Message: Pastor Jung Myeong Seok
Scriptures:
2 Chronicles 35:21-25
21) But Necho sent messengers to him, saying, “What quarrel is there, king of Judah, between you and me? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.”
22) Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but disguised himself to engage him in battle. He would not listen to what Necho had said at God’s command but went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo.
23) Archers shot King Josiah, and he told his officers, “Take me away; I am badly wounded.”
24) So they took him out of his chariot, put him in his other chariot and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.
25) Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the Laments.
Ezekiel 18:19-20
19) “Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live.
20) The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and thew wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them. …”
Ezekiel 18:32
32) For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
Hallelujah! I hope you will be filled with the love of the eternal Father God and the peace of the Holy Son.
When you look at Ezekiel 18:19-20, which is today’s main scripture, you see that it says that because people had forgotten God’s Word, they came to ‘sin’ and, because of that, their ‘spirit’s ended up dying’.
Also, when you look at 2 Chronicles 35, you will see that King Josiah forgot God’s promise to protect his nation. While doing things according to his own thoughts, ultimately, his ‘body’ was struck and killed by an arrow. In this way, both in the past and in the present, if you forget the things God and the Holy Son Lord said to you and do not do them, you will die.
However, when you just see the sentence, ‘If you forget, you will die,’ it is unappealing because it contains the word ‘die’. However, the more I think about it, the more I come to know that it is precious Word that is needed in life - Word that is like life.
To die means that, even if the ‘body’ does not die, ‘that work’ will die, and ‘that time’ dies.
Sometimes, when I have told you something that ‘pertains to the body’ but you do things according to your own thoughts after forgetting what I said, then the ‘things that pertain to the body’ will die.
To die means that it was ‘cut off. It did not work.’
If you forget to ‘water even insignifcant flowers’ in a pot, they will die. If a ‘person climbing a tree forgets that he could fall’, he will fall.
If you forget, you will die! If you insert words into this sentence you will memorize the resulting 100 or 1000 proverbs.
This year, you truly must treat this Word as if it were a ‘treasure’, carry it around in your heart as if it were ‘your beloved’, and use it. If you forget, you will die! This Word is like a weapon, it is like a bronze wall, it is a blessing, and it is Word that leads you to find the treasure hidden in the field.
This Word will be the ‘Holy Son, the Lord' and so will be with ‘you’, even if you are by yourself, and will save ‘you’. I pray that you will live without forgetting today’s message.
