125-B-2 Sermons and Fellowship About God’s Word “‘The Sixth Utterance’ of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe”

“The Sixth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh–this passage is very important to us in having faith in God, experiencing God’s work, attaining knowledge of God, so today we just want to lay importance on communicating this passage. The beginning of this passage is thus: “In matters within the spirit, you should be delicately sensitive; to My words, you should be carefully attentive. You should aim for the state in which you see My Spirit and My fleshly self, My words and My fleshly self, as one indivisible whole, and make it so that all of humanity will be able to satisfy Me in My presence.” What matter is being addressed here? In the course of experiencing God’s work in order to attain knowledge of God, what must we place importance on first of all? “In matters within the spirit, you should be delicately sensitive; to My words, you should be carefully attentive.” These two matters are crucial. There are many people who do not seek the truth, with the result that even after having believed in God for many years they still possess nothing of the truth, and they have no real knowledge of God, and this causes them to be without principles in performing their duties. This kind of person is even unworthy to do service, is this not a fact? They are unworthy to do service! Because in doing your duty you still cannot be up to the standard, you are not qualified to do service.
     If your service is not up to the standard, and if God’s work is finished in the very end, can you survive? You cannot. Those who continue to exist are the faithful service-doers. What conditions must a faithful service-doer be equipped with? One whose service can be justifiable and who is truly able to produce good results that can be put to use is a faithful service-doer. What is the meaning of “faithful”? It is not just going through the motions, it is not giving up halfway down the road; it is bearing up the responsibility in doing well the work that God entrusted to you, and remaining firm until the end. This is a faithful service-doer. Now there are many people who perform their duty and do not reach the standard. You can say these people are all service-doers, because not being up to the standard in doing their duty they cannot be called people of God. In the past, there were many people that did not understand what the people of God were. What, after all, are the people of God? Is it that we, who have accepted Almighty God, are the people of God? It is not when you accept the name of Almighty God that you are of the people of God. In this there is a process of being made perfect. Herein there is a criterion. What is the criterion? It is having performed your duty up to the standard, and only then are you of the people of God, and those who have not reached the criterion in doing their duty are not of the people of God. They are not people of God, so what, specifically, do they belong to? They are the service-doers. In the stage of practice, they are called service-doers. Who is it that is called a service-doer? Those who are in a state of not yet having obtained the truth are called service-doers. When one has obtained the truth and is able to handle affairs in accordance with principle, it means that they have attained life. People who have attained life are also people who have the truth as their life, and only then are they truly people of God. Understand this clearly!

How do you act if you want to seek the truth? About this it is said, “In matters within the spirit, you should be delicately sensitive; to My words, you should be carefully attentive.” If people are not equipped with just these two things, then it is not easy to obtain the truth. Even though many people wish to seek the truth, they are unable to put it into practice. They do not know where to begin, and do not know how to experience it, so what problems must be resolved? What is most crucial are these two sayings: “In matters within the spirit, you should be delicately sensitive; to My words, you should be carefully attentive.” Some people may ask what “matters within the spirit” refer to. They are matters that partake of the truth. Matters of spiritual life, matters of the spiritual world, and matters that involve the truth are all considered matters within the spirit. To give an example, how does the Holy Spirit perform works? Is this not a matter within the spirit? What is the principle whereby the Holy Spirit performs works? What people does God love or detest, make blessed or eliminate? In battles of the spiritual world, how does Satan test people? How does God appropriate the tests of Satan to try people, refine people, and reveal people for who they are? The path for entering into life, the principles of pursuing the truth, and the true course of life’s maturation–are these not all matters within the spirit? They are all matters within the spirit. When you ask some people, “When the Holy Spirit performs works, how does He do so?” They say, “The Holy Spirit performs works? This cannot be seen and cannot be felt. I do not know.” Can this kind of person understand the spirit or not? If you ask, “In what place does God reside?” “Where does God reside? Of course, He resides in heaven.” “Incorrect. The word of God says that God walks and lives among people!” “Oh, it says that. But I have not seen Him!” Can such people understand the spirit? God brought His glory from Israel to the East, and there are people who say, “Having brought it to the East, what then is this glory like? How have I not seen it?” Can a person who speaks these words understand the spirit? God says He has done a stage of the work of judgment in the last days. The person says, “Where is this work of judgment done? Where is God’s judgment seat? Is God sitting on the throne? Then where is the throne, and how have I not seen it?” Does this person understand the spirit or not? People may ask you, “Do you believe in God in heaven or God on earth?” You say, “What I believe in is God on earth, it is Christ incarnate!” “Then where is God? Have you seen Him? Where is God? Who has seen Him?” Can a person who speaks these words understand the spirit or not? Are these things not matters within the spirit? Matters within the spirit are things a person cannot see with the physical eye but nevertheless certainly exist. All people can feel them through the spirit, and spiritual people all recognize it is a certain fact that these are matters within the spirit. In the words “In matters within the spirit, you should be delicately sensitive,” what does the phrase “be delicately sensitive” refer to? It means you must be serious and earnest; do not persist in a rough and confused understanding. Once a person carefully communes, ponders and thinks, then he will see matters within the spirit ever more clearly and more truthfully until he reaches a level of clarity and reality such that he can express it verbally. Then he will have knowledge of God, and will then be able to bear witness to God. To give an example, the great red dragon frantically resists and condemns the work of God, and fiercely persecutes and seizes the chosen people of God. Is this not a matter within the spirit? Some people say, “Is seizing the chosen people of God not an external matter? I have seen my brothers and sisters seized and severely persecuted, and this is an external matter. How is this a matter within the spirit?” So, what is the “matter within the spirit”? It is that God allows the evil spirit Satan to act this way, allowing Satan to come and try these chosen people of God, and that God uses these tests to reveal who people really are. God is making a wager with Satan using these chosen people. Is this not a matter of the spiritual world? This is reality, and these are matters within the spirit. There is another phrase from the word of God, “My wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s plots.” When you open your physical eyes wide, can you see this matter clearly? No matter how wide you open your eyes you cannot see it. Why? It is a matter of the spiritual world. The physical eye cannot see the matters of the spiritual world, but the spirit can sense them. If you vainly rely only on the physical eye to determine true from false, is this correct? This causes only trouble, and you will certainly not understand the truth, much less come to know God.

Now, God demands that the chosen people of God seek to know God, so He has expressed “The Sixth Utterance.” If you are not in the least concerned with matters within the spirit, and you do not seek the truth, can you attain knowledge of God? In knowing God, the principal thing is to be sensitive and serious toward the matters within the spirit, and to place importance on the word of God. In the words of God there are many things that are matters of the spiritual world, matters within the spirit, and external matters are very few. Why are there many people who read the word of God but feel sapped of energy? Why can’t this energy be invigorated? It is because these are all matters within the spirit that the physical eye cannot see nor the hand feel. To give an example, the unbelievers seek fame and fortune–can the physical eye see that or not? There are people chosen as presidents or as legislators, and people can see this. But with respect to matters of the spiritual world, and seeking to know God, and obtaining the praise and blessings of God–can these be seen or not? You cannot see them relying on the physical eye alone. You cannot see them relying on the physical eye, so how can you acknowledge that people like Peter obtained the praise of God? How can you see this matter of how Peter truly obtained the praise of God? This requires seeking the truth before you can understand. What level do you have to reach in seeking the truth to be convinced and acknowledge that Peter indeed received God’s praise, and was indeed made an exemplary model by God? Is this easy to attain or not? It is truly not easy, and this requires us to do what God says, “in matters within the spirit, you should be delicately sensitive; to My words, you should be carefully attentive.”

Now there are many people who lay emphasis on external matters, “What should I eat? What should I wear? What will the world be like tomorrow? When will the great calamity occur? I have not yet found a partner; will I be able to start a family in the future? Where will I live? Will I live high up on a mountain, or on an island, or on the plains?” What are all these matters considered? They are external matters, matters of the flesh. Matters of the flesh are completely contradictory to matters within the spirit, and if you give importance to matters of the flesh, then can you know matters within the spirit? The more you live in the flesh, the more you feel the matters within the spirit are uncertain. The more you emphasize matters within the spirit, the more truly you can see matters within the spirit. The more truly you see the matters of the spiritual world, the more you will take interest in the word of God and in the truth, and then you will feel that the matters within the spirit are so real, a hundred or a thousand times more real than the matters of the flesh. There are people who do not understand, saying, “I do not deny the reality of matters within the spirit, but are matters of the flesh not real? How can matters within the spirit be a hundred times more real than matters of the flesh? What are you talking about?” Tell me, are these words tenable or not? Matters of the flesh are all false, and even if what is in front of your eyes is real, it is still false because matters of the flesh are temporary. In the blink of an eye they will be gone, and they cannot permanently exist. The matters of the flesh cannot exist forever, but matters within the spirit will last forever. People all recognize these words, so in the end is it matters of the spiritual world that are real, or matters of the substance and the flesh that are real? I say that matters within the spirit are a hundred times more real than matters of the flesh. Is this correct? When I speak this way, those people who seek physical pleasure all appear as imbeciles, and those people who seek fame and fortune and status are even greater imbeciles. What has no connection with the truth is considered a matter of the flesh. You must not seek after it, for in an instant it will be gone! If you seek after it, you will have a feeling of having been deceived and misled by Satan. Is there such a feeling or not? If you don’t believe then you may seek fleshly pleasures, saying, “I will have several children, I will get several mates, I will find a good job, I will earn so much money, I will live in such a grand mansion.” In an instant all this is gone. After a great earthquake it is all lost and after you have died it is all lost, and there will be a day when the world no longer exists. At that time, you will feel, “I have been cheated, I have followed the wrong path, this is the Creator toying with people!” Are there people who have this feeling? They say it is the Creator toying with people, but what you have sought is a way of error, so who can you blame? Here, Satan is wielding its influence among this corrupt humanity, and why did you allow yourself to be fooled by it? Why did you not place importance on matters within the spirit, why did you not seek the truth? This is what you deserve! Some people see others enjoying themselves very well, and say, “How did you come to have such enjoyment? How have I not come to have these enjoyments? Heaven is unjust, I will not accept it! I want to enjoy the same things you are enjoying, and I must have even more enjoyment than you!” What kind of person is this? Is this not of the same species as Satan? The day when you enjoy a good life will be the day when death befalls you, the day of your extinction. “In matters within the spirit, you should be delicately sensitive.” However much misfortune you suffer in matters of the flesh, it is not misfortune–misfortune is also to your benefit! Can this be said? Some people have sex with a lot of people, and afterward they think, “How favorable this is, it is quite favorable! I’m this lucky in love affairs!” One day when they come in contact with the matters of the spirit and the truth, they think about those matters, “I have suffered a great misfortune and loss, and I have been cheated!” The more advantage you gain, the more misfortune you will suffer! Do not seek the matters of the flesh, for the matters of the flesh are not real, they are illusory! You should understand this now!