Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? — Erlo Stegen

I greet you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We praise God for his preserving us till this present moment and we know that that doesn't make the devil happy. For he will try his level best to hinder and disturb.

More Than Conquerors in a Troubled World

So the theme of this conference, more than conquerors. More than conquerors. We are called, sent and commissioned as servants of the Lord. To every nation, to the whole world. And I wonder whether we are fully aware of what time we are living in.

And what types of things we are facing. There is certainly no time to be asleep. And no time to be lukewarm. The enemy stands on his feet and is standing on his feet in resistance. If we don't conquer in the name of our Lord, things become awfully difficult in this world.

But before we continue with the word of the Lord, let's bow again and ask the Lord that he would speak to us. We ask you, Heavenly Father, in the name of your only begotten son, that your spirit would work wonderfully in our midst.

That you would accomplish what is upon your heart, what you will for us. And that your will would be done in our midst as it is done in heaven. Amen. There were various sermons that I was pondering about regarding this conference.

But as I looked at it and prayed about it, I asked the Lord, what else is it that you want me to look at.

And consider? Because I felt something else burdened upon my heart. And so I looked very carefully at the.

Fact that it is awful if we're speaking about God, but we're not in direct contact with him. And it doesn't help if we preach sermons that are pleasant and where people can flatter and say it was a wonderful sermon, if it isn't with life-changing authority from God that he speaks and does his work.

Paul said, I didn't come to you with clever persuasive words, for I didn't want to make the cross to be powerless. We're tired of the phenomenon of sitting under God's word and leaving unchanged. So I've asked you whether you know what time we are living in, what this is really that we are facing on God's watch,.

What the time is, the hour is, and the things that we face. Now, let me tell you, and I let you in on this, you from South Africa, that those who hate God, communists for instance, plan to swallow this land within 10 years.

Atheists, communists, their strategy is to govern South Africa within 10 years.

If their plan succeeds, how awful it would be, and you need to listen carefully, you Christians. If God doesn't give us victory with the message and the proclamation that he gives us, they will rule.

Not only them, Islam, Islam, is also on the march.

They too have big plans for South Africa, and the whole of Africa in fact. And they will not make us afraid with the dead snake.

Or rather, that is not just a dead snake. They have said South Africa will see the greatest revolution in its history, and that is that they'll take over. There are many different enemies.

Other things that we are presently facing is, for instance, homosexuality, entrenching the rights of homosexuality within our country.

And that means nothing less than that we are living in Sodom and Gomorrah, the very society in which we live.

But that doesn't seem to make us concerned.

We're not shocked by it. It's quite natural, quite normal. Even many churches are fighting for it.

And we are feeling quite at ease and not concerned. We have our freedoms. As is the saying, that a frog, if you put it into hot water, of course it jumps out immediately.

It jumps in, and it dies. But if you take the frog, put it into the pot with cold water, and then you kindle a fire underneath, and the water is warmed up slowly, it can survive in water that gets pretty hot.

But if it just jumps from outside into it, it will die. But if you warm up the water slowly, you're conditioning the frog, the frog gets used to it. And the Christians get used to homosexuality, lesbianism, and think, well, it's good, and it's Sodom and Gomorrah.

We get used to the things of the world, and we get used to sin.

Meantime, God has commissioned us, He has said, go out and preach this gospel to every creature. May the Lord help us, we who are in ministry and preaching, that when we preach, we truly preach.

I know of a preacher who preached, and after he had preached his sermon, the people would say, my, what a mighty, wonderful sermon that was. But I know of another preacher, when he preached, the people would say, my, what a God, what a Savior.

I think that's the best compliment a preacher can receive, after he has preached, that the people aren't impressed by what he says, but that they meet with God, and that they say, my, what a great God, what a holy God.

Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

So let me share with you what the Lord has laid on my heart for tonight.

Psalm 24, from verse 3 to 6,.

Who shall go up into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted himself up to falsehood, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation.

Let's ponder upon these words, or look carefully at them. Who shall go into the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand on His holy place? Now there are many hills and many mountains in this world, but there is no mountain comparable to the mountain of the Lord.

I speak spiritually, I mean it spiritually speaking.

There is no mountain as high and as exalted as this mountain. There are high mountains. Some people die in their attempt to get to the peak of a mountain. But this mountain of the Lord far excels that and is far higher.

In ascending this mountain of the Lord, there are times when you can only go forward or make any progress on your hands and knees, begging for the Lord for mercy to help you on. Not everybody who sets out to ascend the hill of the Lord actually climbs the hill.

Because there are those who make an attempt and then they finish off, their strength dries out.

John Bunyan, when he writes about the pilgrim's progress,.

He noticed one who was on the way who just before the entrance, he just fell away and collapsed into the crevice. To ascend the hill of the Lord, the mountain of the Lord, is not just an easy, simple thing, but it is the most wonderful, most glorious thing.

If a person is not completely surrendered, completely determined with all his heart, he will not climb the mountain of the Lord. So let us look at the answer to this question, because God asks now, who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord?

Who is it then?

Because only the one who ascends the mountain of the Lord will be truly blessed. So listen, three things. He who has clean hands, a pure heart,.

And then the one who has not sworn himself or lifted up himself to falsehood, to lying, being deceitful.

These are the qualifications that you need and you must have if you want to climb the mountain of God and to stand in His holy place,.

So that you may receive the blessing of the Lord.

I know there are preachers worldwide that say you can't transplant a revival from Africa to Europe, from Europe to Korea, from Korea to the States. I fully agree that you force the sovereign God to work as you like.

But one thing stands firm, steadfast, and sure, and can't be moved, whether you're a German, a French, a Dutch, Burundi, DRC, Zambia. You come from a wonderful country, it starts with Z and ends with A.

Zambia, we know that you start with A and stop with Z. But you've got a wonderful country, it's just the other way around. Now no matter where you come from, even if you start with Z and end with A, these basic facts you'll have to heed and obey.

Otherwise you can do what you like, you can pray and fast till you die. You'll die without the blessing of God upon your ministry.

No matter where you come from, even if you start with Z and end with A, these basic facts you'll have to heed and obey.

The word of God has no limits. No matter where you come from, even if you start with Z and end with A, these basic facts you'll have to heed and obey.

God says, if you want to receive His blessing, this is the mountain of the Lord. It was in the Hebrides Islands, towards Scotland,.

That some young people got together seeking God to pour out His Spirit. These young men prayed for three months or more on their knees,.

Pleading with God to work among His people.

After three months, while praying, one young man took his Bible and he opened and read Psalm 24, verse 3, Who will climb that mountain of the Lord and stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands, a pure heart, clean lips, and he turned around to his colleagues and he said, Brothers, are our hands pure?

Is our heart clean? And our lips? And the place wherein they had gathered, shook like the leaves of a tree. And God started working. Now, whether you're in the Hebrides, in England, America, Europe, it doesn't matter.

Tonight, we are asked the question, dear fellow preacher, are your hands pure? Is your heart clean? And your lips, without fault? When you pray, you can even pray for revival, you can pray that the Word of God will run, that nations will get converted.

Before God answers your prayer, He'll look at your hands, whether they are pure. And that young man, in the Hebrides, he says, dear friends, if we pray for revival, and our heart isn't pure and clean and hands and tongue, it is spiritual hamburg to seek God and to pray for revival.

Now, the question every preacher has got to answer tonight, are your hands clean? Is your heart pure? And are your lips right? We needn't go far. It's simple. Let's just face the squarely and ask ourselves in the presence of God, are our hands pure and clean?

Immediate Repentance and Clean Hands

I know of a young girl that got converted. She was a heathen. When she got home, sat at the table to eat, she started to pray. Before that, she ate and drank like a cow and a pig that doesn't pray when it eats.

And she prayed and said, oh God, please bless this food. And she says, God replied, Strange that God just speaks to the heathen. But we Christians, we say, how does he speak? How does one hear his voice?

Go to the heathen. When they get to know God, they'll teach you.

When they get to know God, they'll teach you.

When they get to know God, they'll teach you.

He simply asked her, so you want me to bless this food, but where does your plate come from? And how about this knife and fork, where did you get that from? She told us that Jesus spoke to her and said, I can't bless this food.

She was a hospital employee at the time, and as is the custom, employees steal the things at the hospital. That's what she had done. And she immediately realized, Lord, I've stolen this plate. I've stolen this knife and fork.

And the Lord said to her, I can't bless it. Your hands are not clean.

She left her food. She went to her bed. Wanted to sleep. She knelt down to pray. She said, Lord, speak to me tonight. And as she related to us, she said, then the Lord asked her, how can I bless your night and bless your sleep?

Where did you get this roofing from? She said, Lord, I stole it. And what about the furniture, where is it from? She said, Lord, I took it from the hospital and I used pickups to transfer it. Or a pickup.

And the Lord said to her, I cannot bless you. She needed to put those things right. Now, brothers and sisters, we cannot ascend the mountain of the Lord if our hands and heart are not clean.

I've said that in Zulu. But I learned lately that it's not only black people that have got unclean hands. Even white people. The color I've got and the hair I've got.

I don't forget Reverend Nicholas Bengu, Pastor Bengu, telling us, chatting to us.

How he had been preaching in Port Elizabeth, East London area there, and he was praying for revival. It was in the 50s.

He was with his wife. The Lord blessed them with one child. They were extremely, extremely poor. While they were on a preaching trip, their child died on the way.

They dug a hole near to the road and they buried their child inside, in the grave. They had no coffin. They were too poor.

They just wrapped their child in a blanket and buried it. And so they continued. But he and his wife were praying, Lord, please work mightily. Let your gospel go forth. Let people get saved. And he related to us that as they were on their knees praying, the Lord spoke to him.

And asked him, where did you get these sheets from on your bed? No, they didn't have, they just had sheets, no blankets. There are some precious servants of the Lord who are very dear in the Lord's work, but who suffer greatly.

And he told us that as they were on their knees, the Lord was asking them, where have these sheets come from? And he immediately said, Lord, I bought these things from that van or that pickup that came around with these different articles, and they were extremely cheap.

And he had to admit before the Lord that these things must have been black market stuff, that man could not have sold things so cheaply without it being contraband goods. He left his wife still on her knees.

And he pulled the sheets off his bed, he went outside, struck a match to light it, to burn it. He told us that he never went to his wife to ask for permission, my dear, what do you think about this? He just did it.

And he told us the next morning they were asleep without sheets now. He went to the window and he looked outside and he told us that the remains were still smoldering, there was still a bit of smoke coming out of it.

And he said, they must have been good quality German sheets. When they burned those sheets, God came down with his fire of revival and they experienced revival there in East London and people got saved.

Make it clear, if you want to ascend the hill of the Lord, just look closely, are your hands clean, is your heart pure?

It's a must, you can stand on your head, you can do what you like, you can be the best theologian in this world, if your hands are not pure, you won't be able to stand in this holy place and climb that mountain of the Lord, you won't get the blessing of God.

You can fast and starve, you'll starve, you can starve, you can burn your body, you won't get the blessing of the Lord. But stealing isn't the only thing that defiles our hands, there are many things we can do with our hands and without our fingers, things that are unclean before God.

Many awful things you can do with your hands that are unclean before God. Ask yourself, are my hands with blood, are they bloodstained? In 1 Timothy 2 verse 8, I desire therefore that in every place men should pray without anger, lifting up holy hands.

Some translations, without anger and doubting.

Hands that we lift up to God in prayer, in other words, are they without anger? Anger is a very common thing to us, especially us men, isn't it?

The sin of a woman is this, gossip, you are masters in that, but the sin of men is anger.

And it says, I want you men, if you pray, to pray without anger in your hearts. Anger defiles the hands. Because I consider carefully and don't do it in a hurried fashion, but look closely at your hands, are they without anger and getting irritable?

Friends, let's not just overlook it. This is a fact. God means what he says. And if you want to stand in his holy place, your hands have got to be clean. And without doubt, Evan Roberts said, If you want to experience God moving, working, if you want to experience revival, there are four points.

He says, confess all your known sins. Don't leave one stone unturned. You know that John Wesley, when God started working, they used to come together once in a week. And expose those sins that were not right in their lives.

Can you understand why the fire burnt the way it did? The way the word of God revolutionized England, ran through America? Those were servants on fire. They knew what they were talking about. The second point, deal with and get rid of anything doubtful in your life.

Is there something doubtful in your life? That you think now, is this right or isn't it? Should a Christian do this or not? He says there shouldn't be any doubtful thing in a Christian's life. Your sisters, have you got ears to hear?

God says to the men, without anger and doubt. Strange, strange. I would think maybe this applies more to the ladies in this time in which we live. But God directs it at men. But you women aren't exempt from this.

That which doesn't come out of faith is sin. Faith, a real thing. The closest relationship with God is born out of that. But if you doubt, God doesn't want that. Now just by the way, his third point was obey the Holy Spirit immediately when he speaks to you.

And the last point, confess Christ publicly.

Confess Christ publicly. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit immediately. Obey him when he speaks to you.

A Pure Heart and a Faithful Marriage

Your men, raise your hands without anger and doubt. Not good for a man to doubt. Hands without doubt. The second point, clean hands.

God notices the heart and he cares about the heart. We are very observant, aren't we, about the outer man and how a person looks and how tall or short, whatever their attributes might be. But God looks straight to the heart.

And what really matters to God is the heart. Jesus said to the people, The prophets spoke correctly of you, that these are a people who draw nigh unto me with their lips, but in their hearts they are far from me.

It is the heart that really matters.

You want to see God? Jesus said, Dear friends, if we want to get places and if you want to get places spiritually, your heart has got to be right. Your heart has got to be pure. He said to the people, to the Pharisees and scribes, It's not that which goes into your mouth that defiles a man, it's that which comes out.

Evil thoughts, wrong thoughts come out of the heart.

Adultery, immorality comes out of the heart.

An evil eye comes from the heart.

To steal, to murder comes out of the heart. Then one can understand Psalm, the writer and author of Psalm 139. Oh God, search my heart, know my heart, and see whether there is any wicked thing in me.

Psalm 139 How is your heart? What's its condition? Before the Lord. If your heart is not pure, you will never ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place. Brothers and sisters, from Africa or from Europe or anywhere, are your hearts clean, pure?

Are there no evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, sexual immorality?

One of the first and most important things in a preacher's life is his relationship with his own wife. That's why it's so important for a man to live with wisdom. Concerning his wife as the weaker vessel, so that his prayers shall not be hindered.

So you want to preach to the nations and you want to bring the gospel to the earth? You want to be unsaved and cast out demons and yet your heart is a nest of demons?

So what is this?

Ask yourself, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure regarding my own spouse? Am I pure in my relationship? Is there anything regarding her or any other woman? And get that right tonight. Don't wait. Sort that matter out immediately.

Don't make a mistake and go to your wife and confess all your filthy dirt to her. It's too much for her. A woman trusts her husband and when she hears that he's been up to mischief with other women and maybe the wife's best friend, it's too much for her.

There are men of God to whom you can go that are faithful but they've got to be in right standing with God and be trustworthy. Otherwise you can't entrust them with such a thing.

So men, we can't go out and expect to preach to the world if right at home our marriages aren't in order. We know women who are saintly women, godly women, but through the unfaithfulness of their husbands.

These women are now dead because of diseases that their husbands have brought to them. Then our hearts might be into other things. It might be money. It might be material things. Deception by different things.

And making idols of things. And Jesus said that he will not give us spirit if we are not faithful in the things of this world like money.

He won't entrust us with spiritual blessing if we are unfaithful in money matters. You know the word that he says, we won't get out of that place before we have paid the last farthing. And then our lips.

Pure Lips and Spiritual Authority

Are our lips spotless before God?

Is there no slander? Using the name of another while they are absent? The Bible says if you see somebody sin, go to the person and speak to them. But you don't do that. You go to somebody to slander them.

The Bible says we will give account for every idol word before him.

Has there ever been an idol word that has come out of your lips? John Wesley said about John Fletcher. He says, amongst all the men of God I know, I haven't come across a man like John Fletcher. In these last 32 years, I haven't heard one idol word coming out of his lips.

Dear friends, if we want spiritual authority, if we want to be endued with power from on high, if we want to be spirit filled men and women, we can't take these words lightly. They must be a reality in our lives.

Have we considered our hands? Our hearts? Our lips?

Becoming Effective Vessels for God

Just these three things which God brings to our attention. Will we go to bed without having put right the things in these three areas? If you want to truly be a servant of the Lord where you are effective in ministry, people get converted.

Every servant of Christ must be a vessel through whom God can work.

If the Lord is not working through you, brother, sister, you are dead. If people are not coming to Christ, not receiving the Lord and not finding Christ through you, then there is something desperately wrong with you.

Remember, we are wrestling with powers in the air. If those powers of darkness are not being shaken, then there is something wrong with you.

And if you by God's grace and by God's power can't shake the world, be rest assured of this, the world will shake you.

Opening the Gates to the King of Glory

Verse seven. Verse seven as well from that psalm. Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? Who is the one who is strong and mighty in battle?

The Lord, it is He strong and mighty.

If you want God, the Lord who is strong and mighty, then let the gates be opened so that the King of glory can come in. And how do you open your gates? Cleanse your hands, your heart, and your lips. Don't harden your heart, no, whatever the cost, so that the King of glory can come in.

Opening our hearts, these gates, do we lift them up? Or do we say, I can't face it, I can't do that, I'm not prepared to cleanse my heart? Hands and lips, how foolish and what a fool I'd be if I'm not prepared to do what God commands me to do.

Do you have an ear to hear what the Lord says? One of the points of Evan Roberts was, when the Lord speaks to you, you obey immediately. Do you obey Him? If you obey, this service will have been a blessing to you.

If you do not obey, well, it would have been better that you hadn't heard it. Lord, wouldn't you come down in our service?

Touch each and every heart, and look inside whether the hearts are pure.

See whether our hands and fingers are clean before you.

And our lips, work by your Holy Spirit.

Oh God, search our hearts. See if there be any wicked way in us. And lead us in your eternal way. Amen.