“You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

Almost all Christians have not yet met the gospel of the remission of sins that came by the water and the Spirit, and as a result, they live as sinners clinging to the false doctrines in Christianity. So, I had to rebuke those false teachers who have led their followers to the prayers of repentance and prevented them from believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I also had to warn them of their spiritual destruction. If we do not tell of this now, I don’t think we’ll have any more chances to correct the doctrine of repentance.

The members of the churches in Galatia suffered very much from the evil effects of the circumcisionists. This was why the Apostle Paul wrote the letter of admonishment to the churches of Galatia. Even in this age, there are many followers of the prayers of repentance, like the circumcisionists in the churches of Galatia, who are trying to destroy the gospel of God. These people are trying to be washed of their sins by believing in the doctrine of repentance these days.

Today, the souls are dying in Christianity because of the wrong doctrine of repentance. The Christian leaders of today kill the souls of people who should not die, and keep people alive who should not live, by lying to those who listen to lies (Ezekiel 13:19). They know that they receive the remission of sins by offering prayers of repentance, but how wrong is such a faith? They don’t even think of the fact that they believe in the wrong doctrine of Christianity. The reason why the faith of the people these days became false was that there is a doctrine stating that in order to cleanse one’s sins, one must give prayers of repentance. It is also because they did not know the fact that they could receive the true remission of sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Actually, those who believe in the man-made doctrines are not interested in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Instead, they only rely on the fictitious doctrines of Christianity. Therefore, we have to preach the Truth of salvation again according to the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, which is written in the Bible. And we really have to teach them how erroneous the faith of those who are offering prayers of repentance is.

It is because, by doing so, many people can return to the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. If we had claimed only the fallacy of the doctrine of repentance without shedding the light of the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit on it, we would have failed. If we had not done so, all the people would not have listened carefully to the gospel Truth that we were claiming, and would say, “That’s just your thought.” Therefore, we had to preach the gospel Truth properly and base it on the Word of God. Our persuasion will keep on testifying the genuine Truth with the Words of the Bible.

I will testify the gospel of the water and the Spirit sufficiently at this point because many people in the world misunderstand that they receive the remission of sins by offering prayers of repentance. They have to know how erroneous such a faith is. We can tell you whether the faith of the circumcisionists is wrong or not according to the Truth in the Bible. We, the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit will root out the untruth from the hearts of those who have the erroneous faith once we start to handle it.

The water temperature of the East Sea by Korea this year is 5°C higher than the average year. They say that an increase of 1°C of the water temperature is equivalent to an increase of 10°C of the land temperature. This world is getting near to the end. I tell you that we have to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit faster as the world is getting more evil.

But I somehow feel nervous that there might be problems in preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit because of the problematic current political-economic situation of our country. That is why I ask God for the help: “God, please help me. Please, sustain our country so that we can preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to every nation of the world without failure.” I ask you to pray for the preaching of the gospel every moment. First, please pray for the church of God, for the workers, for the spread of the gospel to every nation, and pray for the servants of God so that they will win victory over the enemies of God by uniting with each other.

Let us take a look at Galatians 5: 7-9. “You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”

Who are the people that the Apostle Paul calls 'you'? The Apostle Paul meant all the believers of the Galatian churches. Some cirumcisionists were mingled in with the believers who had the right faith in those churches. And he was saying that the lesson of the circumcisionists was a wrong doctrine, which was against the will of God. Their teachings were from their lust of flesh, were aimed to satisfy their glory-seeking minds, and were not from the will of God. So, the Apostle Paul called the teaching of the circumcisionists as the spiritual leaven, saying, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump”(Galatians 5:9).

The Apostle Paul said that the people who advocated the physical circumcision in God's Church must be removed, while the gospel of the water and the Spirit must always be preached. However, the circumcisionists were so silly because they tried to turn God's Church into Judaism. They were the people who advocated that they had to receive physical circumcision to be the people of God. The Apostle Paul resolutely said to them, because they confused the churches of God, "If you continue to claim the physical circumcision and preach others like that, you will be destroyed in your body and spirit. You will receive the curse of God and you'll die spiritually. Therefore, stop claiming the physical circumcision and do not preach the false doctrines any more."

The Apostle Paul also warned us of the evil influence of the doctrine of repentance, which came into today's Christianity quietly. The Apostle Paul said that we have to break down the erroneous faith of believing that they received the remission of sins through legalistic prayers of repentance. From now on, only the gospel of the water and the Spirit must be preached in God's Church and other doctrines in Christianity must not be made. We must not set forth the doctrine of repentance or other man-made doctrines of theologians, which are not from the gospel of the water and the Spirit, prior to the Word of God. We also must not claim the dreamy faith like that of mystics who say, "When I prayed to God, He appeared and told me something in my prayer," and we must not perform false miracles in His Church.

We just have to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior who has called us by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus Christ saved us from all the sins by the gospel of the water and the Spirit once and for all, and all who believe in Him are saved from all their sins. God made the people, who believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, to preach that gospel all over the world. We have to keep the faith because we have been saved by believing in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. We have to know that we have come to praise the Lord and serve Him in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

We have to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and we have to live with that faith, so that we can glorify God. We have to know that the church where there are saints who believe in and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the very Church of God that preaches the genuine Truth. We have to keep our souls by the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. To do that, we must never allow the people who spread the false leavens in the church of God. From now on in the church of God, we must not allow or follow the other gospels apart from the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

Leaven raises dough easily. Our Lord God let the Israelites cross the Red Sea, and He gave the Passover Feast to them. From then on, the Israelites had to keep the 7 days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For these seven days, they had to eat unleavened bread. On the first day of the session, they had to remove all the leaven from their houses. For whoever ate leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person had to be cut off from Israel (Exodus 12:15). This leaven implies the evil doctrines of Christianity, which have spiritual perversion. On that account, God wanted to let the Israelites eat the pure bread without leaven.

The reason that God tells us to eat the pure bread is to make us the receivers of the eternal life in our minds by giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is spiritually pure. The Lord saved us from all our sins by the faith in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, now is the time for those who believe in the doctrine of repentance to receive salvation by believing in that gospel Truth. For that, we must not set our personality development as our final goal, that can be achieved through the prayers of repentance, apart from the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must not believe in God by mixing other teachings with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have to believe and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to others purely because we received the remission of sins only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must not believe or preach other teachings aside from the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit wholly and purely, and we have to preach this true gospel by faith to all the people. We have to know that we are now in a very good situation that we can listen and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit in God’s Church.

The leavened bread is prone to spoil easily. It may look good temporarily, but it cannot be preserved long and quickly becomes inedible. But the unleavened bread lasts long. The leavened bread represents the spiritually spoiled teachings. If the church of God believes in the doctrine of repentance along with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the faiths of those people are perverted easily. If some people think that the faith that can perform the power of exorcism is better than the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in God’s Church, such faith is no more than the faith in Satan that only pursues miracles and wonders. The gospel of the water and the Spirit in us gives the eternal life to whoever believes in it. That is why God tells us that we have to keep the pure faith of believing in God’s Word and the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

However, there are believers of false teachings, like the circumcisionists in the old days. The leaven of the legalists persists in working throughout the whole Christian history. Therefore, at this age, we have to have the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, keep it well, and live our lives as the servants of God with that faith.

Let us read Galatians chapter 5 verses 10 to 12. “I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!” (Galatians 5:10-12)

The Apostle Paul said, “I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind about the church of God.” He also said that God would judge the people who had advocated the circumcision. And the Apostle Paul continued to say, “And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased.”

Now, he was saying that the faith of the people who advocated physical circumcision was wrong. Paul said to the believers of the churches in Galatia to cut off the false teachings by themselves. Paul said to the circumcisionists to cut off their wrong faith at their own accord. Their faith was not from God but from themselves, so he told them to cut it off by themselves. The command of Paul was the order of God.

