[Chapter 16] Greet One Another
Paul
the Apostle told the saints in Rome and us to greet one another in his
epilogue. Whom can we greet whole-heartedly in the Lord even in this
age? We can joyfully greet the ministers and believers who are preaching
the Word of God all over this world. We can have fellowship with those
who are saved by reading the books of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. We, too, have the churches, the believers, and the servants of
God whom we can greet in Christ.
Since
not everyone believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the
righteous cannot greet everyone. There aren’t too many people in this
world whom we can greet with joy. It is only regrettable that there
aren’t that many people who believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, whom we can greet and have fellowship in the same faith. We
cannot have fellowship with the sinners who pretend to be God’s servants
in worldly churches.
Just
as sin and the Holy Spirit cannot dwell together, the sinners and the
righteous cannot greet one another. Those who believe in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit can offer spiritual worships to God and work
for spiritual things. But the sinners, who have not yet received the
remission of their sins, attempt to be saved by keeping the Law of God,
and thus they cannot have spiritual fellowship with the righteous. Just
as a beast and a human cannot converse with each other, the righteous
cannot have spiritual fellowship with the sinners.
We
can see that the only people with whom Paul had spiritual fellowship
were those who had the same faith as his. We know that if someone had
fellowship with Paul, it means that Paul approved his/her faith. So, I
thought, “If I were to head to a particular region today, whom should I
visit and greet?” I am sure I will visit Sokcho Church if I go to
Sokcho, and Gangneung Church if I go to Gangneung. I can meet God’s
servants and believers and have fellowship and break bread with them. I
can also visit the houses of my brothers and sisters there and greet
them. But the people whom I can greet are only those who believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and those with whom I can share the
same faith in the Holy Spirit.
We
can see how blessed those whose faith is approved by Paul are. How
great it is that we have the gospel of the water and the Spirit to
confirm each other’s faith and greet one another. Do you have the faith
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that lets you greet one
another? Can you faithfully confess, without a doubt, to God that you do
not have any sin?
I
had a chance to greet the fellow believers in China when I visited
there. I visited a brother who lived on the banks of the Heran River. As
soon as we woke up the next morning, he prepared us a big breakfast. We
sat at a huge round table, the kind that we used to use to sit everyone
in the extended family and had a lovely fellowship with the believers
there. There also was an evangelist in a nearby city who was so eager to
see us. So, we visited and had fellowship with him, too. We can greet
whoever believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Where
would I go to if I visited the United States? I’d visit Pastor Sangchan
Lee and his wife in Flushing, New York. I’d also visit The New Life
Church to meet our brothers and sisters there. In Russia, too, there is a
born-again church that I visited a few years ago. In Japan, I’d love to
visit the house of Deaconess Soon-Ok Park in Tokyo.
We
are the righteous who are saved by our faith in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. We were not saved because of any accomplishments of our
flesh, but because of the righteousness of God that we received through
our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
As
you can see, there are people set aside for the righteous to greet,
just as Paul had a list of people to greet in Romans chapter 16. Just as
Paul did, we cannot greet every Christian because not all of them have
the right faith, but only those who know and believe in the
righteousness of God. We cannot help but praise God for giving us the
faith in which we can greet and be greeted.
Paul warned us to stay away from these people
Starting
from verse 17, the second admonition that Paul makes to us is to stay
away from those who only serve their own bellies. “Now I urge you,
brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the
doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do
not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth
words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans
16:17-18). There are those who do not serve Christ, but their own
bellies. They are the ones who cause strife among believers and deceive
the naïve with smooth words and flattering speeches. We must not greet
such people but stay away from them.
Paul
warned us to stay away from such people, for they only enjoy causing
distresses in church, disrupt those who truthfully believe in God, and
gather the naïve only to feed their own greed. Such swindling Christian
leaders try to confine people under sin by teaching their followers to
completely obey the Law. They only fill up their own bellies in the name
of Jesus and deceive the innocent. There is no need for us to greet
them, for they are in the ministry only to serve their own bellies.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit must be spread to all nations!
Thirdly,
Paul talked about the need to spread the gospel to all nations. Verse
26 says, “But now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made
known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God, for obedience to the faith…” The gospel of the water and the Spirit
that Paul preached is truly the gospel that all nations must believe
and obey. It is only too unfortunate that most of the regions in which
Paul planted churches with those who believed in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit have now become Islamic regions.
At
the time, Paul went to these regions and established church leaders
there among the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that
contains the righteousness of God. It was similar to the way we send
workers to our church after training them in our mission school.
Although the churches at that time kept their faith in “one Lord, one
faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5), they failed to maintain their faith
in the gospel, as they did not record the gospel in writing.
Right
now, we are in the process of translating our books into Turkish.
Someone from Turkey was touched by our English editions and volunteered
to translate them. We are now starting to spread the gospel of the water
and the Spirit to where Paul himself once preached the gospel and
planted God’s churches. We are preaching the same gospel that Paul
preached throughout the same region that he had visited. The gospel Paul
preached was the gospel of the water and the Spirit that can save all
nations just by believing and obeying it.
In
the last chapter of Romans, Paul told the saints in Rome to greet one
another, to stay away from those who only fill their bellies, and to
spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all nations.
The Gospel of the water and the Spirit will strengthen us
The
fourth thing Paul mentioned was that this gospel of the water and the
Spirit is the wisdom of God that will establish us. “Now to Him who is
able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus
Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the
world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made
known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God, for obedience to the faith—to God, alone wise, be glory through
Jesus Christ forever. Amen” (Romans 16:25-27). What could establish the
saints in Rome? It was Paul’s gospel of the water and the Spirit that
could and did establish the saints in Rome. This gospel is also the
wisdom of God.
In
the gospel that God gave us is His wisdom. This gospel has the power to
take away all the sins of even those who are full of shortcomings.
Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are made not
only sinless but the preachers of this gospel, no matter how weak and
full of shortcomings that they may be. Only the wisdom of God and the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that comes from it can make us
complete beings. There is no truth besides this gospel that can
strengthen one’s soul, heart, thoughts, and body.
Paul
did not plainly call the gospel “the gospel,” but called it “my
gospel.” The gospel that Paul preached was the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, revealed in both the Old and New Testaments. This gospel of
the water and the Spirit is based on the gospel revealed through the
prophets in the Old Testament and fulfilled by Jesus Christ in the New
Testament. This is why Paul said that ‘his gospel’ was made manifest
according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret in the prophetic
Scriptures.
The
gospel that Paul preached was implied in the sacrificial system in
Pentateuch of the Old Testament, especially in Leviticus, and was
completed by Jesus Christ in the New Testament as God’s righteousness
through His baptism, His death on the Cross and His resurrection. This
is why Paul gave all glory “to Him who is able to establish you
according to my gospel.”
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit establishes the saints and servants
of God. Through this gospel, our faith, souls, thoughts, minds, and
bodies are strengthened. How can our faith be strengthened? What makes
us stand strong at all times when we are always weak?
Our
faith becomes stronger and stronger because we have received the
salvation of Christ, who took away all our sins through His baptism and
the bloodshed on the Cross. We can say that we have no sin before God
because our hearts have nothing to be ashamed of anymore, and with this
unashamed spiritual faith, we can spread the gospel of the water and the
Spirit to those who are still bound in sin.
The final admonitions
Paul
ends chapter 16 with the closing prayer saying, “To God, alone wise, be
glory through Jesus Christ forever, Amen.” What glorifies God most of
all? Preaching the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ glorifies God
the most. We are also glorified when we serve the gospel with our whole
hearts.
The
essence of Paul’s message in Romans 16 are these: greet one another,
stay away from those who only fill their belly, spread the gospel to all
nations. This was the last admonition that Paul gave to the church in
Rome. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that Paul preached has the
power to strengthen us in every way. This is what we believe in. The
faith in gospel of the water and the Spirit is the same as the faith
that the apostles in the Bible had and what our own church believes in
right now.
Can
you feel the sameness? I am amazed whenever I read the Bible and
realize that we have the same faith as the biblical figures who lived
two thousand years ago.
Have
you thought about how many people we share the gospel with every day?
We share the gospel with no less than two thousand people per day. This
two thousand will soon multiply to ten thousand if the newly born-again
saints in every nation preach the gospel to their neighbors, and the ten
thousand people only have to share it once for them to become twenty
thousand. As you can see, preaching the gospel to the entire world is
not such an impossible task after all.
Of
course, the key feature of our books on the gospel of the water and the
Spirit is that they do not disappear but are stored, and their meanings
do not change regardless of how many people read them. Where there is a
book that contains the gospel of the water and the Spirit, many people
will borrow and read it, and the gospel of God will spread. The day when
the gospel will reach the entire world is not too far away.
The
righteousness of God that you have by your faith is the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that even those in the developed countries are not
well aware of. The true gospel we want to share with the entire world is
a mystery unknown to this world, and thus, we eagerly want to reveal
the secret of salvation to all those who smother in their sins. This
righteousness of God shown in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is
so clear that whoever accepts this gospel will give thanks and glory to
God.
Some
people think it odd that we repeatedly talk about the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. But no matter how many times we repeat it, it
still stirs joy and thanks in our souls. Since there are so many
Christians who are still bound to sin, we repeatedly preach the gospel
of the water and the Spirit to the entire world. Because this gospel is
the very gospel that was handed down by the apostles, including Paul,
all souls should believe in this gospel. We need to listen and engrave
the gospel of the water and the Spirit in our hearts because it is
essential to every Christian.
We
share the gospel with over two thousand people a day through our books,
both printed and electronic, and web site. We are sure that if the seed
of the truth falls on good soil, it will be able to produce a
crop―thirty, sixty, or hundred times more than what was sown. One person
can preach the gospel to dozens of people, and each of these people
then can preach the gospel to dozens more, spreading the gospel to a
vast number of people.
When
we hear that our gospel is spread to over two thousand people a day,
our hearts get filled with God’s righteousness. I thank God for opening
the way for us to deliver this gospel all over the world. I pray that
God will strengthen even more the faith of His servants.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit that is now spreading all over the
world is a new wave of truth for salvation. This gospel is the only way
to receive the Holy Spirit and to enter the Kingdom of God. No matter
how hard you search in secular religions, you will not find the gospel
of the water and the Spirit.
People
all over the world will thank God because they can now believe in His
righteousness through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Everyone
who reads our book will exclaim, “Ah! This is how Jesus saved me from my
sins!”, for they had never heard this gospel before.
Those
who want to be free from the bondage of sin and those who endlessly
desire to receive the Holy Spirit will receive the complete forgiveness
of their sins and the peace of their minds when they finally know and
accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit. From this moment on, the
gospel of the water and the Spirit will spread to every nation in the
world.
My
heart is filled with joy that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is
spreading all over the world. Though I serve the gospel, I know that I
am still full of weaknesses and shortcomings. But because I completely
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and know God’s
righteousness, I always receive new strength from the Lord so that I can
continue to serve His gospel. The gospel has now entered more nations;
more people have read our books and have been amazed by such perfect
gospel.
Those
who believe in God’s righteousness all over the world are those who
have been saved by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The reason why we can stand as whole and complete despite our weaknesses
is because we believe in our Lord, the righteousness of God. We are
God’s workers. We do not seek to only satisfy our carnal bellies, but to
spread the true faith all over the world. I bless and hope that many
righteous believers will rise to our challenge to spread the gospel
throughout the world.
Like
Paul, we can spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit regardless
of when the Lord comes. Let us work hard together for this Great
Commission. When we spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, the Lord
will come according to His promise and take us home. We must listen
carefully to what Paul admonished us, greet and encourage one another.
Although we lack in our deeds, we are greatly strengthened spiritually
through our faith in God’s righteousness. We come to know how fair and
sure our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit really is. We
really are believers in our Lord, who is the perfect righteousness of
God.
When
we look at this world with our faith in God’s righteousness, we find
that there is so much to do. We can all live our lives spreading the
gospel throughout this world, praising God with our faith in Christ, who
is the righteousness of God.
Hallelujah! I forever praise our Lord, the righteousness of God!
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