Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 8-2] “Only Speak a Word” (Matthew 8:5-10)
(Matthew 8:5-10)
“Now
when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading
with Him, saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed,
dreadfully tormented.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘I will come and heal
him.’ The centurion answered and said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy that You
should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be
healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me.
And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he
comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.’ When Jesus heard
it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, ‘Assuredly, I say to
you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!’”
Whenever
the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit gather
together, everyday is a celebration for us. When we think about how God
has blotted out our sins and ruminate on the gospel of the water and the
Spirit once again, we are all laughing in joy.
As
the centurion in today’s scripture passage confessed his strong faith
in Jesus, saying, “But only speak a word, and my servant will be
healed,” there are people of faith in the Bible who also believed only
in the Word of God and followed the Lord. Blessed are those who have the
true faith in the Word of God. And the faith of this centurion is the
same faith of those in our age who believe in the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit.
The
centurion took pity on one of his servants who fell ill, and he came
looking for Jesus and asked Him to heal the servant. And Jesus answered
his request. When we examine this passage from the Bible, we understand
that the centurion’s mind-set was one that believed in Jesus as the Son
of God, and God Himself as well. We can see that he believed in Jesus to
be the very God who brought the dead alive and created the universe
with His Word. We can witness here as to the greatness of the
centurion’s faith.
The
centurion said to Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come
under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.”
Why did he say this? The centurion said this not because he was afraid
of Jesus coming into his house, but because he believed in the greatness
of God, His holiness, and His omnipotence. If everyone had this
mind-set of being ready to revere God and honor Him, he would received
the same blessings from God that the centurion was given. What are these
God-given blessings? They are the blessing of the remission of sin and
that of faith to live on this earth for the righteous work of God. And
all these come from our faith in the Word. This was the faith of the
centurion. Though we may have nothing to show before God, if we only
have faith in His Word, then the blessings of faith will come to us in
abundance, just like what happened to this centurion.
The
passage about this centurion speaks to all of us that faith in God’s
Word is the authentic faith before God, and that God is pleased with
such a faith. This faith comes when we believe in God, who does
everything and fulfills everything just with His Word. In other words,
the Word of God is the only basis of our whole faith. If we know the
Word of God and have faith in this Word, then we will all receive
amazing blessings in our lives, just as the centurion did.
That
the centurion had such faith was a great blessing in itself. Those who
revere God also know the power of His Word, and by believing in this
Word of God, they can also be saved from all their sins and receive
eternal life. It is by His Word that we are saved from the sins of the
world, receive the remission of our sins and eternal life, and follow
the righteousness of God in faith. This faith in the Word of God brings a
wonderful and blessed life to every one of us without fail.
Our
Lord said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free” (John 8:32). We may not know the entire Word of God in all its
profundity, but if we believe in this written Word of God, the Word then
works in our hearts tangibly and concretely, transforms our minds and
souls, and guides us to know and believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, so that the souls that had once been bound to hell would now
reach and enter Heaven instead.
If
we do not have this faith in the Word of God, then it is completely
futile for us to believe in Jesus as our Savior. This kind of faith is
no more than believing in Jesus based to one’s own thoughts, something
that can only constitute a self-made religion that one practices on his
own accord. But unlike this kind of faith, the faith of the centurion
was one that believed God’s Word.
The
centurion’s faith was like that of Abraham. Our fathers of faith all
believed in the Word that God spoke. Abraham followed the Word of God,
and Isaac had the same faith that his father had. Abraham believed in
God’s Word of promise as it was, that He would give the land of Canaan
to his descendents, and he transferred this same Word of promise to his
son Isaac. And to his descendants, God has indeed permitted this land
that constitutes today’s Israel. By believing in the Word that God
spoke, Abraham became the father of faith.
The
most amazing work that God has done to us is that with His Word, He has
turned sinners into the righteous. What Word of God, then, makes
sinners righteous? How can sinners turn into the righteous? Do people
receive the faith of power and become righteous just by attending
church, giving fervent prayers, speaking in tongues, or believing in the
miraculous power to heal illnesses? When people say that they recognize
Jesus as the Savior, is this the same as receiving Him? One cannot
believe in the Word of God based on their own emotions, their own
devotion, or their own thoughts.
One
comes to have faith in the Word of God only by believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, that Jesus Christ the Son of God came to
this earth to save sinners, was baptized by John the Baptist and shed
His blood, and has thereby delivered them from all their sins. Yet
despite this, we see many people who claim that they have become God’s
children by their prayers and supplications to Him out loud with all
their sincerity in repenting from their sins with their tears. We often
see that among the Christians who have been attending church for quite
some time, those who shed tears when praying to God are somehow approved
as God’s true believers, even as they show no interest in the gospel
truth of the water and the Spirit. In this age and time, Christianity
has become corrupted into a mere religion of the world that purports to
protect all believers with its doctrines.
