Skip to content
Home
About Us
Ministries
Activities
Resources
Contact
Ctrl K
EN
ES
Give
Plan Your Visit
Meat Offering
Ch. 2 · Audio in EN
EN
ES
Chapter 2
The Oil on the Fine Flour
65:01
0:00
Meat Offering 2
0:04
The oil on the fine flour
0:08
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 unleavened, 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 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 the 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.
3:23
The Meaning of Oil In Leviticus chapter 2, it often talks about fine flour. Leviticus chapter 2, verse 1 says, "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." Verse 2 says, "And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priest: 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:" Verse 4 reads, "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." Verse 5 says, "And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil." And finally, verse 7 says, "And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in the fryingpan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil." In these verses, there is a word that goes together with fine flour: oil. God clearly said that when you are giving the meat offering, you must pour oil on it. When you look closely at the words about offerings in the Bible, you can see that it clearly says that you cannot eat the fat of the intestines, liver, kidney, and the cauls. It all has to be burned up and given to God. With the peace offering and the sin offering, we see oil mentioned a lot. In the Old Testament, we can frequently find the word "oil." It talks about the anointed one, which refers to a priest being appointed. So biblical scholars became interested in the use of oil, and began to research it.
5:32
God did not use the word "oil" meaninglessly. He used it to teach us something special. Being anointed does not happen to just anyone. When God establishes a priest, a prophet, or a king, God pours oil on that person. The anointed one represents the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Therefore, in the Bible, we are expressed as the anointed ones in that we have received the Holy Spirit through believing in Jesus Christ. In the Bible, the word "oil" is used when it depicts the Holy Spirit.
6:06
As a Heart Different from God Began to Enter When God created heaven and earth, Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden. At that time, Adam and Eve did not feel any distance between God and their hearts.
6:23
Distance in this regard does not refer to a physical distance, but the distance of the heart. In other words, God's thoughts and Adam's thoughts; God's plan and Adam's plan; and God's will and Adam's will were the same in the beginning. When we are separated from our friends for a long time and meet them again, no matter how close we were to them, we feel a little awkward about it. At first, we speak with our friends awkwardly, and we try to remember the old days. "That friend liked me a long time ago and we were so close. We didn't mind anything about each other," you may reminisce. We remember how free we were with one another. We begin to open our hearts to our friends. We become free when dealing with our friends. The conversations take off. But sometimes, two old friends meet for the first time in a long time, and both of their circumstances have changed very much. Before, they were friends who were really tight, feeling completely free with no burdens between one another. Now, however, one friend has become poor and is doing lowly work. The other friend lives a very fancy life, holding a high position in society. Then would the friend who does the lowly work be able to act freely in front of the friend who holds a high position? It is not easy to act as free in front of your friend as you were before. "He was no different than I was a long time ago. But now, there's a big difference between the two of us. This is how I've turned out. I wonder what he thinks of me?" With that, he would be very careful with his friend. "Wow, you have become so successful" That is what he would say, and he would really not know what eise to say. "Hey man, what are you talking about? You and I, we're not different." If the successful friend opens his heart this way, then the other person would think, "Wow, he is treating me like he used to." And then he would open his heart. There was a Korean lady who lived in New York. One time, her husband's friend and his wife stayed with them for one week at their home. If her husband's friend's couple and that Korean lady were one in heart, then it would have been so joyful. But their hearts were so different from each other. A hateful heart started to arise inside of the lady. Just because she feels a certain way, she cannot just say, "I hate you guys, so get out of here." So she said that she went through a miserable time. If you have a heart different from one another, these kinds of things can only happen.
9:31
There is a distance between God's heart and man, too. It means there is a difference between the thoughts of God and our thoughts. Before Adam and Eve ate the fruit of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, there was no difference between the thoughts of God and thoughts of man. When God said, "Do not eat," in their hearts, they also felt, "Well of course, we should not eat." When God says it is okay to eat that, they also had the heart inside of them that it is okay to eat. When God would say certain things, their hearts flowed in the same direction as those words. There was no difference between their hearts and the heart of God. They were not burdened with expressing what was in their hearts. It was absolutely no problem for them to expose all of their thoughts in front of God. However, one day, man ate from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. If you look in Genesis chapter 3, Adam did not only disobey God, but took a step further and challenged God. This was how the serpent tempted Adam and Eve. "If you eat of that fruit, your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God. God knows that. That is why He's not allowing you to eat it." If the words of the serpent were true, then did God eat from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil and become God? If they had thought about it objectively, even a little, they could quickly see how nonsensical of a thought it was. However, man was led by this temptation. "If that is true, then I, too, will eat the fruit and become like God." Upon hearing the serpent's words, and the moment Adam and Eve saw the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, the heart, "We, too, should eat the fruit. We will become like God, and go face to face with Him," arose in them. As soon as they ate the fruit, strange things began to happen to them. They caught a strange disease. Suddenly, their thoughts started to change. They had the eyes to see things they were unable to see before. As they opened their eyes, shame, fear, and sadness came to them. The fact that fear, sadness, and pain came into Adam's life shows that their thoughts were in a different direction than God's thoughts. No matter who you are, if your thoughts are like God's thoughts; if your plans are like God's plans; if your goal is like God's goal, then what reason do you have to be afraid? Even though you may face problems, God will take care of those problems. Then why would you be afraid, or why would you have any fear? What is the reason you must be afraid, be worried, or try to suppress other people? It's because we are trying to gain or accomplish something God does not want. If what you are trying to attain or fulfill is in accord with His will, even though you don't worry about it, God will fulfill it for you. Because you are trying to fulfill a goal that God does not want, you must use humanistic meth-ods. You must worry, be sad, and be in fear. Suppose that we die today. We have lived our whole lives for the Gospel. If God says, "Today, I will take you." Would that be fearful for us, or would we say, "Oh! Is today that day? I have been waiting. God, thank you so much. God, if it is your will for me to be a beggar, then your will must be fulfilled. God, if you want to make me rich, it is going to be a headache for me to count all the money, but I'm going to have to become rich." If it is the will of God, it must be fulfilled.
13:57
When we read the Bible, we can see that the thoughts of man after eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil were not thoughts given to him by God. After committing sin, man was no longer the same as what God had originally created. They were no longer man led by the thoughts God put into them. Man began to have a heart that is not the heart of God. They accepted thoughts that were different from the thoughts of God. Then the plans that differ from God's heart began to work in man's heart. Man was not like this before, but they saw that they were naked and began to feel ashamed. As other thoughts entered them, when they heard the voice of God, they felt fear in their hearts. They felt guilty in their conscience. Strange thoughts they never had before sprouted and grew in their hearts. As those thoughts grew, hatred arose, sadness bubbled up, and a false heart was established in man. In addition, fear, envy, lust, and the heart to commit murder began to arise in people's hearts. There was no one who could stop this. Man departed from God, and they were led in every way the evil power led them. They had to sadly live inside of sinfulness.
15:25
The Human Life that Can Only Sin
15:30
People do not know about these things very well. In Ephesians chapter 2, it tells us very well about this. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:1-2) It means that the spirit that worked upon the sons of disobedience held the power of the air to lead man. "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." (Ephesians 2:3) When we follow the prince of the power of the air, the Bible tells us that we did the things that were desires of the flesh and the mind and by nature, we became the children of wrath in our hearts and our lives. The amazing thing is that, whether we want it or not, every person born in this world is led by a certain force unseen with the naked eye. And we are being led to destruction. People strain so hard and struggle so much to be freed from that power. Many people are tormented because of sin, so they labor in trying not to commit sin. God saw that this was how man was. When I think about it now, I'm very thankful. However, before I was born again, I always thought that there was no one as pitiful as me. It was about two years since I had gotten saved. The problems no one could take care of were eventually solved, and I found myself standing in a completely new place. I was a very diligent churchgoer before receiving salvation. I went to church every Sunday. I went to the early morning services and I did a lot of volunteer work at church. I was very active in the choir, and I was a Sunday school teacher. I took care of the flowerpots in the church garden. At that time, there was one thing I could not do. That was to stop committing sins every day. At first, I committed lots of sins like lying. Because I was more pathetic than others, I began to lie, little by little, trying to exalt myself. If you blend in a little bit of lies and speak, it became easier for me to say something, and it became easier for other people to understand so it was kind of fun. As time passed, lying, more and more, began to become a problem. I made up my mind to lie less, and lie no more. However, that did not happen. I thought I would only lie if I wanted to, and would not lie if I did not want to. However, even though I was trying not to lie, when I opened my mouth and spoke, without me even knowing it, lies were blended in my statements and came out. In addition to lying, I had fallen deeply into sin, and I was so shocked to see that of me. One day, with a very worried heart, I decided, "Now, Id better stop committing sins. If I commit another sin, then I am no longer human. From today, I will sin no more." I made up my mind. You buy an item if you want to, and do not buy it, if you do not want to. In that way, I thought I sinned if I wanted to, and did not sin if I did not want to. As I saw that it was not happening the way I thought, I was shocked. On the other hand, I rather fell even deeper into sin. "I want to stop sinning. I want to live, being sincere and good." I had that heart, but regardless of that heart, I found myself continuing to commit sins. It really broke my heart, and I was so tormented.
20:03
One Saturday evening, after choir practice, I was no longer able to bear the suffering in my heart, so I went to go meet the pastor. "Pastor, you think of me as a sincere young man, but what you see, and how I actually am are very different." That day, I confessed everything about myself to the pastor. That is how I was taught to repent, and I thought that if I did that, my sins would be resolved. I thought that my sins were never resolved to that point because I had not confessed my sin to the pastor. I was ready to accept my shame and embarrassment, and I told him all the wrong things I had done. I told him about how I used to go to school in Seoul, got drunk, and got into fights. I also confessed how I would lie, steal, and how I took money from kids. I told him all of the sins I had committed.
21:09
That day, I heard something graceful from that pastor. More than 30 years have passed since then, but even now, I cannot forget it. "Mr. Park, I send two of my daughters to the school in the city. I do not know how they live. When you are young, you can do such things. The more that is the case, the more you need to keep your faith. Go on, and pray harder. You must serve more. Once you get over this hump, you can become more successful." The pastor told me that he was the same, and he was so sincere when he spoke to me. I received a lot of grace from his words. "Wow! He is really an amazing man. I'm sure he, too, would feel embarrassed. He even told me his difficulties to care for me." However, the sin in my heart was still not taken care of. My sin still remained in my heart, and caused me pain.
22:14
Betrayal and Rage
22:17
Let's change directions a little, and think about this from God's perspective. Everyone, have you ever been betrayed by someone? You loved someone with all your heart, but you were so lowly betrayed. Have you ever experienced that? Have you ever told your loving friend all of your personal secrets, and your friend connivingly used that to betray you? Have you ever felt that? Or you have no children of your own, so you raised someone else's child with all your heart, like it was your own child, have you ever had that child betray you? Have you ever experienced that? A long time ago, this is something I heard at a leper colony. Among the many things that cause pain for lepers, there is something that causes the greatest pain. The pain they suffer from this is greater than the pain they suffer from leprosy. When I first went to leper colonies to preach the Gospel, I never heard such stories. As I became close to them, I was able to listen to the painful stories that were inside of their hearts. I cried a lot in my heart as I heard their stories. Lepers take medication because of their disease. Many times, because the medication is so strong, they are unable to have children. You may think, "Well, just live as a leper and die. Why would you want kids?" However, the more of a leper they are, the more attachment they have towards children. They have this big hope of wanting to raise their children well. They ask their younger siblings, or relatives in the city to adopt children from orphanages or hospitals and raise them. I feel so bad in my heart to see these lepers, who do not even have fingers, using a hoe for farming. For them, it is a huge joy that they can do that work to make money to raise their adopted child. With all their hearts, they educate their children. When these children are in elementary or middle school, they do not know that they are adopted. But in this world, you cannot keep a secret forever. When it becomes time for them to go to high school or college, they come to realize that their mother and father were not their real par- ents. The leper colonies I visited were mostly located in the Gyeongbuk Province. There are no universities there, so these kids go to college, either in Seoul, Daegu, or Busan. After they go to college, during vacation, they come home saying, "Mother! Father!" They stay at home just like they had before. The problems start to occur as they go to their colleges and begin to have girlfriends and boyfriends. If they like someone, they cannot tell their girlfriend, "My parents are lepers, and they live in a leper colony." If they were their real parents, they might be able to tell them. But since they are not their real parents, it is even more impossible to tell them. When the two of them love each other deeply, and they are thinking of getting married, the man becomes very conflicted. The woman asks him, "Where is your home?" He would reply, "Do you have to know that? We can just live anywhere we want." When they begin to talk about home or family, they just brush it by. Out of the children the lepers raise, 99 out of 100 of them, do not say that they grew up in a leper colony. When they go to college and get a girlfriend, even during vacation, they do not go home. From then on, the parents at the leper colony become very anxious. They poured all their hearts into raising their child, and they feel that much betrayed. They do not live with bitterness in regards to their sickness. From then on, during the middle of the night, they begin to scream out and cry. These people do not have fingers, and they had to use the hoe and tools without fingers. With those hands, they break windows, break their refrigerators, and they would scream out, "This cursed life of mine! What is the point of living? Let me just die." I heard that these kinds of things happen very often in a leper colony. The lepers teach their children to not say hello or call them father if they ran into them on a bus or something. When their children move to the city to study, the parents do not even visit the place their children stay in. They fear that if people find out that they are the children of lepers, their children might lose confidence or get looked down upon. As I visited the leper colonies, I sat down the saved leper pastors and elders. I told them what they were doing was wrong. "That is how you raised them. That is why later on, they turn out that way. Whether they liked it or not, you raised them so greatly. If you have done that much, you should be proud parents." I saw that from then on, they changed their thinking, and they changed their attitudes. In this way, the lepers raised their children with all of their hearts. When their children betrayed them, a raging heart of hatred, grief, and bitterness settles deeply inside of them. If we are betrayed by our friends, someone we love, or our own children, then how hurt would our hearts be. When a pastor also goes through something like this, through the church members, this also causes great pain in the pastors' hearts.
28:32
The Bible tells us that God loved man, and created all things for man. However, man was deceived by Satan, and accepted a heart God did not give them. And with that, they went against God. If that were the case, then even if God were to put all people in hell, man should not be able to say anything. People who do not know anything would say, "Why did God even make the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and made man to commit sin? Isn't that too much? Our ancestors died without even knowing Jesus. Isn't this unfair?" People who think of themselves to be someone great would say that. But do not say that to me. When you die, go ahead and say that to God. As God saw man being led by Satan, and living a life stained with sin, it really broke God's heart. Man did not know this, and said that he is so great. Man thinks that if he tries not to sin, he would not sin. And if they tried to be good, they could become good. All of these people like what their flesh and their mind wants, and they follow the prince of the power of the air. They are following the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience. In this way, no matter how much man tries to not commit sin, man can only commit sin. And even though they try to honor God, they are unable to do so. They are children of wrath. This is what the Bible is trying to teach us.
30:20
The Heart of God That Gave Us the Law
30:26
From time to time, I see young children lying. The funny thing is, I can feel that someone is controlling these children. When I see these kids speaking from thoughts that could not have come from their level, I feel, "This did not come from the child's heart. But someone else, at that child's older brother's level must have told him to do this." I could feel that. When God created man, God did not put into man the heart to hate or commit murder. Why would God put a lustful heart that He hates into man? Why would God put a disobedient heart, and the stubbornness to do whatever he wanted into man? There is no reason for God to do such a thing. The heart to fear is not a heart that came from God. Hatred and lust are not hearts that came from God. When led by the spirit of God, we can never be caught by those kinds of hearts. On the other hand, when Satan, who disobeys, works inside of our hearts, the heart to go against God, and the heart to do things according to your own stubbornness arises inside of your hearts. However, people do not know why they are lying, why they are not obeying the word of God, why they are going against God's will, why they have a lustful heart, why they have a deceitful heart, or why they have a heart of fear. That is why God gave man the law. You are not committing sin because you want to sin. Even though you try hard not to sin, it will not work because evil Satan is leading you. God gave the law to man to teach us this fact. And because many people do not know why they commit sins, why they have a hateful or lustful heart, why they lie, why they are afraid, and why they refuse God, they think, "If I only fix this, I'll be fine." And according to that heart, they pray, they tithe, they read the Bible, and they attend church services. Most people underestimate Satan, who works inside of us. God gave man the law, with the heart, "Go ahead and try to keep the law that I give you." Man received that law. Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not give false witness. Thou shalt not covet. Honor thy parents. These are commandments that appear to be so good. They thought, "We should not commit murder. We should not commit adultery. We should honor our parents." People agreed that they would keep the law. When God gave people the law, there was no one who said, "This kind of law is bad. We should not keep it." Everyone said, "This law is good, so of course, we should keep the law." But when they actually tried to keep the law, no one was able to keep it. Through a certain power that is strongly leading man, we have no idea how weak and evil people have become. Unfortunately, every person living in this world is bound by the strong temptations of Satan. They cannot live according to what the law says. So even though they do not want to commit sin, they end up committing sin. And even though they do not want to lie, they lie. They are in this pathetic position, where even though they do not want to commit adultery, they must give in to lustful sins. God gave the law to people because people do not know why they commit murder, adultery, theft, and hate others. People do not know much about Satan who is guiding them. They think that if they just try to become good, they will not commit sin. In this way, man lives being led by Satan, but are not aware of it at all. God gave them the law so they could realize they are people who have no choice but to commit sins. According to the studies of biblical scholars, the law came to earth in 1491 B.C. For the next 1500 years until Jesus came to earth, many people lived and passed away. And there has never been one person who has kept the law perfectly. In this way, it is so pointless to tell man, who can only be bound by Satan and commit sins, not to steal. To also tell people not to commit adultery and not to lie has no meaning. A man does not commit sins because he does not have the law. Even though people have the law, we can only fall into sin. It means that the law is completely meaningless to man. I do not tell the brothers and sisters of my church, "Do not drink. Do not smoke. Do not lie. Do not steal. Do not commit adultery." I have been to prisons and preached the Gospel to many inmates, and not once have I told them, "Why did you steal? Why are you here? Why did you kill someone? Do not do that from now on." I have never said this to them because those kinds of words mean nothing. These inmates were led by Satan to steal and commit murder, and that is why they did it. So it would mean nothing at all for me to tell them not to do anything like that from now on.
36:30
The Law and the New Covenant
36:35
God gave an amazing promise to man, who is such a pitiful and pathetic creature. Open your Bibles to Jeremiah 31:31: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." Now, read verse 32. "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord."
37:13
In verse 31, God said He would establish a new covenant. A new covenant means there was a covenant before it. The covenant that was established previously, as mentioned in verse 32, is the law that God established when He led the people of Israel out from Egypt. Do not steal. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not lie. Do not covet. With that covenant, you will be blessed only if you keep all the laws.
37:44
Even though the people of Israel promised they would keep them, they were unable to keep them. Therefore, the covenant became meaningless. Here, God promised that He would establish a new covenant. Let's read about this new covenant. "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Jeremiah 31: 33)
38:19
Because Satan Is Leading People's Hearts
38:22
Recently, there was a big controversy when newspapers decided not to run stories on violent incidents because criminals would read articles about violent crimes, get new ideas, and go commit the same crimes. For example, this happened in the United States. In Los Angeles, a person was driving a car on a freeway, when another car passed that car. This happens often on freeways, but this person was upset that he was passed, so he chased the car that passed him. He shot the driver and killed him. This person committed murder just because the other guy passed him on the road. The newspapers reported this. Afterwards, in New York, Chicago, and all over America, similar crimes began to happen. When Satan works in people's hearts, even if they read articles about crimes, they do not think about the results, and they lose their hearts in the sin, and end up committing the crime. In Korea, there were stories about robbers who posed as taxi customers. When this was printed in the newspapers, copycat robberies increased. Ultimately, reporting these crimes did not convince people's hearts, "Oh, I should not do that." But it rather pushed people's hearts to want to commit these types of crimes even more. The power of Satan working inside of people is greater than their heart to be good. And instead of having people reflect on themselves, the articles stirred up the desire to commit the same kinds of crimes. Even if you are driving on a freeway, and a car behind you passes you, do not shoot him with a gun. But no matter how much you tell people this, when people have the urge to shoot people, they end up doing it even if they get caught later on. I was in New York once when it was a state of emergency since two men killed a police officer with a gun. When police officers see a car that violates a law, we see them put their hands on their guns, and very nervously ask for their driver's license. From time to time, we can see that the world has become very scary. Do you know who made the world like this? It is Satan. Because Satan has captured and led people's hearts, people cannot help but to sin since they are held by that power. Unless you are freed from the power of Satan, you will never be able to serve God from your heart. God wants to give you a new heart. God gave man the law, but man has already broken that law. Therefore, it has become pointless. In response, God promised us a new law. This new law is completely different from the first law. After Adam and Eve committed sin, Satan entered the hearts of people and they, too, fell into sin. In the same way, God now wants to give people a new heart. The new law that God promised to give us is putting the spirit and heart of God inside of us. It is a law to renew us. This law will allow people to be led by the spirit of God instead of having the heart of man continually be led by Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air. If the Holy Spirit oversees our hearts, from then on, our thoughts become one with the thoughts of God. "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:33-34) When saved saints give testimonies, though they read the Bible, they had no idea what it meant before they were saved. I heard from them that after being saved, they were able to realize what the word was saying, and the word was entering their hearts when they read the Bible. It is because after they were saved, the Holy Spirit entered their hearts. If the spirit to make money enters your heart, you would think, "If I buy that and sell it in Japan, I'll make this much profit." You will only see the things to make money. There is a person I know from China. He used to live in China, but moved to Korea. He draws pictures. The subjects of his picture are usually waterfalls and clouds. In order to draw his pictures, he always closes his eyes and thinks about large mountains and waterfalls that come down from the big mountains and the high valleys. He always thinks about the cloudy skies, and their clouds. In order to draw good pictures, he personally travels to beautiful mountains and waterfalls. He saw many waterfalls in Korea, but they did not satisfy his heart. He thought about the grand waterfalls he saw in China. Later on, he became so sick from missing them. While thinking about waterfalls and clouds to draw his pictures, it made him homesick and it drove him crazy. He would drink strong Chinese liquor and cry through his days. One day, I met him. He understood the Korean language well, but did not understand the words used in sermons very well. He attended our church service, and listened to the sermon I was giving. Later on, when I asked him, "Do you understand what I'm saying?" He replied, "I could understand maybe 3 out of 10." One day, after prayed for him, I picked up my Bible and went to see him in order to preach the Gospel. He opened his Chinese Bible, and I opened my Korean Bible, and I spoke to him. He was unable to understand what I was saying very well. At first, he thought getting saved was a ritual. He said to me, "I'm going to go change my clothes, so let me receive salvation." So in order to preach the Gospel to him, I opened to Romans chapter 8, and I read verses 1 and 2 to him. He read those verses in the Chinese language. I explained the meaning of those words to him, one by one. Right after he would read the Chinese Bible, I would explain it to him in Korean. After some time, he said, "Pastor, Jesus says there is no sin in us."I did not speak to him that long, but he amazingly realized the Gospel and received salvation. Later on, he had a personal art exhibition. He drew a large picture that covered eight folding screens. The day of the exhibition was near, but he was so tired that he could not finish the drawing. Right then, he thought, "Jesus in my heart," and he prayed to Jesus. Amazingly, he was strengthened in his heart, and he was no longer tired until he finished drawing all the folding screens. A new heart had now worked in his heart. We call that heart the Holy Spirit. Before man committed sin, man obeyed the word of God. After Adam and Eve sinned and Satan entered their hearts, a heart they never had before began to arise: hateful hearts. deceitful hearts, lustful hearts, and vicious hearts. And man became very confused. At first, man hated sin, but then me began to hang out with sin, more and more, and got closer to it. Later on, sinful things became more interesting and fun rather than normal things. When you live together with sin, your heart settles in sin. That is why it feels normal to live with sin, and it becomes so natural to live hating people and being jealous, people do not feel awkward about it. God said that we cannot serve Him with this kind of heart. Even though you tithe well, do lots of volunteer service at the church, go to church on Sundays, or read the Bible, it is meaningless. God wanted to give man a new heart. God wanted to plant a new heart inside of us, not the sinful heart that drags us around. God wants to put His heart inside of us. He wants to be our God and He wants us to become His people.
47:53
The Oil Must Be Poured
47:57
In Leviticus chapter 2, it says, "pour the oil upon the fine flour." That oil represents the Holy Spirit. Even though it is grinded to fine flour, unless oil is added to it, it cannot become an offering. After our hearts are completely crushed down, we are not supposed to repair the dirty hearts that Satan used to work in, but a brand new heart must enter us.
48:25
In our hearts that are like the ground flour, the oil, Holy Spirit, is poured unto us. Then through the Holy Spirit that is inside of our hearts, praises and thankfulness that comes from the Holy Spirit are poured into our hearts. The testimonies and prayers that are from the Holy Spirit, God accepts joyfully.
48:47
Jesus came to earth, was crucified on the cross, and He resurrected after three days. Jesus resurrected, and He ascended. As He ascended, what did He say to His disciples? In Acts chapter 1, verses 4 and 5, it says, "And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Jesus called the twelve disciples He taught for three years. The twelve disciples followed Jesus around, but their thoughts were so different from Jesus thoughts. They did not understand Jesus at all. I do not understand how they were able to follow Jesus around. Their thoughts were really different from the thoughts of Jesus. Let me just make one example. When Jesus was in the world, He told His disciples that He would be crucified, and resurrect after three days. The disciples, however, hated listening to those words. They were interested in Jesus restoring the country of Israel. They really hated when Jesus said, "I will be crucified on the cross, and I will resurrect three days after I will be buried." They hated hearing that. However, Jesus said that He was going to be crucified and resurrect after three days throughout many places in the Bible. The disciples heard those words often. Ultimately, Jesus was actually crucified on the cross and died. And He even resurrected in three days. As I read the Bible, I used to think, "Why did Jesus pick such foolish people to be His disciples?" When Jesus was crucified on the cross, should not the disciples have at least been able to think, "Wow, Jesus always talked about this, but now He really is dying. Then if that is the case, He said He would come back to life." However, instead of thinking about how Jesus would come back to life, and even though Jesus did come back to life, the disciples did not believe it. Even though other disciples claimed to have seen Jesus, Thomas said, "Unless I touch the nail marks in His hands, with my own hands, I will never believe." These are the kinds of people Jesus took to be His disciples. One thing we must know is that Jesus placed no hope in Peter. Of course, Jesus put no hope in Judas Iscariot, but He also had no hope in James, John, or any of the disciples. When the Holy Spirit came into their hearts, He instilled the hope that the Holy Spirit would change them. Because Jesus had hope that the Holy Spirit would lead them, it was not a problem to Jesus at all when Peter denied him. Even when they were talking amongst themselves, "Do we have any bread or not?" it was not a problem at all. When Satan led Adam and Eve, who were close to God, they changed in the same way. We used to go against God and commit sins but when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we change. That is why before Jesus ascended into heaven, He told His disciples one last time, "Do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for what the Father has promised." They all denied Jesus. Peter denied Jesus, and went back to Galilee to fish again. But Jesus surely knew that if the Holy Spirit came into Peter's heart, then Peter would change. Jesus did not put hope in Peter. He put hope in the Holy Spirit of God.
52:48
Not of Man
52:52
After Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples gathered in Mark's upper room and prayed. Many people today do not know the Bible, and they say, "The amazing works of the day of Pentecost happened through prayer. Let us also pray with all our might, so that we will receive the Holy Spirit? These are words from someone who really knows nothing about the Bible. The coming of the Holy Spirit, which happened on the Day of Pentecost, did not happen because the disciples prayed for it. It was something that happened because God promised it to them. And because God promised to give this day to them, even if the disciples had not prayed for it, He would still have given them the Holy Spirit. The disciples did not wait only relying on the promise of God. They decided to pray while they waited for the Holy Spirit, which was God's promise. However, many people try to argue that the Holy Spirit came because they prayed. I searched the book of Acts to see how hard the disciples prayed. While praying, Peter stood up and said, "Let's establish an apostle who will replace Judas Iscariot." And they decided to cast lots. Did Jesus tell them to cast lots to establish a new apostle? God prepared Paul to be the one to replace Judas among the twelve apostles. However, the disciples cast lots according to their own will, and established Matthias as an apostle without the Holy Spirit. Because of this incident, even though Apostle Paul was an apostle, he was not treated as one. The apostle that God chose was Paul. But even though God chose Paul as the next apostle, Matthias was included within the twelve disciples because of men casting lots. Therefore, people did not recognize Paul as an apostle. They recognized Matthias instead. Whenever Paul wrote an epistle, he always opened with an introduction saying he became an apostle through the will of God. "Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)" (Galatians 1:1) Why did Apostle Paul write something like this in every epistle? Paul became an apostle through God. Certain people became apostles through humanistic ways and not through God. The disciples prayed on their own accord. They believed they were following the will of God, so they cast lots. However, the Holy Spirit was not with them. All of this was the decision of man. This is true today, too. There are people who have been ordained pastors through man, and there are people who have been ordained pastors through God. In this world, the people who became pastors through man are respected. You have to graduate from a theology school and pass the pastors' exam in order to become a pastor. Because they are pastors who became pastors through man, there are lots of problems, division, and hurt within their congregations. If there are pastors established by men, it also means there are pastors who are established by God. No matter how good or fine the flour is, it would all blow away without the oil. Even though the heart is completely crushed down and humbled, without the Holy Spirit, it will not suffice.
56:31
Prayers and Spiritual Life Not of the Heart
56:36
The Holy Spirit is a gift that is given to us because God promised it. God gave the Holy Spirit to Peter, Andrew, James. and all of the disciples. Now, they have a whole new life, completely different from the life that they had before. Outwardly, it seems as if they do not have any circumstances met or proper systems set up, but their gathering was achieved through the Holy Spirit. It was a church established through the Holy Spirit of God. People sometimes ask me, "Pastor, how come you do not recite the Lord's Prayer during service time at your church? Why do you not recite the Apostle's Creed?" Some people even go as far as to say, "I see that this church does not recite the Lord's Prayer or the Apostle's Creed, therefore, it must be a cult and a heretic." However, at their churches they diligently recite both. Yet there are so many people who do so and still say, "I don't even know if there is a God or not." Where did the Apostle's Creed or the Lord's Prayer come from? These are things from the old Catholic Church. Of course, the Lord's Prayer is in the Bible, but Jesus said, "In this manner ye shall pray." He did not say that we should recite this every time we have service. In Matthew chapter 6, when Jesus was teaching us how to pray, He knew that if He taught people exactly how to pray, people would just repeat the prayer. Therefore, Jesus told them not to do vain repetitions. Vain repetition means "meaninglessly repeating." Just reciting the Lord's Prayer in church at the end of services is vain repetition. That is not true prayer. That is not the prayer that God wants. These days, when we have retreats, we take care of the registration on computers, but before we used to do it all manually, by hand. About a thousand people come to the retreats, and we have to make name cards for every single person. Before, when we had to make name cards for one thousand people who came to the retreat, many people had to come and work late into the night. However, nowadays, we input the information of all the people who want to attend the retreat into the computer. When you give the computer the command to print, the name cards are immediately made. If you input, "Praise the Lord, and God is amazing," into the computer and then give the command, then the computer will endlessly repeat, "Praise the Lord, and God is amazing," on the speakers connected to the computer. Is this something God would be pleased with? It is a prayer done without heart. It is the same as the computer repeatedly playing, "Praise God, praise God." What God hates the most is prayer and offerings made without the heart. Especially in the Apostle's Creed, there is a part that says, "I believe in the holy Catholic Church." It means that people are claiming to believe in the Catholic Church. People do not even know this, and they simply recite the Apostle's Creed. How is it different from vain repetition? We should follow the word of God. We should receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I read all of the Old and New Testament, but I have never once read where it says the disciples ended a service with the Lord's Prayer. They were disciples, who learned directly from Jesus, but nowhere does it say in the Bible that Peter or Paul ended services reciting the Lord's Prayer. Also, nowhere in the Bible did they recite the Apostle's Creed. To recite a prayer like a spell, these are things that people came up with later on. However, if these things are not rising from the heart in front of God, none of it has any meaning whatsoever.
60:56
The Life of Receiving the Guidance of the Holy Spirit
61:03
The meat offering that God accepts is fine flour with oil poured on it. When I first met Pastor Wook Yong Kim, he was a young man full of dreams. He wanted to go to America to study theology to become a famous Theologian. And then he wanted to come to Korean theology schools to be a professor who would educate and reignite pastors. One day, he came to see me. At that time, he was not saved. That young man asked me, "Pastor, I want to go to America to study Theology. What do you think I should do?" He was so full of dreams, and if I told him not to go, I did not think he would listen to me. So, I just gave him a simple answer. I told him, "If it is the will of God, it will come true. So you must first find out whether that is truly the will of God." And after meeting with me several times, the young man received salvation. Afterwards, I never once told him not to go to theology school in America. Even though he had gone through a lot of hardship and persecution from many people, even through all of that, I saw him walking a path that he would never have thought of walking before. That was not his will or plan. The Holy Spirit guided him. This is also true with Pastor Oh Sun Kwon and his wife, who are missionaries in Germany. I was once talking with Pastor Kwon and his wife, and they said, "Although we are not loyal servants in front of God, we were so thankful to preach the Gospel to people who did not know the Gospel." Through that, I could see that God gave him the heart of a missionary. Entering missionary school, living for the Gospel, becoming pastors, buying a house, and studying must all be guided by the Holy Spirit. All the works that are done by the guidance of the Holy Spirit become a great offering before God. If you go to a university being guided by the Holy Spirit and not by the desire to get a degree, that is an offering unto God. Even if you do not go to college, if it is the guidance of God, then that is also an offering. Even though you get married, or even if you do not get married, if either is done by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, these are all offerings acceptable to God. Let us all throw away our own fixed perceptions in front of God, and wherever God leads us, the life of being led by the Holy Spirit is the precious life of the oil being added to fine flour to become a precious loaf. That is the meat offering God joyfully accepts. Just as before we were saved, we were led by Satan, now we are led by the spirit of God. Now in our lives, just as the oil is poured onto the fine flour, the Holy Spirit must lead us. If there is anyone who has not received the forgiveness of sins, that person cannot receive the Holy Spirit into his heart. That person cannot receive its guidance either. No matter how much he proclaims the abundance of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit cannot work in that heart. Such people must receive the true forgiveness of sins to receive the Holy Spirit in their hearts. I hope their lives become precious meat offerings where fine flour is mixed with oil.
End of chapter
The Oil on the Fine Flour
Ch. 2 / 3
0:00
−65:01
15
30
Speed
1×
Ch. 2
/ 3
0.75×
1×
1.25×
1.5×
Stay Connected
The week, in your inbox.
Sermon recaps, prayer needs, and events — every week.
Email address
Subscribe
