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 Sermon > The message of the cross |
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Title |
The Message of the Cross(3) - God the Creator (3) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Gn 1:1 |
Date |
2005-04-03 |
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[Scripture]
[Genesis 1: 1],
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
[2 Timothy 3: 16]
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,"
[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Today is the 3rd session of the "Message of the Cross". I will continue explaining our last two sessions dealing with what kind of entity God is.
First, God is the Creator of all things.
Human beings and all things did not come to existence by chance. They were designed and created by God the Creator. Secondly, God is "I AM WHO I AM." Nobody gave birth to God or created Him but He existed by Himself from before the eternity, and He will exist throughout eternity.
Thirdly, God is omniscient and omnipotent. God is able to do even the things that cannot be done by human ability. God knows all things about the past, present, and the future.
I explained up to this point in this in last two sessions.
Today I will tell you about the fourth aspect of God, the author of the Bible.
I hope you will certainly believe that the Bible and God's Word are true through today's message.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, in your belief, you will obey and practice God's Word and receive all the blessings promised in the Bible.
[Body]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when you come to church everyone receives a bit the Bible. The way of salvation is clearly written in the Bible.
It explains why God created human beings, how He leads human history, and about the beginning and the end of human cultivation.
It also clearly tells about heaven and hell, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the duty of men.
When you believe and practice these things, you will gain salvation and life. Then you will gain the qualifications to enter the heavenly kingdom.
There are countless books in this world. But, only the Bible can give salvation and life to men.
Then, who wrote this Bible? The Bible consists of 66 books as a whole: 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. It is known that total 34 people recorded the Bible: 26 people for the Old Testament and 8 people for the New Testament.
For example, Genesis was recorded by Moses, and the Ecclesiastes by Solomon. Isaiah was recorded by Isaiah.
In the New Testament, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are named for their recorders, the epistles were recorded by the apostle Paul, Peter, James, and Judah.
It took total 1,600 years for the Bible to be recorded: 1,500 years for the Old Testament and 100 years for the New Testament.
The Bible is the collection of books written by 34 people over a period of 1,600 years.
But the author of the whole Bible is God.
As said before, there were 34 writers, but they were not the authors but ghostwriters.
Let me give you an example. Let us say a mother who is living with her elder son wants to write to her younger son who is living apart.
This mother tells her elder son the contents of the letter for him to write it.
Then, whose letter is this? Is this a letter of the elder son since he wrote it?
No, it isn't. Although it was written by the elder son, the contents were from the mother.
In the same way, the content of the Bible is the Word of God. God moved those who were appropriate in His sight and had them write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
About this, 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."
2 Peter 1:21 says, "For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
Isaiah 34:16 says, "Look in the scroll of the LORD and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together."
Although there are many writers of the Bible, the whole Bible never conflicts with itself having consistency as if it were written by one person.
It is because it was written by God the almighty through the works of the Holy Spirit.
Because the Bible is recorded by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you must also interpret it with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 3:16 says, "He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."
If you do not interpret the Bible by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but with human thoughts, you will understand it differently than God intends. You will fall into destruction.
If you interpret the Bible with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you will be able to realize that the verses match one another.
It is as said, "None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate."
Just as beads must be threaded to become a necklace, each verse is completed through the mating with the verses that complement and make it perfect and complete in it's spiritual meaning.
Let me give you an easy example. Acts 2:21 says, "And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But with only this verse, we cannot understand the will of God about salvation completely.
As said in Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven," we cannot meet the condition of salvation only by calling on the name of the Lord.
Therefore, Romans 10:10 says, "For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."
Namely, only those who have been justified by believing in their heart will be saved by confessing with their lips.
What then, is to be believed? James 2:14 says, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" Those who are justified by believing in their hearts will be followed by the evidences of their deeds.
If you truly believe that Jesus died to forgive your sins, actions will follow as you live according to God's word.
Since you love God and the Lord who gave His life for you, you would not want to hurt God's heart and you should naturally begin to cast off sins.
Also, if you truly believe the love of the Lord, you will love your brothers as your selves.
You will not hate, envy, judge, condemn, or seek your own benefit, but serve, sacrifice, and help the needy to show the evidence of your faith with deeds.
But the deeds are not only outward displays. Romans 3:28 says, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."
No matter how much you practice the truth, if you don't do it with faith, you cannot be justified by deeds alone.
Your heart should become holy because you believe in the Lord, and your deeds must come from the holiness of the heart as complete deeds.
Therefore, to 'believe in the heart' means to make your heart holy from which holy deeds can come. Namely, it is to circumcise your heart.
When a man circumcises his heart by believing in this way and confesses the name of the Lord with his lips, he will receive salvation.
If you did not know the 'mates" or complements of these verses, you might misunderstand the truth thinking, 'I will be saved only if I accept Jesus as my Savior,' or 'I will be saved even though I live in sins if I just believe in heart.'
So, in this case, you will keep on committing sins, and consequently, you will not gain life but rather go to destruction.
Likewise, to know the will of God correctly in each verse, you have to know the mating verses. This way, you can completely understand the correct spiritual meaning.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Bible is the Word of God, and all the words in it are true.
This can also be testified to throughout history. You can see in the Old Testament that the history of Israel, the historical events and people, and the places and customs are very realistic.
Also, as I mentioned last time, there are many prophecies in the Bible, and each of them is being fulfilled.
For example, Luke 19:43:44 says, "The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. [44] They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."
This is the prophecy by Jesus about the destruction of Jerusalem.
About 40 years after this prophecy, around 70 AD, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by General Titus of Roman Empire. The process was just as Jesus had prophesied.
Roman army built an embankment around the city wall. After they conquered the city, they brutally killed the children and destroyed all the buildings not leaving any stone on another.
In addition to this, there are prophecies about many historical events, and most important of them are the prophecies about Jesus. To fulfill the way of the salvation, which is the main subject matter of the Bible, the Savior had to come to save mankind who are all sinners.
So, God gave detailed prophesy in many places of the Old Testament about Jesus who would become the Messiah: His birth, ministry, sufferings, and resurrection.
When the time came, as God had promised, He sent Jesus to this earth. The New Testament records in detail about Jesus fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament.
Let us review some of them. The first is about the birth of Jesus.
In Genesis 3:15, God tells us that the Savior would come among the people of Israel.
When He cursed the serpent, He said, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
Here, 'woman' spiritually refers to Israel. It is obvious for a man to be born of a woman. The reason why God still says it is because there is spiritual meaning in it.
Revelation 12:5 says, "She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne." It testifies to Jesus who came through a woman, that being the people of Israel.
Isaiah 7:14 says, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."
Micah 5:2 says, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."
As prophesied, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary in the stable of lodge in Bethlehem.
Also, after Jesus was born, King Herod ordered all boys under the age of 2 killed in an attempt to kill Jesus.
But at that time, God moved Jesus to Egypt through the dream of Joseph.
After King Herod died, God called them back to Israel through another dream.
In the Old Testament, Hosea 11:1 prophesies concerning this saying, "out of Egypt I called my son."
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he rode on a donkey as prophesied in Zechariah 9:9.
It is said, "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
Also, as said in Psalm 41:9, "Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me," Judas Iscariot, who was receiving the bread of God's word at the closest distance, betrayed and sold Jesus.
As said in Zechariah 11:12, '"If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.' So they paid me thirty pieces of silver," Judas Iscariot sold Jesus for thirty silver coins.
In addition to these, many places in Isaiah, Psalms, and Zechariah prophesy in great detail how Jesus would suffer, in what kind of tomb He would be buried, how He would resurrect from the dead and how He would ascend.
Likewise, many prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament were all fulfilled in the New Testament one by one.
Not only the Bible, but also history testifies to Jesus. Namely, the AD, with which we say this year is 2005AD, was started with the birth of Jesus.
Also, 1 Corinthians 15:6 says there are 500 people who witnessed the resurrected Lord.
It says, "After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep."
Through these witnesses, the resurrection of the Lord has been made known all over the world.
Up to this day, the fact that the words in the Bible about the Lord are all true and the words of God are spread through out the world.
Also, those who hear and believe these things can meet and experience God, the author of the Bible. When they believe and practice the word of promise given by God in the Bible, they can experience works of our God who keeps His promise and guarantees His words.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Bible prophesies about the signs and the world situations during the last days before the Lord comes.
It also prophesies about our future things including the 7-year Great Tribulation, World War III, the Millennium, the Judgment Day, and about heaven and hell.
The Bible also tells us in detail how we, who are living in this kind of flow of history, can receive salvation and blessings and how we can get to the heavenly kingdom.
But some people, although they profess their faith in God, do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God.
There are some others who say they believe the Bible is the Word of God, but do not completely believe the words of the Bible. So, when the Bible does not agree with their thoughts or to their benefit, they will not act according to it.
The Bible is certainly the Word of God which is completely guaranteed by God.
Therefore, to those who believe in the promises in the Bible and practice them, God blesses them as He promised.
For example, Mark 9:23 says, "If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
Mark 16:17-18 says, "And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; [18] they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."
As said, everything is possible for those who have perfect faith, even the signs of God's power can be performed.
Also, Exodus 15:26 says, "He said, 'If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.'"
As said, if you stay away from sins and keep God's commands, no disease will fall on you.
Even if you get a disease by not living according to God's commands, you can be healed after you break the wall of sin against God.
So, even when you receive a prayer from a powerful man of God to be healed of your disease or to solve your problem, you first have to repent.
After you repent deep in your heart and break the wall of sin, you can receive true faith from above. Our members always see, hear, and experience these words of God are all true.
For example, Deaconess Jung A Lee of Nissi Orchestra in our church, found a problem with her little daughter Hye Na in June 2002.
At that time, Hye Na was four months old. She could not sleep due to high fever, and her legs became weak and shaky.
She was diagnosed with a tumor in her hip joint. Her hip joint had an inflammation that was badly infected.
The doctor said, if the infection spread around the body along the veins, she could die within a week due to blood poisoning.
To make it worse, she was too young to receive surgery, and even if she received surgery, there was a strong chance that she would be disabled afterward. The deaconess was heartbroken seeing her daughter suffer and decided to rely on God and left the hospital.
While praying for her daughter, she realized it was her fault that her daughter became ill, and she began to repent of her sins.
She repented deep in her heart for having her faith cooled down, not praying, not being faithful in God's kingdom, not being thankful to God, and not living according to God's Word.
Then, with a peaceful mind, she came to me and received my prayer.
After the prayer, her daughter, who could not sleep crying, went to sleep peacefully. She soon gained strength in her legs and was able to move.
About a month later, through the MRI picture, Deaconess Jung A Lee was able to see that her daughter was completely healed.
The doctors said she would have disability even after surgery, and without surgery she would not live. But, she is growing up healthily to this day. Seeing these testimonies, you can realize that the Bible is true and that God attests to His words of promise in the Bible.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and viewing audiences, in the three sessions through today's, I explained about who God is.
God is the Creator of all things, He is "I AM WHO I AM," He is omniscient and omnipotent, and the author of the Bible.
Of course, there are many other ways to explain Him.
God is light, love, the Judge of the final judgment, and our Father who loves you and me.
To the extent that you read the Bible, meditate on it, and act according to it, you will realize more things about God and surely meet the God the Father of love.
Proverbs 8:17 says, "I love those who love me and those who seek me find me."
If we truly love somebody, we would want to do what that person wants us to do.
To love God and to seek Him is to believe in His Word, the Bible, and keep His Word.
Then, God will love you. He will give answer to your prayers and meet you saying, "Here I am. I heard your prayer."
I hope you will certainly believe in your heart that the Bible is the Word of God and try your best to practice the commands in it.
I pray in the name of the Lord that God will love, meet, and bless you who are doing this, and lead you to New Jerusalem in the eternal heavenly kingdom. |
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