This sermon emphasizes the importance of not cutting oneself off from vital fellowship with God and the godly. It stresses the need to heed warnings from spiritual leaders and elders, to submit to their guidance, and to throw away anything that may lead to spiritual harm or compromise. The message highlights the role of the godly in warning and guiding others to avoid dangers and stay aligned with God's will.

Can we bow for a moment of prayer, please? Father, in mercy on me and every one of us, wash me in the blood of Christ and fill me with the Holy Spirit. Beyond my comprehension that God could do such a thing to such frail, base, weak, despised, rightfully despised, who at our best were nothing but unprofitable servants. And just grace, I would say, Lord, more than anything that could come to our mind. We live in awe and wonder at the amazing grace of God on humans, especially on me. Thank you for that grace because of Christ's intercession and his blood, an enormous sacrifice, not only for our salvation, but for every moment we need the blood. And I suppose the day we die, we'll just look to nothing but the blood. And so I look carefully to the blood of Christ that cleanses from all sin and for anointing with the Holy Spirit as a result of the cleansing of the blood. Come visit us this morning and speak to our hearts, every heart, even the young children, to the oldest, godliest saint, in such a way that we may find our life becoming very careful in every circumstance we face. In Jesus, the Christ's sacred name. Amen. John 15 verse 4, abide in me, abide in me, abide in me, abide in me, and I in you. As the branch, as the branch cannot bear fruit, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. Staggering, staggering words. Years ago, oh, so many years ago now, when I first came to America the first couple of times, I was privileged to meet a man called Denny Keniston. I will never stoop in my entire life to apologize that I felt honored and am honored to have known Denny Keniston as a friend. No matter what anybody on this earth says, sir, few can stand in the shadow of that man. And I was honored to know Denny Keniston, and I will never be ashamed to say that, and his darling wife Jackie. When I was in the home, me and Den, something terrifying had happened. You see, he has this large family, like most American families have, especially the Bible Belt. And on his property, his children would work in a workshop to produce garden furniture as a means of income for that family. They would work three months of the year, not more, but they would work hard. And that somehow provided for the rest of the year for them to do God's work and not to look reliant on other people. Most preachers and most missionaries in the world don't do work to survive. They're provided for by God's people in the most wonderful way as God leads them. But Denny and I suppose other Baptists generally, they work and minister. That's the way of life. So he found three months of the year brought in enough income as these outlets with all the garden furniture, sold the furniture overnight. It was wonderful. But the family did that, and they involved the children, especially the boys when it came to the working of the machinery. And this young boy, Samuel, a delightful young fellow, one of the children. I think they had nine. There was Samuel. He was working with his particular part of what was to produce the garden furniture in this workshop that Denny had on his property with all the machinery and all the wood. And as he was feeding a piece of wood to what he was particularly asked to perform, the large churning blades cut these wood somehow caught onto his garment and pulled his whole arm into and cut off his whole arm, severing it from his body. Of course, he flaked out. And the loss of blood that is suddenly pouring out brought him close to death. Now, everyone in that workshop or family began to scream and weep and cry out to God to help them. They ran. Everyone in the house came down. Denny was away preaching. And they, of course, lifted up Samuel as a family, the children, and carried him. And one of the children picked up the arm, severed from the body. And they rushed into the closest vehicle and off to the hospital, all weeping and crying to God to not let him die, that somehow his life could be spared. Now, by the mercies of God, and God is in this, I don't ever see any mistake. There happened to be, just at that time, surgeons in that particular hospital that were able to attempt to perform an emergency operation to reconnect that arm back onto the body. Now, that's beyond my comprehension. I can't even begin to comprehend how there's a possibility of that. But somehow they attempted to reconnect the bone structure, the veins, the muscles that had been ripped off. The amazing thing, the amazing thing is that that arm was healed. Now, I saw this little Samuel two years ago. He now has children of his own. I get old when I look at people who have children of their own. He came to a meeting with his lovely wife and all this little tribe he's got, and his arm functions perfectly. No less strength than the other. Not any hindrance or any setback. It is functioning perfectly. That, to me, is wonderful that God gave man the wonderful knowledge, medical science, to know that they could be able to perform such a thing that would be incomprehensible even 50 years ago, unthinkable, even less than that. Now, I need to ask every one of you, no matter who you are at this point, to do something perhaps you've never been asked to do in your entire life and never again will be asked. I want every one of you, no matter who you are, that name the name of Jesus as your Savior, to be utterly honest here with yourself and God, no one else. Have you been severed, cut off from a life of abiding in Christ, which is imperative for your survival as a Christian? It is imperative for your survival, God says, not me. It is imperative for your survival as a Christian. Have you been cut off, severed from abiding in Christ, which is imperative for your survival as a Christian, from a vital relationship with God? This abiding in Christ is not talking about a moment of faith where you become attached by grace, saved, and you become part of the body of Christ in one moment through faith. No, this has nothing to do with an act of faith. This is a discipline. This is a discipline, the most costly discipline any of us will ever face in life as Christians, a discipline of abiding in vital communing with God to the degree that you are kept. Oh, this abiding in Christ is vital. Whosoever abideth in him, 1 John 3, 6 says, whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. There's no victory possible outside of abiding in Christ. Now, little children, abide in him, John says in 1 John 2, 28. Abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him that is coming. Now, little children, abide in him, the most vital thing God's asking of us for our survival. Abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him that is coming. Abiding in Christ, he that saith he abideth in him ought self also so to walk even as he walked. There's Christlikeness. There's fruit. There's victory. There's confidence that is returned by this one thing. It is vital. It is a discipline. It has nothing to do with the act of faith and salvation. It is a vital discipline, and it's costing more than anything in your entire life to find time to do it. It will make that possible each day, which means you've got to be ruthless to throw out anything in your life that is not vital in order for you not to become a disgrace, a shame, and a tragedy, though you say you're saved, outside of which there's no fruit. Nothing. Nothing is possible outside of this. I'm not talking about moments of extreme tragedies. Where you suddenly find a moment where you seek God desperately. That's not abiding. I'm talking about walking with God. And if God is first in your life, and your relationship with God is what it ought to be, you walk with God, sir. There's an abiding. You don't leave him behind at the quiet time. You get up from the quiet time, and because of that quiet time, you walk with him through the day. There's a discipline of learning what it is to abide in Christ. Now has that happened to you? That's the big question. You have to be honest. Just look at your life. Look at the tragedy of what you really are. You know God sees you, and Satan sees you. And there's one reason. Sir, you name the sin, I'll tell you there's a greater sin. You neglect abiding in Christ. That's your greater sin. For those sins wouldn't be there that you're so worried about that it'll bring shame on you, in God's name. Those sins will be dealt with if you're abiding in Christ as you ought to. That is the great sin that causes the others. Be careful. Be careful here, beloved. If it is so in your life, then I urge you from my heart, compassionately, to not wait another moment in your life and give the devil another day of you being a disgrace in God's eyes, and your own heart condemning you. I urge you, compassionately, to not sit there helplessly, hopelessly, in spiritual numbness and confusion as to how you can be in this state while you carry a Bible and sing the hymns, but you know you're just living in total defeat and disgrace, because you do not abide in Christ, full stop. And you have no ability, it seems, to at this stage. I want to ask every one of you in that state, and you know you're in that state, to seek God to do what is uncomprehendable to you. Perhaps you can't sense what I couldn't sense. How is it comprehendable that they could reattach? If humans could do that, how much more can God reattach a member of the body of Christ into himself? How much more can God do that? There's nothing God can't do, and God will do it. You need to let him. You need to seek him to do that, and put your faith in him to do that. And you need to do it desperately, to trust God for an emergency operation. Now let me tell you something. In any operation, physically, you have to have cleansing, or otherwise you're in more danger with a person, a surgeon, who doesn't perform cleansing. They find people dying of small things, because there wasn't a cleansing, for lack of knowledge in Africa and other parts of the world. We need cleansing, also in the spiritual. Now the first thing you need to seek for God to do then, and this is your side, is the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleansed of us from all sin. Now that cleansing is speaking to Christians, that particular verse, the context. It can happen that you come, you need desperately to look to God, and of course, cleansing is obtained through confession. You need to confess your state, not just glibly, but in one moment for God to do something so vital that will stagger the powers of hell as he reconnects you, as he reattaches you to him, gruffs you back in such a way through faith. Yes, but this is a moment work, thereafter a discipline, and it never happens again. You need to do that, and you need desperately to seek God. I want at this point, before we go any further, to look at his family. They didn't stand there in shock and condemn him. I mean, that would be beyond belief. What family would stand there condemning, criticizing? That would be unbelievable, unthinkable for the condition he's in, to neglect, to incompetence. They didn't stand there condemning him. Unbelievable, but God's children. You see, we're a family, sir. We have one father when we get saved, and we become the children of God, the family of God, brothers and sisters in Christ. What do we do? What do we do? Listen to God's word that the heavenly Father exhorts us as his children to do. Galatians 6 verse 1, Brethren, brothers, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, that's vital. Now you'll find out who's spiritual. Ye which are spiritual, God's word says, restore such a one. In the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Brethren, brothers, if a man be overtaken in a fault, in its context, falls into sin, not one isolated sin, but rarely falls into sin. Ye which are spiritual, you want to know who's spiritual? Let someone fall into sin in your congregation. Let someone fall into sin in the church that's known worldwide. You want to know who's spiritual and not a carnal condemning. Be careful. Ye which are spiritual, God looks to you, and you'll find out who it is when someone falls into sin. No matter what, sir. Restore such a one. God looks to you. Staggering. In the spirit of meekness, be careful, considering thyself, be careful here, lest thou also be tempted. But how? How do we restore a person who falls like that? What does God expect of us? Well, he doesn't leave us ignorant. Everything he's told to us is vital, and what he commands in this book, how to attain it. Twice in the book of John, the letter of John, the first epistle of John, John speaks of sin in the believer's life, and what to do. On two occasions. The first occasion is 1 John chapter 2 verse 1. What God tells you to do now through the apostle John, because this is the word of God that God was writing, moving him to write, what God tells us to do as Christians, if sin comes in your life, if you really fall in sin, my little children, he's of course writing to an old man, to grown people, but he looks upon them as children spiritually. These things write unto you that ye sin not. Now that's what we preach, is victory in Christ. Otherwise we've got nothing to give the world. Preach it, but don't be like a Jehovah Witness. He only quotes half a verse. Dare not quote the second half because it cancels out what he says it means. So he just gives half verses, blinds his eyes, that's why he'll be judged. No matter who says, they won't be judged. You have to blind your eyes in the next half of verses to the context of the rest of the scriptures, and they do, and they're biased. No, we don't be like Jehovah. We'll carry on. My little children, these things write unto you that ye sin not. There's victory, preach it, hallelujah. But if, that is very vital, if, not when, it's not sin condoning. Then read 1 John 3 to find out what you, are you going to hell. If you've just never turned from the life of sin and were delivered, for if the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. And that means Christ is a new creature, old things are part away, old things become new. Oh, they love it, there's a repentance required, but there's a possibility that a Christian can fall, and fall badly. You don't suddenly become unsaved, sir. Not according to the book I've got, you've got to look at all the scriptures. No, my little children, these things write unto you, speaking to Christians, that ye sin not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, Christian sins. Not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. He died for all mankind, he takes a death for every man, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and knowledge of salvation. Timothy 1, Timothy 2, verse 4, 6, etc. Now, that's if they repent from the life of sin, get off the broad road, and yes, delivered. But now on that narrow road, God knows you turned. It's not like that picture of Pilgrim's Progress, you know, the one road is there, the broad road, and there they're falling into the fire, and all the worldly things, and here's a little narrow road here. No, that's not true. Of course, that's a marvelous depiction, but all the narrow road is, if you have to be truthful with the Bible, is you're on the broad road, you just turn. You're not somewhere way over there. The people on the, beginning with your family, a man's enemies, you have to face everyone, and no one's going to let you get away from your family, to your enemies, to the people who drink at work, that you used to drink with, swear with, everything's changed. And all who will live godly shall suffer persecution, God says. Oh, you've turned, and now you face everyone, and you face all the onslaughts of the devil, even through the members of your own home, God says. A man's enemies are the members of his own home, but if you get saved, of course, they look upon you as the enemy, touch their sin, you realize what means more to them than anything in life. They hate you, and you've got to face onslaughts of Satan, as you're now on the narrow road, the narrow, oh, I love that, the narrow road. I don't say it, Christ said it. If you're not on a narrow road, if the unsaved don't look upon you as narrow, then you're not saved. You have been, should I say. No, if you're narrow, thank God, in the eyes of the godless or the worldly sitting in the church, you're narrow, because Christ said it's narrow, and you're on that road to the celestial cities, you face everything, you're still the broad road, you're not another road far away from the broad road, Lord's affixed, and all the powers of hell against you, beginning in your home, all the powers of hell against you. It's possible you could fall. God knows you've turned, God knows what it costs you, God knows the persecution, God knows all that's against you, and he doesn't say, if you fall, that's the end of you. He says, don't give up, get up. You have no right to give up, once you name the name of Jesus. Why? Because the same God who promises you put your faith in, that saved, that brought salvation to your soul, by grace you say through faith, faith cometh by the hearing, and hearing by the word of God. This book brought faith, God the Holy Ghost brought faith in your heart in what God promised you. The same book also tells you to put faith in that God if after you're saved, truly saved, staggered the world through the change in your life, staggered your, my mother couldn't speak for three weeks, she was speechless at the change of my father's life, she was unable to speak, she was so shocked. I don't know this man. He was my child who treated, but I'm living with a total stranger. I don't know the man in my, that's what God does, from the day you're saved, not a month afterwards. If you're truly saved, he staggers the powers of hell by what he's able to make you in one moment. If you truly said, no, here we are, everything against us, and if the possibilities there, God knew, we put our faith in the same book, in the same God who promised that we'd be embraced for salvation. My little children, these things write down to you that you sin not, but if, God says, any man, any Christian in its context, sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins. Now that word propitiation comes from Leviticus 16, where the high priest would come and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, which is literally a picture of what is in heaven. Here on the mercy seat, and Christ now has shed his blood, and he stands, ever liveth to make intercession for us, for Christians, if he's able to save them to the uttermost. Christ makes intercession for us, and he has his blood to show Father, not the Father, not just for the salvation, but the blood of Jesus Christ that continue, present continuous tense in the Greek. It goes on, it's there for you, brother, sister, you don't give up, you get up. You dare not let the devil put his foot down, you scrawl in the mud, because you fell, because you've had failure. No, get up, don't come brazenly, come in humility and brokenness, but come to God boldly. We have not an high priest, which cannot be moved with the feeling of our infirmities, or points tempted like as we, yet without sin, wherefore, let us come boldly, you see, to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy, Christians, and grace to help in time of need, to seek God for grace, not to fall into that again. Now, listen, beloved, if sin comes, we come to God immediately with the blood of Jesus as Christians, confessing that what God says we are to do if sin comes into your life, but then he doesn't stop there. John, in 1 John chapter 5, tells us what we are to do if we see another Christian sin. He says, if any man see his brother sin, if any man see his brother sin, a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. Now, that's a very controversial statement that most commentators get tripped up trying to even explain, so I'm not even going to bother about it. It's speaking in its context, according to most theologians, of the unpardonable sin. How it can be in that context, don't ask me to start expounding on, but it is. Nonetheless, the unpardonable sin, the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, the only real occasion you'll ever find that is what the Pharisees did. They looked at Jesus Christ, at the miracles being performed and the power of God through him, and they said, of Belzebub, it's Satan that's doing this to him. To say the Holy Spirit's power through Christ was satanic is blasphemy, but it must be of Christ himself, not just of other Christians. Be careful, I've never met a man in my life who's committed the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, though they thought they had. So be careful you don't think that's you, but let's not go into that. Let's just go straight into this one idea. If any man see, 1 John 5, 16, if any man see his brother sin a sin, oh, what do you do? Get the phone, and the whole phone book. Who can I tell? I saw him with my own eyes, the hypocrite. He preaches to us, and I saw him. I, Nick's phone, I saw her. She's nothing but a lying hypocrite in front of us, singing and praying, and oh, who can I phone, Nick? Let me tell you something. If you want to spread news, don't go to the television news. Just tell a Christian. Most seem to be so far from God that they'll do just this, because the devil knows. Let me show this Christian, and I'll destroy him. That person won't let anybody sleep until everybody knows. If any man see his brother sin a sin, which is not unto death, what do you do? That he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. Listen, there's something of compassion that God and heaven has a holy obligation in our hearts as we pray. God in heaven has a holy obligation to reach out now to them. Oh, God, I've seen this, Lord, but don't let anybody else see this. Please, God, keep this from the public. Keep this from his family. They'll never be able to look him in his eyes again. The children will never trust him. His wife will never trust him. Oh, God, protect his family. Protect him. God, don't let his congregation find out. Don't let people find out. God, protect him now that this doesn't destroy him, that he never has the right to preach again. No one will give him the right. But God, by thy Spirit, come and sow him. Come and work in his heart until he doesn't sleep, that he sees the danger he's in. Oh, God, that he'll turn, that thou give him faith. God, intervene and get this man right with God who's in this sin, this Christian, this prominent Christian, this compassionate cry to God for protection and to keep it to yourself and only speak to God about it before it gets to anybody. Until the day you die, you bury it. You don't look for things. That makes you a spiritual in God's eyes. Oh, beloved, God says he shall ask, and there's something about the way that man asks that God reaches out and starts to work in holy obligation. I believe that in the light of the Scriptures, not in my own understanding of God's compassion. And let me shock you. If you start praying for people like that with such integrity, such carefulness, then even heaven stands in respect to your prayer. And I believe that. God, in an unusual way, has done this with me, I should imagine with you. He uses you. I've prayed for people crying out to God, and within a short while without me arranging a thing, that person comes straight to me. You groan for people God uses you. I can't tell you how many times a front page of our newspapers, a man kills his wife, shoots his children dead, the whole family gone. Where did you come from? I just read. I began to pray, oh God, oh God. We will find out within about an hour that this man is from one of the godliest homes in South Africa that I've known. With a short while, I'm down in this prison mental asylum where they assess whether he can face judgment or a court case, mentally even. And I'm sitting with him, all surrounded by police who wouldn't let me sit alone, and ministering to him. I groan to God concerning this man. He could have done such a thing. And I was speaking to him from the Bible of my heart, as he says, God could never forgive me. There's no such a thing as mercy. You're wrong, as wicked and wrong as you were doing this from the state of your mind. And I saw the policeman weeping, sobbing aloud. God was ministering to them. But I pray, you pray for someone. God brings that person to you, or you straight to them most times, and uses you to point them to mercy, forgiveness. Maybe God will, man will never forgive them, and they face the consequences of their crime until they die. But God will, if there's honest repentance, sorrow and shame and clinging by faith to the blood. So twice it's mentioned in the Bible, in the one book letter of John, the Apostle John, of what we do as Christians if we fall into sin, concerning ourself, what we must do concerning if we see others fall into sin, ye that are spiritual. Now we dare not be severed from a vital relationship with God as our greatest goal daily in life. We dare not ever allow that to happen on one day of our life. And it's possible, sir, it's possible. The most vital daily discipline in every Christian's life is to commune with God. And we must always remember that a vital relationship with God is obtained and maintained primarily through the meditating of God's Word. Now don't ever forget that until you die. A vital communing, a vital relationship with Christ, abiding in him, is obtained and maintained primarily through the meditating of the sacred written. Daily is your greatest goal, your greatest discipline, your most guarded, nurtured moment of life daily that nothing will interfere with, no matter what it is. Never forget that. It's obtained and maintained through soaking the Word of God as your most vital relationship, your most vital discipline in life. I have had tours where I go around my country, and they nearly kill me, you know. I often wonder, are they trying to murder me? Seven meetings a day. I said, brother, I'm nearly dead. You're trying to murder me. You try and preach seven times a day. Oh, I love it. I don't mind dying in the pulpit. That would be a glorious way. Now don't all sit there scared that it's going to happen now, okay? But the fact is I do get tired sometimes. It's a good time. If it's done for God, there's no complaint. It's a joy. It's a privilege. There's no such a thing as sacrifice in a Christian's life if it's to do with God. It's a privilege. But I said to him, listen, driving now from this one town where I preach seven times, and one day driving to the next town because I've got to preach in a breakfast service in some restaurant in the next town. We had to get there so that we could get up early and be there for this breakfast service that many in the town just run. So we go to a farm just outside of the town, a very large farm, a beautiful farm, one of the most successful farmers in the entire Africa, godly man. His farm just stretches over the valleys and over to the mountains and lakes and oh, it's just so beautiful. And we stayed there and we preached in the town, but what a lovely godly man. Now, I said, I'm going to walk. Even if it's getting a bit late, I need to walk after all that preaching. That kept me alive, kept me sane. All the walking. I could write a book about all the walks I've had and everything that's happened to me, but nonetheless, I said, I'm going to walk. Don't involve me. You go and eat with these people. I'm going to walk. And so I walk and that somehow just relaxes me and all the stress goes and the clarity and suddenly I start, especially outside, I start worshiping the Lord. Oh, even in your beautiful town here, wow, you're blessed. Hope you go down to the lake and look at all those beautiful trees. But the thing is, I go for walks. I'm on this farm now and I'm walking along a country road in the farm. It's plowed and not tarred, nothing, no lights, nothing, just plowed for all the tractors and the implements to get everywhere across all the massive farm. So I'm walking and I'm walking and I'm enjoying the lakes, all the ducks and the flying, oh, the most amazing beauty, all the trees, the mountains, the cliffs, and I'm walking down and I walk and oh, suddenly I thought to myself, oh my, it's getting dark. But suddenly because it's winter, boo, this is dark. So I thought, oh, now I've walked a long, long way and there's no lights here, there's no street lights. How am I going to get safely back to the farmhouse? I mean, it's getting dark and I could hardly see the road and I thought, oh my, I could fall off the cliffs, I could be in the lake. And I panicked. There's no, I'm over the hills and the valleys and before I get back, there's no, I couldn't see anything. Just this dark, suddenly my panic is, I'm beginning to rush and try and see where the side of the road is. Something remarkable happened. There's rocks. Now geographically, I don't know in those circumstances geographically how it is, but there was rocks on this grounded road that's been made by the tractors, etc., across the farms. These rocks intertwined all across this road, began to illuminate. A golden red, rocks interspersed all over the road. As the moons came out and the stars, the reflection illuminated. But I'm talking about it like lights, gold and shining. And I looked over the hill, there goes the road. No lights, just the stars. Put my hand there, I couldn't even see my hand, it's so dark. Couldn't see a thing. Dangerous, but the road, I could see over the hill, going up the next hill, going. All fear was gone. I don't have to rush. I'm safe in this dark, no matter how dark it is. Because these luminous rocks illuminated the whole road, right the way back. I didn't have to rush, I didn't have to fear. Now beloved, that's the Word of God. You don't have to fear, no matter how dark this world becomes, no matter what darkness comes in this world, that you can't see. You panic at the darkness that's suddenly falling. Oh, beloved, the Word of God is like that. It's full of commandments and promises. And these are the rocks. You take those commandments, embrace them, live them as stepping stones. You take the promises and you have light, that you don't have to fear anything in this world. Psalm 119 verse 105, thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. I believe that. This takes away all fear. No matter what this world stoops to, it becomes in dark depravity. You have the Word. Proverbs 6 verse 23, the commandment is a lamp, the law is a light. God's Word is like those stones, the commandments, the promises that we must embrace. Now beloved, I've stopped my car so many times in the last 47 years of preaching in my country when I was young. And I preach, and I preach, and I'm traveling now to the next town, living out of a suitcase. That wasn't my life. That wasn't my wardrobe. Years and years of going from town to town across Southern Africa. And I would stop and get out the car, and I would walk down valleys. I said, no, it isn't sin, it is not laziness. I poured my soul out back there. Before I get there, I'm going to just become human. Before I get to all the people waiting there, and so I walk down these tracks up mountains. I've climbed right to the top of the mountains, me and Andrew Murray, young Andrew Murray. We walk right up the top of the highest mountain. Dad, look, Andrew's not sin. We've poured ourselves out. We nearly deranged from tightness. Let's get up that mountain. We climb up the mountain. It took a few hours. You find a soul up there watching for the fires, you know. Then we led him to the Lord. So there was a double purpose, you see, our health and joy, the beauty. And so we've done it. Now many tracks, almost every track I've ever walked on, just stopped the car in the middle of the countryside, and I'm walking along this track and enjoying it. Oh, I walk briskly. You always will find you come to a river, almost every time. And near the other side of the river, the track goes on, which has a river. Those who made that track, they made sure there are stepping stones just there across the river, firmly, that you don't have to live in fear, though the waters got deep sometimes. You place your feet on the stepping stones to the other side. Those stepping stones are always there, and I believe that is what God's Word is. The commandments you put your foot on, the promises that all fear goes, no matter what waters you have to go through. Isaiah 43, verse 2, when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. Through the rivers, they will not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon its corpses. This is, of course, speaking of spiritual circumstances, the trials, the fires. When you go through, God doesn't say you're not going to go through deep waters. He says you will. God doesn't say you're not going to face fires. You will. What he does say is you won't be burned. He won't hurt you. And faith comes by the Word of God, no matter what you're passing through, is the promises. And if you are consistent with this book, not just suddenly looking when you're in trouble, then you make mistakes. You will find the sovereignty of God as nothing else will prove the sovereignty of God, because just where you are, it's like God sitting down and speaking to you about the circumstance you're facing, for decisions, for hope, for healing of wounds. There's no mistake of the sovereignty of God to someone who's consistent daily with the book, that never neglects it, because where you are, the sovereign God speaks. Of course, he speaks to the doctors. Of course, he speaks generally. But suddenly, Ramah, illuminated particular, where you know it's God. That's why you find people with promises, highlighted dates, until they're not on paves that isn't highlighted dates, when they're old enough, because they survived by this book, the stepping stones, as they went through life, the illuminated rocks, when they knew the way and took it, the commandments and promises. Don't ever, ever neglect it. We dare not neglect or cut ourselves off from vital fellowship with God. We dare not neglect or cut ourselves off from vital fellowship and community with God. But secondly, we dare not neglect or cut ourselves off from vital fellowship with the godly. We dare not neglect or cut ourselves off from vital fellowship with the godly. Beloved, in the holy book, in 1 John 1 verse 7, we read these words, if we walk in the light God has given us, as he is in the light, we have fellowship. We have fellowship one with another. If you're walking in the light God gave you, has held out to you, and you're not just thrown to the side. We have fellowship one with another. Now this is not speaking about fellowship with God, this is speaking about fellowship with brothers and sisters. If you're walking in the light God gave you, you have meaningful, vital fellowship. You don't cut yourselves off. If you cut yourself off, you're not walking in the light God gave you, and you're going to face terrible consequences of fellowship. Hebrews 10 verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting, it's encouraging one another. And so much the more, as you see the day approaching, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, exhorting one another. It's just lovely. It doesn't necessarily mean that you stop attending church to forsake the assembling of yourself together. Let me tell you something. There's a great danger here. It doesn't mean you stop attending church that you cut yourself off from fellowship. You can come to the godliest pulpit in this nation with the godliest people to fellowship with, and you can cut yourself off. You can come out of obligation to your parents. You have nothing in your heart to come to yourself, nothing of love to God. You can come out of obligation, or even just to save face, even though you have nothing. But you can cut yourself off carefully from any meaningful influence, from the pulpit or from the people around you, even the young people who go through with God. You can cut yourselves off to that group and look out who's worldly, who's playing the fool with God. You can be sitting in the godliest fellowship of this nation with one of the godliest preachers that every week delivers his heart to you, and you can cut yourself off, forsaking the fellowship deliberately, but you will face the consequences, the tragic consequences of doing such a thing. It is vital for you to have fellowship with the godly, the godliest of the godly, sir. And be careful. Don't just go to where there's mass big churches, these mega churches. Go where there's the godliest of the godliest of the godliest, even if it's a small group. It's almost a danger to go where crowds are. That's nothing to do with where God's working, sir. There's no indication, unless it's a revival national. You go seek out the godliest people you know on earth that are faithful to every page in this book, and you say, that's seeking out fellowship and not forsaking true fellowship. Don't go where there's these young people who throw out the old, because they don't want any influence, these old people, so everything changes and it becomes one big show and entertainment. Oh, don't do that. Go where there's the godliest people in dress code, the godliest in conduct, the godliest in separation, the godliest. Go there. Don't forsake such fellowship as best as you can find such affliction. My wife and I were stunned. We had a phone call. I was touring for six weeks in some part of Southern Africa, annual tours they arrange everywhere, and so I leave Jenny for a good while. The phone comes, Mr. Daniel, you are urgently required. We see on your program and all the newsletters, we see that you have this gap of a few days before you carry on in the next part. Would you be willing to please, there's a crisis, there is a very grave crisis that we need you to please. We'll fly you over to where, by helicopter to where we need to meet, and this crisis needs addressing, and we need you desperately. Please don't say no. I said, okay, but we also need your wife. She's down in Cape Town, a thousand miles away. We'll fly her and you meet up at this particular venue, some hotel, and it's all been arranged that we need you there to address this crisis. So, both of you, your wife, I want, we need you. Okay, so they phone Jenny, they arrange for her to fly. Here I am flying for one part, she's flying, we go over, and it's on the edge of our game reserve, the largest game, well not the largest, Serengeti is the largest around about four countries, but the most tourists worldwide, millions, come to the Kruger National Park where there's just masses of the animals, of all the animals everywhere. It's just amazingly beautiful, hundreds and hundreds of miles, and of course there's hotels there in this game reserve. There's five-star hotels, you can't believe that people have so much money to stay in them, and there's four-star, three-star, two-star, one-star, no-star, depending if you are poor, and then you stay in tents if you can't even stay in a no-star hotel, and that must be frightening because we've had stories of how people, the lions, you know, in a tent, and literally some people it says suddenly, well anyway, you don't want to stay in a tent in much of the game reserves of southern Africa or Africa if you're poor. But anyway, so we arrive there, Jenny, Jenny, there must be some crisis, there must be some real leadership that's in trouble morally, and there's lots of repercussions, so they wanted both of us to somehow address these things and influence to know what to do. It must be some well-known preachers or a whole involving a lot of them, but something really is critical here. So we go into this hotel, this massive beautiful five-star hotel, and they call different people, and yes, we've been told to come in this, how do you explain it? I said, well, we were told it's a crisis, a really grave crisis that has flown us. So the man walks back and he gets the owner of the whole place. Oh, are you Mr. Daniel? Oh, you are the crisis, sir, you and your wife, and people who are anonymous, you'll never find out who he is. They said that you leave your wife for up to six weeks preaching, and it's not good, and this is the crisis, you, that we have to really deal with. And so there's a few days, they put you in the best hotel in the entire game reserve that you have a few days together. Look at Jenny, we're on honeymoon again. So what do we do? Go in there, you can't believe it. Now you might not believe this, but the bedroom is about half the size of this hall, wall-to-wall bed. You think that's exaggerated. Who in their right mind needs a bed this size? Unless you've got 50 children, you know, that all demand sleeping with you. So the bathroom, I mean, you dive in the deep end. And this is a bathroom. You think it's, I'm not exaggerating. I said, who possibly would bathe in that? Let's go for a swim. Ah, we were really blessed. So outside, they have chandeliers and all under the moonlight and all that, and you hear all the animals around. But, oh yeah, this five-course meal all served with people all looking like the Queen's butler. And then the Zulus did the dancing. You don't want to know that, but that's entertainment. Okay, so while we're eating, anyway. So they say, introduce us to our guide. He's a young Christian, thank God. And he says, five o'clock in the morning you've got to be ready. You've only got a few days yet, but I'm going to show you in one morning the big five. Lions, elephants, whatever they are. All these different five that are the big five that everybody wants to see. Other game wardens will take a few days. This guy wants to show us everything in one day, and then more in the days left. So we go in this big thing about so high, steel structure to about the end there, and all the beautiful seats covered, you know, open. So I said, the lion's walking past us, but there's no prediction. What if they jump up? And I said, no, they won't. For some reason, the lion doesn't. So he just looks at you, you know, hope you're right. Anyway, so we're going down now, and he's a lovely fellow. He's telling us all about these things. And, oh, this is the lions. Lions, you just can't believe it. And we've seen him attacking the most amazing things. Tigers, buffalo, rhinoceroses, you know, hippopotamuses. And there's fighting who's going to be the leader of the buffaloes. I thought they were going to kill each other. And then suddenly the winner just walks away. He leads the whole trip. He tells us all these wonderful things. There's a cheetah. There's a tiger up in the tree there. My word, I've got competition. I'm going to be a good preacher there. But now we saw in the valley these giraffes, these beautiful giraffes, but not one, squall, these magnificent creatures, twice the height of this roof. They eat off the trees, animals eat off the ground. Graceful, beautiful things called giraffes. And so he said, let's go down there. He drives down over all the rubble. And there we're sitting. And there were hundreds and hundreds of zebras at the feet of these giraffes, you know. And the zebras, of course, you know what a zebra is. It's a horse that they painted black stripes, you know. And that's how you know what a zebra is, for want of better information. Anyway, so here now I saw the giraffes suddenly move. And boy, they gracefully move. But you see how fast they go. Giraffes, with the gracious movement of these, they're suddenly running across to that now. The giraffes are trying to keep up. They're short little legs. It was quite something. And so I said to him, why is it that the giraffes are always followed wherever they go? Suddenly all these zebras, hundreds, move as they move, running to keep up. Why are they following? He turned around. He stopped the vehicle. He looked in shock. He says, there's someone who actually has intelligence in this world. I have waited all these years for somebody to ask that question. And then I'm going to ask them. You ask me. He sits there in shock. He says, well, it's because the giraffes are tall and high. They can see far off. The predators are coming. The other animals don't know. As the predators come right up to them, they don't know. And so all these zebras know the dangers out there that they don't. But the giraffes warn them. The moment the giraffes send the sign, off they go, running. Of course, the zebras don't stand around and say, hang on, let's just stay here for a while. They just follow because they know these tall, high, can see far off of dangers and warn them so they don't argue. Now that is why we need to be with the godly, sir. That is why we need to be with the godly. Don't doubt this now. Don't doubt this. 1 Peter 5 verse 1, the elders which are among you, I exhort, feed the flock. That literally means shepherd, shepherd the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight. Watch out for them, looking out for them, guarding over them, taking the oversight thereof, neither being as lords over God's heritage, but being examples of the flock. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves to the elder. Submit yourselves to the elder. Hebrews 13 verse 17, obey them that have the rule over you. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Ezekiel 3 verse 17, son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel, therefore thou shalt hear the word of my mouth and warn them from me. Now this we speak to unsaved about being a watchman, you know, warning. No, this is to the saved, to God's people in the Old Testament. I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel, therefore thou shalt hear the word of my mouth and warn them from me, warn them from me. There's the Lowens here today, Lowens. Mrs. Lowen is related to the Gerber family, who is a very godly mother, and her brother is named Sam. Am I right, Mrs. Lowen? Sam, what a dear good man he is. Oh, what a dear man. Over the years he just travels, and he pops up everywhere, and there he is attending conferences and things as I preached at International Falls, somewhere up that area. But anyway, Sam Gerber was last year in a meeting, I don't know where it was, but anyway, he was down there, half of him at home, and he was preaching. I was preaching away, and he came up to me afterwards and said, there's something I need to share with you, Brother Keith, because I want you to preach on this, and I think you're the right one to share this to, and I think you will share this. So I said, okay. He said, years and years ago, there were two little boys playing in the mountain area, the valleys, you know, up in the rocks, and they found these large strange things, and they picked them up, and they were playing with them, and it was dynamite, and it was ignited, and there was the men who were doing this blasting road or thing that's going up in that particular area, down the bottom of the valley, watching these boys who they knew. If I remember rightly, one was related, I don't know if it was the father or the uncle, but there's these two boys who didn't see the signs, because they came from the other side. All they're playing up in the hills, and here they pick up these things, and these men down at the bottom, all these roadworks men, watching in horror, they began to scream. There's one boy screaming, but the children couldn't hear, because the wind. Eventually, they heard something of the screaming, and they looked down, and they realized they were all screaming at them. What are they saying? The wind dampening the whole sound, so eventually, they hear them screaming, throw it away, throw it away, throw it away, throw it away, frantically screaming, desperate, but these children wouldn't be blown to pieces. Eventually, the wind just suddenly died, and they say, throw it away. They're telling us to throw it away, so they threw, as they threw, off the cliff, exploded. I believe one was maimed for the rest of his life. The other one hurt terribly badly, but not in a way that lasted, affected his whole life. Throw it away, our beloved. That is what the godly are for, the elders, those who've been in the way, like the giraffes. We who can't see far off, they can. They know the dangers, and we have to submit ourselves as they warn. They have to warn us in such a way that will unnerve us and stop us from doing things we shouldn't be doing that could destroy us. Throw it away, and we have to listen to them. God tells you, and God tells you, elders, you need to cry in such a way they'll get through, otherwise you give a cunt to God. Throw it away. We need to be crying out, warning them, warning them that they can flee. Know ye not that a little leavened child, just a little leavened, playing the fool, they're all leavened at the whole lump. Know ye not? Throw it away, man. Throw it away. What fellowship have light with darkness? Throw it away, man. Throw it away. Be not conformed to this world. Throw it away, man. Abstain from all appearance of evil. Throw this away. Even the appearance will destroy you. You're in danger. Throw it away. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Throw it away. We need to warn, passage upon passage, standard upon standard, warning upon warning. We will be accountable to God, and if the elders do warn you and you don't obey and submit in every aspect, outwardly, even to our appearance, look at their conduct, their example, and watch them and be warned by their warnings. Whether it's the music you listen to, whether it's the clothes you dare interdress, what you're watching, what friends you make, throw it away. Come ye out from among them. Be ye separate from them. Let them only call you scriptures. That's all you need. Otherwise, it's men standing, but oh, listen as the Holy Spirit gives you what that really means as they warn you. You dare not cut yourself off from vital fellowship with Christ. It is imperative for your survival as a Christian, and secondly, you dare not be severed or cut yourself off from vital, meaningful influence and fellowship with the Godly. Maybe you can't find a perfect church, but go where you can find the godliest group, and you will find that there are those that have not bowed the knee to bow, that won't compromise if you really look and get fellowship there. But don't you forsake the assembling of yourself together, and look to the elders to warn you by their example and obey as they warn you. Younger. Well, if you don't, throw it away. Don't blame God or the church.