Sermons of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 2 |
Let Us Be a Victor for God
Former Church Headquarters, Seoul, Korea
June 30, 1947
Luke: 19:8-44, 22:39-46, 23:44-49
Prayer
We understand that after the 4,000 years of Your toil since the creation of Adam, Jesus Christ was sent by You, as the fruit of Your tears, sweat, and blood, and as the Father's substantial body. He had the mission of taking on Your behalf the tears, sweat, and blood and the mission of liberating You from Your grieving heart. Thus Christ walked a path of tears on Your behalf, a path of endless toil without a moment of rest. He walked it on behalf of all humankind. It was the path of a public life of sweating toil. Thinking of this, Father, I humbly ask You to allow us at this time and hour to truly reflect upon ourselves and see whether we can face Christ. Please guide us to become the ones who can think back to the time of Jesus, who bled after having come as the substantial being of God on the foundation of the bloody altars of countless saints and sages who had worked during the past 4,000 years.
When Jesus was climbing to Golgotha carrying a cross on his back, to the fragile women who were weeping from a distance, he said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for you and your children." Please let us understand the earnest heart of Jesus then and experience it through this opportunity.
We know that the ones who cannot understand the scene of the cross cannot be saved, and the ones who are unable to experience the heart of Jesus when he was walking toward the cross cannot stand in the place of truth. Thus, Father, please have compassion upon Your sons and daughters gathered here at this moment.
We have nothing to offer to You, but please let us become the guards of goodness, who fight the enemies invading us. Let us embed in our minds the lonely figure of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Father, I sincerely wish and desire for this to be done.
We know that it is time for us also to cry out the last appeal of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane toward this wilderness of a world and to climb the hill of the worldwide Golgotha. Thus, Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will guide us not to become sons and daughters who distance themselves from Christ and live for only our own selves.
Please take responsibility for the many lives who are gathered here together. Guide them to be willing to go the path of restoration with a pure heart. Grant grace like a flame upon this place of gathering. Father! Are there any children who are not aware of God's will among the children gathered here? Are there any who cannot feel Your heart, buried as they are in death? Father, please appear as the flame of the Holy Spirit, and perform Christ's work of resurrection. As Jesus was resurrected from death on the cross, allow us the same work of resurrection to happen to us at this hour. Father, I sincerely wish and desire for this to be done.
Father, from among many people, we thank you for calling us. The only thing that we are concerned about is that we may not be able to fulfill Father's will by upholding the mission that You entrusted in us.
Father! Please allow Your sons and daughters who are bowed down before You to be the ones in the heart of Jesus Christ, who are willing to first take responsibility for difficulties and griefs when faced with them. If it is what God wants, let them be the ones who are willing to accept and fight any hardships, even if they could collapse due to their pain and sufferings. Please do not let any life among Your sons and daughters gathered here be dragged away by Satan. Since they came here after a long absence to seek life, please do not desert them. Father, I sincerely wish and desire for this to be done. At this hour, please allow the heart of the one who delivers the message and the hearts of its receivers to be united. Let our hearts be moved by the Father's heart. By so doing, let us be in harmony in unity with You. Let us be recreated as a sacrificial offering that You can receive in joy. I sincerely wish and desire for this to be done.
At this time, there are sons and daughters all over, praying at lonely altars. Please work through them with the same grace bestowed upon us. Protect them from being invaded by Satan. Wishing for this to be done, I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.
The topic of the speech I would like to share with you today is "Let Us Be a Victor for God." Due to the human fall, God who created Heaven and earth has never experienced joy and glory with the creation during the long history past, through which He has been leading the dispensation of restoration. You must already know this.
In other words, God has never received a day of victory in which He could be happy. The reason does not lie with God, but with humans who were created as the masters of all things. Thus, the day of victory cannot come with the effort of God alone, but it also needs the efforts of humans, besides those of God. Otherwise, God and the creation cannot receive a day of glory with triumph.
God's Hope and Jesus
Then what is the purpose of God's creating all things? It is to watch all things singing with God's love and returning glory to Him, centered on humans who have fulfilled the purpose of goodness. All should rejoice in this. Due to the human fall, God's purpose of creation was not achieved. To restore human beings, He has been leading a long battle of 6,000 years of history.
God, who has not been able to receive a day of universal victory since the creation, desires to see the day of victory through humans on earth. Thus, unless earthly people do not restore or recover that day, we cannot defeat Satan, who violates humans on earth. Nor can we eliminate the power of Satan, who makes accusations against humans before God in heaven.
Consequently, God does not mind any toil, any sacrifice, or any battles. Until this moment, He has been a shield to restore each of you.
When viewed from this standpoint, we can understand what God's wish is. God wants to establish each of you as an individual and separate the enemy Satan who caused the human fall from you. Thus, the evil history of Satan will be concluded. We should become people who can fulfill the wish of God, come forth in pride before God and all things, and return the victorious glory to God. Then, finally, the purpose of God's providence, which He led through His hard work, will be realized. Humans have been trying to witness such a day of victory, but until the present, it has not been fulfilled.
However, God sent a man who could find the day of victory for humans. This was Jesus Christ. He experienced the internal heart of God, who has been leading a dispensation to restore all humankind through a long history. He experienced all the unjust circumstances of humans. Thus, he came as a representative who could bring victory out of the battles with Satan.
Therefore, being faced with Satan, who is blocking the path to attain the will of God's dispensation and the will that humankind wishes for, you should take over the lifetime undertaking of Jesus Christ, who fought valiantly as the historical man in charge, representing all things with the heart of the Lord of creation. Also, in your own life, unless you practice the life that Jesus wished for, not only the sorrow of Jesus but also that of God and all humankind will be again embedded on the earth. You should understand this.
Then what kind of life course should we take? We should go with the responsibility to inherit the will of Jesus Christ, who came for the fulfillment of God's will. We should fight to bring about a day in which God and humans can rejoice together. This is more important than anything else.
The life of Jesus was not to live for himself as an individual. It was a life during which, in silence, he took on the responsibility alone for heaven above and earth below, that is, for all the creation. He did this to bring about a day when God's will would be achieved.
Jesus did not make a distinction between day and night. Also, he did not care about persecution from the visible world. He was a courageous man who fought Satan, who was blocking his path, in an invisible place that people did not recognize or see, carrying responsibility for all of humankind.
Therefore, today all of us should attend Jesus as a vanguard and uphold his will. Thus, wherever he goes, we should go with him. If he fights, we should also fight with him. That is, we should share the same joy and pain and continue to fight to accomplish the will of God in His providence of restoration, which is the wish of all humankind.
Further, Jesus lived for his people and the world, taking responsibility for 4,000 years of history and the many lives in the spirit world. He did not fight for himself alone. It does not necessarily mean that he was fighting only for his people or the world. He fought to fulfill the will of God, with the mission of upholding heavenly principles beyond history and the universe.
Such battles continued throughout his lifetime of thirty years. Even 2,000 years after his death, it is still being continued. You should understand and feel deeply in your bones that although humans can take time to rest, he has been unceasingly fighting along with the Holy Spirit only to fulfill God's wish and thus find the day of hope for which all humankind wishes.
It was lamentable for Jesus to die on the cross due to the failure of humans when he came to earth to save them. Nonetheless, even after his death, still carrying the sins of humans, he has been walking the course of the cross to Golgotha. We should reflect upon our past, thinking about what kind of life of faith we have had toward Jesus.
The Motive of Jesus Who Walked the Path of Pain and Suffering
Then what kind of person is Jesus? He is the begotten son of Heaven, the prince of heaven, the savior of all humankind, and the Messiah of glory. He should have nothing to do with pain. When seeing the Messiah, it would have been only natural for God to rejoice in him. It should have been with praise that all humankind who saw him received him. Yet because the Israelites were faithless toward him and cursed him, joy turned into sorrow. Who would have to take responsibility for this? You who know the will of God should do so.
The reason worldwide Christianity was established was because of Jesus' thirty years or more of life for the sake of humanity, during which he shed tears without letting others know. Ever since his death on the cross, there has been 2,000 years of history, a process through which God has been leading a dispensation of sorrow and grief.
Now as we are following the same path of Jesus who shed tears on earth, we should be willing to take responsibility for the failure of the Israelites who caused sorrow to Jesus. We should go on with the battles to take vengeance upon Satan.
You should not think that during the preparation period of the public ministry of Jesus, he simply led a life of meditations. While he was working as a carpenter for thirty years in Joseph's family, Jesus shed countless tears without letting others know. His brothers did not understand Jesus' sorrow, nor did Joseph and Mary, who should have known this more than anyone else. Thus, Jesus walked a lonely path of undescribable sorrow that could not be revealed to anyone. Jesus consummated the sinful history of 4,000 years. While carrying the burden of liquidating the sorrow of God and humanity, with a firm and unchanging conviction for the will of God, he fought Satan. Consequently, if we follow the exemplary life of Jesus, we can set a victorious standard of life.
Why did Jesus come to live such a bloody and tearful life? It is because he knew that the long process of the 4,000 years of history was a course of tears. Jesus knew that God went through a history of tears. He also knew that the many prophets and sages who had attended God's will underwent a tearful course of life. Consequently, he came to think that for the fulfillment of God's will, he also had to walk such a tearful course of life, and he understood that his life would have a great impact upon the future.
Therefore, Jesus felt responsible for indemnifying all the tears shed by God and the prophets and sages. To give hope to all of humankind, he voluntarily walked a path of bloody and tearful sufferings.
The Believers in the Last Days Who Should Complete the Course of Historical Suffering
Today we cannot avoid a course of battles against Satan to recover the day of universal hope, the day of victory. Thus, the greater our mission, the greater our responsibility. To bring a victory out of the course of this battle, we should pass through deeper valleys of tears.
Jesus alone appealed before God in tears in the Garden of Gethsemane, without being accompanied by even his own disciples. He was totally sinless, without any wrongfulness, and he only hoped to live as the son of God. You should feel the heart of Jesus, who walked the path of bloody tears.
Today at the point when you hasten to bring a victory to Heaven, you should reflect upon whether you are truly ready to climb the same hill of universal tears with Jesus, which he has already climbed. Ever since humans left the bosom of God due to the fall, human history continued in tears. To be freed from this, we should walk a path of tears. This does not apply only to the course of God's providence, but also to a people or a nation.
We call someone who sheds tears for a nation or its people a prophet. A nation does not come about automatically. It comes about through a history of tearful, trouble-filled stories made by such prophets. Similarly, unless you, too, climb the historical hill of tears, you can never receive a day of victory. Jesus shed bloody tears while walking on the path of Golgotha, the path of a pioneer, after having climbed hills of tears for thirty years. Today, if you are to be the ones who would take responsibility to fulfill the will of God and liberate Jesus, you should shed bloody tears that no one recognizes, springing from the bottom of your heart.
If there are disciples who are shedding tears for brothers and sisters and the world, and further, if they are unceasingly shedding tears without being able to stop it for Heaven, a condition for victory will be made. Once Jesus once could not help but shed tears, looking down at Jerusalem, yet no one understood his heart. Because he did not have even one friend who could cry with him when he wept in sadness, Jesus had to die on the cross.
Because we are descendants of fallen Adam and Eve, we are responsible for alleviating their grief. Also, to cleanse the sins caused by the fall, we should alleviate even the grief of Jesus Christ, who came as the second Adam. The history of the past is the history of the formation stage and the growth stage, and we could stand before the will by just partially fulfilling our responsibility. Since we are in the completion stage today, it is not enough for us to fulfill only a partial responsibility. In order for us to fulfill the mission given at the time of the completion stage, we should be motivated and work a thousand times harder than those who have come and gone in the past. Clinging to God's grieving heart that cannot let go of this earth, whether cold or hot, asleep or awake, no matter what kind of circumstances He is in, you should become those who should also cling to this earth and weep for it more than anyone else.
In order for this people to find and establish a principle for unity today, the person above should come down, and the person below should go up. By so doing, each other's tears should be exchanged and brought before God. Similarly, if we could understand the heart of God's grievance and that of God who loves the earth and can communicate with His heart, we will never perish. Therefore, we should become those who can shed tears. In the last days, we are to shed tears, whether they are for joy or grief.
Two thousand years ago, as there was a wall of darkness that Jesus had to pass through in the garden of Gethsemane, carrying the cross of suffering and pain, we should also receive the last days in this century, which has a wall of darkness like the cross of Jesus. Also, because Jesus shed tears on behalf of God while others did not know of it, neither the disciples who lost Jesus, nor his people, all of humankind tends to avoid the path of tears.
Tears That Should Be Shed for God's Will and the World
Thus, a hill of tears that should be climbed over will lie before the people of the last days. Then we will be standing at the crossroads where we have to decide whether we should cry for Heaven or for ourselves.
At that time, what Satan is looking for are the people who block the path to Heaven who will and seek instead after their own ambitions. Thus, if you shed tears for your own self at the time when you should shed historical tears, you will belong to Satan. On the other hand, if you cling to the heavenly will and shed tears for it, you will belong to the side of Heaven.
The reason Jesus could move heaven and the reason the creation could attend him was not because Jesus wept for himself, his own people, or even for the world. He did it to achieve the will of the eternal hope of God. Thus, the tears of Jesus could empathize with those of God, all humankind, and all things. Because Jesus died shedding tears in such a way, the ones who should attend him cannot help but shed tears, experiencing the tears of His universal grief and thus must grieve with all things.
Jesus thus shed tears for his people, the world, and God. What about you? In order for you to stand in front of the will, like Jesus, you should also go through the stages of shedding tears centered on the individual, family, people, and the world. Then you should fulfill your responsibility of shedding tears even for the grievances of the spirits in the spirit world.
Now, do you want to stand in the garden of hope that God desires? If so, you should not keep the heart that appeals to God to avoid suffering, centered on the individual. If you do so, you will be caught by Satan's net. If you truly wish to enter the family level of the heavenly kingdom, you should build an altar as built by Jesus, beyond the individual and the family.
Also, if you wish to enter the tribal level of the heavenly kingdom, you should shed tears on behalf of Jesus. If you wish to enter the people level of the heavenly kingdom, you should shed tears for the people on behalf of Jesus.
You should save the face of Jesus who died, taking responsibility for the earth and even the spirit world before God. You should be the kind of person who are always concerned for God's will.
During the 2,000 years since the death of Jesus, the way God led humans in the course of history has been to make them shed tears. That is the reason the path of Christians has been that of tears. Without it, the providence could not be fulfilled. After the death of Jesus, his seventy disciples built an altar of tears in Rome for a long time and gradually expanded the foundation of Christianity from the levels of an individual and a family finally to the worldwide level. Yet until now, among Christians, there have been many who cried for themselves, but only a few who cried for the world on behalf of Jesus.
Now we are in the last days and we should climb over the tearful hill of Golgotha. Therefore, the times when one could cry for the individual, the family, and the nation has passed. While God has been leading His providence for many thousands of years, His wish for us is to become faithful believers who can shed tears for the world, clinging to the will of God.
On this earth, there have been no faithful believers who could weep for God, understanding His heart and will. We are the ones who should take responsibility for this and shed tears for Heaven. Otherwise, Jesus would shed tears again, and so would God. As Jesus had shed tears before God in fighting Satan to take responsibility for human history and be victorious in the battle, the time is here when we should pray to God, "Please allow us also to be connected to You as a vanguard of tears."
When viewing the trend of the world, we can understand that by removing nationalism in order for Christianity to be pursued, the worldwide foundation from which the coming Lord can be received has been expanded. It is about the time when all humankind can receive Jesus on the worldwide level. That is the reason humankind today has come to a point where they should climb the worldwide hill of Golgotha.
When crying, you, who are in this position, come to the following question: "Am I crying for Heaven or for the earth or for myself?" At this point, depending upon for whom you are crying, your path will vary.
If you want to spread the will of God to the people who are living in the world that is like an ocean of suffering, you should not be those who would forget the will for the whole and cry for your own self in sorrow. Such people will be naturally chased away on the way to the fulfillment of the will.
We who follow the will of God should not shed tears due to our personal circumstances. Also, if there are a people, a nation and a world that would live for the will of God, they also should not shed tears for their own sake. We should shed tears only for all of humankind.
The Value of the Life That Sheds Blood, Sweat and Tears
Now is the time when the will for the heavenly principles disconnected from humans should be reconnected through you. If you cannot restore a day when you can shed tears of victory from the battle against Satan, and thus if you cannot find a day when Satan can no longer accuse you, the victorious day that God wishes for on the worldwide level cannot be restored.
When Jesus came to the earth, as he went through a path of blood, sweat, and tears to fulfill the will of God, you, too, should walk a path of blood, sweat, and tears to receive the day of universal victory. The history of the universe must go the painful way of the cross, and in order for an individual to be successful, that person should also go through a way of blood and sweat. That is, we should all endure all hardships and fight Satan.
How hard have you truly fought for heaven? You must have shed sweat and tears for yourself or your family. However, Jesus shed tears and sweated not only for his family, but also for his people and the world. You should now go a path of life that sheds sweat and tears beyond your own individual self and your family and shed them for the world.
To go through the course of battles shedding sweat and tears is the first condition for a victory. Thus, in order for us to be victorious, we should become sons and daughters who fight hardships through undergoing a path of sweat and tears. Also, Jesus prayed in sweat and tears in the garden of Gethsemane, and you should have the same kind of heart. United people who marched for one goal, shedding sweat and tears, have never perished until now. In the spirit world, what kind of people are the glorious spirits that entered the realm of the Kingdom of Heaven? They are the ones who did not stop pioneering a course of struggles in the path of sweat and tears. If we know that we are responsible for making such conditions for the victory to fulfill God's will, we should shed more sweat and tears than anybody in history.
Do you love your family? If so, you should sweat for the family. If you love your people, you should sweat for the people. If you love the world, you should sweat for the world. We should also take after the example of Jesus, who prayed in the garden of Gethsemane for all of humankind, building an altar alone while others did not know about it. We should become a second Jesus who can shed sweat and tears for all of humankind.
Have you ever desperately prayed for the will of God, at the risk of your life, in tears? Have you ever sweated while praying? Though we underwent the path of sweat and tears, we should never forget that the final bloody path of death remains in front of us. Jesus went the way of the cross on behalf of all humankind after three years of public life. If the begotten son of God walked a blood-shedding course, offering his own life for a spiritually victorious day, we who came forth with the determination to carry out a universal mission on behalf of Jesus should follow the example of his path.
The Sacrificial Spirit of Jesus, Who Walked the Path of the Cross
Do you have a life, hope, and a will to proceed? If so, it does not belong only to you. You should not think that your life is only yours. If Jesus had thought that his life belonged only to him, he could not have achieved the resurrection beyond his death on the cross. Because he knew that his life was God's, Jesus endured the suffering and tribulations of being crucified. Accordingly, the path of the cross was not only for himself alone.
It is the same with you. Your life does not belong only to you; nor does the world, the universe, or the creation belong only to humans. All these belong to God. What is the center of your thoughts and ideas? We should find an ideology and ideas that petition for the sake of God. If we die, we should die for the Father. If we live, we should live for the Father. If we live with such an attitude, even if we are dead, we really did not die. Yet in contrast to this, even if we are alive, if we live only for ourselves, that life cannot be glorious. No matter what, if we are destined to climb over a hill of death, each of us should reflect upon why we should go such a path.
Jesus offered even his own body at the end after having gone through a path of sweat and tears. For the sake of God, he did not spare anything for himself and offered everything that he had, praying, "Father, please accept my spirit." Why did he become an offering of sacrifice, shedding blood like this? It is because he knew that when he totally offered himself, God could totally receive him. Along with Jesus, if you are to be victorious toward the satanic world, you should think whether you are offering yourself while still attached to your life. If we are to be an extremely holy sacrifice to eternally fulfill Father's wish, if we have any element centered on us, then we will become an offering that can be accused by Satan.
Do you want to become people whom God can call, "My sons and daughters"? If so, you should establish the truth, life and love of heaven, and you should restore all things and yourselves to be heaven's.
Jesus prayed, "My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me." He also prayed the opposite of the prayer, "Do not do as I want, but do as You want." You also should build an altar of heaven by bringing your will over to that of the Father's. Otherwise, you cannot achieve the hope of God and cannot be victorious in the battles against Satan.
Due to the fall of humans, for many thousands of years, they walked a path of toil. Climbing a hill of blood and tears to become a living sacrifice before God, they have been fighting Satan. Similarly, today we should walk a path of sacrifice for our people. Then your followers will follow the path, and you will even be able to make the enemy Satan surrender to you and become your friend.
Humans who have been toiling for 6,000 years for the will of God should now be able to sing God's glory by fulfilling the universal responsibility on behalf of Jesus through making the conditions of glorious victory. Satan, who has been opposing God, will oppose you, too. The day when the opposition of Satan will change all of a sudden, the day when Satan makes an offering before God with you, will be the last days, the day of judgment.
When we come to command Satan through making conditions that Satan can surrender to God, conditions that can start centered on the heavenly principles, Satan will obey the order. Therefore, you can become people who can be victorious in the struggle with Satan.
The Way to Be Related to God, as a Parent to a Child
When we come to Heaven as such a victor, then finally, in the ideal garden where the will of eternal God is realized, we can live as eternal and unchanging true people centered on God without having anything to do with Satan. Since Satan knows that this last battle will begin, he will attack with his utmost force. Therefore, in order for us to be victorious in the battle, not only God will do His best, but also you who are sons and daughters of God should pour all of your spirit and heart.
In this battle, Satan will not blindly surrender to you, but along with the people who are controlled under his domain, he will resist you with his maximum power. You should know this.
As we shed tears for heaven, Satan also sheds tears for the fulfillment of his will. As we sweat for God, he also sweats for himself. As we fight at the risk of our life, he also fights the same way we do for himself. You should know this.
When these two powers confront each other, in order for us to win the battle, we should not live for ourselves. We should live absolutely for the sake of the Father. Oblivious to our own will, we should offer everything we have. By so doing, we should only try to uplift the value of Father. This is the way we can win a victory in the battle against Satan. It is the way for us to be related to God as a parent and child are related to each other.
Now you must have found a way to defeat Satan and build a relationship with God as parent and child. Thus, we should lead a life in which we sacrifice ourselves more for the Father.
Prayer
Father! We now learned that we should walk a path to be a victor. This is a path of blood, sweat, and tears, and a sacrificial offering to have everything shared with all of humankind by separating all the elements of our own blood and flesh. When we got away from this path, we learned that we will not be able to stand in the garden of universal victory for which the Father wishes.
Father! We learned that our life is not ours, our love is not ours, our children are not ours, and all of our material is not ours. If we try to possess everything with our greed, we know that there will be nothing that will belong to us. Please guide us to stand in the position of sacrificial offerings who are willing to offer you everything that we have.
We learned that all people should indemnify God's grievance of 6,000 years and become a victor. Father, allow all the sons and daughters gathered here today to do so, going this way without minding a path of sweat, tears and even death on behalf of the Father, so that they might fulfill the worldwide and universal mission. Thus, they will be in the position of having been restored as true sons and daughters. Please allow them to sing a song of glory for You.
By so doing, I sincerely wish and desire that You would guide them to be Your children who can have dominion over Satan, and in tears of joy, return all creations to You. As I entrusted all of this to You, please guide them to the path of tears, sweat, and blood for the victory.
We are commissioned to pioneer the path of victory, so let us be offered as a sacrificial offering of the cross by fulfilling the mission of this historical victory. Now we understand that if in a situation where we can shed tears for Satan, instead we proudly state, "I am a sacrificial offering to you, Father," even Satan himself must admit, "You are right. You are truly a child of God." Thus, I sincerely wish and pray that we can be such a group of people.
I prayed for this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
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