The Peoples Church, Toronto Am — Richard Wurmbrand

Shall we unite our hearts in prayer together? Father, thank you this morning for this beautiful Lord's Day. More than the beauty of the sun that arose this morning, thank you that the sun of righteousness is arisen and that Jesus Christ is alive.

And the message of this missions conference to go into the world is based on a man who is alive. And we praise you, Father, for what you're going to do this morning as we minister in your name. Our Father, I pray that thou wouldst move upon this great audience here and out in Radioland.

I pray that thou wouldst minister in spirit and in truth, that thou wouldst speak to us, that thou wouldst help us to open our hands, open our arms, and to give to a world who is hurting and needy and alone and without God.

We pray now that thou wouldst minister through thy servant this day. And above all, may the living Lord Jesus Christ have his glorious, rightful place in our midst. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Richard Wurmbrand is a name known to literally millions of people because many of you have read his books. You've heard his tremendous story of some 14 years of merciless torture by the hands of the communists in Romania.

I know that as he comes to minister today, you're going to be richly blessed by what he has to share with us. And I'd like to remind you that on Monday and Tuesday nights, he is going to be talking about missionary work in communist countries.

And I know that you'll want to be here both evenings to hear this great man of God. Let's welcome again to the People's Church this dear servant of God, Lutheran pastor Richard Wurmbrand. God bless you.

Dear brethren and dear sisters, for those who hear me the first time, I have to apologize for speaking to you being seated. During these 14 years in communist jails, we almost never walked. We had heavy chains at our feet, sometimes 20 kilograms.

There were beatings with rubber truncheons on the soles of the feet. And now it is difficult for me to stand a long time. It is difficult even to wear shoes. That is why you have a barefoot preacher before you.

Speaking as the Oracles of God

Before speaking, I will read a few words from 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 11. 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 11. I rejoice about those who look in the Bible. I rejoice even more about those who don't look into the Bible.

These are those who know the Bible by heart. 1 Peter 4, 11. If any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. First of all, what is an oracle? In the temples of old Greek religions, in modern times, in some Buddhist temples, there exist priestesses or priests about whom it is believed that God speaks through them.

Incense is burned. Sometimes they drink special drinks. And they get in a state of trance. And the words which they speak in these circumstances are considered to be the very words of God. That is called an oracle.

And now Peter asks from us, when you speak, speak as the oracles of God. There should be no difference. Vernon has spoken, Paul Smith has spoken, God has spoken. As we read in the Bible, Jeremiah spoke, Isaiah spoke, Moses spoke, God spoke.

It is approximately the same thing. We should speak as the oracles of God. Now, that is a very high claim. It is like asking from a shoemaker, speak as a nuclear physicist. To ask from a tailor, speak like a physician.

Solitary Confinement and the Voice of Silence

To ask from a Romanian, to speak like a Chinese. How should I, a little being, a creature, speak as the oracles of God? When we were put in communist prisons, the first years, we were kept, everyone, alone in a cell, 30 feet beneath the earth.

We never saw sun, moon, snow, flowers, stars. We never had a Bible, nor any other book. 14 years, I've never had a pen or a bit of paper in my hands. 14 years, we never saw a girl or a lady. We never saw a child.

We never saw a color. We always saw the gray walls of the cell, and our gray uniforms had forgotten that blue and green and yellow and violet exist. My world was gray. And in those prison cells, in solitary confinement, I will not describe everything.

I've written about it in several books, which you will find outside. Sermons in solitary confinement, and so on. But in these years of solitary confinement, perfect silence reigned. The guards had felt-soled shoes.

You did not hear their reproach. In perfect silence, through an opening in the door of the cell, they gave you some food. They took out the empty dish. They never spoke to you one single word. With the time, the silence became audible, and we heard.

We heard what we had spoken a whole life. We saw, as in a film, all the major episodes of our past lives. And it began far away. I remembered how, at the age of five, my mother asked, but who is taking the candies from the drawer?

She saw there were some missing. And I surely said, my brother is taking them. I am taking them. And I heard my first lie. I heard it again. My first lie, which I remembered. And I heard also the noise of the slaps, which my brother received for the candies which I had stolen.

And we remembered every bad word spoken to mother to father, to wife, to girls, to whomsoever. Every crooked word. This was from the time when I was an unbeliever. I am Jewish. My beautiful wife, you will see her at the table.

This book, she's Jewish, too. And we did not know about Christ. But then, at the age of 27, we became Christians. And now, we remembered what we had spoken, Christian being. We heard again, and we saw again our past life.

And again, we did not like it. We had an excuse. Well, we were children in Christ. But then, we had grown. And then, I had become a preacher. And then, in the silence of the prison, I re-heard my sermons as on a tape recorder.

And I asked myself, now, which of these, my sayings, were really oracles of God? How often did I, on the pulpit, express my opinions? Opinions about beautiful things, about the word of God, and about righteousness, and about love, and about I don't know what.

But it were my opinions. The child of God who walked out from that church, could he have said, this man has spoken now the oracles of God. This is demanded from us, and not less. And we regretted many, many words which we had spoken in the time of liberty, because they had not been as the oracles of God.

Christ's Presence in the Prison Cell

But then, somehow, we were comforted. We were alone in the cell. Alone, as the Communists believed us to be. Jesus was in the cell, and he never comes alone. He comes with his holy angels. And the Holy Spirit was there.

And we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. The cell was populated. And we got a comforting word, which I wish to share with you, if you feel guilty, about having spoken in your life other things than the oracles of God.

Because this verse is not for preachers only, but for everyone. We have to speak as the oracles of God. If you feel guilty about it, now be attentive what St. Peter writes. I will take the words exactly as they are here in scripture.

If any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. But if he is silent, he does not have this obligation. And we learned there in prison the value of silence. You will be judged by your words if you have spoken words.

But why can't you keep silent? We learned there the value of silence. We learned there that lips are given to us for smiling at each other, for kissing our wives, our brides, our children, our beloved ones, for singing the praises of God, as for speaking.

The lips are for smiling, for kissing, and for singing. And for speaking, only in the very rare occasions where through my speech I can do better than smiling, kissing, and singing. We learned there in silence the value of silence.

What the Bible Does Not Say

For the first time in my life, I was attentive to the silences of the word of God. The word of God tells very many instructive and useful things. But there are so many things which are absent in the word of God, and which are beautiful just by their absence in the word of God.

I will give you just one example. In the prison, I discovered that in the whole New Testament, the word headache does not exist. To have a headache is unbiblical. The Bible says that Jesus is the head, and we are the body.

Now, only a head can have headaches. Who is not a head can't have headaches. If one says, look what headaches I have. I have financial headaches, and I have family headaches, and I have mission headaches, and I have church headaches.

There are so many kinds of headaches. I don't speak about the physical quantities. There are so many kinds of headaches. Everyone who proclaims his headache says, Jesus, you step down. You are no more the head.

I am the head. The proof that I am the head is that I have the headache. And we got rid there of headaches by being attentive, not only to what the Bible says, but also to what the Bible does not say, to what is missing in the Bible.

We had surely concerns. Will I be beaten today? Will I be tortured today? They were not beating, they were tortures. And the tortures which men endured were just nothing in comparison with what women endured and girls endured.

Lucky was the girl who was raped. There exists much worse than rape. Very bad things. And there were concerns. If I will have five beans in the soup which I will get today, will these beans be with worms or so on?

And we discovered again the silence of the Bible. The word problem does not occur in the Bible. Whosoever has problems trespasses against the Bible. The problems belong to God, and to you belong the smile, and the faith, and the hope, and the love.

And we got rid through the silences of the Bible from so many things. If I would be asked, which are your most favorite verses? Which sustained you most during your imprisonment? I would say, to be very honest, the verses which plays the biggest role in my life are two Bible verses which I consider the most important of the Bible, but which are not in the Bible.

Christ's Forgiveness of Sinners

And they are important just by the fact that they are not in the Bible. They are important Bible verses. The first one, how beautiful it is that it is nowhere written in the Bible that Jesus would ever have asked anybody, listen, you rascal, how many sins did you commit?

How often did you commit them? With whom did you commit them? How grave were your sins? He never asked anybody about his sins, about his offenses, about his crimes. He went from man to man, and from woman to woman, and told them, be of good cheer, son.

Be of good cheer, daughter. Your sins are forgiven to you. I go to die for your sins. He never asked anybody about his sins. And he asked nobody of you what you have done in the past. He asked you, what is your decision in this moment?

The past can be erased, however terrible it might have been. And there exists a second very beautiful Bible verse which is not in the Bible. It is that in the whole Bible, we don't read that anybody would ever have said to Jesus, I am sorry.

I apologize. Please forgive me. Nobody ever told him these words. Even the apostles, when they saw the resurrected Lord, perhaps it would have been nice from their side to say, Lord, we are really sorry.

You know, we failed on the last evening, and I, Peter, even denied. It would have been nice if they would have said a word like this. But we don't find words of excuse with those who confronted Jesus, because looking to his face, they saw in his face so much goodness, so much love, so much understanding.

They knew with him, love and forgiveness are self-understood. No words are needed. That is what he came for into the world, to forgive us. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Words are not needed, but just one little bit of decision from your side. This forgiveness is offered to me. This love is offered to me for free. No words are needed. He will not ask me anything about my past, only love him, believe in him.

And we learned in perfect silence the value of the silences in the Bible, of what the Bible does not say. It does not say things, and these things which it does not say encourage us to come to Jesus. Nowhere does the Bible say, again in silence of the Bible, that he would ever have refused anybody's invitation.

A Pharisee invited him. He went. A custom officer, if the public was called at that time, we would call them simply crooks today. A crook invited him. He went. He never refused anybody's invitation. The Bible is silent about any refusal from his side, because such refusals did not exist.

And whosoever you might be, whatever you might have on your conscience, just invite him. He will not ask you a thing. He will come gladly, and he will make your life to shine. We learned to value in prison the silences of the Bible and our own silence.

The Discipline of Silence and the Call to Speak

We were happy in the silence. Then after years, I was taken out from silence. I was still in a solitary cell, but I could hear other prisoners and wardens speak on the corridors. And I heard when one prisoner was introduced to the other prisoner, Mr.

So-and-so, how do you do? And the other said, how do you do? And they both did not say how they did. And there was so much small talk, and there was so much idle word. And there exists the beautifulness of silence.

The Bible says, whosoever speaks should speak as the oracle of God. Now, that is a very great demand, but you are not obliged to fulfill it. You are obliged to fulfill it only if you speak. So says the verse.

If a man speaks, then let him speak as the oracles of God, if you don't have an oracle to say. If you don't have an ultimate truth to say, be silent, smile, kiss your old mother, kiss your wife, kiss your bride, sing a song of praise, and no God will judge you for what you have done.

Faith That Acts Under Persecution

And now, but there are certain moments when you have to speak. And I'm very happy to see here Brother Oswald Smith. I will tell him this connection, something which might interest him personally. Just yesterday, I read the report.

I have the protocol of a court case in Russia. They sentenced four of our sisters and one brother for the great crime of having translated and printed secretly the books of Oswald Smith. That's a great crime.

For this, they were sentenced. And now, I can read to you, I translate especially, the last words of Lyuba Kosachevich, one of the defendants in this case. And she says, I love life much. I love blue sky.

She is the age of 20. I love blue sky. I love the mountains, the blooming trees. I love rain, flowers, fellowship. Wherever my friends are, my heart is with them. But I love God above all. And for him, and for serving his name, I was ready to abandon everything, faith without works is dead.

I acted according to my faith. Our publishing house exists secretly since 10 years. We were arrested, but the work continues. Other books by Oswald Smith and by others will be published. And we say with the words of scriptures, if this thing is of men, you will be able to destroy it.

But if it is of God, you will be found as fighting God and you will not succeed. I love my fatherland, the Soviet Union, but thrice as much, I love my future fatherland. I tell all my friends, so what is wise, good, eternal, the Russian people will thank you in the end.

And the second girl, Yudin Seba, also age 20 or 22, I desire to work for the Lord, but did not know how. I prayed about it. And when I was told that I can work in the secret printing press, I happily renounced to family, home, amenities of life.

You have been asked, renounce to something of your income for helping the missionary work. And you might have given a few dollars or hundreds or thousands of dollars. And if you would sell your house to support the missionary work.

Just compare what we give here with what she gives at the age of 20. I happily renounced, a girl of 20, to family, home, amenities of life. I give my all to this work, my life, my health. I did it without any afterthought.

Sentence me as you like, I will gladly bear my cross with Jesus Christ. There exist human beings who can speak the oracles of God. This girl, coming from the underground church in which silence is the rule, because we work secretly and we have to talk very little.

Everyone can be an informer, everyone can be a traitor. We have to weigh very carefully what to say and what not to say. And then comes the decisive moment when she has to stand up for the Lord. She has to stand up for truth, for love.

The Bible as the Living Word of God

And she went to prison. We know she went to prison. If ever she will be freed, we do not know. These are speaking the oracles of God. And because I'm Jewish, I wish to give you one secret of the Hebrew language.

I believe this book is the word of God. I can say this preaching in any language. If I would preach in Hebrew, the language of the Jews, I could not say this is the word of God because the Jews, in their language, don't have the word word.

Even in modern Hebrew, which is spoken in Israel, the word word does not exist. Every single word in this book is written by a Jew. But the Jews don't have the word word. For word, Jews say davar, and davar means the real thing.

If you read the gospel according to St. John in Hebrew, it starts like this. In the beginning was the davar, the real thing. In the davar, the real thing was with God, and God was the real thing. The chosen people of God does not believe in what is simply called words, which are chat.

Words must be reality. There must be things. There must be something concrete. So often people wonder why Jews are such successful businessmen. Well, because they don't believe in words. They don't believe in promises.

They believe in cash. They believe in the reality. This is what we have learned. We have learned it from the Bible. The Bible does not believe in words. It's also, here it's mentioned in the offering cash, so if some of you have not put the cash, you still have time to put the cash, and for the pleasure.

Christian Sacrifice as the Oracle of God

We believe in the reality of the davar, and our words will be oracles of God. If there will not be idle words, but there will be davar, I will show, give you an example of such a davar. In our country, in the prison of Jilava, some 10 or 12 prisoners were put, it was in winter, it is a subterranean prison, in a cell, in the cell there was nothing.

They had to sleep on the concrete in winter, but they had been stripped of everything. They had just a shirt on them and something, so they were almost naked. And in winter, in the subterranean cell, they could not have survived.

They decided to pass the whole night jumping around and pushing each other and so on, not to lie down at all, because to lie down would mean death. Now, not everyone can jump around. There was an elderly man with arthritis.

He could not jump. He could scarcely move. He was doomed to die. And this man was a Christian. His name was Vulcanesco. And he spoke the oracles of God. Listen, you are sick. I am young, I am healthy, and I am big, you are a small man.

I will lie down on the concrete and you will lie over me in my embrace, the back a little bit, the side a little bit, your chest a little bit, and I will warm you, but you will fall. You will fall sick.

Don't think about me. I do it gladly for you. And that is how the other one passed the night in the embraces of the Christian Vulcanesco. The Christian Vulcanesco, he caught pneumonia, and very soon after this, he died, and the other one was saved.

Now, these words lie on my naked body instead of lying on the concrete, and save your life. That is the oracle of God. That is exactly what Jesus has said, and what Jesus has said not in words. He has said it as dabar, as dying on the cross for us.

The Silence and Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross

And I will finish by telling you just one thing more, a secret again of the Hebrew language. Jesus, our Lord, was on the cross three hours. He spoke seven words on the cross. You know, Father forgives them.

They don't know what they do until the last word. Father, in thy hands I surrender my spirit. If you read these seven words, if you speak them loudly, they take five minutes. What did he do the rest of the time, two hours and 55 minutes on the cross?

He was silent. And do only these seven words mean something, and the silence of two hours and 55 minutes mean nothing? He silently laughed. He silently saw, as in a film, passing before his eyes, all men of all races and of all tribes and of all generations, those for whom you try to work, missionary work in Hong Kong and in Liberia and in South Africa, and I don't know where.

He has seen all of all generations. And for everyone, and for everyone there was love. And for everyone there was a word of prayer. That is what he did to us, 55 minutes. The silence of Jesus was also important.

And then when he saw the end coming, he said in Greek, you know, the New Testament is originally in Greek, he said, it is finished. Now the Greek word, it is finished, but he has not spoken Greek. He spoke Aramaic, which is a dialect of the Hebrew.

Let us say he spoke Hebrew. In Hebrew, he could say only, for it is finished. He could say Kala. Kala means it is finished. But the Hebrew language is a very poor language. English has 300 ,000 words.

The biblical Hebrew has only 400 roots of words. So one word has many meanings. And Kala means not only it is finished, it means also my bride. There on the cross, he cried for his bride. His last words were words remembering her and showing his love towards her.

Out of deep silence came his call for every one of us and also for those who are still unsafe, for those who are lost. I represent a mission, Jesus, to the communist world, which helps the persecuted Christians in communist countries.

I am of a father or somebody beloved, you respect it. I will speak about this missionary work of hers tonight and Monday night and Tuesday night. I will not do it now. But all the missions which are represented here and those who will be in the other evenings, we all represent a last desire, a desperate desire of a father or somebody beloved, you respect it.

And that was what Jesus meant on the cross. In his hours of silence, he sighed for every one of us. And then after deep silence, this word came. It is finished, Kala. It is finished, my bride. I have done everything which is needed that you might appear before me beautiful in the glorious heaven.

Let none of us be missing there. You are not asked about your sins. You don't have to say many words of apology, just as I am, without a plea. You just come. He has refused nobody. He will not refuse neither me nor you.

Amen.

One of the major factors or major groups in our conference has for the past 10 years been the national leaders from other countries. That is men that work in their own countries and who lead large groups of people as they propagate the gospel where they live.

Now we'll hear a lot more from them during the days of this week, but I want you to see them so that you can identify them and so that you can know that they're here. I think we'll start with one of our newest arrivals, Augustus Marway.

If you please, Bishop Augustus Marway from Liberia. And brother Marway, we are delighted to have you here. How long has it been since you've been in your own country in Liberia? Two weeks now. You've just been gone for two weeks.

Yes. And tell me a little bit about the technical college. You told me last time you were here, your dream was to establish a technical college. Have you ever done that? Yes, sir. And do you have students there?

We have students.

Last year, our students, they graduated. They took the West African examination and we are 100 pass.

100 pass, that's fantastic, great. Now, another thing you told me out in the West Coast was that you were looking for some couple from North America to go over and look after that entire work. Have you ever found anybody?

Yes, sir. We found Mr. and Mrs. Bat Branch. And Mr. Branch had been in technical education for more than 20 years. And he's going to take over.

The administration of this college. So they're going to take charge of all of the administration of that technical school. Yes, sir. Now, there was one other thing you told me about. You said that the branches needed some kind of a truck.

Is that right? Oh, yes, yes. Now, what do they need a truck for?

Oh, to ride in.

That's rather obvious, isn't it? Okay, well, let me ask a very probing question. Where do they need to ride to?

Well, you see, our technical school is out in the jungle. The only technical school in the whole country that is situated in the deep jungle of Liberia. And they have to travel to the coast and they really need a truck that may have four-wheel drive so that they can go through the mud and so forth.

And about how much is that truck going to cost? About $12 ,000. That's a lot of money. And I promised you, and I think I promised you that the people's church would buy it, didn't I? Oh, yeah, you did.

Did I do that? Yeah, you did. Well, let me tell you something. We took some offerings at our living Christmas tree and our congregation has already given approximately $4 ,000 but we need another $8 ,000 and we're praying that you will be able to raise it while you're here.

Well, that would be wonderful. If I can raise it, that would be great. That would be an honor. Well. Will you try? If the people will respond, I know the people's church will respond. It will be a wonderful thing.

Take a great news back home.

Good, and I think they will respond. Yeah, man. In the retiring offering today, as these folk go out, what they put in there from the envelopes that they take out of the pews in front of them is all going to be allocated towards the truck, both this morning and this evening.

So we need a minimum of $4 ,000 cash this morning and another $4 ,000 tonight. Do you think they can do that? I believe so. They can do it. Yeah, I believe it too because they're very, very rich people.

You can...

They are not rich, but they are most generous.

Yeah, and they have been most generous and we're delighted to have you here this morning. Thank you. God bless you. God bless you. And that, for those of you who haven't, that is the official Liberian handshake.

You shake hands and then you do that on the other man's finger. And we have some brand new arrivals here this morning in the persons of the Dominguez. That's not quite right, but that's close. And we have Edith and we have her husband.

And I think, Mr. Dominguez, would you come first, please, sir? Now, you are from the land of where? Philippines. The Philippines. And what sort of work do you do there?

Well, we are training missionaries in our school and these missionaries go out into the rich areas in the Philippines.

Now, I understand you also work in a rather poverty area. Yes, sir.

We, actually, our school is not only engaged in training missionaries, but in helping the people. We have an animal loan program where we purchase animals and these are loaned out to the farmers. They use the animals in their farm.

And when the animal is sold, they get 70 of the profit. 30 is reinvested in the project. We have a woodcrop project where we employ people. And, of course, when we employ them, we give them all the benefits in the woodcrop project because that's a non-profit project.

So you help them not only spiritually, but you help them materially as well.

Well, we believe that Christ is the answer of the world. And so we preach the gospel, but along that line, we also help the people because we have come to serve others, not to be served unto.

And we believe that, too, and we're so delighted to have you here today, brother. God bless you. Now, as you know, behind every successful man, there is a surprised wife. And we have Edith here today.

Would you come and just say a word to our people? Edith, do you also participate in the work along with your husband? Yes, sir. Now, would you repeat your favorite passage from scripture in your own language?

Okay, John 3 .16. Thank you, and we're so delighted to have you here with us. And all the way from South Africa, from Soweto in Johannesburg, we have Frank Sunja. Frank, would you come and talk to us for a minute?

Would this be the first time that you've seen this top, the kind of outfit that your people might wear in South Africa? Yes. Good, that's great. I was counting on a whole sentence to think up my other question.

Tell me, you have a lot to do with pastors and bishops. How many bishops are you training in your country? About 250 bishops. 250 bishops, and then are you training some pastors as well? Yeah, more than a thousand pastors.

More than a thousand pastors, and you give seminars in which to instruct them? Yes. Frank, we're delighted to have you here. And remember, this man leaves a prominent work behind him, and we need to pray that God will take care of it while he's gone.

Frank Sunja from South Africa. God bless you. And this is Gloria de Gasca from the land of Mexico. Gloria, are you missing your husband during this time?

Yes, I wish he were here to be doing what I'm doing.

Well, I wish he was here, but I'm glad you came. Thank you. You're a lot better looking than he is. I'm sure. I think. Yes, hopefully. Do you have freedom in Mexico to preach the gospel?

So far, we have enjoyed real freedom, not only for preaching, but also for meeting and getting together.

So you can gather in meetings and also preach at liberty.

Yes, we do have meeting places, and we will do very much the same thing you're doing. Well, that's terrific. Would you quote one verse of scripture in your language for us? Se fiel hasta la muerte, y yo te daré la corona de la vida, which is Revelation 2 .10.

Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. Thank you, and God bless you, Edith. We're glad to have you here.

And this next man is a strange looking character in a strange looking outfit. Who in the world are you?

Well, I come all the way from Hong Kong. I'm a working class people. I wear this, and every so often, every Tuesday and Thursday, I go to Kung Fu class. This is Kung Fu here, and I go.

And you can knock people down with that, can't you?

Well, I've just learned how to kick my feet now.

Great. Now, you've got a bag there. What do you have in the bag?

Well, I try to make trips into China because there's 25 million Christians there, and they want me to bring these things to them.

25 million Christians in China? That's being conservative.

We, you know, we Chinese are very conservative. If we want to be like the Westerner, we would say 50 million.

Yeah, well, or maybe 100 million.

OK, what's in the bag? Well, we find that today in China, they need the Bible. So we bring the Bible in. Can you get the Bible in? Sure, we can carry four Bibles without any trouble at all. We bring that in, and then we find that they all want to know more about the scriptures.

So we have these How to Study the Bible and Christian Doctrine. We bring them in. Those are study books. Yes, those are study books. And then when they have services, you know, they have to have hymns to sing out of.

So we bring hymnals for them. And then we give some things for devotional life. Is that Streams in the Desert? No, this is this is printed by a Chinese himself.

And he couldn't see the writing. I see that. Well, this is frankincense, I thought.

And then above all, what we find out that is needed is teaching material. So we're getting cassettes in teaching materials. And here's some music that the Christians in China are singing this.