2016.11.27_God’s Chosen People
in 2016 Lord's Day, Ki Dong KimSenior Overseer Ki-Dong Kim
[1Corinthians 1:26-31]
God
is honorable.
He created
all things for His righteousness (He 1:3),
namely Jesus Christ.
For we, together with all things, are His (Ps 100:3),
we are of one mind with the Lord and do His works (Jn 14:12).
The men of Jesus
have all been purchased by God’s blood (Ac 20:28),
hence they must be holy
and be filled with God’s spiritual gifts and power (1 Co 12:7-11).
Though they may seem to be shunned by the world,
but God has deliberately chosen such people
in order to manifest Himself
through them (1 Co 12:7).
So who do we belong to?
Just as Elijah said,
we must not hesitate
but make a clear decision,
to either belong to God completely and stand upon the truth,
or follow man’s feelings and fall into mysticism (1 Ki 18:21-).
○ Now,
those who belong to God have to be baptized
and receive the Holy Spirit.
○ He who received the Holy Spirit should always be filled with the Holy Spirit
so that the character of the Lord Jesus is displayed through him.
This is the testimony that he belongs to the Lord.
○ If we truly love the Lord who is invisible,
we ought to love the Church, His body we can see,
and recognize that we are all members of one body, the Church.
※ Consider God’s calling.
God has chosen according to His will,
not according to appearances.
Let us pursue the righteousness of God God is majestic. By nature, we cannot see or know God, but He has made himself known to us. The way He has made himself known to us is the very Word. We can see and know God through His Word. A Christians’ faith depends on the Word. When we practice our faith, we often hear the word ‘righteousness’. The closest thing to the righteousness of God is the righteousness of a nation. The righteousness of a nation lies in the constitution. Every order of a nation comes from the constitution, and the nation can endure when the people respect their constitution. The constitution is the bedrock of a nation. The righteousness of God is His Word. God determines and works all things according to His Word. God created the world and made himself known through the Word. The Word of God shed His blood and saved us, and determines who will attain the resurrection of life and those who won’t. The Christians’ faith is to believe in the righteousness of God, that is, His Word. That’s why we call the Christians’ faith the faith of the Word. Some people treat their own ideas as if they were the word of God. They often say things like “God told me to go south”. However, belief based on emotions is mysticism, not Christian faith. The reason Jesus praised the disciple who confessed “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (John 6:68)” is that his faith was based on the Word. Christians’ faith must be in conformity with the Word. No matter how hard you may pray or serve in the church, it is meaningless unless it is based on the Word. God only rewards acts of faith based on God’s righteousness: the Word. The cumulative population of the people of Israel from the time of the Exodus until now is enormous. But among them the number of those who are sealed, who are pure in their faith, belong to Christ and follow Him wherever He leads is only 144,000. (Revelation 14:4). It is not easy to remain steadfast in faith. However, if you want to partake of the first resurrection, you must remain steadfast in the faith, even unto death. In order to remain steadfast in the faith, our minds must always follow God’s Word. In the past the Pharisees kept the word of God thoroughly to the extent that they were circumcised on the eighth day and brought up according to the law from that day onward. But Jesus rebuked the Pharisees. On the surface they outwardly obeyed the word of God, but not in their heart. That’s why Jesus said to his disciples, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven”. (Matthew 5:20) Psychological stress afflicts many people. Even Christians rejoice one day that they have received grace, and another day they are feel that God has forsaken them. Our mind must always maintain a proper attitude before God. When Elijah stood face to face with the eight hundred and forty prophets of Baal and Asherah, people were reluctant to stand by him. Then Elijah shouted, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him”. When given a choice between God’s righteousness and our emotions, which do we chose? Let yourself be chosen and used by God We are like dust before God. But when we obey the word of God, He chooses us and uses us. Jesus also said, ” He who has faith in me will do what I do, and even greater things than these (John 14:12)”. If we are really members of Christ, then the power of the Word must be revealed in us. That’s the evidence that God is using us. God called chiefs of the twelve tribes of Israel and told them to bring their staffs place them in the tabernacle. The following morning only Aaron’s staff had budded. Over night the dry staff had budded, produced leaves, blossomed and finally borne fruit. God ordered Aaron’s staff to be placed in the Ark of Testimony and the others be returned to their owners. This meant that God would take Aaron’s tribe into His bosom. When they conquered the land of Canaan, the Israelites faced thirty-one kings. So you can imagine how many died among them. But in Aaron’s tribe of Levi there was not one who died in battle. God did not send them into war. God not only used Aaron, but his descendants as well. Nazareth was a marginalized region that prophets had never mentioned. People even said, “Can anything good come from Nazareth ?” But Jesus grew up as a Nazarene and his disciples lived near Nazareth, too. Most of his disciples were uneducated. But when they preached, people were astonished at their wisdom and power. That’s right. Jesus’ disciples may have possessed nothing and been uneducated, but through them all the people of the world have been saved and many are coming back to Jesus even now. 1 Corinthian 1:26~31 says, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” However foolish, lowly and despised you may be, you can be empowered and prosper when the Lord chooses you. If the Lord chooses us, God can use us as well as our descendants. Of course, there are not many chosen by God. Many are saved, but not many are chosen. Therefore we have to yearn and strive to be chosen by God. A thirsty deer approaches a pool knowing that predators will attack it. Like the deer that pants after the streams of water, you too must long for God to choose you. Do not boast about the power, wealth and knowledge that God will one day abolish, but long for His election. Commend yourself to ministry so that God may produce fruit in you.
Dear beloved Sungrak people! I am always praying for your family and children and their souls and truly love you. I am sure that all of you know the calling of our church. The objective and purpose of our church planting were very clear . Although I was taught Calvinism theology, I did not remain in Presbyterian denomination, but planted a Baptist church. The characteristic of the Baptist church is, first of all, that Baptist church is an independent church, that is, an individual church. We claim that the church is the body of Christ, and the head of the church is only Jesus Christ, and we know and believe the Picture of God’s Will that is revealed through Him, planting our church on the rock of this faith. Throughout my whole life, I have never thought about the ministry as a means of making a living. Anticipating how our church would develop in the future, I planted our church here, which was like a dangerous puddle. I started here to appoint one place for mediating the gospel which I had passionately preached for the previous ten years, confirming that, here at our church, I would preach the gospel which I had been crying out to the secularized churches and the world as the cradle of Berea Movement. Then I established a theological seminary (BITS) that teaches the truth of the Picture of God’s Will and through which our church would become a world-class church. I have also written many books for the mediation of gospel here, at our church. Now, anyone from any denomination can read my books, and if someone wants to revive their church and succeed in ministry, he or she will surely be influenced by Berea Movement. However, the cradle of Berea Movement is here, Sungrak church. Thus, in nowhere else can anyone fully understand Picture of God’s Will, the core of Berea Movement, as learned in Sungrak church. Only at the very cradle, at Sungrak church can one comprehensively learn it. If someone tempts you saying, ”You can learn Berea’s Picture of God’s Will here”, their hidden scheme is to deceive the passionate souls of Sungrak people. Someday later on, when their pastors change, they will lose it all, becoming wanderers again. However, since Sungrak church has been built on this solid rock of faith, such thing will not happen. That is because this is the very place where our faith has grown, thus it is the cradle and the fountain where you can be at peace for your soul. That is because we will keep the promise before the Lord and keep ourselves on the basis of the spirit of Song-Jook-Ahm (Pine, bamboo, rock) until Jesus comes again, without being swayed. My beloved Sungrak people, aren’t you being swayed away because your faith has become weak? At least for the sake of your descendants, let your faith be rooted here, and work harder. [gmedia id = 75]
Outline translated by Sarah Lee Chief Editor: Helen Nam
Letter translated by Sung-In Hong
Interpretations by Sarah Lee
Korean Summary by Ki-Taek Lee
