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Meat Offering
Ch. 1 · Audio in EN
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ES
Chapter 1
His Offering Shall Be of Fine Flour
65:19
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His Offering Shall Be of Fine Flour
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Leviticus 2:1-16
And when any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon: and he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord: And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleav-ened, mingled with oil. Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering. And if thy obla-tion be a meat offering baken in the fryingpan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the Lord: and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar. And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the altar: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord. And that which is left of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire. As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the Lord: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour. And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt. And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the Lord, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears. And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering. And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
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What Leviticus Is Trying to Tell Us
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Levi was the third son of Jacob. I'd like to tell you the story of why he was named Levi. Jacob had two wives named Leah and Rachel, who had servants, Zilpah and Bilhah, respectively. Leah had an ugly face and was tender-eyed. It says that Rachel was soft and beautiful. Therefore, Rachel was loved by her husband, Jacob, but Leah received no love from her husband. God saw that Leah was hated, and God opened her womb and allowed her to have a son. Leah named her first son, Reuben, saying, "Behold, a son." Leah had another son and named him, Simon, saying, "God has heard me." Then, she had a third son and said, "now that I have given my husband three sons, my husband will now unite with me," and named her son, Levi. The meaning of Levi is, "to unite." That is why most of the words written in the book of Leviticus talk about the necessary requirements that must be met for the dirty man, who has sinned, to become united with the Holy God. Many people today say that they believe in God, but they are unable to achieve true spiritual union with God. There is a reason for that. There are verses in the Bible that many people like and Know very well "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.. " (John 3:16) "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." (John 1:12) "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20) We know these verses very well. However, people do not know what the book of Leviticus is trying to tell them very well.
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As I was preparing for our retreat recently, I saw that we needed to break up the cement floor in front of the retreat center. We then had to install plumbing pipes. After that, we had to close up the concrete again. The day we were doing the construction work on the concrete, I was on my way out because I had to visit another area. I suddenly had the thought, "When the weather gets cold the concrete will freeze. We should add some salt so that the concrete floor will not freeze." If the weather was very cold, I would have surely ordered the workers to put some salt there. But it was a little warm that day, so I just kind of suggested it to them, "Don't you think you're going to need to put some salt there?" By the time I got back, they were done closing up the con-crete. From the next day, it started to turn very cold. The floor that was covered up in concrete became completely frozen.
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When it becomes warmer after that kind of cold weather, the water from the cement would seep down. Even if the cement or the sand quality is good, if the concrete freezes, it will not harden. That is why on a cold day you must add salt to it, or cover it up nicely so that it will not freeze. In this way, just because you know how to mix cement, sand, and pebbles to do the paving, that is not everything.
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Even in our spiritual life, there are things that work similarly to this. Why is paved concrete able to be washed away when you just pour water onto it? It is because the concrete was frozen and it did not harden properly. There are also reasons why problems arise in spiritual life. People believe in God, and they want to become close to Him. They tithe, fast, pray, and go to church on Sundays, but rather than becoming closer to God, why do they fall further and further away from God? When they want to stand before God, why do they feel so awkward and their heart, so distant? The book of Leviticus tells us about these things in great detail and depth.
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Jesus Who Casts out the Cows, Sheep, and Doves from the Temple
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Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem one day. There were people in the temple selling cows, sheep, and doves. There were also people changing money. Jesus saw this, and He made a whip of cords. He then cast out the cows, sheep, and doves from the temple. He flipped over the tables of those who were changing money. I do not know what the owner of the cows said to Jesus afterwards, or whether the owners of the doves argued with Jesus. Jesus also scattered the money of the money changers, and people had to go and pick the money up. I do not know if they came up to Jesus and said, "Hey, give me my money!" The Bible does not record what happened afterwards. When I read something from the Bible, many times I am curious about what happened afterwards. In Genesis chapter 41, it records that Joseph became the governor of Egypt. When I read those words, I wonder when Joseph became the governor of Egypt and he made his first public appearance, what were the reactions of Potiphar and his wife? I wonder what ultimately happened to them. I become very curious about these things. However, the Bible only tells me what I need to know and what is profitable for me. There are many parts where it does not tell me the things I am curious about. If these were things that I really needed to know, then the Bible would have surely mentioned them to us.
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Anyways, Jesus made a scourge of cords and cast out the cows, sheep, and doves with it. As I read those words, I thought, "Aren't cows good animals? They are clean animals. In fact, the animal that is very loyal to its master is the cow. Also, sheep do not know how to attack other animals, and they do not know how to defend themselves. They are very pure-hearted animals, and if they get stabbed, they get stabbed, and if they get eaten, they get eaten. The doves are also pure animals, so why did Jesus kick them out of the temple? The animals that most represent the animals that are given to God as offerings are cows, sheep, and doves. Why did Jesus cast them out of the temple?" As I thought about these things, there was something I felt deeply in my heart. The cow is a clean and loyal animal, but once it is in the temple, it must be put to death and placed on top of the altar. It should not be kept alive. Even a clean animal like the sheep must be put on the altar and given as an offering. If it is alive, it is just a stinky and noisy beast. Even if the dove symbolizes purity and peace, it needs to be put to death and placed on the altar. I realized a dove that is alive and flapping around is not needed in the temple. This is what I feel as I minister. Even if a brother is loyal like a cow, kind like a sheep, or as pure as a dove, unless he is put to death and given as an offering on the altar, he is completely useless in the church of God. This is what the Bible wants us to real-ize. After the animal being offered as the burnt offering sheds its blood and is killed, it is then skinned, cut into pieces, and its insides are pulled out and washed. It is an offering where all of it is burned on the altar. God waits for a cow or a lamb to be burned up and turned into ashes on the altar. When He sees that the offering has turned into ashes, God rejoices and accepts it. When everything of us is skinned off; after our fleshly thoughts and desires have been revealed, laid on the altar, are completely burned up, and it all disappears, God is able to joyfully receive us. Only then can we enter the path of salvation. That is what this is trying to tell us.
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Fine Flour
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Leviticus chapter 1 tells us about the burnt offering. Leviticus chapter 2 talks about the meat offering. The meat offering signifies the image we should become after we receive salvation. In chapter 2, verse 1, it begins by saying, "And when any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour." When we read the words about the meat offering in Leviticus chapter 2, "fine flour" is mentioned many times. It you were to take a pen and read Leviticus chapter 2, marking every time "fine flour" appeared, you would discover that "fine flour" is mentioned more than expected. The ingredient for the meat offering is fine flour. Fine flour is acquired after the wheat shells are peeled off, and the grains of wheat are completely and utterly crushed, and they have completely lost their own shape. That is the state of the wheat that this is talking about. It is crushed so thoroughly that you cannot find any meal with any shape whatsoever. They are not just broken into pieces of four or eight. So even though you rub the flour together between your hands, you will not feel any graininess at all. That is how finely the wheat is crushed. That is fine flour. When you pour oil onto the fine flour, knead it, and make it into bread, it becomes a whole new form that is completely different from its previous form as wheat. That is what you give to God as the meat offering. Sometimes, they pour oil onto the fine flour and they add sulfur and salt onto it to give it as the meat offering. The saved children of God inside of the church must throw away their own perspectives, charac-teristics, will, and experiences. If such things are revealed in the church of God, that person has not yet become fine flour. If that person has not yet become fine flour, that person cannot be given as a savory meat offering to God.
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A Famous Preacher Not long after I started my ministry, I had a dream of becoming a great pastor who leads a church with thousands of church members. In order to be that, I wanted to listen and learn from the sermons of pastors who are known for giving good sermons, especially the famous preachers of my time. I wanted to learn how the famous pastors of big churches ministered. I wanted to become a pastor who leads many church members like they did. However, as I tried to do that, I discovered one amazing thing. I got to know what kind of people the famous preachers are. One of the things the famous preachers had in common was that the sermons they gave were sermons that sounded good to everyone. No matter the sermon, you could see this method in them very clearly. The sermons of the famous preachers are easy to listen to and sound graceful even to the ears of a prison inmate, a politician, a doctor, a poor person, or a rich person who hears them. I am sorry to say this, but if you analyze the sermons of Billy Graham, you can see that even his sermons were also these kinds of sermons: sermons that were easy to listen to for anyone. These are sermons where not one person would feel burdened to listen. In this world, that is how you must preach to become a famous and recognized preacher. But what I deeply felt in my heart was that those kinds of sermons cannot bring about true change to the core of the heart. It is because people's lives, by nature, have gone astray from God. The sermons must prick their hearts in order for them to be shattered and return to God. The sermons must ache their hearts and torment their hearts to make it unbearable. The people who hear those sermons, whose hearts still have not crumbled down, are unable to bear their suffering. And they end up hating their preachers. They do not want to lis-ten, so they plug their ears. Later on, the heart of wanting to even beat and kill the preacher should arise in them. On the other hand, amazing and unspeakable grace come to the hearts of broken-down people who listened to the sermons. These are true sermons. A sermon that just sounds good to anyone may make a preacher famous, but it is a sermon that is very far from the will of God. After I discovered these things, I thought deeply about the sermons of Apostle Paul, the sermon of Stephen, and the sermon of Jesus when I read the Bible. Once, Jesus was preaching the word in Capernaum. People were so pricked in their hearts and tormented that they took Jesus to the edge of the mountains and wanted to push Him off the cliff. The Jews who listened to Peter's sermon were pained in their hearts, thinking, "What shall we do?" What about Stephen's sermon? The people who listened to his sermon were enraged and they stoned him to death. The Jews who listened to Apostle Paul's sermon threw dust into the air and said, "Such a man should be rid from this earth. We should kill him!" After I discovered these incidents in the Bible, I realized what a useless preacher I was. People who listen to my sermons say, "Pastor, the sermon was so graceful." There was no one who said, "Ock Soo Park, you deserve to die!" Last week, someone came to my church and said, "I cursed Pastor Ock Soo Park terribly. However, when I came today, I see that he has received no curse at all." I heard that testimony. However, today in this world there are many pastors who only give sermons that are easy on the ears. The second thing we must know about sermons is that whenever Christianity entered corruption, the preachers always gave sermons based on morals. The truth of Christianity we believe in is not morality. It is evil to replace the truth of God with morals. When every bit of us has crumbled down completely, the Holy Spirit enters our hearts and changes our image into that of Jesus Christ. This is true spiritual life. If you want to replace the spirit of God with morals, they may look similar in the beginning, but their natures are completely different. As I discovered these kinds of things, I needed to choose between one or the other. DoI want to become a famous preacher, or do 1 want to become a true servant of God? Right then, like what Apostle Paul said in Galatians chapter 1, verse 10, "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ." I was able to truly realize the meaning of these words. I really wanted to become the pastor of a big church. I thought and studied about how I could become the pastor of a big church. As I researched more into it, I realized that in order to gather many people, two conditions must be met. People have two sets of desires. One is the desires of the flesh: to eat well, wear nice clothing, and live well, while receiving recognition and admiration from people. The other is a spiritual desire, which is one of wanting to come before God and live a spiritual life. Inside of man, the flesh and the spirit dwell together. I have learned that every person has both desires. Therefore, it is essential that both of these desires are satisfied at once in order to gather many people to church. And as I further analyzed the sermons of pastors of famous churches, I found that another thing those sermons had in common was a focus on blessings. They spoke of unconditional blessings, such as wealth, health, and the well being of family. That is why people gather in these places. The churches that people really want today are the churches that will lead them to believe in God, as well as satisfy the desires of the flesh.
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The Church That Satisfies the Desires of the Flesh
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If we do not know the Bible deeply or what it is trying to tell us, it is easy to think that if we believe in Jesus, it will make us rich. Many people think that if you believe in Jesus, you will get bundles of blessings. People even imagine such things. To the hearts of such people who are filled with these desires, why would they hate to hear that if they believe in Jesus they will become rich, healthy, and happy? "Beloved, I wish above all things that you mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." (3 John 1:2) Many people go to churches that preach solely on these top-ics. I realized, however, that our church was not that kind of a church. There is a sister who comes to our church. Her older sister attends a large, famous church. One day, after this sister spoke to her older sister, she fell into trial. I asked her what was wrong and she said that her older sister said, "Why is your church so full of poor people? Look at my church. There are so many rich people. If you believe in God, aren't you supposed to become rich? If you're poor, it means you're cursed. If you believe in God, then you become rich."
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This sister heard this and she fell deep into trial. She then went home blaming the church and blaming her pastor. This sister was a pretty honest person so she came to me and told me exactly what was in her heart. She said, "Pastor, why are the people of our church so poor? In some churches, they say all the members of that church are rich. Shouldn't it be that if you believe in God, you become rich? Aren't we cursed, and that is why we did not become rich?" When I heard those words, I asked her, "Sister, the Japanese live better off than Korean people, right?" She answered, "Yes." "So Japanese people believe in God much better than Koreans do, right? That is why they got blessed and became rich, is it not?" "Um..." When she thought about it, it sounded weird. I think she kind of got it. Most people in Japan do not believe in God. In Japan, there are so many temples. There is a temple every few houses down. On the other hand, churches are very hard to come by. Was it really because the Japanese people elieved in God that they became rich? No. It so, then did Apostle Paul believe God the wrong way? That is why he lived poorly, was put in prison, and even went through so much suffering. If the teachings of her older sister's pastor were true, then the Japanese people were blessed because they believe in God very well. And, Apostle Paul believed in God the wrong way and was cursed. Is that really true? There is something I want to clearly tell you. If the eyes to see the spiritual blessings of God are opened, this world will really seem worthless to you. If you want to gain the spirtual blessings of heaven, there is one thing you must know; you can never have the ambitions of the world and the spiritual things of God together. That is why the more our ambitions are completely broken down and crushed, the more we enter spiritual life. What is the main problem with the many people who attend church in Korea today? Many churches fill people's desires. In doing so, they make the hearts of their church members high and proud. People love conditions to exalt themselves. "My son got accepted to a great university. My son became a doctor." Sure, it is not a bad thing that your son got into a good university and became a doctor. However, people love to exalt themselves through these kinds of things. It is very hard for God to be exalted within such a heart. We must realize how filthy and dirty the boastings of man are.
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Those Who Put Hope in the Flesh David had a son named, Absalom. Absalom was smart, courageous, and good looking. He was a masculine and ambitious man. He was eloquent, and practiced deep thought. He was able to do all things very well. When David looked at Absalom, he was so joyful and satisfied. Many people put hope in Absalom. However, what actually happened in Absalom's life? He killed his older brother, Amnon, and ran away to another country. After he returned to Israel, he caused a rebellion, wanting to take his father's throne. He enticed many servants who served his father, and made them follow him. He caused a rebellion, led an army, and went to
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the palace and slept with his father's concubines. The Bible records the works of Absalom in detail. He lied to his father; he coveted the throne; and tried to kill his father. He even fornicated with his father's concubines. Absalom broke all the commandments of God. When we see the final end of Absalom, he was killed pitifully. Every person who followed him and put their hopes in him were all destroyed along with him, just like Ahithophel. What is the Bible trying to tell us through this story? Absalom represents our flesh. The end result for the people who follow their flesh, who put hope in their flesh, and who exalt their flesh was becoming pitiful like Absalom. However, because we do not know the spiritual world of God very well, we live the kind of spiritual life of wanting to satisfy the desires of our flesh while also satisfying the desires of our spirit. There are many people who like the wire between the flesh and the spirit. The Bible says, "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Luke 16:13) And, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." (Galatians 5:17) Many people do not know the deep meaning of what the Bible is trying to say. That is why they say they believe and serve God. But, they do not know how to handle the desires of the flesh that arise in them. Even though they labor to come closer to God, they are unable to get close. Why is that? The shell of the wheat must be removed, and after-wards, it must become broken and crushed. And unless it is turned into fine flour, it can never become a meat offering. When our desires or everything that comes from the flesh is peeled off, broken, and crushed, it must become fine flour in order for the amazing works of the Holy Spirit to begin inside of us. God loved man, who had committed sin. But He did not only give us joy, satisfaction, or peace in our lives, because if we could live a life that the flesh is satisfied with, we cannot come close to God.
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The Reason We Must Deny Ourselves When Adam and Eve committed sin, there were a few major changes that took place. First of all, death came upon mankind. Secondly, as man became distant from God, things such as fear and sadness emerged. Satan wanted to make Adam and Eve far away from God, so he led them to gain the knowledge of good and evil. After leading man to make their own judgments, Satan put his thoughts inside of man and tried to lead man according to his will. After Adam and Eve went far away from God, Satan led man to a completely different world than the one God intended. From the moment Adam and Eve committed sin and departed from God, Satan has influenced all people. Everything the people of the world think of is put there by Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air. As we follow the thoughts that Satan puts into us, we flow in a direction that is opposite from the thoughts of God, without us even knowing it. One day, there was a brother who gave his testimony about how he got saved during service. He said that before he was saved, he hated his born again wife so much that he wanted to kill her. If your wife became born again from sin, isn't that something to be happy for and rejoice? He should have the heart of wanting to be born again like his wife. Why did his wife appear so hateful to him? Why did he hate her so much that he wanted to kill her? I used to argue with that brother often myself. Before being saved, that brother came to me one day and said, "Pastor, my family is like this right now. My wife is like that." If you listened to him, he was right in his own way. However, he asserts his self-righteousness with his words. However, these words are completely opposite from the will of God, and completely goes against the will of God. Adam and Eve were naked, but they knew no shame. However, shame came to them after they ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Fear, sadness, and pain also came to them. After Adam and Eve committed their sin, a heart that had never existed entered into them, and that heart began to grab and drag them around. Everyone who lives in this world is held by the power of darkness, and dragged by the heart that power places in them. Salvation is not just simply knowing the fact that Jesus died on the cross and forgave your sins. Before realizing that, you must discover that your heart has gone astray from the heart of God, and you must surrender and shed that crooked heart. You must turn back to God after you break and deny your heart. That is when salvation comes to you when you look to the blood of Jesus Christ with a denied heart. Today, many people who go to church continue to believe in God their way because they do not know the heart of God in the book of Leviticus. They do not know why they need to be burned, or why they need to be crushed into fine flour. They just go to church and pray to God. They repent their sins. But even though they do all this, they continually live following their fleshly ambitions. However, people can only continually and repeatedly commit sin if they follow the ambitions of the flesh. Then they go to church and repent their sins again. They sin and repent, and sin and repent again. There are so many people who live like this. They just sin and repent. This is the image of spiritual life of people who attend church in Korea today. What is wrong with this? They do not know the state of their hearts, which is headed towards destruction. They are led by the evil power. They are just living spiritual life on the outside. Sadly, that is why a true spiritual life is not accomplished in them.
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Our Thoughts Must be Crumbled Down A few years ago, we established a church in Sacheon. We wanted to purchase a new church building that was appropriate for a chapel, but we could not find one. We bought a house with a big yard. Then, we renovated the stable that came with the house and used that briefly as the chapel. Because Jesus was born in a stable, it felt kind of biblical.
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That is how it was then. Years later, the brothers and sisters of the Sacheon Church decided to build a chapel. To begin construction, one day, the brothers brought over an excavator. The excavator was turned on, and with a loud, "Vroom, vroom, vroom!" they used the big shovel and began to demolish the original house. The roof was collapsed, the windows were crushed, and beams were taken down. There was nothing left. Everything was crumbled down. That house was usable, so I thought they would only demolish the stable. However, they got rid of the bedroom, living room, and even all the water pipes. Behind the house was a nice little field where they had planted lettuce and other vegetables. They flipped the entire property upside down. After doing that, they built a beautiful chapel made of nice red bricks. When you build a new chapel, you do not leave the bedroom or bathroom of the house remaining and just demolish the stable. You have to demolish everything completely, leaving nothing. Some rooms were nice and fine. It even felt bad to demolish them. The windows of the house were relatively new. The ceiling had newly been repaired. It was a house with brand new wallpaper, but the excavator did not care about any of that. With just a loud "Vroom, vroom, vroom," then a "wham!" the house was torn down, and everything came crumbling down. I have to do this in order to build a nice, new building there. Satan has built a house of thoughts in our hearts, completely different from the will of God. We have lived in that house for a long time. Now that house must be completely demolished. Just as the wheat is peeled, and turned into fine flour, all of the thoughts inside of us must be demolished. No matter what thought it must be: our good thoughts, bad thoughts, clean thoughts, dirty thoughts, unclean thoughts, upright thoughts, lustful thoughts...they must all be completely crushed. Is there something about you where you can say, "Well, at least this part of me is clean?" Even though it may be clean, if it is from the flesh, it is flesh. Because our thoughts have already been contaminated by Satan, all of our thoughts must be thrown away. Our shell needs to be peeled off. We need to be completely crushed, and made into fine flour. When it becomes fine flour, it can be kneaded and then flour can be made into bread. You can make the bread rect-angular, triangular, or even round. Only then it can be an offering God is pleased with; a savory offering to the Lord. What is your spiritual life today? Many people are trying to trim and revise the thoughts of their flesh to look for God. They just want to have less bad thoughts. People, who smoke or gamble, want to reduce the time they put into such things. They labor, trying to fit their thoughts into the thoughts of God. That is like having the architectural plans for a great, new building right in front of you, but you are trying the turn the pitiful, existing house into the new building using those plans. You can add a brick, or remove a brick. You try to add a slate and then remove a slate. You try to add a window and then remove a window. Many people live their spiritual life like this. Jesus said to His disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Matthew 16:24) In addition, Isaiah 55 tells us: "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55: 6-7) If the wicked could fix his way and the unrighteous fix his thoughts, then why would God say to forsake them? He is telling us they are things we cannot repair. For us to be saved, our thoughts should not be fixed, but thrown away entirely. Why? When Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, thoughts that are opposite from God have already entered us.
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Even Though They Are Led by the Spirit of Satan
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Many people act like they believe in God on the outside, but they do not actually believe God. When you ask church goers, "Are you born again?" I have no idea why they hate hearing this. I do not know why they call you a heretic when you tell them to receive the forgiveness of sins. Yet when you tell people, "Tithe," "Do something good," or, "Go to church on Sundays," they are happy to hear it. However, I do not know why they get so upset when you tell them to receive the forgiveness of sins and become born again. There is someone who is making them react that way. Once, a young lady, who was demon possessed, came to my church. After I spoke with her for a long time, sadly, I came to know that this young lady was being led by a certain spirit in her heart. However, this young lady believed, entirely, that the demon was Jesus. A few brothers and I spoke to the young lady many times about this, but each time she would reply, "It is Jesus inside of me who is talking, what are you talking about?" She would not accept what we were telling her.
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One day, I sincerely said to her, "Young lady, have you received the forgiveness of sins? Are all of your sins washed? Do you have any sins in your heart? Have you ever denied yourself? Have you ever broken your own heart?" When I asked her that, she said that she did have sins in her heart. So, I asked her again, "How can the Holy Spirit dwell in a person who has sin? Then isn't the spirit in you that is acting like Jesus, Satan?" When I opened up the Bible and spoke to her, step by step, she could not say anything. I said, "Young lady, the spirit that is inside of you is not Jesus. It is the spirit of Satan. If you follow its words it will make you crazy." Because I'm a pastor, that young lady said, "That is right," but I could still see from her attitude that she was thinking, "That doesn't make any sense."
43:02
The Desires of the Flesh Which Is Satan's Weapon There is a weapon that is most important to Satan that he uses in deceiving us. In Genesis chapter 3, when God cursed the serpent, it says, "You will eat the dust all the day long." The dust represents the flesh of man. It means Satan uses our flesh as his food. He acts as if he is for our flesh, and that he is for us. However, that is the work of Satan. On the other hand, Satan makes it seem that the works of Christ make things difficult for us. He makes it seem as if the words of Jesus will turn us into fools. He makes it seem as if nothing will ever work out. That is why the heart to trust yourself must be demolished. Then the kingdom of Jesus Christ can be established in our hearts. To say that you can receive the blessings of God and fulfll the desires of the flesh is fraudulent. You have to know that if the desires of the flesh are fulfilled, you can never fulfill the will of God. Jesus said, "Whosoever Shall follow me shall deny himself." It means that you cannot follow Jesus while satisfying the desires of your flesh. Many people are going to hell. Why do they go to hell? It is because they followed the desires of the flesh as Satan urged them on. There are people who come to our church, and say there is no love in our church. It means that there is nothing here that is warm to the flesh. Whoever clearly sees how Jesus is working and when their spiritual eyes become open, they will get to know the deep love of the Lord towards them. Yesterday, during Sunday service at my church, I clearly felt God accomplished many things that were humanistically impossible this year. Even now, there are many problems in my church, but I surely believe Jesus will resolve them. I am not worried and I look to the Lord. When I stand at the pulpit to give a sermon on Sunday, and look down from the pul-pit, I see the faces of the brothers and sisters. I remember how God has worked inside of every person, one by one. I could clearly see that God is working inside of us. That is why every time I stand at the pulpit, a thankful heart strongly arises in me. On the contrary, the Lord working inside of us does not happen while all of our fleshly desires have been fulfilled. If you are really looking for the spiritual world, and if you are really seeking for the eternal heaven, you must know that they can never be gained while fulfilling the desires of the flesh. It seems like there are many churches that fill the desires of the flesh and the desires of the spirit at the same time. In reality, they are only fulfilling their flesh's desires.
46:24
They are not fulfilling their spiritual desires at all. However, people are deceived into thinking that they have gained spiritual things.
46:33
If You Do Not Know the Bible, How Can You Know the Heart of God?
46:41
Among the people who have moved from other churches to our church, I occasionally see people who are not so spe-cial, yet their hearts remain extremely arrogant. In my eyes, he has nothing to be arrogant about, but he remains very arrogant. Do such people know the Bible well? They do not. They think they are living a great spiritual life on their own. It is just that they worked hard at their previous church. Spiritual life must be lived according to the Bible. Without knowing what the Bible says, what is the point of that kind of spiritual life, even if you believe fervently? And yet, people still think that they have lived a great spiritual life. I usually ask such people, "Do you know about the law? How are you supposed to keep the Sabbath? How do you give the sin offering?" They are unable to answer any of these questions, and they just say useless things. And even though I meet many pastors, they are pretty similar in that they also do not know the Bible when I ask them about it. I ask them, "Pastor, do you know how the sin offering is given?" They are unable to answer. Then I ask, "Then do you know how the burnt offering is given?" They answer, "I do not." Then I ask them, "Do you know about the meat offering?" They reply, "I do not." They neither know about the peace offering, nor trespass offering. There are a lot of people who reply, "Are there such things?" When I ask them about how to keep the Passover and the Feast of the Seven Days, or what day is the Day of Atonement, they do not know. They simply think that if they know the Ten Commandments, they know everything they need to know. They think that if they know the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Apostles' Creed, then their spiritual life is good. If spiritual life went well by only knowing that, then why is the Bible so thick? You could fit the Ten Commandments and the Apostles' Creed on one page. However, the Bible is almost 2,000 pages. Because man is arrogant and has not received God's words with a humble heart, they only vaguely know anything, and they think they are doing well. When I say something to my children, and they only listen to me half-heartedly, I call them back over to me and I check what they know. "What did I tell you to do? How did I tell you to do it? Tell me in detil.?" If my children mumble and do not answer me clearly, I explain everything to them again. "Look, if you do not know exactly what I said, how would you be able to obey? Listen one more time. First,..., then second..." After that, I check with them again. "Hey, did you do that?" They reply, "Yes." I would then ask, "Did you do this?" They answer, "Yes." The Bible is not as thick as it is because God is so old and He nags us. Through the 66 books of the Bible, God is speaking His heart and will to us. Without knowing the Bible, how can we expect to know the heart of God? If you knew nothing about the Bible, you could just say that you do not know. But, if you talk about the Bible, people call you a "heretic" and criticize you for being picky. People do not think that not knowing the Bible is a big problem.
50:41
The People Who Are Deceived by Satan Satan tries to erase the word of God from our hearts. The Bible contains many of God's words, however, there is no word in people's hearts. The hearts of many are just full of desires. People go to church and keep their Sundays well. They also pay tithes well. They even attend early morning prayer service. If they volunteer often at their church, they are considered to be number one among their church mem-bers. However, if you do all this, does that mean you are saved and can go to heaven? Even though all the things you have done were recorded, it does not even fill one page of the Bible.
51:29
Suppose the Bible recorded this: How you can go to heaven: First, come to church on Sunday. Second, be sure to give tithes. Third, make sure to do this... If that were the case, then that is how it should be done. Then why would you need so many words in the Bible? Many words are recorded in the Bible because it reveals the image of our hearts. It shows us the things that have been built up in our hearts; the hearts that are in fear because of sin; and the heart full of pain because of having fallen into a sin that no one knows about. The Bible was written to reveal those things, one by one, and to resolve each and every one of them. Talking about that world of the heart is what made the Bible so thick. That is why, no matter the issue, we must know the Bible. We must read the Bible, realize what it is saying, and discover the heart of God contained in the Bible. There is a reason why people in Korea are unhappy. People are fervent in building church chapels. People work hard to gather people. People put a lot of zeal into doing volunteer service. Many Christians have socially enlightening activities and hold bazaars. However, they are not interested in the salvation of their souls. Who taught them to be that way? It was Satan. The things that have nothing to do with salvation, no matter how amazing they appear to be, have nothing to do with God.
53:14
When Were Your Peels Removed, and Were You Turned into Fine Flour? In Leviticus chapter 2, in the verses about the law that stated the meat offering God accepts, "fine flour" is mentioned many times. To become fine flour, the wheat's shell must be peeled off, and all of the grains must be crushed. It must completely lose its form. When were your peels removed? When have your thoughts ever been completely crushed? When have your perspectives been crushed? When has your desire to exert your self-righteousness been broken down and turned into fine flour? Without ever entering that state, even if you kill a cow to give an offering, or sell your house to give to the Lord, those things mean nothing in front of God. Leviticus chapter 1 talks about the burnt offering. In the law of the burnt offering, in order to be an offering that would be acceptable to God, our very selves must be completely burned as a whole. Leviticus chapter 2 talks about the meat offering. It tells us that for us to become the offering that God would accept, we must become fine flour. In chapter 1 is talking about the condition of our hearts for us to be saved, chapter 2 is telling us the attitude of our hearts after salvation and how to be a precious offering that God would accept in the church. Some people say that there are too many uneducated people in the church, so they are unable to fit in. Some people say that there are too many classless people in the church, so they cannot fit in. Some even say that our church has too many people from the countryside, so they do not fit in. They have their own color and form intact. Their shells have not peeled off, and with the unbroken grain called "self", that is how things appear to them. These people appear to be so high class, beautiful, and precious in their own eyes, but in the eyes of God, they are nothing but worthless wheat clusters. When such people are combed through a fine net, then they will be like the grains that remain on top. They just roll around on top of the net, but cannot become the fine flour that passes through the sift and turned into bread. Even though these people come to church, they are unable to become the fine flour that will be turned into bread that God will accept. They are people who remain in their own form: in the form of a whole grain. 'I'm saved, but I'm going to raise my kids how I want. I'm saved, but I'm going to get married the way I want. I'm saved, but if I follow the pastor's guidance, that is going to ruin me." Even though it is the pastor's word, you must be wise, and thus pick and choose what you want to accept. It seems that they are wise, but they are people deceived by Satan, who is wiser.
56:38
The Blessings of God That Come After Ambition Is Thrown Away As I minister, there is something I am very thankful to God about. Before, even though I was saved, serving the Lord, and doing the work of God, the thought to work for my own satisfaction always remained inside of me.
56:59
Even though I became a pastor, I wanted to be a pastor who was not cursed at by other people, a pastor who was respected. The ambition to become a great and amazing pastor was always inside of my heart. I would read sermons of famous pastors, and I would try to repeat their sermons. I studied Greek on my own, and I tried studying Hebrew. I would wake up while everybody else was sleeping, and I would open the Greek dictionary, and with my broken pronunciation I would try to say, "ecclesia, blah, blah, blah..." I'm not saying doing that was bad in and of itself. But I was doing these things not to fulfill the will of God, but to become the pastor I wanted to be. That was wrong. At that point, the fighting never ended in our church. People, who used to come out to church well would no longer come after I visited them. If a person got saved, another person would leave. That is how it always was. One day, I could feel that the Lord was crumbling me down. Sometimes I would say, "God, this is too much. Why must I go through these things?" I would even be bitter and blame God. However, as I went through this, I discovered something very amazing. Just like how parents remove the thin clothes from their child in the cold winter in order to put them in thick and warm clothes, God removed every precious thing I was holding. I discovered that God wanted to replace them with truly precious things I never would have imagined. I did not know that, so I just wanted to hold onto the ambitions of my heart. I began to run towards those things. God made me very poor, and thus, made me completely throw away ambition for money. After that heart was formed in me, God blessed me financially far beyond what I could have expected. Afterwards, He allowed me to start broadcasting my sermons, and allowed me to publish books about faith. He allowed me to build a retreat center. And He allowed me to open many churches. Every time, God gave us so much money, it was unimaginable. I wanted to become a pastor respected by people. So even though I am pathetic on the inside, on the outside, I tried hard to appear gentle and noble. However, all of that was completely useless. As I came to see what God saw with His eyes, that now became the only thing that was important to me. I was able to end the fake appearance I was trying to exhibit to other people. From then on, God exalted me, and I could see that God was leading everything for me. The things that I have now, I did not get them for myself. These are things that God placed in my hand. That is why I do not need to protect or keep them. I feel so free and peaceful in my heart. Sometimes, when things do not work out as planned, I know that God is leading me and He is in my life. Even though it does not go according to my will, I know that it is being completely fulfilled according to the will of God. Even when things do not go according to my will, the position of my heart has been moved so that I can kneel and be thankful before God. Before, my life was caught up in my ambitions. I cannot describe in words how different my life is now, one where I trust my life to God, so that the loving God will lead my life. Before, when things did not go according to my own heart, I would use my humanistic methods to get what I had wanted.
61:17
And when that did not work out, I would complain to God and hate people for it. Sometimes, I even lied. Now, I do not have to do any of those things because all the work I do is not my work, but God's work. I know very clearly that God is accomplishing these things. Even though I may go through sadness, I can go without complaining or blaming people because I have experienced countless times how those things turned out graceful.
61:51
God Who Crushes Our Thoughts Without putting hope in the work of the Holy Spirit, there are people who labor to live their own spiritual life the right way on their own. People try to quit drinking and smoking on their own. People try to minister well on their own. People also strive to give good sermons. These are people who try to exalt their own will. No matter who you may be, if you do not put hope in God and do not look to Him, you will only go through pain trying to achieve something by yourself. When you break yourself and become fine flour, and when your thoughts have changed into the thoughts of God, then what you try to fulfill becomes what God fulfills. Even though a person does not try to fulfill something on his own, God does it for him. Abraham had a son at the age of 100. Before that, he did not have faith that God would give him a son. So, he tried to have a son his own way. However, he could only wind up doing things that went against the will of God. That is how it was when he had Ishmael. One day, he realized that he did not need to try and have a son on his own because God made the promise to him. He then knew that God would give him a son through his wife, Sarah. He did not even have to try. According to that faith, Abraham had a son at the age of 100. Not only that, but when God told Abraham to kill his son by giving him up as a burnt offering, he was at peace even then. Because he believed that through his son, many sons would be born like the stars in the sky and grains of sand in the sea, Abraham was able to have joy and freedom in his heart. The most important part of the meat offering in Leviticus chapter 2 is that God wants every grain of wheat to be peeled and completely crushed, so that it will turn into not just flour, but fine flour. There was a brother who said, "When I go to work, they say I'm too into my church. When I go to church, they tell me that I'm not broken down at all. I really have no idea how to live my spiritual life." A sister once told me, "Well, I'm broken down enough." It is that thought that must be broken down. God is breaking us down even today. Before God used Moses, God crumbled Moses down for 40 years in the wilderness of Midian. This is also true before God used Paul. This is what God did with Jacob as well. Before using Joseph, God sent him to prison and completely broke and crushed him. Today, God is completely crushing us with His grace and love through the word. I really hope that you will be broken and crushed into fine flour. I hope you will become people whom God can freely use.
End of chapter
His Offering Shall Be of Fine Flour
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