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Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 6-3] Live with Your Hearts on the Lord (Matthew 6:21-23)
(Matthew 6:21-23)
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
Today’s scripture lesson says, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.” Our hearts are fickle as the rainy summer weather. The mind of a man is, also, like that. However, the Lord said, “The lamp of the body is the eye.” What the Lord means by this is that the whole body will be full of light if our eye is good, and that we must consider how we should put focus in our mind that comes and goes.
Since the eye is the lamp of the body, when the eye is good, the whole body is full of light, but when the eye is bad, the whole body is full of darkness. When our heart is gloomy, everything we see is dark. But, if we meditate the gospel of the water and the Spirit once again, our heart lightens up. When the Lord talks about the eye of a person, He makes mention of our heart of faith.
Our hearts are not steadfast. The heart of you and me comes and goes. Our hearts are subject to being swayed at times. When we do meditate on the gospel of the water and Spirit, our heart loves the Lord, but soon after, we are prone to love the world due to our carnal thoughts. We are talking about what our hearts should be considering.
The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore, we must think about the Lord and pour our hearts into spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When we think about how perfectly our Lord has cleansed our sins, we realize how our hearts have been cleansed. Just as our Lord said in the Old Testament, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18), the Lord has wiped out our sins perfectly by taking on the sins of the world through His baptism from John the Baptist and being crucified, in the New Testament.
We must concentrate on the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Although our heart goes back and forth occasionally between the Lord and the world, we must focus our mind into the spread of the gospel of the water and Spirit. We thank the Lord for wiping out the sins of your and me. We must keep in our heart that the Lord has blotted out all our sins, which had covered our heart like a thick cloud (Isaiah 44:22). Our hearts are lit up when we think about the Lord, who wiped out our sins as such.
“The eye is the lamp of the body.” Since there is no other way without the Lord that our hearts and souls can be lit up, our hearts become hearts that are spiritually full of light before God when we think about the Lord. Our hearts go back and forth between spiritual and carnal, but when we put our heart on the Lord, who wiped out our sins, and think about the gospel that tells us the Lord took on the burden of everyone’s sins and blotted them out all at once, we cannot but give thanks to God, and love the Lord even more.
Therefore, we desire even more to spread this gospel of the water and the Spirit to others. When we pour our hearts on the Lord, and His righteous deeds that the Lord wiped out our sins, our hearts lighten up, and, as a result, many souls receive salvation. When we think about the Lord and thank Him with faith, our hearts become saturated with the Holy Spirit. This is that they become moist with an abundant blessing of salvation spiritually in the light. Then, our hearts become righteous, good, and beautiful in God’s eyes, and they come to have big ambitions to do the righteous works.
We can leave our hearts in the dark or in the light. Where should we leave our hearts? Surely, there is no mistake that we need to put our heart in the area where the Lord has wiped out our sins. In addition, since our Lord not only wiped out our sins, but also made us children of God, we must concentrate our hearts on His heavenly Kingdom.
We must thank God with our faith for his blessings that saved us, who could not but die from our sins and become children of the devil, by sending Jesus Christ, and having Him baptized, taking the sin of the world to the Cross, and bled to death wiping out all our sins once and for all. It is very important on where we set our hearts on. It is whether our hearts cling to the blessings of salvation that God gave us or to unrighteous carnal thoughts that come from the world and flesh. Depending on where we set our hearts, the results differ greatly. We can decide this way or that way, and even though we have swaying hearts, I want to tell you that we must put our hearts on the salvation that God gave us. We must devote our hearts to the fact that God gave us the Kingdom of Heaven and the blessings of God.
When we devote our hearts to the area where God has blotted out all our sins, like a thick cloud, and make it as white as snow, and pray to God, God listens and answers our prayers. We must devote our hearts to God and to spiritual work with the belief that God is pleased in our work of spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Then, we can experience how our hearts lighten up and how much the work of God progresses. We can become the men of His blessing by being used for the joyful and blessed work of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, when we devote our hearts to the spread of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our hearts are glad. When we live in this world, we sometimes become discouraged and sometimes fall into our carnal lusts. There is no righteous person, who does never fall. However, even though we are such beings, what is important is on where we set our hearts’ concern on. Where does each one of us focus our hearts on? If, by any chance, you have it in the dark, I hope you bring it out to the light.
We try to spread the gospel to the rest of the world. How should we? I feel anxious just like the Israelites felt when they were facing the impregnable wall of Jericho when they first entered the land of Canaan. The first obstacle to the Israelites was the wall of Jericho. The wall of Jericho was very solid and secure. It could not be overthrown with spears and swords. Since it was built with very large rocks, it could not be easily collapsed. People of Jericho were up on the top of the fortress, so regardless of all the efforts of the Israelites to collapse the wall, they could just watch and ridicule the Israelites from the top. As they put wheels on big tree trunks, the soldiers tried to push and break and crush the city gate, but it was not possible since the fortress was too secure. However, the city was crushed down when the Israelites had faith in God and obeyed His Word of promise thoroughly.
We are in need of the same faith. In our time period, if we do not put our hearts on God, we cannot carry out our mission of spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. However, if we put our hearts on God, I know it is possible to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the rest of the world. If we do not have the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we cannot spread the gospel, and, as a result, this world will head for destruction.
When we tried to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the rest of the world so far, there were many difficulties. We decided to publish our mission books that are about the gospel of the water and the Spirit in many different languages and send them to everyone in the world. Therefore, the books of the gospel have been translated into many different languages of the world. By publishing and distributing them, we have been able to spread the true gospel to the entire world.
Now, when we think about spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the rest of the world, and devote our hearts to it, our hearts will be lightened. You and I are still in the flesh, so if we devote our hearts to the Lord, our hearts are glad and they become suitable to work for the gospel before God. On the other hand, if we do not devote our hearts to spreading the gospel, but to the worldly things, our hearts become immeasurably filthy. Although our hearts go back and forth between that of flesh and spirit, it is important to fix our hearts on the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As it is written, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be,” depending on where we put our hearts, we can become people of light before God or we can become useless people. When we devote our hearts to God, we can be useful people to God and other people. And we can be the blessed ones like Abraham and God’s workers who can share with everyone the gospel that gives life.
Let us put our hearts on God. Although we live in this world, we must fix our hearts on God. Although our hearts go back and forth, I hope that you put your hearts on the gospel of the water and the Spirit and the blessings that the Lord bestowed on you rather than on the world. How many blessings of the flesh and the spirit has God given us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Also, through this gospel, how much has He given us the blessings of salvation? When we think about that, we cannot help devoting our hearts to God. It is worth devoting our hearts to God. It is also worth devoting our hearts to the gospel. It is worth devoting our hearts to the great salvation that wiped out all our sins. It is proper to thank the Lord and glorify the Lord, and it is worth working for the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We also thank God for making us His children. The Lord gave us Heaven and it is justifiable that we devote our hearts to the Lord.
I hope you fix your hearts onto the Lord. Your hearts and my heart can sometimes be capricious and go back and forth, but we should always turn our hearts to God and live for the work of the Lord. As we walk on the street, if we see something nice, our eyes and hearts follow it for a while, but we must take our heart back immediately and give it to the Lord.
In Matthew Chapter 6, the Lord specifically talks about materials: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What is the treasure in our hearts? What is the treasure to you and me? Is it the Lord? Is it the blessings from the Lord? Or is it this world? Is it the money in this world? Which is it?
The treasure is the Lord. If you believe the treasure is any kind of material, please turn your mind around. In reality, materials are not as valuable as the Lord. This is because the master of all materials is the Lord. However, can we live without the materials? We cannot. On the other hand, are materials not from the Lord as well? It is from the Lord. He says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Therefore, if you put your hearts on God, everything comes to you. Everything will be provided to you in the way of righteousness.
However, some false preachers will teach this verse as “if you just give big offerings, it means you have big faith.” “Do not lay up for your treasures on earth, but in heaven, in other words, give big tithe and offerings to the church.” And they put “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” in the offering envelop and shove it in.
This is a false teaching. The purpose of worldly churches is to prosper in this world, therefore, all they care about is raking in money. It is fortunate if they use it for righteousness, but they use it to fill their desire of greed. They are so good at raking in money, they quote this kind of the Bible verses to ask the Christians for money, and make them bring all the installment savings in their names to the church.
Some preachers push for building new churches by taking money from the church members. Is this righteous? “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Since all they are concerning about is the church building, that is their treasure. The church members brag about their $15,000,000 church building as if attending such a church is something very honorable and proud. If we x-ray their thoughts, it is probably empty. Their hearts are, of course, empty, too. Since what they put their hearts on is the $15,000,000 church building, they cannot see that Jesus has blotted out all their sins, like a thick cloud with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. There are many pitiful people who cannot see that God has made them His children and given us the Kingdom of Heaven.
On the contrary, to us, who are born again, our Lord is the treasure. All the blessings of mercy our Lord has bestowed on us—such as His salvation, making us God’s children, giving us the kingdom of Heaven, wiping out our sins, and making us the righteous—are our treasures. There is nothing more valuable than these. As a hymn sings, “♫I’d rather have Jesus ♪ than silver or gold,” there is no honor in this world that is more valuable than having the Lord Jesus. There is nothing more valuable than the salvation that the Lord gave us.
Therefore, you and I must spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the hearts of people. We must take hold of our hearts that go back and forth and give it to the work of the Lord. If we give the Lord our hearts, we will not be doing useless work, but be able to go to Lord’s Kingdom. We sometimes do useless things, but if we do more of the useful work then we will be praised by God, and respected by people.
Matthew chapter 6 talks about this subject very deeply. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” You and I must put our hearts on Him and on His work. We must seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. How did God save us? He wiped out our sins white as snow by the water, the blood and the Holy Spirit. He has blotted out all our sins, like a thick cloud, as white as snow. We must thank God and thank the Lord who is our perfect Savior. And we must seek first His Kingdom in our hearts.
It is the will of God that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is spread out to the entire world, so that those who are to believe in it, believe in it, and those who do not, do not. We must give equal opportunity of hearing the gospel to everyone to fulfill the will of God. We must do such work.
By the way, the true treasure to you and me is the Lord. Put your heart on the Lord. Although we are people who have many shortcomings, let us fix our hearts on the Lord. Let us set our hearts on the Lord and spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit as often as possible.
Halleluiah. We thank God for helping us put our hearts on the Lord.
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