Sermon(Num 16:1-36): The self-pity of the wicked

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025286720

 

 

 

Scripture reading; Num 16:1-36

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>> 1 Now Korah the son of Izbar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and on the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, 2 took men; and they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men; 3 and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, "You have gone too far! For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?" .... 31 And as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split asunder; 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men that belonged to Korah and all their goods. 33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. ... 35 And fire came forth from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering the incense. <<

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You sometimes happen to meet a very strange thing in your life. I sometimes write some opinions, preach, and argue with non-Christians on the internet. There was a debate room on a portal site called the Religious Room, and there was a strange human writing there. He says of himself that he is a Christian, a jundosa (an evangelist) at a church in Busan, and is in charge of education of children in the church. But this damned guy publicly posted a confession that he was in a homosexual relationship with a Japanese man. This cursed man says he is a homosexual, while writing many articles about Christianity.

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It may be one of two cases. one: >This cursed man was a gay from the beginning. He happened to attend church. But the church didn't tolerate the dirty deed. So he left the church and became an anti-Christian. He impersonated a jundosa in the internet to injure the honor of Christianity, saying that he was a gay.< The Other: >As the cursed man says, he is actually a jundosa of a church and a gay who does homosex with a Japanese.< In what mentality is this disgusting human being in the latter case? The reason why this crazy man stepped into the church was that some insane theologians were imbued with a very shallow thought of love and forgiveness that the church should tolerate homosexuality. I guess this gay is doing the dirty homosex while taking on the important position of the church on the basis of such false thought. Obviously, this homo psycho must have known from the Bible that this nasty mental illness (homosex) is a flagrant sin. Nevertheless, maybe this homo psycho goes to church, comforting himself by believing that Jesus loves sinners like him and will forgive him!' So this wicked psycho writes under the pen name of 'Jesus'. A homo psycho is posting articles with the pseudonym of 'Jesus' - what a terrible crime! I asked him to stop such a wicked crime and to change the pseudonym 'Jesus', but he wouldn't listen to me. (Sons of Devil dislike obeying a servant of God.) Perhaps this psychopath sticks to the pseudonym 'Jesus' because he wants Jesus to look at his broken heart, to have mercy on him and to wink at his sins. Surely this gay may have prayed to God. “My God, is my act (homosex) really a sin? Jesus, if my deed is sinful in your sight, please tell me once.” When there was no answer from Jesus, he perhaps thought that Jesus understood his sad situation and accepted him, and said, "Jesus, thank you! You're indeed love. Hallelujah!"

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As I have said repeatedly, Christianity can never accept homosexuality with 'love and indulgence'. I've given here the biblical grounds for this in the two articles 'a story of two women' and 'the staff of Moses'. I think this homosexual man fell into self-pity and mistook the resentful silence of God for the love and tolerance of God. A thief prays, "Oh Jesus, I'll starve to death if I don't steal. So forgive me with your great love and generosity!" And he in tears steals. Sometimes a woman who is not yet married says, "Oh, Jesus, I'll starve to death if I don't sell myself. So forgive me with your great love and generosity!" And she sheds tears and sells herself. A merchant overcharges the customer, praying in heart with tears, 'Lord, you know my circumstances.' At times, a married woman loves another married man deeply and commits adultery after praying with tears, “My God, you know my aching heart. I'll die if I don't see him. I do not know my mind well (I don't know how to control my mind.). My faith can’t restrain this love. Pardon me!” Brethren, if you can't hear God's voice when you commit sins, it is not the forbearance of God's love toward your deeds. It is the silence of wrath. No, it's more than the silence of wrath. God has already gone to a place a thousand miles away from the sinful man, therefore there is no word from him at the scene of the crime, so that he misunderstands, thinking, 'God knows my circumstances and accepts me.' Had David heard God's voice that forbade David's deeds when he raped Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, he might have quitted raping. But when David made up his mind to rape a wife of his faithful subordinate, he already betrayed God, and God departed from him to a place a thousand miles away. So David mistook the resentful silence of God for the love and allowance of God, and sinned. Later, God notified David of only the punishment through Nathan the prophet.

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Today's text of the Bible describes the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and 250 men. The main character of this rebellion is Korah, a descendant of Levi. Of the sons of Levi, Moses was a leader like a king; Aaron and his sons were priests; and the rest of them like Korah assisted the priests in God's work. There was a somewhat plausible reason for Korah to rebel against Moses and Aaron. >And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab; and they said, "We will not come up, Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also make yourself a prince over us? Moreover you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up." (v. 12-14)< Moses asked Korah, the leader of the rebellion, to come over in order to have a talk to resolve the misunderstanding. But Korah refused to. Korah thought, ‘This man Moses is right as far as he has brought us out of Egypt as a servant of God. But isn't it his original promise to free us from slavery and to give us a land where we can live and farm in peace? What are we doing in this wilderness? Obviously this is not God's will (plan). The present will of God may be either to go back and live in Egypt or to enter the land of Canaan right now (, not to tarry here endlessly). Now Moses is trying to keep us in the wilderness, saying, "It's God's will," and us suffering, but as a matter of fact, he has no leadership and confidence, and doesn't know God's true will. So he is disobeying God. Though unqualified, even we have to intervene in this situation to lead the people of Israel to a path of life.’

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After thinking so, the men of Korah begin to sink into self-pity. They prayed to God. "Our God, you know our present situation. We know well that you have made Moses our leader before. But look at our situation now. We can not follow Moses. Our God, you consent that we should reject Moses' leadership, don't you? Tell us if you think otherwise. In fact, is not democracy more suitable for God's people than dictatorship? And we believe it is God's will that Israel be governed not by the dictator Moses but by the will of the multitude, because God is just." At the silly words like these, God entered into the silence of wrath. As the silence of God continues, the group of Korah's men sank into self-pity and self-assurance. ‘It is as we expected! God is on our side. He doesn't say anything. (He has no objection to our plan.) He would have objected to our wish if our way had been wrong or been not permitted, because he loves us. But he didn't object. So we're right.’ As God had given David notice of punishment after the silence of wrath, so he kept resentful silence until he executed a severe punishment upon them in the end. “And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men that belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. (v. 32, 33)” “And fire came forth from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering the incense. (v. 35)” What on earth is this? God suddenly wiped out all the men of Korah who came to worship God, saying, "We love God." You homosexuals who sneaked into church and then, hiding their real identity, kept doing homosex, who came to like the truth of Christianity, who now want to believe in Jesus in order to be saved. You must realize as soon as possible that your one-sided love for God is the most worthless in the world. You who, committing adultery and embezzlement, are working hard for God must quickly know how useless your love for God is. Your illusions go on ripening, and suddenly the everlasting destruction will befall you. Can you take a harlot to wife just because she respects and loves you? Will Jesus accept the love of a dirty homosexual who unilaterally confesses that he loves Jesus? Will he give the eternal life to the wicked homosexual? Far from it! Jesus said, "He that keepeth my commandments loveth me."

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Brethren, don't commit the sins recorded in the Bible while pitying yourselves. Do not sin in tears under the pretext of difficult circumstances. If you are determined to sin for one reason or another, then God will leave you, and you will fall into your own pit and be thrown into hell. The pit is a pit of self-justification and a pit of foolish self-logic. Then you will see the Bible in the cursed light of the Devil. The cursed light will weaken the seriousness of sin and make you overlook God's wrath. It is a black light. That light covers up the truth of the Bible. (He who does not want to love God and his words will be led by that black light. “Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations (or the god of homosexuality today); lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the word of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.' This would lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. The Lord would not pardon him, but rather the anger of the lord and his jealousy would smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book would settle upon him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. (Deut 29:18-20)” “Yet in spite of all these things you say, 'I am innocent; surely his anger has turned form me.' Behold, I will bring you to judgement for saying, 'I have not sinned.' (Jer 2:34-35)”)

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The great men in the Bible and very famous men of this age occasionally committed grave sins because they were overwhelmed by self-pity and their reason of faith was paralyzed for a while. If you don't recover your senses and get out of that situation immediately, you'll fall into hell alive. If you do not get out of such a situation now, you will, living as a son of Devil and hell, unilaterally think that you're loving God and being loved by God, and abominably say to others, "I'm a Christian." A servant of Devil in such a black self-pity will continue to do homosex and nevertheless utter wicked words to people that he was pardoned by God and is being loved by God now. And this wicked man never feels shame about himself, rather thinks himself to be righteous. He goes around shouting as if he were a human rights activist in the church. A pastor, who lived in great poverty when young, gives himself up to the black self-pity and embezzles church money. When a loner suffers the black self-pity, he sometimes commits adultery. And yet he believes in God's forgiveness and love for him. A lonely man yields to the black self-pity and lives in addiction to pornography, nevertheless he thinks that his life is approved by God. Brethren, get out of that cursed black self-pity right away! If you do not escape from it and turn away from dirty sins quickly, a fiery punishment will suddenly come upon you after a long silence of God's wrath.

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My brethren, I emphasize once again: do not arbitrarily interpret the Bible! Our loving Jesus said, "Till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. (Mt 5:18)" How many Christians nowadays are subject to such shallow thought of love and forgiveness that they tolerate even such sins as the Bible strictly forbids! Why do men forgive sins that the Bible does not declare forgiven and that God does not forgive now? Are the sins forgiven if you forgive them? Mock forgiveness causes many people to go to hell. Didn't Devil seduce Eve into sin, saying to her that in fact the sin she had known was not sin? All the people who deny the validity of the sins in the Bible are the servants of Devil. You shouldn't be deceived by these people's lies. You are a fool if deceived. You professed Christians who continue to commit sins in black self-pity and self-justification, never take a word away from the Bible nor add a word to the Bible, but just accept all as the truth. And when many people say you are a sinner, wake up and get out of the filthy sins immediately. The followers of Korah refused to change their mind when Moses tried to persuade them with gentle words, and they suffered the irreversible destruction. You are stupid if you believe you have no sins when many call you a sinner (based on the Bible). You foolish men who keep committing sins in the Bible and just hope in the impossible mercy of God only, keep this in mind: God's silence is the silence of his wrath, and this silence will bring you a merciless destruction without notice.  Maybe this sermon would be the ultimatum of God to you. God and sin can not be one.

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May you love the Bible and accept all its words as truth without reservation. May God's word of truth shine in your future way. May God make your heart and mind healthy so that you can live a beautiful life.

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Chong Tack Kim

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                                  - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -