Lord, I pray that you will speak to
us.
Lord, thank you that you've kept us on
all our travels across many countries and that
we've come back well.
Now we ask you to speak to us
through your word and through your Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Uncle Friedl was going to return today, but
he's still in Switzerland taking the service there
today.
They were going to fly tonight, but they've
been delayed because there's a problem with a
plane which they're still busy sorting out.
So they hope to fly tomorrow.
During this past week, from Monday through to
Thursday, we had a ministers' conference in Switzerland.
There were about 450 people attending.
And I said, well, we don't know what
the future holds, but Lord willing, we'll have
another conference in two years' time in 2008.
And then I said, well, every one of
them could invite another minister to come along.
If that was the case, they could expect
900 people for the conference.
And then we wouldn't be able to meet
at the venue where we were at in
Kaltbrunn, but we'd have to move across to
Bilton.
Because in Kaltbrunn, they were full to capacity.
But we thank God for His working.
If it continues going the way it is
now, with the signs that one sees, we
can still expect great things in Europe.
Our text we find in 1 Corinthians 5,
from verse 6 to 9.
Your glory is not good.
Do you not know that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump?
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you
may be a new lump, since you truly
are unleavened.
For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for
us.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with
old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth.
The first point here in this text is
something very sad.
It says it's not good that you glory
in yourself.
Your glory is not good.
Do you not know that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump?
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you
may be a new lump, since you truly
are unleavened.
For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for
us.
These are words that come out of God's
mouth, where God himself says, I'm not happy
about you.
They were celebrating the feast of the Passover.
They were happy.
They were rejoicing.
But God said, I'm not happy about what
you are doing.
He was unhappy about this state.
He said, you shouldn't celebrate Passover
in that way.
These past days, almost every day, I spoke
about our Passover, about Jesus on the cross.
It wasn't the same message over and over,
but it was the theme, because it's such
a vast subject.
When I prayed and asked the Lord what
I should speak about today here at Sizabantu,
I felt the Lord leading me in this
way, and I said, Lord, I'll speak about
getting out the old leaven.
Over Easter we spoke about the meaning of
Easter and what that means, and in German
what the word Easter means.
And we said that it means, it's the
rising of the sun.
And there we don't mean the sun that
comes up in the east and after 12
hours it sets again.
Whoever has such a sun in his spiritual
life, where that's the state of affairs, he's
in a pitiful state.
Where a person's spiritual life is such, where
the sun comes up, after a few hours
it goes down again, up and down.
God's sun is the eternal sun, it should
shine forever.
Like the choir saying, that I may dwell
in the heart of the Lord forever.
Like the choir saying, that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord forevermore, always,
not going in and going out again after
a while.
We are tired of people who become Christians,
they start walking with the Lord, and after
a while the spiritual life just fizzles out.
Now a person may say, well we're thankful
that the Lord rose and for what he
did for us, we celebrate the Passover.
But the Lord looks and he says, I'm
not happy with how you are glorying, because
there's still some old leaven that's left in
your life.
And he says, therefore remove the old leaven.
Purge it out, in German it says, sweep
it out.
One of the speakers at the conference, his
father was a Jew.
Now I didn't speak to him, or ask
him about this, but I know that the
old Jews, those who stick to their traditions
and their rules, at the time of Passover,
for a whole week beforehand, they don't touch
anything, they don't allow any leaven anywhere around.
They went through their houses thoroughly, removing any
sign of any leaven anywhere, even if they
had a wooden table, if there were cracks
in the table, they'd scratch it out with
a sharp knife, just to make sure there's
no sign anywhere of any old leaven.
In Exodus 13 verse 7
it
says, And
no leaven bread shall be seen among you,
nor shall leaven be seen among you in
all your quarters.
So God doesn't want any sign of that
old leaven to be seen anywhere in your
quarters, anywhere in your life.
There must be absolutely no sign.
So this message is a sad one.
There's no rejoicing, no happiness, because God is
unhappy.
He says, because there is old leaven, which
I do not tolerate.
But when God
reprimands us, it's a sign that He loves
us.
He says, if He doesn't reprimand us, it
shows that we're illegitimate children.
If He doesn't reprimand us, it shows that
we're illegitimate children.
So we should search our lives.
Test and see whether there's any sign of
any of the old leaven in our lives.
Now what is that?
That is sin.
Sin into which we were born.
From when we were small, we grew up
in sin.
And the Lord says, there must be no
sign of that left in our lives.
It doesn't help that we celebrate Easter and
the Passover, and yet there are signs of
the old life in us.
No one should be able to find any
of the old in our lives.
We need to be a new lump.
Like the word says, He has created everything
and made it brand new.
Behold, the old things have passed away.
Anger, lies, and all the old things in
our lives, those are past.
Behold, everything has become new.
When we look at Jesus, He is blameless,
innocent, without blemish.
He has no fault in Him.
He lives in His holiness.
But now we who believe in Him should
become like Him.
We should be a brand new lump.
Whoever looks at us should not find anything
in our lives where they can say, oh,
that's still of the old.
We should be a brand new lump.
Whoever looks at us should not find anything
in our lives where they can say, oh,
that's still of the old.
In no quarter of your life should anything
of the old ever be found, no matter
what circumstances you are living under.
Even if you are under pressure, whatever pressure
that may be, or maybe you are exhausted,
you are tired, even under those circumstances none
of the old must become evident.
No irritability, no impatience, nothing of the old.
But if the old surfaces in your life
and rears its head, that old leaven, that's
going to destroy your spiritual life.
Jesus gave His life, His blood, He shed
for us.
He gave us His Spirit so that we
will be sanctified.
According to Zulu tradition, one pays lobola, dowry
for one's wife.
Now, in that sense we could say that
Jesus paid the full dowry for our lives.
He paid everything that was needed to redeem
our lives.
And then daily we are given God's Word
and fed God's Word.
We are being given that to drink.
So daily we are fed with that
heavenly divine drink and that's why God can
expect us to live such a life.
Because He paid the full price for us.
God wants us to be Christians that are
converted thoroughly, 100%, not half-heartedly, but fully.
That's why God wants to deal with every
single sin in our lives, that He can
sanctify us fully.
When you search your life, do you find
it to be sanctified and redeemed fully or
is there something of the old that was
left behind?
God's Word says we should be sanctified and
cleansed in our whole life, spirit, soul and
body.
That we don't serve Satan or serve the
world but that we should serve Him alone.
Not even your flesh.
You've got no right.
You are guilty before God.
You can be damned because of it.
God wants you to be spotless and not
that you carry on with your sins.
I was happy when after the minister's conference
a doctor came to me.
He said, I thank you
for
preaching in this way.
I'm coming from a church but I notice
in our church and our churches the standard
has fallen.
It's no longer what it used to be
and what it should be.
But thank you for still preaching in this
way.
Jesus Himself said it.
If your eye causes you to stumble and
to sin, pluck it out.
Rather enter heaven with one eye than to
have both eyes and end up in hell.
Or if your hand or your foot makes
you to sin, rather cut it off.
Rather go to heaven with one hand, one
foot than to have both and end up
in hell.
You say you are saved.
You say you are a Christian.
But what is it that you look at
in the internet with your eye?
Those pictures of naked people, pornography and you
call yourself saved.
You are a liar.
Therefore purge out the old leaven that you
may be a new lump since you truly
are unleavened.
For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for
us.
Therefore let us keep the feast but not
with the old leaven nor with the leaven
of malice and wickedness.
Malice
and wickedness.
The word in Greek for malice is kakia.
Something which is evil, which is rotten, which
is wrong, something which is not right.
There shouldn't be anything in your life which
is seen that is not right.
Something which is wrong.
And wickedness.
Now wickedness is almost the same thing.
But that wickedness is also something which is
wrong but it's a wickedness that also becomes
visible to others to see.
So it's a wickedness that doesn't just stay
inside which is there but hidden.
But it's that type of wickedness which then
becomes visible for others to see.
And then it affects others and hurts others
too.
God doesn't allow something wrong in your life.
You need to repent.
You don't belong to the Lord, you belong
to the devil.
You do his things, his works.
God does not want anything that's wrong in
our lives.
God wants all the old things that cling
to us.
Things we've dragged along since we've been children
and from our childhood on.
The things that cling to us.
He wants us to get rid of those
things.
Now let me go to another point.
The apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
spoke very directly to the church in Corinth
and reprimanded them.
Concerning their immorality.
But when we study the book of Corinthians,
we find that not everyone was living in
immorality.
But we find there was one man and
one woman who were living immorally.
There was a man who had an affair
with a stepmother.
But then God reprimanded the whole congregation, the
whole church, saying you are not celebrating the
Passover as you should because there's something wrong
in your midst.
He said, there's someone in your midst
who's living in sin and you're tolerating it,
you're not doing anything about it.
You should get him out of your midst
because that little leaven will live in the
whole lump.
He said that person who's living in sin
in that way should be handed over to
the devil, that his flesh should be destroyed
and maybe then his soul can be saved.
So the church in Corinth was reprimanded, the
whole congregation, because there were two people in
their midst who were living in sin.
He said those people should be dealt with
and removed from among your midst.
Otherwise it will spoil everything.
He said you're on your way to destruction
because of these people in your midst.
He said because here is this pair sinning
in your midst but you're tolerating it, you're
not doing anything about it, you're not dealing
with it.
You're not removing them from your midst.
Because that little leaven leavens the whole lump,
it has an influence throughout.
Do you fathers hear that?
You with your children, with what they are
up to and you tolerating it, that will
influence the whole family.
I don't
know
what it was but they had this attitude,
well there's something wrong happening in our midst
but let's rather not say anything.
Let's not upset the apple cart, let's rather
say nothing.
There are many such people around who see
things wrong, they are wrong, but they do
nothing about it because they're afraid of what
people will think of them.
The Bible
says
if someone in the church is living in
sin, go to him, speak to him about
it, try to help him.
If he doesn't listen, take a witness along,
someone else to help you and if that
fails then you can take him before the
whole church.
We dare not tolerate sin in our lives
or with our lusts and with our desires.
We dare not allow wrong thoughts and even
your desires, your motives where you wish for
something evil.
And as the Lord Jesus was nailed to
the cross, crucified, so the sin in our
life should be nailed and crucified, finished off.
God says you dare not allow sin to
rule in your life or lustful
desires and lust of the eyes.
On a daily basis we should be taking
stock to see whether there's nothing of the
old leaven that has crept back in again.
In German it's not just dough or leaven,
it's sour dough, it's something sour, bitter.
Something bitter,
so nothing bitter
should be found in any of our quarters.
No one around us should even see something
like that in our lives, that there will
be no disunity and that there will be
no unfriendliness.
In every life, in every family, in
every home, and in every congregation,
Jesus says if you have an evil eye,
pluck it out.
And all your hand, all your foot, rather
get rid of it.
Get rid of that, because you may have
a hard head, like the head of a
ram, but remember one day you're going to
meet up with another head, God's head, that
is much harder than yours head, and your
skull will crack.
Remember Job.
Job made a covenant with his eyes.
He said I made a covenant with my
eyes that I will never look at another
woman and sin.
He was sweeping out, purging out the old
leaven.
And once you've purged out that old leaven,
you've cleaned and spring cleaned your home, that
is your heart, you won't want these other
things to come and spoil things again.
In the Bible we read about Abraham.
Abraham had a son with Hagar, Ishmael.
Remember how the Lord spoke to her and
said that she should go back to her
mistress and apologize.
But when she was there, the child grew
up, Ishmael.
And he was someone who spoke mockingly.
He scoffed.
And then Sarah spoke.
And then Sarah said to Abraham, she said
to Ishmael, she said to
Abraham, she said to Ishmael, she said to
Abraham, she said to Abraham, she said to
Abraham, she
said to Abraham,
she
said to Abraham, she said to Abraham, she
said to Abraham, she said and Ibram Pride.
And then God spoke to Abraham and said,
do what Sarah your wife has said.
So Abraham spoke to Hagar and said, take
your son because he's not respectful, he's cheeky,
he's a scoffer.
It's not good that he grows up in
my home.
That's the old leaven.
It must be removed.
Therefore, take your son and go.
He gave them provisions and sent them on
their way.
And God honored Abraham because later we find
Abraham in heaven.
And even Lazarus in his bosom.
So God honored this man who at one
time in his life said to Hagar said,
my son is a scoffer.
He's a bad influence here.
He must rather go.
And he separated from him.
He didn't keep him.
That's why Abraham had authority to charge even
his workers.
To obey God.
And they did it.
He had authority.
Abraham had also lived together with his nephew,
Lot.
And then there was
strife between Abraham's and Lot's servants.
And Abraham said to Lot, I don't want
there to be disunity and strife here where
I live.
Abraham didn't keep quiet.
You see, he was alive spiritually.
Not like other people.
They see things going wrong.
They do nothing about it.
They say nothing.
They just keep quiet.
See, if you have no life, then you
can keep quiet.
But if there's life, you won't allow strife
and disunity to prevail.
He said, my nephew, let our ways rather
part than that there be disunity and strife
amongst us.
If you go to the right, I'll go
to the left.
Abraham couldn't understand it.
How could there be strife?
He couldn't understand it.
He said, how can we live together?
And there's disunity.
The one says, I want this.
The other says, I want that.
Abraham said, we can't live like that.
Rather, let our ways part.
You go one way, I'll go the other.
But we can't live like this.
Paul and Peter were in a congregation.
They were some Jews, and they were together.
And then some Gentiles came.
When the Gentiles came, Peter withdrew because he
was afraid of what the Jews would say.
And Paul reprimanded him publicly.
He didn't allow it.
He said, Peter, how can you act like
this so hypocritically?
We will confront you with this punishment.
We cannot tolerate that.
You see, Paul was a real man.
Peter sinned publicly, so Paul reprimanded him publicly.
He didn't even call him aside to speak
to him alone.
He said it in front of everyone.
He said, God doesn't tolerate this.
John writes in his epistle, that's not in
the Gospel of John, the other letter.
He says, if people come,
and they teach you something different to what
we have taught you, don't accept such a
person.
Don't accept such a person, because he is
a liar.
Don't accept such a person, because he is
a liar.
He is a liar.
they say.
What shall one say of such a person?
Where is your maturity?
When will people be able to see what
is right and what is wrong when things
are just a whole mess?
Then I'm not surprised that God is starting
to use small children.
Let that old leaven be removed.
And if you don't want to part
with
the old leaven, let that old leaven be
removed.
There are many other churches that will be
happy to have new members.
Maybe they don't mind if you come with
your old leaven, but we don't want to
tolerate that old leaven in any life.
And if your children allow that leaven, you
need to take action like Abraham did.
Now maybe your husband, your wife has tried,
she's failed.
Now I'm trying to wake you up out
of your sleep.
That old leaven needs to be removed.
And if it's in your home, if it's
with your children, you need to take action.
Otherwise we'll become the laughing stock of the
enemy.
They'll say, well those people themselves aren't even
united.
They're not one.
And then people say,
oh it's Sisyphus.
They've just become like everyone else.
No, well I don't allow that.
Then rather you go and go to those
who are like you are.
You see it all over, even overseas.
Ministers, their own children, they come home, they
are just like the world, according to the
fashion of this world, but they are minister's
children's children.
Jesus
wants
us to be the light of the world,
to be the salt of the earth.
But when the salt has lost its saltiness,
what shall be done?
Then something needs to be done about it.
Even here at the school, it's called Domino
Savita.
We will serve the Lord.
If you don't want to serve the Lord,
then what do you want here?
Why are you here?
If you don't want...
I saw some people studying theology some time
ago.
I said, why?
Are these people mad?
Studying theology, living in sin.
Even if you study theology, but don't, if
you are full of the old leaven, it's
an abomination to God.
That's why they say today one should even
marry gays.
When ministers
say,
well, my daughter has got a girlfriend, and
what's wrong with marrying them?
It's all a matter of love after all.
You see, you let the old leaven, leave
it there, it grows and it spoils the
whole lump.
If you're a preacher of the gospel, maybe
you should go home and just go through
your house and your children's rooms.
See what is there in their cupboards.
What's the clothing that's there?
What are the books that they read?
What are the things that are found there?
Lest you claim to be a preacher of
the gospel all the time, your home is
a den.
People that come here, they should realize that
there's another spirit that rules here, not the
spirit of the world.
God says you are glorying, but you shouldn't.
It's not good what you're doing because you're
allowing the old leaven in your midst.
You find children of God in one place,
but they're divided.
They're in different groups.
And I said recently, sometimes it's a nuisance
if you're a bit older, you've heard so
many things and you've allowed these things you've
listened to, to influence you.
And they grow in your heart.
That's where children have an advantage.
They haven't been poisoned by all these things
that they've been heard.
You've listened to so many things and you've
allowed those things place in your heart.
They've grown.
They've influenced you.
They've changed your attitude.
If you don't want to part with those
things, then rather you go and you join
up with those who think like you do.
It would be wonderful if you hear it.
Test and search your heart.
Is the old leaven in your life, in
your home, in your children?
Because no way in any quarter of your
life or your situation should there be found
the old leaven.
We should be unleavened bread.
I don't know whether you understand.
If you don't understand, come after the service.
We can pray together and ask God to
wash your ears, to remove the dirt that
you can hear.
There is no other way.
I said in the beginning, these are words
that are from the mouth of God.
If there's a boy or a girl sinning
in their midst, Paul says, why do you
rejoice?
Why are you happy?
You should be concerned about that thing and
it should be dealt with.
In Corinth, there was one man and one
woman and they sinned.
And Paul said, why are you left out?
Why are you so proud?
You should have repented in the nations that
such a thing could happen among you and
that that person should be dealt with.
Have you heard?
Have you understood?
Can I stop now?
I'll be going now.
I'll go home and then I'll see what
you do about it.
Let's bow our heads.
Lord Jesus, I pray that your word will
be sharp, so sharp that it gets right
to the deepest depths of our hearts.
If there's strife, disunity and one going against
the other, our
Lord, please work through your Holy Spirit that
that old leaven can be removed, that we
may become a brand new lump.
Amen.
And you will never experience revival if you
haven't taken that step.
In fact, you will be a curse, a
hindrance in God's work.
Thank you.