Introduction Nico Bosman
Greetings to everyone in the wonderful name of our Lord. What does it mean to greet in the name of God? If a person arrives from a foreign land and claims to come in the name of the king of that land, we will accept the message from that king. People would find common ground because of the king. People would want to do what the king desired. May we share common ground with the King we serve, so that we live to please Him. That king is Christ who died for us.
Albu van Eeden
This is a very special day and one of great joy because two young people will preach the gospel of Christ through their engagement. They will get engaged in the way God has guided them to do. The lives of these young people speak louder than any message.
Today is also a very serious day. We will show a short video clip of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games held on 27 July 2022. The video displays the worship of Baal and Lucifer in an unbelievable fashion. It is important to look at this event. (Video was played) Take note of the horns; the woman seated on top of the bull; the people bowing in worship. (There is much more to be seen online) Take note of the symbolism. The bull was the symbol of Baal. According to heathen worship, the bull was born when Baal impregnated a heifer. Why did they bow to this bull in this opening ceremony? As the bull entered the stadium, the announcer stated that it was ‘The Beast’. The woman seated on top of the bull reminded me of Revelation 17:3
3Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.
It is said that a bull was used in this ceremony because this animal is the symbol of Birmingham, the city where the Games took place. However, the symbolism is overwhelming. Baal was always represented as a bull. Different cultures across the ancient world adapted the principle of Baal worship to fit into their culture.
Did you notice the new age crystals in the women’s hands and the prominent role that women played? Allow me to read information about Anath. Anath, chief West Semitic god of love and war, she was the sister and helpmate of the god Baal. She was considered beautiful and ‘the Virgin”in ancient texts. Probably one of the best-known Canaanite deities, she was famous for her youthful vigour and ferocity in battle. Although Anath was often associated with the god Resheph in ritual texts, she was primarily known for her role in the myth of Baal’s death and his resurrection (Did you notice her approach Baal, making peace with him and removing the fear people had of Baal?) in which she mourned and searched for him and finally helped him return from the underworld.
There is too much worship and too many similarities in this ceremony to regard it as simply a ceremony. The bull was called the beast. A woman rode on it. The designer said that the goal is that people should stop fearing the beast.
This is the godless world in which we live. Such things are acceptable, yet if two young people get married in purity before God, everyone protests. This is the same as the god Molech. It is worshipping Lucifer. Why did they have to bow? We want people to understand the time in which we live. It is the end time. The return of Christ is close. Let us all kneel and pray. Let us cry out to God to give us the grace to remain faithful in this evil, godless age.
It is a challenge to marry in a pure and godly way. Thank you to you both for living pure lives in a dark world. Now I stand between them. On the day of their marriage, I will no longer stand between them. They will remain apart until their marriage day. They have not sent messages or visited one another while they sought God’s will for their lives. This is how it should be. We do not tell people when they should marry and to whom they should get married. The young man must hear from God. His message is communicated to the young girl and she must hear from God whether He says the same thing to her.
We have just seen the evil portrayed in the video clip, but Jesus said that He came to overcome the evil. We will overcome the world if we are faithful, by God’s grace. These two young people have testified to the fact that God has brought them to this point because it is God’s will, in other words, God initiated it. It is God’s time. They want to do it in God’s way - in purity. This is not a small thing – they believe that this was initiated by God and not man. They did not take this step because they saw that the world marries because of burning lust. They did not use the world as their example and then add a godly flavour. Such a thing is possible and there is an example of this in God’s word.
There are many traps on the narrow way that young people must reckon with and watch out for. As I mention the traps, we thank God for those who do not fall into the traps and successfully reach this point that these young people have reached.
4Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 1 Samuel 8:4,5
The reason the nation of Israel wanted a king was because all the nations had kings. They wanted Samuel to appoint a king to judge them like was done in the nations. Friends, the reason a child of God does things should never be because ‘all the nations are doing it’. If we follow the nations, this is where we will end and even worse. The elders forced this thing. There are many people in the church of Christ who act with the church, do things the Christian way but their motive is not Christian. Their mode of dress is from the nations. The way young men treat young girls is from the nations. They look at fashion magazines and read about celebrities, the world and worldly things excite and drive them. You can come to the prophet of God but in the long term it will be exposed that you were from the nations. Samuel could have said how wonderful it was that they came to him to do this thing. But Samuel was spiritually sharp. Many pastors have become spiritually blunt. As long as they are popular and honoured and there is a cloak of godliness over everything, they are happy to lead the church. Not Samuel, he was razor sharp.
6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
Many things in life such as getting married, buying a car, a new job, may appear to be simply a practical decision. I feel I am lonely and aging, so I get married. Have you gone to God and made sure that His blessing is on it?
Verse 7 breaks my heart. How arrogant can a man be? How cheeky! If I had been in Samuel’s shoes, and possibly if Samuel could have done as he thought, he may have sent the elders away to look for their own king. The words from God are condemning. The Lord told Samuel to obey the voice of the people. “Don’t obey them because they are right - they have not rejected you, but me as king over them.” Friend, is Christ king of your life? Are you willing to go wherever He may send you. Whatever God tells you to do, you are willing. In all the little things in your life, can God open and close the doors as He wishes?
17 Now Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah. 18And he said to the people of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’1 Samuel 10:17,18
God took them out of slavery from these nations. God may have taken you out of slavery. You have stopped drinking, immoral living, wild parties, stealing, lying and cursing when in trouble or when you hurt yourself, yes, you have this testimony. God has brought you out of Egypt and has delivered you. Your family would have fallen apart if God had not saved you from alcohol and drug abuse. God has taken you out of slavery - but listen to the condemning words. Friends, do you know how often I have witnessed this? God saves a person from his sins. He becomes human again after being shattered. The Lord may have opened the door for him to study further. Then he gets an education. Then somehow, he begins seeing things in a different way. The brain begins to work in a completely different manner. They see God’s guidance in a different way. This is what happened here. … I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.
They were doing a very ordinary thing but in God’s eyes they had rejected Him. I would not have liked to have been in the nation when Samuel called them together. They made their own plans and then wanted God to join them. They could not even wait until Samuel had died. This is one of the traps these two young people must go through. People do things in their own way and then drag God into it. Samuel was faithful and did a good job. They said he was growing old and that his sons did not go God’s way and therefore they needed another leader. They wanted the pomp and glory the heathen nations had with their kings. Samuel did not carry this burden himself. This is a secret in the Christian life. These things could have crushed Samuel completely, but they did not because he took the burden to the Lord and told Him what the people wanted. The Lord carried this burden for Samuel. Blessed is the person who can do this. Samuel did not live before people and try to please them. If he had done so he could have become depressed. He told the Lord what the people wanted, and the Lord said that it was not him whom they had rejected but the Lord. “Let Me carry this burden.” Blessed is the person who can cast his burden on the Lord. We should not take a single step without the Lord.
Another example of someone who tried to twist God’s arm:
7So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand. And they came to Balaam and gave him Balak's message. 8 And he said to them, “Lodge here tonight, and I will bring back word to you, as the Lord speaks to me.” So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam. 9 And God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?” 10 And Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying, 11 ‘Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and it covers the face of the earth. Now come, curse them for me. Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out.’” 12 God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” Numbers 22:7-12
What blesses me is how the Lord spoke to this man who was a ‘sangoma’. God gave him a chance. Blessed is the man who can hear the voice of God. Poor is the man who goes through life and even marries without hearing the voice of God. God judges us according to the light that we have. This man did not have much light, but the Lord appeared to him. Dear friends, can God say that of us, do not curse them for they are blessed? Are our hearts clean and washed in the blood? Have you brought everything to God and given Him everything? Does God yearn to bless us? No matter what Satan and satanists want to do against us, can God say, “No, they are blessed.” Let the world go their wicked ways, worship Baal and Molech and do what they like, as long as we have God on our side.
One day in eternity, we will be surprised at the influence this mission has had on the way things happened in this world - because there was a man who resolved to lay aside everything to please God and bring the gospel to another nation. A handful of Zulu people stood with him and are still standing with him. One day when we can see the principalities and spirits of the air, we will see the impact and influence that this mission had on the world.
God told Balaam not to go. Balak sent him another gift, but he refused to go. Balak sent him an even larger gift but he still refused. Jewish commentators say that Balak recognised Balaam’s love for money, and he knew the price he charged. He thought if he would increase the money, he would eventually give in. Do you have a price? Does the devil know your price? He will raise it until you will be prepared to accept it and serve him. God had said that he should not curse the people but bless them. He twisted God’s arm and God eventually said that he could go, but he was to only say what God had said he should. This is like the situation between Samuel and Israel. God told Samuel that he should listen to the people and give them a king because they had in fact rejected Him. They were insistent. May there be no young people who are so insistent and persist in asking God for a wife or husband. God may eventually give you that man or woman you have your eye on. If you behave like Israel, God will give you over to your desires. But through that you will have rejected God as king of their lives.
Balaam climbed onto his donkey and left but the Angel of the Lord (the Lord Jesus Himself) stood in the way. Balaam beat the donkey. The donkey pushed him against a wall. He cursed. How many of us have been hurt because we insisted on our own way? In the end, whenever he wanted to curse Israel, a blessing came out of his mouth. Finally, a terrible thing happened. Balaam decided that he would get his own way because he wanted the money. You would be surprised at what girls are willing to do for money. “I have my blesser. I know he could be my father. I know there is no future with him but he’s got the money.”
In the end, he devised a plan for King Balak - send the young women of his nation into the Israelite camp to entice them to serve their gods and be immoral with them. Balaam wanted the money so desperately that he devised this plan for Balak. He knew that if the men sinned with the woman, their hearts would be turned from God and they would be cursed. God later sent a plague among the Israelites which only ended when Phineas, the grandson of Aaron, drove a tent peg into a man and foreign woman who were sinning in their tent.
Never twist God’s arm to get your own way. Why have I told you this? To understand the implications of what I said in the beginning. These young people testify that God led them to get engaged. This engagement today was in God’s will and in God’s time. If you do things in this manner, you will be blessed no matter how the devil wants to curse you.
Conclusion D Joosten
Baal was the god of fertility. The world has spiritually gone mad. What is good has become bad and what is bad has become good.
The ‘click’ of sin can also make things go wrong. You may look back in your life and recall that someone did something to you as a young girl, a person you respected who may have touched you inappropriately, and it was then that the switch clicked in your life. But you do not want to bring that deed to the light. That is why your life is not blessed. There are young people today who struggle because of what older people did to them when they were young. Instead of exposing it, you are afraid of the consequences. Why do you hide it? Expose that Baal. Be obedient and bring it to the light. Do not choose your own way because you will struggle.
May God help us to make Him king in our lives. He sees where you went wrong and He waits for you. He sees everything. Make Him king and those other things will mean nothing. If you sin outside of marriage with the opposite sex, the switch clicks. You become filled with hatred, anger and unforgiveness. Allow God to reset the switch to its rightful state. May Christ be our rightful king- not money, the world, clothing or whatever. Make Him king, you will never be sorry.
