In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of realizing that we will all die and have to give an account of our lives before God, who is our judge. The preacher shares a testimony of a person who had a moment of realization during a sermon that he too had to give an account of his life. The preacher quotes from the Bible, specifically 1 John 1:8-10, to highlight the need for confession of sins and the promise of forgiveness and purification from unrighteousness. The sermon also includes a story of a man who stole his neighbor's car but felt convicted and confessed his sin, illustrating the importance of repentance. The preacher encourages the listeners to accept God's word and to be transformed by the Gospel.

Our gospel, or our word, is from the first letter of John. The first letter and also the first chapter. From verse five. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you, God is light, in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. Now, one of the key points here is the fact of sin. Sin is something terrible. Sin brings about death. Sin should never be taken lightly. If a person is lukewarm and is not alert spiritually and cannot rebuke anybody else for their sin or even rebuke themselves, that means that death is already at work in that person's life. And then a person will say, well, don't worry about that, it's just a small sin. Yes, that is a serious sin. Before God, there is no differentiation, there is no great sin or small sin. Any sin pertains to death. Every sin leads to death. There is no such thing as a small sin or a great sin, it's a sin before God. That is why we can never take sin lightly. Jesus said, thou shalt not commit adultery. But he said, if you only so much as look at a woman with lust, you've already committed adultery with her. Before God, you're an adulterer, and no adulterer or prostitute will ever enter heaven. Jesus said, if you get angry with your brother, you've already murdered him. If you get angry with your brother, you've already committed adultery with him. Some people say, well, I have never committed a great sin. I've never committed adultery, I haven't got divorced, I've never killed anybody. So I'm better than those who are prostitutes and murderers. A person who speaks like that doesn't realize that he is dead. He is like a raw heathen. God takes sin very seriously. In the Old Testament, we read of a person, a man by the name of Achan. God had said that when you go against Jericho and you have destroyed it, you should take none of the devoted things. It was a great battle against Jericho. There were 60,000, 600,000 Israelite soldiers. Just think of such an army, 600,000 men. But one of them said, There in Jericho, when he entered one of the homes, he found gold and silver there. He looked all around, didn't see anybody, and then he took it for himself and he hid it away. It looked so desirable to him. It looked like something beautiful which he desired to have. Now who would notice anyone doing something in such a great crowd of people, more than half a million? When he got home into his tent, he dug a hole and there he hid it away. He buried it. After that, they had to go against another town, another city. And when they went out to spy the city of Ai, they looked down on it. They said, Ah, this is such a small city in comparison to Jericho with its great and massive walls. This is just a small place. And they said, We don't even need the whole army. Just a few soldiers can go against them. And when they got there, they were routed by the enemy. When they went back, they went before God and cried out to Him and said, Oh God, why is it, why have you allowed this, that most of our soldiers there were killed? They fell down before God and they cried tears. And God said, Why do you lie on your faces? Get up. The reason that Israel was defeated is because Israel had sinned. We might say, Well, it wasn't Israel that had sinned. It was only one man. And then God said, I cannot be with you because there's one person in your midst who has sinned. Who is a thief who has not upheld my word. And God said, Let Israel sanctify itself. Let each man sanctify himself before God. And tomorrow gather before me and then I'll expose that person. And as they did that, they sifted them and sifted until eventually Achan stood before the servant of God. And he said, Now speak the truth, Achan. And then it came out that Achan had something defiled in his tent, something that was against the word of God. He said, Come out now of the truth, my son. And so he did. He said, Where is your wife and your children? They were fetched. His wife and his children were there. They saw him. But his wife covered up the matter. Because people that are married, they don't easily bring out the sin of their spouse. They cover it. They defend him. Isn't it like that, wives? And then you get some faded men as well. That behave like women and also cover up the sin of their wives. And then the children... The children also knew what was going on. I don't know what their father had said to them. If it was like a Zulu family, a traditional family, they might say, Well, you know, I'm afraid to say anything about this and bring it into the light. I might be killed. That's what the wives say. For the sake of peace, I'll keep quiet. That's what the wives say. For the sake of peace, I'll keep quiet. And God said that... God said, His wife, His children, all His animals, including Himself, they all had to be stoned to death. That's what God said to Joshua. So they brought them together and they were stoned until they were all dead with a big pile of stones. God's judgment came against that sin. God said that sin had entered the camp. But today sin is just taken lightly. We just defend people. We don't see it as anything serious. But sin brings about death. We need to realize that sin is something serious. It brings about death. You need to fear it more than the most poisonous snake, even a mamba itself. There is nothing that is so poisonous as sin. And even if you preach the gospel, if you lie a sin in your life, you're on your way to hell. And that is why this is the message that we have heard from Him. And declare to you that God is light and in Him there is no darkness whatsoever. Sin is that darkness. There is no darkness in God. I told you last week about the funeral that we had. I arrived late. Because of the mist, our airplane couldn't land where we intended to land. We had to turn around. When I arrived, the person next to whom I sat said to me, you know your choir when it sang really touched the hearts of the people. And they said, when they got converted, this person said, in 1950, when God worked amongst them, they said, we were like that as well. But today all that has come to an end. When we got converted and were saved, we were like that. And I said, then what are you like today? He said, well, today we dance. We jump up and down and move our bodies. We sing. We are like that. Not one was wearing pants, but their heads were really titivated with the most fancy hairstyle and hairdos you can think about. They said, when we got converted, when we were saved, it wasn't like that. All this changed and came about now in the modern times. When they pray, everybody prays together. One person will sing at the same time. Another one will pray. My, what a great noise there is. I remember in 1955, when I got to a particular church for the very first time, they said, we're going to ask Reverend Stegen to pray for us. He will lead us in prayer. So when I started praying, all of a sudden, everybody else also opened their mouths and started praying. And I was amazed at this great noise. So I just shut my mouth and listened to their noise. And after they had all finished, when they had all finished praying, then only did I pray. I thought, let me teach them. What does it help if they all pray and they ask me to lead them in prayer? They don't hear what I'm praying. And so things change as times change. And things, modern things creep into the church. But when they were saved, when they were young, it wasn't like that. Well, if you want to do it there where you come from, that's fine. But then don't expect me to lead you in prayer when you start making all this noise. Such a noise. How can such prayers reach heaven? One person came to me and said, Reverend Steegan, I want to congratulate you. I want to shake your hand because you are still there where you were years ago when you began. You haven't changed. You haven't shifted with the changing times. But how heartbreaking it is when you see people being influenced with all sorts of evil influences in the world. But I say, it cannot be otherwise. When people forget this word, that in God there is no darkness. When you allow sin to come into your life and into the life of your wife and your children, it is then that people fade away spiritually. They lose their color and they become a place where Satan makes his nest. If you read the letter to the Laodiceans, where it says, this is what the Amen says. The true and faithful witness. Amen. Amen. Amen is one of the names of Jesus. Yes, Amen does mean it is the truth. But it is one of the names of Jesus. And God's word says we should not take the name of God in vain. But then you find people just shouting Amen, Amen because they don't know what else to say. It's terrible when we make Christianity just to be like a circus, and the church to be like a circus, a place where animals, baboons and monkeys do their tricks. When we criticize our children, when they fail to live for God and when they do and live as they live, when we the parents become faded spiritually, as we do, we that are supposed to lead them, that they see that in our lives. In the time of Achan, the host of Israel realized and understood that God is holy. He is most holy. And there is no room for stealing. There is no room for lies or for the world. But people need to be sanctified and the whole of Israel need to be sanctified before God. We read about the priest who had become old by the name of Eli, who had two sons who served in the temple or in the tabernacle, and they were sinning with the women, sleeping with them in the entrance of the tent, in the tabernacle, in the place where God should be served. And then God said to Eli, rebuke your sons. And so he went to them and he said, my sons, don't do this. You know, it's not good. The people will start talking, you'll bring disgrace on our family's name and on the name of God. Please don't do that. But he just did it like that in a soft way. And then God sent the Philistines to fight against the Israelites. And the battle lines met at Misbah, the same name as the place that we have here towards Great Town. The priest said to Eli, my sons, don't do this. You know, it's not good. The people will start talking, you'll bring disgrace on our family's name and on the name of God. And then God sent the Philistines to fight against the Israelites. He just soft-soaked the issue with his children. Not trying to be too harsh. Not trying to offend them. Just soft-soaping it. But then God sent those Philistines and he got the message from the battle lines as he was at home. And the person said, oh father, your two sons were killed in battle. And the Philistines have captured the Ark of the Covenant. And when he heard that, he fell over backwards and broke his neck and died on the same day as his sons. God's Word says we should not serve idols. But today we worship idols. There are so many things in our lives in which we place our trust instead of in God. And God says, do not lie, but we lie. Do not do this, but we do that. God doesn't allow that in God there is no darkness at all. David sinned against God, but after that he suffered so much he could find no sleep for his eyes. His bones withered within him. He wept day and night about his sin. And eventually he went to the prophet as well, Nathan, and he said, I have sinned against God. Sin leads to death. There is no disease that destroys as much as sin. There is nothing as dangerous as sin, no matter when you've committed that sin. It might have been even when you were a young child. Your father and mother in the meantime have passed away. But that doesn't remove that sin. When you stand before the heavenly portals one day, that sin will close the way for you. And it says that if we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. You might say that you're walking in the light, you claim to have fellowship with God, and yet you walk in the darkness. There are things of darkness in your life. There are lies. There are grudges. You hate somebody else. You lie. You are not walking in the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. God is the light. And God is our creator. He created the heavenly bodies such as the sun and the stars. And if the sun can shine as bright as it does, how bright then is in God's light? And the Bible says we need to walk in that light as God is in the light. And if we walk in that light, then the blood of Jesus purifies us from our sin. Now, you fathers. how the person who shared his testimony said that he sat right at the back row and then it was preached about the word that God is our judge and everybody looked around and looked at him and he realized that he too had to give an account of his life that God was judging him and that he had to repent how wonderful wouldn't it be if you too now would realize that you're standing before God the judge and verse 8 it says if we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness if we claim we have not sinned we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives when we hear God's word do we receive it do we accept it do we say yes Lord it is the truth the gospel enters into a person's life and transforms him we thank God for the engaged couple we are so thankful for the young man that he will be getting a wife and we are thankful that when God spoke to him that he obeyed he got converted he left his drinking and his smoking God we thank God also for the young girl who's kept herself pure through the gospel is there anything as wonderful as the gospel which keeps a person pure and where that child is even obedient to the parents where the parents don't have to be worried about my child that is rebellious how wonderful isn't the gospel but if your children are rebellious then trouble yourself before God day and night so that they might be saved Sibe Ibanza Elehambekwanyeni Elkwanyeni Alwazuguban Esele Besesuge Makoneni Zalisele Ubugintombe Esele Ubuge Amatlazo Esele Utintane Nintombe Uishele Ngesele Ngubawu Awubonuamu Sibe Ibanza that we would be that we would be a church that walks in the light in which there is no darkness nobody going behind corners and being busy there with their cell phone they're in secret in darkness looking at pornographic pictures looking at disgraceful things flirting with girls on the cell phone but and thinking nobody sees him or her in the meantime God sees you Indaweako Aikebanshene Indaweako Ipanshe Kulababa Kilimkuba Kulababa Ngayesruini Abaymisele Ngaskoko Ibanza Likamkulungkulu Litinguwa And there was one person there in northern Germany with the name of Father Ast and people came from far and near, even by train, coming to him. One day he died for your day of death is coming, make no mistake. You might be disrespectful, rebellious, cheeky, insolent, but you'll still face up to a day that will get rid of that starch. Where God says, now you've come to the end. And so he died. And so they placed him in the coffin. He had made a lot of money through his witchcraft and he was wealthy, so they placed him in a very expensive casket. And they placed him in that casket. The next morning, when they opened the coffin, they found that his face, he was face down. His body was facing up, but his head was facing down. His head had turned right around 180 degrees. God twisted his neck right there in the coffin. No matter whom you might be, even if you're a prince, we heard from our uncle that he was a prince, but a prince of Satan. But by God's grace, he got converted and he's serving the Lord today. It's now four years that his wife has passed away. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. 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I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is already in the seventh year. I thought you were older than me. Mine is There is a hymn, which the old Germans used to sing. Unfortunately, they don't sing it anymore. It says, let us walk in the light, exactly as He is in the light. And if we walk in that light, we will have fellowship one with another. We cannot have fellowship with God and then not have fellowship one with another. You're a liar if you say you've got fellowship with Him and not with your fellow brethren. And there should be no cliques, no groupings or parties in the church of God. We should have fellowship one with another. But we don't find it in the church. Why? Because people are walking in darkness. And very often it's the flesh, the lust of the flesh that trouble them. That's why there's no fellowship one with another. But if we're in the light, we'll have that fellowship with God and one another. But such people that are in darkness are a curse, even in the church. I'll be so glad if what you've heard goes into your ears and into your heart. But I'll be sad if it goes in the one ear and out the other. Then the blood of Jesus will not do its work. But it works in our lives when we confess our sin, when we bring it to the light. And then His blood can be at work within us. I said I'm closing. There in Germany was a white man who went at night and he stole his neighbor's car. And so he thought, but what will I take this car along with me with? What will I tie it with? So he decided to quickly go to the shed of his neighbor. And there he found a piece of rim. And so he took the strap. Those cows there that are being milked have no horns. So he tied it around its neck. And so he got that strap there in the shed, went to the cow where it was lying down, tied it around its neck. And then he led it away with him. In the meantime his heart was beating furiously. He realized that what he was doing was wrong. So he took the cow home. But he wasn't at ease. Even though he was there at home, he was on edge. Every time he would hear a noise he would think, oh maybe that's the police. Maybe someone is coming to arrest me. So before dawn the next morning he decided, let me rather go back to my neighbor and confess my sin. Let me just rather go and confess and admit to my sin. So he went. When he got there they were still asleep. He knocked at the door. And he heard the footsteps coming closer to the door. And his heart was beating to such an extent it almost came out his mouth. And the person, his neighbor, opened the door, recognized him and said, oh it's you. Is there anything that I can do for you? And when he wanted to speak he just couldn't get the words out. It was as if a big frog was blocking his throat. He said, oh you know, I feel so guilty. I've come to humble myself before you and to confess that I have stolen from you. I stole your strap from your shed. And he said, oh you know, thank you so much for coming to me. I really appreciate it. It's the first time ever anybody has come to me to confess their sin and to admit to it to me. So feel at ease about it. I forgive you completely. I forgive you. Go home. And so he went back home. More oppressed than what he was before he went there, because he had confessed the rope, but what was tied to the end of the rope, he didn't confess. So when you confess your sin, confess everything, bring everything to light. Don't lose, leave any stone unturned. Shall we pray? Lord, may your word not be in vain. May it bring forth much fruit. Lord, through your Holy Spirit, right now, may there be joy in heaven. Amen.