Your iniquities have separated you from your God. Let's turn the Word of God to Isaiah 59 from verse 1 to 21. Isaiah 59. It has been a tradition for many centuries, actually, that God's servants should preach a sermon directly affecting elections. When elections come, there's meant to be an election sermon, and that's coming up in just three weeks in our country. So Isaiah 59 seems to me to be the clearest, most prophetic word to our country at this time. Let's read the whole chapter of Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59 starting in verse 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies. They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. They hatch viper's eggs and weave the spider's web. He who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out. Their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways. They have made themselves crooked paths. Whoever takes that way shall not know peace, therefore justice is far from us. Nor does righteousness overtake us. We look for light, but there is darkness. For brightness, but we walk in blackness. We grope for the wall like the blind. We grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as at twilight. We are as dead men in desolate places. We all growl like bears and moan sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none. For salvation, but it is far from us. For our iniquities and transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us, for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them. In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off. For truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the Lord sought, and it displeased him. that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore, his own arm brought salvation for him and his own righteousness. It sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on the garments of vengeance. for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. The coastlands he will fully repay. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord will raise up the standard against him. the Redeemer will come to Zion to those who turn from transgression and Jacob says the Lord as for me says the Lord this is my covenant with them my spirit who is upon you and my words which are put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth nor from the mouth of your descendants nor from the mouth of your descendants descendants says the Lord from this time forth and forevermore this is the Word of God Why do evil things happen? Why did God not prevent these things? How could God allow this? Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is it heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. After any drought, hurricane, flood, Catastrophe, fires, crime, violence. In any time of oppression or suffering you can hear people complaining. Why did God allow this to happen? Why did God not intervene? Why has God not heard our prayers? The answer is found in Isaiah 59. It's not that God's not able to intervene. He is almighty. It's not that He cannot hear our prayers. It's not that we need to shout louder. He hears the thoughts of our hearts. He is everywhere present. He is all-knowing. But your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden a space from you, so that He will not hear. The problem is not God or His abilities. The problem is our sin. This is true on an individual level. This is true on a family level. This is true on a congregation level. This is true on a community level. It's true on a national level. This is true internationally. The problem is sin, S-I-N, and the middle letter is I. Selfishness is at the heart of the problem. The heart of the problem is the problem of the human heart. Total depravity, basically. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue has muttered perversity. Is this not relevant to our country and to our time? God is a holy God. Human beings are sinful and depraved, totally depraved. Now total depravity does not mean that we are all as bad as we could be. We could all be worse, but for God's grace. Total depravity means every aspect of our lives from even our will, our intellect, all the way down to our emotions. Every aspect of our life is affected by depravity. Total depravity doesn't mean we're as bad as we could be. It means that every aspect of our life is tainted, corrupted, poisoned by sin. Total depravity is not merely a doctrine. Total depravity is reality. It's the reality of human existence. It's an explanation for why the world is in the mess and the chaotic state it is in. Human hands are defiled with blood. Numbers 35 verse 33, we repeat it every Sanctity Life Sunday, every National Day of Repentance, March to Parliament, at the Gates of Parliament. You shall not pollute the land where you are, for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the blood that shed on it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. In other words, as is put in Leviticus 24, 17. Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death. Genesis 9 verse 6, part of the noetic covenant of the flood. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God he has made man. Failure to punish murderers invites the judgment and condemnation of Almighty God. Those who show contempt for the lives of others forfeit their own rights of life. Any nation that refuses to avenge the murder of innocent life must share the guilt of the murderer. Only by obeying God's law and punishing murderers with the death penalty can any nation cleanse itself of the guilt of innocent blood. The taking of a murderer's life is akin to the amputation of a diseased limb. in order to save the rest of the body. Nobody wants to amputate a limb. It's extreme. It's horrible. My mother being a nurse always impressed upon us that she never wanted any amputations of any sort ever. She didn't want any all sorts of things and she wanted me to sign euthanasia documents even. Mum, we can't do it in prison. No, but she had this absolute