When God was doing the work of the Age of Law, the first time He used man, He used Moses to issue the laws and commandments of God. At that time, there were many Israelites who opposed Moses and who had some notions about Moses. What did they say? “God speaks to you, Moses, but does He not speak to us too? God enlightens you, but does He not also enlighten us? In what way are you different from us? Why is it you who will lead us?” Isn’t this what they meant?
That was a time of a crowd gathering together to create a disturbance, which, in the words of the unbelievers, is called a “revolt.” And what was the result? The result was that God gave authority to Moses. Once Moses spoke, the earth opened up and those people fell straight down to the netherworld, those two hundred and fifty chiefs were then destroyed. Some say, “What evil did those two hundred and fifty chiefs commit? Were they all bad people? I cannot tell.” The Bible does not record what their character was like in ordinary times, or what bad deeds they had done—it only tells of this one event. They had notions about Moses, and united together to revolt, and just this matter offended God’s administration. Then they were met with punishment, and fell into the netherworld while still alive. Because those two hundred and fifty chiefs had notions about the man whom God used, and disobeyed him, they received punishment. That punishment was not on the basis of their ordinary behavior, nor was it on the basis of how their character was. If you revolt, if you refuse God’s authority, or if you have notions against God’s use of someone to work, then this is resisting the work of God! You are interrupting and disturbing the work of God! You are an obstacle and stumbling block obstructing the will of God from being carried out. At that time God will punish you, and cause you to descend alive into the netherworld. There are some people who cannot see the seriousness of this matter, and still cause disturbances in the house of God, always trying to find fault with me, and to remove and replace me with themselves. Do you think this is a human authority? There are some people who have notions about Christ who do not dare to utter a word, and they may brazenly say to the man used by the Holy Spirit, “Because you are a person, you are not God, I can stand up to you, and I do not obey.” What disposition is this? If you do not submit to any person else—this is only a corrupt way to express it. If you do not submit to the man used by the Holy Spirit, this is called offending the administrative decree! This is a matter that directly offends the disposition of God! One cannot dare to imagine the consequences of this! Tell me, is this not the case? There may be people who say, “You are just saying these extreme things to terrify people, you scare us, you scare the cowardly.” If you don’t believe, then you don’t believe, and you will try to do it this way; if you do it like this, then it will be trouble for you. “Whoever resists will die!” This is the word of God!
There are some who say, “Even after he resisted he still did not die.” Do not worry—there are two ways to speak of death. Some acts of resistance are grave and will cause the corporeal body to die in that very moment; some are not as grave, and the body will not die, but the spirit will die. The work of the Holy Spirit will depart from him, and break him off like a twig. As soon as the twig has been broken off, even though the leaves of the twig are still green, but it is already dead. It has been severed from its source, isn’t that so? When the twig has been broken off, this is big trouble. So, do not fail to listen to any word of God! Unbelievers have a common saying: “If you don’t follow the words that the experienced men said, you will suffer losses.” This is not the truth, but as for people like us who believe in God, if we do not listen to the word of God then we do face misfortune in the present. These words are certainly the truth. Why do we say these words are the truth? Why do we say that all of the word of God is the truth? Because the word of God has authority! The word of God must be accomplished! There is not one sentence in it that is a lie, nor anything that is empty speech. For everything that God says, He will keep His word. One of the aspects of God’s disposition is that “He is as good as His word, and His word shall be accomplished, and that which is accomplished lasts forever.” This is God’s disposition. So God’s word is the truth, and all of God’s word will be achieved, and whoever offends it must all die and must all pay the price. Some people say, “I have not seen how God became angry at that time or the chastisement of God coming about.” If you have seen it that is even greater trouble, for your fleshly body will then die. But if you have not seen it, there is still trouble in your spirit, and you may have no prospect. Is this not a grave matter? It is very grave! There was someone who spoke to me in words that seemed to have an air of temptation, and when I sensed this temptation in what he said, and that this was a new convert who had only believed for about half a year or a year, I didn’t say anything at the time. After that, God who had heard it, came over and spoke these words: “This person cannot receive salvation.” Just this one phrase. “Oh,” I said, “It’s over, this person is done for, and is in trouble.” Do you think that when God spoke like this it was ordinary speech? It was not said by a brother or sister, but was spoken from the mouth of God. This matter is very grave in nature, and the words God says must achieve success! All of the work in the house of God is under God’s guidance, step by step, and it cannot be seen from the outside. On the outside you see God uttering only so many words, and in reality in the future there will be still more. You see on the outside the man used by the Holy Spirit leading gatherings, and arranging the work of God’s family, and you say, “Is this not all being done by the man?” Are you able to see that all of this is actually being done by God? If you truly see that everything is done by God, then you are blessed, and this demonstrates that you know the deeds of God, that you know the work of God. Those people who do not understand the spirit say, “Is this not all being done by the man? The word of God has already all been spoken, and now God appears very seldom. The man used by the Holy Spirit is continuously saying this and that, or doing this and that—is this not all done by the man?” What do you think of these words? Why do we say this kind of person does not understand the spirit? He cannot see that it is the Holy Spirit at work, working in secret, cannot see that it is all arranged by the Holy Spirit, cannot see that this is the reigning of the word of God and of the truth, cannot see that the work done by the man used by the Holy Spirit is all guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit and is under the control of the Holy Spirit. He can see none of this. Is this not blindness? This is blindness and failing to know God! This is quite troublesome! There are some people who have come to experience and say, “Sometimes once the man used by the Holy Spirit became enraged, when we heard his words it cut to the heart. These words came from the authority of the Holy Spirit! This was not the man coming ablaze and being angry at us—it was God becoming angry at us, and this was trouble. At that time I was quite afraid.” Oh, they have seen the deeds of God, and this is all part of the Holy Spirit being at work, it is the Spirit of God at work. There are some people who cannot see, and this is not understanding the spirit. Once someone does not understand the spirit, isn’t this blindness? Isn’t it?
Sometimes when we speak of people resisting God it does not refer to resisting God in heaven. Who would dare to resist God in heaven, can people resist God in heaven? They cannot resist. What people resist is often the incarnate God, the practical God. If God were not incarnate, if He had not become the Son of man, would people dare to condemn God? Even if you were to give the chief priests and scribes and the Pharisees ten times as much courage, they still would not dare. If you tried to make them resist Jehovah God, they would not dare. It is just that a person does not know God was incarnated and became the Son of man, and so he brazenly resists, still believing this to be good faith in God. The result is precisely that he becomes an enemy of God, and will be chastised by God. Tell me, is it okay to believe in God if you do not seek the truth? Now, people all know that it is unacceptable not to seek the truth. If you do not seek the truth, then you may say all kinds of garbled things. You see how those people who came over from the religion are able to say all kinds of garbled words, with nothing that is in conformity with the truth. It is not acceptable not to seek the truth! Why did the Lord Jesus always say, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (See Matthew 23:13-33)? Why did He always say, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6)? This group of people resisted God, and this is what the Lord Jesus meant. He wanted all followers within the religion to beware, and wanted them to have discernment about the Pharisees, chief priests, and scribes. In believing in the Lord one must seek the truth and listen to the word of the Lord, and not be deceived, manipulated, entrapped, or controlled by people, for in that way it is easy to resist God. Is this not what He meant? Communicating in this way am I going on for too long? Anyway, I think that whatever I say I should speak to people thoroughly and make them understand. This is the purpose. If you speak in quite a refined way, then when you are done speaking people will not respond, and you will continue with another statement; before that statement gets any reaction, you say another. If people listen to so much, it is not easy to digest and easy to choke. Isn’t this the case? You need to get people to be able to digest easily, and then we will continue to speak. This way of speaking can bring about results.
There are some people who have read the words of the Lord Jesus, and say, “Oh, that’s what He said.” “What does this mean?” “I don’t know.” “Did the Lord Jesus say this?” “Yes.” “What did the Lord mean when He said this?” “I don’t know.” Is this not confusion? There are some people in the religion who have this kind of a misconception: “Whatever words the Lord Jesus said, you cannot add on anything to them! If you try to explain the words of the Lord Jesus or discuss knowledge of them, that is the same as adding something onto the word of God.” Are these words correct? They are not. According to that way of speaking, the words spoken by the Lord Jesus are all the same as the books of other sects and denominations. This implies the scripture is only for reciting, and should not be explained. If you don’t explain it, how will people understand it? After hearing all of it, if you do not communicate what you know, how will people comprehend it? The word of the Lord is meant to get people to understand, and is not just to get people to emptily memorize and recite it. It is a requirement for people. People should be equipped with the truth and understand God’s intention, and carry out the word of the Lord. Then these words can achieve results on people. The words spoken by God are not just for people to recite emptily, and if you just recite them like those in the religion recite, then even if you recite them for a hundred years you will still not even have an understanding of them and will still be incapable of practicing them. You will not be able to keep the word of God or obey the word of God. Is that belief in God? Is that not just reciting scripture? That is not believing in God! To be precise, what is belief in God all about? It is experiencing God’s work. To put it plainly, what is experiencing God’s work? It is practicing and experiencing all of the words expressed by God. This is called experiencing God’s work, and through experiencing and practicing all of the word expressed by God, one will afterward reach progressively deeper levels of knowledge. Finally, one will understand the truth and know God, and this is the final result of experiencing the word of God. Having experienced God’s word to a certain degree, when we have attained understanding of the truth and knowledge of God, then we become people who obey the will of God, and are people who observe the way of God.
If you have not ever communicated or known the word of God, the Lord Jesus may say, “I’ve said to you, woe to scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Have you done this?” If He asks this, you will respond, “We did not, and we don’t know how to. We thought that when You had spoken it was just because you wanted us to recite and read, and that was it. We have not practiced it.” Can this kind of person gain the approval of the Lord? He cannot gain it. The word of the Lord is not meant to cause people to recite it as scripture, but is to be treated as truth to experience and know. When you have gained experience and knowledge to a certain level, when the Lord Jesus asks if you can discern the Pharisees, you will say, “We have no discernment, we have taken Your words to recite as scripture and memorize, and we cannot discern them.” “Oh, you are a group who is confused in your belief. What is your attitude now toward the Pharisees?” “We’ll do whatever the Pharisees say, and as long as they talk about the Bible we will obey and follow.” Finally, the Lord Jesus will say to you, “I do not know you. Leave Me and go! You belong to the Pharisees, you are the descendants of the Pharisees, you are the worshipers and followers of the Pharisees. You have no relation to Me, and you do not believe in Me.” Will it not have this result? The Lord Jesus will also ask you, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Do you understand this?” “We understand, the teachings of the Pharisees are mainly empty words, reason, and theological theory, and these people all lack the truth and reality, and in substance they are all hypocrites. We can distinguish that whoever preaches these literal doctrines and vacuous words are all resisting God, and will be met with the curse of God and eliminated. After we have distinguished this, we will abandon them and not listen to them, and we will walk away from their presence. We will differentiate ourselves from them and follow the Lord.” When the Lord hears these words, He will say, “Intelligent people, the words I say have their result among you. You truly are people who listen to My word, and I acknowledge you.” What is this result like? Did the Lord Jesus not say this in the Age of Grace? “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23). These people have preached, cast out devils, performed many miracles in the name of the Lord, and of course they believe in the Lord. But though they believe in the Lord, and have done all these many things in the name of the Lord, why will the Lord say He does not know them, and even say that they are evildoers? Why is this? Whoever can see into this matter is a smart person. They have done so many things, how could the Lord still say that He does not know them? When the Lord says these words and does this, is that not something people cannot imagine? Won’t this potentially cause many religious people to fall into doubt, saying “Are you still our Lord?” Why will the Lord say He does not know them, saying “depart from me, you that work iniquity”? It is because they have never practiced or experienced the word of the Lord, and have no knowledge of the Lord whatsoever. So the Lord does not acknowledge them, isn’t that so? There are some who ponder this, thinking, “Is it? Is it?” They ponder but cannot understand it. Isn’t that dim-witted? Not expending effort on the truth will not do! When religious people today confront the work of Almighty God in the last days, they pay it no heed, and never seek or investigate it. Even though there are just people who tell them about it and bear witness to it for them, they still do not read carefully the word of God, or listen to see whether the word of Almighty God is God’s voice. On the contrary, they blindly abandon and condemn, saying, “Our pastors, our elders, say that ‘Eastern Lightning’ is a heresy, and is a false way. They tell us to leave and go away; get out of here, I won’t listen to you, and whatever you are preaching I will not listen to.” Will this kind of person gain the approval of God? No. Why? Because they do not listen to God’s voice, nor do they seek or investigate it. What did the Lord Jesus say? “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). Now is the time of darkness, when the great red dragon and the devil have gained power, and people are forbidden from talking about God’s coming. Is this not the darkest time? The time when Satan resists God most furiously is midnight, and there are people who cry out, “the bridegroom comes.” People in the Church of Almighty God bear witness that “Almighty God has come, the Lord Jesus has returned!” Religious people can hear this yet pay it no attention, can see it but do not seek or investigate it. They only listen to pastors and elders and think, “We believe in the Lord Jesus in the church, and the Lord Jesus is the true God, and the Lord Jesus has already forgiven our sins. If we believe in Almighty God, is this not betraying the Lord Jesus? If we betray the Lord Jesus, then our sins will return to us, and we will have been forgiven in vain, so we must hold onto this name ‘Lord Jesus,’ just these words ‘Lord Jesus.’” What fault is committed here? This is called vainly grasping to the name of the Messiah, but in reality it is resisting the substance of the Messiah. Is that not so?
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