What Does It Mean When the Bible Says That Whoever Abides in God Does Not Sin? (1 John 3:1-10)
(1 John 3:1-10)
“Behold
what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be
called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it
did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not
yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is
revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And
everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him
there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has
neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you.
He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might
destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not
sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been
born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil
are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor
is he who does not love his brother.”
The
Apostle John said in 1 John 3:1, “Behold what manner of love the Father
has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” Do you
know what kind of love God the Father has given us so that we would be
called His own children? It’s very important for all of us to truly know
what kind of love God has given us to make us His children. God had
made us His own children by making us sinless through Jesus Christ. By
giving up His Son for us, God the Father passed all our sins to this Son
and let Him bear the condemnation of our sins on our behalf. And by
resurrecting His Son back to life, God the Father has made us His very
own children. This is the kind of love that God has bestowed upon us.
God had given up His own Son for us so that we would be called His
children. That’s why John the Apostle is exclaiming God’s love here.
Just hearing that God loves us might not be enough for us to truly
appreciate how great God’s love is, but when we think about the fact
that God the Father has made us His own children by actually giving up
and sacrificing His only begotten Son, we can begin to appreciate just
how unbounded God’s love is.
Can Anyone do what God Has Done for Us?
No
human being loves another human being as much as God loves us, nor is
any human being even capable of practicing this kind of love. About 60
years ago, when the Korean War broke out, a certain pastor named Rev.
Sohn ministering in a southwestern province of South Korea saw his two
sons murdered in cold blood by the Communist guerrillas. The two sons
were murdered just for being Christians. Yet, despite this, instead of
seeking revenge, Pastor Sohn adopted one of the murderers as his son and
took him into his home. Needless to say, this is an amazing
demonstration of love. Would any of you be able to do something like
that? Would you be able to adopt your own son’s murderer, accept him
into your home, and take care of him? Very few of you, if any, would be
able to do this. So, from our human perspective, Rev. Sohn does deserve a
great deal of respect for this remarkable act of love.
If
he did this out of God’s love, then all the more praise should go to
God; however, if he did it to establish his own righteousness, then
nothing would be more hypocritical than this. After all, how could you
sit down at the table with someone who shot your own two sons to death
and share a meal with him as if nothing had happened? Would you be able
to bear watching him eat across the table? Wouldn’t you want to just
grab his throat and strangle him right there on the spot? How could you
have any warm feelings to the man who shot your own sons to death,
especially given the fact that he did so for no other reason than your
sons being Christians?
I
don’t know about you, but I certainly couldn’t bring myself to do this,
except by God’s love. While I am not sure whether or not it was out of
God’s love that Rev. Sohn managed to do this, but from a human point of
view, he does seem like a better man than me. What kind of love has God
the Father bestowed upon us to make us His own children? He gave up His
only begotten Son, Jesus for us. Not only did God the Father pass our
sins to His Son, but He even made His Son bear the condemnation of our
sins in our place by putting Him to death. And by raising His Son back
to life, God raised us back to life also. This, my fellow believers, is
how great God the Father’s love is. It’s because of such amazing love
that we are now called God’s children.
We
believe that we have become God’s own children all thanks to the work
of salvation our Lord has done for us on this earth, and the love God
the Father has bestowed upon us—that is, because our Lord has saved us
through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. So, the Apostle
John said, “Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not
know Him” (1 John 3:1). Since the people of this world do not even know
God, how could they know us? Having sent His only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ to this earth, God the Father made Him bear all our sins by being
baptized by John the Baptist. God the Father then let His Son be
crucified to death, raised Him from the dead again, and thereby gave us
everlasting life. Therefore, if people don’t know what God the Father
has done for them through His Son Jesus Christ, then these people also
cannot know us the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
either.
Given
the fact that you and I have received the remission of sins by
believing in the righteousness of God, how could the people of this
world know us? They can’t, just as the Scripture says here. Indeed, the
people of the world have no idea who the believers in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit are. Why is this so? It’s because they know us only
from our fleshly aspect. They are unable to recognize that we have
become God’s own children because they do not know that God the Father
has washed away all our sins through His Son Jesus, blotted them all out
at once, condemned them all, and thereby, delivered us from our death
and judgment.
Who Are God’s Children?
It’s
written in 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now we are children of God.” Who are
God’s children then, do you know? They are all the believers in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have put on God the Father’s
love. By believing in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we have become
God’s own sons and daughters. Moreover, God has assigned angels to His
children. I will address this point in much more detail in one of my
future sermons, but for now, let me draw your attention to Matthew
18:10, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I
say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father
who is in heaven.” The “little ones” here refer to those who know and
believe in God—that is, those who have received the remission of sins.
And here Jesus warned everyone not to despise any of them. In other
words, no one should dismiss God’s children scornfully as though they
didn’t matter, for Jesus Himself clearly said here, “In heaven their
angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”
The
Scripture says that when we go to the Kingdom of Heaven angles will
serve us as God’s children. Even though right now we the redeemed are
still living on this earth, we each have an angel assigned to us. Even
now, these angels are working before God the Father on our behalf. They
are reporting to God the Father everything that is happening in our
lives, including those who persecute them. Whenever the believers in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit are despised, the angels assigned to
them report it all to God the Father, saying to Him, “Lord, these
people are despising our masters, they who are your children.”
We
are God’s children, for we believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Right now, when we hear that we are God’s children, we may not
fully comprehend it. However, when the time comes, we will all be
honored as God’s own children. Today, I watched a movie called The Day
After Tomorrow on TV. I came across this film accidentally, taking a
short break from working on my manuscript. I didn’t get to watch it from
the beginning, nor did I actually finish watching the whole film. I
just watched some parts in the middle. At any rate, the movie’s plot was
centered on extreme climatic changes associated with global warming.
The melting of the polar ice results into a series of catastrophic
natural disasters, ranging from massive tsunamis to violent tornadoes
and blizzard like superstorms that destroy whole cities, capped by the
arrival of a new ice age.
In
not too distant future, such disasters will actually happen in this
world. This is not just something that you see in a sci-fi movie, but it
is what will actually happen in this world. However, when such
disasters strike, there will be a way out for those who believe in God’s
gospel of the water and the Spirit, for they have become God’s
children. When the world is destroyed, the righteous will have a place
to go and live forever with God. They have a place prepared just for
them apart from this planet earth.
This
is why, in saying that the believers in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit are God’s own children, the Apostle John also said, “It has not
yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is
revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And
everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure”-
1 John 3:2-3. Here, purifying oneself refers to purifying one’s heart
by faith by ruminating on the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It’s
also written here that even though it has not yet been revealed what we
will be, we know that when the Lord is revealed we will be like Him.
Why? It’s because we will see the Lord exactly as He is. So, it’s an
amazing blessing that we have become new creatures.
It’s
said that a cicada has to live underground as a nymph from five to
seven years before it actually turns into an adult cicada. When the time
comes, the nymph surfaces from the ground, moults for one last time,
and emerges as an adult cicada. Like this, all of us who have received
the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit will also be transformed one day. Although we were born on this
earth through our parents of the flesh, when the time comes, we will all
be transformed and go to the Kingdom of Heaven and live there forever.
This,
my fellow believers, is not some fairy tale. God’s blessings are real.
Sadly, the problem with many Christians is that they accept this Word of
God only as a mere religious belief. They believe in Heaven only
vaguely, not because they have any assurance of faith, but because this
is what they are taught to believe as a tradition. As a result, many
Christians today have only a vague idea of Heaven. In contrast, all of
us who have become God’s children by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit are absolutely convinced that we will actually go
to the Kingdom of God. And we are equally certain that we will see God
face to face just as we can see one another face to face now in the
living years. Moreover, we also know that when we enter God’s Kingdom,
we will actually be served by angels. This is not just some make-belief,
but it is what the Word of God actually says will happen to us.
Who Commits Lawlessness?
It’s
written in John 3:4-5, “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness,
and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away
our sins, and in Him there is no sin.” This passage tells us that those
who have become God’s children do not commit lawlessness. In other
words, it means that we do not give up our faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that has saved us perfectly. Some of you might be
wondering, “The Bible says here that ‘whoever commits sin also commits
lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.’ Does this then mean that the
believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit don’t commit any sin
in their flesh?” The answer is, No! Although we believe in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, we still have many shortcomings in our
flesh, and therefore, we also commit sin in our lives. However, even
though we still commit sin in our flesh, we do not commit the sin of
rejecting the God-fulfilled gospel of salvation. That is why the Bible
says that the children of God who believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit do not commit lawlessness. Put differently, whoever believes
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit do not commit the sin of
breaking God’s law of salvation.
