is the father of faith to all of us believers. And, the fact that Abraham commanded his old servant to bring back a wife for his son Isaac means that God establishes His Church through His servants. What does this Scripture passage mean? It means that God establishes His Church and accomplishes His work through His servants and through those who serve Him faithfully. Put differently, God raises up His Church through those who first of all have the faith that believes in Him, like the servant of Abraham, and secondly, through those who obey His will which was revealed to them.
Dear fellow believers, do you know why Abraham in this Scripture passage sent his old servant to obtain his daughter-in-law? This old servant was a person who knew the intentions and will of his master Abraham well. He was a person who had the same faith as that of Abraham. Let’s look at the Word. He obeyed the words of His master exactly as he was told, went to Abraham’s home country, prayed before God and received an exact answer to his prayer. Rebecca, who was a descendant from the same family of Abraham, drew water and had the old servant of Abraham drink and also gave water to the camels that he had brought along with him. What does this mean? It means that God plants His Church through people who have the same faith as Abraham, people who wholly understand what the will of God is and people who wholly serve and fear Him. God establishes His Church through such people.
After the Flood of Noah, God had Jesus Christ be born from the family lineage of Shem. In between this, Abraham was one of the descendants. After Abraham there was Isaac, after Isaac there was Jacob and after that Jesus Christ was born. It is written, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). What does this mean? It means that through this lineage of faith the faith of Abraham continues on even until this present time.
How Does God Establish His Church?
God establishes His Church through people of faith who have the same faith as Abraham and through people who have a heart of a trusted servant towards Him. We must know that Rebecca who appears in today’s Scripture reading was a person who feared God and wholly served Him. God desired that through Rebecca the lineage of Shem, that is, the lineage of Jesus Christ be continued on through. God fulfills His will through those who have faith, those who have a heart of a servant and those who have a heart to completely serve God. In other words, people who have a combination of these three aspects of faith.
Dear fellow believers, if Abraham did not send this old servant but instead sent a younger one whose faith was not whole or proper, what would have happened? Abraham at that time was someone who was close to his death. And, if Abraham would have sent a younger servant, that servant would have probably thought, “Who cares what woman I bring back? He’s going to die soon anyway and he hasn’t followed me here.” With thoughts like this, he may not have heeded to the words of Abraham fully and could have brought any woman back with him.
Abraham was a man of great wealth in his time so he had this trusted servant who was sent off to find his daughter-in-law to also take many precious things along with him. But, if the servant’s faith was not whole, then he probably could have “purchased” just any woman with the many possessions on his way and brought her back with him. He could have easily deceived his master Abraham. But, Abraham called the most faithful old servant among his servants and had him swear an oath. Abraham put his servant’s hand under his thigh and had him swear an oath on his death. The oath was: “Put your hand underneath my thigh. Swear that you will absolutely not choose a wife for my son, my daughter-in-law to be, from among the daughters of the Canaanites. You shouldn’t do that even if I were to die.” His all important last will he left with this old servant.
Who is this old servant? He was a person who had always been with Abraham after Abraham had left his home country and he had also experienced and believed in the God of Abraham. And so, Abraham entrusted everything that he had, even to the selection of his daughter-in-law who would inherit his own lineage to this old servant who had the proper faith just like himself. This really means that Abraham had entrusted all of his possessions to this servant.
However, if Abraham would have entrusted this important task to a younger person what would have happened? This servant might not have returned until Abraham had passed away or might have used “human” methods to bring back just any woman that Abraham did not want. Today’s account of Abraham sending this old servant reveals well just how God works and how He carries out His will. God accomplishes His work and establishes His Church through people who understand His will well and those who have the same faith as Abraham and uphold the will of their master completely.
