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Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 28-2] “Lo, I Am with You Always, Even to The End of the Age” (Matthew 28:16-20)
(Matthew 28:16-20)
“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”
“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”
Jesus Christ is the Person who holds the authority to send people’s souls to Heaven or hell. Besides Jesus Christ, there is no god that holds the authority to send the souls of sinners to hell. Only Jesus Christ can send sinners’ souls to hell. Therefore, a sinner goes to Heaven when he receives the remission of sins by faith in Jesus Christ, or he enters hell by rejecting Him. When Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth,” He was saying, “I am Jesus who has that kind of authority. And God the Father gave me all authority in heaven and on earth. I, too, give you this same authority.” This says that He gave His disciples the authority to send the souls of sinners to Heaven or hell.
Therefore, the disciples of Jesus have this kind of authority. Just as Jesus has the authority to send the souls of sinners to Heaven or to hell, the righteous who believe in Jesus have also been given the authority to send sinners to Heaven or hell. He who hears and believes the words that the disciples of Jesus Christ are spreading receives the remission of sins in his heart. However, if he rejects the words of the true disciples of Jesus, he comes to go to hell because he can’t receive the remission of sins. Jesus gave the righteous the authority to send sinners to Heaven or hell. Let’s look in the Bible to see if it says that or not.
We will look at John 20:21-23 first. “So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’”
Jesus received His baptism, shed His blood on the Cross, and died. And on the third day after His death, He was resurrected, appeared to His disciples, and showed them the nail prints in His hands and the scar on His side. And when He saw Thomas who was in doubt about His resurrection, He said, “Reach your hand here, and put it into My side.” So, Thomas put his hand into Jesus’ side. Thomas checked the deep wound in Jesus’ side that He got when hanging on the Cross and the Roman soldier pierced Him with a spear to make sure He was dead. If there had been no wound on Jesus after He was resurrected, perhaps people without faith would not believe that He had actually been resurrected. Therefore, it seems as though Jesus had to keep His wounds in order to prove that He was resurrected. The wounds on the palms of His hands were also just as they had been. And the disciples really saw those wounds. So, Jesus’ disciples seeing this confessed “the Lord is truly my Lord.”
Jesus breathed on His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus took charge of all of the sins of the world by receiving His baptism in the Jordan River and ended the judgment related to sinners’ sins by dying on the Cross. Afterwards, the Lord told His disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. Likewise, if one receives the remission of sins, he comes to receive the Holy Spirit as a gift. Just as God gave the 12 disciples the Holy Spirit, He also gave the Holy Spirit to the righteous believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And the Lord of the righteous said to His disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” When the righteous preach to sinners the gospel of the water and the Spirit and they accept this gospel, they receive the remission of sins.
On the other hand, if the righteous are reluctant and seem unnecessarily lazy in doing the work of spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit then all sinners can’t help but go to hell. Therefore, before the Lord ascended to the Kingdom of Heaven, He appeared to His gathered disciples and spoke to them. “I have all of the authority in heaven and on the earth because the Father gave them to Me. And I give the authority in heaven and on earth to you who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If sinners listen to your words, they will obtain Heaven and if they reject your words, they will come to go to hell.” Therefore, the person who met Jesus’ apostles and accepted their words received the remission of sins and obtained eternal life.
In our day, too, the sins in the hearts of sinners’ really disappear if they listen and accept the words of the preachers of Jesus who have become righteous by believing in Him. The person who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit receives salvation and he who rejects these things goes to hell.
God of the Righteous Gave This Authority to His Disciples
The Lord gave the righteous the authority to send sinners to Heaven or hell. Sometimes, there are sinners who regard the gospel of the water and the Spirit as strange when they hear it from the righteous. That is because they don’t know it. But if they don’t accept the words of the righteous, it is obvious that they will go to hell. God called Abraham and said to him, “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). Just like this Word that says the person who blesses Abraham receives blessings and the person who curses him receives curses, a person receives blessings if he accepts the righteous who spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit and if a person rejects the righteous who has been born again through the water and the Spirit, it is already decided that he will go to hell. Jesus Christ was resurrected and ascended to Heaven, and afterwards, through His disciples, He proclaimed the gospel of the water and the Spirit that rescues sinners from all of their sins Therefore, ignoring Jesus’ disciples becomes ignoring God, and persecuting them becomes persecuting God.