Today’s Christianity Has the Kind of Faith That Has No Correct Answer
Today’s
Christianity is drifting away in a wrong current. The sad reality is
that many Christians are now following the mistaken faith of the
charismatic movement, mysticism, and materialism. Such pagan beliefs
have now become rampant in Christian communities. These Christians may
all find some comfort and satisfaction for their minds when they are
inside such religious communities, but when they return to their homes
and societies, they cannot avoid but to return to their old, unbelieving
selves and continue to live empty and confused lives, for the Holy
Spirit and the Word of God are still missing from their hearts. Although
they claim to believe in Jesus, they do not know the authentic gospel
of the water and the Spirit, and therefore they have not received the
remission of their sins into their hearts. As a consequence, neither
have they received the Holy Spirit nor do they believe in the Word of
God, and this is why they cannot outgrow their old selves.
To
believe in God is none other than to believe in His Word. Jesus said
that the faith of the centurion who believed in the Word of God was
great. Those who do not believe in the Word of God cannot understand the
faith of those who believe in God’s Word and follow it. In particular,
people who follow the charismatic movement claim that those who cannot
speak in tongues have not received the Holy Spirit, saying, “What is the
evidence that indicates one has received the Holy Spirit? What does it
mean to become God’s children? What is the proof of salvation? None
other than to speak in heavenly tongues is the proof of being born again
and having received the Holy Spirit.” But this is not true at all.
Such
people make a huge commotion wherever they pray. But statistically
speaking, it is said that over 99 percent of such people are simply
uttering pure nonsense. In other words, their weird behaviors are surely
from Satan, not from God. What makes this even more troubling and
tragic is that these people are sure that they have received the Holy
Spirit, and that they are exerting such satanic confusion in the name of
the Holy Spirit.
It
is by receiving the remission of sin through one’s faith in the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit that one receives the Holy Spirit, as
the proof of this remission of sin. Speaking in tongues is not a basic
gift that everyone who has received the Holy Spirit can exert. It means
no more than speaking in different regional languages (Acts 2:8). During
the Apostolic age, the disciples of Jesus spoke in tongues to bear
witness to the gospel (Acts 2:11), and to have a very close and personal
fellowship with God (1 Corinthians 14:2). But in this age and time when
the Scriptures have already been compiled, there is no longer any
special need for us to speak these different regional languages (1
Corinthians 13:8-10). Therefore, even those who do not speak in tongues
have now been enabled to speak the truth of salvation by believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When
today’s Christians speak in tongues, this does not mean that they have
received the remission, nor does it mean that they have become God’s
children. Speaking in tongues and seeing visions do not mean that one is
born again, nor does having the spiritual gift of healing mean that one
has faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. In short,
such people are holding onto these mystical signs as their salvation
because they have no idea how they can be born again.
These
are what Satan gives to the sinful. Mystical faith can last only a few
years at most. Once they lose their so-called ‘power,’ they make every
effort to recover it. So, they look all around for so-called ‘men of
power’ to receive the laying on of their hands. But because their faith
is all in vain, they ultimately end up becoming Satan’s servants. The
fact that they are pursuing such signs and miracles is the proof that
they have no faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit in
their hearts.
There
is a huge difference between the faith of those who believe in visions
and supernatural powers and that of those who believe in and follow the
Word of God. Compared to the faith of the centurion, the faith of
today’s misled Christians who seek after miracles cannot even reach the
sole of his feet. Their faith is entirely different from the centurion’s
faith that believed in and followed the Word of God.
The
faith of the centurion was one that simply said, “Only speak a word,
and my servant will be healed.” His faith, in other words, was one that
believed in the Word of God—that is, in what Jesus Christ said to us.
This indicates that faith in God’s Word is the true faith. To believe
that everything will be fulfilled exactly according to the Word of
Jesus, no matter what He might have said to us, is the true faith. The
faith that wholly believes in the Word of God, in other words, is the
faith of the centurion.
We,
who have faith in the Word of God and thus have received the remission
of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, do not
fall into this kind of faith that seeks after signs. Above all, this
kind of faith is not compatible with our faith, for we are of an
entirely different seed from those who are seeking after miracles.
Therefore we cannot work with such people to spread God’s gospel. The
faith of the centurion is the same as our faith, which believes in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. When we live our lives led by the
Word of God, then we come to live the lives of the prophets that went
before us. The Holy Spirit worked in these prophets’ lives, and He is
equally working in our lives also.
I
can only thank God when I think about just how He has given us such a
great grace of salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
and how He has enabled us, unlike those who are following signs and
miracles, to believe in His Word and follow it. That our faith is true,
and that we have become righteous, are only because we believe in the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God. Whoever denies
his own thoughts, humbly listens to what His Word says to him, and
believes in the true gospel Word of God, can indeed turn into a
righteous person. This is the power of God, and this is the power of the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. By believing in the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit, we can all become God’s own children,
enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and live beautiful, happy, and blessed
lives.
We,
the true believers also say to the Lord, “Only speak a word.” Because
our Lord has spoken the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit to us,
the remission of all our sins has been fulfilled with the Word of God,
for this is the very truth of the water and the Spirit.
Seeing
the faith of the centurion who believed in His Word, Jesus said,
“Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in
Israel!” There is nothing that a paralyzed person can do on his own.
Nor can a spiritually paralyzed person make his sins disappear by his
own will or prayers. This is why God spoke about the faith that enables
one to receive the perfect remission of sin only by the Word of God.
We
have received the gift of the remission of sin by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit in His written Word. For all people,
their sins can be washed away only by believing in the Word of God. It
is because the centurion believed in the Word of Jesus that he said to
Him, “Only speak a word, and my servant will be healed,” and it is
because of this that Jesus approved his faith.
No
effort of our own can ever blot out all our sins. Only by believing in
the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit written in the Word of God
can we be washed clean of them. It is only by believing in this Word of
God, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that we can be saved from
all our sins. Anything else cannot lead us to salvation from all our
sins. We can never receive the remission of sin and be born again apart
from the written Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The
salvation that is received in dreams or visions is not salvation at
all.
However,
there are still many Christians who are becoming even greater sinners
after believing in Jesus. Is it natural that a believer in Jesus should
become more sinful as time passes by? The Bible states that the Lord had
purged our sins with the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). Then, what is
the Word of His power? It is none other than the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Therefore, those who ignore the Word of His power cannot
but remain as sinful Christians no matter how earnestly they believe in
Jesus. As all that Jesus has done for us is written in the Word of God
in detail, it is by believing in this Word of God that we can become
righteous, and it is by this faith in God’s Word that the righteous can
live under God’s blessings.
For
those who do not believe in the truth of the remission of sin contained
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, any and all of their
experiences are simply false. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life
for all genuine believers. No matter how ardently one may give his
prayers of repentance during worship services, if he leaves out the Word
of His power, then his sins just cannot be washed away. It is not by
the prayers of repentance that one can receive the remission of his sins
and enter Heaven, for our own devotion, efforts, and works cannot blot
out any of our sins. Any faith that is not based on the Word of God
belongs to Satan. No doctrine that came out from the thoughts of man,
not the Word of God, can ever wash away our sins. Without faith in the
Word of God, no soul can be saved from his sins, no matter how he might
have the power to drive away demons, or even if he is martyred. The
remission of sin that we receive on our own based on our own thoughts is
all bound to change, for it is not based on the true faith.
The
Bible also states that we cannot be born again of blood, or of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man (John 1:13). Some people boast of
the rich tradition of their faith by saying, “I have believed in Jesus
since when I was in my mother’s womb.” Some others would say, “My family
has believed in Jesus for 5 generations.” Can these people be born
again by such sense of superiority? No, these people cannot become God’s
own people.
The
Lord tells us that He will test such people’s faith, and cast them away
for their lawlessness. Their pride per se might not be the problem
here, if they believe according to the Word of God. Rather, it is
because they believe in Jesus according to their own thoughts instead of
His Word of Truth that God said that He will cast them out into
darkness, saying, “Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
(Matthew 7:23) What is meant by “lawlessness” here? It refers to the
lawless acts of those who claim to believe in Jesus as their Savior and
to exercise all God’s powers even as they do not believe in the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit.
God’s
Church is the gathering of those who have been born again of the water
and the Spirit. In other words, It is the gathering of the sinless, who
are called to be the saints of God (1 Corinthians 1:2). The place that
enables people to put down their own thoughts, believe in the Word of
God, and receive the remission of sin, is God’s Church. Going to church
does not mean going to the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet there are people who
say that because they believe in Jesus and are members of the so-called
‘orthodox’ church, they will all go to the Kingdom of God even if they
still have sin. Those who take pride in such so-called orthodox
denominations of this world identify themselves boldly as the redeemed
sinners.
Everyone
claims that his denomination is orthodox. But did God say that He would
take to Heaven anyone who just professes to believe in Him even if
there is no authentic faith in his heart? Nowhere in the Bible is this
written. You might as well look for yourselves and see if there is any
such suggestion written in the Scriptures. You will surely discover that
nowhere is this written.
Before
God, saints are those who are sinless; that is, those who have become
righteous. People who boast about the orthodoxy of their denominations
say, “We are sinners, but because we believe in Jesus, God considers us
as righteous. So this is why we believe. Believing in Jesus does not
mean we are sinless. How can we say that we are sinless, when in fact we
commit sins everyday? But because we believe in Jesus as our Savior,
God considers us to be sinless. This does not mean that we have been
saved because we are sinless. Though we still have sin even after
believing in Jesus, thanks to our faith in Jesus, we have been called as
God’s children, and we can therefore enter His Kingdom.”
Those
who have this kind of faith only believe in their own thoughts; what
they have is not the salvation that is received by believing in the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. As such, all that they are
doing to God is merely confessing their unrequited love for Him. Such
people have not been saved from their sins. Those who have not been
saved from their sins testify themselves that their hearts still have
sin. This is the proof of the fact that they are sinners. Though they
believe in Jesus as their Savior, anyone who has sin written in the
tablet of his heart is bound to hell.
Having
blotted out all the sins of this world with the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, Jesus told us to receive the remission of our sins by
believing in this true gospel. God is pleased with those who have been
freed from their sins and become righteous by believing in Jesus as
their Savior. This is why God has prepared Heaven for these righteous
people. But the religionists who have not become righteous cannot please
God. They confess, “Lord, I believe that you took away all my sins. But
please wash me from my personal sins that I continue to commit
everyday. Please forgive these sins.” If this is what your faith is
like, then you are someone who does not know God’s gospel of the water
and the Spirit, nor believe in it, someone who is actually committing
the sin of turning God into a liar.
Christians throughout the World Must Kneel before the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
There
are people who accuse the believers of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit as being heretics. Of course, the faith of the sinless may seem
to be rather strange in their biased eyes. But according to the gospel
truth of the water and the Spirit, it is they who do not believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and whose hearts therefore still
remain sinful, that are heretics who will ultimately perish. Heretics
are none other than those who are warped and sinning, being
self-condemned before God (Titus 3:11). Those Christians who say that
they still have sin before God are actually committing sin before Him.
If you still have not received the remission of sin owing to your
ignorance of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then repent now and
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is never too
late. True repentance means turning back from the wrong way and having
faith in the truth, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Those
who condemn themselves even as they believe in Jesus are the very
heretics. There is no condemnation in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:1). We must
reach the proper understanding of this truth by believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit. Those who have sin before God cannot lead
other sinful souls to the Word of God, and all that they can bear are
just sinners who believe in vain according to their man-made thoughts.
But
those who have received the remission of their sins by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit can help others who still remain
sinful become without sin by the written Word of God, for it is by faith
that they have received the remission of their sins. Therefore, those
who meet the righteous who have been remitted from their sins by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, can hear the Word
of being born again from them, come to believe in Jesus, and be also
turned into the righteous.
Those
who have become righteous by believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit are not heretics, but they are true believers. They are the
blessed who have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. The most blessed way to the born-again is to follow and
unite with the leaders of God’s Church, and to preach the true gospel
of the water and the Spirit to all the sinners of the world. Christians
who still remain as sinners should come before the righteous who have
received the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and they should accuse us openly that the righteous are
heretics. For them to throw such accusations behind our backs is only
foolish and cowardly.
What
kind of faith is the right faith? The centurion was a Gentile, but he
believed in the Word of God as it was. Because he thus believed in this
Word of Jesus, his faith was approved. But those who boasted of their
orthodoxy, that they were the true followers of Judaism, were all
abandoned. The Pharisees were sinners, for they failed to recognize
Jesus properly as the Savior.
Faith
in the Word of God leads us to the faith that saves us from all our
sins, and it is by believing in all the Word of God that our lives are
blessed. True faith is to believe in the Word of God and to obey it. And
to such true believers, the Word of God is fulfilled as they believe.
It was because the centurion had this faith that God said that his faith
was great.
God
has given us this faith with the grace of the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. And we also have personally experienced that the Word of God
was fulfilled according to the written Word. Yet it saddens us when we
see that few people have this kind of faith that the centurion had. They
must believe in the God’s gospel of the water and the Spirit. When they
believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Word of
God, then they will be healed all at once from their spiritual leprosy
according to this faith. The faith that is most approved by God is none
other than the faith that believes in the gospel Word of the water and
the Spirit that He spoke, as it is.
The
faith that believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that
has made us sinless is the faith of the centurion that God approved. To
the righteous who believe in His Word, God has given the blessings of
the remission of sin, and of becoming His own children, and I thank the
Lord for this. Having become sinless by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, we have now been qualified to do the righteous
works for the sake of others. Just as our Lord says that the righteous
shall live only by faith, let us forever believe in Him in our lives.
May the Lord lead you also. Amen. Hallelujah!
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