A Vision for Missions — Paul Washer

Well, I really appreciate that and I would. This conference I know something of Brother Tom Askell and I have a great respect For him and I think this would probably be very beneficial very beneficial.

Let's go to Lord in prayer. Father I thank you so much for your kindness the beauty of this day. The beauty of of the Spirit of God indwelling us. Helping us and strengthening us his fruit His consolation his comfort.

A Vision for Missions and Dependence on God

Lord, I pray that you would use this Lord to set our minds on the nation's on the Great Commission. That this gospel go out into all the world to every creature in our lifetime. Father I help. I ask that you would help me to explain to say things as I ought to correctly Lord.

Demonstrate what we do in missions. Father, please help us in Jesus name. Amen we're going to have a actually a Presentation a slide presentation. One of the things that we want to make very clear about heart cry.

When it was founded years ago back in Peru. We decided that we were not strong enough To carry a ministry like this that we were not did not have the gift of salesmanship or promotion. In my early life the greatest influence and still today Is George Mueller?

Not just his prayer life and his diary. But also the way he addressed the word so many things in his life. But we would not raise funds for heart cry if we were asked to go somewhere and make a presentation.

We would but we would only present the work that we're doing. That we would never lay it upon a congregation that there is so much to do with only they would give because in fact if we have a need were to go not to the congregation, but to our Heavenly Father and If a work is of God, he will be our patron.

He will be our helper. He will raise up the people and now it's been nearly 20 years and Not one time in 20 years has God failed. Not one time has there been a missionary who has not received their full support.

Not one time he's never failed and it is not because of great faith. It is because of great faithfulness. I cannot think of one time in The many trials that we've had in the last 20 years. I Cannot think of one time when I was not afraid and did not think that everything was going to come to an end.

I'm sorry. I I would like to be able to say something different, but that's the truth as a matter of fact. My wife so often has had to say to me. The time before this did he let us go down? No. Well the time before that.

Did he let us go down and and She could get me out of bed with that. And and so what I want you to see is that there are there are no great men of God there are only pitiful weak men of a great and a merciful God and.

And so what we're going to talk about today at heart cry. Is I believe that it has been a work of God because we've not made our needs known to men. In secret prayer. Well a friend. I think it was of Jim Ellis once said God delights in vindicating the confidence of his children.

That's a statement that has stayed with me since the very first moment I heard it and I like to say God delights and even the smallest confidence of his children. The more we trust in the arm of the flesh the less we will see the arm of God.

The more we cut ourselves off from the arm of the flesh the more we will see of him. This goes contrary to every trend in evangelism church growth and missions every contemporary trend and. So I want us to we're going to talk a moment about heart cry if you could.

Turn on the thing there. Okay, is that the? That's the first one all right first of all our ministry. We work in six distinct areas first of all indigenous missionaries. Now why indigenous we are not saying that there should not be cross-cultural missionaries.

We need more cross-cultural missionaries and missionaries from the West than we have ever had. But God has laid it upon our heart to support Indigenous missionaries. Missionaries who come from that very country and that very people work now also.

Indigenous Missionaries and Theological Training

We feel that our most important role is theological training all the maladies you see the church suffering today. The church in the field is suffering for the very same reason bad theology. Missions is not about sending missionaries.

It's about sending God's truth through men. There's a tremendous difference. Let me just. If you go to a seminary or Bible college one of the things that most troubles me. Is you have different types of students there?

We all know that and you will see certain students who love Greek and Hebrew and Hermeneutics and theology and they seem to go in this direction. The students who often go into missions have very little to do with these disciplines.

Do we not see that our greatest theologians our greatest exegetes? Must be the ones we send to the nations because the church that you plant there may be something of a mother church. To every other people group in that area.

We Do not have the right to be an elder simply because we aspire to it. There must be qualifications. Meant you have no right to be a missionary or even go on a mission trip. There are qualifications to be met and that is not just moral not just the desire.

Not just a will to give your life away. It must be Theological also a Young man came to me or called me years ago and over the phone several times. He said brother Paul I want to come to Peru and give my life away.

I said tell me about the systematics you have studied. He said well, that's not really something that's not a strong point of mine. I said tell me about your desire to preach Expositionally and he says well, you know and he kept saying brother Paul.

