In this sermon, the speaker shares tragic reports of persecution faced by believers in the underground church. People are being sentenced to years in Siberia for simply reading the Bible or distributing gospel tracks. Elderly couples are losing their life pensions for hosting home meetings. The speaker emphasizes the importance of standing firm in faith and being faithful to Christ, even in the face of persecution. They also share their own testimony of how God raised them up from a near-death experience and led them to start a ministry to support missionaries and pastors around the world.

Now this evening I'm reading in the second psalm, the second psalm. And I call the second psalm the Soviet Russia psalm. The Soviet Russia psalm, why do the heathen rage? Because the whole tenor of this psalm is applicable to the godless rulers of the Soviet Union. And in our Russian Bible, this word council that you have in verse 2 is the word Soviet. The word Soviet. And so that is why I call this the Soviet psalm. Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage? And the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take Soviet. You see, the word Soviet means a committee or a council. And then the second meaning of that word Soviet is the decisions or the deliberations of that council. Now I don't know where some of you are, but I'm in the book of Psalms. Where are you? I know some are not in with me. When I first came to preach for Dr. Ironside for a campaign in the Moody Memorial Church, I said, now let us come to the book of Exodus, so we all come to the book of Acts. And we could find it. Why do the heathen rage? And the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, and take Soviet against the Lord and against His Christ, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth on the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath and vex them in His sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. Now I want to talk to you tonight, first of all, about the underground church of Russia. In the challenge of Russia. Now may I say that I have been in contact with the underground church of Russia since the Lord saved me as a boy of 14 years of age in my own city of Glasgow in Scotland. Because God brought across my pathway many Russians, evangelists and pastors who had escaped from the Soviet Union. And God in His wonderful grace and mercy led me from the very first days of my conversion to take a real peculiar interest not only in the other mission fields of the earth but also in the Soviet Union. And so I have been almost now in contact for about 45 years with the underground church in Russia. Now the mightiest man of God during the past 100 years of evangelization of Russia was a man called Pastor William Fetler or Mamov. Mamov was his Russian name, his Asiatic name. Fetler was his European name. And Pastor Thompson met him with his children. He had just a little flock, a little group of 11 or 12 children. Thirteen. Thirteen rather. Thirteen children. And you'll be glad to... All of the 13 children became university graduates. His oldest daughter, Mary, was Private Confidential First Secretary to Dr. Edgar Hoover in the FBI. Another son is one of the leaders of the American Air Force. And I knew all these boys and girls as they grew up. And Pastor, apart from the Maryshall, the General's daughter, Mrs. Booth-Clibbon, that I wrote there in the book at the back, General Booth's eldest daughter, I suppose Pastor Basil Mamov was the mightiest evangelist that I ever knew. And Pastor Mamov, when he was just a young boy evangelizing in Russia with his father, that lived in Protegis, fiercely persecuted under the Tsar, and then he was sentenced to death by the Tsar. You see, the Russian Orthodox Church was the corrupt church of Russia. And the Tsar was the head of the church and he was the head of the state. And I may say that Rasputin possibly was the filthiest character that ever crossed the stage of time. And you know, he had hypnotic power. Thousands and thousands and thousands of the people of Russia would follow him. He had satanic powers of healing. He could heal people. That is how he got into the Tsarina's palace. And that is why he became a great ruler in Russia. And as he went from village to village, 55,000-65,000 people would follow him. And he left illegitimate children all through that nation. And yet he was one of the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church. And you can understand that when the Communists took over, they said, the front plank of our platform is religion is the dope of the people. Now, the Russian people did not have a revolution against the true Christ. No, it was a false Christ. They did not have a revolution against the true church. It was a false church. Now, you know, it was first a socialistic revolution on a minor scale by Alexander Kerensky. Now, Mr. Kerensky is an elderly gentleman just now. He was president of Russia only for six months. Sometimes he lives in New York City. Other times he lives in his apartment in München in Germany. And Alexander Kerensky wrote us and said, I'm so glad you're printing the Russian New Testament for the Soviet Union, but you haven't put the Psalms of David in it. Put the Psalms of David in it. And so, for Mr. Kerensky's suggestion, we printed the New Testament with the Psalms of David. Now, when Pastor Malo was only 22 years of age, he was a leading Protestant pastor and evangelist of all the Union of Russia, coast to coast for 9,000 miles across at 22 years of age. He was the founder of the first Baptist church in Moscow. And God so used that man, and I took part with him in revival meetings, that he was able to begin about 200 Baptist churches throughout the whole of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. And then one day, friend, as he was evangelizing in his own church, he was arrested by the Tsar's police. And he was taken to prison. And he was only given five minutes to pack his suitcase. He would be banished for life to Siberia. But God, in His wonderful grace and mercy, delivered him. First the Tsar was going to kill him. Why? Because he was a preacher of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. And the Russian Orthodox bishops, they were against him because he was preaching the true gospel. But then they were going to sentence him to death. But glory be to God, we have always had in Sweden, on the throne of Sweden, for quite a number of years, an evangelical. And so the king of Sweden intervened and said to the Tsar of Russia, send Malo to me. And so Pastor Malo escaped with his life and was never able to return into Russia. Now, I'm trying to tell you these things because the people of Russia are always differentiated between communists and Russians. Every Russian is not a communist. The vast majority of people in Russia are not communists. It's only two or three or four percent of the leaders that are communists who have taken control of their entire nation. But the vast majority of people are Russian people. And nobody can sing like a Russian. Nobody can shout hallelujah like a Russian. Nobody can pray like a Russian. And they have a distinctive hunger after God, the Russian nation. But I want to say this, that under the Tsar there was very little distribution of the word of God and very little gospel coast to coast. Now it is interesting, when you study Russian history and American history how they are always running parallel lines. They had a day of pioneer work, we had a day of pioneer work. You know that they pioneered right away down the Pacific coast to the very coast of Mexico, of course. But the great thing about Russia under the Tsar was that there was some gospel preaching. But it was mostly Baptists, a few Baptists, a few Lutherans and a few what we call, a few other little groups. But almost the whole nation never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. And worst of all they had no Bible. Now we have only one Tsar in Russia that ever was interested in the forwarding of the Russian Bible. All the other Tsars and the leaders, the religious leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church kept the word of God from the people. Now they didn't banish it. They didn't put you in prison if you had the Bible. But they didn't want it printed and tried to hinder the word of God from being printed. And this was a false church and a false Christ. And so the vast majority of people in Russia under the Tsar had no gospel and no Bible. And so when the Soviet took over then they banned all the printing of the Bible. And they said religion is a dope of the people and also there is no God. And they did not differentiate. How could they because they were godless men. They did not differentiate between the true Christ and the false Christ. The true church and the false church. And so tens of thousands of your brothers and sisters in Christ were put to death by the communists as well as by the Tsar. Now please remember the Russian people have never had any liberty. There was over one million secret priests in the days of the Tsar. And so it's just a continuation for the secret priests of the Tsars to the secret priests of the communists. Now since the communists came to power almost 45 years ago they have not allowed any edition of the word of God to be printed in the Soviet Union for distribution in the Soviet Union. Now the Russians are very, the communists are very clever. They believe in propaganda. So they allow a few churches to remain open. For example, the first Baptist church in Moscow remains open. But there is only, where is the first Baptist church and the second Baptist church and the third Baptist and the fourth. They are all closed. One church for a city of almost 8 or 10 million people. But that's a showcase. But you know that the communist leaders say we don't ban the Bible. And so they will show you a big large family Bible. But you know it was printed in the Soviet Union but it was never distributed in the Soviet Union. And so far as I can ascertain they only printed 10,000 copies of this big Russian family Bible. And you know where you can buy it? In Macy's in New York City. That's the only place you can buy it. And you see the whole idea was to say you see we have the Bible in Russia. But since the Bolsheviks came they have never allowed the printing of the word of God in the Soviet Union. Now my brother and my sister if you don't believe there is power in this old book the communists believe there is power in this old book. And they are scared to death of the Bible. They are scared to death of the teachings of the Lord Jesus. They are scared to death of the explosive power of the gospel. And that is why they seal off these borders all these years. And you know during the past 45 years we are rather during the past 43 years say we have been only able to get just a few thousand Bibles and testaments into Russia. Because it was sealed off so completely. And you know most of our men they even were shot to death by the Soviet guards or they drowned in the fast flowing rivers or they were eaten alive by the hungry wolf packs as they went through the forest in winter to meet the other brothers and sisters in Christ over in the Soviet Union. And we had to stop it. And then the underground revival church has been revived again for the smuggling all over that border. Now we, can you imagine friend a whole nation without the Bible. Now Russia is so vast that you can if you want to cross from east to west it would be like going from San Francisco to New York City back again to France, San Francisco and once again back to New York. It's over 9,000 miles across. And they are not just speaking Gaborit-Peruski, Panama-Peruski, one language they are speaking 185 languages and dialects. Now friend, there has been a hunger and a famine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God in Russia for almost 300 years. Now the Communists friend they have sought to put to death those who are carrying on evangelizing and evangelizing and evangelizing. Now may I say that we have two churches two evangelical churches in the Soviet Union. We first of all have what we call the Union of Evangelicals of All Soviets. Now I know the secretary of that group but that group is recognized by the Soviet government. And in that group there are many Soviet spies. And you see, you are not allowed out of the Soviet Union unless you represent your country. And you can't represent your country unless you are a Soviet spy. And you are a spy but then they have a spy upon you and that poor spy has another one looking behind his shoulder. And everybody is spied on. And so these Baptist delegates who leave Russia to come to America they have the credentials but they are not Baptist delegates at all. They are members of the Soviet secret police. And one or two of course are true Baptist delegates. And they are to watch the state properly. And these men as they come out of the Soviet Union they are good propagandists because right in the middle of the sermon they will say Oh! You will say there will be no propaganda here and there is none. But suddenly just a sentence will say Oh! My brothers and sisters of Christ in America we long for peace in the Soviet Union. Will you please pray that your president will desire peace. You see. Now that's all the same. But that's enough for you to think that the reason why we have a war is because America is waging the war. And they drop little bits of propaganda of the Soviet Union. And then they send letters from Eastern Europe. They are like me. They send letters from Russia. And say please pray for us. Please pray for peace in the world. Now they are dictated to by the Soviet government because they are working under the umbrella of the Soviet government. And there must obey the Soviet government or they will be shot to death or tortured to death or sent to the salt mines of Siberia. And they say would you not pray this week in your churches that we will have peace in this world. And the implication is the reason why we have a war in Vietnam is because the Americans they started the war and keeping the war on. And so the propaganda is great. And when these men leave the cities the people say well what's all this nonsense about. There is religious liberty in the Soviet Union. There is evangelical liberty in the Soviet Union. For example, one of the most famous men of the Eastern Europe a great evangelical leader wrote in a British magazine. And he said look, look at James Stewart look at the great mass evangelistic campaigns he has held all over Eastern Europe. Why don't some of you evangelists come? But he didn't tell them that they arrested me and sentenced me to death and took me to a torture chamber. He didn't tell them that in an English magazine. And you see, so this church that we have been in touch with for many many years they work under the umbrella of the Soviet Union. For example, the building belongs to the government the Soviet government. Their pastor's salary is paid for the Soviet government. If they invited Pastor Thompson to speak in Moscow he would get his fare paid for him or get it by the Soviet government in Washington D.C. They would send him his ticket maybe send him $500 expenses. And everything is paid out for the Soviet government. They take care of you when you get there pay all your bills if you are invited by the bishops of Russia. And now you see that they cannot do anything that the Soviet government does not know because they are working under the protection of the Soviet government. Now, you know it is easy to criticize don't misunderstand me, it is very easy to criticize because let me tell you this that when you are under sentence of death my brother, my sister you are going to be tested your devotion to Jesus Christ. Some of us in Memphis can't even turn out for the church services because it is spitting a little bit raining, spitting on me couldn't turn out. Other times it is too hot to turn out. But supposing you were forced to to make a decision whether to go to prison for Christ or stay out of prison what would you do? So, I wouldn't criticize them too heavily these dear brothers but in that group there might be one million believers. Now one of my friends, a famous medical professor a scientist and one of my interpreters in an Eastern European nation he visited and lectured all over the Soviet Union in their great schools and universities. And he wrote when he said dear brother James I believe in the Soviet Union there are five million believers. But in the old Soviet evangelical group of Baptists and Pentecostals there are about maybe one million. And they have about 5,500 congregations now some of them are only ten people five people, six people, seven people. But they carry on. But then we have what we call the underground church. Now in the Soviet Union we do not call it the underground church. We call it the reform church. The Western world calls it the underground church. But in the Soviet Union we call it the reform church. In other words it's different than the other church. And this group of believers say no we will not patronize the communist government. And they say no we will not work under the umbrella of the Soviet government be a communist and a Christian cannot be a communist. You see. They say how can a man be a communist and a Christian the same thing and a communist doesn't believe in God. Less than scoffs at Jesus Christ. And you see it is a criminal offense to gather your children and young people to teach them the word of God in the Soviet Union. If you gathered three children in your home and had a meeting for them singing hymns and reading them the word of God you could end up in Siberia for ten years. And if you gather some teenagers under 18 years of age you could be tortured to death. And so the result is that that they are doing all they can to exterminate the gospel. Now this underground church or reformed church says no we are going to stand true to Jesus Christ. And we are going to carry on guerrilla warfare, spiritual guerrilla warfare evangelizing the whole Soviet Union. We are not going to ask these godless communists whether we can evangelize or no. No we are going to evangelize. And so far as we know they may number in the underground church about a million and a half people. They may number a million and a half people. Now we have all that information about this underground church. For example, we have reports. Here they are. You can see these reports. And they are very tragic because these are giving the different names of the brothers and sisters who were sentenced you see. One man is found reading a Bible and he gets two years in Siberia for reading a Bible. Another one gives out a typed gospel tract typed in the typewriter and they get three years in Siberia and so on. And then you get quite a number four years, five years. And then some elderly couples have been having meetings in their own home and they have lost their life pension. Now how would you like to be 70 years of age and lose your life pension? Just because they were gathered in their home reading their Bible. And we get these reports all the time from the underground church. And many of them of course as you know are being tortured to death right at this very moment. Now you know I could tell you stories but I want to sleep tonight. I was just reading a story I didn't let Mrs. Turk know I was reading it but I was just reading a book and I couldn't lay it down because you see it was all about the same torture chamber where I was taken to in Budapest. And it would make your ears stand on edge if I could tell you what is happening in the Soviet Union and behind the Iron Curtain countries being tortured for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now may I say that this underground church says to us don't send us any money because if you send us money they will say we are espionage agents for America. But pray for us and send us Bibles. Send us Bibles. We are willing to go to prison. We are willing to be tortured for Christ's sake but you send us the word of God that we can evangelize. And this underground church you see has no buildings of their own. No buildings. They carry on underground. Sometimes they meet in a forest. When we were in Sweden we discovered not too far away in the Soviet Union over a thousand were meeting in the deep freeze of a forest. It was so cold that they knew the Soviet gods would not come searching for them. Yet a thousand gathered in the forest to pray and seek the Lord. They will break the ice and baptize converts on their heights. And the Holy Ghost is working so marvelous in the Soviet Union that tens of thousands of men and women are being saved. You know a Russian general escaped to Vienna. You know when he escaped he told that he was being interrogated and the first thing the American general said and do you want some vodka? No. Well do you want some liquor, Scottish whiskey? No. Well what can we give you since you have just come to the West? He said gentlemen could you give me a Bible? And of course these poor American men weren't even Christians themselves and never read the Bible and they thought he was joking and they laughed and scoffed at him. He said gentlemen I'm serious I want a Bible, I want a Bible I've escaped to the West and the first thing I want is a Bible. They didn't have a Bible but we were able to supply a Russian Bible and he read his own language. And you would be astonished at the hunger for the word of God behind the Iron Curtain and in the Soviet Union. Now they say to us send us in the Bible. Now this is for your consolation and it's wonderful. Pastor Malav, my dear friend had faith. He had more faith than I had. And when I begin to think of it, you know why he got faith? Because he fed on the word of God, he read the word of God and he prayed. He was a man of prayer. We have written his life story called The Man in a Hurry and we went through his spiritual diaries and he would begin in the diary, right there on the diary, Oh Lord, Hallelujah I am alone with Thee one o'clock in the morning. And then he'd carry on from one o'clock to four o'clock or five o'clock in the morning, communion with God and interceding for Russia. And he said we will print an edition of 175,000 Russian Bibles. And I laughed and mocked at him. Then he said we'll print 100,000 New Testaments. I laughed and mocked at him. I said we'll never get them through, we'll never get them through. All these years we've been trying to get them through, we only get smuggled through 10 years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years and you're talking about hundreds of thousands. And he used to smile and laugh and say, James your faith is small. And he had a favorite saying of an English hymn. Thou art coming to a king. I don't know if you know it in American. Thou art coming to a king, large petitions with thee bring. And you know, I laughed at him right from the day he went home to glory. Can you imagine? But he had faith and he went on ahead in printing. Isn't that wonderful? And he left me with his work of printing the Bibles for the Soviet Union. And you know since that man went home to glory in two years time we've been able to get more Bibles in the Soviet Union than in his entire lifetime since he was banished from Russia. Now why did I tell you that? I tell you this. The devil is saying to you tonight, dear brother, sister, another impossibility, another impossibility. My son will never get saved. My daughter will never get saved. My husband will never get saved. My wife will never get saved. I will never be able to claim that money from God. I'll never be able to move that mountain. Well I tell you friends, I think I've got a little bit of faith. You have to have faith if you're a missionary leader. You must have some faith. And my dear friend I did not have that faith. But glory be to God that man had that faith. And he said we'll get them through. We must get ready to pray. You know the marvelous answer of prayer. And so all together with different one of us working during the past two years possibly in almost 200,000 Bibles alone. Can you imagine? Now with me, with our society, we've been able to get 50,000 New Testaments last year in the Soviet Union. And 50,000 New Testaments into Romania where Mr. Nixon was. Now Bulgaria is the most difficult country for evangelizing just now. We don't say much about Bulgaria because the lives of these believers are in danger. But 50,000 New Testaments were gotten into Romania and God is blessing them and they're such a hunger. Now a dear brother for example wrote us and he said when I was in the I was banished from my home in Poland for 25 years because I was preaching the gospel. But when I was away in Siberia I heard from the other believers that you were sending in Bibles into Russia. And he said oh please send me Bibles. And then he said there are hundreds of people I promised Bibles. Now the thing was this you see he casually said in his letter I was banished from my family for 25 years. Now some of you have been G.I.'s or airmen and you've been gone off for Uncle Sam for 2 or 3 years away from home. How would you like to be banished from your family for 25 years? His wife was banished that way. Each of his 5 children were banished 5 different directions and he was banished that way. Never to see his family for 25 years. Do you love the Lord enough for that? Huh? But he says Brother Stuart send us in the Bibles. Of course we managed to smuggle the Bibles through to him. Now we have a we you have all read more or less have read Brother Andrews book God Smuggler. And Brother Andrew interpreted for me in revival meetings in Holland. And Brother Andrew used to use our big testament our big Bible. And he wrote and said Brother Stuart these are too large why don't you print something smaller it's easy to smuggle through. And so for Brother Andrew we printed this. That was his suggestion. And the ladies can smuggle maybe 10 or 20 in their handbags. If it's American women's handbags maybe 40. But the average women's handbags in Europe only 6 or so. But there they are. And so and then you can imagine that you've all read Being Taught by Christ by Brother Warbran. He was a Lutheran pastor. And when God sent me to Romania to evangelize I didn't know a soul. The Holy Ghost said go. And God gave us a mighty revival. And I was the last foreign evangelist to evangelize Romania. We saw thousands saved and God had to give me many interpreters. And Brother Warbran was one of my interpreters. And then when I left and finished my meetings there he was put in prison for 14 years torture for crimes. And when he was in prison Mrs. Turamaisel helped provide his wife and children with food while he was in prison. And when he was in prison he preached my sermons that he had interpreted for me in the prison. Now Brother Warbran is free now. And then you've read about Brother Popov a Pentecostal pastor in Bulgaria. Another one of our friends. And God gave me a mighty revival in Bulgaria. And when I finished my meetings and escaped, the Communists put 10 of them into prison. And Popov 13 years torture for crimes. Now friends our patron saint is a young lady called Ada. Now those of you who do receive our missionary prayer letter, remember we had a photograph of Ada in. I won't tell you her second name because it's a Russian jawbreaker. You couldn't pronounce it. You couldn't remember it anyhow. But you know if the Roman Catholics have saints, why don't we have saints? Of course they are dead ones. We believe in living ones. And so Ada, she was 22 before she was arrested. And as she looked out of her little room in Moscow out into the street to see the tens of thousands passing by like a sheep without a shepherd. Her heart was broken and moving. She said Oh Jesus. Oh Lord Jesus. They're like sheep without a shepherd. Oh Lord Jesus. Help me to reach them with the gospel. Now you know it's a criminal offense to even milligraph a tract. You can't even have a church bulletin. No printed matter whatsoever. But she got cards. And with a beautiful handwriting she wrote My dear friend you can have peace with God through the blood of Jesus. And then she would say here is the gospel promised from the word of God. John 3.16 Another Russian word she wrote. And then she wrote Matthew 11.28 Isaiah 53 and so on. Until she had many scriptures and after having but a hundred or two hundred cards she said Now Holy Ghost anoint me as I go forth in the master's name. And out in the busy street she went and said Pachalister, Pachalister, Pachalister Pachalister please would you take this card. And she gave out these cards when the second day a heavy hand was laid on her. She turned around the secret priest. And they said are you giving these out? Come with us. And they took her. And they frightened her so much. And they fined her heavily and only kept her three or four days in prison. They frightened her so much and they laughed and said She'll never be back here. But my dear friend when a person is filled with the Holy Ghost anything can happen. And again she looked out in the streets and again her heart was broken. She said Oh Lord Jesus they don't know thee. And again under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost she wrote out the cards again. And again she gave them out and again she was arrested. And she was tortured for two years. But you know she was so filled with the Holy Ghost in these two years that she led many of her torturers to Christ. And we had another young lady in our you know our underground report. I wish I could tell you about her. She was only 19 years of age. And you know when she went in the one who was to torture her a lady about 28 she was one for Christ. And she began to witness. This communist leader began to witness. And then they put her to death. But the Christian girl she slowly died of starvation. They tossed her body to the hungry dogs around the camp. But anyhow Sister Ida was back in prison. She's there now. She was 27 years of age her second time. When we said why do you allow us to use your name your photograph. Oh she said it's because I want the church back outside in Britain Western Europe, America to know that we've been tortured all through Russia. And I want them to pray. If I can die and suffer for Jesus and now that we can have a revival in Russia and my people can be evangelized. That it's worthwhile me being here. Now Ida is our saint. We love her and she's just one of the thousands being tortured for Christ tonight. Now listen my brother my sister. Can you understand that I come from a martyr church. Most of all my workers that I labored with in Eastern Europe as Mrs. Cornell has told you here before they all died of violent martyrs death for Christ. I didn't I'm alive that they're in glory long ago some were put to death by the Nazis or the Communists. My younger brother's five years as you know with the Nazis my younger brother Douglas he's spoken here and I belong to a martyr church and here we are in America having everything so comfortable everything so easy beautiful buildings, beautiful comfort everything, beautiful pastor hymn books, beautiful flowers we'll get everything and do we love the Lord Jesus? I say we don't. You know when I don't know if you did this when you do it in the States but in Britain we always say to the mother and father always says to the little baby, little boy baby boy or girl. How much do you love me? That much or that much? And the little one says well that much. Is that all? Oh no ma'am I love you that much. How much do you love the Savior? I think it's just that much. Maybe you could extend it that much. What are you going to do my brother, my sister at the judgment seat of Christ when your whole Christian life comes in review before the martyrs suffer the lamb? What are you going to do if you had to stand beside Ada? What are you going to do if you had to stand beside this dear brother who was banished for 25 years from his family? How would you like to stand with brother Warbrant? How would you like to stand with our dear brother Pawpaw? 15 years tortured almost every day for Christ. Huh? You know I kissed a lady goodbye. I won't tell you what country because it's too dangerous for me to tell you. I kissed her goodbye and I didn't mean to kiss her goodbye but she made me kiss her goodbye and she said James please kiss me. And of course my wife wasn't there and I said and I kissed her. And yes but don't laugh just now and she was weeping. You see she was saved in my meetings and her father was one of the greatest preachers of this particular country and then suddenly it dawned on me why she wanted me to kiss her. Suddenly it dawned on me. Here we were in Western Europe in liberty and private liberty to go out preaching the open air and in one hour by plane, jet plane she'll be back under communist domination. We'll be back under communist domination within an hour. And she said James if we don't see you anymore on earth we'll meet you in glory and don't forget that the saints, the fellowship of the saints is precious and we want to thank you and I'm kissing you too on behalf of my husband and all those you've led to Christ in my country in Czechoslovakia. You brought us to Christ and the fellowship of the saints is so great, so wonderful and will you pray for us that we'll be true to Christ and we won't deny him. Now she wasn't a young lady she was a lady about 50 years of age or so matured lady her brothers, three brothers pastors in that country her husband a lawyer and when I, when she went on that plane I could see that plane zoom high I wrote down in uncontrollable because I've been there I know what to go through they're walking a tight loop day by day hardly anything to eat I went in the store and I want to buy her a coat I said you know you've had that coat for a generation or two generations how did you know James I said I can remember handed down three generations and I said well I want to buy you a coat and she said no James if you would buy that and that and that little thing that little thing so I can take back home and I'd like to give that one pastor's wife here, one pastor's wife there there were simple things like a lady's sweater that's all and the shops were empty in that country and hardly anything to eat and it'll get worse and worse for these believers now will you please pray that God will continue to send us in all the money to print these bibles this church send us 150 dollars a few months ago to help us in this ministry and we want to thank you from the depths of our hearts, now will you please pray that God will take care of those smuggling the bibles hundreds are doing it hundreds are doing it and many times the bibles are confiscated and also the car is confiscated and you lose your car as well of course if you're a Russian you'd be banished for 10 or 20 years found handling the bible will you pray for that ministry and pray for those in Eastern Europe and those in the Soviet Union that they may have grace to stand to the Christ but oh my brother, my sister above all pray that you and pray that that I will be true to Christ you see what are the loyalty flags what are the loyalty flags faithfulness that's the number one loyalty flag not shouting glory hallelujah I like to shout glory hallelujah I shout glory hallelujah everyday to the Lord I can't help it's my nature shout it out loud I go out on the street and shout it out in the park and shout it out but shouting glory hallelujah is not the first flag, it's just faithfulness that's all anybody can be faithful anybody can be faithful faithful at the church services faithful in the prayer meeting night faithful in Christian stewardship, faithful in many many ways and our Lord and our Lord Jesus he in America has tested again and again and again, in little things and these little things reveal whether we are true to Christ or not I was preaching for in the evangelistic campaign for Dr. Roswell J. Smith in Toronto many years ago, I did many evangelistic campaigns for him, and I remember a little girl coming to me weeping a little lass who is 70 years of age and she said to me, oh brother it's hard, it's hard, it's hard and I thought oh dear me she must have the toothache or the earache and I said what's wrong my dear oh she said you know, at the high school they laughed at me today because I'm a Christian, oh I said poor little thing, I said let me destroy your fears, and she didn't like that, I said you ought to thank God you're not in Russia, they would kill you and torture you and she thought she had gone through purgatory just because somebody laughed at her because she loved Jesus no no no, something could be good in that world, what could be good in that world for a Russian peasant, one of these smuggled Bibles, and this lady is a communist, her husband is a communist one of these smuggled, now could I have a look at it, no no no, you're not supposed to know oh but I must have a look at it, she's a woman and they both go together, and they go into the room and they try to hunt in the bedroom for the Bible, at last they find it, and they look at it, and she said could I hold it, and she said oh no you can't hold it, I said you're a Christian, you must show Christianity let me hold it, and the communist woman holds it, and she said oh I don't believe it, and this is what we're fighting against our government, could I just leave me alone, I want to read it and she reads it, well you know she's a woman, and her husband comes home at night, she said you know there are millionaires next door, are there look at something wonderful yesterday, what a pig, goat no no no, something more wonderful than that, well what could be more wonderful than that what a buffalo, no no no a smuggled Bible oh no, so he goes over knocks on the door and says Ivan, can I come in yes come in, I understand you've got one of these smuggled Bibles, how did you know I had, I just had could I have a look at it, no no no you can't listen, please let me see it or I'll tell on you, and so Ivan has to bring it out of the safety drawer and the man looks at it and says Ivan you know you're a Christian you couldn't keep that to yourself, Ivan could I tear out a page, tear out a page for me, if you don't I'll tell on you, and poor Ivan he said well what page do you want, he said I want this, oh no you can't tear that page out, that's the precious page of mine well let me have that one, he tears that out well of course the other man talks and the whole village knows and the whole village is around, and before very long that thing is torn to pieces and poor Ivan, he lands up with only one page, one sister will walk 200 miles in her bare feet because they don't have shoes in many parts of Russia, and they cut the bark from the trees and tie it on as Stuart will tell you, you see it often tie the bark from the trees and tie the string around the bark and that's what they use for shoes and there's blood on the floor and the sister walks because she's heard by the underground church that that family has a bible and she comes weeping, she said oh I want John 3 17, I want John 3 17, I don't know it by memory but I know part of it please give me John 17, somebody say my favorite chapter is Exodus 12 could I have Exodus 12 the Passover lamb no one says Isaiah 53 is my favorite chapter, could I have that on that bible store in the park now our best new testament is a has got a bible school behind it we call it a Russian bible guide it took 10 years preparation how we got a Russian bible it also tells us how to be saved and then it tells you how to be filled with the holy ghost what is sanctification, what is justification what is adoption, what is grace a little bible school, how to win souls for Christ and then we have also words and music of 75 hymns because when you get saved you sing and shout and praise the lord and so how great thou art isn't it, because that's a Russian hymn as you know it's a Swedish hymn, Swedish Lutheran hymn but been in our Russian hymn books for 100 years and so that is in a Russian bible, a Russian testament, so will you keep on praying for that now one of my challenges before I close is a literature crusade when I was lying dying in Dublin in the south of Ireland about maybe 14, 15 years ago I was unconscious till I come around and I was in a death war and people dying around me and God told my wife I would live, the doctor said that he will not live and then when when I was lying helpless in the bed some of my missionaries came to see me and in this great Roman Catholic land, then I thought of the millions who had still never heard the gospel I said oh God I'm too young to go home to glory now lord spare my life and lord if you would just let me write and so I asked the sister would you give me bring me something I could write on, she said you can't write you are not allowed to write I said well if I could just let me write five minutes a day and so when I'm after maybe the fifth week in the hospital or whatever week it was she said alright you can do it but don't let the doctor know and then I began to write the bird in my heart for four missions and the last of my dying and when God raised me up that began our book ministry began our book ministry and this was to supply the missionaries with literature to comfort them our own American and British and other foreign missionaries around the world and then books to send out for the native pastors around the world and God has enabled us now to write with Mrs. Stewart of course and myself some 70 books and booklets and they have gone out all over the earth into many languages translated into many languages and these appear in Christian magazines around the world not only in the Soviet Union but in Korea and they appear in many of the two magazines in Cuba, South America and all over the earth now that is one of the ministries that God has given us but you know we discovered over a year ago in our travels that there was almost nothing on the Old Testament scriptures for the native pastor now you can understand there is plenty of America expositions on the New Testament books but if you go into American pastor study you will find there is almost nothing on the Old Testament books well what about the native pastor and so we discovered the native pastor he never preached on the Old Testament even in Germany now we have to be in German because we know some German but for perfection we have to interpret it and all our interpreters say and their preachers say now brother James don't preach on the Old Testament because we don't know it so we have to keep on the New Testament and so we were going to I said Lord we will write ourselves this commentary and that would mean we would have to rise at 4 every morning begin to write at 4 o'clock every morning and write for 8 hours every day to do our verse by verse commentary of Old Testament books now we knew we were not capable of that but we would give quotations the Holy Ghost of course would help us but we would give quotations from Matthew Hendry and Brother Pinkin and Dr. Charlie and so many others but we would keep at it but then I said Lord I'm an old man I'm getting an old man and it would take me 20-25 years to write verse by verse every verse in the Old Testament and I said and I'm a missionary I couldn't have all that time to do it I haven't got to preach as a missionary well you know God began to answer prayer every time you pray God begins to work doesn't he hallelujah and we discovered that a friend of mine a professor the librarian of Cambridge University in England who I had not been in touch with for almost 20 years had begun to do that work isn't that amazing and there you can see some of this man's writing and you see he has about a quarter million words alone in one of the books now this in Exodus he has 300,000 words can you imagine and when we turn up in Exodus he gives us 1,000 references outside the book of Exodus and this dear man has almost finished the entire Old Testament and we know of nothing in English language or Russian language or German or French to touch this he's a modern Matthew Hendry and remember this man did this in his spare time as librarian of Cambridge University reading his bible in about 13 languages so he's with a Hebrew and I wrote him and he said yes I have done so and he said dear brother James I'll give you all the manuscripts now one of his manuscripts on Isaiah cost $1,000 just to type not print just type let's get rid of the printer and he gave his royalty and he said I don't want a dog isn't that wonderful I want to help you in your literature crusade for the pastors now you can not understand what it means to be a pastor in a foreign land you see I have written this book the treasure house of good books now this is for American preachers and British preachers this is different bible schools and different young pastors you know have written to me or come to me at different seminars and bible schools and universities and say brother Stewart what book do you recommend for subject my own my son in law my own son and my missionary and all that so we prepared this and this is a catalogue that a bible school can use to set up a library a Christian in America to set up a library and there we tell you all the best books on prayer the Holy Spirit the work of Christ all the best books the bible introduction book grammar English and also the best books in Genesis Exodus right through to Revelation now can you imagine that we could have a booklet that in English for American preachers do you know why because we have these books in the English language that's why do you know how many books there are in English on exploring the book of the Psalms do you know how many there may be 2000 books in English on the Psalms only now if you would go to Brazil tonight where we send out 1000 books to Brazil if you would go to Brazil tonight and ask the Brazilian pastors down there what do you have in Portuguese on the Psalms and they would tell you we've got nothing on the Psalms we have a you know in Hungarian we don't have a Hungarian concordance can you imagine we don't have a concordance in Hungary in Greece we don't have a Greek concordance for our Greek testament you know we have a Greek a Greek testament which is a modern Greek testament for modern day Greece but we don't have a concordance for it and so 99% of the pastors around the world and evangelists around the world in these foreign pagan lands have no religion whatsoever there's nothing in their language and they write us by the thousands because we've been doing this now for 14 years and they say dear brother sister Stuart please send us all the books you have because you know like Nigeria 2 years ago I was worshipping idols pagan idols my father and mother still worshipping idols but I'm a pastor and I've got membership of 400 how can I teach them when I don't even know the Bible myself all I know is John 3, 16, Matthew 11, 28 and all I know is what I get out of your books send us all your books here's a man from Tibet and he said I've just been a Buddhist 2 years ago and now I'm the only evangelist in Tibet he said please help me to know my Bible I've learned English to know the English books please send me them and 99% of all the native pastors and evangelists around the world never, never, never get a chance to go to a Bible school why? there's not enough Bible schools around and you see in the last analysis it's the native pastor, native evangelist who evangelizes his own country there is a place for the foreign missionary of course there is, we win these natives for Christ and then they in turn go around and evangelize their own people but there's not enough missionaries to go around to evangelize the millions who never heard the gospel brother and sister, tonight there are millions still who never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ now how are we going to evangelize them there's not enough foreign missionaries going forward we must evangelize them through the native church, through the native Christians and you know I've studied Communism so well and seen it at work so close they don't use American to Communize Cuba they use Cubans to Communize Cuba they use natives to Communize these native lands and so will you please pray this for example mister is an exodus and this is what already printed by our brother it's the same title as in Matthew Henry's and that is verse by verse 300,000 words verse by verse not one verse missing in the book of Exodus this is out of print and we are reprinting it but right there you see is on the book of Ezekiel and there are about 300,000 words in Ezekiel alone now you'll be interested to know that our first book that we are printing of the manuscripts never published was on Judges and Ruth and this has been a tremendous task for Mrs. Stewart because she has to go over the dots and the colons and the punctuation marks and turn up all these scriptures because if you see Malachi 3, 10, 3, 11 you're wrong and so this dear man can you imagine rising and doing almost every verse on the Old Testament exposition this handwriting without a typewriter now he had to love the Lord to do that in the spare time now so will you please pray we hope to have ready at the beginning of this at the end of this month or the beginning of December our first actual book and it will be on Judges and Ruth and our first main mission field is India now we have about 10,000 native pastors waking in India in our mailing list and native pastors and evangelists in Indonesia as well as other countries but our main work just now the Liturgy Crusade is in India now each of these books cost us $5,000 to produce each of them cost $5,000 that's not to post them that's just to send them out and each book they send out cost $0.15 to send out that's the packaging and the stamp now will you join and pray with Mrs. Stewart and myself that God will supply this money that seems a lot of money doesn't it $5,000 for each book but my dear friend there's no use being in the Lord's work if you have no faith there's no use saying I'm going out to evangelize and those who've never heard if you haven't got faith in God to do miracles and we had a verse in the prayer meeting Jeremiah 33 and 3 call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knewest not and so will you please pray that God in a supernatural way will supply this money that we can pay the printer and go on with this ministry and we know that tens of thousands of souls will be saved in these heathen lands how do we know we know from 14 years experience because these evangelists are blessed by the books and then they go out evangelizing they preach in their own churches and they write us from Indonesia they write us from Nigeria, from Brazil and even from Russia telling us we've been out in meetings and 300 or 400 recently were saved tens of evangelists all over the world and so will you please pray that God will bless our literature ministry could we bow and pray I wonder would you one or two before we close in prayer would just ask God's protection and blessing to rest upon those behind the iron curtain tonight in the Soviet Union before we close it's just about five minutes to nine or so thank God for his goodness to us and then to give us a real missionary vision the burden for the lost and the dying around us and for those in the heathen lands this message was preserved and made available by Revival Literature in Nashville, North Carolina for more information you can visit them online at revivallit.org