Resist Not Evil — Keith Daniel

Christ's Command to Resist Not Evil

In Matthew chapter 5, verse 38, Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, I say unto you that ye resist not evil or wrong that comes against you.

But whosoever shall smite thee, Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him, turn to him the other also. Staggering words here. Verse 43, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.

Hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father, which is in heaven.

For he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?

Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect. Staggering words, contextually, what God is saying. Now, strewn across the pages of the sacred book, strewn across the pages of the sacred book, you will find that there is the message of the cross.

And we had a live viewing over Easter which was looked at by many, many, many people. Now we are looking at Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, celebrated here in South Africa from the time of Andrew Murray, and as a result of the great revivals of Murray, and then eventually made into a series of meetings across our nation, seeking God.

Which occurred at Pentecost services across South Africa. There is the message of the cross, which we heard of over Easter, but there is also the example of the cross. There's the message of the cross, strewn across the pages of the book, but there's also the example, the example of the cross.

Christ's Silence Under Oppression

In Isaiah 33 53 verse 7 tells us that he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. The example of the cross. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He opened as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

He openeth not his mouth. 1 Peter 2 verse 21. Leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. That brings it very personal to us. Leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, wrong in his mouth, in his speech, who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously.

Leaving us this example. This is an example of the cross that we have to look at. My father was saved late in life at the age of 51. He had had many grave sorrows as a result of alcohol in his life. The night he was saved, he got up weeping from his knees, took my mother's hand, took her through to where all the alcohol in our home was stored, and he threw the bottles down the drain, smashing 102, my mother told me, as he wept and he said we wouldn't have no more alcohol in this home, Maudie, not even wine, not champagne, do you understand?

It destroyed my life. It destroyed our lives. We'll never have anything of that in our home again. He never touched drink again from the night he was saved to the day he died. Totally delivered. An incredible transformation happened in my father's life that shook the powers of hell and everyone that knew him.

A Converted Man Turns the Other Cheek

It was not long after that that an old friend arrived unexpectedly to visit my father, and my father looked at him but with different eyes. This man said, bring out the drink, Jackie, let's have a drink.

My father looked at him sadly and said, we don't have alcohol in this home anymore, and he began to explain to him that he had given his life to God, and the drink and alcohol had destroyed his life. He will not touch it or have it in the home again.

Now this old friend of my father was so taken aback that he lost control. He got angry, began to scream at my father, and he cursed and even used God's name in bad language, and he took his hand and hit my father on the face.

They hit him hard. Now my father before would have hurt a man very badly, and I saw that with my eyes. Anyone who crossed my father was in trouble. But he's saved now. He hit my father so hard before anybody could do anything or help him.

My father helped himself up. With tears coming down his face, he looked at this man gently and said, God bless you, and he turned the other cheek for the man to hit the other cheek. Now that was the only occasion we ever saw someone that actually turned literally physically the other cheek.

You see, he was saved now, and here was the example of the cross immediately from the time of his salvation, immediately from the time of his salvation. Now I want to look again at these words that I opened with.

He was oppressed. This is Christ. He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. That's staggering. He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and his sheep before his shears is dumped, so he openeth not his mouth.

1 Peter 2 .21, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. This example is staggering. There's the message of the cross which we can preach. Now there's the example of the cross which takes grace to live.

But if we're saved, we can. Leaving us an example that he should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he's reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously.

That takes grace. That takes grace, sir. But it's grace God will give. I knew a man whose name was Fani Horemse, an Afrikaans-speaking man here in South Africa who was the district superintendent of our mission here in Natal, where I'm sitting right now.

Fani Horemse and the Peace That Passes Understanding

He was one of the godliest men I've ever seen in my life, and I believe that ever lived. And I was honored to know him and be under him. When I was first saved, my brother went ahead of me for a year to our Bible School theological seminar in Cape Town, and they sent the students out to help the different conventions, and Dudley, my brother, was sent down here to Natal to help Mr. Fani Horemse with the convention they were having here at Pennington.

And Dudley phoned me and said, Keith, this message of holiness, it works. And he said, this man, Fani Horemse, he said, I couldn't believe watching him, how he reacted when everything went wrong, everything turned against him.

Well, Dudley said they were to leave early in the morning with a big lorry with beds, tents, etc., all the things that were vital, food. The young workers, lady pilgrims, had to go. Lady missionaries had to go in the vehicle for them ahead and try and get things going here as the people were arriving and would be arriving very soon.

Well, Dudley was there to help Mr. Horemse, even with getting here with all the lorries, etc. He said, the girls ran back and said the cars stopped because the wheel is broken. It's a flat. It's punctured, so Mr. Horemse trying to load up the lorry and tie the ropes, etc., of all the beds, etc., which had to go to the convention, he just walked with Dudley and the girls back down to the car and changed the wheel.

And then they found the other wheel, the spare wheel, was also flat. So they had a bit of a problem. Eventually, they got them going. After a lot of running around and off, they went back to the lorry and they found that the lorry had, after all the time standing there in between conventions, the back tyre was completely flat also.

Well, now they were very late in leaving for this convention and people would be arriving and no one would be there and the things wouldn't be there to start the convention. Well, Dudley said, without any anxiety, without stress, without anger or frustration, with a peace that passes all understanding in these circumstances, Mr. Horemse just changed the tyre.

And it took a while. Then they found another tyre, too flat to go. Now time was going by as they got this repaired, back and forth, running here and there. But Horemse gave such a lovely... When they finally arrived down the coast, travelling down, down, down, to get to this convention, there was quite a lot of people that arrived.

But the abrusion blocks weren't open, the things seemed to have really gone wrong and there was a lady there that was very, very angry. And she began to scream at Mr. Horemse, shouting at him and saying, what sort of people is this?

And the A, B, C. She just went on and on. She was so angry that they had stood in the heat, here in a town, in this subtropical climate, waiting all this time and no one, not even the abrusion, no. She went on and on and everybody became quite unnerved at the way she was screaming at this poor man who just looked at her.

After a long time she stopped in her anger and he said to her, lady, is there anything more you want to say? Is there anything else you have to say? She looked at him surprised and no, and I have something to say to you.

May God bless you. May God bless you. That statement meant more than anything else that happened in the convention to everyone that was watching. Here was the example of the cross. Here was love that suffereth long and is kind.

Here is blessing them that curse you. Lived out, not preached, but lived. There's a great difference to preach something you know and to live it. Isn't there? Well, Dudley told me that I was so blessed, but then they sent me to work with this man when I went out myself after my training.

The Fruit of the Spirit as Evidence of God's Control

I always remembered what my brother had said about Fani Haramsa and I felt thrilled that I was going to work with him. We arrived at a convention here at Pennington, this time it was me, not my brother, working under Mr Haramsa and the convention started, but one man got very angry.

He was charismatically inclined and he became very, very angry that there was no emphasis on manifestations and gifts and tongues etc as the evidence that God has filled you with the Holy Spirit, but rather that the fruit of the Spirit spontaneously reacting in your life is the evidence that God has control of your life.

The fruit of the Spirit. The more excellent way than gifts. The things that has to be first before we think of those things. Well, this man began to get everybody to come in the room and he was preaching to them and putting hands on them and trying to get everybody, all the young people especially, to do these things of manifestations and tongues etc.

And Mr Haramsa had to speak to him and he called me and said, come with me Keith, I have to speak to this man, he's causing problems here, he's got a whole lot of people all getting worked up now into emphasizing sensationalism and emotionalism and gifts and we've got to protect ourselves.

So we went, found the man in the bedroom there and Mr Haramsa asked him very gently to stop because the parents are getting upset and parents are being contacted who even want to come and get their children.

Now the man exploded. He got so angry with Mr Haramsa, I couldn't believe the way he's suddenly just screaming and began to put his fist and he came at Mr Haramsa and hit him, shouting at him. His anger was so uncontrollable, had been confronted.

Well of course I stood in the way when I saw what he was about to do and I grabbed hold of his fist as he was coming and I said, just you touch this man, just touch him and I'll deal with you. Mr Haramsa looked at me and touched me and turned and said, Keith that's not the way, that's not the way boy, stop it now, stand back and he went in between me and this man and looked at him and said with tears coming down his face but with a gentle smile, listen I want you to pray for us that God resolves this.

I want you to pray that God gives us some answer because this is not what God wants in a convention where we have to preach. The man was so struck at Haramsa's gentleness and the kindness of even asking him to pray that he was just flabbergasted.

He couldn't even pray and then Haramsa said God bless you now, I mean it with my heart, God bless you. Tears coming down his face with a gentle smile. The man was totally unnerved by what Haramsa said and how he reacted.

At the end of the convention he stood up when there was a testimony meeting and he said, I came here believing that I had the answer of what it means to be filled with God, the Holy Spirit, evidences were gifts and I was very angry when I heard that it wasn't.

When I looked at this man's life and he pointed to Fari Haramsa at the way he reacted to what I was doing when I tried to take over this whole convention even though it wasn't my convention, I realized for the first time I've got nothing of any value, that this is what God wants, what this man's got and I have prayed for God to help me to find the true fullness of the Spirit, the evidence that God is in control, complete control of my life, a dedicated life as he's been preached here, is the fruit of the Spirit.

I have cried out to God for my soul because of this man's life and I want everyone here to pray for me, he said. That's a staggering thing he said, through a life. Now there are many fearful words in the sacred book about the tongue and I want you to listen very carefully here to the fearful words.

Holiness and the Discipline of the Tongue

James 3 verse 2, if any man offend not in word, doesn't fail, God, in how he reacts in his words, in any circumstance, if any man offend not, doesn't fail, in word, the same is a perfect man, God says, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body, he can control the whole body.

The foremost proof of holiness, the foremost proof of holiness is a man's ability to refrain from entering into any conversation whereby he becomes defiled in the sight of God and man. That's the foremost, if any man offend not, doesn't fail here, the same, God says, is a perfect man, in the light he's given, enable all to bridle the whole body, to control the whole body.

Ecclesiastes 5 verse 6 says, suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, this is the tip of the iceberg. Fail here, you fail everywhere. James 3 verse 6, so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature, that is fearful, that is dreadfully fearful, dreadfully fearful.

In the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin, there lacks no sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise. Proverbs 10 verse 19 says, we have to have control with the tongue, if any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, he can't hold his tongue, he deceives his own heart, his religion is in vain, worthless.

James 1 verse 26 says, be thou an example, is the example of the cross, not just the message of the cross, but the example that we have to live, if we're shaved. Be thou an example, he left us an example, that we should follow his steps, for now he cries out to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4 12, be thou an example of the believers in word.

It always starts here, if it doesn't work here, nothing else that follows is attainable. It always begins here, this is only the tip of the iceberg, if we fail here, we fail everywhere, according to the scriptures, over and over again.

Loving Enemies Through Agape Love

God says, love your enemies, that's a staggering, staggering statement. You don't love what they do wrong, you don't love the evil they're doing, but you love them, enough to be an example and to reach out by your reaction.

You see, love is defined, it's not just saying I love you, with hatred in your heart and anger. Love suffereth long, 1 Corinthians 13 says, here's the definition of what love is, the garpe love, it's not human love, it's God's love, that is only attainable if God, and to the degree God is in control of your life, as a result of your dedicated life to him, as a result of him taking control.

Love suffereth long and is kind. Have you this love? Because if you have gifts, they're worthless, 1 Corinthians 13 says. What you've got is worth nothing for God or you, if you can't live this. Love suffereth long and is kind.

Love is not rash, is not easily provoked, go on on your knees, that's holiness, that's holiness. You have to be slow to speak, because then you'll be slow to wrath, James 1 verse 19 says. You see, the discretion of a man deferreth his anger.

It's a glory to pass over a transgression, to overlook it. Proverbs 19 verse 11 says, Proverbs 15 verse 1, a soft answer turneth away wrath, but harsh words, grievous words stir up anger. God tells us how to react in a way that our lives will win people, will win people.

A Gentle Answer in the Face of Hostility

Years ago I had to preach up in the mountains of southern Africa, very cold town, very freezing at that time, but people came, it seemed the whole town turned up in the meetings, and many got saved, and I was very grateful as a preacher.

The last night of that outreach, which went on for about five days, five nights, there was a man in the congregation who had arrived, who I didn't know was there, he was a very, I suppose, well-known, famous name in southern Africa, especially in the charismatic circles, and after the meeting, he with all the other ministers of the town and others came to the house where I was staying and being lodged for a cup of tea or coffee.

We all sat in the kitchen, which is a very large room in most cold parts of south Africa, because that's where the fire is in the stove. Well, there was a lot of people standing around, a lot of preachers, a lot of Christian leaders, and he was standing opposite the table, and I was introduced to him, and I realized, oh, this is a very famous man, name in the newspapers, etc., through being known, so well known among the charismatic movement and churches.

No, I put my hand out, he didn't, he just started screaming at me. The whole place just went into silence and shocked as he shouted. You see, he was so full of anger that I had not mentioned in the manifestations, that I had not mentioned the gifts as being the vital evidence of the spirit-filled life, of being filled with God, the Holy Spirit, but I rather preach and emphasize the fruit, spontaneous reactions as an evidence.

Love suffereth long as God, this, this is the better way, this is what we have to seek, or we have nothing of any worth, Paul said, so I preach this. Standard, he began to scream at me for not emphasizing the gifts as being the vital evidence of being filled with God, the Holy Spirit.

Well, that staggered everybody. He carried on screaming to the degree that no one could believe he was so angry, and I couldn't believe it, in anger at me. Thereafter, about five minutes of screaming and shouting and carrying on about his doctrines and against mine, and that I'm grieving the spirit and quenching the spirit, etc., he suddenly stood there, shaking in anger, looking at me, and I asked God to give me grace, here, not to defend myself and fight back, because then all I have is what he's got, nothing more, and I said to him, I just changed the whole subject, I didn't defend myself, I said, Sir, I I read in the newspapers that your wife has been gravely ill.

Is she still so ill, or is she recovering? That's all I said. You know, he was so staggered that I had not defended myself, that I said nothing against all he attacked me about, but oh, now I'm just caring about his circumstances.

He nearly fell. He went back into his chair, staggering, and just looked at me, stunned. I don't think he'd ever seen a man in his life not defend himself when he was attacked, the way he's stunned. And so I just carried on speaking.

Now, everyone in that room was deeply shaken that God had given me that grace to keep quiet, deeply shaken. There was a dead silence. Eventually, I said, Sir, I have to leave. I have to get up early to get down far away from here for the airport, and I have to leave early in the morning, so please forgive me.

I have to get myself to sleep into my room. So I excused myself. As I walked out, he put his hand forward and came toward me, but there was such respect in his eyes, and even tears, as he just held my hands.

And then all those preachers and many others just touched me as I walked out, saying, Thank you, Keith. I walked down the passage to my room, and in that room, joy flooded my heart. A great joy flooded my heart.

You see, a man hath joy by the answer of his mouth. This sacred book says, a man hath joy by the answer of his mouth, Proverbs 15, verse 23. That's a staggering word. You see, the joy of the Lord is your strength, this book says.

It's not God's joy up there. He's in you by the Holy Ghost. If you fail here, it's his grief that makes you feel sad at your failure. You wouldn't unsaved feel sad, but you feel more tragically sad if you fail here than if you did some terrible sin before you were saved, because it's God the Holy Ghost.

You see the joy in your heart, the joy, his joy, for being filled with joy, is in your heart, and you find that you have joy, joy through the answer of your mouth. A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth.

Don't doubt that, but it's God's joy in you, because God is in you. That is very essential in the Christian faith. Now, love suffereth long, and is kind, is quite a standard, but attainable as a saved person, but especially if a person is totally yielded to God and filled with God the Holy Ghost, because the fruit, the evidence that the Holy Ghost has taken control, to the degree he has control, is your reaction, your spontaneous reaction to wrong against you.

Grace and Self-Control in the Home

Love suffereth long. What happens if you have God's Holy Spirit? You see, that is agape love, 1 Corinthians 13. It's his love attainable through him living out his life, through controlling your life, because you're yielded.

Love suffereth long and is kind. That's possible, or God wouldn't say it, because it's his love in you doing it. Love suffereth long and is kind, even in the home, even in the home. You see, God says in the time to keep silence, in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 7, there's a time to speak, but there's a time to speak silence, and you will know how and when because of the Holy Spirit in you, and his joy is attainable if you obey his voice in no circumstance, even in the home.

If it doesn't work in the home, it doesn't work anywhere, Andrew Murray said. There's a time to keep silence even in the home, before your family. That is very, very, very essential. Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom, from your wife.

There's times you have to do that. Micah 7, verse 5. A man phoned me from another country a few years ago. I'd been in his home when I was in their country. He was really a godly man, but very strong and very, very strong in his beliefs and in his expression of those beliefs to anyone.

He phoned me and said, my wife is leaving me, Keith. I don't know what to do to stop her. She wants divorce, she's taking the children, and she says she can't go on anymore, nothing will change her mind, and I have to stay away now.

I'm here in this part of the house, my heart broken. I just thought I'll phone you and say pray for me. What else can I do, Keith? I've lost my families because I always stand up for my rights in such a strong way.

I think it has got too much for them. I said, listen carefully to me. First of all, ask God for forgiveness. Then get up, ask God for grace. Go to your wife and your children now before they walk out that door, and ask them for forgiveness.

There's greatness in someone who says, I'm sorry. A man has nothing of any worth who can't say, I'm sorry, I was wrong, forgive me. There's greatness in such a man or woman. Ask for forgiveness and ask them to give you another chance, and they're going to because I'm going to pray for that.

But ask them in a way they have to. Go humble yourself now, or you lose your family. Then I want you to do something. I want you to take the book of Proverbs. There's 31 chapters. Many, many Christians read one chapter a day, and that they do right through their lives, so they get through Proverbs more than anything else in the Bible.

This great book of wisdom. And I want you to highlight every verse that speaks about the mouth, every verse that speaks about what God wants you to do with your mouth and your lips and your words, and what will happen if you fail here, or if you pass the exam.

If you do what God says, highlight it, and then daily read them, and ask God every morning and every night, give me the grace to live them, and go over them and over them, and go out there and live it in front of your family.

Do what God says in every word concerning the mouth. Even a fool is a God that is wise if he just keeps quiet. Proverbs says you've got to learn grace for that. There was, I don't know how long before he phoned me back again from that country and said, Keith, thank God you told me what you did.

My wife did forgive me. My children forgave me. They unpacked their bags weeping, and I wept as I asked for forgiveness from my heart, and to be given another chance. And I did read Proverbs, and all those verses I did highlight concerning the tongue, and I read them daily, the ones up here, and I ask God daily for grace.

And Keith, my wife has become happy, and my children. There's no anger. There's no disappearing and shutting doors and not speaking to me for a long time. There's love in my home because of me, because of me changing, Keith.

That is very staggering. In the lips of him that hath understanding, wisdom is found, Proverbs 10 verse 13 says. Even a woman that feareth the Lord, Proverbs 31 verse 30 said, she openeth her mouth with wisdom, verse 26, and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

It's not just a man. In her tongue she opens her mouth in wisdom. In her tongue is the law of kindness. These words are strewn throughout God's holy book. What is a man? What man is he that desireth life and liveth many days?

What is a man? What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days, that he may see good? And it answers us, keep thy tongue. If you want and desire life and to love life and not hate it, to see good, keep thy tongue from evil, thy lips from speaking guile, from failing here.

Psalm 34 verse 12, he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile, no wrong. 1 Peter 3 verse 10 tells us, say not I will recompense evil, I'll pay back or repay evil done to me.

Leaving the Battle to God

No, wait on the Lord and he shall save thee. Don't recompense evil. Wait for God's grace to be given to you. Always leave the fighting to God. Men are going to fight up, fight you, till the day you die.

Don't doubt this, but when men will destroy you, and they're going to, there's none of us that's going to escape that. Somehow the devil will find somebody to destroy you, who will live to destroy you, who'll dig up for dirt to destroy you, who won't stop until he can destroy, who won't settle, nothing will stop him.

No matter how much you seek peace, they seek evil. They turn your good to evil, no matter what you do. Be careful now, when people would destroy you, and they're going to. God said to the Israelites in a moment that is very staggering, and he's speaking to us through them in the Old Testament, their strength is to sit still.

You're going to find strength in leaving the battle to God. He'll do the fighting for you. You're asked to love them, maybe with a tear in your eyes, but seeking grace, that love suffereth long and is kind.

To love your enemies, to do good to them that hate you. You have to seek God for this, but this is attainable. Leave the fighting to God. Their strength is to sit still, God says. Always remember this, he opened not his mouth, he left as an example that we should follow his steps.

We have come to the end of the series here in South Africa, and I'm grateful to those who have listened, the main speaking over this last weekend, from Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday was not only me, but the principal of our Bible school, Mr. Mayberg, Dr. Mayberg, who we thank for speaking in English, another language, and doing very well, and to Mr. Johan de Brain, the head of our mission.

He also spoke in English, but they did so well. We thank God for them, we thank God for those of you that have listened, we thank God for my son Roy, and the district superintendent here, who's been helping us here, Roy from America, doing these things to get everything over the internet and live for you to view.

They have been up early in the morning, late in the night, to be in control of all these things, so that you could be seen. Thank you to our son Roy and to Vian Herber, who is the head here in Pennington, where Roy's home is, where Jenny and I are right now doing recordings.

We thank God for the speakers, we thank God for those who have helped that this can be viewed, and all the sacrifices they made to make it possible. We thank you for taking the time in this tragic moment of the world history, where a terrible plague and hurt has hit the land, and where there's been time to seek God, as never before, and perhaps one of the reasons God allowed all this is to make that time, to force when God stopped this world, and forced the world to stop.

I think he had a lot more in mind than all the tragedies and the sorrows, he had in mind that the world stops to think about life, what it's all about, and so thank you for taking the time to listen. May God bless you as you pray for us in the Africa Evangelistic Band here in South Africa.

May God bless you as you seek him through the messages you've heard, and find a walk with him that will stagger the powers of hell. God wonderfully bless you now, and thank you from my heart, but please pray for us as a mission and as speakers.