Sermons on important subjects by Rev. Paul C. Jong

Sermon on the Holy Son 1

Jesus came through the body of a virgin.

Reason: To save human beings from sin, He had to come in their flesh.

In what form did He come?

He came in a form that had nothing to be desired of.

Jesus came to the nation of Israel, as a man, and through the body of the Virgin Mary engaged to Joseph, for He came to fulfill the Word of prophecy for the sake of mankind. Christ came to become the light for this dark world.

He came to become and work as the Interceder between God and mankind. After being baptized by John and while thus shouldering the sins of the world, He was crucified and shed His blood on the Cross. As such, He came to give the remission of sin and life to those who believe.

Christ came to enable us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by believing in His baptism of the cleansing of sin and the blood of the Cross, and to allow us to avoid the fiery hell.

This world had been a dark and hopeless world. Before Christ came to this world, there was no light of true salvation, but worse, it was locked in pitch-black darkness. To such a world as this, Jesus came. Why did Jesus come? He came to shine the light of salvation to this world.

Actually, Jesus was not born in December. Rather, He was born in a season when the fields of Israel were filled with green grass, when shepherds tended their sheep out in the open field and let them graze there (Luke 2:8). This verifies the fact that His actual birthday was not December 25.

Why, then, do we celebrate Christmas on this cold day of December 25? This was because from the mid 4th century A.D., the Western Church set this day of December 25 as the birthday of Jesus to prevent the spread of the pagan worship of a sun god. But this day was actually a day of worshipping the sun god. Aiming to inhibit the participation in this pagan celebration and to prevent the adulteration of Christians’ faith, the same day of pagan festivity was proclaimed as the birthday of Jesus, in a kind of strategy akin to fighting fire with fire.

We are not sure exactly when Jesus’ birthday is, but we do know for certain that the Son of God came to save the entire mankind, and we therefore set aside a day of the year to celebrate His coming, regardless of whether or not December 25 had actually been a day of pagan celebration. Because the whole world celebrates the day when Jesus was born to save us from our sins, we set a day, remember it, and thank and praise Him.

When Jesus came to this earth, all the people of this world had been deceived by the Devil, their hearts were weighed down by their sins, and they truly did not know the way of receiving eternal life. This is why God the Father sent His Son Jesus to save the people of the world from all their sins.

The name Jesus is the name of the Savior, meaning He who will save His people from their sins. This Jesus came to this world. By bearing the sins of the world with His baptism, Jesus was condemned on the Cross and has thereby blotted out all these sins.

Yes. Jesus was God Himself in His essence. Jesus is the very One who created the whole universe with the Word of His mouth. This world, in fact, was created by God. John 1:3 says, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Jesus was God Himself who came to save sinners. Jesus created this world and the whole universe in the beginning. When Jesus said, “let there be light,” then there was light. When He said, “let there be the sun,” then the sun came into existence. It is by this command of Jesus, “let there be,” that all the grasses, trees, the sea, the sky, and even mankind itself came into existence. Jesus is God who created all these things in the beginning (Genesis 1:3-15).

He was fundamentally the God of creation. All things were made through Him, and there was nothing that was made without Him. Why, then, did He come to this earth incarnated in the flesh of a man?

He came to save all the sinners of this world from all their sins. The reason that God came to mankind was to shine the true light to each and every one of sinner and thereby saving them all from their sins.

John 1:9-12 states, “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”

The Son of God came to blot out all the sins that we have inherited from Adam, the father of mankind, and to drive away darkness from this world. His name is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Father.

Because He has saved sinners from their sins by coming as a lowly man.

Because people did not cast aside their own faith and their own thoughts.

Because they did not realize that they had been created by God.

Because they did not know that they are bound to hell because they have been sinners from the very moment of their birth.

Because people did not know that Jesus is the Savior.

Because they were ignorant of the truth.

Because they did not recognize the Savior who is God Himself.

Because they did not respond to the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

Because they did not know Jesus, who is the way and the truth.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a small, rural town in Israel.

Why was Jesus born in this world? He came to us to save those who are ill-treated in this world and who are truly living lowly lives in this world. Jesus came to save those who are tormented by their sins, who want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and who want to be clothed in God’s grace. This is why Jesus was born in a manger.

However, when Jesus came to this world in the likeness of human beings, the people of Israel did not recognize Him as God and the Messiah. They did not realize that He was the Son of God, the very Creator God who made the whole universe and everything in it. This is why the people of Israel did not receive Him. This is true even now. Many people in this world still do not know that Jesus is the God of creation and the Savior who has saved human beings from all their sins.

Isaiah wrote that when God looked down from Heaven, “He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor [Savior]” (Isaiah 59:16). God Himself had to come up with salvation, and He Himself had to come to this earth and make us sinless—that is, make the sinful sinless. Coming to this earth, to bring down the wall that had sprung up in our relationship with God the Father as a result of our sins and separated us from Him, He took all the sins of mankind upon Himself with His baptism and bore the condemnation of all these sins of mankind by being crucified and shedding His blood on the Cross. He has thereby saved those who believe.

No matter how human beings have no righteousness of their own, no matter how insufficient and weak they are, and no matter how many sins they have committed, if they only realize that Jesus fulfilled all righteousness by taking upon their sins with His baptism and shedding His blood on the Cross, and if they accept this truth into their hearts, they can all be saved from all their sins.

As such, there is only one true Savior in this world, and this Savior is only Jesus. The name of Jesus itself means “He who will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

By doing what can we enter Heaven? Can we enter Heaven by doing good deeds?

No!

Being born into this world, can we live without ever sinning?

No!

It is impossible for us not to ever sin. We cannot help but sin for the rest of our lives until our own demise. Can people enter Heaven when they have a sin as small as a penny?

No!

Is there anyone in this world, then, who can enter Heaven by his own strength?

No!

By whom can we then enter Heaven?

We can enter Heaven by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus Christ.

“For He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). God made us, and when we fell into sin, He became a man and came to this earth to make our sins disappear. The One who thus came to this earth, was baptized, and died on the Cross is none other than Jesus.

John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” To those who believe that Jesus has become their Savior and blotted out all their sins, He has given them the right to become God’s children. Have you received the gospel of the water and the Spirit?

What is receiving the truth? One can receive the truth only when he/she knows the truth of the water and the Spirit. When someone is knocking on the door, we open the door only slightly and first ask who it is, and if it is someone whom we know, we then open the door fully and ask him/her to come in. This is receiving.

Although we have not actually met Jesus face to face, we still believe that He accepted all our sins passed onto Him by being baptized at the Jordan River. I thank God for this truth. I may not be able to extend any loan guarantees, but what I can guarantee definitely is the Word that we can enter the Kingdom of God if we only believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That you are made sinless is, in itself, becoming God’s children. That you receive eternal life by faith is the truth.

The faith that receives the blessings of Heaven is the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by God. This means believing not only that Jesus bore all your sins with His baptism, but also that He came to this earth and took away once and for all every sin that you would commit for the rest of your lives and until the end of the world. Jesus, whom I believe, has made us sinless all at once by taking away our sins of the world once and for all.

“Believe.” Faith is a beautiful word. “Receive.” I accepted the truth that Jesus is my Savior into my heart. I am no better than anyone else. Yet even so, the reason why I can speak in confidence and at times even be proud is because of my faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

By all means, I hope that you would all know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is only when we know the truth of the water and the Spirit and believe in it that we can finally be born again, become sinless, and thereby also become God’s children.

Do you know and believe in the truth that Jesus took all your sins upon Himself when He was baptized at the Jordan River? Jesus accepted the condemnation of all the sins that you have committed throughout your entire lifetime and was vicariously punished on the Cross in your place. He then arose from the dead in three days and now sits at the right hand of the throne of God the Father. Even now, our God is alive.

John 1:9 says, “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” This Light is the Light of Jesus who took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John and dying on the Cross. All that we have to do is just receive this true Light shone by our Lord. We must accept into our hearts the truth that Jesus came as the Savior of us the sinners. We must believe that Jesus bore all our sins by being baptized at the Jordan River. When we believe that He thus fulfilled all the righteousness of God, we can then be saved from all our sins.

In our flesh, we are unable to believe in Jesus. But in our hearts, we can know the righteousness of God, believe in it, and thereby receive it. Once, we had been in pitch-black darkness. That this darkness is removed by the true Light shinning in our hearts means the removal of our sins from our hearts by our faith in the Word of truth. This true Light is the Word of the truth through which we have been born again of water and the Spirit, and the true Light gives us light because we have believed in and accepted into our hearts the baptism that Jesus received from John and His bloodshed on the Cross.

It is appointed for men to be born once and die once. The Bible tells us that our lifetime is about 70 years, or 80 if we are strong (Psalm 90:10). Every human being goes through the trials of life, and, at its end, must stand before the Lord. How pitiful would it be if we were to die without knowing the truth of the water and the Spirit? Even if we were to live beyond 80, we must all die once at some point. But we do not simply cease to exist after dying. Judgment follows our death. Whether we are welcomed into Heaven or cast into hell is determined by whether we have the faith that believes in the water and the blood of Jesus Christ. While we are still living on this earth, we must therefore receive the blessing of believing in Jesus’ baptism and accepting it into our hearts.

Some people say, “I am not someone who can believe in Jesus. Why? Because I was born as a natural sinner, whose propensity to sin is boundless.” But even these people need not worry. Their sins, too, were all passed onto Jesus through His baptism and blood, and, as such, all that they have to do is just entrust everything to Him by believing in this Word. I beseech you to leave all your weaknesses and flaws of your hearts, which you cannot ever control on your own, at the feet of God, for if you would only entrust all your sins to Him, our Lord, being the Almighty God that He is, has already solved all the problems of your sins through His baptism and blood.

While we live in this world, we must always believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in our hearts. We must live with our faith always prepared to enter Heaven. And when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus, we are then born again. When you do so, you should realize, the blessings of God are then spread throughout the entire world through none other than yourselves.

When we believe in gospel of the water and the Spirit given by God, He then protects us. We must receive Jesus by believing that He has become our Savior. And let us also thank Him for being our Savior.

The Apostles believed in the Son of God our Lord as the Savior.

The name Jesus means “the Savior,” and the name Christ means “the anointed One.” This means that Jesus fulfilled His role as the Prophet, that He is the King of kings, and, therefore, He also fulfilled the role of the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven.

First of all, the Old Testament clearly specifies that the Christ to come is God Himself. A representative passage of this is found in Isaiah 9:6, which states, “Unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

In addition, our Lord’s own Word bears witness to this truth. To show just a couple of examples, Matthew 5:17 says, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” No one else but the Savior God Himself alone can fulfill the Law. Also, in Matthew 9:6, Jesus said, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.”

Paul said in Philippians 2:5-6, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,” and in Colossians 2:9, he said, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

Above all, the signs that Jesus performed while on this earth clearly show us that He is God. With only five loaves and two fish, He fed over 5,000 people, not counting women and children. On another occasion, He fed 4,000 people with just 7 loaves and 2 fish. Jesus also brought down winds with His rebuke. He walked on water, and delivered Peter who sank into water. Matthew 11:5 states, “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up.” All these things cannot be done by mere mortals, but they can be accomplished only by God. As such, Christ is clearly the living God and the Savior.

We must believe that Jesus took the sins of the world upon Himself by being baptized by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:15). This baptism that Jesus received from John was to bear all the sins and iniquities of the sinners of this world. To realize this truth, we must first understand the meaning of the word “thus.” This word “thus” is “ (hoo’-tos)” in Greek, and it means: 1) just in this way; 2) most fitting; and 3) there is no other way besides this. In other words, when Jesus came to this earth, He had to be baptized to accept the iniquities of sinners passed onto Him. If we do not believe so, our sins cannot be blotted out.

There are some people who have misunderstood the baptism of Jesus and mistakenly think that He was baptized to show us His humility. But this is not the case. The Word of the baptism of Jesus by John clearly bears witness to the truth that He was thus baptized in order to take upon all the sins of this world. Jesus could become the Savior of those who believe in Him because He, coming to this earth, accepted all the sins of this world passed onto His body in a single instance by receiving His baptism from John once and for all.

We cannot keep the Word of this truth of Jesus’ baptism covered. Why? Because what Satan seeks after from sinners is to make them unable to know the Word of the baptism of Jesus, the most important aspect to mankind’s remission of sin, and to incapacitate them from believing in it.

The baptism that Jesus received from John is the work of salvation through which He took the sins of mankind upon Himself. 1 John 5:4-6 tells us that Jesus’ baptism is essential to our salvation. The reason why Jesus was baptized by John at the Jordan River is as the following.

That Jesus was baptized by John means that He fulfilled all the righteousness of God—that is, Jesus accepted all the sins of the world passed onto Him. When Jesus was baptized, His submersion in water tells us of His death, and His emersion from water tells us of His resurrection.

Jesus’ baptism corresponds to the Word of the Old Testament found in Leviticus 16, where sacrificial offerings accepted the sins of the people of Israel with the laying on of hands. That this was done so had the same reason as to why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. It was the same reason for which Jesus commanded John, “You shall baptize me. Permit it be so. It is thus fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” He said, “By my being baptized by you, and by your baptizing me, it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness.”

What is it that everyone in this world desires and wishes the most? It is to become sinless in their hearts, in other words, to become the sinless children of God. The Bible tells us that for us to become so, we must believe in the Word that Jesus blotted out all the sins and iniquities of sinners by being baptized and shedding His blood on the Cross, and it tells us also that it is by thus believing that we can receive the righteousness of God. What, then, is all the righteousness of God? It is the Word telling us that as Jesus was baptized by John in this world, the iniquities of all sinners left them and were then passed onto the body of Jesus.

“For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness (making all sinner righteous).” Jesus told John, in other words, that it is by being baptized by John that He would fulfill all the righteousness of God. To fulfill God’s righteousness, Jesus had to be baptized and thereby accept all the sins and transgressions of sinners passed onto Him. On our part, what we must do is to believe in the baptism that Jesus received.

Jesus came to make all the sins and iniquities of sinners disappear. But those who do not believe in the truth are bound in their eternal sins forever and cannot escape from them at all. In the Bible, there is no way by which sinners can be saved from all the sins of the world but only to believe in the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross written in the Word of God.

Even so, there are still many contrasting opinions as to the method with which Jesus Christ has blotted out the iniquities of sinners. Some people say that the Word of salvation from sin is only the Word of the blood of the Cross. But the Word of God written in the Scripture tells us that the Word of the baptism of Jesus is the most fitting for Him to make all the sins and transgressions of sinners disappear, for Jesus was thus baptized all at once and died on the Cross once and for all.

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There are others who ask, “Is there no other method but this, that Jesus cleansed away the sins of the world by being baptized and shed His blood on the Cross?” But our Lord has told us clearly that the salvation of sinners comes only from His own providence, and that it is far from our place for us to question or blame the Word for how Jesus chose to save sinners.

There is a saying, “A taffy peddler does as he pleases.” Likewise, when it comes to God’s salvation of sinners from all their sins, if He Himself tells us that He has saved them through this method—that is, through the baptism of Jesus by John and His crucifixion—then all that we can do is just believe in what He tells us as it is. Who can then possibly object to the Word of God? People may refuse to believe in the Word of the baptism of Jesus received from John and of the blood of the Cross, and they may reject what God has told them, but they will certainly not be able to avoid hell.

Do you believe in the Word of God?

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