God Our Fortress - Part 1 — Erlo Stegen

God Our Fortress: The Lord as Refuge

The theme for our services, this youth conference, is God Our Fortress, based on the word we find in 2 Samuel 22 verse 2. And that's something you can make note of, underline it in your Bible, or make a note of that verse.

The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, and my refuge. God knows that we live in a dangerous world, with many dangers, and therefore he says he will be our fortress, our refuge.

Christian Standards of Dress and Personal Appearance

So, is it possible that one can speak three services in a row about clothing? Well, if God keeps us, maybe we'll even say more. And there are other topics we can cover as well, like tattooing. We need to know what God says about things, because nowadays everything seems to be permissible.

It's a time where you can just do what you like. One girl wore her miniskirt, tight fit. And she was with someone else wearing some very tight jeans. So tight, that one could notice that she had a period.

Excuse me? Talking like that from the pulpit. If you are like that, well, then I've got to talk. If I've got a square pot before me, then I take a four-sided chalice. If it's a round one, stop doing that, and I'll stop talking about it.

And so she was wearing these tight-fitting, faded jeans. And at the bottom, they were torn, so the shreds were just hanging down. And I don't need to tell you that that is a sign of rebellion, that you're against all authority.

And you know the modern way, it's also very low down, you can see the belly button and the stomach hanging out. And the blouses and everything is cut in that way that it's very short, that you just have to lift your arm a little bit, and then you can see the belly already.

And normally, it's not a pleasant sight to behold. A woman's stomach or belly quickly becomes all soft, like porridge. So it doesn't look very good for others to have to look at it, but obviously you can't see it because you look right over it.

And it was also very low cut as well, that you could see everything. And she went to a prayer meeting. But then, at the back, at the backside, she had written, Smile, Jesus loves you. It is true, Jesus said in the last days, there'll be many Jesuses, there'll be many.

Some are directly out of hell. On her backside. On her backside. Smile, Jesus loves you. And it's quite a popular gospel, that one. That is the type of thing that has been propagated in some churches, and many young people flock there, with their bands there, and drums, people like that.

Purity, Holiness, and the Way of Salvation

But we have the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that teaches us purity, holiness, to be sanctified in one's way, in one's living. So to you young girls, remember, there is a way of escape, of salvation, even in these times.

Now you've heard when the minis were first introduced. The shorter the dress, the more the immorality. So the So the shorter the dress, the less the value, the more the immorality. Now I just want to tell you the name of the person who designed the miniskirt.

Who knows the name? Her name was Mary, the same as the mother of Jesus. Mary Ikamalake. The surname was Quant. Q-u-n-t. She's the one that designed the miniskirt. Abraham was the father of believers.

Mary is the mother of the miniskirt. She's known as the high priestess of fashion. Maybe you didn't know, if you wear a miniskirt, you get a new mother, who is the priestess of fashion. It's good to take note of these things.

Now Mary Quant, the priestess of fashion, said She said women and girls could announce that they were available for illicit sex in the afternoon. They would be available for sex. Not even tomorrow. High priestess of fashion, Mary Quant, the woman who designed the miniskirt, said Any woman announces with her miniskirt that she is available for illicit sex in the afternoon.

She even waits before the night. She doesn't wait for the night, in the afternoon already. If you are not shocked by this, you are spiritually dead and you need to be born again. When she was asked what kind of character today's women want to be, she answered She said today, the woman has got to be a sexual creature.

Sex. A creature of sex. That's what the woman has got to be, and the girls today. Then one isn't surprised that things have turned out to be like they are in the world today. She says, we are tired. Instead of this coy business of hiding it.

We don't want to, we women, we don't want to hide it anymore. Today, she dresses to say, I'm sexy. I like men. I enjoy life. Yes. Yes. So one understands why some young people, they go to school, they hear many things, but then they leave, they go into the world, they go off the road.

