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Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 25-8] The Work for the People In the Image of God Is Indeed Done to God (Matthew 25:31-46)
(Matthew 25:31-46)
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
How have you been these days? I came back after some physical labor at the InJae Discipleship Training Center which I haven’t done for a long time. You will see an even more renewed look at the Discipleship Training Center when you go to the upcoming Discipleship Training Camp. The path leading to the Center was a little dangerous, but the coworkers and I took care of it before I came back down.
Our Lord’s Righteous Judgment
The Lord said He would come as the King when He comes back to this world. And He said, “All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.” And the Lord who is the King says to the righteous on His right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.”
And when the righteous respond “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” the Lord answers, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
Then, He turned to those on the left and said, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.” They also responded, “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?” And the Lord answered, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
As such, our Lord will come as the King in His second coming, and He will bring all of the nations together and discern whether each person is a sheep or a goat. The Lord said this after He grouped the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. The Lord told those on the right that they shall have the Kingdom of God and praised them for the good things they had done: “For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” And He spoke contrasting Words to the goats on His left.
Such praise was news to the righteous. So, they asked, “When did we do such a thing?” However, the sinners on the left also asked, “When didn’t we do such thing?” The Lord said, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me, and inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”
The righteous received the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Let’s see what those righteous people said to the Lord: “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” The Lord said those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit did these things, but we are asking when we did these things. The righteous being dismayed suffered in a state of shock as they heard the Lord say the righteous did these things to Him in this world. But, we shall see why He said this if we look at the Lord’s Word spiritually.
First, the Lord Said, “For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food”
When did we give food to the Lord? The Lord said, “I was thirsty and you gave Me drink.” But we ask when we did such a thing. How great is the number of people who are suffering from hunger in this world when we look at this Word physically? We haven’t given food to all those multitudes of people, but the Lord says that we have done as such. That’s why we must first understand this spiritually. Of course we must understand this physically as well as spiritually.
The Lord said, “I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” You and I who have received the remission of sin make books that contain the gospel of the water and the Spirit and give them to the people all over the world. Of course there are many places that we have not yet reached. Those who have accepted the gospel of the water and the Spirit through us will share it with the people in those places we have not yet reached. That means that we gave the bread of life to the Lord’s people, to the people who have the image of God, to all the humanity throughout the world. When we serve the gospel, we consequently give food to people when their spirit is in hunger. We gave drink when people were thirsty for God’s Word.
As people live in the midst of sin, how hungry and thirsty, how naked and devoid of righteousness are they, and how they live with moaning as they are sick and imprisoned by sin? The born-again righteous only shared the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We who became the righteous have done nothing but share the gospel through books and electronic books. But, the Lord says to us that we have taken care of all hungry people well. Because what we do consequentially is done to all the people who have the likeness of the image of God, the work of preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit consequently has had the effect of taking care of the souls when they were hungry, sick, imprisoned, and thirsty. Like the people who are on the right hand of the Lord, the people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit give the water of life to the people who have the likeness of the image of God when they were thirsty. Through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we gave food when they were hungry and we gave them the eternal Word of life. But the work we do happened to be the work done to God because we did the precious work for the people who have the likeness of the image of God.
The righteous shall preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to those who are imprisoned by sin. There is not a way for all the people in the world to resolve their thirst without the help of the righteous and there is not a way for those who are imprisoned to receive salvation all by themselves. Who will pay the bail and lift out the sinners who are covered with sin from the prison? Only the righteous that are of the gospel of the water and the Spirit are enabled. Only the righteous, clothed with the power of God the Father and the power of the gospel that has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ, can lift out those who are imprisoned. That is the work of those who are on the right hand of the Lord as mentioned in today’s passage. The work performed through the righteous is the work they did to the Lord.
Spiritually, we really do give a lot of food to so many people. We who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit really provide a lot of spiritual food to those before God. God really wants all the souls to hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the true Word of God, and receive the remission of sin in their hearts and receive true peace in their hearts. But, who are the people that preach such a true Word of God. Now, people who preach God’s Word as it is are a rarity. There aren’t any other people who do this work besides the righteous. Only the righteous believers are doing the work of preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the lost people.
We Must Not Allow Deceitful Persons to Stand at the Pulpit of the God’s Church
When I watch the Christian broadcasting these days, I often see so called famous preachers preaching the Word. But when I look at their sermon content, it is truly pitiful. They insist on their own thinking that in turn contradicts God’s will without hesitation and coerce the audience to say “Amen.”
For example, if they preached with today’s Scripture passage, they would say “Care for the poor and be generous in doing good works in the flesh. Then you will be considered a sheep and enter the eternal life when the Lord returns. Say amen if you believe.” I could understand the fact that they preach that way because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But, there is not even one phrase of the Truth that I can learn from them even if I hear it over and over again. I mean that there isn’t even one phrase that we, the righteous, could accept and say “Amen” to the sermon content they preach. They really say a lot and they are considered famous. But they don’t have the true Word that the souls, the spiritually hungry and thirsty for God’s Word because of the sin in their hearts, can hear and resolve their spiritual problem, have the souls dwell in peace, and fatten such souls.
They sometimes preach with the premise, “I am not saying that everything I say is correct.” Because they are not sure of the God’s Word, they are manipulating it to develop their logic with an escape route for the theologically contradicting points. But, why does the preacher say it if he does not have the conviction that what he is saying is correct? A preacher should not say, “I am not saying that everything I say is correct.” Rather, a preacher should have faith that “The Word I preach now is the Truth because it is God’s Word.” The Apostle Paul always said what he believed based on the premise that goes, “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke.’ We also believe, and therefore speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13). That’s the sermon that embodies the attributes of God’s servant.
If what a person utters is not perfectly true, why does he say it to the audience? Is this a comedy? There is a preacher who is popular these days, and he says that he is doing comedy within the Christianity because there is comedy in the world, but not in Christianity. At times, a funny story is necessary. Those who preach God’s Word should say funny things a little bit to spice it up, but they should speak with faith when they speak about the spiritual things.
Aren’t all the people in the world suffering from thirst spiritually because they have not heard the Truth from God’s Word? Their hearts are imprisoned by sin, their hearts are sick, their hearts are hurt from sin, their hearts are naked within the midst of the curse of sin because they have not been clothed with the righteousness of God, and they are still in a hungry and famished state. But if we are God’s servants and if we are the righteous that have been clothed with God’s grace prior to them, we should give something to those starving people, and that something is the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Is in the Hearts of the Righteous
That’s the reason we distribute that gospel to people in books and electronic books. Through that, we help them resolve the problem of sin in their soul forever. Our books that we share contain the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So the books free people from the sins of the world, lift them out from the prison of sin, give satisfaction to the empty hearts, comfort the hearts that were in fear, enrich the souls, make their faith grow, show them the way to receive eternal life, and help them live a righteous life as the righteous before God. The righteous did as such. To whom did the righteous do this? The righteous did these things to all the people in the world who are in the image and likeness of God.
All people are beings who are made in the image and likeness of God. Humans who have the likeness of the image of God are different from the other creatures. It says that on the sixth day, God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. At that time, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Here, God said, “We,” not “I.” To be precise, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” That’s how all the people were made in the likeness and image of God.
Therefore, all the people have the likeness of the image of God. All the people are like this. All things of the world are here for a while and they cannot but turn to nonexistence when their life spans come to an end, but all the righteous people are beings that live forever like God. That’s the reason we say, “The person has returned,” when someone dies. A human being who lives forever has left his physical body in this world and the soul has returned before God forever. That’s why all the good works we do physically and spiritually are done to God. Why? It is because all human beings are in the likeness and image of God.
A person that is in the likeness and image of God has been created as an eternal being like God. Hence, man dreams of the future. He dreams about the eternal world. That means a person lives with the dream of the eternal life, the eternal future, the eternal life after death because the human being lives forever like God. This is true for all the righteous people. All the people are beings that dream of living the eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. As God lives eternally, the humans also live eternally. God has breathed life into the man’s nostrils. This means that God has breathed His Spirit into man. That’s how man became a being that does not die forever. That’s why our physical body may die, but our spirit never dies.
Whether we did good work for them physically or lifted them out of sin by preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them and had their souls receive God’s spiritual blessing, all these blessings come from God. Therefore, when we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to people, we do it to God. That’s the reason He said, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me, and inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”
We feel really fortunate and satisfied as we look at today’s Scripture passage. The Lord will come to this world as the King of kings, the Lord of the judgment, and He will gather together all the nations before His throne and distinguish whether each person is a lamb or a goat. Then He will say to the righteous on His right hand, “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” but to the sinners on His left hand He will say, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
God Told the Righteous to Inherit His Kingdom
Do you feel the reality of how great it is to have the Kingdom of God? The righteous people who have had a lot of real estate in this world will understand this Word. Those who have had something worthwhile know such joy, but those who have not experienced such instances does not feel the reality of such an overwhelming blessing and just receive it nonchalantly when God tells them to inherit the Kingdom of God. So, that’s why a person whose household was a big landowner would understand what it means to inherit the Kingdom of God.
It means that the Lord has given the Kingdom of God to the righteous as an inheritance. The work of the righteous is done to the people who are in the likeness and image of God. We are caring for the people who are in the likeness and image of God by preaching to them the gospel of the water and the Spirit when they are spiritually hungry, naked, thirsty, sick, and imprisoned. You and I are sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them and all such work is actually caring for the naked, sick, and imprisoned people. We the righteous do these works diligently with faith.
You and I who have received the remission of sin are really working hard and distributing the written materials, and sometimes we wonder fleshly in our hearts when this work will be finished and how much longer we have to do this righteous work. But we cannot stop this precious work until the day of our Lord’s return. It is because we are spiritually lifting up the people who are in the likeness and image of God out of the prison that’s locked them up, healing their spiritual sickness, feed those how are spiritually hungry, and clothe the spiritually naked with the righteousness of salvation. Please remember the fact that we are doing such a precious work of God.
We must understand how important the work of preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world is and that God is pleased with this work. This is the end times. There really are many disasters breaking out. The end is drawing near for all humanity, and the Lord said such disasters would break out at the time the Lord comes back to this world. Therefore, we diligently serve the Lord’s gospel as much as we are able until the last catastrophe manifests. It would be a great blessing if we understand God’s will and serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit according to the Lord’s pleasure. We serve the Lord’s righteousness with the understanding in our hearts of the things the Lord is pleased with, and serving the Lord with the understanding of His will is truly a great blessing. That is much different from doing the Lord’s work with one’s own diligence without knowing the Lord’s will.
We preach this gospel to the people who are in the likeness and image of God. The blessed people that God approves are you and I who are doing these works. That’s the reason why we can’t sit back idly and say we have finished all of God’s work. It seems as if there is no end to God’s work. We may wonder how much more of God’s work we have to do, but we can’t stop until the moment we go before God. That’s why we can’t follow the desires of our flesh. Why? Because we have to do the work of saving the people who are in the likeness and image of God from sin, the work of preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We do this work with faith because the work we do is done to God and it is the work God has entrusted to us. We are doing well with this magnificent work before God. Are we, or aren’t we? We are really doing an amazing amount of God’s work.
I have a little wish as we begin the additional construction of the Injae Discipleship Training Center. From every one inch of space, I want to create a space that is ten times that. I want to prepare many things and then turn them over to my fellow believers. You and I have the Holy Spirit in our hearts in the same manner. Therefore, we the righteous must always try to do God’s work even more. That’s why we are now building a house for the believers to stay in the future. Behind the kitchen of the Center, there is an empty lot where a container box is located I couldn’t bear to look at it on rainy days because it was so filthy. But we are doing an engineering work to expand the unoccupied ground there because I think our brothers and sisters can play soccer even on rainy days without getting wet if we arrange the ground well. Then the grounds area would be utilized fully by the believers, and therefore, it will be used for the benefit of the gospel.
We have also arranged and paved the entrance road to the Injae Discipleship Training Center. This was good because I invited some pastors and we did the Lord’s work together. After finishing the work, I think I could understand the passage, “And God saw that it was good” after God created the man as well as the universe and everything in it. It looked even better after we brought together our strength to do God’s work. As we work continuously for this, we feel so good when we see all the coworkers around the world serve the Lord with their own money. I mean we want to do even more work.
We preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to people through our books, that is, through literature ministry. And when we also distribute the electronic books throughout the world, the spiritually sick, the naked and hungry, and the spiritual strangers are welcomed by Jesus, and their hearts become righteous after receiving salvation, and they become the children of God and receive spiritual and material blessings. We are doing these precious things for the people who are in the likeness and image of God. Preaching the Lord’s gospel and serving is so precious that we absolutely can’t stop doing this. We will do the Lord’s work even more.
Do you want to share the gospel of the water and the Spirit even more? Or, don’t you want to preach the gospel any more? You do want to evangelize. All the people with the Spirit in their hearts have this desire. God gives blessings to such people and says they will inherit the Kingdom of God.
Therefore, I know that those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have been doing a truly blessed work. Therefore, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). My spirit is always youthful. I will live a youthful life until the day of the Lord’s coming because I feel young due to the Holy Spirit in my heart. That’s why I don’t ever get worn-out. And if we oil and polish and tighten the outward man, it also gains renewed strength. It’s good enough to use vigorously. I am telling you that the work of serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit is truly a blessing.
The Lord said to those on the left, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” When we look at this, it may seem the Lord is too coldhearted and just. But, that’s why I love the Lord. It would be frustrating if the Lord said the same good things to the one who has received salvation and to the one who has not. Regardless of what we think, I believe the Lord is unambiguous as black and white.
Lord’s Word to Those on the Left
The Lord said to the sinners on His left, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.” This is exactly the opposite of His praise for the righteous. The Lord said to the righteous, “You have done all the good work to me. So you deserve to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.” But, He said to those on the left, “Did you care for me when I was imprisoned? Did you look after me when I was sick? Did you clothe me when I was naked? Did you give me food when I didn’t have anything to eat? Did you welcome me when I was a stranger?”
They then objected to the Lord saying, “When did we not do such things? When did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and imprisoned and a stranger and did not provide for you?” The Lord praised the righteous and bestowed praise and accolades, but He cursed those on the left. The Lord said, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” This means that when we aren’t doing good things for the people who are in the likeness and image of God materially and spiritually then it is the same as not doing to God. Therefore, it is appropriate for the righteous to inherit the Kingdom of God while it is appropriate for those of you on the left hand side to enter the hell fire prepared for the devil. The righteous enter into eternal life, and these sinners will go away into everlasting punishment.
Prior to this Scripture passage, Matthew 25:1-13 illustrates the parable of the ten virgins, while the parable of the talents follows in verses 14-30. In Matthew chapter 25, the Lord tells us who will enter the Heaven and who will not, and we have to understand why the Lord has told us this and learn from it.
In the parable of the ten virgins, the Lord accepted only the ones who waited for the Lord with the lamp along with the oil, but He did not accept those who waited for Him with just the lamp. In the parable of the talents, the master entrusted five talents, two talents, and one talent to each servant as he left for a long journey. When he came back, the one who had received five talents and the one who had received two talents each made a profit of five talents and two talents each. But the servant who received one talent buried it under ground until the Lord came back and then gave back the talent to the master when he came back. Therefore, even that one talent was taken away from him and he was kicked out to a dark place outside.
The thing the Lord is saying consistently in Matthew chapter 25 is that when the Lord comes as the Lord of the judgment, the Lord will separate those who will enter the eternal life and those who will be thrown into the eternal punishment. Today’s Scripture passage, the parable of the sheep and the goat, also illustrates that the Lord will come to this world as the status of the King of kings and separate the righteous to His right hand side and the sinners on his left hand side. It is saying that the Lord will praise the righteous for all the things they have done in this world, and rebuke and punish the sinners for the things they have not done to the souls in this world.
Here, we have some things we need to reexamine before we move on. Let’s take a look at it. At that time, the Lord said He will gather together all the nations before Him and check and determine each person like a shepherd separating sheep from the goats, and put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. He divided them into two groups. And then the Lord said to the righteous on His right side and praised them, “When I was hungry, thirsty, sick, and in prison, you came and fed me and clothed me and cared for me in everything.” But, the Lord said to those on the left, “When I was hungry, thirsty, sick, and imprisoned, you did not care for me at all.” He said the things they did not do to those who are in the likeness and image of God were in fact not done to the Lord.
Then, who are those people that didn’t do any good to the Lord? There are some who go back to the world to live for themselves because they do not want to serve the gospel in the Church even after they had believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Such people drain the energy away from us who serve the gospel with all our strength. There are more than a few like them.
From one standpoint, those who do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit may be able to serve the people physically. But they cannot truly serve the souls spiritually. The Lord will decide whether they will be on the right side or the left side. But, one thing clear is that the Lord looks at our serving in spirit not the physical acts we did. The Lord God said, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). He frequently says that He doesn’t judge by one’s external appearance.
We may think that anyone could help the estranged and a poor neighbor physically. But the Lord looks at everything in a spiritual perspective. When those who claim to have received the remission of sin do not unite themselves with God’s Church and go out into the world, they start living for their own flesh from that point on and cannot live for another person’s salvation. They can never preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to other people. When they do at times preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to other people, it is difficult for those people to receive the remission of sin, and if one in a thousand actually does receive the remission of sin, they are not able to nurture those souls.
When the Lord comes back and holds the throne of judgment, those on the left of the throne will be cursed. Those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have to reconsider this once again too. Because the Lord said, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me,” and because the work of serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit belongs to the Lord, it is a precious and blessed work, a work worthy of praise from God. But a person who did not have any interest in the other people who are in the likeness and image of God and lived only for himself, such a person consequently belongs to the group on the left. The final decision is to be determined by God. It is said here that those who do not work hard for the salvation of the others’ souls, the spiritual salvation, belong to the left side.
Let me illustrate this with another example. You and I are human beings, not God. Why am I saying something so obvious? I am saying that I am also a human being just like you and I also want to eat delicious food and live joyfully and happily. If I cared for my flesh only, I could also design my life very gloriously and brightly too. But when I looked at God’s Word after meeting the Lord through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I realized that the life of living for my own flesh is not appropriate before the Lord and I would belong to the left if I didn’t follow the Lord’s righteousness with faith. Even though I clearly received the remission of sin, I want you to know that I will belong to the left side if I live just for myself.
I know very well that Christian theologians throughout the world do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Actually, even after the Reformation, there wasn’t anybody who knew and believed or preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the true gospel. At the least I haven’t met such people or heard of them and I haven’t found any such book as well. As far as I know, there wasn’t anybody who knew or talked about the gospel of the water and the Spirit or wrote about it after the Patristic Age.
When I say such a thing, there are some who get very perturbed and argue against it, “Who are you? Are you saying that everyone except you is wrong?” I am just a human being. But one thing is clear that the Lord has shed light on me to recognize the true and biblical gospel out of His love. What I am saying is that how can I not serve the gospel when I came to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In fleshly thinking, I think it would be good if there would be others who preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit besides you and I. But, as far as I know now, it is true that the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Early Church preached as the true gospel had been totally exterminated in this world. Therefore, we searched websites all over the world if there were any one who believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But we couldn’t find any evidence or trace of such a believer. If there is anyone who knew of the gospel of the water and the Spirit before 1990, please send him to me. I say this wishing for such person, not the other way around. But there isn’t such a person and that’s why our responsibility is greater. That’s why I confirm in my heart even now, thinking, “I and our fellow workers and believers must preach this gospel with our life on the line.”
I can’t disobey the Lord’s will when I know what the Lord’s will is. It says that the servants who do not do the work even though they know the truth will receive a greater punishment. I could have been a person belonging on the left. But, I tried to follow the Lord’s will even though I have shortcomings, and I am grasping the Lord’s Word and following the Lord with faith step by step like Abraham. There is nothing else to do. I have followed the Lord’s will by confirming it in His Word. It’s nothing special. I asked the Lord what the passage is about and the Lord taught me what it meant, and I believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in the Word and the entire God’s Word and I followed the Lord little by little, step by step. I did so until now and I will continue to do so in the future.
But, even among us, there are many who have left the Church for their own fleshly life even though they claim to have received the remission of sin. But, let’s say that on the final day, the Lord comes to this world and judges the sheep and the goats. Will you be on the right or the left? Where would the Lord place those who never lived for the gospel and did not join in the work of preaching the gospel even after they were born again? Of course, the Lord says those on the right have done all good things for the physical and spiritual salvation of the people. It is recorded that they saved them spiritually and physically. And it is recorded that those on the left did not save them spiritually. We could think about this. Where would they belong if they did not save them spiritually?
The Lord says this for those on the left to hear. And even if they were born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they will become people who belong to the left if they don’t live for the evangelization of this gospel, and if they do not join their hearts to live for the gospel in the strength that God gives even though they have shortcomings. They don’t even share the gospel to the people who are in the likeness and image of God. It doesn’t matter if they occasionally did evangelize. They cannot keep their faith without God’s Church.
If you have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there is no way you can live for yourself only. I also need you who are members of God’s Church. I need you. I could preach only if you are in the Church. How could I preach by myself with no one else in the Church? If God doesn’t have a church, where would you be able to maintain your faith without listening to God’s Word? Suppose you go out to the world and don’t return to God’s Church. And if you don’t come to Church even though today is Sunday, and you don’t come for one month, two months, or even three months continuously, and don’t hear the Word, do you think you could maintain your faith like that? And can you do God’s work? It’s not that you don’t, but you can’t.
That’s why the Lord calls those on the right hand side of the Lord’s throne as “Come, you blessed of My Father.” The Lord called those on the right the blessed, and even in our thinking, we who are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit are blessed people. Truly, we are the blessed people before God. Do you believe in this truth? All the ministers, brothers, sisters, and coworkers in our country and abroad are all blessed people before God. The point I want to get across to you today is exactly that.
There are many businesses going bankrupt these days. But the spiritual work we are doing can’t go out of business. That’s why I am saying that those who serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit now are the blessed. That’s because God has blessed us physically and spiritually. It is very good for you to do the work of serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit in this age.
I am not asking you to do better. I am just saying that we should believe in the fact that we are doing the blessed work of sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world and that we should run the last race with all our strength. Can you say amen to that? Then, you can share the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all the people who don’t know it until the day of the Lord’s coming in this world.
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