I Will Walk Within My House With A Perfect Heart

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Thank you. I am very grateful to God for the privilege of allowing me to come here to your town and to this lovely building and to such lovely people. [00:00:39] And thank you for that lovely song that you sang, which has been sung from your heart, I believe. Can we have a short prayer, please? Can we bow before God? Our Heavenly Father, we praise Thee and worship Thee that we can be together tonight. Because of our love for Jesus Christ, we bless and praise Thee for our Saviour, [00:01:12] whom Thou didst send to be the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. That he tastes the death for every man And he will in no wise turn away anyone who comes to him through Christ We bless thee for such a saviour that faced death for every man And now we come and ask thee to glorify thy name here tonight To protect us from the evil one and his angels [00:01:45] that was swept upon this earth and in our desperate demons protect us by the risen resurrected power of Christ the Holy Spirit, the angels of God and brood upon us now by thy spirit in every heart prepare and speak to that we may all allow ourselves To be spoken to by God tonight Through a weak, base, despised man [00:02:17] Who at his best can do nothing For without thee we can do nothing But in spite of me and my weakness and unworthiness In mercy on me, wash me in the blood Fill me with the Holy Spirit That I might be a vessel meet for the Master's use Come, in Jesus the Christ's name Amen I will walk [00:02:50] I will walk within my house with a perfect heart what a prayer Psalm 101 verse 2 I will walk within my house with a perfect heart It's a staggering decision and a commitment to make [00:03:21] and I want to ask you at the outset of the sermon Have you ever made that commitment? Will you answer God? Please Have you ever seen a need? Ever become conscious that you need desperately to make that commitment and to seek grace? But why? [00:03:59] So that I don't influence my children against marriage against the concept of marriage, against the integrity of marriage, against the sacredness of marriage, against the hope that marriage is a viable possibility of happiness and not hell on earth. Sorry, that's the word that's been given to me by children living in Christian homes across this world. [00:04:35] I read in London a recent headline in one of the greatest newspapers of the world. A very staggering article on the front page. Fewer people in England are getting married than ever before in history. But why? The secular unsaved irreligious person asks [00:05:10] The experts believe that young people are put off marriage in this generation because so many of their parents have divorced The national statistics now show that the marriage rates in England are the lowest in recorded history since 1862. [00:05:43] The figures also show that the actual numbers of weddings have fallen to the lowest level since 1896. The population of England was only 31 million, they are now 53 million. A relate spokesperson said the decline is due to the ambivalence felt by children of divorced parents towards marriage. Today the world has revised the marriage vows. [00:06:21] they throw away God's word, they put it aside when they enter into marriage generally, they throw aside anything of the permanence of marriage, I said to my son when he talked about marriage before he even brought anything else near me I hope you know this is till death Don't ever in your life think it's not. [00:07:01] But the marriage vows across the world have been revised in a very subtle way. Oh, flowery words, sentimental, love in the eyes, singing to each other, but listen to the words, there's nothing of permanence left in most marriages. I will be with you for only as long as I want or need you but I will not enter into any commitment that will bind me to you legally [00:07:34] because marriage doesn't work for most people in this world who've entered into it. So, for me to honestly stand here and vow that in sickness, in health, for better, for worse, till death us do part is anathema Oh, it wouldn't be spoken like that, you'd be divorced before the marriage ceremony was over But listen carefully to the words that have been reworded, there's nothing about permanence left [00:08:05] because most marriages in the world have ended in divorce. In the last 20 years, 80% of most western nations, in 20 years, the marriages have ended in divorce. 80% of the children born in the last 20 to 30 years are born into divorced homes. Before they grew up to know a father and mother together, there was somewhat a man and woman with mother and father [00:08:38] Oh, beloved, God's word says marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled Now, unto the pure all things are pure Only a defiled man, woman or child will smile at that It is sacred to someone who is pure and loves God The closer you are to God as a child or a man There is nothing to smile at there [00:09:10] Only a defiled mind will smile at the bed Marriage, God says, is honorable in all Somehow God says the fact of marriage there In spite of your failures there still he'll honor you and the bed undefiled. The word there is sacred. Do you know that? In God's eyes, in marriage, that is sacred. It's holy. [00:09:44] The bed is undefiled. But whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. don't doubt that anything of the bed or physical relationship outside of marriage God will judge only a liar in the pulpit of God will not that cry out will not cry that out loud and clear God will judge [00:10:19] but the greatest tragedy today in this world Concerning marriage is that the evangelical church worldwide From those in our pulpits Our preachers, our elders, our deacons In their multitudes Those sitting in the pews of the evangelical churches Where the gospel is preached as you must be born again They've ended their marriage in total defiance of God [00:10:53] and into other marriages from the pulpits down as they preach the gospel for man to come to repentance and to come to Christ in their multitudes across the world in our evangelical pulpits. God says that we are the salt of the earth. We have a responsibility, preacher. Once you hold a Bible in your hand, don't deny the contents in your heart. You're the light of the world. What hope is the world of moral decency if the church defies God, denies it even in the Bible by omitting to preach it? [00:11:39] If the salt have lost his savor Oh, that's a staggering verse. I've preached on it and almost been run out of a nation for preaching on that let alone a church If the salt have lost his savor Does Christ use words that mean nothing? That could never happen There could never be a generation where the salt of the earth has lost its effectiveness. [00:12:17] It is henceforth good for nothing. For God and the world. I was preaching a while ago and an old man of 104 years came into the building and he came to me after I preached a sermon [00:12:50] and said I've heard many of your sermons and when I heard that you were here I had to come they've traveled a long way to get me here He was a farming man, but he was 104 years old. He said, I came here to tell you something. One of the greatest names in southern Africa, of evangelical circles, who's a household name in this nation. He stood up in his pulpit and said [00:13:25] while his wife sat there and his children that God has led him that this marriage is not working he is divorcing her and he is marrying this woman God is leading him since when has God changed his mind? So, it was in the newspapers, across our nation, I even groaned. [00:13:59] Though I know he doesn't preach what I preach, he's supposed to be evangelical. And he has one of these mega churches, you know, one of the biggest churches in the world. but this is the unsaved now listening to this man and thinking this is Christianity it's all Christianity demands of me who impresses upon me with an example to me so he'll look elsewhere [00:14:29] you're good for nothing Christ said Well the old man said I wrote this man a letter and I sent him a message of yours on marriage where you quote nearly 400 verses of the Bible on marriage every single verse I found in this book I memorized on marriage a year ago and I quoted [00:15:00] Without saying any word more, not expounding No illustrations, like now Just God's word from beginning to end Of what God says, every facet of marriage Including divorce and remarriage And he's only speaking to God's children in this book God doesn't command the unsaved to not divorce and remarry But God's children, all God's commandments And everything, every aspect of marriage He's right from where God said it's not good for a man to be alone. [00:15:32] I will make him and help meet for him. Right down to every aspect that God demands, commands, and places judgment of you if you don't live. Well, he said, I sent this to this man with a letter, and I said, listen to this sermon. Before you do what you say you're going to do in the newspapers, that everybody thinks, well, that's what Christians do. Listen to this man's sermon. Please, before you shame Christ. [00:16:05] Well, he said, I got a letter back eventually. And he said he did listen. And he