Before we read the Bible, let's bow and
pray.
Lord, you know each one of us here
tonight.
You know what we need.
Each one of us.
For nothing is hidden from your eyes.
Lord, reveal yourself in our midst by your
grace.
Amen.
Let's read from the Gospel according to Matthew
chapter 3.
From verse 11.
Lord, you know
each one
of us here tonight.
For nothing is hidden from your eyes.
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.
But he who is coming after me is
mightier than I, whose sandals I am not
worthy to carry.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and fire.
We'll read thus far.
These are words spoken by John the Baptist.
If you read in Matthew 11 verse 11.
Jesus said, Of those born of women, none
is greater than John.
Jesus said, Verily I say to you, In
truth of those born from women.
Now, there was no necessity for Jesus to
have to say, Verily, or in truth, for
everything he spoke was of course the truth.
But knowing the hearts of the Jews.
Knowing their history.
He knew that they would reject him.
And so, that is why he emphasized and
said, Indeed, or truly I say to you.
Of those born of women, none is greater
than John.
Because he knew that they would object and
say, But surely there is nobody greater than
our father Abraham.
He is our father of faith.
Some would have objected by saying, But there
is none as great as our King David.
Because even the Messiah would be called the
son of David.
Some would say, There is no one greater
than Moses.
There were of course others, the prophets, Elijah
and them.
But Jesus said, Of all of them, none
is greater than John.
Even though they could refer to Moses as
having delivered them from the land of slavery.
Through Abraham, the land of flowing with milk
and honey.
But Jesus said, None is greater than John.
We ought therefore to ask the question, What
makes John to have been so great?
Because we don't know of any raising from
the dead that John performed.
We don't know of him healing any leper.
So where in lay his greatness?
I believe it is the word he spoke,
what came out of his mouth.
With that life he lived.
He testified of Jesus.
And Jesus testified of him.
And John said, There is one who comes
after me.
Who is greater than I am.
I baptize you indeed with water unto repentance.
But he who is coming after me, I
am not even worthy of carrying his sandals.
For I baptize you with water unto repentance,
but he will baptize you with fire and
the Holy Spirit.
So John said he works with what?
With water and repentance.
He highlighted these two very important things.
But he said the one who comes after
me will use the Holy Spirit and fire.
That is why he is so great.
Let's just compare a little between water and
fire.
I remember back in around about 1952 in
Pretoria.
I was studying at the time.
A certain very wise preacher came from America.
He had I think around about 6 doctorates
even though he was still quite young.
We went to his service that night.
Then he asked a Baptist preacher to come
forward and stand next to him.
And then he asked a Dutch reform minister
to come and stand with him.
Then he said brothers, tell me
if you baptize
people, which one of you uses the most
water?
Now I was still pretty young at that
time.
And I considered this preacher in a critical
light and with a critical eye and I
thought this is really an inappropriate question.
I didn't know where he was headed for
or what he was aiming at.
And then the audience laughed.
They laughed because it really was amusing to
them.
And then he spoke astonishing words.
Saying, you brothers from the Baptist church, you
use lots of water.
And here is the other who is from
a church where they just use sprinkling of
water.
But he said, the problem I have with
both of you is it doesn't matter how
much water you use, the tongue of the
one getting baptized remains dry.
He said, how I wish that the tongue
could be baptized as well.
Now whether you, my Baptist brothers, use lots
of water or you from the reformed denomination
use just sprinkling, I know people from both
your denominations who gossip.
Would that the tongue could be baptized.
Now water we know.
If we go to the river like we
have the Tugela River or the Vow River
up there.
We could dive into the deepest pool into
one of these rivers and retrieve a rock
that has been there for a thousand years.
We can take that rock and then pound
it with a sledgehammer and you will see
as it breaks that dry dust comes out
of it.
Because the water has not been able to
penetrate the rock.
It has only wet the surface.
It has never gone into the very heart
of the rock.
And if you put that rock into a
very deep pool, you will see as it
breaks.
It is a very hot fire.
After a short time you will find.
And if you take your hammer and then
hit it.
You will find that the pieces that break
up are also red hot and the glowing
red has penetrated right in.
It has got right into the heart of
it.
Water does not succeed in that.
But fire causes it.
You can take different materials, say dry wood
or a green tree, a
wet branch or wet wood.
You can take a piece of coal from
a deep pit.
The type that if you just touch your
clothing with it leaves black marks.
And put these materials into a fire.
If the fire really burns, you will notice.
You will not be able to distinguish the
different materials for the fire has penetrated whatever
material.
Even if it was rusty iron, it all
glows with the heat and you can no
longer say this is that material and this
is another one.
It all glows together.
That is how fire works.
In the book of Hebrews, the letter to
the Hebrews that says God is a consuming
fire.
Now before I continue with the subject of
fire.
Like I said, it speaks, he highlighted two
topics, water and repentance.
Repentance is of the utmost importance.
Jesus one day took a little child in
the midst of an adult crowd and said,
unless you repent and become like this little
child, you will never inherit the kingdom of
God.
John referred to this repentance.
But he was saying, even though I preach
repentance, the one who comes after me, I
am not worthy to even take up his
shoes.
Because of the Holy Spirit and fire, there
is such a thing as a person repenting.
There is the necessity of repentance, a person
then accepting the Lord Jesus, where a person
can say, I've become a child of God.
However, John says, I am in that, but
the one who comes after me comes with
something even greater, even deeper than that.
If you read the last book of the
Old Testament, which is called Malachi, here in
Matthew, this is the opening book of the
New Testament.
These two are parallel, come one after the
other.
Malachi says, Behold,
your king comes suddenly to his temple.
Or the Lord, you can even say the
Lord.
The Lord comes suddenly to his temple.
Now if it speaks of a temple, it
doesn't mean a church building.
When Stephen was being martyred, being stoned to
death, he was saying to them, you think
that you can build a temple for God.
He is far too great for you to
build a temple for him.
For behold, the heavens are his chair, his
throne.
And the earth is just his footstool.
So how much greater isn't this God?
How therefore can you build him a building,
a temple?
He be so great.
Then he said, God does not dwell in
a building built with hands, but we are
his temple.
He abides in us.
Do you not know that you are a
temple of God, a holy temple, and that
the Holy Spirit dwells in you?
Your body is his temple.
So if you clothe yourself, consider that you
are decorating or you are clothing the temple
of God.
So remember that when you clothe yourself, you
are not clothing one who sells her body.
You are not one who is a prostitute,
but you are dressing the one who is
the holy of holies.
Elijah the prophet, a
great preacher, we could call him the prince
of preachers.
In chapter one we find him saying, come
let us reason together, even though your sins
are as scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow.
He brought people together in repentance, but
in chapter six, when their king had died,
he saw the king of kings in his
temple, and his glory filled the temple.
He saw the seraphim, each
having six wings, with
two wings covering the feet, with two the
face, and flying with the other two.
And the seraphim were shouting out, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts.
The seraphim filled the heavens as they shouted
out, flying in different directions about the holiness
of God.
He speaks of it, the thrice holiness, it
is something emphasized again and again and yet
again.
But he means it not just in a
grammatical triple emphasis, but in holiness that is
so true, so holy, said three times.
And as they shouted out about this holiness,
even the foundations and the doors of the
temple were shaken.
And then we find that Isaiah the prophet
cried out, Isaiah
said, woe, woe is me, for I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean
lips.
For as he beheld the thrice holy God,
Remember in Babylon how the king had said,
O sheep of these three young men that
must be thrown into the fiery furnace, let
the furnace burn seven times hotter.
Here the holiness of God is referred to
as thrice holy.
That figure of three depicting God, depicting the
perfect holiness of God.
The prophet cried, shouted out, woe, woe is
me, I am a man of unclean lips.
For as he beheld the three young men
that must be thrown into the fiery furnace,
let the furnace burn seven
times hotter.
Whereupon the angel took a tongs and fetched
a burning coal from the furnace and burnt
his lips.
And let me assure you that it is
a painful experience, you would never forget being
burnt by a red hot coal.
Now John said, I do it with water,
he will do it with fire.
You may repent confessing your sins, but tomorrow
you do the same thing again.
If you have been purified with that holy
fire, what a difference it makes.
And even the angel could not touch the
fire, he had to use tongs with which
to carry that hot coal.
And it would make such a difference, that
prophet would, as I, would never have ever
gossiped again.
John was saying, my preaching of repentance is
light in comparison to the one who comes
after me, who will do something which is
the crowning event, nothing can be greater.
It is like the difference between water and
fire.
Malachi says, behold the King whom you seek
will come quickly, the Lord whom you seek
will come quickly.
But when he does come, who will be
able to bear his presence?
Who will have the strength to bear his
arrival?
Don't we all say, come Jesus, come do
your work.
But the prophet says, when he does come,
who will have the strength to bear his
arrival?
For what reason?
You find that in chapter 3 verse 1.
For the Lord whom you seek will come
suddenly to his temple, even the messenger of
the covenant, in whom you delight, behold he
is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
But who can endure the day of his
coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
And then it says, for, and this is
the answer, for he is like a refiner's
fire, purifying silver and gold, purging them, you
see.
Jesus doesn't come with just something as light
as water, but with purging fire, which is
able to purge even gold and silver.
You who are from up north, I
trust that you know something of the refining
fire which refines gold up there.
In the mines, when they purify gold there,
even the gold, everything turns red.
Or even the rock in which the gold
is, even the ore is in a molten
red mess.
The gold is there in very minute quantities.
What is there in great quantities is the
dross, the rock, the mineral around the gold.
The greater percentage by far is just the
dross, the gold is a minute little bit.
And Jesus is that refining fire.
When he comes, he purges, he cleanses.
And he doesn't want the dross and the
gold to remain together, because any dross with
the gold spoils it.
And if
you
continue reading in Malachi, you'll see that the
sons of Levi will be purged in order
that they may offer to the Lord offerings
in righteousness.
Because some offerings are not
acceptable.
Cain brought his offering, but God didn't accept
it.
Abel brought his and it was accepted.
Then there was a great battle.
A great battle raged because Cain was jealous
of his brother for his offering was accepted
and Cain's not until he resorted to murdering
his brother.
The first blood spilt on earth was not
spilt in shebeens, in bars.
Neither was the first blood shed by politicians.
Neither was it a battle among nations.
But it was found in a service.
For the Lord does not just accept any
service.
The Lord
doesn't accept just any offering or prayer.
Jesus referred to the fact that a person
comes to the altar and then he remembers
that his brother has ought against him.
And then he remembers my brother.
And then he remembers that my brother
has ought against him.
He has a grudge against me.
Then it doesn't help to bring an offering.
He doesn't want your five rand.
No offering is acceptable to him.
Firstly go and be reconciled to that brother
who has got something against you, who has
been hurt by you and then come and
make your offering.
Now at this altar of Jesus Christ we
are purified and purged as gold and silver.
I remember in 1966 when the Lord poured
out his spirit there at Mapumulo.
We were together with some brethren and we
went into a shop.
It is there where there is a spa
shop today.
I could take you there today and show
you the exact spot where we knelt.
We knelt and said, Lord Jesus Christ, I
have a grudge against you.
I have a grudge against you.
As we knelt in prayer beseeching God to
pour out his spirit of revival, we said,
Lord, we remember John.
We remember what he said, that you Lord
Jesus would come and pour out your Holy
Spirit and fire.
We were whites and blacks together for one
had forgotten any differentiation.
Like I said, if you are in the
fire, it doesn't matter what materials are there,
you all burn brightly with the heat of
the fire.
If you still discriminate, you still don't know
yet the fire of the Holy Spirit.
As we knelt there in prayer, we called
out to the Lord saying, Lord, come and
set our hearts afire.
We recalled Luke 12 where Jesus said, behold,
I'm straightened till I do what I've come
to do and that is to baptize with
the Holy Spirit.
And we cried out saying, pour out your
Holy Spirit, set us aflame.
And then suddenly, unexpectedly, unexpectedly,
one cried out and said, oh God, oh
God, my eyes are burning as if though
they are in the fire.
Lord, help me.
He said, for Lord, I have looked at
things that I should not have looked at
and I've watched and followed things that with
my eyes that I should never have done.
He said, oh God, please forgive me.
And then another one cried out and said,
oh my ears, my God, my lips are
unclean.
My lips are unclean, I've spoken many things
that I should have never spoken.
I've spoken so many things I should never
have uttered.
It was the end of play, I can
assure you.
I
recalled
what the prophet had said about the refiner's
fire and I recognized that this is the
fire that is a purging fire and that
some would be upset and say, no, no,
this is going too far.
This is something that is just too much.
I'd rather just go.
I can't be a believer like this.
Let me just join another church because some
churches don't mind even if you're busy with
sin.
But who will have the strength to stand
when the Lord comes?
Read in Revelation in chapter one Where
John describes seeing Jesus walking among the seven
candlesticks of the seven churches, John fell down
as one who is dead.
It was a deadly shock.
But he's the one who could recall that
when he was young, he would lean on
the Lord's bosom for he was one who
could say, beloved of the Lord or most
loved of the Lord.
He was one who could say, beloved of
the Lord or most loved of the Lord.
But now, as he beheld the same Jesus,
he fell down like one who was dead
because he saw him with his face radiant
like the sun, brighter than the sun, with
eyes glowing like fire, with the garment as
that of a judge.
With feet glowing like it has come out
of a furnace, fire coming out of the
sand.
So when John saw him, he fell down
like one who's dead.
Malachi asks, when he does come, who will
have the strength to bear it?
Who will be able to endure the day
of his coming?
That shop at Mapumulu was bigger than this
hall.
We were praying there in the middle.
I heard one then saying, Lord, oh, my
feet, my feet.
And then I saw his shoes fly into
the opposite corner.
And then he threw his other shoe into
the other corner.
It was the first time I can tell
you, the first time I'd been in such
a prayer meeting.
It was like he was trying to put
out flames of fire which we could not
see.
He said, Lord, forgive me for these feet
of mine have walked ways that I should
have never walked.
No Christian, young or old, should ever walk
in those wrong ways.
Who will have the strength to stand when
he comes?
Who will have the strength to stand when
he appears with that fire, with that Holy
Spirit?
When we went out and locked the shop,
another preacher who had been with us in
that prayer meeting on our knees came to
us and said, oh, say to me, oh,
brother, I couldn't pray.
I'd wanted to open my mouth, I just
couldn't.
I'd wanted to express something, but I couldn't.
He said, I felt like it was a
sword that had cut me asunder in two,
from the head to the feet.
It shocked me and I said, brother, how
can you say such a thing?
He said, I felt like it was a
sword that had cut me asunder in two,
from the head to the feet.
In Matthew 24, we remember how the Lord
spoke of that unworthy servant who, when his
master did not appear as he had expected
him to, began to beat his fellow servants.
And then the Lord, the master suddenly appeared
and then he said, take him, bind him
hands and feet, cast him out, and let
him burn with the sinners.
After that, he said to me that the
Lord had shown him that he needs to
cleanse his life, which had things that were
displeasing to the Lord, especially regarding
sins of a sexual nature.
He tried, but he just somehow couldn't do
it, and in a few days he died
an awful death.
The one who saw his corpse came to
me and
said,
you know, as I looked at that corpse,
I was reminded of how flies, when you
approach rotting meat, they just suddenly swarm off,
so too it was like demons were swarming
around him.
That was my own father who told me
and related to me what he had seen.
He said, my son, these are shocking things
I've seen.
He said, I can never forget such an
event and seeing such a sight.
For he had not been a temple fit
for the Holy Spirit, but rather for demons.
Nevertheless, he had been preaching, and people had
even made decisions for the Lord.
But his death was awful.
I wouldn't wish it upon anybody, teenager, anybody.
Now my friends, I'm closing.
John, greater than anyone before him, he
marveled at the greatness of the one who
was coming after him.
He was the one who didn't play around.
When he preached, he would say, you brood
of vipers, who warned you to flee from
the wrath to come?
Nevertheless, it was as if though he was
saying, what I have been proclaiming is frivolous
in comparison to the one who is coming
after me and what he would proclaim and
what he would do.
Another gospel let.
I wonder whether you've ever cried out to
the Lord and said, oh, baptize me with
your Holy Spirit, your spirit of holiness and
fire.
I wonder whether you've ever cried out to
the Lord and said, oh, baptize me with
your Holy Spirit, your spirit of holiness and
fire.
One lady who had been in that prayer
meeting, she was, she had been sitting down
on the floor.
She jumped up as if though there was
a fire being stoked under her.
She asked if she could leave.
I said, she could leave.
I need to go out and make right
and make restitution.
She left that meeting, went to her children,
apologized, begging them for forgiveness for not having
been a godly mother, for having been irritated
with them, for having got upset and handled
them in an ungodly rough way.
She said, forgive me, my husband, for not
having treated you with the respect that I
ought to have treated you with.
She went to her neighbors and said, neighbors,
please forgive me.
I mistreated you.
She said, I used to gossip about you.
I would say, here is the same old
person coming again, begging for salt yet again.
Why doesn't she go and buy her own
things?
She said, please forgive me.
She went
to
the white owner of that farm, apologizing, saying,
I used to just pinch things.
She said, forgive me.
We were on our knees still praying while
she was busy going into homes.
She said, Lord, thank
you that I didn't die.
I would have gone straight to hell.
She was a believer, living with sin, keeping
quiet about them.
John said, great is the one who comes
after me.
I come with the water of repentance.
He will come with the fire of the
Holy Spirit.
And I'm not worthy to carry his sandals.
You young person, have you received that baptism?
Are you full of the Holy Spirit?
Young people and old, cry out to God.
Call out to Him if you haven't before.
You call out to Him and say, Lord,
cleanse me from these things.
Being a Christian does not imply
comic-ing around as if you're in a
circus, but you're serving the one who is
holy, the one who has seraphim calling out
His holiness.
Let's bow our heads.
Listen closely.
Let's bow our heads.
We thank you, Lord, that we could hear
your word.
Lord, we ask you that in hearing, we
would hear properly.
Not needing to say like Job, Lord, I'd
heard of you by the hearing of the
ears, but now my eyes have seen you.
But that each one in our midst would
understand who you are and why you came
to this earth.
Continue with working in our hearts.
For Lord, we know that the day comes
which will burn as a furnace.
That day which will be, even if it's
one day, like a thousand years.
Lord, work and cleanse us for better, Lord,
to be cleansed and purged now than to
be condemned on that day.
Amen.