pathological fear of ending up as a vegetable on a machine or being amputated or anything like this. As a nurse, she had very strong views on this and I think nurses must make some of the worst patients on the planet. And the day came when my mother was in a coma and the doctor said to me, I need you to sign release for amputation of your mother's leg above the knee. And my mother had expressly forbidden this, but she was in a coma, she was grey, she was dying, and basically if I didn't sign, she would have died in a coma. And at that stage she was not right with God. And I phoned my brother, he was up in Transfound, he said, well no good mum hating both of us, you just sign it. So, I did. And she didn't want to talk to me for a long time afterwards, but she immediately recovered. It was dramatic change, and in losing a leg, She lost her home, her job, her car, because... She lived on the first floor of an apartment without any elevator. It was a difficult situation. We moved her to a home. We built a cottage at the back. But in that extra three and a half years that that amputation brought her, she came to the Lord. In the last two and a half years of her life, she was loving the Lord, enjoying church, enjoying work at the mission, involved in all the aspects of the mailing. She basically took full responsibility of mailing what Diane does today. And in so many ways we just saw a transformation basically in amputating the limb. We not only saved her life physically, but ultimately we saw the Lord save her life spiritually. And amputation is terrible, but good can come from it. And in fact if a doctor fails to amputate a gangrenous limb, then the whole body is condemned. And if a society refuses to execute murderers, every single one of them without exception, it brings itself under a curse. And we can see it. South Africa used to be a country where we could walk safely at night, almost anywhere in the country. But today people are called born frees, were born behind burglar bars and security gates with razor wire and alarms and motion sensors and armed response companies because the murderers are out. In fact, to celebrate Mandela's birthdays he would open the prison doors and some of the murderers were committing murder again within 24 hours of being released. According to our Crime Institute, recidivism in this country is 96%. Recidivism means criminals released from prison going back to exactly the same crime, or worse. in most cases. They go in and they're hardened and they come out worse than they went in. They're not correctional facilities at all. They're not penitentiaries. They're not anything. What they are now is high institutes of learning for criminals. A country that does not execute murderers finds itself plagued with murder. We have an average of 25,000 people murdered in this country every single year. That's more than died in the entire war. 26 years war against SWAP in South West Africa, 15 year war against the Cubans and other communists in Angola. We lose more people every single year in this country to murder than we lost in the entire combined 26 years of war on the border in South West Africa and in Angola. It's staggering, and there are people who seem to think that it's intelligent, that our right to life in our Bill of Rights means you do not have the right to kill a guilty murderer. A judge, in the calm environment of a courtroom, after hearing all sides and the defence and evaluating the evidence, cannot choose to impose the death penalty on serial murderers. But, any teenager can choose to kill their baby through abortion. Right to life does not protect the right to life of the innocent, only protects the right to life of the guilty. And this kind of insanity is written into law in this country, and one wonders why God does not bless South Africa. They can sing Nkosi Sikli Afrika all they want, but by the way, those people who say Nkosi Sikli Afrika means God bless Africa, lie. Unpulunpulu is the name for God. in Xhosa and Zulu. God blessed South Africa would be on Kulu Kulu, the Africa, but Nkosi Sikle Africa is Lord bless Africa, and Nkosi is a word they used to describe any of their chiefs, including departed ancestors, and it's also the term that they'd use to refer to Madiba and other venerated ancestors and so on and so on. And of course East Sickly Africa is not godless Africa, but even if it was, it's meaningless while the laws of the country are based on lies and murder and deceit and perversity. Failure to punish murder with a capital punishment invites the guilt of the murderer and the judgment of Almighty God. Capital punishment is essential for justice, for the rule of law, for the protection of the innocent. I once went to Parliament, along with Charles, representing Christian Action Network, to speak about the need for capital punishment. We met the Deputy Minister of Justice, who said, you find me in a very receptive mood today, because one of this person's colleagues had been killed in the murder, and said that they were now considering reintroducing capital punishment for serious murders. I said, could you define serious murder? He said, well for example, if a policeman or elected officials are murdered, all murder is serious. How can it only be serious when it's one of your people, but not the normals? We just came through three layers of security to get to you. And you are not concerned for normal people like us getting murdered out there. It's only if one of you gets murdered. How can you say some murder is not serious? It's always serious for the victim and for their relatives. 1.6 million South African babies have been killed through abortion, legally, officially, often with taxpayers' money, since Nelson Mandela signed it into law 1 February 1997. How can any country seriously expect God to bless us when the nation is defiled by the blood of the most innocent of all pre-born babies? Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue has muttered perversity. It is not only the politicians who have spoken lies. The lies become a pillar of the state. Bearing false witness is standard fare for the mainstream media, SATV, CNN, the Clinton News Network, Sly Magazine, Useless News and World Report, the Sunday Crimes, all the news that's fit to print, they say, without fear or favor, they claim. Yet lies and deception are the tools of their trade. They bear false witness daily, rewriting history, twisting truths, rearranging reality, victimizing the villains, villainizing the victims, demonizing whites, trivializing the main issues, making mountains out of molehills, exaggerating minor faults, promoting disinformation, scapegoating, distracting and distorting, seems to be the primary occupation of our journalists and teachers and entertainment industry. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who justify the wicked for bribe and take away justice from the righteous. Isaiah 5 spells it out. But degenerate entertainment industry is also degrading our society. Superficial, sensational, immoral material predominates in modern entertainment industry and is producing an increasingly superficial, shallow, selfish, mindless, immoral generation. The arts have been debased and depraved, elevating the disgusting, celebrating ugliness, giving academy awards which are nothing other than rich millionaires and billionaires in Hollywood exchanging gold statues with one another. They say, I'll give it to you next year, you give it to me. It's an in-house mutual back-slapping operation. And what do they give Academy Awards for? Well, normally those that are the most perverse. If you really want to get an Academy Award, what you've got to do is promote the gay agenda and gender fluidity and all that sort of thing, and that's almost guaranteed to get you some kind of acknowledgement from these characters who celebrate ugliness their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened we read Romans 1 21 those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they may be saved all will be condemned to do not believe the truth but you take pleasure in unrighteousness This is in 2 Thessalonians 2. All will be condemned who do not welcome the truth, but who take pleasure in unrighteousness. Is that not most of what Hollywood is about? Not welcoming the truth, but taking pleasure in unrighteousness. They revel in perversity. Your tongue has uttered perversity, as I said. Not satisfied with the deviant being declared normal, they are now a determiner of the normal declared deviant. not satisfied with toleration, then I want approval, applause, conformity and funding for their perversity. And we ask, why does God not bless our country? State textbooks are concentrated in twisting reality, rewriting history, Politically correct myths and legends, anti-white, anti-western, anti-missionary, anti-Crusades, anti-colonial, anti-reformers, politically correct myths, lies, legends and disinformation predominate. Why should God bless a country that made lies the pillar of the state? And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to the base mind to do those things which are not fitting. Romans 1.28 is clear. If they don't want to retain God in their knowledge, they won't even allow a minute of silence in front of Parliament. Forget about praying in the name of Jesus, as our Parliaments used to be opened in Cape Town for 126 years. But the first act of Mandela's president was to abolish prayer. He would not even accept the suggestion of replacing prayer in Parliament with bowel reading with a minute of silence. Would not even allow an acknowledgement of a higher source of authority over themselves. God has given them over to the base mind. What does God require of us? Just to show you how far our society has fallen, in 1978 I was at the University of Cape Town for a graduation service and the message given at the graduation service was this, Micah 6 verse 8, What does the Lord require of your man? but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. And he then expounded on justice, mercy and humility. At the University of Cape Town, 1978, that's not that long ago. More Christian than Christian university graduation services that I've attended. And today, it's like Sodom and Gomorrah on the hillside, Kremlin on the hill. It's a place of debauchery and lies and destruction and where it seems that they're training rioters to burn and destroy things. Why is there so much evil and suffering in our world? Why do evil things happen? Well, just look around. Open your eyes, see how vile and violent our society has become. What is celebrated in the arts and entertainment industry and the music will seep its way down to every area of life. And it is. Let me write the music of a country, and I care not who writes its laws," said Plato. And it's so true. The music, the arts, actually are more influential than even the laws of a country. How can a holy God bless a vile and violent country in rebellion term, where they've made blasphemy something protected? You can blaspheme God. That's not a problem. But if you hurt somebody's feelings, they could call hate speech and put you in jail. How can God answer the prayers of a people whose hands are defiled with blood, who make lies and falsehood pillars of state, who delight in perversity and blasphemy? Verse 4. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words, and they speak lies. They conceive evil. They brought forth iniquity. Here in Isaiah 59 we see the total depravity of man. And then desire when it's conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it's full grown brings forth death. James 1 15. God's word is truth and yet people prefer to embrace the lie. Evolutionism. Atheism. Secular humanism. You came from nothing, you're going nowhere, life is meaningless. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, to the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies amongst themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served Preacher rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even a woman exchanged her natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men. leaving the natural use, burned in their lust for one another, men with men, committing what is shameful, receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error, which was due. Even as they did not want to retain the knowledge of God, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, now this sounds like the fair on ETV or SATV on a nightly basis, filled with all unrighteousness, sexual mindedness, they're whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, malicious, covetous, full of envy, murder, strife, deceitful, evildoers, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things deserve death, not only do the same, but they're proof of those who practice them. This sounds like our news media, our entertainment industry, and the whole setup of society from entertainment through education. They hatch viper's eggs. They weave the spider's web. He who eats the eggs, dies. and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out. The fruit of secular humanism, atheism and evolutionism is seen in our situation ethics, interfaith, multicultural, mixed marriages, new world order, illegal aliens, Islamic invasions, abortion holocaust, pornography plague, pagan invasion, breakdown of every standard of civilization and debasing and degrading everything good, pure and lovely. This has seen the schools that do not educate, courts that do not uphold justice, doctors who do not heal, medical professionals who kill babies and euthanise the elderly, teachers who do not increase knowledge, leaders who fail to lead, police who do not protect, families that fail to nurture, churches that fail to make disciples, teaching obedience to all things that the Lord has commanded, and who fail to be houses of prayer for all nations. public servants who loot public resources, governments that steal from their citizens, laws that no longer restrain the lawless, but which punish the law-abiding and the God-fearing. The wages of sin is death. What we sow is what we reap. Their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works. Their works of iniquity and acts of violence are in their hands. The intellectual Arguments of secular humans and atheists and evolutionists are akin to webs being used for clothing. They cannot provide any clothing. They fail to cover themselves. Everything has consequences. It's like playing with a viper's egg or trying to clothe yourself with a spider's web. The Bible is clear. God has instituted civil government as an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. The civil government is called to be a minister of God's justice. to punish those who do wrong, to protect those who respect the law. The primary duties and responsibility of any civil government is to protect law-abiding citizens and to punish law-breaking criminals. Psalm 101 reminds us that the duty of a God-fearing ruler is to destroy the wicked, to root out evil, to protect the law-abiding. For rulers are not a terror to those who do good, but to those who do evil. He is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, because he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister, God's deacon, and avenger of wrath, to punish and execute wrath on him who practices evil. Execute judgments in the morning, deliver him who is plundered out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth like fire and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of their doings. When a sentence for a crime is not carried out quickly enough, people's hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. Why do people commit crimes so readily? Because the criminals are not punished quickly enough, Ecclesiastes 8.11 says. Their feet run to evil. They make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts. Wasting and destruction are in their paths, we read. What the world calls a great religion of peace and tolerance, has proven to be the most violent and intolerant religion in the history of mankind, a religion of hate based upon the lie. The same could be said of socialism, which promises heaven but invariably delivers hell. Think of the Christians who have suffered 70 years in Russia and the communist oppression of the Soviet Union. Think of those Christians in Eastern Europe who were betrayed by the Yalta Agreement behind the Iron Curtain. Forty-four years these poor people suffered under what was meant to be the workers' paradise, which needed to build an Iron Curtain to keep its people captive, who shot their own citizens in the back for trying to move from one part of the city to the other. attempting to flee to freedom in the West, they murdered thousands. Over 160 million people were killed by socialist governments, communist governments, atheist governments between 1917 and 1991 alone, as documented by the Black Book of Communism and death by government. Waste and destruction litter their path. How long will the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither? The animals of the fields and the birds perish because of the wickedness of those who dwell there. Jeremiah 12 verse 4 makes it clear. Pollution, deforestation, drought, famine, death of wildlife is the mark of the wickedness of people in that area. And this litters all the societies where secular humanists, socialists have promised paradise and delivered perdition. The Soviet Union, Red China, Mengistu's Ethiopia, the Red Terror, Zimbabwe under Mugabe, Castro's Cuba, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Vietnam, North Korea. The list is almost inexhaustible. Over 44 communist countries. Every one of them a failure. But EFF and ANC are sure that'll work here. Even though it's failed everywhere else. The way of peace they've not known. There is no justice in their paths. They've made themselves crooked paths. Whoever takes it away shall not know peace. Today, to be straight is a swear word, an insult in many places. Well, the Bible speaks about the crooked paths, but God can make our paths straight. Those who cry peace, peace are loathsome false prophets, the organization of our community. The world powers of churches, the United Nations, have proven to be false prophets, false teachers, false shepherds. Endlessly they talk about peace and tolerance. and then variably deliver war, terrorism, deception, oppression, exploitation. They make crooked paths in every way. There is no peace without the Prince of Peace. Therefore justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us. We look for light but there is darkness, for brightness but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like blind men. We grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as at twilight. We are as dead men in desolate places. Sin is the problem. Repentance and faith in Christ is the solution. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. We need light. This requires righteousness and justice. However, we are in darkness because of the failure of leadership, not only in politics, but in the Church. The Word of God is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We need to return back to the Bible. It's in the Word of God we'll find milk and meat for our souls and light for our paths. So, the first eight verses gives the diagnosis of the problem. Isaiah 59, verses 1-8 gives the diagnosis. What's the problem? From Isaiah 59, verses 9-15 we then read our confession of sin. In 2 Chronicles 7-14 we read the formula for Restoration. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from the wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, I'll forgive their sin and I'll heal the land. If we want God to heal our land, we need him to forgive our sin and hear our prayers. And to do that he demands four things of us. If my people are called by my name will, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from the wicked ways. Four things we must do. Three things God promises to do. Hear our prayer, forgive our sin, heal our land. Seven points. in two parts. God's part and our part. 2 x 7 equals 14. 2 Chronicles 7, 14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. How many times do you see this abbreviated bumper sticker? If my people will pray, or if my people will humble themselves and pray. But forget the seek God's face and turn from their wicked ways. Snip, snip, snip. Cut that out. You can't Abbreviate the remedy and think that you've still got the blessing of God upon it. God has told us four things we must do. And humbling ourselves, prayerful confession, heartful repentance is foundational. We all growl like bears. We moan sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there's none. For salvation, but it's far from us. This sounds like a description of our time. complaining, moaning, moaning like doves, growling like bears, talking about justice when there's none, far from salvation. Considering how the Bible has been abandoned in schools and government, it's no wonder that we grope blindly in the dark, for our transgressions are multiplied before us. Our sins testify against us, for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them. The prayer that God hears is as the Lord described in his parable of two men went up to the temple to pray. Lord have mercy on me a sinner. That's the prayer that God hears. A prayer of repentance is not, I'm sorry but, I'm sorry if, that's not apologies or confession. I'm sorry, I was wrong, please forgive me, I won't do it again. That's more like an apology or repentance. Lord have mercy on me a sinner. We need to humble ourselves and pray and seek God's face turning from our wicked ways, our sinful selfishness, foolishness and gullibility, which entrusted wicked men to be leaders of our country, and in many cases cowards to be leaders of the churches, and compromisers to be professors of theological seminaries. And then we surprised at the catastrophic consequences. All of this testifies against us. in transgressing and lying against the Lord, in departing from a God, speaking oppression and revolt, and uttering from the heart words of falsehood, removing the Bible and prayer from the opening of parliaments, removing Bible reading, prayer and hymn singing from the opening of every day of school in the state schools, and from the military. We used to begin every day with prayer parade, Bible reading, normally from psalms, prayer, and hymns frequently, chaplains prayers, Bible reading, devotions was enforced in the army, and today? Sabbath desecration, transgressing and lying against the Lord, slandering the saints of old, tolerating and encouraging the crime epidemic, criminalizing the victims, obsession with the rights of criminals, rewriting history, replacing truth and facts with lies, distortions and blasphemous idolatry such as Mandela Day and Mandela Mania and all kinds of Mandela worship in the name of education. Justice is turned back and righteousness is a far off, for truth has fallen in the streets and equity cannot enter. Justice has become a sick joke in ANC-ruled South Africa. In Zambia, I heard someone talking about the South African ambassador being introduced to Zambia's Minister of Naval Affairs. And the ambassador laughed and said, you can't have a Minister of Naval Affairs. Zambia's a landlocked country. This is a joke I was told in Zambia. But in South Africa you have a Minister of Justice. To think that they are now making jokes about that in Zambia. We used to have jokes about Zambia. Now Zambia can make jokes about this country. Truth has fallen in the streets. And just this last week, somebody tried to bring out a book exposing the criminal corruption state it could capture. The title of the book was The Gangster State. Mobs of ANC youth league mobbed the stores, tore up the books, damaged private property, in shopping malls, with security and police standing by doing nothing. Proves his point about the gangster state, does it not? probably the best possible launch of the book, endorsing the message of it. It's like when I brought up the Slavery, Terrorism, Islam, Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat book, which as its thesis said, comment that Islam is violent and intolerant. The next thing, they give me death threats and they throw fits about it, because the book, well I'm just thinking, thank you for proving my thesis right. similarly with the pink agenda when we brought up the pink agenda and they banned it and gave us death threats as well we said well we said that the homosexuals have an agenda and they're intolerant and they want to criminalize people who expose their gender to have the normal declared deviant and next thing you know they've proved the thesis right and thank you it's amazing how the wicked cannot even see how they fall into the trap that they've dug for others In the times of Thabo Mbeki's presidency, nine Christian community radio stations were targeted and closed down by so-called Independent Broadcasting Association. Today, ICASA continues to harass and confuse and overburden and threaten independent Christian community radio stations and any journalist who dares to give the other side, who dares to question official narrative, who dares to do independent research. makes himself a prey. Character assassins predominate, including in the Church. Those who refuse to partake in national idolatry, those who refuse to repeat the myths and mantras of the state's idolatry, are targeted and trashed. Here we come to the end of the second section of Azar 59. the end of the confession. So the first third is the diagnosis by God. The second is our confession. And now the third section you get from the latter part of Isaiah 59 verse 15 to the end. We begin to see the salvation of God, the problems from man's perspective was followed with the confession by man. Now in the second part from Mosiah 59 verse 15 we see what God sees, what God thinks, and what God says. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased him, that there was no justice. He saw there was no man. He wondered. There was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation for him and his own righteousness had sustained him. What does God see? Injustice. What does God think? It displeases Him. What does God say? So I sought for a man amongst them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the Lamb so that I would not have to destroy it. That's in Ezekiel 22.30. The Reformers taught that we get the governments we deserve. Our wicked people find themselves oppressed by a wicked government. A corrupt people will be ruled by corrupt governments. A weak people will suffer under oppressive governments. Because of the wickedness and weakness of man, people suffer under wicked, evil, oppressive governments. There was no qualified human help. The Lord looked. There was no one. There was no one strong enough, righteous enough amongst man. And so God steps in. Here we see sola gratia, the sovereignty of God, salvation by the grace of God alone, because of the wickedness of man, because of the weakness of man, because there's no qualified human help, because there's no qualified human intercessor even. God initiates salvation based on his own righteousness. Salvation is by the grace of God alone. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head, and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and he is clad with zeal as with a cloak. This reminds us of the full armour of God in Ephesians 6. We're involved in a spiritual world war. God is not a pacifist and God does not want pacifists in his church. He wants Christians to put on the full armour of God and be involved in the full fight of faith. The first time Jesus did come as a lamb, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, said John. But the next time Jesus will not come as a lamb. When he returns to earth he will not come as a lamb but as a lion, the lion. The first time the Lord came as a saviour. The next time he will not come as a saviour. He'll come as king of kings, lord of lords, conqueror, eternal judge. People either bow to Christ today on the day of salvation or they will bow on the day of judgment, but every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. He is the Lord of hosts, the Commander-in-Chief. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. The coastlands he will fully repay. The scripture says God is angry with the wicked every day. Why is this not taught? in the average church. The average church doesn't want to speak against abortion because some of the people in the congregation have done abortions. They don't want to speak against accessories to murder or vote for parties that support abortion because most of the people in the congregation vote for parties that support abortion. They don't want to speak against homosexuality because many are homosexuals, or homosexual friends and family members, or vote for parties that promote diversity. You wouldn't want them to feel guilty. You can't speak against body piercing because she's Some people have tattoos and body piercing, you don't want to offend them. They don't want to speak against any sin. In fact, they've done surveys of some of the biggest churches in the world. Just take, for example, Joel Osteen's Soap Bowl Church, it's meant to be America's pastor, biggest church in America. takes a whole stadium to fill it. And they found that the vast majority of the people in their church are living in sin, living in adultery, fornication. They've got more people living together, shacking up, than married. So he never touches sin. Same thing of Saddleback Church and Willow Creek. They found, as well as surveys, that the vast majority of the people are actually living in sin. And therefore, they don't speak about focusing on family and tough things because you wouldn't want to hurt someone's feelings. But meanwhile, what about the children's lives being hurt and