God Grants Living Water to Flow to the World through His Church
Today’s Scripture passage where Abraham is trying to get his son Isaac and Rebecca married represents how God establishes His Churches. It is the same as for those of us who are within the Church of God being married by faith to our Bridegroom Jesus Christ. In the Bible, the Church is often portrayed as a well. Even now God makes spiritual living water to flow through His Church. And, from among His own people, God establishes His Church on this earth through those who have the same faith as Abraham, people who have a heart of a servant, people who fulfill His Word, people who follow obey and believe His Word, and people who completely serve Him. God permits the Church to be built through such people as these. And, through His Church which is established in this manner, God grants that many people receive the remission of sins and also receive the blessings that Abraham had received.
Abraham was a man of great wealth in his time. People who believe in Jesus Christ like Abraham are very rich as well. They do not live in poverty in real life. This is because God allows all of His blessings to be poured out upon such people of faith. Through today’s Scripture reading, we must come to know who God accomplishes His work through. God does His work through people who follow after His Word by faith in the same way as Abraham did. We must also know that it is not enough to know the Word of God, but we must know the fact that God accomplishes His work through people who actually obey His commands. Please take heed of this. God takes the person who wholly serves Him, has that person marry Jesus Christ spiritually and has this person do His work. God establishes His Church with such people!
God Entrusts His Work to His Faithful Servants Who Trust in the Righteousness of God
You and I who are in the Church of God must first have faith that believes in the Word of the righteousness of God. And secondly, we must wholly accept the Word of God in our hearts. Finally, we must completely obey the Word of God. Our Lord entrusts His work to these types of people. Look at Abraham who appears in the Bible. He faced truly a multitude of difficulties before settling down in Canaan, but each time he was faced with hardship, he had complete faith in God and obeyed Him thoroughly and so because of this, he was led by the Word of God. We must all be like this as well. If the Word of God says so, we must be people who say, “Yes, it is true.” God accomplishes His work through people who say “yes,” through those who follow His Word by faith and the people who truly obey His Word no matter what He has said.
People who have received the remission of sins can have the same faith as Abraham. But what about those people who have not received the remission of sins yet? At that time there were many servants in the household of Abraham. But what was the reason Abraham had this old servant carry out his will and not some other servant? It was because he could trust this person completely. Abraham knew that if he said something, this servant would fulfill his words exactly as instructed, and so he entrusted his son’s marriage and everything else to this particular servant. Abraham definitely knew that this person would not squander away his wealth, so he entrusted all of his possessions to this servant.
A long time ago, in our country as well, there were masters, servants and children of the master, isn’t that right? When we read novels of our country like “Around the Time Buckwheat Flowers,” we can observe a similar setting and background as displayed in the Bible. When we look at the customs and lifestyles of our ancestors, there are very great similarities with the customs of the Israelite nation. A long time ago, if the master’s son was too young the household would be entrusted to a servant for the time being. The master would then entrust a servant to oversee his wealth and possessions, and then when the son had grown up, everything would be returned to the son. Nevertheless, there are some servants that did not fulfill their master’s request and seized all of the possessions for themselves. You can just imagine what would have happened if this was the case? There were many faithful servants that would manage their master’s possessions according to the words of their master and then completely pass them on to the son, and then continue on loyally as servants under this son.
This old servant possessed a trustworthy faith such as was mentioned. We must clearly understand that through those who have the same faith as Abraham God continues on His blessed lineage of faith. There is a clear lineage of faith and blessings in God. And, this lineage is not passed down to just anyone. There are many people today who say that they have received remission of sins and boast outwardly concerning this, but they are people who do not know exactly what it is to have the faith that Abraham had. They do not possess the faith that believes in the Word of God and the faith that follows after this Word. When Abraham had his servant swear an oath and commanded him to do an important task; if the old servant did not have faith that believed in the words of Abraham and did not have faith to obey these words, then the lineage of faith of God would have perished. The lineage would have been temporarily in the servant’s hand but not wholly passed on as instructed and would have ended. He would have had faith but there would not be any descendants after him. Because he believed in the will of God but did not wholly carry it out. In other words, because the Word of God was not applied in his life, all of the blessings and the faith of Abraham in the gospel would not be passed down intact and would have been lost.
