Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 15] God Has Given Us Boundless Blessings (Matthew 15:32-39)
(Matthew 15:32-39)
“Now
Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, ‘I have compassion on
the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and
have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest
they faint on the way.’ Then His disciples said to Him, ‘Where could we
get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?’
Jesus said to them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ And they said,
‘Seven, and a few little fish.’ So He commanded the multitude to sit
down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave
thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples
gave to the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up
seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. Now those who
ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. And He sent
away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of
Magdala.”
When
we focus on the last part of today’s Scripture passage, we can see just
how abundant grace God has bestowed on mankind. The great multitude
that was following Jesus Christ had not eaten for three days, and so
they were starving. It’s written here that seeing them, Jesus had so
much compassion for them that He said, “I do not want to send them away
hungry, lest they faint on the way.” He then blessed seven loaves of
bread and two fish and gave them to the multitude; they were then all
filled and there still were seven baskets full of leftovers. Over 4,000
men were fed, besides women and children.
That
there were seven baskets of leftovers means that God’s grace is
boundless. How amazing is that there was enough food left to fill seven
baskets even after feeding over 4,000 men, not counting women and
children? God had blessed a lunch that consisted of only seven barley
loaves and a few little fish and shared it with the multitude, but seven
baskets full of leftovers were gathered even after 4,000 men were fed,
besides women and children. This tells us that God’s grace is boundless
and everlasting. It underscores just how important it is for us to have
faith in God. The grace of God is that great. If God’s grace were not
truly great, then it would be impossible for us not to be discouraged in
our lives of faith.
God Is Perfect
In
the Scriptures, the number seven is a perfect number symbolizing the
attribute of God. God bestows His grace on His hungry and starving
people. As it is made clear in today’s Scripture passage, there is no
doubt whatsoever that God indeed bestows His grace infinitely. The Lord
wants us to know and believe in the perfectness of God and His abundant
grace.
Then,
by what kind of faith should we live? Rather than live according to our
circumstances and stage, we should ask for more of God’s grace
everyday, believe in Him more, yearn for His love more, and live in His
love. And firming up our faith in God even more, we must live by
believing in Him more. You must realize and believe from the depth of
your heart that the love of God is infinite. Although we’ve often heard
people say, “God is great. God is love,” God wants us to truly realize
that He has indeed bestowed His grace abundantly. When we properly grasp
this limitless grace of God and believe in it, we can then move beyond
our low stage of faith that follows our own circumstances and
situations.
Do
you not believe in God at your own level and do you not also follow Him
on your own stage? Have you not been tamed by doctrines instilled by
legalized Christianity? If you have assessed your life of faith based on
your own standard so far, and found yourself satisfied or tormented
depending on this result, then now is the time for you to move beyond
such a stage of faith and come into God’s profound, boundless, and
perfect realm of faith.
If
we believe in God, then we can live in His infinite love, for His love
knows no bound. I ask you all to believe in this God. You have to
recognize that it’s only because you don’t have enough faith in God that
you are struggling with hardships. When we have no faith in the
boundless grace of God, our hearts are often filled with discouragement
and suffering. There are also times when we think that God does not know
our suffering, and as a result, we bind ourselves with such sufferings.
That’s why we struggle to carry on with our lives of faith as if we
were the only ones suffering. However, even when we feel as if God has
abandoned us to our own struggle in our times of suffering, hardship,
and pain, God still knows us all and pours His boundless love on us.
Therefore, whenever we are suffering or facing hardships, we have even
more reason to turn to God, who bestows this unbound grace on us. Even
to this day, God is still asking you, “Entrust yourself to Me, rely on
Me, and believe in Me.”
Our
God is not the kind of God that bestows His grace on us only to stop in
the middle. On the contrary, He is the God who left seven baskets of
food even after feeding over 4,000 in men alone. He is not the God that
would abandon you when you are exhausted desperately needing His help,
but He is the God that bestows more than enough grace to feed everyone
and still fill seven baskets. Likewise, the grace of God is not
something that is bestowed on us only to cease in the middle. It is the
grace that is bestowed on us continuously and infinitely.
Was
there a moment in your life when you felt that your life was over? Or
was there a time in your life of faith when you felt, “my life of faith
is about to end here?” As we carry on with our lives of faith, there are
such moments when it seems as if our faith is about to be lost. In
times like this, when you feel as if you have run out of faith and you
think, “my life of faith is over,” remember that God’s boundless love
and grace has never ended, even though your own righteousness, strength,
and faith may have reached a certain limit. It’s because our own faith
is exhausted before God that we feel as if everything is over, but this
does not mean that God’s grace for us is somehow exhausted.
As
we carry on with our lives, there are many times when our lives seem to
be over. All of us probably have had a few near-death experiences. Yet
even so, we have managed to survive and we are still alive. This was all
possible because the grace of God has continued to take a fast hold on
us, even though our strength was exhausted and we came close to death.
The reason why we have been able to continue to carry on with our lives
of faith without perishing in body and spirit is precisely because we
have had the absolute and perfect strength that has held us whenever we
seemed to run out of faith. It’s by this strength that we have been able
to overcome crises of faith and remain alive. This strength comes from
God. God has bestowed His boundless grace on us, He has led us to the
way of righteousness through His boundless love and grace, He has taught
us and guided us justly, and knowing our hunger He has fed us to
fullness. If this is indeed the case, then there is no need for us to be
discouraged and remain neither in despair out of our present hardships
and suffering, nor in our future trials to come. Whenever our faith
seems to be exhausted and overwhelmed by our weaknesses, all that we
have to do is just remember the boundless love of the Lord who has
brought His grace to us according to His time, and believe that He is
the God whose grace knows no bounds, for He plans to continue to bestow
this grace on us in abundance. It’s when we believe in God like this
that He is rejoiced.
Contemplate
on what it is that God is speaking to us about through today’s
Scripture passage. All those people who were with Jesus Christ at that
time had gone hungry for three straight days. Many people were starving
at that time. As we carry on with our lives of faith, there are times
when we go hungry, and there also are many times when we are exhausted.
Yet every time, God has clothed us in His grace. This grace will
continue on in the days to come, but today I would like to address this
issue in more detail.
Who Do Not Believe in God Truly?
God
says in Matthew 15:8-9, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in
vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
Jesus said this with the Pharisees in mind. Religionists only care about
outside appearances. The Pharisees, too, were typical religionists of
their time, and so they invoked the name of God only to seek their own
interest, saying “All that matters is that you should keep yourself
clean and act virtuously in your outside appearance.” They pretended to
serve God only outside, claiming, for example, “Since God told us to
serve our parents, we should serve them. But it’s not an absolute
requirement, if we just say that what we should have given to our
parents was offered to God” (Mark 7:11). These Pharisees—that is,
religionists—emphasized superficial cleanness so much. They insisted
that everyone had to wash his hands without fail whenever he returned
home from outside, but on the other hand, they came up with all kinds of
excuses for their own behavior, twisting the Word of God all the time
to suit themselves, saying “that’s what God’s Word commands us, but
there is always an exception.”
The
Lord says to us, “Whatever enters through a man’s mouth cannot defile
him; it is what comes out from his inside that defiles him.” (Mark
7:18-20). We have to be freed from this superficial cleanness. This
means that any doctrine claiming that we only need to be clean outside,
as if what enters through our mouths would defile us, is not right. In
other words, all these things that enter through the mouth cannot defile
anyone, but it is what comes out from his inside that defiles him. Many
religious people think on their own, “it’s what enters a man through
the mouth that defiles him.” My fellow believers, I ask you all to grasp
that what enters through the mouth cannot defile anyone. Regardless of
how diligently and virtuously one might have lived his life in outside
appearance, if his inside is strewn with filthy sins then he is not a
clean man.
Our
Lord says that what enters through the mouth is not the problem. People
think that if they wash what goes through the mouth before they eat it,
then their inside would somehow be cleansed. That’s what the Pharisees
thought. And it wasn’t just the Pharisees who thought so, but many
others also thought like this. They thought that if they just cleaned
what entered through the mouth before eating it, then they would be
preserved in cleanness, but that was never the case. Jesus says, “What
proceeds out of the mouth comes from the heart, and it’s what comes out
of a man that defiles him.”
Let’s Think about the Sins That Come out of The Heart of Mankind
We
then need to consider the following questions here: “Exactly how filthy
is mankind? And how useless is mankind’s outside cleanness?” Jesus said
that everything that comes of mankind’s mouth comes out of the heart,
and this means that whatever comes out of the heart is the fundamental
nature of mankind. The Lord is saying that whatever comes out of a man’s
mouth is none other than himself and this is what defiles others. What
comes out of the mouth is what comes out of the heart and it’s
imperative for us to know what it is that comes out of the mouth—that
is, what it is that comes out of our hearts.
Let
us all turn to Matthew 15:19 here: “For out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies.” Jesus said here that what proceeds from the heart are evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and
blasphemies, and that it is these things that defile mankind. If we
just look at ourselves as human beings, leaving out the fact that the
Lord has blotted out all our sins, then how would we see ourselves? Take
a good look at yourself and also look at others. Once we see ourselves
reflected on the Word of God in our lives, and set aside Jesus Christ
when we look at ourselves, then we would realize just how exceedingly
sinful we all are. We are constantly practicing nothing but evil. We are
overflowing with evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, and blasphemies. If we set aside our faith in
Jesus Christ, then we ourselves as human beings are nothing more than
piles of sin. The nature of mankind, what comes out of human beings, and
what comes out of the human heart are all evil. It is no exaggeration
to say that the fundamental nature of mankind is stained with such
iniquities as evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, and thefts. It’s as
clear as broad daylight that mankind is simply a brood of sin that
cannot help but spew out only wickedness and filthiness.
Although
many people, brainwashed by religious teachings, think that there is
some goodness to them, it’s precisely because human beings are
fundamentally evil that they seek goodness. That’s why people seek to
practice virtue with their acts, trying to hide their evil fundamental
nature with their merits, and think that mankind is also capable of
attaining some virtues. However, when we look at ourselves as human
beings, we know that mankind itself is filthy. If you knew yourself,
then you couldn’t help but admit just how filthy human beings are, how
evil their thoughts are, how blasphemous they are, and how often they
bear false witness. You can realize all this just by looking at
yourself. But if you don’t recognize yourself, then you would likely be
deluded into thinking that you are a good person. Furthermore, on the
other side of this thinking that considers oneself virtuous, it’s
absolutely certain that this mindset would be associated with religion
and interwoven with religious hypocrisy. On our own, there is nothing at
all that justifies us to look at ourselves as virtuous. Just as Jesus
said in the Bible here, there is no question whatsoever that all the
people living on planet earth, including myself, are a brood of evil
whose thoughts are wicked, filthy, and depraved, and who indeed practice
only evil.
We
humans are completely worthless. When we look at the center of the
human heart, we see how fundamentally filthy it is. Just as the Bible
says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;
who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9), there is nothing that’s filthier and
more depraved than the human heart. All other things in this world, such
as flowers, are clean as they are. In contrast, human beings try to
hide their filthiness with their hypocrisy. Of the entire creation, only
mankind practices hypocrisy, incapable of recognizing itself. It’s
precisely because human beings are hypocritical that they delude
themselves into thinking that they are virtuous. Yet unlike flowers,
which are beautiful just as they are, when human beings are exposed in
their true colors, they are so dirty, evil, and ugly that they are even
filthier than sewage in the sewer and trash in the garbage dump. What
about excrements filled with maggots? Aren’t they also included in “all
things?” Of course they are. If so, then the human heart is even
filthier than such excrements and the maggots living in there. That is
the real nature of mankind.
Do You Know Yourself Well?
The
problem, however, is that we don’t know ourselves that well. Sometimes
even those who have received the remission of sin do not know
themselves. So as a result they become prideful when they achieve
something, but when their insufficiencies are exposed, they end up with
far greater disappointment than the pride they had once felt.
