The Challenge of Every Christian - Part 3 — Alan Redpath

The Sovereignty of Jesus Christ

Will you turn with me while I read just one or two verses in the 14th chapter of Romans? Romans chapter 14 verses 7 through 9. For none of us liveth to himself. And no man dieth to himself. For whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord.

Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord for to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Our subject for these morning sessions forgive the repetition but I mention it merely for the sake of those who have joined us just today our subject for the morning sessions has been the challenge to every Christian to communicate Christ in the context of the 1960s and 70s.

On Monday morning we began by considering the means of communication our only hope a great revival in the moving and the incoming tide of the Spirit of God in each one of our lives. And then yesterday we thought about the method of communication how this is going to be achieved by each one of us personally.

And today I want to speak to you about the message we must communicate. And in a word that message is the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. Acclaimed in heaven, acknowledged in hell, rejected by the world and alas disputed in the church.

God hasn't any problem with the devil. He thrashed him at Calvary, gave him the beating of his life, defeated him entirely, stripped from himself principalities and powers and made his show of them openly.

Satan is the defeated foe but he won't lie down. God hasn't any problem with the devil. He hasn't any problem with the world. He in good cheer said Jesus to a little handful of his own, I have overcome the world.

He has no problem with the world. But God has one tremendous problem. It's not with his enemies but with his friends. It's to get those of us who know him and love him living happily and gladly and all together in accordance with his plan for each of our lives.

Totally submitted to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. When that happens in a Christian life the Holy Spirit goes into business. And that's desperately what we need to recover in this day, urgently. One of the remarkable things, if you think about it, of this century in which we live, is that the form of government which we now know as democracy, government by the people, of the people, for the people, that principle of government which 60 years ago was hailed as the kind of thing that would bring in utopia, has it back to the wall.

It's very interesting that one of the founders of the communist regime, Lenin, as part of his thesis on communism, said that it would be absurd folly to believe that the transition from capitalism to socialism can ever take place without dictatorship.

And he was right. And today, as new countries emerge in Africa and in many different parts of the world, the order of the day is dictatorship, which the communist regime is pleased to call a limited sovereignty.

That's the horror through which Czechoslovakia is going right now. And that interests me very much because the whole principle of Christian living is not democracy, but dictatorship. Over and over again, Satan uses instruments and tools and steals from the Christian church the strategy of God to accomplish his end.

He knows perfectly well, for instance, that the worthwhileness of every movement depends upon its ability to mobilize its entire membership to propagate what it believes. That's why the Church of the Latter Day Saints are having a millennium.

That's why Islam is on the upsurge. That's why Jehovah's Witnesses are moving fast. When we went to Edinburgh from Chicago about six years ago, within six months of our being there, we were visited twice by Mormons, twice by Jehovah's Witnesses, once by moral rearmament, but never by anybody from a recognized Protestant church.

And time and time again, Satan produces his counterfeit. And Satan knows that the answer to this world is dictatorship. And the gospel is declaring that as the answer. The strategy of redemption for each one of us is the acknowledgement of dictatorship.

Not the ugly thing that we have come to understand by that word. Not the Belsen of Hitler, not the concentration camps, but the wonderful freedom of slavery to Jesus Christ. And so I want to talk to you this morning, the Lord helping me, about what place he had in your life.

Christ's Lordship Illustrated by One Person in Control

Some years ago, many years ago actually, I had a small car which I bought. It was the kind of car I don't get into, I put it on. I spent about $50 for it. It had eight horsepower, but four of the horses had died long before I got it.

It was quite a remarkable car. I came to good terms with it, except in cold weather. The procedure of starting that vehicle was quite fantastic. It had, of course, the self-starter, but which wouldn't work on a cold morning.

And therefore, as a substitute, it had on the dashboard a handle labeled choke. And in order to start the car, it was essential that you pull out that handle and hold it out, because it wouldn't start automatically.

Now when the self-starter wouldn't work, there was provided for you, under the driver's seat, a long starting handle, about this long. And the technique was that you had to go round to the front of the car and push this handle right into the motor until it connected with the crankshaft, and then begin to turn the engine.

Never to this day have I understood how the designers of that vehicle thought that anybody on earth could with one hand, you know how quick you are, I was just thinking it out, could with one hand hold out this choke, and with the other hand get round to the front and begin cranking.