The Apostle Paul was a true servant of God who was persecuted a lot to believe and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When he said, “And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased,” implies that the circumcisionists were advocating physical circumcision to avoid being persecuted with Christ and His gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Apostle Paul himself endured the pain almost to death to keep this faith. He suffered a lot physically to preserve the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

The gist of the Apostle Paul’s faith is like this: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). This passage is a true confession by Paul that he believed completely in Jesus Christ who came to this earth by the water and the Spirit. We have to believe wholly that the Lord came to this earth and took the sins of this world once and for all when He was baptized from John. And we also have to know and believe that the Lord carried the sins of the world and shed His blood on the Cross after bearing those sins through His baptism.

The Apostle Paul was the servant of God who had passed all his sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, had perfect faith that he had died with Jesus Christ, and been raised again with Him. He said that those who now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit completely are the people who have received the eternal life by believing that they have died with Christ and brought back to new life. The Lord is telling us to live a life of faith devoted to Him by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that He gave us, which enables us to die with Christ and rise again with Him.

But there were people who didn’t believe the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the genuine Truth. They confused God’s Church with the false teachings on physical circumcision. Paul said to those people that he wanted them to cut off their false faiths by themselves.

That is right. Those who have a wrong faith before God have to cut it off at their own accord. One has to cut off his false faith by himself. Who else can cut it off for him? There is none. Therefore, one has to cut off his wrong faith at his own accord. We have to know and believe that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the only Truth, and only those who believe in this Truth are truly the born-again. It is evident that other teachings aside from the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the teachings that must be thrown away.

We can preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit repeatedly because this is the certain Truth that cleanses all the sins of the world. We cannot preach this gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit too much. We have to preach it repeatedly even more than several thousands times. People do not get bored of listening to the pure gospel word of the water and the Spirit, the unleavened bread. It is rather wrong if we preach other things besides the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

But, people who do not accept the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit in their hearts get easily bored to listen to that gospel repeatedly. They try to hold fast onto a superstitious faith while they are rejecting the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But, their faith and knowledge are of evil leaven before God. Therefore, you have to know what the biblical Truth is all about and to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit purely in your minds.

God had told us about the gospel of the water and the Spirit at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers of faith (Hebrews 1:1). Actually, even the law of circumcision was set to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have to remember the Word of Truth that Paul preached. When he mentioned circumcision, it had something to do with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So to speak, he wanted to mention the true spiritual circumcision by saying, “Circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter” (Romans 2:29). We have to know that we have nothing to do with Jesus Christ when we cling to the physical circumcision. You have to know that if some preachers do not preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then they are not from God, rather, they are the servants of Satan. Here is the reason that we have to believe and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

Now, the Apostle Paul was telling about the lusts of the flesh and the desires of the Holy Spirit. How did he describe the desires of the Holy Spirit? Paul said, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). And he admonished, “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:26).

From now on, we have to live by the desires of the Holy Spirit while we are in this world. We have to crucify our lusts of the flesh with its passion. If we are to believe in Jesus Christ, we have to crucify our desires and passions with Christ, and we also have to be brought back to new life with Jesus Christ. That way, we can say that we are true servants of Christ. I mean we have to do so, if we received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

But, if we are still filled with the lusts toward the world and follow those lusts, it means that we do not believe in Jesus Christ wholly and follow Him truly. As many people were destroyed spiritually because of the circumcisionists at the Apostle Paul’s time, there are people in this age who follow their lusts of the flesh after believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They will finally lose their duties of spreading the gospel and receive fearful judgment from God.

People who cannot throw away their lusts of flesh even after being born again by the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the same as the circumcisionists who advocated the physical circumcision. Their commonness is to destroy God’s Church and to disturb the work of spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They are enemies of God who cannot follow the Lord, even though they have received the remission of sins and wish to follow Him.

The Apostle Paul professed his faith repeatedly: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20);“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27);“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). All his profession of faith was possible because he believed that his old self had died and he was brought back to new life by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

The Apostle Paul keeps on saying repeatedly that he has been crucified with Jesus Christ, and brought back to new life with Jesus Christ. Why? Because he needs to strengthen our faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit due to the fact that we are still locked in our deficient flesh, even after receiving the remission of sins by believing in the true gospel. Even though we have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we are still insufficient and weak due to our dwelling in flesh. But, if we continuously follow the lusts of the flesh, we are the same as the people who follow their former masters. It would be the same thing as serving the former master Pharaoh if you say, “I don’t have any business with the Lord anymore because I have already received the salvation from all my sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit before the Lord.”

There can be two kings in our hearts. One is God and the other is our selves, that is, the selfish lusts of flesh. Before we are born again of water and the Spirit, our lust is our king, but God is our king after being born again. But, if you follow your flesh even after being born again of water and the Spirit, you become the enemy of God. My fellow believers, I want to tell you about this part today.

There are many poplar trees at every riverside and even at the entrance of every village in my country. Once, when I was young, the elders had axed down a huge poplar tree at the entrance of my village. They said that the tree was of no use anymore. But, in the next spring, new buds sprouted from the stump of the tree, and they grew very fast.

The reason that I am mentioning this memory is to talk about the lusts that spring up tenaciously from our flesh. The Apostle Paul says that we have been grafted into the new life of Jesus by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Apostle Paul is saying in Romans that we, who had only evil habits, have been grafted into the true life, that is, the Truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

When we graft a tree into another, we first make a parent stock by cutting the original tree, leaving only the stump, and then insert a graft into the parent stem. After that, we bandage them into one. If you just leave it like this, the grafted tree soaks the resin from the root and it grows. If you graft a branch of a cultivated pear tree into a stock of a wild pear tree, then the root would be the one of wild pear tree but the stems and the fruits would be the ones of the cultivated pear tree. This is because the cultivated pear tree has been grafted into the wild pear tree.

Likewise, the Lord came to the evil nature of our flesh and mind, remitted all our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and then he planted the life of Jesus Christ in our minds. The Holy Spirit of God came to our minds, which is only of evil nature. Paul said, “For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree”(Romans 11:24). God has cut out our old selves from us and grafted the Holy Spirit into us, just like the shoot of a cultivated olive tree has to be grafted into the stock of a wild olive tree to produce good fruit. Therefore, the fruit of the Holy Spirit of the cultivated olive tree is bearing from inside of us.

Even though the new life was grafted into every one of us, the born-again, if the power remaining in the stump of the original tree is stronger than the new stems, then the stems of the wild olive tree that sprouted up from the root will grow faster than the stems of the cultivated olive tree, and the cultivated olive tree would die. So, the Apostle Paul is saying if there are lusts arising from the original root, we should cut the lusts of the wild olive tree and grow the faith that stems out of the cultivated olive tree well.

Even if we believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, if we only follow the lusts of the flesh, we are the same as the circumcisionists of the early churches. We have to know and admit that our Master is Jesus Christ, and not our old selves that are full of the lusts of flesh. We have to know and believe the fact that our only Master is God, and we have to be God's true servant by following the Master by faith.

Now, our old selves are dead in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ became our eternal Savior by bearing our sins and dying on the Cross instead of us, and rising again from the dead. The death of Jesus Christ at that time was both our deaths, for He enabled us to unite with Him through His baptism received from John, the representative of all mankind. Put differently, when He was baptized, we were united with Him through the laying on of John's hands on His head. That's how our old selves were able to die with Jesus Christ when He died on the Cross. Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus Christ at that time was also our resurrection. If we truly believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we have to know that our old selves have been dead and brought back to new life in Him.

And we have to know that the seed of new life, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, has been planted in our minds. We are living new lives because Jesus Christ was planted in our minds. So, we have to engrave the Bible passage in our minds, “Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Even though we have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our lusts of the flesh arise without end. Whenever this happens, we have to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and ruminate over the truth that our old selves have died with Jesus Christ and that we have been brought back to life again from the dead with Him. We have to repel our lusts of the flesh with the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we have to live with spiritual faith. If we do not fight against our lusts of the flesh with faith, then the lusts of the flesh will cover our new lives and we will eternally be dead.

And we have to discern the things that come out of our thoughts and minds, and decide whether they are right or not. If they are not right, we then have to set ourselves upright by shedding the light of the gospel of the water and the Spirit upon ourselves. All of us have to keep the faith by discerning the right faith from the wrong faith by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If we do not live by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we will face our spiritual deaths in the end.

If one does not repel the lusts of the flesh, even after believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he will be like Jeroboam as a result. I bet that you do not want to be like the King Jeroboam. I also bet that you do not want to be the preacher who opposes the will of God and preaches the untruth in this world, even though you have become the people of God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jeroboam was not the King, but he anointed himself as the King of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and committed a grave sin of changing the Day of Atonement and the qualification of priesthood as he wished.

Do you also want to commit such a sin? King Jeroboam made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods.” He also ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month that he had devised from his own heart, like the feast that was in the seventh month in Judah (1 Kings 12:25-33). Why did he do that? It was because he had followed the glory and lusts of his flesh. This made the Israelites face their destruction in body and spirit, and they came to be captured by Babylon within 70 years. The reason that the Israelites had suffered slavery in Babylon for 70 years and lost their own nation was because King Jeroboam committed the grave sin of causing God’s great wrath. Jeroboam did not die alone spiritually by committing the sin, but he killed lots of people spiritually. He committed the sin of killing all the people by changing the truth of the sacrifice of Atonement that God had settled. Because he had perverted the law of atonement, through which the Israelites could receive the remission of sins, all the people who aligned with it eventually faced their spiritual death.

The Apostle Paul said, “I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!”(Galatians 5:12) Wouldn’t we say something like this? : “Cut off the people by yourself who preach the teachings that trouble you and confuse you.” Isn’t that, right? But, the Apostle Paul said something like, “Be careful of those who confuse the Church and trouble you. If you are such people, I hope you have to cut yourself off. Throw away the wrong teachings by yourselves.”

My friends, it is not that easy to follow the Lord after receiving the remission of sins. There are people who follow the Lord constantly although it has been a long time since they were born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Now, first of all, you have to respect those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit prior to you. Why do you have to do that? It is because they have served the Lord, believed, and kept the gospel of the water and the Spirit constantly for a long time. And this faithful life is not easy work. People who believed, served, and obeyed Jesus Christ as their Savior for a long time are the ones who have overcome all difficulties out of their lusts by fighting against them. Even though they are deficient, they followed the Lord by winning their lusts through believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit until now. This is really worthy of respect.

We anyways call the people who received the remission of sins first as the forerunners; but there are many people who do not know the depths of the faith and minds of the forerunners. We shouldn’t think that we call them forerunners because they just received the remission of sins prior to us. Here are our sisters and brothers. You have to respect the people who stayed in God’s Church for a long time, and you have to follow God by obeying Him in this spiritual order. Even those who are newly born again say, “Oh, I am doing well in my spiritual life. Then, what are you, the forerunners? You are nothing in my eyes. Nothing at all,” but the order established by God does not change. Even if the forerunners are deficient and weak; they are worthy to be respected by the followers because they followed the Lord by cutting off lots of their hardships and lusts with their faith.

We have to remove the lusts of the flesh in our minds by faith. If we follow the lusts of the flesh, we will die. We might follow the lusts of the flesh for a while because we are deficient; but we have to follow Jesus Christ with the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In fact, the things in the world are nothing. The things in the world cannot always be preserved. They will be ruined and decline someday. There is nothing on this earth that does not change, and all of these things will change and disappear. Look at the Mongol tribe who were the descendants of Genghis Khan who dictated in the world of the 12th century. They are living as a small nation covered by the power of China. Likewise, the things of the world always decline after they reach a climax.

The glory of the world disappears all in the twinkling of an eye. Actually, there are more people who just disappear at the end without going up to the top at all. We have to pay attention to the Bible passages in 1 John 2:15-17. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

My fellow believers, are your lusts of the flesh arising? Even if you vow and make up your mind not to be swept by these lusts, aren’t they arising again the next day without fail? Although the lusts of the flesh arise continuously, you have to cut and cut them off with the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Paul said, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). Now, the righteous people who have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have crucified the passions and desires that arise out of their flesh. We cannot follow the Lord if we do not have that faith by ourselves.

I have a story that I am not so happy to share with you. It is about the death of one of my elder brothers in my family. I was depressed whenever I thought of it. It was so painful to think that if I helped him even a little bit, if even took a little care of him, perhaps there would have been a different outcome. I worried about his bereaved family whenever I was in pain because of the pity I felt toward them, and came to a conclusion. “It is so painful to think about it physically. But how much could I help if I helped them? I could give them a bit of help, but can I guarantee their future eternally? If they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they will be ruined, and then, what is the thing that I really do well? If I hold on to my family only, I will be neglectful of preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Then it is sure that I cannot spread the gospel all over the world and my own faith will be in danger. If this happens, wouldn’t it be a minor misfortune to my family a major loss to the world? That is not good choice for anyone.”

Do you think that I do not have any passion? I also have the desires of the flesh. But then, if I follow my emotions and desires, how can I preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world? I mean to say that how can we work to save many people around the world while following our physical emotion?. Even I have those emotions and desires, but it is right to live for the Lord, setting all those things aside. There are many times when I have to crucify my passions and desires to obey the Great Commission of Jesus Christ who is my King and your King. I crucify my lusts of the flesh with faith. So, I follow the Lord even if I am insufficient.

And you are the same. It is not that you do not have the lusts in your flesh. Don’t you have the lusts of flesh? Everyone has lusts. Can you follow the Lord if you follow such lusts? No, you cannot. If you cannot follow the Lord by faith, you will surely face your spiritual destruction. It is not the end by just following the lusts in flesh. What is the end result if we follow the lusts of the flesh? If we cannot follow with the faith of believing in the Lord, although we received the salvation from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we will spiritually fail. Our failing spiritual lives will bring about our destruction in body and spirit. If then, we cannot receive the blessing that God gives us, all of us will perish.

That is why we have to follow the Lord with the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our lusts of the flesh have to be crucified with Christ by the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and our souls have to be brought back to new life with Christ by the faith of believing in Him. We have to follow the Lord by believing in Him and the true gospel, and for that, we have to drive away our desires and passions by faith. Whatever kinds of situations happen, we have to live by the faith of believing in the Lord. The Apostle Paul is now saying this.

We have to live by faith like this. When the Apostle Paul had taught them, the circumcisionists should have thrown away their practices by themselves realizing, “Oh, this is wrong.” But unfortunately, they didn’t. We have to throw away our wrongdoings by ourselves if it is not beneficial, realizing, “This is not right.” It is not by being compelled to do so by others, but by ourselves that we have to crucify our lusts and passions by uniting with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

The Apostle Paul said, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). And also said, “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” (Galatians 5:15)

Because we truly have received the salvation before God and become the people of God by being liberated from our sins, we have to serve one another through love, and not take this liberty as the chance of serving the flesh. The Apostle Paul told us not to fight one another to be exalted.

Want to read more sermons on the Galatians? Please click the banner below to get your free book on the Galatians.

Paul said, “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:26). You must not become boastful. If we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our faith will last long when we seek the truth, but if we seek after futile glory, we will be ruined spiritually. If you just follow the general trend of today’s Christianity, you cannot avoid having a false faith, and your soul will surely perish forever.

I had lots of friends before I was born again. When I tried to do something wrong, one of my friends abruptly stopped me. A terrible accident might have happened if that friend did not stop me earnestly. Fortunately, I passed the crisis of my adolescent life. During that time, I felt keenly that I had to have good friends and be a good friend to others.

Especially, people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have to make friends with the born-again who have the same faith of believing in the Truth. However, if you make friends with those who have different faith, you will be ruined. My fellow believers, the born-again can also be fascinated by the people who are not saved because the righteous also have emotions. Didn’t you have some close friends who didn’t receive the remission of sins? It is possible for the righteous to be led by emotions because they are also human beings, but if they really devote themselves to the Lord, it is wise for them to make friends with those who follow the Lord. We have to be careful lest we should not fall into the flesh.

Therefore, the Apostle Paul said to us to live by the Holy Spirit. I profess before the Lord that we also will live in accordance with the desires of the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah.