I'd like to, before we continue, read our
text from Isaiah chapter 6.
We read from verse 1.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I
saw the Lord sitting on a throne high
and lifted up, and the train of his
road filled the temple.
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne
high and lifted up, and the train of
his road filled the temple.
I saw the Lord
sitting
on a throne high and lifted up, and
the train of his road filled the temple.
And the posts of the door were shaken
by the voice of him who cried out,
and the house was filled with smoke.
So I said, Woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips.
For my eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts.
We'll read thus far.
Now I asked, What is an engagement?
It's actually very seldom that there are engagements,
especially engagements conducted in a holy way.
We live in a depraved society where there
is rottenness right to the core.
We see people just infecting themselves with AIDS.
Yesterday, somebody bought a paper for me, and
when I looked at the headlines, it was
written in bold letters on the front page,
that nobody dies from AIDS.
They die from chest complaints, respiratory problems,
and many other problems, but certainly not from
AIDS, which does not kill anybody.
Even the president of our nation has said
he doesn't know of anybody in his family
that has died of AIDS.
I'm just telling you as I read it
in the paper.
I don't know how true it is.
It could be that he says his family,
because actually I've heard also that he has
no children.
But you don't need any convincing.
You have seen for yourselves how people get
AIDS, what they are like.
The Bible repeatedly tells us that the one
who trusts in God is blessed and happy,
but the one who lives in wickedness and
turns his back on God lives in misery
and calls upon suffering to stay within.
If you really want happiness and blessing, then
you need to be surrendered to the Lord
God of hosts.
But should you turn your back on God,
well, the awful things that await you.
We as Christians do not have love affairs
like the world.
You know that in the pagan way people
just choose for themselves, but we Christians rely
on God to choose for us.
No preacher chooses or other person.
No council or no authority except God himself
does the choosing.
A certain person once decided that he'd rather
choose for himself and make sure that he
chooses his own pretty peach.
He had deceived himself into thinking that in
Christianity one is short-changed and you don't
really get the proper thing.
He'll do it for himself and like we
say in the Zulu proverb, if you choose
a pretty peach, there's probably a worm inside.
He got his way, did what he thought
he should do, got married to her and
as soon after that he came to me
terrifically worried saying she seems to have an
enormous growth that I don't know whether she's
going to die.
I suggested he take her to the doctor.
She though, the wife, said no, I'm not
so keen on going to a doctor, I'd
rather just trust in the Lord.
They insisted and she was taken to a
doctor.
The doctor said to her, I'm not so
keen on going to a doctor, I'd rather
just trust in the Lord.
So the
doctor...
In diagnosing her, he said, well, it's a
simple case, she's pregnant and it was discovered
then that she was three or four months
pregnant from another man and not from her
husband as you find in the pagan way
they sleep with each other before marriage.
And the traditional Christian marriage is held where
there's a white veil and all the significance
of purity and holiness that she's untouched.
However, despite her spotless gown, she might already
be expecting.
That's what things are like today.
But we find that not only among pagans,
but also among Christians, even those who claim
to be saved.
Till one is even nervous when they get
married and one counts the months.
Maybe they're not complete.
One young lady, a newly married woman giving
birth after six months, that was the time
she scolded me and her minister as well.
I was taken to task for saying that
it's not possible.
She said, what is your faith so small
that I can't have a baby, a fully
developed baby after six months?
Where is your faith?
I said, well my faith doesn't lie in
messing around and being sexually promiscuous.
A true Christian waits and looks to God
for the answer.
They hold it, they keep it holy.
Not like those who, when the lights are
off, they go around like dogs at night
where you don't know where they are and
they're off being promiscuous.
But instead they watch and pray and say,
Lord, you show me.
That is why we tell believers, you let
the Lord choose for you.
You leave it over to Him, seek His
will.
Because otherwise, if you just do it according
to your own logic and your own mind,
well, you'll get a pretty peach that is
rotten because of worms.
And things go wrong when people say, I'll
do it for myself.
I can handle it.
And they don't know how to pray, what
it is to kneel before God and seek
His will and get an answer from Him.
A certain island not far off Africa, on
the northeast coast towards Madagascar.
There are many varieties of palm oil.
There are many varieties of palm trees.
One of which is used for an occult
fortune-telling process where they use it to
create a love potion, especially if it's one
of these unique ones which is a double
coconut.
And so you find that people who do
it for themselves, they don't know how to
pray, they don't know how to seek God's
will, they don't know how to seek God's
will.
And so you find that people who do
it in an unchristian way rely on their
own hearts or they rely on occult powers.
And so they'll have all sorts of strange
fetishes and do strange rituals.
And they resort to all sorts of occult
and strange practices.
Now there's a true incident in Johannesburg.
There were some men who used to work
there and on the way home they'd always
go via a certain bar.
And they'd always
go via a certain bar.
They found it irresistible.
They had to go by her.
And one day they said to each other,
these men, but men, we have paid so
many cattle in dowry for our wives, we
have our families, but why is it that
we are just pulled to go towards this?
Let's have a look.
And so there was a big...
It was a traditional home brew and where
they would make this brew and where this
lady, she was the one who owned this
illicit bar, and the man rolled up his
sleeve, put his hand in, he came out
with the lady's underwear.
Well, you men who go to these places,
you drink all sorts of things.
And you fall into the occult things like
this and you might accuse somebody else of
being to blame, but maybe you're the one
who's to blame and you're the one who's
eaten of these things.
But we find Christian young people who are
willing to do it in God's way.
This young couple today, your parents, they have
made you proud, they have uplifted the standard.
Be thankful that you have children that are
not living in the rubbish of this world.
You have children that are not living in
the rubbish of this world.
Now,
I want you to...
Be thankful for the children that you have.
I came across a person the other day
whose business is creating wigs.
Here in Africa, it seems like it's a
roaring trade.
Over a billion rand is spent every year
in our country.
So, you find that all sorts, whether black
or white, they spend their money on their
hairdos, their perms, and they fall into this
which we have been read to this Galatians
verse, They just fall into the desires of
the flesh, the lust of this world.
And they just fail to live for the
Lord.
You just look at their appearance and you
say, the world.
But the Bible says, as we have read,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
This is the holiness we want to see
in our young people.
We're tired of the world.
We don't want the world's things.
Now, the young couple getting engaged here today,
as they have before us publicly, I asked
them, are you sure that this is God's
rule?
This is how he directs you?
I said, yes.
I inquired a little bit about the young
lady from her counselor, from those that she
works with, and they all had good reports
that she lives for the Lord.
So much so that they asked those who
she's working for, we want to know about
the young man.
Is he really faithful?
Is he worthy of her hand?
And you find it different, though, with the
advent of cell phones.
Sometimes it can be useful, but it can
also be bad.
You'll find that a lot of flirting goes
on, sending messages, phoning each other, and love
affairs going on via the cell phone.
Let there be a distinct separation between what
is wrong and right.
Let God's holiness be evident.
Not that you are busy visiting each other,
flirting around, going around in a group together.
Billy Graham, a preacher from America who is
now old.
A person who is lawless is the one
who complains about the lawlessness of the law.
And they say, but you're making laws for
us.
Why can't we do this?
Why can't we do that?
They made
a
covenant together, Billy Graham and his team.
In those early days, they said, let's make
a covenant to be sexually pure before the
Lord and take certain precautions, such as never
to travel in a car alone with the
opposite sex, not to be in a room
alone with the opposite sex.
Men and women have been godly, and the
Lord has preserved them into old age.
They haven't died from promiscuous living.
And in this covenant, they also said that
they will preserve financial integrity.
We will not be dishonest regarding money.
They made these rules with each other, and
they remained an example.
We too need to be an example as
we preach to others.
We need to be an example to others.
Here, God fills the temple with His holiness
and His glory.
We are the temple of God.
His holiness needs to be proclaimed.
Maybe you're the child of a preacher, and
you're the one who is loosening the standards.
Well, you will find yourself cursed.
Here are the blessings.
On the other hand, here are the curses
if you are disobedient to the Lord.
Here is happiness, but here is tragedy and
misery if you do not heed the word
of the Lord.
Listen carefully, you children as well.
I love young people, but I am often
so disappointed in their lack of understanding.
Their ignorance.
You'll find an infatuation will come over a
boy or a girl, and they completely head
over heels infatuated, and they don't know what's
happening to them.
Listen carefully, you children as well.
I love young people, but I am often
so disappointed in their lack of understanding.
Their ignorance.
You'll find an infatuation will come over a
boy or a girl, and they completely head
over heels infatuated, and they don't know what's
happening to them.
Listen carefully, you children as well.
I love young people, but I am often
so disappointed in their lack of understanding.
Their ignorance.
You'll find an infatuation will come over a
boy or a girl, and they completely head
over heels infatuated, and they don't know what's
happening to them.
So be free to choose whatever you want
to choose, but remember you can't decide the
consequences of your choice.
One thing will help us that we meet
with God, Lord of hosts.
The holiness of God was proclaimed by these
angels covering their feet with wings, their faces
with wings, with two they flew, and proclaiming
God's holiness they shook the foundations causing the
man of God here to cry out about
his sinfulness.
Jenny, are you here?
Where is Jenny?
Jenny Engelbrecht?
Just stand up that I see you.
Do you see that wife?
The one who is standing here?
Her sister?
I was married to her sister.
My children last night came excitedly to me
and said, but you know the wonderful testimony
that Aunty Jenny has got?
And they hadn't known it.
That's why the Bible says, tell your children
and your children's children that they would know
the workings of God.
She had come to help babysit.
One of my daughters has just had a
baby and she was coming to help and
in that time she used the opportunity to
tell the testimony.
She grew up in the Anglican church.
They were very strict Anglicans.
Regarding confession of sin, it's done in the
liturgy.
When Revival broke out, they said to each
other, she and her husband, well, we're going
to be left out if we don't become
holy.
We're going to become part of it, that
the Lord gives us revival.
And they came to Mapumulu at that time.
And they asked then, what shall we do?
She came to me as well and asked
me, Olo, what should I do?
I said, you go and ask the Lord,
what does He say to you?
She went back in with tears, told her
husband, they asked, well, what do we ask
the Lord to say?
How will He speak to us?
She said, I need to confess my sins.
I don't know how I replied.
She said to
me,
I need you to know my sins.
I want you to know it.
No, no, no.
She says, should I tell you my sins,
that you know my sins?
And by the way, there aren't any sins
that I remember.
I don't know what I said.
I said, why don't you try it?
And when she tried it, she got a
foretaste of heaven.
And then she experienced revival.
Dr. Edwin Oh, he says revival starts when
you confess your sins, and it stops when
you stop to confess them.
And it's not an issue of, well, should
I tell you?
You should know you are before God.
You should cry out to Him, He who
is thrice holy.
And get right with God, make right with
Him.
When you do it, you will receive life.
Outside of that, you won't have it.
And so it's good?
It's good that repentance brings about change.
And so with the young man who's got
engaged today, his life has been utterly changed.
Many of them know what he was like
in his old life, but today the Lord
has cleansed him.
And they say he's completely different.
They acknowledge it.
Even the expression in his face.
The Bible says, Lord, let your glory be
revealed among your people.
Let His glory, His shine be upon us.
Let your glory be revealed.
And so to the young man, to
the young lady who got engaged today, may
their lives shine.
May that flame never be extinguished.
And also with arguments.
We don't allow arguments.
If you want your sin and you want
to cling to it, then pack your bags
and go.
We don't allow that here.
Live a holy life.
Be glad of your sins.
Speak to them.
And live a holy life.
It's not a place for sinners to sin.
It's not the devil's place.
It's not Satan's place.
Pray that the Lord will show you your
sins.
And then, before the sun sets, go home.
The gospel makes a clear separation between those
who live for the Lord and are protected
and secure, but those who do not live
for the Lord, it just becomes evident and
plain.
They die 15, 20, 30 years of age,
they're dead already because of their living.
I'm going to close the Bible now.
The gospel makes a clear separation between those
who live for the Lord and are protected
and secure, but those who do not live
for the Lord, it just becomes evident and
plain.
Now, the young man and the young lady,
may this promise which you've made be kept
faithfully.
Let them rejoice as the Lord keeps us
also in your marriage and that it will
be consistent that all the relatives of both
sides of the family would rejoice and be
glad and see what God has done in
your lives.
If you surrender to the Lord, then sanctify
yourselves.
If you're not determined to follow the Lord,
goodbye, but you'll regret it out there.
I'm thankful to have witnessed many who have
been dying of AIDS who in their last
days say, forgive us, I was disobedient.
I'm thankful to have witnessed many who have
been dying of AIDS who in their last
days say, forgive us, I was disobedient.
I'm thankful to have witnessed many who have
been dying of AIDS who in their last
days I'm thankful
to have witnessed many who have been dying
of AIDS who in their last days our
country, our land, our government, and every level
of authority needs people who have spiritual health.
That will bring life to everybody.
Now, I'll be glad if you've listened and
you've heard and you take steps regarding what
you've heard.
If you, the father or mother, as parents
do, gather your children together, speak about these
things.
Let's bow our heads and pray.
Lord, we thank you for the privilege we
have to see this day.
You've blessed the Zonde family and the Lange
family that they should have fame and honor
because of purity.
And you who are thrice holy, that you
are worshipped in holiness.
Lord, those who haven't yet married, may you
teach them by your Holy Spirit.
And grant also that the married people would
examine their lives, look at their past, and
set right before God what was wrong.
Amen.