Search

Sermons

Subject 24 : Sermons for Those Who Have Become Our COWORKERS

[24-11] Duties of The Gospel Preacher (Matthew 13:1-23)

(Matthew 13:1-23)
“On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: ‘Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’ And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’
But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.’”
 
 
How have you been these days? I went to Inje Discipleship Training Center and came back after constructing a huge greenhouse there. I am thankful to God because we have erected it with minimum expenses and the minimum amount of effort.
It is Wednesday already. Today is the last day of April, therefore tomorrow is the beginning of May. The time is going by so fast and seasons are also constantly changing.
In today’s Scripture reading, it is written, “Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: ‘Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them’” (Matthew 13:3-4).
The Lord said that a sower went out and sowed seeds and some seed fell by the wayside, some fell on stony places, some fell among thorns, and some fell on good ground. Among the places the sower planted seed; there was only one field that yielded a good crop. The seed that fell by the wayside did not even spring up; the seed that fell on stony places sprang up too quickly but dried up soon afterwards; the seed that fell among thorns also did not bear fruit; but only the seed that fell on good ground yielded much crops.
To us who preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Lord said, “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside” (Matthew 13:18-19). The Lord is saying that a sower of the gospel of the water and the Spirit cannot yield a crop if he sows God’s Word on a heart that is not made ready.
 
  

What Does “Seed Fell on the Good Ground” Mean?

 
It means that when a preacher preaches the gospel of the water and the Spirit which is written in the Word of God, someone listening wholeheartedly to the Word of this genuine gospel accepts it purely in his heart and believes in it just as it is. Therefore, not only was that one person saved from sins, but it yielded fruit of 30 fold, 60 fold, and 100 fold through such a person who believed in the gospel.
The Lord spoke this Truth of the water and the Spirit by using a metaphorical expression and also personally interpreted this Word for us. And we are distributing the literatures containing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Whoever is properly prepared to accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit will be saved through this book, but whoever is not prepared to believe in the blessing of God will not believe in it. A person who does not know how precious the gospel of the water and the Spirit is, that is, a person who just wants to believe in any kind of religion in this world, cannot know that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the genuine Truth of salvation even when they encounter this gospel of the water and the Spirit. And Satan works in the heart of such a person who does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and makes that person to be lost in confusion so that he cannot know the Word of God. As a result, such people cannot see the Truth even when they read the gospel of the water and the Spirit and see it with their own eyes; and they cannot understand it even when they hear it. This is the reason why such people have not received salvation from sins yet. Therefore we the gospel preachers must continue to preach the Word of God although we do not know who will really yield a crop by hearing the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Our gospel preachers throughout the world are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit now, and they often are bewildered because we really do not know whether or not someone has received salvation. Some people might look like they will not easily accept the gospel but actually accept the gospel more readily, while some people actually do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit although they dwell in God’s Church pretending to believe in the gospel. There are some people who do not accept the Word of God purely into their hearts even when the preachers preach the Word of God to them. When a gospel preacher preaches that Jesus took all the sins of this world upon Him once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, the audience can be saved if they just accept and believe in this Word of God purely into their hearts.
However, there are people who do not believe. Those who do not want to believe in the Truth in their hearts are destroying themselves by not believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit they have heard but rather reinterpret it with their own thinking. For example, some people interpret with their own fleshly intellect the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and think, “Oh, Jesus received the baptism out of humility. He did not receive the baptism from John the Baptist in order to take the sins of the world upon Himself.” The gospel of the Truth is being interpreted like this with their fleshly intellect and therefore losing its power to save them. Actually, Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist in order to take over the sins of all humankind once and for all. But some people say, “Jesus only took the past sins away. It is wrong to say that Jesus took all the sins of the world.” They cannot be saved from their sins because they misinterpret God’s Truth, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
However, some people are not like that and they receive salvation from all their sins because they willingly believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit exactly as it is recorded in the Word of God. We must believe that the entire 66 Books of the Old and New Testament are of all the Word of God and the Truth. However, some people are against God’s Truth because they do not have room in their hearts to fully contain the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, such people also fall into confusion when they go against the Word of God. They are prone to become enemies of God by saying, “I think your faith is incorrect,” to the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit; and then, the hearts of the people who believe in the gospel can waver. Put differently, although someone knows that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the Truth, fear and doubt can enter that person’s heart when he hears others telling him, “You have fallen into heresy.”
And some people, after receiving salvation by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, think, “I have received the remission of sins, but I have no idea how I am going to live from now on. I must find a way to make a living.” Such people are prone to lead a fleshly life. Therefore, they cannot live for the preaching of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Thus, they cannot bear spiritual fruit. Strictly speaking, these three kinds of people have reached imperfect salvation. Only those who have the good ground have been saved perfectly. Therefore, when our preachers preach this gospel of the water and the Spirit, it is difficult for them to know who will believe perfectly and yield spiritual crop and who will not.
 
  

Therefore, Preachers Must First Turn Over the Fields of People’s Hearts When Preaching the Word of God to Them

 
When preachers preach the Word of God, they must first turn over the fields of people’s hearts that are to hear the Word. We must do this like a farmer that first plows up the hard ground with a tractor to start farming when winter passes and spring comes. Like this, we preachers must also realize that we have to first turn over the hearts of our targeted audience before we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them. In today’s Scripture passage, the Lord said that the good ground bears fruit some a hundredfold or some sixty or some thirty.
We must know first what state a person’s heart is in before we preach the Word of God to that person. We must make the listeners of the Word understand first what kind of seed we humans are and how much sin we commit before the presence of God and then preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them. Therefore, whoever wants to be saved must know how filthy and indecent a human heart is. We must preach clearly not only that we humans are full of evil in our hearts, but also that we carry out such evil thoughts into action. We must preach to sinners such things sufficiently and make their hearts become the good ground before the presence of God. The way to do this is to turn over their hearts with the Word of God. In other words, we must turn over the hearts of sinners so that they come to realize, “What can I do? I am destined for hell when I die. I have committed so many sins already and I am a person who cannot but live like that in the future as well. What can I do? I will go to hell if the Lord does not save me.” Then, you preachers must preach to them, saying, “Our Lord took all your sins upon Himself by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist in the Jordan River and carried these sins of the world to the Cross and was crucified to death on it and was resurrected from death as your Savior. Your Lord took all your sins upon Himself by receiving the baptism and carried your sins to the Cross and shed His life blood on it and became your Savior by being resurrected from death. Thus, the Lord is your Savior and my Savior. He became our Savior.” This is how people receive the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit through the Word you have preached.
This is how a person like you also received salvation from the sins of the world by faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Moreover, not only you, but other people also received salvation from their sins when they believe in this Truth of this genuine gospel. We who believe can preach this gospel because we know that the Lord has saved other people in exactly the same way He saved us; the Lord has saved us no matter how many sins we have committed or what treacherous sinners we are; the Lord saved a person like me and also saved you. This is the reason why we can preach this gospel.
Preachers must turn over the hearts of their audience thoroughly when they preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Preachers must sow the seed of the gospel, but they must know and teach them first what state the hearts of people are, those who are to encounter this gospel before they actually preaching the gospel. They must teach the people that they are humans that commit sins throughout their entire lives. We preachers must continually teach this truth to every soul repeatedly. Then, whoever has received the Word of God can respond positively to this truth and come to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Some people might accept it when we tell them about the sins they have already committed and come to understand they are such people, but they do not admit themselves to be the ones who will commit the sins that they have not committed yet. This prevents them from holding fast onto the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In such a case, we must enlighten them to know that they also have such sins by giving examples of the sins people generally commit. Like this, preachers must preach the Word relentlessly turning over people’s hearts repeatedly until they can understand and agree in the end that they are really such sinful beings that cannot but go to hell. Gospel preachers must preach the Word until people acknowledges the fact that they are people who cannot but go to hell if the Lord does not save them from their sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that they cannot be saved by anything else besides the Lord because of their grave sins, and that they are beyond salvation. Then, they will also confess their wretched state as the Apostle Paul lamented, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Only then can the salvation the Lord gives can be planted in their hearts perfectly and they can thereby receive salvation and also become ministry workers for God.
Even a person who has received the remission of sins must continue to make his heart pure by plowing it up incessantly. It is because we can become stony ground or a thorny field although we are not a field by the wayside. Our hearts can be overwhelmed with a lot of fleshly worries and concerns at times. We have a lot of fleshly worries about such things like how we are making our living in this world. Thus, our hearts can sometimes become stony fields. It means that we can waver facing the temptations of the world because we do not have faith in the Word of God in our hearts. In such cases, it often seems like that the people of the world live more wisely than us. This is the reason why we the preachers must also preach the Word about the fundamental human nature to the saints. We must let them know about the basic human nature of sin and what kind of offspring humans are essentially. The truth is that humankind is a brood of evildoers that cannot but commit sins, and that humans are very filthy, useless, rotten beings born with twelve kinds of sins from birth, and therefore humans really are perfectly suited to go to hell.
We must preach this Word of God to the people and make them understand and accept that they are such wretched people. Only then can they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and be thankful for that. We can be thankful for the gospel of the water and the Spirit when we come to know our basic nature. We can come to be thankful to the Lord because the Lord saved such people like us from sins. We must know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with the understanding of what kind of person we actually are. We the preachers must know ourselves like that, believe like that, and preach like that. Only then can we yield fruit hundred fold, sixty fold, and thirty fold. We must know and confess that we ourselves are such evil beings before the presence of God, and not others. We must admit ourselves before the presence of God according to the way His Word points out to us.
It means that you also are the wretched beings who commit not only one or two sins but, rather, commit many sins until the moment you die. Therefore, you must know that you are such people that cannot but receive the penalty of eternal death and to be cast into hell. We must know what kind of person we are before the presence of God and acknowledge this. We must believe in the Word of God that shows your fundamental nature.
Do you understand who you really are? Do you acknowledge your sinful self? Do you believe that the Lord took upon Himself all your sins and mine for us who are like this by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist, and He was crucified to death on the Cross and saved us once and for all by being resurrected from the dead?
We have received this genuine salvation by understanding and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. However, even if we have received salvation by such faith, we often lose sight of our fleshly selves. Therefore, we must continue to hear this truth about our basic nature through the Word of God. And we must look towards this genuine gospel always in our lives whenever we find our shortcomings. Then we can come to believe that we are such people and that the Lord has saved us because we are such evil people. Therefore, we must know and acknowledge our evil selves, and we must be thankful again for the salvation of the Lord by ruminating over our wretched state once again. We the preachers must lead a new life like this by believing in the righteousness of God and that this is the upright life. Leading the life of a preacher is the most blessed life.
 
 
A Genuine Preacher Must Preach the Word of God Repeatedly
 
We can see that the Apostles of Jesus also preached the Word repeatedly. Likewise, we must preach the Word of God repeatedly and more and more deeply from various angles.
We are now preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world through our sermon books and it has been very effective. Thus, so many pastors and missionaries overseas have received the remission of their sins, haven’t they? We are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit overseas through our literature ministry while our preachers overseas are meeting the souls in their vicinities to preach this gospel to them. Our preachers preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but not all the people who hear them accept it. One of our coworkers in Europe recently wrote me a European proverb that goes, “You can’t teach an old dog a new trick.” It means that an old dog does not listen to the teachings of its master because an old dog thinks that it already knows everything it has to know. He used this proverb to illustrate the contemporary Christians who do not want to know about the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
“You can’t teach an old dog a new trick.” You also can become like an old dog even if you are young. It is possible for you to become like that if you don’t want to learn from your predecessors of faith. One of our coworkers in Europe used such a saying to express his experience frankly. That pastor distributes our sermon books to the people and preaches the gospel to them, but the Christians there claim that they have received salvation by the blood of the Cross alone and therefore do not accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, he referred to those Christians who do not accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit as old dogs.
The Lord came to this world and took all our sins upon Himself once and for all by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. Isn’t this true? This is the reason why Jesus could not but be crucified on the Cross and shouted out saying, “It is finished” (John 19:30), when He was shedding His lifeblood and being crucified to death on the Cross. Jesus was crucified on the Cross because He personally took all our sins upon Himself by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. The Lord saved us from all our sins like this.
We preachers are preaching this Truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all the people they are facing. However, there are so many old dogs that do not accept the gospel even after hearing the Word of God. These old dogs we are talking about here are not referring to the senior people. You can become an old dog spiritually if you don’t accept the Word of God in your heart. You can become an old dog regardless of whether you are young or old in age. You become an old dog, not because you are old in age, but because you do not have the attitude of learning the Word of God in your heart. A person who does not accept anything else, even the Word of God, besides the doctrines he has learned before, becomes an old dog. Therefore, we the preachers must preach the Word of God repeatedly until even the old dogs can understand it.
 
 
Until Now, I Have Never Preached a Sermon without Speaking about the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
 
It is because there is life in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. However, there are some people who still do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit although we preach it repeatedly. Therefore, we had decided to produce a small booklet summarizing the gospel of the water and the Spirit and see if that would lead people to accept the gospel. It would be great if people would have read this small booklet and receive salvation, but that was not the reality.
Therefore, we are publishing thick sermon books like this and distributing them freely to the people all over the world. The seed of salvation are sowed and planted in their hearts as they read about the gospel of the water and the Spirit repeatedly through our books. They come to receive salvation when they come to know and believe that their sins have really been blotted away, that they were such wicked and sinful people but Jesus took all those sins upon Himself by being baptized, and that Jesus received the judgment of their sins by being crucified to death on the Cross in their place. They come to know that the Lord received the baptism and died for them who could not but die for their sins and was resurrected from death in order to save them. Thus, the salvation the Lord gives is planted deep in their hearts. That is, they become believers in the Truth. And later they also become preachers and workers of this true gospel.
Thus, when a preacher preaches the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the people, it is necessary to preach it repeatedly. A preacher must preach this gospel repeatedly so much that most of the audiences might even misunderstand and think that it is all that the preacher knows. However, a preacher who has received salvation from his or her sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and really has the power of faith is able to preach continually with this one thing, the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Truly, such a preacher is a powerful preacher just like a person who can lecture to his learners on the same topic everyday is truly a profound lecturer. More precisely, it is the power of the water and the Spirit, not the power of the very preacher himself or herself. We can preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit from various angles because it is the genuine gospel. How would we be able to preach the same Truth repeatedly if this gospel of the water and the Spirit were not the genuine Truth? It would be impossible to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit repeatedly and continually if it were not the Truth. When someone preaches repeatedly something that is not the Truth, then, the hearts of both the listeners and preachers are hurt. On the contrary, if the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the genuine Truth, and if this gospel has saved us from all our sins eternally, then, both the preachers and the listeners of this gospel receive salvation from all their sins as well. This is the reason why we must continue preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit repeatedly even though people might say that we are ignorant. People receive the remission of sins in their hearts when we preach it over and over again continually.
Our coworkers ministering overseas probably are now wondering if there could be a better way to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If you just want to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit briefly, you can do that just by preparing one little booklet of about five pages. We would only need about five pages to explain everything from the sins of humans, the righteousness of God, and the judgment of God. If you preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit like that, do you think people could receive the remission of sins by looking at that little booklet containing the summary of correct answers? Would the hearts of the people be turned over and can the gospel of the water and the Spirit reach deep into their hearts? When people do not accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit into their hearts, they only know the gospel intellectually but do not actually believe in it. Therefore, their hearts become like the wayside ground, or the stony ground, or the thorny ground. Therefore, they cannot be saved from their sins. Such people have met the Truth that has manifested by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but it has not touched deep into their hearts. Even when Jesus was ministering in this world, so many people met Jesus but could not understand His Words and did not even recognize Him as the Savior even when they saw Him performing miracles with their own eyes.
Therefore, we the preachers must preach this gospel of the water and the Spirit incessantly to the people. Thus, I preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit ceaselessly to our saints and to everyone all over the world. I don’t know exactly how many of our books have been published in English so far. It might be over 50 titles so far. I recently heard that the total number of our titles we had published in paper books so far in every language is over 270 and 740 e-book titles that are freely downloadable at any time. Besides the books that we have published until now, there are so many books that we will publish in the future. We have to preach every lesson from the 66 Books of the Scriptures. So, we will have to publish an immense number of books, don’t we? We are publishing even more books because we want to preach the Word of God to all the people living throughout the entire world.
Some workers ask me why we have to publish so many books like this when we have to spend so much money for that. Our Churches throughout Korea are pooling money together in an effort to serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What power do I have? However, we all are uniting our efforts and serving like this because it is necessary to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit continuously.
This is the reason why we are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit continuously through our literature ministry while Satan is deceiving people with lies. Therefore, we must preach the Truth from various angles in order to break down these lies of Satan one by one. For example, when we need to preach about the topic of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have to preach on the Book of Romans; if we have to preach about what the genuine gospel and the false gospel, we must look into the Book of Galatians. Like this, we must preach on every topic by illuminating each and every Book of the Scriptures continuously from various angles. We must continue preaching the truth in order to tear down any false teachings that are inside people’s hearts. This is the reason why we have been doing this literature ministry until now and we will continue to do this ministry until the day of the Lord’s return. We have done so much literature ministry until now and there are so many people who have heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit from us, aren’t there? Many pastors, missionaries, and even lay believers are receiving the remissions of their sins throughout the entire world now by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do you think this gospel could have reached this much even in remote countries if we just preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit within Korea only? That would not have been possible.
You must know that all the Christians who believe in the false and half-baked gospel instead of the gospel of the water and the Spirit are fake believers. Most Christians today know and believe wrongly in the false and half-baked gospel as if it were the genuine gospel.
We are living in the end times. Moreover, we are living in the age of famine. In the near future, nations will restrict food acquired by each person. The government will restrict each person to purchase no more than 40kg of rice a month at the market. In certain countries, people bake bread with wheat and consume it as their main diet but they have to wait in line to buy wheat. In their culture, they like to do such things like going to a café and drinking tea and listening to music, but they have minimized such spending now. In some countries, even the bakery owners have to sell fine bread to the customers and buy cheaper and lower quality bread at another store for them to eat. Famine has already arrived throughout the entire world now.
I hear that the people of Korea go overseas and travel these days. Koreans seem to be emotionally oriented. They are prone to live and die on emotional highs and lows. You should come and see Korea. Korea co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with Japan and almost all the people of Korea wore red shirts and cheered for the Korean team and for the success of the sports festival. It seems amazing to foreigners when they see such a great mass cheering of Korean people. Foreigners say it is amazing and they wonder how the entire Korea could wear a red shirt and come out and cheer for the World Cup soccer games! Looking at the bright side, it is certainly amazing, but from a darker perspective, it shows that Koreans are very emotional people. Koreans are really amazing in that way. Therefore, Korean people will do great if they are led properly, but do incredibly bad if they are led in a wrong direction. Korean people have such characteristic. Even in this era when food is becoming scarce, all the people of Korea are causing commotion calling for the renegotiation of the beef import from USA. Even in Korea, the price of wheat and wheat products have been raised so much.
We have now arrived at the era of famine when food is scarce like this. This is such an era. Thus, the people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in this era are the happiest people. Now, the Lord will come to this world in a very short time. I have spoken to you about this! I have said that the entire world will change and there will be famine and natural calamities in this world, haven’t I? And such time has come. Not far from now, the days when the anti-Christ rules over the entire world will come. Therefore, many people will be killed by the anti-Christ. Such a terrible time is actually coming soon.
Anyway, we will preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit until that day, whether or not we will face our deaths. Then, the day of the Advent of the Lord will arrive. At that time, we who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will enter the Kingdom of the Lord; but the people who did not believe in this gospel will be under the penalty to receive eternal judgment for their sins. They will be cast into the fire that shall never be quenched. Such things are not some things that will occur in the far-distant future. However, some people among us do not believe in this fact.
Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the happy people. The preachers of this genuine gospel are truly happy people. This is the reason why the gospel preachers must preach this gospel continuously and sow the seed without being discouraged. You know that a certain person in USA read one of our books sitting on a park bench just like he was reading a worldly book and thought something was wrong with our book and threw it away. But another person passing by picked up that book and read it and received salvation and even wrote us his testimony of salvation! Like this, some people do not think they need the gospel of the water and the Spirit while some people deem this genuine gospel absolutely necessary to themselves. We will all see the Lord who shall come as the Judge. You and I are living in such times. And we are the preachers who spread the righteousness of God.
 
 

I Am Speaking to Our Preachers Overseas

 
You do not need to be discouraged while preaching the gospel. Why should you be discouraged by such things? One of our coworkers has received a permission card that allows him and his coworkers to distribute our books free of charge in his country. During this May, he and his coworkers even put up banners next to streets and distributed our mission books to the people there and they took pictures of that outreach event and sent them to us. In many foreign countries, we cannot distribute books at no cost even if we wanted to unless we have the permission of the proper authorities. After reading our mission books, a person who has the heart of good ground can realize that he is really a person who cannot but go to hell; and that person will receive the gospel of the water and the Spirit. On the contrary, someone who has become stubborn in his own thinking like an old dog still thinks that only the blood of the Cross is the Truth; and that person probably will not accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
 
 

Who Are the Old Dogs among the Christian Believers Now in This Era?

 
Are the old dogs not the people who claim to have received the remission of sins only by the blood of the Cross and do not accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit? People do not become old dogs because of their old age, but it means that they stubbornly do not accept the love of God. I will also be 60 years of age soon. However, I absolutely do not think of myself as a senior. I live as if I am 28 years old now. Even now, when someone speaks about a certain topic that I don’t know about, I accept it with the attitude of learning. And I contemplate whether his words are correct or not.
Among today’s Christians, those who only believe in the blood of the Cross and refuse the gospel of the water and the Spirit are like old dogs. Such people do not accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit even when they encounter this genuine gospel through the books we are distributing. There occasionally are some people who accept the blessed gospel, but most do not accept it. Why is this the case? It is because they think the gospel they believe in is the genuine gospel of the Truth. What is the Truth? Is it the gospel of the water and the Spirit or the gospel of the blood of the Cross alone? By what gospel have you received the remission of your sins? Would you have received salvation from your sins if Jesus had been crucified on the Cross without having your sins passed over to Jesus? If sins could be blotted out like that, then, all the people on the Earth would have received salvation!
You must have sins in your heart if you do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We receive the remission of sins in our hearts only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit; the sins are not blotted out by the faith of believing only in the blood of the Cross as it is claimed in the Christian doctrine. A person who does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit actually has sins and these sins he or she commits are recorded and remain in their hearts. However, people can receive salvation from their sins if they actually know and believe that their sins have been passed over to Jesus at the time He was baptized in the Jordan River from John the Baptist. When we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, in other words, when we believe in the fact that all our sins were passed over onto Jesus at the time He received the baptism from John the Baptist, all our sins are blotted out from our hearts for eternity. The gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit is the gospel that has such power, as it is written, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
The son of the evangelist Billy Graham came to Korea as a preacher a short time ago. He preached to so many people at the Haewoondae Beach in Pusan, Korea, and introduced Jesus. And he also asked people who wanted to believe in Jesus to raise their hands and guided them by offering up the prayer of invitation asking Jesus to come into their hearts. That was all that he had done for these desperate sinners gathered there. This kind of preachers today cannot preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
What does inviting the Lord mean? What is the true invitation of the Lord? The true invitation of Jesus is to know the Truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and to accept it in one’s heart. It is to confess that “I cannot but go to hell due to my sins, but I believe that the Lord Jesus came to this world, received the baptism from John the Baptist, and received the judgment for all my sins by being crucified to death on the Cross.” Therefore, accepting the gospel of the water and the Spirit constitutes accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. I want you to receive Jesus as your personal Savior who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Jesus can be our Savior only if Jesus came as our Savior and took all our sins upon Himself by receiving the baptism. If Jesus did not take our sins upon Himself by His baptism and if He did not pay the price for those sins, how could Jesus become our Savior? He could not become our Savior if this was not the case. How could Jesus whom you and I believe in today become our Savior if He did not take upon Himself all our sins and all the sins of the world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist? That preaching is nonsense. It does not make any sense at all.
The conscience of a person plays the role of the agent of God. Human conscience seeks the absolute justice. When we go to the Supreme Court, we can see the statue of ‘the goddess of law’ that is holding a balancing scale. That scale is seeking fairness of same weight on both sides. Human conscience also seeks fairness without being slanted towards any particular side. However, people’s conscience is not fair actually. This is why we humans do so many wrongs even though we each have a conscience in our hearts. Therefore, we must know and believe that all our sins have been passed over to Jesus Christ through the baptism Jesus received. Jesus becomes our Savior when we know and accept in our hearts the fact that Jesus took all the sins of the world upon Himself by being baptized from John the Baptist. Jesus Christ has become your Savior if you believe in your heart the baptism Jesus received and the blood He shed on the Cross; but Jesus has not become the Savior for those who do not believe in this truth. Is this true or not true? It is true.
How can your conscience become good? If you want your conscience to become good, then, you must know and believe that Jesus came to this world and took all your sins upon Himself by receiving the baptism in order to save you from all your sins (1 Peter 3:21). And we must know that Jesus received the judgment of our sins by suffering crucifixion and shedding His blood on the Cross. And we must believe in this Truth. Only then can we have a good conscience before the presence of God.
So many pastors and people are accepting the gospel of the water and the Spirit in their hearts in every country all over the world now after reading the sermon books that we have sent to them. However, the people who still believe only in the blood of Jesus as their gospel of Salvation now are the people who have not accepted the gospel of the water and the Spirit yet. I am preaching the Truth to all the pastors and all the theologians throughout the entire world. I am writing books that contain the gospel of the water and the Spirit and sending it to them openly. Read these books! Is the gospel of the water and the Spirit incorrect? If you think that the gospel we are preaching is incorrect, then, write your opinions and send them to me.
We are now preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the entire world. However, it saddens me to know that there are many old dogs in Christian communities all over the world. It saddens me because there are too many old dogs on this planet. They remain as sinners because they do not want to be taught the gospel of the water and the Spirit the Lord had given us. The Lord said to us, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mathew 11:28).
Then, why do people not go to the gospel of the water and the Spirit which constitutes the gospel of the Lord that they can rest peacefully in both body and spirit, receive the remission of sins, and go to Heaven, and become the children of God when they just have to believe in the works that the Lord has done for them? Why do people try to take the burden of their sins by themselves? What great power do they have that they are trying to take the responsibility for their sins? We must depend on the Lord by believing in His righteousness. Depending on the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the genuine faith. Depending on the work the Lord has done is the right path to become righteous.
What ability do you have? What power do you and I have that some of you do not hold onto the gospel of the water and the Spirit? If we have anything at all, they are only the sins in our hearts. We were sinners from birth, and therefore, we are worthwhile only because we were born in the likeness of the image of God and as the object worthy to receive the blessings of God according to His Providence. We cannot claim to be the righteous by anything else besides believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
We are the happiest people because we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We are the happy preachers now. A true preacher only has to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit continuously. What else should a good preacher speak about besides this gospel? We must also preach this gospel continually to even the old dogs. I will write even this sermon on a document and send it to our coworkers who are ministering overseas. We will carefully do all the works within the power the Lord gives.
We are doing a very important task now and we are living as the true preachers in these end times. We are the final runners. We are the final runners to hand the baton to the last runners in this spiritual relay race. There are runners running after us and they are our coworkers ministering overseas. It will be over when we run around the lap once and hand the baton over to our coworkers overseas and they finish running around the lap completely. We will preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the entire world. The Lord will come when we finish preaching this beautiful gospel. Like the curtain coming down at the end of a play, the end of the world is coming like this. The Lord is going to start the history of humankind anew again. This is definitely possible in the Providence of God and it is the reality. The new and glorious world will begin soon. The Lord will create a new heaven and new earth.
You might say, “Stop telling us something that sounds like a cartoon story.” However, they are all true. God has created the entire universe with His Word only and thus God will also make a new world and make us the hosts of this new world. You and I are the lords of the Kingdom of Heaven. Does this sound like a cartoon story?
Jesus Christ who is God has created us. After a short time, Jesus Christ will come to this world again to take us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit away with Him. We must live in the midst of hope by knowing this. Do you understand? We must lead the life of a faithful preacher by faith and not be discouraged. We must know what we must do while living in this era and stand firm by the faith of believing in the righteousness of God.
Halleluiah!
 
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
SERMONS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME OUR COWORKERS (I)