TCA 30Apr2024 - Revelation & Faith - Apst J Sithole

The speaker begins by thanking Jesus and praying for guidance. They discuss the importance of faith and how it comes from the revealed word of God. They mention that faith is a matter of the heart, not the mind. They explain that faith requires obedience, courtesy, love, and fearlessness. The speaker then talks about the role of conscience in faith and discusses different types of conscience, including defiled and weak consciences. They emphasize the importance of having a strong conscience aligned with faith. The speaker warns against the influence of hyper-grace teachings that can weaken the conscience. They conclude by stating that faith cannot operate in the heart with a weak conscience. Chie roba shi kwen bu, vi u mi lej dan. O ma nga ke lej dan, o ma nga ba kwen. O dian isi lej, o ipo isi lej. O dian isi lej, o ipo isi lej. O dian isi lej, o ipo isi lej. O dian isi lej, o ipo isi lej. Chie roba, chie roba, ke sa do ba kwen. Chie roba shi kwen bu, vi u mi lej dan. O ma nga ke lej dan, o ma nga ba kwen. O dian isi lej, o ipo isi lej. Chie roba, chie roba, ke sa do ba kwen. O dian isi lej, o ipo isi lej. O dian isi lej, o ipo isi lej. O dian isi lej, o ipo isi lej. Thank you, Jesus. We bless your name, Jesus. We give it glory, Lord. People, greetings and good morning, everybody, in Jesus' name. Let's pray. My Heavenly Father, dear God, we thank you. Thank you, Father, for giving us another new day. What a wonderful day this is, Lord, that you have graced us with. Father, we come into your presence this morning, and we invite you, Father God, to be there to lead us and guide us throughout this session. You are a good God, and everything that we ask from you, we know. If we ask in the mighty name of Jesus, you promise to give to us. Father, we thank you for everything about your way, Jesus, and amen. We thank you. Guide us throughout this session, and give us everything, Father God, that we ask in thy grace and in thy presence. In the mighty name of Jesus, we thank you. Amen. Amen and amen. Amen. Yes, yes. Last week, we did Approaching the Courts of Heaven, and we were thorough about it. And we did the eight ways of approaching the courts of heaven. And one of the eight ways is that you receive the verdict that the court is giving you by faith. You receive the verdict by faith. The verdict comes to you prospectically by the Spirit of God and the inner witness of your spirit. And therefore, things get very complicated in our Christian walk when we are faced with the word faith. We tend to struggle around the word faith, and people sometimes don't know whether they're in faith or out of faith. And we have dealt with this subject extensively, but there's an area that we have never touched. We just introduced it, and we didn't touch it. That when we operate in faith, we have to look at five things that make faith work. And now, we mentioned those in the morning yesterday. And this week, we'll be dealing with those things, talking about things that make faith work. So I understand that if we move in that direction, our faith will never work. If we move in that direction, faith will work. And we pointed out at the first one. Let me see if you are a good class. What is the first thing that makes faith work? You can just shout it over your mic. You don't have to raise your hand. Just shout it over your mic. What is the first thing that makes faith work? Congratulations. Amen. You are a great class. What is the second one? Obedience. The third one? Courtesy. The fourth one? Love. And the last one is the fifth one? Carelessness. What's that carelessness? Fearlessness. Oh, fearlessness. Amen. You are a great class. But don't tell the others that I said you are a great class. Just keep it to yourself. Amen. The thing is, we said revelation. Revelation, I said, the Bible says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Every faith teacher will tell you that now. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. In most cases, it is left there. But I think the more clear way to explain this is that faith comes by the revealed word of God. Amen. Because the word of God needs to be understood and to be revealed to one. And that revelation becomes the anchor of your soul, becomes the anchor of your faith, even when your faith is challenged. But if you have a revelation of the word of God, that revelation now begins to pump in faith into your heart. Amen. And again, we don't believe with our souls, which is our mind, our will, our emotions, but we believe with the heart. And the heart, that is the spirit. The Bible says man believes by the heart. You believe by the heart and you confess with your mouth, then you are saved. Believing with the heart. Now, faith is not a thing of the mind, but faith is a thing of the heart. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now, and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So, you find yourself now, revelation will fully persuade your heart. You find yourself that you are anchored. You have no doubt in your heart that God has done this thing. Let me repeat my statement. You have no doubt in your heart that God has done a thing. Not God will do. Because anything that is in the future is not faith. It is everything that is in the now is faith. If you say God will do something, that's not faith now. It's something else. It's a hope. You are hoping that something will happen, but that's not faith. Faith comes and then it's a substance of things, of hope for things that are not seen. It becomes a reality. The Bible says in Mark 11, one of the famous scriptures about faith, which is the anchor of our faith. It's in Mark 11, 23. It says, Thou shalt say to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea. Without doubt in your heart, it will happen. It's a hope issue. Amen. But here is the problem that we are having now. The problem that we are having that is very prevalent in our lives is that now there are things that have to do with our hearts. That must be right. I want to take from the five things today, the issue of conscience. Conscience is not in the soul. Conscience is in the heart. And therefore, there are four types of conscience that people have. Now, the conscience is the one that tells you about wrong and right. You begin to know that the conscience is a faculty that is placed in our hearts so that we can know what is right and what is wrong. And also, the conscience is there to also protect us from danger. The conscience will always protect us. But at the same time, the very same conscience must be aligned with faith. You don't just come and you don't say things. When you are in faith, you don't say anything. You always speak the Word of God. You always speak the Word of God. You know what, if you are in faith, you don't do this, you do that, and so on. And now, faith becomes a law in your life. Can I repeat this again? Faith becomes a law in your life. You begin to obey the do's and don'ts of faith right from the heart. You don't just speak things that are against your faith. You are so sensitive. And you don't just listen to things that are against your faith. You check it out that this thing won't bring faith in my life. It will just bring fear. And you take it out of your system. And you avoid people who are talking things that are against your belief system. Because you are so conscious. The conscience helps you to differentiate, to do the do's and don'ts. But in most cases, our consciences are not in a good position to be aligned with faith. If you understand what I'm saying, just say amen. Amen. Amen. Pastor Azimpi, I want you to read four things about this thing. They may not come in the order that I'm talking about. And if you have received those scriptures, they may not come in the order that I'm talking about. If you have received those scriptures, please say amen. Amen. I will start with Titus. Titus 1, 15 to 16, ESV. To the pure, all things are pure. But to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and fit for any good work. Amen. Watch that. It says their conscience and their minds are defiled. These are two separate areas. The mind is in the soul. The conscience is in the heart, which is the engine room of faith. Amen. Now, the Bible says their consciences are defiled. We have a defiled conscience. What is a defiled conscience? A defiled conscience is a conscience that has a certain practice. You have this habit that defiles. You have just done something. You do something that you know is wrong. The conscience keeps on screaming, but you continue doing that wrong thing. That is a defiled conscience. But it gets worse. We have also a seared conscience. A seared conscience. Can we go to that one? Amen. The next one is 1 Corinthians 8, 10. It's an idea. If someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol's temple, won't that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? Okay. Now, that one now, we have a defiled conscience. And the scripture I've just read now is about a weak conscience. Amen. A weak conscience. What is a weak conscience? Somebody with a weak conscience adapts to every environment. A person with a weak conscience adapts to... A weak conscience seeks to please everybody. It's not strong to resist wrong. It just adapts. To find a person with a weak conscience among the gossipers, he or she gossips. Find a person with a weak conscience among those people who are social drinkers. This one drinks. Find a person with a weak conscience with people who are involved in adultery and so on, and they don't see any problem, this person just adapts. This is a person with a weak conscience. Amen. And our consciences are weakened by the hyper-grace message. What is a hyper-grace message? The hyper-grace message says, no, you can sin, you can go on and sin, but you will make it to heaven. We are saved by grace and all those things. Yes, we are saved by grace, but not to live like devils. The Bible also says, the grace of God has appeared to us, teaching us to say no to all unrighteousness. Amen. So the grace of God is not a license to sin, but the grace of God is a teacher that teaches us not to get involved in wrongdoing. So these hyper-grace teachings weaken our conscience. Amen. And our conscience must be strong. You must have a strong conscience that is not weak, that says, no, this is not for me. No, this is not for me. Now, faith cannot operate in the heart with a weak conscience. Let's get the next one. That's the condition of a conscience. Let's get to the next one. Hebrews 9.14. Hebrews 9.14 is King James Version. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without sport to God, cut your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Amen. Now here, we have what we call now a dead conscience. A dead conscience is something that nobody cannot say no to anything. It is now separated from the truth. And let's get the last one. This is the condition of a conscience. Okay, thank you. 1 Timothy 4.2 ESV. Through the insincerity of liars, whose consciences are seared. Must I read the other one? Yes, read the other one. 1 Peter 3.21. Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. Amen. Right. Now, we have four things here. We have a defiled conscience. We have a weak conscience. We have a dead conscience. And we have a seared conscience and we have a good conscience. Now, finally, a good conscience is now the thing that makes our faith weak. Amen. A good conscience. So, if you are in faith for some time, maintain a good conscience. Amen. Because if your conscience is a bad one, is a weak one, is a defiled one, is a dead one, faith won't work in such a situation. Faith only operates well where there is a good conscience. One of the scriptures says they've made the shipwreck of their faith. A conscience that is not good, it shipwrecks the faith. Let me just sum it up by bringing this up to you. If you are not in a good standing with perhaps you have fought with your father or fought with your mother or you have done something wrong that you know very well that your father doesn't like, your mother doesn't like, or your boss doesn't like, and you have just done that thing, will you be bold enough to go and ask for anything? No. Am I talking to the right people? No. The first person you will avoid is the person you have wronged. Yes. If you have done anything wrong, that will be used against you. The devil, the accuser of the brethren will use that against you. And therefore, this will shipwreck your faith. You cannot believe that you will receive anything from God. Why? Because your life is not in line with the principles that God stands for. So ladies and gentlemen, faith works when we have a good conscience. Amen. Let us maintain a good conscience. A good conscience doesn't mean that one is perfect or one is squeaky clean. But a good conscience simply says you are conscious of wrongs wherever you see it, and you avoid wrong, and you repent. There are two things about repentance. As you approach the courts of heaven, immediately you are shown things. And those things, you begin to repent from that. But repentance is just change of mind. You must go ahead and reverse course. You reverse course. You begin to show the fruit of repentance. Reverse course. There are many things that we need to reverse our course so that our faith can work. Amen. Amen. Let's go to Mark 11, 23-24. Mark 11, 23-24. Mark 11, 23-24. Okay. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he said shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he said. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Amen. 25. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now, Jesus is talking about faith here. But he proceeds to say, When you are believing God for something, forgive others. In other words, a heart that is not forgiving, now, that is a bad conscience now. You cannot continue to have this bad conscience around not forgiving your brother or your sister, your sibling, anybody you relate to. That faith cannot wear where there is a bad character of unforgiveness. Faith will never work in such a situation. This is what Jesus is saying. If you have faith, you can say to this mountain, be removed, and so on. And he says, if you pray, then believe that you receive it and you shall have it. But he continues to... Now he goes to the matters of the conscience. He says, if you have ought against something, somebody, forgive. It's an act of the heart. Hallelujah. Amen. I know this one doesn't have a big amen and hallelujah, doesn't bring goosebumps. But goosebumps. But here is the issue. Maintain a good conscience for your faith to work. Make sure that things that I expected from you, you repent from them and reverse course. Amen. Then faith works in that fashion. It's all quiet in here. I know what is going on in your minds. There is a lot of soul searching this morning. Hallelujah. Amen. But let me move away from the thorny one. Let's come to another one. Obedience. And this is our last point this morning. Obedience. Obedience. Faith works where there is obedience. That's what we call submission faith, if you remember. We spoke about saving faith. We spoke about submissive faith. We spoke about surrogate faith. But here we're talking about submission faith. Obedience. Obedience. Obedience. Let's look at the miracle. The miracle, the first miracle that Jesus performed in Cana Galilee. That is John chapter 2. You may study it. You may, in your spare time, just study that verse. It says, Mary realized that there's a need in this wedding. They've run out of wine. And she goes to Jesus and said, they've run out of wine. And she also goes to the servants and says, servants, whatsoever it tells you to do, just do it. But she knew that faith here must produce wine. Faith must produce the need that is needed in this place. Faith must produce. But faith cannot work where there is disobedience. And they did what Jesus told them. They obeyed. And there was a miracle. And ladies and gentlemen, obedience is key, again, in making our faith work. Amen. When operating in the courts of heaven and out of the verdict, you know, God will show me things where I was disobedient. Show me star. And I have now homework of certain things that I have to make right, make amends, readjust, and do all those things. Because, you know, God doesn't really make things time out. He will point at a thing. Yeah, I will let you know right now. In 1996, I said to you, one, two, three, and this thing is not yet done. It must be done. It's so nice to be in the spotlight. But at the same time, we need to obey. And Jesus and our faith will work under such circumstances. Ladies and gentlemen, be blessed. And have a blessed day. This is Apostle Scully signing out and saying, have a good day. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.