Training in the Word through Faith (2 Tim. 3:14-17)
There’s no choice but for you to do deep breathing; you just have to do it. When I find myself being tired, I take a deep breath and hold it for as long as I can, because that’s a time for oxygen to go into every part of my body. Specifically, more oxygen goes into my brain so I’ll become awake.
In order for you to do world evangelization, God will strengthen your mental, spiritual, and physical state. You have a large vessel so this is how God is training you. When you’re tired in the afternoon, please practice this.
Today’s passage is the word Paul gave to his disciple Timothy, “Continue in what you have learned.” You have to learn about God, not by mysticism or in a mystical way, but it’s through the Bible. Not just learning it, but it must come into you with assurance, and this is why you’re constantly trained in the Word. This is the reason why, from a young age, you are doing this.
If you’re trained correctly in this, then even when temptations or problems come, you’re able to overcome it. The reason why the first generation of Exodus wandered the wilderness for 40 years was because they didn’t have this assurance, they didn’t have this standard of the Word while they were in Egypt. One day, they were able to receive salvation through the Exodus, but because they had no assurance regarding the Word, they had no choice but to waver continuously through the wilderness.
When they say something, it’s probably like, “It’s because of my circumstances that were like this, so if my life were in better circumstances, it would have been better.” They may think, “If God is alive, would He really allow something like this to happen?” They may deny God and leave the church.
All of this is a misunderstanding; it’s because they didn’t learn who God was at a young age, so they emphasize a god they know. But for us to not do this, God gives the remnants the accurate Word so that we know it and are assured in it, then what does the Bible say?
“You know the Holy Scriptures that are able to make you wise in Christ Jesus.” This is actually very important. The Jews and Pharisees received God’s Word and knew it from infancy at a young age, but they didn’t know faith in Christ Jesus. They have to be in Christ Jesus to know faith, but because they only knew the law, they used legalism and diligence and actions. They thought they would be righteous by keeping the word, so from a young age, they did not receive the accurate word.
The church that speaks the accurate Word is important, the Word is the Word but if it doesn’t take you to Jesus Christ and takes you into mankind’s actions, those words will make you suffer. Why is it that remnants do not come joyfully to church? It’s because the word, “In Jesus Christ” hasn’t entered into them. Simply put, only the words of, “What I have to do” has entered into them, so simply put, they cannot enter into worship. Why? They’ve received and heard the word, but they’re trying to hold onto their actions, and it’s similar to Buddhism.
It is Word training, ever since you’re a young training, where the word of Jesus Christ and all the scriptures of the Old Testament point to Jesus Christ, place you in Jesus Christ, and that’s how you’re made wise in salvation. Something you may misunderstand is, when we talk about salvation, there’s a salvation that takes us out of Satan. However, there are things that we need to be saved from even though we’ve received our initial salvation: we need to be liberated from the standard of looking at things physically.
Even after Paul received the gospel, he had three years where he had to apply this, why? Because his frame of legalism was centered on, “What can I do with God’s Word?” and they use this legalism to look down on others, so after receiving salvation, they’re stuck in legalism and can’t come out of it. So, because people live with this kind of frame, when they go into the world, they say, “If you don’t study well, you’ll fail,” and they put legalism upon themselves.
We have received complete liberation through Jesus Christ, but instead, people are holding onto a nonsensical standard, “Am I going to live or die?” But we live not by our actions but by our faith that Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection has set us free from all the sins and curses. We cannot be righteous on our own, but by faith in this, God considers us righteous.
For anyone who thinks they are righteous because they keep the law by their actions, God calls them a sinner, meaning you have no freedom. You yourselves are caught in this frame, but you decide, “I’m great,” or, “I’m not great.” The world tells you, “If you don’t study well, you will not succeed; you will fail.” You can’t come out of it, even if you were successful. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ liberates you from everything.
God has given a talent to every one of you. When God calls you, He calls you with a talent He has given to you. He gave it to you for world evangelization but instead, you say, “I have to do my studies well” or not, and then you get caught up in this. “I have to go to this school or that school,” you make all your decisions based on what you think instead of what God thinks, so after being saved, you’re oppressed by legalism. The kids can’t breathe.
There is a talent God gives us for world evangelization, but people make their own standards and crowd towards those things. Even on Sunday, they say they have to study because they’re oppressed by legalism. All you have to do is enjoy freedom, but you’re oppressed by your family. If children aren’t able to live up to those standards, they are oppressed thinking their lives won’t work out, and they can’t enjoy it.
God has given them a talent, but it’s blocked. Korean parents say, “Be a doctor, a lawyer, or professor. If it’s not that, your life is over.” But who determined this rule? It’s the people, and they emphasize this to their kids, “You’re going to fail otherwise.” What is the gospel? Find what God has given to you for world evangelization, that is the gospel.
Some people go to church, being bound by this or that. They suffer by themselves. From a young age, if you’re educated in the ways of legalism, it’s big trouble for you. It must be the words of the gospel by faith. You do not become liberated by your actions, but it’s by faith. You keep trying to do correct things by your actions, but it is by faith. If your children aren’t educated like this from a young age, the church will have no charm to them.
It says in 2 Tim. 3:16, God’s scripture is God-breathed. This is not compiled by man’s wisdom, but God moved, using people. The scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so you must receive this training from a young age. If you do not learn this within the church, then when you go out into the world, you’ll get caught up by legalism because the world is legalism.
We say God’s Word is the law because we’re talking about this basic standard. The world makes you listen and follow after people’s words, irrelevant to God. The things God gave to us cannot be given by people, so that’s why He gave us the gospel. When we talk about the gospel, it’s not just about salvation, but it’s the freedom and liberation that God desires to give us while we’re bound by these laws.
If you do not receive the Word this way, then all the pastor’s kids who grew up this way will have difficult lives. There’s a parable of the upright kid and then the prodigal son. The upright people seem to be upright because they bear it, they have an obedience towards people that they demonstrate, and the people who are not upright, such kids will go awry, but the outcomes are the same.
When people look at the upright kid, they clap and say, “You did a good job,” but it’s actually the same, because when you see the upright child, they will become like Job. Why? Because they’re following after the things God said. They are fearful of God’s punishment so they obey. People like this will still receive physical blessings, but the people who are not like this will go astray, and later on, God will touch them and make them completely believe the gospel.
People don’t actually believe in God; they believe in their actions by themselves. Look at Job, he was so good at worshiping, why? He had to keep the law. It’s not a bad thing because God considered that “faithful,” and He gave many blessings to Job. However, there was a slight crack where, everything wasn’t aligned with God. Satan knew this and wanted to tempt Job, so Job ended up just losing things. When you lose things, it’s actually a blessing. Humanly-speaking, it may be sad but it’s the way for you to experience Christ.
If you hold onto something, you’ll misunderstand, “God is blessing me because of this,” but that’s incorrect. You can never accomplish that. God will never bless us by the actions of our worship. It is only by the faith in Jesus Christ that we’re able to have assurance in this, and God wants to give us this faith. That’s why it says God’s Word is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. This means, evangelism.
What is a good work you can do? What do you think God considers to be good work? God doesn’t consider anything good outside of the gospel. You may consider things good, the Pharisees thought if they lived like that, it was commendable by God. In the New Testament, there’s the parable of two sons. The older son is so obedient, and the younger, prodigal son asks for his inheritance, blows it away, and comes back.
But when the father took off his ring and robe for his son, the older son was so offended, why? Because everyone is considered righteous because of this gospel, but the older son had his righteousness by his actions. He was saying, “I was obedient so I should be treated well, but why does this younger son get everything after he ran away?” This parable represents the Jews.
Does that mean we can go around making a mess of things? God will even make such a person righteous before the gospel. What are we saying? It cannot be done by mankind, but it is only by the gospel that we can do this, because only the righteousness of Jesus Christ can be seen as my righteousness as I hold onto it, and God looks at me as righteous when I hold onto and believe this.
God touched Job until he came to this point. The Bible says today that the gospel will be a benefit to us. The law will kill people, why? Because it reveals our sin. But the gospel gets rid of our sons. But it is not by our actions that our sins disappear, but it is by the actions of Jesus Christ. It is not our actions that make us righteous, but our faith in Jesus Christ that enables us to save the world. The peace of the Prince of Peace doesn’t come to me because of my actions, but it is Jesus Christ. Faith comes through Jesus Christ, and you must be trained in this from a young age.
If you don’t do this and you attach something else, the kids will not want to go to church. “Do this, do that,” they won’t want it. Especially those who are spiritually sensitive, they will become so sensitive that they won’t. But such people love it when you emphasize the gospel because they already cannot do it with their own strength, but if you say, “Do it!” they lose strength. But if you say, “You weren’t meant to do it with your own strength,” they will be strengthened.
Why do families crumble? There’s no freedom of the gospel, and there’s only the heaviness of legalism and when you go to church, they say something obvious, “This is a sin, that’s a sin,” and you know that already, so you don’t want to come to church. People listen to this and become heavy-burdened and leave, but those who go to church for a long time say they know it, so they don’t come to church. Such people haven’t received the gospel accurately, even as they’ve heard it.
Even when the gospel is explained to them, it’s parsed as legalism because that’s how they understand, so they waver and wander alone by their heavy burdens, but this is actually not a normal sin before God. That’s why the Jews, even though they were given the gospel, they reverted to legalism. From a young age, it’s very important for you to receive the training of knowing the gospel.
As we live from this point on, how will we go? With the righteousness of Christ to be a witness to save others. This is a blessing of all blessings for you. The evidence that America doesn’t have the accurate gospel is because it’s full of religion. The kids don’t come to church. Choose one person from your school. There isn’t one time where the kids received the gospel. Everyone misunderstands, “I go to a big church,” or, “I go to a large church,” they haven’t had the gospel. Most people, even as they go to church, are separated from this, so they’ve never once received the accurate gospel. Even if they do hear it, they don’t listen to it.
I hope you will have the blessing of relaying the accurate gospel. We’re not just conveying Christ and the Word, we’re giving them the gospel that will liberate people from what’s tying them up. Showing the name Jesus isn’t enough to liberate people, you have to abundantly convey the gospel of Jesus Christ for people to come out of this. They’re completely seized by evil spirits, so its’ not enough to explain Jesus Christ. The gospel that liberates them must go into them.
It’s the Christ who has completely liberated us from the curses and disasters that come from our sin. This isn’t something we do with our efforts, but it is what God is doing. We are not liberated from demons by our efforts, but it is Jesus Christ on the cross. We don’t meet God by our diligence; we can only meet God through Jesus Christ. This complete and accurate gospel must be relayed for the light of the gospel to reach them.
For us to be able to convey this accurate gospel, we must know what seizes people. Some people say, “Even after having received salvation, you have to repent,” so all they’re doing is repenting. But what are you going to do if you meet someone like this? If you’re not able to diagnose this, it will be a headache for you, why? Because if I know the gospel, I can diagnose it. This person is seized by their sin so they say they have to repent, “I have to repent by my efforts, and if I don’t repent, it won’t work out.”
What’s the starting point? Myself. The starting point of religion and repentance is something you’d always have to do, then. But Christ has already undertaken all my curses and disasters that should have come upon me, but He took it by Himself, and I’m liberated by faith in this. That means that even after having received salvation, there are fruits of our actions.
If you have a dirty mouth, you’re saying bad things about others, mocking others. They are those who love money so much that they steal money. They love themselves so much and try to assert themselves to win arguments. Each person is stuck in something. Education cannot fix these people. You have to enable them to love Jesus Christ in order for them to come out of this. If all things are within Jesus Christ, there’s no reason for me to look towards other things or to money because I can win the race.
Then, everything is healed because loving God is loving the gospel. It is the faith of believing in Jesus Christ Who overcomes your problems, and that faith is what it means to love God. Then even though you have shortcomings in the eyes of other people, God looks at you and says you have nothing. God uses such people. David wasn’t used because of his righteousness, God didn’t use Joseph because of his righteousness; if anything he talked too much. “You have to fix your mouth to do world evangelization,” he tattled on his brothers about everything they did. God didn’t use Joseph because of his actions, he had the gospel and was unable to change his actions, so God liberated him. You don’t have to talk about people. The goal is to elevate yourself, so you talk about others, and ultimately that’s evidence that you love others instead of God.
Do you know why people emphasize themselves instead of God’s Word? If the opponent is coming from that standpoint, you have to fight, so that means you love your words instead of God’s Word. So then, disasters keep coming and ever since you’re young, God desires for you to change this through the Word. The things within a person, regardless of their education or worldly experience, cannot change. Only Jesus Christ’s Word coming upon us through faith will change us.
Then, no matter what happens, a parent will desire for their kids to enter into this gospel, otherwise they will walk the same path the parents walked, but the parents don’t know this and will acknowledge this only when the kids are all grown. It’s not for lack of education. I’m speaking as a witness. But they always think they’re the exception, “It’s only because it’s your kid, but it’s not mine.” But it’s never like that. “It’s because Pastor Park was an unbeliever,” but that’s a misunderstanding.
It is “in Christ,” because there’s a separate plan for world evangelization and God has given individual talents to each person. How can we find this? Only by Word, prayer, and evangelism. Why? You must find this to do world evangelization and this must come into you from a young age, otherwise it will be difficult for you. But what’s difficult about the world? It’s not the world itself, but you’re caught within your own frame that you built for yourself. Others aren’t scarring you, but you scar yourself because you only know yourself, and all things in the universe only move according to your thoughts, and if they don’t align, you’re scarred.
God is actually giving you the training so you can think from another person’s perspective. Without this training as a young kid, you’ll struggle. You may do whatever you want in your household and the parents will look the other way, but the parents forgive you. When you go out into the world, it will be warfare because everyone asserts they are their own gods, so it is a battle amongst gods. Weak-minded people will fall, unable to assimilate into the world. That’s powerlessness. It’s not that you don’t have skill, but you have no power, why? Because you only know yourself.
The churches have made it so you only know yourself, never once did you receive this training where you can think about another person’s situation. Even in the world, they tell you to value others and to think about other people, but even when you have the complete gospel, this isn’t inside of you, so you’re afraid of people. You’re afraid of working.
You have to receive the training of the gospel where we hold onto God’s Word, why? Because, why would God put you in that workplace, field, or family? “If I hadn’t met these parents,” everyone is so self-centered, but, “Why did God place me in my family? Why did God bring me to AMC?” Instead of receiving these answers, we stress out. I think all of this is okay because this is a human limitation.
What training do you need? You need the training to help you see why a person has no choice but to be the way they are, but it can’t end there. You must have the gospel training, “Why is God allowing me to go through this?” When Remnants hear the gospel, they misunderstand it as “Christ,” so they’re unable to adopt this gospel in their lives, why? Because when they hear the gospel, they think they’re receiving the gospel and nothing else. That’s why we use the word, “Gospelization.” Even when you’re having a conversation with people, you’re speaking the gospel to them. You’re not looking at them legalistically, but you’ loo But if you look legalistically, the person across from you must die a lot. Why? Because you’ve determined the correct conduct, but the Bible says believe in Christ.
“Shouldn’t you be better?” The world teaches this to us, but such people only hold onto weaknesses. Then you’ll change into darkness and everywhere you go, people are going to die, but people misunderstand. You have to keep emphasizing this. Those who are a little more upright, because even unbelievers do things without real transformation, it’s just religion.
What is it for us? Do we just say, “Gospel,” and move past it? No, but you must discover God’s plan, and if God gives you a revelation, it will change. Everything coming from God. If you don’t have this, you’ll be constantly caught up by your worries.
God has no choice but to put you in a program where you have to know the gospel, and he takes the things away from you because he wants you to know then you realize that for the sake of the gospel, God has given this to you. Then you have a misunderstanding. He will give you the answer of only, uniqueness, and re-creation.,
God gives you the answer for world evangelization and takes you into the direction of Re-Creation, of saving people. Only Christ. Why do people fall into problems/It’s only “me” and “legalism.” God needs me, and we would only you have to not listen to your parents. What the parents are doing, they don’t know it because this is everything.
If my kid is like this, there’s a pat I have lived until now.; If I contain that, I can simply relay what God has called me to relate. I don’t really like my child but I can’t raise her how I want. She’s so scrawny, first of all. I have to educate and give my God-given things to my daughter, instead of what I think is correct.
We must speak beyond the level, but we only talk about the words of the gospel and people are tired because of that, then we have mixed legalism. But that’s not what God wants. When they relay the gospel, that’s the only gospel. Paul confesses the height, width, depth, and height of God’s love are endless. Ever since you’re a young age, you should be trained in the gospel. Be trained on your Saturday messages and don’t lose hold of it. Prayer and summit time, those things are available to the remnants, and ever since a young age, may you go into the training of the gospel.
I’m at an age where I don’t need this. Our college students don’t need training anymore but they have to know how to teach. That’s what God does to raise leaders. But if you’re just saying, “I will learn but I won’t teach, then you’ll be handicapped. May you enjoy this blessing.
Prayer
Father God we thank You. May You bless the remnants, and from a young age, may you give them the blessing of the gospel. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.