Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 21-7] Philosophical Ministers Oppose the Gospel of Jesus (Matthew 21:44)
(Matthew 21:44)
“And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
In
today’s Scripture passage, the Lord says, “And whoever falls on this
stone will be broken.” This passage means that God will judge those who
challenge Him. Today, I would like to speak about those who oppose God
with their own thinking, especially with their philosophical thoughts.
As in the past, and in this day and age, there are many people who
oppose God, and the reality of what opposes God is none other than human
thinking.
How
do people oppose God? It is philosophical human thinking that makes
people oppose God the most. Human thinking itself opposes God. Does this
mean that Christians can also oppose God? Yes, it does. Christians also
oppose God when their thoughts have prevailed over the Word of God.
Current Christian Ministers Who Oppose the True Gospel with Their Own Thinking
Matthew
21:23 says, “Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and
the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said,
‘By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this
authority?’” These leaders of Judaism who were handed down the Old
Testament, and had faith in God with reverence, tried to find petty
faults with Jesus’ words and said, “By what authority are You preaching
these things?” Jesus answered, “I will ask you also. Was the baptism of
John from heaven or from men? If you tell me this, I likewise will tell
you by what authority I do these things.”
Jesus
Christ explained to them with a parable: “A father told his first son
and the second, “Go, work today in my vineyard.” The second son said he
will not do it, but the first son answered saying, ‘yes.’ However, the
first son did not go to work while the second son regretted it and went
afterward. If so which of the two sons is more right?” After having told
this story example, Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that
tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John
came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him;
but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you
did not afterward relent and believe him” (Matthew 21:31-32).
Jesus
gave the gospel of His baptism and the Spirit first to those who
believed in the Word of the Old Testament. However, the chief priests
the elders of the people did not believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. Instead, they challenged Jesus. They did not believe in the
baptism of John the Baptist. Even though John the Baptist had come in
the way of righteousness, that is, the way that would make people
righteous, they did not change to the end and did not believe him after
all.
Jesus
Christ told them of the Word of the Truth once more with the parable of
a vineyard: “A certain man planted a vineyard, set a hedge around it,
and finished making everything such as winepress and so on. Then, he
leased it to vinedressers and left. When he sent his servants and his
son in turn to the vinedressers to receive its fruit as rent, the
vinedressers beat and killed the servants and even the son of the owner.
Then, when the owner of the vineyard really comes, what will he do to
those vinedressers? Will he not lease his vineyard to other vinedressers
who will render to him the fruits in their seasons?”
It
means that the Lord wanted people who would genuinely believe in and
follow the Word of God. God bestowed His Word on the face of the earth,
and asked those who would believe in that Word of God to become the
fruits of salvation by that faith. God didn’t want us to bring certain
fruits of our actions. The Lord said, “Have you never read in the
Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief
cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing, and it is marvelous in our
eyes’? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you
and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it” (Matthew 21:42-43).
A
person who opposes the gospel with his or her own philosophical
thinking is an opponent of Jesus. But strangely enough, people who claim
to believe in and follow Jesus Christ are the ones who challenge and
oppose Jesus the most. How do they stand against the Lord Jesus? They
oppose Him saying, “Jesus took away our original sin, but not all.
Nevertheless, sins still remain in this world. That being the case, we
get to receive remission for our personal sins only if we offer prayers
of repentance everyday.” If we look at the many Christians opposing God,
we see that they are all opposing Jesus with their own fleshly
thinking. They say, “How can you say you are without sin? There are sins
in one’s heart even after having faith in Jesus.”
However,
the Truth tells the opposite. The fact that Jesus has blotted out all
the sins of mankind by His baptism and bloodshed on the Cross is the
Truth. If that is the case, we must recognize that the philosophical
thinking of each and every one of us human beings is a sin. It opposes
the gospel of the Truth by which one gets to be born again by the water
and the Spirit realized by Jesus, and we must turn back from it at once.
Even during the days of Jesus, the chief priest of Judaism and the
elders who were said to have believed in God opposed Jesus. That’s no
unlike those Christian leaders who have religious fervor and
philosophical faith in this current day and age. They had tried to live
devoutly and holy. But they were the very ones who had opposed Jesus.
On
many occasions, people tend to oppose Jesus with their own
philosophical thinking. The Bible speaks the Truth, but each and every
human being tries hard to understand the Bible according to their own
thinking and in line with their own standards. That is why people who
have try to use philosophical thoughts say, “People commit sins everyday
because they lack in their deeds, so how can people say they are
righteous just because they have faith in Jesus?” They advocate their
thinking as being right. Philosophical human thinking is precisely what
prevents them from believing in Jesus. The fact is that it becomes a sin
directly opposing the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Now,
surely you must have come to realize just a little how one can actually
oppose Jesus unconsciously. First of all, you might know by now that
human thinking itself is what opposes the gospel. We must know well how
evil people’s thoughts are and how different their thoughts are from the
Truth of God. Human thinking follows one’s own desires of the flesh,
and it can never follow God’s Word of the Truth. Do you know why people
aren’t able to believe in the Word of the Truth of the redemption spoken
by Jesus Christ? Not only that, do you know why they are sinners even
if they do believe in Jesus? It is precisely because of people’s own
thinking. It was human thinking that prevented them from believing in
the salvation of the redemption which is the Truth of God.
If
we listen to sinners who haven’t been born again, they say that God
calls them as the righteous because they believe in Jesus. But they say
that they still are sinners with sins currently in their hearts. Because
they are immersed in their own thinking, when they reflect on their own
thinking, they see that human beings are lacking, weak, and full of
transgressions. They have committed sins so very often, and they argue
how they can say they are righteous before God and before people. From a
human perspective, it may sound right, but actually, it is the total
opposite of the Truth. Yet, if one does not know the gospel of the
Truth, he or she cannot but naturally say that. Likewise, we are able to
see people who are said to believe in Jesus opposing God constantly
with their philosophical thoughts. While caught up in humanistic
philosophy, they say, “Even if I believe in Jesus, it is correct that I
am a sinner, so how can I be a righteous person?” Many people confess,
“I cannot but be a sinner who is insufficient until I die.”
However,
is it correct that a person is still a sinner despite having faith in
the salvation of the baptism and the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
Even now, they are strongly objecting to the fact that Jesus Christ has
become the Savior and that human sins have vanished due to John the
Baptist giving Jesus the baptism to pass on sins. This is precisely what
opposing God with the philosophical human thinking is. But clearly, the
Law of God is that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Those who
are said to have sins go to hell. This is the Law of the Truth laid
down by God.
False Ministers Will Receive Judgment
People
who had fervently believed in God with their own philosophical thoughts
instead of the written Word at the time of Jesus were the chief priests
and the scribes. They were the ones opposing Jesus with their own
thinking. Then what happens to a philosophical person who opposes God
with human thinking? Referring to such people, God said, “Their heads
will be broken.” When Jesus sees these kinds of people challenging Him,
He says, “It is utterly intolerable. I will surely pass the judgment on
them.” Dear fellow believers, if we were to regard Jesus as a rock, then
what is the human head? It is no more than a rotten pumpkin. If a rock
and a pumpkin were to collide, which do you think will win? So, if
people were to oppose the gospel of the water and the Spirit with
philosophical human thinking, they will be the only ones getting hurt;
and what benefit would that be to them? Please, just think about it.
Human stubbornness will only lead people to hell. Do you understand
this?
You
must understand what this means. It isn’t that we are irrelevant just
because we have received salvation. It has been said that you have to
know yourself as well as your enemy to win a battle. The reason so many
people do not accept it and do not get to receive salvation is that the
Truth of the salvation cannot enter the hearts of people because they
are held in captive by their own philosophical thinking which obstructs
the Word.
Rejecting
the gospel is purely due to people trying to understand the gospel Word
at the level of their own human thoughts. The reason they oppose God is
that they trying to understand the salvation of God with their meager
hundred and tens worth of IQ. After just a little thought, they say it
is simply wrong if it does not fit their way of thinking and right if it
does fit their thinking. But, that is completely different from the
thinking of Jesus as spoken in the Scripture passages.
A
human being cannot possibly become a righteous person with
philosophical human thinking. However, if God has made us righteous, the
person can become righteous by faith. However, many people oppose God
with the philosophical thinking coming out from a brain no bigger that
the size of both of their fists. We, who are righteous, must educate
such people. If a person is opposing God the Omnipotent with his or her
tiny thinking, that person is very foolish. The salvation of Jesus comes
not from the ground, but from God who is above. You must also realize
just how much people’s philosophical thoughts challenge the gospel.
Then, you must let your family members and friends know that one’s own
philosophical thinking opposes the gospel of the salvation of Jesus.
The
chief priests said cynically to Jesus, “How can You be the Son of God,
and if so, are You the Savior?” They did not believe in Jesus being the
Son of God and the Savior for the sinners. But, Jesus said to them,
“John came to you in the way of righteousness.” John the Baptist had
witnessed that Jesus came in the way of righteousness to make sinners
righteous, but they did not believe him.
People
who oppose Jesus’ Word of the Truth will surely be broken. It is
because they cannot reach the Truth through human thinking. No matter
how well a person might believe in, and follow Jesus, the person can
never become righteous by a faith based on his or her philosophical
thinking. By way of accepting the gospel of the water and the Spirit by
which Jesus has turned us into the righteous, the faithful can become
the righteous.
But
by offering prayers of repentance ardently, and struggling to live a
sanctimonious life according to philosophical human thinking, a human
being will never be able to reach the salvation of becoming a son of
God, meaning a righteous person. We must realize that such a route of
faith opposes God even more. Your spirits must be awakened. If a person
is caught up in one’s own thinking even after having been born again,
the person can reckon whether or not he should continue the life of
faith. But I hope you realize the Truth, knowing that you will never be
able to arrive at the Truth with your own thinking.
If
Jesus has turned us into the righteous with His Truth of salvation, we
become the righteous only by faith. If He has made it so we the
righteous can enter the Heaven He created, we enter Heaven only by
faith. And if He has made us the children of God, we get to become
children of God only by faith. If the Lord tells us that a human being
has nothing to do with receiving the salvation when he believes in God
according to the logic of his own philosophical thinking, we must
believe it.
There
are many philosophies in your thoughts also. Not only are we weak, if
we were to look at people, it’s hard to realize just how many people
there are whose thoughts are held tightly together by human thinking.
Instead of understanding what the Truth of God is, there are many people
who oppose the Word of Jesus or the gospel itself with human thinking.
People like this are those who oppose God. But, what does the Bible say
about what would happen if one were to oppose God? The person goes to
hell. Faith is the same. People have to be free from their philosophical
thoughts in order for the faith to be upright. If people get caught up
in their own thinking, the faith cannot stand upright. Philosophical
human thinking only shows the righteousness of human beings, and it
prevents people from chasing after the Lord.
What
did the Lord say? He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him
deny himself” (Matthew 16:24). Denying oneself stated here means that
one has to discard his or her own logical thinking. If a person has his
or her own philosophical thinking, the person is opposing the gospel.
Doing so, it would just bring that person’s own loss. All who lead a
life of faith, whether they are born-again people or not, must throw
away their own philosophical thinking and follow the Lord.
Jesus
says that if one prays, He will provide answer to the prayers. He also
says that if one believes in Jesus, He will make that person one of the
righteous by cleansing away all sins, no matter what sort of a sin it
may be, even those sins that are red as scarlet. Nevertheless, we must
throw away our own philosophical thinking before all else in order to
receive salvation.
Throw Away Your Thoughts and Believe in the Truth
What
does the philosophical human logic do to the gospel? It stands against
the genuine gospel of the water and the Spirit. Scarlet sins do not
become as white as snow with philosophical human thinking. Instead, it
makes us believe that we have to cleanse everyday those sins that we
commit after having started believing in Jesus, even though the past
sins were cleansed when we first started believing in Jesus. The Lord
has cleansed all the sins completely in a single stroke by the water and
the blood. But philosophical thinking has us oppose God by claiming
that human sins can never be gone.
The
Lord says, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts; let him return to the LORD” (Isaiah 55:7). We must throw away
our thoughts. Following our own thoughts leads to destruction. See the
Scripture passage in which the people of Israel were destroyed trying to
serve God with their philosophical thinking, having fallen into their
own thoughts when the Word was not with them. That applies not only to
people of the Old Testament, but to you and me as well. So you and I
must throw away our philosophical thoughts. That is why our Lord said,
in the Gospel of John chapter 3, “Unless one is born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
It
means regardless of who, no person can enter the Kingdom of God if that
person was not baptized into Jesus and does not believe in Jesus who
has come by the water and the blood (Romans 6:3, Gal 3:27, 1 John
5:4-8). Anyone who wants to receive the remission of sins must first
throw away his or her thoughts. With a philosophical human faith, a
person can never become righteous for all eternity. Philosophical faith
makes the faithful righteous and turns them into the sinful. However, a
person who has become righteous by believing in the gospel of the Truth,
never again becomes a sinner. We must realize that we cannot become
righteous with our own efforts. If we believe in the Word of Truth, we
become righteous. It is true. If we know the Truth, we become righteous
and if we do not know the Truth, we belong to the multitude of false
ministers and heretics.
How
dangerous philosophical human thinking is. When I meet and speak with
people, I can see that they are filled with self-centered thoughts from
beginning to the end. I once preached the gospel to a certain ministry
worker. “Jesus took away all our sins by the water and the blood. By
Jesus receiving the baptism of redemption through John the Baptist, all
our sins were passed onto Jesus, and Jesus died on the Cross in order to
receive the judgment, and three days later, He was resurrected. Because
Jesus blotted out all our sins, we are righteous. We have become
righteous by believing in it.”
Just
then, that ministry worker who was caught in his own philosophical
thinking said, “If that is the case, then I guess it is all right to
commit sins recklessly. If that is the case, then I guess it is all
right to commit murder!” I had preached to him that Jesus has taken way
all the sins of the world by the water and the blood. Who had preached
that it is not a sin to commit murder? Yet, such people oppose the Truth
because they have a self-centered philosophy inside them. He said, “I
guess it is all right to commit sins recklessly” because he does not
believe, and is unable to believe because of his own thinking. To sin or
not to sin is one’s own choice. Is it true that people do commit sins
recklessly just because they have received the remission of all their
sins?
The
Greek word for “gospel” is “euaggelion,” or the good news. And it was
said to have the “dunamis” of God (Romans 1:16). This Greek word
“dunamis” means strength, power or ability, from which we get the word
“dynamite.” Jesus has perfected all the righteousness of God by taking
on our sins completely at the time He received the baptism at the Jordan
River, and suffered judgment for our sins by dying on the Cross.
Resurrecting three days later, He now sits at the right hand of the
throne of God.
This
is the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and if we believe this, all
sins will be blotted out, just as an explosion of dynamite would blow
away a building without any trace. This is the power of the gospel. If
one were to believe in Jesus Christ’s baptism of redemption and blood of
the Cross, sins inside the heart of the believer will be no more. Yet,
some people, caught up in their own philosophical thinking, oppose the
salvation of God, saying, “If the gospel of the water and the Spirit is
right, I guess even committing murder wouldn’t be a sin. Then, I guess
it is all right for people to commit murder.” This is precisely what
human thinking is.
Here
in the Scripture passage, it is written, “Whoever falls on this stone
will have their head broken.” What is meant by being broken is that
philosophical human thinking will be broken. Jesus has blotted out all
the sins in this world by the baptism He had received and by His shed
blood on the cross. But people become opponents of Jesus with their own
philosophical human thoughts, saying, “If all my sins have been remitted
already, I guess I can commit sins freely.” When did God say that
committing murder after having received the remission of sins does not
constitute a sin? Even though God did not say so, people, having fallen
into their own thinking, are objecting just for the sake of objecting so
that they don’t believe the Truth. People think, “If that gospel is
true, then it means that even if people do commit sins, they do not
constitute sins.” They are afraid to believe that Jesus has taken away
all their sins. For them, the gospel of the water and the Spirit itself
is fearsome.
Because
what Jesus gives us isn’t something bad, we must accept the gospel of
the water and the Spirit that the Lord Jesus has given by faith.
Everything good comes down from above. However, if we come to rely on
selfish human thinking, we cannot accept the true gospel by faith, and
we start to worry. We say, “Sins shouldn’t be taken away all at once
because if that is the case, I’ll be committing sins haphazardly. What
should I do? If that, indeed, is the case, I think something really bad
will happen. Furthermore, if that is the case, there will no longer be
the need to worship, and offer prayers of repentance.” That is why there
are still so many Christians who aren’t able to accept the gospel for
having fallen into their own philosophical thinking.
Man’s Philosophical Thinking Itself Is Evil before God
If
people do not free themselves from human thinking, they will develop a
relationship at war against God. People are prone to reject the gospel
of Truth because they think they will be leading a completely prodigal
life, instead of having faith in Jesus. There would be nothing to repent
of after having received the remission of sins once and for all. That
is why most Christians don’t accept the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. That is why people oppose God with their philosophical thinking.
People aren’t able to accept the work of the gospel because human
philosophy puts people’s own thoughts ahead of God’s and distances
people from the Word of the Truth of God. They think that their virtue
and kindness are far better than those of God.
In
the Book of Romans chapter 8 verse 7, it is said, “Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor
indeed can be.” Human thinking makes people become enemies of God.
Right now, many people say, “You say Jesus has taken away all sins? Oh,
how could He have taken away all! He took away only the original sin. As
for the personal sins, people have to repent every day.” This is what
human thinking is. People and their human thinking tend to believe that
life would become a mess if they go on living without offering prayers
of repentance. They say such things because they are think that their
ethical life would be ruined. That is a seriously mistaken thought? Did
God send Jesus to have people’s ethical life be ruined? Does it mean
that human beings are more virtuous than God?
As
you well know, human thinking cannot save people from sins. Why don’t
people who have received salvation by having faith in Jesus repent?
There is no one in this world who turns back from deeds on their own
other than the born-again. How can the righteous be compared to any sort
of a sinner? The righteous cannot live with sin. Repentance is truly
knowing in one’s heart what or who has been wronged and then turning
back from it instead of just saying, “Oh Lord, I believe. Please,
forgive me. Amen.” This is only lip service and nothing else. Real
repentance is something that only the righteous, not the sinful, can
do.
Yet
there are many people who have become enemies of God because of their
own way of thinking. When Jesus was on this earth, all the chief priests
and the elders became enemies of God. They had abandoned Jesus and held
to their own faith. As a result, many people who believe in Jesus are
mocking Him, even today. Although Jesus has taken away all the sins of
this world, they say that one becomes more and more holy by offering
prayers of repentance everyday. This is a total disregard for the way of
salvation, and it makes Jesus into nobody. The gospel of the water and
the Spirit says that Jesus came to this earth and blotted out the sins
of this world once and for all. Throwing away this Truth is a shortcut
to destruction.
On
this earth, there are two types of churches. First, there is the
visible church that is approved by the world, and most of Christianity
falls into this type. The other type of church is the invisible church,
that is, the born-again church of God which suffers persecution in this
world. Both types of church are the same in the formality of believing
in God. But, the former is a church that tries to cleanse sins on its
own by repenting every day with its own human thinking, because it does
not believe in Jesus, who has taken away all the sins of the world.
The
other one is a church that has received salvation by having accepted
the gospel of the salvation of the water and the Spirit that says Jesus
has blotted out the sins completely, giving up cleansing sins on its
own, just like the tax collectors and harlots. Those who dwell in the
latter type of church are people who have broken their philosophical
thoughts before Jesus.
People
who believe in Jesus philosophically, that is, who repent and cleanse
their sins on their own every day are acting in enmity before God and
opposing Him. I am saying that those who taught this were the chief
priest and the elders who rejected Jesus. And the leaders of large
churches that the world recognizes today are of the same sort. Are the
church members of a philosophical Christianity in this current world the
born-again people? No, they are not. They go on living with a clear
philosophy of their own. They are the ones whose subjectivity and values
are clear. They say they believe in God, but in actuality, they are the
opponents of God. Strictly speaking, they cannot be called Christians.
They don’t believe in Jesus’ gospel of the water and the Spirit as it is
written in the Scriptures. They choose to make idols out of God with
their philosophical Christian doctrines.
Tenacious Self-righteousness of the Liars
In
the Bible, Jesus already blotted out human sins. This is written in the
past perfect tense. So the problem of sin has already come to an end.
In essence, it has already been resolved. Because Jesus has saved us by
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our sins have been resolved
(Hebrews 10:17-18). But what about the large churches these days? They
are currently in the process of making up a philosophical salvation,
showing no regard for the Word of God. When asked, who are the ones
opposing God, I say boldly that they are the Christian sinners who say
one can arrive at sanctification by repenting every day and the ones who
believe in Jesus philosophically. Arriving at sanctification by
repenting everyday is a philosophical faith.
Didn’t
Jesus truly become the chief cornerstone that links us with God? By
taking on our sins by the baptism, didn’t He turn us, the believers,
into the righteous? A cornerstone is a stone at the corner of a building
uniting two intersecting walls. It usually is laid at a ceremony
marking the start of a building. Jesus Christ has become the cornerstone
to make us reconcile with God and form His Church with His gospel. But
is it possible for us to call out the name of Jesus and profess proper
faith without relating us to Him? If you try to do this, you have a
philosophical faith, and Jesus does not approve of it.
When
we became enemies of God due to sins, God gave us the gospel of the
water and the Spirit by sending Jesus down to this earth and had Him
take on all the sins of humankind through His baptism. He had saved from
all sins all those who believe. In doing this, Jesus became the Savior
for us, who are the faithful. In turn, He made us the children of God.
For that, we are able to call God our Father, and God has allowed us to
be called His children.
But
those who believe in Jesus philosophically do not believe in the same
Jesus. As seen from today’s Scripture passage, the Lord will judge them.
People who try to receive salvation by their own human thinking,
through their kind deeds, many tears, and much praying are the ones who
oppose God. People receive salvation only when they truly believe in the
Jesus-given gospel of the water and the Spirit. The faith in which they
believe arbitrarily by neglecting Jesus’ gospel is a complete failure,
and they could never be able to receive salvation.
People
mine for gold in the mountains. When a gold mine expert finds a vein of
gold, he digs up the mountain just a bit more, and they know at once
whether the vein of gold is a dead-end vein or a vein full of gold.
Believing in Jesus is like that. You believed in Jesus, saying that you
want to receive salvation by believing in Him. But if sins are still
there, doesn’t that mean something is wrong? Do you want to know the end
result? With a faith such as that, you believed in Jesus to the very
end, but if the sins are still there, what would you do then? It’s not
true that one would become a virtuous person and be sanctified simply by
having faith. People who believe philosophically have the understanding
that people arrive at sanctification and become the righteous by
offering prayers of repentance every day. But they died in the end as
sinners. To such people, the Lord says, “I never knew you; depart from
Me” (Matthew 7:20-23).
They
might say, “How is it that You never knew me? Have I not prophesied in
Your name, cast out demons, and done many wonders in Your name?” Jesus
will reprimand them, saying, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness. You saw Me as the One who wasn’t able to blot out
all your sins. Did you not believe philosophically, and did you not
corner Me by claiming that I blot out your future sins and personal sins
whenever you offer your prayers of repentance? You coming to the foot
of the Cross and begging me to blot out you sin is what has made Me a
liar. You who believed in Me with your own philosophical faith, depart
from Me.” The fact is that all the heretics in this world became
heretics because they have had a philosophical faith. Heretics must
throw away their own thoughts and come back into the Scriptures.
The Baptism Carried out by John the Baptist and Jesus
Numerous
people go to hell having believed in Jesus’ salvation with their
philosophical thinking. People have the thought tendency to believe in
accordance with their own philosophical level. They tend to believe what
fits their standards, and they resist accepting what doesn’t fit their
standards. In order to receive salvation, we must jump over our
framework of thinking by believing in the Word.
First
of all, we must understand that John the Baptist was born on this earth
to do the work of passing on the sins of humankind to Jesus (Malachi
4:5-6, Matthew 3:15). There is a purpose for everyone who is born. John
the Baptist was born to pass on all the sins of the world to Jesus. I
pray that you know and believe that John the Baptist was the very man
who had passed on all the sins of humankind to Jesus.
Thus,
the Bible says, “This man [John the Baptist] came for a witness, to
bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe” (John
1:7), and also says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now
the kingdom of heaven suffers violence” (Matthew 11:12). These passages
mean that John the Baptist had passed on the sins of the world to Jesus,
and he had participated in the work to fulfill all righteousness. The
Words of Lord in which He gave witness, “For John came to you in the way
of righteousness,” also means that the way of salvation that saves
people, was perfected by the baptism that John the Baptist had given to
Jesus.
All
we have to do is to just purely accept the written Word as it is. Human
thinking isn’t necessary for the salvation of people. All that we have
to do is just have faith in the Word of God. However, many Christians
reject the Word of God as it is. The work carried out by John the
Baptist doesn’t suit their level. People are not pleased with it, and
that is why people say that they cannot believe some parts of the Word.
Not only that, but there are those who oppose God with the human
thoughts, saying, “Why does God pass on sins by Jesus’ baptism, of all
things?” They are asking why wasn’t a method more suitable to the human
level used. They say that they cannot believe because that method
doesn’t fit in with their philosophical standard. This is seriously
opposing God.
So
many people in this world try to believe in the Truth in that John the
Baptist had passed on all the sins to Jesus once and for all by thinking
in their own way. But they aren’t able to believe it. Their
philosophical faith tells them that when they believe in Jesus, they
receive the remission of their original sin. But as far as personal
sins, they get to receive the remission by offering prayers of
repentance every day. In doing so, they dream of a philosophical faith
in which they will receive salvation when they become righteous by
becoming more and more sanctified.
In
short, they believe that they will gradually be sanctified by offering
prayers of repentance after believing in Jesus. How can this not be a
mistaken belief? Jesus has taken on all the sins of mankind by receiving
the baptism from John the Baptist. But since people want sins to go
away gradually, and try to add their own righteousness to the
righteousness of the salvation of God, how can this not be a mistaken
belief?
The
words, “For John came to you in the way of righteousness,” means that
“For God had sent John the Baptist to make people righteous.” Not by
human means such as prayers of repentance and sanctification. Jesus had
made people holy by having taken on the sins of humankind once and for
all, by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. John the Baptist
spoke of the baptism, and Jesus Himself many times spoke of the baptism
He received from John the Baptist. But people aren’t accepting it. They
hold on to their philosophy. People are ceaselessly opposing God.
Now,
you have a choice to make: Will you come forth before God and believe
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit according to the Word of God,
or will you believe according to your own philosophical pattern of
thought? I have spoken to you about man’s philosophical faith preventing
people from attaining salvation, but how about you? Are you immersed in
a philosophical faith also? Take it to your heart that in the end, if
you do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, without
adding your own righteousness and your own thoughts, all that awaits you
is only hell.
The
chief priests and the elders went to hell after having opposed Jesus to
the very end, by uniting themselves under a philosophical faith. Now is
the time for you to choose one of the two: Will it be philosophy, or
will it be faith? People, who believe in Jesus as it is written in the
Word, get to receive the remission of sins by faith, by accepting the
work God has done, and by just accepting the pure Word of the Truth.
All
those famous people in today’s Christian communities are modern
versions of the chief priests and elders. They oppose Jesus with their
philosophy even now. When I think about how we have come to be righteous
by believing this, I am truly thankful. I don’t know how we have
received the remission of sins by coming to God’s Church and in the
ranks of the born-again, instead of being in the ranks of people of
philosophical faith who oppose God.
I
cannot thank God enough for this. But by the Grace of God, we almost
came offering prayers of repentance every day by saying, “Jesus wasn’t
able to blot out all my sins” throughout our lives, and being tied up in
a denomination that is full of experts on philosophical doctrine.
Deceived by the words in a single passage which says, “There is none
righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10), we could have fallen into the
fire of hell after opposing Jesus until the very end. But, by His
unconditional love of the Truth, we have received true salvation. Now,
even though salvation has been perfected, people are falling into the
fire of hell is because they had believed in Jesus with their own
philosophy.
Jesus
wants you to believe in the gospel which tells you that He has paid for
all your sins by the water of His baptism and His blood, and receive
salvation. To those who reject the gospel of the water and the Spirit by
blindly insisting that their faith is of orthodox Christianity, without
having been born again by the water and the Spirit, God says, “I never
knew you.” If you do not believe in the salvation of Truth, the baptism,
and the blood of the Cross, your self-righteousness will be broken and
all that will be left is for you to suffer the wrath of God.
If
you have been a person such as this, you have to turn around from your
evil ways. Do not oppose the Word of God, the salvation of Jesus, in
your own philosophical way. By repenting and turning back now, believe
in Jesus’ gospel of the water and the Spirit through which you will be
born again. By doing this, you receive salvation from the sins of this
world.
Those
who do not accept Jesus Christ who has come by the water, the blood,
and the Holy Spirit as their Savior are all heretics. Those who believe
in Jesus philosophically cannot receive the salvation. Let us throw away
our own philosophical faith. By doing this, let us receive salvation.
Let us not become heretics. One’s own philosophy makes you a heretic.
So, please throw away your thoughts and come to the Word of God.
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