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Subject 18 : GENESIS
[Chapter 12-5] You Should Recognize God’s Church (Genesis 12:10-20)
(Genesis 12:10-20)
“Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, ‘Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.’ So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, ‘What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.’ So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.”
In today’s Scripture passage we read how God speaks about the genuine faith over God’s Church. Abraham obeyed the Word of God and left his country with his wife and nephew Lot, away from his family and his father’s house. But while they were dwelling in the land of Canaan, they experienced a great famine in that land. So he came to a situation where he had no other alternative but to take his family and all his possessions and go down to the land of Egypt.
But before entering the land of Egypt, Abraham made a request to his wife Sarah not to say that she was his wife for the safety of his life. It is written in Genesis 12:11-13, “And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
Abraham’s life was at risk and he felt this was a very real threat when he arrived in Egypt. This was because the power of the tribal chiefs at that time was absolute and so it was natural for them to try to kill any foreigner that entered into their land. This was because the inhabitants could kill a stranger in order to take his pretty woman from him. And so it was in Genesis 12:13, Abraham said, “Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you” (Genesis 12:13). From a fleshly perspective, Abraham the ancestor of faith also was a weak person who resorted to such schemes when he felt great insecurity.
But despite this the king of Egypt and all the peoples of the land were impressed with Abraham’s wife Sarah who came into their land. They all came to praise the beauty of Sarah to their king and she was as a result taken into the royal palace. But soon King Pharaoh who took Abraham’s wife came to face a situation of receiving the wrath of Jehovah God. The Scriptures state that Jehovah God brought down a terrible calamity on Pharaoh and on his house because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
This Account Shows That We Can Receive Blessings Thanks to God’s Church
A woman in the Scriptures illustrates God’s Church spiritually. Just as the Egyptians were attracted to Sarah, the peoples of this world come to recognize the beauty of God’s Church. The members of God’s Church are the people who know and believe in the righteousness of Jesus, and they are ‘the gathering’ that is beautiful even in the eyes of God. They are the people whose sins have been thoroughly blotted out because they have known and believed in the righteousness of Jesus. The faith of these people is beautiful. Where in the world could be found such a faith more beautiful than this? Thus, both God’s Church and the gospel of the water and the Spirit are inseparably related to one another. God’s Church is the most beautiful place, which is an organization that preaches the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit made us form such beautiful Church of God, and therefore the faith of these saints who have become the members of God’s Church is very beautiful. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Lord gave us is this gospel that has made us the members of God’s Church. It is so beautiful that we can say everyone who knows and believes in this gospel truth is beautiful. And therefore the peoples of this world want to claim this beauty for their own. But they must know that they will face a terrible calamity instead of receiving God’s blessings if they just take the outward beauty without faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Through today’s Scripture reading God teaches us such truths. This is the lesson the Word is teaching us through the calamity the king of Egypt experienced. The people of this world come to suffer terrible trials and hardships whenever they just think of the beauty of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and try to believe in it according to their own fleshly thoughts. This is because the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel of truth that cannot be attained by any kind of fleshly thought.
Abraham said his wife was his sister because he could have lost his life if he said she was his wife. Because of this, Pharaoh the king of Egypt tried to take Abraham’s wife Sarah from him. But God brought down a terrible calamity upon Pharaoh and his house because of this.
Such a thing also happened to Abraham’s son Isaac. During the time of Isaac, Abraham’s son, he once also said in order to protect his life, that his wife Rebecca was his sister when he was dwelling in the region of Gerar to escape the famine at that time. Such events imply that the people of faith are protected in body and spirit through God’s Church. Now through this we understand that God is teaching us the true lesson by speaking repeatedly of this truth which is manifested in the Scriptures.
But despite this there are still many people who try to take the beauty of the gospel of the water and the Spirit with their own fleshly thoughts. What kind of people are they? They are the people who try to possess the gospel of the water and the Spirit without the baptism of Jesus. And so it is not easy to find faith of those who believe in the baptism of Jesus amongst them. They try to receive salvation from all their sins by just believing in the blood of the Cross without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the righteousness of God. By doing this, they have fallen into Satan’s trap.
Sarah is no doubt Abraham’s wife. Therefore they are of one body. Likewise, everyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are clearly the children of God. And the people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the parts of Jesus Christ’s Church. Those who know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in this world have become the people who preach about the spiritual blessings of Heaven.
On the other hand, those who have fallen into the religions of this world are not interested in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains the righteousness of God but instead are only interested in religious power and material things. And as a result they just bring about foolish consequences in the end. Therefore you must break down your fleshly thoughts and hearts and receive salvation by believing in the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith; you have to do so in order to attain the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is manifested in the Scriptures. If you refuse to do this you will not be able to attain the heavenly blessing of faith that God gave to you. In order to attain the gospel of the water and the Spirit, one must deny one’s own fleshly thoughts and believe only in the baptism Jesus received and His blood, which is the righteousness of God. You cannot receive salvation from all your sins if you do not believe in both the baptism which Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood of the Cross.
The Lord said, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34). Everyone must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit the Lord gave in order to receive salvation from the sins of the world. Furthermore, one has to accept by the faith of believing in the righteousness of the Lord in order to receive salvation from all their sins. In God’s world, it is impossible to receive the blessings of God without denying our fleshly thoughts. However, most people believe that they have received the remission of their sins by believing only in the blood on the Cross, which is a kind of a half-baked faith. And so they claim to have received salvation from all their sins without knowing the righteousness of God, and without the knowledge and the faith of the righteousness of God. Therefore they are believers in the false gospel that is very different from the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They misunderstand and think that the only upright faith is the faith of believing only in the blood of the Cross which they have been exposed to for so long. There are many people who believe that this false gospel and not the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the foundation of the orthodox faith.
However, those who know and believe in the perfect righteousness of God can discern the false gospel from the genuine one. They are the ones who accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit by faith. We can clearly see that no one can receive salvation from their sins without faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Many will eventually fall into this false faith and die spiritually if they accept this half-baked gospel only. And should they do this they come to walk the path of fighting against the righteousness of God, all due to this wrong faith. They will eventually suffer destruction both in body and in spirit because they cannot enter the Kingdom of God due to the sins in their hearts.
Beloved saints, because of this incidence which Abraham experienced he became very wealthy. This experience was such a great one. As Abraham had received the blessing by believing in God, we can see that the righteous people who live in this world have also received spiritual and physical blessings by believing in God of righteousness.
We must know without a doubt that only those who believe in the righteousness of God are the children of God. Jesus Christ is the head of the Church of God and His people are those who believe and follow the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the righteousness of God. Abraham also become the ancestor of faith because he had faith of believing in the spoken Word of God; the Bible states that Jesus Christ received the baptism from John the Baptist and was crucified and shed blood on the Cross in order to save all the people of this entire world from all the sins of the world.
But the people of this world ‘spiritually’ could not fulfill their will because they just tried to take Sarah as their wife blindly; they must now come to the knowledge that they can be with God’s Church if they have faith of knowing and believing in the righteousness of God. Sinners should have had the same faith as all these people who believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in order to possess God’s Church. Sarah was a stepsister of Abraham. One had to have the same faith as the one Abraham had in order to attain Sarah spiritually. In order to become a member of God’s Church, you must have the same faith of the people of faith who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit by uniting yourself with them.
However, the peoples of this world cannot recognize the righteousness of God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit even though these two exist in the world alongside each other. They have greatly erred from the right faith because they are just seeking the outward beauty of God’s Church instead of the content of genuine faith. They just look at the beauty of God’s Church and try to have only that. We can see from today’s Scripture passage that these kinds of people will, as a result, experience terrible calamity due to their misplaced faith. They have tried to receive only the fruit of this gospel instead of trying to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit; they try to believe only in Christian doctrines that they do not even understand while rejecting to believe in the Word of the righteousness of God. These false believers just try hard to imitate the faith of the righteous only to be looking good outwardly. They also insist that one does not have sin if he just believes in Jesus’ blood on the Cross. They do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit which is hidden in the righteousness of God, but when we look at their spiritual lives they lead which is only by religious ethics and morality, they appear somewhat plausible.
But we should know that their faith is much different from the faith of the born-again who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Actually most Christian’s today say that they have sins after believing in Jesus as their Savior. They say they do have sin even though they have been saved by believing in Jesus Christ. They say they do not go to hell although they have sin. Simply put, they say that they can go to Heaven although they have sins in their hearts. They argue that it is so because they have believed in Jesus as the Savior who was crucified on the Cross for sinners such as them.
But despite this they cannot understand the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist. How can a sinner go to hell before the presence of God? They cannot argue! As Pharaoh the king of Egypt looked at the beauty of Sarah and tried to take her, but because of this he received the calamity of God instead. The people who do not have faith of believing in the righteousness of God right now are just waiting for a terrible calamity that God will pour down upon them. This world is full of these types of Christians. They are merely religious people who have as yet not been born again because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Such religious people have sins in their hearts because they do not believe in the righteousness of Jesus. But they will tell you that they do not go to hell although they have sins. They are heading for a place they do not want to go. It is because they have the wrong faith. It is the same principle as the king of Egypt receiving a terrible calamity because he tried to forcibly take Abraham’s wife.
Do Christians who believe only in the blood of Jesus say that they have sins or not? Some of them say that they do not have any sins. However, when I ask them to explain to me with concrete evidence of how all their sins were blotted out, they labor to say that it was just by the blood of the Cross. But did the Lord blot out our sins by the blood of the Cross alone? No, He did not. The Lord has indeed blotted out all our sins once and for all by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Everyone must now be freed from his or her sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But sadly the majority of Christians today do not have the correct knowledge of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is because they have limited knowledge about the righteousness of God. And because they cannot know that Jesus took all the sins of the world by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist if they do not have the heart of revering God and knowing about the righteousness of God. Therefore they must first have a heart of revering the righteousness of God including the Word of God. Furthermore, they must also find the truth that the Lord took all our sins upon Himself and received the judgment for our sins in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All those who have remained sinners even after believing in Jesus as the Savior have become ‘the spiritually blind’ because they do not know that the Lord cleansed all our sins away by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is because they have never had their sins cleansed away completely since they have not heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They just sought outward beauty without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit and the righteousness of God which is manifested through God’s Church. They have fundamentally become the peoples of Egypt instead of the people of God spiritually. From the Egyptians’ viewpoint, Sarah was very beautiful; likewise from the eyes of worldly Christians, the Church of God is such a beautiful place. And it seems very different from their perspective.
The churches of this world took this half-baked gospel, and what is the result of this? They received judgment because they took only the ethics of the church, not the genuine Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Scriptures shows us clearly about this. Why is it that many churches in this world do not receive the blessing of God? And why do they suffer such terrible calamities in the future? The Scriptures tell us that they have received these calamities because they were not God’s people.
The thing we must understand is that the gospel of the water and the Spirit which was preached by the Early Church is now preached by only a very small group of people. But why is it that so many people go on living as sinners although they believe in Jesus as their Savior? It is because they do not receive the gospel of the water and the Spirit into their hearts. And because they do not believe in the Word of the righteousness of God like Abraham did. They ultimately cannot accept the true gospel because they would lose many things of this world if they accepted it. Although many church buildings are now being built in this world, the leaders of these churches actually cannot even fulfill their role as the light of the world because they do not have faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, it is difficult for these worldly Christians to meet the servants of God who know and believe in the righteousness of God in this world. Then who is the person who accepts and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit today? Someone who is pure like Abraham spiritually and someone who believes purely in the righteousness of God—it is this person who comes to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
From the Egyptians’ viewpoint, the tribe of Abraham was nothing more than a small group of people that could not be compared with them. But despite this the king of such a huge country tried to take the wife of Abraham. But in the end he could not but let Sarah go due to the calamity that poured down upon the country when he held Sarah in the royal palace. He could not but let her go out from his authority.
When we look at it spiritually, the people of this world are making the churches of the world according to their own human desires. They are preaching the Word of God according to whatever they feel in their hearts and encouraging them to fulfill their teachings. In other words, they are making their own churches and not the Church of God, because they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in their hearts.
Dear fellow believers, we must remember well what God’s Church is saying to us spiritually. The Church of God is preaching the will of God and not the will of man, so the peoples of this world cannot understand it well even though they try to understand it. Why? We can see that they are trying to accept the outward beauty and morality of God’s Church, rather than hearing the Word of God and believing and following it because they cannot accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit into their hearts that contains the righteousness of God although they claim to believe in Jesus as their Savior. Thus, their faith accepts only the things that satisfy their fleshly desires rather than accepting the righteousness of God. Their wish is to establish a pretty church of God based on carnal faith. But we should know that such a corrupted faith is of the great harlot mentioned in the Scriptures (Revelation 19:2).
Have you broken down your fleshly thoughts and believed in the Word of the righteousness of God? You must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in order to become a member of God’s Church; you can never become a member of God’s Church unless you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But Christian sinners do not accept both the baptism Jesus received and the blood He shed, which constitutes the genuine gospel, because they just try to take the beauty of the Church of God. Because they do not change their hearts fundamentally and only try to accept things that are pleasing to them in a fleshly sense, they consequently refuse the righteousness of God which is hidden in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God has made the people who have believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit prosper in God’s Church both in body and spirit, and He also has protected them from all crises through His Church.
Abraham would have died if Sarah had become a second wife to the king of Egypt. But God poured down a terrible calamity upon the house of Pharaoh and protected Abraham’s life. After Pharaoh found out what the cause of this calamity that had poured down on his house was, he said to Abraham, “Take your wife now. Why haven’t you told me before that she was your wife from the outset? Take your wife now since she is here.” Abraham was able to receive the blessing of God even in the midst of such trials.
The people of God come to live because of God’s Church and the manifestation of God’s work is like this. Like this event, God has interest in His Church. God protects His servants and His people and gives blessing to them who abide in His Church. This is the blessing God bestows on His Church as it is written, “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry” (Psalm 34:15).
The people of God in His Church are now prospering in both body and spirit because of the righteousness of God. When the perfect Church of God is established in this world, from that moment on God blesses those who unite with His Church. The brothers and sisters in God’s Church now come to taste the grace of God because they are with God’s servants. When we look at how Abraham became rich, we cannot but say that he became rich because of his wife. That was the time when he was experiencing severe famine. The place that Abraham was dwelling in was the land of the enemy and he could not settle there, but in spite of this he received abundant blessings because of the incident of betraying his wife.
We must not think of this only in a fleshly way. The Scriptures state that God makes His people prosper, protects them and keeps them through His Church. Thus, the churches of this world must not just accept the outward beauty of God’s Church; but rather they must accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit in order to truly follow the faith of God’s Church.
The genuine Church of God belongs to the people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit which is the foundation of genuine faith. The peoples of this world cannot have God’s Church even if they want it because they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. How can one have the genuine Church of God? It is only possible when one has faith of genuine salvation, that is, the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is impossible for a sinner to have God’s Church without believing in the righteousness of God. Therefore, we must know that a person who has false faith will receive a terrible calamity when he tries to make claim to God’s Church forcibly. The Church of God belongs to the people who believe in the genuine gospel of the water and the Spirit just as Sarah the wife of Abraham could not but return to her husband because she did not belong to Pharaoh the king of Egypt. Therefore all the peoples of this world must now return back to the gospel of the water and the Spirit which is the true way of faith.
The Tabernacle of God could not stay in the land of the Philistines or the Amalekites. If the Tabernacle was taken out of the land of Israel to a land of unbelief, a terrible calamity would pour down on that land. God’s Church belongs to the people of faith who believe in the Word of God, and the Church is the place where the people of faith belong. The Church is the place where the saints who have received the remission of sins are gathered and where the genuine Word of God is, the Law of God, and the rules and statutes of God in the Church are found. The Church of God is with the people who have the faith of believing in the Word which God spoke, and He gives His righteousness to them.
Through today’s Scripture passage, God tells us that the world cannot receive the Church of God. They cannot receive God’s Church because the truth goes into their lies, it judges them, and pours down calamities onto them if they accept His Church. The world therefore cannot but fight against the true Church of God. They cannot but reject God’s Church instead of serving His Church and enjoy blessings along with it.
Who then is the person who shall unite and be with God’s Church and the righteous people? God grants God’s Church to a person who has the faith of believing in the Word of God, someone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Abraham remains as the ancestor of faith. God appeared to this Abraham and said,
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.” Abraham then left the land that he had been attached to where he lived and immediately accepted the Word of God which was spoken to him and threw away his own emotions, thoughts, logic and will and followed the Word of God.
For a man of God, it was more important to him to believe in and follow the Word of God, not his feelings or his thoughts. Such faith is the genuine faith and such a person is a person of faith who believes in the Word of God. God establishes His Church to someone who has such faith. Abraham had no child until then. Then how could the Church of God continue down through the generations? Abraham received the blessing by believing in the Word of God although he did not have a child yet. A person who believes and follows the Word of God becomes part of the body of God’s Church, and a member of His Church.
Abraham was a person who believed and followed the Word of God exactly as He said. God appeared to Abraham first and said,
“I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Abraham believed in the Word of God which was spoken to him ‘as is’ and left the house of his father and family in his homeland which was Ur of Chaldea.
Abraham believed in the Word of God and left his homeland, but he did not have a child although he was getting older. From the conversation between God and Abraham we can see that this God of Covenant blesses the person of faith.
God said in Genesis 15:1-4, “After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.’ But Abram said, ‘Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ Then Abram said, ‘Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!’ And behold,
the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.’”
Abraham had a servant called Eliezer and he must have been a very special person. But Abraham needed a son to continue his lineage since Eliezer was not his real son. Jehovah God then told Abraham that He would give him a son. It is written in Genesis 15:5-6, “Then He brought him outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” God said that He would give him a child although Abraham and Sarah were already old, but he nevertheless believed in His Word. God considered such faith as righteous. God looked at the faith of Abraham who believed and obeyed His Word unwaveringly and thus approved him as the ancestor of faith. The New Testament records that God approved Abraham’s faith who believed in His Word with hope in a circumstance he could not normally hope for. So his faith was accounted to him for righteousness (Romans 4:22). Even though Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren, Abraham was able to produce a child after 25 years had passed since God made such a promise.
What is genuine faith before the presence of God? It is faith of believing in the Word of God exactly as it is. To whom is the Church of God granted? God grants the Church of God to people who have this genuine faith so they can serve the true Church. The world cannot possess the true Church of God and thus they cannot but stay far away from it and send it out from their hearts. It is like Pharaoh returning Abraham’s wife to him. Can Abraham who led a small group of people compare with a king of an empire that had immense power? But the king of this country repented of his sins and returned the woman back to her husband because he could not accept her. It was because calamity would have fallen upon him if he had not let her go.
The true Church is granted only to people who have the true faith, that is, the people who believe in the Word of the righteousness of God. What does the Word teach us through this event? It teaches us that God has given the beautiful Church of God to the people who have faith like that of Abraham.
Just looking at him from a fleshly viewpoint, Abraham was someone who sold his wife when the situation became precarious. Surely Abraham was someone who indeed sold his wife, if we do not look at it with spiritual eyes. But God looked at only one thing, that of his faith of believing in the Word of the righteousness of God, and considered Abraham to be righteous and appointed him as the ancestor of faith. Abraham did not have anything to boast of from a fleshly viewpoint. Thus it is written in the Book of Romans, “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God” (Romans 4:1-2). Abraham was not a person worthy to be admired in a fleshly perspective. But despite this his faith was approved and he became the ancestor of faith to us who have the true faith today, including the example of faith because he believed in the Word of God. God is showing us here that Abraham’s faith is the true one.
Christian leaders of this world desire very much to possess the Church of God. In other words, they want to shepherd a flock of these people of God and do ministry with them. These ordinary ministers covet the faith of you and me who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When we look at them, there are not many cases where the sheep believe and follow their shepherd with their hearts.
Jehovah’s Witnesses tell us that our brothers and sisters obey our leaders blindly. Do we really obey blindly? They think our brothers and sisters are submitting to us the spiritual leaders because we force them to just follow us unconditionally without any question. But that is far from the truth. Our brothers and sisters follow us because it is worthy for them to follow and the Word of God says so. By the way, Jehovah’s Witnesses say that our brothers and sisters obey their leaders blindly, but it is not blind obedience.
On another occasion a minister from an evangelical church said that our brothers and sisters looked like the novices in Christian faith. He said that our brothers and sisters look like the time when they first believed in Jesus and their faith twinkled with a new heart, devotion and with thankfulness. But there is not any brother or sister amongst us who has believed just recently. He said that this new spirit would vanish away completely after about one year from the time when someone first believed in Jesus. So he envied the spiritual fleshiness of our brothers and sisters. Like this the worldly ministers want to take care of the Church of God. They ask me, “What is the secret of your ministering?” But I do not have any secret.
God has led His Church and His people to His servants who believe in God and follow His Word. God has brought them all to His servant. The people of this world cannot live with Abraham’s wife. They are not qualified to do so. God grants His Church to a person who truly believes, follows and obeys Him. God has given the Church of God to you and to me who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do you believe in this fact? I wanted to do ministry in such a Church from the beginning. Even if there were only one lay believer in my Church, I wanted to take care of that person who believed in the Word of God 100%, and who believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So I did not gather all sorts of people together because I wanted to establish the Church only with saints who followed the Word of God by faith. God then allowed me to establish the Church of God.
Do you know how much people of this world wish to have a beautiful woman like Sarah as their wife? They want to establish the Church of God, but they cannot have it. They are not qualified. It is because they do not believe in the Word of God like the people of Egypt. They cannot establish the beautiful Church or even come into it because they just believe in their own thoughts and with their fleshly law rather than the law of God. And so God has granted His Church to you and me, to the saints who believe and follow the Word of God. God has allowed the righteous people who are following the Word after having been born again to have fellowship with one another and lead a spiritual life together. God’s Church is the gift of God. Not anyone can have this. God has given this gift to His people, the saints who really believe and follow the Word. God is saying this in the Book of Genesis chapter 12.
The people of this world cannot do as they please with the righteous people. They will be destroyed if they forcibly take us. They cannot possess us, so they should let us go. They cannot but send us out from their place so that we can minister God’s Church apart from them. They will be destroyed if they try to embrace us and possess us. Pharaoh the Egyptian king sent out Abraham’s wife and all their possessions. We are the people of God who was especially chosen to serve Him apart from them, to believe in God, to witness the gospel and live the spiritual life, and receive the blessing God gives. You and I are God’s special people and the blessed people that God has especially chosen whilst living in this world. God takes responsibility and gives everything we need when we are in His Church. But we must have faith. When we have faith like Abraham, God blesses us, puts us in a special place and in this world, and treats us as special.
Abraham selling his wife to Pharaoh, him losing his wife to the King Pharaoh and gaining wealth because of his wife, a terrible calamity befalling on the house of Pharaoh, Pharaoh returning Abraham’s wife and gave him much possessions — all these incidents are to make us realize what kind of person can possess the Church of God. Through this Word we must know that God has granted His Church to the people who follow the Word of God with the same faith as that of Abraham.
The Church of God is given to those who believe in the Word just like Abraham did. This is the blessing God has given to us. God’s Church is the great blessing He has given to you and me. The people of Egypt cannot have God’s Church, but only the saints who believe and follow the Word of God can possess His Church. I give thanks to our God for this grace.
We do not try hard especially to be acknowledged by this world. We just want to give heavenly blessings to them, but they cannot accept us. That is why we have left Egypt by faith and brought out all things we had collected in Egypt and now live in an area apart from them. And we receive the blessing of God in His Church and preach the gospel while living in there. God’s Church is the blessed field Jehovah God has chosen. It is the congregation of people who have been chosen and blessed by Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to the Lord who has granted God’s Church to us.
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