Who Does God Raise Up to Do His Work?
God accomplishes His work, continues on His lineage of faith and blesses those who wholly have faith in Him and those who obey His Word exactly as it is. In today’s Scripture reading, God had this old servant bring back Rebecca from the same family as that of Abraham. What does this account teach us? It teaches us that when God brings people into His Church, He brings those who genuinely fear Him and serves Him. Here the servant of Abraham is praying to God. He prayed, “O LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.” He prayed silently to himself, “I will know that the woman who gives me water to drink and even to my camels will be the mate for my master’s son.” Abraham’s servant did not simply say this out of coincidence. He obeyed God and possessed the faith to serve the Lord in his heart and so he was able to say these words. Today’s Scripture reading is speaking to you and me about such things.
Let’s take a look at Rebecca. Rebecca had drawn water and was on her way home. But when the old servant said to her, “Woman, let me drink some water,” she said, “Yes, I will do that,” and she gave him water to drink as well as to the camels that the servant had brought along with him. The Scripture passage describes this event in detail: “‘I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.’ Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.”
Dear fellow believers, what does this Scripture passage mean? The Bible does not contain one single random meaningless verse. Each verse contains God’s truth and there is a deep meaning behind it. This Scripture passage means that God accomplishes His work through people like Rebecca.
Think about it. When a strange man suddenly asks a strange woman for some water, she could have just given him water and then be on her way. Was she some kind of philanthropist that she draws water again for the animals as well? There were probably ten animals that the old servant had brought along with him. Do you know how much water camels drink? Camels drink a large amount of water at one time when it is available and then they store it and slowly absorb it into their system. And so, when people are traveling in the desert and feel like they are about die of thirst, they pierce a camel somewhere and obtain water that way.
Dear fellow believers, take heed of this. God passes on the lineage of faith of Abraham through people like Rebecca who wholly serve Him, fear Him and obey His every Word. If Isaac had not taken Rebecca as his wife but had taken a daughter of the Canaanites instead, what would have happened? This would have resulted in the lineage of faith of Abraham not being passed down intact. A daughter of a Canaanite cannot pass on the lineage of faith of Abraham.
Think about this. How can a descendant of the daughter of the Canaanites completely fulfill and obey the Word of God? If Isaac told a woman who grew up in Canaan that, “My father said this and God said this, and God has spoken in this way,” would she be able to fully understand what he was saying? Since she was not someone who had faith, she would be stubborn and would not listen properly to the Word of God. Someone who receives the blessings of Abraham, in other words, a person who is to continue on the lineage of faith of Abraham, must possess the following three conditions: True faith that believes in God; obeying the Word of God wholeheartedly; and fully serving God. Among these three, service is very important. If one does not acknowledge one’s master as one’s lord, then it is not possible to properly serve the master. If a servant does not recognize his master as his lord but rather regards the master as his servant, then can he truly serve his master? He may pretend to serve his master, but in the end he will not be possible to render true service. Even if there is faith that believes in God and obedience to His Word, if the service is lacking with a matching heart that tries to serve God then this is of no use. Abraham served God as his Master and so he was able to live according to the Word of God. Nevertheless, if his descendants did not continue to serve God, then the blessings which Abraham received could no longer be passed down to them.
I told Brother Seongjin Ryu yesterday, “Both you and I are people who serve God. If we are serving him, it’s all the same. If we get a higher position in the Church, does this change anything? We are all serving God in the same way. When we are providing something or some help for certain brothers and sisters, we are not helping them but we are serving God so to speak. To be honest, when we do something for the brethren, we are serving God not just helping those brothers and sisters.” This is really true. I am simply serving the Lord. Of what use is it for me to bring a great revival in the Church of God? Am I going be rich by gathering many people together? Serving lost souls is serving the Lord, and serving my brothers and sisters is also the same as serving the Lord. Whatever we do, everything is for the Lord. If I am doing something that is not truly serving the Lord, then there is no reason for me to serve in such a way. If I did not have a heart to serve the Lord, then I should lord myself over the saints and demand to receive lofty treatment. I could always leave God as Cain who had left God and built up his own city. And I could become a king of my little kingdom, saying, “Serve me because I am the boss in this city.” This is how one becomes a cult leader.
Dear fellow believers, there are many great and small cult leaders in this world. Really, those who are in the pastorate who have not received remission of sins, strictly speaking, can be said to be cult leaders. They request their followers to donate a few thousand dollars to them and they demand to have a retirement pension. They are clearly cult leaders and they lord themselves over lost souls. If someone lacks a heart to wholly serve God, then it is possible for this to happen. So beware. It is important to have faith that believes in the Lord, but it is more important to have a heart that desires to serve the Lord wholeheartedly.
We Must without Fail Proclaim the Faith of Believing in the Righteousness of God
The end of the world is upon us. We must therefore tell lost souls how God establishes His own Church and how God has passed on the lineage of Abraham. How has God continued on with the lineage of the descendants of Shem?
You and I are the descendants of Shem. This is so both physically and spiritually. God, beginning with Adam, passed on His blessed lineage of faith. But, this lineage came to an end at the time of Noah’s flood. It thus ended here. After that, what happened? Noah had three sons. They were Shem, Ham and Japheth. And among them, God promised that He would give blessings to all nations through Shem. God promised that He would give His blessings through the descendants of Shem. And so Abraham, who is called the father of our faith, was born as a descendant of Shem. After that, Isaac is born of Abraham and Jacob from Isaac. Then much later Jesus Christ is born from this lineage. And, you and I are also from the spiritual descendants of Shem. The lineage of faith is continued on in this manner. But, in order to properly continue this lineage on, there are three things that are needed. There must be faith in God, obedience to His Word and service to Him. Nothing among these three is indispensable.
People who have truly received the remission of their sins through the Word of God must follow and obey the Word of God. And then, they must definitely serve the Word of God. They must be people who only serve Jesus Christ. Only then can they succeed to God’s lineage of faith and also abundantly receive and enjoy all the blessings that God has provided. And, they will be people who pass on such blessings to the next generation.
God Pours out His Blessings through People Who Serve Him like Rebecca Did
Dear fellow believers, do you know what I am speaking about? Why did the old servant obey the word of his master Abraham? Why did Abraham entrust this important task to this old servant? Why did Rebecca draw water and give it to the old servant and watered his camels as well? Why is God proclaiming this Word in detail to you and me like this? The reason is to explain to us that God pours out all of His promised blessings on people who have the same faith as Abraham, people who obey His Word like the servant of Abraham and people who serve Him like Rebecca. If these three things are not met, we cannot receive the blessings from the Lord. God accomplishes His work and passes on His blessings through people like us who believe in Him, obey His Word and wholly serve Him.
Therefore, all of us must make sure to take heed of these three things. When we serve the Lord, God accomplishes His work through us and saves lost souls. However, what if we just believe in God but give up on or lay aside serving the Lord, what would happen? God’s work would for certain not be accomplished. In the end, we would only be serving ourselves. This is sure to happen. And so, we must serve the Lord rather than anything else.
We Must Serve the Righteousness of the Lord with All of Our Faith
The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is your Kingdom, Jesus Christ is your Master and He is your everything. He is God and at the same time He is the Son of God the Father; and He is our Master and our treasure.
Shall we briefly look at a story in the Book of Ruth? Ruth said to her mother-in-law Naomi, “Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God,” and she followed Naomi. Ruth was a widow and a Gentile woman at the time. Her husband was dead and therefore could not bear any children. Nevertheless, she later became “one of the grandmothers” in the physical lineage of Jesus Christ.
