SERMONS ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW (Ⅲ) - WHICH GOSPEL PERFECTS CHRISTIANS?

The Scripture passage that we read today describes the death of John the Baptist. When the Roman Empire ruled Israel as its subjugated colony, it placed Herod as a tetrarch, and it was by Herod that John the Baptist was killed, for John had denounced Herod’s sin. King Herod had a brother named Philip, who had a wife called Herodias. When Herod took his brother’s wife and lived together, John the Baptist denounced him harshly for his unlawfulness. Herod was not pleased by this, and wanted to kill John right away, but he could not do so. At that time, people thought of John the Baptist and believed in him as one of the prophets of the Old Testament, because of this it was not easy for Herod to put John to death. So John was imprisoned instead.

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When Jesus was on this earth, He often prayed. This was because our Lord also had flesh. Although Jesus Christ is fundamentally God Himself, He was incarnated in flesh to save all the sinners of the world from all their sins. In other words, He had to come in the flesh of man to fulfill the will of God the Father. Having thus come to this earth, He had to be baptized, be crucified, shed His blood, die on the Cross, and rise from the dead. While Jesus Christ was on this earth, He had to be baptized by John the Baptist to follow the will of God and fulfill the righteousness of the Father.

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When we focus on the last part of today’s Scripture passage, we can see just how abundant grace God has bestowed on mankind. The great multitude that was following Jesus Christ had not eaten for three days, and so they were starving. It’s written here that seeing them, Jesus had so much compassion for them that He said, “I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” He then blessed seven loaves of bread and two fish and gave them to the multitude; they were then all filled and there still were seven baskets full of leftovers. Over 4,000 men were fed, besides women and children.

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There were many difficulties for me in the year 2000. You probably went through some hardship as well, right? Had Jesus not protected us, we would have passed away already, but we know that our Lord has kept us alive, for He is truly powerful. Even when all our ministers and saints at our Mission are added up, our number is only a few hundred, and so in some ways, it does seem to make little sense for such a small gathering to try to work with the whole world. However, even through this, we once again realize just how great God’s power is. Even though we are insufficient, the Lord is never insufficient. That’s why I believe that if it’s the Lord’s will, then it will be fulfilled for sure. Even though we are small in number and preach the gospel to the whole world, it is very hard for us to work so incessantly. When I really think about it, we are indeed doing something truly amazing.

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Based on today’s Scripture passage, let us reflect together on the issue of how the born-again righteous people must deny themselves. For some of you, it’s now been a long time since you first received the remission of sin; for others, it’s been a few years; and for some, it’s only recently that you received the remission of sin. As we, the righteous, follow the Lord after being remitted from all our sins and justified, there are many times when we must deny ourselves in our everyday lives. For those who were saved only recently, denying oneself is still superficial, but for the saints who received the remission of sins a considerable time ago, they increasingly realize how much they must deny themselves in God’s Church.

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In my previous sermon, I explained how the born-again righteous people must deny themselves, take up their respective cross, and follow the Lord. Through the example of Peter, let us give some more thought to this issue.
Jesus told His disciples that He would go to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise from the dead on the third day. Peter then took the Lord aside and tried to dissuade Him earnestly and desperately, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” My fellow believers, can you understand what was in Peter’s heart? He had followed Jesus as his teacher. Even though Peter had followed the Lord staking his entire life on Him, all of a sudden Jesus said one day, “I must now go to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed. And I must rise from the dead in three days.” Peter was so shocked to hear his teacher saying that the time was nearing for Him to die. So Peter took the Lord aside and asked Him earnestly, saying, “Please don’t do that! Don’t go to Jerusalem! And You don’t need to suffer from them and be killed by them. Don’t allow this!”

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Today’s Scripture passage records a conversation that took place between the Lord and Peter. The Lord said here, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Let’s examine why Jesus Christ said these words.
As we carry on with our lives of faith, there are times when we find it very hard to continue on. Haven’t you also had times like this, when you found yourself struggling to carry on with your life of faith even though you wanted to follow the Lord faithfully? In general, this happens often because of the fact that you love yourself too much. If we love ourselves more than the Lord, then it’s very hard for us to follow Him. This is the issue that the Lord is addressing for us in today’s Scripture passage.

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Before I begin, I would like to first give my thanks to the Lord for saving many brothers and sisters during this Discipleship Training Camp (DTC). As the hour is already getting late, I will try to finish my sermon as quickly as possible. Through this DTC, our God has saved all the souls of the Gospel Class. I am sure that more people would have given their testimony of salvation if there were more time for this. But as we were pressed for time, not everyone was able to testify today. To those who were not able to give their testimony here, I ask you to each return to your respective churches and give your testimony of salvation there. If you have any questions, I encourage you to not hesitate to ask, and I also admonish you to lead your life of faith diligently. It’s the weak and insufficient children of God whom our Lord wants to hold and bless.

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Today I removed the wood-burning heater used in our church and put in a new wood-burning heater. So I tried the new heater as a test run and it turned out to be excellent in thermal efficiency without producing a lot of smoke. Is it warm and cozy in here now? Should I turn the heater up? Isn’t it nice to be so warm in the middle of winter? As far as the winter times are concerned, the best deal is to find warmth at as little cost as possible. As the Korean saying goes, “What else could be nicer than to have a full stomach and a warm back?” It is best to be warm in this winter. We took out the large heater and put in a smaller one, but its thermal efficiency is so good that I am confident to say that we’ve met one of our long-cherished desires for this winter.

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In these end times, God has given us members of His church, made us preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world, and enabled us to spread this gospel to souls in Korea as well. I thank God for blessing us like this with faith. Today in this last age, both laymen and every pastor in the mainstream Christianity, including Evangelicals, are devoting all their attention only to building bigger church buildings. It takes a tremendous amount of financial resources to construct a church building. So pastors are now mobilizing all kinds of schemes to wring money out of their congregation. I heard that a certain pastor was collecting money almost by force, by nagging his congregation to death, constantly telling them how his colleague was building a church that costs $3 million, and how he had to match this. Although they have built a huge church building with marble walls, there actually aren’t that many people inside this church. It’s said that by the time the construction was over, almost every church member had fled.

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