undermined and shattered as a result of this short-sightedness? By refusing to preach against sin because you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, you hurt everybody! And the whole society gets more lawless. Are we meant to exist for what people say and think and feel? No, we exist for what God thinks, what God says. His will is the determining factor for what should be the content and the focus of our messages. We don't exist to please men, we exist to please God. God is the Creator. There is not a snowball's chance in hell that any of the enemies of God could ever prevail against the Creator, the Eternal Judge, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the Ever-Present Sovereign Lord of the Universe. God is a God of justice. God judges the enemy. Those who fight against God will lose. You can see some of this in the catastrophic fall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, wiped out by his own army Christmas day 1989. Or Angolan dictator Agostinho Neto, who said that he had destroyed the Bible in 20 years. You wouldn't find a Bible anywhere in Angola except in a museum. Or the demise of Samora Michel, the wicked, cannibal, persecutor of the church who destroyed so many churches in Mozambique. It's not like 8,000 churches. Samora Michel who challenged God to prove his existence by striking him dead. In 1986, God did just that, as his Russian-piloted Tupolev plane careened into the Lubombo mountains at the border of South Africa, Swaziland, and Mozambique. You can see examples of God throughout history repaying fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. So shall I fear the name of the Lord from the West, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Where sin increased, God's grace increased much more. The Son of God will be our Saviour. The Spirit of God will be our sanctifier. The Lord is our deliverer, our strong fortress, the rock of our salvation. When the enemy comes in like a flood, God will raise up a standard to which the righteous can repair. And so, the cross of Christ and the Christian flag serve as banners to rally the faithful sons and daughters, servants and soldiers of Almighty God to fight the good fight of faith. We have hymns like, Stand up, stand up for Jesus. Fight the good fight. When the time comes for us to make a stand, let us stand up boldly. When the time comes for us to step out, let us step out decisively in faith. When the time comes for us to speak up, let us speak up and let us speak out boldly and biblically the words of God as recorded in the Holy Scriptures. Where duty calls of danger, be never wanting there. The Redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression. Revival begins with repentance. And repentance is not merely feeling sorry for our sins. Repentance involves conviction, a change of mind. contrition, a change of heart, and conversion, a change of life. Conviction, contrition, conversion. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. As for me, says the Lord, this is my covenant, my spirit which is upon you, and my words which I put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants, says the Lord Almighty, from this time forth and forevermore. Revivals are a sovereign move of Almighty God. Here we see unconditional election, irresistible grace, limited atonement, perseverance of the saints. Revivals flow out of the humble study of the Bible and obedient application of the Lord Jesus Christ to all areas of life. We are called to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. The first item of the full armor of God is the belt of truth. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Truth matters. Truth conquers, to use the words of Janus. Our God is a covenant-keeping God. He calls us to be faithful in studying, Believing, obeying and applying His Word, we are to make disciples of all nations, we are to teach others to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and we are to seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness. In Isaiah 59 we see our problems diagnosed. We see a model confession that we should follow and we are encouraged and we are inspired by God's promises and his plan of salvation to rescue and redeem us, to destroy his adversaries, to defeat all those who make themselves enemies of God. He calls us to rally to a standard, to stand up for Jesus, to fight the good fight of faith. Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the kings, the king of kings? The day will come when the Lord will return to this earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, as the Lion, to judge the living and dead. Are you boldly standing up on the inerrant Word of Almighty God? Are you teaching the next generation to fear the Lord, to love Him, to trust Him, to serve Him, to fight the good fight of faith? In this time of idolatry, deception and apostasy, may God mercifully and graciously grant us a revival of repentance. And He has shown us what is good. to love mercy, to do justly, to walk humbly with our God. Why do evil things happen? It is not any lack on God's part. It's our iniquities that have separated us from our God. It's our duty to humbly pray, to seek His face, to turn from our wicked ways. And when we do so, God promises to hear from heaven, to forgive our sins and to heal our land. We need revival, and God demands repentance, humility, prayer and faithful obedience. Let us pray. Lord God, we bow before you in humility. We thank you, Lord, for your life-giving word. Forgive us our sins, our compromises, and our cowardice. Have mercy upon us. Cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Forgive us our sinful silence, our disobedient inactivity. Cleanse us, and free us, and deliver us, and transform us. Use us to fight the good fight of faith, to stand up for truth and justice, to oppose evil and falsehood, to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. We pray it in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen.