In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of the church spreading the gospel and winning people to Christ. He acknowledges that some may doubt or criticize this approach, but he asserts that it is the church's duty to go out and share the message of salvation. The preacher shares a personal anecdote about losing his fatigue cap in the military and relates it to the idea of fulfilling one's responsibilities. He also mentions a biblical story about an earthquake that opened prison doors, highlighting the power of God to bring about miraculous events. Overall, the sermon encourages believers to be bold in their faith and actively engage in evangelism.

Most churches, you know it's true, to them when you mention the word preaching, it means nothing more than a service on Sunday with a man standing behind a pulpit, and even the better churches, it just means one man preaching the gospel to a group of people. The First Baptist Church of Hammond, and there's some churches in this country, thank God, the word preaching is not associated with one man behind a pulpit, but every person in the few. Preaching in the Bible was not necessarily a man preaching to a crowd. Bible preaching was Christian people carrying the message outside the church to people outside. Not one time in the Bible, not one time in all the Bible, does God ever command the sinner to come to church. Not one time, never, never. But over and over again, He commands the saint to go tell the sinner how to be saved. The word scattered, it's the word, I think I'm trying to think of how you pronounce it in the Greek, I didn't look it up, but it seems like I recall, it's, it comes from the word disperse. Maybe it's pronounced desperazo, I'm not sure. But it's the word from which we get our word disperse. They that were dispersed abroad. It is not the kind of word that means volunteer action. It does not mean like everybody said, let's just scatter ourselves abroad. It implies that somebody does the scattering. Here's a crowd of people and they're all together somewhere in public and the police come and they, boys, hey, and the police come and they disperse the crowd. Hey, move along now, disperse. It's done by somebody. Actually, it implies that God's men are supposed to disperse God's people so they'll be dispersed abroad everywhere preaching the word of God. Did you know that's what it implies? That I am a disperser? I'm to disperse you. Here we are tonight sitting in this building. Oh, hundreds and hundreds strong, hundreds of us are here. And here we are tonight and I'm supposed to stand up here tonight and do something to cause you to disperse this week. To go to Inland Steel, to go to school, to go to play, to go to the Ford Motor Company, to go to Youngstown, to go where you work and where you live in your neighborhood. I am supposed tonight to disperse you. So you can be dispersed everywhere preaching the gospel. Somebody wake that young man up there. He's a teenage boy and he ought not be asleep. Attaboy. If you won't lean up against your arm there, you can stay awake a lot better. I just don't really get much conceit or pride about folks sleeping while I preach. It just does not build my ego greatly. And I plan to have my ego built tonight. And so, you say, well, I don't like that. Well, don't ever do it, you see. But anyway, so happens that I do enough for these kids and enough for them that I have a right to wake them up when they go to sleep. Now, you adults, I won't do it. You adults, I'll just say, wake up. But I won't point to you like I would to the teenagers. But, okay, I'm supposed to disperse you and scatter you abroad everywhere to carry the gospel. Deacon said to me one time, he said, you're preaching about soul winning all the time. Not here. You're preaching about soul winning all the time. He said, that's what we hired you for. I said, there are two things wrong with that. In the first place, brother, you didn't hire me. God did. You don't pay my salary. God does. And if you don't get to do it, God's going to be seated with somebody else, does it? And I said, in the second place, in the second place, nobody can do your soul winning for you. You can no more go across the street down here to the All Saints or No Saints, whatever the name of the church is, down to the All Saints Church. You can no more go down there tonight and give that fellow $5 for doing your praying than you can give me $5 for doing your soul winning. You've got to do your own praying. You've got to do your own Bible studying. You've got to do your own soul winning. And so God wants all the people, every Christian is supposed to be a preacher of the gospel, spreading the word and getting folks saved. That's the plan. That's the New Testament church. Now last night, and it's this way every Saturday night, but I have an abomination to our kids last night outside. And oh, they came back from soul winning and they were so excited. And one young lady said to the house, oh, we had a wonderful time. A girl 16, a girl 14. And I said, what did you do? And they said, well, I said, holy, go on in the auditorium. We're about to make a nationwide broadcast. I want you to tell the whole nation about it. And they came in and one young lady stood up before this microphone and she said, we were down walking or driving by the movie and saw some kids outside the theater and stopped in one, two right outside the theater. And the one girl said, oh, we stopped at a train. Can you imagine about having to stop for a train in this area? But we stopped for a train and we're sitting there waiting on the train. And there are two couples up in front of us. And they were just hugging and kissing and spooching. Spooching is a Greek word. It means they were just really having a big time. And so they were hugging and kissing and necking up there. And so one of the girls said, why don't we go up and witness to them and give them a track? And others said, I bet you wouldn't do it. She said, I bet I would. And so she got out of the car, went up and said, would you read this? Now, they didn't get saved right away, but they quit their spooching right away. And they read it and they got some intent reading it. The girls came back, sat in the car and one of them said to the other, why don't we just go up there and witness to them? They're reading the tracks. They got out of the car. They went up to where the folks were sitting, waiting for a train and won all four of them to Jesus Christ last night, waiting for the train. And oh, they were so excited. My, my, my, how excited. One of our fellows said he went over to Calumet city. And that in itself is not a good recommendation, but, uh, Calumet city. And he said, uh, they had, they're having a rock festival over there at a park and folks just gathered around. And he said he went up and he won a bunch of people, the Christ at the rock festival. I said, will you ever get in any trouble? Anybody ever start a pick on you or want to start a fight when you go place like that? Yeah. He said one fellow got a little rough and want to start a fight, but said we already won so many by that time that the whole folks we had won stood up for us and protected us and kept us from having to fight. Uh, isn't that great. And, uh, so, uh, and he said that some long haired hippies that had gotten saved and they said, Hey, you fellas stay here a minute. They went back and got some more hippies and brought them up and said, we want these fellows to go to heaven too. Tell them what you just told us. And they got saved. And I was thinking that last night as every Saturday night, our kids scattered all across this area. Now let me say moms and dads, I'm worried about my child. You better be worried about your child. If he's not serving God, you better not worry about your child witnessing too much. Right? I don't believe that's the way to do it. You don't believe the Bible in the book of Acts. They live all the Christians in the book of Acts lived exactly like our teenagers lived last night. That is basic new Testament Christianity. Um, now I'm going to show you the word scattered. I mentioned it means, uh, scattered means to disperse. It also means like you sow seed. Um, you take seed out and, uh, and you sow grass and you're supposed to take the people of God and they're supposed to go outside the church and sow the seed. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goes forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Now the job, listen, there's one great difference. I know the churches in America. I know the great churches in this nation that are getting, that are growing and having big crowds. And by the way, there's a movement in this nation toward big churches and great crowds. And this is the greatest day in the history of this country or since Jerusalem for real new Testament soul winning churches. Now I know the great churches in this country. I know them. You can start on the West coast. Ray Bateman, who was here this morning as a church that, that, that on the, uh, during their spring program ran up around 2000 in Sunday school, um, uh, all the way to the East coast. Jerry Falwell averaged 5,600 in Sunday school last Sunday in Lynchburg, Virginia, last year in Lynchburg, Virginia, Dr. John Rawlins in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. Lee Robertson in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Dr. Harold Henninger, Dr. Beecham, Vic, uh, Bob Moore in Marietta and her Curtis Hudson in, um, uh, what's the town Decatur and, uh, and Dr. Bob Gray in Jacksonville and all across this country. There are others, others. I mean, by the dozens that are just getting a job done for God. Now, what's the difference in these growing churches and non-growing churches? Is it because they realize the young folks need a gymnasium and we're going to get the young folks if we get a gymnasium? No. Is it because some down the board says if we'd get a bowling alley, if we'd get a bowling alley, we'd just build a great church. And our young folks would come back to church. No, they're not doing the job either. There's a church in this town that voted to build a gymnasium and they thought it'd help them get the crowds. And the night they voted, the vote was 19 to 18. That time they showed up. Big church, building a $400,000 gymnasium and 19 to 18 was the vote. Isn't that a sight? Well, we got more pallbearers at funerals than that. And, uh, by the way, don't forget to announce the funeral before we leave tonight. And, uh, but, um, uh, the difference is they're scattered abroad everywhere. Well, I don't believe in that, you say. Then you don't believe the Bible. In Luke chapter 14, our Lord tells about a man who made a great supper and bad many, and sent his servants several times to say, come for all things and already. And the Bible says, one person said, I can't come. I'm married a wife and I can't come. One person said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I'm a thieves going through them. I can't come. One fellas bought a piece of ground. I've got to go see it. I can't come. And the man that made the feast said, okay. He said, then go out and tell the poor, the main, the hall, the blind. Now where are the poor? They're outside the church. Where are the main? They're outside the church. Where are the hall? They're outside the church. Where are the blind? They're outside the church. And he says, go and tell them. And the servant went out and he told the main, told the hall, told the blind. And, uh, he came back and he said, master, he said, it is done as thou has commanded. I went and invited folks. One person said he couldn't come because he got married. One fellow said he couldn't come because he had bought five yoke of oxen. One fellow said he couldn't come because he had bought a piece of ground. And I went out and I told the hall and the main and the, and the poor and the blind, I told them. And, uh, and, uh, now there, he said, it is done as thou has commanded and still, or yet there is room. And the servant, uh, and the Lord said, okay, go out in the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. Now, whether you believe it or not, you say it's spectacular. If you want to, you can say it's a bunch of, a bunch of, of fanaticism. If you want to, you say what you want to say, but if you believe this book, you're going to have to believe it's the job of the church to scatter, to get out where they are and tell the gospel and win them to Christ and bring them to the house of God. That's the job of the church. Well, you say how many of them stick? Oh, you get off your horse and obey God. Good night. That old dog quit hunting years ago. Well, you say, how's that? Where are all of them? Where are all yours? Tell you one thing, these folks that get out in New Testament practice and New Testament methods and do it like they did the New Testament, they'll bring a lot more down these aisles than you critics will, I'll tell you for sure. Now, the honest, simple truth is it's New Testament Christianity. It is basic, fundamental New Testament Christianity. And this church, let me tell you something, get ready. If you don't like it, now's the time to run. Because this church is about to enter into the most active, enthusiastic, complicated, bombastic, aggressive program of going over Chicago you've ever seen in your life. Listen, we're going to make pacifists out of the Black Panthers before this is over. I mean, the Ku Klux Klan is going to be mild compared to us when it comes to fervor. I mean, we are just on the verge, on the threshold of, as a church, spreading across this area like a fire, you're going to see things you have never seen in your life before. You think we've had it before. You hang around a while. You hang around a while. We are going to get more and more into the basic New Testament. Well, you say, I like it. Personally, my preference is a more staid, formal church. I know, so is the devil's. Well, you say, my preference is a higher church ritual. I like the preacher to wear robes and have candles in the church, and I just believe it's the preacher's job to preach a message. I don't believe in getting out and rabble-rousing. I know it. And the demons in hell agree with you 100 percent. It's time that the New Testament church became here, became like it was in Acts chapter 17 and verse 6 when the Bible says that they said, they that have turned the world upside down have come hither also. Sometimes if you want to just find out what kind of churches