 |
 Official Service(date) |
| Sunday Morning |
| Sunday Evening |
| Friday All-night |
|
 |
|
| 1 John Lecture |
| Revelation Lectures |
| Genesis Lectures |
|
|
|
| The message of the cross |
| Measure of Faith |
| Ten Commandments |
| Heaven |
| Hell |
| Spiritual Love |
| Spirit, soul and body |
| Sinful mind |
| Goodness |
| Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit |
|
|
|
|
  |
 Sermon > Cell Bible Study |
 |
|
|
Title |
Chapter 3-God Cultivates Men |
|
|
|
Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
|
Date |
|
|
|
1. The Reason Why God Cultivates Men
In the Bible, when Jesus said something spiritual that was difficult for people to understand, He always used parables. There are many parables in the Bible such as the parable of sowing the seed, harvest, and vineyard. This tells us that God is cultivating men and will separate the chaff from the wheat at the time of harvest. What, then, is the reason that God is cultivating men on this earth?
God is "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14), the Alpha and Omega, the First and Last, the Beginning and End (Revelation 22:13). He also has both divinity and humanity. Because He is divine, He is omnipotent, created the universe and all things in it, and rules over life, death, fortune, and misfortune of human race as well as their history. At the same time, because He has humanity, He created men and wanted to share His love.
God wanted true children who could love Him with their free will having emotion and reasons rather than angels who obey unconditionally just like robots. It is same as we would love our own children more than a robot even if it can do so much work to benefit us and seems so loveable.
That is why God the Creator made man in His own image and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. He created a man who had free will and began to cultivate him. When parents give birth to children and raise them, they do not consider their effort as toil or suffering because they have the hope that their children will somebody be a great joy to them after they grow up.
In the same way, God was so pleased when He created man. But God lamented because, after the Fall of Adam, the spirit of man died and the world was full of sins and all the plans of man were always evil. However, because there would be His true children who would love Him so much, He is still cultivating man.
2. The Reason Why God Separates Wheat and Chaff
Matthew 3:12 says, "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." This tells us that Jesus will come to the earth again and separate the wheat and chaff.
Just as a farmer sows the seeds, cultivates the crop, and harvests the fruit into the barn and throws away the chaff, God cultivates us and will separate the wheat and the chaff when the time comes. God's true children will be saved and enter into eternal life in kingdom of heaven. But God cannot help but leave those who are not God's true children go to the way of death.
Some may wonder, "Why does God of love lead some people to the way of salvation but leave other people to go to the way of death?" But we should understand that God is not doing it on purpose. God can just pay back according to what man has done and make him reap what he sows.
What, then, is the wheat and the chaff in the sight of God?
Those who love God and keep His commands will become wheat whereas those who do not follow God's will but evil which is against the truth will be chaff. Just as a farmer has to gather the chaff and burn it or use it as fertilizer, God has to burn the chaff, which is useless.
Heaven is such a beautiful place that we cannot even imagine, and God is good and holy. So, God would not want the kingdom of heaven to be polluted by bringing into heaven the people who are chaff.
God will finally separate the wheat and the chaff. He will bless the wheat to go into the kingdom of heaven and live with God forever. On the contrary, He will throw into the fire of hell those who do not live within the word of truth but compromise with this world.
3. The History of Human Cultivation
God made the first man Adam, brought him into the Garden of Eden, and let him protect the garden ruling over all living things as the lord of all creation. God also blessed him to multiply, increase in number, and fill the earth. But because Adam disobeyed God's command and ate the forbidden fruit of tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he was driven out from the Garden of Eden to this earth. Since that time on, God has been cultivating man on this earth.
What, then, is the reason God sowed seeds on this earth through Adam and has been cultivating men? Just as a farmer does not cultivate only for a year but keeps on cultivating his crops, God has been cultivating men since the disobedience of Adam. God gave the seed to Adam to spread his descendants and has been continuously sowing and harvesting.
Therefore, if the sinners, who were going to the way of death through Adam who disobeyed, accept Jesus Christ to become a righteous man, they will become the wheat. However, those who remain as sinners because they do not open their heart and do not accept Jesus Christ, or those who do not live according to the Word of God but keep on disobeying will become chaff who will reach the death.
Therefore, the human cultivation continues from the time when Adam became a sinner and his spirit died due to his disobedience until Jesus, who came to this earth to save human race, comes back again.
But the human cultivation does not include the long period of time when man multiplied and increased in number and was ruling over all the earth obeying God's Word before Adam's disobedience. During that time, all men lived according to God's Word and the human cultivation to get true children of God did not begin yet.
Darwinians or geologists misunderstand the Bible saying, "The Bible is wrong because it says the beginning of human race is only several thousands of years back," not knowing the above fact. Even before Adam's disobedience, there was human history in which people lived in the Garden of Eden multiplying and increasing in number. Only after the Fall, men came to have death. If we realize this fact, they cannot but accept creationism. That is why there is not a single fossil of human beings within 6,000 years of time, which is the time since Adam's Fall.
Nevertheless, because people teach Darwinism, they do not know about God the Creator, so they go to the way of death. However, those who believe the Word of the Bible that starts with "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," seek God and worship Him, and live within the word of truth.
|
|
