• All e-books and audiobooks on The New Life Mission website are free
  • Explore multilingual sermons in global languages
  • Two new revised editions in English have been released
  • Check out our website translated into 27 languages
Search

Sermons

Subject 11-1 : The Tabernacle

[11-7] In Reality, the Living God Yahweh (Exodus 34:1-8)

In Reality, the Living God Yahweh
 
 
 

(Exodus 34:1-8)

1 And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.

2 So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain.

3 And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.’

4 So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.

5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,

7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.’

8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.

 

We Need to Know Exactly What Kind of God the God We Believe in Is

 
         Let’s look at Exodus 3:13-16.
‘Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’” Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt.”’ Amen.
 
 

What Kind of God Is Yahweh God?

 
         The word “Jehovah” is “Yahweh” in Hebrew, and the word “Yahweh” means “the self-existent one.” God is not a created being, but the self-existent one, the Creator who made the entire universe.
 
         Let’s look at Exodus 6:2-7. “And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them. I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” 
Verse 3 says, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them.”
In the past, God did not reveal His name as the LORD. That is why He was simply called God.
However, God wanted to make His name, the LORD, known to all people in the world in order to accomplish the work of saving the Israelites. “I am the LORD. I am Yahweh. I am the self-existent one.” God wanted to reveal Himself in this way.
 
         God, as the self-existent one, is “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
He has been alive and existing since a very long time ago. In other words, God is saying that He lives and exists forever.
God allowed the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, to serve as slaves in Egypt for 430 years, and then promised to bring them out and lead them into the land of Canaan.
Just as He promised, 430 years later, the LORD God appeared and told Moses to deliver the Israelites from Pharaoh.
“I am the LORD. I am the self-existent God. Let my people go.” For His people, He revealed Himself to Moses and commanded Pharaoh.
The LORD God knew that the Israelites were suffering under hard labor. Because He knew that the Israelites were groaning under oppression, He promised to save and deliver them.
 
         God made a promise to Abraham, and 430 years later, He came to the Israelites and revealed Himself to them.
“I am the LORD. I am God. I have come to fulfill the promise I made to your ancestor Abraham 430 years ago, that I would lead his descendants out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. Go and tell Pharaoh this. And I know all the suffering you are going through.” This is what the LORD God said.
 
         In fact, we must know God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Also, God becomes the God of you and me, but what is His name? It is Yahweh. That means ‘the One who exists by Himself.’
He existed before the creation of the world. He existed even before the universe and all things were made, and He is the One who exists by Himself; He was not made to exist by anyone, but He is the One who exists by Himself.
 
 

We Must Clearly Understand the Meaning of God’s Name

 
         In fact, God is the One who exists by Himself, and it is important to know and believe that He is the One who actually created us, rules over us, and saved us from our sins.
In fact, Yahweh God created this whole universe and still exists even now, so we must believe in that Yahweh God as the absolute God.
 
         You and I, like the people of Israel, also believe in God and have received God’s commands before God.
Just as the people of Israel could not keep all the laws, we also cannot keep the law. That is why we also, before God, because of our sins, are beings who have no choice but to receive the fearful judgment of sin before God.
In fact, all of us are such beings that, because of our sins, cannot avoid the judgment of sin that God brings.
 
         That is why what we need before God is to offer the atonement price (ransom) to pay the price of our lives. In order for ourselves to be saved from sin, we also had to offer to God the Father, by faith, the price of the atonement for life, which is equivalent to our own lives.
In fact, before the self-existing LORD God, by offering the price of one’s own life, through that sacrificial offering, God’s justice had to be fulfilled, the judgment for sin had to be fulfilled, and God’s merciful love had to be fulfilled.
In fact, only by offering the atonement for life for sin can the relationship between God and humans be reconciled. It is by faith that we can be saved from all sin and judgment.
 
         In fact, that is why whenever we go before God, we must acknowledge that we are beings who, because of the sins we commit before God, have no choice but to receive the judgment for sin and the punishment for sin.
In fact, when we believe in God as our Savior, we must know and acknowledge that because of the sins we have, we have no choice but to be judged and go to hell, and we must believe in the Messiah, who paid the price for our sins and saved us from sin and judgment, as our Savior.
When we go before God, we must go with the faith that believes in the baptism of Jesus Christ and the blood shed on the cross, which are the sacrificial offerings for our sins, and believe in Him as the Messiah.
We must acknowledge that we became sinners before God because we could not keep the commandments that God commanded, and we must believe that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, saved us from sin.
 
         We must acknowledge that we were beings who could not avoid receiving punishment for sin before God. Therefore, we obtained the qualification to receive the blessing of the blotting out of sins that Jesus Christ gave, and therefore, we laid the foundation of faith to receive the blotting out of sins and receive God’s mercy.
 
         God, in order to make people His children, made them according to God’s image and allowed them to be born weak for a little while, and because Adam sinned, He made us, who were born as descendants of Adam, automatically become sinners.
 
         We were beings who, because of sin, had no choice but to receive judgment, but God, to fulfill His will, sent His Son to carry out the removal of sins for us.
Because the Son of God, Jesus, following God’s command, received baptism and went to the cross and died for us, Yahweh God, through the baptism His Son received from John and by passing over the sins of the world through that baptism and through the blood of the cross, saved us from all sins and took upon Himself all the judgment for our sins, and clothed us, who believe this, with new life.
 
         Jesus was a sufficient sacrificial offering so that, by believing in the baptism and blood that He received, we might gain new life, be saved from all sins, and become children of God.
We must have the faith that receives salvation from all sins and becomes God’s people by believing in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the finely twisted linen. In fact, only those who have this kind of faith become God’s people — this is the absolute truth established by God.
 
 

The gods Spoken of in All the Religions of This World Are All Made by Humans Themselves

 
         Except for Yahweh God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, all are worldly gods that humans themselves have made.
Among the things that exist in this world, there is nothing that exists by itself except for God. That is why Yahweh God said, “I am the One who exists by Myself.”
 
         In fact, is there even one among the things of this world that exists by itself?
Even Buddha of Buddhism was born from his mother’s womb, so he is a created being made by God; Confucius as well, Mencius as well, all were born from parents, and so they are all created beings made by God.
Even the Buddha statues symbolically carved in Buddhism are merely things made by humans using stones or metals that God had created and put there.
The sun, the moon, the stars, the water, the sea, the air, the galaxies of the heavens — all are things made by God.
There is not a single thing in the world that was not made by God. Even the spiritual beings called angels were made by God.
 
         Only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom we believe in, is Yahweh God, who exists by Himself.
Yahweh God is the God who was not made by anyone. He alone is the One who exists by Himself, He alone is the One who created the universe and all things, and He is the One who made you and me.
Only Yahweh God, within His will, planned to save us from sin and make us into His people.
 
         Because God planned it that way, He made us be born into this world crying, made us return empty-handed, and allowed us to live suffering in this world so that we would have no choice but to meet God, no choice but to seek Him.
 
         In fact, when we say we believe in God, we had to acknowledge that we are such beings who, because of our own sins, because of breaking and not keeping God’s commands, have no choice but to receive before God the punishment of death, the punishment of hell, and the punishment of terrible suffering.
We must acknowledge that we were sinners who had no choice but to receive the fearful judgment of sin and go to hell, and we must believe in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, as our Savior.
 
 

Yahweh God Is Omniscient and Omnipotent

 
         We must know that only God is truly the omniscient and omnipotent God who created us and governs this world.
And after that, before that God, one must acknowledge what kind of sinner they are; they must acknowledge that they are such beings who, because of their own sins, have no choice but to receive the fearful wrath of God.
And in fact, to be saved from all those sins, one must know and believe the truth that by faith in the sacrificial offering established by God, by laying hands on the head of that offering and transferring one’s sins, all sins are resolved.
In fact, we must believe the truth that although we had to be judged for our sins and die, that sacrificial offering, by receiving baptism and accepting our sins, could wash away our sins.
In fact, we must acknowledge and believe that God, who is able to do all things, saved you and me, who could not help but go to hell, from all sins through the sacrificial offering. Such a person is the one who believes in Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
 
         In fact, when we say we believe in the Messiah, believing blindly is not right faith.
When we say we believe in God, we must believe with a basis. There is a basis for the power of truth that God revealed Himself and said, “I am the One who exists by Myself, I am Yahweh.”
 
         The people of Israel could not fully keep the law that God commanded them. This word is actually a command given to you and me today as well.
If we truly want to believe in God, and if we want to become descendants of Abraham by faith, we must acknowledge and accept the 613 laws and commandments that God has commanded not only to the descendants of Abraham but also to all humanity.
We must also acknowledge that the command that the wages of sin is death comes upon us just as it is.
 
         We must believe that God removed our sins through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. To do so, we must set out to seek the truth of salvation by which the Lord saved us from sin and judgment.
 
         Even though we could not keep God’s solemn command, if one does not know that they are a sinner and does not acknowledge that they are someone who will receive the judgment of sin, that person cannot believe in the Messiah.
Even though God has actually recorded our sins in the book of judgment, if one has sin in their heart yet believes they will go to heaven, that person is someone who changes God’s law on their own and commits the sin of speaking God’s name in vain.
Such a person will never be saved from their own sins. Such a person, because of their own sins, is someone who will eternally receive the judgment of sin and the punishment of hell. Whether they believe God’s word or not, because they do not acknowledge God, it is so.
That person must quickly repent. They must turn away from their unbelief.
 
         God, even at this moment, is in the hearts of you and me and exists by Himself in all this space. And He knows all about us.
 
         God is alive, yet some people do not believe and there are some people who mock that God.
In fact, all of us are those who need a sacrificial offering because of our sins. That is why God had us bring the sacrificial offering and offer the atonement sacrifice at the altar of burnt offering in the tabernacle, according to the law of salvation established by God.
 
         In fact, God is the One who exists by Himself. He existed in the old days, and He exists even now.
In the past, to the ancestors of our faith, He was still alive, appeared, and spoke; and even now, to us, He is alive, speaks, appears, works, leads us, and rules over us.
 
 

Truth That Must Not Be Forgotten

 
         We have received the removal of sins, but there is one thing we must never forget at any time.
In fact, we ourselves were those who could only forever be judged, but because our Lord received baptism and shed blood on the cross, we, by believing this truth, were saved from all judgment of sins.
Until the day we stand before the Lord, we must not forget this truth and must hold it in our hearts with faith.
Even when we go to heaven and praise God, we must hold this gospel of salvation in our hearts and believe it.
All of us were those who could only forever be cursed and receive judgment for our sins, but we must believe and give thanks that our Lord saved such as us with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and is the Savior who gave us eternal life.
 
         We must forever acknowledge and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
What happens if we do not acknowledge the fact that we were beings who could only forever be judged because of our sins?
There would be no reason to praise God.
In fact, the Lord saved us, who were such beings who could only forever be judged because of our sins.
That is why the Lord was baptized and shed blood for us, that is why we must believe and praise, and that is why we must preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit. That is it.
Those who believe in the baptism and blood that Jesus received to blot out our sins have a heart that praises God.
Because the Lord saved us from sin and death, we praise daily with faith.
 
         The problem is that there are truly many people who misunderstand Jesus and know only half.
They are people whose consciences are seared, who, even while committing enormous sins, do not even know that they are sinning.
In fact, a person who, while committing sins, does not know that it is sin — that person is a sinner.
 
         In fact, we are weak beings who have no choice but to sin, but whenever we sin, we must acknowledge before God that we have sinned and believe in the baptism and the blood of the cross that the Lord received — that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Therefore, we actually acknowledge before God that we are sinners. And indeed, by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we breathe a sigh of relief. We actually gain peace in our hearts by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
 
         In fact, for a person of faith to have no sin does not mean that they do not acknowledge their sin even while committing sin.
One who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit does not mean that they sin and yet do not acknowledge it as sin.
Although we have actually been saved from all sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we still acknowledge the sins we commit as sins.
 
         What we must never forget is that we were fundamentally such beings who could only forever be judged because of our sins, but we believe that our Lord saved us from all sin and the judgment of sin through His baptism, the blood of the cross, and His resurrection.
Indeed, we must never forget but believe and praise forever that the Lord saved us through the blue, purple, and scarlet thread.
We must remember our old selves — we must remember that, in fact, we were beings who could only forever be judged because of sin, and we must praise the salvation of the removal of sins that God has given and give thanks daily for the great grace of salvation.
This faith is precisely the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
 
 

Even Now, Yahweh God Is Alive

 
         Just as Yahweh God became the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, He becomes the God of you and me who are living.
God is not a God of confusion. God is not the God of Christians who zealously make noise, but He is the God of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
We have the faith of those who say ‘yes’ by faith before the word of God. God is our God.
When God actually says to us, ‘You had no choice but to go to hell,’ we say, ‘Yes.’ When He says, ‘You will commit sins until you die of old age,’ then we say, ‘Yes, that is right.’ And when He says, ‘But I saved you with the blue thread and purple thread and scarlet thread and the finely twisted linen,’ then we say, ‘Yes, that is right.’ Those who always say ‘yes’ before God in faith become God’s people.
We give thanks for the grace of our God who saved us like this through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
 
         We must surely believe and acknowledge by faith that the Lord saved us from sin with water, blood, and the Holy Spirit and made us people of the kingdom of God.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gift of salvation by which the Lord saved sinners from sin, and we must give thanks that by receiving that gift of salvation, we became God’s sinless people by faith.
We were, because of our sins, actually those who had no choice but to go to hell, but by believing that the Lord saved us eternally through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we praise forever.
Indeed, while remembering that we were bronze — that is, beings who had no choice but to be judged — we must praise that God who saved us from sin with the blue, purple, scarlet thread and the finely twisted linen that God has given.
And we must give thanks by believing in the truth of the gospel hidden inside the blue, purple, and scarlet.
Yahweh God is the God of all humanity. And He became the God who is the Savior of all humanity.
We must all believe in Yahweh God as our own God.
 
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
 
The TABERNACLE : A Detailed Portrait of Jesus Christ (I) [New Revised Edition]
The New Life Mission

TAKE OUR SURVEY

How did you hear about us?