Lord, we pray for soft hearts,
that we can hear your word and that
it can go deep into our hearts and
work there.
Give us also ears to really hear what
you want to say.
Because, Lord, if
we
have hardened hearts or ears that do not
hear, then we can sit here, we can
be listening or hearing, but it doesn't go
into our hearts and doesn't find place there
in order to change us and transform us.
So, Lord, please speak to us and touch
our hearts through your holy word.
Amen.
I will read from the book of Hosea,
from the first chapter.
Hosea, chapter one, from verse two.
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the
Lord said to Hosea, Hosea, go take to
yourself a wife of harlotry and have children
of harlotry, for the land commits flagrant harlotry,
forsaking the Lord.
So he went and took Goma, the daughter
of Deblayim, and she conceived and bore him
a son.
Read so far.
Now, the book of Hosea is the first
book of the books that we referred to
the minor prophets.
One refers to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel as
the major prophets.
And then from Hosea it's referred to as
the minor prophets.
But in the beginning it was not like
that.
The time before the Lord, the twelve prophets
that are recorded here in the Old Testament
So in that time these twelve books were
referred to as the twelve books of the
prophets.
So that was one book, all in one
book, these twelve prophets.
And that was up to the time of
Augustine who was also known as one of
the founding fathers of the church.
From that time they are known as the
minor prophets.
So because these were just short books, if
you put them all together they are about
the same size or length as the book
of Ezekiel for example.
There is of course the danger that if
you refer to them as minor prophets that
you get the idea that they are of
less worth or small.
That's not true.
Their value and their worth and the quality
of what they have written is the same
as the major prophets.
Now Hosea is now the first book of
these twelve books that are referred to.
So you've
got
the major prophets, Daniel was also there recorded
as well.
But he is in between the major and
the minor prophets that were all recorded in
one volume, these twelve books.
So Hosea was the first of the minor
prophets.
It's shocking what he experienced.
He experienced something terribly difficult and painful.
God said to Hosea go and take a
woman of harlotry, a harlot, a prostitute, an
immoral person.
Someone who is going to cause you much
grief and pain and will break your heart.
And she also will have children of harlotry
from other men.
So Hosea being a faithful prophet obeyed God
and went and got a woman like that
and married her.
It didn't take long and Gomer, this woman,
lost her love for Hosea, her husband.
And she fell in love with other men
that were good looking in her eyes.
And God said Hosea I'm doing this to
you that you can also experience what Judah
and Israel are like.
I want you to really understand and get
to grips and get an understanding of what
God's children are like.
God at the Bible says that one should
not be unevenly yoked.
As a Christian one shouldn't get married to
a non-believer.
And yet here God commands Hosea to do
exactly that and he says I want you
to do it so that you will know
and that the whole world will see what
my children are like.
And what my people are like.
It's something very sad, tragic.
For God says my people are unfaithful for
they follow other gods.
And yet I want them to be perfect
and to belong completely to me but they
don't.
So the prophet was given a very very
difficult ministry.
Hosea went and looked and looked until he
found her and he got married to her.
And so it didn't take long after they
were married that Gomer, his wife, lost interest
in him.
She had other lovers and committed adultery with
them.
And eventually she even left her husband to
follow her other lovers.
And then God said Hosea you go.
Go look for her, when you find her
bring her back and you must love her
again.
I don't know whether there is a more
difficult thing for a husband than that.
Imagine your wife losing interest in you following
other husbands, going and living with them.
And then God says in spite of her
doing that now go, when you find her
woo her back to you, get her back.
And she came back and she had three
children.
The first one was born a son.
And he said name him
Jezreel
for yet a little while I will punish
the house of Jezreel.
And I will put an end to the
kingdom of the house of Israel.
So there
is
not a single sin which God will not
avenge you.
So he will take revenge, he will punish
every single sin.
Child of God, know that every sin that
you committed in public or in secret, God
will punish.
You won't escape it.
He will punish it.
And if you don't repent, he will finish
you off.
And if you don't repent, he will finish
you off.
The price
of sin is
terribly high.
Even if you try to hide it, you
pay a high price for it.