What is the reason that God gave Ruth this blessing? Ruth honored her mother-in-law and followed after her. She said, “Your God is my God, your country is my country and your people are my people.” Because Ruth followed after her with much zeal, Naomi could not resist and allowed her to come with her. Naomi had another daughter-in-law named Orpah who also became a widow when her husband died, but because Orpah did not honor her mother-in-law she did not follow her mother-in-law and went back to her country.
In Bethlehem, at the time, there was a powerful man by the name of Boaz. He was also single. So there must have been many women who were after him. However, he did not marry any of these women of his own country but married this Gentile woman named Ruth. Although Ruth was a Gentile woman, he must have heard what many people were saying about her that she honored her mother-in-law, feared God and faithfully believed in God and put into action what she believed in by faithfully serving her mother-in-law and God. After hearing these good things about Ruth, Boaz married her instead of looking for other women.
What does this account represent or mean? Because Ruth wholeheartedly served her mother-in-law and believed in the God of her mother-in-law as her own God, God’s blessings were given to Ruth. The Bible, which is the Word of God, often speaks of the faith that Ruth had. The Bible says, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). This is mentioned often. Nevertheless, the majority of Christians do not believe in the righteousness of God. And, although they may believe in the righteous Word of God, they do not serve the righteousness of the Lord.
Dear fellow believers, you and I must serve the righteousness of the Lord. This is truly very important. Take a look at the Bible. The Epistle of James says that faith without works is a dead faith. There is a certain Christian community called the Brethren Church. They claim to have been passed down the faith of the Puritans. They say that Charles H. Spurgeon is the father of their faith. They claim to be of his lineage. They claim that only the Brethren Church on this earth continues on the lineage of Spurgeon. They blatantly state this through their literature ministry.
But do these people serve the Lord? No, they don’t. Is their literature ministry something that wholeheartedly serves the Lord? They flaunt themselves and act proudly by publishing a few books on their history, tradition and forefathers of their faith. Is this truly serving the Lord? In order to properly serve the Lord, they must first preach the genuine gospel of the water and the Spirit to the people of the whole wide world. This gospel of the Lord must be preached to all lost souls. And, they must make a financial pledge to plant Churches everywhere. Why must they plant only one Church in a district? Many more churches should be established all across the country.
Dear fellow believers, this is why we must serve the Lord wholeheartedly. We must not be like them, boasting in themselves, but must faithfully serve the Lord. If we are truly the descendants of Abraham, if we have the same faith as Abraham and if we are now following after the Word of God as Abraham did, then we must serve only the Lord as our Master and we must be workers who only serve the Lord with a heart of a servant and a slave. We must be the people who do the work of the Lord and do not seek after our own interest. Serving the Lord is very important. Along with a heart to serve the Lord, we must have the faith of believing in the Word of the Lord in our hearts. And, we must be the people who carry out and obey the Word of God. You and I must truly serve the Lord only. When we serve the Lord, we can obey His Word and we can keep the faith which believes in His Word. And we can receive all the blessings and promises that God has given to us and which has been passed down to us.
If we truly believe in the righteousness of God in our hearts, then that faith will clearly express itself through our actions. Is this not true? Dear fellow saints, our Church is really going through some financial difficulty right now, but we must press forward even harder. We have made a lot of effort so far. We even made financial pledges several times to support revival meetings for lost souls. And, each time we had a revival meeting we have tried several things that we have never done before. Each time we held a revival meeting lately we took an offering and ministered to souls, handed out tracts and did a lot to share the gospel. We never did such things before, but we are running out of money. And so, we must start again in faith.
There are people who truly serve the Lord with their hearts, not only with their hearts but with their actions. They have the faith that says, “Jesus is my only Master, and it is my life’s purpose to serve only the Lord and it is the right thing to do.” Such people will be able to serve God in truth and receive and enjoy the blessings that He provides. Our Churches all across this nation must all be like this. You and I have already inherited the blessings that God gave to Abraham. I earnestly pray that you come to fully understand this.
Hallelujah!
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