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Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 7-3] Faith That Can Do The Will of God the Father (Matthew 7:20-27)
(Matthew 7:20-27)
“Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
Our Lord said to His disciples, “By their fruits you will know them.” For the disciples of Jesus, the fruits here refer to the final settlement of their faith. Simply put, being saved from sin as a result of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the fruit that God approves, and the question is whether or not we have such fruits. The way to become true saints before God, not liars, is found in the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, when we believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, we can become the true people of God rather than false prophets. Also, for our faith to bear real fruits, not just chaffs, our hearts must believe in God’s gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
Our Lord said, “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit”—so we can also know them by their fruits.
Can We Be Saved from All Our Sins and Become God’s Children Just by Calling on the Name of the Lord?
Today, I wish to share with you the kind of faith that can do the will of God. In Matthew 7:21, Jesus Himself said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Those who enter the Kingdom of Heaven by the will of the Lord are the very ones who have received the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Saints are those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The fruit that is born from believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is being remitted from all sins and becoming righteous. Therefore, only those who do the will of God the Father can enter Heaven. We must realize the reason why our Lord said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
Here in this passage, Jesus says, “He who does the will of My Father can enter Heaven.” Who, then, are such people who do the will of God? They are the ones who obey the will of God the Father. The Bible says, “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:39-40). God really wants to save us all sinners from sins.
Who, then, obeys this will of God the Father, which is to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? First of all, they are the ones who believe that God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to this earth, and that by having His Son be baptized by John the Baptist, the Father made Jesus take upon all the sins of the world once and for all. And they are the ones who also believe that God the Father made Jesus carry the sins of the world to the Cross, be crucified on both His hands and feet, and shed His blood to death, thereby washing us from all our sins and bearing all our condemnation of sin.
Believing in this truth of salvation is the faith that believes according to the will of the Father in Heaven. Those who do the will of God the Father and believe accordingly will all enter Heaven, for they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the very will of the Father. This is the ultimate providence of God the Father. All of us must have a clear understanding of this, and we must all become such saints who believe in this gospel of salvation, because only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can we become God’s children, be remitted from all our sins, and eventually enter Heaven.
What did our Lord mean when He said to all of us, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven”? The meaning of this passage is that those who try to enter Heaven without the faith that wholeheartedly believes in the remission of sin set by God the Father—that is, in the gospel of the water and the Spirit—cannot ultimately enter Heaven. In other words, our Lord is teaching us here that just because people call on His name, blindly saying “Lord, Lord,” does not mean that they have the faith that enables them to enter Heaven, but only those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and have thereby been saved from all their sins—that is, who do the will of God the Father—can enter into the Father’s Kingdom.
The reason why many Christians, despite believing in Jesus as their Savior, cannot enter Heaven in the end is because they do not have this faith that believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, which can give them the perfect remission of sin. By giving us the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and making us believe in it, and having us completely acknowledge this gospel in our hearts, our Lord has now enabled us to enter Heaven by faith. If all of us indeed have this faith that believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, then there is no reason why any of us would not be remitted from our sins, nor is there any reason why we would not be able to enter Heaven.
If we have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then this means we all have the faith that enables us to receive the remission of our sins and be justified, as well as to become God’s own children, enter Heaven, and dwell by Him. In short, those who have this faith that believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit can all enter Heaven because they have been remitted from all their sins, while many Christians who do not have this faith cannot ultimately enter Heaven even as they believe in Jesus as the Savior, because they have remained as sinners by not believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Our Lord said that to enter Heaven, we must do the will of the Father. When you have this faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, it is only possible for you to do the will of the Father. Even though we cannot but commit sins by instinct until we die, we can be washed from all our sins before God when we believe in this gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and recognize it.
Doing the will of God also means doing His good works, that is, winning souls by spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, if we want to follow the will of God the Father, first of all, we have to believe in His absolute truth, the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Unless we do so, we cannot do what is right, for all our sins would still remain intact in our hearts. Put differently, we have to be born again first to do the good works of God (Ephesians 2:10).
Whoever believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that we have spread has the ability to do the will of God the Father. As such, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and recognize it have become the ones who spread this gospel of the water and the Spirit to all sinners in full conviction. And although they may be persecuted and face difficulties from preaching this gospel of truth, in the end, they have all become the very people who do the will of God the Father. When we have this faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then we have become such people who do the will of God successfully.
On the other hand, if we do not believe in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit, then we cannot do the will of God the Father. If we do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and are therefore not saved from our sins, then even if we want to live according to the will of the Father in Heaven, we cannot avoid but continue to live in the bondage of sin. But because we believe with all our hearts in the gospel of God, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, all of us have become the ones who do the will of the Father by serving God through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, when did we come to have the correct knowledge of the will of God? It was when we were able to discover the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit from the Word of God and believed in it. If we do not believe in the Word of God, then neither can we know the will of God the Father, nor do His will in this world. We must realize that even if we were to feed the hungry, nurse the sick, and care for orphans, all in our bid to love our neighbors to do the will of God the Father, this is actually far different from doing the will of God the Father. In doing the will of God, our good deeds of the flesh cannot replace the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that our Lord has given us.
No virtuous deed in this world can ever replace the work of faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Father’s will, which delivers sinners. That we have been able to do the will of the Father by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and spreading it throughout the whole world cannot be replaced by any good deeds that we may do in our flesh. Realizing this amazing truth once and for all, we must never again let our faith be confused about the will of the Father.
However, there are so many people in this world who are trying to replace the will of the Father by doing good deeds in their flesh. But it is because we have received the remission of our sins by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit from the Word of God that we have become the ones who do the Father’s will and been able to serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world.
When it comes to our spiritual lives of faith, we must believe that it is right for us to do the will of the Father by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. To do so, we must first know the true gospel. How can it be possible for a sinner to do the will of God when he doesn’t even know exactly what it is? If we do not know what kind of faith allows us to live according to the will of God the Father, then we can never have the strength to do the will of the Father in Heaven.
Therefore, we must first attain the ability to do the will of God the Father by believing in this gospel that holds the righteousness of God. In short, if we do not have faith that believes in the gospel of the Spirit, then, we will eventually be cast aside by God, because such a faith of ours has nothing to do with His will. That’s why we must examine ourselves whether or not we truly believe in the Word of God, whether we indeed believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts.
Those who do not live according to the will of God will end up leaving His Church, because they cannot overcome their petty, carnal lust of flesh above all else. Or, they will ultimately end up as false prophets who seek after their own will in the name of Jesus Christ by presenting themselves as being in sheep’s clothing. But, because the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the will of God the Father in Heaven, those who believe in this gospel of truth can receive the strength to follow the Father’s will by the power of the Holy Spirit as they live their lives.
If we truly want to know God’s good will toward us and follow it, then we must first believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. If we indeed believe in the Word of God as the truth, then even if the Bible does not seem to be plausible, we must still yield to the gospel of the water and the Spirit revealed in the Word of God. If all of us believe in the will of God manifested in the Bible, then we can all please Him by doing His will, for the faith of such people is bound to stand firmly forever. Just as pine trees stand straight and shoot toward the sky, those who believe in the Word of God have the invincible power to follow the will of God.
If your faith depends on the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God, and you have thereby received the remission of your sins, then this empowered faith will always give you the very strength to do the will of God the Father. Even if you have glaring insufficiencies when others see you, if you have this faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you can have the authentic faith that Abraham had. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, all of us must come to have this faith that remits away all our sins and enables to enter Heaven. We will live our lives obeying and doing the will of God the Father, and we will all ultimately enter His Kingdom.
You and I must therefore always hold onto our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit steadfastly. Rather than holding onto our circumstances, we must keep our faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and we must faithfully spread the gospel and wait for the Lord until the day He returns.
Even the righteous who have received the remission of sin by faith always face many ups and downs. Just as there are the four different seasons of spring, summer, fall, and winter in the nature, the righteous also face different circumstances at different times—sometimes warm and refreshing, at other times lethargic and painful, and yet on another occasion peaceful.
However, our faith can differ from our circumstances at anytime. Even though our circumstances change so much like this, our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit never changes under any circumstances, always protecting us and keeping us from all curses. If we believe in the Word of God, then because of this faith, we will never be spiritually dried or frozen to death in our winter, nor die from heat in the summer, nor fall into nihilism in the autumn, nor be drawn into the world in the spring. No matter how many ups and downs we may experience in our spiritual lives, we can always do the will of God forever. If we have the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then we can overcome all our difficulties, and with this faith we can ultimately live the most precious lives before God the Father by doing His will.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit is sufficient to turn all of us into those who live according to God’s will. This is why you and I must always defend our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God. By doing so, we can live in obedience to the will of God the Father. Are you now abiding in the Word of God? Or are you, imprisoned by our own circumstances, not able to live by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit? If the latter, then ask yourselves whether you really believe in the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit or not. We must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit found in the written Word of God, and we must live in the power that this gospel brings to us. Clearly, by receiving the power of God through our faith in the definite gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must all live our lives fruitfully in joy.