God gave the righteous the Lord’s authority. Jesus said to the righteous, “You have received my authority. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Sinners have to listen to the words of the righteous. Only in that way can they be delivered from sins. People can go to Heaven, become God’s children, and come to obtain the happiness of eternal life only when they earnestly listen to and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is spread by Jesus’ disciples. People’s blessings and curses are dependent on whether they listened well to the gospel of the water and the Spirit from Jesus’ disciples or not.
The Lord gave the righteous authority in heaven and on the earth. So, what is the duty that must be done by the disciples who received the authority to send souls to Heaven or to hell?
First, the righteous must proclaim the gospel of the water and the Spirit that saves the souls of sinners from sin. The righteous being the disciples of Jesus must go to all sinners and proclaim the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is salvation through Jesus and the remission of sins. Because God gave the righteous the authority also to rescue sinners from sin or to sweep them away to hell, Jesus’ disciples have that authority and have the responsibility to spread the gospel to all sinners by following the Lord’s command to go into the whole world and make disciples of all the nations.
We the righteous must spread this gospel of Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross, so that all the sinners may have the opportunity to keep it. And then, we have to make them disciples of Jesus by nurturing them by faith. And they must baptize them who have become disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teach them the gospel of the baptism and the blood of the Cross thereby helping them keep this gospel. The righteous inherited this responsibility.
The Lord Said, “Lo, I Am with You Always, Even to the End of the Age”
The Lord will always be with His disciples until the end of the age. This passage means that the Lord is always with us no matter when it is and no matter where we are. Therefore, we are able to carry out all of the work entrusted to us with the power and strength that the Lord has given us. We will do the work of spreading the gospel to all the nations of the world making them disciples through the Lord.
We the righteous must spread and keep this gospel of the baptism by following the last words that the Lord made to His disciples. And just as the Lord said that the righteous would see that He was with His disciples until the end of the age, until we go to the Lord’s Kingdom, we will come to experience the Lord who is with the righteous until the end of the age and come to see Him with our eyes. While you and I are living on this earth, the Lord is with us and keeps us. I believe that God will personally resolve our difficult problems and be with us until the end.
Brothers and sisters, is the Lord with the righteous or not? He is with them. The Lord has been with the righteous until now, is now with them, and will be with them until the end of the age. Do you understand? The Lord doesn’t leave us alone. He said that He would show the righteous and let them experience that He would be with them. “I have all authority. I have all authority in heaven and on earth. I inherited it all from the Father. Now the authority on the earth, too, is not the Devil’s. It is Mine. The authority in Heaven is Mine, too. Anyone who believes in Me will enter Heaven, and anyone who rejects Me will go to hell. I save sinners and send the righteous to Heaven. If I abhor people, they go to hell.” The Lord said that He had all authority in this way. And Jesus said that He gave His disciples who believed in and followed Him the authority that He had received from the Father. Therefore, we must hold dearly the last request of the Lord when He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.”
“As you have become My disciples, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. As you have received salvation and are doing My work by believing in Me, help all the nations receive the remission of sins and help them, too, to proclaim the gospel.” The Lord told us to save souls through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Just as the Lord saved sinners by eliminating the sins of all of them by coming to this earth, receiving His baptism, and dying on the Cross, the righteous who have received salvation must go to all the nations, spread the gospel of the baptism and the blood that Jesus fulfilled, and help them to receive salvation and become the Lord’s disciples. The Lord told us the righteous to baptize those who accept the gospel in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teach them to keep this gospel of His baptism and the blood.
What does it mean when the Lord said, “Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you”? It meant that we should lead them to believe in the gospel of His baptism and the blood, and then, nurture them to deny themselves, pursue after the Lord, and proclaim the gospel. In short, the Lord told us to save people and have them live lives of disciples. And these are the last words that the Lord gave to all of the saints.
Therefore, the righteous must keep the gospel of His baptism and the blood. The antitype of salvation that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit came to this earth and saved sinners from sin is the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and His blood. When we spread this true gospel, the Devil attacks us and causes commotion because he is so alarmed. But if we don’t spread the gospel of the baptism but only tell people to believe in Jesus, Satan the Devil is happy. Why? It is because if you spread it and believe that way, you cannot receive salvation and will come to go to eternal hell with him. It is because you come to belong to the same party as him.
Therefore, those who have not received the remission of sins all fall into Satan’s deception and very amicably receive the words of Satan’s servants when they preach without speaking of Jesus’ baptism. “Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s what we have to believe. That’s right. I believe in Jesus that way, too. I’m happy to meet you.” However, if someone says, “Jesus took all of your sins when He received His baptism in the Jordan River,” people run away while saying, “What is he talking about? I’ve never heard that before. I wonder if it isn’t heresy.”
Why do people who say that they believe in Jesus not know the fact that all the sins of the world transferred to Jesus when He received His baptism, and why do they reject it? They are reluctant to believe in the Truth even though all of the words in the Bible speak of that. That is because people are captured and deceived by Satan. Therefore, the righteous must keep the gospel of His baptism and the blood. The righteous shouldn’t pervert the gospel of the water and the Spirit; they have to keep it. The righteous that have been born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit have to do the duty of disciples of Jesus Christ so that many people may receive the remission of sins. And they must testify of the gospel of His baptism so that others can also live lives of disciples of Jesus Christ. Many sinners will listen to the gospel of His baptism and receive salvation through the righteous. Therefore, the righteous must keep the gospel of His baptism.
In many cases, preachers of the gospel are prone to remove Jesus’ baptism from the true gospel and proclaim only the gospel of the blood because they are afraid they will suffer persecution. There are also quite a lot of people who know the gospel of His baptism but don’t believe in it. They don’t suffer persecution because they don’t spread the gospel of His baptism, and they live in a very familial atmosphere with the sinners of this world. They intend to get along harmoniously with mainstream Christianity that has fallen into earthly heresy, singing, “I am very thankful that the Lord gives me a favorable wind on my way to Heaven. Amen.♪”
Brothers and sisters, Jesus said He didn’t come to this earth to let us live a peaceful life like a calm sea; He came to start discord. He said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). Those who believe and those who don’t in this world are rigidly divided and there are always wars between them spiritually. As we make our way through the stormy sea, we enter Heaven. Calm seas are the seas that go to hell and stormy seas are the seas that open our way to Heaven. They are stormy seas when viewed with our eyes, but they are safe to the people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit because the Lord goes with them. Living without faith in the gospel is like a boat thrown in a fierce wave alone. It is like a sailboat without a motor that stands stopped in a dreary and calm place with no chance to leave.
Brothers and sisters, the gospel of the earth that can be easily spread with no persecution snatches the souls of sinners and throws them into hell. If we spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit, sinners hate it. But the righteous believers that will go to Heaven like it. The righteous who receive the remission of their sins through the water and the Spirit also receive persecution because of Jesus, suffer hardships because of Him, receive glory because of Him, and enjoy blessings with glory.
The Lord said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” A disciple is a person who accepts everything the teacher does. The disciples of Jesus can do according to the command to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit by inheriting the mystery of Jesus Christ, that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Since the antitype of salvation of us sinners is Jesus’ baptism (1 Peter 3:21), since He took all of the sins of sinners on His body, since the salvation of us sinners by the Holy Trinity has been achieved through the gospel of His baptism and the blood, Jesus is saying to his disciples to make disciples of all the nations and baptize them. Brothers and sisters, do you understand? Since the gospel of the baptism is this important, Jesus told His disciples to baptize people.
Jesus told His disciples to baptize those who had been born again. This is because Jesus saved sinners from all of their sins by taking all those sins upon Himself by receiving His baptism. God the Father had His Son born on this earth by having Him conceived through the Holy Spirit, and through His baptism and blood, He eliminated all the sins of all sinners. When Jesus received His baptism in the Jordan River, He took all the sins of sinners through the method of baptism, that is, by means of the laying on of hands. Therefore, our Lord told us to baptize people in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit when we make them disciples. The sinner who accepts the baptism of Jesus becomes one of the righteous, Jesus’ disciple, and will become a co-worker of the righteous. However, the sinner who does not accept His baptism is not one of the righteous or His disciple. The sinner who denies the baptism of Jesus cannot become His disciple. Jesus took all the sins of sinners by receiving His baptism.
But there are sinners in this world who ignore the baptism of Jesus who saved sinners from sin by receiving baptism, and they only spread the blood of the Cross. That kind of person probably believes that they believe in Jesus well while only believing in and spreading Jesus’ blood, but they are greatly mistaken. That kind of sinner is not a disciple of Jesus. A person who spreads only the gospel of the blood of the Cross and does that without the teaching of Jesus’ baptism is a sinner. And if one hears the Word everyday from that kind of a spiritual blind man, he will remain a sinner from the beginning until the end. If it is the case that a person remains a sinner whether he believes in Jesus or not, it would be better not to believe in Him. If one believes only in the blood of the Cross, it is inevitable that more sins will accumulate in his heart and that it becomes even more afflicted as time goes by.
Jesus fulfilled the gospel of the water and the Spirit that does not become perverted for the righteous. Jesus wants us to spread to the whole world the gospel of the water and the Spirit that He accomplished when He came to this earth. We will proclaim the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Lord who is the Master of all things fulfilled so that all sinners can deny their own thoughts and seek the Lord. Jesus Christ wants us to proclaim the fact that He Himself has become the Shepherd of the righteous through the gospel of the water and the blood, and that the Shepherd always keeps us the righteous.
The Righteous Obey Jesus Christ’s Last Words As They Spread the Gospel of Jesus’ Baptism and His Blood
Jesus’ last words were really great ones. Jesus gave those grand last words to you and me, the righteous. The Lord expressed His last words by saying He would never leave the righteous. The Lord said that He would be with us until the end of the age. Therefore, as the righteous suffer persecution, they suffer it with the Lord, and when they receive glory, they receive it with the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is with you. And the Lord shows sinners the fact that He will be with the righteous until the end of the age. Even though the righteous themselves are insufficient and weak, the Lord does not leave them alone. Therefore, the Lord intervenes in the work they do and makes it go well, and He works with the righteous and spreads the gospel with them. The Lord thinks with the righteous, is always beside them, and dwells among them as a friend. And the Lord asked the righteous to proclaim the gospel that the Father entrusted to them. Until that work is all finished and until the end of the age, the Lord will always be with the righteous. Therefore, the salvation of the water and the Spirit that the righteous inherited is good.
Even when we face the age of tribulation, the Lord will be with the righteous. We will see that with our eyes and experience it. You and I who have been born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit are seeing now and will continue to see how the Lord became our Shepherd and how He protects His sheep and how He works with the righteous. The Lord gave us salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit and promised that He would be with us the righteous as He requested us to do the work of the gospel. Brothers and sisters, isn’t that reassuring?
You and I are now spreading the gospel to the whole world. The Lord opened the way for us to be able to spread the gospel through literature or the Internet. We are also seeing that those who have received the remission of their sins in every country are sending us e-mails that contain their testimonies of salvation and their ministries for the true gospel. The Lord gives us power through God’s Church, works with us, encourages us who didn’t know what to do, and opens wide the way to spread the gospel to the whole world. All our works go well because the Lord is with us. We can accomplish the works of righteousness because the Lord is pleased with us and because He is with us. Proclaiming of the gospel would never be possible if the Lord were not with us.
The Lord Made a Promise to His Disciples, the Righteous
The Lord gave a commandment to His disciples. “Go and make disciples of all the nations. And do exactly as I have told you. Teach your disciples to observe all those things. And I am with you always. Work by faith.” The Lord gives strength to the righteous when things are difficult so that they won’t quit their righteous work, smites them when they are proud, and always helps them.
Do you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in which Jesus eliminated all sinners’ sins on this earth? If you do, please give heed to God’s promise now. After Jesus saves all sinners worthy of receiving salvation in the world, He will end this world. And He will open the Millennial Kingdom with the righteous by renewing the earth, totally do away with this world after the 1000 years, and lead us righteous to enter the new heaven and new earth that is eternal Heaven. The Lord said that He would not leave the righteous until He gives us that eternal Kingdom. “I am with the righteous. I will accomplish My will by being with them.”
And Jesus shows us the evidence that He is with the righteous until the end of the age. So the Lord works with the righteous in their parts. Even we who are the born-again righteous have limits, but we are still ceaselessly proclaiming the gospel, and even the things we can do in the future are because the Lord keeps our hearts so that we can live by faith and He gives us strength.
By His help, we can believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit until the end. We are so exhausted that if we do a little more, we feel like our lives will be extinguished. But the Lord stands our wicks of life and relights them. Even if I sleep, the Lord doesn’t, and even if I don’t work, the Lord doesn’t rest but continues to work. It really seems that if I had been working alone, the kindling of life would have all already gone out. I have a short temper. So, if I started something and it didn’t go well, I would have given up on it. But when I see how the gospel is being spread to the whole world, I cannot deny that the Lord is working with me.
Those who have not been born again make a commotion when they speak in tongues, but what they do is not speaking in tongues. It is only growling such as that done by dogs. That you and I are not fooled by those lies, do not compromise with the world, keep the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and could proclaim the gospel are because the Lord never abandons us and always works with us. Likewise, the Lord shows the righteous whether He will be with them or not. “You will see whether I will be with you the righteous or not. I work with the righteous until the end of the age.”
There Are Very Many Times When the Righteous Get Discouraged
The Lord made a promise to His disciples. “I gave you My authority and the work to be done. I will do it with you until the end of the age. And you will see that I do it with you.” This is what He promised. Therefore, the righteous shall not have any fear. There are also times that we are discouraged because we are sometimes bound by the insufficiencies and weaknesses of our flesh, but we again set our hearts in order by faith, lift our eyes, and come to see that the Lord works with the righteous. If I intend to work by myself sometime, I am really afraid of it. Even if we work together only as ministry workers, we are really fearful of it. Since we believe that the Lord works with us, we can continuously do His work with strength. The person who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit believes in the Lord.
I don’t really intervene in the parts of work that our laborers are entrusted with. I only say to them, “You do it yourself. And do it well. You’re doing it before God. Are you doing it to be seen by someone? Do you do my work? You’re doing God’s work.” That’s what I say. Since we are doing God’s work, we are loyal in the work we have been entrusted with no matter what anyone says. Since I believe in the Lord, I believe that the Lord keeps and uses us, and that the Lord receives glory through us as we surely accomplish the work of proclaiming the gospel of the water and the Spirit in the earth. And since I believe in the Lord, I believe in the servants of God who have been born again of the water and the Spirit, and I trust the lay saints, too. Even if the brothers and sisters are currently behaving like spoiled children and spiritually faltering, I don’t worry a lot, and I believe that they, too, will soon become people of faith.
Brothers and sisters, that is because we can’t do it ourselves, but the Lord intervenes to do the work. Because the Lord works with me and works with other saints, I believe that as long as they don’t change their minds, God directly places His hand on them and guides them the most rightly. So, since I believe in what He will do, there are also times when I am daring like I have no worries. I believe that since we work with the Lord, blessings will come to those who live according to His will, but He will take away those blessings He gave them if they continually oppose the will of God and behave childishly against His will.
Our Lord holds all of the authority in heaven and on the earth, and He gave that authority to the disciples who have been born again of water and the Spirit. Therefore, we are to live by following the will of the Lord. And we are spreading this gospel to sinners. If they, too, want to receive blessings, they must acknowledge Jesus’ disciples and listen well to their words. If they don’t listen to the words of His disciples, those blessings just pass them by.
Brothers and sisters, if there is someone who is too weak, I visit and encourage him with good words. But if it isn’t that the person is weak, but instead his heart is too high and stubborn, I just leave him alone. However, you should know that sometimes our weaknesses, too, become big evils before God. It is evil if you totally fall into your weaknesses and have no thoughts to free yourself from there. The Lord saved us who are physically weak through the gospel of the water and the Spirit and permitted us to have a strong faith. Since the Lord gave us faith in order to boldly speak to whomever we meet, we cannot forget that we are spreading this powerful gospel to sinners. It is suitable for the righteous to live with the Lord while praising the work that Jesus did, being thankful for it, and seeking necessities from Him. The Lord is with all of the righteous and me that are born again, excluding no one, until the end of the age.
The Lord said, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He said that He would show us whether He is with us or not. Has our Lord been with you up until now? Yes. You experience everyday that the Lord has been with you since you received salvation, don’t you? I, too, experience that. I have experienced it countless times. In the future, too, I will experience it a lot. Therefore, it suffices for us to deny our insufficient selves and follow the Lord. If we intend to attain our own desires by pulling the Lord along, from that time, we are beaten and suffer hardships to death, but if we give our lives to the Lord and intend to seek His will, from that time on, He takes care of everything. He does the best work.
The work that the righteous will have to do in the last days is to make disciples of all the nations by spreading the Word of the Lord to them. The work of going to the whole world and spreading the gospel to everyone remains to us. Therefore, we spread the gospel when we go to Yanbian, China, we spread it to everyone around us, too, and we go everywhere we can and witness of the gospel of the water and the Spirit to everyone.
The Lord opened the way known as the Internet in order for us to spread the gospel also in the places we cannot go physically. He doesn’t give us His work and then forget it; He is always abiding in us and always working with us. We are not spreading the gospel to expand our denomination. We are obeying the commandment of the Lord that asks us to make disciples of all the nations. The Lord shows us that He is with us until the end of the age and helps us.
You have probably figured out what it is that we have to do in these last days. Yes. We have to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all the people in the whole world. And we have to teach people what the Lord has commanded us, have faith in our hearts, and keep the Word of the Lord until the end. Spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the whole world is the same as us keeping our faith. The Lord works with us that keep His Word, and He protects us, helps us, and raises us up. That is what our Lord does. It suffices for us to do just two things well: It suffices for us to keep and spread the gospel of His baptism and for each person individually to follow the Word of the Lord. Do you understand?
His Word has saved us. And the Lord gave us the Word of righteousness. The Bible says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalms 119:105). It suffices for us to obey the Word of the Lord. I think a life of faith is really easy. That is because it suffices to live a life of faith according to what the Lord said and according to what He has commanded. Is there anything for us to make plans for? No. It suffices for us to just accomplish the plans that He laid out. It suffices if we just carry them out. There is nothing that we particularly need to make plans for. It suffices if we make disciples starting at the people around us when the Lord says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.”
Make Jesus Christ’s Disciples of Everyone
Spread the gospel of His baptism and the blood to everyone in the whole world, and help them believe in it to follow the Lord. And those who have strong legs go to the far places and bear witness of the gospel to all sinners. And teach the people who hear the gospel from you to proclaim this gospel of His baptism clearly when they spread it to other sinners, also. Teach the people clearly so that when they receive salvation and spread the gospel to other people, they cannot spread it while omitting Jesus’ baptism.
And live as you experience whether or not the Lord will be with you to the end of the age. God is with us. It suffices for us to silently accomplish what the Lord has commanded us while we experience and see with our eyes that He is always with us. If we intend to follow the Word of the Lord, it suffices for us to frequently meet Him. It is really easy to follow His commandment. Is it easy for you or hard? It’s easy. We think that preaching is really hard, but it is actually really easy. It suffices for us to just spread what the Lord has completed for us.
I say it one more time. We cannot tell the Lord to follow us. A life of faith is our trust in Him. He is not happy if we live a backwards life of faith by opposing God’s will. We must live by putting the Lord who is our Commander first. If the Lord goes fast, we go fast; if He takes a nap, we too take one with Him; even though He wakes up and goes really slowly at the speed of 50 meters per hour looking at a faraway mountain, we shouldn’t say, “Whoa, if you’re going to go, go fast.” We have to match His pace and go 50 meters per hour. In such a case, if we say, “Lord, is it hard for You? Please move out of my way. I’ll go first,” He is also not happy. Do you know what the Lord is saying then? He might say, “I see you really don’t know your limits.”
Brothers and sisters, it suffices for us to attend on the Lord and go with Him as far as He is going. That is the one and only thing that He is asking of us. He asks us to concentrate our efforts on proclaiming the gospel. There is nothing else besides doing this one thing well. Nowhere does He say for you to become rich, and nowhere does He say for you to live happily. He says, “Since I will take care of all the things you need, concentrate your efforts on proclaiming the gospel. If you do so, I will help you. I will lead you. But if you don’t proclaim the gospel, I can’t be with you because God the Father is not happy.” A life of faith is a very simple thing.
Brothers and sisters don’t think that a life of faith is hard. Don’t think that following the Lord is hard. In submitting your hearts, too, you must submit your hearts for the gospel, and even if you want to assert something, you must give up your own assertion and make it for the gospel. Brothers and sisters, you can understand, right? Don’t pretend to be better than others in the Church. It suffices for us to follow the Lord step by step.
All of the words that the Lord said are promises He made to us. First, He said, “I gave you My authority.” Secondly, He said, “Go and make disciples of all the nations by spreading this gospel to them. Make all the nations people who follow and believe in Me.” Thirdly, He said, “Never pervert the gospel.” Fourthly, He said, “I will be with you. Do not worry. Just silently do what I have told you by faith.” These were the Lord’s last words. What we must always remember is to walk with God.
Be loyal in the circumstances you have been given, and live for the gospel. There is no other purpose for a born-again child of God than to live the life of proclaiming the gospel. Don’t think about anything else. The Lord of the righteous will be with His disciples until the end of the age.
I give thanks to our Lord.
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