There
were many hungry people following Jesus Christ. Jesus had so much
compassion for these people exhausted from hunger that He performed a
miracle to feed them, but what kind of people are those who truly hunger
in spirit? They are those who know who they really are. Once human
beings know themselves, they spiritually starve so much that they get
completely exhausted. So they come to ask the gods of the world for help
desperately but in vain. Only God can give them His divine grace, and
that’s indeed true.
On
the other hand, there are many people who live without knowing
themselves, but it makes no sense for them to come before God and ask
for help when they don’t even know themselves. Nor does it make any
sense to beg God, “Please help me just a little; please forgive me just
once this time.” This is the wrong prayer to give, which is nothing more
than saying, “I’m just slightly unclean and I only need a little help.
I’ll take care of the rest by myself.” When you realize your total
depravity, come to know the full extent of your wickedness, and admit,
“I am completely filthy. My thoughts are filthy just as my acts are also
filthy; I am nothing more than human trash”—it is then that you can
become poor in heart and your heart can really come to hunger and thirst
for righteousness.
If
you and I still think that we have something virtuous on our own even
after being born again, then we need to think again. If, by any chance,
you think that you can somehow practice righteousness, that there is
something good about you, and that you have certain virtues, then this
can only mean that you are still not hungry in spirit. All human beings,
including you and me, are completely depraved just as our Lord said.
From the very moment we were born, we were already destined to be
corrupt by fate. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, all human beings were
born as a brood of complete filthiness and depravity. If you and I come
to realize our true selves like this, then far from boasting about
ourselves, we would find ourselves sighing in mourning. Even though we
would be grieved when we know and admit ourselves, what will happen
next? We will come to realize that it’s precisely such people on whom
our God bestows His grace. It’s then that we are able to believe in God
by trusting and accepting this grace, and those who believe in this are
able to find His grace by faith.
In
contrast, those who still do not know what kind of people they are,
consider themselves as someone capable of producing something righteous,
and so they busy themselves to serve God through their own virtues.
Such people waver back and forth, serving God and themselves half and
half. On the other hand, those who know that they are insufficient
recognize that they are completely depraved and rest all their
expectations only on the grace of God entirely, even though they may
also waver back and forth a little. In other words, by relying on God
and trusting only in His grace, they come to have faith in His Word and
His grace.
God Bestows the Same Salvation on the Gentiles Also
One
day, while Jesus was traveling through the region of Sidon, a Canaanite
woman from that region came to Him and cried out, “Have mercy on me, O
Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” What does
it mean when it says a Gentile woman living in the region of Canaan
sought out Jesus and said, “Have mercy on me?” Essentially, it means
that this woman knew the full extent of her depraved and filthy self and
admitted herself. Moreover, the woman not only saw her true self, but
she also saw how her daughter was possessed by a wicked demon and once
she saw such filthiness, she had no choice but to completely rely on
Jesus and hang on to Him.
That
is why she ran toward Jesus shouting out, “Have mercy on me, Son of
David!” This woman, who knew herself well, begged Jesus to help her
daughter, saying, “My daughter is suffering terribly from
demon-possession. Please have mercy on me!” Yet despite this, Jesus did
not even turn around, and instead said, “It is not good to take the
children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Jesus was treating
this woman like a dog. He was saying straight to her face, “You are no
better than a dog!” Take a look at how the woman responded in spite of
this insult, saying: “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs
which fall from their masters’ table.” In other words, the woman
frankly admitted herself to Jesus, saying, “Yes, you are right. I am a
woman that’s no better than a dog. I am a dog.” Jesus had mentioned dogs
in indirect reference to the woman, for He knew all about the human
heart, and in return, this woman also admitted herself exactly as she
was, for she, too, knew that she was like a dog. In other words, she had
set aside her daughter for now and first accepted that she was such a
woman. That is how this woman was able to find grace from God.
My
fellow believers, even though we have been born again, what kind of
people are we fundamentally? We ourselves are no better than a dog.
