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 Sermon > Sunday Evening Service |
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Title |
Roots of Sin and Sanctification(1) - Roots of Sin and Sanctification (1) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Job 4:8 |
Date |
2011-11-13 |
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Scripture
Job 4:8
"According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it."
As the lyrics of the God-given song "Earnest Hope" read, all of you have earnest hope in your hearts.
This hope is the hope of seeing the Lord and accomplishing goodness of heart.
This hope is the one that our Lord has given to all of us.
But unfortunately many of you have forgotten or you have even lost this hope.
At one time you were cut off from the hope of seeing the Lord because of the sins depriving of salvation and sins leading to death.
But God one again shined a stream of light of this hope on you once again.
On December 25 of last year, God the Father extended great and amazing grace to you.
When you repented from the heart, you could even be forgiven of the sins leading to death by God.
You were able to lay down and be relieved of such a heavy burden of sin, accomplish goodness of heart, and restore the hope of seeing the Lord again.
At the group cell leaders' seminar held in the last July, you were not only able to discover and demolish your 'self' but you regained the confidence that you could enter into spirit and whole spirit again.
It's because you saw many around you come to stand on the rock of faith, approach the level of spirit and even enter into spirit.
One more reason is that you heard the happy news that spiritual change has become easier by the aurora-like lights, namely the original lights of God.
God also promised that many of you would be able to reach the level of spirit and whole spirit within this year, and it filled you with hope.
Now many of you are holding fast to the promise and you are eagerly running the race of faith with fasting and prayer.
But are there still some of you who are feeling distressed thinking, 'Some people could enter spirit in just one year and others, only one or two months after making their determination. But why can't I do that?'
Through this message I wish for you to realize the reasons why.
In the name of our almighty Lord Jesus Christ I pray you may have the assurance that you can do it and enter into spirit and whole spirit as quickly as possible.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Why is it that your hearts are willing, but you are slow in entering spirit?
The speed of entering into spirit is different depending on how deeply rooted your sin is.
In other words, it differs according to how deeply piled up your wall of sin is before God.
If you think you are slow, you have to examine each point and then you can get the answers.
Deeply rooted sin refers to sinful natures planted deep within your heart.
Jesus likened our hearts to fields.
Our heart fields can be planted with truth and goodness, or planted with untruth, sins, and evil.
If sins and evils have been planted, uprooting them can be easy or difficult depending on the depth the sinful natures were planted.
It can be likened to a rice seedling. A week after rice seedlings are planted in the field, they can be easily uprooted, even by rippling water.
It is the same with uprooting or casting off sins.
When you commit light sins, if you immediately repent and turn back, the sins are not planted into your heart.
Suppose a child attends a kindergarten and there she learned about Hell and was taught not to tell a lie.
Yet she still found herself telling a lie.
After that she was so scared about it.
She made a firm resolution that she would never lie again.
She told a lie, but because she repented immediately and the sinful nature of lying was not planted in her heart.
Let's say that your coat or your body got dusty, if you immediately dust it off, it's made clean again.
Being cleansed of sins is much the same.
Thus, if you immediately turn back from sins, the wall of sins is not built between you and God.
It's because you destroyed it right away.
But even if sinful natures are not planted into your heart through your self-committed sins, you still have to suffer trials to cast off sinful natures that are inherited.
Basically all people are born with original sin that is inherited from parents.
Those who were born in faith and have grown up in an environment of truth can easily enter into spirit by just removing the evils contained in their natures.
Because they have not taken in worldly things or enjoyed sinful pleasures, they can easily cast off sins and evils.
They don't have to receive fiery trials like Job and they don't have to struggle with sins.
Most of these people already stood on the rock of faith, but have failed to attain to the level of spirit because either they didn't know how to enter spirit, or they have a minor deficiency of the body.
If they just discover those points, then they can immediately enter into the level of spirit.
If they discover it within themselves and realize what to remove, they can uproot their sinful natures as easily and quickly as the newly-planted rice seedlings are uprooted.
Now it is even easier because God is covering you with the original lights and pouring down the showers of grace on you.
You can remove every sin and evil you discover, and thus you can enter into spirit in a short time.
In reality, there were only a very few members who had been able to enter into the level of spirit just one or two months after they became determined to do so.
Dear brothers and sisters,
When you commit a sin, if you don't repent but continued to repeat the sin twice and ten three times, the situation becomes quite different.
In the midst of continually sinning, the sinful natures are planted and become rooted in your hearts.
Month old rice seedlings are not easily uprooted.
They have their roots in the soil and the number of rice stalks from three or four to seven or eight.
Those rice stalks can be uprooted but you have to use strength to pull them out.
In the same way, if you resolve to and cast off sins, you can do it without much difficulty.
But, it is also much the same when your body or clothing is dirty with oil or sewage that is not easily removed.
You cannot just put clothes in the washing machine or rinse off in a shower to get clean.
You have to work at it using soap or detergent to clean the clothes.
Then they will be clean again.
It's because even though you committed sins, not much evil has filled your heart and you don't love the world too much.
Some of you sinned not because your heart was evil, but because your self-righteousness was too strong or because you didn't live by God's word and did not pursue knowledge of the truth.
But it is still sin in the sight of God.
So, this case takes more time to enter into spirit than in the former case.
In this case of planted sin, people must surrender in obedience to the truth with fasting and fervent prayers.
But it doesn't take as long time as you might think.
About a year is enough.
A sister who has recently entered into spirit testified that it took 18 months, one and a half years.
There was a brother who did it in less than a year.
The brother said it took only 9 months.
He once had walls of sin before God, but those walls were not the ones that were too thick to be destroyed.
But he saddened God a little, so he had to struggle to restore the trust between God and him.
What should we do in order to restore full trust before God?
It is to never commit a sin again.
And when you remove sinful natures from deep within your heart and become a man of spirit you can restore His trust completely.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Unlike two previous cases, if you have repeatedly committed severe sins, it is never easy for you to enter spirit.
Three or four months after rice seedlings have been planted, rice stalks have roots deep in the soil of the field.
Many smaller roots are firmly fastened into soil, those rice stalks are not easily uprooted even when pulled with great strength.
In this sense, what does a farmer have to do when rice stalks produce heads of rice and ripen at harvest time?
He must cut off the stalks with a scythe instead of uprooting them.
It can be likened to a build-up of dirt and dust that has accumulated on the body and made solid.
It is also like a white garment that has been deeply stained with dirt and turned almost black.
Just as such a garment cannot be cleaned with one or two washings, a person in such a spiritual state you cannot be cleansed with fasting prayer just once or twice, either.
You must repeat the cleansing again and again.
If necessary, you have to use hot water and special detergent and soak the garment in it to remove stains and get it clean.
Spiritually, you have to receive special grace in season and uproot the roots of sins.
It's because, like the seedling, the roots of the sinful natures planted in your hearts have taken root too deep and too tightly.
Hebrews 4:12 reads, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
Joints here spiritually refer to frameworks that are formed when self-righteousness is solidified.
Marrow refers to the roots of evil stuck deep within your hearts.
The above verse tells us men's frameworks and sinful natures can be stuck in the depths of their hearts and thoughts.
Evils are not planted just in your soul and spirit, but also into your thought and your heart.
Sins and evils can be combined not only in the joints of our bones, but also in the marrow deep inside the bones.
The feelings from the gratification of sin is planted so deeply into the body that the people are addicted to sins like the addictions to alcohol or nicotine.
Alcoholics experience their body craving alcohol even though they are struggling to quit drinking.
If they quit drinking, withdrawal symptoms occur.
They shake, have cold sweats and tremors. They feel upset, uncomfortable and irritable.
Those symptoms stop when they drink.
It is the same with smoking.
Tobacco addicts experience indigestion, headache, insomnia, and depression when they quit smoking.
For this reason, a heavy smoker continues smoking even though they lose their health, their teeth turn yellowish and they are not welcomed by the people around him. |
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