World Missions: Total Spiritual Warfare - Preface

Missionary zeal is slacking off in many of our evangelical churches. It might be expected that missionary interest would be minimal among the liberals as a natural consequence of their false theology. But when fundamental folk fail to fulfil the Great Commission, we must needs ferret out the cause thereof. Such a blight does not just happen any more than the curse causeless does not come. In the Scriptures must be found the cause and the cure.

The whole Bible, read aright, is a missionary book. Bible teaching, expounded aright, begets missionary going and missionary giving. The gospel message, proclaimed aright, produces missionary outreach “among all nations.”

All true Christians agree around the absolute necessity of Christ’s dying and rising again as fundamental to their salvation. The risen Lord made plain to the whole group of assembled disciples the main theme of the Messianic Scriptures when he said: “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved 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” (Luke 24:46-47).

Thousands of pages have been penned by our theologians to fortify and further the great fundamentals of Christ’s redemptive work. Other thousands have been written to promote particular Christian doctrines, to prove the plenary inspiration of Scripture, to preserve precious church ordinances—things which are good in themselves, all very good as far as they go.

But we must read on. The Lord of the harvest did not stop with the “thus-it-is-written” of his “dying and rising.” He went on to point out the ultimate purpose of his glorious redemption: “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations” (v. 47).

Even as Christ was involved in the terrible necessity—“thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ” to suffer and to rise again (v. 46), not less is coupled the inseparable and terrible necessity charged upon us: “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations” (v. 47). These twin necessities God has joined together. Let not man put them asunder.

However, as we search theological works, we can find volumes on verse 46 regarding the atoning work of Christ, but seldom can we discover so much as a paragraph on verse 47, which declares the ultimate purpose of Christ’s redemptive work, viz. that the glad tidings should be “preached in his name among all nations.” Manifestly the Great Commission (of verse 47) is the one great omission of most theologians. Yet here is the one great universal command to the church to preach the gospel to every creature; and he who is wise above that command is wise at his own risk and peril. The present missionary blight which has befallen us is the direct result of our downright disobedience to the ultimate purpose of our grand redemption.

We can thank God for the much missionary literature that has been forthcoming during the past decade. Yet there is a crying need for more Bible exposition on missions. Only thus can vision be re-established, and “where there is no vision the people perish.” Oh, fellow-ministers and missionaries and church elders and Sunday school teachers, hearken! Let our teaching and preaching be crammed with Scripture expositions setting forth God’s ultimate purpose to reach the regions beyond. Then, having laid well those foundations in a fresh “opening of our understanding to understand the Scriptures,” let those expositions be supplemented and illustrated with fresh facts and figures from foreign fields.

“Facts are the fingers of God. To know the facts of modern missions is the necessary condition of intelligent interest. Knowledge does not always kindle zeal, but zeal is according to knowledge, and will not exist without it. A fire may be fanned with wind, but it must be fed with fuel; and facts are the fuel of this sacred flame, to be gathered, then scattered as burning brands to be as live coals elsewhere” (A. T. Pierson).

These sermons are sent forth with the hope that God’s servants everywhere may come to revived missionary activity through a fresh insight into “Missions” as the main theme taught in the Scriptures. That these messages may prove to be fuel to fire the reader’s faith and zeal is the prayer of the author.

Bugle Call to Christian Soldiers! 

Shall your brethren go to war,
and shall ye sit here? (Numbers 32:6)

Your brethren—shall they go to war,
 nd bear the toil and pain,
While idly you remain at home,
 ngrossed in selfish gain?
Perish the thought! Let all respond,
 nd war with might and main.

Our brethren have gone out to fight
 gainst unnumbered foes:
They wrestle not with flesh and blood,
 ut Satan’s hosts oppose;
Equipped with weapons from our God,
 hey heed not wounds or woes.

Our brethren have the price once paid,
 o discharge now they want;
But shall they go alone to war,
 orgotten at the front?
Have we no sense of shame that they
 lone should bear the brunt?

Is there no part that you can play
 n this unceasing fight,
While all around you soldiers die
 ith never help in sight?
Each one can intercede that they
 ill triumph in God’s might.

“Be sure your sin will find you out”—
 his warning let us heed;
And now begin with earnest heart
 o meet our brother’s need;
And let our help be not in word,
 ut by our every deed.

May he who is our captain strong
 tir all our hearts anew,
Until we rally round
 is cross united with the few.
Then in the midst of battle fierce
 he crown will come to view.

—T. S. Rendall