In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being prepared for spiritual warfare. He uses the analogy of a soldier with a weapon who hasn't learned how to use it effectively. The speaker encourages believers to prioritize their time and focus on the essential task of sharing the Word of God with others. He also highlights the significance of worship and taking time to praise God. The speaker expresses concern over the lack of evangelism and urges believers to move out and conquer the strongholds of the enemy.

Orientation Session Number Three. The subject of this session is the weapon of our warfare, the Word of God. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the Word of God. We thank Thee that Thou hast given us the Word of Truth, that the Bible is true and that it is the base of our faith, and we can put our trust in it as one of the weapons in this great warfare against sin and self. And Lord Jesus, as we go into Thy Word again, we would want to exalt Thy precious name. We would want to lift Thee up and to praise Thee. For God, unless Thou art exalted, unless Thou art honored and praised, all that we say and all that we do is in vain. And so, Savior, we pray, lead us as we look into Thy Word, as we look into history, as we look into the fields of science and see that Thy Word is truth and that we can trust it and that it is one of the great weapons in this warfare. For we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. I'd like us to open this session by reading together 2 Corinthians, the 10th chapter, beginning at the 3rd verse. Now, as we come into this 3rd session, we need to remember that which is past. We need to remember that we're in a warfare. It's good. It's good to ask ourselves if we've really been living the past two weeks as if it were a warfare, as if we were engaged in something more desperate, something more drastic, something more dreadful than World War II or World War I or the Korean War or any war or revolution that's ever been entered into here on the earth. We've been engaged in something more titanic, more hellish, as we've waged war against the powers of darkness and the powers of self. Have you realized that this past week? And have you been using, have you begun to use in a more definite way the great weapon of prayer? Oh, I pray it so. For going through these sessions, going into the Word of God week after week, and going through Bible school or any other particular training is going to do us no good unless it becomes reality in our hearts and lives. How foolish it is to go through school and never have these things become real. How foolish it is to go through these orientation sessions and never allow these things to become real to us. Like a medical doctor who studies eight years of medicine but never goes out and has his first patient. Like a chemist who studies a lot in the books on chemistry but never goes out to work in a laboratory or uses chemistry. Like a fisherman who learns all about how to use the fishing pole and how to use all of the other fishing gear but never goes out and even tries to catch one fish. How foolish! How ridiculous! And so it will be with these sessions. We can listen to many blessed truths from the Word of God. And we can week after week look into the Scriptures and go to prayer concerning these things. But unless it becomes real to us, unless we plunge into this warfare, unless we give ourselves to prayer, it's all just a mock and it means very little. And so let's open our session by reading 2 Corinthians 10 starting at the third verse. Here we read. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. There it is again. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imagination and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. What a tremendous weapon we have. Casting down imagination and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. How it should be the desire of the heart to see every thought brought into captivity, every thing we ever think of, every stream of thought that ever flows through our minds brought into captivity by Jesus Christ and by the weapons of the warfare. And without any doubt, one of the great weapons in our warfare is the Word of God. We read in Joshua 1.8 these words, jot down the reference. This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. And we all know the story of Joshua. We all know how Joshua faced Jericho and how the walls of Jericho went tumbling down. We all know the victories that Joshua wrought in the Promised Land. And we read in the 11th chapter of Hebrews that Joshua was reckoned righteous because of his faith. Yes, Joshua meditated in the Word of God day and night. It became his weapon. It became his rock and his anchor. And because of it, he saw victory after victory in the Promised Land. We read in Ephesians 6.17, And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, in which we can slay the enemy, in which we can move forward in power, in which we can move forward and destroy the powers of darkness and win victories for our God and Savior. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty unto God. Do you believe that, young person? Do you believe that this weapon that you hold in your hand is mighty and is powerful? It says in Hebrews 4.12, For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, or of the spirit and the joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thought and the intents of the heart. What a weapon has been given unto us. What a powerful weapon has been entrusted unto us to enter into this tremendous warfare. Yea, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. I think of Matthew 24.35, where it says, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away. How true this has been, as atheism down through the years, as tyrants and dictators down through the years have tried to destroy the Word of God. They've burnt copies of the Bible. They've nailed the translators of the Bible to crosses and burned them at the stake. And all through history, there's been men who've tried to destroy the Bible. And yet it goes on and on and on. Yea, the Word of God, endurance forever. How true it is. Praise be to God. Isaiah expressed it so clearly in the 40th chapter and the 8th verse, when he said, The grass withered, the flower faded, but the Word of our God shall stand forever. Yes, this is the weapon that has been entrusted unto us, a mighty weapon. And yea, might in this time together tonight, we learn just what we need to do to effectively make use of this weapon. For it's one thing to know about it. It's one thing to know that it's powerful. It's one thing to know that it can be used in soul winning and evangelism. It's one thing to know that it can be used to bring every thought into captivity. And it's another thing to go out into the warfare using it effectively. And as we think of the use of this weapon, we can make a comparison with the use of worldly weapons in physical warfare. And there's three main things that every soldier needs to know about his weapon. There's three main things that a soldier needs to be conscious of concerning the use of his weapons. A soldier in warfare without a weapon isn't going to do very much. But a soldier in warfare who has a weapon and yet who fails to realize all that's involved in using that weapon is not going to find himself very effective in warfare. The first thing I think we need to realize concerning this great weapon is that we need to know our weapon. How vital it is in warfare to know our weapon. Can you see a soldier moving forward into battle and he has a submachine gun in his hand and he sees the enemy moving toward him and the warfare becomes intensive and he's ready to open fire on the enemy and yet he hasn't learned how to release the safety. He hasn't learned how to pull the trigger. He hasn't learned how to put in the ammunition. And so of what value is his weapon? It is of no value. Rather at that very moment the weapon becomes a mock. The weapon becomes a stumbling block. The weapon becomes the offense and it becomes of no value. And in turn when he doesn't know the weapon he can easily be conquered. The enemy can take the weapon and with their knowledge of it can use it to continue the battle against him. Yes, it's vital to know our weapon. Many of you who are listening to my voice are enrolled in Bible school. Others are enrolled in Christian colleges where you are having Bible courses. Others are at the university where although you don't have as much opportunity to study the Bible you still if you are diligent will find opportunities to study the Word of God. And when I was at a secular university a secular college supposedly religious but really quite secular and I had hardly any Bible courses that I really got into the Word of God probably more than any other time of my life. Yes, God will give you time to get into his Word as you hunger and thirst for it. And so there's no excuse for us not knowing the Word of God. For those of you in Bible school or at a Christian college you are without excuse. You have a golden opportunity. And I beg of you in the name of Jesus to take advantage of every class you have in the Bible. Some of your classes might seem dull and some other things might seem unimportant. But oh my God make you diligent in the study of his Word. In the study of the Old Testament. In the study of the New Testament. My God make you diligent because your knowledge of the Word of God is going to make a lot of difference as you enter into this warfare. One of the important things in Operation Mobilization and in all of our crusades and one of the great needs is young people who have a knowledge of the Word of God. Who can counsel other young people from the Word of God. Who can give advice from the Word of God. Who know how to present devotionals from the Word of God. Who know how to use the Word of God in an all-out offensive against the enemy. Oh I beg of you. Redeem the time there at school in your study of the Word of God. As you walk down the halls. As you sit in the classroom. Might you be redeeming the time to learn and to know more about this great weapon. The Word of God. There are many ways we can get to know the Word of God. There are many ways. In 1 Timothy 4.13 Paul tells Timothy to give attention unto reading. To give attention unto reading. Reading is one of the ways we can get to know the Word of God. I especially recommend reading a whole book of the Bible through. Maybe once every day for a month. Really get to know that book. Really get to know what it's about. Really get to understand what it's about. Yes reading is one of the ways we can get to know the Word of God. Another way we can get to know His Word is by meditation. I'd like to read you a few paragraphs from Dale Roton's little book Christian Strategy. That talks about meditation. I believe it will be a blessing to us. There on the 18th chapter 18th page of this little book we read these words. To the Hebrews meditating meant concentrating so much on a thought that one speaks it out in words. A disciplined devotional time should result in an overflow of spiritual feeding throughout the day as one rethinks the thoughts and the words he received from the Bible. In order to do this something more than grasping a concept is needed. The very words must be memorized. Our minds ponder words with great facility or with greater facility than abstract ideas. Great stress is laid in the Bible on the very words rather than on general thoughts and concepts. Read all of Psalm 119. The Jews love to memorize their scriptures. They experience their peak of worship by meditating devotionally and speaking God's words in praise to Him. This attitude is carried over and strengthened in the New Testament as the writers rejoice in quoting and meditating on Psalms and on Christ's words as it tells us in Ephesians 519 and in Colossians 316. But when can one meditate on the words? Deuteronomy 6-7 gives four times when one should meditate aloud on the word. Please jot that reference down. Deuteronomy 6-7. When you sit down, breakfast, lunch or supper, when you walk around to and from school, work, etc., when you lie down before sleeping, when you arise after you wake up. By practicing this verse one will be able to meditate consciously and subconsciously on His word day and night. God promises great spiritual fruitfulness for this. I think it would be good if we read Deuteronomy 6-7 and 9. Turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and here we read starting in verse 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently speaking of the laws and precepts of God and the words of God unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and thou shalt be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. O my God, grip us with the tremendous importance of meditating on His Word day and night. For as God promised Joshua success, so He promises us success if we will meditate on His Word. And closely linked with this, of course, is memorizing the Word of God. I can testify that more than anything else that I know of in my spiritual life, it is the Scriptures that have been hid in my heart that have kept me from sin. Many a time in the past eight years of my Christian life, the devil has tried to throw me over. In these eight years, and I say it, believe me not with bragging, but in these last eight years, there's never been a day when I haven't known what it was to rejoice in Christ my Savior and to walk with Him as His witness and as His child. Oh, there's been sin. There's been minutes. There's even been times, an hour or so, when the devil has tripped me up and thrown a dart. But oftentimes when the devil tripped me up, when the devil moved in and tried to get me discouraged and tried to get me off the road, the Word of God would come flooding back. One of the verses I memorized early in my Christian life was, Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man saweth, that shall he also reap. And many a time when the devil would move in and try to get me to fall into this sin, to fall into the lust of the flesh, to fall into some carnal sin or something else, I would think of those words from the book of Galatians. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man saweth, that shall he also reap. Let us remember this as we go forward in this warfare. That it's the Scriptures hidden up in our heart that are going to enable us to carry on an offensive and a defensive against the onslaughts of the devil, who comes as a roaring lion, seeking who he may devour. How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to the word. I have hid thy word in my heart, says the psalmist, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119. 11. And how true it is. And yet in all of this, in this important area of knowing the word of God, in this important area of letting the word of God penetrate us, we must realize that our biggest problem always will be not rebellion. No, we're not living in the day when so many people are rebelling against the word of God. And I'm sure that most of you who are listening to my voice are not in rebellion against the word of God. But the big problem of our day is spiritual blindness. We're blind to the reality of the word of God. We read passages and we sing hymns and we even memorize verses at times. And we go through theology classes and we go through doctrine classes. And yet we're blind. We're blind to the revolution that should take place if we dare to believe God's word. If we dare to stand upon the principles of the word of God. If we dare to lay hold by faith of these things that we're reading and that we're coming in contact with daily. And indeed we must fall down before God and say, the devil has blinded us. Spiritual blindness. But praise God. We can pray the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm 119 verse 18. When he said this, Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Is Bible study dull to you? Is the word of God not real to you? It doesn't grip you? It doesn't burn in your heart like a flame? It doesn't cause you to leap from your bed in the morning in a desire to know God and to know His word? Then I beg of you to pray the prayer that this psalmist has in this 18th verse. Open thou mine eyes. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. And God will open your eyes as you pray it in sincerity and truth. Each time you go into a Bible class, each time you go into church on Sunday morning, each time you go into the Word, pray, O Lord, open thou my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law. How we need to get a proper sense of values as the psalmist gives it in the 127th verse of this same psalm. Therefore I love thy commandments above gold. Yea, above fine gold. If someone told you that you could find a few hundred pounds of gold if you were willing to walk a hundred miles, if you were willing to get up early in the morning, if you were willing to exert yourself, would you do it? Why, of course you would. Some of us, perhaps, with our financial situations, would walk far, more than a hundred miles to find a pot of gold. And yet the psalmist says, I love thy commandments above gold. Yea, above fine gold. Can you say that, young person? Can you say that, theological student? Can you say that, Bible school student? Your esteem is commandments, your love is commandments more than fine gold, more than any of your possessions, more than anything you have. You love His Word. Oh, might we read the whole Psalm 119 every day for a week, so that we begin to live as that psalmist lived, and that our relationship to the Word of God might be like His. Oh, that the Word of God might become real to us, that we might know it, that it might become a part of us, so that we can enter in to this warfare. The next thing we need to remember concerning this great weapon, the next thing that is of vital importance, is that we must come to trust it. We must come to believe it with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We're living in a day when liberal theology and false theology and watered-down views of the Bible are very prevalent. And it's the most damning thing, it's the most hellish thing, and the great enemy of the Church today more than Romanism or the cult or communism or Islam, is this infiltrating, watering down of the Word of God. And if you don't believe that the Bible is the Word of God, if you don't believe that the Bible is God breathed from cover to cover, then I don't think you're going to find any happiness or any place in this movement that finds its base in God's Word. And all you'll find in these orientation sessions week after week is that we continually refer back to the Word of God. And the only thing I ask of you to do in your notebooks above anything else is to jot down the references that I give you from His Word. And if you meditate on these references, a revolution will take place in your life. If we dare to begin to believe His Word, a revolution will take place, a revolution of love based on the truth. That's what Christianity is, a revolution of love based on the truth, based on the Word of God. And so the next thing we need to come to grips with, we need to realize is that we must trust the Word of God as our weapon. We must believe it. 2 Peter 1 19 through 21. Let us read this together. 2 Peter 1 19. Here we read a verse that tells us clearly that the Bible is inspired of God. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old times by the will of man, but holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And in 2 Timothy 3.16 we read that all the Bible is inspired of God and is profitable for doctrine and teaching, etc. Yes, the Bible is God-breathed. It's God-inspired. It doesn't mean that human personality is not brought into it. Yes, the Bible is God-breathed. It's God-inspired. It doesn't mean that human personality is not brought into it. It does not mean that human feeling is not brought into it. And of course there's many things that we would like to say concerning the inspiration of the Bible. But it is God-breathed. Some of you might have doubt concerning this. Let's be honest. This is the real crux of the matter. And for those of you who have doubt and for those of you who don't have doubt, I want to recommend just a few books. I think we need to realize why there's so many people who don't believe the Bible. We need to realize why our universities are filled with men and professors who don't believe the Bible. I've studied this very carefully as it's been something that's been on my heart and I've come to this conclusion. The reason that the average man says there's contradictions in the Bible, the reason that the average man says he doesn't believe the Bible is very similar to the reason why the average man would like to have a new car. We've been indoctrinated. The Madison Avenue boys, the publicity boys of the United States are the fellows that run our country. And the same is true of other countries including England. The high-pressure salesmen, the high-pressure publicity men, the men that flood the television screens, the men that pack our magazines and newspapers filled with subtle advertising that deceive people into buying all things they don't need. Many, many years ago, the advertising world in America decided they no longer could sell the American what he needed, they had to sell him what he didn't need. If you don't believe it, I suggest you read a book a book about Madison Avenue. There's another book called Hidden Persuaders that shows how through psychology, the advertising boys these publicity men have managed to sway a whole nation to become the most materialistic nation on the face of the earth. Oh, might God open our eyes to this fact. And it's the same way when it comes to the Bible. Most people don't believe the Bible simply because the publicity men, the agnostics who pumped their books into the secular newsstands, the unbelievers who turned out publications to the tune of a half a million a printing, have indoctrinated us. There are literally hundreds of books that prove the Bible to be the word of God. There are hundreds of books that show that Jesus is the Christ that he's risen from the grave and that we are not following a myth or a legend, but that we are following the truth. But these books have had such a miserable distribution. Christians have so bitterly failed to distribute them that they've hardly reached the hearts and hands of the average person. And our university libraries are filled with books written by sharp unbelievers who are out to make a little money. And Christian books stack the bookshelves of even some of us. Blindness. The devil has blinded us and because of it, unbelieving books have gone out. And I have in my possession a book that I purchased in the Soviet Union called The Funny Bible. The first printing of this atheistic book was a half a million copies. Do you realize that I don't know of one single Christian book that ever had a first printing of half a million copies. In fact, there are few Christian books in all of history that have ever had a circulation of more than half a million copies. But the communists in the Soviet Union turn out The Funny Bible which presents all kinds of arguments that are outdated and that are all wet. But they turn it out in the first printing of over half a million copies and they flood it around the world because they believe that when Lenin said every communist is to be a distributor of atheistic literature that they're to do it. If you haven't done so already I would ask you this week to read the literature manual that we just published or printed. Printed actually published by Moody Press in America. Read those chapters about distribution and about the power of a printed page. Read them carefully and prayerfully. And if you come across something there that you can't agree with or that you don't think is the truth I'd like to hear from you. In fact, in any of these sessions as we go into the word of God if you hear something that you don't agree with if you hear something that you do not believe is biblical, that you do not believe is based on the word of God I want to receive a letter from you. I'm open to criticism. I want to change. I've found in the past eight years I've had to scrap an awful lot of things. I've had to get rid of a lot of things and bring in a lot of new things. And I think one of the most important things we need to realize about this life of being a true disciple is that a disciple is a learner. The disciple isn't someone who knows it all. The disciple isn't someone who says well now I've forsaken all. The disciple is someone who says I'm learning to forsake all. I'm learning of Jesus. I'm learning to walk with Him and talk with Him. I'm learning to love Him. I'm learning to be His witness. I'm learning to evangelize. I beg of you to keep that in your mind and in your vocabulary as you talk to other young people on your campus all that God might deliver us from phariseeism. That God might deliver us from becoming a little quick on our campus. And we think we've got some revolutionary principles and all of a sudden we're more superior than anyone else. And we know more than anyone else. And everyone else doesn't have a vision. And everyone else is dead. And all the churches are dead. And we're alive. At the moment we think this we're probably deader than we could possibly imagine. Oh my God show us that the life of a disciple is the life of a learner. Constantly learning. Constantly open to the teaching of the Word of God. And to the teaching that comes through the correction of other people. And through receiving information from other people. I found often we Christians like to say I got this from the Word of God. And the Lord gave me this from the Word of God. And I learned this from Him. But we aren't too free to admit what we learned from other people. But let's face facts. One of the main ways we learn is through the experiences of other people. Through listening to other people. And as you have conversations around your campus and as you talk to people about this work and about the Lord Jesus Christ remember one of the main ways to carry on a conversation is by asking questions. Don't just expect people to come to you and ask you all about what's going on and ask you what you're doing this Christmas and ask you about Operation Mobilization. But be interested in them. Ask them what they're doing. Ask them about their work. Take an interest in them. Esteem them as better than yourself. Oh how important this is. We might as well burn all of these tapes if we're not going to come to grips with this revolutionary principle that we've been called to be learners. And we can learn from our professors. We can learn from even someone who we think might not be on fire for Christ. We can learn even from a book written by someone who maybe isn't as zealous as you would like him to be. Let's not become the criticizers of the church. Let's become the lovers of the church. Yes, the Bible is the word of God and as we go to it as learners oh what blessing we're going to have. And for some of you as I've already mentioned who maybe have some doubts, would like some reassurance, I want to recommend just a few books. I haven't got time to give you all the information about these books. But here's a short list of books that present clearly the facts concerning why Christianity is true and why the Bible is the word of God. Science Speaks by Peter Stoner. Lawsuit Against the Bible by Rimmer. Wonders of the Word a new book just published by Moody Press. 10 Reasons Why the Bible is the Word of God by Torrey. Evidences of God. The Testimony of 40 Scientists. 40 Scientists who declare their faith in God. Leading Scientists who declare their faith in God and many of them their faith in Jesus Christ put out by Putmans of New York. I might just insert here that because I'm recommending these books, doesn't mean I agree with everything that's found within their pages. For there are naturally some things within these books that most of us would not agree with. Just a few other titles. One in particular that has been a blessing to my heart. The Reason for Our Hope published by Moody Press. A little cold portage book. Then a new book just out by Moody Press called Countdown. Then a book a number of authors contributed to it called A Miracle Book. I believe published by Back to the Bible, also Moody Press. Biblical Criticism by Bromwell. 57 Reasons Why I Know the Bible is the Word of God. Basic Christianity. Why I Believe. Are the Manuscripts Trustworthy? Harmony of Science and Scripture. Is the Bible the Word of God? Can we trust Bible History? The Authority of the Bible. Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Bible and Modern Science. Am I Intelligent? Verbal Inspiration. Creation's Amazing Architect. And one could go on and on. There are literally hundreds of books in English that show that the Bible is the Word of God. And as I've read many of these books that thrill my soul. I've read the unbelieving books, some of them too. They're subtle. They're stigmatizing. They're killing. They're destructive. And one cannot even open the pages of an unbelieving book without feeling the powers of darkness. Beware. Better to get to know where you stand before you start delving in to these areas of unbelief. Yes, we can trust our weapon. We can be sure that it is the Word of God. We can be sure that it is truth. Prophecy tells us. Think of Isaiah 53. What a magnificent prophecy. I've heard of many cases where a Christian witnessing to a Jewish person has read Isaiah 53 and said, now, tell me, is this from the Old Testament or the New? And in most cases, the Jewish person has said, well, of course that's from the New Testament. And the person said, and who does it describe? And the Jewish person has said, well, it describes Jesus. And then they said, but you see, it's from the Old Testament. And then the amazing prophecies concerning the Jews themselves. Study these things. They're faith builders. And they give us the assurance that the Word of God is true. The great prophecies in the Scriptures concerning Tyre, concerning Jerusalem, concerning Egypt, concerning Babylon. The great prophecies in Scripture concerning history. And then that great faith inspiring crucial, vital thing and event, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whole books have been written. I think of a book recently written called Who Rolled the Stone? That presents page after page as to why the resurrection is a historical fact. And if the resurrection is a historical fact, Jesus is alive and the Bible is true. And many an agnostic has never been able to answer and none really have been able to answer the question, where is the body of Jesus? Recently I was witnessing to a French agnostic coming over from England on the ferry to France. And when I asked him this question, he couldn't answer me. And I asked him other questions, and he couldn't answer me. And young person, when we get to know the Word of God, and when we get to really know the reasons why we believe the Word of God, we're not hanging our lives on a myth or a legend. We're not following after something because our granddaddies told us so. We unlike the Muslims and the Buddhists and the other religionists are not following after Christianity because so and so said so. But we follow it because we know it's the truth. We study and we've studied and we've seen that it is the truth. If I wasn't sure that the Bible was the Word of God, if I wasn't sure that Christianity was the truth, I would be insane to go about Europe distributing millions and hundreds of tons of pieces of literature that present the message of the Word of God. But because I know the Word of God is truth, because you know the Word of God is truth, it will bring rejoicing to your soul every time you can give a tract out, every time you can give a word of testimony. You'll get up in public, you'll go everywhere preaching and witnessing with boldness because you know you have the truth. It was this great fact that transformed the lives of the apostles. They knew that Jesus had risen and in the book of Acts it refers to the many infallible proofs. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Then lastly in considering our weapon, we need to use it. Simple isn't it? We need to know our weapon firstly, we need to trust our weapon secondly, and we need to use our weapon thirdly. What a foolish soldier is the one who goes to war who knows his weapon, who trusts in his weapon and yet who never uses it. And the enemy moves in and they conquer him and he never pulls the trigger. He knows where the trigger is, he knows how it works, and he knows that it will work but he never uses it. It sounds rather ridiculous but it's even more ridiculous when we go through hours of Bible study and we go to a Bible college and we spend months absorbing the teaching of the Word of God but then never move out in evangelism. Never move out with the sword of the Spirit to conquer the strongholds of the enemy. Oh, one of the things that grieved me when I was at Bible school was to see how few people were really engaged in intensive evangelism, who really had a passion to move out as the witnesses of Jesus Christ who were really redeeming the time. So many secondary matters can take away our time there on the campus. So many wonderful good little activities every weekend. Nice little social functions we can go to. Lots of good things. Mind you, lots of good things. And I wouldn't want to speak against many of these activities and they're very good but I want to tell you when a young man enters into a warfare, he lays aside the good things that he might do for one essential thing. And what we need to see in our lives, many of us is the laying aside of the little good things. The little nice things. The things that are not immoral. They're quite moral. They're quite good. Nice little Christian activities. Might we get the vision of laying many of them aside to aim at this one essential vital emergency task of taking the Word of God to the lost souls around us. Of becoming His witnesses. Of giving all of our time for evangelism and preparation and study and prayer. You say, well this is off balance. And I know that many of our schools in England and America, they're saying we need to have the balance. And I'll tell you what the balance is and I'd like to know and like to see one other scripture that shows me otherwise. The balance is love. And this orientation session after next week's will be on this vital subject of love and if you missed that session you might as well forget most of these other sessions. If you missed love, you've missed everything. And so please, I beg of you keep that in mind as you go back to your room tonight and maybe face a roommate who you don't think has so much vision. Will you keep this in mind. The balance Christian life is the life where love controls everything. Love is the controlling force. And we're rooted and grounded in love as the scripture says. For without this we soon become sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. Is that what you want to be on your campus? Is that what you want to be there in your community? There in your church? Sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. Gonging of pots and pans. Then just go out. Pretend to know it all. Pretend that you've got more of a vision than other people. Just go out and act as if you were somebody special. And those going on operation and mobilization, those going to Mexico have sort of a superior vision. And don't show love. And don't let love be the controlling force. For the word of God and the truth of the word unless it's mixed with love means nothing and the stench of unloving orthodoxy sends many a soul to hell. Might God gripe. Yes we have the truth. That faith given unto our fathers is the truth. And we can come to know it through the word of God. But then we need to go out and use it. We need to first of all use it in our own lives. We need to realize that cleansing comes through the word of God. The Bible says now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to my word. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done unto you. You see prayer and the word is linked together. Yes, the first place that we need to use the word of God is in our own lives. To cleanse out those impure thoughts. To let the word of God sink into our subconscious mind. I believe that's where most of our problems are. You do things and you don't even realize you do them. Things that are offending the people around you. Things that keep you from becoming effective for Christ. They come out of your subconscious mind. They come from that inner cesspool. From that old man. From that ego. From that self. One of the greatest ways to knock out that power of self. One of the greatest ways to cleanse that cesspool. One of the ways to get at it is by meditating on the word of God. Memorizing the word of God. And the word of God goes deep into our unconscious and subconscious mind. And it cleanses. And pretty soon, instead of evil thoughts popping out of our unconscious mind. Instead of having evil dreams and wrong dreams at night. The word of God will cleanse us and it will even keep us while we're sleeping. Remember that. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Commands the Apostle Paul. Then after the word of God begins to grip our own lives. And begins to do and conquer sin and self and pride and vainglory and self seeking and status seeking and position hunting. As it begins to cleanse all of these jealousies and all of this rot in our own lives. Then we move out to use the word of God as an offensive weapon. In evangelism. In soul winning. Down to the bus stations. Presenting men with the gospel of Christ. On the street corners. From house to house. Read I beg of you the manual on literature distribution. And then move out. Using the word of God. Our weapon in this great warfare. Lastly in this session. I want to tell you what I believe is the most important factor in having daily victory through the word of God. In having daily victory in this great battle for the souls of men. In having daily victory over sin and self. And I believe it's in the use of the word of God in worship. How little we know of worship. How little we know of taking time to gather together and to worship him. Many times our prayer meetings become nothing but chain sessions. And we go through our protestant rosaries. And we go through our evangelical prayer wheels. Oh my God, grip us with this tremendous need to take time to worship him. To take time to praise him. Let's make many of our prayer sessions there on our campuses times of praise. Let's just praise him for his mighty acts. We have so much to thank him for. Let's use the word of God as the psalmist did. To praise him. And to glorify him. Let's take hours. Let's take nights out to worship him. To be caught up in his glory. To be caught up in praise to him. And to love him and to quote his word. And to meditate on it. And to memorize it. And to think upon it. As we worship together in groups of two. In groups of twenty. And in our individual times with God. What's the secret to daily victory in our Christian lives? It's a daily experience with God. A daily worship experience in which our mind goes away. And the mind of Christ is substituted. In which our life goes and disappears. And the life of Christ is substituted. As we get to know him. As his word eats and burns its way into our hearts. As we get to know the power of God. And the love of God. And the peace of God. Which passes all understanding. Which is far beyond anything we can imagine or comprehend. He says, Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. For the weapon of our warfare is not carnal. Yet it is the word of God. Let us pray. Father, don't let us ever be the same again. Revolutionize our Bible study. Revolutionize our meditation. Revolutionize our evangelism and our soul winning. Revolutionize above everything else our worship. That we might use the word of God to worship you. To praise you. To love you. And to exalt you above every name. Knowing that someday every knee shall bow. And every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ. And thy word is truth. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.