We thank you, Lord, for the thunder and
for the rain that we have received.
And the thunder and lightning which brings rain,
and we pray, Lord, that we may hear
your speaking and hear your voice like thunder
and lightning, and that it might bring about
spiritual rain in our lives.
Amen.
Someone who came to me and asked me
to take this service, this evening, and asked
me to take this service, and then somebody
suggested that I should speak about that which
I preached about at Mapumulo.
We had a service there at Mapumulo recently,
there where the revival started.
And it's now, for the first time after
43 years that I've preached there.
Or rather, it's 43 years ago that I
preached there.
And then somebody suggested that I should speak
about that.
And it's now, for the first time
after 43 years that I've preached there, and
it's now It
teaches us to say no to ungodliness and
worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright
and godly lives in this present age.
We'll end reading there.
These words are very precious to my heart,
that the grace of God that brings salvation
has appeared, it has been revealed to all
men.
Now, when
it speaks here about the grace that has
appeared, it uses the same symbolism or the
meaning of the sun, the moon, and the
stars appearing.
If you go out now, it might be
that you don't see the stars, and the
moon.
You won't see the sun.
But, if the clouds would clear away, and
the mist, and the skies would clear, all
of a sudden, you see, but my, there
is the moon and the stars.
Now it's not that the stars and the
moon aren't there, that they had disappeared or
that they are gone.
It's not that there's no sun.
It would be utter foolishness to say, well,
because I don't see the sun, it means
that there is no longer any sun.
There is no sun.
And I'd say, well, show me where is
the sun.
I can't see it.
And then say, because of that, it's not
there.
So, there is such a thing that you
do not see it.
But, then how beautiful, how wonderful, when they
appear, when they are shown to us, and
we see the lights in the sky, the
sun, moon, and stars.
So, there was a time when the grace
of God was hidden, and where people couldn't
see it, where it was utter darkness.
Where a person becomes depressed.
Where a person's way is dark.
But then, the times turn, and the earth
turns, and then the sun appears, and the
moon appears, appears, and it shines in its
brightness, and it shines upon all men, not
just upon certain men, but it appears to
all men.
I hear it speaks about the grace of
God, the grace of God which is far
greater than the sun, the moon, and the
stars, incomparably great, and it says that this
grace of God has appeared to all men,
and it is grace which brings about life.
It saves.
As the heat of the sun kills off
germs and bacteria, and it brings about new
life and growth,
they
found fish very deep beneath the earth, there
where the rays of the sun never reach,
and
they found that those fish are blind because
they've never met up with the light of
the sun.
The light of the sun brings about life,
and when the grace of God reaches, it
brings about salvation.
So if you are depressed, if you are
stumbling about in your blindness and in darkness,
then it means you are in a pit,
you are in a hole somewhere where you
do not see the grace of God, where
the grace of God is hidden from you.
You're in that lake or in that miry
clay where you are busy trampling around in
your mud and the grace of God doesn't
reach you.
In your sin, bitterness, resentment,
grudges, hatred, carnal and sexual lust,
drugs, not showing respect, disobedience,
that's what your life is like.
It's rotten.
But we thank God that his grace has
appeared and that that has now appeared which
was absent from your life, where
this grace which brings salvation has appeared, where
this grace reaches, it brings about salvation, just
where as the sun reaches it brings about
health and it brings about a cure, so
you are cured from your sin.
And this grace is alive, it teaches us,
as a teacher teaches a child.
It teaches us to say no to ungodliness
and worldly passions.
And it teaches you to live upright, uprightly,
to live a straight life.
And if your life isn't as straight as
a die, then that means you haven't yet
seen this grace, you haven't yet met up
with this grace.
Through this grace of God, you live an
upright life, you live a self-controlled life
in this world that has so perverted this
crooked and depraved generation.
If you say that you are in the
grace of God, and you are not saved
from these things, you are not made well
spiritually from these things, then you are just
playing the fool.
I said that there are clouds and there
is mist which hides the lights which are
in the sky.
Now the word of God acting and operative
through the Holy Spirit dispels all darkness, it
dispels those clouds and that mist so that
it's totally clear, crystal clear.
They said that there is a school in
Germany which
had a strict and an upright principle who
wouldn't allow the children just to get up
to mischief, he would discipline them.
And he had a very sharp eye.
If anybody would get up to any mischief,
he'd be very quick to catch that person.
And at that school, there was a child
that was totally corrupt and incorrigible, and I
don't know why the child was like that.
Perhaps the parents didn't bring it up properly.
There are parents that shouldn't be, that aren't
fit to be parents, that shouldn't have children
because they don't know how to bring up
the children.
And this child influenced the other children, some
of the other children, and would poison them
with this child's poison.
I could get some children, they spread their
evil teachings, and they poison and they defile
other children around them.
And then you get some children that can
defile a whole school, and poison a whole
school, just like you get a little bit
of yeast that works through the whole batch
of dough.
And you can find the same in a
nation, where the nation as a whole might
be wholesome and upright, but then you get
a few that start influencing the others, and
they spread their evil teachings, and very soon
you find that the whole community, the whole
nation is corrupted.
And so some children had hatred started to
develop towards that principle in their hearts.
One day the principle had to go somewhere
and come back late at night.
And the children, the learners, had heard that
the principle was going to be away, and
they only came back at night.
So late at night the principle came back,
came back home.
Now fortunately he was walking along with his
walking stick, which was quite a thick stout
rod, quite heavy.
And as he was walking along, going around
the corner, going past where the dormitories were,
towards his place, all of a sudden there
was a loud explosion.
And his rod, his walking stick that he
had in his hand, was smashed to pieces
as he was holding it.
And so he was walking along, going
around the corner, going
past
where the dormitories were, And
when he investigated closer, he saw that it
was a trap.
A steel trap with steel teeth.
A big trap, not for a rat or
for a mouse.
It was for, that you used to trap
game with, where for foxes or big game,
if it would be trapped in that, it
would cut off the head.
If you would put your foot in there,
you wouldn't get free again.
It would actually amputate your leg.
The next morning, he gathered all the children
together.
And he said, who has put that trap
there?
He said, who put that trap there?
And there was no answer.
And he kept on asking, he said, who
has put that trap there?
Let them come forward.
Now you know that a heart that is
devoid of the grace of God, is pitch
black, and it is filled with Satan himself.
Now, it is possible that a person closes
his eyes to the grace of God, even
though it's appeared to all men.
But that he closes his eyes to it,
that he cannot see it.
It's possible that a person closes his heart,
that the grace of God cannot penetrate.
And for that reason, unless a person opens
up his heart, it will always remain black
and dark.
And instead of a person looking at that
grace, opening his eyes and looking at it,
a person turns his back upon it.
So nobody came out at the school.
And whatever the principal said was to no
avail.
And some children, instead of them getting up
and speaking out, they kept their mouths shut.
Many school children are cursed in that way.
But instead of a person, instead of a
school child standing up for the truth and
standing for that which is right, they'll shut
their mouths, they'll zip their lips.
And in that way, they identify themselves, they
associate themselves with the evil deed of that
person.
And because of your keeping quiet and because
of your hiding away those things, you are
identifying yourself with that person's sin.
And so, they didn't come out with it.
The person who was responsible didn't come out
with it.
Nobody else who knew about it said anything
about it.
And so, the matter passed by.
And they actually forgot about it.
And that child who was responsible for that
even finished his schooling career and carried on.
Now, with certain nations, when the children leave
school, they have to do their national service
in the army.
So he went to the army.
And then war broke out.
And he had to go and fight.
And there, on the forefront, he stepped onto
a landmine.
And it exploded underneath him.
Both his feet were smashed to pieces.
And he lost both his feet.
And he experienced excruciating pain.
In those days, anaesthetics weren't as well developed
as they are today.
And painkillers.
So, he experienced terrible pain.
A pulsating pain.
And it was as if he could feel
his toes and his heels, even though they
were non-existent.
They were amputated.
And so, he went to school.
And he finished his schooling.
And he went to the army.
And he finished his schooling.
And he went to the army.
But worse than that excruciating physical pain that
he endured, was the tormenting of his conscience.
Where he was reminded of that which he
had done at school.
Where he had tried to harm his principal.
Where he wanted to trap him in that
trap and harm him.
That his foot perhaps would be amputated.
He didn't succeed in that.
But now he had to experience that where
he lost both of his own feet.
And so, he went to the army.
And he was given a bed to lie
on.
And he was given...
...a sleeping bucket for the essences of the
world.
you at peace day and night it will
remind you and it'll come back to you
about those evil things that you've done and
how you've harmed that person and how you've
committed that abortion and those different things those
evil things that you've done
and
his
conscience reminded him what God had said what
you sow you'll reap and where you thought
that nobody saw you God's eye was upon
you God saw you and he'll see to
it that you reap accordingly and
the principal in those days then received a
letter and he looked at the
letter at the envelope wanted whose handwriting is
this and then he opened it and then
he started reading teacher and logo or Sun
Pega dear principal you mean you're gonna need
given benny tutu's a good trouble is a
good day I'm bandwagon essence a nice army
SCB as in your nigga yo he said
for years I was happy about the fact
that I was never caught in that abominable
act that I performed no no no car
I went see me he said it was
I who had placed that steel trap there
when Kofi will go Bonagon and I'd forgotten
that the Almighty sees everything that there is
nothing hidden to his eyes no good to
go so big oh so good lap on
your grandma okay gives a pendulum yeah and
that there'd be a day where I'll have
to stand before him and give an account
of my life mandu guru guru said Dalili
now God has revealed it there look what
he lets his sensor saw me Bessie Bessie
see began governor and God has shown me
how evil and how abominable that act of
mine was it's good thing and
instead
of me amputating and cutting off your leg
God turned the tables around and instead my
feet were cut off oh yeah yeah he
saw the ice all a month and said
oh I regret that which I did who
let those cut baby not been on the
end when Zio got a namsa who see
me I'm a facility in kungu sugile who
kind of back and I went I said
in those days I didn't understand what I
was doing but he said now it's dawned
on me the clouds have cleared away it's
crystal clear to me I see it very
clearly what it meant and what I did
bungee yeah tanda who good to give a
say who will be bomb I said now
I want to expose my evil Italy Italy
Oh Tishan so yes I'll ask you and
I beg you for your forgiveness and
could you please gather the whole
school together he said and tell them about
me but there's a new good team me
and I went Zio look tell them it
was I who had done it no good
to local oh oh goodness a day experience
is testimony to the fact that God visits
the sin each and every sin that a
person commits God will visit that sin and
give a person according to that sin you
won't get away there Ross of God the
turn fun hot the
word of God also says that the wrath
of God has been revealed from heaven against
all that godlessness unless you escape to the
cross to that place where Jesus was crucified
at Calvary for your sake Oh
now the race I will leave just because
of time I don't want us to be
here for too long calling WL 20 and
stuff when we teamed there's just one more
matter which I'd like to touch on lay
nothing glad yes oh come on German see
England now we go from Germany to England
that's all greedy lowland say in Norwich at
the coast at Norwich the
father was going along with his small boy
it was still long before that child was
even to go to school and the father
had a big puffed-up round face who
basically he was a drunkard I'll be pooza
a pooza Oh drinking fancy pooza man's he
drank like a fish it was a fiscal
site his whole family went
hungry and as he was going along with
his small boy holding him by his hand
Gikala Gikala sing wah-wah no me coconut
tree bunnies father I'm hungry could I please
have a piece of bread even if it's
just a bun how we say I'm not
notice a kube and the father just ignored
and carried on walking young
boy kept on at it is it father
please could I just have a piece of
bread and
the father was angry and
scolded the child and swore at the child
and said shut up and keep quiet and
stop nagging me like this and
after some time the boy said daddy please
can't you please buy me a piece of
bread and
the
father became so enraged so furious that he
took that child and he swung it over
the cliff into the sea and carried on
walking maturing at himself and
this boy was there in the sea and
about to drown and
by the grace of God God sent a
big log piece of driftwood and it came
closer to the this little boy so that
he could hold on to it and not
sink long now
that schoolboy in Germany didn't realize that God
didn't realize that God is all-seeing but
God saw what he did and God also
saw this little boy here in the sea
in England and
so this little boy hung on to this
piece of driftwood even though some of the
breakers broke over his head the boy's name
was Tom and
then a boat came by a military boat
full of naval military people full
of sailors and as they were busy scanning
the coast through their binoculars there they saw
something drifting and I could see like human
hands onto that piece of driftwood and I
wondered what was that so they quickly let
down a smaller boat from their big ship
and sent it to go investigate closely
and
they fished that little boy out of the
water put him into the boat and then
into the ship and the boy at that
time was already very weak.
The captain asked him what is your name
he said Tom
and
he said how did you get into the
sea but he couldn't remember a thing he
was so exhausted so tired that he couldn't
remember anything except what his name was.
And so they washed the little boy with
warm water and then put him into a
warm bed.
And then the following day the sailor said
we're adopting this child now as our own
it'll be our child and he'll grow up
here on the ship.
And so they taught him and tried to
teach him.
And
they
brought him up and then as he got
a bit older they decided to send him
to school.
They're in a certain harbor where they landed
and they put together a fund so that
they'd be able to send him to school.
And Tom grew up eventually even completed his
they all the time were busy funding his
studies.
When he had finished his schooling he said
he wanted to continue these studies and he
wanted to study medicine.
And indeed he did study and eventually he
got his medical degrees.
And once he was fully qualified as a
doctor he said that he wanted to go
back to that ship and he wanted to
be their doctor.
And that's indeed what happened.
And then war broke out.
And one day there was a battle at
sea with him and an enemy ship and
many got hurt.
And many died.
And so they brought those were injured and
wounded to Dr. Tom.
And they had defeated the enemy ship.
And then they brought their wounded as well
to him.
According to the Geneva Convention, if anybody is
wounded at war then you're not allowed to
just finish them off and kill them off.
So you treat that person as well as
you can and try to heal them.
Now you know what the older people would
do?
I remember this very well as a child.
People would fight.
Now when the Zulus fight, they finish off
the enemy if they get the opportunity.
But in this particular case at our farm,
what happened was the one person was chased
by somebody else.
He had a spear and he was wounded.
But what saved his life was that a
woman came and she cast herself on his
body as he lay wounded.
And that is against the Zulu custom.
You can't injure that woman.
No.
Or the man.
You can't kill him and finish him off.
If a woman has cast herself upon him,
she saved his life.
They won't touch the woman.
They didn't touch a woman.
Well they do it now because of communistic
influence.
The communists have taught them just to kill
a woman and a child.
The Zulus didn't do that.
And as she cast herself on him, that
woman, the person that was pursuing that enemy
would leave him, take his spear and go
away.
She saved his life.
And now in those days, they would finish
the enemy off.
If the enemy lies there, they'll come with
their spear and they'll finish the enemy off.
And then they'll lick off the blood from
the blade of the spear or they'll maybe
cut open the person and cut off a
piece of the liver and eat that.
But if they do today, you'd get AIDS.
Now in Zulu, if a person is very
courageous, you don't say, oh he's got a
nerve for this or that.
You say he's got a liver.
That means he's courageous, he's a man.
Now you know why.
So let's leave that there now.
They took those wounded from the other ship,
the enemy ship as well, and they brought
them to Tom.
And amongst those who were wounded, there was
one who was very, very seriously wounded, very
badly wounded.
And Tom did his utmost to save his
life as he saw that this man was
busy dying and losing his life.
And even though he would go about his
other duties and tend to the other wounded,
but this man couldn't or didn't leave his
mind.
Every time you would think about him again
and you would go back to him and
find out how he was and whether you
could help him still in any other way.
Asking him, how are things?
Can I still help you?
Is there something I could do for you?
And the wounded person, as he saw how
the doctor was treating him and really going
out of his way, he said, doctor, I'd
like to say thank you to you.
Doctor, there's nothing I can give you or
say thank you to you through it.
Doctor, all I can do to say thank
you to you is to give you this
book, to give you the Bible, but read
the Bible, read it carefully and go deep,
study it.
He said, I was a terrible sinner, but
God has shown me grace and I found
grace in his eyes.
God helped me through this book, through the
Bible, and I got converted.
So doctor, I'd like to give you my
Bible, but I want you to promise me
to go and read it and study it
very carefully.
And the doctor said, all right, I'll do
it.
And he went on his way, but he
just couldn't forget that man.
And every now and again, we'd go back
to him.
And then when he went back to him,
he saw that there was something troubling this
man.
There was something eating away at him.
And now this doctor was a raw heathen.
He knew absolutely nothing about Christianity.
Many black people think all whites are Christians,
but it's not the case.
He knew nothing about the Bible.
Now, Dr. Tom had gone to university.
He'd studied medical studies, learned everything about the
human body, but he knew nothing about the
spirit, nothing about the word of God.
And he came back to him.
And he said, tell me, is there nothing
that you want to say?
Because I can see that you are deeply
troubled.
He said, yes, there is.
He said, doctor, he said, it's now for
many years.
Now, many years ago that I did a
terribly wicked thing.
He said, I've confessed everything else, but this
thing is so terrible, I've never confessed it.
He said, I was walking along on the
beach with my little boy.
He said, I was a drunkard.
I would drink every or spend all the
money that I had on booze, and my
children went hungry.
And he said, as I was walking along
on the beach, my little boy, Tom, told
me, father, I'm hungry.
And he said, in my rage, I became
so angry that I threw him into the
sea, into the waves.
And that's where he ended.
That's where he drowned in the sea.
He said, until today, even though I've become
a believer, this thing doesn't leave me.
It troubles me continually.
He said, sir, where did this happen?
He said, there at Norwich.
He said, what was the name of that
boy whom you threw into the sea?
And as tears streamed down his cheeks, he
said it was Tom.
And the doctor said, are you my father?
Are you my dad?
Because I'm Tom.
And they embraced each other with his father,
wet his son with his tears.
And he said, oh, amazing grace of God.
This wonderful grace of God that has been
revealed to me and has appeared to me,
that I could see you as my son,
still alive, before I died.
And he said, oh,
amazing grace of God.
And he said, Tom, there was no greater
sinner than me in this world.
And yet I met up with the Lord
Jesus.
And he forgave me my sin.
He cleansed me.
He saved me.
He said, Tom, promise me that you'll read
that book that I gave you, that you'll
study the Bible, that through it you can
find salvation.
And he said, Father, I promise you that
I'll surrender my life to the Lord Jesus
as well.
And I'll study the word.
And from now on, I'll serve the Lord
Jesus.
And the father smiled as if his face
was radiating the glory of God at the
joy of this which he heard.
And Tom embraced his dad.
And as he was holding him, his father's
body slackened in his embrace.
His soul left his body and he passed
away in Tom's arms.
Now, this grace of God has appeared to
you as well.
God is presenting, He's offering it to you
as well.
Right now.
And you can take that grace and trample
it underfoot.
Or you can turn your back upon it.
You can harden your heart and close your
heart to that grace of God.
That's up to you.
And then hell will be yours for all
eternity.
And there won't be any grace for you
in this world as well as in the
world to come.
You'd be the greatest fool if you reject
such wonderful, such great grace.
And this amazing grace of God has appeared
to all men.
No matter which race, tribe or language you
might be, this grace of God has appeared
to you.
Are you going to open up the door
of your heart, of your life to God,
to this grace that God is offering to
you right now?
Just like Tom said, he said, Father, I
promise you that I'm going to surrender my
life to Christ.
And I'll take this book, I'll study it,
and it'll be the light that leads and
guides me in the rest of my life.
And that this grace would teach you to
deny all ungodliness, all worldly lusts and worldly
passions, and to live uprightly and self-controlled
in this world.
Now I heard that today the ashes had
meetings.
So you ashes as well need to show
this grace and reveal this grace of God
to others.
Tom helped his father and his father helped
him that he could meet up with the
grace of God.
May it be like that, that you help
others as well to meet up with the
grace of God.
Let's bow our heads.
Thank you, Lord, that we could hear that
your grace that brings salvation has appeared to
all men.
Lord, may
it be that each one of us, Lord,
may it be that each one of us
would accept and welcome that grace with both
hands, not that we'd harden our hearts and
close our hearts towards it, but that we'd
open our inner being that your grace may
enter in.
Work in an amazing way, O Lord, in
our lives that we will be helped and
in turn be able to help others.