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Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 13-3] The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like a Man Who Sowed Good Seed in His Field (Matthew 13:24-30)
(Matthew 13:24-30)
“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’’”
To spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world and to bear good fruits that please God by a thirty, sixty, or hundredfold, we need many workers, as well as sufficient financial means. God has enabled us to bear many good fruits thus far. But I also believe that in the days to come, He will bring even more fruits to bear through us. For this to happen, all of us must pray to God, and I believe that He will give us the power of prayer to complete all His works.
We are only preaching the Lord’s salvation by faith. All that we have to do is spread this Truth trusting that God is working with us. While we are in fact all trying to do the work that pleases God, it is God Himself who actually fulfills this work. Walking with the Lord, we can feel that God is working all around us. As we walk with God and do His work, our hearts become even more joyful, and as we become one with the Lord, we come to receive even more blessings of God. I cannot thank our Lord enough for everything that He has done for us.
Matthew 13:24 says, “Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.’”
In today’s Scripture passage, Jesus explained His will by drawing another analogy to an earthly farmer to let us know the mysteries of Heaven. Onto the fields of the hearts of people living in this world, God’s seed of life has been sowed.
God has chosen the hearts of people living in this world as His workplace. He said that He sowed good seed in the hearts of these people living in this world. God’s purpose in sowing good seed in this world was the following: To turn us, who had fallen into sin, into His own people, and to live with us forever in the Kingdom of Heaven. God always wants the fruit of salvation from all of us. Having sown the Word of salvation on this earth and in people’s hearts, the Lord was waiting for the fruit of eternal life to bear. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. And these tares were growing with the wheat.
His Enemy Came and Sowed Tares among the Wheat
Matthew 13:25-26 says, “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.”
This passage tells us that before God sowed the gospel of the water and the Spirit in people’s hearts, the Devil first sowed false gospels. God is telling us that in the heart of everyone living in this world, without any exception, He has sown the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that frees him from all sins. Whether people desired this or not, both good seed and tares were together sown in the fields of their hearts.
Our Lord sowed the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit in everyone. While God was sowing good seed on this earth, the Devil was also working along side, but the purpose of his work lied elsewhere. It was to destroy people by preventing them from receiving the remission of sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because many people did not realize that the gospel of the water and the Spirit sown is the very good seed that God sowed in every one of them, they ended up losing it to Satan.
This is how two kinds of seed fell onto the hearts of people living in this world, and as a result, two different fruits were produced. These were the wheat and tares. In the hearts of people, both the good seed that turns them into God’s people and the false seed that turns them into tares have been sown. As a result, two different seeds were growing side by side on this earth.
So, we need to reach an in-depth understanding of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit from the passage of Matthew 13:27, which says, “So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’”
The Lord said that this happened because Satan sowed tares in the hearts of people living in this world. My fellow believers, how were tares sown in people’s hearts? While the Lord sowed good seed in this world, Satan sowed tares. The servants then asked, “Do you want us then to go and gather them up?” But the farmer replied, “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.”
When the Lord looked at the people of this world, He saw that in some of them, the God-sown seed of life sown was planted and growing well. The reality is that there are more tares than good seed sown in this world. In this world, living next to the righteous are those who spread the false gospels that harm people’s souls and are incapable of blotting out their sins. My fellow believers, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is not a tare. What the Lord sought to teach in this parable of tares is that trying to remove them may injure the hearts and souls of the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit also. This is why He did not want to hurt the wheat while trying to remove tares. The Lord knew that there were tares among the righteous, but He did not want to injure the wheat because of these tares.
This is why He said, “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
When we consider what the Lord told us here, we can see that just as the seed of the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit has been sown in this world, so has the seed of the pseudo-gospels of tares been sown in it. So He is telling us that it is inevitable that they would bear two kinds of fruit. But we must remember what the Lord told us here, not to remove the tares but to leave them alone lest we uproot the wheat with the tares. This is why the Lord told us to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit diligently until the day He judges the tares.
We must realize this. In due time, the Lord will take care of these tares and pull them up. He said that in the last days, He would send His angels to gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, and to gather the wheat into Heaven.
Every crop has a time for harvesting, and every farmer works hard for the harvest. It is by a farmer that the crops of his field are harvested, and while he burns the tares away, the wheat will be gathered into his barn. The same spiritual harvest is to be fulfilled by the will of our Lord.
Having sown good seed on this earth, our Lord wants to harvest good fruits at all times. But the problem is that in this world, there also are those who bear bad fruits rather than good fruits. How wonderful it would be if there were no tare-like people in this world! But the reality is that there actually are many tares sown by the Devil in our present world. So God is admonishing those who have become the wheat, “Though Satan has sown tares, do not try to remove these tares, but quietly sow the gospel of the water and the Spirit on this earth and bear only good fruits.”
It is the Lord who sowed the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Word of salvation, in this world. At that time, the Devil also sowed his words of tares utilizing the power of the false religions of this world. We must be able to distinguish the true gospel from the false ones. Among the Christians living in this world, there exist two kinds of people, one of the wheat and the other of the tares. There is the wheat that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but then there are also the tares that do not believe in the true gospel.
