The Supreme Task of the Church — Oswald J. Smith

The Watchman’s Warning to the Nations

I want to ask you now to turn, if you will, to the prophecy of Ezekiel. There are just three verses that I would like to read. And I am reading from the third chapter of Ezekiel, commencing at the seventeenth verse.

Now I'm going to change some of these words because I want to bring this passage right down to date. I want to make it applicable to foreign missionary work, to world evangelism. If you are following me, you will note the words that I'm changing.

The seventeenth verse of the third chapter of Ezekiel. Christian worker, I have made thee a watchman. Therefore hear the word of my mouth and give warning from me. When I say unto the heathen, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the heathen from his heathenish way to save his life.

The same heathen man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the heathen, and he turn not from his heathenism, nor from his heathenish way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.

His blood will I require at thine hand. From time to time when we have held missionary conventions here in the People's Church, you have seen a motto on our walls that reads like this. The supreme task of the Church is the evangelization of the world.

A World Vision for the Church

I want to take two or three words out of that motto, and I want to emphasize them just as briefly as I can. First of all, I'm going to take the last word. I'm going to take the word world. The supreme task of the Church is the evangelization of the world.

When God loved, he loved the world. When Jesus Christ died, he died for a world. God so loved the world. The vision that God wants you and me to have is a world vision, and he'll never be satisfied until we get a world vision.

But so many of us are local in our outlook. We only see our own Church. We only see our own denomination. We only see our own community. Then there are those with a broader vision. There are those who see an entire state or an entire province, and they're ready to give their money and to do all they can for the evangelization of their state or their province.

But even their vision is a local vision because they only see their own state or province and they never see another. Then there are those with a broader vision still. There are those who see an entire country, and they're prepared to do all they can for the evangelization of their country.

But their vision also is a local vision. They see their own country. They're not even interested in another country. Then there are few people, thank God, who have a world vision. They see North America and South America.

They see Europe and Asia. They see Africa and the islands of the seas. Their vision is God's vision because their vision is a world vision. Now why is it we're so local in our outlook? Why is it we only see our own Church?

Why is it we only see our own denomination? Why is it we only see our own community? Why is it that we think we're the people? Everywhere I go as I travel around this world, I hear the sentiment expressed, we're the people.

And already I've gone to more than 70 countries. When I was holding nationwide campaigns in the British Isles, as I traveled through England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, everywhere I went, I heard the sentiment expressed, we're the people.

What is the idea? The idea was we're the favored people of God. We're the most important people on the face of the earth. The other nations, they just don't count. We're the people. Then when I got way down under in Australia, everywhere I went in Australia, I likewise heard the sentiment expressed, we're the people.

Then when I went to South Africa, where I preached to the three and a half million white people in that great country, everywhere I traveled in South Africa, I likewise heard the sentiment expressed, we're the people.

And believe it or not, when I was on a little bit of an island in the South Pacific, I actually heard the natives on that island likewise saying, we're the people. And they used to talk to me something like this.

They used to say, you Americans, how is it that you live way off on the outer fringe of civilization? Why don't you live near to the center of things? The idea was you poor semi-civilized Americans and you poor semi-civilized Britishers, you live a way off somewhere on the outer fringe of civilization and here on this little bit of an island in the South Pacific, like a pinpoint on the map, we're at the hub, we're at the center of civilization.

Why don't you move over, get a little bit closer to the center of civilization? I say, where did we get that idea? Is it because we think we're so numerous? Then some of us haven't traveled very much.

I remember when I was traveling through the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, after preaching to the headhunters in those islands, at last I came to the islands of Java. I found I could cross that island by car from north to west in four hours.

I could cross it from east to west in 12 hours. And yet, will you believe me when I tell you that one of the most densely populated spots on the face of the earth is the little island of Java. You know how many people live on that island?

No less than 60 million people live on that one little bit of an island there in the South Pacific. If my God is interested in numbers, then he must be more interested in the island of Java than he is in my country, the Dominion of Canada.

Because whereas we have 20 million people here in Canada, they have, as I've already stated, no less than 60 million people in the island of Java. Three times the population of Canada. But that isn't the end of it.

If my God is concerned with numbers, then he must be more interested in the United States than he is in Java. Because whereas they have 60 million people in Java, they have 190 million people in the United States of America.

But even that doesn't end the story. If my God is really interested in numbers, then he must be more interested in Russia than he is in the United States. Because whereas they have 190 million people in the United States, they have over 200 million people in Russia, the largest white nation on the face of the earth.

But again, if God is concerned about numbers, then he must be more interested in India than he is in Russia. Because whereas they have 200 million people in Russia, they have today no less than 500 million people in India.

More than twice the population of Russia. But last of all, if my God is interested in numbers, then he must be more interested in China than he is in India. Because whereas they have 500 million people in India, they have today no less than 750 million people in China, the largest nation on the face of the earth.

Every fourth baby born into the world is born a Chinese. Someone has said, God must love the Chinese because he's made so many of them. 750 million in my country, the Dominion of Canada, is only a little pinpoint on the map so far as numbers are concerned.

And as I've often said, if the waters of the Atlantic and the waters of the Pacific should rise up overnight and submerge Canada, I suppose next morning there would be a little report in the American newspapers about an inch deep.

Last night, Canada disappeared from the family of nations. That's all we amount to. We just don't amount. Not when it comes to numbers. 20 million people, as over again 750 million. Lift up your eyes.

The Supreme Priority of World Evangelism

Look on the fields. See a world for which Jesus Christ gave his life on Calvary. The second word I want to emphasize is the word supreme. The supreme task of the Church is the evangelization of the world.

The most important work of the Church is the evangelization of the world. I believe that. Do you realize there is not one minister in a hundred who believes it? Not one church in a thousand believes it?

Not one Christian in 10 ,000 believes it? You say, how do you know? All I have to do is to look at the financial statement for the year, and if I see that more money has been used here at home than has been sent out to the four mission fields of the world, I'll know at a glance that something here at home is of greater importance than the work in the regions beyond.

Now there are businessmen here tonight. You businessmen have a business enterprise, but you have many different departments. Yes, but you have one department more important than any of the others. Tell me, where do you invest most of your money?

In that one most important department. Why? Because you want to develop the most important department of your work. Right. Now if missions, if world evangelism, is in very deed the most important work of the Church of Jesus Christ, does it not follow?

Is it not logical? Ought we not to be investing most of our money in that most important department? I think we should. How many churches are doing it? I know churches that do not even go 50 -50. They do not even send one dollar to the foreign field when they spend one dollar on themselves at home.

They don't even break even. Many, many years ago I was able to go to the treasurer of a people's church and ask two questions. First, how much did we spend on ourselves here in Toronto last year? In a little while I got the answer.

Last year we spent $63 ,000 on ourselves here in Toronto. Fine, I said. $63 ,000 at home. $63 ,000 in North America. $63 ,000 on ourselves. Now my second question. How much did we send to the foreign mission fields of the world last year?

Again I got the answer. Last year we invested $329 ,000 in missions. Fine, I said again. $63 ,000 at home. $329 ,000 on the regions beyond. Almost seven times as much as we used on ourselves. Altogether, during these past years, God has enabled the people's church to give well over $6 .5 million for missionary work.

We have tried to put missions first because we believe the only ground, the only basis for the existence of the church is world evangelization. That's why we're here. Once we have evangelized the world, we'll be gone.

We'll be raptured. We'll not be needed. The only reason we're needed now is because the task has not yet been finished. We have still to evangelize the world. Everywhere I go as I travel around the United States of America, people ask me the question, how do you get the offerings you get for missions?

That's what a Roman Catholic priest wanted to know several years ago. He sat down to partake of his breakfast of bacon and eggs, as Roman Catholic priests sometimes will, and he picked up the Toronto Globe, Canada's national newspaper, and he read about the missionary giving the people's church.

It was way back in those early, early years when we didn't know very much about missions, and we had only given $43 ,000 that year. But that Roman Catholic priest thought it was a large amount. He was also the editor of a very influential paper here in Canada, newspaper.

He said that isn't true. That's a false statement. There isn't any Protestant church in this city that could give $43 ,000 to missions. And he went on eating his bacon and eggs. But when he got through, he picked up the paper again.

He looked at it once more. Well, he said, perhaps it is true. But if it is, there's only one possible explanation. That people's church must be made up of multimillionaires. And having solved the problem to his complete satisfaction, he folded his napkin and he left the table.

Having solved the problem to his complete satisfaction, he folded his napkin and he left the table. But his curiosity had been roused. He wasn't satisfied. He sat down that day and he wrote me a personal letter.

The first letter I'd ever received from a Roman Catholic priest in all my life. He wanted to know all about it. I answered him as courteously as I could. My dear father. And I went on and told him all about it.

Next week, that newspaper was published as usual. The leading editorial in the paper was an editorial written by this priest on the missionary giving the people's church. It ended like this. I'll never forget it.

We are the true custodians of the faith. And yet we allow one Protestant church to give more money to missions than all our Roman Catholic churches from Ontario to British Columbia combined. Shame on us.

And for the first time in my life, I realized that a Roman Catholic priest and editor was using me, a Protestant minister, to shame his own Roman Catholic people into giving more money to Roman Catholic missions.

Faith-Promise Giving for Missions

I think you know the way we do not get the money. We never have any bazaars or any rummage sales or any suppers or any concerts. We don't even have an oyster stew. Not because I'm against oysters. I'll swallow them if I'll not chew them.

But have you ever in your life known a rummage sale to produce $300 ,000? I never have. Then what's the use of it? You know the method we follow. It's a threefold method. First, an annual missionary convention.

Second, a faith promise offering. Third, we get every individual to participate, to fill in an envelope and to take part in the convention offering. Then God works in answer to prayer and does the impossible year after year.

You say, does it work in every church? I've held these conventions in scores of churches all over the United States of America, all over the Dominion of Canada. I've never known one to fail. In the year 1939, I conducted an evangelistic campaign in, I suppose, the most famous church in the United States of America, Park Street Congregational Church, Boston.

I held that campaign for two weeks and three Sundays. I saw scores upon scores of young people walk down the aisles, go into the inquiry rooms to get saved. During the second week of the campaign, Dr. Harold Ockengay, the pastor, called me into his office.

Dr. Smith, he said, I understand that you hold a missionary convention in your church every year. I said, I do. He said, this church is 135 years old. It has never seen its first convention. I looked at him in amazement.

I could hardly believe it, but he assured me it was so. Now, he said, would you be willing to come back to Boston next year and hold the first convention ever to be held? He said, I don't know a thing about it.

I've never seen a convention in all my life. I'll sit in the pew. I'll hand the church over to you. You can have it for eight days from Sunday to Sunday, and you can do anything you want to do if you'll only come and hold the first convention.

I said, how much are you giving now? I couldn't get an answer for a little while. Finally, I did. $3 ,200 a year. I hardly knew which way to look. I knew that he was spending twice as much as that on his quartet, and only $3 ,200 a year on the most important work of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Make haste. I said, all right, I'll do it. I went back to Boston in 1940. I held the first convention ever to be held in that church. I went back every year for six years and conducted that convention.

I do not need to tell you that today, Park Street is giving something like $300 ,000 every year to missions as a direct result of an annual missionary convention. They apply from $3 ,200 a year to $300 ,000 a year as a result of an annual missionary convention and a faith farmer's offering.

Accountability for the Unreached

My friends, I believe there will come a day when countless millions from heathenism will march by the throne of God in heaven and look at you and at me as we stand around the throne and pointing a finger of scorn at us, they'll cry out in the anguish of their hearts, no man cared for my soul.

You and I trying to excuse ourselves, you and I will look up to the little face of God and we'll cry out, but Lord, Lord, am I my brother's keeper? Am I my brother's keeper? God will answer, the voice of thy brother's blood, cry upon to me from Africa, from South America, from Japan, from India, from the islands of the seas.

You and I will go into heaven saved, but with blood, human blood on these hands of ours, the blood of those we might have warned, the blood of those we might have reached, the blood of those we neglected.

For God says, his blood will I demand at thine hand. Do you see now why I've always been a missionary first and a pastor second? Why I've always been an evangelist second and a missionary first? Do you see now why I've been a hymn writer and an author second and a missionary first?

I do not want to go into heaven with human blood on these hands of mine. I want to do everything that lies in my power to evangelize the world. That's why I hold missionary conventions. That's why I take up faith promise offerings.

That's why I challenge young people. That's why I support missionaries. That's why I get out literature. I want to do what I can to give this gospel to those who have never had it. I want to see the world evangelized and the King brought back.

Alexander Duff’s Challenge to Give and Go

Do you remember Alexander Duff, that great veteran missionary from India? He came home to Scotland to die. He stood before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and he made his appeal.

While he was making his appeal, he fainted. He was carried off the platform. He was laid in an adjoining room. A physician came along and listened to his heart. After a while, he opened his eyes. Where am I, he said, where am I?

Lie still, said the physician. You've had a heart attack. Lie still. But, cried Dr. Duff, I haven't finished my appeal. Take me back. Take me back. I must finish my appeal. Lie still, said the physician.

You'll go back at the peril of your life. But in spite of the protest of the physician, the old white-haired warrior struggled to his feet. With the moderator of the General Assembly on one side and the physician on the other side, he again mounted the steps of the pulpit platform.

As he did so, the entire Assembly stood to do him honor. Then when they were seated, he continued his appeal. And this is what he said. When Queen Victoria calls for volunteers for India, hundreds of young men spring to the colors.

But when King Jesus calls, no one responds. He paused. There was silence. Then again he spoke. Is it true, he said, that the fathers and the mothers of Scotland have no more sons to give for India? Once more he paused.

Again there was silence. Very well, he concluded. In Egypt, though I am, I'll go back to India. I can lie down on the banks of the Ganges, and I can die, and thereby I can let the peoples of India know that there's one man from Scotland who loves them enough to give his life for them.

In a moment, young men all over the Assembly sprang to their feet, crying out, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go. After the old warrior had been laid to rest, those young men, having graduated and having been ordained to the ministry, went out as his representatives to dark, benighted India, there to labor for the Lord Jesus Christ.

I wonder if while I've been speaking tonight, I wonder if there have been young men and young women in this audience who have been crying out from their hearts, I'll go, I'll go. I wonder if there have been older people who have been crying out, I'll give, I'll give.

And I wonder if there have been others crying out, I'll pray, I'll pray. The supreme task of the Church is the evangelization of the world.