God's Tender Mercies Part 2 - Preparing the Way — Erlo Stegen

Lord, we ask you to once again reveal yourself to us. We thank you for your working on earth. And we pray, Lord, that your gospel would go forth in power and conquer the whole world. And those going out to different countries in this week, Lord, we pray that you would be with them, your power would be with them, and that you'd protect them, and that your gospel would go forth.

Amen. I want to continue where I left off last Sunday, where we spoke about the mercy, the grace of God. And I trust that you have received this grace and held on to it too, and you've grasped it. Now we ended in the second verse, we're going to read the third now.

Isaiah’s Call to Prepare the Way

It's Isaiah 40, verse 3. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low.

The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. We'll read thus far.

I remember once reading about our ancestry in Germany long ago, before the gospel had come, because they were pagans, heathen. They would have a festival, a special celebration once a year in summer. The festival of the changing of the sun, because of the sun as it rises more, the day becomes longer, till at its full height it starts to become, it goes lower, and the days become shorter.

When the season would change, these heathen in Germany would have a special celebration. At that celebration, they would give human sacrifices.

They were war-fearing folk, and they would go out to battle and bring back the conquered.

Ones, and they had certain idol or altars, and I can't go into details about all the names of their different gods. They would sacrifice these people, slaughter them upon these altars on the rocks. To appease their gods.

In a similar manner with animism in Africa and ancestral worship, bringing blood sacrifices for the deceased, placing special food for the departed spirits, it was similar overseas. When we visited the ancient Stegan homestead, they took us there and showed us the big rocks, the altars which their forefathers had used for worship in a pagan way.

When the gospel came, they converted. They repented of these sacrifices and left them. They parted from these gods.

Today, it's only in history books and that you read about the different gods and their names,.

As part of their worship and things, they would have certain ceremonies where they'd pick certain flowers and leaves and herbs, which they would call a special name. They would make special oil essence out of it, and that would be as part of the ritual.

One of their rituals was the belief that taking a certain type of tree where it had forked, as part of their witchcraft ceremonies, a person who needed healing from their disease, they would walk through that gap, through the fork.

Conversion Requires Leaving the Old Life

When the gospel of Jesus Christ came, things changed. They stopped with that worship. They stopped with their witchcraft. And it is always the same, that when people come to Christ, there is a conversion, a changing, a leaving of the old life and a new, bringing about of a new life.

One who denies that and carries on with the old is just, he belongs to the devil. And so it is that if a person meets with Christ, they stop with the old, like with special rituals at gravesides, which the pagans do, and that is left behind.

In the same way, our German ancestry, when they came to Christ, they stopped completely with the slaughtering of their enemies on altars, and that summer feast or celebration of the sun was stopped, and they call it the Johannes celebration.

Remember the meaning of John, as we said last time, meaning the mercy of God, the grace of God, meaning that we don't need that old life anymore, we have a new life. And it was wonderful that they changed from the spiritism of the past, and they brought in grace, John meaning this John, John the Baptist, the one who prepared the way.

And if you go and read in Matthew chapter 3, you see there about real repentance. Now, there was a royalty in Germany, and one called the Duke, for instance, and it was known that the Duke of Saxony paid tithes and money to build a church in our area there in Hermannsburg in Germany.

And his name, the name of that Duke was Hermann Billung.

Billung, B-I-L-L-U-N-G, Billung, Hermann Billung, Duke of Saxony, built a church for them, about 980.

That was in the year 980. If you go overseas, you'll find some churches that are so ancient, they're over a thousand years old. There are ancient buildings and castles in Europe. You find them going back to the previous millennium in, like in 980, this Duke of Saxony then built this church, and that area became known as Hermannsburg or the Castle of Hermann.

Now, the meaning of that festival then was the grace of God.

And it was proof that people who were in the very depths of ancestry, ancestral worship.

And spiritism and occultism came out of that through repentance. And he preached the gospel of grace, mercy. So through that, they received grace, mercy, heaven. A person who repents, receives all these things, receives mercy and grace and all the privileges of life that go with it.

Repentance as the Condition of Forgiveness

If the gospel is preached without the response of repentance, it is useless. If you don't repent upon hearing the gospel, then it is in vain. You're still on your way to hell. Repentance is a must. It doesn't matter how many good and wonderful sermons you listen to and that you might even praise, unless there is a response of repentance to it, it doesn't help you.

Forgiveness of sin. It doesn't just happen by itself. It must be met with repentance. The two go together. The condition for forgiveness of sin is repentance. Now, if our ancestry in Germany had continued upon hearing the gospel, continued with their slaughtering of their enemies upon altars and human sacrifices, their faith would have been in vain and just stupid, silly.

If the drunkard says, I've repented, I'm now a child of God, but he still continues with his drinking. He's lying for the one who's been sexually immoral. If he says he's repented, but he still goes further in his immorality, he's lying.

He's still in his sin. Person who claims to be a Christian without repentance is just lying. He's a child of the devil of hell. And you parents must know and realize that your children are children of hell.

Unless they repent. The one who truly repents doesn't just mouth the words of repentance, but he lives it. There's the righteousness of Christ. It's the change of life that Christ's righteousness is there in its place.

Making a Highway for God Through the Heart

Now, in our text, it says, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert, a highway for our God. It says the voice of one crying. It doesn't mean one who cried.

It's not just the past tense, but a continual cry in the wilderness. And it says, it is the voice of one crying out and saying, and speaking. And blessed is the one who hears that cry. Take careful note.

Listen attentively to what this voice cries out. It says, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the wilderness, a highway for our God. That's speaking about leveling out. That it is a level and plain.

Now, how do we make a plain a highway? A godly remorse about your sin that truly cries out in remorse and repentance about your sin, that you feel the pain of it. Yesterday, some of our young people from Sizabantu who have motorbikes, either the two wheel type or the four wheelers.

They went and they arranged there at a fire. Now, they didn't take the normal road to get to Sunsprite. They went through Mapumuluhimbitwa, across the Mvoti. It's about 48 kilometers if you take that road.

But if you go via Crownscroft, Great Town, Dalton, Thornleys, then it's over 100 kilometers.

I thought, well, let me be close by.

I don't want anybody to be injured. And in case of anything, I would be there. Now, going that rough road yesterday, up and down valleys and hills, one got a better understanding of making straight the way of the Lord, making it level.

Because even though it is a shortcut, nevertheless, it takes longer to get to the destination in comparison to the highway that goes around the other way. Here, God says, make the way straight. Lift up the valleys.

Bring down every mountain and hill, bring it low. Make the crooked places straight and the rough places smooth. Make smooth the place which is rough and with potholes. That the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.

And it says, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this. It's not the mouth of John. It's God who spoke through John. Herod had John the Baptist decapitated because of this woman in his life and her daughter in the dancing and what happened there.

John the Baptist’s Voice and Herod’s Corruption

Even though John the Baptist's voice was silenced, it doesn't matter because Herod had him decapitated because his lover hated John so much because John had said openly, it is not right, Herod, that you should live with your brother's wife.

And as Umpirte said, that even ministers there in Europe and Netherlands living in perversion, the same was true there. He was living, and as politicians may live in a depraved lifestyle, so too this Herod who got John killed.

He went back to his wife and said, this John is such a nuisance to me. He's mocking me and he continually accuses me. And she, his lover, was very upset.

I had a special feast. When the liquor was.

Flowing and the wine had got to their heads, and then there was dancing, and this daughter of the lover of Herod, she came and in this erotic dance he was, Herod, King Herod was so aroused, he said, I'll give you anything.

Ask for anything, even home. Half my kingdom, I'll give it to you.". The girl went to her mother. She then asked of.

Her mother, King Herod has offered half of his kingdom, what should I say? And she.

Immediately said, bring the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Let me just.

Say it straight, you women can be wonderful, but you can also be thoroughly depraved and terrible and sink to the lowest depths as well. You are worse than the man. The heart of a woman is a devilish thing if Christ isn't there.

Blessed is the man who is not married to such a woman. She can take the man to heaven or hell. So the immediate demand of this depraved lover of King Herod was, bring his head,.

John the Baptist's head, on a platter. Oh, the wickedness of a woman's heart. But even though she succeeded in having him decapitated, his voice was not silenced, for that voice speaks still. Even for her, after he was beheaded, still his voice was ringing in her ears.

And even though she's been in hell for 2 ,000 years, she can still hear that voice.

Blessed is the man who is not married to such a woman. She can take the man to heaven or hell.

The Valleys and Hills of the Human Heart

You should have seen what it was like yesterday. I wish we had videotaped it for you so that you could see what rough places really are, the ups and downs, the crooked places, the hills and the valleys.

That area is known in English as the Valley of the Thousand Hills. Now, John the Baptist was not speaking about these valleys and rough places. He's speaking about the crooked and rough places of the heart.

He's not speaking about the valley of the thousand hills. He's speaking about the valley of the thousand hills of the heart.

When the revival first began, this was a text that we just would not part with. It was close to us all the time, to make the rough places smooth, those places that are crooked, that are made straight, that there's a highway made for our God.

What does that mean to you, you children?

When the revival first began, this was a text that we just would not part with. It was close to us all the time, to make the rough places smooth, those places that are crooked, that there's a highway made for our God.

What does that mean to you, you children? When the revival first began, this was a text that we just would not part with. When the revival first began, this was a text that we just would not part with.

Those places that are crooked, that there's a highway made for our God. What does that mean to you, you children? When the revival first began, this was a text that we just would not part with. It was close to us all the time, to make the rough places smooth, those places that are crooked, that there's a highway made for our God.

What does that mean to you, you children? When the revival first began, this was a text that we just would not part with. Now in those early days, and the older generation will remember, when that road was then excavated to make a proper road, the government went to tremendous lengths with major earth-moving equipment, and Letton was the brand name of some of that earth-moving equipment, giant-sized wheels, and it wasn't just wheelbarrows being pushed around, as they leveled the valleys and made straight the crooked places.

Now Letton, by the way, was a Christian, and he tithed to the Lord, and as he gave, the Lord gave more back to him. You test the Lord and see whether you are not losing out, because you are not giving back to the Lord.

As you are stingy, so too you find that you don't experience the benefits and blessings of the Lord. What do you pay back to the Lord? What do you give Him as He gives you the benefits of sunshine, life, and health?

Tithing and Giving Back to the Lord

Now, let's look at Letton.

He was the one who taught me to be a Christian. I taught him to be a Christian. I taught him to be a Christian 90 percent of the time. That's what he taught me. Now, let's look at Tenrant. He taught me to be a Christian 90 percent of the time.

Now, let's look at Letton.

He went much further than just the legal demand of a tenth, the tithe. He said, no, I'd rather keep the tenth and give nine-tenths to the Lord. And he was wise too. He was a genius of a man, and so successful and blessed.

But let me continue. Not just lunch passes by, but supper too. How is the way prepared? It is through a deep, God-given remorse of sin, confessed as it is. Not that you excuse your sin. A coming to Jesus as a sinner with your sins.

A coming to Jesus as a sinner with your sins. A coming to Jesus as a sinner with your sins.

A true coming to Jesus means a necessity of real repentance. Truly confessing your sins. In German, there's a saying, coming to him as the savior from sin. If you just come to Jesus for more comforts in life, or you say, it's just so that I can get to heaven, then you're not being driven by remorse for sin.

The gospel is not saying, come to Jesus and you'll get a better motor car and more comforts. No, you'll be a cowboy of hell. Rather, you come to Jesus because your sins drive you to him. Let's speak about sin.

Bringing Hidden Sin Into the Light

It says, fill the valleys, lift up the valleys, and bring down every hill. When it rains, and there are gales and winds, When there's been an outpouring of rain and a real storm, you find that it all gravitates down to the bottom of the valley.

