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 18 : GENESIS
[Chapter 6-9] Do You Know the Fact That Jesus Has Blotted Out All Your Sins? (Genesis 6:14)
(Genesis 6:14)
“Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.”
Everyone, due to the sins that they commit inside their hearts or by their fleshly acts must realize that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is absolutely indispensable. Before the presence of God, there is no one who does not commit sin whether one has received a good education from this world or not; everyone is a mass of sin just like everyone else. Also, no one can hide their sins away from God, and God is someone who will surely judge that sin. Therefore, there is no way to receive salvation except by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Yet most Christians exert themselves to live upright with their conduct in order to receive the grace of salvation from God. However, the fact remains that the sins of their hearts do not go away by living so piously.
God told Noah to make an ark and cover it inside and outside with pitch. Just as covering the ark inside and outside with pitch prevents water from seeping into the ark, we also can avoid the water of the judgment by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Thus, everyone must avoid the judgment by covering themselves by faith with the pitch of salvation.
What Does the New Testament Say about God Having Told Noah to Cover the Ark with Pitch?
All human beings are those who cannot but receive the judgment due to their sin, but Jesus Christ has given all of us the gospel of salvation. The Lord has blotted out all the sins of this world by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Referring to this truth, the New Testament tells us that Jesus had taken on all our sins once and for all by the baptism which He received from John the Baptist (Matthew 3:15). However, there are not that many people who know and believe in the Truth that Jesus has cleansed all our sins away and that of the world also by taking them all onto Himself once and for all by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. By believing in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, we must know the true righteousness of God. You must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in order to receive the remission of all your sins.
We are happy because the love of our Lord which has become the righteousness of God is with us. It is because the Lord has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit and also true salvation. Therefore, the gospel of the Truth that we all must know and believe in is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is this: Jesus Christ took on all the sins of the world by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist in the Jordan River and cleansed all those sins away once and for all by shedding His blood on the Cross. We can receive the remission of our sins in our hearts and even in our souls by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts. Therefore, you must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit without fail because you can find the righteousness of God only in this gospel. If you continue to be unaware of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you ultimately have a futile faith in Jesus. If you don’t become aware of the righteousness of God, then you will suffer destruction in the end due to the sins that are still remaining inside your hearts.
Even those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are not perfect in our acts. Therefore, when people of this world see our shortcomings, they will say, “How can you claim to be righteous before God? All human beings commit sin before God, yet how can you say that you are without sin?” Nonetheless, we can say that we are perfect and without sin because we have become sinless by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is because Jesus took on all the sin that we have committed and will be committing until our death once and for all when He received the baptism from John the Baptist. Jesus was able to die on the Cross because He had taken on all the sins of this world once and for all through His baptism. Only by having faith in this fact, will we become the righteous. We cannot but be lacking in all our behavior, but nevertheless we can still bear witness that we are without sin by having faith in the baptism by which Jesus took on all our sins and in the blood of the Cross. For Jesus Christ had taken on all the sins of this world once and for all by the baptism He had received from John the Baptist, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can be cleansed from all their sins. Hence, those who believe in the righteousness of God have become truly without sin. We are without sin not because we have lived uprightly all the time. Rather, sins have gone away because of our faith in the baptism by which Jesus Christ had taken on all our sins once and for all and in the blood of the Cross. We were able to receive this true salvation because Jesus had come into this world and received the baptism, and then was crucified.
In this day and age, those who can truly know the righteousness of God are those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They are those who have truly received salvation from all their personal sins and including their original sin by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That is why they have become without sin in a world full of wickedness. The righteousness of God manifests itself through those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. People who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the righteous as well as those who have become people of God, and just like Abraham, they are the recipients of the true blessings of faith.
All people must clean all the dust of sin covering their hearts by believing in the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit. Hence, there is a huge difference of intensity in faith between those who know and believe in this gospel of the water and the Spirit and those who don’t know. People who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are able to receive true salvation from all their sins by having faith in the salvation that God has done for them. But for people who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, sin will still remain intact inside their hearts for they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That is why despite having faith in Jesus; those who have not been born again are remaining on a seat of destruction.
Noah Found Grace of Salvation in the Eyes of God
Who can become the righteous without even a bit of sin before God? Can we become the righteous through our virtuous deeds before God? No, we cannot. Only by having faith in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit can we become the righteous.
