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Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 5-3] The Evidence of Our Salvation from Sin (John 5:30-38)
(John 5:30-38)
“I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.”
That Jesus would save us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit was already prophesied in the Old Testament. Our Lord came to this world to fulfill that prophecy, and received the baptism from John the Baptist and personally became the Savior by dying on the Cross and being resurrected from death. Put differently, He personally witnessed our salvation from sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit with His baptism, death, and the resurrection. He witnessed to the fact that He is the Savior, the Messiah, by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist and dying on the Cross. In addition, we have received salvation from all sins by accepting that witness through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Who Understood and Believed This Fact?
When Jesus came to this world, many people did not accept His Word and His witness. Jesus told them that He was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, and that He was the Son of God, but people did not believe Him. The Jews waited for their Messiah because they believed in the Books of Prophecy in the Old Testament. However, most Jews could not recognize that Jesus was that Messiah. They thought the Messiah would be physically very attractive and respectable. They thought this way because they just looked Him with their carnal eyes. Isaiah 53:2 says, “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.” Therefore, the Jews came to conclusion that Jesus was not the Messiah just from looking at His outward appearance.
Jesus hung around with the people with low social status like the prostitutes and the tax collectors instead of the wealthy or the Pharisees because those lowly people had the hearts appropriate for the Kingdom of God. They knew their low and humble selves before the presence of God and they truly wanted to meet the Savior and receive salvation because they knew they were sinners.
However, the Pharisees sought the glory of this world more than receiving salvation from sin through the Messiah. Rather, they were more worried that they may lose their religious authority because of the power of Jesus. That was why Jesus dwelt with the lowly people and wanted to blot out their sins. Even now, the Lord dwells close with the people who have humble and lowly heart and wants to save them from all their sins.
The Work the Father Fulfilled by Sending His Son Jesus
The Scriptures say, “But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish the very works that I do bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me” (John 5:36-37).
If John the Baptist witnessed to the fact that Jesus was the Savior, then Jesus witnessed the salvation of the humanity through the baptism He received, the blood on the Cross, and His death and resurrection. That is because Jesus did exactly according to the work of salvation for humanity that God the Father had planned. He became all the witness by doing exactly according to that plan in order to save humanity from sin exactly as it was recorded in the Old Testament. Therefore, the salvation of humanity lies in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This gospel is fulfilled as the true gospel; not a story fabricated by human imagination.
You and I can receive salvation from all sins today by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We share this gospel to all the people with faith. Nevertheless, some people ask where in God’s Word is the proof that they have received salvation from sin. Jesus came to this world and became our Savior by taking all our sins upon Himself by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist as the Father commanded Him, shedding blood and dying on the Cross. It is foolish to ask where is the evidence that we have been saved from the sins of the world when Jesus has clearly shown us the evidence that He is the God of our salvation. I want to reiterate that the proof of our salvation from sin is in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I want you to reconfirm this in your heart.
The Lord has become our Savior. We have been saved by believing in the Word of the salvation that saved us perfectly from the sins of the world. I want you to reconfirm this in your heart that we who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the righteous people who have received the remission of sins before the presence of God. Only the people who truly believe the gospel of the water and the Spirit believe in Jesus as the Savior, have become children of God, and truly born again. Those people who hear this fact and want to receive God’s Word become the people who receive God’s Truth like us. In addition, the people who do not receive the gospel of the water and the Spirit will stand before the judgment seat of God because they do not accept the witness of God.
Who witnesses to the fact that you and I have received salvation from sin? Doesn’t the Word of God recorded in the Scriptures witness it through the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Could you have evidence of the fact that you have received salvation from all the sins of the world through God’s Word? If not, you would not be able to say that you have truly received salvation from all sin. From what should you receive salvation from sin if you want to receive salvation? We must have the evidence of the remission of the sins from the recorded Word of God in the Scriptures, and go to Jesus Christ and receive salvation by believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Is this right, or is this not right?
Do you want to receive the witness from God that you have received salvation from all the sins of the world, or do you want to feel on your own that “I am saved from the sin”? Salvation from all the sin that we receive by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is something that God Himself wants personally. The Scriptures witness to the fact that we have become the children of God by receiving the cleansing of sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have received salvation from all the sins of the world, and we can share this gospel of salvation with other people because we have the witness of salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
How frustrating must it be for our Lord when He sees Christians who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? It must be so frustrating because there are many Christians who still do not know this gospel. They just continue to ask for forgiveness of their sins on a daily basis when the Scriptures say that Jesus Himself came to this world and performed the work of salvation to the people through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The exasperating thing is that it is because people do not believe in the salvation Jesus fulfilled through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The people who try to attain salvation from their sins through their own righteousness without the gospel of the Lord are the adversaries of the Lord.
Of course, there were many who did not believe in Jesus even when they saw the Lord with their own eyes at the time when the Lord was on this earth. But what did the Lord say? Didn’t He say that it is more blessed to believe without having seen Him than to believe after seeing Him? The Lord gave us the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, it is foolish to try to receive the cleansing of sin by crying out for the forgiveness of sin when the perfect salvation that the Lord has fulfilled is recorded in the Scriptures, and everything about the work of the salvation is recorded in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I think it is foolish when I see that people are going to the path of destruction even though they know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the real Truth of the salvation because of the false gospel they believed before.
I will explain it by telling you an example. A certain brother in our Church paid a lot of money to buy a dog that was presumed to be a full-blooded Alaskan malamute and brought it to us. We all loved that dog so much, because we never saw a dog like that before. We always thought that dog was a full-blooded malamute. Then we bought another dog that was similar to the one we had. However, this dog looked a little different from the first dog we had. Because of this, we called the dog that came later a crossbred dog. Then some people said the dog we called a crossbred dog was the full-blooded and the first dog we bought was the crossbred dog. We were confused about this. Then, why were we confused? We were confused because the first dog we saw was not a full-blooded dog. We mistook the crossbred dog as the full-blooded dog.
We must understand that Christians these days also encounter the false gospel first and then later encounter the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. They therefore mistake the false gospel they first encountered as the real gospel and misunderstand the true gospel of the water and the Spirit as the false gospel. We must discern the true gospel from the false gospel through the Word of God and reconstruct our faith. It is really sad that some people still have a confused thinking that cannot distinguish between the true gospel and the false gospel.
The Pharisees and the scribes who appeared in the Scriptures seemed very smart, but they were actually foolish people because they did not understand Jesus as the Savior. They could see who they were right away before the presence of God, but they ignored Jesus. If they had recognized themselves as grave sinners, they would have asked Him to show mercy on them. Like them, even Christians today do not accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit in their hearts and mistake the false gospel they encountered at first as the true gospel. Therefore the Scriptures say that the people who do not believe in the Word of the powerful gospel of the water and the Spirit through which Jesus came to this world and saved them from sin are spiritually blind.
Those who are spiritually blind must turn from their evil ways quickly. They must realize before it is too late that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the pure gospel. People who do not receive the gospel of the water and the Spirit in their hearts are people who neglect their souls. People who let their souls fall to hell are irresponsible people indeed. We must not be such people before the presence of God.
The Truth We Must Definitely Know
Christians can never receive the cleansing of the sins forever if they do not have the understanding that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist is the Truth of cleansing the sin. People who believe only in the blood of the Cross just believe that Jesus took the original sin, but they deny the fact that Jesus blotted out all the sins of the world through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They say that they receive the cleansing of sin every day through prayers of repentance. However, God just looks at them as sinners who have not received the cleansing of sin because they do not believe the Truth of the salvation as a whole, but instead just believe a half-baked gospel.
1 Peter chapter 3 verse 21 says, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” How definite this passage is! Jesus saved us perfectly from all the sins of the world once and for all through the baptism He received and the blood of the Cross. The Lord saved all humanity from all their sins at once through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
As the Scriptures say “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12), Jesus took our sins upon His body for our sake and died on the Cross as the perfect sacrifice of redemption. Therefore, we no longer have to offer up any more sacrifice. Therefore, for the people who still do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God said in 1 Timothy 1:19, “Having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.” If people do not believe in this gospel, even though there is clear evidence of the salvation of the Lord saving us from the sins of the world through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then they are people caught in wreckage in the matter of faith.
It is very clear that Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist in order to save us from the sins of the world, carried the sins of the world to the Cross, died by being nailed to the Cross, and was resurrected from death. The Scriptures witness for the gospel of the water and the Spirit brightly. Whether or not our conscience is a good one before God depends on whether we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit (1 Peter 3:21). Do you want to be a person that possesses a good conscience toward God? I want you to consider what sort of conscience you possess before the presence of God.
