PREACHING TO THE MISSIONARIES

Dr.  W.  A.  Criswell

2 Timothy 1:8-18

9-20-64  7:30 p.m.

On the radio, on WRR, you are sharing the services of the First Baptist Church in Dallas.  This is the pastor bringing the evening message entitled Preaching to the Missionaries.  In your Bible, turn to 2 Timothy, chapter 1, beginning at verse 8, and we shall read to the end of the chapter [2 Timothy 1:8-18].  Second Timothy, toward the back of your Bible, 2 Timothy, chapter 1, beginning at verse 8.  And we are going to read about Phygellus, and Hermogenes, and Onesiphorus. 

When we come to those simple names, why, you say them out loud.  Phygellus, and don’t you mumble around.  Phygellus, Hermogenes, and Onesiphorus, just like we knew them since childhood.  Now let’s read it out loud together, 2 Timothy 1:8, all of us together:

Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that Day. 

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 

That good thing which was committed unto thee by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. 

The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:

But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. 

The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that Day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.

(2 Timothy 1:8-18)

            Isn’t that a marvelous tribute to Onesiphorus?  When he came to Rome he said, “Where is Paul, the preacher?”

And they said to Onesiphorus, “Hush, hush. Hush, hush.  Don’t you know?  If you are Paul’s friend it costs your life.  If they know you are a Christian it means certain death.  Hush, hush.”  This is the day of Nero.  This is the day after he had burned the Christians and laid to their account the destruction, the fire that destroyed the city of Rome.  And to be a Christian was to die. 

            So when Onesiphorus came to Rome from Ephesus,  he said, “Where is Paul, the preacher?”

“Hush, hush.  Hush, hush.”

Onesiphorus said out loud, “I said, where is Paul, the preacher?”  Not ashamed and not afraid, he searched until he found Paul in the Mamertine dungeon.  And he lost his life.  Onesiphorus died.  He was slain because of his fearless, courageous identification with Jesus and Paul, the preacher of the grace of our Lord [2 Timothy 1:8].

Thrills you to say that:

Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner . . .

for I am not ashamed . . .

This thou knowest, they have all turned away from me in Asia . . .  But Onesiphorus; Onesiphorus he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chains,

But sought me in [Rome] and found me. 

The Lord grant mercy; the Lord grant him a fine mercy in that day.

[from 2 Timothy 1:8, 12, 15-18]

Onesiphorus: we are going to see him someday and talk to him.  These brave followers of the Lamb; does your heart good to see them and to talk to them.  And who am I to preach to them?

But as I said this morning, so many have asked, “What do you say when you stand up before those godly missionaries and you preach?  What do you say?”  Well, I just thought we would take some of those services and I would tell you a part, a summation, an epitome, of what I say when I preach to the missionary.

Now we are going to start at Limoncocha, which is the great jungle base in the heart of Ecuador.  I made a mistake when I went down to the jungle.  I thought being hot and steamy, why, I ought to take the lightest summer shoes I could find.  So I took my black nylon mesh shoes.  I never made such a mistake in my life.  When I saw those missionaries down there, they were tramping around with heavy boots and high-top shoes.

Well, I thought this is a funny come-to-pass.  Didn’t take me long to learn why.  That country is infested with snakes, and you carry a flashlight at night, and you wear boots as you slum through the mud and the jungle.

Well, everybody down there wouldn’t go out without a flashlight.  I thought, that is about the silliest thing I ever saw in my life and one of the sissiest.  I don’t see anybody here in Dallas going around with a flashlight.  And under the bright moon you could see the trail, you could see the open clearings in the jungle, you could see where you were going.  All of them carrying flashlights; I thought that was the silliest thing. 

It reminded me of that guy that parachuted off of one of those high buildings in the city.  And as he was coming down a guy jumped out the window and as he passed him going down, the fellow who jumped out of the window said, “Sissy, you have to have an umbrella.” 

It didn’t take me long to find out.  That big guy, Don Johnson, and that big guy, Clarence Church, with whom I stayed at Limoncocha, they never got out at night without a flashlight.

So I said, “What’s a matter with you?  Can’t even get outside this house without a flashlight?”

“Well,” they said, “we do that on account of snakes, on account of snakes.”  They just pour across those trails, and roads, and streets, and yards going from one part of the jungle to the other.  Well, when we had our service at Limoncocha, there were three missionary girls walking in front of us and I and a missionary man right behind them.  And as we just left the thatch place open on all four sides, where I just got through preaching, why, the three girls stopped and said, “Look, look, look!”

Well, I looked around there to see what it was to look at.  I saw the prettiest snake I ever saw in my life.  Did you ever see a beautiful snake?  Ever see a pretty snake?  Well, you should have seen that one.  That was the prettiest snake I ever saw in my life.  It was a coral snake, one of the most poisonous in the world.

Now the coral snakes we have in this country look like elongated pencils.  That thing was that long and that big a round and beautifully colored with those rings all the way back, just gloriously colored.

Well, the light of the flashlight blinded him, and there he was in that road just strung out there where we could get a good look at him.  Well, one of those men came by and with his heavy foot he mashed his head down into the soft mud and the rest of us picked him up and looked at him very carefully.  You never saw anything prettier than that; a coral snake, an enormous one. 

There is a snakeologist there.  So we cut his head in two, split his head open, and we took him to the snakeologist, and that guy had barrels of snakes, just barrels of them, all of them in formaldehyde, going to take them back to America. 

“Well, in Limoncocha what did you preach about?”  Now I do my best to encourage them, as God would help me and make me able, and to speak words of love and appreciation, and especially did I try to do it at Limoncocha.  They are so far, far away.  The nearest road is one hundred forty miles away at Shell Mera.  And Shell Mera was the advanced camp of the Shell Oil Company in their exploration of oil in the interior of Ecuador.  Out there so far away, nothing is there, nothing but has been brought in by those little planes.

And I tried to encourage them, and this is what I said.  I said, “All the years since I have known you Wycliffe missionaries, I have prayed for you, and I have had an admiration in my soul as deep, and as genuine, and as sincere as life itself.  And I want to tell you how I first came to know you and to love, and respect, and admire, and to thank God for you.”

Then I told them that in the war years of 1943 and 1944, where they have their Summer Institute of Linguistics at Norman University of Oklahoma, the Navy of the United States preempted the university.  So they moved the Summer Institute of Linguistics to Muskogee, to Muskogee where I was pastor of the First Baptist Church.  And for those two summers of 1943 and 1944 we had in our church there, all summer long, more than three hundred of those marvelous and dedicated missionaries.  They were there learning the technique of listening to an unwritten language, making an alphabet for it, making a vocabulary for it, and translating the Word of God into that unwritten language.

So they were studying there for that purpose, to go to those tribes who have never been able to read, who have never heard of writing, and who have never heard or seen the Word of God. 

Well, upon a day we invited two of those girls to our home.  Now this is what I am saying to the missionaries at Limoncocha to encourage them at their work.  We invited two of those girls to our home to eat dinner.  And after the breaking of bread we were sitting down talking to them.  And we asked them where they were going, and they had dedicated their lives to go to a little tribe in the jungles of southern Old Mexico.  And I asked them, “How many are in the tribe?”  And the number they said is so pitifully small I am afraid to repeat it, for it would sound almost ridiculous.  I can’t quite remember the exact figure, but it was small, tiny, little. 

And I said to them, “How long will it take you to learn the language and make it a translation of the Bible?”

And they said, “At least ten years.”

“And then what?” I said.

“After we translate the Bible and teach them to read it, we pray that God will help us to win the tribe to the Lord Jesus.”

“Well,” I said, “that means almost the rest of your life.”

And they said, “Yes.”

And in amazement I asked, “Do you mean to tell me that you are going to dedicate the rest of your life, you two girls, the rest of your life, you are going to dedicate it to that tiny little tribe of Indians?  Well, I could understand it if you were going to dedicate your life to translating the Word of God in German, for there are millions of Germans; into French, there are millions of French people; into English, the whole world speaks English.  But to dedicate your life to a little handful of Indians, who after a few years will perish from the earth and the language will be absolutely forgot; I can’t conceive of it.  I can’t imagine it.  Why are you doing it?”

And they replied this way.  They said, “Do you remember reading in the seventh chapter of the Book of the Revelation that great throng gathered before the throne of glory? [Revelation 7:9].  Their robes white, washed in the blood of the Lamb [Revelation 7:13-14], and they were gathered there from every language, and every nation, and every tribe under the sun” [Revelation 7:9]. And those girls said, “By the grace of God and with the help of the Lord, in that great assize in glory there will be somebody there from that language and that tribe.”

And in encouraging those missionaries, I said to them, “I’ve never had any dedication that I’ve ever heard that ever meant so much to me,” as listening to those two girls, Wycliffe translators, that there might be in that glorious symphony in heaven a part that to us would be so small and so inconspicuous and maybe by us unheard.  But the Master Musician, who guides the great symphony of the ages, there is a song for them to sing.  And there is a part for them to play.  And in God’s grace they will be there from every language, and every tribe, and every nation under the sun” [Revelation 7:9].

“And that’s what you are doing,” I said, “in tribes that I have never seen, in languages I have never heard, among peoples whose names I can hardly pronounce.  And God bless you, and keep you, and sustain you in this most heavenly of all Christian ministries.”

And ah, you just can’t imagine how their hearts are encouraged and how they are blessed that somebody would know, and realize, and love, and pray.  That at Limoncocha.

 Now at Yarinachocha, which is the jungle base in Peru; at Yarinacocha I had the singular privilege and opportunity of dedicating to God the Scriptures that had recently and just then been published in Shapra and in Tacuma.  And they said they wanted me to lead that consecration and dedication service, giving to God, and for His purposes of grace, the Holy Scriptures now translated in Shapra, a part of the dreaded Anhelo tribe and Tacuma, one of the most difficult languages in all of the world, having five different tones.

You know what a tonal language is?  It is almost unbelievable for us because we are unfamiliar with it.  A tonal language is a language that shapes itself according to the tone in which you pronounce it.  Now a tonal language that has two tones in it is difficult.  A tonal language that has three tones in it which is the most anybody had ever heard of is extremely difficult.  But a tonal language that has five tones in it is just unbelievable.  It’s just impossible. 

Now by a tonal language I mean this.  Here is a word that pronounced one way in one tone means “wife”; that same word, pronounced in a little different tone that my ear can’t even distinguish, but in a tonal language they can distinguish it plainly, now that same word, that means monkey.  Pronounce it just with a little indistinct tone and it means monkey.  I am taking actual illustrations.

That same word, pronounced in just a little different tone that my ear still can’t distinguish, means a bad word, a filthy word.  And that same word spoken in just a little bit different kind of a tone will be the name for God.  And that same word said in just a little different kind of a tone, a fifth tone, may refer to a tree, or to a plant, or to a food that is eaten.

Oh, you cannot imagine those translators say to me, “You know these savages?  We would think, and you would suppose, you would suppose that their language would be very simple.”  He said, “The more savage they are and the more primitive they are, the more intricate is their grammar and the more difficult is their language.”  Just the opposite of what you would suppose.

So I had the marvelous and spiritual opportunity of dedicating the Holy Scriptures that had just been translated and published in Shapra and Tacuma.  Now, what did I preach at Yarinacocha?  I preached to the missionaries at Yarinacocha a word, that to me at least because it is a page out of my own experience and out of my own life, a word of encouragement for what it means; the promise of this Holy Book, the blessed, blessed promise of the Lord Jesus, and it took this form, it took this turn.

I gave my life to the Lord when I was ten years old in a little white crackerbox of a church when the preacher, holding a revival meeting, staying in our home, talked to me at night about Jesus.  And upon a weekday morning I had opportunity and permission from my mother to leave school and to attend the service, the revival, that morning.  And I happened to sit back of my mother.

And when the preacher had done his message and he gave an invitation, the congregation stood up to sing “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood.”  And my mother turned around and with many tears said to me, “Son, today will you take Jesus as your Savior?”

And I said, “Yes, mother, today, I will take Jesus as my Savior.”  And I went down the aisle and gave the preacher my hand and opened my heart to receive Jesus as my Savior.  Now that was the experience of a boy when he was ten years old.

As I began to preach in central West Texas, and for six years in Kentucky, and especially in the Knob country—and in the mountains I heard some of the most marvelous testimonies of salvation that you could read.  It is more marvelous and miraculous than fiction itself. 

For example, one of those men said, “You see that spot right there?  After mourning for my sins for years, suddenly there came over my head a ball of fire.  And it broke and I fell to the ground unconscious.  And how long I lay in that estate, I do not remember, but when I rose to my feet, the burden of my sins had rolled away.”  Then he described how the trees look, and how the birds sing, and how the mules plowed in the fields, it was all glory, glory, glory.

And, as I listened to those marvelous testimonies of salvation and grace, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t saved.  I wasn’t born again.  I’m not a Christian.  I haven’t had a ball of fire break over my head.   I haven’t seen an angel.  I haven’t even seen a ray of light from glory.  I’m not born again.  I’m not saved. 

And so I’d preach in my little church on Sunday, and then get down on my knees every night during the week and tell God I’m not born again.  I’m not a Christian.  I’m not saved. “Lord, I haven’t seen a ball of fire.  I haven’t seen an angel.  I haven’t seen a light from heaven.  I’m not a Christian, Lord.  I’m not saved.”  And I begged and pled before God that He would give me some marvelous sign from heaven that I’d know I was born again.

Well, in those days of course, reading the Bible, I came across those Scriptures that you are so familiar with.  I read where Satan transforms himself into an angel of light to deceive those on the earth [2 Corinthians 11:14].  And in the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation I read where that [false prophet] calls fire to fall from heaven in the sight of men, that he might deceive them on the face of the earth [Revelation 13:13].

And then I came to a certain, and a positive, and to me a triumphant conclusion.  Some of these days I shall stand at the judgment bar of Almighty God.  Some of these days you will stand at the judgment bar of Almighty God.  All of us someday will stand at the judgment bar of Almighty God [Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Peter 4:5].  And when we stand before the Lord in that day, God’s redeemed will be marching in.  And when I assay to join myself to that company and to enter the city of God’s redeemed, the Lord stops me and He says, “By what right and by what prerogative do you enter My beautiful city and walk on My golden streets?”

And I say, “Lord, I know I am a Christian.  I know I am born again.  I know I have been saved.  I saw a ball of fire break over my head and it struck me to the ground.  And when I arose the burden of sin had rolled away.  I know I am a Christian.  I am a saved man because I saw a ball of fire.”

And Satan laughs.  “Ha, ha, ha, listen to him.  He saw a ball of fire.  He says he’s a Christian.  I sent that ball of fire just to deceive him.”  And Satan drags my soul down to hell.  “He belongs to me.”  What could I say?  And what could I do? For I depended on a ball of fire for my salvation.

And some of these days when I stand at the judgment bar of Almighty God, and you are going to stand at the judgment bar of Almighty God, and God’s saints are marching in, and I assay to join that company of the redeemed, and the Lord stops me and says, “By what right and by what prerogative do you enter My beautiful city, and walk on My golden streets, and mingle with My redeemed?”

And I say, “Lord, I know I am a Christian.  I’ve been saved.  I’ve been born again.  I saw an angel from heaven.  I know I’ve been saved.”

And Satan laughs, “Ha, ha, he saw an angel from heaven.  I was that angel.  I turned myself into an angel of light just to deceive him” and he drags my soul to hell saying, “He belongs to me.”  What could I say and what could I do?

Someday I shall stand at the judgment bar of Almighty God.  You will stand at the judgment bar of Almighty God.  And when that day comes, and the Lord’s saints are marching in, and I assay to join myself to that number, and the Lord stops me and says, “By what right and by what prerogative do you join My redeemed and enter My beautiful city?” what shall I say?

This will I say: “Lord Jesus, when I was a boy ten years old I went to a morning service in a revival meeting in the little white crackerbox of a church house, in the little town in which I grew up.  And I happened that morning to be seated back of my old mother, and after the preacher had made his appeal and the congregation stood up and were singing ‘There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,’ she turned and with many tears said, ‘Son, today will you take Jesus as your Savior?’  And I replied, ‘Mother, today I will take Jesus as my Savior.’

“And Lord, I am just depending for glory and for heaven upon Your keeping Your word.  For You said here in the twelfth verse of the first chapter of John, ‘But as many as received Him, to them gave He the prerogative, the right, the power, the privilege to become the children of God, even to them that trust in His name’ [John 1:12].  And Lord Jesus, I am just trusting in You.  I am just believing in You, that God will keep His promise, that God will sanctify His Word” [Psalm 138:2].

And then let Satan laugh.  Then let Satan scoff.  Then let Satan scorn.  He wouldn’t dare, for the Word of God endureth when heaven and earth have passed away [Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:25].

And I said that if I see an angel now, I would thank God for the vision, but it would never occur to me to associate it with my salvation.  And if I were to see a ball of fire, I would thank God for the vision, but it would never occur to me now to associate it with my salvation.  And if I were to see a light from heaven, I would thank God for the glory of the revelation, but it would never occur to me now to associate it with my salvation.

For I am not depending upon an angel, and I am not depending on a light, and I am not depending on a ball of fire, but I am depending on the word and on the promise of Jesus, who said if I will trust Him He will see me through [John 10:27-30, 11:25-26].  And this is the word and the assurance of God.

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word and promise of our Lord endureth for ever.

(Isaiah 40:8)

            And this is the word you are mediating to these savage tribes and these darkened Indians.  God bless you, missionary, into commitment.  Oh, we had another meeting!  Just so encouraging and so blessing as they translate the Word of God, which is the promise of our, and the hope of our salvation. 

            Well, my time’s gone.  Man, I’ve just started.  I’ve just started.  You stay here with me.  I have prepared this to say to you, and I will make it as brief as I can, and you just listen for awhile. 

            Loma Linda: suppertime, the bugs got more of the supper than I did.  They were on the table that deep, that deep.  They all said to one another, “Supper’s on!”  And they came from the ends of the earth.  They came from all over Ecuador, and all over Peru, and all over Brazil, and all over Venezuela, and all over Colombia, because I don’t believe that many bugs could be in just one country and one nation.  I never saw so many in my life.  And it was just between me and them as I shooed them off and just did my best.  Never saw so many.

            Now they were going to have a service for me to preach to them.  Well, I said, “Now listen, I can do my best to eat between me and a hundred million trillion bugs, but I don’t beliee I could preach.  I mean, if I open my mouth wide they’d go down my lungs.  I don’t believe I could do it.” 

            Now I said, “We are not going in the house.  We are going outside.  And I want you to get your chairs and I want you to sit out there in the middle of this little camp that you are making, and I am going to preach to you outside.”  Why, bless you, that was an inspiration.  That was an inspiration.  You should have been there that night.

            To my right was the Dipper, pointing to the North Star.  And to my left was the Southern Cross.  I didn’t know you could see both of them.  But you can at the equator, both of them.  In a glory filled chalice of God’s sky, the Dipper to my right and the Southern Cross to my left.

And briefly what I preached to them about was the verse that we read tonight, “For I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that Day” [2 Timothy 1:12]. Then I talked to the missionaries. 

            I asked God one time, bowed my head, “Lord, what is it to believe; saving faith?  Show me in the Word of God what it is to believe.”  And the Lord whispered in my heart, “2 Timothy 1:12.  For I know whom I have believed.”  And listen to his definition, “And I am persuaded He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that Day.” 

            So to believe, saving trust and faith is a committal of all you have and are to the blessed Lord Jesus.  Lord, I commit to You my soul, and I commit to You my life, and I commit to You the day of my death, and I commit to You the weaknesses and the mistakes of my life, and I commit to You all that I seek to do for Thee; everything, Lord, I place in Thy blessed hand.

            The next day I was with Forrest Zander, a JARS pilot, four hours.  Three hours to the Putumayo River, where we stopped to visit the Ciones, then one more hour to Limoncocha.  And as we flew over that intractable jungle, Forrest Zander began to talk to me, and he said, “Pastor, you will never know how much your talk last night meant to my soul.”  He says, “You see that jungle?  This is uncharted.  You are looking at places where no white man’s eyes doubtless have ever seen.”  And he said, “To sink in that jungle is to sink out of sight and be lost forever.”  He says, “I fly over this jungle, place to place all the time.”  And he said to me, “And as I fly I commit to Jesus my little plane, and I commit to Jesus my life, and I commit to Jesus the mission on which I am flying.  And I just leave it all in His blessed hands, and I trust Him for an answer.  And I live every day in that commitment.”

            Ah, doesn’t it make your soul sing that you could say something to confirm a man of God in the assignment he has received from the blessed Jesus?  Now I hasten just one other.  What do you say to a savage Auca?

            Well, we have a little church service.  It’s on a bamboo platform about a foot or so higher than my head.  Thatched hut and the bamboo platform—that’s the only plants they know, is to make them out of palms or bamboo—they are very strange.  It seems to me they would fall, but they have faith in it, so I do too.

            And there on that side are all the women and here on this side are all the men.  And then Kimo introduces me as the preacher, and Rachel Saint, the missionary, is the translator.  First of all I say to Rachel Saint, “Have you taught them John 3:16?”

            She says, “Yes, we can repeat it.”

            Well, I said, “That’s my text.  Now have all of us together say John 3:16, and we will say it in English and let them say it in Auca.” 

            John 3:16 is a glorious verse in any language in the world, whether it’s Hottentot, or aborigine in Australia, or whether it is Auca, or Shapra, or Hebrew, or any other language.  It’s a great sentence.  So they repeat John 3:16 in Auca, and I begin to preach.

            First, God looked down from heaven and our hearts were black, and we were lost in sin, and we lived in misery and fear.  And the Lord looked down from heaven, and we were killing, and we were stealing, and we were lying.  And the Lord looked down from heaven, and our lives were cursed, and darkened, and lost.  And the Lord looked down from heaven, and when He saw us with our black hearts and in our sins and in our misery, the Lord so loved us and had sympathy and compassion upon us, that He sent the Lord Jesus that He might wash the sin and the black out of our hearts and put life and glory inside [John 3:16]. 

            And the Lord came from heaven that He might teach us how to live and how to do.  And the Lord came from heaven that when we die we might have a place with Him in glory [John 14:2-3].

And I said when we give our lives to the Lord, we live for Jesus.  Out of our love for the Savior, we don’t kill anymore.  Not when we receive Jesus in our hearts.  And we don’t steal anymore when we receive Jesus in our hearts.  And we don’t lie anymore when we receive Jesus in our hearts.  And we love our people, and we love our families, and we don’t beat our wives.  And that is one of the most amazing things that they ever heard of in their lives. 

            One of those missionaries’ dear wife, her Indian maid said to her, “I’ve been watching you ever since I have been working here, and I haven’t seen your husband beat you yet.  Doesn’t your husband beat you up?”

            And she said, “No.”

            “Well,” she said, “I don’t believe it.  He beats you up at night when I am not here and don’t see and don’t know.  He beats you up at night.”

            And she said, “My husband doesn’t ever beat me up at night.  He doesn’t beat me up in the daytime.  He doesn’t beat me up.  He doesn’t ever beat me up.”

            Why, an Indian can’t imagine that, can’t imagine it.  That’s what Jesus does for your hearts, I say.  You don’t beat up your wife anymore, and you love your children, and you love even your enemies.  And you don’t try to hate, and you don’t try to kill.  But you’ve got Jesus in your heart, and God has put the whole love of the Savior in your life. 

            One of those chiefs went up to the missionary, and he said, he said, “Missionary, am I a child of God?”

            And the missionary said, “Why, yes.  You’ve received Jesus in your heart and you are a child of God.”  Then the chief and all of the parents said, “Well, missionary, since I am a child of God, what if I kill somebody now, and what if I murder other people now?  You say I am a child of God.  What if I kill now?”

            Well, the missionary is nonplussed.  He said, “Well, well, well, well, well, well, you know God will punish disobedience,” and did his best with it. 

            And then the chief broke out laughing and said, “Missionary, I was just trying you.”  He said, “Missionary, since I got the love of Jesus in my heart I don’t want to kill anybody.  I don’t want to kill anybody anymore because I got the love of Jesus in my heart.”

            That’s what happens to you when Jesus comes into your heart.  You don’t want to hate anybody, and you don’t want to beat up anybody, and you don’t want to kill anybody, and you don’t want to steal from anybody.  But you love everybody, and you try to be good to everybody, and to be like the Lord Jesus.

            Well, you know while I was a-preaching, Kimo there in that nasal language—and that is the most nasal language, the Auca language, it’s the most nasal language I’ve ever heard in my life—and while I was a-preaching and getting in a good way of telling them about the Lord, why, Kimo got to grunting and got to doing, I don’t know what he was a doing; “gnyat,” and “gnyat,” and pretty soon he was “gnyat,” (grunting noises).”  And Rachel Saint saw it was bothering me. 

            And so the next time she translated a paragraph she said, “Now pastor, I can see what Kimo is doing over here is bothering you.  But,” she said, “don’t let what Kimo does bother you.”  She said, “What Kimo is saying is ‘Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen!’”

            Ah, bless their hearts.  Bless their hearts.  I have to stop.  I’ve gone far beyond what I planned to.  But if God could use me to be a blessing to them in anywise or an encouragement to them in any way, I tell you, in all sincerity and without ought of exaggeration, they were ten thousand times an encouragement and a blessing to me.  And I guess I am just made that way.

But there wasn’t a single time that I climbed in that little plane to fly away and those missionaries line up there on the side of the jungle strip and wave goodbye, not a single time, but when I waved back out of the little plane, I just had a tug in my heart leaving God’s sainted children, and the sweetest friends any Christian could ever know. 

And I thank heaven in no small part, is going to be that rendezvous when we all gather in the presence of the throne of God and we talk about the things that happened down here in this earth.  And we will sing the love, and mercy, and praise of Jesus today, tomorrow, world without end, forever and ever, amen.

            Isn’t it great to be a Christian and to share in the ministry of Christ to the whole wide round world?  Now we must sing our song.  And while we do, somebody you to give his heart to Jesus [Romans 10:8-13]; somebody you to put his life in the fellowship of this church [Hebrews 10:24-25]; a family or just one, in the balcony, anywhere in the press of people on this lower floor, while we sing the song and while we make the appeal, on the first note of the first stanza, you come and stand by me.  Do it.  Do it.  Make it now.  Make it now while we stand and while we sing.