In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the theme of having little faith, drawing from various passages in the Bible. He emphasizes the importance of analyzing and applying the teachings of Jesus in our lives. The speaker highlights the commandments given by Jesus to his disciples, including going, teaching, and baptizing. He also emphasizes the need for prayer and the tragic consequences of lacking faith. Overall, the sermon encourages listeners to have a strong faith and to actively live out the teachings of Jesus.

I can imagine that as the Lord Jesus Christ spoke these words to his disciples, they were utterly astounded by it. To think that here the Lord Jesus Christ was talking to a little group of eleven men, and speaking to them about world conquest. Telling them that they should go out over all the world spreading this gospel message, and a gospel message that was going to enter in and permeate the culture of Greece, the military power of Rome, the religion of the Jewish nation, and was going to make a tremendous impact throughout the entire world. I'm sure that they couldn't have realized what was going to be accomplished in many years, and yet here the Lord Jesus Christ was telling them that this is what they should do. I wonder how much they at this time comprehended what he was saying. We know that as they moved along in the Pentecost and developed, why, we say, well, good night! What's happening there in the book of the Acts is greater than what we see today. That's true. And yet, I believe that as we look at some of the things here, we see the plan of the Lord Jesus Christ for this age. I think there's some telling points in these verses that we have read that will show us that, even with what the Lord Jesus Christ did, with what he started with, shall we say, it's just not so terribly different today. Proportions have changed, or shall I say sizes have changed, different things have changed, and yet essentially we find that there are some things that are quite the same. You'll notice that the Lord Jesus Christ here is speaking, first of all, of his gospel. He loves his disciples. Does that number 11 strike you in any way as being out of order? He has charters of twelve, hasn't he? The Lord Jesus Christ did have twelve disciples. He chose twelve to go forth. And yet here he is, after the resurrection of the woman of Adam, we say, well, of course, there's betrayal, of course, you know, we just turn it off, that's all it was. And yet what we have here is a deficient number. The Lord Jesus Christ chose twelve, and he has said that they were to be seated across twelve rooms, doesn't he? But here are only eleven. Now we know that they chose another messiah so that he might be with them, so that on the day of Pentecost they had that complete number of twelve, it was complete again. But here at this point, when he gives them this great permission, their number is deficient. I think that in a way this is the history of the church. The history of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is continually a history of deficient numbers. A shortage of manpower. A shortage of people to do the work of God. But were eleven here because the Lord Jesus had only chosen eleven? Eleven were not here because he said, that's all we need. Not for a minute. Eleven were here because one had turned aside, and was not following the Lord as he should. And as the Lord looks out on the fishing fields today, as the Lord looks out on his work in the United States, in Canada, anywhere, I have the feeling that the Lord is looking at a number of eleven, so to speak. A deficient number engaged in the work of the Lord. Not the number that he would intend that he would have in the work if he had his way, but deficient, because we have our way, and we're not engaged in the work of the Lord as we ought not to be. But after a while we read this story in the book of the Acts, or shall I say in the Scriptures, Paul writing to Timothy, says that all of Asia turned away from him. And then he ends up that letter by saying, Stephen, that's what they did, there's tremendous takeoff in those words, And as you know, it's easy for us to say, fine, Paul's our champion. But if we were there, would we be in the missing number? Would we have been some that turned away, some that thought the cross was too great, some that thought it's not worth it? I often think of John Mark, so you can encourage me to do this, because all but John Mark had been chosen to go with the apostle and had turned back. John Mark was one who, because of his care that farmers gave and peers gave, let it look useful to Paul Miller. Even though he had at one time set his hand to the plow and had turned back, and the word of the Lord Jesus comes to his mind where he says, such a word, doing such a thing is not worthy of the kingdom of God. Very true, but he can become worthy of the kingdom of God by being restored. Never think that it just drops out along the way somewhere along the line, that you can't become worthy of the kingdom of God, you can't become a useful servant in the hands of the Lord. I think it is interesting, I'm telling you also, that even in the book of Revelation, there's those tribulation times that we read of two witnesses in chapter 11. Now, the scripture says that in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be attacked. Now, two is a sufficient number, but three would be a more complete number. But in Revelation chapter 11, you only find two. Fairly sufficient. And I wonder if that's not the story of the church, that's not comparable to the 11 here. Just enough to get the job done, but really not as many as should be there getting the job done, and not as many as could do the job better. May the Lord help us that we may not be amongst this number that has dropped out. Now, does Brother Paul love to mention the scripture from Matthew chapter 9 where the Lord Jesus was looking out upon them all to have compassion upon them? He didn't have compassion. What did he say to his disciples? He said, the harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few. And the result of that was, he said, pray me therefore the Lord of the harvest that he'll send forth laborers into his house. In view of the deficiency of the number, in view of the fact that the Lord is sending in the work of God as there should be, pray that God will send forth workers into his harvest. Do you know what happens when you say that? When you read about the sequel to that, the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, pray me therefore the Lord of the harvest that he'll send forth laborers into his harvest. And I believe the disciples prayed him. I believe they said his word literally. They began to pray about it. So the very next chapter, the Lord Jesus Christ, choosing his disciples, sending them out. All right, you prayed about it, now get going. Begin by praying, and end up by going. In order to end, you seem to pray. You might go. And yet, isn't it a wonderful privilege that the Lord Jesus calls us to do that? So, first of all, we find a deficient number. Only 11. When the Lord had a reason, he chose as well. But then in the next verse, in verse 17, we read something that is even more treacherous, I believe. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some gullet. Unbelief. Lack of faith. And isn't this so characteristic of God's people today? I wonder if there is a lot of this God-worship that reveals our hearts and makes us to give in, to do such a thing, because I think that we would all be ashamed at what God would do to us from our hearts. The tremendous unbelief. And yet, isn't this what we find even in these disciples? Now, here I find another encouraging sentence, because these disciples, as we read about them in the book of Matthew, we find the Lord Jesus Christ speaking about these disciples and continually calling them, O ye of little faith! And Matthew just runs over to me very quickly. Matthew 6 and verse 30. And notice, every time he speaks about faith in relation to the disciples, Matthew 6 and 30 says, Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field which today is, and tomorrow the catkins of the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Chapter 8, verse 26. He says unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Chapter 14, verse 31. In so much that the hopes of the wounded, when they saw the temple-seekers, and the lame to behold, and the lame to walk. Excuse me, I walked up on 1431. I must have had a wrong look, I'm sure. That's right? I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it glorified by the God of Israel. All right, I'm looking at 1531. Thank you very much. 1431. And he that keepeth fresh forth his hand, and quartereth it to him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? 168. Which, when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 1717. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithful of that perverse generation, and he exclaimed into his disciples, How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bringing hither to me. This is the story of the faith of his disciples in the gospel of Matthew. But he goes on to correct this. Chapter 17, verse 20, he says, Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief, for verily I tell you, if ye have faith, as the brain of much deceit, ye shall fall into this mountain. Remove hence from yonder place, and it shall be removed, and much shall be imparted unto you. Chapter 21, verse 21. Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I tell you, if ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done in the fifth tree, but also it shall say unto them, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. So, here's what Lord Jesus said. Every time he comments on the faith of the disciples, it is, O ye of little faith, O faithless and perverse generation. And, the only faith that he commends in the gospel of Matthew is the faith of unbelievers, the faith of the centurion. When he says, Lord, just say the word, and my term shall be healed. And the Lord said, I have not found so great faith, not in all this field, and in the faith of that seraphimician woman who comes to him, and he says, woman, great is our faith. The only time he commends faith is the part of unbelief, so to speak. But, the believers, faithless. And, what can we say about ourselves today? Do we have the faith that we really need for the work of God? Are we really cast upon Him in a believing way to do great things in us? You know, the apostle Paul says, we have this treasure in earth and vessels. That's the excellency of the power and maybe of God and not of ourselves. And, this is particularly the story of Christianity. God is doing His work for earth and vessels through weak people, through people that in themselves have little faith, and yet, as in our little faith, we learn to be cast upon God. We can't accomplish great things. And, then the apostle, the Lord Jesus Christ, just before his ascension and salvation, says, "...and you shall receive power after that from the Holy Spirit, that they come upon you, and it is power then in their lives, the Holy Spirit of God, for us to move them along and bear them along in the work of God in order that they might see some great things done for Him." But, then, as we move down in our chapter to verse 19, I think we come to what is intended before us as the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to count upon the power of the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, "...all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth." To recognize the sovereignty of our Lord Jesus, and to recognize that it is in His name that we are to go, to recognize that the Lord's work is not our work, so to speak. It is His work. And, we're to go, then, not depending upon our resources, not depending upon what we might be able to do with our education, or our gifts, or one thing or another like that, but to remember that it is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that all power, all authority, has been given unto me in heaven and on earth. You know, that's a beautiful passage there in Philippians, going through the depth of the cross. Therefore, God has given Him a name that is above every name. That is the name of King of Hebron, Ishaq. And, we're only to realize that more as we went forth and recognized that everyone will someday come unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And, we have the privilege of taking that moment, and today, so that today they can do so voluntarily and find salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That here is one who has been given that place of power and authority, and it is His name that we can know. So, I think it's tremendous to recognize then what the Lord Jesus Christ is to be to each and every one of us. Isaiah himself has prophesied concerning this. In Isaiah chapter 49, verse 7, one of these beautiful poems of the servant of Jehovah. Isaiah chapter 49, verse 7, says, And the Lord Jesus Christ has been given that name that is above every name, that His name, the rulers of both states, the mighty of this earth might bow down and acknowledge His name, just as John of the Gospels has reached. And, the Lord Jesus Christ has been given that name that is above every name, just as John of the Gospels has reached. And, the Lord Jesus Christ has been given that name that is above every name, just as John of the Gospels has reached. And, the Lord Jesus Christ that name will power in our lives. You know, even the Lord Jesus Christ came to us in the name of another. He came in the name of His Apostles. You remember how Joseph Sheringham came to the Lord Jesus Christ? He said, Lord, just pick the words. He goes, he said, I also am a man under authority. And, when I say you want to go, we'll not do that. He says, I'm under authority, And so he says, mine is practically the word for you as being the one that's under authority. Say the word and it'll be done. And you and I, as we recognize that we're under authority. I think there's a new direction I've got all the time. We are under authority. And as being under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can take that position of impastorship and go forth then, in that name of the Lord Jesus Christ, recognizing his authority. So that not only is it authority, but the Lord Jesus Christ also has power. He's demonstrating that power here on earth. As the power of the Lord was with him in that physical presence, that it is especially the gospel of Luke that speaks about power in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It uses that word of him on a number of occasions, and it speaks about power. Now that the gospel of Luke presents the Lord Jesus Christ as the perfect man. And as the perfect man, there is power because of his being under authority. And as we can avail ourselves, then, of that power of the Lord Jesus Christ, that perfect man, and go forth in his power, proclaiming the wonderful gospel message of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that the apocryphal quote said of Timothy, that God has not given us a spirit of peace, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. The Lord Jesus Christ, then, is the sovereign of all. As the one to whom you and I owe allegiance, the one to whom you and I are responsible for giving allegiance, and for giving absolute obedience in all things, is the one who, here, appears in his disciples, and he says, all the power, all the confidence is given unto me, in heaven and on earth. This, then, is what the Lord Jesus Christ says to his disciples as he appears to them on this earth. And then he gives them these words that we so often hear about, Go ye therefore, and do so only. Now, I think it's interesting, as we stop and study these last two verses a little bit here in Matthew, chapter 28, and consider what the central parts of these words are. You know, as we read this in our King James Version, we find a number of verbs, words of action, commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. As, first of all, he says, go, as we read here on the screen earlier. And then he says, teach. And then he says, baptize him, which is in a participle form. And then in verse 20, teaching, once again in a participle form. Now then, actually, in the Greek, I understand, the word go is literally glory. And there's only one word that is given here as a definite command. That is the second verb that we consider, teach all nations. But here again, this word that in our King James Version says, teach all nations, in all of the newer versions, it says, make disciples of all nations. It does not say, teach all nations. And the Greek word is different from the first word of verse 20, which says, teaching them who have heard of all things. Now, verse 20 doesn't say, teach it. That's exactly what that big word means. But verse 19 says, going, therefore, make disciples of all nations. There's the command. Make disciples. And then baptizing them is a part of the taking disciple process. Teaching them is a part of the taking disciple process. But here, this first word, just as we have it in our Bible, go. You know, it's such a small word. It's just two letters. You don't know how difficult it is. How difficult? Just because it's a sentence. And sometimes it's the little, small things that we stumble over every time. And yet this word, go, is so tremendously important in this command of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does the Lord Jesus Christ mean by go? Remember when the Lord Jesus Christ sealed the demonic act, that when the townspeople came back, they found this man perfectly clothed, in his bright mind, and sitting at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this man wanted to go with the Lord Jesus Christ. I can certainly understand why he would have wanted to go. Having been under the dominion of demons, and having suffered so many things for so long, and now this man finally is clothed, a whole man once again. A man in his bright mind. A man able to be rational. A man who had known the touch of the Lord Jesus Christ and had known his light. He said, Lord, I want to go with you. I want to stay with you wherever you are. So what did the Lord Jesus say to him? Go back home. Go home and tell them what the Lord has done for you. And I believe we're all in this together. It's got to start right in our own homes. It's got to start right in our own offices. It's got to start right where we are now. If we can't be the Lord's servants right where we are now, we won't be able to be the Lord's servants out in Zambia, or in Peru, or in any other foreign country in the world. We've got to be the Lord's servants. That's where we are now. And the Lord Jesus Christ then first of all told them, he said, no, we shall be true to what we've been given. You know, the whole story behind that, when these townspeople came out and they told us about what they'd done, actually what bothered them was what had happened to all the pigs that they'd been raising. All the pigs that were down in the sea of Galilee and had drowned. And they were all very upset about this, and they asked the Lord to depart from their homes. They didn't want to go. And it wasn't until some time later, when the Lord Jesus came, some people flocked around them and they treated them gladly. Why? Because that man who had been healed had gone back to his home, had obtained the Lord Jesus Christ, he'd given them what he'd learned of the Lord Jesus Christ, and these people then later on were willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. What a tremendous impact the testimony of that man had on those people. That God would give us such a testimony is our prayer, I'm sure. But then, the Lord Jesus Christ also there, as we've referred to already, saying that we shall receive power, and I hope to see this coming from you, said, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, that's down at home, and all of Judea, and in Samaria, and at the end of all parts of Europe, reaching out with every strength on the face of the world. And here then was this idea, this world conquest, and so the Lord Jesus Christ was telling them to go out and engage in not a conquest of the sword, but of iron and steel, to take away men's lives by a conquest of the sword of the spirit, the word of God, to compliment the crimes that they might be part of the fellowship of him, and acknowledge his sovereignty as they might have. So we see that the Lord tells them to go, and you and I have this responsibility to go, every last one of us. And I repeat, it's not simply going to foreign fields, it's going where the Lord has had us go. Home, the office, the school, wherever it might be. The Lord wants us to go there. And then if he does call us from there, there's no other place. Very simple. But we need to go. That's important. And then the idea of making disciples of all nations. Now, what does it mean to make disciples of all nations? Well, to make a disciple, first of all, it is enough to see a person come into a state of knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, accepting Christ as Savior. That is implied in this whole thing. As the Apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians, that they had turned to God from idols. They had experienced conversion. There was a right about faith in their lives. They had turned their attention to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him as their own Lord and Savior. But then they manifested that the short time that Paul was able to be with them, and then as Timothy continued with them a little while longer in Luke, that they had learned some more things as well. And these people, while they had turned to the Lord from idols, they had gone around serving the Lord Jesus Christ faithfully, with the result that, as Paul says there in the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians, the word of the Lord has now been sounded throughout all of Macedonia because of them for a tremendous testimony for an infant church. How many years have the assemblies here in Minneapolis and Beaumont had the word of the Lord sounded forth in all of Minneapolis because of these assemblies, and throughout the region around Minneapolis because of these assemblies? I think when we compare ourselves with the Thessalonian Christians, we're put to shame are we not? And I think that we have a tremendous responsibility to be more active in evangelism, in getting out and taking the least of these things through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we might truly serve the Lord as those Thessalonians served the Lord, as they were entering into a life of true discipleship, following the Lord Jesus Christ and imitating Him as their Lord. And then he says, characterizing, gentlemen, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. You know, there's a matter of fact, a little bit on the side, perhaps, but there's a matter of fact, and I think, brethren, there's something in both of you that I feel is negligible when it comes to you comparing our practice with the scriptural example. Now, what I mean is this. New Church, the book of the Acts of Thessalonians, was given the history of the Church of the New Church, and one thing that will strike you, I'm sure, is that these believers, the very minute they received the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, they were baptized. There was not a long period of time between their professional faith in Christ and their Now, I'm not saying that we are negligible in this example, and I honestly believe that we are negligible, and that we who are responsible in the assembly for putting a time limit, for putting a period of waiting, for putting a period of analyzing and looking over and giving a person a chance for thinking over and over, we are negligible as to the fulfilling of what we find in Scripture. We profess to obey the Scripture. We say we have the truth as to the local church. Well, do we have the truth as to baptism? You know, that's all a part of the puzzle. And I really believe that if we were to teach what baptism means, now, it's an acknowledging of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And if we were to just, in our preaching of the gospel, put baptism along with it, recognizing that if a person gets saved, all right, well, they'll do all they possibly can to see that that person is baptized that same day. Now, do you think I'm right or wrong on that? I think it's Scripture. Honestly, I believe that that's what the Scripture teaches. I know I've had missionaries tell me, Well, man, you can't make that work today. Well, you don't have to hurry with Scripture all along, and what the church does is Scripture right along. You can't make it work today, they say. And so, they form their denominations, they go this, and they go that, and they tell you other things, because you can't make the Scripture work today. And we find ourselves, we've been pulled along in the same current as far as certain lines go that we don't realize. We don't baptize as soon as we should. We don't encourage people to be baptized as we should. How are we to know that the people will be saved until we baptize them too far? Well, did the early Christians worry about that? Did Philip feel content because he had baptized a Simon, who it later turned out wasn't a true believer after all? There's absolutely no word of tension in the Scriptures concerning the baptizing of Adam and Eve there. But there does seem to be a structural precedent for baptizing people as long as that was there. And I believe that if we did that, we would understand a little bit more of what the Lordship of Christ means. One thing that we find in Peru, and this happens from time to time, if there is a person who doesn't want to be baptized, there's something wrong in that person's life. And we simply take the attitude, now this person has made a professional mistake. Now that we've told them about baptism, and they don't want to be baptized, they don't want to say, well, I'll be baptized the next time, we do not consider them to be believers in the Lordship of Christ. In Spanish, they have a very nice word. They have the word simpatizer. Now, this is another person, if they like the gospel preaching, they come along, they've never made a professional mistake in the Lordship of Christ. And these who do not want to be baptized, we put them in the same class. We do not count them as being true believers in the Lordship of Christ, which they refuse to be baptized. In the Scriptures, we find that faith and baptism are given as a parcel, to the extent that Mark says, he that believes and is baptized shall be saved. Now, we know that the following verse says, and he that believes not is condemned, showing that the emphasis of faith upon the belief. That's very true. And yet, at the same time, it shows that these two things were bound together as a parcel. I'd just like to challenge you on that point of attention. I think that this is one area in which we have something to learn from Scripture as far as the practice of the church's existence. We should definitely be engaged in baptizing these people as soon as we possibly can. And then the Lordship of Christ says, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you whatsoever has been in me. I remember when I was a younger Christian, I used to put the emphasis on teaching them all things. The idea that we are responsible for teaching all things that are in the Word of God. Now, of course not. You read the Scriptures, and you say, well, I'm in, and you wonder how much you can get in, and how much you can teach, and what not, and how can we possibly be teaching them all things? Well, at the same time, the Lordship of Christ did not say, teaching them all things. And I'm afraid that maybe some of us are taking emphasis on that today. We say, we are responsible to teach them all things. The Lordship of Christ says, teaching them to observe all things. Teaching them to put in practice all things. And there, see, is the essence of that. What we need to teach from the Word of God is obedience to the Word of God. Teaching the people of God to be continually putting into practice the things that they hear. And I wonder how oftentimes in our preaching, in our teaching of the Word of God, we simply teach things from a theoretical point of view. And in many assemblies, the listeners have gotten in matters of, well, we're supposed to think about this, and we're supposed to analyze it. Now, how does this fit into my theology? And as far as we go, it's not the idea of a person sitting there and saying, well, now, what response does this demand from me? How does this fit into my life, into my practice? Now, this is what the Lordship of Christ wants. Teaching them to observe all things. What does that mean? May the Lord then help us in our missionary work through this. And then we have this as the continuing purpose of the Lordship of Christ right to the end of the age. As He says, whatsoever I have commanded you in the Lord, I will do always, even until the end of the world, or the end of the age. The end of this dissipation of creation is now this. We have this as the plan of the Lordship of Christ to this world and this universe. It's an amazing thing that the gospel of the Lordship of Christ is suited to all people. It is suited to those black Africans in their tribal situations. It is suited to the Africans in the civilized cities. It is suited to the South Americans with their different traditions and cultures. And here is something that we need to learn also in missionary work not to impose our culture upon the people. As I've gone along in missionary work, I've realized that at the beginning this is what missionaries before us had done and what we were doing. We were conducting meetings the way we would conduct them here in the United States. And there were certain things, and of course we realized that not all things were in the same place, but there were certain things that we thought should be done just the way we did them here. But after all, there were certain things that really could be done in a slightly different way. Now, some of the younger people here might not exactly understand this, but it wasn't so many years ago when all the ladies coming to the meeting would wear hats. Today you hardly know what a hat is, but it was the day when everybody would wear hats. And this, of course, was the fulfilling of a scripture that said that the women should have their heads covered. So, when one missionary brother went to Peru, while he taught the women there in the church that he had set up in the Torah, where they had not been taught to have their heads covered, he said, dear ladies, dear sisters, you should have your heads covered. Now, here's my wife. Look how she's got a hat on to cover her head. Well, in this town where they were, you couldn't buy a hat anywhere. And yet, the dear ladies had to have hats to cover their heads. So, they fashioned hats as best they could. These poor dear ladies, they would never be seen having their feet covered. So, they had shelves inside where they could come in, pick up their hats, put it on, and after the meeting they put it in the shelf again, and would never be seen having their feet covered again. Only, indeed, this dear missionary brother thought that, well, a hat is the only kind of covering that is in use. Whereas, after all, in South America, the very common thing for the women going to the Roman Catholic Church would be to use the mantillas that the sisters are using so frequently today, and it would be by far the best thing, according to the culture of Latin America, to say, dear sisters, you should have a mantilla to cover your head. Or, in fact, in the temple where we were, we got that, did any kind of a cloth to cover your head? And many of them did have some rather colorful cloths to use in covering their heads rather than simply a mantilla, which they would have to pay a bit more for in the temple. And, another thing now, of course, when you go to a supermarket here in this country, why, they'll say, no bare feet permitted for health reasons, according to the state sanitation code and whatnot. And yet, we don't have such health reasons in these needy places, but we might feel a bit offended if somebody came in, say from one of the western countries, some hippie-style person came in with bare feet, and yet those shoes on his feet make any difference before the world. And, in fact, in India, it is quite a custom to take off your shoes when you're going into a holy place, to the extent that Bhakti Singh, a real Christian brother over there who's been used by the Lord in the time of many ascetics, teaches the Christians that when they enter there in some of the needy places, they should take their shoes off. Well, there you see, there's nothing that the scripture says you should wear a shoe where you shouldn't wear a shoe. That's entirely by the way, and there's something that we don't need to worry about because we're exactly how it's done. And so what kind of a covering does this have? Well, that doesn't make any difference. That can change according to the cultural effect. The gospel then is for all the world, even under the end of the age, so that when customs change and the women begin to give up hats, well, all right, you don't need hats anymore, you move on to shoes. There's another kind of covering. So this, what it means then, shows the adaptability of the gospel. Well, may I say that this does not mean that we need to adapt ourselves just to all the norms of the world, because that can be carried on far too far, and can even go beyond a period of history. But then here the Lord Jesus Christ says, Lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the world, and we can thank God for this promise of his abiding presence. And it is only the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus Christ that gives to one strength to continue on in the discouragement as there are in other nations. Today, as this afternoon, as I was telling you about the work in Peru, I was telling you about the growth in the work in Peru. And this evening, as Brother Paul Rosen was telling you about the work there in Gambia, around Hodeidah and neighboring, he was showing the growth of the work there in Gambia. You know, we don't commonly tell about the discouragement, about those who have turned to science, about the heartaches in the work. Promising Christians, people of whose souls were going along so well, and then how things have crumbled them. And sometimes things can really appear very discouraging if we get our eyes off the Lord and onto the fullness of his love. But we can thank God that we have this promise, then, of that continual presence of the Lord Jesus Christ as he says, Lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the world. For here I believe, then, that we have the plan of the Lord Jesus Christ, for this reason. It is to do good and do evil. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is not giving him the floor, I think. Sometimes God's angels could do a lot better than we could. Well, really, they couldn't, because they're not with me. That's not true. They don't know his redemption. And God is a friend to him. Now, then, may the Lord help us to really be advantageous, or to be useful, even though we may be a number in the minority, even though we may be an efficient number. But may we not be lacking from some particular number that the Lord will call, perhaps, in some foreign field, because of turning aside, because of faithlessness, because of loving the things of this world as demons, or some other reason that might tear us aside from God's purpose for our lives. Sometimes people get an idea that a missionary is a person that is making a tremendous sacrifice. Well, you know, there are certain sacrifices to be made, and yet, on the other hand, a missionary is a person that's simply walking in the will of the Lord. He's simply walking the way God has chosen for him, and he's finding the greatest joy doing just exactly that. He's finding the focus of life doing exactly that. And as he looks back on things, and he says, well, after all, I didn't really make sacrifices on purpose. I'm here to do this work, and to do something else. He says, the Lord is a rich mind once beyond my wildest dreams, by bringing me here, and letting me engage in His work here. You know, actually, that's what happens in the life of a missionary. So, look and remember this, the Lord treats us all the same. Every one of us. And each of us has that responsibility, then, to be ready to go and serve Him according to His call. He calls all of us to His mercy. May we be touched by His call, and know what His call is. And remember that He has given us this responsibility, and He has given us this promise of His continual Thank God for that, because otherwise we wouldn't be able to do things that we call to do. So, may the Lord help us, then, to respond to this message. Not just to analyze it, and say, yes, that's the way it's been written, and this is the way it's been written, and that's the thing about it. But to respond to it, each and every one of us. Go, we therefore, making disciples of all nations in the United States of America. That having been the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And, oh, I am with you always. See you around.