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Subject 6 : Heretics
[6-18] Who Are the False Prophets inside the Christianity of Today? (Matthew 7:15-27)
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.’”
Today, I would like to speak about the false prophets mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7, verse 15 and those verses that follow it. Most Christians nowadays are currently leading a life of faith under the deception of pastors who are false prophets. Then, is it the case that such lives of faith are all due to prophets who speak lies? No, the bigger problem lies in their inability to discern the false prophets from the true ones. But this is mainly due to the fact that the false prophets look more like true prophets in their outer appearance than the true prophets themselves from a human perspective.
That is why the Lord speaks about how the false prophets appear. Referring to them, the Lord said, “Who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” Accordingly, the false prophets are those who appear splendid but take away the sheep’s life. The false prophets who lie before God may look virtuous in the flesh, but their inside is filled with a heart of a ravenous wolf. In other words, they are those who act as leaders by saying that they believe in God despite the fact that they are presently serving the golden calves as their god. Therefore, we must remember the Lord saying that they are, in a word, ravenous wolves, referring to the false prophets.
Referring to false prophets, the Lord also said, “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:16-20).
When we look at this Scripture passage, we discover how we can distinguish false prophets. The Lord said that we could know them by their fruits. How can we distinguish false prophets before God? First, by looking at their fruits of faith, we are able to distinguish whether or not they are the false ones. The Lord spoke of the fruit of faith that can be fundamentally applied as the criterion to discern all the false prophets. The Lord said, “How can men gather grapes from thorn bushes and how can men gather figs from thistles? That can never be.” Also, He said, “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit,” and He said that is quite proper.
Despite the fact that many people inside today’s Christianity haven’t received their cleansing of sins due to still not knowing about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, it is the case that they deceive people as well as even themselves as if they were the born-again and as if they were the true prophets of God with fleshly virtuous acts and with prayers in false tongues or with their deceiving act of the laying on of hands. And thus, the Lord has taught us the criterion for which we can discern true prophets from the false ones and has asked us not to be deceived by them by taking their fruits of faith, which cannot change in spirit and in flesh.
Therefore, we must distinguish false prophets before God by looking at their fruits of faith. By doing so, we can avoid getting pillaged by them in spirit and flesh. In other words, we can easily see that those who profess to believe in Jesus without knowing about the gospel of the water and the Spirit are false prophets. Because they lead a false life of faith, when we look at their fruits of faith, it is easy to see who they are. This Word that the Lord has told us is the Truth.
Indeed, Who Are the False Prophets Inside of Christianity?
It is difficult to distinguish false prophets inside Christianity by their outer appearances. If we were to try to distinguish and observe them by their outer appearances, because they on the contrary seem very gentle and decent like a good sheep, one can’t possibly judge whether they are false prophets or true prophets. That’s why Paul the Apostle said, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
Thus, in order for us to recognize the false ones, we should examine their fruits of faith. And the fact of the matter is that we can see that their fruits of faith are revealed as constantly seeking after material things only, the golden calves. Those who seek after material things only before God are not trees that bear good fruit, but rather, they are false prophets, trees that bear bad fruit. When we look at them with our spiritual eyes, we can see that they are gouging out material things from their church members and are swindling people in spirit and flesh, all the while saying that they are doing the work of the Lord for they are wicked and cunning.
What the Lord spoke about the heretics is simple and clear: The fact is that the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit becomes the absolute standard for distinguishing false prophets and heretics within Christianity. We must distinguish the false prophets inside today’s Christianity. But because that work isn’t easy, we must distinguish and make judgments with the gospel of the water and the Spirit given to us as the standard. Put differently, the Lord-given gospel Word of the water and the Spirit becomes the absolute criterion for judging them. It is because the Gospel of John chapter 3 says that one has to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in order to be born again. Therefore, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the standard of the Truth as well as the criterion for salvation
When you meet someone, it is impossible to distinguish whether or not that man is truly a man of God just by looking at his outer appearance. We are able to see him properly by looking at his fruit of faith, which he bears by his faith. Simply put, we can recognize whether someone is a true servant of God or not through these questions: “What sort of gospel does he believe in? Is he someone who believes only in the blood of the Cross? If not, does he believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit?” The fact of the matter is that we can see if someone is a false prophet by asking: “Is he someone who believes in the baptism Jesus had received from John the Baptist and the Cross, or is he not?” Also, we can properly discern the so-called God’s servants by asking: “Is that pastor someone who extracts money from the church members? If not, is he someone who serves the saints and the workers all the while serving the work of spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit?”
This is so because we cannot know whether that person is a true servant of God or the false one through his acts, manner of speech, or countenance. It is because a false prophet behaves more courteously toward people, speaks more gently, carries out deeds in a more noble way, and exhibits himself in a virtuous way. Therefore, we must remember in our hearts that if we want to know them properly, we have to look at their fruits of faith. We can discern them properly by looking at their fruits of faith, that is, by asking: “Are they currently following the golden calves, or if not, are they showing the righteousness of God and believing in and serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit?” In other words, their fruits are what they essentially seek for.
By comparing people to trees, our Lord said, “You will know them by their fruits.” And the fact of the matter is that one can truly see whether or not a certain pastor is false by looking to see whether he is serving the golden calves or the righteousness of God in his ministry. If his heart is filled with greed and if he is trying to exploit only material things from the church members, that is, if he is serving the golden calves only, he is clearly a false prophet. The fact of the matter is that in order to serve the golden calves, false prophets are killing the spirits of the church members and exploiting their material things by the name of Jesus Christ. Certainly, we can see clearly who they are by looking at their fruits of faith.
If a certain pastor does not know about the gospel of the water and the Spirit and is continuing to perform pastoral duties without being able to preach the genuine gospel to his church members, for he does not know it, then he is someone who is carrying out the work in order to serve the golden calves of greed that are currently set high inside his heart. Then, how can his church members hear about the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, by which the righteousness of God is revealed, from someone of such a false sin-filled heart? It is impossible. Can pastors like him have their church members truly be born again by having them be remitted of sins? That is impossible, too. Can they right now deliver the gospel of the water and the Spirit to their church members, which can truly have them be turned into children of God? No, they cannot. What is clear is that one cannot become a sinless person by listening to the sermons preached by them.
If they were truly born again by believing in the Word of the righteousness of God, the Holy Spirit will be inside their hearts as a result, and also, the gospel that they preach will surely be the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If it is the case that they themselves are good trees from a spiritual perspective, then in the end, because they will be bearing good fruits, they will also do the work of serving the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, a person who listens to their words will be able to know what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is by listening to what they say and become someone who exalts and serves the righteousness of God. However, because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they can never become those who preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to their church members.
That is why the Lord has said, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 7:19). The Lord said that at the end of the last days that He will then cut down the false prophets and throw them into an unquenchable fire. Hell is a place where the Devil and his servants will be imprisoned.
People Doing the Work of Serving the Golden Calves Inside of Christianity Are the Spiritual Heretics before God
It is quite right to regard all of those who are performing their ministries inside Christianity without knowing about the gospel of the water and the Spirit as false prophets. Right now within Christianity, there are so many people carrying out such illegitimate pastoral work. It is regrettable to say so, but right now within Christianity, there are just too many such false prophets. False prophets are those who believe in the false gospel instead of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and such people’s faith leads them into serving the golden calves of greed only. It is because that is their fruit. It is because such people only covet church member’s money within the extraterritorial boundary called the church that they work hide in. They exploit church members’ money under the title of monetary offerings to God.
Their words flow smooth, and at times, they give sermons in a confusing way by mixing up the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament as if they know and believe in the Word of God spiritually. Nevertheless, if we look at the true aspects of their pastoral work, we can see that they are serving only for the golden calves, without even being aware of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is self-evident that they, unaware of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, can never preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to their church members. It is clear that they are those who cannot do anything for their church members spiritually.
However, they exert their efforts in extracting money from their church members by cleverly using Christian doctrines under the pretext of God’s grace. Thus, many pastors these days are only concerned with building large chapels, and no one can say that their pastoral works are different from a well-conceived business venture of this world. Just as people who had been going to small markets and shops swarm to a large warehouse store newly opened up by a world-scale company like Wal-Mart, they exert great efforts into building a large chapel for they know that by building a large chapel with all the necessary facilities and gathering more people there, they can extract an even larger amount of money from the church members that come. Thus, these people make special plans to make much more money and that is the building of the largest chapel in the city because they are only interested in extracting money instead of saving souls.
Also, it becomes more absurd when we look into how they come up with the funds to build such chapels. In order to build bigger chapel structures, they are not collecting voluntary donations from those that want to purely serve the Lord but instead, they are raising construction funds by exploiting the church member’s money through ingenious ideas. For example, some of them entice their church members to receive loans from banks. Especially the church duty holders who serve inside the church, such as elders, deaconesses, and deacons are their first targets. In order to achieve their goal, they have those people offer the money that they had borrowed by vouching for each other as a chapel construction donation.
Does something like this make sense? Yet, they have those people make donations in the amount of ten million Won, which is equivalent to about ten thousand US Dollars, for the lay believers who would borrow the least amount of money, thirty million Won for church duty holders such as deacons, and fifty million to one hundred million for the elders who are deemed to have faith. Also, they do not forget to utilize the competitive mentality in order to make those people offer more. Of course, all the loaned money that the church members had borrowed from banks has to be paid back by the church members. And so, pastors who know about that kind of means go on to build with ease a large-sized chapel that takes up tens of billions of Won, which is equivalent to tens of billions of Dollars, in construction costs. When I see chapels of exorbitant scale getting built even in small towns and villages of Korea, I get to think sadly that because of those chapels, many church members who go there must have stood surety for a great amount of money.
Let Us Calculate the Monetary Donation Needed to Build a Mammoth Chapel
As the church members vouch for each other in the amount of twenty thousand US Dollars, but if one of them has not paid back the money, then it is the case that either one of them has to pay back in full. Yet, if there are ten people borrowing twenty thousand Dollars each, how much is the total? It adds up to two hundred thousand Dollars. With just ten church members donating, the sum becomes two hundred thousand Dollars. Thus, if they were to build a chapel that is worth fifty million Dollars, all they have to have is 2,500 members donating twenty thousand Dollars each. Because many churches in Korea have over 2,000 to 3,000 adult church members, the calculations show that it isn’t all that difficult to build a large chapel that is worth fifty million Dollars. Thus, pastors in Korea these days are competitively pushing forward with the plans to build a bigger chapel because they can utilize those bigger chapels to gather more people into their churches and then extract a larger amount of donation money from those people.
So, these days, pastors that serve the golden calves of greed preach like this: “Would you be taking your money with you when you die? The Bible says that you have to lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. We must work for God. And so, as for those of you who cannot get an unsecured loan, please stand surety for each other. If you do so, banks will give you a loan.” Thus, they go on heaping up money.
To them, church members’ twenty million US Dollars is like nothing. To them, one hundred thousand Dollars is worth nothing more than a child’s candy money. In most instances, faithful church members offer donations for the purpose of chapel construction by taking out loans. Church members who have faith in God cannot but offer donations by standing surety like that and taking out loans for they are told that the chapel building work is a work for the good of Jesus Christ. However, because such false people are only interested in material things, they go on to build a bigger chapel by utilizing such means and then have many more people come there. And, once those people become church members, they come to follow suit and make donations in the same way as that of their predecessors. And for that reason, even though the people of that area were in extreme poverty, it was possible to build at least the church building on a large-scale.
Of course, not all of them build like that. But this is for sure the prevailing trend of most Korean churches. As for them, buying at once ten large-sized buses to transport church members who come to their church isn’t that difficult. Something like that can be easily purchased with donations from the elders. It is possible because the pastors have already engraved in the minds of the church members the lie, “If you make many donations to the church, you will receive material blessings without fail.” To them, so long as it is justified by the name of Jesus Christ, the work of achieving that goal is like nothing. These days, there’s a comedian who gives Koreans laughter by coming up with the catchphrase, “It’s only puny.” And the fact is that if each church member were to get a loan in the amount of fifty million Won (fifty thousand US Dollars) and donate that, the church would even be able to build and move into a hundred-story skyscraper. “It’s only puny.”
People usually look at pastors’ conducts and countenances first. And when they see a pastor whose first impression is good and if he seems to serve Jesus well, they go on to say that that the pastor is a true servant of the orthodox Christianity. But, we cannot distinguish the false ones in that manner. Then, what do we look at to distinguish the false ones from the true servants of God? We can find that out by looking into the following questions: “Is the pastor only interested in the golden calves? If not, does he believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and is he interested in the spreading of that gospel being thankful for it?”
The false prophets recognize and bless only those among their church members who donate large amounts of money. Therefore, we are able to see if he is one of the true servants of God or if he is just a false one by asking: “Does he really do that? If not, is he willing to serve God and the saints by truly offering his life to the spreading of the gospel of the water and the Spirit?” Pastors who worship the golden calves are only interested in building bigger chapels and plundering church members. Our Lord said that false prophets are ravenous wolves because He was pointing out the wrongful faith of the false ones and the fact that their basic motivation for believing in Jesus was wrong.
The Word of our Lord, that is, the written Word of God is a truly wonderful Word. We know and believe in the Truth of the water and the Spirit by confirming it through the Word of God. Because the Word of the Lord is the Truth, because the Lord is the God of the Truth, and because God is all-powerful, we are able to see everything properly by His Word.
A Pastor Whose Interest Lies Only in Monetary Donations Is Surely a False Prophet
Even though they carry out ministry work within the extraterritorial boundaries of Christianity, the real fact is that they are heretics before God. A distinct trait of a false prophet is that he carries out pastoral work without knowing about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the only God-given measure for salvation. False prophets never believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, but instead, they only assert doctrines that they have learned from the theological schools of their own denominations. Such people do not obey, follow, and believe in the Word of God. They are the very heretics who gather up money under the pretext of Jesus’ name.
Take a look at the Christianity that exists all over the world today. Whether it is in Asia, Europe, or any other place, there are many heretics inside Christianity. They have no interest in believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and preaching it, but rather, they put in all their efforts only into building huge chapels and turning their church members into men of morals. They are specialists in turning their church members into ethical models. As for them, just as only a few new church members come into the chapel, they start to worry over the question, “What can I do to extract even more money from the congregation?” And that is why the Lord says to us to take heed of them.
And that is why we call them “collective heretics.” We must distinguish carefully people who are part of the collective heretics. How do we recognize people who are heretics before God? Heretics in Christianity are those who have faith different from that of the Word of God, and thus, they are those who do not believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Heretical believers are those who do not believe in the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, has taken on the sins of this world once and for all by coming down to this earth in His human flesh by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist; the fact that He was nailed to the Cross having borne the sins of this world on His back; and the fact that He was resurrected on the third day and is now sitting at the right hand of God.
Therefore, people who do ministry work without having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and those who claim to preach the gospel by believing, on their own accord, only in the blood of the Cross are all spiritual heretics before God. Jesus said that unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he can neither enter God’s Kingdom nor see God the Father. The Lord said that we are able to distinguish who the heretics are by looking at their fruit. If that is the case and you are currently a minister, then you must examine yourself to see if whether or not you have become a heretic unknowingly. If you have become a heretic before God for not having known about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then please come back quickly before God by receiving the remission of your sins by believing in this genuine gospel. If you do so, God will find joy in you.
Heretics inside Christianity are only interested in material things. Thus, if we were to look, based on the Word spoken by the Lord, there are a tremendous number of heretics within Christianity in this world. They extort the hard working poor people’s money. Of course, they gather up rich people’s money, too. Their conscience is dauntless for they claim to serve the gospel by gathering up money.
We must distinguish between them and us in accordance with what our Lord has said about them. The Lord said a bad tree is unable to bear good fruit. What this means is that if a person didn’t truly receive the remission of sins by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and does not truly have the Holy Spirit inside his or her heart, then that person never will be able to bear spiritually virtuous fruit. The fact of the matter is that even if such a person preaches well, looks proper in the outer appearance, and speaks unerringly, no matter how much, all that would amount to nothing.
At times as I watch the Christian channel on TV, I monitor the flow of Christian faith, sermons, and ministries throughout this world in this day and age. A few days ago, I saw a certain Evangelical pastor who is claimed to be great appearing on a Christian program on TV and preaching. He was so eloquent, but his sermon was just words that had nothing to do with the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Because he did not know about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he was someone who couldn’t even mention a word about that true gospel to his church members. If a preacher cannot preach about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then clearly, that person must be a false prophet. Because he preaches the Word of God without having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he is a wrongful preacher. He is a false prophet. There are many false people like that. Truly, such false prophets constantly give legalistic sermons, and they exert all their efforts into serving the golden calves.
Brothers and sisters overseas who have received the remission of sins by having read our books write to us e-mail letters, and as we listen to what they have to say, they say that the false prophets there are also telling people to just donate money and are frantic about building bigger chapels. Yet, as we are sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit with them, they send us messages thanking us greatly for that. We are spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit through free books and free electronic books for those that truly love their soul and want to receive the remission of sins among the Christians of the world.
However, heretics are just trying to extract money from their church members and have them donate more money by giving sermons with such intentions, instead of carrying out the work of spreading the gospel of God. Even though their dreams are to be enthusiastic about enlarging the chapel facilities and making its interior or the facilities extravagant, in the end, the fact of the matter is that they are not preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the most important Truth, to their church members, but rather, they are filling up the hearts of their church members with the greed of the golden calves.
Dear fellow believers, inside Christianity all over the world, there are many people who have become heretics. The Lord said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). Those who profess to believe in Jesus without even knowing about the gospel of the water and the Spirit are none other than heretics. Ravenous wolves! The Lord said that they are precisely the heretics. Wolves in sheep’s skin are polite and sleek-spoken from the outside, but they only ask their church members to donate money. They are unable to preach this gospel Truth that delivers people’s spirits from sins, and as a result, they lead souls, who cannot be killed otherwise, to a curse and destruction.
That is why there are many heretics inside today’s Christianity. People who are outside Christianity aren’t heretics before God. They are just lost sheep. However, there are many heretics among those who have now come inside Christianity, believing in Jesus and having become leaders, duty holders, and lay believers. They have become heretics without realizing it because they do not know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, because they have not received the remission of sins in their heart, and because they have not received the Holy Spirit. I want you to see whether or not the pastor who is leading you is a heretic.
If I were to say these things, it would be of great shock to them, so it isn’t easy for me to say these things. Nevertheless, I think the time has come for me to speak about who the heretics are in the presence of God. That is why I am giving a series of sermons on heresy, I am preaching the fact that the Lord has said that every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. I am going to publish a couple of books on heresy. In doing so, I wish to make clear who the heretics are and what sort of faith is that of a heretic.
And so, I want to preach the Word of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit to the miserable ones, that is, the heretics. A person who hasn’t yet been born again due to not knowing about the gospel of the water and the Spirit can never bear good fruit, no matter how many fasting prayers and prayers of repentance that person were to offer and no matter how hard that person may endeavor. However, if such a person believes in the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit even now, he too can be born again all at once, and can lead others into becoming the born-again. Thus, everyone has to know and believe in the fact that the Lord has saved us from sins by the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit as He came down to this earth. Everyone must truly be born again by knowing and believing in the Lord’s work and how He has blotted out all our sins.
What we must realize here is that knowing and believing in the work of having saved us from sins that the Lord has accomplished through the gospel of the water and the Spirit is more important than what sort of sacrifices and service we ourselves ought to carry out before the Lord. The Lord’s work of having saved us from sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit is what that is important, and thus, we shouldn’t put forth before the Lord how much we had sacrificed and endeavored for the Lord. If there are some merits that we had done for the Lord, they were all possible by the strength given by the Lord. Thus, we must be even more thankful for the righteousness of the Lord by faith. One thing important for us is to know and believe in is how God has created the universe and how He has saved us from sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit by sending His Son down to this earth. God had this plan to save us in Christ from all our sins even before the Creation of the world. The Lord having saved us from the sins of the world by the gospel of the water and the Spirit is what that is important. Then, what I am asking is if we don’t even know the important Truth, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, how can we preach that to others and then have them believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Our own righteousness isn’t all that important before the Lord.
Therefore, everyone has to know and believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, whoever he or she may be. To do so, one must learn the Truth about the gospel of the water and the Spirit. To do so, the attitude of willing to learn the Truth about the water and the Spirit is essential. And everyone has to believe in and serve this gospel, and then preach it to others. Do you agree? If not, you must be a heretic. The fact is that people these days who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit cannot but fall into destruction after having lived doing things that a heretic would do all the while being affiliated with heresy even if they do not want to become a heretic.
Therefore, people who truly believe in Jesus, regardless of whom, must know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Also, they must actually apply this gospel to their soul and believe in it. Have you truly received the cleansing of sins by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? This is what that is important. You must ask yourselves these questions: “Have I truly been saved from sins? Have I truly been born again by the gospel of the water and the Spirit?” You must ask yourselves whether or not you yourselves have been saved from all your sins by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And also, if you think that you have truly been delivered from your sins at once, you must ask yourselves whether or not you have been delivered by truly having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
And if that is not the case, you must at this moment believe in the Truth that the Lord has saved you and me by coming down to this earth in the flesh; receiving His baptism from John the Baptist at the age of thirty; taking on all your sins at once and for all; going to the Cross carrying the sins of the world on His back; getting nailed and vicariously dying; being resurrected from the dead; and rising up to the right hand of the throne of God. You must confirm on your own whether or not you yourselves do have the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. One who has truly been born again of water and the Spirit must be able to say, “I do not have sins by the faith of believing in this Truth, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.” Instead of speaking out formulas and answers regarding the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have memorized, we must have faith inside our heart. We must become someone who can ask oneself, “Do I truly have no sin?” and then answer oneself, “Of course! I have no sin for the Lord has saved me like so by the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit,” by the faith of knowing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit inside one’s heart.
When you ask yourself a question like that, do you answer that your heart knows and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Have you become such a person? You must become such a person. It’s not someone else’s responsibility but yours that you haven’t been born again. When asked, “How were you born again?” You do not get saved by tracing back into your memory and speaking out an answer you had memorized with difficulty thus saying: “Let’s see. What was his name? Who was the man that gave Jesus His baptism?”
You must be able answer correctly like this: “The Lord has saved me by coming to this earth, taking on all my sins by receiving His baptism, dying vicariously for me, and then being resurrected from the dead. Because the Lord has saved me like so, even though I may be lacking, I do not have any sins. There actually aren’t any sins inside my heart. Thus, I have received the remission of sins.” Accordingly, you must be able to say to yourself, “Yes, you have already received God’s blessing by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.”
We must not become those who lie before the Lord. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must become those who are faithful in the presence of God. We must become those whose faith receives recognition from God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Not by our own virtuous deeds but by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and in the written Word of the Truth, we must become a good tree and thus, become the faithful that bears good fruit.
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Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission