Pray for the Assurance of Salvation and Faith so that Works of Saving will Arise in your Field (Numbers 27:1-23)
Today, I will be sharing the Word from Numbers 27. Numbers means we’re counting the numbers. Why do we need to count? It is in preparation for conquering Canaan. Who are those who are prepared? Those are the people we need to count. Why is that? The Israelites who experienced the Exodus have this covenant with God.
The Exodus wasn’t something people could do on their own. The Israelites could not come out from the slavery of Egypt, no matter how hard they tried. They were in a situation where they were slaves to the land of Egypt.
When did they come out? They came out once they painted the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. This is a method that people cannot understand with their own intellect, because this is God’s method. God’s method is just one way: the people who have sinned and are under Satan’s control need someone to die for them. This can only happen in the Old Testament when an animal dies instead of a person, but in the New Testament, when Jesus Christ dies on the cross.
So for the world, they think the things of the world, the things they see, are everything. When God created man, God created them so they had to live with God. People need to live with God, with the spirit of God as in Genesis 2:7. They were created to conquer and rule over everything God created. The moment we left God was the moment we had no way to turn back, so people live so diligently but they have nowhere else to go.
So, only through the offspring of the woman crushing the head of the serpent is our only way to meet God again, and those who believe are able to come out. What is worship? Worship is when we go before the Lord and receive His grace and give this blood sacrifice. People can only live when they’ve received this grace and forgiveness.
People cannot live on their own. They might live according to their ethics and morals, but they are not living a righteous life before God, so they need to receive God’s grace through offering. Because he did not have grace, Cain gave incorrect worship and ended up killing his own brother. It’s not a problem of receiving the wrong kind of education. People naturally become like this because they do not have God’s grace. Through worship, when they received God’s grace, great blessings come. This is the content of the entire Bible.
So, what was the most important thing for the Israelites who came out of Egypt? How is God going to be with them through worship? That’s what they learned in the wilderness for 40 years. “Worship is so boring,” then what are you going to do? You’ll just die in the wilderness. God has prepared blessings in the land of Canaan, but if we lose hold of worship, we have no choice but to fail.
Succeeding in worship means we have received grace from God. God’s grace must come upon our spiritual problems that we cannot solve with our money or strength. The first generation all died in the wilderness, they were not able to receive the blessings of the land of Canaan. Only Joshua and Caleb were left, and today, Moses is able to look towards Canaan but he’s not able to enter Canaan, and he dies because that is what God told him.
So up until last week, we were learning about how God divided the land and distributed it to each clan, so these Israelitse are the second generation to receive God’s grace. So, even among the second generation of Israeliets who had unbelief and committed sins, they died from illnesses. So, God gives us the covenant, but if we’re not able to receive God’s grace and hold onto it, then the time schedule is delayed.
The first generation of Israeliets received the covenant but they weren’t able to hold onto it, so the covenant stopped. Except for two people, the rest of them just went to heaven. Then, does this covenant go away? No, it is passed to the next generation who has faith. What’s important to know is that those who believe in God have a different plan that God has prepared for them.
If you don’t know this as you live your walk of faith, you do not know God. You might’ve received salvation, but if you don’t know God’s plan for you, then you don’t know God. Then, if you don’t know what God desires, then you’ll have no choice but to hold on to the ideas and ideologies of Egypt. All of this is centered on people, materialistic things, and success, and that’s what causes them to fail. When you lose hold of God’s Word and God’s plan, you’re holding onto another plan.
So, Joseph’s first son is Manasseh, and his second son was Ephraim. God gave his blessings to Ephraim. The core clans were Judah in the south and Ephraim in the north. Today we are talking about the seventh generation that stemmed from Joseph. Joseph’s son was Manasseh and this continued onto the sixth generation, so the father passed away in the wilderness, and they had no son; there were only daughters left.
The daughters asked Moses, “Our father was not among Korah’s followers who banded together against the LORD, so why can’t we receive any remaining inheritance?” “Why should our father’s name disappear from the clan because he has no son,” so Moses brought their case before the LORD. In Numbers 27:7, the LORD says that’s correct, so all of their father’s share will be given to them.
After the Exodus, in the wilderness, they only counted the males who were 20 years of age or older, so these are the people who are able to go into war. Those who were younger than 20 years are lacking? Women are lacking? That’s not what it means, but it’s that these men over 20 years old are to go into war. God is saying He is giving women an equal opportunity, because there were so many other great works done through women as well. In the Old Testament, people say that. “They emphasize the male too much, but no, the covenant is not like that.
Even for the Levites, those who attended to the Tabernacle were all men. Does that mean we don’t need women? No, that’s not right. If you read here, it says the women will also receive the same covenant from God. So, God is saying the covenant may be stopped due to some unbelievers, but it will continue onto the next generation, so it’s important to form your family based on the Bible, because even the spiritual problems are relayed through the family and follows through the family line. Even the covenant is passed through the family line.
Relatively, if you see different families, a doctor will have more doctors; a lawyer will have more lawyers. These are the talents God has given, to do what? To play their role; I believe God has given them as specific role to play, and if you believe in Jesus Christ, you have Jesus Christ’s perfect plan. When you don’t know this, you live a difficult, diligent life. You don’t know God and you just live diligently as hard as you can, but no, that’s not right, you have to look to the land of Canaan, and that’s why God keeps strengthening us.
World evangelization, God’s Kingdom. God has given us the covenant of God’s Kingdom, and there’s a blessing God has prepared for each family. God has given a talent for each family to do this. When you hold onto the covenant correctly, then you’ll relay it onto the future generation. If I’m haphazard about it, it will just be delayed. It’s not something that can be done by being haphazard, it’s not something you should shout on, it’s not something you can prepare for, either. It’s not something I can do because I’m weak or strong. It can’t be done no matter what you say; it can only be done through God’s covenant.
No need to yell; you just need to hold to the covenant. Then the blessing will continue to be relayed to the next generation. When Joseph held onto the covenant, it may have become hazy as time went on. Ephraim tribe is separate but the daughters were so smart, they held onto the covenant. So they asked for the inheritance, if they didn’t care about it they wouldn’t have asked for it. God has a promise and plan for each individual, and the place I am at is where God has His plan.
You need to believe this. What’s the evidence? It is faith, and standing in that place is evidence, and the family given to you is the evidence. But if you ignore this and ask for some miraculous sign, you’re missing the point because the place you’re in is the land of the covenant. You need to hold to the covenant for God to work. That’s when it will be relayed to your children. There’s no doubt about it.
God gave this to the Early Church, and at first, it’s Jerusalem, then Judah and Samaria until the ends of the earth. It’s there. Paul had a separate plan for world evangelization, and Peter had a different role he played in world evangelization. God has a different blessing for each individual and each family, and that’s what they talk about.
In Numbers 27:12, Moses’ commission has come to an end. We live on this earth until God’s commission for us has ended. Everyone is made of dust, and to dust we will return. It may seem that people live for a long time, but no, everyone will return to dust. But if you look in the Bible, it says, “You will return to your people,” “You, too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was,” so it’s saying that Moses will also meet his ancestors who are in the Kingdom of Heaven.
After you die, there’s a new blessing you receive, because that individual will go to heaven to meet their ancestors. They may be happy but the people on earth are sad. Because we’re human, we also cry. But for those who believe, they have a blessing whether they’re alive or dead or just lying around.
So, people in the world live with this fear of death, Hebrews 4:12-13. But for us, we have the promise of the Kingdom of God and this is the promise that can overcome anything, including death. So, death isn’t just death, but we have this eternal life. Do you know how scary the fear of death is? Unbelievers have this fear of death whenever they open their eyes. But in order to break through this, they have slogans or saying, “Work diligently and push through!” They live with immense strength because they have this fear.
Or they try to live a very positive life because they have this fear. But whenever they open their eyes, everyday is a war, it’s basically hell. So it’s so hard for them to live their lives every single day. Why is it so difficult? It’s because this fear of death doesn’t go away. If they work, they just need to work, but they work so diligently to overcome their fear, and this is the state of the unbeliever. On the outside, they yell and shout positive things, some of them may commit suicide, “Why is life like this?” when they fail. But believers have this blessing of the Kingdom of God. But if the parents lose hold of this, it will be difficult for the children.
So we can’t just go to church diligently for our walk of faith. We need to worship diligently, with our whole heart. We go into the field and fulfill the mission and establish God’s Kingdom. If we don’t know this, we’ll just live a religious life, going to church, working, going to church , and then we just die in the desert. Of course we need to give worship.
Sunday is the beginning of our week, and God gives us the Word in advance on how we should live our week. That’s why we need to anticipate and be excited for this work, but if we don’t have this, such people are dead. Those people need to feel excited through alcohol or drugs. Or they need to find excitement through other programs. Does that work? No.
When we begin the week, we need to ask, “What kind of Word does God want to give to me?” Yesterday I watched a video about Chong Ju Hyeon, the CEO of Hyundai. Hyundai is a well-known car brand, so he was born in North Korea, so ever since a young age, he was used to waking up super early to help with farming. His father and mother were uneducated, but the father educated this CEO as a farmer.
He read a newspaper and realized, “I can’t live here anymore,” so he moved to a bigger city. One by one, as he encountered different things through life, he came to where he is now. He didn’t have this goal as he moved through life. He was basically giving his testimony of his experiences, of how he lived. Because he always woke up so early, he actually walked to his company. Because he has time left, he plays tennis, and around 7 or 7:30am, that’s when he holds a meeting.
He says he’s excited every day. He doesn’t believe in God, but he is excited what kind of things this new day will bring to him, because he’s living a life he never expected. He’s excited because if you give it your all then something good will happen to that person. This is someone who doesn’t believe in God, and these are the thoughts of a successful unbeliever.
This is the same for believers and for the families of successful believers: what are we excited for? We are excited for God’s word if we don’t have that then we are just dead and will not succeed, even if they are a non-believer, because every day is just a repetitive thing they go through. But for us, God has a plan He has prepared for that day. So, when we wake up and are excited about this, this is actually very normal.
But instead of this, people begin their day thinking, “How will I live my life today?” People who are retired may wonder, “With what will I fill up my day?” But God gave us the Word He is going to fulfill, and God has given us each and every day to fulfill His Word. If we don’t have this excitement, there’s no fun in life; we’re just living like this, just to survive. Then it becomes a life that’s worse than an animal’s.
God has given us a mission and is guiding us each and every day. Whenever we wake up, we should pray, “What has God planned for my meetings and the way I will live today? Who will receive the gospel today?” because we don’t know how this person will receive the gospel. I have the assurance of salvation, but I don’t have the assurance that other people will receive salvation, so that’s why evangelism doesn’t work. So, we just have this assurance that I have salvation, but we don’t have assurance regarding the faith that other people will receive salvation.
Works arise according to your faith, so if you don’t have faith, works will not arise, but with this faith, we go out into the world. Who is the prepared person to receive the gospel today? There is someone prepared, and that’s how we live every day. Then, this person will receive the filling of the holy spirit every single day. Then, work will be fun for this person. Work isn’t fun because it’s repetitive, but when they think about what God has prepared, they become excited. Once you’ve completed your mission, you’ll go to the heavenly realms.
Numbers 27:16, “May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community,” so he’s telling them to appoint a leader over all these people. Numbers 27:18, “So the LORD said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua, son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him.’” So God is with everybody, but there was a separate spirit God has given to Joshua.
There’s something different that God has given to us. There’s something else God has given to Caleb, he didn’t yield so Joshua could be the leader, but God gave the spirit of leadership to Joshua. In human terms, Caleb might of yield it but God had appointed Joshua, because this spirit has come upon that person. There’s something different that each person will do, spiritually. This spirit actually departed from Saul. The spirit of kingship departed from Saul. God pours His spirit upon each individual and guides them, so that’s why there’s a different talent and specialty God has given to each person and that he is leaning towards.
In my English Bible, it says, “the spirit of leadership,” and that’s why Joshua is able to carry out this work. Who is Joshua? He’s someone who lived in Egypt without the covenant as a slave, but as he followed Moses around, he saw everything God had done, so he was someone who had a sure faith in God. So, God appointed Joshua as the next leader, and it’s just this. Each family relays the covenant to the next generation, Israel as a whole was going to be led by Joshua.
Through Aaron’s son, Eleazar, they were to be presented to the entire Israelite community. Because God gave the spirit of leadership to Joshua, everyone had to follow him. They are not following the person, but God has appointed Joshua to be their leader, to be the meteor between God and the Israelites, and they are to follow him. God could just do it Himself, but He appoints a king,priest and prophet but if you don’t understand this, then you don’t understand Christ.
God could have done it Himself, but He didn’t. He raises people to fulfill the roles of the priest, prophet, and king, and works through them. Even though they’re imperfect, God pours His oil and anoints them and does His work. If these works are not done, then people cannot live. Through the priest, the problems of the curses must be solved.
Moses actually had two roles, he was a leader but he also relayed the Word of God, so he said He will give the Word to Moses and Joshua, and they were to listen to that Word. This is the method through which God works. You can’t see God, and people say whatever about God, “He’s like this or like that,” but God is continuously doing His work through the prophet, priest and king, that’s why he raises his people.
He continued this work through people by raising Joshua and the future generation. But for people, their most important thing is to solve these three problems. It’s not about eating and living because all those people died in the wilderness. These three problems need to be solved, we need to receive the Word of God. The problem of sin must be taken away by the priest. We need to be ruled by the king and have authority over our enemy. That’s what we need. Everything is fulfilled within that.
So, for us, God is doing world evangelization. He’s doing this through us and God is giving us the Word through His servant, so God needs to raise somebody. He raises someone in order to give the Word. So it’s not like the Old Testament, because in the New Testament, it says we are all royal priests and the ones who are to relay the word as a prophet God has given us the blessing to relay this Word to the future generation.
It’s the same for the church, the generation must pass this onto the next generation so it continues on, so that’s why we do church construction. If there’s no church building, then that church is gone, because if there’s no place to meet, everyone will just scatter, then everyone will go to a place that has a building. What about that? We can’t just go somewhere? People who ask that don;t’ know what the church is.
When God raises a church, it means there’s a mission, but when people scatter, that means the mission for that church is gone. God has given a mission for the church, but if they’re not holding onto this, then they will scatter and go live a religious life. So as evidence for that, people scattered. God has prepared a church for these people to attend, but they don’t know that and they just scatter. But God continues the work through those people who believe.
This content is very important. There’s so many churches, but each church has a different mission. They all have the same goal but each church has their role to play. As we live in this age, we need to continue on this mission and pass it onto the next generation. God will prepare His inheritance and the land for these people. It’s not that, “Oh, there is a land” or “there isn’t, ” but God will work when you have faith. If it doesn’t work for me, God will do it through your future generations, and we’re talking about having faith in the covenant.
To summarize Numbers 27, the covenant the first generation received will be passed to the second generation and will continue on and be fulfilled. Even if they don’t have faith, the time schedule will just be delayed. Even if the first generation might waver, if you continue to help the second generation receive training and listen to the Word, that is the way to live.
The church isn’t a regular building or some kind of meeting, but it’s the body of Christ. That’s why every single person is important, because if that person isn’t there, the mission of God won’t be fulfilled. So if you look at it from a humanistic perspective, if just one person has the covenant will it be fulfilled? No. Even if it’s the smallest person without a name, God placed them at the church for a reason to carry out the mission together. That’s why we need to wait for those who are weak, to embrace them, and to go together. That is the way to save the church and the church has a time schedule. Those who are within this time schedule will receive blessings.
Originally, Lois was the interpreter, and there was no one else to do it, so she was the interpreter. Even for other people, they’re not so great, but they are doing it according to the time schedule. So it doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad, but God raises them and uses them according to God’s time schedule. If they were good, God would make them good from the beginning, but that wasn’t the case. It doesn’t matter if there’s a system or not; God will work so there’s a system raised.
That’s how our church was like. Senior Deaconess Jo didn’t do the message from the very beginning but she held onto the covenant, and that’s how it started, and Tiffany also does the Elementary Message because God gave her that mission. Tiffany’s message is being sent all across the world. We didn’t prepare for this in advance, but we said, “You should do it,” and she did, so God gave the strength and the covenant is being relayed.
Once you’re inside on the time schedule, you receive the blessings. It’s not that you prepare for these kinds of things. If a system was already set, then these people would not be able to do it, so that’s why it’s a blessing right now, because God is allowing them to do it according to His time schedule because God is ultimately doing it.
Tiffany’s message is very popular throughout the entire world because it’s very short, it’s in English, and it’s very easy for people to understand. There’s one person who is forwarding this message to everyone else. So, God is raising the church and leading the church regardless of the persons’ strength or weaknesses, he is leading the church and it’s the same for me, I wasn’t someone who was prepared, I’m someone who experienced how God is actually leading the church, regardless of the person’s status. So there’s a blessing in the systems already in place, and there’s another kind of blessing in the places with no systems because God is the one who is fulfilling it.
So, we don’t know about tomorrow, there’s nothing we’re sure about except for world evangelization. God gave us this time schedule to raise the future generation. Those who are within this will have five talents instead of one because those with one talent will say, “I don’t want to use it,” so God takes it away. In the Bible, it says God will take the one buried talent and give it to the one with more.
That’s the mindset of an evangelist. We go into the empty places and make something out of it. That’s actually the American “frontier” or “pioneer” ideology. If we go into a place where a system is already in place, that’s for the weak, but with that mindset, we cannot do world evangelization. So, there are these ten things, like the empty place and you make a river from it. From nothing, you make something, but if the future generation doesn’t have this mindset, it becomes hard for them because they have to have the mindset, “Once you go into the field, you can change it,” because if they don’t have this, it’ll be difficult.
THis must be practiced in the church, and if a system is raised inside the church, then we can go into the field. There’s no problem because God is the Master of the church and God raises the people in order to do His work. We give glory to God with what we have and we just go forth.
Prayer
Father God, we thank You. Thank you for giving us the Word and the church and the covenant in order to go forth and to do world evangelization. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
Let us pray all together. Let us pray holding onto the Word.
Second prayer topic, Remnant Conference of America is coming the third week of November. This is not about your church or my church, but it is about God’s Mizpah movement that his going to raise the future generations of America because it’s the blessing for the next generation to be connected with this generation. According to today’s words, it’s not that if you have no kids, it’s irrelevant to you, but the next generation is connected to you, and that’s why we have the blessing of raising the remnants with our prayers. Everyone thinks, “If you pray, will you get money?” You actually don’t know because everything is contained within that. So let’s pray for RCA.
Let us pray for our fields, the fields and regions in which we all live, because those regions contain the 237 nations and the 5000 unreached people groups, and behind each person you meet, there are countless others, so it’s not just one person, but it’s the one person who has countless people, countless families behind them, and that’s the characteristic of the superpower nation in which you live.
The weaker nations are not connected to the 237 nations, but the superpower nations are. God, in the region I live, allow me to have the blessing of meeting with the 237 nations and the 5000 unreached people groups. Let us be the church that sends out missionaries and finds disciples in all 50 states.
It’s a life where we follow after the covenant. We will be having Baptism this week and there will be two Mongolian newborns. There’s going to be Mongolians, one of them does Darakbang with the Pastor’s wife, but they travel a bunch, but three of them will be baptized, and David Lee who is 14 years old and has been to church for awhile has told me he wants to be baptized. There’s another person who received Jesus Christ and said they would get baptized next time. I hope you pray for the multiethnics and remnants to be baptized.
In America, there’s actually a place on the baptismal certificate for the date and place of baptism. We will also celebrate communion after worship. Let’s pray for the church as well as the multiethnics and remnants who are getting baptized.
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unlimited love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the holy spirit, be upon all the multiethnic people and the remnants and future generations who want to convey the covenant to the future generations, be upon their businesses, school, and studies, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen