Gap in the feasts: Report on the work

Now we're going to read tonight in the book of Leviticus, and tonight just one verse in chapter 23. In the book of Leviticus in chapter 23, I will just read verse 22. Chapter 23, and we're reading verse 22.

When you reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field, when thou reapest. Neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest, thou shalt leave them unto the poor and to the stranger. I am the Lord your God.

Now we're going to read some other passages of scripture in just a moment, but that will be all for the time being. You will remember that Ruth, the Moabitess, Gentile, that she gleaned in the field of Boaz. And the Israelite was instructed, and we have read tonight, that the corners of the field were not to be gleaned.

And so we have come to the section of the chart here in the middle. And that verse that I have read in Leviticus chapter 23 would draw our attention to this particular place on the chart and the truth that it contains. And so the first four feasts are now passed.

We're not going back to them again. Redemption has been provided through the death of Christ. And we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and the Feast of Weeks.

And we noticed on the Lord's Day that that was the coming of the Holy Spirit of God. Four feasts that are passed. There are three feasts that are yet to come.

And those three feasts that are yet to come all present future events that will involve the nation of Israel. But that will also involve the millennial reign of Christ. And remember that we are going to reign with Him.

And so the millennial reign of Christ will have a bearing upon us. And of course we should be very interested in the purposes of God for the moment and the time after the rapture. And so this is a period of time on the chart between the coming of the Spirit of God and the moment of the rapture when we will be gathered home to meet the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in this period of time, the eyes of the multitude of Jewish people are blinded. In other words, the Bible is a closed book. They have no lamb.

We have emphasized that. And so they have no redemption. They do not know Christ.

But we have also indicated that there is today a remnant according to the election of grace. And so thank God that even in this day there are some Jewish people that have been saved. I have made some reference to my friend in fellowship in an assembly, a Jewish man who has been reached and saved.

Now there's something that we need to keep in mind. That there is no prophetic scripture that is being fulfilled today. The prophetic clock, if I can put it this way, this is the way some of the older brethren used to put it.

We are in agreement with this that the prophetic clock has stopped. There are no prophetic scriptures being fulfilled particularly relative to the nation of Israel today. Now I'm going to read a little statement from a man named John Ritchie who believed what I have just said.

Mr. Ritchie wrote, But those prophetic truths will not be fulfilled until after the rapture. Now you and I have the privilege today of living in a very remarkable period of time as far as God's purposes are concerned. And the period of time that we are living in is the period of time between the coming of the Holy Spirit and the rapture of the saints up to heaven.

We call it the day of grace. Call it the dispensation of grace. This is the period of time that we are living in.

Very unique. We have a high priest in heaven. The Old Testament saints never had a high priest in heaven.

They had a representative upon earth, Aaron and his descendants. But they never had a high priest in heaven. And the high priest that we have in heaven tends with sweet and weary care the flock for which he bled.

And so when you come to the martyrdom of Stephen, you will remember that just prior to the moment that Stephen died, he looked up to heaven and he saw the glory of God. And he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Significant that he was standing.

We are told in other passages of Scripture that when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down. But Stephen saw him standing. There is a work that the Lord Jesus is carrying on today that is not finished.

The work of the cross is complete. But he stands doing a work that he is doing today. He's looking upon a saint upon earth, Stephen, who is about going to enter eternity.

And he's succoring, he's providing, he's encouraging as the great high priest. One of the saints upon earth who is passing through a difficult time. He does that.

That's his unfinished work today. We have a high priest in heaven. But we also have the Holy Spirit upon earth in a very remarkable way.

Yes, the Old Testament saints had the Holy Spirit, but in a little different way. Because David said, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. The Lord Jesus said that when he was going to send the Spirit of God, he said, he will abide with you forever.

And so once the Spirit of God at the moment of conversion indwells the believer never to leave. Can never be lost. Is sealed by the Holy Spirit.

A remarkable moment. And a remarkable opportunity that we have. A high priest in heaven in the day of grace.

The Spirit of God indwelling the believer. And doing a work upon earth today. But as well as that, there is an opportunity of service today.

Unlike any other dispensation in the purposes of God. Just in this day. We are greatly blessed.

That we can serve a risen Christ. And that we have the power of the Spirit of God. And we have the help of the Lord Jesus in heaven.

That was never known in that capacity by saints in the Old Testament. This is a remarkable time. And so you will notice then that God is choosing out of the nations of this earth.

In this day that we are living in. He is choosing out a people. From every kindred.

Every nation. Every tongue. And the little chorus that we sometimes sing to the children.

We need to get it into our souls. Red and yellow, black and white. All are precious in sight.

And so any individual. Regardless of who they are. Regardless of their color.

Regardless of their nationality. Their ethnicity. Whoever they are.

Walking upon this earth. At this present moment. Is a candidate for God's salvation.

That man who is lying in the doorway of a downtown building. I know where I live. You would see them.

That man can be saved. When I go into a prison. As I indicated the other night.

And speak to a man who is senior. That man can be saved. Every individual today.

And so we believe without exception. Without limitation. With no reservation.

That whosoever will. Let him come. Every soul.

That would give an ear to the gospel. And bow to the claims of Christ. That soul can be saved.

And so remember. That in the day that we are living in. The Lord Jesus is building a church.

He said. I will build my church. And so every soul.

From the jungles of the Amazon. From the darkness of Africa. From Siberia.

Wherever that soul is. That trusts Christ. They become part of the church.

Which is his body. And let me emphasize it again. No error.

The Lord Jesus said. I will build. And what he builds is perfect.

The assembly is something different. The church which is his body. That's Matthew 16.

Matthew 18. There are difficulties that often arise. In a local assembly.

And so there's a great harvest. That's being gathered in today. We are cleaning the harvest.

And so let me quote again. We quoted them once. We'll quote it again.

The Lord Jesus said. Look on the fields. In other words.

Open your eyes. Look on the fields. They are white.

All ready to harvest. That's what the Savior said. And then he said.

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest. That he will send forth laborers. Into his harvest.

That's the opportunity. That we have today. An opportunity.

That as far as the Old Testament saints were concerned. They didn't know. They didn't have.

But that's an opportunity. That we are blessed with today. Now the length.

Of this period of time. Is unknown. We don't know how long the day of grace is going to be.

It could end tonight. We could have a few more days. A few more hours.

But the Lord is coming. And when he is going to come. We don't know.

But until he comes. We are to be occupied. In service to him.

And so there are two things on the chart. That are not in Leviticus chapter 23. And so first you have a star.

The morning star. The morning star is found in Revelation chapter 22 and 16. The bright and the morning star.

The morning star represents the coming. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. For his church.

For his bride. Could be imminent. At a conference.

In Hardwick Vermont. A few years back. What happens sometimes in conferences.

All of the brethren that were speaking had left. So this is Sunday afternoon. And there were only two of us left.

Over on one side of the hall was Brother Frankie Turnick Odishi. And some of you might know him. On the other side of the hall I was sitting.

Just the two of us. There was an hour left in the meeting. I looked over at my brother.

He looked at me. We kind of nodded our heads. And shook our shoulders a little bit.

And so when he was hesitant to get up. I got up. And I gave a little word on the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To the earth. And we're going to touch that when we get over here. He got up and spoke.

On the rapture. And then he was standing on the platform. And he didn't say anything.

And he stood there quietly. Not a word. A minute went by.

Nothing. The second minute went by. Nothing.

And you know what happened. People started to squirm a little bit in the seat. What's he doing? He's standing up there.

He's not saying anything. Then after probably two to three minutes. He said, did you hear it? Then he stopped again for a moment.

Then he said, did you hear it? And then he quoted the words. I can almost hear his footfall. On the threshold of the door.

And my heart, my heart is longing. To be with him. Forevermore.

Did you hear it? Is there a longing in your heart? To meet the Lord Jesus Christ. When he comes. That's the morning star.

That will conclude the day of grace. On the bottom of the chart here. There's a little picture of what is the sun.

The son of righteousness. If you were to turn to Malachi chapter 4 and verse 2. You would read the statement. That the son of righteousness will rise.

With healing in his wings. Now the morning star appears over the eastern horizon. And it's not long after you see the morning star.

That the sun comes behind it. The morning star is relative to the church. The son of righteousness is relative to the nation of Israel.

He will rise with healing in his wings. And again that will touch the last three of these feasts. I'm going to take you to the gospel of Matthew chapter 28.

With this in mind. That this is our day of opportunity. Our day of service.

So Matthew chapter 28. And we're going to read verse 16. Matthew chapter 28 and verse 16.

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee. Into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him they worshipped him.

But some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Baptizing them in 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 lo I am with you always.

Even to the end of the world. Amen. I want you to notice.

That this came from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And he said. Go ye and teach all nations.

I take that very personally. I take that to myself. I want to suggest to you that every believer.

Should take the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Very, very personally to themselves. If you were to turn to Mark's record of this.

Mark would put it this way. Go ye into all the world. And preach the gospel.

When you come to these disciples that the Lord was speaking to here. They never went into all the world. If we take all the world to be the world in its fullness.

They couldn't do that. They didn't have the ability or the capacity to do that. But the world to them was a little area.

Around the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them may have gone a little further. History suggests that Thomas went as far as India.

They may have spread out a little further. But the command is to you and is to me. He says go ye into all the world.

Your world and my world is where God has placed us. Remember to the disciples there was a limitation to that. It wasn't to every corner of the earth.

They never covered that much. And so the world is where you are. And so your world may be the neighbor on the back fence.

Or either on one side or on the other side. Or where you work. The world is where you bear a testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then he said here baptizing them. And then teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. I'm going to do something here because we really are on this period of time.

Something that's very precious to my own soul. And I'm going to do this to try and encourage us to be more active in the gospel. I believe the gospel is vitally important.

Can I put it this way? That the heartbeat of any assembly is the gospel. That the lifeline of an assembly is the gospel. And when an assembly loses its exercise in the gospel.

It has lost its source of new life. And that's why some assemblies, one reason anyway, why some assemblies will die out. I'm going to take you for a moment.

And I don't know whether any of you have ever been to the city of Toronto. But I'm going to take you to the city of Toronto. If you were to go back 200 years ago, 250 years ago.

There were Europeans that came to North America. The same to the United States. And they settled in certain areas.

And so in the city of Toronto they settled in little areas. There really was no city. They were surrounded by forests.

And they named little areas by certain names. And so the assembly that I would be part of in the city of Toronto is called the Lansing Gospel Hall. Because the area was called Lansing.

I'm going to tell you a little bit about another area that is called Agincourt. And so there were a little group of people, Europeans from across the ocean that settled in this area. And they called it Agincourt.

At the present moment, there is a very high concentration of Chinese immigrants in Agincourt. This is my world. This is where I have a responsibility.

To go and to present the gospel to these people. They have come from Communist China. It is estimated that there are 600,000 of them in the city of Toronto.

There are probably more across the country in other places. That makes it a mission field. That makes it a very unique mission field.

And so I look at myself as a missionary in that field. That's my world where we seek to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to tell you just a little bit about that world.

If you were to drive down the street, you would see signs. Many of the signs are in Mandarin. If you draw a line almost across the middle of the country of China, to the north of that, they speak Mandarin.

To the south of that, they speak Cantonese. There are two languages in China. The two languages are very closely related.

The people that we have been dealing with are remarkable people. They are doctors. I've spoken to a woman who's a doctor.

I spoke to another woman who's a dentist. They are engineers. They are highly educated.

They are computer specialists in whatever line of computers that they are working on. It seems almost a thing that's hard to grasp that the communist government in China has allowed North America to scrape the cream of the crop. And these are the top educated people in China.

When you look at the pictures that I have put at the back, you'll find a picture of a man who is a professor in an elite university in Beijing. He came first to the United States, then he made his way to Canada. And so these are the kind of people that we are dealing with.

Most of the ones that we have been speaking with speak Mandarin, not Cantonese. Late in the 1990s, an older couple. This couple would have been 65 or 70.

I'm only guessing at their age. An older couple opened their house to a few neighbors who were Chinese people. And in their house, they started a little Bible reading with these people.

I was asked on occasion to come to that house and to help a little in that particular Bible reading. We discovered something very quickly, that these people had a very intense interest in the Word of God. Later, one of these men with a Bible that we had given him, he literally put his arms around his Bible and he hugged his Bible with the words, My Bible.

And I wonder how we love the Bible, the Word of God. And so these are people that have come from a land of darkness, total darkness. They had been taught with Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.

And Chairman Mao's Little Red Book taught this, that religion was the opium of the people. And so the purpose of the communist government in China for years has been to eradicate so-called Christianity from China. They've never succeeded to do that.

There are probably, and I say this sincerely, there are probably still more Christians in China than there are in the United States and Canada together. And so not only were they taught that religion was the opium of the people, from kindergarten right through to university, they were taught that there is no God. And yet they will tell you that they knew there was something more.

They knew that there was something that was missing that they didn't have. And so from that home Bible study that was probably the initial Bible study, we had some tent meetings. I'll tell you about those just as we go along because I want to stir a little interest in the gospel.

I want to state very clearly that I can't accept they won't come. I can't accept that. So I want to stir a little interest.

That's my purpose tonight because this is the time that we're living. This is a time of grand opportunity. And so from that home Bible study, other Bible studies started.

There's a picture back there of a Chinese sister named Hong. I've got her name on the picture, on the piece of paper under the picture. You take a look at her.

Look at her face, a very kind, very sweet face. Hong lived in a large apartment building, I don't know, 25, 30 stories. And she told us she wanted to have a Bible study in her apartment.

And so initially there were four of us sat around the kitchen table. Sometimes myself, sometimes Brother Stephen Vance. Sometimes there were a Chinese married couple, James and Elaine.

Their picture is back there. And as well as that, Hong. And so that started a little Bible study.

But Hong wasn't satisfied with that because in that apartment building, and I hope you catch a little of this, in that apartment building, there were I don't know how many thousands of people. It was a big building. Hong worked to get others from the apartment building to come to the Bible study in her apartment.

That Bible study got to the point where there were 25 people in that apartment. And it became more than a Bible study. It literally became a gospel meeting.

The work and the foundation of the work is Bible studies in Hong's. And if I can get into any Hong, we don't like to, we hate the doctrine of the Jehovah's Witnesses, but we better look at their methods. They're locking the door.

And if they can get into the home, they'll get into the home. They'll spread their poison. But perhaps we should be very much exercised.

So if I can get into a home, and I'll make a reference to this later, if I can get into a home with a wife and a husband or others, with an open Bible at a kitchen table, I'm ready to go whenever the opportunity presents itself. And so the work, really the foundation of the work was the home Bible studies. Presently, we have rented accommodation, so every Wednesday night we have a home Bible study.

That's our midweek meeting. And some of these people working in the downtown part of the city don't get home for supper in time to get to the home Bible study. So these are the kind of people that we're working with.

Three sisters, one Korean sister, two Chinese sisters, got together and decided, now I know, this is a lot of work for them. They decided that they would prepare supper every Wednesday night. Now the Bible study takes place at one home, another home, and then another home.

Not always in the same one. That they would prepare a supper, and the people could come directly from work to the Bible study. They are prepared to make a sacrifice and to work for their fellow believers so that they can come to the Bible study.

Pleasant group of people to work with. Receptive. We noticed that there was a piece of land.

And this is a remarkable thing. That piece of land was probably more than two and a half acres. It was a relatively large piece of land.

Now you just stop and think. I said the early settlers came 250 years ago. Listen, for 250 years, there was nothing on that piece of land.

It just sat there. That piece of land was worth multi-million dollars. It belonged to a large shopping mall.

And there sat this piece of land. And in our minds, we're thinking to ourselves, that would be an ideal place to put a tent. We approached the shopping mall.

We had permission from them. We got permission from the city to erect tents, plural, on that piece of land. To the west side of the piece of land, a large library.

And during the tent meetings, some of the brethren would go into the parking lot of the library and would get out invitations. And they actually got people to come from the library into the tent. They were working.

And to the south of that piece of land, a large, busy shopping mall. And to the north of it, a row of apartments and townhouses. We were surrounded by houses and apartment buildings on a piece of land that had never been built on for 250 years, sat there empty.

I believe that God preserved that piece of land. Right from that moment, when we were able to erect two tents on that piece of land for the preaching of the gospel. When I say two tents, we had one large tent.

Now, if you've ever been to the Langstaff Missionary Conference, that's the tent that we had, one of them. That's a very large tent. We had a second tent for children's work, and there's a picture of both tents back on that table.

You'll notice when you look at those pictures that that children's tent is crowded. And so if the parents brought a child to the children's tent and then came to the gospel tent, they would know that the children would not be allowed to leave that tent until after the parents left the gospel tent and went to the children's tent and got their parents. So the children were looked after.

That added to the number that came to the gospel tent. This is not exclusively the work of Larry Steers. And it's not exclusively the work of Stephen Vest.

All the two of us have had a relatively large input. Stephen is an organizer and has worked hard in the work in aging court. But there are others that are involved.

I'm going to tell you about some of the others. Every summer, we had a group of young people. There's a picture back in the back.

I've written on the picture a little piece of paper to describe the picture. I've written a great bunch. My estimate of some young believers went way, way up.

I think there are probably 11, 12, maybe 13, 14. I don't know how many are in that picture. I'm going to tell you what they did without any complaining.

They had to get to the tent by 8 o'clock in the morning. Christians in the city open their houses for them to have a place to sleep. They got to the tent at 8 o'clock in the morning for a long Bible study.

The Bible study might have lasted for two hours. And then after that, they worked around the tent because there were things that had to be cleaned up from the night before and set in order, chairs arranged, and whatever. And quite often, we had our lunch in the tent.

And then after that, we took them visiting. Now brethren, we used a seat source, thousands of them. And from that, we got back probably 250 replies.

We offered a Bible. We offered some gospel literature. And we always offer a home Bible study.

And so with those 250 replies, then we would take a young brother or some young sisters with us and make a visit. And visited all of those replies during the course of the summer. And so that took the afternoon.

And those that were not with us to do some visiting were knocking on doors and meeting people. Or they were standing on a street corner giving out tracts and invitations. Then the gospel meeting came.

And they had to set the tent up in order for the gospel meeting if that wasn't already done. After the gospel meeting, we had some coffee and something to drink and a few cookies. Now 20 years ago, I would have hesitated to do that.

But I discovered that in the dusk, as the sun is setting, getting a little darker, outside the tent, I'm going to tell you how many people were in that tent in a moment, that I found it a very interesting thing to move amongst that crowd of people. And all of us did that. These young folks did that too.

And we would put our eyes on a certain person, have a little conversation with that person and someone else. Questions were asked. Some people got saved in the conversations outside the tent after the gospel meeting.

And so we've got this group of young folks. And then after everybody has left the tent, then they sat down with us inside the tent and we went over the day's activities and problems that they might have had, questions that they might have had. Then we had a prayer meeting.

Sometimes it was 11 o'clock at night before they left the tent. And so that was from 8 o'clock in the morning until 11 o'clock at night they left the tent. I don't know what time they got into bed.

They didn't come for a holiday. One of those young brethren sacrificed a summer at university to help us in the tent. Others made other different sacrifices.

They were a great bunch. They really helped. And I hope that we were a blessing to them in their labors with us.

Until one day I'm driving down the road with a young man in the car and I look over at him and he's sleeping. And I said to him, Patrick, what's the trouble? He said, I didn't know that preachers worked so hard. Well, they were with us most of them for three weeks, some for four, maybe some for five weeks.

And so we did give them one Saturday. We gave them one Saturday and some of the Christians in the city took them all to Niagara Falls. Some of them hadn't seen Niagara Falls.

So we gave them a Saturday, but they worked the rest of the time. Now, I'm not exaggerating here, so that's why I've got the pictures to kind of give a little indication. Mr. Norman Lorimer, whose name is on the Mass Head of Truth and Tidings, who is one of the elders in the Victoria Drive Assembly, was at the tent one night.

I was back at that assembly on Sunday morning to remember the Lord. Mr. Lorimer made this announcement at the end of the meeting. There were 250 people in the tent on Friday night.

He said 150 of them were not saved. Now, I don't know if you could just for a moment stand in my shoes and look out at an audience like that with 150 unsaved people sitting in a tent in rapt attention to hear the gospel of the grace of God, to hear what they wanted to hear. They came because they were searching.

Their past, they had been denied. They had been denied a Bible. They had been denied any knowledge of God.

And so they were sitting, and we were looking into their faces, and they were drinking in the message. There was a retired missionary, I guess retired, if a missionary is retired, you might recognize his name, Mr. William McBride, who was a missionary in Chile. Mr. McBride came to the tent a number of times.

We had rented the land only for three weeks, and getting near the end of the three weeks, I can see Mr. McBride coming. This dear man had tears flowing down his face, and he came to me, and he was saying, You can't stop. You can't stop now.

