(Riverfront Character Inn) Session 1 — Keith Daniel

The Word of God as Seed in the Sower

When they have heard, go forth. That which fell among thorns are they which, when they have heard, go forth and are choked with cares. They're choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection, bring no fruit to perfection, but that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, keep it, and bring forth fruit, and bring forth fruit with patience, with patience.

A sower went out to sow his seed, to sow his seed. Now in his interpretation to the disciples, he says, the seed is the Word of God. A sower went out to spread the Word of God. A preacher, commissioned by God, sent by God, went out to spread that which God committed to him, to go and spread.

A preacher, a sower, went out to sow his seed, to spread the Word of God. The seed is the Word of God. James, James cries out to the saved, to the saved, in chapter 1, verse 21, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.

Of his own will gave he us birth, made he us his child. Of his own will begat he us with the word, with the word of truth. But, James goes on, and he pleads with the lost, in verse 21, receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. Being born again, Peter says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, by the Word of God.

Paul cries out in Romans 1, verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.

You see, beloved, by grace are ye saved through faith. And faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. It's by the Word of God. The seed is the Word of God. But, this is staggering. Listen to God's warning to the sower.

Listen to God's reasoning to those he sends out and commissions to go and spread this word. Listen to what God says to them, in Romans 10, verse 13. Paul says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

He cannot deny himself. He's promised. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But now, listen to what God says about this, that he has just said in Romans 10, verse 13. Listen to his reasoning to the preacher, to the sower he sends out.

The Divine Sending of Gospel Laborers

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

How shall they preach, except they be sent? Oh, beloved, it is God that sends forth laborers into the field. It is God that sends forth men to go and preach the gospel to every creature. It is God who sends forth men to go and spread the word, to send men to leave every ambition in life behind, and to go and preach the gospel to every creature.

It is God that sends forth laborers into his field. How shall they preach, except they be sent? But it is not an easy road that God sends them to. Oh, if they did it to me, they're going to do it to you, if you preach of me and my words.

It's not an easy road God sends out when he sends them to go and sow the word of God, to go and preach. As every single person sitting here who's a preacher will know if they truly sent by God and are truly spreading what God gave without any compromise, just as God intended it to be spread faithfully, they will know that all the powers of hell will rise against them daily.

All the powers of hell through every wicked person hell can come near. Sometimes every meeting will be a war because the devil loves to wear out the sin. Oh, they become conscious the powers of hell are against them to destroy them, to disillusion them, to wear them out, to take their eyes of Christ.

The whole Bible cries it out to the sower. It's not an easy road, but it is a privileged road. Don't stoop to be a king if God calls you to preach, young man. William Carey said, don't stoop to be a king if God has called you to preach.

You'll stoop. And though it has not been an easy road, God knows if I had my life to live over ten times, I would without hesitation say, God, let me take this privileged road. Let me be entrusted to preach the gospel of Christ.

Let me be given this privilege, God, of not spending my time hours upon hours with things that have no eternal value, but my whole day consumed with the things of God for soul. Oh, God, separate me to preach the gospel of Christ again.

Though it's not an easy road, though all the powers of hell may rise against me, and they will, as every preacher who truly preaches truth is right with God, will know daily. It's not an easy road, but although it's not an easy road, sower, and God tells you it won't be easy.

On page upon page, Old Testament and New, if you serve him and take his message faithfully. Though it's not an easy road, though all the powers of hell will rise against you, and they will, if you're faithful to God.

Sowing in Tears and Reaping in Joy

God promises, if you go in Psalm 126 verse 5, they that sow in tears, in tears shall reap in joy. That's a promise, preacher. They that sow in tears, yes, that is what it's about. God doesn't hide it.

Shall reap in joy. My word shall not return unto me void, God promises us who preach faithfully. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Shall doubtless, God says to us preachers, come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Going forth and weeping, sowing for the master, though the loss sustained, our spirit often grieves.

But when our weeping's over, he will bid us welcome, and we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the seed. Don't doubt that, preacher. God has promised it. He's assured us of the tears it will cost, but oh, the fruit, hallelujah, of a life that obeys God calling.

Listen, preacher. Listen carefully, preacher. In 2 Corinthians 9 verse 6, he which soweth sparingly, listen, preacher, if God's called you, you can miss God's best, preacher, even though you call by God.

He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. That's a promise. Don't spare yourself, preacher. If God's called you, give every breath in your body, every facet in your being to fulfill God's calling.

Oh, don't spare yourself now. Don't spare yourself. There's a verse that staggered me. Blessed are they which sow beside all waters. The world is my parish, John Wesley cried. He tasted death for every man, and I must live to reach every man.

The World as the Preacher's Parish

Every man is on my heart to reach while I have breath. The world is my parish, not this building, not these four walls, not this denomination, not this culture, not this standard of people with their standard that's acceptable.

Oh, no. The world is my parish, for God loved the whole world. He tasted death for every man, and I will love the whole world. Oh, the closer you are to God's heart, the more you'll have the whole world on your heart.

You can measure how close you are to God by how much the whole world is on your heart, preacher, and so don't doubt that, for God loved the world, and the closer you are to God, you will love the world.

The closer he is in control of your whole being yielded, the more God will look through your eyes, and your eyes will see the world. Oh, don't sow sparingly, sow bountifully, because if you sow sparingly, you'll reap sparingly, but if you give every faculty of your being, preacher, let me tell you, the zeal of thine heart has eaten me up.

The zeal of the things of God, my life is consumed by the things that matter. My life is consumed by the things of God. Let me tell you something, preacher, a preacher who's right with God, and being in the will of God, and walking with God, he does not love to preach.

No, that is sacrilege. That's an offense. A preacher who's right with God, and controlled by God, and doing the will of God as he ought, he does not love to preach. He lives to preach. His life is consumed to be used of God.

He studies while others have leisure, studies to show himself approved, a workman that can handle the Word of God aright that needeth not be ashamed. He becomes all things to all men, no matter what it cost him, no matter what culture he has to stoop to even be to him.

It's a privilege. He'll become all things to all men, if by any means he may win some. There is nothing in life he's not willing to do as God leads him and points to the next soul, and you have to be different soul upon soul, nation upon nation, culture upon culture, standard upon standard of living.

Oh, he becomes all things to all men, if by any means he may win some, for he is driven with the love of Christ, the love of Christ constraining him, not just looking at the cross, but Christ who hung on the cross having control of his life to the degree he's yielded to that Christ.

Do you think Christ will let him walk past souls that he died for? Christ is in control of your life as much as you are able to walk past a soul without feeling for him. Oh, the world is my parish. Heaven help the preacher who doesn't say that from his heart.

Maybe I'm stuck with a congregation, some preachers may say, but if that congregation is not ablaze and burdened because of his preaching and his zeal for the whole world in their prayers, maybe they can't go to the rest of the world, but if he hasn't got them all crying for the whole world and doing everything they can in any way to assist those who've gone throughout the whole world, oh, what was that preacher?

Because then something's missing. He's far from God if all he's got in his heart are those who give him his living. Blessed is he which is not offended in me. All hell will rise against you if you go, don't doubt that.

Persevering Under Opposition and the Call to Keep Going

All the powers of hell will let loose against you to the degree that you yield your life to God and go ablaze for God to burn out for Christ no matter what it costs, because it's the greatest privilege God could ever give a man after salvation is to let him be preached, to be used of God.

And though all hell will come against him, and it will through the most incredible circumstances and people where you least expect it, but blessed is he, John, when everything turns against you for being faithful, that is not offended in me.

Though all hell rise against you, and you will, it will, if you're faithful, it will, it will. There's no glory in preaching. There's no such a thing as glory. Not once, even your greatest moment, there's no glory.

Not in this war between God and Satan, none of you here. Even though all hell will rise against you through the most unexpected sources, it will stagger you and make you driven unto your face again and again and weeping, as all the powers of darkness manifest themselves through the most unexpected sources to try and wear you out, although all hell rise against you.

The preacher must go. The preacher must get up and go on, even if he's on his face so many times crawling, he must not give up. Woe is me if I preach not the gospel of Christ. Woe is me if God's commissioned me.

God separated my life. God's pointed me, knowing what I'm going to face. If they did it to me, they'll do it to you. He didn't promise you anything more or less. Don't doubt it. He told you, but you have to take up the cross and follow him.

