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 22 : The Gospel According to LUKE
[Chapter 23-2] He Who Endures to The End Shall Be Saved (Luke 23:26-49)
(Luke 23:26-49)
“Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenean, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’’ For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?’ There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’ And they divided His garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, ‘He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.’ The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, ‘If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.’ And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’ But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’ Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’’ Having said this, He breathed His last. So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, ‘Certainly this was a righteous Man!’ And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned. But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.”
What Does the Lord Say You Gain When You Endure to the End?
People commonly refer to Jesus as the King of Righteousness, the King of kings. Today, I want to share words with you, the words about the topic, “Our Lord as the King of Righteousness.”
When we look at today’s Scripture passage, we can witness the scene of Jesus carrying the Cross up the Golgotha Hills to receive the penalty of the Cross. There was a large multitude of crowd weeping and lamenting that followed Jesus when Jesus carried the Cross up the Golgotha Hills like that. They wept and pounded their chests in lamentation. We also can see all kinds of scenes including the scene that a Cyrenean man from the country came to Jerusalem at the time and he even carried for Jesus the wooden Cross that Jesus was carrying and followed Jesus.
As Jesus carried the wooden Cross up to Golgotha, especially many women followed Him and wept in lamentation. However, Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” Our Lord said, “For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’” He was saying that when the last day comes, there will be blessing for the women who could not conceive a child, that is, for the people who could not bear a child and could not breastfeed their child. What does this mean? Jesus said this because He knew what terrible tribulations the people would face in the last day.
That is correct. Even while carrying the Cross up to Golgotha, our Lord worried about us and told us what will happen during the last days. He spoke about what terrible suffering the people will face at the time when the tribulations of the seven trumpets and of the seven bowls fall in the world at the end. What sort of things will happen during the last days? The universe will be shaken, the heavens, the heavenly bodies of stars, will be shaken and all the people will be destroyed. At that time, our Lord will come to this world again and judge the people who have not been born again. Therefore, the Lord spoke this Word to us to make us think about and prepare for that time. He was saying, “You must not pity Me just because I am carrying the wooden Cross up to Golgotha like this. You lament and weep for Me as you think ‘What a pity for such a young person’ or ‘What did our Lord do wrong that He must suffer such terrible thing.’ However, you must not weep for Me. Instead, you must weep for yourself and your children in the future.”
What is the reason the Lord said this? The Lord said, “If you do not receive salvation in the coming days, you will face greater suffering than carrying the Cross up to Golgotha and being nailed to the Cross that I am suffering. You will receive an eternal suffering that is millions of times more terrible than the suffering I receive on the Cross, the death I receive, the disrespect that I receive, and the tribulation I receive now. Lord spoke to you and me about the end times because of such a reason. Jesus who is being crucified on the Cross in order to save us admonished us the humankind even until His last breath.
The Lord had never committed sin deserving of death on the Cross. He had no sin and no fault. The Israelites at that time said, “Jesus is the King of Jews. Jesus is the King of Israel. He is the King” and hailed Jesus as the King. The religious leaders of Israel considered Him dangerous as the people hailed Jesus as the King, and, therefore, they hated Jesus. Jesus was receiving the penalty of the Cross like this because so-called religious leaders and political leaders such as the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the Scribes hated Jesus. That’s correct. Although Jesus did not have any sin, He carried the Cross up to Golgotha due to the hatred, wariness, and false incrimination ironically by the fervent religious leaders. However, although they made false accusation against Jesus, is Jesus the One who cannot even prove His innocence? That’s not true. However, the Lord received the penalty exactly in accordance with the false accusation and was nailed to death on the Cross.
Our Lord Did Not Have Any Sin
Jesus never even stole one piece of bread and He never even used abusive language disgracefully like I do. Our Lord had never done one wrongdoing that would make Him guilty, and He had never even committed a little sin. In spite of this, Jesus received the penalty of the Cross, which was the penalty the most horrible sinner had to receive at that time, and carried the Cross up to Golgotha.
