Have You Turned From a Life of Sin? — Keith Daniel

Can we bow for a moment of prayer? Father in mercy, come and visit us this morning. We love thee with all of our hearts. We long for the smile of God in heaven. Be upon our lives today and all of our lives.

God may honour us as we honour him. Come in mercy, Lord, and take the word this morning and speak to our hearts deeply. Only God can. No man can bless us. We've learned it, Lord, through the years. Through our dismay, men can thrill us.

Our men can so speak. We walk out praising God, but we're stunned when we find we're just the same. Nothing's changed. Only God can change us. So our expectation this morning is in thee and thee only, Lord.

We all confess it. We look to thee. We look away from ourselves. We look away from the preacher. We look to God. Have mercy on us. Wash this poor man, Lord, in the blood. I have nothing to commend him myself.

I have only hope in the blood. Nothing to trust him, nothing to tell thee of. I only have the blood to look to, Lord. Wash me. Fill me in mercy. And in great mercy on all of us, eat through me. Keep us under the blood of Jesus.

New Creation and the Evidence of Genuine Faith

We've looked at this verse. If any man be in Christ, any one in the whole building, if you're in Christ, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things, all things are become new.

1 John 2, verse 3. Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar. The truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.

Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith, he abideth in him, and wrought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. James chapter 2, verse 14. What is it, prophet, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and hath not works?

Can faith save him? The brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things that are needful to the body.

What is it, prophet? Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.

Thou believest that there is one God. How doest, well, the devils also believe and tremble? But wilt thou know, vain man, that faith without works is dead? Dear Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, 16,.

Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, preached in thy name, and in thy name have caused, O devils, in thy name, in thy name done many wonderful works.

And will I profess unto them, I never knew you, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity. He's a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, old things have become new. One more verse, a verse so familiar to children, I remember my Sunday school teacher again and again trying to preach this verse to us.

Numbers 32, 23. Be sure your sin will find you out. We love the promises of God, that's a promise. Be sure your sin will find you out. One of the most embarrassing moments of my life was when I was a young preacher.

A Young Preacher Learns the Cost of Zeal Without Wisdom

Oh, so much fire, so little wisdom. But the little bit of wisdom I had, God took because it was fire. You have to have fire. Zeal. There I was wanting to win the world to God. Then this terrible embarrassment happened to me.

I remember our district superintendent who was keeping a watch over us as young evangelists out there in South Africa, telling us where we'd go now, what we'd do. He said to us, I want you to visit all the Christian friends, and there are so many, in the farm areas, in the farm little town and communities.

Go visit all these. Don't just preach, go and get to know the Christians. Go get to meet them, go get to learn from them. Well, we went out, this young fellow and I, two of us, we went from farm to farm through the whole day into the night, one farm after the other, in the small farming community towns, one house after the other with these big plots of land.

And I began to learn something as a young preacher in the faith mission of South Africa. I learned there are two things that you fear, you dread, you dread. You won't believe what those two things are.

One is dogs. Now, I could spend an hour talking to you about dogs, what they did to me. The other is coffee. Now, you won't understand that if you don't come from South Africa, we have what we call the Boer.

Have you heard of the Boer War against England? The Boer of the Afrikaan are white. They're farming people. They don't like the cities generally. Well, the Boer love coffee. Believe you me, that coffee is something to experience.

One cup and you could die. They don't have these little dainty cups, you know, like the English of South Africa. We're very English. Part of England is in South Africa, even though the Boers were anti-England.

All the English are totally English, Union Jacks flying and all. Well, we have these little cups for tea, you know, dainty little cups. The English like the Boers, they have these, I wouldn't say a mug, I'd say a bowl for coffee.

And every farm, they didn't ask you. It was ethical. They just brought the coffee out. You just had to drink it. Oh, this black poison. That reeked. I tried to do something with the sugar. I learned to put up to six spoons and to try and somehow taste it.

After six homes in one morning, you felt sick. You had to go home to your hostess, wherever it was, and try and eat your lunch, and then you had to face six more homes in the afternoon and come back to eat dinner with all that coffee.