It was a sheer impossibility. So the only thing I could do on a cold morning was to get my wife out from the washing and say to her, would you mind coming and sitting here in this car a minute and holding this handle while I went round to the front and cranked it.

And as I did that, as we did that together, eventually four of the horses began to stagger to life, and with a tremendous noise it began. And then having got it started, I got into the driver's seat and said to my good wife, now thank you very much, that's all, you can go returning to the washing.

It would have been absolutely futile and disastrous if I had suggested to her that she kept one hand on the choke, and if she liked to, she could have another hand on the steering wheel, and she could put her foot on the clutch, while I had a hand on the wheel and a foot on the brake, and another on the accelerator.

Within a few seconds we would have met with disaster. There was only one secret of that car successfully going along the road. It was if one person was in control. Now there's only one secret of the Christian life, and that is where there's one person in control.

And what I'm wanting to, I'm praying that as I speak to you today, I may just get right through into your heart, and ask you, and the Holy Spirit may ask you, listen, when the chips are down, I mean, when after a Sunday you've, forgive me, but you've sort of turned off the spiritual tap, and when the Monday comes you turn on the secular tap, who is in control?

Really, when it comes to it, is Jesus Christ Lord, or isn't he? Now nobody is going to hand over his life to the sovereignty of another, unless he's satisfied that the one who, to whom he's to hand it over, has adequate claims which substantiate the fact that he is able for any situation.

The Exalted Christ on the Throne

May I therefore, just for a moment, speak to you concerning the claims of Jesus Christ, the Lordship? Whatever you or I may say about it, God has put Jesus on the throne. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, till I make all thine enemies thy footstool.

Psalm 110. The writer to the Hebrews begins his letter by saying that God hath spoken to us in these last days in his Son, who being the outshining of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

So Jesus is on the throne, far above all, the head of all principality and power. I just pause a minute, because I marvel at this, you know. It never worries me unduly, it concerns me, but it doesn't worry me.

What may happen in Peking, or Hanoi, or Washington, or Moscow, or London, or Paris, not one of them can lift a little finger without permission of Jesus, who is on the throne. And that brings a tremendous sense of comfort to my heart this morning.

Yes, God has put him on the throne. He's back where he belongs. But if I was to ask you, what are his claims to sovereignty, I'd have to go much further than that. I'd have to go for the supreme claim of sovereignty to the cross.

He's on the throne, because he bled on a cross. Do you remember this passage of scripture, which I have before me here, Philippians chapter 2? I think this is the most wonderful description, of a ladder down which he came, and a ladder up which he climbed, as he came down from the throne and went back to it.

May I just read and comment very briefly, because here, above everywhere in the Bible, are stated the claims of Jesus Christ, which make our dispute, and our argument, and our contesting his right to reign and rule in our lives, so utterly fantastic.

Christ's Humiliation and Exaltation in Philippians 2

Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God. That doesn't mean just being like God. Like, you may say, your child is the image of his father. Not that. Being in the form of God.

The very nature of God. Oh yes, he was there from all eternity, as we heard. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's Jesus. None of us would ever imagine that he just began to live at Bethlehem.

Before the world was, he was God on the throne. Being in the form of God. He counted it not a thing to be grasped after, to be equal with God. But, he made himself of no reputation. The literal translation is, he emptied himself.

He emptied himself of his majesty, of his glory. He forsook all his rights. His right to the worship of heaven. His right to the throne of God. His right, why, to the highest place that heaven abhors.

Which was his, by sovereign right. He forsook it. He counted it not a thing to be grasped after, to be equal with God. And he emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a servant. A servant, may I ask, to whom?

Well, he was the servant of Jehovah. I delight to do thy will, O God. He was the one who'd come to fulfill the will of God in his life. He was a servant of Jehovah. But he wasn't only a servant of Jehovah, he was a servant of man.

Even the son of man is come, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. And to give his life for ransom for many. And do you remember that amazing occasion in the life of our Lord Jesus? I marvel at it.

When one day the disciples had come into a home, and as the custom was, for a slave to be prepared. When they came from the dusty road, to be prepared with a basin of water to wipe their feet. No slave being available, and the disciples not having learnt humility, Jesus did it for them.

