Wegens COVID-19 en verstoring van de internationale postdienst hebben
wij onze 'Gratis Boekendienst' tijdelijk opgeschort.
wij onze 'Gratis Boekendienst' tijdelijk opgeschort.
In het licht van deze situatie kunnen we u de boeken momenteel niet opsturen.
Bid dat deze pandemie spoedig zal eindigen en dat de postdienst wordt hervat.
Bid dat deze pandemie spoedig zal eindigen en dat de postdienst wordt hervat.
Subject 8 : The Holy Spirit
[8-7] The Beautiful Gospel That Allows You to Have the Holy Spirit Dwell in Your Heart (Isaiah 9:6-7)
(Isaiah 9:6-7)
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”
What allows the Holy Spirit to dwell in believers?
The beautiful gospel of the water and the Spirit
The beautiful gospel of the water and the Spirit
In order to receive the Holy Spirit, we need to have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord is named Wonderful, Counselor, and Mighty God. Our Lord referred to Himself as the pathway to Heaven. Jesus Christ presented everybody with the gift of the beautiful gospel.
However, in this world, there are so many people who still live in darkness. They try to escape from this darkness but because they do not know of the beautiful gospel, they can never escape from their sins. Instead they wither away from their belief in false doctrines. In contrast, for those who seek the truth, they will encounter the beautiful gospel and live the rest of their lives fulfilled with God’s blessings. I believe it is God’s special blessing that allows me to help them find the beautiful gospel and cleanse them of their sins.
Therefore, freedom from sin would be impossible if it weren’t for His blessing. If we have met the Lord and received the Holy Spirit then we are very much blessed. Regrettably, many people are not aware that God’s blessing comes from faith in this beautiful gospel.
God’s blessing results from believing in the beautiful gospel that was given to us by Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. Jesus is the One who saves us from the sins of the world and blesses us with His mercy. No one else can save us from our sins nor help us erase the guilt in our hearts. Who could possibly save himself from his own sins and the pain of eternal death?
God tells us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 16:25). People establish their own religions and drive themselves toward destruction and death. Many religions boast that they emphasize righteousness and show their own ways to save people from their sins but it is only the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which our Lord gave us, that can save us from all our sins. Only Jesus is the Savior who can save sinners from their sins.
In John 14:6, our Lord said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He gave His own flesh and blood to those on their way to death. He also referred to Himself as the way to true life. God says that if one does not believe in Jesus’ beautiful gospel, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
We must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, be forgiven for our sins and believe that He is our Savior in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Once in ancient Israel!
“Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it” (Isaiah 7:1).
Israel was originally one nation. However, Israel became divided into south and north. The temple of God was in Jerusalem of Southern Judea, where Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, ruled. Later, Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s servants, established another nation in the north and so Israel became divided. From that time, faith in God deteriorated. The deterioration of faith became the source of today’s heretical religions. Jeroboam thus became the originator of heretics. He amended the law of God because he needed to keep his throne and therefore, became the father of heretics. He created a different religion for His people in Israel, the Northern Kingdom and he even tried to invade Judah, the Southern Kingdom. Almost 200 years passed by, but the hostile relations between the two kingdoms were unchanged.
However, God spoke through Isaiah, “Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, ‘Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel.’ ─ thus says the Lord God: ‘It shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, so that it will not be a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established’” (Isaiah 7:5-9).
At that time, God prophesized through Isaiah to King Ahaz, but the king had no faith in Him. Ahaz was merely worried that he wouldn’t even be able to hold out against Syria’s army, but hearing about the invasion of Syria and Israel in alliance with one another, he shivered in fear. But a servant of God, Isaiah, came and told him, “In less than sixty-five years, north Israel will be broken. And the evil conspiracy the two kings have plotted will never come true.”
God’s servant told King Ahaz to seek a sign from God. “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above” (Isaiah 7:11). “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:13-14). This was His prophecy: That He would save His people from their sins.
Who is the enemy of God?
The enemy of humanity is sin and sin originates from Satan. And who is the Savior from our sins? The Savior is none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Man has fundamental weaknesses of flesh and therefore cannot but commit sin. He is under Satan’s power. A great many people still visit fortunetellers and try to live their lives exactly as these false prophets instruct them. This is direct evidence that they are under Satan’s control.
The Lord gave Isaiah evidence of salvation, saying that a virgin would give birth to a Son and name Him Immanuel. It was God’s plan to send Jesus in the likeness of sinful flesh of a man and have Him save sinners from Satan’s oppression. In accordance with the prophecy, Jesus came into this world as a human being born of the virgin Mary.
