Matthew 3:1-12

God is righteous, good and holy. God sent His righteousness to humans. It is law. The Lord sent the law is not for humans to live righteously to be saved, but for sinners to find their sin and meet with Jesus who will save us from our sin. God let the Israelites to kill animals to get the forgiveness of their sins instead of their sin with their own blood. But the blood of an animal cannot get rid of our sin. It stands for the death of Jesus Christ who will die instead of us to save us. (Hebrew 10:4-7, 9:11-12).

The Lord let humans find their sin and Jesus Christ took it up and died on the cross instead of them. He forgave our sin once and for all. Only Jesus Christ can forgive human's sin and solve the problem of sin, curses, death and eternal punishment in hell.

Therefore if you do not want to go to hell but want to live happily for ever in heaven, repent of your sin and meet the blood of Jesus Christ. Repent as the evidence that your sins are forgiven, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:37-41; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

In today's scripture John told the people to repent but the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not receive the baptism of repentance of their sins. (Matthew 3:7-12). They did not find their sin to repent. They thought that they didn't have sin to repent because they had kept the law.

Today so many people come to church but they don't repent of their sins although they listen to the word of God. Why? They didn't find their sins. If they don't find their sin, they will be desperate. If they have no sin, they don't need the blood of Jesus, they are just religious people. They don't repent of their sins so they cannot meet with the blood of Jesus so they should go to hell by their wages of sin. Though we know the law, if we don't find our sin through the law and do not repent, we have nothing to do with the blood of Jesus. Though we listen to the prophets, if we don't repent of our sin, we have nothing to do with Jesus. And if we find our sin through the word of God, if we don't repent of our sin, we have nothing to do with the blood of Jesus Christ. You attend the service, but if you don't repent of your sin, you have nothing to do with the blood of Jesus Christ. How unfortunate. Repent! It means that you correct your misunderstanding about the law.

When the Pharisees insisted that they were righteous, Jesus Christ said about their sin. (Matthew 5:17-24, 5:26-30, 5:38-48). The blood of Jesus Christ is useless to those who don't repent of their sin. The eternal burning hell will await them. The prophets said 'repent.' Jesus Christ said, 'repent.' The disciples also said, 'repent.' The early churches said, 'repent'. Today even pastors say, 'repent.' This is the voice of Jesus Christ who wants to save souls who are perishing. The greatest voice of life in human history is 'repent!' 'repent!' 'repent!'

2014.2.16