Update From India

Bethlehem Bible Church

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June 8, 2003

00:00: Bible and the Old Testament verse by verse. I just want to give you a little update on India. For those of you that don't know, I got to go for about 17 days to India and teach in four different cities.
00:12: We have a new crowd tonight. How many people besides Ajay, Pradeep and Sunita have been to India? I think we only have one, right?
00:18: Anyone else been to India? No, okay. Someone told me, they said, we know what you were saying.
00:25: Yes, just one, right? Ajay was saying, no, who was it that told me today? That they were right by Ajay.
00:31: And then every time I said something about India, they were making sure Ajay was shaking his head, yes, to confirm that that in fact was true.
00:38: So Ron Farrar can look at Pradeep tonight too, to make sure that's the case.
00:44: So I just want to give you a little update to give you kind of a heart for what was going on there. In a sense, you were there as you would pray for me and the elders decided that the church would pay for me to go.
00:56: And I'm very thankful for that. Remember we were sitting there and Scott said, well, how is it going to be paid for?
01:01: And I said, I don't know, but I'm not really in admissions letters trying to drum up my own business. I'm just going to trust that the
01:07: Lord will get us there. And then the elder said, well, if our pastor is going to preach the gospel and teach, then we need to support him and send him.
01:13: And so I was very, very thankful. What I'll do is I'll give you an update on the trip.
01:19: And then we'll look at some passages that might spur you on, because I'm thinking we don't do enough as a church in admissions.
01:25: And I'm wondering which one of our kids is going to be the first one to go be a full -time missionary. Has that ever happened in BBC?
01:32: Sent out someone as a full -time missionary. I mean, in a sense, I want it to be one of my children, not the first, but one of my children.
01:38: I just don't know if I want them to go so far away. It was an eight hour flight from Boston to Milan and everything there was on Alitalia.
01:47: And so it was a very quiet plane. We take off and then they pass out about 19 bottles of wine to every person.
01:53: You can't say no and it's all free. And then it just got loud and boisterous and everybody's passing the cheese around and all so happy.
02:00: I'm just thinking, this is just amazing. You know, breakfast, got to have wine for breakfast and all these things.
02:06: I just was just looking around thinking, I'm just taking notes about all you people. And then
02:11: I had a few hour layover in Milan, a three hour layover there. And then it was a nine hour flight from Milan to Bombay.
02:17: So it's just about the same distance. And then we flew over Iraq and you could just see all the sand and the pipelines and all that stuff.
02:24: And so it took a long time to get there. I walk in to the airport and just that heat wave of Bombay hits you and it's humid and it is hot.
02:32: And there are just different sights and different smells. And I thought, I can't believe I'm actually in India. I'm in Asia.
02:38: And I first looked around and just like America, people run up and try to grab your luggage and mess around with it.
02:44: The same thing happened with India. Don't touch that. I walked outside and there was
02:50: Bill Shannon and Jeremy who lives there now. And so then they took us to the hotel. And I have to admit, when I first got there,
02:56: Bombay is how many million people, Pradeep? I don't know. Is it 20, up to 20 million, maybe 15 million?
03:04: Something like that. I thought, how can I get home? I can't stay in this place. If this is India, I can't take it.
03:10: It just was so intense. And you're just right by the airport and it's on top and everything's on top of you and all these buildings.
03:17: And again, just all the different animals outside and just people. And I thought, I've got to have some water because it's dry and it's hot.
03:23: And I was too afraid literally to go outside and walk down the street to get water because it was nighttime. And I thought, what am
03:29: I going to do? So I asked Jeremy, let's go get water. And so we went down there and found some water. The next day we went to go teach a
03:35: Bible conference to open a Bible fellowship in Bombay. So we took a taxi. So I'm waking up thinking, all right, I'll just eat whatever food they give me.
03:41: And Lord, just help me. I don't want to get sick. I like Indian food, but I don't know if it's going to be too hot or too many weird things in it.
03:48: And so we get there, the cab takes us. And the cab driver has this little tariff card.
03:53: It's an old meter. And then he looks at the card and then tells you, well, he didn't want to do that. And so he wanted a couple hundred rupees to take us and it was only supposed to be 93.
04:01: So Jeremy gave him the money. He gave him 100 rupees, which is about $2, let's see, 50 rupees a dollar.
04:08: So about two bucks. And the guy, I mean, this is, welcome to India. The guy takes the money, the cab driver, and throws it in his face and starts yelling.
04:17: Jeremy goes, just follow me. So I'm like, okay. You know, what do you do if they just scream and kill those guys right there?
04:24: We needed police protection. There are hardly any policemen that I could see. Do they wear the undercover most of the time?
04:30: I just could hardly see them. What is going on? Maybe Ajay needs to go back to be a policeman,
04:36: Christian policeman. We need those kind. And so then we taught and then not many pastors showed up to the first conference.
04:42: We were teaching on church growth because everyone wants the church to grow. But just what methods do you get the church to grow?
04:48: And I'm still, you know, upside down in time and everything else. And they said, well, we've ordered Chinese food for lunch.
04:55: I said, okay, I can do Chinese. There's Chinese stores everywhere. And, uh, you know,
05:00: Wes Jamison, he oversold me on the whole thing. He was telling me how bad it was. And he said one day he went out to eat.
05:05: And I think, uh, Pradeep, it was your family that took him out. And he said, there was this, it was a very high cast
05:10: Brahman restaurant or something. And he said, there's this big long burrito thing with a bunch of, this is Wes's words, green paste on it.
05:17: And Wes said, he just got sick. And Wes was telling me all these stories. I thought, oh no. And so I really, for the first time
05:24: I was praying, God sanctify this food. And, uh, so we just ate the food and everything was fine.
05:30: And it got a lot better when we went to Puna and Puna is a large city as well, four hours inland.
05:36: And Puna is known by Americans and other Westerners as the place where the Bhagwan Raj, Rajneesh's, uh, ashram is.
05:44: It's his community. Remember that guy who had all those Rolls Royces and had the sex commune up in Oregon and now has died.