It is because there are many tares as well as wheat in today’s Christianity that there are divisions and struggles over its doctrinal differences. Christians are fighting with one another, in other words, claiming that while their denomination is the real wheat, the other denominations are only tares. However, the way to discern whether the seed that fell on the fields of people’s hearts is good seed or bad seed is as follows: If their sins have indeed been forever blotted out as white as snow by believing in the gospel, the gospel they believe is the good seed. But if their sins still remain written in the tablets of their hearts no matter how fervently they believe in their so-called gospel, the gospel they believe is the bad seed, the false gospel. It is by this criterion that the true gospel is distinguished from the false ones.
Put differently, the wheat and the tares are differentiated depending on whether one believes in God’s gospel of the water and the Spirit or not. The good seed refers to the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that God has given to mankind, while the seed of tares refers to the pseudo-gospels that are fundamentally different from the true gospel. Such false gospels may resemble the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but they cannot blot out people’s sins, but are only enough to turn their believers into mere religionists. What is worse is that although there are many Christians in this world, only extremely few people actually know the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and believe in it. This is how there are so many tares in this world.
God is showing us that in contrast to His work of sowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Satan is sowing tares. God has raised on this earth His workers who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And from the age of the Old Testament to the age of the New Testament, and even unto this very moment, God has made them spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Even in this age and time, God is spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit through His servants.
There can be no doubt that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is now being preached accurately in this age. However, it is also clear that the gospel of tares is also being propagated. Those whose hearts are hardened are not only unable to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is being spread in this age, but they will also stand against it as its enemies. By believing in the gospel of tares, many people have failed to realize the Truth of the water and the Spirit, and as a result, they have turned into religionists who are doomed to be destroyed.
In God’s good seed is found the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. We can see that this true gospel of the water and the Spirit is filled with the Word of salvation that is in accordance to the sacrificial system of the Old Testament.
For the people of the Old Testament, in order to offer sacrifice to God according to the sacrificial system set by Him, they had to prepare a sacrificial animal without blemish, and they had to pass their sins by laying their hands on this sacrificial animal, put its blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and do everything according to how God had set.
So just like this, Jesus came to this earth as the sacrificial Lamb of entire mankind, was baptized by John for the purpose of accepting the sins of the world onto Himself, carried these sins to the Cross, shed His blood on it, rose from the dead again, and thereby fulfilled the everlasting salvation of mankind from sin. As we compare these two sacrifices, we can discover how the mysteries of God’s salvation in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament are completely fulfilled in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Let us examine this in more detail together.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Revealed in the Old and New Testaments
The Old Testament’s sacrificial offering was a shadow of Jesus Christ the Son of God in the New Testament. That Jesus Christ accepted the sins of mankind through His baptism is the same as the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament accepting the sins of the people of Israel with the laying on of hands. Through the exactly same method as the laying on of hands in the Old Testament—that is, His baptism—Jesus accepted the sins of the world.
Therefore, just as the sacrificial animal in the Old Testament shed its blood and died, Jesus also had to be crucified, shed His blood and die. Like this, Jesus took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John, and He shed His blood and died on the Cross; we can see here how the Old and New Testaments match with each other perfectly.
Have you read my books on the Tabernacle? Although there are many people in this world who wrote books on the Tabernacle, no one apart from the Apostles of the Early Church era ever answered with the definite knowledge of the Truth manifested in the Tabernacle and its systems. Everything in the Tabernacle and every regulation of its system testify to the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
For example, in the Tabernacle system, “blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen” were repeatedly mentioned (Exodus 27:16). Ten curtains of the Tabernacle, the artistic design of cherubim on the veil for the Most Holy, the screen for the door of the Tabernacle, the ephod of the High Priest and its band, the breastplate of judgment—all these were woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. All these regulations manifest the Truth that Jesus the true God has blotted out all our sin with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit, therefore, is the gospel of power that can remit away everyone’s sins. This Truth is the powerful gospel of Truth that should not be revealed to just anyone. That’s why God has hidden this Truth from religionists.
When false prophets come and preach their false gospels, ordinary people are prone to simply accept their fallacious doctrines into their hearts. Hearing such false gospels preached by these false prophets, if only 90% of what they say sounds right, people are bound to agree with them. Actually, only careful thinkers agree that far; ordinary people are likely to agree if just 80% of what they hear sounds right. Some people care even less, saying that this and that are all the same, even if they are about 60% similar.
In this world, in today’s Christianity, there are those who are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit that pleases the Lord, and there are those who are preaching the gospel of tares that does not please the Lord. The true gospel is 100% right, and if anything is not 100% correct, that it is never the right gospel. The Lord says that no one can avoid hell if a penny’s worth of his sins remain in his heart. As such, no matter how the gospel of tares may be similar to the gospel of the water and the Spirit, it is of no use, for such pseudo-gospels cannot remit any sin of their believers. This is what our Lord is saying to all of us. This is why He told us His parable, so that we may discern these things—to discern what kind of a world this world is, what kind of seed have been sown in people’s hearts, and which is good seed and which is false seed.
