Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 7-3] Faith That Can Do The Will of God the Father (Matthew 7:20-27)
(Matthew 7:20-27)
“Therefore
by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of
My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done
many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never
knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Therefore
whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a
wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not
fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these
sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who
built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was
its fall.”
Our
Lord said to His disciples, “By their fruits you will know them.” For
the disciples of Jesus, the fruits here refer to the final settlement of
their faith. Simply put, being saved from sin as a result of believing
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the fruit that God
approves, and the question is whether or not we have such fruits. The
way to become true saints before God, not liars, is found in the faith
that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words,
when we believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, we can
become the true people of God rather than false prophets. Also, for our
faith to bear real fruits, not just chaffs, our hearts must believe in
God’s gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
Our Lord said, “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit”—so we can also know them by their fruits.
Can We Be Saved from All Our Sins and Become God’s Children Just by Calling on the Name of the Lord?
Today,
I wish to share with you the kind of faith that can do the will of God.
In Matthew 7:21, Jesus Himself said, “Not everyone who says to Me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
will of My Father in heaven.” Those who enter the Kingdom of Heaven by
the will of the Lord are the very ones who have received the remission
of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Saints are those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The fruit that is born from believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit is being remitted from all sins and becoming righteous.
Therefore, only those who do the will of God the Father can enter
Heaven. We must realize the reason why our Lord said, “Not everyone who
says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who
does the will of My Father in heaven.”
Here
in this passage, Jesus says, “He who does the will of My Father can
enter Heaven.” Who, then, are such people who do the will of God? They
are the ones who obey the will of God the Father. The Bible says, “This
is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I
should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is
the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and
believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at
the last day” (John 6:39-40). God really wants to save us all sinners
from sins.
Who,
then, obeys this will of God the Father, which is to believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit? First of all, they are the ones who
believe that God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to
this earth, and that by having His Son be baptized by John the Baptist,
the Father made Jesus take upon all the sins of the world once and for
all. And they are the ones who also believe that God the Father made
Jesus carry the sins of the world to the Cross, be crucified on both His
hands and feet, and shed His blood to death, thereby washing us from
all our sins and bearing all our condemnation of sin.
Believing
in this truth of salvation is the faith that believes according to the
will of the Father in Heaven. Those who do the will of God the Father
and believe accordingly will all enter Heaven, for they believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, the very will of the Father. This is
the ultimate providence of God the Father. All of us must have a clear
understanding of this, and we must all become such saints who believe in
this gospel of salvation, because only by believing in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit can we become God’s children, be remitted from
all our sins, and eventually enter Heaven.
What
did our Lord mean when He said to all of us, “Not everyone who says to
Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven”? The meaning of
this passage is that those who try to enter Heaven without the faith
that wholeheartedly believes in the remission of sin set by God the
Father—that is, in the gospel of the water and the Spirit—cannot
ultimately enter Heaven. In other words, our Lord is teaching us here
that just because people call on His name, blindly saying “Lord, Lord,”
does not mean that they have the faith that enables them to enter
Heaven, but only those who believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, and have thereby been saved from all their sins—that is, who do
the will of God the Father—can enter into the Father’s Kingdom.
The
reason why many Christians, despite believing in Jesus as their Savior,
cannot enter Heaven in the end is because they do not have this faith
that believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, which can
give them the perfect remission of sin. By giving us the gospel Word of
the water and the Spirit and making us believe in it, and having us
completely acknowledge this gospel in our hearts, our Lord has now
enabled us to enter Heaven by faith. If all of us indeed have this faith
that believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, then
there is no reason why any of us would not be remitted from our sins,
nor is there any reason why we would not be able to enter Heaven.
If
we have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then this
means we all have the faith that enables us to receive the remission of
our sins and be justified, as well as to become God’s own children,
enter Heaven, and dwell by Him. In short, those who have this faith that
believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit can all enter
Heaven because they have been remitted from all their sins, while many
Christians who do not have this faith cannot ultimately enter Heaven
even as they believe in Jesus as the Savior, because they have remained
as sinners by not believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Our
Lord said that to enter Heaven, we must do the will of the Father. When
you have this faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, it is only possible for you to do the will of the Father. Even
though we cannot but commit sins by instinct until we die, we can be
washed from all our sins before God when we believe in this gospel Word
of the water and the Spirit and recognize it.
Doing
the will of God also means doing His good works, that is, winning souls
by spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, if we
want to follow the will of God the Father, first of all, we have to
believe in His absolute truth, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Unless we do so, we cannot do what is right, for all our sins would
still remain intact in our hearts. Put differently, we have to be born
again first to do the good works of God (Ephesians 2:10).
Whoever
believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that we have
spread has the ability to do the will of God the Father. As such, those
who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and recognize it
have become the ones who spread this gospel of the water and the Spirit
to all sinners in full conviction. And although they may be persecuted
and face difficulties from preaching this gospel of truth, in the end,
they have all become the very people who do the will of God the Father.
When we have this faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, then we have become such people who do the will of God
successfully.
On
the other hand, if we do not believe in the God-given gospel of the
water and the Spirit, then we cannot do the will of God the Father. If
we do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and are
therefore not saved from our sins, then even if we want to live
according to the will of the Father in Heaven, we cannot avoid but
continue to live in the bondage of sin. But because we believe with all
our hearts in the gospel of God, the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
all of us have become the ones who do the will of the Father by serving
God through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Brothers
and sisters, when did we come to have the correct knowledge of the will
of God? It was when we were able to discover the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit from the Word of God and believed in it. If we do
not believe in the Word of God, then neither can we know the will of God
the Father, nor do His will in this world. We must realize that even if
we were to feed the hungry, nurse the sick, and care for orphans, all
in our bid to love our neighbors to do the will of God the Father, this
is actually far different from doing the will of God the Father. In
doing the will of God, our good deeds of the flesh cannot replace the
faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that our
Lord has given us.
No
virtuous deed in this world can ever replace the work of faith that
believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Father’s will,
which delivers sinners. That we have been able to do the will of the
Father by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and
spreading it throughout the whole world cannot be replaced by any good
deeds that we may do in our flesh. Realizing this amazing truth once and
for all, we must never again let our faith be confused about the will
of the Father.
However,
there are so many people in this world who are trying to replace the
will of the Father by doing good deeds in their flesh. But it is because
we have received the remission of our sins by believing in the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit from the Word of God that we have
become the ones who do the Father’s will and been able to serve the
gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world.
When
it comes to our spiritual lives of faith, we must believe that it is
right for us to do the will of the Father by believing in the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit. To do so, we must first know the true
gospel. How can it be possible for a sinner to do the will of God when
he doesn’t even know exactly what it is? If we do not know what kind of
faith allows us to live according to the will of God the Father, then we
can never have the strength to do the will of the Father in Heaven.
Therefore,
we must first attain the ability to do the will of God the Father by
believing in this gospel that holds the righteousness of God. In short,
if we do not have faith that believes in the gospel of the Spirit, then,
we will eventually be cast aside by God, because such a faith of ours
has nothing to do with His will. That’s why we must examine ourselves
whether or not we truly believe in the Word of God, whether we indeed
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts.
Those
who do not live according to the will of God will end up leaving His
Church, because they cannot overcome their petty, carnal lust of flesh
above all else. Or, they will ultimately end up as false prophets who
seek after their own will in the name of Jesus Christ by presenting
themselves as being in sheep’s clothing. But, because the gospel of the
water and the Spirit is the will of God the Father in Heaven, those who
believe in this gospel of truth can receive the strength to follow the
Father’s will by the power of the Holy Spirit as they live their lives.
If
we truly want to know God’s good will toward us and follow it, then we
must first believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. If we
indeed believe in the Word of God as the truth, then even if the Bible
does not seem to be plausible, we must still yield to the gospel of the
water and the Spirit revealed in the Word of God. If all of us believe
in the will of God manifested in the Bible, then we can all please Him
by doing His will, for the faith of such people is bound to stand firmly
forever. Just as pine trees stand straight and shoot toward the sky,
those who believe in the Word of God have the invincible power to follow
the will of God.
If
your faith depends on the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Word
of God, and you have thereby received the remission of your sins, then
this empowered faith will always give you the very strength to do the
will of God the Father. Even if you have glaring insufficiencies when
others see you, if you have this faith that believes in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, then you can have the authentic faith that
Abraham had. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, all
of us must come to have this faith that remits away all our sins and
enables to enter Heaven. We will live our lives obeying and doing the
will of God the Father, and we will all ultimately enter His Kingdom.
You
and I must therefore always hold onto our faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit steadfastly. Rather than holding onto our
circumstances, we must keep our faith in the gospel Word of the water
and the Spirit, and we must faithfully spread the gospel and wait for
the Lord until the day He returns.
Even
the righteous who have received the remission of sin by faith always
face many ups and downs. Just as there are the four different seasons of
spring, summer, fall, and winter in the nature, the righteous also face
different circumstances at different times—sometimes warm and
refreshing, at other times lethargic and painful, and yet on another
occasion peaceful.
However,
our faith can differ from our circumstances at anytime. Even though our
circumstances change so much like this, our faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit never changes under any circumstances, always
protecting us and keeping us from all curses. If we believe in the Word
of God, then because of this faith, we will never be spiritually dried
or frozen to death in our winter, nor die from heat in the summer, nor
fall into nihilism in the autumn, nor be drawn into the world in the
spring. No matter how many ups and downs we may experience in our
spiritual lives, we can always do the will of God forever. If we have
the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then
we can overcome all our difficulties, and with this faith we can
ultimately live the most precious lives before God the Father by doing
His will.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit is sufficient to turn all of us into
those who live according to God’s will. This is why you and I must
always defend our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the
Word of God. By doing so, we can live in obedience to the will of God
the Father. Are you now abiding in the Word of God? Or are you,
imprisoned by our own circumstances, not able to live by believing in
the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit? If the latter, then ask
yourselves whether you really believe in the power of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit or not. We must believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit found in the written Word of God, and we must live in the
power that this gospel brings to us. Clearly, by receiving the power of
God through our faith in the definite gospel of the water and the
Spirit, we must all live our lives fruitfully in joy.
We Must Believe in the Powerful Word of God
One
thing that I absolutely want to ask you to do is to hold onto the
written Word of God with your faith, to its each and every passage. I
have no more ardent desire than for you to believe in the gospel Word of
the water and the Spirit, the Word of God, for unless you do so, your
faith is bound to fail at any given time because of the sins that you
commit, and you yourselves are bound to perish because of such sins. All
of us must steadfastly hold onto the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit. Without doing so, we cannot stand upright even for a day—nay,
not only can we not stand, but we cannot live at all, bound to walk in
the valley of death.
The
Apostle Paul frequently made mention of “work of faith, labor of love,
and patience of hope” (1 Thessalonians 1:3) as the essential virtues of
the born-again saints. Even if we have the hope to enter Heaven, and the
love that we have received from God, we are nothing unless we have the
faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, for only
this gospel of the water and the Spirit empowers us to live such a
virtuous life. If you do not believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, then all the blessed scriptural Word of prophecy would not be
yours, but someone else’s.
You
may believe that you will all enter Heaven in a distant future, but
unless your hearts do believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
and hold onto it right now, your life might as well be over. We cannot
continue to live without the true faith that believes in the gospel Word
of the water and the Spirit. If we are not provided with the Word of
God, and if we do not feed on it right now, our souls are bound to
starve to death.
Upon what is true faith founded? True faith must be founded upon the written Word of God.
When
I was not yet born again, I used to think that I would have had the
true faith if I had offered all my possessions to God. But I worried
that if I let go of everything I had, and as a result I have nothing
left after giving it all to God, I would have a hard time trying to get
by in this cold and selfish world. By the way, even though I couldn’t
offer all my belongings, a life of poverty had always been an ideal of
the Christian faith to me.
And,
before I was born again, I always thought that being filled with my own
emotion was faith itself. So I used to do everything, such as attending
all church meetings, fasting, and helping the needy etc., to uplift my
emotion of love and piety. But such a legalistic faith made me so tired
that I could not live by faith any more. Unless I was filled with my own
emotions, I felt like my heart was empty, as if something was missing,
and I thought that this was an indication of my lack of faith.
Where,
then, did I find my true faith, completely different from this empty
one I had before? I found it in the written gospel Word of the water and
the Spirit. Because the Word of truth that holds the gospel of the
water and the Spirit was written in the Bible, by believing in this Word
of God, I could be remitted from all my sins, and by this faith I could
tell everyone about the greatness of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, in other
words, I could do the will of God the Father and stand boldly before
Him. To this day, the Word of God has sustained me in this way, so that I
may continue to dwell in Jesus Christ. Had I not had this faith in the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God, then my soul
would have still been bound in Hades.
Dear
fellow Christians, if there is no Word of God in your hearts, then what
do you believe in? It means that you actually believe in your own
emotions. Our eyes of the flesh do not see our God, whom you profess to
believe. Then based on what will you believe in God?
You
would have no other choice but to rest your faith on your prayer
experiences, on whether your prayers are answered or not, but what if
God is not satisfied with your prayers and does not answer you? Lest we
go astray, God does not answer us what we ask Him on quite a few
occasions; how could you then believe in Him? How could you believe in
God and follow Him in faith?
If
we lay our foundation on our devotion or emotion, then we will
ultimately fall into our own devotional acts that we cannot keep on
sustaining, and consequentially fall into unbelief and waste away our
faith in God. This is why God has provided us with His written Word. By
giving us this written Word of God, He has enabled us to meet Him in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit by holding onto this Word of God; to
have hope by believing in His promise; and to do the will of God to the
end.
We
must hold onto the Word of God and believe in it. Only then can we
really become the people of faith who truly believe in His Word and have
faith even as small as a mustard seed; and just as our Lord said that
we could move a mountain into a sea if we have faith as small as a
mustard seed, we can all become the people of faith who can win the
whole world to Christ. Therefore, you and I must hold onto the Word of
God steadfastly, and we must all believe in His Word exactly as it is.
Then, we will become the ones who do the will of the Father, and as a
result of this, we will all enter Heaven.
Jesus
Christ admonishes us to bear the fruits of true faith. As only a live
and healthy tree can bear fruits, only those who have eternal life by
believing in the Word of God and who are in right relationship with God
can bear the fruits of the true faith. It is those who believe in God’s
Word that can live their lives by their faith in God; it is they who can
do His work; it is they who can do good deeds; and it is they who,
regardless of their insufficiencies, can follow God by believing in His
gospel.
If
we do not have this faith that believes in the Word of God, then we
cannot follow His will. All this is entirely possible for us regardless
of our circumstances, if we would just hold onto the Word of God. If you
do not have any great faith, then hold onto even the edge of the Word
of God, as if the woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve
years held onto the garment of Jesus. If someone has faith as small as a
mustard seed that holds onto the Word, then he is a man of faith. And
with this, he is actually doing the will of the Father. All of us must
become such people of faith who believe in the Word of God, not the
faithless.
It Is Most Essential for Us to Believe in the Power of the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
Who
really believe in God and are standing firmly on the rock of faith?
They are those who believe in this written Word of God. And who are
unable to do this? They are those who do not believe in this written
Word, and therefore, listen to the Devil instead. As a result, such
people become enslaved as the Devil’s own servants.
Referring
to the believers in His Word, Jesus said, “Whoever hears these sayings
of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his
house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the
winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was
founded on the rock.”
In
the old days, when people built a house, they placed large rocks on its
four corners as cornerstones. These rocks were buried in the ground
half way, with their remaining half protruding above the ground. On
these rocks, large tree trunks were raised as pillars, with crossbeams
connecting them together, and it was on this basic structure that the
house could be built solidly.
What,
then, is solid faith? The rock here refers to one’s faith in the Word
of God. Jesus said that he who hears and does the will of God is like a
wise man who built his house on the rock, for he founded his faith on
the rock-like Word of God. True faith is to believe in the gospel Word
of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God.
We
are prone to lay the foundation of our faith on our experiences. For
example, most Christians are enthusiastic about the testimonies of what
someone saw in visions or listened in his prayers. And they are anxious
to experience something mystical. This is how the Christian mysticism
has come to prevail in today’s Christianity. But you should know that
faith based on such mystical experience only lasts until the next
experience, and that what our eyes see is not what is believable. Why?
Because these things are not eternal, as they last just a short while
only to disappear in the end, and because believing in what is not
perfect does not constitute the true faith.
Faith
in God means to believe in the absolute and forever-unchanging Word of
truth, and believing in this Word of God is what is meant by truly
spiritual faith. Those who are saved by believing in God’s gospel, the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and thereby do the will of the
Father, are the very ones who have true faith. We can know and believe
in God correctly only when we believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit that our Lord has given us never
changes. To believe in what our Lord said is none other than the very
faith that believes in this true gospel. It is this faith that God
approves. And when we believe in this Word, no matter how our emotions,
circumstances, or anything else ever tries to shake us, our faith that
holds onto this Word can never be shaken, for the very foundation of our
faith is never shaken. This is why you and I must believe in the Word
of God. Brothers and sisters, do you really believe in God’s Word? Do
you really want to hold onto the Word of God? It is my sincerest prayer
that you would indeed hold onto God’s Word for the rest of your lives.
Those
who did the will of God all believed in His gospel of the water and the
Spirit. The people of faith, such as the Apostles Paul, John and Peter,
with whom we are well acquainted, often made numerous references to the
Word of the Old Testament. And they were the men of faith who believed
firmly in the Savior manifested in the Old Testament and waited for Him.
In their days, there was no New Testament. But as they believed in the
written Word of the Old Testament and in Jesus Christ who came by water
and blood (1 John 5:6), the Holy Spirit dwelt within them and worked in
their lives, and from the very day they met Jesus, they were then able
to follow the Lord.
We
really must believe in the unchanging written Word of God. By doing so,
we must all become the people of faith who are never shaken before God.
And by doing so, we must follow the will of God, live the kind of life
that pleases Him, and become the ones who bear spiritual fruits. Those
who believe in the Word of God have no worries even when the floods come
and the winds blow.
But
those who do not believe in this Word of God, the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit, all fall when the floods come and the winds blow,
and great is their fall. The reason for this is because their faith in
God is founded on their own thoughts. In the Bible, sand or soil denotes
man-made thoughts. For instance, Genesis tells us that when the ancient
people built the Tower of Babel, they used bricks and tar to build it.
What are bricks made of? They are made of the sand and the soil of the
earth. What the Word of God tells us here is that they built the Tower
with their own man-made thoughts.
In
today’s world also, there are those who build their houses of faith
with such bricks made by mixing sand and cement, all to challenge God,
when they are supposed to build their houses of faith to be a dwelling
by believing in the God-given Word through pure innocence. To believe
with impure man-made thoughts, and to believe in mankind’s own wisdom,
their own abilities, and their own power—these are all no more than
building a house on the sand. But to believe in the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit, the Word of God, is the very faith that is like
the rock.
For
our faith to become solid as the rock, we must return to the kind of
faith that believes in each and every passage of the written Word of the
Scriptures. When we do so, our faith will be strengthened. But if we do
not do this, and instead believe in our own thoughts and in our own
circumstances, then we will fall, and fall greatly, as Jesus Himself
told us. Believing in our own thoughts, in other words, only means that
our faith will collapse sooner or later. So what about you, then? Do you
really believe in the written Word of God? If yes, then all of you are
the people of faith, just like Abraham.
God
had commanded Abraham to leave his country, from his family and from
his father’s house, to a land that He would show him. Did God then
appear before Abraham like an apparition? No. It was through His Word
that God spoke to Abraham. Abraham, in turn, held onto what God had told
him and went to the place that God had directed him. Without the Word
of God, Abraham always felt lost. So he built an altar at all times,
offering burnt sacrifices to God and praying there.
In
one of those occasions when Abraham built an altar and gave his
offering of faith to God, God appeared before him again, and this time
as before, He did not appear like a ghost. How easy would it be to
believe in God if He would indeed appear before us like the ghost that
appeared before Hamlet? Anyone could then know God and believe in Him
easily. But we find it hard to believe in God precisely because He does
not appear in His full image, and because we can only hear Him speaking
to our hearts through His Word. Abraham, however, managed to hear what
God spoke to Him. Now as then, God still does not appear before us in
His image, but He equally makes Himself manifest to us through His
written Word. Just as God had spoken to Abraham through His Word, so
does He speak to us through His written Word.
For
us to believe in God’s Word is none other than faith. If one has faith
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then he is a man of great
faith. I myself, who believe in the Word of God, is a man of great
faith, and so is each and every one of you—all of us are the people of
faith who can transform the whole world. And just as Abraham was blessed
by God, you and I can also receive the same blessings that he has
received.
However,
if we do not believe in God’s Word, then our faith is like that of Lot.
Those who, despite being saved from all their sins by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, nonetheless follow the dictates of
their own circumstances are not the people of faith. While Abraham
diligently followed the Word of God, Lot followed what his own
circumstances urged him to do.
Lot
had become rich while living with his uncle Abraham. But he gradually
came to think that if he continued to dwell with his uncle, he would end
up losing too many cattle. Moreover, while his uncle had been a great
help for Lot before, now Abraham’s help seemed only cumbersome for him.
So Lot looked for an excuse to leave his uncle, and just as he had hoped
for, one day such an excuse arose: There was strife between the
herdsmen of Abraham’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock, for
their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.
So
Abraham thought, “I see that Lot now believes in his own circumstances.
When he left Ur of the Chaldeans, our homeland, he had relied on me,
and he had followed me by trusting in the God whom I believe in, but now
that he has become rich, he is doing whatever he wants to do all on his
own.” Abraham then said to Lot, “If you so wish, feel free to leave me.
If you take the right, then I will go to the left; or, if you go to the
left, then I will go to the right. Decide whatever you want; here or
there?” Lot then chose the plain of Jordan.
The
place that Lot chose was the very land of Sodom and Gomorrah that would
eventually face its condemnation by fire and be destroyed. But before
this destruction came, it was an extremely fertile land, like the Garden
of Eden. It seemed to be such an ideal place to raise cattle. Abraham
then said to Lot, “Since you chose that place, I will choose its
opposite.” So Abraham chose the opposite of what Lot chose, going into
the mountainous areas instead of the fertile plain of Jordan. Why?
Because Abraham knew that Lot’s heart was not right.
God
then appeared before Abraham and said to him, “Lift your eyes now and
look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and
westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your
descendants forever” (Genesis 13:14-15). God indeed blessed Abraham just
as He had promised, giving him the Promised Land.
Abraham,
the father of the Hebrew nation, had actually been no more than a
wandering nomad who had left Ur of the Chaldeans into the land of
Canaan. The word ‘Hebrew’ means “the man who passed over, namely, the
Euphrates.” The reason why this Abraham, a stranger in the land of
Canaan who was ostracized and bullied, could become a man of faith was
because he believed in God.
You
and I are also the people of faith, because we believe in the written
Word. Does this written Word ever melt away and change because it is
summertime? Does it ever get frozen and broken apart because it is
wintertime? The heavens and the earth may change, but this Word never
changes, and not a jot or a tittle of the Word will ever disappear till
all is fulfilled.
Matthew
7:22 says, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many
wonders in Your name?’” This is what many such faithless people, those
who do not believe in the Word written by God, will say. Just how many
Christians are living their religious lives without believing in this
written Word of God? On that day, many of them will say, “Lord, Lord,”
but they had not really believed in God, but believed in their own
circumstances just like Lot.
Many
Christians actually do not believe in the gospel Word of the water and
the Spirit. Instead, they believe in their own thoughts in vain. Many of
them believe in their own thoughts, in false signs, and in the power of
demons. There are many so-called “blind Christians” in this world who
believe not based on the Word of God, but based on the false teachings
and the power of demons. Among those who are not born again, countless
people are possessed by demons, and quite perversely, they profess to
believe in Jesus based on such a demonic power that they have received.
Does this sound far-fetched for you? Well, but isn’t this exactly what
today’s main passage says? Indeed, this is what the above verse of
Matthew 7:22 says: “Have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons
in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?”
The
demon-possessed are good at recognizing demons and even casting them
out. They are good at prophesying. Don’t some fortunetellers seem to
have an uncanny ability to predict the future sometimes? Those who
prophesy in the name of the Lord, cast out demons in His name, and do
many wonders in His name are the same as these demon-possessed
sorcerers. There are many places where such people, possessed by demons,
utter all kinds of unintelligible, incoherent, and completely garbled
nonsense.
You
might have heard of a heretical group called “Vineyard Fellowship.”
They insist that when the ‘Holy Spirit’ comes upon them, they go into
fits of uncontrollable laughter, make animal sounds like sheep, horses,
or even roaring lions, and experience what they call “spiritual
drunkenness,” where they lose their sense of balance, the results of
which contribute to the hysterical laughter.
Everyone
who goes to their gatherings must be demon-possessed, or otherwise he
would not last for long in that group. Those who are not born again see
no joy to believe in Jesus unless they are possessed by demons. Their
religious lives, in other words, offer them no joy at all unless they
are demonically possessed.
Before
you were born again, had some of you, then only Christian sinners, ever
spoken in tongues? For many such misguided Christians, unless they
speak in tongues, something is not quite right for them, as if a certain
excitement is missing from them. So they keep repeatedly uttering all
kinds of nonsensical, completely incoherent and meaningless words over
and over, and they believe that this is what speaking in tongues is
supposed to be.
But
in fact, this only means that evil spirits have entered them, causing
them to continue to utter totally incomprehensible words that make
absolutely no sense at all. In other words, they feel good because they
are drunk with the power of demons. Those who claim that their bodies
can levitate independent of their will by some unknown power, that their
knees float above the floor by at least 10 inches when they hop on
their knees; those who claim that they have no fear at all when they
hole up in the remotest of mountains to pray; those who say that
supernatural power emanates from them; those who say that they want to
grab someone, anyone, and just lay their hands on them and pray—such
people are all demon-possessed. When such people see other
demon-possessed people, they say, “Get behind me, Satan! In the name of
Jesus, get out!” They say this because they think this is how demons are
cast out, but in fact the only reason why any demon is cast out is
because it is weaker than the demon possessing the one who is exorcizing
it.
Like
this, those who do not believe in the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit all practice lawlessness. This is why man must hold onto the Word
of God. We must hold onto God’s Word everyday. We must hold onto it
until the day our Lord returns. At all times, we must always hold onto
this Word that has brought salvation to us. This Word has the same power
now as before, for it is the living and dynamic Word of God. The power,
truth, strength, love, and salvation that are held in this Word are
always there.
This
Word therefore transforms our hearts. And it gives us strength and
holds us steadfastly with faith. As such, it is by believing in the Word
and holding onto it that we come to have the real faith, and it is by
having such faith that can move even mountains, just as our Lord said,
that we are able to do the will of our Lord and follow him until the
very end. And the result of all this is to become the servants of the
righteousness of God, the workers for His Kingdom.
Given
this, it is absolutely indispensable that all of us have this faith
that believes in the Word of God spring forth through the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. If you believe in the Word of God and hold onto,
you will all become His own people. You will then also become the ones
who can do the will of God the Father. If you really believe in the Word
of God, then you should all know just how exhaustively the gospel Word
of the water and the Spirit covers the whole Bible.
But
even if you have already received the remission of your sins by
believing in this gospel, do continue to hold onto the written Word of
God, for if you fail to do so, your faith will go astray at any time.
Unless we hold onto the Word of God, we are bound to hold onto our own
flawed thoughts instead, and it will be impossible for us to always
stand upright before God. But by hearing and reading the Word of God
through His Church, we can always gain new strength, receive the Word of
power at all times, and always follow the Lord by faith.
Believe now that you can all do the will of God the Father by believing in the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit!
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