However, many Christians today are making foolish efforts, thinking that they can become perfect before God through their virtuous deeds. Isn’t this so? Yet, becoming the righteous does not depend on our virtuous deeds, but rather it depends on faith of knowing and believing in only the righteousness of God. However, so many people have a faith with too much emphasis on their own wills, and such faith cannot be accepted before God. Whether a person is of high status or low status in this world, only when that person believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that manifests the righteousness of God, will they receive salvation from their sin and become someone of faith which is truly acceptable to God. We also can become the righteous by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit which is the righteousness of God. Even these days many people have become the righteous by having received the remission of their sins through their faith in Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross, His death and His resurrection. God made it so that we can never become the sinless outside of faith again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that He gave us. We have been accounted for righteousness by God when we believe in the righteousness of God through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Anyone who wants to receive the blessings from heavenly places must earnestly know and believe in the righteousness of God which has come to us by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Isaac had two sons namely, Esau and Jacob. It is written that Esau tried to receive ‘the blessing’ by going before God with his own virtuous acts, but instead of God’s blessings, he had received the unwanted curse. Through this account of Esau and Jacob, God is telling us the truth that faith of believing in the righteousness of God is absolutely indispensable rather than the hypocritically virtuous deeds of human beings. That is, He is showing us that because Jacob had relied on faith of believing in the Truth and the Love of God more than his own virtuous deeds, he was able to be clothed with the grace of God.
We must be able to understand the righteousness of God through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit so that we may all know the righteousness of God, and we have come to receive salvation from all our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts that manifests the righteousness of God. God does not demand virtuous deeds from us, but rather, He demands faith of believing in the righteousness of God. Therefore, we must receive salvation from all our sins by faith of knowing and believing in the righteousness of God, exalt God on high and praise Him. This is the faith of true salvation and the proper faith. We must not have useless discussions of faith inside Christianity. Rather, we must receive true salvation by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that reveals the righteousness of God, and preach it. God gave to our ancestors of faith the knowledge of understanding and the faith of believing in the righteousness of God, and He made us descendants who believe in it also by passing it down from generation to generation.
Thus, we must not try to become the perfectly righteous ones by our own virtuous deeds. Any sin of humankind does not go away through any virtuous human acts, but instead it goes away only when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must know and believe that we have become the righteous only by having faith in the righteousness of God. If Jesus Christ had not received His baptism realizing the righteousness of God in the Jordan River from John the Baptist and if he had not blotted out all our sins once and for all by shedding His blood on the Cross, then all the sins of humankind would not have gone away but instead would have stayed inside people’s hearts. But for those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, sins can only be gone, and those of such faith can lead a life of proper faith seeking the righteousness of God first. If that was not the case, we might as well give up on ourselves thinking that we have already been tainted. Also, for we would be unable to escape from our sins, and would continue to commit more sins as we live and then go to hell afterwards.
We are able to know the righteousness of God only through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All human beings are born into this world and then have to die once due to Adam and Eve’s sin. If this is so what do you think God’s intention toward us is? In order to save all human beings from all their sins, God made it so that all of them were to be born on this earth with sins. And by giving the gospel of the water and the Spirit to each sinner He granted us this true salvation. God’s purpose is to adopt all people as His children by having them put on the righteousness of God by them believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Does our salvation get realized by our acts or by faith of believing in the righteousness of God? That is properly distinguished by knowing the genuine Truth.
Truly, you who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the children of God and the citizens of Heaven. It is proper faith for us to become children of God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The gates of Heaven opened up the moment we came to possess the true faith of knowing and believing in the righteousness of God. It is said in today’s Scripture passage, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch” (Genesis 6:14). In this passage we must realize God is telling mankind to not to challenge the righteousness of God, but rather to believe in it.
The righteousness of God by which Jesus saved us from our sins is actually like this: For Jesus Christ had come to this earth and took on all the sins of the world once and for all by receiving baptism from John the Baptist, He was crucified bearing the sins of this world and shed His sacred blood in order to pay the wages of all our sins. Jesus Christ had shed His sacred blood on the Cross vicariously because He had taken all the sins of this world onto Himself by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist. He has perfected our salvation by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist, shedding all His blood vicariously on the Cross, and was resurrected from the dead. Therefore, anyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can be freed from all their sins and receive true salvation.
To Cleanse Our Sins, We Must Cover Our Inside and Outside with Spiritual Pitch
We must receive the cleansing of our sins that we commit with our hearts and body. God has resolved the problem of all our sins by Jesus’ baptism and His death on the Cross. If the Lord had not paid for the price of sin on the Cross after having taken on our sins by receiving baptism, those of us who believe in Jesus as the Savior would never have been able to receive the remission of sins. No matter how fervently people beg God, “Please forgive me. Please forgive me,” sins will not disappear, but instead it will increase. Therefore only when one believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that reveals the righteousness of God, will all sins disappear.
Because God is just, He can never remit our sins without having blotted out all our sins in a just way. Therefore God must pass judgment for these sins because He is just, even though people cannot tolerate each other’s sins and make it as if it had never happened if one were to apologize in words because people are all weak. But God is someone who is just; He surely passes judgment on these sins, should there be any. God is not someone who unjustly blots out all sins without a just payment for these sins. Thus, in order to save people from sin, God made it so that people can receive the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, you must realize that your sins will go away only if you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit which was accomplished by God. God demands judgment from all those who have sins for the price of those sins, and in order to carry this out, God’s just sacrifice became necessary. Thus in such a way, God has clothed all those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with His mercy.
The Gospel by Which God Has Saved Us Is Just
Let us assume a certain man committed a sin and said to the judge, “Please forgive me.” Even though that judge may want to forgive the man’s sin, the just law will not allow it. The judge is compelled to pass a sentence according to the law.
Like this, because God has to administer according to His just Law, instead of forgiving people’s sins unconditionally, He had to set up a different method that could justly save mankind. That method of salvation is blotting out the sins of the world with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Thinking about the destruction of all peoples, there can only be pity, but for the iniquities people have done, a proper price should be paid without fail. Not because He hates people but because He hates sins, God places punishment upon ‘those’ sins. Punishment for the sins of people requires death. For man’s life lies in his blood, because according to the law that says the wages of sin is death, blood was demanded.
Jesus Christ was nailed to the Cross for us because He had taken on all our sins by His baptism He received from John the Baptist. We are clothed with the righteousness of God, freed from all our sins, and have received our salvation from all those sins because Jesus Christ had taken on all our sins by His baptism and bearing the judgment for those sins on the Cross. According to God’s Law, the wages of sin is death; but we could be liberated from all our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is written, “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). It is also written, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). If a brother here should commit sins, that brother would have to die, but Jesus came to this earth, took on all the sins of that brother once and for all, gave up His life onto the instrument for execution on that brother’s behalf, and died vicariously by shedding all His blood. That is why there can be no more judgment for sins for that brother.
Actually, the fact is that Jesus Christ received His baptism and the judgment even for those people’s sins who have as yet not received the remission of their sins. If Jesus Christ had not vicariously received the judgment for all our sins on the Cross, we would have had no choice but to receive this judgment. We have a conscience in our hearts, and this conscience is God’s spokesperson. Our conscience always demands compensation for sins. When we do something wrong to God or to other people, there is a desire inside our hearts to repay it. But can you ever repay God on your own for all the wages of sins that you have ever committed? Also, can you repay on your own the wrongs you have done to other people? No, you cannot. Those who say they are able to repay for all the sins they have committed are all exaggerators and to put it harshly, they are thieves as well as spiritual swindlers.
We Must Now Throw Away Hypocritical Faith and Receive Salvation by Believing in the Righteousness of God
There was a story that a certain pastor told me long ago, and at the time his words seemed so splendid. But now when I think about it, they were all very foolish words. The story went something like this.
A certain young man attended his church; whilst in military service this young man had first started to believe in Jesus, and was told that he had to offer prayers of repentance thoroughly. So he offered prayers of repentance sincerely everyday. As he was offering prayers of repentance, he remembered that he had stolen and eaten a melon from someone else’s field back when he was a little boy. And so the young man offered prayers of repentance for that sin. However, his heart did not feel refreshed despite having offered many fervent prayers of repentance. So, after getting discharged from the military, he went looking for that owner of that melon field, thinking that if he were to pay back the price of that melon, his heart would feel better. But he was not able to repay the price for the melon because the owner had moved on to a different place. So, it was told that this young man went and asked his senior pastor – (the pastor who had told me this story) – what he should do. That pastor told him that it was okay for him to offer the price of the melon to the temple of God, that is, his church.
The conduct of this young man and the guidance of this pastor may seem right, but this is not the case. Do you think sins like this are all that we have ever committed? Don’t you think there are many more things we have done wrong to others? If we were to try to pay back these sins we have committed in such a manner, we would never be able to pay them all back. It isn’t just one or two things that we have done wrong to others. The problem of sins cannot be resolved just by paying back the price for our sins on our own, and what is more, we will never be able to pay it back. Such are the acts of hypocrites who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Just as it is written in the Bible, “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22), sins we have committed can only be redeemed by blood, in other words, our death. This is why God the Father sent down His Son Jesus to us and had Him atone for all our sins in order to save us from the judgment for these sins, that is, from the eternal death of hell.
