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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Those Who Wash their Robes - Devotional Service for the Light and Salt Mission |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Revelation3:4-5 |
Date |
2008-06-27 |
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Scripture Reading
Revelation 3:4-5
"But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels."
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
I give all thanks and glory to God who has blessed us to dedicate this Light and Salt Mission Devotional Service this year.
And I also give thanks to all of you who have prepared for this service with all your heart, will and sincerity.
Dear devotees,
Today's service's title is "Those who Wash their Robes."
The robe spiritually refers to the heart of man.
So, today's scripture does not mean that we have to wash our clothes, but has the meaning of casting off the uncleanliness of our hearts and to sanctify our hearts.
As the end time of the world draws closer people's consciences become dulled.
The unrighteous and immoral things that people used to feel ashamed of years ago are openly revealed by so many people today.
And because of it, they more easily stain one another with fleshly things.
You members of the Light and Salt Mission who are engaged in the distribution and restaurant jobs have chances to meet with the world.
No matter what kind of life the people are leading, however, you must not become stained with the world.
You have to lead a sanctified life that is different from the world.
You must not compromise with the world saying, "Just about everyone else is doing these things," You have to be on guard keeping your hearts and bodies by reflecting on the word of God.
Even though your fellow workers become stained with the trends of the world, you have to stay awake.
Even though some brothers in faith are in spiritual slumber, you should neither feel comforted nor think, "It should be OK for me to stop washing my robe, just for a while."
You cannot wash a robe for someone else and no one else can wash your robe.
On the Judgment Day if you defend yourself saying, "That person tempted me" or "I have been stained with the world because of this person," no one will be able to take the responsibility for you.
So, you have to stay awake and clear-minded and diligently adorn yourselves as the brides of the Lord, and, thus you have to prepare white robes.
Now please carefully listen to the message as I explain to you about what you have to do to wash your robes until they are white.
And may each of you become perfectly spotless brides of the Lord, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
Body
Dear devotes, and brothers and sisters in Christ,
To wash your robes, first of all, you have to cast off adultery.
Adultery here has a different meaning from that used by the people of this world.
It includes only fleshly adultery of this world, but spiritual adultery which is deemed even more serious.
What do you think spiritual adultery refers to?
Spiritual adultery happens when those believers who have experienced the grace of God and are said to have faith go back to and seek the world.
Isaiah 54:5 says, "For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth."
If a wife comes to love another man instead of her husband, would it not provoke the husband's anger?
In the same way, if believers in God come to love the world again, it means that they betray God, their Husband.
Then, this is what is referred to as spiritual adultery.
If you love God and the Lord, you cannot love the world.
It is because the ruler of the world is the arch enemy of God, the devil and Satan.
That's why He says in James 4:4, "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
If you were considered as enemies of God, how could you expected to be saved?
From the standpoint of mankind, when fleshly adultery and spiritual adultery are compared, fleshly may be considered more serious and grave.
But in fact, if you have no spiritual adultery within you, you will never commit adultery in flesh, either.
If you love God to the fullest measure, you have naturally cast off fleshly adultery.
Not only do you cast off adultery in action but you don't harbor it in your heart either.
But many of you possess and commit spiritual adultery. In other words, you love the world and in doing so that you may be driven to the point of committing adultery of the flesh.
Why does God give this message to those of you who dedicate this devotional service to God?
It is because if you have a desire to love the world you cannot wash your robes.
If you avoid looking to the earthly things but look up to the things above, you can become sanctified if you remain diligently in that hope.
You should have a longing heart for spiritual things in your heart.
You have to let your heart be filled with the heart that is longing to become sanctified and has hope for heaven and the heavenly spiritual realm.
If you always mediate on such things as how you can accomplish a heart of goodness, what you should do to please God, and the like, then you can discover yourselves more clearly.
Then, you can realize that you have not been more considerate, nor served diligently. You can then discover what is very delicately revealed from deep from within including hatred, boastful desires, greed, and quick-temperedness.
Only when you enjoy discovering and casting them off, can you change into spirit more quickly.
In addition, you have to possess incessant fervor toward how you can lead just one more soul on the path to salvation and what you should do to store heavenly rewards.
Unless you fill your heart with those spiritual things, what else will fill your heart and mind?
As you see, hear and experience fleshly things, worldly lusts will flood into your heart.
You may say and think, "That lady's dress looks so elegant! I'm going to buy the same dress to wear later."
"Now season has changed and my place's decorations are boring, so I'll re-decorate."
"What kind of hair style is most fashionable recently?"
"I heard about a new restaurant. Soon I will pay it a visit."
When you have such thoughts then all your interests will be in those fleshly things."
And you may think, "I have been so stressed because of too much work. What should I do to get rid of this stress? What kind of entertainment do I need? From whom shall I get comfort?" Then, you seek worldly pleasures.
In the world there are so many things that urge you to seek the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.
If you follow the urging of the flesh and seek it, you will put great distance between you and God.
So, the word of God recorded in 1 John 2:15 tells us that if we love the world there is no love for God within us.
When you tried to pray to God in the evening prayer meeting after you have seen, heard, and sought fleshly things all day long, was it easy for you to concentrate on prayers?
I think many of you devotees, and you other brothers and sisters in Christ, have experienced this.
You may have felt so ashamed of yourself that you found it difficult to concentrate on prayers.
It wasn't easy for the Holy Spirit to inspire you either, was it?
You may not have prayed for sanctification fervently, and when you tried to pray for the kingdom of God you failed to remember the contents of prayer.
Then, you had to toil and struggle to offer your prayers to God, and it took much time.
On the contrary, if you have set your mind and heart on spiritual things all day long, you can easily concentrate on your prayers.
And you can easily receive the grace and strength to cast off your sins and become sanctified.
You, who have to deal with so many clients and visitors in the market may think you cannot but feel tired in heart and body and you may feel that you have little time for seeking spiritual things.
But you have to examine what kind of things you have set your mind when you have your break time.
Now I earnestly ask you not to set your eyes on earthly things but to always look up to heaven and diligently wash your robes.
Dear devotees,
To wash your robes, secondly, you should neither compare others to yourself nor judge others.
When people compare themselves with the others and judge them, they reveal many evils.
They become discouraged or jealous of others.
They slander and gossip about other's faults and the relationship of trust is broken.
For example, suppose a new believer who has come to the church some time before you is favored by seniors of the church and the people around him. Suppose that he has received higher position than yours.
Then, how would you feel?
Would you be grateful as if you were commended along with him and determined to serve and encourage him to do even better?
If you involved fleshly thoughts in that matter, you may have become jealous and tried to reveal his faults.
You may have said, "That worker is lacking in many aspects. He shows off his deeds to boast of himself before the people. Church seniors see only his outward deeds and give him biased affection." In this way you would have tried to disgrace him.
Or you may have been disheartened thinking, "I have long since been faithful in this church, so why should I be look upon less favorably than he?"
When a brother or a sister who is at the same level of faith receives blessings, you may offer congratulations on his blessing because you have been taught the truth, but you may be disheartened in a corner of your heart.
"I have also been faithful, but why does blessing come to me so slowly? When will my trial come to an end so can I take a rest?"
If you really hope for heaven, it doesn't matter to you who is more favored and who is more commended.
The better things you can enjoy on this earth do not matter to you as much as to others.
You have to think critically of whether you serve everyone, whether you are sacrificing yourself for the benefits of others and whether you rejoice with the truth.
You have to be able to serve and trust one another, and moreover to share your heart with each other.
Then, you can be recognized by God and receive blessing and give many testimonies.
Dear members of the Light and Salt Mission,
Do you really wish to experience revival?
Then, you have to first become one in the Lord.
You have to become one in love and service to each other and with the fervor for the kingdom of God.
Generally, people say that it is difficult to experience revival in the field of distribution and restaurant works.
In some senses, it is really true.
People who work in those fields have to go to work on Sunday and to work hard until late, so it is deemed difficult to evangelize them and bring them to the church.
But it is not a crucial matter.
If you all become one, please God, and prepare yourselves as proper vessels in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, God himself will work.
When the people around you see your daily lives and when they hear you speaking the gospel, they will be moved and go to church voluntarily.
They will visit the church saying, "That person has asked me so many times. . . now I will go to his church just once." But they will go to church again because they are touched at your love and joyful life.
Thus, when you become one and are prepared as proper vessels, God Himself brings many souls.
If some seniors of your mission force the members to obey them, it is not possible for all of you to become one.
The seniors have to understand and consider their subordinates even though their opinions may be right and the subordinates are supposed to obey.
It applies to the subordinates as well.
If they complain to their seniors about their ill feelings saying, "Please understand and just accept me because I am in that situation," you cannot become one.
I urge all of you to see, hear and think of everything only in goodness all the time.
I ask you to rejoice with the truth, serve one another and become one in love.
Thus, you can wash you robes and make the shortcut to revival of your mission.
Dear devotees,
To wash your robes, thirdly, you have to fervently seek spirit. But what is important is that you have to do it in a spiritual way.
For you who live in this world to experience the spiritual realm, it costs much effort.
You have to call down works of God through fervent prayers, fasting and earnest petition.
But if someone who has made the way for the spiritual realm ahead of you and leads you, it will be much easier.
Joshua always followed Moses like his shadow, so he could clearly understand the will of God in that spiritual accompaniment.
That's why he became the successor of Moses, and performed the miracle of God of making the sun and the moon still.
The reason that Prophet Elisha could perform such amazing works of God was because he had followed his teacher Elijah.
You know this principle and say you are following the shepherd who has been performing power.
But I am urging you to check once again whether you have sought the shepherd in spirit.
You have to understand exactly for what purpose you are following him and what kind of fruits you have to bear.
When our Lord Jesus manifested miraculous signs and wonders, numerous people gathered and followed him.
When they witnessed Him performing the miracle of five loves and two fish, more people came to Him.
But what did He say to them?
John 6:26 says, "I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled."
When they saw Him performing miracles, they should have believed in the kingdom of heaven.
And they ought to have sought to live by the word of God and followed Him with a longing heart for His word.
But many of them failed to do so.
They followed Jesus because they expected something good and fleshly in return.
When they came to Jesus, they anticipated that Jesus would set them free from the bondage of the Roman Empire.
They hoped that Jesus would establish a new nation and they would hold the positions as authorities beside Him.
Some others came before Him to receive healings of their diseases or to gain benefits from such miracles as that of five loves and two fish.
So, when Jesus delivered the messages on the kingdom of heaven, His word did not agree with their thoughts and they couldn't understand them.
It was because the Passion and crucifixion of Jesus would bring no benefit to them.
They did not want to receive the gift of heaven, but fleshly and material benefits.
Finally, such people abandoned and left Jesus. This is the result of fleshly accompaniment.
When may people left Jesus, in John 6:68, Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life."
You have to be able to profess the same confession.
If you follow the shepherd and draw close to Him, what is the reason?
It must be to clearly understand the will of God and change by His will.
It is not because I comfort you with warm words and smile at you and commend you.
Neither is it because you can fulfill the desires of your heart through my prayers.
Neither is it because you are recognized by others for loving and following the shepherd.
If you really seek spirit, you not only come close to men of spirit, but come to understand the will of God in the meeting with them.
Through the fellowship with men of spirit, you will surely try to see and learn what the heart of spirit is like, what you have to do to rely on and obey God and how you can do good in difficult situations.
And when I give you advice, you will pray and try to realize in what kind of sense and why I gave you that advice.
Also, when I advise another person, even though it is not for you, you will try to apply it to your life.
When you pray and endeavor that way, you will be able to realize many things and discover yourselves by the works of the Holy Spirit.
So, through even a single meeting, you will learn the will of God and bear it in mind so that you will come forth as a transformed person later.
Thus, when you realize the truth, keep it in mind and put it into action, you can bear the fruit of spiritual accompaniment.
But if you have not experienced spiritual change, but just come close in flesh over a long period of time, it proves that you have sought your benefits.
After all, you cannot be deemed to seek spirit or to long for spirit, either.
Just look upon the examples of Abraham and Sarah.
Who else spent as much time accompanying Abraham as Sarah?
Sarah had watched and heard what happened around Abraham and what kind of words and deeds he showed for a long time.
She could notice even little things such as what kind of garments he preferred and food he enjoyed.
She did not accompany him in spirit nor did she become one with him in heart or in spirit.
Sarah eventually failed to cultivate and change her heart.
She ended up staying at the level of faith to enter only Paradise, and it made Abraham feel very sorry.
So, when you follow the shepherd and come close to and have fellowship with men of spirit, you have to make sure of the purpose of those fellowships.
You should not accompany them in flesh but stay beside them to change yourselves by the truth.
If you bear this word in your mind, you can wash your robes as quickly as your longing and desire to follow spirit.
Conclusion
Dear devotees, and brothers and sisters in Christ,
I believe you are well aware why God established the Light and Salt Mission.
It was to shine the light of the gospel of salvation to many souls who cannot keep the Lord's Day because of unusual job situations.
So, in order to fulfill this will of God, you have to wash your robes and become sanctified children of God who distance yourselves from the world.
You have to play the true role of salt and light by spreading the gospel to countless souls who are in situations that are too difficult for them to gain salvation and helping them experience God's power.
Then, first of all, you have to cast off adultery, especially spiritual adultery.
Secondly, you should not compare yourselves with others or judge them.
When you understand, love and serve others, you can become one and experience revival.
Thirdly, you have to fervently follow spirit. And you have to do it in a spiritual way.
You, Light and Salt Mission has once experienced great revival.
At that time many members did not know the word of God well nor did they stand on rock of faith.
Because they did not lay the foundation of faith, they eventually went astray from the word of God and became corrupted by the thoughts of men.
As a result, the works of God decreased, and when trials came many people stumbled and fell.
But here you have to remember that even though your faith was weak you could experience great works of God when you fervently became one.
You witnessed firsthand the spark of revival being set ablaze not only in Seoul, but also all over the country.
The situations and conditions do not matter at all.
Now you have the word of God and are able to show faith.
You have laid the foundation of spiritual faith in which you will never collapse in any trial.
Now when you wash your robes with all your strength and become one with one another, an even greater spark of revival will be set ablaze than ever before.
This will not only be repaid to you with blessings and prizes on earth, but also you will enjoy white fine linen and many rewards in the shining glory in heaven in the future.
Therefore, I wish for you to hold fast to this word of hope and complete adorning yourselves as pure and spotless brides of the Lord soon.
May your names be recognized and lifted up by the Lord in the face of God and the angels, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray! [Amen] |
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