Sermons on important subjects by Rev. Paul C. Jong

First Day: In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth

< Genesis 1:1-5 >

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”

In the Book of Genesis, the purpose for which God created us is contained. When architects design a building or artists draw a painting, they first conceive the work that would be completed in their minds before they actually begin working on their project.

Just like this, our God also had our salvation of mankind in His mind even before He created the heavens and the earth, and He made Adam and Eve with this purpose in mind. And God needed to explain to us the domain of Heaven, which is not seen by our eyes of the flesh, by drawing an analogy to the domain of the earth that we can all see and understand.

Even before the foundation of the world, God wanted to save mankind perfectly by giving the gospel of the water and the Spirit to everyone’s heart. So although all human beings were made out of dust, they must learn and know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit to benefit their own souls. If people continue to live without knowing the realm of Heaven, they will lose not only the things of the earth, but also everything that belongs to Heaven.

However, in today’s Christianity, it is next to impossible to find the lesson that enables us to understand the spiritual domain of Heaven, which the Book of Genesis reveals to us. That is because even the leaders of Christianity are unable to escape from darkness, for they neither know nor believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, for Christians to ensure that their souls would prosper according to the purpose of God’s creation, all of them must first have the proper knowledge of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God has given us. Since there had been no way for them to become God’s people until now, there is all the more reason to attain the true faith that enables them to receive the spiritual blessings of Heaven.

Even at this very moment, God is building His Kingdom in people’s hearts with the spiritual gospel of the water and the Spirit. Everyone must now be able to see the spiritual domain of Heaven with the eyes of faith, believing in the Word of God. This is possible only if people are saved from sin through their faith in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. As such, to enable them to reach the spiritual realm of Heaven, we must preach the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit to everyone.

The purpose for which God created this whole universe and everything in it was to give us the gift of His Kingdom. Furthermore, God decided in His providence to give us this Kingdom through the power of His gospel. In other words, God has brought the salvation of our souls, so that we may enter the Kingdom of Heaven by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord was more than able to save every believer from all his sins once and for all, for He came to this earth, took upon all the sins of this world through the water baptism He received from John the Baptist, shed His blood while shouldering these sins of the world, and rose from the dead again.

Now, God has enabled our spirits to reach the realm of Heaven by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And to all human beings, God has given the desire to look for the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that is, He has “put eternity in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Through the history of the creation of the heavens and the earth, God sought to create His Kingdom in our hearts also. When today’s Scripture passage said that “the earth was without form,” it was referring to the condition of the human heart, which has been all tangled because of sin. And God also said, “Let there be light.” This passage implies that although everyone was born with countless sins in his heart from the very moment he was born into this world, he can now be born again. By shining the light of the real Truth of salvation on everyone with sin, God sought to correct our hearts that were already confused by sin.

Before we knew the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we all had sin in our hearts, and therefore we were incapable of realizing by ourselves what was so confused in our hearts. In other words, everyone was living without realizing that he was cut off from God because of his sins. So human beings could not know what true goodness was, nor what their wickedness was, still less what true salvation was. Even now, those who have not been born again are still mired in their confusion, so much so that they mistake the greatest wickedness to be the greatest goodness. That is why God said, “The earth was without form,” He was declaring that everyone’s heart is like a tangled knob.

Everyone is born with all the sins inherited from his parents of the flesh, from the moment he is born into this world (Psalms 51:5; Mark 7:21). The Bible states that everyone cannot help but commit sin all the time, precisely because he is born with sin by nature (Romans 7:17-20). However, just as everyone was already born with sin because of one man, Adam, everyone can now become a righteous person in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.

The Word of God says that by nature, everyone is a pile of sin, for everyone inherited sin from his forefathers. In other words, God says that no one can avoid but commit sin throughout his life, for everyone was born with the materials of sin from the very moment he was born.

For many, however, their conceptions on such issues of sin are quite fallacious. They think that their hearts are good and decent by nature, and that they commit sin unwittingly only because of their circumstances-under ideal circumstance, they would not sin at all. What we must realize, however, is that people commit sin not because of their unfortunate circumstances, but because they were all born with sin by nature. We need to realize that the descendants of Adam and Eve inherited each and every sin from their ancestors from the day they were born into this world, and that this is why they are committing sin constantly in their lives. Only through the Word of God can we realize our sins and grasp their basic nature properly.

God says that everyone is “a brood of evildoers” (Isaiah 1:4). The very seed of mankind can be compared to a bad tree. Every tree bears fruit according to its kind. If apple seeds are planted and a tree grows out of this, then this tree will undoubtedly bear apples. The apple tree cannot avoid this, just because it does not want bear apples. Just as it is only a matter of course for an apple tree to bear apples, it is only a matter of course for everyone to commit sin while living in this world, for every human being was born with all the materials of sin from the moment he was born into this world.

