In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of love and charity among believers. He shares a story about two boys who sacrificially helped each other in times of need, illustrating the concept of selfless love. The preacher also mentions a woman who found peace and turned away from her sinful lifestyle after encountering the love of God through the actions of others. He encourages believers to not only do good but also to communicate and support one another, as this pleases the Lord. The sermon concludes with the preacher reminiscing about his childhood and the importance of teaching biblical stories to children.

When I was in South Africa, I preached this sermon in two churches before I came here. And we have a problem in South Africa. We are 32 different nations, at least, and 30 of them are black nations, and 2 of them are white nations, the Afrikaner and the English. And there was once a civil war between the Afrikaner and the English. The English and the Afrikaners. And they still today in some areas, the Afrikaners hate the English. My dad preached in a church that I also preached in, and some of them believe that the English are the Antichrist. And so when he preached, they stood up and walked out, because he was English. And I was in a district, I preached in that church, I preached in another church, and I preached this sermon. And I remember I was going to preach it in the evening service, and a person in a white tie, an Afrikaner, came to me. And he said, brother, you are sitting with Afrikaners, bruder. He said, this is an Afrikaner church. And he says, you don't easily speak English in this church. He said, I can't understand you anyway. He said, that church over there, that's an English church. You speak Afrikaners in this church. So I said, do you mean I must preach in Afrikaners tonight? He said, I'm not telling you anything to think about. You know, I took about two hours translating from English verses into Afrikaners. About five minutes before the sermon, after I just finished writing down. And then I came to America, and I looked in my notes, and I saw it only got the Afrikaners version. So last night, for a long time, I spent, I can't remember how long, but translating back to English. It's amazing what one person with a white tie can do to your life. I'll start my sermon. From child days, I remember my father there in Port Elizabeth, gathering us around what we call the dining room or the lounge, and opening up the Bible, the children's Bible, and telling us stories of the Bible. One of the stories we all heard was the story of Adam and Eve, starting at the beginning. And there we heard of Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Edith. But that old man and wife, after a while, what happens in most families, a child came along, came. And you can just imagine, I was thinking of it the other day, this was the very first child that they'd ever seen. Now when I grow up, I see many little children, I see babies. One day if I have my own, I'll know what it looks like. But to them, this is the very first time that they ever saw a little child. And you can imagine Eve looking for the first time at those little hands, and those little feet, and those little eyes, and this helpless little child, and just loving it. Now they were made men and women, man and wife. They didn't know what a child looked like. And then I went a step further, and I thought, how could Eve have imagined that she held that little child in her arms, with her little fingers and little eyes, that this precious little vessel was going to be the first murderer of his own brother. We read in Genesis that he rose up while he was on the field, and killed his own brother, out of jealousy. In 1 John 3 verse 11 to 18, we can turn to 1 John quickly, 1 John 3 verse 11 to 18, but this is the message that we heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain. Not as Cain. He rose up, that wicked one, and slew his brother, and wept for slewing, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. That's proof of your salvation. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and he knoweth that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God. I love this verse. Above most verses in the Bible. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But, doest all half of this world's good, and seeeth his brother need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And what is God saying in this section? This is the message that we've heard from the beginning. He's saying, just as Cain sowed his hate by his deeds of killing his brother, so we ought to sow our love, not in word, neither in tongue, but in deed, by sacrificial love towards one another. The devil knows how precious is unity. The Christians often forget. How did Gideon, with just 300 men and a few clay pots, defeat 100,000 Midianites? They fought among each other. How did Jonathan, with just one servant, achieve victory over a whole camp of the Philistines? They fought among each other. I know a prayer group, of a prayer group in Africa. They were on fire for God. They were coming together and seeking God. A few prayer groups. They were a strong, big prayer group. And then a sad thing happened. That prayer group started to spend a little less time in prayer and a little more time speaking. Just innocent speaking before. It got a bit longer, and after a while they started to fight in the speaking. And it wasn't long before there was just a few people left in that prayer group. The rest had left. It was once a strong prayer group. Father Devil knows how to defeat a strong enemy. My grandfather, Yanni Leroux, was born again in a revival. God's Holy Spirit came down in the Khamtus Valley. And he and another person in his family, Uncle Jack, my great-great-grandmother, a load of family was saved. They were ploughing the tobacco fields into the ground. Many, many people came to God. I've seen my granny in tears as she talked to those days. That was revival, she said. And it wasn't only among the white farmers and so on. It was among the workers, the clearing folk. You know, they are the hardest people to bring to God. They respond to a message like that. But to go through, no. And, yeah, they were truly turning to God. They were breaking with their sin. God was coming, and the clearing folk, my grandfather says, Oh, for those days again. Has God moved? Do you know how the devil stopped that from going on and on? The answer is on a little hill in Anki. Eleven churches among the clearing folk. On a little hill. About the size of this hill. James 3 verse 17 says, But the wisdom that is formed by this first pure, then peaceable. You can't have unity for the sake of unity. Purity comes first. But I loved Charles Spurgeon when he said, How precious is unity. He said, There's two goats. And they came, and when goats come on a log over a river, this is precious. They can't walk backwards. And so nature has taught them that one must kneel down and allow the other one to climb over him to the other side. So unity is that precious, that many times when I find in my own life you have to kneel down and bend to the will of another person for the sake of unity. True unity. But maybe you say, We are unified. One time every week we meet together in the same building. Imagine William Kelly, a few years back, came to George Bush. He said, I've got a revelation. We unify. George Bush would look at him and say, Why is that? He said, Well every so often we come together in the same building, the Senate. Together. I don't know what George Bush would have said, but it would probably be written in a quote book. We must not only be together. We must lay down our lives for the brethren. Lay down our lives for the brethren. Can I repeat that again? Lay down your lives for the brethren. It's not laying down your lives for the brethren and just coming to a building every Sunday and praising together and reading the Bible together. That's not laying down your life. As Christ laid down His life. People, and this must be practical, not just in words. But little children, not in word, not in tongue, but in deed, and in truth. People must be able to see it. We read there in John 13, verses 33 to 35, Little children, in a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me, and as I said unto thee, the Jews, will I go? Ye cannot come. So now I say to you a new commandment. So now I say to you a new commandment I give unto you, that as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this, by this, shall all men know that ye are My disciples. If ye have love one to another, with I go, ye cannot come. Now what's Christ saying here? People love to quote verses 34 and 35, a new commandment I give unto you, but they leave out verse 33, Little children, in a little while I am with you. And that ties in with it. You see Christ is saying, in a little while I am going away. And no longer can people see that you are My followers, by you physically following Me. There's only one way that they will be able to know that you are My disciples, followers, and that is if you have the same love, one for another as Christ had on the cross. As I have on the cross for you. He does not say by this, if you go to church on Sunday, if you sing together, if you read your Bible, if you give up tracts, no, people must see Christ's love, one for another. That is the only way. The second century Christians, so laid down their lives in deed, one for another, that Turculus, who was a Christian apologist I think, wrote that the heathen were saying these words, Look how they love one another. That's in history written down. The heathen were saying it, they were saying, not in their words, not in their tongue, but in deed and in truth, as they sacrificially laid down their lives, as Christ laid down His life. Look, you can see it, how they love one another. That verse in the Bible, that not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. That's a command. I was walking down the street one day, and I was thinking, I was praying to God for my own things. Suddenly I thought, you know, this prayer has been very self-centered. And God commanded, Look not on your own things, it's something you have to discipline yourself to do, but look on the things of others. And I started crying out to God for the needs of the Christians in my life. I went into a lift once. Now, that's in South Africa, in Afrikaans it's a huisbak, in South Africa it's a lift, in America it's an elevator. I found out this morning from Joshua Young, I think. It's an elevator. And I went into this contraption in Africa to see a lawyer, who was my dad's friend, Mark van den Berg, up, started a story. And you know, throughout your life, if there's one person you can witness to, and there's a lot of people, you generally just keep quiet. And it was getting irritating. I don't know if it irritates you, but every time you go in a lift, you close the door, and there's about ten people around you, an elevator, sorry, and there's just silence. And you, the door opens, and everybody moves out. And then, three days time you're in a lift again, if you're in the city, and you've got an elevator, and you go in, there's silence, and then you go out. So I decided this was getting boring, so as I was going up this lift, I decided I'd just turn around at the beginning, and I said, Hello! I'm Roy Daniel. Pleased to meet you. And then suddenly, everybody was just communicating. They were, they were shaking my hand, and so on, and saying, I'm Joshua this, and I'm Gungun that, or whatever. Can't pronounce it. And I said, isn't it sad that people just don't communicate? So we were brought up that way. There's a verse in the Bible that says, but to do good and to communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifice, the Lord is well pleased. You know, I travel around a district of South Africa, which is called the Northern Transvaal, in Tumalanga Limpopo district, and I meet missionaries, and ministers, one minister with his wife in a hospital so much, and they all tell me the same story. Yes, they're on fire for God, yes, but they go through all their struggles alone. In large organizations, they often don't get a telephone call, or support. But to do good, do good and communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifice, the Lord is well pleased. Our principal at college, he went through extreme fires that few people have been through as a Christian. Extreme fires. And he told us there, I think in, I remember in tears, that once he was sitting in the bath, he was sitting in the bath, in this time of hardship, as the devil was taking him through fires, God was allowing the fires in his life. And he said the telephone rang, I suppose it was a mobile phone, and he picked it up in the bath, and some old person from somewhere said something like this, Mr. Meinberg, I just want to tell you I'm praying for you, and I want to support you. He put that phone down, and he burst into tears as someone thought about him. But to do good, and to communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifice, the Lord is well pleased. The very reason we ever get comfort in tribulation is that we might give it to others, not to keep it for ourselves. Or in 2 Corinthians 1 verse 4, For comforted us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, but the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted. I'd like to repeat that verse again that I said at the beginning. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. There was in my college, two boys, they called them David and Jonathan. They so loved God, they so loved each other. And it was wonderful to see the love they had for each other and for everybody there. It was a peculiar love, a very peculiar love. And I remember one day, the one boy needed a bus ticket to go to his house. One was very poor, at the Bible college, and he needed a bus ticket. And the other boy had a guitar, and he'd saved up for a long time to get to his prize possession, a guitar. And when he saw his brother in need, he went and he took that guitar and he sold it for one third of the price he ever paid, and he gave that money as a bus ticket. And he never, ever told that person where he got the money. And he said, that's going a bit too far. Perhaps it is. But I met a woman who was once crushed by the world, and she was smoking, I suppose drinking, in a state. And I met her later, and she was saved. She had peace in her eyes. She'd thrown away all the sin that she had. She brought other people to the Lord. And she said that she'd seen these two boys, and they'd said a few words to her, about a sentence or so. And she'd gone and sought God. And she'd met with God. Do you know what she said to me? She said, there's two things I saw. Remember. What they said to me, one, that the other one was the love they had one for another. The love they had one for another. A peculiar love, those two boys. Laying down their lives one for another. The Aaronshaw men know that you have to love one for another. Mr. Finneymore, I told you about him yesterday. He had a revival when he was young. He brought many, many people to God. But oh, how he loves the brethren. When we went to his house, he was 90 years old. He got out of the nice room at 90 years old, went into a small little room, put us up there, while we were having a series of meetings at his place, in the nice big double bed kitchen at 90 years old. And he treated us like a king, and served us. And you know, we went away from that place, and I had a little guitar box. For my guitar tuner. And I remember I came back to his house later after the series, and I saw my guitar box was there, just a little cardboard box that folds it in. And I looked at this fellow, and I took it, and I took it to him, and I said, I found my guitar box. And I wondered, why didn't he tell me about it? And you know, this godly man, who has brought so many souls to God, he said, Roy, I didn't move it. I didn't move it, because it reminded me of you people, being here. Is that peculiar love? He didn't move the box, the little worthless box, because it reminded him of his brethren that were there. But isn't it peculiar love of Christ dying on the cross, that so ought we to lay down our lives for the brethren? Isn't it? This is the message which we heard from the beginning. God says that if two of you should agree, like a symphony orchestra would agree to touching anything that they should ask, it should be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. I love playing with Mr. Finneymore, because you agree like a symphony orchestra. And I remember sitting there, and Mr. Finneymore is one of those wonderful people who loves old music. He doesn't like modern church music. He's an old time revivalist. And he was complaining there, as he usually does about one thing, and that's the new music in the church, next door, isn't it? That's right next door. And I said to him, let's pray for this church, that they can play just tonight, because we're going to go there, and just tonight, from the old hymns. And we sat down and we played together, Mr. Finneymore and I. We said, Lord, something like this, please let this church next door play some old music for once in a thousand years, let's say. And then we said, in Jesus Christ's name, Amen. And he nodded like that, Amen. Ring, ring. The phone rang. We picked up the phone. I think I picked it up. And it was the minister of the church. He said, I'd just like to ask you, would you like to choose the songs tonight? How God loves it, when brethren are unified in prayer. If two of you should agree, that's in anything, it shall be given you of the Father. Not just be together in a room. My father was in a car, I still remember then, between Sedgefield in South Africa and Port Elizabeth. We were in a car. And we prayed together. And as we were praying, my dad prayed, sorry, and afterwards he said, Amen. And he turned around, and I've never seen my father so serious as he was that day. He looked at us and he said, I hope you said Amen. I hope you agreed in your heart. Because God says that if two of you should agree, that's in anything, it shall be given of you. Obviously according to the will of God, according to His Word. He said, but then you've got to really agree. And I remember many times my, when we went through the hardships as a family, my father said he used to pray, and many times God answered his prayers, but there was times that God didn't answer his prayers. And then he used to call us together as a family. And we used to pray together for our needs. And it was soon like that that God answered our prayers. Oh, God loves unified prayer. Two of you, why did He say that? To agree like a symphony orchestra. I remember we were in England, London. And as a family there, God bless us if we could stay there a little while. And we were walking down the street in the night, and it was dark. And my older brother Noel, who is a lovely person, he said to his daddy, Daddy, I want to see the Queen of England. And I remember my dad, it was quite a few years back when we were smaller, he didn't say, OK, let's go to Buckingham Palace. He said, let's pray. As a family we gathered together in that street. And I can't remember who prayed, but it was something like this, Lord, Noel wants to see the Queen of England. Please allow us to see the Queen. In Jesus Christ's name, Amen. And we opened up our eyes, and as we said Amen, a car came around the corner. A long car. It drove past, and we were the only people in the street. And the Queen of England waved at us. Obviously I don't pray that in South Africa. She's not there. But isn't it wonderful how God loves, loves unified prayer. No words. People don't get excited anymore when they read again. I say unto you that if two of you shall agree, touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven. In John it says that your answer in Jesus Christ's name, that the Father might be glorified. Now I'm not married, but I love reading 1 Peter 3 verse 1. Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your husbands. I think I'm going to put that up on my cupboard. My wife's cupboard, sorry. And then I'm going to put up on my cupboard, likewise ye husbands, verse 7 of the same chapter, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, and unto the weaker vessel. Now why do you think God said that? The end of that verse is this, that your prayers be not ended. That your prayers be not ended. Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your husbands. Husbands, on your wives, same verse, that your prayers be not ended. Oh God loves, I believe, a family that prays together. I pray daily for our mission. I pray daily that the Lord would bring them together as families to pray. I believe God could do mighty things through a family that prays. First thing George Miller and his wife did, when they got married, was not go on a holiday. They had a quiet time together and prayed. And together they got used of God as a family. They said he was the greatest man of faith, the greatest pair of faith perhaps in modern times. And of the seven churches in Revelation, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Lodatians, and two of them had nothing wrong said about them. One of them was Philadelphia and the other was Smyrna. Do you know what Philadelphia means? It comes from the word Philadelphos. I was told this when I looked it up, which means fond of brethren. Do you think that was just by chance? This is the message that we heard from the beginning. Every book in the New Testament that I've looked through, me and Rand have tried to go through all the books in the New Testament the other night, Rand Coffin, just looking for the verses on love. Every book actually cries out the importance of love among brethren in the New Testament. There's even Philemon, the love of a master for his slave, without saying it in words. But there's one book in the Bible, there's one book in the Bible which strikes me, and that's the book of Philippians on brotherly love. Philippians. Napoleon wrote another book, 2 Corinthians, and I will gladly spend and be spent for you. Speaking of the brethren, the more abundantly I love you, the less I'll be loved. The more abundantly I love you, the less I'll be loved. I will very gladly be spent. His love had no conditions for the brethren. He would lay down his life that they did not lay down his life for me. That's what Mr. Finneymore says to me. He says, Roy, I've got a philosophy in life. No man owes me anything, but I'll go the second mile for them. I will very gladly spend and be spent, because the more I love, the less abundant, the more abundantly I love, the less I'll be loved. Oh, this life of Paul, but in Philippians it truly comes out when he says, for I'm in a strait betwixt two. Philippians 1 verse 23 to 24. Oh, I love this, but strait betwixt two, I'm in a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. I'm in a strait of the conscience. It comes out as a conflict between two. My love for Christ. Oh, I want to be with Christ in heaven. You're speaking from the present. But he said there's one thing that makes it worthwhile to stay on earth. Only one thing. Not sports. Not pleasures. My love for the brethren. What I can be for them. That's the one thing that made it worthwhile. And he said there, in the last verse of that chapter, he said, it wasn't only him that was a special Christian who had this conflict within his soul of love. He said, you're having the same conflict which you saw in me and now you're here to be in me. You've got the same conflict. The conflict of love between God. Not between God. If you love God, there's only one thing comparable and that's your love for the brethren. Makes it worthwhile to stay on earth. I'd like to end off with this daily lay down our lives for the brethren. Before I end off, I'd just like to say I was in a town in Middleburg with the head of the Satanists. The Satanist headquarters in South Africa is there. Among the white people, I think. And the churches are in a mess in Middleburg. As they are in most places. But I remember one godly old woman. It's an uncle. We call her out of respect. We say, Uncle Donkeval. In South Africa. But we say, Oum. And, we were sitting around the table. And this Oum, he really loves his wife. People, I remember, they were walking to a shop and I said, are you just married? After many years of marriage. Because I couldn't believe this love they just had for one another. The husband and wife. And he was standing there at the table and he said, You know, the problem with this town is people don't pray enough. And there was someone else, a young person, sitting at the table. He said, No. It's not. That's not the problem. The problem is they are too busy fighting to pray. And even if they're not, they don't. This message which I've preached, I'd like to end off with this verse. And above all things, One pitiful verse. David Brannan loved to preach that. David Brannan loved to preach that in his early years when he preached among the white churches in America. And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. But he says, Above all things, this is the message which you heard from the beginning. That you should love one another. That you lay down your lives one for another. Sacrifice of communication. Thinking not only on your own things, but on the things of others. Let us bow our heads. I can't sing. I've got a cold. But I'm going to try. A little song I wrote in South Africa. You must forgive my voice. I'm not an American, brawling, brilliant singer. This touched my heart. There is a love much greater than a mother's for its child. It is the love that drove our Lord to be crucified. A thorn crown on his head. A sinner on each side. Our Savior cried forgive soon before he died. How will the world ever know that you follow me if they do not see the same love flowing out of you? A thorn crown on your head. A sinner on each side. Would you then cry forgive soon before you died? Now I have to ask you a question. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, just between you and God, if you want to say to God today, I want to make a commitment, Lord, and give me the grace, O Father, to lay down my life as Christ laid down his life for the church. Discipline, daily, abnormal, peculiar love of the cross of Christ. You want to lay down your life for the brethren today as a commitment which you want to make daily. You want to tell God, I take my life for thee, for thy glory, for souls, but for the brethren too. You could just raise one of your hands now without looking at that. You can drop it. And I'll pray for you. But after I've prayed, I'd like to ask you to lend feet to your prayers on just one little thing. God commands, and that takes discipline, that to do good and to communicate, forget not. For these sacrifices the Lord is well pleased. I'm going to pray for you now, but if you would this day do me one favor, and God one favor, and the brethren one favor. Get a mobile phone or telephone. Get a telephone number of someone perhaps you haven't phoned in a long time, some Christian, some missionary, some preacher in another state that you've once heard. Phone him, and tell him I'm going to pray for you. Give him some verse of encouragement. Lend feet to your prayers. Today, while it is still called day. And then, go to your knees today for half an hour for that person. And make a commitment of praying for them today. I'll pray. Father, thank you for the people that wish to lay down their lives for the brethren, Lord, and that's my desire from my heart. It's clear in my heart. Oh, how long, you know, it's a thing I pray literally daily, Lord. Undo what the devil, demons, sins, self has done or is trying to do to break down any of our relationships, Lord, among Christians. You're the Father, the blood of Jesus Christ, and the workman of the Holy Spirit, Lord. And I said, and I plead, God knowest, Lord, shed upon the love of God on my heart again, and our hearts again. As you did at the beginning, but all the more, let it become a flood, let us abound more and more in love so that the world may see, Lord. I long it, I ask thee, that they might say, look, how the Christians love one another. That's what I long for in my heart, Lord. More than any message I pitch, I long them to see the love of the brethren. Father, we lay down our lives now, and give us the grace in our hearts to make possible greatly through the cross of Christ, the resurrection which we might have in life. Of thy love flowing out of our lives, not in word, not in tongue, but in deed and in truth. We ask this all in Jesus Christ's name. Hither to thee ask nothing more than that for us that you may receive. Amen. And one other thing, I love giving ideas. Paul was one of those who said, I say this not of, I can't remember how he said it, of God, but I say it of myself. I love giving ideas sometimes. It's good to have ideas, and to lend feet to your ideas. And some people when they hear of a prayer they say, I've never heard that idea before. And they do it, and they come to love it. And what is this? If you know of people who have children, who have children who are rebellious, or perhaps not saved, and start to think, make a list, let's say five of them, let's take some discipline, and phone those five people and say, through this year I want to arrange with you that, and don't tell them of the other people, that if you want to fast for a day for your child, then I'm willing to do it with you. You know how many mothers, how many fathers have given up on their children, and they need that encouragement of the president of care, laying down their lives. So please, if you ever thought of that, it's just an idea of lending faith to your prayers. Phone somebody, someone, and say, I'm willing if you want to, not all want to, but many do, to pray for their children, in support of the brethren. Thank you very much.