We ask you Lord Jesus to be with
us, speak through your word, open
the eyes of the blind, may the deaf
hear, so that the light of heaven would
shine in our hearts.
Amen.
We find our text today in the letter
to the Colossians, chapter 1, and
we read from verse 17 and 18.
And he is before all things and in
him all things consist that speaks here of
our Lord.
And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he
may have the preeminence.
Let's start with that first word in verse
17.
He is before all things.
And then at the end of verse 18,
that in all things he may have the
preeminence.
Do you hear what God says about our
Lord Jesus Christ?
That he is before all things, he must
be before everything.
And he is the beginning of all things.
This is the position of Jesus Christ, the
first and the last.
I wonder whether to you, Jesus is also
the first and the last.
Whether in your life he is the beginning
and the end.
Jesus said that he who loves father, mother,
wife, children, or anyone else or himself more
than me, he is not worthy of me.
You who have a wife or husband, ask
yourself, who is the greater one to you?
Is it the Lord Jesus or is it
your spouse?
Your mother, your father, compare them to the
Lord Jesus.
Who is actually the first?
Among your brothers and sisters and them or
your children, who is the first?
Is it them or is it the Lord?
And I don't want you to leave the
service here today without
the knowledge and without the firm decision that
Jesus is indeed the first and the last
to you.
Jesus is also the source of all good
things.
All creation was made by him and all
things continue to exist through him.
It is an awful tragedy.
It is an awful tragedy, a terrible danger
that people don't know this about the Lord
Jesus Christ.
That he must have the pre-eminence in
everything.
It is terrible if you don't comprehend that
in your own family.
It is a tragic thing if a preacher
doesn't understand it.
It is also terrible if politicians don't understand
it.
It is a fearful thing to think that
anybody in any form of leadership should not
fully understand that Jesus is number one.
And that is why it is a terrible,
accursed thing, an abomination to remove the Lord
Jesus Christ out of our classrooms, out of
parliament, refusing to pray.
If you don't
understand
it now, you will understand it on the
day of judgment.
When everyone, from politician through to preacher through
to father, mother, children, all of us will
stand before him and you will understand it
as they who have not acknowledged him are
cast into hell.
There is a booklet written by the CFT
branch in Pretoria.
I read it last night and I couldn't
put it down.
And in that they have also made a
summary of some of the things that Dr.
Kennedy has written in one of his books.
Where he explains about this matter.
Where they say that the birth of Jesus
has changed the world.
And I'd like to say that the death
of Jesus has changed everything.
Some of these points I'm going to use
from this extract.
I highly recommend that you take this and
really count it as a sin if you
don't.
Just seek this out and read it for
yourself.
Let it dispel the darkness from your mind.
Now this is a time in these weeks
where the politicians are canvassing.
And they are going up and down the
land promoting their party.
And I say to anyone that if politics
is more to you than Jesus Christ himself,
you will regret it one day.
And the very things that they proclaim and
that they are promoting anyway will fizzle out
one day.
And so it would be a terrible thing
if you have been zealous for politics and
not for Jesus Christ who takes the preeminence
and will last forever.
Consider also their enthusiasm for politics, their zeal
going up and down promoting what they believe
in, how much more so we with the
gospel.
How shouldn't we be zealous with such a
fiery zeal for our Lord Jesus Christ?
In this extract it starts by saying, had
Jesus never been born, this world would be
a miserable place to live in.
For he is the first, he is the
greatest, no one has ever been like him.
He is the one who died the death
of the cross.
There is a certain film made by a
certain man.
He had lived an immoral life before.
But he says that this story of Jesus
Christ and his cross has revolutionized his life.
And so for years he contemplated how to
make a film of the last hours of
the Lord Jesus' life.
And so he has made it, but he
hasn't told the half.
There are some who criticize that the film
exaggerates.
I would rather say no, the story of
the cross goes far beyond what he has
tried to depict.
Jesus has come with light, he has come
with his way, he has come with life
and with understanding, what if he had never
come?
There are some, I know of one person
in particular who said, I don't even believe
that Jesus ever came and that he ever
was crucified like that.
But that same person when he writes a
letter will say I'm writing it in the
year 1999 or 2004 not understanding the significance
of even the date.
Because it refers immediately to AD.
There is also the BC era, some people
are just sitting on their brains.
And AD meaning Anno Domini.
In other words, the year of the Lord.
Because every book refers to that date referring
back to the birth, the time of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
When you write 1994 or 2000 or 2004,
you are automatically acknowledging the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
In Revelation 21 verse 5, Jesus
says behold I make all things new.
Jesus cannot touch something without it being made
new and revolutionized.
When Jesus was born, the era was made
new.
Time was revolutionized and counting began.
He touched time, his birth has changed time
forever.
And we need to note that whatever he
touches is eternally revolutionized.
Everything that the Lord Jesus has touched and
all blessings in this world has been because
of Jesus.
And all academics, all professors who don't acknowledge
the Lord Jesus, they automatically make themselves to
be fools.
When Jesus came, it utterly changed the way
we use the word Jesus.
The way we use time and the way
we think about time.
And that same atheist who says well he
was never there, but they are acknowledging it
even when they write the date.
Everything, every era, every kingdom, every empire always
crumbles and disappears into nothing.
But the kingdom of the Lord Jesus and
he himself never sees rottenness or decay.
God said
I
search in vain in history to find anyone
similar to Jesus Christ or anything which can
approach the gospel.
I'll touch a few things and speak to
you as an educated person.
Even the very sanctity of life, the value
of a human person, the value of people
has been made by Jesus.
Before the coming of Jesus, what was a
person's life worth?
It was cheap.
The value of a human life was considered
from a barbaric point of view to be
cheap, to be worth nothing.
That is how many still today who are
atheists, like in our country, they just take
a life and they consider the next person's
life to be worthless.
But to those who have Jesus, because of
Jesus coming, they value highly the value, the
dignity of the next person.
And so we proclaim now that every single
human being is worth more than the whole
world put together.
Just one soul, whether an adult or even
a baby, every person is more valuable than
the world put together.
That is because of Jesus.
Before his coming, what was a human being?
They would consider a life to be like
that of a goat, just to be slaughtered.
The question is then, had Jesus never come,
had he never died on the cross, what
would it be like in this era?
Would you be here?
You probably wouldn't even exist.
Before Jesus came, the nations would
take their children, the pagans, and offer them.
And even offer their babies as sacrifices to
the demons to be burnt.
There's plenty of archaeological evidence all over the
world of those temples, those altars, where they
would sacrifice babies to demons, to spirits.
There's plenty of evidence of altars where people
would sacrifice their very own children.
Just think how cheap lives were.
The prophets of Baal and Asheroth and them,
they would sacrifice babies, children, people, being murderers.
And you find that the pagan heart still
today counts that life to be cheap, where
a person would sacrifice their own children, a
mother will abort her very own baby who
is inside her.
In those days, there was the practice of
infanticide, where a mother, if her child was
infirm or in any way disabled, they would
take the child out to the forest to
be eaten by beasts, animals.
You see what the world would be like
without Jesus?
And look at it, you struggle and you
kill, it's not that you're killing English or
Afrikaans or whatever others, you're killing your own
children.
The Christians came, those who had received Jesus.
Those first Christians then rescued these babies.
They counted every life as precious and they
cherished lives.
They took these children, raised them up as
believers.
They started orphanages, they started homes.
It's because of what Jesus brought.
Those who don't have Jesus, they don't have
anything to show of what they have really
done.
They spend their lives on their own desires,
on their drugs, on their alcohol, on their
immorality.
If you can't have Jesus you feel like
you can't take Him along with yesterday, is
there any measure left of benevolence from now
on?
And those with Jesus in their hearts know
His words because Jesus speaks.
He said for instance, let the children come
to me.
And so that's why the Christians have always
counted lives, children as very precious to God
and have rescued and saved children.
On the other hand you'll find that ungodly
governments like ours proclaim that you can legally
kill your own child in the womb, abortion.
I don't know how people who abort their
babies will be able to stand on Judgment
Day.
I'm Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Communists.
I'm the one who has saved my life,
my family, my job.
I'm not going to be killed by abortion.
I'm the leader of the Communists, the leader
of the Babulali, I'm not going to be
killed by abortion.
I'm not going to be killed by abortion.
dying, how he cried out that I'm drowning
in a sea of blood and that is
only naturally the case because people who refuse
Jesus Christ automatically have a murderous heart and
want to kill.
A person without Jesus has no pity and
mercy on the infirm and little children, but
one who has Christ in the heart will
be compassionate even to the most disabled child,
whatever might be wrong with them.
And you women should especially serve the Lord
Jesus and have him in your hearts because
before Jesus came, women weren't considered to be
of real value.
Their lives were cheap.
For a very long time, for
a very long time we've been saying that
if you don't have the Lord, you girls,
you'll be cheap.
That is why we say that AIDS travels
with wheels.
Haven't we been saying this for a long
time, that a girl doesn't know where this
lorry driver comes from, he's driving a log
lorry and she just allows herself to be
picked up and she gets AIDS from it.
Without Christ, you'll find that the culture denigrates
women, doesn't treat them of any value.
If only you knew when we were growing
up what it was like.
You are in a different era now, but
if you knew then how they treated women,
how her life was considered to be of
no value.
It is through Jesus that the lives of
women have been seen to be of value.
He says that during the Roman Empire, half
of the population were slaves.
In Athens where Paul preached, three quarters of
the population were slaves.
You know what a life of a slave
was like?
A slave didn't earn a salary.
He was treated like a dog.
The slave owner could treat him as he
wanted to and abuse him according to his
whim.
If he wanted to kill him, he could
do that just as he felt.
Do you remember the story of that girl
who was 16 years old?
Do you remember the story I've told before,
you who are here, of that 16 year
old girl who was manacled as a slave?
Slavery has always been rampant, but it was
through the Gospel and its influence, through the
Lord Jesus Christ, that slavery was brought to
an end.
But in Islamic countries, there is slavery practiced
till today.
Christians have tried to get rid of slavery
in Islamic countries.
The slaves have tried uprisings in Islamic countries.
And they've tried to fight against their lot
in slavery.
And they've tried to fight against their lot
in slavery.
And they've tried to fight against their lot
in slavery.
And they've tried to fight against their lot
in slavery.
And they've tried to fight against their lot
in slavery.
And they've tried to fight against their lot
in slavery.
And they've tried to fight against their lot
in slavery.
And they've tried to fight against their lot
in
slavery.
Where there's active fighting against this practice.
God worked through his people centuries ago.
People in Britain, like William Wilberforce, who brought
an end to official slavery in those kingdoms.
I was just mentioning Mr. Sinzheimer's husband had
been named Wilberforce.
But should you remove the Lord Jesus out
of a culture, if you take him away,
there is automatic devolution, de-civilization, a going
backwards.
It is Jesus who taught us to care
for the poor.
Let me read for you, for example, a
verse in the Bible, like Proverbs 14 verse
21.
Jesus emphasized compassion on the weak, on the
hurt, on the poor.
Take for example his parable about the good
Samaritan.
Others ignored him.
This man who was suffering there, who had
been beaten up, but it was a Samaritan,
a person of mixed race, who felt compassion.
The Lord Jesus used that as an example.
Old age homes were established as a direct
result of Christian principles, the teachings of Jesus.
Widows, orphans, the sick and the disabled were
not cared for by the state, but by
the church.
When politicians try to do these things themselves,
they make a mess of it.
It is Christians who have made a success
of helping the poor, the widows, the orphans,
etc.
Only then is there progress, is there civilization.
Look, for
example,
at the Salvation Army, which was established in
many countries today.
They are the ones who have been helping
the poor, helping those who don't have and
taking in the socially rejected.
If any group
that
rejects the gospel, if you put your cross
to support them and vote for them, I
feel sorry for you.
Schools were established as a direct result of
Christian civilization.
There were missionaries, there were priests who went
and established schools in every country where they
were.
Colleges and universities were established because of the
religion of Jesus Christ.
But today, you find people in those very
institutions where they reject the gospel.
Where they now insist out with the gospel,
let it go away.
But remember that these colleges and universities, that
they even exist, and that these books and
things that you read that might be against
the gospel now, but they were established originally
through Christian civilization.
If you don't believe me, go to Zipalwe,
Zipalwe again, I am a missionary.
I am a missionary, I am a missionary,
I am
a missionary, I am a missionary, I am
a
missionary,
I am a missionary, I am a missionary,
I am Like in India, where they have
not had old age homes in the past,
but they have had for a long time
old age homes for cows.
They would build special buildings to look after
aged cows, but not for people.
In Germany today, heathendom is beginning to return.
In
Germany
today, they have built special buildings to look
after aged cows, but not for people.
So the pagan mind there has brought in
this contradiction, where they'll allow babies to be
killed through abortion, but they will protect frogs.
They will have special frog crossings on roads
that you don't crush a frog by accident.
And even if a tree is diseased and
you need to chop it down, you need
to get a special botanist who will diagnose
it.
You might pay R30,000 for the diagnosis
and they'll try and heal it.
And so the lives of humans are being
degraded and of natural things being upgraded.
So the opposite, the confusion, the contradiction comes
in because they downgrade the gospel of the
Lord and that which is pagan, they upgrade
and make that to become preeminent.
They upgrade and make that to become preeminent.
They upgrade
and
make that to become preeminent.
If you are able to print out things
from your computer today, remember that it's through
Christianity that it was made possible.
The first printing press was because of the
Bible believers, because the Gutenberg press centuries ago
was established to print the Bible.
Luther and Calvin said all education must be
in accordance with Jesus Christ because he has
established education.
And those nations which accepted those teachings have
progressed, they've become civilized and they have invented
things because Jesus Christ enlightens the mind.
And scientific advance is also through Christians.
But compare it to other countries that have
not received the gospel, like in China and
in India, and see the degradation, the poverty,
lack of progress.
You'll find on the other hand those Indians
who came to our country here, they've been
clever, they've advanced, they came as cane cutters
and they've progressed since then.
But back in their own country you'll find
millions still sleeping on newspapers in the street.
Take out the gospel of Jesus and you'll
see.
Remove the light and darkness automatically has entrance.
Take out, extract the salt and you'll find
that rottenness will set in.
The scientific age
is pre-eminently through Christianity.
And there are some who say that science
and religion and Christianity is in contradiction.
Not at all.
It is because of Christianity that science came
into being.
There was the age of the steam engine,
that era.
Now it's more properly called the nuclear age.
Or the computer age.
Or the space age.
The scientific revolution has had its basis, its
roots in Christianity or those who had a
Christian background.
Those without the gospel still used animal dung
to stop them sweating under their arms in
it.
As a deodorant.
Try and expel the gospel.
Try and dismiss Jesus and you'll see what
will happen.
You devolve to become like the primates.
Other people will laugh about you or scoff
as they drink tea discussing what happened to
you.
I don't have time to mention all the
different points.
The sun would go down and anyway this
afternoon I need to go somewhere.
Even economic progress had its foundation in the
gospel.
Look at the people
who
have been connected to missions, those who have
built at missions or around missions, those who
have been in that environment have progressed economically.
They and their offspring have been more educated
and have had better jobs.
A person with Jesus stops with a lazy
lifestyle.
They become hardworking.
They become inventive.
They are able to build and do things
that mean progress to them and can supply
their needs.
A hundred years ago orphanages were still in
existence in Europe but it's not necessary anymore
because of the economic progress that has been
so powerful.
But here in Africa you find that there
is a growing need for orphanages especially because
of the AIDS crisis.
You will find that western nations have progressed
economically.
Whereas those that have not accepted the gospel
are not inventive.
They don't find out things in advance unless
it's a nation where they copy from Christian
nations and their research and use what they
have invented.
It was because of the gospel that I
survived, that I'm here.
Had I been smoking, drinking, messing around, I
probably wouldn't even be alive.
Kwasi Zobantu mission exists because of the Lord
Jesus, because of what He has done.
Our educational centers, our horticulture, all of that
is a result of the gospel.
If you who are without the gospel, what
have you invented?
What have you done?
What progress has there been?
It was through the gospel that I have
not fought against the blacks.
I might have been saying, well, they are
without a soul, what does it help?
But instead I value them and that is
why we together preach the gospel.
All good comes with the gospel.
Remove the gospel and no good remains.
You'll only go backwards.
You can take any other field, like health.
There has been progress because of the gospel.
It is the gospel that causes people to
be healthy.
It is said we now have freedom in
our country.
What freedom when there are so many people
dying as never before?
Look at the people dying because of diseases
like AIDS, because of criminality.
There has never been as many people dying
in South Africa because of these unnatural causes
than since this freedom.
Go to an AIDS patient as they are
dying and ask, well, what has freedom done
for you?
There is no medicine like the medicine of
the gospel.
The gospel heals people.
Jesus commanded his people to go out and
to pray for the sick, to lay hands
on the sick.
And there is no pill like the gospel
because it is also protective in nature.
Not only does it heal, but it secures
you from being attacked by these things because
you don't do the things that will cause
ill health.
Yes, there are the sicknesses.
But remember, hospitals...
Hospitals were founded because of Christianity and the
present hospital systems, nursing.
That began with Christians, even though today you
might find unbelievers and atheists in these very
hospitals.
But why don't you go and read history
and understand these things?
Or do you still need to be nursed
because you are such a baby, you don't
know your very own history?
You will find that there are still hospitals
in existence like St. Augustine's, St. Mary's, Holy
Cross.
You will find that there are still hospitals
in existence like St. Augustine's, St. Mary's, Holy
Cross.
You will find that there are still hospitals
in existence like St. Augustine's, St. John's, and
hospitals like that because of their Christian background.
But today you will find doctors working in
them who don't believe in Christ and who
give injections and practice their medicine, being atheists.
But today you will find doctors working in
them who don't believe in Christ and who
give injections and practice their medicine, being atheists.
More than a hundred years ago, before the
20th century, you found that there were hospitals,
but they were made for the poor.
Rich people were seen to buy doctors at
home.
You will
find
that there are still hospitals in existence like
St. Augustine's, St. Mary's, Holy Cross.
You will find that there are still hospitals
in existence like St. Augustine's, St. Mary's, and
hospitals like that because of their Christian background.
And he, Louis Pasteur, for instance, as a
Frenchman and an outspoken Christian, he was involved
in the area of bacteriology and made great
progress in that field.
Bacteria, germs, the tiniest invisible things but which
can cause diseases.
Today we use words like to pasteurize something.
That means to make completely germ-free.
They would stop the bacteria through different techniques
and we know that because of Louis Pasteur.
Like the practice of sterilization today.
It wasn't like that before, but it was
through these Christian doctors that they invented these
things like we would sterilize water today.
Make sure that no germs find entrance.
Vaccines, have you been vaccinated?
If you feel on your arm, or don't
you both, you should know on your arm
already that you've been vaccinated.
Vaccination against many deadly diseases.
Vaccination against many deadly diseases was based on
the research of these Christian scientists.
If you come with other stuff and reject
the gospel, then rather keep quiet about it.
If you keep your mouth shut, people will
at least think you're a fool.
Think that you're wise if you don't say
foolish things.
Even if you are a fool, but
if you keep your mouth shut, people might
think you're a wise man or a wise
girl.
The average life span of Jesus Christ is
about 28 years.
In the time
of
A.D. 33, the average life span that's
across the world was approximately 28 years of
age.
People died very quickly and few made it
to old age.
But by 1990, the average human life span
was 62.
But with the increasing life span, it was
directly the influence of missionaries and what they
brought to these different areas.
It was because missionaries also taught a different
lifestyle and they said don't live in this
way.
Don't use drink, don't be drunk, don't use
these narcotics and so that helped them.
They also built hospitals for the sick.
The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is
all things and it also makes people to
be healthy.
You know what scientists have found as they
researched among doctors?
Scientific studies have shown that going to church
and being committed spiritually is good for your
health physically and mentally.
And it's not preachers who try to preach
the gospel.
It is scientists who have researched and found
that those who are committed spiritually, who go
to church, they are more likely to live
longer and to have a healthier life because
of the way that they live.
Some doctors in hospitals, they even recommend for
the patients that they should be able to
sing choruses, they should have the bible read
to them, that they would feel better even
physically.
The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is
all things and it also makes people to
be healthy physically and mentally.
People from the nearby neighborhood, they came and
they said we'd like to see your dying
wife.
Afterwards they said to me, you know, she
looks like she's well and alive and healthy.
They noticed in her a glow, a glory
because the presence of Christ, even if we
are dying, is there.
If you want to discard Christianity, then go
back to complete pagan living with the skins
and with all those things that you know
from the past.
Doctors also said your wife has been so
courageous, she should have been dead a long
time ago.
I said to them, it is the Lord
who brings that about.
Let Jesus be preeminent in all things.
Ask yourself, is Jesus first to you?
If he's not the first to you and
it's instead your girlfriend or boyfriend or son,
repent today.
If Jesus is not the very first one
in your life, make him to be the
first today.
I ask you, your wife, your husband, your
old person or child, whoever you are, is
Jesus the first in your life?
If he's not, make him to be the
very first.
If you doubt that, it would be good
if you would openly choose the Lord Jesus
Christ, publicly show.
You could come down here and kneel, calling
on the Lord, if you have not made
him the first in your life, in the
past.
You see in everything, in schooling, in health,
Jesus is number one.
He is the first.
He has preeminence.
Make him preeminent in your life too.
Shall we pray?
Lord Jesus, examine every single life, every heart
here, whether you are the first in the
life of that person.
And if there is anyone who hasn't given
you the first
place, and hasn't given you the first place,
Lord, grant them repentance, so that they will
be able to mourn and to repent and
turn away from their sins, that you might
be the first in their lives.
That it might be clearly evident in every
life that Jesus is the number one in
their lives.
Amen.
Lawrence Nightingale, you may have heard of her.
She was born in 1820 and died in
1910.
She is the founder of modern nursing.
And that she had compassion on the sick
and the wounded was directly because of the
Gospel.
She was especially influenced by a certain pastor
in Germany, a Lutheran pastor.
His name was Theodore Flitner.
She was blessed by him.
She was directly influenced by that spiritual influence.
And she said, I don't want to get
married, I just want to serve.
She went out helping ex-convicts.
She taught nurses how to nurse.
She went into war zones when the British
were at war with the Russians.
She went into war
zones when the British were at war with
the Russians.
She recruited nurses from young ladies from Christian
groups and it was the Lord first.
Today, nursing is so different.
It's money first and the needs of the
patient come second.
She said, I don't
want to get married, I just want to
serve.
And she said, I don't want to get
married, I just want to serve.
She became a legend in her time.
She became known as the body with the
lamp because she would go into these war
zones and hospitals visiting late at night with
her lamp.
And she became a heroine through that.
Even the Red Cross had its roots in
Christianity.
Even the Red Cross had its roots in
Christianity.
The founder of the Red Cross
was a man called Dunant, a Christian man
who witnessed a battle in Italy and saw
the battlefield and the dead and the wounded.
And he got a committee of five together,
founded the International Red Cross which would work
on any side with non-political alliances, would
not take sides with any group.
In 1864, there were about twenty-four members
of the Red
Cross.
It was in 1864 when he got twenty
-four delegates from sixteen different nations together and
they founded officially then the International Red Cross.
Millions have been helped.
It was as a direct result of his
Christian belief that it happened.
I feel sorry for you who don't have
the gospel.
Maybe it's only in hell that you'll wake
up and realize the truth.
It shouldn't need a lot of money.
There shouldn't be any person in this world
who's ashamed of being a Christian and propagating
the gospel.
But if you are, forgive me repeating and
repeating you're the biggest fool in this world.
Your brains, whether they be great or little,
are in your backside and not in your
head.
And you're sitting upon it.
You can sit on eggs after twenty-one
days.
They'll hatch if your weight isn't too big
to break them.
But these eggs that you are sitting on,
I don't think you'll have any chicks in
this world and in the world to come.