In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the urgency of returning to the teachings of the Bible. He highlights the rapid spread of communism and the potential downfall of the world due to our indifference. The speaker urges the audience to have faith in Christ and allow Him to dwell in their hearts. He emphasizes the power of God's Word and encourages the audience to be channels for God's wisdom and guidance in the world. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of living out one's faith and serving the current generation.

To Ephesians chapter 3. We have viewed the epistles of the Ephesians as a manual on your full development as a Christian, as a witness for Christ. I would emphasize this by calling your attention to verse 17, and thereafter in the third chapter, and verse 12, and thereafter in the fourth chapter. That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded or foundationed in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to experience the love of Christ which passes the grasp of your intellect, in order that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, this is the only occasion in the New Testament where the Apostle Paul couldn't wait until the end of the letter to give the benediction. He put it right in the middle, and I don't blame him, do you? He's just told these believers that they can have Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Christ crucified, who is made under them the wisdom of God and the power of God, dwell in them, and they can be filled unto all of the plenitudes of fullness of God. Thus, the benediction, raising his hands by the way to which were shackles and chains, for he writes this from Armistead prison, can't you hear him cry that wonderful, wonderful valedictory now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. What power is that? Christ, filled with the fullness of God in you. This is what he's saying, able to do above and beyond anything you've ever dreamed of. You see he's concerned about their full potential, not what they viewed themselves to be, but what God in his infinite love and wisdom saw them to be. And he's trying to encourage them, raise their sights, enlarge the horizon of their hearts and their imaginations. And he's telling them that God has a marvelous plan for their life, into which all of his wisdom has gone, into which all of his love has gone, and for which all of his power is available. And that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above everything they've ever asked or thought according to the power that works in them. Then notice, now unto him, the glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Please underline that. There's no termination point here. He said this possibility prevails for every member of the body of Christ as long as time endures. It's wonderful to know there are some things that aren't going to change, and this is one of them. Then down to the 12th verse of the fourth chapter, he declares that he's given, that God as Christ is given, that some apostles, some people to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting. Don't be afraid of that word. All it means is maturing or bringing to the expected and the appropriate end. The perfecting of the thing for or unto the work of the ministry, unto the edifying of the body of Christ. Now, who's to do the work of the ministry? Don't say evangelists, pastors, and teachers. No. He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers for the perfecting of the saints into the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the body of Christ. The work of the ministry is to be done by the saints. Nicholas has said for so many years, and we've all echoed it, you're either a missionary or a mission field. And we have to be honest with the word of God and concur. The night of the resurrection or the night that our Lord was taken to be crucified, he said in his high priestly prayer, Father, as thou has sent me, even so have I also sent them. That word sent is the word apostolos, that word from which we get from the Latin, missionary. To send in Latin, you that remember it, I don't remember much of it, but I do remember that middle is the verb to send, from which we get the form missionary. In other words, a missionary is a sent one. So we might read it, Father, as thou has missionaried me, I have missionaried them. And the first thing he said to his disciples when he saw them on the night of the resurrection was, as the Father missionaried me, I have missionaried you. Well, that's just foundational to everything that is to be seen concerning the Christian life in the word of God. On the day that our Lord took leave of the disciples there on the Mount of Olives, you recall that his parting words were, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, ye shall receive power, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. Now listen carefully, ye shall be witnesses unto me, either in Jerusalem, or in Judea, or in Samaria, or unto the uttermost part of the earth. Is that what he said? As I have mentioned recently, I think that that is from the reverse vision, and it's the way, however, a great many people read it. They read it just that way, either or. But it isn't either or, it is both and. Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem. It was years ago in the city of Minneapolis that I heard Dr. Roland Bingham, the founder, really, of the Sudan Interior Mission, and his general director for nearly over 40 years, and he was convinced, and I think I share his feelings, that everyone who is in Christ is a joint heir with Christ, and as such, he is an heir to the promise made to Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant. Dr. Bingham taught across this nation that every single Christian has the high and the holy privilege of having the promise made to Abraham fulfilled in them. Abraham was told that, in thee and in thy seed, and we have been told that if we believe we're Abraham's seed, in thee and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. And it was his contention that every single Christian is to have a worldwide ministry for Jesus Christ. Now that is exactly what I wish to have you see tonight. You shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and under the uttermost part of the earth. Now what's the provision for that? You recall what our Lord said in his high priestly prayer, John 17, Father, that they all may be in union, as thou art in union with me, and I am in union with thee, they may be in union with us, in order that the world may be able to believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory thou has given me, I have given them, that they may be in union, even as we are in union. I in union with them, thou in union with me, that they may be made perfect in union, and that the world may know that thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Here it is, that the world may know, that the world may be able to believe. Well, as our Lord prayed, in just exactly the same way, Father, that you lived in me, and I lived in you, I want my children to abide in me, and I want to abide in them, and if that happens, then the world will know. Now, if it is true that I submit to you the scripture, it is your obligation to prove that it is not what it so clearly declares. If it is true that every believer is to be filled with the fullness of God, filled with the spirit of God, that Christ dwell in their hearts through faith, if it is true that everyone whom he thus indwells and infills is to be a witness to him, both in Jerusalem and unto the uttermost parts of the earth, if it is true that he thus in this relationship is able to do exceeding and abundantly above all we can ask or think according to the power that works in us, then why are there more unevangelized tonight than there have ever been before in the history of the world? And there's only one reason. That is because we have not taken seriously the clear, simple teachings of the word of God and the clear responsibility of those teachings. And if we will accept this, then we come right back to the fact that perhaps the same thing that we've been doing at home, we've been wanting to do overseas. I recall as a pastor having people call me up and say, oh pastor, come right over. My neighbor is here and she, she wants to accept the Lord. And I on one occasion said, I'm not coming. You're there, why should two of us be there? You know the plan of salvation and you have the word, you point her to Christ. I, why should I come? I, I just didn't see any reason. Oh, I couldn't do that. Well, then I said, it's about time that you told your neighbor you couldn't. I hope you don't. I hope you tell her how to be saved and don't tell her that you don't know how to tell her how to be saved because I feel embarrassed for you and for your neighbor, but I'm not coming. What? Because you see, he wanted the pastor to do it. I don't believe that it was the shepherd's responsibility to bear the lambs, it was only to feed the lambs. Somehow we've gotten the idea that all of the witnessing ought to be done by the pastor or by the evangelist or by the teacher. But the scripture says he gave evangelist pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints into the work of the ministry. And the work of the ministry is to be the expression of the life of the saints. Therefore, if this has been the case at home, and I, I'm afraid that the figures prevail, but I heard first back in 1936 when we had a conference in Minneapolis, the Northwestern Bible School, in which it was shown to us that 95 percent of the people who are won to Christ in our evangelical churches in America are won by the activity and the witness of five percent of the members. Ninety-five percent of the people who are listed as members of Bible-believing evangelical churches never in their whole lifetime as Christians ever lead anyone to Jesus Christ or effectively witness to anyone about Christ. Five percent are doing all the work. Now that would account for the progressive deterioration of the percentage of believers in the United States, and it would account for our continuous decrease in the percentage of believers in the world population. Now the scripture's clear. It's very simple. He simply intended every believer to be a witness. He intended every Christian to be a witness for Jesus Christ. And he gave the word as the handbook, and he gave instructors in the form of evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the express purpose of teachings of believers and assisting them, showing them how to be witnesses for Christ. And more than that, he himself said he would dwell in us and walk in us, that he would thus in dwelling us enable us to do exceeding and abundantly above everything we've asked or thought. There's only one answer that I can see, and that is we've been content to have less than what is obviously the normal Christian life. And of course that's the very reason, the very purpose for Keshe. It was that we might have a place, a time, a ministry beginning there in England nearly a hundred years ago when believers gathered up in the late country to consider on Monday evening the nature of real salvation, on Tuesday evening to examine their hearts in the light of the word so that there'd be nothing they carried further into the week that grieves the spirit of God, to be open and honest and transparent with him, on Wednesday evening to consider a life of total abandonment and surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ for his full will and purpose, on Thursday evening to understand the indwelling presence of the Lord Jesus and the power of the spirit of God through our lives, and on Friday evening for them to come to the natural expression of this in witness in the community and to the ends of the earth, and then on Saturday the believers would gather around the Lord's table as they saw and understood that we were all one in Christ Jesus. Now that message has been the message of Keshe for these nearly a hundred years, and thank God it prevails here. But the clear implication is this, that you are to be a witness, a missionary, a representative of Jesus Christ in your home, in your community, where you work, where you go to school, in every area of your life and in every activity of your life. Now it's that simple and it's that clear, but it's not just to be a witness where you are, it's to be a witness for him in your Samaria, in your Judea, and then your Samaria, the area around you, and then that extended area and to the uttermost part of the earth. Now having seen that, I want you to look for with me for just a few moments to the world. I told you that he said this was to prevail throughout all ages, world without end. We're here, the first Keshe conference, the one of the first in this decade of the 70s. I recall back in the 30s when some dear preachers in Minneapolis were absolutely sure and certain that the Lord would come by 1953 and they would all be gathered home and there would time would be no more. Well, I sincerely wish that that had happened, and I'm sure that many of you do, but it hasn't. And whereas we look for his coming and yearn for his coming and long for his coming, he said occupy until I come. And it's imperative therefore for us to understand something of the world of the 70s into which in his wisdom he's brought you to serve for a longer or a shorter period. Many here are going to see if he carries the coming of the 80s, but whether or not we do that, we are responsible to serve him in 1970. Now let's just look at what we have brought into this decade. Some of the problems that confront us and some of the glorious possibilities that we face. May I remind you something about the number of people in the world? When our Lord was here, at the most there were probably no more than a hundred and seventy-five million people in the whole world. That is considerably less than there are in the United States now. But this would be approximately the population of the year in which the time in which our Lord lived. By the year 650 AD, there were only 250 million people in the whole world. You see in those days it took a thousand years for the population to double. This means that by the year 1650 AD, there were only 500 million people in the whole world. A thousand years for the population to double. But by 1650, there had been considerable progress in science and knowledge and so forth, so it only took 200 years for the population to double again. That means that by the year 1850, for the first time since creation, there were one thousand million or one billion people alive on the face of the earth. Now remember that 1850, one billion. In 1850, there wasn't even general knowledge of the germ theory. Surgeons were performing operations with a Prince Albert coat, and when they finished, they would wipe it off on their sleeve and tuck it into the pocket, and there was very little knowledge. There's been very little increase in the knowledge of medicine across these centuries. Very little, virtually none, in transportation. There's been some invention. But that, beginning in 1850, knowledge began to increase and to explode. We have the discoveries of Lister and Pasteur and so many others, and so it was that it only took 80 years for the population to double this time. By the year 1930, the world's population reached two billion. But by this time, medical knowledge is increasing very rapidly. Someone has said every 10 years, the total volume of scientific and medical knowledge increases is hard to measure. I wouldn't know, but at least we know that it only took about 26 years to add the third billion. There were two billion in 1930, and three billion in 1956. But by 1956, the knowledge is general around the world, and consequently, we have settled down to the world's population doubling every 35 years. This means that by the year 1991, there will be six billion people alive on this little spaceship at one time. And it also means that by the year 2000, there will be seven billion, five hundred million. We'll add a billion and a half people in the next eight years, after 1992. Now, do you understand what is happening to the missionary task in the light of this? Do you see what's taking place? The relics go back to something else. In 1950, I was asked by a group of pastors down in Macon, Georgia, all of whom had taken on the support of missionaries in Africa under the SIM through my ministry, what's going to happen in the next 50 years in missions, based on what's happened in the last 100 years. And I made a study of it, and that's when I first encountered these figures I've just given you. But I also began to study the number of missionaries and the amount of money for missionaries. And this is what we discovered, that by the year 1970, according to that projection, considering the increase in inflation, and considering the increase in the evangelical community, according to what we projected in 1950, by the year 1970, the increase in the giving of the evangelicals would just about stay equal with the rise in inflation. So that 1970, according to what we saw in 50, would be the level that we have to say our missionary leverage would be. We would not have more dollars any time after 1970 than we had then. Now, I was wrong in that. We actually reached that figure in 1967. As of 19—if you want to find out how much money we're going to have for missions and net equity, the ability for missionary work, you find out that there were $200 million given by evangelicals in 1967 for all overseas work. And that is going to be the figure with which we'll have to work from here on out. Now, at the same time that the world population graph is going like this, almost straight up in terms of 2,000 years, our missionary giving and the equity or the leverage of that giving is level or just dropping a little. Now, what does this mean? This means that we've got to do, as Reverend Allen has been telling us day by day, have ever better trained and more effectively spiritually equipped missionaries going to work with the church and to serve in the strategic capacity. But as the world population is increasing so rapidly, we are now being forced by the sheer pressure of statistics to come back to the New Testament plan and program. And the New Testament plan and program is that every believer be a witness for Christ. Every believer be a missionary for Christ. We are to that point because of the sheer impossibility of getting enough professional missionaries from this country at the increasing expense to send them abroad to evangelize this exploding population. Absolutely impossible. And so, therefore, we're now to the time when it is going to be imperative for us to, at long last, re-examine what the New Testament plan and program was. And every single Christian assume the responsibility of being a witness for Christ, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth. Now, I believe that the Lord's plan has not failed. I just believe it hasn't been tried. And I believe that the very mechanics of this thing and the statistics of this thing are driving us back again to the simple New Testament program, and that is that every believer be a witness. Now you see this in the New Testament. It says, and they went everywhere, they were scattered abroad, and went everywhere preaching the word. And the Lord went with them confirming the word. Now, who was the then? The apostles? You say, oh no, because you read that the apostles abode in Jerusalem. Who was it that went everywhere? Well, it was laymen like Philip. Philip was the chap that started to run. Persecution was hot after him. They were breathing down his neck, and he took off up into the northwest and ended up in Antioch. And he leaned against the lamppost and someone, what are you doing here? Well, he says, I'm running. Why are you running? Because they want to kill me. Why do they want to kill you? Well, I'm a Christian. What's a Christian? Well, what is a Christian? Well, I believe in Jesus Christ. He's the son of God. And he began to tell them what he believed when he caught his breath and the spirit of God began to bless the witness. And a revival broke out in that area. And finally, Peter and John came out and ministered to them and baptized them. And then the Lord said, now, Philip, you've got to leave this good meeting. It's in professional hands here. And I want you to go down to Port Gaza. I am certain that he was one murdering businessman. I don't think he was very excited about going down where there weren't any people when he'd been the human instrument God had used to bring a whole city to Christ. But you see, there was a foreign student. I got to get that in somewhere, didn't I? There was a foreign student that had come from Ethiopia. Now, I know he was a student because he was reading while he was riding on a chariot. And if you don't think that's hard, you just try reading when you're riding in your car on the road. But when you're going over a bumpy desert and you're so concerned that you're trying to read with no springs and drawn by horses, friend, you're really a student. And he had been up at Jerusalem and he'd come to worship. Now, I have a feeling being a businessman, the politician is that, that this was a business trip. I think he put it on his expense account. And I think that was the thing to do and wherever you can, you know, legitimately. But with all of this, whatever it was, whoever he saw, whatever he did, he'd come to worship. And now he had the Bible and he had the books and he'd been in the presence of the temple and he'd seen all the religious activity, but he had not had a witness. What did Christ say? You shall be witnessing. He didn't say send the Bible into all the world. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Now, I believe in Christian liturgy. I believe in printing new testaments and giving out gospels of John, but I want you to know they will never take the place of a man or a woman who stands there with a smile of Christ upon his face and the miracle in his heart. He had a Bible and he was reading in a proper place. And Isaiah 53, if you understand what you're reading, how can I, unless some man, someone related to my experience. And so Phillip joined him in the chariot and he began to share what he knew of Christ. And this man who then prepared of God and God and his sovereign grace and love and Phillip at the juncture of the lifetime. And then the man was baptized and he went back. And if you go into Ethiopia today, you will find that Ethiopia is a Christian nation and they trace the beginnings of Christianity to the treasure of the queen, whom Phillip met. Never underestimate the ministry that you can have to a visitor here in this country with 250,000 students in our colleges and universities, continuously enrolled. You have a most glorious opportunity to be a witness for Christ in every country under the sun, simply by opening your home to hospitality and receiving them in and giving them the warmth of the privilege of being in your home and sharing Christ in the daily relationship. So how important it is for us to understand that you may not be able to go to all the countries of the earth, but God has probably sent them right into your neighborhood. Then we understand, of course, that it was not just a foreign student ministry. We also recognize that of all the 120 people that were in the upper room, there's only mention made in the New Testament, as near as I can recall, of 11 of them. What about the other 109? Where were they? You recall the last mention of Thomas, don't you? The Lord had come into the upper room and Thomas wasn't there. A lady asked me once, where was Thomas? Well, your silly question deserves a silly answer. I said, he's gone down to the local unemployment agency to register. He said he'd be nine up on those other fellows if he got there first. You can't prove he wasn't. Well, at any rate, wherever he was, when the Lord came back next time, he waited till Thomas was there, and he said exactly what Thomas had said. Stretch forth your finger and put it in my hand. Stretch forth your hand and put it in my thigh. Thomas was overwhelmed as his unbelief had been discovered, and he fell, I am sure, on his hands and knees and crawled across the room and buried his face in the nail-torn nail-scarred feet of my Lord, as soft as the tears dappled in a steel womb, my Lord and my God. But dear friend, if you've ever said to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, my Lord and my God, you never can say my about anything again. You've used it for the last time. My skill, my knowledge, my talent, my ability, my wealth, my family. No! He said, my Lord and my God, you have abandoned the right to say my in a proprietary sense, ever, ever, ever again. It is his family that's entrusted to you, his business entrusted to you, his training entrusted to you. You're not your own, you're part of the Christ, and you're to glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which is God. Thomas, we never hear of him in the New Testament again. I'll tell you what happened. He was a business man, and he had a world vision pressed upon his heart. His tradition tells us, and it's well authenticated, that in order that he could carry out the commandment of Christ, he went into the export-import business. And we find him going out into India, there on a trip buying spices, because you know there were no refrigeration, no refrigeration at all. And when you killed an animal, you either had to eat it or smoke it or dry it or make sausage out of it. And if they had the peppers and the spices from India, then they could preserve the meat. And so at one time in history, pepper, for instance, was equivalent in value to gold, a pound of gold, a pound of pepper. And so Thomas was in the export-import business, and he'd gone out to India, there to buy and to sell. Reminds me of that marzlum I saw down in Sudan. It was a closed area under the British in those days, and this man was there, a new truck and a new trader. And I went over to him and greeted him in Arabic, and I said, I perceive, I see that you're a trader. He looked at me, and he drew himself up, and he said, you are mistaken. I am a messenger of Allah and a servant of his prophet Muhammad, and I am simply down here trading so as to help these poor people come to the truth. Now that's the reason why many people are being one to claim to be one to Islam in Africa, for one that's being one to Christ. Because every single Muhammadan views himself as a missionary of the Christ. Now that, that that I just knew, is exactly what Thomas was. He was a businessman, and he went into India. He began to preach Christ, and some believed, and heard, received, and the church was established. And he returned again as far as tradition tells us, and he nurtured them, and there were more that came to Christ. When he came back the third time, the enemies had been stirred up. The priests that had been there for centuries were stirred up. And so they met him, and pursued him, drove him back down, and he fled back down toward his ship, and the spear pierced him on the shore as he was running back to a boat to get to the ship. And they chewed his body in pieces, and it was either burned or buried, no tomb was found. And Thomas died for Christ, a martyr's death on the shore of South India. But I want you to know that after 200 years of missions in India, there are more spiritual descendants of the businessman Thomas, than we've been able to produce in 200 years of modern missionary effort in India. We say they don't all have a saving knowledge of Christ, perhaps that's true, but nor do all that are the products of our missionary effort have a saving knowledge of Christ. But I'm submitting to you that we have some New Testament precedent, and therefore as we come to this seventh decade in this century, we've got to come back to realize that every one of us are under the responsibility to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The same one who said, come and rest, after he has his age will come to rest, and go and preach. It's absolutely irresponsible and scripturally dishonest to say, come and rest means me, and go and preach means you. It's just as much your responsibility to go and preach, as it was to consider the invitation, come and rest, as being personally yours. He said it's the same thing to the same people. And therefore we've got to come back to the concept that every Christian is to be a missionary for Jesus Christ. Where you are, you've got to realize that your neighbors, though they may drive the same model car as yours, and make the same house payments as you do, and have their two children attend the same school, if they do not know Jesus Christ, your refined cultured neighbors that eat off sterling silver are just as lost as any package in New Guinea. You must realize that. And if you live next door to them, it is your responsibility to love them, to Christ, to pray for them, to intercede for them, and to witness to them, and to speak under God every opportunity. I have some people in New York living in an apartment during the crusade there in 1957. They said we attended every single meeting of the crusade. I said how marvelous, whom did you take? Well we couldn't take anybody, we lived in an apartment building. They had gone every night to the crusade and had taken no one during three months, and hid behind the fact they lived in an apartment building. I've lived in an apartment building, and I know that you can meet people if you wish to meet them. Whenever a new apartment complex is built in one of our cities, the communists assign people to move into that apartment, because the only way they can get in, to have contact with them, is to live there. And if they're making too much money, then the communist authorities, the one above them, say quit the job you have and take a job that lets you in. We've got to get into that complex. Time is going to come when we're going to choose where we live, not on the basis of what's congenial to my spirit and what's pleasing to me, but where the head of the church wants me to establish a beachhead for the gospel. We're going to choose where we work, not on the basis of the money we make, but on the basis of where the head of the church wants us to be. I believe where you live, and where you work, and where you go to church, and where you buy, and every activity of your life is to be related to the supreme task of the church, which is to get the gospel to every creature. We've got to understand that the communists realized this, the moslems realized this. In 1935, I was a student in Bible school in Minneapolis. We were assigned a theme. We were to write a theme on the subject, some subject that was pertinent and relevant. Now I made it a matter of a real prayer, a real thought, and finally I decided that my subject would be communist educational training methods in the state of Minnesota. I put the help of one of the teachers who was concerned about this because, you see, Minnesota was the one state in the union that came within a few hundred votes of electing a communist government back in the mid-30s. And so with the help of this teacher who was concerned, and I might say this, that I am terribly, terribly distressed about the fact that most evangelical believers aren't concerned, and I believe you ought to be concerned. You ought to be desperately concerned about it because there is every reason for us to treasure the heritage that we have that's caught the blood of good men that have died that we might have the freedom and the liberty that we have today. But at any rate, my theme, communist educational training methods in the state of Minnesota. Well, I prepared, as I recall, 23 questions. The day came when I couldn't put it off any longer. I didn't have to go far, but just with characteristic rationals, they put their training school right across from the front doors of the great First Baptist church in Minneapolis on the Levinson Harvest. So I made the long journey from that secure Bible school across to open that door. And believe me, when I stepped into that door, into that room and the door slammed behind me, I felt that a trap door was going to open and I would be shot in the tooth all the way through the Siberia. I never expected to see daylight and I just let the door close behind me. I was scared. I went up to the desk and I said, I am a student from the Bible school across the street and I would like to talk with somebody about communist educational training methods in the state of Minnesota. I'm writing a paper. And the lady looked at me and smiled. She was just a human being breathing breath by breath the same as I was. And she said, well, you ought to talk to Big Bill. He's a God-hater, but he's smart. And she used the intercom, Bill! And went up the steps. And after a while, I heard a clomping down the steps and there was Big Bill. I mean, he was big. He was six feet, eight acts and a little guy. I mean, he's out. I felt like a grandfather in his sight. Bill came down. He stood there, leaned against the counter and I read my questions off and he answered them. And then I get the half an hour we talked there standing up and then he pointed to my bulging briefcase on the floor. Now it was during the depression. We didn't have lockers at our Bible school. I carried everything I owned in it. Months before I passed the last poll, you know, I couldn't flip it anymore. So I'd gotten longer straps and they went over and here it was. And I had everything I owned in my briefcase. He looked at the wretched, decrepit thing. He said, is that yours? I didn't know what he was going to do, burn it or fumigate it or what. But I finally admitted that it was mine. Yeah, that's mine. He said, do you have a Bible in it? And I said, yes. He said, do you read it? And I said, yes. He looked at me. He said, you mean to say that you've got a Bible there and you read it? And you wasted a half hour of my time asking these questions? And then he started to swear. And he swore for three minutes and didn't repeat himself. I mean, he just got carried away. For all this tomfoolery of wasting his time when I had a Bible. And after he slowed down, what difference does that make? You're a communist, an atheist. And I got a Bible, sure. He said, don't you understand that when we found out that a little handful of people without educated members and without money and without political power conquered the world in one generation and left a book to tell how they did it, that we would follow that book? He said, I want you to know that every principle that I teach up there, I trace right back to that Bible. Every one of them. And he was angry. He said, don't you realize that the difference between us and you is this, we believe the Bible as much as you do. The difference is you believe the theology of the Bible. And what's that nonsense? We believe in the practical principles of the Bible. Then he looked at me and his eyes narrowed and he said, we're going to take what you Christians throw away and we're going to use it to wipe you off the face of the earth. I said, I don't understand what you mean. He said, doesn't your Bible say this? Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of Jesus Christ. I said, yes. He said, but you see, you don't believe that. We do. No one can be a communist unless their whole life is dedicated to communism. Everything he does has to be for it. You Christians, you play at church, you go Sunday morning, you go once or twice a week, so you just play at it. We wouldn't let you into this party if you behave here like you do there. And then he said, don't you believe, doesn't your Bible say this? Obey them that have the rule over you. I said, it does. He said, there are men under me and men under them. And if I say to the man under me, you go out there and die, you won't ask the question, you'll go out there and die. Because we believe that this is how that little group of people conquered the Roman empire. But no, you don't believe it. He said, I on Sunday morning saw all these hundreds of people going over to that big church. So I went over one day to see what they were going for. There was a big tall man, white hair. He started to talk to him and what he said made sense. I looked at 2,500 people and I said, if these people don't do what that man said, we're finished. I might as well quit. And then he gave a clue. He said, now, I want all of you back tonight. I have a very important message for you. I said, well, I'm going back. If you've got 2,500 people there tonight, we're finished. But when I got back, I started to go up the balcony where I had to sit in the morning. It was chained off. I went in and about 900 people there. I thought, well, maybe the rest are like me, visitors. And this was the cadre. That's a lot of people, 900. I sat there and what he said made sense. And then he gave a clue. He said, now, I want all of you here on Wednesday night. That's the most important hour of the week. So Wednesday night, I was there. I went to that big door. It was locked. I went to the other doors. They were locked. Finally, I went around way around the side and there was a door open. I went in and I said, where's that big meeting going to be? They said, what big meeting? There's no big meeting. Well, it was a meeting. Oh, well, it's a prayer meeting down here in room 118. He said, I went down to room 118. There were 176 chairs in the room. And when the meeting started, they weren't all filled. He said, I want to tell you something. You Christians don't amount to that. You're not going to stop us five minutes because you don't believe the book that you say you believe. We're going to take what you've thrown away and we're going to destroy you. Dear friends, they haven't done too badly, have they? In 1917, there were just a few score of them. Three went in a steel box car into Russia. And tonight, 50 years later, one third of the world is under total control of the communists. And the other third is teetering on the brink of falling into their lap because of our indolence and indifference. It seems to me that if we have any love for Jesus Christ at all, if we have any self-interest at all, if we have any desire to see something preserved for our children and grandchildren, then we're going to come back to this book and find out how God wants to do it. I don't think we have too much time. I know this. But he said, Christ shall dwell in your heart through faith. Then you might be filled unto all of the fullness of God. And God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask for faith according to the power of the work of God. Talking about you. You are a channel for omnipotence. For infinite intelligence to be brought into the affairs of man. You are God's answer. You've seen the sign Christ is the answer? Oh no, dear friend. Christ has the answer. You are the answer. You are the answer. If God had wanted to be the answer, he could have spoken and brought an ark and moored it in front of Noah's front door and said, here Noah, climb on. But he didn't. He gave him a plan and said, no, you build it. If God had wanted to be the answer, he could have said, there won't be any famine here in Egypt, Pharaoh. Don't worry about it. But he took 20 years to get Joseph ready because God had the answer, but Joseph was the answer. If God had wanted to be the answer, he could have picked Israel up out of Egypt on eagle's wings and put them in the land. But he said, no, Moses, you go down and lead my people out. God had the answer, but Moses was the answer. Joseph was the answer. Noah was the answer. And you were the one. That is the channel for the resurrection life of Christ. There's never been a time when we should stop playing church and become Christians by biblical definition. That's what this is all about. That's what he's praying for. Oh father, that I may live in them the way you lived in me. You will live in me the way I lived in you, that the world may know and the world may be able to live in me. Shall we go on from here in the morning? Let's go on. Father, feel the word of your heart. Help us to see and to know and to understand that every word is truth. Oh God, we've been picking and choosing and eating the juicy parts and putting away the parts that didn't seem to be practical. And as the communists said, they've been picking up the part we threw away and using us to destroy. Let it not be so longer, father. Oh, breathe upon us breath of God until we'll no longer let the traditions of men make thy word of none effect. We'll recognize that every one of us are involved in this, that every one of us have the promise of a worldwide ministry for Christ, and every one of us can be the channel for infinite intelligence and unlimited power. Every one of us are responsible to thee to live while we're alive. We serve this generation. So might it be that there comes to our hearts as we close tonight a great sense of the high and the holy and the marvelous purpose of serving thee in the 70s and of being the answer to our generation with its needs and its glorious opportunity that I didn't feel the words to our hearts and lives for Jesus.