Jesus said that what proceeds from the human heart defiles mankind. What
comes out of the heart of mankind are all kinds of sins, from evil
thoughts to murders, adulteries, thefts, envy, conflict, pride, and so
forth. In other words, Jesus told us that none other than we ourselves
were born with such sins like a dog. A dog is said to return to where it
had vomited once (Proverbs 26:11).
A
dog scoops up and eats its own vomit. Mankind is the same. People pull
out filth from their inside only to swallow it again; they commit sinful
acts, repent, and then commit even more sinful acts all over again,
repeating this time after time. But what do you think? Do you think that
we humans are any better than a dog? No, we are no better. Instead, our
hearts are filthier and more depraved than a dog. When you really take a
close look at yourself, you will realize just how lowly and wretched
you are that you will have no choice but be thoroughly disappointed at
yourself.
What
would happen if people were to see their true selves accurately? They
will all be disappointed at their filthy and depraved image. They will
end up discouraged, thinking, “How wretched I am!” Isn’t this the case?
When you look at yourself, are you not disappointed? All those who
really take a close look at themselves are bound to be disappointed.
However, sometimes even disappointment can be a good dose of medicine,
for it is in times like this that people finally come to hunger and
thirst for righteousness. It’s precisely because you know you are
insufficient that your heart is aroused with the desire to hold on to
Jesus Christ and to believe in whatever He says exactly as it is. It is
then that you come to deny yourself totally and rely on the Word of God.
As you come to realize your completely worthless self, you realize that
this worthless body of yours cannot live without the Lord, and in
gratefulness, you come to yearn for the grace of Jesus Christ, His
blessings, His infinite love, and His boundless salvation.
However,
most people still do not know themselves that well. Socrates once said
long ago, “Know yourself,” but so many people still continue to be
oblivious to who they really are. There are so many people who don’t
realize that they are no better than a dog and that they are nothing
more than human trash; even now, still drunk by the teachings of
religions they continue to delude themselves into believing that their
own self-portrait, embellished with pretense and hypocrisy, is their
true portrait. We humans, by ourselves, are completely worthless trash.
Therefore there is no doubt whatsoever that if faith is taken away from
the born-again and religion from those who have not been born again,
everyone alike would be invariably useless and worthless before God.
If
Jesus, who has blotted out all the sins of the world, were taken away
from you, what kind of a person would you be? Imagine what would happen
if you were left without the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
What kind of people would you and I be then? We would be revealed as
completely worthless. We would turn into useless people no different
from an animal. We would end up no better than leeches, eating and
drinking everyday, and yet wanting more and more (Proverbs 30:15). Is
this not true? Of course it is. That is why we have no choice but to
believe in Jesus, who has blotted out all our sins. It’s because we were
useless sinners that we needed Jesus. After starving so much, we were
only too glad, grateful, and rejoiced to meet Jesus.
That
is why we believe in Jesus. We believe that Jesus accepted all our sins
and was condemned in our place. We also believe that when we believe in
Him we attain eternal life. We believe that He has blotted out all our
sins out of His love for us. We also believe that we have been saved by
faith. We truly need Jesus Christ.
Even
after being born again, we still need Jesus Christ. As human beings, we
are still filthy in and of ourselves even after being born again, but
Jesus Christ speaks to us and enables us to believe in Him, and
therefore our faith in the Lord cleanses our heart, makes our acts
upright, and leads us correctly. Do you believe in this? On our own, we
are incapable of practicing any righteousness at all. It’s all because
of the Lord that we practice righteousness. It’s because of the Lord
that we practice virtue. It’s because of the Lord that we know God’s
love, and it’s because of Him that we love others. And it is because of
the Lord that we are now walking on the right path, for it is all too
clear that we ourselves as humans are incapable of doing so.
If
a born-again person has practiced goodness, preached the gospel, and
served the Lord in various ways, then it’s all because God has given him
a good heart, faith, and the ability, strength, and circumstances to
practice righteousness. We have to grasp here that it’s only because the
Lord has led us that we are now able to love Him, serve Him, and preach
the gospel to people; if we were to love the Lord all on our own, then
we would never be able to love people, nor serve the Lord.
Sometimes We Lead Our Lives of Faith in Delusion
While
we the born-again are carrying on with our lives of faith, it’s
possible for us to sometimes fall into delusion. “Lord, I’ve served You
all this time, but what have You done for me? Have You done anything for
me at all? All that You’ve done has just brought hardship on me. What
is it that You’ve done for me? I don’t want to serve You anymore. I’d
rather give up my life of faith now.” Some of us have such mistaken
thoughts.
But
that is not right. If you have indeed served the Lord wholeheartedly,
then you should be grateful to Him for giving you a heart of
righteousness, allowing His Word to come into you, and enabling you to
serve Him. And you should thank Him for using you as His righteous
instrument. It’s not we who have served the Lord, but is the Lord who
has served us, so that we may be able to serve Him. We have to realize
that it is not we who have practiced righteousness on our own, but it is
the Lord who has given us the strength to practice righteousness.
Even
among our born-again saints, some people are disappointed in their
hearts wondering, “I’ve followed the Lord, but what have I received from
Him?” That’s because they still do not realize just how filthy and
depraved they really are, how their existence is like a dog. Because
they themselves do not truly know just how depraved and worthless they
are, they front their own righteousness and are stiff-necked before the
Lord, thinking that they still are worthy of esteem. You, however, must
realize that you are nothing as a human being. Indeed, we are nothing if
the Lord leaves us. Without the Lord we are incapable of practicing
righteousness; we will only commit sin. Nor will we be able to love, but
far from it we will only be cursing in our lives. Is this how you want
to live the rest of your life, bubbling with filthy sewage and reeking
of foul smell?
It
is all too evident that if the Lord were taken away from us, we would
all be drowning in filthy water, dwelling in this cesspool and vomiting
filthy things, only to fall deeper into the swamp of sin and be
destroyed forever. Yet even though we could not help but live like this,
God has still saved us and so in light of this, I admonish you all to
really grasp that you can only thank God. Because God had compassion for
us, even though we were wicked, depraved, and filthy, He came to us,
blotted out all our sins, led us all, and made it possible for us to
practice righteousness. He has taught us what is right and what is the
truth, He has made us love Him, and He has enabled us to live a
righteous life. None other than this is what God has done for us. That
is the reason why we should all give glory to God. It is not we who have
loved God, nor is it we who have served Him. It is the Lord who has
loved us, it is He who has enabled us not to waste away our lives, and
it is God Himself who is leading us to the right path, so that we would
be rewarded by Him.
My
fellow believers, who is the master of our lives? Is your life really
yours? No, that’s not the case. Then who is the driving force behind our
lives, and who has enabled us to practice righteousness and virtue, to
love, and to lead an upright life? It’s none other than Jesus Christ,
not we.
Without
the Lord, human beings are completely worthless, always making one
mistake after another. From time to time when I look at myself, I
realize even more profoundly, “If I weren’t doing the Lord’s work, I
would be a man completely useless to do anything but commit sin
throughout my entire lifetime.” Not only would I commit sin, but I would
be an expert at it. I’m sure that I’d be able to live in this world
very shrewdly, enjoy all its pleasures, and commit every evil deed
imaginable, all the while escaping from the law cunningly to avoid jail.
Perhaps you are too virtuous for this to be true in your case. Some of
you may think that there is still some virtue left in you even if you
don’t follow the Lord, but as far I am concerned I know that I am
nothing but a pile of sin unless I follow the Lord. So I know very well
that whatever I do I cannot help but only do what is evil. Of course, it
was only after receiving the remission of my sins that I saw myself as
such a man.
As
a matter of fact, before I was born again I never thought of myself to
be so evil. I considered myself quite virtuous, even if everyone else
might be wicked. Whenever I came across a lost child on my way home, I
always made sure to walk the child safely to his home; whenever I saw
the owner of the coal store in my neighborhood struggling to pull the
cart, I made sure to give him a hand and push the cart from behind; and
whenever I saw an elderly man carrying a heavy load on his shoulder, I
always shouldered it in his place. So I thought to myself that I was a
very good man. However, with passing time, once I took a close look at
myself, I realized, “Ah, unless I follow the Lord, I would become a
worthless swindler and a completely useless man.”
How
about you then? Is this not who you are also? Can any of you really
live an upright life without Jesus? Can you live like the great sages of
human history even if Jesus is taken away from you? It’s as clear as
the broad daylight that without Jesus you would all infallibly turn into
wickedness itself.
Without the Lord, We Are Completely Worthless
You
and I alike, as well as everyone else, should all recognize and admit
that we are worthless, and entrust ourselves to the Lord. Without Jesus
Christ and without the Word of God, we are completely useless junk for
both mankind and this world. Without the Lord, our lives are absolutely
worthless. There is a hymn entitled “I Cannot Live without My Lord,” and
there is indeed nothing remaining in us if we are left without Jesus.
If Jesus Christ and the Word of Truth are taken away from us, then we
will all be incapable of speaking the Truth. Without the Lord, we would
be like a boat sailing the sea without any sails. Our direction in life
would then take a wrong turn, and therefore it would be impossible for
us to lead an upright life. A life without the Lord is wasted
thoughtlessly in whatever way, just as a boat without a sail drifts with
the tide in the vast sea. Without the Word of the Lord, we cannot even
set the right direction in life, and without the Lord dwelling in us, we
cannot help but continue to commit only sin—this is who we are.
Open
your ears to what this woman from Canaan said. Even though Jesus Christ
had told her, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it
to the little dogs,” this woman responded by saying, “Yes, Lord, yet
even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’
table.” In other words, the woman said to Him, “Even though I am like a
dog, I still yearn to attain and feed on even the smallest of Your grace
in my life. Lord, please bestow Your grace on me, even though I am a
dog.”
Hearing
this woman’s words, the Lord said, “O woman, great is your faith!” Who
are those whose faith is truly great? They are those who know that they
themselves are like a dog and admit that they are worthless trash. These
are the people who acknowledge the fact that without Jesus, they are
completely helpless to avoid hell because there is absolutely no virtue
to be found in them. They are incapable of practicing anything else but
wickedness. They then ask Jesus Christ for the grace of salvation and
the gift of God and they believe in them. It is none other than these
people whose faith is truly great. The Lord Himself told the woman that
her faith was great.
Traveling
with His disciples for three days, our Lord had taught a great
multitude. But there were many in the crowd who had gone hungry without
any food for their flesh while following Jesus for three days. On the
third day, Jesus said, “I’ve been with this crowd for three days, and I
have so much compassion for them that I can’t just send them hungry.”
When Jesus said this, someone brought a lunch to Him consisting of a few
fish and seven loaves. Since these fish and bread were the usual lunch
carried by ordinary people, they must have been quite small. Someone had
brought a small lunch to Jesus Christ. Yet when Jesus put His hands on
it, blessed it, and distributed it to the crowd, no less than 4,000
people ate it, just counting men alone. In the Bible, women and children
are usually not counted. This doesn’t mean that the Bible ignores them,
but when the Israelites counted people, they always counted only the
number of men. It’s only after the arrival of Jesus Christ that women
finally came to be treated equally and the women in the Bible imply none
other than us, the brides of Jesus Christ.
We Must Ask the Lord for His Grace, Who Is the Fountain of All Blessings
It
is written in today’s Scripture passage: “Now Jesus called His
disciples to Himself and said, ‘I have compassion on the multitude,
because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to
eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the
way.’ Then His disciples said to Him, ‘Where could we get enough bread
in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?’ Jesus said to them,
‘How many loaves do you have?’ And they said, ‘Seven, and a few little
fish.’ So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He
took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave
them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. So they
all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of
the fragments that were left. Now those who ate were four thousand men,
besides women and children.”
My
fellow believers, all of us are starving people. We are insufficient,
we are poor, and we are devoid of any righteousness. We humans do not
live just by eating the bread of the flesh, but we must eat the
spiritual bread also. That is how every human life is sustained. When we
were too starved to carry on with our lives in this world anymore, the
hands of Jesus reached and touched us. Indeed, had Jesus Christ not come
to this earth, then we would not have been able to eat any spiritual
food, nor any bread for our souls, nor any bread of the heart. Without
Jesus, the whole planet earth and everything on it are nothing more than
trash. Even though many people have left wise sayings, from Buddha to
Confucius, Plato, Socrates, and Gandhi, without Jesus everything that
has come out of mankind is in fact all garbage.
But
what happened? It’s said in today’s Scripture passage that Jesus Christ
fed all those multitudes. And it also says that even after they were
all fed to their hearts’ content, there was still enough leftover to
fill seven baskets. Now as before, the grace of God is always boundless.
It’s when we believe in the infinite grace of God that we can live
enjoying this boundless grace. If human beings, who are all finite, were
determined to follow the Lord, would they be able to follow the Lord
and practice righteousness through their own effort and their own merit?
No, the righteousness of mankind is exhausted in no amount of time.
The
Lord has given us His prayer, teaching us how and for what we should
pray. Among these prayer requests, He told us to pray, “Give us our
daily bread.” Since the Lord Himself told us to ask God for our daily
bread, wouldn’t God then take care of our need for bread? The grace of
God is eternal and boundless. God’s bread, which is His infinite grace,
is our daily bread of love, Truth, and grace. Our God has bestowed us
with this bread for eternity and everyday we are eating this daily bread
by faith. The abundant grace that God has bestowed on us is not
something that was given only in the past, but it is something that
lasts forever into our future.
As
we carry on with our lives of faith, we get discouraged from time to
time. However, once we renew our faith that the grace of God is
limitless, our discouragement soon turns into hope. I admonish you all
to believe in this fact, that this grace of God is boundless and that
God still has enough grace left to fill seven baskets. If you believe in
this, then God’s grace will continue to be bestowed on you now and
forever. If we believe that God’s grace is still bestowed on us, then we
can be freed from not only our own poverty, but also from our difficult
circumstances.
In
contrast, if we believe in ourselves and rely only on our own strength
rather than believing in the boundless grace of God, then it will be
inevitable for us to become hungry again, become weary, and go astray in
the wilderness. You and I are such fragile beings. How about you? Even
though you run toward the Lord with all your strength, don’t you
sometimes still go hungry, naked, and fall into weaknesses? It’s times
like this that you need the unbounded grace of our God. It’s when we
believe in this endless grace of God that’s bestowed on us everyday,
when we ask God for this grace, and when we trust in this God, that we
are filled day after day. In this way, you and I are able to live before
the Lord amid God’s blessings.
Why
are you still discouraged when the Lord is with us and when He is
bestowing us with His overflowing grace? The reason why we feel
discouraged and fall into despair is all because we don’t believe in the
boundless love of God and His Truth and grace. Even though we are all
insufficient and limited beings, God is boundless. Even though our
strength is limited, the power of Jesus Christ is limitless. The love of
God and His blessings for us are infinite. Although our own
righteousness is like the passing fog that disappears in little time,
God Himself is eternal, He is bestowing His everlasting grace on the
entire human race, He has stored more than enough grace to last forever,
and even at this very moment, He is giving us this grace.
My
beloved saints, the Lord dwells in our hearts. The Apostle Paul once
said to the Corinthian believers, “O Corinthians! We have spoken openly
to you, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you
are restricted by your own affections. Now in return for the same (I
speak as to children), you also be open” (2 Corinthians 6:11-13). Let us
all engrave this passage in our hearts. It’s only when our hearts
thirst and yearn for the grace of God before His presence that we can
receive His infinite love, everlasting Truth, and unbound blessings. If
we are unable to ask for God’s help, it’s only because our own hearts
are restricted. As such, I admonish you all to believe that God Himself
is boundless and that His heart is always open for you. When we face
hardship, it’s only because we have restricted ourselves in our hearts.
The boundless love, everlasting Truth, unbound salvation, and infinite
blessings that God has bestowed on us are never restricted. Do you
believe in this, my fellow believers?
Let
us all then ask incessantly for this grace of God by faith for the rest
of our lives. I believe that God’s blessings will then be bestowed
abundantly on all of us.
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