We Must Believe in the Powerful Word of God
One thing that I absolutely want to ask you to do is to hold onto the written Word of God with your faith, to its each and every passage. I have no more ardent desire than for you to believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God, for unless you do so, your faith is bound to fail at any given time because of the sins that you commit, and you yourselves are bound to perish because of such sins. All of us must steadfastly hold onto the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Without doing so, we cannot stand upright even for a day—nay, not only can we not stand, but we cannot live at all, bound to walk in the valley of death.
The Apostle Paul frequently made mention of “work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope” (1 Thessalonians 1:3) as the essential virtues of the born-again saints. Even if we have the hope to enter Heaven, and the love that we have received from God, we are nothing unless we have the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, for only this gospel of the water and the Spirit empowers us to live such a virtuous life. If you do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then all the blessed scriptural Word of prophecy would not be yours, but someone else’s.
You may believe that you will all enter Heaven in a distant future, but unless your hearts do believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and hold onto it right now, your life might as well be over. We cannot continue to live without the true faith that believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. If we are not provided with the Word of God, and if we do not feed on it right now, our souls are bound to starve to death.
Upon what is true faith founded? True faith must be founded upon the written Word of God.
When I was not yet born again, I used to think that I would have had the true faith if I had offered all my possessions to God. But I worried that if I let go of everything I had, and as a result I have nothing left after giving it all to God, I would have a hard time trying to get by in this cold and selfish world. By the way, even though I couldn’t offer all my belongings, a life of poverty had always been an ideal of the Christian faith to me.
And, before I was born again, I always thought that being filled with my own emotion was faith itself. So I used to do everything, such as attending all church meetings, fasting, and helping the needy etc., to uplift my emotion of love and piety. But such a legalistic faith made me so tired that I could not live by faith any more. Unless I was filled with my own emotions, I felt like my heart was empty, as if something was missing, and I thought that this was an indication of my lack of faith.
Where, then, did I find my true faith, completely different from this empty one I had before? I found it in the written gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Because the Word of truth that holds the gospel of the water and the Spirit was written in the Bible, by believing in this Word of God, I could be remitted from all my sins, and by this faith I could tell everyone about the greatness of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, in other words, I could do the will of God the Father and stand boldly before Him. To this day, the Word of God has sustained me in this way, so that I may continue to dwell in Jesus Christ. Had I not had this faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God, then my soul would have still been bound in Hades.
Dear fellow Christians, if there is no Word of God in your hearts, then what do you believe in? It means that you actually believe in your own emotions. Our eyes of the flesh do not see our God, whom you profess to believe. Then based on what will you believe in God?
You would have no other choice but to rest your faith on your prayer experiences, on whether your prayers are answered or not, but what if God is not satisfied with your prayers and does not answer you? Lest we go astray, God does not answer us what we ask Him on quite a few occasions; how could you then believe in Him? How could you believe in God and follow Him in faith?
If we lay our foundation on our devotion or emotion, then we will ultimately fall into our own devotional acts that we cannot keep on sustaining, and consequentially fall into unbelief and waste away our faith in God. This is why God has provided us with His written Word. By giving us this written Word of God, He has enabled us to meet Him in the gospel of the water and the Spirit by holding onto this Word of God; to have hope by believing in His promise; and to do the will of God to the end.
We must hold onto the Word of God and believe in it. Only then can we really become the people of faith who truly believe in His Word and have faith even as small as a mustard seed; and just as our Lord said that we could move a mountain into a sea if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can all become the people of faith who can win the whole world to Christ. Therefore, you and I must hold onto the Word of God steadfastly, and we must all believe in His Word exactly as it is. Then, we will become the ones who do the will of the Father, and as a result of this, we will all enter Heaven.
Jesus Christ admonishes us to bear the fruits of true faith. As only a live and healthy tree can bear fruits, only those who have eternal life by believing in the Word of God and who are in right relationship with God can bear the fruits of the true faith. It is those who believe in God’s Word that can live their lives by their faith in God; it is they who can do His work; it is they who can do good deeds; and it is they who, regardless of their insufficiencies, can follow God by believing in His gospel.
If we do not have this faith that believes in the Word of God, then we cannot follow His will. All this is entirely possible for us regardless of our circumstances, if we would just hold onto the Word of God. If you do not have any great faith, then hold onto even the edge of the Word of God, as if the woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years held onto the garment of Jesus. If someone has faith as small as a mustard seed that holds onto the Word, then he is a man of faith. And with this, he is actually doing the will of the Father. All of us must become such people of faith who believe in the Word of God, not the faithless.
It Is Most Essential for Us to Believe in the Power of the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
Who really believe in God and are standing firmly on the rock of faith? They are those who believe in this written Word of God. And who are unable to do this? They are those who do not believe in this written Word, and therefore, listen to the Devil instead. As a result, such people become enslaved as the Devil’s own servants.
Referring to the believers in His Word, Jesus said, “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.”
In the old days, when people built a house, they placed large rocks on its four corners as cornerstones. These rocks were buried in the ground half way, with their remaining half protruding above the ground. On these rocks, large tree trunks were raised as pillars, with crossbeams connecting them together, and it was on this basic structure that the house could be built solidly.
What, then, is solid faith? The rock here refers to one’s faith in the Word of God. Jesus said that he who hears and does the will of God is like a wise man who built his house on the rock, for he founded his faith on the rock-like Word of God. True faith is to believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God.
We are prone to lay the foundation of our faith on our experiences. For example, most Christians are enthusiastic about the testimonies of what someone saw in visions or listened in his prayers. And they are anxious to experience something mystical. This is how the Christian mysticism has come to prevail in today’s Christianity. But you should know that faith based on such mystical experience only lasts until the next experience, and that what our eyes see is not what is believable. Why? Because these things are not eternal, as they last just a short while only to disappear in the end, and because believing in what is not perfect does not constitute the true faith.
Faith in God means to believe in the absolute and forever-unchanging Word of truth, and believing in this Word of God is what is meant by truly spiritual faith. Those who are saved by believing in God’s gospel, the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and thereby do the will of the Father, are the very ones who have true faith. We can know and believe in God correctly only when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit that our Lord has given us never changes. To believe in what our Lord said is none other than the very faith that believes in this true gospel. It is this faith that God approves. And when we believe in this Word, no matter how our emotions, circumstances, or anything else ever tries to shake us, our faith that holds onto this Word can never be shaken, for the very foundation of our faith is never shaken. This is why you and I must believe in the Word of God. Brothers and sisters, do you really believe in God’s Word? Do you really want to hold onto the Word of God? It is my sincerest prayer that you would indeed hold onto God’s Word for the rest of your lives.
Those who did the will of God all believed in His gospel of the water and the Spirit. The people of faith, such as the Apostles Paul, John and Peter, with whom we are well acquainted, often made numerous references to the Word of the Old Testament. And they were the men of faith who believed firmly in the Savior manifested in the Old Testament and waited for Him. In their days, there was no New Testament. But as they believed in the written Word of the Old Testament and in Jesus Christ who came by water and blood (1 John 5:6), the Holy Spirit dwelt within them and worked in their lives, and from the very day they met Jesus, they were then able to follow the Lord.
We really must believe in the unchanging written Word of God. By doing so, we must all become the people of faith who are never shaken before God. And by doing so, we must follow the will of God, live the kind of life that pleases Him, and become the ones who bear spiritual fruits. Those who believe in the Word of God have no worries even when the floods come and the winds blow.
But those who do not believe in this Word of God, the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, all fall when the floods come and the winds blow, and great is their fall. The reason for this is because their faith in God is founded on their own thoughts. In the Bible, sand or soil denotes man-made thoughts. For instance, Genesis tells us that when the ancient people built the Tower of Babel, they used bricks and tar to build it. What are bricks made of? They are made of the sand and the soil of the earth. What the Word of God tells us here is that they built the Tower with their own man-made thoughts.
In today’s world also, there are those who build their houses of faith with such bricks made by mixing sand and cement, all to challenge God, when they are supposed to build their houses of faith to be a dwelling by believing in the God-given Word through pure innocence. To believe with impure man-made thoughts, and to believe in mankind’s own wisdom, their own abilities, and their own power—these are all no more than building a house on the sand. But to believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God, is the very faith that is like the rock.
For our faith to become solid as the rock, we must return to the kind of faith that believes in each and every passage of the written Word of the Scriptures. When we do so, our faith will be strengthened. But if we do not do this, and instead believe in our own thoughts and in our own circumstances, then we will fall, and fall greatly, as Jesus Himself told us. Believing in our own thoughts, in other words, only means that our faith will collapse sooner or later. So what about you, then? Do you really believe in the written Word of God? If yes, then all of you are the people of faith, just like Abraham.
God had commanded Abraham to leave his country, from his family and from his father’s house, to a land that He would show him. Did God then appear before Abraham like an apparition? No. It was through His Word that God spoke to Abraham. Abraham, in turn, held onto what God had told him and went to the place that God had directed him. Without the Word of God, Abraham always felt lost. So he built an altar at all times, offering burnt sacrifices to God and praying there.
In one of those occasions when Abraham built an altar and gave his offering of faith to God, God appeared before him again, and this time as before, He did not appear like a ghost. How easy would it be to believe in God if He would indeed appear before us like the ghost that appeared before Hamlet? Anyone could then know God and believe in Him easily. But we find it hard to believe in God precisely because He does not appear in His full image, and because we can only hear Him speaking to our hearts through His Word. Abraham, however, managed to hear what God spoke to Him. Now as then, God still does not appear before us in His image, but He equally makes Himself manifest to us through His written Word. Just as God had spoken to Abraham through His Word, so does He speak to us through His written Word.
For us to believe in God’s Word is none other than faith. If one has faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then he is a man of great faith. I myself, who believe in the Word of God, is a man of great faith, and so is each and every one of you—all of us are the people of faith who can transform the whole world. And just as Abraham was blessed by God, you and I can also receive the same blessings that he has received.
However, if we do not believe in God’s Word, then our faith is like that of Lot. Those who, despite being saved from all their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, nonetheless follow the dictates of their own circumstances are not the people of faith. While Abraham diligently followed the Word of God, Lot followed what his own circumstances urged him to do.
Lot had become rich while living with his uncle Abraham. But he gradually came to think that if he continued to dwell with his uncle, he would end up losing too many cattle. Moreover, while his uncle had been a great help for Lot before, now Abraham’s help seemed only cumbersome for him. So Lot looked for an excuse to leave his uncle, and just as he had hoped for, one day such an excuse arose: There was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.
So Abraham thought, “I see that Lot now believes in his own circumstances. When he left Ur of the Chaldeans, our homeland, he had relied on me, and he had followed me by trusting in the God whom I believe in, but now that he has become rich, he is doing whatever he wants to do all on his own.” Abraham then said to Lot, “If you so wish, feel free to leave me. If you take the right, then I will go to the left; or, if you go to the left, then I will go to the right. Decide whatever you want; here or there?” Lot then chose the plain of Jordan.
The place that Lot chose was the very land of Sodom and Gomorrah that would eventually face its condemnation by fire and be destroyed. But before this destruction came, it was an extremely fertile land, like the Garden of Eden. It seemed to be such an ideal place to raise cattle. Abraham then said to Lot, “Since you chose that place, I will choose its opposite.” So Abraham chose the opposite of what Lot chose, going into the mountainous areas instead of the fertile plain of Jordan. Why? Because Abraham knew that Lot’s heart was not right.
God then appeared before Abraham and said to him, “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever” (Genesis 13:14-15). God indeed blessed Abraham just as He had promised, giving him the Promised Land.
Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation, had actually been no more than a wandering nomad who had left Ur of the Chaldeans into the land of Canaan. The word ‘Hebrew’ means “the man who passed over, namely, the Euphrates.” The reason why this Abraham, a stranger in the land of Canaan who was ostracized and bullied, could become a man of faith was because he believed in God.
You and I are also the people of faith, because we believe in the written Word. Does this written Word ever melt away and change because it is summertime? Does it ever get frozen and broken apart because it is wintertime? The heavens and the earth may change, but this Word never changes, and not a jot or a tittle of the Word will ever disappear till all is fulfilled.
Matthew 7:22 says, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’” This is what many such faithless people, those who do not believe in the Word written by God, will say. Just how many Christians are living their religious lives without believing in this written Word of God? On that day, many of them will say, “Lord, Lord,” but they had not really believed in God, but believed in their own circumstances just like Lot.
Many Christians actually do not believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Instead, they believe in their own thoughts in vain. Many of them believe in their own thoughts, in false signs, and in the power of demons. There are many so-called “blind Christians” in this world who believe not based on the Word of God, but based on the false teachings and the power of demons. Among those who are not born again, countless people are possessed by demons, and quite perversely, they profess to believe in Jesus based on such a demonic power that they have received. Does this sound far-fetched for you? Well, but isn’t this exactly what today’s main passage says? Indeed, this is what the above verse of Matthew 7:22 says: “Have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?”
The demon-possessed are good at recognizing demons and even casting them out. They are good at prophesying. Don’t some fortunetellers seem to have an uncanny ability to predict the future sometimes? Those who prophesy in the name of the Lord, cast out demons in His name, and do many wonders in His name are the same as these demon-possessed sorcerers. There are many places where such people, possessed by demons, utter all kinds of unintelligible, incoherent, and completely garbled nonsense.
You might have heard of a heretical group called “Vineyard Fellowship.” They insist that when the ‘Holy Spirit’ comes upon them, they go into fits of uncontrollable laughter, make animal sounds like sheep, horses, or even roaring lions, and experience what they call “spiritual drunkenness,” where they lose their sense of balance, the results of which contribute to the hysterical laughter.
Everyone who goes to their gatherings must be demon-possessed, or otherwise he would not last for long in that group. Those who are not born again see no joy to believe in Jesus unless they are possessed by demons. Their religious lives, in other words, offer them no joy at all unless they are demonically possessed.
Before you were born again, had some of you, then only Christian sinners, ever spoken in tongues? For many such misguided Christians, unless they speak in tongues, something is not quite right for them, as if a certain excitement is missing from them. So they keep repeatedly uttering all kinds of nonsensical, completely incoherent and meaningless words over and over, and they believe that this is what speaking in tongues is supposed to be.
But in fact, this only means that evil spirits have entered them, causing them to continue to utter totally incomprehensible words that make absolutely no sense at all. In other words, they feel good because they are drunk with the power of demons. Those who claim that their bodies can levitate independent of their will by some unknown power, that their knees float above the floor by at least 10 inches when they hop on their knees; those who claim that they have no fear at all when they hole up in the remotest of mountains to pray; those who say that supernatural power emanates from them; those who say that they want to grab someone, anyone, and just lay their hands on them and pray—such people are all demon-possessed. When such people see other demon-possessed people, they say, “Get behind me, Satan! In the name of Jesus, get out!” They say this because they think this is how demons are cast out, but in fact the only reason why any demon is cast out is because it is weaker than the demon possessing the one who is exorcizing it.
Like this, those who do not believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit all practice lawlessness. This is why man must hold onto the Word of God. We must hold onto God’s Word everyday. We must hold onto it until the day our Lord returns. At all times, we must always hold onto this Word that has brought salvation to us. This Word has the same power now as before, for it is the living and dynamic Word of God. The power, truth, strength, love, and salvation that are held in this Word are always there.
This Word therefore transforms our hearts. And it gives us strength and holds us steadfastly with faith. As such, it is by believing in the Word and holding onto it that we come to have the real faith, and it is by having such faith that can move even mountains, just as our Lord said, that we are able to do the will of our Lord and follow him until the very end. And the result of all this is to become the servants of the righteousness of God, the workers for His Kingdom.
Given this, it is absolutely indispensable that all of us have this faith that believes in the Word of God spring forth through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If you believe in the Word of God and hold onto, you will all become His own people. You will then also become the ones who can do the will of God the Father. If you really believe in the Word of God, then you should all know just how exhaustively the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit covers the whole Bible.
But even if you have already received the remission of your sins by believing in this gospel, do continue to hold onto the written Word of God, for if you fail to do so, your faith will go astray at any time. Unless we hold onto the Word of God, we are bound to hold onto our own flawed thoughts instead, and it will be impossible for us to always stand upright before God. But by hearing and reading the Word of God through His Church, we can always gain new strength, receive the Word of power at all times, and always follow the Lord by faith.
Believe now that you can all do the will of God the Father by believing in the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit!
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