God said that it is because everyone was born with sin from his very birth that all human beings commit sin constantly, and we must believe in this Truth and admit it in our hearts. If you were born as a seed of sin, like a spiritual thornbush, then you are bound to live constantly committing sin. Just as it is only self-evident that a thornbush should bear thorns, so is it only too obvious for sinners to commit sin in their lives. As Jesus said, “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:17).

What we need to realize here is the self-evident truth that human beings, born as sinners, can only bear bad fruits. Since everyone inherited a sinful heart from his parents when he was born, everyone is bound to sin all the time, no matter how much he might desire otherwise. This is why we must believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit with our hearts. The truth is that only then is it possible for us to be washed from all our sins by faith and become God’s people. So everyone needs the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

Have you ever realized your basic nature? Although many people have asked themselves, “Who am I? Where did I come from, and where am I heading?” no one in this world ever found satisfactory answers to such questions all on his own. Answers to such questions can be found only by believing in the Word of God, but because people are trying to find the answer in their own frame of muddled perception, all that this has done is just worsen the confusion of their minds. So countless philosophers have ended up covering up their confusion with the nebulous notion of “agnosticism.”

Are you lost spiritually, wandering around because of the sins that you have commited? If this is the case, then you have also failed to understand your own sinful nature, and thus you are unable to receive the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Truth of the washing of sin. Jesus is saying to everyone, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Yet even so, virtuously everyone’s thoughts are still confused at the very foundation, unable to discern what is right and what is good, and living amid confused values. Therefore, we must first be washed from our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit before God. To do so, we ourselves must realize from the written Word that we were all born with sin. Only then can we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Truth of salvation, and have our hearts washed from our sins.

To wash away our sins, God has taught everyone His two laws. As one of these two laws, God gave us the Word of the Law that makes us realize our sins, and as the other law, God gave us the law of the Spirit that makes everyone free from all his sins. First, by giving us the Law, God wanted to teach us what our sins are, and just how severe the judgment of these sins is.

As we know, there are 613 commandments of God in the Law, and the Ten Commandments capture its essence. Of these Ten Commandments, the first four commandments specify the duties that we have to keep toward God. Put differently, through these first four commandments, God is telling us, “I have created you and everything in this world, and therefore you must not worship what is on this earth nor serve it.” The remaining six commandments from the fifth to the tenth are statutes that human beings must keep toward each other. Like this, God gave us the Ten Commandments, but no one could ever keep this Law to perfection.

Whether we admit it or not, God has made us. And God loves us. God is our Master and our King. So it is only proper for God to say to us, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Since God is the One who created us, it is imperative that we obey this God. If we do not believe according to this Word and do not obey it, then this constitutes a sin before God. Unfortunately, however, we failed to realize properly that God is the Creator who made the heavens and the earth. Although God commanded mankind to serve only Him, to obey and believe in Him alone, human beings have failed to do so, believing in and serving something other than God.

Therefore, to human beings born with sin, it was necessary for there to be God’s commandments that would enable them to realize their sins. And through the Word of the commandments of God, we were able to realize just how many sins we committed before God in our lives. For those who thus recognized their sinfulness, God wanted to wash them with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, make them His people, and build His Kingdom with them. God established His Law for everyone in order to set mankind free from all its sins, bless it, and turn it into His own people. It is absolutely necessary for all of us to realize this and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

If we do not know the Law of God, on the other hand, then we will forever remain incapable of admitting our sins. Why? Because without God’s Law, our sins cannot be established. If there is no Law of God, which is the absolute standard of good and evil, nor can there be our transgressions (Romans 4:15, 7:8).

We think ourselves to be wise in our own way. And we have own value system according to each. We have a habit of thinking, “This is good, that is evil; this is right, that is wrong,” but only on our own and for our own convenience. So we end up concluding that what benefits us is good, and what harms us is evil. However, such a judgment is of our own making and selfish.

We human beings are not capable of establishing any law on our own, but we are no more than creatures that must obey the Law established by God. God has given His Law to all of us. This Law of God commanded us, “You shall not have any gods before Me.” That is why our hearts must acknowledge and obey the Law of God.

If we recognize God’s Law, then to covet others’ possession constitutes a sin. Have you not coveted what others have, and have you not wished to possess what others possess? We all are capable of coveting such things as our neighbor’s wife or husband, wealth or car. Moreover, we don’t just covet in our hearts, but we are also capable of carrying our covetousness into action so far as circumstances permit. God made it clear that such thoughts and deeds are sins. And God also told us that to bear false witness against our neighbor constitutes a sin. He said that theft is also a sin. He said that adultery is a sin, as is murder. He said that failure to honor our parents also constitutes a sin. And He said that to worship anything else but God is a sin that would destroy us.

