Plates, flat things where you place food on. Maybe you thought about what are these plates made of? Do you know what they're made of? They're made of porcelain, or china as they're also called, a material that is made by heating materials, generally including a material like kaolin in a kiln, to temperatures between 1200 and 1400 degrees Celsius. The strength and translucence of porcelain relative to other types of pottery arises mainly from vitrification and the formation of the mineral mullite within the body at these high temperatures. And definitions vary, but porcelain can be divided into three main categories. Hard paste, soft paste, and bone china. So porcelain that these plates are made of, or cups, tea cups, coffee cups, those materials, porcelain, and it's also called china. as I also said, or fine China. And you may wonder why are they called China in English? Well, it's because it came to Europe through China. It was an imported product that was invented in China. It went to India, to It went west, and soon enough it came to Europe, where Europe was trading in the 19th century with China and they brought ships that sailed from Europe, from England, from Sweden, from Finland maybe, from many different countries. They sailed with their ships to trade with China and they traded porcelain, they traded silk and tea. and paid with silver and paid this to China. So they had these large sailing boats or sailing ships that went from Europe, went down They didn't have trucks, they didn't have airplanes, they had ships, and also they didn't have the Suez Canal in Northern Africa, so they had to take their boats down south along Africa and pass the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, round South Africa, and go up to China eventually to bring these goods, silver to China and bring back china, porcelain, silk and other goods. The English also traded opium with the Chinese. It was used as a health drug in medicine. They smoked the opium. Eventually it started to become a recreational drug for the Chinese, so they smoked opium for recreation and they became addicted to it and the English exploited this, the English merchant made the Chinese addicted to opium so that they could sell more opium to them and make a lot of money. And someone who went to trade with China, someone who went by these boats, they could have enough money for that year as they went to China to trade and came back. In just that year they would have enough money to to live on for the rest of their lives. But after a while, China started to ban opium and also declared sort of a war against opium, against England. They started fighting the English merchants, and this took a few years. This was in the 18th century. But the English Royal Navy was still stronger than the Chinese Navy and defeated the Chinese, or they conquered some of the Chinese armies. and forced the Chinese to sign a treaty, the Treaty of Nanking, which was an unequal treaty that forced the Chinese to still not shut down the trade but to keep the trade open and to have a few ports open for trade. They were called the Treaty Ports and they also ceded Hong Kong to England for perpetuity. But one of these Treaty Ports was the port of Shanghai And these treaty ports were sort of the setting for the missions in that time. It was a political thing, but it was also how the English, the Europeans, Christians could engage in missions to the Chinese people. They could come to these treaty ports freely and be there and share the gospel. And also, this was the time, this was the setting that the missionaries had. And one of these missionaries was Hudson Taylor, James Hudson Taylor. So this is what I'm going to talk about. here now, Hudson Taylor. And the historian Ruth Tucker says about him that no other missionary in the 19th century since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematized plan of evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor since the Apostle Paul. So James Hudson Taylor, he was a missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission. And now what we're going to look at in Hudson Taylor's life is how he lived For Christ. This conference is about Christ. This is a conference where we are to talk about Christ and exalt Christ. And we're not going to exalt men or admire men or human beings. other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we do find in Hudson Taylor's life is that he did not live for himself, he did not live to exalt himself, or his own mission, or his own ministry. He lived and worked for Christ alone, and Christ was all of his life. He was saved by Christ. He was born in 1832 in Barnsley in England. He was born to a chemist. His father was a chemist and a Methodist lay preacher, James Taylor, and his mother was Amelia They were both, his parents were Christians. They gave their children a Christian upbringing. They had family devotions. His father was a lay preacher and he enjoyed having company at his home. People came to his home where they were talking about the things of God and often the subject of missions came up during these conversations. and the children were also there listening in to the conversations and often talked about missions, stories about mission trips, stories about different countries, different cultures and especially his father's interest was in China. He talked a lot about China to his children and to people and They taught their children about China, they had books about China, and they actually wanted their son Hudson to become a missionary to China. And early as a child, Hudson also had the desire to go as a missionary to China. to carry out mission to spread the gospel in China. But no one is born a Christian and no one inherits their parents' religion just like that by birth, and Hudson was no exception. left the faith and tradition of his parents and started working at 17 years old. He was working at a bank where his co-workers, he was a clerk of sorts at a bank where his co-workers were very worldly, they were a bad influence on him. They talked about worldly things, they had worldly pursuits, they wanted things, they wanted riches, they wanted money, they wanted stuff and other worldly desires and Hudson was caught up in all this. at the bank, but one day he found a tract, a gospel tract, left by his father, I think. And as he found this tract, he thought that, well, I know what this is going to say. It's going to have a story. and then it's gonna have a moral cookie at the end, a gospel message, but I thought I'm gonna just read the story and be entertained by the story, and then I'll leave the other, the moral story, the moral cookie, the gospel message, I'll just ignore that and enjoy a good story. But anyway, he read this tract, this gospel tract, and at the same time, his mother and his sister, he had several siblings, but most of all, his mother and his sister were praying for him. They wanted him to come to the faith and knowledge of Jesus. His mother, at the same time as Hudson picked up this tract, and read it his mother was at the same time praying for him in her chamber and Hudson writes about when he was reading this tract, he writes, while reading it, I was struck with the phrase, the finished work of Christ. Why does the author use this expression, I questioned? Why not say the atoning or propitiatory work of Christ? Immediately, the words, it is finished, suggested themselves to my mind. What was finished? At once I replied, a full and perfect atonement and satisfaction for sin. The debt was paid for our sins. And then came the further thought, if the whole work was finished and the whole debt paid, what is there left for me to do? And with this dawned the joyful conviction, as light was flashed into my soul by the Holy Spirit that there was nothing in the world to be done but to fall down on one's knees and accepting this Savior and his salvation, praise him forevermore. And that's where Hudson Taylor came to salvation, came to saving faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone. And at the same time, his mother was praying for him. And when she was praying, she had the sense that something had happened to her son, that her prayers had been answered, and that her son had come to faith. And he didn't tell his mother at first. He just went to his sister to tell her that now I have become saved. And then his mother came to him and congratulated him on his new birth. And he asked, I told my sister not to tell you. And she said, well, she didn't tell me, but God told me what had happened. So there he was saved and in 1851 he was baptized and he started to reinvestigate this interest he had in going to China. He was saved by Christ and he wanted to live for Christ and he wanted to do this for Christ to go on a mission to China. One of his famous quotes is, there are many famous quotes by him that I will quote, but this is one, he says, the Great Commission is a command. to be followed. The Great Commission is not an option to be considered, but it is a command to be followed. He saw that it was a command by Christ when Christ says in the Great Commission, you know, where he tells at the end of Matthew and at the end of Mark, he tells his disciples to go out into all the world and preach the gospel to all creatures, make disciples of all nations. That was a command by Christ, and it was not an option to be considered. It was a command to be followed, to be obeyed. So again, he had this from his childhood, the thoughts of China. His father, James, who used to lament the indifference that the church there in England had to China. And he asked, why do we not send any missionaries there? We are so many Christians here in England. Why don't we send missionaries to China where there are no Christians, where they haven't heard the gospel? And Hudson had early made up his mind to go to China, read this book, but his parents had given up their hope. But now Hudson was back again, back in the faith. He had been come saved, but he was still wrestling with his sin. He was wrestling with God. He needed a breakthrough. He wondered, How can I get closer to you, God? How can I get rid of these sins that I have in my life? He was still wrestling, struggling. There was something missing. There was something he needed. He needed to be utterly at God's disposal. He felt this very urgent need to become utterly at God's disposal and given to His will and service, but there was something that was keeping him back. He was down struggling, he was down alone on his knees praying to God praying, kneeling down, asking God, pleading with God, and he writes again, never shall I forget the feeling that came over me then. Words can never describe it. I felt I was in the presence of God entering into covenant with the Almighty, I felt as though I wished to withdraw my promise, but could not. Something seemed to say, your prayer is answered, your conditions are accepted. And from that time, the conviction never left me that I was called to China. And it was as if he heard God say inaudibly, then go for me to China for Christ. So although he had in the back of his mind since his childhood to go to China, this was a moment that he needed where he really understood that he was actually called personally by Christ himself to go to China. And after this he began studying He began studying medicine so that he could go there to China to practice medicine and to also help sick people at the same time as he was preaching the gospel to them. He also started studying Chinese. He studied Chinese on his own, by himself. He got a Chinese Bible with Chinese signs in them. He couldn't read them. And he taught himself some Chinese by comparing the Chinese Bible and the English Bible, looking at the signs, where were these signs used in different passages of the Bible. And he managed to figure out certain meanings of these Chinese signs. So already when he came to China, then finally he knew a few of the words and signs, what they meant. But there were still some problems. for missionaries to go to China. As I mentioned in the beginning, the ports were open, there were these treaty ports that were open so that English Westerners could go to these treaty ports and be there, and they could be missionaries there, but it was completely forbidden for Westerners to go further into China from these port towns. It was forbidden, it was closed to them. So that was a problem to them. They could not go beyond these treaty ports. But Hudson, as he was studying in England, he found the Chinese Evangelization Society in London, which sent missionaries to China and was associated with a Dr. Charles Gutzlaff or Karl Gutzlaff, a German man who had made many risky attempts to go into China, to go further in, deeper into China. He even disguised himself as a Chinese. He put on Chinese clothing, Chinese haircut and those things so that he could be disguised and go incognito into, deeper into China, and this became an inspiration for Hudson later on. Anyway, Hudson found the Chinese Evangelization Society so that he could go to China. The first time he went to China was in 1854. He took a ship from Liverpool in 1853 and sailed for China as an agent of the Chinese Evangelization Society. And he came to Shanghai He went in 1853, he arrived in 1854 in Shanghai, in one of these port towns. Shanghai, of course, in China. I looked the direction where it is and it's about 7,000 kilometers that way. There is Shanghai. If you want to have a concrete example of where it is, So if you face there, you will see Shanghai, if you can look very far. And when he came to Shanghai, his first year there, it was the civil war there in Shanghai, and he almost got killed in this civil war, but he survived. He found his wife, Maria Jane Dyer, and married her in 1858 in a Presbyterian compound in Ningbo. So he was there with his wife. His wife was also a missionary. And he got married there, and they served together. Then he went back to England. He would visit China about 11 times and go back and forth between. He went to England and was having talks or speaking about China, speaking about the work in China, speaking in different churches to different people. And he found that there was a great interest from many people to go to China, not only to the port towns, but to go deeper into China, to go into the forbidden territories, to spread the gospel not only in the port towns, but actually to all the provinces of China, deeper into China, to the inland of China. And people were asking him, is there any way, is there any missionary society that I can join that will send me to the inland of China so that I can go as a missionary to those unreached peoples who live deeper in China. And unfortunately, there was no such missionary society. The evangelization society he was working with and those who were there, they were very cautious. They did not want to offend the Chinese authorities. They did not want to overstep where they could go and were sort of discouraging to those who wanted to go as missionaries further into China. It would be bad for England politically, it would be bad for the trade, it would be bad for everything if they would have people who would break these restrictions, who would go over the limits, go over and deeper into China. So there were no such missionary organizations And what do you do when you see this need? What did Hudson do when he saw this need and he did not know that he saw this need, he saw this demand or this desire for many people to go as missionaries to inland China, but there was no organization to take them. Well, he founded his own organization, the China Inland Mission, in 1865, together with William Thomas Berger. They founded the China Inland Mission and in less than one year they had accepted 21 missionaries to go there. And it's really interesting to read about the China Inland Mission and their sort of their mission statement. Hudson wrote about the core values of the China Inland Mission, and it's really interesting to read. First he writes, the China Inland Mission was formed under a deep sense of China's pressing need and with an earnest desire Constrained by the love of Christ and the hope of his coming to obey his command to preach the gospel to every creature, its aim is, by the help of God, to bring the Chinese to a saving knowledge of the love of God in Christ by means of itinerant and localized work throughout the whole of the interior of China. So the mission statement was to do this for Christ, for God, by the help of God, and all who went out as missionaries should go in dependence upon God for temporal supplies. This he writes, They would not ask for money. They would depend on God. They would not ask people for money. They would not fundraise. They would just ask God. They would depend completely on God. And they would not go into debt. They would not borrow money to be able to do the things in China, to do their ministry. They thought that if you borrow money, that is a way of saying that you want something now that God is not yet providing you money for. And it's a way of not trusting that God in the right time will supply the right needs in his time. So they would not ask for money, they would not borrow money, they would depend completely upon God. If this is God's work, God will supply it. He said, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies, according to Philippians 4.19, where it says, my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. They had a non-solicitation policy, they would just lay these needs before God in prayer and if this was really God's will, if this was really God's work, He would provide and they would not ask people for money, they would be completely relying on free will offerings by people that they have not asked for, but that people would give of their free will as God would lead them. It's the same policy as we heard George Miller had, that Joel mentioned this morning, And he was also inspired by that and he actually received donations from Spurgeon and George Miller for the work in China. Many times he was in dire straits, in dire need. He didn't have any money for the next day. But he relied on God and the next day he would have an envelope with all the money that he needed. God showed himself faithful. And even at, he was speaking in many places in England, in America, many different places. He was speaking one time in D.L. Moody's church. or at a conference, and D.L. Modi asked Hudson, should we take up an offering on this meeting after you have spoken so that people can give money to your ministry? And he said, no, we have a non-solicitation policy. We will not ask for money. So please don't raise an offering. Don't ask for collection. Don't ask for money. God will supply. So he was speaking and after he was speaking the next day, a man who had been at this meeting came up to him and gave him 5,000 US dollars. Back then it was a lot more than it is today. And this man said that if you had asked for money yesterday, if you had taken up an offering, I would just have given you $5. because that's what I had on me. But now I will give you 5,000 US dollars. So that's how God showed his faithfulness and how God rewarded this for Hudson. But it's important to also say that he didn't think that it was wrong to ask for money or to solicit funds for your ministry. This was his philosophy, this was George Miller's philosophy, this was this faith-based ministry. that they had, it was not for everyone, but he thought that it would glorify God the most if we relied completely on God and will not ask for money or solicit money, ask people for money, but completely trust in God to supply us for his glory. So that was the values of his mission. And in 1866, he returned to China with his new missionaries. The party, he went with 16 missionaries in the China Inland Mission. And Taylors and his four children, his wife and his four children, And they had taken to heart this thing also that they should dress up like Chinese, they should adopt their clothing. He said, let us in everything unsinful become Chinese, that by all means we may save some let us adopt their costumes, acquire their language and study to imitate their habits, and so that we can go be invited into their houses and live in their houses. Back in that time, picture yourself the missionaries back then or the English missionaries, they showed up in China with English clothing, like, yeah, suits, like we were here. And that was completely foreign to the Chinese people. They looked nothing like them. And they had their big noses and round eyes and different haircuts. So Hudson Taylor, he thought that this was a stumbling block for the Chinese. They will not invite us in their homes. They will not accept us. They will not listen to us. If we look completely different than them, we need to blend in so that it becomes easier for them to listen to us. And it's the same thing as Paul says, that I have become all things to all men in order that I may save some. He wanted to remove these unnecessary stumbling blocks that would make it harder for the gospel to be listened to by them. The gospel itself is a necessary stumbling block. The message of the cross is a stumbling block and meant to be a stumbling block. It is the power of God for those who believe, but a foolishness and a stumbling block for those who don't believe. But our clothes, our language, our customs, are not a necessary stumbling block for people. We need to remove them. This was Hudson's philosophy. That's why he dressed up like Chinese. He cut his forehead and they looked like Chinese in their clothing. And they were very criticized for it by the other English missionaries, the other Western missionaries. They thought it was immodest. They thought it was scandalous, especially for the women to dress up with these Chinese clothings. So they were frowned upon by the other missionaries. But it was still shown to be a successful strategy. They were easily invited into their homes. They could easily spread the gospel among the Chinese. And Taylor, in total, he came to spend 51 years in China and bring the society was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country, to China. They started 125 schools and directly, as a direct result of this work, 18,000 Chinese became Christian, became saved, came to faith. But what is really fascinating about Hudson Taylor was not what he did, his mission, those things, but that his life was for Christ. Christ was his all and still is his all, as he now is with Christ. But he said about Christ, the vine is not the root merely, but all. Root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit. And Jesus is not that alone. He is soil and sunshine, air, and showers and 10,000 times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth. He saw that Christ is everything. Christ was everything to him. It was, he was his life, his all, his everything. And really, after years of being a missionary, at age 37, he entered into what is called the exchanged life, or what he called the exchanged life. It wasn't enough that he had dedicated himself to Christ, that he had gone on a mission for Christ, all the more he came to this experience or this exchange life where he said that God has made me a new man. That was in 1869 when he was 37 years old. He was already a Christian, he was already a new creature in Christ, but still he sought Christ so much He wanted so much of Christ. He thought that this was missing, something was still missing for him. He wanted more of Christ. And he had this moment where he got, God gave him more of Christ. And it was as if he had been made a new man again. I think this really agrees with what Jonathan Edwards also says, that we teach Christians to seek God, seek God's kingdom as if they were still lost sinners seeking salvation. The urgency, the passion, the With all that might, still, even if you are already a Christian, you should never stop seeking Christ, stop wanting more of Christ. It never ends. You want more and more of Jesus Christ. And this happened to Hudson when he read a passage on personal holiness from Christ is All by Henry Law. a writer who wrote, this was a commentary on the Pentateuch, the five first books of the Bible, where he shows Christ everywhere in the five books of Moses. And Hudson read this passage and came to this deep sense, this understanding of Christ. And he said this, the Lord Jesus received is holiness begun. The Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing. The Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete. He is most holy who has most of Christ within and joys most fully in the finished work. It is defective faith which clogs the feet and causes many to fall. And he sought this identification with Christ, he sought more of Christ, and he wrote, the sweetest part, if one may speak of one thing being sweeter than another, is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. Galatians 2.20 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So Hudson get this new sight of union with Christ and Christ's fullness and came into a deeper givenness, a deeper yieldedness where he gave himself in a deeper sense and everything he had to Jesus Christ. Now he may have been sort of influenced by a Keswick teaching which goes into error and teaches that you only have to look upon Christ for your sanctification. You don't have to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You don't have to work on your sanctification. So some people went into this error where they became relaxed in their Christian life, they didn't try to fight sin in their life, they just said that, I rely on Christ for my sanctification, I don't have to do anything. It's clear that Hudson did not go into this error, even if he uses some of those phrases or had read some of that or been somewhat influenced by that. And John Piper, he discusses more in-depth his relation to this Keswick teaching. And he concludes that Hudson did not go all into this Keswick teaching and he kept a sound theology that was corrected by his Bible knowledge. He still knew what the Bible said. And he did not go passive in his holiness. Although he says these things that it's Christ, Christ, As it's shown here, he gave his life to the service, to the work for Christ and sought that diligently with fervor, with fire inside, with passion. And it is true that sanctification is a progressive thing in the Christian life. You do need to go steps forward and sometimes you can take big steps forward where you come closer to Christ in a certain way and get a sort of experience or some sense that you have come closer to Christ, you have come more to Christ-likeness. And we know that Hudson Taylor, all the work he could do, he was able to do this work because of his union with Christ. He felt this union with Christ, understood this union with Christ, this empowerment from Christ. Part of this union with Christ was his suffering for Christ on the mission field. As the Apostle Paul says, Philippians 3 and 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on If I may also take hold of that for which I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus." Hudson also felt this way. He wanted more likeness to Christ. He was not finished and he wanted fellowship with Christ even in his sufferings. As Paul also writes in Colossians 1.24, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I am supplementing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions in behalf of his body, which is the church. There is something lacking of Christ's afflictions in a Christian's life, in Paul's life, in Hudson's life, in our life. that we need to supplement, we need to suffer more to become more like Christ. Paul again writes in 2 Corinthians 11, 26, I have been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, all kinds of dangers. These sufferings of Christ is not only direct persecution because you're a Christian, it's also the sufferings, the dangers that comes with the Christian life, that comes with going on a mission, on the mission field, meeting all the kinds of dangers. went through many dangers for Christ and suffered many things for Christ, maybe not as a direct persecution, but because of the dangers that were involved with being a missionary. His first year in China, he was almost killed in the Civil War. In 1868, he survived a riot in Jiangsu. The China Inland Mission was slandered by the British press. They said they almost started a war, which was not true. Fake news is old. Fake news has been around for a long time. Even the British Parliament called for the withdrawal of all missionaries from China because of this riot, because they had been slandered and they said that the missionaries had started this. And the tailors fled from Yangshuo but returned later that year and saw many convert to Christ. He was married two times. His first wife died and he got a second wife and she also died later on. Eight of his 14 children died on the mission field, especially the year 1870 Several of his children and his wife died in the same year. Their son Samuel Dyer Taylor died. Noel Taylor was born and died 13 days after, and his wife Maria Jane died in the same year he suffered the loss of children, family, for Christ. And then he married Jane Elizabeth Foulding in London, who died in 1904 in Switzerland. One time when Hudson was in China he fell from the steps in a river boat and hurt his spine. In the 1900s The year 1900, there was the Boxer Rebellion in China. They were practicing what was called Chinese boxing, which is what we know today as martial arts, kung fu, karate, those things. They were doing this against Christians, against foreigners, and killed 58 of the China inland missionaries, and 21 children were killed. Hudson's response to this was to show the meekness and gentleness of Christ. He did not demand reparations or payment of loss or property or life. He wanted to show the meekness and gentleness of Christ. His outlook on these things was that he said, these people who were killed by the Chinese boxers, he said, they exchanged a murderous mob For the rapture of Jesus' embrace, his presence and his smile, they received a crown of glory that does not fade away, and they walk now with Jesus in white, for they are worthy. He saw that dying for Christ was gain. He was often sick in body as well as perplexed in mind and embarrassed by circumstances. He was slandered a lot and he said, had not the Lord been especially gracious to me, had not my mind been sustained by the conviction that the work is his and that he is with me, I must have fainted or broken down, but the battle is the Lord's and he will conquer. He was not there for his own sake. He was not there doing his own things. He was there doing the work of God, of Christ. The battle is the Lord's and he will conquer. He trusted in Christ for these things. He wanted to cry with David, my flesh and my heart faileth. But that is not his last word, and by grace I too can add, he said, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Though often cast down, I am where I would be and as I would be, save for more likeness to Christ. He wanted more likeness to Christ. In 1905, he was on his last, eleventh and final time in China, and there he died suddenly and was buried at a Protestant cemetery that no longer exists, but they dug up his remains and buried him again at a local church in Xinjiang and at his tombstone They erected his tombstone and there are written the words, sacred to the memory of the Reverend J. Hudson Taylor, the Reverend founder of the China Inland Mission, born 21st May 1832, died 3rd June 1905, a man in Christ. That was the summary of his life. He was a man in Christ. And what he did for Christ and what God accomplished through him for Christ Even today, despite how China is today, despite all the state persecution, Christianity is still growing in China. It's hard to estimate how many Christians there are in China. Some contradict this, but they believe there are up to a hundred million or more Christians in China. Some figures are that 500,000 Protestant baptisms happen in China every year. What we learn from Hudson's life, this was all for Christ. It was not for himself. He did not accomplish these things by himself or for himself. He did it for Christ, and Christ, God used him for his work. We see from his salvation story where he came to the understanding that faith in the finished work of Christ was essential for salvation. He understood that it was not his work. He could not add anything. No man can add anything. You cannot add anything to your salvation. When Christ died on the cross, he said, it is finished. It is finished. He did it 100%. He didn't do 99% and then you do 8 or 1%. He did 100%. If you don't understand or don't Believe that Christ alone and his finished work, where he died for sinners, he took the full penalty, the full punishment for your sin on the cross. If you do not believe this or understand it, you do not have saving faith. Because you do not have complete saving faith in Christ. You have maybe 99% faith in Christ and 1% faith in yourself. No, you have to have 100% faith completely in Christ alone if you are to have saving faith and be saved. Do you as a Christian, as we look here at Hudson Taylor and his life, look at him in how he sought Christ first and his likeness, do you do that? Do you first seek Christ? Do you have complete faith in His finished and completed work? And do you seek Him first and foremost and His likeness? Do that. Seek Him. Seek to be totally committed to Jesus Christ. All yourself, all your ambitions, all your uncertainties, have everything committed to Him. Do you understand what that means? Going on a mission is a way to get more of Christ. It's not an end in itself for you and for your career or for your work or for your ministry. It is a way, a means to get more of Christ in your life, more of His likeness as you serve Him, as you suffer for Him, suffer his sufferings? Are you eager like Paul, like Hudson, to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death? Everyone are not called to be missionaries in foreign countries. but we are all called to Christ, to be more like Christ. If you are a missionary, or a pastor, or a preacher, or involved in some Christian ministry, or if you have a normal, regular day job where you work for the boss You are still to live for Christ where you are in whatever God has called you to do. Paul writes to slaves, to servants in the New Testament. Serve your masters as if you serve the Lord himself, as you work at your day job, working for the man? Do you work as if you work for Christ, as if you work for the Lord? Do you do everything you do for Christ? Hudson said, this is the most famous quote by Hudson Taylor among Chinese people. He said, if I had a thousand pounds, China should have it. If I had a thousand lives, China should have them. And then he corrects himself, no, not China, but Christ. Can we do too much for him? Can we do enough for such a precious savior? He did not go to China for the sake of China. He went to China for Christ, to serve Him, because Christ is worthy, those whom He has purchased. So seek primarily Christ, not a fancy mission or a fancy ministry or work, your call to suffering. Seek Christ. This endeavor Hudson did, these efforts he did, flowed for his desire for Jesus. He wanted more of Jesus. He wanted to serve Jesus. So Hudson Taylor, he was a man in Christ. I don't know how long I've been going on now, but we will conclude. Hudson was a man in Christ. He was saved by Christ. He lived for Christ. He did his mission for Christ. And I will end with this quote from him, where he says, we may fail. We do fail continually, but he never fails. I have continually to mourn that I follow at such distance and learn so slowly to imitate my precious Master. I cannot tell you how I am buffeted sometimes by temptation. I never knew how bad a heart I have, yet I do know that I love God and love His work and desire to serve Him only and in all things. And I value above all else that precious Savior in whom alone I can be accepted. Often I am tempted to think that one so full of sin cannot be a child of God at all. but may God help me to love him more and serve him better. Let us pray. Lord, we come before you and we thank you for this man that you have used, Hudson Taylor, and what we can learn from his life and what you did through him for the sake of yourself, for your own glory, what you did for China and still doing for China and for the rest of the world. Lord, we pray that you will help us all, as Hudson here prays, help us to love you more. Help us to love you more and to serve you better, not for our own sake, not for our own pleasure and for our own well-being, but for your sake alone, for Christ's sake, for your kingdom's sake. May Christ have the reward of his sufferings, and may the whole world be filled with your glory. Amen.