What is our Lord telling us in today’s Scripture passage? He said that both the true gospel and the gospel of tares have been sown in this world. God sowed the good gospel, but the enemy sowed the tares. We must listen carefully to the words of the Lord’s servants who are preaching the real gospel.
My fellow believers, what are the tares? The tares refer to Christians who still have sin even as they profess to believe in Jesus. In other words, they are the ones who believe in false gospels. They are the ones who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord. The tares are the religionists who believe in whatever way they seem fit based on their own thoughts.
Such religionists are the ones who do not believe in the Word of God as it is, but instead add to and subtract from it on their own, believing according to their own thoughts. The tare-like faith of these people is will-oriented in its essence. Their motto is “Let us do this.” Such people like to engage in various kinds of religious movements.
They believe in Jesus only on a religious dimension, saying, “Let’s just say that we have received the remission of sin by believing in the blood of the Cross.”
Such believers may ask, “What should we then do with the sins that we commit afterwards?” Then, they may answer, “We cannot be sure about that, but let’s assume that Jesus Christ solved away all the sins that we commit afterwards. Though we still have sin and feel uneasy, let’s believe that He has blotted out all our sins.”
Like this, the false prophets consider the Christian faith as one of religious movements. “Since the Lord blotted out the sins of the world on the Cross, let us just assume and believe that He also blotted out all the daily sins that we commit after believing in Jesus.” In this way, they embark on their religious movement, proclaiming, “By coming to this world and being crucified, the Lord took upon all the sins of the world once for all and blotted them all at once. Therefore, let’s assume and believe that we have no sin in our hearts.” Their faith is one where they just agree to assume. They say, “Let’s not argue, but let’s just assume that this is how it is, and believe in it as such.” However, such faith and belief that they have are neither true faith, nor true belief.
False teachers who have tare-like faith testify that they have been saved from all their sins by believing only in the blood of the Cross. However, as their followers continue to sin and can not resolve the problem of their sins to their satisfaction, they come to ask their leaders how they can find the solution to their problem.
“Reverend, I sinned once again and still remain sinful. What should I do now?”
Then, one of the false leaders may say to his congregation, “Jesus has already remitted away all your sins with His blood on the Cross, and so if you believe this, you have nothing to worry.” He claims that since Jesus have remitted away all their sins by shedding His blood on the Cross, all that they have to do is just assume that all their sins have disappeared.
But can anyone really be saved from all his sins just by assuming that they have all disappeared? Such faith is the foolish faith of religionists.
Did Jesus then really remit away our sins when He was crucified? Or, were the sins of the world passed onto the body of Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist? Can our sins be really blotted just by believing in the Jesus’ blood on the Cross alone? No! It was not on the Cross that Jesus took upon the sins of mankind.
It was before Jesus was crucified, when He was baptized by John the Baptist, that He took upon the sins of the world (Matthew 3:13-15). Therefore, our sins cannot be blotted out just by believing in the blood of the Cross alone as our salvation. However, today’s mainstream Christianity proclaims such faith as the orthodox one. This is why many people still have sin in their hearts even as they profess to believe in Jesus.
Yet their leaders claim that it is because the congregation does not believe in the blood of Jesus completely that they have sin. Is this really the case? Can our sins be blotted out perfectly if we just believe in Jesus’ blood on the Cross alone? No, they cannot.
We are washed from all our sins by believing in the Truth that our Lord came to this earth, was baptized by John the Baptist to take all the sins of the world upon Himself, was crucified and shed His blood on it, rose from the dead again, and has thereby blotted them out to perfection. This faith is the right faith. This faith is the faith that believes in the Truth revealed in the Bible.
Which of these two gospels do you think is right? Is it the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or the other gospel that says, “Let’s assume that Jesus has blotted out the sins of the world just by being crucified and shedding His blood on the Cross”? Through their religious movements, these leaders are actually leading their congregations to the bondage of the sins of the world. Those who are beholden by such tares, in other words, have turned into religionists. Those who believe that it was on the Cross alone that the Lord remitted away all our sins can never receive the remission of their sins. This is because it was absolutely not when He was on the Cross that Jesus took upon the sins of the world.
Yet in spite of this, if people still believe that Jesus blotted out the sins of the world on the Cross, then they do not believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, but they only have a religious faith. The religionists of the world, regardless of whether they believe in Jesus or Buddhism, are just fine as long as they have joy and peace in their hearts. And when they feel sin accumulating in their hearts and their consciences are bound by sin, they are okay to just turn into sinners once again. This is why many people, no matter how they profess that Jesus remitted away their sins with His blood on the Cross, actually experience that their hearts are not freed from their sins. Of course, they continue to try to solve this problem, but they only reach their own death in the end.
Now, our Lord is asking the religious leaders of Christianity with the parable of sowing. When they are asked, “How can you explain Christians who still have sin in their hearts even as they believe in Christ?” the tares answer, “Jesus solved away all sins with His blood of the Cross. Just know that He also solved away on the Cross all the sins that we commit afterwards. Just assume like this and believe in this way. Everything is then all resolved.” When the tares teach their followers, they admonish them, “Let’s just believe that Jesus blotted out your sins by shedding His blood on the Cross.” But is such teaching really right? No, it is absolutely fallacious.
My fellow believers, it is by being baptized by John the Baptist and taking upon the sins of the world, being crucified, and rising from the dead again, that Jesus has delivered us from the sins of the world. This gospel, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, is the only true gospel. But the final answer that the tares’ gospel can give is, “Let’s just assume.” In short, this is just a tentative conclusion derived from their own assumption that they have been saved.
In Christian communities, those who have this tare-like faith say to their followers, “Since Jesus was crucified and died on the Cross, let’s just assume that He has cleansed away all our sins with His blood anyway. Let’s believe like this.” Some of the followers may ask, “Pastor, I do believe so, but my sins could not be washed away by any such confession. What can I do to be cleansed of all my sins?” Then, the tare pastor would answer, “You need to have stronger faith in Jesus. Just believe wholeheartedly that He blotted out people’s sins only on the Cross.” This is why they think their prayers of repentance are a way to receive the daily remission of their sins. When you see them doing so, you must discern their faith and say, “You are the very tares.”
The Bible clearly proclaims that the sins of the world were all passed onto Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist, and this is why Jesus carried these sins to the Cross, shed His blood and died, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become our everlasting Savior (Matthew 3:13-15; John 1:29, 19:30). When this is so definite and clear, why would you try to turn away from Jesus to a different gospel? (Galatians 1:6)
It is because the Lord has become the true Savior for us that He took upon all our sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist. And it is because of this that He went to the Cross, was crucified for the sins of the world, and rose from the dead again. By believing that all sins, including the sins we have committed after believing in Jesus, were passed onto the Lord once for all when He was baptized in the Jordan River, and that He has atoned all these sins by being judged on the Cross, we can be perfectly born again. This is because Jesus took away all the sins of this world through His baptism, and our sins were all passed onto Him once for all through this baptism. This is how we have been saved from all our sins perfectly by faith.
Of course, we might feel emotionally guilty in our consciences because we are still committing sins in everyday life. However, it is only on our part that we still continue to commit sins while living in this world. For the Lord’s part, He has already blotted out all the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, and shedding His blood on the Cross. By accepting all our sins of the present, the future, and the past through His baptism, then bearing all the punishment of sin on the Cross while shouldering the sins of the world and dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, Jesus has become our perfect Savior.
Yet the tares are incapable of explaining this, and only say, “Let’s just assume and believe that Jesus solved away even our personal sins.” This is fundamentally flawed. Let us now realize and engrave it deep in our minds that the hearts of those who have tare-like faith are misplaced. When I think about the tares in my mind, I think, “These tares are so clueless! And they are so worthless.”
If someone graduated from a medical school, became a doctor, and came to treat patients, he should know exactly how to take care of their health problems and make them healthy again. If a doctor cannot diagnose correctly, and therefore cannot prescribe the right medicines, nor even perform the surgery properly, he cannot be called a doctor.
If you were a real doctor, shouldn’t you examine your patient, shouldn’t you explain to him exactly why he feels sick, where and how the diseases is progressing, give him the right prescription, and provide him with the right treatment? But if you do none of these, and just tell your patient, “I’m just going to assume that I’ve treated you all, and you should just think that you’ve all been healed now,” would this make any sense at all?
Those who believe only in Jesus’ blood on the Cross or some other doctrines instead of the gospel of the water the Spirit are just like this doctor. It is clear that all those who pretend to have received the remission of their sins without even believing in the exact Truth, nor having the Word of Truth, are none other than tares.
To them, the tares of this world, I can proclaim the gospel of the water and the Spirit in all clarity. And I can say to these tares, “If you understand Jesus and believe in Him according to your own thoughts, as you are doing now, you are actually turning yourself into a servant of Satan.” All that we have to do is just teach the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit to everyone who is tormented by his sins. We can heal such a patient for sure, and say confidently, “Your problems can be solved if you believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.”
But the tares just say to people, “Let’s believe somehow in what Jesus solved away on the Cross.” But those who blindly insist like this based on their mistaken faith are neither God’s servants, nor God’s people. And it is in such people that Satan works, using them as his instruments to propagate the gospel of the tares to people. We must discern the true prophets from the false prophets to be led to God. I am not denouncing others without reason, but I am just proclaiming that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the only true gospel that can deliver us from our sins.
Who Are the Ones That Have Now Become Tares before God?
What, then, are tares? Those of you who have some farming experience should be very familiar with tares. When a farmer sows rice seed in the field, the grain sprouts and grows, but also growing among the grain are tares. The farmer actually never wanted to sow the tares, nor had he planted them, but he can still see that the tares came out of nowhere and were planted in his field.
These tares are clearly no rice. So even when time goes by, they do not turn into grain. Tares are no more than weeds. Both the rice and the tares have green stems when they are growing. It’s not easy to discern them from one another when they are still young. When they grow a bit more, the tares actually look healthier than the rice. The tares are taller than the rice, and they have white strips at the back of their leaves.
It is only later on, when the time for harvesting comes, that the rice can be clearly distinguished from the tares, for they are the plants that actually bear grain. When the rice bears grain, it droops with the weight of the grain, but the tares just stand upright and only have empty husks. On outside appearance, it is the tares that look bigger and stronger, but when looked at what they actually produce, they are no more than weeds that bear nothing edible. And the tares, even after withering away, still come back the next year.
What is worse is that because they feed on the nutrients that are supposed to go to the rice, if there are too many tares, the rice cannot grow well. If the farmer fertilizes the field and takes good care, the rice may also grow well, but it is not as healthy as the tares. If the farmer just plants the rice and leaves, saying, “I’m going to take off to the city. Take care of yourself. Grow on your own,” when he comes back to harvest, there will be few rice but only tares all over the field.
We see that many people were actually tares. Though they may really look all alike, tares are tares and grain is grain. The real crop and the tares are fundamentally different. Tares are entirely weeds. Of course, there are some grains that, as they are unable to imbibe enough nutrients, only have husks. But God still cherishes them all. If you can just grow into the grain, God will cherish you preciously, but Jesus said that the tares would be all bound to burn them, for they are good for nothing but only harmful.
The Lord said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.” As we hear this parable, we need to think about the churches of this world. Then, you will realize that the grain implies those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and that all those who do not believe in this gospel are no more than tares. My fellow believers, through this passage, we must realize what will ultimately happen to us if we turn into tares instead of the grain before God, turn around, and become the grain by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus said clearly here in this passage that the tares would be bound in bundles to burn them all.
We also should recognize that there might be some tares even in God’s Church. If one calls on the name of Jesus, worships Him, believes in Him as his Savior, and abides in God’s Church, and yet he still has sin in his heart, then he is a tare. If you want to find out whether you are tares or not, examine yourselves carefully to see whether or not you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit wholeheartedly. If anyone does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then none other than he is the one whose faith is like the tares before God.
This is why we have to know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit properly to receive the remission of our sins. But unfortunately, there are still many tare-Christians throughout this world, who neither know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, nor believe in it. Such Christians are the same as non-Christians who do not believe in Jesus as their Savior. Therefore, they must turn around from the tare-like, false gospels, learn about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and believe in it with their hearts. Also, those who still have sin in their hearts and have not been freed from their status as sinners even as they believe in Jesus must turn around from their doctrine-oriented faith and believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit now to be remitted from all their sins.
Those Who Are Now Tares Must Receive the Remission of Their Sins by Believing in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
In Matthew 5:25-26, our Lord said, “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.”
Jesus said, “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him.” “Your adversary” here refers to someone who is suing you. The adversary who accuses man to God is the Devil, and what makes you the accused is your sin. When there is sin in your hearts, this sin makes accusations against you to God. “You still have not received the remission of your sins. You are still a sinner. You will be condemned in the future.” Like this, your sins will lay charges against you.
This is why the Lord told us to be quickly freed from such accusations while we are still living in this world. What we must do urgently while we are still alive, in other words, is believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and receive the remission of sin into our hearts. Receiving this remission of sin can never be put off.
Our Lord said, “Lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.”
If your hearts have sin, then you will face the condemnation of sin. This is because the Lord declared the wages of sin to be death (Romans 6:23). It is only a matter of course that the sinful would be condemned for their sins. If you have your sins intact before God, these sins will drive you into hell. This is why in the end, the sinful will be imprisoned in hell and suffer the everlasting pain of death.
Therefore, we must take to our hearts what our Lord said in Matthew 5:26―“Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.” We will not, the Lord told us here, get out of the prison until we have paid off the last penny of our sins, the smallest speck of all.
How, then, could we be remitted from all our sins, without even a penny left? This is actually rather easy. If we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given us, we will surely be remitted from our sins. By believing in this true gospel, we can be washed from all our sins, to the last penny. It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have been cleansed from all our sins.
Have you been washed from all your sins or not? You surely have. When you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with your hearts, there is no more sin in your hearts, not even a penny. But given the fact that you will be cast into hell if you have even a penny’s worth of sin, you must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and thereby cleanse away all your sins as white as snow. Even if there are mountains of sin hiding behind your back, you can still be remitted from all such sins once for all by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Our Lord has sown good seed in this world and the Devil has sown tares. And now, you and I need to carefully ponder on whether we are really the grain before God or just tares. If we still have sin even as we believe in Jesus, then even now, at this very moment, we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we must thereby be washed from all our sins completely, to the last penny. This is what our Lord is telling us.