If we accept the Law of God into our hearts and examine our deeds based on this Law, we can all realize that we have indeed committed many sins before God. From the moment we were born, we were already born as sinners, having inherited all the sins that were in our parents’ hearts, from murder to adultery and theft. Since we all have such a heart for murder, adultery, and theft, God is more than justified to say to us, “You are sinful.” However, although human beings were all born with such sins in their hearts from the beginning, they do not realize this themselves.

Even though we humans have a murderous desire in our hearts, God sees that we don’t even realize this. So by giving us His Law commanding us not to murder, God has enabled us to realize that we are murderers. In other words, it is to teach us that we are such “piles of sin” that God gave us the Law. Everyone is a sinner before God. Irrespective of how high or low one’s social status may be, everyone was a sinner before God. The Bible makes it clear that we were all sinners.

The first man and woman created by God were Adam and Eve. Yet they both ended up sinning before Him. Deceived by the Devil’s temptation, they betrayed God. As a result, all human beings born as the descendants of Adam and Eve are born with the same sinful desires and nature that their forefathers had before God. That is why everyone became a sinner before God.

When God said in today’s Scripture passage, “The earth was without form,” He was pointing out that we ourselves did not realize that we were sinners. Because human beings did not know themselves, God was saying, “You are sinners with transgressions.” Therefore, we must first learn about the Law of God, and through this Law realize that we were great sinners before God. This is how everyone can realize how their hearts were all confused, and, taking a step further, be saved by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Truth of salvation. All of us must know properly that “human beings commit sin because they were born with sin from the beginning,” and our minds must grasp clearly that we have to receive the remission of our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

Do you believe that you are sinners before God? Most people, however, do not even realize their sinful nature, nor do they know the Law that teaches them about the absolute goodness of God. They have thus fallen into a great confusion, completely oblivious to the fact that they are great sinners. Nonetheless, God writes all the sins that people commit in the tablet of their conscience and in the Book of Deeds before the throne of God, and He is waiting for the judgment day to come. Regardless of whether you have sinned before man or God, secretly or openly, if you have committed any sin that troubles your conscience, then God has written it all down in the tablet of your conscience, recording, “You have committed these sins” (Jeremiah 17:1). Irrespective of whether we recognize God’s Law or not, God still writes all our sins in the tablets of our hearts. Moreover, even if we forget about our transgressions, there is no way for us to escape from the condemnation of these sins, for all our sins are also written in the Book of Deeds. That is why those who have sin can never say with a clear conscience, “I have no sin,” but, on the contrary, they can only condemn themselves, confessing, “I am a sinner.”

Since God has written down clearly all the sins that everyone commits in the tablet of his heart, no one can deny that he is a sinner. For instance, let’s assume here that we have committed theft unintentionally. And we have forgotten the fact thoroughly. But God speaks to our conscience, “You have stolen,” and He also writes this in the tablets of our hearts. This applies not only to theft, but everything else. If we had a murderous desire or acted on such a desire, then regardless of how no one might have witnessed this, God still writes it into the tablets of our hearts and makes us feel guilty in our conscience. So even if none of us knows about our transgressions, because these sins are written in our conscience, we have no choice but to confess to God and admit, “I have committed these sins.”

All that we have to do is just admit our sinfulness to God and recognize the strictness of His Law. We only have to confess, “I am a sinner before God.” Why does God demand this from us? Why does God want to hear us admitting to Him that we are sinners? It is to blot out our sins that God wants to first hear us confessing, “I am a sinner.” This is akin to a person of high position bestowing a gift and mercy to his subordinates. A gift is all the more worthwhile when it is something that the recipient needs desperately; if the recipients gets something that he can get by without, then he is not so thankful for this gift. God wants to bestow His grace of salvation on those who are in desperate need.

However, before we really knew the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we could not realize properly through the Word of God what kind of sin we had committed. I, too, was like this before. Before I came to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and know Jesus, I did not know my sins that well. We have an instinctive tendency to justify our sins and to defend our sinful selves. And we have a predilection to hide our sins.

However, when we try to hide our sins from God, our hearts suffer. In contrast, when we admit to God that we have committed such sins, and when we acknowledge our sinful minds, our hearts are finally quenched. Like this, it is those who honestly recognize their true selves before God that can reach true salvation through the work of Jesus that has blotted out our sins with the water and the Spirit.

Each of us must know exactly how God has blotted out the sins of mankind. We must all believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must all realize that the Lord took upon our sins once for all by being baptized, and that He bore all the condemnation of these sins in our place by being crucified. If we hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believe in it with our hearts, all our sins will be washed away and we will be saved.

Our lives don’t just end here on this earth. God wanted to blot out all the sins that you commit while on this earth, make you sinless, take you to the Kingdom of Heaven, and live with you forever. So He planned accordingly even before the foundation of the world, and when the time came, He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ and fulfilled everything according to this plan. However, on our part, only if we believe that God has blotted out all our sins can we be saved. That is why all of us must believe in Jesus as our Savior. Thus, because we were all clearly born with sin before God, and because we are all sinners bound to commit sin until the day we die, it is only when we admit this and place our faith in Jesus that we can receive God’s grace and love.

Even before the foundation of the world, God had planned to create human beings and make them be born again in Jesus Christ. On the first day of His creation, God did two things: First, He created the domain of the heavens and the earth; and second, He created light. God made mankind, but He not only made it, but He also gave it the light of salvation, creating the whole universe for the purpose of making us the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit His own children.

Our beliefs and faith must begin from knowing the answer to the following question: “What is the purpose for which God created the human race?” Only then can we find out what kind of faith God wants from us, and only then can we meet God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When God created this whole universe and everything in it, where was His purpose placed? The purpose of creation was to make us be born again from sin and turn us into God’s own people. This task of God making us His people is what our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled. The first purpose for which God created the whole universe and mankind was to make human beings be born on this earth, illuminate them with the light of salvation, and thereby turn them into God’s people and perfect them.

It is written, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:3-5).

The very first thing that God wanted to do to us is written here in Genesis 1:1-5. As a builder constructs a house for a purpose, God also created this whole universe and everything in it according to His own plan. What was this plan? It was to make mankind His own people, and He achieved this.

That is why you and I must accept the light of salvation into our hearts while we are still living on this earth, before we go to God. It is imperative for us to know exactly why God made mankind and how He planned our salvation in Jesus Christ, and we must all believe in this. Why did God make us? What is the purpose for which God created us? We need to understand what it means when God said, “Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good.” This was for God to make sinners righteous with the light of Truth.

Genesis 1:1 states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This passage not only explains that God made the whole universe and everything that our eyes of the flesh see, but it also implies that God made the spiritual dominion of Heaven for us. All creatures born in this universe must know the plan of God. Just as everything in the universe was created by God, so are all sinners recreated by God and made righteous through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

Even now, our God is working to make sinners righteous through the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. So while God made the realm of creatures, the particular purpose of all His creation was to make us His children. In other words, God made the domain of creatures to give us the blessing of becoming His people. The will of God is to turn you and me into His people.

When we read the Bible saying, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” we must realize why God created the universe and everything in it. God made this universe and all things in it for the purpose of creating mankind, and also to make them His people by washing away their sins through Jesus Christ, the light, and transforming them into the children of the light. This is what we must realize and believe. God wrote the Bible for the purpose of saving us, for our salvation.

God created the universe and everything in it, and this Truth tells us that He made them in order move us from the place of sinners to the place of the righteous. So while we have now become righteous people by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, until you and I reached this stage, we all had been sinners. The Word of God that has taught us this Truth is so amazing and marvelous.

When we examine ourselves, we see just how worthless we all are, no more than a handful of dust. Yet even for such worthless beings like us, God created these majestic dominions of heaven and earth to make us His children. When we think about this, we are reminded of Paul, who confessed, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33), and, “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36).

As the Apostle Paul preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit to this world and labored for the work of God, he discovered just how great God’s will toward us was, and he often marveled at this. Indeed, what are human beings that God created the heavenly domain to make sinners righteous and turn them into His people? When the angel of light, Lucifer, challenged God, God did not forgive him but cast him into Hades. Yet for human beings, God came up with a plan to allow them to become His children by believing in the Word of Truth, God’s gift of salvation, and fulfilled it all in Jesus Christ.

God said to us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). So when God said, “Le there be light,” there was light, and God has shone this light on this world; those who obey this light, God makes them His people, and those who reject the light of God, He judges them according to His justice. God did such a majestic work for us to be blessed in His providence, but we cannot grasp His will unless we know it through the light of Truth.

As I have received the remission of my sins from the Lord, and as I now carry on with my life, there is nothing else I can do but only thank God, for His plan for us is so great and magnificent. Since we have nothing to boast of before God, all that we can do is just thank Him through our faith. I believe that God created this universe because He had a wonderful plan for mankind. Do you also believe this? It is because we have the Holy Spirit in us that we can believe in God’s plan with our hearts. God planned our salvation in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and it is for this purpose that He made us.

God has shone the light of salvation on us. This God, who has illuminated us with the light of salvation, let there be treasures in your hearts and my heart, in these clay vessels of ours. It is because we have the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit in our hearts that we are able to believe in all the Word of God and work united with Him. There are many parts in the Bible that we simply cannot understand if we think in carnal terms. However, because there is the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we are able to understand and believe in God’s work.

We really need to grasp what God is trying to say to us through this Word of the Scriptures. For us to believe in God’s Truth and become His people, we must realize what kind of plan God had for us and what kind of work He has achieved. Many of today’s Christians are studying the Bible, but there is more to studying and investigating the Word of God than just learning about the Bible only intellectually and memorizing its passages by rote. The purpose of studying the Bible, the Word of God, is to find out what plan God has for us.

The Bible says that God has made us light, and we must accept the true light of salvation. God calls those who do not accept the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit as the children of Satan. We must all realize that God had a magnificent plan of salvation for us, and He has fulfilled it all. As we carry on without our lives of faith, only when we realize what blessings God has given us, and only when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, can we then really become awakened upon His will.

Let us turn to Genesis 1:2. It is written, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

In the Bible, the earth denotes the human heart. That the earth was without form means that the human heart is confused and empty. In other words, people are now living in confusion and void, for they have not encountered the Word of the Truth of salvation. To cast off such confusion of mankind, we must have the proper knowledge “of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). Put differently, it is when you hear and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that you can receive the remission of your sins and be truly freed from your confused hearts. Unfortunately, however, too many people still do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and so their thoughts and hearts are still wandering lost in confusion.

Those who still have not received the light are struggling because they are unable to escape from their confused thoughts. However, when the light of the Truth of salvation comes into their hearts, their confusion will also be shed all at once.

God said to us, “‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good.” When God illuminated this pitch-dark world with the light, darkness receded away instantly. Like this, God saw what He did for us, and it was good. Our knowledge of God begins from knowing the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that has come by Jesus Christ. When He shines the light of salvation on us, there is no darkness that can linger anymore.

Therefore, we who have become the light of Truth must spread this gospel of the water and the Spirit to everyone in this world. When we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to people in this world, confusion will be shed from everyone’s heart. There is no doubt that the gospel of the water and the Spirit believed and preached by us will lead countless people to Christ. When they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in their hearts, the emptiness of their hearts will also disappear and their sins will be also blotted out. If you accept this gospel of the water and the blood into your hearts, your sins will disappear.

The Bible speaks about the light of the Truth of salvation. The foundation of this salvation is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. While the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the foundation of the Truth of salvation, this gospel itself is actually the light of salvation as well, and our everything is compressed in this gospel. In this gospel, we can find the genuine faith, what the proper life of the righteous is, and every hope that God has promised to us.

God is working as the light of the Truth of salvation in people’s thoughts, in their confusion, in their void, and in the minds of the sinful. The Bible says, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). God works according to His written Word.

We, too, must serve the gospel and live our lives by our faith, believing according to the Word of God. When we believe in the written Word, and by this faith preach to everyone, “This is what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is,” the Holy Spirit will work through this Word and new believers will come into the love of God. “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). God works through His Truth according to His Word. The Spirit of God works in the hearts of those who are confused, void, and sinful through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and he washes away all the sins of everyone.

God is saying to us clearly, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). The “Spirit” here refers to the Holy Spirit. Seeing this passage, we are convinced that the Spirit of God has enabled people to attain salvation by working through the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. For those of you who now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is in your hearts also.

Can you feel how the Holy Spirit is working in your hearts with the Word of God? The Holy Spirit works through the written Word of God, according to our faith. When we hear the Word of God and believe in it, the Holy Spirit in our hearts bears witness inside us. He speaks in our hearts, “Yes, that is right. Believe. Follow trusting in God.”

The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. What, then, does it mean by these waters here? In the Bible and especially in this passage, water refers to the Word of God. More narrowly, however, this water refers to the baptism that Jesus received from John. 1 Peter 3:21 says, “There is also an antitype which now saves us-baptism.” God works exactly according to His Word, together with the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.

We should all realize that when we know that the Holy Spirit works according to this Word, believe in this, and follow the Word of God clearly, God will work on our faith. We must have faith in God’s Word.

Genesis 1:3-4 say, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good.” God came to this pitch-dark world as the light. It means that the Lord has blotted out our sins and now dwells in us. In other words, with this light of Truth, God has blotted out all our sins, made us His people, breathed His Spirit into our hearts, and by doing so made us belong to Christ. That we have thus become God’s people is the greatest miracle of all miracles.

Before Jesus Christ gave the gospel of the water and the Spirit to this world, it was all completely dark. As it is written, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). This world was so pitch-dark that there were only confusion, void, and darkness, but when God commanded with His Word, “Let there be light,” light sprang forth in this world. The Bible makes it clear that there could be light in this world only because God commanded so.

Like this, our Lord actually came to this earth and made us God’s people through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Put differently, it is because God uttered His Word that everything was fulfilled according to this Word, and we have thus been saved from the sins of the world and become God’s people. That we have become God’s people was achieved exactly according to the Word that God spoke to us.

Because we did not know God in our hearts and were sinful, all that we could do was just wait for the day we are cast into hell, into our eternal death. We were all far away from God, for we were all fundamentally sinful. Because of the sin of Adam and Eve, we were born under curse, and there was not even a glimpse of light whatsoever in our hearts, and nothing else but only complete emptiness and sin. Fundamentally speaking, there was no light of life in our hearts. In other words, there was no gospel of Truth. Our hearts had nothing else but darkness, void, and confusion tangled all together, and yet when God said, “Let there be light,” light came to exist in our hearts. The Bible says that light came into existence as God commanded to let there be light.

Our Lord’s creation of the heavens and the earth speaks about none other than the rebirth of our souls. By nature, there was nothing in our human souls but only void, darkness, and confusion, but God spoke to us. God told us that Jesus Christ came to this earth and illuminated us with the light of salvation. The Lord is saying that He came to mankind who only had confusion and void, and that He entered into those who accepted this light. My fellow believers, how were we able to become God’s people? When viewed by the Word of God, this may seem only a self-evident truth, but when we look at ourselves, that we can now call God as our Father, and that we have now become His people, would not have been possible but for God’s blessed gospel work of the water and the Spirit. This had been completely impossible, but it was made possible because the Lord came looking for us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

It is because God worked in our hearts through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have been made righteous, and it is because God has saved us through this gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have become His people. In fact, we can attain our salvation by accepting by faith everything that God has already achieved. When you and I ask ourselves, “How did we become the children of light? How did we become God’s children?” and really reflect on these questions, we can only marvel at the grace of God. With His Word, God has made us the children of light.

When God created the heavens and the earth, the whole universe and everything in it, God commanded to let there be light, and light sprang forth in a pitch-dark world. This is how darkness receded away from the world. Then, the world became vibrant with all sorts of lives: All animals, birds in the sky, and fish in the sea came into being. It is by the Word of God that everything thus came into existence. Like this, just as everything in the universe sprang forth by the light that came into being by God’s commandment, God has made us His children through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

All the trees and grass in this world, all the birds in the sky, all the fish in the sea, and all the people on this earth received new life by the light and came into existence by the light. Who is the God that commanded to let there be this light? It is none other than Jesus Christ, the Savior who has saved us from sin.

Through the Book of Genesis, we can meet Jesus Christ. He is the Creator God. The very God who commanded to let there be light in this world is our Savior Jesus. This is our Messiah. Jesus is none other than God Himself who spoke at the creation of the universe and everything in it. In other words, God, who created the heavens and the earth with His Word, made this universe and everything in it. That is why we say that Jesus is Logos, the God of the Word.

When we turn to the Gospel of John, it is written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3).

The God of the Word that created the heavens and the earth became man, came to this earth, and has saved us from sin. This God that created light in the universe came to this earth to blot out sin from people’s hearts. We all inherited sin as the descendants of the first fallen man Adam, and as a result of this inheritance, we could not avoid but die imprisoned in sin, confusion, and emptiness. Yet the Lord came to us, became the light in our hearts, and has saved our lives. In short, God has saved us from the sins of the world.

We should all experience true salvation by faith, realizing and believing that by making us receive the remission of our sins, God has turned us into the light of the world. In fact, those of us who have received the remission of sin are the very light of the world. The Bible says that as God commanded to let there be light, there was light. This implies that God has saved us from sin through the gospel of the water and the Sprit. This is how we have been made righteous.

Many preachers sermonize, “My fellow believers, we must become the light of the world by living in holiness,” but it is not through our own effort that we are made righteous or turned into light. Rather, it is when we believe in the Word of God exactly as He said, that everything is fulfilled exactly according to this Word. As God has saved us through the water and the blood, we have already become light. While there are both clear and cloudy days in our lives, we must all grasp the fact that we are light, that we have already become light.

“God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). Like this, everything was fulfilled exactly according to how God spoke.

We, who have already become light by believing in the light of Truth, are living in this world as its light. We do not waver between the light and darkness, becoming light in this world one day and then darkness on another day. No matter how insufficient and weak we might be, we are still light. This is a miracle. Our God is such that He recreates us, who are imperfect and finite, and completes us as His final works.

When God created the heavens and the earth, this whole universe and everything in it were also incomplete. This world was filled with darkness, confusion, and emptiness, and it had no life. The whole universe was a great chaos itself. Everything was formless, from the earth to the heavens and the stars.

However, as God commanded to let there be light, there was light, and in this way God brought order to all things and made them work in precision. It is God who made all the stars to orbit around the universe without clashing, and it is also God who made some stars clash with each other, thus extinguishing some stars while forming new ones. In doing so, God made it possible for nature to maintain itself, establishing order so that everything would work as before even if a billion years were to pass by. As our Lord made an imperfect world and then perfected it, so did He perfect us humans like this.

When God made us humans, he did not make us as completed works from the beginning. He made us imperfect out of dust. He made us as someone who could be tempted by Satan. In fact, He allowed us to be tempted by Satan, and it is after then that our Lord came and made us perfect. By shedding light on the formless dominion of the whole universe, God drove out all its confusion and organized it into a precise order. Likewise, the Lord, who is the light, came into our hearts that had fallen into sin confused in the depth of darkness, and made us light.

“So the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:5).

God did not make us perfect from the beginning. This is the providence of God that enables us to be born again. When God created this whole universe and made us, in all these things He had a purpose, and this purpose was for God to live with you and me in the Kingdom of Heaven forever, and to enjoy glory together with us. My fellow believers, do you now realize the reason why God created this universe and us humans? Do you now understand that God made you and me so that we would enjoy glory with Him and live forever? That is precisely why God made us be born unto this earth in imperfection, called us and saved us when the time came, made us His people and turned us into light from darkness, and enabled us to live forever as His own children.

This God has made us righteous. That is the recreation of God. That is the greatest miracle of all the works God has done to us human beings on this earth. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you have been washed from your sins and become God’s children. Sinners have become righteous. This is the greatest miracle. As it is written, “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). It is because God has saved us from all our sins that we have been made righteous.

We are now living in this world as the righteous. You may sometimes find yourselves insufficient and weak, but you are still righteous people. Isn’t it the greatest miracle, that we who had been no more than piles of sin are now living as God’s own children?

“God saw the light, that it was good” (Genesis 1:4). God is so happy to see us made righteous and transformed into light that His joy is beyond description. This is why there is a celebration in the Kingdom of Heaven when a single sinner realizes his sins, believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit bestowed by Jesus Christ, and is thereby saved and become God’s completed work (Luke 15:7-10).

The problem, however, is that as we carry on with our lives, far too often we are not aware of the fact that we ourselves have become light. Having made us light, God is saying that He is pleased to see us. While God is so happy, in reality we ourselves often fail to appreciate the fact that we have become light.

Those who, despite believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, still do not realize that they themselves are the light of this world should once again think about this Word. Those who think, “Something is missing for me to be light,” even as they have been saved from their sins, need to affirm the gospel of the water and the Spirit again. My fellow believers, as we carry on with our lives, we must realize how it was possible for us to become light, how we have become light, and believe in this fact. We need to reflect upon ourselves to see whether or not we really believe that we are God’s workmanship, and we need to thank God once again for making us light. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have become God’s completed works. We are indeed the light of this world, and we give thanks to our Lord for enabling us to live in this world without sin.

My fellow believers, as we read Genesis 1:3 that says, “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light,” we must have the belief that we have become light. And as the Bible continues to say, “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night” (Genesis 1:5), we must grasp that God dived the light from the darkness.

God clearly separated the two. Those who have received the remission of their sins are light, while those who have not received it are darkness. Before God, those who have received the remission of their sins through the gospel Word of the water and the Spirits are light. They are God’s children, in other words. However, those who do not accept the gospel of the water and blood of Jesus Christ are darkness. The children of darkness are the Devil’s children.

There are two kinds of people in this world. Although everyone was born on this earth in incompleteness, there are those who have become light by believing in the light illuminated by God, and then there are those who still remain as darkness in their refusal to believe. This light is none other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And before this gospel of the water and the Spirit, everyone is divided into two kinds of people, either as a sinner or as a righteous person.

Those who accept this salvation that Jesus Christ Himself brought to us-that is, those who accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus Christ-become God’s children. And as the children of God, they come to live their lives illuminating this world. When the time comes, God the Father will take them to His everlasting Kingdom.

However, those who do not accept this gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit into their hearts remain as the children of darkness. They become the children of the Devil. Night is when darkness is on the face of the deep. Do you like the night? This night is extremely dangerous. Think about a pitch-dark night, where there is no light whatsoever. The dominion of the night is a world that is utterly chaotic, disorderly, dangerous, fearsome, and blinding.

“God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). God called the bright world day, and darkness night. We have to believe that God has separated the two. As it is written, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8), God has divided all people into His children and the Devil’s children. Everyone may seem alike in outside appearance, but some people are God’s children while others are not. So to one kind of people, God says, “You are My children and My people,” but to others, He says, “You are not My children.”

And on the last day, the fate of these two kinds of people is sealed. Those who are born again of water and the Spirit will be justly punished as the children of darkness. God said in the Book of Revelation that He would cast the children of darkness into the lake of fire and brimstone, along with false prophets. The false prophets and their followers will all be thrown into the fire of hell. In contrast, however, the children who have become light will enter the Kingdom of God. Those who have become light by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will enter into the dominion of light. God will enable them to enter and live in the everlasting dominion of light, in the Kingdom of God.

Genesis 1:5 says, “So the evening and the morning were the first day.” A day in the human world begins with the morning and ends with the evening. The things of the world are ephemeral, shinning for only a brief moment to revert back to darkness. The history of mankind is also like this. History shines but for a brief moment, only to be thrown back to utter darkness. However, God’s dominion is different. God’s dominion begins in imperfection at first, but it is eventually completed to perfection. The dominion of God is always like this.

The gate of the court of the Tabernacle was located in the direction of sunrise, to the east. Where was the Ark located then? It was in the west. The dominion of God begins imperfectly and ends perfectly. It’s how God works. That is why God says to humans that they must be born again. God is saying, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Though the beginning was incomplete, God completes to perfection.

Our lives of faith are also like this. Even after receiving the remission of our sins, we are still imperfect at first. In other words, although we are saved, we don’t really know that much, we feel as if nothing else has changed, and we aren’t sure what is right. So once we are saved, we actually appreciate our imperfection even more acutely. That’s because our lives must change, and we must live by faith. Before, we used to live just for our flesh and only by our own carnal strength, but now, if we rely only on the strength of our flesh, we will be accursed, and so we must rely on God, trust in Him, and live by faith. This is why we come to see our insufficiencies even more, and we get disoriented and struggle when we see our failing selves. Like this, our beginning is imperfect.

However, once we enter into the God-spoken dominion and live in it, if we live by faith, we will be perfected, though we may seem imperfect at first. God’s works are always like this. Though in our eyes of the flesh we may seem imperfect, when we believe in the Word of God, follow it, and enter into it, we will experience for ourselves that the life of faith is indeed perfect and complete. We know that this is how God always works.

If we were to summarize what God did on the first day, it is that you and I were made righteous-that is, we have become light. God has made us light, and He has made us live as light. I admonish you all to once again affirm this faith, that God has made us light.

Do you, who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, believe that you are light? God clearly divided the light from darkness on the first day. So anyone who still has not been born again from his sins, is darkness. No matter how much he might have disciplined himself, no matter how much his eyes might shine with wisdom, no matter how confident he might be of himself, darkness is still darkness. His heart is undoubtedly all confused.

However, the born-again are now the light of the world. Because we have become the children of light in the gospel of the water and the Spirit by faith, we can discern everything. That’s because the Holy Spirit in us speaks to us, teaches us, and guides us. The believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are always perfect, for the Holy Spirit dwells in them.

As we carry on with our lives, we should remember once again that we are the light of this world. That you and I have become light is the greatest of all miracles. Can anyone become light with his own deeds? No, it’s impossible with his own deeds.

The only thing that enables us to be light is God’s Word. Jesus the Word came to us and said, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). No other words are needed but this Word. When you go into a dark room and turn on the switch, darkness disappears the very moment the light comes on and the room is filled with the light. Likewise, because Jesus Christ took upon all our sins and blotted them out cleanly through His baptism when He came to this earth, if we believe in this light of Truth, our hearts are made sinless instantaneously and turned into clean light.

God is indeed powerful and almighty. God gave light to this dark world, to this world that was filled with confusion, void, and darkness. As God commanded, “Let there be light,” there sprang forth light and darkness faded away.

The salvation that we received thanks to the coming of Jesus Christ is like this. As He spoke, the perfect light came into being on this earth. By the Word of God, darkness disappeared once for all and there came to exist only light. As this God who has saved us is omnipotent, all our sins were blotted out once for all by the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the God-spoken Word of Truth.

It is also with the Word of Truth that the Lord promised to save us from sin and fulfilled it. This Word of covenant, that He would save us, was given when He cursed Satan. As He said, “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” (Genesis 3:14-15).

Having thus promised mankind, when the time came, God was born of Mary incarnated in the flesh as the Seed of the woman, took upon all the sins of the world in the most fitting way by receiving water baptism, and was condemned and shed His blood on the Cross. The divine Jesus who became a man met the requirements of the Law by bearing all our sins and condemnation through His baptism and blood, and by paying the price of death, He turned us, who had been slaves to the Devil and bound by him, into God’s own people-that is, He made us righteous. Christ made us God’s people and presented us to God the Father.

Just how perfect is this salvation? There is no imperfection is God’s works. He completed everything in perfection. God enabled us to become the children of light, so that we may lack nothing to become His own people.

How truly amazing is God’s salvation? What a great blessing is it that we have now become the children of light, that we are light? Our salvation from sin came not by gold and silver that perish away, but by the everlasting Word of God (1 Peter 1:23). That the Word has made us righteous means that we have been made righteous by God. It is by believing in the Word of God that we have become His people. It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have received the perfect blessing. I give all my thanks to God.

At this hour, we once again give our thanks to God for making us light, for the fact that we are now light, that we have now been turned into light by God. God did not just command to let there be light only in this physical universe. Rather, to drive out the darkness that is in our hearts, God Himself came into our hearts as the light of Truth and made us righteous. Believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we should all thank God once again.

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