He took a towel, he laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and washed their feet. He laid aside his garments, he laid aside his glory, and took a towel, the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

Just as he had been in the likeness of God, he was now in the likeness of men. He wasn't playing at being a man, he was a man. He wasn't playing at being a servant, he wasn't a servant. He was like God, he became like man.

Made in the likeness of man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. He chose a poor home. He only had a borrowed tomb. He owned no property, nothing. He humbled himself. And it always seems to have been a principle, that that's the kind of person that Jesus uses, and takes.

He doesn't put up with it, he chooses it. Not many wise, not many mighty, but he chooses to humble. And he humbled himself. And he became obedient, obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross. And now he's got to the bottom of the ladder.

See, he was in the form of God at the top, and step by step down he came. Made himself of no reputation. The form of a servant, the likeness of men. Humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross.

He says of himself in that wonderful messianic psalm, I became a worm and no man. A worm. God, man, worm. That's Jesus. That's my Saviour, my wonderful Lord. He humbled himself. He came down that ladder to the very bottom, and put obedience back where it belongs.

Even though it meant the death of the cross. Now watch the steps he took up. Three mighty leaps, and he's back where he was. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him. Notice, he humbled himself, he didn't exalt himself.

He could have done, but God exalted him. Oh, he could have done it, at any moment. In the gardens, where his sweat, was it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground, as he fought tooth and nail with the devil to do the will of God.

He could have called upon a legion of angels that had been there, and he could have exalted himself. But just stop for a minute, and let this sink into your heart. He wasn't interested in getting back to heaven without you, and without me.

Satan's strategy from the beginning of history, until the moment Jesus cried, it is finished. Satan's strategy was, keep him from the cross. And if you read the Old Testament with that in mind, what a thrilling book it is.

How nearly the devil succeeded. You read the book of Esther again, where the name of God is never mentioned, but where he nearly succeeded in keeping Jesus from the cross, and wiping out the whole Jewish race.

Satan's strategy was to keep Jesus from the cross. He was wanting, all the time, that heaven, let me say this carefully, that heaven should be an empty warehouse, in which God would walk up and down for all eternity and weep, and acknowledge he was beaten.

Because he hadn't found anybody to do his will. He hadn't placed obedience back where it was, and God was beaten, and Satan's torch toothed her nail, to keep Jesus from Calvary. Obedience unto death. Say, since the Calvary road he took, what do you think Satan's trying to do now?

I'll tell you. Stop everybody from hearing. That's his motto now, and how well he's succeeding. Just keep people from hearing the truth, the glory of redemption. And he's succeeding, not only in heathen lands where the name is never heard, but in university campuses, and colleges, and all over the country, in a secularized civilization of today.

How few have really heard. Jesus wouldn't exalt himself, but I tell you that God's answer to Calvary was to get hold of his son and raise him from the tomb, from the grave, to a mighty resurrection, from the grave to the sky, in a mighty ascension, from the grave to the throne in heaven, in a mighty session, where he'd sit at God's right hand.

God has highly exalted him. What a leap he took. Oh, my friend, I get excited. You know, that always amuses me. What a fuss they're making about getting to the moon. Must be spending billions of dollars, or so they are, but mind you, it's very clever.

Very, very clever, brilliant. Oh, but my, what a lot of money it's taking. What an effort. What a fun little machine going to one day land on the moon, so to say. My, I tell you, there's coming a day when you and I will bypass the moon.

We'll bypass the lot, stars, sun, everything, and we'll land right up in glory, with our wonderful Lord. And that day is coming very soon. For God has exalted him, and having done that, he's given him a name.

A name which is about every name. And as a drunken sot of a sailor once wrote, when he became a minister of the Church of England, how sweet the name of Jesus sounds. In a believity, it soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fears.

He gave him a name. And it wasn't as if there's any magic in the name, because there isn't. But God was making it known, with an unmistakable act of resurrection of Jesus from the dead to the throne, that this is the kind of life, the character that God exalts, and only that kind of life.

The one that's been obedient unto death. My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And God gave him a name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Hitler's knee. Stalin's knee.

Every knee. Every knee in all the world, in all time, should bow. And acknowledge him as Lord. For the glory of God the Father. Well my dear friend, very inadequately, that's the claim that Jesus has to Lordship.

That's the kind of life that God has taken up from us, from the grave, and put upon the highest throne in all the universe. And what do you think he's done it for? I'll tell you why. He's done it in order that a 20th century society, which has committed itself to lawlessness, where all authority at every level is rejected, where everything's right, where we have situational ethics, where any kind of sexual intercourse outside the marriage tie is not only legitimate but encouraged, where if you don't do that you're called a square and not with it.

In a society like that, God has put Jesus on the throne in order that through a new humanity of which he is head, that is through you and me, he may demonstrate to this society that you can't find happiness that way, that you can't find release that way, that you can't find peace that way, that you can only find peace through the sovereignty of Christ expressed through your life.

So you see, God has put Jesus on the throne and put obedience back where it ought to be, and obedience has been fulfilled by Jesus, not for his own pleasure, not for his own goodness, but in order that he may have a channel, have a life, have hands and feet and brains and hearts and body.

Who will express that obedience today and declare to men and women, fellows and girls, that the only way of victory and happiness and peace is in the sovereignty of Christ? That's the tragedy of our salvation.

Reaching Young People Through the Gospel

I, some years ago, in Edinburgh, had a very exciting time actually. When I arrived I found the church in a bit of a ferment, because the young people had started a gospel beat group, do you know what that is?

A beat group that plays gospel tunes, gospel songs, music, words, to beat music. And the young people thought they were wonderful. The elders and trustees however, every hair stood on end and were horrified.

And they banned it, and the young people wouldn't have it banned. And so they mutually decided that they would leave the decision to the new minister when he arrived. So I arrived on a volcano, and they said it's up to you to make the decision.

I got this beat group together, eight fellows and a girl, and I listened to them play. I confessed to you that I didn't like their music. But I said to myself, I don't believe this has any saving power, but I think it's got a lot of drawing power.

So I said to the church, we're going to give these fellows and girls an opportunity of a lifetime. And we're going to take the largest restaurant in Edinburgh with a ballroom. That isn't a place where babies cry, but a place where people normally dance.

And in that ballroom, we're going to put about 40 or 50 tables of 12, holding 12 each. And every Saturday night, for as long as we can get this place, we're going to pack it with young people. Hippies, university students, college graduates, all sorts.

And I said to them, now before you think this is absolutely of the devil, you older folk, I've heard you sing every Sunday at Charlotte Chapel, and almost lift the roof, I've heard you sing, would you be free from your burden of sin, there's power in the blood, power in the blood.

What's that, Victorian dancehall music? That's all. Beat of the 19th century. Beat of the 20th century may be further off-beam, but it's the same principle. You know, we went into that restaurant, and from the first night, we had to stop people coming in.

The most extraordinary looking youngsters in all my life. I'd never seen any crowd like them, I didn't know whether they were fellows or girls. And for one hour, we, I was going to say endured, beat music.

And they sang and played and spoke and gave their testimony. And we had a good Scottish high tea, if you don't know what that is, ask the principal, he'll tell you. Good Scottish high tea. And then, we showed a film, Moody's Signs film.

And after that, which lasted about an hour, Dust and Destiny and films like that, I stood up and gave about 10 minutes, straight from the shoulder and from the heart, gospel. Without using the language of Canaan, but telling them what basic Christianity was all about.

I tell you, I'd have given all my life to have in my church on Sundays, an audience like that. They listened with their eyes and mouths and ears wide open. They'd never heard it before. They didn't know about Jesus.

And I went up to 12 of them and sat alongside them. And I said to one of them, I didn't know whether he was a fellow or a girl, but he turned out to be a fellow by his voice. I said, I said, tell me, this was about the fifth week we'd done this.

I said, why do you folk come in here every night? And he said, well, I don't know. He said, that's a funny thing, we're just asking ourselves that. And he said, we've all decided it's because you bother about it.

I said, bother about you? Don't your mum and dad bother about you? Oh, he said, no, they go to bingo every night. Bingo parties, dancing, shows, and they say to us, go and whip it up. Last Wednesday night, he said, I came home with my young brother.

We'd been out till three o 'clock in the morning. We'd come back with a lot of loot, shoplifting. A policeman came up in a car and he said, where are you going? He said, we're just going home. He said, come on, hop in, I'll give you a lift.

So we got in. He didn't ask us what we got in our pocket. He took us home. He knocked on the door. And my mother came to the door and she was absolutely mad. Hopping mad, not with us, but with him, the policeman, for waking her up.

And she said to him, whose kids are these anyway? Yours or mine? The policeman said, well, he said, they're not mine, they must be yours. She said, all right. Listen, if they want to live like the devil, you let them.

Banged the door on the policeman's face. And then this fellow said to me, why do you bother about us? Huh, what an end for the gospel. These people who we think are a way out on left beams, right away, they don't know a thing about Christ.

And we have to come crashing, crashing through society today, unashamed, with the tremendous truth that it's in submission to the authority and the lordship and the sovereignty of Jesus that you can find fulfillment.

And before I'd left Charlotte Chapel, I'd married three of those couples who'd got themselves cleaned up and straightened out. I tell you today, people are not so far away from him as we think. But they wait.

They wait for somebody to care. And they wait for people in whose lives there is no question regarding the sovereignty of Jesus. Now I have stated his claims to sovereignty. I want to ask you, pressing the matter a bit closer, what are the implications of that sovereignty in my heart?

Submission to Christ and Lifelong Obedience

My will is not my own until I make it thine. It cannot reach the monarch's throne until itself resides. I sink in life's alarm when by myself I stand. Imprison me within thine arms and strong shall be my hand.

Therefore, the sovereignty of Christ means for you exactly what it meant for him. For him to be lord now and how different he is because he's a man on the throne in heaven, flesh and blood with the marks of nails on the cross upon him.

And for him to be lord, it meant entire submission. And for you and me, it means exactly the same. It means what it meant to him that from the moment I become a Christian, I forsake all my rights except my one right, my one demand, that I will never let go, and that is to do the will of God.

And I'm telling you that Satan will fight you as he fought Jesus, tooth and nail, on that one issue. Don't you tell me that you can have Christ as your saviour and then when it's convenient you can make him lord.

That's not in my Bible. Have you ever been able to answer this question satisfactorily to yourself? I haven't. Jesus asked it. Why do you call me lord and don't do what I tell you? I've no answer to that.

That silences me. Have you any answer? I tell you, if you were saved at the moment of your conversion, Jesus was lord. Can you recall when you were converted? I can. Forty years ago. You know friend, I sometimes ask myself, I find myself asking it more frequently indeed today, have I ever had such a spiritual moment as I had right then?

Oh my. When he came, I knew my need. I knew my heart. I just was at the end of my rope. I knew I needed him desperately for forgiveness and cleansing and for creating in me a clean heart and for saving me.

Oh God, there was no other alternative. And I just came to him as I was. I had no single reserve or qualification. It wasn't just a snap decision coming down a line and finding a card. It was in a pub in the north of England.

That's where I met Jesus. But I tell you, there were no reservations whether on yours. When you were saved, the day you came to Christ, tell me, you didn't say, well now I'll just try it out. You came because you knew you were a sinner and you needed cleansing.

And he came and he was lord at that moment. But I tremble as I think of the many times since then when I have resisted his sovereignty. Oh yes. Of his kingdom there shall be no end, said the angel as she announced to Mary the coming birth of Jesus.

And what is true prophetically is true experimentally. Of his sovereignty there's no limit. And right to the day when I get through the pearly gates by the grace of God, right to the day the devil will fight me and slash me and defeat me or try to on that one issue.

For he knows perfectly well that the moment I refuse the will of God on anything, the Holy Spirit goes out of business. Satan's enemy is the Spirit of God. Not you, not me, but the Spirit of God who lives in us.

That's why you and I are the battlefield. And Satan attacks on that one thing all the time. And if I say no on any issue, and friend I'm telling you 40 years after my conversion I could end my life absolutely useless and bankrupt and helpless and lose everything except my soul.

Because I said no to Jesus. Some temptation which I thought I have overcome 30 years ago can even today launch an overwhelming counter attack. And if I don't submit to his sovereignty I'll go down. Don't you tell me, any of you, there's any quick shortcut recipe for holiness.

I believe in a second blessing, yes I do, because I believe in a third. And I believe in a fourth, and a fifth, and a million blessings. When I tell you holiness is a battle, or a victory, but it's a battle all the time.

And on different areas you will find, I wouldn't be surprised if we were prepared to be honest, if there were people here who would tell me that even today, even today, before this hour, Satan was at you, attacking you, in regard to your relationship to Christ.

And Satan is always challenging us on this one thing. It means submission. That means I've given up all my rights. Would you just take a minute with me, quickly, to look how the apostle Paul faced this in his own life, 1 Corinthians chapter 9.

This church, I don't want to launch into another sermon, but I just want to say this to you. This church which was so boastful about its gifts, even speaking in tongues, that it was the most carnal church of the whole New Testament, was disputing the authority of Paul to preach to them.

1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 3 says, my answer to those who examine me, in other words, my qualification for apostleship is this. Haven't I got power to eat and drink? In other words, haven't I got the right to normal rations?

Verse 5, haven't I got power to lead about a sister, a wife? Haven't I got a right to normal romance? Verse 6, I only and Barnabas, haven't I got power to forbear working? Haven't I got power, haven't I got a right to normal recreation?

Verse 11, if you have sown unto you spiritual things, it is a great thing, we shall eat carnal things. Haven't I got a right to normal remuneration? I've got a right to a lot of them. But verse 15, I have used none of these things, none of them, for Jesus' sake.

Though I preach the gospel, I've nothing to glory of. Necessity is laid upon me, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. Listen, you've got a perfect right to normal ration, normal food. Have you ever forsaken a meal for Christ?

Really just given up one meal, so that you may really seek the face of God in prayer and hold on till God meets you? Have you really ever in your life had a day of fasting? No, you've a perfect right to normal ration.

You've a right to normal romance. Emphasis on normal. Two years ago, a girl came up to me after a morning service, a street girl, and she held out her left hand, didn't say anything to me, but on it, I looked at once, was a diamond.

I knew her. She was a fine Christian girl. I knew the fellow she was going to marry. As a matter of fact, I'd watched it develop. Preacher sees more from a pulpit than most people imagine. And I saw, and that day didn't surprise me.

And I said, well praise the Lord, I'm so thankful. We talked about her wedding. Four months later, she came back again and held out her hand. This time there was no diamond. I said, what's happened? Oh, she said nothing.

I said, nothing? That must be the understatement of the century. And then she broke down, for her heart had been broken. You know what? She said to me, I've become increasingly conscious that God wants me on the mission field.

And God has made it perfectly clear to my fiancé that he wants him at home. Therefore, perfect right to normal romance. And by the way, 15 months ago I saw her on the mission field. And she said to me, I'd rather be unmarried in the will of God and happy than married out of the will of God and miserable.

I should add, to be fair, this postscript. I mean, I, for these things, I somehow felt that there was a possibility of that situation ending fairly soon. As a matter of fact, subsequently, I understand it has ended.

But that girl was tested to the limit. A right to normal romance. You have a right to normal romance. You have a right to marry a fellow who is a Christian. You have a right to marry a girl who is a Christian.

Normal romance. You have no right to marry a fellow or a girl who isn't. But you have a right to normal romance, but that won't be long, my friend, in the Christian life before God begins to put you to the test and say, who do you love most?

Oh yes, I have a right to normal recreation, sure. Fifteen months ago, a bit more, I flew into the Central African Republic. I went to a little place called Bambuti, I don't suppose you've ever heard of it.

Way beneath the Sudan border, three miles. 35 ,000 Sudanese refugees just chucked out by NASA because they weren't Muslim. Never seen such squalor, misery, that any people could live in. Hopeless. The Africa Inland Mission had sent into that town, are you listening, two girls.

I said quietly, they hadn't any men, two girls. And my wife and I went there and saw it all. Say, do you like a day off a week? So do I. Do you like nice shops? So do I. Like nice clothes? So do I. Perfect right to that.

They hadn't a shop, they didn't care about clothes. They didn't care about anything but pocket money. The one thing they were concerned about was being among 35 ,000 people and they had one desire with no rival and that is to win them for Christ.

My wife and I came out of that absolutely humiliated as we thought of their concentration and compared it with ours. And we'd never seen two people so happy in the will of God. Perfect right to normal recreation.

Incidentally, we flew in from Nairobi with Gordon Marshall. Senior pilot of MAF, Missionary Aviation Territory. Tremendous organization. 700 mile flight, 8 ,000 feet, bumped about like a cork in a one-engine Cessna plane.

Two stops. Questioned over radio what right has he to fly over Brazzaville territory. Constantly in communication with people who wanted to know what title he had to fly. When he landed, first thing he did, get out his New Testament.