Due to COVID-19 and disruption to international mail service
we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
In the light of this situation we are not able to mail you the books at this time.
Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 8-5] Jesus Christ Is the Only Savior of Humankind (John 8:21-28)
(John 8:21-28)
“Then Jesus said to them again, ‘I am going away, and you will seek me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.’ So the Jews said, ‘Will He kill Himself, because He says, ‘Where I go you cannot come’?’ And He said to them, ‘You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.’ Then they said to Him, ‘Who are you?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.’ They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said to them, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.’”
Today I would like to share the Word of God with you from the Gospel of John chapter 8 verses 21 through 28. The Lord said to the Pharisees, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.” The Lord said that even if He bore witness of Himself, His witness was true and that even though He knew where He had come from and where He was going, but they had no clue where they would be going. The Lord said that even though they judged according to the flesh, He did not do so.
People who were alive when Jesus was on this earth were not able to know nor were able to believe in the fact that Jesus was the Son of God who had come to save humankind from all the sins of the world. That is why the Lord said, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.” This means, “You will die trying to find me.” The Lord was saying that He was doomed to die vicariously at the Cross because He had received the baptism from John the Baptist that allowed Him to take on the sins of the world, and that He would be going before God the Father who is in Heaven by being resurrecting from the dead.
The Lord was talking directly to the Pharisees and to no one else. While the Lord was here on this earth, the Pharisees were the ones who had refused to believe, despite having seen the Savior Jesus who had come down to this earth in human flesh, with their own eyes and having heard His Word with there own ears. And because they were unable to fully understand the fact that Jesus was the Savior, they could not follow the Lord where He was going. They should have recognized who the Lord really was, and as a result of this ignorance they had instead slandered and risen up against Jesus. That is why Jesus said that they would die in their sins and suffer the punishment for sins for not been able to recognize the Lord despite meeting with Him. These people should have without fail recognized and believed the fact that Jesus was the Savior, but they never did. I am saddened in my heart by the fact that many of those who believe in Jesus, even in this day and age, do not know the importance of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, because it is the genuine Truth of salvation, but that they willfully oppose it with absolute disdain.
The Pharisees who were standing before Jesus in John chapter 8 did not believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and did not accept Him into their hearts. And as a result of this disobedience their souls will die in sin. The ultimate conclusion of the matter is that they could not go to Heaven, the place where the Lord resides. These Words apply not only to the Pharisees, but also to everyone who lives and breathes in this day and age: In order to receive eternal salvation, we must believe in the fact that Jesus became the Savior who come to this earth by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Lord is trying to make us realize this genuine Truth. We must know without a doubt that Jesus is the only Savior, and that He came to this earth by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only by knowing this gospel and accept it into our hearts, will we be saved from our sins. If we don’t do this, we will not be able to go where the Lord is going, and in the end we will die in our sins, amidst the eternal curse. The Lord said that if people do not truly recognize Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit and died, they would suffer destruction for all eternity because of their sins.
These words seem very ordinary, but they are in fact extremely important. If we were people who had no knowledge of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then these words should become very important Words of warning to us. These Words have the meaning; should churchgoers have a chance to hear sermons of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but do not believe in the content of these sermons then they would in the end die in their sins. We must never become like these wicked and stubborn people, but should we become like that, it will be looked upon as something very tragic, and as a result will have to go to hell in accordance with those Words. We must therefore clear our thoughts and listen to the Word of God.
Jesus Christ Is the Only True Savior in This World
There are many people in this world who are looked upon as great, but Jesus Christ is the only Savior of humankind, who brings you and me true happiness and has saved us from sins and destruction. If people do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and including the God given gospel of the water and the Spirit, then because of their sin, their hearts will die in their sins, suffer destruction, receive the judgment and receive the eternal curse of hell. If you still do not know about the fact that Jesus came to this earth and saved you and me from all sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you should right now deny your thoughts and open up your hearts to believe in it before it’s too late. And if you believed in worldly religions, and if you looked upon these leaders as if they were a type of savior besides Jesus Christ, then you should turn around and come to know and believe in Jesus Christ, who had come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the true Savior. Among many Christians and non-Christians, there are those who do not recognize the only Savior, but these people must be aware of the fact that Jesus Christ is the only Savior on this earth.
The Scripture passage in John chapter 8 verses 21 through 28 means, “You must believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior with all of your heart. And you must meet Him by having faith in Jesus Christ who had come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. To do so you must know that you who have been born as a descendant of Adam, and because of this you have to die because of sins as well as someone who belongs to this earth, and then you must accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal Savior.” When Jesus said, “Where I go you cannot come,” people thought, “Is that Man trying to commit suicide?” In other words, people were unable to understand the Word spoken by Jesus. Jesus said, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:23-24), but sadly they could not spiritually understand the Word Jesus was speaking about, because they did not have the Holy Spirit in their heart.
We human beings were born with sins from our birth, and as a result of this, we are those who will die in our sins and also those who will suffer destruction. When Jesus Christ came to this earth as the Savior of humankind, people should have recognized and believed in Him as the Savior who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But many people did not believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior who had come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but instead rose up against Him spiritually. This means that they were trying to understand Jesus Christ from a fleshly perspective that is, trying to understand Him with human logic. If people had spiritual eyes and spiritual knowledge, they could have quickly recognize that Jesus Christ is the true Savior, but because they were trying to believe by fitting pieces into their own fleshly logic, and denying the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, they will suffer destruction.
The Lord says, “Where I go you cannot come.” People who heard these words received the Word spoken by Jesus through fleshly thinking, and because of this they had wrongful thinking, “I think that Man is trying to commit suicide.” But the Lord was speaking in a spiritual sense. The Lord was not speaking about this fleshly world, but rather He was speaking about Heaven and the people of God who will enter the Kingdom of Jesus. But people are always prone to think about what is spiritual through their misunderstanding.
The Lord said repeatedly, “You will die in your sins.” What Jesus is saying here is that if a person were to die in sin, that person would suffer total destruction. But the fact of the matter is that people are unable to perceive it neither do they think seriously about the things Jesus has said, saying arrogantly, “What is wrong with having sins? Everyone else has sins. Many people will go to hell after death, but only a small number of people will go to Heaven. So, I don’t really care whether I am going to hell or not." What Jesus means when He says “You will die in your sins” is that you will receive the eternal judgment for your sins. It is correct that sinners will all suffer destruction together, but it is also correct that each individual person will receive the judgment for their respective sins and suffer eternal destruction as the due punishment for those sins.
Many people say things like this: “If I must go to hell because I do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then so be it! Many people will be going there, so what’s the problem I’ll just start up a business there.” People these days have a tendency to think that it would be no problem going to hell, because many other people will be going with them. But they must understand, hell is an extremely agonizing place and is a place where one suffers pain of sin eternally, not just ending with death. The Bible tells us that those who go to hell are the ones who partake in the second resurrection (Revelation 20:13-15). In other words, it means that sinners will be cast into the lake of eternal fire, therefore they must seriously think about that reality, and realize how gruesome it would be to be living through those sufferings of absoluut agony which is much more horrifying than anything they had ever experienced whilst they were living on this earth. This is what is meant by a person having to die for their sins. But the problem today is that people do not think of this as something serious.
People Are Born Once and Then They Die Once; but after They Die, There Will Be the Strict Judgment
Jehovah’s Witnesses preach the following, “When people die, they are buried in a grave. The word ‘grave’ is ‘gehenna’ in Hellenic or Griek, which means a place of waste. Therefore a grave is where wastes are burned. Everything comes to an end when people go into their graves.” They are always deceiving people. A person is born once and then dies once, but if that were the end, then why would there be a need for the receiving of the cleansing of sins by wholeheartedly believing in Jesus Christ who is the Savior and the Judge, and why would there a need to be fearful because of one’s own sins? If people would seek after the Truth of salvation, in order to receive the cleansing of their sins, and if the words of the Jehovah’s Witnesses were in fact true, what need would there be to do so? If their words were true, what need would there be for us to seek the Savior?
People like this are unable to believe in Holy God and in Jesus Christ, who came to this earth by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because they only trust in their fleshly thoughts, they do not fear dying in their sins. Even if they profess to believe in Jesus, they are unable to pay attention to the Word of God because they have fleshly thoughts, and not spiritual thoughts.
God says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). People must incline their ears and minds to the Word of God and by doing this the gospel of the water and the Spirit will reveal God’s mercy to them. We must think in accordance with the Word of God. The Word of God tells us that “the wages of sin is death,” then in accordance with this Word, the fact of the matter is that everlasting curses falls upon those who have sins. If we were to think in line with the Word of God, if people die without having received the remission of sins, they will surely receive the judgment and fall into an everlasting pit of fire, but people generally tend to think that if the flesh dies, everything will just come to an abrupt end.