said, I thank you for your interest and your prayers for me and your burden, your concern. But I disagree with this brother Daniel's interpretation of the scriptures on marriage I have a different interpretation So the old man looked at me and said, brother, what do I write back to this man? [00:16:41] He disagrees with your interpretation I said, sir, tell him I didn't have an interpretation I just gave every verse in the Bible in its context of what God says And there is not one other verse in the Bible to give that can give a different interpretation That's what God says If he disagrees with what I interpreted All he's saying is I disagree with God You say I said that to him [00:17:15] I didn't give an interpretation I only quoted God's word and sat down that's why there was devastation across the world when I preached it O church of God as God's light in this world as God's salt in this earth Have we no responsibility left? How desperately we need to begin to cry again [00:17:52] I will walk within my house with a perfect heart so that I can leave an example to my children of how beautiful and holy and sacred a marriage can be by the grace of God in spite of the moral decadence and instability of this generation, in spite of the compromise of liberal evangelical churches that defy God and deny what's in His book by not preaching it. [00:18:28] God warns of Him visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children. And that sounds unjust, doesn't it? why should my children be judged by God and affected by God's judgment upon them through my sins, my defiance as a father the word fathers here means parents visiting the iniquity of the parents, of the fathers upon the children now, don't doubt this [00:19:01] this is not a threat from God to the children who had nothing to do with it With your sins, this is a warning from a heart broken in heaven, from a God who wept when he was on earth, men's defiance. This is a heart cry from God, not a threat It's not Him [00:19:33] Our sins will tragically affect our children, God warns It's nothing to do with His judgment It isn't His will Our sins are going to tragically affect our children It's a warning from a broken heart That a hard God of cruelty that just judges the children for something they didn't do but you did No! In Joshua chapter 24 verse 15 [00:20:09] The godly Joshua cried out to his nation As for me and my house we will serve the Lord hallelujah a family's united choice and that man wasn't taking a chance when he had his family beside and surrounding him as for me and my house my home, my family we we will serve the Lord [00:20:41] but today for any godly man to say that is an amazing testimony for Christ warned us that a man's enemies will become the members of his own household escalating in its context more and more in the last days the sun will rise up against the father now this in its context is a godless sun rising up for one reason against his godly father [00:21:13] He doesn't want purity and integrity The mother will rise up against the daughter The man's enemies become the members of his own household, God says Oh, in multitudes of homes across the world today It is the individual member that must resign to this noble heart cry I, it's few homes that can say as to me and my home In integrity and truth [00:21:44] We will serve the Lord today It has to be the individual that will make the stand and say I will walk within my house with a perfect heart And so tonight I want us to carefully look at our choices as individuals I want us to carefully look at our choices as individuals as we sense our responsibility to the others in our homes, our influence through our failures or our victories, our obedience or our defiance of God [00:22:24] I want us to look at our personal choices as individual Christians As we sense our responsibility to the others in our home And the influence of our lives upon them forever No matter who we are in that home I will walk within my house, in front of my family By the grace of God Because of my responsibility With a perfect heart, with a blameless heart Enoch walked with God, isn't that lovely? [00:22:57] God gave him that testimony Only Noah, the only other man in the whole Bible God said, oh Abraham was the friend of God He was called, oh to be called the friend of God Noah the man in the whole Bible David was a man after God's own heart Daniel a man greatly, greatly beloved Oh, heaven singled him out Never was that said about another man But Enoch walked with God [00:23:34] That's the testimony God gave him, Genesis 5.27 But it's a staggering thing Why did Enoch walk with God? You know God's word tells us what made him walk with God? He wasn't just born into a godly home, you know I, when my wife fell pregnant with our first child [00:24:09] She had repercussions and we had to go to a gynecologist who was a very good man He wasn't a Christian But other Christians and other people said this man's the one to go, he's the best Don't take a chance with Jenny or the baby So we went to this man, he didn't charge us He looked at Jenny, loved her for her purity Never charged us And oh, did he care for her This unsaved man [00:24:42] Well, he didn't want me to come in there when he would check up Because Jenny did have problems and I had to sit out in the reception. Have you ever sat in the reception of a hospital or a doctor's waiting room or a gynecologist? It's a horrible experience. Why? Because everybody sitting there, they got nothing to do but wait for their turn and sometimes it's a long time, so I got to wait for my wife. So I sat there and everybody's reading magazines. [00:25:15] And you know 99% of the magazines Satan wrote himself. He's probably the editor. I couldn't be surprised. So these magazines, all the world's magazines, and I looked at what's left for me to read now. Sure, no, I'd be defiled for life with that cover. Oh, that I couldn't even touch. As a Christian, so I looked, and there was one other book on the whole lot of magazines available for you. It was a Bible. It was a children's Bible. [00:25:45] And a big picture of Moses and everything of the Noah and the Ark on the front of this big hardcover painting there of the children's Bible. So I thought, well, nobody's watching, that I'm not reading only the King James, so I won't be accused of heresy. So I picked up the children's Bible. And the way that I opened up was, Enoch walked with God. And then I read, well it isn't exactly like the King James, but it's pretty close [00:26:18] From the time and as a result of the birth of his first child Methuselah As a result of that birth And from that time of that birth So I, wait a minute So I went home, pulled down all my Hebrew references [00:26:49] Every document, every thing I could find Of things I've learned to trust in If you have to make reference to the exact Hebrew meanings Literally, literally the Hebrew says As a result of that birth that made him seek God I went to other people some of the greatest Hebrew scholars in the world and they confirmed it you see the Hebrew is a very rich word [00:27:23] you can take from the Greek about five words you've got to choose one for the English it's such a rich language and you can take from the Hebrew sometimes up to four even three but it's a rich language So, Enoch walked with God as a result of that birth and from that time he began to seek to walk with God. Something about that birth made that man realize God was holding out to him a life [00:27:59] and saying to him here, I'm entrusting this life to you. Now you raise him up. Something about that life, that birth, that witnessing, that moment, that his inner being is conscious and his knowledge and background of God. Yes, made him take grips with God, to walk with God. that's what made him come to the point where he sought God in a way that he walked with God from that time onwards [00:28:37] I believe with no doubt in my heart the sense of responsibility to a man of great integrity who did fear God but didn't walk with God made him pursue to walk with God as a sense of responsibility You know, the Bible tells us why God brought about the covenant of marriage You might think in Genesis 2, it's not good for a man to be alone So I'll make for him a helpmate [00:29:08] No, it wasn't so that you wouldn't be lonely You've got to look at all the Bible I'll tell you some staggering revelations of why God ever brought about this concept of a man and a woman being able to bring a child into this world physically Okay, Malachi tells us in chapter 2 where he speaks about the covenant of marriage and God cries out that he hateth divorce. Why? There's something there of an intense hatred, not because something sacred is defiled as much as this. [00:29:50] The context tells us, why did he make one? Why did he make and bring about a covenant of marriage? And God tells us, that from this union, this covenant, this union, he seeks godly seed. Through this union. He seeks from this union godly offspring, godly children [00:30:21] And he cries out of the responsibility of faithfulness and godliness and integrity in marriage For those children to be godly Therefore he hates what would scar children and mar children and hardened children, divorce, that he might seek godly seed, godly offspring, godly children by this