In this sermon, Dr. Darrell Champlin addresses the pursuit of the American dream and the neglect of spreading the gospel. He emphasizes the need for a spiritual awakening and a shift in priorities. The sermon begins with a call to action, urging listeners to not let the opportunity to share the gospel escape them. Dr. Champlin then shares a story of a missionary experience where the power of prayer and the gospel transformed a village. He concludes by reminding the audience that they have the power, personnel, and perspective to make a difference in spreading the gospel.

Digging the truth from the rich vein of the scriptures, this is the chapel platform coming to you from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Throughout the years, God's servants have shared treasures from the scriptures in the chapel and worship services here. Dr. Thurman Wisdom introduced our speaker. Listen to this humbling biblical message by a missionary who spent years on the field in Africa and in Suriname, South America. Our speaker is presently from Greensboro, North Carolina, Dr. Darrell Champlin. Some comments in this message are current as of the date he spoke on Friday, February 24th, 1984, to University Missionary Chapel Service. His text is 1 Samuel chapter 15, verse 11. A lost world needs to be released from their sins in order to savor the grace of God. This is only had through Christ. When we listen to God and His word, He often gives clear directions. Let's not try to embellish them with our character. God does know what we need. Simply obeying God is necessary to serve Him. We have a clear command to reach a lost, sinful world. Let's listen to Dr. Champlin's challenging warning titled, The Calamity of Death and Disobedience. In the short time I've known Reverend Darrell Champlin, he has made a tremendous impact on my life. He is a man of prayer, a veteran missionary who has labored in some of the most difficult fields in the world. He served for some 10 years in Africa, and for the last 20 years or so, he has been in Suriname, South America. It's certainly a joy to be with you once again. Beloved, we are in the midst of a calamity. A calamity spelled death and disobedience. A calamity, beloved, that touches virtually every life and every heart here. That touches virtually every home and church and school in the United States. A calamity, beloved, of death and of disobedience. Described in 1 Samuel, chapter 15, verse 11, has the prophet Samuel on his face before the God of heaven. And it repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, the Lord has said. For he has turned back from following me and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieves Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night. Something, beloved, had happened in Israel that had the prophet of God upon his face. Tears streaming down his cheeks, his body quaking. At the agony of his soul, O God, he cried, O God, through the night. Now, young man, young woman, we are in the midst of just such a calamity today. Across the United States and across the world. You can go from this morning's chapel defeated, discouraged, ready to throw up your hands. Or you can go with the attitude that the old major had during the Second World War, when suddenly the German troops broke through our lines and created what was called the Battle of the Bulge. His men found themselves surrounded, and he gathered them together. He said, men, we have enemy on the north of us and on the south of us. We have them to the east of us and to the west of us. Men, we're totally surrounded by the enemy. We have them just where we want them. Don't let one of them escape. Now, we can take this attitude, young people, or we can go out of here defeated. For we are in the midst of a calamity of death and of disobedience. A calamity which began for us as it began for Saul in verse 1 of our chapter 15 of the book of 1 Samuel. Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek. And utterly destroy all that they have. And spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. What a terrible commandment. Literally, that every man was to die. Every beautiful young woman. Every tottering old grandfather on his cane. Every darling sweet little white-headed grandmother. Those darling little children running in the streets. Those giggling girls. Those tussle-headed boys were to die. A command, beloved, to genocide. We don't have time this morning, but it would not be difficult to prove both the justice and the mercy of that command. May I remind you that there is also a world outside of the doors of this auditorium this morning that is under the wrath of the God of heaven. He that believeth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Beloved, there is a world lost, doomed, on their way to a Christless eternity under the wrath of the God of heaven because of their sin, who someday will feel that wrath unless they are reached with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. The command to Saul was clear. It was unequivocal, unmistakable, undeniable, irreversible, inescapable, irrefutable. I want every Amalekite to die. There is not a single one of them to be left drawing the breath of life. Our calamity began with just such a command. A clear, unequivocal, undeniable, inescapable, irrefutable, unchangeable command by the Master of the universe. You'll remember our Lord Jesus, after his resurrection, stood before his disciples and