Believe in God’s Word in the Field to Save the Field (Acts 13:48)
Acts 13:48 talks about all those who are destined to receive eternal life, believed. To what extent do we have to know God? Yes, we need to know the God Who saved me, but we also need to know how God is moving me out in the field in order to know God. I think most people have assurance and faith in their own salvation. But you don’t know how God is working in your fields. Most people have where they work diligently and come to church. But you need the assurance and how he works in your field.
But if you don’t know this, you’ll try your best, living diligently and think that’s a good life or walk of faith. But that’s only a believer inside church buildings, and they’re thankful for the God who saved them and gives them grace every day. They only know the God who works within worship. We live our entire week out in the field of the world, but we don’t have the assurance in the roadmap God gives us, and that’s why we lose all of our strength in the field and come back because we don’t know how God is working. You just work your best and are diligent, or you try to live a very Christian life, but the most that amounts to is that you live a very ethical or moral life.
Or becoming careful of your words, because you don’t want to offend anyone even if they know you’re a Christian, so you just become a Christian that’s just anxiously placing your actions. You have no strength in your field, and you don’t know what you need to do. So everybody loses their strength in the field. Your not even able to fight. There’s some people who don’t even care if they’re Christian so they just fight. People say they’re going to fight whether they’re in church or not. But most people will love a very oppressed life.
One day, they’re going to be so oppressed that they’ll explode and no one can stop them. Then from that point on, they’ll say, “I’m a Christian but I’ve already been found out,” so they’ll live however they wanted to from the beginning. Why is that? It’s because no one learned or taught about how God is guiding us according to the Bible.
In the passage, it says, “Those who are appointed to receive eternal life,” it’s not talking about people in the church, but it’s talking about people in the field. It means that without a doubt there are people in the field where I study and work who have been appointed to receive eternal life, and that’s all God is interested in working towards, but instead you’re working diligently like a unbeliever, then you become a unbeliever in the field and only a believer in the church, then imagine how much the devil loves you. He’s just playing with you. You have to break that.
You break that and relay that to the next generation. If you do not, they’re going to be beaten up in the field. I don’t know what kind of evangelism you know, but it must be the biblical evangelism because even my mother, a buddhist, knew about evangelism. Even when she was a buddhist, their greatest value was to convert others to buddhism, so when she became a Christian, she understood evangelism that way as well. It’s the same thing, you shouldn’t understand evangelism then same way everyone else does, “We have to bring another person into the church.”
That’s not evangelism. I’m not saying it’s bad. Why would it be bad to bring someone to church to worship. But I’m talking about the fact they don’t know how God is working in their fields. Because they don’t know, they’re blind so they have no choice but to live for the physical things. That’s what I’m talking about. If people go to church diligently but never learned this, then they’ll be eaten up in the field. Because in the field, Satan is king. And if you don’t know what God is doing, then without a doubt, you’ll be seized. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve gone to church, or what kind of other things you’ve done, when you’re in the field of the world, you have no choice. But the Bible specifically and surely tells us people are appointed to receive salvation. Then my eyes must be turned in that direction. You have to know God, that God appointed people in the field to receive salvation.
You have to know evangelism as God is moving everything in the direction of saving those who are appointed to receive eternal life. But if that’s not how you understand evangelism and you just think, “Evangelism is a nice thing to have but I’m not able to do it because I’m not qualified,” that’s not biblical evangelism. Without a doubt, the book of John says Jesus sends us out into the world. Because there’s people to receive salvation through the gospel there.
This is how you need to know God, but if you have no interest in that and go into the world to work and study diligently, you’re a unbeliever in my eyes, because if you just look at that aspect, you’re a unbeliever. If you have no idea what God has promised or how God is working in your field, you’re an unbeliever. That’s why when I tell you to receive a lot of field and evangelism training, it’s not to do something special but it’s to open your eyes.
You have to be in your field, already knowing God and knowing God has sent you to this field, this region, and this nation because people have been appointed to receive salvation here. All of God’s interest is being concentrated upon me and those who have been appointed to receive eternal life. But if you don’t know that, you’re a child of God and God has no interest in you.
God had no interest in King Saul. His job or profession was to be king, and he was very diligent in that, but that wasn’t God’s interest; that person is not aligned with God. However, God saw David and realized, “If I make this person king, he will do the work I want,” and that’s why God raised him up.
There are many Christians in your field, but who is the Christian God is looking for? God desires to use the one who has the assurance and faith regarding the work God is promising to do in your field, but if you don’t have that, you’re a unbeliever. Yes, you received salvation, but your state is an unbeliever in the field. It’s impossible for God to give this person many blessings because they’re living for themselves and God’s work does not happen at all. If anything, God saves you from walking into danger, but you barely exist like an unbeliever.
Who does God desire? God wants the one who knows God Who has appointed people to receive salvation in the field, its’ the one who goes into the field, holding onto this. Then, do you think that person will not work diligently? That’s the person who will do the work aligned with God. You have to be aligned with God. Then, you’ll see how God is working in your field. In order to save this one soul, God will move all incidences.
All the history that happened from the beginning of time until the moment Jesus Christ was crucified was centered on the incident of the cross. God is carrying out thousands of years of prophets, priests, and kings, for the incident of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, and we’ve received salvation through this incident that was already fulfilled. Then, God is aligning everything in the universe to testify of this incident to save lives. You have to know that in order for you to know God’s plan, time schedule, and work in your field.
It’s not clear just by reading the Bible. Joseph read that, he didn’t have anything but he had everything because he knew what God was doing in the field, but if someone reads the Bible without knowing this, they will wonder, “How could he be blessed this way?” They would interpret, “He is more blessed than us, he’s different because he had such a good result.” That person may still be a Christian but they don’t know a fraction of the Bible or God. They say they’ve believed for so long even though they’ve not heard of this.
Whether you know about it or not doesn’t change the fact that this is the truth; you have to know it. People do not have that level of theology and that’s why we have to raise up evangelism theology. Why do I say this? Because I did not come to America to evangelize, I came here to be a professor to raise up evangelism seminaries and even though I look this way, I came with this mission, I was interested in an evangelism seminary because this is the message and calling I received from Rev. Ryu.
But strangely enough when I saw this person giving the message, it wasn’t aligned with me. After time passed, I realized God was showing me what God really wants through an evangelism seminary. It doesn’t really exist because they don’t teach how God is working in the field, they only teach about missionary work. We commission missionaries to China and they do work there. But if you want this to be a theology, God must work the same anywhere you are. We call that theology.
It’s the same with the evangelism field, wherever God is, God does this work. You raise someone up with the Word of God this way, and that’s how you raise up a theologian. God prevented me from studying earlier to reveal this over time. He stopped me from studying altogether because if I had gone down that unnecessary path, I would have said unnecessary things like, “You have to study this kind of theology.”
What I’m saying today is that you have to see how God is realistically working in your field through the covenant and the frame, and because believers are not able to have the theology, we can’t teach about what God is doing in the field and we can only save people in the church. As evidence of that, the believers are confused and dying in the field, but all the people in the Bible like Joseph and Moses had victory in the field. None of them did great works within the home, but God showed them great works while they were in the field. This is what you must restore.
If you don’t experience this yourself and confirm the Bible and relay this to the next generation, then you’re going to make it so they’re not centered on the gospel, then you’re going to say, “My kid goes to church well,” or you’ll say, “I’m sure my kid will start going to church one day,” because you’re not in the field,but your standard is whether you go to church or not. “Because we go to church, God blesses us,” that’s the only thing we know. It’s the same as saying, “I went to a Buddhist temple and my business is going well.” Unbelievers believe they are god so they do their own business well. You shouldn’t hold onto something unbiblical saying you believe, that’s all dog poo.
In your region, God has appointed people to receive eternal life through you. God moves everything in your life, yoru business, and meetings for this purpose. If you really understand this, you’ll never say things like, “I went into the field and it’s hard for me to work and evangelize at the same time,” you’ll realize God is moving everything in the direction of saying the people God has appointed so you won’t say, “I can’t evangelize and do business. My job is like this, and this is like that,” people say this because they don’t know the God who works in the field. Even if they know about the God who gives them grace in the sanctuary, they don’t know the God who works in the field,s o they’re believers in the church building but they have no strength in the field. Because Satan is destroying this world through disasters, they’re being shaken along with it. No need to say anything about the future generations, because no one can teach and continuously give this to them. And no matter how much you struggle against it, if you don’t have the covenant given by God, you’ll shake.
Paul knew this. And he saw this every time he went to a different region. To proclaim the gospel and for this purpose, God attached meetings like with him and Lydia. For the sake of salvation. The cross is for salvation and everything that happened in the history of the Old Testament is in the cross. And until the Lord comes back a 2nd time, all nations must receive this gospel. It’s not that everybody in the region must receive the gospel, but everybody that has been appointed to receive the gospel must receive the gospel. Receiving the gospel is the will of God, then giving the gospel to everyone God has placed in your life is the will of God. God is the one who moves your business, if you don’t have that conclusion, you are simply a believer in form. You just say, “I diligently receive grace and work.” You’re just like a Buddhist. God owns the whole universe. And when you believed in Jesus you believed him as your God and Lord. Then God is also the Lord of my business. And what does God want to do through that business? He wants to save souls.
“Pastor I’ve never heard of anything like that,” if you never heard of the gospel, you go to hell. If you don’t receive the word that God is working through the blessings in your field, then it’s just your own laws, if you don’t know it, not knowing it is a sin. Your ignorance is sin. Ignorance of God is sin.
As a pastor, how can I convey this to you? If I don’t relay this, harm will come to me. How can I relay this to believers? If you’re taught this and you still don’t know, you’re beaten half to death. Church members don’t know, therefore, if you don’t know biblical evangelisms, you don’t know God. There’s unbeliever evangelism like buddhist evangelism; there’s salesman evangelism but that’s not what we want to do; we want to do biblical evangelism. We’re talking about the evangelism where God is working the exact same way no matter where you are, and to know this, you have to believe that there are people in the field appointed to receive salvation. That word must be deeply rooted within you. If it’s not deeply rooted, you’ll go into the field and say something else instead. The only thing you see is your diligence, the only thing you learned is trying your best, so that’s all you do. People compliment each other for doing that, so you think that’s right, but that isn’t right from God’s eyes.
God placed you in the field to save this one soul, but you’re not interested in that even though all of God’s interest is there, and that’s the reason God gave you this job, that’s the reason God is moving this business, but I have no interest in God’s business at all, it’s just diligence. Your diligence is not enough. Some things are possible through diligence, but when you learn in school, you learn 1+1 is 2, but in society, is it always the case? It’s 2 in school but it’s not in the field, so I started to get confused. I believed and learned and really thought that 1+1 is 2 but in the world, it’s -2. Sometimes instead of 2, it becomes 5. I’ve seen that before, “He should be two, why is he a five?” It turns out he’s a Christian. God showed this to me so I could believe.
Nothing is bound to break my thoughts otherwise, so God had to show me a “2” who was a “5” for me to realize who this person was, that they go to church, but for me, I was always a -2, and other Christians believe and are -2 and -3, but it’s evidence God is alive. It’s very simple.
Why is my business like this? It’s evidence God is alive; it’s not about me doing well or not, God is my Master. Why do I work so diligently but I’m negative? God is alive. If you work diligently, you have your diligence, and the results of your diligence is more or less, but it’s up to God. The general rule is 1+1=2 but in our everyday life, 1+1 may not be 2; some people even get to 100. Some people who reach rock bottom are negative, but it’s in God’s hand because God works according to His Word in the field.
You must have certainty that there are those appointed to receive salvation. Even if you have assurance of your own salvation, you don’t hear about the assurance of others’ salvation, you’re shaking in evangelism. You know for sure you’re saved, but you don’t have assurance that there’s someone in the field appointed to receive salvation, so you shake when you go out into the world, so if someone says something to you, you’ll shake again, and if your job doesn’t work out, you’ll shake again, and if your job works out well, you’ll shake in a way that it goes well, but you have no assurance either way.
The one who had assurance was Joseph, and then everybody had to move centered on this person, including Potiphar because God is working through this person, and that’s why Joseph and David became the center. It doesn’t matter whether King Saul and the Early Church were educated or not, these are all standards of people and the world, but when God moves, He’s bound to fulfill His covenant.
It’s not a difficult thing, it’s not even asking you to do anything; all you have to do is know and believe in this God, and that’s how you can see the work God is doing. That’s what I’m saying. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do anything, but if you add 1+1 you’ll get 5 because God is doing it. Look at Joseph, he had more than 100-fold. Rev. Ryu goes beyond 100-fold, he’s 1000-fold, but that’s up to God, it’s not something done with the logic of man, that’s what God gives that’s necessary for the field, isn’t that right?
“Oh, I worked so diligently that God gave me this,” do you think you’re a buddhist? Everybody says that. Of course when I was an unbeliever, I worked very diligently. You might be able to rely that to someone who has a low level faith. But not someone like me.
Everybody works diligently, non-believers are more diligent than you. Believing in Jesus Christ isn’t diligence, you need to have the diligence of God. Where is the diligence of God? In salvation of souls. There’s nothing he’s interested in other than that, he moves everything for that purpose. For that purpose, he’ll give and take away your health. If you need health in order to save other people, he’ll give you health, but if you use your health to wander around too much, then God has to take away your health. And everything moves according to the standard of God’s covenant.
What do you think will happen to a person in the field with assurance? It doesn’t even matter what’ll happen in the field, they won’t bat an eye. They’re ok. And God will make this person into someone who is absolutely necessary, because this is the only person who can save people in the field. And that is why because of this person, God kids all of Potiphar’s household towards blessing. And he moved all Egypt towards blessings because of one person Joseph.
The blessing itself isn’t the goal, salvation is the goal. And the name of Jesus must be testified in order for salvation to take place.
This is not what I was originally planning on talking about, but this is all accumulated in me and is spilling out. Before this point, it wasn’t really organized. It’s kind of like a foggier side of me, until today, but God was able to deliver this word through me because there are people here who must receive this Word. I have a lot of regret or frustration because I believed in my own salvation and grace but I didn’t believe in God’s covenant for world evangelization and the salvation of my field.
When I see the way God has been giving us the Word, it’s not that He is suddenly giving us this Word today, a lot of things have been happening but God gives us with certainty with the Word, and I can see the works that God is doing in the future. If we talk about evangelism, we can talk about evangelism depending on our mood or behavior. Our evangelist is giving us the message because he’s confirmed all the works in the field because there’s a different time schedule for each person, field, and church. But because this was not set solidly, when someone had works arise, then everyone would flock to that. I know them closely, we graduated from the same school and went to the same church. I konw when the message went into them, but only people in America don’t know, but I know the entire process. The person was good and field-oriented, but the problem is that he saw works taking place in the field and changed the word to what he wanted, even though he didn’t have the theology.
If there are pastors who know about the field and bibliical evangelism, they would not have gathered ot him; if anything, they would have just accepted what had to take place. They acknowledged this was the necessary time schedule, not necessarily something I did. People asked, “Why are things not taking place in America?” It’s not whether things are taking place or not, but there’s a time schedule and the evangelist has to see that. You have to know the Word of God to not shake; otherwise you’ll constantly shake.
If one person rises up, whether they will live or die, everyone flocks to them, but we just smile. Birds of a feather flock together. What will they do after that? What will they do in 10 years? They have no calculation, they’re just so extreme and immediate, but then it’s so hard. “This is God’s time schedule for me in this field,” and I said this earlier, “It’s a time for God to lay this solid foundation of prayer.”
Without a doubt, when one or two people are converted, it’s not from out of nowhere. Before you even met that person, there’s a large history of prayers being poured upon this person. All you see is the salvation, so you see whether they accept or not, but prior to accepting, many Christians have prayed for them for a long time, and God gives me this time schedule today. Then even if it’s not the time schedule for people around me right at this moment, if I keep praying for them then the time schedule may come for this person to receive salvation through the next generations.
This comes to you through faith. You have faith regarding salvation but you don’t have faith regarding your field and evangelism. Because you don’t have the sure faith in this, you’re shaking. If you did have this faith, then even if you didn’t see works taking place immediately, you’d see God is working, and God will make you pray for that person, then without a doubt, they will receive salvation.
Many of you may think, “There’s so many people, maybe they will receive salvation or not,” but God attached this person specifically to you to save them. What plan did God have to attach this person to you? They may receive salvation wheil you know them, but we don’t know that, so every day, we’re interested in this.
It doesn’t mean we don’t work; you only meet this person because you go into work, then what’s your priority? Saving souls, that’s what the Bible is telling us. Joseph was a slave but he was not a slave; he was an evangelist. Joseph knew this so he wasn’t oppressed, that’s what the Bible says. It seems like we’re salesmen, but we’re not; we’re evangelists. Even if we’re salesmen, we’re not oppressed because we know. But if you’re arguing “How big is your house?” You’re already wrong. “I’m so embarrassed at my job, I can’t even talk to other people,” that person is centered on themselves in their lives. If they knew this person was an evangelist, they would realize their job is a side job, then God has given me this job to save the people around me through this job.
If you do not teach the standards of God to the next generation, they will receive the standard of the world and you’ll corrupt them; it’s not right, it’s wrong, and you cannot see God’s work in things that are wrong, then you’ll make the next generation continuously suffer. There’s nothing after Joseph, he had to teach the next generation but he didn’t. That’s what it means to do the remnant movement, it’s not just about gathering them together, but afterward, what content will you spread to them? There’s a lot of gatherings, many gatherings at your job or school. Even now, there are gatherings all around the world with mics and speakers. They do all these events, but what’s the content? You relay what God desires to the next generation, you make it so they surely know the gospel and they know prayer.
What is prayer? God is with you and therefore you pray. We pray because God is with us. We pray because God is with everything. But if you don’t teach them the content of prayer, you’ll make them pray religiously. Then, how is God working in the field? The field is full of unbelievers, that’s evangelism. These are the things that are so weak.
Inside the church they have such big faith and assurance, if anything it’s a problem their faith is so big, they don’t know where to put it, they can wipe down tables with their faith, but the problem is what kind of faith they have in the field. Do you have faith in the covenant God gave you for your field? That’s evangelism.
The act of evangelism isn’t evangelism,but you need to hold onto your covenant with faith to save people. Then it doesn’t matter if this person is in the church or alone in the field, it doesn’t matter whether this person is old or young, because God is doing this work as long as we’re alive.
If we live our walk of faith without knowing this, we’ll go on saying, “I’m too old, it’s time for me to rest now,” that person has nothing to do with God. That’s asking God to take me to heaven faster. It’s saying, “I have nothing to do on earth, so I’m going to go fast.” Then God will call you relatively faster. You need to know God. No matter how the people in the field see you, you need to know that from God’s perspective, I am a unique ambassador, watchmen, and antenna of God. And you need to believe that in order to enjoy it in the church. Every church officer has their roles in the field.
Then God will situate all of these people around the region to do his work, otherwise, there’s no point in going to trainings. And as you’re doing this, there’s no evangelism movement, you have the blessing of doing this until God calls you.
There’s no reason to be upset because of your age; the blessings are the same. How do we know this? When you pray, God moves your heart. We don’t know what’s going on in someone’s heart, but when you pray, the Holy Spirit works. That’s how you know; you don’t know because you research some method. Even unbelievers have sayings like, “I had a gut feeling,” but if you opray, the Holy Spirit will move your heart. Even yesterday, I was praying for someone and didn’t feel anything, but today I prayed and God gave me a heart to want to talk to them. It’s possible they may approach me first or I may approach them first, it’s different for different cases, but that’s when we move.
Today may be the time schedule. But you don’t think about that at all and you focus on the diligence that has nothing to do with God; it’s Saul’s diligence that is misaligned with God. The priest has to give the sacrifice to receive God’s grace and forgiveness and victory in the battle, but King Saul gave his sacrifice on his own, you have no idea how big htis curse is. The people say, “You did this work because samuel was late.” The people of the world would say, “Thank you, this is what I should have done but you covered for me, so it’s good.”
God says, “Because of this, I cannot use you,” you shouldn’t sepak so humanistically. Someone may believe but speak humanistically, “As a human, of course the Word of God, but is love dead? Just, as a human.” But when people hear that, those words sound more correct. “Come on, as a human being,” like, Apostle Paul kicked John Mark out of the evangelism movement, so Apostle Paul fought with Barnabas. “How could you do this as a human being? If we come together as a team, we need to go together until the very end, isn’t that God’s plan?” Paul kicked him out. “If we bring him along, he will be a channel for Satan.”
Therefore, you must not be humanistic, but receive God’s guidance. The only standard is, if we take him along, will he help for missions and evangelism or not? This is the reason why Paul and Barnabas fought over this humanistic reason. It says in the Bible. Of course, apostle Paul is not the absolute standard at all, but the fact that Paul carried out the evangelism movement means God was standing on Paul’s side. I’m nto saying you should be inhumane for the gospel, but make your decision based on the direction of missions, evangelism, salvation.
The Bible never says people should be coldhearted or inhumane, what it means is, when it comes to missions and evangelism, you should not involve humanism. That’s important. From people’s perspective, King Saul was better than David, manly with a hairy chest. David was so weak, on the other hand, such that even when Samuel came to Jesse to find the next king, Jesse only brought out the older sons who were stronger and older. He brought up the next youngest and the next youngest, until the very end. “Are there any left?” Jesse said, “There’s one left,” and they brought him and he was right. Someone aligned with God, someone good for God to call.
A good servant is someone who is good for the master to call. It doesn’t matter what the servants decide amongst themselves, the master is not interested. Whoever is good for the master to call is a good servant. That’s our faith. I’m not saying to be inhumane, I’m saying you have to make a decision that transcends humanism for missions and evangelism.
It’s the same for your child, let’s say your remnant rejects the gospel and a remnant in the church is going into the gospel? The help that remnant go to the gospel. Why would I help my kid? That kid has no interest in the gospel, so maybe one day they may be interested, but I help the one who is interested in the gospel. That’s God’s will. “How could I do this to my own baby as a human being?” It’s God’s time schedule. Even if it’s my child, it doesn’t matter because whether it’s mine or not, if they go into God’s covenant, support them. Then I just leave my kid alone, believing in God’s time schedule. That’s God’s covenant, He works according to His time schedule.
This is the message God is giving to us and me at this time. So I hope you will always remember this in the field. What is your covenant in the field? It’s not your salvation; you already have that. You have to have assurance regarding people appointed to receive salvation, whether it’s today or tomorrow, it’s not up to us to know the time. Just like Noah, focus on one thing for a very long time. It wasn’t like he didn’t have a job; his kids got married and he went to funerals, but the only thing the Bible talks about is the focus on the Ark.
While he was doing that, he did everything else. Do you think he starved to death while building the Ark? God took care of everything. May you and I hold onto this covenant today and when we wake up in the morning, we should be excited for the day. There’s nothing to be excited about by yourself, because you do the same thing every day. But if you ask God, “what is your plan to save people today,” how could you feel any kind of excitement or anticipation in your heart?
Your heart will only race for a few days if you’re meet someone you’re interested in, or if you have a hobby and that’s why you change your hobbies. But for us, every day, we have a new eagerness and anticipation for what God is going to do in me and my field as we go every day. That was Noah. The Bible never said that Noah did a lot of business, but no one failed in their family in their business because their business existed for this. May you enjoy this blessing.
Prayer
Let’s pray holding onto the Word God gave us. God, allow me to live with the sure faith and assurance of the work God will do in my field. May the Biblical evangelism movement take place. Let us pray together.
Let us pray for our second prayer topic, so there will be a baptism, and there are three people being baptized. I remember the day of my baptism, March 30. In America when I went to school, they asked me for my baptism date and I wrote it down. It’s not that you receive salvation because you get sprinkled with water, because you’ve received baptism within you through the Holy Spirit. It’s through water baptism that you can confirm this again and reveal this to others outside. This incident happens only once per life.
If someone is baptized, there’s only one opportunity in their life, and to do this, you have to have the grace of God that doesn’t come for any other time in life. Let us pray for the Sunday message, for the baptism, and for the Remnant Conference of America.
Let us pray for our mission field, our family, field, and where we are, the empty places in America, the gospel going into them is God’s will.
So we’ll sing hymn 432 and we’ll have the benediction, personal prayer, church prayer, and we’ll go home.
Benediction
May you root down again in the faith and covenant of how God will work in our field to save people and not be shaken or be afraid. As you think about the field you are and the field of your family line, may we have hope in what God promised to do, this is the challenge we have in faith. May you have victory.
Now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the unlimited love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the people of God who desire to live all their lives, for those who have been appointed to receive eternal life, upon the multiethnic people, the remnants, upon their studies, businesses, and their ministries, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.