All men wish to see the true countenance of
Jesus and desire to be with Him. I believe that not one of the brothers or sisters would say that he is unwilling to see or to be with
Jesus. Before you have seen Jesus, that is, before you have seen the incarnate God, you will have many thoughts, for example, about Jesus’ appearance, His way of speaking, His way of life, and so on. However, when you really see Him, your thoughts will swiftly change. Why is this? Do you wish to know? While man’s thinking indeed cannot be overlooked, it is much more intolerable for man to alter the substance of Christ. You regard Christ as an immortal, a sage, but none regard Christ as a mortal with divine substance. Therefore, many of those who yearn day and night to see God are actually enemies of God and incompatible with God. Is this not a wrong on the part of man? Even now you still think that your belief and loyalty are such that you deserve to see the countenance of Christ, but I exhort you to equip yourselves with more tangible things! For in the past, present, and future, many of those who come in contact with Christ have failed; they all play the role of the Pharisees. What is the reason for your failure? It is precisely because in your notions there is a lofty, admirable God. But the truth is not as man wishes. Not only is Christ not lofty, but He is particularly small; not only is He a man but an ordinary man; not only can He not ascend to heaven, neither can He move freely on earth. And so people treat Him as an ordinary man; they do as they please when they are with Him, and speak careless words to Him, all the while still waiting for the coming of the “true Christ.” You regard the Christ that has already come as an ordinary man and His word as that of an ordinary man. Therefore, you have not received anything from Christ and have instead completely exposed your ugliness to the light.
Prior to contact with Christ, you may believe that your disposition has been entirely transformed, you may believe that you are a loyal follower of Christ, and you may believe that you are most worthy to receive the blessings of Christ. For you have traveled many roads, done much work, and brought forth much fruit, so you must be a person who receives the crown in the end. Yet there is one truth that you do not know: The corrupt disposition and rebellion and resistance of man are exposed when he sees Christ, and the rebellion and resistance exposed on such occasion are more absolute and complete than on any other. It is because Christ is the Son of man and possesses normal humanity that man neither honors nor respects Him. It is because God lives in the flesh that the rebellion of man is brought to light thoroughly and vividly. So I say that the coming of Christ has unearthed all the rebellion of mankind and has thrown the nature of mankind into sharp relief. This is called “luring a tiger down the mountain” and “luring a wolf out of the cave.” Can you say that you are loyal to God? Can you say that you show absolute obedience to God? Can you say that you are not rebellious? Some will say: Each time that God creates my surroundings, I always obey and never complain. In addition, I hold no notions about God. Some will say: All the work tasked to me by God, I do to the best of my ability and am never remiss. Then I ask you this: Can you be compatible with Christ when you live alongside Him? And how long will you be compatible with Him? One day? Two days? One hour? Two hours? Your faith is indeed commendable, but you do not have much steadfastness. When you truly live with Christ, your self-rightness and self-importance will be slowly exposed by your words and actions, and so shall your excessive desires and disobedience and discontent be spontaneously revealed. Finally, your arrogance will become ever greater, and when you become as incompatible with Christ as water is with fire, then your nature will be entirely exposed. At that time, your notions can no longer be veiled. Your complaints, too, will spontaneously be expressed, and your vile humanity will be entirely exposed. However, you continue to disavow your own rebellion. And you believe that a Christ such as this is not easy to accept and He is overly stringent with man, and you would wholly submit if He were a different, kinder Christ. You believe that there is a cause for your rebellion, that you only rebel against Him when Christ has driven you to a certain point. Never have you realized that you do not regard Christ as God, nor do you have the intention to obey Him. Rather, you stubbornly insist on Christ doing work according to your mind, and upon any work that has not been done so, you believe that He is not God but a man. Are there not many among you who have contended with Him in this way? Whom is it that you believe in? And how do you seek?
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| Picture of The Church of Almighty God | Those Incompatible with Christ Are Surely Opponents of God |
