In this sermon, the speaker reflects on his own experience of never being encouraged to forsake everything and follow Jesus Christ. He admires the emphasis of a group called St. Delight on sacrificial living for the spread of the gospel. They believe that even a small sacrifice, like giving up a candy bar, can have a significant impact on the salvation of souls. The speaker also highlights the importance of prayer in their work, as they regularly gather together for prayer and service.

After, in our study of the book of Amos, we heard God thundering out against the wealth and luxury of the people of God in the day in which Amos lived. And to know it's possible to become all exhilarated and excited through the ministry of a man like Amos and not to do anything about it. And the real test of a conference like this is not how stirred up we become and it's not how many neon lights go in, go on inside of us or how vibrated we feel. Sometimes we go away from a conference and say we really got a blessing. But the real test of a conference is what changes are made in our lives as a result. So that will be in the balances of eternity the test of this conference, whether our lives, after we go away from here. Now last night we heard perhaps what you might call the negative side of it, a denouncing of the sins of the people in that day. But we might ask ourselves this morning, what's the positive side of it and what can we do about it? And so I thought I would take the time this morning to tell you about a group of young believers who have really been wakened up at God and who have decided to do something about it. These are a group of young Christian people that started off in the Middle West and they banded together under the name of Send the Light. These young men and women are for the Lord Jesus Christ what Communists are for the Kremlin. They've been accused of being fanatics and they are. They're fanatics for the namesake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in order to go back to the beginning of the story, and I'd like to say that in all of this I'm not trying to exalt men, but if I use names it's simply to fasten things down more definitely in your mind. To go back to the beginning of the story I'd have to go back to Billy Graham's Madison Square campaign in New York, and a young man named George Verwer was saved at that time, a young man from New Jersey. And after he was saved he went back to a college he was attending in Tennessee, Maryville College. George didn't know very much about the Christian life, all he knew was that God was his Father and Jesus Christ was his Savior. And he didn't particularly live a separated life there in the college. If there was a dance though he went to a dance and all the other worldly amusements he seemed to participate in them. But there was another young man at that college named Gail Ropon, and somehow or other he found that George was now a child of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he started discipling George. He got him up into his room and they started going over the word of God together. Two young fellows with a fresh approach to the scriptures, unshattered by all the traditions that have come down through the centuries. They started reading the Bible and they started reading verses like Luke 14 33. So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsake us not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple. And Gail would look at George and say what does that mean George? And George would say either the Bible means what it says or we ought to throw it away. But you know it's pretty true too, it's pretty true. These young people have the courage to give the Lord Jesus credit for knowing what he was talking about. And that's more than some of the rest of us have had down through the years. Some of the rest of us have been satisfied to pattern our lives after the lives of other Christians. And I believe it's one of the biggest mistakes I've made in my life. Instead of pioneering, instead of going and taking the word of God, and if it has a hard interpretation be willing to accept it as being hard. I've been able to give plenty of reasons why those verses didn't mean what they said. But these young people couldn't think of a single one. And so God began to work in and through them. And about that time these dear young people came across that well-known letter, I suppose you've read it, that was written by a communist telling her why he had to break off the engagement. And just for those who haven't heard it I'd like to read that letter to you. It was read by Billy Graham at the Inter-Varsity Conference about four years ago. He said I have in my hand a letter written by a communist student at an eastern university after he had gone to Mexico and become a communist. He wrote to his fiancee breaking off their engagement. Here's part of what he said. We communists have a high casualty rate. We're the ones who get shot and hung and lynched and tarred and feathered and jailed and slandered and ridiculed and fired from our jobs and in every other way made as uncomfortable as possible. A certain percentage of us get killed or imprisoned. We live in virtual poverty. We turn back to the party every penny we make about what is absolutely necessary