05:52: Uh, and now you can go there and you have to give them an HIV, uh, negative test, buy some clothes,
05:58: Indian clothes, and then have some entrance fee. And you can just go in there. And, uh, so I was told that when you walk around Puna and you're this, you know, obviously a white guy, they're going to all think you're here for the ashram.
06:11: I thought, well, I'm in the exact opposite reason. I'm here to preach the gospel to the ashramites kind of thing.
06:16: And we got there and, you know, it was so amazing. Bombay with all the, uh, hecticness.
06:24: And I just thought, I don't know if I can do this. Then going to Puna and then we got around a group of Christians. Disciples Community Church with Pastor Chris Williams has 70 members in Puna, just 70 members.
06:36: But once you got around the people, you know how it is with other Christians and you just think, I don't even know you, but I love you.
06:41: And you don't even know me, but you love me. And I thought that's exactly what it was like. So the second I got in Puna, I thought I'm just with friends,
06:47: I'm with family. And this is much nicer. And they took us out to a nice country club for dinner. And then the teaching started the next day.
06:54: Puna is an amazing city because it's, it's kind of Western yet. Now you just go down an alley and there's all these people.
07:01: A Disciples Community Church is really a good church in the sense that, uh, this is going to sound self -serving,
07:07: I guess. Uh, Disciples Community Church is very much like our church. It's very much with our theology and our philosophy of ministry.
07:14: Local church is primary, train up men in the ministry, send them out, train up ladies, send them out.
07:20: And just was a good kindred, uh, uh, bond that we had. Uh, they have an orphanage, uh, that they teach not unlike Amy Carmichael, that they teach the prostitutes children.
07:32: And so you can imagine there's all these temples around there. And so, uh, with temple and cultic worship, they'll just round up a bunch of the ladies, not they
07:39: DCC, but, uh, pimps will round up some ladies, give them X amount of money, take them to the temple.
07:45: Uh, they'll, uh, prostitute themselves. And then of course, nine months later, they're going to be children. And so this church
07:50: DCC, not only do they have a leprosy ministry, uh, but they have a ministry to the children.
07:56: And so it is amazing to see some of these kids as they teach them, not only English and science and botany, but they teach them, guess what else?
08:04: The gospel. There are 60 kids there and there's a bunch more waiting to come in. I thought I love this place already.
08:10: The pastor was preaching through Romans verse by verse. I said, this is just right up my alley. And so we began to teach there very different place, you know, besides teaching without shoes on you'll be teaching, you'll hear some banging and outside there'll be some monkey just banging on, on the shit.
08:25: And I'm like, Oh, and you know, the thing is nobody notices. So I'm shocked, you know, and thinking, wow, this is just so amazing.
08:32: Uh, some of the kids in this congregation act like monkeys when I'm preaching, but they're not really monkeys. Uh, and then all of a sudden the lights will go out and I'm looking around and not one person is going.
08:43: Except me, because they're all used to it. You got to shut down the power sometimes and then just kind of carry on.
08:50: Uh, let's see. I've got so many things to say. I don't know what I want to do. We were in Bombay. I have to tell you this story and the beggars all come up to the cars, especially if they see
08:59: Americans are Europeans, which we look like they come up to the cars and I'll never forget. It was kind of welcome to Bombay.
09:05: I thought I've got to get out of this place. I'm in the back seat and so is Bill Shannon. And then the front seat is
09:11: Jeremy. And he's from Seattle originally lives there now, although it's interesting to hear Jeremy talk and to see how he acts.
09:17: He's got some kind of Indian, uh, uh, slang now, not slang, but Indian grammar and Indian ways of speaking, just being there a couple of years.
09:27: And I could see how you just are there and you just, you know, you come to new England and you say, you know, law and order.
09:32: I mean, you just, that's just what you do. And, uh, Jeremy's in the front. And so the lady's putting her hand in and it's a prostitute and she's wanting the money.
09:40: And so Jeremy said, no. And she's saying, he's saying nine, nine, no, no. And in Hindi, and then she grabs his arm.
09:47: Like I want money. And so Jeremy's like, I was thinking to myself, I'm glad I'm not in the front seat.
09:54: Providence of God. I kept singing that song 408 in the hymnal, have faith in God. He watches or his own.
10:01: I just kept singing that over and over. And at the time I'm just shocked because you just don't see this. And it's so crowded and every, there's rickshaws and, and animals and people in cars and buses, those red buses.
10:12: They, people are just insane, aren't they? They just will just keep going and you will get out of the way.
10:17: And you think people honk a lot here in LA. If you honk, you get shot in Boston. You just honk a lot there.
10:24: You just honk continually. It is nonstop honking. Just I'm here.
10:29: I'm passing you by. And so then the cab driver said to the prostitute, quit that.
10:34: I assume that's what he said. I couldn't tell it was in Hindi, but that was, but that was his intonation. She starts hitting the cab driver.
10:43: And then the pastor starts spitting. And I just thought, wow, what is going on?
10:48: Pradeep did not warn me of this. Ajay is lax in his debriefing. And I just thought, give me the
10:56: Once we got around Christians, it really was sweet fellowship. And I thought, and even this morning, notice when
11:02: I was slamming Hinduism, I wasn't saying mean things about Indians. I was saying mean things about the system that 83 % of them are stuck in.
11:11: Hinduism has nothing to do with not liking people from India because I love people from India and love them more now that I got to meet them.
11:18: But it has to do with Hinduism. Let's stop here just for a second. I want to have you turn to Psalm 55 verse 14, just to talk about fellowship with other
11:27: Christians. And here, David had something that I had, and that we as Christians, wherever we go, you find other
11:33: Christians who love the Lord Jesus Christ and who are loved by Christ. And you just have this kind of fellowship.
11:41: By the way, as you're turning there, this is a cricket shirt. Kim said to me, we're not really big on trinkets and stuff like that.
11:49: So maybe you can get a cricket bat for the kids and a ball. And Kim said, can you get me a cricket jersey?
11:55: I said, all right, that can't be too hard, and the dollar's strong, and so I'll just go around. I probably went to 30 stores.
12:02: Do you have a cricket jersey? And I thought, that's just the way it goes. Your wife wants one thing, a cricket jersey.
12:08: So when I finally found them, we took this rickshaw and went all the way over to JM Road in Pune.