Then, why did Jesus have to carry the Cross? Our Lord had sufficient power. If the Lord wanted to show His innocence, He could have stopped that penalty of the Cross immediately and even punished all those who plotted evil against Him, sneered at Him, and spat on Him. Jesus is God who always has sufficient power to show through the Word, “I am God who created the universe. I am the Creator,” and who could reveal this before their eyes and make them kneel before Him. However, in spite of this, Jesus quietly carried the Cross that was laid on Him as the penalty. Jesus did not do anything wrong and He had the power to reject that unjust penalty, but He bore such suffering from the people who did not have any power. Of course, we know and believe that the Lord clearly did this for you and me.
Therefore, we call the Lord, who endured such sacrifice to save us, as the ‘King of righteousness,’ or ‘The King of righteous work and love.’ No matter how virtuous a person is in this world, there would be no one who would just sit and take the suffering if they received unjust persecution even though they didn’t do anything wrong. Even if one did receive unjust suffering, the person would never endure the suffering if the person had power. Think about it for a moment. If someone made false accusation against me and harmed me in some way even though I hadn’t done anything wrong, a fiery personality like the fire-arrow would have sprang up from my mind and I would fight against the person who harmed me and insist on my innocence. I would say to him, “I have not done anything that you accuse me of. I will not forgive you for spreading untrue rumors of incrimination and harming me. I will make you pay the price appropriate for that.” I would make it very clear and inform everyone that I have not done anything wrong and that there is no reason for me to be harmed like that. Moreover, I would crush all the persecution and unfair criticism on me at once and restore my trampled ego by showing my innocence. I mean that there isn’t anyone who would just stand there and receive the false accusation helplessly no matter how powerless a person is.
Of course there are some people in the world who would give up their lives for good causes. Look at Socrates, a great philosopher that people in the world think highly of. He drank a cup of poison in order to show to all the people the importance of obeying the Law. He died for a philosophical creed that says, “A law is a law, however undesirable it may be.” However, what is the definite reason he died like that? He died like that because he was a person who had no other way to show his righteousness except that way.
Even among ordinary people, there are some people who jump into fire to save people and end up being crushed under a falling roof in the fire; and there are people who jump into water to save a drowning person and then drown in the water after saving the person because he did not have enough strength to save himself. People in the world call them righteous and try to remember their self-sacrificing spirit.
However, such people did not die because they had to perform righteousness by sacrificing themselves. They died because they lacked power to rescue themselves after saving other people. Of course, they are truly upright people. The choice of saving other people is truly righteous and upright. However, whether their deeds are the right things to do or righteous, one thing that is clear is that they died because they did not have the power to save their own life at the time. What significance would it have even if Socrates drank a cup of poison to prove his righteousness if he could not come back to life again? They would have never died like that if they had the power to take the falling roof and throw it aside and save other people like Superman.
There is something that makes Jesus different from the people who sacrificed themselves for good causes, and it’s that Jesus is the Omnipotent God. Is our Jesus someone who would suffer unjust treatment from anyone because He does not have power? The reason the Lord received the suffering of the Cross quietly, in spite of that, is because He received all the sins of us humankind at the Jordan River through the baptism that John the Baptist gave to Him. It means that the Lord took the penalty in our place because the Lord took all the iniquities and sins of all the people upon Himself through the baptism and carried the Cross up to Golgotha to blot out all our sins. That’s right. The Lord did not suffer unjustly because He did not have power. In order to save you and me from all the sins of the world, the Lord received the penalty of the Cross even though He had infinite power. There would be no reason for the Lord to receive the penalty of the Cross if the Lord did not take over the sins of all the people of the world. However, the Lord received the baptism to fulfill all the righteousness of God, and He did not use His almighty power, and, instead, He just received the suffering of the Cross in order to fulfill all the righteous work.