You know, they actually got sick, the missionaries, who weren't used to it up in the Transvaal. It's really the Transvaal, the Free State. It's the Afrikaner's land in South Africa. Well, this brother that I was with began to twitch.

Now, I didn't quite know what happened, but I saw him twitching, and then I got a bit worried. I said, you know, we need to see a doctor. He said, well, I hate a doctor. He hated medicine. But eventually he said, we'd better get to a doctor.

So we went to a doctor. And I sat there with him, and I was very worried. We were far away from our district superintendent, from our mother and father in the faith, and here we were, and I took him to the doctor.

And the doctor looked at him, made examinations and tests, and sat there for a while, and he said, do you perhaps drink a lot of coffee? Well, this brother looked at him and said, all the time, doctor.

All day. This doctor said, you know, you've poisoned your system. He said, you've actually poisoned yourself. With coffee. Look at your eyes. The white is all discolored. It's coffee. And he said, you've got to stop totally.

Doctor, how do you do that in this country? He looked at me and said, you make sure that the people know that this boy doesn't have coffee. He's always sitting in the car to the next farm, and sitting for hours, and coffee, and sitting.

Before you get to the next farm, get out the car and run. You're young. Get all your energy, really. You can't have no exercise and drink coffee like old men. So he said, you are in charge. Even though this fellow was really my captain, I had to be sure that I made sure that people didn't give him coffee on no account.

He was to drink glasses of water all day. I had to bring it to him. I don't know how many glasses it was so many years ago, but he had to just take water, no coffee, and run. We started running around before we set to the next farm.

The Dog Chase and the Coffee in the Fern

Anyway, we got to this town with these large plots, and we were rather tired, to be honest with you. But we knew we had to finish this town, so we went into this particularly large home, and as we got halfway, here came this dog.

Like a galloping, you know. It was big. So we ran. We couldn't get back to the gate, so we ran for the house, and it was after us. I was banging on the door, and this brother was kicking as this thing was trying to eat us up, and he was screaming as the dog began to get the better of him.

In the end, I realized, we're not going to win here, and I opened the door. It was open, so I jumped, and I pulled him, and we banged the door. And as we turned around, there stood the lady of the house wondering what all this commotion was.

She had got out of bed with her dressing gown, her head in curlers, and the black domestic maid there, the maid of the house, she stood there with a bread knife coming to us. Who are these two men in our house?

They were frightened as they stood there with this knife looking at us. I said, Oh, please forgive me, Tunny. Well, Tunny is often called Auntie. You always call them Auntie or Uncle if they're older.

Sorry I came in your house. Your dog was hurting us, and we were so scared we just had to get in. And they just looked at us, and they said, We're from the Faith Mission. We're from the A .B. We've come to visit you.

And in the end, the lady tried to speak after a while. We wondered why she wouldn't speak, but then we realized she didn't have her teeth in, and that was terrible. It was awful. Now we're all embarrassed.

This brother of mine was sweating. He was so fearful we had done damage here to this home. We were going to lose these friends forever for the Faith Mission. So the maid, the black lady, said, Go in the lounge.

Go sit in the lounge. She took her madam, she took her back to the bedroom to get dressed, and now we're sitting there and we were feeling terrible. What a start. Anyway, eventually the lady comes through, and we heard in the kitchen the cups going, and this brother said, Whatever you do, don't tell them we don't want coffee.

Because here it came through. Boom, these big things, too big. Don't tell them we've done enough damage here. If we say we don't want their coffee now, I'll drink it. Just this time. So I said, Oh my.

Anyway, the lady came through in dignity, and she went back to the kitchen and she tried to get these rusks that you dip in the coffee, these little hard bread. And I saw in the middle of the lounge was a fern.

Now this is a beautiful fern, you know. And it was in a big wooden thing, a stand, and as she went back to the kitchen I just looked at the brother and I grabbed his cup, I grabbed my cup, I ran and I poured in the fern.

And as I sat down, I put it down and she walked back in and there were two empty cups. So I looked at this brother, his eyes were like this. But I was so proud of myself and the lady sat down trying to be dignified after all this indignity.

And she tried very hard to sit dignified and compose herself and look at us and we were all embarrassed still and a bit tense until she started to speak. But as she tried to speak now in the middle of the lounge from this fern stand we just heard this terrible noise.

Vrooom. It went straight through, and it watered out, you know, every terrible drop, I agonized and it just carried on. I said, when is this going to end? She looked at this phone. Well, she looked at this phone, she couldn't believe she didn't know what was going on.

After a while, she looked over at us and she looked at our cups. And this poor brother, I've never seen it before, but the red, you know, just went up. I was so fearful for this fellow. In the end, she looked at us horrified, as if some strange people were sitting here.

I said, Sonny, it's not him, it's me. We don't normally do this in a house, you know, but this brother is sick. The doctor said I mustn't let him have coffee and we were so embarrassed at the way we had to get him to your dog and I was so scared and he was scared we were going to offend you.

So I just tried not to offend you and I put him in the fern. She looked at me for a while and eventually she started laughing, but then she screamed, she laughed like I've never heard a woman laugh. We didn't know what to do.

She laughed and laughed and laughed. And you know, she loved us. She gave us a big donation and she said, please come back whenever you're here. I don't think she normally had missionaries like that. Anyway, I'm sure that lady has thought often about the verse.

When she thought of us, she thought of that verse, be sure your sin will find you out. Be sure your sin will find you out. That verse I'd like to read just once if I had the opportunity today to all of God's people and all the churches across our country.

Be sure your sin will find you out. I was once walking in the town of Durban, numbers of years ago now. It's a large and beautiful city Durban in South Africa, but the center of the town is what we call a monument to all of the British empire, all the different queens and kings.

The heart of the city is the people rush through and they have many open air meetings there trying to win Christ, win people to Christ. And as I was walking through all the bustle, all the hundreds of people just crisscrossing to get to each part of the city, this big center of the city, I saw a young man standing there and he had tracts of salvation.

The Tramp Who Knew the Scriptures

He was dressed clean and he looked clean. And the way he was giving these tracts out, I stopped in respect. I looked at him and thought, look at this fellow. He didn't want to let anybody pass. It was like there was something of a desperation in him that he wouldn't lose anyone.

He wanted to give a tract. Please read this, sir. Please, please take it. Please stop. Take this. He didn't want to let anybody pass. Giving these tracts out of salvation. And I looked and respected him.

After a while, I saw he looked at me and he recognized me. He walked up to me and said, are you Keith Daniel? So I said, yes. So we started speaking. He said to me, he said, Daniel, have you got any time?

Are you in a hurry? Or have you got some spare time? I said, well, I'm going somewhere, but what do you need? What do you want? He said, there's a tramp down and out who's here in the town gardens, always sitting under the statues.

And I've tried to bring him to Christ. There's something different about this tramp. He wasn't always in the gutters. This man comes from somewhere good and not too long ago, he's just suddenly lost everything.

And I just saw him. I can't get through to him. Won't you please come? I know you'll still be somewhere here. Come and speak to him. So I said, surely I will. Let's go. So we went around to one of these big statues.

We eventually found him. He stood slowly when he saw us coming to him. He was dressed like a tramp and he looked like a tramp. The man who gave up was sitting in the gutters now. This young fellow looked at him and said, this is Mr. Daniel.

Keith Daniel's a preacher. And I believe that if you just listen to him, what you can't understand of what I'm trying so often to tell you, I believe he's going to be able to help you to find God, to show you the way to God, what God can do for you.

Won't you please listen to him? So the man beckoned that I could speak. And I began to talk to him about God. And I found something. Oftentimes we give just our testimonies. But I found give the word of God.

And I began to give the word of God. It's what God says that matters. So even if it's to a tramp, leave something of what God says. I began to quote the scriptures to him, of what God holds out to the sinner, what God promises he can do, no matter how destroyed the life is.

And I held out the scriptures to him. And as I was quoting scriptures, eventually he started quoting them with me. So I quoted another scripture. Word perfect, he quoted with me. I looked at him and said, but was this possible?

You know everything that I know. You know everything I'm telling you. You know everything I know. And I found tears welling up in my eyes to see a man in the gutters who knew so much. And then tears welled up in his eyes.

And he said, I was Dutch Reformed doomeney, minister, a preacher, a minister in the largest denomination of our country. I went through university, theological seminar. And I attained after seven years the highest, the highest of all marks of all the theological students.

I was the top theological student of the university when I graduated. I was taken straight away to one of the largest Dutch Reformed churches of South Africa, right into the pulpit. There were five other ministers, but I was the one as young as I was, who was given the pulpit because I could preach.

And I preached. It was an evangelical Dutch Reformed church. I preached what you're telling me. I preached the gospel. I did what went wrong. And then the tears really came. Sin. Somehow sin wasn't dealt with, even though I had testimony.

So I went through university, and I attained the highest degree, the highest marks of the entire university in the theological section. Sin was still there. It's possible, you know. It's possible to get into a pulpit, one of the largest evangelical churches in the nation, because you can so preach, because you've so attained academically in theology.

They have to. They're obliged to put you in the greatest church. It's possible to stand up preaching the gospel, and sin is still in your life. It never does. He said it was sin. I had this problem, sin.

Oh, I always used to think that my heart condemned me. I stood in the pulpit, my heart condemning me. I thought, God's going to deal with it somehow. Then one day I stood up, and I was preaching, calling for men to come to Christ.

And suddenly I looked out, and I saw a face, someone who knew about my sin. I got through that sermon. I don't know how I got through holding myself up in the pulpit. My heart was crushed. I don't know how I did, but I got up and preached again.

And this time when I stood up, and I began to preach, I didn't see one face. I saw the devil won't let you get away. I couldn't preach. Here were people looking at me, knowing that here I am, crying out to sinners, and yet I'm a sinner myself.

I couldn't preach. I just walked from the pulpit, determined never to go up again, no matter what the cost. And at cost, I won't tell you the whole thing of what it cost me, but I lost my family, lost my home, lost everything.

One thing led to another, and I'm in the gutters. I'm in the gutters. But you see, what I was doing was wrong. I had no right to stand in the pulpit of God and cry out to others. And I was still in my sin myself.

And I had to make a choice, you know, stand up in the pulpit and look at the condemnation of others who I would be guilty of sending to hell, or get out of the pulpit forever. I made a choice, and look what it cost me.

I can't go back to the pulpit. It was wrong. I was wrong. I had no right. I watched you. I watched you when I saw you standing there with your Bible, with your checks, your desperation, calling people, not wanting to let anyone go by.

I watched you because of my background. I watched you carefully, watched you when you spoke to me so jealously. I watched you the other day when you stood there, suddenly two men walked up to you. I saw you laughing, walking and laughing.

Then today I saw you put your Bible away. I saw you go in that building. I knew something of those men's sins and watched them. I waited until you came out, and I waited for them. I was going to find out what you did in that building.

Young man, I want to tell you, you have no right. You have no right to come the next day onto the streets with your Bible, your checks. You have no right. You're wrong. Wrong in what you're doing. In thinking you have the right.

The Witness of a Preacher's Life

The two of us just looked at him. I looked at this young man. He had turned white, little lips trembling. He'd been found out, and the greatest shock of all came. Looked at the two of us, this man having given up the pulpit, the honest, this man who's clinging to God with every breath in his body, never to lose the right to be in the pulpit.

Look every man on earth in the eyes and say, come to God and have the right to say to Him. He looked at these two men. He said, so what? Being a Christian doesn't mean you're never a Christian. Being a Christian doesn't mean you can't say.

He turned. He walked away from above the steps, back onto the street with his Bible, his checks, and his sin. I believe to this day all three. But you are beat so loud that the world can't hear what you say.

They're looking at your walk, not listening to your talk. They're judging by your actions every day. Don't believe you deceive by claiming what you've never known. They'll accept what they see and know you to be.

They'll know you by your life alone. So don't you believe you deceive by claiming what you've never known. They'll accept only what they see and know you to be. They'll know you by your life alone. I remember the same town just a little way away from where I stood in the town gardens of Durban.

And I was walking along the pavement of the city hall, alongside the city hall of Durban, and the crowds were coming. And suddenly I saw a face coming along the pavement past me, a face I hadn't seen in many years.

The last time I had seen that face was when he stood in a stadium with thousands of people and he was preaching the gospel. He was almost a household name in South Africa, though he was young. The way he preached, I sat at his feet as a young Christian, again and again listening to him as the city halls were filled.

And then it was suddenly found out that the man was living in the most depraved sin imaginable. Not only just once, it had been going on since the story suddenly. Everywhere he was preaching, he was living in his depravity while he preached.

Oh, the damage done in the country was unestimable. The thousands that stumble over this life, when all the shocks wept across the land of this preacher's sin. And here he was, he just disappeared. No one knew where he was.

I remember once standing with a young fiance, broken. He didn't know where he'd gone. No one knew where he'd gone. No, he just couldn't face the world. He just left, disappeared, gone. No one knew where he'd gone.

Here he comes now, aged, aged. But I recognized his face as he walked along. As he passed me, I put my hand out and I grabbed hold of his arm. He looked at me, and before I said a word, tears just swelled in his eyes.

He knew, he knew I knew who he was. I said to him, I need to ask you something. I need to know something. Were you ever real? Were you ever real? Were you always in sin while you preached like that? Or were you ever real that you really do God?

Were you ever truly saved? He took my hand and walked with me up on the strips of the city hall and we sat. He talked to me, asking about myself. Then he said, was I ever real? Oh, he says, Keith, I was in a meeting where they made an appeal.

I came out. I prayed the sinner's prayer. I was counseled. I mean, like you, I prayed the same prayer you probably pray. They said to me that day, now you must testify. So there was an open air meeting.

I went along, listened to all the testimonies given, and I kind of gathered, now you tell you've given your life to Christ. So I started testifying. I stood in front of the loudspeaker there on the streets and testified, I'm saying, something about the way I spoke.

They said, you're going to give a testimony in a church tonight. They took me and I stood up there and began to speak. Something good people. So I was given blueprints everywhere, testifying. Suddenly, speaking, sermon.

Smallest first little opportunities. Next thing, you're going to Bethany. Getting theological. You're a preacher. This gift was sent to America. One of the angelical seminars of America. Fully paid for from all the Christians back home in South Africa.

Came back after a while. Straightened the biggest pulpit because I could speak. I could preach. People listened. It wasn't only the pulpit, it was the city hall. It was the stadium. Did I ever turn from sin?

No. No, my sin was always there. Was I ever saved? I believe I was. So you won't believe it, Keith. Obviously, from listening to you, sir. But I was sincere. I tried to have quiet times. I believe that I did.

Somehow, I still believe I'm saved to this day. And do you know, Keith, that most ministers in this country, most ministers in this country with me would defend me and say, I am still saved. You see, I believe in once saved, always saved.

Don't you believe in that, Keith? I believe somewhere along the line, God's going to get me right. Your earnestness worries me, Keith. You seem to worry about my soul. I'm going to be honest with you.

I'm not ready to give up my sin right now. I'm enjoying it, sir. But somewhere along the line, God's going to get me. Because once saved, always saved. He'll get me right before heaven. Don't you believe in the faith, listen.

Once saved, always saved, Keith. Most ministers would stand on my side right across this country and say, they're with me. Don't you people believe once saved, always saved? I said, yes. Once saved, always saved.

Repentance as the Necessary Turn From Sin

If you stay saved, be not deceived, no unrighteous person shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Not the defilers shall enter there. And I began to give scripture and scripture. There's one word that's missing in the pulpits today, and I want to shout it loud and clear this morning, bring it back in the pulpits.

We could have revival, just one word. There's so many seeking Christianity, but we're missing one word when they come to give their lives to Christ. Repent! God now commandeth all men, I like that, not some men.

God now commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent. Repent ye therefore, and be ye converted, that your sins may be blotted out, unless you've repented from them and been converted from them, they've never been blotted out.

Repent ye therefore, be ye converted, that your sins may be blotted out, who so confesses and forsaketh his sins, the same shall have mercy. I don't see anywhere in the whole Bible where believing saves you, unless you repent.

That's one thing God can't do for you. That's one thing you have to do, is turn to God. Maybe not able to set yourself free, but turning from sin, to God to set you free. That's repentance in salvation, repenting, confessing, believing that he is able to keep you, he is able to set you free.

If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. All we need to tell sinners to repent, for the Son of God can set them free. Repent. If you come to God with utter sincerity, repenting from your sins, I'm finished God, I'm not coming with my sins.

I mean, what drunk would believe you if he comes with a bottle and kneels down, and you allow him to pray with a bottle, for God to save his soul, and get up and walk out with a bottle? What sin would you like to come to God with, knowing you're going to walk out the door with?

Knowing you're not going to give up, what? You wouldn't accept the drunk standing there with alcohol. You'd say, get rid of it before you pray. Throw that away, you can't come to Christ with it. You're more hard on the drunk than you are on yourself.

You come to God in true repentance, coming God for forgiveness, but forgiveness for that which I'm turning from, and looking to thee to set me free from. When you come to God for forgiveness, when you come to God in repentance, confessing and turning from your sins and trusting him to save you by setting you free, repentance is vital.

Abiding in Christ Through the Word and Quiet Time

But then, he made appeals here through this convention. One was, the one way to survive from the moment you're saved, the one way is to abide in him. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. There's the quiet time, there's the devotion, there's the soaking yourself in the Word of God that keeps you from sin.

There's the discipline of the quiet times, and applying yourself to the Word of God. It's no good standing up in missions like this, to become a soul winner, dedicating your life to God to win souls, unless you are saved yourself, unless you are living in victory, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the Word of Life.

You can't hold forth the Word of Life as a soul winner, if you aren't blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke. No one can rebuke you. You don't go to a sinner, in turn, to come to Christ, and he rebukes you, because you're still in sin.

You're blameless, without rebuke, God says. Then you have the right to hold out the Word of God to all the things we've been seeking God for. As a result, we've been committing ourselves to God concerning soul winning, concerning the one thing that you desperately needed to survive and not make shipwreck, the quiet time, devoting yourself to soak yourself in the Word of God as the greatest priority of your life till faith comes, and victory, the sanctifying power of the Word of God, sanctified and by thy truth, thy word is truth.

All these things I've been holding out to you, they start, they keep you. God honors even in soul winning that you dedicate your life for, but if you haven't repented, where your sin will find you, I guarantee you, even if you go to varsity, theological seminars, get the greatest pulpits in the country, be sure, let's all stand.

A Final Appeal for Cleansing and Faithful Witness

I don't want an appeal this morning. We've made appeals for you to be saved, and numbers of you have come, and I want you, God speaking, to not leave this place until you've let God deal with one thing, from the depth of your soul, crying out for one thing.

Give me the right, Lord, the right to be a soul winner, for dealing with my sin, and he will when you ask him, and name him, when you turn to him, and when you're determined to be kept from it by the things we've been preaching about, especially the quiet time.

You're as safe as your quiet time, safe as your quiet time, no safer, as real as your quiet time. All of us who name the name of Jesus, have the right to name the name of Jesus. Oh, be careful with your walk in this time.

Be careful you don't lose the right to name the name of Jesus. You do the things we've been preaching of. You've been seeking God, and admitting to God, that God keeps you faithful, and you will never, ever lose the right to name Jesus.

You neglect these things. Oh, how swiftly, I guarantee you, you're going to lose the right to ever name him again. Father, will you confess to God?