I just want to give my life away. I just want to give my life away and finally out of love. I said young man There's nobody here in Peru who needs your life. They need God and they need someone who can come down here and open up their mouth and teach them about God.

So theological training is the greatest need probably in America. It is the greatest need overseas even worse even worse Bible distribution as we all know Reformation. The Gutenberg press we know you get Bible into the hands of a people and you will see transformation above every other book.

The Bible is to be put in the hands of the people and from that literature distribution. We all know from history that as as we look at great works of God throughout history. There's always been an increase in godly biblical literature.

That is a great necessity then there are evangelistic tools that can range from anywhere from a bicycle to a a Boat to go down the Amazon to a donkey to go across the Andes. So absolutely anything that is needed in order to put these men in the places where they need to be and then finally church Construction that is there, but that is not a great Ministry of ours we we pride ourselves in a sense and When we do build a church of building the ugliest church building on the face of the earth.

Now what we mean by that is this there are certain situations where? Christians because of persecution or poverty will not will they'll end up having themselves a place. They'll be renting that place, but in renting they do not have the funds.

They cannot collect it together in order to build themselves a chapel or something like that. And so what we will do is come in at times and help them build a building that is completely and totally Rustic it is just the core that they can get in and get out of the rain and then from there They can start taking their own funds and do what they would like with the building now.

Let's go on indigenous missions. Indigenous is native to a certain place belonging to a certain locality by birth a Permanent resident as distinguished from a temporary resident or visitor and then indigenous missionary.

Of course is one who preaches the gospel to his own people now. I want to tell you something. It is true that in many third world countries there is not the training and There is a need for greater and greater training, but never think that God is not at work and never think that God is not Raising up Godly men who are led by his spirit.

They may not be able to define everything exactly as we would but they believe the core doctrine some of their Simplistic theology I would hold to much sooner than some of the complicated stuff going around in America.

They believe primarily that men are saved through preaching. They believed they believe that conversion is by the Spirit of God and They believe that the evidence of conversion is not that one time somebody prayed a prayer and asked Jesus into their heart.

But the evidence of conversion is enduring fruit or Sanctification. We can work with men like that now. Let's go on. Now the first why do we do this. Well first of all we must go back to simply. This is the way we have felt led we have over and over Confirmations from the Lord that this is what he would have us do but here's some facts of why indigenous missionaries first fact.

It is a wise use of human resources. Do you realize there are almost 7 billion people in the world? Even if every church sent missionaries, we would not have enough missionaries to reach the world. Now, let me say this brothers.

Never let terminology like that make you afraid. We ought to want to reach the world. We ought to seek the reach the world. We ought to seek the salvation of every human being that walks on this planet.

We ought to preach the gospel to every creature and we ought To give the greatest effort to see that accomplished in our generation. We of all people if you have the truth How can you not pour it out on a dry and thirsty land?

Okay, let's go to the next fact. It is a wise use of financial resources. It can often cost $80 ,000 a year 4 ,000 $5 ,000 a month to put a Western missionary on the field. Now, let me say this again.

Some of that is necessary. Brothers it doesn't matter how much it costs if a man with sound theology filled with the Holy Spirit feels like he is called From the West to go to a third world country. We ought to get behind him no matter what it costs.

We ought to so we are not against cross-cultural missions but we want to point out in contrast many indigenous missionaries live on two hundred and three hundred dollars a month and That allows them to live at the same level.

With the people to whom they're ministering. Now, let's go on. Also, it eliminates the language and cultural barriers. It takes a long time to learn a foreign language. Do you know a missionary spends his first four years on the field?

He's learning the language you have spent a quarter of a million dollars or more. And the man is learning the language learning the culture and is probably participating in some sort of church plant. Or you would be surprised how many missionaries never plant churches.

They attend a local congregation. Now, let me say something here is so important. I'm going to say it later as brothers if you think theology is bad here. You need to see what it's like among Western Missionaries now, there are some Western missionaries that are worth their weight in gold.

We do not want to take anything away from that but the trends in Western missions their methodologies are Not close to heresy many of them are heretical. We have got now. Let me just say this missions and mission strategies.

Cannot come from the anthropologist and the sociologist or the cultural expert missions must be birthed and the methodologies of missions birthed by the pen of The exegete and the systematic theologian.

There you go. And for many many years there has been a great divorce between theology Scripture and missions. So now you have pragmatism and Man's wisdom and it is deadly and ineffective now. Also, we have a fact here that it eliminates political barriers.

Let's just face it. There are a lot of countries in this world that do not like our country now. I Am loyal. I am a citizen of this country. But nothing is going to hinder me from my greater calling which is taking the gospel to the nations every nation needs Christ.

Let me let me say this if we are biblical Christians, we ought to have a love for the nation of Israel. But we need to be very very careful. That we do not despise the Arab world. My dear friend so much damage has been done in evangelism.

Because of radical eschatologies found here in America. We need Christ died. Christ died to gather a people from the Arab world and I want you to know he is doing it. He is doing it now. So let's go on to fact number five.

Also, it eliminates economic barriers. Western missionaries their high standard of living creates an obstacle at times for reaching people. They live in a different neighborhood. They drive a different kind of car.

They don't take the bus their children study in a different place that can create Barriers it truly can where an indigenous missionary doesn't have that problem. He takes the same bus with the people that he's pastoring.

His children goes to the same school. There's an identification there. Also, we always have to be careful of what has been termed rice Christians when an American goes to a certain place at times it is a very very Distinguished thing to be his friend also.

Missions have at times stooped to in a sense. I would say buying people for Christ. By the clothing and food and the prosperity and everything else they can handle out hand out. But when a missionary is just as poor as everyone around him, he has no drawing card except the gospel.

Let's go to the next. It eliminates difficult transitions. Let me just say this one of the greatest problems in planning a church on the mission field is not so much Planting it by the Western missionary, but that church making a transition over from Western Leadership to indigenous leadership.

Many times the church just collapses on itself. From the very beginning we have to be training leaders. Now when we begin with indigenous men, there is no transitional problem. Let's go on to Next now.

The Gospel Must Govern Mission Strategy

I want to look at just some of our ministries theological training missions is primarily a theological Endeavor it is Theological. I was just recently in Indonesia. I could not believe some of the things that I was hearing methodologies that are syncretistic at best.

Teaching Muslims to pray in the name of Jesus telling Muslims that although you've become a Christian You're still a Muslim and you should be going to the mosque and all sorts of things that are going on.

Man, here's what we have to understand. First of all, there is a fear among many Western missionaries. They're in bondage to fear and much of what they do has to do with self-preservation. I'm afraid of being kicked out of the country.

I'm afraid of being persecuted brothers. We are not going to reach the world. We are not going to preach the gospel to every creature without suffering. It's not going to happen number one. Number two.

And this is a malady you'll be able to identify with in the United States start off by preaching the gospel. But when there's no theological Foundation or as generations start to Pass what happens there is a dumbing down of the gospel when the gospel is dumbed down.

It's also lost. When people have no sense of what is propitiation what is what is the real reason he died? Do we know anything about the justice of God or satisfaction or imputation when the true gospel is not preached and a counterfeit Gospel of a few spiritual laws or five things God wants you to know with a prayer at the end of it.

Then what happens is the power that was in this true gospel is lost. Now the moment it's lost. I don't know why this occurs except for human nature, which is depraved. But when it's lost people never think we have no power.

Maybe we've lost the gospel. Let's return to it. That's not the way they think they begin to think whether they would say it or not that the gospel is not enough. They said well look look we can see it is a matter of fact if you go to the mission field with just Thinking you're going to have a Bible you're going to do expository preaching you're going to pray and you're going to witness.

They will look at you as some Bible-thumping buffoon. Obviously, you know nothing about missions and so gradually the gospel is lost and instead of returning to the gospel you open yourself to every manner of pragmatism pragmatism.

If you talk about you know, we talked about the regulative the normative principle brothers when when you start saying That God has opened up the door for human ingenuity in all sorts of things now. We all know that there some things are based upon just cold hard Doctrine we know some things are based upon inference and principle.

We know that but when you open yourself up to human ingenuity and no longer need Has God said has God spoken you open yourself up to a Pandora's box, which leads to death? And that is what has happened in evangelism and brothers even churches that before were behind the Iron Curtain and although their Theological their theology you couldn't necessarily put it into a Systematic they were preaching the things I said, but once the curtain fell and America arrived Their gospel turned from one of repentance and faith and fruit producing Sanctification as evidence of conversion it went from that to repeat this prayer after me.

I see that hand. One Romanian brother told me one time He says it what the American evangelists say about the amount of people converted in their Evangelistic campaigns in Romania if what they say is true, then everyone in my country has been converted four times.

Inflated numbers and brothers we've got we've got to take back missions. Just to find a man who believes in the power of the gospel is absolutely phenomenal. We've got to take missions back and it begins by training men in theology.

Now we will go into certain areas as God leads and begin to work with men who They are committed to scripture. They maybe have a very Very primitive view of things. They are open for learning and we will work with them and work with them and work with them.

Gradually over the years we have seen many of them come to the doctrines that we most believe in and we most cherish. It is a labor of love. We don't just go around finding perfect people we go around Finding teachable people and it's so amazing.

Let me just give you an example. I was told not to run on and I'm going to try not to but I was preaching on regeneration in Peru and This is years ago a few years ago, and I decided, you know, I'm going for broke.

There's all these pastors here many of them have been so influenced by the West easy believe is and pray the prayer. I'm just going to go for broke and there's going to be a riot or a revival and so I just began to preach and Men started weeping.

They said never heard this before. But we know I mean we know it we've always known there was a real problem with our evangelism. But we didn't know what was the option there was an alternative now. We see it.

This is marvelous, and I saw a man he was sitting there on the front row and his very very old and he's just weeping profusely a Peruvian man and so I went to him afterwards. This is what he said. He said brother Paul.

He said in 19. He said 1960 1961 he said There was a group of people called. I don't really remember what it was. He said it may have been banner of truth. I don't know if they've been around that long.

I think they have he said they sent a shipment of stuff over to Peru and some of us got a hold of it and It was mainly Charles Spurgeon and we were we couldn't believe it. We read everything. It was so wonderful.

We just had it in tracks and parts and we thought it was so amazing and he said and the missionaries came and told us We were a bunch of dumb Indians and that was heresy. He said but I have always held on to these doctrines.

And I have taught them to my children and here I am at the end of my life. Finally someone is preaching this truth again in my country. Do you see that? Oh? Brothers it's it's just open. It's just an open door an open door.

So we do we do Bible conferences and Our main focus in the conference is teaching systematic and biblical theology hermeneutics and expository preaching. Brothers there is such a need. For expository.

Preaching to teach them the simple principles of know you're not going to read this text and then talk for 45 Minutes about something else. You're just going to learn the simple but Brothers if you could see the light you see a person that's converted right before your eyes and you see the light just turn on in.

There their eyes to see that same thing in a pastor. The only thing is he's never been taught. To see. I mean, I've seen him weep with joy. And you know what they all say this is what's so amazing if they haven't been contaminated.

They all say this. I knew it was like this. I just didn't know how to say it. I just didn't. In that amazing the Spirit of God Spirit of God and so teaching Scripture is the greatest need on the mission field teaching the men the indigenous missionaries the scriptures.

And how to preach from the scriptures, okay, let's go on. We have theological education by extension. I Hear I've put many mission agencies. They're all theological. Let me stop there for just a second.

Equipping Indigenous Leaders Through Education

This is true brothers, and I'll stand here, and I'll I don't I don't care who will argue against me. I know it to be true. They're all theological. Theology has little to no bearing on what is done on the mission field.

I have seen it so often with my own eyes others of you have seen it. It's just true all right. To reverse that among men these are men in the northern Andes of Peru. We we set up a thing working with a brother on health common artists and his son.

Helping them in which that we have module training throughout the northern part of the Andes. We do this in other places also and and someone will go once every three months. We'll visit with a group of pastors in a certain area.

We'll go through a training program. We'll receive from them their work and check it and all sorts of things like that and again brothers some of these men have No education and just barely learned to read and yet the magnificent work of God through them.

But now we have a we have a problem. Always the Peruvians say this Los bautistas evangelize and a los perdidos y los demás evangelize and a los bautistas and what this means is this the the Baptist evangelized the lost and then everybody else evangelizes the Baptist and.

And that is so true in the sense of now we know that there are believers outside of us but there are so many marginal and and falsely called Christian groups and whenever there's a move of God in these areas those groups will come.

Just like wolves and so these men have to be prepared. They have to be prepared to defend the the doctrine of the Trinity. Because there's the group the Jesus only or the oneness group the Jehovah Witnesses.

They have to be able to rightly view the law of God. Seven-day Adventist. Constantly attacking you see so we have to not only proclaim the gospel. We have to teach these men to stand. To stand now, let's go on Literature distribution as we've already talked about a bit.

We're working at times. We've got a few translation projects at the moment into Hindi and other languages, but brothers. You know how much your libraries are cherished. Think about a man who hardly has anything.

I remember one time I flew to Peru and For some reason my plane came in at like 2 in the morning but for some reason I just popped out of bed at like 6 and I just was just Wanting to do something so I told someone I said I'm gonna go down to the there's a Christian bookstore in the center of Lima.

I'm gonna go down there and I'm just gonna look around. I've got money to buy some dictionaries and stuff for pastors. So I'm gonna go there. Well, I arrived too early. It wasn't open and I see this little man.

He couldn't have been more than five foot Two he's sitting there on the curb outside the store there in the big city the way he was dressed. I knew he was from a place called San Martin in the jungles of Peru and I sat down beside him.

I said where are you from and he told me and He was he had just had a little Presbyterian Church turned over to him and and I said See all there all alone. He goes. Yes, I go there any missionaries. No, there's no missionaries and I said why have you come here?

It's a long way said yes, it was two and a half day travel. I said, why have you come here? He said the congregation has given me money to buy some books. He was so excited, but I knew that he wouldn't have enough money to but to buy a few tracks.

He had no concept of how much it was going to cost. So the doors finally opened and we went in there and I went around. I was buying dictionaries and concordances and all they also now have John MacArthur's stuff and Piper and I was getting all kinds of stuff for for the men and I just kept watching him out of the corner of my eye and You'd see him go to a bookshelf and just look and just I can't buy that he'd go somewhere else I can't buy that and finally I'm up there at the counter with all all these books and He walks up with a few tracks and I said so did you get your stuff?

He goes. Well, uh, he's I. I didn't know. I Said see all the stuff I got. I Said you know how much my plane ticket cost to come here. He said no, and he was like almost like he was thinking. Why are you saying this to me?

I said my plane ticket cost $800. And I said and and you know what there was a church. Right before I got on the plane like a week before that gave me something like twenty five hundred dollars just to buy books.

And I said, you know, my plane didn't get in till two this morning. But I got up out of bed like a rocket at six just knew I had to come down here. And he's looking at me and he's like Why would you be so cruel to say this to me?

And I said your God Has moved heaven and earth. Your God has spent thousands of dollars to send me here for one purpose. By every book you need but that's not an exaggeration. Can you imagine think about the love of God for you?

You imagine that he moves nations for you Planets everything here is for you. Everything that's done even though governments and kings and all these people make all these decisions and never have you in mind.

It's all for you. And it's all for that little guy. Man, I love a God like that. Don't you just love a God like that? But you know to get what we try to do is we get them a pastor's library. Which will be if we can a study Bible we try to get them a good dictionary concordance a One volume systematic maybe something of a of a commentary, but of course as you would know, they're very expensive.

Bible and Literature Distribution

Let's go on Bible distribution. I just want to say this we do give away New Testaments to people on the street, especially in the Muslim areas. We have some very bold brothers. Who do that and I don't even want to give their names out but that we're working with in different parts of the world but here's something that most people don't realize that many many believers have no Bible and.

So what we do is we go into a place and we find out what could the normal believer pay for a Bible because we don't want to set up some sort of Dependence or social security system. So if if the Bible costs let's say six dollars and the people can pay a dollar fifty.

Then we set the price at a dollar fifty. We make sure we've had people come and bring beans coffee beans chickens all sorts of things now. Here's one of the things that we do when you're going to buy a Bible for someone who's never had one.

Who's a believer you don't want to buy a paperback Bible that's been glued. We buy a Bible that is glued and sewn with either a hard cover or a vinyl cover which seems to endure the wet and and always if we can.

Old Testament and New Testament. There is a sense in which we are New Testament believers, but brother we are Bible believers. They need the Old Testament and a concordance as exhaustive as possible in the back.

So Bible distribution is primarily to Christians. Primarily let's go on evangelistic tools. Indigenous missionaries are often limited by the lack of proper tools. We've bought boats and motors on the Amazon transportation for pastors from cars to horses to bicycles sound systems.

Clothing other things that may be required here. I am in this picture at the bottom on The top I'm there on the right with our boat that we used on the Amazon with a thatch roof and stuff and that was a Missionary Francisco Ocho who's now working actually in Colombia and then below I'm standing by Angel Comenades.

And I know this is going to be hard to believe. But he is the pastor leader of A movement that has left in its wake over 500 churches in the last 35 years. You're looking at a man is one of One of the choicest servants I have ever met.

And I consider him a father. He taught me much about about missions. He really did right now he's in a hospital in Lima is diabetes he has malaria and He's mad as a hornet because they took him to Lima because he had a plan he had a trip planned for the jungle and He If I could only tell you the benefit my life has reaped because of that man I.

You would just you'd have to be there. It'd be good if some of you one time went to one of the pastors conferences in the north and you saw maybe a thousand 1 ,500 leaders down on their knees in the dirt crying out for God's help and In the midday after the services they're gathered together copying by hand hymnbooks.

It's an amazing an amazing thing when you meet one of the brothers in the mountains like you're going up and they're coming down. And you go almost that's a man. How are you doing? They will always say I've unsigned or man I've unsigned which means I'm advancing brother.

I'm advancing. Let's go on church construction. Here in in both of these actually these pictures. It's not a church being constructed, but the seminary in northern in northern Peru. Angel culminates his son Daniel Is Has become a very very sound theologian.

He's received a lot of his training now in the In a in a grace Baptist Church in the Dominican Republic which is a very very amazing church has a lot of scholars that go down there and teach actually and the entire seminary is geared towards the ancient faith and It's amazing you see people being brought in there from the jungles and from the mountains and the reason why Danielle wanted to start this seminary is because Most of the other seminaries, and this is not a criticism of them, but we're geared more towards people on the coast Where the men who could barely read and things were kind of they couldn't study in such a place.

So this is open to the men who live in the rural areas. And it's amazing when you see men who can barely read starting their journey in Spurgeon or or when one of them says Brother Paul have you ever heard of Richard Baxter, or I was reading a little booklet by John Owen.

Expanding Training Partnerships Across Nations

Let's go on. We're working in a lot of places Serbia and Romania Moldova Ukraine Egypt in Zambia of course most of you are familiar with Conrad and Bayway and We work hand-in-hand with him helping the the church there in Lusaka to Send out men and and working with the other reformed churches, and we counted a great privilege brother Conrad is Truly God has raised him up.

What's amazing is there are other men of the same cloth of the same metal that work with him? It's it's a great privilege to serve there now again. This just gives you a perfect example in Zambia. The men that are being sent out are being trained by Conrad and the elders.

I mean They can actually train men better than anybody I know. They're being sent out the churches are Sacrificially giving in order to send these men out, but by having us come alongside them. We're able to do twice as much and It is a relationship not of a mission organization over a church, but a church Being helped by a collective group of churches back here in the states we we strongly believe in the autonomy of the church and that the church sends out men and What we seek to do is simply help with some of the funds in the states to provide what those churches?

Are doing to provide what they lack. One of the things that I always do in the ministry whether it is here or abroad. Is I look at the person that God's put in my life? And I say what do they have in their hand that I do not have and I look at my own hand.

And I say what do I have in my hand that they do not possess? We complement one another we're also working in Namibia, Malawi, Kenya Israel, Lebanon Siberia Japan Cambodia Bangladesh Indonesia India. I just returned from Indonesia and India and in India.

I think that I have seen the darkest place I have ever seen in my life. We were in Varanasi, which is the holy city one of the great holy cities if you can't imagine what a squalid sewer and Then to see people bathing themselves to be purified in in what some declare to be the most contaminated river on the face of the earth and then To be covered in the smoke as you walk through the streets of the dead bodies being burned in order to release their spirits and What's most amazing?

To see Americans coming there for enlightenment. The very people who benefit from the prosperity of a country at least being formed in part on biblical principles are now going over to do yoga while the smoke of dead people roll into the windows and It just shows you once again The darkness of this world does not prove the scriptures wrong.