We can take the penalty of the Cross for granted because we believe exactly the fact that our Lord took all the sins of the world upon Himself by receiving the baptism and that He received the penalty of the Cross for our salvation. However, let’s suppose that we were in Jesus Christ’s shoes. If we suppose that you or I were Jesus, would we be able to endure such penalty without resistance if we suffered such unjust suffering like Jesus had? Would we really be able to endure all the suffering and cruelty even if we were to save all the humankind through the penalty? We probably would have tried to escape such fate. And we would have, therefore, insisted our innocence and tried hard to rid ourselves of that unjust incrimination. We would have tried to rid ourselves of the false accusation right away and prove our innocence and tried to escape that penalty if we had sufficient power.
We occasionally experience many difficulties while living in this world. At times we suffer difficulties for the gospel and because of the gospel, but there are also times when we suffer unjust hardship or ignorance by those who are not born again. How do we feel at such times? Don’t we feel as if fire is burning in our hearts? Bombs the size of a mountain are lit inside our hearts and ready to go off at any moment, and then we can see them exploding in bunches all at once when someone just touches them, and no one can prevent them from exploding because they just explode simultaneously so fast. Of course, it probably happens more to a person who has fiery temper like me, but even gentle people always explode such anger outwardly when the wrath inside them goes beyond the point of tolerance.
However, our Lord did not do it like that. Unlike us, the Lord is the truly righteous person. I think the most blessed Word that gives hope in my heart is the Word our Lord said on the Cross to the robber who hung at His side: Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Not living eternally in the world that is so full of confusion, torments, and unrighteousness would make us happy enough, but the Lord said that He would make you and me live in the place that is full of love and joy, a place filled only with peace and without worries, a place full of joy without any evil. I am so happy that we will live in such a place with the beloved Lord. Paradise is such a place. Paradise is a place where we can really love and care for all the people there no matter who they are. I want you and me to live with the Lord eternally in such Paradise. I hope that we would always do well and share our love with each other as much as we would want in that world that only has glory and joy. I have not only the desire to live in such Paradise, but I also indulge in happiness and joy imagining that I am in that place now. How wonderful would it be if we were really in that Paradise now? Then, we would not have to be frustrated and be upset with one another and dispute and fight with one another as we are now doing in this world. I hope for the coming of the promised Paradise that is different from this world that we live in, confronting danger all the time and worrying about when the war might break out.
This World Seems to Be Caught in a Threat of Wars
The powerful nations oppress the weaker nations and the weaker nations make threats of making nuclear weapons in order to enhance their position. There are rumors of war everywhere in the world and natural disasters are occurring constantly. This world is really desolate. It is such a confusing and horrifying world that we cannot even say something honestly from our hearts even if we want to. How wonderful it will be when the peaceful world the Lord rules comes fast, a world different from this world. I am so happy when I think of the fact that we the born-again will live in such a wonderful world in the future. I am truly thankful to the Lord for the fact that we will all be living in such a Paradise in the future.
Even so, this world is too confusing and complex. Doing the righteous work is also complex and difficult. There are too many enemies. The people like those who went against Jesus Christ at the time still exist in this era. At the time, there were people who gave up Jesus to be crucified to death on the Cross, and there were some who personally nailed Jesus to the Cross and killed Him by piercing Him with a spear, and there were some who followed Jesus along the way of the Cross up to Golgotha and sneered at Him. One of the two robbers who were hung on the cross on both sides of Jesus said to Jesus, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us,” and mocked Jesus along with the others who spat on Him. Those who fought against the gospel like that still repeat the same things in this world now.
This world really is a world that is full of wars, natural disasters, and evil people, a world full of unrighteousness rather than justness. It seems so natural for us to really wait for the Paradise ruled by the Lord as we live in this world, the Paradise the Lord spoke of on the Cross to a criminal: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” The Paradise our Lord promised, that is, the Kingdom of the Lord, is full of all the best things like love, joy, gentleness, peace, and self-restraint. The Paradise is filled with the righteousness, benevolence, and joy, and evil does not exist there. There is only righteousness. When I think about the fact that the Kingdom of the Lord is filled with goodness, I just want to go there as soon as possible. I really hope for all of us to go there soon.
The Lord really is the King of righteousness. Therefore, the Lord received the penalty of the Cross in order to blot out all our sins even though He had never committed any sin. The Lord received the baptism for all the people throughout the entire world and took all the burden of the curse upon Himself by bearing the Cross. Did the Lord receive the penalty of the Cross because He did not have enough power? No, Jesus had the power to show them and defeat the unjust incrimination because He was the Almighty God, but He did not use that power and He did not break the bruised reed, instead, He took all our sins upon Himself until He sent forth justice to victory. That’s correct. The Lord received the judgment of the Cross for our sins and received the horrible suffering. And He became our true Savior by being resurrected from death. That’s why the Lord is the King of righteousness for you and me.
There really isn’t anyone or any creature that has done more righteous work than our Lord. There isn’t anything that is as righteous as Jesus. Who would just take the horrible persecution even when he has power? Who would do such a thing? Who in the earth would receive such persecution from the people when he is the powerful king? What king would allow such a thing? What leader would give up his royal authority and step down from his throne even though he still has enough power? Instead, historically speaking, the more power the kings of the world had, the more they held onto their royal power and authority, and oppressed and persecuted people to maintain that power.
However, the Lord is different. Even though the Lord had great power, He did not use the authority and instead gave Himself up as the propitiation for all mankind, the means of righteousness, for you and me. It means that He gave up His body entirely and saved you and me with His baptism and blood. That’s why our Lord is the King of righteousness, the King of peace, the King of love, and the true God of salvation for all the people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, including you and me. Do you believe in this fact?
This world is truly a difficult and tiring world now. A terrible darkness covers all the earth and all things of the universe are waiting for the day of the Lord’s coming. I know that you and I are not living comfortably in such a desolate world. The hearts of all the people of the world are hardened now. They are thirsty for one another’s blood for their own profit and they are thirsty for evil. The people of this age are not thirsty for the righteousness or goodness, and their hearts are, rather, being changed into dark souls that are thirsty for evil only. They cannot even endure small difficulties and interfere with others. They love money more than God and they love deceit more than the Truth, and it has become a world that denies the power of true godliness even though they have a form of godliness (2 Timothy 3:5). This Word is recorded in the First and the Second Book of Timothy, but we can see that the reality we see with our eyes is like that even though it is not mentioned specifically like that.
You and I are being used as the vessels of righteousness in such confused world now. Although we are weak and lacking physically, at least we who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are doing the righteous work now. That’s right. Though we are lacking, we are carrying out, step by step, the work of delivering God’s salvation and the love of Jesus Christ, the King of righteousness and peace to the entire world. We definitely are doing the work of the righteousness even though we are insufficient. Many people are encountering the gospel and receiving salvation through the work of the righteousness we are doing. Although it seems small in our eyes, 200 to 300 people a day from various countries are actually ordering our free books and downloading the electronic books. We will continue to do the work of distributing the electronic books and free books to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all the people throughout the entire world.
We are doing this kind of work. We do this work because of our Lord. And we love our brothers and sisters because of Jesus. We love our friends and all the people throughout the entire world because of Jesus. We do the work of witnessing the gospel to all the people of the world because of Jesus. We do not do this work because we are benevolent. Rather, we give ourselves as the instruments of righteousness before the presence of the Lord with faith even though we are weak because Jesus is the King of righteousness and because He clothes us with the righteousness and gives His love and peace to us.
The Gospel Is Spreading Throughout the Entire World through the Internet Ministry and the Literature Ministry We Are Doing.
If 100 people throughout the world received and read the electronic books every day, then it would amount to 3,000 people who receive and read our books each month. And it would add up to 36,000 people in a year. If each of those people received the gospel of the water and the Spirit properly, then they have already received salvation. If each of the born-again delivers the gospel to the other person per each month, then, it would amount to about 100 million people next year. Then, the gospel would be preached to about 2 billion people in two years. This is the era when the gospel is spread so rapidly like this.
The gospel is being preached even now through our devotion. However, in proportion to the spreading of the gospel, our life becomes even more tired. As the Lord’s saying “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution,” not so many people want to receive this righteousness and do the righteous deed together with us even though we truly want to share the righteousness of the Lord with them. Some people say that they have received the remission of sins after believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and they say they want to do the work of the gospel with us. But they ask for money for their service in no time. I don’t know whether they like money better than Jesus, but there were many people who just asked for money without any interest in preaching the gospel.
Although we are lacking, we want to serve the Lord and preach this gospel. That is our purpose. However, the hearts of other people are much different from ours. At times, therefore, our love toward the people of the world cools off. It means that our love for the people will grow cold as the Lord said, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). Our benevolent heart diminishes a lot when we look at people who do lawless acts and just try to fill their pockets under the pretext of God’s righteousness, when we look at people who are just interested in the material things instead of doing the righteous work. Our hearts that look at such things die constantly.
As the King of Righteousness, Our Lord Gave Us the Righteousness of God
Although we are lacking very much, we can do the righteous work of leading many people to the righteousness because the Lord has given us His righteousness. We desire to live the life of righteousness in this world even though we are insufficient because Jesus took all our sins upon Himself through the baptism, died on the Cross, and saved us by being resurrected from death. So I want to preach the gospel of the righteousness. Do you also want to do so?
These days, new English books, new Korean books, as well as new editions of various languages are published continuously. When such books are delivered to our Church, take them to your home and read them as frequently as you can. Put them on your bookshelf and read them all the time. These books are really precious for your soul and mine.
Most Christians are deceived by the evil one, that is, Satan the Devil now. They murmur “Lalalala” and say that they are speaking in tongues, and they clap their hands, roll over, weep and cry out, and scream; they understand such strange behaviors as the work of the Holy Spirit. Why is that so? It’s because Satan the Devil, the deceiver, has deceived people like that. The books that we are publishing now are talking about how Satan the Devil deceives us from what the truth is, and how we become born again through the water and the Spirit.
We do not have anything righteous in our flesh at all. However, we can do the righteous work through the faith of believing in the Lord. Therefore, let’s put our strength together and do the Lord’s work even though we are lacking. When we collect fireflies and put them in a bottle, they illuminate as much as a candle. As such, although our individual faith is small by itself, I believe it will be enough to light up the entire world if we bring our faith together in one place like this. The world is so chaotic and dark right now. I believe that many people will recognize the light and follow it in this darkening world even if each one’s light is a small light. I believe that many people throughout the entire world will discover our light and meet the Lord. Do you also believe like that? Let’s live with such faith.
Really, we do not have anything righteous in our physical body, but we can do righteous deeds and live righteously through the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts. Let’s live righteously like that until the day of the Lord’s coming. Let’s do the righteous work until the end and preach the gospel to the end of the world so that all the people of the world can hear the gospel and receive eternal life after meeting the Lord. Let’s do the righteous work so that they can receive the remission of sins in their hearts so that they and we, all of us, may really greet the Lord without any shame when the Lord returns to this world. As the Lord said to one of the robbers, “You will be with Me in Paradise,” we must preach the good news that whoever believes in the Lord will enter Paradise, the Kingdom of the Lord even though everyone has no righteousness in his or her flesh. Let’s do the righteous work like that and go to the Lord.
Even though our flesh is too lacking, the life of believing in the righteousness of God is the righteous life. This world is so terrible and unrighteous that people do not like to do righteous work. They consider a person who practices righteousness as a fool or an idiot. We live in a period when the righteousness of God has totally been lost; we live in the world where people estrange themselves from the born-again who serve the righteousness of God by faith. However we must live a life worthy of the disciples of the Lord, the King of righteousness, even in the midst of such world. We must do the righteous work and live a life of witnessing the righteousness of Christ throughout the entire world even though we are lacking. I mean that we must live with faith and then go before the Lord.
There still are so many people throughout the entire world that are in bondage to sins and dying due to their sins because they do not know the righteousness of Christ. We must know clearly that there are many people who are dying from the oppression of the Devil. There really are so many people like that. There are so many people like that throughout all the continents of the entire world, in Africa, Europe, America, and Asia. We are people who have so much work to do because so many people are being deceived by Satan the Devil like that.
Our Lord is the King of righteousness and He dwells in our hearts as such a King even now. The Lord always lives in our hearts as the King of righteousness. Therefore, you and I cannot help but become His servants. We cannot help but do the righteous work, the upright work. Preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the entire world is the righteous work for us. We must live the life of preaching the gospel as the deliverers of the gospel so that the people who otherwise have no chance to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit may come to know the gospel. We are people whose fate has been determined by Jesus to live such a life. God has called us to live such a life.
We have at least received the remission of sins, but there are so many people who do not even know the existence of this gospel. There are billions of people in the earth who do not know that the Lord has blotted out all their sins, that the Lord took all their sins upon Himself through His baptism. We must always remember this and have faith in our hearts as the righteous people who endure and withstand the difficult matters in preaching the gospel. I want you to be the righteous people that can endure persecution for God’s righteousness, suffer for the righteousness, even withstand hunger and thirst for the righteousness, and become the righteous who are really hungry to do the righteous work. Even though we may not be so hungry in flesh, we must become the people who are truly hungry and thirsty to do the righteous work spiritually.
Actually, we have already become such people by faith. However, we must do much more work in the days to come. It is really difficult to preach the gospel in this dark and foul world, a world that is as precarious as if it were in the hands of Satan. We are like marathon runners who have to endure a long and difficult race of 42.195 km. The marathon is also referred to as the flower of the Olympic Games. You would know what this means if you have ever watched a marathon race that is held on the last day of each Olympic Games. As you know, marathon runners have to run 42.195 km to complete the race. Throughout the long race, they do not walk. They run the course and fight against themselves only for the victory. I think we have run about 20 km on that road of hardship. We would say that a marathon runner has passed through a certain critical point of the race if he has run about 20km. They say that a marathon runner, at a certain point, experiences a pain that feels as if their stomach is being cut off if they run 20 km at a regular speed. When they reach that critical point, their breathing becomes difficult, their mouth starts foaming and fuming sourly. However, once they overcome that difficult point and continue running, then they are able to run without much difficulty for a while.
You also have probably overcome such critical points once or twice until now as you serve the Lord. Although we know that the work of serving the Lord and preaching the gospel is righteous and upright, at times, it was also unpleasant and frustrating to us because it was so difficult. We now have the end of the race in sight after overcoming a few critical points like that. Marathon runners who are running the final part of the race usually begin to run even faster than they did at the beginning of the race. They run by using all their strength with the victory in sight. We are now at a point where we must run with all our strength like the marathon runners who run hardest at the end. The contestant who trains himself without ceasing throughout the whole year for one marathon race consequently overcomes the limitations of his or her flesh and wears the crown of laurel.
Our serving the Lord and preaching the gospel is like that. We overcome our lacking and weaknesses and give all our strength for the righteousness of the Lord and accomplish all the things we must achieve in this foul and unrighteous world and eventually reach the land of Paradise where the Lord is and dwell with Him in peace there. That is the work we must do and that is the Paradise where the righteousness of the Lord leads us to.
As we preach the gospel for a couple of years more, I am sure that we will see many natural disasters occurring throughout the world everywhere from then on. It seems the world is changing to evil from moment to moment like this. I am saying this to you now because I think we must do the work while it is not so terrible now. I am trying to work very diligently now. We can rest after we have finished all our tasks, but it is time for us to work without ceasing now. We will be able to rest when we finish all our work and reach the end of the race. Therefore, we must work diligently while there isn’t so much turmoil in the world and our country South Korea ranks first in terms of distribution of high-speed Internet connections among OECD countries. Then, we can preach the gospel throughout the entire world with electronic books and paper books. Would we really be able to preach the gospel at a time when there are great floods and landslides? Would we be able to continue on with the work of preaching the gospel in a country where snowstorms are blazing and people are freezing to death because of the deadly cold? No, we would not. How would we be able to preach the gospel if too much snow came and we were in the midst of a disaster? Who would have the mind to listen to the gospel at such time, and who would sit down by the computer and download the electronic books and who would be interested in a spiritual work? Therefore, I think that we must preach the gospel while they have such wisdom, while they are comfortable physically and they could think of spiritual things. I think we must do such work now.
Every moment is so precious and we need to preach the gospel as soon as possible now. Now is the time when we must speed up in preaching the gospel throughout the entire world. And when we are not able to preach the gospel to the entire world, we will then preach the gospel to our family members. At that time, we will give them a very precious opportunity and lead them to receive remission of all their sins.
We Are the People of the Lord, the King of Righteousness
Do not lament this world just because the world is unrighteous. Especially in such times as these, let’s run together toward the way for the righteousness that is given to us, for the way for the gospel. Let’s pray for the gospel, keep our faith together, wait and look toward the Kingdom of the Lord, and live with the hope of abiding there. You must not think that you will live for tens of thousands of years in this world. The Lord said, “Blessed in the last days are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!” It’s because the mountains would be swept away and all kinds of terrible catastrophes will cover the entire world as the fire and hails would fall, and the earthquakes would erupt. The stars of the dark skies from the Milky Way Galaxy will fall toward the earth. When we look at the Book of Revelation, it says the stars will fall to the earth. The Lord said 1/3 of the stars will fall to the ocean in a single day and the fish will die. It is also written, “And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter” (Revelation 8:10-11). I know that God is telling you and me beforehand because truly amazing disasters will happen before our eyes.
Beloved saints, the Lord is truly the King of righteousness. There is no one in the earth who is more righteous than our Lord. There is no such god like our God and no one among humans who is like Him. Who would not use the power even though he has great power and, instead, sacrifice himself for the people he had created, give to the people the love that saves them from death and condemnation, and lead them to the Paradise of the eternal Kingdom? Only the Lord is like that. The Lord is our Savior who saved you and me. For us, there really is only the Lord. We have received salvation and eternal life through the Lord only.
It is recorded in the Bible, “Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.”
Here, the veil of the Temple was torn in the middle when Jesus Christ died. The veil of the Temple that was perfectly okay was suddenly torn apart. Why was the veil of the Temple torn apart? The veil of the Temple was torn apart because Jesus came to this world and received the baptism and carried the sins of the world to the Cross and suffered death by being nailed to the Cross so that anybody can enter the Kingdom of God by believing in Jesus Christ.
Think about the function of the Temple. The Temple is the place that the Israelites confessed their sins and received the remission of sins through the sacrifices. The veil in the Temple was torn in two. That is because all our sins were blotted out and there was no longer need for people to receive the remission of sins in the Temple thanks to the death of Jesus on the Cross. It means that Jesus tore down the wall that stood between God and us by saving us from all the sins of us humankind with His baptism and blood. Moreover, it means that God clothed us with the righteousness of God and made us His children. How great is the Lord who did this amazing and righteous work? I really want all the people of the world to know the righteousness that our Lord has fulfilled, as the Scriptures said, “Certainly this was a righteous Man!” (Luke 23:47)
Although we cannot compare our Lord with human beings, our Lord is even more righteous than the firemen who have shown the self-sacrificing spirit that made them jump into fire to save other people. Many people shed tears for such righteous firemen and participate in campaigns to help their families and remember them fondly. They hold charity concerts and do everything to make their sacrifice known in the world.