One will have doubt in his conscience if he says that Jesus is his Savior even though he does not believe the things Jesus did and does not even believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The conscience knows this right away because God gave a conscience to each human being. That is why the Lord said in Galatians chapter 6 verse 7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” A person is lying to himself if he calls out to God as the Father when his problem of sin has not been resolved. Such a person has an evil conscience. God the Father has never had a child who had sin because there is no darkness in Him what so ever.
There was no sin in the heart of Jesus. The Spirit of Jesus was holy. He did not sin even once. He was originally the only begotten Son of God and the God of the perfect salvation. However, He gave up the throne as God and came to this world through the body of the Virgin Mary in order to save us sinners from sin. He came to this lowly world to save the wretched sinners from sin. He took all our sins upon Himself at once through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. He took the heavy burden of sin alone, was nailed to the Cross for the penalty of sin, and died on the Cross.
Why did Jesus have to be the Savior? That is because the sacrifice offered up with goats or calves was not the perfect sacrifice that blotted out all the sins of humanity forever. People needed the eternal sacrifice of atonement in the New Testament because the sacrifice of the Old Testament that was offered up once every year could not completely blot out people’s sins. There needed a sinless person as a sacrificial offering to atone for all the sins of the world. But who among human beings can have no sin when all of humanity are descendants of Adam? That is why God, the King of kings, had to come to this world in human flesh. He came to us to receive the baptism from John the Baptist in order to become the sinner in our stead.
God must witness to the fact that we have received salvation from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He must witness for this clearly. That you have received salvation from sin is clearly witnessed by in the Scriptural Word and the gospel of the water and the Spirit; and Jesus Christ and God the Father personally witnesses to this fact. Is this true or not? Do you have the faith of believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit in your heart? Do you have no hesitation in your conscience calling God as your Father? Do you have no hesitation calling Jesus as your Savior, the God of salvation? That is right. For anyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Jesus is his savior and his Lord. That is how the people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have the sign of the salvation from all sin.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit That the Apostle John Witnessed
Let’s look at 1 John 5:4-10 together, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.”
People who are born of God, that is, those who have been born again from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have the power to overcome the world because they believe in the work of the salvation that Jesus has done. We cannot overcome this world without such faith. We are victorious in the world through the power of believing in Jesus Christ who has come by the water and the blood as the Savior. It means that we, the born-again, believe the work of Jesus coming to this world and doing the work of saving the humanity from all their sin. In other words, we believe in the Truth of salvation. That Truth is none other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus Christ has given us. This is the faith of believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Apostles and we possess, and this is our witness and our salvation. It is our gospel.
The baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross must be the witness for our salvation. Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist, died on the Cross, and resurrected from death, and this gospel is still the witness of our salvation to Jesus Christ who sits at the right of the throne of God. The baptism He received, the scars from the nails on His hands, the scar from the spear on His side, and His resurrection are the witness to our salvation. Jesus Christ is manifested through the Holy Spirit as the witness in us who have attained the salvation by believing the Word.
However, there are so many people in church offices such as pastors, ministers, elders, deacons, and deaconesses, who still have sin in their hearts. Such people have responsible positions and watch over other believers’ souls. That is so ridiculous. That is a case of the blind leading the blind. Christianity falls into chaos because of such people. Nonbelievers think negatively of Christianity as a whole because they have not met people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They say, “Church is like a corporation. Swindlers have gotten together.” They do not come into the Lord, and instead, turn away in front of the church door because they have a negative reaction, even though they really have the heart that seeks God.
Christians today stubbornly insist on their evil ways even though they have not been born again because they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They stubbornly claim, “I am a righteous saint. I am righteous because I believe in Jesus as the Savior even though I have sin in my heart.” Many people in the world do not receive the witness of the Lord even though Jesus came to this world and saved them through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
For such people, Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23, “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!’”
The Lord said that not all the people who cry out to the Lord “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is saying that some Christians are making a mistake if they think that they are people who have received the cleansing of sin just because they have healed the sick in the name of the Lord and cast out demons. They can enter the Kingdom of Heaven only by receiving the remission of sin by believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Even now, many churches are gathering people by telling them that they can heal the sick by laying hands on them in the name of Jesus. Jesus came to this world through the gospel of the water and the Spirit to resolve the soul’s problem of sin, but they mislead people with laying on of hands and false miracles, and telling them that they will resolve the fleshly matters. They work hard to try to do wonders and miracles in the name of Jesus. But the reality is that they are not even wondrous works, but just a deception of prearranged script. Some people have also been caught as a fraud. The Lord will tell them to depart from Him when the day of just judgment comes for He does not know them because they use the name of Jesus to mislead people.
We have attained the salvation from all sins by believing Jesus who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the Savior. Therefore, we must be careful of them. A person is not truly freed from the sin just because some pastor healed their sickness in the name of Jesus and cast out demons. One attains salvation by believing in the work of Jesus that has saved sinners through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. No one can receive salvation from sin without Jesus who came in this world by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God has not given any other salvation beside this.
However, there are so many other salvations in the earth. There are even some who say that they themselves are the saviors. Even in Korea, there are so many people who say they are saviors like Jesus. In the case of ‘Ahn Sanghong Witness Society’ of Korea (the so-called World Mission Society Church of God), they say, “I believe in Ahn Sanghong almighty, maker of heaven and earth” instead of saying “I believe in God the Father, Maker of Heaven and earth.”
How foolish is it to believe in a human being and to think that a human being is God. How can a human being save us from the sins of the world? That can never be possible. How can a human being that is a born sinner save another sinner when all the people are sinners alike? There is only Jesus who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit for us. Only Jesus who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit can save us from the sins of the world.
Who is Jesus? He is God who created the heavens and the earth. He is the Son of God. Then what is the meaning of the name “Jesus”? It means the Savior. It means that He is the Messiah who has come to save humanity from the sins of the world. That is why Jesus, who came as our Savior, saved us from all the sins of the world through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, we received salvation from all sins by believing in the Word of salvation that Jesus has given to us. We received salvation from sin by believing in the Word of Jesus who has come by the water and the blood. We cannot try to receive salvation from sin without believing in Jesus who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit manifests in our hearts when we believe in Jesus who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit and receive salvation from all the sins of the world. Then, we can truly call God “Abba, Father.” People who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit may have shortcomings in their deeds, but there is no sin in their hearts. Therefore, we have become the children of God who have received the remission of sins because we have believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have become the righteous, believers who have received the blessings of Heaven. We are no longer lonely because we have become the children of God. We are no longer sad. We are no longer in suffering.
2 Corinthians 6:9-10 says that the people who have received the salvation as, “Unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” We have received the salvation through God. God has given the salvation to us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The eternal Kingdom of Heaven has been prepared for us through that salvation. We can live powerfully and happily in this world just with that cause alone.
There is an aroma of a Christian from a Christian. It is the aroma of Christ that leads people to salvation as the Word in the Scripture says, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these thing” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). There is such aroma from the people who have received salvation.
I was once hospitalized a while ago because of a pain on my throat. The other patients in the hospital at the time asked me how I had a remarkably good physiognomy. Because I had not told them that I was a pastor, I just passed over and said, “What do you mean by ‘a remarkably good physiognomy’? I am in so much pain.” Even after I had the operation and they came to encourage me, they said there was nothing for them to encourage me about because I looked so bright. I did not look like a person who had an operation. This is not something that I said but it is what they said to me. My facial expression seems peaceful even though I do not try hard to make it so because the Holy Spirit is inside of me.
Do you also have the aroma of a Christian? Do you have the evidence of your salvation from sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Do you have the proof that you are a person of God? Do you have the proof that you have really become a righteous person? Are you sad, lonely, and in pain while living in this world? Are you alone? No, you are not. That is right. You are not alone. The Lord dwells within us together because the people who have received the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit belong to Christ the moment they started to believe. Would Jesus Christ leave us all alone when we are His own? We are all precious people of God.
Today, I am talking about the fact that the Lord has given to us the witness that Jesus has become the Savior and the witness that the Lord saved us. Jesus said in today’s passage, “If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.” Jesus did not witness about Himself directly. John the Baptist witnessed for Jesus. That is why John the Baptist came to the world a few months prior to Jesus. He came to the world before Jesus and witnessed that Jesus is the Savior of humanity. Jesus witnessed the work of the salvation of humanity that God planned by personally dying Himself. This is the thing that was witnessed by John the Baptist and witnessed through our salvation. Along with this, God the Father also witnesses to the fact that we have been saved and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are also witnesses to our salvation.
I am so happy and delighted about the fact that you have received salvation from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I am so happy that I will live in Heaven together with you who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We are people who have received the witness that we have become the people of God in this manner. I want you to be happy and find happiness in God through this recorded Word of God. I want you to find blessing and comfort. I want you to find blessings of the blessed life of faith in Jesus Christ because we are no longer people of this world. You are no longer people of this world. I say this repeatedly, but you are people who have been moved from the authority of the earth to the Kingdom of the Son of God as it says in the Colossians chapter 1. You are God’s people who have been moved to the Kingdom of the Son of God through the gospel of the water and the Spirit when you were once the children of the Devil. That is why you are no longer people of this world. You are people of Christ. You are God’s people. You are the blessed people.
Though I am lacking, I will enjoy peace in the Lord and receive the blessing and do God’s work together with the Lord, and then go to Heaven and live with Him forever because I have received salvation from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I actually live the life of the Kingdom of Heaven even in this world because I am more than happy and comforted to be doing the work of the Lord. That’s why I will share this witness of salvation overseas, too. We should not do God’s work alone, but instead we should do it together. We must witness this Word of salvation to all the nations.
Have conviction in yourself and believe that you have become the people of God. You must not think as if you are still the people of this world when you have received salvation from sin by believing the gospel of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have been moved to the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the Son, if we have received the remission of sin from this world. Satan, the Devil, will drive you to destruction if you do not have the perfect witness of your salvation from sin. The Devil will block you forever from receiving the blessing of God that is given to those who have been saved from sin. That is a scary thing. Therefore, you must be aware of the deeds of the people who have not been born again.
The blessings that God gives after salvation await you if you have received the salvation from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You receive those blessings also through your faith. People who have received salvation would be the most pitiful if they did not receive those blessings. They cannot follow the world and they cannot follow God. Therefore, how pitiful is it that they are stuck in the middle? I want you to receive and enjoy the blessings and happiness of the Kingdom of God. Do not get caught in the middle like that. I want you to receive all the blessings in this world, too. You receive them as your faith grows.
True salvation is fulfilled at the moment that you know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but the nurturing comes gradually after that, and the blessings of God also come with it gradually. It comes gradually. Will you give up those blessings and happiness when you have received salvation already? Would you say, “I do not need anything else because I have received salvation,” and go back to the world? Do you no longer need the blessings that God gives? No, it is definitely not like that. You do need them. You can live a comforting and blessed life if you live within the comfort and blessings that God gives; but it is painful, laborious, and more difficult if you do not receive the blessings that God gives and just try to live with your own strength.
That is why I am telling you to stay in God’s Church and listen to the Word in the Church. That is also the reason why I tell you to join together among the brothers and sisters and do not go to the churches that are not born again. That was the reason that I also told you not to miss the sermons and uphold and pray for one another because each one of us is a precious child of God. Living out your life of faith after receiving salvation is doing God’s work, receiving all the blessings that God wants to give to you, and serving God for the rest of your life. I want you to truly believe in Jesus with faith and receive all the blessings God gives. It will not happen if you do not believe. You cannot receive God’s blessing if you do not believe. Even if God had given you all the blessings, Satan, the Devil, will take it all away because you did not believe it, because you had your heart turned over just like an upside down bowl, and because you did not accept it. Satan interferes with you so that you can never receive the blessings.
How many shortcomings you have is not important. Though I am also a person with many shortcomings, I have become a righteous person in the Lord by meeting the Lord and believing in Him. It is shown in the Bible that Jesus had close relationships with the tax collectors, prostitutes, and lowly people during His public life in this world. It is shown in the fact that more of them had received salvation than did the Pharisees.
I believe all the Word that the Lord has given to us. I believe it all without even one iota of doubt. I believe all the Word He spoke to the righteous. I believe in this Word He spoke to the servants of God and I believe it as the Word spoken to me. I hold on to these Words because I believe them. The Word becomes flesh and actually comes to me when I hold onto the Word. I live with all the blessings that God gives because I do not mingle with people who have not been born again. There isn’t anyone in this world that has received as much happiness and blessing as we have, and enjoy glory like we who have received the remission of sin. There is none who is happier than we are.
Do Not Believe Your Fleshly Thinking
Do not believe your knowledge or I.Q. Try to live with the blessing of God and do not try to live with the notions and abilities that you used to have. Seek to live with the blessing that God gives, with the faith of believing in God, and with the recorded Word of God. Then you could live with strong faith.
That is why God has recorded many Words of warning in various places in the Scriptures. It is especially found more often in the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” ‘In all’ means all the moments and accounts. It is asking God first in every little thing instead of deciding based on my own thinking and my own evaluation. It is asking God for assistance. Then God personally leads our way, guides us to the correct path, and gives much blessing.
People’s eyesight includes ability to recognize small objects, the ability to distinguish color, the ability to measure distance, ability to recognize location, ability to recognize the shape and so on. They say that the babies that are just born can only recognize the shape and they cannot see the objects clearly. Especially, the eyesight can finally attain normal eyesight function when the entire path from the cornea which is the most forefront part of the eye to the retina, the most rear occipital region, is completely perfected. So the adult level eyesight is achieved finally at the age of 5-6 with the regular educational process. Of course, they can see like the adults after one year from birth, but the measured eyesight from the standardized test reaches the adult level when children reach the age of 5 to 6.
Even the people who have received salvation need time for their spiritual eyes to open properly. From my experience, I think a person who matures a little faster seems to mature after about 1 year and a person who does not mature fast seems to take about 3 years. It takes such person about 3 years for him to recognize his leader and recognize his fellow believers as his spiritual family. Before that, they cannot distinguish between a person who has received the remission of sin, a servant of God and a servant of the Devil because their spiritual eyes are not open.
You really need to have the spiritual eyes of faith opened. Some people believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and have their spiritual eyes of faith opened after just one week, but there are other people who are not like that. These people do not have their eyes opened even after 3 years of believing in Jesus because they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They are confused every day as they sometimes think they have been born again and sometimes they think they have not been born again. Therefore, you must live only with the faith in the righteousness of God and know the Truth only through faith. The fundamentals of your faith have been sharpened well by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but it is a concern that some others are not. I want you to open the spiritual eyes of faith by having fellowship with people who have no sin because they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit; people who have the Holy Spirit, the predecessors of faith that you could talk with through the Holy Spirit.
Do you know how much of a blessing it is just to stay within God’s Church? It is a great blessing. It is a great blessing to listen to the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and receive salvation through God’s Church. Also, people who have received salvation from sin can get together for fellowship, uphold the weak, and learn the true faith through God’s Church. Isn’t it the gospel of the water and the Spirit that leads us to Heaven the gospel which is taught in God’s Church? Moreover, how wonderful a place is Heaven?
How wonderful a place is God’s Church? It is so great that it is said in Psalm 84:10, “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” A person who has a place to return to in the Kingdom of God after a life of a sojourner is a happy person. We who have our home in Heaven to return to are truly happy people. I want you be thankful for receiving salvation from sin and live with faith. I want you to throw out your own thinking, read God’s Word, and have fellowship with the predecessors of faith and be led by them.
A life of faith changes a great deal after receiving the remission of sin. It cannot help but change because you are led by God concerning all areas of life, and such change is natural in the life of the righteous. Not everything ends right after receiving salvation, just as we continue to study after registering in a school because registering is not the end. Do not end it by just receiving the remission of sin. You will then become a pitiful person.
Throw out your pride and have the mind like that of a little child. 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 1-2 tell us to have the yearning for the pure things. It is telling us to yearn for God’s Word as a pure little child yearns for the milk. It is telling us to be like a little child that asks mom, dad, brother, sister, and receives guidance from them, and experience things by doing them as you are told. You mature within the Lord in that manner.
Little children have many questions. They begin to talk and they have even more curiosity as they learn about the world. They ask so many questions that they are sometimes bothersome to adults. Also, the content of their questions are diverse. They ask things like whether there are aliens, why the male and female are different, and they may even ask a man if he is pregnant when they see a man who has a bloated stomach. Children grow up asking such questions even though it may be bothersome to adults. Knowledge and wisdom accumulate through questioning, and they get to mature from it.
Christians who have received salvation have to mature spiritually like that. If a question arises while you are meditating on the Word, you should ask the predecessors of faith to the point of becoming irritating and learn from it. Receiving the remission of sin is not the end. You must now become mature and become God’s workers and become the people of faith that can receive all the blessings God gives through faith. Do you understand this? I want you to become this type of righteous person.
I want you to become like this by truly believing in this.
Jesus told us to become the witness of the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the ends of the earth. This is the command He has given not only to the twelve disciples, but also to us who have received salvation from sin. We can definitely carry out this command. I want you to pray with vision each time you meet together. I want you to pray for all the Christians throughout the world to meet the Lord properly and receive the salvation. The power of the prayer of the righteous is great and the intercessory prayer produces even greater work.
Our books can become the most read books after the Bible if we pray with one heart. It means that the gospel can be shared that much more vigorously. Do not doubt and think how that could be possible. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that we share is given by Jesus. Jesus is the perfect God even though we personally are weak. Jesus is still praying for us. Therefore, we can share the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world.
I want you to pray for the work of the gospel to progress greatly everywhere in the world.
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