Set Apart Unto God — Gerhard Du Toit

I just would like to say it's been a tremendous blessing and an encouragement for me to be able to be with you this morning and again this evening. And it's a delight for me to be associated and be part of multi-ministries.

It's been quite a number of years since I met Harold Peasley. And you know, we are both of them, of what the Canadians would refer to, we are kind of art balls. So sometimes, you know, those kind of people really work well together.

But it's been a tremendous encouragement to travel with him to Zimbabwe. And I'm so thankful to them because every time when I come to South Africa, they just take all the time that we have available and put me into some wonderful, wonderful churches.

I appreciate if you pray for us. We've just been asked to spend a week in prayer with churches outside of Pretoria called Moroleta Kerk. And what we do in different countries, and I'm going to give you a little taste of that this evening, because you never know, maybe some year will come that we will be able to spend a week in prayer in a place like this.

Intercessory Prayer and the Burden of God

But when we go to different countries and also in Canada, sometimes we bring up to 60 churches together. And we spend a week with these people. And in the mornings, we have sessions in what we would refer to second level lectures on intercessory prayer.

You know, the word intercession is a wonderful word in Latin. It's a combination of two words, intera and sidra. Intera means when I step in between. Sidra means that once I step in between, I face the reality of my responsibility.

And my responsibility is my response to the ability of God. And then I intercede. But that's what we will do in the mornings. And then in the evenings, the churches come together and we have what we refer to as concerts of prayer.

That means that we're not just exposed to teaching as it relates to prayer, but we also spend some time in prayer together. And I can't tell you this evening of some of the great things that God has been doing as we pray together.

You know, when you study the Acts of the Apostles, you discover the emphasis that is laid upon prayer. And you know, one of the things about the life of prayer is the fact that you cannot separate the answer of prayer from the dealings of God in your own life.

And one of the great things about prayer is that there's nothing spectacular about that. I mean, no one is going to come to us and pat us on our backs and say, Isn't it amazing that God is waking you up at one or two, three o 'clock in the morning?

And suddenly the burden of God is coming upon your life. And God just laid this burden upon your heart. He set you apart to spend time in prayer. I'm collecting books on prayer. And I've got quite a couple of probably as many as five, six, seven, eight hundred wonderful classics on prayer.

Let me tell you this evening, my brother and sister, we can read everything that we want on prayer. But at the end of the day, we just need to get on our knees and we need to do it. One of the great books in my library, I don't think I will sell it for five hundred dollars.

Don't try a thousand because maybe I'll let it go. Which means, you know, the currency of Rand in South Africa, you lose everything you've got, by the way. So watch it. But the life story of a man with the name of George Muller of Bristol.

I don't know if you know that he was a secret in the life and the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. And there were times that Charles Haddon Spurgeon would preach on a Sunday morning. And Spurgeon would make this statement.

I love Spurgeon. You know, he suffered from gout. And there were times that he was in such agony when he preached that the tears would just stream down his cheeks. But Charles Haddon Spurgeon struggled with private prayer.

And George Muller of Bristol came alongside Charles Haddon Spurgeon and taught Spurgeon how to pray. In fact, there were times on a Sunday morning when Charles Haddon Spurgeon would preach. And six and a half thousand people that came to hear him would just rise to their feet.

And when they were asked afterwards and said, why did you do that? Did they respond by saying, you know, when we sense the unction of the Spirit of God upon him. And Spurgeon used to make this statement.

And he would say, I would sense the wind of the Spirit of God in my wings. And when God would come upon Spurgeon, those people would rise to their feet. And when they were asked afterwards and said, why did you do that?

Did they make this statement? And this is what they said. They said, when we sense the presence of God upon Spurgeon's life and ministry and upon his preaching, they said, we rose to our feet because we were afraid that we would miss one word that would come from the lips of this man.

You know, Spurgeon was once asked, what was the secret of his ministry? And you know what he said? He said, it was the heating system of my church. And people were wondering what he was speaking about.

And he said to them, come and see on Sunday morning. And when they came to his church on a Sunday morning, he took them into the basement of the church. And there were 400 people praying. And he said, this is the heating system of my church.

You know, George Muller of Bristol, there were two books written about his prayer life. One of them had the title, 35 ,000 Answers to Prayer and 24 Hours. And there was another book that had the title, 50 ,000 Answers to Prayer, that took him longer than 24 hours to see God answering those prayers.

You know the longest that he prayed for someone? 62 years. You know when that person became a Christian? Three weeks after George Muller of Bristol died. And you know, someone came to George Muller. We don't have time to go into those 12 aspects of New Testament prayer as it comes out of the Greek New Testament.

But one of those aspects is routine praying, when you pray for the same people every day. And someone came to George Muller one day and said, Mr. Muller, do you ever stop praying for people? And he said, no.

He said, as long as God keeps the burden in my heart, he said, I pray for those people. And they would ask him and they said to him, Mr. Muller, do you plead the promises of God? And George Muller would say, no, I don't plead the promises of God.

And they would say, what do you mean? He said, no, the promises of God pleads me. And they would say, what do you mean? He said, God gives me all these promises to pray for people. But he said, when I pray for people, I become so discouraged because sometimes so little is happening.

And sometimes things need to get worse before they will get better. And so George Muller said, I go to those promises. And he said, I allow those promises to refresh my heart and allow them to purify me and to cleanse me and to set me apart.

And he said, those promises are flowing through my life. And he said, as they are flowing through my life, I don't plead them. He said, they are pleading me and the names of the people that I'm praying for are flowing out of the promises of God.

And George Muller said, whenever I do that, he said, I never get tired in praying for people. You know, people often ask me about George Muller because sometimes I do a paper or an hour of teaching upon the secret of his life.

And they always say to me, you know, Gerard, it must be the answers to prayer. And I said, no. And they said, must be the times that he spent with God. But you see, folks, it's not the times that we spend with God.

That's not the issue. The issue is the times that God is spending with us. That's what makes the difference. And people say, it must be the times that he spent. I said, no. And they said, so what is the secret of his life?

And you know what I say to them? It was his understanding of the nature and the character of God in prayer. And as he discovered the will of God and he pray according to the will of God, he consistently prayed again and again and again.

And when he was ready for the answer, because sometimes God answers prayer. But you know what happened? The answer is delayed. And the great Andrew Murray said that when the answer is delayed, then there is something that God needs to do in our hearts and in our lives so that he can prepare us so that he would be able to take the glory as it relates to prayer.

We're going to do something before I turn to the scriptures. And I'm conscious of our time this evening. But I'm going to ask you to do something that we do in our prayer encounters. And this is what I'm going to ask you to do.

I'm going to ask you to turn around and find three or four people. And this is what I want you to do. Because we have chairs and we are able to do that. I want you to turn to those people. Introduce yourself.

And then I want you to ask him and say, how can I pray for you tonight? And we're going to share some things with one another. Don't want you to be too long so that we can share in our little group. And then I want us to pray for one another.

And I will close in prayer. And we go right into the scriptures. So can we do that? Just turn around and find three or four people. I think our chairs are such that we maybe can do that. And then ask him how you can pray for them.

And that's what we will do. Heavenly Father, we are so immensely grateful this evening for this marvelous day that you have been giving unto us. Thank you for the greatness of your presence. Thank you, Father, that we so seldom are able to find ourselves defining the greatness of the presence of God.

But we always know when it is not there. And it's been a tremendous encouragement for us. And Father, to the inadequacy of my own understanding of the Christian life, to somehow today in our sessions together, to sense the greatness of the presence of God.

We are reminded tonight of Moses of old when he beseeched thee and he said, If thy presence do not go with me, then I will not go. And Father, we are so deeply indebted to the possibility of humbling ourselves before God.

Asking you to come and minister to us and give unto us not just the consciousness of God, but the revelation of the greatness of scripture. And Father, we submit ourselves under the authority of your word.

It's tremendous for us to know that when God is speaking to us through his word, that something deep within our hearts just melts like butter in the sun. And our hearts become broken. And we recognize the depth of our need before you.

So tonight we want to pray that when we take the final minutes of this Sunday night service, and we ponder upon your word again, come and minister to us through your word. Give unto us an understanding.

Father, we want to be like those two disciples on the way to Emmaus, that when you expound to them the law and the prophets and the writings, that when you departed out of their presence, that they were able to turn to one another and they said, Did not our hearts burn within us when he spoke to us on the way?

And tonight we pray that you will give us that burning heart. That's the longing of our hearts. And God, we say to you this evening, we long to live a Christian life that will demand a supernatural explanation.

We long to be broken before God. We long to be set aside and set apart, so that our lives will become intoxicated with the greatness of the presence of God. And that the excellencies of Christ and the priority of the work of thy spirit will minister in every aspect of our relationships with you.

So we thank you this evening. In Jesus' name, Amen. Just take your seat again, and I would like you, if you have your Bible with you, to turn with me to Luke chapter 4. If somehow you don't have your Bible with you, will you please say, May God have mercy on my poor, wretched soul.

Jesus' Mission in Luke 4 and the Authority of Scripture

Let's read from Luke chapter 4, and let's stand for the reading of the word of God. We've been sitting for quite some time, and just a couple of verses from that wonderful chapter. Luke chapter 4, reading from verse number 16.

And Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. Now there was deliverance in the book of the prophet Isaiah.

And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he closed the book and he gave it again to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fixed upon Christ. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

And all of them bearing witness, and they wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said to one another, Is this not the son of Joseph? But Christ said unto them, You will surely say unto me this saying, Physician, heal thyself.

Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also in thy country. But Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you that no prophet is accepted in his own land. But I tell you the truth that there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah the prophet.

When the heaven was shut up for three years and for six months. When great famine was sought throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarephta, city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

Now there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet. But not one of them was cleansed, saving Neon the Syrian. And although in the synagogue when they heard these things, they were full of wrath and they rose up and they thrust him out of the city, led him unto the brow of the hill whereon the city was built, so that they might cast him down.

But Jesus passing through the midst of them went his way. And he came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them in the Sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word came to them with great power.

We trust that God will bless unto us the reading of his word. You may be seated. You know, this morning one of the things that we mentioned in our time together was the fact that we said that 75 of our growth as Christians will be determined by what we are reading.

And so I love to read, and some of the things I love to read comes out of the early church fathers and the Reformation. And then after them there came a group of men that we would refer to as the Puritans.

One of the reasons why many of us somehow cannot comprehend the greatness of the Puritans is because quite often we will discover that they were trying to write in English while they were thinking in Latin.

And so in order for us to be able to really understand the Puritans, we need to read them really on our knees and to allow their works or their words to become part of our lives. And some time ago I was reading the life story of a Puritan with the name of Thomas Boston.

Thomas Boston one night had a dream. And in his dream he saw Satan preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Thomas Boston was so affected by what he saw in his dream that he went up to Satan and he said to him in his dream, Why are you preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ?

He said, Surely you are doing harm to your own kingdom. But Satan turned to Boston in his dream and he said to him, Boston, I am preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ without the unction and the anointing of God the Holy Spirit.

And he said, I have found myself being effective. Instead of bringing people closer to God, have I found myself being effective in actually driving people away from the gospel of Christ. If you will continue to read the life story of Boston the Puritan, you will discover that from that night on his life was never ever the same.

The Anointing of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and Christ

I want to take a few minutes this evening if I may, and speak to you about this great subject. What does it mean for us to live a life under the unction of God the Holy Spirit? Now whenever I study a subject in the New Testament, I always ask myself what is the Old Testament saying to us about this New Testament subject for the simple reason that the Old Testament is revealed for us in the New Testament and the New Testament lies hidden within the Old Testament.

And if we would have had time this evening, it would have been possible for me to be able to take you to about 144 Old Testament passages where we would have been able to explore four wonderful Hebrew words that is speaking to us about this concept of anointing.

And if we would have had time to study this, you and I would have been able to discover that there were no less than eight material objects in the Old Testament that was affected by this word anointing.

The altar of God in the Old Testament was anointed. The pillars of God of the temple was anointed. And when you study this in great detail, you will come to the realization that there were a number of classes of people that was affected by this word anointing.

The prophet in the Old Testament was anointed so that he could become the mouthpiece of God towards the people of God. The priest in the Old Testament was anointed so that he could be wholly set apart unto God.

And the king in the Old Testament was anointed so that he could become the leader of the people of God. And my brother and my sister, there were three different kinds of anointing. There was the anointing with spices.

Then there was the anointing with oil. And then in the Old Testament did we discover this concept of the anointing of God the Holy Spirit. I don't think this Sunday night, is it possible for you and for me to be able to understand this subject unless we would see it as it manifested upon the life of Christ.

Now maybe you will sit here and you will say to yourself exactly what I said to myself when I sat in my library and I began to explore this subject. Because there was a moment when I went and I sat in the corner of my library and I began to weep my heart out before God.

And I remember saying to the Lord, Father, I cannot compare my life with the life of Christ. Because first of all, He was sinless in His birth and He was supernatural in His life. And yet as I sat there, this word kept coming back to me.

That there was a moment when Jesus turned to those early disciples and this is what He said to them. He said to them, I want you to tarry in Jerusalem until you have received this endowment from my Father.

I love the Greek New Testament when it comes to this concept because what really happened is that Jesus turned to those early disciples and He said to them, I want you to sit down until you have received this something from my Father.

What I would like us to do this evening in the few minutes that we have available and if we would have had time tonight, I would have loved to explore all those concepts with you. But I want to mention to you, first of all, I want us to look at the promise of the anointing of the Spirit of God upon the life of Christ.

If we would have had time this evening, it would have been tremendous for us to explore the purpose. Why was He anointed with God the Holy Spirit? And if time would have allowed us, it would have been marvelous for me to explore the power of the unction of the Spirit of God and go to the root understanding of the word, Dunah, in the New Testament and to discover that 119 times in the New Testament do we come across the word Dunamis where we get our word for power from and how that word manifests itself in 16 different words in our translation of the Bible.

We don't have time for that. You know, my wife, Janice, is with me tonight and I'm so delighted to have her with me. We haven't seen each other for five weeks and it's such a blessing to have her with me.

But she often said to me, Daddy, you're just like one of those 747 jumbo jets. She said, you never have a problem to take off but you always have a problem to land again. So what I want to do this evening is just to touch on one of these great aspects.

You sit here and you say, Gerard, what was the promise upon the life of Christ? Now I want to mention to you two aspects of that promise. First of all, we would need to consider the secret of the unction of the Spirit of God upon the life of Christ.

And secondly, my brother and sister, it will be tremendous for us to look upon the symbol. Because you remember when the Holy Spirit came upon Christ, the Bible says the Spirit of God came upon Christ in the form of a dove.

And the dove is speaking to us about four things. The dove is speaking to us about purity. The dove is speaking to us about passion. The dove is speaking to us about power. And the dove is speaking to us about peace.

Christ's Holiness and Being Set Apart Unto God

But I want us to look at this first aspect. You sit here tonight and you say, what was the secret upon the life of Christ? Why was it that every time when the Lord Jesus Christ opened His mouth that men and women would stop and they would listen and they would say, no man ever spoke like this man.

Why was it that when they listened to Him that they would make a statement like this and said, what gracious words were coming from the lips of the Savior? I've discovered three things that I would like to mention to you.

First of all, I've discovered that He was anointed with God the Holy Spirit simply because of the life of holiness unto God. And I wonder this Sunday night, if you would allow me to suggest to you, and I want to say these words to the inadequacy of my own relationship with God.

My brother and my sister, there is no possibility for you and for me as a Christian to know the depth of the presence of God and to know the sense of the unction of His Spirit upon your life and upon my life if our lives are not totally set apart unto God.

You say, why do you say that? Well, let me take you to the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus. And you remember when He prayed in John chapter 17 that He made this profound statement. And this is what He said to the Father.

He said, Father, I sanctify myself for the sake of my disciples. You see, my brother and sister, the meaning of the word sanctification and the New Testament is not so much for us to be set apart from this world as it means for us to be set apart unto God.

Because, you see, if my life is set apart unto God, you will discover that my life will be so taken up with the greatness of the life of Christ and the sense of hunger for God and the sense of passion that my life automatically will be set apart from this world.

I think of that marvelous statement that came from the writer to the Hebrews about the life of Christ. And this is what he said about the Lord Jesus. He said He was holy, He was harmless, He was undefiled, and He was separate from sinners.

You see, in His relationship with God, He became the Holy Son of God. And His relationship with His fellow men, Christ became, was blameless. And His relationship to Himself, He became the prophet and the priest and the king.

And you say, what does it mean? It means that He was set apart unto His Father. You and I would sit in this gathering this evening and you say, Gerard, what about us? Well, let me take you to that marvelous little epistle in the New Testament.

When the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, and when he wrote to the church at Thessalonica and all the New Testament epistles were written to believers. And when he wrote to the church at Thessalonica and 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, and he's speaking about that proper commendation.

And he's speaking about a witnessing church. And he was speaking about a sacrificing church. And he was speaking about a giving church. And yet, my brother and sister, in the third chapter of 1 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul made this statement.

And do you know what he really said? He said, there is a burden upon my heart. And he said, I'm praying for you day and night. And then he take it one step further, and Paul made this statement and he said, I'm praying for you day and night, because I sense that there is something that is lacking in your faith.

And suddenly in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, he brought this concept of the burden of his heart, because in the third chapter he said, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. And in the fifth chapter, when he brought this to a moment of climax, when he prayed for the church at Thessalonica, this is what he prayed.

He said, I pray that the very God of peace sanctify you through and through. I love a German translation, because of my background. You say, well, what is he saying? Heiligen durch und durch. Now there are two wonderful words in the Greek language that I would like to mention to you.

Because when the apostle Paul prayed, and he said, I pray that the very God of peace sanctify you through and through, those are two distinctive words in the Greek text. You say, Gerard, what is those words saying?

The first word is the word halokleros, or rather the word halotilos. You say, what does it mean? It means, my brother and sister, that God is able to sanctify us extensively in our relationships of God.

Now the second statement, it's another wonderful word. And you say, what is the word? It's the Greek word halokleros. You say, what does that mean? It means that God is not just able to sanctify us extensively, but it means that God is able to sanctify us experientially in our relationship with God.

And may I say to you something this Sunday night, my brother and sister, the structure of the language in the Greek text is emphatic. It's what theologians would refer to as not linear, which is ongoing, but it is punctiliar, which means to the point, when it's in the aorist imperative mood.

And what he is saying to the Christians at Thessalonica, he said, God is able to sanctify you to the point. And I wonder this Sunday night, if you would allow me to ask you, is God in the process of sanctifying us to the point?

You see, we are a distinctive people, you know. We are separated unto God. I said this morning about Rosh Hashanah, that marvelous friend of Robert Murray McChain, who so often used to say, I went to look for the world and I found her in the church.

He said, I went to look for the church and I found her in the world. You see, we are a distinctive society. My brother and my sister, may I say to you this Sunday night, when we are speaking about the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God, and when we are considering the holiness of God, when we are speaking about the life of holiness unto God, it's not a life that is driving people away from God.

You say, Gerard, what is he doing? It's a life that is making people hungry for the life of Christ. So what was it? It was a life of holiness unto God. I will never be able not to remember this, you know.

I was speaking in one of the larger churches out there in Canada. I tell you, in North America, you know, we've got sometimes churches of 5 ,000, 6 ,000, 7 ,000 people. And I need to tell you tonight, it doesn't mean anything to God.

You cannot make an assessment by looking at Sunday morning's attendance. The only way that you're going to find out what's going on in the church is when you look at the people that are committed to pray for the church.

And listen, brother and sister, it's not what you've come to receive today, it's what you've brought into this place. That's the secret of the Christian life. And I'll never forget that Sunday morning.

Quite a large church, about close to 800, 900 people, and I was speaking in that church, and about 3 o 'clock that morning, God woke me up, and I was so burdened with that Sunday. And about 5 o 'clock that morning, I phoned the pastor.

And he picked up the phone, and I said to him, Roy, I'm sorry to wake you up. He said, no. He said, Gerard, I've been on my knees already. I said, I need to talk to you. He said, about what? I said, it's about this morning.

And he said, what about this morning? He said, I said, you know, there's an immense burden upon my heart. And you know, he just broke down on the other side of the phone, and he just wept. He said, you know, that's exactly how I felt.

Well, I tell you, my brother and my sister, that Sunday morning service start, and do you know what happened that Sunday morning? God came to church. He said, what do you mean? There was suddenly a moment in that morning service, when they were not listening to a message.

They were not listening to some special speaker. But there was a moment when my heart became so broken before God, I could hardly get a word out. And God was moving in that church. It was a conservative church.

But men and women were broken at the altar of that church, as they were seeking God. And I would never forget that morning. I was praying with some people, and we were just spending time together. And out there, out of the gallery, a man in his late thirties, who was a kind of a teddy bear of the fellow, he came down from that gallery, and I knew, as I saw him, that he was in desperate need of God.

And he came down, and as he was coming down the aisle, he was in such a rush to be able to get to me. And he got to me, and he just took me in his arms, and he just wept, and he wept. And when he got to himself, I said to him, what's your name?

And he said, Peter. I said, Peter, what is happening? And he said, Pastor, he said, God broke my heart this morning. And I said, so tell me about it. What's taking place? And he turned to me, and he said to me, Gerard, he said, 24 months ago, he said, I gave my life to Christ.

And he said, when I gave my life to Christ, he said, you know, the first 22 months of my Christian life, he said, I was ablaze for God. I said, what do you mean, Peter? He said, you know, I studied God's Word.

He said, I spoke to people about Christ. He said, I couldn't wait for the services to start. He said, when the prayer meeting was on, he said, I was committed to seek God. And I said, Peter, that's wonderful.

And so I said, what happened? And he just dropped his head. And when he got himself together, he turned to me, and he said to me, Gerard, he said, you know, eight weeks ago, one Sunday morning after the service, one of the older men in the church came to me.

And he said, he took me into a corner. And as he took me into that corner, he put his arm around me, and he brought me close to his ear, to his mouth, and he whispered into my heart, and he said, Peter, he said, it's time that you calm down.

One of these days, you're just going to be like the rest of us. He threw his arms in the air that Sunday morning, and he said, can you please help me? I wonder this evening if I can ask you, my brother and my sister, we don't know one another tonight, but can I ask you this Sunday night, is there a distinction?

Does my Christian life demand an explanation? Is there a sense of the presence of God in my relationship with God? You say, what is it? It's a life of holiness before God. Don't you ever be afraid of the holiness of God.

Yieldedness and the Fullness of the Holy Spirit

You know what I've discovered? It was not just a life of the holiness, a life of holiness, but my brother and my sister, you know what I've discovered? It was also a life of yieldedness to God. You see, when we speak about the life and the spirit, this morning at our time together, we made this great statement in saying that the Spirit of God just does not want to be resident in my life, but the Spirit of God wants to become president.

I need to yield my life to God. I need to live a life being controlled and under the influence and the fullness of the Spirit of God. And we are not speaking about some second blessing or some manifestation.

I am speaking to you about the inheritance of the greatness of the life of Christ. And yet you see, when we speak about the fullness of God's Spirit, my brother and my sister, the fullness of God's Spirit has never meant to become a goal.