said unto them, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Centuries before, Lucifer had stood before the God of heaven and declared, By blasphemous I wills, beginning with, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. And summarizing those blasphemous I wills in Isaiah 14 by saying, I will be as Elillion, I will be the Most High God. Beloved, that's the name God takes when he stands on the ramparts of the universe and spreads his arms around it and says, I created it all. I own it all. I rule it all. It is all mine. I am Elillion, the Most High God. And Lucifer aspired to be Elillion, and the cosmic battle that rages today began. And this Elillion, this Master of the universe, this one who has all power in heaven and earth, stood before his disciples and said unto them and to us, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Now go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He reiterated it in John 20 and verse 21. You'll remember when he gathered his disciples together and breathed on them and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. As the Father has sent me, so send I you. And you'll remember before a group of over five hundred disciples, as he prepared to ascend back to the glory, he said to them, But ye shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. O beloved, we have a clear command. And the calamity which is upon us began with that clear command by the Master of the universe. Go ye, go ye, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Clear, unequivocal, unmistakable, undeniable, inescapable, irrefutable. A clear command from the Master of the universe. Let me point out to you in verse 4 that Saul also had, as we do, the competency with which to carry out the command. And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Talium, 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah. An overwhelming army of 210,000 men, backed by the mighty right arm of Jehovah Sabbath, the Lord of hosts, as we find in verse 2, Thus saith the Lord of hosts. O beloved, we live too much in the realm of Psalm 23. Too much talk of the joy of knowing God as our Father, the Lord Jesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit as our Comforter and Guide. Too much talk, young people, about His succor in times of sorrow, about His strength in times of weakness, about His supply in times of need, too much dwelling in the realm of Psalm 23, the Lord is my Shepherd, and too little understanding of Psalm 24. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Verse 6 says, Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. And then the scene seems to shift. And our Lord Jesus has died on Calvary's cross and been buried and been raised again triumphant, and is now ascending through the realm of the principality of the powers of the air. And He has cast them from Him in mighty power. And He is approaching the gates of glory. And there the myriad of angels stand and cry, Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. And the question echoes back, Who is this King of glory? And the answer comes, The Lord of hosts, Jehovah Sabbath. He is the King of glory. And young people, you'll find as you study the Word, that this is the name God takes when He goes to war. When He puts on His boots and ties on His buckler. When He picks up His shield. When He takes up the sword and goes to war against sin and against Satan across this universe and across this world. Jehovah Sabbath, the Lord of hosts, God's fighting name. And how few, how pitifully few of God's children ever come to know Him as their General. They had, beloved, the competency. An army backed by the mighty right arm of Jehovah Sabbath. May I remind you this morning that we too are competent. We have the personnel. Look at us. Look at us, every man and woman of us. Forty thousand strong in Christian colleges and universities across the United States. Uncounted thousands of believers in churches scattered across the world. We have, beloved, the personnel called by our Lord Jesus in the song of Solomon 6 and verse 4, an army terrible with banners. And this one, the Lord of hosts, stood before Peter and said to him, Peter, I will build my church against which the very gates of hell shall not prevail. We've gotten that turned around. Something like Pilgrim and Pilgrim's Progress, where we figure the church is a place to run behind the walls of the fortress and hide from the darts of the devil. No, beloved, that's not the picture. The picture is of an army of us. The personnel of an army terrible with banners backed by the mighty right arm of Jehovah's Sabbath, so powerful that the very gates of hell cannot withstand our thrust. We have, beloved, the personnel. We have also the perspective looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12 says, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye faint and be wearied in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Looking unto Jesus, young people, who hung there on Calvary's cross unprotected by a sash of cloth to hide His shame. And they scorned Him and ridiculed Him. And He despised the shame. They had pummeled Him with their fists. They had crowned Him with a crown of thorns, and the blood was caked over His face. They had whipped Him until His back and chest were lacerated, torn. Isaiah 52 describes the scene that His visage, His face, was so marred more than any man. Literally, He did not appear to be human. And it was this one who said to Peter in Matthew 16, I must go to Jerusalem, and I must suffer, and I must die. We have, young people, the perspective, looking unto Jesus, man of sorrows. What a name for the Son of God who came to ruin sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah. What a Savior. May I remind you also that we have the power. Not only the personnel, not only the perspective, but the power. I've been in the jungles for the last thirty years. I've seen much of the miracles of God. I could tell you miraculous stories all day. Let me take just a moment and tell you one. When we were evacuated from the land of Africa in 1964 after building thirteen churches and seven schools in the deep jungles, we moved to the jungles of South America and found a little house standing on eight-foot stilts in the middle of the swamp. There were no books from which to learn the language. There was a little fellow there named Bakiti, about so tall. He didn't know a word of English, and we didn't know a word of his language, but somehow, by God's grace, I learned enough of his language in about two and a half months to lead him to Christ. He became our first preacher. Tremendous. Some years later, he got paralysis, and it crept up his legs into his chest and finally killed him. And as he was dying, his brother Bamboco laced his fingers through Bakiti's fingers and said, Bakiti, oh, I can't stand to live without you. When you're gone, come back and get me. We buried Bakiti. And a few days later, we had a frantic call from our nearest village at about 3 a.m. Oh, missionary, come quickly! Come quickly, missionary! Bamboco is dying! And we ran to the village. We found him lying in a hammock covered with a clammy cold sweat. He was mute. We put a pressure band around his arm, and his blood pressure was zero over zero. Oh, missionary! The leaders of the village said, please pray, ask Bakiti not to take him. I said, no, I can't pray to Bakiti. God teaches us only to pray to Himself. All right, missionary, then you pray to God, and we'll pray to Bakiti. I said, no, if you're doing that, I'm leaving. Oh, please, missionary! Bamboco is dying. I said, all right, on your knees. And here are the chiefs and the witch doctors and the elders of the village on their knees in this little tiny hut. This platform, make 20 of it. Four hundred people outside. I began to cry out to God. Oh, God, give this man his life. Lord, spare him that he might trust Christ and be saved. When I was finished praying, he sat up. His blood pressure was back. His life was there. He began to speak. Oh, missionary! Now, we're going to pray to Bakiti. Now, Papi, you pray. An old witch doctor stood there trembling. He said, I can't pray. Colonel, you pray. I can't pray. The chief said, missionary, would you please step outside? As long as you're here, we can't pray. I stepped outside, and that old witch doctor followed me with his shoulders slumped. I heard the people saying, if that's all the power our things have, we'd better turn to Jesus. Minutes later, the chief came to the door. He said, missionary, we still can't pray. Would you please go across the village? Oh, beloved, the victory was won. Over 400 have been saved in that village today. We have, beloved, the power. We have the personnel. Look at us! We have the perspective. Look at Him. We have the power. Look at this glorious book. In spite of their competency, beloved, we find in verse 7, they failed. And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah till thou comest to sure that it is over against Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and fatlings and lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refuse, they destroyed utterly. Do you get the picture? Oh, what a tremendous battle! The cattle were down bellowing in their gore. The mothers were throwing themselves across their children, trying to protect them and being slaughtered. The young men fought for the young women and were killed. The grandfathers tottered away and were struck down. The children were murdered. Somewhere in that battle, a sword was raised that ought to have killed Agag. And something in the rebellion and stubbornness of the human heart stayed that sword, and Agag was left alive. Had we been there the next morning and stood on that battlefield, we would have been struck with the awful silence. Ah, the carcasses scattered by the thousands. And our human heart would have said, What a glorious victory! But the God of heaven could still hear the breath of one man being drawn that should have died. And God's conclusion, beloved, was what looked to us like a glorious victory was in reality a calamitous defeat. And He spoke to His prophet and said, It repenteth me that I have raised up Saul to be king. O young man, we don't have time to deal with this adequately, but let me say this to you. It is eternally important, young man, young woman, for you to determine on your knees and in the word of God, God's will for you, and do it. Lest the God of heaven look at your life in what appears to you and your parents to be a glorious victory and declare because of your disobedience your life to be a calamitous defeat. Don't hide behind the permissive will of God. We have the idea if we can just keep on keeping on with our own designs and desires that eventually God will give us something else to do. Oh yes, He will, as He did Moses when he buried him as a son with honor and love after he had