Satan Found A Whisperer - Keith Daniel
We thank Thee that the whole concept of this earth is to conform men back into the image of God, that we were predestined to be conformed to the image of Thy Son, and that that is in God’s heart; and if we go through zealously, sacrificially, it matters nothing, if nothing of Jesus is seen in us. If we are not conformed to the image of Thy Son, if no one sees Christ-likeness, we are the great grief God has to deal with, and man, beginning in our home. Oh help us to realize that outside of Christ-likeness, there’s no standard to be preached, nothing to be demanded of men. Because whatever we do, we’ll do damage if we’re not like Jesus. In every circumstance to look to God to so take control that our reactions will spontaneously be the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit is Christ, nothing else.
Come, Lord, make us like Jesus. For anything we do that is not Christ-like is worthless, and even damaging on many occasions to God’s glory.
Come, visit us by the work of the Holy Spirit, to speak to all of our hearts through this Thy word – and through the basest of Thy servants, the weakest of Thy servants, and despised; for Thou hast carefully chosen the weak things of the world, the base things of the world, things that are despised, that no flesh could glory in Thy presence. And Lord, no one can glory in Thy presence in this whole auditorium. So take this weak, base, despised, unworthy man, and in weakness make Thy strength perfect.
Shelter us under the blood of Christ. Protect us from Satan, demons, their influence. Rebuke Thou, Thyself, Satan and all his demons away. Cleanse the atmosphere with the blood of Christ and surround us, Lord, with the angels of God. Let there be a hedge around us by God, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
And so we look to Thee, as Thou dost hold out the whole armor of God, above all taking the shield of faith wherewith we shall be able to quench ALL that Satan decides to do to hurt us, to interfere; all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Come, shelter us under the blood. Quench all his darts. Have mercy on me; wash me in the blood of Jesus Christ Thy Son. Make me a vessel meet for the Master’s use. Please God, make this sacred ground, holy ground.
In Jesus Christ’s name, for His sake, no one else’s, we all desire this, long for this, and ask this of Thee in utter sincerity and faith. In Jesus the Christ’s name only, Amen.
From the portals of heaven, when we all look back on the history of this battlefield between God and Satan, this battlefield called earth, it will be revealed that most of the greatest movements God raised up and used mightily to extend His kingdom, eventually were crippled and destroyed. But only, only, when Satan found a whisperer. A whisperer.
For in his war against the saints, Satan never wrought greater devastation so swiftly than when he found the means to cause war between the saints. And war against the saints only became war between the saints when Satan found a whisperer. A whisperer.
In Galatians 5:15, Paul warns us:
Take heed, “. . . if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”
Be careful, Christians, that you’re not destroyed from within the ranks of the same army. Be careful that you’re not destroyed from within the ranks of the same army!
In the American civil war, men’s hearts were torn apart across this land for one reason: men who once fought together side by side now fought against each other. Great generals and leaders who once led a united army to great victories; great leaders in this land, now, they led divided groups against each other. Friends turned against each other, held weapons against each other. Family, on many occasions across America, were on opposite sides.
The same thing happened in South Africa, my country, in the Anglo-Boer war. Men’s hearts were torn as no other war in our history, for the same reason.
I was in a town called Oudtshoorn where my ancestors originally, as they came from Europe – same time as your ancestors came across here. Many were fleeing religious persecution. But I was in this town, and I went to a museum, because I had heard that a lot of my original forefathers who came to our country, hundreds of years ago . . . Much was recorded in this museum.
Now the curator, a little lady full of great knowledge, she took me to these big display cabinets, which had photographs and other relics in it. There were photographs, and she pointed out to me my grandfather as a young man standing in the Anglo-Boer war with some of his brothers. And there they were, standing with the Boer army.
Then she said, “But hang on now, let me show you something interesting.” She took me to the next cabinet, and she said, “Look here, this is your grandfather’s brothers here, all these. With the English army.”
I said to her, “But is that possible that they were in two different armies in the same area while the war was on?”
“Oh,” she said, “That happened all over this area, much part of Southern Africa, but here to a great degree. People were divided over the Anglo-Boer war through marriage and all sorts of reasons, hearts were split apart.”
She said, “Do you know, they would come down from the battlefield in the day out in all the valleys, back to their homes to father; to one home; to the father and mother’s home. They’d sit around the same table and eat. Before the sun came up, there they go. These brothers who ate at the same table together, they go to two different armies!”
I said, “But is it possible that a brother could take a weapon and aim carefully, knowing he’s going to wound, he’s going to maim, he’s going to destroy his own brother? Is that possible? Is it possible, Cain? Is it possible, Cain?”
This lady looked at me and she said, “My boy, in the confusion of war, anything’s possible. Things beyond comprehension, that no man would consider himself capable of doing, that no part of the family . . . In war, anything becomes possible; in the terrible confusion, and hurt, and weariness of war.
She said, “In Europe, children – not a few, thousands and thousands of homes – children betrayed their parents for the Nazis, and those parents were marched off betrayed by their own children, to death, most of them! In the confusion of war, anything can happen.”
Terrifying. That’s terrifying, what that woman said.
O beloved, what confusion and sorrow and hurt . . . what confusion and sorrow and hurt comes when people who once stood together against a single enemy now look at each other as enemies! What a terrifying victory that must be for Satan.
Oh, the same thing, beloved, has happened in God’s army. Over the centuries, they suddenly sought to destroy each other. But listen carefully now. Only when Satan found a whisperer. Don’t doubt this now. Only when Satan found a whisperer.
For “a whisperer separateth chief friends,” [1] the Bible says.
Oh, the hurt and confusion of soldiers in God’s army of those suddenly wounded in the battle by their chiefest friends!
Psalm 41:9: “Yea, mine own familiar friend,” my closest friend, “in whom I trusted . . . hath lifted up his heel against me.” Has turned against me!
But oh, be careful now, a whisperer caused that, beloved, don’t doubt this. Listen carefully how he did it.
In verse seven he cries: “All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.” And because of their whispering, tragically – tragically – verse nine records ‘mine own familiar friend now hates me’.
Starts off with ‘those who hate me’ whispering. Now the result is, well, “whisperers separateth chief friends.” The Devil hasn’t got so devastating a weapon as that anywhere on earth! A whisperer is looked upon in God’s eyes, beloved, he’s looked upon as a murderer.
Now you might be shaken by that. God’s eyes are so holy that He does not see sin as we see it. He sees the repercussions, the outcome. The aftermath. He sees everything it points to, and leads to, and God goes this far that you might not at face value just grasp what God means and how serious He is. He doesn’t exaggerate. You don’t have to go and commit murder to be a murderer in God’s eyes. You are a total murderer. Not just something of an illustration God is using. A whisperer is looked upon as a murderer in God’s eyes.
“How can I say that?” you say. “All that hate me whisper”. And the Bible says in 1 John 3:15: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer:” God says. “ . . . is a murderer”. Argue with God if you don’t think you’ve committed murder. Like John says, call God a liar if you deny what He says. You’re calling God a liar.
Proverbs 10:12: “Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love – love . . .” The one thing God says men will know you are Mine. He doesn’t know you by the way you dress. They won’t know you by the sacrifices you make. By your separations. The one thing God, from the lips, God on earth said they’ll know, is if you have love one for another.
Does that not matter? Does your other standards count? And what God’s standard, above every other thing, past this – nothing else matters. Bypass this, nothing you do matters in God’s eyes. Of any sacrifice you make. Of any separation you make. This! This! By this!
Or doesn’t Jesus matter, what He says is the one thing that passes the test for anything else to even be looked upon and considered as real in God’s eyes, or worthy? “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer:” John says. “Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.”
Tell me, what do you do when you see someone else failing? You’ve got ammunition? Then you have nothing of God. Nothing, in the moment you walk in. Maybe something back there; but right now, you’re in darkness. You walk in darkness. You don’t know where you’re going, God says.
“. . . he that hateth his brother . . .” [2] According to God’s word, you’re in total darkness – not a little bit if you allow yourself to fester up hatred. Be careful now. God’s love in you, the proof you’re Mine, the evidence is the fruit of the Spirit, the evidence that the Holy Spirit’s in you, is you have not a human love but an ability to have a divine love. And the first testing point, you can say, is “love covereth all sins.”
Romans 1:29 speaks of all God’s wrath against all the damnable, damning, defiling sins of mankind, and He places them all in one terrifying sentence: it’s so terrifying 99% of the preachers of this world will never, ever dare to preach on Romans 1. They’ll probably lose most of their congregation – overnight. But listen to what God says is damnable . . . damnable, defiling, and the wrath of God rests upon and hovers over all who commit. You ought to look at these things. Men full of envy, murderers . . . murderers – and then he says this staggering word: Whisperers.
Whisperers? “Haters of God” – in the same sentence! Murderers, and God says you’re haters of God – whisperers in the same sentence!
No, he doesn’t put it and say, “This isn’t so big, in brackets, but I’ll throw it in just for interest sake”. No, this, this is evil. This is damning. He places it with the worst defiling sins mankind can be committing! The worst, in God’s eyes, of defilement, and haters of God! I mean, to put whisperers in that category, in the same sentence! It’s staggering! You see, the one is as evil as the other, because the one leads to the other!
The one leads to the other!
That’s how I see God sees it, in my limited understanding. Do you know what wore out David? Have you ever thought about it? Do you read the Psalms? (‘Know your Psalms’ – good book to get!) Have you ever thought of what wore out David more than anything else in life? You may say “Saul”. No. You take the percentage of psalms and mark where he cried in despair about Saul, and take the percentage of psalms where he cried out in despair of those who undermine him with the tongue, and you’ll find Saul was a little problem in a little moment! But the greater part of his life he despaired; he despaired of life, through whisperers. Don’t doubt this now. Do that as a study the next time you go through to see that that is what wore out David more than anything else in his life. His cry of hurt in the Psalms was overwhelmingly because of those who whispered against him, and devised evil against [him].
Listen, beloved. Listen carefully to what evil men did to destroy Jesus. Listen carefully to what evil men did to destroy Jesus.
Mark 12:13: “. . . they send unto Him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.” They sent to catch Him in His words! A whisperer swiftly gets others to begin looking critically at everything a person does or says when he hates him. Can I repeat it? A whisperer swiftly gets others to begin looking critically at everything a person does or says when he hates him. Wanting to find fault. Waiting to find fault. Longing to find fault. Hoping to find fault!!!
Tell me, is their sin not a million times more worse in God’s eyes than the one fault or failure they will eventually find – and even orchestrate?
You want to find fault? Watch me second by second, you’ll find me failing in some point. Brother, sister, Jesus was the only perfect human! I’m not! But tell me, when you finally find it, brother, is your sin not a billion times more worse than the one you find in me? Because you waited, you looked, you longed, you hoped. And that’s wicked!
You wanted ammunition, you Pharisees? So you get others critical. Looking. Waiting.
Psalm 56:5: “Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.”
Psalm 71:10: “For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,”
Psalm 31:13: “For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.” I heard the slander, and all that was behind it was they were devising how to get my life destroyed. Murderers, God says, from the beginning of the Bible to the end. They want to destroy my life, they want to take away, these slanderers. One sentence: My enemies resort to slander, with one intent: to take away my life. Murderers, God says, whisperers. Haters of others.
Psalm 31:13: “I have heard the slander of many.” Oh.
Jeremiah 18:18 . . . When Jeremiah preached things men did not want to hear – I want to repeat that – when Jeremiah preached things that men did not want to hear, what did they do? What did they do? Jeremiah 18:18: “Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; . . . Come . . . let us smite him with the tongue,” The word is ‘destroy’, not just ‘hit’. “Let’s destroy him with the tongue.” Oh, the Devil will be swift to instruct anyone who wants to be used of him. The Devil will be swift to instruct anyone who wants to be used of him!!!
Psalm 35:21: “Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.” “We’ve got him now! He’s lost, he’s failed. What victorious Christians. Ha!”
And oh, what hurt and shock and fear can flood the hearts of those they seek to devour. David’s cry to God was heartrending. He cries out in Psalm 35:19, in fear he cries out, “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: . . . that hate me without a cause.”
They have to find a cause to even justify their hatred. You say the wrong thing, you live the wrong standard, you prick their consciences, you say the wrong thing in the pulpit. They’ll write books against you. They’ll twist every little statement ever made about you. And that little twist will make them go to hell. Don’t you doubt it, you writers of books. I’ve never known a man publicly slate the sin of another man that he wanted to, that didn’t land up in worse sin himself. And he was shown less mercy than he was showing. I’ve never known a man. Just give a little time to see what happens to the men who write these books, wanting to destroy someone because they disagree with his standard or his doctrine. Just wait; brother, sister. You don’t have to do a thing, you they’re doing it to. Just wait. Leave the fighting to God. Just fear for them, that’s all. I guarantee you. I guarantee this to you.
They “that hate me without a cause,” wrongfully; O God, don’t let them rejoice over me! “Let them not say in their hearts Ah!” – Chapter 35:25 – “Let them the not say in their hearts, Ah, so we would have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up.” He’s finished now! We’ve got all we need against him. At last somebody whispered something with a little twist. Ohhh.
You know, I once heard a preacher sharing a tragic story. I won’t name him to you. You’ll all be so stunned you might start getting on your knees now. I once heard a preacher stand up in a great auditorium and share how once he was beaten. He was beaten. He was brutally attacked by wicked men. It was so brutal, it was so cruel, it was so ruthless that he had internal bleeding; they couldn’t stop it. He hung onto life for so long, but by a miracle of God, he survived that attack. By a miracle of God, this internal bleeding somehow was healed and he recovered after a long, long, long, long, time . . . he recovered from that attack.
But then he shook the whole congregation. He shook everyone to the heart that I don’t know if a person wasn’t trembling when this man, tears coming down his eyes, said these words: “I have, since that attack, suffered another attack. More brutal, more cruel. Ruthless brutality; wanting to destroy me. And I have a confession,” he said, “to make. I cannot heal, the wounds cannot heal. I’m devoured, in truth, as a human. I’m crippled in faith. Pray for me.” He said. “But this time the attack was by Christians. The tongues of Christians.” And he said, “As little stories swept around – not true, not true stories – even my closest friend became my greatest enemy. I couldn’t stand against that. There was the last thing the Devil needed to do to destroy me. You see, the power of suggestion,” he said, “men will never forget, even if you’re proved innocent, totally. Men will never recover from what the Devil knows that he can just get someone to suggest from a wicked heart to destroy someone. The power of suggestion is all the Devil needs to get. And even if the man is totally proved innocent, he will never be forgiven because someone – wicked someone – suggested.”
I won’t tell you what became of that man. Sorry. What I sense and fear is becoming of him.
James has a staggering statement to make. Probably one of the most staggering statements in the entire Bible. If you can recover from this; if you can recover from this statement and you’re guilty, I’d doubt that God could speak to you through anything in sincerity that’s going to make you move. Listen to what James says in chapter three verse two:
“If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man,” – God says, in the light you’re given, of course; you’re living it. If any man in this building, any woman, any young person is real with God; if any man has vital reality with God, “if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body – to control the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”
That’s fearful. Do you think God exaggerates? Do you think God is dramatic in words to try and impress, like Shakespeare? An unruly tongue, a tongue that isn’t in control by God the Holy Spirit, or a pure conscience, is full of deadly poison. Oh, how much damage the tongue has done to God’s people – by God’s people – on many occasions! Oh beloved, be careful. Be careful.
Proverbs 18:8: “The words of a talebearer . . .” do you know what that means? Look in the margin of any good Bible. Anyway, a whisperer. “The words of a talebearer . . .” – a whisperer – “are as wounds,” like as when men are wounded, they’re stabbed with a knife, God says. “. . . they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.”
You know what you’re doing with your words? You know; of course you know. Otherwise you wouldn’t waste your time doing it, at the cost of losing your walk with God, the tender walk with God. Do you think the Holy Spirit’s not that sensitive to part company? You may get to heaven, brother, but what grace you’re going to need! What cleansing, what compassion from God and man. Ohhh. They’re like when men are wounded, stabbed like as a knife! “. . . they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” They do as much damage to a man as a physical knife, God is saying. The words of a whisperer cause a man to be so wounded so fearfully, so cruelly, it is as if you had stuck a knife right through his being. There is so much pain; so much damage you’ve done. God says. No wonder God looks upon a man as a murderer who hates his brother. No wonder.
Beloved, you don’t have to take a knife. You don’t have to take a knife and stab a man in the back to murder him. No – you may lose your testimony doing that. Oh, many a man has been murdered more cruelly by the tongues of Christians! Many a man’s testimony murdered. Many a man’s usefulness forever – he will never be trusted again in the pulpit . . . murdered! Murdered! Murdered! By the tongues of Christians! By one sentence. You don’t have to go out there and commit adultery before you need to cry out ‘woe is me’, Isaiah, before you need to be broken in fear before God. You just need to be a man of unclean lips. [3] You just need to say one sentence. One sentence is all the Devil needs in the right circumstances, and he’s got the right Christians! They’ll be swift to tell the world. And he kind of knows who to get to congregate around a whisperer.
Beloved, I was shaken when one of the world’s greatest Bible colleges, one of the world’s most esteemed, evangelical, conservative Bible schools on earth that has put out so many of the godliest of the godliest of the godliest upon this earth . . . they’ve brought fruit that is inestimable. Beyond comprehension what God’s done through that place that is so esteemed by the evangelical churches inter-denominationally worldwide.
I don’t want to name the Bible school, but let me tell you, much to bring it to its height of the glory of God resting upon the esteem of the world, of the Christian world, much was to do with the principal. He was so godly, he had such an ability in the expounding of the scriptures that few could have poured out light to these young men who were going to handle the word of God. This man’s life, his godliness, his conduct lifted the esteem of the whole place to a level it had never reached before.
Then one day two students, two men – young men – had to be confronted about their conduct by this man. They had to be. They had to be, he had to confront them about things that were issues that could not be overlooked. Someone had to consult them. Someone had to confront them. And this man did; in love, though.
But these two young men took strong exception, and became bitter. It was shortly after that, in their bitterness, looking at him now with hatred, that at the dining room table in the faculty, they whispered one sentence – that’s all it takes – to each other. But just loud enough for others to hear.
Within a few days, he was excommunicated from his denomination which had given him all his degrees.
Within a few days, he was kicked out of that body; he was thrown, he was led to the door! He wasn’t even allowed to stand in his office and collect his items. Within a few more days, his family – his wife, his children – led him to the front door of their home and said, “Get out!” weeping. “Get away from us!” If I’m right in remembering what was told me – God forgive me if I’m not, but I think this is word perfect.
Three years later, the conscience of one of those young men was so smitten, so crumbling, so crushed, that he came back. It took him courage to say this, but he did; and he said it loud and clear to everyone who needed to hear, “It wasn’t true. It was a lie. It was not true. It was a careful, premeditated lie!” And then he disappeared from the face of the earth, having confessed what he did.
Now what do you do when you, as a congregation, as a denomination, as a movement, take the lies of two young men, in seconds embrace them, don’t doubt them, and hold it against a man who for years and years and years and years of fruit and godly conduct . . . what do you do when you took those lies and you just threw him out? Even your children – on the lies of two young men, immature, hadn’t proved themselves of any worth to anybody yet. What do you do now when you realize what a terrible, terrible, terrible evil you’ve done in listening to a whisperer? What do you do?
Well, they went down the streets in the dark, in their scores into the hours of the night. They went down the streets; the wife, the children, crying “God, help me to find my father!” “God, help me to find my husband!” “God, forgive me that I doubted him, and believed them!”
Oh how many days, days, hunting where they heard something of him. They found him, lying in the gutter drunk. Drunk. A tramp.
You see, his mind had so crumbled, so crushed, so devoured, by the sin of Christians, he lost it. I won’t go in doctrinally where I think God is regarding this man. Trust me, God has such compassion if a man’s mind crumbles, and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. And God knows that can happen.
They put him into institutions, they prayed, they had such prayers, crying out for healing. They did everything they could to try and restore him. One day, they saw him walking out of that door – and out of that faculty, by the way – and he’s never been seen again by any human on earth. No one in this world that ever knew him has heard another word of where he went; what he did. No one knows where he is now . . . right now.
It is fearful to see in the Bible that a whisperer is the only person God gives every attribute the Devil has, without exception. He’s the only one that God’s word gives every attribute of Satan. A whisperer becomes so evil in God’s eyes that he swiftly has the traits of Satan; the traits God gives Satan from beginning to end of the Bible.
Listen. The Devil is called a Serpent in the Bible – capital “S”. A Serpent’s tongue – and that’s why I would say he’s called a Serpent more than because of the garden of Eden, telling us what he used – a Serpent’s tongue, this Serpent, capital “S”, that God refers to as the Serpent; this Serpent’s tongue, a Serpent’s tongue is full of deadly poison. We all know that. So is a whisperer’s, God’s word says. So is a whisperer’s tongue full of deadly poison.
The Devil is called the Accuser of the brethren by God, capital “A”, by the way, his name. So is the whisperer. That’s his job, when he takes on the occupation and profession of being a whisperer. Deliberately, carefully, wholeheartedly, ambitiously – to want results; so is a whisperer! The Devil wears out the saints, the Bible says. So does a whisperer, as nothing else can on earth, and the Devil knows it. The Devil walks about as a roaring lion; walking, seeking, whom he may devour. No mercy, if he can find (one). So does a whisperer. So does a whisperer.
Beloved, the impact of a whisperer is beyond comprehension. For strangely, a whisperer’s words are eventually heard by far more people than the words of someone who shouts his thoughts aloud. Now how can that be possible? I want to repeat it: a whisperer’s words are eventually heard by far more people then the words of someone who has the courage and the integrity to shout out his mind aloud. His words reach distances of the hearing that cannot be reached by a man who shouts loud and clear what he’s thinking.
For his words are carried by the demons of hell, you see, with such swiftness it’s staggering! All the powers of Satan are behind them – for Satan knows it is his great weapon. There’s deadly poison in the words of a whisperer. No one else’s words. Deadly poison, God said. Satan knows this will destroy the unity of the believers wherever it gets to, who know this man, or about the man that’s being whispered. It will cripple the effectiveness of that church or movement, eventually. Because he’s got the demons of hell, now, with ammunition that can do more devastation in this war, that on a related, comparative issue, an atomic bomb could do, to devastate humanity on a spiritual level, that is.
A dear Christian once walked up to me and shook me. He asked me earnestly what I would do, what I would do if another Christian slanders about someone to me. Well, the following is what I think I have done; on most occasions, that is. I wrote them down, because I’d never really considered it, until this man asked me.
I stop the poor soul who is slandering someone to me and I say; “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! But you have been – you must have been given the wrong address, to have come to me with this, for I am not a talebearer like you. And I dare not accept any information from one; I dare not. I would never be able to repeat what you’ve just attempted to pass on to me about someone who is not here to defend himself. And also I am fearful that you’ve come to me with this, sir, because if you find yourself capable of saying these things to me that could destroy another person, you one day are going to find yourself easily capable to say the same things about me. Defiling, defaming, and damning things about me. And I’m going to be scared of you from now on, brother.” And I’d turn and walk. By that time, by the way, most have run from me. If I can remember rightly, most ran.
God specifically commands us in James 4:11, “Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?”
Who do you think you are, God is saying through this man, that you can judge others? Think of yourself now, before you answer that. Think of the mercy God showed you. Think of the patience. Think of the things He never exposed to your wife. To your father. To your church. Think of the things the mercy of God forgave, protected you. Now you want to expose what you find out about another person? Careful. God may just turn the tide and say, “Here, world, look at everything I kept and protected.” Careful! Careful!!!
Don’t play the fool with God, friend. He’s holy. That’s fearful. You show no mercy – what does He say?
What you cannot say to a person’s face in love and for the glory of God, and the well-being of the person, you dare not say at all to anyone. I want to repeat it.
What you cannot say to a person’s face in love, and for the glory of God, and the well-being of the person, you cannot say at all.
For if you do, you are a whisperer. You suddenly stooped to become a coward when you do that, and a whisperer, and according to James, you’ve defiled yourself in God’s eyes. That’s quite a stoop for one sentence!
Psalm 15:1 says, “. . . who shall dwell” – that means remain – “in thy holy hill?” Literally I would say, in my limited understanding, ‘who will be able to walk and remain in God’s presence, a close walk with God?’ Does that matter to you? Do you aspire to that? Do you want it? Have you ever wanted that? Or is Christianity just to have words about a testimony, and go to meetings, and say ‘that’s it’? Tell me, who will stay in a relationship with God that’s close? Who can remain, who can dwell in God’s presence, ‘in thy holy hill’?
Well, there’s few things he says here. Verse 3: “He that backbiteth not with his tongue,” – one of the things. One of the few things God says.
Psalm 34:13: “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.”
Proverbs 21:23: “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.” Can I repeat that – what God says? You want to keep your soul, your life, from troubles? “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.”
I Peter 3:10: “For he that will love life, and see good days . . .” Who here that names Jesus wants to love life and see good days? Or do you want to hate life rather? That’s the only thing that’s opposite to it, and offered – and see bad days – okay. “he that will love life,” God says in 1 Peter 3:10, “and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:”
When Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, “Let no man despise thy youth;” but this is staggering, “be thou an example . . . in word,” [4] Why does he start with that? Because, beloved, if you don’t pass that, nothing else is attainable. Nothing! You don’t do that, you won’t find fruit, don’t bother looking further, that glorifies God. It always starts here in James 2 verse 1, and again and again. This is the foremost proof of holiness on earth: this. Beginning in the home, Andrew Murray always said, of anything he would hold out to what is evidence.
Ecclesiastes 5:6: “Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin;” Well, James 3 tells us this causes the whole system of sin to lose control. You don’t control any sin. You want to talk about all the wicked sins that you confess to God? Do yourself a real honor. Come to God and say, “God, deal with this.” You’d be amazed, if you discipline yourself, no matter how tempting it is with this, you’ll have victory over the other sins, according to James chapter 3. Don’t doubt it. It sets on fire the course of nature. It defiles the whole body – this, if it’s not controlled, you’re deceiving yourselves; chapter 1 says. If you think anything you have of God is real, if this isn’t controlled, you have no reality. If you did, you’ve lost reality with God, the moment this is lost, God says.
It was said of Jesus, “In His lips was found no guile.” Isaiah 53. Can that be said of you? Can you answer God, please – every single one of you, even the children. You want to be like Jesus? “In His lips was found no guile.” Can that be said of you, or does your heart condemn you? And like Isaiah, you cry out here tonight, “Woe is me!” That’s what your whole being is just crying out, “God, woe is me, what have I got that’s worth anything, in the light of Thy word?” And John tells us if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, beloved, and knoweth all things. “Woe is me, I’m a man of unclean lips,” you might be crying out tonight.
Proverbs 10:18: “. . . he that uttereth a slander, is a fool.” Now God says to me and you that if you call a man a fool, God will judge you. But if God calls you a fool – forgive me if I just say what God says is a fool, I don’t think I’m going to be judged – God says in His book, “. . . he that uttereth a slander, is a fool.”
[Proverbs] 18:7: “A fool’s mouth is his destruction,” God says. His mouth.
Ecclesiastes 5:6: “Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin;” . . . it’s staggering, that verse. It’s such folly! “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin:” [5] Oh man, that just doesn’t bridle his tongue – oh my.
You know, even a fool is looked upon as wise if he just keeps his mouth shut – God says!! You don’t have to go to a varsity to be looked upon as wise. Just keep your mouth shut most of the time! And when you speak, weigh up what everybody’s saying, and if you’re a Christian, pray before you open your mouth if it’s anything that could hurt anyone else or prove you to be a fool in your lack of wisdom. Even if you walk away without saying one word, you’re looked upon by most in that conversation as the wise one. That’s God’s . . . what He holds out – suggestion – to you, who really haven’t got great wisdom. It’s really quite humiliating what God says there, but it’s the truth. I have seen men that never, ever, ever, ever, ever, dominate a conversation. And I tell you something, they’re esteemed above the great theologians who do dominate, and feel threatened if anybody else is dominating, and not them! I see it again and again. God said the truth there.
“A fool’s mouth is his destruction.”
“He that uttereth a slander, is a fool.”
Isaiah 28:26 – lovely verse, this, it shook my heart – “For his God doth instruct him” – He teaches him in the school of God – “to discretion, and doth teach him.” – discretion. His God doth teach. . .
Now, Mr. Gothard, he said one day – oh no, some plaque, some little plaque on my son’s wall I looked at a while back, Mr. Gothard said the definition of discretion for “His Lord doth instruct him,” – God longs to teach us discretion – his definition and understanding is “The ability to avoid saying words that can result in tragic consequences.” I began to look at that and you know, that man’s got wisdom! He hit the nail on the head, what God wants to teach you above everything else, when it comes to discretion is words. Be careful. God wants to teach you that and you’ll be looked upon as wise, holy, blameless, without guile.
“In whose lips were found no guile” is a staggering statement. Why was this said of Jesus in Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2:22? Because as men tried to destroy Him, if they weren’t doing that, then it wouldn’t matter what He said. But suddenly the value of these lips is seen when everybody turns against you, when things go wrong; what you really are happens. As men tried to destroy Him, He opened not His mouth, Isaiah says – Chapter 53. “. . . he opened not his mouth.”
Perhaps the greatest thing that will ever be said about you, brother, sister, is that when men seek to devour you, “. . . he opened not his mouth.” That’s Christ likeness in the University of the School of God. Have you reached it?
“He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” [6] Oh . . . the great Shepherd, this was said of the great Shepherd. And if they did it to Him, they’ll do it to us. They’ll seek to destroy us. Christ said that to us . . . “If they’ve done it to Me, they’re going to do it to you.” Brace yourselves now. Heaven’s coming, brother. In this world you’re going to have tribulation; it’s a promise. That’s total onslaught, by the way, from Satan through any means he has. The worst whipping he’ll ever get to hurt you. It’s not some bad magazine, brother, it’s a whisperer who saw you failing in the moment you stooped to just look for one second at a bad magazine.
You’re wiped out. When men would slaughter us with the tongue, we must not – we must triumph by not opening ours.
“Be Thou my Deliverer,
Be Thou my Shield!
When men’s words smite me
Let my lips be sealed.
Hide me in Thy pavilion
From the strife of tongues,
Be Thou my Hiding Place
As I seek for grace.”
“How can I keep myself from ever stooping to become a whisperer? How can I protect myself in the confusion of war against the saints? From ever being used by the Devil to cause more devastation than anything else he can do to the saints? How can I keep myself from ever stooping to become a whisperer?” you may be asking. Well, if that is sincerely your cry, please listen carefully as I close this message off now.
In Hebrews 12:14, “Follow peace with all men,” I love that. God doesn’t say that every man will make it possible for you to, He says in another place.
You’ve got to compare scripture with scripture; otherwise you’re like a Jehovah Witness. You don’t know what it means.
“Follow peace” – well, as far as is possible. There’s some men [who] won’t live at peace with you no matter even if you fall on your face and beg forgiveness. They’ll just trample on you and think they’re doing God a service, they’re so carnal. But as far as you can, with your ability, you have tried to live in peace, and put peace between you and anyone that misunderstands you, whatever it costs, and if God knows this. This is the first step to never being a whisperer. Long to live in peace with ALL men! Even the ugly!
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” Don’t doubt it. “Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness” – the one thing he says now, the one thing he names, as he’s crying out to you what to do to be safe.
“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root, or cause, of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled’” [7] Lest anything comes to you, anything causes you to become bitter, be diligent now, that you don’t become bitter. Lest anything cause – is the root – of bitterness – cause you to become bitter – “. . . springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;”
When one person becomes bitter, many are about to be defiled, if he doesn’t deal with it. Don’t doubt it! Don’t doubt it! Through him others are going to become bitter also, because a bitter person always becomes a whisperer. An unhappy human, unfulfilled, full of all sorts of hurts that have never ever healed – they just fester. That makes a whisperer. Full stop.
It’s not a nice occupation to take on for any other reason. Oh beware, brethren, a whisperer is dangerously contagious. Can I repeat it?
A whisperer is dangerously contagious.
1 Corinthians 15:33 – “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” Keeping the wrong company will eventually defile you, God says. Don’t be deceived! You want to be with people who aren’t right with God? Then choose their company, and they’re carnal, and they’re loose with their talking? You’re going to be affected. It will defile you eventually.
Proverbs 13:20 – “He that walketh with wise man shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” The margin in the Hebrew says ‘broken’. “He that walketh with wise man shall be wise, but a companion – when you choose out the company of fools, God says you’ll be broken; destroyed. “He that uttereth a slander, is a fool” – flee from them for God’s sake! You hear a slanderer? You hear a whisperer? Run!!! It is going to affect you God says! It’s going to break you! Keeping company with them! Don’t doubt it! This is what God is crying out; to protect yourself from! Paul cautions us not to go close to such a fool. He cautions us!
Galatians 6:1: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
Oh, you want to, you that are spiritual, you’ve got to deal with people with love, but be careful, if its going to destroy you, don’t go near him!!! If you see you’re not going to help him, he’s going to get you in, run! Run!
If a brother or sister becomes bitter and begins to whisper, and loses out spiritually, be careful that you are not defiled by their sin! You try to help, but be careful that you don’t fall into their sin. It’s the root of bitterness springs up and many thereby be defiled. Many are going to; you could be the second. And two of you – what a force you’re going to be, God says.
I was once reading a newspaper headline a while back that shook me. It spoke of these two boys that were swimming in some pool, that they don’t know how deep it is, they’ve never found the bottom, the divers; it just seems to go on and on there in Africa, in Southern Africa. And these two young friends were swimming, and suddenly the one got into difficulty, and the other it seems went to attempt and try and help his friend from drowning, as he saw he was going under. He couldn’t stay up! And then they wrote this.
Of course, you see, the rescuer oftentimes becomes the victim. It’s happened so many times. That person going down doesn’t care, just pulls you down with him, in his desperation. Be careful.
These two boys it seems . . . This police, (people who specialize in diving.) He said, “They had their arms wrapped around each other. All those hours later they are. This indicates that while they were drowning, the one tried in vain to keep the other afloat, and they both drowned.”
Be careful!
If a person becomes angry and bitter against the movement they are in, beware that if you try to give them a listening ear, and understanding heart – that’s godly people can do that, God wants us to try and get them right – beware that you don’t end up as bitter as they are, God is saying clearly. “Lest many of you become defiled.” Bitter. Many be defiled, through one.
Be diligent not to allow yourself to be caught up in it, and drowned with it. The two, now, because you gave them an understanding ear, you became as bitter as they are in moments! And the two of you become a force of anger and undermining that spreads like fire.
Oh how many times I watched people in the movement that I serve God – and I say it under the blood, because I will not betray the movement I serve God in . . . I wasn’t called to do that! How many times I saw young preachers – on a few occasions, I saw young preachers that I thought were going to be the next Andrew Murray . . . one particularly. The anointing of God was so upon them, they were so happy in the mission that they were serving, and were called by God to serve in, and how many times I saw them standing in the company of an old worker who suddenly, in weariness and whatever the reasons without me judging him, had become bitter against the movement he served God all his life with . . . and ended up doing more damage than all the good he ever did. The damage he did before he left the mission outweighed any good he ever accomplished for God in that mission, and the stumbling block he was to the multitudes who had been touched by his ministry is never going to cease in their lifetime. I say it weeping in my heart. Weeping in my heart.
But I saw a young man standing with that man as he became bitter and stayed bitter, and stayed in our ranks. And I saw whisperers…when people do this . . . when people go near them they stop speaking. And I just stood a distance and looked back – and when people are out of sight they start again. And I watched every single one I saw him standing with. Every single one, including the one boy I thought was going to bring South Africa back to God, he was so godly, and so anointed as he preached, they became unhappy, suddenly, in the mission they blossomed in and saw nothing but joy serving God. Just stand in the presence of a whisperer and you’re destroyed. You want to see what’s left of this man that I’m talking about, the young fellow? Black rings . . . grey . . . after a few little years getting out of the center of God’s will.
But a whisperer did that! Be careful – be careful how you stand close to these people, friend! Unless you really are spiritual and pleading the blood of Christ, and determined not to be affected because the blood’s protecting your mind from being swayed to swallow anything that could influence you to look at a man critically by what you hear. Otherwise, don’t go near the man.
Proverbs 6:16 – “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven . . .” Well, one of them is “he that soweth discord among brethren.” Ok, God hates – God is love, by the way, and God loved the world. This God is love, this love hates evil. Six things, this love, God is love…this love hates. Six things doth the Lord hate. One of them is, “he that soweth discord among brethren.” You just need to do it with one, brother. I guarantee you. But two of you will have ten, and the ten of you will have the whole church divided soon. Just needs one. He that soweth discord, God hates . . . hates . . . hates . . . hates . . . Hates!!!
God hates what you stoop to do. Because you can’t survive unless your opinion is the only one that’s acceptable. And no one’s going to be left surviving if you can’t have your opinion dominating! In my mission, and across the world it’s happened, until God mercifully has to deal with people who let the mission be destroyed.
Proverbs 29:22 – and I’ve seen this fearful thing happening again and again – “An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.” What does God say? An angry man. . . “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:” [8] But if you do let the sun go down upon your wrath, you allow it to fester; that’s all you’re doing. It won’t just be an anger tomorrow, it’ll be festering anger. There’s no telling where it’s going to end. And oh! the transgression that’s going to end in your life, because God says!
Let this tongue start hurting and failing. Well, an angry man that doesn’t deal with his anger, he starts stirring up strife, but he still doesn’t [deal with it]. Even if the Holy Spirit says “Look at the damage you’re doing!” Where is it going to end? Well, a man who’s angry who doesn’t deal with it, he becomes a furious man. And a furious man aboundeth in transgression. Your life is going to be so full of defiling sin, sir, lady, that I fear for your conscience to even be able to sleep in the night while you’re trying to condemn people or stir up strife among those that wanted God. If you allow anger to go on you will eventually find yourself reaching the level of spiritual disaster.
If you allow anger to go on, you will eventually find yourself reaching the level of spiritual disaster. You will become a furious person. Anger does not stay on one level. It becomes fury eventually. Sin grows. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Don’t doubt it. Such a man, God says, eventually abounds in transgressions. Abounds!
Must I go on with all this? Oh they’re too fearful to end off with. Let’s end off with this: I beg you . . . I beg you to listen to God’s word: “. . . every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” [9]
Work that out with God if it doesn’t go with your theology. But don’t argue if I quote it, please! God said, every idle word!
Say to God, “It doesn’t apply to me, God, in my understanding of Christianity. I’m not going to give account of anything.” Well then you can bury everything, brother, and have no standard! If you’re going to throw one thing out you may as well cut everything that condemns your heart and mind, and just live like you want to.
Every idle word that men shall utter, they shall give account of on the day of judgment, God says.
In the light of all this sermon, can you imagine why He wouldn’t make you accountable? Why did you, young man, do that? And three years later, only one of you came back and confessed?
“. . . every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” God promises.
Proverbs 26:20: “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out:” Is that you? Wood??? “so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.” Where there is no whisperer, strife will cease. You want a church that will be known by what Christ says? You should and will be known if you have any reality at all, or any fruit in the preaching you’re preaching. Well then God has to deal with the talebearer, for where there is no talebearer the strife ceaseth. Full stop! Don’t look to any other reason the strife couldn’t convince you. That’s the one thing, the only thing, that Satan needs. If God could just deal with you, brother, tonight. You don’t get angry at me. You sister, you young man. The strife ceases.
“As coals are to burning coals,” that’s verse 21, the next verse, “and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.”
“The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly” [10] They devour the human they hate, the soul they hate. I felt led of God to prepare this message while I was here in America in a convention, in a movement that was being devoured and destroyed. And a man turned to me – and I was so blessed later on, as I went on – he said, “That one sermon turned this whole movement that had lost hope and courage, in one message. It turned us totally around to face the battlefield again with faith and courage and joy. The whole movement turned.”
But then, that doesn’t necessarily mean the second time I preach this sermon in America, which is tonight, will have the same effect. It just depends on the whisperers. It would have been lovely to stand here and preach on love. But then, brother, maybe you should just pray about this – maybe this is what it means to preach on love.
Dear good brother, I’m going to beg you not to make an appeal because I know your heart; you want an appeal. You want people to seek God.
I’ll tell you what the appeal is, in case you missed it. The whole sermon! From the first word to the last, this was an appeal. And you want to know who comes out in truth? The next word you speak will show you who came out in this meeting, in heart. All who said, “Even if God says so, I’m still angry, I’m still going to cause strife.”
Well, the Devil and God know now, don’t they, who came out tonight!
Keith Daniel preached this message at Maranatha Baptist Church in 2004.
You are welcome to copy this material, with the understanding that it is Keith Daniel’s wish that it not be revised, altered or abridged from this form. Please include this paragraph in any form of reproduction. Thank you!
For more information about Brother Keith and his ministry, please visit
www.keithdanielaeb.com
[1] Proverbs 16:28
[2] 1 John 2:11
[3] Isaiah 6:5
[4] 1 Timothy 4:12
[5] Proverbs 10:19
[6] Isaiah 53:7
[7] Hebrews 12:15
[8] Ephesians 4:26
[9] Matthew 12:36, 37
[10] Proverbs 18:8
