December 14^th 2011 Wednesday Message Summary

Scriptures: Matthew 18:21-22, Matthew 18:35

From now on, I will give you the important Word about ‘forgiveness.’ So those of you who have sins and those of you who are currently repenting, listen carefully. You must listen to the Word carefully in order for you to be resolved of the issue of sins through listening to the Word. Everyone must listen to the Word and be resolved of their issue of sins.

You need to know why I am telling you to repent when you commit a sin, whether it is big or small. The devil twists even a small sin and constructs a grotesque story out of it, as if you have committed murder or something, and he keeps telling God about it. He also continuously reproaches you who have sinned and treats you like you were the most notorious felon in the entire world. In this way, the devil makes even a person who has committed only a small sin feel downhearted and depressed for years, unable to look up to the heavens. The devil tells them, ‘This is the end for you! You are going to Hell,’ and makes them give up. On the other hand, to a person who has committed a big sin, the devil tells them, ‘You don’t even need to repent. Just give up. Just live loving the world and live in gluttony.’ Therefore, when you have committed a sin, whether it is big or small, you should put everything else aside and make repentance your top priority. Only then will you be able to live forgiven. You must repent in order for the devil to leave you. Repentance is forgiveness, repentance is coming to life, and repentance is immediately coming to the domain of life from the domain of death. Forgiveness is salvation.

If a person sins for the 10,000th time and then repents, Jesus forgives without saying, “This is your 10,000th time.” Therefore, you must repent instead of getting discouraged. Only then will you live and not come to ruin. If a person repents, the Lord forgives them even if they are in a state where it is impossible to receive salvation. He gives them another opportunity to do their best because if the Lord does not forgive them, then that will be the end for them.

Let’s say a person who loves the Lord has committed a sexual sin. If they truly repent and receive forgiveness, then that sexual sin disappears completely, so God never again talks about the sin that has been forgiven. The person is in a state without sin. The only thing that remains is the record of them being forgiven that is archived in Heaven.

If the Lord does not forgive even though a person has truly repented after committing sin, then the Lord will not be able to love them again because it will be uncomfortable in His heart. Therefore, the Lord forgives them if they repent and He loves them again without any reservation. Once they are forgiven, their sin is done away with forever.

If you misunderstand the Lord and don’t repent or if you don’t repent because you are discouraged, then until you repent, you will live in sin, you will be unable to receive blessings, and you will go through the suffering of a living hell continuously because of sin. Some people commit a sin as small as a fist and live receiving suffering as big as a house from the devil. Some people commit a sin as big as a house, but repent right away, so they receive only a small punishment and then end with that. Those who have been forgiven must bear this in mind and obey the Lord’s Word. Only then will you not sin again.

If you repent, the Lord’s spirit will come and forgive you, and He will also forgive you through the one He uses as His body. The Lord is the owner of forgiveness, so the Lord has to forgive in order for the forgiveness to be fundamental. But if you keep sinning and just keep receiving forgiveness, you will become like a car which has gotten into frequent accidents and therefore cannot function powerfully, even though it was repaired each time.

There is no one who could not receive salvation because the Lord did not forgive them. People fail to receive salvation because they don’t repent. They fail to receive salvation because, even if the Lord forgives them, they break the Lord’s law again, and since it becomes hard, they fail to do their responsibility.

Let me tell you one more thing about forgiveness. If you repent, the Lord forgives you. However, He allots a period of punishment so that you will not commit sin again. Even though you are forgiven, you have to go through a probation period. This is a period in which, rather than carrying out a certain mission, you must restore yourself. If you don’t go through this period, you will have a problem again and you will need to go through the surgery again, but during the second surgery, you may die. A period of punishment is when you have to be on your best behavior so that satan will not interfere and make you sin again.

Among brothers also, you must repent to one another and forgive one another.

First, if someone repents to you of their wrongdoing, then you should sincerely forgive them. Only then will that brother live and will you also become a person without sin when you stand before God and Jesus’ throne of judgment. If you don’t forgive a person even though they repent to you, then God will not forgive you either. Therefore, you should make sure to repent to one another and forgive one another without holding back.

Second, you must repent to your brothers telling them that you have truly done wrong. If you don’t repent, you cannot be forgiven and thus cannot live with the Lord. In the same way, if you don’t truly repent of the sin that you have committed against your brother, then you cannot receive forgiveness and you cannot live together either. You have to repent of whatever troubles you. If you feel that something troubles you, then that is because you are thinking centering on yourself. You should think that the other person is the Lord and truly repent in words and in actions. Some of you committed a big sin against your brother like stabbing their heart with a knife and then you repent lightly like a soap bubble simply saying, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” You must earnestly repent. The person who forgives sincerely forgives, but then should the person repenting repent so insincerely?

Today, the Lord is delivering a message about ‘forgiveness’ so that you can truly repent of all kinds of sins—the sin of betraying in love, the sin of betraying in faith, and so on—you must truly receive forgiveness and wrap up this year in a clean state.