However, it is not our mission to make such people known. Instead, our mission is to tell the entire world of our Lord and extol and praise the Lord eternally. We must preach to the entire world the love and salvation of the Lord who saved us from our sins by blotting out all our sins, the Lord who did not act with His power even though He has power, but instead, lowered Himself and loved us with eternal love. I want you and me to meet the Lord after living like that with faith. The time in this world is only like a shooting arrow. Our Lord will definitely come in a short while. Do you know this fact?
The more precarious the world is, the more wisely we must live and go against Satan the Devil with faith. When uneasy feelings come into your heart and Satan the Devil attacks your heart, then, command him, saying, “I command you, Satan the Devil, in the name of Jesus Christ, depart from me!” Only then, Satan would not be able to oppress your souls. Otherwise, Satan would oppress your soul because Satan is a being that always gives us fear in our heart and threatens your soul. There is only one way to defeat all the fears against Satan the Devil and the enemies. We must say, “In the name of Jesus Christ, depart from me, Satan the Devil.” Why is this so? It’s because Jesus Christ has defeated Satan the Devil and he cannot do anything before the presence of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must command him to go away in the name of Jesus Christ like that.
We must defeat Satan the Devil with the name of Jesus Christ and deliver the love of Jesus Christ to the people of the world by defeating Satan the Devil with faith of believing in the Lord. We must preach to the entire world the salvation the Lord has given to us by blotting out all the sins because He so loved the world. We must live by faith and then stand before the presence of God with faith. Until then, we must hold onto the righteousness of the Lord, boast of the righteousness of the Lord, and look to the Paradise the Lord has promised us. We must rejoice, overcome the tribulations, and wait for the Kingdom of God in the midst of hope.
As the Scriptures say, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love,” our Lord treats us with love like that and also made us the children of God. The consequence of that love is hope. Therefore, we must look to the Kingdom of God with hope in our hearts. Furthermore, we must preach the Lord’s gospel with such faith as we live in this world. God has blotted out all our sins to give us His Kingdom. He has saved us. Therefore, we must hope for the Kingdom of God as we live with faith.
In the near future, we will meet the Lord. You and I will see with our own eyes all the Word recorded in the Scriptures actually being fulfilled. We will surely see this Word being realized because the Word is the Truth. That day is not far away.
That does not mean we should just sit around and do nothing. Rather, we must preach the gospel even more and equip ourselves with faith, and we must equip ourselves with the Word and live with hope to enter the Kingdom of the Lord. As we look at the world that is collapsing, we must not become discouraged with depression and we must throw away our gloomy thinking by commanding, “In the name of Jesus, depart from me, Satan.” We must hope for the Kingdom of God the Lord gives to us like that and wait with faith for the hope of living in that Kingdom that is full of righteousness and love in the midst of joy. Do you understand?
Let all of us who are born again through the water and the Spirit live with such faith. Let’s meet the Lord after living with faith. We have to endure just a little longer. It will not be long. Maybe that’s why it is more difficult. But anyway, let’s endure just a little longer, doing the work of the gospel. We must fulfill the mission of preaching the gospel with all our strength. We would be able to take a lot of rest and enjoy ourselves if there were many other people beside us who would do this work. However, there will be very few people who are willing to do this work beside us. In fact there isn’t anyone who would do the work of the Lord beside us no matter how I look around, even if I look all over the world everywhere. That’s correct. There isn’t anyone who would do the work of the gospel beside us.
The Lord gave us the greatest blessing and also entrusted us with the greatest work. And He has great expectation for us and gives us the greatest gift. Although our shoulders are heavy, we can do everything with faith if we do it together with the Lord. Even though the work of the righteousness that is entrusted to us is too difficult for us, we just give thanks to the Lord because we hope for the wonderful days that will come in the future.
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Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission