Lord Jesus, by your spirit wouldn't you open
our ears, our eyes, our hearts to grasp
firmly what you have for us and your
word?
Show us wonderful things in thy word.
Amen.
Let's read from Romans chapter 6.
What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound?
No, never.
How shall we who died to sin live
any longer in it?
Or do you not know that as many
of us were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death?
Therefore we were buried with him through baptism
into death, that just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life.
For if we have been united together in
the likeness of his death, certainly we also
shall be in the likeness of his resurrection.
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified
with him that the body of sin might
be done away with, that we should no
longer be slaves of sin.
For he who has died has been freed
from sin, for if we died with Christ
we believe that we also shall live with
him.
Knowing that Christ having been raised from the
dead dies no more, death no longer has
dominion over him.
For the death he died, he died to
sin once for all, but the life that
he lives, he lives to God.
Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin, but alive to God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
We'll read thus far.
The cross is a marvellous and an amazing
thing.
It is a miraculous, wonderful thing, the cross.
You might think only of the cross or
think of the cross as just that cross
where Jesus died and then he died and
was raised from the dead and that was
it.
And that's why you live the life which
we observe.
It has not yet been revealed to you
this great mystery.
Here in Romans it asks the question, how
can we who believe continue in sin any
longer?
Why so?
It asks how can we continue in sin
any longer when we have died to sin?
Because when Jesus was on the cross, God
baptised us into Christ.
So that when he died, we died with
him.
When he arose from the dead, we rose
with him.
Let me illustrate for you.
Here is a piece of paper.
Let's name this piece of paper John.
This book, let us call it The Word,
Jesus.
The Word was crucified on the cross.
Jesus was nailed there.
When Jesus was nailed to the tree, God
took John, he took you, Mary,
He baptised you into Jesus so that as
Jesus was crucified, so you were too.
And when Jesus arose from the dead, you
also rose with him.
Yesterday at three o'clock in the afternoon
we had a service here.
And we mentioned that when the innkeepers refused
room to Mary and Joseph, they didn't see
Jesus.
They refused the judge of all created things,
of heaven and earth.
And when they died, they would have been
so shocked to discover they had refused room
to the judge of judges.
They will say on judgment day, Lord Jesus,
we did not know, we didn't realise that
it was you coming, that we had refused
room not just to Mary and Joseph but
to you.
Had we known Lord, we would have even
spoken to Herod himself and asked him to
get off his throne for you.
But they didn't know, they were ignorant of
the fact of the one who was in
them, the one that they had refused place
to.
They only saw Mary, not Jesus.
They didn't see the Messiah.
They didn't see their Saviour.
They didn't see the judge.
They didn't see the one who holds the
keys of their death and of Hades in
his hands.
They took it lightly.
Now listen very carefully, you young people in
particular, because you are still immature in your
minds.
Even if you are 25, I have to
use your age as an excuse and say
that you are still immature in your mind
because that can be the only reason why
you run after money, position, power, recognition.
And that can be the only reason why
you don't understand, don't take in and listen
to what you are told and what is
true is even deeper and more profound than
what you are told.
When Jesus came in, they didn't see him,
they only saw Mary, they didn't realize that
the creator, the judge, the one who had
made all things was there.
And when Jesus was crucified on the cross,
they looked at him and they didn't see
the great miracle.
And you don't see the great miracle, you
don't see that you have been placed in
him.
That God has for you performed this wonderful
miracle, he baptized you into Christ at the
cross.
When Jesus was crucified, you too were crucified.
When he died, you also died, your life
of sin, you died to it.
When Jesus arose from the grave, you arose,
I arose, all of us who believe in
him have been raised together with him.
Marvelous.
How glorious, how wonderful is this mystery revealed
here in Romans, what God performed for us
on the cross.
Here is my handkerchief, I put it into
my Bible, you don't see the handkerchief anymore,
you see the Bible.
God took his people and he placed them
into Christ so that when he died, they
died, when he was buried, you were buried,
when he arose, his people arose.
Jesus died once for sin, and we being
placed in him have died to sin.
How can you possibly continue with sin, for
you have died to it.
And when Jesus arose here in Romans 6,
and I'm just making it brief, I don't
want to take too much time.
We arose with him, we now live a
new life.
How marvelous was this miracle which God performed
for us on the cross.
What does it mean to be dead to
sin, do you know what death is?
I was married.
I lived with the mother of our children,
my wife.
She died.
I can no longer speak to her.
I can't ask her to cook food for
me.
I can't ask her to make the bed.
I can't ask her to lock the door
of our house.
I can't ask her to do the laundry.
I can't ask her to cook a meal.
I can't ask her to pray.
At least tell your father to pray.
Death came, and through death I can no
longer communicate with her, she can't communicate with
me.
If you have died to sin, can sin
still call you?
Haven't you died to sin?
If I've died to sin, then it's finished
with it.
We have no more communication with sin.
Sin no longer has authority over me, dominion.
But if you're involved in the occult, are
there any Xhosa speaking people here?
Can I use them a name that means
something different to them?
And now, regarding ancestral worship, speaking to the
dead, in actual fact they're not communicating with
the dead, but with demons.
Where is our Indian friend who works in
the garden?
Where are you?
There he is over there to the right.
Oh, you must stand up.
I don't see you.
You're at the level of all the people.
Yes.
There, our Indian friend.
He used to speak to the spirits involved
in the Hindu religion of his religion and
the spirits of that background.
He too seeks baptism, because he says he
has repented and left those ancestral spirits.
Now, you Zulus who claim that you are
so deep into ancestral worship, you're actually playing
around.
You don't know what serious ancestral worship is
in comparison to the Hindus.
Learn from the Indians who are Hindus and
how they will regard even a cockroach as
sacred because it might be one of their
grandparents visiting them.
They don't kill any object because of their
communication with the dead.
Now he says, finished, finished with that life,
he wants to live for Jesus Christ only.
That's the end of his Hindu life, he
now gives himself to Jesus Christ, wants to
live as a Christian.
Our brother works in the garden for us,
and he does a very good job.
You can go and look at the cabbages
and all the things that he's planted, you
don't find weeds, it's clean, it's nice.
So I asked him, what does the cabbage
look like, because it's bought by Woolworths.
He says, come and see, come and see,
the Holy Ghost has gone through all the
cabbages.
That's
Hindu language.
So, at the cross, God
the Father baptised us into the Son, and
when Jesus died, you died.
When he rose, you rose, have you thanked
him for that already?
Have you bowed before him, gone down on
your knees, worshipped him for such a great
salvation?
That you are dead to sin, dead to
the world, dead to the devil.
The world is no longer a problem to
you.
The world is no
longer
a problem to you.
And you'll find that the world beckons young
people and brings them, calls them into, following
its pattern, clothing, you'll find a girl wears
tight-fitting clothing as possible, whether it's shorts
or showing her belly button ring, all sorts
of things, long or short.
I can't understand how the world, a rotten
thing, can have such a magnetism and draw
young people to itself.
I remember years ago, there was a certain
fashion, and remember fashions come and go and
they change?
Now, you know a pot, a potty, a
bedpan, that have a, that size thing?
Because of, remember they would use it, older
people would use it because too far to
go to an outdoor toilet?
It used to be, for those who needed
to go outside, I
remember
when Mr. Dube, the father of my brother,
Jablan Dube, how when he installed a toilet
in the house, the whole neighborhood was astonished
and they said, what, Dube has put a
toilet in his house?
Those were the days, pre-flush toilet, pre
-flush toilet, pre
-flush toilet, pre-flush toilet, pre-flush toilet,
pre-flush toilet, pre-flush toilet, pre-flush
toilet, pre-flush toilet.
Those were the days, pre-flush toilets.
Now, this fashion of haircuts would be that
they'd put a pot on the boy's head
and then take a blade and, or bob
a thing and would cut all around so
they'd leave this tuft on top.
And white boys would dye their hair grey
and other colors.
We'd say, that
is
madness, it's insane to do such a thing,
but still the world beckons with such things
and has power over young people through such
things.
They not yet dead.
If they were truly dead to sin, they
would reject that and laugh at it, say
that's satanic.
But it's a proof that you're still alive
to the world and that you're alive to
hell when you show that these things beckon
you and succeed to call you.
But the world no longer has dominion over
us, we are dead to sin, dead to
the world through Jesus.
Sin no longer has power for the death
of Jesus works in us.
And we live a new life and as
young people too, one lives a brand new
life for we have died to the world
with Jesus.
Isn't that a marvelous, miraculous thing?
Isn't that a wonderful secret to be revealed
to you?
How marvelous, what a miraculous, wonderful thing God
did for us when He baptized us into
Christ.
We died with Him, arose with Him, now
we are new people.
And we live for God in holiness and
righteousness.
Dead to stealing.
If you put some money next to a
corpse, does that dead body get tempted to
steal that money?
If you put some money next to a
corpse, does that dead body get tempted to
steal that money?
You who are involved in the occult, worshipping
the ancestral spirits, You try to put food
and things for your ancestors to come and
get.
Do they ever come and eat that food
or drink?
No, never.
It's just the cockroaches and the ants that
come.
For that person is really dead in the
grave.
And we at Golgotha died with Jesus.
When He was raised, we were raised together
with Him.
How wonderful, how sweet it is to understand
the mystery of the cross.
That's why we sang that Zulu chorus, sweet
is the gospel.