This sermon delves into the lives of various committed individuals throughout history, highlighting their unwavering dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ. It emphasizes the theme of complete surrender and sacrifice for the sake of the gospel, drawing inspiration from the examples of faith exhibited by these remarkable men and women.

11 and verse 32. And what more shall I say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, also David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trials of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, and all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, that is the fulfillment of the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Last night we were tracing commitment down through the Old Testament scriptures, and we saw some great men and women of God who showed utter consecration to the Lord, and we could go through the New Testament like that, although, strangely enough, I could find more examples of commitment in the Old Testament than I could in the New. But of course in the New you can go back to John the Baptist, you can go to the 11 apostles at least, you can go to some of those great women who ministered to the Lord. Jesus washed his feet with their tears and wiped them with the hairs of their heads. You could think of Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church, you could think of the apostle Paul, and be subdued as you think of these men. I'd like to just move over from the New Testament to the early church period this morning to think about some of the committed men and women, and then move on also from there. We can't forget the early martyrs of the Christian church like Polycarp. When the proconsul threatened to burn him alive, Polycarp said, the fire you threaten burns but an hour, and is quenched after a little. For you do not know the fire of coming judgment and everlasting punishment that's laid up for the impious, but why do you delay? Come, do what you will. He said, boy, I don't have grace for that either, do I, frankly, but if I needed it, I'd get it. I think that's a good thing for us to remember when we read about some of these martyrs. We don't have that kind of grace, dying grace for dying days. Really, as thy days, so shall thy strength be. When the soldiers began to nail him to the stake, he said, leave me as I am, for he who grants me to endure the fire will enable me also to remain on the pyre unmoved, without security that you desire for nails. I think there's something great about that. You know, I would suggest that Christian mothers and fathers should teach the stories of the children. I mean, they're so horrible. Listen, they see worse than that on television all the time, don't they? Yeah. But I want to tell you to breathe some iron into the backbones of our young people if they knew more about the heritage of the Christian church and what men and women have gone through in order to preserve the truth for us today. There were the heroes of the catacombs, of course, in Rome. You know, at that time, everybody was required every year to take a pinch of incense and place it upon the altar and say, Caesar is Lord. And you didn't have to believe it. It didn't have to be a matter of your heart at all. You just had to say those words, Caesar is Lord. And of course, the Christians couldn't do that. They would say, Jesus is Lord. I like that bumper sticker because I think of the martyrs of those early churches. The penalty, of course, was death. But they were always given a chance to recant. And the recantation was, Jesus is cursed. They couldn't say that. They would say, Jesus is Lord. They were faithful to the Savior. And many of them, it cost them their lives. I want to tell you the pages of history are just filled with the stories of the Waldensians and the Moravians and the Huguenots and the Scottish Covenanters and how proud we are of them today. John Wycliffe, known as the morning star of the Reformation period, he insisted on the right of the people to have the word of God in their understandable language. And to that end, he produced the first copy of the English Bible. He taught that the Bible is the only authority in matters of faith and morals. And he said that the doctrine of transubstantiation was an abomination. That wasn't the most popular thing he could say. He said it was a blasphemy. He said it was a blasphemous deceit. And of course, this brought him into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, with which so many of our evangelical leaders are playing pals today. 44 years after his, oh, he was burned at the stake. That was his thanks for taking this stand. And 44 years after his death, his body was exhumed, burned to ashes, and the ashes thrown into the river. And I think if Wycliffe could have seen that from heaven, maybe he did. I think he'd have laughed. I think he'd have laughed. John Hus. John Hus was greatly influenced by Wycliffe's teaching, and he propagated them in Bohemia. He was insistent on the fact that the people have the word of God, and he fearlessly spoke out against the vices of the clergy. He was hounded for years, and then he was excommunicated by the Pope for preaching the gospel. He was finally burned at the stake by a church that's drunk with the blood of the saints, by a church that's under the curse of God today for preaching another gospel. I think it's really, really amazing to think of that. His ashes, too, were thrown into the river. William Tyndale. He gave us the first printed version of the Bible, and when his friends and others started to read the word of God, the clergy became alarmed at this threat to their authority. Cardinal Woolsey defended the church against the pernicious heresy of the Bible. The pernicious heresy of the Bible. And when a supposedly learned clergyman tried to convert Tyndale, Tyndale said, if God spares my life before many years, I'll take care that a plow boy shall know more of the scriptures than you do right now. Good for you, William Tyndale. He spent the last 17 years of his life in captivity, and then he was strangled and burned. Your friends, men paid a price for the liberties that we enjoy with the word of God today, didn't they? Count Zinzendorf, he was a leader of the Bohemian Brethren, and one day he stood before a picture of Christ crucified, and underneath it said, all this I did for thee. That broke Count Zinzendorf's heart. What have you done for me? That search, that searching question caused him to commit his life to the Lord Jesus Christ, his wealth, his life, his talents, everything he had, to the cause of Christ. Latimer, a great Protestant bishop, he said, if I see the blood of Christ with the eye of my soul, that is true faith. And of course, that was heresy to the established church. And when both he and Ridley were being burned at the stake, Latimer said to Ridley, be of good cheer, Mr. Ridley, by the grace of God, we shall this day light such a candle in England that shall never be put out. And they did. I think one of my famous, one of my favorite martyrs was Thomas Cranmer. He was put under tremendous pressure to recant his faith in Christ. One day he took a pen in his hand and he signed a recantation. And as time went on, he realized what a terrible thing he had done. But he went to the authorities. He said, my hand signed it, but my heart didn't sign it. And they said, you'll be put to death. You'll be burned at the stake. And he said, get on with it. And the day he was to be burned at the stake, he was taken out there with his hand in his hand, tied. They said, do you have any last requests? He said, yes, just untie my hand. And he walked over to the burning pyre and he held his right hand that had signed the recantation into the fire. And he said, perish this unworthy hand. He wanted it to be the first part of him to be burned. Perish this unworthy hand. The Scottish Covenanters were people who, in early days, resisted the power of the established church, signed covenants of their loyalty and allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there were two women at that time. One was named Margaret McLaughlin and the other was named Margaret Wilson. And they were both women of faith. And they were both condemned to be drowned by the tide. One was 60 years old and the other was a younger woman. One was 63, the other was 18. And their parents, their relatives, their loved ones, all got down on their knees and begged them to recant. And they wouldn't do it. And so the elder Margaret was taken and she was tied to a post as the tide was out pretty far out on the sand. And then the younger Margaret was tied to another post further toward the shore. And the idea is when this younger woman saw the older woman die, she would change. She would break. So the tide came in and it came up onto the elder, the 63-year-old Margaret McLaughlin. It came up to her knees, up to her thighs, up to her breast, came up to her mouth. And as the water was engulfing her mouth, she was heard to say, for I am persuaded that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor power nor height nor depth, things present or things to come, height nor depth nor any other creature, the water covering her mouth. Did that cause that younger Margaret to change her mind? No. She said, if God can give grace to an older woman to die for him, he can give grace to me as well. And she was not weakened in her resolve. The tide came in and covered her and she went home to be with the king whom she loved more than life. John Brown, I remember when I was a boy, my mother used to feed us the tales of the Scottish Covenanters and there was a calendar on the pantry door in our house. There was a picture of the scene that I'll tell you right now. There was a man there named John Brown, faithful to the Lord Jesus. He couldn't spend much time at home. He spent most of his time, as we read in Hebrews 11, out in the caves and dens trying to escape from those who were going to kill him. But every once in a while he had to come home for food and for clothing. And one day when he was there in his house, his wife there with a baby in her arms, and Lord Claverhouse came. I don't know where he ever got the word Lord, but anyway, Lord Claverhouse came and they stood there in the kitchen and the calendar had this picture of Claverhouse and his men standing there in the kitchen and he ordered his men to shoot. And they looked and they saw the face of an angel and they couldn't shoot. Claverhouse himself took the gun and right before Mrs. Brown, he shot John Brown in cold blood. And he turned to her and he said, what do you think of your husband now? And in broad Scotch, she said, I always thought a great deal of him, but I never thought more of him than I do right now. And he said it would be justice to lay you beside him. He thought it would be a just thing to kill her and let her lie down beside him. She shot back, if you were permitted, I doubt not that your cruelty would go that length, but how will you make answer for this morning's work? Someday you're going to even account for what's happened this morning. I thank, don't you thank God for men and women like that. I do. Martin Luther saved through reading Paul's letter to the Romans. He was outraged by the sale of indulgences to build St. Peter's church in Rome. And when he, when he was placed on trial, he refused to bow to the authority of the Pope. I love those words. He said, my conscience is captive to the word of God. Boy, I wish we had more people like that today. But said that my conscience is captive to the word of God. He later championed the three solas of the reformation, sola fide, faith alone, sola gratia, grace alone, sola scriptura, the Bible alone. He translated the Bible into Germany, into German, and stood valiantly for the faith. John Calvin, another reformer, someone said of him, he was intense in the service of the Lord to whom he had given his heart fully, as though he was not clear as to the relative authority of the church and the civil government. He taught that salvation was by faith apart from works, but unto works. And it made him one of the most outstanding figures of the reformation period. And of course, there was John Knox in Scotland. He was a fearless defender of the faith. He was strongly influenced by Calvin and he was a tireless foe of idolatry and of the heresies and unbiblical teachings of the Pope. It was he who said, give me Scotland or I die. One biography, one biographer said of him, Knox, a man of unyielding strength of character and a spiritual giant, he molded the thought of an entire nation probably as no man has ever done. And Mary Queen of Scots said that she feared the prayers of John Knox more than all the armies of England. Thank God. Great people. And that brings us up to people who lived in more recent times and their commitments to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know that some of you know some of these personally in the last century or so. Are the ranks of the committed getting thinner? I don't think they are. God in every age has had those who will take a positive stand for him. Anthony Norris Groves. Anthony Norris Groves, the first man to go out from what we would think of as being New Testament assemblies to the mission field. He went out to Asia. He was a wealthy dentist. He lived in luxury and ease in Britain. And he left it all to preach the gospel in Baghdad, then India, putting into practice the principles of Christian devotedness. In fact, he wrote a little booklet called Christian Devotedness, which as far as I know, was one of the earliest publications of the so-called Brethren Movement. It wouldn't be very popular today. He said that laying up treasures on earth is just as contrary to the word of God as adultery. And it is, too, because it's the same Bible that forbids both. He taught that life's great goal is the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we should surrender all we have to this worthy aim. So the Christian's motto should be labor hard, consume little, give much, and all to Christ. Anthony Norris wrote, John Nelson Darby, brought up in a castle in England. People walked by and picked up their noses and said, it's so nice to know the Darbys. And they were people of affluence and people of wealth. And he went to Trinity in Dublin, gained honors there, and started out in a legal career. And he left it all, and he tracked for months on the mountains, the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland, preaching the gospel, and saw hundreds of Roman Catholics come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he moved over to the continent, and he traveled for 26 years on the continent of Europe without unpacking his suitcase. He lived for days at a time on milk and acorns. One day, sat in a cheap Italian boarding house and sang, Jesus, I, my cross, have taken all to lead and follow thee. His writings filled more than 34 volumes. One of his hymns has been sung here at the conference, and is it so, I shall be like thy son. He wrote many wonderful hymns, and probably no man since the Apostle Paul has had such an influence on the church as John Nelson Darby. His travels took him to most of the English-speaking world. He's been here, he was here in the United States. He translated the Bible, get this, he translated the Bible into French, German, and English. You know, it's a lifetime work to translate the Bible into one language. He translated it into French, German, and English, and had something to do with the Italian version as well. God used him to revive dispensational theology, and also the great truths of the New Testament church, the rapture of the church, the priesthood of all believers. He greatly influenced Dwight L. Moody and C.I. Schofield, and Dallas Seminary in the early days was greatly influenced by his teachings as well, and that means that the Bible school movement in the United States felt the impact of Darby's writings. His philosophy was, ah, the joy of having nothing, and being nothing, seeing nothing, but a living Christ in glory, and being careful for nothing but his interests down here, and on his tombstone, in other words, as unknown, yet well known. I like that, as unknown, yet well known. George Mueller was a man who was committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's best known for his orphanage in Bristol, England. He started this orphanage. Why did he start? To take care of little children. That was a byproduct of it. The purpose he had in starting that orphanage was to show the people of Bristol, England that there's a God in heaven who answers prayer, and as you know, he lived by faith, and he never made his needs known. If you went there and said, brother, I have five thousand pounds. I'd like to put them to work for the Lord. Where is your need? He'd say, you get before the Lord and find out where the need is. He would never make his needs known. It's a far cry from what we have in evangelical Christianity today. One day, Arthur Pearson asked him, Mr. Mueller, what is the secret of the way that God has used you, the wonderful things that God has done for you? And Mueller sat there and bowed his head, and it went lower and lower and lower, between, it was almost between his legs. And then he said, one day, George Mueller died. There came in my life a day when George Mueller died. He said, as a young man, I had a great many ambitions, but there came a day when I died. To all of those things, I said, henceforth, Lord Jesus, not mine, not my will, but thine be done. From that day, God began to work in and through me. That's wonderful, isn't it? That's what we've been talking about in these meetings. There came a day in my life when I died. I gave up all my ambitions. I said, henceforth, Lord Jesus, not my will, but thine be done. That was the day when God began to work in my life. I've read an awful lot of biographies of men and women who've made history for God. I've never read one where that person didn't have that experience, where they didn't have the experience of coming to the Lord and just making a commitment of their life to him for whatever he wanted. I like the story of that young woman that was giving her testimony at a college down here in the south, how she had really committed her life to the Lord. She held up a blank piece of paper and she said, what I did, I signed the blank piece of paper, let the Lord fill in the details. That says very eloquently what I've been trying to say here, to sign the blank piece of paper and let the Lord fill in the details. David Livingston. It's David Livingston's commitment to the Lord Jesus that accounts for his greatness. Just a poor Scottish boy brought up in a mill there in Scotland. And the world exalts him, of course, as a explorer and a foe of the slave trade. And he was all that, but I want to tell you, it was his life for the Savior that really made him famous. His labors for the Lord in Africa are high spots in the history of Christian missions. If you visit his home there in Scotland today, you'll see a stained glass window and it has this saying of David Livingston. He said, I will put no value on anything I hold or possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. That's commitment, isn't it? I will put no value on anything I hold or possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. What does that mean? It means I'm not going to accumulate material things just for my own selfish pleasure. If I can use it for the Lord, I will. Otherwise, I don't want it. When he was 59, he wrote, my Jesus, my King, my life, my all, I again dedicate my whole self to thee. The word furlough was not in his vocabulary. He once wrote to a missionary society that he was ready to go anywhere on the condition that it was forward. One day his African brothers found him on his knees by his bed, dead. They removed his heart and buried it there by that tree. And his body was taken to Westminster Abbey and buried there. When you go into Westminster Abbey, it's one of the first things you see. This plaque on the floor of the body of David Livingston is buried. The inscription reads, for 30 years, his life was spent in an unwearied effort to evangelize. Marvelous. Some of you know the poetry of hymns of Frances Ridley Havergal, and a biographer of her said she had none of the ordinary titles to fame. What singled her out was the note of absoluteness in her spiritual experience. In her consecration, there was no limit and no reserve. She had learned the secret of abandonment, and she yielded herself utterly to God. By virtue of this, her writings reached and moved a multitude of souls with strange penetrating power. And you sing her hymns all the time. When she was 21, she saw a painting of Christ, Ecce Homo, Behold the Man, in the art gallery at Dusseldorf. She was so moved that she wrote her first hymn, I gave my life for thee. My precious blood I shed that thou might'st ransomed be and quickened from the dead. I gave, I gave my life for thee. What hast thou given for me? My father's house on high, my glory circled thrown. I left for earthly night, for wanderings sad and lone. I left, I left it all for thee. What have you left for me? I suffered much for thee, more than thy tongue can tell, of bitterest agony to rescue thee from hell. I borne, I borne it all for thee. What hast thou borne for me? And I am brought to thee down from my home above, salvation full and free, my pardon and my love. I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee. What hast thou brought to me? 17 years later, she summarized her autobiography in six verses. Each of, each verse describes some experience in her life. She wrote, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let me sing always only for my king. Take my lips and let them be filled with messages for thee. This is complete commitment, isn't it? Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. Take my intellect and use every power that thou shalt choose. Take my will and make it thine, it shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is thine own, it shall be thy royal throne. Take my love, my God, I pour at thy feet its treasure store. Take myself, I will be ever only all for thee. Commitment. Hudson Taylor, Hudson Taylor is a man who opened inland China to the gospel, the gospel of redeeming grace. Founder of the China Inland Mission, now called the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. He identified himself with the Chinese people to whatever extent he could in dress, clothes, culture, and all the rest. His work was carried on in faith. He always said God's work will, God's work carried on in God's way will never lack God's resources. You know, we've wandered from those things, haven't we? But they're true just the same. God's work carried on in God's way will never lack God's resources. Interestingly enough, I think it's interesting that George Mueller, who himself lived by faith and ran that orphanage in Bristol, England, was one of the heavy contributors to the work of Hudson Taylor. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, they call him the Prince of Preachers. He was filling large auditoriums before he was 20. Though he was a Calvinist, he spoke out against hyper-Calvinism against Arminianism as well. His printed, it's amazing, his printed sermons still have a wide circulation, his books widely circulated. I don't know if any of you have read Morning and Evening readings, a daily devotional one, reading for the morning and one for the evening. Marvelous, marvelous books. His set, Treasury of David on the Psalms, probably one of the best set of books that's ever been written on the Psalms. And like so many of the Lord's servants, he was plagued with illness and laid down his Bible for the last time in 1917. C.T. Studd. C.T. Studd was a cricket champ and a member of the Cambridge Seven, well-known in England. His father was saved through Moody, and then C.T. Charlie was saved somewhat later. There's a book about his life called C.T. Studd by Norman Grubb. C.T. Studd was a fanatic for Jesus. To him, the gospel was real, and the Lord Jesus deserved everything. His life motto was, if Jesus Christ be God and die for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him. Let me say that again. If Jesus Christ be God and die for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him. As a young man, he fell in love with a girl, and he was afraid that she might love him more than she loved Jesus. He didn't want that to happen, so he wrote a poem, and he said, I want you to recite this poem every day of your life. The poem was this, Jesus, I love thee, thou art to me dearer than Charlie ever could be. Good, that's good. When his father died, he inherited a fortune, and he decided to forsake that. Jesus said, forsake all and follow me. So he decided to forsake that fortune as far as he was concerned and follow the Lord Jesus, and that fortune was part of the beginning of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Incredible. But you know, he thought, well, it's okay for me to do that, but what about my wife, you know? And so he set some of that apart for his wife. And he told her what he was doing, and she said, Charlie, what did the Lord tell the rich young man? He said, forsake all. She said, let's start our marriage doing what is faithful. But they forsook it all, and he went out to China, India, and Africa. He was one of God's irregulars. I don't think he'd be comfortable if he was here today, but that's the kind of people that get most of the work done. He founded the world evangelization crusade, and rather than return home and retire, he chose to remain in Africa and die there. Thank God for men like that. I'll never forget the day his life motto came to me in power in Honolulu, Hawaii. Jesus Christ be God and died for me, no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him. That slew me. I couldn't answer it. I couldn't wiggle around it. It's true. It changed all my life. Amy Carmichael. Some of you have read Amy Carmichael's poems. They're wonderful. Amy Carmichael was of Irish stock, and she was a woman's woman, I'll tell you. She was one of the best brothers we have, and she devoted her life to working with boys and girls in India who otherwise probably would have become temple prostitutes. That's the vision that she has. She had tremendous strength of character and leadership ability. The measure of her devotion to Christ is seen in these words, the vows of God are upon me. I may not stay to play with shadows or pluck earthly flowers till I my work have done and rendered up on the ground. Isn't that good? The vows of God are upon me. I may not stay to play with shadows or pluck earthly flowers till I my work have done and rendered up on the ground. Another place she wrote, from prayer that asked that I should be sheltered from winds that beat on thee, from fearing when I should aspire, from faltering when I should climb higher, from silken self, all captain free, thy soldier who would follow thee, from subtle love of softening things, from easy choices, weakenings, not thus are spirits fortified, not this way went the crucified, from all that dims thy calvary, O Lamb of God, deliver me. Give me the love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay, the hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn as fire. Let me not sink to be a clod, make me thy fuel, flame of God. William Borden, William Borden was the son of millionaire parents. He attended Yale University. There was a revival, unbelievable, there was a revival in Yale in 1909 and William Borden was part of that revival. God called him to serve him overseas. There was an Englishman that came to this country once and traveled among Christian circles and he said, somebody said to him when he was leaving to go back to England, what most impressed you in your visit to America? And he said seeing that young son of millionaires in the mission down on the Bowery with his arm around the bum. That's what he did, he used to go down and work, he used to go down and work and wash dishes down in the mission on the Bowery in New York. This impressed the Englishman more than anything he had seen in his trip to America. It was William Borden who said in every man's heart there's a throne and a cross. If Christ is on the throne, self is on the cross. If self even a little bit is on the throne, Jesus is on the cross in that man's heart. If Jesus is on the throne, you will go where he wants you to go. Jesus on the throne glorifies any work or place. He got to Egypt in his travels to the mission field and he died there a spinal meningitis. He never saw the field that God had called him to. But more people have gone to the mission field as a result of the book that was written by Mrs. Howard Taylor, warden of Yale, than if he had lived to be 100 years old. Eric Liddell, some of you know Eric Liddell, a Scottish lad who had convictions, hit convictions about the Lord's day. A lot of things he wouldn't do on Sunday. He said if you love the Lord, you'll love his day too. Some of you have seen the movie Chariots of Fire built about Eric Liddell. He adamantly, in the Olympics in 1924, he refused to run in the 100-meter event for which he was qualified. That was his race but he refused to run because it was going to be on a Sunday. Some called him a traitor to Scotland and Britain. The British athletic authorities were absolutely horrified that he was unmoved. All of Britain, the Prince of Wales, they couldn't change his mind. So eventually he agreed to run in a 400-meter race which wasn't his race at all but it was going to be on a weekday and he did that. Before the race, the man who gave Eric his rubdown, as Eric was standing there at the starting line, this man went out and handed him a little stuff of paper and it said End of Honour. And he took off. His running was appalling. His hands were flailing around like a windmill. His gait, everything about it was poor. He won the race, set a new world record for that particular race. He that honours me, I will honour. He went to China. As a missionary, he was interned there by the Japanese in an internment camp. He died of a brain tumour. Not through cruelty. They weren't cruel to him. It was just that they didn't have medical facilities to take care of him. And you know, when he died, a Scottish newspaper wrote, Scotland has lost a son that made her proud every day of his life. Them that honour me, I will honour. Betty Scott Stamm, still a student at Bible School, and one night she wrote down in her Bible, Lord, I give up my own purposes and plans, all my own desires, hopes and ambitions, whether they be fleshly or soulish, and accept thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to thee, to be thine forever. I hand over to thy keeping all of my friendships, my love, all the people whom I love are to take second place in my heart. Fill me and seal me with thy Holy Spirit. Work out thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever, to be to live as Christ, to die as a human being. She married John Stamm. They went out to China, and they sealed their testimony with their blood. The story's told in the triumph of John and Betty Stamm. Some of you have read it. Jim Elliot. Everybody who knew Jim Elliot knew that he was like the burning bush, he was burning but not consumed. My own lasting impression of Jim was that he was intolerant of anything that stood between the soul and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. In this he agreed with James Denning who wrote, if God has really done something in Christ on which the salvation of the world depends, and if he has made it known, then it's a Christian duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies, or explains it away. And you feel something of this intolerance in Jim when you read, he makes his ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitable? God, deliver me from the dread asbestos of other things. Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit, that I may be a flame. But flame is transient, often short-lived. Canst thou bear this, my soul, short life? In me there dwells the spirit of the great short-lived one, whose zeal for God's house consumed him. Make me thy fuel, flame of God. Jim Elliot. His philosophy was, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain, what he cannot lose. Together with four other young fellows, he laid down his life for Christ on the shores of the Curaray River in Ecuador. Commitment. You know, it's one thing to read about commitment in the Bible. It's another thing to see it in living color in lives of people. But that's what I'm trying to do today, to go over the lives of these people who were sold out to the Lord Jesus Christ. They just thought that he was of everything that they had and were. They turned control over to him. I wonder how many of us are willing to take that blank piece of paper and just sign our names at the bottom. Let the Lord fill in the details. Shall we pray? Blessed God, we just thank you as we think back over these men and women that have made history for you. What a debt we owe to them. Some that have died in order to preserve the truth of God for us today. How indebted we are to them. Speak to our souls, Lord. We want to make our lives count for you. We don't want to just spend our lives in underwater basket weaving, but we want to be effective. We want every globe to count from the throne of God. And so we just pray that we might really be serious about this matter, that we've never done it before.