12:14: And we went over there, and everybody's excited to be in this part of town because they were opening up a brand new subway.
12:21: And of course, in India, everything is not carnivore, omnivore kind of thing. It's veg and non -veg.
12:27: So wherever you look, veg, non -veg. The flight from Milan to Bombay, do you want veg or non -veg?
12:33: And so you go to subway, and they have two trays, veg and non -veg. And so I found these cricket jerseys, and I thought, this has been so difficult to find them.
12:44: I'm just going to buy one for every member of the family because I'm so happy to get a cricket jersey. That's exactly what
12:51: I did. By the way, you'll see people playing cricket everywhere. And I'm sure this is
12:57: British influence. You'll look down an alley, and the alley will have cows, water buffalo, chickens all running around.
13:04: And it'll literally be that wide as that aisle. And then you'll see five kids who are in between all the animals playing cricket because they just love to play cricket.
13:16: And if you see Psalm 55, 14, this is something that I experienced, just a friendship and a camaraderie and a kinship, and just a warmth with other
13:25: Christians. David said, we who had sweet fellowship together, walked in the house of God in the throng.
13:32: And that's really what it was. And remember the New Testament church in Acts chapter two, verse 42, they broke the bread and they had what?
13:39: Apostles teaching, yes, and prayer, but they had fellowship, koinonia. That's exactly what that was.
13:44: And why don't you take a look at another verse, if you would, please. 1 John chapter one, verse three, to just remind you, and I think this is really amazing.
13:54: I've established some friendships over there that I'm sure I'll have for the rest of my life with other like -minded believers, with Christians.
14:01: Why? Because we're so similar? No, I'm not like them at all. And I made no bones when I got there about somehow acting like an
14:08: Indian. I'm not an Indian and I don't know the culture. And I wear shorts and when they drink out of a water bottle, rarely do you see them touch their lips to the bottle, right?
14:18: Everyone that I saw, you'd get a bottle of water and you just leave a space there and drink it. Right, Ajay? I saw one guy on the way home,
14:26: Sharad, he was drinking out of the bottle. I said, what are you doing drinking out of the bottle? He said, well, I'm not sharing with anybody else, it's my bottle.
14:32: I said, you're American, you're Western. And am I right, Ajay? Pardon me?
14:40: Some of them do. Okay, well, wherever I was, when I would drink water, they would all stare. And so I thought I'd better stop doing that.
14:48: You're from Hyderabad, what do you know? You're a Southerner. Okay. First John 1 .3,
14:53: it's the same kind of thing. This is why you can have sweet fellowship with Christians wherever you are. That we have seen and heard, what we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also.
15:03: That you also may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
15:10: And so I didn't need to know a whole lot about the culture, I just needed to know that they were people, and God loved them, and I loved them, and it was just a sweet time of fellowship once we got to Pune.
15:22: We stayed there for five days teaching a conference, and we would teach morning, noon, and night. It was really non -stop teaching.
15:30: And in between all the pastors, and the pastor's wives, and everyone else would come up and ask questions, have a lot of questions.
15:36: I would say this church on average knows more than many of the pastors there. And they just need materials, and they need training, and I think ended up maybe 300, 325 people came to this church for the conference.
15:49: Some people came from 29 -hour train rides. How long did it take John to get there? Probably 20, 20.
15:56: Yeah, one man I met, he took a 29 -hour train ride because he wanted to preach the gospel better. His accent was so thick
16:03: I could barely understand it, but he could understand me perfectly. He said he spoke five languages, and he didn't travel first class, he didn't travel
16:10: AC. Can you imagine, 29 hours in the hot Indian train to get there, and his ministry is going from village to village, walking around, preaching the gospel, because some, as Ajay said,
16:20: I talked to him earlier today, and he said, I want to go back, because some people haven't even heard the name Jesus. And this man just goes from village to village, on foot, preaches the gospel.
16:29: I said, can you read English? Oh, yes. And he showed me the Grace to India magazine. Now, Disciples Community Church sponsors
16:37: Grace to India, and they play John MacArthur's tapes on India radio, and then if you can't hear the radio show, then you can send it to them, and they'll send you tapes for free, and literature for free.
16:47: So John's got a good presence there, and it's run by the Disciples Community Church, and Chris Williams. I called
16:52: Chris the John MacArthur of India, because that's kind of who he is. And so I said to this man,
16:58: I said, can you read English? Yes. How many resources do you have to teach the Bible? Well, hardly any. And I thought,
17:03: I know what's going to happen. This church has given me some money to go, and so, in a sense,
17:09: I don't want to tell you, because I don't want to take away my rewards, but it's really, you're a part of it. So here's what I did. Grace to India prints, a
17:16: Janus prints these books that John puts out, and you can buy them for like one and two dollars.
17:23: So John's new chosen 12 disciples, or what's it, 12 apostles, the new one, 12 ordinary men.
17:30: Thank you, Carl. You can get it for two bucks. It's probably paperback. I mean, it is paperback, and it's probably two bucks.
17:37: And so they sell the commentaries. So I said to the guy at Grace to India, I said, how much for the entire MacArthur commentary set, like 18 commentaries on the
17:44: Bible? He said, 2 ,250 rupees. So I'm going, that's 50 bucks.
17:50: That's nothing. That's 40 some bucks. So I went up and I said, all right, bring me a whole set tomorrow, and I'm going to give it to this guy.
18:01: And it's just this, you know, this is one of those things that you just, it makes the trip. And so, because I'm thinking, you know, it's just funny money.
18:09: It's like Las Vegas money, in a sense, because it's got all these zeros. And, you know, it's like, I'll never forget when
18:14: I was about 10 years old, my grandma, Grandma Nona, gave me a hundred dollar bill from Yugoslavia. I just thought I was just king, got a hundred dollar bill in my pocket.
18:22: And so, you know, you've got all these rupees and thousands of rupees. So I just paid him 2 ,240 rupees of your money, congregation's money.
18:30: I thought, I'm just, this is going to be an expense. And so they bought, they got them all ready. They thought
18:36: I was going to take them back on the plane. And then comes my friend. And I said,
18:41: I have a gift for you. I said, these are the, this is the entire MacArthur commentary set.
18:47: And it was like the whole world, you know, the cars become really slow and everything, and just kind of just this vortex.
18:55: Guy travels 29 hours because he wants to be a better gospel preacher. And he's not in it for the millions of dollars or people.
19:02: He's in it for the ones and twos and threes that don't even know that there's a creator of everything. They think everything's a
19:08: God. And then he said the exact right thing. He didn't say, Oh, you know, you're just the best
19:13: American I ever met. And just, you know, you're, you're just a great guy. He said, he just looked up and he goes,
19:19: I praise God for this gift that you, that you gave. And then
19:26: I said, of course, of course, me, I said, I said, I'm expecting you to read those things.
19:32: And he said, Oh, I will. And you could just tell, I mean, that was like gold to this guy. And it cost him probably 2000 rupees just to get up there and then to have that gift.
19:41: And so you pray, this man will use these commentaries because he wants to know
19:46: God's word. And he was so excited because you can't get American, what's it?
19:52: What is it? Warfare, Jihad in the Bible or something. I used to know MacArthur's books, too many of them being written. Carl, do you know?
19:59: Terrorism, Jihad and the war or something by MacArthur? Yeah. And you can't get that very much in India because it's a
20:06: Jihad stuff and you it's banned in Pakistan, by the way. And he told me my friend that he said, I've read that book.
20:12: I want you to know that I tracked that Jihad book down and I read it. So he's going to be reading commentaries for months to come.
20:18: And I'm just thrilled that we as a church could help him. I said, he said, then he afterwards, he said, the next day, next year, maybe
20:27: I could have a MacArthur study Bible. I said, all right. Oh, man.
20:35: All right. Turn to Psalm 117. We have to, we better look at our Bibles a little bit. You'll hear stories in the next several months.
20:41: I do have some pictures and maybe we'll have a slideshow some night or something. I didn't have time to get it put together this week.
20:53: But Psalm 117, this is a very famous Psalm because sometimes people open up the
20:59: Bible and say, what's the very middle chapter? Because I want to know what God's will is for me. In fact, this is the middle chapter, but that's not necessarily the best way to find
21:07: God's will. It's also known as the shortest chapter in the Bible. And I think it's the shortest.
21:13: Well, then it's the shortest Psalm if it's the shortest chapter. Psalm 117, something that really hit me when
21:19: I was there. When I think of Jews and Gentiles, I can kind of make the connection. But I didn't really think of how big the
21:25: Gentiles were. India has one billion people. One billion.
21:31: It is a huge continent. And when we were singing songs about God loving the world, one time
21:37: I just began to cry thinking my thought of humanity has been too small. Therefore, my thought of Christ atoning work has been too small.
21:45: I'm thinking about things and just a little micro level. I mean, everything just revolves around me. And look at this
21:51: Psalm here. This is, to me, has India written all over it. And every time I read it, I'm going to think of India again, as we see the people, all the peoples, rejoicing
22:03: God. And Psalm 117 is a call for that very thing. It says, Praise the Lord. And again, that's all capital
22:09: Lord. That's the covenant keeping God, his real name, Yahweh. Praise the Lord, all nations.
22:15: Laud him, all peoples. And remember this morning, I said in Sunday school, read the Bible for what it doesn't say as well.
22:21: I don't mean add in things in the white spaces. We ought not to do that. But I'll never forget what
22:27: Ken Doerr said once when he came to this church. He said, I listened, Mike, to what you preached and what you didn't preach.
22:32: That's how I judged you when you were preaching. I thought, you know, that's interesting what people say and what they don't say, because they have a reason for not saying certain things.
22:41: And here he says, praise the Lord, all nations, all the nations, not just the
22:47: Jews. This is something that's larger than that. Laud him, all peoples. And he's not saying, praise all these gods.
22:54: Can you imagine in India, as I said this morning, 330 million gods. Any kind of God you want, you can find that God.
23:03: And just to think of like Ganesh or some of the other gods, I mean, it is just insane to me to just think that there are that many gods.
23:11: We in America usually just have one God, and that's ourself. And he's saying, he's to be praised. He's commanding, you've got to be praised.
23:18: God is to be praised, rather. And then he gives a reason, verse two, a reason why we should exalt him and praise and worship him.
23:26: For his loving kindness, his steadfast love, his loyal love, his covenant keeping love is great towards us.
23:33: Then he gives another reason, and the truth of the Lord is everlasting. And then just like the psalm starts, the psalm ends, praise the
23:41: Lord. Now, if I don't think properly, I start thinking theologically all the time.
23:47: Now that theologically is fine, but sometimes it's too abstract. So when I think about the world, for God so loved the world, the first thing
23:53: I start thinking about is this. God has two kinds of love. And God's first love is a creator love, where he loves all his creation, he gives them rain, and he gives them children, and he gives them enjoyment.
24:05: Then God has another kind of love, and this love is special love. This is for his elect, this is for his people, and it's the love of Christ dying for them.
24:12: And so I start doing all those kind of theological things, and they're fine, and it's true. But when
24:18: I went to India, I just thought, how can I explain to our people, back in West Boylston, that the issue of God and the world and dying for the world is a lot bigger than what
24:28: I thought about? And what do I mean by that? Turn to 1 John 2, and let me explain a little bit. Sometimes we read verses about the atonement, and then there's an argument, did
24:38: Jesus die for the elect only, or did he die for everyone? And we get into these theological arguments, and it's okay to do that.
24:45: I'm fine with that, because I think we should rightly divide God's word. But where the greatness of the atonement is meant by the author, then let's focus on the greatness of the atonement, not the extent of the atonement or lack of the extent.
25:01: In other words, 1 John 2, 1 and 2, this is where everybody goes to argue. Some will argue, well,
25:07: Jesus died for the whole world. He died for each and every person. And others will argue, no, he died for not only the
25:12: Jews, but he died for the Gentiles too. And so we start trying to figure out, is it for everyone?
25:17: Is it not for everyone? And verses like this don't really help us, because John's intention is not the extent of the atonement.
25:25: John's intention is the immensity or the greatness of the atonement here. Now, he's just got done talking about in chapter 1 about confessing sins, and God is faithful to cleanse our sins.
25:37: Then he says in chapter 2, verse 1, my little children, and can't you just imagine John saying those things?
25:44: My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. I'm writing you a book so that it will help you not sin.
25:52: There's all kinds of mystical ways maybe not to sin, but the most practical way is you just know more about the Bible.
25:58: You pray that God would help you. I don't want you to sin. It's like a grandpa. I want the best for you. And if anyone sins, because he's a realist, and he's already, he said in this book, if you don't say you have sinned, you're a liar, right?
26:11: So he knows that we sin. But if anyone sins, we have an advocate.
26:17: We have a lawyer. We have somebody who will stand up in our place and speak for us. With the
26:23: Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he's not going to be standing there and worried about his own sins because he's righteous.
26:30: He's standing there for other sins, certainly not his own. And he himself, emphatic, when you see that in the
26:35: Greek text, himself, he's drawing attention to that as Christ. He himself is a propitiation for our sins.
26:41: What's propitiation mean? Payment, satisfaction, sometimes it's used.
26:49: God's angry at sinners, right? And so God pours out his anger on his son in our place, right?
26:57: He pours out his wrath, his just wrath, his right wrath. He pours out on his son. And as the son receives that in full, he drinks the cup of his wrath to the dregs down all the way that he has made appeasement of the
27:10: Father's wrath. And we call that word propitiation. And I just like to say that word. Not only is it great, but it's just a nice word.
27:17: Propitiation. You want to say it? Propitiation. What's my other favorite word?
27:23: Sacerdotalism. It just sounds good, doesn't it? I just like to say that. I haven't said that in three weeks in India. Propitiation, sacerdotalism.
27:32: Both are completely opposite. But here, now think about this.
27:38: He himself is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
27:51: I'll let you argue about the extent of the atonement all you want. But may
27:57: I say to you that this is not necessarily an argument about the extent of the atonement.
28:02: This is an argument about the immensity and greatness of the atonement. How great is the atonement?
28:07: That Jesus died just for Jews? Jesus said, I've come for my people. It was prophesied of him in Matthew 1, verse 21, that he is coming to be a savior of his people's sins.
28:22: But all of a sudden, now I'm looking back to Psalm 117, and all the peoples are to praise him. When John is writing this, he is trying to make us think that Christ's atonement is not something just small and myopic.
28:36: It's something great. He didn't die for just our sins, but also those of the whole world. He's not talking about each and every person of the whole world, necessarily.
28:44: He's just talking about the immensity of it. And so when I was there, I was very, to use the phraseology,
28:52: I was blown away to think, look at all these people. And it made me think if it wasn't for election and God's sovereignty,
28:59: I don't think India would have a chance. I looked around and I thought 1 billion people.
29:05: The statistics are this, 83 % Hindu, 13 %
29:10: Muslim, 2 % Roman Catholic, 2 % Sikhs, 1 %
29:16: Christian, non -evangelical, and 1 % evangelical. What do you do with a country like that?
29:25: What do you do with the gospel? But I said to myself, you know, when God calls those in eternity past,
29:32: Christ dies for those. I mean, I'm just preaching Ephesians to myself. Then the Spirit is going to come and seal them.
29:38: God in his economy has told us to go preach the gospel, and through the preaching of the gospel, people become saved.
29:46: There's a means and the end. The end is already decreed. The means are pray for them and go preach the gospel. And so I didn't preach the gospel to that many people, but I try to train pastors and to do that very thing.
29:58: Turn to John 6, 37, and let me give you a little hope for India, for those who wonder of what could
30:04: God do in a country like that. I mean, it is dark. Wes told me that he kind of felt, Wes Jamison, he kind of felt like oppressed in some of the temple areas.
30:13: I never felt that. I just looked around and thought, these people are slaves to sin. They're blind.
30:19: They're doing Satan's will. But I didn't feel any kind of presence or anything. I did look around and just would see the
30:27: Gange type river steps. Can you imagine that where you see the steps down into the water?
30:33: And some people are washing clothes in the water. Some people are, you could see the sewer going into the water.
30:39: Some people were, you can see the children playing there. I walked by and would see all these flowers.
30:45: Matter of fact, it was really neat when you get ready to preach the gospel, they call you to the front and they give you a garland like they would a politician or some kind of king or something like that.
30:55: And I thought, wow. So they would give me a garland. And I don't know if I offended them, but before I preached, I took it off because last time
31:01: I've had any flowers close to me, it was Easter time here and that bug just flew right in my mouth. I thought, I don't need any Indian bugs in my mouth.
31:08: And so I took the garland and set it over there. And so there's garlands down by this river because they're worshiping even the river.
31:15: And there's just, you know, you can buy things to set to the river God. You can even have, there's a little trough here that you can buy something to give to the
31:23: God. And then the God comes over and eats those things, the cow. And so there's all these things. And so I saw a bunch of ashes over there and I said, what are those ashes?
31:31: It looked kind of like charcoal, except it was finer. And then Sammy, who's a local, he's from Puna.
31:37: We were over in Nasik, but he said, that's what you think it is. That's a dead body.
31:44: They cremated and just laid the ashes there. And so soon then they'll just take those ashes and throw them into the water.
31:49: And I thought, how do you turn a world upside down like India without God's sovereign hand?
31:57: I believe in the sovereignty of God and salvation, not because it's just in the Bible, but even if I was a pragmatist,
32:02: I'd have to believe. What am I going to do? The salvation of all these souls is left up to us and our ingenuity and man's free will.
32:09: I'll tell you, their will is not free at all. You show me someone that goes to India and goes down to a temple area and say they all have free will.
32:17: You wouldn't believe in free will anymore. Their will is bound to their nature and their nature is bound to their will.
32:25: So why do I sin that way? That's their freedom of their will. That's the freedom we had before God gave us a new nature.
32:31: And then we choose accordingly. I just looked around. I said, there's no hope for India unless these verses are true.
32:38: And look at these verses. It does give me hope. And it's going to be my prayer that some of you, not only Ajay goes back to preach, but some of you say, you know, what am
32:46: I alive for? What do I live for? Maybe you go to India and maybe you go to somewhere else. But wouldn't it be great to be able to send those people out?
32:54: Send you out. I long for the days where the kids just sit and listen to missionaries who come and preach the gospel and look at the kids in the eye and say, maybe it's you who needs to go.
33:05: Where are those days? Where are those churches? John 6, 37. All that the
33:21: Father gives me shall come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out.
33:28: There's confidence in this. The mission will be accomplished. God is not going to lose one person.
33:35: There's not one person in India that God wants saved that's not going to be saved. Jesus said in verse 38, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.
33:44: And this is the will of Him who sent me, that of all He has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
33:51: This is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life.
33:56: And I myself will raise Him up on the last day. Yes, man is responsible, but God is sovereign.
34:02: God's sovereign over man. And I just think to myself, there is hope because I do believe that. Same with us.
34:09: How can you go around this entire county, this city? You know, this is not really much of a different place than India in this in a sense.
34:16: It's 83 percent Hindus over there, 13 percent Buddhists.
34:21: So you've got 96 percent of the population who doesn't believe the right gospel. Well, what about our situation?
34:29: What about our situation here? Is it any different? Do you think this is 80 percent Christian where we live, 80 percent
34:36: Christian dress, 80 percent Christian terminology? People say they believe in the Trinity. And I don't care if you're a secular
34:42: Christian or a secular Catholic. It doesn't matter. We have this mission field. How are these people going to become saved?
34:48: Well, I know if God has chosen them, it's just a matter of time before He's given one of us the privilege to preach the gospel and they will believe, won't they?
34:55: Have you ever gone door to door evangelizing? I'm scared to death. By the way,
35:01: I should not have been scared, but I was scared. I was in seminary. I was scared to death, and we had to do it for a class.
35:07: You know who I was mainly afraid of? It was the old grandmas who were the most intimidating. The biker guys with long hair and tattoos, they were the sweetest.
35:16: They were sweet as could be. I knocked on the door. Hi, I'm with Grace Church, and we'd like to invite you to such and such. And the guys are like, nah, no thanks.
35:23: And some of the older ladies, I love old ladies, and this has nothing to do with, you know, oh, I don't like, you know, senior citizens or anything like that, but a couple of them
35:29: I ran into have tainted my life. I can't sleep. I believe in what
35:35: I believe, and I'm going to be an XYZ until I die. Get off my property. And I'm like, how could
35:41: I ever do this? I'm frightened. But, you know, the good news is, as I taught these men in Nasik and Urundubad, God does not care when you evangelize how many people you convert, because you can't convert anyone.
35:55: God gets glory when you tell people about the great Savior. There's a
36:00: Savior who forgives sins. His name's Jesus. This is who he is. This is what he's done. And when you go home at night, you don't have to say,
36:07: I led five people to the Lord. I can sleep well. You say, I preached the gospel to five people, and no one responded, but God was glorified.
36:14: I didn't have to water down the gospel to get more people to believe, so I can put the tick marks on there. There's a law in northern
36:20: India that says you cannot proselytize people from their religion, and so they're persecuting some Christians.
36:25: Not in the state where I was, but I told the people, the pastors in my conference breakouts, I said, remember this, you can never convert anyone anyway.
36:36: Now, they still might prosecute you and use the law, but remember, you can't convert anyone. How can you make a dead person live?
36:43: There's absolutely no way. It's like that drunk laying there, and the guy was slamming Spurgeon. He's like, yeah, that's one of your converts,
36:50: Spurgeon in London. Look at that drunk. Spurgeon says, I know it's one of my converts, because if it was a Lord Jesus Christ convert, he wouldn't be drunk anymore.
36:58: How are we going to try to convert people to be who we are? This is a supernatural thing, and it only comes through the preaching of the gospel.
37:05: Alright, how much time do we have? We don't have much time, but let's go to my two favorite evangelists in the Bible. Revelation chapter 11, and let's just end here.
37:15: Maybe we'll have India part two next week. Who knows? I have lots of things to talk about, translators and ways that you can get involved, so maybe we'll just wrap it up next week.
37:26: But let's just look at Revelation chapter 11 to finish, and I just love this passage, because God enables those he calls to do his job, and this is extraordinary, yes, but it would thrill me if we could turn into a church that wouldn't say, oh, let's give $300 a month to this missionary.
37:45: That's an okay thing to do, and I want to do that, and the elders are committed to, with Bob Dunn helping us, to support more missionaries, to support more like -minded missionaries, to be more of a global church, if you will, not politically correct or global, but think on a bigger scale.
38:04: But wouldn't it be great if we sent somebody out from this church, and this church paid for that person's salary? That's real missions.
38:11: That's the real way where you say, you know, you don't have to go around, and I could say the word, but I probably should not say it, so if you ever think that in the pulpit, then you just don't say it.
38:37: I'm waiting for the day, that will be the great day in this church for missions, when we fully support someone who goes and either teaches or supports or works in the orphanage or whatever he or she does.
38:48: Those are the days of missions, instead of going around trying to have 50 % of the cost go for administrative fees, like I'm some authority on missions.
39:00: I'm not, but I want to be, don't you? I want to be involved. I want to be excited about it.
39:06: Revelation chapter 11, this is just neat because you know this is during the tribulation time. There's two witnesses that God is going to use to preach the gospel.
39:15: And I'll never forget when MacArthur said, if there are volunteers for these two people, he said, I volunteer.
39:22: I don't volunteer, I want to go to heaven and stay there. But John's better than I am, and you all know that quite well.
39:27: Verse three, and I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days clothed in sackcloth.
39:34: Without getting into all the different ways we could translate this, I'm just going to translate it in a grammatical way, historical way, that's just what it says.
39:42: Two witnesses, that amount of days clothed in sackcloth. Unless sackcloth means orange and two means 500, maybe we could go along a different line, but here we're just translating it right as it is.
39:55: Verse four, remember this is all in the midst of the tribulation, chapter 6 -18 in Revelation is the tribulation.
40:02: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
40:09: And so, lampstands are a good thing for witnesses, and to hear verse five, it goes on to say, and if anyone desires to harm them, so they're going to be preaching the gospel.
40:19: By the way, I've heard, and I've even heard of this church, that nobody can get saved in the tribulation. Is that true or false? The Spirit of God goes when the church goes, and no one can get saved.
40:29: I've heard that here many times. How does that happen? Well, there's some books that are preaching that way, and certainly the
40:35: Spirit of God in the corporate church goes up, but will anybody get saved in the tribulation? The answer is yes, and God has two preachers, and he has 144 ,000 more preachers.
40:46: There will be people who get saved in the tribulation, and they will be saved to the glory of God, and they will be different than the church, that's true.
40:53: But there are preachers, and there will be responders. Look at verse five, and if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies, and if anyone would desire to harm them in this manner, he must be killed.
41:07: Can you imagine? Now, if we send you out as a missionary, I can't promise you this, but I promise you that you won't die before God has ordained your death.
41:14: A couple of times I was walking around in India, and I was starting to get kind of foxy, and I thought, I'm just going to walk around for two hours on my own.
41:20: Nobody knows where I am, but I'm just going for it. And so, I've got two hours to kill, and I'm just going to pray and walk and just explore
41:28: India. It's like some National Geographic thing. I thought, nobody in the world knows who
41:36: I am or where I am, and I had a little money belt, and I thought it was kind of tricky because I ordered it from Travel Smith, and they just cut those money belt things right off, and then they've got your money,
41:46: I've got my passport, I've got my airline ticket, so I ordered the one for five extra bucks that has a metal cord that goes through, so if they cut it, they cut the metal and then you nab them.
42:00: But anyway, I was just walking around, so much for digressions. You know why I normally preach with notes. By the way,
42:06: I did something for the first, and I don't know if Scott said it, but I preached at this Methodist church, it was a liberal
42:11: Methodist church, and I preached without my notes. It was a 25 -minute message. I just decided, you know, if I can't preach without notes, then
42:18: I can't preach. It's the gospel, and I went into the church. I said a little bit about Sunday school.
42:23: I went in, and they said, please take your shoes off. I said, that's fine. Something else very interesting happened, too. I sat down, and there was a lady,
42:30: I think her name was Omsh or something, I can't remember her name, O -something, and she said, well, thank you for coming today, and we're so glad you're going to be preaching, and she said, what are your views on women in ministry?
42:44: I said, I just go, I can't get out of this. This is on Sunday.
42:51: On Friday, I get the phone call from Chris. Chris says, it's probably 1030 at night, and everybody eats late, and I get a phone call at 11 o 'clock at night.
42:58: It's time for dinner. Come on over. This is Chris William, the pastor, and we became friends. I said, I just ordered Pizza Hut with chicken tikka on it, and I'm full.
43:06: This is kind of spicy chicken, and he said, well, then come over for fun. I thought, well, I'm in India, and I'm his guest, and so I went over there, and there's about 30 people crammed in this small room just singing and laughing, and they did something
43:18: I've never seen before, and maybe they don't do this in southern India, but they did birthday bums. Do you guys do those?
43:24: Yeah, so if you're 25, they grab your arms, and they grab your legs, and they hit your bum on the ground 25 times, and I was just looking.
43:34: My eyes were wide open, and so we said when we got home, we're like, Haley, you're 10 years old.
43:40: We're going to do 10 birthday bums, and on you go. So we were just having a great time, and so Chris called me up one night late, and he said, there's a lady who's visited the conference.
43:50: Their pastor's gone, and she'd like one of the speakers to preach, and I'd like to know if you'd preach. He said, but 20 minutes.
43:56: They'd like a Baptistic kind of message, non -controversial. I said, oh, great.
44:01: I go, I'm sunk. So I said, first I just joked, and I said, the truth always divides, and he didn't laugh.
44:10: I said, I'd be glad to do it, and I said, 20 minutes? I said, I'll do it. I said, what else am
44:15: I going to do on Sunday morning? I was going to attend the service from 9 to 1, but this thing's at 8 o 'clock, and so I'll go ahead and do it.
44:23: So I said, well, I'll preach, and so I brought a few extra sermons, and by the way, many of the pastors, they just wanted my sermons when
44:29: I was done with them, not because I'm so great or anything like that, but they just want materials, and so I would just give them materials when
44:35: I was done, and so I said, okay. So I get a phone call Saturday morning, and the lady who's kind of in charge of this wants to meet me, because she wants to know who this person is that's going to come and preach, and that was fine and dandy, and so I met with her and another man, and they were not married.
44:49: They were just both leaders at the church, and so I said, can I preach for 25, do you think? And she said, okay, 25, and she said, we're having unity problems, and maybe you could address that, and whatever you want to preach is fine.
45:02: I said, well, how about Ephesians chapter 2? I said, I love that chapter, verses 1 through 10. It'll encourage the saints, and if there aren't
45:08: Christians there, then that's a good gospel message. She said, okay, that'll be fine. She said, I'll come by and pick you up at 7 .30.
45:14: And so I'm sitting here while this is going on, down in the lobby at the Y, where we were staying for a few days, and there's some of the other pastors sitting right here that were in some of my seminars, and so I thought,
45:25: I don't know if this is copacetic here or not, or culturally correct, but I'm an honored guest, and by the way, they treat the honored guest in the
45:33: East very much as an honored guest, very much with respect. The kids are very respectful, and so I appreciated that in a right way.
45:45: And so I said, I said, you'll be picking me up? I said, can you and your husband come and pick me up? And she said, oh, I don't think he'll be able to come.
45:51: And I said, well, I don't know if this is offensive to you or not, but I said, I'm married, and I just don't travel alone with ladies, just unless it's an emergency.
45:59: If somebody was on the side of the road and I had to pick them up, that's one thing. And I said, so I wouldn't feel comfortable with going to the church.
46:04: Maybe you could just give me directions. And then she kind of looked at me, and so then it got around. So these guys are listening to me, because I said to her,
46:12: I said, I don't know if you do this in your culture. And she's like, no, we don't do this in the culture. That's like when I first came and preached my candidating message to this church.
46:19: I won't tell you who it was, but I preached the message to this church six and a half years ago, and I stood right over there.
46:27: And somebody came up to me who was no longer at this church, and they said to me, could you please sign my Bible? And I said, oh.
46:35: I think it was a February weekend that I came to Canada. I said, I can't sign your Bible. I said,
46:40: I didn't write the Bible. And I just said in my own conscience, I could never sign the Bible. I didn't write the
46:46: Bible. If I write a book sometime, I'll sign the book. I said, I hope I won't offend you. And the person said to me right there, I'm a missionary from this church, and it does offend me.
46:56: Welcome to Massachusetts. Fred told me they hit you head on when you come here. And I didn't know that was going to happen.
47:03: So I didn't know what to do, but I can't go against my conscience. So I said, do you have notes? I don't even know what
47:09: I preached that Sunday. Oh, Mark chapter 1 I preached. And so I just wrote in there, be faithful to the word or something, grow in grace and knowledge of the
47:19: Lord, and then I signed my name. And so that seemed to appease this person. About a year later,
47:24: I talked to the person. And somehow this person had their Bible. And I was looking around. The Bible, well, they had cut that out and taped it in their
47:34: Bible. But oh well, I signed the Bible one way or the other.
47:41: And so I said, I hope it's not offensive to you. It's okay in your culture, right? And she's like, well, it's kind of odd.
47:46: And I said, well, and she said, well, we'll come and get you. But anyway, long story short, these men did notice and kind of got around.
47:55: Oh, this pastor won't go in the car with the lady. And I thought, you know, that's good for them to know. That's good. I don't know who she is.
48:00: She could say he did something. I mean, I'm guilty. I mean, what am I going to do? And I don't want to go to prison in a
48:05: Hindu jail, either Indian jail. And so anyway, the lady asked me then about women's roles in ministries.
48:13: And I thought, what am I going to do? Obviously, she has a different view than I do of women's roles in ministry. And so I just said, we are equal in Christ.
48:21: Just like at home there's different functions and the church has different functions. Galatians 3, though, teaches we're equal in Christ.
48:27: And that seemed to be good enough for her. And then I thought, am I compromising? Should I just, you know, told her the truth? And I thought, well, there'll be another day because it's just ready to preach.
48:35: And so then I walked out and you get the big garlands. And so I just looked at the congregation. I said, if you're a Christian, this will really encourage you, our great
48:42: Savior, God being rich in mercy. And he's loved us and graced us. And I said, if you're not a Christian, then this message is for you, too.
48:48: And so then I just preached for 25 minutes. And it just was really neat to be able to do that. I won't do that very often here because then we have too many anecdotal things that need to be put on a tape that Wesley Blackstone makes once a year, or bloopers of Mike Evendorf.
49:02: It's true. All right, where are we? I have no idea. Revelation 11, verse 6.
49:09: Let's just do this quickly. These have the power to shut up the sky, these two people, God's power working in them, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying.
49:18: Sounds like Elijah and Moses to me, but we're not exactly sure. And they have power over the waters to turn them in blood,
49:24: Moses -like, and to smite the earth with every plague, Moses -like, as often as they desire. Can you imagine? They are just walking sin condemners.
49:34: Defensed with these miracles, and when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them and overcome them and kill them.
49:41: And so the Antichrist one day will kill them. He'll make war. We get the word military campaign.
49:47: It's a polemic against them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt.
49:54: It's Jerusalem, I think, where the Lord was crucified, where their Lord was crucified. So they're just going to lay there, and what are they going to do?
50:01: And those from the peoples and the tribes and the tongues and the nations, and when I read those words, I think of India as well, not because they'll be involved in this thing, but just a variety of people now when
50:10: I think of nations. And they will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. It's a public display.
50:17: You don't get the privilege of being buried, and so they're just going to let them out, and they're going to be happy, and they're going to have a new time of celebration.
50:26: Verse 10, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry. They will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
50:34: Can you imagine? You thought Hallmark had enough cards. Here comes the new Hallmark holiday. Happy Dead Witnesses Day, as I used to be taught.
50:43: When Kim and I celebrate, we like to make nachos, all kinds of guacamole. I mean, let's have some nachos.
50:49: You know, the wicked witch is dead. Times two. These two prophets were tormented.
50:57: I didn't think that was that funny. And these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth, and that torment means to cause pain and cause distress and mental, just binding, if you will.
51:10: Verse 11, and after three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who were beholding them.
51:19: Can you imagine? Their mouths must have dropped. And then here, verse 12, and then they heard a loud voice, literally megaphone, from heaven saying, come up here, and they went up into heaven and cloud, and their enemies beheld them.
51:33: Basically, come up here, the tribulation's about over, and Christ is going to come back. Verse 13, there is a punctuation mark, an exclamation point there, and in that hour, verse 13, there was a great earthquake, the tenth of the city fell, 7 ,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the
51:51: God of heaven. I'm already past my time, but basically, I love that story of the two witnesses because they had this task to do, a
51:59: Herculean task that was above them, but God strengthened them to do it, and I just would love not only to go back to India, but also to have some of you go, and I said to Kim, in the next three years, we need to bring a group, and Kim said, that's too long.
52:12: It needs to be a year or 18 months, and let's strike while the coal's hot kind of thing, and I thought, you know, I don't know what the
52:17: Lord might have us do, and we'll talk with Louis and Bob and the elders, but I'd love to have us get involved in some way because it is a life -changing experience, not only to increase your thankfulness, not only to just say,
52:28: God, strike me dead if I ever complain again, God, thank you for the teaching I've received, thank you for the church that I get to pastor, all these different things, but it will change your mind in terms of even reading the
52:38: Bible when you read of nations and Gentiles and those things. So, thanks for listening tonight.
52:44: I would request that we sing Have Faith in God since that's my India song, 408. Let me pray, and then we'll talk more about India maybe next week and in the weeks to come, and see how you can get involved.
52:57: Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this night, and it's good to just get together and sing songs with the saints, and even have joy and laughter, and Father, we know every good thing comes from you, and it's nice to be in your word.
53:09: I do praise you that we can have fellowship with those who are 8 ,000 miles away because of what your son has done, and I just pray that you would help us as a church, individually, corporately, on the board, that we might be missions -minded, that we might long to have the gospel preached, that we might use the value of the dollar to our advantage, and that you would help us to be shrewd stewards of the money we have.
53:31: And if unbelievers can be shrewd with money, Father, teach us to be shrewd with money for the kingdom as your son has taught in the scriptures.