In this sermon, the preacher reflects on a conference he attended many years ago where he preached about the godly falling and the process of restoration. He shares the story of L. Moody, a man who hadn't sinned in three years but still felt the need to confess. Moody takes a man who had collapsed during the sermon to his wife and children to ask if they had seen him sin in any way. The preacher then discusses the devastating impact of divorce and the disregard for the teachings of the Bible on marriage in society today. The sermon emphasizes the importance of walking with a perfect heart within one's household and the need to uphold the constitution of marriage for the sake of children's hope.

Can we have a word of prayer, please? Can we all bow before the dear Lord, and silence our hearts in reverential worship and fear? Our God, our Saviour, our dearest, closest friend and companion, our choice, with no hesitation, of whom to spend time with, when we have a choice, of whom to walk with, when we have a choice. Every step we take, come our God, our Saviour, in mercy, and visit Thy people, and speak to their heart, in a profound and deep way, tonight, in a way that each one of us would re-evaluate life, our goals, our priorities, our choices, our loves, come to each one of us, and by the Holy Spirit, speak to our hearts, in a way that we perhaps will never recover, till the day we die. Now no man can ever do that to us, most especially this man. And so all of us, and most especially me, humbly look to Thee, and Thee only, for our expectation is not in man, and we've long since realized that our expectation cannot be in ourselves. Outside of Thy grace, Thy intervention, we walk out of this building the same way we came in, forever. Come prevent that from happening, and visit us now, in Jesus the Christ's name, for His glory, alone and in faith. Amen. Well, that was the prayer was taking my time too. Not good. I should have only put it on now. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. That's Psalm 101 verse 2. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. Is that your desire? No matter who you are. It doesn't work in the home, it doesn't work full stop. Is that your heart cry? No matter who you are in this building. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. There's many reasons a Christian would desire to pray that from his soul. I would like to look at some of the reasons that anyone with any conscience or any integrity in God's eyes or before God will have these reasons already, no matter who you are, if you're saved, will have these reasons that God will have by the Holy Spirit confronted you. But have you put them off because you have not prayed from your soul this prayer in such a way that God has given you grace to stagger the powers of hell? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. You could give me numbers of reasons. I'd like to just give you certain reasons. Firstly, so that I don't influence my children to distrust marriage, to lose hope that there is such a thing as a good marriage. I have a newspaper clipping. I only read the headlines, otherwise I waste the money. But every now and again I read the small writing when the headlines are good enough and pure enough. Why have we fallen away from marriage as a society? This is in one of the world's greatest newspapers in England, London. Fewer people in England and Wales are getting married. than ever before in history. Experts believe that many young people are being put off marriage after seeing their parents divorce. The figures released now by the national statistics show that the marriage rates in England and Wales are the lowest level since they were ever recorded since 1862. The figures show that the actual numbers of weddings fell to the lowest level since 1896 in this last year. The population of England and Wales was only 31 million then against 53 million now. A Relate spokesperson said that the decline is definitely due to the ambivalence felt by children of divorced parents. towards marriage. They lost respect, hope that they could survive because their parents proved to them you can't survive. The greatest percentage of divorces in the history of the world is in the last 10 years leaving many nations at 70%. One nation of the largest western nations in the world 80 something percent of all marriages are in divorce. I wonder what percentage Christians' homes are represented there because it seems to me it's not immune beginning from the pulpit of evangelical churches down throughout the whole western world. Divorce and remarriage and divorce and remarriage. I was preaching when a 101 years old man walked in walked up to me and said I've travelled a long way to look you in the eyes to tell you I don't know of another preacher in this nation that preaches what God says in this word. As it stands they are too fearful because such a percentage of their congregation across this land has divorced, remarried and many times divorced and beginning in the pulpit of the evangelical churches worldwide, let alone our nation. Marriage doesn't work even in Christianity we who are the light of the world the salt of the earth have lost the savour not merely by the message from the pulpit. We no longer let men see and what they see they come to glorify God in their lives also through our lives through the good works the godliness of our lives the godly artworking of the scriptures in our lives in obedience to Christ. This old man said to me that probably the most famous preacher in our land has now divorced remarried and his wife first wife sitting there as he announced he was divorcing and points before his divorce to the woman he is going to marry and then marries, divorces the woman remarries and there is the two wives but he doesn't acknowledge anything in the scriptures that that could be possibly wrong if there is slight unhappiness in marriage divorce, remarry this is supposed to be an evangelical church one of the largest in our nation so the old man wrote him a letter and in the letter quoted various passages of sermons I preached and most especially the scriptures of which last year I preached one sermon of every verse in the Bible on marriage from Genesis 1 right through to Revelation of what God says in each facet of marriage just all the scriptures at points and there was devastation as I preached it not just silence, devastation in most of the places I preached it across your land and others just to look at what God says and to see how far we have fallen and defied and denied and rejected and buried even buried the man that dares to remind us what is in the book he doesn't mind if he stands with the Bible in his hand so long as he rejects the contents in his heart we will hire him or burn him he said you are looked upon as representative of true Christianity evangelical and you have done this in the newspapers throughout the land whereas all these scriptures and he quoted in certain sections of linking this famous preacher wrote him a letter back and said I disagree with this brother Daniel interpretation so he said to me the old man what do I write back to him I said well I didn't interpret anything I just quoted the scriptures he disagrees with God's words well stop tell him to cut those passages out but never to walk back in the pulpit and say I represent God of what the contents of this book because he is lying he may stand up and say all these sections I have cut out that I don't agree with the rest I am standing representing God outside of that he is a hypocrite and a liar please write that to him and say I said it well I will be with you for only as long as I want to as I want you is the modern day marriage vow what shall they change it to virtually say this all romantic little things but till death us do part is gone because most people enter into marriage not trusting it because their parents the majority in the western lands have divorced and put them through hell until they divorced their children fell on earth strong words but what else do you want to name it torture I will live with you for only as long as I want you but I will not enter into any commitment in this vow that will bind me to you to death in sickness, in health better or worse, till death us do part according to Romans 7 and about 30 other verses of the New Testament outside of that adultery marriage, God says, is honorable and the bed the bed, undefiled, it's holy and unto the pure all things are pure only a filthy, depraved man will laugh at the bed it's holy, it's sacred it isn't to be whispered about marriage is honorable, God says in all, everything and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge whoremongers and adulterers you work out what that is if it's outside of marriage without me elaborating Joshua cried out in 24 15 as for me and my house we will serve the Lord as for me and my house we will serve the Lord this is a family's united choice isn't that lovely that a man could honestly stand up and say that to the whole world whatever you do the rest of you but as for me and my house we've unitedly decided and chosen and I have no doubt to cry this from the highest rooftop my house not as me we will serve the Lord a family's united choice but for any godly man to say that today is an amazing testimony to say it loud and clear Christ warns a man's enemies are the members of his own house to what degree and what percentage of Christian homes of the godliest men they cannot say my house my children do not a man's enemies are the members of his own house of his own home in the gospel dispensation children will rise against parents parents will rise up against children daughters against mothers they will rise up now that's a staggering statement against why one reason you want God, I don't now to say this staggering statement today is something as for me and my house that is one incredible testimony to have today in this generation multitudes and multitudes of home across the world today it is the individual now that has to resign to the statement I will walk within my house I can't say it for my children I can't say it for my husband I cannot say it of my father and mother but I will say this to the world and to my family I will walk within my house with a perfect heart that is a lovely heart cry in this generation this is our choice as an individual as we sense responsibility to each one of the home the influence through our example in the home as we've already seen upon Britain where the lowest amount of children in history recorded history are actually getting married and the main reason according to the statistics of those who really make research is children lost hope in the constitution of marriage I will walk within my house with a perfect heart in front of my family why? Enoch walked with God that is one of the most profound statements in the entire Bible but why did Enoch walk with God? I picked up a children's Bible many years ago when my darling wife fell pregnant with our first child we were sitting in some gynecologist's office who didn't charge Jenny and us anything but because of certain things we had to go to a gynecologist for her safety so we were sitting there and there's many magazines you know which are all trash so I saw the children's Bible so I picked up a children's Bible watch out people are watching you the devil will make sure what you pick up they're watching all the time when you don't know in the children's Bible I opened up to the page of Enoch walked with God and it brought out something rather remarkable that I hadn't picked up and hadn't read anywhere from the time from that moment virtually of the birth of his first born Methuselah from that moment at the time at the place and because of Enoch began to walk with God because of something of the birth of his child I'd like to read things in with your forgiveness a sudden sense of responsibility comes upon a man who sees the birth of his child if he is godly if he has any fear of God at all it doesn't mean he's walking with God as he ought to but there is something about the birth of a child that God entrusts to you that you see the miracle of that birth and know you have to do with God with what you do with this life committed to you by God the birth of a child is God saying here I trust you with this life you find in Malachi chapter 2 which I've preached on extensively where God tells you why he ordained the covenant of marriage this union between you and your wife why he wrought it the covenant of marriage and he says I sought from this union this is the literal Hebrew godly offspring it seems this would be more than what he said about Adam it's not good for a man to be alone so I'm going to make him a wife someone to stand beside him so it isn't loneliness that God institutes marriage the broader picture of the Bible comes out with a staggering statement that he brought about the constitution of marriage the sacredness of marriage to entrust to you that from this union because of your lives the way you conduct yourself and your faithfulness to each other to death that you will produce godly children from this union you can go and make ten times research in any Hebrew book you want to that is exactly what it says godly children now Enoch walked with God this is a staggering statement to my knowledge because Abraham was the friend of God Daniel was a man after God's own heart greatly loved David was a man after God's own heart there is different people with different statements written across their life that you see about nobody well Enoch walked with God of course as of Noah also had written that he walked with God but I don't think anywhere near the walk Enoch had by the general concept of his life Enoch walked with God and God put these words there for billions of people to read who had any desire to know his heart as a result of God giving him and entrusting to him a child Enoch began to walk with God in a unique way that still staggers people as they hear it to this day on the scriptures I went and made a research by the way Hebrew and every single document I could and it hit the nail on the head the children's bible was so accurate all I could say was wonderful hmm of course the King James if it was good enough for Paul it was good enough for me but that's not my wisdom and the man who said it by the way in case you don't know it honestly meant it he thought Paul had a King James but we have to forgive good people and he must have been a good man even though he was so wrong about Paul we won't go into that, that's a diversion and we're not allowed to divert especially when we've got so much tonight to get through the children's bible Paul hit the nail on the head of what God was saying literally word by word from that time and as a result Enoch then pursued God and I would say it was a sense of responsibility a deep sense of responsibility I will walk within my house with a perfect heart have you ever prayed that? now, let's stop don't shave with your lips but I want you to say it to God have you ever had such integrity to your children and a sense of responsibility to everyone in that home that you have grown before God as this man obviously did have you ever had that much integrity that God can answer your prayer and give you the grace because he is obliged to give you all the grace you need he cannot deny himself and ask something of you in the standards of the scriptures and mock you otherwise he's not holy what he tells us to live he gives us the grace to but the personal choice of your desiring it in such a way that he's obliged as a holy God to give what he asks of you no matter how trying the circumstances, have you cried I will walk within my house with a perfect heart but a sense of responsibility to the people, the lives the souls God entrusted to me I'm going to pursue that by God's grace or is your life one lie in Christianity there was a man who said to D.L. Moody that he hadn't sinned in something like three years he can't recall anything that he had to get on his knees and confess so Moody being the incredible man he was he stood up got his bowler hat and his stick and began to walk down the staircase the man followed him out onto the streets and he said come with me so of course after a while the man said where are you taking me Mr. Moody I'm taking you to your wife and your children I want to ask them have you ever seen your father for three years sin or fail in any way so come we're close to the house the man said stop sir and in shame he put his head down I cannot let you ask my family that tell me it's nice to say I will walk within my house with a perfect heart it's nice to quote it's nice to say the right things but do you have you cried this in such a way God enables you to walk with God Enoch for your responsibility your inner being and conscience has given you in what God has entrusted to your life in giving you a child I will walk within my house is a staggering word so that I do not influence my children against marriage and the viability of marriage so that I may leave an example to my children of how to survive in marriage by the grace of God the influence the influence I will walk within my house with a perfect heart to protect my wife from being destroyed by my life and my failures I was preaching in your country in the very first conference I ever was asked to come and preach in America this was many years ago and for some reason most of the people in that meeting were preachers from across America no one quite understands how so many preachers came from the entire land to that particular convention but I preached a sermon one night on when the godly fall and all I gave was scriptures what God says concerning the godly who fall who really fall like David a man after God's own heart could after having that testimony been given him by God commit adultery and murder I looked at many many instances across the scriptures and then I took the scriptures what God says a man must do to be restored many people came out weeping but there was one man that just collapsed and he was so uncontrollably broken that I thought he was going to die and they carried him out to try and restore some form of order in the meeting because of the way this man just howled under conviction of sin he got restored with God as other preachers prayed with him for a long time and he flew home across the states and said to his wife you come with me they got an airplane and they flew back to the next place I was preaching which was a church close by to this conference center and of course the wife and he were led after that sermon into the back room and it was explained to me as I looked at this woman that looked like a battered bird a deadened face it was like a deadened look on her, a total dead of emotion she just hung her shoulders, hung her head and they began to explain things to me of how this man had been a preacher for many years and had fallen into terrible, terrible sin now this destroyed his wife to such a degree that from a little girl she had given her life to Christ she went into sin it seems she was so broken down mentally that she just walked into evils that literally destroyed her morally destroyed her integrity and purity and self respect and respect from everyone else but she had never done these things she had never stooped to these things it would never be suggested of her until her husband and his sin was all exposed it destroyed his wife as a human she was destroyed now after a long time because he was thrown out of the pulpit excommunicated preachers dragged him up to this convention and he arrived in time for this message when the godly fall and he just heard God's word, just the scriptures of what God says now and he got up and found Christ again the reality of being reconciled by the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son that cleanses us from past the moment you come to Christ all past the blood of God is what justifies us and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son alone present after salvation and future when we come to him confessing we look into the blood and therefore he is able to save us to the uttermost it's the blood that he can come to God he ever liveth to make a decision for us with one thing, his shed blood where he is able to save us to the uttermost no matter what Satan does so this man was reconciled he found a peace with God after those ministers prayed with him it was so profound and moving that I believe he said he had never ever known in his life the consciousness of the presence of God that suddenly swept through his entire being and intellect he was so sure God had restored him that he literally was flooded with peace and joy that passes all understanding now he drags his wife now, a broken smashed facial I did look at her and I saw somehow there was a deadness so I said, lady look at me and she looked up and there were little tears suddenly falling down this broken face with hopelessness in her eyes I said lady I don't know what to say to you but I would long for Jesus Christ to sit in this chair instead of me, just for a few moments and not say one word because if you could see Christ's face if you could just see his eyes looking at you you wouldn't need a word to know you can be restored as your husband has and you'll be able to forgive the moment God forgives you you're obliged to there's nothing God will not forgive you lady if only Christ could be sitting here and just look in your eyes you wouldn't doubt that it's such a tragedy only I can sit here and try and relate that to you you know that woman suddenly fell down and began to sob strangely enough we didn't help her after a few minutes I don't know how long she stood with such joy in her eyes and such peace and it wasn't superficial because it lasted all these years and then she said these strange words to me you said those words and I looked at you and I believed that's how Jesus Christ would be looking at me and that flooded me with hope for the first time that I could be restored and there was such love well the lovely part of this is that God can restore but the tragic part is I will walk within my house with a perfect heart that I don't destroy my wife's life do you know there's a danger like that brother if you aren't groaning that prayer in your heart and haven't found the grace because of the way you've groaned to God that I have a responsibility to my wife not to destroy her is a staggering word dead flies cause the ointment of the apocrypha to send forth a stinking sabre it's a horrible thing there in the holy of holies in the tabernacle these holy things, a dead fly can cause these things that are meant to be sacred and sanctified for God's worship to send forth a stinking sabre so doth a little folly he that is in reputation of wisdom and honor let me tell you something brother all the devil needs is a little folly, a little playing the fool with shame you will destroy your wife's life sir if you're not careful so that's why you need to be crying out I will walk within my house with a perfect heart that reason is enough to make you want to be holy for I am holy God says I will walk within my house with a perfect heart to protect my husband from being destroyed now that might not sound as profound as a man in a pulpit how many homes I've been in in America where I've seen this a woman destroyed his life to protect my husband I was walking along our seaside it's about a 10 mile walk in Cape Town in the tip of Africa that is so beautiful it's uncomprehendable the mountains and the beauty and the sun going down so I have often when I'm home walked in the years gone by with my wife and children sometimes now all alone as they grew up and Jenny still with her activities with all the things of the children but still I have often walked there and as I've walked praying and just looking out of the sea and sometimes singing and just getting quiet there was a man that I looked up and saw a little crowd and he was on his face and he was very elderly and very frail but he was so hurt there was blood all over his face and his hands and he stood up in a terrible condition and I saw his wife beside him trying to help him up and others so I stopped of course and I stood with a growing little crowd to look at this poor man that had so terribly fallen so hurt himself there to help him up so slowly and eventually I walked up and said you know won't you let someone help you you really hurt sir I could help you all the way home I see your wife you're leaning on her but she's also elderly won't you let me help you both back to your home he just looked to tears she said thank you but we're alright so I walked back and others began to walk away as he held on to her another young man standing there said terrible woman what an awful woman what are you talking about he said you didn't see most people I was the only one I think they did see she beat him and beat him in such a horrific way screaming until he was fallen smashing his face into the ground and she still beat him and then of course when she saw the blood and all that and people coming she stopped and tried to help him up and show him compassion now forgive me for spiritualizing this alright tell me the broader picture of when a man falls, really falls was it you that so fought him, undermined him broke him down till you destroyed him till he crawled so wounded spiritually and it was you and no one really knows but you and him and God have you broken your husband down till he's crawling in a shameful way spiritually because you just hammered and undermined Proverbs says in verse chapter 31 it speaks of the woman of God and of course I quoted that whole thing and then looked in the light of all scriptures on any verse last year but we just look at this she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life is that written across your life would your husband honestly in his heart say that is my wife the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her for she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life, tell me are you the exact opposite of a virtuous woman, a godly good woman, upright and integrity that your husband and your children rise up and praise at the end of the day of your life do you do your husband good and not evil because of your godliness because you pursue to walk with God with a perfect heart in your house so you don't destroy your husband it is better to dwell in the corner of a house than with a brawling woman in her wide house I can't escape her undermining there is nowhere to hide there is no hope of survival God have mercy on you God have mercy on you I will walk within my house with a perfect heart no I was doing a tour of a certain part of southern Africa a five week tour I came to some town where there were Germans the Germans have a particular love to reach the black, the African the native of that particular area throughout Africa if you get a German they shave their burdens to reach the natives of the land generally and they do and this godly man Manfred Stegen farmer, very large woods and forests wealthy man but he loves God he was telling me of one of the black ladies who he had known from a girl on the farm that he was four generations inherited, he was the fourth generation of the farm the owning, had developed and so he knew as a child other children who all grew up working on the lands and in the houses well this particular lady had a real problem she had heard the gospel, he used to preach to all his workers as much as he could every Sunday virtually there was a special meeting for all the laborers to try and bring them to Christ, and many had found Christ but this one lady who he had known since childhood she turned to him and said to him I went to the witch doctor for help nice you didn't you couldn't have it's a terrible thing to go to a witch doctor in our country it's a total rejection of the beliefs of Christianity why did you do that? because our home is being destroyed my husband and I fight all the time and the children are being broken down there's nothing but unhappiness my children are always weeping hardly a day goes by they don't end up weeping themselves to sleep because of my husband and I we just fight, we argue, we fight until it's really uncontrollable so I went to the witch doctor and I said to him what can you do to help me to stop this fighting it's the devil, it's demons that's attacking me, destroying my home I'm going to lose everything I'm going to lose my children their happiness so he said I have a medicine that will stop all fighting she said I must have this medicine so he said alright I will write the prescription down but you've got to take this until it's all cured this problem in the house of fighting she said I will do it so he gives her and he says now this is how much you take of this medicine every time an argument starts every time you sense an argument it's about to start don't wait, quickly take this medicine and the fighting will stop so she says to Mr. Stephen it works there's no fighting in the home what on earth are you talking about what medicine so she said well it's a glass and you've got to take so much she's given me the size of glass and every time a fight starts I've got to put this in my mouth and I mustn't swallow and she said it works now he was so astonished he came to me and said what must I say how do I tell you it's just water and this man as evil as he is has got a sense of humour we can't go around having a glass of water in our mouth to find victory as Christians but I would ask you this have you resorted in desperation to crying to God about it lady so that you don't destroy your children in wanting God that you say well of course this woman wasn't saved she couldn't be going to a witch doctor but that's their culture and background and it takes many years even if they profess to be saved to get rid of that concept but I don't believe she was saved to do it we don't talk about witch doctors positively but it's a point if a witch doctor with a sense of humour can stop all fighting in a home do you honestly believe God can't stop it when you seek him with all your heart if you want it or doesn't it matter that you're sending your children to hell so long as you have the last word that's all that matters let them go to hell for eternity that's basically what you're saying you know would you like to reword it different I read this in a newspaper a British couple who holds the world's record for the longest marriage said that as they were asked about what did they do to survive Percy and Florence Arrowsmith married on June the 1st 1925 they celebrate their 80th anniversary today the Guinness world of records says that this couple hold the title for the longest marriage and also for the oldest married couples aggregate age I think we're very blessed she said as they were asked concerning how they survived so many years she is 100 years old she told the BBC we love each other we love one another and that's the most important part asked for their secret Florence said you must never be afraid to say sorry but Percy 105 said the secret of marital bliss was two words yes dear well now I don't know whether that's wonderful or not you've read that book me obey her me me obey her or all hell will broke out into our marriage if we don't if I don't well I don't know if that's the title of the book I refuse to stoop to read it because I felt he should have written another book me obey her me obey him sorry if I fulfill all God says I should be his husband before he says to a woman obey him hmm I know some woman who gave her husband an ultimatum you have to choose whether you want to be right or whether you want to be happy make the choice and face the consequences yes dear well they survived the longest marriage according to the Guinness book of records by him saying yes dear I think I will walk within my house of the perfect heart to protect my godly parents from being destroyed now I could go through sermons that I have where I've taken the verses of what a godless child will do to his parents the calamity of his father that means the destruction of his father's life is a godless wicked child who chooses sin will destroy his father one of the greatest preachers in America who is acknowledged across this entire land as one of the greatest expository preachers in the history of this land he had to leave his pulpit and after something like 40 years just under 40 years of preaching and establishing one of the largest evangelical conservative churches in this land he had to put an overall on and go with a little packet back to work but because he hadn't worked for so much he had to do the most menial tasks to stay alive because his children decided to serve Satan he left the pulpit if a man can't rule over his own home he has no right to preach Paul said his own household well that church was dismantled lost most of its members in disillusionment while he was not there with his great preaching eventually I sat with him and his wife and the co-pastors when he came for his lunch hour break from that church to a restaurant and I said God will have to do something to make your children repent something drastic because he has a holy obligation to answer your prayers and he will resort to anything well they found out she was riddled with cancer after I prayed for God to do anything to make those children stop in their sin in pursuit of sin that's destroying this man's ministry they found out weeks later she was riddled with cancer and just before she died because she was dying seeing them in sin they turned to God before their mother died watching them living in sin they turned to God but God will resort to to answer our prayers be careful when you pray he has a holy obligation to resort to anything he knows eventually his harshest blow will be in perfect love but love does not think of the comforts of a sinning child or of anyone even a praying mother when it comes to you praying concerning eternity God will do anything to answer your prayers he will resort to anything he has a holy obligation as a sovereign God so I went back after she had died he was back in the pulpit his children now serving God but his ministry it seems will never be the same and I doubt that they will ever see that great auditorium filled again overflowing you see even Eli's sons destroyed their daddy through their wickedness that their sin the repercussions of their sin they murdered their father though he was chosen by God to lead the nation his children destroyed him through their wickedness don't doubt that I will walk within my house with a perfect heart even as a child not to destroy my mother and my father a wicked child is the heaviness of his mother a heavy heavy heart when she should have been joyful in her pursuit of God you destroyed any hope of happiness what till she is going to die young person should you not be groaning before God for your mother's sake not to die having gone through a heavy heart though she loved Christ because of you because of you I will walk within my heart my house with a perfect heart to protect my siblings my brother, my sisters from not being destroyed through my influence my example, I've just come from a home in Cheyenne, in Wyoming where last year I had seen this godly young man, he's off now as a missionary into Africa at the moment he was so godly that he just stood out of every one of the youth, one man this boy walks with God and is the joy of his father and mother this year I come back now a boy that hadn't stood out as standing out in such a way it's almost surpassing the influence and impact of his brother's life, his godly brother this boy's name's Howard and his brother now in Africa is Edwin Marvin Struber the home I stayed in and I was so stunned by the godliness of this youth, this young boy he is so godly it's unnerving it's almost uncomprehendable that a life can be this transparent and godly and affecting so many he has such integrity and such depth and wisdom and self-control that he is the example of the believers I would say of the entire church Timothy let no man despise thy youth you don't have to become an old man to be you the one Timothy to be an example of the believers in word it always starts here if it doesn't work here nothing else is worth mentioning because nothing else will work so this boy, as I mentioned to the mother what a startling transformation she said it was Edwin the boy in Africa he turned to me a good few years ago and said to me and his father I have a responsibility to my siblings I have a grave responsibility he was young, to my brother especially to Howard who's just younger, who looks up to me I want to live a life father and mother that will cause Howard to want God I have a responsibility to him because he so looks up to me I dare not I dare not fail him oh God for he will follow my footsteps he will follow me I will work within my house with a perfect heart for my brother not to go to hell I was in a home where a young rebel who broke the home down and broke his father and mother and aged them and his elder brother turned to him, now grown up and more mature and left behind all the rebellious years and he rebuked this young boy for destroying his home and destroying the father and mother and this young boy stunned that brother that elder brother and said you were the one that I always wanted to be like you started me don't you preach to me now I wanted to be like you from a little baby now that I am don't you preach to me will you walk within your house with a perfect heart for what might happen to your brother and sister who want to emulate you because they somehow love you and form a bond with you have you no sense of responsibility that you are growing this before God shame on you, shame on you it will come on you shame will come on you when you see what you did and your conscience and your heart will know why he chose Satan was you playing the fool when you should have been his example influencing influencing everyone in the home is being influenced everyone in that home is being influenced beloved my brother is three years older than me and his life single handedly was the reason I wanted God but it was not the message I heard for one of the great evangelical preachers he dragged me to here before I walked in that building and I never heard the gospel in my life I was desperate for God to save my soul just because of the life of my brother when he got saved I knew by his life God could keep a man in this world from pursuing sin and I desperately wanted it what his example showed me there are some staggering reasons behind tragic homes and tragic marriages I have listened to so many and I'm going to just touch on a few I know a very lovely man and woman of God but not all that long saved, ten years, who bathes in Christ and she said to her husband one day you do not tell me that you love me anymore you used to tell me and I need very much to be told that I am loved by the man I live with what has gone wrong he said a very profound statement, he said the day I married you I told you and until I change my mind you don't need me to ever reassure you again because I'll tell you the day I stop loving you now, that is a staggering statement if one has to really look at it we look at words that have weight I want to take you a little bit deeper than words that have weight I have to stoop here to use an example that some of you might not exactly say is the best, but I'm going to when I was unsaved I went to a theatre it wasn't exactly filthy and depraved like it is today I'm sure I don't know if you can come out alive of a movie house let alone with a testimony and I suppose the theatres are the same hmm, well we'll see when we get to the end of life and see what's left of you if you don't see any dangers there but I went to a theatre many years ago and I was young and there was some Jewish play that was taking the world by storm and it was lost, most of it's lost in my mind I was so young but something really profoundly stayed in my mind was this old Jewish man in Russia under all the persecutions that came upon the Jews and all the hardships and the fires and oh, but one day he stood with his wife and he sang, the whole thing was a musical by the way, you know when the moon's in the background and they sing and you all get romantic and all that, it was terrible, trash, let's face it but anyway it was naive so it's acceptable in it's naivety to even mention, okay, because there was nothing immoral, so this man of course was singing everything was singing you have to really be naive to enjoy it and terribly romantic anyway he sang a song to his wife and it's the only thing I, actually I don't remember anything else, so please forgive me but she's washing the dishes there and cleaning up and telling the children and he starts singing do you love me? I don't know if you remember that so she stops at the dishes and says what? are you mad? get away I need to know, do you love me? so he carries on singing this do you love me, you know so eventually she puts everything down and she looks at this man, he's dead so she thinks, she says well after 25 years of washing your clothes and making your bed and making your food and of course the words are all wrong so don't sue me and raising your children and being like a slave to you and every need you you ask me that he says, yes do you love me? so he sings again with all his heartache and longing to hear that she loves him so she says, well after 25 years and she goes through all the list of things he's done for him and does and she says, I suppose I do well you know it's quite staggering and forgive me using such a worldly thing because that is terrible but let's face it love is not saying like this woman says, you don't tell me love is action love is pouring your life out in total sacrifice without ever arguing or moaning or groaning or feel self pity love is pouring your life out for the children that your husband gave you your wife gave you love is being there no matter how tired you are and making his bed and washing the floors not so much little words I do thank God for my wife I wrote this down many years ago I don't think I'd change a word I thank God for mercifully giving me what I know is the most precious gift he ever entrusted me with apart from Jesus Christ this is the one woman God knew would never hold me back from preaching across this world in the way he ordained and called upon her and our children to be without a husband and a father so much of their lives I thank God for the wife that never stopped me never so discouraged me once but prayed for me and when I walked back in that door loved me and honored me I thank God for a woman who was willing to stand alone so many years when I wasn't there and not mope or grieve but have a joy that was uncomprehendable the way she took life with both hands and her children and enjoyed it serving Christ even though I wasn't beside her I thank God for the way she forgave me of the errors of judgment so often in my tiredness in reactions, my short fallings the thorns in my flesh that God has given many to make sure I never touched the glory once of anything he did through me the crosses I was made to bear which I did not always bear with true victory every day in every circumstance I am honest to say her willingness to love me in spite of all the moments I was not exactly what I should be ever to remind me of them not once but just to forgive me and love me her life cried out in my home in front of my children without any words ever saying it to me once, that she loved me in a far more meaningful way than any three words could mean to me in Christian homes many marriages are destroyed because a lady or a man does not consider and communicate the other one's survival with all the stress of a home the crises we face last year if you remember the sermon I preached on marriage which eventually by the time the end of the tour came was very different to what I preached the first meetings here as I perfected by God's grace the scriptures and brought everything into line the sharpness at the end so but in that sermon there's a passage that I didn't want to go in too deeply where Paul actually seems to discourage marriage as something that really will divert you from God's best now you must never forget the context all the wonderful exposition Paul gives on every aspect of marriage to the husband and wife and all the chapters surrounding don't forget that, don't become like a witness and blind your eyes to everything surrounding it and just see a verse and hope nobody looks at the next verse or the verse before because they know you're lying you've got to be careful but I'd like to expand just for a moment on that passage where Paul says in this present distress he discourages marriage now you've got to remember that's how he starts Paul doesn't discourage marriage, it's a good thing it's not a good thing for a man to be alone trust me marriage is wonderful, it's honorable you won't have the devil's condemnation and everything that's normal because you're living in an abnormal way, from a certain age there's a point where really your life will become distressed at the lack of fulfillment of normality and holiness and sacredness and what God meant marriage to be if you're all alone he never discouraged marriage apart from this present distress where Nero by the way, at the time he wrote that Tiberius was gone Caesar was gone Nero came and they were doing the most abominable things to Christians to wipe them out and to stop this thing that overtook the Roman Empire in the end, but Nero tried to wipe them out through the most terrible abominations in the Colosseum and etc but it was not easy the slaughter house against Christians at that time, and in this present distress, it was better that a man does not marry but he did bring in six verses where he talks about, if you're not married, you're able to serve God single-mindedly, these things can divert, so in that context he still throws in there's something of a danger that can happen in marriage, that won't happen if you're not married, but if ever a man needs to marry and he will know, and it's going to destroy his life, testament, etc you get married and don't destroy your life if you need to be married not everyone is called to be a eunuch be careful you can destroy yourself thinking that's spiritual, it's not the outnumbered verses through the scriptures that tell you you must be married, and how to be married that's what won't destroy you but anyway, Paul does definitely deal with the section where you will be so diverted from God because of your need to satisfy your wife's demands on life, your family's demands, your husband's demands and that is a very real problem, I don't see it as a warning against marriage that is totally heretical I see it though, those few verses those six verses, as a warning against allowing marriage to so devour you, because of the lack of communication that you could really end up losing out on God time for God, and a man can become a monster if he's missing God himself, being diverted from God to such an extent because of the demands a home can become you need to guard each other that your husband isn't destroyed through the demands you make, that your wife isn't destroyed your father and mother isn't destroyed by the demands you cry out to them let them alone, they need space for God don't ever hurry them or you will weep the time that they neglect you to be alone with Jesus will make the time they're with you a taste of heaven on earth, but if they neglect that time that God requires of them and conscience requires of them, soaking themselves in the scriptures and in prayer to enable them to walk with God if they don't neglect that they will walk out of that room and be all you will ever want them to be but you will curse them, and the memory of them, if they neglect that time, no matter who they are you will curse the memory of them I've had enough of Christianity don't you tell me to seek Christ I had enough with my father and mother they put us through hell I chose never ever to choose a religion that would make my children go through what I went through my closest friend said to me when I got saved and there's only one reason neglecting God is the single reason that 99% of your failure that you will ever name happened don't doubt this you'll read Psalm 1 and then call God a liar if that doesn't happen in your life you'll read Psalm 119 it will take you 20 minutes but in 20 minutes you'll know what God promises will happen if you devour the scriptures and are consumed in prayer, communing with God don't keep them enable them, I have been in so many homes I was in a home in Canada in Vancouver Island where this lady had 16 children terrible but still I shouldn't have said that I suppose 16, wonderful sorry so she looked like a wreck and she said after some sermon I preached that she actually was able to attend with screaming children and everything crawling around her she called me to her home so she says how does a mother with 16 children have a quiet time so I looked at her with black rings under her eyes and wrinkled an age before her time and I wondered I said you know I would wish I could say to you that it will end because childbirth stops, I don't know what age but of course then it will end and you can have quiet times but I'm not too sure about in this home anyway that's lovely but she looked at me and said well I don't have a quiet time I sit if I find one second and I sit there and I just fall asleep the next thing my child is crawling and screaming and I've got to get up it's through the night and you preach that we're going to preach so many chapters a day and spend so many hours with God so I said listen lady if you can find five minutes and ask God because he knows that you can't find two hours of quiet and ask him to take that five minutes and make it so precious by his grace because of the circumstances I believe God has a holy obligation to make that five minutes something incredible well she heard a few things of advice and from what I gathered she really did find a walk with God as a result of trusting God for the few minutes here and there I heard a missionary lady say that she used to say they're very hard on people concerning the quiet time neglecting the quiet time until she had five children of her own and then she said as she was on her knees scrubbing the floors and the babies were crawling over screaming and fighting and she was trying to pray that was her quiet time be careful but I'll tell you something you husbands you brothers and sisters it might cost you but by you walking with a perfect heart in your home toward your mother survival you will help her you will help her in such a way that she has time for Christ even if you're tired sir and she communing with you will help you that she doesn't demand too much of you and with the children so that everyone in that home I believe Joanna Wesley did find the answer and she required a lot from her children to each other for her to become a woman of God that staggered the world because those two brothers shook the world because of their mother's influence and godliness I believe there's survival I think those verses in the New Testament cry out to us to guard each other to protect marriage that this beautiful noble honorable thing that can make a beautiful life should never ever ever be endangered by keeping each other through neglect a sense of responsibility to each other even if you're a young child that your mother can have time with Christ that your wife can have time time with Christ that your husband can have undisturbed time that you make the children know that you train them don't touch daddy's time don't open that door don't go near it till your father otherwise we will weep through his life if he neglects that time you need to take care there to guard each other and not to neglect God even if my husband is not following God I will walk within my house with a perfect heart I've had to see that where men will do the most terrifying things but a woman will stand I know a woman who when she walks into a building everyone in that community stands they don't stand for any preacher or any other Christian in the history of that town but that woman when she walked into a church they stood do you know why? she wouldn't leave that man but she never compromised in front of her children she walked with God with a perfect heart in her house she determined no matter what that man did she won him to Christ eventually but everyone stood knowing what he did to her the whole community knew that she still walked with God but because he devoured the scriptures and was consumed in prayer I have just left a young family of a boy whose wife came to Christ about two years ago when I was there she has so impacted that community beginning with her own family because although her husband did terrifying things and landed up in prison a few times since her salvation she won't leave him and she said at the table when I was looking at her and saying you had to take courage and have courage to survive this she said by the grace of God I will never leave him by the grace of God I will pursue God for my children's sake, our children's sake even if he is in jail every year back in jail I will pursue God no matter what he does I am determined to do that have you? no matter what he does I was in a home where a woman was so godly it was unnerving and I was young and then years later I went to this town of Paddock in Northern Natal Southern Natal in South Africa, Southern Africa and her children had grown up and I was in her daughter's home and I said your mother was one of the godliest woman I have ever met in my life she said oh sir that everyone knows in this community but especially her children my father was like an animal sir to my mother when he walked out at times we said mother God does not require this of you no one in this community will judge you no one can believe you staying with him he's a monster mother before he comes home let's get out God won't judge you mother you've taken enough the mother looked at the two daughters and said you will never say that again in my life when I said till death us do part it didn't mean that I would throw my husband away because he's not saved when I got saved I will win your father to Christ before I die by the grace of God but I will not leave him if he doesn't come to Christ which is possible he will give account to Christ of every single thing he did to me he is accountable but I am also accountable to Christ when I die of what I did no matter what your father did to me and I do not want to be accountable for one single word I utter to your father no matter what he did to me I am still required by the grace of God to be holy this daughter said Mr. Daniel our husbands are not perfect they are saved but they are far from perfect but my sister and I don't say a word when they fail because of our mother's example that even if the father was a monster in the eyes of the whole community she never failed no one saw her fail no matter what he did because she said I will walk within my house with a perfect heart even if my husband is a monster you don't have to be destroyed by taking your eyes of Christ whether you are young and your husband is in prison every year since your marriage you can walk with God I know a young boy who when he was a very little boy he stood and looked at me and said Uncle Keith look at me, one day I am coming to your Bible school and I am going to preach like you as a missionary lovely, well he did arrived at Bible school and he walked up to me the same year my boy Roy Roy is not here tonight but the two of them became like this he looked at me and all the new students there where I lectured this one theological seminar so he said do you remember me Uncle Keith I said no, you don't remember me he gave his name I said I don't really I meet thousands that little boy in that town my daddy was a preacher, you preached in his pulpit I was ten and I said to you one day I am coming to your Bible school and I am going to preach, well I am here I have lived from that day to this to do one thing, to get here so I can preach one day well Roy looked at him he looked at Roy and they became bosom buddies like David and Jonathan and they turned the world upside down to such a degree that they had whole council meetings to discuss what to do with these two they were as fire but no wisdom and people were just running and the students were all living in despair because of these two they were outrageous, but they were brave and God brought the wisdom of course but this boy was some the next thing, his daddy falls into sin outrageous sin that brought shame across our land to what degree his father turned to sin the mother was so broken down mentally that she fell into the most horrific sins and she had such integrity all those years the children went wild little boys smoking, drinking lying drunk and cursing he was a preacher, our daddy telling us to serve God look at him we are not serving God we are serving the devil there is no God the one but this boy Roy's closest friend in Africa he stood up and though his whole home had been destroyed by sin broken down the shame in Christ's name that boy stood in spite of my whole family even if my daddy was a preacher I am walking with God and he wouldn't give up on him and his example made his daddy see Christ again and his brothers, not messages the fact that he stood no matter what happened I will walk within my house with a perfect heart in spite of my father falling into sin my mother being destroyed my brothers lying drunk at the tender little teenage age cursing, cursing with swearing I am not going to and he brought them to Christ all of them over the years sought God with their hearts again because he was the example that they don't have to be destroyed if he wasn't they have no reason to be so I ask every one of you tonight and challenge you whether you are a husband, a wife, a parent a son, a brother a sister the responsibilities and the repercussions the consequences of you not praying this from your soul to your mother to your wife to your husband to your brothers to your sisters every single one of you in this building I am going to ask you, I don't care who you are even if you are a preacher that needs desperately to stand up in front of God tonight and say with your whole being not to some shallow response but I desperately need at this point to let Satan and all the powers of hell and my children, my wife, my father my mother, everyone I need to stand up and say this before God and Satan and man beginning with my family I from this night will determine no matter what happens that I will walk within my house I will see God with every faculty of my being from this night to walk within my house with a perfect heart those that desperately need to say that right now no matter who you are stand up right now you come forward, those of you that need to pray come, let's make this an altar we're living in one devastating moment in the last days let's not rush when we make a decision to seek God with such integrity that we will affect our entire homes no matter what's happened and we will protect our homes will you come forward those that are standing let's make something, we haven't got an altar here to kneel it's not the outward kneeling it's the heart that's bent and bowed now before God that matters and what we say to God from our hearts, so you come we make it something of an altar yes, well you can't all come too close to the front so we're going to ask you all to bow your heads those that are standing and pray aloud with me please and remember God does not look at the words that proceed out of the mouth God looks at the heart from whence they come so pray from your heart as best as you can and though you might think it's weakness if it's the best you can God is so holy he couldn't turn away that prayer he wants this more than you want this so don't doubt God only the devil will tell you God won't answer this prayer come with faith ask in faith, but ask aloud as best as you can say this to God in integrity from your heart though will you pray aloud with me oh my God I bow before thee and ask for mercy forgive me where I have failed where I have not walked within my house with a perfect heart because I did not seek thee earnestly enough in integrity for God to answer the prayer in every circumstance wash me in the blood of Christ my only hope of a fresh start things I've forgotten in my baseness things I've overlooked to bow before God and seek cleansing from I come before thee and I ask thee with my whole being let the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanse me from all sin help my family to forgive me help me to ask for forgiveness from my wife my husband my father my mother my children and give them the grace to trust me again and to pray for me I bow my life as best as I can and lay myself on the altar of God to be a living sacrifice holy which is my reasonable service that I may prove what is that perfect and acceptable will of God in my life as a Christian beginning in my home take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee wash me through and through renew with the holy blood of Christ create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me bring a consistent grace to live the standard of this book that God asks of me in the house help me never to neglect being alone with Jesus and help me by my example that others in the home will never neglect seeking to be alone with Jesus as they see the result in my life to enable me to walk with God in my home fill me now with thy holy spirit by that I ask that thou does take control of me at the fruit of the spirit which is Christ Christ likeness spontaneously may be seen as a result of my absolute surrender for God to be glorified take my life God and fill me control me and live out thy life through me that Jesus Christ will be seen and recognized and understood as they look at my life everyone in my home whom I am responsible for according to this book in Jesus the Christ name for his glory with all my heart Amen