Give Your Entire Life to the Gospel (Deuteronomy 9:22-29)
Today, we will share the grace of God’s Word today from Deuteronomy 9:11-19. Deuteronomy 9 is talking about the wrath of God that fell upon the Israelites because of their unbelief and rebellion towards God. It’s talking about the conversation Moses had with God, asking Him to spare them from His wrath. Moses asked God to remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he is asking God to remember the covenant He made with them.
Moses is conversing with God saying, “If you strike these people down now, then the people of Canaan will say that you brought them out of Egypt when they didn’t want to, and You didn’t have the power to bring them into Canaan, so you killed them in the wilderness.” He concludes by saying, “These people are your inheritance.” Through this prayer of Moses, God’s wrath was momentarily subsided.
Through today’s Word, we must see why these things happen, because they happen today as well. Then, we need to look at how the Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years. People who have the covenantal blessing of being with God, they’re okay whether they’re in Egypt, the wilderness, or Canaan, but the covenant of God being with us does not happen for no reason.
Without a doubt, we must have faith regarding the blood of the Lamb, the blood of Jesus Christ. When we lose hold of that faith, then we have no choice but to live, following the things of the world that we see. The things we see are talking about the idols, the culture, and the standards of the world. It’s not that the Israelites did something so terrible, but they lived as slaves because they lost hold of the covenant of being with God.
I’m not telling you this so we can study the Bible; this is still the case today. If we lose hold of this covenant, we have no choice but to follow after the cravings of our flesh and sinful desires and suffer. We can only escape when we restore the covenant of God, by applying the blood of the Lamb on our doorposts. Being set free from that means we’re set free from the curses, disasters, and death of the world. From that point on, we live a life with God.
This is the work that is taking place right now. Even right at this moment, the darkness is moving so we lose hold of the covenant but instead, we live by the standards of what we see. Those who lose hold of the covenant will relentlessly live a life of failure in the wilderness. In the end, they will still go to heaven, but they will lose hold of all of God’s blessings on the earth.
When we lose hold of God’s covenant, that is sin, and without a doubt, Satan works so you will live in the suffering of the world, separated from God. The entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation is centered on this. The Bible tells us about Christ Jesus. Luke 24:44 says that the laws of Moses, the psalms and the prophets are telling us about Jesus.
So, if you lose hold of the covenant of Jesus Christ Who is to come, the blood covenant, you will suffer. But if you hold onto the covenant, then you go into the blessings of being with God. The Israelites applied the blood of the lamb and were set free, but why were they not able to continue? We need to set our focus on this. All the Israelites were set free, but only Joshua and Caleb were able to go into the blessings of God from the first generation. This means that God worked and is working through the small minority of people who hold onto the covenant of God in faith.
Even right now, God is working through the small minority of business people who hold onto the covenant for world evangelization, temple construction, and the movement to save the future generations. Whatever success or abundance we have without the gospel will inevitably fall and bring suffering. That is the story of Genesis 6 and 11. Being of the flesh means that without the gospel, we try to succeed and make things great. That will all fall, but that is the current state of the world. We are focused on the physical things and making things great and big.
If we don’t have the covenant, then Satan is working, and this turns into a disaster. When Satan works upon our business one day, without a doubt, it will turn into a disaster. This is the reason the Israelites lost hold of all of God’s blessings, even though they were prepared for them in the wilderness.
Why do people have no choice but to live this way? We’re going through the book of Galatians to see why the Israelites were continuing to do that even in the New Testament. Even after receiving the gospel, they continued to fail. What is the point of that? It’s the law, it’s very frightening. They go to church, and it’s not like they lacked faith–they had faith! But it’s talking about faith regarding the gospel.
Our faith regarding the law is, in some sense, not even faith. Religions talk about the word “Faith” so we use that word, but it’s not really faith at all. If, through the gospel, we have been set free from the problems we have no power over, including Satan and disasters, then even now, we have no hope against those things without the gospel. But even after these people received the Word of God, they changed it into the law.
The law is the Word of God but their method was not the gospel. Through the law, we must see our own limitations and change that into the faith of being with God, but instead, they try to keep the law by themselves then it turns into limitations, and it turns into disbelief because they cannot do it. So, they keep trying to live their walk of faith with their actions. “I can do this,” or, “I cannot do this.” Even after receiving the gospel, they change it into the law and religion, so of course, when they look at the land of Canaan, they say, “I cannot do this.”
It’s not that they didn’t listen to God’s Word. The fact that they were serving the land of Canaan means that they were holding onto the Word of God and following up until that point, but the reason this did not change into the faith of the covenant was because they held onto the law. We need to see the law through the gospel, that God is doing this, but they were not able to do that.
The standard of your walk of faith is not about whether you do something or not with your actions. If new believers come into the church and learn about the gospel this way, they will not truly know the gospel, nor will they enjoy it; they will fall in their religion. But even now, if you become gospelized, it is not you doing this, but God is doing this and this changes into faith and blessings.
I’m sorry to tell you this, if you do not become gospelized but instead, legalized, then everything in your faith becomes a burden. “If I can do this, it’s not a burden, but if I can’t do this, then it oppresses me.” Because we’re setting the standard of our walk of faith on whether we can do something or not, there are more things you cannot do. That’s why they said, “I cannot go into Canaan.” It’s not because they had evil motives, the problem is that they had not become gospelized.
Once they received the gospel, they must become established and rooted deeply into the gospel, but instead, they became legalized. But the law revealed their sin and that sin leads to death. Death is talking about being disconnected from God. It’s not referring to a physical death; God is life, and we must be spiritually connected to Him, but we get further from God. So, in the Old Testament, they had no choice but to live in death and to suffer under God’s wrath.
The small difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is in the New Testament, they suffered to death, but God still brings them into heaven. It’s because, from the beginning, they didn’t receive what it means to be gospelized in their hearts. They think, “Now that I’ve received salvation, I can just work and try hard in the church as I do in the world,” but that’s not what it takes. We cannot accomplish the Word of God by doing it. God must be with me, fulfilling that Word through me, but when this doesn’t take place, we lose the word, “Challenge.”
If I cannot do it, I can’t do it. I can’t do Temple Construction, I can’t save the 237 nations, and because of that, even though we’re in the gospel, we are collapsing. Why? Because we’ve become legalized. Legalism is the standard of being able to do something or not. Now that I’m in the church, there are things I have to do in the church and it becomes a burden because I have to do this. But the gospel says, “God does it.”
When God gives us His Word, it is not me, but God does it through me. That is changed through faith. But if that doesn’t become faith for you, you think you can only do what you can do. That’s not faith, that’s just a person living as they did in the world. That’s actually a target of attack for Satan. That’s why the problems of their family line aren’t healed, they fall into it just the same. The problem of disbelief was in the second generation just as it was in the first. Deuteronomy is Moses saying the same words again to the second generation because they didn’t see things work out for the first generation. In spite of that, they came in by God’s grace.
Of the seven feasts, God continually emphasizes three feasts and the Sabbath. Why did He keep telling them? This was the mystery to become gospelized. Why do we continuously worship? We already know this by knowledge, even if you live your walk of faith for a few years, you already understand everything. They weren’t worshiping for lack of knowledge; it’s because our nature hasn’t become gospelized. That’s why, when we go out into the world, our occupation is a burden because, “I have to do this, because I don’t have the covenant of why God sent me here, I have to do it myself.” Then let’s say you do hold onto the covenant and you say, “God sent me there as a missionary,” you still have to do it and it’s still hard, and that’s why it’s so hard everywhere you go, in the world and in the church.
What does it mean to become gospelized? It means God is fulfilling it, and God is with us. Through the people who have this faith, God will save the 237 nations, the 70 disciples, the 70 regions, and the 70 nations. So, as you listen to today’s sermon, are you listening to it from the law or from the gospel? I think you crave the law more because it’s easier, “Do this, don’t do that,” you don’t need faith for that; you just do it, and if you cannot do it, you just don’t do it, then the works of God aren’t revealed.
If you’ve come to this worship, may you begin your faith anew. We listen to the gospel a lot but in reality, that may not be the case. We just listen to the gospel as knowledge, but my nature is still the law. Because my knowledge is based on the gospel and my nature is based on the law, my life is difficult. Because we’re only established in the law, if I can do something, I become strengthened, and if I cannot, I feel put down.
If I can do something and somebody else cannot, I have no choice but to rely on myself and judge the other person. That’s how we go into a stream that has no choice but to breed conflict, so how you live your walk of faith is very important. Yes, it’s good that you’ve gone to church for a very long time, but what’s more important is how you go. For most people the gospel of Christ has just become their knowledge. Satan is working right now, but people just think of it as knowledge. Of Satan back from when they were saved.
Even right now, you can break down Satan through only Christ. Because Christ has solved the curses and disasters, this will only depart when you hold onto the covenant of Christ. When you hold onto the covenant of CHrist, the Holy Spirit works with you. This Christ is in progress right now, it’s not a thing of the past. This is not just talking about memorizing the way of salvation; this is going on presently.
But you lose hold of this right now and you memorize the words of the way of salvation, so that’s why your nature is still set in the law. What is prayer? It is enjoying that God is with you through the gospel, otherwise if you’re established in the law, your prayers are not even prayers. You’re just praying to God to establish your own will. That’s why people even fast for 40 days. “Let’s just see if this works or not,” and they go according to their stubbornness, but they personally don’t know this because they’re established in the law. That’s not the gospel, the gospel is done by God.
We enjoy Canaan conquest. When we go there, we see God’s evidence. Only those people can save the 237 nations, the 70 disciples, 70 regions, 70 nations, and 70 tribes. Just because we have a banner that says, “237” in the church, that doesn’t mean we have world evangelization. If we are not gospelized, then all of that becomes a heavy burden to us. At first, we may rally, but then it turns off. Because we have a nature that is unable to evangelize, we cannot say this out loud, but it’s a heavy burden, and now, you don’t even pretend like you’ve heard it, but you turn it out of your life, because you tried it and it didn’t work, so you leave saying, “Let’s just live physically,” but that doesn’t just end with you, the legalism goes to your future generations as well.
If you become gospelized, then everything is a blessing. Even your business enjoys the blessing of God being with you, but if you’re leagliszed, you don’t find that believable. If somebody is legalistic, they say, pastor you have no idea how hard it is. How can we conquer the land of Canaan? Those are the words of a legalistic person. “Look at those giants; how can we conquer them? How can we conquer the Three Organizations?” They say these words, but the word of God is far from them.
THen the result is that they rely on physical things and then they go to heaven. Because they listened to the words of GOd, but it’s irrelevant to them. It’s not connected to them because they do not have faith. But if somebody is gospelized, then all of this becomes a prayer topic, why? Because He said He will do it. El Salvador is our prayer topic. It’s not legalism, I’m not doing that prayer topic just because of my position, but I” m waiting to see how God will work in the church.
Whether somebody posts their name in the Kakao Talk chat or not, they are bound to pray for it, and the devil knows that. God gives you the answers based on the stream and tsch of the church. But if someone doesn’t know what the church is, they will always be alone. Even if they come to the church they love their lives irrelevant to the church, but if we remain within this stream, God gives us answers.
If somebody is legalistic, they will hear this message, “Doing or sitting on something,” God says he is doing it and I’m able to join because I have faith. If I had no faith, I couldn’t join. That’s what it means to conquer Canaan. God says that you will work upon El Salvador and my prayers go into it through faith, then what takes place? You will be able to see through faith the works that God does. We are going to the three mission fields and if you join together with prayer, then the rewards of that missions field will be upon you.
I was doing Bible study with Stephanie and I told her I would be doing fasting prayer for the mission fields, and she said she would join for 21 days, why? Because Daniel fasted for that long. I didn’t tell her to do it; she volunteered, she just fasts on her own for 21 days. She said she would fast for 21 days. When the pastor goes on missions, of course we have to join in prayer. That person had already received answers. On the very day Daniel resolved in prayer, God has already given the answer but it was blocked for a few weeks because of Satan, so she asked, “Can I fast for 21 days?” I said, “Yes.” She said she used to fast like that a lot, just drinking apple juice and water.
Whether she does it or not isn’t the issue, but going into the work that God is doing through faith is what’s important. I hope you will stop asking for blessings, and instead go into the blessings, but you don’t see the blessings as blessings because you’re still centered on the physical things. God always works with things that do not look like blessings, but he guides those who have faith. Only those who challenge towards the announcements we have at church in prayer and faith will receive answers. God is carrying out the evangelism movement through the church and there are people who receive answers and people who didn’t.
The church is continuously growing, but there are people that remains stagnant, even though we are all listening to the same message, why? Because they haven’t been gospelized yet, they’re still centered on me, and physical things. Even if they want to join the conquering of Canaan, they personally say they cannot. Because they look at everything and they say, “I can’t.” There’s only two people who conquered in faith. God has already prepared the answers for world evangelization. God has already prepared the answers of world evangelism, God has already prepared the answers of temple construction, and only those who challenge towards this in faith with the covenant God has given us will conquer Canaan. When we talk about prayer, we are talking about those who are gospelized and the prayer of the gospel.
THe reason we cannot continue to pray is because we try to do it ourselves legalistically. Remaining within the gospel 24 hours is the way to block the curses, and disasters, of the age. Otherwise you cannot continue, you are bound to stop. We need to enjoy the blessing of conquering of Canaan through prayer, we enjoyed finding the disciples in our region, but because we think we have to do it and we have our nature of legalism so we cannot.
For people who have a nature of diligence, they will endure for a bit and then they will be broken. All of such people cannot do ingo Canaan.
If You are living in a region, God has given you the covenant of regional evangelism but you lose hold of that blessing. Inside of the mission of regional evangelism is your business, your job and your family. And because you lose hold of that covenant, Satan enters into your business and your family and you just rely on physical things.
In the Old Testament, God emphasizes the three feasts and the sabbath, and saying if you don’t obey these you will die immediately. And it’s because that’s just what happens when you’re not within God’s grace you might as well be dead. We sin everyday so go and give the sacrifice to the priest everyday. That means that through this sacrifice, we enjoy the grace, forgiveness, and the love of being with God every single day, that’s why it is so important to be imprinted, rooted, and have the nature in the gospel.
If you’re rooted in the gospel, then without ad obut, you will bear the fruits of the gospel. You cannot bear fruits because you try very hard to do so, God has to give it to you. But if someone is so centered on the physical things they say, “why do I have to come to worship, I already know all of this, and it’s not as of it will help my business,” then they will be lost in their schemes and they will fall physically, and only bear the physical fruits, that’s why conquering Canaan was led by God and the ark of the covenant, that means the only way to be with God is to receive God’s word during worship and being with God’s word. Worship and conquering is rightful. We are here during the Wednesday worship. It is a chance for us to go back into the gospel. If you don’t continue to listen to this, the nature of man leaves us no choice but for us to go back to our me centered mess and legalism, then that’s the fruits you will bear. But if you become rooted in the gospel, then you will bear the fruits in season.
The gospel is the work God does, we need faith, you must enjoy this gospel. You don’t understand the gospel, because everything you’ve learned is centered on people, the actions, and the motives of people. If you’re not re-educated in the church, you will revert back to your legalism. That’s why there are certain cases where people who are very well educated in the world aren’t able to understand the gospel, because they did everything with their diligence, they think that’s how they can live their walk of faith as well but that’s not the case. If anything, those who are uneducated will receive the gospel immediately. Because, nothing ever worked with their strength anyways. That’s why they get sucked into the gospel, because their lives are so destroyed, it won’t take a long time though, because their life is so physically destroyed they realize the gospel quickly but nothing works out for them.
But for the people for whom everything is working so well for them in the world, they don’t understand the gospel, so God cannot use them. This is the majority of people, those that cannot cannot conquer Canaan.
We must raise up the remnants who have the gospel and also have the specializations and talents that can conquer the world. That’s why the remnants must be the main characters. Because they have to go into the culture of the world and change it, it must be the remnants. And for us, we take the grace we received, and help the remnants so that they can do this movement full-force.
We cannot say that the first generation of Israelites failed, because they raised up the second generation and sent them to Canaan. Even if they themselves were lost in religion, they allowed their future generations to receive God’s Word through Moses and Joshua and they went into Canaan, and through the second generation, they conquered Canaan.
For us, we have the covenant of America evangelization, we cannot do that from the outside; we have to give this influence of this covenant to the future generations that are in America. This is the nation of all nations, and so we have to raise up the future generation of all nations and send them out. There’s a role that I must play. You need to be able to understand where your place is, that is wisdom.
If my role is this, then I need to know that. Moses did not go into Canaan, his limitation was the wilderness. Was it because Moses wasn’t a great leader? No, he was. Even if you don’t do everything, you can be amazing church officers just to the extent of your role. Your role is to help the future generations and go full-force. That’s the genuine missions.
If we do all the missions ourselves, but the future generations cannot, then that in itself is a disaster, that’s not right. When we went to Navajo mission camp, we set our focus on the remnants. First, I went in with the adults but it was so difficult. That’s why we raised the remnant leaders, that’s faster. And that is what’s most effective in influencing Navajo. We target the future generations in Navajo as well. The first generation in Navajo just support the second generation.
Same thing with the Karen people, we need to focus and bring out the young adults. Does that mean we don’t need the adults? There’s a role that the adults must play. The adults will set the direction for the next generation. That’s how, after the adults pass away, the remnants can carry this on full-force. Same thing for El Salvador, we must raise up the first generation. But if you want to look for the long term, you need the next generation to continue this. “But I don’t want to do that, I can do everything myself,” that’s what you call nonsense. You need to know your place. There is a boundary God has set. All you have to do is as much God permits you, because that is the extent to which God will be with you so you enjoy that.
May your life be poured into this church with the work God is doing exactly as it was in the Bible, then you don’t need your own strength. We pray for God to work. If you’re legalistic, then prayer is difficult, you’re trying to pierce through God with your own will, and that’s hard. But we enjoy prayer 24 hours a day, because God must do this, that’s why we pray. For the blessings of the throne of heaven to be established in our fields, because God promised us that. The people with these gospel thoughts, the people that have been gospelized, can enjoy the prayer for the gospel 24 hours. That’s why the gospel is grace.
The law says I have to do it, that’s difficult. At first, you may seem bold and strong, but those people will be broken. Then later on, they realized that the word of God is far from their lives. They think that’s what their walk of faith is, so that’s what they will tell the future generations, to do it moderately. They’ll say things like “nobody lives according to the Bible, that’s just something the pastor says.” But the people who have truly tasted this, they can relay this to the remnants. Those are the important people.
And I believe God has called you to this worship for that grace. This isn’t something you just pass by, but think deeply. Everything that is afflicting you now is because of legalism. Everything that is testing you right now is because of legalism. But if you become gospelized, it’s not a test, it’s something to enjoy through prayer and faith. If you become legalistic, then not only your walk of faith, but your entire life itself will be hard.
We had our wedding. We were giving the message this week from Galatians 5:17, and I was praying for it all week long but it was such a heavy burden because I wasn’t receiving the message. It’s the same thing as you are running your business; things should work out but it’s so difficult when it doesn’t. As long as you don’t understand the work God is doing through your business, it will be hard. If somebody says it’s not difficult, it means they’re just going with the flow in everything, with their business and the messages, there’s no emotions or inspirations. This is something people who believed for decades already know, and they think about it incorrectly so they fall into morals and ethics. But there’s a word God is giving to the church. There’s also a Word God gave to the wedding.
You guys just attended the wedding as a formality, but that’s not the case for the pastor because I must relay God’s word. If I just give you any word from the Bible, that’s not a proper pastor, I need to give the Word that God desires for these two individuals. I gave multiple messages on Sunday, and if I receive the message from Galatians 5 quickly that would be great, but I also had to give the message during the wedding? It was such a heavy burden.
It’s a heavy burden if I say I will do it, but when I begin to ask, “What is the word God is giving, what is the work God wants to do,” then the answers will come. After the wedding, all the kids went to the beach the next day and we all got sunburn, but on my ride back, I was so thankful that God was with us. And the evidence of that is God gave me his word and I relayed his word. It’s the same thing for your business. If you just work, that’s not going to work. That’s what non-believes do, what is God’s will through my business. You must pray for that. You have to experience the wisdom and grace God gives to your business when you do that, but without praying if you just work with your physical standards, that’s not your walk of faith, it’s not worth anything.
That’s why you have to continuously pray for your business, “What is God’s will for this?” If you don’t pray for your job, it means you’re living like an unbeliever, just relying on physical things like sleeping and eating. That’s how people lived in the wilderness. God provided them with the physical things like manna and the water from the rock, and then you die and go to heaven. Without a doubt, God has prepared the economy of light inside of conquering Canaan. You will live in houses you didn’t build and eat the fruits from the farms you did not plant. That’s why the one who is gospelized will enjoy their business as well.
You must not think you know the gospel; it doesn’t matter if you know the gospel or not, your entire life must go into the gospel, your business, your family, everything. My daughter says there’s a high school she wants to go to, and I asked her why she wants to go there, and she said, “Just because.” I told her, “I cannot take you there anymore, go to a place that has a school bus, that is God’s will.” I told her. Then I thought about it and told her, “There’s a school God has prepared for you, so pray about it.” Isn’t that so? There’s a school God has prepared to raise up her talent and specialization; it doesn’t matter how stubbornly she holds onto “I’m going to go, I’m not,” you pray and you receive an answer. Then if God needs the parents to give her a ride, then he will make that happen. Whatever God has prepared, God will make it happen. That’s what it means for everything to work out naturally for His good.
Throughout the rest of the week, may you go into the prayer that enjoys the time schedule of the work God is doing in the church within the gospel. Let us hold onto the Word God has given to us and pray.
Prayer
Let us pray at this time for the El Salvador missions camp and the Karen missions camp. So, the plan is to leave on an airplane at 1am on Monday to arrive at 8am on Monday. Then we’ll do ministry on Monday through Wednesday, and we’ll be back in LA around 12. And the minister’s mission is not only carried out by the three people who are going, but also the people participating from afar are joining. Whoever serves the prophet in the name of the prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. I pray you will enjoy this blessing. This is invisible, but you need to have the invisible blessings to have the visible blessings.
Let us pray for the El Salvador and Karen missions camps as well as the youth retreat coming up in 2 weeks as well as the college retreat in August.
Let us pray for the World Remnant Conference. The leader’s retreat for the world remnant conference will be at the end of July and I think the World Remnant Conference will be at the beginning of August, and I think there is a deadline for registration for online participants as well.
In the past, we used to gather together in the region of LA, and I think we can continue to do that, or we gather as individual churches. This is a message for all the remnants of the world and so the church officers must participate in rider to help the remnants. We will conclude with the benediction and have church prayers, personal prayers, and go home.
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, the filling, working, indwelling, and guidance of the Holy Spirit, be upon the heads of the people of God, the multiethnic people and the remnants, who desire to go up into the missions, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.