And then you don't really know why, but now one starts making sense of it. We are sexy. We like men. And we won't hide it. We want to enjoy life. They've got a husband. And they still want other husbands.

Freedom, Rules, and Moral Law

Later on in an interview she said, Mary Quint, all the rules are gone. There is no such thing as what's in or what's out. She stated, I hate rules. Now all the rules are gone. All the headlines are available.

There are people that have left us that say they've gone because they don't like all the rules and the laws here. Now they are free. But they go out there, they're not free. They become slaves of fashion.

All the rules are gone. That's why people divorce. That's why people fall in love with other men. I've always hated rules, she says. I've always hated rules. Keep left. Go to the right. We are born. Now just think for a moment.

If you say you don't like rules, you don't like laws, then just try to go with the car from here to Kranskop or to Steng or to drive home. And then you don't stick to the left-hand side of the road. You just drive on the right-hand side of the road.

Where there's a stop sign, you just go straight through. If there's a red robot, you just ignore it. You drive through. If you'd get home, I'd be prepared to give you thousands of rands. There was a young man who went to university and he forgot all about his parents and he just forsook them.

The Young Man Who Learned the Value of Law

And he was on his way hitchhiking. A minister stopped to give him a lift. It's become very dangerous to give hitchhikers a lift because you never know whether he's an honest man or whether he may be a hijacker who could be a danger to you.

But this minister felt he should give this man a lift. So the student got in. The minister asked this young man, Well, tell me, young man, how are you? He said, now I'm fine, thanks. He said, well, what about spiritual things?

The young man said, please just don't even talk to me about Christianity. I come from a home. My father's a very devout Christian and so is my mother. And it's always just don't do this, don't do that.

I'm sick and tired of laws. I don't want to have laws made for me. The minister just kept quiet. They got to town. And there was a red robot. He put his foot down. And the minister put his foot on the accelerator.

And the young man jumped up and he grabbed hold of him. He said, what are you doing? The robot is red. You can't go through it. And the minister said, I'm sick and tired of laws. I don't want to know anything about them.

He said, what's wrong with it? The young man said, but don't you see all the other cars coming through from the other side? We'll die if we go through the red robot. And he shouted out like someone who was crazy.

But then it clicked with him. And he said, I'm sorry about what I said, that I don't like laws and we don't need them. It dawned. If there's no law, no rule, then things go wrong. Then it will be like that young man who went to Johannesburg to work there and he announced to his parents that he would be coming home to visit them.

Lawlessness and the Breakdown of Family and Sexual Morality

And they were so happy that he would be arriving. When he arrived, they were looking forward to what he had brought along. And when he walked in, he walked in with another man. And they said, oh, son, who is this man?

He said, no, that's my girlfriend. So he had become a homosexual. And do you think that there would have been joy about that? There will be many problems if we live a lawless life. An Indonesian man went to America.

And when he got there, they started asking him about whether he was married or not. And in that place, if you're not married, they quickly organize for you to get married. For them, it's very important that you get married.

But this man that had come from Indonesia, he was an instrument in the Lord's hands, someone that the Lord had been using in Indonesia. And so they arranged, and they got a white girl, and they got married.

Sometimes I don't understand girls. I've got six daughters myself, and I'm very thankful for them. But sometimes when I see girls out there, I wonder what happened to their minds. It seems as if they really can't think very far.

So they got married, and they went back to Indonesia. And when they got there, she was shocked at the living conditions. She said, but how can I live in this? It's just a hut. How can I live in this? And she asked her husband, well, where's the fridge?

He said, no, we don't have fridges here. You just hang the meat up outside in the tree. Well, where's the tap for water? And he said, well, my wife, we don't have running water here. Here's a bucket. You must go down to the river and go and get water there.

And where's the challenge in it? And then I look closer. Fridge. What in Kenya now? The girl was shocked. She said, but I can't live like this. I can't fetch water from the river. I can't live without a fridge.

I'll never make it, since I'm catching the next flight back to America. I'm not discriminating. I'm not discriminating. Now I'm not someone who discriminates. Even right back to 1951, before even people even started talking against apartheid, I was telling people that it's wrong.

You know that I'm not one who discriminates. But there are problems and you should think. There is a white lady who came from another country overseas, an English lady and a black man came to her and said I'd like to get married to you.

Now the white girl to get married to one it's it's so easy you don't even have to pay dowry, you don't have to pay anything. All she has to do is say yes and then you can marry her. If you like you can buy her a ring, doesn't even need to be an expensive one, you can buy a cheap one.

So he said well let's get married. And then this white lady said to the man said well you know I don't know how we can get married to each other because there's one thing I just cannot do and that's carry a bucket of water or something on my head.

It's just impossible for me. And the man said I understand then let's rather leave it. And there was another young German lady who I met in Germany and she came to me crying and tears saying I got married to a Muslim and I've even got two children from him and but when I went with him to his home country I found out that he had already had other, he's even got other wives I wasn't the only one.

I thought I was the only wife but now I find out he's got others. The Quran allows a Muslim man to have four wives. If you're clever you can even have 20. Because the Quran only allows you to have four wives under one roof but then you can have a compound next door where you keep all the other other ones.

So you tell them that look you're married to me while you're in my house. When you walk out the door it's effectively a divorce. So you're not my wife anymore and then you can bring in the next one. But there is a way of escape, a way of salvation and a fortress.

Adultery, Lust, and the Call to Holiness

The Lord teaches us that if you have a wife and you just look at another one with lust in your eye you've already committed adultery. That's how the Lord judges. He says if you've got a wife you look at another one with lust in your eye you've already sinned with her, you've committed adultery and you know that adulterers don't inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Now dear women, just allow me to say something to you. If God judges the man so severely just by looking at the woman something happens in his heart, he's committed that crime already. Now you women who with your bare breasts, with your bosom you draw his eyes to you to yourself.

Don't you think that the judge of the men will judge you as well? You're making him sin! I don't want to speak something and when you walk out the door that you've already forgotten it. I've always hated rules.

Now all the rules are gone. All the hemlines are available. Hemlines I don't even want to be there when judgment is pronounced on her, this priestess of fashion. That this kind of evil woman, Christian.

It's time for us to wake up. A wife. I'm not surprised that this situation in South Africa is like this. The white man has fallen. Who still respects him? Why should you lose your farms? What have you done on those farms?

What are you still doing today? You should be light. You should be salt. And what are you doing? Mary Quent, that priestess is your mother in fashion. The 17th of June, now in June, someone from here, from Wasisabantu went to Johannesburg.

Modest Dress as a Christian Witness

On the way to Johannesburg, he met with a man. It was a lady. And the man asked this black girl, he said, tell me where do you come from? You dressed so smartly. And before she got to Johannesburg, or by the time she got to Johannesburg, there were five men that had approached her and asked her where she comes from, because she was dressed so well.

She hadn't noticed, because she was dressed just normally like we always were dressed. But one after the other said, where do you come from? Why is it that you're dressed so differently? They noticed it.

And she was amazed, and she wondered what it was that made them speak like this. When she got home, she said to her mother, mother, can you explain to me? I don't understand, because more than five men on the way asked me and commented about the way I was dressed.

What does it mean? And the mother said, my daughter, it means exactly what they have said. The men up here, the people up here in Johannesburg are sick and tired of women that don't dress properly. They respect you, they honor you, because they say they are tired of women who don't dress properly.

Do you understand? Master, speak in another language that you understand. Do you understand? There is a refuge. God teaches us how to dress. Adam and Eve were created by God. They didn't notice that they were naked.

The Fall, Shame, and God's Covering

They were clothed in glory, with glory. They didn't notice that they were naked. They were clothed in glory, with glory. They didn't notice that they were naked. They were clothed in glory, with glory.

They didn't notice that they were naked. But when they sinned, when they were disobedient, their sin wasn't sex, they were married, God had married them. But their sin was that they had disobeyed God, for they ate of the fruit of that tree which God had forbidden.

When they had sinned, they noticed that they were naked. How did they notice that they were naked? They noticed that they were naked. How did they notice that they were naked? And so they noticed they were naked and what did they do?

They went and they sowed fig leaves together. Now that's quite an effort to take those leaves, they're not very big. I would have thought it would have been much easier just to take some banana leaves.

They could have covered themselves far easier. But now I can't go into detail about that because even that has a spiritual significance. So they sowed together these fig leaves and what happens? When the sun gets hot, these fig leaves dry up and they just fall down.

So it's really a useless effort. It's a useless attempt. And when God saw them, He was troubled when He saw them in that state. And in the afternoon, He went to visit them. But when He got there, they were not in their place.

He said, Adam, Adam, where are you? And he appeared from behind a tree and he said, Lord, here I am. Why are you hiding, Adam? Oh Lord, I'm naked. Who told you that you're naked? Did you eat of that tree, of that fruit which I have told you not to?

And he said, Oh Lord, it's true, but it's because of Eve. She got me to do it. What a pity for Eve, for the woman, that sin should have come through her. Eve, why did you do it? Oh no Lord, it's because of the serpent.

The serpent deceived me. And the Lord said to the serpent, why did you do it? The serpent didn't answer or didn't say, well, it's the devil that made me do it. He took the blame. And the Lord said to the serpent, now you will have to crawl on your belly, before the snake didn't have to crawl on its belly.

And the Lord said to the serpent, I'll put enmity between you and your offspring and the offspring of man. Man will crush you on your head and you will strike at his heel. And in these days we'd like to show you the film of the Passion of Christ.

And in it, there's that scene where that serpent, the snake comes. Into the garden of Gethsemane and he stands on his forehead. So a woman that doesn't dress properly is an abomination to the Lord, but even becomes an abomination to men, like these men in Johannesburg.

Moral Decline, Marriage, and the Need for Repentance

Now I'll be closing, I've spoken enough. Now it's interesting to note that the men are starting to call women MTN. Now these things stand for different words in Zulu. And the M is for a woman who just lives a loose life and doesn't care even what colour he is.

A woman that burns, burns. Bible says if a man has a daughter that burns, he should look for a man for her. Rather let she have anybody than burn. Now the men in Gauteng call a woman that walks around immorally, not covered well.

She doesn't mind whether it's black or white, yellow, green, doesn't matter. So the way women dress hasn't just become an abomination to the Lord, but to people as well, even those who don't know the Lord.

In early June there was an article in the Daily Sun. It's quite a popular paper because it's so cheap, it's only 120. And in this the men came out saying that they were not happy at all with the way that the women dress.

Complaining about the terrible way that women get dressed. Saying that the girls here in South Africa, they take the examples from other countries and then they dress even worse than those people. I fear that I fear that the men here in South Africa, they take the examples from other countries and then they dress even worse than those people.

We as Christians should set the example here. We should set the trend. We should go to the shopkeepers and the people who sell us clothing and tell them what we want. And that we start setting the trend, not the other way around.

This is 2010. This is 2010. 2010, we're all hoping to host the World Cup, but I wonder how many of us will live to see it. Will you still be around or will you be in the grave because of AIDS? Let us stand up.

Prayer for Deliverance and Spiritual Renewal

Lord, now we, and I leave it over to you. I don't know whether they've understood or not. But Lord, I leave it all to you and them as well. If it went according to the cry in my heart, Lord, I'd say, O Lord, may it dawn on everyone, old and young, that there may be a change.

And if someone is bound by the chains of the devil, we pray that you will break them and that you will be our fortress. God, Holy Spirit, work in a miraculous, in a wonderful way. Work in a way that changes people's lives.