they had in the New Testament, what kind of program they had, just read the book of Acts. You wouldn't have liked it. Let me just give you, for example, Acts 1.8 says, Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Judea and Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 5.28 says that they filled Jerusalem with this doctrine. Filled it. Acts 5.42 says that they went to every house in Jerusalem with this message. In five years, we'll be able to stand behind this pulpit and say, we have been to every house in Chicago with this message. The student body of Hiles Anderson College is going to carry the message of salvation to the doorstep of every house in Chicago. Every house in Chicago. We will fill this area. Listen, you know why the days of Moody are gone in Chicago? You know why the days of Torrey are gone in Chicago? You know why the days of Paul Rader are history in Chicago? I'll tell you why. Because we have lost our zeal, our abandon, our recklessness to get the gospel out. But brother, you hang around here for a while. This area is being influenced with the gospel of Jesus Christ more tonight than she has in today's of Paul Rader. No doubt about it. No doubt about it. And we're going to cover this area with the gospel. I mean to every look, look and granny. Acts 5.42, daily in the temple and in every house. Somebody says that means that that means in the church and from house to house. No, it doesn't mean the church and from house to house. When they said in the temple, that does not mean the church. They didn't have church in the temple. The truth is, only the priest could go in the temple. There was only a certain, certain, a few people could go inside the temple and a few others could go in the courts. Now, what was the temple? The temple site was their marketplace. It was their county square. It was where they assembled with the people of Seminole. You folks are with us in Jerusalem. You recall when they went to Wailing Wall on a Saturday afternoon, we heard go, Oh, sound like, uh, I'm sorry. I won't say it sound like in the choir, but, uh, uh, and, uh, so, uh, it does sound like some anthems I've heard, but anyway, I, uh, and we wonder what's going on. And we got, got out in the street and walk down the street and they, and we follow the crowd, great crowd on Saturday afternoon, recall that on Saturday afternoon. And we, we follow the crowd and went down to the temple site and right there at the temple site for the Wailing Wall, there they were making all kinds of noises and they're gathered around. It looked like the county fair. You see it look like the county fair there on, on Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening. And they were milling and mixing and mingling and folks were selling, uh, things to eat. And the fellow folks had a few wares on the way. And of course they closed up at a certain time, but it was a place where they mix and mingle. It was a temple. So what does it mean? It means daily in the temple. Where? Out in public. Where? Downtown. Where? In front of the theater. Where? While the folks are waiting at the, at the train stop. Where? Everywhere folks assemble and mix and mingle. Everywhere. They cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Now you say, well, I don't know what goes on. I belong to more state denominations. The word is dead. The word is dead. I assume your state denominations, a lot of them right now are ordaining dirty homosexual men to stand behind the pulpits. Your state denominations right now are, are, are condoning social drinking and dancing and the gay crowd. Your, your state denominations right now are dying, dying. I say dying. You check, you go to these big denominational churches tonight and see most of them don't even have their lights on. That's how they used to say the only trouble with these churches that don't have church on Sunday night is that they do have it on Sunday morning. But his prophecy and prediction will come true soon because they won't have many on Sunday morning right now. And they, you know what they done? They've got that old embalming fluid out and tried to embalm that old corpse and keep it breathing just a little bit or look alive just a little bit. So folks will think they're still having church until the preacher can still get his salary. And they, they get the embalming needle and they stick the fluid of a bowling alley and stick the fluid of a skating rink and stick the fluid of what we used to call Nickelodeons. I think they're quarter of Nickelodeons now. But anyhow, what do you call those things? Jukeboxes. And they stick the fluid of a bunch of girls going in shorts on parties and stick the fluid of compromise and stick the fluid of ecumenicalism and say, embalm that old corpse. But it's dead, it's dead, it's gone. The only thing that'll make it live is to get back to real New Testament Book of Acts Christianity. Nothing's going to save it. Nothing's going to save it. There are a few denominations in this country, a few denominations in this country right now that are on the verge of going, of going down to liberalism. Denominational secretaries have called me. I started to say by the dozens I know, I know two dozen have called me. And they've said to me, Dr. Hiles, we thought you were fanatical. Some have said that. But they've said the honest truth is our denomination is just about to die. We've checked our tendencies. We've checked our deaths against our baptisms and find we're having more people die than we're having baptized. And they're asking me by the, by the dozens, would you come and preach to our state convention? Would you come and preach to our national meeting? Would you come and preach to our area-wide convention? We need some life. We know we're about to die. And I go across this country day after day and week after week saying, the only thing that'll make it live is evangelism, soul winning, New Testament Christianity. I was talking to a seminary president this past week. You know who it is. I was talking to him. Young people, you listen to me. I was talking to him. By the way, that's another reason they're dying too. Their kids can play, live like the devil, wear what they want to wear and talk in church and misbehave and get by with it. There's no discipline. There's no respect for authority. There's no, there's no respect for law and order. I was talking to this professor and, uh, our, our, pardon me, this is the president of a seminary. And he said, we're having trouble. We lost five, six of our faculty, five, six of our faculty. By the way, one of those birds they lost, you spoke in that seminary. He went to his class and made fun of your soul winning. One of them, I cried myself to sleep when I heard he got fired. One of them, I was speaking out in San Jose, California. I spoke on soul winning. This professor came to me, by the way, if we have any professors that are like this, you just go home and you pack tonight, tonight. And, um, anyway, he, uh, uh, he came to me and he said, Dr. Howard, you spoke on soul winning. I said, yes, sir. He said, don't you realize that all Christians don't have the gift of soul winning. He had a bunch of seminary students around him. He's trying to make a fool out of me. You can't make a fool out