The missionary's manual is found in the Book of Acts, which details the church's movement from its founding to its global expansion. The sermon highlights three key aspects of this manual: Jesus being alive (Acts 1:3), the call to arise and spread the gospel (Acts 10:19-20), and the assurance that comes from preaching Christ with all confidence (Acts 28:30-31). The Book of Acts demonstrates a fourfold movement: the church's establishment, its upward focus on Christ's resurrection, its downward movement through the Holy Spirit's coming, and its forward movement in anticipation of Christ's return. This worldwide scope emphasizes the church's continuous growth through doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer, urging believers to be active participants in God's mission.
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Well, it's a privilege to be here on this lovely Lord's Day, and as this is my last Lord's Day in the will of God here in America for a while, I'm quite positive that the Lord has kept the best wine until the last, as far as I am concerned. And I have enjoyed the fellowship, and by the way, if you continue this good singing, you'll have to go on tour and demonstrate to some of our assemblies to come alive. But I sure appreciate the hearty singing and the fellowship. It's rather unique. I've never been to a conference just like this because last night we began with one of our dear sisters.
And whilst we didn't go on to midnight like most missionaries do, yet at the same time it's one of those unique experiences that we all share together. Because in the things of God, as far as this gospel is concerned, we are to share in the gospel. As Paul writes to the Philippians, we are to spread the gospel, and we are to show the gospel. And that takes in all of us, because there are no draft dodgers in the army of God. And there's no such thing as deferment or putting you on the sideline.
As long as we live in the body, we can bring forth truth to His praise and to His glory. And that's why I'm glad I'm in the army of the Lord and I'm moving forward because the crowning day is coming by and by. Now, during the time that we are together, I would like to take up this morning with you the manual of the missionary. Tonight, the message of the missionary. Then we'll go on through this wonderful book, the Book of the Acts. So this morning, the manual of the missionary. Where do we get our instruction? Who sends us? How are we supported?
And so on. Well, we are only here a short time, but we trust that some of these things will be of help to all. So will you turn in your Bible to God's Manual on Missions, the book of the Acts, chapter one, and I want to read three texts seeking to cover this book in a concise yet comprehensive manner. Acts, chapter one, verse three. to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen by them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
Now we over to Acts chapter ten, and reading at verse nineteen twenty. Acts chapter ten, verse nineteen. While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men speak thee. Arise, therefore, and get thee down and go with them, doubting nothing. For I have sent them. The last chapter of this moving marvelous book, chapter twenty-eighth, verses thirty and thirty-one.
Acts twenty-eight, verse thirty. And Paul dwells two whole years in his own hired house, and receives all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. With all confidence, no man forbidding him. I am sure God will bless you. the reading of his word. Now in the verses that I have read, there are three words which to me give a summary of this marvelous book.
One, chapter one, verse three, a lie. And that has to do with the man of Galilee. The next is a lie. And that has to do with the message of the gospel. And the last one is with all confidence or with all assurance. And that has to do with the miracle of the believer. Because as far as I'm concerned, I have one of the most positive messages that this world desperately mean, because it's censored in Jesus Christ and like the heart of the Bible, it's better to put your trust in the Lord than to put your confidence in men.
So blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. And so here are three little words, a lie, a rise, and assurance. And as I go through this book, I see that it is a fourfold movement. Because it has to do with the church. And as you look backwards, remember what Jesus said, I will do. And thank God it's still going on. And that's why this is the only unfinished book. And in days to come when we all get to heaven, we can read a little concerning the park of the farm.
Because it's all going to be on record. And, oh, that we would labor with this objective in view to God be the glory what great things he has done. The second movement is upward. One has to do with Matthew, Matthew, sixteen, eighteen. I will build. The other has to do with the upward movement. John two, twenty. I will raise it up. Because the great scene is the resurrection of Christ. Up from the dead He arose. Then there's the downward movement.
I will send. And you have the coming down to this earth of the Holy Spirit. And then you have the forward movement. I'm coming again. I will come again. And with your Bible in your hand and studying and seeing what's taking place before your eyes. And you don't know what time it is, then something must be wrong with you as a child of God. Because to me, there is a sense of urgency upon me. And I must do the work that God has given to me, because life at best is very brief.
And so I look upon this in the back words. the upward, the downward, the forward. And that's the kind of business I've engaged in. Then, as you follow through this book, you'll find that it is worldwide in its scope, and that's why we have four again and again and again in it. You remember God's people, They were to continue. People often ask me, what kind, well, who do you belong to? What church you go to? I always tell them I belong to the continuing brethren. They continue steadfast, not bedfast. And you have four things. They continue in the Apostle's doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.
And you take those four words. And what have you got? Well, you've got the establishment of the church. It's the apostolic doctrine or teaching. Then you've got the enjoyment of the church, the fellowship, the schemes of confusion and creature complaints. How sweet to the soul is communion with saints. And that's why I was writing to my wife. And here I said, here I am. And I'm so thankful that God could be among a group of people. They remind me of God's wine because the best wine is kept in the old bottle. Get it? And then we're to continue in breaking a bread, the expression of the fellowship.
And some of God's dear people live and die, and they never know what sweetness and blissness it is in gathering to the name of the Lord Jesus. And I thought this is my last Lord's Supper in this part of the world for a while, and how I pray God that His hand might overrule us and be upon us. Like my father used to say, you know, he'd a little dream someday I'd be in Africa. He said, now don't be like a giraffe. I didn't know what he meant, but I know now always kicking your neck up or taking part two or three times or rising when there's older men and gifts of men in the meeting. And I've learned out of experience through discipline that even though your heart might be bursting with something good that you think that may not always be that way to the other people, especially if you're there all the time.
And some of our morning meetings could be greatly enhanced and the tone lifted that we only knew what it was to enter into the meaning of the breaking of bread. And then the last thing is prayer. And there you have the extension of the church. Because we are to pray that the Lord of the harvest will thrust us out. That means take with both hands and thrust them out. And God will put legs to your prayers and hands to your prayers if you pray believing. That's why I'm on the mission field. Imagine me going to a place like Amaya when one of our good brethren takes six. And I have to teach a class on mission.
And there I'm teaching all those young people. I'm telling them about mission. And I'm still going around in this part of the world. That's why when I go to a missionary conference, I'm so thankful... at a missionary conference that I'm actually on the field or going back to the field. Because so often I'm here or there at a missionary conference and it's all conference committee. And the great thing today is are you willing to go back and even until we get older in life God will always find a niche for us.
But there's such a desperate need in this country when it comes to missions. And such a desperate need to follow the teaching of this book, because as I study this book, there's a fourfold appeal. There is the appeal to my heart. Because the world is in desperate need, and that doesn't matter whether it's Africa or America, China or Canada. But there must be the heart. And then there must be a mind to analyze and assess. And then there must be a will. Here am I, Lord. Here am I. Send me. And there must be a hand to do what I can.
And if I can't go, maybe I can help somebody else to go. And if I have to remain by the stuff while others advance with the story, well then under God, May I be able to do my little part? And that's why many a time when I used to be in North Carolina and scattered in different places over this country, and then God let me get on a ship and go all through the West Indies and fool with my eye. What a desperate need. And I went and spent some time there. Then God took me in an archaeological expedition for six months digging into the bowels of the earth. in Israel and God used to speak to me as I walked the streets and lanes and byways of Palestine.
Well, there's a need here and God gave me a little time there until I wasn't able to stay anymore because of visa requirements. And it's like I said to David Ben-Gurion, he says, you know, he says, everything you stand for, the Christian cuts right across our whole way of life here in Israel. And he says, your little boy is born here. He can stay here, but he says as far as you're concerned, and what you represent and who you represent, it cuts all across Judaism. And he says, I'm sorry, but you can stay as a tourist, but not to live here permanently. And I said, Mr. Ben-Gurion, I'm very thankful for this great privilege and honor of being in your presence and being able to testify for Jesus to, about Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior.
But as your Bible says, because he's a Jew and he knows something about it, I said, you know what Moses said, not a hook shall be left behind. And if I'm going out, my child's going out. And I left that land, but I didn't come home. God took me down through Africa. And I shall illustrate that a little tonight and how God got me to Africa. But looking over this country, and seeing the need. I've been non-flushed at times at the accuracy, at the indifference. And may I tell you as a church or as a local body of believers in this area, wherever you go on this earth or wherever you go with this country, if you find a group of people who are interested in mission and missionary Then you'll find light.
