Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 12-1] Jesus Said That He Desires Mercy and Not Sacrifice (Matthew 12:1-8)
(Matthew 12:1-8)
“At
that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His
disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And
when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, ‘Look, Your disciples are
doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!’ But He said to them,
‘Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who
were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread
which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him,
but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the
Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are
blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than
the temple. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and
not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son
of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Is the Sabbath Such an Important Day for the Religious?
Jesus’
disciples were hungry on the way, and so they plucked heads of grain
and ate them on the Sabbath. Seeing this, the Pharisees denounced Jesus
and His disciples. Their accusation was that Jesus and His disciples
broke their regulations about the Sabbath. But the Lord said to them,
“Have you read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were
with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which
was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only
for the priests?” And He continued to rebuke their flawed thoughts,
saying to them, “Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the
priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?”
The
Pharisees needed to listen to the Lord’s rebuke and had to turn around
their way of faith according to what He told them. The Lord said to
them, “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not
sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” What our Lord
said here is that He desires us more to seek God’s mercy and the right
faith than to have zeal for any religious rituals.
For
the Jewish people, the Sabbath was an extremely important religious
day. Just as Christians keep the Lord’s Day, the Jewish people kept the
Sabbath from the sunset on Friday to the sundown of Saturday. Keeping
this day was very important for them, for to do so was to obey the will
of God and His commandments. So as they thought that Jesus and His
disciples took the Sabbath lightly, which they themselves considered it
so important, they came to accuse them of unlawfulness. But the Lord
said, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” He said, “If you had known
what My will is, you would not have denounced My disciples.”
Regardless
of how important the Sabbath might be for the Jewish people, how could
it be such a great sin for the Lord’s disciples to pluck grain heads and
eat them out of their hunger? Although the regulations about the
Sabbath were strict, how could it be wrong for someone to work to save
the dying on the Sabbath day? We can all regard this as nothing wrong,
for if we see from God’s perspective, His mercy is greater than His Law.
Is this not the case?
When
David was fleeing and hiding from King Saul, there was a time when he
was so hungry that he ate the showbread in the Tabernacle of Meeting,
which only the priests were allowed to eat. The priests that served in
the Tabernacle at that time gave the showbread to David to eat. As such,
the Pharisees should have known that in God’s domain, His mercy
prevails over the commandments of the Law. They shouldn’t have forgotten
that the priests had worked for the remission of their people’s sins
even during the Sabbath. They should have also known, therefore, that
when the priests worked in the Tabernacle during the Sabbath, this did
not mean that they profaned it. Jesus told His accusers that even though
the priests failed to keep the Sabbath in the Tabernacle, they were
still blameless. Given this, Jesus argued how they could condemn His
disciples as sinners for plucking heads of grain and eating them on the
Sabbath. They surely could not do this. Our Lord’s will is to bestow the
mercy of God on everyone. It is not sacrifice, in other words, that our
Lord wants from us.
Of
course, that the Lord does not desire sacrifice does not mean that He
does not want us to worship Him. In the age of the Old Testament, giving
sacrificial offerings was fitting, but now in this age of the New
Testament, our Lord is saying to us, “Instead of having zeal for the
religious rituals and commandments, you must believe in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit to stand before My presence. I have saved you
from all your sins out of My mercy with this gospel.” The faith that the
Lord wants all of us to have is for us to believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit given by Him, and thereby be remitted from all our
sins and receive eternal life.
Our
Lord has never, ever wanted legalistic faith from us, for He wants to
bestow God’s merciful love on us. We need to correctly understand the
meaning and purpose behind what our Lord said, that He does not desire
sacrifice but mercy, and believe in His Word properly. What the Lord is
saying to us here is that He is more pleased by the faith that desires
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the God-given gospel of mercy,
than any worship that is bound by religious, ritualistic, and dogmatic
necessities. The Lord does not want us, in other words, to give
religious and ritualistic sacrifices, but He wants us to receive the
remission of our sins by hearing and believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, and this is what pleases our Lord more. Therefore,
by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must receive
the remission of our sins, become righteous, and live the kind of life
that glorifies God.
Giving
us His salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the
gist of God’s will toward us. The Lord does not want to receive
something from us, but He wants to bestow His mercy on us. What the Lord
spoke to us about is not legalistic faith, but the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit; He is pleased more by the faith that believes in
this gospel Truth; and, furthermore, this is the fundamental will of
God. Our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Truth of
salvation that the Lord has given us, is what He wants from us and what
pleases Him more than for us to faithfully keep the Lord’s Day. This
means that we must accept the love of God even more willingly, believe
in it more, and be more thankful for it. The Lord’s will is not for us
to have zeal for legalistic faith, but for us to have the faith that
believes in the great love that God has bestowed on us. We must realize
that our Lord is more pleased by this faith.
The
purpose of our lives of faith cannot be to keep the Law of God. Our
Lord is pleased when we place more importance to believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit through which He has washed away all our
sins. The Lord is, in other words, much more interested to see that
everyone receives the remission of all his sins, and that all become
God’s own children. Put differently, the Lord is telling us to believe
in God’s love and mercy that have blotted out our sins through the
gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. He is saying that this kind of
faith is the blessed faith that believes in God’s merciful love. This
is the faith that pleases God. The Lord wants to bestow God’s great love
of mercy on us, and He also wants us to have the faith that believes in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the faith that remits us from
all our sins and brings eternal life to every one of us.
Would the Lord Be Pleased If All of Us Keep the Lord’s Day Faithfully?
No.
Had we been capable of keeping the Law of God to perfection even for a
single day, the Lord would have said so. But this is not who we are;
none of us could ever achieve this. Can you and I be confident that we
would keep the Law of God faithfully? None of us has this confidence.
What
is your understanding of the purpose of the Law? Did He give us the Law
so that we would keep it faithfully? Or did He give it to us so that
through His Word of the Law, we would recognize our sins and realize
that we are grave sinners, and so that by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that saves us from all our sins, we would be
remitted from all our sins? How have you been taught?
Fundamentally
speaking, we are nothing more than masses of sin who were born with all
the ingredients of sin through our parents of the flesh, and who are
always and constantly committing countless personal sins (Mark 7:21-23).
God gave us His Law through Moses so that we would recognize our sins
(Romans 3:21-23), and by doing so He has led us to Jesus Christ
(Galatians 3:24).
In
short, the purpose for which the Lord gave us God’s Law is so that we
would believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the very
manifestation of God’s mercy, and thereby receive the remission of our
sins into our hearts. To lead us into the gospel of the water and the
Spirit is where the purpose of the Law is found. Our Lord took so much
pity on us that He came to this earth to blot out our sins, was baptized
by John the Baptist, shed His blood on the Cross, and by thus
fulfilling all righteousness. It is by giving us the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit in this age and time that the Lord has washed away
all our sins once for all. God is pleased, in other words, by those of
us who have received this remission of our sins from Him through our
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Our Lord Said That He Desires Mercy and Not Sacrifice
Jesus
said, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” We need to understand this
passage properly and believe in it properly within the gospel truth of
the water and the Spirit. Do you and I now have faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given us? We must believe in
this true gospel, and we must love Him sincerely from the depth of our
hearts. We need to realize, “The Lord has truly blotted out all our sins
with the gospel of the water and the Spirit!” and thank Him for it. And
we must believe in this forever.
All
of us had been the kind of people who could never, ever keep the Law of
God no matter how much we wanted to do so. So we were always
insufficient before God, but for such people like us, the Lord has given
us the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and He has clothed us
in His great love of mercy. Given this, how could we then insist on
holding onto legalistic faith? Constantly ruminating the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, we should give thanks to the Lord more and more.
Our faith must always rejoice in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
That the Lord has delivered us from our sins is God’s great love of
mercy. By saying “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” the Lord is telling
us that God is pleased with those who have strong faith in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, but dislikes those who only have zeal for
their legalism. Now, because we have been remitted from all our sins
thanks to the merciful love of our Lord, we are profoundly thankful from
the depth of our hearts. This is why we the believers of the gospel of
the water and the Spirit are also happy to serve this gospel.
Does
this then mean that Jesus told us to neglect to keep the Law of God?
Not at all! Rather, this means that Jesus told us to believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. When we had fallen into our sins and
could not avoid but be bound to hell, our Lord had so much compassion
for us that He Himself bore our sins by being baptized by John, shed His
blood on the Cross, and has thereby forever saved us from all our sins.
This is why you and I need to have the kind of faith that realizes
God’s great love of mercy and thanks Him for it. This is the very faith
that is clothed in God’s mercy. And having such faith is what pleases
God.
However,
many people’s faith is like that of the Pharisees, believing in Jesus
neither as the Son of God, nor as the Savior who came by the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. As such, like the Pharisees armed with only
legalism, they stand against those who believe in God’s mercy, and they
live their lives of faith without even realizing that their faith is
flawed. Nor do they know what Jesus Christ truly wants from them, but
instead they think that all that they have to do is just keep the Law of
God literally, remaining oblivious to the fact that they are actually
living their lives of faith in complete vain.
But
Jesus did not say that everything would be okay if only everyone would
just keep the Ten Commandments, such as keeping the Sabbath holy and
honoring parents, and the 613 statutes of the Law. Instead, by giving us
the Law, our Lord has enabled us to recognize our sins and the result
of our sinfulness. And to wash away everyone’s sins once for all, the
Lord has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and He has
clothed us in God’s great love of mercy, for in His eyes, no one could
ever keep His Law, nor was anyone fundamentally capable of achieving
this.
Therefore,
all of us must realize and believe that God wanted to bestow His great
love of mercy on us, and by indeed bestowing this love on us, He has
saved us perfectly. The Lord wanted, in other words, that we would be
remitted from all our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. This is how those who believe in the gospel love of the
water and the Spirit have become the ones who believe in God’s great
love of mercy. And our Lord has accepted those with such faith in His
love and made them God’s children. It is those who come before God with
such faith that our Lord is pleased in, and it is those with such faith
whom He has made His own people.
To
give us salvation, our Lord has given us the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. I thank our Lord for His power: He has remitted away all our
sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and has enabled us to
serve our Holy God wholly. He has made us spread this gospel throughout
the whole world. We must therefore remember this beautiful gospel that
enables us to come before God, worship Him, praise Him, and glorify Him
with joy and clean hearts.
We Must Not Come Before God with Our Deeds Alone
If
any of us were to come before God with his deeds alone, he would be no
more than a hypocrite just like the Pharisees, turning into a sinner who
would perish in the end. We must come before God with our faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and with our confidence that He has
given us the everlasting remission of sin. By believing in God’s great
love of mercy, we must accept the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit into our hearts, and by believing so, we must return our love
eternally to God.
We
must be always rejoiced to believe in the salvation of the remission of
sin that God has brought to us. It is not from keeping the Law of God
that we should be rejoiced. And you and I must remember that
fundamentally, we cannot keep the Law of God, and we must hold onto only
the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit as the gospel of our
salvation.
You
need to realize that there are many Pharisees-like legalists among
today’s Christians. Some Christians, even after believing in Jesus, try
to establish their own righteousness continuously by practicing
legalistic faith, and are proud of it, just like the Pharisees. But the
faith that the Lord actually wants from all of us is not like this. He
is pleased, in other words, when we come before the presence of God by
believing in the great love of mercy that the Lord has bestowed on us
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
All
that our God wants from us is to accept His mercy by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, receive the remission of our sins
through it, and praise Him and glorify Him for the love that He has
given us. We must all remember this Truth, and we must all believe in
it.
The
righteousness and love of God revealed in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit is the mercy that He has bestowed on us. When this is the
case, would the Lord be more pleased when you keep the Law than when you
believe in this Truth? Of course not. We must understand the mercy of
God properly, and by believing in Him, we must truly please our Lord.
Between legalistic faith and the faith that believes in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, we need to discern which one really pleases
God. To have legalistic faith or to believe in the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit—which of the two, in other words, is it to believe
in God’s mercy?
God
is telling us that to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
is to believe in His mercy. He is pleased with those who believe in His
mercy. Because the Lord’s mercy is fully embodied in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, when we believe in this gospel Truth, we come to
have the faith that believes in the Lord’s mercy.
Every
Christian in this world must reach the correct understanding of today’s
Scripture passage and believe in it properly. Each denomination may
pursue its distinct purposes and faith, but the mercy of God must be
believed by all. The Pentecostals seek after the signs and miracles that
were manifested in the Early Church era, but this is all in vain, if it
were not for their faith in God’s mercy. Such faith withers away as
soon as emotions pass away. So God demands spiritual faith from us, not
humanistic faith that is based on our carnal thoughts and emotions. He
is telling us that instead of being drawn to carnal faith, we must
devote ourselves to believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
which is the embodiment of His mercy. You need to realize what kind of
faith our Lord God demands from us, and you need to know and believe in
His mercy. We must believe in the love of mercy that the Lord has
bestowed on us, realize that God is pleased when we come before Him by
this faith, and believe in His righteousness with our hearts.
Therefore,
you and I must keep the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit deep in
our hearts. The Lord said that the Sabbath is His day, and that He is
its Lord. By giving us the true remission of sin to our hearts, the Lord
has given us true rest. It is by the power of the gospel of the water
and the Spirit that the Lord has given us whole rest. Our Lord has given
true rest to His believers, for He has truly blotted out all our sins
by coming to this earth, taking upon the sins of the world once for all
by being baptized by John the Baptist, dying on the Cross, rising from
the dead again, and thereby washing away all our sins and bearing the
condemnation of all these sins. It is by our faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that we can receive true peace of mind.
All
of us must devote ourselves not to what our denominations seek after,
but to the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, God’s gospel. You must believe in this gospel Truth with your
hearts, for faith is always personal.
We
should not ignore the Law of God itself just because the Lord said that
He does not want sacrifice, for the Law of God is also the Word that He
spoke. While the Law itself cannot be the subject of our faith, it is
God’s standard that enables us to discern what is good or evil before
Him. Therefore, we can recognize our sins whenever we stand before His
Law, and need to remember the remission of all our sins to keep
realizing the mercy of God that is embodied in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. As such, when we recognize the truth that we simply
cannot keep the Law to perfection, and when we believe in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, we can all be saved from our sins.
We
were all bound to hell for our sins, and yet the Lord took so much
compassion on us that He has saved us from all our sins by the gospel
power of the water and the Spirit. By coming to this earth, being
baptized, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, the Lord
has washed away all our sins and delivered us from them all. Therefore,
it is by believing in the gospel love of the water and the Spirit, the
mercy of our Lord, that we can boldly come before God.
If
you still have sin in your hearts, then you must confess your sins
before Him and profess your faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, saying, “Lord, I am a grave sinner destined to hell. But I
believe that You want to bestow Your mercy on me in Your merciful love.
By giving me the gospel of the water and the Spirit, You have washed me
from all my sins, and I, in turn, also desire Your mercy.” This is the
only way for you to receive the mercy of God, and to live a blessed life
by faith.
Our
Lord has become our propitiation by coming to this earth in the flesh
of man, taking upon all our sins by being baptized, dying on the Cross,
and rising from the dead, and He has thereby saved us from all our sins.
This is the very love of mercy that our Lord has bestowed on us. With
this love of mercy, the Lord has made us sinless. By being baptized by
John the Baptist and shedding His blood, our Lord has saved us perfectly
from all the curses of His Law, and our destruction. We must desire
God’s merciful love by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. The Lord Himself wants to bestow His merciful love on us and
save us from our sins, and only when we believe in this love of mercy
wholeheartedly can we unite with Him thoroughly.
It
is my sincerest desire that you would all now come to know the gospel
Truth of the water and the Spirit and believe in it with your hearts.
The Lord said to us, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” Do you now
understand what He meant by this, and do you believe in it? You must
know and believe. God wanted to bestow His merciful love on us, which is
embodied in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. By giving us the
faith that saves us from our sins, and by making us believe in the
everlasting righteousness of God, our Lord has turned us into God’s
children. God wanted us to prosper in all things and be in health, just
as our souls prosper (3 John 1:2). It is when you believe that the Lord
has saved us from all our sins by the gospel power of the water and the
Spirit that you can be truly saved. And by doing so, we can now become
those whose faith is worthy before God.
What
kind of gospel do you believe in it? Most Christians do not even
realize that the gospel they have is different from the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Therefore, they can never figure out what the
mercy of God is like.
What
do you think the merciful love of God is? That God has bestowed His
merciful love on us is as the following: According to the Law of God, we
must all be sent to hell for our sins and suffer forever in its eternal
fire, and yet despite this, God took so much compassion on us through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit that He has clothed us with His
mercy of salvation, which is far greater than the punishment of our
sins. This is the merciful love of God. It is not because of our own
merits that we have been saved from all our sins, but it is because God
has clothed us with His boundless mercy of salvation. God has clothed us
with true salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, for
He took so much pity on us. To believe in this Truth is the faith that
enables us to receive God’s merciful love. To believe in this mercy of
God is only possible when we have faith in the gospel power of the water
and the Spirit. And to believe in this power of the gospel of the water
and the Spirit is to believe in the true mercy of God. Yet in today’s
world, there are so many people who do not believe like this. There are
way too many Christians, in other words, who do not understand today’s
Scripture passage even after reading it, and who are still mired deep in
their legalistic faith.
Unless
People Believe in the Power of the Water and the Spirit, They Cannot
Truly Recognize God’s Merciful Love and the True Remission of Sin
Unless
we know the power of this gospel of the water and the Spirit, we cannot
know God’s love of mercy. Unless we believe in the merciful love of God
and trust in it, we can never be washed from all our sins. However, we
see that many of today’s Christians are still running toward Jesus
Christ only to satisfy their carnal lusts. We see that they are thereby
becoming the more grave sinners before God as days go by. And we see
that their hearts have never been perfectly washed even for a single
day, and that by coming before the Lord everyday while still remaining
as sinners with their sinful hearts, they are hurting the Lord’s heart.
Therefore, we have to first believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, and must never, ever forget God’s mercy embodied in this true
gospel, not even for a second.
It
is my desire that everyone throughout the whole world would come to
reach the proper understanding of today’s Scripture passage, of what
Jesus meant when He said, “I want mercy and not sacrifice.” So I am
telling you here that to reach an understanding on this truth properly,
you must believe in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit.
We
must come before God by always believing in His merciful love. Because
you and I are always insufficient, we must come before God by our faith
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the love of mercy that He has
bestowed on us, and we must praise Him, give our thanks to Him, and
serve Him. We therefore need to realize that it is by believing in the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that we must come before God.
“You
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
It is not because we have done something that the Lord has blotted out
our sins. It is only because we have accepted the God-given gospel of
the water and the Spirit into our hearts that we have become His own
children by our faith in His works. We must never be deluded into
thinking that we can pretend to be righteous by keeping the Law
faithfully. We have no confidence in our flesh (Philippians 3:3). We
must never trust in our own flesh or front our own righteousness before
God. However, those who have not been born again all front their own
righteousness before God, 100% of the time.
Let
me illustrate this point with a story. There was a certain man in a
country in Africa. This man was a Christian. His wife got pregnant, but
his joy lasted only a short while, for he was told that there were some
serious complications with his wife’s pregnancy, and that both his wife
and his baby could die as a result. So when the doctor began to perform
surgery, he sat next to his wife and prayed to God, “God, if You would
only save my wife and my daughter, I will flog myself every year just
like the Lord was flogged on His way to Golgotha.” So he promised to do
this for no less than 20 years. He made a vow before God, in other
words, if God would only save his wife and daughter.
Miraculously,
His wife and daughter both survived. The wife had given birth without
any complications. So as he had promised, whenever the Passion Week came
around every year, he took off his shirt and flogged himself on his
back with a whip attached with sharp metal pieces. Piece of his flesh
flew around as he whipped himself all over his back, with blood pouring
out, until he reached a memorial place of the Lord’s suffering. He had
promised to do this every year for 20 years, but one year, he found it
too hard to bear, as he bled too much and could not tolerate the pain,
and so he gave up in the middle and returned home, failing to keep his
promise.
So
he then told God that since he failed to keep his vow, he would like to
right this wrong by being crucified like Jesus when the next Passion
Week comes around, and that he would thus fulfill his promise. And when
the next Passion Week came around, he indeed crucified himself with
nails, though they were not too thick, and bore the suffering, keeping
his promise this time. He believed that his wife and daughters were safe
because of what he did, and that if he were just to keep his vow for a
few more times, he would be able to fulfill the promise he had made to
God.
Such
faith, however, is that of those who do not know the mercy of God. They
try to strike a deal with God, saying, “God, if You do this for me, I
will do that for You.” This kind of faith is flawed. Is God pleased by
such faith? No, of course not. Is God pleased by something that we do
for Him? Nor is this the case. Is God then pleased by the faith of those
who believe that He has washed them from all their sins entirely on His
own, or is He pleased by something that we do for Him? God is more
pleased when we believe that He has washed away all our sins with the
gospel of the water and the Spirit all on His own than when we do
something for Him. God is pleased, in other words, when we accept His
mercy in thankfulness and gratefulness with the faith that believes in
the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
Of
course, our virtuous deeds would please God more than not doing any of
them. But we must believe that God is pleased by the faith that yearns
for the love of mercy from Him by believing in the gospel of salvation.
Trying to do something on our own without doing so, without even
believing in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, is arrogance
and pride coming from our flesh.
We
must always believe in God’s mercy, which is embodied in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, rely on it, and praise God for giving it to
all of us. Though we have received the remission of our sins, we must
always live our lives of faith in God’s mercy, within the faith that
believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Our
Lord said that He is more pleased by our faith in the mercy of
salvation that He has bestowed on us than by our keeping of the Law. It
was to tell us this that He said to the Pharisees who had criticized His
disciples for not keeping the Sabbath, “It is not by keeping the Law
that you can please God, but it is by believing in the merciful love
that God has bestowed on you that you can please God.” We need to
understand what our Lord said in Matthew 12:1-8, that He wants mercy
from us, not our motions of religious rituals. We must clearly abide in
this gospel Truth and believe in it. But the Pharisees-like religionists
are prone to emphasize God’s Law only in their teachings time after
time.
The
Bible is like no other book, and so one cannot understand it unless
there is the Spirit of God in his heart. There are people who have read
the Bible for hundreds of times and have even memorized it in its
entirety, but few of them really understand its meaning and have faith
in His Word. Though they are good at memorizing scriptural passages,
they have no idea what these passages are actually saying, and are
completely oblivious to the true faith that is approved by God. But if
they believe in the true gospel of the water and the Spirit, they can
all reach a correct understanding on every passage in the Bible.
My
dear fellow Christians, let us remember the gospel Word of the water
and the Spirit that the Lord has given to all of us, and let us have
faith in His boundless mercy in this beautiful gospel. By spreading the
beautiful gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world, we
must let everyone know about the mercy of God.
Hallelujah! I praise God who has given His boundless mercy through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
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