Remembering the great things which took place regarding
the faith on that certain day.
At that time, it was the Roman Catholic
Church which ruled the whole world, the whole
Christian world.
And God raised up Martin Luther who began
the Reformation.
Because the belief had been that you can
save yourself by your own works, by your
own efforts.
Luther had been very young and wanted to
study law.
One day, while he was travelling with a
friend, walking with a friend, a storm gathered
and there was much thunder and rain
and they ran for refuge under a tree.
And he said, when I judge one day,
I need to rather consider seriously the things
of God.
His father was very upset when he changed
his career direction.
And he said, I thought I had brought
a real young man into this world who
would make a success of life and now
he becomes a priest.
But he said, I cannot but do this.
I must obey God.
And so he studied theology to be a
priest, to be a priest in the Roman
Catholic Church.
Despite his great desire to live for God,
he was troubled by sin and he was
so distressed by evil thoughts and bad temper
and getting irritable and things like that.
And little things distressed him greatly.
They became huge things to him.
His counsellor one day advised him and said,
don't be so distressed by such minor things.
These are just for little, these are things
of dolls.
Sins that belong just to dolls.
He said, don't be distressed just by these
minor things.
And so he kept quiet about them.
But it troubled him.
He said, I cannot be quiet about my
sins.
He was told and advised to trouble himself
with penance, fasting, lying
on a cold stone floor in order to
feel the pain of cold.
And then go through the normal rituals of
the day where they would go to some
of these cathedrals which had many steps leading
up to it and at the first step,
on his knees, he would say the Our
Father.
Finish it.
Then on the next step, say the prayer
again.
And on the next step, that his knees
would be raw by the time he got
to the top.
Troubling and causing himself to suffer.
One day while he was kneeling, climbing these
stairs, he said, I cannot be quiet about
my sins.
Finish it.
Then on the next step, he would say
the prayer
again.
Suddenly, the Lord spoke to him in his
heart from Romans 3.28, man is not
justified by works but by grace.
This was an enormous illumination to him, a
revelation of not saving yourself through your own
efforts but by Jesus.
And he trusted God.
His life was changed.
And then on the 31st of October, he
being a preacher there in Wittenberg at one
of the cathedrals, he
wrote down many points one after the other
regarding error in the church.
He wrote down 95 different points and then
he took those and he nailed it to
the door of the church.
Saying, if we follow in this direction, this
is not God's word, this is not the
right direction.
And revival broke out.
And that is why on the 31st of
October, the Sunday closest to it is known
throughout the Protestant world as Reformation Sunday.
If God hadn't raised them up and worked
in such a phenomenal way, maybe we too
would be suffering under that same thing.
And so we remember that matter at this
time.
How did it begin?
With the word of God.
The word of God came and spoke to
his heart, showed him his error and brought
about true repentance.
These days I was visited by a man,
a person who was very ill.
And I asked the Lord as to which
verse I should read to him.
And I found a place in 1 Chronicles
29, verse 17.
It's in the Old Testament.
That's 513.
In my Zulu Bible it's numbered.
You'll find it in 1 Chronicles 29.
In 1 Chronicles 29.
Let me start with verse 15.
I'm just going to read them.
I'm not going to comment on all of
them.
For we are aliens and pilgrims before you,
as were all our fathers.
Our days on earth are as a shadow
and without hope.
O Lord our God, all this abundance that
we have prepared to build you a house
for your holy name is from your hands.
And is all your own.
I know also, my God, that you test
the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.
I know also, my God, that you test
the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.
And is all your own.
I know also, my God, that you test
the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.
As for me, in the uprightness of my
heart I have willingly offered all these things.
And now with joy I have seen your
people who are present here to offer willingly
to you.
And I know also that you test the
heart and have pleasure in uprightness.
And is all your own.
I know also that you test the heart
and have pleasure in uprightness.
And is all your own.
O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,
our fathers, keep this forever in the intent
of the thoughts of the heart of your
people and fix their heart toward you.
We'll read thus far.
What I want to emphasize is this verse
where it says, I know also, my God,
that you test the heart and have pleasure
in uprightness.
I know, my God, that you test the
heart and that you love uprightness.
The things of God, the things of faith
are a mystery.
As I read this text to this very
ill person, they
said, I'm amazed that in the Old Testament
something like this should be written.
What I want to emphasize is this.
You know your God have shame.
You have no shame.
You have no shame before God.
And they said, you know, in life, when
you are well, things are often not understood
or taken for granted and you just think,
well, this is how it is.
But when you meet with death, you're confronted
with the reality of death.
You begin to understand.
You have to face up to the reality
of what really matters.
And I say to the person, indeed, the
Greek has a certain, the Greek language has
a certain word, epignosis, which refers to understanding
brought about by revelation.
And that's an experiential knowledge.
Experiential knowledge.
You may
be
taught in school and taught when you're younger
about the things of God, but it just
goes in one ear and goes out the
other.
And you have no comprehension of what it
really means.
But how wonderful if before you die, you
meet with it experientially, that you recognize the
reality and truth of it.
And I noticed how this person, as I
was reading the scriptures, was listening so attentively,
not wanting to lose a single word.
And when we sang a hymn, also singing
along as much as they could in the
little strength that they had, really paying attention
because of the reality of death.
And then he told me, because he owns
a farm, he says, I've collected all the
laborers on my farm and announced to them,
I'm going to leave you.
He said, you know my life.
You know what I've done and said.
However, on a certain day, I've met with
God.
You know my life before I met with
the Lord, what I used to do, and
you are the witnesses of what happened in
my life and how I changed when I
turned to the Lord and when I met
with God.
And you are my witnesses to the fact
that the things that I used to do,
I no longer did.
Wonderful if a person meets with God in
such a real way and experiences such a
great change.
Here, David was dying.
And he was preparing for Solomon to take
over his position.
He was praying for Solomon and for the
whole nation.
And he said, Lord, keep forever the intent
and the thoughts of the heart of your
people.
And fix their hearts toward you.
David would often pray for God's people, for
the nation of God.
And here he prays that the thoughts and
very motives of the hearts of God's people
would be with integrity.
And that their heart would be fixed toward
God.
Listen to the way he prays in verse
17 where he says, I know my God.
He doesn't just pray about God in general,
but he says, my God, that you test
the heart.
David
knew
God as the one who tested his heart.
Many Christians don't know that.
But he said, I know my
God, that
you test the heart.
That's why they can deny the very thing
which they know full well that they have
done.
Instead of being like this man of God
who could say, my God, you are the
one who tests the heart.
A person who walks in integrity, who is
not bluffing their way.
They live on a different level.
They are not like the nothings who walk
on this level of self-deception.
Do you know that people...
You can recognize people who have met with
revival.
There are marks and characteristics about them which
you can recognize.
You can say, this person, no, they haven't.
Sometimes just on the face.
I remember so often the days where we
poured out our hearts in prayer, crying to
God, come down, O Lord, come, be in
the midst of your people.
Where we pleaded with the Lord to get
rid of everything that was of ourselves, but
that which was of Him, of His Spirit,
would remain.
I remember those days were unlike any other
days.
It was as if God would take the
heart of a person and just expose it
openly on the table.
That's why I'm constantly astonished by people who
can fight, by Christians who can have an
argument, and they can get so upset with
each other that they even part company.
I'm astonished, I'm disappointed, I just don't know
what to say when I see such a
thing.
One has to say, well, even if they're
Christians, but they're living in the flesh, they
certainly do not walk in the Spirit.
They don't know God in a proper, real,
deep way, they just know Him superficially.
My God, you who test the heart, do
you know God in that way?
You who test the heart, do you know
God in that way?
You who seek the Lord, do you know
God in that way?
You who seek the world, do you know
God in that way?
Do you know God in that way?
This God, this Jesus who said, if you
look lustfully after a woman, looking at her
with lust, you have already committed adultery, you
have divorced your own wife, you've sinned, you've
committed adultery.
This is the God that David knew, the
God who tests your heart.
David went through a time where he covered
his sin.
With various plans and cunning and strategies, he
covered up until God exposed him in a
way that he had to say, this God
who knows and tests my heart, the God
who sees me.
When the revival first began at Mapumulo, a
certain little girl sat under a lemon tree.
It was a time that she was sitting
there, and then God said to her, if
you look lustfully she got such a fright
when she saw a great eye looking at
her.
Gazing at her, she wondered what is this
huge eye looking at me for?
When this eye was upon her, God said
to her, look, instantly she recognized
all her sins, they just began to be
revealed to her.
Her arguing with other children at school, her
lies, her hatred, her grudges,
her stealing, couldn't leave
something without wanting to take it.
She had a demon of stealing.
All this was revealed before her.
That eye had tested her heart.
God said to her, if you look
lustfully she had to say this, this God
who knows and tests my heart, the God
who tests my heart, this God, this God,
this God, this God, this God, this
God.
There was no pen or paper around but
she found a piece of cardboard and a
bit of burnt coal and she used this
to write her sins down by name on
this scrap of cardboard saying I don't to
forget even one sin.
For this great eye of God who sees
all things also tests the depths of our
hearts.
She wrote all of it down with this
coal.
Then she sent this cardboard piece to me.
I am sorry that I have lost that
in moving places sometimes one loses mementos I'd
wanted to keep that as a reminder of
that experience that all-seeing eye.
Have you met with that eye which sees
all?
And she felt pain in her heart about
the sins she had committed.
And she wrote to me that God had
shown all her sins not only the things
that she had known about but also the
things that were covered up and where she
had cunningly deceived about it and the Lord
had exposed it.
Wonderful is the work of God when God
works when he is at work Blessed is
such a person.
When Jesus met with that woman of Samaria
the Samaritan woman.
Eventually
she ran back to her town she called
all the citizens of her town and said
come and see the man who has told
me all the things that I've ever done.
Isn't he the Messiah she said.
That colored woman met with the God of
David.
David who had said oh my God you
test my heart.
And this woman had met with that one
as well the one who tests the heart.
She ran and called all the people saying
he has exposed me exposed to me and
revealed all the things that I've ever done.
This woman.
Or you're still in the level of having
to be caught.
You still need to be told and confronted.
Listen to Hebrews 4 12.
Sorry verse 13 12 and 13.
Even to the division of soul and spirit
and of joints and marrow and as a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart and
there
is no creature hidden from his sight but
all things are naked and open to the
eyes of him to whom we must give
account.
Even our thoughts and intents and inner motives
are revealed by the one who is the
word.
There was somebody during the time of the
revival a lady gave birth to a child
and called him word or the word.
The father called him word.
Calling him by this name of Jesus.
Jesus because
when Jesus comes in he separates between soul
and spirit between marrow and joints food and
there is nothing covered that is not naked
before his eyes.
For everything is naked and open to the
eyes of him to whom we must give
account.
We are still going to give account.
We're still going to speak before him.
Oh
an American who referred to the importance of
accountability, somebody to whom you are accountable, we
would refer to that person as a counselor.
But we, to God himself.
To God, we will be accountable.
We must give account of everything that we've
done since our earliest age, before we even
went to school, right through life, everything.
Remember the person who came from Cape Town
who had had a very big operation done
on their neck?
Remember the person who came from Cape Town
who had had a very big operation done
on their neck?
Remember the person who had had a very
big operation done on their neck?
Who had asked for prayer beforehand and the
doctor, the specialist who operated on him, said,
I've experienced a miraculous thing as I, my
hands were moving, it was like a hand
came down and was moving my hand in
operating.
and was moving my hand in operating.
He said, when he woke up, he felt
like he had come out of a big,
a deep pit.
He said, when he woke up, he felt
like he had come out of a big,
a deep pit.
And he then asked the sister, and because
she had been watching him as he was
lying there in the ICU, he
asked her, sister, is Jesus really alive?
Is he there?
And she said, yes.
He asked, can Jesus forgive my sins?
The sister kept quiet.
She didn't know what to answer him.
Because she didn't know the forgiveness of her
sins.
And then he told her about what he
had seen And then he told her about
what he had seen from the time that
he was so young.
Going to school.
A primary school.
To primary school.
He experienced again, he saw again everything that
he had done.
He saw his life at secondary school and
at high school.
Then his life at university.
He said, I saw everything.
My sins were completely naked.
And he said, that's when I woke up
with such suffering and so troubled and asked
the nursing sister, can Jesus forgive my sins?
Troubled.
Do you know that?
Or are you still sitting in your sins?
Has Jesus forgiven all your sins?
Can you say, my God, Can you say,
my God, you who test the heart of
a person.
I know my God, that you test the
heart.
When God sees a person, the first thing
he sees is their heart.
born.
He sees us.
God sees us.
I think of Hagar.
Remember Sarah, the wife of Abraham, was barren.
And then in her old age, she decided
that she would never be able to have
children.
Sarah then said to her husband, Abraham, you
can see that I'm barren and I'm never
going to be able to have children now
anymore.
Take then my maid servant from Egypt and
rather have children with her.
Take my slave.
That's what Abraham did.
Hagar fell pregnant.
When Hagar realised she was pregnant and Sarah
was barren, she began to be haughty and
looked down on her husband.
She thought herself as being more important than
Sarah.
Then Sarah went to Abraham and said, let
God be the judge, but isn't it the
case that she is now haughty and being
proud and looking down on me, this slave
girl, and Abraham said, but you the one
who said that this should be done, you
do with her what she says.
You decide.
Then battle broke out.
Sarah abused Hagar.
Hagar would back chatter.
You know how women can be catty and
fight when they are together, the offspring of
Eve, how awfully catty they can be?
That is why having more than one wife,
those who've experienced such a thing say, we
don't want to have anything to do with
it.
One wife can be problematic enough, having two
or three, but oh how this jealousy of
yours can be at work.
That is why the Japanese, the Chinese character,
the written character for battle is a house
with two women in it.
How true.
Chinese, an old nation, and they know it.
Two women in one house.
That is battle.
They don't have to spell out the letters
of battle.
They just draw it, a pictorial description of
two women in a house.
Hagar said, well, I'm not going to stay
here.
I'm going to get up and go.
So off she went.
She then got to a well of water
and sat there, and the angel of the
Lord came.
It's Genesis 16 from verse 7.
The angel of the Lord found her at
the spring of water in the wilderness by
the spring on the way to Shur.
And he said, Hagar, Sarah's maid, where have
you come from and where are you going?
And she said, I'm fleeing from the presence
of my mistress Sarah.
Here is a great message.
Where do you come from and where are
you going to?
We don't think.
If you just pack up and leave, think
about where you're going.
She said, I'm fleeing from the presence of
my mistress Sarah.
So the angel of the Lord said to
her, return to your mistress and submit yourself
under her hand.
Do you hear what God said to her?
It doesn't help for you to submit.
Don't try and escape your circumstances.
Go and submit under her hand.
And the angel of the Lord said to
her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly so
that they shall not be counted for multitude.
And the angel of the Lord said to
her, behold, you are with child and you
shall bear a son and you shall call
his name Ishmael because the Lord has heard
your affliction.
He shall be like a wild mule, his
hand shall be against every man and every
man's hand against him.
And he shall dwell in the presence of
all his brethren.
This is the father of the Muslims.
This is the mule that is not tamed,
is against everyone and everyone against it.
Just see what Islam is like today.
That's the Saddam's.
Those are the Bin Laden's.
There are some in Africa who even write
the names of these men as heroes on
their homes as if though they are heroes,
they don't realize that these are untamed mules.
These are the type who encourage suicide bombing,
strapping bombs around themselves, blowing themselves up.
These are the wild mules which cannot be
tamed.
The offspring of Hagar, but as a result
of Sarah.
And Sarah then complained about it.
So you be careful, you might decide something,
make a plan and yet you the very
one who mourns the consequences of your plans.
Maybe you've brought children into the world.
The type of children who just become rebels,
who need to be expelled, who are wild
on the streets, falling pregnant before marriage.
Maybe you are the one who fell into
a lustful relationship.
You did it according to your own cunning,
not with God.
In the middle of the next verse, verse
13, you are the God who sees.
For she said, have I also here seen
him who sees me?
Have you seen the one who sees all
as she then named this world, which means
you who are the God who sees.
So she named God as the one who
sees.
How will you name your God?
He is named with many different names.
He is named with
many
different names.
I told you recently of the man who
said he's never found in the Bible, the
God who is love, love, love with thrice
says love, but it does speak often about
the God who is thrice holy.
Samuel the prophet
said,
Samuel I have discarded King Saul from being
the king of Israel.
Samuel cried and wept for days on end,
crying about King Saul that was so painful
to him.
Then the Almighty spoke to him.
You find that in 1 Samuel 16.
Samuel for how long will you mourn for
Saul?
For I have discarded him.
For the Lord says you who deny him
he will deny you, you who confess him
he will confess you.
He said fill your horn with oil and
go to Jesse the Bethlehemite for I have
provided myself a king among his sons.
And he went there.
I make the matter short.
He asked Jesse do you have a son?
He said indeed I have got 8 of
them.
He said call them.
For God has called me to anoint one
of them.
He called his sons and they came.
The first one came.
He entered in.
Samuel was very impressed by the first son
and thought his height, his appearance, it looked
so manly.
It must be him.
And God said no don't be deceived by
his appearance.
For God said no Samuel this is not
the one.
Samuel was shocked.
Then he said Jesse is there another?
After him.
He brought him in.
He passed him in front of him.
And the Lord said neither this one.
Then the next and the next till all
7 sons came by and God said no
this isn't the one.
Oh the prophets of God were amazing.
They heard God speaking to them.
Have you heard the Lord speaking to you?
Jesus said my sheep hear my voice.
If you are not hearing his voice maybe
you should check up.
Perhaps you are a goat and not a
sheep.
You are a goat of the devil.
Samuel was amazed.
He said what are these the only sons
because all of them the Lord had denied.
Then he said no there is one more
he is out there shepherding the sheep.
He said call him.
All the older ones were soldiers of Saul.
The three oldest ones.
They were trained warriors men.
Then he said Samuel said isn't there another
one?
And he said there is call him.
Then he said there is another one.
He said there is another one.
And they waited and waited as the boy
was called and who came in but this
the youngest of all this boy he was
ready of complexion bright-eyed and good-looking
and the Lord said to him this is
the one and he anointed him with oil.
And God said Samuel I am not like
man for men see the outward appearance
but I see the heart.
I choose him for I see his heart.
He is upright and has integrity of heart.
If you want to be a real man
of God pray earnestly really pray that the
Lord would deal with your heart.
The heart that is acceptable upright has integrity
before God.
Faithful able to stand for the truth.
This little boy when a lion would come
to steal a lamb He
would confront the lion and rescue the lamb
from the jaws of the lion.
He denied his life even for a single
lamb.
On another day a bear came and
David wrestled with it as it took a
sheep.
He was upright.
He was of
righteousness.
He was of ready complexion.
It is known that redheads are strong characters
know what to do to stand for what
they know is right.
Would that we would all be redheads in
being faithful and standing for what is right.
Now don't go and buy dye for your
hair to dye your head red.
Go to Jesus.
Go to Jesus and ask him to make
your heart to be upright.
And this boy the eighth of all these
others the seven who were rejected he the
last one who was accepted had the heart
that God wanted.
On this Reformation Sunday let there be a
reformation of your heart indeed.
This is the second of November 2003.
The year is coming to an end.
Pray and say Lord give me an upright
heart.
How sad it would be if we celebrate
Reformation Sunday but there's no reformation in your
heart.
Let us pray.
Lord you reveal to us today on this
Reformation Sunday that what is necessary is the
reformation the change of heart.
Lord be
attractive
to people.
Be tall and nice and liked by people
but without a good and upright heart Lord
we have nothing.
Lord search our hearts today.
May each one of us be able to
say that I know the God who searches
the heart.
Take out the evil heart and put in
your good heart.
Take out the heart of stone and put
in that soft heart of flesh.
That we may be people who are truly
upright in the Lord.
Amen.