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we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
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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 21 : The Gospel According to MARK
[Chapter 7-1] Look at Your True Self And Believe in The Gospel of the Water And the Spirit (Mark 7:1-23)
(Mark 7:1-23)
“Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem. Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, ‘Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.’ He said to them, ‘All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.’ When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, ‘Hear Me, everyone, and understand: There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!’ When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. So He said to them, ‘Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?’ And He said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.’”
Dear fellow believers, we must read the Word of God every day and think what kind of person we are. What kind of person are we really? We were originally born as the descendants of Adam who commit sins because we have inherited all the sins from our parents. In other words, we are originally “a brood of evildoers” (Isaiah 1:4) that cannot but commit sins; we all are people who cannot do any righteous deeds even if we really want to do such deeds. However, in order to save all of us we who cannot but commit sins like this, our God came and saved us from all the sins of the world once and for all by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must know this gospel of the water and the Spirit. We really come to give thanks and praise to our Lord when we think of this gospel of truth of salvation which God has given to us.
Do Not Become Hypocrites
In today’s Scripture passage, we can see that the Pharisees and the scribes were full of hypocrisy. That they were hypocrites before the presence of God means that their heart and their behavior were very different. These spiritual hypocrites decorate their outward appearances cleanly although their inside is filthy. This is the life of the spiritual hypocrites. And when we look into all these religious people of this world who live like Pharisees, we can see that they all are giving up themselves just to become successful in a fleshly sense. They just wash their hands and feet cleanly and polish their outward appearances when they go before the presence of God. They clean up their outward appearance and think that everything concerning themselves has become clean. Some people look at themselves and think that they are clean enough. However, one has not become a clean person before the presence of God just because his outward appearance is clean. One is not truly clean just because his outward appearance is clean.
The Pharisees who appears in the Scriptures here claimed to believe in Jehovah God, but they were actually people who believed in the elders of their denomination and not God. Thus, they believed that the teachings of humans had more authority than God and His Word. So, they followed these inherited traditions of the elders instead of the Word of God.
In the Gospel of Mark chapter 7 verses 1 to 2 it is written, “Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem. Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.” The Pharisees at that time followed the custom of washing their hands and feet cleanly when they entered into their homes. The practice of splashing water on the yard and washing the cups, pitchers, and copper vessels cleanly before eating when they returned from the marketplace still remained a strong tradition.
Now, what is the problem with this custom of the Pharisees? Is there anything that could be a problem in a fleshly sense? There is nothing wrong from a fleshly viewpoint. They were the people who lived a very ordinary life, washing their hands and feet before eating when entering a home. Also, even splashing water on the yard and washing the dirty things in the house and then eating do not seem to be special behaviors either.
Then, let’s look at what the problem was with such traditions of the Pharisees that prompted Jesus to rebuke their faith like this. The Pharisees had thought that such things ordinary people did normally as an important duty in believing and serving God. This was the problem spiritually. Put differently, those Pharisees had thought that they had to take a bath, wash the bowls cleanly, and splash water over the yard before eating when they returned from the marketplace to be considered as a faithful person to God. This was the problem. The problem was that they approved only someone with such faith as a proper and pure person before the presence of God. Because of this reason, the religious life of all the Pharisees became more and more hypocritical and was becoming increasingly more distant in the matter of believing and following God with a sincere heart of faith. They were respected when they went around looking upright with clean clothes, clean hands and feet, and washed their bodies cleanly.
Let’s read what the Lord said to these Pharisees. Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”-’ (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do” (Mark 7:9-13).
What did Jesus say to the Pharisees? He said, “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’” Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees like this. When they had something worthy to give to their parents, they should have gladly given it to their parents. However, the Pharisees said that they could not give it to their parents or any other person because they had already given it to God. Thus, no matter what wonderful thing they had, they did not have to use it to honor their parents since they could say that they had already offered it up to God.
Let’s compare this with a business of a certain believer. A certain Christian was working as a realtor. And there was a Bible and a hymnal on his desk in his office. It seemed like a custom especially for Korean Christians to do this when they were in the workplace. What do you think is the reason for them doing this? When there is a Bible and a hymn on the desk in the office, it makes people think, “Ah! This person believes in God. He must be upright and honest.”
