Subject 11 : The Tabernacle
[11-18] The Table of Showbread (Exodus 37:10-16)
(Exodus 37:10-16)
“He made the table of acacia wood; two cubits was its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made a molding of gold all around it. Also he made a frame of a handbreadth all around it, and made a molding of gold for the frame all around it. And he cast for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that were at its four legs. The rings were close to the frame, as holders for the poles to bear the table. And he made the poles of acacia wood to bear the table, and overlaid them with gold. He made of pure gold the utensils which were on the table: its dishes, its cups, its bowls, and its pitchers for pouring.”
By Placing a Frame in Our Hearts, We Must Become the Ones Who Eat the Bread of Life
The table of showbread, one of the instruments found inside the Tabernacle, was made of acacia wood, and was overlaid with pure gold. Measuring two cubits (90 cm: 3 feet)) in length, a cubit and a half (67.5 cm: 2.2 feet) in height, and a cubit (45 cm: 1.5 feet) in width. On the table of showbread 12 loaves of bread were always placed, and this bread could be eaten only by priests (Leviticus 24:5-9).
Among the characteristics of the table of showbread are: it had a frame of a handbreadth all around it; a molding of gold was placed all around this frame; four rings of gold were put on the four corners; and the rings held the poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold that were used to transport the table. The utensils on the table—its dishes, cups, bowls, and pitchers for pouring—were also made of gold.
Exodus 37:11-12 records, “And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made a molding of gold all around it. Also he made a frame of a handbreadth all around it, and made a molding of gold for the frame all around it.” The table of showbread in the Holy Place of the House of God had a frame that was as high as a handbreadth, and around the frame a gold molding was placed. Why did God command Moses to place such a frame? This frame of a handbreadth, protruding by about 10 cm, was to prevent the bread on the table from falling.
As only priests could eat the bread that was placed on the table of showbread, so must we become the ones who can eat this bread spiritually. Only those who have been saved from sin and received eternal life by believing in the baptism of Jesus Christ and the blood of the Cross—in other words, only those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit as their salvation—can eat this bread.
Because a frame as high as a handbreadth was especially placed all around the Tabernacle’s table of showbread, it made sure that the bread would not slip and fall down. And on every Sabbath, hot, fresh-made bread was placed on the table. We have to pay particular attention to the fact that a frame of a handbreadth was made around the table of showbread, and that the frame was wrapped all around with a molding of gold.
The frame of the table of showbread is teaching us that we must hold in our hearts the Word of truth that brings us salvation and thereby receive eternal life. This tells us that we can have the spiritual faith of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen used for the door of the Tabernacle only when we believe in the baptism of Jesus Christ and the blood of the Cross. And we came to realize by this revelation that only those who believe in this truth manifested in these blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen are made to be God’s children.
Because we would have nothing to do with the Lord unless we believe in this way, those of us who seek to have the bread of life must have the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. We must believe that only the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the real truth of salvation. God is telling us, in short, to raise the frame of faith in our hearts so that the Word of salvation would not slip away from us.
This gospel of the water and the Spirit has been handed down to us from the age of the Early Church. From this age of the Early Church to the present day, God has cleansed away the sins of those who believe in this gospel. We can see that now as before, God saves the souls of those who believe in the truth of this gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have been saved by believing in the truth manifested in the door of the Tabernacle, and God has enabled us to live spiritually by raising a frame in our hearts.
From our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord, we have received eternal life, and by this gospel of truth we have been able to share the bread of life with others. And we have also come to serve the righteous works of God. Even when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, if we fail to hold steadfastly onto the truth of this gospel with passing time and lose it, then this will mean none other than the loss of our very life. As such, we must raise the frame of faith in our hearts by always ruminating on the gospel of the water and the Spirit with faith.
In Our Hearts Must Be the Faith That Believes in the Gospel Contained in the Blue, Purple, and Scarlet Thread
If people do not have faith in this truth, then they cannot be saved from their sins. They may insist on their own that they have been definitely saved, but right now, because their hearts are not holding onto and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, this salvation that they have is merely an imperfect one.
Not believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the truth is the same sin as abandoning the Lord on our own. The bread of life is not just something that we need to be in possession of, but it is something that we must put into our mouths, chew on it and eat it, and thereby make its truth ours. When we go on without believing in the Word of God and holding onto it in our hearts, then the truth of salvation will disappear from our hearts in no time.
You may wonder how it is possible for you to lose such precious salvation when you have already been saved from sin. But unfortunately, many who do not hold onto the Word of God, though they had received the truth in joy at first, will end up dying, for they do not have the root of faith grounded in the true gospel.
Regarding this matter, Jesus spoke of four different grounds of the heart in ‘the parable of the sower’ (Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23). In this parable, the seeds of the truth of God were sowed on four different grounds of the heart of mankind. The first ground was the wayside, the second was stony place, the third was thorny ground, and the fourth was the good ground. Of these, the seeds that fell on the first three grounds failed to bear any fruit, and only those that fell on the fourth ground, that good ground, bore fruits. This means that many people can lose their salvation midway even though they once heard and accepted the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the true gospel of salvation. As such, we must remember that if the soil of our hearts is not good, it is possible for us to lose our salvation that the Lord has given us.
If in our hearts we believe in the salvation that has come of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, then the soil of our hearts can be good. But at times we see that some people lose their salvation from their inability to defend their faith as a result of not having their faith in the Word of God deeply rooted. This is why we must stay in God’s Church, have the bread of life everyday, and grow in faith. With the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, God is nurturing us everyday so that our faith would grow.
We must affirm in our hearts everyday the remission of sin that we have received. The truth that must be found in our hearts is the salvation of the gospel of the water and the Spirit manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. This truth of salvation is in the hearts of those who have received the remission of sin. By renewing our faith in this true gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can live on day by day as God’s children.
As such, even those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must also ruminate everyday on the gospel of the righteousness of God manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, and affirm their faith everyday. Why? Because if we do not always hold onto the gospel of the water and the Spirit steadfastly and affirm it, then we may lose it at any time. We must always remember what the writer of Hebrews said to the Jewish Diaspora: “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away” (Hebrews 2:1).
Today, even among those who know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we see that there are many whose faith in the gospel fades away as time goes by. This is because they, even though they had already believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, have failed to eat the bread of life continually in the Holy Place, and, as a result, their hearts have not been refined with the true faith.
There are also many servants of Satan in this world who are trying to kill the righteous by feeding them with the leavened bread, that is to say, the teachings of their own flesh. If the false gospel is introduced into God’s Church, then the truth gets mixed with the lies, turning believers into someone who cannot be accepted by the Lord. Such people know the truth but do not believe because of their failure to raise the frame of faith, and so they end up as someone who is no longer wholly saved from sin. Proverbs 22:28 says, “Do not remove the ancient landmark Which your fathers have set.”
It is therefore critically important for us not to remove the landmark of our faith. We must clearly have the boundary of our true faith and defend it until the day our Lord returns. Only then can we always feed on the bread of life, only then can the Lord dwell in the center of our hearts, and only then can we have eternal life. No matter how much bread God gives us, if we do not appreciate its preciousness and fail to hold onto it with our hearts, or if we remove the frame of our hearts and let the bread of life slip away from the table, we will then end up turning into the children of destruction.
Some of us have just recently received their remission of sin, while for others, it’s been decades since they first heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit and were remitted of their sins. Since what we hear everyday is about the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, it may very well be possible that some of us may get tired as soon as the word “water” of the gospel of the water and the Spirit is mentioned. But still, we must continue to eat the bread of the true gospel. For how long must we do this? Until the day the Lord returns.
Some of you may complain that I am always and repetitively preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but you need to realize why I have had to preach in this way. It is because our faith must be strengthened more and more by ruminating on the gospel of the water and the Spirit so that we may become the workers of God. We must fulfill the role of the faithful and trusty watchman for the souls of this age. For the born-again souls also, this true gospel of the water and the Spirit is the bread of life and the true food of faith. As such, we must have this bread everyday, and not only this—that is, we should not have it just for ourselves—but we must also share it with others everyday so that they may also come to receive their remission of sin.
The bread of the righteous is to spread the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and thereby deliver people from the power of darkness and convey them into the Kingdom of the Son of His love (John 4:34, Colossians 1:13). If we neglect to have the bread of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then we will inevitably fall ill or die. At times, because of the weakness of our flesh, our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit may be weakened. But if we hold onto the gospel of the water and the Spirit in times of trouble, then it can actually turn into a window of opportunity for our souls to become even stronger.
When we hear and ruminate on this gospel of truth, the more we hear it, the more our souls are strengthened, the stronger our faith is made, and the more renewed strength we see arising in our hearts. We need to hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit everyday, and affirm and refine our faith in this gospel. As God says, “Take away the dross from silver, and it will go to the silversmith for jewelry” (Proverbs 25:4), we need the refinement of faith—that is, we need to continue to hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit, acknowledge it in our hearts, and ruminate on it time after time—for the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the bread of life that makes us live! As Jesus said in the Lord’s Prayer, “give us our daily bread,” our Lord has indeed given us the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is why He told us to pray in this way.
When it comes to the salvation of the remission of sin that God has given us, we must make it clear how our faith had been before we were saved from sin. “Before I knew this truth, I had not been saved from sin.” We must clearly admit that at the time, though we believed in Jesus, we had not been saved from sin. “I had not been wholly saved from sin at that time, but when I continued to hear this gospel of the water and the Spirit, I came to believe it in my heart in time.
Though I had believed Jesus to be my Savior before, my salvation had not been perfect until then, but now, by hearing the true gospel of the water and the Spirit, I have been truly saved. Now I can really believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and I do believe in it truly.” It is only when you realize and believe that the Lord has wholly saved you from sin with His baptism and the blood of the Cross that the gift of true salvation descends on your hearts from Heaven. This faith that believes in the truth is the true faith that saves you.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit revealed in the Bible is different from the faith that we had before. We, at that time, believed in the gospel of only the blood of the Cross, instead of this perfect gospel of the water and the Spirit. Faith only in the Cross and faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit may appear similar at first, but the two are completely different in the end. Before you came to know this gospel of the water and the Spirit, had you not believed only in the blood of the Cross? Were all your sins remitted back then? Of course not! When you believed only in Jesus’ blood of the Cross, you still had actual sins in your hearts. This is the difference between the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and the faith that believes only in the Cross.
The clear difference is that those who believe only in the blood of the Cross are not saved while those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are saved from all their sins. As such, their spirits are unmistakably different. But ordinary people do not realize this. Though the two gospels may seem similar, there is a great gap of faith between the two that cannot be abridged. When the small difference between whether or not we believe in the baptism of Jesus is what makes us receive or lose eternal life, then we can only acknowledge that there is a difference between these two faiths that can never be skirted off.
We must know exactly what faith constitutes the boundary of our salvation from sin. To be saved from sin, we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This gospel of the water and the Spirit is the truth of the remission of sin. The clear-cut status of salvation will be yours when you admit that you were surely not saved before you believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and that now you truly believe in the true gospel with all your hearts.
If you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in the center of your hearts, then you must clearly admit this before God, that you have received the remission of your sins by hearing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If you have now believed in the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you can unmistakably find its evidence in your hearts.
We must examine our faith carefully before God. There is absolutely no shame in examining our faith. If it took you five years since you first believed in Jesus to come to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in the center of your hearts, there is no shame at all. If it took you 10 years to be saved, there is no shame in this, and if it took you even 20 years to be saved, there is still absolutely no shame in this. On the contrary, it is a blessing.
However, the reality is that there are many who pretend to be saved from sin. But the Holy Spirit, who searches all things, cannot approve their faith, because they don’t draw a clear-cut line of salvation honestly. It is much wiser, even now, to set the boundary line of our salvation clearly—not to know the exact day we were saved, but what is important here is to clearly distinguish between before and after we have been saved—and to confess your perfect faith distinctly.
Our Fathers of Faith Also Believed in the Same Gospel that We Now Believe
Having crossed the Red Sea, when the people of Israel sought to cross the Jordan River to enter into the land of Canaan, they could safely make the crossing only when they actually followed their priests who first carried God’s Ark of the Testimony. If we only think to ourselves, “Oh, so that’s how I can cross the Jordan River,” and do not actually make the crossing, then we cannot enter into the land of Canaan, for we would still be remaining on the other side of the river. To enter into the land of Canaan, we absolutely must cross the Red Sea and the Jordan River by our faith in the Lord.
Spiritually speaking, the Jordan River is the river of death and resurrection. The faith that has saved us from sin is the faith that believes, “I must be cast into hell, but the Lord came to this earth and has saved me with His baptism and the blood of the Cross.” To save us perfectly, our Lord was baptized in the Jordan River and shed His blood on the Cross. In this way He took upon our sins and paid the wages of sin by giving up His own life on our behalf. Now, we must believe in this truth and draw the line of faith and the line of salvation clearly in our hearts.
As I preach the Word of God, I can see there are many in His Church who still have not clearly drawn the line of salvation in the center of their hearts and are therefore not able to follow the Lord. They wonder how they can draw this line between before and after their salvation. They excuse themselves by saying, “Has there ever been anyone on this earth who drew this line? Did the Apostle Paul do? Did Peter do? No one has ever done this.” But the Apostles of faith such as Paul and Peter all drew the line of salvation.
In the case of Paul, he drew it while on his way to Damascus. So, he mentioned frequently the words “once, in times past, or before” in contrast with the word “now.” As for Peter, he also uttered the same words above (1 Peter 2:10, 25). We can see that he also drew this line when we look at his confessions: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), and, “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” (1 Peter 3:21). Both Paul and Peter clearly drew the line of faith between before and after their salvation.
Thus, this question of whether or not you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is not someone else’s problem, but it is very much a problem of your own soul. The servants of God in the Bible all tackle with the problem of sin. Because this is a critically important problem for all of us, we ourselves must solve it by faith. When we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and thereby solve away the problem of sin from the center of our hearts, God is greatly pleased. Do you want to please God? Then all that you have to do is recognize your sinfulness and solve this problem by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If all this time you had not been saved yet, then you must confess, “God, I have not yet been saved.”
Jesus said, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). On our side, we must first admit, “God has saved me with the water and the Spirit. Right now, in the center of my heart, I believe in the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. There is no doubt at all that the Lord has saved me through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.”
We must all accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit into our hearts. “I trust in this gospel. Because it is the truth, because the Lord has blotted out my sins more than enough, I believe in this gospel now. I have not been saved by faith until now.” When we thus recognize and believe in the gospel given by the Lord, then God tells us, “I approve your faith.”
When God has already given us the truth of the water and the Spirit that can save us perfectly, if we, for our part, do not draw the line of salvation and accept this salvation by believing in this truth, then God, for His part, cannot recognize us as the saved either. Because God treats us with personality and not compulsorily, if you do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in the center of your hearts, then He cannot give you the remission of sin. If you do not acknowledge the gospel of the water and the Spirit in your hearts, in other words, the Holy Spirit cannot dwell in your hearts.
Do we reject all other gospels but the gospel of the water and the Spirit as false? Or do we think that even such false gospels are still useful, and that there is no need to throw them away? We need to examine ourselves and see how exactly we believe. Let us assume for a moment that we came upon a pile of used appliances and electronics. Let us further assume that we brought some of them home, thinking that we could still salvage, but found out later that none of them worked and that they were all useless. Should we then still keep them or throw them away? Once we decide that they are all useless, of course we should throw them all away. When you reach a conclusion that something is never useful to you and is not authentic at all, then you must also know how to cast it away decidedly.
If this is how we should act on earthly affairs, how should we then act when it comes to our spiritual affairs? We must be even more decisive in our rejection of lies in our spiritual affairs. We must draw a clear line that distinguishes our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit from the false faith that believes only in the blood of the Cross; we must recognize that faith in only the blood of the Cross can never bring us salvation; and we must decidedly throw away this flawed doctrine. Which one is the biblically sound gospel? Is it the gospel of only the blood of the Cross? Or is it the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Your faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and that has saved you from your sins is what pleases God.
In short, there are two kinds of Christians: Those who know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and those who do not. It may appear as though both lead a similar life of faith, but the truth of the matter is that the two are totally different. Do you, by any chance, think that the imperfect gospel you had believed before still has some use? Have you still kept it all this time, thinking that it could come handy sometime later?
Such a faith is a false faith, something that has come out of man-made thoughts, and so you must cast away all the old baggage of your past. It is because you have not still thrown away what are untrue and lies that you are having problems in the center of your hearts. I advise you to remember His Word: “You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you” (Leviticus 19:19).
To Enter into the Holy Place, We Must Enter Only through Its Door
With what material was the door of the Tabernacle made? It was woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. Those who have been born again of water and the Spirit must open this door of the Tabernacle and enter into the Holy Place. Under the pillars of the door of the Tabernacle, bronze sockets were placed. These bronze sockets make us acknowledge that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the truth of salvation.
They teach us that though we had no choice but to be condemned by God and to die for our sins, by receiving the blessing of being born again of water and the Spirit through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have become God’s own people. We can enter into the Tabernacle only when we cast away the mistaken notion that, of the colors of the four threads used for its door, we can be saved by believing just in the ministry of Jesus manifested in the scarlet thread alone.
Unless we throw away our self-centered thoughts and faith, we can never believe in salvation manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. We must recognize that the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen is the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we must acknowledge the fallacy of our self-centered thoughts when we had believed only in the blood of the Cross before.
If God is willing, then He will lead you to the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only those who believe in this truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit can be remitted of all their sins and receive eternal life. Only then can we open the door of salvation by believing in this truth in the center of their hearts and enter into the Holy Place.
If you fail to discern the fallacy of our old faith that you had before you came to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you will suffer the punishment of sin, for you would not be able to be saved. If this happens, you cannot even enter into the Holy Place and have the bread of life. Only when you enter into the Holy Place by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can you have the steaming bread of life.
You must realize that the Lord has made you God’s children by washing away your sins with His baptism, the blue thread, and by bearing the condemnation of your sins with the bloodshed of the Cross, the scarlet thread. And you must clearly realize and believe that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the truth that is absolutely necessary for you. You can come into God’s Church and share the bread of life with the righteous only when you know that God is the One who has given you the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and only when you believe in this gospel.
The Flesh of the Lord Is the Bread of Life and of the Remission of Sin
Let us turn to John 6:49-53: “‘Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.’ The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.’” Jesus said that those who eat His flesh and drink His blood have eternal life. This passage means that all of us must eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood.
How, then, can we eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood? It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood. By believing that Jesus took upon all our sins with His baptism, we can eat His flesh, and by believing that Jesus shouldered our sins and was condemned on the Cross for them, we can drink His blood.
We must also believe that through the works of salvation manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen, Jesus has blotted out our sins and made us God’s own children. Regardless of how you might have believed before believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you must acknowledge that this old faith of yours had been wrong, and you must now raise the frame of faith by having the flesh and blood of Jesus and eat the bread of Word.
John 6:53 states, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” Even now, some people use this passage to argue for the doctrine of transubstantiation. This doctrine holds that the bread and wine used in the Holy Communion are turned into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus when they are performing the ritual by faith. But we must realize and believe that this passage of John 6:53, far from speaking of transubstantiation, in fact speaks of the gospel of the water of the Spirit.
During the Holy Communion, if you wait in a line and the priest puts a piece of bread into your mouth, would this bread then transform into the body of Jesus? It would not! We can eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood by believing that Jesus came to this earth, took upon the sins of the world and cleansed them away by being baptized, carried these sins to the Cross and died on it, and has thereby saved us from death.
Those who eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood by faith are those who believe in the truth that Jesus, with the blue and scarlet thread, has saved us from sin by taking upon our sins and bearing the condemnation of sin on His own body. We must eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood with our faith in the baptism and blood of Jesus Christ.
To accept our sins passed onto Him, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Let us turn to Matthew 3:15-17: “But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”
It is because Jesus took upon all sins when He was baptized by John and died on the Cross that He has fulfilled all the righteousness of God. Our faith that believes in the truth of the gospel, that all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus Christ when He was baptized by John, is the true faith with which we can eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood.
If you recognize this truth, then you have already eaten the flesh of Jesus by faith. That your sins of the world were passed onto Jesus Christ once for all is the truth, and therefore it is critically important for you to believe this in the center of your hearts. This faith is the faith that enables you to eat the flesh of Jesus. Were your sins passed onto Jesus through His baptism? Only when you believe this can you eat the flesh of Jesus. After baptizing Jesus, John the Baptist shouted out, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
And because Jesus had accepted the sins of the world through His baptism, He carried them all on His own body, was crucified, and shed His blood and died. Having thus been crucified, nailed on both His feet and hands, and shedding His blood, Jesus shouted out as He died, “It is finished!” He then rose from the dead in three days, bore witness for 40 days, ascended to Heaven exactly as He looked, and He now sits at the right hand of God the Father. And He also promised that He would return just as He had ascended to Heaven. Do you believe in this truth in the center of your hearts? It is by believing in this truth that you can eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood. It is when we truly believe in the center of our hearts that we can eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood. It is with this faith that we can eat the bread of the Holy Place.
Our Lord commanded us to always remember His flesh and blood whenever we gather together (1 Corinthians 11:26). As such, every time we gather together, we must commemorate the flesh and blood of Jesus all the time. When it is by faith that we are supposed to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood whenever we gather together, how could we just hold the Holy Communion only as a formalistic ritual?
Because we believe in the baptism through which Jesus took our sins upon His own body and in His sacrificial blood of the Cross, it is by faith that we are remembering His flesh and blood everyday. It is because we believe in the truth of the water and the Spirit that everyday we eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood. As Jesus said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life (John 6:54),” He will raise up those who eat His flesh and drink His blood on the last day.
We must admit that if our faith does not enable us to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood, then it is a flawed faith. Our Lord said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me” (John 6:54-57).
Those who eat the flesh of the Lord and drink His blood by faith will live because of Him. On the other hand, those who do not eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood will die, because they had not believed. But it is not difficult for us to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood by faith.
Let’s assume for a moment here that there is an exam of salvation that we must take in order to enter the Kingdom of God. One of its questions asks, “What is the faith that enables you to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood?” How should we answer this question? When both the flesh and blood of Jesus constitute the truth, could we say that we ate His flesh when in fact we only drank His blood? We must write down both the baptism and the Cross of Jesus as our answer. We can enter the Kingdom of Heaven only when we eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood. Even if we had misbelieved and misunderstood before, if we turn our hearts around, eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood, we can then pass the test. If we believe in the flesh and blood of Jesus right now, at this very moment, we can pass the exam sufficiently.
People look at the outside appearances, but God looks at the center of the heart, and so when we believe in both the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross, we are then eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking His blood. God looks at the center of our hearts to see if we really have faith in the flesh and blood of Jesus in our hearts. Therefore, if we do not believe in the flesh and blood of Jesus in the center of our hearts, then we have not been saved from sin. No matter how you might have believed before, if you now have the faith that believes in both the flesh and blood of Jesus, you can then enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Many religionists of this world are endlessly debating over the veracity of the doctrine of transubstantiation. What really need in fact is the faith that enables us to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood. But this is possible only when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in our hearts. Believing in Jesus in the center of our hearts through the gospel of the water and the Spirit is eating the true bread and drinking the true drink.
We Must Believe in the Baptism and Blood of Jesus as Our Remission of Sin
Our Lord said, “My blood is drink indeed” (John 6:55). Our Lord bore the condemnation of sin on the Cross. The faith that believes that Jesus took upon our sins by being baptized and shed His blood on the Cross is the faith that enables us to drink the blood of Jesus. Through the baptism that He received from John, Jesus took upon all our sins, including those of your children, your parents, and each and every one of us, and by shedding His blood on the Cross He bore the condemnation of all these sins. With His baptism and blood, Jesus has solved away all our problems of sin absolutely for everyone in this entire world. Believing that Jesus thus took upon our sins with His baptism and was condemned for our sins with His blood of the Cross is drinking the blood of Jesus by faith.
In today’s world, there are many who say that they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit only with their words. But they do not wholly believe in the flesh and blood of Jesus. Anyone who does not have the whole faith that believes in the flesh and blood of Jesus cannot be remitted of sin. You might have believed before that the blood of the Cross was the only truth, but now that you have found the real truth, you must have the faith that clearly believes in the flesh and blood of Jesus. Only then will God recognize you as the saved. But if, on the other hand, you do not draw the clear line of salvation on this issue—that is, on the remission of sin received by the faith that believes in the flesh and blood of Jesus in the center of the heart—then you cannot have your faith approved by God.
Our Lord said, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56). But unless we eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood by faith, we cannot enter into the presence of God. And anyone who does not have this faith that believes in the flesh and blood of Jesus cannot abide in the Lord. It is my sincere hope that no one among the saints, the workers and servants of God in our Church will tragically fall away from this faith that believes in the flesh and blood of Jesus.
When Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire, Lot’s son-in-law regarded God’s Word of life that Lot told them only as a joke. For those who do not take the Word of God seriously, the judgment of God will be brought upon them just as it is written. Unbelievers will be condemned for their sin of unbelief. They will be destroyed for their sins. This is no laughing matter that can be skirted over with a few chuckles.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit refers to faith in the flesh and blood of Jesus. It is by believing in this truth that we have been remitted of our sins and received eternal life. Because the faith of the flesh and blood of Jesus in which we believe is the true gospel and the real truth, we must keep this faith in our hearts. By first raising the frame of faith high in our hearts, we must hold tightly all the Word of God and never allow it to slip away from us. By believing in our hearts, we must accept the truth that God has blotted out all the iniquities of sinners with the flesh and blood of Jesus.
I hope and pray that you would all believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit fulfilled by the Lord, eat the bread of salvation that saves you from your sins, and thereby receive eternal life.
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