Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 9-3] Religious Faith vs. Faith In the Gospel Power of The Water and the Spirit (Matthew 9:1-17)
(Matthew 9:1-17)
“So
He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. Then
behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw
their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, be of good cheer; your sins
are forgiven you.’ And at once some of the scribes said within
themselves, ‘This Man blasphemes!’ But Jesus, knowing their thoughts,
said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to
say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that
you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive
sins’—then He said to the paralytic, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and go to
your house.’ And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the
multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such
power to men. As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew
sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ So he arose
and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the
house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down
with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to
His disciples, ‘Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and
sinners?’ When Jesus heard that, He said to them, ‘Those who are well
have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn
what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come
to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’ Then the disciples
of John came to Him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often,
but Your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the
friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them,
and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an
old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is
made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the
wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But
they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.’”
How Should We Lead Our Lives of Faith?
How
should we lead our lives of faith? Should we do so by placing our faith
in our own thoughts? Or should we place our faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit? These are the questions that I would to address in
today’s teaching.
What
we need to realize here is that those who are faithful only to their
thoughts are no more than religious practitioners. So when Jesus was on
this earth, the Pharisees, being such religionists, also attacked Him
and His disciples over ritualistic issues. The disciples of John the
Baptist also questioned Jesus in doubt, “Why is it that we fast often,
but Your disciples do not fast?”
Unfortunately,
most Christians still remain as such religious practitioners. In
contrast, what Jesus really wants us to pursue is absolutely different
from it. As is manifested in the first part of today’s Scripture
passage, Jesus is the true God who can give us the remission of sin.
Hence, He could say to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins
are forgiven you.”
Which
is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Arise and
walk”? Both would have been easy for our Lord, but they are likewise
difficult for us. Everyone and every creature may say such things, but
fundamentally speaking, no man has such power. All these things were
impossible to be done by creatures, but only by our Lord.
What
could someone who seems to be religiously pious do to blot out his
sins? All that he can do is give prayers of repentance, and resolve
himself to never sin again; beyond these, there is nothing that he can
do. But Jesus wants to give us the remission of sin that is in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. All that He really wants us is for
us to have faith in Him and in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Though
today’s Scripture passage, Our Lord teaches us the difference between
our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and mere religions.
When we believe in the Lord as our Savior, should we be filled with our
faith in the Word of God, or should we be filled with religious
doctrines? The Lord God is telling us to choose one.
Religious Christians Must Deny Their Thoughts and Believe in God’s Word of Power
Our
faith in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit is fundamentally
different from man-made, ritualistic and doctrinal faith. Our true faith
in the righteousness of God and the faith of the worldly religions are
not the same. Placing our faith in the Word of God is to look toward
what God has done for us, to follow it, and to believe in it with our
hearts; in contrast, placing one’s faith in the religious doctrines of
this world is to make an object of one’s devotion on his own and to
trust in it according to his own thoughts. But such religious faith is
not the faith that believes according to the Word of God.
To
be faithful to the worldly religions is to be faithful to one’s own
thoughts. Therefore, if anyone who had been faithful to the religions of
the world wants to believe with his hearts in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, through which Jesus has saved us, then he must first
deny his own thoughts. This is because God’s gospel of the water and the
Spirit is different from the doctrines made of one’s own thoughts.
Because of such people who follow and believe in the Jesus based on the
false doctrines of their own making, countless people are dying
spiritually.
God
is teaching us that when we believe in the Lord as our Savior, we must
do so by placing our faith in the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit, for this gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is the very
Word of God. Here, we must make a clear choice between two; whether we
would believe in Jesus as our Savior based on our own thoughts, or based
on the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is made of the Word of
God. God is clearly telling us that it is based on the gospel Word of
the water and the Spirit that we must believe in Jesus.
My
fellow believers, the faith of the religiously devoted is fundamentally
different from the faith of those whose devotion is based on their
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When
we read the same account of the paralytic in the Gospel according to
Mark (Mark 2:1-12), it is written that when Jesus preached the Word in a
house, so many people had gathered together around Him that there was
no longer room to admit them, not even near the door. To this packed
house four men brought a paralytic on a bed, but they could not come
near Him because of the crowd. But instead of give up their attempt,
they uncovered the roof of the house, and they lowered the bed on which
the paralytic was lying to Jesus. In other words, because the place was
filled with so many people and the paralytic and his four friends could
not even set a foot inside, they had to take special steps to approach
Jesus, or otherwise they would not have been able to take the paralytic
in bed to Jesus.
Like
this, when we come before God, we can meet Him only if we take special
steps; that is, by placing our faith in the Word of God. We must believe
in the Word of God, that Jesus came to this earth and has blotted out
all the sins of mankind through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
If we truly have this faith in the salvation of God, that He has saved
us from our sins once for all with the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, then we can indeed be freed from all our sins. Whoever believes
in this true gospel can become one of God’s own people. It is only when
we are filled with our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
that we can go and stand before the majestic presence of our Lord. Only
then can we come before the Lord and praise Him, and only then can our
hearts be filled with thankfulness.
My
fellow believers, when you come before God, you may think that it is
most important to approach Him with some kind of merits of your own or
with your utmost sincerity. But that is not the case. That is just your
own thought. On the contrary, we must cast aside the beliefs of our own
thoughts, and we must believe only according to the Truth written in the
Word of God.
Let
us imagine here for a moment that Christians are standing in two lines,
and that on one line stand those who believe in Jesus based on their
own thoughts, and on the other line are those who believe in the Word of
the water and the Spirit, which is our salvation. On which of these two
lines should you stand? If you stand on the line of the religionists,
you will lead your lives following only your own thoughts. It will then
become impossible for you to meet Jesus Christ, who has come by the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Why?
Because such religionists are faithful to only their own thoughts and
are devoted to only their own emotions. As the Apostles warned, still
many Christians desire to make a good showing in their flesh (Galatians
6:12). It is because they have no interest in the Truth about the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, nor in how God has completely blotted out
their sins, but they are only faithful to their own pious devotion. But
no matter how people devote themselves in their own thoughts, they still
remain far too insufficient to come and stand before the presence of
God. This is why those religious Christians cannot properly meet Jesus
the true Savior. When someone is devoted to only his own religious
piety, he pays no attention to the Truth of salvation, the gospel Truth
of the water and the Spirit, and instead ends up devoting himself to his
own thoughts, emotions, and dedication.
But
those who are well aware of their insufficiencies seek first the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit, and grab it by faith when they hear
it by any chance. Such people can be saved from all their sins by
placing their faith in this Truth, and give thanks to God for the Truth
of salvation that He has fulfilled.
Our
remission of sin does not depend on what and how we do with our acts of
the flesh. On the contrary, it lies in our faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Therefore, we, the saved, pay far more attention
to the fact that Jesus has saved us from our sins once for all with the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we have faith in this. Those who
have confidence in the Word of God can reach an even more profound
understanding of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit by faith.
It is only by faith in Jesus Christ who has saved us through the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit that we can receive the remission of
our sins and stand before God. We can then come to swim in the ocean of
God’s grace and live blessed lives.
The Lord Was Needed Only to the Sinners Facing Their Destruction
My
fellow believers, our Lord did not come to save from sin those who
believe in their own thoughts. He said, “Those who are well have no need
of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this
means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call
the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Whom
did our Lord say He came to call? He said that He did not come to call
the self-styled righteous ones, but sinners. Who, then, are sinners
before God? They are the descendants of Adam who had left God and who
had been bound in sin. Our Lord did not come to call the righteous. This
is because there is none who is righteous for himself (Romans 3:10).
And, it is right that our Lord came to this world to save the sinful, to
make them sinless, and to turn them into God’s own children.
What
Jesus is saying to the Pharisees in today’s Scripture passage is to
cast aside their own thoughts, come before Him, and believe in His Word.
But since these Pharisees came before Jesus with their own thoughts
filled with their own emotion, it was not to call such people that our
Lord came. Our Lord did not come to save from sin those who are
superficially upright and hypocritical, but He came to save those who
are poor in spirit, who are honest and frank enough to confess
themselves to be sinners, who are saddened by and mourn over their sins,
and who listen to the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and
believe in it.
Our
Lord came to this world to save sinners from all their sins and
iniquities. Everyone’s insufficiencies are eventually revealed, for he
commits transgressions everyday as he lives in this world. It is to call
such people and to deliver them from all their sins as well, that our
Lord came. Our Lord, in other words, came to deliver sinners from all
their sins and iniquities by giving the gospel of the water and the
Spirit to them. We need to realize here that our Lord was not interested
in the Pharisees and scribes who were devoted to their own faith made
of their own thoughts.
Therefore,
when we come before the presence of God, we must place our faith in the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and
the Spirit tells us that the Lord has delivered us from all our sins by
being baptized by John and crucified, and shedding His blood on the
Cross. And it tells us that the Lord will come to take away those of us
who believe in this gospel, and that He has prepared the Kingdom of
Heaven for us. For our Lord told us that He has blotted out all our sins
with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, He has set the law of
salvation for the entire mankind to be saved, so that no one may come
before God without faith in this gospel. We must first realize and
believe which gospel God has given us, what faith He wants from us, and
how much of our sins He has blotted out.
We Must Forsake Our Own Will and Instead Believe in the God’s Truth of Power
As
you gather together to worship God and hear His Word, do not be misled
to think that you can somehow please God if you swear yourselves on your
own will to serve Jesus well and to never commit sin again. For you to
try to please Jesus on your own is to be ignorant of yourselves and to
flaunt your own determination. If this is how your lives of faith have
been until now, then you had not known the faith that Jesus really wants
from all of you.
Our
Lord said, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” Having compassion for
us, He was baptized by John the Baptist to take upon all the sins that
we commit in our entire lifetime, and indeed bore all our sins. Just as
the Lord had healed the paralytic from his affliction with His Word of
power all at once, He has healed us from all our sins once for all with
the gospel power of the water and the Spirit.
Given
the fact that our God wants us to believe in the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit and be saved from our sins, it is not fitting to
the will of God for people to worship Jesus with the devotion of their
own determination that is based on their own thoughts. Can any paralytic
walk just because he has an extremely strong will to do so? My fellow
believers, although such determination and will are commendable, what we
must actually do is know ourselves before God, come humbly before His
presence, believe in His gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and
thereby draw His compassion. We must believe that God has blotted out
all our sins with the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and we
must become His children by this faith. If we do not believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of God, and instead come
before Him with the faith of our own will, saying, “Lord, this is what I
will do for you,” then we will end up just confused, believing in our
own thoughts, and becoming completely irrelevant to the Lord.
By
placing our faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, we
must have full confidence in our salvation. We must be filled with this
faith that believes in the gospel Word telling you that God has blotted
out all our sins. To be so, we should not be making doctrines for God
based on our own thoughts and minds, nor should we come before Jesus by
placing our faith in such man-made doctrines. If we are faithful to only
our own thoughts, our devotion will wither away in time, and in the
end, we will die not knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
My
fellow believers, it is only when you and I have strong faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can really have true
fellowship with Him. Today’s Scripture passage is telling us to believe
in the power of the Word of our Lord that healed the paralytic. Isn’t
this what God is saying to us? If your faith is not one that believes
wholly in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you will end up dying
in sin.
Many
people are prone to believe the Word of God through their own
understandings and perspectives, and this has been the origin of the
prevailing Christian doctrines and teachings. So when they read the Word
of God, they only draw moral lessons, saying, “Oh, so this is what I
should be striving to emulate.” They even have confidence in their
salvation upon such man-made doctrines and teachings. But they are
actually burying the Truth of the Bible under confusion with their own
carnal thoughts. Such faith is a fallacious product of their own
thinking.
In
contrast, the Bible never says that such man-made doctrines are where
our true salvation is based. We must now realize how Jesus has blotted
out all our sins, and we must recognize this power. Aren’t we the kind
of people who commit personal sins until the very day we die? Yes, we
are. However, our Lord is speaking to us of the salvation that has
washed away, with His gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, all the
sins that we commit until we die. This Word of the water and the Spirit
is the Word of God that brings the whole remission of sin to us.
This
is why, my dear fellow believers, we must place our faith in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit when we come before our Lord. We should not
come before His presence only with religious faith, nor be filled with
such religious teachings, but just as the Bible tells us to be filled
with the Spirit, we must saturate ourselves with the Word of the Holy
Spirit.
My
fellow believers, what is it that our minds should be captured by?
Should we be enthralled by our own religious devotion? Or should we be
captivated by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel with
which God has saved us all? Shouldn’t we be mesmerized by this Word of
salvation? God is telling us that He has blotted out all your sins. We
must be devoted to the good work of spreading the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and it is for this work that we must run. Which faith
should captivate us? Where our minds belong is critically important
here.
Do
you or do not you commit sin until the day you die? Of course you do.
Do you realize this clearly, beyond any doubt? If you know that you are
no more than piles of sin, then by faith, you can receive your salvation
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And if you know that
Jesus has saved you from all your sins with the water and the Spirit,
then you have now reached the way of perfect salvation, and you will
therefore enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Many
people do not know that they are bound to sin until the day they die.
In fact, it is because too many people do not realize this that so few
are seeking the Truth, or otherwise they would all have looked for the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. So put differently, this means that
those who do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit are of
those who do not realize, even until their life is extinguished, that
they are sinners who commit all kinds of iniquities.
Some
people climb up a mountain to pray, and in their prayers they promise,
“God, I will never sin again.” There are so many people who pray every
night, making a fresh determination not to commit any sin again. Take a
look at all the religions of this world. The founders and leaders of all
these religions only teach their follower to live virtuously. But how
can such piles of sin ever live virtuously? It is because they do not
realize that they are simply incapable of living in this way, and that
they are living in all these lies and hypocrisy. They do not know that
everyone is no more than an insufficient human being who sins all the
time. And because they do not know this truth, they are trying so hard
to live virtuously and yet are in fact living only hypocritically, and
defrauding their followers in the process.
But
everyone, my fellow believers, commits sin until the day he dies. The
fragility of human will is just like cycling up a hill. When you step on
the pedals, you climb up the hill, but the very moment you get
exhausted and stop pedaling, you end up sliding back and falling down.
Such is the will of man. No matter how one resolves himself to never sin
again, swears by it, bites his tongue, writes out his determination
with his own blood, gives his prayers of repentance, trusts in Jesus,
and vows his allegiance to Him, everything is futile in the end, for he
is bound to sin.
Didn’t
Peter and the other disciples resolve not to sleep when the Lord said
them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and
watch with Me”? (Matthew 26:38) But what happened? They all fell asleep.
One may determine himself to never sleep again, and put match sticks on
his eyelids to keep his eyes open, but he will still fall asleep even
as his eyes are open. Hence, the Lord, who knew the weakness of our
flesh so well, said to His disciples, “The spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
One
may resolve himself to never sin again with his tongue, and he may even
tie his tongue with a rubber band, but he is still bound to sin with
both his tongue and heart. Everyone sins with his heart, and the Bible
says that such sins we commit with our hearts are the same ones as we
commit with our flesh. We humans are to continue sinning until the very
day we die, until the very moment we take in our last breath. This is
the fundamental human nature. You should know yourselves.
You
may then wonder, “What should I then do?” The solution is simple: You
should seek mercy from God and believe in the gospel power of the water
and the Spirit. Put differently, you should confess to God as the
following: “God, I am a man who is bound to sin until the day I die.
Teach me how You have saved me from my sins with the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Help me to have faith in this Truth and to be born
again.” This is how you should ask for God’s help. This is what you must
all do.
There
is a saying, “A drowning man will catch at even a straw.” If you really
admit yourselves as such desperate beings, then you should surely grab
the gospel of the water and the Spirit with your whole hearts. You must
first admit your sinfulness, and then listen carefully to what God said
about our remission of sin. You, too, will then be told, “Son, be of
good cheer; your sins are forgiven you,” while you listen to the hidden
meanings of today’s Scripture passage, because how God healed the
paralytic actually speaks about your own remission of sin. By thus
believing in this way, you must be filled with the joy of salvation. You
must be full with the joy of faith.
We Must Know Full with the Power of the Gospel by Knowing and Believing in It
My
fellow Christians, paralytics are sound in their minds, but they cannot
move as their hearts desire. Just like this, those among us who have
sin in their hearts cannot overcome the power of sin, and as a result
they are incapable of not committing sin. We humans are imperfect
sinners who cannot do as our hearts desire. Our own hearts’ lust for sin
is something that is beyond our control. Anyone who has sin cannot live
virtuously no matter how much he wants to, and when his circumstances
or someone provokes him, he cannot help but sin. This is why the Bible
tells us that everyone is like the paralytic in today’s passage.
Therefore,
we must believe that God Himself took upon our sins of the world once
for all by being baptized by John, and has washed them all away. We must
be delivered from our sins by believing in the gospel Word of the water
and the Spirit with all our hearts. Our Lord shouldered the sins of the
world by being baptized, carried them to the Cross, and paid off all
their wages.
We
must be full with this faith. We must be full with our faith and belief
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must believe in what God
has done for us, in the Word of God telling us that God Himself was
baptized and shed His blood for us and has thereby blotted out all our
sins. Only then can our hearts have everlasting life by faith, and only
then can our souls be brought to life. We should not be filled with
religious doctrines or our own emotion.
What
God first demands from us is to be filled with faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. He wants our hearts to follow the gospel of
the water and the Spirit faithfully with our whole hearts. Even if you
are insufficient and weak in your acts, and even if you have nothing to
boast of, when you are filled with your faith in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, you can please God, and you can also bring true
salvation to others.
Do
you know what those who are filled with only their own religious
emotion say to the born-again believers? They say, “You are blasphemous!
Who do you think you are, you arrogant blasphemers? Do you have no sin?
Who are you to say so? Are you God, that you claim to have no sin?”
When
those who are filled with religious emotion look at those who are truly
born again of the water and the Spirit, they think there is something
wrong with the born-again, even though there is nothing biblically
unsound in the faith of the born-again. Their assessment could not be
further from the truth. On the contrary, it is these people, who make
judgments without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, who
are mistaken.
Such
people say to the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
“Who are you to speak of the remission of sin to us?” When a paralytic
was brought to Jesus, Jesus immediately said to him, “Son, your sins are
forgiven,” something that was utterly shocking. You may have no idea
just how often Jesus said words that infuriated those filled with
religion. For the religionists, what Jesus said was too radical. So
those full of their own religion thought, “Wow! You are crazy! Are you
God? Only God can forgive sin, and so who are you to forgive sin?”
In
complete contrast, my fellow believers, those who are filled with the
gospel of the water and the Spirit say to Jesus, “Lord, You are My
Savior, the Christ, and the Son of the living God. You are the Creator
who made the whole universe. You are God Himself. And you are the Savior
of mankind who came to save me from my sins. You came to this earth
incarnated in the flesh of man, accepted all the sins of us mankind by
being baptized, was crucified and shed Your blood, rose from the dead
again in three days, and has thereby saved me perfectly from all my
sins. You are the One who came to this earth, lived for 33 years, and
has saved me from the sins of the world. But you are fundamentally God
Himself.”
When
those who are full with the gospel of the water and the Spirit see this
Jesus, they see no flaw whatsoever, and they accept His love of
salvation into their hearts. But when those who are only filled
religious doctrines and teachings see Jesus, on the other hand, He
appears as the head of all heretics.
But
how were the paralytic and his four friends? Did they not come before
the presence of the Lord by placing their faith in Jesus as the Son of
God and the Savior? They indeed did so. They truthfully believed in
Jesus as God Himself. So, when Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven; rise
and walk,” the paralytic indeed rose up and walked. When so many
countless people were surrounding Jesus, it was only the paralytic and
his four friends who actually brought their real problem of sin to Jesus
and got it resolved by believing in Him with all their hearts.
My
fellow believers, those who are religiously filled do believe in Jesus
in their attempt to keep their morals and ethics, but they consider His
essence to be only human. To such people, Jesus is merely one of the
great sages in the world history. So they do not entrust Him with their
intractable problem of sin, nor can they get it resolved. This is
because they do not believe in Jesus as God.
But
those who are filled with the gospel of the water and the Spirit
believe, “Jesus is God Himself, and He is the Savior of mankind. So if I
come before Him, my soul’s problem of sin will be resolved. All the
sins that I have committed and will ever commit until the day I die will
be solved away, and I will be remitted from all of them. The curses of
my flesh will then also depart from me. My Lord will solve away all my
problems. He will bless me.” It was because the paralytic and his
friends had this faith that they brought him to Jesus.
My
fellow believers, as you have come into the Christian faith, do not
rely the fullness of your own religious emotion. This is only to believe
in a worldly religion, not to have true faith. To truly believe in the
Lord is first of all to get your problem of sin resolved. When you have
sin, you can be resolved from this problem of sin only when you lay down
this problem before Jesus, and when you have the other problems of the
flesh, you can also be resolved from these problems only when you lay
them down before Jesus. None other than this is the true faith that
believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. By placing your
faith in Jesus as your Savior, you can be resolved from all your
problems. For us to believe in Jesus, in other words, is to place our
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus is fundamentally
God Himself, and when we pray to this Lord, He will hear us and answer
us. Our faith lies in the Truth that the Lord, by being baptized in the
Jordan River and shedding His blood on the Cross, took care of all our
sins, all our shame, and all our curses.
My
dear fellow believers, as you carry on with your lives of faith, I
admonish each and every one of you to place your faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. I ask you all to have full faith in this
gospel. I hope that each of you would be filled with the Holy Spirit by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is my sincerest
desire for all of you that you would truly have strong faith in this
gospel. Though we cannot be perfect in our deeds, we can still be filled
with the Holy Spirit by faith. We can be filled with our faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that has saved us from all our sins.
It is written in the Hymnbook, “♪I cannot tell thee whence it came,
♪this peace is in my breast; But this I know, there fills my soul, ♪A
strange and tranquil rest.” We can be full with faith wherever we are,
even if we are in a washroom, for our Lord has blotted out all our sins
with His baptism and blood. We are truly grateful for this.
My
fellow believers, how the worldly people view you is not the problem
here, but what Jesus said to you is what is important. The Lord has told
you that He loves you, that He has blotted out all your sins, that you
are God’s children, that He will be with you until the end of the world,
and that He will bless you all. To keep these things that God has said
to you in your hearts and to believe in them is to the true fullness of
faith.
Are
you only leading religious lives, where you are compelled to go to
church just because another Sunday has come around, where you offer some
alms, sing a few hymns, pretend to be holy, go through all the
ritualistic formalities, greet the congregation, and then turn around
and come back home? To live this kind of religious life and to be
faithful to religious formalism are not the faith that Jesus wants from
you. You must be filled with your faith in the gospel Truth of the water
and the Spirit. Your lives of faith must be faithful to the Word of God
first of all.
My
dear fellow saints, we must become the ones who are filled with our
faith in the Word of God. You must be full with the Word of God. In the
hearts of those who are filled with the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit, there is the invincible conviction that the Lord has blotted
out all their sins and that He indeed loves them. No matter where they
are and what they are doing, those who are filled with faith in the Word
of God are trouble-free. But for those who are not filled with such
faith but only with religious doctrines, their faith is all futile, no
matter what they do.
Those
who believe in our Lord, cherish Him the most, and are pleased by Him
are the ones who come before the presence of God by believing in the
Word of the Lord with their hearts. It is such people of faith in whom
God is pleased. And it is to such people whom God gives the blessing of
salvation and all other blessings as well. To these people, God gives
faith upon their faith, and blessings upon their blessings. Do you not
also want to become like them? How, then, should we live our lives of
faith? We must be filled with the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit while living our lives of faith.
This
is the message of today’s Scripture passage. Even if we didn’t discuss
the passage verse by verse, we know and believe that it was because the
paralytic was full with faith that he got the problem of all his sins
resolved.
What
about you? Are you not also like this paralytic? Do you not have the
problem of sin? Have you been remitted from all your sins in your
hearts? Do you believe that the Lord has blotted out all your sins with
the gospel of the water and the Spirit? To believe in this, my fellow
believers, is the true faith, and none other than this is your
salvation. Are you filled with the Word of the Lord, who loves you? This
is the very fullness of the Holy Spirit. We must always keep it in our
hearts and believe in it as we carry on with our lives.
While
I cannot do much on my own, I still believe in the Word of the Lord
with all my heart. So it is my hope and prayer that you would also
believe with all your hearts, to be filled with faith, to be blessed for
your faith, to cast aside the fullness of religious formalism, and to
instead have the fullness of faith in the Word of God.
Jesus
blotted out not only the paralytic’s sins, but He also healed him from
the infliction of his flesh. What does this tell us? It tells us that
those who have received the remission of sin in spirit are also blessed
in body by our Lord.
All
parents love their children. Who would hate his own children and curse
them? Jesus, who has saved us and made us His own children, loves us
beyond description. If we really believe in our God, let us then all
believe that our God loves us and blesses in His time, for He has saved
us from our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Now is the
time for you to have this faith in the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit, and to solve away the problem of all your sins.
It
is my hope and prayer that you would all live the rest of your lives by
faith, by having full faith in the gospel of salvation, and to escape
from the religions of this world.
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