union, this covenant. [00:31:03] That's why He made one In case you think it was just so that Adam wouldn't be lonely or you and me, sir I will walk within my house in front of my children and my family with a perfect heart, God Is that written across your life and your home, sir? Now, I want to ask you something. [00:31:34] Do you honestly believe you're living that, you're pursuing that, if it isn't written across your life by God, by your every reaction? Your every reaction? I will walk within my house, God, with a perfect heart. I was tragically present in a home where a young man who had always been a good boy it seems suddenly began to rebel [00:32:06] and in his rebellion he became uncouth and cruel and angry with his parents and he spoke to his mother one day in a way Finally, as those parents were beginning to age, I just looked at their faces, they were aging. They couldn't comprehend how this boy suddenly became such an angry, rebellious, uncouth child. And the father said in front of me, how can you, how can you speak to your mother like that? [00:32:46] this boy looked at him looked at me, looked around daddy, has it ever occurred to daddy that I'm like this because this is how daddy is that I'm like you daddy here that father nearly died As in moments he reflected how he speaks to his wife. [00:33:33] I will walk within my house, O God, please, that I don't send my children to hell. While I tell them that they must repent and I'm the reason they go to hell. No, Keith, leave my home. I had enough of Christianity. My mother and father told me the same things you're telling me, Keith. It was hell. I'm not putting my trust... I don't want Christianity. Get out! [00:34:09] My closest friends said to me when I got saved, So that I don't destroy my children. I was called to a house where the woman had left, the children had left. I was sent for, he had a testimony, he was an elder [00:34:45] and so he stumbled on the internet onto pornography and he was gripped, enslaved and unable to sleep until everyone was asleep and he'd sneak out Put these things on when they really were asleep and defile themselves with things I don't want to think about, little or talk about, that are accessible on this horrible thing that the devil so uses. [00:35:22] and his little daughter walk up and walk beside her daddy and stood behind him and he didn't know she was there for a long time she went off her head and was instituted to my knowledge never ever recovered Oh God, with all the devil has managed of evil to make accessible in every home [00:36:01] God help me I will walk within my house with a perfect heart that I'll destroy my children Forever I will walk within my house, God, by thy grace please, with a perfect heart. [00:36:46] I remember standing beside a world famous preacher who might have his books and his wife was washing the dishes in his great convention when we left the dining room and we were the only ones so I said to the wife of this great preacher We're the only ones that are late, you know. [00:37:16] Your husband started preaching. We'd better hurry. Oh, she said, no, I don't go to hear my husband preaching, sir. I said, are you tired? All the traveling? No. You see, I can't listen to my husband preaching because he can't live it. I am unable to sit in any sermon my husband preaches. I travel with him because of my commitment to death to be with him. [00:37:51] But his life makes it impossible for me to even find myself able to sit and listen to him with the Bible telling others how to live. He can't live it. And have we suffered. And this woman was not hardened. She just stood there weeping. She didn't tell this to many. I don't know if anybody else in the world she told it to. I never sinned, a man said to D.R. Moody. [00:38:26] I have never, I just don't sin. I've come to the place where I have victory over sin. Well, Moody said, come with me So he took his bowler hat, put it on his head, his old stick And he walks down the stairs and down the street So the man's walking behind him off the blocks He said, where are we going, sir? Where are you taking me? Oh, I'm taking you to your home I want to stand in front of your wife and your children [00:38:58] And I want to ask them if that's true Should a man walk slowly behind him and say, Mr. Moody, stop. I have to take those words back. I could never say that in front of my wife and children. It's easy to say you have victory. It's easy to imply to others. And you really are endeavoring to walk within your house with a perfect heart. [00:39:29] But tell me, can your wife not even listen to you preach without angry at your lie? So if it doesn't work in the home, it doesn't work. The rest is a lie, it's a pretense. You are as real as your child tells you you are. Let me tell you something, your testimony, the only testimony of any worth you ever have in life is what your child will give you. In honesty, I mean. that's the only testimony you have [00:40:00] of what you really are in the home I will walk within my house please God by thy grace of the perfect heart to protect my wife from being destroyed to protect my wife from being destroyed. The first time I came to your country was a meeting where for some reason in this great auditorium [00:40:38] preachers from across America had come, right across America. And I became conscious of this, although it wasn't particularly advertised for preachers, preachers had come from across America. And I remember just quoting the scriptures, passages upon passages The Sermon on the Mount, all these things But one night I quoted scriptures from one side of the Bible to the other And what God says, when the godly fall [00:41:11] That was the title of the sermon Everything God says concerning the godly When they fall, what God says about it, what God says to them What God confronts them What blaspheme, David, you brought on my name by this sin What God says they must do to get right And so up to Psalm 51 I quote So I made an appeal [00:41:45] By the way, the appeal was the scriptures also When the God lead forward, God says literally I made an appeal and to everyone's surprise a great part of that hall came down weeping aloud just weeping under broken, mostly preachers and so all these people standing now around these men and one man began to sob to such a degree [00:42:19] that he stopped the whole meeting no one could do anything no one could think he collapsed and he just broke down in total uncontrollable sobbing like his soul had been ripped apart he cried so agonizingly he disturbed everything They had to literally carry him. He couldn't be walking. They carried this preacher out of the building. He was so crushed by the word of God. [00:42:58] He had been a preacher of one of the large evangelical churches of this country. And he had fallen into terrible, terrible evil sin. but he carried on preaching and eventually it all came out he was excommunicated, thrown out of his denomination let alone his congregation but his wife who had been saved [00:43:30] when she was a little girl in a very godly home and had lived a pure godly faithful life to her family her mind just crumbled under all the shame Thrown out of the manse, thrown out of the church, thrown away from all the friends Shame and sorrow, no, no respect and reverence Just thrown away Her mind collapsed and she went out and gave her body to the most evil things This little girl that grew up and never did anything but want to serve God [00:44:04] Her mind collapsed, she was destroyed by his sin Has it ever occurred to you, sir, you the playing the fool now, have you ever occurred to you that you could destroy her life? Do you think the devil is something to play the fool with? Do you honestly believe we have an enemy that can't destroy? He bides his time. If you think you're getting away with it, you haven't got a little enemy that does play the fool. [00:44:35] Oh, he's got no mercy. If he's biding his time, it's to wait for a moment that he can really do the most damage to everything. You're not going to get away with it, I guarantee you. Unless you deal with it by God's grace. But this man got right with God. He found such a peace with God that he never thought he would ever be able to find peace with God again. that he would die tormented and shame crawling in the gutters [00:45:06] but he got up from these people that flew him across the country to hear these sermons and he knew God again, he knew there was mercy, there was total forgiveness total reconciliation to God and God's peace flooded his heart after all that wickedness but now he flew across the country to get his wife they flew back, a few of them, forcing her to come And she sat in this meeting, not in the convention now, but in the church [00:45:36] In one of the towns, just before I flew back to my nation That I had been asked on the Sunday So, there she sits Afterwards they come back Into the manse, into the minister's rooms in the back there The pastor's room, behind the pulpit His office and that, and there were a few of them sitting there And they told me about this man, and he told me I've met with God but my wife and he told me straight what she'd done Her mind has just collapsed, she's just went out and she's done these things and [00:46:08] She's destroyed I looked at this woman, she was like a battered bird She looked like a vegetable Like no emotion, just this dark, heavy ring, swollen eyes Unkept no self-respect just sat there like someone dead but somehow living dead eyes eventually when she was looking at me as I was speaking to her and I realized I'm not reaching this word I said lady and I said it with a broken heart [00:46:57] Jesus Christ could sit in this chair, not me. He wouldn't have to say one word to you like I'm trying to give words through to you. If you could only see his eyes, not mine, his face, just looking at you, you wouldn't hesitate to come back to God. When you saw the love, in spite of all you've done, through what your husband did to you and your children, if you could just see Christ's face for a moment [00:47:30] if only there was a possibility that Christ could sit here and look at you I guarantee you, you would flee into his arms with such faith and be cleansed and get up and go on with life and forgive him for what he's done and forgive yourself you wouldn't hesitate if only that woman sat straight up and she began to cry and then she fell on her knees we all fell on our knees and she prayed a prayer that I could never ever emulate [00:48:03] to tell you what it was but it was astonishing what she said and the way she said it I knew she was right through to God and she stood up and she said Sir when you said those words I looked at your eyes And I believe that's how Jesus would have looked at me. And until that moment I had nothing but oh the faith that surged in my heart and mind when I looked at your face. [00:48:43] Suddenly there was peace in her eyes. A smile on her face that I don't believe had been on her face for a long, long time. She looked at her husband and said, I forgive you totally. I will never remind you of what you've done to me and the children. I will never ever bring it up again till the day we die. I utterly forgive you for God has forgiven me and I'm required to totally forgive you. And that means I will never ever remind you. No matter what we face, but we face it together. [00:49:14] I will be your wife again because I honestly believe you have met with God in truth and now I have too well the church took one long look at this and they forgave them and he was brought back into his pulpit and to this day all these years later That man and woman have served God [00:49:44] But I want to ask you from my heart, sir You who don't read the book and do it You just read I will walk within my house with a perfect heart God, by thy grace This is a set work book of God and the school of God You not to read it and not live it, sir That's why it's written that you live that, that you endeavor to do that [00:50:20] So that I don't destroy my wife To protect my wife from being destroyed I was in a preacher's house, one of the greatest theologians in the world so revered it's unbelievable whose wife took a gun and just blew her whole head open because he was living in sin and it came out do you honestly believe [00:50:51] as it doesn't even occur to you, you destroy unless you pursue God desperately sir you know what the bible says, dead flies dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary To send forth a stinking saver Now that's something sacred That God's speaking about in the holiest of all In the tabernacle But this sacred thing can send forth [00:51:24] A stinking, a stench Dead flies can do that to something sacred Cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saver So doth a little folly A little, that's all the devil needs, sir Preacher Don't think he's waiting for any So doth a little folly Him that is in reputation of wisdom and honor [00:52:03] A terrible, stinking Savor from something that was sacred Intended to be sacred Including your life If you play the fool You can destroy your wife I will walk within my house of the perfect heart To protect my husband From being destroyed I was walking along One of the most beautiful walks in the world [00:52:35] In our city in Cape Town, where hundreds of people every night go running or elderly people walking, it's the beauty of the mountains and this long stretch of many miles, so beautifully safe. It's something I like to do when the children are small, but I oftentimes now that they've grown up, I walk alone and I pray, especially when I've come back from a long trip and I'm tired. I like that walk in the evenings. And I was walking and there were many people but there was a man suddenly, an elderly man on his face [00:53:09] And I saw a little commotion and I walked there and I saw his whole face was covered in blood And he was crying and he couldn't get up and they were trying to help him up And his little wife was sitting on her knees beside him, weeping and trying to help him up and touching his head And I felt so sorry for the way this man fell and hurt, oh he was terribly hurt Eventually they got him standing And his wife holding him up, weeping, and he's weeping [00:53:41] And then everybody disappeared as they were talking So I said, Sir, you know, you really should take help You are badly hurt Won't you please accept my help and I'll take you back to your apartment or wherever you come from Let me just help you because you really have hurt yourself Look at you He said, please, sir, go away from me. And I walked away. And as I was walking away, looking back, this young fellow with his shorts and his tackies, he was running or something. [00:54:18] He says, that evil, wicked woman. So I looked at this boy and said, what are you talking about? He says, no one else saw, but I saw. Do you know why he fell? Do you know why he's covered in blood? She hit him. And when he was down there covered in blood, she's still kicking and hitting and punching him. And so the crowds all suddenly come, and then she's trying to help him up, weeping. Imagine having to live with that. [00:54:56] so I turned and looked at them again and I thought oh God what has that man been through now forgive this forgive me spiritualizing this maybe you haven't got him covered in blood by punching him with your fists but the broader picture of life if you look at your husband a total failure down fallen, unable to sort of function, a pitiful figure. [00:55:31] Did you destroy him? By undermining him? Taking away every bit of self-respect he could ever have in the home? It's better to dwell in the corner of a housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house. Oh God, where can I hide? Proverbs 31, I quoted this with all the verses last year as I toured your country and other countries of marriage. [00:56:08] He that findeth a wife, but here it is, who can find a virtuous woman? Very interesting word. A God-fearing, upright woman of integrity, not just a wife. That's finding a wife is a good thing. You can go to hell early. Finding a bad wife, well, the closest thing there is to hell. It's a godly woman. But listen, the heart of her husband, the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. [00:56:48] that's why he trusts her, he knows it is that you? good not evil all the days of his life the children rise up and call her blessed and I'm leaving all the verses of the passage out that I quoted her husband also you see everyone will deeply respect and appreciate that life Are you going to destroy him? [00:57:29] I want to ask the wise here tonight Do you cry daily from your soul to God and integrity and holiness? I will walk within my house by thy grace God today with a perfect heart to not destroy my husband from being able to fulfill the role of a priest and the head of this home I will be everything by thy grace that God told me to be no matter how trying the circumstances that that man can be [00:58:00] even if he's not a perfect man the priest, the high priest to be in subjection to him by the grace of God so that he can Not to always fight him, undermine him, and leave him destroyed Oh God, help me I was on a tour in my country this year In the eastern part of southern Africa A five week tour, town after town Five meetings a day sometime The schools, everything there was [00:58:32] The prisons, and then the knights and the churches It was many, many thousands in the end of the tour But one of the towns I was at, there was a German man, Manfred Stiegen, very wealthy man, with an inherited farm that's developed over 400 years It was beautiful, the home, the trees, all these plantations of trees Well, he had many laborers, and he was a preacher also, I spoke in the Lutheran church, it's the only church in the whole community, it's big [00:59:07] So I was speaking there in the night, but he was telling me about one of his laborers who was a domestic, you know, all the laborers were born there and he grew up with them and so it wasn't just workers who told to do that, they all grew up together and they all functioned from the owner and the owner's family and he said there's one of the workers, one of the ladies that helps in the house many times with the wife and he's preached to her, he's preached the gospel to all, many came to Christ But she said to him, I went to see the witch doctor [00:59:41] Now, a witch doctor in Africa is an evil thing It's when they resort normally in desperation And these men tell them to do the most obnoxious evil things To be healed or for crises They go and do the most outrageous thing that they sometimes jail for They're not good things, these witch doctors But she said, I went to see the witch doctor in my desperation He said, no, don't say that, you couldn't have, you couldn't have done that, you know it's wrong [01:00:12] Oh, I had to go, and he helped me What do you mean he helped you? Well, sir, my husband and I are so fighting for so long, all the time and the fights resort to something, my children scream, they cry, they sob themselves to bed in the night and to sleep oh, I just can't bear seeing them destroyed, but we can't stop fighting, there's no possibility [01:00:42] there's just this incredible, and we resort to violence, to physically and I got desperate because I don't want to do this to my children, but there's no way the fighting would stop, I've tried We just fight and it's horrible and I'm destroying my children So I told the witch doctor and he said I've got a medicine that will totally heal this problem I must have this medicine, I said [01:01:14] Give it to me, I don't care what it costs me If it will just, oh it will work The fighting will cease from now until the day you die if you take this medicine. Give me this medicine. This native of our country said, now I will write down the prescription, I will give you the bottle and here's this little jar, that's how much you take. Every time a fight starts, every time an argument is there, and you know it's starting, it's going to come, [01:01:45] there's something, run, get the medicine, put so much of this into this and put it in your mouth, but don't swallow it until the fight is over. And you'll find there'll never be a fight in your home again. So this lady says, I went home and I did it, and it worked. And there has not been one fight since I've been taking this medicine. [01:02:17] It's an amazing medicine. There's no fighting. The children, they're not crying anymore. The children actually seem to be happy to come home and be with us. Well, he looked at her in amazement and said, Brother, how could I tell her that this man obviously has a sense of humor? It's water! But I haven't been able to tell her. It so staggered me, you see. [01:02:50] Here was a woman desperate, so desperate, she's doing something so ridiculous, so unbelievable. But tell me, are you desperate enough to really get the grips to find some answer? Says the watch, O God, upon my mouth. Christians can't walk around with water in their mouth to be victorious. You know, it just isn't right. So, says the watch, O God, upon my mouth. The psalmist cries, keep the doors of my lips, God. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. [01:03:29] Psalm 17, verse 3. I read this in a British newspaper about a year ago. Not quite a year. It was on the front page. A British couple now hold the world record for the longest recorded marriage in history. Percy and Florence Arrowsmith married on June the 1st, 1925. [01:04:01] The Guinness World Book of Records, the Guinness World Records said that this couple are now the record holders for the longest marriage. They were interviewed on the BBC and they asked questions about this marriage, the longevity of it. Oh, we're very blessed, she said, Florence, who's now a hundred years old. She told the BBC, we love each other and that's the most important thing [01:04:35] We love each other to this day So they asked them for the secret of loving each other and survival of marriage Today marriage is thrown out the door for the smallest argument And Florence said, oh, she believes you must never be afraid to say sorry But Percy, 105 years old, said, no, he said He believes that the secret to marital bliss is just two words [01:05:06] Yes dear Yes dear That changes perspective of this thing I remember A man came to me with his wife She said to him I'm missing one thing in marriage You don't tell me you love me anymore. It's a long, long time since you told me that I love you. And I'm worried. [01:05:39] What's happened? What's happening? Don't you love me anymore? Now he sat there looking at me, you know, anyway. You know what he said to her? Strangest thing. He said, when I married you, I told you that I love you, and I haven't changed my mind. [01:06:10] When I change my mind, I'll tell you. Until then, what on earth are you doubting me for? I don't have to tell you I love you. I told you once, what on earth must I tell you all the time? it will become very shallow words that's very unromantic but many men are not very romantic I suppose but he's got a point I suppose it's nice if a wife I remember a play. Is it a play? Have you ever been to a play? [01:07:12] I was unsaved, forgive me, okay? We're the theatres, you know. You don't speak about plays, it's like you don't speak about witch doctors, But sometimes you can talk about things what happened in your... So in my unsaved days, I went to the theater, I went to the movies. Those days, there wasn't blaspheme, there wasn't moral decadence, there was nothing. It was just cut out. We had censorship that you didn't even know what they're talking about sometimes, but it was gone, anything wrong. Hallelujah, you didn't walk out defiled. [01:07:43] But I went to these places, and one of the theaters I went as a teenage boy with a group of other people and older people, I saw a play. Now, it's a musical. Do you know what a musical is? They sing to each other. And it was very romantic and very naive. In the films and on the stage they used to do these terrible things like sing the most atrociously stupid romantic words. You know, I love you, you know. And the lady would go, oh, I love you too. [01:08:15] And the music's playing and all of us, our toes would curl up and oh. It was a naive generation. Today you would be put in jail, I suppose. I don't know. I suppose you go into a cinema today, I don't know about being defiled, you probably won't even stay alive before the end of the film. I can't get rid of all these evil things, so I'm not condoning it. I was unsaved, okay? But it was a naive and romantic generation when I was a boy. Trust me, it didn't take much for your toes to curl up and to become quite lame, you know, [01:08:49] Thank you for watching. A Russian Jew in the turn of the century where they were persecuted. [01:09:26] It wasn't just Hitler and the Germans that persecuted them. They were persecuted by every nation. And they were just stormed out and driven out and didn't have any... Because they would prosper in something, so they just thrown away. Well, they went through hardships in this turn of the century with this old wagon and they're going along the stage and they're singing and all this with their hardships. I don't remember too much about it, but I do remember one incident. He was standing there and all the children were all moving away and out of the scene where all the music was going and they were all singing and he sang. He said, Do you love me? You know, something like that, okay? Do you love me? So she said, What? Get away. Do. I need to hear. Do you love me? Something like that, yeah. [01:10:17] I think that's how he sounded actually, but anyway, it's ridiculous, isn't it? We all, no one's breathing. It was gripping. Anyway, she sees this man is serious. So she puts down the dishes and she stands there with her apron and Do I love you? Yes. Do you love me? Something like that. So she says, after 25 years of washing your clothes and making your food and raising your children [01:11:00] And by the way, this isn't the words, it's something like this, I would be sued If the people who wrote the music heard tonight, I would be sued for defamation But anyway, it's something like this, okay? It was long ago, I was a boy And you ask me, after all these years doing all this, do I love you? Go away. No, no, no, no. I need to hear it. Do you love me? So she looks at him now and she really gets worried because he's earnest. Well, after 25 years of watching you, she goes down the list, you know, like we all give our wives. [01:11:35] We give each other of what we do. After all these things, after 25 years of doing all this, I suppose I do. Oh, he was quite satisfied. Anyway, now that's ridiculous. But the point here is that I remembered that and I was thinking about this very seriously. The words I love you are one thing, but life poured out for you is real love. [01:12:09] that's when you really know that a person loves you is when oh I'm going the wrong way, no wonder imagine this preacher losing his place well that's because I wasn't exactly that's the broader picture, ok well I wrote something about my wife, and I wrote it a few years ago, but I never ever thought I'd read it or share it, but I honestly on my knees was thanking God, and I wrote something down, and eventually I believe the Lord impressed, I said just share that, what I honestly meant. [01:13:01] I thank God for the woman he has entrusted to me. I know no other that I honestly can say walks with God like her. And daily I worship God from my soul for her. That our children witness this life no matter what we have endured in any crisis and witness Christianity as few I believe have seen. [01:13:37] I love her more now than I did when I first married her by a hundred times. Watching her influence on our children. Seeing her never stop me to go and preach. Though I've left her alone so much of her life. Without a husband or a father in that house To fulfill the unique, specific calling of God upon my life and ministry That we all are conscious of in my house [01:14:07] Is of God I bless God for this woman who never ever became angry Who never tried to stop me from going to preach Who got up and took life with both hands and with joy lived it for God with my children even when I was away. Always welcoming me home, encouraging me, comforting me, praying with me about everything. [01:14:45] I love her that every time I failed, and I did, in tiredness sometimes I reacted wrongly. She never ever judged me, she never ever reminded me of my failures She forgave me and loved me seconds later I love her for what her life is She does not say I love you [01:15:17] I have not heard those words from her lips But her life has cried that out every day, all these years, in a way that has staggered my heart and my children's, and everyone that's come near us, and witnessed it. What is love? Do we appreciate each other? The love we have for each other. Do we treat them with appreciation? [01:15:53] The love we have for each other. Not with words. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. That is a staggering, staggering statement. so that I don't destroy my parents a wicked child is the calamity of his father [01:16:25] do you know the Hebrew words, the destruction of his father Eli's sons destroyed their father by their wickedness I was in a preaching appointment once in your country in one of the most revered pulpits in the world The size of the church is uncomprehendable and it's a conservative godly church I carried on preaching and then one day the preacher who had built this massive church and this reverence through his expository preaching and his godliness [01:16:56] left the pulpit and put his overalls on and took a little packet and started walking to his workplace to what he did nearly 40 years before he went back to work Why? Because his children rebelled, his elder children. And he said, the Bible tells me I lose the right to preach. If I cannot control my own household, I cannot have the right to tell others how to live. [01:17:28] So he left the pulpit. Now they told me to meet him for lunch and his wife. And he arrived in his overalls in this beautiful restaurant that they had all these ministers of this massive complex were all there hoping I could And he said, I've only got one hour, one and a quarter hours, I've left work, I've got to be, I have so many minutes to sit with you I don't want to eat much, I just want to talk then, seeing as I've seen you today And I said to him, do you think it's right to have to leave the pulpit that is one of the world's greatest pulpits [01:18:02] Where people travel hours to hear your ability with God's word If the other children all follow God And just because these three boys are rebelling like this In the free will God has given them Don't you think you should still stay and let God reach them through your prayers But why leave the pulpit? The church was emptying out, it was half full The people were just all, the other ministers couldn't hold it all together He said, Keith, I appreciate your concern [01:18:33] but I could never stand up in God's pulpit and defy God's word until my children, if they don't repent I cannot preach again So I looked at his wife and she said, perhaps you should listen to Brother Keith all the work you built up, all these words have been destroyed The people are just leaving. They'll have to close the church down. [01:19:08] Then I said, God will have to do something in His integrity to make your children repent. God is so holy to answer your prayers and others praying for the... He will have to do something to get you back in the pulpit His integrity to you and your sensitivity and your integrity to God's word God is so holy He is obliged He has a holy obligation to His promises as we pray [01:19:39] And He'll resort to anything to answer the prayers The prayer I'm going to pray for you now And I pray God do anything, it doesn't matter what it costs But make those children repent Insane that their father can preach again. Do you know within a short while after I left they found the mother was full of cancer. They closed her up and gave her a few weeks to live. As she was dying, her boys, because they didn't want that mother to die [01:20:11] while they were in sin, and know they were in sin, they repented and asked for forgiveness and sought God. But, oh what a price. and then the father went back to the pulpit but they can never recover as a church again a wicked child is the calamity the destruction of his godly father in this context [01:20:43] so that I don't destroy my parents I will walk within my house with a perfect heart so that I don't destroy my parents. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart so that I don't destroy my brothers and sisters, my siblings. I was in a house on this tour. [01:21:14] The first time I went was a town called Cheyenne in Wyoming. and I was in the home of a man there, one of the elders, his name is Marvin Struber, Marvin and Linda, they have a son called Edwin, who is now in Ghana with the charity work but Edwin was so godly last year when I preached there, or two years ago, that I was quite undone, I looked at this boy and I said where does he come from, he just stands out like a, he's so godly, the whole community reveres this boy [01:21:45] but now he's away this time and there's another brother that's grown a bit up his name is Howard, the younger brother of the Edwin and I looked at the way this boy walked with God in this few days I was in that house and I became conscious this boy is unique in the world the way he has such integrity and holiness in his character and his pursuit of God and his wisdom and discernment This boy, as young as he is, is probably the godliest person in that whole community, in that church anyway, that fellowship. [01:22:23] And so I spoke and said, you know, your elder boy shook me at his integrity and his godliness, but this boy, suddenly, who I didn't even notice, has just undone me in his godliness. As I sat with him and I realized the way he walked with God is something unique. So the mother, Linda Struber, said, it's because of Edwin's life. When Edwin was growing up, he noticed his little brother would walk behind him and do everything he did. [01:22:56] And he turned to me one day and said, Mommy, whatever I do in life, he's going to do. He just so looks up to me, look at him, my younger brother, this little boy. Mommy, I've said to God, as I've watched this, God, if I don't seek thee, he won't seek. If I sin, he's going to choose sin. For his sake, God, I need grace. And I began to seek God, Edwin said. [01:23:30] She said that's why that boy began to seek God And that's why his brother who follows him is so godly One reason, sir, his brother's influence that he always looked up to I will walk within my house with a perfect heart so that my brother doesn't go to hell To me, who he looks up to You honestly think you don't influence his siblings? I was in a house where a terrible tragedy of this boy rebelling and doing the most obnoxious evils, and they called me, but the elder brother who had been a rebel, not as bad as this, who had now sorted himself out in his maturity and has sought the Lord, he confronted this young boy and he said, what's wrong with you, how can you treat your father and mother, how can you do this to them, they're good, how can you? [01:24:27] And this young fellow said these words to his elder brother I always wanted to be like you From a little baby boy I looked up at you and you were everything And you rebelled And maybe you've sorted yourself out now But don't you preach to me You're the one that put it in my heart to be like this. [01:25:06] From a little boy. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart so I don't destroy my brother who I'm going to influence to heaven or hell. It was my brother's life, my brother's life that made me seek God with every breath in my body. [01:25:37] It was no sermon, it was my brother's life. And if he hadn't sought God like that, I would probably be in hell now. I was so in sin. But his life made me get up and want to emulate him when he decided that he needed God to save him I also wanted to follow him, my elder brother What is the main reason [01:26:13] that a Christian home destroys itself that we destroy each other even though we wanted to be right with God what is the main reason Christian homes are destroying themselves and each other there is only one reason young people come to me and many many have many I led to the Lord and now they're marrying [01:26:44] and they've said to me one after the other all over I can't know how many have almost what would you tell us what would you give us advice that our marriage can be beautiful like yours if we could just find what you have what everyone knows you people live what would you say what would you tell us to do when so many marriages Christian marriages even missionaries and preachers are ending in divorce or going through hell on earth What would you tell us that makes a marriage with your marriage so happy, so holy? [01:27:17] And I've always said without hesitating, oh it is one thing If you're right with God, there's one reason You never neglect God himself You never neglect the meditating of the word of God You never neglect the quiet time It's your goal in life, it's your God at most God at treasured, nurtured Jesus, no matter what Satan or man does, you will never neglect God. That's how right you are with God. You know how right you are with God by one thing. Do you neglect this book and prayer and the time alone with Jesus? Now, that's how right you are with God and if that is right, that's why you are led by God. You don't know any leading from God unless that's your life daily. [01:27:57] even to who you're getting married to. Now, for a marriage to become godly and holy and more beautiful daily for you to love your wife a hundred times more than you love her the day you married her is going to marriage right with God because of the quiet time and pray together, yes, that's lovely, but never neglect the time alone with God. What you did this morning before you were married, tomorrow morning make sure you spend the same time with God. [01:28:37] And if you do that, both of you separately, meeting with God, coming into marriage right, you stay right with God, not by praying together. The marriage that stays together, prays together, fine, but let me tell you, you'll go through hell on earth if you only pray together, but not alone with God. There's no substitute to the meeting with God where you renew day by day as an individual And there's no hurrying, there's the meditating of the word of God And there's no substitute after salvation, nothing more important or vital daily for you to stay right with God [01:29:08] And in your marriage, don't ever neglect that Now last year when I brought all those scriptures across many places, many, many multitudes Across the world have heard that sermon, but It was this scripture, there was one portion I didn't elaborate on, I didn't dare, I kind of jumped Because there was something confusing here and I didn't want to have to elaborate and give time to this It was where Paul, Paul by the way wasn't against marriage, you know, he says there in Corinthians [01:29:38] It's better for you to be like me, not married Now Paul didn't contradict the whole Bible including all the verses around where he puts marriage in such a greatly esteemed, sacred, noble, God-honoring concept No, he doesn't suddenly reverse it in these six verses where he says No, in this prison distress Paul was married by the way It's not in the Bible, but he had to be married, he was one of the Sanhedrin [01:30:11] And you go back into the Jewish books and history, there's no doubt Nobody was allowed to be Sanhedrin unless he were married No one knows what happened to his wife, she must have been young, she probably died There's nothing about divorce, because otherwise he wouldn't write the things No, nothing about children, said in the Bible, but Paul was married He wasn't against marriage, and when he says, like me in this present distress. You see, Caesar of course died just before the birth of Christ, four years. [01:30:42] Tiberius was dead, now was Nero. And Nero took Christians and didn't just try and slaughter them like Paul did at the beginning to stomp out this heresy. Nero wanted them dead because they wouldn't worship any other god. They wouldn't bow to him, he was a god. And they put them in the arenas and they did the most terrible atrocities that I couldn't even speak without defiling you publicly to try and rid the world of this thing called Christianity and so at that time he writes to the Corinthians and says [01:31:15] in this present distress, the worst moment recorded in the Bible, biblical times as the slaughtering and the bloodbath and the hatred and the intense and what has he done to Christians publicly it's better that you don't, that you're more like me you've got to be careful to say that Paul was against me But he does say this, and there are in honesty about four or five verses, five verses Where he actually does say, if you get married, there's the danger that you will be diverted from God [01:31:49] The things you can do for God that won't hinder you, you'll be so taken up with your wife Trying to please her that you'll have no time to please God, vice versa So he does it, but now in its context, and the whole context is a long portion about marriage We have to be careful What is he saying? I've read to pray much about this He's saying marriage he's not against If even in this present distress a man cannot contain himself, you marry Don't destroy her or yourself morally Because you should have married and not been abnormal [01:32:21] When you reach the age you have to marry And be normal Well, he says And I believe with all my heart this is all he's saying after having gone through this book many, many, many, many times seeking God's heart on every doctrine so that I don't make mistakes. I believe Paul is saying there's a danger of marriage that you can be so consumed in the demands marriage has on you [01:32:52] that you neglect God and then your marriage will be destroyed your children will be destroyed your life will be destroyed You might be saved, but what I believe he cries out here is Guard yourself in marriage that you don't allow it to be demanding to such a degree that there's no time for God I was in Canada, on Vancouver Island, just outside of British Columbia on Vancouver Island And there was a woman there in one of the meetings where I preached on the word of God And on the meditation and the quiet times And how it's the only way of survival [01:33:23] And she came up to me and she had 16 children and she was black under the eyes and withered and she's just a total wreck of a... and she's crying and says, I can't find one minute for God and you're telling me to read so many chapters to be able to stay right with God and another one was on the way and as she's standing there, they're screaming and crying and everything I try and sit down if I find there's five minutes, I'm asleep, I'm so tired, I'm up through the night [01:34:00] What do I do if that's the only way to stay right with God? I looked at her and I said, you know lady, I'm not being judgmental, I'm not being cruel Joanna Wesley had more children than you, some died but most lived And she spent this time with God You see there's an orderliness, there's a discipline Everyone must take their role to make it possible for a mother to survive Everyone in that home must guard that mother that she can have time with God [01:34:35] That she can have time to sleep So that the time with God, every single person So it's not sin to come even if you're tired And look at your wife and say to every child God, including your own heart, we have to make mother walk with God. She needs time. Now let's all do things. Everyone, it's a joint effort to protect that marriage doesn't consume your life by your wife's demands on you and your demands on her by giving her 15 or 16 children. Or you destroy her and your marriage. [01:35:17] Your daddy needs time with Christ Unhurried and a long time And all of us take our demands off him And I'm going to help you and we're all going to help each other As daddy helping me Because the time daddy's spending with God If he didn't spend that time, you and I, we'll all be weeping through daddy's life But if we let him and make sure he never neglects God We'll always treasure the time he does give us even though he doesn't give us all time [01:35:53] Because the time he gives us he will be equipped by God to be godly And therefore we must all make a joint effort for each other To make sure that my husband walks with God He needs time for God, not to neglect God because I demand every moment of his life after his full day of work No, and my wife, since she doesn't look like a destroyed vessel, with no peace with God, and reacts wrongly, a tied person is half a person. [01:36:26] You can't be victorious if you're continually tied. Tiedness is not sin, sir. In a permanently tied state, and you'll be a disaster for Christians, and make your family go through hell through your reactions eventually. You guard each other's time And I guarantee you That marriage can be the end of a man's walk with God And he will go through hell on earth and put you through hell [01:36:58] But young man, I guarantee you And I cannot guarantee you of many things I guarantee you this Never neglect God Make sure she never neglects God Guard her time with God and let her guard your time No matter what happens and no matter what demands Never neglect God, never ever hurry God And in 40 years young man You will love your wife a hundred times more than you love her today She may be like my wife, she's getting grey and wrinkled [01:37:30] The perfectness is gone but I love her With an intense deep love A hundred times more than when she had the flawless skin And there's only one reason she could live that That made me love her the way she's never neglected God And never hurried God It's possible I will walk within my house with a perfect heart For many reasons [01:38:02] Even if my husband does not seek God, I will Even if my wife does not seek God, I will Even if my brother and sisters don't right now, I will A little boy of ten years of age Looked up at me after I preached in a very big church His father was the preacher [01:38:34] Ten, and he says Sir, one day when I grow up I'm coming to your Bible school The theological seminar where I lecture I'm going to come to your Bible school I'm going to train and learn how to preach And I'm going to go and preach like you and bring the whole world to God This little ten year old boy I said, that's nice Well, years went by and this big, stepping, good looking fellow Daniel, who's standing there with all the new students, so before I lecture when there's a whole crowd coming for the first time, I introduce, he said, do you remember me, Brother Daniel? [01:39:10] You know I really don't, where do I know you from? Oh, it was in that town, what's your name? I really don't remember, I meet many thousands of people. Oh, he looks at me in shock. He says, but I told you when I was ten years old, the last time I saw you, that when I grow up I'm coming to your Bible school and I'm going to learn how to preach and I'm going out to win the world. Well, here I am. I've lived for it every day. And now I'm here. And now you look at him differently. [01:39:43] Oh, I'm glad. Anyway, this boy was remarkable, Glenn But what's so wonderful about him He became my son, who was also at this theological seminary at that time To go out as a missionary, because you have to there Not everybody's born a Mennonite, you can go straight in the mission field Some of these people are born in the gutters Dragged safe from the gutters, they've got to be taught how to even dress properly Go out. How to eat? Well, these young men there, my sons there, they take to each other, they're the closest friends and they turn the whole world upside down with the zeal of God. But this boy, his father now falls into sin. But I'm talking about sin. That brought so much shame and did so much damage in my country because of who he was. And that broke that boy's heart. [01:40:37] As his father turned back to drink and alcohol and the mother's mind collapsed through other sins he did And she just went and gave himself to sin also And she had been saved through the young girl also Her life was destroyed The brothers, the little brothers of this Glen Lying drunk in their teenage years in the gutters Smoking, swearing, cursing, cursing God's name And when people speak, oh my daddy was the one who preached hell and heaven and being born again Look at him! You tell us to not sin everyone in that home was destroyed [01:41:10] once the father gave but this boy, he didn't give up this boy my son was preaching and he said daddy no one will remember the sermon but there was a sermon being lived out that boy's father walked in there smashed from sin and that boy got up to a man who destroyed his mother destroyed his brothers and destroyed that home and he put his arms and said daddy you came He put his arms about me. Daddy, listen. God's going to do something. This is the message. Daddy, we don't want it. [01:41:43] No anger, just love. I'm going to tell you something. The mother was in the streets, furniture and whatever, thrown out like an animal. He says, Uncle Keith, I threw my mother in the streets. I got no money. We get you there, boy. You go. He went up to that mummy, no matter how she... What she did with herself, loving her. Let me tell you about this boy. [01:42:15] His father came back to God because of his life. His mother came back to God because of him not giving up. His brothers walk with God, didn't just come back to God. And the only reason is there was one left that says even if they're all standing, turning their backs on me, I will walk within my house with a perfect heart so that I can win them back. [01:42:51] And he did. It's all God needed. I was in one house where there was a lady who was so godly it was haunting. And I was a young preacher. Years went by. I go back to the same town after many years. She's dead. Her little girls had become women with children their age when I was in the house. And I looked at them and I said, oh, I just remember being in your mother's house when you were little girls. And I just remember what a godly, godly woman she was. There's no one in this whole area that's so respected and loved as her godly, the godly life she lived. [01:43:23] And this lady said to me, Brother Keith, my father was a monster. He wasn't just a bad man, he was a monster. He was so evil that when he was away one day, my sister and I said, Mother, no one in this town wants you to stay or would expect or would judge you. God doesn't want you to live through this, Mother. Let's get packed, let's run before he comes home. and abuses you anymore. [01:43:55] And our mother stood and looked at us and said, Listen carefully, girls. I was unsaved when I stood before God and said, To death I'll depart, for better or worse. Being saved doesn't cancel out what I said to God. I came to Christ, your father didn't. My coming to Christ doesn't mean I throw him away. I have to win him. I have to win him, but even if I don't, your father will give account to Christ of everything he's done against me and to me. [01:44:37] Every word, every abuse, he's a counterboy. Don't doubt that, but I also will have to give account to Christ of how I reacted. No matter what your father did, I'm accountable. I can't blame someone else if I want to live in failure. I don't want to be accountable to God about anything I ever did. No matter what your father did to me, I want the grace to live a godly life. [01:45:13] And this lady said, you know, Brother Daniel, our mother never ever failed God that we can witness or remember. No matter what our father did, he eventually came to Christ before he died and wept until he died day after day at what he'd done, just weeping in sorrow when he realized the waste of his life and what he'd put her through. But now, we're married, my sister and I, and our husbands are not perfect. They're far from perfect. They're saved, but they're not perfect. But Mr. Daniel, we're very careful how we react to our husbands. [01:45:47] because our mother showed us that even if she married a monster the grace of God is there if you want it to be Christ-like. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart so that my daughters can be Christ-like no matter what their husbands are and my sons because I want them to see it. is possible. [01:46:19] An old man stood up and said, When I was young, my wife and I are married 56 years. We have never ever raised our voice once to each other. We have never ever lost our testimonies once toward each other. We have disagreed. But we've never ever had to go to each other and say we sinned. Forgive us. or get on our knees together and say, forgive us, God, we disagreed, but by the grace of God, we never ever, ever were un-Christ-like to each other. [01:46:56] And then he said these words, brother, sister, it's possible, you know it's possible, but do you want that enough? To ask God in a way he will be obliged, because he doesn't tell us to live something, he won't give us the grace to live, he's obliged to give us that grace if we want it. But do you want it in a way God will give it? Or having the last word is all that matters to you, even if your children go to hell, you'll never seek God for this? Do you want it? [01:47:32] I will walk within my house with a perfect heart, even if the rest don't. It's a personal, earnest commitment that from this time forth in the light of all we've heard here tonight It's a personal aspect and challenge to you Whether you're a husband or a wife or a parent or a son or a brother or a sister With what you have heard tonight I want to ask everyone in this building, I don't care who you are [01:48:06] I don't care what age you are that desperately needs to ask God for forgiveness and cleansing in the blood for not pursuing and seeking God for this grace and to ask God once you've asked for cleansing because if you confess in humility and repentance and longing for deliverance He will forgive not if you just go on knowing you're going to do it again and then to stand up cleansed [01:48:40] and to ask God, not bowing, but ask God with your soul putting Him in holy obligation because it's what He asks of you He can't ask something mocking you He will give you, but you will want it in a way He has to for His glory and in a sense to ask Him for the grace from this night till the day I die, God to give me grace to live this. And from this night I will, by thy grace, Lord, [01:49:14] endeavor with my every faculty of my being to walk within my house with a perfect heart in the light of all these things we've heard. I want those of you, no matter who you are, brothers, sisters, father, mother, son, husband, wife, who desperately need to ask God for forgiveness, for defying, denying, and not seeking Him desperately to deal with these things, and not crying out this from your soul in the way He enables you daily. [01:49:47] Those of you that desperately need to do this before God, desperately, nothing's seller yet. Those of you that desperately need to seek God for grace to live this from this night to the day you die. I want those of you that desperately need to do that to stand right now please no matter who you are and I'm going to pray for those that stand no matter who you are those standing, please come to the front [01:50:21] I know I've preached a long sermon