No matter how fervently we might have believed in Jesus before God, and no matter how faithful we might have been to Him, if we have even a penny’s worth of sin, then this sin will deliver us to the Judge. The Lord told us that the wages of sin is death and the condemnation of sin is eternal curse. Given this, we must realize that we will be cast into hell if we have even a penny’s worth of sin in our hearts, understand clearly that it is because we have sin in our hearts that we are tares, and turn around from our evil ways.
If you still remain as tares, you should admit, “I have misbelieved so far. Since my beliefs were wrong, I should believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit even from now on.” But unfortunately, there are so many stubborn Christians who are insisting, “Are all these many Christians then going to end up in hell just because they don’t know the gospel of the water and the Spirit? I studied orthodox theology, and have led countless souls to Jesus Christ even though I have had no idea on the gospel of the water and the Spirit! I have experienced so many things whenever I prayed to God, I have met the Lord so many times in my dreams, and I have seen my prayers answered so many times in my life. How can you then treat me as a sinner, just because I didn’t know the gospel of the water and the Spirit?” They say that even as they had not known the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they are filled with the Holy Spirit, and cannot forget what they experienced with their faith. Can God the Holy Spirit dwell in the heart of a sinner though? Absolutely not! How foolish are they to cling to such fallacious beliefs then?
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.” God has sown in this world the good seed of the true gospel that brings the remission of sin. So that we may receive the remission of our sins if only we would believe in this gospel, our Lord has sown the gospel of power, that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The only true gospel is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This gospel has the power that can blot out people’s sins as white as snow. This gospel is the gospel that has fulfilled the Word of prophecy that is found in Isaiah 1:18, which reads, “Come now, and let us reason together, Says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.’”
If anyone does not believe in this gospel of the water and the Spirit, and instead thinks, “I will hold onto my old faith. Though I have a few sins in my heart, I only need to be sanctified just a bit more,” he must listen to and be admonished by what the Lord said: “You will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny”(Matthew 5:26). You need to realize why Jesus spoke to you with such parables. And even now, He is still admonishing you to really know the gospel power of the water and the Spirit, and to believe in it with your hearts.
In today’s Scripture passage, the tares refer to those who are bound by sin. They are the sinners who are not yet born again because of their failure to believe in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit. It is imperative for them to be born again by receiving the remission of sin.
Let us turn to John 3:1-5. “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’”
Our Lord says here clearly that no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is first born again. No sinner can enter the Kingdom of God because of his sins, and because he cannot enter Heaven, nor can he see the Father.
How, then, can we be born again? Our Lord said in John 3:5, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” This means that one can see and enter the Kingdom of God only when he is born again of water and the Spirit. We should then realize here that the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is the very Word that makes it possible for us to be born again.
And we must remember what the Lord said elsewhere in John 8, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” So put differently, this means that those whose hearts are still bound by their sins even as they believe in Jesus still remain as tares. Anyone who has even a penny’s worth of sin in his heart is a spiritual tare. He is someone who has not been born again yet, for he still does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
How, then, can such a person be born again? The Lord said that it is of water and the Spirit that one can be born again. The water here fundamentally means the baptism that the Lord Jesus received from John the Baptist, because it is through this baptism that Jesus Christ took away all the sins of the world. Our Lord is Jesus Christ the Savior who shouldered the sins of the world by being baptized, who died on the Cross while carrying them all, who rose from the dead again, and who has forever saved us from all our sins.
The Holy Spirit also bears witness of the ministries that our Lord fulfilled when He came to this earth (1 John 5: 6). The Holy Spirit is the same God as the Father and the Son. This is why, when we believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit descends onto our hearts, and this Holy Spirit testifies to us that it is by our faith that we are born again of water and the Spirit.
God the Holy Spirit is our Helper. The Holy Spirit testifies to us everything that the Father and the Son planned and achieved together according to the written Word of God, and He bears witness to our salvation and guarantees it when we have faith in the gospel Truth. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us that it is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can enter the Kingdom of God. He bears witness of the fact that our Lord, by being baptized, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, has completely and perfectly blotted out all our sins. Therefore, what we need to realize is that to fulfill God the Father’s plan, Jesus was born unto this earth, was baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and has thereby saved us from our sins; and that the Holy Spirit is the God who testifies to us that the Lord has indeed saved us by taking upon our sins with His baptism, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, and who helps us to believe in these things.
Put differently, the Holy Spirit is testifying to you, “God has saved you in this way through His Son. Jesus is God Himself and your Savior, and to be more concrete, He has saved you by being baptized, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. He has perfectly saved you by taking upon your sins through His baptism, and by being crucified and shedding His blood in your place to be condemned for your sins.” As such, if you have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in your hearts, you should answer the Holy Spirit with your faith. The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of Truth. So when we read the Word of God and know the Truth through the Word, the Holy Spirit guarantees us our salvation.
How Does the Holy Spirit Guarantee Our Salvation When We Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit?
The Holy Spirit says to us, “Your faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the right faith. You are now sinless. Why? Because to take away your sins, the Son of God was born unto this earth, was baptized, and died on the Cross: The baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist was to take upon all your sins; His death on the Cross was the sacrifice that He made to bear the condemnation of your sins in your place; and the resurrection of Jesus Christ was achieved to give you new life. It was to make you God’s people, to enable you to enter His Kingdom and live with Him forever, that God Himself came to this earth and carried out His work.” It is because the Holy Spirit testifies like this that Jesus Himself says that we can neither see the Kingdom of God nor enter it unless we are born again of water and the Spirit.
Is there anyone among you who still has sin in his heart? Anyone who has even a penny’s worth of sin in his heart continues to be bound by sin even after believing in Jesus, and no matter how fervently he might say prayers of repentance for his sins, these sins do not disappear. As such, even though he had not known the gospel of the water and the Spirit so far, he should now know it, and believe in it as the real gospel.
Those who hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit and yet do not really believe in it, and instead hold onto their old faith, are bound to have sin in their hearts all the time. They regard the gospel of the water and the Spirit merely as one of new teachings, and therefore, just add it on top of their old faith. As a result, whenever they commit a sin, this sin is just added to their existing sins.
But those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are without sin even though they are insufficient, for they believe in this true gospel. Why? Because Jesus already took away all their sins and made an early payment. This is the case because over 2,000 year ago, He already took upon our sins, went to the Cross and died on it, and rose from the dead again, thereby saving us all. It is by believing in this Truth that we can be remitted from our sins by faith. Unbelievers must believe.
Most of you probably have heard of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and already know this Word of Truth. To the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, what I am saying here may be a repetition, but still, you need to hear it again. The Lord said that not everyone who calls upon the name of God and professes to believe in Jesus is the real grain. He said that there are both grain and tares in the so-called churches.
The grain bears the crops and the tares bear the fruit of the tares. The enemy has sown the tares, and through these tares, he bears yet more tares. God has sown good seed, made them bear grain, and the grain still bears even more crops. The Lord is telling us, in other words, that we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit without fail.
This World Is the Field of the Kingdom of God
The place where God can do His work is this world. And it is in our hearts where God can sow the gospel seed of the water and the Spirit. But, at the same time, the Devil can also sow the bad seeds of tares in our hearts. This is why we must first know which gospel has been planted in the field of our hearts. If you now realize and know that the seeds of tares have been sown in your hearts, you must now lower your hearts before the gospel of the water and the Spirit and learn it all over again. And you must believe.
The four fields that Jesus spoke of in His parable of the sower refer to four typical conditions of the human heart. After knowing the condition of the field of our hearts, we then need to find out whether it is really the good seed that has been sown in our hearts’ field. If we find we have sin in our hearts, this means that the tares have instead been sown, and those tares in our hearts are fallacious gospels. We must now uproot them from our hearts and throw them away by faith. There are some pseudo-gospels that resemble the gospel of the water and the Spirit closely, but if they are not the gospel of the water and the Spirit for 100%, then they are false gospels. If such false pseudo-gospels have been planted in our hearts, we must pull them out without hesitation, and we must boldly plant, by faith, the gospel of the water and the Spirit in their place.
You need to realize that in the minds of many Christians who profess to believe in Jesus, there actually are many tares—that is, false gospels—that have been planted. At the same time, you should also realize that among yourselves, there also are many people in whose hearts the gospel of the water and the Spirit has been planted.
Our God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have sown the good seed in us. By giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God has enabled us to receive the remission of our sins. He loved us so much, and His love is manifested in the fact that God Himself became a man. Jesus Christ the Son of God was born unto this earth through the body of the Virgin Mary. That God Himself came to this world in the flesh of man was to save mankind from their sins. It is only for this purpose alone that the Creator Himself became a human. According to this purpose, our Lord came to this earth, took upon all the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist, died on the Cross as the price for taking upon the sins of the world, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become our Savior. The purpose for our Lord to become a man was, in short, to take upon all the sins of the world through His baptism.
After His resurrection, at His final moment on this earth before ascending to Heaven, Jesus said to His disciples, “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” (Matthew 28:19-20).
By this commandment, Jesus is still telling us, “I, the Son of God, took upon all your sins, was condemned in your place and died, and have thereby saved you perfectly. I have risen from the dead again and have become your living Savior. You should therefore proclaim this gospel throughout the whole world.” From this Great Commission, we can see just how important His baptism, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection are, and just how important this faith in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit is. Seeing these things that the Son of God and the true God did for us, we must realize and believe just how critical this faith is.
We are now spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world, which is God’s own workplace and the field where seed needs to be sown. And we are preaching the gospel of His baptism and bloodshed by obeying His commandment. Now is the time for you to know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit and believe in it.
The Apostle Paul professed his faith in Romans 8:1-2, saying, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Even if you profess to believe in Jesus as your Savior, there are two possibilities for you: You may indeed abide in Jesus now, or you may be actually standing outside. This refers to the condition as to whether or not there is sin in your hearts right now, and this is an extremely crucial question for you. And whenever you sin, whether this present sin grapples your hearts and affects them is also important. Depend on this result, whether or not you have sin in Jesus Christ, you can find out if you are tares or the real grain.
The faith that enables you to come into Jesus Christ is faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is by this faith that you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, for the powerful gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel that can blot out all your sins to perfection, even to the very last penny.
As it is written, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), it is because we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have no sin whatsoever, and it is because we have no sin that there is no condemnation either. The believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have now become forever sinless by their faith, and therefore they will never become sinners again. It is because they are now sinless by faith that they have become righteous.
The word “condemnation” in this passage implies “being condemned for having sin.” It is to point out that there is sin in the human heart. Countless Christians, even after believing in Jesus, still profess that they are sinners as there is sin in their hearts. But the Bible clearly states here that there is no condemnation in Jesus Christ, which means that the faith of those who say that they still have sin is a flawed one.
“I am a sinner. I am not God’s son. I am no more than a tare.” To have this kind of faith is to disobey the righteousness of God and to disbelieve in it. In contrast, the Apostle Paul declared, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” And he went on to say, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
What is this law of death that the Lord mentioned here? It is the Law that points out people’s sins and ascertains that there will be condemnation of these sins. What is the law that condemns and judges people’s sins and drives them to death? It is the just Law of God. The Law reveals and points out people’s sins. It is the just Law of God that points out what is sin before God and how many great sins we have committed, and renders the verdict declaring, “If you have sin, you will be cast into hell.” This is the very function of the Law.
What, then, is the law of the Spirit of life? This refers to the law of salvation through which the Son of God the Father has remitted away our sins, and blotted them all out to perfection. By this law of salvation, He made us be born again and receive new life, turned us into God’s own children, and enabled us to receive everlasting life.
The law of the remission of sin is held in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the law of salvation through which Jesus has saved us from our sins by coming to this earth, being baptized, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. It is written, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). This means that the gospel of the water and the Spirit has freed us from the law of sin and death.
My country Korea was once ruled by Japan by force for 35 years. To enslave the Korean people forever, Japan had forced Koreans to change their names into Japanese names and to even change our religions into Shintoism. The lives of Koreans at that time were miserable beyond description. Countless Koreans were drafted into the Japanese army by force and coerced to carry on the Japanese war of aggression during the World War II, and many lives were lost.
Had Japan not been defeated in the World War II, Koreans would have been deprived of their nation by the Japanese for even a longer period. But, thanks to the victory of the Allied Powers, Korea, along with many colonized nations, was liberated from the tyranny of Japanese imperialism. It was on August 15th, 1945 that Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Powers, and it was on that day that the Japanese colonialism was completely driven of the Korean Peninsula.
Like this, owing to the righteous act of Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has perfectly liberated all of us from the law of sin and death, just as Korea was completely liberated at the end of the World War II. Romans 8:3-4 says, “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
What has freed us from the law of sin and death is the law of the Spirit of life, but what has taught us that we have sin and will cast us into hell is the Law. To free us from this Law, the requirements of the Law must be fulfilled. To this end, the Son of God came to this earth incarnated into the flesh, put all the sins of mankind on His own body, and freed us by fulfilling the requirements of the Law. All our sins were passed onto the body of Jesus Christ.
So Jesus Christ took upon all our sins by being baptized, went to the Cross and was condemned for these sins—this is why He said, “It is finished,” when He died—rose from the dead again, and has thereby become our Savior to perfection. By becoming the propitiation for mankind, our Lord, the Lamb of God, has remitted away all our sins, leaving none behind, not even as small a sin as a penny.
This is why everyone who wants to become the real grain must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If you had not known the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believed only in the blood of the Cross thus far, you must believe, even now, in this gospel of the water and the Spirit.
What did Jesus say? He said that when people went asleep, the enemy came and sowed tares. This means that while people remained ignorant of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Satan had his servants sow the false gospels of tares. Such a false gospel is the gospel of only the blood of the Cross.
There is so much to talk about the false and true gospels. I can explicate the difference between the two down to the minutest details. With the Word of God, I can pierce to the marrow and search the mind, and I can discern whether one is a true prophet or a false prophet. By doing so, I can heal every kind of spiritual diseases for sure. I have done so to this day and will continue to do so. It is by continuously preaching the true gospel that I can enable others to know the false prophets the moment they approach.
There have been times when I felt very frustrated because of people’s lack of understanding. However, since Jesus is waiting in His endless patience for harvesting, it is only right that we, too, should wait. We have to teach the lost souls again and again with patience, saying, “This is what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is. Through the Word of the water and of the blood of Jesus, you have received the remission of your sins all at once. You are forever righteous.” Such are those who preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is my hope and prayer that you would all believe in the true gospel of the water and the Spirit, have the faith of the real grain, and be harvested into God’s barn when the end days come.
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Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission