Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 13-6] The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like a Dragnet That Was Cast into the Sea And Gathered Every Kind of Fish (Matthew 13:47-52)
(Matthew 13:47-52)
“‘Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and
gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to
shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw
the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come
forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the
furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.’ Jesus
said to them, ‘Have you understood all these things?’ They said to Him,
‘Yes, Lord.’ Then He said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe instructed
concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of
his treasure things new and old.’”
In
today’s Scripture passage, our Lord continued to speak about the
Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord said, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a
dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind”
(Matthew 13:47). Our Lord said here that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a
dragnet. The dragnet refers to God’s Church.
Why
did God say that His Church is like a dragnet that is cast into the
sea? He said this because it is through God’s Church that the gospel of
the water and the Spirit is sown throughout the whole world, and souls
are thereby saved from their sins. God has sown the seed of the gospel
of the water and the Spirit in this world through His Church, so that
all mankind may enter His Kingdom. This is why He spoke of Heaven by
drawing an analogy to casting a net.
Our
Lord said that it is God’s Church that sorts out the fish caught in the
net of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, gathering the good into
vessels but throwing away the bad. He also said that He would send His
angels at the end of the age, and separate the wicked from among the
just and judge them. This is why He said that the bad fish would be
thrown away. The souls forsaken by God will wail and gnash their teeth
in the furnace of fire.
God’s
Kingdom is built by the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is
being proclaimed throughout the whole world. Our Lord has cast the net
for the sake of souls’ salvation throughout the entire world by giving
them the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and is waiting, and it is
those who are caught in this net that He saves. In short, souls can be
saved from their sins by hearing the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit through God’s Church. Our Lord is also telling us that He will
sort out the wheat from the tares among those who are inside the Church,
and that He will send the good to the Kingdom of God and cast out the
bad into hell.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Sown in the Four Fields of the Heart of Man
Today’s
Scripture passage comes from the parables in Matthew 13. Our Lord
finished up a series of His parables with this passage. Since all the
parables in Matthew 13 are interrelated with each other, I would like to
once again review them from the parable of the sower.
Our
Lord said in Matthew 13:18-23, “Therefore hear the parable of the
sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not
understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown
in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who
received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and
immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but
endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises
because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed
among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world
and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes
unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears
the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a
hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Our
Lord told us of four fields: The first field is the wayside field, the
second field is the stony field, the third field is the thorny field,
and the fourth field is the good field.
The
first, wayside field refers to those who are living only religious
lives. For those who believe in whatever religion of their choice, or
those who believe in Christianity only as one of the many religions of
the world like this, even if the gospel seed of the water and the Spirit
that enables them to enter the Kingdom of God is sown, hearing this
they do not understand, and therefore Satan comes and snatches away the
seed.
The
second field is the stony field, and Jesus says that this is he who
hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy, and yet because he
has no root in himself, he endures only for a while; when tribulation or
persecution arises because of the Word, he stumbles immediately. He
stumbles because there is no earth into which he can root. Before God,
whoever hears His Word on the gospel power of the water and the Spirit
must realize that this Word is the essential Truth of the remission of
sin, and he must accept it into his heart. However, even if one accepts
this true gospel, it is still possible for him to have no root and end
up dead as a result. This means that his heart did not fully agree with
the Word of God.
What
is the root here? It is none other than the Word of God. To tell us
about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God was first telling us
about our sins. And He also spoke about the condemnation of sin. Yet
some people did not believe in all this Word, when in fact they had to
believe in it with all their hearts.
We
must realize that all the God-spoken Word was spoken to us, and
whenever we hear this Word and listen to what it says to us, we must
hold onto by faith and believe in it. Only then can we receive the
remission of sin into our hearts. Even after receiving the remission of
sin, our insufficiencies are still revealed, and in times like this, we
must realize, “Though I am this insufficient, the Lord has saved me from
all my weaknesses and all my sins,” and we must have faith in the Word
of God—only then will our faith not perish.
The
second field in the Scripture passage actually refers to those whose
hearts stand against God, and into whom the Word of God cannot enter as a
result. They only heard the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit,
and failed to accept other lessons in the Word of God. In other words,
they believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit only
religiously. Therefore, they were reluctant to believe in the Word of
God, and as they failed to believe wholly in the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit, they reached their spiritual death. Because there
was no depth of earth, they had no root, so that they came to face the
consequences of sin. In the end, while they did know the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, they nonetheless perished, for they neither knew
nor admitted their wicked hearts.
Therefore,
it is crucial for us to acknowledge all the Word of God even after
coming to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All the Word of
God is like the root of a plant, and only when we hold onto God’s Word
and place our faith in it can we live and not die. This kind of faith is
the faith that enables you to attain life.
Unless
we have such Word of God and such faith in our hearts, we are to carry
on with our lives of faith only halfheartedly, and in the end, we will
turn into mere religionists and perish away. Such faithless people
believe in Jesus only as a matter of Christian doctrine, and they attend
church only formally, not having genuine faith in God. The result,
therefore, is that they go to church carrying their own righteousness,
only to boast of their own rightfulness and claim, “This is how
wonderful and smart I am!”
We
can never hear this gospel of the water and the Spirit from anywhere
else but only from God’s Church. But, we must remember if we have no
real faith even as we attend church that preach the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, we will surly perish in the end. As such, we must
ruminated on and believe in the Word that we hear through God’s Church.
The
gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit is completely different from
the elusive doctrines of today’s Christianity. Those who attend the
worldly churches only call on the Lord’s name loudly, speak in tongues,
and ask for only blessings whenever they pray to God. They also think
and believe that if they fast and are faithful to God, they would be
blessed, but this is no more than elusive faith. They become elders and
deacons without the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Their faith is
the exact opposite of the faith of the gospel believers.
However,
our Lord still wants to bring salvation even to such people. The Lord
wanted to blot out our sins from God’s side and accomplished this
mission through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, was pleased to
bring the God-given salvation to us and give us the gift of faith, and
has already bestowed all mercy, blessings, love, and grace on us. When
it comes to believing in Jesus, we should not attend church only as a
matter of religious practice, but we must know the real Truth through
our faith in the Word of God.
As
we attend God’s Church, what would happen if we were to flaunt our own
righteousness, fail to hold onto the Word of God with our hearts, and
succumb to laziness in our lives of faith? Even for the righteous, if
they do not keep holding onto the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
their hearts feel empty. Therefore, we must revere God’s Word, engrave
it in our hearts, hold onto it with our faith, ruminate on it and
believe in it. We must indeed run toward God with all our hearts, and
all the while follow His righteousness and live for His gospel.
If
any of us fails to wholeheartedly unite with the servants and God’s
Church, his faith is bound to perish. This world is still a world ruled
by Satan. Therefore, no matter how we might know and believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, if the Word of God does not take
root in our hearts, our minds will starve, be bound by sin again and
captured by false doctrines, and die.
Our
faith must not become the first wayside field, nor the second stony
field, nor the third field of thorns. The third one is the thorny field:
“Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word,
and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the
word, and he becomes unfruitful.” If one hears the Word of God, but he
is fooled by the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, it
is only too obvious that he would fail to bear any fruit. If one’s heart
is all placed after the things in this world, such as material
possessions, fame, the opposite sex, or power, then he is bound to turn
into a tare. To receive the remission of sin by believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, and to therefore have the faith that
enables us to enter the Kingdom of God, is not something trivial that
can be abandoned to temptation. Among the four fields in the parable of
the sower, these three fields cannot bear fruit.
Therefore,
we must think about the grace of salvation that God has bestowed on us
and thank him for it, and it is indeed right for us to serve the Lord
because of this, and unite with Him because of this. If, on the other
hand, we are only concerned about material things, just asking about how
we can live well in this world and how we can have fun, then
ultimately, our faith will perish in the end, even if we heard and
believed temporarily in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
We
also are, of course, highly interested in the world and material
things, even though we believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. But these are not all to us. While it is in fact true that we
are not entirely free of any interest in the pleasures of the world, and
that we belong here, in our hearts is the One who is more precious than
these. He is our Lord who gives us the gift of all blessings: The gift
of everlasting life; the gift of the remission of sin; and the gift of
spiritual faith. He makes us prosper in both body and spirit with these
abundant blessings.
Therefore,
it is only proper for us to cherish this God even more. Though we are
insufficient, the gospel of the water and the Spirit has remitted away
all our sins, and so it is only natural for our hearts to thank God. The
Lord says that when we always keep the gospel of the water and the
Spirit in our hearts, hold onto and believe in all the Word of God as
well, and follow the Lord, we will be more than able to enter the
Kingdom of God. He also says that this is how we can become the people
of faith like Abraham, bear many spiritual fruits on this earth also,
and become great men and women who are respected by people on this
earth.
The Gospel Word of the Water and the Spirit Will Cover the Whole World
Our
Lord said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into
the sea and gathered some of every kind.” The Kingdom of God is like a
dragnet. The Kingdom of God belongs to the believers in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, and this Kingdom of God has cast a dragnet
throughout the whole world. The entire world, in other words, will be
covered with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And the Lord has
enabled everyone to know all about it. He has made it impossible for
anyone to escape from this dragnet, the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
Many
people have heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit, whether in
passing, from friends, parents, or children, through books, or in
whatever way. And the Lord said that He would come and see the fish
caught in this net, and gather the good into vessels and throw away the
bad.
And
the Lord said, “The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from
among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be
wailing and gnashing of teeth.” The Lord said here that the Kingdom of
God belongs to the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
and that it is these believers in this true gospel who would become the
disciples of Jesus Christ and preach the gospel throughout the whole
world. Responses vary among those who hear this gospel; some are caught,
while others escape and refuse to hear.
But
in the end, there is the work of sorting those who are caught in this
gospel of the water and the Spirit, where the Lord gathers the good into
vessels and throws away the bad. The Lord said that He would separate
the wicked from among the just. In other words, even among the believers
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there are both the righteous
and the wicked.
How
could there be both the just and the wicked among the people who have
accepted the true gospel? When all sins can be blotted out if people
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, how could the Lord
say that among them there are both the just and the wicked? We need to
pay careful attention to this and find out the answer.
All
of us likewise attend church and live our lives of faith, but some of
us will be classified as the wicked before God. Who are they? Who are
the wicked in the Church? They are those whose hearts are like the third
field in the parable of the sower. They are the ones who, despite
claiming to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, are still
greedy and more interested in material things, who are interested only
in the wealthy lives of their flesh, and who show no interest whatsoever
in spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the
whole world and obeying the will of God. Although such people heard and
believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they can never bear
fruit. In the Lord’s eyes, they are wicked, for they failed to unite
their hearts with His works by faith.
Our
Lord said that He does not just look at our outward appearance, but our
hearts. Do we believe in God with our hearts, unite with the Church
with our hearts, and together preach the gospel of the water and the
Spirit throughout the whole world with our hearts? This is what our Lord
looks at. When Jesus said that the fish caught in the net would be
separated into the good and the bad, He meant that the among those who
attend God’s Church that preaches the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, the righteous and the wicked would be separated. These are the
wheat and the tares. This is what our Lord said in the end.
Do
you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with your hearts?
Do you really admit that the Lord is never pleased with these first
three fields, and that the seed sown in these fields can never bear
fruit?
Essentially,
the righteous can never be like such fields, even though they are still
weak in their flesh. What is the first field? Is it not the wayside
field? We, the righteous, cannot believe in Jesus in the same manner of
those who have religious faith. Do we follow Christianity as if we were
following one of the worldly religions such as Buddhism, Confucianism,
Taoism, or Hinduism? We cannot do this.
Our
Lord is the Christ and the Son of the living God. Jesus Christ created
the whole universe, made you and me, and to deliver us from all our
sins, He came to this earth, was baptized by John the Baptist, died on
the Cross, and rose from the dead again. Like this, our Lord has saved
us once for all and has become our everlasting Savior.
Therefore,
for us to attend God’s Church is not for our religious practices, but
it is to live our lives of faith. It is the life of faith that the just
carry on. Since God is in fact our Savior and Master, it is only a
matter of course for us to recognize the Master as the Master. It is
only proper for us to believe in Him and follow Him. The Lord wants us
to follow Him with this kind of faith.
As
we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and follow the
Lord, there are times when we face tribulation or persecution because of
our faith in the Word. It is written, “Yes, and all who desire to live
godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).
Therefore, we can follow the Lord only when we deny ourselves. What is
meant by denying ourselves? It is to deny the lusts of our flesh.
Is
it right for us to think only of ourselves? No. We may not be national
heroes, but we must lay down our life for righteous work. Why do people
remember and respect national heroes that have long been dead? It is
because they took upon their duties for the sake of their nation and
their people. They did not fight for their countries at the risk of
their lives. They did what they did for their nation and people, even as
they knew very well that they would be caught, tortured, and put to
death. This is why we memorialize them as the courageous ones who did
the right thing.
By
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have received
the remission of our sins. Because the Lord Himself has blotted out all
our sins through the gospel power of the water and the Spirit, we have
now become sinless by faith. Since the Lord has saved us from all our
sins by taking upon the sins of the world, being condemned for them, and
rising from the dead again, if we are to believe in this gospel and
come to His Church, then to serve and follow God’s righteous work is to
be the good fish. Of course, it requires our sacrifices in every field
of our private lives. However, if anyone does not unite his heart with
those who serve God and the gospel, but instead turns his back from
them, God will forsake him, no matter how fervently he professes to
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is because he is
classified as a bad fish, a wicked man.
The
Lord became the propitiation for all of us. By giving us the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, the Lord has saved us from all our sins. Our
Lord loved us, gave us all His good gifts, and sacrificed for us to make
us happy. The Lord loved us, still loves us even now, and wants to
continue to love us, and He desires to live with us happily forever. He
is only asking us, “Would you not become my hands, eyes, and feet to
spread this gospel to others while you are on this earth?” How then
could we not unite with the Lord?
However,
there are people who reply like this: “I don’t want to. Do you take me
for a fool? I know all about it. Okay, I believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. I am now sinless, am I not? That should be enough;
why do you ask me to give up everything and live only for the gospel?
Do you think I am stupid? Why do you keep bothering me like this? Stop
it. The modern man pursues freedom. So please don’t do this to me. I
thank you for giving me the remission of sin, but don’t expect me
anything else from me. That’s it!”
My
fellow believers, to have such hearts and to do such things is the kind
of faith that stands against God. This is the faith of the wicked who
betray God. If we truthfully believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit with our hearts, then though we may like such things of the
flesh, and do not want to be disturbed from enjoying our private lives,
we can never do all we want out of our stubbornness. Why? Because the
love we have received is far too great, and the salvation our Lord has
given us is far too magnificent, we can never do so. No matter how
wicked and completely worthless we might be, once we know the grace of
God, we can never do this. If a man does not remember the grace that was
bestowed on him, then it is proper to say that he is worse than a dog.
My
fellow believers, in today’s Scripture passage, Jesus is telling us
that He would separate the wicked from among the just. This is His
message of warning that concludes the series of His parables.
He
said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea.
The Lord is spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout
the whole world. I am sure that whoever seeks the Truth will be able to
find the gospel of the water and the Spirit without fail, and that
countless souls will come to believe in it. But, among those who profess
to believe in the true gospel, many will be classified as the wicked
and be cast into fire because of their halfhearted lives of faith.
The
Lord said that He would gather the good into vessels. He will bring the
authentic believers, who truly obey Him and live their lives of faith
with thanksgiving, to the Kingdom of Heaven. The gospel of the water and
the Spirit that you have heard is the Truth that enables you to receive
the remission of your sins. Your faith in this Truth may be weak at
this point, but if you really attend God’s Church faithfully, do not
miss gatherings, and hear the Word in anyway possible, then you will
come to really live the Spirit-filled lives, truly believing and
following it with your hearts. If you cannot find God’s Church in your
vicinity, keep your faith by nourishing yourselves from the spiritual
food provided through our books and web site. Pray to God to allow you
to have a church of God where you can share the gospel of the water and
the Spirit to your hearts’ content.
My
fellow believers, it is written in the Bible, “To be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).
Even at this hour, many of you would like to slack off in your homes
than be in church. How much would you prefer to watch a rented movie
enjoying pizza and cola? There is no one who does not know this kind of
pleasure. So in a sense, the life of faith that requires you to
sacrifice these things and devote yourselves to spiritual affairs may
seem rather foolish to you. If you consider it based on your carnal
thoughts, you may very well reach this calculation.
But
the life of faith is to follow the Word of God like Abraham. It is to
follow the Word written in the Bible without fail, for it is the truth.
All things will be fulfilled according to the Word of God for sure, not
according to our own carnal expectation, and therefore it is a wise
choice to follow God’s Word by faith. It is by faith that we can receive
the remission of our sins, follow the Lord, please Him, have our
prayers answered by the Lord by believing in this Word, be blessed,
become the workers who do the spiritual work of Heaven, and receive the
blessings of the fertility of the earth.
Jesus
said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into
the sea and gathered some of every kind. He said that when it was full,
they drew to shore, and they sat down and gathered the good into
vessels, but threw the bad away.
What
are the bad here? As I mentioned before, they are the ones who follow
only their own lusts of the flesh. The bad fish are those who do not
sincerely believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with all
their hearts, but believe in it only halfheartedly to placate their
consciences, follow only the pleasures of their flesh, seek only carnal
things, and live their lives for such purposes alone.
Throughout
the whole world, God has cast the net called the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and is waiting for fish to be caught in the net. Put
differently, He wants everyone to receive the remission of sin by
hearing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is
why God is working, and yet among those who profess to believe in this,
there are those who are outside the real faith. They will surly be
judged. Even among those who profess to believe, in other words, some
will be cast out like this.
It
is true that we are insufficient, weak, carnal, and prone to follow the
things of the world. This is because we are still in flesh. Though this
is true, there still are those who dedicate themselves to the righteous
work of God. It is true that our God has given this Word of Truth to
this world, to us, and it is also true that we, having received the
remission of sin, are to live our lives of faith by trusting in God’s
Word and following it. It is by faith that we can do the just work. We
must live our lives of faith by looking toward the written Word,
engraving it in our hearts, and holding on it. “Since You said that You
would do this, I believe that You would indeed do it without fail.” To
have this faith, to look toward God’s Word with faith, to follow this
Word and obey it by faith like Abraham—this is the life of faith. It is
with this kind of faith that we should live our lives of faith. Only
then would we have proper and great faith springing forth in both our
spirits and minds, and prosper even in the flesh with the help of God.
Our
Lord is saying to us in Matthew 6, “Seek first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” It is
the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit who can do the
righteous work that God spoke to us. When we accept the gospel that God
has entrusted to us with our hearts, believe that it is right for us to
serve this gospel, and do indeed serve and follow it even though we are
insufficient, then the Lord will add even more blessings to our spirits
and bodies for the rest of our whole lives. When we actually live by
faith, we will experience these things.
But
if we try to live only our carnal lives, all the blessings in this
world will also end. All that this entails is just our own efforts, and
there is no help from God, either directly or indirectly. However, if
God is pleased by our faith, and thus helps us both directly and
indirectly, then everything we do will go well.
“Seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added to you.” The Lord says, “If you truthfully believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit with your hearts, then first think
of the expansion of the Kingdom of God throughout the whole world, pray
for it, unite with it and serve it. I will then help you in every step
of the rest of your lives. If you serve Me, I will bless you also.”
Jesus
said, “Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is
the Law and the Prophets.” If you really want to be loved and blessed
by God, then all that you have to do is really believe with your hearts
and follow with your hearts. If you do what pleases the Lord with your
hearts, in other words, the rest will also be taken care of by Him. This
is God’s promise. This is why mankind’s methods and means are all
unnecessary before God. How foolish is it for us to pick our brains and
scheme with our minds, when our IQ does not even reach four digits?
Before
God, mankind’s trickery is nothing. Rather than trying to do everything
according to our own shallow thoughts, we should believe in the Word of
God and follow it with faith. If the servants of God preach His Word as
it is, we should follow them by faith. God works in our lives when we
really believe in and follow His Word. We must not think that we can
somehow serve God with the righteousness of mankind.
You
and I need faith in all the Word of God, and we also need God’s
abundant blessings on our everyday lives. To meet these needs, we must
first believe in God’s Word and live our lives for the gospel. For
anyone to be blessed without doing so is simply not true. If someone
says that he was blessed even when he did not believe in the Lord,
neither served Him, nor followed Him, then this means that God hasn’t
cared for him. If someone in God’s Church has such a wicked mind and has
not served the gospel Truth, he will soon leave the Church and perish
in the end. To be blessed without living by faith is actually a curse in
itself.
God
wants to have fellowship with the hearts of faith that believe in His
Word. This is the spiritual fellowship. God knows everything. Therefore,
we must believe, with our hearts, in God’s Word and the words spoken by
His servants, and in anyway possible, our hearts must participate in
His righteous works and unite for the sake of the gospel. Such
participating hearts can have the ears that understand God’s Word
immediately. Their spiritual eyes are opened and their faith grows. The
Bible says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God” (Romans 10:17). When the servants of God preach His Word, it is
only those whose spiritual eyes are open that see faith, learn it from
the servants, and make it theirs. And when such people have fellowship
with one another, they can learn from each other’s faith also. They can
witness themselves how their faith grows by leaps and bounds. That is
indeed the case.
As
I have carried on with my life of faith and walked with the Lord to
this day, I am truly thankful for the times that I felt the presence of
the Lord and had fellowship with Him. To speak of it would take more
than this book. Indeed, volumes upon volumes would still not suffice. So
I am first explaining to you what the Bible is saying on a commentarial
level. Now, I want to finish this sermon by concluding on how we should
live our lives of faith, what this Word is ultimately warning us, and
what it is telling us to believe.
The
Kingdom of Heaven is the Kingdom of God. The dragnet is the gospel of
the water and the Spirit that is being spread by God’s Church. The fish
are humans. Those who believe in the true gospel with their hearts are
the good fish, that is, the righteous. But those, who do not believe
with their hearts but only temporarily, abandon the Word of God, and
follow their own carnal lusts and thoughts, are the bad fish. The former
will be accepted and enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the latter will
be thrown away.
Jesus
says that this is what will happen when the end of the world comes.
This will indeed come true without fail. When we arrive at the end of
our individual lives, we will also go through this judgment. Everyone
living on this earth will stand before God’s throne of judgment at least
once. God said that He would destroy this world and build the next new
world. Long ago, there was a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth, but
one day that world disappeared all of a sudden, and a new world began.
Like this, the Lord will open another new world in the future. Through
His written Word, our Lord speaks of the Millennial Kingdom and the
Kingdom of God to come.
My
fellow believers, the Bible does not just speak of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. There are many other themes that the Bible
addresses. It is only because the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit is the key that opens the gate of the Kingdom of God that the
preachers must constantly and ceaselessly preach this gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit. There are so many issues in God’s Word to tell
you about, but if I talk about them all at once, would your faith sprout
and grow? It will be proper for me to preach an appropriate amount so
that you can all reach a good understanding.
You
the saints who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will
be persecuted, mocked, and despised by people because of this faith. But
if you really believe, you should set aside such mockeries and
persecutions as a mongrel dog’s barking, and then the troubles that you
face for the sake of God’s righteousness will turn into your joy. If you
do not think so, then you are not holding onto the Word of God. If
anyone does not dedicate himself to the work of righteousness, if he
puts himself before the work of God, and if he is afraid of what the
worldly people might think about him, then he does not believe in the
Word of God. Rather, he believes in the so-called “Christian”
organizations.
It
is clear that such people belong to the fish that are sorted as the bad
and thrown out by God for sure. If we believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit wholeheartedly and follow it with all our hearts,
and if we first seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness despite
our insufficiencies, then we will never turn into the bad fish. However,
if we fail to believe in and follow the true gospel with our hearts,
and instead think of the life of faith in His Church as only a way of
our carnal lives, then when the last days come, God will treat us as the
bad fish.
I
worry that you might end up like these people. I want you, in other
words, to have faith and to live for God’s gospel. It is only true faith
that is approved by God. If we truthfully believe with our hearts, then
sooner or later we will grow to be faithful Christians.
Although
your flesh may be far too insufficient, I still admonish you to be born
again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in the
center of your hearts, follow God, and be led by the Shepherd and follow
Him in your lives. When you do so, the Word of God will then fill your
hearts and enable you to grow even without realizing, and you will
discover that you have become the people of faith like Abraham.
It
is my hope and prayer that all our servants of God, saints, and workers
would indeed become the good field among the four fields of the heart.
It is my desire for you to believe in and follow the Word of God with
your hearts. And I yearn that God would bless you who are seeking to
live such a spiritual life, and add more faith upon your faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment