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True Salvation
Roy Daniel

Roy Daniel (N/A–) is a South African preacher, evangelist, and missionary known for continuing the legacy of his father, Keith Daniel, a prominent figure in Christian ministry. Born and raised in South Africa, Roy was deeply influenced by his godly parents, particularly his father’s fervent preaching and his mother Jennifer’s ministry to women through writing and speaking. After a personal encounter with Christ, Roy entered full-time ministry, preaching thousands of times across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America in settings such as schools, churches, orphanages, prisons, and slums, often facing challenges like dangerous wildlife and hostile encounters. Roy’s ministry emphasizes repentance, holiness, and a surrendered life to God, delivered with heartfelt conviction and compassion. He co-founded AudioSermon.net, hosts podcasts like The Precious Seed for children and Bible Jesus for all ages, and has authored books and tracts. Based in South Africa with his wife and four children, Roy’s work reflects a commitment to sharing the gospel globally, drawing from his father’s example of Spirit-filled preaching while forging his own path as a missionary and teacher.
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Sermon Summary
This sermon emphasizes the importance of genuine salvation through Jesus Christ, highlighting the dangers of false foundations and the need for a personal encounter with God. It addresses the issue of fake Christianity, the power of the gospel to transform lives, and the urgency of coming to the cross with a repentant heart. The speaker shares personal testimonies and biblical truths to challenge listeners to seek a genuine relationship with God through Jesus.
Sermon Transcription
Thank you so much for all of you who came tonight. I see there's less faces from last night, and there's more faces from last night, depending on who you're looking at. I've actually got a friend, if he's still a friend, from South Africa. He's one of the tallest people I know, and a very weird person, but I appreciate him. And we worked together as machine evangelists in South Africa for a time, and we drove around. I remember running out of petrol, and we got on about $2, I don't know how much we had, 20 rand or something, we somehow got from Rich's Bay to Moorgate, and he had that stick shift, and every time we went down a hill, we put it out of gear, and somehow we got there, and we were so, so happy. Lots of memories, and thank you for being here. He might be getting married one day, too, which is wonderful. Okay, I'm gonna preach tonight, the second sermon this weekend, and I'd like to open up your Bibles to Ecclesiastes 9, verse 12. Nine, verse 12. My friend from South Africa, he used to love fishing. Do you still love fishing? That's good. He was a very natural soul winner, in the sense that he loved to fish real fish. So this is a verse about fish. But before we go and read this verse, let us pray. Dear Father, thank you so much that we can be gathered together again around thy word, and listen to a little message on salvation. And we know when it comes to salvation, we read there in Galatians, that where we started is how we live as Christians, and how we perfect it. We don't go away from the cross. We don't go away from Jesus. We don't go away from what saved us. We go deeper in the Christ that we found at Calvary. And so for Christians, it's so precious to listen to a sermon on salvation. But dear Father, also it's wonderful that the gospel of God, we're not ashamed of the gospel of God, for it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe. And this night, it's such a wonderful privilege to know that you didn't choose angels to preach the gospel, but you chose mere little men. And I want to ask that you would shine your light upon every single person sitting here and show them, show those, if there are those that are in darkness and not saved, show them the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. And I cannot do this, but I ask you that you would work tonight, that you'll bind the devil and his demons in the name of Jesus Christ, and that you in mercy would speak to us to the glory of Jesus alone, that Christ will be lifted up, and so will draw all men unto us. As he was lifted up on the cross, let him be lifted up in honor this evening as we listen to the gospel. And I ask this in Jesus Christ's name, amen. Okay, Ecclesiastes 9, verse 12 brings a verse about a fish. And God says, or fish, for man also knoweth not his time, as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, as the birds that are caught in a snare, so are the son of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly on them. Now, I was thinking about my friend William today when I prepared this sermon, and I thought of how many fish are dead because of him. But when you come to a verse like this, it is actually a very serious verse, because God is comparing us, every single person sitting here, every person in the world, every person that ever lived, to fish. And God's basically saying we don't know when we're gonna die. And a fish can be, I suppose, I've often imagined, I don't know if you've ever done this, perhaps it's too childish to do, but I've often imagined what it would be like to be a fish, maybe the first fish that God ever created. And I just imagined there, I'd never see my tail, I'd never see my fins, I'd never see my scales, I'd never seen anything, and suddenly I was there, this fish. And I start to wag my tail, and I start to go forward, and it's so much fun. And it's just the most amazing thing, and I never got to be a fish for some reason, but it's something I've thought about a lot, is what would it be like to be a fish? But even if it was fun to be a fish, you'd swim this way, you'd swim that way, you'd go places, you'd go far, some of the fishes can really go very fast, you don't know when you're gonna hit that net that someone has put out there for you. And God compares us to these fish who are swimming, like you might be swimming through life, you might be going to your work, you might work for Jason, or you might be working at the store, you might be working somewhere else, you might not be working, and wherever you go, to the stores, down the road, to a shop where you wanna buy something, going back home, cooking food, you name it, you're swimming through life and going different places and you don't know when that net is gonna come. You're appointed time when you're gonna die. And that's how fish are, they swim, swim, swim, and one day, boof, they're in a net and they're gonna die. And never again will we ever have a chance to make right with God after that moment. Some people believe that sinners, when you die, you can come back and make right with God, and they've got stories like that, that's not true. The only examples we have in scripture of people who died and came back to life were people who were in the age of innocence or they were saved. The Bible says, for man also knoweth not his time. I remember when I first went to Bible college, and I can give you hundreds of these examples, when I went to Bible college, there was a, just before I went there, my best friend, Glenn, at that stage, who William really likes, I believe, still, unless something's changed. Glenn, who's a missionary in South America, he had a best friend called Christie, and he really liked this guy. And he phoned me one day, it was the middle of the night, Glenn has this way of waking you up, and I wasn't very happy, but he was weeping on the phone because his best friend had died. It was a young guy, muscular, strong, good looking, according to Glenn, but at the end of the day, he was dead. You know how many people died of that time just before I was at Bible college? There was two students, one died in a car accident, this is a small college, it's only 18 students. One died in a car accident, another died in another accident, when I was there, one of our friends, Michael, later on, he died in a car accident from that time. And none of those I would have thought that they would be dead, not one of those people, young, strong, got their lives ahead of them, would I think that this net would come in front of them and just, they would be gone in a moment, and never again would they, if they had been unsaved, they would have had the chance to make right with God and praise God that of them were saved. Now when I was young, I'm still young, but when I was a little boy, four or five years old, my mommy and daddy, who are very wise, decided that they did not want me to drown. And so they decided to take me to swimming lessons. I went to public school, and I remember my dad, at five years old, decided then, Peter Marisburg, South Africa, that I could not swim, and he took me to a lady who claimed to be professional, and she had a lot of students, little kiddies, didn't know how to swim, and she, my dad left me with that lady, and with all the other little kids, and she had a wonderful idea of how to teach us to swim. She basically put us on the side of the deep end of the swimming pool, and with our backs facing her and our front facing the swimming pool, and she would sing that old great song, Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, and as she was walking up and down behind us, when she came to the point where Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, she would push one of us into the water, but we did not know which one it would be, and I remember the fear that went through my body, because I didn't know how to swim. None of us knew how to swim, and it was a deep swimming pool, and basically she believed the best way to learn to swim is by drowning, and if you survive, then you've obviously learned to swim, so I remember sitting there in great fear, not knowing what to do, it was the most horrible time of my life at that stage, and this lady would walk past, and suddenly I was in the water, I was choking, I was kicking, I was trying to scream, and I somehow made it out. I remember my dad, my dad doesn't get too irritated, but I remember that was one of the days when he came and realized after a few sessions what was going on, that he was not too happy, which was quite interesting to see. Now, you have to realize, going through life, it's not exactly like Humpty Dumpty, where you get pushed into the swimming pool, but there's coming a day when you will enter eternity, and eternity is an awful long time, and you don't know when you're gonna be pushed over that cliff into the life you're after. You just do not know, and God says that in Ecclesiastes 9, verse 12. There was a little old lady that I used to love and visit, she was extremely on fire, it seemed, and she used to bubble over with Jesus, it seemed, and I remember going to her house, and she used to give me cookies and cakes, this was many years back, and she told me of how she loves to witness the people, and I knew her son quite well before he died of cancer, but she told me of one person she witnessed too was at a restaurant down the road, and she went to this restaurant, and I don't know if she was buying tea or cakes or some food, but she went to the owner of the restaurant, he actually owned three restaurants in that city, he was a reasonably rich man in that particular place, and she asked him about Jesus, and she told him about Jesus, and he basically just laughed at her, and she wasn't a person who liked to be laughed at, and so she asked him why he was laughing, and he said, listen, I don't need Jesus, I've got three restaurants, I'm rich, I could retire now, basically, and I've got so much money, I don't need God, but he looked down and there was this little old lady who was just sweet to look at, and he was basically humoring her like a little baby, you know, poking to me about my sore thumb, and she realized this, and she said to him, listen, there was a man in the Bible who thought that he could put away great store because he was a very rich man, and he could basically take his nest and live off that nest that he created for his life, and God said to this man in Luke 12 verse 20, he said, but God said unto him, thou fool, thou fool, thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. This night, and that night, when he thought he could put away for the rest of his life and basically retire and enjoy himself and his riches, he died, and that little old lady looked at that man and said these words to him, and he just laughed. You know, that night, three robbers came into that restaurant, found him and killed him. He laughed at an old lady who he thought was, didn't know what she was talking about, and he didn't realize that God is dead serious when he says stuff like that in the Bible, and he says it to people today too. You don't know when your time will be, and it could be tonight, and then never, ever, ever, ever again throughout eternity, which is forever and forever and forever and forever and forever, and it never ends. Will you have a chance to make right with the God that you have sinned against? Now, some people, their time is their time. I don't know, if William knows George from Stratton, I think it was him that told the story many years back. He's also died of cancer, but he talked, he was a lecturer at the Bible college that I went to, and he talked to the man who was walking in some area, and there's these eagles that go up, and they take tortoises and turtles and whatever, and they'll take these things high up into the air because they want to eat the inside, and they can't get it, and so they fly up. I don't know if it's 1,000 feet or 300 foot or whatever, and they look down, and they look for a shiny rock, and when they see a shiny rock, then they, with pinpoint accuracy, they drop this turtle or tortoise, and it falls, and it breaks, and they get to have a nice meal. Now, there was a man, and he happened to have a bald head, and he had this shiny head, and he was walking out there, and this poor bird was high up in the air, and he looked down and saw this perfect stationary rock, and with pinpoint accuracy, he dropped this turtle or tortoise and hit the guy on the head, and he died, and I remember many years back the lecturer at Bible college saying, when it's your time, it's your time. Some people, it's a bit obvious, that was his time, but some people try to take the time, or shall I say, the point of time into their own hands, and you'll have so many people that unfortunately commit suicide. When I was at junior school, I don't know what that's called in America, you know, grade one to six, I don't know if you got the same grades for junior school in America. When I was in South Africa at junior school, there was a boy who was my best friend, and he committed suicide, and I remember one of the things, I wasn't saved at that time, but I knew much of the gospel, and I remember one thing remembering back that was very sad to me, is that I never told him even what I knew about the gospel, and right now while you are sitting in this meeting, my best friend from junior school is in the flames of hell. Right now he is longing for one drop of water. Right now he longs to sit in this meeting and hear that the Bible says, come all you that are thirsty, and I will give you living streams, but he can't. You sitting in this meeting while you're alive have a privilege which millions and millions, hundreds of millions of people would love to have to be alive again and to have a chance to make right with God. My grandfather, Yanni Leroux, he's also dead of cancer, but right through life what a wonderful privilege it was to know a man who not only spanked me and had a wonderful sense of humor, he used to say stick out your chest if you want to get a wife, and we used to all stand there, walk around with our chest stuck out because we wanted to get a wife. Not only was he a wonderful man and a natural man, but he had a heart for souls. He longed to bring many people up to heaven with him, and my grandfather went through different things in life. He had a quadruple bypass. Those are things that people have. He had a stroke at one stage, and I remember he was taken to the hospital in a taxi because we couldn't get anything else for him, and I remember standing outside, and there he was in the taxi, and he'd just had a stroke a few hours before that, and he was trying to explain to the taxi driver after having a stroke on his way to hospital that you need to be saved. You need to know Jesus. He had a phenomenal heart for souls, and I remember going up into the mountains to the poor churches in the Ganges Valley, and how on the weekends, he would go with me, and he would preach to churches that people forgot up there in the hills. He would go from one to one, even in his 80s. Even weeks before he died, he would be witnessing to people. Absolutely wonderful example, my grandfather, but he went through a horrible thing when he had stomach cancer, and they had to cut out three quarters of his stomach. That wasn't the hope of getting all the cancer out, and they didn't do that, and eventually he died of that cancer, but he said it was the most painful experience he ever had, far worse than any other operation that he ever went through when he was in hospital. He said that for the first time in his life, there was so much pain in an operation that he could not speak. Even if he wanted to, he could not get a word out of his mouth, and so it was very hard for him because he said that the person next to him in that hospital was dying and did not know that he was dying because the doctor, when he asked the doctor, the patient next to him, am I all right? And the doctor said, yes, you're fine, don't worry, you'll be fine. And my grandfather heard the nurse speaking to the doctor and saying, but how can you tell him that? That's a lie. You know he's gonna die in a few hours. And the doctor said, but I don't want, I'd rather he just dies without knowing that he's gonna die because then you'll face less fear and stress beforehand. And that nurse said, you can't do that. And so she went to this person and said, I want to tell you the truth. You are dying in a few hours. And my grandfather on that bed where he could not say anything heard this man start to scream. He said, you can't do that to me. I can't die. I'm not ready. I'm not ready to meet with God. My grandfather said it was so hard because he knew the answer. He knew what he could show from scripture at least to give this man a chance of meeting God through Jesus Christ. And he couldn't say anything for the first time in his life. And that nurse got the Bible out and that nurse was not a Christian. She thought she was a Christian. She was a nominal Christian. She just had a bit of religion. She went to church, whatever. And she basically found whatever verse she could out of the Old Testament and read him a few verses. And he was listening attentively. He wanted to know, how can I die and meet with God and not go to hell for eternity because I've lived for myself all these years and gone my own way and done my own thing and sinned against God. And after listening attentively, as she read a few verses, not knowing even the gospel in any way, and she said she was finished. And when she was finished, he looked at her and he said, you can't do this to me. You can't do this to me. You haven't told me anything that can help me to die and meet with God. And as he died, he was just screaming in fear of what he was about to meet. My grandfather, a while later, told us that story. And he begged us to remember to tell people, well, you have the chance. He said, one day you might die. One day you might not be able to tell people about Jesus Christ. Well, you've got the chance. Well, the physical ability is there. And while you're alive, tell people about Jesus. I was at Fonstaden's Bridge in South Africa. The Bridge of Death, as some people call it. It's one of those places that a lot of people commit suicide since it was created 40 or 50 years back, whenever it was. So many people everywhere, you had jumped from that, I don't know if it's 600, how many foot bridge there to the rocks at the bottom. And it's horrible. One of my friends there at one of the convention