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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 18 : GENESIS
[Chapter 3-7] What Are We Deceived by? (Genesis 3:1-7)
(Genesis 3:1-7)
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’’ Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”
The sister who gave her testimony at this evening’s gathering said, “No one can take away the peace God has given me through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, nor can I ever lose this peace given by the Lord, no matter what hardship should befall me.” We go through many trials while living in this world. I too have gone through many tribulations in my life. Obviously, many of these tribulations were physical, but they were nothing compared to the spiritual agony I suffered because of my heart’s sins.
However, the Lord met me and delivered me from all my sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and now, He has enabled me to live for God’s righteous work of spreading the gospel, and abide in the peace given by the Lord as well. So I am very thankful to the Lord beyond words. Had the Lord not given me the remission of sins through the gospel of the water and Spirit, I could then not even have lived to this day. What spiritual strength do I have on my own that I would have overcome and endured the suffering of my heart? I would probably have given up my life halfway. How could I have lived without the peace given by the Lord? Even today, I cannot live but by the peace the Lord gives me every day.
When we turn to Genesis 3:1, we read, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’”” God has saved us, and He is warning us not to be deceived by Satan again. All of us can receive every God-given blessing, if only we would not be deceived by Satan. But if we are deceived by the Devil, then no matter how much God might pour all the blessings out of Heaven like rain, none of them can be made ours.
Who Is Blocking the Gospel Truth of the Water and the Spirit?
While Genesis chapter three speaks of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has saved us wholly, at the same time, it also speaks of Satan’s work that blocks the true gospel. Just as the Bible says that “the serpent was more cunning than any beasts” (Genesis 3:1), the Devil is indeed an evil spirit who is always very cunning. Cunning means sly and crafty. Satan deceives mankind in a cunningly way. Just look at how the Devil deceived Eve. He deceived Eve by cunningly distorting God’s Word and making her believe his lie as if it were the truth.
The Bible is the Truth, both spiritually and physically. In other words, God’s Word is equally applicable to both body and spirit. Among the creatures made by God, the serpent must have been quite clever. The serpent here refers to the Devil, and he deceived people with his evil ways. As he asked Eve, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” Eve was fooled by Satan’s trick. Eve’s heart was already shaken by Satan’s use of the word “indeed.” As Satan tested Eve’s faith with this word, her faith in God began to be clouded with doubts. Before Adam and Eve heard Satan’s words, they had not heard of anyone else’s words but the Word of God until then. They had never listened to anyone else, but now that Satan came to them and tested them saying, “Did God indeed say so?” their faith was shaken.
When one does not have clear conviction, his beliefs are prone to be shaken according to his circumstances. For instance, let’s say here that someone witnessed a hit-and-run in the dusk of dawn. It happened so fast that he could not see the exact car model or the plate number, and so he only reported its color, saying that it was white. However, another witness gave a conflicting statement saying that the color was yellow. So when the traffic officer called the man again separately and pressed on him hard saying, “Are you sure it was white? Another witness swore that it was yellow. Are you sure of what you have seen?” he said timidly, “Yes.” But when he was asked again, “Are you absolutely sure about this?” his face turned slightly red and he began to change his words saying, “I think so. But now that I think about it, perhaps the car was somewhat yellowish.” And the more he traced back his memory, the more he felt that the car was yellow. In the end he said, “Oh, I do think it was yellow.”
The Devil always attacks mankind by taking advantage of its weaknesses. When Eve was tempted by Satan and her faith started to crumble away, if she really wanted to defend her faith, she should have stood against Satan by believing in God’s Word and using her faith in this Word. Had Eve done so, her faith would not have crumbled at the serpent’s wily trick.
The same story applies to our faith. If we try to establish our own faith without believing in God’s Word, then we are inevitably bound to be shaken and stumble over a small temptation like Eve. In contrast, if we stand firm on our faith in the Word of God, then we can easily defeat Satan’s lies with the Word and overcome him, even though we ourselves are weak. Even if our faith is not great, if we believe in God’s Word and hold onto it, then our faith will not be shaken and we can overcome Satan. If we accept the Word of God into our hearts and believe according to this Word, we can triumph at all times. Our faith will never fall down then.
God has given the gift of His righteousness to those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because God chose humankind as the object of His love, He gave us humans the gift of true salvation. When God made a woman out of one of Adam’s ribs and brought her to him, Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). Likewise, since God made mankind as the object of His love, He enables us to overcome Satan. That is why God has perfected us by bestowing the object of His love with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, His best gift.
When we turn to Genesis 2:3 we read, “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” It said here that God rested on the seventh day after making the universe and everything in it, including mankind. It also tells us that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. In the Bible, the number seven is the number that manifests either God Himself or what is perfect. Therefore, because God blessed the seventh day it means that all His works were completely finished.
God made mankind as the object of His love. God has therefore allowed everything that is good to mankind. God did not make us be born in this world to live and die without any purpose. It is to bless us that God made us be born in this world. And God has made us righteous through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, so that we may live with Him in Heaven forever. Do you believe in this, my fellow believers?
Moreover, God said that a soul is more precious than the whole world. Therefore, if anyone regards himself worthless and abuses himself saying, “My existence does not really matter; I am so worthless,” then he is someone who is completely ignorant of God’s plans and purpose for him.
God did not make us as worthless human beings. On the contrary, God made us more precious than all the stars in the universe and any treasures that can be found on this planet. So, if God made us that dearly as the objects of His love, wouldn’t He then give us the most precious treasure? God has given His heavenly blessings and bestowed His love to each one of us in order to make us His children. He has given us the most precious treasure in this world.
When people believe in Jesus for the first time, all they desire to do is to believe according to God’s Word. So at first, they sincerely believe how God loves them, what blessings He has given them, and what grace He has bestowed on them. However, if they continue to lead their lives of faith without being born again, then whatever little faith they might have had will be demolished by Satan.
This happened to me as well. When I first started to attend church, no one taught me about the Word of God, but when I read the Bible by myself, I was still able to believe in each and every verse of the Bible and my heart was filled with thankfulness. I thought, “Ah, Jesus died for me on the Cross!” As I came to believe that Jesus was crucified to death for a sinner like me, I was so thankful to the Lord. I said to myself, “I am so thankful that Jesus died for me on the Cross. Why did He die for me? Because He really loved me. Because Jesus said, ‘It is finished! When He was on the Cross,’ I am now sinless.” Like this, I believed in all this. There were times when I shed so many tears of gratitude that my eyelids were all swollen. When I first came across the Word of God, it was so easy to believe that I had no problem whatsoever believing in everything with my heart, even though I did not understand each and every verse of the Word. At that time, I had fallen ill and was bed-ridden, and so all that I read was the Bible; yet tears of joy kept flowing and the Bible was as sweet as honey to me at first.
However, with passing time, this emotional passion that had filled me so much began to gradually disappear. By the time three years had passed since my first attending church, my tears had dried up and I had become even more sinful. I couldn’t understand this at that time. So I wondered, “Before, whenever I read the Bible, I had been so thankful and my heart had been filled with so much joy, but why have I now become even more of a sinner after passing time?” After having attended church for ten years, I then came to conclude, “To believe in Jesus is ultimately to become a sinner.” I also looked at other people’s faith, and saw that theirs was the same as mine. So I thought, “I must have believed in Jesus too early. If this is what faith is all about, then I’d better be off to just give it up right now.” One day, however, the Lord taught me the gospel of the water and the Spirit through the Word of God. So I was able to meet the Lord wholly in this gospel of Truth.
Adam and Eve had lived in the Garden of Eden listening to the Word of God and obeying it. God had allowed Adam and Eve to eat from every tree of the Garden of Eden, with one important exception: He had told them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet despite this, when Satan uttered his cunning words to Eve, asking if God had indeed told her so, Eve herself was all shaken by these words and her faith crumbled down. She thought, “If God loves us, why did He make the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?” Having listened to Satan’s words, the faith of Adam and Eve was shaken, and they ended up disobeying His Word. Deceived by the Devil’s cunning tricks, they failed to keep God’s forbidden commandment.
Even at this very moment, Satan is using the same trick to make those who have just barely begun to believe in God stumble, preventing them from becoming righteous people even as they believe in Jesus. That is why these Christians actually end up suffering more from their sins even after believing in Jesus as their Savior, and becoming addicted to a false gospel, they reject the true gospel even when it is presented to them. Once one falls into Satan’s deception, the Devil’s lies seem more correct than the Word of God. So, Christians who have not been born again believe more in Christian doctrines than in the Word of God. They believe that while they were remitted from their original sin through Jesus’ blood on the Cross, their personal sins are remitted away by offering prayers of repentance every day, and they also believe that Christians must struggle for their own sanctification to be saved.
However, if we believe like this, our heart’s sins can never be remitted away, no matter how diligently we might attend church and pray constantly. On the contrary, sin continues to pile up in our hearts, and so our inner selves are always choking in suffocation. Our minds are already suffering enough because of the many sins committed with our hearts and acts in this corrupted world, and that is why we come to church seeking God’s comfort, and yet far from finding this comfort, we are only told to dig up our sins again and offer prayers of repentance, to our great frustration. In this state, when we are not born again, faith simply does not grow no matter how we might listen to the Word and practice virtue. On the contrary, we only end up more skilled at pretending to others to have good faith, turning ourselves into hypocrites.
However, if our common ancestors, Adam and Eve, fell under sin because of their failure to believe in God’s Word, then now, by knowing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by God, we can put on the grace that quenches our hearts and cleanses even our souls. God has already blotted out all our sins once for all with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and this is the Truth. If Jesus had not blotted out our sins all at once with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and if He had not given us Heaven, then why should we believe in Jesus as our true Savior?
What about you? Have you been constantly tormented by your hearts’ sins even as you believe in Jesus as your Savior? If so, then this is all because you have believed in Jesus without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Even though Jesus has already blotted out all our sins once and for all with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, because we did not know this true gospel, sin had continued to pile up in our hearts. But now, if you would only hear, realize, and believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, then you will be completely remitted from all your sins, become righteous and become God’s children.
After having solved away all our sins the Lord told us, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). On His own the Lord has already solved away all our sins once for all with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. There is therefore no need for us to listen to Satan’s words any longer. God has already blotted out all our sins once for all with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and He is now telling us to just believe in this true gospel.
Jesus is our Shepherd, and He is our Savior. Jesus has already solved away all our sins at once with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And for those of us who believe in this Truth, He has washed away all our sins. When Jesus has called us into the gospel of the water and the Spirit, how could we, who had been sinners, say that we are not remitted from our sins? When we have indeed been remitted from all our sins by believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, how could we still remain sinners with our hearts’ sins still intact? Anyone who has sin in his heart even as he believes in Jesus is still deceived by Satan’s lies. To this very day, countless people have been deceived by the old serpent, the most cunning of all. Lying to everyone, Satan has deceived all to believe in his lies as the truth. We must therefore never be deceived by this expert liar Satan. Genesis chapter three records how Satan deceived Adam and Eve.
What is the reason for people’s faith to be shaken by Satan’s temptation? It is because they do not believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit recorded in the Bible. Unless the gospel of Truth is firmly established in their hearts, their faith is all bound to be shaken when tempted by Satan. Although everyone must come to know the righteousness of God and receive the true remission of sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, many people have blindly believed in Jesus as their Savior irrespective of the true gospel, and that is why they are unable to be freed from spiritual confusion and emptiness.
The Lord told us a parable about a house built on the rock and a house built on sand. He said that the house built on the rock does not fall even when the floods come and the winds blow, but the house built on sand crumbles down. Those who build the house of faith on the rock refer to none other than those who have been completely saved from their sins by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Such people are no longer deceived by Satan. Since they now believe in the Word with its clear knowledge, their faith does not collapse no matter what temptations and tricks might come their way. However, for those who do not rely on the Word of God that has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and instead rely on their own emotions or biblically unfounded doctrines, it is inevitable that their faith would be shaken when tempted even slightly by Satan.
It’s said that there are over 10 million Christians in Korea today. However, Korean Christians are known to be devout in this age of declining Christianity. Yet in spite of this, when Satan asks them, as he did to Eve, “Do you really believe that Jesus has indeed blotted out all your sins?” many of them say, “No, there still are a few sins left in my heart.” Their faith is mistaken like this because they do not know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. And it is also because they have blindly followed the mistaken faith of those who believed in Jesus prior to them. If Christians knew and believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God has given us, then they would not have fallen regardless of how Satan might have tempted them; unfortunately, many of them have failed to believe in this true gospel. Even now, rather than believing in God’s Word of righteousness, countless Christians believe in the doctrines that appeal to their own carnal thoughts, and that is why their faith is so easily broken down whenever Satan shakes them even just once with the word “indeed.”
Although there are many people in this world who believe in Jesus as their Savior, those who know the gospel of the water and the Spirit are extremely few. Let me tell you a funny story here. Someone went to Heaven in a dream, and he saw many lips but nothing else in a storehouse there. So this man asked the angel in his dream why there were only lips in the storage area. The angel’s answer was that it was because these people had believed in Jesus only with their lips. The man then went to another storage area, and there he saw a heap of ears cut and roped together like fish on a string. So he asked the angel why there were only ears here and the angel replied, “While these people nodded their heads when they heard the Word with their ears, in their hearts, they did not believe at all. So we stored only their ears that had heard the precious Word, as it seemed like a waste to send them to hell in their entirety.”
My fellow believers, even today, if people just believe in Jesus as their Savior without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then the Devil will inevitably shake their hearts. He will ask, “Did the Lord blot out all your sins? Did He ‘indeed’ say so?” For times like this, we must be ready with God’s Word, which is the Sword of the Spirit. We must know exactly how the Lord has blotted out all our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, namely the Word of God.
Do you now realize that God’s profound purposes are hidden in the Word of Genesis? Or are you still reading it only literally? The Apostle Paul said, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). And it is also written, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). It is completely useless to know the Word of God only by its letter. Before I was born again, I too had read the Bible all the time, memorizing its verses even while walking in the street with a Bible card in my hand. It was also quite exciting to read the Bible, memorize it, and know it by its letter as a form of knowledge. However, it was useless to believe in what I did not truly understand. If you go to a prison, you would see many long-term convicts able to cite one or two Books of the Bible by memory.
There was a young convict on death row in a certain prison. Sentenced to death, all that he did in the prison was reading the Bible, and so he could memorize many of its verses so well that whenever anyone asked him about a passage, he pointed out exactly where it was by chapter and verse. He could cite most of the well-known passages by memory. He was so good at this that people even called him “a walking Bible dictionary.” However, this man began to have doubts about his sins. Although Jesus clearly died for him on the Cross, he wasn’t sure how exactly his sins had disappeared. In other words, while he wholly believed that Jesus died for him on the Cross, his sins had still remained intact in his heart.
I preached to this man the gospel of the water and the Spirit, not just of the blood of the Cross. First, I opened the Old Testament and explained to him, “According to the sacrificial system established by God, the people of the Old Testament passed their sins to their sacrificial animal by laying their hands on its head, and this sacrificial animal then shed its blood and died in their place. So in keeping with this sacrificial system of the Old Testament, Jesus shouldered all the sins of the world through His baptism and died on the Cross.” After this, I then opened the New Testament, and explained to him step by step why Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, why He was baptized by John the Baptist, and why He died on the Cross.
As a result, this man came to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and was able to be saved from his sins. As he knew both the Old and New Testaments quite well, when I explained this true gospel by connecting it with the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, he believed in it wholeheartedly without any hesitation. When I explained to him the reason why John the Baptist baptized Jesus, he told me that I needn’t say anymore, testifying that he had now received the remission of sins into his heart. So I asked him, “Do you have sin?” and he answered, “No, I have no sin.” Even though he was a convicted criminal on death row who had committed an atrocious crime while living in society, amazingly, he was saying that his heart was now sinless. Although this man was condemned to death by the people of the world, before God, he was truly remitted from all his sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Like this, when we teach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to people, they will then also believe and find the way to the Kingdom of God.
Genesis 3:1 says, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?’” The Devil was so cunning that he began to utter deceptive words, saying, “Did God indeed say, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” It’s at this word “indeed” that Eve’s faith staggered and collapsed. Satan was a cut above Eve. That’s why his every word was a blow to Eve’s heart. As Satan lumped Eve and her husband together and said “you,” Eve figured that the Devil looked far better and smarter than the two of them put together. In other words, Eve lost her faith because she was intimidated. She lost all the blessings of faith at just a few words from Satan. The blessed Word that Eve had received from God disappeared from her heart all at once.
The Devil’s Servants Are Cunning, too
Satan’s servants lie as if they speak the so-called truth. So who wouldn’t be deceived by their words? Do we really believe in Jesus as our Savior who came to us by the gospel of the water and the Spirit? And have we been born again? However, with his words of deception Satan attacks even the born-again who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Even among those who now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, those who are spiritually young may be deceived and put to death. Satan’s servants invariably ask, “Are you the only ones who believe in Jesus properly? Do all these countless Christians then believe mistakenly? If only you, the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, can go to Heaven, then does this mean that the other Christians are all going to hell?” And they boast their influence saying, “The pastor at my church has several doctoral degrees; how many does your pastor have?”
However, these people do not know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit exactly, and therefore they have not been remitted from their sins. It is self-evident that everyone is saved only if he believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior who came to us by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and that if anyone otherwise relies on the character or educational career of his pastor, the influence of his denomination, or any such things, then he can never be saved. It makes absolutely no sense to judge a pastor’s sermon to be true or untrue just based on his educational background or character. What really saves mankind from sin is neither a preacher’s character, nor his knowledge, far less the influence of his denomination.
A certain sister at our church once told me that her boss at work tried to convert her to his denomination, offering videos and books produced by the denomination. So this sister gave her testimony of salvation with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The boss then told her that she shouldn’t believe like this, but she had to believe only the Word of God that is accountable in scientific terms. So the sister told him that she indeed believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit according to the Word of God, but her boss still stood against the gospel, telling her that she was wrong to believe like this.
The Word of witness testifying that we have been saved from all our sins must remain in our hearts as the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can fight and overcome liars only when we know exactly by which Word of God our sins have been remitted away. That is why the belief that we have been born again from all our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is so important to us. All those who have now received the remission of sins into their hearts by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must have the Word of witness testifying that they have indeed been saved from sin by believing in the written Word of God.
The Devil deceives people with the prevailing trend of the times. Put differently, he deceives people through the doctrines that the so-called mainstream Christianity advocates. Knowing that Eve believed in God’s Word only half-heartedly, Satan derailed her from her upright faith. This is what the Bible calls sin. The word “sin” is “hamartia” in Greek, meaning “missing the target.” What deviates from the exact Word is sin. When Eve departed from her faith in the Word of God, and when this faith in God’s Word crumbled, the Bible called it sin.
When we say that we have sinned before God, we are not just talking about the transgressions committed with our acts. Mankind’s greatest sin is to depart from the Word of God and believe whatever it wants to believe according to its own will. Our God said in Genesis chapter two, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. On the day you eat from it, you will surely die. If you don’t believe in My Word and drift away from me, you will die for sure.” So, for Adam and Eve to be blessed by God, they had to hold fast to the God-given Word and believe in it. They could then have received all blessings according to the Word of God.
Disbelieving the Word of God’s righteousness is the very sin. If someone does not believe in God according to the Word of God, then he cannot receive the remission of sins, but rather he has to be destroyed. Such a person will end up in hell. So many Christians are leading their lives of faith like that. It’s not because these people don’t keep the Lord’s Day, don’t tithe, don’t bear witness of Jesus, and can’t keep the Law of God that they are sent to hell, but it is because their faith has deviated from God’s Word that they are heading straight to hell. That is why everyone must believe in the Bible with its exact knowledge. Those who have not yet received the remission of sins must learn from those who have already been born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those who have sin in their hearts must kneel before the Word of God and learn it with a humble heart. If they don’t have this humility and stand against Him, then they will be cast into the burning fire of hell. For a while, I was also someone who had been bound to hell.
My dear brothers and sisters, if we want to believe in the righteousness of Jesus, then we must know and believe in the Word of God properly. Of course, every religionist claims to be preaching the exact Word, but only someone who believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit can preach the Word of God correctly; anyone else cannot preach God’s Word exactly. After all, how could anyone teach others what he does not know? When a blind man leads another blind person, both will fall into a pit and perish.
One Is Brave When He Is Ignorant
There were two brothers living in a village, and both of them were illiterate, having had no education. On a dry spring day, the two brothers went on a walk in the nearby hills, and as it was a forest fire season, they came across quite a few signs posted on electric poles saying, “Fire Hazard.” The little brother then asked his elder brother, “What do those letters there say?” The big brother had to say something, as he would otherwise lose his face to his little brother. Seeing that there were two words in the sign he said, “You don’t even know that? It’s written, “Electric Pole.” So the little brother was quite impressed by his big brother.
After they walked a bit further, they came across another sign, this time saying, “Forest Fire Hazard.” Since the little brother was completely illiterate, he could make nothing of those words, but he thought that his big brother would know, and so he asked again, “What about this sign? What does it say?” The big brother then said, “Repeat after me, ‘Another Electric Pole.’” So they kept on walking, and this time, they came across yet another sign saying, “Beware Forest Fire Hazard.” What do you think the big brother said when asked by his little brother again? He said, “Repeat after me, ‘Yet another Electric Pole.’” The little brother was awestruck by his big brother. But that was not the end of all; as they walked on, there were more signs posted on electric poles at every turn. When the big brother saw a sign saying, “Highest Fire Warning in Effect,” he figured that if asked again, he would say, “Another Electric Pole is here.” He liked to see his little brother following him enthralled, and so he just kept saying like this fitting only the number of words.
Today’s Christians are like these illiterate brothers. Pastors compel their congregation to say ‘amen’ over their nonsensical teachings. Even as they themselves have no clue, they blindly insist on others to offer the prayers of repentance. If the prayers of repentance don’t work, then they tell people to fast; if this still does not work, then they tell them to go to mountain prayers; and day and night, morning and evening, they keep insisting on prayers of repentance. This is because pastors do not know the Word of Truth that they blindly tell the congregation to offer prayers of repentance. Further, since their followers are completely clueless, they swallow their lies of these pastors who have not been born again, and do exactly what they are told to do.
These pastors teach that one must wash away his personal sins by giving prayers of repentance constantly by referring to the passage in John chapter 13, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean” (John 13:10). That, my fellow believers, is not what Jesus meant when He said this while washing Peter’s feet. Knowing that Peter would sin by betraying Him, Jesus washed his feet to tell him that He would pay off the wages of even his future sins. That is why He said, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this” (John 13:7).
Worldly pastors usually select commentaries and illustrations here and there, prepare sermon notes, and then preach. Such behavior of the false prophets is already predicted in the Scriptures:
“But the word of the LORD was to them,
‘Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little,’
That they might go and fall backward, and be broken
And snared and caught” (Isaiah 28:13). They conclude their sermons mostly by emphasizing that one must live virtuously, or, when one commits sin, he has to offer prayers of repentance. They interpret any and every Scripture passage to fit these two conclusions. Everyone can know the Truth if only it is taught properly, but since these pastors do not know it, they teach their congregation fallacious doctrines out of their confusion, and that is why so many Christians have no other choice but to offer prayers of repentance from the beginning to the end, until the very day they die. They are, in short, misbelieving. When someone comes to church, God’s servants must preach to him exactly what the Word says, and when a sinner asks for their advice, they must first show him his spiritual condition with the Word, and then teach him the Word, so that he may be born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Those who believe correctly speak of their faith boldly and properly without any shame. When you get a chance to talk with someone who is leading his life of faith properly, you will realize that this person is indeed a man of character. And if anyone has really received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then he will clearly teach the gospel of the remission of sin to others. That’s because he believes that the One who has blotted out all his sins has also blotted out the others’ sins with the same Word, and that He has blessed them alike with the same method as well.
In spite of this, Christians are still prone to follow the prevailing trend. This is exactly what Satan is looking for. The Devil plants people with the fixed idea, that whatever is believed by many in this world is right. And he can easily hunt the souls of people through such fixed ideas. Nevertheless, we must not deceive our hearts before God. Regardless of others, when we bow down our hearts before God and are ready to accept His Word saying, “Lord, I am a sinner. Please have mercy upon me. Please save me,” then we will listen to the Word and receive the remission of all our sins.
Where is the place that preaches the true gospel of the water and the Spirit today? It is only in God’s Church. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the perfect gospel through which God has blotted out all the sins of mankind. This gospel of the remission of sin is not a cheap gospel. It is priceless. Moreover, the righteous who have received the remission of sins from God through this gospel are also precious. Jesus said, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45-46). The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel of Heaven that is more precious than everything else we will ever have. Even if one has believed in Jesus for decades, if he still remains a sinner to this day ignorant of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then this means that his faith had been wrong all this time; and if, after all this, he has now found the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then he should believe in this true gospel of the water and the Spirit at all costs.
My fellow believers, which faith is the mistaken faith? Is it a correct belief to say that one has sin in his heart even though he believes in Jesus as his Savior? The Bible says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). God’s children must be made holy by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, just as God is holy. To achieve this, one must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Born as Adam’s descendants, all of us had sin from the beginning. However, having met Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have now been born again as someone sinless, saved from all our sins. We have now been truly born again.
Satan said in Genesis 3:1, “Did God indeed say, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” These are very cunning words. Did God really say to Adam and Eve not to eat of every tree of the garden? No, He did not. The Devil no doubt knew all about this, that God had in fact forbidden them from eating from just one specific tree, and yet he left this one warning and instead asked, “Did God tell you not to eat every tree’s fruit in the garden?”
God spoke about His Law in the Old Testament. Yet, most Christians do not know clearly whether they must keep the Law of God or not. What we must not be deceived of, is that God did not give us the Law so that we would keep it. Rather, God’s Law was given to us so that we would realize our sins, believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and receive the remission of sins. Nonetheless, those who believe in Jesus without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit all fall into this fallacious trap, trying to keep the Law. But how could they, who are no more than feeble piles of sin, ever keep the Law of God? So some people say that since we can’t keep God’s Law, we should just ignore the Old Testament. People like this argue that the Old Testament was abolished when Jesus came to this world. But that is also wrong. We need to find out how God spoke the Word of salvation to us through the Old Testament. Those who ignore the Old Testament have also fallen into Satan’s deception.
The reason why God gave us the Law is not so that we would keep it and attain our salvation on our own. Far from it, God gave us the Law so that through this Law, we would realize that we are grave sinners, and then we would reach our salvation by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Bible clearly declares this notion. It is therefore written in Romans 3:19-20, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Deceived by Satan’s temptation, Adam and Eve fell into sin and were driven out of the Garden of Eden. Cast out, they gave birth to their children, and as a result passed this sin down to them. That is how we came to be born with sin, even before actually committing any on our own. Yet despite this, people do not realize that they are sinners by nature, even though they were all born as sinners. So the Bible says that the Law was given to those under the Law to let them know that they are sinners. In other words, God is saying that He gave the Law so that people would realize they are sinners and doomed to hell. Through the Law, one recognizes that he is a sinner, and realizes that he is destined to be condemned.
We must take heed not to be deceived by Satan. The Devil had asked Eve, “Did God indeed say, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” If we were to apply these words to this present evil age, this would be the same as asking, “Did God tell you not to keep every Word of the Law?” If one does not understand the Word of God exactly, then he just thinks that he has to believe in Jesus and keep the Law unconditionally. But the Bible makes it clear that the Law was given so that we would realize our sins. And the Bible also says that the just should live by faith alone. In other words, this means that those who have received the remission of sins by believing in the Word of God must keep all His Word by faith. Can you now understand me, my fellow believers? We must grasp here that the Law was given so that through this Law those with sin in their hearts would realize that they are sinners, and once we are remitted from our sins by believing in the Word of God—that is, in the gospel of the water and the Spirit—then we must keep the righteousness of God in our lives by faith.
If you know that all the Word of God is true, then you must accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit into your hearts by believing in it, and you must thereby receive the salvation of the perfect remission of sin. Faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is fundamentally different from believing in Jesus out of obligation with one’s own works. Anyone who just blindly does whatever God’s Word tells him to do is someone who has not been born again. In contrast, those who understand and believe in what God exactly meant with His Word can truly live by faith, congruent to the will of God.
My fellow believers, you should not unconditionally accept and believe in everything taught by your own denominations. Nor should you be deceived by the teachings that encourage your virtuous deeds for the condition of your salvation. True faith is about being saved from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God, and following His righteousness; it’s not about following someone else’s virtuous deeds. No one should try to be approved by God with their own merits. The remission of sin also is received into our hearts by believing in the Word of God, just as it is also by believing in God’s Word that we follow His commandments.
God has established the law of perfect salvation to all of us. We should therefore no longer be deceived by Satan. Once anyone is deceived by Satan, it will be very hard for them to receive the remission of sins. Nonetheless, if we realize that we had been deceived by Satan all this time, and if we are once again enlightened by the Word of God that came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then we can all receive the true remission of sins. So God is telling us: “To receive the remission of your sins, never be deceived by Satan.”
The Devil is a cut above fleshly human beings. But this does not mean that mankind can never escape from the Devil’s grip. Indeed, there actually are those who have defeated Satan’s wiles by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, escaped from his deception, and received the remission of sins. These people are none other than us, who have been freed from all our sins and truly remitted from them all by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those who have not received the remission of sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit are those who still have not escaped from the Devil’s words. Such people are inevitably bound to be deceived by Satan.
From now on, we should never be deceived by the evil wiles of Satan. Given the fact that our Lord has already blotted out all our sins once for all with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, those who still call themselves sinners even as they profess Jesus Christ as their Savior are still being fooled by Satan. Yet there are so many such Christians in this world, are they not?
No human being, in and of himself is Satan. But just as Satan had gone into the serpent long ago and tempted Adam and Eve to sin, the Devil still goes into people’s minds trying to undermine their souls. Remember that Satan is trying to deceive you to undermine the right faith and promote the wrong faith. You must escape from mistaken beliefs. And you must return into God’s bosom by believing in His Word of righteousness. If the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is indeed true, then you must listen to it carefully, believe in it with all your hearts, and receive the remission of sins. You must thus be freed from all the deceptions of Satan.
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