Thank you, shall we be seated.
My friends, I want to make it very,
very clear to you that you cannot be
any more disappointed than I am.
I've been looking forward for over a week
to hearing my dear friend Dr. Harold Ockengate
at this service this noon hour today.
And an hour and a half before this
service was to be held, I got a
call, as you've heard from my son, telling
me that Dr. Ockengate could not be here
and asking me if I would attempt at
least to take his place.
Well, of course, that's impossible.
I've been looking forward to hearing him, and
here I am hearing myself instead.
What a change.
I trust that you'll not be too much
disappointed and that God will bless nevertheless and
that we'll have a wonderful service and that
God will be glorified.
Last Sunday, I was in Hammond, Indiana, preaching
in what is supposed to be the largest
church on the face of the earth.
Whether it is or not, I don't know.
But I preached last Sunday morning in that
church and I preached last Sunday evening in
that church and faced two tremendous audiences.
The church itself is just about twice the
size of this church, just about twice as
large as this church, the people's church in
which we're meeting this morning.
It seats approximately 5,000 people.
They claim to have 30,000 members, 30
,000 members.
That means that they stand first, that they
are the largest church in the world.
And then they claim to have 15,000
Sunday school scholars.
And the Sunday school meets at different times
during the day and there are 15,000
students altogether in the Sunday school.
Well, I had the great privilege of being
there last Sunday and of preaching both morning
and evening.
And then I came home looking forward with
great interest to hearing my dear friend, Dr.
Harold Ockengay, today at noon.
An hour and a half ago, I discovered
that he would not be here.
Now, I trust you'll pray as I speak
this morning and that the message may not
be delivered in vain and that God's blessing
may rest upon the convention today as well
as other days.
This morning, I'm going to answer a question,
a question that I've answered before in missionary
conventions, and I trust that it will throw
a little new light on the situation of
world evangelization.
I'm going to answer this question.
How can we evangelize the world in this
generation?
Now, of course, it's difficult to speak to
a group of missionaries on a subject such
as this.
They probably know more about it than I
do, and yet God lays this subject upon
my heart.
How can we evangelize the world in this
generation?
Before I speak on this subject, I would
like to emphasize two words in the question
I've just asked.
The first word is evangelize.
Let me make it very plain and very
clear to each and every one that I'm
not speaking about the Christianization of the world.
I'm speaking about the evangelization of the world.
And if you do not differentiate between Christianization
and evangelization, then you do not understand God's
program so far as his word is concerned.
Nowhere is the Church of Jesus Christ told
to Christianize the world.
That is not the job or the work
of the Church.
But the Church is told to evangelize the
world, to give every country an adequate opportunity
of hearing the gospel and knowing about and
accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal
Savior.
And when we have taken the gospel of
Jesus Christ to every country on the face
of this earth, then we will have evangelized
the world.
We will not have Christianized the world because
the vast majority of those to whom we
take the gospel message will not accept it.
But they must hear it.
And until they hear it, they are not
evangelized.
Therefore, our job, our work as a church,
as missionaries, is to evangelize the world.
I'm sorry to say that there are some
missionary societies that have never caught that vision.
And they're still working in the same spot,
in the same location, in which they started
their work 50, 75 years ago.
They've never left that place where they commenced
their work of evangelization.
Once a center has been evangelized and thoroughly
evangelized, then by some way, by some means,
we should move on to another center that
has not yet been evangelized and see that
they too, those living in that center, have
an adequate opportunity of accepting Jesus Christ as
a personal Savior.
Now, that's the job or the work of
The Church of Jesus Christ.
That's been our vision for nearly 50 years
now, the work of evangelization.
We do not talk about the Christianization of
the world.
We talk about the evangelization of the world.
And so I ask my question, how can
we evangelize the world in this generation?
Now, I think you must understand and realize,
if you know anything about the Word of
God, you must know that the world must
be evangelized within the limits of a single
generation.
There is no other way to evangelize the
world.
For instance, we cannot evangelize the last generation
because the last generation of heathen, they're all
dead and gone.
We cannot evangelize the next generation because when
the next generation of heathen will have been
born, this generation of Christians will have died.
Each generation of Christians must evangelize its own
generation.