Even if there is a God in heaven,
he will punish you for your sins.
If you don't make it right, he will
punish you for your sins.
Whether it is in secret or in public,
he will share with you.
And if
you don't make it right, he will punish
you for your sins.
So that's how that child got his name.
Because God said, I will punish you Israel
for the sin that you have done.
And if you don't repent, I will also
put an end to you.
We don't know.
We're not sure whether it was his own
child or whether it was the child of
another man.
Now according to Zulu tradition, if a wife
was unfaithful and she bore a child of
another man, she would not be brought back
into the same home again, but she would
be built another house next door, outside of
the complex.
And she was even given a special name
for that, because the Zulus did not get
divorced from their wives, but she would be
built another place outside.
And then God again said, but Hosea, you
must show love towards her.
Try your best.
Do everything you can.
But no matter what he tried, she wasn't
interested in him.
She was after other men.
And this Hosea shows us what the Lord
Jesus is like.
He loves us even though we deny him
and we betray him.
He loves us even though we turn our
backs on him.
And then God says, love her.
And then she fell pregnant again.
And then we don't even know where that
child came from.
It's a terribly sad situation when a wife
is unfaithful, she's after other men, she's like
a cow that is just after a bull,
and she'll break through any barrier to get
there.
And then in verse 6 the Lord said,
when she had given birth to a daughter,
the Lord said to him, name her Loruhama.
For I will no longer have compassion on
the house of Israel that I should ever
forgive them.
And the Lord says, I will no longer
show compassion, I will no longer show love.
Can you imagine such words being said about
you who forsake the Lord?
And then in verse 9, she gave birth
to another son.
And the Lord said, name him Loemi.
For you are not my people.
And I am not your God.
This is a description of a person who
forsakes the Lord Jesus.
And
God says, And
God says eventually of these people who he's
been trying to woo, he's been trying to
show love, trying from every side, different things.
And eventually he gets to the point, he
says, I am no longer your God.
You are not my people, and I am
not your God.
Like if he'd say to us, you people
of Sizabantu, you are not my people anymore,
neither will I be your God anymore.
So whether you go to church here or
belong to another congregation, remember this is a
word for you, just you.
Maybe you are faithful to your husband.
Maybe you're a boy or you're a girl,
you're unmarried.
And yet you can still be guilty of
the sin of this woman who was a
harlot.
God wanted his people to have a very
special relationship with him.
God wants each one of us to be
totally one with him.
God wants each one of us, man, woman,
you child, you teenager, whoever you are, God
wants each one of us to have a
life that's totally one with him.
But it's sad when people lose their first
love.
They lose their love for the Lord and
they start loving other things instead.
If you continue reading in this book of
Hosea, the first, the second chapter, you see
that eventually the people of God are bowing
down to Baal, to other gods.
They started mixing things.
They still served God in a way and
yet they also were serving the Baals.
So they were compromising.
They were mixing these two things.
They didn't forsake
God outright
at any given point.
No, but they started making these compromises.
Like Goma, she was still living with her
husband.
Physically she was there, but her heart was
with these other men.
Baal
influenced
people and he gave them his blessings, his
gifts.
One of the gifts of Baal was food,
good food.
Imagine that even food can become an idol.
There are people that if they don't have
food, they go and steal it.
They forsake God because of food.
So food becomes an idol to you.
You find a person who doesn't have enough
food, who goes through difficulty, he forsakes God.
He says, no, it's not worth it.
It's difficult.
You forsake God, you forsake your calling just
because of that.
Paul says, I say this with tears, that
there are those whom God is not their
God, but their God is their belly.
And so it is that you can have
a craving for something.
You crave for it to such an extent
that you will even do something wrong to
get it.
And that sin is equivalent to hunger.
And that sin is equivalent to harlotry.
Like a woman who is unfaithful to her
husband, going after another woman.
And you forsaking God, going after other things
because of the lusts of the flesh.
So they served other gods.
Another gift of Paul was the clothing that
you wear.
A person wearing just what pleases him and
which is according to the fashion of the
time.
They didn't pray to God, full of the
Holy Spirit, saying, Lord, this body is your
temple.
How shall I clothe it?
No, they didn't do that.
They copied and imitated the world.
We say we don't serve Paul, but you
find many Christians serving Paul.
You find many Christians serving Paul.
A while ago,
I spoke to the young
people and to the girls.
I said, I noticed that it's now fashionable
to have long dresses.
And I noticed your dresses are getting longer
and longer.
But I'll watch you closely because at some
stage the fashion is going to change and
then minis will be in fashion again.
And then I'll see what you do.
And sure enough, minis came back into fashion.
And then I noticed some people whose skirts
were getting shorter and shorter.
And then I realized, and that's when you
realize, that a person is not filled with
the Spirit of God.
And amazingly, these girls will say, oh, I
don't have nice legs.
And yet, they show off these horrible legs
of theirs.
Now I've got to look at these terrible
legs.
You are of the devil.
He's your father.
You're not filled with the Spirit of God.
A donkey knows more about music than what
you do about Christ.
You are of the devil.
He's your father.
You're not filled with the Spirit of God.
A donkey knows more about music than what
you do about Christ.
You are of the devil.
He's your father.
You're not filled with the Spirit of God.
A donkey
knows
more about music than what you do about
Christ.
Don't you know what it means to be
filled with the Spirit of God?
Aren't you filled with the Spirit?
Where you go onto your knees, you say,
Lord, I want to buy myself a dress.
Now lead me, guide me, teach me what
I should wear, how I should adorn your
temple.
Not that I go around showing my belly,
even if you have a ring in your
belly button.
We don't want to see that.
Or your back, you just do this, we
can see your back.
Although people say the backside of a donkey
is the best.
It's more decent than your belly.
A woman's belly isn't nice, even if you
put a gold ring into it, into your
navel.
So you're like those who serve Baal, like
that cow that is after a bull.
So you're like those who serve Baal, like
that cow that is after a bull.
Then you say, oh, but your excuse is
you can't find proper dresses.
You say, in the shops you just don't
get anything decent anymore.
But aren't there quite a few people among
us who know how to sew that you
could go to and say, look, I don't
want to dress like a prostitute.
I want to dress in a way that's
a testimony and a witness for the Lord.
Help me and sew me something proper.
Yes, sir.
That's the naked truth, TNT.
God doesn't need look at the dress.
He doesn't need it to see your heart.
He knows it in spite of your dress.
But we can't see your heart, but we
see it through your dress.
Your dress reveals us your heart.
Whether your dress goes up from the bottom
or it goes down from the top, it
just shows you that you're a child of
a prostitute.
And if your mother isn't, then you are
because of Baal.
So you just need to open your eyes
and you'll quickly identify those whose hearts are
filled with the Spirit of God and those
who aren't.
But of course I know that there are
those that have the form of godliness, but
they deny the power.
You get that all over.
But I can't think of something better, something
more heavenly than a woman who's filled with
the Holy Spirit.
Before she sews a dress, she goes on
her knees and say, now Lord, you thrice
holy God.
How would you like me to cover your
temple, your dwelling place?
I know
you
teenagers, you may think you're clever, but you're
still very green.
Whether your brains are in your noses or
your backside, I don't know.
But when you grow older, you'll become wiser.
And then you'll see, I served Baal.
So clothing can
be
an idol and is an idol to many
people.
And the devil uses that very much with
young people.
And that's why you've got a mother and
the mother should look after it.
But maybe your children are not taking after
you, you are taking after them.
And you never take the Bible and read
it.
Addressing young people and saying, young man or
woman, be an example to others.
Impurity.
Scorn it.
And you are Gome.
God shown you love.
Christ died for you.
He drew you unto himself.
But now you are flirting and sinning with
other men.
So they were even these gods of nature.
And then these things in nature become so
valuable to you, they take the place of
God in your life.
There was also another idol in Baal worship.
Scorn hates middles.
Cosmetics.
That you attempt to change yourself, whether it
be your complexion or your hair or whatever.
You do it in secret because it's a
thing of darkness.
You hide it somewhere.
Your father, your husband, your relations can't see
it.
You don't want anybody to see it.
But you are a child of Baal, not
the one who died for you.
No, you are flirting and sinning, sleeping with
other men.
There is a white man who recently was
released from prison.
If I'm not mistaken, it was Stander who
stole money from the banks.
How long was he in the trunk?
10 years or what?
27 years.
27 years, Stander.
These people were part of a gang, Stander's
gang, who went around robbing banks.
He said, now that I'm out of the
trunk, I'm lost.
I live in another world.
Everything has changed.
Before I went into the trunk, it was
the whore who had red lips.
And now everyone has red lips.
It was the whore, he said.
He said, before I went to prison, only
prostitutes had red lips.
But now I see everyone's got red lips.
He was caught red handed.
He was caught red handed for 27 years.
He was caught red handed.
So at his face, he was arrested.
Then they used make-up to put it
on him.
Then they spiked his face and burned it
on him.
So, you are the one who is not
even a human being.
What the folk of God, the star of
mercy, in the world, in the world, in
the church, doesn't
happen overnight.
Little by little.
The devil says just a small finger.
He knows after that the hand.
He knows that after that your whole being.
So you child of God examine yourself.
See whether something else hasn't crept in.
When you look back you see that things
have changed in your life.
You're not what you used to be anymore.
Or maybe you say you got converted and
even at that time nothing changed
in
your life.
So Goma she lost her first love.
She lost that love she had towards her
husband.
In other words she lost her love for
the Lord Jesus and she started loving other
things instead.
Goma lost interest in her own husband and
the relationship with her own husband.
The man of God.
And she ran after other lovers.
If I only would have a red hot
iron that I could burn and impress this
into your life.
Write it in Galilee to the end.
To your last breath.
I'd be happy but if I speak to
stones that are dead without feeling and rocks.
What can I say?
If God isn't merciful and reach the deepest
depths of your heart the end will be
to hell with you.
There are many lovers that we can follow.
There are many things we can run after.
Love of power.
Love of position.
Love of money.
Love of recognition.
That is Goma running after other lovers.
I'd like to ask you today are you
children of God or children of this world?
Do you love this world and try and
imitate it?
Didn't you hear what John said?
That he who, what James said, he who
loves this world and is a friend of
the world is an enemy of God.
And the three children she bore and God
said you give them these names.
I'm going to soon punish the house of
Jill and deal with Israel.
Then he said the second child name was
I won't show you any love.
Any love.
And if you're a watchtower I want to
tell you God has loved you and you
trample that underfoot by having other lovers.
That love will come to an end in
your life.
You are not my people.
That's what he says eventually.
You are not my people.
What is most important above anything else is
that you are united with Jesus Christ.
When you have a relationship with the Lord
Jesus and you're perfectly one with him then
to you it's no longer important whether you're
an African or a white or whatever else.
What's most important to you is your relationship
with the Lord.
When you wake up in the morning that's
the most important to you that relationship with
the Lord to be one with him.
When you wake up in the morning that's
the most important to you that relationship with
the Lord to be one with him.
Whether you're at work, whether you're at home,
whether you're with other children, your classmates, what
should be most important is your relationship with
the Lord.
That you're always one with him.
But what happens?
You go home during the holidays, what do
you do?
You watch TV, you with worldly children and
eventually you become like them.
Your relationship with the Lord is not important
to you anymore.
then you become like the devil you can
pursue your dreams your goals your likes or
your dislikes but you'll hear those words as
sure as anything you are not my people
and I'm not your God that will be
the end of the story you know Landel
him come on yako who wins a local
with fish Osaka no more ends up tanda
got a mouse mouse who's humbling the lack
we string was awesome cool uncle etty against
a bezelutan distri not I'll say in a
moment to army and see Baba and Obama
compromise your Christian lifestyle adopt the world the
ways of the world.
And you are no different to Gomez, that
evil, unfaithful woman who had no love, no
desire for her true husband, but ran after
her lovers.
For can that be written across your
life?
Whether
you're ten
years old or twelve or fourteen, doesn't matter,
you should understand this language, if you're a
child of the Lord and you long belong
to the world, to God's people.
If
you
have the love of the Lord in your
heart, filled with God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
I remember in pastures, people would ask the
choir and say, but how can you sing
in such harmony together without a conductor?
And then they'd say, but it's because our
conductor is the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
We see to it that our relationship with
the Lord is right.
People were amazed, saying that they come here
to Sizabantu, they don't see huge organisation, and
in fact it seems as if things aren't
even organised, and yet there's harmony, there's peace,
even at the youth services, so many thousands
together, and yet things just seem to run
so smoothly.
Things will run smoothly, things will run smoothly,
things will run smoothly, things will run smoothly,
things will run smoothly, things will run smoothly
Things run smoothly and harmoniously when people have
a relationship with the Lord, one with Him,
and He gives them that authority, not like
in an army, in a platoon.
Yes, people do things according to what the
instructor and commander says, but there's no life
in that.
That's no life.
A person needs a relationship with the Lord.
The Lord Jesus should be the captain of
the Lord's host, not somebody else, not even
the preacher.
The Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, should be
our captain.
If we lose that, we are dead.
And then we shouldn't even stand here.
Then we
shouldn't
even testify here.
Then we must rather just go, go into
the mountains, go there and serve the bars.
Here we need people who are faithful to
their husband being the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you faithful to your heavenly husband?
Are you faithful to the one who died
and bled on the cross?
From the sole of your feet to the
crown of your head, am I speaking to
a dead Christian, to a rock?
Or have you still got some life in
you?
Then I'd hope that I needn't preach this
sermon for the second time.
So go home again, read about his ear
and about those three children.
And realize that this is written for you.
And don't say, oh, but I'm still a
child.
That doesn't matter.
A lot of children die nowadays, more even
than older people.
What's important is that you have a relationship
with the Lord Jesus, that you are one
with him, that you live with him.
Even at school
you
can
get up and say, can I have an
opportunity, speak to the other children, tell them
what God expects from us and from you.
Or even when you're at work, wherever you
are, that you stand out for the Lord
and that you're a pillar for the Lord
wherever you are.
In the beginning I prayed that God will
give us soft hearts.
Have you got a soft heart or is
it a rock hard heart?
People that come here to Sisyphus should experience
people who are filled with the Spirit of
God.
And that they won't see the different nationalities
and whoever, whatever group you're from, but that
they will see that this person has a
relationship with the Lord.
These people are under the control of the
Holy Spirit.
There's no disunity and friction.
Someone from another country phoned me recently and
said, I'd like to come to Sisyphus.
I said, I don't want to stay with
so and so.
Then I said, well
if that's your attitude, then rather just stay
where you are.
Here we want to be under the Spirit
which God sent through His revival, controlled by
Him.
Then rather you just stay where you are.
He interpreted correctly, but I spoke to her
in more serious words and waves to her
over the phone.
I said, you stay where you are.
We can't need you.
This is God's place.
God's Spirit rules here.
We've got revival, we're children of revival.
And if you can't get along with somebody
else, you don't come here.
We don't want you here, we can't need
you.
Do you understand?
Maybe you're not in another country.
If you're of the same spirit, this applies
to you as well.
Unless you repent, bring fruit of repentance and
make right your life.
Come to light with those hidden things in
your life, the secret things.
Yesterday at the marriage ceremony, I spoke about
Louis Harms.
And he spoke about devilish, secret relations of
people that are in love with each other
when they are together.
Now we live in a time Today
we live in a time of cell phones.
Now they can be put to good use,
but also to very bad use.
And today people don't do things far away,
hidden away in secret there.
They write among you, but they send each
other SMS's over the phone.
Devilish things.
I've spoken
enough.
Whether you've heard, I don't know.
It's up to you.
Whether you'll bring fruit of repentance, I don't
know.
But tomorrow will show.
And the words of the three children will
go into fulfillment in your life.
But if you don't die, you're in for
something.
Let's
pray.
Lord, may your word not return to you
empty.
But may it bring forth fruit of repentance.
I know, Lord, that you did say that
to some it will bring life, but to
others death.
Amen.