God ordered Noah to cover the ark (a vessel) inside and outside with pitch. We commit sins with our heart and bodies. We must first know whether or not Jesus Christ had taken on all the sins committed by our acts through His baptism. I have a question for Brother Kim, sitting here on the front row. “Tell me, how and in what way did Jesus take on your sins that you have committed with your body?”
“John the Baptist gave Jesus Christ the baptism in the Jordan River, and all these sins were passed onto Jesus.”
“Yes, that is right. The fact is that even your sins were passed onto Jesus. All wrongs that we commit with our bodies are sins. Were they also passed onto Jesus?"
“Yes, they were passed onto Him.”
“But will the sins we would be committing as we go on living also worldly sins?”
“Yes, that is right. They are all worldly sins.”
“Were those worldly sins also passed onto Jesus Christ, or were they not?"
“They were passed onto Him.”
In case we do something wrong while we go on living, we must remember and believe that Jesus Christ had already taken on all those sins by His baptism, and only when we come to have faith that Jesus has taken on those crimes too, can we go boldly before the Lord who sits on the great white throne. However, the fact is that if Jesus had taken away some sins and not others, we would never be able to stand before God as the righteous.
If people cannot believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit because they are not aware of it or if people do not believe in it despite knowing about it, they will be saying, “I am a sinner,” before the great white throne, the throne of judgment in the future. We will not suffer judgment for sins before this great white throne because we have faith that all the sins that we have committed with our acts, hearts, and thoughts have been covered “inside and outside” of our hearts. This is a very important gospel of Truth. So to avoid suffering this judgment before the white throne of judgment we would be the same as Noah’s family who were able to avoid this judgment by avoiding the water of not being flooded by it at the time when there was the Great Deluge all over the land. It is because our faith is one that is covered with this genuine gospel just like the pitch which was pasted inside and outside the ark.
Dear fellow believers, just like the days of Noah, we will be standing in front of God’s judgment seat in the future. At that time, we must be able to stand with the firm belief that Jesus Christ has blotted out all the sins that we have committed with our acts and our hearts once and for all with absolute perfection by the baptism He had received in the Jordan River and the blood of the Cross; and we must possess that faith now. So you must have the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in order to receive the cleansing of all your sins. And you must have this faith in order to avoid the judgment for your sins and be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven when you stand before the Lord.
However, many people are not aware of this gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, and absurdly believe in God according to their own thoughts of the flesh. Christians these days who are locked up in their own sins will stand before the judgment for all the sins in this life as well as the next, because they do not have faith of believing in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that already had blotted out their original sin as well as all their personal sins. In other words, they do know the Truth that all their personal sins that they had committed due to their lacking have already been passed onto Jesus Christ. So they always speak out the following faithless words: “Dear God, I am a sinner. I am a sinner who has received salvation.” Because they do not have the Truth that Jesus Christ had taken on all their sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they are destined for hell despite having believed in Jesus Christ so arduously. Also despite their faith in Jesus Christ, they will become sinners and reside under the judgment of God. That is why it is so important for us to cover the inside and the outside of our hearts with spiritual pitch by having faith in the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Even for people who have been born again by believing in Jesus Christ, it is very important for them to stand firm on the fact that Jesus Christ had completely taken on all their sins, those that we commit with our hearts as well as with our acts, and to have the faith that they don’t have any of those sins anymore. People like this are the truly saved and are the righteous.
It is said that Noah’s family members had covered the inside and the outside of Noah’s Ark with pitch to prevent water from seeping into the ark, and this denotes that those family members of Noah were all who received the remission of their sins. Noah’s ark is God’s Church. Therefore, those inside this ark are actually the saints who have not even a single piece of sin. When a sinner enters God’s Church, we make sure that there is no sin in them by having them receive the remission of sins by sharing the gospel Word with them. The fact is that only those who are without sin can reside in this Church. Therefore, by just entering a church building cannot make you a saint. Rather, you have to receive the remission of your sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in order to become a saint, and become one of our brethren and the people of God who have received the remission of sins. Whoever does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is merely a sinner. If sins are still inside your heart despite attending God’s Church, you should recognize that you are a sinner because you do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And then realizing that you are still a sinner and someone who is destined for destruction, you must receive the remission of your sins by listening to the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believing in it with your whole heart, and only then will you become one of our brethren, just like the other saints.
Only those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit may enter God’s Church (the ark). People who came inside Jesus Christ, that is, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are those who have entered into the righteousness of God by faith. Anyone can enter the chapel of God’s Church physically, but without the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, no one can ‘spiritually’ enter into God’s Church. In God’s Church, only those who have received the remission of sins by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can be acknowledged as true saints and the righteous. However, it is also God’s Church where people who have not received the remission of sins can come in and receive the remission of their sins.
God’s Church must be well covered inside and outside with this spiritual pitch. Even if we do make a mistake during our lifetime, we must realize the fact that we are without sin because even those sins were passed onto Jesus. Some people say, “How can you say you are without sin even though you commit sins? Your conscience has been hit with a hot iron.” In such cases, all you have to do is to teach them with the Word of God. The Lord told us the following: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Because we cannot be perfect in our acts despite having received the remission of our sins, the Lord gave us this Word of Truth. We must confirm this Word of Truth which says that all our sins were passed onto Jesus Christ by faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we must pass onto Jesus Christ not only those sins that we commit inside our hearts but also all the other sins that we commit in the world with our acts. This is exactly what God meant by His instructions, “Cover the inside and the outside of the ark with pitch.” Regarding the sins that we commit in our hearts and the sins that we commit with our acts, that is, the sins that appear on the outside, we must cover both of these two kinds of sins with pitch. Pitch here refers to none other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
At the time of Noah, there could have been many ships afloat on the water. As people could make anything even at the time of Noah, there might have been all sorts of ships, from large vessels to small boats. But because those were not arks, rain water came right inside those boats, and not only that, because they were not covered inside and outside with pitch, water came seeping through resulting from small damages and in the end, they all sank. Spiritually speaking, such ships can be referred to as the churches in world, which are gatherings which have as yet not been born again. Right now, a large number of people believe in Jesus Christ inside these worldly churches.
As it was the case then that judgment for sins approached in the form of rain coming down from the sky, what type of faith must we have now that can survive to the very end? Because some people have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they will not sink or drown; but others will because they have fake faiths that have nothing to do with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What sort of faith is the true faith? True faith is to believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior; and believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit; and also believes in the pure Word of God just as it is.
“Now Faith Is the Substance of Things Hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1)
True faith is faith that believes in the righteousness of God. In the Old Testament, God promised through His Scriptures to complete His righteousness, and in the New Testament, Jesus Christ came to this earth and fulfilled that promise by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus saved all sinners from their sins by coming to this earth, received His baptism from John the Baptist, and shed all His blood on the Cross. Faith and belief in this is the true faith of believing in the Savior. The Bible records all the things that Jesus Christ had done and will do on this earth; and therefore we must believe in it. And this faith is what true faith is all about. When we have such true faith, we do not suffer these judgments before God.
Your faith that believes in the Word, “Cover it inside and outside with pitch,” is something extremely important. If the ark was not covered inside and outside with pitch, water would have started seeping inside the ark and everyone inside would have died. We cannot revert back to becoming sinners again after having believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Many people remain sinners despite their faith in Jesus Christ because they do not know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Christians today wail out and are tormented with remorse for their sins despite having faith in Jesus Christ. Why is it so? It is because they have not covered themselves inside and outside with the pitch of the Truth. They think that they received the remission of their original sin when they started to believe in Jesus, but because they believe that their personal sins are remitted by offering prayers of repentance everyday, their sins remain intact. They go on living in this sinful state because they believe without being aware of the fact that Jesus Christ had taken on all their sins that were committed with their acts, hearts, and minds once and for all by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. These people do not have faith of believing in the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit in their hearts. But if you have faith of believing in the fact that God had already blotted out all your sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit because He loves you, you can never become a sinner again in any kind of situation. Do you understand this?
For us faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is very important. In order to sink our vessel of faith, Satan will try to teach us false doctrines ceaselessly. For sins to seep into our hearts, Satan will attack us constantly with lies. That is why we must cover our hearts inside and outside with faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only then will the curses of sins be unable to enter into our hearts even if we were to have committed sins. We are without sin if we cover our faith by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in our hearts inside and outside. We are without sin because Jesus Christ has cleansed us all from our sins once and for all by receiving His baptism. Jesus Christ had taken on all the sins that we commit due to the weakness of our thoughts, acts and hearts. God is telling us that we will receive no judgment because Jesus Christ had personally taken on all our sins by His baptism, paid off all these sins by being nailed to the Cross, and thus through this has cleansed all our sins away completely. Therefore the Bible declares, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). Jesus Christ is the Truth and our Savior. Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the only One who has saved us once and for all from all our sins, that is, from the sins of the world.
Yet despite this there are still many people who profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior without even knowing about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and do not have true faith. Those who try to find comfort in their hearts on their own by saying, “Because Jesus has forgiven all my sins on the Cross, I am not a sinner,” despite the fact that they still have sins in their hearts for they do not know and do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and as a result do not possess the true faith. They are not the possessors of the true faith.
People comfort themselves by saying, “I am a Christian. Even if I have sins, God will approve that I am without sin. It is all because I believe in Jesus.” But that does not mean that they are ‘the saints’ who have been born again by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Taking comfort in your hearts that the Lord had forgiven your sins despite being a sinner due to the sins that are still inside your heart is not a true faith. Knowing that we will commit these sins, God the Father sent His Son Jesus Christ down to this earth, and had Him take on all our sins onto His body once and for all by receiving His baptism, and received all the judgment for these sins on the Cross where He died, and was resurrected in three days. And now Jesus is sitting on God the Father’s right hand, and approves the faith of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to be the upright.
Genuine true faith is to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit based on the pure Word of God. If you have gained true peace in your hearts by knowing and believing in the fact that all your sins were blotted away by the gospel of the water and the Spirit through the written Word of God, then you are saved. It is because God has saved us from sin like this by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
But despite this many Christians still believe in their own thoughts and do not place their faith in this Truth. Such a faith is not a true faith but a religious belief. Yet sadly so many Christians today believe in Jesus like this. They just profess by saying, “Jesus, You are my Savior. Please forgive me, Lord. I believe that you are my Savior.” But because they do not know how Jesus had taken away all their sins, so when they commit any sin later on, they cannot but become sinners again.
That is why the Lord tells us to cover the inside and the outside of our hearts with pitch. There is a hymn lyric that goes like this,
“Though Satan should buffet,
Though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.” This lyric only professes the blood of Jesus, and this is why Christian sinners are unable to defeat Satan’s attacks. But we can overcome the Devil’s attack through faith by covering our hearts internally and externally with the pitch of faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If we have faith in God’s Word that has come inside our hearts by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can truly be victorious even if Satan were to induce us to commit sins and to attack us internally or externally.
Knowing that Satan will attack us, God blotted out all the sins in our hearts by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and as its token, He gave the Holy Spirit who has come into our hearts. The Holy Spirit was thus instilled as a guarantee. The Holy Spirit bears witness that Jesus has indeed blotted out all our sins and iniquities and even our shortcomings by His baptism and blood. Thus by faith, the Holy Spirit helps us to defeat Satan and sins.
Satan tries many wiles and ways to knock down even the born-again. When that happens, we must ever more surely meditate on the fact that Jesus Christ had taken on all our sins that we commit through our acts and inside our hearts. By covering our hearts inside and outside like this with faith of believing in the Lord who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we will be able to escape Satan’s condemnation. That is what true faith is all about, and that is true faith of entering the perfect ark.
Dear fellow believers, people profess to believe in Jesus. But in order to properly believe in this Jesus as the Savior, we must have true faith that cleanses all our sins and the faith that does not lead us to the judgment for these sins. This is only possible when we believe in the true Word of salvation which came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit; we must cover our hearts inside and outside of with this Truth. We have received the remission of our sins in our hearts by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but if we don’t abide inside God’s Church, we become vulnerable to Satan’s attack. When that happens, the way to overcome Satan’s attack is to confirm through the Word the fact that Jesus had taken away all these sins including those that we have just committed due to our weaknesses. Then we will be able to avoid all sins and the judgment by believing in the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit.
If we look at the Scripture passage from the Book of Zechariah chapter 3 verses 1-5, Zechariah was shown Satan opposing Joshua, the high priest, just as he stood in front of God’s judgment seat. We read what happened at that moment, “And the LORD said to Satan, ‘The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?’ Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, ‘Take away the filthy garments from him.’ And to him He said, ‘See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes’” (Zechariah 3:2-4). We are able to see God rebuking Satan on our behalf when he tries to attack us with our iniquities that we had committed in our acts. Lord Jehovah says to Joshua standing before Him with filthy garments that He had already blotted out all his sins. Then at that very moment He clothes Joshua with robes of righteousness.
Like this, there can be no human being who can be perfect in their acts. No matter how upright people may be in their acts, when they stand before God, they will be lacking. There is a Korean proverb that goes, “Shake a man and dust will fall.” This means, “Every man has his faults.” Joshua was a servant of God, but because his garments were filthy, he could not even keep a straight face when he faced Satan. But it was God who had Joshua stand upright before Him. Jesus took on all our sins and gave us robes of righteousness, which was sinless and clean fine linen. In doing so, He gave us the gospel of the water and the Spirit so that we may be able to say, “God is my Father and the Father of the righteous.”
Many people believe in Jesus Christ these days, but they believe in Him without the proper knowledge of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Sins do not go away just by knowing and believing in the crucified Jesus without knowing the fact that Jesus had taken on all the sins of the world by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist. We must know exactly and believe just how our sins were passed on prior to Jesus being crucified. Only then will His sacrifice of crucifixion have a great meaning, and our faith will become a perfect one. To speak accurately in the biblical terms, we must free ourselves from all sins perfectly, inside and outside (in our acts and in our hearts), by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. By knowing and believing in the work of Jesus Christ who blotted out all our sins, that is, by the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, we get to have a perfect faith.
We become liberated from all our sins by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is the faith of Noah who covered the ark inside and outside with pitch. Only faith which covers the inside and the outside can save us perfectly from sin. If we were to cover only the inside and not the outside, then we must realize that we can never meet the Lord who is without sin because that kind of faith would be a false one. If we do not know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, we will never be able to have true faith. Therefore, we must know which gospel is the real gospel, and also we must have faith in that real gospel. Therefore, we can gain confidence in our salvation by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit even when we have done wrong by our acts.
We must not try to believe in Jesus as the Savior by our own wills. Many Christians still believe in Jesus as the Savior with their own wills. Such faith is a wrong faith. Let’s say a certain man fell into the middle of an ocean. So a rope was sent down from a helicopter to rescue this drowning man. This man then tried to save himself by just holding onto the end of this rope. What do you think would happen? His strength failed and he fell back into the water, while he was being carried to a nearby island. No matter how hard he tried to hold onto the rope, he could not overcome the swinging power of the rope for a few hours, so he ended up falling in mid-air. He should have supported his body by tying the rope around his body.
Like this, in order for you to receive salvation from all your sins, instead of holding onto Jesus with your own wills, you have to submit your sins to the gospel of the water and the Spirit and have faith in it. Instead of just relying on our own wills; we must therefore entrust ourselves to the intention of God. We get to receive true salvation only by committing our souls to the intentions of God.
You must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If you don’t know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you must learn about it. Only when you find out how Jesus Christ had saved you, will you be able to believe and the Truth also will become believable. If you think that all you have to do is to blindly believe that Jesus is the Savior, you are making a great mistake. If you were to believe like that, you will become more of a sinner the longer you believe in Jesus due to not knowing the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
If a spiritually blind pastor takes spiritual care of a congregation, those church members will make wrinkles on their foreheads and ooze out tears whenever they are inside the chapel because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because they believed in Jesus as the Savior too easily with their own wills and thoughts, their sins did not go away and they continue to believe by squeezing out their emotions. But despite this they can also receive salvation not because of their love towards God from their side, but rather they must realize the fact that they also can receive salvation from sin because it was God who had loved them with the gospel of the water and the Spirit first, and then believe in this true gospel.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit the Bible speaks of is the Truth that is completely different from what many people talk about in religion. Recently a certain pastor held a revival meeting for healing. Through that meeting approximately eighty thousand people were said to have received Jesus as the Savior.
The pastor preached, “Dear fellow believers, is Jesus your Savior? If so I hope for you to believe in Jesus as the Savior. In your place, Jesus was nailed to the Cross. Among you, those who have decided to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, please raise your hands.” People who raised their hands at the time were about eighty thousand, and the pastor claimed that they had received salvation.
Christian newspapers were raising big commotion over that event by saying that so many people had received Jesus, but that is just a mere religious conversion, and not having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If you were to believe in Jesus who had died on the Cross as the Savior but say that you have a sin when you commit one, then that would not be a perfect faith. I am saying that such artificial faith is not true faith that covers your heart inside and outside with pitch. People who believe like this cannot say that they are without sin before God, so in the end they will fall into a lake burning with fire and brimstone.
You must know exactly the work Jesus Christ had done to save you from sin, and by believing in it, you must receive salvation from all your sins. People whose names are written in the Book of Life are those who have been cleansed of their sins because of their faith in the fact that Jesus has completely taken on all those sins that they have committed out of their weaknesses in their hearts and acts. The righteous who are without sin can call God their Father and go on living offering worship and praise. The faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the one that refers to the faith of making oneself an ark of gopherwood, making rooms in it, and covering it inside and outside with pitch.
God asks of us to have faith by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Just like Noah who covered the ark inside and outside with pitch, God demands from us to receive the complete cleansing from our sins, whether they were committed through our acts or with our hearts, regardless if they were passed down from our parents. Referring to the flood of Noah, God said, “There is also an antitype which now saves us - baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). Just as people were saved by Noah’s ark when God passed judgment on this world during the days of Noah, we get to receive salvation by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus Christ took on all the sins of mankind once and for all by coming down to this earth and received baptism from John the Baptist and then died for our sins. Jesus Christ became our Savior by submerging Himself under the water after receiving the laying on of hands and then came back to life. Because all our sins were passed onto Jesus’ head through John the Baptist in the Jordan River, Jesus’ baptism is called the antitype of our salvation. The evidence of Him having saved us perfectly and 100% from sin - is His baptism and His blood which was shed on the Cross. That gospel is the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
All these works were completed by Jesus, and the Old and the New Testament explains to us exactly how the Lord had saved us. Because the people of Noah’s days did not believe in the Word of God even though he was telling them consistently that they would live if they would enter the ark, they came to suffer the judgment. Also in this day and age, people come to suffer the judgment because they do not accept in their hearts the fact that they are the righteous without sin, able to be upright before God and before people, for Jesus had taken on all their sins through John the Baptist. But people who believe in this actual Truth that all our sins were passed onto Jesus when He received the baptism from John the Baptist, and that Jesus suffered the judgment vicariously at the moment of His death, and that He perfected all the righteousness of God, will be liberated from all their sins and enter the Kingdom of Heaven by having become the approved children of God.
Would You Be Able to Say, “I Have No Sin,” When You Stand before the Great White Throne, the Judgment Seat of God?
Do you have the confidence right now to stand boldly before the great white throne, the judgment seat of God? It is said that in the Kingdom of Heaven there are those who praise the Lamb of God before the great white throne saying, “Dear God the Father, thank you. Even though I am lacking, did Jesus not take on all my sins away? Thank you Lord.” Only those who have been born again by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can offer such praises. God allows us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven not by seeing our acts but by seeing our faith of believing in the work of salvation which was accomplished by God. This is the Truth of God. Whether or not you believe in the work God had carried out which He had promised in the Old Testament is what God takes as the touchstone of salvation. At this critical moment, the Lord separates His sheep from the goats.
Those whose names are written in the Book of Life are without sin because they believe accurately in the work that Jesus Christ has done, even if their acts, thoughts, and hearts may be lacking. The Judge, according to His own will, bestows salvation or curses by the touchstone of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As for those who do not believe in the work of salvation God had done and for those who go against the righteousness of God, God throws them into the burning lake of fire and brimstone.
We must know just how great God’s love is and how brutal God’s wrath is. We must believe in the fact that God had taken on the sins of the world and blotted them out by concretely receiving His baptism from John the Baptist because He so loves the world. God will throw all those who do not believe in this Truth of salvation into the unquenchable fire of hell who ignore and challenge the perfect righteousness God had given to us by saying, “Because I sin everyday, I proclaim that I will always be a sinner until I die.”
God decided to give us all the blessings He had intended for us; and God is fulfilling them one by one. But despite this Satan attacks even those who have received salvation from sin by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, our faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must be firm. Satan attacks from the outside, and he will continue to attack in order to break down the pitch which is covering the outside. Should the outside pitch break down due to Satan`s attacks, and if you believe in the Word of Jesus inside your heart, then your inside will get covered with the pitch of faith. God will personally prevent water from seeping inside. This is the mark of salvation. God tells us to cover our hearts’ inside and outside with spiritual pitch, just as Noah had covered the ark’s inside and outside with pitch. Jesus has become our Savior by saving us perfectly from all our sins and judgments.
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6). As Jesus had received His baptism, all sins, those we commit both with our acts and in our hearts, were passed onto Jesus. As it was back then and even now, many people do not realize clearly that all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus by His baptism, and therefore they continue to go on living being deceived by liars. These people simply go on believing their own expectation that if they were to ask for forgiveness, God will forgive them. But God passes judgment on whoever has sin in their hearts for He is the God of righteousness. People who do not get to suffer the judgment before God in the future are only those who believe in the fact that Jesus had suffered the judgment on behalf of all humankind by having taken on all the sins for which people must die and receive the judgment.
Dear fellow believers, by reaffirming the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and whenever he challenges us, we must drive away Satan with faith in the written Word. Then, let us all praise God who has saved us from all our sins.
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