A Life that Saves through the Three Feasts (Deut. 16:1-22)
Today, we will share God’s grace with Deuteronomy 16. Deuteronomy is the content God gave to the Israelites through Moses before they went into the land of Canaan, on what they must do in order to have victory. The land of Canaan is a region filled with enemies of the believers, who have their own idols and work to destroy the believers, the followers of God. This content includes the warning that, if we lose hold of God’s Word, we will be sucked into that culture and destroyed.
If you guys are wondering, “Is it so easy for us to be swept up by the culture of Canaan?” The answer is “yes,” and that’s why God gives us His Word. Because Satan deceived Adam and Eve first, he knows the inner nature of mankind so well. Because he has controlled your family line for hundreds of thousands of years, for generations, he can destroy you so easily. That is why we must armor ourselves with the Word of God.
Today, God is giving us His Word about the Three Feasts. He is also telling us how we shall lay down judgment on those who do wrong. At the very end, He tells us how we must worship God. Today’s scripture is divided into these three ways.
When we talk about the Feasts or Festivals of the Israelites, they celebrate seven festivals throughout the year, and God has a meaning behind each one of those festivals. However, the Three Feasts mentioned in today’s scripture are absolutely necessary. When they go to the land of Canaan, they will divide each land among each tribe or family. Then, on the Three Feasts that are mentioned in today’s scripture, we call those the Passover, the Pentecost, and the Ingathering, they must gather in this designated place to worship together.
They can celebrate each of the other feasts in their own region, so we talk about the Passover as well as the Pentecost today. The Passover is when Jesus Christ was crucified, and the Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit worked, and all around the world, people are observing those feasts. Even Jesus Christ kept the feasts because God doesn’t just give us His Word; He absolutely fulfills His Word.
We will be talking about the Three Feasts today, so what is the Passover? The Passover is when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt by night. That means if God had not guided them, they could not have escaped. This doesn’t mean they couldn’t have physically walked out of Egypt. “Egypt” is talking about the superpower nation of the world, it’s talking about the world today.
Who is holding onto and controlling the world? Satan is the one controlling this world, just like he did in Genesis 3, making people live, centered on themselves. So, people are bound to live, centered on things they can see with their eyes. They are living their lives with the goal of self-actualization or success. This is the way Satan controls. Then, we begin to worship idols for ourselves because we didn’t have God to begin with. So, people live their lives receiving spiritual strength from idols. They have no choice but to face the 12 curses as a result. The people are living under six states of suffering, and that is the world. And no matter what we do, we cannot escape. In other words, we cannot escape from the “me” that Satan has imprinted in us since Genesis 3. We live according to what I like, to what I think is right.
So every individual is thinking that they are the way and the truth, and that is the way with which Satan controls the entire world. Satan puts idols or greed into us to make us continuously serve the devil. That suffering continues to go down generations, and there’s never anyone to tell us this in Egypt. Humans can only know about this when God personally gives us the message through a messenger like Moses. It doesn’t matter how much we fly and succeed in the world; we cannot solve our own problems, so God has to give us His answer by His grace.
That is the Word of Genesis 3:15, the offspring of the woman, the blood of the cross, Jesus Christ, and if we don’t understand this, we’ll continuously fall into suffering. Even though we’re in suffering, we think our thoughts are right, so the suffering has continued to come and will continue to come, but until the very end, we think our thoughts are correct. That’s why, unless we receive God’s grace, we can never know.
The meaning of the “Passover” is that we must apply the blood of the Lamb, who is Jesus Christ, who will die on the cross, on our doorposts in order for us to escape. On the other hand, there are some people who thought they succeeded well in Egypt: “I lived a good life in Egypt. Our family line is so renowned, we just don’t have Christ. Do you have any idea how well my parents’ kids studied? We had such a great family line in Egypt. We are a family line that everyone in the city knows and recognizes.” If that’s how you think, then you don’t really know the blood.
Like Paul, we are the sinner of sinners. Like David, “I was a sinner even as my mother conceived me.” Paul had so much to boast about, he had a great education and background, but that didn’t cut it. David became a king because God made him the king, and as the king, he confessed he was a sinner in his mother’s womb.
How must I know Christ? If I don’t know Christ, I’m completely destroyed. If I don’t know Christ that way, then my righteousness will always come up. You’ll always be boasting about your family line. It’s because you don’t know the Christ. Your’e completely destroyed, but you think that you’re not, then you’re someone who doesn’t have only Christ yet. It is possible that they may have received salvation by God’s grace, I don’t know, but they haven’t yet received Christ as “only Christ.”
As a result, their own things continue to be revealed. “I live such a clean life without the gospel,” that is someone who doesn’t know the Christ. If you do know the Christ, then you cannot say those words. The meaning of Christ, of the Passover must come into you to know what it means to continuously keep this. You have to understand that, even if you take the best of everything you have, you’re still destroyed. But there’s actually a lot of people who say, “I wouldn’t say I’m completely destroyed. I don’t know Christ, but I actually did quite well for myself,” and if I say people like this, I mean myself included.
I absolutely had Christ’s grace, but I didn’t know myself well, that’s why the Bible continues to talk about Egypt. Do you know where you have been saved from through the Passover? It is the world, Egypt. Do you know what happened to you in the world, in Egypt? Yes, without a doubt, you made a lot of money and you sent your kids to a successful school because Egypt is a powerful nation, and I’m sure there were Isarelites who had successful businesses there, too. Don’t you think that, if they had enough knowledge and construction skills in order to build those pyramids that are still a wonder today, they were very mighty? It was such a powerful nation such that their military could overpower any nation. But we have been called out of that through only the blood of Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament, God told them to observe this feast once a year, but for us, we must remember it every single day. Because we’re not able to do this, we keep misunderstanding ourselves. People say, “Jesus Christ is not ‘only,’ but now that I’ve received salvation, let’s try to do something by myself.” It’s because it hasn’t hit your heart yet that no matter what you try, you have no hope. “Oh, I receive salvation now, but my business was successful previously, so let’s try to do things the same way I did before.” You still haven’t met Christ yet. You escaped from Egypt and are living under the kingdom of God, but you are under a misconception.
Now that we’ve escaped from Egypt, God tells us to eat unleavened bread for one week. God told the Israelites to make this unleavened bread without any yeast in it so they could eat it on the Exodus without going bad. It all has a spiritual meaning. In the NewTestament, the Bible says the “yeast” is false ideologies and other beliefs; don’t mix them in. The New Testament tells us to get rid of all our yeast, which means to throw away all the ideologies we had in Egypt. It means for one week, concentrate. For one week, completely concentrate and look upon Jesus Christ, and throw away all the ideologies you received in Egypt. On the last day, gather together in this temple and worship together.
God is showing the Israelites, through this shadow or form of Jesus Christ Who is to come, of our spiritual state and the way we are to live. It means that we must not put anything in, other than “only the gospel.” Col. 3:1 says, “Now that we have been raised together with Christ, look towards the things above.” He is saying, “But a lot of people say, ‘Forget about the things of heaven. There are things that are already good on earth.’” But that will only result in sexual immorality and greed.
The next feast is the Festival of Weeks. It’s seven weeks from this time, so it’s seven times seven which is 49 days, and on the fiftieth day, they are to gather all their harvest from Canaan. So, exactly fifty days after the passover, they were observing our Pentecost festival, and in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon them, in other words, to receive the strength of the Holy Spirit. Hold onto Jesus Christ and receive the strength that the Holy Spirit gives you. This happens every single year. After that, there’s the Festival of the Tabernacle, which is gathering all the harvest together. During the previous festival, there was a lot of grain, and now it’s about the fruits. So, the Ingathering is talking about the kingdom of heaven, as well as the kingdom of heaven on earth. It’s talking about the background of the kingdom of God. It’s the kingdom of God being established on this earth. And in these three feasts, you must gather together in one designated location, and we must testify of God.
In the New Testament, Col. 2:16-17 says, “Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with what regards to religious festival. These were a shadow of things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” What this is saying is that there’s no need to pay close attention to specific laws, like eating the unleavened bread, keeping the festivals and feasts, because these were all a shadow of Jesus Christ, who is to come and fulfilled it all. So there’s no reason for us to keep feasts like that anymore. Now, the spiritual meaning is contained within Christ. We don’t slaughter lambs on the Passover anymore, and the Bible never mentions Christmas. We don’t have to talk about the resurrection because it is always the resurrection. We no longer keep the Passover, Pentecost, and Ingathering on three separate days of the year, but every single day, it is Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God, and the Holy Spirit. This has been fulfilled in Christ, now we do it every day. We enjoy and have the spiritual things. Christ who has finished all problems on the cross. Nothing is a problem, why? Because when you pray, the Holy Spirit works.
And when Christ becomes your Master, God’s kingdom is bound to be established and the way it is established is through the Words of Christ. We live inside of Jesus, enjoying the three feasts every single day. In the New Testament, it told us to observe the communion. That’s something the LORD Himself specifically talked about. The bread that we break is the body of Jesus, and the wine is His blood. This doesn’t talk only about what we eat or drink, but it means to experience these. Don’t just know everyday that Jesus Christ finished all problems on the cross, but experience it. Because we’re continuously facing problems. You must know this is not a theory, but you must actually experience this, because we are facing problems every day. We are actually living with lackings, you need to experience that this is actually not lacking at all. You must actually experience Christ so that nothing is a problem.
What happens if you don’t experience this? Then you only have a theoretical Christ. A Christ that cannot solve my problems. It’s not about solving the problem, it shouldn’t be a problem to you at all. Because inside of this problem is God’s plan. If something good happens, is it really good? No, God gave that to you to testify the gospel. So enjoy the Christ. Stop enjoying the “you” that is bound for destruction, but enjoy Christ. That’s what it means, the blood of the Passover. Whenever you face a problem, you keep on enjoying yourself. As evidence of that, you shake and tremble in front of problems, even though you have been liberated. You need to quickly look for God’s plan. Why is this problem here? It came because it should have come. Someone else did not give this to you, you were in a state that had no choice but to face a problem, and now it is revealed. But if you keep lying, then you cannot escape from Satan. “It’s because of this person,” or, “It’s because of that person,” then you can never escape.
If Joseph said that his situation happened because of his older brothers, he never would have been able to escape Satan, because there was a problem inside of him, that was bound to make him a slave. He was a guy who just gossipped and talked too much. He tattled every bad thing to his father. There are some people who are gossips like that, and without a doubt, they will face problems. Because the problem is already inside of them, when it comes out of their mouths, they will get stuck in the problem. What happens if you criticize others? That criticism will come back to you. That’s actually in the Bible. “Why is this person criticizing me?” It’s because you criticized them first.
So the real problem is inside of you. That’s why you need to change that to Christ. That’s why, look for God’s plan. “Oh, lately it feels like things are working out well and my job is working out well,” there’s no reason to smile about that. You died on the cross and you no longer exist; there’s no reason for you to smile about your job working out well. God gave that to you for the name of Christ, for missions and evangelism. There’s no reason for you to hold onto that and feel good about it; you’re falling deeper into Genesis 3, you. You’ve already been liberated, but it’s always me-centeredness. That’s what it means to enjoy the Passover, that’s what it means for you to enjoy the Christ every single day, not just with your words but actually. Only the Pentecost, only the filling and the working of the holy spirit. Only the background of the Kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God on this earth. That’s our mission, to establish God’s kingdom.
The land of Canaan was the land where Jesus Christ would be born, in order to proclaim this gospel to all nations. Yes, we do look at the Old Testament, but we shouldn’t stay there because everything was fulfilled through Christ. Jesus Christ already died on the cross, and he has already sent us the Holy Spirit and the mission to proclaim the gospel and establish God’s Kingdom throughout the world.
In today’s second part of the chapter, it says to judge with fairness. In other words, people who do something wrong or make a mistake, judge them with the righteousness and fairness of God. it says to judge them correctly. What it says in the New Testament is, if they don’t know they’re in the wrong, do it before a witness. You shouldn’t do it in a judgmental way like a legalistic person; you’re trying to save them.
If they keep making the same mistake or do it on purpose, two or three people should go and tell them. Most people will listen if it gets to that extent, but there are some people who relentlessly continue. That’s why, in the later verses, it says, “When two or three gather in My name, there I will be.” But there’s almost no one who does this. It means, do what it takes to let them know what they’re doing wrong, and they’ll save other people. Jesus Christ came on earth to save people; He didn’t come here to divide sides and to cut people out. That is the role the church must play. If there’s someone doing something wrong in the church, they’re unaware of it, and we also gave them the Word so they realize.
If they keep doing the same thing, then two or three people must go and tell them. But if they keep insisting that they have no sin and they’re doing the right thing? Once they come to a realization, bring them back in.
… In other words, as you’re worshiping, do not have other idols. In Deut. 16:11, it says, “Do not erect a sacred stone, for these the LORD your God hates. It means, as you’re coming to worship, do not beg or grieve for something you’re waiting for. If you’re begging him, “Give me this, give me that,” it’s an idol.
Today, in these verses, it talks about the Asherah pole, and that was a female goddess. Then, next to the wooden Asherah pole, there was the god Baal. The Bible talks about Baal and Avenger, and there were prophets for these gods as well. What does this mean? Why are the people of God putting up idols for other gods next to the altar of God? God is giving us this word because it has happened and it will happen, and it’s happening today. Even right now, if we’re not completely satisfied with Christ alone, we have a worship that is only meant to fill our own greed.
So if you guys give me prayer requests, I don’t pray for most of them. “Please pray for my kid,” … I make it so you don’t do idol worship. “I’m going to try this with my business, … Am I some kind of shaman? If you go into a fortune-teller or salman’s house, they do the exact same things. People give me prayer topics like this, but why would I pray for those things? I’ve been called a pastor, not a monk nor shaman.
Is your body hurting? People say, “Please pray for my body so I can feel better,” but we can never make that prayer … “God, please give them the filling of the Holy Spirit.” I pray, “God, please bless this business so I can do world evangelization.” People ask, “Please pray for my child to get into the college she applied to,” I’ll never pray for that. I pray, “God, please work with Your Holy Spirit so that no matter what college they go to, they won’t be dragged over.” …
Are we Buddhists? Are we a religion to worship idols like that? Everything is in Christ, and He already knows everything. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be Christ’s witnesses. … and we pray for things we don’t have to. If we’re facing death it means God is taking away our life;… . But I do pray, “God, if it is your will, use the rest of this person’s life … you need to pray for the prayer God desires, what God prayed us to help with that . … we need to obey what God desires. … can’t fulfill the plan? If you tie her up, … that isn’t life, that is … If you fail during your business and at the same time, I’m questioning how I know it’s good or not. God is not interested in your business; God is only interested in only Christ, … “ So what is good and what is a bad thing? It’s completely meaningless whether you like something or not. If something works out a little bit well for us, we escape from out of that again.
“Then you’re going to be downcast again because you won’t go far. It’s because if you go far, you’ll lose hold of it and make you fall. I was like that. You don’t know me very well ut I was a master, and … then our own things come up. I realize that God heals that, so I cannot boast. Because I didn’t do it. If you fail, what is that … so it’s completely irrelevant to me. That’s what you call, “Only Christ, “Only the Kingdom of God,” and “only the Holy Spirit.” … that is why, every single day, the Passover, Pentecost and Ingathering.
If you realize this, you can never talk about how well you did in the past again. I was a sinner of all sinners. I was completely destroyed. So it’s not that I was lacking one thing; in all honesty I wasn’t… Because you cannot go to heaven with your success; you cannot … if God had not given us that grace, …
Through today’s message, may you receive … only the Kingdom of God, and only the Holy Spirit. Those are the Three Feasts the Lord Himself is … Now, whether you live or die, … Christ. Then, according to God’s time schedule, you will … If you’re not participating … Without a doubt, … hidden within Christ. As you’re testifying the gospel of earth with Jesus Christ, … businesses and your studies. That is where our remnants must discover their talents and their specialization. Your business must be revealed through this as well. This is where marriage takes place because everything is hidden within the Christ.
God will reveal everything He has hidden the 237 nations and raising the disciples. Maybe it’s because my mind is simple, but I can only organize A and B, I can’t organize up to C and D, but when I meet other pastors, they say I’m good at organizing and summarizing things, but that’s not something I’ve heard before; … but my entire life cannot be organized like this. I’m someone who talked about A and B and then I wondered, How do I talk about C. That’s why I’m talking about myself.
Inside of this, God gives me health… the wisdom and the strength to control your … If you think deeply, the only thing that comes out is Genesis 3, “It is only for me.” So do not think deeply, but if you receive spiritual strength, God will give you the wisdom to save everything, and your financial power must come from within this. If you chase after financial power, you’ll fall into Genesis 3, 6, and 11. For the remnants, you will go into businesses and jobs in the future; I hope you will do this very well.
My skill is the skill that will take me into destruction, but if you’re in the stream of enjoying and testifying of Jesus Christ to others, it will be a skill that saves everything, and inside of this, people are … to convince other people, “It will fall one day,” so anything you build with your own skill is a house built on sand, but if there’s a person attached to you, they will go with you until the very end. Even in marriage, it must be a disciple meeting a disciple. If you’re both attached to this, … Even as you’re doing your business, you must be attached to disciples …
If you don’t have this but you’re trying to run everything with the knowledge you’ve learned from the world or the knowledge you’ve gained from your company, Satan is laughing at you. Without a doubt, you must start from the bottom, the lowest place, … that is how you become a witness of the Christ as your Master. Then, … I hope you will confirm this every day. If you do not confirm this every day, then without you even realizing it, you will quickly revert back to your Genesis, 3, 6, and 11.
Let us pray together holding onto the Word we have received.
Our second prayer topic, let us pray for Temple Construction. If there are some of you who have never thought of or asked, “Why is God telling us to do Temple Construction,” we should start now. … If I don’t have this covenant from God, then I can’t enjoy those answers. From God’s perspective, God is asking, “Why do I have to give you those answers?” That has to come into you through God’s Word, then God will fulfill it. It’s because we must have the 237 nations, healing and summit movement, and the disciples must arise in the future to continue as well.
If you don’t understand what this means, why do you have to buy a house? You just have to think of it like that. It’s not exactly the same thing, but it’s another way to consider it, “Why do I have to buy a house? Why do my kids have to grow up here?” You can live wherever you want, New York, New Jersey, Canada, people without a mission can just wander around, and people with a mission also wander around. However, God must do the evangelism movement in this field until Jesus’ second coming. That’s why it’s the location Jesus determined, it is the location that saves, the location where the Word can be proclaimed until the end, the location that heals the age, the location that breaks down the darkness in the region.
You need to have a reason for God to work upon it. But some people work like this is an idol, “I’m going to do Temple Construction, so give me the answers.” David says, “Do I not have a cause?” You have to have a reason why you receive answers, and I hope you will receive an answer to that reason. That is how you will pray until the very end and receive the answers. Let us pray for world evangelization and the remnants and disciples to save the 70 disciples, regions, tribes, and nations.
We are continuing Remnant University. The way you should think about RU is that, this is a time for you to concentrate. Don’t have any other motive, you don’t need to know anything other than Jesus is the Christ, so pray for RU, and next week, I’ll be going to Utah for three days. So I’m planning to go there to see the field and to follow God’s guidance. Let us pray together like this.
We have a young adult in Nigeria we are praying for. Right now, he’s in Nigeria and will go to Tanzania to a Missionary there and there are economic reasons why the plane ticket is $1000, but let’s pray for that and Tim will be orchestrating the finances in the meantime. Please also pray for the law school evangelism camp. David Abrams is the director of the law school evangelism camp and Senior Deaconess Choi is fulfilling the role of the church officer, she takes time out of her workday to go in at 3pm, and after she’s finished, she goes and buys meals for the kids, and the multiethnic kids camp with them. On Wednesday and Thursday, there are the Kohyang Middle School and High School camps, so let us pray for all the camps together.
Let us pray for the missions fields. We also have our Mongolian field. Right now, there’s a contention of the location where the Mongolians will be able to gather together, and there are more than five messages broadcast from this church, and there’s also the interpreters involved as well, and if we see works taking place in the field, then the Mongolians in this church are bound to move.
For the Yakima regional church, there is a Korean pastor who used to be in an American church, but now is worshiping in their home. As we pray for the Yakima region, this pastor has now been attached to this regional church, and they watch the first and second messages live. Either way, the pastors must arise, and that’s what must happen to save the Yakima region. God doesn’t want us to only focus on my church, because that’s me, and God doesn’t want that; God wants us to save the region and the world.
The reason I’m telling you all this is so we can pray. Let us pray for the missions fields together, sing praise, and end in prayer.
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 the people of God, the remnants, the multiethnic people, who desire to save the 237 nations, the 5000 unreached tribes, and to do world evangelization through the filling of the Holy Spirit, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.