Through
the work of salvation fulfilled by His Son, God the Father has saved
all of us who believe in this work from all our sins. He has established
for us a law of salvation to deliver us from the sins of the world.
This law of salvation planned by God the Father was designed to save us
once and for all by making His Son Jesus Christ be baptized by John the
Baptist, letting Him be crucified to death, and raising Him from the
dead again. This was the law and method of salvation established by God
the Father.
It
is by believing in Jesus according to this God-established law of
salvation that we can reach our salvation. Therefore, as those who have
become God’s own children, we do not commit the sin of not believing in
the righteousness of God. On the contrary, we believe that God the
Father has saved us from all our sins through the gospel Truth of the
water and the Spirit. If God says that He has planned our salvation in
this way, we simply believe this according to His plan. In contrast,
those who commit lawlessness do not believe in God’s plan of salvation
for their deliverance from sin, nor in the salvation fulfilled by God’s
love.
In
other words, the gravest sin committed by those who practice
lawlessness before God is none other than refusing to believe in God’s
plan of salvation exactly as it is. Believing in whatever way one wants
according to his own thoughts is the gravest sin of all. None other this
is the lawless faith in God’s sight. Anyone professing this kind of
faith is sinning against God. Such people are committing the very sin
that disables them from being saved from all their sins.
The
Lord revealed Himself to us to blot out our sins, just as it’s written
here in 1 John 3:5, “You know that He was manifested to take away our
sins, and in Him there is no sin.” The Apostle John said to us here that
we know that Jesus Christ was manifested to take away our sins. But,
exactly how do you know this? How do you and I know that Jesus Christ
has saved us from all the sins of the world? How do we know that our
Lord has blotted out all your sins and mine? We know it from the gospel
of the water and the Spirit. From the gospel of the water and the Spirit
we know that our Lord God has saved us perfectly by coming to this
earth incarnated in the flesh of man, bearing all our sins through the
baptism He received from John the Baptist, being condemned for all them
by being crucified to death, and rising from the dead again. We know
that this is how the Lord has revealed the way of our salvation to us.
In manifesting Himself to us like this, our Lord sacrificed Himself in
order to blot out all our sins. In other words, Jesus revealed His
unending love towards us by taking all our sins upon Himself through the
baptism He received from John the Baptist, being crucified to death,
and rising from the dead again. The very fact that the Lord has become
our Savior manifests God’s love.
That
is how we know the Lord’s love. That is why we believe in Jesus Christ
exactly according to the work of salvation He has done for us. And that
is how we have reached our salvation by faith. Tragically, many people
still do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit even as
they know it. All of us must believe exactly as the Word of God says,
that the Lord bore all our sins once and for all by being baptized by
John the Baptist on this earth in order to blot out your sins and mine.
All those who do not believe in this Truth of salvation exactly as the
Scripture says is sinning against God and practicing lawlessness before
Him.
In
Matthew 7:23 the Lord said that He will declare to all such stubborn
people, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness!” Therefore, committing lawlessness in God’s sight
constitutes the sin of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. Breaking the
law of salvation through which God has delivered us is the gravest of
sin, the very sin that results in hell for anyone who commits it. While
all other sins can be remitted away, the sin of practicing lawlessness
cannot be remitted. If one breaks the God-established law of salvation
out of ignorance, then this person may still have a chance to be saved;
however, if one breaks this law of salvation despite knowing about it
and intentionally refuse point blank to believe in it, then this person
is practicing lawlessness. There is no argument that the Lord came to
this earth to save us. There is also no argument that the Lord bore all
our sins by being baptized or manifested this to all mankind. And the
Lord has also revealed to us clearly that He carried the sins of the
world to the Cross, was condemned for them by being crucified to death,
and rose from the dead again. If people still do not believe in the law
of salvation despite all of these truths, then they will all be
condemned without exception. That is why we should never allow ourselves
to commit lawlessness by refusing to believe in God’s law of
salvation.
My
fellow believers, God has no sin, just as the Bible says here, “In Him
there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). God the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit have absolutely no sin. God neither lies nor commits any
transgression. He is completely sinless, perfect in every way. Yet, some
people in their own human thoughts engage in all kinds of ridiculous
speculations about Jesus, positing, for instance, that Jesus had a
physical relationship with Mary Magdalene and they bore an illegitimate
child out of wedlock. This is a preposterous lie, defaming God and false
to the uttermost degree! People talk about such preposterous ideas
because they have no idea who Jesus is. They see Jesus, who is divine,
as a mere mortal man. Jesus is God. He is the Creator. He is our Maker
who created everything in this world and gave us life. He is the One who
made all the stars in the universe. Yet, people scorn Him thinking that
He is just a mere fallible man just like us. These people are
committing the grave sin of blaspheming God.
The
president of your country is the president regardless of what you think
of him. Just because you don’t like him, it doesn’t mean that he is not
the president. He is still the leader of your country, and you ought to
recognize him as such even if you don’t like him. In a similar vein,
God is not made any less divine just because you think of Him
differently. Far from refusing to recognize His divinity, you ought to
recognize God as God. The Scripture says that in God there is no sin. He
is completely sinless. That is precisely why we can receive the
remission of sin from this perfect God, and when we do, we are made His
own children.
Only
when we ourselves become sinless can we also become God’s children;
anyone who has any sin at all can never become a child of God.
Therefore, it is absolutely indispensable for all of us to become
sinless first of all. By believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit exactly according to the God-established law of salvation, we
must first receive the remission of sin and then become sinless. Only
then are we made into God’s own children. That is why the Apostle John
said in verse 6, “Whoever abides in Him does not sin,” meaning that the
believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are sinless.
In
our fleshly thoughts, it is hard to imagine how anyone could possibly
not sin. After all, everyone commits sin as fallible human beings.
However, those who have come into Jesus by faith do not sin. What kind
of sin do they not commit then you may ask? They do not commit the sin
of denying the Lord’s work of salvation by saying, “The Lord has not
blotted out all our sins. He failed to blot out all sins once and for
all with His baptism and blood on the Cross. While He did take away our
original sin, but when it comes to our personal sins, we can receive
forgiveness only if we confess and offer prayers of repentance whenever
we commit them.”
As
the Scripture says, whoever abides in the Lord does not commit the sin
by not believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All of us
who abide in Jesus by faith believe that the Lord has blotted out all
our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that He has
eradicated each and every sin of ours with God’s love and righteousness.
In short, we do not deny what the Lord has done for us. Instead, we
believe in everything Jesus has done for us to deliver us from our sins.
This is why the Apostle John said, “Whoever sins has neither seen Him
nor known Him” (1 John 3:6). When so many people don’t even know that
the Lord has blotted out all their sins with the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, how on earth could they not commit sin?
While
those who abide in Jesus may sin in their flesh, they do not commit sin
in their spirits. They can never agree with any claims that denies the
Lord as their Savior. In contrast, those who are not abiding in Jesus
are apt to say as follows, “The Lord has saved us by coming to this
earth and dying on the Cross. So, we can be remitted from all our past
sins if we believe in Jesus, but, when it comes to the daily sins that
we commit from then on, we have to obtain forgiveness by offering
prayers of repentance every day.” We can never agree with such absurd
claims. This is a false claim to us. We agree only with the Truth of
salvation proclaiming that the Lord bore all our sins when He was
baptized by John the Baptist, that He was crucified to death, that He
rose from the dead again, and that He has thereby become our Savior.
Like this, we agree only with the Word of God and disagree with any and
all claims that are biblically unfounded, for such false claims are made
by sinners who have neither seen the Lord nor known Him, just as the
Bible says, “Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him” (1 John
3:6).
Why Is It That Many People Today Cannot Receive the Remission of Sins?
It’s
because they do not know that Jesus Christ has saved them by bearing
their sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, dying
on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. The Scripture says that
faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God. Therefore, we
can understand the Word of God correctly only if we hear it correctly,
and we can believe in the Word of God correctly only if we know it
correctly. This is how we come to have the right faith. Faith is not
about just believing blindly, but it is based upon the knowledge of the
fact that the Lord bore all our sins by being baptized, just as Jesus
said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”-
John 8:32. And it is also by realizing that the Lord took all the sins
of this world to the Cross and bore their condemnation by being
crucified to death that we are wholly saved from all our sins.
This
is the Truth of salvation revealing to us that the Lord has become our
Savior, nd it is with this clear understanding of the Truth that we
believe in Jesus. We reach our salvation by knowing and believing that
this Truth has made us free. Therefore, we should never believe until we
reach a clear understanding of the Truth. If you have any questions in
your mind, you ought to get them resolved or keep on asking until they
are solved. You need to ask why the Lord had to do what He did. Whoever
has not received the remission of sins yet is someone who does not know
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Such people do not know God.
They do not know how much God really loves them. They don’t realize that
God the Father loved them so much that He sent His only begotten Son to
this earth. Nor do they know that the only begotten Son of God bore all
their sins by being baptized by John the Baptist, and that He was
condemned for their sins by being crucified to death.
Therefore,
such people still have not reached their salvation. Only someone who
knows the Truth of salvation can be saved by faith. This means,
crucially, that salvation is not reached by everyone just professing to
believe in Jesus, but only those who have the correct knowledge of
Jesus, understand the true gospel of salvation, and believe
wholeheartedly in this gospel.
When
we turn to Matthew chapter 20 we see Jesus giving the parable of the
workers in the vineyard. In this parable, Jesus said that a landowner
hired workers for his vineyard at different times of the day, some early
in the morning, and others on the third, sixth, ninth, and the eleventh
hours. At the end of the day, the landowner gave each worker one
denarius equally. So the laborers who had been hired earlier complained
to the landowner, saying, “We came here earlier and worked so much more
than these last workers, so why are you paying us the same wage as
theirs?” The landowner then said to them, “I am doing you no wrong. Did
you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your
way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not
lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (Matthew
20:13-15).
Although
some people in God’s Church believed in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit as soon as they heard it and reached their salvation right away,
there also are others among us who took a little longer before coming
to realize the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believed in it. In
other words, there are many people who don’t understand the gospel of
the water and the Spirit right away just because they heard it a few
times, so they need to hear the gospel repeatedly for a long time before
they can reach their salvation. A lot of people don’t realize until
later on exactly how God the Father has saved them and made them
sinless—that is, it can take a long time before they grasp clearly that
God the Father has delivered them from all their sins by sending His
only begotten Son to this earth, making Him bear their sins through His
baptism, letting Him be crucified to death, and resurrecting Him from
the dead. Like this, many people don’t receive the remission of sins
until later on when they finally realize the Truth of salvation.
However,
regardless of when this understanding is reached, all those who know
God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ invariably know what the Lord
has done for them, and that is how they are saved. Those who remain
ignorant of this salvation cannot be saved. That is precisely why our
literature ministry is so important for us to spread the gospel to all
those who still have not been saved. It is absolutely critical for us to
continue publishing our gospel books to explain the true gospel of
salvation time after time, so that whoever reads our books can finally
understand this Truth of salvation.
Genuine Learning Requires Repetitive Instruction
We
must preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit continuously until
everyone understands and believes in it. This is what is meant by
Christian education. Preaching the Word of God doesn’t just end with one
of our sermons, but it must be done repeatedly until the listener
really understands the Word. How about you, do you know the
righteousness of the Lord? Do you know God the Father’s love? Do you
believe in this love? Do you believe that our Lord God has saved us
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit just like everyone who
said, Yes here, I, too, also believe?
The
Apostle John said in verse 7, “Little children, let no one deceive
you.” To be deceived is to be confused. It is to be shrouded in a cloud
of uncertainty and opacity, lacking clarity and transparency. So, when
the Bible tells us to let no one deceive us, it is admonishing us to
have a clear, unmistakable understanding of the Truth of salvation. Some
people say that while salvation is reached through the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, one can also be saved just by believing in the
blood of the Cross. This, my fellow believers, is absolutely false. It
is only through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has
saved us.
Therefore,
whoever does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is
leading a false life of faith rather than the true God approved life of
faith. The problem, of course, is that there are many false prophets in
this world deceiving countless number of people by invoking the Word of
God. This world is full of Christians professing to believe in Jesus,
but many of them are little more than sweet-talking liars. They are all
just leading a mere religious life rather than a genuine life of faith.
They believe in the Jesus of their own making, claiming to have reached
salvation all on their own. Such people do not know who God really is.
They also have no idea who Jesus is. They don’t know what Jesus has done
for them. That’s why they have become so deceptive.
Nowadays,
many Christians with a mistaken faith are doing a lot of volunteer work
evangelizing the less fortunate. While this may seem like something
worthy of praise, it is in fact extremely deceptive. That’s because
these misguided Christians are speaking to others about Jesus even as
they themselves do not know Him. To put it bluntly, they are committing
spiritual fraud. They are preaching to others something that they
themselves do not fully understand. All they are doing is throwing many
more people into confusion. This is utterly harmful, for they are not
only deceiving themselves, including others.
Having
become slaves to the Devil, they are planting hectares of tares. It
would be better if they would just leave the non-believers alone, as
they might then get a chance to hear the real gospel, believe in it, and
so, be saved. At first, tares might grow resembling similar to the
wheat, but once they are fully grown, they won’t have any grain or
fruit. They will have nothing to offer but bone dry chaff. They do not
produce edible seeds. Edible grain such as rice, barley, and wheat can
only come out of good wholesome seed. It’s the grain that’s edible, not
just tares bone dry from the field. That’s why the Apostle John said,
“Little children, let no one deceive you.” Some deceivers even claim to
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit just like us, yet, in
time they reveal themselves and begin tormenting and hating the saints.
How,
then, can we discern these tares? It’s written in verse 7, “He who
practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.” Put
differently, those who have received the remission of sins carry out
God’s righteous work. They do what is right, they please God, and
benefit others. In other words, they serve the gospel. In contrast,
tares do not carry out God’s righteous work even while claiming to
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and, such people are
not God’s children.
The
Lord said that a tree is known by its fruit, not vice versa. This means
that we can discern whether someone is a true child of God or not by
just looking at how this person is walking, what fruit he or she is
producing, and what he or she is seeking. Just as the Lord has saved us
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit by fulfilling the
righteous work of salvation for us, so we the righteous also serve the
gospel. We offer ourselves to serve the gospel; we are united according
to the spiritual order in God’s Church; and, far from hating one
another, we understand and care deeply about each other. All the while,
we pool our strengths together and do everything possible to serve the
Lord. None other than such people are God’s children.
The
Apostle John said, “He who sins is of the devil.” Those who love the
world, seek after the things of the world, but they detest, even loathe
anyone who serves the gospel of the righteousness of God, they reject
the unity of God’s Church, and blaspheme its work. They are indeed from
the Devil. The Scripture also goes on to say, “The devil has sinned from
the beginning.” The Devil is indeed a sinner. The Devil has indeed
sinned from the beginning by standing against God, and those who are of
the Devil are also God’s opponents trying to detract us from doing the
work that’s pleasing to God. It’s by looking at such things that we can
discern who God’s children are or not.
How
can we know for sure whether a person really believes in the gospel or
not even as they profess to believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit? After all, all that we have is this person’s word as he hides
away behind his computer. For all we know, he or she could just be
saying this even as they don’t believe wholeheartedly. The Lord teaches
us that we can know this by their fruit. In other words, we can discern
whether someone is God’s child or not by looking at how this person is
walking. Is this someone who is abiding in the Church? Has this person
united his heart with the Church? Has he made it his goal in life to
serve the Lord? Is he living accordingly to this purpose? Is he
overjoyed when the Lord’s work is flourishing and sad when it stagnates?
These are the questions that enable us to discern who exactly God’s
children are. Even in the days of the Apostle John, there were many
false prophets sitting in the Church. We can see from 1 John that there
were many liars and cheats in those days also.
So,
as it’s written in 1 John chapter 2, these liars also went out from us
because they were not like us. The Scripture says that the Lord, the Son
of God was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil. This means
that Jesus Christ came to this earth to save us from all the sins that
destroy our souls, kill our lives, and make our flesh become accursed,
inflict suffering on us, and ultimately, cast us into hell. It’s all
because of our sins that we are thrown into hell, destroyed, and
inflicted with suffering. Yet, the Lord bore all these sins on His own
body in our place as our propitiation. He shouldered all our sins by
being baptized, and He was condemned for all these sins by being
crucified. That is how the Lord has saved us.
It’s
to destroy the works of the Devil like this that the Lord came to this
earth. And the Lord has indeed destroyed the works of the Devil with the
water and the Spirit. That is why the Lord cried out on the Cross, “It
is finished!” Because our Lord destroyed the Devil’s works completely,
Satan cannot do anything to us as long as we believe in this Truth of
salvation. If, on the other hand, you and I refuse to believe in this
Truth, as fulfilled by the Lord, then the Devil will continue to torment
us.
Do
you suppose the Devil actually cares about those who belong to him and
listen to him obediently? No, of course not! Satan is just using them
like pawns, and once they are no longer useful to him, he will surely
cast them away, utterly destroying them. The Devil came for no other
reason than to rob them of everything, kill them, and destroy them. So
it’s very important for you to realize here if anyone seems to be
flourishing now even as he belong to the Devil, this person will not
continue to be so prosperous. In the end, all these people will be
ruined, this is why they must all turn around from this foolish path
that leads to destruction.
It’s
written here in 1 John 3:9, “Whoever has been born of God does not sin,
for His seed remains in him.” Just as the Scripture says here, whoever
has been born of God indeed does not commit sin. The Apostle John makes
this point repeatedly, emphasizing that those born of God do not sin.
Who are those born of God then? They are those who truly believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do these believers then commit no
sin? While they may still sin in their flesh, but in their spirits they
do not commit sin. In other words, they do not deny the Truth of
salvation that the Lord has blotted out all our sins. Could any believer
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit deny this Truth? No, of
course not! Even though we may go astray in many ways, when it comes to
the Truth of salvation, none of us can deny that the Lord has blotted
out all our sins.
After
all, hasn’t the Lord saved us all through the gospel of the water and
the Spirit? If this is true, how could we say that the Lord has failed
to blot out all our sins? Yet, as you carry on with your life, there are
times when you get so discouraged by your shortcomings and weaknesses
that you begin wondering if you really have been saved. Whenever such
doubts arise, you must reaffirm your faith that the Lord bore all your
sins when He was baptized by John the Baptist, affirming to yourself,
“The Lord indeed shouldered all my sins and all the sins of this world
through His baptism. He bore each and every one of my sins when He was
baptized. So, even though I have many shortcomings, I have no sin, for I
believe in this Truth of salvation.” It’s when you renew your faith
like this that you are freed from the sins you commit in your flesh.
My
fellow believers, the Lord has made us the light of the world. It’s all
because of the Lord that we have become light, not because of our own
efforts, for this is simply impossible on our own. It’s the Lord who has
made us light. As such, we cannot sin in God’s sight because His seed
remains in us. Because the Word of God dwells in our hearts—that is,
because God’s righteous gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is
planted in our hearts—we cannot sin. We cannot sin because we have been
born of God. This applies to everyone who has been born of God.
Let
me finally turn to verse 10 here before concluding my sermon. It’s
written in 1 John 3:10, “In this the children of God and the children of
the devil are manifest.” How are the children of God and the children
of the Devil manifested? Those who believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, who live for this gospel of God, and who obey this
gospel are born of God are manifested as His own children. In contrast,
those who love the world so much that they end up going out to the world
all the while professing to believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, are manifested as not being God’s children.
While
all of us may go astray from time to time succumbing to various
temptations and weaknesses, in the end, we cannot sustain our lives
unless we carry out God’s righteous work. The righteous cannot live
without hearing the Word of God. This is simply impossible. The Apostle
John said here in 1 John 3:10, “Whoever does not practice righteousness
is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.” Just as the
Scripture says, anyone who, despite claiming to have received the
remission of sins, does not practice righteousness, does not love his
brothers and sisters, and instead holds a grudge against them in hatred,
is not of God. Those who are of God love all the members of God’s
Church as their spiritual brothers and sisters, and they continue to
work hard to spread the gospel. Because I am preaching the Word of God, I
can’t help but emphasize this point to you whenever I have a chance.
It’s because this is what it means to practice righteousness. That’s why
we are spreading the righteousness of God in every way possible,
through our testimony and through our sermon books alike. And we are
carrying out this righteous work together in unity.
From
reading 1 John, we can grasp who among all the countless people in this
world belongs to the Devil, and of course, who sins against God. We can
discern such people even if they don’t say anything, for they are known
by their fruit. Anyone who cares only about himself wants nothing else
but a bigger more extravagant church for himself, thinks of the saints
as his own slaves, enriches himself by whatever means, and seeks to
domineer over the congregation—such people are not of God. Even in God’s
Church, we find some people who try to rule over the born-again saints,
taking advantage of them and exploiting them for their own selfish
gains.
Surprisingly,
there are quite a few people like this. For example, consider Jinhee
Lee. Lee tried to lord over and exploit the workers of the Church and
its members, thinking of them as little more than his own tools. He
preferred for the congregation to bring offerings to him rather than to
drop the offerings into the collection box. Even as he was a minister,
he didn’t even give a tithe. While many saints give a tithe
individually, each branch church also offers a tithe to the New Life
Mission to fund its gospel-preaching activities. Yet, wherever Lee went,
he didn’t even make this contribution.
Whereas
the New Life Mission keeps its finances completely transparent, Lee was
far from being transparent. At first, we gave him the benefit of the
doubt and thought that it was just a minor oversight resulting from
forgetfulness or a busy schedule, but soon it became a routine for him.
In contrast to all the other ministers who were making sure that their
church finances were transparent, Lee would not disclose any financial
information at all until he was prodded about it, and even then the
disclosure wouldn’t last long. What was at issue was not the amount of
money involved, but rather, it was a matter of principle. We tried to
admonish him on numerous occasions and patiently waited for him to
change his way, but he just refused to listen.
I
am not speaking of Lee here because I somehow hold a personal grudge
against him as a person. Rather, I am using this example to show that
there are some people in the Church trying to lord over the saints even
while professing to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
This is how those behave who do not practice righteousness nor serve the
gospel. So, we can clearly discern God’s children from the Devil’s
children by looking at how they walk. Consider someone who does not love
his brothers and sisters but instead hates God’s people. Is this person
of God or the Devil? This person clearly belongs to the Devil. Has this
person been saved from all his sins, or is he yet to be saved? He has
not been saved yet. Is this person light or darkness? He still has not
become light, for there is no Holy Spirit within him, therefore, he is
still darkness.
At
the time the Apostle John wrote his epistles, he was ministering in
God’s Church. According to oral tradition, near the end of his life the
Apostle John became so fragile in his old age that he couldn’t preach
while standing up. So, the members of the Church carried him to the
pulpit on a stretcher, and he preached while lying in that stretcher. He
didn’t talk much either, just admonishing the congregation to love one
another. That was it. All that he said in his sermon was asking the
congregation to love one another, to encourage each other, and to live
for the righteousness of God and the spreading of the gospel. The
congregation all understood the Apostle John’s message and lived out
their faith as taught and admonished.
It’s
only after the passing of this John that deceptive false prophets
belonging to Satan slipped into the Church and began corrupted the Word
of God with the things of the world, all the while professing and
pretending to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As a
result, of this deception unbelievers came to outnumber the true
believers, and these false believers ended up usurping the Church. Even
though they claimed to preach the Word of God, they were actually
preaching a corrupted version of it rather than the pure gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Eventually, these false prophets erased the gospel
of the water and the Spirit so that it became little more than a faint
memory, dismissing it as being too elementary. In its place, they began
preaching only about the righteousness of man. This is what led
Christianity to degenerate into such a sorry state that it finds itself
in today.
My
fellow believers, I consider it God’s special work, that today, you and
I believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and are spreading
this gospel to the nations of the world. Do you also think so? It is
indeed a miracle. We believe in the same gospel as believed and preached
by the Early Church, and we are now preaching this gospel all over the
world. Our Church is the greatest church in the world. While its number
may be small, its quality is peerless. Can you think of any church in
this world that has so many people who have become God’s own children by
hearing and believing in the gospel wholeheartedly? Is there any other
church filled with so many redeemed saints who received the forgiveness
of sins? No, of course not! Indeed, we know that our Church is a truly
amazing work of God and a marvelous miracle.
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