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10-1-2017 Weekly Message

The contemplation of the week: Psalm 98: 1-9

Text: I Corinthians 13: 1-13

The title of the Word: God So Loved The World To Death; So He Will Judge The Nations That Reject To Believe In Him

         To the Pharisees and scribes who did not understand God’s love, Jesus told them to realize that they were people who needed the love of God, who were the ones who taught the law to others, considering them clean:

” That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

21For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

22Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

23All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. “(Mark 7: 20-23)

Because of these thirteen wicked thoughts,  American people may hate  number 13 even without their knowledge. We even see elevators that do not have 13th floors.

         Jesus, who is God, told them that when they spoke to them, they had already committed a crime, even though they had not committed any sin physically only keeping  it in their heart:

” But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28)

In other word, because they already has the lust of  adultery in their heart, they are already considered to be an adulterer. But they did not realize. Not only they, but most people now living in the world, are not even aware.

            John, the Baptist was  born to let the world know of  Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, cried out:

“Behold, Lamb of God which take away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

         That is correct! Nobody can remove sins deeply rooted in his  heart. God spoke of this through his prophet Jeremiah:”Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? thenmay ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” (Jer 13:23)

            God once again testified of  the heart of man through Jeremiah:

 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

10I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.“ (Jeremiah 17: 9-10)

            The text  given to us today is the so-called the  chapter of love that  even those who do not believe in God are familiar with. But most people do not know what the love of God is, and even Christians either  saying they believe in God, are misunderstood about God’s love. They are not aware of the dynamics of love and hatred. In other words, they do not know God’s judgment when they betray  God who loved them uuto death for them.

              The love that appears in the text is charity, not love. The charity shown in the text is the Apostle Paul’s testimony of what God’s love is, not same as  the hypocritical love of the world. Apostle John, who testified that he was a beloved disciple of Jesus, testified that God is love itself. In other words, God   is love itself, not the  one of love:

 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

8He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. “(1 John 4: 7-8)

             Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church that no matter how religious they are, they are nothing without charity. The lack of charity means that if there is no God in them, all  religious acts are in vain. Even though they speak with the tongues of men  and of  angels, if there is no charity, it is nothing but a loud  like sounding brass or tinkling cymbal.. And it is nothing even with the gift prophecy to have  knowledge of all mysteries and all knowledge, And even though he  would give all his possessions to save the poor and burn them, but without charity  there is no benefit.

             In other words, not  believing in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross in order to get rid of his sins, the thirteen kinds of evil sins in man   through his blood are forgiven, washed, and removed, and no matter how good,  there is no benefit to oneself even though he can give benefit to others.

           Apostle Paul testified of the fruit, after evil thoughts in which the evil inhabited are taken away, and instead, the love of God abide in the them whose heart are washed away  have washed all the iniquities in the heart, through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ:

Charity suffereth long(1), and is kind(2); charity envieth not(3); charity vaunteth not itself(4), is not puffed up(5),

5Doth not behave itself unseemly(6), seeketh not her own(7), is not easily provoked(8), thinketh no evil(9);

6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth(10);

7Beareth all things(11), believeth all things(12), hopeth all things, endureth all things(13).1 Corinthians 13: 4-7)

            The mysterious God removes the evil thoughts that are  in the heart of men, and God Himself is placed in the midst of  them who believe in Him and lives with them so that the character of God is revealed. There is nothing by accident in the Word of God. What a wonderful God’s grace that the thirteen evil things are gone and turned into thirteen good God’s minds!

         Apostle Paul, who realized this amazing truth, testified not saying that “if you do not love, it is nothing” and “nothing without charity.” Because of this, Apostle Paul, with witness to the love of God, testified in joy:

“ Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. “(2 Corinthians 5: 17-19)

            Because of this, Jesus himself spoke to Nicodemus, a religious man that had not received God’s love because of his unbelief:

” For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. “(John 3: 16-19).

            If man not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he shall be destroyed  in the hell; and  he must spend eternity in the hell of prison because he do not believe in Him and evil sins have not been removed. Therefore, not to receive eternal life is not because of an evil act, but not to  believe in the Lord Jesus Christ even though he is cruel murderer.

            Then what is it to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? How we have to believe ? Can we accept Jesus only with our lips? Many of today’s apostate churches have been sent to hell by registering as the member of church through  baptizing  through religious confession saying of faith.

          When Philip, one of the deacons, preached the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, he testified to him how to believe in Jesus Christ:

”  If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” (Acts 8:37)

         To believe with all my heart is to trust in Him as a tax collector who admits evil sins embedded in Him and could  not lift up his face to Him and pray for the  mercy, of God, and he accepted Jesus as the Lord with faith.

         Through the prophet Isaiah, God spoke of a man whose spirit to be revived as well as the  heart:.

” For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. “(Isaiah 57:15)

             God said that God loved all the peoples of this world unto death, and that he would judge proud people who  not believe in Him until the end (2: 4, 4: 3). God’s love is revealed as judgment. Because God’s judgment begins with His love, we must know that judgment is also the result of His love. Even as the people in the world turns to hatred and commits murder after the loved one unto death betray. God has endured  the last 6,000 years as six days and is still waiting. Apostle Peter testified about this:

” But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

9The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. “(2 Peter 3: 8-9).

            True repentance is to turn completely back unto the Lord Jesus Christ from the loving world, just like a turn of life that followed the evil world, and enter into the kingdom of God from the kingdom of the world. Amen! Hallelujah!