Therefore everyone should examine themselves thoroughly through the Word of God. And then they should judge themselves as sinners before the Word and God, knowing that they themselves are the ones who would be going to hell, having received everlasting destruction due to their sins. Then they should look toward Jesus Christ who had come as the Savior of all humankind with a faithful heart, and become those who are without sin by believing in the God given gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Everyone must know Jesus Christ, who has saved humankind from their sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Even though Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He is the Creator of all humankind and He is God. People are prone to blindly believe in Jesus, but they must know this truth before believing in Him. Also humankind must know just how many sins they have, and they should realize that they will be receiving the judgment for those sins; they are those who will receive this grave punishment. Because of this they must quickly confess to the Lord, “Oh Lord! I am a sinner who cannot but go to hell. Please save me from sin and punishment,” and then believe in the Savior who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit with all of their hearts.
To receive the remission of sins and attain salvation from sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, are these things such great importance? Even though Jesus continued to speak the Truth of salvation, those evil Pharisees did not lend their ears to His words or to give any thought to them, but they instead refused to accept His Words, thinking about them from a fleshly perspective and being cynical. “Who does He think He is, He is of the same age as us, but He has the audacity to tell us this and that? He isn’t even God, yet He judges us to be sinners. How absurd is this?” People viewed Jesus very unfavorably who had not even reached the age of fifty.
Jesus is the only Savior who had delivered all humankind from their sins, including you and me. You can also receive the remission for all your sins and become children of God only when you know and believe in the fact that Jesus Christ has delivered you and me from destruction and curses, by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our greatest goal here on earth is for everyone to meet this Truth. We were born into this world to meet Jesus Christ, and we must live out our life by meeting Jesus Christ through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, receiving salvation from sins, becoming God’s children, gaining eternal life and receiving everlasting blessings. This is life’s greatest goal for you and me. Therefore, you must understand this goal well and make every effort to meet Jesus Christ. You must learn the Word He spoke about through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and know the Truth of salvation.
But if you do not try to learn who Jesus Christ is and the fact that He is God, then your life will be a faulty one. If you do not even try to know why you were born into this world, where you came from, where you are going, and furthermore who Jesus Christ was, and should you walk away from Jesus who has come before you by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you are an extremely foolish person. People like this should repent, turn around and meet Jesus Christ by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But those who have not or refuse to meet with Jesus will be a 100% failure.
But if we do learn, gain knowledge and believe in Jesus through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then our lives will have succeeded 100% in achieving the reason for being born on this earth. Someone who refuses to believe despite knowing Jesus Christ is a failure, and sadly there are those who still do not know Jesus Christ. These people must come to the realization that Jesus Christ who had come to this earth by the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the Master of the Truth. They must wholeheartedly know and believe in Jesus Christ through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only when they do so, their lives will become a successful one. The Lord Jesus says, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
In Jesus’ eyes there were so many things wrong with peoples of religion. Even though they were so hypocritical and had so many things wrong with them, our Lord still spoke to them. “You will know who I am only after I have died at the Cross through crucifixion, and my resurrected and my ascension up to Heaven.” Like this Word we must know that Jesus Christ has saved us from all our sins by coming down to this earth 2,000 years ago, receiving the baptism from John the Baptist at the age of 30 for us, and dying vicariously at the age of thirty three by getting nailed to that cruel Cross.
People have a vague idea that Jesus Christ is the Savior of humankind. But they are unable to believe in Him because they do not know how He actually saved humankind from their sins once and for all. They put in heaps of efforts to learn and know only about God’s Law, the judgment for sins, and God’s salvation through the Word of God, not having any knowledge about the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is therefore of paramount importance that more people should know and believe in Jesus Christ who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In this day and age many people know that Jesus Christ is the Savior. But only when people truly throw away their fleshly thoughts or deny them, think about what God has said, seek answers from within the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and believe in accordance with the Word, then they will truly receive salvation.
Today’s Scripture passage from the Gospel of John tells us to believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior. It tells us to believe in Jesus Christ, who had come to this earth by the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the Savior. It tells us that if we do not believe in Jesus Christ, we will surely die in our sins and go to hell. And it tells us to receive salvation by believing in Jesus as the Savior.
Dear fellow believers, do you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior? Do you believe that no one else but Jesus Christ is the only Savior who has truly saved you from all your sins and destruction? Do you perhaps believe that someone can receive salvation by believing in something else? Is your thinking that one can also receive salvation by believing in Buddhism? Are you thinking that you will gain salvation from sins just by suffering through martyrdom even though you have sins intact in your heart? Are you thinking that one can receive cleansing of sins by doing good deeds to others? The only ‘One’ who can save you and me from sin is Jesus Christ, and no one else but Him.
Some Christians go to a fortuneteller and ask for their fortunes. When I went to Mongolia to spread the gospel, I stayed over at a certain female professor’s house. And there I saw a portrait of Jesus facing a portrait of Buddha. Japanese people tend to believe in a multiple number of gods. Numerous Japanese believe that Jesus is God, but they also believe that other things are gods also. They even worship their ancestors as gods. Because of this they are not able to recognize the only Savior properly. Thus in the entire world, Japan is one of the countries where Christianity is spread the least. The problem is that they are not able to recognize Jesus Christ, the only Savior. They do not believe in the fact that ‘One’ who could save us from our sins is the Lord Jesus Christ. Most Japanese have a pluralistic perspective on religions that they can go to Heaven by having faith in any kind of religion in this world. For this reason even if they believe in Jesus, they believe in Him in vain.
Numerous people including Buddhists consider themselves as gods. They are completely twisted. Also pantheists apotheosize and worship things that are not gods. They worship boulders and rocks in mountains as their gods. And some of them regard large old trees in the middle of their neighborhood as having some sort of a miraculous power, and they worship it as a god. Some primitive tribes carve and erect stones into male genitals, and by deifying them, they make their wishes upon those things. Their faith is such that believing in these things will allow them to have many babies and give them material prosperity. In areas around seashores, people carve out things like that and ask for blessings because there have been many instances where men went out to sea and died or never returned. But things like these are nothing really; they are nothing more than idols created by human beings.
Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He” (John 8:28). This means that they would know that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior who had come to save humankind, only after His body had been crucified and died. Jesus came to save you and me by taking all our sins though His baptism onto His body.
Yet, people still stubbornly believe in just anything as a god? Many Chinese worship General Guan Yu, a character that appeared in the Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a god by making idol statues of him. But we must know the only Savior is Jesus and no one else. The word ‘Jesus’ means the Savior and the word ‘Christ’ means the King who has been anointed with oil. Only Jesus Christ has saved you and me from all our sins.
Dear fellow believers, let us think for a moment. Long ago we tried believing in various kinds of religions. Who was there who knew correctly that the Savior of humankind is Jesus? Only when we believed in Jesus and learned the Word of God, we came to know that there is no one who is the Savior of humankind except the One, Jesus Christ. In all other religions of this world, there has never been a person who had come back to life after having died. There is no one. In Buddhism it is claimed that in a billion eons Buddha will return, but that is a complete fraud. Who has the audacity to say thing like this? A certain leader of a well-known sect died, and just prior to his death, he told his followers that he would be resurrect in three days. But he is still in the grave, never ever came back to life. Notwithstanding this false teaching his followers await their leader’s resurrection, even as I speak by leaving an outdoor lamp at his grave.
There is no one else, except Jesus Christ who has become the Savior by dying and then coming back to life. It isn’t Buddha, and it isn’t Confucius. Even Socrates was not able to come back to life. Only Jesus, who is God came as our Savior, took our sins through His baptism away, died on the Cross, was resurrected from the dead and saved us perfectly from all our sins. The truth of the matter is that only Jesus has been resurrected from the dead, and that only Jesus has taken on all of our sins. Only Jesus is the true Savior.
All human beings must know this and before their life ends, they must believe in it with all of their hearts. They must not put it off until tomorrow, but rather they must believe in it right now. If they don’t know what sort of a being Jesus is, then they must learn. People must know the One and only Jesus Christ. If people come to know Jesus Christ, they get to know all the Truth and attain the true Way. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). If people know Jesus, they will receive life, and if people know Jesus, they will receive the remission of sins, know the way to Heaven and gain a new life. If people know Jesus, they will know the real Truth.
Still sadly there are many people who do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. People like this will continue to live for the moment and then die in their sins. Even if people believe in Jesus, they must believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit in order for them not to die in their sins. It is because Jesus spoke about everything inside the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit and realized them.
Therefore, everyone must know and believe in Jesus Christ who had come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If we know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we will receive the remission of sins and everlasting life, and we will go to the place where Jesus had previously ascended. But should people not know or refuse to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit they will not be unable to believe in it and as a result will die in their sins. You should realize how dreadful the phrase, “You will die in your sins” really is. It really means that you will fall into everlasting hell.
I hope that there will not be even a single person like them among us, and I hope for all the people throughout the world that they would also receive everlasting life by knowing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and thus receive the remission of their sins.
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission