Sermon(Ps 48): The stronghold of God

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025287085

 

 

 Scripture reading: Ps 48

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>> 1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, 2 beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. 3 Within her citadels God has shown himself a sure defense. 4 For lo, the kings assembled, they came on together. 5 As soon as they saw it, they were astounded, they were in panic, they took to flight; 6 trembling took hold of them there, anguish as of a woman in travail. 7 By the east wind thou didst shatter the ships of Tarshish. 8 As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God establishes for ever. 9 We have thought on thy steadfast love, O God, in the midst of thy temple. ... 11 Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of thy judgments! .... 14 This is God, our God for ever and ever. He will be our guide for ever. <<

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In the news, there was a pastor of a famous church in the United States, who had a sexual relationship with his younger brother's wife and had a son. But this man deceived the people and called the child his nephew. The child grew up, thinking that the pastor was his uncle. This pastor appointed the man who was called his nephew to the associate pastor of his church. But the world is not so easy. At last, it came to light that the associate pastor was the one whom the pastor had begotten by the wife of his younger brother. The associate pastor must have felt a great shock as if he had been struck by a lightning on the head to know that the pastor whom he had been thinking to be his uncle up to then was his real (biological) father.

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There are some dirty humans in America. Homosexual psychos are ordained and work as a pastor, and that dirty human being works as the pastor of a famous church. Why does this happen? It's because the American people, especially Christians in the United States, live dirty lives, so God allowed them to be led by the dirty human beings who are suitable to them (the dirty Christians). Because Christians live dirty lives, dirty homosexuals who are dirtier than human feces impose their hands on their head and pray for them as a pastor (of course, a pseudo-pastor). Since the life of Christians is dirty, such a shameless human being becomes a pastor and touches them with his dirty spirit, dirty mouth, and dirty hands.

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And there are such dirty clerics in the United States because American Christians have failed to purify the church and have left it filthy. If evil thieves or robbers break into your house, you have to risk your life and fight them and drive them out from the house. But if you feel tiresome or feel dread to drive them out, and give up resisting them, they will rule over you in your house. As the Christians in the United States have failed to keep the sanctity and justice of the church, and to drive out the dirty and evil human beings from the church, following the wicked teachings of the Goddess of Liberty, they must eat the fruits of idleness and irresponsibility. The Statue of Liberty (the Goddess of Liberty) of America has rooted up the Puritanism from the spirit of all Americans by giving priority to human freedom instead of God's justice. Aren't the worshipers of that idol homosexuals and liberals of sex? The Statue of Liberty of America is an idol that is wicked and nasty more than Asherah in the Old Testament. (These two idols are primarily engaged in causing sexual degradation.) How perfectly is this abominable idol, the Statue of Liberty, disguising itself as a holy goddess! The idol has already surpassed the authority of the God of Christianity in America and sends its apostles to all over the world. The worshipers of the idol are all wicked people who live an irresponsible life, shouting for human freedom. American Christians did not overcome that evil idol and eradicate the dirty followers of the idol from the whole country, so the wicked ones have broken into the church and harassed the saints. My brethren, if you lose a fight, you become a slave! The problem is our laziness. We can certainly eradicate evil. If you appeal to God, he will give you wisdom and power to wipe out evil. Nevertheless, if you are lazy, you can not drive evil out and become a servant of the evil.

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Korea is no better than America. Sometimes the corruptions of the pastors are introduced in the news. American idol is the Goddess of Liberty while Korean idol, the Mammon. In other words, the money-god has taken over (some of) Korean churches. There was a wicked man who received 700,000 won and ordained a person as minister. Some lay people, regardless of sex, are ordained to be a pastor without God's permission, and live well, receiving cordial service from other lay people. (Those thieves of divine office will be punished more severely than those of money of church later.) Christianity in Korea is in such situation that people belittle the church and that many netizens on the Internet call a moksa(목사, pastor) a muksa(먹사, eater or pseudo-pastor) (a muksa refers to a pastor who likes only to eat) and give abusive words to pastors and thus relieve their stress. Do some Christians really like to be led by a pastor who is criticized by secular people or even by Christians? Why do you want the hands of that kind of pastor to be put on your head? It is natural for you to receive the penalty of sin of not purifying the church.

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Today's text of Bible Ps 48 admires the holy, beautiful and sturdy citadel of Mount Zion. There are the temple of God and the king anointed by God in Jerusalem and Zion. By the way, many kings round about joined forces and marched against Jerusalem, but when they saw the majestic citadel of Zion, they were very afraid and trembled and ran away at once (v. 4-5). The kings were so scared at the majesty of the citadel of Zion that they were like a woman in travail (v. 6). How great did the citadel of Zion look that the enemies invaded but retreated at once without shooting an arrow into the citadel!

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The reaction of these enemies is exactly the opposite of the attitude that people outside the church have today toward the church. The citadel of Zion is the church of God these days. What kind of church must the church of today be so that ordinary people may fear the church beyond respecting the church? From today's text, we can learn what the church should be.

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First, the church must be the church of God. “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, (v. 1).” The church must be the church of God as Zion is the stronghold of God. The church of God is the church whose owner is the God. God's church is the church where God's will is fulfilled. The church of God is a church that reveals the glory of God. The church where the pastor is the owner, the church where the elder is the owner are not the church of God. If a pastor or an elder seeks nothing but personal profit and gratifies his selfish desire and injures God's glory, the Holy Spirit will depart the church and the church will be under all kinds of attack from Satan and the wicked. Sometimes Satan acts as the owner of a church and blocks off all righteous attacks from other normal and holy churches and believers. The Devil seizes the mind of an evil pastor who is a slave of selfish interests and desires, and hardens his mind so that he may stick to his stubbornness, thus prevents all attempts to correct the church. Because of one or two pastors like that, even all the other churches become the targets of popular ridicule. If the pastor is humble, not greedy, and lives only for the glory of God, the people of the world never blame him. When people see a fake pastor living in greed and luxury, they get angry and speak ill of him, though he has nothing to do with them. So if the God is in a church in the sight of the world, they will never curse it, and if the God is really in a pastor, they will never revile at him or attack him. Of course, they may speak ill of him outwardly, but perhaps respect him (the true pastor) inwardly. If God is not in the church or in the pastor, the people of the world notice it instantly and marvelously and attack them. The church and the pastor can suffer while preaching the gospel, but is it normal for them to be attacked by the world because of their disloyalty to God?

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Next, the church should be noble (lofty). “Beautiful in elevation (v. 2)” Jong-gyo(종교(宗敎), religion) is the loftiest(宗) teaching(敎). Religion is above morality. Therefore, if a religion teaches something lower than normal ethics and the members of the religion live unethically, it is not a true religion. That's why S- M- M-'s U- Church is not a religion. You can't climb (or overcome) a high mountain easily. Nor can you treat a man with a noble character and a high scholarship lightly. Likewise if the church shows the appearance of the original true church, the world will never look down on and attack the church. Religion is incompatible with sin. So if there are some who commit sins in Christianity and Christianity tolerates (some kinds of) sins, Christianity is not a religion that gives the loftiest teaching. Religion removes covetousness from the human heart. Therefore, if Christians do not abandon greed and if Christian clergy live in greed, Christianity is not a religion that gives the loftiest teaching. Religion drives fear out of the human mind. Therefore, if Christianity does not give people peace, Christianity can not give the first-class teaching. only those who have peace can give peace to others. When we Christians fight and bite one another in Christianity, peace runs away and hatred and anxiety come in. Will the people of the world come to church and get peace if they see Christianity full of hatred and anxiety? The church has become a terror to the world because of the pastors who committed sex crimes. If many people say to their children, "You shouldn't go to church," the church has lost its savor already. Would not the taste of the church be 'peace'? The act of religion is 'love' intrinsically. Therefore, if Christianity has no love in itself and can not give love to the people of the world and the world sees no love in the church, then the Christianity is not a religion that gives the loftiest teaching. Love is not egocentric but altruistic. Christian love seeks first the benefits of God and neighbors instead of one's own benefits.

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(Sun-do Kim (김선도), Hong-do Kim (김홍도), Guk-do Kim (김국도) are sons of a woman. These three Kims built big churches and gathered a lot of Christians who had attended other churches and filled their churches with sheep that should have gone to other pastors. Sun-do Kim retired from ministry, giving his church to his son Jung-suk Kim (김정석). Hong-do Kim retired from ministry, giving his church to his son Jung-min Kim (김정민). Guk-do Kim retired from ministry, giving his church to his son Jung-guk Kim (김정국).)

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A son of a pastor of a large church in Korea had fasted and prayed for 20 days before he inherited his father's church. Of course, there must be tangible and intangible opposition to the son's succession to his father's ministry from other pastors or Christians. But why did he pray? Did he not pray for 20 days with a view to swallowing his father's church if God would not oppose his plan during that period? Doesn't that mean this: "I'm taking this divine office after 20 days of fasting and praying. So don't raise any objections!"? Prayer is the process of thinking of the will of God and his glory, and of forsaking one's own benefits and glory. And if the son were a normal pastor (Christian), he would not pray for 20 days for the matter. There will surely be fuss and opposition if the son inherit his father's position in the church that is under the spotlight of the world, so the son must give up the position without 20 days' fasting and praying. If we love God, we must first think of the glory of God. It seems that the father pastor and the son pastor do not know that they committed sin even because they became the target of public criticism. Why do you make such a fuss to enjoy vain glory and wealth in your short life? You stupid men! To be honest with you, I turn the channel to another one when the 6 Kims show their face on CTS TV. I turn off the radio when the 6 Kims give a religious address on the radio. Now that I've said this, I feel better!

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God does not answer childish questions. When the son pastor prayed for 20 days, would the God say to the son pastor, "Do not inherit your father's position for it will injure my glory"? If he had had just a faith at 'the middle or high school student level', he wouldn't have taken the position and done such grand prayer of 20 days. So God kept silent because the son showed so shallow a faith. God is saying, "Act at your faith (thought) if you want, but take full responsibility for the result." Balak gave tremendous gifts to Balaam and asked him to curse Israel. So Balaam prayed to God for this matter, but at first God forbade him to go to Balak. But he was thrown into confusion because of the bribe, and prayed to God again. And God said, "Then go!" But on the way, God rebuked Balaam harshly. In a sense, it could be a great insult to God that the son prays to God for 20 days for the matter of the controversial succession of the post. (“My God, my God, please allow me to injure your glory by inheriting my father’s church!” - Isn’t it a nonsense?) ‘Is that your faith? What a faith! Do as you want!’

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Next, the church should be beautiful. “Beautiful in elevation. (v. 2)” People try to preserve beautiful things rather than to destroy them. If the church is beautiful in the eyes of the world, it will be loved and not attacked by the people of the world. When the church is beautiful, people will praise it and God. When is the church beautiful? The church is beautiful when it is clean and innocent. The church is beautiful when it does good works for the world. The church is beautiful when it becomes a light and a lighthouse in the dark world. Who hates and breaks the lighthouse with a hammer? No one does it! We must present true ethics and truth when the idol of the Goddess of Liberty in this age paralyzes the spirit of all the people of the world. We have the responsibility to lead the world in the right way at the head today.

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Lastly, the church should be the joy of the whole world. “His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth. (v. 2)” The church must drive away the dark forces in the world. The church should get rid of all the anxiety and fear that is oppressing the world. Above all, the church must drive away the power of death that has made the world its servant. The church can be the joy of the whole world only when the church can drive out worry, anxiety, uneasiness, inability and death. Church can drive out the dark forces over the world. Because there is the ‘great’ God in the church. “Great is the Lord. (v. 1)” He is the one who gives life, drives away demons, and gives eternal rest. God calls himself 'a refuge (a defense)' (v. 3). The church must lead the peoples of the world under the power of the Devil to God, a strong refuge. So the church is the place where the joy of liberation is given to people. A church is a place where people can feel the joy of peace by unloading heavy burdens on their shoulders. The church is the agency that distributes the eternal life that God gives. The church is a fountain of joy to all. When we Christians diligently cleanse the church and make it a clean fountain, the people of the world will come to the church and have true satisfaction and joy that the world can not give. "Every one who thirsts, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price (Is 55:1)," says the Lord. The joy of the thirsty is the clean water, and the joy of the hungry is the clean food. The church is a place to provide clean water and food. The church is the joy of the whole world.

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May your church be the holy temple where God dwells. May your church be a temple of God that gives joy to you and the world.

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Chong Tack Kim

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                                  - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -