Title: Faith in Action
We are saved by God's unconditional love and grace. Because we were Gentiles and not God's covenant people, we lived with an understanding of life and history through Eastern ethics instead of God's law.
Then, unexpectedly, foreign missionaries brought the gospel and risked their lives for the existence of God and our salvation. But our serious problem now is that we simply listen to God’s word and practice it to receive blessings properly. Faith does not appear.
It is that the superficial belief that has only words and no deeds is similar to the faith of the Jews, which was consistent with the superficial beliefs at the time when the Lord was present. Today, we would like to highlight the essentials of fulfilling God's promises in order to receive God's blessings.
1. We must first receive the Word with a gentle heart
21 “Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing wickedness, receive with meekness the heartfelt way, which is able to save your souls.”
In order to receive the word of God, which is the way, that is, the lovgo, with a gentle heart, we must first cast away our sinful hearts.
The word meekness (prau?th") means humility and gentle temperament. When you hear and receive God's Word, you like to be scrutinized, or if you have a cheeky criticizing attitude, it is not a grace. Reading, listening, and listening to explanations should be gentle.
What kind of spiritual grace will we receive if we listen to God's words with respect even when we listen to the words of a physical adult and listen to God's words without reverence?
In order to receive grace and receive God's grace properly, we need to change our attitude toward the Word. Today, the Korean church needs to think about the content of sermons and the shortened time for explanations during worship services. We can receive God's grace right away only when we worship properly.
The definition of proper worship and preaching that I want is,
1) I think it should be a sermon that listens to the Bible more often. I don't think you should emphasize your own thoughts or the view of life or the theory of happiness claimed by people who are killed in the world during the worship service. Even if the explanation is somewhat lengthy in order to understand the more spiritual meaning, that is,
2) Even if the worship time is a little long, I think it should be proclaimed as an inspired sermon. Even if other orders of worship are excluded, the sermon of the Word should be long.
3) We believe that a preacher must exercise his holy power as a proxy for proclaiming the Word of God and keep his authority as a preacher of the Word. Authoritarianism is wrong, but the authority of God's Word must not be undermined.
For the time to listen to the proclamation and sermon of the Word, we must not become a heart that is sown along the way to hear without a heart to understand it, as mentioned in Matthew 13 in the parable of the field of the heart that receives the word, and cannot overcome tribulation and speak the Word. Do not become a heart of stony ground that throws away fruit, and do not become a field of thorns where you forsake the Lord's word with worldly greed and anxieties. Instead, it should become a heart field of good soil where you can hear the word and reap 100-fold fruit.
The field of the heart is the attitude to listen to the word meekly with humility.
2. The Word must be put into practice
If you only listen to the word of God, it is of no use.
22 “Be ye doers of the way, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”25 “He who is looking into the perfect law of liberty is not the one who hears and forgets, but the one who does it…” Many people just love to hear. .
If you hear a lot, you know that it is faith. Of course, you can believe only by hearing (Romans 10:14), and you can also develop faith by hearing it. However, for perfect faith, the words you hear must be applied in real life.
There is an unavoidable process in order to be applied to life, and that is, pain. Trying to put God's Word into practice is never easy and pleasant. rather difficult.
Revelation 10:9-10 "I went to the angel and said, "Give me the little book." The angel said to him, "Take and eat, and it shall be bitter in your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth." 10 I took the little book from the angel's hand and ate it up in my mouth. It was as sweet as honey, and after I ate it, my stomach became bitter.”
To hear God's word is like honey, but it is bitter to the stomach, which means that the reality is difficult. People pack their bags and run to receive blessings at so-called Blessing Crusade.
However, the true blessing is not in such a Blessing Crusade, but you may already have the ground for blessing yourself. Now, you may have forgotten that you are a saint who can only receive blessings if you practice. The Jews at the time of Jesus, among them the scribes and Pharisees, who were teachers, were rebuked by the Lord for speaking and not doing anything.
Matthew 23:3 “Therefore, whatever they say, do and keep it, but do not imitate what they do, for they speak only and do not do.”
In Matthew 23, the Lord cursed and rebuked the hypocrites, saying, woe to the scribes and Pharisees seven times.
Matthew 23:13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the gates of the kingdom of heaven in front of men, and you neither enter nor those who are trying to enter.”
Of course, the people were also hypocrites believers.
Matthew 11:17 “As it is said, “We played the flute for you, but you did not dance; we mourned, but ye did not beat our hearts.”
It is said that children played the flute and danced and beat their breasts when they mourned portraits. It is also an Israeli custom. In the same way, the Lord is the word of the parable of the people who lost their sense even when they gave the sound of joy and the foreshadowing of judgment.
When a person's eating out deepens, his emotions dry up, and emotions suitable for joy and sorrow do not come alive. This is a serious condition. So the Bible
Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep”. This is a living emotion and a state of mind that can receive the Word properly.
Today we are living in an age of abundant knowledge. However, it is an era of insufficient execution. There are a lot of very frivolous expressions of Christian love, but they are stingy about sacrificing themselves. embrace your neighbors Well, they sing about embracing the world, but if they are prepared to die and do missionary work, they are not afraid. This is the reality of the Korean church's faith.
we must remember We must keep in mind that the true blessing of God lies in the practice of the Word. Other than that, the secret to being blessed is another gospel. It is a blessing from the devil. Even if there are material things and miracles, they do not belong to God.
As of today's text,
23 “If anyone hears the Way and does not practice it, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror. 24 He should not be such a person who sees himself and goes away and immediately forgets what he is like...” .
3. The practice of the Word will surely bring blessings
God's Word is the treasure trove of salvation and grace for life. This word of blessing is a covenant book that will grant you great grace even in your life on earth.
25 “He who is looking into the perfect law of liberty is not the one who hears it and forgets it, but the one who does it, and this man will be blessed in what he does.”
The perfect law here means the gospel itself. The law that gives freedom as the true law is the gospel.
Even when God gives commandments, he says, Exodus 20:6, “He shows kindness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
God blesses us by looking at our actions as the basis of the Word.
Deuteronomy 28:9 “If you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways, the LORD will make you a holy people according to the oath he swore to you.”
Deuteronomy 28:6 “You will be blessed when you come in, and you will be blessed when you go out.”
For example, let's say that the pastor prays for blessings when the pastor sees it or the deacon sees it as not right. Then will you be blessed? Can't get it.
Gal 6:7 “Do not deceive yourself; God is not deceived; whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
The problems of the Korean church existed from the beginning.
The shamanistic belief in shamanism is deeply rooted, and because of the superstitious religiosity of going to a temple, praying in the mountains, on the field, and on the beach, while ignoring God's ordained laws, even if you go to church, you don't care about the rules of conduct and think that you can only pray for blessings unconditionally. is to do
The Christian faith is a religion of scale. It is a very realistic religion that involves action. It's not the level of brushing. It is not a religion that listens to lessons. It is not a religion that engages in mystical affairs, dialogue, common sense and politics like the Catholic Church. It is a religion that receives God's grace through practice based on God's Word.
Another problem is that they have never received any blessings from believing in Jesus. Because God has promised to give you grace.
Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
The revival of the early Korean church was based on longing for the Word and genuine contrition. Around the 1980s, there were many benefits from the Bible study and more systematic discipleship training, but the result was more arrogant than the obedience of the members. .
It is pride that comes from knowing. 1 Corinthians 8:1 ...“We all know that we have knowledge, but knowledge makes us proud, but love builds us up...”.
The most urgent task for us today is to obey and put into practice the Word. Respect for the servants of the Lord who speaks the Word of God must rise again. It is an impossible claim to obey the God of the invisible Word without respecting and following the servant of the visible Lord. It is a time when the execution of the Word is urgent. Now, in the name of the Lord Jesus, I pray that you and I will experience the Lord's work by having a life of practicing the Lord's words one by one.