If Jesus had not come to us, we would still have been living under the reign of Satan. But Jesus came into this world and was baptized by John and died on the Cross in order to give us the beautiful gospel that would save all sinners from their sins. Therefore, many people believed in the beautiful gospel, received forgiveness for their sins and became children of God.
Even nowadays, many theologians argue as to whether Jesus Christ is God or man. The conservative theologians say “Jesus is God,” but some New Theologians retort by arguing that Jesus was Joseph’s illegitimate child. What a lamentable assertion this is!
Some New theologians say that they cannot believe that Jesus had the ability to walk on water. They say, “Jesus actually walked on a low hill over the horizon and His disciples, seeing Him from far away, thought He was walking on water.” Present-day doctors of divinity who belong to the schools of the New Theology aren’t all great men of theology. Most of them choose to believe only what they can comprehend in the Bible.
To give another example, the Bible says that Jesus fed 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread. But they remain very skeptical regarding this miracle. They explain it in the following terms. “People were following Jesus and were starving to death. So Jesus asked His disciples to gather together all the leftover food. Then a child gave Him his meal voluntarily, and all the other adults were touched and took out their own food. So after they had gathered all the food together and eaten, twelve baskets were left over.” These kinds of theologians simply try to make God’s words fit their own very limited understanding.
Believing in God’s truth is simply having faith in the beautiful gospel God gave. Faith neither means believing one thing just because it seems to make sense nor failing to believe in something else because it doesn’t. Whether we can comprehend it or not, we must trust Him and accept His words as they are written.
The fact that Jesus came to us as the Son of Man means that He was sent to save us from all our sins. Jesus, who is God, came to this earth to save us. Isaiah had prophesied that He would come to us as the Son of Man, born of a virgin.
In Genesis 3:15, the Lord God said to the serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” This means that God had planned to send Jesus, in the appearance of a man, as our Savior to save mankind from their sins.
In the Bible, it is written, “‘O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:55-56). The sting of death is sin. When a man sins, death makes him its slave. But our Lord promised, “The seed of the woman shall bruise your head.” This means Jesus would destroy the sting of the sin that Satan brought.
Jesus came into this world, was baptized to take away all the sins of the world and was crucified and judged for them. He saved from their sins all those who believe in the beautiful gospel. When Adam and Eve sinned, God promised to save mankind from Satan’s power. In the modern world, the enemy of God is those who do not believe in the beautiful gospel.
Why was Jesus born in this world?
God gave us the law and the beautiful gospel to save us from our sins. Under the law of God, people became sinners in His presence. Likewise, the law was given so that people could come to know their sins. When people became slaves to sin and to the law itself, our Lord came into this world to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law.
Jesus was born under the law. He was born in the age of the law. The reason people needed the law was that they needed to know their sins in order to receive forgiveness for them. People clean the dirt from their clothes only when they realize they’re dirty. Likewise, in order to recognize their sins, people should know the law of God. If there was no law, there wouldn’t be any sense of sins, and Jesus would not have had to come into this world.
If you know the law of God, then you have a chance to meet Him. We knew of the law and therefore were able to learn about our sins. Only after we knew of our sin did Jesus Christ bring the beautiful gospel for us to believe in. If God did not grant us the law, then we would not be sinners and judgment would not exist. Thus, God gave us the law and presented us with the beautiful gospel to save all sinners from their sins.
The law that must exist between the Creator and His creation is God’s law of salvation. This is the law of love. God told man, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (Genesis 2:17). This was the law God granted us, and the law became the basis of the love with which God saved us all from our sins. The law of salvation had its foundation in the forgiveness of our sins. God tells us that He is our Creator and that everything came to exist according to His will. This means that God is the Absolute Being and that people should believe in the law of salvation that was accomplished through the beautiful gospel.
The Absolute God is absolutely good. God’s love for this world prompted Him to sacrifice His only begotten Son, who became the Savior of all sinners. If God made us and did not give us the beautiful gospel to save us from our sins, we would have raised complaints against Him. But God wanted to save us from our own destruction and therefore established the law of salvation. Because of the law, we were able to realize our sins and by looking at them directly, start to believe in Jesus’ beautiful gospel. When we violate God’s word, we are manifested as sinners before the law, and after all we sinners kneel down to beg for His mercy of forgiveness of sin before God.
Jesus was born of a woman and came into this world to save mankind from sin. Jesus came into this world as a man to fulfill God’s plan for us. We believe in His beautiful gospel. Therefore, we praise the Lord.
Some complain, “Why did God make me so fragile that I fell so easily into sin and have suffered so much for my wrongdoing?” But God never wanted us to suffer. He allowed us to suffer because we were skeptical of Jesus’ gospel. God gave us both suffering and the beautiful gospel so that we would have the same power as Him as His children. This was His plan.
But the demons say, “No! No! God is a dictator! Go ahead and live as you wish. Be independent! Make your fortunes through your own efforts!” The demons also try to block mankind’s belief in God. But those who choose to live apart from God are barriers to His plan for salvation. Jesus came into this world and called those who are under the power of Satan to renounce their sins. We should not live apart from God.
Man is born a sinner who is destined to Hell
There is no truth on this earth that does not change. But the beautiful gospel of Jesus is the unalterable truth. Therefore, people can depend on that truth and be delivered from the power of Satan. Mankind inherited the sins of Adam and Eve and without Christ’s intervention would be doomed to the fires of Hell. Instead, thanks to His sacrifice, man was blessed with the power to become a child of God. “Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed” (Isaiah 9:1). God sent His Son to this world and glorified those who believe in the beautiful salvation.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined” (Isaiah 9:2). Today, this word comes true to you and me. By believing in the beautiful gospel, we were blessed with eternal life, which we cannot have on this earth. Jesus Christ saved mankind from all the sins of the world and to those who believe in the beautiful gospel, He gave eternal life and the Kingdom of Heaven.
He shed the beautiful light of the gospel on those who were hopeless
Man, like a fog, exists in this world for a while but soon disappears. His life is like that of annual plants and grass. Grass retains its life force for only a few months during the year and disappears according to the Providence of God. All is vanity in our lives as meaningless as this grass. But God gave the beautiful gospel to our exhausted souls and with His righteousness, made us His children. What an amazing grace this is! Our meaningless lives became eternal lives thanks to God’s love and we were also blessed with the right to become His children.
Here is the confession of a soul who was blessed with God’s grace by believing in the beautiful gospel.
“I was born in a family that did not believe in God. Therefore, I was brought up thinking it beautiful for my mother to pray to the gods of heaven and earth for the well being of my family every morning with a bowl of water in front of her. As I was growing up, I did not know of my value or the reason for my existence, which made me believe that it really didn’t matter whether I lived or died. Because I was unaware of my worth, I lived in solitude.
This kind of life exhausted me and so I rushed to get married. My married life was a good one. I had nothing to wish for, so I lived a quiet and serene life. Then I had a child and from that time I found that love started to appear in me. I began to lose my selfish desires but I also feared the loss of those closest to me.
Thus, I began searching for God. I was fragile and incapable and therefore, needed an Absolute Being to keep watch over my loved ones. So I started to attend church but my faith was little different from that of my mother as she prayed in front of the bowl of water ─ my prayer was only based on vague fears and hopes.
Once, I attended one of the small meetings held at the local church and while I was praying, tears started to fall from my eyes. I was embarrassed and tried to stop crying, but the tears continued to fall. The people around me laid their hands on my head and congratulated me for receiving the Holy Spirit. But I was bewildered. I wasn’t even familiar with God’s words and my faith in Him was only vague, so I had no confidence that this force was of the Holy Spirit.
The church that I attended was associated with the Pentecostal-Charismatic Movement, and many had experiences like me and almost everybody spoke in tongues. One day, I was invited to a revival meeting led by a pastor who people said had been filled with the Holy Spirit. The pastor gathered numerous people at the church and said he would heal someone’s sinusitis as it was in his spiritual powers to do so. However, I thought sinusitis was an illness easily healed in hospitals, so I was more interested in how he had received the Holy Spirit. But after the pastor appeared to succeed in his attempts at healing, he began to boast that he could predict whether a high school student would succeed in his or her university entrance exam or not. A lot of people praised his powers as if they were God’s.
But I could not understand him. And I could not say that whatever power the pastor had, had anything to do with the Holy Spirit. I didn’t think it was important whether he could heal sinusitis or forecast someone’s success on an exam. So, I could not take his apparent miracles as the works of the Holy Spirit.
The power and love of God that I had in mind was different from what I saw. For that reason, I stopped attending that church and avoided the people who believed in the pastor’s powers. After that, I attended a quieter church, which I chose because I believed it dealt more with God’s words. I learned of the law and through it that I was very unrighteous. God became the object of my fear and I learned that I could not look honorable in His presence and that His Spirit appeared to be neglecting me.
In Isaiah 59:1-2 it is written, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” This appeared to fit my situation. It was impossible for me to become His child and receive the Holy Spirit because everything I did or thought was sinful.
I feared God and so consistently gave prayers of repentance. No one told me to do so, but I wanted to stand honorably in front of God. Because I was sinful, I earnestly offered even more prayers of repentance. But these prayers failed to wash away my sins. All I did was show Him my thoughts and sincerity so my sins were still in me. From that time, I began to issue complaints against God. I wished to be perfect in His eyes but I couldn’t be perfect right away, so my complaints and sins piled up.
During this time of religious confusion, my father had a stroke. He suffered for 40 days in operating rooms and hospital beds before he passed away. But I could not once pray for my father. I was a sinner, so I thought that if I prayed for my father, his pain would only worsen. I was distressed at my lack of faith and I wished to follow God but couldn’t, so I continued to complain and at last turned away from Him. My religious life ended like that. I thought if I believed in Him, His Spirit would dwell in me and I would find peace, but that was not the case. After that, my life became even more meaningless and I lived in fear and unhappiness.
But the Lord did not desert me. He caused me to encounter a believer who had truly received the Holy Spirit through God’s words. I learned from this person that Jesus had taken our sins through His baptism by John and that He had been judged for them on the Cross. Therefore, all the sins of this world, including mine, were all forgiven. When I heard and came to understand this, I could see that all my sins were cleansed. God helped me receive forgiveness for my sins, gave me the blessing of the Holy Spirit and granted me a peaceful life. He silently led me, gave me a clear understanding of good and evil and endowed me with the power to overcome the temptations of this world. He answered my prayers and helped me live a righteous and worthwhile life. I truly thank God for giving me the Holy Spirit.”
Every one of us is blessed with the Lord’s grace and is capable of receiving the Holy Spirit. I thank the Lord for giving us His beautiful gospel. God blessed the righteous with such happiness. The hearts of the righteous are joyous. The Lord granted us eternal happiness. We know how precious God’s salvation, love and grace are and we are thankful for them. The Lord gave us happiness through the beautiful gospel of Heaven. This is something that cannot be bought with money. God sent us the Holy Spirit as well as the beautiful gospel in order to make us jubilant and upright. The beautiful gospel is what makes our lives blessed. The Lord gave us the beautiful gospel and He is happy that the righteous ones enjoy a blessed life.
As it is recorded in Luke, Mary said, “For with God nothing will be impossible… Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:37-38). The moment Mary believed in the beautiful words of God, as spoken by His angel, Jesus was conceived. Likewise, through their faith, the righteous conceive the beautiful gospel in their hearts.
“For you have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian” (Isaiah 9:4). Satan caused all the distress, illnesses, and oppression in our lives but we are far too weak to overcome him. But God loves us and so He fought against Satan and defeated him.
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).
God promised to glorify us as His children through the beautiful gospel that Jesus brought. He defeated Satan in accordance with His promise and delivered us from the power of Satan.
The Lord came to the earth and with His power promised to take away all the darkness of sin. So we also call our Lord the Wonderful one. He has done many wonderful things for us. God’s decision to come to this world as the Son of Man was mysterious. The Lord says, “Come now, and let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
The Lord promised to save us from our sins and give us eternal forgiveness. Jesus is referred to as the Wonderful one and, accordingly, He has done miraculous works for us. “His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God.” God, as our Counselor, planned our salvation with the beautiful gospel and carried out His plan to save us eternally from our sins.
The foolishness of God is wiser than man. It was His wisdom for Jesus to be baptized by John and to die on the Cross in order to save us from all our sins. This is mysterious work that He did for us, but it is the law of love that saved us from all our sins. The law of love is the gospel of truth that leads us to receive the Holy Spirit through the water and His blood.
The Lord says in Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.” Jesus made His soul an offering for sin in order to do the will of God. He passed on the sins of the world to His Son, Jesus Christ, and had Him suffer the pain of crucifixion in order that He would be judged for them. This is the beautiful gospel that saved mankind from their sins once and for all. Christ offered His life for us, paid the wages of sin and blessed us with salvation.
The sacrificial system of God
How many sins did Jesus take through His baptism by John?
Past, present and future sins from the time of the beginning to that of the end
Past, present and future sins from the time of the beginning to that of the end
The Bible speaks of an offering that once resulted in forgiveness for a day’s sins. A sinner had to bring an animal without blemish and lay his hands on the animal’s head in order to pass on his sins. Then he had to kill the sacrifice and hand its blood to the priest. And the priest took some of the animal’s blood and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings and poured the remainder at the base of the altar.
In this way, he could be forgiven for a day’s sins. The laying on of hands was the way for a sinner to pass on his sins to the sacrifice. Those who offered their sacrifices in accordance with the sacrificial system could receive forgiveness for their sins. The sacrificial system was the way we atoned for our sins in the time before Jesus took away all sins.
God also had appointed the Day of Atonement so that the people of Israel could make atonement for the sins committed over the course of an entire year. The sacrifice took place on the tenth day of the seventh month. God appointed Aaron, the high priest, as the one who passed on the year’s sins of all Israelites to the scapegoat. The ritual was carried out in accordance with God’s plan. The forgiveness of sins came from His wisdom and love for mankind. This is His power.
“The horns of the altar of burnt offering” stands for “the Books of Judgment” (Revelation 20:12), where the sins of mankind are recorded. The reason the priest put the blood of the sin offering on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings was to erase the names and their transgressions written in the Book of Judgment. The blood is the life of all flesh. The sacrifice took away the Israelite’s sins and the scapegoat was killed to pay the wages of sin. God had them kill a sacrificial animal to accept the judgment for their sins. This was a sign of His wisdom and love for us.
Jesus Christ came to this world as an offering for sin in order to accomplish God’s plan. Jesus took away the sins of the world through His sacrifice. If we look at the words of this promise, we see, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10) or “He took away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called the Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).
The mysterious and wonderful promise was that Jesus would carry out God’s will and give all believers peace by taking away the sins of the world. God’s promise was a promise of love, by which He planned to bring peace to all mankind. This is what God promised us, and this is what He did.
Matthew 1:18 says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.” “Jesus” means Savior, the One who will save His people from their sins. “Christ” means the King Anointed, King Jesus had no sins, and He is our King and Savior who was born of a virgin in order to save His people from their sins.
“‘And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.’ So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet” (Matthew 1:21-22).
Jesus took all the sins of the world along with Him through His baptism
It is written in Matthew 3:13-16, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.”
John the Baptist appears in this passage. Why did Jesus have to be baptized by John? Jesus had to be baptized in order to take on all the sins in the world, and take them all away according to God’s plan.
“The government will be upon His shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6). Here “the government” means that Jesus is the One who has the authority and power as the Master of Heaven, as the King of the world. This is the authority granted only to Jesus Christ. Jesus did a wonderful thing to take away all the sins of mankind. This wonderful thing was for Him to be baptized by John. What Jesus meant by saying “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” is that taking away all sins of the world was right and fitting.
Romans 1:17 says, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel. Does the true gospel of the water and the Spirit really reveal God’s righteousness? Yes! The true gospel is that Jesus Christ took away all the sins of the world through His baptism and crucifixion. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the beautiful gospel in which the righteousness of God is revealed. How did Jesus take away the sins of the world? He took away all the sins of the world when John baptized Him in the Jordan River.
“All righteousness” is “δικαιοσύνη” in Greek. This means that Jesus took away all the sins of mankind in the most just and wonderful way. It means that Jesus’ cleansing of all the sins of the world was absolutely just and fair. Jesus had to be baptized by John in order to blot out the sins of the world.
God knew that Jesus’ baptism was absolutely necessary in order to bring peace to mankind. Jesus could not have become our Savior, if He hadn’t been baptized by John and shed His blood on the Cross. Jesus served as the sin offering in taking away all the sins of the world.
God says in Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus had to accept all the sins of the world in order to do God’s will. This is the reason that Jesus came as a sin offering in the flesh of a man and was baptized by John.
Jesus had to accept all the sins of mankind and be judged for them so that He could fulfill God’s plan and express His undying love. When Jesus emerged from the water after His baptism, God said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
A baby was born unto us
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the God of Creation who created the whole universe. Not only is He the Son of the Almighty God, He is also the Creator and the King of Peace. Jesus is the God who gave happiness to mankind.
Jesus is the God of truth. He took away all our sins, saved us, and gave us peace. Is there sin in this world? No, there is no sin. The reason we can confidently say that there is no sin is that we believe in the beautiful gospel, which says that Jesus washed away all the sins of the world through His baptism and blood on the Cross. Jesus did not lie to us. Jesus paid the wages of sin with His baptism and blood. He let everyone who believed in this become His child and gave peace to us all. He made us live as His sanctified children in faith for eternity. I praise the Lord and give thanks to Him.
Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:29 says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” Jesus Christ appeared again in front of John the Baptist the day after He took away all the sins of the world through His baptism. John the Baptist bore witness to Jesus by saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” He bore witness again in John 1:35-36, “Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’”
Jesus was the Messiah who came as the Lamb of God, just as God had promised in the Old Testament. The Messiah Jesus Christ came to us as the Wonderful One, Counselor and Mighty God, and was baptized to save us from all our sins. A baby was born unto us. He accepted all the sins of the world through His baptism by John, paid the wage of sin, and became the Prince of Peace who gives us peace and remission of all our sins. “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
People once had no other choice but to die for their sins. Humans were destined to commit countless sins due to their sinful natures and eventually be condemned to Hell. They led miserable lives; not one of them could enter or even dream of the Kingdom of God due to their weaknesses. Jesus Christ, who is our God, accepted all their sins when He was baptized by John in the Jordan River and was crucified in judgment for their wrongdoing. Upon His death, Christ said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). This was the cry of His witness to the fact that Jesus saved all mankind from their sins and death, and that He absolutely delivered anyone who believed in the beautiful gospel.
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Do you know where all the sins of the world are? Aren’t they on the body of Jesus Christ? Where are all the sins and trespasses that humble us in this world? They were all transferred to Jesus Christ. Where are all our sins? They are in the flesh of the One with the principality upon His shoulder; they are in the flesh of Almighty God.
All the sins from birth to the grave!
We commit sin throughout our lives. We committed sins from the day we were born until the day we turned 20. Where did all of those sins committed for 20 years go? They were transferred to Jesus Christ’s flesh. The sins that we committed between the ages of 21 and 40 were passed on to Jesus too. No matter how many years a person lives, the sins he committed from the beginning of his life until the end were transferred to Jesus Christ. All the sins that mankind committed, starting from Adam to the last person on this earth, were transferred to Jesus. Even the sins of our children and grandchildren were already passed on to Jesus. All sins were transferred to Jesus at the time He was baptized.
Are there still sins in this world? No. Not one is left. There is no sin left in the world because we believe in the beautiful gospel that Jesus Christ gave us. Do you have sin in your heart? No. Amen! We believe in the beautiful gospel that says Jesus Christ saved us from all our sins. We praise Almighty Jesus for doing this wonderful work for us.
Jesus Christ restored our lost lives to us. Now we believe in the beautiful gospel so that we are able to live with God. Even the people who were enemies of God – the sinners who had no other choice but to hide in the dark forests – can now be saved from their sins by believing in the beautiful gospel.
The beautiful gospel teaches us that the Lord washed all our sins clean when He was baptized by John, crucified and resurrected. We became sanctified children of God by believing in Jesus’ gospel. Jesus offered His own body as the offering for our sins. He, the Son of Almighty God, who never committed a single sin in this world, took away all the sins of the world and saved everyone who believes in Him. Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.”
Jesus took away all the sins of the world, including both original sin and actual sins and left out not a single transgression. He paid the wages of sin with His death on the Cross and thereby saved us from all our sins. Jesus washed away all the sins of the world through this beautiful gospel. We have found new life through Jesus. Those who believe in this beautiful gospel are no longer dead in spirit. We now have new and eternal life, for Jesus paid all the wages of our sin. We have become children of God by believing in the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Do you also believe that He is your Savior? I do. Jesus Christ is the Life to us. We found new life through Him. We were destined to die because of our sins and trespasses. But Jesus paid the wages of sin through His baptism and death on the Cross. He delivered us from our slavery to sin, from the power of death, and the bonds of Satan.
The Lord is the God who saved us from our sins and became the Savior of everyone who believes in Jesus. When we look at Hebrews 10:10-12, 14 and 18, we can see that the Lord sanctified us so that there was no further need to receive the remission of sins. We enter the Kingdom of God by believing in Jesus. We were destined to die for our sins and trespasses, but we are now able to enter Heaven and enjoy eternal life by believing in Jesus’ baptism and blood.
“The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Our Lord came into this world in order to save us from the sins of the world through His baptism, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection. He also gives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to those who have received the remission of their sins by believing in this truth. Thank you, Lord. Your gospel is the beautiful gospel, which can give believers the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah! I praise the Lord.
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission