We ask you, Lord, that this hour would
be unlike any other.
We ask you that you yourself would come
down, be in our midst and work.
Lord, we do not wish to be just
a congregation, just practicing church, but rather that
you yourself would be in our midst, that
you would be at work.
Work, Lord, in the way that you deem
fit now.
Reveal yourself to us and to the whole
world.
And glorify yourself.
Amen.
I'd like to speak today from a portion,
a letter to the Romans.
Chapter 11, 22.
Therefore, consider the goodness and the severity of
God.
Lord, on
those
who fell, severity, but toward you, goodness.
If you continue in his goodness, otherwise you
also will be cut off.
We've heard that pastor from Russia
speaking about how
today you find only the preaching of the
love and grace of God.
But ironically, sin and wickedness grows rapidly among
people, among believers.
So what do we say about that?
It's related to Romans 11, verse 22.
Our text starts in verse 22 by saying,
behold, there
is something that God wants to hold before
our eyes and to make it clear to
us.
Two things, the
kindness and the severity of God.
Severity regarding those who fell and kindness regarding
those who continue in his goodness.
I remember a certain American preacher coming here
to Kwasi Zabantu.
And he asked with which theological persuasion do
you stand?
Those who stress the love of God or
those who stress God's wrath?
The truth is that in my life I
don't identify with either.
Because both things do exist, but they
are inseparable.
The love of God is never held in
contradiction or in separation from his anger, his
righteousness.
His compassion can never be separated from his
sharpness, his severity.
If you have a love that is godless,
without God's love in it, then it is
a washout, it is useless.
Without God's righteousness.
And should you have righteousness without love, the
same is true.
Our text says, behold therefore the compassion and
the severity of God.
And as we speak about these things, I
urge you to pray earnestly in your heart,
Lord speak to me personally.
Regarding compassion and that God is compassionate towards
people.
If they remain within his compassion and the
severity.
And the severity of God is shown towards
those who God says he will cut off.
If I think of the beginning of God's
working there at Mapumulu, both of these aspects
were strongly evident.
We beheld the compassion and the severity of
God.
Going together in harmony.
If the Holy Spirit works, you will take
note of both of these aspects.
Both of these attributes we could say are
two sides of the same coin.
And in the scriptures, this is compared to
the very foundation of God.
You remember in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse
19.
Nevertheless, the
solid foundation of God stands having the seal.
The Lord knows those who are his and
let everyone who names the name of Christ
depart from iniquity.
Firstly, we are comforted by the words that
the Lord knows those who are his.
We don't know, we might presume that somebody
is the Lord's.
But the Lord might say no, not him.
On the day of judgment or when you
get to heaven, it will be a shock
to notice that those that we expected to
be there are not.
And those that we presumed would not be
there are.
But you shouldn't get into those complications, you
should rather make sure that your name is
there.
Making sure and being confident that you are
there.
So on God's foundation is the inscription that
the Lord knows those who belong to him.
But also the inscription that let him who
names the name of the Lord depart from
all unrighteousness.
Therefore, search yourself whether you have departed from
all iniquity.
We have
heard
of that Ukrainian minister who said there is
so much preaching just about the love and
compassion of God.
But the people of God, the churches just
continue, persist in their sin.
Now I must discern and make it clear
that that love spoken of is not the
love of God.
And that grace spoken of is not the
grace of God.
That has got absolutely nothing to do with
the real love of God and his grace.
It is as far as the east is
from the west.
The love of God loves what is good
and hates what is unrighteous.
But the love that Heinsohn, that is the
love of God, is not the love of
God.
The love that covers iniquity is the type
of love which we hear of in the
Bible where it says a person, anybody in
this world has a love towards other people.
Those who like him, he likes them back.
Sinners like sinners, homosexuals like homosexuals, and thieves
like thieves.
That is not the love of God.
That is not the righteous love of God.
You need to search yourself whether you have
the true genuine love of God or whether
it is a corrupted, defiled love.
In Romans
6, let's read about this grace that is
spoken of.
Therefore, what shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound?
Certainly not.
If it refers to grace.
And we adore the abundance of grace.
And then we presume that because grace is
so abundant we can continue in sin.
It says no, never.
Inherent in this grace is the severity, the
sharpness of God.
Do you know the difference between sharpness and
bluntness?
Last night I was cutting a piece of
biltong but the knife was just too blunt
to cut properly.
Maybe you need to check whether your Christianity
is a sharp one or you have a
blunt God.
This text asks us, what shall we say
then?
Shall we continue in sin so that grace
may abound?
No, never.
So what shall we then say?
Shall a person stay here at Guasisabantu and
continue in their sin for living here for
a week or for a month or a
year?
No, grace shows itself in that the person
parts from sin.
You could put a cat and a rat
here and then they become friends.
Take the grace of God and bring sin
close to it and they become pals.
The Bible
says
clearly, no, never.
In other words, if you are continuing with
these two, it shows that you are trampling
underfoot the grace of God.
It says, for the grace of God that
brings salvation has appeared to all men.
The grace of God brings salvation, salvation from
sin.
And verse 12 teaches us that denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously
and godly in the present age.
In this present age of perversion, of depravity,
God says that His grace has appeared, bringing
salvation.
And that grace, when it has entered a
person, instructs that person, it instructs
him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.
And to walk soberly and righteously
and godly.
It would be a dreadful mistake if the
grace that we speak about is actually not
the grace that is spoken of here.
Because then you are as deceived as Eve
was when she believed the serpent who was
speaking about this nice grace.
But he was taking her something that was
far apart from this grace.
So grace is a teacher, it instructs the
person to deny all ungodliness.
It teaches us to deny sinful things.
Now how can you persist in sin in
this grace?
If you have your lover, in an unrighteous
way, maybe you are not married, but you
are in love with that person.
You are obsessed with that passion.
You are willing to deny your Lord Jesus
because of this infatuation.
And yet you claim that you are in
the grace of God.
No, you are not in grace.
Because grace would be teaching you and instructing
you, this is unrighteous, part from it, turn
away from it.
Grace teaches us to part from worldly lusts,
to part from sin.
You see that which is holy, so utterly
holy, the grace of God has been pulled
down into the dirt.
And the indescribable love of God has been
taken and trampled underfoot.
And God shows us that this is not
His way.
Now that person had said that the general
standard among Christians is dropping, lowering.
It cannot be that you have the love
of God, the grace of God in your
life, and the standard is dropping in you.
I wish all of you here could understand
German.
That you would be able to have an
appreciation for the way Martin Luther translated Titus
1 verse 14.
Verse 13,
where
it says this testimony is true, therefore rebuke
them sharply that they may be sound in
the faith.
What kind of?
New King James.
The New King James.
Rebuke them sharply.
Sharply.
Luther
says chastise them sharply.
Can you punish a Christian sharply today?
You are loveless.
That does not exist.
In this generation, is one ever permitted to
rebuke and punish or chastise sharply?
No, it would be considered to be unloving
and unchristian.
We prefer to speak that which will keep
the peace and which will tickle the ears.
And then it continues to say so that
they may be sound in the faith.
Sound, healthy, sound in the faith.
So it means health, to be sound of
health spiritually.
And I was glad when I read this
and I realized the meaning of it because
I've been looking for a long time the
meaning of this Zulu idiom that we use
which says things are received by life which
means health.
And that is the word that I've been
looking for.
You receive authority, you receive position and going
forward because of health and vitality.
Because we are healthy in the faith and
healthy in our faith life.
To be sound in the faith, to be
healthy in the faith, it is something that
is more understandable among whites regarding living by
faith.
Somehow in Africa this is not understood.
There was
a
Scandinavian lady who came as a missionary here
to Africa who said I'm going there and
I'm going to live by faith.
I'm using this as an example just to
show you that not all whites are like
that.
I say the whites are better than the
blacks in this.
Because the white person understands or should understand
what it means to live by faith.
It's been my life from the very day
I got saved to live by faith.
You say I've got rich brothers, I've got
businesses.
When did they start?
How long have I been preaching?
It's a lie.
I know what it is not to get
a salary and to travel thousands of kilometers
and to preach to the blacks, not to
rich whites.
And then there are some whites that are
just like the blacks.
They can't imagine to live by faith.
One white preacher, well known, he says oh
no I can't live by faith.
That means I'd be like a person on
a boat on the sea.
I'd rather stand with my feet on solid
ground.
If you can't live by faith, I don't
say you've got to, but ask yourself whether
you are spiritually healthy.
If you can't live by faith, ask yourself
whether you are spiritually healthy.
Jesus sent his disciples
out
and he commissioned them and they went out
in faith.
Even though there are other examples like Paul
who also did tent making to survive financially
for himself and his colleagues.
Let me get back to that Scandinavian lady
who came here to Africa to preach here
among the Zulus.
She almost died of starvation.
And then she jumped to the conclusion you
can't live by faith if you work and
preach to the blacks.
But I lived preaching
to the blacks.
And then this lady had to go back
to Scandinavia because she had a fortune there
and she left that fortune and came here
to live by faith.
And then she was forced to go back
to use her fortune to live.
Well if I would have been God in
heaven I would have done the same to
that dear lady.
I would have made her starve.
She should have used her inheritance and continued
to live by faith.
Now the Bible says don't be like the
heathen who are anxious about what they'll eat
or what they'll dress or what shelter they'll
have.
Don't be like them.
The Bible says seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all things will
be added unto you.
Maybe you are seeking God but you don't
have his righteousness and you find that these
things are not being added unto you.
After all you're acting in a criminal way.
You're holding on to unrighteousness.
And then you expect God to support you
and to keep you alive.
Why are you serving the devil and being
faithful to him?
Don't play the fool with God.
He'll play the fool with you.
I remember a person here at Kosisabantu.
Well it was a person who seemed to
be genuinely Christian.
But there were suspicions about this person.
And I asked the person did you actually
go to that woman's room and sit there
in that room?
He said no preacher definitely not.
I said to him again did you not
go to that room?
He said I did not go to her
room.
I went to the lady.
And I asked her regarding him how things
went?
She said no everything's fine except that he
did come to my room and sit down
here in my room.
You see?
Among the Christians today lies are told.
You see?
be glad that I don't do as Peter
who when faced with a lying Christian Ananias
he condemned that sin and he treated it
with the sharpness and chastise that sin with
sharpness of words so that the man died
but today lies are told and you just
continue like that well if it is like
that with you stop today calling yourself a
Christian I'm
thankful
I'm
thankful to God that that person is no
longer with us though they're still alive they're
not here with us and after all how
could that person continue here if God is
alive for God is
a righteous God
there is no unrighteousness that he can live
with but Christianity but
Christendom has sunk to those depths they are
brethren who will lie without shame and they
continue with it but you can rest assured
that that is unrighteous God will not allow
that to continue in his righteousness he will
not associate with that and I assure you
it will never be it
says
seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness his holiness are they unrighteous things in
your life Christian wicked things think
of Ananias and Sapphira as this married couple
and their conspiracy behind locked doors and just
think of it ponder upon it I
think it was just before the beginning of
the revival in 1966 I had a friend
with whom I preached and we were in
a service and in the service he was
soundly rebuked
he
didn't see his sin he saw himself as
being on the right way
because
if you persist in sin you will begin
to believe your own life you lie eventually
that lie becomes your truth
and
that night then I thought let me go
to that Christian person who had been rebuked
and comfort him because I thought maybe he
will think that I have also cost him
off
or
that I deserted him because if you have
a friend you share you tell each other
things and you are partners in things I
said Lord should I go to him until
as I wrestled with this before God I
said Lord you hold the keys if you
will that I should go and speak to
him then open the doors otherwise lock them
that maybe if I arrive at his place
I find him absent so I went there
when I got to his house it was
a very large one I went into the
home it was at night and as I
walked in it wasn't there wasn't much light
and I was still
busy praying Lord should you want me to
speak to him please open the door open
the way otherwise close it and as I
was walking I didn't notice that there was
a wardrobe in the passage Comparable
to the passage in this building where Catrin
lives where there are quite a few cupboards
in the passage I'd originally planned that that
passage should be quite wide so people could
walk but the many cupboards in it now
that's what it was like there I walked
unknowingly I walked into a cupboard into the
sharpest point it hit my forehead I was
stunned like a cow that's been hit on
the head it is stunned and I didn't
know what was happening to me I felt
hot liquid here and as I wiped and
I looked I saw it was blood I
said Lord thank you for teaching me a
lesson that I should never think that I
can continue in a friendship with something that
is wicked that because if I associate with
that I too go to hell My name
is Cecilia Kijima-Letta, I am a member
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you'll be condemned with him.
I don't know of anybody living in this
world today who's an enemy of the gospel
like this man.
I don't know if there's anybody else that
can lie more.
And the tragic thing is he believes his
lies.
In other words, if you want spiritual soundness
and health, the inscription on God's foundation says,
depart from all iniquity.
A certain preacher whom I knew well, he
preached so that people got saved and they
remained converted till today.
However, God exposed him.
At the beginning of the revival, he thought
he
had intended speaking in Ezio's coming to the
front of the service.
It was there in that place, those who
were there will remember, that old cow shed
where we had been praying.
He wanted to address us.
And as he came up to the pulpit,
he didn't stand behind the pulpit.
We saw him suddenly lying on the floor.
We carried on with the service and he
lay on the floor.
God just struck him down.
He was the man who in one prayer
meeting said it was as if I was
cut from the head down to the feet
into two pieces.
Exactly those words you find in Matthew 24,
isn't it, about that evil servant.
After not many days he died a terrible
death which I would never wish upon anybody.
And then it came to the light that
he had actually been having affairs with women
and girls.
And he had been critical of other servants
of the Lord.
That's why he had that vision where it's
written in the scripture of that evil servant
who messed around while he said, well, my
master has not yet come.
And he whipped and mistreated his fellow servants.
That is the God of whom we read
in Romans 11, 22.
He is both compassionate and severe.
Behold then the kindness and the severity of
God.
Severity towards those who fell, but
kindness towards you.
You who remain in his kindness, otherwise you
are cut off.
This is the word of God.
So search your own life regarding your past
and your present.
Anything that has not been put right with
God.
Any wickedness that has not been dealt with.
Reverend Voldemar Engelbrecht phoned me yesterday.
He asked me, if a person has sinned
and he sinned with his tongue in front
of other people, should he not go back
to those same people where he had gossiped
or spoken poisonous words?
How would you respond?
What should I have said to him?
What should I say to him?
He should make right.
If you have sinned against a person, you
need to make that right with that person.
I'm just asking a question, first of all,
just to see whether you've still got a
mind in your head.
Some brains or not.
Maybe they've fallen into another part of your
body.
And you've just got pumpkin pips appear.
I'm asking you if you have sinned with
your tongue.
You've spoken to somebody else.
At this time, it didn't remain there.
That person spoke as well.
Or a letter was written.
That letter was read.
Must you not put that right?
Or not?
Must you?
Or not?
I'm asking you.
You'll never be a blessing amongst God's people.
You'll be a curse.
The God I know and the God I
serve demands that you put that right.
And the spirit that's in me, the spirit
I call the Holy Spirit, can't stand anything
that's wrong.
And these are the things that are binding
you that God can't use you.
And that the rivers of living water don't
flow out of your life.
God is a God of love.
That's why you still are alive.
Otherwise, you'd be dead now.
At the same time, he's a holy God.
Deal with that.
Otherwise, the rest of your life will be
cursed.
Under that curse and under that spell, till
you die and you'll have to face it
squarely before God.
So make right that which is wrong.
Which is crooked.
Remember John the Baptist?
Make it straight.
Those slag gates, those ditches, fill them
that it will be a highway for God.
Are you prepared?
If not, I suggest, pack your things and
go.
Take your hat and go.
For we don't need you.
For you will put on the brakes and
the Holy Spirit who wants to work will
be limited.
And you will be the obstacle.
And we will be guilty continuing with you
in your state.
And we'll be called by that what you
are.
That's why I'm challenging you now.
Is your life right?
Have you made things right?
The lies you've spoken, have you put them
right?
Your lips, are they clean?
No gossip?
No speaking about other people behind their backs?
Those are things that got to be dealt
with.
That's the price you've got to pay.
That's what we had to pay when we
got revival.
And you wonder why you don't have revival.
You'll never get it.
You'll have to leave.
And where you go, you won't get it.
Unless you come back, remember where you have
fallen, and repent as you did in the
beginning.
By God's grace, He visited us, we experienced
revival, He ran the heavens, He came down,
but you're just jumping onto the boat without
having repented, paid the spiritual price you should
have paid.
That you listen to God's grace, and that
God's love does something to you.
Oh
God.
Oh God.
We ask you because of Jesus who died
for us, that you'd send the Holy Spirit
to convict and speak to our hearts.
Speak, oh Lord, that that which is not
right would be put right.
That that which is crooked would be made
straight.
That the valleys would be filled.
That which is high and lofty would be
brought down.
Making a way for you, that highway, where
you can come and work among the children
of men.
Amen.