Believe that Everything is within the Covenant of Only Jesus Christ (Deuteronomy 4:25-40)
We will receive the grace of God with Deut. 4. Age by age, there is a mission God is trying to accomplish. The mission of today’s age is to make disciples of all nations, proclaim the gospel to all peoples and heal them. Raise up the future generations. That was the mission given 2000 years ago in the age of the Early Church.
Deuteronomy is a message that Moses is giving again to the next generation in the age of the Tabernacle while traversing the wilderness towards Canaan. They are not yet in the age of the Temple; they’re in the age of the Tabernacle and there is a mission God is accomplishing in this age. In order to go from the age of the Tabernacle to the age of the Temple, and then the age of the Church, they have to establish themselves in a region, and build a temple, and that was the land of Canaan.
For 40 years, the Israelites were going through the wilderness, and God gave them tremendous grace, with the representative grace was the Three Feasts, and the Tabernacle. That means, for 40 years, God taught them what worship is. Before this, Moses’ and Abraham’s level of worship was just individual worship, building an altar under a tree. During the age of Egypt, they had no choice but to worship idols. God called them out of that. In the age of the Tabernacle, God taught them worship in the wilderness. That’s why He created the roles such as the priests, the High Priest, and the Levites. That was a time of preparation for conquering Canaan.
Today, we live in the age of the Church. The representative prayer mentioned that this is the age where we worship in spirit and truth. We’re no longer in an age where we have priests to slaughter animals. Through Jesus Christ, Who is the Head of all priests, we can worship God in spirit and in truth. So, you have to know the difference between the biblical age and the age in which we live today, because in the past, this was the old covenant.
Deut. 4:25, God says, “After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land,” that is, the land of Canaan, “a long time–if you the become corrupt and make any kind of idol,” doing evil on the eyes of the Lord, it talks about idol worship. God continues to give us His Word, but what is idol worship? In the biblical times, they worshiped graven images, and that was the age they lived in. So whether they worshiped the visible idols like in the past, or invisible idols like today, what is the fundamental root of idols?
Exodus 20:4-5 says to not make an idol for yourselves. The words “for yourselves” are very important. Whenever I do something for myself, it’s possible that I may try to plan and imagine my own life, and we see and think, “Is this a problem?” but from God’s perspective, that is an idol. Col. 3:5 says that greed is idolatry.
As soon as you lose hold of God’s covenant, you have to draw your own life, so as soon as you lose hold of God’s covenant, you fall into idolatry. When they go into the land of Canaan, they may survive well physically, but they are warned to not do the works of idolatry.
In Deut. 4:26, God is so vengeful that He calls heaven and earth as witnesses against them. Heaven and earth will witness that you will quickly perish from the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.” We don’t like hearing words like that, and if possible, we think, “Can He not say words like this to us? Can we hear words we want to hear, instead?” But what’s important is that you’re not perishing in life, what’s important is that you’re not going down the path of destruction. That’s what would happen when you worship and serve idols.
When we talk about idols, it’s easy for us to think about unbelievers, but that’s not the case. Our greed, our ambition, our love of money, these are all idols. The Sunday message also said, “Your love of money will destroy you,” not money itself because money can be used by God. Our love should go towards God and other people, but if you’re loving money, which is just a tool, then actually you’re just loving yourself.
Deut. 4:27, “The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.” In actuality, they were taken as captives to places like Assyria and Babylon. During the age of Solomon, there was so much idolatry that Israel faced the disaster of splitting between North and South.
So, only do one thing: only be interested in the covenant of God. Everything else you’re afraid of losing is actually leading you down a path of destruction. In today’s terms, it means, “only do ‘only Christ’,” it means God has placed everything within the covenant of only Christ. That’s what today’s time schedule is like. Therefore, be a witness of the fact that we only have only Christ and we are only relaying only Christ, but money and everything we need follows us.
Because we’re living in the field of capitalism where money is the lord, it’s possible that we may have a hard time distinguishing between the world and the Word of God. “Becoming rich is a good thing, why does the Bible keep telling me not to do that?” The Bible never told you that becoming rich is very good, but that’s what the capitalistic nation tells you. Because we grew up in a capitalistic nation, we think that these words aren’t problematic. However, the Bible tells you very directly that you will be destroyed.
Then, Christians living in capitalism, especially for America that’s Hooke on capitalism, they get confused. And even though we are using the same words, it’s possible we’re going towards extremes. There are some people who flow in the direction of, “Oh, I guess we should live a poor life and not have anything.” There are some people who go on the other extreme and completely ignore the Word of God and still pursue wealth. No matter where you go, those two extremes exist.
