What Is the Real Good and What Is the Real Evil?
What Is the Real Goodand What Is the Real Evil?
< Genesis 3:10-24 >
“So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, andI was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ And He said, ‘Who told youthat you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you thatyou should not eat?’ Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me,she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ And the LORD God said to the woman, ‘Whatis this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’So the LORD God said to the serpent:
‘Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.’
To the woman He said:
‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.’
Then to AdamHe said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten fromthe tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
‘Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground, br>For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.’
And Adamcalled his wife's name Eve, becauseshe was the mother of all living. Also for Adamand his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Then the LORDGod said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat,and live forever’—therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden totill the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placedcherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turnedevery way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Satan’s Food
What were the consequences of the fall of Adam and Eve?Today, I would like focus on this question as I share God’s Word with you.
As Adamand Eve fell tempted by Satan,God cursed the Devil and man. Adam, Eve, and Satan were allcursed. To the serpent, God said, “Youare cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; Onyour belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.” So from this, we can see that before the serpentwas cursed by God, he did not crawl on the ground. It was as a result oftempting Adam and Eve and making them fall that the Devil came to eatdust all the days of his life and crawl on his belly. And because of thisevent, Satan became God’s enemy completely.
Satan wasoriginally an angel whose pride had led him to fall, but now he was cursed evenmore because he had tempted man and made him sin. God had created human beingsto make them His own people, but to undermine this, the Devil tempted them andmade them sin, inciting them to stand against God. As a result, God forbade Satan to receive the spiritual blessings from Heaven. Justas the Devil was cursed to eat dust, he now makes mankind live according to thelust of the flesh.
This is what the angel that fell from Heaven doesto people: He makes them follow the pleasures of the flesh, and he goes intotheir carnal lust and feeds on their sins. Satanworks in the sins committed by mankind and relishes them.
The servants of the Devil also incite people’s lustand feed on their sins. For instance, Satan’sservants lie claiming that people would be healed from illnesses or become richif they believe in Jesus. Satan stirs up carnal lust in people’s hearts to make themsin, and through this he achieves his goal, which is death. Just as God said toSatan, “Serpent, because you tempted Adam and Even and made them fall, you shall now crawlon your belly and eat dust all the days of your life,” the servants of theDevil are doing exactly as God had cursed.
Do snakes really live on dust only? Don’t theyactually feed on frogs and the like? Yet God had clearly told the serpent toeat dust. Doe this then mean that God’s Word is wrong?
No, this does not mean that the Word of God issomehow wrong. To Satan who went into the serpentand actually challenged God, God told him to eat dust all the days of his life.“You shall now go into the carnal people and feed on their lust.” This is whatGod said to Satan, and Satanindeed feeds on the lust of mankind in its flesh.
Before he fell, Satanhad fed on spiritual bread at his exalted status. But now he was brought downfrom such a high and spiritual status and entered into human beings to feed ontheir carnal pleasures or lusts. The Devil knows all too well that to make hisbread abound, people’s greed must swell. That is why he incites people with hisdeceptive words that seem as if he would fill their lust of the flesh,promising that if they believe in Jesus,they would become rich, their businesses would prosper, they would get into agood school, they would meet good spouses, and so on. In other words, the Devilnow came to feed on the sinful hearts of those who follow his lies.
What kind of people does Satango into and work? The place where the Devil can work is the hearts of those whohave not yet received the remission of their sins. Put differently, the Devilfeeds on the lust of the flesh pursued by those who have not received theremission of their sins. Once some demons, Satan’sfollowers, begged Jesus to let them gointo pigs (Luke 8:32). The Devil goesinto those who follow their own lust and only want to fill their bellies inthis world like a pig, and he builds his house in their hearts and lives inthere. As such, the pastors who minister just to enrich themselves are typicalservants of Satan.
How, then, can we now find out who is the Devil’sservant and who is God’s servant? The Devil’s servants invariably seek afteronly material gains, just as told by the Devil. What God commanded to Satan is exactly realized in the ministries of his servants.Before being curses, Satan had eaten something else,but because God now commanded him to henceforth just eat dust for the rest ofhis life, even to this day, Satan and his servantsare feeding only on the filthy lusts that arise in people’s hearts.
Christian leaders who still have not been bornagain only want to increase the number of their congregation and build biggerchurch buildings. They blindly seek to have as many things of the world aspossible. So the church buildings must be bigger for them and the congregationlarger.
In contrast, the born-again who believe in thegospel of the water and the Spirit do not feed only on the lust of the flesh.The righteous feed on the spiritual Word of God, and they eat the bread of lifeby faith. Of course, even the righteous must eat physical bread to live, butthey yearn to eat the spiritual Word of God, that is, the bread of life. Thisis in sharp contrast to the Devil’s servants who eat only dust.
While the born-again eat both, those who are notborn again feed on dust alone. To feed on dust alone means to feed on onlyworldly things. The servants of Satan—that is, thosewho are not born again—singularly follow the lust of their flesh alone. Andthey are in a competition to see who eats more dust.
Now, Satan became God’senemy completely. And our God said to him, “I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15)
In other words, God put enmity between Satan and mankind. There was a time when the serpent andmankind were friends. They befriended each other and played together. But afterSatan went into the serpent and made mankind eatfrom the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, enmity came between Satan and mankind.
Our Lord Came as the Woman’s Descendant andDemolished the Power of Satan
God said, “Jesuswill be born as the woman’s descendant and come as the Savior. And you will tryto bruise His heel. But, He will bruise your head by demolishing the power ofall the sins that you spread. He will eradicate death, the curse that wasplaced on mankind as you made Adam andEve sin. He will overcome the worldand win over you.” This has all been fulfilled so far.
When the heel is bruised, one cannot set his feeton the ground. Satan went as far as crucifying Jesus to death. But on the Cross, Jesus trampled on Satan’shead. Long before Jesus Christ was crucified todeath, He had taken upon all the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist. By doing so, He could bear thecondemnation of all the sins that the Devil had blown into Adam and Eve,and make it impossible for Satan to ever accuse usof sin again. So by being crucified, the Lord smashed Satan’shead.
Since Jesustrampled on the serpent’s head, Satan cannot botherthose who believe in Jesus Christ wholly. That’sbecause the condemnation of sin has already all ended, and therefore the Devilcannot attack them. However, for those who do not believe in the gospel of thewater and the Spirit and therefore have not received the remission of theirsins, Satan still works in them inciting the lust oftheir flesh.
God said to Adam, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife,and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall noteat of it’: ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of itAll the days of your life.’” Asthe man ate the fruit that the woman gave him and sinned, from then on he wasgiven the burden of tilling the ground and supporting his family with hissweat. In the Garden of Eden, he could live without toiling just by eating whatGod gave him, but once he fell and was estranged from God, he could not eatwithout toil. This means that mankind was now indeed accursed and cast out intoan inhospitable world.
It is written, To the woman He said:
I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you’” (Genesis 3:16).
In the days of Adamand Eve prior to their fall, there wasno need for the woman’s desire to be for her husband, nor did she have to givebirth in pain. But once she fell into Satan’stemptation and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she had togive birth in pain and be ruled by her husband as well. If she had not sinned,she would not have to be ruled; it’s because she sinned that she now came to beruled by her husband.
That Evewas to be ruled by Adam means thatmankind was to be ruled by God. Those who have been born again by believing inthe gospel of the water and the Spirit have to be ruled by God through His Church.Whoever is born again must yearn after the Lord, and he is to be ruled by HisChurch. Those who are not ruled by God’s Church and have no desire to willinglypartake in the work of the Church to serve the Lord cannot be ruled by God norreceive His spiritual blessings. Such people cannot abide in the Church to theend.
We need to realize what the Word of God is saying.God said that women have to be ruled by men and give birth in pain, and He saidthat men could obtain the fruit of their labor to eat only if they sweat ontheir foreheads. All these were realized both physically and spiritually asthey were written in the Bible. We have been saved thanks to the labor of Jesus Christ. And men must labor to support their families.
It is written,Boththorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3: 18-19).
The very fact that Adamand Eve were cast out of the garden isitself suffering. To live in this world is to walk through a thorny field. Itis very weary to lead a life in this inhospitable world. There is not a singleday that is wholly pleasant. This is God’s punishment meted out to fallenmankind. Had human beings not eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good andevil, they could have lived in the paradise of Eden forever,but now they must return to dust, their original material.
Human beings are nothing more than a handful ofdust when they die. When they are buried, they rot away to turn into dirt. Infact, human beings are completely futile as far as their flesh is concerned.Just as a rotten fish is eaten by maggots to disappear in the end, the flesh ofman is to rot away and return to dust. There is nothing lasting to mankind’sflesh. The origin of the flesh of mankind is nature, and so it must return tonature without leaving its trace.
There Are Only Thorns and Thistles in This World
In the difficult journey of life, people are beingwounded by thorns and thistles, but do they really have to suffer all thiswound? No, there is no need for this. If they receive the remission of theirsins by believing in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit, alltheir problems will be solved.
However, those who do not receive the remission oftheir sins must continue to struggle against thorns and thistles throughouttheir lives. Because countless people still do not know the gospel of the waterand the Spirit, have not received the remission of their sins, and are livingaccording to the lust of their flesh alone, they cannot avoid but hurt eachother, stinging and inflicting pain on one another. Happiness does not come tothose who are not born again, no matter how desperately they might search forit. They dodge here and there trying to avoid thorns and thistles, but theystill get stung all the time, and they live hurt and bleeding constantly.Unless one is born again by believing in the gospel of the water and theSpirit, he must live in such a world until the end.
Therefore, placing your faith in the gospel of thewater and the Spirit, you must escape from the suffering of the world filledwith thorns and thistles. There is now no longer any need to seek after futilehappiness in this painful and grueling world. By believing in the gospel of thewater and the Spirit now, we must receive the salvation of the true remissionof sin into our hearts, and live enjoying the true happiness given by the Lord.All those who have now been saved from their sins by believing in the gospel ofthe water and the Spirit have indeed been set free from the weary journey oflife filled with thorns and thistles.
It is written, “Adam called his wife's name Eve,because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adamand his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them”(Genesis3:20-21).
Some people claim that there were other humanbeings apart from Adam and Eve. Satan spread thislie, and many of those who are not born again came to agree with this. Godclearly said, “Adam called his wife’sname Eve, because she was the motherof all living.” This means that the forbears of mankind are Adam and Eve.And all human beings are born from women. Recent scientific discovery alsoproves that all human beings are the descendants of a single woman. Theydiscovered that the human mitochondria DNAs are inherited only through thematernal line while the DNAs in a nucleus are inherited by the combined DNAs ofboth parents. And what is truly amazing is the fact that all human beings’mitochondria DNAs are absolutely same. This is the positive proof that allhuman beings, whether they are colored or white, are the offspring of onesingle woman named Eve.
However, some people still say that God made someother people before He made Adam and Eve. This claim is espoused even by a famous missionorganization. They claim that Adam andEve were the representatives of thehuman beings God had created at the beginning of this world. They claim likethis on the basis that the Bible is written according to the so-calledrepresentative principle.
It’s complete nonsense. Knowing that such claimswould be made, the Bible put an indisputable end to this issue. While it makessense to say that over their lifetime extending over 900 years, Adam and Evegave birth to many children, having not only Cainand Abel but also many more children, it makesabsolutely no sense to claim that mankind had existed before Adam and Eve.Is the Bible fake? If so, then everything Jesus Christdid is also something fabricated, and Adamand Eve are fake as well.
When I was attending seminary long ago, a certainprofessor claimed that he did not rule out the existence of aliens in the outerspace. So I said to him, “If there are aliens, does this then mean that thereare human beings living somewhere in the space other than on the planet earth?”He said yes, and so I asked him, “Where is it written in the Bible?” To this,he only repeated his belief without providing any biblical proof. So I askedhim again, “The Bible says, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His onlybegotten Son.’ Then what is the reason why Jesuswas born on this particular planet earth?” The professor then just fell silent.
Some people claim that God made mankind even beforethe existence of Adam and Eve. But the Bible says that Adamnamed his wife Eve, which means themother of all living. This means that it is through Evethat all humans came to exist in this world. In the beginning, God made a womanout of one of Adam’s ribs, and hername was Eve. Through Adam and Eve,we are born once in our flesh on this earth, and through Jesus Christ, we are born again from sin by believing in the gospel of thewater and the Spirit. Who is the mother of all the living on this planet earth?It is Eve.
There was no mankind before Adamand Eve. There might have been angels.While the Bible does not describe how God created angels, angels do appear init frequently. And it writes that the fallen angel went into the serpent’s bodyand worked. The righteous have a firm foundation, and this foundation of faithis God’s Word of Truth. Even though Satan tries toundermine the foundation of our faith, God has made it firm with the Word ofTruth.
The Tunics of Skin That God Made for Us and ClothedUs
Genesis 3:21 says, “ForAdam and his wife the LORD God madetunics of skin, and clothed them.” For Adam and Evewho fell, God made tunics of skin and clothed them. This means that God clothedpeople with the remission of sin. To prepare tunics of skin, a lamb must die.The Bible says that without bloodshed, there is no remission of sin (Hebrews9:22). The wages of sin is death, and as the Lamb died in atonement, He paidoff the wages and clothed us in life, salvation, and grace.
While Satan told Adam and Eveto make and put on garments of fig leaves, God clothed them in tunics of skin.While the Devil made religion, God made salvation. And He has actually clothedall of us with salvation. It is through Jesus Christthat we receive the remission of our sins with the gospel of the water and theSpirit. Even though people sin, by believing in God’s Word, the gospel of thewater and the Spirit, they are made sinless, and therefore there is nocondemnation of sin.
Let’s compare the garments of fig leaves made by manwith the tunics of skin made by God. Skirts made of fig leaves are easily torn,and when exposed to the sun, they dry up and break apart. What about tunics ofskin? No matter how the sun might be scorching, they do not break apart.
There is no true life in the religions of thisworld, but only mankind’s hypocrisy abounds. Religionists are those who try tocover up their sins with their own good deeds. However, mankind’s acts ofhypocrisy all fade away in time, and, in the end, only its sins are revealed likea naked body. This is what mankind’s religious life is like.
With the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Godhas clothed us with the garment of the salvation, of the remission of our sins.He has clothed us with the spiritual garments of skin. So that we may be savedand God may clothe us with the garment of salvation, He sent Jesus Christ and made Him complete the gospel of the water and the Spirit.In doing so, God has made all who believe in the gospel of the water and theSpirit forever sinless.
My fellow believers, is there sin in your hearts?Although Adam and Eve had sinned, once they put on the God-made tunicsof skin, they were not ashamed. Like this, the descendants of Adam and Evecan also receive the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of thewater and the Spirit completed by Jesus Christ.
Genesis 3:22-23 says, “Thenthe LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good andevil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, andeat, and live forever’—therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden ofEden to till the ground from which he was taken.”
Here it’s written, “Theman has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.” It was also said in Genesis 3:5, “For God knows that in the day you eat of it youreyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” This, that mankind came to know good and evil onits own, is a curse.
That humans came to have a standard of good andevil is not wrong by itself. But the correct standard of good and evil issomething that’s set by God, and therefore one must discern good and evilproperly. No human being should define good and evil all on his own. Only Godshould define and judge good and evil. But God said here that Adam and Eve,now fallen, came to know good and evil, since God said, “The man has becomelike one of Us, to good and evil.”
God has the correct knowledge of good and evil,right? We humans also know good and evil, right? But the standard is different.In other words, while God’s goodness is absolute goodness, mankind’s goodnessis egoistic, self-centered goodness. We should have the absolute and perfectstandard of good set by God, but mankind’s goodness is merely selfish, andtherefore it is fallacious. Since this is what the goodness of fallen mankindis, it cannot be anything else but hypocrisy.
To wage war, a just cause must first be establishedfor it. That’s because war is invariably waged in the name of defeating somesort of evil. However, in mankind’s world this standard of good and evil is allrelative, and so while from our perspective the enemy country may be nothingmore than an evil nation, but from its perspective, we are the enemy and ournation is the evil nation. When we look at the conflict between Israel and Palestine,both sides can come up with more than enough justification to destroy eachother as an evil enemy. Like this, it is impossible for us to find absolutegoodness in mankind’s world. What our nation claims cannot be the absolutestandard of good, nor can the other nation’s justification be this standard.Human beings’ own standard of virtue cannot be an absolute truth.
However, we must infallibly fight against andovercome Satan, who is our eternal enemy. Because wemust wage our spiritual war without fail, the standard of good must first beproperly established in us. Since human beings are imperfect, if we definevirtue on our own, we would be standing against God. Only God can discern goodand evil, and only He can set the absolute standard of virtue. In God’s world,His Word is the standard of all righteousness and virtues. That the Word of Godis the absolute goodness is the immutable Truth that defies time and age.
It is evil for you to set the standard of good andevil on your own. That’s because this standard itself is relative. It isfallacious to take something relative as the absolute standard.
For instance, in my country, when parents die, theyare buried in the ground. But a certain tribe in an island in Papua New Guineaconsiders it a virtue to eat the flesh of one’s own dead parents, for it isunthinkable for the tribe members to leave their parents’ flesh to be ravagedby maggots. Which of these two practices, then, is virtuous? Each practice isvirtuous to its practitioners, but is it an absolute virtue? Is it right toreturn the dead back to dust? Whether maggots or humans eat the dead, isone practice any eviler than the other? For us to set our own standard ofvirtue is to fall into our own pride and be ensnared in the Devil’s trap.
The same principle applies to our lives of faith.What we may hold to be right in our own thoughts are not necessarily right inGod’s eyes. Some people say, “I’m not suggesting that the gospel of the waterand the Spirit is fallacious. All that I’m saying is that faith only in Jesus’ blood on the Cross shouldn’t be dismissed aswrong.” As they would see it, they also believe in Jesus,and so they think it would be virtuous to give recognition to each other, butwhat they recognize as good is actually evil before God. That’s because for usto give credence to those who do not believe according to the Word of God is totolerate the wickedness of disbelieving in God’s Word.
If we were to approve any false gospels differentfrom the gospel of the water and the Spirit, it would be evil before God. Wemust know God properly when we believe in Him. As far as human nature itself isconcerned, neither the followers of false gospels nor we are any better orworse. But I am only saying that God alone is the Judge, Truth, andstandard-bearer of good and evil. In other words, God provides the onlymeasuring rod of truth. We must never try to live our lives of faith based onour own human standard.
God prevented our forebears who failed to believein His Word from eating the fruit of the tree of life. The tree of life was inthe middle of the Garden of Eden, as Genesis 2:9 says, “And out of the ground the LORD God made every treegrow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was alsoin the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” God had wanted Adamand Eve to eat from the tree of lifeand live forever. But instead, Adamand Eve ate from the tree of theknowledge of good and evil. Why? Because they were tempted by Satan,and they gave into this temptation and ate the forbidden fruit. Deceived by Satan’s temptation, Adamand Eve ended up standing against Godwithout even realizing it themselves.
To stand against God, one must have his ownstandard. That is why God had told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of theknowledge of good and evil, lest they would stand against Him; however, forSatan, Adam and Eve would stand against God only if they came to have their ownfallacious standard of good and evil, and this is why he made them eat from thetree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why do people challenge God? It’sbecause they have their own separate standard of good and evil that theychallenge God.
On the Easter Day of this year, a certain Christianleader in Koreaargued in a newspaper column as the following: “Even today, some people stilltalk about rapture. God is good. So how can our good God be so narrow-minded asto lift up only His believers to Heaven?” After the Second Vatican Council(1962-1965), the Catholic Church declared, “There is salvation outside theChurch.”
What does this mean? It means that anyone canobtain everlasting life in Heaven regardless of which religion he mightbelieve, as long as he believes diligently. This is a declaration supportingthe so-called religious pluralism. Henceforth, many Protestant theologians havealso come to agree that salvation can be found in all religions. But what doesthe Word of God say? It says that salvation can never be reached outside Jesus, for it is written, “There is no other name under heaven given amongmen by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Therefore, while in man-made thoughts it may seemvirtuous not to denounce other religions but approve each other, this actuallyis a great evil that directly denies God’s Word and condemns God as anintolerant and selfish God. Such claims have come out of nowhere else but thevery standard of good and evil set by the self—that is, from one’s instinctivestandard. Since people like this have their own standard of good and evil setby themselves, they live standing against the righteousness of God.
When we preach the gospel of the water and theSpirit to people, they say, “Did all those people from long ago who never heardof this gospel of the water and the Spirit go to hell then?” or, “Does thisthen mean that all these countless Christians would go to hell as well?” Andthey flatly reject the true gospel, saying that if this is what therighteousness of God is, they refuse to believe in it. Because mankind alreadyate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, human beings have theirown standard according to each. Those who discern good and evil on their ownand stubbornly insist on their own way cannot receive the remission of theirsins, for they cannot believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit evenwhen it is preached to them.
Even for those who believe in the gospel of thewater and the Spirit, if they continue to keep their own standard of good andevil, this in itself is a great sin before God, and they will leave God’sChurch in the end. We humans do not have the absolute standard of good andevil. It is only God who has the absolute standard of good and evil. It is Godwho decides what is good and what is evil. Mankind’s own perspective cannot bethe standard of good and evil. Even God’s servants, if they leave God’s Word,cannot discern what is absolutely good and what is absolutely evil. It is onlywhen the servants of God reflect on His Word that they can also judge what isgood and what is evil.
Our standard of good and evil must be establishedproperly. For instance, is it good or evil to undermine the born-again servantsof God, to raise doubts about them, and to thereby prevent others frombelieving in the Word preached by them? When looked based on the Word of God,this is evil. It is evil to judge the born-again brothers and sisters or God’sservants. God judges based on His Word. Because mankind ate from the tree ofthe knowledge of good and evil from the beginning, human beings have their ownstandard of good and evil, but this standard discerns neither what is reallygood nor what is really evil.
We are prone to fall into our own standard of goodand evil. However, it is indispensable for us to take the Word of God as the realstandard of good and evil. Our standard of virtue must be set according to whatGod said is good and evil.
While doing God’s work, I, too, often mule over thequestion, “What is good?” “What does the Word of God say? God is pleased whenthe gospel of the water and the Spirit is preached, but what should we do tofully proclaim the gospel? Would it be better for each of us to preach thegospel individually, or would it better to spread it united together? Whichwould serve the gospel better? And God is also pleased by order, but how shouldwe establish God’s order in the Church? How should we serve the Lord?”
These are some of the questions that I’ve ponderedoften. Through His Word, God made it clear that the born-again must spread thegospel of the water and the Spirit united with God’s Church and His servants,for it is very likely for us to follow our own greed if each of us spreads thegospel individually.
As I follow the Lord, I realize just how often mythoughts have been wrong. Reading the Word of God, I realize, “Oh, my thoughtsare indeed evil, and only the Word of God is good.” If you put on a pair ofblue glasses, the world looks blue, but if you put on a pair of red glasses,the world looks red. The same situation looks different depending on how youlook at it. Nothing looks the same. However, when you put on God’s glasses,good and evil are clearly discerned.
Do you understand what I mean? I have seen timeafter time from my own experience that what may seem virtuous to mankind may beevil in God’s eyes, and what may seem evil to mankind may be virtuous in God’seyes. My fellow believers, what is good and evil can be discerned onlyaccording to God’s Word. Therefore, it is when we believe in God’s Word that wecan embark on the virtuous way and avoid the evil way.
Philosophy, in fact, is nothing more than anintellectual exercise that expresses what is simple in a very complicated way.A simple concept, when defined by philosophers, is turned into an abstrusemetaphysical concept comprehended by hardly anyone. In contrast, the Bible,which is God’s Word, is simple and clear.
In other words, good and evil are clearly dividedwhen seen by God’s eyes, but when seen by mankind’s eyes, everything looksdifferent depending on the color of the glasses. When you put on the Word ofGod, what is white does indeed look white, and what is black does look black.It is when we look with the Word of God that good and evil are clearly divided.We have to look everything with God’s eyes. And we have to perceive everythingwith God’s heart, by our faith in God, within the gospel Truth of the water andthe Spirit. Only then can we see clearly.
People are too narrow-minded. The PresbyterianChurch criticizes the Pentecostal Church, and in turn, the Pentecostal Churchcriticizes the Presbyterian Church. But all this is because each denominationlooks through its own lenses. However, when looked with the Word of God,mankind’s every thought is always fallacious, and only God is the mostvirtuous. And whatever God says is evil is indeed evil. It’s all clearlydiscerned. God’s standard of good and evil is absolute and unchanging.
Any standard of good and evil that is differentfrom God’s standard has all come from the religions of the world. God does notallow anyone who has his own standard of good and evil to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is those who abandon theirown standard of good and evil and believe in the gospel of the water and theSpirit according to God’s Word whom God allows to enter His Kingdom. And Hetells them to eat from the tree of life.
Through today’s Scripture Word, you have come torealize how you have been beholden to your own standard of good and evil. Inour lives, all too often we have seen with our own jaundiced eyes or judgedbased on our own standard. However, God said, “The just shall live by faith.”The born-again righteous who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spiritonly have to cast aside their own standard and live by their faith in the Lord.
It is written, “Thereforethe LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from whichhe was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east ofthe garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard theway to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:23-24).
It says here that God drove out Adam and Evebecause they came to have their own standard of good and evil. And then, Godplaced cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way tothe tree of life. God has opened the way only to those who have no standard ofgood and evil that is different from God’s standard, and who obey the Word ofGod with yes, so that they alone would eat from the tree of life. And with thefiery sword ready, God condemns when those with their own standard of good andevil try to enter.
In other words, God has set that those who havetheir own standard of good and evil, not the Word of God, would be cast intohell. Thus, those who do not eat each and every Word of God can never eat fromthe tree of life. On the contrary, they will be condemned by God.
When we say while preaching the gospel that anyonewith sin will be cast into hell, people tell us how we could say such a nastything. They say, “God does not send people because of their sins, for God islove. I don’t believe that the God of love will ever do that.” They say sobecause they have sin and they are actually afraid of their sinfulness.
Those, who have sin but do not believe in thegospel of the water and the Spirit despite hearing it, are the ones who havetheir own standard of good and evil. They don’t accept the true gospelobstinately. On the contrary, to the righteous who proclaim to have no sin asthey believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they say, “How can youhave no sin when you still commit sin?” So they argue that it’s only naturalfor everyone to have sin, and to beg God to forgive their personal sinseveryday through prayers of repentance is a virtuous act.
However, that anyone with sin should be cast intohell unconditionally is God’s righteous law. If one has sin, he will beinevitably thrown into hell. Having made a fiery sword, God will judge him. Hewill condemn him with this flaming sword.
When we preach the gospel of the water and theSpirit, we say to people, “If you have sin, you will go to hell,” but this isactually what God said. It’s not something that we came up with on our own topreach, but it’s what God Himself said.
Yet despite this, most Christians say that it’sokay to have sin in their hearts as long as they believe in Jesus, and they claim that because they believe in Jesus, they can still go to the Kingdom of Heaveneven if they have sin. They get extremely agitated at us, offended by the factthat we told them, “You are sinners, and if you have sin, you will go to hell.”
We then ask them: “How can someone who believes in Jesus say that he has sin in his heart? When Jesus was baptized, He accepted all the sins of theworld, and to pay the wages of these sins, He went to the Cross and died on it.So how can you say that there is sin in your hearts, even as you claim tobelieve in Jesus?”
Anyone who has a standard of good and evil distinctfrom God’s standard can never eat from the tree of life. Who, then, can eatfrom this tree? Only those without their own standard of good and evil can eatfrom the tree of life. Those who deny their thoughts, those who acknowledgeGod, and those who have received the remission of their sins by believing inthe gospel of the water and the Spirit—it is these people who can take and eatthe fruit of the tree of life. It’s because you, too, threw away your ownstandard of good and evil that you could hear and accept the Word of God with amen,and that is how you received life.
Those who cast aside their own standard and denytheir own thoughts believe in all the Word of God no matter what it says. Theyare able to believe like this: “As far as the sins of the world are concerned, Jesus took them all away, from the creation of theheavens and the earth to the end of the world, and so where is sin? My pastsins have all disappeared, just as Jesustook away all my future sins as well. When the sins of the world are puttogether, they are only one lump in the sight of God.
What is important is not how we lookat everything now, but how God looks at it, and it is God’s judgment that is mostaccurate. Those who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit donot look at the Word of God from His perspective, but with their own eyes.
We must have the same standard of good and evilthat God has.