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The New Life Mission
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Wholeheartedly, We Must Properly Know and Believe in Jesus The Lord took on the sins of the entire mankind at once through the baptism received from John the Baptist, and He shed blood on the Cross, died vicariously, and was resurrected from death. Having received the baptism given by John the Baptist, the Lord became the Savior who saved us from the sins of the entire world. Therefore, today’s Christians must think and believe in Jesus in connection with the ministry of John the Baptist. In other words, regarding Jesus Christ saving mankind from the sin of the world, you and I must know and believe in the ministry of John the Baptist in which he had passed on the sins of the world to Jesus once and for all. In order to do this, we must first realize that Jesus is the ministry worker who fulfilled the all the righteousness of God by having received the baptism from John the Baptist as stated in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All Christians living in this day and age must know both the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus. We must now return to the Word of the Lord, and then we must think why there has to be the ministry of John the Baptist and believe in it. We must now enter into the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus, and then we must renew our current faith even more. Having done so, all those living on this earth must anticipate the arrival of the day when they will all know the righteousness of God. Such faith is to obey the will of God who is perfect. ◄
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The Relationship Between The Ministry of JESUS and That of JOHN the BAPTIST Recorded in The Four Gospels PAUL C. JONG
Hephzibah Publishing House
The Relationship Between The Ministry of JESUS and That of JOHN the BAPTIST Recorded in The Four Gospels
Copyright © 2006 by The New Life Mission All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the copyright owner. Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version. ISBN 89-8314-376-2
A Ministry of THE NEW LIFE MISSION SEOUL, KOREA
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Table of Contents Preface ------------------------------------------------ 7 You Must Know and Believe in the Ministry of John the Baptist (Mark 1:1-2) ------------------------------------ 15 John the Baptist Was Not a Failure (Matthew 11:1-14) ----------------------------- 30 John the Baptist, Who Came in the Way of Righteousness (Matthew 17:1-13) ----------------------------- 57 Look at the Ministry of John the Baptist! (Luke 1:17-23) ---------------------------------- 81 Let Us Gladly Enjoy the Glory of God (John 1:1-14) ---------------------------------- 105 Do You Know the Ministries of Two Servants of God? (John 1:30-36) --------------------------------- 127
Why Did Jesus Have to Receive the Baptism? (John 3:22-36) --------------------------------- 148 Spread the True Gospel and Jesus’ Righteous Deed (Matthew 3:1-17) ----------------------------- 174 The Relationship between the Work of John the Baptist and the Gospel of Atonement for Our Sins (Matthew 21:32) ------------------------------ 184 Jesus Who Came to Blot Out Your Sins (Matthew 3:13-17) ---------------------------- 222 “Behold, I Send My Messenger” (Mark 1:1-5) ----------------------------------- 252 Let’s Believe in Jesus with the Understanding of John the Baptist (Luke 1:1-17) ---------------------------------- 297
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Preface The New Testament begins with the Four Gospels, that is, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All of the Four Gospels dealt with and completely recorded the ministry of John the Baptist. It is because his ministry is so important. Without the understanding of the ministry of John the Baptist, we cannot claim to know the ministry of Jesus Christ. If so, we can ask ourselves, “Was the ministry of John the Baptist recorded in the Four Gospels of that much importance?” Pointing out John the Baptist, even Jesus said, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:14). Hence, John the Baptist was a man born on this earth to carry out a special ministry. Jesus also said, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). This is true
because John the Baptist was born on this earth, and when he baptized Jesus Christ, the sins of this world were passed on to Him. Thus, Jesus was able to take on the sins of this world at once. By having allowed this to be so, the Lord has allowed those who believe in the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus to enter Heaven by receiving the cleansing of sins. This is the meaning inherent in the Scripture passage from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11, verses 12-14. Do you believe that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the Truth? If you do, it means that you know the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus completely. However, many Christians who do not understand the ministry of John the Baptist do not know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, and they lead their life of faith only with the fervors of their flesh. Though ignorance, such people do not even try to know the ministry of John the Baptist written in the Four Gospels. Hence, the ministry of ◄
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John the Baptist has all too long been coming under disregard even among Christians who claim to believe in Jesus. Perhaps for this reason, I find there isn’t that many people who have interest in the ministry of John the Baptist these days. Thus, people are prone to look strangely at those who have interest on this topic. It is because many people have been unconcerned about the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus unwillingly for a long time. There were Christian leaders who had made many people think it is undoubtedly right. Thus, Christians today go on living ignorant of the ministry of John Baptist. They are those who pursue a faith that is fleshly and legalistic. Because people of this world have been living with a worldly and fleshly egoistic mind, they could not help but follow a path toward destruction. I will witness the ministry of John the Baptist recorded in the Four Gospels. I cannot but also witness the ministry of Jesus Christ. I cannot but
continue this work until all the Christians throughout the world know the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus. To properly understand the ministry of Jesus, one needs to possess a proper understanding of the ministry of John the Baptist. By all means, I wish for you to humbly accept the witnessing of these two ministries by comparing it with the Word of God. I will not try to witness the current doctrines of Christianity. Instead, I will witness the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus written in the Four Gospels exactly in accordance with the Word of God.
The Lord Speaks to Us Ever More Strongly about the Importance of the Ministry of John the Baptist Now, mankind must accept in their hearts the
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ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus, and thus, walk toward the throne of grace and be clothed in grace of God. If you intend to return to Jesus Christ, you will first have to know and accept the ministry of John the Baptist. If you try to understand the ministry of Jesus without having a correct understanding of the ministry of John the Baptist, you will fall into numerous errors and enormous pain. You must not turn the ministry of Jesus Christ useless by disregarding the ministry of John the Baptist. Right now, do you have a proper understanding of the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus? If there remain sins in your heart despite your faith in the ministry of Jesus Christ, then it is clear that you do not know the ministry of John the Baptist. The Lord spoke to all of us about the need for the ministry of John the Baptist. The Bible says that should you and I not believe in the ministry of John the Baptist and resist it, there awaits a fearsome
judgment for that sin. Our hearts are led toward Jesus Christ because there have been God’s love and the ministry of John the Baptist.
Right Now, I Want to Ask Today’s Christians Just How Much They Know about the Ministry of John the Baptist I have much doubt about Christians’ faith today. If they try to understand the ministry of Jesus Christ without the knowledge of the ministry of John the Baptist, they will enter into tremendous emptiness, chaos, and darkness. In other words, they will remain as fools. Yet, because they go on claiming right now to believe in the ministry of Jesus Christ without the knowledge of the ministry of John the Baptist, I just feel stifled.
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I have no choice but to speak out this Truth. I say to such ignorant Christians: “You are not aware of yourself being situated in a state of not knowing the ministry of John the Baptist. What do you think about the ministry of John the Baptist? Concerning the receiving of salvation by believing in Jesus, are you perhaps thinking that it doesn’t matter whether you know the ministry of John the Baptist or not?” We must think about the reason why God had it written in the Book of Malachi chapter 4 in the Old Testament, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet,” (Malachi 4:5). It says that God was willing to send Elijah in His Time. Then we arrive at the question, “Why did God send John the Baptist to this earth?” We must understand that God the Father had promised to send Elijah to this earth prior to the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus testified that John the Baptist was Elijah to come according to God’s promise, as it is written: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6). How good would it be if today’s Christians could understand that this passage was speaking about John the Baptist? They would then be able to receive many blessings before God. However, most of Christians these days are losing out on God’s blessings for not being able to fully understand this passage, so, I will preach this fact repeatedly. Why did the Lord in the above passage say that He would send the prophet Elijah prior to passing judgment on this world? It is said that the prophet of God Elijah will come to this earth, lead God’s heart toward us and also lead us who are in the image of God toward God. We can see these words of ◄
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prophecy get realized in the ministry of John the Baptist appearing in the New Testament. The content of this book, The Relationship between the Ministry of Jesus and That of John the Baptist Recorded in the Four Gospels, will provide much help to Christian sinners who know and believe in the blood of the Cross only. It will also enlighten them on what the ministry of God truly is. Because they have had disregard for the ministry of John the Baptist and passed it by, they have believed only in the blood of the Cross up until now. Therefore, they haven’t been able to receive the true blessing of God sent down through Jesus Christ. Are you not one of them? Then, you must become the believers of God’s love and His righteousness by becoming aware of the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus from now on. You must give back the glory to God and desire to receive the infinite blessing of God by entering into these two ministries that constitute the righteousness of God.
Certain People These Days Try to Revert Back the Ministry of John the Baptist into Something Meaningless It is because such people think that John the Baptist and his ministry were failures. They did not understand the ministry of John the Baptist properly. Furthermore, they didn’t even try to know it. They were saying that John the Baptist, instead of properly recognizing Jesus Christ, had doubted Him, falling into temptation. They say that the passages in Matthew 11:2-3 led them to think like that. It is written in Matthew 11:2-3, “And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” With these passages as the basis, they claim that John the Baptist had doubted Jesus Christ, instead of believing in Him as the Savior, but that is absolutely not the case.
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John the Baptist did not doubt Jesus being the Savior. Rather, he wanted to send all his disciples to Jesus to make them Jesus’ disciples. Andrew and John were the case. I think there had been some stubborn disciples who didn’t obey their imprisoned teacher who told them to go to Jesus Christ and believe in Him. I am sure that John the Baptist wanted to send his stubborn disciples to Jesus before his death. Are you a part of the multitude who doubt the ministry of John the Baptist and his faith? The faith and the ministry of John the Baptist shows that he was someone who had believed in the divinity of Jesus and His being the Savior, and especially the one who had passed on the sin of the world to Jesus. He wasn’t an unbeliever. On the contrary, he was someone who had believed in Jesus Christ’s divinity and His being the Lamb of God and the one who had given Jesus the baptism led by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we know that he said those words because
he had wanted to guide his disciples to Jesus Christ. It was because he knew that he would die a martyr in the near future and return to God. Certain people do not know the ministry of John the Baptist and yet, try to ignore it. Indeed, they are foolish. They mustn’t do so. If you want to believe in Jesus Christ who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the Savior, before all else, you must know the ministry of John the Baptist and recognize that he was a messenger sent by God. You must remember that he was the servant of God who had passed on the sins of this world at once by giving Jesus Christ the baptism. This work wasn’t something he had done arbitrarily by himself; but instead, he had given Jesus Christ the baptism in accordance with the will of God the Father. Because John the Baptist had passed on the sins of this world to Jesus Christ, he goes on to witness that fact to us the very next day of Jesus’ baptism by saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of ◄
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the world!” (John 1:29) He was the very person who had given Jesus the baptism of passing on the sins of this world to Jesus at once at the Jordan River. Also, he had completed the ministry of “Elijah” who was promised to be sent in the Book of Malachi chapter 3 and 4 in the Old Testament. You must remember the Word of Jesus in which He said, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come,” (Matthew 11:14). Like so, in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament, Jesus speaks about John the Baptist being Elijah mentioned in the Old Testament and the importance of his ministry. Therefore, if you who believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior have disregard for his ministry, then you must turn around and have a proper faith. In the Book of Malachi chapter 4, verse 6, the Lord said that He will unsparingly render judgment upon those who do not come back to the Lord by ignoring his ministry for their sins. Also in the Bible, Jesus says that John the Baptist
was someone who had carried out a very important ministry. The passage in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11 verse 12 says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force,” and this passage speaks about John the Baptist carrying out the work of passing on the sins of this world by giving Jesus Christ the baptism and also about Jesus being able to go to the Cross for having taken on the sins of this world at once by receiving the baptism. Thus, John the Baptist was able to witness by looking at Jesus and saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” This is the Truth that the Bible clearly speaks of in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Once again I say to you: “People who have a disregard for the ministry of John the Baptist will receive a terrifying judgment from God.” I want you to bear in mind that the Lord speaks of the entire Truth of salvation in the Four Gospels. If a person ◄
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disregards the ministry of John the Baptist written in the Four Gospels, then that person cannot accurately understand the ministry of Jesus Christ. Now we all must realize the importance of the ministry of John the Baptist and become thankful by faith for the righteousness of God perfected in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Both the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus are precious and indispensable ministries for our salvation. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we all must become those who live out our faith receiving God’s blessings by attaining the remission of sins and entering into the will of God. I wish for you right now to be those who are thankful by faith for Jesus Christ, who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and for the ministry of John the Baptist who had faithfully carried out the ministry of God. I hope that all the miraculous blessings of God be
with you! June 30, 2006 Paul C. Jong, Author
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SERMON 1
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16 You Must Know and Believe in the Ministry of John the Baptist
You Must Know and Believe in the Ministry of John the Baptist < Mark 1:1-2 > “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’”
John the Baptist Prepared the Way of the Lord Mark 1:2 says, “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before
You.” My fellow believers, you can find the righteousness of God only if you throw away your preconceived notions and follow the Bible as the Word of God guides you. So when you read God’s Word, you must read it after forsaking your own thoughts and carnal desires. Only then can you realize and believe in the will of God that He wants to fulfill. The same principle applies to today’s Scripture passage as well. It is when you cast aside your fleshly thoughts and follow the Word of God as it leads you that you can properly understand the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus. The messenger whom God sent before Jesus is none other than John the Baptist. Why did God say in Matthew 11:10-11 that He sent John the Baptist to you and me? Why did John the Baptist have to be sent six months before Jesus Christ was born on this earth? The reason for this was so that John would fulfill his duties as the High Priest of the Old Testament on this earth. Another reason was for him
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to pass the sins of mankind to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. As a descendant of Aaron the High Priest of the Old Testament, John the Baptist had been sent to fulfill the priesthood of his house by the will of God. Six months before Jesus was conceived by the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist was conceived by God in Elizabeth’s womb, a descendant of Aaron the High Priest. This was done for the sake of the righteousness of God, to pass the sins of mankind to Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Luke introduces John the Baptist as the son of Zacharias, one of the priests from the division of Abijah. This means that John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, was born from the division of Abijah, one of the grandsons of Aaron the High Priest. The division of Abijah here refers to his descendants. In other words, it refers to the descendants of Aaron the High Priest. When the descendants of Aaron increased in number, King David established a rotating order for their priesthood, and Aaron’s descendants offered
sacrifices according to this order. These sons of Aaron, who were all from the house of the High Priest, could minister as priests in turn for 15 days according to their respective divisions. Aaron’s descendants faithfully fulfilled their ministry as priests for the people of Israel; some as High Priests and others as common priests. That’s because God had given the privilege and blessing of serving as priests only to Aaron’s descendants. The evidence for this is found in 1 Chronicles 24:1-19; let’s all turn to this passage here: “Now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children; therefore Eleazar and Ithamar ministered as priests. Then David with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to the schedule of their service. There were more leaders found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar, and thus they were divided. Among the sons of Eleazar were
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18 You Must Know and Believe in the Ministry of John the Baptist
sixteen heads of their fathers’ houses, and eight heads of their fathers’ houses among the sons of Ithamar. Thus they were divided by lot, one group as another, for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of the house of God, from the sons of Eleazar and from the sons of Ithamar. And the scribe, Shemaiah the son of Nethanel, one of the Levites, wrote them down before the king, the leaders, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the priests and Levites, one father’s house taken for Eleazar and one for Ithamar. Now the first lot fell to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah, the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim, the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin, the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah, the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah, the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim, the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab, the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer, the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Happizzez, the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel, the twenty-first
to Jachin, the twenty-second to Gamul, the twentythird to Delaiah, the twenty-fourth to Maaziah. This was the schedule of their service for coming into the house of the LORD according to their ordinance by the hand of Aaron their father, as the LORD God of Israel had commanded him.” Let us also turn to the account of the Day of Atonement when the people of Israel offered their yearly sacrifices to God. This scene is described in Leviticus 16:29-34: “‘This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you. For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever. And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments; then
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19 You Must Know and Believe in the Ministry of John the Baptist
he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.” And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.” You must realize here that it is to the descendants of Aaron whom God had entrusted the office of the High Priest forever. It is the forever-unchanging Law of God for Aaron’s descendants to fulfill the office of the High Priest. For the atonement of the people of Israel, God made the High Priest offer sin offerings every year on the tenth day of the seventh month. After the passing of the age of the Old Testament, and the age of the New Testament began, John the Baptist was born in the house of Aaron the High Priest to fulfill the ministry of passing all the sins of mankind to Jesus Christ by baptizing Him. Put differently, John the Baptist’s role was to fulfill the
office of the last High Priest of the Old Testament.
Mark 1:1-2 Speaks of the Ministry of John the Baptist It’s written in Luke 1:5, “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.” This passage mentions that both Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth were Aaron’s descendants. What we need to realize here and believe from this account is the ministry of John the Baptist and the gospel mystery of the water and the Spirit. John the Baptist was born from Zacharias and Elizabeth, and these two belonged to the house of Aaron, the first High Priest of the Old Testament. God made John the Baptist born to Zacharias and his wife so that John would, first of all, inherit the office ◄
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of the High Priest on this earth. As the representative of mankind who would baptize Jesus, John the Baptist was to fulfill the duties of the last priest of the age of the Old Testament. This was the providence of redemption found in Jesus Christ, and the work of the righteous covenant of God found in this providence and of His pleasure. John the Baptist was God’s servant raised according to the providence of redemption in Jesus Christ. In other words, it was according to the will of God that John the Baptist was born in the house of Aaron to fulfill the office of the last High Priest on earth. Being born in the house of Aaron, John the Baptist ministered as the High Priest of all humankind. Here we need to examine his role in more detail and reach a definitive understanding. Only then can we properly believe in the ministry of Jesus Christ who came to save us from all the sins of this world. Although we often think about Jesus as the Savior of mankind, when it comes to Elijah to come, who is mentioned in Malachi chapter 4 in the
Old Testament, we have actually been too indifferent. To appreciate why it is so necessary for every Christian in these end times to understand the ministry of John the Baptist, we need to once again turn to the Word of God. We need to reconsider the relationship between the ministry of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. If there were no connection between John the Baptist’s ministry and Jesus’ ministry, then we would have no reason to be interested in the ministry of John the Baptist anymore. However, there is a reason for us to take interest in John the Baptist. That’s because his ministry is indeed intimately related to the ministry of Jesus. This is more true today because the hearts of most Christians still have not been completely washed from sin, and because of the need of Christians around the globe to really return to Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When it comes to the ministry of John the Baptist and that of Jesus, it’s absolutely indispensable for us to know
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and believe in the reason that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Only then can we understand the reason why Jesus shed His blood on the Cross for us after being baptized by John. John the Baptist was God’s messenger sent to this earth by God the Father almost at the same time as Jesus Christ His Son was sent. As the last High Priest of the age of the Old Testament, John fulfilled this ministry by baptizing Jesus. That is why God said in Mark 1:2, “As it is written in the Prophets: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’” You should realize here that the writers of the Four Gospels in the New Testament all draw our attention to the ministry of John the Baptist first before speaking of Jesus Christ. Mark, a disciple of Jesus, first introduced the ministry of John the Baptist, which was passing the sins of the world to Jesus. That’s because Mark knew that John the Baptist had to pass all the sins of this world to Jesus by baptizing Him. It’s because John the Baptist was
the very man who passed mankind’s sins to Jesus through baptism. So quoting a passage from the Old Testament, Mark is saying that John the Baptist was God’s servant prepared beforehand according to His providence. The reason for this is only when we all understand the ministry of John the Baptist properly can we also properly understand and believe in the ministry of Jesus. John the Baptist was the messenger of God the Father sent to this earth six months prior to Jesus. In other words, he was God’s ambassador sent to pass the sins of this world to Jesus. Chosen by God among the High Priests of the Old Testament, John the Baptist was God’s servant who was to pass all the sins of this world to Jesus by baptizing Him, and to thus fulfill his priesthood. Therefore, his ministry was a blessed one, and he was God’s servant who played an important role in fulfilling the righteousness of God. John the Baptist was the blessed one who, together with Jesus, was indispensable to fulfill all the righteousness of God
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(Matthew 3:15). He was, in other words, God’s servant who made it clearly known that Jesus would become the Savior of all sinners. Thus, we should not fail to notice the fact that all the writers of the Four Gospels introduced the ministry of John the Baptist prior to the ministry of Jesus. Before finding out about Jesus’ ministry, all of us must first realize the importance of the ministry of John the Baptist. Both spiritually and actually, John the Baptist was God’s ambassador sent from the Kingdom of Heaven. It is through the ministry of John the Baptist, who came from the Kingdom of Heaven in obedience to the will of God, that we can understand the ministry of Jesus Christ properly. If we have the proper understanding of the ministry of John the Baptist, then we can also grasp easily that Jesus bore the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, all to become our Savior. So we can see that the Four Gospels in the New Testament invariably write about the ministry of John the Baptist, God’s servant.
Why did God send John the Baptist, a descendant of Aaron, before sending Jesus at the beginning of the New Testament era? This shows us that just like Aaron the High Priest, who had passed all the yearly sins of the people of Israel to the scapegoat by laying his hands on its head in the age of the Old Testament, John the Baptist is the very man who passed all the sins of this world to Jesus once and for all in the age of the New Testament. Leviticus 16:21 says, “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.” In the New Testament, the counterpart to this passage is the ministry of John the Baptist. And Jesus’ baptism denotes the importance of this ministry. Let me illustrate this point with a secular example. Let’s say that a young man is drafted into military service and goes through all the training. He doesn’t
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become a good solider from the beginning, but later on. Likewise, Jesus did not take upon the sins of mankind from the moment He was born, but rather, He bore them at the age of 30 by being baptized by John the Baptist, and that is why He could become the true Savior. So it was because Jesus had shouldered the sins of the world that He could be crucified to atone for them. The Old Testament’s sacrificial animal became the offering of atonement by accepting the yearly sins of the Israelites all at once through the laying on of the High Priest’s hands. Likewise, John the Baptist fulfilled the important task of passing the sins of this world to the sacrificial offering called Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, by baptizing Him. Referring to this Truth, Hebrews 10:1 says, “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.” The Bible also says in Isaiah 40:3, “The voice of one
crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.’” God the Father is saying that He passed all the sins of the world to His Son Jesus once and for all through John the Baptist. Each and every sin of this world was passed onto Jesus’ head through the baptism given by John the Baptist. Before He was crucified, Jesus had shouldered the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist.
The New Testament Therefore Introduces the Ministry of John the Baptist before the Ministry of Jesus at the Beginning of Each of the Four Gospels As written in the Old Testament, John the Baptist was a messenger of God. Today, however, there is a
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pronounced tendency for gospel preachers to ignore John the Baptist and his ministry. This is a great spiritual fallacy and an extremely grave problem. It is akin to ignoring the wisdom of God and His plan to give all humans everlasting life. However, you must recognize that only by fully understanding and believing in the ministry of John the Baptist can you realize that Jesus Christ is indeed the true Savior of mankind. If you minister without such knowledge, wisdom, and faith, you can never minister properly. You will only turn into a worldly religious practitioner that preaches only the shell while leaving out the gospel core of the water and the Spirit. Without teaching the role of John the Baptist to the congregation, no preacher can lead them to Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is nothing more than giving an empty sermon. In this light, most of today’s Christians professing to believe in Jesus are actually leading their lives of faith without realizing the gospel mystery of the
water and the Spirit. This is why even as they believe in Jesus as their Savior, their sins have not disappeared and they still remain forever cursed. Such people’s faith is useless, and they are committing the fallacy of corrupting Christianity into a mere worldly religion when it is supposed to bring everlasting life. As a result, there are many Christians nowadays who say that they still have sin even as they profess to believe in Jesus. For these people, everyone is a sinner whether he believes in Jesus or not. Since both worldly people and Christians are always sinful in their spirits, there is nothing that sets them apart. If there is any difference at all, it is only that some sinners know their sins while others don’t; insofar as they are all living as sinners, they are the same. What’s the point of believing in Jesus then? If you don’t know the gospel of the water and the Spirit and don’t believe in it, then you are no different from everyone else who is ignorant of the righteousness of God Jesus Christ has fulfilled. Do you have faith in the gospel of the water and the
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Spirit right now? For those who now believe that Jesus Christ is their Savior who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, are they sinners or are they righteous people? Today’s gospel preachers say that anyone can go to Heaven just by believing in Jesus blindly, even without knowing anything about the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As a result, countless people still remain sinners. This is all because of spiritually blind leaders. It’s because they do not repent. How can Christians today say that they believe in Jesus as their Savior without any knowledge of the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Jesus Himself bore witness of John the Baptist in the Bible, testifying, “John the Baptist came in the way of righteousness.” So given this, can anyone really obtain the washing of his sins just by saying that he believes in Jesus unconditionally? Can any minister who doesn’t know the ministry of John the Baptist really say that he knows and believes in Jesus properly? No, of course not. That’s why we must
clearly understand the ministry of John the Baptist as well as the ministry of Jesus. Matthew 21:32 says, “For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him.” Christianity today is only boasting of its long history. Since today’s Christian leaders do not actually know the ministry of John the Baptist in connection with the ministry of Jesus, even though they are trying hard to evangelize, those who are evangelized by them cannot bear the true fruit of salvation. It is heartbreaking to see that most Christians have no idea how their sins have all been blotted out, as it is written: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children (Hosea 4:6). Let me tell you a story here. Long ago, in a remote village, there were two brothers who were
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completely illiterate. The older brother left his home village to find a job, but he had returned home for a holiday. The day before the Thanksgiving Day, he went on a hike with his younger brother to a nearby hill. As it was autumn, there were a lot of banners warning of forest fire. So the brothers came across one such banner hung between two electrical posts, with the sign reading “Beware of Fire” written in red against white background. The younger brother had seen how his big brother had returned home a completely changed man after a long absence, all dressed up and quite fashionable, and so he thought that the big brother would know what the banner said. With this expectation he asked his brother, “What does the sign say?” The big brother in fact had no idea what the sign said, but since his little brother was asking him, he felt he had to give him an answer to save his face. So he looked around, and since the banner was hung on electrical posts, he said to his little brother, “The sign says ‘electrical post.’”
Impressed, the little brother heaped praise on his big brother, saying, “Wow, you are so intelligent!” But a little later on, they came across another banner. This time, the sign read “Beware of Forest Fire.” The little brother, of course, had no clue what it said since he was completely illiterate. So he asked his big brother again, “What does this sign say?” The big brother had given his little brother some concocted answer, but now the little brother was asking him once again. So he thought about what he should say. He then figured that this sign had one more word than the previous one, and so he said, “The sign reads ‘another electrical post.’” Once again, the little brother was impressed. Continuing on with their walk, they talked about what had been happening in their lives while they were apart, sharing their moments of joy and sadness. But they came across yet another sign. It read this time: “Watch out for Forest Fire.” So the little brother asked again about the sign, saying, “What does this sign say?” The big brother then thought
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about this and said, “It says ‘one more electrical post.” They kept on hiking. As they continued on, they came across yet another sign. This time it read, “Be Very Careful of Forest Fire.” So the little brother asked one more time, “What does this banner say?” The big brother mulled over this and then said, “It says, ‘more and more electrical posts.’” Again, the little brother was impressed with his brother and said to him, “You are so knowledgeable! I want you to take me with you when you leave home!” Resuming their walk, they came across one more sign that had even more letters. It said, “Take Another Look at the Fire You’ve Just Put Out.” So the little brother asked again, “What does the sign say this time?” All the previous answers had revolved around electrical posts, and so what do you suppose the big brother said this time? He said, “It says, ‘This is yet another electrical post.’” So in this way, the big brother managed to impress his little brother.
Among those preaching the gospel today, there also are many people who are just like this big brother in our story. Even though they don’t know exactly how Jesus shouldered their sins, they still insist blindly that since God loves them and sacrificed Himself for them, they have been saved just by believing in Jesus’ Cross. But this is completely wrong. You can understand a sign only if you know its letters and its meaning. We can reach a correct understanding of the gospel of the water and the Spirit only when we have correct knowledge of John the Baptist. Today, we can believe in Jesus through John the Baptist, that is, through the witness of John the Baptist as it is written in the Scriptures. John bore witness of who Jesus was, what sins He bore, how He bore them, how He was the Son of God, and how He shouldered all our sins. The Apostle John and John the Baptist are not the same person. The Apostle John is a disciple of Jesus while John the Baptist is a messenger of God, the representative of mankind, a descendant of Aaron,
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the last prophet of the human race and its last High Priest.
John the Baptist Is a Servant of God Sent by the Father It’s written in John 1:6-7: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.” The Apostle John testifies here that there was a man sent from God named John, and that it is through his witness that we believe in Jesus Christ. Without the witness of John the Baptist mentioned in John 1:7, how else could you and I have believed in Jesus properly? Given the fact that we’ve never seen Jesus, and that we are all from different cultural, national, and religious backgrounds, how could we have believed in Jesus as our Savior unless we knew the ministry fulfilled by John the Baptist? If we had not known when exactly
our sins were passed onto Jesus, if John the Baptist had not testified that he passed the sins of the world along with our own sins to Jesus, then how could we have believed in Jesus as the Savior? Without John the Baptist, the pioneer of the gospel, could we have believed in Jesus as our Savior? Isn’t it only when we examine the foundation of God’s plan of salvation that we can really find out whether Jesus Christ is indeed our Savior or not? Isn’t it only when we know exactly when, how, and through whom your sins and mine were passed onto Jesus that we can really believe in Him? Isn’t this compelling enough? My fellow believers, Christians who already believe in Jesus must also grasp the ministry of John the Baptist. To be a village leader, one must be literate. Making a leader out of an illiterate person only spells trouble. Not only is this person alone in trouble, but the whole village also suffers as a result. My fellow believers, only when you understand the ministry of John the Baptist sent by God can you truly be saved from sin. You must realize that when
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you believe in Jesus, when you accept and believe that He has become your Savior, you yourself can be saved and your salvation is not rendered obsolete. When we have such faith, we can testify with our own lips that Jesus has indeed saved us from all sins because He loves us all. Don’t you agree? Just as knowledge is imperative to do anything, you must realize that John the Baptist came by the way of righteousness, and you must realize that Jesus bore our sins once for all through the baptism He received from John. Isn’t it only then that we believe in Jesus as our Savior? John the Baptist is the servant of God who passed the sins of this world to Jesus, and he is the last High Priest of the age of the Old Testament. We should all ruminate on the ministry of John the Baptist in connection with the ministry of Jesus Christ, understand this interrelationship, and make up our minds to believe in Him.
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SERMON 2
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John the Baptist Was Not a Failure < Matthew 11:1-14 > “Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.’ As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: ‘What did you go out into the
wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.”
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We Have to Understand the Ministry of John the Baptist Exactly what ministry did John the Baptist fulfill before Jesus? Many Christians today do not understand John the Baptist properly, and so they all need to take another look at him to understand him and appreciate his ministry properly. All of us need to have the correct understanding and appreciation of the relationship between the ministry of Jesus and that of John the Baptist. By properly understanding this relationship, you need to get the first-hand experience of receiving the remission of your sins by faith. In today’s Scripture passage, Jesus Christ said to the disciples of John the Baptist, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” In fact, the blind who met Jesus had their eyes
opened, the lame could stand up and walk, the demon-possessed could be set free from their demons when they encountered Jesus, and the gospel of Heaven was preached to the poor in spirit. What we need to realize first here is that the ministry of Jesus included the work of opening the eyes of the blind. In this age and time, in other words, our Lord has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the true gospel that opens the eyes of sinners who are wandering in darkness. Before encountering Jesus Christ, everyone had sin in his heart and was spiritually blind before God. We, too, had not known the authenticity of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, nor understood who Jesus really was, and we all had been unaware of our own sins and our fatal consequences owing to these sins. And we had no interest in the true gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Truth of salvation that Jesus has given us. However, many people have now heard the powerful gospel Word of the water and the Spirit,
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and by placing their faith in this gospel Word, their spiritual eyes have been opened and they have discovered the Truth that enables them to be saved from all their sins. Those who know and believe in this genuine gospel have now discovered the Truth of the remission of sin that they had not known before: Their eyes of faith have been opened, and they have come to do the work of God. As it is with our eyes of the flesh that we see everything in this world, we now can see the spiritual world brightly after our spiritual eyes were opened by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is how one reaches the understanding that the ministry of Jesus is all for the ministry of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because of our sins, you and I had been spiritually blind and lame, able to neither see the God’s ministry nor do His work. In other words, we had also been sinners who were bound to be condemned to hell. However, Jesus Christ came to this earth, was baptized by John the Baptist, shed His blood on the Cross, and thereby fulfilled the works that remitted
away all the sins of the world. Therefore, whoever believes in this Truth can experience that all his or her sins are completely washed away. Jesus Christ has washed away all our sins by actually coming this earth, being baptized by John the Baptist, and shedding His blood on the Cross. Even now, such works of God continue to unfold magnificently in the hearts of all who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. With the gospel power of the water and the Spirit, our Lord has opened the spiritual eyes of His believers, and He has made us, who had been spiritually lame, to rise and stand up on our feet. We need to realize here that if we try to do God’s work without even having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there will be absolutely no benefit whatsoever for both our bodies and spirits. Those who still have not received the remission of their sins constantly think, “I should live virtuously. I must be good to everyone.” But no one is even remotely capable of achieving this, of doing what is good and virtuous.
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Before we came to know the gospel power of the water and the Spirit, we had sin in our hearts and therefore we had all been sinners, and consequently, we could not know what God’s righteous work is like, nor do it. However, because our Lord accepted all our sins once for all through His baptism, and because He washed them all away with the blood that He shed on the Cross while shouldering the sins of the world, we were able to be saved from all our sins. It is because Jesus Christ has saved us from our sins by the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that we are now able to live according to the will of God. We are now capable of enabling everyone else to also taste the power of this true gospel and be saved. By bringing new life through the Truth of salvation to you and me who had been spiritually lame, Jesus Christ has enabled us to be saved from all our sins and all our curses. What Jesus said here, that “the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up,” has now also been fulfilled in all of
our hearts that believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Before, as we had been sinners, we had also been spiritual lepers. At that time our hearts clearly had sin, and we could not be cleansed from all our sins, unless we placed our faith in this true gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord also said that the deaf would hear. When we had been sinners, we could not understand the Word of God even when we heard it. But now, because we have been clothed with the gospel power of the water and the Spirit by placing our faith in it, we can understand the Word of God, grasp its true meaning, and believe in it wholeheartedly. Everyone throughout the whole world is now living under spiritual starvation and thirst. They suffer from their spiritual deafness and lameness. But the Lord is still giving them the chance to be healed all at once by letting us preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them. We must have pity on them. We need to remember that when we did not know this gospel of salvation, the gospel of the water
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and the Spirit, we had no satisfaction whatsoever, and that we also could not help but live with all our sins remaining in our hearts. We should not forget His merciful grace that has turned sinners into the righteous. As such, what our Lord spoke to the disciples of John the Baptist about the wonders that He actually exercised was to let them know that Jesus is the Son of God, the real Savior and the Messiah to come. Some may say that while John the Baptist was imprisoned, he was tempted and became doubtful as to whether Jesus was the Messiah to come, and that this is why he sent his disciples to Jesus. But this is absolutely not the case. Who was John the Baptist? He was the greatest of all those born of women. He was even greater than any other servants of God. In other words, it was not because John the Baptist did not believe in Jesus that he sent out his disciples to Him and had them ask, “Are You the Coming One?” On the contrary, he was now educating his disciples, so that they would know who Jesus really was.
John the Baptist already knew and believed that Jesus was the Savior and the Son of God; moreover, he had heard the testimony of God the Father when he baptized Jesus Christ in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:17), and he himself had also been a witness who had been testifying Jesus. It was because some of his disciples did not know Jesus properly that John the Baptist sent them to Jesus, in order to teach them that Jesus Christ is the Savior to come. In fact, after John the Baptist knew that Jesus Christ was the Messiah to come, he tried to retreat his ministry and send his disciples to the Lord. In order to reveal Jesus to Israel, John even said, “He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). For example, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, had been clearly John’s disciple, but he followed the Lord after hearing John’s witnessing of Jesus (John 1:40). Yet today’s critics of John the Baptist are saying all kinds of nonsense, even as they do not even know him, claiming, “John the Baptist was a failure. He fell into temptation and failed to believe in Jesus. His
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faith crumbled down while he was imprisoned.” But my fellow believers, you must not doubt the faith of John the Baptist. John the Baptist and Jesus had their own duties that they had to fulfill together in the providence of God the Father. This was to baptize and to be baptized, the ministries that were to fulfill the righteousness of God. This is why Jesus and John the Baptist testified each other’s ministry. Matthew 11:7-9 states, “As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.” Jesus said here, “Why did you go out into the wilderness? To see a prophet? If so, you are right. I say to you that John the Baptist is more than a prophet.” Jesus then explained John the Baptist by referring to Malachi 3:1 in the Scriptures.
Matthew 11:10 is a passage that cites Malachi 3:1. In it, Jesus said, “For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’” Referring to the passage written in Malachi 3:1, in other words, Jesus Himself testified that John the Baptist was the very messenger of God who would be sent before Jesus Himself. Who is God’s messenger that is written in Malachi 3:1? It is none other than John the Baptist. Malachi 4:5-6 also point out that the messenger in Malachi 3:1—“I send My messenger”—refers to no one else but John the Baptist. In Matthew 11:11, Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Why did our Lord say this to us? Why did He say that John the Baptist was the greatest of all those born of women? Jesus is telling us here that John the Baptist was the very messenger of God that was
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prophesied in the Old Testament, and that he is the representative of mankind. This passage continues on with another difficult phrase: “But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Many false teachers are judging John the Baptist as a failure by this phrase. They say, “Because John was doubtful about Jesus’ being Messiah, he was evaluated as the least one by the Lord.” But this is absolutely nonsense. Rather, what Jesus is actually saying here is that although John the Baptist was the representative of mankind, spiritually speaking, he was a lowly man who could not be compared to those who have become God’s own children. In other words, although John the Baptist was the representative of all human beings in the flesh, he could not be compared to the born-again. Actually, John was the greatest one from a human point of view. He was raised as a Nazirite, and lived an ascetic life in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey. From the viewpoint of human
righteousness, he surely was the greatest one. But this human righteousness is of no use when it is compared to the righteousness of God, which is given to everyone who can enter His Kingdom by faith. And because those who have become the people of the Kingdom of Heaven by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have received the righteousness of God, they are greater than anyone who only relies on his own righteousness. One may become the representative of mankind on this earth in the flesh, but he is smaller than those who have become God’s people by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, when Jesus said, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force,” He said so because John the Baptist had baptized Him at once and thereby passed the sins of the world to Him. As such, John the Baptist was the last High Priest and prophet of the Old Testament, and his ministry ended when he baptized Jesus and bore witness to Him.
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Jesus is telling us, in other words, that everything of the Old Testament ended with His own appearance and the appearance of John the Baptist, and with John’s ministry of baptizing Jesus. Put differently, from the time when John the Baptist and Jesus came to this earth, all the righteousness of God was fulfilled. It is because Jesus came to this earth and was baptized by John that the age of the New Testament was opened from then on. This age of the New Testament is the age of the gospel of power, and it is an era in which whoever believes in this gospel of the water and the Spirit can receive the remission of sin and become God’s own child. As the age of the Old Testament lasted until the days of John the Baptist, when Jesus Christ came to this earth, took upon the sins of mankind with His baptism, shed His blood, and remitted away all our sins, henceforth the gates of Heaven have been flung open to all who believe in this Truth. As Jesus took upon all the sins of everyone on this
earth by being baptized, the age of the New Testament was then begun. All the Old Testament’s Word of prophecy were fulfilled through John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ accepted all the sins of mankind once for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, shed His blood on the Cross, and has thereby blotted out all the sins of this world. This is why our Lord said that from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffered violence. It is because Jesus accepted the sins of the world by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist that whoever believes in this Truth can now enter Heaven by faith. Put differently, it is because John the Baptist passed mankind’s sins to Jesus through this baptism that Jesus took upon all the sins of the world once for all. Because John the Baptist was born of the descendants of the household of Aaron the High Priest, he could fulfill his role of passing the sins of the world to Jesus as the last High Priest of the Old Testament.
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That anyone who believes in this Truth can now enter Heaven by faith is because John the Baptist had passed all the sins of the world to Jesus by baptizing Him, and it is because Jesus took upon these sins of the world that the age of the salvation of mankind has now dawned upon us. With this greatest historical event, the age of the Old Testament ended, and the age of the New Testament started. And Jesus fulfilled His ministry as our Savior to perfection by taking upon all our sins of mankind with His baptism, shedding His blood, and rising from the dead again. Therefore, a new age has opened for all those who believe in the baptism that John the Baptist gave to Jesus, in which the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence. The Kingdom of Heaven cannot actually be taken by force with the strength of the flesh. What, then, is the spiritual meaning of this passage? It is this: Jesus is telling us the mystery of Heaven, that because He accepted all the sins of this world when John the Baptist baptized Him and when He in turn received
this baptism, and because He was crucified, shed His blood, and rose from the dead again, anyone can now make Heaven his by believing in this gospel. Our Lord said, “All the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” In other words, the prophecies of the Old Testament lasted until the days of John the Baptist. Of course, it is more accurate to say that the age of the Old Testament lasted until the birth of Jesus. But it is exactly when John the Baptist baptized Jesus that the prophecies of the Old Testament were spiritually fulfilled.
Elijah to Come Was None Other Than This Man, John the Baptist Jesus said in Matthew 11:14, “If you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” This passage tells us that the very messenger of God written in Malachi 3:1 and 4:5-6 refers to none other than John the Baptist. Since John the Baptist was the ◄
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representative of mankind, the greatest of all those born of women, this means that he was greater than all the prophets of the Old Testament. John the Baptist was a servant of God who was greater than any other servants of God such as Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. When he came to this earth, he fulfilled his role as a prophet, and as the representative of mankind, he also fulfilled his role as the last High Priest of the Old Testament. It was because John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River that all the sins of mankind were passed onto Jesus once for all. All the prophecies of the Old Testament, in other words, were fulfilled once for all through the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus. Therefore, we must all realize and believe that the role of John the Baptist was absolutely indispensable to the work of the salvation of humanity. It was the ministry of John the Baptist that played the assisting role when Jesus Christ was fulfilling the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All of us must realize that it was
by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. Insofar as God’s providence for the salvation of mankind is concerned, we must all know and believe, without fail, how profound this Truth is. What I am explaining to you here is the relationship between the ministry of Jesus and that of John the Baptist. By necessity, these ministries of Jesus and John the Baptist had to fulfill the will of God the Father in union. And had John the Baptist not testified Jesus as the Savior, and had he not passed the sins of the world to Him by baptizing Him, Jesus could not have fulfilled His ministry that blotted out all the sins of the world. It is because Jesus was testified by John the Baptist as “the Lamb of God who carries the sin of the world” that we could have been saved from our sins by believing in it. This is how you and I could have been cleansed from all our sins today by placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can believe in the true gospel wholly when we
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believe wholly in the Scripture passage that describes who John the Baptist is. To do so, we should open the Bible to Malachi 3:1, confirm this passage with our eyes, and then believe that this messenger of God was none other than John the Baptist. Only then can we also confidently preach and explain the role of the John the Baptist and that of Jesus when we testify the gospel power of the water and the Spirit to everyone else. Malachi 3:1 states, “‘Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,’ Says the LORD of hosts.” Who is the messenger here in this passage? The Lord of hosts said here that He would send His servant to this world, and in Matthew 11:10 in the New Testament, Jesus Himself bore witness of this passage of the Old Testament. When we compare these two passages with one another, we can see
clearly that God’s messenger is none other than John the Baptist whom Jesus Himself testified. Who do we think John the Baptist was? The very messenger of God, whom He had promised to send to us in the Old Testament, was the John the Baptist.
The Ministry That Was Absolutely Indispensable to Blot Out the Sins of This World Let us read the latter parts of Malachi 3:1 again: “And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming.” The Messenger of the covenant prophesied here refers to Jesus Christ. So the prophecy of the Old Testament was to be fulfilled by John the Baptist and Jesus Christ as they were sent to this earth according to the will of God the Father. This passage is related to another prophesy that says, “Behold, the virgin shall ◄
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conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Elsewhere in Isaiah 53:5, it is written, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” This tells us that Jesus Christ, the Son of God promised in the Old Testament, would come to this earth and cleanse away all the sin of mankind as white as snow. God continued to say in Malachi 3:2-3, “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness.” Just as God had promised us with this passage, “He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness,” this Word of promise has actually been fulfilled now.
In the New Testament, as Jesus Christ took upon all the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist and shed His blood, He accomplished our salvation from all our sins. This passage speaks of the power of the remission of all the sins of mankind that Jesus Christ actually fulfilled by being baptized by John and shedding His blood. God said in Malachi 3:2, “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?” Who could stand against Jesus Christ when He came to this earth? Who could prevent Him from fulfilling His ministry that remitted away all the sins of mankind by coming to this earth, being baptized by John, and shedding His blood? Once, people had seized Jesus and tried to kill Him by pushing Him over a cliff, but He went His way with great dignity passing through the midst of them (Luke 4:28-30). We have to know Him as the Magnificent God Himself. Our Lord took upon our sins once for all by the gospel power of the water and the Spirit, blotted
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them all out with the power of this gospel through His crucifixion, and will come back to take away those who believe in this. Who among the unbelievers, then, could possibly stand before God in this Day of Judgment? It is written, “Who can stand when He appears?” Only those who have received the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can stand before Him. No one else can stand before Him. If we stand before Jesus Christ on this day with all our sins remaining in us, we will all be destroyed. Malachi 3:2 says, “For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap.” Who is He here? It is Jesus Christ the only Savior who has blotted out the sins of mankind like a refiner’s fire and launderers’ soap. This passage is prophesying, in other words, that Jesus Christ would wash away everyone’s sins by being baptized, and that He would cleanse everyone’s heart by shedding His blood. My fellow believers, when our Lord came to this earth, He took upon all the sins of mankind once for
all by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist. And He carried these sins of the world to the Cross, was crucified, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and has thereby saved us from the sins of the world and their condemnation. This is how Jesus Christ has blotted out everyone’s sins. Jesus is the Savior who has at once cleansed away all the sins of everyone who believes in God, like launderers’ soap. Just as our clothes are thoroughly cleansed when we wash them with soap, anyone who believes in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit can wash away all his sins, and he can be delivered from all his condemnation of sin. Everyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will be remitted from all their sins to complete perfection. Yet despite this, countless Christians still have sin in their hearts even though they profess to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior, for they do not know the gospel power of the water and the Spirit. Not all the nuggets of gold on this earth are pure gold. To turn them into 100% pure gold, they must
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first be refined. To do so, the gold nuggets are placed in a furnace and heated up with raging fire below. When the nuggets are thus completely melted, all impurities float above. Only when these impurities are removed with appropriate tools do the nuggets turn into pure gold; if they are not removed, then it is not pure gold. Likewise, just as these gold nuggets go through the refining process that removes all the impurities, it is because Jesus took upon all the sins of the world by being baptized by John and shed His blood for us that all our sins of the world were completely blotted out. It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that all of us can have our sins blotted out. Malachi 3:3 goes onto say, “He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness.” This tells us that the Lord has purified the sons of Levi from their sins. Spiritually speaking, the sons of Levi here refer to the saints
who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The people of Israel were composed of twelve tribes: Jacob had twelve sons, and the descendants of these sons constituted the twelve tribes of Israel. Among these tribes, the descendants of Levi were especially chosen to serve God as the priests who were entirely devoted themselves to the duties in the Tabernacle. So only these descendants of Levi could become priests before God. And God first cleansed their sins through the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle. Likewise, in today’s age also, God has enabled His believers to serve Him by first washing away all the sins of their hearts with the gospel power of the water and the Spirit, as gold is refined and as clothes are washed with soap to turn perfectly white. God said in Malachi 3:3, “They may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness.” Our Lord came to this earth and together with the assistance of John the Baptist, He accepted our sins by being baptized, shed His blood, and has thereby blotted them all out.
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John the Baptist passed all the sins of the mankind to Jesus at once by baptizing Him, and Jesus Christ, by accepting these sins once for all by receiving this baptism from John the Baptist, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, has perfectly washed all the sins of mankind. Everyone in this world who believes in God and in this gospel power of the water and the Spirit, irrespective of whether he is insufficient or not, can be completely remitted from all his sins by the power of the baptism and bloodshed of our Lord. Because Jesus was baptized and shed His blood for us, He could wash away all our sins to perfection. By being baptized by John and shedding His blood, Jesus has washed away mankind’s sins as if they were bleached out. Our Lord has washed away all our sins as white as snow, just as clothes are washed with soap. Our Lord, in other words, has cleansed away all our sins once for all with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord came to this earth and took upon our
sins by being baptized by John the Baptist. To believe so does not imply that John the Baptist is another Savior to us. John the Baptist was the last prophet of the Old Testament and the representative of mankind, and he was the last earthly High Priest who was sent to this world to fulfill all the Old Testament’s Word of prophecy, and especially the prophecy about the Elijah to come. As John the Baptist, who came to this earth six months prior to the coming of Jesus Christ, gave baptism to Jesus, all the sins of this world were passed onto Him. Therefore, all the prophecies of the Old Testament about Jesus were perfectly fulfilled with the appearance of John the Baptist, the baptism that he gave to Jesus, and through the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When Jesus came to this earth, He perfectly blotted out all the sins of mankind by accepting them through His baptism. By taking upon the sins of the world, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, Jesus has become our perfect Savior. Now, whoever
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believes this Truth can be saved from all his sins. And by thus becoming our Savior, Jesus fulfilled the will of God the Father to perfection. We must all know the truth that it was through the assisting role of John the Baptist that Jesus took upon the sins of the world. All of us must realize just how indispensable of a role the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus played for our remission of sin, and we must believe in this. Moreover, we also need to recognize and believe that it was to blot out all the sins of mankind that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. We must believe that it was because Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist that He could shed His blood on the Cross, and thereby wash away all our sins. In the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the providence of salvation that fulfilled the will of God the Father is found. The gospel of the water and the Spirit entails the indispensable role of John the Baptist, and this gospel embodies the Truth that through this role of John the
Baptist, Jesus accomplished all the Word of the Old Testament, and has thereby become, once for all, the perfect Savior for all who believe in this. Together with this role of John the Baptist, in other words, Jesus Christ fulfilled all the promises of the Old Testament. We must believe that Jesus, by being baptized, has washed away all our sins of the world and completely bleached out everyone else’s sins, as white as snow. My fellow believers, do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus Christ has cleansed away all our sins of the world by being baptized and shedding His blood? Jesus indeed accepted all the sins of mankind and washed them all away by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist. With this baptism, Jesus accepted each and every sin of this world, leaving none behind whatsoever, washed them all away, and was condemned for all of them. When Jesus came to this earth, He did not work all alone by Himself, but to take upon the sins of the world in fulfillment of all the Word of the Old
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Testament, He was baptized by John the Baptist, the earthly High Priest. By receiving this baptism He accomplished all the prophecies of atonement in the Old Testament with His own body. It was by being baptized to accept the sins of mankind, shedding His blood, and rising from the dead that Jesus has forever washed away all our sins once for all. This is the very gospel of the water and the Spirit. With this gospel of the water and the Spirit, Jesus has wiped out all the sins of every true believer clean. Through His baptism, Jesus accepted all the sins of this world without any exception whatsoever, carried them all to the Cross, and shed His blood to death to be condemned for these sins, rose from the dead again, and has thereby washed away all our sins as white as snow once for all. Do you all believe this? In Matthew 11, when John the Baptist had sent his disciples to Jesus, He answered their question and sent them back to John, and then said the following to the crowd: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed? A man clothed in soft
garments? Or a prophet? Yes, you will see My prophet whom I sent. He is none other than John the Baptist. He is the greatest of all those born of women. He is the representative of mankind. But he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. John the Baptist is the representative of mankind, but if he comes before God only with his righteousness, he is lesser than anyone of the bornagain.” Jesus then said, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence, and our Lord continued to say, “The violent take it by force.” This passage does not mean that the mighty would beat up the guards of Heaven, open its gates, and force themselves in. Now is the time that the gospel of the water and the Spirit has to show its full power. No one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven except the born-again
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who have cleansed all their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit (John 3:5). Put differently, we can enter the Kingdom of God only by believing in this gospel ministry of the water and the Spirit. This is why Jesus said that the time to enter Heaven began from the days of John the Baptist. Because John the Baptist passed all the sins of mankind to Jesus by baptizing Him, Jesus indeed accepted them all, and because of this, our Lord accepted all our sins, washed them all away, and bore all their condemnation on the Cross. Anyone who believes in this Truth will receive the remission of his sins precisely because he believes so, and he will enter Heaven by this faith. What Jesus said here by no means implies that Heaven is a place where only the mighty in the flesh can enter. Far from it, He meant to tell us that only the people of faith who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can enter Heaven. People who do not know the gospel power of the
water and the Spirit are doubtful of the passage from Matthew 11:12, which says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” They are perplexed by it, thinking, “Aren’t the violent plunderers?” When it says here that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, this refers to our bold faith in the righteousness of God that enables us to take Heaven as ours. It is telling us, in other words, that those who have faith in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit can make Heaven theirs. It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit before God, and only by this faith, that we can turn the Kingdom of Heaven into our own. We cannot enter Heaven with our own righteousness. If we are to stand before God only with our own merits and demerits, none of us can stand upright there. However, when we put on His perfect righteousness by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can then be bold enough to enter Heaven and stand before God
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(Galatians 3:27). Everyone who believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit can make Heaven his. What about you then? Do you not want to make the Kingdom of Heaven yours, by placing your faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Have you believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit until now? Have you believed in the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist to make Heaven yours? Anyone who has not made Heaven his own has failed to do so precisely because he has not placed his faith in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit. You must believe in this Truth. The Truth that enables you to enter Heaven is none other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Faith in this gospel of the water and the Spirit is the essence of the Christian faith, for we are justified by faith and faith alone. This tells us that because John the Baptist passed all the sins of mankind to Jesus by baptizing Him,
and because Jesus accepted all these sins through John the Baptist by receiving this baptism, He has blotted out the sins of all who believe in Him, just like clothes are washed with soap and bleached out. By being baptized by John and shedding His blood, our Lord has completely and perfectly wiped out all our sins, like they were bleached out. This is why everyone who believes in the role of John the Baptist and the baptism and bloodshed of Jesus as the Truth of the remission of sin is cleansed of all his sins by faith and can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the violent of faith, the possessors of bold faith. The remission of sin is received through faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And we can enter Heaven by believing that Jesus is God Himself, that He is the very God who created us, that He is our Savior, and that He has completely and perfectly blotted all our sins by being baptized. It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we become God’s children and sinless. Jesus and
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John the Baptist are the very ones who have made it possible for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by faith. Do you believe this? For those who have sin in their hearts now, it is because they have no faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that they remain sinful. By and large, they not only refuse to acknowledge the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but they also deny the very existential significance of John the Baptist. We need to realize here that to fail to know John the Baptist who worked with Jesus to pass our sins to Him, or to regard him as a failure, is actually the same as to deny Jesus and reject salvation. Such people still retain their sins even as they profess to believe in Jesus, and they still believe in Jesus as their Savior only blindly. These sinners whose hearts still remain sinful believe according to their own subjective thoughts, and this is why their hearts have not been cleansed, and why they continue to struggle with their sins. A while ago, I was once approached by a
Christian group that denounced John the Baptist as a failure, all based on today’s Bible passage. Their argument was that since John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus and asked Him, “Are You the coming One, or do we look for another?” this could only mean that John the Baptist doubted that Jesus was the Savior. They could not avoid but completely misunderstand John’s words because they considered him to have failed, and this is why they made such a claim. If one does not understand the role of John the Baptist and just how important his ministry was, he is bound to end up with such a misunderstanding. Had these people had even the slightest understanding of the Old Testament, and had they known that the ministry of John the Baptist was prophesied and written in detail in the Book of Malachi, they would not have reached this fallacious interpretation. The same goes for us, too. If we had not properly understood the role of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus, we could not have understood the
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gospel of the water and the Spirit, either. If this were indeed the case, just how gruesome would its consequences have been? Some disciples of John still did not believe in Jesus as their Messiah to come. That’s why John the Baptist had sent his disciples to Jesus so that they themselves would see who Jesus was, hear His Word with their own ears, and believe in Him and follow Him. If one does not understand the ministry of John the Baptist, he cannot understand the true gospel, and if he does not understand this gospel properly, he cannot know Jesus properly, and as a result, he will ultimately drift far away from the Truth and end up incapable of believing in any truth at all. This is why the passage in Malachi is so important. Of course, every passage in the entire Old Testament is important, but the Book of Malachi is particularly significant, because it prophesies the coming Jesus and the coming of John the Baptist, God’s servant who would baptize Jesus. It is with this Book of Malachi that the prophecies of the Old
Testament end. After the Prophet Malachi, no servant of God appeared for over 400 years. It was after this hiatus that John the Baptist made his appearance. Where did he appear? He made his appearance in the wilderness. Having thus shown himself, John the Baptist shouted to the Israelites of his time, “Repent, you brood of vipers!” He was a servant of God who was clothed with camel’s hair, and ate locusts and wild honey. John the Baptist was a true messenger of God. All of you must have a firm grasp of the fact that John the Baptist fulfilled his role, which was to baptize Jesus. The prophesies about John was written in the Book of Malachi and the Book of Isaiah. Citing Isaiah 40:3, Matthew 3:3 states, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’” As we have seen in these prophecies, it is written that John the Baptist would come to this earth, and that He and Jesus Christ would together blot out all the sins of this
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world. Our Lord said in Malachi that He would purify the sons of Levi. This means that He would completely and perfectly blot out all the sins of all those who believe in the gospel ministry of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord was prophesying, in other words, that this is how He would make us give the offering of righteousness to God, and that He would make us take and offer this faith of ours, the very faith in the Truth that God has blotted out our sins, as our own offering for Him. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 11:13, “All the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” The prophecies of the Old Testament lasted until the role of John the Baptist was completed. The Old Testament prophesied how Jesus would come to this earth and how He would take upon our sins, and this Old Testament lasted until the days of John. As this John baptized Jesus and Jesus received this baptism, He took upon all the sins of mankind and has thereby saved us from our sins. As Jesus actually took away
all our sins to fulfill all the prophecies of the Old Testament, the New Testament began to unfold. Therefore, it is when we believe in this Word of both the Old and New Testaments in one that we are saved. Jesus continued to say in verse 14, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” The Prophet Elijah whose coming the Book of Malachi had prophesied is none other than John the Baptist. There can be no doubt then, but it is only crystal clear, that we have to be rejoiced to accept the Word of this prophecy, the Word of the fulfillment of this prophecy, into our hearts. Some people might then ask, “Where is this Elijah specifically mentioned in the Old Testament’s prophecy?” Let us turn to Malachi 4:5-6 for its answer. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a
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curse” (Malachi 4:5-6). When it says here, “Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD,” it means ‘before the arrival of the Day of Judgment.’ So God said here that He would send this Elijah before the advent of the Day of Judgment, and in Matthew 11:14, on the other hand, Jesus said, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” Both passages are speaking of the exactly same Elijah to come. Who is “he” that Jesus spoke of here then? It is definitely John the Baptist. The Old Testament is all about the Word of prophecy and promise, and the New Testament is all about the fulfillment of this Word of prophecy and promise. Just as God had promised to send Elijah, John the Baptist was born on this earth six months before Jesus was born. What is more, he was born by the amazing work of God’s providence. John was not just born into an ordinary family, but he was born into the house of the High Priest. His father,
Zacharias, was a descendant of Aaron (Luke 1:5). This means that John the Baptist himself also belonged to the house of Aaron the High Priest. Our Lord is the God who actually fulfills everything that He promises to His servants exactly according to His promises, and true to His faithfulness, He began His work of salvation with the birth of John the Baptist, just as He had promised in the Old Testament. In the Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament, God had promised the people of Israel that He would forgive their sins when the High Priest passed their sins onto the sacrificial animal by laying his hands on its head, cut its throat and drew its blood, put this blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and poured it on the ground, carried the blood into the Most Holy of the Sanctuary of God, and sprinkled it to the east of the Ark of the Testimony (Leviticus 16). God had promised that this is how He would forgive the sins of mankind. Exactly according to this prophecy, Jesus Christ indeed came to this earth, accepted our sins by being
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baptized by John the Baptist, was condemned for our sins by dying on the Cross, and thereby blotted all our sins clean. By doing all these things, He has become our Savior. “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? To see a reed? A man clothed in soft garments? Or to see a prophet? You are right if you went out to see a servant of God. There in the wilderness is the representative of mankind, and in this wilderness you will be able to see John the Baptist, the greatest of all men. He is none other than Elijah. I had promised to send you My servant Elijah, and this Elijah is John the Baptist. It is John the Baptist who fulfills Elijah’s role. John is God’s servant who enables all to enter His Kingdom by gathering them all to Me and testifying to them all, ‘Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior who accepted all the sins of mankind, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved mankind from their sins. He is the Messiah.’” When John the Baptist came to this earth, he
fulfilled two important ministries: He passed our sins to Jesus Christ, and he bore witness to our Savior. How amazing are these ministries? Through the assistance of John the Baptist, Jesus was able to fulfill the Word of promise. We can now realize that it was through John the Baptist that Jesus fulfilled all the Word of the Old Testament, that John’s testimony confirmed just how Jesus could fulfill all this Word of the Old Testament, and that God has truthfully completed our salvation through the ministries of Jesus and John the Baptist. Through John the Baptist, we can grasp that he and Jesus fulfilled the promise of God. Do you believe this? This is why when we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we cannot leave out the role of John the Baptist. If anyone says that John the Baptist was a failure, or underestimates his importance, then he is neither a servant of God, nor one of His people. My fellow believers, by being baptized and shedding His blood, Jesus has blotted out all our sins clean. You all probably know what is meant by
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bleaching, especially if you are women. When you do your laundry, what happens if you use bleach to wash your clothes? They turn sparkling white. This is called bleaching. In pre-modern Korea, people used lye to wash heavily stained clothes. In those days, Koreans wore only white garments, so much so that Korea was called as ‘a nation of white garments.’ These white garments, of course, got soiled in time and turned rather yellowish. They would then put these garments into a huge pot with some lye as bleach and boil them. After this, they would take out the garments, and wash them again with soap, beating them with a paddle. The garments would then turn as white as possible. Like this, Jesus has blotted out all our sins as completely as possible, all thanks to the fact that He took upon our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist, and died on the Cross for us. He has wiped them all out, so that there is nothing more to remove. He has blotted out all our sins perfectly and forever.
This is how Jesus has become our Savior. It is what the extremely important passage from Matthew 11:1-14 is all about. When we actually testify the gospel to other souls, we often skim through this passage in a cursory manner, but I believe that you must have a detailed understanding of this passage for your faith to be strengthened even more in your hearts. This faith that you and I have is truly precious. It is not just a handful of people in a couple of countries who have been born again through this Word. There are many souls throughout the whole world who have received the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All these people and we have likewise received the remission of sin by believing in the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus. You never have to be ashamed of this faith. On the contrary, this faith is so dignified and honorable that we can all preach it without the slightest hesitation. I can proclaim this Truth to everyone throughout
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the whole world with the utmost confidence. I can shout it out in a loud voice to every pastor and every theologian in this entire world: “Everyone, no matter who, must know the gospel power of the water and the Spirit and believe in it.” We the born-again are not perfect in our flesh, but spiritually, we are the most righteous in this entire world. I believe in this. I believe that our faith is the greatest faith in the world and it has absolutely no defect. I believe that we are the spiritual Levites, and that just as the Levites had cleansed the whole nation of Israel by faith, we the righteous have become the High Priests and are giving the offering of righteousness to God to cleanse all the people of the world with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. My fellow believers, do you really believe in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit? To offer this true faith to God is to offer Him our proper and pure offering. This faith in the gospel power of the water and the Spirit is the very faith that enables us to take Heaven as ours; it is this faith that can turn us
into the instruments of righteousness; and it is this faith that makes it possible for us to become God’s workers. This kind of faith is the very proper offering to God. I give all my thanks to God for giving us such faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
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58 John the Baptist, Who Came in the Way of Righteousness
John the Baptist, Who Came in the Way of Righteousness < Matthew 17:1-13 > “Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!’ And when the disciples
heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Arise, and do not be afraid.’ When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, ‘Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.’ And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.”
Today’s Scripture passage comes from Matthew 17:1-13. Here it is said that Jesus took three of His
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disciples, Peter, James, and John, and led them to a high mountain. Something stunning happened there. Moses and Elijah had descended from Heaven. And Jesus’ garments turned blindingly white, and his image was completely transformed as well. Jesus talked with Moses and Elijah. When Peter saw this, he said dreamingly, “Let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. We’d like to build three tabernacles and live beside You.” Then a cloud covered the sky and a voice spoke from the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” Peter, James, and his brother John had climbed to a mountain with Jesus, and when they reached the summit Jesus was transfigured all of a sudden and Elijah and Moses came down to talk with Him. Then the sky was covered by a cloud and a voice said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” You can imagine what a mysterious scene it must have been. Why did Jesus then show the disciples such a scene? Jesus had let
them see Him talk with Elijah and Moses, but what is the significance of this event? Verse 2 says here, “He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” Elsewhere in Daniel, it is written, “And those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). The Bible writes here that Jesus’ clothes became as white as the light. God promised us that He would change us in the last day, just as Jesus had changed. So when we are transformed on that day, we will likely be changed as Jesus was transfigured. We will shine like the sun on that day. When the Lord returns, we will be resurrected and raptured and I am sure that our images will be transformed like this at that time. That is why Jesus had taken His disciples to the mountain and shown these things to them. After showing these things to His disciples on the mountain, Jesus spoke to them on the way down from the mountain. As written in verse 9, “Now as
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they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, ‘Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.’” The disciples then asked Jesus, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” The Bible then continues on to say, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.” The disciples were wondering in their minds, “Lord, everything from the Scriptures is to be completed with Your baptism, crucifixion, and resurrection, but then why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” The Scriptures were written from long ago, and the Masoretic scribes were claiming, “For our Lord to complete the prophesy of the Old Testament, Elijah must come beforehand.”
They had argued that only when Elijah came would the salvation of mankind be fulfilled and everything that God had promised be restored. The “restoration of all things” refers to the fact that by sending the Savior, God would deliver the descendants of Adam, who were driven out of the Garden of Eden for sin, and thus make them His children once again. In other words, the disciples were saying to Jesus, “The scribes say that Elijah must come first for this salvation to be fulfilled, for everything that You spoke to be completely restored, for the Garden of Eden to be restored, and for us to be saved from our sins and restored back to God’s people. Who then is Elijah?” Jesus answered them by saying, “I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished.” In other words, God had already sent Elijah, but people had not believed in him on their own. Jesus then added, “Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands,” indicating that just as John the Baptist had suffered a lot on this earth, so would
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Jesus also suffer. When His disciples heard this, they finally realized, “Oh, so John the Baptist is Elijah!” Verse 13 says, “Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.” John the Baptist is the Elijah whom God had promised to send in the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament. Let’s then turn to Malachi. In the very last chapter of the Old Testament, just before Matthew, it’s written in Malachi 4: 1-3: “‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘That will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,’ says the Lord of hosts.” He then continued on to say in Malachi 4:4-6: “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in
Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” God had promised that He would send His servant Prophet Elijah before He Himself was to come to this world. He said that Elijah would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. This is exactly what the High Priest is supposed to do. It’s the High Priest’s duty to change God’s heart by offering sacrifices to Him. God’s wrath is provoked when His people commit sin before Him, and it is the High Priest’s job to change this angry heart of God to a merciful heart. In other words, it’s the High Priest who fulfills this mediator’s role to change God’s heart to have mercy on this people. It is also his duty to turn the hearts of the people who had left God back to Him. These are
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the very duties of the High Priest who offers sacrifices to God on behalf of His people. God had said that He would send the Prophet Elijah, and Elijah was to fulfill these duties by coming to this earth. When was he to come then? God promised that He would send him when the judgment was impending, as it is written, “Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” Elijah was to come and fulfill his role as a mediator to lead the people’s hearts back to God and God’s heart to them. But the Bible also says that if the people did not listen to the words of the coming Elijah, failed to turn their hearts back to God, and did not believe in Him, then God would come and strike this earth. He would wipe them out and cast them into a burning furnace. Jesus came face to face with Moses and Elijah in the Scripture passage that we read today. He met them on a high mountain and talked with them. This account is of absolute relevance to our salvation. Moses is the representative of the Law. After receiving the Law from God, Moses had also
received the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle, which enabled his people to obtain the remission of sins from God. God had spoken to Moses personally. So the five Mosaic Books, the Pentateuch, are absolutely authoritative. In these five Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, God had spoken about His blessings to the people of Israel and the entire human race through Moses, and He had prophesied that Jesus Christ would come to this earth and save mankind. It is all contained in the Pentateuch that everyone in the Old Testament was to receive the remission of sin through the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle. Consistent with the requirements of this sacrificial system of the Tabernacle, Jesus Christ would come to this earth and blot out all the sins of mankind once and for all. God had spoken everything through Moses. What do the remaining books of the Old Testament, from Joshua to Malachi, tell us then? They say to us, “Keep the Law of God. If you
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worship idols and do not obey the Law, then God will judge you.” From the Book of Joshua and on, the Old Testament is all about the cycle of sin and repentance that the people of Israel went through, recording how they were stricken for failing to keep the Law, how they repented, and how they fell into sin again. Like this, the Pentateuch constitutes the absolute foundation of salvation. You can then probably understand now why Jesus went up to a mountain and summoned Moses and Elijah down to talk with them. Elijah was a servant of God who had led the idolatrous people of Israel back to the Lord, testifying to them, “God is the real God. Jehovah God is the true God.” However, the Elijah prophesied in the Book of Malachi, who was to come before the Lord to prepare His way, refers to none other than John the Baptist, whom Jesus bore witness as the greatest of all those born of women (Matthew 11:11). Jesus said in Matthew 11:14, “If you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come,” and He also
said in Matthew 11:11-12, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” Why does the Kingdom of Heaven suffer violence from the days of John the Baptist? That’s because all the sins of mankind were passed onto Jesus through the baptism that John the Baptist gave to Jesus. That is why those who believe that all their sins were passed onto Jesus through John the Baptist take Heaven by force. In other words, they enter Heaven by faith. Verse 14 says, “If you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” Who did Jesus say was Elijah? It was John the Baptist. In other words, this Elijah is someone absolutely indispensable and necessary for our salvation, and he is none other than John the Baptist. Only when this Elijah came could everyone’s sins be passed onto
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Jesus, thus making everyone sinless. In other words, John the Baptist, who was Elijah, led everyone back to the presence of God by baptizing Jesus and thereby passing all sins to Him. As John the Baptist passed the people’s sins to Jesus and thus offered sacrifice on their behalf, he had fulfilled all of his role as Elijah. Referring to John the Baptist, Luke 1:17 says, “He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” That’s what Zacharia, John the Baptist’s father, had prophesied before John was born. The completion of our salvation is the fulfillment of all the Law and the statutes of the sacrificial system that God had spoken through Moses. By sending Jesus Christ His Son to this earth, God the Father has saved us, who were all destined to hell for our failure to keep the Law. When Jesus came to this earth, He accepted all the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist, and having thus
shouldered all the sins of the world, Jesus went to the Cross and was crucified to death, thus saving us all. That is how we have received our salvation. And that is why Jesus, Moses, and Elijah are indispensable to your salvation and mine. They are absolutely essential for the completion of salvation, that is, for the restoration of the proper relationship with God. That is why Jesus had called Elijah and Moses and talked with them. The disciples had asked Jesus, saying, “The scribes say that for everything to be restored, Elijah must come first. What do You say then?” So Jesus said to them, “Elijah has already come. But they did not believe him, and instead treated him in whatever way they wanted. He is none other than John the Baptist who had baptized Me.” People had failed to recognize John the Baptist and did not believe in what he had done for them. Matthew 21:23-27 continues on to say the following about John the Baptist: “Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders
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of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?’ But Jesus answered and said to them, ‘I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?’ And they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.’ So they answered Jesus and said, ‘We do not know.’ And He said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.’” At that time, Jesus had come into the Temple and was teaching the people there. The chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the time then came out to confront Jesus, and rejected His teaching. They rebuked Him harshly, saying, “By what authority are you teaching people inside God’s Temple? Who has given you such authority?” In Israel, except for
teachers of the Law called Rabbis, no one else could dare teach inside the Temple. That’s why they were challenging Jesus, asking, “From whom have You received this authority? Was it from the chief priests? From the elders? If not, then are You teaching on your own authority? Who has given you such authority?” However, instead of answering them directly, Jesus said, “I have a question for you as well; if you answer my question, then I will also answer your question.” Then Jesus asked the chief priests and the elders, “From whom did the baptism of John come? Is it from Heaven or from men? John gave his baptism to people, and He also baptized Me. Was this baptism then from the authority that you yourselves had granted? Did you give him this authority? Or was it God who gave him this authority? Who permitted this? Did it come from Heaven, or did you yourselves authorize it?” The scribes knew that if they answered, “It was from Heaven,” Jesus would then say to them, “Why
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did you not believe in the work of John the Baptist then?” On the other hand, if they said, “It’s from men,” then this would be akin to denying that John the Baptist was a servant of God, in which case the crowd would stone them. So in their fear, they just said, “We do not know.” They answered like this because all the people of Israel at that time knew and believed that John was a servant of God. So Jesus said to the scribes, “Then neither is it necessary for Me to tell you by what authority I am speaking to the people.” Jesus then used another example, saying, “‘But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said to Him, ‘The first’” (Matthew 21:28-31). Jesus then rebuked them, saying, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors
and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him” (Matthew 21:31-32). Like this, Jesus bore witness of John, saying to the scribes and the chief priests that tax collectors and harlots will enter the Kingdom of Heaven before them, for these people believed in John, while the chief priests and the elders did not believe in him, even though John had come in the way of righteousness. What did Jesus say here? He said, “John came to you in the way of righteousness.” This means that John the Baptist came for the righteous work that would justify mankind. He was sent to this earth for the work that would make it possible for mankind to receive the remission of their sins, and he fulfilled this work by baptizing people and Jesus. Yet despite this, the Jewish leaders at that time did not believe that God the Father had sent John the Baptist to
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fulfill this work of blotting out everyone’s sins, nor did they believe in his baptism. That’s why Jesus was rebuking them. Moreover, Jesus also told them, “Even tax collectors and harlots will enter the Kingdom of Heaven before you.” Tax collectors and harlots had believed John. They had believed that John the Baptist was a servant of God, and that by baptizing Jesus, he had passed all the sins of the people and washed them away. What is the significance of John’s baptism? The word baptism means to be washed. Like the Old Testament’s laying on of hands, baptism entails one to lay his hands on another person and submerge him in water. When hands are thus laid, sin is passed on. This institution has been established by God and so it is effective for everyone. If you let a demonpossessed person lay his hands on your head, his demon would pass onto you. When someone tries to speak in tongues, another person who speaks in tongues out of demon-possession would lay his hands on the other person’s head and pray. Then the demon
would pass onto that person and the one who just received the laying on of hands would also start to speak in tongues from demon possession. If one listens to sermons preached by a demon-possessed person, it’s highly probably that he would start speaking in tongues as well. Such people would throw themselves into a seizure all of a sudden, speaking in tongues feverishly, rolling around the floor, and raising all kinds of racket. That’s all because demons would have entered them. By then, the evil spirits that had possessed someone else would have invaded them as well. Like this, the laying on of hands means to transfer. My fellow believer, the word baptism means, first of all, the washing of our sins. Calling everyone to be baptized, John had said, “Wash away your sins. You must be washed from your sins.” To the people of Israel, John the Baptist gave the baptism of repentance that made them receive the remission of their sins (Mark 1:4), but He also baptized Jesus, and this particular baptism was the baptism that passed
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all the sins of mankind to Jesus. The baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist was the baptism that washed away everyone’s sins. That’s why baptism means, “to be washed,” “to be buried,” and “to be passed on.” My fellow believers, what had to be done for our sins to be washed away? For our sins to be washed away, it was absolutely indispensable for John the Baptist to lay his hands on Jesus and pass all the sins of the entire human race to Him. What then had to happen once our sins were passed onto Jesus? Since Jesus accepted all our sins, He had to die and be buried in the ground. That is why Jesus, after shouldering all the sins of mankind by being baptized, went to the Cross as the Lamb of God and died in our place. And that is why Jesus was buried. Jesus had asked, “What is the baptism of John?” but the religious leaders of Israel did not pay attention to John’s baptism. So Jesus said to them, “John came to this earth in the way of righteousness, and while tax collectors and harlots believed him,
you did not repent and believe him even as you saw him. You will go straight to hell. Just as it’s written in Malachi, on the last day you will be cast into the middle of a burning furnace, placed in the midst of extreme wrath.” God was to send the Prophet Elijah and he was to turn the hearts of the Father to their children—that is, the heart of God to His children. How? It would be by sending John the Baptist, the representative of mankind and the greatest of all those born of women. By baptizing Jesus, the Son of God and our Savior, John the Baptist passed all our sins to Christ. Through this, John redirected God’s wrath that was reserved for us to Jesus Christ His Son instead, and made it possible for all of us who could not approach God because of our sins, to boldly come before His presence by believing in this Truth. By believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit, that John the Baptist passed all the sins of the world to Jesus by baptizing Him, and that Jesus shouldered all these sins and was condemned for them on the Cross,
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mankind is now able to come to stand before God. God had made John the Baptist fulfill his role as the man responsible for Jesus’ baptism, so that God would have mercy on all those who believe in Jesus Christ and in the ministry of John the Baptist and take them in as His own children. In other words, John the Baptist played a mediating role. It is written, “He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.” As the last priest of the Old Testament, John the Baptist completely fulfilled this role as mediator. God had established the institution of the sacrificial system and made it known to the people of Israel through Moses. So all the Israelites offered their sacrifices to God based on the principle of representation, and here was John the Baptist, who fulfilled his duties as their last High Priest. He is the representative of mankind, the greatest of all those born of women. Jesus said that Heaven suffered violence from the days of John the Baptist. This means that John Baptist is the last High Priest of the
Old Testament who fulfilled the crucial role of passing all the sins of the world onto the Lamb of God to open the gate of Heaven. God had promised to send Elijah, and this Elijah is none other than John the Baptist. God had said that Elijah would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers. John the Baptist offered the eternal sacrifice on our behalf. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel had brought their sacrificial animals and the High Priest had sacrificed them on their behalf, but now this sacrifice was changed. The Son of God Himself became our propitiation. And John the Baptist, the last High Priest of the Old Testament, passed all the sins of mankind to the Son of God. Through this baptism that was given by John the Baptist, Jesus accepted all the sins of mankind. As John the Baptist fulfilled his role to break down the wall of sin that had blocked mankind from God the Father, He turned the Father’s heart to the children, and the children’s
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hearts to the Father. Therefore, everyone can receive the remission of his sins if he believes in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross. God has made completely sinless all those who believe in the salvation that the Lord has brought, all those who believe in this gospel of the water and the Spirit, proclaiming that Jesus accepted all their sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and that He has blotted them all out. As it’s written, “John came to you in the way of righteousness,” John the Baptist performed his role of passing the sins of mankind to Jesus by baptizing Him. However, no matter how we shout out that every sin was passed onto Jesus through John the Baptist, people today simply do not believe. This is so ridiculous! Just how clearly is John the Baptist testified in the Bible? It’s none other than John the Baptist whom Jesus approved the most. It’s the very John whom Jesus Himself gave His personal seal of approval. It’s through John the Baptist that Jesus shouldered all the sins of mankind. Jesus did not just
say, “I will shoulder your sins by Myself.” Just as the sins of the Israelites in the Old Testament were passed onto their sacrificial animal through the High Priest without failure, so did Jesus come to this earth as the Lamb of God and as our own offering of sacrifice, He accepted all the sins of the world through the baptism given by John the Baptist. This is so crystal clear. Yet even so, people still do not believe in it. When Jesus was on this earth, the religious leaders at that time, the scribes of the Law, and elders of the Israelites not only refused to believe in Jesus, but they also did not believe in what John had done for them. They stood against the ministry of John the Baptist. That’s why Jesus said to them, “You will be cast into hell, for you are so full of your own righteousness and you do not believe in the testimony of John. But harlots and tax collectors believed.” In other words, harlots and tax collectors were saved first by God because they believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Even today, however, most
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Christians still do not believe in this gospel. When Jesus was on this earth, the Pharisees and the scribes came to see Him from Jerusalem and asked Him, “Why don’t your disciples keep the tradition of our elders? Why do they eat without even washing their hands beforehand?” They condemned the disciples just because they ate without washing their hands. They mocked Jesus, saying, “Just by looking at Your disciples, we can see that You are a flawed man also. You, too, are a man who does not keep the Law. You are completely below our standard.” So Jesus rebuked them, saying, “What goes into the mouth is not what defiles a man. It’s the wickedness coming out of his heart that defiles him. Out of the human heart proceed twelve sins including evil thoughts, and it is these that come out of the mouth to defile a man. Just because one eats without washing his hands, this does not mean that he is defiled.” Then the scribes and the Pharisees, who kept the tradition of the elders, mocked Jesus, saying, “You and Your disciples are completely wretched.
You are so filthy that we can’t have anything to do with You. How can anyone eat without even washing his hands? The tradition from our forefathers clearly dictates that everyone must infallibly wash his hands and feet whenever he returns home from outside, and it commands us to keep this tradition, but You refuse to abide by it.” They denounced Jesus based on only superficial things. So Jesus rebuked them, saying, “Do you claim to keep the Law? The Law commands you to honor your parents and take care of them, but have you really done this? Did you not actually break the Law, thinking that you don’t have to offer anything to your parents simply by saying, ‘Whatever profit you might have received from me is ‘Corban’ (that is, a gift to God)?’ Is this really keeping the Law? Haven’t you changed God’s commandments into men’s commandments, and do you not believe in these instead now? You fear God completely in vain, for even as you claim to believe in God, you do so based on men’s commandments.” Jesus then said, “So
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when a blind man leads another blind man, both will fall into a pit.” This tradition of the elders refers to the man-made doctrines. Even today many Christians say, “Make sure to attend a big church. Ensure that the church you are about to attend is registered under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. And be sure to attend a church whose doctrines are clearly established. In short, you should attend a church that belongs to a large denomination and is recognized by secular people as well. You should be taught at such a church and believe in the Word according to how it teaches.” It is all in vain to believe in God and fear Him based on such commandments of men. No matter who may be teaching what, can it even compare to a single phrase that God spoke? Human teachings are completely useless. Yet today’s Christian leaders go through a long litany listing of who said what, saying to the congregation, “Calvin said this, Luther said that; Livingston said this, Abraham Kuyper said that; Hegel and Kant said this,
while Confucius, Mencius, and Socrates said that. This is what John Stott from Britain said, and that is what Abraham Lincoln from the US said, and how he believed and led his life of faith.” It’s all completely in vain to teach like this, learn like this, and walk like this. What’s most important is what the Bible actually says. What the Word of God says in both Testaments is what’s really important. Jesus said that John the Baptist was Elijah to come, and that he was the greatest of all those born of women. When God Himself says that John the Baptist passed all our sins to Jesus by baptizing Him, and that this is what is entailed by the sacrificial system, then we ought to believe so and teach accordingly. This is what is meant by listening to and believing in the commandments of God and His Word, and it is by believing in this Word of God that we are saved. It’s absolutely imperative for us to listen to God closely according to this Word. That is the way to fear God. There is nothing more foolish than expounding
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only on doctrines without even knowing the Word of God properly. Did John Calvin from France know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Word of God? France is where this theological giant was born, yet the gospel of the water and the Spirit is entering France now. French people do not know Korea that well, but we will take this opportunity to make it known to them clearly. They will recognize that Korea is no longer “the Hermit Nation” but a country of the predecessors of true faith. Even though John came in the way of righteousness, many Christians do not believe this. They do not believe that John the Baptist was the Elijah whom God had promised to send in the last age. People speak of John the Baptist as a failure, saying, “John was a failure. Why? Because he got his head cut off by challenging King Herod.” But John the Baptist was not a failure. If John the Baptist were a failure, then so would Jesus be a failure, as God the Father would also be a failure. In order to save us humans from sin, God the Father sent John the
Baptist to this earth six months before Jesus. The Father then sent Jesus to this earth six months after the birth of John the Baptist. And when the two turned 30, John baptized Jesus, and Jesus received this baptism. That is how God the Father put the sins of the world on Jesus. Given this, had John the Baptist failed, then so would Jesus’ ministry of salvation have failed, and God the Father who had sent them would also have failed. Through Moses in the Old Testament, God spoke of the Law to mankind that had fallen into sin, the sacrificial system that blotted out sin, and the 613 statutes and commandments that mankind had to keep. Everything was contained in the Law, from the sacrificial system to the law of salvation and the law of judgment. God had promised to send Elijah. And just as He had promised, He sent Elijah. Six months after sending Elijah, God sent Jesus to this earth. And through Elijah, He passed all the sins of mankind to Jesus. Jesus accepted all the sins of mankind through Elijah. Elijah passed all the sins of mankind to Jesus.
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Jesus said, “It is thus fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. It is proper to thus make everyone sinless and to save all the people of this world from all their sins.” Since Jesus accepted the sins of the world through John the Baptist by being baptized, and since John the Baptist passed these sins of the world to Jesus, it is through John the Baptist, who was Elijah to come, and Jesus, who became the Lamb of sacrifice, that God has blotted out all the sins of mankind. Yet despite this, people still do not believe in this fact. Even in the age of the New Testament, there were many who did not recognize John the Baptist, and therefore were unable to be saved. Have you heard about the e-mails we got from a certain missionary in Africa? When this missionary first read one of our books, he reacted adversely. He said to us, “This book says that John the Baptist passed my sins to Jesus, but the claim is too grandiose for me to accept. I cannot agree with the content of this book.” He might have been a very impatient man, because he had sent this first letter
indicating his disapproval even without finishing the whole book. And then a few days later, he wrote to us again, saying, “I have holy news to share.” He had actually not finished reading the book when he wrote to us the first time. After reading our book just a little and browsing through the first part, he had told us, “I can’t agree with this,” but now that he read more, he came to truly understand what this book was all about. So after reading some more, he sent us another letter saying, “I would like to share a very holy news with you. I, too, agree with your position on the baptism of Jesus, that God passed our sins to Him through John the Baptist. And my sins were also passed on. I now have no sin.” Many people abroad are now agreeing with us like this. They are confessing that even though they had believed in Jesus for a long time, it was the first time that they heard such a gospel. I had outright written in my book, “Except for the writings of the disciples of Jesus, this is the first book in the entire world that contains the gospel of the water and the Spirit.”
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These people do not object on this issue. They are agreeing with their silence. And even at this moment, many people are confessing after reading our books, “I have never read such a book like this in Christianity.” They admit that John the Baptist passed the sins of the world to Jesus. They accept into their hearts that Jesus accepted the sins of the world through John the Baptist. They accept all this even after reading just one book. At first, as this gospel Word is too unfamiliar to them, they may think that it is exaggerated, but what happens later on when the gospel is explained based on the Bible? They come to accept it. So right now countless foreigners are being born again. Even at this moment, new believers are being born. In their living rooms and bathrooms, countless people are reading our books with the eye of faith and they now believe in the gospel, saying to themselves, “Then I have no sin. It’s exactly as the Bible says.” Then they write us, “I would like to share a great news with you. I agree that Jesus
shouldered all my sins by being baptized.” The entire mankind agrees that Jesus carried our sins to the Cross and was crucified. Even the Devil agrees with this. Yet some people still attack me, saying, “How come Pastor Jong only knows about this? Why does he talk about it alone all the time? How come He can only find such things in the Bible? Does he really have to find only these things?” I don’t have to find them; all I do is just read the Bible. When the whole Bible speaks of this salvation, isn’t it inevitable for me to see the salvation, even if I were not trying to find it? When I begin to read the Bible, I read a lot. I read until I am so full. What I am saying is that I know the Bible as much as the socalled Bible doctors. Everyone all over the whole world who believes in God will come to believe in the baptism of righteousness that John gave to Jesus, the way of righteousness, for this path is all too clear. This is what the Bible speaks of and it was prophesied in the Old Testament. It is written, “I will send you Elijah
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the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” People are now turning to God in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As John the Baptist passed all the sins of mankind to Jesus by baptizing Him, as he transferred all the sins of this world to Him, all that sinners have to do now is just turn to God by believing in this. Didn’t we also turn to God? Didn’t we say that we believed? Of course we did. Had John the Baptist not done this work, then even the death of Jesus would have been useless. Salvation would have been unreachable, no matter how strongly we might believe, how much we might cry, how we might submit ourselves to martyrdom, how we might offer all our money, or how we might serve others. In the end, we would have only regretted like Judah, saying, “Why did I believe? It would have been better had I not believed! I wish I weren’t even born!” However, John the Baptist passed all our sins to Jesus by baptizing Him,
and that is why we can believe boldly before God. My fellow believers, John came in the way of righteousness making us into the instruments of righteousness. Jesus accepted all their sins by being baptized so that people may receive the remission of their sins. By receiving this baptism from John, Jesus blotted out all the sins of the world. Jesus took upon the sins of the world, was crucified to death, and saved us. If the Word says that this is the case, then we should all believe so. Jesus summoned Moses and Elijah. And He talked with them. Although it’s not written in the Bible exactly what they talked about, it is clear that the three spoke with each other. Moses here represents the Law. What about Elijah then? He represents the High Priest. He is the greatest priest of all those born of women—that is, he is the representative. The Bible often mentions the earth. The earth refers to people’s hearts. It refers to their spirits. What does the last verse say in Malachi? It says, “Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” This
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means that God would pour His wrath on all those who do not believe in the Truth of salvation. You may wonder why I am saying this again when you all believe already. But I am saying this again because there still are many who do not believe. Everything is not over with just you receiving the remission of your sins, but there still are way too many souls that we must take as our responsibility. The entire human race must believe in this. There have been many people who began believing in this recently. I will continue to publish our gospel newspaper no matter how high the price of paper may go up. I am sure that many who come across our newspaper by chance will somehow read it piece by piece and flock to our church, saying, “Someone here please lead me. I want to come here and listen to the Word. I had no idea that there was such Word in the Bible.” A while ago, our saints at Daejeon Church visited a woman running a beauty salon and gave her our newspaper. After this hairdresser finished reading our newspaper, she left it on top of the coffee table at the shop. One
of her clients read our newspaper while waiting for her turn, and then said to the hairdresser, “Do you know where this church is? Can you lead me to this place where such amazing Word is preached? I’ve been a Christian for a long time, but my sins still have not disappeared. Would you please lead me to this church?” So as she was able to reach us by phone, the pastor of Deajeon Church preached the gospel to her, and upon hearing it, she received the remission of her sins. My fellow believers, the Word of God will never disappear. It will remain exactly as it is forever. The most precious news in this world is this Word proclaiming that John passed our sins to Jesus by baptizing Him, that Jesus shouldered all the sins of the world and carried them to the Cross, that He died on it and rose from the dead again, and that He has thereby saved us all. This is the most beautiful news and the most joyful news; it has an amazing power like dynamite; and it is a music that’s more beautiful than any other music. Do you believe so, my fellow
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believers? Or are you by any chance bored that I am repeating the same words time after time? My sermons used to be even longer than this. When they were really long they lasted up to three hours. I am actually being very considerate these days. If I were to preach everything on my mind, I would have to speak for three or four hours. So compared to the past, nowadays my sermons are quite moderate. My fellow believers, you can preach this Truth of the water and the Spirit only if you know it yourself. Have you preached the gospel before? When you try to preach the gospel, do you not find yourself at a loss for words? Only when you listen to the Word of God in all its detail, and confirm it and know it in all its elaborateness, can you then preach the gospel concretely whenever anyone challenges you with the Word, make him surrender, and save his soul. Would you rather be saved alone and just keep the knowledge of the Truth all for yourself? If I had done so, I would have stopped serving the gospel long ago when I first received the remission of my sins. If I
had quit serving the gospel after receiving it, then by now I would probably have become the director at the large prayer center that my foster mother had led. It’s then probable that some of you would have come to my prayer center to pray. “Welcome. What brings you here?” “I’ve come to pray.” “Go to that room to pray then; you can use that room.” You would then cry your eyeballs out in that room and put yourself through a great deal of suffering trying to fast. People who visit a prayer center often want its director to lay his hands on them. Those who run prayer centers usually demand a lot of offering just for laying their hands once. They make tons of money. But if I had kept my mouth shut rather than preaching this gospel, then wouldn’t you all be heading toward hell now? If I had not done this work, then God would have made someone else do it, for He has the power to turn even this stone into a descendant of Abraham. However, I cannot resist the will of God and that is why I am preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is the reason why I keep preaching the
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gospel of the water and the Spirit to you time after time. I admonish you to also preach this gospel to others in its concrete details, rather than just living for yourself. Try writing down what you have heard about in today’s Scripture passage in its entirety, confirm it as it is, and preach it to someone else as it is. See for yourself if the other person would then receive the remission of his sins or not. He will surely receive it. If he is remitted from all his sins through you, then the Kingdom of God will descend into his heart, too. Perhaps some of you are now too tired at this hour of worship, as you had played soccer very hard this afternoon. I heard that our sisters are so good at soccer. I can be a good forward player when I play soccer, but nowadays I don’t even have enough strength to play a game of soccer with you. I have to spend most of my time nourishing my body back to health, and so in these days, I can only come out to preach once in a while. My health is too fragile to move around too much. Considering how my health
has been so poor lately, I am thankful just to be able to stand before you and preach the Word. Indeed, God has made what’s impossible possible. My fellow believers, shouldn’t every human being in this world believe in what John the Baptist testified? Why do people not believe this, even though the Bible makes it clear that John had come in the way of righteousness? Everyone should believe in John’s testimony and ministry. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that John the Baptist fulfilled together with Jesus is the way of salvation that everyone throughout the whole world must believe. John the Baptist came in the way of righteousness and passed all the sins of the world to Jesus by baptizing Him. And by thus accepting these sins of the world and dying on the Cross, Jesus has saved all of us from our sins. Everyone must believe in this salvation and in this path to the Kingdom of Heaven. You and I alike, all of us must reach salvation by faith. Everyone who believes in Jesus must believe in all this without exception. Salvation cannot be
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reached just by believing in the Cross alone. It’s an absolute must to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That is what I would like to share with you all. How about you then? Do you believe in this gospel? You may have heard this Word hundreds and thousands of times, but if you still do not cherish this gospel, then you should be ashamed of yourself before God. When Jesus Himself approves this gospel of the water and the Spirit, how could we not cherish it? My fellow believers, I ask you all to cherish this gospel. You must keep it faithfully. And you must believe in it with your heart.
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Look at the Ministry of John the Baptist! < Luke 1:17-23 > “He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ And Zacharias said to the angel, ‘How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.’ And the angel answered and said to him, ‘I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.’ And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long
in the temple. But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless. So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house.” < Luke 1:67-80 > “Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: ‘Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham: to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him
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without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.”
What Work Did John the Baptist Do? The Gospel of Luke chapter 1 verse 17 records that John the Baptist was the person who came in the spirit and power of Elijah and did the work of bringing the people back to God before the presence
of the Lord. John the Baptist was different from other people from birth. We ordinary people just get married and have children intentionally or unintentionally as time passes by. But John the Baptist was the person whose birth was already prophesized and prepared in the Old Testament. It says that John the Baptist will be coming to us in the spirit and power of Elijah. The Gospel of Luke chapter 1 records in detail about the birth of John the Baptist. It is written, “Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: ‘Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham: to grant us that we,
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being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life’” (Luke 1:67-75). The Word recorded here was the prophecy of Zachariah. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, he prophesied about Jesus who was to come as the Savior and John the Baptist, a relative of Jesus in the flesh, who was to come as the representative of humanity. It means that John the Baptist came to this world and saved us from the hands of our enemy, the hands of the Devil, through the witness of his ministry and made us live with holiness and righteousness forever without fear. The Lord took all our sins upon Him through the baptism and made us serve God by making us truly holy. The Lord clothed us with the righteousness of God and made us serve God eternally without sin. Jesus came to this world and received the baptism from John the Baptist and died on the Cross and resurrected from death, and gave the grace of salvation that makes anyone who truly believes in this Truth sinless. The Gospel of
Luke chapter 1 writes about the work of John the Baptist who played an important role in such grace and salvation of the Lord. We must understand the meaning in the Word recorded in the Gospel of Luke chapter 1 verses 7679. It says, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Who shall do such work? It’s John the Baptist. It is saying that John the Baptist will be called the prophet of the Highest before the presence of God and that he will go before the presence of the Lord and make the people understand the salvation attained through the remission of sins. It tells us that John the Baptist would show the way of salvation
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that would bring about the remission of sin to God’s people. Therefore, it is saying, “With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.” The light of the Truth that enables us to serve God will descend in our hearts through the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist which transferred all the sins of the world to Him. He illuminates God’s light of salvation to all the people who live in this dark world and leads them to that light. Through what and by whom are people led to the light of life? People are led by the ministry and witness of John the Baptist. Then who does John the Baptist witness? He witnesses the work of Jesus Christ. Verse 76 says, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest.” This means that John the Baptist will be acknowledged as the truly great prophet by all the people. The Scriptures feature the birth of Jesus and John the Baptist as a prophecy and we are able to see that prophecy actually being fulfilled.
Jesus is God Himself. But He is the Savior full of love who came to save us from the sins of the world clothed with human flesh of His creation even though He is God. And John the Baptist was the person who did the ministry like Elijah who is recorded in the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament. They were the prepared servants before the presence of God. They were the righteous servants of God the Father who were prophesized in the Scriptures. I am not saying “servant” in a negative sense, but I mean that Jesus did the righteous work in God’s eyes as the Son of God the Father. There had been many other prophets such as Moses and Isaiah, but were they all prophesized to come in the Scriptures just like John the Baptist was prophesied to come? No, they were not. Such people were born in flesh through their parents like ordinary people, but God manifested Himself to them and took hold of them and used them according to the Lord’s need in their times. But John the Baptist that appears in the New Testament, who gave baptism to Jesus, is
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God’s prophet that was prophesized in the Old Testament. And we can see through God’s Word recorded in the Scriptures that John the Baptist is like Elijah in the Old Testament. Let’s look at the Word from the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. It says, “‘For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,’ Says the LORD of hosts, ‘That will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet
On the day that I do this,’ Says the LORD of hosts. ‘Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, With the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse’” (Malachi 4:1-6). God said that He would send Prophet Elijah to humankind before the terrible judgment of God comes to the whole world during the end time.
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John the Baptist Is Elijah That God Promised to Send The Bible says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet” (Malachi 4:5), and Elijah that is spoken of here is John the Baptist who witnesses about Jesus. Let’s look at the Word spoken by Jesus in Matthew 11:14. It says, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” We could see in this verse that Jesus Himself witnessed about John the Baptist also. Jesus witnessed personally that Elijah, the one that God promised to send in the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament, was John the Baptist who actually came in the New Testament age. In other words, John the Baptist who was Elijah to come makes us all return to God in the New Testament, according to the Word that said he would come and make the Father’s heart turn to the children and the children’s heart to the Father. The Gospel of Matthew 11:14 says, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.”
Who is this Elijah? Jehovah God said in the book of Malachi that He would send the Prophet Elijah before the end of the world comes and that anyone who obeys his word shall receive salvation and those who reject his word shall be destroyed. The Scriptures said that He sent John the Baptist who is this Prophet Elijah to come for all sinners because there will eventually be a terribly fearful day at the end of the world and there will be judgment. But many people did not know that the Prophet Elijah of the Old Testament was already here in the person of John the Baptist. That’s why the scribes and the Pharisees and the people of Israel asked Jesus, “The Scriptures say that Elijah would come before Jesus. Then who is Elijah?” The Israeli people really waited for Elijah that the Lord God promised to send. Therefore, the Lord said, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:14). Who then is this Elijah? It is John the Baptist who baptized Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew chapter 11 verse 10 says, “For this is he of
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whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.’” This Word was cited from Malachi 3:1 in the Old Testament. It is the Word of prophecy that was already mentioned in the Old Testament. Jesus cited the Word that was already prophesized in the Old Testament and said that it was the Word about John the Baptist.
John the Baptist Is the Representative of the Humanity The Lord witnessed, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). Like this, the Scriptures record that the person we call John the Baptist is the representative of the entire humanity. John the Baptist is Elijah whom the Old Testament said would come and this John the Baptist is the representative of the entire humanity.
Someone may ask me, “Where in the Scriptures is the expression ‘John the Baptist is the representative of the humanity?’” Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11). That’s why we say that John is the representative of humanity. By baptizing Jesus Christ, the representative of all humanity transferred the sins of the entire humanity over to Jesus Christ and fulfilled the righteousness of God. The Scriptures continue to say, “But he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” This Word is saying that the authority that the righteous will enjoy in Heaven is so great that even the representative of humanity is nothing in Heaven.
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John the Baptist was already prophesied from long ago. Let me reiterate this. The prophecy in Malachi 3:1 states, “Behold, I send my messenger.” This messenger referred to John the Baptist who was to come in the future. As we can see in the Word of God that says, “And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek” (Malachi 3:1), God had already promised that He would send Elijah the servant of God to illuminate His path before Jesus Christ comes and He was talking about the role of John the Baptist transferring all the sins of the world over to Jesus by baptizing Him. God is the One who had already spoken through the prophet in the Book of Malachi that He would send Jesus the Savior and John the Baptist who would transfer all the sins of the humanity over to Jesus. Who is the person that God said He would send? It is the spiritual Elijah, John the Baptist who had the spirit of Elijah. That’s why it is written in the Gospel of Luke chapter 1 verses 76-77, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go
before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins.” He said “to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins” to speak of the ministry and the witness of John the Baptist. “You, child” spoken here points to John the Baptist who is the representative of all humanity in the whole universe. It is saying that John the Baptist is the spiritual High Priest that represents the entire humanity. This means this child will make known to us, the Lord’s people, the salvation through the remission of sin. Not only all the sins of the Israelites but also all the sins of the world were blotted out when John the Baptist transferred them to Jesus Christ by baptizing Him who came to this world to atone for them. And he witnessed to this fact. He said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36) John the Baptist made the people who desired to believe in the righteousness of God believe in God by making them understand that Jesus already took all the sins of humanity at once
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through the baptism that he gave. This tells us how the Lord eventually made us receive salvation from all the sins by clarifying how we should understand and believe in Jesus as we desire to believe in Jesus as the Savior. We who believe in Jesus as the Savior received the remission of sins by believing in the baptism and the blood of Jesus because John the Baptist transferred all our sins to Jesus at once by performing baptism on Jesus’ head. Such faith is the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit the Scriptures speak of. It is said that John the Baptist would come “to give knowledge of salvation to His people.” We humans were able to learn the true path of salvation, Jesus Christ, through the witness of John the Baptist, through the work of John transferring all the sins of humanity over to Jesus, and through him fulfilling the role of the High Priest in this world. We have come to believe in Jesus as our Savior through his ministry. We were able to believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God who has carried all the sins of the
world upon Him. John the Baptist witnessed that Jesus took the sins of the entire humanity upon Him through the baptism received by John the Baptist. All this happened exactly according to the Old Testament that God promised. God promised to send John the Baptist to this world and Malachi chapter 4 records, “And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their father.” Anyone can have his sins transferred over to Jesus Christ at once if he were to just understand and believe the role of John the Baptist. The only thing that one has to do is to just understand and believe the amazing sacrifice and the completion of the salvation of Jesus Christ that manifested through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Then he can meet the Truth that gives the remission from all the sins. God promised to send John the Baptist who is the spiritual Elijah to accomplish all the salvation. John the Baptist was born to the family of Zachariah, one of the descendants of Aaron the High
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Priest, 6 months before Jesus came to this world. Elizabeth, the wife of Zachariah, was already very old and she was at the age that was impossible for her to conceive a child. So, how do you think her husband Zachariah felt? He was just so flabbergasted and speechless and he could not believe in the Word of the Lord. He did not look faithful in God’s eyes. It says that’s why Zachariah became mute and he was able to speak only after the prophecy of God was completely fulfilled later. God told him to be mute until this work was fulfilled and he therefore became mute temporarily. And 6 months later, God sent the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary and gave her the Word that would become the hope for all humanity. It was the Word that she would conceive Jesus Christ. John the Baptist was born to the family of Aaron and Jesus was born to the family of David in flesh. God wanted to fulfill all the promises that were spoken in the Old Testament. Therefore, the angel came to Zachariah, the descendant of Aaron, when he
was in charge of priesthood according to the order. It says, “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” And the archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary, a virgin from the royal family of David, and said, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:31-33). Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:34-35). And the angel continued to say, “Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with
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God nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her (Luke 1:36-38). Then Mary confessed, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” This is saying that the Word was realized exactly when Mary accepted God’s Word. Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb of Mary through faith exactly according to the Word the angel Gabriel said and the Word of prophecy in the Old Testament. As such, we must know that Jesus and John the Baptist were already being prepared according to the providence of God to save all humanity from sin even before they were born. John the Baptist taught that he personally transferred the sins of the world to Jesus for all of us who would believe in Jesus as the Savior in the future. The gospel of Matthew 3:15 says, “But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’
Then he allowed Him,” and it means that Jesus received the baptism through John the Baptist. Jesus receiving the baptism from John the Baptist was to fulfill the righteous work of God that would blot out all our sins. We are the people that received the remission of sin from God, and it was John the Baptist who did the work of transferring the sins of the world completely over to Jesus Christ. Who transferred over the sins of sinners to Jesus? John the Baptist transferred the sins over to Jesus. Jesus who was to fulfill all the righteousness fulfilled it all by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. John the Baptist did the work of transferring over the sins of the entire humanity at once by baptizing Jesus. John the Baptist transferred over all our sins to Jesus through baptism. Jesus received the sins of humanity at once through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. This is the Truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that gives us the remission of sins. Jesus has blotted out all the sins of humankind.
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Then how did He fulfill this work? Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb of God that went to the Cross taking all the sins of humanity upon Himself at once through the baptism He received from John the Baptist as the little Lamb of God and resurrected from death. Therefore, those who believe in the righteousness of Jesus now confess such faith to God. Such people say that they have been saved from all the sins of the world by believing in their heart the Truth of the remission of sins that John the Baptist and Jesus fulfilled. The rising sun manifested upon us from above through this work and we have come to dwell in the light, that is, in the righteousness of God. We have received salvation from sin by believing in and understanding God’s love that has remitted the sins of the world through the baptism that John the Baptist gave to Jesus. Therefore, you and I who believe in this fact have become the people who do not have sin no matter what.
Do Not Underestimate John the Baptist and His Ministry Even among the people who claim to believe in Jesus as the Savior, there aren’t many who have a good understanding of John the Baptist and his ministry. People just know John the Baptist as someone who is not so important. But the Gospel of Luke says that John the Baptist shall be called the great prophet. John the Baptist is a much greater person than Moses or Abraham. The Lord Himself said, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11), and He also said, “If you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:14). One of John the Baptist’s ministries before the presence of God was making the Israelites turn from serving the idols of the Gentiles and return to God. For this, he performed the baptism of repentance to people. And he personally performed the baptism ◄
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that transferred the sins of the world to Jesus. Therefore, we must understand this fact. John the Baptist came to perform the baptism that fulfilled the righteousness of God while he was baptizing people in the Jordan River. Let’s look at Word from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3. It says, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:13-17). This is the scene of John the Baptist giving baptism to Jesus Christ. But before this happened,
John the Baptist was crying out in the wilderness for the people to repent. He cried out to all the people, “Repent! You, children of serpent!” Their social status in the world was not very important to him. He was a person that cried out for repentance regardless of their social status in the world because he was the servant of God. That’s why he was able to cry out, “Repent! You, children of serpent! You shall fall to the fire of hell unless you turn and repent.” People heard John the Baptist crying out and rebuking them for their sins, and realized the sins in their hearts and began to turn their hearts and return to God. And they returned to God and repented, saying, “God I have sinned such and such sins.” They regretted serving the Gentile gods, and asked for forgiveness from God and received the baptism from John the Baptist. John the Baptist cried out, “You must receive the cleansing of sin and return to God,” and performed the baptism of repentance to them. He performed the baptism of repentance that made people return to God.
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And who came to him by the Jordan River at that time? Jesus the little Lamb of God came to him. Jesus Christ the true God personally came to John the Baptist as the Lamb of God who was to take all the sins of the world upon Him. Jesus ultimately wanted to receive the baptism from John the Baptist. The Scriptures say, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him” (Matthew 3:13), but John tried to prevent Him. It says, “John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me’” (Matthew 3:14). Then Jesus commanded him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he gave baptism to Jesus (Matthew 3:15). And Jesus finally received the baptism from John the Baptist. Jesus told John the Baptist to baptize Him and then He received the baptism. And what does this mean? It was transferring over all our sins. John was transferring over the sins of humanity and Jesus was taking over the sin. It was the work of fulfilling the
righteousness of God. Now, how did Jesus fulfill the work of blotting out all our sins at once? John the Baptist baptized Jesus and Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist to take over all the sins of the world at once. John the Baptist and Jesus wanted to cleanse the sins of the world by transferring them over to Jesus. It is the work of taking over the sins of the entire humanity at once by John the Baptist baptizing Jesus and Jesus receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. The Lord commanded John to permit it to be so in order to fulfill this work. Jesus said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). It says that Jesus came to John the Baptist and wanted to receive the baptism. “Thus it is fitting for us” means that it was appropriate to fulfill all the upright righteousness of God by Jesus receiving baptism from John. Jesus said that He who came as the sacrificial Lamb would fulfill the righteousness of God perfectly by taking the sins of the entire
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humanity at once by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist, the representative of all humanity. Therefore all of us must know this fact. If we want to receive the remission of sins by believing in Jesus as the Savior, we must first understand and believe in the fact that John the Baptist transferred all our sins to Jesus and that Jesus took over all our sins on His body once and for all. It is written, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus has taken over all the sins of humanity through John the Baptist. Jesus was saying that the work of taking over all our sins at once through this work was so appropriate. John the Baptist baptized Jesus to transfer the sins of the world over to Him and Jesus took over all our sins. Therefore, we who believe in this Truth receive the remission of sin through faith. The meaning of “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15) is fulfilled. All the righteousness of God for the humanity spoken here is the work of Jesus blotting our all our sins at once by receiving the
baptism from John the Baptist and shedding His blood. Jesus receiving the baptism is the work of fulfilling the righteousness of God. You and I originally could not help but go to hell for the wages of our sin. We originally could not help but be destroyed for our sins. But Jesus and John the Baptist worked together to give the baptism and receive the baptism to do the work of fulfilling the righteousness of God. Jesus took all our sins upon Him at once through the baptism. He said, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” “For thus it is fitting for us” means that all the sinners were able to receive salvation from sin by faith through such method as John the Baptist baptizing Jesus and Jesus receiving the baptism. The passage “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” means that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist was necessary for our salvation. Jesus receiving the baptism from John the Baptist tells us that it cannot be done without this method. Jesus was saying that He and John the Baptist should do the
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work of remitting the sins of all the people, by Jesus receiving the sins by being baptized, and John the Baptist should perform the baptism of transferring over the sins of the world over to Him. The Lord was saying that He would take over all the sins of humanity through John the Baptist and become the sacrificial offering for the sins. The Lamb of God and John the Baptist performed the work of transferring and taking over our sins to fulfill the righteousness of God. This is the meaning of the Word “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus came to this world and received the baptism from John the Baptist to become the Lamb that took over all our sins. Jesus fulfilled all the righteousness of God that blotted out all the sins of humanity at once by coming to this world as the eternal sacrifice of redemption and receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. It was just like the sin was transferred over to the sacrificial offering when they laid their hands on the offering in the Old Testament, as the High Priest transferred
over all the sins of one year of the Israelites to the sacrificial lamb through the method of laying on of hands. The Lord blotted out all our sins at once through 33 years of His life. He blotted out all the sins of all the people of the world who believe in the righteousness of God. Do you believe this? The Scriptures say, “But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the Heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from Heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:15-17). Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist. This is solely for the cleansing of our sin. Jesus receiving the baptism from John is the cleansing of the sins of humanity.
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The Bible Says That John the Baptist Shall Be Called the Prophet of the Highest Today’s Scripture passage says, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest” (Luke 1:76). And after John the Baptist transferred the sins of humanity to Jesus through baptism, he said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). John the Baptist was the greatest prophet in the world. And he was the representative of humanity. He was the greatest among those born of women. He was the person who fulfilled the responsibility of the High Priest who transferred over the sins of all Israelites to Jesus. John the Baptist did this work for us and for the righteousness of God. And Jesus did the work of receiving the baptism from John and taking over the sins of the world to save you and me from the sins of the world. It says that Jesus received the baptism from John.
That Jesus received the baptism from John means that He took over all our sins at once. It is saying that the Lord has already blotted out all our sins. The Word is saying that the Lord cleansed our sins, and that He blotted out all our sins in that manner. Do you and I have sin if we believe in this fact? No, we don’t. That Jesus received the baptism from John means that He took over all our sins at once. And that Jesus died on the Cross with the sins of the world says that Jesus received the baptism from John and received the penalty for sin as the sacrificial offering for all of humanity in order to save you and me from the sins of the world. The Lord received the baptism and resurrected from death and came to us again. The resurrection of Jesus means that He has perfectly saved you and me from the sins and that He has brought back to life those who were once dead. That Jesus received the baptism signifies that Jesus took all our sins upon Him. It means that all our sins have been transferred over to Jesus through the baptism of John the Baptist.
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When Jesus came up from the water after receiving the baptism from John the Baptist, suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God the Father personally witnessed that Jesus, who received the baptism from John, was His Son. So He said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” You now understand why Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist, don’t you? To blot out all our sins, John the Baptist performed the baptism upon Jesus and transferred over the sins of the world to Jesus and Jesus received the baptism to receive all the sins of humanity. Why did John the Baptist baptize Jesus? Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist to make us sinless when we could not help but die and fall to the inferno of hell because of our own sins. Jesus the Lamb of God received the baptism from John the Baptist. God the Father witnessed, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God was saying that Jesus, who
took over all the sins of humanity by receiving the baptism, now was His Son, the Son of God the Father. God is God the Holy Father, Jesus the Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit. These three Persons are all the same God to us. Each of these three Persons have different responsibilities, but they are all one Person and one God. Jesus was conceived to the body of Mary through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Jesus is the Son of God. The Person who sent the Son is God the Father. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all the same one Holy God to us. Each Person of God of Trinity has a different responsibility, but they are all one God to us. As the son born to a human is also a human, the Son of God the Father is basically God as well. God is the Holy Spirit. We must not think of God through the flesh because He is the Spirit. He gave birth to Jesus through the Word as He created the whole universe through the Word. Jesus who received the baptism from John the Baptist is the Son
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of God the Father, and Jesus is God to us. It means that He is our Savior. Jesus became our Savior in this manner. Luke 1:78-79 states, “Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.” John the Baptist came to us and witnessed that all the righteousness was fulfilled by baptizing Jesus. John the Baptist witnesses about Jesus who received the baptism in the form of the laying on of hands. The Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 29 says, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” He is saying that Jesus is our Savior. He fulfilled the prophecy, “With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,” by witnessing that Jesus would be the One who would
take all our sins and that He is the Savior who takes all our sins in our place and suffers the sacrifice. As such, people have become the children of God by faith through the witness of John. As the descendants of Adam, we actually should have suffered destruction. We were pitiful people who could not help but die sitting in the shadow death. You and I, and all of humanity, were human beings that used to live in darkness in shame and wither away to death because of the sins in our hearts. But God had pity on such sinners and led them to the light of the Truth by sending John the Baptist to this world to perform the baptism to Jesus, which transferred all the sins of humanity to Jesus. By taking all the sins of all humanity upon Him in that manner, Jesus made us believers dwell in the light by being saved from all our sins. Jesus took all the sins of the whole humanity through the baptism and became our Savior because of the work of John the Baptist. The dayspring from on high illuminates upon us because John the Baptist performed the work of
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remission of sin by transferring all our sins over to Jesus. It means that we have come to dwell in the righteousness of God by believing the righteousness of God. We have come to receive salvation from sin by believing in the righteousness of God. It is impossible to know that Jesus took all our sins upon Him at once without knowing the role and Jesus’ baptism performed by John the Baptist. We cannot say anything about Jesus who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit if we do not know the role of John the Baptist even though we say that we believe in all the Word of the 66 Books of the Bible. We must know and believe this fact that God sent these two righteous servants to this world and we have received the remission of sins because the work of blotting out all our sins was completed through these two persons. We must understand this fact clearly and believe in it because John the Baptist blotted out all our sins by transferring all our sins over to Jesus and Jesus did the work of washing our sins clean by receiving the baptism.
We must truly have a joyful heart like the hymn that we sing when Christmas comes around, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King.” The Lord made you and me sinless by preparing John the Baptist and eventually receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. He took over all the sins of humanity in that manner and He received the penalty for the sins in our place by being nailed to the Cross, resurrected on the third day after His death, and sitting at the right hand of the throne of God the Father even now. That’s why we give sincere thanks and glory to the Lord who came to this world about 2000 years ago and saved us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit from the sins of the world. I really want you to receive the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The remission of our sins lies in the Word of God, not in our emotion. Your heart becoming hot by itself can never be the evidence of your salvation. It is written in the Bible that in the beginning God created
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the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. How and where does the Spirit of God work? He works over the waters. He works when we believe in the Word. God never works in a person who does not preach God’s Word as it is and does not believe in the Word as it is. Such a person does not have the Holy Spirit in him no matter how logically he claims that he has received salvation. Among Christians in this world, I see many who do not have the Holy Spirit even though they say they have received the remission of sins in their own ways. When I look at people, I can distinguish the people who have the Holy Spirit from the people who do not have the Holy Spirit. Regardless of how logically they talk about their faith, I know everything about them when I talk to them and listen to them once. The people who have the Holy Spirit in their hearts can say everything with the Scriptures, but the people who do not have the Holy Spirit
cannot say anything when you take away the notebook. Why? It’s because they do not have the Holy Spirit inside their heart. We can say the truth only when we have God inside us. You will receive salvation if you just believe in the Word in our hearts. Then, the Holy Spirit puts a seal on your heart. “Correct! Your faith is correct. You are right. You are righteous.” He works like that. Beloved saints, you must understand clearly the role of John the Baptist. You must understand the reason why John the Baptist was born 6 months prior to Jesus; why John the Baptist baptized Jesus; why John the Baptist said Jesus was the Lamb of God who carried the sins of the world; why Jesus said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”; and why Jesus received the baptism. And you must believe all these reasons sincerely. The Holy Spirit approves in your heart and says, “Correct! Your faith is correct” when you believe according to the Word regardless of your emotion.
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Anyone can receive the remission of sins if he just believes in this gospel Word of Truth purely, regardless of whether he is a Korean or a foreigner. It doesn’t matter whether he has a lot of knowledge about God or not. The Holy Spirit dwells in his heart if he just preaches the Word exactly as it is and believes in the Word exactly as it is. I have seen such things many times. It is said that the Holy Spirit descended from above when Peter was preaching the Word and this is actually true because this Word is the Word of the Truth. How you believe is important. Do you believe in the role of John the Baptist? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus resolved the problem of sin at once by taking over all our sins by receiving the baptism? Do you believe that God made us without sin by John the Baptist transferring all our sins over to Jesus? The remission of our sins was accomplished through the role of John the Baptist and Jesus. We just believe and know this. Trying to receive the remission of sins by
believing in Jesus who saved us from sin while omitting the role of John the Baptist is believing only half of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our faith must not be like that. We must have the faith of believing the perfect gospel of the water and the Spirit. Since you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, do you have sin? You do not have sin. Are you without sin because you have done something good? You become without sin through the work John the Baptist and Jesus did and by believing in this. Do we not sin every day? How insufficient are we? Do you know that we, ourselves, are so weak? The Lord saved us when we could not help but have sin and when we could not help but go to hell because of the sins. How grateful is that? This is the salvation. I really give thanks to God once again. We can come together here and offer up the worship service, listen to the Word, serve the gospel, serve the Lord, and follow the Lord before the presence of God because the Lord saved us, because He gave the
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remission of all our sins by taking over all our sins through John the Baptist. There isn’t any reason to follow and believe in the Lord if it were not for this salvation. We do not attain great power in this world by believing and following the Lord without believing in His baptism. And our faith would be nothing if we still had sin in us. The economy and the natural environment of this world will fall devastatingly. But God’s Church will preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit firmly even if this world collapses. I believe there will be many more people who will be saved from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I give thanks to God. Today’s Scripture passage says, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sin.” God sent His servant John the Baptist and baptized Jesus and taught us the Truth of the salvation out of His mercy. The Lord received
the baptism from John the Baptist and hung on the Cross and gave us the remission of sins through His precious blood. We give thanks to God and believe in Him because we believe in this fact.
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106 Let Us Gladly Enjoy The Glory of God
Let Us Gladly Enjoy The Glory of God < John 1:1-14 > “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know
Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Gospel of John, the three Books of 1, 2, and 3 John, and the Book of Revelation are the Scriptures written by the Apostle John. Through these Scriptures, we can see what the faith of the Apostle John was like, and also what the faith of the disciples of Jesus was like. The Apostle John believed that Jesus was the very God who created the whole universe and us humans, and that God was his Savior and the Savior of all mankind. We must also have this kind of faith.
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Some people believe that the Bible was written by men, so they deny its genuineness and truthfulness. But the men who wrote the Bible are not its authors but writers, and as such, they only transcribed the Word of God. Combing both Old and New Testaments together, there are around 3,800 instances in which the expression “God said” is used in the Bible. It is testified throughout the Bible that the Scripture writers did not write their own experiences or thoughts, but they transcribed what God said and wrote down what He told them to write. The Bible was written over an extended period of time of about 1,600 years, starting from 1500 BC, which is around 3,500 years ago, until 100 AD. Around 40 Scripture writers wrote the Bible in diverse places including the Sinai Peninsula, Israel, Babylon, various regions in Asia Minor, Rome, small Mediterranean islands, and so forth. The class backgrounds of the Scripture writers are also diverse, ranging from scholars, prophets, generals, kings, farmers, fishermen, a physician, a tax collector, and others. But in this
world, there is only one volume written by all these people from diverse backgrounds over a very long period of time, and it is the Bible. What is even more amazing is that despite the fact the Bible was recorded by such diverse people over such an extended period, its content is consistently centered on Jesus. This proves that the Bible is the Word of God that God has given us, and that it is the Truth written by His servants in both the Old and New Testaments. In other words, the Bible is not some words of men written according to their own will, but it is the Word of God delivered to us by the hands of men inspired by the Holy Spirit. It’s absolutely indispensable for us to understand clearly how the Bible was written, and believe that this Word of the Scriptures is the God-spoken Word delivered to us. True faith in God begins when we believe that all the Words written in the Bible is the Word of God.
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108 Let Us Gladly Enjoy The Glory of God
Jesus Created the Heavens and the Earth In today’s Scripture passage, the Apostle John is speaking by faith, citing the Word of God from Genesis chapter one. He is speaking about the fundamental essence of Jesus Christ. “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:2-3). From the very beginning, the very moment that God the Father decided to create this universe, Jesus Christ His Son Himself was already the Creator. This passage declared by the Apostle John makes it clear that Jesus was God Himself from the beginning. That’s why he said that there was nothing that came into existence spontaneously without Jesus. In other words, while Jesus Christ is the Savior for us, because He is God Himself, He is also the Creator who made the universe and everything in it. When the world was created, it came into being exactly according to what
the Creator, Jesus Christ who is God Himself, said. Let’s turn to Genesis 1:1-5 here. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:1-5). This is how Jesus created the heavens and the earth. The universe did not come into existence spontaneously as commonly thought and posited by the theory of evolution, but it was made by the mighty Word of Jesus Christ. The theory of evolution is a hypothetical notion positing that a single cell spontaneously came into being one day and gradually became a life form over a long period of time. But how can life spring forth suddenly and spontaneously like this out of nothing?
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109 Let Us Gladly Enjoy The Glory of God
Only God can create life. Let’s go back to Genesis 1:2. Before God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The “Spirit of God” here refers to none other than the Holy Spirit. It means that as the heart of every sinner was formless and there was nothing but only confusion and disorder, the Holy Spirit could not descend on it yet.
God Shines the Light of Life on This Chaotic World It’s written, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good” (Genesis 1:3-4). Although this passage explains the formation of the universe and its result, it also implies that Jesus Christ would come to this earth to save you and me from the sins of the world.
In the beginning, Jesus Christ shone the light of blessings on this earth that was prevailed only by darkness. Light came into being at His single utterance alone, commanding to let there be light in the chaotic world. The formless and void earth here refers to the very planet Earth on which you and I are living. Spiritually speaking, it also refers to your heart and mine. It means that from the moment we were born in this world, our hearts were without form, void, and profoundly dark. In other words, we were all born as sinners. Although our Lord created this beautiful universe, the human heart became confused and empty because of Satan. The universe had no stars, and there was nothing on this planet Earth—no plants, no trees, no fruits, nothing. Only complete darkness and confusion pervaded. This darkness refers to the heart of everyone who is born as a sinful descendant of Adam. The human heart and this world were prevailed by confusion and darkness, but when God said, “Let there be light,” the light of salvation
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could come into the heart of man, and God saw that this light was good. God divided the light from the darkness, calling the light day and the darkness night, and as the evening and the morning came, it was the first day. God the Father took a total of six days to create this universe, and throughout this time and in all His work, He did it with His Son Jesus Christ. This Jesus Christ is the very One who came to this earth as a Man to save you and me from the sins of the world: He accepted our sins on His body by being baptized by John the Baptist, bore the condemnation of our sins in our place, rose from the dead again, and has thereby illuminated our hearts with the true light of salvation. Through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Jesus Christ has made us His believers God’s people. He created the heavens and the earth and He has saved us as well. He is the King of kings and the Savior to us. It is by Jesus Christ that this world has been saved from sin.
You Must Have the Right Faith, Knowing That Jesus Is God Himself You and I must not think of this Jesus Christ as the same creature as us. Nor should we even compare Him to such sages as Buddha, Confucius, Mencius, or Socrates who lived in this world only for a short while. It is absolutely indispensable for you to realize and believe that Jesus Christ is the very God who created this universe and all things in it. He who created you and me, who made us to be born from the womb of our mothers and grow, who rules over our life and death, who is the Alpha and the Omega, who has given us the blessings of the remission of sins, and who has allowed us to enjoy everlasting happiness in Heaven—He is none other than Jesus, who is God Himself. Our faith must be founded on the proper recognition that the Lord is God Himself who rules over man’s blessings and curses. The Apostle John’s faith was such that he understood and believed in Jesus Christ properly. He ◄
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believed that Jesus Christ was with God the Father from the beginning, that this universe and all things were created through Jesus, and that all sinners could receive the remission of sin by believing in Him who came by the water and the Spirit. This faith of the Apostle John is absolutely indispensable for you and me today also. Jesus Christ is the very God who created the universe and all things, and He is your Master and mine. You have to grasp clearly here that it is Jesus Christ who brought everyone to be born on this earth. You must also believe that for your sake, He took upon Himself your sins by being baptized by John the Baptist, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby remitted away your sins. To know and believe that Jesus Christ is both the Creator and the Savior of mankind is what true faith is all about. That is how we should understand who the Lord is, and that is how we should believe in Him with all our hearts. There have been many sages on this earth. Some of them had great visions, and not a few of them even
laid down their own lives to fulfill their noble ideals. However, these people were not divine, nor were they saviors. No matter how great their achievement might have been, in the end, they were mere creatures in God’s eyes made by Him, and they did not bring any fundamental benefits to our souls. It may be that they brought some temporal satisfaction to the people in the world, but they failed to bring the everlasting blessings of salvation. Nor were they able to give us the glorious riches of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Apostle John clearly shows that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of mankind. Jesus Christ made the world, and there is nothing that was made without Him. The Bible has once again shown us that the most fitting faith for us is to know and believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior.
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Who Created This Universe and All Things? Who made you and me, conceived us in the womb of our mothers and made us to be born in this world, grew us and rules over our next lives? Who has given us the blessings of salvation and determines our future? It is Jesus. It is Jesus Christ the very Savior of mankind. The name Jesus Christ means the Savior and the King of kings. It is Jesus Christ who is the Lord and King of the entire universe and all its hosts. He is the only God who has blotted out all our sins and transgressions and given us the life of the flesh and the everlasting life of the soul. We must recognize Jesus Christ as the God of creation and the Savior of mankind, and we must believe so. The Apostle John knew and believed that Jesus Christ was God Himself, and the Savior and Son of God. Do we also believe like this? If you didn’t know that Jesus Christ is the only Creator and the Savior, then even from now on you have to grasp this and
believe so. Not just you, but everyone around the world must realize this. The Apostle John said in John 1:4, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” When God said to let there be light in the dark world, this light came into existence and the mysterious work of life arose on this planet. If the Sun were to disappear and there were no more light, every living thing will die not long after darkness descends. You may then ask, “Can’t the deep sea creatures live without light?” No, that is not the case. Those creatures cannot survive without the food chain of the broader ecosystem that is sustained by solar energy. All these creatures would not have come into existence were it not for the Word of Jesus Christ. Where light and darkness recedes at the command of the Word of Jesus Christ, new life is born, but where the light of Jesus Christ recedes and only darkness remains, there is nothing but death waiting. So when Jesus Christ, God Himself, made the universe and all its hosts, He commanded to let there
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be light, and light indeed appeared out of darkness and new life was born by this blessing. Just as Jesus Christ gave new life to where there was only darkness by making light, so has He given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit and thus enabled us to receive our true salvation. Like this, while the light that God made in Genesis refers to the first light created at the foundation of the world, it also refers to the light of salvation that we have received by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Do You Know the Real Purpose for Which the Bible Was Written? Although the Bible actually contains historical facts and scientific truths, these are not its central themes. The real purpose for which the Bible was written is to point out your soul’s sins, to explain the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and to thus bring true salvation to those who believe in the Truth
and make them God’s people. It’s written, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5). Jesus spoke the Truth yesterday, He is speaking it today, and He will continue speaking it in the future. Yet despite this, many people still do not really know God properly. They trail off with buts and ifs, saying, “Well, there clearly is God, but, . . .” They know that there is a Creator, but they cannot believe in Him, nor accept the Truth that He has given them. They do this even though Jesus Christ is alive, shining the gospel light of salvation and ruling over the entire natural order of things. It’s only because God is maintaining the natural provision and order that everything in the universe exists and is alive. Yet many people do not know who this God is, and exactly what their relationship with God is. So not only are they still unable to comprehend the Truth of salvation that came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but they even try to judge God based on their own human thoughts, saying that everything began from water.
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However, my fellow believers, the truth of salvation Jesus Christ has given is very clear. All things came from Jesus Christ, and all things must return to the Maker at the end, to be saved or judged by Him, and be blessed or cursed by Him. But people do not realize this. They have no idea just how great the salvation of the gospel of the water and the Spirit fulfilled by Jesus is, how this love has already been bestowed on us in abundance through this gospel Truth, and how Christ has saved us and clothed us in His love. So it was necessary that there be some teachers who could teach the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit to those who did not know it. Moses heard the voice of God and was raised by God, and he taught God’s Truth to the people of Israel. Likewise, we also needed such a teacher. Six months before Jesus was born on this earth, God the Father had first sent a man named John the Baptist so people could realize through John the Baptist who Jesus Christ was, and what He had done for them. Even though we were ignorant of Jesus
Christ who is God Himself, through John the Baptist’s testimony, we came to comprehend the Truth, realizing, “Ah, that is who Jesus Christ is! These are the things that He did on this earth. So He has revealed God’s love and mercy, and He has brought salvation to all those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.”
John the Baptist, a Man Sent from God It’s written in John 1:6-7, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.” As you know, the Apostle John and John the Baptist are two different people with the same name. As we see that the Scripture writer Mark’s name was also John (Acts 12:12), John was a very common name in those days. It’s fairly common for different people to have the ◄
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same name, such as John, Robert, Jane, and so on. Although they both had the same name, the Bible calls the former John the Baptist because he is the one who baptized Jesus. Other than sharing the same name, John the Baptist is not the same person as the Apostle John, who was called by Jesus Christ to be one of His disciples and bore witness of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It was said, “This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light” (John 1:7). John the Baptist was sent to this earth before Jesus and bore witness of the Light. What does this Light mean? Just as sunlight is indispensable for every living thing to grow, Jesus Christ is the very Light that rules over every life and saves everyone. John the Baptist’s role was to bear witness of this Light. Although Jesus Christ is fundamentally God Himself, He personally came to this earth and blotted out all sins for you and me who are living in sin. As Jesus Christ accepted all our sins once for all through His baptism and died on the Cross in our place for these sins, He is the Light
that has given us new life. John the Baptist’s role was to bear witness of this ministry of Jesus. He bore witness of all the work of salvation fulfilled by Jesus Christ, testifying how He took upon Himself all sins through His baptism, and how He died on the Cross while shouldering these sins. Like this, even though we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can never have true faith if we set aside the role of John the Baptist. However, many people mistakenly think that John the Baptist is a failure. They think, “Well, he just came six months earlier than Jesus Christ.” But with this kind of thinking you cannot properly meet Jesus Christ who came by the water and the Spirit. To properly believe in Jesus Christ who came by the water and the Sprit, you must listen to the testimony of baptism witnessed by John the Baptist. If this testimony is right, then you must believe it. Like this, John the Baptist is an extremely important figure. The Apostle John who wrote the Gospel of John was also able to know who Jesus Christ was thanks to the
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witness testified by John the Baptist. He was able to realize that Jesus Christ was the Messiah that his people had been waiting for, and he was also able to comprehend the true meaning of the baptism of Jesus and His death on the Cross. Given the fact even the Apostle John, a disciple of Jesus, met Jesus and came to believe in Him through the testimony of John the Baptist, how much more important is this testimony for you and me? If we ignore the role of the John the Baptist, it is simply impossible for you and me to meet the Lord who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Without believing in the witness of baptism that John the Baptist bore, salvation is even more impossible to reach than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle and the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Anyone who does not believe in the testimony of John the Baptist cannot encounter the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
John the Baptist Bore Witness of the Light Who is this Light? It is Jesus Christ who came by the water and the Spirit. Who is the true Light of salvation for your soul? Again, it is Jesus Christ who came by the water and the Spirit. It is this Jesus Christ whom John the Baptist bore witness. However, the people of Israel at that time did not believe this. Even though the world was made by Jesus, His people did not receive Him when He came to this earth. Even though they had been waiting for the Messiah, when the Savior Jesus actually came, they did not believe Him, for they did not recognize Him. John the Baptist had testified to them, “None other than He is the Lamb of God. He is the Son of God who took our sins like the sacrificial lamb of the Old Testament, blotted them out, and thus made us God’s people and fulfilled the Kingdom of God. He is the Savior of mankind. He is the Messiah whom you’ve been waiting. He is Abraham’s descendant ◄
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who came through the tribe of Judah, one of Jacob’s twelve sons. He is the King who is to come in His time.” But despite this, the people of Israel still did not believe. Why did they not believe then? They did not believe because they judged Jesus in carnal terms only with their human eyes. Like a root out of dry ground, there was little attractive in Jesus’ outside appearance. Jesus was described like a root out of dry ground (Isaiah 53:2). What then, would have been His outside appearance? First, He must have been tall, and second, He must have been extremely thin. When you look at some paintings of Jesus Christ being interrogated in Pilate’s court, you will be amazed at just how emaciated His face looks. Someone who is so skeletal that there is nothing attractive in outside appearance—this is who Jesus was. Born in Bethlehem as prophesied and raised in Nazareth, Jesus took upon the sins of mankind once for all by being baptized by John the Baptist at the
age of 30 to fulfill all the righteousness of God according to the Word. However, the people of Israel did not believe in Jesus. They didn’t believe even though John the Baptist bore witness to them, testifying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus had come to this earth personally, yet the people of Israel, His own people, did not receive Him. However, the Apostle John continued on to say, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). This passage is one of the favorite Bible verses that Christians memorize. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). John the Baptist bore witness that Jesus Christ, the Light, came to this earth, bore all our sins once for all by being baptized, carried all your worldly sins and mine to the Cross,
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was crucified, shed His lifeblood, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved us from all the sins of the world. The Apostle John also said that to those who receive into their hearts Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God has given them the right to become His children. In other words, God the Father has given such rights to those who believe in Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must believe that the Lord is not just the Savior of the nation of Israel, but He is the Savior of the entire human race. John the Baptist bore witness of the baptism of Jesus Christ, His blood on the Cross, His death, and His resurrection. Therefore, by faith, everyone in this world must accept them into their heart. The right to become God’s children is given to all those who believe in Jesus Christ, who was crucified while shouldering the sins of the world that He bore through His baptism. We must therefore accept this true Light of salvation. Jesus Christ accepted your sins and mine by being
baptized by John the Baptist. The baptism of Jesus described in Matthew 3:13-17 is what moved your sins to Jesus Christ, and He carried these sins to the Cross. You must realize and believe that in order to take on your sins, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River before being crucified. It was after Jesus shouldered the sins of the world by being baptized that He shed His precious blood on the Cross and rose from the dead again, thus bearing the condemnation of all your sins in your place. So you can reach your salvation only if you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that Christ has saved you in this way. You must receive Jesus Christ, the Light of salvation, into your heart with a proper understanding of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You must accept Him into your heart. Remember that it is those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to whom God gives the right to become His children.
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Have You Received Jesus Christ as Your Savior? Do you believe with your heart that Jesus is indeed the King of kings and your Savior? He is simultaneously our King and our Prophet, and at the same time the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven as well. The Lord came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man, bore the sins of mankind, not on some sacrificial animal, but on His own body, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become our true Savior. He has become the Savior of all those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. To those who believe, the Lord has given the right to become God’s children. I believe in this Truth. Do you also believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Have you accepted the gospel of the water and the Spirit into your heart? Who then are those that wholeheartedly accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit? People who receive this gospel into their hearts are those who
admit right away the corruption of their own thoughts and accept the infallible Word of Jesus Christ. We must believe that Jesus Christ has saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit by coming to this earth; that He is God Himself and the Lord of life who created the universe and all its hosts; that He conceived us in the womb of our mothers and made us be born on this earth, and that He has delivered us from death by bearing our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and dying on the Cross. If anyone doesn’t acknowledge this, or doesn’t yearn for it wholeheartedly, then he does not believe in the Truth. Such people just listen with their ears and see with their eyes, never with their hearts. If you still cannot believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit even though it is so unambiguously clear, then you have a huge problem. These people cannot obtain the washing of sin from God, and therefore they will be cursed. Does anyone among you think that being cursed by God is no big deal? In the English language, one of the worst
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profanities is to say, “God damn so-and-so.” What hope would anyone have if he were to be cursed by God? He has no hope. Someone who is cursed by God is a wretched man who can no longer live in this world. Everyone needs to be blessed by God to live. Sometimes you may be hated by others, but you will never go to hell because of this. However, if you are cursed by God, then you will be so wretched that life in this world will be unbearable. If you are hated by man because of God, then this hatred will return to you as blessings, but if you are praised by man and hated by God, then you will head straight to your own destruction. Do you want to be cursed and lose whatever little you have now? If this is not what you want, then you must believe in the God-spoken gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. You must believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ the Light loves you, and that He has saved you from all your sins. You can be blessed only if you accept and believe in this Word of Truth, that Jesus Christ who made the universe and all its hosts, and who is
your Lord, is the Messiah who has saved you. The Bible says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). What about you then? Have you really received the right to become God’s child through the gospel of the water and the Spirit? God will give you this right as soon as you believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit with your heart. Anyone who believes in the salvation of Jesus Christ, His power, and His love is made a child of God. It is by the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that one becomes God’s child. If one has become God’s child by faith, then he has the authority of God. Even in the secular world, the children of the powerful are elevated to enjoy considerable privileges. Given the fact that God is our Father, would there be any right that’s beyond our enjoyment? Of course not! So it’s extremely important for you to receive Jesus. Whom have you received? Whom have you really received in joy? If a stranger visits you, would you
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receive this person gladly? No, you wouldn’t. But if one of your acquaintances visits you, wouldn’t you receive him with open arms? Of course you would. Jesus has blotted out your sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit and made you God’s child so that you would receive both heavenly and earthly blessings. Won’t you then accept this Jesus? Is there then any reason for you to hesitate to receive Jesus Christ into your heart, when He is God Himself who loves you? I admonish you all to receive Jesus Christ in joy through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, by believing in this gospel.
Manage Your Life Together with Jesus Christ While some people in this world understand Jesus properly and receive Him gladly through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there also are many people who have no interest at all in this Truth and
don’t accept Jesus. There is a proverb in Korea that goes, “The salt on a kitchen table tastes salty only when it’s actually used in cooking.” Likewise, when you hear the Word of God saying that Jesus has blotted out our sins for us with the gospel of the water and the Sprit and enabled us to become God’s children, you must bring this Word into your heart and believe in it. Jesus Christ has given you all the blessings of both this earth and Heaven, but it is only when you recognize Him as your Savior and accept Him into your heart that these blessings are really made yours. If you don’t receive Him into your heart, you can never receive these blessings. To illustrate, let’s imagine that someone is defending his castle all by himself. When the invaders come, there is no way he can thwart them if they are stronger than him, no matter hard how he may try. He will ultimately be thrown out of the castle, lose everything, and face personal destruction. Like this, we shouldn’t manage our lives all by ourselves. Instead, we should manage our lives
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together with Jesus Christ. To do so, we must accept Him into our hearts. It’s not the ignorant people who believe in Jesus Christ. On the contrary, it is the wise and smart people who believe in Jesus. So I admonish all of you to believe in the baptism of Jesus Christ and His blood on the Cross, to believe that He is God Himself and your Savior, and to thus truly accept Him into your heart. Remember that God’s everlasting blessings are waiting before you, if only you would accept Christ into your heart. Anyone who doesn’t believe so is a fool. The ancient Inca Empire is famous for its abundant gold and silver holdings. Gold and silver were so plentiful that the Europeans were awestruck when they first came across the empire. Yet despite boasting a rich culture, when the Spanish invaded the Inca Empire, it crumbled before only 200 troops. Because the Incans had never been in contact with Western civilization, they were fascinated by the Spaniards, and they also welcomed them with open
arms. In their travel through the Inca Empire the Spaniards saw how the empire was filled with so much gold, silver, and other precious jewels. It was quite natural for their hearts to turn greedy. Even though the Inca Empire was a highly advanced civilization, it ultimately fell apart before the firepower of the Spaniards. This was the result of the Incans’ failure to appreciate the value of gold and make it theirs, even though it was so priceless. Gold is nothing more than a useless stone if you don’t know its true value. Even if you have enough gold to live the rest of your life in luxury, if you don’t know its value, it’s all useless. What will happen if you neglect your gold, not realizing its preciousness? You will end up losing it all to your enemy. You wouldn’t want to be cursed and perish because of your ignorance, unable to even distinguish friendly troops from enemy troops just like the Incans were not able to discern their enemies from their friends. You must remember that if you don’t cherish your own soul, and you don’t realize
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what a precious jewel of life Jesus Christ’s gospel of the water and the Spirit is, then you would be embarking on the way of destruction just like the Inca Empire that disappeared from the face of the earth despite boasting a highly advanced civilization. To save you from sin, Jesus Christ came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man, took upon Himself all your sins by being baptized by John, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and has thereby become your true Savior. If, in spite of this, you neither believe in nor accept into your heart Jesus Christ, who is granting so many benefits to your soul, and you instead just stare at Him as if He had no relevance to your life, then far from being blessed, you will only be cursed. You have to realize who really is standing on your side, and you have to open your heart to your ally who is there to help you. If you accept just anyone, then you may find out suddenly that he has turned into your enemy, drawing his sword against you and robbing you of everything. Those who don’t believe in God are like a brood of
vipers. What about you then? Have you really become a child of the Kingdom of God by wholeheartedly believing in Jesus? It’s absolutely indispensable for you to realize that all those who don’t believe in God are your enemies, and that while you should preach the Word to them and wait for them, you should never mingle with them. While preaching the Word of God, I am sometimes provoked to righteous anger by the fact that there are so many Christian leaders on this earth who don’t believe in God. These people boast about their educational credentials, social status, and worldly privileges, but do they have any idea that all such acts will rot away in the end, and that they are just filthy trash in God’s sight? My fellow believers, knowing and believing in Jesus Christ is the noblest thing that man can do. Without even knowing Jesus’ gospel of the water and the Spirit, what can anyone possibly brag about? Boasting of worldly powers without knowing Jesus is nothing more than a completely foolish act.
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My fellow believers, believing in Jesus Christ does not simply mean recognizing and accepting Him as the Savior just to obtain earthly blessings. The only way for us to receive the remission of sin and become God’s children is accepting Jesus Christ, who came to us by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, as our Savior. Those whose prayers are answered on this earth are only those who believe in Jesus Christ’s gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only they can receive the God-given blessings and find His grace and glory. Those who have received Jesus into their hearts are those who know and believe that Jesus Christ, who came to us by the gospel of the water and the Sprit, is the One who gives us salvation. We must now realize this Truth and accept Jesus the Supreme Being into our hearts. The right to become God’s children is not something that is obtained by the bloodline of the flesh. Nor it is attained by provoking human emotions. Neither is it received from the religious tradition of a family, nor by saying, “Since my
parents believe, so do I believe in Jesus also.” The Bible says that God’s children are those who have been born again not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man (John 1:13), but by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit (John 3:5). You shouldn’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit for someone else’s sake, but you must believe in it out of your own volition. You can’t just say, “Alright, I’ll also believe just for you. My household is Christian, and so it’s impossible for me not to believe in Jesus. So, not to be in discord with our family members, I'll also believe in Jesus and attend church.” Rather, you should believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with your heart, out of your own willingness. It should be out of your own volition when you believe that Jesus, who came by the water and the Spirit, is your Savior.
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Those Who Are Born Again of Water and the Spirit Will Enjoy Glory with God That one is born of God means the following: God the Father loved the world so much that He sent His Son to this earth, and through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, He has saved you and me from the sins of the world; and when you believe in this Jesus Christ who came from God the Father as your Savior, you are born again as a child of God. That is how you are blessed by God. Jesus Christ had promised that He would come to this earth as a woman’s descendant and become our Savior (Genesis 3:15). According to this promise, He indeed came to this earth and fulfilled all His promised Word. That Jesus was thus born of God means that He is God Incarnate. In other words, the holy God was born on this earth incarnated in the flesh of man. From the Word of God, we have met this Jesus Christ, and we have come to realize that He is indeed
the Son of God, and also that through His Son, God the Father has given you and me the gift of salvation to become His children. All these things have come about because of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has saved you and me. Through His Word, God has enables us to know that this salvation is not false, but the real Truth, and He has enabled us to believe in it. I cannot preach anything else other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What would be the whole point if I were speaking of something that is not true as I stand before you now? If this were what I am doing, there would be no hour that’s as meaningless and accursed as this hour. You may then say, “Get off the pulpit! Stop preaching now! I can do a better job if I were standing behind the pulpit!” If I were preaching something else other than the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, you would all be able to say this to me. My fellow believers, you are experts at everything except for the Word of God. Each of you is an expert
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at something, from housekeeping to academia, arts, philosophy, education, car repairing, and so on. Like this, we all are experts at some secular fields, but what is most important is that we have to become experts of faith who listen to and believe in God’s Word, which has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I hope and pray that you would all thus accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit into your heart in joy, receive God’s blessings in joy, live in joy, and then stand before God on the last day. Let us, in short, receive the washing of sin and gladly enjoy the glory of God in our lives. Let us receive the blessings of salvation that have come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do you believe in this gospel, my fellow believers? Placing my faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I give all my thanks to God.
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SERMON 6
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Do You Know The Ministries of Two Servants of God? < John 1:30-36 > “‘This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.’ And John bore witness, saying, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.’ Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said,
‘Behold the Lamb of God!’”
Today’s Scripture passage comes from John 1:3036. God’s servants who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit all know that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of sinners. Like this, those who really know God and believe in Him properly can realize that John the Baptist had fulfilled a precious and indispensable ministry as a servant of God.
In the Age of the Old Testament, Some Servants Were Especially Set aside to be Dedicated to God The Nazirites such as Samson were especially set aside by God even before they were born to dedicate their lives to Him. Like these Nazirites, John, who baptized Jesus, was also born on this earth as a man especially set aside by God even before he was ◄
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conceived in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth. So when Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist, an angel said, “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). As this passage shows, John the Baptist was a man especially set aside and chosen by God. When John the Baptist grew up, the Holy Spirit made him realize that Jesus was the Son of God so that he could bear witness to Jesus Christ properly. So he confessed, “He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit’” (John 1:33). John the Baptist was a man entrusted with a special mission from God. Before he laid his hands on the head of Jesus to baptize Him, John the Baptist had received the revelation of the Holy Spirit saying to him, “When you baptize people, whomever the Holy Spirit descends upon is the very Son of God.”
It’s written, “I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God” (John 1:33-34). So John the Baptist became the man who passed the sins of mankind to Jesus by baptizing Him. Having baptized Jesus, John the Baptist then bore witness of this Jesus, saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Like this, John the Baptist was able to testify that the baptized Jesus was the Son of God and the Savior who bore mankind’s sins. Bearing witness of Jesus, John the Baptist said: “He is the very Son of God, the Lamb of God and the Savior prophesied throughout the entire age of the Old Testament.” The Son of God came to this earth as a man, accepted all the sins of mankind once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and bore witness of Himself, thereby demonstrating
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that He was indeed the everlasting Savior of mankind. As a part of his ministry, John the Baptist bore witness of this, testifying that Jesus Christ shouldered the sins of mankind, and that He would shed His blood on the Cross and rise from the dead again. When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, he recognized beyond all doubts that Jesus was the Son of God. God made it impossible for anyone who knows His righteousness to deny that John the Baptist is the servant of God who passed the sins of mankind to Jesus by baptizing Him. In other words, God made sure that all who believe in His Son would be able to realize that John the Baptist is the last prophet of the Old Testament and the last High Priest of this earth who passed the sins of mankind to Jesus by baptizing Him. If anyone doesn’t realize this, then he is not someone who believes in the Word of God sincerely; nor is he someone who has found the Savior through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. For us to be saved from all the sins of this world according to the
written Word of the Scriptures, we must understand John the Baptist’s ministry of passing the sins of the world to Jesus once and for all, and we must believe in this ministry. The Apostle John, a disciple of Jesus, testifies in 1 John 5:5-8: “Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.” John the Baptist also testified this Truth that Jesus bore the sins of mankind by being baptized, that He would die to atone for all those sins, and that Jesus was the Son of God. Like this, the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus are clearly interrelated. John the Baptist’s ministry was not only
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to pass all the sins of mankind to Jesus by baptizing Him, but also to bear witness of Jesus as the following: “Jesus Christ is the very Savior of mankind. He is the Savior and the Messiah who bore and washed away all the sins of this world once and for all. Whoever believes that Jesus Christ who came to this earth is the Savior will be saved from all sins.” Through the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus, we can find out the real Truth of salvation, that Jesus Christ is our Savior. It has therefore been made possible for us to be saved by faith even now. If we all really believe in the Word of God and follow it, then we would all know John the Baptist’s ministry, and it would be impossible for us not to believe that he is a God-sent servant. John the Baptist bore witness of Jesus while He was on this earth, testifying that Jesus was the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. Yet few realized this despite his testimony. John the Baptist testified the Truth, saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” But even fewer people
made the connection between this Truth and the ministry of John the Baptist, and far less believed in it. It is because of John the Baptist who baptized Jesus that Jesus could take upon Himself the sins of mankind once and for all. Prior to the account told in today’s Scripture passage, John the Baptist was the only one who knew that Jesus was the Son of God and the Savior of mankind; the true Messiah who bore all the sins of mankind through His baptism and was to bear the condemnation of all those sins on the Cross.
John the Baptist’s Testimony Was Truthful By baptizing Jesus, John the Baptist passed the sins of this world to Jesus once and for all. He then bore witness of this Truth to all those who believe in Jesus as the Savior of mankind. The testimony of John the Baptist was to make it known to all that ◄
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Jesus bore all the sins of mankind by being baptized by him. He is the one whose ministry was baptizing Jesus. When John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan River, Jesus came to him and sought to receive baptism from him. Jesus said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Jesus Christ said this in order to take upon Himself everyone’s sins all at once through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and God the Father testified, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” John the Baptist not only gave Jesus the baptism that fulfilled the righteousness of God, but he also made it possible for us to realize, through his testimony, that Jesus is our true Savior. As God the Father ordered John the Baptist to pass the sins of the world to Jesus, and as Jesus accepted them by being baptized, the will of God the Father was fulfilled, and
that is why all of us were able to be saved from the sins of the world by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord. Jesus was manifested to this world through John the Baptist. That is why we can truly believe that Jesus Christ, who came by the water and the Spirit, is the Savior of mankind. Put differently, John the Baptist bore witness of Jesus to reveal Him to this world as the Savior of the entire human race. Through this testimony of John the Baptist, God has made us realize and believe that Jesus is the Savior who bore all our sins and washed them away by being baptized. Therefore, it's now possible for you and me, and everyone else as well, to realize that Jesus is the Savior of mankind. And through the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross, we can all have true faith. Because Jesus took upon Himself the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and because He was crucified to bear the condemnation of all the sins of
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this world while shouldering them, whoever believes this can now be truly born again and become one of God’s own people. To all such people who believe in Jesus, realizing that He is the Savior who has delivered them from all the sins of this world, Jesus has also given the evidence and assurance that anyone who believes in His gospel of the water and the Spirit has indeed obtained the remission of sins. For those who believe in the baptism of Jesus Christ through the testimony of John the Baptist— that is, those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and God Himself, that He blotted out our sins once and for all by being baptized in the Jordan River, and that He ended all our sins and the condemnation of sins by being crucified and condemned in our place—God has made it possible for all such people to be born again. Therefore, you should now believe that God has blotted out all your sins and that you have been saved by believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit. Through His Son, God has made sinless all those
who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and saved them from sin, no matter how vile and insufficient they may be. This Truth is the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. If anyone believes in Jesus’ gospel of the water and the Spirit with his heart, he will become a sinless person. Whoever believes in Jesus as his Savior will be made sinless, but for those don’t believe in Jesus Christ, who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they will remain sinful. Everyone can become a sinless person if they believe that Jesus, whom John the Baptist bore witness of, and who came by the water and the blood, is the Savior (1 John 5:6-8). No matter how violent, insufficient, weak, and full of mistakes anyone may be, if he believes in Jesus as his Savior and in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he will be saved from all sins and become a righteous person. People cannot help but still remain sinful precisely because they don’t believe that Jesus is the Savior who has delivered them from sin. However, for those
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who believe that Jesus is their Savior who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, all their sins are completely blotted out. If we really believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, then we must realize that by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, Jesus bore all our sins once and for all and washed them all way.
Jesus Was Baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River Matthew 3:13 says, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.” Jesus had come to John the Baptist to be baptized, and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). John the Baptist was a servant of God sent by Him, and Jesus, by being baptized by John, the representative of mankind, bore all our sins once for
all and washed them away all at once. Therefore, it was to take upon all the sins of this world that Jesus sough to be baptized by John the Baptist. Although John the Baptist declined to baptize Jesus at first, he eventually relinquished and baptized Jesus in submission to His order, and Jesus was able to accept all the sins of this world. Like this, as John the Baptist laid his hands on Jesus’ head and baptized Him, Jesus was able to take upon Himself the sins of this world by thus receiving baptism, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead. After being baptized by John, Jesus came out of the water, implying that He would be resurrected after His atoning death on the Cross. This was exactly according to the Word of God promised in the Old Testament. The baptism that Jesus received in the New Testament was the fulfillment of the prophesy of the Old Testament implied in the sacrificial system: In order to blot out the sins of His people, God used to transfer their yearly sins to the scapegoat when the High Priest laid
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his hands on the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. So by thus being baptized, Jesus bore all the sins of mankind and washed them all away. On the day after Jesus was baptized, when John the Baptist saw Jesus walking before him, he said: “Look, people! Look at that Man! He is the Lamb of God carrying the sins of the world! He is the very Lamb of God. He is the Savior of mankind shouldering the sins of the world. He is the Savior of sinners. He is your Savior, my Savior, and the Savior of all people.” John the Baptist bore the witness of the real substance of salvation in this way. He could testify like this because he clearly knew who Jesus was. Jesus was indeed the Lamb of God carrying the sins of the world. When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, Jesus could become, through John, the Lamb of God who accepted the sins of the world. That’s why John the Baptist testified the next day of Jesus’ baptism, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) By being baptized,
Jesus took upon Himself each and every sin in this world, and by shedding His blood on the Cross and being condemned once, He saved the entire human race perfectly. How then can there be any sin left? Given the fact that Jesus bore all sins through His baptism and shed His precious blood to pay off the wages of these sins, how can there be any sin in this world? If you don’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then your sins would still remain intact. But if you really believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you have been washed from all your sins and obtained the full remission of sins. How is it that possible? Because if anyone has the faith to believe that Jesus shouldered the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist, then such people have all been saved from sin unconditionally. It’s because your salvation from sin is not fulfilled by yourself, but it has been fulfilled to perfection by the Savior Himself. If anyone has even the slightest faith in the gospel of the water and the
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Spirit, then he has been saved from all sins. So there is no one who can’t receive the remission of sins if this person indeed knows and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and Jesus properly. Jesus came by the water and the Spirit, and everyone who knows and believes in Him properly has received the remission of sins. Since Jesus took away the sins of the world by being baptized, it’s impossible for anyone who believes in this to have any sin left. If you still have your sins remaining intact, it’s only because you don’t recognize Jesus, neither realizing nor believing that Jesus has become your own propitiation of atonement. If you really believe in Jesus, how can the sins of the world remain with you, when Jesus already took them all away? It’s impossible! So if you believe in Jesus’ sacrifice of atonement, then you are sinless; but if you don’t, then you are still sinful.
To Be Born Again, Everyone Must Understand and Believe in the Ministries of Two Anointed Servants It is by believing in Jesus as your Savior that you are saved from sin—if not, then you will face the condemnation of sin. No matter how insufficient, evil, weak, depraved, cruel, violent, petty, and craven anyone may be, if this person believes in Jesus, then he has no sin. Everyone is made sinless if they know the gospel of Jesus properly and believes in it properly. That’s why it’s so important for all to know Jesus through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. How should one then know about Jesus? One must first know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to know correctly who Jesus is. Just as Peter knew Jesus and confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), we can also know Jesus and confess the following: “Lord,
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You are the Christ, the King of kings, and the God of creation. You are God Himself and also the Son of the living God. You are the High Priest of Heaven, the Prophet, and the King. You are my God, my King, the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven who has blotted out all my sins once and for all, and the true Prophet who has taught me this Truth.” All those who have received the remission of sins would confess their faith like this. After John the Baptist was martyred, the people at that time had some strange thoughts about Jesus. As Jesus raised the dead and healed the sick, some people thought that Jesus was John the Baptist. King Herod, for instance, thought, “John the Baptist has been resurrected! Jesus is his reincarnation!” Herod was very afraid that he had killed John the Baptist. Others said, “No, Jesus is not John the Baptist. He may be Elijah instead. Elijah had ascended to Heaven without tasting death; maybe He has returned again. Only Elijah could do such things.” Still others said, “No, that Man is not Elijah. He is very
compassionate. He may be Jeremiah instead. Although He can be very cold at times, He is so understanding of man and full of compassion. Maybe He is Jeremiah, the Prophet of Tears.” Different people thought differently of Jesus and each had his own understanding. But Jesus asked Peter, “Peter, who do you think I am?” Peter then said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In this short answer was Peter’s true faith. Even though Peter had been just an ordinary fisherman, he was a man of such great faith that he pinpointed the exact essence of Jesus with his terse answer. Those who believe in Jesus properly as their Savior can explain the essence of the gospel of the water and the Spirit clearly and simply. They can say, “Jesus has remitted away all my sins like this with the water and the blood.” When Peter confessed his faith to Jesus, Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” In other words, it was God the Father who
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had made this known to Peter. The same is true for us as well. When we preach the Word of God to people, who really teaches them? When you accepted this gospel, who taught this Truth to your heart? It is the Lord Himself who taught you the Truth and made you believe in it, saying to you, “Coming by the water and the blood, I have saved you from all sins.” It’s the Lord who made us realize and understand the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. A lot of people say that they believe in Jesus as their Savior, but this is just based on their own emotion. It’s because they don’t have the correct knowledge of Jesus. This is a common phenomenon in today’s Christianity. Many people have believed in Jesus for decades without even realizing that He is the Savior who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When they are asked, “Who is this Jesus whom you believe in?” they say, “Well, I do believe in Jesus, but I don’t know about this gospel of the water and the Spirit.” Based on what knowledge have
these people believed in Jesus for decades then? They’ve believed in Jesus all according to their own emotion. Peter knew exactly who Jesus was when he believed in Him. He said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” With this confession, Peter was saying, “You are my God, my Savior, and my Prophet as well. But You are also the Son of God and God Himself.” As such, Peter believed in Jesus with the correct knowledge; but today, many Christians claim to believe in Jesus even though they still do not know His righteousness. All the Christians professing to believe in Jesus must now know Him properly and believe in Him properly according to His Word. They must also have the correct understanding of John the Baptist. They must know the many servants of God appearing in the Old Testament as well. Knowledge is indispensable to every aspect of life. So how can anyone then believe in Jesus when he is ignorant? The notion that you can be saved as long as you believe in Jesus somehow, even if you are
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ignorant of Him, is completely fallacious before God. It’s nothing more than man’s own thought. Even if you believe in Jesus, if you don’t recognize the divinity of Jesus, that He is fundamentally God Himself, then this faith of yours is also in vain. It’s because Jesus is the Son of God that He was baptized for our sake to accept the sins of the world, and endured His ministry of suffering to die on the Cross. This is what God has done to save sinners from sin. It is by believing in this righteousness of God that we have become sinless. If Jesus were just an ordinary man, then it would have been not only impossible for us to be saved from sin ever, but Jesus would have also been recognized only as one of the great and renowned people of the world. If you believe in Jesus based on a worldly standard like this, thinking of Him only as one of the four great sages, then you cannot be saved from sin. Jesus is God Himself. He is the Savior who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only the Son of God could become the Savior of the human
race because everyone had fallen into sin. You must grasp here that it is only because Jesus is God Himself rather than just a man, that His baptism by John the Baptist and His death on the Cross are effective for you and me and for all those who believe in Him. Everyone who believes in the righteousness of Jesus with the heart reaches salvation by faith, and it is also by this faith that everyone can be born again. You must therefore believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those who have not been born again, even if they profess to believe in Jesus, still have sins remaining intact with them. For such people, even though John the Baptist bore witness of Jesus and testified, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” this Word of God is just a passage and their sins still remain intact in their spirits. Since these people don’t believe in the Word of God that has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the sins of the world still remain in them. Since the sins of the world are in their hearts, they cannot say
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that they have no sin even though they believe in Jesus. Likewise, since they continue to commit sin time after time throughout their lives, they are still sinners and cannot claim to be righteous people. In other words, because they believe in Jesus without any proper understanding of His righteousness, they are still sinners, and unable to become righteous people; they will live and die buried under the sins of the world. If you have the proper knowledge of the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus, and if you believe in them properly, then you can become a sinless person no matter how insufficient you may be, and you can also say boldly to anyone that you are indeed a righteous person. How is it possible for you to say so? You can say that you are righteous because you believe in the righteousness of God. It is precisely because you believe in the righteousness of God that you are now sinless. How, then, should human beings be born again? Jesus said that they must be born again of water and
the Spirit. This means that we are born again by believing that Jesus is both God Himself and the precious Son of God, that He is the Savior who has saved sinners by being baptized and shedding His blood, and that He is the Prophet who has taught us—that is, by believing that Jesus has saved us by being baptized by John the Baptist and shedding His blood on the Cross.
To Be Born Again Is to Receive the Remission of Sins by Believing in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit In the gospel of the water and the Spirit, ‘the water’ here refers to the baptism of Jesus and ‘the Spirit’ implies that Jesus is God Himself. Even though Jesus is God Himself, this exalted God personally came down to this earth as a Man, took upon Himself our sins by being baptized, and shed His blood on the Cross. He is the Savior who has ◄
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thus made sinless all of us who believe in Him with the heart. We were born again by believing in the baptism Jesus received and the blood He shed as the propitiation of atonement. Our salvation is reached by believing that Jesus is the Son of God and God Himself, that all our sins were passed onto Him through His baptism, and that He shed His precious blood on the Cross to atone for all those sins in our place. To believe in this is to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That’s because Jesus is God Himself and our Savior. The reason why we must believe in the divinity of Jesus, that Jesus is God Himself, is because we believe that God Himself came to this earth as the Savior Jesus, took upon Himself the sins of the world by receiving baptism on His body, shed all the blood that was in His body on the Cross to wash away all our sins, and has thereby saved from sin all those who believe in this Truth. None other than this faith is what makes it possible for everyone to be born again. The Bible states that Jesus Christ was the One
who came by the water and the blood (1 John 5:6). The water here refers to the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist, while the blood refers to the blood Jesus shed on the Cross. Jesus said that unless we are born again of water and the Spirit, we can neither see the Kingdom of God nor enter it. He also said that anyone who is born again of water and the Spirit can call God his own Father. God has made it possible for anyone to be born again as long as he believes in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, in the Truth that He is the Son of God, and in His ministry. Whoever believes that Jesus has washed away all our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist for our sake will be born again. In other words, it is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that man is made sinless. Jesus said that all those who believe that He is God Himself and their Savior, that God Himself has become their personal Savior, they will become God’s own people. As born-again righteous people, you and I can now boldly declare the motif and foundation of our
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faith to everyone, saying, “I have been saved from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.” This is what it means to be born again by believing in Jesus. One becomes a righteous person only if he is infallibly born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus. Being born again of water and the Spirit means, above all else, that we are cleansed from all our sins by believing that Jesus accepted all our sins and washed them all away by being baptized by John. Those who believe that all their sins were passed onto Jesus’ head through John the Baptist are the very people who have obtained the complete remission of sins. These people are born again by believing that Jesus is God the Spirit, and that this Jesus, who bore all their sins and was condemned for them by shedding His precious blood on the Cross, is the very God Himself. Also, such faith believes that Jesus, who came by the baptism and the blood in order to save mankind, is not merely a man but God Himself.
Jesus said in John chapter 3 that one can enter the Kingdom of God and see it only if he is born again of water and the Spirit. Those of us who believe in this are those who have been born again of water and the Spirit. When it comes to the question of how anyone can be born again, the answer is that one is properly born again by believing that Jesus is God Himself, that He came to this earth incarnated in the image of man, that He was baptized, that He was condemned on the Cross, and that He has thereby saved us perfectly from all sins. Those who believe that God has thus saved everyone from sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the born-again people. They have now been born once more. As human beings, we could not avoid but reach death because of our sins; and yet by passing all these sins to Jesus through our faith in His baptism and His blood, all our sins were remitted away when Jesus was baptized. When He died on the Cross, we also died once; and when He rose from the dead again, we were also brought back
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to life together with Jesus. So believing in all these things wholeheartedly is the very faith that saves everyone from sin. However, those who don’t believe that Jesus is God Himself and the Son of God, and that Jesus has saved us through the water and the blood, cannot be born again because their sins are not washed away. Among those professing to believe in Jesus as their Savior, those who believe in His water and blood have been born again of water and the Spirit. But there are others who don’t believe that this Jesus, who has washed away all their sins through His water and blood, is none other than God Himself, and that this God has saved them like this. Such people have not been born again yet. This means that everyone remains a sinner only because he doesn’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is man’s destiny to be born as a sinner and to remain a sinner until the very end of his life. People continue to be sinners because they don’t believe with their hearts in the Truth of salvation that Jesus
their Savior is the Son of God and God Himself; that this God came to earth incarnated in the flesh of man, that He was baptized and shed His blood on the Cross, that He rose from the dead again on the third day, and that He has thereby made them completely righteous and turned them into God’s own people. This is why all of us must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and thus receive the remission of sins and be born again. When I say that you must have faith in Jesus as your Savior, you may think of a superstitious belief; one that blindly believes in Jesus as the Savior without any understanding. But this is not what I mean. The right faith is to know the true Word of God without fail and believe in it with this clear understanding. This is the true faith. To illustrate it more easily, let me explain faith with the following analogy. Let’s say that we are in a moving train. As long as we are onboard, we are still moving regardless of whether we are sitting in the middle of the train or in
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the very last car. Likewise, if we are sitting in the first car, or even right next to the train conductor, we are still moving just the same. But it’s not we ourselves that are actually moving. It’s the train that moves, and it moves only because it has an engine. The rest of the train moves automatically along with the engine car as the locomotive engineer just drives it. So when we get onboard a train, we can all reach our destination regardless of which car we are sitting in. Obviously, it’s wrong to think that the train is moving on its own. A train that has no engine is not a train, but only a big chunk of scrap metal. Like this, faith also requires a definitive foundation that can lead you like an engine of a train. The right faith is to believe in the power of the essential foundation of the baptism of Jesus, His Cross, His death, and His resurrection. If you believe in Jesus blindly, without understanding exactly how He has saved you through the water and the blood, then your faith is not a true faith. If this is not faith, what is it then? It’s like chasing after a white
elephant. To believe in Jesus without knowing the water and the Spirit is also like believing in a phantom. It’s no different from making your own fictitious god and bowing before it. My fellow believers, for you to be born again from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you must have the correct understanding of the ministry of Jesus, and you must also grasp the ministry of John the Baptist properly. If John the Baptist had not known that Jesus was the Savior, then today, we would not have been freed from sin. If John the Baptist did not have the unwavering faith that he had passed the sins of the world to Jesus by baptizing Him, how else could he have borne witness of Jesus to the people of Israel, testifying that Jesus was the Lamb of God carrying the sins of the world? He couldn’t have testified this unless he knew exactly what he had done. He also needed evidence to bear witness. What evidence? There had to be the evidence of the Word to show that John the Baptist had passed the sins of the world to Jesus by baptizing
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Him. Those who have this evidence are the ones who have baptized Jesus to pass all their sins onto Him. Therefore, a sinner is born again only if he believes in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross; otherwise no sinner can be born again. If you want to be born again, then you must understand the gospel of the water and the Spirit clearly and believe in it. When you know the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believe in it properly, this is the very faith of being born again from sin. You must realize that Jesus, God Himself, bore all the sins of mankind in this world once and for all by receiving baptism on His body as the High Priest of Heaven. You must also realize that Jesus was condemned on the Cross once, and that He rose from the dead again on the third day. You must also realize that He is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God the Father. Jesus promised us that He would return to take away all of us, His believers. You can be born again from sin only if you understand and believe in what I said so far. If you instead believe blindly that
Jesus is your Savior without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit He has given you, then you cannot be born again. Whom does Jesus take away to the Kingdom of Heaven? He takes away only those who have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Who then has been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? It’s those who know and believe that Jesus is God Himself and the Son of God, that all their sins and all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized by John, that He washed them all away, that He was condemned by shedding His blood on the Cross, and that He rose from the dead again—it’s these people who are born again of water and the Spirit of whom Jesus spoke. This is the core message of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and this is the Truth of being born again. In the days of the Old Testament, there was a prophet named Habakkuk, and the Lord said through him, “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in
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him; But the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). Human Beings are as proud as Lucifer since his vicious poison has infected them all. However, this passage says that even the most wicked can be made righteous, and those who have been made righteous live by faith. If you wholeheartedly believe that Jesus is God Himself, that He bore your sins and washed them away when He was baptized by John the Baptist, that He was condemned on the Cross in your place, that He rose from the dead again on the third day, that He is sitting at the right hand of God, and that He will return as the Judge, then you can be born again and become a righteous person by this faith. If you just believe in this way, the Holy Spirit will come into your heart and seal it with His approval, saying, “You have been born again. You are one of My people.” That is how you are made sinless by faith. The righteous who have been saved from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have no sin whatsoever in God’s sight, no mater how
insufficient they may be. They are sinless in faith, and they are also sinless in actuality. Even if they commit sin, they still remain sinless. They truly have no sin at all. Do you have any sin then? No, all your sins have disappeared. Those who neither know nor believe that Jesus is the Savior who has remitted away all their sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit are Christian heretics. In contrast, those who truthfully believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross are true Christians who have no sin. Everyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit has the right knowledge of the righteousness of God and believes in Him properly. John the Baptist knew Jesus very well. That’s why he bore witness of Jesus in John 1:29, saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John the Baptist testified that there was no sin in the world. The believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit also testify that they have no sin, but those who don’t believe in this gospel testify that
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they still have sins remaining intact. Through today’s Scripture passage from John 1:30-36, we can see that whether we are born again or not depends on whether or not we believe in God knowing the righteousness of Jesus. We must know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit first, and we must believe in this Truth with all our hearts. To believe like this is the right faith in God’s sight. To conclude, knowing and believing in the baptism that Jesus received from John, the blood that He shed on the Cross, and the grace of His death and resurrection—this is the faith that really saves you, and this is the Truth. I admonish you all to believe.
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SERMON 7
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Why Did Jesus Have to Receive the Baptism? < John 3:22-36 > “After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!’ John answered and said, ‘A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not
the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’”
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The Role of John the Baptist Who Baptized Jesus and the Purpose of the Baptism Many people do not know why Jesus came to this world and received baptism from John the Baptist. But we must understand clearly the purpose of the baptism Jesus received, John the Baptist who baptized Jesus, and the relationship between these two people. Therefore, I would like to first examine the background and the purpose of Jesus’ baptism that was given by John the Baptist in the Jordan River through the relevant Scripture verses. And to do so, we must turn to the Gospel of Matthew and examine John the Baptist who baptized Jesus. The scene of John the Baptist baptizing people appears in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 verses 112. And it says in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 verse 3, “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make
His paths straight.’”” And verse 11 says, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John the Baptist lived the life that differed from others by going out to the wilderness wearing the clothes made of camel’s hair and eating locusts and honey. He denounced the sins of Israelites. He told them to return to God from the sin of worshipping idols. “Repent. Prepare the way of the LORD.” John’s message was that the Israelites had to turn from worshipping foreign idols and prepare to receive the Messiah because Jesus Christ the Savior of all humanity was coming to this world. John the Baptist was the servant of God who was sent to this world 6 months prior to Jesus. He already knew that the Savior, the Messiah, would take all the sins of the world upon Him by receiving the baptism in the future and wash them away. Therefore, He preached to many people that they had to escape
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from the sinful life apart from God and return to God by believing in Jesus Christ. And many people that listened to his word confessed their sins and received the baptism of repentance through John the Baptist in the Jordan River. There were two objectives in the baptism of John the Baptist. The first objective was to make people recognize their sins and repent. And the second, the more important objective, was to make them receive the remission of sin by believing in Jesus Christ the Savior. But there were many people who wanted to receive baptism only for their temporary comfort, without clearly understanding the purpose of the baptism by John the Baptist. They were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. John the Baptist said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’” (Matthew 3:7-9). To the people in politics, people worshipping the idols, and the people who do not believe in God and
instead worship other gods even though they are Israelites, John the Baptist spoke this word of warning, “Don’t just go through the ritual and turn from worshipping other gods and believe with your heart in Jesus who shall cleanse all the sins at once through the atonement of your sins.” What is the true repentance? The true repentance is turning to God from the wrong path and unbelief that comes from believing incorrectly and it is accepting the gospel of the remission of sin that Jesus Christ has given. John the Baptist fulfilled the role of turning the Israelites from the wrong path and making them repent sincerely before God and He saw in advance that Jesus would take the sins of all the people upon Himself in their place through the baptism in the future. That’s why he said they must receive salvation from all sins by believing in Jesus as their Savior. This is the most important point that John the Baptist cried out in the wilderness.
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Do You Believe That the Baptism Jesus Received Is the Baptism That Took Over All Our Sins? The first thing Jesus did during His public life was to receive baptism from John the Baptist in order to take all the sins of humanity upon Himself. And the door of Heaven opened on the day Jesus received the baptism of atonement from John the Baptist. The gospel of Heaven that says that we receive salvation from all sins by believing in Jesus as the Savior began from that moment. Therefore, we can say that the public life of Jesus started from His baptism. And the scene of Jesus being baptized in Matthew 3:15 was the same method as the laying on of hands in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament (Leviticus 4:27-31, Leviticus 1:1-3). Each of the New Testament and the Old Testament Word in the Scriptures has its corresponding part as it is recorded in Isaiah 34:16, “Search from the book of the LORD, and read: not
one of these shall fail; not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.” The High Priest transferred over the sins of the people to the scapegoat by laying both of his hands on its head when offering the sacrificial offering to God in the Old Testament. Its corresponding part in the New Testament is that Jesus took all the sins of humanity by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist, who was the representative of all mankind and a descendant of Aaron the High Priest. The work of salvation Jesus fulfilled through the gospel of the water and the Spirit was God’s will that was predicted since the Old Testament times. As I have said, the people in the Old Testament transferred over the sins of one day or one year over to the sacrificial animals through the laying on of hands. The people who committed the sins received the remission of sin when the animals that took the sins over shed blood and died in place of the sinners. In the same manner, Jesus came to this world at the beginning of the New
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Testament era and fulfilled the Word taking the sins of the entire humanity upon Him as it was prophesized in Isaiah 53:1-7 by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist in place of all the sinners. Then what kind of person was John the Baptist who baptized Jesus? John the Baptist was the descendant of Aaron that was chosen as the last High Priest and he became the representative of humanity that God Himself sent to this world and he was the servant of God who was sent to this world 6 months prior to Jesus to witness the Truth that Jesus Christ shall come to this world and take all the sins of the world by receiving the baptism from him. All our sins were transferred over to Jesus at once by Jesus receiving the baptism through John the Baptist in A.D. 30. The way of remission of sin for all the sinners opened through this work. We must return to Jesus who is the Lord of the gospel of remission of sin and receive the cleansing of all the sins at once by believing in Jesus who received the baptism personally upon His flesh to save all the
sinners of humanity from sin.
The True Shadow of the Cleansing of Sin Was the Laying on of Hands in the Old Testament and Its Real Antitype Is the Baptism of Jesus in the New Testament We will look more closely at the baptism of Jesus that took all of the sins of the world. Here the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist means ‘to be cleansed, to be buried, to pass over.’ As the meaning of the word implies, the act of Jesus receiving the baptism from John the Baptist means that He received the sins of the world all at once. Therefore, it means, “All the sins of the world were transferred over to Jesus.” Through that baptism, all our sins were transferred over to Jesus and all humanity was able to receive the cleansing from sin.
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To reiterate this, the sins of the world were transferred over to Jesus and He paid the price for the sins in our place by dying on the Cross because Jesus received the baptism of taking the sins, and consequently Jesus was able to give the blessing of remission of sins to all those who believe this Truth. The baptism of John the Baptist upon Jesus was the baptism of atonement that was performed in the same manner of the laying on of hands in the Old Testament. The laying on of hands in the Old Testament alludes to the fact that Jesus Christ would come to this world and cleanse all the sins of the world at once by receiving the baptism. John the Baptist witnessed to the fact that Jesus was the Savior by giving the baptism of transferring the sins over to Jesus, and Jesus was able to save all of us from our sins by taking all the sins of humanity upon His body by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist in the form of laying on of hands. As the High Priest in the Old Testament laid his hands on the head of the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement, John the Baptist
in the New Testament laid his two hands on the head of Jesus and gave the baptism of transferring the sins of the world. As soon as Jesus came up out of the water after full immersion in the water and finished being baptized, the voice of God the Father came from Heaven. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). God the Father Himself witnessed the gospel of the remission of the sins in this manner. All the Word of the prophecy, the gospel of the salvation, has been fulfilled through Jesus’ baptism and His blood of the Cross. The New Testament testifies to this through the Word. The Old Testament prophecy that Jesus Christ would take all the sins of the world upon Himself is fulfilled in the New Testament by Jesus coming to this world and receiving the baptism that takes over the sins of the world. The recorded Word of God witnesses to the fact that the baptism John the Baptist performed on Jesus was the baptism of pardon of sin that transferred the sins of all the sinners of the
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world, and also the fact that it was baptism of atonement that fulfilled the righteousness of God through Jesus taking all the sins of humanity at once. In Matthew 3:15, let’s look at what Jesus said at the time He received the baptism. It is written, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The word ‘for thus’ is ‘οϋτως γάρ (hutos gar)’ in Greek, which means ‘just in this way,’ ‘most fitting,’ or ‘there is no other way besides this.’ This word shows that Jesus took the sins of humankind onto Him irreversibly and most properly through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. Therefore, it means that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist was the “the exclusive method that is most fair and appropriate in remitting all the sins of the world.” The Scriptures record much about such Word of the true gospel of the water and the Spirit. Christians perform two types of baptism: baptism by immersion and baptism by effusion. Baptism by effusion, the simplified form of baptism performed in
our time has nothing to do with Jesus’ baptism that took away the sins of the world all at once. The word ‘baptism’ in essence means “to cleanse our sins.” But, the simplified baptism in our times only signifies that the person has become a baptized Christian. Jesus took all the sins of humanity through the baptism He received. The simplified baptism is the same only in letters with the baptism Jesus received at the Jordan River, but it is in wholly different dimension. As in the Old Testament, the true baptism transferred the sins of the people over to the sacrificial animal by laying hands on its head, and our Lord took the sins of humanity at once by receiving the baptism in such form of laying on of hands by John the Baptist. Jesus received such baptism from John the Baptist and fulfilled all righteousness all by being nailed to the Cross with all the sins of the world. The disciples of Jesus who believe in this fact cried out to the Jews, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may
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come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). The way that mankind can truly become sinless is through the faith of believing the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood of the Cross. Jesus the Savior came to the Jordan River, received the baptism, and took all the sins of humanity upon Him at once through the baptism He received. Therefore, the Scriptures say that we are born again by receiving the salvation from sin by believing in the baptism of Jesus who took all the sins of the entire humanity and the blood on the Cross that contains the true judgment of sin. The Word from Matthew 3:13-17 records, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens
were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” In the Old Testament, people transferred their sins to the sacrificial animals by laying of the hands, and in the New Testament, Jesus took all the sins of humanity at once by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” from Matthew 3:15 means that Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of God by receiving the baptism that washed away the sins of all the people. He thus has given us the salvation of the remission of sin. Luke chapter 1 says that Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was a priest from the division of Abijah, a grandson of Aaron. Why did God send John the Baptist, a descendant of Aaron, to this world? God sent John the Baptist as the one who would transfer all the sins of the world to Jesus. Every Word in the Scriptures has its corresponding
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part (Isaiah 34:16). Leviticus 16:29-30 talks about the ritual of the Day of Atonement. At that time, they set aside one day out of the year and Aaron the High Priest who was the representative of the Israelites performed the laying on of hands of pardon that transferred over all the sins of the people to the scapegoat. For Jesus to offer the eternal sacrifice according to the sacrificial system, there had to be a person that represented the humanity like Aaron in the Old Testament, and to fulfill this role, God sent John the Baptist to the family of Aaron the High Priest 6 months before He sent Jesus. John the Baptist who came to this world according to the calling of God cried out, “Repent, children of vipers,” and said, “The Messiah has come. Those who do not turn from the idols will be burned in the eternal fire.” Acts 3 verse 19 states, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Even here, God’s disciples speak about
the baptism of cleansing of sin, that the day of refreshing through the cleansing of the sin in the heart shall be fulfilled before the Lord if they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those who believe in the baptism of cleansing of sin will receive salvation and attain the eternal life by transferring all their sins over to Jesus because John the Baptist performed the baptism of transferring the sins of the world over to Jesus. People receive the cleansing of sin all at once by believing in the baptism and the blood that Jesus pardoned the sins of the entire humanity. Let’s return to the scene of Jesus receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. In Matthew 3:14-16, we can see Jesus drawing near to John the Baptist and saying, “Baptize me.” Then, John the Baptist declined this saying, “How can I baptize You? How can you come to me? I am the one that needs to be baptized by You.” John the Baptist, who came to realize who Jesus was, could not understand why a lowly person like himself had to baptize Jesus at first.
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But, at last, John the Baptist performed the baptism that transferred over the sins to Jesus because he realized the purpose of the work Jesus wanted to fulfill through the baptism. The salvation of pardoning the sins of all humanity was fulfilled through this. This is the true gospel of the water and the Spirit. John the Baptist said to Jesus in Matthew 3:14, “How can I baptize You when I am the one that needs to be baptized by You,” but John the Baptist had to baptize Jesus and have Him take all the sins of the world over to Him in order to fulfill the Word prophesized in the Old Testament. Therefore, Jesus was able to take all the sins upon Him and become the true Savior in this world. All the sins of this world disappeared through the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. Jesus was the Son of God Himself but He did not come to this world to be the king of this world. Instead, He took all the sins of the world by personally receiving the baptism on His flesh in order
to save all the sinners of the world from sin. That’s how Jesus Christ became the Savior who saved us from all the sins of the world. I want you to know and believe that in order for Jesus to save us, Jesus had to first receive the baptism of taking the sins of the world from John the Baptist and then go to the Cross. The Baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist was the evidence of the remission of sin that took responsibility for all the sins of the entire humanity. Just as God set the law in the Old Testament that the sins of the people were passed over through the laying on of hands on the sacrificial animals, the sins of the world transferred over to Jesus as He received the baptism from John the Baptist and, hence, we have received the blessing of the remission of sins through faith. Jesus had to fulfill God’s promise of taking the sins by receiving the baptism from John, the representative of humanity. Even the Scriptures testify to the fact that the baptism Jesus received in the New Testament was the ‘baptism of transferring
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the sins’ like the laying on of hands of the Old Testament. All the people in the world can be released from their sins only by understanding and believing that both the baptism of Jesus and blood of the Cross constitute the Truth of taking upon the sin. Understanding this Truth is the way to receive salvation from sin. There is no other way.
The Baptism of Cleansing Sin That Jesus Received In Matthew chapter 3, we can see the appearance of John the Baptist denying Jesus trying to receive the baptism. John said, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” Jesus responded to this and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” This Word means as follows if we unravel it: “John the Baptist, I must take over all the sins of the world upon myself through your baptism in order for
the people in this world to receive the remission from all their sins once and for all by believing My baptism of taking the sins and the blood that I shed. Therefore, permit it to be so, right now.” After going through this process, Jesus Christ received the “baptism of taking over the sin” from John the Baptist and the gospel of remission of sin began in this world since that time. All the sins of the world transferred over to the head of Jesus Christ at the time when John the Baptist performed the baptism of taking over the sins to Jesus. And all those who believe in the remission of sins through the water and the Spirit that Jesus performed become the children of God the Father because Jesus who took our sins died on the Cross in our place and sits at the right hand of God the Father’s throne now. The gospel of the remission of sins through the water and the Spirit started since Jesus Christ came to this world and received the baptism of taking over the sins of the world upon Him in this manner. The Apostle Paul records in Galatians 3:27, “For
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as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Not only this, but many sections of the Scriptures also testify to the baptism of cleansing the sin. We must believe that the baptism of Jesus and the blood on the Cross is the gospel of the cleansing of the sins that makes us born again through the water and the Spirit.
“Permit It to Be So Now” In Matthew chapter 3 verse 15, the Lord Jesus said, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Here ‘all righteousness’ signifies the baptism of Jesus that makes all people sinless by taking all the sins over to Him. The Scriptures record the baptism of cleansing of sin by Jesus as all uprightness or “all righteousness” of God. John the Baptist transferred over the sins of the world to Jesus by baptizing Jesus in the form of laying on of hands as it was performed on the head of
the sacrificial animal in the Old Testament. John the Baptist who was sent to this world as the priest representing the humanity achieved the covenant Word of taking sins over by transferring over the sins of the world unto Jesus (Leviticus chapter 16 and 17), and through this all the sins passed over to Jesus’ head as intended by God. I want you to accept the Truth that all your sins also were passed over to Jesus. The baptism of passing over the sin by laying two hands on the head of Jesus was the exact baptism of laying on of hands to take over the sins for God’s just salvation. Jesus rescued all of us who believe in the baptism and the blood and perfectly saved us from all the sins of the world by receiving the baptism of taking over the sins of humanity from John the Baptist.
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The Heavens Were Opened at the Moment Matthew 3:16-17 says, “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the Heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from Heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” The door of the Heaven opened when Jesus received the baptism of taking over the sins of the world to take care of them justly. Henceforth, many people received the grace of registering into the Kingdom of Heaven through Jesus’ baptism of taking over the sin and the blood on the Cross. Jesus fulfilled the gospel of the remission of sins by receiving the baptism of water in the Jordan River in the New Testament. It was the fulfillment of God’s promise that was made for thousands of years during the Old Testament period. All the sins of this world
were transferred over to Jesus’ flesh the moment Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist. This means that all the sins of humanity were pardoned according to the will of God the Father. Therefore, all of humanity received the salvation from the sins of the world. Jesus who took over all the sins of the world carried our sins and went to the Cross at the Golgotha Hill to pay the price for our sins even though He did not have sin originally. During the three years of His public life after receiving the baptism, He preached the gospel that He was taking the sins of the world through the baptism He received. He preached the gospel of the Truth in the baptism of taking over the sin and the blood to all the sinners wherever He went, saying, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven.” In the Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 11, Jesus said to the woman who was caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you.” This means that He could not condemn her because He had taken even the very sin of adultery. This implies that Jesus who
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took over all the sins was the only One who shall receive the judgment for the sins of the world. During the 3 years of public life, Jesus witnessed to the sinners who were distraught and crushed by their sins that their sins were already pardoned. This is because He Himself was the Savior who received the sins of the sinners through His baptism. Jesus who took over all the sins of the world to His body through the baptism of taking over the sins had to receive the terrible penalty of the Cross for the price of all sins. Jesus thought about the terrifying pain of the penalty of the Cross that He was to receive as He said to God the Father, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Though I have taken over the sins of the world by receiving the baptism, isn’t there any other way besides my death?” As I have said in the introduction of this sermon that the baptism of Jesus was the same form as the ritual of laying on of hands in the Old Testament. Because they always cut the throat of the animal that
took over the sin through the laying on of hands and offered up its blood of sacrifice in the Old Testament, Jesus who took over the sins of humanity through the baptism in the same manner of the laying on of hands definitely had to shed the blood of sacrifice. Jesus knew this from the beginning, but He also understood how horrifying the penalty of the Cross that He was to suffer in the future because He had the same body as humans. Jesus prayed even until the sweat turned into blood from the fear and distress for the extreme suffering, but Jesus did not insist on such mind to the end. So He went away a second time and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). Then, He drank the cup of the penalty of the Cross in obedience. Jesus who took all the sins of the world upon Himself through His baptism paid the price for sin by dying on the Cross in that manner and delivered all humanity from all their sins and saved all those who believe in the
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gospel of the water, blood, and the Spirit. Jesus had to die on the Cross in place of all humanity only because He had received the baptism. As the Scriptures say, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23), Jesus received the vicarious death that we should have suffered because the wage for every sin is death. God fulfilled the salvation through Jesus the Word of covenant to the people who believed in God. God promised that He would send the Savior who would take over the sins of the world through the baptism of laying on of hands, and Jesus received the judgment for the penalty of the sins of the world in our place on the Cross according to God’s will as He said, “Abba, Father, not what I will, but what You will.” From the standpoint of Satan the Devil, they were defeated by the death of Jesus because the problem of the sins of the entire humanity was resolved and the path of salvation was opened through the death of Jesus. That’s because the problem of the sins of the
entire humanity would not have been resolved and all the humans would have had to go to hell if Jesus did not die on the Cross. That was what Satan the Devil wanted. That’s why Satan the Devil always stayed near Jesus and tempted Jesus so that He would not hang on the Cross. But Jesus did not waver and He eventually fulfilled that salvation. And this also fulfilled the Word God spoke to Satan the Devil in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” All humans are descendants of Adam, the descendants of the first man, but Jesus is the only descendant of a woman because He was born to Mary without the sexual relations with a man and was instead born only through the conception of the Holy Spirit. Jesus blocked the work of Satan the
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Devil by achieving the salvation of humanity. He thus bruised the head of Satan the Devil. The prophecy that Jesus would save us appears clearly in the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament. It is the event that occurred when Moses prayed to God to save the Israelites who were bitten by the serpents of fire for complaining against God while dwelling in the tough wilderness. God answered Moses’ prayer and said, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live” (Numbers 21:8). Moses told God’s Word to the Israelites who were dying in pain from the snakebite. He told them, “Attention, Israelites! Look at the bronze serpent on the top of the pole. Those who look at the bronze pole shall live.” Then, those who believed this and looked at the bronze serpent on the pole were freed from the sin of complaining against God and received salvation. This account reveals God’s Word that says the Lord already judged Satan the Devil and resolved the problem of his poison
through the righteous act of Jesus, that is, His just baptism and the death on the Cross. And this account was also the prophecy of Jesus who was to come to the world and receive the baptism of atonement and receive the penalty for sin in place of sinners. You have now heard that “Those who look at the baptism of the cleansing of sin Jesus received to take over the sins and the blood shed through His death on the Cross with faith shall be delivered from the penalties for all their sins.” The true gospel that the Lord has given to us is the gospel that says, “We must believe in the Lord who came to this world and took all the sins of the world by receiving the baptism of taking over the sins, shed blood from the death on the Cross for the price of those sins, and resurrected again from death and saved us perfectly in order for us to receive salvation from all sins.”
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You Shall Live If You Look at It Among the people who were bitten by the snake while complaining against God in the Book of Numbers, those who listened to Moses’ word and looked at the bronze serpent on the top of the pole had their wounds from the snake bite healed completely through their faith. As such, the people who believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross these days can also be healed completely from their sins and penalties in an instant; but those who do not believe this cannot receive salvation from their sins in the same way the people, who stubbornly did not believe in the God’s Word and did not look at the bronze serpent on the pole, eventually died as the snake poison spread all over their body. Just as the Word recorded in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world” and as the Word from John 3:14 says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” Jesus Christ who took all the sins of the world
upon Himself through His baptism of atonement had to be lifted up high on the Cross and consequently remitted away all our sins without any remains. And those who believe in all this could become the children of God and go to the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist in the form of the laying on of hands and shed blood, died on the Cross with the sins of the world, and was resurrected from death. All the people can receive the true salvation by looking with faith at Jesus who saved us through the baptism of atonement and the blood of the Cross. John the Baptist said, “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’” and that “I am not the Lord and I am not the real Savior, Christ is the true Savior. I am just one of His servants who was sent before Him. I am God’s servant that is to transfer over the sins of the world to Jesus and Jesus is the groom.” John the Baptist also said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices
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greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29-30). And Jesus became our true Lord according to this witness. John the Baptist baptized Jesus and transferred over all our sins to the head of Jesus and those who believe with their hearts in Jesus who received the sins and paid the price for the sins with His death shall receive salvation from the sins and attain the blessing of eternal life. God gave such a gospel of God’s baptism and blood that makes all the sinners become the righteous by faith. Through this, all those who believe in Jesus’ baptism of taking over the sin and the blood on the Cross receive salvation. You must receive the perfect remission of sins by believing this gospel in your hearts.
The True Prayer Can Be Offered by Believing in Jesus’ Baptism That Cleanses the Sins of the World Even the servants of God cannot just baptize or pray for anyone. They pray and baptize only those who believe in the baptism of cleansing the sin and the blood of the Cross as the evidence of their faith. When a baptizing minister baptizes a born again saint who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he first puts his hands on the saint’s head and prays like this, “God, I want You to bless this brother (or sister) both in body and spirit, so that he (or she) may serve faithfully throughout his (or her) life.” This prayer is based on the presumption that both the minister and the one receiving the baptism believe in their hearts the gospel of the baptism and the blood of Jesus. But for what reason do people receive baptism? The baptism is the sign that all my sins have been transferred over to Jesus through the baptism Jesus ◄
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received and I died with Him when Jesus Christ died on the Cross and I resurrected with Him when Jesus resurrected. Therefore, when one receives the baptism that is similar to the baptism Jesus received, he is now confessing that he has received salvation by completely believing in Jesus’ baptism and the blood Jesus shed on the Cross. The ceremony of water baptism is performed for that reason. Those who believe in their hearts that the baptism Jesus received was the baptism for pardoning their sins can receive the baptism in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is because they actually have already been saved from all the sins of the world. The real purpose of the ritual of baptism is for the baptized to confirm that they have become new creations and their old selves are dead. As it is written in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” The life of faith after receiving the remission of sins must be of the faith of believing and following
all the recorded Word of God. We must not live out our faith according to our temporary emotion. The true faith stands for our conviction that Jesus took all our sins through the baptism of taking over the sins. Through the baptism from John the Baptist, Jesus washed away and took over all our sins that are as huge and thick as the cloud and the mist. And He received the penalty on the Cross for sin. And for three years before He was crucified, He preached the gospel as the Lamb of God, and He also testified to the fact that He was God by doing the work of God the Father. We must believe in our hearts that the Lord took all our sins through the baptism of taking over the sin and live every day confirming this through the recorded Word. Even though one is born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he can think, “How can I not have sin when I cannot help but commit sin everyday,” if he leads a carnally minded life. Therefore, those who have received the remission of sins must get rid of their own subjective thinking and
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serve God by believing in God’s Word and serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit while living in this world. This is the life of the people who have received the remission of sins and this is the true faith. John the Baptist declared that Jesus who atoned for the sins of the world is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and that He carried the sins we will commit tomorrow as well as all the sins we have committed until now. Just as his witness, all the raw source of sin that we were born with from our mother’s womb, and all small and great sins we have committed in this world since our birth—all those sins were transferred over to Jesus at the very moment He received the baptism from John the Baptist. We must actually verify the baptism of taking over the sin that Jesus received through the Scriptures and apply this gospel in our daily life. And we must believe with the confirmation that not only the sins that we have committed have been transferred over to Jesus Christ, but also that Jesus
carried all the sins that we commit in our lifetime through the baptism of atonement. Sins we have committed since we were born, needless to say, as well as the sins that we will commit in the future were all transferred over to Jesus at the time when Jesus received baptism about 2000 years ago. This is the true gospel of the water and the Spirit that is revealed in God’s Word. This is the true gospel of Heaven. We must understand and believe in this gospel. Believing this is the true faith and the blessing of salvation. The Gospel of John 1:29 testifies about Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” And the Scriptures also say, “And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true” (John 3:3233). Those who believe in the baptism of pardon of sin and the blood of the Cross as the Truth receives salvation from all the sins of the world. But those who do not know the fact that their sins have been
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transferred over through the baptism Jesus received and do not believe in it continue to believe that the sins they commit continuously are still within them and consequently are headed toward the door of hell. Because many people still do not know the Truth of the baptism Jesus received and the blood of the Cross, they are deceived by the false teachers and therefore dwell in the incorrect faith. To think as they do, that you have sin even after you have believed in Jesus is evidence that you have been deceived by Satan the Devil. The Devil tells them, “How can you not have sin when you sin every day?” But, although you may become a person with sin in fleshly thinking, you can receive the remission of sin if you believe in God’s Word that manifested through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The crafty Devil deceives people without faith by saying, “You are a sinner because you commit sin every day.” But we can overcome such temptation of the Devil if we have already become people without sin by believing in the baptism and the blood of Jesus.
Do you still think you are a sinner even though you believe in Jesus? We who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit do not have sin. Jesus blotted out all our sins through His baptism and the blood. Actually we can never say that we do not have sin when we look at the things we do while living in this world. But we have received the true remission of sins by believing in His salvation through the gospel of the baptism and the blood of Jesus. We come to know that there is no sin in us when we believe perfectly in Jesus’ baptism of pardon of sin and the blood of the Cross. We sing, “I have received the remission of sin. You have received the remission of sin through the baptism of Jesus. I’ve got salvation, You’ve got salvation” and want to share the gospel with an excited and joyful heart. We are led by the Holy Spirit like that. I reiterate the fact that the person who has been born again does not have sin because there is Jesus’ baptism of atonement and the merit of blood. Our hearts were in bondage to the sins before we knew
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Jesus’ baptism of atonement, but how can we still have sin within us when we believe that all our sins have been transferred over to Jesus through Jesus’ baptism of pardon? As the Word in Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,” I want you to know that there is no sin whatsoever in us. God’s Word confirms the salvation of Jesus by saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them” (Hebrews 10:16). We can realize that we do not have sin when we believe in the baptism of the remission of sins Jesus received and the blood on the Cross; and, therefore, this God-given gospel that has made us perfectly sinless becomes even more precious and priceless. The true spiritual life is actualized through the faith of believing in God’s recorded Word and the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Person Who Believes in Jesus’ Baptism of Atonement and His Blood of the Cross Cannot Become a Sinner Again Those who believe in the baptism Jesus received and His blood of the Cross do not have sin. When I did not believe the gospel of the water and the Spirit in my heart before, the sins in my heart did not disappear even though I always offered prayers of repentance. But one day, after understanding the gospel of Jesus’ baptism of atonement and the Cross, I realized that all my sins have been removed. Some look at our transformation and ask like this, “How has your heart become so bright?” And when we say, “It’s because I do not have sin in my heart,” they say “You then would sin without restraint if you do not have sin!” We reply to such people in the following way, “Don’t talk like that. Although people are creatures
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who cannot help but sin, Jesus has already resolved all the sins of this world by receiving the baptism of pardoning sin. I do not have sin now because I believe in this! That’s why I have the desire to give myself to serve the gospel in the Church, and God recorded in Romans chapter 6 that everyone must do this. I have the desire to do righteous work because I do not have sin in my heart. God’s work is for us to believe and preach the power of Jesus’ baptism of the remission of sin and the blood, and therefore we must preach the gospel of the baptism of atonement and salvation to the whole world. We will never become sinners again if we believe in Jesus who is the Lord of the baptism of atonement. We must believe the salvation of the baptism of the pardon of sin and the atoning blood of God’s Son and we must keep this faith. I am now thankful! I have now received salvation. I have now become one of the people of God! I am a righteous person! Halleluiah!” Can you imagine the happy countenance of God as He looks at such people of faith?
The Scriptures say, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it” (Romans 6:1-2). And it also says, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness” (Romans 6:15-19).
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Who Receives the Holy Spirit of God? Those who receive the heavenly blessing are the people who have received salvation from all sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and His blood. Acts chapter 2 verses 38-39 records how people received the Holy Spirit: “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’” Being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ means believing that He took over all our sins and thereby receiving the cleansing of sin through faith. We receive the Holy Spirit that God gives as the gift when we believe in Jesus’ baptism that took over the sins of the whole world and His blood of the Cross. The Holy Spirit descends in our hearts at the
very moment we clearly believe in the baptism and the blood of Jesus with our heart. The Holy Spirit of God comes into the hearts of the born-again at the time when they understand and believe in the fact that all their sins have been transferred over through the baptism of Jesus Christ and that all their condemnations have been eliminated through Jesus’ penalty on the Cross. Therefore, the Holy Spirit testifies to us and says, “Yes, that is correct” when we believe in the baptism and the blood of Jesus as the Word of our salvation. The Holy Spirit testifies, “Right! You do not have sin. You believe that Jesus received the baptism to blot out all your sins and that the Person who shed the blood on the Cross is none other than the Son of God.” We must now believe in our hearts the Truth of the gospel of the water and the Sprit that says Jesus received the baptism of cleaning of sin and saved all of us by dying on the Cross in our place. Then we come to know that the Spirit of God dwells inside the hearts of all those who believe in the baptism of
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taking over the sin and the blood of the Cross. I give thanks to God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with all my heart. Halleluiah!
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SERMON 8
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175 Spread the True Gospel and Jesus’ Righteous Deed
Spread the True Gospel And Jesus’ Righteous Deed < Matthew 3:1-17 > “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’’ Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to
his baptism, he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’ Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and
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said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”
In the Bible, John the Baptist must have been an extremely important figure. John the Baptist cried out for repentance from the people of Israel. We must remember precisely the work of Jesus and John the Baptist. Jesus, who came to this world saved mankind, obeying the will of God along with John the Baptist. John the Baptist and Jesus came to this world and accomplished righteous deeds. John the Baptist urged the people of Israel to return to God. We can see in Matthew 3:7 that John
the Baptist boldly rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees saying: “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” when he saw them coming to him while he was baptizing. This John the Baptist rebuked the people of Israel severely as a prophet: “Repent, you brood of vipers!” John the Baptist was a prophet who did righteous deeds in God’s eyes and was the last prophet of the Old Testament era. Some wonder how John the Baptist, as a prophet of God, could have uttered such a horrible expression as “Brood of vipers.” However, the Bible has it recorded and tells us that it was a righteous deed in front of God. All prophets should be people who can cry out for the righteous deed of God. And there came another One who accomplished righteous deeds besides John the Baptist. That was Jesus. In the Bible, Sadducees are politicians. They are the politicians of the world. They put more emphasis on the politics of this world than serving God. However, the Pharisees were the conservative
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religious leaders. At the same time they said they believed in God’s Word as it was, they denied Jesus. God was greatly disappointed when He saw these people. In God’s eyes, are these evil people or not? The Pharisees and the Sadducees are evil people in God’s eyes. The Pharisees did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah. That is why it is correct when John the Baptist called them a brood of vipers. John the Baptist did not compromise with the religious men of that time. Rather than compromising with the Pharisees and Sadducees, he tried to turn them around by rebuking them as a brood of vipers. John the Baptist taught the people who were returning to God that repenting was not good enough, but they needed to have the fruits of their repentance, and that they needed to turn away from evil. For example, they have to return and pay back all the money they had exploited. Then they could come back to him for baptism, and return to God. When we listen to his claims, we can see without
a doubt that he was a servant sent by God. About the time that John the Baptist appeared was the time that Jesus Christ started His public ministry. John the Baptist’s proclamation was to help the work of Jesus. At that time, there had not been a servant of God for about 400 years to the people of Israel. Therefore, the appearance of John the Baptist was an opportunity as well for the people of Israel to hear the providence of God and the voice of God. John the Baptist cried out: “Brood of vipers, repent and return to God. Turn away from idolatry. You need to renounce foreign gods and return to God to avoid God’s judgment.” It was a great blessing to the people of Israel that a servant of God could rebuke and advise them like that. The entire nation of Israel was shaken by the cries of John the Baptist. The miracle of the High Priests, Sadducees, and Pharisees coming to John the Baptist, repenting and returning to God occurred. John the Baptist testifies about the abilities of Jesus Christ, “I indeed baptize you with water unto
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repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:11-12). He testifies that he does the work of turning people back to God by rebuking them, but the one who comes after him will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John the Baptist said that people who were born again by believing in Jesus will be gathered as the wheat into Heaven and the ones who are not born again will be separated with winnowing fan as chaff and be burned with unquenchable fire. We must know that John the Baptist cried out for repentance in God, and that Jesus Christ, when He came to this world, received baptism from John the Baptist. According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was about thirty years old when He was baptized (Luke 3:23). Here, why did Jesus want to be baptized when
He was thirty? The reason that it was ‘about thirty’ was because one had to be thirty years old in order to carry out his duties as a High Priest. God said in the Old Testament that the sons of the High Priests had the ability to take on the responsibility when they turned 30 years old (Numbers 4:35). Likewise, when Jesus turned 30, He was baptized by John the Baptist. The reason that Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist was to accomplish all the righteousness of God. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist to take on the sins of everyone in the world. However, people are confused and do not understand why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist is a secret revealed in the Bible. Many people do not understand the secret of the baptism and misunderstand why Jesus was baptized. They think it was to present an example or to show modesty. We must know that Jesus came to this world and was baptized to save everyone in the world from his sins. Jesus could accomplish the righteous deed of
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taking on the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist when He came to this world. The righteous deed is that Jesus took on all the sins of the world once and for all by getting baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus’ baptism was to fulfill all the righteousness of God and was the will of God that was pleasing to Him. Our Lord came to this world to save us from all our sins. He was baptized to take on the sins of yours and mine once and for all by the baptism and bled to death for us. The Lord took on all the sins of the world once and for all. In Matthew 3:15, “all the righteousness” means Jesus taking on all the sins of the world by being baptized by John, and bleeding to death on the Cross. At that time, Jesus took on all the sins of the world, all of our sins. How fortunate is it, and how thankful are we? Fellow Christians, do we commit sins in this world or not? We commit sins. Do we only commit a few sins here and there? Or do we sin greatly? You commit many sins in this world, and your sins are
included in all the sins of the world. Jesus took on all the sins of the world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and bled to death on the Cross once and for all, and wiped out the sins and judgment. How could you and I be those without sin if Jesus did not take on all the sins of yours and mine once and for all? This Truth is the righteousness that our Lord fulfilled by being baptized and bleeding when He came to this world. Jesus is the Savior who came to this world as the Son of God and took care of the sins of the world and the judgment of the sins for us.
What We Need to Remember As we greet Christmas this year, we must remember that John the Baptist and Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of God that no one else could have done. As we greet Christmas, we need to think: ‘how can I join in on the righteousness work as we greet ◄
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Christmas, as we commemorate our Lord who fulfilled the righteousness?’ rather than ‘how can I have fun? How can I make good memories?’ We can certainly remember the work of John the Baptist and Jesus. We, too, should be those who think of Jesus and John the Baptist who fulfilled all righteousness on this Christmas. Our lives should be devoted solely to spreading that righteousness of God. After we receive the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must continue to lead a life that spreads this gospel. What would we be if we do not offer ourselves to this righteous ministry that spreads the gospel of the water and the Spirit? How can we expect God to give us His blessing if we do not participate in this righteous ministry? We must participate since we know that Jesus has saved us by taking on all of the sins of mankind. Is it not necessary to spread all over the world the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Can we do righteous deeds according to the flesh? Can we avoid committing sins by trying not to do them? How
can we, the insufficient ones, live the righteous life after receiving the remission of sin? Would it not be possible by spreading this gospel of the water and the Spirit that saved us from the sins of the world through Jesus who came to this world, took on all the sins to the Cross, bled and died so that He could take on the judgment of the sins for us? What would truly be the good work that you and I do in this world? Would God be happy by our proper behavior and memorable deeds? The most righteous work for us in this world is spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What is righteous is devoting all of our hearts and energy into spreading this gospel of the water and the Spirit. Whatever appearance you have, God will only be glad when you are involved in the work of spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What does it mean that when Jesus was getting baptized he said: “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness, then he allowed Him” (Matthew 3:15). These are the words of testimony that tell us
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that Jesus took on all the sins of the world that we have committed by the baptism that He had received from John the Baptist. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus once and for all. Jesus received all the sins of the world that are yours and mine through His baptism once and for all. This is how the body of Jesus could take on all the sins of the world, and this is how it was possible for Him to face judgment as both hands and both feet were crucified on the Cross. However, this does not mean that the sin was upon His soul. You must receive your salvation by believing that Jesus came to this world and fulfilled the righteousness of God, and John the Baptist also participated in this great ministry by passing on the sins to Jesus through laying on of his hands. John the Baptist did two things as the servant of God, the greatest representative among those who were born from a woman. The first one was pointing out the evilness of everyone. He cried out for people to return to God by
rebuking them, saying, “Serving other gods besides God is sin.” The second was that he baptized Jesus to pass on the sins of everyone in the world. This is the righteousness of God that was for you and me. This is the very righteousness that the Lord came to fulfill in this world. Jesus came to this world to receive the sins of yours and mine and take them on. And He received baptism to take on everyone’s sins in this world, your sins, and your descendants’ sins, and their descendants’ sins, your parents sins, your ancestors’ ancestors’ sins, the sins of everyone from Adam as long as this world exists until the last day, though we do not know when the earth will cease to exist. Jesus received the baptism to blot out our sins and to cleanse us of our sins. The word ‘to baptize’ means “to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one’s self, or to bathe.” Therefore, Jesus was baptized to take on all the sins of the world. Jesus cleansed our sins by receiving the sins
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through John the Baptist. Just as your clothes get washed when you wash your clothes with water, just as your filthiness gets cleansed when you take a bath with water, Jesus cleansed our sins clean by receiving baptism and took on all of the sins of our hearts through John the Baptist. My fellow Christians, do you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? —Yes.— Do you believe that the Lord came to this world, was baptized, and died on the Cross to fulfill the righteousness of God? As we greet Christmas, we must remember Jesus our Lord who fulfilled the righteousness for us. It is said, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). As we greet Christmas, we must ruminate on what is truly righteous, how we can lead a life of righteousness, and believe firmly. You and I need to keep our faith in Jesus Christ in this world and return to God someday. We must live the one life we have in this world, doing righteous work. What kind of work do we need to do in front of God? We
must think of righteousness once. Before we can think about whether or not we should live for the righteousness of God, we must think about what righteousness itself is first. I am greatly thankful to God as I greet this Christmas. And I wish you would do the “righteous thing.” What kind of righteous thing can you do in front of God? Can we do any righteous thing by doing well with our flesh? Don’t even think about it. Trying to do righteous things with the flesh is like a tower built on sand that will crumble down in one moment. Even if you were good all your life, if you make one wrong move, all the humanly righteousness is shattered. The true righteousness is spreading everyday the gospel of the water and the Spirit, with which God has wiped out all our sins. Participating in this spreading of the gospel is participating in the work of God. You and I live for the purpose of this work. Whether you work for a company or own your own business, it is righteous for you to devote yourself to
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this gospel of the water and the Spirit. If you cannot do it yourself, it is righteous through your prayers and small materials. Whatever you do, whether eating or drinking, living to spread this gospel is righteousness. Fellow Christians, even though we did not go over the Bible verse by verse, you are those who generally have heard these words. I believe that you believe in these words as the Truth. Do you believe that Jesus came to this world and fulfilled all righteousness? Do you believe that the Lord has fulfilled the greatest work that wipes out all the sins, yours and mine? —Yes.— It is so fortunate that Jesus took on all the sins, and we are so thankful that He fulfilled ‘all righteousness.’ How lamentable would it be if He took some sins and did not take some others? However, whatever sin you have committed, Jesus took it all. Have a strong faith. I hope you please God with your faith and do righteous deeds by your faith. I hope you live by the faith. And I hope you go to
Heaven by your faith. I hope you are a person without sin by your faith. I hope you are a person who receives the Holy Spirit by believing in the true gospel of the water and the Spirit. I truly thank God again and again because I believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Fellow Christians, do you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? —Yes. — I hope that all of you are those who truly believe in the true gospel as we greet Christmas. Hallelujah!
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SERMON 9
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185 The Relationship between the Work of John the Baptist and the Gospel of Atonement for Our Sins
The Relationship between The Work of John the Baptist and the Gospel of Atonement for Our Sins < Matthew 21:32 > “For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”
John the Baptist Who Was Sent by God It is written about John the Baptist in the Gospel of John chapter 1 verses 6-7, “There was a man sent
from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light that all through him might believe.” In this passage, ‘the Apostle John’ is bearing witness to the importance of the baptism John the Baptist gave Jesus with regard to the gospel of the salvation. Jesus says regarding John the Baptist, “This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light.” He bears witness in this passage to the fact that it was none other than John the Baptist who ‘passed onto Him’ all sins of the world through the baptism He received. John the Baptist bore witness to Jesus in order “that all through him might believe.” The Apostle John tells us that through the witnessing of John the Baptist that all the people of this world are able to believe in the Truth, which states, that Jesus has saved all sinners by both the baptism He received and the blood of the Cross. In other words, this passage means that if John the Baptist had not borne witness to the salvation of the water and the Spirit, people would have been unable
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to know the salvation where Jesus saved sinners by both His baptism and the blood of the Cross. Therefore, faith that is not based on the knowledge of why John the Baptist baptized Jesus is really a useless faith. Therefore, only those who have met Jesus through the gospel of the water and the Spirit can become the possessors of the proper faith.
What Sort of Person Is John the Baptist? The priest Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth who were childless and very old, had a child and named him John the Baptist; this was by the providence of God, and he sang a praise song, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins” (Luke 1:76-77). As the prophet of the Highest, the representative of all
humankind, John the Baptist passed on all the sins of the world by baptizing Jesus and through this has caused people to believe in Jesus by preaching this gospel through which people can receive salvation. It was none other than this prophet John the Baptist who preached the good news to let us know that we were saved from the judgment because the baptism of Jesus was an atonement for all our sins. God sent John the Baptist into this world as the representative of all humankind to do the work of passing all the sins of the people onto Jesus. In Luke 1:78 we see the reason, “Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us.” The words “With which” means that all mankind has to come to see the salvation through John the Baptist, just as the rising sun shines from above on those who had been sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. Jesus has thus atoned for all the sins of humankind. In this world, who guides us to the way of peace? He is Jesus Christ. Since John the Baptist
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passed all our sins onto Jesus through the baptism he gave to Jesus, he has guided us to the gospel where the Lord atoned for all our sins. Let us find out more specifically who this John the Baptist is from the Scriptures. Let us look carefully at the words in Luke 1:1-14. “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.”” Luke, a fellow co-worker of Apostle Paul’s ministry, delivered this gospel to a gentile named Theophilus, a man of prominent standing. Because of this man’s lack of knowledge of the Scriptures, Luke
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had to explain to him in detail about the Bible, and that was why he started writing this gospel from when John the Baptist appeared on the scene. In order to explain the gospel in its entirety, it was necessary for Luke to explain the genealogy of John the Baptist and the particulars of his birth. Through these words, we will attempt to look into the birth of John the Baptist and his ministry in detail. If we look at the above passages carefully, we will find a passage of Scripture that says, “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth” (Luke 1:5). We see here that the mother of John the Baptist was clearly a descendant of Aaron, but as for his father Zacharias, we must attempt to figure out exactly which lineage amongst the tribes of Israel he was born from. John the Baptist’s father was Zacharias. Luke writes that he was a priest from the division of Abijah. So who then is this ‘Abijah,’ the ancestor of the
priest Zacharias? We find his name listed in the First Book of Chronicles chapter 24 verse 10, which states, “The seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah.” God led the people of Israel by placing Moses as His mediator, and then He appointed Aaron, Moses’ older brother as the High Priest of the children of Israel. God had the descendants of Aaron carry out all the sacrificial offerings held inside the Tabernacle. However, Nadab and Abihu, the two sons of Aaron, died when they offered profane fire before God at the time of sacrifice (Numbers 26:61). After the death of these two sons, the other two sons of Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar took over the duties of the priesthood. In addition, we see how the descendants of these two sons flourished, but in the days of David it became necessary to reorganize the priesthood for doing duty in the Tabernacle and serving God. Therefore, with the heads of the houses among the descendants of Eleazar and Ithamar as the basis, he divided the priests into 24 groups. A written account of this reorganization was as
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follows; “Then David with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to the schedule of their service. There were more leaders found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar, and thus they were divided. Among the sons of Eleazar were sixteen heads of their fathers’ houses, and eight heads of their fathers’ houses among the sons of Ithamar. Thus they were divided by lot, one group as another, for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of the house of God, from the sons of Eleazar and from the sons of Ithamar” (1 Chronicles 24:3-5), like this David set the division of priesthood serving God inside the Tabernacle. Amongst the order that was set as shown here we see, “The eighth to Abijah,” which is exactly the same as in the First Book of Chronicles chapter 24 verse 10, which leads us to the passage we just mentioned above, “a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah” (Luke 1:5). Luke thus proves to us that this Zacharias was a priest from the
division of Abijah amongst the descendants of the High Priest Aaron. Elizabeth was also from the daughters of Aaron. So we see that John the Baptist is clearly a descendant of the High Priest Aaron (Luke 1:5), who was born to this married couple. We need to understand that Luke had to explain this part extremely well in order for Theophilus to understand that John the Baptist had passed the sin of the world onto Jesus who was the representative of all humankind. Let us now find the Scripture passage where it states that the descendants of the house of Aaron carried out the duties of a High Priest.
John the Baptist was clearly Born into a Family of High Priests A High Priest’s son inherited the duties of offering the sacrifices of atonement. It says in the Book of Numbers chapter 20 verses 28-29, “Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his ◄
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son; and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. Now when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, all the house of Israel mourned for Aaron thirty days.” God gave the High Priesthood of the nation of Israel to Aaron and his sons and said that this shall be an everlasting statute (Leviticus 16:34). That is why Aaron and his sons carried out the duties of offering the sacrifices, which redeemed the sins of people of Israel before God. It is written in Exodus 28:1-2, “Now take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to Me as priest, Aaron and Aaron’s sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.” Also in Exodus 29:1-9 it says the following: “And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened
bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour). You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams. And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the Tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water. Then you shall take the garments, put the tunic on Aaron, and the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the intricately woven band of the ephod. You shall put the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban. And you shall take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him. Then you shall bring his sons and put tunics on them. And you shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and put the hats on them. The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute. So you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.” Therefore, on behalf of the nation of Israel, God appointed the house of Aaron, Moses’ older brother,
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to carry out the duties of the High Priesthood by offering the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement to God. There was no way for them to object to this duty. God had commanded that the High Priesthood of the house of Aaron should undertake this priestly duty. This High Priesthood was not something just anyone could carry out. Only the High Priests from the house of Aaron was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, and that was only once a year to minister the duties of a High Priest. Only they were able to atone for a year’s worth of sins of the people of Israel, once and for all. That is why God said to Moses, “Now take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to Me as priest, Aaron and Aaron’s sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:1-2). The fact that only Aaron and his descendants could become the High Priests was due to the everlasting institution set by God. God had
commanded Aaron and his descendants to carry out the duties of the High Priesthood forever, from the days of the Old Testament until the coming of Jesus in the New Testament. The descendants of Aaron had since then been carrying out the duties of the High Priesthood that constituted the everlasting statute of salvation, that is, the atonement for sins set by God. That is why Luke was describing John the Baptist as the last High Priest of the Old Testament by mentioning the fact that Zacharias was a man from the house of the High Priest Aaron. Therefore, we see the Old Testament ending when John the Baptist a representative on behalf of all of humankind carried out the work of passing all the sins of the world onto Jesus, and from then on the age of Jesus, the age of grace, began. God spoke of the history of humankind by dividing it into times or dispensations.
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John the Baptist Did Indeed Baptize Jesus Christ Because John baptized Jesus, he is known as John the Baptist. Then, what does ‘baptism’ mean in the Bible? “Baptism,” “βάφτισµα” (baptisma) in Greek means “being immersed.” To baptize, “baptizo” in Greek means to immerse or submerge under water, to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one’s self, and to bathe. It also means to pass over or to transfer. By receiving baptism from John the Baptist all our sins were passed onto Jesus, and Jesus became the Savior to the faithful by taking on the sins of the entire world, dying on our behalf - for the wages of sin, and being resurrected from the dead. The Lord received baptism through which He took on all our sins on our behalf and died on the Cross. This was because ‘the wages of sin is death’. Because the rite of baptism is performed in the form of immersion and by the laying on of hands, it
is also called ‘the rite of immersion.’ Both have the same meaning. The word ‘baptism’ also means ‘to cleanse.’ The baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist in the Jordan River was the baptism of ‘the remission of sins’ by which He cleansed us from the sins of the world by taken all of them ‘onto’ His own body. Because all the sins of humankind were ‘passed onto Jesus’ by Him receiving baptism from John the Baptist, we were able to receive salvation and to be able to believe in it. If we look deeply at the meaning of the baptism Jesus received, we will see four meanings namely, “to cleanse,” “to pass over,” “to transfer,” and “to be buried.” In order for the people of the Old Testament to receive the remission of sins, they had to bring sacrificial animals without blemish like goats, sheep and cattle and so on, and then placed their hands on the head of these animals to pass their sins onto it. This is exactly the same as the baptism (βάφτισµα in Greek) Jesus received. In the Old Testament, people laid their hands on a goat’s head to pass their sins
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onto it, and because the goat received these sins, it had to atone for the sins of people by dying instead of the sinner. In the Old Testament, Aaron the High Priest represented all of the children of Israel. Therefore as a representative of the entire nation of Israel, the High Priest transferred all their sins by laying both his hands on the head of a goat, and by drawing the blood of the animal by slitting its throat, and then putting its blood on the four horns of the altar of burnt offering. He thus offered the sin offering of the Day of Atonement before God on behalf of all the people. In the New Testament, it was none other than John the Baptist who was the representative of all of humankind. In like manner, Jesus took on the sins of the world by received baptism from John the Baptist, and to atone for the sins of all of humankind, He shed His own precious blood and died on the Cross. In addition, by being resurrected from the dead, He saves those who believe in Him now.
The Greatest among Those Born of Women If we look at Matthew 11:11, Jesus bears witness to John the Baptist by saying, “Among those born of women there has not risen one greater.” John the Baptist passed-on the sins of the world ‘once and for all’ by baptizing Jesus in accordance with the eternal statute set by God as the High Priest of all of mankind, just like Aaron the High Priest (Matthew 3:15). John the Baptist had the qualifications to be the High Priest of all of humankind. That was why it was possible for John the Baptist, as the last High Priest of the Old Testament, to pass-on the sins of all of humankind by baptizing Jesus. Again, we will look at the priest Zacharias in the New Testament who was a descendant of the house of Aaron, and we will also look at the origin of the High Priest as follows:
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In the First Book of Chronicles Chapter 24 Verse 10… The order of High Priests who were the descendants of Aaron offered the sacrificial rite as shown to us in the Old Testament, and the order of the priest ‘Abijah’ comes up as the eighth division. However, in the New Testament the priest was chosen “according to the custom of the priesthood,” as we can see from the Gospel of Luke chapter 1 verse 9. Just like the Old Testament, the person chosen here became the High Priest, taking on the High Priesthood of the Old Testament and carrying on their duties. This tradition was ‘passed down’ from generation to generation, starting from the days of the Old Testament up until the time of Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father. Zacharias was a High Priest born into the ranks of Abijah, a descendant of Aaron. Just as the lion can only bear a lion cub, God had made it so that a High Priest could only come from the house of Aaron, the
High Priest. Therefore, John the Baptist who was from the house of a High Priest took on the role of an intermediary; this priest would fulfill the prophecies about the salvation of God as promised in the Old Testament, and he (John) who had passed on the sin of the world onto Jesus was the greatest among those born of any women. The passages in Matthew 11:1113 bear clear witness to this. That is why Jesus pointed out John the Baptist, and bore witness that he was the Elijah to come as prophesied in the Old Testament (Malachi 4:5).
Testimonies of the Apostles about the Baptism of Jesus Who Had Taken on the Sins of Mankind The baptism Jesus received was the atonement for sin namely, the sins of the entire world. The undeniable proof of the baptism Jesus received is shown numerous times in the epistles of Paul and ◄
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Peter, including the epistles of John. Let us look at the Scripture passages concerning Jesus’ baptism through the Pauline Epistles. We will look firstly at the passage from Romans 6:2-7. “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.” Should our faith be the same as Apostle Paul’s faith of receiving His baptism, we will be united together with Jesus. This is the faith of believing in the gospel that Jesus’ baptism had taken on the sins
of the world and had atoned for all of them. The gospel of ‘the atonement for sins’ mentioned in the Bible is the gospel of the water and the blood where Jesus received the baptism and was crucified. The gospel of the atonement for sins as mentioned in the Bible and as witnessed by the Apostles, tells us that Jesus had taken away all the sins of the world. We need to understand how the Apostle Peter believed and explained the baptism of Jesus? In 1 Peter 3:21 he said, “There is also an antitype which now saves us-baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” The Apostle Peter is telling us the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist is an antitype of the salvation of how He atoned for our sins. Furthermore, the Apostle John said, “Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood-Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears
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witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one” (1 John 5:5-8). The Apostle John is telling us here that we receive our salvation from God who atoned for all our sins by having faith in the Savior who came by the water and the blood.
What Is the Proper Faith in Believing in Jesus Christ? Likewise, the Apostles said that the baptism (the water) Jesus received is an antitype of the salvation that saves sinners, and that the born-again can overcome the world by believing in the gospel of the atonement for sins which was perfected by the baptism and the blood of Jesus. Therefore, it is clear that there is a vast difference between the faith the
Apostles possessed and the faith of today’s theologians who believe only in the blood of the Cross. Theologians these days believe only in the blood of Jesus, but the Bible testifies to us that sinners can only receive salvation when they believe in both the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross. Therefore, we should possess proper knowledge, and believe in the gospel where Jesus atoned for all our sins with His baptism and His blood. Both the baptism Jesus received and the blood on the Cross are essential components for the completion of the perfect gospel. It is only this gospel that atoned for all the sins of the world. In the Old and the New Testaments, it is written that the gospel of the atonement for sins is the gospel of the baptism and the blood, and only this blots out all the sins of the world. Matthew, a disciple of Jesus records this in Matthew 3:15-16, “But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
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When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.” God tells us here that all the sins of the world were ‘passed onto Jesus’ by Him receiving baptism from John the Baptist. It bears witness to the righteousness of salvation that God perfected through the gospel where our sins were atoned for. By receiving His baptism, Jesus took-on the sins of all the people in this world, and then bore witness to His salvation for 3 years. After this period of three years, He died on the Cross shedding His blood and He was resurrected on the third day. By doing this, He perfected salvation for all those who believe in this Truth, and now sits at the right-hand of the throne of God the Father. In addition, the disciples of Jesus stated, “So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation” (Hebrews
9:28). This passage means that the Lord will appear a second time only to those who are ‘apart from sin’ and are waiting for Him. In other words for those who by faith, have received salvation through the atonement for sins by believing in the baptism Jesus received and His blood on the Cross. “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17). This passage refers to the truth that ‘the One’ on whom all the sins of the world had been transferred by baptism, and had atoned for those sins, is none other than Jesus. Many theologians do not have a clue about this Truth where Jesus atoned for the sins of all of humankind by His baptism and blood. They are spiritually blind and are unable to take in the waters above the firmament that is, the pure Word. Because of this, people have a vague belief that ‘Jesus somehow has taken- on the sins of the world,’ but this type of thinking stems from ignorance of the baptism of Jesus and its meaning. We need to understand that the nation of
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Israel during the Old Testament times were liberated from their sins by the High Priest who passed on all these sins through the laying of his hands onto the sacrificial animal, and that animal died by shedding its blood instead of them; thus Jesus saved mankind according to His promise. Jesus was this sacrificial lamb in the New Testament. Therefore, John the Baptist had to be the person who was the representative of all of humankind, and it is he who would pass on all the sins of the world onto Jesus. That was the reason why God the Father sent John the Baptist to this earth 6 months prior to sending Jesus. John the Baptist was a servant of God who was prophesied about in the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament. He was none other than the messenger of God prophesied in Malachi 3:1-3. Also, if we look at Matthew 11:10-11 in the New Testament, the Lord needed to receive baptism so that He could take on all the sins of mankind as their Savior, and this would atone for all their sins. Therefore, Jesus needed a
servant of God who would give Him this important baptism. That is the reason why John the Baptist passed the sins of the world onto Jesus by baptism, and by obeying Jesus’ command, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The sacrificial lamb during the days of the Old Testament died shouldering all the sins of a person or a nation. Likewise, Jesus Christ the Son of God came to this earth and opened the age of the New Testament, by shouldering the sins of the world without a single trace of sin left behind, in order to atone for all the sins of all of humankind. He then had to die through crucifixion as the price of atonement for those sins. In order for Jesus to ‘forever deliver humankind’ from the sins of the world, He had to atone for all the sins of the world by receiving baptism from John the Baptist and then was resurrected after three days after having died on the Cross. God saved those from all sins who believe in the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and blood.
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John the Baptist Was indeed a Messenger of God Matthew 11:11-14 bears witness to John the Baptist. Let us read the Book of Matthew chapter 11:7 through to verse 14: “As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ ‘Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers
violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.’” People went into the wilderness to see John the Baptist. John the Baptist was crying out to the people to repent. Jesus saw people going to see John the Baptist and said, “For what did you go out into the wilderness? A man clothed in soft garments? Those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.” However, John the Baptist was living in the wilderness. These Words of Jesus speaks the Truth that God put John the Baptist here as the representative of all of humankind, and also had him baptize Jesus. As Jesus was bearing witness of John the Baptist He said, “Why did you go out into the wilderness? Why did you go to a man clothed in camel’s hair, someone like a wild man? What did you go out there to see? Did you go out to see a man clothed in soft garments? A person like this would live in kings’
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houses. But, I tell you he is greater than kings,” and further He bore witness that John the Baptist was the greatest among those born of women by saying, “Why did you go out? Did you wish to see a prophet? Yes, indeed he is more than a prophet.” In the Old Testament days, prophets were considered greater than kings. Then who was the greatest amongst all the prophets of the Old Testament? He was none other than John the Baptist. Jesus personally bore witness that John the Baptist was the representative of all of humankind. John the Baptist was a servant of God, who was sent 6 months prior to the birth of Jesus. He was sent especially to pass the sins of the world onto Jesus by baptizing Him. That is why the Lord said, “Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.’” The Bible clearly writes and bears witness about John the Baptist of this fact. John the Baptist who was described by Jesus like
this bore witness to Jesus also by confirming, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) It was John the Baptist who bore witness of Jesus by confirming, “Look! Jesus took away all the sins of the world, and He is none other than the Son of God;” and he thus was truly the greatest among all people and among all prophets in the Bible. It can thus be said that John the Baptist was indeed a High Priest because both of his parents were descendants of Aaron. We know that in the Old Testament times God chose Aaron to be the High Priest of Israel for 40 years. We also need to know that God had forever entrusted this High Priesthood to all of his descendants, and therefore there should be no lacking of belief that John the Baptist is indeed the representative of all of humankind, and as the priest who has passed all the sins of humankind onto Jesus. Furthermore the Lord Jesus said, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by
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force” (Matthew 11:12). This passage shows that Jesus became the Savior of all people by having received all the sins of the world through John the Baptist. Jesus personally bore witness to the fact that John the Baptist passed-on all the sins of the world onto Him. The Words in Matthew 11:12 bear witness that the sins of the world that being, all the sins of mankind were been passed onto Jesus by John baptizing Jesus. Believers in the gospel of Heaven that being, the gospel of the baptism Jesus received and His blood, believe that Jesus went and died on the Cross, by completely shouldering all their sins through His baptism.
The Testimony of Zacharias Having heard the angel’s message that God would grant him a son and not believing in it at first, Zacharias was punished with muteness. As time progressed and seeing the Word of God being
realized, he named the baby boy ‘John’ just as the angel had ordered. Only then did his tongue become loose and he was able to talk. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, Zacharias started praising God by uttering the following. “Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: ‘Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His servant David, As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, Who have been since the world began, That we should be saved from our enemies And from the hand of all who hate us, To perform the mercy promised to our fathers And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to our father Abraham: To grant us that we, Being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear,
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In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. ‘And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, To give knowledge of salvation to His people By the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.’ So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel” (Luke 1:67-80). In this passage the father made prophesies through the Holy Spirit on what sort of a prophet John the Baptist would become, and how he would carry out the priesthood. He also prophesied that John the
Baptist would be a servant of God. He prophesied in particular, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins” (Luke 1:76-77). This passage prophesies about this gospel. Through this gospel of the water and the Spirit, John the Baptist became a witness to the Truth for those of us who would truly believe in Jesus. John the Baptist told us that we have received the remission of sins by believing in Jesus’ baptism and blood that is, the atonement for our sins. In order to atone for all of our sins, Jesus took-on all the sins of the world through the baptism He had received from John the Baptist. In addition, John bore witness to the fact that he had passed-on all the sins of the world by baptizing Jesus. In other words, through his witness, John the Baptist made us know about the salvation through the atonement for sins. Everyone would receive salvation from their sins by believing in Jesus’ baptism and blood. In addition,
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through the witness of John the Baptist, everyone came to know that Jesus was the Savior who had atoned for all their sins. If people had not known about the gospel of the atonement for sins which John the Baptist had given Jesus, how could they have been 100% certain that Jesus was indeed their Savior? If people have no knowledge of the gospel Truth of the atonement for sins, there will be neither salvation nor everlasting life for them. If you were to believe in Jesus without knowing the ministry of John the Baptist, your faith would be an imperfect faith, and you would be leading an imperfect Christian life. You would be doing things such as relying only on church doctrines and in theology. However, if you have knowledge who John the Baptist really is and the Truth of what sort of baptism he had given Jesus for salvation that atoned for the sins of mankind, you will be saved from all your sins by having faith in this Truth. In the Book of Genesis, stories starting from the
days of when Adam and Eve were sinless and continued through to the days of Abraham who was a descendant of Seth and of Shem after Adam and Eve had sinned, until the days of the descendants of Jacob. In the Book of Exodus we find the beginning of the days when the Law was written. It was only after crossing the Red Sea when the Israelites received the Commandments when they were in the wilderness of Sin, and then they lived according to those Laws. It was during these days of the Law that God gave the people of Israel the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle. God had them offer sacrifices where the High Priest would pass-on the sins of the people by laying both his of hands on the head of a scapegoat, and then through the death of this unblemished sacrificial offering instead of these sinful people, atoned for their sins. This age of the Law came to an end with the onset of the age of grace that is, when Jesus’ received His baptism. All salvation promised by the atonement for
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sins during the Old Testament era came to an end with the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist. Thus, through His baptism and the shedding of His blood, the sins of all humankind were remitted, and salvation from sin was perfectly completely. The priest Zacharias heard God saying to him that He would grant him a son. However, Elizabeth, Zacharias wife was well advanced in age and well past childbearing age. It seemed impossible for an elderly woman to bear a child according to the human way of thinking. Nevertheless, this Zacharias wife became pregnant and started to show just as God had said. Six months after that, the Virgin Mary also started to show. An angel appeared before Mary and told her the same, “Blessed be the one who have found grace,” and Mary fell down flat on her face and said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Like this, by putting on the grace of God, Mary received the blessing of giving birth to Jesus Christ.
We should know that this pregnancy of Mary, who was a virgin, could only be called a blessing from God. However, in reality this pregnancy was something condemnable under the commandment for those who commit adultery according to the Jewish laws during this time. As it was back then, and even now, for a woman without a husband to become pregnant is a great disgrace. It makes it hard for them ever getting married. But despite this the grace of God had Mary enjoy honor and glory, instead of having to bear the agonies of the flesh. After confessing her faith, Mary started to show. The fact is that Mary’s conception of Jesus was carried out through the Holy Spirit in accordance with the message that was delivered by an angel of God. Thus, through the body of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, our Savior was born. Mary was not a descendant of Aaron. She was a descendant of Judah. Joseph, who was engaged to Mary, was also a descendant of Judah. Therefore, Jesus Christ was born into the family of kings. Because Jesus Christ is
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the King, He had to come through a house of kings. In the same chain of reasoning, because John the Baptist came as the last High Priest, he had to come from the house of High Priests, through the descendants of Aaron. God sent John the Baptist before Jesus, the greatest prophet and servant of God. Only in this form could the prophecies of the Old Testament be fulfilled, and it becomes possible for us to believe in God in the proper way. Because the High Priesthood is something set eternally by God, the sins of the world had to be passed-on through the baptism given to Jesus by a descendant of Aaron; it was therefore John the Baptist as the last High Priest of humankind who had to carry out this important task. Aaron was the first High Priest of Israel, and the elder brother of Moses. His great-grandfather was Levi (son of Jacob); his grandfather was Kohath; his father was Amram; his mother was Jochebed, and his elder sister was Miriam (Exodus 6:16-20). Aaron had sons named, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar
(Exodus 6:23, Numbers 3:2). From the time when Moses received the calling of the ‘exodus out of Egypt’ from God, Aaron assisted Moses, who was slow of speech and slow of tongue, therefore Aaron spoke on behalf of him (Exodus 4:10, 7:10). In addition, when the ceremony of making the covenant between God and Israel was being held at Mount Sinai, Moses along with Aaron and his two sons and seventy of the elders of Israel, saw God and they ate and drank there. This shows us clearly that they were formally representing the people of Israel (Exodus 24:1-11). From the time when God commanded them to build the Tabernacle for the children of Israel, Aaron and his four sons received the anointing from God and through this came to receive the priesthood, having been consecrated (Exodus 8:41, 40:13-16). Aaron, as the first High Priest of Israel carried out the priesthood for 40 years, and it was for this reason, the tribe of Reuben protested Aaron’s authority as the High Priest.
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So we see according to God’s command, almond flowers blossomed on Aaron’s staff representing the tribe of Levi amongst the twelve tribes who had placed their staffs; through this it proved to them that the priesthood was given to the house of Aaron by God (Numbers 17:1-10). When Aaron died at the age of 123, Aaron’s garments were worn by Eleazar his son, and Eleazar became the High Priest in place of Aaron (Numbers 20:23-29). The writer of the Book of Hebrews bore witness to the fact that Aaron was the High Priest of the earth and that Jesus was the High Priest of Heaven (Hebrews 7:11-28).
It Is Clear That John the Baptist Was the High Priest Who Was Entitled to Baptise Jesus by Laying His Hands on Jesus’ Head to Atone for the Sins of the World Jesus bore witness to the fact that John the Baptist is the representative of all of humankind. As it is written in Matthew 11:10-11, “For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.’ Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” John the Baptist carried out the priesthood of passing-on the sins of humankind onto Jesus, who was sacrificial Lamb of God.
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The Gate of Heaven Was Opened from the Time of John the Baptist When we set off to do a certain job, we prepare ourselves mentally and physical to do that job successfully. Likewise, in order to blot out the sin of the world, God had prepared John the Baptist as the first part of His plan. Here is the evidence: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’’ John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a
leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, ‘There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit’” (Mark 1:1-8). We will look further into John the Baptist, the preparer of the gospel of Heaven. If we read the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament we will see that the priests during that time were totally corrupt. Because of this, no priest was approved in God’s sight amongst the Israelites prior to the coming of Jesus approximately 2,000 years ago. Priests back then were so corrupt that they had discarded the statutes of the Word of God namely, the God-given sacrificial system and His Commandments. This was the reason for God to have a priest, His messenger to be born on this earth. Thus, God sent his messenger, and he was none other than John the Baptist, the preparer of the gospel of Heaven. John the Baptist was sent to this earth 6 months prior to
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Jesus. Because God always used a representative priest to pass-on the sins of people onto a sacrificial lamb, He had to send John the Baptist. Therefore, we see God sending John the Baptist and making him the representative priest of all of humankind. Because John the Baptist could not be in the same company as these corrupt priests, he lived alone in the wilderness and pressed the Israelites to repent. In the Gospel of Mark chapter 1 verse 2, we read this, “As it is written in the Prophets: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.’” In addition to him shouting in the wilderness, he was also crying out for the baptism of repentance that would lead them to receive the remission of their sins. We need to understand that there were two types of baptism that John the Baptist gave. The first one was the baptism of repentance which he gave to the people of Israel, and this was to lead people who had left God back to Christ, who was the eternal propitiation for their sins. As a prophet, by making people realize that they are sinners heading
for hell, John the Baptist gave this baptism of repentance to those who acknowledged and confessed their sinful existence. People became convicted of their sins, came before John the Baptist, and were baptized in water as a symbol verifying the fact that they were sinners before God. The second baptism was different from the first one as this was carried out when John the Baptist baptized Jesus, and this was the baptism that passedon all the sins of the world onto the body of Jesus. John the Baptist bore witness for those who had received the baptism of repentance before God, and to believe in Jesus who had taken-on and carried the sins of the world away by His baptism. Just before Jesus was about to receive His baptism from John, He told John the Baptist, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Just as it is written in this passage, the Words of the prophecy of God that says Jesus would take-on and atone for the sins of mankind was realized. All people who believe in
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Jesus must believe in both the baptism and the blood of Jesus including the gospel of the atonement for sins. Because John the Baptist, the preparer of the gospel of Heaven, had passed-on the sin of the world onto Jesus for all eternity by baptizing Him as an atonement for the sins of the world, John the Baptist made it possible for us to go to Heaven by having faith in Jesus. Jesus has thus become the Way to Heaven. Do you believe this? In the Gospel of Mark chapter 1 verses 14-15 it is stated, “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’” The Gospel is “the good news,” and it means “euaggelion” in Greek. The news that Jesus took away all the sins of the world by having taken them onto His body when He received His baptism from John the Baptist for the atonement for sins, is the gospel of Heaven. All the sins of the world had been passed-onto Jesus through John the Baptist
when Jesus received His baptism. The atoning gospel for the sins of mankind was the gospel of the baptism Jesus received and His blood on the Cross. The sins of the world refers to the sins all the people in this world. All the people including you and me, including your grandchildren who will be born in the future. Your sins refer to all the sins of your past, present and future (they include not only the sins committed in the past but the sins you will be committing in the future), these are all the sins of the world. The world mentioned here does not just refer to the Earth, but the beginning and the end of the entire universe.
John the Baptist Came to Preach the Truth of the Atonement for Sins John the Baptist came carrying the Truth of righteousness, or the Truth of the salvation, through which God atoned for the sins of humankind. As it is ◄
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written, “For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him” (Matthew 21:32), John the Baptist came to preach the Truth of righteousness. John the Baptist was a prophet sent to the world by God so that he may lead all the people therein to righteousness. By passing the sins of all the people in the world onto Jesus, whoever now believes in this Truth can receive the remission of sins. By him having borne witness to ‘the gospel of the atonement for sins,’ where he passed-on all the sins of the world onto the Lord, many people have been able to received salvation from sin by believing and having faith in this Truth of salvation because of John’s witness. In Matthew 21:32 we read this, “For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.” The phrase here, “For John
came to you in the way of righteousness,” speaks of the work of John the Baptist, the last High Priest of the Old Testament (Matthew 11:13), who passed-on all the sins of the world onto Jesus by baptism. Why do you think tax collectors and the harlots believed in the baptism of Jesus where John the Baptist passed-on the sins of the world onto Jesus? We must think deeply once again why the harlots and the tax collectors received salvation from all their sins by having faith in the righteous work carried out by Jesus Christ and John the Baptist. Then, why so many suffered destruction by not having faith in this righteous ministry? The harlots and the tax collectors were the typical people who committed many sins. If John the Baptist had not passing-on all the sins of the world onto Jesus once and for all, these harlots and the tax collectors would not have received salvation from their sins which were thicker than fog and darkest clouds. The tax collectors and the harlots believed in their hearts that the baptism Jesus had received from John the Baptist was a baptism for the
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atonement for all their sins, therefore, they received salvation. In addition to this, they believed that Jesus was the Son of God, and that they received everlasting salvation by having faith that Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb God had sent to save them from all their sins. If it had not been for the role John the Baptist played in the gospel of the atonement for sins, we could never have been able to believe in Jesus and receive our salvation. You might say, “I do not believe in the baptism of Jesus, but despite this I believe in Jesus.” If this were the case, do you think Jesus could be your Savior without you having faith that all your sins had been atoned for through the baptism of Jesus? If that were so, then Jesus died without having taken-on all your sins through His baptism. Do you honestly think you can be born again by believing in Jesus in this way? Dear fellow believers, please think deeply about this once again. In order to deliver us from all our sin and punishment, God sent John the Baptist, and He
planned this so that Jesus could take-on all our sins through John the Baptist. If God had decided to pass all our sins onto Jesus by His baptism, then we will never be able to receive our salvation should we resist this decision of God. If we were to oppose this gospel of Jesus’ baptism and His blood, then we would certainly not be redeemed people. Instead, by opposing this plan of God we will be those people who are destined for hell. I hope that you will think through your own reasoning about what proper faith is or not based on this Word of Truth. It is correct that you received salvation by believing in Jesus in accordance to the plan set by God. What are your emotions like right now? I hope that you will throw away all your thinking and believe in this Truth that all your sins have been remitted through the baptism John the Baptist had given to Jesus. I pray that you will believe in the will of God that desires to save us by the water and the Spirit. If you believe that all your sins have been passed-
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onto Jesus, you will be called ‘the righteous’, because you are without sin by faith, and only the righteous who believe this will go to Heaven according to the law of the grace of God. If you somehow are unable to accept this truth that all your sins were passed onto Jesus by John the Baptist, then it means that you have refused God’s salvation. Will you continue to stand up against and refuse the way of righteousness John the Baptist had performed on Jesus? If you were to resist this incredible blessing, it would be like refusing all the plans of God in its entirety, and you would have by doing this become a wicked child, stubbornly refusing the Truth with your own mind. Having baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, John the Baptist bore witness to Jesus the very next day, shouting out loud, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus received the sins of the world and 3 years after this He died on the Cross paying the full price for these sins.
Sin is weightless. It does not have color, smell or shape, and it does not make any sounds. Because one cannot perceive it through the senses (our sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch), we cannot feel it. Therefore, do not try to verify through your senses or emotions that your sins have disappeared. Our emotions change all the time. However, because of the Word of God, the Truth of Jesus having blotted out the sin of the world will not change for all eternity. I am sure that you now believe in the Word of Truth where John the Baptist bore witness by saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus bore witness for 3 years by saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and bore witness to the fact that the atonement for the sins of all of mankind was the baptism Jesus received and His blood. He told those of us who believe to live a life as His disciple, spreading the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and blood. Dear fellow believers, the Prophet Isaiah said,
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“That her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:2). Yes, this is true. Jesus has saved us by taking-on your sins as well as mine through His baptism He had received from John the Baptist, dying on the Cross and paying the full price for them, and then being resurrected from the dead. The very first thing God did in order to atone for the sins of humankind and to save us was ‘the sending of John the Baptist.’ In order to save sinners from our sins, God had to send John the Baptist first to us as the ambassador of the King. The Bible confirms this. In the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament chapter 3 verse 1 we read this, ““Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the LORD of hosts.” Prior to the New Testament God had promised to send John the Baptist, a messenger
of God in the Book of Malachi. God had us receive the atonement for sins through Jesus by John the Baptist His servant. He passed-on all the sins of the world onto Jesus by His baptism. This was the way of making us prepare the way to Heaven by having us receive the remission of sins, and this is the only way of salvation which saves us. There is therefore no other way of salvation. The Lord said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Because Jesus atoned for all our sins by taking-on all our sins through His baptism and dying on the Cross is the way and the Truth that enables us to receive salvation. By believing in this we are able to gain new life. Did you also pass-on all your sins onto Jesus when John the Baptist passed all the sins of the world onto Jesus when he baptized Him? Do you believe in this Truth? It was all God’s plan, and is befitting to the Wise. Should you refuse this, you will never enter into God’s kingdom, try as you may. To save us completely, God received His baptism by
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John the Baptist and atoned for all our sins. I hope that you believe in the way of salvation which was opened up by Jesus. I hope that none of you refuses the way to life. “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). To ‘suffer violence’ mentioned here means that people who believe in the fact that all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus when He received His baptism from John the Baptist will boldly enter the Kingdom of Heaven by faith for they do not have any sins. Now the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who believe that the sins of the world were passed over onto Jesus through John the Baptist. Whoever believes in the gospel of the atonement for sins where John the Baptist had passed-on all the sins of the world onto Jesus will receive salvation without fail. Fellow believers, who is the one that prepares the way to the Kingdom of Heaven for us? God said, “Behold, I send My messenger, and he
will prepare the way before Me,” this means that He had prepared John the Baptist beforehand so that we may enter the Kingdom of Heaven. By carrying out the work of passing-on our sins onto Jesus Christ, John the Baptist has made us to be righteous without any sin and the children of God. He prepared us so that we may enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is John the Baptist, a messenger sent by God, who prepared the way on our behalf, so that we may enter the Kingdom of Heaven by being the representative of each and every one of us. John the Baptist prepared the way for us all humankind to be truly born again. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit
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of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:13-17). John the Baptist carried out this important righteous work. The ministry of John the Baptist where he passed-on all the sins of the people of this world onto Jesus was truly a righteous act. This is the gospel of the atonement for sins, the righteousness of God, and the way toward salvation John witnessed. In order for us to receive salvation, we must realize and believe in our hearts both Jesus’ baptism and His shed blood, and His resurrection, which makes up the gospel of the atonement for sins. In addition, Jesus perfected the righteousness of God with His baptism. Jesus completed our salvation by taking-on the sins of the entire world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and dying on the Cross, after atoned for all these sins. If we look at the Book of Hebrews, we find Jesus to be the High Priest of Heaven after the order of
Melchizedek. He is without genealogy, and He is not even a descendant of Aaron. Jesus Christ is not a descendant of Adam either, but rather, He is the Son of God. Moreover, because He is our Creator and the One who calls Himself “I am who I am,” He does not possess any genealogy. However, despite this, He put aside His glory of Heaven and came down to this earth so that He could to save His creation. When His creation were gasping for life after having fallen into sin due to the devil’s temptations, He came down to this earth in the flesh of a man and received baptism in the Jordan River in order to save mankind completely by atoning for all their sins. Let us now read Matthew 3:15 together. “But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.” Jesus commanded John the Baptist, a representative of earth, to permit it to be so now! John the Baptist obeyed by saying, “Yes, I will do just like You say.” Like this, Jesus bowed His head toward John and he
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baptized Him. Just as the High Priest performed the laying on of the hands on the head of a scapegoat to transfer all the yearly sins of the Israelites, as so vividly depicted in the Old Testament, likewise, John the Baptist passed-on the sins of this world onto Jesus by baptizing Him.
Salvation from Sins Accomplished by the Principle of Representation When one country signs a treaty with another country, that treaty becomes effective when the heads of state from both countries are signatories to this treaty, each representing the people of their own respected nation. In like fashion, our salvation was fully accomplished under the principle of representation. Representing all of mankind - John the Baptist passed-on all the sins onto Jesus. This is how Jesus received His baptism from John the Baptist. The word ‘baptism’ has a spiritual meaning
that is, “to cleanse, to bury, to pass over and to transfer.” In the Old Testament when a sinner passedon his sins onto a goat through the laying on of hands, those sins were passed over onto the goat, and the goat had to suffer death in order to atone for those sins instead of the sinner. In Leviticus 16:21, there is a passage that says, “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.” As it says in this passage, every year on the Day of the Atonement, Aaron performed the laying on of hands by placing both his hands on the scapegoat’s head in accordance with the principle of representation on behalf of all the people, and so all the sins of the people of Israel were passed onto the goat through the laying on of hands by Aaron (Leviticus 16:20-22). Now the question, did the people of Israel have sins after that
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moment? No, they did not. Under the same principle, through the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist, a representative of mankind, the will of God to atone for the sins of all humankind was thus accomplished. In the Old Testament, the sacrificial animal received the passing-on of the sins of people by receiving the laying of both hands (Leviticus 16:21). Likewise, the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:13-17) is of the same sacrificial offering of atonement. The Words, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15), has the same meaning as “I will fulfill all the righteousness in this world by taking and carrying on My back all the sins of the world by receiving my baptism from you.” In addition, “For thus” means “By you giving me My baptism, and I received my baptism from you.” The words “For thus,” as mentioned here is ‘οϋτως γάρ’ (hoo-tos gar) in Hellenic or Greek. In addition, these words have the
meaning, ‘exactly in this way,’ ‘most fitting,’ or ‘no other way besides this.’ Therefore, the phrase, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness,” means that “it is fitting that I take-on all the sins of mankind, in the most fitting way or method, you performing baptism on Me and I received the baptism from you all.” Put differently, the Lord is saying here, “People go to hell because of their sins. Everyone is suffering right now because of sin. They are being harassed by the Devil. Because of sin, they are not able to receive this blessing. So in order to bless people in order that they may enter Heaven, they must receive baptism from you. You are a descendant of Aaron. So, as the representative of mankind, you should perform the baptism on Me on behalf of everyone. I will receive the baptism from you. In doing this, all righteousness will be fulfilled in this world.” When Jesus told John the Baptist, “Perform this baptism on Me,” John the Baptist replied, “Yes Sir, I will do so.” And then John the Baptist laid both his hands on Jesus’ head
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and then took them away. At that critical moment, all the worlds’ sins were passed onto Jesus Christ leaving none behind. Was there ever an occasion when Jesus had committed a sin? No, there wasn’t. Because Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, He was born without sin. Jesus could not commit sin while in this world. We human beings are born with sin, but Jesus was not born with sin. While living on this earth, Jesus never committed even one tiny sin, nor did He ever make a mistake. Then, why do you think Jesus had to die by being nailed to the Cross? When Jesus Christ started His public ministry, the very first work accomplished by Him was the work of taking-on all our sins by receiving baptism in the Jordan River. Through the last High Priest called John the Baptist, who was the representative of all humankind, Jesus took-on all the sins of all people. That was why He received the judgment and died on the Cross. This is why Jesus Christ, as He went about His ministry for 3 years, meant as an example when
He by seeing an adulterous woman said, “Even I do not condemn you. Even I cannot pass judgment on you. I must receive your judgment. I must die on the Cross in your place.” In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus went out and prayed, “Not as I will, but as You will.” At first, He prayed earnestly, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me.” But soon after, He willingly obeyed the Father’s plan of salvation. Although Jesus wanted to avoid it ‘if it were possible’, and in the will of the Father, He gave it up by saying, “Not as I will, but as You will,” and then clearly prepared His heart. He knew that it was the will of the Father for Him to die. From then on, He was led away to Pilate’s court, He was tortured, lashed by whips made for criminals under the penalty of death, until His whole body was torn into pieces, and even before He was hanged on the Cross, He was almost half-dead. The question Pilate asked Him, “Are You Christ? Are You the Savior? The Son of God?” Jesus answered, “It is I whom you speak of. It is as you
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say.” When Pilate said, “If You say the right words, I will release You. I have the power to do so,” but Jesus answered by saying to him, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11), and stayed silent like a lamb before its shearer. Why do you think Jesus endured all that? The truth is that Jesus had to suffer the punishment of crucifixion vicariously, for He had previously takenon all the sins of the world when He was baptized. When Jesus received the punishment of crucifixion, it was then that the time of warfare against sin ended. It was then when people no longer will suffer due to sin. Only then will humankind be free from sin and be liberated from the slavery of sin. This happened where Jesus stayed silent, like a lamb getting its wool shaved off. This is the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and blood that atoned for all the sins of humanity.
The Lord Has Completely Atoned for All the Sin of the World John bore witness to Jesus the day after His baptism, in the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 29 by saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John the Baptist clearly gave Jesus baptism that atoned for the sins of mankind. When Jesus walked toward John the Baptist the day after He was baptized, John the Baptist bore witness by saying to the people, “Please take a look at Him. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. You people, take a look at Him! He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Because he had passed-on all the sins of humanity onto Jesus by the baptism, he was able to bear witness personally to the fact that Jesus was the Savior. “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus was the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. The Son of God indeed came to this earth and took ◄
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away the sin of the world. In John 1:35-36, John the Baptist bore witness again as it is says, “Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’” The Lamb mentioned here is in expression of Jesus as the lamb who, as our substitute, became the sacrificial offering for all humanity, just like the sacrificial animal in the Old Testament that died on behalf of all the Israelites. On behalf of you and me, the Son of God, our Creator, came to this earth and blotted out our sins through His baptism and bloodshed. In order to takeon and atone for all our sins—our original sin, future sins, personal sins, all the sins of trespasses, and whatever wicked sins that every single human being commits from the days of the Creation until the end of this earth, Jesus received His baptism from John and shed His blood on the Cross. We should know that approximately 2000 years ago, Jesus blotted out all the sins of the world. We
are currently using calendar years based on the birth of Jesus Christ who is the Master of history. As you well know, we refer to the dates before Christ as ‘B.C.’ and the dates after His birth as ‘A.D.’ (Anno Domini, that is, ‘in the year of our Lord’). Because in A.D. 30, Jesus took-on the sins of the world completely by receiving baptism from John the Baptist, John the Baptist pointed out Jesus the next day and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) And again on the following day John the Baptist bore witness to Jesus by saying, “Behold the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36) John the Baptist bore witness to the gospel of the atonement for sins by saying, “Jesus took away all our sins completely. Therefore, our warfare has ended. You are without sin. No matter what kind of sin you may have committed, the Son of God taken away all those sins.” Dear fellow believers, God atoned for all our sins by Jesus’ baptism. After having passed-on all our sins onto Jesus, John the Baptist bore witness to this
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by saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) John the Baptist bore witness to this Truth in order for everyone to believe in Jesus. It is written, “This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe” (John 1:7). This is the Word that appears in the Gospel of John. If it had not been for the witness of John the Baptist, how would people know whether Jesus had carried away the sins of the world? Although the Bible says that Jesus died for all our sins, it was John the Baptist who testified, “Having taken-on the sins of the world by His baptism, Jesus carried them all away to the Cross.” John the Baptist was the bridge connecting the Old Testament and the New Testament. He was the servant of God who made it happen that all the Words of the Old Testament would be realized in Jesus. By believing this, I pray that you would receive your eternal salvation. Because of John the Baptist witness and those who are faithful, it becomes possible for humankind to believe that the
baptism Jesus received was the baptism of taking-on the sins of all humanity; and because of this, Jesus had to shed His precious blood on the Cross. I offer thanks to God who allowed all our sins to be atoned for by sending both John the Baptist and Jesus to us.
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SERMON 10
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Jesus Who Came to Blot Out Your Sins < Matthew 3:13-17 > “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”
Despite the fact that today’s Christians profess to believe in Jesus as their Savior, many of them do not know that Jesus is the Lord who delivered us from all our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is therefore necessary to prove to them, with this gospel of the water and the Spirit, that Jesus is indeed their Savior. As all are born sinners, and in order to be washed from all our sins, we all must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, to be truly born again, we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and only when we believe like this will we meet the Lord and not before. To receive the remission of our sins and to be truly born again depends on whether or not we know and believe in Jesus Christ correctly. Therefore, the core of the issue to reach the truth of the remission of sin is really knowing and believing in who this Lord is and what the He has achieved. When Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered by saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That Peter
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thus confessed his true faith, was due to him being led and taught by God the Father to reach this deep understanding. In like manner, we must also reach the correct understanding of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and like Peter, be able to make the true confession of faith to our Lord. What we must all try to grasp is the need to recognize and believe in the Truth: The Truth that the baptism of Jesus took all our sins and His bloodshed on the Cross were the exact sacrifice our Lord made to atone for all these sins. When we believe in this manner, we can be completely delivered from all our sins. The Word of God is divided into two parts namely, the Old and New Testaments. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the prophecies promised in the Old Testament. And it is also the complete record of the prophetic announcement of the new world to come, which the Lord had promised to His disciples. Jesus Christ will soon fulfill this new world to us. The Old Testament is the true Word
of God that records all the prophesies of mankind’s salvation namely, the Son of God would come down to this earth; and as hands were laid on the sacrificial offering in the Old Testament and its blood was shed, likewise He would take upon Himself all the sins of the world ‘once and for all’ by being baptized by John the Baptist, shedding His blood by dying on the Cross, and through this saved all the sinners of the world from their sins. Through the sacrificial system manifested in the Tabernacle, our Lord has clearly revealed to us that He is the Savior who would fulfill this promise, and that He has indeed achieved this. Put differently, the entire Old Testament is the shadow and is portrayed exactly in the New Testament by our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus gave us the true gospel of the water and the Spirit so that we could believe in Him as our Savior, it was in order for us to all correctly understand and believe that He prophesied this previously in the Old Testament and that He indeed is our Lord Jesus Christ.
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The sacrificial system in the Old Testament was the stepping-stones of God’s revelation to reach the whole truth of His salvation, and it enables us to receive the remission of our sins completely by understanding and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus has enabled us to realize why He had to be baptized by John the Baptist, and because His baptism, He had to shed His blood by dying on the Cross. It is only when we reach this correct understanding of the gospel Truth that we can truly be saved and become God’s own people. The God given gospel truth of the water and the Spirit enables us to correctly understand and believe in His public ministries of salvation.
These Are the Ministries of the Water and the Spirit That Jesus Fulfilled When He Came to This Earth The core Word of the New Testament is this: Coming to this earth, Jesus took upon Himself all the sins of the world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and He has thus paid off all the wages of sin with His blood. The life and death of your soul depends upon whether you correctly understand and believe in this gospel of the water and the Spirit. In addition, the undeniable truth is that all the 39 Books of the Old Testament and 27 Books of the New Testament describe in detail this pivotal Truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The sacrificial animal that was offered in the Tabernacle of the Old Testament for the sins of the children of Israel had the power to wash away their sins, because they had laid their hands on its head
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and offered its blood and flesh to God. Only by reaching a comparative understanding of this sacrificial system of the Old Testament and the baptism and bloodshed of Jesus in the New Testament, will we be able to correctly understand the remission of our sins and believe in it. In other words, just as a sacrificial lamb or goat had accepted the iniquities of sinners with the laying of their hands or the hands of the High Priest, likewise it was by being baptized by John the Baptist that Jesus could accept our sins of the world and shed His blood and dying on the Cross. Even though we do not know all the details in the Bible, but when we get a clearer and concrete understanding of the baptism and bloodshed of Jesus in the New Testament and compare it with the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, we will be able to receive the remission of all our sins by faith. We must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to receive the remission of sin given by God. Jesus recorded the gospel of the water and the
Spirit that can wash away all our sins in the form of the written Word of God. To the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, He has entrusted the priesthood, so that everyone on this earth could wash away their sins with faith. In the Old Testament, this priesthood was given only to the descendants of Levi. It was these descendants of Levi who were given the duties of interceders who washed away the Israelites’ sins and fulfilled the just love of God. Therefore, it is very important that we the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit must understand the sacrificial system of the Old Testament well, and through this reach an even deeper understanding of Jesus’ baptism and His crucifixion to fulfill this priesthood properly before God in this current age. Approximately 2000 years have passed since Jesus Christ was born on this earth. This Jesus came to this earth as the Savior, and by receiving baptism from John the Baptist and being crucified on the Cross to shed His blood, He has through this forever
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washed away all our sins. Therefore, it is only proper that the year of Jesus’ birth would become the benchmark of the chronological table of world history. It symbolizes the fact that the beginning of all things is - Jesus Christ, as far as we are concerned, Jesus Christ is God who created this universe and the Savior who has blotted out all our sins with His water and blood, and He also stands at the center of the universe’s history.
Is Today’s Scripture Passage Telling Us of the Passing of Our Sins? In today’s scriptural passage, it is written, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When
He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” All of us are the descendants of Adam, born with twelve ingredients of sin from the very day we were born, and therefore we all have no other choice but to be put to death for our sins and be condemned for them before God (Mark 7:21-23). We could not avoid but live cowardly and die hopelessly because of our sins, and were all bound to the terrifying fire of hell. But despite this, Jesus was born on this earth when we were on the verge of our eternal destruction. He was born in a bodily form of a lowly one all to deliver us from all the sins of the world. When our Lord turned 30, He bore the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. At that time, John the Baptist was baptizing the Israelites for the repentance of sins and
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through this made them return to God. However, the baptism that John the Baptist gave to Jesus was different from the first one; this baptism given to Jesus was to fulfill all the righteousness of God. In other words, through this baptism, John the Baptist passed all the sins of this world onto the body of Jesus Christ who is the Lamb of God. John the Baptist was the representative of all of mankind (Matthew 11:11). And he was the last prophet of the Old Testament, in other words the biblically legitimate priest who was born from the house of the High Priest, and thus, ministered as the last priest of the age of the Old Testament (Luke 1:121). Therefore, all of us must understand the ministries of John the Baptist before we begin try to understand the ministry of Jesus. The biblical truth is that Jesus Christ accepted the sins of the world through His baptism, which He received from John the Baptist. We must understand this truth and believe in it. Only when we reach an in-depth knowledge of the ministry of John the Baptist will we be able to
understand it in relation with the ministry of Jesus, and thereby thoroughly understand the whole truth of the remission of sin of the true atonement. The Old and New Testaments make profound prophecies about and detailed descriptions of the ministry of John the Baptist. Matthew 11:11 writes about John the Baptist as follows: “Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.” In chapters 3 and 4 of the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament it was prophesied that God would send Elijah. Malachi 4:5 says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD,” followed by verse 6, “And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” The Bible teaches us that ‘this Elijah’ who was prophesied in the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament was none other than John the Baptist who passed the sins of mankind, that is, the sins of the world onto Jesus through His baptism.
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In the New Testament, Jesus clearly said that John the Baptist was “the greatest of all those born of women,” and “the Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:11-14). What then is the chief role that John the Baptist fulfilled when He came to this world? As the representative of all mankind - John the Baptist was the one who passed the sins of the world onto Jesus by baptizing Him. He was the one who fulfilled the ministry that turned the hearts of sinners to God, as well as the one who baptized Jesus to pass the sins of the world onto Him. As someone special who was born from the house of Aaron the High Priest by the providence of God, John the Baptist was qualified to carry out the duties of the High Priest (Luke 1:1-10). Therefore, John the Baptist was the one who fulfilled his priestly duty to pass everyone’s sins onto Jesus through His baptism. The chief reason why John the Baptist had to come to this earth was to pass the sins of the world onto Jesus by baptizing Him. John the Baptist rebuked the people who had left God, and he testified
to them that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, the sacrificial Lamb that would blot out all the sins of the world with His baptism and bloodshed. By coming to John the Baptist as the sacrificial offering that would make the sins of this world disappear and being baptized by him, Jesus fulfilled the prophesy about ‘the laying of hands’ on the head of sacrificial offerings as written in the Book of Leviticus (Leviticus 1:3-5). This is why John the Baptist had to baptize Jesus and pass the sins of this world onto Him, and thereby fulfill the righteousness of God, the will of God the Father. Jesus was the Lamb of God who accepted the sins of everyone in this world by being baptized by the greatest of all those born of women. In other words, it was because Jesus wanted to accept the sins of this world ‘once and for all’ that He was baptized by John the Baptist. It was when John the Baptist was giving the baptism of repentance to the people of Israel, did Jesus come to him and said, “Baptize Me. It is fitting
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for Me to be baptized by you and thereby to fulfill all the righteousness of God” (Matthew 3:15). To bear all the sins of this world, Jesus had to receive His baptism from no one else but John the Baptist, for it was through this baptism that He took upon all the sins of every person in this world. By bearing all the sins of this world through this baptism that He received from John the Baptist, and by being crucified and shedding His blood unto death on the Cross and being rising from the dead in three days; only through all this did Jesus become the everlasting Savior God. Like this, Jesus was baptized because it was fitting for Him to fulfill the will of God the Father (Matthew 3:15). And it was by this will of God the Father that John the Baptist baptized Him. In other words, Jesus received the spiritual laying on of hands and shed His blood just like the Old Testament’s sacrificial offering. In Leviticus 16, we see that two sacrificial goats accepted the yearly sins of the people of Israel with the laying on of the hands of the High Priest. In
like manner, Jesus accepted all the sins of this world ‘once and for al’l through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shed His precious blood on the Cross. Jesus is therefore the Savior of mankind who accepted all their sins onto His own head by being baptized. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God the Father, and the heavenly High Priest of the Kingdom of God. Therefore, for John the Baptist, the representative of mankind to fulfill his priesthood as the last earthly High Priest, he had to meet Jesus the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven and fulfill all the righteousness of God the Father. Through the baptism of Jesus, the just love of God came to be realized. Who then is higher between John the Baptist and Jesus? Of course, Jesus the heavenly High Priest is higher than John the Baptist. Jesus is more exalted than anyone else, for He is God who created the entire universe, and He is also the Son of God who came to this earth to save mankind from the sins of the world. To save mankind from the sins of the
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world, Jesus came to this earth and was baptized by John the Baptist. Therefore, Jesus is not a mere creature like us. In the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, there exists God’s example of a special work. When Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized, he said to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” As we can see, John the Baptist at first declined to pass all sins onto Jesus by baptizing Him, but in the end he could not refuse, for Jesus sincerely desired to be baptized by him and thereby bear all the sins of the world. So Jesus commanded John the Baptist to baptize Him by saying, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Before Jesus Christ was baptized, Gentiles and Jews alike had sins in their hearts, and therefore they could not avoid being condemned and destroyed for their sins. We all know very well that everyone is a fragile being who cannot avoid being destroyed for sinning against God. This is why Jesus took upon
Himself all the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist. Our Lord had to fulfill this work through John the Baptist. For Jesus to take upon Himself all the sins of these people, He had to receive from John the Baptist His baptism that would fulfill all the righteousness of God. “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Here, “all righteousness” is “πάσαν δικαιοσύνην” (pasan dikaiosunen) in Greek. This word ‘dikaiosune’ means “the fairest state” or “righteousness” or “equity.” Just as the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament had blotted out all the sins of the Israelites by bearing them all, in the New Testament Jesus washed away all the sins of the entire world by coming to this earth and bearing all their sins Himself by being baptized by John the Baptist. Fundamentally speaking, Jesus came to this earth as the Lamb of God, and by becoming the sacrificial offering for our own sins; He through this delivered us from the sins of this world. The reason why the
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Savior became man and sought to be baptized by John the Baptist lies in the fulfillment of the righteousness of God. Jesus said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Spiritually this means, “It is fitting for Me to take upon Myself everyone’s sins ‘once and for all’ by being baptized by you and washing them all away.” This also means that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the laying on of hands of the Old Testament, which in turn means that Jesus actually accepted the sins of humankind ‘once and for all’. Therefore, we must all have the faith that knows and believes in the truth manifested in this baptism that Jesus received. We must know the result of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and His bloodshed on the Cross- and we must understand and believe in it correctly. The Presbyterian Church gives an abridged version of baptism, where its followers are baptized not by full immersion in water, but by sprinkling; in
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the Scriptures, this kind of baptism was only given in water-scarce regions, such as desert areas. This is how, for instance, Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch. But when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, He stood in the Jordan River waist-deep. The baptism that Jesus received from John was one where John the Baptist laid both his hands on Jesus’ head, immersing Him under the water, and then raising Him out. This baptism has the same meaning as the Old Testament’s laying on of hands, where the High Priest passed- on the sins of the Israelites by placing both his hands on the head of the sacrifice. The baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist was the baptism through which He accepted the sins of the world by bearing them all. What is the significance of the fact that John the Baptist placed both his hands on Jesus’ head to baptize Him? In the Old Testament, the ritual of ‘laying on of hands’ was performed in the following cases: 1) to pass one’s sins onto his unblemished
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sacrificial offering (Leviticus 1:1-10; 4:1-25); 2) to consecrate the servants of God (Numbers 8:10, 27:18); and 3) to return the blasphemy to the blasphemer (Leviticus 24:14). Whatever the case was, ‘laying on of hands’ was the way of ‘passing something on.’ When someone is about to be consecrated as a pastor for instance, senior pastors would lay their hands on his head, signifying that their God-given power and gifts are now also passed onto the newly appointed pastor. This means that with the laying on of hands, all the gifts and power that had been permitted to the senior pastors are now bestowed on the new pastor also. However, the most typical case of ‘laying on of hands’ was the sacrificial system, which was performed to pass sins onto the sacrificial animal. And parallel to this, the reason why John the Baptist placed both his hands on Jesus’ head was to pass-on all the sins of the world. This is why to this day, when pastors baptize believers, they invariably place both their hands on their heads. Why do they do this?
It is as a sign of their faith, to show publicly that they believe that Jesus bore the sins of the world through His baptism. As the Savior, Jesus took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind. This was the same as the High Priest of the Old Testament passing the sins of the people of Israel onto the sacrifice by laying both his hands on its head (Leviticus 16:11). By being baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of humanity, Jesus was immersed under the water and then came out of it. Spiritually speaking, this symbolizes the fact that because Jesus took upon all the sins of the world ‘once and for all’ by being baptized by John the Baptist, He would eventually die on the Cross, rise from the dead, and through this become the perfect Savior. It tells us that Jesus accepted the sins of this world through His baptism, shouldered our sins, and was condemned for all sins by shedding His blood unto death on the Cross.
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In short, Jesus’ baptism by the laying on of hands implies that He accepted all the sins of the world, His immersion under the water signifies His death on the Cross, and His coming out of the water indicates His resurrection. In other words, Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of God by vicariously satisfying the requirements of the law of sin and death instead of us mortals. This is why the Bible says, “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). When Jesus came up out from the water, God the Father opened the gates of Heaven and said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). God had planned to blot out all the sins of mankind through His Son before the creation. And this work was completely fulfilled by His Son by coming to this earth, taking upon the sins of
mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist, shedding His blood on the Cross unto death, and through this perfectly delivered His believers from sin. By being baptized and shedding His blood, our Lord fulfilled the will of God ‘once and for all’. Therefore, when Jesus obeyed the Father’s will by taking upon Himself all the sins of mankind with His baptism, God the Father was pleased with His Son by saying, “He who did this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This is why Christians must believe in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, as well as the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross as the condemnation of all our sins. This is why God the Father opened the gates of Heaven and said that the One who was baptized was His Son in whom He was well pleased.
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“Behold! The Lamb of God Who Takes Away the Sin of the World!” Now turning to John 1:29, you and I must understand the evidence proving that Jesus took upon the sins of the world ‘once and for all’ by being baptized by John the Baptist, and we must believe this with our whole hearts. When John the Baptist saw Jesus whom He had baptized coming toward him the very next day after he baptized Him, testified, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Put differently, John the Baptist said, “None other than Jesus is the very Savior of mankind, the Savior who accepted all your sins through His baptism and who would shed His blood for them.” On the next day, seeing Jesus again John the Baptist testified once again, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Because Jesus had already been baptized by John the Baptist, and had accepted all the sins of the world, He had to be crucified and shed His blood. This is why John the
Baptist testified, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” We must understand the meaning of the phrase “the sin of the world” and decide whether to believe the truth of His baptism or not. What is the correct understanding of the sins of this world? Many people generally think that the “world” here means their own little world—that is, whatever they have known from the time they were born to the present. But the correct understanding of the sins of the world requires us to regard the “world” here as the allencompassing time from the beginning of this universe to its very end. I was told that some kind of dayfly could live only a day at most. For insects like this, living for 12 hours means living half their lifetime. If they last a bit longer, they would already be facing the sunset of their lives, and if they live up to 24 hours, they would then have lived their full lifetime. So naturally the concept of “tomorrow” has no meaning for them. Like this, since we live for only 70-80 years, we
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do not really have a clear understanding of concepts as “eternity” or “infinity.” However, our Lord the Almighty God is saying to us: ‘the world’ is the time from the beginning of this universe to very day it ends. In other words, our concept of time is completely different from the temporal concept of the world that God is speaking of. The time of the world that our Lord is speaking of is far more expansive than our conception. Our faith must be completely based on the Word of God—that is, we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit as written in His Word. Therefore, when we consider what John the Baptist said—“The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”—or what our Lord said—“For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”—we must understand them to mean that Jesus took upon the sins of all human beings with His baptism and carried them to the Cross, and we must believe this with our whole heart. When did Jesus bear the sins of this world? Jesus
took upon the sins of the world ‘once and for all’ when He accepted all our sins by being baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. The phrase “for thus” here is ‘hutos gar’ in Greek, which means ‘just in this way,’ ‘most fitting,’ or ‘there is no other way besides this.’ This word shows that Jesus irreversibly took the sins of humankind onto Him through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. In other words, Jesus could blot out the sins of the world only when He was baptized by John the Baptist. We must therefore invariably understand the baptism of Jesus and His bloodshed as the remission of our sins and believe in this Truth as it is. With this method of passing the sins of the world onto Jesus, where John the Baptist laid both his hands on Jesus’ head, Jesus took upon the sins of the world ‘once and for all’, shed His blood, and through this completed our atonement to perfection. This was the purpose of Jesus’ baptism. We understand that in the Old Testament, the laying of hands on the sacrificial offering and its bloodshed meant the
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atonement of the Israelites sins. Likewise, we must believe that through His baptism, Jesus has washed away everyone’s sins by accepting the sins of the world, and that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ‘once and for all’ (Hebrews 10:10). The word “baptism” or “βάφτισµα” (baptisma) in Greek means “being immersed.” Therefore, “to baptize” literally means to immerse or to submerge under water. To be more exact, it means: 1) to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one’s self, to bathe; 2) to overwhelm; 3) to bury; and 4) to pass-on. Herein lies the reason why you must understand the gospel of the water and the Spirit properly and believe in it: First of all, all your sins were passed onto Jesus through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist. Because Jesus accepted all the sins of the world through His baptism, all those who believe this are now without sin. By being baptized, Jesus washed away all the sins of the world, there can
be no longer any sin. Jesus was the Lamb of God who took away the sins of this world. These sins of the world include all the sins that you have ever committed and will ever commit, from those committed in your childhood to your adulthood and to those that you will commit until the day you die. By being baptized by John the Baptist Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, shouldering all these sins and carrying them to the Cross. Secondly, the meaning of washing denotes that as the sins of the world were passed-onto Jesus with His baptism, they were all washed away. Thirdly, the meaning of burial implies that when the sins of the world were with us, we had to bear the condemnation of sin and be cast into the fire of hell, but now that our sins were passed-onto Jesus through our faith in His baptism, Jesus had to die for our sins in our place. This is why Jesus was baptized instead of us, was vicariously crucified and bled to death in our stead, was buried in our place, and rose from the dead. By thus being baptized, crucified and buried;
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by rising from the dead; by sitting on the right hand of God the Father; and by letting all sinners come to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, He has enabled all who believe in this to receive the remission of their sins by faith. When we are saved by believing in Jesus as the Savior, that is, in His baptism and His blood on the Cross―only then can we actually become God’s own children. For us, this means that our sins were passed onto Jesus. Because Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and shed His blood on the Cross, our sins can no longer be with us. All our sins, those committed in our childhood to those committed in adulthood and to the day we die, were completely passed onto the body of Jesus and were condemned. It is because all our sins were passed onto Jesus that He shed His blood on the Cross instead of us, died and rose from the dead, and thereby has given us new life. If we believe in this Jesus as the Savior like this, we can all become sinless. Those of you who from now on know the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
understand it and believe in it with the heart are all righteous. You are no longer sinners. You have now become righteous. It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that you can become righteous. We cannot attain our salvation with our own endeavors, for we will continue to be insufficient whilst in the flesh and commit sin, but the Lord has washed away all our sins with the baptism that He received from John the Baptist and the blood that He shed on the Cross. So it is by knowing the truth that salvation can come into our hearts.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Proven by the Sacrificial System of the Tabernacle of the Old Testament Firstly let me briefly explain the basic physical layout of the Old Testament’s Tabernacle. The ◄
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Tabernacle itself was a relatively small structure, but it was surrounded by an outer court that was fenced in with pillars and screens of fine woven linen. There was a gate to this court, and past this gate was the entrance to the Tabernacle, past the first gate stood the altar of burnt offering and the laver of bronze. The Tabernacle was divided into two parts: the Holy Place and the Most Holy. The doors of this House of God as well as the gate of its court, were all woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. Why did God make all the doors and gate of the Tabernacle by weaving them with these blue, purple and scarlet thread and fine woven linen? The reason for this is because through them, God was foretelling how Jesus would come to this earth, take upon the sins of the world ‘once and for all’ through baptism that He would receive from John the Baptist, and be crucified and shed His blood. By being baptized by John the Baptist and crucified for the sins of the world, Jesus took His own body as the sacrificial offering for us.
By believing in Jesus as the Savior, and by believing in the Word that tells us that Jesus became the blue, purple, and scarlet thread who took upon the sins of the world by being baptized, we can at once be delivered from all our sins by faith. Jesus used these blue, purple and scarlet threads and fine woven linen for the door of the Tabernacle in order to tell us that He is the King of kings, and that He has saved us from our sins by being baptized and crucified. The blue, purple and scarlet threads and the fine woven linen used for the door of the Tabernacle are none other than the antitype of salvation, telling us that the Lord has saved us perfectly (1 Peter 3:21). This is why if we were to open the gate of the court of the Tabernacle and enter, we would see the laver of bronze which stood between the altar of burnt offering and the Tabernacle. The altar of burnt offering shows us God’s law of justice prior to His law of salvation, that “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” Through the altar of burnt offering, in other words, God showed us
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beforehand that we would be condemned for our sins. If we really believe in Jesus as the Savior, then we must realize that in the Old Testament, in order for the Israelites to be saved from all their sins and the condemnation of sin, they had to pass their sins onto their sacrificial offerings and kill it before the altar. In like manner, Jesus took upon the sins of the world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and this is how He could be crucified and shed His blood for us. Coming to this earth, our Lord bore our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist and bore all our condemnation of sin ‘once and for all.’ To recap, by being baptized, shedding His blood and rising from the dead in order to save us from our sins and condemnation, Jesus become our true Savior.
Where Are Our Personal Sins Now Found? What then must we do about our personal sins that
we will continue to commit daily as we live? Brothers and sisters, if we remember everyday that all our sins were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized in the Jordan River, that is, if we continue to believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit with our hearts, then we will always remain sinless. Why? Because Jesus, knowing that we are still flesh and would sin everyday, took upon all the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist, carried them to the Cross, shed His blood and died, rose from the dead, and blotted them out ‘all at once.’ However, this truth of salvation, the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit, is effective only when we truly understand it and believe in it with all our hearts. We can become perfectly sinless only by remembering and believing that all our sins were passed onto Jesus who washed it all away when He was baptized by John the Baptist, for we sin everyday. We have been washed from all our original sin and personal sins by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
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Dear fellow Christians, if you want to be remitted from all your sins, then you must understand and believe that all our sins were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized. And you must always meditate on the Word of the true gospel, especially whenever you commit actual sins. Only then can your hearts be always clean, and only then can you be qualified to serve the righteous works of God. The gospel of the water and the Spirit tells us that all our sins were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist, and that He was condemned for them on the Cross. It is through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Bible tells us about the remission of sin. All of us must regard and believe in the Word of God as the truth. If you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then it is impossible for you to have any sin. If we really believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, then we are the people of faith who believe that Jesus at once took upon Himself all the sins of this world, whatever they might be, through
the baptism that He received from John the Baptist. The baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist made everyone sinless, just as the Book of Romans tells us, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). As we live in this world, we will continue to sin. Were all our sins passed onto Jesus? All our sins were indeed passed onto the body of Jesus a very long time ago, more than 2,000 years ago. Were the sins that we are to commit out of our weaknesses in the future also passed onto Jesus, and was He condemned for them as well? That is right. Does this then mean that it’s okay for us to commit all kinds of sin then? That is not the case. Even those who have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are, all bound to continue to sin out of their weaknesses. However, they can still keep their hearts clean at all times by meditating on the true gospel of the water and the
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Spirit. People sin more out of their weakness than out of their voluntary will. Therefore, when the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit experience their weaknesses, they cannot but thank the Lord even more by renewing their faith in His baptism and bloodshed, for the Lord has washed away all their sins with His baptism and His blood on the Cross and was condemned for them. Now they are not bound by sin anymore, but rather they willingly volunteer to spread this truth to others. By doing so, our hearts are rejoiced even more. What about you then? Do you believe that to blot out all your sins, Jesus came to this world, was baptized by John the Baptist, shed His blood to death, and rose from the dead? Yes, we are giving our thanks to Jesus who came to blot out our sins perfectly. And He has indeed made them completely disappear ‘once and for all’. If we would in the Tabernacle, enter through the gate of its court and pass by the altar of burnt
offering, we would come across the laver of bronze or basin. While measurements and specifications were given to all other utensils of the Tabernacle, no such limited specifications were given for this laver of bronze. Spiritually speaking, this symbolizes the fact that by being baptized and shedding His blood, Jesus has blotted out all our sins without quantitative limitation. Like this, the laver of bronze has the unlimited efficacy to wash away all our sins. It holds the power to wash them all away. This laver was made of bronze, implying that all sins must be condemned. But it contained water to wash the priest’s hands and feet. This tells us that the Lord has completely washed away the sins of the world by being baptized. When the priests of the Old Testament gave sacrifices at the altar of burnt offering, they were smeared with all kinds of filth, from animal blood to feces, as they slaughtered sacrificial offerings after laying their hands on them. It was with this water of the laver that they washed themselves clean. Like this, this laver of bronze
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implies the baptism of Jesus that washed away filthy sins. All our personal sins that we commit in this world have already been blotted out through Jesus’ baptism. This is what the laver of bronze reveals. By believing in this truth, we can be remitted from all our sins and always live with clean consciences forever. How many times was Jesus baptized by John the Baptist to accept the sins of this world? He was baptized only once. By receiving baptism from John the Baptist ‘only once,’ Jesus has forever washed away all the sins of this world perfectly. Why was He baptized only once? Because Jesus is the everlasting Son of God who had the power to accept all the sins of the world from its beginning to its end ‘once and for all’ with His baptism. Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” He is God - the eternal Being. Because Jesus is the Son of the forever living God, He could accomplish His eternal salvation once and for all: He came to this world once; shouldered the sins of the world ‘once’ by being baptized by John
the Baptist once; was crucified and shed His blood once, and has thereby washed away all our sins ‘all at once.’ We must know the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit and believe in Jesus as the Savior. It is by being baptized once that Jesus washed away the sins of the world. Your sins were passed onto Jesus ‘once and for all’ when He was baptized. By being baptized once, Jesus fulfilled all the righteousness of God that blots out the sins of the world. You must realize that all your sins were passed onto Jesus through His baptism. And you must believe in this. You have nothing to lose from believing this. It is by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can receive the everlasting remission of our sins. If you find yourselves asking Jesus to forgive your sins everyday, then you should know that you are not yet born again. And you have to understand the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit, and you must believe in Jesus as your true Savior all over again according to this gospel. Pastors throughout the
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world, who have misunderstood the baptism of Jesus, must also believe in Him all over again. Many pastors do not have the proper understanding of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has washed away their sins. How then do you think it would be possible for them to ever help others to receive the remission of sins, when they themselves have not even received it? If by any chance you have been pretending to be holy only with the deeds and appearance of your flesh even as your hearts remain sinful, then you are a mere hypocritical religionists and a child of destruction. People will not be able to receive the remission of sin with your help. However, your souls can be freed from all your sins when you can discern the truth of salvation from the false religions of the world with the faith that knows and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only when you properly understand the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God’s Word of life, and believe in it properly in your hearts can all your sins be washed away. Yet countless people still remain
oblivious to the fact that the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist. Therefore, you must first humbly accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit into you hearts by believing in it. Jesus said, “For thus, it is thus fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Jesus fulfilled all the righteousness of God when He was baptized. Through this baptism He received, Jesus accepted all the sins of the world. With this baptism all your sins were also accepted by Jesus. Are you not the people of this world? Of course you are. Are your sins not included in the sins of the world? Of course, they are. Once you realize this, you will be delivered through the truth that Jesus shouldered all your sins by being baptized. To realize that you are sinners bound to be condemned for your sins is the stepping-stone that leads you to realize that your only Savior is Jesus Christ. Have you come into Christ? Or are you still standing outside Christ? You must clearly know where exactly you stand. You are the people of this
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world. Were all your sins then passed onto Jesus or not? They were. Do you then admit that those Christians who say, “Lord, I’m still a sinner,” are not the born-again saints? In spite of believing in Jesus, they do not understand that our sins were passed onto Jesus through His baptism, and as a result they rely only on the blood of the Cross and are suffering everyday, asking the Lord continually to forgive their sins. However, what did the Apostle Paul tell us? He said, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). So, if we wail and cling to the Lord constantly asking Him to forgive our sins, all we are doing is bringing blasphemy to His baptism and bloodshed even as we profess to believe in Him. We need to know this kind of faith is only an insult to Jesus.
Do All of Us Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit? Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. All our sins were passed onto Jesus at that time ‘once and for all.’ Accepting the sins of the world through His baptism, Jesus then shed His blood and died on the Cross. And He rose from the dead in three days and now sits at the right hand of the throne of God. It is imperative that we first reach the correct understanding of whether or not Jesus took away the sins of the world, including your sins when He was baptized. By understanding the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believing in it, we must respond to the salvation of God. We must respond to what God did for us by saying, “That’s right.” When the Bible tells us that the Lord took away all the sins of the world by being baptized, we must abandon our own thoughts and respond to this by believing the Word as it is. Had the Lord not taken away your sins through His baptism, then His bloodshed on the ◄
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Cross would have been all in vain. We must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts. The Lord has completely blotted out all your sins of the world. Faith and salvation do not depend on your own efforts. Your salvation from sin is depended on whether or not you have the faith that believes in the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do you now recognize that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the only true gospel, and do you now want to admit this truth in your heart? If you do then you must confess the following: “Lord, to this day, I had not known that You shouldered the sins of the world ‘once and for all’ by being baptized; I had misunderstood and misbelieved. But I thank You for making me realize even now, that I have misunderstood Your salvation. Now that I have come to understand and know the truth of the water and the Spirit, I believe in it and thank You for it.” You too must understand the gospel of the water and the Spirit, realize that it is for your own good,
and accept it into your hearts. Always acknowledging the true salvation as it is in our hearts is what faith is all about, and this is the faith that is based on the correct understanding of Jesus, one that enables you to receive Him into our hearts. And believing in this truth is the way for us to become God’s own children, the very faith that remits us from all our sins. What is your understanding of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and how exactly do you believe in it? Our Lord said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). We must recognize the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit just as it is. This is the faith that believes in God. He has saved us from the sins of the world with His water and blood. Because He has saved us from the sins of the world with the water and the Spirit, those who truly believe this before God will indeed be truly born again.
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Are You Still a Debtor? Jesus says in John 3 that unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he can never enter the Kingdom of Heaven nor ever see it. Being born again of water and the Spirit is only possible when we believe in the baptism of Jesus, His blood on the Cross and the truth that He is the Son of God and our Savior. Do you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Let us assume for an example that a man has accumulated half a million dollars in debt. Interest alone is too much for him to bear. For ordinary working people, this kind of debt is beyond their means to settle. Nor could this man ever pay back his debt, and so he just declares bankruptcy and disappeared. But even should he flee to somewhere else and works hard trying to pay off his debt, would he really be able to pay even the interest, let alone the principal amount? His creditor, meanwhile goes after his co-signer to get the money back, but the co-signer
has no way to pay back, either. So the creditor, being rather unscrupulous, goes after his parents making all kinds of threats to force them to pay back the debt. The parents cannot stand this anymore, and so they pay off the creditor, and they get a receipt from him in return. Having paid the creditor in full, the father then starts to look for the son, who no doubt would be suffering both in body and mind. He looked for his son everywhere for 10 years, but he still could not find him. One day after 12 years, the son finally returns, having saved up some money. He first goes to his father and says, “I’ve saved $400,000, but I still have a shortfall of $100,000. Can you lend me this amount? I’ll stay with you and work hard to pay you back.” The father then embraced his son in tears, saying to him, “I’ve already paid off all your debt! You have nothing to worry about anymore! How much you must have suffered all this time!” Telling the son that his debt was paid off in full, then the father shows him the receipt.
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The son is overwhelmed with gratefulness, but at the same time he feels as if he had suffered needlessly, thinking to himself, “For the past 12 years, I have lived my life as a deadbeat, never having a moment of peace, when in fact I did not have to. I had lived as a deadbeat. I just did not know. All my sufferings have been in vain!” Dear fellow believers, likewise those who are trying to receive the forgiveness of their sins on their own, even as Jesus already remitted all their sins through His baptism and Cross, are still tormented with the problem of sin, just like this son. By being baptized Jesus blotted out our sins. He took away all our sins by being baptized, bore all the condemnation of sin by shedding His blood on the Cross, and thereby has saved us completely. Do you realize this now? That you were bound by your sins, is all due to you not knowing that Jesus took away all your sins when He was baptized. Jesus indeed took all your sins away. Believe this.
“There Is No Longer an Offering for Sin” Let us now turn to Hebrews 10:1-18: “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— ◄
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To do Your will, O God.’’ Previously saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will
remember no more.’ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” This passage says that the Law is “a shadow of the good things to come.” Just as passing yearly sins with the laying on of hands in the Old Testament was real, so was it real that Jesus came to this earth and took upon all our sins ‘once and for all’ by being baptized by John the Baptist. The Old Testament is a shadow of the New Testament. Shadows can exist only when there are real objects that can cast them. Like this, God’s salvation manifested in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament was realized through the ministry of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, countless lambs, goats, and pigeons were slaughtered and offered to God. But it was not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to completely take away sins. The everlasting remission of sin had to be fulfilled by Jesus the High Priest of Heaven. This is why our Lord came to this world, was baptized and shed His blood for us. Referring to Jesus, the Book of Hebrew declares
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that He is the High Priest of Heaven. In the Old Testament it was the High Priest who remitted the sins of the Israelites by offering sacrifices to God on their behalf. Like this, our Lord came as the High Priest of Heaven. “Behold, I have come—In the volume of the book it is written of Me—To do Your will, O God.” Jesus came to do the will of God the Father. What do you think is the will of God the Father? It is to save all human beings from all their sins. We need to know that no human being on this planet could do the will of God the Father. There was only ‘One’ who could do the will of the Father, and this was none other than Jesus. Because Jesus accepted all the sins of humankind and blotted them all out in obedience to the will of God the Father, the Father can now accept those who believe in His Son as His own children. This was the will of God the Father. His will, in other words, was to blot out all our sins. Following the will of the Father, Jesus came to this earth, took upon all the sins of the world by
being baptized, shed His blood and died on the Cross, and thereby has given us new life. This is why our Lord said in Hebrews 10:9, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” Verse 9 continues to say, “He takes away the first that He may establish the second.” The sacrificial system of the Law could not give eternal salvation to humankind. Rather, God gave everlasting salvation to those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, not the Law. Can we wash away our sins by doing some charitable works? Or by giving prayers of repentance? Or by giving large offerings to our churches? None of these can wash away our sins. We simply cannot receive the remission of our sins through our own good deeds. This is why our Lord came to this earth to be baptized and shed His blood. Hebrews 10:10 says, “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.” By being baptized once, dying on the Cross once, and rising from the dead at once, Jesus has become the Savior of those of us who
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believe in Him. Dear Christians, it is imperative for you to realize that you cannot receive the remission of your sins through the Law. But once you believe in the water and the blood of Jesus, and that He is God, you will all be able to enter Heaven. To make all our sins disappear, Jesus offered the everlasting sacrifice with His body by being baptized and shedding His blood. By coming to this earth, being baptized, dying on the Cross and rising from the dead, He has become our eternal Savior. Were your sins forever passed onto Jesus when He was baptized? Is this why Jesus said, “It is finished,” when He died on the Cross? Has God placed His law of the Spirit of life in our hearts and blotted out all our sins? Is your faith placed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? By believing in this gospel, are you now righteous? Or do you still remain a sinner? You are all righteous. Before hearing the Word, you were clearly all sinners, but after hearing it, you have now become righteous, and have put on the new man who is renewed even in knowledge (Colossians
3:10). How can we then be baptized into Jesus? By believing in Jesus’ righteous ministry with our hearts can we be baptized with Him, die with Him, and be brought to life with Him. This is the elementary principle of faith that believes with the heart. Dear fellow Christians, let us all realize that there is no other way to enter Heaven but by faith; let us all understand and believe in this baptism of Jesus and His blood, instead of fronting our own righteousness; and by doing so, let us all be washed clean from all our sins. With my faith, I give my boundless thanks to God before the gospel of the water and the Spirit that He has given us through our Lord. It is my sincerest hope and prayer that each and every one of you would also now come to know and understand, without fail, the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit revealed in Matthew 3:13-17, and believe in it with your hearts, so that you would all become God’s own people. May all His blessings be with you!
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SERMON 11
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“Behold, I Send My Messenger” < Mark 1:1-5 > “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’ John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.”
Do You Know John the Baptist Whom God Sent? In the wilderness, John the Baptist was proclaiming the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Not only that, he was the person who would perform the baptism of Jesus which would transfer to Jesus the sins of all the people in the world. Since John the Baptist was the last prophet in Old Testament times and a person born in the house of the High Priest, he was the servant of God who would transfer all mankind’s sins to Jesus through baptism according to the will of God. At the time John the Baptist was born on this earth, the people of Israel were full of idol worship. After they were full of sin by the worship of idols, pain came, and they began waiting for the promised Savior to save them from their pain. As they hoped, God the Father sent John the Baptist and His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth. God the Father sent John the Baptist six months before He sent Jesus Christ to ◄
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this earth in order to rescue all sinners from their sins. John the Baptist was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” He was the “spiritual Elijah” who was promised in the Old Testament. Therefore, we all must become people who learn and believe in the will of God that was worked through John the Baptist. The Bible says that John the Baptist was sent six months before Jesus came to this earth. God had a profound meaning in sending John the Baptist before Jesus. Accordingly, we must think a little more in detail, know, and believe in the work of John the Baptist. God sent His needed servants in each generation and guided His people on the path of righteousness. He did not send His prophets like this for 400 years before He sent John the Baptist. Therefore, the people of Israel were earnestly waiting for the appearance of God’s servant who would spread the true Word of God. They had lived for a long time not able to listen to the Word preached by God’s servants. The people of Israel were weary because of
the absence of God’s servants who would lead them correctly through God’s will and His Word. They had come to the point where they absolutely needed a sincere servant sent by God. John the Baptist was the person sent by God at that time to the people of Israel. Six months after God the Father sent John the Baptist, He sent His Son, Jesus, to this world. Then, Jesus Christ was sent to this earth by the will of God the Father. He was the Son of God, our God, and was the absolute and complete Savior of sinners. He was never a creation like us. Jesus Christ was actually God Himself, and He was God the Father’s faithful only begotten Son who lowered Himself. Jesus Christ, who came to the people of Israel, was the Accomplisher of Salvation and saved all of mankind from the sins of the world. He was the King who had the great will to fulfill God the Father’s plan and came to this earth in the lowest form. As a person crying the will of God in the wilderness, John the Baptist was a servant of God
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who, when the time came to fulfill the will of God the Father, had only to give the baptism that transferred all the sins of this world to Jesus. Before he did that righteous work, he had to live by eating locusts and wild honey in the wilderness. As soon as the people of Israel who had served various idols for several hundreds of years came to hear the will and Word of God through John the Baptist, they began to give ear to the Word of God. So, many of the people of Israel were awakened to their sins and began yearning to return to Jehovah. Thus, they were preparing to receive Jesus who would cleanse the sins of mankind at once. It is written, “Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). He was the last prophet of the Old Testament who represented all mankind. He was the person who was capable of doing the duties of the last High Priest on this earth. He was the person who would transfer all the sins of this world through the baptism he would give to Jesus.
On the other hand, Jesus, who received all the sins of this world once for all, was originally the Son of God and was the sacrificial Lamb that God prepared who came to take all the sins of this world once and for all (John 1:29). Jesus became the true Mediator between man and God. Since John the Baptist was the one who witnessed this, the Lord pointed to him and said, “He is Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:14). John the Baptist, the servant of God, was the person who testified that Jesus was the Lamb of God who had come to take charge of the sins of the world (John 1:29).
John the Baptist Comes to You in the Providence of God’s Salvation John the Baptist’s birth and his family background are explained well in Luke 1. If we look at the birth of John the Baptist through the recorded Word of God, we get to know that John the Baptist was born ◄
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in the special work of the providence of God’s salvation. We know first that John the Baptist’s family was born into the family of the High Priests of the Old Testament (1 Chronicles 24:1-19). John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, was of the family of High Priests. He was a person who flawlessly performed his duties according to all God’s commandments, rules, and regulations. But his one and only desire was that he would obtain a son because his wife, Elizabeth, could not get pregnant. Then one day, Zacharias entered the sanctuary to do the duties of a priest in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood. He had to solemnly burn incense for the people of God because his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord (Luke 1:9). At exactly this time, God sent the angel Gabriel and had him deliver His will to Zacharias: “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Luke 1:13).
At that time, Zacharias’ wife, Elizabeth, was already very old, and Zacharias could not believe it at all, even though God’s messenger, the angel Gabriel, had told him. Therefore, Zacharias became mute, and the other priests perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless (Luke 1:20-22). Afterwards, God’s astonishing works arose in that family. Elizabeth became pregnant according to the prophecy of the angel Gabriel. After she became pregnant and the child was born, the family wanted to name the child after his father, Zacharias who was a descendant of Aaron the High Priest. Zacharias, who up to that time continued to be a mute, asked for a writing tablet and jotted down that the child’s name was John. Everyone thought he was strange because they used to name a newborn child after one of its relatives names at that time. They all thought it was strange when he named his son John, but Zacharias’ tongue was loosed and he was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to praise God, prophesying like this:
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“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:7679). Zacharias’ mouth opened and the sound of praise was lifted higher. He prophesied of John’s life, saying, “This child is mine, but he is God’s servant whom God sent. Oh, child whom God gave! You receive the designation of being the prophet of Him who is extremely high. You will go before the Lord and prepare His way, and all people shall learn of true salvation through the remission of sins to the people of the Lord.” This way, John the Baptist got the duty to transfer all the sins of this earth to Jesus and was born into the family of High Priests. He was sent to this world as God’s servant who was
indispensable to all mankind. Also, the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament prophesied of the New Testament’s John the Baptist as follows. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD” (Malachi 4:5). Before the coming of the great and dreadful day that this world would burn like an oven and disappear, God promised that He would send to this earth one of His servants with the spirit and power like that of Elijah in the Old Testament. He was a servant of God who would come to this earth in the end time and do the great work of making all who had left God come back to His bosom. In Matthew 11:12-14, Jesus said, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” He testified that the servant of God like Elijah prophesied of in the Old
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Testament of the Bible is John the Baptist. “‘Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘But who can endure the day of His coming? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering of righteousness’” (Malachi 3:1-3). It points to John the Baptist in Malachi 3:1 where it says, “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.” It also prophesied of the birth of Jesus Christ when it said, “the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come.” We can see that the united ministry of Jesus Christ and John the Baptist fulfilling the righteousness of God is recorded in Matthew 3:13-17. Therefore, John the Baptist is the last prophet of the Old Testament and was capable of
doing the work of transferring the sins of the world to Jesus as the servant of God who was spiritually capable of doing the duties of a High Priest. The Book of Malachi in the Old Testament prophesied that John the Baptist and Jesus would come to this earth before the end of the world comes.
John the Baptist Came to this Earth by the Spirit and Power of Elijah In Malachi 4:5-6, it says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” And in Matthew 11:14 of the New Testament, Jesus testified, “And if you are willing to receive it, he [John the Baptist] is Elijah who is to come.” Then, what does it mean that “I will send you ◄
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Elijah” before the destruction of this world? This means that God would send to this earth His servant who would transfer the sins of everyone in this world to Jesus Christ. This fact is also written in Isaiah 40:3 as “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” It is pointing to John the Baptist here when it says, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness.” 2 Kings records the account of the ascension of Elijah as follows: “Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” Like this says, Elijah was the prophet of God who went up to God without suffering death. God promised in the Bible that He would send us Elijah, and this means that He would send John the Baptist who would be able to do work like Elijah. He was John the Baptist who would baptize Jesus and transfer the sins of mankind to Him all at once in the
New Testament. The prophet Elijah was the servant of God who had enormous power to make the people of Israel who were distanced from God because of idol worship return to Him. In New Testament times, John the Baptist was God’s servant who could transfer at once the sins of mankind to Jesus. John the Baptist was entrusted with the duties of a High Priest. Out of all people living on this earth, only John the Baptist whom God appointed, was a person who could be given this work and perform it (Matthew 3:13-17).
The Ministry of Elijah Written in the Old Testament We can see the prominent power of Elijah if we compare the work of Elijah from the Old Testament with other prophets. Isaiah in the Old Testament also told people to abandon idols and return to God, but there were not many people who listened to his cries ◄
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and returned to God. Jeremiah, the prophet of tears, also told his people the will of God in tears everyday, but there were not many fruits of his ministry. The prophet Ezekiel also cried for his people to abandon their idols and return to God, but the number of people who returned was insignificant. But, what was the work of Elijah like? He was a person who fought and won a battle of faith with 850 heathen prophets in order to turn the people of God who had served and followed idols back to Him. He was a person so close to God that he went before Him and prayed, and it didn’t rain for three and a half years. He lived during the reign of King Ahab, and King Ahab was a villainous king of Israel who denied God and served idols. Elijah was the servant of God who prayed that it wouldn’t rain for three and a half years in order to turn the hearts of King Ahab and the people back to God. After three and a half years of severe drought, King Ahab commanded his army to bring the prophet Elijah. King Ahab said that Elijah was the person
afflicting Israel, but in reality, King Ahab was the one afflicting God and the people of Israel. Elijah made a proposition to King Ahab; he wanted to show who the real God was through a showdown of faith. He proposed, saying, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). At that time on Mt. Carmel, there were 400 prophets of Asherah and 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah proposed they reveal who the true God was between Baal and Jehovah through a showdown of faith. He proposed that, in order to do that, the real God would be the one who answered with fire on the sacrificial offering. At first, Elijah was supposed to be defeated because he had to fight against 850 heathen prophets who worshipped idols. But who do you think won that battle of faith? The prophets of Baal called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, but they received no answer. They jumped around the altar and earnestly called on the name of Baal. But when the afternoon
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came and there was no answer, Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud to Baal, for he is a god... perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” To this, the prophets of Baal yelled with even louder voices and even injured themselves with knives and spears to shed their blood according to their customs, but nothing happened all the way until the time for the offering of evening sacrifice. At that time, it was Elijah’s turn to show who the real God was. He made a trench around the altar and filled it with water. He had four waterpots filled with water and had it poured on the offering and wood three times, and the water flowed all over the altar and filled the trench. Thus filling the trench with water, Elijah began to pray. “Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.” Then, the fire of the Lord God came down from Heaven and burned the offering, wood, stones, ground, and even the water in the trench. Elijah’s
God and his faith beat the idol-worshiping priests. Why did Elijah want to have a showdown by faith in God? That was because that fight was a spiritual battle of faith, not a fight of blood and bodies. All the 850 prophets and the people of Israel who believed in Baal and Asherah saw the power of the living God at that time. God showed through Elijah’s faith that He was alive and became the people of Israel’s God. Since this power of God was accomplished before the eyes of the king of Israel, no one could say any longer that the Lord God was not the true God. For the first time, King Ahab regretted that he had believed in Baal, and the people of Israel came back to the faith of Elijah and sought their God. Because of this, Elijah was called a powerful servant who brought the people of Israel back to God. John the Baptist was a servant of God that had this kind of power like Elijah. As the prophet Elijah made all the people of Israel return to God in Old Testament times, John the Baptist could do the work of transferring all the sins of this world to Jesus at
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once by baptizing Jesus in New Testament times. He testified of Jesus, saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) By doing so, all the people in the world could go before Jesus Christ, who came through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, receive the cleansing of their sins through faith, and become the people of God. God the Father sent John the Baptist six months prior to Jesus and had him prepare the work of passing all the sins of this world over to Him. All the sins of this world could be cleansed through the role of John the Baptist and the baptism Jesus received. Jesus could receive all your sins and my sins at once by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist, and, as the price of the sins of the world, He hung on the Cross, shed His blood, and received the judgment for all our sins. Now, people who believe in the role of John the Baptist and the work of Jesus are able to receive salvation from all the sins of the world at once. Elijah, whom God said He would send in Malachi of the Old Testament, was none other than
John the Baptist (Matthew 11:14).
John the Baptist Had to Be Capable of Doing the Duties of the Last High Priest on This Earth If John the Baptist had not been born in the house of Aaron the High Priest, he would not have been capable of doing the duties of the last High Priest on this earth. In order to be able to do so, he absolutely had to be born into the house of Zacharias, a descendant of Aaron the High Priest. There was a requirement in Old Testament times that only the High Priest could lay his hands on the unblemished scapegoat and transfer onto it the sins which the Israelites committed over the last year. John the Baptist had to be born into the house of the High Priest in order to fulfill the Word of prophecy of the Old Testament. John the Baptist had been born into the house of Aaron the High Priest, and he was able ◄
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to represent all people, baptize Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and transfer all the sins of this world to Him at once. But today there are many Christians who remain sinners because they believe in Jesus as the Savior while ignoring and overlooking the role of John the Baptist. So, it is recorded as follows. “For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him” (Matthew 21:32). John the Baptist came to this world, but the Pharisees and High Priests and those who believe in Jesus now did not pay much attention to his work. In this generation now, there are many people who do not regard as important the ministry of John the Baptist that transferred the sins of this world to Jesus. Religious believers who do not believe in this important work will never be able to know the secret of Jesus’ baptism in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. A life of faith lived without believing in this
important work is akin to mocking Jesus’ righteousness and will incur His wrath. Today, it is a truly sad thing that even Christians who believe that Jesus is the God of true salvation don’t know the Truth known as ‘the gospel of the water and the Spirit’ and lead their lives of faith amidst false truth. So, who on earth were the people who knew and believed in the Truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit in Jesus’ days? They were the notorious sinners like harlots and tax collectors. Even today, people who are spiritually like harlots and tax collectors try to know and believe in God’s righteousness. What kind of people are harlots spiritually? They are people who commit sin according to the lusts of their flesh and waste their lives. So, who commits sins that follow the lusts of the flesh? The truth is that all of us commit lewd and licentious sins. We, too, are just like harlots who live endlessly committing sins in our hearts according to the lusts that our flesh desires. But there are only a
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few people in this generation who acknowledge in their hearts the fact that they are just like harlots. When they acknowledge that they are masses of sin before God and believe that Jesus and John the Baptist came to us in order to fulfill the way of God’s righteousness, all their sins can be cleansed at once. Even all of you who have now become Christians need faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit before God. That faith is to believe that John the Baptist transferred the sins of the world to Jesus all at once when he baptized Him. The important thing is that faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit has saved us from all the sins of the world. Therefore, we must know the fact that all our sins become cleansed at once when we believe that Jesus took charge of them by receiving baptism from John the Baptist. The tax collectors in New Testament times were spiritually like harlots, collecting taxes for the Roman authorities that were in control of Israel. At that time, they were so corrupt that it was their custom if they received $1,000 in taxes to put $300
of it in their pockets and pay the remaining $700 to Rome. But they too, knew their own sins. So, there were many tax collectors and harlots at that time who believed in Jesus as their Savior. But the Pharisees and the chief priests never believed in Him. They insisted that they lived righteously by keeping the Law of God even though they were insufficient. Therefore, they denied John the Baptist who came in the way of righteousness, and they denied Jesus, acting as if they had no sins. In this generation also, wicked Christians don’t try to know that Jesus has taken all their sins by being baptized by John the Baptist. There are also many foolish Christian leaders who don’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit because they are worried they will lose their means of living. The Pharisees and the chief priests whose positions were high at that time covered their faces with the long sleeves of their clothes when they saw sinners, and boasted of their holiness. Even though their hearts were full of all kinds of sins, they did this
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because they thought they had to behave that way in order to not become dirty, and for other people to treat them holy. Their fake behavior didn’t end there; it extended to them standing on a big street, raising both hands, and prayed in a pious posture. “Lord God, please, save us. Since we are praying for these foolish people, please have mercy on them and save them.” But they were actually spiritual hypocrites and white sepulchers. They who were teaching the Word of God were actually standing against His righteousness. There are many of those kinds of people in this generation, too. They intend to not believe that John the Baptist transferred the sins of this world to Jesus all at once by baptizing Him, and that Jesus took charge of the sins of this world all at once. They not only intend not to believe themselves, but also intend to block and interfere with people who try to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is God’s righteousness. But since they don’t believe that John has come by the way of
righteousness, they cannot be free from the judgment of the Lord.
John the Baptist Approached Us by the ‘Way of Righteousness’ John the Baptist approached us with the ‘way of righteousness.’ The ‘way of righteousness’ that John the Baptist came with refers to transferring all people’s sins to Jesus and rescuing them from sin. Whoever knows and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit as God’s righteousness receives salvation from sin. No matter who it is or what sins they have committed, everyone must receive the cleansing of their sins through the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist. To fulfill God’s righteousness, Jesus carried and cleansed all of our sins, was nailed and hung on the Cross, died, resurrected in three days, and saved from sin all those who believe. If we do not believe in our hearts in ◄
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Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we cannot become the holy people of God. Jesus received the transference of all the sins of this world at once by being baptized by John the Baptist, carried our sins, was nailed to the Cross, and died for us. Therefore, we now have to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Faith that enables us to be truly cleansed from sin is the faith that believes that, through the baptism He received, Jesus has taken all our sins at once, was nailed to the Cross, and died on the Cross. A person who does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can never get to Heaven. There is no other path for us to go to Heaven besides that of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and having our sins cleansed. But the Pharisees and religious leaders at that time were fighting against the Truth of salvation because they didn’t believe that Jesus was God. There are also Christians around us now who uselessly believe in Jesus. They are people who, even though they believe in Jesus as their Savior, are cultivating sin in
their hearts. John the Baptist appeared before us, having the way of God’s righteousness. Jesus appeared before tax collectors and harlots and told them that there are 12 kinds of sins in people’s hearts. He taught us of the gospel of the water and the Spirit which cleanses our sins. The Lord enabled all people to receive cleansing from sin who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has become the righteousness of God. John the Baptist performed the role of the High Priest who transferred the sins of this world for those who believe in the Lord’s righteousness. Even now, John the Baptist comes before you and me with the path of the Truth that contains God’s righteousness. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is ‘God’s righteousness’ which he believed and spread. You must believe by faith in God’s righteousness that John the Baptist fulfilled with Jesus. In the New Testament of the Bible, it is recorded, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was
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John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe” (John 1:6-7). John the Baptist witnessed of Jesus’ righteousness, and all people come to believe in Jesus as the Savior through John the Baptist’s witness. If John the Baptist had not performed the role of transferring the sins of the world to Jesus Christ through baptism, how could we believe in Jesus as our Savior and receive the cleansing of all our sins by faith? But, we weren’t able to see with our own eyes Jesus receiving baptism from John or hanging and dying on the Cross, so how we can believe it? God gave us His Word; His Word is the Bible. You can now clearly know the fact that all your sins went over to Jesus at once through the baptism John the Baptist gave Him. We have got to know that all our sins have gone over to Jesus through the baptism He received from John. So, how have those who know and believe in Jesus as their Savior come to remain as sinners? How can all the sins of a person
be cleansed at once if he does not believe that our sins all went over to Jesus at once when John the Baptist baptized Him? If you could not know that your sins went over to Jesus because you didn’t know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, how could you be freed from all your sins? If you do not believe in Jesus as your Savior and know His righteousness, His love would have nothing to do with you. Jesus’ love and blood could become life to you and me because He had taken all our sins at once by being baptized by John the Baptist and by dying on the Cross. If we know and believe this righteousness of God, we can receive the cleansing of all our sins at once just by that faith. But if it had not been for Jesus’ love and John the Baptist’s work, there would have been no way for the sins of us who believe in Jesus as our Savior to be cleansed. Since people don’t know that Jesus took all their sins at once by receiving baptism from John the Baptist, sin still remains in their hearts even if they
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believe in Jesus as their Savior. Because they do not know the meaning of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, they remain as sinners forever, even if they want to believe in Jesus as their Savior or even if they believe so fervently. They cannot but lead habitual religious lives since those sins still remain in them. They live day by day without hope to enter Heaven, just waiting for their sins to be forgiven. Jesus proclaimed, “He is Elijah who is to come.” We can confirm through the four Gospels that John the Baptist transferred the sins of the world to Jesus. Who is the Elijah that is to come spoken of in Matthew 11:14 where it says, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come”? He is John the Baptist. So, we must know the meaning of these words: “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has
ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:12-15). John the Baptist is prophesied of in the Old Testament, and therefore, we can know that He was a man sent by God. We are able to know through the Bible that John the Baptist was God’s servant sent by Him.
We Come to Understand the Work of Jesus Correctly and Can Go to Heaven Only When We Believe Properly in the Ministry of John the Baptist It is recorded in the Bible, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence.” Violence refers to “the use of physical force to injure somebody or damage something.” Then, why did God say that the Kingdom of Heaven would suffer violence from the days of John the Baptist? John the Baptist’s role must
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have been quite important seeing as the Bible states it so plainly. The answer is simple. The time from the beginning of Old Testament times to the time before Jesus came were the Age of the Law. The prophecies of the Age of the Law said that Jesus would come to this earth in the future, take charge of all the sins of mankind at once, and cleanse them, and Jesus could completely fulfill those things in the New Testament through the baptism that John the Baptist gave Him. So, it is written that everyone who takes the Kingdom of Heaven by violence through faith in God’s righteousness can be qualified to enter Heaven, even though they originally had no qualifications to enter Heaven. The Age of the Law spoken of by the Lord was until the time of John the Baptist. The New Testament era started from the birth of Jesus and His baptism. Since the Law gives us the knowledge of sin, we could recognize our sins and know that we were sinners through God giving the Law. We came
to know by faith that Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist, took the sins of the world at once, and hung and died on the Cross. Therefore, we are able to enter the gate of Heaven without hesitation by pure faith in God’s righteousness. Since all the sins spoken of by the Law went over to Jesus by His baptism by John the Baptist, these words were fulfilled: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” Jesus could completely fulfill salvation by receiving all the sins of this world through the baptism given by John the Baptist. Jesus said that He was to fulfill God’s righteousness by receiving baptism from John. It could be said that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the last fulfillment of the promise of salvation written in the Old Testament. The people of Israel in the Old Testament era laid their hands on the head of the sacrificial offerings, transferred their sins to them, shed their blood, and offered them in order to receive the remission of the sins they committed before God. As such, since Jesus
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also took the sins of the world to His body by receiving baptism from John the Baptist, He became the propitiation for the sins of the world by shedding His blood on the Cross.
In the Old Testament, They Had to Lay Hands on an Offering without Blemish and Transfer Their Sins to It in Order to Cleanse Their Sins The term ‘the laying on of hands’ in the Old Testament has a spiritual meaning of ‘going over.’ We can know that the laying on of hands has the meaning of sins going over through this Word in Leviticus 1:3: “If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD.” So, the people of Israel brought an offering without blemish
before God, laid their hands on it, and transferred their sins to it in order to cleanse them. That is because it says in the Word of God that doing so would make it acceptable. The word ‘acceptable’ means that God would gladly receive that offering. An offering acceptable to God was a sacrificial offering that had received the laying on of hands on its head. The offering that God gladly received gave the cleansing of sins to that person. Instead of judging that sinner, God saw that his sins had been transferred to the sacrificial offering, accepted the offering, and gladly cleansed that person’s sins. All mankind, who are the descendants of Adam and Eve who had committed the first sin, are all sinners from the time they are born. They cannot resolve their own sins by themselves. So, God gave the people of Israel in the Old Testament era offerings of atonement. Those offerings were sacrificial offerings that were to receive the laying on of hands. So, God told them to ‘lay hands’ on the head of the animal in order to cleanse their sins. He
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spoke of this in Leviticus 1:3-4. Since God is holy, “The wages of sin is death”(Romans 6:23). But if people die in sin, they go to hell; since God didn’t want that, He gave the sacrificial system for the atonement of sins in Old Testament times that said that the people must lay their hands on the head of the sacrificial offering. God thus accepted the blood of the sacrificial offering as the wages of people’s sins and liberated them from all their sins. That’s the way it is. From the beginning of the world, intending to make people His children, God gave the sacrificial system of salvation, which consisted of ‘the laying on of hands’ and ‘the shedding of blood.’ Therefore, the sacrificial offering of salvation set by God had to first receive the laying on of hands in order to receive the sinner’s sins, and it inevitably had to afterwards shed its blood and die. That is the justice of God and His love in order to save sinners. That is because God knew even before the creation of the world that we humans would fall into sinful states by committing transgressions.
Therefore, He prepared in advance the sacrificial Lamb of God that could cleanse all our sins, and He waited for us. He made us be born again as His children through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God was harboring His sublime will to make us live with Him forever. God does not hand us over to destruction according to the judgment of sin; in order to save us, He told us to transfer all our sins by the laying on of hands to the sacrificial Lamb of God that was prepared. Even though people break God’s commandments and always commit sins, He opened the way for us to receive the cleansing of our sins according to His exalted purpose of creation and salvation toward us. He established the sacrificial system that enabled us to transfer all our sins to the sacrificial offering by the laying on of hands, and by faith. God can’t pass over sins as if He didn’t see them, and since He can’t just leave us to die because He is the God of love, He saves us through the sacrificial Lamb for our sins and by having us lay our hands on it, shed its blood, and
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receive the cleansing of our sins by faith. God gave us the Law of salvation that accomplished the justice and mercy of God at once. This is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Lord completed that justice and love by God’s righteousness. People transferred their sins to the sacrificial animals in the Old Testament era, and in the New Testament era, Jesus received the transference of all our sins through His baptism, saved us, and made those who believe in Him the children of God. God has established ‘the law of the laying on of hands’ as the method for transferring people’s sins to the sacrificial offering, and that offering’s blood absolutely had to be shed because it took the sins of people after their laying on of hands.
People’s Sins Are Recorded on the Tablets of Their Consciences and In the Books of Works It is recorded, “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with the point of a diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars” (Jeremiah 17:1). Judah here represents all people. In other words, people’s sins are recorded in those two places. The words ‘engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars’ means that everyone’s sins are first recorded on the tablets of their hearts and then in the Books of Works, that is, the Books of Judgment (Revelation 20:12). The tablet of a person’s heart is referring to his conscience. Our consciences record our sins accurately and in detail with a pen of iron with the point of a diamond. No matter how much we have committed total sin so others could not know, we cannot be freed from being sinners because our sins ◄
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are recorded in our consciences. So, when people commit sins, they come to continually think about them, feel guilty because of them, and worry about them. But since there is a difference in how guilty people feel, some people continue living shamelessly as if they have done nothing wrong even though they commit sins. But if others look closely at those people’s consciences, there would be a lot of sin recorded there. Their consciences are merely thick and their wills are very strong, so they just disregard their consciences. But sin isn’t only recorded on the tablet of the heart. They are also recorded in the Books of Judgment which lie open in the presence of God. Just as there must be two or more witnesses in the world for there to be any effect, God recorded people’s sins on the tablets of their hearts and in the Books of Judgment. God knew that people would go before Him and try to hide their sins until the end and fight against Him, saying, “I didn’t commit sin. I never did. You didn’t see me, did You? Why are You
telling me I have sin when You don’t even know that well?” Therefore, He recorded their sins on the tablets of their hearts and, at the same time, in the Books of Judgment. The sins recorded surely with a pen of iron and with a point of a diamond are erased if one receives the remission of all his sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But those who do not believe that Jesus Christ is their Savior or that John the Baptist came with the way of righteousness will someday suffer the frightening wrath of God for their sins. People who are under a curse because they could not receive the remission of their sins absolutely go to hell when they go before God because their sins are written on the tablets of their hearts. As it says in the Bible that “so then each of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12), we will personally give an account to God of all our sins just as they are engraved on the tablets of our hearts when we go before Him. You may say, “I
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am Mr. Kim from the Republic of Korea. I was born on earth and committed sins from my birth. I committed so many sins every day from morning till evening that it’s hard for me to speak of them all. It wasn’t too bad when I was young, but starting after I was 15, I committed sins full-scale. I had so much fun committing sins but as I passed the age of 20 and became 25, sins began to gradually pile up on my conscience. I had so many sins that I couldn’t even mention every single one I committed. From the time I was born until I died, except for when I slept, I committed sins anytime my eyes were opened and came here like this.” Then, God will ask, “Did you know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit?” Even if that person wants to lie and say that he did, he will come to tell the truth, saying, “No, I didn’t even have any interest in it.” Then, God will ask them something else. “So, how did you resolve the sin in your heart?” “I tried every method to resolve them, but they
remain in my heart just as they were.” Then, God will say, “You will go to hell.” “I’m going to hell?” “Yes!” “But even so, God, please...” “‘Even so’ what? Anyone who has sin must go to hell. So, didn’t I give the gospel of the water and the Spirit with which one can receive salvation from sin? I did, but since you didn’t receive it, not even I can do anything now. Farewell, and have fun in hell!” If the sins on the tablet of a person’s heart are not blotted out while he is living on this earth, he cannot go to Heaven no matter who he is. That means he will go to hell if the sins on the tablet of his heart do not go away, even if he believed in Jesus as his Savior. But there are people who try to deceive their consciences even while they go before God. They absolutely insist before God that they have no sin. If we look at Revelation 20:12, it says there are two kinds of books when we go before God. One is the Book of Life and the others are the Books of
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Judgment. The Books of Judgment are the Books of Works. People’s sins are recorded one by one in the Books of Works, and they are stacked up like a mountain before God. But since only a list of names is written in the Book of Life, it can be said that it is not that big. In that Book is recorded who was born again through the water and the Spirit and who has received the remission of their sins and what kinds of rewards God will give them. God knows all these things. God assigned an angel to each person and had the angels follow and go along with them and record all their actions in detail. It is also recorded in Matthew that everyone has an angel. So, since God receives the report of everything about us and sees things personally, we cannot deceive Him. Even if we want to deceive our consciences by insisting, “I did not commit sin,” such a farfetched argument won’t work before the Books of Works recorded before God. God appointed the sacrificial system for man’s sake and let them receive the remission of their sins.
God Gave the Sacrificial System with which People Receive Salvation to Erase the Sins Recorded on the Tablets of People’s Hearts and the Books of Works After people in the Old Testament era transferred their sins to the sacrificial offering through the laying on of hands on its head, they killed that animal and burned it. The people of Israel bred sheep and goats in order to use them for sin offerings to receive the remission of their sins before God. In our country, people raise a lot of cattle; but most people do it in order to farm, make money, or use them for food. Of course, goats and sheep could also be used for food by the people of Israel, but they were used for offering sacrifice. Afterward, there was meat separated that could be eaten. If a person offered sacrifice once, did that mean he didn’t need to do it again? No, that was not the case.
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Since the Israelites committed sin everyday, they had to offer sacrifice everyday. It wasn’t that a person would not commit sin tomorrow because he offered sacrifice today. It wasn’t that a person eternally received the remission of his sins because he just once laid his hands on the sheep, cut its throat, took its blood, and placed it on the altar of burnt offerings to be offered as the sin offering. He might think, “All the sins I committed today went over to that sheep.” As he returns home, he runs into a spiteful guy who didn’t pay back the money loaned to him, and he immediately rains abuses on him, strikes out at him, and comes to fight with him. So, sins are once again recorded on the tablet of his heart. He has just come from offering sacrifice, but if sin is immediately recorded on the tablet of his heart, he cannot help but be angry with himself and be afflicted. “It hasn’t been long since I got a $100 goat, laid my hands on it, transferred my sins onto it, took its blood, and offered a just sacrifice by killing it. I received the remission of my sins with difficulty that
way, but I’ve committed sin again because of that guy. Now I have no choice but to get a sheep from the backyard this time.” So, he goes and takes a sheep again to the Tabernacle and asks one of the priests to offer sacrifice for him. In Old Testament times, the priests were always at the entrance of the tabernacle. They had no time to rest. That was what the priests in Old Testament times did. “Didn’t you just stop by here a little while ago?” “Yes, that was me. But I committed sin again. I offered sacrifice and was on my way home with a light heart, but wouldn’t you know that I ran into a guy that borrowed some of my money and never paid it back. I tried to control myself, but that guy kept goading me. So, unknown to even me, my fist flew. Of course, he then threw his at me, and it was crazy. Lightning flashed all around. Anyway, I got the remission of my sins and committed another on my way home, so I brought another sacrificial sheep. Of course, this one, too, is a sheep without blemish.” “Hey, please get a hold of yourself and live
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virtuously. This is hard on me, too. I think I’m going to die. It suffices for you to bring this sheep, lay your hands on it, and give it to me; but doesn’t the work after that all remain to me? I, as a priest on duty, have to cut its throat, place the blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings, strip the leather and separate the meat into pieces, and burn it in the fire. Damn, it’s so hard that I think I’m going to die. It was very hard for me to deal with that one animal you brought before, but, man, you’ve come back with another animal. Because of people like you, there is no day that the smoke of the Tabernacle will end.” “Oh, I am really sorry, Priest. I will be careful in the future.” As he returned home having pledged with a light heart to not commit sin again, he unavoidably committed sin again. Aren’t we the people who commit the same sin two, three, or even ten times in a day? Every time that happened, those people had to come to the Tabernacle to offer sacrifice. “I have shamelessly returned. This time take care
of everything as you will, my Priest!” Then, he would just throw a sheep there and leave. But if he entrusted even what he had to do to the priest and just gave the sheep and left, that offering would become totally worthless. If the priest killed, and ate the sheep, and if he laid his hands on the sheep for his own sins, got the blood, and placed it on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings and poured it on the ground, only the priest’s sins would be remitted. If a person wanted to make an offering that would eliminate his sins, he absolutely had to lay his hands on it and transfer his own sins to it. Afterwards, all the sins in the Books of Works and on the tablet of his heart would be erased according to the law that says, “The wages of sin is death,” cutting the sheep’s throat, drawing its blood till it died, getting that blood and placing it on the four horns of the altar of burnt offerings, and pouring the remaining blood on the ground. What sin did the sheep actually have? What kind of ethics or morals does a sheep have with which to
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know sin? Since animals don’t have souls, they have no consciences or consciousness, so they don’t understand the Law. Therefore, no sacrificial animal has any sins. Sheep merely had to die because they had received the sins of people by receiving the laying on of their hands. A totally ignorant sheep is merely used by God as man’s substitute in order to save man; that animal doesn’t know sin or have sin. People who wanted to receive the remission of their sins absolutely had to lay their hands on the sacrificial animal. After they laid their hands on its head and transferred their sins to it, they had to kill that animal. Therefore, if a person didn’t lay his hands on the animal and just threw it and left, it didn’t become a proper offering to receive the remission of sins. If a person intended to receive the remission of his sins, he absolutely had to lay his hands on an offering without blemish and draw its blood, put that blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings, pour the rest of the blood on the ground, and lastly, offer the meat before God,
burning it in the fire. The sinner had to lay his hands on the head of the animal and kill it himself, but the priest had to do the rest. Since people were prone to commit sins several tens of times in just one day, they weren’t capable of offering sacrifice every time they committed sin. Since a person might have taken and offered three sheep up as offerings yesterday and have to go to the Tabernacle the next day, too, he might have to slay at least 365 animals a year if he were to go the Tabernacle on average once a day for a year. If so, it would be out of one’s power to raise sheep. But such a person would have a desire to quit offering sacrifices because he came to offer sacrifice annoyingly everyday and commit sin again tomorrow. Therefore, he would give up while saying, “I’ll commit sin again tomorrow even though I offer a sacrifice today” because he would think in disappointment, “I’m no good. I can’t do it. I’m no good!” Since God knew our weaknesses well, He gave a
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way that would remit the sins committed by all the Israelites over a year. In order for the people of Israel to receive the remission of the sins over a year, two goats were prepared. The High Priest, instead of all the sinners, laid his hands on the head of the first goat as the representative of the people of Israel before God. And he drew its blood by cutting its throat. He then sprinkled the blood seven times on the east side of the Mercy Seat. “Lord God! Look at this blood.” Wings of angels covered the lid that covered the Ark of the Covenant, and the High Priest sprinkled the blood above and before it seven times (Leviticus 16:15-16). Two sacrificial goats were needed for the offering of the Day of Atonement. One was used in the offering in God’s Tabernacle. When the High Priest laid his hands on its head, cut its throat, and killed it, blood came out. He then took the blood and entered the Most Holy Place to sanctify it and all its instruments. Afterwards, the High Priest had to lay his hands on the head of the remaining goat, the
scapegoat, in front of the people, and a person who was chosen beforehand took it into the wilderness. So, that scapegoat carried all the yearly sins of the people of Israel into that wilderness that was void of water or grass, bleated, wandered about, and died of thirst. Two sacrificial animals were needed since the sacrificial offering was made twice like that. That was the offering of the Day of Atonement. But this wasn’t a perfect offering, either. Since they had to offer such a sacrifice every year, it was an offering that reminded them of sin (Hebrews 10:34). Now God wanted to establish an eternal, unchanging offering of salvation rather than the imperfect offerings that had to be offered repeatedly every year. So, He promised to offer Himself as the eternal sacrifice that no longer needed any more offering for sin.
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The Eternal Sacrifice of Redemption Given by God Was Fulfilled by Jesus Being Baptized by John the Baptist God reminded Himself of the necessary High Priest and sacrificial offering for an eternal offering exactly according to the law of salvation that He planned even before the beginning of the world. That was the ministry of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. The ‘baptism’ that John the Baptist gave to Jesus in the Jordan River was the same as the laying on of hands of the Old Testament. In other words, Jesus, as the sacrificial Lamb without blemish, came to this earth and received baptism from John the Baptist, the representative of mankind. That way, He received the sins of the whole world. Jesus, who received the transference of sin, hung on the Cross and received all the judgment for all those sins. God’s justice and His just judgment were fulfilled on this earth through Jesus offering this sacrifice. “And from the days of John the Baptist until now
the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:12-14). John the Baptist wasn’t just the representative of the people of Israel; he was the representative of all mankind. He was called to be the greatest man among all the people born of women. If we look at Matthew 11:11, Jesus pointed at John the Baptist and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” And He said that the Kingdom of Heaven would suffer violence from the days of John the Baptist. The Old Testament was until John the Baptist because he was the last High Priest of the Old Testament. The New Testament era starts from the birth of Jesus Christ. The New Testament started when John the Baptist stood on the borderline
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between the Old and New Testament eras and transferred sin to Jesus by baptizing Him. Since John the Baptist baptized Jesus and transferred all sins to Him, it was said that the Kingdom of Heaven would suffer violence from the days of John the Baptist. Since he baptized Jesus and transferred the sins of the world to Him, he could witness, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” And the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence from the days of John the Baptist, and the days of the New Testament started. If we look at Matthew 3:13-15, it says, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.” So, let’s think for a second. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Where was He baptized? He was baptized in the Jordan River. Why was He baptized?
He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Like the words that say, “For John came to you in the way of righteousness,” he baptized Jesus and Jesus was baptized by him. Jesus was baptized in order to ‘fulfill all righteousness.’ Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River has the meaning that it was in order for Him to ‘fulfill all righteousness.’ People of the Old Testament era entered the land of Canaan by crossing the Jordan River. The land of Canaan means the Promised Land, that is, Heaven. So, the Jordan River also means ‘the river of death,’ so it meant that they were crossing the Jordan River to meet God who was in the Promised Land of Canaan, Heaven. So, Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River to end all sins of death. “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence.” John the Baptist started his ministry when Jesus was going to begin His public ministry. The first thing Jesus did in His public life of eliminating the sins of mankind was being baptized by John. Jesus being baptized by John
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was receiving the transference of all the sins of mankind along with all your sins and mine. Jesus received all the sins of this world all at once by being baptized in the form of laying on of hands according to the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. Who baptized Him? John the Baptist, the representative of mankind and greatest man born among women, baptized Him. John the Baptist was the greatest man among those born of women. When John the Baptist was thirty on this earth, Jesus was also thirty. Since Jesus was born six months after John the Baptist, He was physically behind him, but Jesus and John the Baptist clearly met as the Lamb of God and mankind’s representative. Jesus ended His private life and started His public life when He turned thirty. He started the work of saving all mankind from sin by being baptized. Who did Jesus seek in order to be baptized? Jesus strolled over to John the Baptist who was shouting in the Jordan River, “Repent, you brood of vipers! Come
back, be cleansed by this water, and believe in the Savior to come!” At last, Jesus lowered His head to John the Baptist. “Baptize Me, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. You are the representative of all mankind, so it is proper to transfer all people’s sins to Me through baptism. I will cleanse all people’s sins when you transfer them to Me. I will let all people who believe in Me receive salvation by receiving the transference of all the sins of the people of the world and by dying on the Cross. This is the love and salvation of God. God the Father sent Me to this earth to take all people’s sins and receive the judgment instead of them. Therefore, you must baptize Me.” Thus, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and received the transference of all the sins of the world. The word ‘baptism’ means ‘to be cleansed.’ Baptism also means ‘to bury,’ ‘to pass over sins,’ and ‘to transfer.’ Likewise, the laying on of hands in the Old Testament also meant, ‘to transfer,’ ‘sin goes over,’
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and ‘to bury.’ The Old Testament said that sin would go over if they laid their hands on the sacrificial offering. Therefore, God gladly accepted the blood of that offering. God said He accepted the sacrificial offering, so the sacrificial offering offered by the laying on of hands and with the blood made Him glad. God sent us Jesus because He loves us just like it is written, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That is because He could not make people who had sin into His people. So, God transferred all the sins of mankind from them to Jesus. He sent Jesus and had Him take all the sins of the world in order to make us sinless people. We could become sinless children of God because all our sins have gone over to Jesus when He received baptism from John the Baptist. He made all mankind become His sinless people through their faith in Jesus’ eternal sacrifice. That is God’s love, holiness, and justice.
Therefore, Jesus did the work of being baptized. Jesus walked up to John the Baptist when he was baptizing people in the Jordan River. “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Baptize Me” (Matthew 3:15). “How can I baptize You? Even though I am the greatest man among those born of women and God has given me this duty, You are higher than me. You are the Son of God, and You are my Creator. So, how can I baptize You?” Then, Jesus replied, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. It is fitting to eliminate all people’s iniquity and sin by Me being baptized by you and you baptizing Me.” Saying “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” meant that Jesus would receive all the sins of mankind upon His body by being baptized by John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the representative of mankind and the person who performed the duties of the High Priest of all
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humankind. As the last High Priest of the Old Testament, he baptized Jesus to transfer the sins of the world to Him. John the Baptist was the only person who was qualified to baptize Jesus, the Lamb of God and the Son of God. Jesus was baptized by the High Priest of the earth because He was the Lamb of God who came to eliminate all the sins of the world. Regarded through the Old Testament, Jesus was the Lamb of God who was the offering of atonement, and John the Baptist was the High Priest. So Jesus said, “You are the person who will transfer all people’s sins to Me. Bestow baptism on Me.” John the Baptist refused Jesus when He said that, but Jesus commanded, “Do it! Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. I command you. Baptize Me. Transfer the sins of mankind to Me by baptizing Me with the baptism of the laying on of hands. By receiving the baptism of the laying on of hands by you, I will receive the transference of all mankind’s sins and completely cleanse all those sins. The most righteous work is to implant all the sins into My body
by being baptized by you. I have to receive condemnation instead of all mankind because of those implanted sins. This is God’s love and salvation.” Jesus admonished John the Baptist to obey Him. Accordingly, John the Baptist baptized Him. Jesus said, “Permit it to be so now. For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Mathew 3:15). Here, “all righteousness” in Greek is ‘πάσαν δικαιοσύνην’ (pasan dikaiosunen), which means the fairest state that has no defect at all.
To Cleanse All Our Sins, We Must Believe in the Righteous Acts Performed by Jesus We are like factories that produce sin from our birth. That is because we inherited our parents’ sins from the time we were in our mothers’ wombs. We are born on this earth having inherited the sin of ◄
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Adam and Eve, and are the originators and producers of sin who commit several hundred of kinds of personal sins until we die. We are producers of sins ‘from the cradle to the grave.’ Who then is the Person who saves such sinful beings and makes them righteous? It is Jesus, the Son of God, who was baptized by John the Baptist, shed His blood, and died. Our Lord said that it was the only and the most proper and just way of salvation for Him to be baptized to eliminate all mankind’s sins once and for all. John transferred all the sins of mankind to Jesus, and Jesus received on His body all those sins of mankind through His baptism. He said that was the most fitting way. We must believe what He said. Along with that, we must believe in the righteous acts that He performed. So, it says that John came in the way of righteousness. John spread correct Truth. We are foolish people who commit sin until the day we die. However, all our sins went over to Jesus by John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the Jordan
River, the river of death. Through this method of the laying on of hands, Jesus fulfilled all of God’s righteousness by being baptized. Before you and I were even born on this earth, our Lord came to this world and accomplished our salvation. As long as this world exists, people who are in the likeness of God’s image are born and die, and born and die again. All people commit sins while they are alive, and they eventually die. This will happen until the end of this world. Jesus came to this earth in 1 AD in order to save all these sinful people from their sins. He was baptized by John in order to save you and me from sin. Jesus was baptized and fulfilled all righteousness in order to save all of us from sin. He fulfilled all righteousness, that is, the remission of sins, through His baptism. Our Lord Jesus Christ took charge of all your and my sins through baptism. When Jesus was baptized, the voice of God, who was pleased, was heard from Heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God was saying, “He is My beloved Son. My Son will make
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you sinless by taking all the sins of mankind through this baptism.” We were originally people who would go to hell because of our sins, but since we have become people who possess Heaven by faith, we have spiritually become the violent who strongly believe in the work that Jesus and John the Baptist did.
As Jesus Gave Freely, I Hope You Receive Freely One day, I came to possess an expensive children’s watch. I wanted to give it to a child as a present, and as things turned out, three children passed by my side. I called those three children over. “Hey, kids, just a second.” “Yes, sir?” “I’ve got a watch and would like to give it to one of you. Who wants it?” I thought they would all beg for it, but strangely enough, all three of them
hesitated. Then, the first child spoke. “You’re not really going to give it. Don’t lie; and I don’t need it, anyway.” Then, he muttered to himself. “Nothing’s free. That guy’s a liar.” So, I held the watch out to the second child. He hesitated but accepted it. It seemed he was thinking for a while, and then he spoke as if he doubted. “You’re going to take it back, aren’t you? Or you’re going to tell everyone I stole it, aren’t you? I can’t do it. Taking something of someone else’s for free is dangerous. I won’t take it. I don’t need it.” I saw these children who willingly couldn’t accept a gift even when I wanted to give it to them and took the watch back with a somewhat bitter heart, wondering if I should resent the world that had made them that way. Then, the third child’s eyes opened up wide and he spoke. “Give it to me, please.” I quickly took out the watch and gave it to him. “Thank you, sir. But you can’t take back what you’ve given. If you do, they say you’ll grow horns
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on your butt.” That child alternated putting the watch on his left arm and right arm and liked it. My heart was lightened for the first time because of the third child. He was very cute and dear for believing me when I said I would just give it for free, accepting it and being pleased, and fastening it here and there. An upright heart of believing in the Lord is one like the heart of this third child. Heaven is believing what the Lord did for us, and gratefully accepting it; we enter Heaven by that kind of faith. All that people who possess the Kingdom of Heaven by faith have to do is to be joyful and thankful for God’s grace.
People Who Believe the Word of God in Their Hearts Are the Violent Who Took the Kingdom of Heaven by Force The faith of people who enter the Kingdom of Heaven by force is having faith of salvation that God gave us. This is faith in the spiritual Truth of salvation. Brothers and sisters, do you remember the Word in Romans that says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”? No one can receive salvation from sin through his or her virtuous deeds. No one can ever even get close to Heaven by his or her own behaviors or abilities. All people are sinners the same, whether they have committed many sins or not. No matter how good their acts are, they cannot pay the price of sin, and they can never go to Heaven by their meritorious deeds. So, who on earth goes to Heaven? Like when the Bible said, “The violent take it by
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force,” only people who believe that the Lord has remitted our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit can take and possess the Kingdom of Heaven by faith. People who have received salvation from sin by faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit enter the Kingdom of Heaven. “Lord! I believe that Jesus came to this earth to save us sinners, received the baptism of the laying on of hands from John the Baptist to take all our sins all at once. You came to this earth and did this; why wouldn’t I believe? Lord, I believe. I give thanks for the grace of salvation with which You remitted all my sins.” God is well pleased with and cherishes those who take the Kingdom of Heaven with gratefulness through faith like this. The Bible, which is the Word of God, is never a lie and is real Truth. It has never changed and continues to be handed down from the beginning of the world until now. The Bible is the Word of God. What can we believe in if we don’t believe in the Word of God? It is clearly written in the Word of
God that Jesus fulfilled all righteousness when He was baptized. People have to go to hell because they have sin. But it says that Jesus has taken all people’s sins by being baptized by John the Baptist. The Bible from the beginning to the end says that Jesus made all people sinless by His baptism. After Jesus received the sins of the world by being baptized, He shed His blood on the Cross. Jesus receiving the laying on of hands, being submerged in the water, and coming back up again refers to receiving all mankind’s sins, dying on the Cross, and being resurrected from the dead. Jesus personally took all our sins through His baptism, afterwards was nailed to the Cross and died, and was resurrected on the third day after He died. He now sits on the right hand of God the Father’s throne and gives words of proof of “ You have no sin” to the people who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Jesus coming to this earth and making us sinless is God’s righteousness. It is God’s salvation. You must believe this fact in your hearts.
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The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the Truth that must be in your and my hearts. You must believe in your hearts in the Word that you have heard up until now. You must take the Kingdom of Heaven by force through faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You and I are people who have taken the Kingdom of Heaven by force through faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in their hearts and have really received the remission of their sins can go to the Kingdom of Heaven. All your sins went over to Jesus Christ, and He received all the judgment for those sins instead of you. Then He was resurrected on the third day after He died, and sat on the right hand of God the Father’s throne and He sits there now waiting for the Day of Judgment. He is alive. The Lord came to this earth in the flesh of man, was baptized, died on the Cross, and was resurrected on the third day after He died. He testified of the Truth for 40 days after He was resurrected, and even
though He lived a short life of 33 years in this world, He now sits on the right hand of God the Father for eternity. There, He says to anyone who believes in his heart according to the Word of salvation, “That is right! That faith is right. You are one of my people. Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” Brothers and sisters! All your and my sins went over to Jesus through His baptism. So God said that from the days of John the Baptist, the Kingdom of Heaven would suffer violence. He said that the violent take it by force. He doesn’t ask why they take it by force; on the contrary, He leaves it to be taken by force. What do they take by force? People become the righteous by faith and take the Kingdom of Heaven by force that comes from that faith. That means they possess the Kingdom of Heaven by faith. This is correct faith. Whether people practice asceticism to distance themselves from sin, try not to commit sin, or pile up good works to go to the Kingdom of Heaven, it is all hypocrisy. No man can do that, no matter who he is
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because man is of flesh. Things will end badly soon no matter how much we try to act righteously because you and I have weak bodies. Our bodies want to eat if we see something tasty; they want to become prettier even if they’ve already become pretty, and they want to have more than others. As unhappy as it is, there is no end to a body’s greed. How can we who are like that live without committing sin? It is impossible. Therefore, we must become the righteous by faith, not our meritorious behaviors. We must become God’s children by faith, get eternal life by faith, and enter the Kingdom of Heaven by faith.
I Have Transferred All My Sins to Jesus and Become One of the Righteous by Believing in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit People become the righteous by their hearts believing just like the Bible says, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). Brothers and sisters, do you really believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in your hearts? Do you believe that all our sins went over to Jesus? If so, you are the righteous. You have no sin. You cannot have sin. Since Jesus came to this earth and took away all your sins, transgressions, faults, and insufficiencies at once by being baptized, you have no sin. Just as Elijah was the representative among the servants of God in the Old Testament that represented all the people of this world just as God’s
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servant, who is the representative of all humankind? He is John the Baptist. 2000 years ago, John the Baptist baptized Jesus in your and my places and transferred all our sins to Him. All the sins of your ancestors, your children, and the children of your children went over to Him at that time. Your parents are also people of the world as well as you. Everyone who will be born in the future is also included in the people of the world. John the Baptist declared, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Then, this passage means that Jesus has taken all the future, present, and past sins of the people of the world through His baptism. OK, let’s say you had original sin from the time you were in your mothers’ wombs, were born, and committed sins until you were ten. Did all those sins go over to Jesus or not? Of course they went over to Him. Of course not only the sins committed until you were ten went over to Jesus but also all the sins you will commit for the rest of your lives went over to Him. Since all the sins of the world went over to
Jesus like that, you have no sin. That is, if you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In John 1:29, there is a witness of Jesus that says, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John the Baptist witnessed this the very next day after he baptized Jesus. Just as this witness, Jesus received all the sins of the world through His baptism, carried all those sins to the Cross, and died there. The sins you have from the time you are in your mothers’ wombs and the sins you commit until the time you die are included in the sins of the world. The sins you commit knowingly and unknowingly because you are immature are sins of the world because you commit them living in the world. All sins are the sins of the world: Those committed knowingly, those committed unknowingly, those committed in secret and those committed publicly. All such sins of the world went over to Jesus. All sins we committed up until 20, 30, 40, and all we have committed until we die were passed over to Jesus. They clearly went over to Jesus.
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We must definitely know and believe in our hearts in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that eliminates all our sins and lets us possess the Kingdom of Heaven. Regardless of sex and age, everyone must know this fact and treasure it in his heart. Of course, I, too, believe in this Truth in my heart. Jesus has blotted out all our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist and shedding His blood and dying on the Cross. We must know that there is no way to receive the remission of our sins besides the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I am very thankful that Jesus alone took away the sins of the world. Let’s say that we committed sin from the time we were one until we were 30. This is actually the heyday of our lives. When life is at its height, we are prone to commit sins plentifully. The heyday of life is the heyday of sin. Not only the sins we committed in our heydays, but also the sins we commit until we die, as well as our parents’ sins and our children’s sins, went over to Jesus. Adam and Eve’s sins also
went over, and all the sins that mankind will commit until the last day of this world went over to Him. They went over to our Lord Jesus Christ by our faith in Him. I can’t say exactly when or on what day Jesus will come, but the end of this world is clearly on its way. On the very day He comes, a certain woman will surely give birth to a child. Jesus even took the sins of the child that will be born at that time. Since He has taken even those sins, anyone can receive the remission of his sins by faith in his heart in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, everyone must receive the remission of sins by knowing and believing in this Truth. The Bible says, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). You are the righteous. Looking from the perspective of faith, all the people of the world are sinless. From God’s side, their sins have already been eliminated. But they continue to have sin in their hearts for not believing
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that. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God eliminated the sins of the world in order for people to obtain eternal life because He loves them. He has saved all people so that there would not be a single person who is doomed to receive judgment. But there are so many people who do not know this. There are many Christians today who do not know what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is. Therefore, they are still sinners everyday. “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:13-14). You must now set your hearts on the fact that John the Baptist is Elijah to come, and believe that. John the Baptist is the representative of all mankind, the greatest man among those born to women, and the servant of God who is Elijah to come. Since John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, baptized Jesus and
transferred all the sins of the world to Him, all people are able to receive the remission of their sins from that time forth. Jesus my Savior was baptized, received all my sins, received all the judgment for those sins and died on the Cross. He was resurrected on the third day from His death, and is now alive and hears my prayers. He eliminated all my sins. He took them all away. He made me a sinless person. Even though I am unfaithful like this and a person who commits sin until I die, He made me a sinless person. This faith of mine is very real. That is because people who believe this fact in their hearts obtain salvation. And God already fulfilled all our salvation. This is God’s promise and His salvation. Whoever believes in this Word in his heart becomes one of the righteous and has the power to become God’s child. Therefore, I hope that you believe this in your hearts now. I hope that you take the Kingdom of Heaven by faith and become God’s children by faith. God said that one does not become a righteous person by living virtuously. On the contrary, He said,
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“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:2324). Now, you and I have become sinless people through the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your and my sins have been remitted by faith by the work the Lord had done. I believe in my heart that my sins and the sins of the world went over to Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist. Do you believe in this with your hearts? There were sins as red as scarlet and darker than ink in your hearts. These sins went over to Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus took all the sins you, I, and all the people of the whole world commit over our whole lives, and He eliminated the punishment of being cast into hell by being nailed to the Cross and dying. We had sins in our hearts, but they all transferred over to Jesus head by way of John the Baptist’s arm through the baptism John the Baptist gave to Jesus. So, where are our sins now? They are on Jesus’ head. Sins were in your and my hearts before Jesus was
baptized by John the Baptist. But all the sins of the world went over to Jesus through John the Baptist’s arm when he laid his hands on the Head of Jesus. Accordingly, your sins have now become Jesus’ and not yours. Brothers and sisters, Jesus, who was sinless, took all your and my sins, carried them to the Cross, shed His blood, and died there. In order to save us, a Person who had never committed sin was baptized and received the sins of the whole world. In order to pay that price, He received the punishment, suffering, and persecution of death. Since He took all our sins by being baptized, He had to be nailed to the Cross, pour out all the blood in His veins, and die. Jesus did not decline to lay down His life in order to save ours. That is how much He loved us. Jesus shedding His blood on the Cross was because He received the transference of your and my sins through baptism, and He died because of that. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans
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6:23). This means that we came to obtain eternal life by the grace of the Lord receiving, instead of us, the wages of sin, which is death. This was all possible because of the baptism of John the Baptist. That Jesus could say, “It is finished” (John 19:30), was also because He took charge of all sins through His baptism and fulfilled all righteousness. Jesus was resurrected from the grave on the third day after His death. He awoke from the dead. The resurrected Jesus diligently witnessed of the work He did and of the gospel for 40 days. And He ascended to Heaven before the eyes of many people. While ascending, the Lord promised that He would return to this earth, saying, “I will so come in the same manner as you see Me go into Heaven.” Our Lord saves people who believe in their hearts that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence from the days of John the Baptist. He allows them to obtain salvation by faith in their hearts and nothing else. How do you intend to receive the remission of your sins? Can you do it by living virtuously? No,
you can’t. No matter how many good things you do, you cannot eliminate even one tiny little sin of yours. You cannot do it by any meritorious deed. Just as a Korean saying goes, “There is no loyal son when a man has a chronic illness.” No matter how much people recognize someone as a nice person, if he is given intolerable pain for a long time, he will give up and come to reveal his true sinful nature. No matter how much a person hides his true nature and ulterior motives, and wraps his outside appearance in holiness, man is a being that ultimately reveals his true nature when things get difficult. If you have even just one thing that is good, I hope you do not forget that you have a lot of evil parts behind it. Therefore, you need not be ashamed of your sinfulness. That is what man is. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and eliminated all the sins of you, me, and all mankind. If a person does not believe that John the Baptist baptized Jesus, that person believes in vain even if he believes in Jesus. The account of Jesus’ baptism is
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recorded in all of the Four Gospels. This fact is extremely important, and we must absolutely know it. Brothers and sisters, I hope that you live by believing in your hearts according to what is recorded in the Word. For the Kingdom of Heaven to be yours for the first time, you must believe in Jesus’ love that eliminated all the sins of your hearts by His baptism, the Cross, and resurrection. You have no sins because Jesus the Savior cleansed them by the water and the blood. I hope that you surely believe this fact in your hearts. People who believe this are freed from all sins and have received salvation. This Truth is the Truth of the remission of all sins spoken of through the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle. I am thankful to God who saved us who had many sins.
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SERMON 12
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Let’s Believe in Jesus With the Understanding of John the Baptist < Luke 1:1-17 > “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous
before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
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And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’”
I Am Thankful That God Has Given Us the Spiritual Food Abundantly I went around here and there to buy a copy machine and saw that people were very busy trying to seek something that would satisfy them. They were impoverished spiritually even though they were living in this materialistically abundant and wealthy age and time. They looked like people who were wandering over the desert looking to find a way to get a glass of water because of extreme thirst. They were actually wealthy people fleshly and worldly in perspective, but I really felt that they looked very
poor and neglected as I looked at their souls. In my eyes, they were people who were fighting death because they were so stricken with poverty and hunger in their spirits; people who were dying of extreme spiritual famine. Seeing them, I came to realize the meaning of God’s Word, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” When Jesus was tempted after fasting and praying for 40 days, the first thing that Satan tempted Him with was food. Satan, the Devil, brought a stone before the presence of God and said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” When Satan tempted Jesus in that way, Jesus responded, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,’” and cast Satan away. He was saying that no one can live by the bread alone, and all the people must live by the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Humans need to eat the bread of the flesh, but everyone must eat the Word of God that
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is the spiritual bread, along with the bread for the flesh in order to enjoy real life. We must remember that we can truly live only if we eat all the Word of God and give thanks to God that God the Father gave us daily bread to eat in this world. How thankful should we be that God the Father also gave us His Word to eat spiritually with faith? Even so, I wonder if you really know how precious all the Word of God is to you. We need to know that there are so many people who cannot eat the Word of God even though they want to. We must think how blessed people we really are before the presence of God as we see such people who cannot eat this spiritual food. We must be thankful for God’s Word. We can eat the Lord’s Word abundantly with faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but most Christians still cannot eat God’s Word with faith even though they want to. The Lord says that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. There are some people who live in
this world without knowing that there is this Word of Truth when the thing everyone needs is God’s Word. As I think how so many people wander here and there without being able to eat God’s Word, even though they know that there is the Word of Truth, I realize once again how much we really are blessed by God. I realized again how blessed all the believers in God’s Church, the brothers and sisters in our Church are. But the more we feel such things, the more we, the believers living in God’s Church, must look ourselves over and see whether we are really thankful about this fact, and whether we are really eating God’s Word and whether we are thereby filled with thanksgiving. I am saying that I came to think in my heart that I should teach this preciousness to the people in the Church because there probably are many saints who do not understand that all these things such as calling out the name of Jehovah in the Church, calling out the name of the Lord Jesus, singing praises for the work He has done, saying
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prayers to Him, reading and listening the Word and sharing spiritual fellowship is really the precious grace of the Father. You don’t know what precious grace it is that we can hear God’s Word now. I realized how precious it is that I could look at God’s Word and preach to you like this and hear it from you, and also have fellowship together with the saints of our God. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then, do you really feel thankful and think it precious that we live by eating God’s Word this way? God’s Word is really precious. God’s Word is in a totally different level compared to the words we creatures speak. The Scriptures is the record of all the Word that comes out of God’s mouth, and therefore we live by God’s Word with faith. Those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must of course eat the things of the world because we have flesh. But, at the same time, we must also eat God’s Word while ordinary people just eat the things of the world. We
must also eat the things of Heaven because we have spirit also. I give thanks to God for giving such a blessing to all of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
“Me Also, Having Had Perfect Understanding of All Things from the Very First” Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke and he was a doctor. This person Luke recorded the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of Apostles while evangelizing the Lord’s gospel together with the Apostle Paul. The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of Apostles were made up of one book originally. There is a person named Theophilus that appears here, and we don’t know who this Theophilus is as of now. If we look at the Acts of Apostles chapter 1 verse 1, it begins “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.” And it continues, ◄
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“Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.” Hence, we could see through this passage that the Acts of Apostles is the epistle Luke wrote to a person named Theophilus. Theophilus must have been a person in high position since he was called “most excellent Theophilus,” and he seemed to have believed in Jesus as the Savior too. As we continue on, it says, “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us” (Luke 1:1-2). Jesus had
twelve disciples and they were people who experienced, heard, and saw Jesus Christ actually with both fleshly eyes and spiritual eyes. They shared with other people the Word of God they had heard. They shared it exactly according to what they saw and there were many workers who picked up the pen to record all those accounts according to the facts. This disciple of Jesus called Luke also thought that it would be good to write to the most excellent Theophilus about Jesus chronologically from its very beginning, saying that He also had seen all these from the beginning in detail. Luke said that he was doing this to make the most excellent Theophilus know firmly what he had learned. Luke, one of the disciples of Jesus Christ, began to write about Jesus Christ also. At the time, some people were spreading a rumor that the people who believed in Jesus Christ were bloodsuckers. They were saying that people who believed in Jesus had to be bloodsuckers since they said they lived by drinking blood. Luke wrote the refuting word to
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debunk such nonsensical rumors. He was saying, “They are not really drinking blood. They are just commemorating the blood Jesus Christ shed in this world with the wine.” As such, when someone slandered the Truth about Jesus Christ and wrote evil things, and when there was some writing of evil people written to harm Early Church Christians, Luke wrote the word of refutation for the people who really believed in God correctly. He proved that the false claim was not true and sent it to the people who were slandering the children of Jesus Christ and the influential people in high positions. He did this to prevent the people in high government positions from reading the words written by those slanderers and believing simply in their word and consequently persecuting the children of faith. Many people can have preconceptions. There were people at that time who believed such nonsensical rumors, the evil word that was flowing around that the people who believed in Jesus Christ were people who lived by the blood of human beings.
Therefore, they were saying that such people must all be killed. There is an old saying that a pen is mightier than a sword. Hence, the people who believe in Jesus refuted this with the word that denied such claim. People normally believe any book as it is when they read it. That was why Luke wrote this Book to a high-ranking official called Theophilus. The person called “most excellent Theophilus” here seems to be someone who believed in Jesus Christ as I have noted before. Maybe that’s why Luke, the disciple of Jesus Christ, said that he thought it would be good to write a detailed letter about Jesus Christ from the very beginning and from the most basic things as far as he knew. It was to confirm what the most excellent Theophilus had learned. The most excellent Theophilus had learned the Truth and believed in it. So Luke wrote this letter because he thought it would be good to write a letter to him about Jesus Christ in greater detail. This is none other than the Gospel of Luke.
John the Baptist Who Was Born ◄
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from the Family of Aaron They usually call this John who baptized Jesus John the Baptist to distinguish him from John the disciple of Jesus. Let’s read the Word from the Gospel of Luke chapter 1 verses 5 to 7. It says, “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years” (Luke 1:5-7). This is the story from the time of King Herod of Israel. Luke records the background of the birth of John the Baptist in detail from long ago. There was a priest from the division of Abijah and his name was Zacharias and his wife was Elizabeth. It says, “And they were both righteous before God, walking in all
the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” The division of Abijah refers to the descendant of Aaron the High Priest. Let’s look at the genealogy of John the Baptist. The divisions of the priests of the descendants of Aaron are listed in 1 Chronicles chapter 24. Let’s look at it together. It says, “Now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children; therefore Eleazar and Ithamar ministered as priests” (1 Chronicles 24:1-2). It is written that Aaron had begotten four sons. But it says that Nadab the eldest son of Aaron and Abihu died while offering up the wrong fire during the sacrifice and that Eleazar and Ithamar were the remaining sons. They took the priesthood and did the work of offering up the sacrifice to God. They did this work, and there come the names of 24 grandsons of Aaron from verse 6: “And the scribe, Shemaiah the son of Nethanel, one of the
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Levites, wrote them down before the king, the leaders, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the priests and Levites, one father’s house taken for Eleazar and one for Ithamar. Now the first lot fell to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah, the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim, the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin, the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah, the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah, the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim, the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab, the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer, the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Happizzez, the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel, the twenty-first to Jachin, the twenty-second to Gamul, the twenty-third to Delaiah, the twenty-fourth to Maaziah. This was the schedule of their service for coming into the house of the LORD according to their ordinance by the hand of Aaron their father, as the LORD God of Israel had commanded him” (1 Chronicles 24:6-19).
King David had arranged the Levitical Priesthood System because the descendants of Aaron had greatly multiplied. They were arranged into 24 divisions according to the families of 24 grandsons of Aaron. One of the priests from the division of Abijah during the time of King Herod of Israel in the New Testament times was named Zacharias. Zacharias was a descendant of Aaron the High Priest. King David made each division serve the duties of the Tabernacle for 15 days, and the division of Abijah appears here as the 8th in the order. John the Baptist appears in the Gospel of Luke, and today’s Scripture passage tells us about the genealogy of John the Baptist from the beginning. I have noted earlier that Luke thought that it would be better to send a letter that could explain the origin of the gospel to Theophilus. Therefore, Luke clearly showed the genealogy of John the Baptist by writing that there was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah and that His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. It
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says that Elizabeth also was a descendant of Aaron. It means that she was chosen from the house of Aaron. There appeared Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth: Zacharias was a priest from the division of Abijah, a grandson of Aaron the High Priest. Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. The Scriptures say that they were both righteous before God. It says that they were the righteous ones walking blameless in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. These people believed Jehovah God truly and purely as they served and followed the Law God had established for them in the Old Testament with sincere heart. The Old Testament says that His people should offer up the sacrifice of atonement for one year’s sin with the slaughtered goat, and they followed this Law blamelessly. The Scriptures record, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). It is saying that there is none righteous except the person who has received the remission of sins by believing in Jesus within the law of life. But these two people were called
righteous in the midst of all this. It means that even during the Old Testament times, these two people believed that the Messiah who was to come as the Lamb of sacrifice according to the promise of God would give them the remission of sins by taking the sins upon Him through the baptism and dying vicariously. That’s how they became righteous before the presence of God. Today’s Scripture passage says they were righteous, “walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” They were righteous in their actual walk, not only their words. And the Scriptures say, “But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing
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on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth” (Luke 1:7-14). As you can see, this elderly couple did not have a child. As he went into the Temple of God to perform his duty as a priest according to the order of the division and while he was offering up the sacrifice, the angel appeared to Zacharias at the time when he was offering the incense. Zacharias probably prayed to God for his own problem while he, of course, prayed for the people when he prayed before the presence of God. Don’t you and I pray like him? But the Scriptures record that the angel appeared at that time and said, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at
his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:13-17). The angel told Zacharias that God would give a son to Elizabeth, but Zacharias did not believe this. God made Zacharias mute to prove this because he just thought with human logic and could not believe in the Lord’s Word. Therefore, Zacharias became mute until the child was born. His mouth was loosened only after John was born. The angel said that God would give a son to Zacharias and Elizabeth and that his name shall be John. The angel also said that Zacharias would rejoice and be happy, and many people also would rejoice at his birth. It is written that John would be
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great before the presence of the Lord and he would be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb and turn back the descendants of Israel to God. It is also saying that he would go before the Lord with the spirit and power of Elijah and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. It says that God gave him the spirit and power of the Prophet Elijah. The representative prophet in the Old Testament is said to be the Prophet Elijah, and the New Testament says that John the Baptist is like Elijah. When the Scribes said that Elijah should come and recover everything before the Messiah would come, Jesus said, “Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished” (Matthew 17:12). When Jesus said that Elijah had already come, he meant that John the Baptist was born to this world with the spirit of Elijah. But what does the spirit of Elijah mean here? If we understand what the spirit of Elijah is, we can see why John the Baptist was the
representative of all humanity who prepared the path of the Lord. Moses is the representative of the Law in the Old Testament and the representative of all prophets is Elijah. But the representative of the all humanity is John the Baptist who had the spirit of Elijah. We could see why the Scriptures say that John has come in the spirit of Elijah when we study about Elijah the prophet in the Old Testament times. Elijah was the servant of God and the prophet from Gilead in the northern kingdom Israel. At the time, Israel was divided into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, and King Ahab ruled the northern kingdom Israel. But King Ahab brought a gentile woman as his wife even though he was an Israelite who was to revere and worship God. His wife Jezebel brought Baal into his palace in order to worship it as god when she came into the house of Ahab, and the Israelites began to accept and worship Baal that their queen Jezebel worshipped. Baal means ‘lord’ and it could also be translated
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as the ‘owner.’ This male god was commonly worshipped in the land of Canaan at the time. They believed that Baal was a god that made the land fertile and fruitful and made the livestock prosper and be abundant. Anyway, it was considered as some sort of god of prosperity. We also have Baal-like deities in our country. We could see Baal-like idols in the public cemetery, and people in Korea set it up without even knowing the origin of the image. Baal was a god that managed the productivity of the land and the prosperity of the livestock, and it is Baal that is worshipped mostly among the farmers. Such gods that are expected to manage the farming and livestock and the land are spread all over the world. This god is originally a gentile god, not the god of Israelite people. They brought in the gentile god Baal and made some kind of image of it, worshipped before it, and prayed for the blessing and the well being over everything. They prayed, “Please give me children. Please make the harvest be bountiful.”
In any case, Jezebel, the queen of the King Ahab, brought such a god into Israel. At first Jezebel worshiped this thing with her maidservants, but it spread and eventually many people worshipped Baal. The power of the queen is really greater than you think. There is a saying that goes, “It is men that move the world; but it is women that move such men.” If a man is the head, then a woman must be the neck. The head moves this way and that way when the neck moves this and that way. If the neck does not want to move, then the head cannot do anything but just stay still even if it wants to move. Just the same, the man will follow and move when the woman moves. As such, Queen Jezebel controlled King Ahab at her will. Consequently, what eventually happened? All of Israel became a country that worshipped Baal. Now Israel became a country that worshipped Baal the idol, the gentile god, not a country that worshipped Jehovah God. The prophet at the time of King Ahab was Elijah. The first prophet Moses, received the Law God gave
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him at the Mt. Sinai and proclaimed it to the people of Israel. He engraved the Law on the stone tablets and put it in the Ark and taught the Israelites what God’s Law was. Elijah was a prophet who lived during King Ahab’s time long after the days of Moses. At the time when Jezebel and the Israeli people were worshipping Baal, Elijah saw this situation and vigorously declared the will of God and fought against them, saying, “No, Baal is not God. The Baal with the meaning ‘lord’ is only an idol and it is not a true God. Worshipping it is a great sin to Jehovah.” But Jezebel and the Israelite people continued to sin and call Baal god. But, could Elijah alone be a match against thousands of them. Elijah heard the voice of God in secret and prophesied. He went to the people as a prophet and rebuked and advised them. But Elijah eventually had to go against 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah to prove the true God of Israel when they disrespected the Word of God saying that it was just a voice of one fanatic person. He said,
“Jehovah is the true God. Now, let’s see who is the true God,” and came to go against them 850 to 1. He said to the false prophets, “I alone am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God” (1 Kings 18:22-24). He also urged the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” Therefore the prophets of Baal first prepared the sacrifice and cried out continuously “Baal, Oh, our Lord Baal.” When it did not show signs quickly, they tore their own flesh apart as they called out to Baal. But there was no sign of Baal even though they cried out until the evening. The water was still there and
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the bull that was slaughtered as an offering was there untouched. Elijah saw this and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they hurt themselves and walked around the ditch and cried aloud desperately in vain. Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” He repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down with twelve stones, and made a trench around the altar. Then he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.” So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water. And he prayed, “Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.” Then the fire of the LORD fell from the sky and it licked up the water that was in the trench when he prayed in that manner. Then He burned up the burnt sacrifice with the wood on the stone altar while
all the people of Israel were watching. Only then, when Elijah showed the definite work of God in this manner, the people of Israel realized, “Jehovah God is the true God who really makes us prosper and makes our children prosper, and makes everything prosper. God is the only true God.” Their hearts repented and turned back before the presence of God. The Scriptures point to that in the Gospel of Luke chapter 1 verses 16-17, saying, “And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Who is the one that really led the Israelite people powerfully before the presence of God? Isaiah and Ezekiel were of course great prophets, but the prophet that really led the hearts of this people powerfully was Elijah. It was Elijah that gave the wisdom of the just to the disobedient, led the Israelites to understand God’s
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will, and taught them what God’s will is. The Scriptures said that John the Baptist, who is the greatest among entire human beings, the greatest among those born of women, would do this work; not some god. That’s why Luke the disciple of Jesus Christ mentioned the birth of John the Baptist with importance and said that John the Baptist was born with the spirit of Elijah. When we look at the Matthew chapter 11, it says that John the Baptist is the greatest among those born of women. Let’s read from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11 verses 10 to 14. It says, “For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if
you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” God promised in the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament that He would send a person like Elijah (Malachi 4:5). God said that He will send a person who would lead many people to God and then He fulfilled this Word of promise. This person God promised was John the Baptist. The Lord said, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:14). Many people in the Old Testament waited for Elijah to come. As they waited for the Messiah, they also waited for Elijah who would lead them to the Messiah. Then John the Baptist was born at the beginning of the New Testament era. John the Baptist was born to this world in the spirit of Elijah, and the Lord prepared John the Baptist for the sinners to turn back so many people to God, delivering them from the sinful state of worshipping Baal, the false god. That’s why Luke, the disciple of Jesus Christ, recorded the gospel in detail from its origin in the
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Gospel of Luke. Though we now know well about the ministry of John the Baptist because we have heard and believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there are many people who still do not know very well who John the Baptist is and what he had done. Even Christian believers do not know about John the Baptist who is recorded in such an important manner in the Scriptures. They do not know this even though they read the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of John, while John the Baptist was recorded with great importance in the Scriptures. Though the Scriptures talk about John the Baptist with great importance, people just take a superficial view of him, thinking, “John the Baptist is just one of the prophets and the servants of God.” They just say whatever comes to their mind without trying to understand correctly about him. Even today’s Christian leaders are saying things like that. Who really is Baal? Baal represents the false god of this world. But Jehovah God is the One
that exists by Himself. He said, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). This God was not created by a creature. But Baal is a figment of imagination created from human’s thinking. Humans make this as the subject of their worship and pray to it for their prosperity. The thing created from the thought of God’s creatures is Baal, and that is the idol. That is the religion of the world. Who is our God? The God we believe, the God who created the universe as recorded in the Scriptures, the God of Trinity that exists by His own will and power, is Jehovah God. Put differently, Jesus Christ is our Creator. But so many people in the world still believe in Baal. Many people in the world, whether they are Christians or not, make gods of their own with their own thinking and believe in them with wishful thinking. The same situation was unfolded at the time Jesus was born also, and what John the Baptist did was do the work of the prophet that made known to the people who really is the true God. John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah and
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made people realize who the real God is, and turned many people to the wisdom of the just. Who is the true deity, the true God? Is the God who saved us from sin the true God, or is the god that could not save even a single person from sin the true God? The deity that could not save people from sin can never be our God? But it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that even so many Christians are actually calling out their god Baal, even though they call out the name of Jehovah God with their lips. Some people define believing in Baal as making some kind of image and worshipping it. But Baal actually can be any kind of image or activity. It could even be a religion or a denomination. It means that even founding a new denomination in Christianity could be a Baal to its followers. John the Baptist who baptized Jesus Christ witnessed clearly about Jesus Christ to the people in the world. John the Baptist witnessed clearly that Jesus Christ is our Savior. John the Baptist witnessed clearly how the Lord took our sins upon Him for us.
Jesus Christ we believe is the true God. Can the world make us prosper? It may look as though the world can make us prosper, but that’s not really the case. Only God can make us prosper. Only God can make us happy, make us blessed, and make us prosper. The One who leads us to the blessed life and make us live within true happiness is none other than Jehovah God; not any other idol gods. He is Jesus Christ that we believe in. He is our Savior. When we look around, there are so many Christian believers in this day and age. But their interest is not in God, and their interest instead is actually in some persons, some denominations, and some organizations, even though they say they believe in Jesus Christ. They think they will be blessed if they worship like that and that they will be prosperous if they cling to that. Spiritually speaking, that is worshipping idols and worshipping the evil spirits. Their hearts are in their businesses, in their respective denominations, and toward some human
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beings even though they say just with their lips, “Lord, Lord.” I said that the word Baal means ‘lord.’ They say, “Lord, Lord” to Baal, to the creatures, instead of calling out to God as the Lord, and seek blessing from the creatures that God created. But did Baal, a creature of man, really make the Israelite people blessed? Did Baal really make this world blessed? Baal could not make anyone blessed. Baal could never make this world blessed. Baal just pretended to help people and just exploited them and made them fall to hell, but he could not really give happiness to people who worshipped him till the end. Though it looks like he is making them prosperous, he eventually leads them to the fire of hell. Among the Christian believers today, those who have not truly received the remission of sins have Baal as their lord even though they cry out “Lord, Lord.” I have said that Baal also means ‘load.’ It means the same thing as there is such deceitful heart in the hearts of the Christian believers. I am saying that Christians have the heart of feeling things, measuring
and analyzing what things in the world can do for them and what can the denomination do for them and so on, instead of having true faith in God who truly blesses them. Only God is our Lord and only God can give us heavenly blessings. Only Jehovah God can give us the blessing. Jehovah God alone can do this. Do you believe? Only God is our Lord.
What John the Baptist Did in This World The work of John the Baptist was witnessing to all the people that only Jesus Christ is our Savior and specifically making them understand how Jesus remitted the sins of the world. He told us how Jesus Christ took all our sins, how we must believe in Jesus Christ to become the children of God, and how we must believe to receive the heavenly blessings. Among those who say they believe in Jesus, there are many people that are actually worshipping Baal. ◄
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Those Christians who do not have the Holy Spirit in their hearts are those people. All the people who have not received the remission of sins are people who are still worshipping Baal. They call out “Lord, Lord,” but they don’t really care what the Lord says. They are just praying to God with an audacious heart asking for blessing and they don’t want to hear anything else from God. God is the thoughtful God who tells us all things through the Word such as how we receive blessings, and what is right and what is wrong. He is also the living God. He leads us with His Word step by step and gives to the disobedient the wisdom of the just, and gives the fatherly love to the believing children. Our God is alive even now and leads us to the upright path and speaks to us through the Church and through the predecessors in faith. But people think the false god Baal or material prosperity can give them happiness. But Baal can never give happiness to people. At a time when all the Israelites turned to Baal and worshipped him, the
Prophet Elijah proved who is the true living God and turned the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. Who was such a great leader? It was Elijah to come and he is none other than John the Baptist. The Scriptures said that John the Baptist would lead all the people to Jesus Christ and all the people would come to believe in Jesus Christ through his witness. The Bible is talking about this. It is not an overstatement to say that the path to your salvation is so very far away if you do not understand clearly what John the Baptist has done. The people who go around saying such and such is a cult and the people who do not accept God’s Word because they are arrogant and prideful, even though they do not know anything about the Truth, such people absolutely cannot receive salvation. John the Baptist is the person who was like Elijah. You have seen how Luke wrote in detail about John the Baptist from his origin, right? He gave proof that the one born with the spirit and power of Elijah was John the Baptist. The Scriptures witness in detail about John the Baptist in various aspects again and
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again. Do you believe that John the Baptist is the very Elijah? Today’s Scripture passage says, “He [John the Baptist] will also go before Him [Jesus Christ] in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’” John the Baptist witnessed Jesus Christ to the world. He witnessed to the people that only Jesus Christ is God of the Truth, and did the work of making many people turn to the side of the Lord. He made many people receive the true blessing. John the Baptist prepared his ministries for the people who believed in the righteousness of God, and worked hard to make them return to the world of the righteous. He dwelt in the wilderness, was clothed in camel’s hair, and his food was locusts and wild honey. John the Baptist raised the people who yearned to live for God and lived truly blamelessly, lived for God, and led many people to Christ. He witnessed of Him to the end. He not only made the
people receive the remission of sins, but also made the descendants of faith have the correct faith in their hearts for God. John the Baptist showed us through his life what the proper life for God really is. He was really a blameless person. It says that John the Baptist dwelt in the wilderness. He did not live in the world. It doesn’t make sense to think that we can serve God while mingling in this world with our own thinking. It means that it doesn’t make sense to look at other things of the world even more and accept them even more even though we say with lips we believe in God. That he ate honey and locusts in the wilderness means that he ate only what the Lord gave to him. It means that he depended on God while living in this world. John the Baptist is the model of God’s workers. Though we are insufficient, we must also devote ourselves to God and live for Him, and we must witness Jesus Christ for the rest of our lives. We must live the life of bringing back the disobedient, the people who have fallen to sin, to the wisdom of the
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just. We must live the life of manifesting the Lord, the life of making people receive the blessing. Luke also was talking about this fact. Through the Word, we have examined who John the Baptist, the Prophet Elijah to come, was from his birth in detail. Who is John the Baptist? He is the Elijah of the Old Testament. Who is the representative of the Israelites? Moses received the Law of God and delivered the Law to the Israelites, but the true representative of the Israelites is Elijah. Elijah in the Old Testament lived his life witnessing God and bringing the Israelites back to God, and then went up to God riding a chariot of fire.
John the Baptist Is the Elijah to Come and the Representative of All the Humanity Beside the question of what division and what family he belongs to, we could see one thing clearly
when we look at the birth of John the Baptist. That fact is that John the Baptist is the person God sent. His parents were too old to give birth to a child. Therefore, it is clear that he was not born through human means or human power. It was impossible from the beginning. So the Bible clearly states, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John” (John 1:6). John the Baptist was born through God’s special providence, work, strength, and power. It is written that many people will rejoice his birth, not only his parents. The birth of John the Baptist is a blessing and joy for us too. It would have been difficult for us to believe in Jesus and we would have been mocked by the Devil a lot if John had not been born to this world. We came to know Jesus Christ. If we just knew Jesus Christ and did not know John the Baptist and his ministries, Satan the Devil would tempt us to fall into sin again, and we would be the righteous today but the sinners next day. We may think we would go to heaven if we died on a very lucky day when our
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faith is very strong, and think we would go to hell if we died on an unlucky day when our faith was weak. That’s not proper faith. Therefore, we cannot receive the perfect remission of sins if we do not know correctly the ministries John the Baptist had fulfilled. It is one’s own confirmation of remission of sin that’s not perfect before the presence of the Lord. We must know clearly the role John the Baptist fulfilled. That’s why even the Scriptures record this in detail from his origin. Do you understand how important is the account of John the Baptist that Luke recorded in detail? Luke recorded the historical fact meticulously because it was very important. We could calculate exactly when King Herod ruled when we look at it historically. It’s right before and after the coming of Jesus Christ. At that time when Zacharias the priest was performing the burning of incense, an angel appeared to him and said that the Lord would give him a child and that the child had to be called John. The angel said this before John was even conceived. The angel
blessed him and said John would bring many people back to the wisdom of the just. Then who is this John the Baptist? The Scriptures record that John is the one coming in the spirit of Elijah and that he is Elijah to come. Therefore, many people will believe Jesus Christ through him by confirming that John the Baptist, as the representative of all humanity and the High Priest, has done the work of transferring the sins of the world over to Jesus Christ who came as the sacrificial Lamb. John the Baptist witnessed that Jesus Christ is the Savior for us all. All the things that we believed were in vain when we did not know the ministry of John the Baptist and the righteousness of Jesus. We just said we believe from our standpoint, but we did not have the evidence and the proof in us that God saved us from the sins of the world. But after understanding the ministry of John the Baptist, we were able to realize that we shouldn’t cling to the Lord from our standpoint, but that Jesus Christ saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Believing in this
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way is the correct faith. When we said we believed in God without knowing John the Baptist, we did not believe in the Lord according to His Word, but we instead believe in Him from a human standpoint. What happens when we believe in Jesus arbitrarily from our standpoint? The faith falls out when our faith becomes weak and we consequently go to hell. Committing sin every day and offering prayers of repentance every day like most Christians do is definitely not a correct faith. Saying, “I believe in You” from my standpoint and holding onto it is not a true faith. The faith of holding onto it myself just falls away when I become weak. But if we understand the ministry of John the Baptist correctly, we can understand how Jesus took all our sins away and know that he witnessed about Jesus Christ. He also said that Jesus is the Lamb of God that carries the sins of the world and also know and believe that we do not have any sin because of Jesus. The Lord and John the Baptist decided to take us to Heaven through their cooperative ministry.
Therefore, we have no choice but to go to Heaven even if we don’t want to because they worked so hard for that. Jesus saved us by fulfilling the righteousness of God through His baptism. We have received salvation like that. God decided to save us from the sins of the world and fulfilled this through the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:4-7). The Lord witnessed this through John the Baptist. Why was John the Baptist born? John the Baptist was born to this world in order to witness Jesus Christ, to make many people righteous, to confirm the work Jesus Christ did, to reveal that Jesus is the true God, to witness that Jesus is the true God who created the universe, and the Lord who saved all the humans. It is Jesus who blotted out the sins of all human beings perfectly and it is also the same Jesus who created them. John the Baptist came to this world to witness all these facts. I really give thanks before the Lord who came to us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I
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think about what we have to do as we go on living in the future. We must bring many people back to the wisdom of the just, live the life of witnessing Jesus Christ, witness that Jesus is the true God and the one and only God who carried away all the sins of the world. The Bible is telling us this. I want all of you to live such life of witness like John the Baptist. I truly want you to receive the blessing with God’s help and continuously live the life of a preacher the rest of your life.
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