If you would, grab a handbook and stand. Let's turn to page 281. We'll start our service off tonight with Jesus Saves. We'll sing the first, third, and last verse. On the first. We have heard the joyful sound. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Spread the tidings all around. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Bear the news to every land. Climb the steeps and cross the waves. Onward, tis our Lord's command, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. On the third, sing above the battle's strife, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. By his death and endless life, Jesus saves, Jesus saves Sing it softly through the gloom When the heart for mercy craves Sing in triumph for the tomb Jesus saves, Jesus saves Give the winds a mighty voice, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Let the nations now rejoice, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Shout salvation full and free, highest hills and deepest caves. This our song of victory, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Amen. You all sound pretty good tonight. Amen. Well, welcome to our annual missions conference. We're thankful for great attendance this evening. Good to see each and every one of you. And we've been planning and working and putting all this together for weeks and months, and here we are. And trust you've been praying that the Lord is going to enter in and do some special and powerful things this week in our lives. And, um, well, I got some more to say along the way here, but, uh, just, uh, just be praying that this evening will just be a, a tremendous start to our conference. You pray for our missionaries that have traveled in. make sure you get around and visit them the displays in the back and and brother Bane you'll hear him preach in a little bit and again just be in prayer for for beginning to end and we'll give God the glory for every bit of it well what we're going to do right now just take a couple minutes this evening and shake some hands and welcome each other somebody's enjoying themselves out there in the hallway I don't know if you could hear that singing but praise the Lord for it amen you Well, amen. If you would return to your seats, remain standing if you would, turn to page 105. 105. We'll sing the first and last verse, shall we? Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave. Weep o'er the erring one, lift up the fallen, tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful. Jesus will say. Rescue the perishing. Duty demands it. Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide. Back to the narrow way. Patiently wind them. Tell the poor wanderer a Savior has died. Rescue the perishing. Care for the dying. Jesus is merciful. Jesus will save. You may be seated. Well, what we're going to do right now is, well, through the next three nights, we want to hear from some of these missionaries that are visiting with us. And we have Simon Jacob is only going to be able to be with us this evening. And we were visiting a little bit ago, and it seems that Metropolitan has supported him from early on in his debutation going all the way back to about 1996. When he told me that, I said, there's no way he could even be that old to be having a debutation back then. But again, it's a privilege to be part of their ministry. And of course, their ministry is to Pakistan. And of course, Metropolitan Baptist Church has a pretty powerful connection to Pakistan, since it's him and Tina have been here and part of our church. And so brother, brother, brother, Jacob, you come and introduce your video and of course give us an update on what's going on. Well, thank you, Pastor, for allowing me to be able to come and give an update about the work in Pakistan. You all have supported us all these years for a long period of time, and I want to thank every one of you for your faithful prayers and for your faithful support. And when I came to the church, I was single. I wasn't married at that time. Things have changed now. We have five children now, and in the presentation, you'll be able to see that. And God has opened up a lot of doors for us in the land. You hear a lot of bad things happening. When you hear about the bombings and the suicide bombings, you hear about all sorts of violence and war. But I'm here to tell you the good stuff, the stuff that God is able to do. And God can do great things, and he has, and we are very, very thankful to God for that. When we went there in 2001, my wife and I, we started a class, even though I was born in the city of Karachi, but I had been gone so long, and when I went, when we went back, we were in a different area of Karachi, and so we started a class in our apartment where we were staying at that time, an English class and through that we were able to make contacts. Basically we were telling Bible stories because one of the things that a lot of people want to do is to have their children learn English. So we use that to kind of get in contact with people and start getting to know people. And after about six weeks of being able to have contacts with people and starting to invite them, and we were little by little telling them that eventually we're going to start a church here. So after six weeks, we were able to start the church there. And so God just opened up a lot of doors for us after that. So throughout the years, God also opened up doors for us to work among the Hindu community as well there. And those are on the outskirts of the city of Karachi. And in the presentation, you'll be able to see some of that also. Now, in working with Hindus, one of the things is that you have to be very careful is that, of course, we know they believe in thousands and thousands of gods. And it's easy to just go ahead and, you know, tell them about Jesus and tell them, you know, just if you accept Him and, you know, you'll be saved and all that. All that stuff sounds very good, but the truth is what they do is they'll just say, okay, fine, we'll accept Him, but they'll add Him as another God. And that's not salvation. And so when we went to this village and we started to preach to them, there's three important things that we wanted to share with them. And of course, the first thing was that what we shared with them, that there's only one book. You see, when we go to them and we start preaching, we want to tell them what we are using. And there's only one word, that's God's word. And then we tell them that there's only one God, and that he sent his son to die on the cross, and that there's only one way. They believe in several different ways. So it takes a while, but eventually those that stick with it and are able to attend all our lessons, and we have probably a few genuine born-again believers there now. that have been accepted the Lord as their Savior, they've been baptized. The very first guy that he was against us even coming there. So the people of the church, this is in Karachi, Defense Baptist Church, that God enabled us to start, started to pray for this man and After about 17 months, him and his wife, they came to us and it was one of those activities of the church. We had invited them, we were very busy, and you know how it is. It's like when you're about to end a church service and everything is, you're wrapping things up, you're about to close, you just want to go. You don't want to really stay. And it was kind of like one of those situations. So this husband and wife comes to us and they're wanting to talk. And of course, we had been praying for this man, but at that time, I didn't really think that that's what he was going to ask. But when we go, he said, you know, I've been hearing what you've been teaching and preaching and I want to accept Christ. And we were like very thrilled, almost we couldn't believe it. But it's kind of like, you know, even though we were praying for the man, but when he wanted to accept Christ, we were very surprised. But anyways, that was one of it. Then in the city, in the Defense Baptist Church that we started, So God opened up a new area for us. And we have people that come from five different neighborhoods over there right now. And so there's this great potential there. On an average Sunday, we have about 140 that will come. So little by little, we're seeing growth there. And we have, of course, a lot of people that are just coming. They're just listening. They're just interested, wanting to know. And they haven't really been born again yet. But a lot of them have also. and you'll see that some of that in the presentation as well and currently we have about eight of our people that are in the Bible Institute as well. They've been training and so just pray for them as well that eventually Our goal is to have our own Bible Institute one day. And we're working with another independent Baptist missionary there. And so everything is going really well as far as that is. And then we also, of course, as you all know, that majority of the population is Muslim, 97% roughly. So one of our goals is, of course, if we want to stay there, we've got to find some sort of method to reach them. And so what we did is every Christmas we have a program where we specifically do it for them. We invite them, all the people that are members of the church, we tell them if you have any Muslim friends or neighbors or people that you work with, invite them to this special meeting. And at the special meeting we'll give them some either uh, we'll prepare a dinner for them. We give them dinner We sing christmas songs and tell them about the birth of christ and because even muslims believe that jesus was born of a virgin They have no problem accepting that so we get to tell them uh, why jesus came and uh, a lot of them have come and they liked what we had to say and uh, So little by little we are seeing some progress there again. It's you don't see results very quickly It's not that people are not, that area of the world, there's a lot of religion, a lot of religion, but it's not in the right direction. And the challenge is keep telling them the truth of God's word. And eventually, the truth of God's word has enough power to convict people's hearts and to change them. And that's what we're trying to do there. So God has opened up a lot of doors for us, a lot of opportunities. And just two, three years back, I got a call, I got an email from Brother Tom about the translation work that him and brother Asim they were they were doing and I got to talk to him on through Skype several times and but we never saw each other till today and so that was a blessing too and so I'm just very thankful for them as well because that's something that is desperately needed there. You know there's a lot of different languages there but a lot of the languages there still don't have Bible translations in those respective languages. The Urdu translation that we have there has errors in it. So we are thankful that Brother Tom and Brother Asim, they've been working at that and that's a lot of work and it's very hard work and They've been doing it and I'm just thankful for it and that hopefully, Lord willing, that we'll be able to have the New Testament very quickly. And I really think that this time we're going to have some really good results from that. I really feel like that. One of the things that it has in it, it has English and Urdu combined. And that's a culture where a lot of people want to learn English. And with English and Urdu being on the same page, people will really accept that. I really feel like even people from a Muslim background would want to take that, just so they can learn English through it. So, you know, it's just God doing all these things and opening all these doors and, you know, that part of the world is still the most least evangelized. Like I said, there's a lot of religion there, but it's in the wrong direction. And so pray for us. Our family is going to be going back in June. And so pray as we get back that God would help us. Our goals are to start Baptist churches in that land. There's so many places there that there's no church. There are some places that have a lot of churches, but majority of them are not giving the truth out. So just pray for us. And I want to thank every one of you. for all your faithful prayers and for all your faithful support all these years. And Lord willing, we'll try to work something out with Pastor and Brother Asim, and we'll try to ease to where my whole family can come. And I'd love for them to meet every one of you as well. And God has put us together for a reason. Amen. And so that we can take the gospel to this lost and dying world. And thank you so much for all your prayers and support. Amen. So Mr. Thomas, he will see the presentation. The 1040 window is where two-thirds of the world's population or more than 4.4 billion people live. 90% of the people living in this region of the world are un-evangelized. It's where Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and many other religions have started. Pakistan is located in the center area of the 1040 window. Its population is 179 million, making it the sixth largest of the world, with Islam as its state religion. Approximately 97% of the people are Muslim. Islam is not a religion of peace. History proves that the sword spread Islam. The Taliban has been actively involved in getting power in Pakistan. They target military bases, churches, trucks carrying NATO supplies, NATO bases, and individuals both in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. Thousands are being killed by their suicide bombings. According to the Taliban, the withdrawal of the U.S.-led troops would merely mark the end of one phase of operations, and their long war will continue until the establishment of a global succession. They make no bones about their desire to extend their expansionist designs into Pakistan once they are powerful enough. Karachi is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in Pakistan. The city has an estimated 23.5 million people as of 2013. It is located in the south of the country along the coastline meeting the Arabian Sea. Karachi is an ethnic diverse city. The devil is having his way by destroying people through suicide bombings and false religions. But the Holy Spirit is working and saving lost souls. We are the Jacob family. Simon, Elizabeth, Bimla, Alyssa, Elijah, Anna, and Josiah. and God has called us to reach the lost of Pakistan for him. Defense Baptist Church was started in August of 2001 in an apartment. A small group mainly of children started to attend church services. In 2003 we moved in this building where we currently reside as well as have church services. As we started to preach and teach them truths of God's word, God began to work and people were being saved and baptized. And little by little the church started to grow. Some have even become Sunday school teachers. Once a month a youth activity is held for the teens, young adults and young blind people of the church. Monthly ladies meetings are held and ladies are taught to give priority to their homes. Elizabeth started a class for young single girls to teach them the principles of God's Word as taught in the Bible. I have been teaching in the Bible Institute of another independent Baptist Church. Each summer, there is a week-long vacation Bible school. In the midst of all the fun and excitement, Bible truths are given to children. After 2011's vacation Bible school, a young married lady by the name of Zahida got saved. Zahida was baptized and started to attend church regularly. She asked prayer for her husband, Babab, to get saved. The people of Defense Baptist Church started praying for him. Seven months later, he accepted Christ and was baptized. After the Vacation Bible School of 2013, the church attendance has grown. Children from a new area started attending along with some adults. The attendance of the church has doubled. The average attendance is now 140. With the increase in attendance, we are currently in need of a new building. The people of Defense Baptist Church have started a building fund. Please pray for us to raise the amount needed to purchase land to build a church building. The average cost of land is $300,000. From the very start, we have taught the importance of spreading the gospel through world missions. And the Lord has opened the doors for us to reach communities on the outskirts of Karachi, where Hindu and Muslim Marwari people live. These people are migratory inhabitants. The Hindu Marwari tribes are traditionally considered an untouchable caste by the caste-conscious Hindus. These Hindu Marwaris practice many rituals which reflect the belief that non-living objects have spirits and rituals of Hinduism. Their primary occupation is farming. They work for landlords who keep them in debt and they end up becoming bonded slaves. In September 2011, a Bible class was started in a village in Memangur. After 17 months of preaching, God's Word began to bear fruit as young adults and children started to accept Christ as their Savior and were baptized. These people have no formal education, so we started a program to teach them to read and write. so that they can read the Bible. About a year ago an elderly man by the name of Prishan started to come to the Bible classes and after some time he accepted Christ and was baptized. People from three different villages come every week to attend the Bible class. We have over 100 people who now attend on a regular basis. Therefore, we have had to extend the shack where we meet. Our goal is to start a church. Brother Riaz and his wife, members of Defense Baptist Church, have surrendered to the call of God to work in this village. He is currently attending Bible Institute. Please pray for us as we labor in Pakistan. The need is great. 179 million people, with 97% of them being Muslim. Our goal is to plant churches across the land. Well, amen. Thank you, Brother Jacob. That was tremendous. And again, we're very closely interested and involved in what's going on in Pakistan, praying to God to be pleased, of course, to see precious, precious souls delivered from their bondage, to see them. I did want to make mention, you probably noticed coming in, missionary displays in the back and please please take note of those. I'll tell you what I've known Bruce Martin 12 years the first time I ever saw his display. There's also the table to the on the well on my left your right there's several things there from Metropolitan And, uh, the, the new missions directory for this year is there. That's the one that that's made like this, but there's another, I don't want you to confuse the two. There's another, uh, uh, if you want to call it a bulletin, but a service, really a service guide. And there's a place in there with a place to take notes and a schedule and everything that's been going on this week. So please church, uh, make, uh, uh, uh, uh, yourself available to those, avail yourself of them I should say. There's also some information back there about the college, about TTU and all that's there and I want you to enjoy that and surely make use of it and it's great to be here tonight. I'm so blessed to be here and be here with my brothers and sisters in Christ. You know, Brother Jacob had mentioned the translation project that Asim and Tina really worked very hard on while they were in Thailand. And the morning sessions, tomorrow and Friday morning, are going to have a great deal to do with the subject of what it takes to get something in print. from working through from one language into another language, and then the process, the work that it takes to get that printed. And Metropolitan, that's a big part of our missionary effort through our missionaries. Brother Tom, was there three Indian languages being worked on in Mexico right now? I mean, Brother Bruce? And of course, Brother Tom is continually facilitating translation works, both in scriptures, but also in Christian literature. And I really felt burdened that we as a church need to understand more about that part of our missionaries' ministries, even Robin and Penny, so very much involved in the translation of the Samoan Bible. For the first time, that the Samoan people, Samoan speaking people have a reliable Bible. And folks, we had a big part of that. Metropolitan Baptist Church had a big part of that. So I just encourage you, come out tomorrow morning, nine o'clock, and we'll, Brother Bruce will be teaching tomorrow morning, and then Missionary David Holland will be following up with some things, and we'll be hearing more from him through the week. And then on Friday morning at nine o'clock, Tom Gaudet is going to be teaching. And then Rufus Serapolli will be also speaking for us on Friday. He's the, are you the eldest son, brother? We support his father, Solomon Serapolli, and they are with us this week as well. So we had a lot of blessings this week and be in prayer. Well, let's sing another song, Brother John. You can remain seated if you would. Let's turn to page 103. To the regions beyond I must go, I must go Where the story has never been told To the millions that never have heard of his love I must tell the sweet story of old To the regions beyond I must go I must go to the world, all the world, His salvation shall know. Let's sing the fourth verse. There are other lost sheep that the Master must bring, and they must the message be told. He sends me to gather them out of all lands and welcome them back to His fold. Good singing. Amen. Good friend of mine. I don't know how far, I hate to even mention how far we'd go back, but I think probably 25 years or in that neighborhood that I first met evangelist Randy Bain and in a camp meeting in Georgia at that time, it was Mount Pisgah Baptist church in Fairburn, Georgia. And that's the church that our daughter, Jamie and family are members of now it's peach tree Baptist church. They've changed locations. But Brother Randy preached for me for years, probably 10 years almost straight when I pastored in Pennsylvania and then first couple years we came to Texas. And so my first mission trip I took with Brother Randy and a couple other preachers and we went to India of all places. In fact, we were in Hyderabad, Secunderabad area on that trip. And we've been, I remember that first morning, Brother Randy, I woke up in Secunderabad and I thought, what in the world is that noise? And I heard, I thought somebody was dying in the neighborhood. And he said, Brother Jim, that's just that old Muslim fellow down there saying his prayers. And I said, oh my, somebody help him. But, well, Brother Randy, as we said a little bit ago, Fort Worth, Texas is a long way from Worthington, Pennsylvania and Buffalo Creek, where I used to pastor Shadyside Baptist Church a long, long time ago. But again, it's a pleasure, as always, to have Brother Randy preach for us. You please, please pray for him. And he will be faithful to preach the Word of God. And I'm praying God give us ears to hear what he would give to us tonight. Brother Randy, you come. All right, let's turn in the word of God to the book of Matthew chapter number 28 this evening. The gospel of Matthew chapter number 28, real joy and privilege to be with you and to be with brother Jim again. Been a joy to get around and talk to some of these missionaries and fellowship with them and see what God is doing in their part of the world. Sometimes we get the Elijah syndrome thinking I, even I only am left But God's got 7,000 that have not bowed their knee to Baal. And in this realm of evangelism, I get around the world every year, and I'm always running into new groups of people and preachers and folk that have been faithful to God for many years. I didn't know them. I didn't know anybody that knew them, but God knew them. And I'm glad he's got to work and he allows us to be a part of that. And I hope in these days we'll be encouraged as we look back in the Word of God and study on the thought of the Great Commission. I'll ask you to stand tonight. We'll reverence God's Word together. Matthew chapter number 28, verse number 16. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Lord, we thank you for the privilege to publicly read the Word of God and be able to stand in freedom behind the sacred desk and expound the scriptures here in Fort Worth, Texas. Lord, we do know that there's a great attack on our nation. Lord, we know that there's a turning away from you as never before in this country. And I pray, God, in wrath, that you would remember mercy. Lord, you would revive your people. And I ask you, dear God, that you'd help us to turn unto thee, the living God, and may you shake this country to the very foundations that our eyes might be opened and our hearts might be broken. Lord, as we look to you for this mission conference, Lord, we commend all of these different missionaries, their ministries, their labors into your hands. And we thank you, dear God, that you've begun the good work. And I pray, Father, that you continue and bless in the performance of it. And as we hear and read and see what you're doing, help us to say now, Lord, what will thou have us to do? And may we not just be hearers, but may we be partakers and participants of what you would say to us in these days. Lord, I pray for liberty, clarity, and power to preach the Word of God now, minister to hearts, and we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. I want to preach on the subject, The Great Commission. We've often called the commission that the Lord Jesus has given His church, The Great Commission. There's a reason why it is called great. It's great because of the great God and our Savior that gave His church the marching orders to go forth with the gospel into all the world. Now this commission is given five times personally by the Lord Jesus Christ. There are some that would try to dispensationalize the gospel of Matthew and say this was a kingdom book and has nothing to do with us. But the truth is everything that He gave us in verse number 19 through verse number 20 is repeated through the entirety of the epistles and reemphasized again and again throughout the New Testament. And to try to say this is some isolated, unrelated portion of Scripture is nothing more than heresy. And I want to look from the lips of our Lord and Savior at these five different commissions that He gives us as His church. Now, four of these are in the Gospels, and then the fifth is in the book of Acts, chapter number 1. Let's start, first of all, in the book of Matthew, where the Lord Jesus said, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Now, we see this commission is the commission of the great potentate, or the prince of the kings of the earth. Now notice he says in verse 19, Go ye therefore. The therefore referring back to verse number 18, where Jesus said, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. This is the theme of the Gospel of Matthew, that Jesus Christ is the King. He's the only wise God in potentate. He's the Prince of the Kings of the Earth, Brother John says in the book of Revelation. And if there is a theme or a message that Matthew emphasizes, it is that Jesus Christ is the King. We read in chapter number one about the king's genealogy. Not just anybody could be the king. You had to be born of the right lineage. Chapter number two, we find wise men coming from the east, these Nestorians that had been watching the stars and they followed the star. And when they came, they said, we have seen his star in the east and we've come to worship him that is born king. and they bowed down and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and acknowledged his kingship. In chapter number 7, in verse number 29, after Jesus had preached the Sermon on the Mountain, the Bible says that He taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes. And throughout the Gospel of Matthew we read about Him who is the King of the Jews. But not only is He the King of the Jews, He is King of kings, and He is Lord of lords. And having finished the Father's work of redemption upon the cross of Calvary, conquered death, hell, and the grave, risen from the dead, Now He sends forth His disciples to a mountain where He met them, and He gave them this great commission, and it flows from the mouth of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And when the King speaks, when the Lord speaks, we need to perk our ears up and hear what He has to say. And I want to say, my friend, that this commission that we're following, It's not some dictative man, it's not some feeling that we have, but it is the orders of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And that's the blessing when you travel to all the quarters of this earth and stand on the soles of all the continents and you proclaim the gospel and men begin to argue with you and they try to defy what you have to say. I'm glad that we are backed by the fact that our commission has come not from an earthly, but from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We're on the King's business. We're doing what He has called us to do. And if they don't like that, then they need to take their argument up with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Now, I know that we live in a republic and we'll be having elections before long, but you know, we're not used to having a king. Mr. Obama's tried to introduce kingship to the presidency by appointing his czars and overrunning Congress and executive orders and all that, but he's not a king. He'll be out of office in just a few years, but my friend ought to say Jesus Christ was not voted in and he will not be voted out. There'll be no legislation of men that'll come and change his mind or change the commission that he's given. And when the king has spoken, his word is absolutely final. And the thing you do with the king's word is not try to change it or argue with it or wrangle with it, but bow to it and obey what the king has to say. And so the first commission is that of the potentate of the prince. Now turn, if you will, please, to the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark, chapter number 16. Again, the Lord Jesus says in verse number 15 of Mark chapter number 16, And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. Then he talks about the apostolic signs, and these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God, And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs which followed them. Now, the first commission has to do with the Word of the Potentate. The second commission emphasizes the practice of God's people. Now, the Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus Christ is the Servant of Jehovah. There's no genealogy in the Gospel of Mark. Who cares what a servant's genealogy is? But he comes on the scene, he's baptized, and he begins to go to work. And you'll see the word and, and, and, and, and again and again in the Gospel of Mark. And we read about his deeds, his authority, his labors, his sweat, his efforts, the things that he did as the perfect servant of Jehovah. And as the servant of Jehovah, when he gives the commission in verse number 15, he said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He didn't say, doctrinalize it. He didn't say, sit around and argue about it. He didn't say, start theological classes and debate it. He says, go and get with it. Amen. And in the Great Commission, it is given unto us as being God's servants. He didn't call us to argue about what the Father said for us to do. He called us to do what He said. Have you ever worked with anybody that couldn't take the word of the boss man and just do it? If he said, I want that wall painted, as soon as he goes out the door, somebody says, well, why does he want that wall painted? I think it looks just fine, don't you? And they begin to argue among themselves. And then they divide and split up and argue about painting the wall and all of those things instead of just doing it. And you know Nike came up with a slogan, but I think they may have just got it out of the Word of God, just do it. Amen? Mary said to those servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. There's enough sitting around sermonizing about it. There's enough sitting around and surmising about it. We need some folk that'll just get out and do it. And he says, if you'll get out and do it, I'll be with you. And he was with the disciples and the apostles. He confirmed this gospel word and this resurrection power with many signs and many wonders. And in the great transitional book of the book of Acts, God confirmed again and again and again, this is my message, this is my message. And he proved it to be real to the hearts of those that were reached by the men that actually went out and did it. Isn't it amazing how these eleven men reached the then-known world in their day without the aid of an airplane, without the aid of printing presses or internet? And even when the men of God went up to the temple to pray and the beggars said, "'Alms! Alms!' they turned their pockets inside out and said, "'Silver and gold have I none?' We'd be shut down if it wasn't for silver and gold, and all the implements that we have. But those men were humble servants that obeyed God, and the power of God was all over them, and they got among the people, and they carried the gospel where the people were at, and we know the results of their ministry in their days. And so we see the gospel of Mark has to do with our practice. Then thirdly, I'll ask you to turn to the gospel of Luke, if you will, please. The Lord gives the Great Commission again in chapter number 24. Chapter number 24. On the road to Emmaus, their eyes were still holding, but then the Lord opened their eyes and began to give them understanding. In verse number 45, and though he had told them and told them, they still had eyes that were closed and not able to clearly see what the scriptures had said about him. And in verse number 46, it said, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. In this I see the great commission of preaching the message of repentance and remission of sins. Now notice in verse number 47, he said, When you go forth to all nations, here's the message that I want you to repeat. that they need to repent and they can have their sins remitted by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Friend, that message has not been deleted nor removed, but it's still part of the Great Commission. I preach around the world and back every year, and there's a missing note in a lot of pulpits, and that is the message of repentance. We have a lot of remission preaching, but very little repentance preaching. And the doctrine of repentance has been under attack recently, even in independent circles. I heard a well-known independent Baptist preacher say some time ago, repentance has nothing to do with salvation. He said the word's not even used in the Gospel of John, it's just believed. And so I read the Gospel of John for myself through again and marked every time somebody repented. That woman at the well, she repented. The woman taking in adultery, Jesus said, Go and sin no more. All those disciples that followed Jesus, they repented. And to me, repentance is not a barbaric, harsh, dark age word, but it is a precious truth of the Word of God. Thank God for repentance. As our brother was showing Pakistan and all the religions that are there and the people that are in bondage and their hearts are taking grip. He's talking about them adding Jesus to their gods, not if we preach a message of repentance. Jesus Christ is exclusively the Savior and the Lord. And he said to those Thessalonians, you turn to God from idols. And you can't hold on to idols and God at the same time. And many religions of the world adapt their religion to whatever culture or whatever religion is already there to make it palatable or acceptable. I was down in Peru, and there in Costco, they've got a big Catholic church, and you go inside, and they've got Jesus and the disciples at the last supper, and they're eating a guinea pig. And they've adapted that to their culture. You go to Papua New Guinea in the Seventh-day Adventist, they adapt all those religious customs and tribal ways right into the message that they're preaching there. But not Christianity. Christianity is Christ Jesus, the only hope of eternal life. To me, repentance is a sweet word. And the reason we're seeing so many suicides in America is because of people not understanding there is a truth called repentance. They get in a place of hopelessness. They don't think that they'll ever get out of their situation. They feel like that they'll never be able to do anything other than what they're doing. But repentance says, praise God, there will be a change when you come to Christ. When a hippie gets saved, praise God, he'll no longer be a hippie, but he'll be holy. When a drunkard gets saved, he'll start drinking out of another jug and walking in the power of the Holy Ghost of God. When an old blaspheming curser gets saved, he'll turn into one of the biggest men that praise God throughout the countryside. When a harlot gets saved, God'll purify her, and she'll stand in Zion's choir singing, Holy, holy. And that's the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to change lives. And if we're not preaching a message that changed people's lives, then we're not preaching the gospel of the Son of God. For anybody Jesus saved in his earthly ministry and even in the power of the Holy Ghost after he ascended to heaven, he always changes them. He'll never leave them where he finds them. Yes, he found legion full of a thousand devils, cutting himself, crying aloud yonder in the turf. But when he left, he was clothed and in his right mind, and he testified of the gospel for some two years. And when Jesus came back to that village the next time, instead of beseeching Jesus to live, the people flocked to him and brought their people for the Lord to touch them by his power. When Mary Magdalene got saved, she left the old business of sin and praise God, she became a devout follower of the Lord Jesus. When Zacchaeus hit the bottom of that tree and he received Jesus gladly, this great taker of the IRS became a fourfold giver, amen. Thank God for repentance. Amen. And the Lord said that repentance and remission of sins be preached in my name beginning at Jerusalem. Now why would He say to begin at Jerusalem? Well, first of all, that's where all these events had just happened. That's where he was crucified. That's where he conquered hell and the grave, and he got up out of the grave. It's the place where the facts occur. He said it started in Jerusalem because it's to the Jew first, then also to the Greeks. He said, begin preaching in Jerusalem because that was home for these men. You go to your friends, your family, and your neighbor. And if we haven't preached it to our friends and our families and our neighbors, we don't have a whole lot of business preaching it somewhere around the world. It always begins at home, but it never stays there. I think about in Jerusalem. They were preaching to those who were very hard sinners. They had just nailed Jesus to the cross. They had paid bribe money to try to stop the voice of the resurrection from going forth, and yet the Lord said, you take the gospel back there, and you know what? Saul of Tarsus got saved by the grace of God, and he said, when God saved this old Jew, he saved the chief of sinners, and that tells me of the power of the gospel to change even the chief of sinners, and if God can save the chief, He can save the rest of the tribe. And as Matthew Henry said, we dare not despair at the hardest of souls being converted when we look at a man by the name of Saul of Tarshish. And when we look at those hardened Jews that did get saved and carry forth the gospel of the Son of God, that puts in us a strength, a courage, and a grace to say we can go forth and preach the gospel to any man, woman, boy, or girl. with the hopes that they too can be saved by that same divine power. Hallelujah. What am I to preach? Preach repentance and remission of sins. I want to say it like this. Sinners do not get saved with a balled-up fist. You don't come to Christ with a balled-up fist and say, you can deliver me from hell, but you're not running my life. If that were the case, my friend, there'd be nobody lost. Who wants to go to hell but A.C.D.C. and all of their bunch? I never did want to go to hell. I mean, I never did like that crowd, Highway to Hell and Hell's Bells and all that. But you know what, I didn't want to resign and put up the white flag and yield to Him. But that night when I got under conviction, friend, I poured my soul out before God lock, stock and barrel and called on Him without any reservations. And when lordship and repentance begins in salvation, it don't end there. It continues all your life. If you're not repenting now, you probably didn't repent when you made a profession. Because if you make a profession and call on him in saving grace, there is the activation of repentance and it is the power, the gift of God. But it will continue on the rest of your life. And it's a repentance not to be repented of. And then not only repentance, but remission of sins. Oh my goodness, what a blessed message to have remission of sins. all the laws I've broken, all the transgressions that I've done, all the guilt and the burden on my soul, to know that they can be washed away, that my slate can be cleansed in heaven, that my conscience can be purged by His blood, that I can be sprinkled from an evil conscience and be washed in the blood of the Lamb of God, amen. I was preaching in a tent meeting down in Orangeburg, South Carolina one time. They had a men's home there, and I preached night after night, and there was an old gentleman in his seventies or in his eighties raised his hand at his loss, but he never would get saved. on Thursday night after the service was over. We were all just meandering around. I went to the old gentleman and I asked him, why won't you get saved? He said, man, God can't save anybody like me. I said, what do you mean? He said, I was on Pork Chop Hill. He said, I've killed men with my bare hands. He said, I've watched them gurgle in their own blood. He said, God couldn't save anybody like me. I said, do you know who Saul of Tarsus was, Paul the Apostle? He said, yes. I said, do you know he had the blood of Christians on his hand? He wasn't fighting against communist enemies because he was standing for his government and having to go to war, but he was murdering God's people. And yet Ananias said, washing away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. And as he called on the name of the Lord, God washed away all of his sins. The man wasn't there the next night. He'd ran away from the men's home. He came back on Sunday night, and the old fella got saved. He said, I couldn't get over that. Thinking about the writer of most of the New Testament, what a guilty sinner he was, and yet God in mercy washed away his sins. And I'm glad we can hold up the examples of the scripture and we can testify to men of all kinds and creeds and say, if God can save a wretch like me, God can save you as well. Hallelujah, what a message we have to preach, beginning at Jerusalem, then going to all the world. Then I want you to turn, if you will please, to the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John. Chapter number 20, verse number 21, Then said Jesus unto them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. And whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. And then he talks about Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, which was not with them when Jesus came. And the other disciples therefore unto him said, We've seen the Lord. And he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I'll not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the mist, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and hold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me and hast believed, blessed are they which thou hast not seen and yet believe. Now in this commission we see the passing on of the gospel message. The Lord Jesus has preached it for those three and a half years, but now He's going to have them perpetuate the same message that He has preached. And He said, As the Father has sent Me, even so send I you. We hold forth great missionaries and we read the stories of great martyrs of the faith, but there's never been a greater missionary that came on a longer journey and did more than the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, I'm not asking you to do something that I have not done. I left the ivory palaces of glory, came down and enrolled myself in the body of flesh, born of the virgin, lived among sinful men, died yonder on Calvary's cross, and came forth in resurrection power. And he said, now as the Father has sent me, even so I'm sending you. And I wonder tonight, are we going forth as the Lord Jesus Christ has commissioned and called us to go forth? Now we read in John chapter number 21, there's another aspect to this commission in chapter number 20 and 21. Simon Peter has been fishing, and Jesus came, and he called the disciples out of the Sea of Galilee, and it says in verse number 15 that the Lord had put some fish on the fire, and when they had dined, Jesus saith unto Simon son of Jonas, Lovest thou these more than me? And he saith, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my lambs. And he repeated this three different times. Peter, do you love me more than these, more than these fish, more than the old life? He was a fisherman. He grew up on that lake. Jesus had called him from there, but now he's turned to go back there. If you love Me more than you love these, all of these things that you're working and laboring for, then you go and you feed My lambs. Feed My lambs, feed My sheep. As the Father sent Me, even so send I you. And I'm glad the gospel did not die with the Lord Jesus Christ, but praise God, it is perpetuated throughout this world by those that are going forth sent of him, feeding the lambs and feeding the sheep of God. Now turn to Acts chapter number one, if you will, please. And in this final aspect of the Great Commission is the power of it. He's given four different aspects of the Great Commission and what we're called to do. Now how are we going to accomplish that? Look in verse number 8. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Here we see the power of the Great Commission. We've heard what He wants. He's laid it out plainly, so a fool and a wayfaring man should not err therein. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here's the message, here's what I want you to do. Now how do we do that? He said, Here's how. I'm going to send the Spirit of God, and when He's come upon you, you will be witnesses unto Me. He didn't say you'd have to try to be a witness. He said, Ye shall be witnesses unto Me. And I know that Pentecost only happened one time. I understand that. but also understand in Ephesians chapter number five, God said, be not drunk on wine wherein is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit. We're living in the Laodicean days, and we're experiencing it greatly in America. And what's been in Europe for some time is coming into America. And Laodicea, when the Lord began to minister to them and rebuke them of where they're at in their lukewarmness, He said, the first thing you need is eye salve. The reason they needed eye salve is because their eyes were blinded and they couldn't even see how far away they had drifted from the message that had been preached in the ministry already in those early days. Laodicea was getting away from the power of God and they were saying, we have need of nothing. We've got the bank account, we've got the boys, we've got the buildings, we've got the mechanics, we've got the manpower. Why are you even preaching this message to us, don't you know? We've got pads on the pew, pavement in the parking lot, we've got a fine building, we've got money in the bank. Why are you preaching to us like this? The Lord said, I challenge you to buy some gold that's tried in a fire. And I'm afraid America's fixing to go into the kill. And when she does, we're going to find out in a fiery furnace what's gold and what's fools gold. Right now in the Middle Eastern countries, there's a lot of folk being martyred for the faith. I don't know if you've kept up with it and seen the pictures of ISIS going in to these different villages and they'll give the people a mandate that either you will deny your religion if you're a Christian, you'll deny your Christianity one week or you will die. And I've got pictures on my phone right now of men crucified on crosses because they would not deny their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And while we sit here in comfort, our brothers and sisters, many of them are dying around the world. and you don't serve God for a paycheck or a pat on the back or popularity in a situation like that, you're serving because there's something bigger than you filling your heart and empowering your soul, driving you forth to do what God wants you to do. And these men got full of the Holy Ghost in the book of Acts, and my friend, they were like firebrands among the world and everywhere they went. The people said, These that have turned the world upside down have come hither also. And they may not have liked the men of God, but they took note that they had been with Jesus and everywhere they went there was a divine fire of God burning and a heavenly mark made upon all those communities. And if we're to do what God has called us to do and accomplish what God wants us to accomplish, we need to be filled afresh and anew with the Holy Ghost of God. We as good Baptists do a lot of knee-jerk reaction just because the nabbit and blabbit crowd's on TV and they're talking in something even a gray squirrel don't understand and they say that's the Holy Ghost. A lot of times we want to shy away from the message of the fullness of the Spirit of God. But you know, whenever I see a scarecrow in a corn patch, that scarecrow is there to keep the crows out of that good corn. And the devil puts up scarecrows in every good truth, and he has people go overboard or present it falsely to try to keep God's people out of those fruitful grounds that the Lord wants us to feed on. And one of them is every believer here, including this preacher, has to be filled with the Spirit of God if we're to be effective witnesses in this world. Jesus said you shall be witnesses, not have to try to be a witness. You get full of the Holy Ghost and the songbirds will start singing in your heart. the joy bells will begin to chime in your soul. Suddenly there'll be meekness, temperance, faith will begin to rise up in your heart. Thank God all those fruits of the Spirit in Galatians chapter number five will issue forth and people will look at you and say, now there's something different about that person. And you'll be an effective witness because the world cannot produce the fruits that only the Holy Ghost can produce in a person's life. While I was preaching in Australia a little while back, there was a man and woman who came and heard me preach that had traveled all over the world in a yacht. And they had landed in that town, and this was the first time they'd come to the church. Somebody had invited them to the meeting. We're standing back at the back before service, and I talked to them, and I asked them if they were saved. And they both said, Oh, yes, we're saved. We know the Lord. And I said, Traveling on a yacht around the world, tell me how you got saved. And the lady said, We landed in a certain port. And I got a job teaching women's aerobics. And she said while I was teaching women's aerobics, there was a young lady that came to my class and stood right in front of me. And she said after two weeks I had all I could stand of that girl. She said, I looked at her and said, are you religious or something? She had the brightest smile and the most vibrant, joy-filled spirit. And she said, are you religious or something? That girl said, no ma'am, I'm born again. I know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. She said, what do you mean by that? and said the girl wrote her a two-page long letter on how to be saved, gave her a Bible, and in the stillness of her own bedroom, she read that letter, read the word of God, God put her under conviction, she got saved by the grace of God, and her and her husband both were saved, and they traveled all around the world, and wherever they went, they tried to give out the message of the gospel, and I said, you know, how about that? You get full of the Holy Ghost, you get full of God, and you shall be a witness. And that's the power of it all. First time I ever preached in my brother's native country, India. I got off that airplane, Brother Jim, and I said, what's a country boy from Green River, North Carolina doing in a place like this, trying to convince this crowd that's been born and raised in these temples and doing what they're doing, drinking milk after the rat God, bowing down to the elephant God and all the other gods that they have, how can I convince them to change their mind? And the Lord spoke to my heart and said, you can't. but you preach it and I'll take care of that. That night in those Hyderabad gardens, after all that travel, preached that night, there was a dear little old lady. She came forward, waddling down the aisle with that dot between her eyes, and she said, I'm ready to renounce all my gods and my goddesses, and I wanna trust Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And that was the first one that got saved by the grace of God, since then we've been going into those villages time and time again seeing lives changed and what a blessing it is to see that work of God in their hearts to go down to the baptized and see them baptized and then come back up to the church and the preacher say now you gotta give them a new name And the first time they did that, I said, why, they don't have a name? Yeah, but they're named after a Hindu god or goddess and they don't want to bear that name anymore. So there's Hannah's and Daniel's and Samuel's and Emmanuel's, praise God, Mary's and Martha's running around all over India because the power of the Holy Ghost can take that word whether it's Pakistan, India, Russia, Romania, Timbuktu or Kalamazoo. We've got a great commission and he said the authority The power of it is in the Spirit of the Living God. See, H. Spurgeon said, The great commission is to the church of this age. This is our commission as well as theirs. From it we learn our first business is to make disciples of all nations. And we can only do that by teaching them the truth as it is revealed in the scripture and seeking the power of the Holy Spirit to make our teaching effective in those we try to instruct in divine things. That commission was theirs, but that commission is ours. And every believer needs to take it personally. Whether you're a preacher, a missionary, a young boy, or a great-grandfather retiring from his work job, a mother is a homemaker, we all need to take it personally. Lord, what part can I play and what do you want me to do? Let's bow our heads and hearts before Him. What a great task and what a great commission we have to follow. Our instrument players are coming. Brother's getting us a song. You might want to come tonight and just seek his face. Lord, you've given that commission to us. I feel unworthy of it. Lord, I want to be more involved in doing what you've told us to do than ever before. In this mission conference, Lord, I want you to work in my heart and show me what role or what part I'm to play. And I wonder tonight, would you come and unreservingly yield yourself, not even knowing what He's calling you to do, but go ahead and unreservingly say, You are the King. I am your servant. Lord, I want to be involved in that great commission, whatever facet, whatever way you want. Let's stand all over the house. Our number? Page 157. You know the song. You probably don't even need a book, but we do need to obey God. You want to come pray with these, pray and just slip out and come as we sing. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. While I was preaching in the Republic of Georgia, I went by Goree and went to Stalin's museum. And the way communism spread like wildfire, was young people got a hold of that false message and they carried it like firebrands everywhere they went. And the way the gospel will be spread to this generation is young hearts that will get a hold of this glorious gospel. We may not be anything, but thank God we've got the greatest gospel that ever has been or ever will be. And the Lord's not interested in who you are, He's interested in whether you'll yield to His hand or not. I can take a baseball bat and they'll strike me out every time in the major league ranks. But you put it in somebody's hand that knows how to use it and they'll hit you some home runs. We're just like a baseball bat, let's yield to His hands. And when the Lord takes hold of you and your five loaves and your two fishes, then we'll see souls saved and a great work accomplished. Let's obey God tonight. Sing that second stanza as we sing, obey the Lord. Lord, now indeed I find thy power and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart of stone. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sen had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. May I sing it with your heart? For nothing good have I Whereby thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all Oh, to him I owe Sin had left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Sing that last stanza one more time and listen to the phrase, Jesus paid it all, now all to Him I owe. The day I surrendered to preach, I said, Lord, you did all that for me. The least I can do is yield to you. And I knew God had been pulling on my heart, but I'd been wrestling and fighting it. I didn't want to do that. But boy, what a blessed relief when I said, yea, Lord, yea, Lord, whatever you want. Sing that last stanza one more time. And when before the throne I stand in him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat. Jesus pained in our Oh, to him my old sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Amen. What a beautiful thought, huh? Knowing, Hey, if you're saved here tonight, you know what you were. You know what we are without Christ. To have that knowledge as our brother preached tonight, forgiven, sins removed, washed white as snow. Hallelujah. Thank God for Jesus Christ. Might we worship him. Well, it's been good. Thank you so much, brother. It's been good. Just, you know, it's, uh, it's, it's sort of like apple pie. You get one piece and that first piece tastes like more. And so I'm going to be back tomorrow for more. Amen. Well, it's been good. Let's bow in prayer. Father, we thank you tonight for Jesus. Oh Lord. I pray I never get over what you did in my life 40 years ago. Thank you, Lord. Oh my. Thank you for saving a wretch like me. And father, this evening, I pray as we, uh, we've heard this message concerning this commission, what a complete total commission it is with every resource supplied the power father, the message. Oh God, thank you that we don't go on our own strength. We don't go on our own wisdom, but we go in the power and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So father, as we would say our amens for tonight, I pray that you'd rest this precious people, bring his father, those that are able to be here in the morning for the sessions in the morning. And then again, tomorrow night, as we come again to hear from you, father, we, there's a world that needs you need your son. Jesus needs the good news of the gospel. Help us father. Oh God, help us to all the more. have our hearts set afire for you. We love you, Lord. Thank you for your love for us. In Jesus' name, amen. Brother John, would you come and we'll sing a chorus as we're dismissed. Brother Randy, let's go to that. Let's grab a hymn book, turn to page 118. Or if you just know the chorus, let's sing the chorus of that, I Need Thee Every Hour. I need thee, oh, I need thee. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. You're dismissed.