of me. I've been a fool a long time. And, uh, he's trying to make a fool out of me. And he said, uh, don't, and all these students around him, listen to their champion, their professor. And he said, don't you know that soul winning is not the gift of soul winning is not given to all Christians. And his boys begin to laugh. And I said, professor, can I ask you a question? Yes. He said, Dr. Howard, I said, are you an idiot in any other area than that? Because that's the only area that you're a moron. He said, what do you mean? I said, anybody that knows one thing about the gifts of the spirit knows that soul winning is not a gift of the spirit. It's not listed one time as a gift of the spirit. It is a command of God to every living Christian. There's no way you can escape no more than you can escape praying no more than you can escape Bible study. It is God's command commission and order for you as the commanding officer, he commands you to go soul winning and get the gospel out. Now the new Testament church, you say that that's reckless. That's fanaticism. I know. And so is the democratic convention fanaticism. Yeah, I know. And so is the, the, the, the rallies they have fanaticism. So are the values they have. The apostle Paul set out on his missionary journey in Acts chapter 13. He went to a town called, or to a little island called Cyprus. He went to a town called Seleucia on his first missionary journey. Fella came to him and started talking to him. He was, he was the deputy of the, of the place. Paul started off with a big fish, tried to catch them first. He was the deputy. And all of a sudden a, a sorcerer fortune teller came up. Elionas was his name, the sorcerer. And he tried to put a hex on Paul and to cause some trouble. And Paul says, go to the child of the devil and struck him blind. Well, I'm glad I didn't know what if God had given me the gift of striking the, uh, uh, false prophets blind, that'd be a thousand blind ministerial associations in America tonight. Do you know that? You said, I don't believe he ought, he ought to have done that. Well, you just talked to the Holy spirit about the Holy spirit struck this fellow blind. Well, Paul turned it on down to Antioch and Pisidia. The Bible says they preached and the whole city came out. And it says that after they preached for a while, they were expelled from the city. And it says that Paul and Barnabas, they, they went out the edge of town, looked back at Antioch and Pisidia and they dusted their feet off and they left. Went somewhere else. Where'd they go? They went on down to Iconium. The Bible says in Iconium they preached so much. The whole city was divided. Multitudes believed, but they had to flee. They fled for their lives and went on out to Philippi and on the missionary journey. And in Philippi, they, uh, they met a lady beside the river named Lydian. They won Lydia to Jesus Christ and a soul winning beside the river. They went on down, uh, and, uh, they got in trouble because they preached the gospel. Uh, the boy can't go outside yet. Let's stay back there. It's dangerous out there. Dangerous at night. A lot of all kinds of people come by this place. And, uh, so went down there to, uh, Philippi and they got put in jail at midnight and, uh, they put them in jail in public. I mean, they're right, right in front of everybody. They put them in jail. They had a big to do about it. Ah, these fundamental preachers are going to put them in jail. And so Paul and Silas at midnight were singing praises to God and having a prayer meeting. Now then us, we were having a graphing session, but they had a prayer meeting at midnight. And the Bible said that all of a sudden an earthquake came and the prison door swung open and the poor prison keeper got afraid that they were going to escape. And he was supposed to take care of them and keep them in jail or prison. And he, he said, uh, he tried to kill himself. He's going to commit suicide. He knew that kill him anyway, because the prisoners got away. They had enough sense to believe in capital punishment back in those days. And, uh, when a man can pull a gun in front of the whole world and shoot governor Wallace in an attempt to murder him and paralyze him from the waist down, probably the rest of his life. And he doesn't, doesn't have to pay for it with his life. We're flaunting God and making fun of the Bible and saying, we know more than God knows. But, um, so the fellow's going to kill himself. And, uh, and so the apostle Paul said, do thyself no harm. We're not going to go anywhere. And so went down and told the big boy downtown, the deputy, he said, these, these fellows prayed down an earthquake. He said, uh, uh, I'm scared of these fellows. And the deputy got scared too. And he says, fellas, why don't you just go now, just go on and just go on, go to some of the town, get out of here. You've had enough earthquakes for one night. Now just get out of here. And by the way, he got the prison keeper converted and got his whole family saved and baptized before morning. You folks would criticize us for baptizing right after the service in the morning. He baptized them right after midnight snack and, uh, and it right on the spot. They got baptized. And so the head fella said, Hey, go on now fellas. Look now, you just go right along. We, you, you caused enough trouble. We won't let you go free. And Paul said, don't think we don't want to go. Let's just stay here a while. No, you said you can go free out of prison, out of prison. Go on. Paul said, we're getting sort of where we like it here. This is all in the Greek by the way, you professors in college. And we sort of like it here. Now look, look, uh, help me talk to these folks and leave. And they've caused enough trouble. Good night. All of us are going to be killed. We don't get these preachers out of here. Go on. Paul said, Nope. Well, why won't you go? Paul said, I'll tell you why. He said, you didn't put us in here privately and we're not leaving privately. He said, you brought the whole town down here to see us put in jail, made a big to-do out of it, made a county fair. Now we're going to make a county fair just one day longer. It's all in the, in the Greek, by the way, again. And, uh, he said, you're going to bring the whole town out. And those that saw you put us in this place are going to watch us leave too. Well, if you think, well, if you think nothing, we're not leaving, we'll just, well, you're not going to do it. And Paul, I think said, well, dear Lord, don't you pray again? Last time you prayed, we had an earthquake around here. And what do you want? I want you to bring the whole town. And the whole town came down and, and little old hellfire and damnation Baptist preachers, assistant pastor walked down to the streets of Sydney. Everybody watching as they walked out of prison. What? That's New Testament Christianity. Compare that to your seven fold all men you had this morning. Well, they kept on going. They went down to Thessalonica and they said that they turned the world upside down. And what that means, it means they got the world and held it up and turned it upside down and put it back down. You know, I'm old fashioned enough to believe a church like this could change a whole area. And by the way, we're making the dent. We're making the dent. Well, in Athens, Maul stood up, Paul, Maul, uh, Maul stood up on Mars Hill and, uh, and, uh, Maul, Maul, somebody stood up somewhere and, uh, Paul stood on Mars Hill and he, and he spoke to the elite, elite. Now then, Dr. Billings, these were college presidents. These were professors of Greek and Hebrew, Dr. Evans. These were people who were the registrars of the colleges and the executive vice presidents of the, of the, of the most cultured center in the entire world. Athens, Greece, the Parthenon is just right across the street. And Paul is addressing these learned people. Well, now he's going to start off. Well, he says, you've got some gods you ignorantly worship. Ignorant is not a good word to start off addressing a college, a group of college people. And he said, you ignorantly worship them. And Paul stood up right across the street from the Parthenon, right across the street from the center of their heathen gods and preached Jesus to them. What else did he do? Well, he went on down to Corinth. When he caused him trouble in Corinth, bear in mind that he got kicked out of Antioch of Assyria, had to flee for his life in Iconium. He was stoned outside the city of Lystra and left for dead. He was jailed and prayed an earthquake down in Philippi. He went to Athens and preached on Mars Hill across the Parthenon, the gospel of Jesus Christ. He goes on down to Corinth. But in Corinth, he goes to a synagogue and begins to preach. And what happens? They get mad at him and kick him out of the synagogue. You know what he does? He goes next door and rents and bars the house next door and starts a church next door to the synagogue, right next door. And what does he do? He starts witnessing and getting the gospel out. And the chief ruler of the synagogue next door came over and got converted. Isn't that a sight? Oh, you say, Reverend Hiaas. Anytime anybody calls me Reverend, I know right away they're backslidden. You say, Reverend Hiaas. Yeah, I know. I know what you want. You want a worship center on Sunday morning. You want candles burning. You want a fellow to come out in a kimono and lift his arms. Kimono is a Greek word. It means bathrobe. You want him to lift his arms. You want a high church ritual. Brother, if that kind of garbage would save this country, the lion and the lamb, they're lying down together tonight in the kingdom. I went out to a church not long ago in a western city. Church of God, priest of the state convention. Church of God. Started off with an afternoon service. I was supposed to preach in the afternoon, the evening, and three times the next day. Started off with an afternoon service. They ushered me in, and some lady was playing the Volga boat song on the organ. Something like that. It was going, oh, evil. And they had a rheostat on the lights. The lights were turned down real, real low. A church of God. A church of God. When I was a kid, we couldn't sleep until 1 o'clock in the morning because we had a church of God next door. Church of God. I walked in, and were you there that day, that afternoon? You saw it. You saw it. Lights were on. I leaned over and asked the moderator beside me, I said, where's the cars? Where's the body? He said, what body? I said, it's bound to be a funeral somewhere. They had a divided chancel. Had a pulpit over here in this corner, a pulpit over here, and a worship center with candles and all the rest of it, right in the middle of where the old fire, hellfire, rimstone, brimstone preacher used to preach. Oh, that place rocked and rolled for five services. I never met the pastor for the last service. I was scared to death. Never met him, because it was a convention. He wasn't the moderator. I never met him, but I told you, I tore that divided chancel right in two. Not literally, but I wanted to. I preached, and I preached, and I told them that they were going to die. They were already dying. I said, you're acting like Episcopalians, and you're going to die like Episcopalians, and you're going to get worthy like Episcopalians. He said, what's wrong with Episcopalians? I don't have time to go into all that tonight. Take me years. He said, I'm mad. Well, I could care less. We don't have curbservice nor menus here. We're just like in the army. We just get a spoonful and dish it out on your platter as you come by. I recall one day I was on KP. I drove home to Mother, and I said, Mother, I've been promoted to kitchen police, and I was on KP. Remember those old fatigued caps you used to wear in the army? Those old greasy, dirty, fatigued caps? I lost my fatigued cap. Couldn't find it. Looked for it. Lieutenant Captain Fuller came in and said, where is your cap? I said, I don't know, Captain. I've lost it. And all the cooks looked, and the captain looked, and the whole kitchen police force looked, and he said, okay, get you another one tonight down at the supply room. And so I said, okay, it's my job to serve the mashed potatoes. You're ahead of me now. You're ahead of me. And so the fellows came by and held their tray like that. Would you like to know what the fourth fellow had on his tray? He had the whitest, fatigued cap in the United States Army. Well, on the last day of the convention, I walked up to preach, and the pastor was the moderator for the closing day, pastor of this church that had the divided chancel. So I sat beside him right over here, and I thought, oh, brother, here it comes. I sat there. I didn't even say hello. I sat there waiting, beautiful church, rich people in the church, nice, lovely auditorium. I sat there waiting. I felt a hand on my knee. It looked over and it was the pastor's hand. And he said, Dr. Hiles, he said, I'm the pastor of this church. I didn't say I'm a dead duck, but I felt like that's what I ought to say. He said, thank you. You've given us what we needed. You've given us what we needed. I got a letter. He said, I've had about seven rich men been trying to run this church, and they're the ones that did all this. They paid for the building. We built it like they wanted it. He said, it's been the biggest curse this church has ever had, this modern kind of divided chancel worship center auditorium. He said, Brother Hiles, I've been a little concerned, a little afraid to fight these rich men. I got a letter the next week or two from that pastor. Nice, biggest church, I guess, in the state of that denomination. He wrote me a letter and he said, we had a revival Sunday night. I just cut loose and preached like you did. And he said, the church was completely turned upside down. He said, we made some changes Sunday night we ought to have made years and years ago. He said, Dr. Hiles, he said, thank you for coming to our city and helping to change our church. That's what the churches need. I have more folks mad at me than any preacher in Hammond has, but I've got more folks here tonight than all the preachers put together have. I don't want to be so beloved that nobody comes to hear me. The New Testament church was built. You say, okay, call it sensationalism, call it what you want to call it. That's not the way they lived in the book of Acts. Paul went on down to Ephesus. Did you know they had such a revival in Ephesus? That they had a goddess there and a temple to that goddess, the goddess Diana. And they had literally dozens of men that made their living making little goddesses of the likeness of Diana. And they had a union there, a trade union of the, it was called the UDGM, United, I've forgotten now, Diana Goddess Makers. Or something. And they made goddesses. And so Paul went to town, he started preaching, and as many folks got saved, a merchant went down one morning to sell his Dianas, and nobody showed up to buy a Diana. And the merchant called over, unusual kind of telephone, but he called over across town and he asked another merchant, he said, how's your business today? He said, we haven't got any business. And all the fellows got together and had a meeting at a union and found the business was about to go under. And so they said, what's happened? And one fellow said, I tell you what's happened. He said, this preacher's come to town. He's getting everybody saved. And nobody wants to buy these Dianas. And he said, you know, folks that want one can get one given to them, but he's converged. What happened? They were living in book of Acts, Bible, Christian behavior. There is a tendency even among fundamental, listen to me now, among fundamental schools, there is a tendency towards scholarship that is killing fundamental churches. Everywhere I go in this country, there is a church that belongs to a fundamental group, whose pastor graduated from one of the three or four best colleges in this country, whose let some theologian come in and get behind a desk and hoodwink those young preachers. Preacher boys, you hear me now? If anybody ever stands up in Howells Anderson College and tells you that it's not right for you to go everywhere preaching the gospel and get the gospel out, if any of you high school students ever hear it in the high school, you grade school students in the grade school, you ever hear it? The Old Testament, hellfire and brimstone, Bible soul winning, scriptural evangelism, you ever hear it condemned? I'll bind you one thing, there will be one teacher looking for a job the next morning. We're not going to copy what other folks have copied, we're going to try to do like Samson did the foxes, he tied their tails together and set them on fire and burned up the whole meadow. We're going to get a bunch of preachers together and tie their tails together and send them out across this country. Paul went to Jerusalem, how'd it turn out in Jerusalem? Well, they got Paul in a big building, they said we're going to kill him. Pharisees said kill him! Sadducees said kill him! You see the Pharisees believed in the resurrection from the dead, they believed in the verbal inspiration of the Bible. The Sadducees did not, the Pharisees did. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection from the dead. But they finally got together on one thing, they hated Paul. You know it's amazing how many folks that have been mad at each other have gotten together because they both hate me. They've gotten together and get along real well with each other. So they got together and the Sadducees were on this side, it may have been they were on this side, I forget. But the Sadducees on this side and the Pharisees on this side and the Sadducees said kill him! And the Pharisees said kill him! And they were united. They said now what do you want to say to yourself Paul? Paul was a little bitty fellow, a little runt, had buggy eyes, wore glasses at the time he was 45. He was a runt. He had a contemptible voice. And he stood up and he said I believe in the resurrection from the dead. Oh boy that did it. The Pharisees said amen! And the Sadducees said kill him! And the Pharisees and the Sadducees got in a fight on the convention floor and Paul walked out the side door and his life was spared. That's New Testament Christianity. That's the normal way. Vance Avery used to say we're all so self-normal, if anybody ever gets normal everybody thinks he's abnormal. And that's the truth. But the honest simple truth is the church of Jesus Christ was built going from house to house, in the marketplace, downtown, everywhere people meet. Young people, listen to me, the boy here in the tie and the girl in the red dress beside him has their glasses on. You listen while I'm preaching. Third time I've looked at you tonight and tried to quieten you, you listen while I'm preaching. And don't let the moms and dads come to me saying you got all my kids, don't you come to me, I'll get on you. You better get on your kid. You always stand for the authority when your child is chasing. Always do it. Anyhow, let's go further. They got so mad at Paul in Jerusalem that when he'd walk down the street, the Bible said they'd just throw dust up in the air. The other day I was walking down the street here in Hammond. A fellow looked at me, looked at the fellow with him, he said, I hate that man more than anybody in town. I walked by, I smiled at him. Good morning, how are you sir? He went. I mean, and when I left, he just, he just. You know, folks can get in frenzies. And by the way, he was a liberal too that has love. He's one of those that calls us bigots. Paul walked down the street. They'd get so mad, they'd just pick up dust and throw it. He said that, he walked down the street and they go. Throwing up dust. They got so mad at Paul because he preached so much, witnessed so much, that he'd walk down the street and they'd get so mad, they'd just take their clothes and tear them off. Folks that are mad at me in town, they're taking them off, they're not tearing them off. Why? Because, listen, what's going on behind the average people tonight in this country is as foreign from what this Bible teaches as black is from white. What we want to do is, we want to drink our whiskey six days a week. Sip our cocktails and go to our card parties. Accept homosexuals as being accepted in society and live our dirty, vulgar, sex-minded lives. Smoke our pot and then go to some quiet church on Sunday morning where a preacherette preaches a sermonette to some Christianettes. Where you have a sextet and an octet and a quartet. The deacons go outside and smoke a cigarette after the service. You see, we want to play church on Sunday, but that's not Bible Christianity. You say, well, how's what we going to do? Our teenage soul wedding goes out every Saturday night. Two hundred people about last night. I'm asking for at least fifty ladies to be here every Friday morning this fall. I'm just telling you what we're going to launch. We're not launching it tonight. To go out soul wedding. Ladies that don't go on buses. Bus soul wedding. Other soul wedding. At least fifty. Every Friday morning. I'm asking and I believe we'll have two hundred of our bus workers go out soul wedding every week. We're going to start a soul wedding for those men in the church who have no other soul wedding activities. And the other, like the deaf and the bus minister and so forth. I'm hoping to have fifty men every Friday night to go out soul wedding. We have three hundred and fifty students enrolled in Hiles Anderson College already. Guess how many of them are going to go soul wedding? Three hundred and fifty are going to go soul wedding. And we'll have, I imagine, four hundred. Every week we're going to have a time when