Just like the saved people who received the 10 Commandments by saying, “If we don’t follow these 10 Commandments, we will die,” we have that legalism inside of us. As a result, we change God into a scary God, but God is a God of grace. The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are the same, but people look at God with their legalism, so they’re afraid of God. There’s no need for you to worship idols if you believe in God, isn’t that right?
There’s no need for you to live for yourself. If you believe in the covenantal relationship you have with the Lord, there’s no reason for you to live for yourself because the Lord is taking care of you, and that’s what the Lord desires. But if you lose hold of that, and you’re so focused on whether you should keep it or not, that’s what makes your walk of faith so difficult. In the New Testament, the Word of God tells us to love our brothers, but if you’re legalistic, you’re going to be oppressed thinking, “I can’t do that.” On the other hand, if you say, “I’ve been told to love my brothers, so I guess I’ll love them by saying nice words and being kind,” you can only go for a few days.
There’s always the precedent. If you love God first, then love will naturally take place. What is the evidence of love? If you ask 100 people if they love God, they might all answer differently, in other words, if you believe in God, then God’s grace will be upon you, right? For example, if my daughter just trusted me, she wouldn’t be afraid, thinking, “If I do this, he’ll do that, if I don’t do this he’ll do that,” but he just follows me. The real question is whether you love and believe, it is not a question of whether you’re doing something or not.
If you don’t see the Bible this way, you’ll be oppressed by everything you see. Because we have legalism inside of us, we receive the Word of God this way, even though it’s not how we’ve been taught. God is the same in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Some people say the God of the Old Testament is meaner than the God of the New Testament, but that’s not the case. The only difference is, “Is God with each person through the Holy Spirit or not?” God is always the same, even now and back then, He wants us to go into the grace of God through Christ.
If so, if we go into that cross, everything is okay because the Kingdom of God is my background. The Triune God is eternally with me. That’s not our efforts; only by Christ. This is not about doing something or not; He is with me forever. Through worship, He gives us His Word and His grace. The problem is me not receiving it. God is never the problem. As we keep following God’s Word, God fulfills it, conquering Canaan.
Deut. 4:28, “There, you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.” This means you will end up worshiping idols. God is prophesying, “You are bound to worship idols.” For us, living thousands of years later, we may think, “That’s not for us, that’s never going to happen to us,” but these are words for us. God is the same as He was back then, and people are the same as they were back then. Without a doubt, you’re bound to hold onto something else, we need to believe and hold onto the covenant, but without a doubt, we will end up holding onto something else.
That means we’re holding onto something other than the word of God’s covenant, that means you’re going to hold onto things like, “I’m going to do well,” or you’re holding onto things like, “Today is this day, so it’s going to be good,” or they hold onto things like, “I had a really good dream last night, so today is going to be a good day.” they’re not holding onto the Word of God. There’s no need to do that; why would you hold onto something else? Hold onto the Word of God. Why would you hold onto the pastor’s necktie? Hold onto the Word of God. Why would you hold onto the pastor’s hairstyle? Hold onto the Word of God, but if you do not hold onto the word of God, you’ll hold onto something else and you will be destroyed.
Deut. 4:29, “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and soul” so you’ll go through all of these and ultimately find God again, but you will only meet God again if you truly seek Him with all your heart and soul. That means God will not throw you away. God guides His chosen people until the rest of eternity. The way He does that is allowing those who worship idols to continue worshiping idols, then fall into suffering, so He can save us again.
The Israelites lived in this repetitive cycle, but what are we talking about? Hold onto one thing properly. If you don’t hold onto that one thing, you’ll end up holding onto something else, and you’ll be destroyed because of it. But, because you’re a child of God, you’ll receive grace again and be called back.
Deut. 4:30. “When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him,” so the ultimate result is to obey God. What does this mean? We’re meant to obey God’s Word from the very beginning, but if we’re deceived by Satan and fall into unnecessary suffering, you’ll ultimately return back to obeying God.
A long time ago, a college student asked me, “Pastor, even if I go to worship for a long time, I don’t really face big problems.” The reason this student said this to me was because they had grown up in the church where all they heard was, “If you don’t go to worship, you’ll be in big trouble,” but they went to school for a long time without going to worship, and this student told me, there was nothing wrong. What this student was talking about was, nothing was going wrong physically. Her grades weren’t dropping, she was still making good money at her job, and she was still getting along fine with her boyfriend.
What do you guys think? You shouldn’t think about this vaguely; you need to think about this very logically in order to give the answer to other people. They say, “Actually, I didn’t worship and nothing wrong happened,” if anything, you may do better, so what will you tell them? Are you going to say, “Try waiting a little longer”? You’ll probably say something like, “If you wait a little longer, God will strike you down eventually.” That’s not the answer.
If you have a physical problem you can see, that physical problem was revealed after a long progression from invisible problems. If you’re not able to receive the grace of God, you do not have problems immediately. As we keep on losing our invisible, spiritual strength, these different things will happen to our brains, our thoughts, and our heart, and that time schedule will be different for everybody. Just because we don’t have any visible problems doesn’t mean we don’t have problems. They are already in progress. One day, when the time schedule comes, the problems that are already inside will be revealed externally.
At that time, I didn’t tell this to the student, but I just said, “Okay.” But if you hold onto the Word of God physically or legalistically, you’ll be just like the student. At first, you’ll be very scared of God, and worship, but later on you’ll become more bold and more audacious against Him. The issue is not a legalistic issue of whether you worship or not, but the spiritual fact that if you don’t receive spiritual strength through worship, then your life will end up like this according to God’s Word. Ultimately, you’re going to end up listening to God’s Word in the end because that’s how people come to life. People can never be saved by anything else.
So, listen to God from the beginning. Don’t try experimenting, holding onto unnecessary things. He says, “Very few people will return,” because most people will not come, but it will be their children. Deut. 4:31, “For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.” God is a God of the covenant. God said He will keep the covenant he gave to Abraham and his ancestors exactly to these Israelites.
God says, “I will make you into a source of blessings, and I will make it so that all nations are blessed through you.” “When you go into the land of Canaan,” that was God’s promise. If you hold onto God’s covenant and take charge of the land of Canaan, God will do His work. God says He will make your name great, and He says, “I will make your future generations as numerous as the stars in the sky,” but what happens if you lose hold of God’s covenant? They will all die in wars. We have to remain in the land of Canaan, but we are taken as captives to faraway land.
God says, “I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse.” When is the power of the throne of God revealed? When we’re within God’s covenant, then God will be with us with the power of the throne of heaven and He will fulfill Canaan conquest. Through Christ, the Triune God is with me and with us. The power of that throne is with me. Through the power to do world evangelization, because God has that power. If I just want to survive then God will be with me with that much power. God has incredible power, but if my faith is small, that’s how much power He’ll give us. If I only want to live for myself, then only God will give me that much power. But if I say, “I want to save the church, future generations, and the world ” that is the power that will be with you because that’s who God is, and that God is with me. We are able to pray for God’s power to be revealed in all of our fields.
For us, it’s possible for us to pray transcending time and space. We are able to transcend time and space because that is how God is working now through the name of Christ. When we pray for our missions fields, God works, transcending time and space. This isn’t something we do, but we enjoy through faith, and when we hold onto that covenant, God says He will do this work. What a tremendous blessing this is! That’s why if you enjoy this blessing, then you, your field, and your family will enjoy unprecedented, never repeated answers. It means it has never happened before and will never happen again, unprecedented and never repeated. Because that’s what will happen to me when the blessings of the throne of heaven are within me.
Our church is bound to receive the answer of Uniqueness that is unprecedented, never repeated. There’s nothing you should worry about because there is something only you can do and there’s no reason for you to compare churches, because there’s something only our church can do. There’s no reason for you to compare your business with anyone else, because there is an unprecedented never repeated answer that only your business can do. But the condition is if it’s about my power and my diligence, then the church and business will not be like that. When I’m actually able to believe in and enjoy the power of the throne of heaven.
God will do His Work, but how do we get this faith? Only when we listen to God’s Word. We do not receive faith by studying, that’s how you know, and not believe. God never told us to study; He told us to leave. Sometimes when you’re studying the word of God, you receive faith, then it’s possible to do this even know this is possible for the remnants who are sitting here right now. When the faith of the covenant goes in, it’s possible. It’s not about someone’s physical appearance, but God looks at the spiritual things. It’s only because I look at myself. But if I actually enjoy the power and the blessings of the throne of heaven, then it’s no longer myself; I receive unprecedented and never-repeated answers.
The New Testament is the same, God says He will work with grace of the covenant exactly as He promised to our ancestors, to 237 nations and world evangelization “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” I’m not working hard to relay this blessing, but if I believe in God’s covenant, God promises that He will do all the work.
Deut. 4:32, “Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this happened?” That means God is trying to persuade the Israelites right now. He’s looking at them and they don’t believe, He can tell that they’re shaken, that’s why he continues to tell them, he can tell from their eyes that they’re going to hold onto something else.
Deut. 4:33-34, “Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?” This really happened in the Old Testament. What God has ever done this? They still don’t believe it. Even after seeing the Exodus and seeing the Red Sea part, you still should believe.
Satan is working 24 hours a day, invisible to our eyes to make us lose hold of the covenant because of disbelief. It seems like people do it, but that’s not the case. Honestly speaking, this problem started even before Genesis 3. The problem had already began from long ages past. Even before humans were created, the problem had begun. There was and fell, and that’s the beginning of problems, Satan. That’s why, even before God created human beings, he made the plan for salvation, and that’s why God planned for us, long ages-past. Even now we need Christ and also will in the future, until Satan disappears. When we’re in heaven without Satan, then we are with God forever. What’s the work we do? That means Satan is always working so that you cannot believe in God’s covenant.
Even right now, Satan is putting something else in your thoughts so you don’t hold onto God’s Word. If you’re caught in that, you’re bound to be dragged by it, and that’s why your life is being destroyed. It seems like you are doing it but it is a misconception. It is Satan of Genesis 3, which is not saying that Jesus is your escape. Only Christ, He has finished all problems. Only world evangelization. That’s what it means to hold onto Christ, the Christ Who is upon me, and the Christ Who will be transmitted through me. Within this is everything, whether you become wealthy or poor.
Paul learned to be content in all circumstances. That means that I’m not someone who belongs to the things of the earth. Money, “I’m not going back and forth because of money,” it means even if I’m in poverty, I’m not shaken, even if I make a lot of money, there’s no need to be shaken. Because money is simply a tool to fulfill God’s Covenant of Christ; it doesn’t matter. But within the one who gave me strength, I can do all things, which means, going beyond rich. If that is Gods’ plan, then God not only has the power to make me rich but double rich.
So, how do we have freedom from money? You can only be free if you hold onto God’s covenant. If you hold onto money instead, that’s not the covenant that’s an idol. Money should follow you; if you’re following after money, that’s serving idols. Why do you shake or tremble when you don’t have money? it’s because you don’t have your idol. Without a doubt, God promised to work to the extent that you need. Therefore, learn to be content, that’s how you enjoy the gospel. Joseph, went in as a governor, but he wasn’t shaken because of that, that had to happen for God’s plan to be fulfilled. And Joseph was impressed when he went in as a slave because that’s how God’s plan is fulfilled, it’s evidence he’s held onto the covenant.
Is there anything difficult for you? I hope you will hold to the covenant. It’s only difficult because you are holding onto something else, there’s nothing that’s a problem, I make problems for myself, within the covenant, nothing is a problem because God does it. Other people are not the problem. If there’s a problem, it’s “me,” why would anyone else by the problem.
When I hold onto God’s covenant, nothing else matters. Deut. 4:35 “You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.”It’s not that they didn’t know but God is showing them again, It’s not like we don’t have Christ, but He tells us again because if we don’t listen now we are going to hold onto something else again, that’s why He tells us again and again, It’s not knowledge, it’s life.” It’s not Bible study, it’s worship. We say the same words again and again and again, but it’s not the same. God says he is the Lord, and if somebody is exhausted of hearing that, that ,and their spirit is dead. If somebody says, “Oh stop saying there’s no other God except my Lord, it’s so exhausting to hear that,” that person’s dead. Every time you hear that, you should be strengthened, but you say, “Why do you say the same things again and again?” What else is there to talk about other than Christ, what is there to talk about other than only Christ?
Verse 36, from heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you, and on earth he made you hear his words from out of the fire. Because he loved your ancestors and chose your descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt with his presence and his great grace. And if you hold onto this covenant, God says he’ll give his grace to thousand generations. The covenant Abraham held onto was relayed all the way to his future generations. If we lose hold of that covenant, then it’s simply that we suffer, but even after we suffer, we’ll come back.
Deut. 4:38, “to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you, and to bring you into their land and give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today” God says He will cast out the very strong and mighty nations in the land of cannabis, if you simply hold onto and believe in the covenant, God says He will do this. If you truly believe that saving your region is the covenant, God says, “I will do that work.”
It’s not just your one region; if you hold onto seventy regions, as the covenant then God will allow you to meet the disciples he has prepared for you there. Do you think it’s just seventy regions, God has entrusted us 70 nations. Do you believe this? This is how strong God is, but what level is your faith? Is it just a faith that saves myself, or is it just a faith that saves my family? Exactly to what point does your faith go?Do you have the faith to save 70 regions? God is the One Who is saving the 237 nations,but where is your faith?
God says He will do this work through the one who believers in this power. What do you believe in? I say I believe in God, and I believe in Jesus, but what is the content of that faith? I’m sure you believe you’ve been saved. I’m sure you can very proudly beat your chest and say, “I’m a child of God,” but is that really the level of your faith? Is the level of your faith only to the point of thinking of you and God. God says, “Through you, I will save your family and your family line,” do you have the faith to believe that? God is omnipotent. And God is the one who can save the entire word. But what is the god that’s upon you? Is it a god who can save the entire world, or is it a God who can only save me? What kind of faith are you running your business and studying with?
Is it just the faith where I have salvation and faith? The power of the throne of heaven we have been given is the power to save the 237 nations of the world. Do I have to save one region? I hope you will think about this. Or, do I have the covenant to only save one region, but to save 70 regions? You really must think about this. I’m not just talking about the faith of the assurance If you just believe in Jesus Christ, even if you immediately kneel you will go to heaven, I’m talking about the reason why you have to run your business,” and to what extent you need to run your business, are you going to run your business that is able to find the 70 disciples in the 70 regions, or, are you going to only live so you can take care of your physical needs? This is a question God is asking us. To what extent is my faith? Where is my covenantal relationship with God, and I’m sure seated here, there are some people that will pass away with the assurance of salvation.
I’m sure there are people holding onto something else and will come back to holding onto the covenant by the third time they will be the people who used to want to save one region, but now they hold onto the covenant of saving 70 regions, and there’s re some people who will return home with the faith that I’m the 70 workers who will find the 70 disciples in the 70 nations. There are some people who will return home with the faith.
Or, for this purpose, God will bless my business, this is not about grace but this is an answer that follows naturally. That’s not you trying to become rich, but as we go towards God’s covenant, these things follow you. I hope that today you will receive the answer to this question, “What kind of covenantal faith or relationship do I have with God?” I hope you will return back to with grace and have a solid and specific covenantal relationship with God. And Deut. 4:40 says, “Then you may live with me on the land that I have given to you and your inheritance for a very long time.
For all time, that means, if you hold onto this covenant, then it will be flowing freely through your region and future generations. May we restore the covenantal faith of saving the 70 disciples, 70 regions, 70 people groups, and 70 nations.
Prayer
Let us hold onto the Word of God today and pray the prayer of covenantal faith, the prayer that transcends time and space. The prayer that shines the light of the 237 nations.
Second, let us pray for the fields we must save. This changes depending on your faith. Think about the field we must save, “Allow me to find the disciples hidden there. May the works of testifying of the gospel to those who are suffering without the gospel take place. Let us pray.
I will give you one church announcement. Missionary Kim in Utah, he is beginning to worship in the basement of an American church, we are beginning to financially support them and I don’t know the content of their ministry but all I know is that we want to help them to worship.
Starting in May, there’s going to be a missionary conference. Right now, the regulations say if you travel somewhere, you have to quarantine for one week, and if that’s the case, I don’t really have the heart to go, because if I go there, I need to quarantine for a week before going to the retreat and the local churches, so if we don’t have that restriction, then the pastors will go in.
At first, my mom wanted the first to happen and I told her that’s the second needs to happen for her son to go to do missions, she changed her answer to the second thing, because there was a government official who said, “We will get rid of quarantines for foreign travelers,” and because of her son, she voted for the second presidential candidate because the mother’s greatest wish is to see her son’s face.” Let us pray for the missionaries’ retreat in May. If possible I do want to go, but I don’t think there’s a reason to force myself to go, and I’m sure everyone else is thinking the same thing, so I hope you will pray for this.
From July 11-16, there will be a church mission. Those dates will not change, we will be going to Mexico. So, I hope that everyone will pray for it, and those who will participate will make sure to mark off those dates because these won’t be changing. Previously, every year we would go to Navajo in the third or fourth week of June. We stopped for about two years but we want to go again this year. You can decide whether you’d like to go to both or only go to one, etc., so I hope you will keep praying for these.
Let us pray again for our missions fields. Let us pray for Mongolia, Karen, Utah, Burundi, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sedona, South America.
Finally, let us pray for the remnants, especially for the remnants who are out of state, they need extra prayers. So, I don’t know all of them by heart, but I know people know their face so if we can put their names up, we can pray for all these people who are out of state. They are all college students and young adults.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the heads of all the people of God, the people of all nations, and the future generations, who will save the 70 disciples and the 70 regions with the power of the throne of heaven, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.