struck the rock instead of speaking it to it the second time. Yes, He'll give you something else to do. Ethelbereth calls it a broken sword. I call it God giving us a paring knife to peel spiritual potatoes in some spiritual kitchen somewhere when we could have been out on the forefront of the battle with a sword at battle for the God of heaven. Young man, don't be satisfied with forcing the pervasive will of God. Find the will of God for your life and do it. Lest you say to God, as Saul said in verse 12 and 13, We have done all the Lord commanded and hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in the words of Samuel. What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and this lowing of the oxen which I hear? A calamity is upon us for fifty generations after that clear unequivocal command of our Lord Jesus was given. Still twelve hundred languages are without a word of Scripture. Two point eight billion are unreached across this world. A hundred and seventy-five cities of a half a million or more are without the gospel. And by the year 2000, that number will be three hundred. Two hundred of which will be in what we call the third world. It took until 1830 for the world to reach one billion population. Only until 1933 to top two billion. Then only until 1960 to reach three billion. And 1977 to top four billion. We're now at four point eight billion. And by the year 2000, we will top six billion. And after that, every decade, one billion people will be added to the population of this world. And they're dying today, beloved, at the rate of 143 a minute. That's 8,580 an hour. That means that today, 205,920 will go into eternity. That means that since you gathered last Friday morning in this amphitorium, at least 1,441,440 precious souls have gone into eternity. And the vast majority of them, with no knowledge of Jesus Christ. And we have the personnel. And we have the perspective. And we have the power. And still there are more Baptist preachers in the state of Texas than there are Baptist missionaries around the entire world. 40,000 students in Bible college today. Of that number, only 25 per thousand will ever reach the mission field. 50,000 students in all of the seminaries of the United States. Of that number, only 300 will ever reach the mission field. Six per thousand out of seminary reach the mission field. And yet we say, we have done all the Lord commanded. And we must hear the voice of the Holy Spirit of God speaking to us. What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears? 40,000 students in Bible college. Why are they there? The vast majority, beloved, are in pursuit of the grand American dream. They want a good education so they can get a good job, find a good mate, buy a good home, find good security that will enable us, beloved, to live out the golden years of our lives in this most God-blessed land of America. And while the world is dying for the lack of the gospel, we are pursuing the grand old American dream. And the voice of the Spirit of God must speak to us and say, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears? We are in the midst of a calamity. Is there victory? Yes. In the two minutes I have, look at verse 32. Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Victory? Conquest? Yes. But the Agags must die. The Agag of the control of your life, young man, you have no right to choose a career, no right to choose a place to live, no right to choose a mate, no right to choose a future. What? Know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, whose you are, which ye have of God? Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are His. The same blood, beloved, that paid for our souls, our sins on Calvary's cross, also purchased our souls. No right but to look into his face and say, My Lord, what will you have me to do? The Agag, beloved, of the grand old American dream, must die. The Agag of romance at any cost, young woman, must die. The Agag of health must die. If you can serve well in America, you can probably serve well any place in the world. My mother was fifty-nine years old when she went to the mission field. She had had seven heart attacks and three major surgeries. She served ten years, died of cancer, and was buried in Brazil. Slay the Agag of health. The Agags must die. Slay the Agag of waiting for a call. If you will do what my mother taught me, O God, storm the gates of heaven. Lord, give me a place. Give me a people. They're dying. A hundred and forty-three a minute, eight thousand five hundred and eighty an hour, two hundred and five thousand a day, a million five hundred thousand a week. O God, give me a place and I'll serve you. Slay the Agag of waiting for a call, young man, and storm the gates of heaven, and God will give you a place. We have the command. We have the personnel. Look at us. We have the perspective. Look at him. We have the power. Look at this buck. We are in the midst of a calamity. There is conquest. The Agags must die. We need one thing. God, give us obedience. Our Father, now we thank Thee for the privilege of gathering here this morning, and we pray that Thou wilt challenge, break, and bless our hearts. O God, we're in the midst of a calamity. We're surrounded by the Agags. Give us spirit to say don't let one of them escape. Teach us, we pray, for Jesus' sake. Greenville, South Carolina. The zip code is 29614. Join us again next time for the Chapel Platform sponsored by Bob Jones University.