the entire staff, bus staff, church staff, college staff, everybody on the staff goes soul wedding. We're not going to have a person teaching Bible in our college that doesn't go soul wedding during the week. We're not going to do it. We're not going to teach our preacher boys one thing behind this pulpit and they get another thing behind the desk out in Baptist City. Now you better get ready for it. If you don't like it, you better pack up your little grip and just go right back where you came from. Now I preached a mild-mannered, kind-less sermon about deep calling unto the deep. You ain't ever heard such deep calling as you're going to hear if you criticize what goes on in this church. We'll close the building, fire the faculty, burn the thing down before we'll just have another college like all the other colleges are. We're going to travel the grace of God to set some preachers on fire to canvass this country and build churches like this all across this nation. And call this nation back to God. Our Sunday school teachers, 400 strong. We're launching a soul wedding program for them. I have down here all these things listed. If the program that I've planned for this fall becomes reality, and I have no doubt that it will, Dr. Billings, we will have every week of this world 1,350 people covering this Chicago area with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 1,350 people. Think of it! Think of it! You say, I'm just more of the dignified type. I'll tell you like I told a fellow up in Canada. We're having a session, and why they keep inviting me back to Canada, I don't know. I go and I go and I preach and they look at me and they wonder what I am. Like the farmer who went to the zoo and saw a giraffe for the first time. He turned to his wife and he said, there just ain't no such animal as that. And they look at me and I get up there Tuesday week preaching for the people's church in Toronto. Dr. Oswald Smith, Dr. Paul Smith. But I was in Canada up in Barrie, Ontario. I preached to the times one day and a pastor stood up in a question and answer session. He said to Dr. Hiles, he said, we Canadians are not like you Americans. He said, we feel it deeply, but we do not show it. That sounds like what you used to say to me when I first came here, doesn't it? You see, that old stanza has moved north. And so we feel it, but we don't show it. He said, it's down in here. But it doesn't come out here like it does in America. Especially your home state of Texas. Well, I said, don't feel bad about that. We had folks like that in Texas too. He said, oh. I said, oh. Yeah. I said, they felt it and didn't show it. He said, I just didn't think Texans were like that. I said, yes, had many of them. Except in Texas, we don't call them Canadians. We call them backsliders. My Bible says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. My Bible says, shout it on the housetops. My Bible says, they that were scattered abroad, dispersed, went everywhere preaching the gospel. Now, I want to say this tonight. I feel like I ought to say this again because in case I felt a little tension a while ago, I want to make it very, very plain. If any person stands in this school down this street, or any school in Baptist City, and casts the most remote reflection, I don't care where you stand. If you do it at home and I hear about it, or if you do it on the street, or if you write a letter home and I hear about it, if you cast the most remote reflection on the kind of evangelism and soul winning, I'm preaching tonight. You've never seen a bird fly like you're going to see it fly, and I won't wait until the next day either. You'll be on your way towards your home. Well, you'll say, I'm too scholarly for that. Well, then go somewhere where a bunch of corpses like you already are stationed. Don't you come around here ruining our kids. And the first professor that stands up and says to a child, you shouldn't go soul winning until you make better grades. You might have better keep your suitcase packed too. I mean, for the last time, for the last time, soul winning has been made fun of in our schools or in our church. I don't like what you're preaching. You just happen not to have a choice in the matter. We're going to be the one school in this country where the soul winner is honored more than the basketball player is. Where the fellow who gets out and has the courage of God to pass out tracks and witness on the street corner is honored. He's not going to be a nut. He's not going to be a fool. He's not going to be some fanatic. He's not going to be looked down on. Because you know why he's not? Because the professor is going to be right out with him soul winning. Right out with him soul winning. He said, well, this is not in my contract. Well, go home tonight and add it. Add it. I was down in Texas the other day. A little fellow came up. He can't read. He can't write. He can't spell the word Jesus. I've got a letter from him in my office. I wish you could see it. You can hardly. He spells Jesus. Let's see. G-E-S-I-S. Jesus. He's a bricklayer. One Thursday night I was out soul winning. Went to his house and led him to Christ. His name is Watley. I was in my car about to leave. I was his pastor for a number of years. I was in my car about to leave. I heard somebody call over. Say, Brother Jack, wait a minute. I opened the door of my car and got out. He got out on his knees. Kissed me on the foot. And he said, I love you. You won me to Christ years ago. That fellow can't even spell the word Jesus. Has won hundreds and thousands of people to Jesus Christ. Did you know that for 19 years since I won him, he drives home from work every afternoon. He stops everybody on the street, the pastors, and tells them about Jesus Christ. His wife can't even fix supper and expect him at a decent hour because she never knows what time he's going to come in. He had a new home. We were over at his house eating one day. Had a brand new home, beautiful little cottage. He showed me around it. And I noticed that the door in the bedroom, the closet door was all marked up. And I said, there, what's the trouble? What's wrong with that door? He said, oh, nothing. I said, go on. What's wrong with the door? I counted 167 little scratches on that door. Brand new door, brand new house. He said, well, he said, I told him why before I got saved, went hunting all the time. Every time I bagged anything, I put me a mark on the stock of my gun. And he said, well, I told him I could have the closet door to keep my record of soul in it. Every time I get a soul saved, I just put another scratch on the closet door. They've had to buy a new house by now. He's used up all the closet doors. Simple little fellow. One night he picked up, or he stopped beside the road and talked to a fellow. He said, fellow, you a Christian? The fellow went, he got his Bible out. The fellow was deaf. He got his Bible out. He said, hear it? And the fellow said, couldn't read either. Couldn't hear, couldn't read. Old Bear Watley looked at him and said, And the fellow had heard this story enough somewhere or other. Somebody had gotten me through before once before to it. He knew what he meant. Jesus came to earth and died on the cross. He'll come into your heart if you'll