Most of us who do anything for God in life know what it is when God says, you've got to take up the cross to follow me in my blueprint for your life. Oh, he must go and he must keep going till his last breath.

There's no retirement age for a preacher. When do you retire from winning souls? When do you retire for an easy chair in the service of God when God has called you to win the world for Christ? When do you become someone who sits back and says that's enough?

The day you totally backslide, not before. Oh, the preacher must go. No matter what comes, woe is me if I preach not the gospel of Christ. For if I fail to warn the sinner from the error of his way, if I fail to warn the wicked from the error of his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand.

God said to Ezekiel in chapter 33, verse 7, if you fail to warn those I wanted you to warn, meant you to warn, told you to warn, sent you to warn, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand.

The sovereign God warned men who he gave a free will. In a sovereign act he gave them a free will. It didn't take away his sovereignty. In case you're confused about sovereignty, but let's not divert now.

He must go. He must go. No matter what he faces in life and he must never ever cease to go on, but let me say something that's going to really shock you and grieve many of you now, something that's bordering on obnoxious for a preacher to say in any pulpit or meeting such as this, in the middle of such a sermon as this.

The Sower Must Be Saved

The sower must be saved. Why would I say such a thing as that? Because, beloved, I wonder what percentage of the masses flock and believe this is what God, this is all God has. The masses trust this man who did all the learning, all the theology, all the studying of this book.

He knows. I wonder what percentage of the pulpits of the world are filled with men who are going to hell themselves. And, you know, God speaks of them right from the start. Those who want to be religious leaders, but don't want, they reject light.

They reject anything that's not exactly acceptable in their terminology or circumstances or theology. Listen, be careful. You become a blind leader of the blind, Christ warns, to those who would preach, teach God's will, God's word, God's will.

And they themselves are not saved. I wonder what percentage of the pulpits of the world, men are standing. Many there be. Many. I wonder how many. Do you think Christ said an exaggeration? Does Christ exaggerate?

Who would say to me in that day, Lord, Lord. Oh, they called him Lord. Have we not prophesied in thy name? Do you know what that means? According to John Wesley, Luther included, Calvin included. So I'm in good company of what it means.

Have we not preached? That's all is what they're saying. We were preachers. Many, many will say to me in that day, Lord, have we not put in thy name? I will say to them, I never knew you. Will God say that to you, preacher?

How many of you, even on this video, preachers, will Jesus Christ look at and you say those words to him from your soul? You'll cry them out to him and he will say, I never knew you. I never knew you.

How can you tell others the salvation of Christ if you've never experienced it yourself? Any man, including any man who gets to the pulpit, any man be in Christ. He is a new creature. All things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become new and all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. But if he hasn't reconciled you to himself by Jesus Christ, if you've been never reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, how can you be given the ministry of reconciliation?

How can you tell others to experience what you haven't experienced yourself? If you're still unsaved, preacher, the natural man cannot even discern the things of God. They are spiritually undiscernable.

Or do you argue with God? If you haven't been born again yourself, how can you find liberty to talk about being born again? How can you have the ministry of reconciliation if you can't point to when you were reconciled?

You'd have to deliberately close your eyes and heart to scriptures upon scriptures upon scriptures upon scriptures, or you'd have to close your people's hearts. You are a blind leader of the blind, but be careful.

You can never just stay there with a pure motive. At some point, you will become those who will oppose God. Why? You have to. You'll oppose them that preach truth. You have to oppose them. You'll start fighting God.

You'll start fighting those who come with a message your people haven't heard because you haven't experienced it. The new birth, being born of God, and except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, let alone enter it.

And you, you can't use those terms. So what do you do? Eventually, you will oppose them who come preaching truth. You'll become a fighter of those who bring truth. You have to, because you'll be threatened as your people know you don't preach that and become conscious you haven't experienced it.

So you oppose those who come and now upset the court, putting you into the limelight that you haven't experienced what Jesus Christ says happens to happen to every human, or they will never ever see God in eternity.

And you can't preach that. So you'll oppose. You'll become the enemy of God, feeling threatened by those who bring truth. You have to. This will happen to you. And tell me it hasn't already. In your conscience, you who stand in the pulpits who are not born again, is this unloving?

No, it's loving. It's unloving to be scared to offend. So you let people go to hell, including preachers. It's loving to know you may never be invited again, even to a nation by some of the things I say, but to still say it no matter what the cost of that once in their life they heard.

That's loving. It's very unloving to be scared of offending, for fear of losing those that give their tithing to you. Listen carefully. The Pharisees are alive and well on planet earth today. Do you honestly think the words Christ said to them were meant just for that generation, that moment?

No. To this day, men who reject truth who would be spiritual leaders in the organized church, the organized established movement of God as it was in his day, men standing in those pulpits right to this day, standing in our pulpits who reject truth, who fight and oppose those who bring truth because they feel threatened by them.

They undermine the truth to be the truth is to the way by whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. God speaking of people who theologically will undermine those who bring truth. They speak evil of the things they understand not.

They themselves, having a form of godliness, deny the power thereof. They deny that there's such a thing as a transformed life. They deny that there's such a moment that you can be born again, where old things pass away.

Because they haven't experienced it. They stand and they undermine. These be they who separate themselves, having not the spirit capital S. God says, do you think God warned us of such people? Beware of false prophets.

Oh, beware of them. Oh, God warns you preachers who are not born again. Woe to you, you scribes, you Pharisees, you hypocrites. For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

You do everything you do to stop people from accepting this message they haven't heard from you. You don't go in yourself and you'll stop, you'll stop everyone you can who's under your influence from listening to this outside message of the new birth.

You'll oppose people. You'll stop people from seeking God. You're becoming such an enemy of God. And you think you're doing the work of it? You have to, if you stay in the pulpit long enough. There's no such a thing as staying in the pulpit long enough and not becoming conscious.

You're fighting something that's in the Bible that you haven't experienced, and keeping people from it. Oh, you have to prove yourself successful to your denomination and your people. So you want those chairs full, don't you?

You want that church to be blowing over in another little war, taken out, but you're not preaching truth. What you won't do? Oh, you Pharisee hypocrites, you compass land and sea to make one proselyte.

When he's made, you make him twofold more a child of hell than yourselves. You're not worried about his soul. You're worried about his presence and his money and the numbers that you can be proved a success for what?

For what? What are you doing for them? If you're denying the truth and keeping them from the truth, then you know you are. You know you are. Oh, while they promised them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption.

Who do you think God is speaking all these words to? To men who preach, who stand up and want to spread the word, who themselves are going to hell, who themselves have never experienced the new birth, the sower must be saved.

And most on earth who are preaching are not saved. Don't doubt it. Leave the pulpit for God's sake. Leave the pulpit for your sake. Leave the pulpit for every soul that you're influencing. Leave it until you're born again.

If you don't want to leave the pulpit, preacher, get saved and stand up and ask forgiveness for the souls you've kept from the mis-message. Cry out to them. Once I was in darkness. I was blind, leader of the blind.

Testimonies of Preachers Finding Christ

I was blind, but now I see and I want to preach truth. Oh, how many preachers haven't come up to me over the 38 years that I've preached almost every day of my life, sometimes up to three, four times a day.

Oh, how many preachers haven't come up to me and said I, for 40 years, 40 years, I have been a blind leader of the blind. Just what you've preached tonight, sir. But tonight, as you were preaching, I found Christ.

Oh, thank you. There's one preacher on earth that cried out to preachers in such a way that made me know I have to seek God. Now I have to go to my pulpit, sir, to tell them I've been blind and all of them would have been following me, would fall into hell with me.

But now I see, I don't know what's going to become of me going and telling them that, but I have to go to the next Sunday service and tell them I'm now born again for the first time after 40 years. How many preachers haven't come to me over the years and years?

You cannot believe how many needed to hear what they're hearing right now. But we're scared to say it, isn't it? We're scared to offend. And in letting preachers not be confronted in compassion and love for their souls, we're letting the multitudes, the bulk of those who go to buildings that represent Christianity across the entire world are going to hell because the preacher in that pulpit is going to hell.

And we don't say anything. And you say that's loving? Is that Christ-likeness, sir? I wonder whether he would have said word perfect in the same tone with the same grief what he said to the Pharisees that we've heard tonight and what percentage of our preachers in the world today, or do you honestly believe, sir, you are not who he's preaching to if you're not saved?

Can we stand, please?