Acts 4:12. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
Yes, it is nice to meet you. It is the second session of the time to edit our lives with the Gospel. Gospel Letter Lesson 2: Why does mankind have no happiness? Why is mankind devoid of happiness? We will share the message under this title. In the last session, through our first meeting, we confirmed the Word of God regarding “Why mankind has no happiness.” We confirmed the important fact that mankind has no happiness because they lost the original blessings given by God and are living having left God. Before sharing the message, I would like to first tell a little story about how I edited my life with the Gospel. My parents are very good people. They are people who live diligently, people who live doing their best, and they are my ordinary yet very good parents who hate causing harm to others. However, in my childhood memories, they fought so much. They were truly good people, but they fought so, so much. During my middle and high school years, and elementary years, they fought truly every day, to the extent that I remember it as there being not a single day they didn’t fight. They fought with words, and when it was severe, they hit and fought each other, and things in the house would be broken, and tools that were lacking when cooking in the kitchen would appear during the fights. Eventually, while my father was in a state of being too drunk, he fought with my mother and hit my mother’s head with a glass alcohol bottle, and I saw my mother’s forehead being torn before my eyes, and while wiping that flowing blood, I saw them fighting with even more strength, and I was so deeply scarred, and [I thought], “Why do my parents fight like this? Why on earth did they get married?” I hated my parents so much and I resented my parents so, so much. Therefore, I grew up having many scars and darkness in my heart. Beyond resentment toward my parents and beyond hatred toward my parents, in this situation that could not be resolved, in order to fill it with something else, I became obsessed with sports, obsessed with music, and obsessed with games, and without knowing it myself, I came to have a time of wandering. However, unable to find the fundamental answer for my life, my heart gradually became darker, my thoughts became darker, and I gradually spoke less; looking back now, it seems I grew up in a state similar to depression. At that time, the reason I thought my parents fought and our home was unhappy was that when they fought every day, they talked a lot about money. Money. Company. [I thought], “People fight like this because they have no money. Money is the problem and money is the answer.” I thought that way; and second, because my parents were people born around the time of the Korean War, I heard that they could not attend school properly and could not study much. Therefore, [I thought], “A person must have knowledge and must learn, but when a person cannot learn and has no knowledge, they live while fighting like this. Knowledge is the problem and knowledge is the answer.” I thought that way. Also, third, I heard that many of the elders in Korea did so in the past: they got married through a promise between families. So they said they saw each other’s faces for the first time on the first day of their wedding ceremony. Therefore, when they fought, they very often said things like, “I came to this house to marry you having only seen your face, and now I suffer this hardship.” Therefore, [I thought], “If you marry a person you do not love, it is unhappy like this.” However, as I grew up a bit and became an adult, and as I came to know the Gospel, and as I came to look at the world correctly, I saw that even those chaebols who have so much money collapse, commit suicide, and many problems come; and seeing those professors who are said to have learned so much knowledge get depression, get mental problems, and collapse through strange incidents, and their homes collapse and their posterity collapse, I saw that money is not the answer and knowledge is also not the answer; there was an incident that shocked us so much where at one time the best talent in our country married the best baseball player, but they eventually divorced after hitting and fighting each other, and that talent also committed suicide, and that baseball player also committed suicide. Therefore, loving is also not the fundamental reason or the fundamental answer. Along with that, as I came to know the Gospel, I came to know why I had no choice but to be that way, why my parents had no choice but to be that way, and why our family had no choice but to live while fighting and giving and receiving many scars. God did not make mankind this way originally. God originally created our humans as spiritual beings possessing the image of God, and therefore they should live while being with God, receiving God’s grace and love, and loving, praising, and worshipping God, and they should live to conquer and govern the world with the wisdom and power God gives, but they lost all the original blessings of mankind. Looking at the reason for the loss, because the first humans of our mankind, Adam and Eve, were deceived by Satan, committed sin, and left God, they lost all these original blessings of mankind. My parents and I, who were born after the Genesis chapter 3 incident, were also born within that Genesis chapter 3 in a state of having left God, in a state where the spirit is dead, and in a state of being seized by Satan, and while struggling with physical efforts, physical struggles, and physical methods, because of spiritual problems that are not resolved no matter how much they effort, they eventually ended up fighting each other, giving scars, and receiving scars, and they had no choice but to live their lives that way. Leaving God is the fundamental problem of our home, and Genesis chapter 3 is exactly the fundamental problem of our home. I was fallen into Genesis chapter 3. My parents were fallen into Genesis chapter 3. Our whole family was fallen into Genesis chapter 3. Furthermore, even while my parents fought like that, I often saw them crying during the time they were alone. My mother would go up to the attic and always lament her lot in life, and she would come down after crying for 30 minutes or an hour. My father also, when he came home after drinking, would sit us children down and continue to speak about how he was lonely, there was no fun in living, and his personality did not match with my mother at all, and once, while holding my hand and with his head bowed, my father’s tears dripped onto the back of my hand several times. Ah, my mother was truly having a hard time; my father was truly having a hard time; my father cried when he was alone, my mother also cried when she was alone, and because us children were also being scarred and shedding tears when we were alone, I came to know the very amazing fact that there is no perpetrator and there are only victims. It was a spiritual problem that my parents also could not help. There was a spiritual problem that they could not do as they pleased. Therefore, I came to know the fact that our house had become like a plaything for Satan, like a playground. Uh, then, like today’s title, if problems came because we left God, can we not just meet God again? Why can mankind not meet God? That is the title of Lesson 2 today. Uh, like it is in number 1, mankind has left God, and if you look at Ephesians 2:1, it says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” It is not that you were dying in transgressions and sins, but it says He brought to life you who were dead. As we left God, our spirit ended up in a state of death. Just as a dead person can do nothing, a person whose spirit is dead can do nothing for spiritual salvation. They cannot make any spiritual effort. Originally the Spirit of God was together within us humans, but after the Genesis chapter 3 incident, while being deceived by Satan and committing sin, the Spirit of God left, and Satan seized our dead spirit. As Satan seized us, John 8:44: “You belong to your father, the devil.” Therefore, they cannot meet God on their own, and they cannot realize the Word of God on their own, and they have fallen into a state where they cannot resolve spiritual problems on their own. Now, however, as it is in number 2, because mankind was a spiritual being, there is an instinct to seek God. There is an instinct to seek a god, and an instinct to pray if a dangerous moment comes, and there is a spiritual instinct. Therefore, they try living kindly, and try living truthfully, and try living diligently, and then at the very last, they seek religion. Therefore, regardless of time or place, there is no country without religion. Even professors, doctors, and lawyers who have learned so much, even politicians, because of problems they cannot resolve on their own, visit a shaman, and bow before a tree, and bow before a rock, and look at the sky and bow, and visit a leader of a strange religious group to have a strange experience and bring and offer all their wealth there—the fact that such incomprehensible things occur is a phenomenon that comes out of the struggle of those who have left God. Therefore, number 3: the most urgent and most necessary thing for mankind is salvation. Salvation. The salvation of coming out of that entire Genesis chapter 3 and meeting God. Receiving liberation from all the authority of Satan, and receiving forgiveness from all sins, and coming out of all the background of Hell to obtain eternal life and become a child of God to live together with God—this blessing of salvation is the most urgent and most necessary blessing for mankind. Therefore, because a dead spirit can absolutely never receive salvation on its own, because mankind can absolutely never receive salvation through human effort, God sent the Christ, and it cannot be resolved through the effort of my own self whose spirit is dead, and it cannot be resolved through the help of other people, and God has never sent a hero to this earth who can overcome Satan. Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” No other name by which we must be saved. I believe there is no other name but only Jesus Christ who can rescue us from the authority of Satan, rescue us from sin, and rescue us from the background of Hell. If you look at Ephesians 2:8 and 9, it says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.” Even the faith you have is a gift from God. Thinking that way, when I think about the fact that 30 years ago from now I became a child of God and obtained eternal new life and came to enjoy the blessing of being with God, I don’t know how thankful I am. Now my parents and my siblings also all believe in Jesus as the Christ and have accepted Him as Savior to become children of God and are living as a family for world evangelization. Why can mankind not meet God? Because they are away from God, and the spirit is dead, and Satan is seizing our dead spirit, mankind can absolutely never meet God through human effort. Therefore, I believe that through the faith that believes in Jesus Christ, the Christ sent through the grace of God, you and I receive salvation and become children of God. Uh, if there is anyone who has not yet accepted Jesus as Savior, like we did the acceptance prayer at the last of last week, I hope you become you and I who live the most happy life by accepting Jesus as my Savior and becoming a child of God to enjoy the blessing of being with God. Yes, thank you. The third session of time to edit life with the Gospel—I will see you next time. Ah, thank you.