We will be reading from Isaiah chapter 30
from the first verse.
Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord,
that take counsel, but not from Me, and
that cover with covering, but not of My
Spirit, that they may add sin to sin.
What does it say there?
Woe to the rebellious children.
Woe to
the
rebellious children.
This word pierced my heart after the services.
It says in some translations rebellious, some obstinate,
and it says woe to these obstinate children,
says the Lord, who do not want to
listen.
You hear children, if you don't want to
listen, God says woe to you.
And we all are children of somebody, so
God speaks to all of us and says
to those, woe, who don't listen.
And then it says, they add sin to
sin, they do sin upon sin.
They don't want to listen, that's why they
die.
They are stubborn.
So God is becoming stubborn as well.
God says, you'll be measured with your own
measurement, you'll be beaten with your own stick.
He who confesses Me, I'll confess him.
He who denies Me, I'll deny him.
He who deserts Me, I'll desert him.
That's what God is like.
He shows mercy and continues to show mercy.
But if you don't listen, you reach a
point where He says, okay, if that's the
way you treat Me, I'll treat you like
that as well.
So says the Lord, they take counsel but
not from Me.
In other words, they make plans but not
from Me.
They make a covenant but not of My
Spirit.
They get together, they have a meeting on
their own.
They make their schemes and plans but not
with God, just like Ananias and Sapphira.
So watch out, if God draws nigh unto
you, don't harden your heart because whatever you
do to Him, He will respond like that.
Now here it says, they stack sin upon
sin, they add sin to sin.
You know that sin is like a chain.
A chain is made out of different rings
and so that's how sin works.
It's one sin connecting onto another sin.
So the first ring is a person, for
instance, steel.
Then the second one, he hides it.
And then the next thing you ask Him
and He denies it.
He denies it and then it continues, one
upon the other.
Until it becomes a long chain that ties
that person hands and feet.
And it becomes like that witchdoctor, that witch
who came to me in Mapumulu and said,
I'm bound by chains of hell, can I
be set free?
And even though you confront that person, he
defends himself and put it in another way
that's not so serious.
It's easy if the sin is with another
person to judge him.
And to condemn him.
But if the sin is with yourself, then
you cannot clearly see it and you try
to defend it.
I remember one day there was a certain
white young man, man who was after a
girl and chatting her up.
Long ago, very long ago.
He was with us, he preached with us
in the beginning and he spoke against dating
and say that young men and girls shouldn't
go out together.
He said it was evil, he condemned it.
If somebody did it, he would condemn that
person and say it's wrong.
And after some time, he fell in love
with a girl and he did that witch
he condemned before.
Why
excuse?
And when I confronted him with it, he
was ducking and diving and saying that he
doesn't really see sin in it.
And I thought that is what the devil
is like.
If you yourself are in sin, this is
how we react.
And I thought let me speak a language
that he will understand.
It was a white person.
I said to him, well just forget that
you have done this.
And I said if you would find a
black boy alone in a room with a
girl, what would you say?
I said speak the truth, he said I
would say it's wrong, chase him away.
And I said to him, that's wrong.
When you see it in others, you condemn
it, but when we confront you, you polish
your sin.
That's an abomination, it's a curse.
That you have double standards.
In others, you are very strict, but with
yourself, not.
And I said what are we like?
It's like some parents, if it's their own
children, then they cover it up.
And try to hide it, but if it's
somebody else's child, then they attack them.
Paul speaks to the Galatians, he says what
has happened to you because you were in
the gospel and then others came and they
spoke to you and influenced you and now
you've changed.
Pray, pray a serious deep prayer and say
Lord help me that I will not be
like that Lord.
I said Lord help me that I will
not be like
that
Lord.
I said Lord help me that I will
not be like that Lord.
Pray and ask that you won't be sharp
when it comes to other sins and blunt
when it comes to your own sin.
And when you are confronted, no I didn't
mean it like this, this wasn't really my
intention, I didn't really want to do it,
that's evil.
That person is in the flesh, he is
not in the spirit.
The Bible says stay away from everything with
the appearance of ungodliness, so if something just
appears ungodly, stay away from that.
So I would like to touch upon a
few points on what sin does to a
person when he gets involved in it.
Let's get to Adam and Eve.
Eve sinned then she went to Adam and
she got him dragged into it and she
made as if it was attractive to him.
And you see instead of Adam standing, he
was influenced and a spirit was put into
him by Eve.
Maybe if it was his enemy he would
have reprimanded him.
But because it was Eve, somebody who was
one with him and whom he loved, he
allowed it and he went with her into
it.
After they had sinned, what happened?
They heard the sound of God.
What is it in your Bible?
Which verse is that?
Chapter 3 verse 8.
And they heard the voice of the Lord.
They did not physically see God, but they
heard his voice.
And they could hear that his voice was
drawing closer to them.
If you have sinned, you will
see God will draw closer to you with
his voice.
But what do the people do?
They go and hide.
But gosh.
But
gosh.
And I said, as you've been staying on
the mission, don't you tell me when you're
going, when you're leaving here, has sin come
into your life?
I thought I'll just go straight to the
point.
He didn't say goodbye.
Then I said, has sin come into your
life?
Has sin come
into your life?
He said to me, no, I came, they
told me you were sick.
I said, okay, I understand that.
Because if we are zealous for the Lord,
we are one and we draw close to
each other.
He said to me, no, I came, they
told me you were sick.
I said, okay, I understand that.
Because if we are zealous for the Lord,
we are one and we draw close to
each other.
If we walk in the light, we have
fellowship with one another.
But where there's separation, where there's division, you
must understand that there's sin.
So when Adam and Eve had sinned, they
heard God's voice coming closer and they hid.
So when Adam and Eve had sinned, they
heard
God's
voice coming closer and they hid.
So when Adam and Eve had sinned, they
hid.
God came and He called Adam.
He did not call Eve.
He saw Adam's sin as greater than Eve
and kept him responsible.
So when Adam and Eve had sinned, they
hid.
Eve sinned, she came to Adam.
Instead of reprimanding her, he should have reprimanded
her.
Love hurts at times, but instead of that,
he went and he loved her, covered her
up.
That's evil, but instead of doing that, exposing
evil, you say no, you love and you
cover up evil.
The Bible says, love those who do good
and reprimand those who do evil and hate
sin.
Never, never excuse sin.
Never, never defend it.
If you've done wrong, admit it immediately.
I have sinned.
No other way about it.
Not sin upon sin.
Understand that if you've sinned, admit it and
get forgiveness.
Then Eve, have you eaten of the fruit?
Have you eaten of the fruit?
Instead of admitting it and saying, I've sinned,
I'm guilty and apologizing, no, she accused the
snake.
Why is it so difficult to us to
admit that we have sinned?
To confess that we have sinned?
To plead guilty, even in court?
They ask you, do you plead guilty or
not?
It should be the easiest thing.
Yes, I plead guilty.
I have sinned.
May God be merciful to us that we
don't deny our sins and that we don't
get together and scheme and say, all right,
we'll deny it.
You'll say this and I'll say this.
And then we'll go to Joshua chapter 7
from verse 19.
And Joshua said unto Achan, my son, give,
I pray you glory to the Lord God
of Israel and make confession unto him.
And tell me now what you have done.
Hide it not from me.
And Achan answered Joshua and said, indeed, I've
sinned against the Lord God of Israel.
And this is what I've done.
When I saw among the spoils a beautiful
Babylonian garment at 200 shekels of silver and
a wedge of gold and 50 shekels weight,
then I coveted them and I took them
and behold, they are hid in the earth
in the midst of my tent and the
silver under it.
And Achan said to Joshua, my son, give,
I pray you glory to the Lord God
of Israel and make confession unto him.
And Joshua said unto Achan, my
son, give, I pray you glory to the
Lord God of Israel and make confession unto
him.
He took it and he hid it in
his tent.
We could say he was hiding sin in
his tent.
Just like Eve, when she committed it, she
hid it.
Do not.
He took the garment, he took some silver,
some gold, put it underneath his tent.
Do not try and hide your sin.
Often people die, not because in the first
place they've committed sin.
But they've hid it because if you don't
hide it and you confess it, that's the
end of the story.
But they go and they hide it and
then it kills them.
So Joshua said to Achan, my son, give,
I pray you glory to the Lord
God
of Israel and make confession unto him.
And Achan had an opportunity to confess it.
Because Joshua said to them before, sanctify yourself.
You should have then come out and confessed
it.
And so some people say, well why was
Achan killed?
Because he confessed his sin.
Yes he confessed, but when he was under
pressure only.
When God gives you a chance, an opportunity
of grace, use it, run and do it.
It doesn't help to keep quiet and shut
up and keep quiet about your sin until
you're in a corner and then you come
out with it.
You know that Joshua ordered the Israelites to
stone him.
Maybe some argue and say, well he's my
friend.
I can't stone him.
If you don't obey God's command in this,
then you are guilty together with this person.
Finally, his wife, his children and even his
donkeys were killed with him.
So even if you've made an agreement or
an agreement with God, or a covenant with
somebody that you'll keep quiet with him, then
break that agreement, be disobedient to that agreement
and come out and confess it to God.
