Testimony - Part 3 — Erlo Stegen

Marriage Roles and Obedience to God

Than her husband. But they forget that the head is the man. The body is the woman. Well, someone said that the body changes the head to any direction. So you, dear sisters, are on top of your husbands.

Of course, if your husband says don't steal a cow, a sheep, then you mustn't obey him. If you have to steal, in that case you must obey God more than the man. But in the Lord, the woman has got to have the right spirit to be a helpmeet for her husband.

Christlike Love in Marriage and Reading the Whole Bible

And the husband has got to love the wife as Christ loved His church. And I said to the people, people, let's for a short while just take the Bible as it is. We don't have a verse here, a verse there. Because all the churches have got their special places in the Bible.

The cherries, I like the European cherries. I said let's eat all the cake. Ah, okay. And not eat just the raisins and the red cherry on top. Let's take the whole Bible. Let us not be like naughty children who break it into pieces and just take the nice things out of it.

I like to tell people, when you read the Bible, don't have your special places. Read those you don't like. The places you don't like to read. Don't just read those nasty words all the time. But even those words that are bitter, difficult to digest, read those and do what they tell you.

Learning From the Acts of the Apostles

And I said, where do we start in the Bible? And we started with the Acts of the Apostles. And from the first verse, God breaks our hearts. Luke, who was a doctor, he wrote to his friend Theophilus. And said, I wrote to you the first letter.

All that Jesus did and he told. Do you understand that? Before Jesus spoke, he did. And it would be good if we Christians do that as well. Dr. Luke says, all that Jesus did and what he taught. We say, don't do what I do.

Just do what I tell you. That's the language of the modern Pharisees and scribes. Some people say, don't speak to me about the gospel. I don't hear it. Because what you do speaks louder than what you say.

That's what the Pharisees did. They spoke the truth. But they didn't live it. And God challenged us. And we went down on to our knees. And we had to examine the life we are living. Some people are tired of being preached it.

That you can talk as much as you like. I don't hear it. Because of what you do. The way you live. Speaks louder than what you say. And then we carried on through that book. Chapter one. Chapter two. I don't have time.

Unity of Heart and Soul in the Early Church

I'll have to stay with you for a month. If I tell you all those things. But God searched our hearts. We read that the Christians were of one heart and one soul. We know the characteristics of the soul.

That's our feeling. Our thinking. Our taste. To me that was a great miracle. At Pentecost 3000 got converted. And then 5000. They came from different parts of the world. With people of different traditions.

In spite of the fact that they were Jews. Now they were together all of one heart and one soul. Nobody having something against someone. Nobody having grudges or bitterness in his heart. We have to learn how to forgive.

Forgiveness as a Condition for Revival

When one person asked a person who experienced revival. How shall we get revival? He said if you want revival you've got to forgive. You've got to forgive. If you don't go and forgive. You'll never. You can pray till you die.

You won't get revival. There are many people in this world that pray till they die. To pray for revival. For their people to be saved. But only maybe one out of a thousand receives it. The most die haven't received.

The outpouring of God's spirit and God coming down from heaven. So friends. When we were forbidden. To hold services. Forbidden. Stopped. We held services in an old cow shed. Jesus was born in a cow shed.

Revival in the Cow Shed

And this revival in South Africa started in the cow shed. But there was full of dung. One meter high. And the owner of that place said you haven't got a place where you come together. I give you that old house which was used as a cow shed.

And the owner of that place said you haven't got a place where you come together. I give you that old house which was used as a cow shed. And when we went there we saw that it wasn't a house. It was a dump for the animals.

And it was built centuries ago. It was full of holes where the rats had eaten into and where the snakes could get into. I said we can't gather here. There's too much cow dung. So I went to the prison department.

And I said I'd like to have some prisoners because they are cheap. And then we got the cow dung out of the room. And we whitewashed the walls. When I preach to the Germans very often they say what must we do to experience revival?

Then I said get the cattle manure out of your life. Get the manure out of your life. We don't like to come together where there's cow dung. And God doesn't like to stay there. God doesn't like to stay in a pigsty.

Holiness and the Conditions of God's Promises

He says be holy because I am holy. And these are the conditions that we have got to meet. It is spiritual Hamburg if we pray for revival. And we don't fulfill the condition. And if we don't fulfill the condition, every promise has got a condition.

Jesus says if you stay in me and my words live in you, then you can pray. But if I don't stay in Christ and I don't keep his word in my heart, my prayer will achieve nothing. You can go through the whole Bible.

I'd be glad if you can show me one promise in the Bible that hasn't got a condition. If you can show me one promise that is unconditional, that doesn't have a condition. 2 Chronicles 7 verse 14 If my people, that are called by my name, will humble themselves and forsake their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will heal their land.

Humility, Repentance, and Revival

Do you want God to heal Armenia? Then turn from your wicked ways. He says if my people, that are called by my name, will humble themselves. If we can't humble ourselves, we will never get revival. And we've got to break with sin.

And we've got to break with sin. I remember many years ago, when the communist world broke down, although the German leader in East Germany said, communism hasn't died, it's only sick, and it will get healed again.

I was in Mozambique, and preaching there in the stadium. So the stadium was full of people. Then I said, I preached about that text, if my people humble themselves and forsake their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will heal their land.

And I said, now I like all the people, who have got wicked ways in their lives, to come forward, that we pray with them. Then thousands got up, and wanted to come through the gates, to the front. And all the ministers got up and said, no, no, no, that's not for you, that's for the heathen, the people that don't go to church.

Not for us Christians. So the next evening, I knew what I should say. And I said, I don't preach to your heathen, I preach to you Christians. A Christian is more guilty of not being revived, than a heathen, the God of man, who isn't saved.

The Danger of Lukewarm Christianity

The lukewarm Christian is the worst thing possible. Jesus said, you are lukewarm, I wish you would be hot. And then he carries on, he says, rather cold than lukewarm. But because you are lukewarm, you make me sick, I will throw you out.

A godless heathen is more acceptable to God, than a Christian, a saved child of God, that is lukewarm. Lukewarm is hot water, mixed with cold water. That's what the devil likes. That's what the devil likes, Christians and the world, Christ and the world.

That's lukewarm. And Jesus says, those people make him sick. And you know what it's like, if you want to, if you've got to vomit. And you know what it's like, if you want to vomit. You are sick, you are relieved, when you've vomited and it's out.

And when you vomit, it comes out, you follow it. A lukewarm Christian, half world, half Christianity, makes Jesus Christ sick, he wants to vomit. And it's true what he says, because he is the truth. The Bible says, if you lie, you are a child of the devil.

Truthfulness and the Evidence of Christian Life

If you don't speak the truth always. Because the devil is the father of lies, and the father of liars. You may pray, our Father which art in heaven, but that prayer never reaches God. Because your lips are unclean.

Sometimes you can lie. And the Bible says, then you are a child of the devil. Your name is not written in the book of life. So you may say, I'm a Christian, I'm born again, I'm baptized. I know in 1952, while I was a student, a doctor, who had five doctor titles.

As a young man, he was very bright. We had a service in Pretoria. And then I was sorry, I couldn't understand. He asked a Reformed minister to come forward. And a Baptist person. And then he says, dear brothers, who of you uses more water at rest?

You know that the Reformed just sprinkle the water. The Baptists baptized into the water. And he said, oh, I'm so sorry, my brothers. Even you who use much water. Even you Baptists. I'm only sorry, that when you baptize people, the tongue remains dry.

Because I know people that sprinkle the children. He says, he knows people that sprinkle. And they gossip. And I know Christians that are baptized. But they talk, they can gossip as well. I'm not talking and taking sides.

We are baptizing people, we don't sprinkle them. But it's a pity, if we baptize people, and the tongue isn't baptized. Then we are guilty before God. If we want to be Christians, dear brothers and sisters.

Wholehearted Christian Commitment

Let's be Christians 100%. God doesn't want half-baked Christians. God wants everything, only wants nothing. We can't go half ways with God. Dear friends, are we Christians 100 There's a saying that if the devil takes the smallest finger, he'll take the whole hand.

There's a saying that if the devil takes the smallest finger, he'll take the whole hand. And if he's got the whole hand, he's got you.