However, people generally thought like this before, but it is not like this in these days. These days, when a person has a Bible and a hymnbook on his desk, people look at that and think, he must be a “thief.” People’s presumptions have changed like this today. A few decades ago, people of this world at least thought of Christians as upright and honest. But the faith of believing in God does not work in business transactions any more. Before even in a place like a supermarket, business usually was better when they had a Bible and a hymnal on their cash desks.
People of this age have been hurt so much by these hypocrites that they no longer are deceived by such false Christians anymore. There are many among today’s Christian believers who go to a church to do business. There actually are many people who believe in God but have nothing to do with God. They don’t believe in the Word of God. They just believe in the false doctrines their respective church teaches and they give up themselves to seek only material things of this world. Thus, they should learn even now about the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believe in God through His Word.
However, they are trying to live out their faith without knowing the will of God. Therefore, they actually do not know the righteousness of God or believe in God although they claim to believe in God. They believe the teachings of their leaders of their respectful denominations as if they are of the Word of God, instead of believing in God or His Word. The humanistic teachings of these so-called great pastors of today have become the bases of their faith. So they claim to believe in the Word of God, but they really believe in their own fleshly thoughts and false doctrines rather than the righteousness of God.
The faith of most Christians these days is like this. The Presbyterian denominations are following Christian doctrines, which was made up by John Calvin a long ago. In other words, Christian doctrines proclaimed by Calvin became the central doctrines of the Presbyterian denominations. And so those from the generations thereafter thought that the theology of Calvin had discovered many things from the Bible and have thus come to consider Calvin’s teachings more important than the recorded Word of God. All these people who advocate the Christian doctrine of Calvin these days consider what Calvin said about certain things as more important than the recorded Word of God.
Therefore, they are making a terrible mistake because they do not even try to know about the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They come to consider the teachings of sinful theologians more important than the gospel of the water and the Spirit which is the gospel of the righteousness of God. It is a problem to think that the words spoken by these theologians have greater authority than the Word of God. Therefore, they come to stand against the righteousness of God with this wrong faith. This was the mistake and misunderstanding of today’s Pharisees.
Long Ago the Pharisees Misunderstood as If Only They Believed in God Correctly
They could not preach the gospel of the righteousness of God as recorded in the Scriptures because they did not know this Truth. Not only that, but they also taught theological doctrines that they have learned from their theologians to many other people. Thus the situation had become so bad that increasingly more and more people were learning these theological doctrines instead of facing the gospel of the righteousness of God. Therefore, this evil yeast of the Pharisees had been handed down to even lay Christians from generation to generation. The Scriptures referred to these teachings which were handed down through the generations as the “tradition” of the elders. Therefore, the core of the gospel of the remission of sins that is in the Word of God namely, the gospel of the water and the Spirit had consequently disappeared and only these academic assertions of theologians became abundant. Because of this Jesus rebuked them citing the Word from Isaiah,
“These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’” (Matthew 15:8-9).
Likewise, Christians of today have come to consider these theological doctrines mentioned here more important than the gospel of the water and the Spirit which is the Word of God.
The faith of most Christians throughout the entire world is becoming like this. Christians today are becoming hypocrites just like these theologians. The Methodist denomination in Korea absolutely believes and follows the teachings of John Wesley. And the doctrines of Calvin are critically important to the Presbyterian Christians. They say that they believe and follow the teachings of Calvin not because his teachings are important but because he had interpreted the Word of God correctly. They open up the Bible and read the Word of God and teach that John Calvin said it like this, John Wesley said it like this, and a certain theologian said this. They open the Scriptures and teach what certain theologians said about this and that, instead of teaching the pure Word of God just as it is.
Most Christians today attend church to believe in God at first. While attending church, they learn how to offer these prayers of repentance, how to fast and prayer, the doctrine of sanctification, the doctrine of salvation by believing in Jesus, and various hymns, and they even attend all night prayer meetings. They learn all the doctrines taught in the church. They respond with “halleluiah’s” when a preacher occupies the pulpit and says “halleluiah” and they respond with “amen” when the preacher says, “Do you believe?” In other words, these believers learn these Christian doctrines that these theologians have fabricated rather than learning the pure Word of God from the time when they started attending a church. The longer someone has been going to a church the more that person becomes someone who knows only Christian doctrines and advocates them. Now what does this all mean? It means that the longer a Christian has been attending church the more he knows only these Christian doctrines and does not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit that he really should know. And in order to seem like a person with strong faith befitting many years of attending church, such a person fasts and prays even more, carries the Bible around in humble manner, tries to sing hymns gracefully, and prays hypocritically just so that other people can see.
In Korea, a Christian is usually given the privilege of voting in church when he has attended church for a year and becomes a baptized member of that congregation. Then this layperson gains the right to vote in some matters of decision-making in church from that time on. But to be a member of a presbytery, which is the actual decision-making office in a Presbyterian Church, that layperson should become an elder. What is the highest position a layperson can attain in a church? It is eldership. However, a layperson should have offered up much money in order to become an elder in a church. Only then can that person become an elder in a church and be respected. Therefore, elders must be faithful to do such things like attending early Morning Prayer meetings; all night prayer meetings, mountain prayers retreats, and offering up money at all worship services. And they must also adhere honorably to the rules of the elders. But they have become people in high positions in the church with all kinds of sins in their hearts. They have become imprisoned in sins because they have not believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit which can make them righteous. They have as a consequence of this become great religious people. They have come to be rebuked by Jesus who said to the Pharisees, “Woe to you, hypocrites, the scribes and the Pharisees.” Such people are the hypocritical believers.
Jesus rebuked the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, saying, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Matthew 15:11). Jesus thus rebuked the hypocritical faith of these Pharisees by saying, “Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? (Luke 11:40) You must clean the inside first.” The Lord is saying this also to us in this era. The Lord told all the Christians these days not to be hypocrites.
What Kind of Sins Are in the Hearts of Christians These Days?
Let’s read Mark chapter 7 verses 20-23 again, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
Jesus told us here that this sinful nature inside someone’s heart makes that person commit sins. We should therefore know that evil thoughts exist in everyone’s heart. It is not as though these evil thoughts are in some people’s hearts and not in the other people. It is because everyone was born with these twelve kinds of sin in his heart. Everyone is born with these twelve kinds of sins from their very birth. Thus, everyone has evil thoughts in his heart. We are therefore “a brood of evildoers.” Because such sinful nature is in us, God said, “You are originally a brood of evildoers.” As a brood of evildoers, we were born with sin from our fleshly parents from our births. Therefore, we commit these twelve kinds of sins while living in this world.
Because humans are scrupulous, they can commit all twelve kinds of sins in turn. Someone can commit three kinds of sins even in one night. An impatient person schemes many sins at once to tear down another. The Scriptures speak about the sin of adultery. You know what “lewdness” is, don’t you? Lewdness is in the heart of every one of you. There is no one in this world who does not have lewdness in his heart.
Jesus said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man” (Mark 7:20). And He also said, “Humans are this kind of offspring of sin who were originally born with twelve kinds of sins. Humans are offspring of sin.” Therefore, everyone has a lewd heart. Because humans have such a lewd heart, humans find lewd things and continue to commit such lewd deeds even if no one teaches them. They also invent new items that make them enjoy lewdness even more. Do you know the most successful business on the internet is? There are millions of porno websites with a collection of all kinds of lewd photos and movies. One can turn on a personal computer, connect to the internet, and log on to such a website and pay some fee and see all these lewd things. There are all kinds of lewd photos and movies in such websites. Humans make these things and also look such things because they are a brood of evildoers.
All vegetables show themselves purely according to what God has told them. You don’t get two kinds of flowers on a tree. Each one shows itself only in one form that God has allowed. The flowers of azaleas show themselves exactly as an azalea. It cannot show itself in any other form. This azalea propagates azaleas until the end of the world. It will bloom and wither away as an azalea. This is true. It is unable to blossom other kinds of flowers. Of course, it will show itself in various kinds of flowers when humans cross-breed them artificially. But the fact is that it shows itself exactly in one form naturally. This means that it has the original form purely forever. How is grass then? Grass is grass until the end of the world. What about a pine tree? A pine tree continues to show itself as a pine tree.
But how are humans? Because humans always have twelve kinds of sins in their hearts, these lewd hearts will arise; evil thoughts will come up, and it will also manifest behaviors of thievery. Therefore, everyone is a sinner in the presence of God. And so we always have sins in our hearts if we do not receive the cleansing of all these sins. Therefore the Lord said that we must receive the cleansing of our sins.
Before the presence of God, there are some sins which are harbored in the heart and some sins that are physically carried out. The sins humans put into action are called trespasses or personal sins since they actually violate the statutes of the Law. And the sins mankind holds onto quietly in the heart are called original sins. Humans have such sins in their hearts.
Humans are originally lewd offspring. Humans are a brood of evildoers who always harbor evil thoughts. Humans are the offspring that steals. Humans are the species that commits murder. They are the species that commits adultery. They are the species that covets. They are an evil species. They are a deceitful species. They are a lewd species. They have evil eyes. They are the offspring that blasphemes. They are arrogant. Humans are crazy a species.
If a human does not know his fundamental nature, he will not seek salvation from God and also cannot receive the remission of his sins because he does not need to believe in the righteousness of God which is manifested in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Thus, we must know that a human is originally an offspring of evil. God says to us, “You are sinners. The wages of sin is death. You shall die if you have sin. You will go to hell if you have sin.” If one has sin in the light of the Word of God, the consequence of this is death. Death here refers to spiritual and eternal death that is, being cast into hell.
Then How Must We Believe to Receive Salvation from All Our Sins?
Let’s think about the gospel of the water and the Spirit that makes us receive salvation from our sins. Let’s think about how the Lord saved us and from what sins He saved us. The Lord spoke the Truth, that is, the Word of the water and the Spirit to us. And the Lord taught us that we are really people who are full of sins. We are the people who commit sins with our hearts and with our actions before the presence of the Lord. We are the people who commit sins throughout our lifetime until the moment of death. Jesus came to save us who cannot but fall into sins and be cast into hell from all sins. Hence, Jesus is our Savior. The Lord has become our Savior and blotted out all our sins by His righteousness and, therefore, we must receive our salvation by faith.
Jesus said that we must cleanse away the sins from our hearts completely. But cleansing all our sins cannot be achieved by our fleshly works. It means that we cannot do this even by weeping or trying hard. We must receive the remission of sins only by believing in the righteousness of the Lord. What does the righteousness of the Lord mean here? It means that the Lord has blotted out all our sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Jesus rebuked the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He said, “Such and such sins spill out from the heart of humans and these things defile them. You cannot become clean by your hypocritical works. Your sins are not blotted out no matter how much you wash your hands and take a bath. And your hearts do not become clean no matter how you eat clean food with your washed hands. Therefore, you must receive the remission of your sins by believing in Jesus Christ.”
Those who just believe in Christian doctrines, that is, those who do not know that they have twelve kinds of sins in their hearts while believing in Jesus as their Savior, do not know that Jesus came to this world and blotted out all our sins by receiving baptism from John the Baptist and shedding blood on the Cross. Yet many Christians still just piously carry their Bible’s, and their positions in the church continue to move up. They then offer up money and polish their outward appearances while learning worship rituals and formalities. Such people must return back to the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They must turn to Jesus Christ with a sincere heart and listen to the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit which Jesus spoke about.
Do you really have filthy sins in your heart? Have you committed sins until now? And will you commit sins again in the future? You must ask these hard questions and look into yourself honestly. If you still are a sinner before the presence of God, you must acknowledge before Him that you are a sinner. And you must really learn what God says about this genuine salvation. You must receive the remission of your sins by understanding the gospel of the water and the Spirit and you must believe in it. You must really become a beautiful believer. People must now stop leading a wrong spiritual life of just decorating their outsides while believing in Christianity. Such people are today’s Pharisees spiritually.
If some among you happen to think that Christianity is one of the religions of the world, then you must immediately turn to the gospel of the water and the Spirit as early as you can. Christianity that only clings to various kinds of formalities must turn from such wrong faith because no one can receive the remission of their sins by offering prayers of repentance. We must depart from Christianity that emphasizes only the outward appearance and return to the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Some Christians say, “I have always had sins in my heart although I had believed for three years. And I believed in Jesus for three more years after that, but I became an even more treacherous sinner.” They say that their sins have become heavier because they have increased so much more while they had believed in Jesus for 10 years. We must now turn from such formalistic faith immediately and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit if we do not want to lament in this way. “Jesus said, ‘Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,’ but my sins have instead increased, and my heart has become heavy laden. I have believed in Jesus as my Savior for ten years, but my sins have been added onto my back. They are too heavy. I had hope when I first believed in Jesus and my heart also was not so heavy then. But my sins oppress me even more now that I have believed in Jesus for these ten years. How heavier would my heart become if I believe in Jesus for 20 years?”
I asked this question to a Christian who had believed in Jesus as his Savior for 50 years: “Do you have sins? The Word in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18 states,
‘Come now, and let us reason together,’
Says the LORD,
‘Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.’
If this is so, then has your sins been blotted out as white as snow?”
That person then replied, “How can my sins be blotted out? The sins in my heart have increased since I have believed for 50 years. I am trying to receive the cleansing of sins by offering these prayers of repentance every day! I am thus praying hard to attain sanctification.”
Why does this Christian say this? It’s because this person has believed in Jesus as his Savior by legalistic faith! It’s because he has believed without knowing the righteousness of God so far! A person who has believed for 50 years and a person who has believed for 10 years are the same in that they both have sins since they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Of course, the weight of their sins would be different. However, we cannot say that a person who has believed for 50 years has more sins, and a person who has believed for 10 years has less sins. They just feel that they have more or less sins. It just means that their understanding of the amount of sins they have is more or less, but they are all the same in that they both have sins.
Why are you still a sinner although you have believed in Jesus as the Savior? It’s because you do not believe in the Word of God and have not accepted the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus has come to us who are such sinners by the gospel of the water and the Spirit in order to blot out all our sins once and for all. Although the Lord has saved you from the sins of the world once and for all by this gospel, you have not been able to receive salvation because you could not recognize that you are a brood of evildoers, and therefore could not receive the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the truth which the Lord has given to you. You have become a sinner because you have not believed in the Lord’s love that gave the remission of sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, not because God has not bestowed salvation on sinners like you.
Therefore, you must return back to the gospel of the water and the Spirit immediately. And you must learn what the Scriptures say about the righteousness of God. When you study about the righteousness of God in the Word of God, you come to know the truth of salvation that has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit and come to receive this genuine freedom by believing in this gospel Truth. And you come to know your true self also.
Every sinner should know first that everyone commits these twelve kinds of sins until the moment of their deaths. This is correct. Sins are not cleansed no matter how much people offer prayers of repentance because they continue to commit such sins. Your sins cannot be cleansed away even if you lament over your sins. Your sins cannot be cleansed even if you offer up money to God for the remission of your sins. Your sins cannot be cleansed even if you die a martyr for the Lord. Your sins can only be cleansed away by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with which the Lord saved us from all our sins. Only then can your sins be washed away perfectly.
In the region of the Himalayan Mountains, many believe in Buddhism. They believe that they must practice asceticism to blot out their sins and to be born in a better circumstance when they are reincarnated in the next world. There is a place called “the holy land” for them. It is very far from their homes. However, they go to that holy place by walking a few steps and then bowing known as the five point prostrations, and they do this repeatedly. They bow towards this holy place touching ground with the five parts of their bodies and get up. And they fall on their stomach again. They repeat such behavior until they reach that far away so-called holy place. After worshipping Buddha at this holy place, they return all the way back to home in the same way they came. They practice asceticism like this.
All the religions of this world are like this. They think that they receive the remission of their sins by practicing asceticism, by sacrificing, and by knowing the Christian doctrines very well. But I am telling you clearly that you can only receive the remission of your sins only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and not by doing such absurd things. Do not believe in Christianity like one of the religions of this world. The religions of this world are like an addictive drug. People say that such drugs make them feel great when they use it for the first time. They say that they feel like they own the entire world when they use drugs for the first time. However, the strength of the drug soon wears out. Then their hands and feet begin to tremble. And then begin suffering from so-called “withdrawal symptoms.” And so they have to take it again. And when they have used drugs for a long time, they have to inject this drug into themselves with a syringe within 5 minutes repeatedly. They go crazy when they stop doing this. The religions of the world are so different to this. We must throw away such religious faith that comes from any worldly religion. And we must really know how the Lord has saved us from the sins of the world through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
We must know our original sin through the recorded Word of God. And we must know such things, like why we humans were born; what we were born with; and how we live and where we are destined to go after we die. We can learn all these things through the Word of God. We must know that we receive the remission of sins only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, we must without delay learn the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. We must cut the bondage of any formalistic faith of Christianity that has bound us so tightly. Among those sitting here today, there probably are many who have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but I think some of you have not received the remission of sins perfectly yet. Even if there are some people who have not received the remission of sins yet, you can be freed from all sins if you learn the righteousness of God step by step and then to believe in it.
You and I commit sins until the moment of our deaths. Can these sins then be blotted out by offering prayers of repentance? Christianity of this world understands prayers of repentance as a means to reach sanctification. However, did Jesus say that He blotted out our original sin but He did not blot out our personal sins and, therefore, we had to cleanse our personal sins by offering prayers of repentance every day? Where in the Scriptures does it say this?
Let’s think about this seriously for a moment. Does it make any sense? We would have to cleanse the sins we commit until the moment of our death by offering these prayers of repentance, but would this be at all possible? Let’s think about this today. We would have to think of all the sins we have committed from when we woke up until we go to bed. If this is possible can we offer prayers of repentance for all those sins? However, there are so many sins that we have forgotten about and only one or two sins that we have really done wrong remains in our memory, but can even those few sins be blotted out by offering prayers of repentance? No, they cannot be blotted out by this means. Sin cannot be blotted out like this. Every sin is blotted out absolutely by believing in the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross.
Because Adam and Eve committed sin, we their descendants inherited this sin and could not but commit sins and be destroyed since we were born with sin. Moreover, humans commit sins until the moment of their deaths. Therefore, the people of this world make up a religion like this and try to cleanse their sins away only by offering prayers of repentance. But would your sins be blotted out just because you offered up prayers of repentance? Where in the Scriptures does it say that only our original sin was blotted out? Did the Lord not say that He would blot out all the sins of the world?
Jesus said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) while dying on the Cross after receiving His baptism. Jesus came to this world once in the flesh of man, received baptism to take all the sins of the world once and for all, and bore the condemnation for all those sins by dying on the Cross once and for all. And the Lord was resurrected once and for all and ascended to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord has thus become the Savior of humanity and now rests on the seat at the right hand of the throne of God the Father. Now you can receive salvation from all your sins just by believing in Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is because Jesus is your Savior.
Dear fellow believers, it is useless even if you go before the presence of God and offer these prayers of repentance every day by saying, “God, I have committed such and such sins. Please forgive me.” Jesus does not go to the Cross and blot out your sins every day for you. Jesus fulfilled the work of blotting out all your sins once and for all by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist and shedding His blood on the Cross about 2000 years ago. We must know this gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit well.
We must not believe in Jesus like the people of this world who believe in their worldly religions. Religion is like a powerful drug. You must boldly throw it away. What have you received by knowing and believing in Christianity so far as a system of religious rituals? You only have gotten more sins, and you have wasted your time and money.
Are we not all the offspring born with sins, the people who really cannot but commit sins until the moment of their deaths? But the Lord came to this world to save us from the sins of the world. And the Lord has saved us from all these sins by the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the precious blood He shed on the Cross. We praise the love of God and His righteousness.
I really give praise and thanks to the Lord who saved us from all sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
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