All the dirt and rubbish and filth collects down there. So if it speaks of the valley, it means right deep down there, where sin gathers together and collects. Your deepest, most intimate secrets of sin, hidden from others, that private, deep down wickedness, that it is lifted out of the valley.

Your hidden sins, you have to bring them to light. The ones that are buried down there, your dirt and filth, come out, come to the light with them. Have you already done that, you Germans? That's why I say to you in the German language, that you understand.

The lowest bottom of the valley, bringing it out into the light.

The sins down there in the depths, those are the most horrible sins. Those are the most dangerous sins.

The sins right down in the bottom of the valley are the most depraved, the vilest of sins. Your thoughts, the sins of your thought life, deep down. The sins of lust, your thoughts of sexual immorality,.

Jealousy, hatred, to be jealous or envious, to be hypocritical, to be lazy, to be lazy spiritually.

These are the things that are the roots of sins.

It's not just... It's not just...

It's not just those visible things that you need to confess. You need to deal with those most intimate, secret sins of yours that are invisible to human eyes. It means taking out your dirty washing and hanging it on the line.

If you don't do it here, God will do it for you on the last day, on judgment day. He'll do it for you before heaven and earth. And what a fool you'll be. The valleys.

The valleys. Have you dealt with the things down in the depths of the valleys, that which is covered up in the mire and the muck down there? Have you lifted up those deep places? Maybe a deep-seated hatred, which is invisible.

On the outward, you show that there's nothing that you hold against that person. You're nice. You act nicely towards them. But deep down, there's hatred. The Bible says if you do not love your brother, you are a murderer.

In German, it has... It has the meaning...

Being a slayer of people, one who hits out and you destroy other people's lives. On the outward, being nice and not a thing is visible, but there's that deep down rubbish of the heart, of animal filth and human filth that is soaked down into the depths of the valley.

Humility Versus Pride

And it says the mountains and hills, let them be brought down low. The high places and the hills. Pride. Haughtiness. Seeing yourself better than others. The attitude of, Lord, I thank you that I'm much better than that person there at the back, that tax collector, that publican.

I'm so much better than him. Self-justification. That high place must be brought down low. You'll never find forgiveness and reconciliation with God, but for he has said and declared in his word, he resists the proud.

No one... Finds grace outside of humility. The one who is proud, even the trace of pride from Adam, for every single person that there ever will be, you cannot find grace before the Lord with pride. Now I'm just going through the points quickly, I'm just touching on some of the points, but you be prayerful and seek the Lord, calling on him, Lord, speak to my heart, touch me.

You might be haughty, saying, I'm clever, I'm so much more intelligent than other people. Look at Nebuchadnezzar, when he lifted up his heart in pride and said, I have made all of this, all this Babylon, I have created.

How did God respond? It was with a hard hand. A hit. And by the way, I criticize and I say that we are against any government who says the banning of corporal punishment in homes that parents are not allowed to, for God has said that the parent who does not chastise his son, hates his son.

I don't mean a beating of an insane rage, but I mean a proper disciplining with the understanding of God.

I don't mean a beating of an insane rage, but I mean a proper disciplining with the understanding of God.

Nebuchadnezzar went insane. He went out where the animals, the wild animals of every type were, where hair grew over his body, he had no clothes on. God said, you lift yourself up, I will humble you. And says, and the crooked places shall be made straight.

Reconciliation and the Removal of Strife

Making level the crooked and rough places. What is that? Complaining. Strife. Like little children have an argument, and they fight. Like little children have an argument, and they fight. Now let those rough places be made smooth, all that lack of harmony, that disunity, where you have no peace between you.

Where there is no unity and complete harmony. Or you are striving to show that you are right. I am right about this, no other opinion matters. Jesus says, if you fight with your brother, calling him a fool, you are worthy of hell.

Jesus said, if your brother has ought against you, quickly go and be reconciled to him.

Jesus didn't went to the Pharisees, and Sadducees, and Scribes, and make peace with them. Oh no, he speaks about your brothers, those aren't your brothers. Don't make that man who isn't born again, and doesn't walk with God, your brother.

He isn't your brother. He is a child of the devil. He is a Teufelskind.

He is not your brother. Make it straight. Smooth. And be especially concerned if that person is a child of God.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy will be done ,on earth as it is in heaven. Grant us peace. That's all it matters.

When the Jewish Sanhedrin council was busy fighting against Peter and one of the converted Pharisees stood up and said, brothers you leave, because I want to say this now to the council, that if you fight against that, Gamaliel, if you fight against these men, if it is of God, would you fight against God himself?

Obedience and the Revelation of God’s Glory

And the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth. Yesterday we saw how this shortcut was full of rough places, potholes, where you went up and down, even our entrance to the mission, that needs to be repaired, the car, injury is done to the vehicles, and if you keep on driving on potholed roads, the car suffers, same too with your spiritual life, you suffer damage with potholes and crooked places and rough places in your life.

If you are walking along and there is a pothole in front of you on the rough place and you can't see, you can fall and stumble and slip and fall, doubt. To be in doubt or to be one who is neither here or there, you meet with a child of God and you give the impression that everything is fine and you laugh with those who laugh and you are just slippery, that is a rough place too.

And let me draw to an end, get towards the end, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.

And all flesh shall see it together.

Do you see for yourself now that if you want the glory of the Lord to shine in your life, this is what you ought to do. No person in this world will ever get revival, nobody in the past and nobody in the future will get it, unless he has heard God's call.

And if he is disobedient to what he has been told, this is true repentance, obedience to what God says, then the glory of the Lord will be revealed in your life.

For the mouth of God has spoken it.

This is the mouth of God speaking to you, not Eru, not John the Baptist, God is speaking to you and if you don't obey and do what God has told you, you are disobedient to God and don't tell me you are a child of the Lord and you are saved, I say you are a child of the devil, you take after your father, he is a liar and you can lie just like him.

The mouth of God has spoken to you, not Eru, not John the Baptist, God is speaking to you and if you don't obey and do what God has told you, you are disobedient to God and don't.

Tell me you are a child of the Lord and you are saved, I say you are a child of the devil, no fear, I call now.

The Voice of God and the Call to Repentance

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, is it John the Baptist? Not at all, it's no other voice than God himself, it is his mouth which is spoken and if you don't heed and obey his voice, you will still see what will happen to you, maybe you will still be eaten by worms before you get to the grave.

The mouth of God has spoken, the mouth of God is still speaking, you hear what he says? You who have got homosexual inclinations, you who are a lesbian, you see where you belong, you are a child of hell, the fire and brimstone will come down and you will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah, nothing less.

The mouth of God has spoken, the mouth of God is still speaking, you who have got homosexual inclinations, you who are a lesbian, you are a child of hell, the fire and brimstone will.

Come down and you will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah, nothing less.

We are those who say, I repent today Lord, I see the valleys in my life Lord, I see these rough places, these lifted hills and mountains, Lord I repent today, I respond to you. Blessed is the one who hears and obeys, not the one who disobeys for he is cursed, but the one who immediately responds.

Real conversion, genuine conversion, that I am a child of the Lord, you go home and you have a fight with your wife, or you shout at your children. That's why Wampir said, when the Son of Man comes will he still find faith in this world, will he still find faith around every corner, there's a born again one, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour, and what, some of them come home even drunk.

Let's stand to our feet. I actually want to go now. It should be a standing to your feet in response, in obedience to God saying, I do repent Lord, otherwise if you do not repent there is a woe upon your life.

Let's pray. We are so privileged Lord to hear the mouth of God speaking. Maybe others thought that it was just the mouth of John that was speaking, but it was God himself.

Lord, and if there's one who leaves this place just seeing this as another sermon,.

Something which they can again ignore, Lord. Wouldn't you speak to them, make it clear to them that they are in direct rebellion against you. That the one who hasn't repented yet Lord, may truly repent.

And our children Lord, who've grown up in the faith but haven't repented yet, and there's still these deep valleys Lord, grant them repentance today. For Lord, they may appear so beautiful on the outside, but inside it's just bones in a grave.

Amen.