to keep us alive. We communists don't have the time or the money for many movies or concerts or T-bone strips or decent homes and new cars. We've been described as fanatics. We are fanatics. Our lives are dominated by one great overshadowing factor, the struggle for world. We communists have a philosophy of life which no amount of money could buy. We have a cause to fight for, a definite purpose in life. We subordinate our petty personal selves into a great movement of humanity. And if our personal lives seem hard or our egos appear to suffer through subordination to the party, then we are adequately compensated by the thought that each of us, in his small way, is contributing to something new and true and better for mankind. There's one thing in which I'm in dead earnest and that is the communist cause. It's my life, my business, my religion, my hobby, my sweetheart, my wife and mistress, my bread and meat. I work at it in the daytime and dream of it at night. Its hold on me grows, not lessens as time goes on. Therefore, I cannot carry on a friendship, a love affair, or even a conversation without relating to this force which both drives and guides my life. I evaluate people, books, ideas, and actions according to how they affect the communist cause and by their attitude toward it. I've already been in jail because of my ideas and if necessary, I'm ready to go before a firing squad. Well, these two young fellows got a hold of this type of a philosophy. They said if communists can live that way for a crusader, then Christians could live that way for the savior. Well, after that, George was transferred to Moody Bible Institute and Dale went to Wheaton College to take his graduate work. And as they went there, they sought to disciple other young people. They sought to present the claims of Christ to other young people, and it was amazing how God began to work. All of a sudden, the nucleus sprung up and God began to work in these schools and also, I'm glad to say, in Emmaus Bible School as well. Well, Christmastime started rolling around and they said, now what would disciples do at Christmastime? Would they go home and gorge themselves on turkey and all the fixings and have a gay time with the family? Or with the world perishing at their doorsteps, would they do something about it? They decided that the Christian thing to do would be to go out on a literature crusade in Mexico. And so they did. They started down in Mexico, took the gospel. Some of them spent Christmas Day taking the gospel to people who lived in the city dumps outside Mexico City. Now, these young people adopted certain principles in their work, and these are the principles that have endeared them to us and have made this work of God. One of the great principles is the principle of faith in the living God. There's a word that is not in their vocabulary, and that is the word. When George was going to go to Spain, people said, George, you might as well forget it. It's impossible. You know, the purple curtain, Rome, Bolshevik. And his answer was, if impossible is the only objection, it can be done. If it's possible, there's no glory for God in it. But we have the God who specializes in the impossible. And if it's impossible, then God can do it and glorify himself in it. I had a letter from dear Dale Roton, and he said to me, Mr. McDonald, it's about time we stop fooling around in the crib of faith and launch out to plain country for Christ. And I've heard these young fellows challenging one another and saying, when did you pray for Romania last? And what language do they speak in Yugoslavia? And that's the interest they have in the evangelization of the world, that they are claiming these countries for the Lord Jesus. We often speak of certain countries as being closed to the gospel. For instance, China. You can't do anything in China, can you? Wipe China off with all its millions. And Russia, let's not get behind the iron curtain, so you don't have to worry about that particular section. Those countries are closed to the gospel. These young people snort at that type of language. Closed to the gospel? You mean that the iron curtain is greater than God? That's what it boils down to. The bamboo curtain is greater than God. I remember one of them saying one time, what's hindering God is not the iron curtain of Russia, not the bamboo curtain of red China, or the purple curtain of Rome. What's hindering God is the luxury curtain. Not bad for a 23-year-old, is it? Kind of humiliating to be taught lessons by them, but there it is. These young people have a faith that's indomitable, it seems. I remember our dear brother Kevin Dyer went down to Moody one night to one of their prayer meetings, and the next day he came back and we were talking about it. And I said to him, what was it like? He said, I couldn't describe it to you. He said, all I can tell you is that one of those fellows was on his knees and started praying about Russia and getting the gospel into Russia. And he said, when he got through, Khrushchev looked like a midget. And that's exactly their attitude. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine to defy the armies of the living God? And you know, that's an attitude of victory, and I'm not surprised that God has used them. One of their great verses that I hear them repeating in their prayers is, Who through faith subdues kingdoms? Well, I always knew that was in Hebrews 11, but I never thought it had any present application to me. I never thought that it might be possible that I, as a servant of the Lord, might be able to subdue a kingdom. But there it is in the word of God. How wonderful it is to see and hear young people taking a verse of scripture like that and appropriating it to themselves in the 20th century. Who through faith subdues kingdoms. Then the second great emphasis of their work is the emphasis on world evangelization. These young people believe that the will of God is the evangelization of the world. Now, don't misunderstand me. They don't believe that everybody in the world is going to be saved, but they do believe that it's the will of God that everybody should hear the gospel. That every man and woman has the right to hear the gospel once before he dies. I remember one of them speaking one time, and he started this sentence. He said, The greatest missionary verse in the Bible is, and I hesitated, and I began to think as rapidly as I could of all the missionary verses. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. My mind went down through the list, but I didn't come up with the one that he came up with. He said, The greatest missionary verse in the Bible is, Thou shalt love thy neighbor. As you do on the Bible, a lot of people in the world just don't. If you loved your neighbors yourself, you'd never be happy, but I had it too. You have the word of God. You have plants that are 26 million people in the land of Turkey, and only one gospel tract in the whole Turkish land. You have wonderful books on your library shelves. If we really loved our neighbors as ourselves, we'd want them to have them too. Everything in the lives of these young people is subordinated to this one great overshadowing task of getting the gospel out of the earth. And then I think another wonderful emphasis in the work is the emphasis that they have on finances. They will not make their needs known to anyone but God. Of course, that isn't new, but many of us have seen to be scriptural. They will not make their needs known to anyone but God. And yet God, in his wonderful power, has given these young people one of the largest gospel literature distributions in the Spanish language today. I'll be telling you about something of the rest of the work that's going on now, but just think of that. I don't know of one of them that's over 24 years of age, and they have one of the largest gospel literature distributions in the world today. And they live very simply by faith in the living God. I remember one of these dear fellows at one time had come to the end of his resources, humanly speaking, and didn't have anything really for his expenses for the next day. And so he spent a portion of the night in prayer to God, and the next day he went out to the assembly in La Grange. There was a meeting there, and a woman came up to him, one of the sisters in the assembly, and perhaps he saw that he was a little teetered, I don't know. And she said to him, Dale, how are your finances? And he said, my great need is for prayer. She said, Dale, every year at this time I put some flowers on my husband's grave, but this year I've decided to put it into the work of the Lord, and she handed him ten dollars. That's what he had prayed for hours before. And these dear young people go out in one of these crusades, they pray in half the money without anybody knowing of the need, and they go out and earn the other half. He gives them the dollar. I remember that one of the young men known to some of you was at our school, he was praying about going to Mexico on one of the crusades. And they have tapes, indoctrination tapes, it's really a system of spiritual brainwashing, and I use that in the most respectful way, because you can't listen to those tapes and ever be the same again. And one of these tapes discussed this fellow's financing needs, and it was just used by the members of the group. But one of our instructors, Dr. Woodring, who died a year ago just now, he happened to be in the dormitory, and he happened to overhear one of these tapes, in which this young man's needs for Mexico were discussed. It wasn't supposed to be that way, but he did, he overheard it. And when he finished, he went up to him, and he pressed some money into his hand, and he said, here, mentioning him by name, he said, I want to have fellowship with you in the works in Mexico. And that dear young man said to him, I'm sorry, Dr. Woodring, he said, I can't accept it, he's going to be covenanted before the Lord that the money must come. And this is the type of fiber that these young people are made of. I should mention that in those tapes, when they're instructed as to the principles to be followed, that George Burr, who was the If you're not willing to forsake everything to follow Jesus Christ, there's no room for you. But I thought, 45 years I've lived, nobody has ever said that to me. Nobody ever said that. I remember as a young man, being encouraged to go on in business, being encouraged to go on to make a name for myself in the banking world. And I shot straight for the gold, investment analysis, and I don't remember anyone ever suggesting to me that what I ought to do was forsake everything to follow Jesus Christ. And here they get it over the tape in our 20th century. And then I think perhaps the emphasis of their work that has endeared them to me more than anything else is their emphasis on sacrificial living for the spread of the gospel. George Burr once said, if I really believed that one cent would buy 12 tracts, and 12 tracts could be used in the evangelization of 12 souls, I wouldn't spend a nickel on a candy bar. One cent could be used to buy 12 tracts, and 12 tracts could be used in the salvation of 12 souls. But if I really believed that, I wouldn't spend a nickel on a candy bar. One of these dear young fellows was attending a certain school in the Midwest, it doesn't make any difference what school it was, it could have been any school, Christian school. And he was president of the freshman class of that school. And as president of the freshman class, he had to face the subject of class gifts, class jackets, class bodies, the things that are just common in almost any school you've been to, and taken for granted. And God was dealing in the light of this young fellow, Roger Morales, and he thought, how can we spend money on these things that do not contribute to the eternal welfare of souls? And so he said that to the other members, the other officers of the class. He said, what we have in our power, that which can be used of God in the salvation of souls, can we spend this on our own pleasure? And it caused quite a, not a fuss, I don't mean a fight, but it caused soul stirring, and confusion in a way. And the issue went up to the administration of the school, and perhaps they thought it was too hot a potato, and so it came bouncing back down to the student council. And what are you going to do? What are you going to do when you have a fanatic? Rather than cause any fuss, Roger Morales resigned as president of the freshman class of this school, and the day his resignation was announced, a letter was distributed from him to every member of the freshman class. And I'd like to read that letter to you. It said, Dear Freshman, for the past two weeks, the freshman class cabinet has been discussing the thoughts which are presented in the letter below. After a time of much prayer and deliberation, this letter was submitted to the student council executive committee, which moved that the cabinet of the class of 1963 have the authority to vote upon its acceptance. The student council also made the ruling that since our freshman constitution is not specific on the issue of office vacancy, that the vice president of the class should take over the duties of president due to the limited time left to this unexpired freshman term. With sincere regret, on Monday, March 7, the cabinet unanimously voted to accept Roger's resignation. This is the letter. Dear classmate, since the matters of class party jackets and the class gifts have been brought before the cabinet, I, as the president of the class, have been considering the Christian attitude toward these areas. I think we would find the greatest joy for our own selves in giving ourselves our money and our time entirely for Christ and for others, thus finding the reality of his words, he who loses his life for my sake, for Christians to spend their money and time on things that do not result in a definite witness to the unbeliever or for the building up of his children in him, would seem to be inconsistent with the fact that 7,000 people die daily of starvation and over half the world has never heard of man's only hope. How much more glory we could give to God by helping to spread the gospel to the other 60% of the world who've never heard of Jesus Christ, or even in many neighboring homes, instead of coming together by ourselves in a little clique, limiting our social well-roundedness to those of like mind and wasting money and time for our own pleasure. Since I'm aware of specific needs and opportunities where finances can be used to such great advantage to the glory of Jesus Christ, and for helping my neighbor here and abroad, it's impossible for me to allow class funds to be spent unnecessarily on ourselves. If I were one of those who are in so great a need, I would want those who have the ability to do all that they could to supply me with the gospel and with my material needs. And as he would that men should do to you, do ye so to them. But if any man has this world's goods and seeth his brethren in need, yet setteth up his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Therefore it is with love and prayer that you might see the Lord Jesus giving his all that I hereby submit to you of the class of 63, in hymn with you, Roger Malsted." You know, God has wonderfully put his hand on that dear young fellow, and he and Gail Roton and Gail's wife are over in Turkey today, a land of 26 million people without the gospel. God has already used them in a marvelous way, and the work is going on. This is their emphasis on sacrificial living for the spread of the gospel. One night George Burwell was in his room at Moody Bible Institute before one of the Mexican crusades, and a knock came on his door. There was a young fellow there. The young fellow came in. George said, what is it? Well, he said, you know, George, I'm going with you on the crusade to Mexico. And George said, yes, that's right. We're praying that you'll be one of the ones to go to Mexico. He said, George, he said, you know, we pray for half of the money without anybody knowing of the need. And he said, George, he said, I'm praying for the Lord to supply my needs. And he said, I have my bank account, my life savings. George didn't say anything to him. He said to him, he said, George, he said, how can I ask the Lord to supply some money in the bank? George didn't say anything to him. And that dear fellow reached in his pocket, he took out a slip of paper, and he put his check for $3,500 down, and he said, here, George, use this. And the work of the Lord in Mexico, he said, I'll go trusting in him. And he did. And that money went to the purchase of Christian literature for Mexico, and he went to Mexico trusting in the Lord for the Lord to supply his needs. He's rather fanatical, isn't he? I think that's rather extreme, rather revolutionary. There's nothing else will ever get your job done. Dear Dale was speaking back in New Jersey, and he was telling of Turkey, the land of Turkey, and of the opportunity for getting in there with the gospel. And there was a widow in the audience. And afterwards, she came up to Dale, and she said, my, she said, Dale, God has been speaking to me. So what's the trouble? And she said, you say there are 26 million people dying in Turkey without the gospel. And she said, all I can think of, she said, is a bank account I put away to put my son through college. He said, dear Dale, what should I do with that money? And he said, put your son through college. He said, I know, I hear what you say, but he said, I don't get any. He said, supposing I were to ask you point blank, what should I do with that money? What would you say? What I'd say, put your son through college. He said, I know, there you go again. But she said, Dale, supposing it were your money, what would you do with it? Oh, he said, I don't have that problem. He said, everything I have above my current necessities goes into the work of the Lord. And she said, that settles it. At a short time later, she came to hear me, and she handed him a check for a few thousand dollars. He said, Dale, as long as there are 26 million people dying in Turkey without the knowledge of Jesus Christ, this is the way God has been working. These young people are, it seems to me, their minds are IBM computers, and they're ceaselessly at work, converting everything into souls. George said to me one day, Mr. McDonald, if somebody told me that there were $3,000 at the end of 10 blocks, and I could have that money by crawling on my hands and knees, I'd be thinking of souls all the way. And they're faithful in that which is little, and God has made them well-faithful in that which is little. And then another emphasis of this work, which is very, very important, and perhaps that's why I've left it to the last, is their emphasis on prayer. Their emphasis on prayer. Now this is really where the work is done. These young people gather together regularly. Sometimes on a Friday night they'll start drifting into Emmaus, or maybe 10 or 11 o'clock. A lot of them have Christian service that night, various children's works and all the rest. They'll come together at 10 or 10.30 or 11 o'clock on a Friday night at Emmaus. This last year it's been the first Friday of every month. And they'll start to pray. Dear friends, when the morning light is breaking, they're still at it. They're still at it. And this is where lives are changed. Those are the nights where the work is done. It isn't prayer all night. They oftentimes start off with a time of silent prayer, asking, confessing anything in their lives that would hinder the working of God in power in their midst. Then perhaps they'll have a report presented on the work in Mexico, and then they'll go to their knees and cry to God for Mexico. And then after that, perhaps they'll have some testimonies of answered prayer in their own lives, and then they'll pray for Spain. Before the night is over, those young people have gone around the world praying intelligently for the work of God in the countries of the world. I'll never forget one night I was there and I saw a boy leave around three in the morning, and he came back with a loaf of bread and a glass of grape juice. And here at three o'clock in the morning, those dear young people gather around the emblems of the Passion. It is death for them. And maybe some people would criticize that as being a little bit out of order or unusual, but I can't help feeling that the Lord gets something special out of young people who love him. And as I say, they pray on till the morning light. I remember this last year on December 1st, three of our fellows left at one o'clock to go up to the dormitory to sleep. That's the understanding. If you're tired, you want to go off to sleep, it's perfectly all right. You don't have to be there. And they all went to bed in their own rooms, and not one of them could sleep. And the Holy Spirit began to grapple with them. And they got up, and they got together again. They said, what's happening? And they realized that God was speaking to their heart. That night in the dormitory, they had a meeting with the Holy Spirit of God. And they came down the next day, and they'd never been the same. They'd never heard. I love to tell the story of a group that, I've told some of you this already, of a group. There were nine of our young people going to Mexico the Christmas before last. And they had received their guidance from the Lord and their provision from the Lord as well. They had everything but transportation, and that could be a problem. And so they got down on their knees, and they cried out to God in their early morning in Mexico. And after a while, they were offered two cars. Perhaps it would be better if I called them two jalopies, because that's what they were. And I thought, well, that's surely the answer to their prayer. But it wasn't. Because you see, when they go to Mexico, they travel right around the clock. They only stop for a necessity, and they don't stop at motels or anything. They're right around the clock. And they only have three drivers. And so three drivers weren't enough, but they thought they'd need a minimum. And so I was there one Monday morning when they prayed, and they asked God, and I thought, poor young people. Isn't it too bad to see young people disappointed so early in their Christian lives? But they didn't know anything about that. And one of these dear girls, Doreen Prince, went to one of their worship meetings at one of the assemblies. At the end of the worship meeting, a young married woman, Gladys, came to her and said, Doreen, how are you getting to Mexico? Oh, Doreen said, that's something you should pray about, Gladys. That was really a revealing answer, wasn't it? And so apparently Gladys did pray about it, and so did her husband. The next Sunday, without another word being said, Gladys came to Doreen, and she said, Gladys, you know, the Lord has really been dealing with John and Mary. What do you think it was? It was a 1960 Chrysler, nine passenger ship. They'd had this experience before, early in the days of the Lord. They needed a truck to go to Mexico, to carry down the literature to Mexico. Well, if they need something, they have a Heavenly Father who loves to hear their needs. And so they went before, and they cried out to God for a truck to go to Mexico. And shortly afterwards, one of these fellows was on the south side of Chicago, and he was introduced to a man who had recently been saved. And the man said, well, look, he said, I can't sing. He said, I can't preach. He said, I really want to do something for the Lord. He said, you know, I have a truck. He said, more than anything else. He said, I'd like to see that truck used in the work of the Lord. Would you know where it could be used? And the fellow said, yes. He said, we prayed all night for that truck. And so they took the truck, and they took it to a garage mechanic, and they said, now, we'd like you to fix his head and shook it. But it's seen it several times already, and it's still going there. Frankly, it would take a lot of faith to ride down in it, but it never fails. It's still going down. I wish you could attend their prayer meetings. I said to one of our brethren here last night that if our assembly prayer meetings were like, their prayers are short, and their prayers are specific, and their prayers are fervent, and some of their prayers shake their asses. I don't think in my Christian life I ever heard anybody ask the Lord to break him until I attended those prayer meetings. And if I've ever known a group of broken young men and young women, and some of you have had a pretty close connection with this work, because the Southeast Asia literature crusade is a part of this same movement of the Spirit of God. And Norman Finn is out in Singapore today because he was obedient to the voice of the Lord speaking in a radical movement like this. That's what it is. And Barry Lumsden and Tim Loveless have both been involved in it, as you know. Both have gone in one of those literature crusades to Mexico, and so the Christians here have a very vital and personal interest in it. Just a little review of what God has been pleased to accomplish. In Mexico today there are several bookstores and several radio broadcasts. I don't know exactly how many bookstores, probably six or seven, distributing the word of God, carried on by national believers. There are perhaps six or seven radio broadcasts. It's against the law to have a gospel broadcast in Mexico. You just can't do it. But they don't know that, and they have six or seven. You see, it's a commercial broadcast. They advertise the bookstores selling Bibles, they have to review the Bible. And so that's the way it goes. I said before, they don't know what the word impossibility means. And there is a group of young people down in Mexico today from many of the colleges in Greenville and in Mayes and Biola and Taylor, carrying the gospel from door to door in Mexico. God has been pleased to do wonderful things in Spain as a result. George Burwell and his wife went over there, and she was expecting a baby at the time. Instead of staying here, the baby will be sent to the phone directory, taken a million names. In fact, right at the present time, they have what they call Operation and their goal is to distribute. The story is told in some detail, and this young people were