02. Are Your Ears Committed To Hear The Heathen's Cry?

2 -- ARE YOUR EARS COMMITTED TO HEAR THE HEATHEN’S CRY?

It is not only necessary that our ears hear the voice of God, but they must also hear the cry of a lost heathen world. Certainly we must be tuned to hear the voice oi God and then act upon what that voice has to say to us, but we must also be tuned to hear the voice that calls out of the darkness and despair of heathen night. The scriptures tell us that he that hath ears, let him hear and in Romans 10:1-21, we are told of the tremendous importance of hearing. In Romans 10:14, it says, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?" Surely this scripture makes it very clear that our hearing is tremendously important.

Jesus Christ heard the call of the father and came forth to give His life a ransom for many. He did not try to escape the cross. Surely He could have escaped it. He could have called ten thousand angels to destroy this world and set Him free, but He chose rather to die for you and me. He chose to die that we might have the blessings of salvation. Yes, there was a price that Christ had to pay and there is a price that you and I must pay also. Are we willing to pay the price as Christ was willing? Are we tuned to hear the voice that calls us to such kind of sacrifice? I somehow feel that if the church had obeyed that voice, the world would have been evangelized by this present hour. We would be in an entirely different situation than we are in. Yet though others have not heard, we must hear and we must heed what the voice suggests to us. How are you hearing just now as you read these lines? Can you hear as well as the earlier disciples heard who suffered all kinds of persecution for the cause of Christ? They rendered more than lip service. They went forth in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword. They moved forward regardless of the obstacles placed in their way by the enemy. In these pages I am not only asking that you hear the voice of God but that you hear the voice of multiplied millions who have never yet heard the name of Jesus one single time. What do you suppose you would hear if you heard the voice of a lost heathen world? Would it be a voice calling for pleasure or for worldly gain? Would it be a voice calling on us to bring them our culture or our environment? No, my friend, the voice of the lost is a voice that calls for something altogether different. I’m sure if you hear the voice of a perishing world, you will hear the pitiful cry of despair. The cry of the heathen is often a cry of hunger. It may be a beggar trying to gain a morsel of bread or it may be a child at the orphanage gate pleading for a place to call home. I think of an incident in the life of one of our missionaries. Miss Boyer was traveling in the jeep when she saw a woman on her hands and knees crawling along the ground. The woman seemed to be feeling the ground in search of something or other. Miss Boyer stopped the jeep and approached the woman only to discover that she was blind. The woman told the missionary that she had been feeling along the ground for grain that might have fallen from the sacks of the people who gathered it. She was so hungry that she would feel for grain until she would find a little handful to keep her from starvation. Yes, theirs is a tremendous cry of hunger.

Perhaps it is not this cry that you will hear. Perhaps it will be the cry of pain from someone entering our clinic with some physical suffering. It may be someone who has dragged themselves across the miles to the clinic in hopes of finding some relief for their pitiful situation.

Perhaps this would not be the cry that your ears would hear at all. Maybe your ears would be shattered by the cry of those who mourn the passing of loved ones. You would hear the wail of the mourners as they cry out in despair without a hope of seeing those loved ones again. O! What a sad and pitiful wail that often ascends from the hearts of those who have just experienced the departure of loved ones. I wonder if your ears are tuned to hear any of these despairing cries today? I’m sure if you will listen, you will hear the weepings and wailings of a lost world.

Surely their cry must be answered with positive action on our part. Yet I believe there is an even more serious cry that is more important than all of those that I have mentioned. I am well aware of the fact that hunger, pain, want, and death are cries that are extremely important, yet there is a spiritual hunger that goes beyond all of these. The pain of sin unforgiven and the living death of a life outside of Christ is far more serious than any physical suffering could ever be. I wonder if you can hear the awful wail of the lost as they plunge into a Christless eternity? What must the cry be like of those who sink into hell’s darkness forever without a ray of hope and without the knowledge that we might have shared with them? Certainly there could be no cry more heart-rending than the wail of a lost soul perishing in the darkness forever. When you think of the fact that we have what they need, it leaves us without excuse. Their need refutes every argument we might have for our lethargy in regard to getting the Gospel message out to them. Certainly there is not a reason we can offer that will stand the test of the white light of God’s judgment. Even while I am writing to you, there are those passing into eternal night. O! How long can we go on unheeding the voice of God and the voice of lost multitudes?

I think of a village in Guatemala. It took two or three years before we were able to answer the call to come to them with the Gospel message. They even built a road so that our missionaries could get through to the area, but it still took a couple of years to get there. Their call for the Gospel was responded to by our missionaries, but being short-handed, it took quite a long time. It was not because of any indifference on the part of the missionaries that the long delay was necessary. It was lack of laborers that deferred our going to them with the Gospel. We were told that one man literally leaned against the jeep when the first missionaries arrived and wept openly for the joy that flooded his heart. The missionaries had arrived at last and he was overjoyed at their coming.

I would remind you that there are many calls that we could fill if we had the means to fill them. There are pleas that come in regard to churches that need to be built. We must build in Cairo, Egypt, and this is an order of the government. Calls come to us from the other fields as well. There are needs in Korea, Eritrea, Guatemala, and other areas as well. Yes, the call comes ringing across the restless waves for us to send the light. I repeat again the fact that we must hear the voice of God and the voice of a lost perishing world if our obligations are to be realized. When you think of the fact that you would not have the Gospel if someone had not heard, I would not have it and multiplied thousands of our own people would not have it! I wonder if I can get you to realize this tremendous fact? Are you hearing and are you heeding as you read the message that you now have in your hands? Give your ears in total, complete commitment to Christ that He might fill them with His message, and that you. in turn, might share that message with a lost and perishing world: I’m sure if you will do this, the work that needs to be done will get done and a giant step will have been taken toward the salvation of the lost in other lands.

After you have given your ears to hear, it is important that you take a similar step by giving your eyes in complete commitment so that you might see the whitened harvest fields. One of the problems that I have faced with my eyesight is nearsightedness. I must wear thick lenses so that my vision might be unimpaired and so that I can see clearly. I mention this to mention the fact that I do not want to be nearsighted when it comes to seeing the tragic needs of a lost world. I do not want to be physically handicapped when it comes to catching a clear vision of a world without the Saviour. I would ask you just how well do you see? Is the message that I am sharing with you getting through to your heart? I trust that you will not only see words on paper, but that you will catch a glimpse of a world for whom Christ died and a world that is still awaiting the feet of those who will bring the glad tidings to them. Yes, my friend, how well do you see?

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