Subject 20 : The LORD’S PRAYER
[20-4] “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread” (Matthew 6:11)
(Matthew 6:11)
“Give us this day our daily bread”
How are you? We give thanks to God for giving us psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to praise God and for selecting us to be the soldiers of Christ. We are preparing our own hymnbook. Twenty-one spiritual songs are made so far, and they are added to the appendix of our hymnbook, “Praise the Name of Jesus.”
Although all of our praises sing of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the more I sing those praises the more I grow fond of them. We give thanks to God for allowing us the righteous to compose and sing these praise songs to ourselves.
How nice would it have been if the gospel of the water and the Spirit were preached from the beginning of Christianity in our country? We may wonder, “What could have happened if the gospel of the water and the Spirit were preached from the first moment Christianity was introduced to our country?” I feel like the whole world would have become an earthly paradise by now, if that had been true. I feel regretful about the past, when I think about that.
Still, I give thanks to God for giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit and for letting us spread it all over the world even now. Truly, the church of God is very precious. We give thanks for having the church of God, which spreads the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I realize how priceless and precious the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which brings us the remission of sin, is and therefore I am very grateful.
Over 800 people visited our website today. Even at this moment, when we the righteous are gathered for this Training Camp, we are grateful that visitors have increased. Because God delights by the spread of the gospel, many people are visiting our website. And we give thanks to God for being delighted by our efforts to spread the gospel and helping us. Through these works, we the righteous are able to work because God has given us the wisdom and strength. And we found out that God delights to work through us the righteous.
Today’s Scripture passage, which we have read together, comes from the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew. Today, we are going to focus on the passage that reads “Give us this day our daily bread” from the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:11).
The Daily Bread That We Need
The Lord taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Actually, the daily meal necessary for us is the faith in the gospel of the remission of sin, which our Lord has accomplished through the baptism He received and the blood of the Cross. Our hearts gain the true bread of life by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
To us who live on this land, the need for daily food is absolute. As long as our bodies are alive and we have been clothed by our spiritual bodies, we are in need of daily bread. Even if we have eaten yesterday, we need to eat again today. We just need to eat continuously. As we have to keep feeding our flesh while we are alive in this world, our souls are also in need of daily spiritual bread.
As we live in this world, we are surrounded by our daily weaknesses and we commit sins day after day. Thus, we need the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is our daily bread. In other words, we ruminate on the Lord given gospel of the water and the Spirit day by day and gain new strength from it to live by faith.
Therefore, not ruminating daily on the gospel of the water and the Spirit is like not eating any spiritual food at all. Since we have already received the remission of sin, we are prone to be lazy in ruminating on the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Many of the born-again people are prone to look for something new while forgetting about the Word of Truth. Thus, we the righteous need to check daily on the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
So that we can eat our daily bread at any time, God has prepared the gospel of the water and the Spirit at our Churches. Hence, we gain new strength through our Church by meditating and ruminating on the baptism our Lord has received after coming into this world and the blood of the Cross.
Ruminating about the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
We just read today’s Scripture passage from Matthew chapter 6, verse 11. Through today’s Scripture passage, I would like to share with you how the gospel and doing the works of God by faith become our daily bread.
First, let’s look at the Word from Matthew chapter 3 verse 13: “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.”
This Word tells us that our Lord tried to receive His baptism from John the Baptist in order to take away all our sins. Since all of us fall into our weaknesses and cannot help but commit sins everyday, we must not even for a single day cease to meditate on the baptism our Lord received from John the Baptist after He had come to this world. If we ever forget that Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist in order to take away all our sins, we would indeed be fasting from the bread of life and starve to death. Then, God’s works of life in us will cease to take place. Hence, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is life to the believers in Jesus.
Why did Jesus try to receive the baptism from John the Baptist after He had come to this world? We know that He did so to take away all the sins of the entirety of all humanity once and for all. Although our Lord could enjoy all the glories of Heaven as the only begotten Son of God the Father, He gave up the Heavenly throne and came to this world in the lowly flesh of man. It was the will of God for our Lord to come to this world in the flesh and die on the Cross. Thus, Jesus received His baptism from John the Baptist according to the will of His Father.
Our Lord told us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This implies that we should eat our daily bread no matter what. As an example, if we wake up in the morning and pray quietly and read the Word of God, we are able to gain our daily bread of life. Although we can gain new strength for a little while by doing thus, that in and of itself is not enough to constitute our daily bread of life. That is because you and I are lacking spiritual nourishment day after day.
Because we are of the flesh, we are bound in the flesh. Because we are prone to be bounded by our thoughts, our minds sometimes fall into our flesh and get discouraged. Therefore, what we need at all times is the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The only thing that can be the daily bread of life to us, who are weak day after day, is to believe in and ruminate on the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The righteous should not forget the whole process Jesus went through; His receiving the baptism at the Jordan River, dying on the Cross, and being resurrected and ascending into Heaven. Because the gospel of the water and the Spirit becomes our daily bread, we should not cease to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit even for a single day. By believing and ruminating on this gospel, we gain the bread that revives life in our hearts as well as strength and power. Amazingly, ruminating on the gospel of the water and the Spirit becomes the driving force to live in this world by faith day by day.
Some people say that once you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that you will never commit another sin in your life. They say that they have never committed any sin after having received the remission of sin. However, that is not the case. Others say that they have no sin and sin cannot come into being in their hearts even if they have committed sins because they are dead to the Law. Yet, this isn’t true either. These people say stuff without knowing the proper truth.
The Law of God applies to the righteous, as long as we are alive in this world. The Law will last for eternity as long as the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit exists. We commit sins daily out of our own weaknesses. And we come to know our sins through the Law. However, we are still able to be renewed and gain new strength, because we believe and ruminate on the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can remain sanctified at all times by ruminating on the gospel of the water and the Spirit as often as we can. We must know the reason why our Lord received His baptism from John the Baptist and believe in it, saying, “Oh, our Lord was baptized at the Jordan River in order to take away all of our sins.” We gain our daily bread and new strength to live out our faith, whenever we ruminate on the gospel.
As we know, John the Baptist is a descendant of Aaron the High Priest. Our Lord witnessed that John the Baptist was the representative of all humanity (Matthew 11:11). Our Lord also said, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). In the Old Testament, God has promised, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD” (Malachi 4:5). And the Lord also witnessed him to be “the Elijah to come” (Matthew 11:13-14).
Did John the Baptist have to come to this world? Yes, he did. Because John the Baptist had the task of transferring all of our sins onto Jesus, he was born six months prior to the birth of Jesus. He first gave the baptism of repentance to the people. “Repent, you sons of serpents! If you do not repent, an axe will hack your feet.” He rebuked the people and tried to turn them back to Jesus. He exhorted and rebuked the people that only Jehovah God is the true God with all other gods being false. He tried to turn them back and lead them to God. People listened to the words John the Baptist spoke and returned to God. Finally, he came to baptize Jesus in order to transfer all the sins of the world onto Jesus.
Jesus went up to John the Baptist and said, “Baptize me.” Thus, Jesus received His baptism and took away all the sins of the world. Put differently, John the Baptist baptized Jesus in order to blot out all the sins of the entirety of humanity.
When I think of this, I am so grateful. The gospel of the water and the Spirit becomes our daily bread. What cleanses the dirt in our hearts daily without a spot are the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and His blood of the Cross. We can shake off human greed and sinfulness and live daily as the soldiers of Christ before God with new hearts owing to the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the only means by which we can shine the light of life on the dying people. Hence, we must ruminate on the gospel of the water and the Spirit day after day.
Let’s read Matthew chapter 3 verse 14 together: “And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’” When Jesus tried to receive His baptism from John the Baptist at the Jordan River, John the Baptist asked, “When I should be baptized by You, how do You come to me”? At first, John the Baptist refused to baptize Jesus. Still, once he heard that by doing thus all righteousness will be fulfilled, John the Baptist obediently baptized Jesus.
As a matter of fact, John the Baptist was the High Priest on this earth. He was the last High Priest on earth. The Old Testament came to an end by the role of fulfillment John the Baptist played. Since the promised Messiah our Savior Jesus came, John the Baptist had to end the era of the Old Testament by transferring all the sins of the world onto Jesus Christ. The Antitype of the Old Testament came and received the baptism, by which salvation was granted to those who believed in all the promises. Thus, the era of grace began. As Jesus came and received the baptism, the Old Testament times ended and the Kingdom of Christ began.
Although there was no one greater than John the Baptist born of a woman, he was still no greater than Jesus. Why is that? That is because Jesus is God but John the Baptist is one of His creatures, a mere human being. Jesus Christ was fundamentally different from us, who were created by God the Father.
It Is Written in Hebrews
If we read the Book of Hebrews, we can find out the superiority of Jesus Christ. The author of the Book of Hebrews testified this fact by comparing Jesus Christ to angels through the Scripture passages from the Old Testament. In short, the Book of Hebrews describes how far superior Jesus Christ is when we compare Him with angels.
Why did the Scripture writer feel the need to write Hebrews and distribute it to the Hebrew people of that time? Furthermore, how important was it to do so? The Hebrew people of that time heard and believed the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They had seen Jesus Christ with their naked eyes and knew and believed why Jesus received His baptism and why Jesus died on the Cross. Yet, they had an oral tradition of worshipping angels that was passed down from their ancestors of the past. Hence, there were those who thought of Jesus as one of the angels or even of less stature than an angel.
Because there were many Israelites who worshipped angels, the servants of God needed to tell them, “Jesus Christ is much superior to the angels. He is the Creator. Although angels were created, Jesus Christ as the Son of God the Father is the Creator who created the universe and everything in it.” Although the identity of the author of Hebrews is not known for sure, theologians think that it is either the Apostle Paul or Barnabas because of the author’s intimate knowledge of the Old Testament. Anyway, the author of the Book of Hebrews was a servant of God who believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The second chapter of the Book of Hebrews talks about the superiority of Jesus Christ. Although He came in the flesh of man, the Book talks about the superiority of Jesus Christ and His prestige. The third chapter of the Book of Hebrews warns about those who treat the gospel of the water and the Spirit lightly that they would become worshippers of angels and end up receiving the judgment. Such warning continues on to the fourth chapter of the Book of Hebrews. The Book of Hebrews is full of such descriptions.
Yet, some people insist that the Book of Hebrews describes salvation as something attainable by believing only in the blood of Christ. They gather the spiritual blind that neither see nor know anything spiritual and share with them whatever that comes out of their mouths. Even if they say just anything, the blind cannot but believe whatever they hear. However, if we look closely at the Scripture passages in the Book of Hebrews, we can find out that salvation comes not from the blood of Christ alone as these liars insist. Not only the Lord’s Prayer but also the entire Word of the Bible are fundamentally different from what these people insist.
The Importance of the Role of John the Baptist
People ignore the importance fulfilled by the High Priest John the Baptist too much. There are those who say that John the Baptist is a failure even among the Evangelicals.
John the Baptist was imprisoned. When King Herod committed a hideous sin by taking his sister in law as his wife, John the Baptist rebuked him and was imprisoned for it. So, the disciples of John the Baptist came to visit him at the prison. Then, John the Baptist asked them. “Is what I hear true? People say that Jesus has opened the eyes of the blind and healed the sick. Is He the promised One? You should go to Him and ask for yourselves.” Whether Jesus was the promised Messiah who was to come, John the Baptist told his disciples to go to Jesus and to find out. So, his disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3) Hence, some people say that John the Baptist failed because he did not recognize Jesus and was killed for opposing King Herod.
However, that is not what the Bible says. John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). As a matter of fact, John the Baptist said that he should disappear from the face of the earth once Jesus comes to this world and takes away all the sins of the world through His baptism so that people can follow Jesus and receive the remission of sin. John the Baptist responded thus to his disciples not because he did not recognize Jesus but because his disciples regarded him higher than they did Jesus.
John the Baptist was aware of the fact that Jesus was the Messiah from the moment he gave Jesus the baptism at the Jordan River. Already in the first chapter of John, John the Baptist said, “I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God” (John 1:33-34). John the Baptist knew all about who Jesus was. Hence, John the Baptist said in Matthew chapter 3, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”
Because those who are not born again of water and the Spirit do not have the Holy Spirit, they do not know the Word correctly. They just fit the pieces of the Bible together at their own discretion and believe in whatever they want. However, because we the righteous who have received the remission of sin by the water and the Spirit have the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we know and believe in the Word of God correctly. Jesus came to John the Baptist and told him, “Baptize me.” At this, John the Baptist replied, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” We can know and believe clearly in why such conversation took place in that situation.
Although John the Baptist might be a servant of God born into the family of the High Priests on this land who himself had to take the role of the High Priest, he couldn’t be higher than the Messiah, who is God. Hence, when the promised Messiah Jesus Christ came to him in the flesh of man and said bending down before him, “Baptize me. Complete your grave task by transferring all the sins of the world onto Me,” John the Baptist replied “How could I dare baptize You? I should receive baptism from You.” Because John the Baptist knew how exalted Jesus Christ really was, he reacted with such humility.
Jesus did not try to receive His baptism from John the Baptist because He was humble. Likewise, John the Baptist did not refuse to baptize Jesus saying, “Why do You come to be baptized by me, when I should be baptized by You,” because he was humble. Yet, ignorant people say that Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist because He was humble or that it was because John the Baptist was very polite, when they honor John the Baptist. John the Baptist merely recognized and honored Him whom he should have recognized and honored. Moreover, he said those things because he listened to the words of Jesus and recognized correctly that the Lord as Savior had come.
Hence, we respect John the Baptist as the servant of God. John the Baptist was not just any servant, but the greatest servant of God, even greater than Moses, and the greatest person among those born of women.
You probably know about Moses very well. John the Baptist is greater than Moses who had talked with God face to face; and he is greater than the Prophet Isaiah, too. Most Christians think greatly of Moses and not much of John the Baptist, but that is not correct. Jesus said it so Himself: “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He will go and turn many people back to Me. He will have the lost souls turn back. Furthermore, those who do not believe in what he witnesses will receive the judgment of fire in the last days.”
God promised to the entire humanity, including you and me, by His Word that He will send Jesus Christ, and He fulfilled His promise as our Lord and Savior. Jesus was not a tyrant, nor was he impolite. He wasn’t a great teacher of morality but was the holy almighty God, perfect in every way.
“It Is Proper to Fulfill All Righteousness by Doing Thus Together”
Matthew 3:15 says, “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.”
Jesus took away all the sins of every person by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist. Hence, Jesus said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Because Jesus Christ came to this world as the sacrificial Lamb who would blot out all the sins of this world, Jesus Christ took away all of our sins to blot them out. That is why Jesus spoke thus to John the Baptist.
Our Lord came to this world and received His baptism from John the Baptist. At this, John the Baptist permitted it to be so. John the Baptist gave the baptism to Jesus by laying his hands on His head, and Jesus received His baptism from the representative of the entire humanity, that is, John the Baptist.
We endlessly commit sins in this world, while our Lord came to this world and received the baptism from John the Baptist to take away all of our sins. As we get full when we eat, we gain new strength by meditating and ruminating on this amazing fact. When we acknowledge before God that we are weak and evil and when we believe in the fact that our Lord took away all of our sins through His baptism He received, our hearts are cleansed and become sanctified by meditating on the gospel Truth. When we believe that Jesus has taken away all the sins we commit daily by receiving His baptism, all our sins are indeed transferred onto Jesus Christ and our hearts receive the perfect remission of sin. Moreover, we become sacred people before God who can live a life without any shame. We who have received the remission of sin by the water and the Spirit have become the sacred children of God who can preach His righteousness all over the world.
God has become our bread of life. Jesus, who has become our daily bread, is the very bread of life as well as the living water. What Jesus Christ did in His 33 year life in this world constituted the bread of life and the daily bread to all of us. Whoever confirms, believes in, and ruminates what Jesus Christ has done will gain new strength at any time in his heart. Those who have gained new bread through their faith are satisfied day after day both in body and spirit.
Because Jesus received His baptism from John the Baptist, the representative of all humanity, all the sins you and I commit till the last days of our lives have already been transferred onto Jesus once and for all. Therefore, all of our sins were washed away through His baptism. This is a very obvious Truth and an absolutely necessary Truth. Yet, people have treated this Truth too lightly for so long. Although they remembered everything else, they ignored the baptism Jesus received and went looking for something else in the Bible. Try as hard as you can to look for something else. You will find nothing and come to a pointless conclusion that the Word of Jesus is mysterious and, hence, incomprehensible. Only when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and look for the Truth of the Bible by making this genuine gospel the measuring stick, we can find that every Word of God fits in with each other.
The Reason Jesus Received His Baptism
Matthew 3:16 states, “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.”
The heavens were opened when our Lord came out of the water, after He had received His baptism. And the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove. Christians of this world are unaware of this and try to discriminate toward us as a sect of baptism or worse as a denomination created by heretics, when we try to tell them about the importance of the baptism Jesus received. There are so many people who do not know that believing without knowing Jesus’ baptism through which all their sins were transferred is wrong. They are foolish people who think that we are spreading a different gospel because we are preaching the Truth of Jesus’ baptism. Look at the above passage: Concrete evidence lies in the Word that the heavens were opened up and the Holy Spirit like a dove descended on Jesus, when He came out of the water after receiving the baptism.
The will of God could not be fulfilled without the baptism of Jesus. Especially, therefore, we can receive the remission of sin by believing in this Word without going as far into the Books of John or Romans. If we had comprehended just this single verse that God was pleased to see Jesus receive the baptism to fulfill all righteousness and thus He sent the Holy Spirit, we would be able to escape from all of our sins and fulfill all righteousness in our hearts.
That our Lord came to this world and received His baptism signifies that all the sins of the entire humanity were transferred onto Him once and for all. And because all the sins were transferred onto Jesus, He took those sins onto the Cross, where He died. That Jesus received His baptism and came out of the water signifies three facts: First, that Jesus took away all our sins. Second, that He died on the Cross shedding His blood. And third, that He was resurrected from the dead. Moreover, He who completed this was of the Holy Trinity. It was God the Holy Trinity who had Jesus Christ come into this world and receive His baptism from John the Baptist, die on the Cross, and be resurrected from the dead to deliver all of us from all of our sins. God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, these three Persons agreed to deliver us from all our sins and accomplished this amazing salvation.
Therefore, there can’t be a gospel that insists Jesus died on the Cross covering our sins with blood unless He has been previously baptized in water. Nether can there be a gospel that insists that Jesus received the baptism but did not die on the Cross. We cannot insist that Jesus received the baptism out of His humility. Nor can we omit His baptism from the gospel nor emphasize the blood of the Cross standing alone. Also, defiling the holiness of Jesus by insisting that Jesus was a mere human is bad faith as well.
Because Jesus was fundamentally God, He was able to take all our sins away when He received His baptism from John the Baptist. Jesus died on the Cross taking away all of our sins away that He had received through His baptism. Jesus was able to take away all of our sins by receiving His baptism, to shed His blood on the Cross bearing all the sins of the world, to say that He has completed all righteousness, and to be resurrected from the dead because He was the Holy God.
Also, God the Father worked everything out in unison with His Son and the Holy Spirit. He has fulfilled everything in accordance with the plan of God in order to make us into the people of God, to deliver us from all of our sins, to have us participate in the sacred Kingdom of God, and to adopt us as the children of God. To illustrate this point most concretely, Jesus as the representative of Heaven received His baptism from the representative of earth, died on the Cross, and was resurrected on the third day.
When I look at the saints, the servants of God, or myself, I can see that all of us are so very weak. We can see that we commit sins everyday. When we fall into our own thoughts, we get increasingly indecent.
There is a hymn that goes, “Many years I squandered, filled by sin and sorrow,
Hopelessly I wandered counting not the cost.
But my sins He pardoned, gave me His salvation,
Now I have been adopted, I no more am lost.
O the love of God, boundless love of God
Freely giving pardon through the Savior’s blood,
O the love of God, boundless love of God
Let us lift our voices praising Him above.”
How can those who remain sinners despite of their faith in Jesus sing this hymn with such enthusiasm? They do not boast about the love and merit of Jesus but their sinfulness. They enthusiastically praise this hymn as if they are proud that they have sins in their hearts. As if their conscience were dazed and confused, they sing this hymn with such confidence despite all of their sins. The merit of Jesus was remitting all of our sins by the water and the blood. Yet while they profess only the blood of Jesus, they sing with such confidence as if it is right that they have sins although they believe in Jesus. Those who know nothing about the gospel of the water and the Spirit are seduced by such enthusiasm. Even fake jewels shine brighter than real ones. Less than 100% gold shines brighter than pure gold. Plastic food models look tastier than real food. Like this, fakes abound in this world, even in the realm of faith.
We Are Able to Become Righteous Although We Are Weak Day after Day
How can we become righteous, if we commit sins on a daily basis? Jesus took away all of our sins by receiving His baptism. He paid the price of death since the wages of sin is death by bearing all the sins of the world onto the Cross, where He was nailed and shed His blood. By being resurrected from the dead, He gave us the hope of resurrection. He gave us the faith to believe that Jesus is the true God. Like this, we are able to become righteous because He gave us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, through which we can completely be born again.
Jesus delivered us by substituting His life for the price of our sins in our place. That is, Jesus ransomed us with His own life and bought us. That is how we were delivered. We didn’t have to die for our sins on the Cross or pay the price for our sins because Jesus Christ came to this world for us taking all of our sins away through His baptism and ransoming the price of our sins on the Cross. We have become sinless because Jesus was resurrected from the dead to bring us back to life after He had taken away all of our sins and paid the ransom for those sins. Our Lord has become our perfect Savior. We have become sinless by believing in Him. That is the justice of God that deserves our praises.
As a matter of fact, you and I are mere clay. To be more precise, we were made out of dust. We return to dust once we die. You probably had fasted from both food and water in order to pray fervently before. At those instances, we can feel our bodies being dehydrated. Because 70% of our bodies consist of water, our lives are threatened when an amount of water escapes from our bodies. We may be able to go without food for days, but we cannot do the same without water. Once all the water is dried up from our bodies, we are nothing but a handful of dust. We were made from dust, but we became the living souls when God breathed into our nostrils the breath of life.
There is a lot of talk and discussions about spirituality in today’s Christianity. Just a little while ago, I watched a TV discussion on spirituality among the host, two theologians with Ph.D.s, and some other people. “Spirituality is spirituality.” That was their final conclusion. When asked, “In conclusion, could you define Spirituality in one word?” after 45 minutes of discussion, none of the participants, not even the theologians, were able to answer. That’s right. They are unable to definitely state what spirituality is.
Although their discussion lasted for 45 minutes, they couldn’t come to a conclusion. And one of the theologians said, “In Genesis, it is written, ‘The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.’ Because we do not know the secret behind this breath of life that came into the nostrils, we are unable to conclude about spirituality.” They are not born again yet. Regardless of an excellent education at the most prestigious theological institution, they are unable to know about spirituality because they do not have the Holy Spirit in their hearts. “The theological meaning of the word spirituality is ‘the quality or state of being spiritual.’ Of course, the word spirituality has many more meanings. We tend to promote our spirituality by attending morning prayers, offering much money, evangelizing well, doing good deeds, and not committing any sin as our ancestors of faith did. We can call this spirituality.” That is the conclusion they came to at the end.
Looking at this, we can see that Christianity has been corrupted to a large extent. And I truly realized that it is time for us the righteous to appear on the scene and share the Word of Truth. Only the gospel of the water and the Spirit can give definite answers to what spirituality is, what it means to be human, why people need to receive the remission of sin, and why we need to revive our spiritualities in the first place. And we who are born again by the water and the Spirit should pass on these answers.
Now, it is time for us the righteous to appear on the scene and tell them about the gospel of the water and the Spirit while at the same time explaining the fundamental meanings of spirituality. “We should start by telling them that we have grown apart from God because of our sins. The divine nature and spirit we once possessed in our hearts were cut off from God because of our sins. We have to tell them that we are able to recover these by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit through Jesus Christ. When we believe in this gospel and receive the remission of sin, we become truly spiritual beings as well as the children of God. That is the revival of spirituality.” If we develop this truth in greater detail, we can provide clear answers to those who are lost because of their ignorance of spirituality. In another word, the revival of spirituality is the recovery of the divine nature in our hearts that grew apart from God because of our sins by believing in the baptism Jesus received and His blood.
Because we are so very weak, we commit numerous sins while living in this world. We grew apart from God because of our sins. Unless we can completely blot out all those sins, we can never live spiritually again but live our lives bound to the weaknesses of our flesh. Hence, we have to believe in the baptism Jesus received, which contains all things necessary to the revival of our spiritualities; Inside the baptism are the facts that Jesus took away all of our sins by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist, that He died on the Cross shedding His blood, that He was resurrected from the dead, and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God as well as our own God. Inside the baptism, there is everything that is essential to our souls.
Hence, we have to confirm this gospel once again, from which we can eat our spiritual bread day after day. Even when an uneasy conscience grows in our hearts because of faults and sins that we commit daily out of our weaknesses, we are able to become whole in our hearts once again by confirming the gospel. When our thoughts and hearts are tainted by our weaknesses in our lives, our conviction that our Lord has made us complete will be confirmed more concretely in our hearts, only if we remember the baptism our Lord received from John the Baptist, what He said while He received the baptism, what happened when He came out of the water, and what the Holy Ghost testified. Through these, our souls will be filled and we will gain new strength enough to live out our faith. By doing so, we are able to live as soldiers of Christ while on this earth.
We have to thank for this gospel of the water and the Spirit and eat our daily bread day after day by ruminating on this gospel on a daily basis. The Lord asked us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).
Our daily bread does not lie in a different place. Our Lord spoke of the daily bread as follows. John 4:32 says, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” Following in verse 34, our Lord says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
Actually, the soldiers of our Lord are able to comprehend the Word spoken by Jesus Christ. The primary bread we, who have received the remission of sin, need daily is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Daily bread for us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which Jesus has accomplished, is the daily ruminating on the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When we gain new strength by eating and confirming the gospel of the water and the Spirit on a daily basis, when we gain our daily bread of life, and when we do the works of God, our souls are taking the necessary daily bread.
The secondary bread we the righteous need is doing the works of our Lord. When Jesus Christ carried out what God the Father wanted to realize in this world through His Son, Jesus Christ said that the work of God becomes His bread. If those who have received the remission of sin don’t do the spiritual works, it would be the same as soldiers dying on the battlefield for not fighting the war. When we loose our morale and tension as soldiers and forget that we have come to fight a war, our enemies will invade us and rid us of everything including our own lives. Therefore, because we who have received the remission of sin are the soldiers of God, we have to constantly do the work of God and fight the spiritual war in order to keep our lives.
Thus, doing the works of God and devoting our flesh and soul to the spiritual works are the very bread that keeps us alive day after day. Regardless of the high tech weaponries, if soldiers are unwilling to use them, unwilling to fight, and unwilling to receive training, they would be unable to save themselves in war. Even if the church of God provides the Word of God everyday, a person who is unwilling to take and receive the Word of God is already dead in reality.
God told the righteous that doing the works of God is their bread. This is actually so. Those who have received the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have been entrusted a certain part of God’s works. We do our parts in our departments for the work of the gospel. If we didn’t do our jobs, we may be comfortable in our flesh but our hearts will be so uncomfortable and empty that we won’t be able to live. Our hearts will grow poor and destitute causing them to starve to death. The reason we are powerless although we have received the remission of sin is because we haven’t done the work of God. If we do not eat the bread, we cannot but be powerless: If we are not provided our spiritual bread because we haven’t done any spiritual work, we will lose our powers out of hunger. Even if I had not told you this, I am sure that you know well about this already. God gives us new strength when we do the work of God. When we don’t do the work of God, we lose our powers. This is true not only for our inner self but also for our outer self as well. If we have no power, it is because we are unaware of the fact that we have become soldiers.
What we need is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have to confirm and ruminate on the gospel of the water and the Spirit daily. We have to daily admit the sins that we commit everyday, confirm once again that our Lord has blotted out all of those sins, and give thanks to receive new strength in us.
Works of God Are Essential Nourishments to Promote the Strong Faith of His Workers
If the righteous don’t do the work of God, and if the soldiers of Heaven only do the work of this world without doing the work of God at all, they will die out of starvation: Being unable to do anything, they will lose all their powers and end up dying. That is so because they cannot receive new strength. Like this, when we do the work entrusted to us by our Lord, this in and of itself becomes our strength. That becomes the necessary daily bread for us. Like this, we have to eat our daily bread by doing the work of God everyday.
We can compare this to the muscles of our bodies. We must do exercise to gain muscles and keep exercising if we want to keep those solid muscles. If we get too giddy when we gained rock-solid muscles and stop exercising, our muscles will soon deteriorate. Muscles that deteriorate become harmful fat and cause all sorts of illnesses. Hence, we must keep exercising to strengthen our muscles. We have to strengthen our legs and backs to hold up to all the pressures so that we don’t get problems in our legs or backs.
That implies that those who have just become the children of God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must ruminate on the gospel daily and do the work of God. Since we have been sanctified and received the Holy Spirit in our hearts by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have to eat our daily bread each day in order to keep those things intact. When we do the work of God, we gain new strength by eating our daily bread. We should remember that doing the work of God gives us new strength. Of course, I am sure that all of you know this already and believe so.
Our Lord says in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.” The soldiers of our Lord are to hunger and thirst for righteousness. If we don’t do the work of God for a single day or even for a single hour, we commit sins only doing the work of the flesh and starve. To fulfill the will of God in this world and to fill our bellies by doing the work of God, we the righteous must do the work of righteousness.
Therefore, the Lord says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Dear fellow believers, God told us to first seek His Kingdom and His righteousness. We who have become the soldiers of Christ must ruminate on the gospel on a daily basis. We have to bring our weaknesses and sins before Him. We have to acknowledge that we have done wrong in certain ways and take our sins to the Jordan River and remember that our Lord took away even these sins through His baptism.
The Word of God continuously speaks of this gospel Word of the water and the Spirit because this gospel is Truth and because our Lord came to this world to complete this gospel. We can meet this gospel of the water and the Spirit from any part of the Bible.
I am not speaking about this as it comes up arbitrarily in my mind. You should not interpret the Word of God by your own thoughts either. We shouldn’t interpret the Bible passage “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name” as follows: “This means that our Lord told us to live holy lives and that we should live holy lives because we are the righteous.” This is just speaking on our own regard without considering the will of God. And there is no way that our own words and not the Word of God will make any sense to the righteous. Who among the righteous would listen to mere human thoughts? The righteous can discern mere words of humans from God’s Word without fail.
Our Lord taught us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray, “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.” Then, does this mean that we should live holy lives? That doesn’t mean that we should live holy lives without committing any sin but that we should live our lives as priests spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit according to the Word of God. Our Lord who knows us so well would not tell us to live without committing any sin because we cannot but show our weaknesses everyday in our lives. Our Lord definitely tells us what we need to know and gives us the strength to live thus if we only believe in His Word. We need to know that He has completed all His righteousness so that we can live our lives by faith.
However, because many people read the Bible without first knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they don’t comprehend the true intention of God and try to understand the Bible quite literally. Because they are told to pray, “Hallowed be Your name,” they think that they should not embrace evil thoughts and must behave virtuously. However, you should know well that knowing and believing like so is to misunderstand and have bad faith before God.
God created us, and there is no way He does not know us through and through. Jesus Christ is our Creator and Savior. Then, do you think that He would have spoken thus without knowing our weaknesses of the flesh? Of course, not! There is nothing Jesus, our Creator and Savior, does not know about us. He knows everything. It is written in Psalm 139:1-5,
“O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.”
Our Lord knows everything about us. He knows about us from our cradles to our graves. He knows all about all of our ancestors as well as our descendants. Do you understand? Even when we were unaware of ourselves, our Lord knew about us.
The passage “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name” means “live out your faith so that the name of our Father is not disgraced.” He did not demand perfect lives from us but told us to receive the perfect remission of sin in our hearts and to live as workers of the good works of God through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the true gospel. That means that we should become the soldiers of Christ by faith. That means that we should eat our daily bread by faith.
God has already given us all the bread that we need. Only when we live by faith can we take that daily bread. He has already given us all the heavenly blessings. When we the righteous who have the born again hearts live out our faith inside the Church, we will eat our daily bread on a daily basis.
There are differences between people when they are to eat the Word. Some people are too lazy too eat. Some people don’t have a balanced diet saying, “This Word applies to that person and only that Word fits perfectly to me.” Yet, others submit themselves before God and take every Word by stating, “Every Word was spoken directly to me.” Those who are too lazy to eat or have an unbalanced diet will lose their strength although they are working. And eventually they will die by being reduced to mere skeletons and by losing all vitality.
Dear fellow believers, regardless of their age and gender, many people are into dieting these days. We should diet in the flesh; but we should not diet spiritually in order for us not to die of spiritual malnutrition. You probably know very well that even the diets of the flesh can be deadly especially when they are used as an extreme remedy. If we want to lose weight, we shouldn’t just diet but also exercise. An appropriate amount of exercise is good in many aspects.
Regardless of what we do with our flesh, what is important is that we should never diet spiritually. Yet, there are those who diet not only in their flesh but also spiritually. “That’s enough. Stop talking to me. I said enough.” Those who speak thusly while covering their ears and refusing to have fellowship with the Word and to do the work of God will lose all of their strength. “When will our Lord return? I wish He would come quickly.” That is all they think about. They do not expect the return of our Lord from true faith but they hope so because waiting any longer will drain the last drop of strength from their souls.
Dear fellow believers, those who do not diet spiritually but eat well can care less about the timing of our Lord’s return. They are always full of spiritual strength, and all they want to do is to do the work of our Lord and to fight spiritually. Those who say, “When is our Lord coming? I am too tired. Stop preaching at me. I am already exhausted without it,” are the ones who are dieting spiritually. Those who think ceaselessly, “With whom should I share the gospel? How would God save that person,” are the ones who have enthusiasm about spiritual matters and are eating well as well as growing well.
The Lord says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” A life that reveals the righteousness of God, a life that spreads God’s righteous gospel of the water and the Spirit, a life that spreads the gospel and eats well the daily bread, these are the lives that seek the Kingdom of God and seek His righteousness. God said that this is the very daily bread for us.
We have to eat the daily bread on a daily basis. We have to ruminate on the gospel everyday and turn our hearts toward our Lord by doing the work of the gospel everyday. Also, the more our faith grows, we should not just ruminate on the gospel but also pray for a heart that can carry out the greater things by seeing what God has done with our eyes and believing in Him our hearts.
Because we still have our bodies of weak flesh, we are prone to fall into our weaknesses. Sometimes we get frustrated and fall into severe temptations. When we fall into such depression, we can renew our depressed hearts through the prayers of our hearts. Because God already knew what kind of creatures we were, our Lord came to this world, received His baptism, died on the Cross, and was resurrected from the dead. He has done all three of them so that we can start anew at the beginning of each new day. And because He sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts, we have really become the people of God.
We have to receive the remission of sin, confirm the gospel daily, and do the work that God delights in. We should not do this by ourselves but united with the Church as well as the other soldiers of Christ, just the way that pleases our God. No matter how small it is, we should unite in our works. That will give us strength. Just as we gain strength by eating our meals, we will gain strength by doing God’s work. Believe that it becomes the daily bread to you.
For that reason, we work endlessly. The church of God is as small as a mustard seed, but it is working towards the entire world. We are spreading the Truth to everyone in this world in every language of the world by translating the books that contain Gods gospel of the water and the Spirit. We publish books in every language possible so that whoever that wants to receive the remission of sin in his heart can meet the gospel. There may be people complaining about our zeal to publish books; they tell us to stop now. I believe that everyone would now agree that we a small number of soldiers were able to share the gospel because of the books.
Dear fellow believers, there is a lot of work for all of us. How can a soldier of Christ slack from work and play? How can we do anything else when there is so much work of God to do? A soldier cannot forget his duty and do something else. Does it make any sense that a soldier would take time off, if he knew that the enemy is going to invade now? The Lord said, “And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes” (Luke 12:47). Even if it is not the sin of blaspheming of the Holy Spirit, it must be a grave sin that will bring many stripes. Their sins are so great that they should forever live in poverty and destitution. These are such great sins that would unclothe them and starve them both spiritually as well as in their flesh.
Thus, we the workers are praying, “Give us this day our daily bread.” By gaining strength through eating our daily bread in our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we are able to clean out the filth that enters our hearts just like we clean up our houses. We gain new strength by doing the work of God through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We are able to do the work of God all day long because we eat our daily bread on a daily basis. The more we do the work of God, the more strength we are able to gain. By this amazing fact, we are able to know that we really are doing the work of God.
Dear fellow believers, if you truly have the Holy Spirit in your hearts, you come to devote your lives to the work of God. As it is written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up” (John 2:17), we have to follow the Lord’s example to live only for the will of God the Father. Jesus Christ, who gladly submitted Himself to the fulfillment of the will of God, received His baptism, shouted the gospel of the water and the Spirit for 3 years, died on the Cross, and fulfilled the righteous work of God although He knew He would die for it. Thus, He became a model for us to follow His perfect example. Do you understand?
From now on, those of you who feel weak should realize your malnutrition is because of your skipping the daily bread. If you feel weak although the table is always set, that is because you haven’t eaten your meal. If you feel weak although you have eaten your meal, it is because your body fat has increased, while you haven’t worked. You feel tired because of the additional weight you have put on. The conclusion is quite simple. You cannot but be feeble without the spiritual power if you haven’t inscribed the Word of God in your heart, although the Word of God is abundantly present before you. Moreover, you would not only be feeble but also feel tired because of the additional weight, if you haven’t actually acted on your faith, although you have put the Word of God in your heart. If we have eaten the Word of God, we must also practice it so that it becomes as a rock-solid muscle in our bodies. If we have believed and inscribed the Word of God in our hearts, we have to do the work of God so that it really becomes our own strong faith. Those who have a healthy and strong faith in anyone’s eyes know how to act as much as they believe.
We face a lot of hardships as we live in this world. Sometimes, we may be drained out of all strength. Sometimes, we may find our lives too arduous. At other times, we may feel quite healthy and happy with pleasant hearts. If there is a saint who has been born again through his faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and if he is now without strength because he has not lived by faith so far, make him just do the work of God without even having fellowship with him. If he does the work of God, even if it is just a small task, you will see his soul revive by gaining new revitalized strength.
We have to inscribe the Word of God in our hearts on a daily basis. We have to make our daily bread by doing the work of God. And we have to keep the holiness of God in our hearts by doing so. We give thanks for the grace of God that provided us our daily bread.
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