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 Sermon > The message of the cross |
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Title |
The Message of the Cross(7) - Why Jesus is our Savior (2) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1 Corinthians 2:6-9 |
Date |
2005-05-01 |
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[Scripture]
[1Corinthians 2: 6-9 ]
"We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. [7] No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. [8] None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. [9] However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"
[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This is the seventh session of the message of cross, and continuing from the last session, I will testify to why Jesus is our Savior.
The content of this message is very important and is the essence for us to receive salvation and lead a powerful Christian life.
For example, suppose there is an orange. If you just think, 'it must be delicious' only because others say so, it will not benefit you at all. Only when you peel it and eat it, can you feel the actual taste and will you gain the benefit from its nutrients.
It is the same with faith. You will not be saved only by knowing in your head that you will receive salvation when you believe in the Lord Jesus. You cannot lead a powerful Christian life just by saying, "I believe," just because others tell you to do so.
You should clearly know the reason why only Jesus is our Savior and why you receive salvation when you believe in Him.
Then, you will gain spiritual faith so that the enemy devil and Satan cannot tempt you, and you will have the authority over the words when you preach.
Today, I hope you will clearly understand why Jesus is our Savior and keep it in your mind, so that you will be able to give a clear answer when somebody asks you the question, why and how is it that Jesus is the only savior?
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will have the life of Jesus Christ in you and you will be able to spread that life to many people.
[Body]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, viewing audiences, for the mankind who are sinners to receive salvation, there must be the Savior who can redeem them from their sins. And to become the Savior, he must have the qualifications.
I told you the first condition to be the savior is that He has to be a man. By the law of the redemption of the land, only a relative of Adam, a man, is qualified to redeem mankind from their sins.
The history testifies to Jesus being born as a man, and He is qualified for the first condition.
What was the second condition?
I told you that He must not be a descendant of Adam. Because all Adam's descendants are sinners, they cannot redeem the sins of other sinners. I explained to you up to this point in the last session.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, why then are all Adam's descendants sinners? It is because Adam's descendants receive Adam's sin from their birth.
Let me elaborate on this. When God created men, He gave Adam and Eve the seed of life.
Briefly, God permits a new life be conceived by the combination of man's sperm and woman's egg.
The life energy of parents is contained in the sperm and egg. The characteristics, personalities, dispositions, and appearances of parents are contained in them.
So, the children who are born by union of the sperm and egg resemble their parents in the face, body shapes, personalities, and even habits. If the parents are hot-tempered, it is more likely that the children will be also hot-tempered. If the parents are mild and meek, usually their children are also mild.
In some cases, the father passes away when his child is very young. But as this child grows up, he may display the walking posture, sleeping habits, and tastes of the dead father.
The children resemble not only their parents, but also their grandparents.
Likewise, the characteristics of the ancestors are passed down to their descendants and show up in succeeding generations.
The characteristics, habits, and personalities are passed down to the descendants through the sperms and eggs of the parents.
Of course, even from the same parents, children inherit some characteristics more than other characteristics. There are slight differences, but originally, they all receive the life energy of their parents. And in this life energy are contained the sinful natures.
Since the fall of the first man Adam, the sinful natures of the ancestors are passed down to the descendants. This is the original sin.
Therefore, all descendants of Adam are sinners who have inherited the sinful nature of Adam from birth.
Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned"
It explains to us that by the sin of one person, namely Adam, death came to all men.
If I say men are born as sinners, some might wonder thinking, "Newborn babies are so clean and pure. What sins do they have?" But if you look at them carefully, even little babies have evil in them.
For example, even newborn babies, if their parents are hot-tempered, have anger to a great extent. When they are hungry, if they are not nursed quickly enough, they cry so much, with their faces turning red.
In that case, even if the mother gives her breast to the baby to nurse, the baby does not even try to suck it but only cries with nervousness.
They are trying to say, "Why do you nurse me so late? I am so angry that I don't even want to take the milk now."
Who taught anger and nervousness to these newborn babies who cannot even communicate?
It is not that somebody taught them or planted evil in them but they were born with the sinful nature from their parents. Let me give you another example. What will happen if a mother nurses another baby in front of her own baby?
Most babies do not like it, and they try to pull that baby apart from their mother.
Their feelings are hurt with a mind that says, "Why is another baby in the bosom of my mother and loved, taking my mother's milk?"
If the baby cannot pull the other baby away from his mother, he gets angry at his mother and sometimes even hits her. If that still doesn't work, he will burst into tears.
If the child has no sin but only goodness and a clean heart, he will never show this kind of reaction.
The truth is to share good things with others, so if another baby shares his own mother's milk, he should be happy about it rather than disliking it. The reason he dislikes it is because he has envy and jealousy, and the greed that tells him that he alone should take the milk of his mother.
Then, who planted sins such as jealousy, envy, greed, irritation into this child?
It is not planted by anybody but the child is born with the original sinful nature coming down from Adam. That is why David says in Psalm 51:5, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."
Likewise, all men are Adam's descendants and are born with original sin, so nobody that is a human being can become the Savior.
Only one, Jesus, is a man but not a descendant of Adam.
How is that Jesus is not Adam's descendant and is a man? Jesus, in the physical genealogy, is a descendant of David, and His parents were Joseph and Mary.
But Matthew 1:20 says, "What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit," and Matthew 1:23 prophecies, "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel."
The reason why men are born with the original sin is that they inherit the sinful nature of their parents through their sperms and eggs.
But Jesus was not conceived by the sperm of Joseph or the egg of Mary, but only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The almighty God could conceive Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit, without the union of the sperm and egg of man. Both Joseph and Mary are Adam's descendants, but Jesus only borrowed the body of Mary. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, so He did not receive any life energy of the sinners.
Thus, Jesus is not Adam's descendant and has no original sin.
Among all men on earth, the only one who was conceived by the Holy Spirit is Jesus.
Even the great men in this world are descendants of Adam and sinners, so they can never become the Savior.
Therefore, only Jesus can become the Savior for mankind.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, here, there is one more thing you should remember.
Although the Virgin Mary had Jesus, she can never become the mother of Jesus. Let us say we plant the fertilized egg into a machine and raise it for 10 months. Then, does the baby have to call this machine mother? Of course not!
Of course, Mary was such a good and loving woman that she could be chosen by God to bear Jesus.
But still, Mary is just a creature, and she can never become Jesus' mother.
Therefore, in the Bible, there is not a single occasion in which Jesus calls Mary 'mother'. Sometimes, His disciples wrote 'mother of Jesus' but it was just from the viewpoint of the disciples.
For example, John 19:26 says, "When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, 'Dear woman, here is your son.'" Here, the phrase 'his mother' was written by John, and Jesus called Mary, 'woman'.
In John 2:4, at the wedding banquet of Cana, Jesus said, '"Dear woman, why do you involve me?' Jesus replied. 'My time has not yet come.'"
But some people call Mary 'holy mother' and even bow down to her and pray to her only because she gave birth to Jesus.
But Jesus is the Son of God, and the object of our worship and prayers must be only to God the Trinity.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the third condition for the Savior is that he must have the power to win over the enemy devil and Satan.
If you want to rescue prisoners of war in a battle, you must have the strength to bring them back from the enemy.
Spiritually, to save those who belong to the enemy devil, we must have the strength to win over the enemy devil and bring those people back. But even very strong men who have strong bodies cannot win over the enemy devil.
Here, the power to win over the enemy devil is not physical but spiritual power.
The power in spiritual realm comes from having no sin. Just as the darkness goes away when light comes, those who dwell in light completely without any darkness have the power to win over the evil spirits that belong to darkness.
There are two kinds of sins: original sin and self-committed sins. The original sin, as I already explained, refers to the sinful nature coming down from Adam.
Self-committed sins are the sins that you commit yourself in your life.
People commit many kinds of big and small sins in their lives.
Not only those who commit grave sins, but those who commit negligible sins are also sinners. James 2:10 says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
If you violate just one of the many laws, you are already a sinner.
Furthermore, the worldly people do not consider it sin unless it is shown as action, but spiritually, just by having a sin in one's heart, although it is not shown as action, he is already a sinner.
1 John 3:15 says, "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him."
Only if you hate your brother in your heart, you are a sinner just like a person who murders his brother out of his hatred.
Also, Matthew 5:28 says, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart," so if you just have the greed in your heart, you are a sinner just like a thief. Likewise, a person who has committed a sin even once in their heart or in action does not have the power to redeem mankind from their sins.
Everyone born after Adam is a sinner who has the original sin, and everyone commits sins themselves. There is nobody who can boldly say, "I have never committed a sin either in action or in heart."
Thus, nobody has the qualification to become the Savior. Only Jesus has neither original sin nor self-committed sins, so He has met this condition to become the Savior.
Jesus is not Adam's descendant, so He has no original sin. He does not have any self-committed sins either because He kept all the law of God completely from His birth through His crucifixion.
Starting from being circumcised on the eighth day, He never did anything that was not truth in His heart and action. Therefore, Hebrews 7:26 refers to Jesus, "Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens."
Also, 1 Peter 2:22 says, "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
Only Jesus is holy and has no evil, and He is the only one who committed no sins.
Because Jesus had no sin at all, He had the power to save mankind from the enemy devil and Satan, and He was not subject to the curse of the law that dictates, "the wages of sin is death."
That is why, even though He died on the cross, He could break the authority of death and resurrect.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, because Jesus had no sin, He could break the authority of death, save the sinners, and rule over everything with His spiritual authority. Not only the enemy devil and Satan but also diseases, germs, and infirmities submitted to Him.
When those who were suffering from evil spirits came before Jesus, He commanded the evil spirit to go away. Then, the evil spirit had to leave obeying His word.
When Jesus commanded, even diseases and germs left.
The blind, deaf, mute, and the lame recovered healthy bodies by the command of Jesus.
Also, all things of the heaven and earth obeyed before the authority of Jesus, who had no sin.
When Jesus rebuked the wind and commanded the sea to calm down and be still, the wind stopped and the sea calmed down.
This law in the spiritual realm applies to not only Jesus but also to all God's children who believe in Jesus.
1 John 5:18 says, "We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him."
Namely, those children who are born of God are protected by the one who is born of God, namely the Lord, so that the enemy devil and Satan cannot harm them.
But you must have the spiritual power by not committing sins so that the evil spirits will not dare to harm you. No matter how long you have believed in God and led a Christian life and you have many titles in church, you do not have spiritual power if you still live in sins.
Even if you pray to drive away evil spirits in the name of Jesus Christ, tests and trials do not leave.
Just as insects gather around dirty pools, the enemy devil keeps on working and giving hard times to people.
But even a small child, if he loves God and lives according to God's Word, he too has spiritual power. If that child commands in the name of Jesus Christ, the enemy devil obeys and goes away.
If you truly live in the truth and accomplish a holy heart accompanied with deeds, darkness will go away from your life, and even when you pray for other people, God's work will be manifested.
I experience this kind of thing countless times. Before I believe in God, not only my self, but also my children constantly suffered from disease, so we had to spend so much money on hospital bills and medications.
But after I accepted the Lord, until this day, I have always dwelled in God's Word and lived a life outside of sins, so diseases and infirmities left not only myself but also my family members as well.
Since we accepted God, none of our family members have been to the hospital or taken any medicine. Even before I became a minister, I prayed on my children when they got sick, then the disease left them immediately and they were healed completely. Also, in the case of those who are demon-possessed, they recognize people with spiritual power more accurately than ordinary people.
When those who are demon-possessed make a fuss, they tremble with fear and just calm down when I approach them.
Once, I experienced that from the moment I left my home to drive away the demon from a person at some other place, the demon calmed down and was afraid.
When a sinless person prays in the name of Jesus Christ, not only diseases, germs, and evil spirits, but also lifeless things obey him.
Just as the Lord calmed down the wind and the sea, by praying in the name of the Lord, we can stop the pouring rain or change the weather, or when we pray for those who are poisoned by carbon mon-oxide, the lifeless gas obeys the command and leaves.
When I pray for those with burns, I first pray for the burning sensation to go away, and at this time, the heat obeys the prayer and leaves the body, so there is no more pain.
Most of our members are witnesses who have seen, heard, and experienced these things.
Just by seeing these works, we can realize that spiritual power and authority comes from having no sin.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I explained the second and third conditions to be the Savior. The Savior must not be Adam's descendant, and He must have the power to win over the enemy devil and Satan.
The last and fourth condition is that he must have the love even to sacrifice his own life.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, from the beginning of human history, there was nobody who was qualified to become the Savior.
All men are sinners who inherited the sinful nature of Adam through the sperm and egg of their parents.
Even the great men Buddha, Confucius, or Socrates had the original sin as descendants of Adam, and they could not live a holy life before God.
I once heard a story of a person who was said to have gained enlightenment and actually earned a lot of respect from other people.
He kept his toothpick after using it to use it again later, but his attendant threw it away. So, he got very angry at him. This was intended to say that he was very thrifty.
But how can we say he was a righteous man, since he could not even control his anger and embarrassed a person who was serving him only because of a toothpick?
Also, a person who was respected so much worldwide, suffered from many kinds of diseases for a long time. He finally faced death due to disease. Likewise, there are those who are greatly acknowledged in this world but they cannot even solve their own problems of sin, and because they have no spiritual power, they cannot drive away darkness.
I hope you will clearly understand that only Jesus has neither original sin nor self-committed sins, and so He alone has the qualification to save us.
Therefore, as said in 1 Peter 1:16, "Be holy, because I am holy," I pray in the name of the Lord that you will live a holy life so that the evil one will not even be able to touch you and you will dwell in peace and blessings. |
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