God won't kill you if you don't have
sin.
God won't kill you if you don't have
sin.
So they must have known, our father, my
husband, has taken this gold and the clothing
and hid it at the bottom of the
tent and they kept quiet with him about
it and so they were guilty and died
with him.
So they must have known, our father, my
husband, has taken this gold and
the clothing
and hid it
at the bottom of the tent and they
must have known, our father, my husband, has
taken this gold and the clothing and hid
it at
the
bottom of the tent They
also had an opportunity, they were also told
to sanctify themselves.
But they made an agreement that this is
something between us, here at home, they covered
it up together and that's how it happened.
Proverbs 27 says, He who hides and covers
up his sin will not prosper but he
who confesses it will receive forgiveness.
You won't overcome, friend, there's no blessing in
covering up sin and to keep sin upon
sin.
Psalm 90 verse 8 Song of
Solomon's 19, I'm sorry, Psalm 19 verse 8
Psalm 90 verse 8 It
says, secret sins, our secret sins, in the
light of your countenance you have set our
secret sins.
Our secret sins, there are some that are
secret.
Some sins are secret, some are known.
Because you can hide some sins but others
will come out.
You know what
monkeys
are like?
There's a lot of monkeys here, if you
go with a gun to hunt them, they
go up into a tree and they pull
the branches closed under them to cover them,
to hide them.
And you don't see them.
If you are lucky and stand still, then
suddenly you'll see, they just open a bit
and then you see an eye and then
they close again.
But it's difficult, if you keep quiet you'll
see them just opening the curtain slightly and
then quickly closing it again.
But they tend to forget one thing and
that's their tails and so if you look
you see the tail dangling down.
So even if they hide and cover their
things, their tail always sticks out, they forget
their tail.
And even you, if you cover your sins,
the tail will stick out.
That's why the Lord Jesus said, there's nothing
hidden that shall not be revealed.
There was a white, he was a drunkard.
His wife was very fiery.
See, women have rights, wives have rights now
and so where you were quick to reprimand
her when you were young, men are now
slow and they are afraid to do it.
Long ago the whites abandoned doing that.
Long time ago that a white man should
hit or beat his wife.
You might get it now and then.
So the husband was afraid of her.
But the wife was afraid of her husband.
So what is she hiding?
Where is she hiding?
And what is she hiding from her husband?
Where is she hiding?
Yes, a bottle store, where is she hiding?
So you see, men are like children, if
they don't get what they want, then they
start crying and you must give them a
bottle, and some men, if they can't get
their wives right, then they run to the
bottle to be comforted.
So you wives who have husbands who are
alcoholics, treat them well, they might forget the
bottle and get attached to you.
So you see, men are like children, if
they don't get what they want, then they
start crying and you must give them a
bottle, and some men, if they can't get
their wives right, then they run to the
bottle
to
be comforted.
So you see, men are like children, if
they don't get their wives right, then they
run to the bottle to be comforted.
And so, his wife was making a big
noise about his drinking, and one night she
didn't want to let him into the house,
sometimes it is like that, the wives don't
want to let the husbands in, and there
was one incident where she threw the pyjamas
out to him and said, you can sleep
outside, and he said, well don't just give
me pyjamas, please give me a razor to
shave as well.
What's this knife called?
Cutthroat.
Give me my cutthroat as well.
Uncle Fredo knows who it is.
It was a person who wasn't so far
away from us, a relation of ours.
And she'd get furious.
They'd have a hotel and a bar.
So when he got home, his wife would
argue and fight, and he would say, well
what should I have done, because my friend
came and he asked me just to have
one glass with him.
And so his wife started hating other men
because he was telling lies and he was
trying to hide his son.
So this wife was like this, and the
husband was afraid to go and drink.
So one day he came back, and fortunately
for him, the door wasn't locked, and he
got in and he took off his shoes
and very catfoot, he slowly walked, they were
sleeping upstairs, he started walking up the stairs.
Into the bathroom, locked quickly.
But on that particular night while he was
drunk, he had been fighting with others, and
so he was black and blue and he
was bleeding.
Now he's hiding to his wife that he's
drunk.
So he was extremely proud of himself that
he got the better of his wife, got
into the bathroom quickly locked and he thought,
it's fine.
And where he was bleeding, he wiped the
blood.
A white person shows a bruise, very quickly
it goes blue.
So he was looking for the elastoplast, couldn't
find it, he couldn't call his wife.
Because you know God had made the wife
to be a help me to the husband,
and they need to help them getting things,
and he couldn't do that, but finally in
the wardrobe he found it.
No elastoplast.
Then looking for the scissors, finally he got
it and he thought, I'm okay now.
So he cut the plaster, covered all the
different patches and wounds.
So he was laughing by himself thinking that
he got the better of his wife.
Got quietly into bed and fell asleep.
So he slept past 8, 9 o'clock,
he was bubblous.
His wife came.
So the wife came, she says, were you
drunk again last night?
He says, no, no, I haven't been drunk.
She says, come on, tell me the truth,
I know you've been drunk last night.
He says, you're telling lies, I didn't drink.
How do you know, who told you that
I've been drunk?
She says, I know because I went to
the bathroom and you had stuck the plaster
onto the mirror in different spots, he didn't
stick it onto himself but onto the mirror.
You see, a drunk person thinks he's clever
but he's actually foolish and he was sticking
the plaster onto the mirror.
Mother full of elastoplast.
Wife said, no, you've been drunk.
Don't try and hide your sins because God
sees.
Your actions show clearly you've sinned.
Because God wants us to be pure before
him.
He doesn't want to find sin with us.
Billy Graham once spoke,
he says the reason why sin falls short
of the righteousness of God.
Because God is holy, he wants us to
be holy.
One day he decided to buy his wife
a ring.
Because when they got married he gave her
a very small diamond ring, you needed a
magnifying glass to see it.
He didn't have money so he bought her
a cheap diamond ring.
So when he was older he
thought, let me buy her a nicer ring
now.
Got to a jeweller, says I want a
diamond ring.
Want to make my wife happy, give her
a nice big one.
So the jeweller brought the first one, it
was a very big diamond.
Says how much?
It was $65.
That's what he said.
So he dug in his pockets and with
his last cent he managed to scratch $65
together to buy this ring.
Went away happy.
He was going to give his wife this
great big diamond which costed $65.
Got to another jeweller, went in, took the
ring out.
Said tell me how much would you say
is the worth of this diamond?
He thought he really had struck a bargain
for $65.
So the man examined the diamond, he went
to fetch his magnifying glass to look at
it.
Well you know you might be able to
get it if you're lucky for $35.
If you're really lucky or if you're lucky
$40.
He says they told me that this diamond
had so many carats.
What was?
Just look.
And you will see what you can't see
with the naked eye.
So he looked to the microscope.
And he says the man said do you
see all the faults?
He says when he looked it was just
riddled with faults.
Then he saw the man had deceived him.
What?
How?
He thought it was such an excellent diamond.
But when he looked at the magnifying glass
it was worth only half the money he
paid.
You see we can think our lives are
quite okay.
But when God applies the heavenly magnifying glass
he can see many sins.
We need to see ourselves in the light
of heaven.
Draw nigh to the light of heaven.
One day the Lord Jesus said.
John 3 verse 20.
Everyone who does evil hates the light.
They hate the light.
They don't want the light.
And he will not come into the light
for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
These are words from Christ.
He who does evil hates the light, doesn't
want to come into the light because he
fears his sin might be exposed.
Is there somebody afraid and hating the light?
We should hate darkness.
But some are hating the light because they
fear their sins might be exposed.
Last verse.
Ephesians 5 verse 11.
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds
of darkness.
But rather expose them.
So God will expose secret sins.
So let us expose them ourselves and bring
them to God.
Is there nobody that has secret sins, secret
things of darkness?
God's word says expose them.
So that it won't be sin upon sin
and that you'll be a stubborn rebellious person
before God.
So that you won't be a person that's
tied and chained down hand and feet but
that the Holy Spirit will be free to
work inside you.
And that the Lord Jesus will be able
to use you to help and bless others.
Time is out.
Remind me one day to tell you the
dream of the girl who came back from
hell.
I told the story the last service of
the youth conference.
I was told this by an Anglican minister
who promised me, gave his word that it's
the truth.
In her dream she saw people through a
window in hell.
Because of that her brother, because of the
dream, got converted and became a pastor.
And at his church children came for Sunday
school, 20,000 of them every Sunday.
And when they asked him, how do you
get it right that souls get saved daily?
He says, I cannot forget that which my
sister saw.
He said, look, you love your sister, but
you don't love your father.
Let me just say this, as she was
about to turn around and go back, she
saw her own father in hell.
Because her father had never surrendered his life
to the Lord and never said, Lord, yes,
I agree.
So we've heard, Adam, Eve, where are you?
They ran away from God.
What are you going to do?
Are you going to turn away and hide?
Let's pray.
Lord, we ask you to speak to us
and to be with us in this meeting.
Please, Lord, work in a wondrous way that
we won't be like Adam and Eve who
hid when they heard your voice, but that
we'll come and draw nigh to thee.
Amen.