The Power of the Covenant that Conquers Canaan (Deut. 29:1-13)
The content we just read in Deut. 29 is the sermon that Moses gave to the second generation of Israelites going into Canaan. In Deut. 29:1, it talks about Mount Horeb where the covenant was given to the first generation of Israelites during the Exodus. I’m sure you can tell from today’s verse, and others, the relationship between God and people is the relationship of the covenant. The relationship of the covenant means that things don’t work out the way that I want, but things work out according to the covenant or the promise. If that is the case, if we forget about or are ignorant of this covenant, then we will fail. Our life does not fail because we lack diligence or hard work, but it is because the relationship of the covenant with God is broken.
The Exodus means we have exodus’d or we have left or departed from the world. The world is a place where Satan is controlling, and all of the sinners are under the slavery of Satan. Every human being is born in a state where they do not have God, so they are living their lives under the background of curses, disasters, Satan, and hell, and we have no way out of that. There is no way other than the way of the covenant that God has given us.
The way of the covenant God gave us is Gen. 3:15, it is the offspring of the woman; that is the covenant. The offspring of the woman is talking about somebody that is not born of the body of a man, but born of the body of a virgin, it is that Messiah Who must die on the cross for us to solve our problems. That is the covenant. Anyone who believes in that covenant is liberated from the world, from hell, and from Satan’s grasp.
In the Old Testament, people gave the blood sacrifice. Jesus Christ was still alive during the time of the Old testament, but He had not come to Earth yet, so as a symbol of their faith, they sacrificed that animal. By that blood sacrifice, they were liberated from their sins. But the fact that you and I believe in Jesus Christ means that we have also been liberated, and now that I have been liberated, how do I live? We are living with God, with that covenantal relationship, in order to fulfill God’s covenant.
We believe in God, but He is invisible to our eyes, and that is something anybody can say. We need to say that we believe in the Words God has promised. Among the words God has promised, we believe in Jesus Christ, the offspring of the woman. That’s what this means. If you believe in that, then you are saved from the world, curses, and hell. No matter what kind of circumstance I face, this covenant does not change. However, if your standard is not this covenant, but it is with the things you see with your eyes, you will always be shaking. “Even after I received salvation, I’m still poor; why is that the case?” Then your faith will shake. God has given us His covenant and we are saved by faith.
For the people who are saved, God continues to give us His promise. God reveals Himself to us through His Word. If God’s Word is not inside of me, that means I am living in a state separated from God’s Word, and if I do not have God’s Word, it means I am living the same way as an unbeliever, but that individual says that they believe in God. They might have received salvation, but because they do not have the Word of God, they believe in and rely on other things. That is how the first generation of Israelites were living when they failed and died in the wilderness. Even the Israelites who saw God’s great miracles and signs, it did not matter because they did not believe in God’s covenant. People say whether they received answers or not, but that is simply the result of the covenant. If I don’t have the covenant right now, then anything that happened to me in the past is unnecessary.
In Deut. 29:4, it says, “But to this day, the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.” If God has not given those things to us, how do we believe? God gave the saved people of Israel the covenant and they received salvation, but they lived their not believing in the covenant, so God just let them remain that way. Then there must be a way for us to continuously maintain that covenant. And that is through the Tabernacle and the Three Feasts. There are the seven feasts, actually, but within those there are three, there are the Passover, Pentecost, and Ingathering, and through those three feasts, it talks about the entirety of Israel’s walk of faith from beginning, middle, to the end.
Just like today, God created these holidays and had them do these certain rituals. During the time of the Passover, they didn’t go to school, they didn’t go to work, and they had certain things they had to do. As they were celebrating or commemorating this day, they remembered and rooted down in the fact that they have received salvation from God. During the feast of the Pentecost, God continually taught them and reminded them that we are people who must live by God’s power. During the Feast of the Ingathering, they would remember that our goal, purpose is not on earth but our background and the purpose for which we live is the Kingdom of God, so God used these holidays to continuously teach and remind the Israelites, because without these reminders, the saved people of Israel would not know how they must live. They would live like unsaved nonbelievers and that is why God created these.
For us, these would be things like specific conferences or camps that we go to. That’s why we do things like Remnant Day and the Remnant Conference of America. Why do we do that? To continuously be reminded. Because we continuously try to live for the physical things, just like an unbeliever, so every opportunity, God reminds us with these different activities. After I began this church, for a long time, every time there was a holiday, I would bring the kids into the church and we would plant the Word into them, because if we don’t plant the Word of God into them, they are going to be swept up in the culture of America. Nowadays, because I don’t do this, these kids don’t know what to do during the holiday breaks, but everytime there is a break like that, we call them to church and plant the Word of God into them, because if we don’t plant the Word of God into them, they will live like the first generation of Israelites, in a physical way.
Ultimately, all the Israelites lived with salvation but they died in the wilderness as failed lives. If you don’t listen to the words of the covenant, you don’t receive faith regarding it. Then, instead, you follow after the words of people in the world which are all just physical words. Then, the things of the world are all physical, it’s all about what we eat, what we wear, whether we succeed, whether things are working out well and those are the words of people who do not have God.
In Deut. 29:5, it says that for the forty years in the wilderness, God took responsibility over all physical things, what they wear and eat. In Deut. 29:6, they ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink so they might know that He is the LORD our God. This means they lived their lives from the food that fell from heaven, directly from God, the manna. The people of God live with the things God gives them. But the reason we are always in conflict or thirsty is because we live for the things of the earth. We live with the things God gives us, for us, the world is not our standard.
What does Gal. 6:14 say about our life? May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. We have been crucified to the world; the world is now irrelevant to me, and I am not relevant to the world and there is nothing the world can do to me because I do not belong to it anymore. Because I no longer belong to the world, but I belong to God, I live by the way of God. Then, the style of our life now lives in the way of God. That is why we give worship, which is something unbelievers don’t do, and that is why we live with and for the Word in prayer that unbelievers don’t have.
In Deut. 29:7, it says we have enemies, “When you reached this place, Sihon King of Heshbon and Og King of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.” They were the enemies of the Israelites, so there’s fighting in this world, but in reality, it is a spiritual battle. These are the people who serve idols and Satan, then of course, Satan is going to make us not live together, so we fight spiritually. We need to fight spiritually and win, then we are bound to win 100%, because God is the One Who breaks them down. You need to begin the spiritual battle holding onto this faith.
Christ has already destroyed the authority of Satan, so we hold onto that covenant in faith and fight. Without a doubt, there is an enemy. Our enemy, the devil, desires to destroy us. If you just remain still, you will be attacked. You cannot just remain still because he is your enemy. Moment by moment, he is looking for a way to destroy us, then that is why, what is the posture we must have? The only way we can win is with the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, there are many parts, but either way, there is an enemy, and there is the existence of an opponent who is always trying to destroy us and make us fail. It might look like your enemy is a person, but it is actually Satan working in the background. There is an entity who is trying to destroy you personally as well as your family. It’s not because of a lack of education or money, it is the forces of darkness. It’s the curse of poverty, these are the things that continuously overtake us, and we must win.
Deut. 29:9, “Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do.” If you keep God’s Word, then everything will be prosperous. What does it mean for us to keep God’s Word? It means that our life follows after God’s Word. This does not mean that, in your heart, you want something else, but you force your actions to go after God’s Word, but it means your thoughts and your mind are wholly following God’s Word.
Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the one who meditates on the law of the LORD day and night,” and they will be blessed. What does this word, “blessed,” mean? It means everything will be fulfilled according to God’s Word. Things are not fulfilled according to your will, things are fulfilled exactly according to God’s Word. As this Word is being fulfilled, the physical things follow afterward because everything is working according to God’s Word, but if you don’t know this, you’re bound to follow after the physical things and that’s how we become slaves, and the future generations must know this very well.
With the things you’ve studied and the things you’re working for, it’s not going to cut it. I’m sure not everybody is like this, but those studies and that work is the work that even unbelievers do. But for us, we study and work with the Word of God in order to fulfill the Word of God. That’s why, when the remnants are studying, I hope that you will hold onto God’s word of the covenant and study, then the fulfillment of God’s Word will take place and you will be prosperous. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work for something; it means we need to follow after the fulfillment of God’s Word. Then, all the physical things follow naturally for the fulfillment of God’s Word. Some people even call this, “physical answers,” that’s how we will save other people.
The order is very important. For the future generations, this must become their nature. Then, no matter where they are and no matter what they do, they simply follow after God’s Word. What do I have to do? I simply have to go in the direction of and follow after God’s Word, then in order to fulfill God’s Word, His power will be upon us. That is what it means for the power of the throne of heaven to be upon me.
The power of the throne must be upon us in order for us to change the world. We are not living with our power or the power of the world, but we are living with the power given to us from above in order to fulfill God’s Word on earth. God has given us this, so that with that, we may conquer Canaan and do world evangelization. If the Word of God has not been organized into you like this, then without a doubt, you’re bound to live a very difficult life in order to just eat and make a living.
So, for people in the world, money is the most important because they need it in order to live and eat. That was the reason why the first generation of Israelites did not know God’s covenant and failed. For us, even though we are living in this world, we live with the background of the kingdom of God and living here to change the kingdom of Satan. In your family, in your region, and in your job, you are changing the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God, and the only way you can do that is if the power of God works upon you. That’s the reason why we study, work, and live.
Until the very end, Moses was continually giving the sermon to the future generations, the second generation of Israelites. The future generations that must live after us are living in an even more spiritually confusing world. Even just in the first month of January, there were so many shootings. The reason why America is so dangerous is because they allow people to have guns. Even if we didn’t have guns, not as many people would be dying. Either these people will just die by themselves; in Korea, people don’t have guns, so the extent of harm is to suicide and they die by themselves. But in America, because people have guns, they know they’re going to die eventually anyway, so they kill many people and then kill themselves. They take out their wrath on many people, but who are the people who are doing this?
There is a reason why they have no choice but to do that. Even in the LA County alone, these shootings have happened in the month of January and 11 people have died. What happens if these people with spiritual illnesses come up in every region? These things may happen to you as well. That is why the way for you to live and the way for you to save this nation is to change the kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of God.
These things will continue to increase in the future. Things like drug usage, people say there are a lot of drugs coming in from Mexico, but that’s because people want to buy it here, and even now, there are many young children who are doing drugs. Because that’s what they grew up looking at and learning, that’s just the culture, and because their parents are also doing drugs, they just do it automatically. If the parents are gambling, that’s what the kids grow up learning, so that’s what they do naturally. If the parents are also always eating, playing, and going out, the kids will also do the exact same things because that’s what they think life is. They have never once seen or heard from the Word of God how life should be lived.
Look at the kids in America, if they have any free time, they will go out and eat and play, because the very culture of America says that any free time should be used for vacations to eat and play, so the only thing these kids grow up learning is to eat and play. The way they play is to go on a vacation for a few days, and that becomes the pattern of their lives. If things get difficult, they are able to easily access drugs to overcome their difficulties. If they have a little money, they gamble it away, and the playing is obvious. Every time it is evening, they open up these parties, they do drugs, and they play there, and the reason is because that’s all they’ve seen and learned. They have never once seen or heard how to receive God’s grace and strength through God’s covenant.
This is really not only America; it is the entire world, that’s why Moses is desperately pleading and repeating it to the future generations through his message. He is saying, “If you live like the first generation, you will die as well.” Because you guys are the ones who are born in the wilderness, specially prepared by God, once you go into the land of Canaan, this is what you must do. That is the reason why even when the Israelites had absolutely nothing, God told them to build the Tabernacle, and God told them to build a Tabernacle for no one else, only themselves. “Why do we need to build a Tabernacle? Why not just build a house where we can eat and live?” If you have those kinds of thoughts, then the future generations will all die, because there’s no place for them to learn about God’s covenant. There’s no place for them to train in and to receive healing by God’s covenant, then what happens? The future generations will go deeper into disasters.
In today’s age, the church buildings are continuously closing down, and in the future, it will get worse. What does this mean? It means that people are continuously destroyed, seized by Satan, and it would be fine if even in that state, they were able to live well, but they are not; that’s why in the Old testament, God told them to first build the Tabernacle, and that was the mystery by which God told the Israelites to live spiritually. During the week, if we lose hold of God’s covenant, we go back to the Tabernacle and receive God’s strength and covenant and go out and live. That was the Tabernacle, then it became the Temple, and now it is the Church.
Some people think, “Why is it not enough to just have the gospel? Why can’t we take the gospel and just evangelize to others? Why do we need the church?” Such people don’t know anything, the future generations; they only talk about their own thoughts. Then, why do you think God used Paul to raise up a church everywhere he went? You guys have your own homes, so why are you opposed to a church? You are trying so hard and struggling to buy a house for yourself; why are you opposed to buying a church? Whose play is that? If you look at it spiritually, that is the work of the devil, isn’t that right? You’re struggling so hard to buy a house for yourself, but there are people who are thinking, “Why do we have to buy a church building?” I’m sure none of you are like this, but just in case you think that way, that’s not aligned with God.
The church is the place that gives people the gospel and then heals people and trains people up and then sends them back into the world. It’s not enough to just give this person the gospel, we have to heal, nurture and train them up. We train them up as disciples and commission them back out into the world, and that’s the role of the church. Not only that, but the church brings in people from all over the world, the 237 nations. They bring them in, they heal them, they commission them out as disciples, and commission them back into their nation to raise up disciples, that is the work of the church.
If even a small business wants to do that, they need some kind of office. Even the military needs a base to train up their soldiers. Even you need a location to eat or sleep, then of course, God has prepared it and that’s the work that God does. Inside of that work, God will give us the answers according to His time schedule. It has become that time schedule and God answers. God does that work through each of you.
You need to know that in order for you to pray comfortably about this, otherwise you’ll feel so oppressed, because it feels like you’re forced to do something. But that’s the ways of the world, always wondering what other people think, and if that’s the case, you can just live outside, like a homeless person. Then, do you want your children to also live outside like a homeless person? Even if somebody lives as a homeless person, they don’t want their children to be homeless. Your thinking must be aligned with God’s.
Look at the other religions, they create these grand temples, and what they do there every day is that they pray. Whenever these other religions are praying, things are not staying still; the forces of darkness are completely controlling the whole region, then the result of that spiritual work takes place in a physical way. Why must we raise up the church? We need to conquer the spiritual culture and environment of the region and that is why we raise up churches, region by region.
They even raise McDonald’s region by region, so even if you have a little bit of a business mind, you wouldn’t ask a question like that. Look at In-N-Out, they’re raising locations, region and region. The reason they do that is because they have to make their sales, region by region. Why do we have to raise up churches region by region? Because we must conquer the spiritual culture region by region. But if you don’t even know the order of the Bible, you will talk from your own knowledge, just because you have gone to church for a long time, and the future generations will be influenced by you.
I hope you will speak words of the covenant, I hope you will stop speaking words of your own thoughts, but instead, speak the words of the covenant. Just say it, the words of the covenant. Just tell other people, “You can live the way you want to live, but I’m going to live to save the 237 nations, do the healing movement, and raise the future generations to the summit. Then I’ll go.” That’s the content the Lord entrusted to us and asked of us. Before He ascended into heaven, he said in Mt. 28, “Go and make all disciples of all nations.” And in Mark 16, Jesus Christ told us, “Go to all of these people and heal them with the gospel.” In John 21, Jesus Christ said, “Feed my lambs,” and in Acts 1, God told them to raise these individuals up to the summit and conquer all of the world through Rome.
These are the words that the LORD has asked of us — the Temple to do that work, the regional church to do that work, and the business to do that work. Your studies to do that. That is how it is connected in one way. Then according to God’s time schedule, He will fulfill His Word. If you simply hold to the Word and pray, God works with His answers. That is how the church becomes one through God’s Word, that’s what it means to receive the apostle’s teachings, the breaking of bread, and breaking of bread is not the important part; we are not only eating but we are foruming together about the Word we have received.
So, during the lunch times, I hope you will share your forums. And after the English Ministry message on Sunday, I hope you will share your forum because these kids, I don’t know what they received, but they just leave, and we did it a few times, but then I stopped asking them to do it, the kids keep leaving, and that is why we need the leaders who are not just the pastor. We need the leaders who are able to continuously say the words the pastor said so that the pastor doesn’t have to keep repeating it. That’s the reason why the church is there, that is necessary. That becomes the church officer. But it’s only possible if these people believe that we need to save the future generations.
The future generation cannot just listen to the message and then leave, we have to share the message with them. That is how you raise up the church. The number of people who come to the church is not important, what is important is that the Word of God is going into them. We pray together with them so that they can receive God’s answers. Who will do that? It’s the same thing for the church officers. After worship, when we are eating lunch, who leads the forum? We must change that environment. When we change that environment, God begins to work.
It’s so simple, if you just talk about the Word you have received and the answers you received throughout the week according to God’s Word, people will stop talking about the unnecessary things because they’re unnecessary. This is not about bragging because it is the answers God has given to you, so you’re giving glory to God. The people who are talking about unnecessary, frivolous things are bound to close their mouths because they’re too embarrassed talking about frivolous things, not having received answers. That’s evidence that they’ve lived their life without God’s Word and according to their own thoughts. Changing that environment is the way to change the church.
We are doing our own part. That is what it means to be part of the church. Listening to the messages is not everything. It says in Acts that the members of the early church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings, to fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. They devoted themselves to prayer. You need to listen to that other person’s prayer topic and be able to share in that prayer with them; that’s what it means to be a member of the church. Just listening to them and having it be irrelevant to you and your prayers, that’s not members of the church. If somebody shares their prayer topic with you, let’s pray about it together. That’s the church. If you say, “You are you and I am me,” we are not bodies of the church. This is what it means that the entire church is connected together as one body.
Worship is tremendously important. It’s possible that the kids think lightly of worship, then the Word of God doesn’t go into them. If the Word of God doesn’t go into you, you’ll walk the same path as your parents. Some people may say, “My parents lived without the covenant but it seems like they’re doing well for themselves,” you’ll go down the same path but you’re lying, and the devil is a liar. The devil says, “You’ll be okay even without God’s Word,” he is a liar. So that person is seized by Satan and by Satan’s lies.
Covenant. The relationship I have with God is a covenantal relationship and the relationship between church and God is a covenantal relationship. That is why every time we worship, God gives us the Word of His covenant. I am going out with faith, holding onto this relationship of the covenant I have with God. That is the content we read through today.
If we want to apply this to the New Testament, the fact that we believe Jesus is the Christ means we have been liberated from fundamental problems, why? Because I’ve been liberated from hell, sin, and Satan. It’s been finished, now, all these problems I see with my eyes and keep getting, because God is with me, I see God’s plan in all of that. So, there’s no reason for you to be shocked or terrified when you look at a problem, because that is your reaction when you do not have God. Now, we are living our lives with God as our Master, as people of the kingdom of God, with the power of the throne of heaven, so we are living like this rightfully. That is why, in order to fulfill this covenant, every time we worship, God gives us the Word of the covenant He will fulfill.
There is a stream of God’s Word, meaning, in order to fulfill God’s covenant, there is a progression to the Word that God gives you. If you don’t know this, you’ll hold onto one word one day, and a completely different word another day, so its not about holding onto a random word God has given you but there is a stream of the Word God is giving you, step by step, to fulfill His covenant. God has given me His mission and in the time schedule to fulfill that, He gives us His Word, moment by moment.
We call that the CVDIP. It is God fulfilling God’s vision for us. In order to fulfill that mission, God gives us His Word, week by week, in a very detailed way, and that is how He fulfills that work. That is how God establishes God’s Kingdom, region by region. That is world evangelization, the evangelization of the region, and all nations, changing it into God’s Kingdom.
If we don’t change it into God’s Kingdom, it doesn’t matter how many buildings we raise because all of that will be destroyed anyway. There’s no reason to look at the Tower of Babel and be so much in awe; we have to change it into God’s Kingdom. When you go into your company, there’s no reason to be in awe at all those things, we have to establish God’s kingdom. It doesn’t matter how much someone succeeds, if we don’t change it into God’s Kingdom, they will be destroyed by Satan. God gives us success and prosperity in order to change things into God’s Kingdom.
Prayer
May you enjoy this blessing for the remainder of your time. Let us pray holding onto the Word God has given to us. The prayers God is bound to answer, not the prayer you struggle with by yourself, you’re not praying for whatever you want, but you pray according to the Word God has given you today.
Our second prayer topic will be for the future generations. The culture of the superpower nation of America is no ordinary culture, so you must not remain with the same standards you have now. You must be able to confirm that this child is within the answers of God’s covenant. If you talk about how well your kids are doing, do not look at the physical standards, but ask, “Is this child within the covenant?” That’s true prosperity, and otherwise, they are not doing well, so that is why we pray. So let us pray for the multiethnics and the remnants.
Our third prayer topic, Temple construction is the answer we must receive. The church building itself is not the answer, but the content, the covenant with which we must raise up the church is the answer, and the church building is an answer, a result of the covenant. I know God will answer this, so pray for this, and pray that your business may go into the covenant of temple construction.
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 remnants who desire to hold onto the covenant and live holding onto the covenant, upon all their business and academics, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.