Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 13-3] The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like a Man Who Sowed Good Seed in His Field (Matthew 13:24-30)
(Matthew 13:24-30)
“Another
parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a
man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the
grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So
the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow
good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them,
‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then
to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up
the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together
until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers,
‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them,
but gather the wheat into my barn.’’”
To
spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole
world and to bear good fruits that please God by a thirty, sixty, or
hundredfold, we need many workers, as well as sufficient financial
means. God has enabled us to bear many good fruits thus far. But I also
believe that in the days to come, He will bring even more fruits to bear
through us. For this to happen, all of us must pray to God, and I
believe that He will give us the power of prayer to complete all His
works.
We
are only preaching the Lord’s salvation by faith. All that we have to
do is spread this Truth trusting that God is working with us. While we
are in fact all trying to do the work that pleases God, it is God
Himself who actually fulfills this work. Walking with the Lord, we can
feel that God is working all around us. As we walk with God and do His
work, our hearts become even more joyful, and as we become one with the
Lord, we come to receive even more blessings of God. I cannot thank our
Lord enough for everything that He has done for us.
Matthew
13:24 says, “Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom
of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.’”
In
today’s Scripture passage, Jesus explained His will by drawing another
analogy to an earthly farmer to let us know the mysteries of Heaven.
Onto the fields of the hearts of people living in this world, God’s seed
of life has been sowed.
God
has chosen the hearts of people living in this world as His workplace.
He said that He sowed good seed in the hearts of these people living in
this world. God’s purpose in sowing good seed in this world was the
following: To turn us, who had fallen into sin, into His own people, and
to live with us forever in the Kingdom of Heaven. God always wants the
fruit of salvation from all of us. Having sown the Word of salvation on
this earth and in people’s hearts, the Lord was waiting for the fruit of
eternal life to bear. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a
crop, then the tares also appeared. And these tares were growing with
the wheat.
His Enemy Came and Sowed Tares among the Wheat
Matthew
13:25-26 says, “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares
among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and
produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.”
This
passage tells us that before God sowed the gospel of the water and the
Spirit in people’s hearts, the Devil first sowed false gospels. God is
telling us that in the heart of everyone living in this world, without
any exception, He has sown the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit
that frees him from all sins. Whether people desired this or not, both
good seed and tares were together sown in the fields of their hearts.
Our
Lord sowed the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit in everyone.
While God was sowing good seed on this earth, the Devil was also working
along side, but the purpose of his work lied elsewhere. It was to
destroy people by preventing them from receiving the remission of sin
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because many people did
not realize that the gospel of the water and the Spirit sown is the very
good seed that God sowed in every one of them, they ended up losing it
to Satan.
This
is how two kinds of seed fell onto the hearts of people living in this
world, and as a result, two different fruits were produced. These were
the wheat and tares. In the hearts of people, both the good seed that
turns them into God’s people and the false seed that turns them into
tares have been sown. As a result, two different seeds were growing side
by side on this earth.
So,
we need to reach an in-depth understanding of the gospel Truth of the
water and the Spirit from the passage of Matthew 13:27, which says, “So
the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow
good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’”
The
Lord said that this happened because Satan sowed tares in the hearts of
people living in this world. My fellow believers, how were tares sown
in people’s hearts? While the Lord sowed good seed in this world, Satan
sowed tares. The servants then asked, “Do you want us then to go and
gather them up?” But the farmer replied, “No, lest while you gather up
the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.”
When
the Lord looked at the people of this world, He saw that in some of
them, the God-sown seed of life sown was planted and growing well. The
reality is that there are more tares than good seed sown in this world.
In this world, living next to the righteous are those who spread the
false gospels that harm people’s souls and are incapable of blotting out
their sins. My fellow believers, the gospel of the water and the Spirit
is not a tare. What the Lord sought to teach in this parable of tares
is that trying to remove them may injure the hearts and souls of the
believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit also. This is why He
did not want to hurt the wheat while trying to remove tares. The Lord
knew that there were tares among the righteous, but He did not want to
injure the wheat because of these tares.
This
is why He said, “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the
time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the
tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into
my barn.’”
When
we consider what the Lord told us here, we can see that just as the
seed of the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit has been sown
in this world, so has the seed of the pseudo-gospels of tares been sown
in it. So He is telling us that it is inevitable that they would bear
two kinds of fruit. But we must remember what the Lord told us here, not
to remove the tares but to leave them alone lest we uproot the wheat
with the tares. This is why the Lord told us to spread the gospel of the
water and the Spirit diligently until the day He judges the tares.
We
must realize this. In due time, the Lord will take care of these tares
and pull them up. He said that in the last days, He would send His
angels to gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn
them, and to gather the wheat into Heaven.
Every
crop has a time for harvesting, and every farmer works hard for the
harvest. It is by a farmer that the crops of his field are harvested,
and while he burns the tares away, the wheat will be gathered into his
barn. The same spiritual harvest is to be fulfilled by the will of our
Lord.
Having
sown good seed on this earth, our Lord wants to harvest good fruits at
all times. But the problem is that in this world, there also are those
who bear bad fruits rather than good fruits. How wonderful it would be
if there were no tare-like people in this world! But the reality is that
there actually are many tares sown by the Devil in our present world.
So God is admonishing those who have become the wheat, “Though Satan has
sown tares, do not try to remove these tares, but quietly sow the
gospel of the water and the Spirit on this earth and bear only good
fruits.”
It
is the Lord who sowed the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Word
of salvation, in this world. At that time, the Devil also sowed his
words of tares utilizing the power of the false religions of this world.
We must be able to distinguish the true gospel from the false ones.
Among the Christians living in this world, there exist two kinds of
people, one of the wheat and the other of the tares. There is the wheat
that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but then there
are also the tares that do not believe in the true gospel.
It
is because there are many tares as well as wheat in today’s
Christianity that there are divisions and struggles over its doctrinal
differences. Christians are fighting with one another, in other words,
claiming that while their denomination is the real wheat, the other
denominations are only tares. However, the way to discern whether the
seed that fell on the fields of people’s hearts is good seed or bad seed
is as follows: If their sins have indeed been forever blotted out as
white as snow by believing in the gospel, the gospel they believe is the
good seed. But if their sins still remain written in the tablets of
their hearts no matter how fervently they believe in their so-called
gospel, the gospel they believe is the bad seed, the false gospel. It is
by this criterion that the true gospel is distinguished from the false
ones.
Put
differently, the wheat and the tares are differentiated depending on
whether one believes in God’s gospel of the water and the Spirit or not.
The good seed refers to the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit
that God has given to mankind, while the seed of tares refers to the
pseudo-gospels that are fundamentally different from the true gospel.
Such false gospels may resemble the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
but they cannot blot out people’s sins, but are only enough to turn
their believers into mere religionists. What is worse is that although
there are many Christians in this world, only extremely few people
actually know the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and believe in
it. This is how there are so many tares in this world.
God
is showing us that in contrast to His work of sowing the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, Satan is sowing tares. God has raised on this
earth His workers who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
And from the age of the Old Testament to the age of the New Testament,
and even unto this very moment, God has made them spread the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. Even in this age and time, God is spreading
the gospel of the water and the Spirit through His servants.
There
can be no doubt that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is now
being preached accurately in this age. However, it is also clear that
the gospel of tares is also being propagated. Those whose hearts are
hardened are not only unable to believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit that is being spread in this age, but they will also stand
against it as its enemies. By believing in the gospel of tares, many
people have failed to realize the Truth of the water and the Spirit, and
as a result, they have turned into religionists who are doomed to be
destroyed.
In
God’s good seed is found the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
We can see that this true gospel of the water and the Spirit is filled
with the Word of salvation that is in accordance to the sacrificial
system of the Old Testament.
For
the people of the Old Testament, in order to offer sacrifice to God
according to the sacrificial system set by Him, they had to prepare a
sacrificial animal without blemish, and they had to pass their sins by
laying their hands on this sacrificial animal, put its blood on the
horns of the altar of burnt offering, and do everything according to how
God had set.
So
just like this, Jesus came to this earth as the sacrificial Lamb of
entire mankind, was baptized by John for the purpose of accepting the
sins of the world onto Himself, carried these sins to the Cross, shed
His blood on it, rose from the dead again, and thereby fulfilled the
everlasting salvation of mankind from sin. As we compare these two
sacrifices, we can discover how the mysteries of God’s salvation in the
sacrificial system of the Old Testament are completely fulfilled in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Let us examine this in more detail
together.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Revealed in the Old and New Testaments
The
Old Testament’s sacrificial offering was a shadow of Jesus Christ the
Son of God in the New Testament. That Jesus Christ accepted the sins of
mankind through His baptism is the same as the sacrificial offering of
the Old Testament accepting the sins of the people of Israel with the
laying on of hands. Through the exactly same method as the laying on of
hands in the Old Testament—that is, His baptism—Jesus accepted the sins
of the world.
Therefore,
just as the sacrificial animal in the Old Testament shed its blood and
died, Jesus also had to be crucified, shed His blood and die. Like this,
Jesus took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John, and He
shed His blood and died on the Cross; we can see here how the Old and
New Testaments match with each other perfectly.
Have
you read my books on the Tabernacle? Although there are many people in
this world who wrote books on the Tabernacle, no one apart from the
Apostles of the Early Church era ever answered with the definite
knowledge of the Truth manifested in the Tabernacle and its systems.
Everything in the Tabernacle and every regulation of its system testify
to the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
For
example, in the Tabernacle system, “blue, purple, and scarlet thread,
and fine woven linen” were repeatedly mentioned (Exodus 27:16). Ten
curtains of the Tabernacle, the artistic design of cherubim on the veil
for the Most Holy, the screen for the door of the Tabernacle, the ephod
of the High Priest and its band, the breastplate of judgment—all these
were woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen.
All these regulations manifest the Truth that Jesus the true God has
blotted out all our sin with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit, therefore, is the gospel of power
that can remit away everyone’s sins. This Truth is the powerful gospel
of Truth that should not be revealed to just anyone. That’s why God has
hidden this Truth from religionists.
When
false prophets come and preach their false gospels, ordinary people are
prone to simply accept their fallacious doctrines into their hearts.
Hearing such false gospels preached by these false prophets, if only 90%
of what they say sounds right, people are bound to agree with them.
Actually, only careful thinkers agree that far; ordinary people are
likely to agree if just 80% of what they hear sounds right. Some people
care even less, saying that this and that are all the same, even if they
are about 60% similar.
In
this world, in today’s Christianity, there are those who are preaching
the gospel of the water and the Spirit that pleases the Lord, and there
are those who are preaching the gospel of tares that does not please the
Lord. The true gospel is 100% right, and if anything is not 100%
correct, that it is never the right gospel. The Lord says that no one
can avoid hell if a penny’s worth of his sins remain in his heart. As
such, no matter how the gospel of tares may be similar to the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, it is of no use, for such pseudo-gospels
cannot remit any sin of their believers. This is what our Lord is saying
to all of us. This is why He told us His parable, so that we may
discern these things—to discern what kind of a world this world is, what
kind of seed have been sown in people’s hearts, and which is good seed
and which is false seed.
What
is our Lord telling us in today’s Scripture passage? He said that both
the true gospel and the gospel of tares have been sown in this world.
God sowed the good gospel, but the enemy sowed the tares. We must listen
carefully to the words of the Lord’s servants who are preaching the
real gospel.
My
fellow believers, what are the tares? The tares refer to Christians who
still have sin even as they profess to believe in Jesus. In other
words, they are the ones who believe in false gospels. They are the ones
who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by
the Lord. The tares are the religionists who believe in whatever way
they seem fit based on their own thoughts.
Such
religionists are the ones who do not believe in the Word of God as it
is, but instead add to and subtract from it on their own, believing
according to their own thoughts. The tare-like faith of these people is
will-oriented in its essence. Their motto is “Let us do this.” Such
people like to engage in various kinds of religious movements.
They
believe in Jesus only on a religious dimension, saying, “Let’s just say
that we have received the remission of sin by believing in the blood of
the Cross.”
Such
believers may ask, “What should we then do with the sins that we commit
afterwards?” Then, they may answer, “We cannot be sure about that, but
let’s assume that Jesus Christ solved away all the sins that we commit
afterwards. Though we still have sin and feel uneasy, let’s believe that
He has blotted out all our sins.”
Like
this, the false prophets consider the Christian faith as one of
religious movements. “Since the Lord blotted out the sins of the world
on the Cross, let us just assume and believe that He also blotted out
all the daily sins that we commit after believing in Jesus.” In this
way, they embark on their religious movement, proclaiming, “By coming to
this world and being crucified, the Lord took upon all the sins of the
world once for all and blotted them all at once. Therefore, let’s assume
and believe that we have no sin in our hearts.” Their faith is one
where they just agree to assume. They say, “Let’s not argue, but let’s
just assume that this is how it is, and believe in it as such.” However,
such faith and belief that they have are neither true faith, nor true
belief.
False
teachers who have tare-like faith testify that they have been saved
from all their sins by believing only in the blood of the Cross.
However, as their followers continue to sin and can not resolve the
problem of their sins to their satisfaction, they come to ask their
leaders how they can find the solution to their problem.
“Reverend, I sinned once again and still remain sinful. What should I do now?”
Then,
one of the false leaders may say to his congregation, “Jesus has
already remitted away all your sins with His blood on the Cross, and so
if you believe this, you have nothing to worry.” He claims that since
Jesus have remitted away all their sins by shedding His blood on the
Cross, all that they have to do is just assume that all their sins have
disappeared.
But
can anyone really be saved from all his sins just by assuming that they
have all disappeared? Such faith is the foolish faith of religionists.
Did
Jesus then really remit away our sins when He was crucified? Or, were
the sins of the world passed onto the body of Jesus when He was baptized
by John the Baptist? Can our sins be really blotted just by believing
in the Jesus’ blood on the Cross alone? No! It was not on the Cross that
Jesus took upon the sins of mankind.
It
was before Jesus was crucified, when He was baptized by John the
Baptist, that He took upon the sins of the world (Matthew 3:13-15).
Therefore, our sins cannot be blotted out just by believing in the blood
of the Cross alone as our salvation. However, today’s mainstream
Christianity proclaims such faith as the orthodox one. This is why many
people still have sin in their hearts even as they profess to believe in
Jesus.
Yet
their leaders claim that it is because the congregation does not
believe in the blood of Jesus completely that they have sin. Is this
really the case? Can our sins be blotted out perfectly if we just
believe in Jesus’ blood on the Cross alone? No, they cannot.
We
are washed from all our sins by believing in the Truth that our Lord
came to this earth, was baptized by John the Baptist to take all the
sins of the world upon Himself, was crucified and shed His blood on it,
rose from the dead again, and has thereby blotted them out to
perfection. This faith is the right faith. This faith is the faith that
believes in the Truth revealed in the Bible.
Which
of these two gospels do you think is right? Is it the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, or the other gospel that says, “Let’s assume that
Jesus has blotted out the sins of the world just by being crucified and
shedding His blood on the Cross”? Through their religious movements,
these leaders are actually leading their congregations to the bondage of
the sins of the world. Those who are beholden by such tares, in other
words, have turned into religionists. Those who believe that it was on
the Cross alone that the Lord remitted away all our sins can never
receive the remission of their sins. This is because it was absolutely
not when He was on the Cross that Jesus took upon the sins of the
world.
Yet
in spite of this, if people still believe that Jesus blotted out the
sins of the world on the Cross, then they do not believe in the gospel
Truth of the water and the Spirit, but they only have a religious faith.
The religionists of the world, regardless of whether they believe in
Jesus or Buddhism, are just fine as long as they have joy and peace in
their hearts. And when they feel sin accumulating in their hearts and
their consciences are bound by sin, they are okay to just turn into
sinners once again. This is why many people, no matter how they profess
that Jesus remitted away their sins with His blood on the Cross,
actually experience that their hearts are not freed from their sins. Of
course, they continue to try to solve this problem, but they only reach
their own death in the end.
Now,
our Lord is asking the religious leaders of Christianity with the
parable of sowing. When they are asked, “How can you explain Christians
who still have sin in their hearts even as they believe in Christ?” the
tares answer, “Jesus solved away all sins with His blood of the Cross.
Just know that He also solved away on the Cross all the sins that we
commit afterwards. Just assume like this and believe in this way.
Everything is then all resolved.” When the tares teach their followers,
they admonish them, “Let’s just believe that Jesus blotted out your sins
by shedding His blood on the Cross.” But is such teaching really right?
No, it is absolutely fallacious.
My
fellow believers, it is by being baptized by John the Baptist and
taking upon the sins of the world, being crucified, and rising from the
dead again, that Jesus has delivered us from the sins of the world. This
gospel, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, is the only true
gospel. But the final answer that the tares’ gospel can give is, “Let’s
just assume.” In short, this is just a tentative conclusion derived from
their own assumption that they have been saved.
In
Christian communities, those who have this tare-like faith say to their
followers, “Since Jesus was crucified and died on the Cross, let’s just
assume that He has cleansed away all our sins with His blood anyway.
Let’s believe like this.” Some of the followers may ask, “Pastor, I do
believe so, but my sins could not be washed away by any such confession.
What can I do to be cleansed of all my sins?” Then, the tare pastor
would answer, “You need to have stronger faith in Jesus. Just believe
wholeheartedly that He blotted out people’s sins only on the Cross.”
This is why they think their prayers of repentance are a way to receive
the daily remission of their sins. When you see them doing so, you must
discern their faith and say, “You are the very tares.”
The
Bible clearly proclaims that the sins of the world were all passed onto
Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist, and this is why Jesus
carried these sins to the Cross, shed His blood and died, rose from the
dead again, and has thereby become our everlasting Savior (Matthew
3:13-15; John 1:29, 19:30). When this is so definite and clear, why
would you try to turn away from Jesus to a different gospel? (Galatians
1:6)
It
is because the Lord has become the true Savior for us that He took upon
all our sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist. And it
is because of this that He went to the Cross, was crucified for the
sins of the world, and rose from the dead again. By believing that all
sins, including the sins we have committed after believing in Jesus,
were passed onto the Lord once for all when He was baptized in the
Jordan River, and that He has atoned all these sins by being judged on
the Cross, we can be perfectly born again. This is because Jesus took
away all the sins of this world through His baptism, and our sins were
all passed onto Him once for all through this baptism. This is how we
have been saved from all our sins perfectly by faith.
Of
course, we might feel emotionally guilty in our consciences because we
are still committing sins in everyday life. However, it is only on our
part that we still continue to commit sins while living in this world.
For the Lord’s part, He has already blotted out all the sins of this
world by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, and
shedding His blood on the Cross. By accepting all our sins of the
present, the future, and the past through His baptism, then bearing all
the punishment of sin on the Cross while shouldering the sins of the
world and dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, Jesus has
become our perfect Savior.
Yet
the tares are incapable of explaining this, and only say, “Let’s just
assume and believe that Jesus solved away even our personal sins.” This
is fundamentally flawed. Let us now realize and engrave it deep in our
minds that the hearts of those who have tare-like faith are misplaced.
When I think about the tares in my mind, I think, “These tares are so
clueless! And they are so worthless.”
If
someone graduated from a medical school, became a doctor, and came to
treat patients, he should know exactly how to take care of their health
problems and make them healthy again. If a doctor cannot diagnose
correctly, and therefore cannot prescribe the right medicines, nor even
perform the surgery properly, he cannot be called a doctor.
If
you were a real doctor, shouldn’t you examine your patient, shouldn’t
you explain to him exactly why he feels sick, where and how the diseases
is progressing, give him the right prescription, and provide him with
the right treatment? But if you do none of these, and just tell your
patient, “I’m just going to assume that I’ve treated you all, and you
should just think that you’ve all been healed now,” would this make any
sense at all?
Those
who believe only in Jesus’ blood on the Cross or some other doctrines
instead of the gospel of the water the Spirit are just like this doctor.
It is clear that all those who pretend to have received the remission
of their sins without even believing in the exact Truth, nor having the
Word of Truth, are none other than tares.
To
them, the tares of this world, I can proclaim the gospel of the water
and the Spirit in all clarity. And I can say to these tares, “If you
understand Jesus and believe in Him according to your own thoughts, as
you are doing now, you are actually turning yourself into a servant of
Satan.” All that we have to do is just teach the gospel Truth of the
water and the Spirit to everyone who is tormented by his sins. We can
heal such a patient for sure, and say confidently, “Your problems can be
solved if you believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the
Spirit.”
But
the tares just say to people, “Let’s believe somehow in what Jesus
solved away on the Cross.” But those who blindly insist like this based
on their mistaken faith are neither God’s servants, nor God’s people.
And it is in such people that Satan works, using them as his instruments
to propagate the gospel of the tares to people. We must discern the
true prophets from the false prophets to be led to God. I am not
denouncing others without reason, but I am just proclaiming that the
gospel of the water and the Spirit is the only true gospel that can
deliver us from our sins.
Who Are the Ones That Have Now Become Tares before God?
What,
then, are tares? Those of you who have some farming experience should
be very familiar with tares. When a farmer sows rice seed in the field,
the grain sprouts and grows, but also growing among the grain are tares.
The farmer actually never wanted to sow the tares, nor had he planted
them, but he can still see that the tares came out of nowhere and were
planted in his field.
These
tares are clearly no rice. So even when time goes by, they do not turn
into grain. Tares are no more than weeds. Both the rice and the tares
have green stems when they are growing. It’s not easy to discern them
from one another when they are still young. When they grow a bit more,
the tares actually look healthier than the rice. The tares are taller
than the rice, and they have white strips at the back of their leaves.
It
is only later on, when the time for harvesting comes, that the rice can
be clearly distinguished from the tares, for they are the plants that
actually bear grain. When the rice bears grain, it droops with the
weight of the grain, but the tares just stand upright and only have
empty husks. On outside appearance, it is the tares that look bigger and
stronger, but when looked at what they actually produce, they are no
more than weeds that bear nothing edible. And the tares, even after
withering away, still come back the next year.
What
is worse is that because they feed on the nutrients that are supposed
to go to the rice, if there are too many tares, the rice cannot grow
well. If the farmer fertilizes the field and takes good care, the rice
may also grow well, but it is not as healthy as the tares. If the farmer
just plants the rice and leaves, saying, “I’m going to take off to the
city. Take care of yourself. Grow on your own,” when he comes back to
harvest, there will be few rice but only tares all over the field.
We
see that many people were actually tares. Though they may really look
all alike, tares are tares and grain is grain. The real crop and the
tares are fundamentally different. Tares are entirely weeds. Of course,
there are some grains that, as they are unable to imbibe enough
nutrients, only have husks. But God still cherishes them all. If you can
just grow into the grain, God will cherish you preciously, but Jesus
said that the tares would be all bound to burn them, for they are good
for nothing but only harmful.
The
Lord said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in
his field.” As we hear this parable, we need to think about the churches
of this world. Then, you will realize that the grain implies those who
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and that all those
who do not believe in this gospel are no more than tares. My fellow
believers, through this passage, we must realize what will ultimately
happen to us if we turn into tares instead of the grain before God, turn
around, and become the grain by believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Jesus said clearly here in this passage that the tares
would be bound in bundles to burn them all.
We
also should recognize that there might be some tares even in God’s
Church. If one calls on the name of Jesus, worships Him, believes in Him
as his Savior, and abides in God’s Church, and yet he still has sin in
his heart, then he is a tare. If you want to find out whether you are
tares or not, examine yourselves carefully to see whether or not you
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit wholeheartedly. If
anyone does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then
none other than he is the one whose faith is like the tares before God.
This
is why we have to know and believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit properly to receive the remission of our sins. But unfortunately,
there are still many tare-Christians throughout this world, who neither
know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, nor believe in it. Such
Christians are the same as non-Christians who do not believe in Jesus as
their Savior. Therefore, they must turn around from the tare-like,
false gospels, learn about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and
believe in it with their hearts. Also, those who still have sin in their
hearts and have not been freed from their status as sinners even as
they believe in Jesus must turn around from their doctrine-oriented
faith and believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit now to
be remitted from all their sins.
Those Who Are Now Tares Must Receive the Remission of Their Sins by Believing in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
In
Matthew 5:25-26, our Lord said, “Agree with your adversary quickly,
while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to
the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown
into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of
there till you have paid the last penny.”
Jesus
said, “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with
him.” “Your adversary” here refers to someone who is suing you. The
adversary who accuses man to God is the Devil, and what makes you the
accused is your sin. When there is sin in your hearts, this sin makes
accusations against you to God. “You still have not received the
remission of your sins. You are still a sinner. You will be condemned in
the future.” Like this, your sins will lay charges against you.
This
is why the Lord told us to be quickly freed from such accusations while
we are still living in this world. What we must do urgently while we
are still alive, in other words, is believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit and receive the remission of sin into our hearts.
Receiving this remission of sin can never be put off.
Our
Lord said, “Lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge
hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.”
If
your hearts have sin, then you will face the condemnation of sin. This
is because the Lord declared the wages of sin to be death (Romans 6:23).
It is only a matter of course that the sinful would be condemned for
their sins. If you have your sins intact before God, these sins will
drive you into hell. This is why in the end, the sinful will be
imprisoned in hell and suffer the everlasting pain of death.
Therefore,
we must take to our hearts what our Lord said in Matthew
5:26―“Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there
till you have paid the last penny.” We will not, the Lord told us here,
get out of the prison until we have paid off the last penny of our sins,
the smallest speck of all.
How,
then, could we be remitted from all our sins, without even a penny
left? This is actually rather easy. If we believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that the Lord has given us, we will surely be
remitted from our sins. By believing in this true gospel, we can be
washed from all our sins, to the last penny. It is by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have been cleansed from all
our sins.
Have
you been washed from all your sins or not? You surely have. When you
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with your hearts,
there is no more sin in your hearts, not even a penny. But given the
fact that you will be cast into hell if you have even a penny’s worth of
sin, you must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and
thereby cleanse away all your sins as white as snow. Even if there are
mountains of sin hiding behind your back, you can still be remitted from
all such sins once for all by believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit.
Our
Lord has sown good seed in this world and the Devil has sown tares. And
now, you and I need to carefully ponder on whether we are really the
grain before God or just tares. If we still have sin even as we believe
in Jesus, then even now, at this very moment, we must believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we must thereby be washed from
all our sins completely, to the last penny. This is what our Lord is
telling us.
No
matter how fervently we might have believed in Jesus before God, and no
matter how faithful we might have been to Him, if we have even a
penny’s worth of sin, then this sin will deliver us to the Judge. The
Lord told us that the wages of sin is death and the condemnation of sin
is eternal curse. Given this, we must realize that we will be cast into
hell if we have even a penny’s worth of sin in our hearts, understand
clearly that it is because we have sin in our hearts that we are tares,
and turn around from our evil ways.
If
you still remain as tares, you should admit, “I have misbelieved so
far. Since my beliefs were wrong, I should believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit even from now on.” But unfortunately, there are so
many stubborn Christians who are insisting, “Are all these many
Christians then going to end up in hell just because they don’t know the
gospel of the water and the Spirit? I studied orthodox theology, and
have led countless souls to Jesus Christ even though I have had no idea
on the gospel of the water and the Spirit! I have experienced so many
things whenever I prayed to God, I have met the Lord so many times in my
dreams, and I have seen my prayers answered so many times in my life.
How can you then treat me as a sinner, just because I didn’t know the
gospel of the water and the Spirit?” They say that even as they had not
known the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they are filled with the
Holy Spirit, and cannot forget what they experienced with their faith.
Can God the Holy Spirit dwell in the heart of a sinner though?
Absolutely not! How foolish are they to cling to such fallacious beliefs
then?
Jesus
said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his
field.” God has sown in this world the good seed of the true gospel that
brings the remission of sin. So that we may receive the remission of
our sins if only we would believe in this gospel, our Lord has sown the
gospel of power, that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The
only true gospel is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This gospel
has the power that can blot out people’s sins as white as snow. This
gospel is the gospel that has fulfilled the Word of prophecy that is
found in Isaiah 1:18, which reads, “Come now, and let us reason
together, Says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall
be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as
wool.’”
If
anyone does not believe in this gospel of the water and the Spirit, and
instead thinks, “I will hold onto my old faith. Though I have a few
sins in my heart, I only need to be sanctified just a bit more,” he must
listen to and be admonished by what the Lord said: “You will by no
means get out of there till you have paid the last penny”(Matthew 5:26).
You need to realize why Jesus spoke to you with such parables. And even
now, He is still admonishing you to really know the gospel power of the
water and the Spirit, and to believe in it with your hearts.
In
today’s Scripture passage, the tares refer to those who are bound by
sin. They are the sinners who are not yet born again because of their
failure to believe in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit. It
is imperative for them to be born again by receiving the remission of
sin.
Let
us turn to John 3:1-5. “There was a man of the Pharisees named
Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said
to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no
one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’ Jesus
answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him,
‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into
his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say
to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the
kingdom of God.’”
Our
Lord says here clearly that no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he
is first born again. No sinner can enter the Kingdom of God because of
his sins, and because he cannot enter Heaven, nor can he see the Father.
How,
then, can we be born again? Our Lord said in John 3:5, “Most assuredly,
I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot
enter the kingdom of God.” This means that one can see and enter the
Kingdom of God only when he is born again of water and the Spirit. We
should then realize here that the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit is the very Word that makes it possible for us to be born again.
And
we must remember what the Lord said elsewhere in John 8, “You shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” So put differently,
this means that those whose hearts are still bound by their sins even as
they believe in Jesus still remain as tares. Anyone who has even a
penny’s worth of sin in his heart is a spiritual tare. He is someone who
has not been born again yet, for he still does not believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
How,
then, can such a person be born again? The Lord said that it is of
water and the Spirit that one can be born again. The water here
fundamentally means the baptism that the Lord Jesus received from John
the Baptist, because it is through this baptism that Jesus Christ took
away all the sins of the world. Our Lord is Jesus Christ the Savior who
shouldered the sins of the world by being baptized, who died on the
Cross while carrying them all, who rose from the dead again, and who has
forever saved us from all our sins.
The
Holy Spirit also bears witness of the ministries that our Lord
fulfilled when He came to this earth (1 John 5: 6). The Holy Spirit is
the same God as the Father and the Son. This is why, when we believe in
the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit descends
onto our hearts, and this Holy Spirit testifies to us that it is by our
faith that we are born again of water and the Spirit.
God
the Holy Spirit is our Helper. The Holy Spirit testifies to us
everything that the Father and the Son planned and achieved together
according to the written Word of God, and He bears witness to our
salvation and guarantees it when we have faith in the gospel Truth. The
Holy Spirit also testifies to us that it is by believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit that we can enter the Kingdom of God. He
bears witness of the fact that our Lord, by being baptized, dying on the
Cross, and rising from the dead again, has completely and perfectly
blotted out all our sins. Therefore, what we need to realize is that to
fulfill God the Father’s plan, Jesus was born unto this earth, was
baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and has thereby saved
us from our sins; and that the Holy Spirit is the God who testifies to
us that the Lord has indeed saved us by taking upon our sins with His
baptism, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, and who
helps us to believe in these things.
Put
differently, the Holy Spirit is testifying to you, “God has saved you
in this way through His Son. Jesus is God Himself and your Savior, and
to be more concrete, He has saved you by being baptized, dying on the
Cross, and rising from the dead again. He has perfectly saved you by
taking upon your sins through His baptism, and by being crucified and
shedding His blood in your place to be condemned for your sins.” As
such, if you have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in
your hearts, you should answer the Holy Spirit with your faith. The Holy
Spirit is also the Spirit of Truth. So when we read the Word of God and
know the Truth through the Word, the Holy Spirit guarantees us our
salvation.
How Does the Holy Spirit Guarantee Our Salvation When We Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit?
The
Holy Spirit says to us, “Your faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit is the right faith. You are now sinless. Why? Because to take
away your sins, the Son of God was born unto this earth, was baptized,
and died on the Cross: The baptism that Jesus received from John the
Baptist was to take upon all your sins; His death on the Cross was the
sacrifice that He made to bear the condemnation of your sins in your
place; and the resurrection of Jesus Christ was achieved to give you new
life. It was to make you God’s people, to enable you to enter His
Kingdom and live with Him forever, that God Himself came to this earth
and carried out His work.” It is because the Holy Spirit testifies like
this that Jesus Himself says that we can neither see the Kingdom of God
nor enter it unless we are born again of water and the Spirit.
Is
there anyone among you who still has sin in his heart? Anyone who has
even a penny’s worth of sin in his heart continues to be bound by sin
even after believing in Jesus, and no matter how fervently he might say
prayers of repentance for his sins, these sins do not disappear. As
such, even though he had not known the gospel of the water and the
Spirit so far, he should now know it, and believe in it as the real
gospel.
Those
who hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit and yet do not really
believe in it, and instead hold onto their old faith, are bound to have
sin in their hearts all the time. They regard the gospel of the water
and the Spirit merely as one of new teachings, and therefore, just add
it on top of their old faith. As a result, whenever they commit a sin,
this sin is just added to their existing sins.
But
those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are without
sin even though they are insufficient, for they believe in this true
gospel. Why? Because Jesus already took away all their sins and made an
early payment. This is the case because over 2,000 year ago, He already
took upon our sins, went to the Cross and died on it, and rose from the
dead again, thereby saving us all. It is by believing in this Truth that
we can be remitted from our sins by faith. Unbelievers must believe.
Most
of you probably have heard of the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
and already know this Word of Truth. To the believers in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, what I am saying here may be a repetition, but
still, you need to hear it again. The Lord said that not everyone who
calls upon the name of God and professes to believe in Jesus is the real
grain. He said that there are both grain and tares in the so-called
churches.
The
grain bears the crops and the tares bear the fruit of the tares. The
enemy has sown the tares, and through these tares, he bears yet more
tares. God has sown good seed, made them bear grain, and the grain still
bears even more crops. The Lord is telling us, in other words, that we
must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit without fail.
This World Is the Field of the Kingdom of God
The
place where God can do His work is this world. And it is in our hearts
where God can sow the gospel seed of the water and the Spirit. But, at
the same time, the Devil can also sow the bad seeds of tares in our
hearts. This is why we must first know which gospel has been planted in
the field of our hearts. If you now realize and know that the seeds of
tares have been sown in your hearts, you must now lower your hearts
before the gospel of the water and the Spirit and learn it all over
again. And you must believe.
The
four fields that Jesus spoke of in His parable of the sower refer to
four typical conditions of the human heart. After knowing the condition
of the field of our hearts, we then need to find out whether it is
really the good seed that has been sown in our hearts’ field. If we find
we have sin in our hearts, this means that the tares have instead been
sown, and those tares in our hearts are fallacious gospels. We must now
uproot them from our hearts and throw them away by faith. There are some
pseudo-gospels that resemble the gospel of the water and the Spirit
closely, but if they are not the gospel of the water and the Spirit for
100%, then they are false gospels. If such false pseudo-gospels have
been planted in our hearts, we must pull them out without hesitation,
and we must boldly plant, by faith, the gospel of the water and the
Spirit in their place.
You
need to realize that in the minds of many Christians who profess to
believe in Jesus, there actually are many tares—that is, false
gospels—that have been planted. At the same time, you should also
realize that among yourselves, there also are many people in whose
hearts the gospel of the water and the Spirit has been planted.
Our
God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have sown the good seed in
us. By giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God has enabled
us to receive the remission of our sins. He loved us so much, and His
love is manifested in the fact that God Himself became a man. Jesus
Christ the Son of God was born unto this earth through the body of the
Virgin Mary. That God Himself came to this world in the flesh of man was
to save mankind from their sins. It is only for this purpose alone that
the Creator Himself became a human. According to this purpose, our Lord
came to this earth, took upon all the sins of mankind by being baptized
by John the Baptist, died on the Cross as the price for taking upon the
sins of the world, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become our
Savior. The purpose for our Lord to become a man was, in short, to take
upon all the sins of the world through His baptism.
After
His resurrection, at His final moment on this earth before ascending to
Heaven, Jesus said to His disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I
have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
By
this commandment, Jesus is still telling us, “I, the Son of God, took
upon all your sins, was condemned in your place and died, and have
thereby saved you perfectly. I have risen from the dead again and have
become your living Savior. You should therefore proclaim this gospel
throughout the whole world.” From this Great Commission, we can see just
how important His baptism, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection
are, and just how important this faith in the gospel Truth of the water
and the Spirit is. Seeing these things that the Son of God and the true
God did for us, we must realize and believe just how critical this
faith is.
We
are now spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the
whole world, which is God’s own workplace and the field where seed
needs to be sown. And we are preaching the gospel of His baptism and
bloodshed by obeying His commandment. Now is the time for you to know
the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit and believe in it.
The
Apostle Paul professed his faith in Romans 8:1-2, saying, “There is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do
not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law
of sin and death.”
Even
if you profess to believe in Jesus as your Savior, there are two
possibilities for you: You may indeed abide in Jesus now, or you may be
actually standing outside. This refers to the condition as to whether or
not there is sin in your hearts right now, and this is an extremely
crucial question for you. And whenever you sin, whether this present sin
grapples your hearts and affects them is also important. Depend on this
result, whether or not you have sin in Jesus Christ, you can find out
if you are tares or the real grain.
The
faith that enables you to come into Jesus Christ is faith in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit. It is by this faith that you can enter the
Kingdom of Heaven, for the powerful gospel of the water and the Spirit
is the gospel that can blot out all your sins to perfection, even to the
very last penny.
As
it is written, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), it is because we believe in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit that we have no sin whatsoever, and it is
because we have no sin that there is no condemnation either. The
believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have now become
forever sinless by their faith, and therefore they will never become
sinners again. It is because they are now sinless by faith that they
have become righteous.
The
word “condemnation” in this passage implies “being condemned for having
sin.” It is to point out that there is sin in the human heart.
Countless Christians, even after believing in Jesus, still profess that
they are sinners as there is sin in their hearts. But the Bible clearly
states here that there is no condemnation in Jesus Christ, which means
that the faith of those who say that they still have sin is a flawed
one.
“I
am a sinner. I am not God’s son. I am no more than a tare.” To have
this kind of faith is to disobey the righteousness of God and to
disbelieve in it. In contrast, the Apostle Paul declared, “There is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” And he
went on to say, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has
made me free from the law of sin and death.”
What
is this law of death that the Lord mentioned here? It is the Law that
points out people’s sins and ascertains that there will be condemnation
of these sins. What is the law that condemns and judges people’s sins
and drives them to death? It is the just Law of God. The Law reveals and
points out people’s sins. It is the just Law of God that points out
what is sin before God and how many great sins we have committed, and
renders the verdict declaring, “If you have sin, you will be cast into
hell.” This is the very function of the Law.
What,
then, is the law of the Spirit of life? This refers to the law of
salvation through which the Son of God the Father has remitted away our
sins, and blotted them all out to perfection. By this law of salvation,
He made us be born again and receive new life, turned us into God’s own
children, and enabled us to receive everlasting life.
The
law of the remission of sin is held in the gospel power of the water
and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the law of
salvation through which Jesus has saved us from our sins by coming to
this earth, being baptized, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead
again. It is written, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). This
means that the gospel of the water and the Spirit has freed us from the
law of sin and death.
My
country Korea was once ruled by Japan by force for 35 years. To enslave
the Korean people forever, Japan had forced Koreans to change their
names into Japanese names and to even change our religions into
Shintoism. The lives of Koreans at that time were miserable beyond
description. Countless Koreans were drafted into the Japanese army by
force and coerced to carry on the Japanese war of aggression during the
World War II, and many lives were lost.
Had
Japan not been defeated in the World War II, Koreans would have been
deprived of their nation by the Japanese for even a longer period. But,
thanks to the victory of the Allied Powers, Korea, along with many
colonized nations, was liberated from the tyranny of Japanese
imperialism. It was on August 15th, 1945 that Japan surrendered
unconditionally to the Allied Powers, and it was on that day that the
Japanese colonialism was completely driven of the Korean Peninsula.
Like
this, owing to the righteous act of Jesus, the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has perfectly liberated all of us from the law of
sin and death, just as Korea was completely liberated at the end of the
World War II. Romans 8:3-4 says, “For what the law could not do in that
it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the
flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in
us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
What
has freed us from the law of sin and death is the law of the Spirit of
life, but what has taught us that we have sin and will cast us into hell
is the Law. To free us from this Law, the requirements of the Law must
be fulfilled. To this end, the Son of God came to this earth incarnated
into the flesh, put all the sins of mankind on His own body, and freed
us by fulfilling the requirements of the Law. All our sins were passed
onto the body of Jesus Christ.
So
Jesus Christ took upon all our sins by being baptized, went to the
Cross and was condemned for these sins—this is why He said, “It is
finished,” when He died—rose from the dead again, and has thereby become
our Savior to perfection. By becoming the propitiation for mankind, our
Lord, the Lamb of God, has remitted away all our sins, leaving none
behind, not even as small a sin as a penny.
This
is why everyone who wants to become the real grain must believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. If you had not known the gospel of
the water and the Spirit and believed only in the blood of the Cross
thus far, you must believe, even now, in this gospel of the water and
the Spirit.
What
did Jesus say? He said that when people went asleep, the enemy came and
sowed tares. This means that while people remained ignorant of the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, Satan had his servants sow the false
gospels of tares. Such a false gospel is the gospel of only the blood
of the Cross.
There
is so much to talk about the false and true gospels. I can explicate
the difference between the two down to the minutest details. With the
Word of God, I can pierce to the marrow and search the mind, and I can
discern whether one is a true prophet or a false prophet. By doing so, I
can heal every kind of spiritual diseases for sure. I have done so to
this day and will continue to do so. It is by continuously preaching the
true gospel that I can enable others to know the false prophets the
moment they approach.
There
have been times when I felt very frustrated because of people’s lack of
understanding. However, since Jesus is waiting in His endless patience
for harvesting, it is only right that we, too, should wait. We have to
teach the lost souls again and again with patience, saying, “This is
what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is. Through the Word of the
water and of the blood of Jesus, you have received the remission of your
sins all at once. You are forever righteous.” Such are those who preach
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It
is my hope and prayer that you would all believe in the true gospel of
the water and the Spirit, have the faith of the real grain, and be
harvested into God’s barn when the end days come.
No comments:
Post a Comment