In this sermon, Ben Tori shares verses from Isaiah chapter 62, focusing on God's promise to restore Jerusalem. He relates this promise to the city of Pyongyang in North Korea, emphasizing the importance of prayer in seeking God's restoration. Tori highlights the oppressive conditions in North Korea and God's promise that each person will enjoy the fruits of their own labor. He calls upon the listeners to prepare the way for the people of North Korea, clearing obstacles and raising a signal to guide them towards salvation. Overall, the sermon emphasizes the need for prayer, restoration, and active involvement in bringing God's blessings to the people of North Korea.

Good evening, this is Ben Torrey. Last week I shared with you some verses from Isaiah chapter 62, God's promise to restore Jerusalem. The promise that I believe He has given us once again for the Jerusalem of the East, Pyongyang. I also spoke about the importance of prayer to God and how He commanded us to call out to Him, giving Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. I always marvel at these words from Isaiah 62, verse 7, that God would command us to give Him no rest. However, His command to us as watchmen, praying without ceasing, is not the only instruction or command that He gives us in this amazing chapter. Let me read you the rest of it. The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm, I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies, nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored. But those who garner it will eat it and praise the Lord, and those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary. Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people, build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lift up a signal over the peoples. Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth, say to the daughter of Zion, Lo, your salvation comes. Behold, His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him, and they shall be called the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and you will be called, sought out, a city not forsaken. That was Isaiah 62, verses 8 through 12. So apropos, the people of North Korea work in slave conditions for that which is not their own. So much of what they produce is taken and appropriated by those who exploit and oppress them. God swears by His right arm that each person will eat of his own produce and that in the house of the Lord. Truly, those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. This is the promise of the Lord. Yet, in the midst of this beautiful promise, there is another thing that we are called upon to do. In verse 10 we read, Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones. Lift up a signal over the people. This is the task that God is calling us to take up. Prepare the way. The road to Pyongyang is full of rocks and pitfalls. The unexpected problems that will come as we seek to go in and to minister to our brothers and sisters of the North. We need to clear away the boulders, lest we and those who come with us stumble on them and get hurt or injure others. We need to raise up a signal, a flag held high, showing all who would come the way, so they will not get lost. You may ask, what is this clearing of stones that is so important, this preparing the way, and why is it so urgent? Let me tell you. North and South Korea have been separated for 60 years now. Three, four, even five generations have now lived apart from one another. Our two nations have grown far apart over this time. North Korea was raised up on Marxist and Stalinist doctrine, which was then transformed into the ideology of Juche. Culture, education, even the language was influenced by these factors. Here in the South, a great emphasis was placed on economic development through government and private enterprise, working together, and then opening up of markets, until the prosperity of South Korea's market system has become world famous. Marxism and Juche have actively denied God and anything spiritual. They have replaced these things with a state religion that has deified the founder of North Korea and now his son. Christianity and all other religions were actively suppressed and controlled. On the other hand, South Korea has a multitude of religions that are all equally free to carry out their faith and compete for believers. The Christian Church of South Korea is legendary, now sending far more missionaries per capita into overseas missions than any other country. This is the land of mega-churches, a mid-sized Korean church of two or three thousand would be huge by American or European standards. South Korean culture has undergone enormous change through influence from the West and now with the wholesale embrace of electronic technology, the Internet, multimedia entertainment, and everything that comes with it. Many people question how good all of this is. But whether it is good or not, that's the way it is in the South. Along with all this modern tech and westernization have come a great deal of new vocabulary, some borrowed from English, some created on the spot. The North, by contrast, is an isolated society, in some ways frozen in time, and with a language style and vocabulary distinctly different from the South. Think for a moment, when the doors to North Korea open and any who want to are free to travel there and share their faith freely, what is likely to happen? First of all, that day will only come with a massive loss of faith in North Korea. Their gods will have failed them. When your whole life is devoted to serving your god and you then find it all to have been a lie, how would you react? Multiply that by tens of millions. Are we ready to deal with the trauma of such massive loss of faith? Add to this the problems of misunderstanding that come simply from using language in different ways. I have had North Koreans tell me that it is easier for them to communicate with Westerners in broken English and Korean than with South Koreans in fluent speech. Why? Because North Koreans use language the way Westerners do, very different from South Koreans. These are just a couple of examples of the differences that exist in culture and society between North and South, great differences in basic assumptions. If we are to be effective in sharing the love of Jesus Christ with our brethren in North Korea, there are a lot of stones to be removed and potholes to be filled in. We also need to raise the signal to let people know the need to know which way the road goes. Perhaps the Lord is moving on your heart to start preparing for that day. If so, let me encourage you to begin learning all you can about North Korea now so that you will be ready. It is a God-appointed task ahead of us. Let's do it.