trust him. The fellow fell on his knees and got saved. Bear said, preacher, I'm still going. I got 16 last week. I've been gone 13 years. He hugged me around the feet and he said, I love you like I love no other human. Looked out and on the second row down here, there's that old Leon Diller. You've met Leon. About 5'5", high and around. Wears a size 17 shirt and 19 collar and keeps it two inches open. He got saved. Oh, it's been now 20 years ago. I preached on the funeral of the old man. Old Leon's still acting strong when he talks to Christ. New Testament Christianity, that's what it's all about. Folks, listen to me tonight. I don't mean to be unkind, but I'm going to defend New Testament evangelism. And I'm not going to pastor a church or be associated with a school that's not for this kind of reckless abandon to soul winning and the getting out of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, that's just not my cup of tea. Well, then you go ahead and drink your Lipton's. I'm going to drink my Gossip Health tea. It's healthier. He said, you just rubbed my fur the wrong way. Well, the cat can always turn around. Always turn around. He said, I just don't see it that way. I know it. You're like a possum. You're hanging with a tail. The world looks upside down, but you're the one hanging with a tail. Bible Christianity is going where they are and getting them saved. Bible Christianity is being scattered abroad everywhere preaching His Word. I've got a burden. That burden sends me across this country day and night. I have an invitation right now on my desk from the city of Clovis, New Mexico. Citywide revival. They want me for a citywide revival. All the Bible-reading churches in the city, a good-sized city, Clovis, New Mexico, want me to come preach a citywide revival. I have a letter on my desk right now from Trinidad. Trinidad. All the churches in the country of Trinidad want to go in together, the fundamental churches, and have a nationwide revival in Trinidad. They want me to come preach it. I won't take it. I won't preach citywide revivals. I have an invitation to preach to crowds, 10,000, 20,000 folks a night. I won't take it. You know why? I'm trying to get the preacher. I take invitations where preachers come so I can preach to preachers. I've got a burden. My burden is for my country. We're starting a school. Not just so we can have a school. We've got enough going on around here without having a school. We're not starting a college just so we can, because the Midwest needs a college. No, no, no, no, no. We're starting a college for one reason and one reason only. That is because Dr. Jack Hiles wants to set some flaming evangelists all over this country building churches like this. And if we're not going to do it, let's sell out. There's enough schools already just teaching the usual old stuff. So our church is going to launch a campaign. You've never seen such a campaign as you'll see this fall. I beg you be a part of it. Live in New Testament days. You, lay persons, deacons, Sunday school teachers, workers, live in New Testament days. What kind of days were those? The day that was scattered abroad? The day that were... The word comes from the word winnowing. Winnowing. You know how you winnow the band? Blows and winnows their wheat? Winnowing. Blow them out. Disperse them. Send them out. Scatter them. The day that was scattered abroad went everywhere. Preaching the word. That's what it's all about. You say, when did you get on this gig? 27 years ago. 27 years ago. My old college president down in Texas, Dr. Bruce, I shouldn't have said that because this tape goes all over the world. I'll be preaching the same thing for several weeks. These sermons are taped. And folks purchase them every week. They go all over this country and around the world. Up in Iceland they'll hear this sermon. It won't be Iceland anymore. It'll be a desert. It'll be the Sahara. But anyway, they hear the sermon. And I forgot what I was going to say. Dr. Bruce, thank you, Doc. He called me from the college I went to. I was a fanatic at the school. They thought I was a rebel rouser. That's because I was a rebel rouser. He called me and said, I want to take you out to eat. He took me out to eat. We sat together at the Baker Hotel in Dallas, Texas. He said, Dr. Highhart, I want to talk to you. He said, your old college wants to honor you. He said, you, he said this, forgive me, I want to brag. You're a PhD. Would you be impressed if I told you that my old college president, that college has been there for 75 years, I guess, my old college president said, you and Tim Trammell are the two outstanding students our school has ever turned down. I didn't know we were in such a bad shape for a student. And he said, you're the only hope for our college to gain national notoriety. We want to honor you. We want you to come back to your alma mater. We want to give you an honorary degree and honor you. But he said, we can't. Because you're too controversial. He said, you get up and just call sin by name. He said, talk about sin, but don't mention it by name. He said, we want to honor you like no student, no graduate has ever been honored in the history of our school. And he said, would you come? And I said, Dr. Bruce, I wouldn't quit preaching against sin. I wouldn't quit fighting the devil and doing what I believe is the right thing to do about soul winning. If you wrapped up the East Texas Baptist College in a gift package and gave it to me. I said, my uncle offered me $250,000 if I'd go to a certain seminary and get a doctor's degree. And I turned down $250,000 for it. I said, I'm sorry. I wasn't for sale when I was in college and I'm not for sale tonight. And Dr. Bruce looked at me and he grinned and grimaced a bit. And he said, you haven't changed a bit since you were a college student. You haven't changed a bit since you were a college student. In case you have any hopes, I don't plan to change a bit now either. Not now. The deacons can call a meeting after the service tonight and they can take action against this sermon and they can just huff and puff and blow the house in. But next Sunday morning if I'm behind this pulpit, I'll be as free as I was today. As free as I was today. I paid a big price for my freedom. The biggest price I ever paid for anything in my life. I paid for my freedom to stand behind my pulpit and preach what I believe God wanted me to preach. And I aim to use what I bought. I aim to use what I bought. I challenge you, let's keep on going. Let's keep on going. Let it scatter abroad and everywhere preaching the word. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we honestly feel that sermons like this are needed to set everything back in its place. So we lose direction, lose perspective. So we come tonight to reestablish the position of a lifetime. I pray you'd help our church in the fall to do something that's never been done for this great Chicago area. I pray the days of Torrey shall be relived. I pray the days of Crazy Moody shall be relived and revived. I pray the days of that great old Paul Rader shall flame again here in this area. And may there go out from this place a mighty army of young men to build great soul winning churches to call this nation back to God.