Integrity of Heart — Erlo Stegen

Martin Luther and the Reformation

Remembering the great things which took place regarding the faith on that certain day. At that time, it was the Roman Catholic Church which ruled the whole world, the whole Christian world. And God raised up Martin Luther who began the Reformation.

Because the belief had been that you can save yourself by your own works, by your own efforts. Luther had been very young and wanted to study law. One day while he was travelling with a friend, walking with a friend, a storm gathered.

And there was much thunder and rain, and they ran for refuge under a tree. Lightning struck and his friend died. He said to himself, what does it matter, my studying law and becoming a judge one day? I need to rather consider seriously the things of God.

His father was very upset when he changed his career direction. And he said, I thought I'd brought a real young man into this world who would make a success of life and now he becomes a priest. But he said, I cannot but do this.

I must obey God. And so he studied theology to be a priest, to be a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Despite his great desire to live for God, he was troubled by sin. And you're so distressed by evil thoughts and bad temper and getting irritable and things like that.

And little things distressed him greatly, they became huge things to him. His counselor one day advised him and said, don't be so distressed by such minor things. These are just for little, these are things of dolls.

Sins that belong just to dolls. He said, don't be distressed just by these minor things. And so he kept quiet about them. But it troubled him. He said, I cannot be quiet about my sins. He was told and advised to trouble himself with penance, fastings, Lying on a cold stone floor in order to feel the pain of cold.

And then go through the normal rituals of the day where they would go to some of these cathedrals which had many steps leading up to it. And at the first step on his knees he would say the Our Father, finish it.

Then on the next step say the prayer again. And on the next step that his knees would be raw by the time he got to the top. Troubling and causing himself to suffer. One day while he was kneeling, climbing these stairs, As he was saying one prayer after the other, One raw knee on the step, praying the prayer, finishing it, then to the next.

Suddenly the Lord spoke to him in his heart from Romans 3 .28. Man is not justified by works but by grace. This was an enormous illumination to him, a revelation of not saving yourself through your own efforts but by Jesus.

And he trusted God. His life was changed. And then on the 31st of October, he being a preacher there in Wittenberg at one of the cathedrals, He wrote down many points. One after the other regarding error in the church.

He wrote down 95 different points. And then he took those and he nailed it to the door of the church. Saying if we follow in this direction, this is not God's word, this is not the right direction. And revival broke out.

And that is why on the 31st of October, the Sunday closest to it is known throughout the Protestant world as Reformation Sunday. If God hadn't raised them up and worked in such a phenomenal way, maybe we too would be suffering under that same thing.

Scripture, Repentance, and an Upright Heart

And so we remember that matter at this time. How did it begin with the word of God? The word of God came and spoke to his heart, showed him his error and brought about true repentance. These days I was visited by a man, a person who was very ill.

And I asked the Lord as to which verse I should read to him. And I found a place in 1 Chronicles 29, verse 17. It's in the Old Testament.

In my Zulu Bible it's numbered.

You'll find it in 1 Chronicles 29.

In 1 Chronicles 29.

Let me start with verse 15. I'm just going to read them. I'm not going to comment on all of them. For we are aliens and pilgrims before you, as were all our fathers. Our days on earth are as a shadow and without hope.

Our Lord, our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name is from your hand and is all your own. I know also, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.

As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things and now with joy I have seen your people who are present here to offer willingly to you. O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of your people.

Keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of your people. I know, my God, that you test the heart and that you love uprightness. The things of God, the things of faith are a mystery.

As I read this text to this very ill person, they said, I'm amazed that in the Old Testament something like this should be written.

I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. I know, my God, that you test the heart and that you love uprightness. I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.

And I said to the person, indeed, the Greek language has a certain word, epignosis, which refers to understanding brought about by revelation.

And that's an experiential knowledge.

Experiential knowledge. You may be taught in school and taught when you're younger about the things of God, but it just goes in one ear and goes out the other. And you have no comprehension of what it really means.

But how wonderful if before you die, you meet with it experientially, that you recognize the reality and truth of it. And I noticed how this person, as I was reading the scriptures, was listening so attentively, not wanting to lose a single word.

And when we sang a hymn, also singing along as much as they could in the little strength that they had, really paying attention because of the reality of death. And then he told me, because he owns a farm, he says, I've collected all the laborers on my farm and announced to them, I'm going to leave you.

He said, you know my life. You know what I've done and said. However, on a certain day, I've met with God. You know my life before I met with the Lord, what I used to do, and you are the witnesses of what happened in my life and how I changed when I met the Lord.

And you are my witnesses to the fact that the things that I used to do, I no longer did. Wonderful if a person meets with God in such a real way and experiences such a great change. Here, David was dying and he was preparing for Solomon to take over his position.

He was praying for Solomon and for the whole nation. And he said, Lord, keep forever the intent and the thoughts of the heart of your people. And fix their heart toward you. David would often pray for God's people, for the nation of God.

And here he prays that the thoughts and very motives of the hearts of God's people would be with integrity and that their heart would be fixed toward God. Listen to the way he prays in verse 17 where he says, I know my God.

He doesn't just pray about God in general, but he says my God. That you test the heart. David knew God as the one who tested his heart. Many Christians don't know that. That's why they can deny the very thing which they know full well that they have done.

Revival, Self-Deception, and Walking in the Spirit

Instead of being like this man of God who could say, my God, you are the one who tests the heart. A person who walks in integrity, who is not bluffing their way. They live on a different level. They are not like the nothings who walk on this level of self-deception.

Do you know that people...

You can recognize people who have met with revival. There are marks and characteristics about them which you can recognize. You can say, this person, no, they haven't. Sometimes just on the face. I remember so often the days where we poured out our hearts in prayer, crying to God, come down, oh Lord, come, be in the midst of your people.

Where we pleaded with the Lord to get rid of everything that was of ourselves, but that which was of Him, of His Spirit, would remain. I remember those days were unlike any other days. It was as if God would take the heart of a person and just expose it openly on the table.

That's why I'm constantly astonished by people who can fight. By Christians who can have an argument and they can get so upset with each other that they even part company. I'm astonished, I'm disappointed, I just don't know what to say when I see such a thing.

One has to say, well, even if they're Christians, but they're living in the flesh, they certainly do not walk in the Spirit. They don't know God in a proper, real, deep way, they just know Him superficially.

My God, you who test the heart, do you know God in that way? This God, this Jesus who said, if you look lustfully after a woman, looking at her with lust, you have already committed adultery, you have divorced your own wife, you've sinned, you've committed adultery.

This is the God that David knew, the God who tests your heart. David went through a time where he covered his sin. With various plans and cunning and strategies, he covered up until God exposed him in a way that he had to say, this God who knows and tests my heart, the God who sees me.

The Eye of God Reveals Hidden Sin

When the revival first began at Mapumulo, a certain little girl sat under a lemon tree. There was a time that she was sitting there, and then she got such a fright when she saw a great eye looking at her.

Gazing at her, and she wondered, what is this huge eye looking at me for? When this eye was upon her, instantly she recognized all her sins, they just began to be revealed to her. Her arguing with other children at school, her lies, her hatred, her grudges, her stealing, couldn't leave something without wanting to take it, she had a demon of stealing.

All this was revealed before her, that eye had tested her heart and revealed everything.

There was no pen or paper around her.

There was no pen or paper around, but she found a piece of cardboard and a bit of burnt coal. She used this to write her sins down by name on this scrap of cardboard, saying, I don't want to forget even one sin.

For this great eye of God, who sees all things, also tests the depths of our hearts. She wrote all of it down with this coal. Then she sent this cardboard piece to me.

She sent this cardboard piece to me, saying, I don't want to forget even one sin.

She sent this cardboard piece to me, saying, I don't want to forget even one sin. And she felt pain in her heart about the sins she had committed. And she wrote to me that God had shown all her sins, not only the things that she had known about, but also the things that were covered up and where she had cunningly deceived about it, and the Lord had exposed it.

Wonderful is the work of God when God works, when He is at work, blessed is such a person. When Jesus met with that woman of Samaria, the Samaritan woman,.

She said, I don't want to forget even one sin.

When Jesus met with that woman of Samaria, the Samaritan woman, she said, I don't want to forget even one sin. And this woman had met with that one as well, the one who tests the heart. She ran and called all the people, saying, He has exposed me, exposed to me, and revealed all the things that I've ever done.

This was the God of David. Can you call Him your God? Has He revealed Himself to you? Or are you still in the level of having to be caught? You still need to be told and confronted? Listen to Hebrews 4 .12.

Sorry, verse 13. 12 and 13.

Verse 14.

Verse 15. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Even our thoughts and intents and inner motives are revealed by the One who is the Word.

There was somebody, during the time of the revival, a lady gave birth to a child and called Him Word, or the Word.

The Father called Him Word.

Calling Him by this name of Jesus. Because when Jesus comes in, He separates between soul and spirit, between marrow and joints. And there is nothing covered that is not naked before His eyes. For everything is naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Accountability Before God

We are still going to give account. We are still going to speak before Him.

Jerusha was speaking.

Speaking about an American who referred to the importance of accountability. Somebody to whom you are accountable, we would refer to that person as a counselor. But we? To God Himself. To God we will be accountable.

We must give account of everything that we have done. Since our earliest age, before we even went to school, right through life, everything. Remember the person who came from Cape Town who had had a very big operation done on their neck?

Who had asked for prayer beforehand and the doctor, the specialist who operated on him said, I have experienced a miraculous thing. As my hands were moving, it was like a hand came down and was moving my hand in operating.

He said when he woke up, he felt like he had come out of a big, deep pit. And he then asked the sister, because she had been watching him as he was lying there in the ICU, He asked her, Sister, is Jesus really alive?

Is He there? And she said yes. He asked, can Jesus forgive my sins? The sister kept quiet. She didn't know what to answer him. Because she didn't know the forgiveness of her sins. And then he told her about what he had seen from the time that he was so young.

Going to school. To primary school. He experienced again, he saw again everything that he had done. He saw his life at secondary school and at high school. Then his life at university. He said, I saw everything.

My sins were completely naked. He said, that's when I woke up with such suffering and so troubled and asked the nursing sister, can Jesus forgive my sins? Troubled. Do you know that? Or are you still sitting in your sins?

Has Jesus forgiven all your sins? Can you say, my God, you who test the heart of a person. I know my God that you test the heart. When God sees a person, the first thing he sees is their heart. He sees us.

Hagar and the God Who Sees

God sees us. I think of Hagar. I remember Sarah, the wife of Abraham, was barren. And then in her old age, she decided that she would never be able to have children.

Sarah, the wife of Abraham, said to her husband Abraham,.

You can see that I'm barren and I'm never going to be able to have children now anymore. Take then my maidservant from Egypt and rather have children with her. Take my slave. That's what Abraham did. Hagar fell pregnant.

When Hagar realized she was pregnant and Sarah was barren, she began to be haughty and looked down on her. She thought of herself as being more important than Sarah.

Sarah, the wife of Abraham, said to her husband Abraham, you can see that I'm barren and I'm never going to be able to have children.

Then Sarah went to Abraham and said, let God be the judge, but isn't it the case that she is now haughty and being proud and looking down on me, this slave girl? And Abraham said, but you, the one who said that this should be done, you do with her as you decide.

Then battle broke out. Sarah abused Hagar. Hagar would back chatter. You know how women can be catty and fight when they are together? The offspring of Eve, how awfully catty they can be. That is why having more than one wife, those who have experienced such a thing say, we don't want to have anything to do with it.

One wife can be problematic enough, having two or three. But oh, how this jealousy of yours can be at work. That is why the Japanese, the Chinese character, the written character for battle is a house with two women in it.

How true. Chinese, an old nation, and they know it. Two women in one house. That is battle.

They don't have to spell out the letters of battle. They just draw it, a pictorial description of two women in a house. Hagar said, well, I'm not going to stay here. I'm going to get up and go. So off she went.

She then got to a well of water and sat there. And the angel of the Lord came. It's Genesis 16 from verse 7. The angel of the Lord found her at the spring of water in the wilderness by the spring on the way to Shur.

And he said, Hagar, Sarah's maid, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarah. Here is a great message. Where do you come from? And where are you going to?

If you just pack up and leave, think about where you're going. She said, I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarah. So the angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hand.

Do you hear what God said to her? It doesn't help for you to submit. Don't try and escape your circumstances. Go and submit under her hand. And the angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly so that they shall not be counted for multitude.

And the angel of the Lord said to her, Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction.

You who have sinned against God, stand up and hasten to repent. And know that all who repent and all who repent on their tengah are his children, and they will give strength

He shall be like a wild mule, his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him, and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.". This is the father of the Muslims. This is the mule that is not tamed, is against everyone and everyone against it.

Just see what Islam is like today. That's the Saddams. Those are the Bin Ladens. There are some in Africa who even write the names of these men as heroes on their homes as if though they are heroes. Because they don't realize that these are untamed mules.

These are the type who encourage suicide bombing, strapping bombs around themselves, blowing themselves up. These are the wild mules which cannot be tamed. The offspring of Hagar, but as a result of Sarah.

And Sarah then complained about it. So you be careful. You might decide something, make a plan, and yet you the very one who mourns the consequences of your plans. Maybe you've brought children into the world.

The type of children who just become rebels, who need to be expelled, who are wild, on the streets, falling pregnant before marriage. Maybe you are the one who fell into a lustful relationship. You did it according to your own cunning, not with God.

In the middle of the next verse, verse 13, you are the God who sees. For she said, have I also here seen him who sees me? Have you seen the one who sees all? As she then named this well, Bir Lahairo, which means you who are the God who sees.

Holiness, Conviction, and Confession

So she named God as the one who sees. How will you name your God? He is named with many different names. I told you recently of the man who said he's never found in the Bible the God who is love, love, love, where thrice says love, but it does speak often about the God who is thrice holy.

That is the God who is so holy that he shows your sins, convicts you of the sins which he sees. Then you confess them and turn away from them. The prophet didn't hear the seraphim crying out, love, love, love, but holy, holy, holy.

He was convicted, said, oh, I'm a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of a generation of people of unclean lips. How the people, what are their lips like, those with whom you live? David knew the God who tested the heart, who has pleasure in uprightness.

He knew the God who was the one of integrity, who wanted the honesty and uprightness of the heart. You who play around and you keep quiet even about the sins of others because you say I'm scared of their opinion and they'll think badly of me.

Well, you're on the way to hell. I end with this matter. For we're speaking about the heart. Even when they told him things that were wrong, he wasn't able to give a godly response.

Samuel, Saul, and God's Choice of David

Then God spoke to Samuel, Samuel the prophet, and said, Samuel, I have discarded King Saul.

From being the king of Israel. And Samuel cried and wept for days on end, crying about King Saul. It was so painful to him. Then the Almighty spoke to him. And you find that in 1 Samuel chapter 16. Samuel, for how long will you mourn for Saul?

For I have discarded him. For the Lord says, you who deny him, he will deny you. You who confess him, he will confess you. He said, fill your horn with oil and go to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king among his sons.

And he went there. I make the matter short. What is Jesse? He asked, Jesse, do you have a son? He said, indeed, I've got eight of them. He said, call them. For God has called me to anoint one of them.

He called his sons and they came. The first one came. He entered in. Samuel was very impressed by the first son and thought his height, his appearance, it looked so manly. It must be him. And God said, no, don't be deceived by his appearance.

For God said, no, Samuel, this is not the one. Samuel was shocked. Then he said, Jesse, is there another? After him. He brought him in. He passed him in front of him. And the Lord said, neither this one.

Then the next and the next till all seven sons came by and God said, no, this isn't the one. Oh, the prophets of God were amazing. They heard God speaking to them. Have you heard the Lord speaking to you?

Jesus said, my sheep, hear my voice. If you're not hearing his voice, maybe you should check up. Perhaps you're a goat and not a sheep. You're a goat of the devil. Samuel was amazed. He said, what? Are these the only sons?

Because all of them, the Lord had denied. Then he said, no, there is one more. He's out there shepherding the sheep. He said, call him. All the older ones were soldiers of Saul. The three oldest ones.

They were trained warriors, men. Then he said, Samuel said, isn't there another one? And he said, there is, call him.

He said, there is. He said, there is.

And they waited and waited as the boy was called. And who came in? But the youngest of all, this boy, he was ready of complexion, bright eyed and good looking. And the Lord said to him, this is the one.

And he anointed him with oil. And God said, Samuel, I'm not like man. For men see the face, the outward appearance. But I see the heart. I choose him for I see his heart. He is upright and has integrity of heart.

David's Courage and Integrity

If you want to be a real man of God, pray earnestly, really pray that the Lord would deal with your heart. The heart that is acceptable, upright, has integrity before God. Faithful, able to stand for the truth.

This little boy. When a lion would come to steal a lamb. He would confront the lion and rescue the lamb from the jaws of the lion. He denied his life even for a single lamb. And on another day, a bear came.

And David wrestled with it as it took a sheep. He was upright.

He was strong. Mr. Pliers, Mrs. Pliers.

He was of radical. He was of ruddy complexion. It is known that redheads are strong characters, know what to do to stand for what they know is right. Would that we'd all be redheads in being faithful and standing for what is right.

Now don't go and buy dye for your hair to dye your head red. Your hair red. Go to Jesus. Go to Jesus. Go to Jesus and ask him to make your heart to be upright. And this boy, the eighth of all these others, the seven who were rejected, he the last one who was accepted, had the heart that God wanted.

Reformation of the Heart

On this Reformation Sunday, let there be a reformation of your heart indeed. This is the second of November 2003. The year is coming to an end. Pray and say, Lord, give me an upright heart. How sad it would be if we celebrate Reformation Sunday, but there's no reformation in your heart.

Let us pray. Lord, you revealed to us today on this Reformation Sunday that what is necessary is the reformation, the change of heart.

Lord, we must be attractive to people, be tall and nice and liked by people, but without.

A good and upright heart, Lord, we have nothing. Lord, search our hearts today. May each one of us be able to say that I know the God who searches the heart. Take out the evil heart and put in your good heart.

Take out the heart of stone and put in that soft heart of flesh. That we may be people who are truly upright in the Lord. Amen.