centers that I know of, he looks after, he was too poor to have a car. And he was an unhealthy person. He had heart problems. And I drove with his son one place, and I don't know what is going through his son's life, but I remember driving with him. And a little while later, this son sent his father a text message on his phone. And he said to his father, father, second time lucky, I'm jumping from stardoms. Goodbye. And the father basically not having a car, being very unhealthy, it would have been five minutes to get to this bridge if you really sped with a car. But he had to run about 25 minutes. And so he started to run, but he was really unhealthy. And he was huffing and puffing down the road before he got to the main, like an interstate, almost like in America where you've got highways. And he was, he got there and he started running. He's still running as best he could. And one of my other friends stopped next to him, saw who it was, because he also knew him, and said, what's wrong? And he just jumped into the car, opened the door and jumped in and said, Johan, ride, ride fast. My son's jumping the bridge. And Johan sped off. And as fast as they could, they got to that bridge. And when they got there, they found the son was not there, but there was an old lady. And this old lady had a white face. She had been shocked. She said, someone has just jumped this bridge. And they looked over and there down at the bottom, they saw the mangled mess of the bloodstains remains of his son. And Johan said, I've never ever seen someone so howl as I saw that father howl for his son that he knew would be in hell for eternity. Right today, that person who jumped that bridge and many others would long to be in this meeting, to have the privilege that every single one of you had, to have a chance to make right with God. I've spoken to many people, even people in the mission field. And some of them said, the only reason that I do not commit suicide is because I fear going to hell. In the Bible, you have many examples of people who committed suicide. I'm not gonna today go through many of them, but just one example would be Saul and his armor bearer. Because you read in 1 Chronicles 10 verse four, Saul took a sword and fell upon it. And then afterwards, you read that his armor bearer took his sword, when he saw that Saul was dead, took his sword and fell upon it. Both of them committed suicide. There's a Psalm, and we're gonna look at it a bit later tomorrow in a different aspect, but Psalm 55 verse six, and I said, oh, that I had wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and be at rest. People, many people, life becomes so overwhelming to them that they wish they could fly away. They wish they had wings to get away. And some people, unfortunately, take death into their own hands, and they commit suicide. And it's the worst thing they could ever do, because it's not an escape, not in the slightest. There's a lot of guys out there who are faking it too. They smile to everybody else, and yet inside, they're really, really hurting. Some of them are suicidal. I remember they're preaching in South Africa at a special home, and you find this in many places, but at the special home, I preached, and I remember one person, particularly a girl, was very macho. She was very confident. She was very rude, actually, and her perkiness, and chatting back at whatever you said. And after a few days of preaching there, she came to me, and she was weeping. She just dripped down tears, and she said, Roy, I wanna tell you something. I act confident to everybody around me, but I am considering committing suicide. Many times. She was faking it. You know, there's not just many people out there who smile to everybody around them, or inside, they're crushed, and wish they were dead. In many cases, want to commit suicide. They're faking it. There are many people sitting in church who go to conservative churches, or liberal churches, or whatever type of churches you wanna call it, and they are faking it. Religious fakes. How many conservatives? You know, the Bible says, add unto faith virtue. And I love character training. I love the fact that we can talk of character, because virtue is basically character. Godly character. That which we know in the Bible should be part of our life. But the Bible says, add unto faith virtue. There are so many people who have a false foundation that did not get saved, but they basically say a prayer to ask Jesus into their life, and nothing happens. And after that, they try to add godly character. They taught all these godly characters. And where some people are saved, and they really applied correctly to their lives, there are many people, thousands and thousands of people who would talk as curriculums, godly characters, and they never met with Jesus. And it's all in the outside. It's a shell with a rotten heart. And they look so nice, and they're taught to smile. And one day, after they leave home, it comes out. And we see this again and again across America. They come out, and they go into the world, and they do evil things. And it was very obvious they never had faith. They'd never met with Jesus. Their heart was rotten. But on the outside, they were taught to smile. On the outside, they were taught virtue, which is great if you first have faith. But it's a horrible thing if you don't know Jesus. They were fakes. They were fakes. And in the Bible, I mentioned yesterday, a one verse there of 2 Chronicles 24 verse 22, but just before we get there, I want to mention that again. There's some other verses which are similar. First of all, about Joshua and the elders. In Joshua 24 verse 31, we read, and Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua. Isn't that wonderful? And all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord. Yeah, we have a verse which is kind of easy to understand. Sad, but very easy to understand. You have a generation that saw the works of God, that saw the miracles of God, that had the teaching of godly leaders, and they followed God. But the next generation, which didn't know these people, and forgot the works of God basically, they did not follow God. Very sad, but you can half understand it. Something that I struggled to understand is other verses in the Bible. Not that the next generation doesn't follow God, but that there are people who follow God while somebody is alive, but not while they're not alive. And we find many examples of this in judges. And it came to pass when the judge was dead, that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers. And this is not talking about the next generation. This is talking about people who while that judge was there, who followed God, they feared the judge, and so they did things that they knew God said they must do, and the judge says they must do to be godly people. But when that person died, they threw it all away, and they basically went off and did their own thing. Do you know how many people are like that? The only reason they seem like on fire Christians is because there's someone in their life, or a church in their life, or a family in their life, or a pastor in their life that they are following. And when that person, if that person was taken out of their life, that church, that family, if the combination of all that was taken out of their life, and they were just left with Jesus, they do not love Jesus enough to follow him. It's only because of some person in their life. Oh, I'm not gonna disappoint my parents. I'm not gonna disappoint my pastor. I'm not gonna be out at church where everybody else seems to be on fire for God. I am gonna do what they do. But when those people are gone, or if they were gone, I wouldn't. And that's what I read 2 Chronicles 24 yesterday. And Jewish did, listen to these words, an individual, Jewish did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. And when that man in his life was gone, they no longer followed God. He no longer followed God. How many people? If you took away their pastor, if you took away their family, if you took away the stuff that made them Christians around them, even though they got a day that they said, Jesus come into my life for the wrong reason, they wouldn't follow God anymore. That's not Christianity. You don't know God if you don't love Jesus. There was a woman that I know of, and she had a family, and that family went to a conservative church, and she was basically the rock of that family. And when she died, her family went into the world. They slept around, they had babies, they got drunk. But before she died, they all went to church, and they read the Bibles, and they were goody-goody Christians. And everybody thought, what wonderful people. But she was the only reason they were Christians. Though many of them could say, either they were accepted to Jesus. They'd never met Jesus. And that's what you find in the Bible, that's what you find in judges, that you find in the life of Joash, who did that which was right until a man died. We find it today too. So many people are Christians because of someone in their life that they respect, and not because they've met with God through Jesus Christ. If you die like that, and you don't know when you're gonna die, but if you die like that, you will go to hell for eternity, and God wants you to know that, not because he wants to trample on your feet, but he wants you to go to heaven, he wants you to turn. You know something? You cannot copy-paste Christianity. I'm not extremely good with computers. I remember once, a William with me there in South Africa, and he broke his computer, that was a sad day. I won't go into that right now. But you can't copy-paste Christianity. Like you can on a computer, you can't say, oh, daddy, mommy, Christians, great. Control C, okay, great. Control V, doof, here I am. It doesn't work like that. You have to meet with God yourself. When I was at public school, I remember in grade nine, I don't know how many of you were ever in public school. It's an interesting thing. South Africa is a horrible place, but I remember in grade nine, I had a very clever guy sitting next to me, Brandon Brady, and we did this biology exam, and we sat down, and we all had to be silent, and we had to write down the date, and our name, and the heading, and then basically answer the questions that was given to us out on printed papers. I remember sitting there, and I decided I'm gonna write this exam as best I can, but I didn't know the date, so I looked over, and I just copied the date from my friend. You know, I was carrying on like that, and I got this little poke on my shoulder, and it was Brandon Brady, and he said, Roy, listen, I don't mind if you copy my entire test, but don't copy my name. And I looked down, and I was like, oh, no. There it was. Date, Brandon Brady. It was a bit obvious. A lot of people, though, don't make mistakes like that. They rarely do try to copy other people. My grandfather used to use a story, perhaps you've heard it. It must be a famous story. It's such a nice little story of this crow, this crow that wanted to be a dove, a white dove. And so this crow, and I'm sure this wouldn't happen in real life, but this crow looked up from the fence, and it looked down at these white doves, and it thought to itself, how can I be accepted as one of them? I so want to be one of those white doves. I'm a black crow, and I want to be a white dove. And the first thing is I need to change, he thought to himself, I need to change the color of my feathers because I'm a black crow. So he went and he found some white dust, and he rolled in it, and then he went to some water, and somehow it stuck like paint, and he came there, and he went among the doves, and he waited for them to come near him, and he stood still, and they thought he was a dove. Stupid doves. But then he started to hop, and he hopped like a crow. And they realized he's a crow, he's not a dove. And so he thought to himself, what must I do now? I really want to be accepted by this group of doves. I look like them on the outside, I'm a little bit bigger, but I've got this white paint on, but I know what I'll do. I'll try and copy the way they hop or whatever. And so he sat there, and he looked, and he saw what they did, and he copied for hours. He copied how they hopped. And eventually he could hop just like a dove. And so he came down there and waited, and he was white on the outside, and he could hop like the doves, and the doves were accepting him. They thought this is another dove, just a very big, ugly fat one. And then he did the thing that you're not supposed to do. He opened his mouth. And he did not, I don't know what a crow sounds like, ah, whatever, but it did not sound like a dove. And those doves realized, listen, this is an imposter, and we've got to kick him out, which doesn't happen in real life, but that's how the story goes. Let me tell you something. There are many people out there who try to be like the people around them, and they know exactly how to do it. They dress like them, they learn to walk like them and do the things they do, and they learn to talk like them. But it doesn't make you them. You can't just look at a Christian, and true Christians who are born of God, and start to dress like them, and start to try to talk like them, and start to walk like them, and think that that'll make you a Christian. It does not. You need something the Bible says in Ezekiel 36, verse 26, it says it very clearly, a new heart also will I give you. If you don't have a new heart, if you don't have Jesus in your life as a person who's changed you, from the inside out, your nature, then you're not a Christian, and your sins are not forgiven. Many people think that Christianity is basically a ticket to heaven. I come to the point, I don't want to go to hell, and that's wonderful. But I remember many times I prayed, I didn't want to go to hell, and I did not get saved when I asked Jesus to come into my life. Because I was praying for one reason, I did not want to go to hell, and it was not because I wanted a relationship with God, it was not because I wanted to give up my life where I lived unto myself, and did my own thing, and went my own way. It wasn't because I wanted to surrender. The only reason that I prayed to ask Jesus into my life many times was because I did not want that spanking, and I did not want to go to hell for my sins. But I wasn't sorry about my sins that I grieved God and sent Jesus to the cross. I was just sorry about the spanking. And so you've got people all over, they get their ticket to heaven, and they're not on their way to heaven, because they say a little prayer. And so you have these people sitting in churches, and they have a false foundation, and they go to different types of churches. You'll get liberal churches where they allow you to sleep around, and I've known, I know so-called pastors, they're not really saved, these pastors, but they will say, and I've heard them say such things, that it's absolutely fine to get drunk, because we're under grace. It's absolutely fine as a born-again Christian to sleep around. And that's liberal Christianity at its worst. And so someone will come there, and he said a prayer, and he said, Jesus Christ, come into my life, and he's on a false foundation, he's not saved, and he looks around him, and he thinks, well, I want to fit in, yeah, so I'll be like the people around me. He dresses liberally, he acts liberally, he does liberal things, and he fits in, just like that crow, until he gets found out. But some people, you know, a lot of us realize that when we look at the liberal churches which are extremely liberal, and obviously against what the Bible says, and we say, that person's obviously not saved, because the Bible says that no fornicator will get to heaven, and the Bible says that you can't be a drunkard and go to heaven, so it's obvious they're not saved, and they don't realize, in the conservative churches, there are people who have false foundations, and they look around them. And they see how people walk, and they see how people talk, and they see how people dress, and they copy the people around them after a false foundation, and if they died, they would go to hell for eternity. And then you get other people that go to experiential churches, or they'll be in conservative churches, and they'll start to have experiences, and they look around them, and they meet people who have peace to go to China, and peace to go to this country, and peace to do this, and peace to do that, and it seems so spiritual. I know people very well who have peace like you cannot believe it for every business decision they make, and yet they encourage other people to sleep around. Behind my back, experientialism. You can be in a conservative with experientialism, you can have a false foundation, you're not saved, look around you and start acting like everybody around you, and you're not saved, unless you have the fruit the Bible says you must have in your life. There was a boy last year in his 20s, and I sat down with him. I remember about four or five years back, he seemed to be on fire for God. He was at a church where it was the kind of in thing to be on fire for God, and so as everybody was singing hymn, and everybody was trying to read the Bible, and everybody was doing projects for the Lord, a whole lot of them who were not saved tried to be like everybody else because it was the in thing to do, and so they dressed the same way, and they sang the same way, and they did the same things, and I remember looking at this young person, he seemed to be on fire for God. He seemed to have peace in his eyes. He seemed to talk about Jesus all the time, and four years later I found him, and I said to him, brother, how are you doing? And he said, Roy, I haven't read my Bible for four years. I said, but remember back then, you seemed to be on fire, just if I was looking at you. You seemed to have peace in your eyes. You seemed to talk about Jesus a lot. He said, Roy, I was faking it. It's just what everybody around me was doing, and as everybody around me was doing it, I decided I would carry it along and do what everybody else did, but I never met with God. He said, Roy, there's two problems, and two problems that I have with Christianity. He said, number one, I many times came to God, and I did my part. I sought God, and I said, God, I want to be saved, and nothing happened, and I just feel God hasn't done his part, if he exists, and the second thing that really puzzles me, Roy, about Christianity is there's so many things in Christianity that you have to literally have blind faith to believe. I mean, if you look at hell, you have to go to hell and back to know it exists, unless you're just gonna have blind faith believing the Bible. He said, to really know that Jesus died and rose again, you'd have to go 2,000 years back to really prove it, else I'm just believing what somebody said, and I said to him, brother, number one, I know there's fakes out there. There's an awful lot of fakes, but God's no fake. I know he lives because I met him. I've had times when I prayed and nothing happened, but I can tell you there's a place, I can show you the place in South Africa, they're in Cape Town, Constantia, in my room where I met with God through Jesus Christ, and I met him, and he changed me. I've never been the same since. But secondly, if you really wanna get analytical, which can be dangerous, you can, without going to hell, prove that hell exists. You can, without going 2,000 years back, prove that Jesus died and rose again, if you wanna come from that angle, because first of all, you can just ask four questions in order. You can say, does God exist? This is what I told him. And if you can prove that God exists, then you can ask a second question. Did God reveal himself? And if you can prove that God would reveal himself, that he exists and would reveal himself, then you can ask a third question. If he revealed himself, did he reveal himself to all religions equally or just one? And if you can answer that question and prove that he not only exists and revealed himself, but that he revealed himself to one religion, then you might be able to bring it down to Christianity. And if it's Christianity in the Bible, then you can believe what's in it. And you can believe that people go to hell and that Jesus died and rose again. Jan Harman, South Africa. You know, the Bible's a self-proving book. There's so many prophecies which could not mathematically have been fulfilled without hundreds of years later if it wasn't for the fact that this is a God-given book. It's a self-proving book. My one friend, he was in atheism, he was in the New Age movement, you name it, and he got a little tape and had one of the Psalms and he started realizing, wait a minute, this is thousands of years before Jesus Christ and it's describing exactly what happened on the cross. Thousands of years before. And that atheist in the New Age and whatever he was involved in that stage, he realized that this book must be true and later he got saved and became a missionary. I told this to him. And I remember years back, and I'm coming towards the end of this sermon, the years back when I was at Bible College, about 15 years back, we used to go to a fisherman's village and we used to do street preaching and we used to go from door to door to these very poor, drunk people of a nation that didn't believe in forefather spirits like many of the other African nations, but that at the same time were religious and believed in having a day where you should accept Jesus into your life, but they were drunkards. They would all have this day where I said, Jesus, please come into my life and they dressed nicely and they got a church, but they were not saved. And I remember coming to this one little house and for a few weekends, I would come there and get a whole lot of them together and I'd say, can I preach to you? And knowing that they were not saved, knowing that they were on a false foundation, knowing that they had a day where they accepted Jesus into their life, it was obvious from the scripture they didn't know Jesus. And I would say to them, oh, hi, you must have fruit and I gave them the gospel as clear as I could and I showed them about false foundations and I preached to them and they would just look at me. Don't you like when people just look at you? And it's as if you've said nothing to them. And I felt exasperated. I prayed, I said, God, what must I do? I've told them everything I know from the scripture to show them the peril of what their situation is and why they're not saved and they just look at me. And then one day I saw this pot plant and I looked at it in the house while I was speaking and I said, wait a minute, this pot plant is not a pot plant, it's a plastic pot plant. And I was shocked because it was so like a real thing. And I said, you know, so many people, I pointed to them, I said, so many people are like that pot plant. They look so real, like the real thing, you'd almost be fooled by them. Just like so many people have a false foundation, they're not saved, but then they dress like the Christians that they know and they talk like the Christians that they know and they try to walk like the Christians that they know. I said, but that pot plant is a big problem because it is not alive, it's not real. You know those people sitting there in that room that I'd preached to so many times, many of them burst into tears at that moment. The first time they were not just looking at me as if I was a very strange person. They wept. I remember the one old lady saying to me, but that's my problem, I'm not real. That's me, that pot plant is me. You know what a wonderful point when you can come in your life to the point where you realize that's me. I don't know why, I've got a very simple little testimony. God and mercy to the glory of Jesus, not me, because I didn't save me, by the way, I should be on my way to hell if it was just me. But I don't know why in the different times that I've been able to stand up at conferences and churches across South Africa, and I gave my little testimony. Sometimes they give you five minutes, sometimes they give you eight minutes, sometimes they give you 10 minutes. And I would just give my testimony and go and sit down and the preacher would preach afterwards and be wonderful sermons many times. But then I find years later, missionaries would stand up to testify. And I just sit there and listen. And again and again, so many times I cannot believe it, people will stand up and say, but I listened to her testimony years back, and Roy was standing up there in the conference and I suddenly realized this thing as he was speaking, that's me that he's talking about. And they would get saved and many of them would become missionaries. There are so many missionaries out there that got saved and became missionaries after listening to my testimony of salvation. I remember one, I remember one, I talked of how as I stood up there, how I grew up in a Christian home and this girl from a conservative home, she said, but that's me, I grew up in a Christian home. I talked about everybody thought of me as a wonderful Christian, that I was not saved because I read my Bible, because I handed out tracts, because I did things for God, but I was not saved. And she said, but that's me, I hand out tracts, I do things for God. I talked about how the Bible is a dry book to me, was a dry book to me, sorry, before I got saved. I still struggle a bit with the hebegad, hebegad, hebegad, by the way. And I remember before I got saved, it was quite exciting with David killed Goliath. I mean, that was just it, gone. But even though there was exciting things, it was never that God was speaking to my soul in the sense that he was not changing the scripture, but it was food to my soul because Jesus was in me. And it was life. I never had what 2 Corinthians chapter three talks about when it shall turn to the law, the veils shall be taken off in Christ. I never had that. And she sat there, this girl, and she said, but that's me. When I read my Bible, and I do it diligently because you're supposed to have a quiet time, it's a dead book apart from the exciting parts where giants get killed. God's not speaking to my heart. I stood up and as I was saying this, I talked of my secret sin that was in my life behind my parents' back. And she said, but that's me. And she sat there. I talked of how I love God more than my father or mother. Sorry, I love God less than my father or mother. The Bible says if you love father or mother more than me, you're not worthy of me, Jesus says. That's very hard for an unsaved, false foundation Christian to understand if they've got good parents. It's more easy to understand if you don't have good parents. But if you've got really nice parents that sang you to sleep, and you've got very nice parents that were there for you through life, which not all of us have, you get to love them. And for some people, it's very hard to understand. But I've said a prayer, and yet I don't love God more than my father or mother. And that was me before I got saved. Because there was a wall between me and God, which was my sin. And I did things for God. I went to church, I gave out tracts, I did whatever. But that wall was there, and I'd never met with God. How could I love God, who I'd never met more than my parents who sang me to sleep? I couldn't. And that girl sat there, and she said, but that's me. And then I talked of how I came for the first time with nothing but my sin. I was 19 years old. The first time. I didn't come just to skip hell. To misuse Jesus Christ. To get to heaven. I came with nothing but my sin and my only hope in Jesus Christ. And I met with God through Jesus, there in that room. And that girl sitting there said, but that can be me. If you, with all that life that you had for so many years, God still sought you. God still found you. God still gave you grace to be saved at a little cross 2,000 years back. In the person of Jesus, through the finished work of God in him, we died and rose again for your sins. If God could do it for you, he can do it for me. She came. She met with God. What did she come to? She came to an old rugged cross. The finished work and a risen savior. I love that old hymn, tell me the old, old story. We don't have to tell people a new story just because a lot of people on false foundations when they misuse the gospel. When you are ready to be saved, when you are ready to surrender to God and give up your life without God and come to him based on nothing but the fact that Jesus died and rose again, based on nothing but the righteousness of Jesus, coming to nobody but Jesus and nothing of your own good works, when you're ready for that, the gospel is powerful. You don't have to change it. Near the cross, a trembling soul, love and mercy found me. There the bright and morning star shed its beams around me. Romans 1 verse 16, for I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Many people look at all the false foundations, the fakes, and they say, the gospel, can't do anything for me. It's not true. God might not even be true. I've seen drunkards that were drunk one moment and the next moment they were free. Nobody but God could do that. And it was through the gospel that people think has no power because there's false foundations out there. My dad was on drugs before he got saved. The same dad that sent me to sleep. One moment, God set him free. You tell me the gospel doesn't have power. It's only when you come for a ticket to heaven without wanting to give up your life, without God, and outside of his authority, doing your own thing. You just want a free pass to heaven and you can carry on being what you want to be. And then afterwards, you try to be like the people around you so you fit in to your social group if it's a conservative church, or if it's a liberal church, or if it's an experiential church or a combination of above. That gospel's not powerful. That's a misuse of the truth. But I am not ashamed of the gospel I preach because at that old rugged cross, any single person sitting here tonight who does not know God through Jesus Christ, you can meet with him. That's why we cry, be reconciled unto God. He's made a way. And he cries for us to come. Let us pray. Father, I think of a few days back there in Pennsylvania at the one church where there were young people weeping. I don't know if they met with God, but they were weeping because of the fact that they were fake. That behind their parents' backs and behind others, they were doing things that they ought not to do. And they wanted to make right with God, they said. Father, I don't think I'm gonna make an appeal tonight, but I do ask this, that you would work in the people who you've spoken to that they would, at this opportunity, at this weekend, that you would help them to realize that that verse is true, that they are like fish, that any moment they might be pushed into eternity forever. And they will never, ever have another chance to make right with God. Father, help them to realize that it's because you love them that you tell them this. And you long for them to be right with God. You don't want them to be in hell, crying out for one drop of water. You want them to accept eternal life through Jesus Christ. You want them to have the living streams of living water, which they can have in this life because Jesus died and rose again for them. And Father, I pray that that person sitting here that does not know God through Jesus Christ, though they might have a day where they said, Jesus, come into my life, and after that, they faked it by adding what's around them, whatever they knew of Christianity, to fake their parents or anybody else, or even themselves. God, that you would work in their lives and show them themselves and bring them to the point where they come to the cross with nothing but their sin. And nothing is an answer but the Savior, Jesus Christ. And that you would save them like you saved me through Jesus Christ alone. Don't let them forget this message. Don't let Satan come and pluck it out. But like Mary Morrison in the Hebrews revival where she went away from the revival. She went in a ship and she said, the hound of heaven was on my trail. The Holy Spirit did not leave me, though I left where the preaching was. And I could not escape from God. God, I ask you to work in those people's lives. I beg you. I beg thee, God. Don't let them go until they find thee. And I pray this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.
True Salvation
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Roy Daniel (N/A–) is a South African preacher, evangelist, and missionary known for continuing the legacy of his father, Keith Daniel, a prominent figure in Christian ministry. Born and raised in South Africa, Roy was deeply influenced by his godly parents, particularly his father’s fervent preaching and his mother Jennifer’s ministry to women through writing and speaking. After a personal encounter with Christ, Roy entered full-time ministry, preaching thousands of times across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America in settings such as schools, churches, orphanages, prisons, and slums, often facing challenges like dangerous wildlife and hostile encounters. Roy’s ministry emphasizes repentance, holiness, and a surrendered life to God, delivered with heartfelt conviction and compassion. He co-founded AudioSermon.net, hosts podcasts like The Precious Seed for children and Bible Jesus for all ages, and has authored books and tracts. Based in South Africa with his wife and four children, Roy’s work reflects a commitment to sharing the gospel globally, drawing from his father’s example of Spirit-filled preaching while forging his own path as a missionary and teacher.