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کورونا وائرس تے عالمگیر ڈاک سروس وچ رکاوٹ دے سببوں، اَسیں اپنی ’مُلوں بغیر چھاپی ہوئی کتاب دی سروس‘ نوں تھوڑے چِر لئی بند کر دے پئے آں۔
ایس صورتحال دے چانن وچ اسیں ایس ویلے تہانوں کتاباں گھلن دے قابل نئیں ہیگے آں۔
دُعا ہے پئی ایہہ وبائی بیماری چھیتی ای مُک جاوے تے ڈاک سروس کُھل جاوے۔

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Subject 24 : Sermons for Those Who Have Become Our COWORKERS

[24-19] What Will Happen To Those Who Cause Young Saints to Sin? (Matthew 18:1-14)

(Matthew 18:1-14)
“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.’”
 
 
Recently I have been preaching about how the gospel of the water and the Spirit has blotted out not only our original sins but also all our personal sins. I plan to publish a sermon book on this issue as soon as sufficient content is prepared because so many Christians are still in agony over their personal sins. They need to realize through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that even all their personal sins were passed onto the body of Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist.
We just read Matthew 18:1-14 for today’s Scripture reading, and its written here that Jesus’ disciples came to Him and asked Him, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” The Lord then called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of the disciples, and answered the disciples by saying, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4). Who did our Lord say is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? He said that the one who accepts the Word of God, believes in it, and follows it sincerely like a little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
 
 
What Does This Passage Mean?
 
In Matthew 18:1-4 from today’s Scripture passage, Jesus said that someone who accepts the Word of God with a pure heart like a little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of God, and that it’s such people who can enter the Kingdom of God by receiving the remission of their sins. The Lord then went on to say in Matthew 18:5, “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.” This implies that when one receives the words of someone who believes in the Word of God sincerely like a little child and preaches the gospel of the water and the Spirit, this person actually comes to receive the Lord. Therefore, it is absolutely important for all of us to listen attentively to the Word of the Lord revealed in the Bible and accept it all.
In this age and time, there are many people who, having heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit from us, are themselves likewise preaching it to others. In other words, there are many people in this world who have not only heard from us that the Lord has blotted out all our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but are also now preaching this true gospel to others. When you receive this gospel of the water and the Spirit with a pure heart, you can see that this genuine gospel is so wondrous, so true, and so easy to believe. However, there also are many people in this world who cannot accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit into their hearts, for their hearts have become hardened.
 
 

What Does It Mean for One to Be Truly Born Again of Water and the Spirit?

 
The Bible says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). What does it mean for one to be truly born again of water and the Spirit? Being born again of water and the Spirit means believing that the Lord has saved us from all our sins by coming to this earth, being baptized by John the Baptist, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. This belief that the Lord has made us sinless through the water and the blood is the very faith that enables us to be born again.
There are two types of people reacting differently when they hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit. One group of people accepts the pure Word of God into their hearts exactly as it is. They believe wholeheartedly that the Lord bore all their sins by being baptized by John the Baptist, was condemned on the Cross for their sins, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become their Savior.
But the other group of people refuses to believe in this Truth of salvation outright, thinking mistakenly, “If it were so easy to blot out all the sins of the heart, then anyone could receive the remission of sins. But it’s not so easy to be born again of water and the Spirit. One must have seen some kind of vision while praying, heard the Lord’s voice, or prayed in tongues to be able to be born again and receive the Holy Spirit.” Such a belief, however, is a superstitious belief; it’s not what enables one to be born again of water and the Spirit.
The Lord therefore said that in the Kingdom of Heaven, those who are like a little child are the greatest. Because our salvation had already been all planned, carried out, and completed by God in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can be saved from all our sins by believing in this genuine gospel. Anyone can now receive salvation into their hearts if they just listen carefully to the work of salvation that God has done for them with an open heart and believes in it sincerely. In other words, it is more than possible for everyone to receive the remission of sins, and enter the Kingdom of God. And every born-again saint can also become God’s worker. That is why the Lord said that it is right for everyone to accept the faith of those who believe in and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit wholehearted just like a little child.
 
 

What Does It Mean for Us to Receive the Righteousness of the Lord?

 
People who accept Jesus are those who believe in the power of His name. What is His name? It is Jesus Christ. He is the One who came to this earth and fulfilled the office of the High Priest to become our Savior. As the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus Christ bore all our sins once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and He has become our Savior by being crucified to death and rising from the dead again. All those who believe in this Truth are the ones who have received Jesus Christ into their hearts. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior and trusts that this Savior has blotted out all his sins with the gospel of the water, the blood, and the Spirit is someone who has received Jesus. Jesus Christ came as our High Priest, and it is by believing in Him as our Savior that we receive Him. It is such sincere believers who accept the Lord. In short, those who accept the righteousness of God into their hearts receive Jesus as their Savior.
The Lord then said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). This passage means that in the Lord’s sight, if anyone causes to sin those who have become God’s children by accepting the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit wholeheartedly like a little child, it is akin for this person to be drowned in the sea with a millstone tightly hung around his neck. Although no one can avoid sinning before God, those who cause His children to stumble commit such grave sins. And the Lord said that whoever commits such sins will be condemned by God.
 
 
What Did the Lord Say Would Happen to Anyone Who Causes the Believers in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit to Sin?
 
Simply put, such people will be cast into hell. To cause the sincere believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to sin is the same as to push them over the cliff to their deaths. Such sinners will therefore face God’s terrifying judgment for their sins. And such people must start believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit as soon as possible and never cause anyone else to sin. In my view there are many such sinners in today’s Christian community as before. Even though many people believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit when they first hear it from us, accept it in joy that the Lord has already blotted out all their sins. But when they return to their churches, many of them still end up facing spiritual destruction as they are misled by their pastors teaching that this true gospel is completely wrong. Such false pastors plant doubts in the minds of the newly born-again saints and snuff out their faith, saying, “Where does it say in the Bible that the Lord literally took away all our sins when He was baptized? If the Lord had really taken away all the sins of the world when He was baptized by John the Baptist, then this should have been written clearly in the Bible. Where is this specifically recorded in the Bible?” Claiming that it’s wrong to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they say obstinately that the Lord has saved us just by bearing our sins on the Cross and being crucified to death.
These false prophets believe that Jesus has saved them simply by being crucified to death in their place, rather than believing that He has become their Savior not only by being crucified to death and rising from the death but also by bearing all their sins when He was baptized by John the Baptist. However, the fact that the Lord bore all our sins is recorded clearly in Matthew 3:15-17. Yet these false prophets ask where this is written in the Bible, treating us as though we were liars. Nonetheless, we believe in and preach every Word of God exactly as it is written in the Scriptures. The problem, however, is that those whose faith is still young are vulnerable to the deceptions of these false prophets and can easily end up falling away from the authentic faith. Such tragedies have occurred all too often.
The sad reality is that there are so many so-called “leaders” of today’s Christian community who are committing such depraved sins of causing the true believers to stumble. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the vast majority of today’s Christians all over the world are leading their lives of faith in complete ignorance of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Such misguided Christians are actually leading a religious life, and they are committing grave sins against God because they consider their own denominational doctrines more important than even the Word of God. Thinking that whatever some famous preachers in their own denomination say is the truth, they then relegate the Bible as a mere reference book. They are prone to think of the Christian dogmas espoused by their denominations as the indisputable truth. As a result, they adhere to sectarian doctrines as though they were the real Word of God, while paying little heed to the Scripture as though it were a supplementary text that complements their dogmas. In other words, rather than believing in the Bible as the pure Word of God, these misguided Christians believe in their own denominational doctrines as the Word of God. That is why so many people who have heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit from us are so prone to be deceived by such false Christians. While many people all over the world have received the remission of sins in joy from hearing the gospel of the water and the Spirit through our literature ministry, some of them have ended up forsaking this true gospel deceived by such false prophets.
There just are way too many Christian leaders demanding to know where it’s written in the Bible that Jesus accepted all the sins of this world once and for all when He was baptized by John the Baptist. But this is written so clearly in the Scripture. After all, when we turn to Matthew 3:15, don’t we see Jesus saying to John the Baptist, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”? Did God not also say when Jesus came up from the water, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17)? Did John the Baptist not clearly declare the next day of Jesus’ baptism, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)? Don’t these passages show us clearly that all the sins of this world were passed onto the head of Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist, and that all the righteousness of God was thus completely fulfilled? That Jesus was to thus fulfill all the righteousness of God means that He was to blot out all the sins of the human race once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist. When Jesus said in Matthew 3:15, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness,” He meant that He would bear all the sins of the human race by being baptized by John the Baptist and save us by being crucified to death and rising from the dead again.
Despite this, however, many misguided Christians claim that it is wrong to say that the Lord bore all our sins, arguing that this is not written clearly in the Bible by the letter. So because of this they would rather believe in Christian doctrines of their own making, and as a result end up causing young believers to sin. Today’s Scripture reading teaches us that it would be better for such people to be drowned in the depth of the sea with a milestone hanging around their necks.
I raise this issue here because such tragedies are occurring all too often around the world. Even at this very moment our coworkers are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit tirelessly all over the world. Like the little child that Jesus spoke of in today’s Scripture passage, our coworkers believe in and preach the Word of God wholeheartedly exactly as it is, and they are helping countless people to also receive the remission of sins. The problem, however, is that there are too many false prophets spiritually poisoning the newly redeemed believers. These venomous false prophets are killing God’s newly born children. They are like King Herod who, feeling threatened by the birth of Jesus, murdered all the children in Bethlehem under the age of two. Even the people of God can be mortally wounded if they are poisoned spiritually while their faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is still very young. Even the redeemed who have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can perish in no time if they swallow the spiritual venom spewed out by these religious hypocrites of this world while their faith is still immature.
Like this, man-made dogmas can put many to death. For instance, a Chinese church leader named Watchman Nee (1903-1972) taught his followers not to use vain repetitions when they pray before the Lord, saying that because the Lord knows our everything including our thoughts, there is no need for us as Christians to pray out loud. In other words, Nee claimed that since the Lord knows the depth of our hearts and minds, if we have anything we want, all that we have to do is just keep our desires in our hearts and the Lord would answer them in His omniscience. So he argued that there is no need for us to pray out loud. This may seem quite plausible at first glance. After all, when we turn to the Bible, we see the Lord teaching us not to use vain repetitions when praying, nor to pray standing on the corners of the streets, but to pray privately in a secluded room for only God to hear our prayers (Matthew 6:5-7). When we consider Nee’s teachings, it’s easy for us to think that he was a man of great faith, someone who was a notch above us. But that’s not really the case. Far from admonishing us not to pray, our Lord clearly told us to pray. In fact, not only did the Lord teach us to pray, but He also promised us that He would answer our prayer, saying, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).
When the Lord said that we should not use vain repetitions in our prayers, He was speaking about faithless and hypocritical prayers. The vain repetitions here refer to the prayers that are offered out of a mere religious habit. In other words, the Lord was speaking of the religious hypocrites. He had the Pharisees in mind in particular, who in His days prone to pray merely to show off their own piety; in no way was the Lord speaking of us the righteous who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord never told us not to pray. Of course, it would also be wrong for us the righteous to pray just to show off ourselves to others. However, as those who have become God’s children, all of us ought to pray to God all the time, whether out loud or in silence. Even if God the Father knows all our needs and provides for them, we still have to pray to God.
If today’s false prophets challenge our faith by invoking and distorting the Bible, then by opening the Bible we ought to testify even more clearly the Truth of salvation that our Lord has saved us from all our sins through the water, the blood, and the Spirit. The Bible says that the Lord has saved us not just by the water nor just by the blood alone, but by the water, the blood, and the Spirit (1 John 5:6-8). This is the gospel Truth of salvation, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
No one should believe in the Word of God just partially. Although some people may mistakenly think that we are just preaching about the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, we are in fact preaching about both the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross. In other words, we are preaching that it’s because Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist that He could be crucified to death, rise from the dead again, and become our Savior. Are we wrong to preach this? No, of course not!
Too many people, however, it may seem as though we are putting more emphasis on the baptism of Jesus than anything else, but that’s only because these people do not really comprehend the significance of the baptism of Jesus—that is, they don’t realize that Jesus took away all our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist. We do not claim that Jesus’ baptism alone constitutes our salvation. Rather, we are only testifying that the Lord has washed away all our sins by accepting them once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. And because Jesus bore all the sins of this world through His baptism, He had to be crucified, shed His precious blood, and die on the Cross. Only if our sins were passed onto the body of Jesus like this could He be properly crucified to death, rise from the dead again, and become our Savior. This is why we are bearing witness of both the baptism of Jesus and His blood, for they were both absolutely indispensable to His work of salvation.
Therefore, when it comes to believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, it is wrong to leave out either the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist or the blood He shed on the Cross. Accordingly, none of us should ever cause others to sin by saying that Jesus’ blood on the Cross alone constitutes salvation. The Lord Himself warned that if anyone causes any of the little children to sin, this person will face great wrath from God. And the Lord also said that such people are committing the sin of spiritual murder, and they will all be condemned by God. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit or corrupting the faith of the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to stumble and fall are the same sin.
The Bible tells us that this is no ordinary sin. Let’s turn to Matthew 18:8-9 here: “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.” If we were to cut off our hands and feet whenever we commit sin, we would have neither any arm nor any foot left no matter how many arms and feet we might have. It would be impossible for us to have any arm or foot still attached to our bodies if this were the case. Yet the Lord said in the above passage that if our hands or feet cause us to sin, we should cut them off, and if our eyes cause us to sin, we should pluck them out also. But, rather than interpreting this passage literally, we need to pay closer attention to its spiritual significance.
What exactly was in our Lord’s mind when He said that we should cut off our hands and feet and pluck out our eyes if they cause us to sin? He was speaking of the worldly losses that inevitably follow when we encounter and believe in the gospel of the righteousness of the Lord. And He was speaking of the pain of having to severe the relationships that we had with our previous acquaintances and friends in our old churches. The Lord was also speaking of the danger posed by those who seek to destroy our faith, and of the necessity to cut ourselves off from such deceivers who believe in their own false Christian doctrines.
What would happen to you if you were to still attend your old church even after receiving the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Your faith would suffocate and you would perish spiritually. In such a place the righteous cannot hear the Word of God, and if they hear any sermon there, they will be cursed rather than blessed. It’s because they would be hearing nothing but spiritually poisoned sermons. Depending on what we hear, our souls can either thrive or perish. If you have decided to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you ought to share fellowship only with someone who believes in this true gospel. Only then can your faith grow. If you otherwise continue to attend your old church, then your faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will perish. The same is true for our redeemed ministers and coworkers all over the world. They, too, will perish if they continue to swallow the old poison that they had been fed even after receiving the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
 
 

How Much Our Lord Cherishes Us the Redeemed!

 
All of us who have received the remission of sins are so precious in the Lord’s sight that He said, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).
This passage means that even the least of the redeemed believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is exceedingly precious. Put differently, no one should despise the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Lord is saying here to neither despise nor ignore the righteous who believe in the righteousness of God.
Why is this so important? This is so because the Lord Himself said, “I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” This passage implies that each and every person who has received the remission of sins has an angel. Each of us the saved has an angel doing our bidding. Have you ever thought of what this means? Have you thought of what it means for each of us the redeemed to have an angel assigned to us by God? It means that when we the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit go to the Kingdom of Heaven in the not too distant future, we will all have an angel to serve us. This is a truly joyous blessing for the righteous. It’s so wonderful to hear the Lord Himself assuring us that we have an angel at our side. I am so grateful that the Lord has assigned an angel to each and every righteous saint, and that this angel always sees the face of God the Father. God the Father has assigned an angel to all of us who have received the remission of sins. At this very moment, these angles are pleading our case to God. These angels will serve us as their masters. To them, we the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are their masters. We are God’s sons and daughters, His own children, and the masters of the angels. In the Kingdom of God, none other than you and I are the masters of the angels. That’s why no one should ignore even the least of us the righteous. No matter how belittled one may seem, if this person has received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, no one should ignore him. I am so thankful to God that we each have an angel assigned to us.
Do you believe that we each have an angel at our side? This may be too new to you and you may not feel it for now, but you and I actually have an angel at our side even as we are living on this earth. This, however, does not mean that it’s the angels that protect us. Rather, it is the Lord Himself who watches over us. It’s written here that the angels always see the face of God the Father in His Kingdom. This means that they report to God about us. What the Lord is saying to you is that those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, who trusts in the Word of God wholeheartedly, and who have thus received the remission of sins by faith are that precious. Even though we may seem worthless in our flesh, in the Kingdom of God we are the great and the blessed. Since we are God’s sons and daughters, just how precious are we? We have angels at our side to serve us. Our Lord is speaking about just how precious we all are. So, while it’s a wonderful blessing that we have received the remission of sins, it’s also important for us to realize how precious we really are. Moreover, as we have received the remission of sins, we ought to have pride. We ought to realize that we are God’s own children and that we are more precious than anyone else in this world. A prince who does not realize that he is a prince cannot help but live as a mere commoner.
It’s very important for you to realize your present status clearly. If you otherwise fail to recognize your own status, you will easily succumb to any slightest temptation when the people of the world promise you all kinds of worldly values and material benefits. I, too, have faced innumerable temptations in every shape and form ever since I first met the Lord through His Word. For instance, when I was going to leave my old denomination, its leaders tried to persuade me to continue to work for my old church, promising to ensure my success. What would have happened if I had remained in that worldly church even after believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? I would have made myself rather famous not only in Korea but also abroad. But this also means that I would have betrayed God, lying to everyone all over the world by preaching that anyone could be saved just by believing in the blood of the Cross alone. I could have swayed the whole congregation with just my words. I could have easily lived the good life if I had forsaken the Word of God. But I could not do this because God would not tolerate it, and because God told me that He would take away all the treasures of my heart if I went out to the world. Moreover, even if God were not to punish me, it was only right for me to just follow the Lord.
Even though I faced indescribable persecution and temptations after encountering the Lord’s gospel of the water and the Spirit, I had the pride of faith in my heart. I thought to myself, “I’m one of God’s people and His servant, so how could I betray the will of God over some material gain? Even if I were showered with all kinds of honor and prestige, how could I exchange the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit with the things of the world? I could never do this, for I am a child of God who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and I am a servant of God.” Like this, once I encountered the Lord’s Word of righteousness, I had to endure a great deal of persecution and resist many temptations. I could bear with these difficulties because I still had spiritual pride.
Even now this spiritual pride still resides in me. Whenever I am mocked by the worldly Christians who have not yet been born again, I think to myself, “These people are nothing. They have no idea who I am. They are just full of themselves. They don’t know just how precious I am in God’s sight. Even though I may look similar to them in my flesh, my spiritual condition is fundamentally different from theirs.” Despite the fact that I have no merit in my flesh, I am still a servant of God and His child. So, whenever I come across someone disrespecting me, I think nothing of it. That’s because I am one of God’s people. I pay no attention to the words of sinners criticizing me, since they don’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and therefore are not God’s people. I would apologize if I had done anything wrong to them, but since they persecute me for no reason, I just admonish them to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The same applies to you as well. As God’s own children, we all have our pride.
There are so many worldly pastors in today’s Christian communities. Many of them are highly educated, some with even several doctorate degrees. Projecting a false image of holiness while preaching, they command ridiculously high salaries and virtually dictate to the whole congregation. Yet they are showered with all kinds of rewards and worshipped by their followers as though they were divine. But I have no respect whatsoever for such false prophets. Even though in my flesh I may not be justified to despise them, at least in spiritual terms they are nothing but scoundrels. They are spiritual impostors with no conscience, exploiting their congregation to enrich themselves. All such false prophets will be cursed.
The gospel that you and I are preaching now is the one and only precious gospel. This gospel of the water and the Spirit cannot be heard so easily anywhere. Even if one knows the gospel of the water and the Spirit, to preach it, this person must be well versed in the theological knowledge that worldly pastors have and be able to defeat their false faith with the Word of Truth. It’s not enough for us to just preach this Word to them. We can preach the genuine gospel to them only if we can overcome them with the Word of God. This gospel is not preached just by sending out a few pamphlets. Whenever we are contested by someone, we must be able to rise up to the challenge and win the debate.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit is not preached just by shouting out blindly that believing in Jesus will ensure a place in Heaven, as some religious fanatics keep shouting out the name of Jesus in the streets. You must first defend your faith. You will prevail only if you preach the gospel while keeping your own faith.
Here in today’s Scripture passage, the Lord spoke of a lost sheep here in verses 12-14, saying, “If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:12-14). Through this passage the Lord is teaching us that we have the duty to look for the lost sheep. He is also teaching us that even the lowliest and the weakest of God’s children is precious in His sight as one of His own people, that we ought to cherish him, and that this is the will of God the Father.
I said at the beginning of this sermon that I am preparing to publish a sermon book on personal sins. In this book, I would like to answer the issue of how to deal with our personal sins as the born-again saints. I am planning to publish this sermon book in the near future because too many people who have received the remission of sins from reading our books on the gospel of the water and the Spirit are still unable to cast aside their old knowledge and remain in the wrong crowd only to perish in the end. For anyone who has just received the remission of sins, swallowing any amount of poison can only mean death. Just as one’s body perishes when it is poisoned, so does one’s soul perish when his spirit is poisoned. Through today’s Scripture passage, God has taught us just how precious His people are, and that whenever we hear His faithful servants preaching His Word wholeheartedly like a little child, we must accept their words as the Word of God.
 
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
SERMONS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME OUR COWORKERS (II)