Subject 15 : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the GALATIANS
[Chapter 6-3] Let Us Serve God Bearing One Another’s Burden (Galatians 6:1-10)
(Galatians 6:1-10)
“Brethren,
if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore
such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also
be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of
Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is
nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and
then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For
each one shall bear his own load. Let him who is taught the word share
in all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not
mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows
to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the
Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow
weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not
lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all,
especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
Today’s
Scripture passage says that if a brother’s trespass is revealed, we
should restore such people in a spirit of gentleness, and examine
ourselves. We must first examine our own faith.
In
the Christian churches without the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
there usually is a set of rules called “Church Discipline.” At such
churches, when a member or an officer commits a sin, a tribunal is
opened and disciplinary reprimands are issued. So according to the
gravity of the offense, in the case of church officers, reprimands such
as suspension from office, dismissal, deposition, and expulsion are
issued, and in the case of laymen, such censures as admonition, rebuke,
suspension from Communion, and expulsion are issued.
While
these reprimands may seem appropriate, that is not actually the case.
Then, what is the biblical way to deal with the offending brothers?
Today’s Scripture passage says that we should “restore such a one in a
spirit of gentleness.” In God’s Church, the gathering of the born-again
saints, this is made possible through the faith that the Lord has
blotted out all our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We
have to restore offenders through our faith in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, wish the best for their souls, and also examine
ourselves, lest we fall into sin as well.
The
Apostle Paul said, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law
of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). You and I serve the Lord through our faith
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, seek the will of God by this
faith, and follow it by faith also. That’s how we serve the Lord by the
power given by the Lord. In fact, the burden that we bear for the sake
of God’s work is a righteous burden. Although it is not easy for us to
serve the Lord and preach the gospel, we must still work hard sharing
our burdens, and only then can we fulfill the law of Christ.
The
Lord said that each of us should bear his burden. The burden that we
should bear here refers to the work of serving the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. In Christ, all of us have certain tasks that each of us
must take up and carry out. Since you have received the remission of
your sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and
you have once come into the field of serving this gospel, God is trying
to make you into His workers. That’s because whoever is righteous must
be God’s worker carrying out His work.
The
righteous have a tremendous amount of work to do in serving the gospel
of the water and the Spirit. That’s why the Lord said, “Bear one
another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” There indeed are
many things that we need to do to spread the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. So rather than bearing the whole burden alone, we should share
one another’s burden of the gospel, and we should also serve the gospel
faithfully from each of our positions.
Our
work has now increased even more to serve the gospel of God. When our
faith is young, we sometimes wish to live only for ourselves. But once
we continue to serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we realize
that this is not right. When we grow spiritually little by little, we
eventually realize that there are many burdens of the gospel that we
need to bear. To preach the gospel to other souls, first of all, we need
to arm ourselves with faith, to pray, and to pay attention to the works
of the gospel carried out in God’s Church. These are the burdens we the
born-again have to bear in His Church. Only when we share such burdens
with one another can we preach the gospel all over the world.
Like
this, unless we live by faith, we cannot preach the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. That is why we must bear such burdens assigned to each
of us. You must bear the burden of the gospel ministry that God has
assigned to you, not release yourselves from your burden. As the Apostle
Paul told us to bear one another’s burden, we know that this is what we
must do for the spreading of the gospel. We should reflect on the
question, “What are the works that God has entrusted to me?” We should
each bear our burden willingly; and we should be faithful to our
entrusted duties even to the point of death.
God
told us to bear one another’s burden, and we must faithfully complete
the work assigned to each of us. Unless we do so, all the works that God
has entrusted to us will be ruined. I am sure that if we unite our
hearts to this evangelical mission, anyone of us, no matter who, will be
able to carry out his assigned duties. Those who offered their lives to
the Lord are filled with happiness and pride whenever they finish their
entrusted works.
If
you really know the will of God even just a little, then whether you
are students, adults, housewives, or youths, you will not say, “I have
nothing assigned to me.” So I am sure that in our Church, there is no
one who can say, “I have nothing to do, since there is nothing entrusted
to me.” Why would there be no work for you to take up and carry out, if
you have indeed received the remission of sin and are leading your
lives of faith in God’s Church? As a matter of fact, there is so much
work in God’s Church that is waiting to be carried out by those who
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
We
need to examine ourselves to see if we are now living for God’s gospel.