That's the spirit of a missionary. And so we went over to the mall, and they gave us an extension of a week. And at the end of that week, we got another extension.

And so the meetings were carrying on now for five weeks. And at the middle of the fifth week, we were looking for a place where we could carry meetings on, a building of some kind. We did rent the basement of a church building, and that was very interesting because Mr. Vance and I had to sit down with the deacons of a Presbyterian church.

There were four of them. There were two men and two women. They were the deacons.

The two women did most of the talking, and they wanted to know how we were going to afford to pay to rent the building. It was kind of interesting because we told them that we lived by faith and God met our need, that we didn't get a salary. And after we had explained that for a while, one of the women said to us, it sounds to me like you two men are living on the edge.

We rented the basement of that building for some time. There are other pictures back there. Baptisms.

We baptized a number in a public swimming pool. And so there's a picture of that. Some of them were baptized in the Lansing Gospel Hall.

There's a picture of that. I don't have a picture of this. I wish I did.

We decided that the baptism should be in the area where the tent is and in the area where people were coming. And so in the front of the tent, we put a portable swimming pool, and we filled it with water, and a number of the believers were baptized in that portable swimming pool. And you can believe that that drawed a very large crowd.

We had full tents when we were baptizing some believers in that portable swimming pool. Now, if you were to ask me how many got saved, I don't know. I'm very fearful to put numbers on souls that get saved.

And so you will never read in the magazine, at least from me, that a certain number of souls got saved at Agincourt. But we do believe that there were a good number. They wanted to hear the gospel.

And the time came when we began to take some of them to... There are ten assemblies in Toronto. And so we took them to some of the assemblies in Toronto, but that didn't work. Because here you have a person whose language is Mandarin, and they're in a sea of English-speaking people, and it just wasn't going to work, and they didn't stay.

So we sat down, and we prayed, and we decided that we had to start breaking bread with them. Two assemblies particularly, the Lansing Assembly and the Langstaff Assembly. Again, if you've ever been to the Missionary Conference in Toronto, then Langstaff is where the Missionary Conference is.

Those two assemblies particularly were 100% supportive. And I think I've got the date written down here someplace on September the 24th, 2006. We sat down with a little group, not very many.

In fact, that first breaking of bread, there were only, I think, six Chinese folks at that first breaking of bread. That has increased. I think today there probably would be 27, 28 in fellowship.

But that first breaking of bread, that was in fear and trembling. It was just a small group in a little classroom in a high school. And those brethren, there were four brethren, there were two sisters.

Those four brethren had never taken part publicly before. This was something totally new to them. And that first Sunday morning, it'll touch your heart, all four of those brethren, from the darkness of communist China, saved by the grace of God, one after another stood and there were a lot of tears shed and simply thanked God for sending the Lord Jesus Christ to die for them.

That was a sweet gathering. And they have been that way since. They all take part.

And they all have a heart full of thankfulness. Sometimes we North Americans, we take a lot for granted. And we become accustomed, accustomed to tradition.

We come to meeting, we come to meeting, we come to meeting. But sometimes there's just a little something lacking. But if you came from the darkness that these people came from, to have the light of the gospel of Christ shine into their soul and then to realize that they're saved, they are very thankful.

We have a potluck gathering once a month. And there was a sister and her husband and their children came one Sunday morning for the breaking of bread. After the breaking of bread, we have this potluck.

And so they were getting ready for the potluck. This sister comes from what you would call a traditional assembly. Probably a conservative assembly, but a traditional assembly.

Everybody goes to meetings. Everybody takes a little bit apart. But there's just something.

There's a heart that's not fully in it. And so she's standing beside me and she's watching. They're preparing the meal.

They're laughing. They're having a good time with one another. Korean, Chinese, and there's an Italian sister along with some of us English.

And this sister's standing beside me. And she looked at me and she said, These people love one another. And it was very evident.

And it is very evident. I received an email today here in La Crosse from one of the Chinese elders in that assembly, Liu Chen. I'm going to tell you a little bit about one or two people.

I was in Vancouver a few years back, and there was a Japanese sister taking a nursing course in Vancouver. Her name was Tamako, not Chinese, Japanese. After I left Vancouver, she went back to Japan.

And then I discovered that Tamako had been commended by a Japanese assembly to Zambia as a missionary nurse. The folks in the Chinese assembly decided that they wanted to support a missionary or missionaries. Now they maybe got that idea from the missionary conference or they might have got it because of their own background.

And so when they were discussing about supporting a missionary, I just mentioned Tamako. They have a number that they send fellowship to, but I mentioned Tamako. And I didn't expect that they were going to do very much because Tamako, after all, is a Japanese girl.

You know, there's no love lost between the Chinese and the Japanese. During the last war, the Japanese were ruthless when they invaded China. And the Chinese people have that on their mind.

The Japanese were terrorists when they invaded China and atrocities that were just unspeakable. And so I thought when I had mentioned Tamako, that will pass over. And so I was surprised one day when they announced that the offering this Sunday would go to Tamako.

There might have been 15 in the assembly at that time. And after they had counted that offering, I went to one of the brethren and I asked him, how much this morning for Tamako? He said, $1,500. And I thought to myself, what the grace of God has done.

Two peoples that were enemies. And now the grace of God has come in to the lives of both of these peoples. And the Chinese people are prepared to support a Japanese sister as a missionary in Japan.

And they have continued a number of times to support that sister. I'm going to tell you about one or two more incidences here. Just, there's a young man by the name of Ming.

His picture's not back there. Ming was 14 years old. He has a Chinese background, but he can't speak Mandarin.

So he's a Chinese boy, but he speaks totally English. His mother, Doris, is a Chinese sister, but she speaks Mandarin. Ming came to us and he wanted to look after the PA system and so on in the tent.

Now, Ming's not saved, and I don't think Doris was at the time either. And so a high school graduate in Ontario has to do a certain number of hours of community service. He wanted to count this as community service.

We told him if his principal would count that, then we would let him do it. And so the principal said, okay, so now Ming's sitting at the PA system and playing with the dials, but he's listening to the gospel. And Ming got saved.

His mother, Doris, got saved. In the tent one night, I'm just not sure first or second there. A number of times, twice, I approached Doris a while after she was saved.

Actually, it was in Hung's apartment, that Bible study. And I asked Doris, have you ever thought about being baptized? And I read a few scriptures to her, and her response was, I'm not ready. Okay, fine.

I approached her another time later, and she still said, I wasn't ready. So I thought, that's it. I approached her twice.

I'll just leave that with the Lord. After the tent meeting one night, Doris was coming out of the tent. She's a little short lady, and she had a black hat.

I remember the color. And the hat was pulled way down over her eyes. And here's this little lady standing in front of me with this hat way down over her eyes.

And she's looking down at the ground, and she said, I have been disobedient. I want to be baptized. And one night in the tent, in that swimming pool, Doris and her son Ming were both baptized.

Now, Ming is going to university. When Ming was 15 years old, Ming was in the assembly. And I know, brethren, you might say, well, this is rushing it.

But Ming takes part. And he takes part very intelligently, until just before I left, I was asked to look after the Bible reading for a few weeks. I asked Ming to take a Bible reading.

He did an excellent job. Just a young man. I'm going to tell you one more account.

Those seats were things that came back, those little cards. When I was going over that 250 pile, there was one that was way out of the area. And so I just set that aside, and I thought we'll look after that later on, because that's a long ways away.

And so we looked after the rest of them. I don't have a very tidy desk, I guess, because that card got buried on my desk. And when I was cleaning my desk, I saw the card.

And they had checked it that they wanted a Bible. And so I decided I'd go and make the visit. I don't take the Bible the first time.

You'll see why in a moment. And so when I buzzed in the apartment, it's one of those security things, and they answered their phone up there, and I told them who it was. So they let me in.

I got up to the apartment and got into the apartment. I had never met this couple before in my life. There was Frank, they all take English names, Frank, Carol, and their daughter.

And so I'm in the kitchen, sitting at the kitchen table. Frank is sitting across from me. Carol is at my elbow, and the daughter is standing there, and Carol is asking me questions.

You know, sometimes you get a little bit of a sense of something's passing back and forth between husband and wife. And I got the feeling very clearly that Frank is saying to Carol, get this guy out of here. So that conversation ended fairly quickly.

I left, but I told them I will be back because I got to bring your Bible. So that gave me the excuse to make a second visit. And so the second time I went back, I got into the front room this time.

I'm sitting down on their Chesterfield or whatever. And they're sitting there. We're having more of a conversation.

And so at that point, I suggested that we would have a home Bible study. I'd come back, and we'd sit down, and we'd study the Bible. That didn't go over too well.

And so they weren't receptive to that, so that was that. Later on, I decided to go back a third time, but they had moved. And so I lost track of them.

I suppose six, seven, eight months later, I was at the Lansing Hall one night. And when I walked in, who do I run into but Frank and Carol? And so I said to the brethren, who are they? Where did they come from? He said, well, they've been coming for quite a while. They have professed to be saved, and they want to be baptized.

And so one night, and the picture's back in the back, I baptized a Chinese woman named Kelly, who was saved at a Bible study that we had, and I also baptized Frank and Carol in the hall one night. We have three elder brethren. Yu Chen, and I had an email from Yu Chen today, is a really lovely brother.

Has a real heart for the assembly, but Yu Chen wasn't married. I don't have my time, but anyway, I have to tell you this. Yu Chen wasn't married, and he was getting on.

I think likely he was crowding 30, and Yu Chen wanted to have a wife, but kind of difficult when you're a Chinese man, and there are very few Chinese sisters that are suitable or available. So he did find a Chinese sister in a place long ways away. Only she felt that he's a little short, she's taller, that he was too short for her, and that ended that.

So he came to me for the second time, and he said to me, kind of looking down at the ground, he said, the second time, I got a girlfriend. I said, well, Yu Chen, that might be all right, depending on who it is. He said, it's Carolyn.

Well, I nearly dropped to the floor, because they have known each other for 10 years. They have both been in the Asian Court Assembly, an English sister who is a nurse, and Yu Chen, and I thought to myself, Carolyn. Well, evidently they were going together, I hadn't told anyone.

So Carolyn and Yu Chen have got married, and we're very happy for Carolyn and Yu Chen. Now I'll just give you a little indication of their exercise. They went on their honeymoon, they came back, and it was Canadian Thanksgiving when they came back, and then the next thing I know, they have invited everyone to come to their apartment for a Thanksgiving meal.

So everyone came, and they don't have a big apartment, very small, and there were 40 people in that apartment, and they provided a meal, a young married couple. I guess what I'm saying tonight is simply this. We need to be exercised in the Gospel.

We need to be out and knocking on doors and making contacts with people. And if I could get into a house for a home Bible study, then I'm ready at any time to do that. God has been very gracious, very kind to us.

We have spent 15 years with the Chinese people in Asian Court. It has been a very blessed time for us. There have been disappointments.

There have been a lot of encouragement. And so when somebody comes to me and says they won't come, let me say it again, I don't believe that. I believe that if we have the exercise, this is a privilege that we have in the period of time that we're living in.

This is a day of grace. God has given to us this great opportunity to reach out and to see others brought to Christ. And if you've never seen a soul saved, then you've missed something.

Tremendous experience to look into the face of a person who comes to you and tells you, I've trusted Christ. And with these people, they will weep when they tell you that. And you'll shed a few tears with them.

Another soul that is saved. Another brother, and his picture is back there. I don't have you check, but James is back there.

Picture James and Elaine's baptism. James and Elaine, a very godly couple. James, again, is one of the elders.

We have two Chinese brethren who are overseers in the aging court assembly. My encouragement tonight, in the day that we're living, we're going to be looking tomorrow night at the Feast of Trumpets. But this is the time when the God of heaven is saving souls in this world.

Chinese people, other people of other nationalities, back our way, Mennonite folks, Spanish people in the United States. But there needs to be an exercise on our part. So may God exercises everyone.

I could say a lot of things here tonight. Have you passed out a gospel tract lately? When was the last soul that you spoke to? I knew Murray McCandless' mother. Ruth McCandless gave out more tracts than you could ever imagine.

And I have watched her in a very unobtrusive way. Murray and I were behind her one day. And she's paying her bill in the grocery store.

And I watched her hand go across the counter to the clerk. And underneath her hand was a gospel paper. And very unobtrusively, Ruth McCandless made a couple of words to that cashier.

The cashier quietly took the paper and took it in her pocket and hopefully went home and read it. You never know a gospel paper that you might give out, that God might use that for the salvation of the soul. We need to be exercised about perishing souls, we'll pray.