124-A-2 Sermons and Fellowship About God’s Word “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life”

The text containing the words of God entitled, “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” that we just finished is the truth pertaining to the vision. What we get first from reading God’s words should be the knowledge of Christ. In what primary respect do we know Christ? Not only do we know that Christ is the incarnate God, and that Christ is the manifestation of God, but the most importantly we should be aware that, “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life,” which is what matters most. Many have understood and admitted the fact that God has become flesh, and admitted that Christ is the real God, God’s appearance to mankind—they have confirmed this as a fact. Many people are able to follow Christ, to forsake all and do their duty to Him, which is a fact; but after years have gone by, there are those out there who are still not with the truth. Theirs is an evil heart, one that does not fear God and shun evil. So what exactly is the problem? Where is the root of it? We have read these words of God, and should see the root of the problem is that these people do not have profound understanding that “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life.” In the last days Christ came again to do the work of judgment, exactly what will be the fruits? When you have experienced the judgment before the seat of Christ, have you been made pure? Have you obtained the truth? Have you been saved? This is the fundamental question with belief in God. A lot of people, who have believed in God for many years, are still without the truth.
     So exactly what is the problem? Have you figured it out yet? Can these people be counted with those who actually know Christ? No, they cannot. If they do not know Christ, then are they someone who can be said to be a true believer in God? Their faith remains vague. It is almost as if they actually believe in the God of heaven. So today we will commune about the key questions in these words of God. For we believers in God, what exactly are God’s words expressed by Christ that make the truth known? If you have truly seen such a way of eternal life that Christ of the last days has given mankind, then you should be able to go in search of the truth, or at least, to accept it in part. He who is ignorant of the truth Christ has passed on to us cannot receive it, so if people have been believers in God for many years but have not gained the truth, this is a truly serious issue. We’ve finished reading this article of God’s words. Now, if I fellowship about it all the way from the beginning, then we will probably at most fellowship about one passage, and then our meeting will be over. But if the focal point of our fellowship is on the actual problems themselves, then everyone here will benefit from it to a much greater extent. So let us read now from the word of God.

Let us start at the third paragraph, “It isn’t totally correct to say that God lives in the heart of man, but neither is it completely wrong. That is because, among believers in God, there are those whose belief is true and those whose belief is false, there are those of whom God approves and those of whom He disapproves, there are those who please Him and those whom He detests, and there are those whom He makes perfect and those whom He eliminates.” There are a great many differences among believers in God; they are most certainly not equal. And God said, “It isn’t totally correct to say that God lives in the heart of man, but neither is it completely wrong,” but why did God say that? Because believers in God are not all the same, and the difference between them is, that there are some whose faith is true and others whose faith is false. There are some who God approves of and others who He does not. There are some who He delights in and others who He loathes. There are some whom He makes perfect and others who are rejected by Him. That is the key difference; if you say that God abides in the hearts of mankind, is this completely fitting? It is not accurate—at least not entirely accurate, nor is it entirely inaccurate. God abides in people’s hearts, but what kind of people? This is the crux of the question. According to God’s word, as for the difference between believers in God, first and foremost, “there are those whose belief is true and those whose belief is false,” does He abide in the hearts of those of true faith or false faith? If you say that He abides in the hearts of the true believers, then your answer is absolutely correct. In the hearts of those of false faith, there is no God, and God does not abide in the hearts of false believers. Some may ask, why does He not abide in the hearts of the false believers? A man of false faith does not truly eat and drink the word of God, he does not truly commune with God, his prayers are false, he does not fear God in his heart, and beyond that he does not respect God above all others, which is to say this kind of person does not welcome God, and so, could God ever abide in such a person’s heart? According to His disposition, God gives everyone a free will; He does not force man to do what is against his will. If a person does not welcome Him, does not like Him, does not truly believe in Him, if a person is disobedient, and does not honor God as great, or fear God, then He will not abide in the heart of such a person. In addition, nonbelievers are, in reality, enamored with evil, and are keen on Satan’s fallacies, they love negative things and could even take pleasure in all pertaining to Satan, and all pertaining to worldliness. They do not love God, nor do they love the truth that God expresses, such people are filthy and evil, and live under Satan’s domain. They are part of Satan’s minions, so they could not possibly have God in their hearts, because God is holy and pure, which means simply that God exists in a temple of purity.

Through how we are communing now, why would God not abide in the hearts of those of false faith? Well, the answer should be perfectly clear by now! But there are those out there who would say, “Man has been deeply corrupted by Satan and has corrupt disposition. Who among us has been truly sanctified? Who among us is not filthy and corrupt in some way? But all we need to do is just truly believe in Him, and God will abide in our hearts!” These words are correct. Does it not come to pass that God abides in the hearts of the true believers? It is possible for this to come to pass for the true believers, because the sin offering is effective for those who truly believe, and their guilt will not be seen by God. He who now has no real belief in God, he whose heart has no place in it for God, he who has no respect for God’s greatness, and he who does not fear God nor shun evil, is a person in possession of false faith. His faith in God is nothing but lip service. He does not truly welcome God in his heart. He does not truly accept God, and so God would never abide in this man’s heart. Now, is it not a fact that God will not abide in the hearts of those of false faith? Therefore, we do not see the work of the Holy Spirit and can see even less of the blessings of God in those who do not pursue truth. And what do the blessings of God include? The work of the Holy Spirit, the leading of the Holy Spirit, the disciplining of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Holy Spirit. A person who does not pursue the truth has none of these, and so if you cannot see the blessings of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in a person, he is most certainly not a true believer in God. We have seen those who have been eliminated or expelled from our church: They did evil and lied openly, and acted perfunctorily; they cheated God’s family and cheated God Himself, without the least sense of rebuke or the least bit of discipline; they were willful and disobedient. No matter how the house of God communicated the truths and dealt with them, it was for naught. So is this kind of person’s faith true or false? It’s false, right? So once a person is unmasked as a false believer he should be purged and eliminated, which is in complete accordance with God’s will.

Continuing on to the next part, “there are those of whom God approves and those of whom He disapproves.” And whom specifically does this approval refer to? He who truly believes in God, whose heart is true and could forsake all for God and go all out for Him. In doing his part for Him, this kind of person can receive His truth and will be able to accept how he’s dealt with and pruned, and when he undergoes God’s judgment and chastisement, he will not be passive or weak of character, but will work to conform to His truth, and likewise do all he can to do what God asks of him. Regardless of how many times he may have failed, or how many frustrations he may have suffered, he can still follow God. This is he who will meet God’s approval. Then there is he who does not pursue truth in the least, who does his part but is always trying to make a deal with God, who is constantly trying to fool God through paying lip service to Him. No matter how he is dealt with or pruned, he will never accept it, no matter how the truth is communicated he will never take it to heart, and so, this kind of person will not meet with God’s approval. This is a person who refuses to accept the truth, who does not reach for the truth; thus God cannot complete this man, and cannot gain him; and so God will disapprove this kind of man. But what is meant by “disapproval”? It means this person is a goner and should be exposed and eliminated. So this brings us full circle and I must ask again: Does God abide in the hearts of those whom He approves, or in the hearts of those whom He does not? Some among you say that God abides in the hearts of those whom He approves, which is correct. It is also said that “there are those who please Him and those whom He detests.” But whom does He delight in? Men of honesty, men who truly go all out for Him. Men of obedience to Him, and obedience to the truth. These men are the objects of the delight of God. He rejoices in these kinds of people. Pure men whose hearts are open to God, men who are honest—sometimes they may be a little ignorant, but God does not look at that, and their ignorance is easy to solve. By just understanding His truths, wisdom will happen naturally, and they will become men of principles in all dealings; these kinds of people are the ones who God delights in. You see there are some people in the family of God who are especially innocent, open and submissive; they give their obedience to the family of God, and they believe and follow everything God’s family says. Everyone looks and sees this kind of person, someone of such purity, such obedience—it is pleasing to God. Now, what kind of man displeases God? What kind of man does God loathe? We know that God rejoices in a man of honesty, integrity, purity and open-heartedness, a man who can truly go all out for God, who can obey the truth; what God hates most is certainly a deceitful, cruelly selfish, mean-spirited person who is not considerate of His will, a man who is not accepting of truth, unwilling to accept dealing and pruning. Whatever you say to this man, however you try to deal with and prune him, however you try to enlighten him, whatever you try to do; this man will always hold fast to his own fossilized ideas. What is in this man’s head? “You’re just full of advice. Thanks, but no thanks, I have my own ways of doing things. You think you’re going to make me put truth into practice? No way I would ever have anything to do with something so stupid!” So we can see that wily and conniving, deeply self-interested sort who is withdrawn and difficult to figure out, working in secret while hiding trickery and chicanery behind a straight face, is none other than the devil—old Satan itself. These kinds of people are God-loathing sorts, especially politicians and scientists. They are people who God detests the most. But whose hearts does God abide in? The hearts of honest men, upright men, not the hearts of deceitful men. We can see right through this! If anyone knows in his heart that he himself is that really deceitful sort who never tells the truth, but lies through his teeth wherever he goes, whose every word is nothing but a bald-faced lie—God will never abide in his heart.