As the Bible says here to us to bear one another’s burdens, each of us
must examine God’s work. We must reflect on what it is that God has
assigned to us, and we each must examine ourselves to see whether or not
we are indeed faithful to our entrusted work. When we do God’s work,
rather than carrying it reluctantly only because we have to, we should
willingly and by faith carry out the duties that God has assigned to
us.
Long
ago, while reading Matthew 3:13-17, I met the Lord of Truth by the
grace of God. I realized at that time, “The Lord has saved me like this
by being baptized and taking upon the sins of the world once and for
all. But, what about all these Christians? None of them knows this
gospel Truth!” So, at that very moment, I prayed to God, “Father, give
me the strength to preach the gospel all over the world.” There was no
turning back from then on; I never gave up serving the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Of course, there were many crises that hindered me
in serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but I have preached
this gospel ceaselessly time after time. The reason why I have done so
is because I knew that God had burdened me with the duty to proclaim
this genuine gospel to the end.
I
knew that if I were to free myself from the burden of preaching and
serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit, countless people behind
me would all be destroyed. So even though I was heavily persecuted, I
could still preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit unshaken.
Sometimes I was slapped, and other times I was heaped with insults for
no reason, but despite all this, I could never give up preaching the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. It’s precisely because God has
entrusted me with this burden that I have been bearing the burden of
preaching the gospel. Whether in good times or bad times, I have never
been able to bring myself to abandon this work of serving the gospel.
That is why I still continue to preach this true gospel even now.
Sometimes,
I also was tempted in my mind to compromise with Christians who were
not born again. When my born-again faith was very young, I even thought I
should just give up, asking myself, “Couldn’t I mingle with the worldly
Christians and still preach this genuine gospel by myself?” But this
was nothing more than a brief, passing carnal thought. The Holy Spirit
did not leave me alone in my former denomination. My friends and
acquaintances of my former denomination made a great fuss about my
secession. No matter how they extended their tempting hands, I did not
reunite with them.
In
fact, there is no reason why we the born-again can’t succeed in the
world. Since we have been born again of water and the Spirit, and God is
therefore now really our Father, what is there to prevent us from
becoming the best in the world? I thought I could become the head of my
former denomination and even the head of all Christian communities, if I
returned to the community of Christian sinners. However, even if I
could become a first-rate elite in the world, I could not give up
serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I could never do that.
Even though we may be carrying out the smallest of all works in God’s
Church, we are still happier than the powerful, the wealthy, and the
famous in the world.
Just
as I have a burden entrusted by God, so is there God’s burden entrusted
to each of you. We must bear each of our burdens. If we take up the
burden of Christ, He will help us and bless us. However, if we instead
take off our burdens, the Lord will neither help us nor accept us. If we
don’t serve the gospel, God will take away our wisdom and understanding
to grasp His Word. He will take away all our blessings.
Rather
than saying, “I can’t do God’s work because of so and so,” we should
examine God’s work and find a service that we can do and carry it out.
If you are a student, this is what you should do: you should obviously
study hard, but whenever there is an opportunity, you should preach the
gospel of the water and the Spirit to your friends. There are many
students who feel life is empty. Adolescents are old enough to be
contemplative, and so some teenagers reflect on the meaning of life
seriously. I am not too sure about today’s teens, but in my time, I felt
the emptiness of life when I entered puberty at around 15. “Who am I?
Where did I come from? Where am I going? Why must I live?” Such
questions begin to be contemplated deeply when kids are in junior high
or high school. Of course, some kids don’t contemplate that deeply, but
most kids usually come to think about such questions once they reach 12.
If
there is anyone who doesn’t consider these questions, he is a rather
peculiar person. We might as well consider him to belong to the pig
species. Those who do not want to turn into such pigs that are only too
happy to oink when fed, but are all of a sudden dragged to the slaughter
house one day, must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
preached by the born-again. There is a time when people come to
seriously wonder about their next world and think about their souls, and
in times like this, if only the righteous lead them just a bit, their
souls can receive the remission of their sins. That is why the
born-again students should also preach the gospel of the water and the
Spirit to their friends.
Don’t
say in God’s Church, “I don’t have anything to do.” When there is so
much to do in God’s Church, how can you say that you alone have nothing
to do? As we listen to the Word of God, lend our ears to the voice of
the Holy Spirit, believe in the Word, and grow in faith, we come to
realize God’s purpose in calling us. And once we understand this will,
we willingly take up and carry out the work of the gospel. This is how
we bear our burdens. There is no one among us who doesn’t have such
burdens.
Everyone
has his own burden. The Apostles also had burdens. Our ministers all
have burdens as well. Each and every one of us has a burden, from the
young to the old, men and women alike, teens and kids in the Sunday
school. The only difference is the amount of the work with which each
has been entrusted, and each born-again person has his burden.
When
your faith is young, it can be a burden for you to even come to God’s
Church and listen to the Word of God. But you must bear this burden.
Listening to the Word of God is an extremely important work that we all
have to do. The Lord said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in
Him whom He sent” (John 6:29).
There
is so much to do in God’s gospel. When we are carrying out a certain
work of God, we always think, “When this work is done, let’s take a
break and rest a bit.” But once we finish this work, there is more work
waiting for us, and so we have to work even more than before. My fellow
believers, while we are serving the Lord, the burden of service actually
increases more and more. However, when we bear the Lord’s burden, the
Lord bears the burden with us, and so our burden is light. Because the
Lord helps us, our burdens are sufficiently bearable even as they keep
increasing.
Recently
we did a complete upgrade of our website in order to accommodate more
visitors to our site. Many workers worked day and night for months at
this project. That’s because not only the English site had to be
upgraded, but everything had to be translated and upgraded into more
than 20 languages. As a result, we now have more visitors coming to our
website and surfing our materials. All our labor to this day has not
been done in vain.
Because
each of us has born his burden like this, we have seen many spiritual
fruits. As we each have born one another’s burdens and fulfilled our
roles from each of our positions, we have published many gospel books,
and we are now sharing them all over the world. Because we have
translated the gospel books of the water and the Spirit into many
different languages of the world and put them up on our website in paper
books and e-books, people all over the world can download our e-books
and request paper versions as well.
It’s
precisely because we work united together that the gospel is spreading
with such a tremendous success. Lately we’ve had many Germans coming to
our site. If twenty of our workers personally went to Germany to
minister there, could we have accomplished even one-tenth of what we
have accomplished through the Internet in spreading the gospel? No, we
could never have accomplished there as much as what we have accomplished
here in Korea through the Internet.
There
still are too many countries where the gospel of the water and the
Spirit has not yet entered. Even though the amount of our work is
different for each of us, all of us have so much work to do. We can’t
even afford to rest on the Lord’s Day, although we all wish we could
rest even for just one day a week, and the reason for this is because we
cannot fail to fulfill each of our tasks and allow the spreading of the
gospel slow down. If we fulfill each of our tasks from whatever
position we have been assigned, we will be able to swiftly fulfill the
will of God to proclaim the gospel all over the world. If only we have
enough financial resources, we can translate our books into every
language, and if only we are diligent, we can spread the gospel faster
to every nation throughout the whole world.
God
said that anyone who assigns God’s work to His laborer should be
diligent himself. Someone who is lazy himself can never inspire other
workers to do God’s work. He who assigns God’s work must himself be even
more diligent to inspire other workers. When those who work under him
are asleep, he has to prepare their work beforehand and then assign it.
Since he who delegates God’s work to others must assign things to do, he
has so much to do. Anyone who has received the remission of sin has so
many tasks to carry out.
We
also need people who pray for us. During today’s hour of worship, a
deacon prayed on our behalf. He prayed for all our workers laboring in
each nation, from the United States to China, Japan, Russia, and
Mongolia, for our coworkers all over the world, and for the lost souls
in every nook and cranny of the world. Like this, if we were to pray for
each and every nation, there is indeed so much to pray. I know and
believe that it is never in vain when our saints thus pray and ask God’s
help for our ministers, for the lost souls, and for each and every
nation. I believe that God will infallibly answer their prayers to work
and help us.
There
must be the saints who are praying for the spreading of this genuine
gospel. So if you think you have nothing else you can do, all that you
have to do is pray. Prayers are tremendously important. It’s also
because of this that we must continue to hold Morning Prayer Meetings in
the Church.
To
be honest, I am so busy with the actual ministry that I don’t have
enough time to pray to God that much. Even when I pray, it’s usually
when I am together with our workers, and my prayers are in a broad
context, rather than being more specific and detailed. It’s precisely
because I myself am unable to pray a lot that I need those who would
pray for me. The Apostle Paul also asked such prayers saying, “Pray for
me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19). Those who
pray should pray faithfully, and those who actually go out to work
should faithfully carry out their assigned works. This is how we can
each bear our own burdens.
All
of us must be faithful at the task that has been assigned to each of
us. We can’t just do a half-hearted job and say that’s enough, for we
are working before God by faith. God’s work is something that must be
done with the dedication of all our lives. If we cannot achieve
something even when we mobilize everything and every means, then we must
ask for God’s help and still carry it out.
Are
there those among you who say, “I was very busy when I was in my former
church, but now that I entered in God’s Church after being saved from
my sins, there is nothing to do.” If you feel as though there is nothing
for you to do after coming into God’s Church, then this is what you
should do: First of all, you must attend worship service and listen
closely to the Word; and secondly, you should participate in whatever
the Church is doing, even if it’s just running errands. All of us must
carry out the task entrusted to each of us. Only when we are all
faithful to each of our tasks can God’s work be fulfilled successfully.
Once we personally start doing God’s work, we will realize how there is
so much to do.
While
some people in God’s Church have too much to do, others, on the other
hand, have too little to do. Therefore, as your faith grows, you must
follow your predecessor of faith; whatever they do, you must unite with
them. And you must do everything out of your own volition. This is how
you come to learn about God’s work, learn about faith in the Lord, and
serve the Lord. And to those who faithfully carry out their tasks,
another task is entrusted to them to continue to carry out God’s work.
That Is Why We Must Bear Each Other’s Burdens of Serving the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
You
and I must remember the Word that we should bear one another’s burdens.
Today’s Scripture passage says, “For if anyone thinks himself to be
something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one
examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone,
and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load” (Galatians
6:3-5).
God
said that he who is taught the Word should share in all good things
with he who teaches. And God also said that if anyone thinks himself to
be something, when he is nothing, he is deceiving himself. “Is my faith
really proper? Do I really believe in God and rely on Him, and have I
set my whole heart for the Lord? Am I following wherever the Lord leads
me, separated from the world? Am I by any chance trying to live only for
myself, with my heart still not separated? Is my faith really upright?
Am I really a worker before God? Have I really become God’s servant?”
You must examine yourselves to answer such questions.
The
Bible said that if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is
nothing, then he is deceiving himself. Although we are leading a life of
faith, when we examine ourselves before God, we see that there really
are many aspects that still remain unchanged. When we contemplate on
ourselves to see if we wholly believe in the Lord, if we are indeed
living with Him, and if we have indeed been glorified with Him, we see
that this is not actually the case in many ways. Before God, we must
learn the Truth that leads us to the knowledge of His righteousness. To
do so, we must remove dross from our hearts, and we must follow the Lord
by faith, step by step. When we reflect ourselves on the Word before
God, we need to examine ourselves to see whether or not our faith is
proper. And we must become men and women of faith to teach many more
people.
Paul
said, “Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him
who teaches” (Galatians 6:6). This is only too proper. Those who teach
the Word of God must themselves also believe in God’s Word and follow
it, precisely because they are in charge of this very important duty of
teaching the Word. Those who are taught should also believe in
everything God said, and follow it uniting their hearts with those who
teach them.
The
Apostle Paul then went on to say here, “Do not be deceived, God is not
mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians
6:7). God told us that He is not mocked. This means that we shouldn’t
think we are able to somehow deceive God. If we pretend as if our faith
is all grown up, when in fact it is not, God knows it all.
God
says, “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). It
is said that he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap
corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap
everlasting life. In other words, even after being born again, we the
born-again continue to do both the work of the flesh and the work of the
Spirit, and we will reap whatever we sow. Sometimes, out of the
insufficiencies of our flesh, we sow the things of the flesh. However,
if we continue to serve the Lord by faith and labor for the Lord, then
this is sowing to the Spirit. When we continue to serve the gospel in
various ways, the gospel will continue to be proclaimed all over the
world, and there will be many more people receiving the remission of
their sins. So while there may be perishable things in our lives, there
also are nonperishable things that last forever. Saving the souls of
people through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, this is the
spiritual work that reaps the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is by
carrying out such spiritual works that we reap the fruit of the Holy
Spirit.
We
know that the Lord spoke what is patently obvious and self-evident. If
we serve this gospel now, we will infallibly bear spiritual fruits, but
if we do not serve the gospel now, then we will only bear the fruits of
the flesh that will perish away. In other words, the type of fruit that
we bear is determined depending upon what it is that we serve after
receiving the remission of our sins.
We Are Now Carrying Out a World Mission
There
are now many people in this world who believe in and follow the true
gospel of the water and the Spirit. We know that there also are many
from whom we haven’t heard yet, but nonetheless still believe in this
the gospel of the water and the Spirit with their hearts. There also are
those who, although unsure for now, will eventually join us in the line
of martyrs on the last day, make the same confession of faith as ours,
and embrace martyrdom with us.
If
we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them now, then we
will reap the true fruit of the Holy Spirit, but if we otherwise do not
preach the gospel to them, then there will be no fruit of salvation to
reap. How can a farmer expect to harvest any crop in the fall, without
first sowing the seed in the spring? The same principle applies to
spiritual affairs. It’s absolutely indispensable for us to live by
faith, trusting in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, praying for
this gospel, and actually practicing our faith in our everyday life.
Even though we are insufficient, God still wants to spread the gospel
all over the world through us.
Whenever
I travel overseas, I come across many missionaries sent from Korea
working at local communities. But whenever they approach us, who have
come there to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they give
us such a hard time. It’s all too clear that they only pretend to be
friendly, hiding their ulterior motive to drive us out from their
territories. They should be rejoiced when we tell them that we’ve come
there to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but they are so
suspicious and distrustful toward us. They have so many questions for
us, asking when we came, why we came, and what’s our denomination, that
it’s as if they were interrogating a criminal. These people do not serve
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They are busy only to spread
the names of their own denominations and their own religious founders.
They have no interest in preaching the gospel of the water and the
Spirit to people and actually saving them. In short, they don’t know the
gospel of the water and the Spirit and have nothing to do with it.
Among
those renowned for their missionary work overseas, there are many who
only spread their own names or their own righteousness. For instance,
Livingston, who is often considered as the Saint of Africa, is one of
them. He went to the remotest corners in Africa, providing medical
services to the sick and taking care of the ill. This is why Africans
praised him as a saint. But his ministry had nothing to do with the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The
Bible says, “He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for
sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves
with him” (Psalm 126:6). I believe that those who labor today for the
gospel of the water and the Spirit will reap the fruits of everlasting
life. We must labor for these works and share God’s burden with one
another. We really need to offer ourselves to God’s work. If we become
God’s kernels of wheat and wholly dedicate ourselves to the Lord, then
countless people will be saved through what we do. Unless we preach the
gospel, people all over the world will die without being born again.
Although
we are not actually present everywhere in the world, we will still
preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world through
our literature. Even though it’s very hard and difficult, we will
fulfill everything that God has now entrusted to us. Then, the days of
trouble will come soon. When the world really turns too hard and we are
no longer able to preach the gospel, on that day we will dance, feast,
and jump in joy. And when the hour of martyrdom comes, we will be
martyred willingly, hoping for the Kingdom of God and filled with the
Spirit. We will shout out, “Kill me sooner than later. I want the Lord’s
Kingdom to come sooner!”
My
fellow believers, those who have actually dedicated all their hearts to
the Lord in their lives do not fear martyrdom. Do you think I’m lying?
Death, my fellow believers, is of course a terrifying prospect when
viewed in carnal terms. But when we look at it from a spiritual point of
view, it is nothing to be feared. We do not fear death precisely
because we have hope for the next world.
At
this time, when we are still able to spread the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, let us live diligently for this gospel. And let us sow many
seeds for the gospel. We cannot stop now at this point. Our finish line
is still far away. There still are some countries where people do not
even know what Christianity is. Such places are so underdeveloped as
well. And the people there are too ignorant of God.
When
I visited Mongolia a few years ago, I asked someone about God, and he
told me that God was Buddha. In other words, Mongolians have the concept
of God as Buddha. Their concept of deity is not defined by the word
God, but by Buddha, and they believe that Buddha is the almighty deity.
We have to let them hear about the real God, Jesus Christ who came by
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have to restore the name of
God, His position and place, and His power back to God from this Buddha
that has replaced Him. We should teach them that while Buddha is just a
man, God is the real God who made the entire universe and everything in
it. That’s why there is so much that we must do.
Just
as a farmer does not harvest his crop with a moment’s labor, so must we
also cultivate the fields of the human mind to harvest their salvation
step by step. A farmer plows the field, sows the seed, fertilizes the
land and when sprouts grow, weeds the field, and removes the pests—only
then can he harvest in the fall. Likewise, we also sow the seed of the
gospel according to the times, remove the weeds of fallacious doctrines,
give the fertilizer of the Word in due time, and in doing so, we
nurture the born-again to grow into God’s children and His workers. That
is why we must preach the gospel and nurture the saints as well. We
must preach the gospel even to obscure countries, and to do so, we must
pray for them, put our financial resources toward this ministry and
labor for it, and also send our workers there to minister.
Those
in Korea should work diligently to secure financial resources and
provide enough support to the gospel. Even in the military, there are
different types of troops, from combat troops to supply troops. In times
of war, the supply troops provide the combat troops with equipment
provisions, while the combat troops use these supplies to go into battle
and fight. Likewise, to spread the gospel all over the world, there
must be workers who minister personally to preach the gospel, other
workers who offer financial resources, and still other workers who pray
for the spreading of the gospel.
There
is so much work of God that we actually must do. We are facing a very
critical juncture now, and if we just give up here and now, nothing will
be accomplished. When we send our books to each nation in its own
language, and nurture and foster our coworkers, many souls will be
saved. There is no time for us to just sit around idle doing nothing. We
each must take up our burdens and work while we are still able to carry
out God’s work. There is so much to do.
We
sought to preach the gospel to the countries of Indochina such as
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, but we were told that it’s still not
possible to preach the gospel freely in these countries, as they all had
been communist countries until only recently. How can we then preach
the gospel to such countries? It would be a very effective way to seek
out the Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians who have come to Korea as
migrant laborers, teach them the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
make them disciples, and send them back to their home countries. Like
this, God will give us opportunities to serve the gospel in various ways
as long as we want to serve this genuine gospel wholeheartedly.
I
fully agree with what Paul said in Galatians 6:9, “And let us not grow
weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not
lose heart.” Paul told us that we should do good and labor diligently.
If we serve this gospel diligently, pray, and do not grow weary, we will
reap in due season. In other words, we will reap if we are diligent.
You’ve
probably heard many times how people all over the world are sending us
letters of gratitude to tell us of their salvation. Could we have
harvested these people, if we had not preached the gospel of the water
and the Spirit? It’s because we have published and sent our gospel books
that we are able to reap such fruits of salvation in joy. Someone even
confessed that while he had been studying theology all his life, one of
our books alone had more influence on him than everything he had read
until then.
Paul
said, “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we
shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). As promised in this
passage, if we diligently carry out the work of the gospel, we will
harvest abundant fruits of faith. We have to do God’s work diligently
when there is still a chance.
Paul
went on to say, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to
all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians
6:10). And the born-again should be attentive to their fellow born-again
brothers and sisters. We should teach them, “We the born-again must
live by faith,” pray for them and lead them to live by faith, and if
they need our help, we should help them. If it’s to preach the gospel,
it’s okay for the born-again to be attentive to their family members.
But it is not right for them to be so sacrificial just for their family
members’ physical benefit.
We
have to serve the gospel and preach it at every opportunity. Time
passes by relentlessly, but what are we really doing? What have we done?
And what should we continue to do in the days to come? We should
consider ourselves lest we waste precious time in vain. We will put even
more e-books on our website and work even harder, so that everyday over
10,000 people all over the world would download our books.
Unlike
in the past, when people used to travel in ships and ride horses, we
can go anywhere we want on this planet in a blink of the eye. The whole
world has shrunk. This is the ideal time when we can spread the gospel
dynamically. We are now able to work for the whole world. My fellow
believers, I am not saying this to complain that you are not working
hard enough. Rather, I am saying this because you and I need to share
the burden of Christ, and I would like all of us to think about how we
can do this.
To
this very day, all of you have borne heavy burdens, but you should not
lose heart. Instead, you should continue to carry the burden of the
gospel and preach it throughout the whole world until the day our Lord
returns. Soon, the day will come when we are unable to preach the
gospel. So let us all bear each of our burdens now for the sake of the
gospel, at this hour when we are able to still preach.
Do
you feel that your present burden is already heavy enough, and yet you
are now being asked to bear even more burdens? Do you find this too
untenable and too hard to bear that you wish you could just take them
all off? The burden of the Lord is a mysterious burden; the more we
bear, the more we are strengthened, thus enabling us to bear it all. If
the burden is too much for us to bear, the Lord will bear it in our
place, and so even if the Lord’s burden increases, it does not get any
heavier for us. The burden of the Lord is such that the more we bear it,
the lighter it becomes; however, if we take it off, the burden of the
world will weight us down heavily.
I
give all my thanks to our Lord. We who believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit have put on the glory that enables us to bear the
Lord’s burden. Hallelujah!
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