[Message] Pastor Jung Myeong Seok [Scriptures] Matthew 9:13 For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hallelujah! I bid you the love of the eternal God and the peace of the Holy Son. Today, I will give you a message about how great ‘repentance for sins’ is. And also I will give you the Word: Just as you would wash your filthy body or wash filthy clothes, you should ‘repent’ immediately if you sin. People judge ‘filthy trash' every day by throwing it away, right? If people do not throw away filthy trash, it will cause sickness or harm. God does the same. God judges ‘wicked people and sinners.’ By doing so, He makes things clean. Whether sin is big or small is not the issue. Repentance is the issue. Therefore, God looks to see ‘whether you have repented of your sins or not’ rather than ‘whether you have sinned or not.’ If sin is left alone, it will keep spreading like ‘a disease.’ Sin causes you to become distant from ‘God.’ Sin blocks off ‘blessings’ and changes ‘your destiny.’ You have to know about sin; only then will you repent properly. If you don’t know, you will either not repent, or repent poorly. If you repent poorly or just half-heartedly, ‘sin’ still remains even after repenting. Rather than only wanting God to forgive you, you have to truly ‘repent.’ Only then will you be ‘forgiven.’ I will teach you ‘something truly important’ about sin. If something decays, it will come to an end forever. If people die, they will come to an end forever. If that is the case, why do they decay and come to an end? The reason they decay is not because God defined it as sin. If anything deviates from the law of existence, whether it is a person or something else, it will decay. Consider fruit. The reason it rots is not because it is defined as something that rots. If it becomes corrupt on its own, it will start to go rotten no matter where it is. Something does not become a disease just because it is medically defined as a disease. Let’s say that you suffer from ‘a terminal disease,’ but it is not a medically defined disease. If, for that reason, you think it is not ‘a disease’ and celebrate and rejoice every day, you will ultimately end up suffering and dying from it. In this way, even if God did not define it as sin, if you sin, you will decay. The unique quality of sin is that it ‘decays.' Therefore, if anyone sins, they will decay and so meet an eternal end. Even if something is not medically defined as a disease, if you catch it, you will die. Therefore, you have to make sure to get surgery and treatment. In the same way, even if neither you nor the world define something as a sin, sin is sin. You will suffer and die as a result of sin. Therefore, sin must surely be eliminated through repentance. God’s laws are like ‘the fence that protects the sheep.’ But if a sheep says, “This place is stuffy. I don’t like it! I want to be free from the shepherd's guidance. I am going to go outside the fence by myself and roam freely,” and if it leaves the pen, it will obviously be eaten by wolves, wild dogs and predators. God’s laws are ‘the fence that protects you’ and ‘the domain of life.’ I will give you an explanation about sin and repentance using a parable. If driving a car beyond the speed limit is sin, then repentance is to realize your wrong deed, say you will not do it again and immediately reduce your speed. Violating God’s laws and crossing the line and taking action is sin, and repentance is knowing God’s laws, recognizing you have done wrong, saying you will not do it again with ‘words,’ and immediately stopping it with ‘actions.’ When it comes to sin, the more it accumulates, the more harmful it is. Therefore, if you have sinned, you must ‘immediately repent.’ You must ‘repent ferociously.’ Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous. I came to call sinners.” Therefore, if you sin, you must repent to the person of this time period who was given God’s laws. He will take over ‘the sin of this time period’ and pay 'the price for the sin', and he will save people by receiving God’s laws and conveying those laws to them. Therefore, you have to repent to him and repent in his name. God both accepts ‘repentance’ and hands out ‘forgiveness’ through the one sent by God who is responsible for that time period. Next month begins ‘the end of the year.’ At the end of the year, God checks individuals, nations and the world. So at the end of the year, you should always ‘make things clean by cleaning up.’ I gave you the most urgent and necessary message for this time - that is, 'sin and repentance' - ahead of time, so that you will make yourself clean by quickly repenting after listening to today’s message. Therefore, you should repent, during this duration of time, for the things you didn't repent for yet or for the things you couldn't repent for all year. Do not just vaguely expect Heaven to forgive you, do not wish for the savior to pray repentance prayers on your behalf, but since you know the most about the sins you have committed, I urge you to make sure to repent. I urge you to repent surely knowing that sins are forgiven and erased only if you ‘repent sincerely.’