There is no other way to evangelize the
world.
Some one generation must be evangelized before we
can honestly say that we have evangelized the
entire world.
Why not our generation?
Why leave it to the next generation?
Why should not we evangelize the world and
give every nation on the face of the
earth an opportunity of hearing the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ?
And so my question is, how can we
evangelize the world in this generation?
And then there's that word, world, which means
that our vision must be worldwide.
If we are content to settle down in
one local community anywhere on the face of
the earth and never think beyond the limits
of that community, then we are not getting
God's vision.
We are not thinking of a world.
I've traveled a great deal during the 65,
70 years of my ministry.
I've traveled extensively all over the world.
Seventy times I've gone throughout the world to
70 different countries preaching the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And I've seen something of the work that
has been carried on as I've mingled with
the missionaries and labored in these different countries
throughout the world.
But do you know that as I go
to many, many churches, I find a complete
lack of world vision?
Again and again, I go to churches that
have no world vision, that never think of
anyone beyond their own locality or beyond their
own town or their own city, many churches
that never think beyond the four walls of
the church in which they worship, and who
have no idea whatever of reaching the entire
world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And it's been my work down through the
years of my ministry to go to churches
all over the country, everywhere, and try to
impart, if possible, a world vision.
And I thank God that there has been
a degree of success and that many churches
that never had a world vision before now
do have a world vision and are thinking
of evangelizing the entire world, doing something to
take the gospel of Jesus Christ to every
country on the face of the earth.
Who was it that gave us the Reformation?
You say it was Martin Luther.
Let me say something about that Reformation.
It was not Martin Luther's preaching.
Martin Luther only reached a limited number of
people by means of his preaching.
But Martin Luther wrote nearly 100 books and
pamphlets, and those writings of his were circulated
throughout the length and breadth of Western Europe.
And as a result of the writings of
Martin Luther, there came the Reformation.
Not the preaching of Martin Luther, but the
writings of Martin Luther.
The Word is mightier than the voice.
And the reason that you and I are
Christians this morning is because we've had the
Word.
Had we not had the Word, the written
Word, we might be Roman Catholics.
We might not be Christians at all.
We might not know Jesus Christ today, but
we've had the Word, the Word of God.
And because of the written Word, we have
come to know Jesus Christ as a personal
Savior.
Now, do you know how many people learn
to read in this world of ours every
week, every seven days?
According to the latest figures, so far as
I can find out, every seven days, no
less than 2,000 people throughout the world
who never had been able to read learn
to read.
That means that last week, 2,000 people
who could not read one single word are
able to read this week.
It means that next week, another 2,000
people who cannot read a single word this
week will be able to read next week.
2,000 people every week.
But what are they going to read?
What are they going to read?
Let me tell you something without any fear
of contradiction.
The Communists have the answer.
Do you know that in one single year,
the Communists published two books for every man,
every woman, every boy, and every girl on
the face of this earth?
Two books for every one alive.
What other nation has ever done that?
No nation on the face of the earth
has done it.
But the Communists have done it.
Why, they even boast of having taken China
by means of the printed page.
For 25 years before the Great Revolution in
China, the Communistic Revolution, they poured their literature
into China.
And as a result, China has become a
Communistic nation.
They have taken China largely by means of
the printed page.
Before the Great Revolution in Russia, they poured
their literature into Russia.
And they prepared Russia for the revolution.
And as a result, Russia became Communistic.
Do you know how many books the Communists
printed in Russia in one single year?
Brand new books never printed before, translated and
printed.
No less than 60,000 books.
What other country has done that?
No other country on the face of the
earth has done it.
But Russia did it.
60,000 books translated and published or written
within one single year.
And do you know the nation that came
second?
Japan came second with 24,000 different books
written or translated and published in 12 months.
Japan, the most literate nation on the face
of the earth.
And do you know the nation that came
third?
Great Britain came third.
Great Britain came third with 19,000 different
books printed during that same year.
And then India came fourth with 18,000
different books during that year, translated, written or
published.
And do you know the nation that came
last of all, the fifth nation, the United
States of America?
Do you know how many books the United
States printed during the year of which I'm
speaking?
Translated, wrote or printed new books, brand new
books?
Only 12,000.
Now which nation believes in the power, in
the effect, in the influence of the printed
page?
The United States with 12,000 books or
Russia with 60,000?
Do you wonder that one third of the
world has become communistic?
Russia believes in the power of the printed
page.
And Russia is using the printed page as
no other nation on the face of the
earth is using the printed page.
Publishing magazines, magnificent magazines, filled with pictures as
well as articles.
Publishing books, doing everything possible to spread communism
by means of the printed page.
Gandhi's grandson, Gandhi of India, Gandhi's grandson was
in the United States of America a number
of years ago and he made a statement
that shook me to my foundations.
He said this, the missionaries taught us to
read but the communists gave us the books.
The missionaries taught us to read but the
communists gave us the books.
Now why didn't the missionaries give them the
books?
Because the churches that had sent out the
missionaries had never caught the vision.
And after sending their missionaries to the regions
beyond to evangelize, they allowed the communists to
come along and supply the reading material.
Now let me tell you something, the false
cults today are on the job.
All you have to do is to do
a little investigating to realize that the false
cults, I say, are on the job.
Do you know that Jehovah's Witnesses have the
largest religious printing press on the face of
the earth?
It's in Brooklyn, New York.
Do you know how many magazines that press
produces every minute?
That one press produces no less than 500
full-sized magazines every minute.
Eighty-four million in a single year.
And that's only one press.
There are scores of other presses run by
Jehovah's Witnesses that are doing the same thing
to a greater or less degree.
Many years ago now when Billy Graham was
holding his great evangelistic campaign in Madison Square
Garden, New York, I was with him.
Day after day we sat on the platform.
We looked into the faces of 18,500
people.
I never remember seeing a vacant seat in
Madison Square Garden during all the weeks that
the campaign was being held.
Eighteen thousand seats occupied night after night, day
after day.
One day I was sitting beside Billy on
the platform.
He was on my left.
And while the song service was in progress,
he leaned over and whispered in this left
ear of mine, Dr. Smithy said, Would you
mind preaching tonight first?
And I turned and looked at him in
amazement.
I said, Billy, you want me to preach
here in Madison Square Garden to this congregation
first?
Yes, he said.
You preach first tonight.
And then he said a little later on,
I'll bring my message.
Well, I said, Billy, if you want me
to do it, I'll do it.
I'll never forget it.
It's a moment in my life that will
always be remembered.
I said, I'll do it.
And a few minutes later, after the song
service had concluded, I found myself standing in
the pulpit of Madison Square Garden, New York
City, and preaching to that tremendous congregation.
While Billy Graham was sitting on my left,
very close beside me, listening to every word
I was uttering.
And then later on, after a hymn or
two had been sung, Billy got up and
brought the main message of the evening.
But do you know, if you remember the
history of that campaign, you will remember that
we left Madison Square Garden and we went
for the closing service to Yankee Stadium.
Never to my dying day will I forget
sitting on the platform of Yankee Stadium with
Billy Graham and looking into the faces of
90,000 people after 20,000 had been
turned away because there wasn't room for them.
Never had I faced such a congregation in
all the days of my ministry.
90,000 people.
I'll never, never, never forget it.
And after it was all over, I walked
down through those aisles with Billy Graham looking
into the faces of those people who had
listened to a service the like of which
perhaps they had never attended before.
But this is the point I want to
make.
If you remember that campaign, if you recall
Billy Graham's great ministry in New York, when
it was my privilege to work with him,
if you remember that campaign, you will remember
that a few months later another organization, Jehovah's
Witnesses, took over Yankee Stadium and held a
great baptismal service.
I'll never forget it.
I wasn't there, but I read about it.
You know how many they baptized at that
one service, just one service?
They baptized 7,136 converts.
7,136 converts to their cult.
How many were baptized on the day of
Pentecost?
Less than half that number.
How many have all the churches of the
world baptized in a single baptismal service?
Nothing like that number.
How many were baptized in your church at
your baptismal service?
It remained for Jehovah's Witnesses to baptize the
largest number of converts ever baptized at a
single service.
A false cult.
7,136.
Now that leads me to ask this question.
Which is the most important, the building or
the message?
I think that's something that every denomination should
face.
I think that's something that every Christian should
face.
Which, I say, is the most important, the
building or the message?
If buildings are more important to God than
messages, then we ought to be investing hundreds
of thousands of dollars in building churches.
And we ought to be building the most
magnificent cathedrals we could possibly build if the
building is the most important.
But is the building the most important or
does the message come first?
There was a year in the United States
of America, many years ago now, I happen
to get the figures, when there were built,
during that one year, in the United States,
no less than 6,000 brand-new churches.
6,000 brand-new churches at a cost
of $1 billion.
Now, I'm not against building churches.
God led me to build one here in
Toronto in the early days of my ministry,
the Alliance Tabernacle, seating 1,800 people, crowded
to the doors, hundreds turned away.
I'm not against building churches if they are
needed, if there is a congregation, if the
pews can be filled.
The second church that was built was built
under the leadership of Dr. Paul, this church
in which we're now worshiping, and I cooperated,
of course, in connection with the building of
this church as well.
And as you know, we see this church
packed to capacity time after time, Sunday after
Sunday.
I'm not against building churches if they can
be filled, if we do not have to
preach to empty seats, if we can get
a congregation.
I'm not opposed to building churches.
But I say again, in the United States,
there were 6,000 new churches built in
one single year, oftentimes when the present church
was more than adequate to take care of
the congregation.
How much is a billion dollars?
You know we do not talk very much
in billions.
Let me illustrate it this way.
Suppose I were to hold in my hands
a billion dollars.
And suppose this billion dollars should consist of
$20 bills.
And suppose every minute, every 60 seconds, suppose
I should toss a $20 bill over this
pulpit onto the table here in front of
me.
How long do you think you'd have to
sit here and watch me to see me
toss over a billion dollars?
And that amount of money was invested in
brick and mortar in the building of 6
,000 churches in one single year.
And I wonder how much those same churches
gave to evangelize the world.
Do you know the first church that was
ever built on the face of this earth?
Do you know the year it was built?
You remember that in the early days there
was nothing but persecution.
And during the persecution it was impossible to
build churches.
They had to endure persecution.
The first church ever built on the face
of this earth was built in the year
222 A.D. There never was a church
building until 222 A.D. And yet the
Apostle Paul carried on his great ministry during
the days when there was not one single
church building anywhere in the world on the
face of the earth.
And more converts were won to God under
Paul's ministry without a single church to back
him than during all these years that have
passed and gone since he lived.
Is it necessary to have church buildings in
order to evangelize the world?
Are the people the most important or is
the building the most important?
Listen to me.
Some years ago, a little while after communism
had taken over, the leader of all Christian
work in Poland got through the Iron Curtain,
sat in my study here in this church
just across from me with my desk between.
He told me a great deal about what
was going on in Poland.
Of course, I love Poland.
I preached extensively in Poland.
I've been there again and again and again
and proclaimed the message of God's salvation in
Poland.
I'll never forget Poland.
And I asked this man a question.
I said, Tell me, sir, how many churches
are still open and holding services in Poland
now that communism has taken over?
And to my utter amazement and astonishment, he
answered by saying, We still have 280 churches
that are open, that are holding services regularly
every Sunday in Poland.
You see, Roman Catholicism is so powerful in
Poland that even the communists have not been
able to take over.
And Roman Catholicism still flourishes in Poland.
And of course, they haven't time to deal
with the Protestant denominations because their hands are
filled with the Roman Catholic situation.
And there are 280 Protestant churches carrying on
work in Poland.
I said, Can I help you in any
way?
My heart is in Europe.
I've preached all over Europe from Finland right
through in practically every country in Europe.
My heart is over there.
I said, What can we do to help
you in Poland?
And this book of mine was lying on
my desk, The Salvation of God, in which
I make the way of salvation plainer and
clearer than in any other book that I've
ever written.
A book that has gone out in tens
of thousands of copies, The Salvation of God.
All together, including the other books, well over
a million and a quarter circulating throughout the
length and breadth of the world.
And he looked at me and he picked
up this book, held it in his hand.
He said, Dr. Smith, if we could take
this book of yours and if we could
translate it into the Polish language, and then
if by a miracle, we could obtain permission
from the communist government to publish it on
the communist presses in Warsaw, Poland, it would
be a godsend to our people.
I said, Why don't you do it?
Well, he said, First of all, apart from
not having permission, we do not have the
money.
Well, I said, Suppose I go to the
United States and raise the money.
I always go to the United States when
I want money.
They're the most generous people on the face
of the earth.
They've never disappointed me in all these years.
Well, he said, We'd do it.
I crossed the border.
I went to the United States.
In a matter of three or four days,
I had the money necessary.
And I came back.
I sent the money over to Poland.
It got through the Iron Curtain.
The committee got it.
Then they started negotiating with the communist government.
And they negotiated for six months.
And every now and again, they would hold
the money up that I had sent over.
And they'd say to the government, We'll give
you this money if you allow us to
publish Dr. Smith's book.
At the end of six months, the government
was so anxious to get control of the
money that they gave permission.
The book was translated into Polish.
An edition was published.
It was sold out in no time.
A second edition was published.
It disappeared quickly.
A third edition was published.
It also was sold out.
Then I sent two other books to be
translated and published.
And altogether, a total of 120 languages now
have this book.
For this book has now been translated and
published in 120 languages throughout the world.
Within the past few weeks, I received samples
of four other languages.
And right now, within another six weeks, the
book will appear in another seven languages, this
time in India.
And we'll soon have 130 languages throughout the
world into which the book has been translated
and is being circulated.
I believe in the printed page.
I believe in the power of the printed
page.
I know what the printed page will do.
I know what the printed page did for
me.
I know that if you and I had
never had the King James translation of the
Bible, which was translated and published in the
year 1611, if we had never had that
edition of the Bible, the probability is we
would not be Christians today.
But we have the printed page.
We have the Bible in our own language.
And as a result, we know Jesus Christ
as our own personal Savior.
How can you expect those in other countries,
those in other lands, how can you expect
them to become Christians if they do not
have one single edition of the Word of
God in their own language?
That's why during all my ministry, I've been
concentrating on the translating and publishing of my
books both for Christians and for the unsaved
in foreign languages.
And I'm still doing it.
And I'm continually raising funds for that purpose.
And I very often cross the border to
the United States when I need more funds
for that purpose in order that the message
of God's salvation might be given to the
entire world and the whole world evangelized for
the Lord Jesus Christ.
My wife and I were driving along the
highway one day.
My wife went home to me with the
Lord three and a half years ago now.
We were married for 56 years.
She traveled with me to most of the
countries in which I traveled and ministered throughout
the world.
Europe, South Africa, Australia, South America, and a
great many other countries.
And suddenly, I drew the car to the
side of the road.
I turned off the engine.
I tuned in London, England.
I knew that Sir Winston Churchill was going
to speak directly to the American people at
that moment.
So I prepared to hear what he had
to say.
He only spoke for about three minutes.
And I'll never forget it.
I'll never forget it as long as I
live.
Speaking to the American people, Sir Winston Churchill
said this, Give us the tools and we'll
finish the job.
Give us the tools and we'll finish the
job.
The war was raging.
America had not yet come in.
And Sir Winston Churchill made that appeal.
And America gave the tools.
And America got in.
And the war was finished and won.
And Nazism did not triumph.
We still had freedom because the tools were
supplied.
Give us the tools and we'll finish the
job.
And this morning, I say to you first
of all in the words of Holy Rick,
the Gospel must first be published, be published,
be published among all nations.
Then I add the words in Matthew 24,
And then shall the end come.
Not the end of the world.
But the end of this age.
And then the new age will be ushered
in.
And then Jesus Christ will take over the
reins of government.
And for a thousand years in millennial splendor,
glory and power, He'll rule this world of
ours for a thousand years.
After the world has been evangelized and every
nation has an opportunity of hearing the message
of God's salvation.
And so this morning, in connection with this
convention, I say to you, I say it
from my heart, Give us the tools and
we'll finish the job.
And speaking on behalf of every missionary and
every missionary society and every missionary organization and
everyone who is putting forth an effort to
reach the world for God and bring back
the King, I say to you this noonday
hour, Give them the tools and they'll finish
the job.
And I thank you.