Because if we don't evangelize, we'll fossilize. If we don't go out, we'll die out. And what keeps us alive? Wow, the work of God is reaching out. So today, it rejoices my heart because I was at a little assembly last week giving help. Just as soon as be in some of these small places any old day than in some of these big places where everything has stayed and just so. but they're over at Winter Garden. God bless them. There will be other places for others to go. And there's always something to do. Your business and my business is to have the tools. God will have the work. God knows the work.
And the work is His. And here's three tremendous words. Alive. And some of us are through life. half-day. Why is it that some older people or some middle-aged people seem to get more out of life? and have a greater impetus than many others. Well, of course, some have infirmities, and some have diseases. There's no doubt about it. But taking it in just a general way, what's the difference? Why is it that some people really seem alive?
It's because of what they need. And all the junk that is put on the market today and all the false labels. No wonder people are suffering. We know what it is to try and keep alive. And that's why my wife has had to adopt a whole new way of living because she's got just the one lung and she has cancer. And there's only one way to stay alive. God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think. And then furthermore, God gives us wisdom and intelligence. And the reason why some people have more been vigor and vitality is because just it's a matter of diet.
And when it comes to God's people, the reason why many of us are in Munich, and the reason why our lives are oftentimes so marked by discouragement, is because we fail to get our vitamin B every day, the Word of God. And furthermore, we don't have vitamin A, the atmosphere of prayer, for a man to live in the presence of God and to imbibe the things of God, and it doesn't make a difference? I don't know anything about the Lord. To be carnally minded is what? Death! To be spiritually minded is what? Life and peace, and that goes for all of us.
And if I want to keep the loins of my mind girded up in this dirty deep, defiling world, if I want to have my feet dragging as I go through the dust of this modern earth, if I want to get caught up in the traffic and the pace and the jet age in which I live and find myself all burnt out at the end, what shall I do? They that wait upon the Lord shall renew. or it's given your strength. And they're not always to pray and not to think. And here's this beautiful little word. It says, to whom he showed himself, alive. And the whole tenet of this group is life-giving.
Why? Because the people of God were alive. The Holy Spirit of God is alive. The Bible is alive. And the ministry that has been committed to us is a ministry that's life-giving. And we put so much emphasis today on the negative side of things, the external. And we look about, and then we look within, instead of giving our eyes unto the Lord and realizing that by the help of God we can do all things through Christ who saints and others, by the help of God we can do more than what we think. By the help of God, we can be kept alive like Caleb.
And by the help of God, I can pray for my children like Caleb and pass on a blessing to my children, the upper and the nether spring. And by the help of God, I can enlarge my borders like Javed. And by the help of God, I can endure as seeing him who is invisible. And my eyes can be better as time go on. And though the outward man perished, the inward man can be reused, and here you have alive. And if you just take this little word alive and begin to trace it, how did he demonstrate or prove that he was alive? Well, look at your ten fingers.
Do you remember the Lord Jesus appeared ten times to his beloved people and just begin to trace them and go down them and study them and get on your knees and then you'll find that it's true, it's true, he's alive. And it begins to thrill your heart and then you say, well did he speak to me that way? And then I've gone and stood at the gate of Stephen and I've stood with my children and have often walked around and sat on the hill overlooking the eastern gate, because one of these days I'm going to meet him. And Stephen saw him, and he heard his voice.
You remember John saw him, and I've been to the Isle of Patna. And then Paul saw, I ran out of gas one day going into Damascus, and I had to be pushed. I thought I'd never get there, and I thought, well, if Paul could see this, what time he would have to get. Here I was hanging on for dear life with this fellow, pushing me at the back, and wondering if I'd just get there safely. Well, Paul heard it, he saw it. There are thirteen manifestations that Jesus Christ He actually ate before them. They touched him. They handled him. And one of these days, we shall know him by the print of the nails in his hands.
And the fourteenth time when he comes, we're going to see him. But when he comes the fifteenth time, he's going to come back to this earth. And his feet are going to stand in the mount of all of us. Why five times three? because three is the full number of manifestations up from the grave he arose. Five is the number of God. That's why David had his five moves. And here you see forty days. Why forty? Because it took forty weeks to get you here, to get me here. And if you want to understand forty, take the life of Moses. Takes us so long to learn. But God dealt with that man in a wonderful way.
We begin by sending our kids off to college. And we train their intellect. God didn't begin that way with this man. Three times forty. And we find him being trained as a pupil. We find him as a prince. We find him as God's prophet. And God teaches us in the life of Moses. It takes years. As we're moving along, we think we are somebody. And then God deals with us. And he gives us to know and to realize we are nobody. And then when we come to the end of our shell, we turn everything open to God and over to God. And then God picks us up and he shows us what he can do with someone that hasn't got too good of vocabulary.
Someone that just hasn't got all the techniques and the know-how of this modern generation. And God teaches us that the God of Moses is your God and my God, and he shall be our God, even unto death. And I wonder how many of us who are here this morning have actually had dealings with the living and the true God. And we know exactly when God spoke to us by his Spirit. And we were made alive through faith in the Lord Jesus. And some of us who follow him, I wonder when the last time that the presence of the Lord Jesus was so real in your life.
You could scarcely get in because he's closer than hands and feet. Did the Lord speak to men and women in days gone by? Certainly he did. Does he speak to men and women in our day and generation? Certainly he does. And here it says he's a lie. And that's why I have no time for this business when men pray and try to get all their words together. And then Sunday after Sunday going through the same old hackneyed phrases. and no movement or going out after God and getting a few new expressions and new dealings with God. Because the Christian life, if I know anything about it, is a growing, developing life.
It's like the shining of a light that grows more and more until the perfect day. And God's word tells us we're to grow in grace, graciousness, mellowness. We're to grow in knowledge. Because the world's knowledge puffs us up, but the knowledge of God breaks us down, booms upon our heart, and brings us to the place where we realize nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I bring. And we go out, and we prove what God says. The preaching of the cross is foolishness. But the others see the faith. It's the very power of God. It's the very wisdom of God.
And I cannot but speak the things which I have seen with my eyes, and I have heard with my ears. And that's what he's telling about when he says, who showed himself alive by many implorable proof being seen by them for forty years, and speaking. So you see, they got it with their ears, and they got it with their eyes, and no demon from hell could ever erase it from them. And wherever they went, there were either a riot or a revival. Wherever they went, what blessing attended there. preaching. But today, like my brother-in-law, when I go, oh, let's pray for me, this business of going over American kind of preaching the gospel. And he's just a young man.
But Brother Bob writes, and he says, I've got to send at least two weeks among God's people to get a little reviving and then try and get on for a two-week. But those days seem to be gone forever. And at least it takes time because even God's people need renewing and reviving. And that's why it says, Here ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. It's only as we carry, we learn to triumph. It's only as we wait that we experience the gracious touch of God. I remember reading this track someone gave it to me down in southern Florida just this past week.
I shall never forget that night, alone in my room that evening. I named the decision that was to transform my whole life. And as I knelt at my bedside, I knew that the Lord Jesus was right beside me and he was speaking. I came to him as a little child, although I'd never heard the gospel in my life until that night. He whispered to my heart, I want to. I said, yes, Lord. And then the writer goes on, Have you ever thrown up the blind on a glorious morning and spring? And so it's your heart bursting with happiness as the sunshine streamed through the darkened room.
Well, when Christ came into my heart, the sunlight of God streamed into my soul. And as the days went by and he became precious to me, I began to understand God's plan of salvation. I saw that my former gloomy cells were a natural result of living far away from God. My sins had separated me. And I came to Jesus as I was. I trusted him. And meeting God like this has changed my whole life. And you know, this person, two days later, went into the heart of London, a great big church there called Martin in the Field. And she said, I don't know what to do.
I don't know anything about being saved, but I know I'm saved. And she opened her Bible. And this verse God gave her. And she said, but Lord, I've only known you a few days. Will you make me a witness in Jerusalem? Will you make me a witness in Judea and Samaria and the other most parts of the earth? Well, here Lord, I give you my life. And seven years later... I said to this woman, I said, how on earth God did you ever get into being a missionary to actors and actors? Well, she said, you remember that day you gave me a track and it was safety, certainty and enjoyment.
And she said, that night I was in the theatrical world. And that's the message I needed that night. That was God's timing. And that's why I'll never forget it. And I went home. and that night i did exactly what the track told me to do and what you said to me and she said that seven years ago and i never saw her in my life no dealing seven full years later i looked into the face of this woman in an assembly in glasgow and she said you know god spoke to me i'm going i should be a witness in jerusalem in judea well i said i've just come from jerusalem And I said, if God spares me, I've been digging into the ground, but I'd like to do something in God's own backyard in Emmanuel's land, one of the hardest fields in the world.
And that little woman that I gave a tract to during the war in nineteen forty five, seven years later, she was in my life. Now where is she? She's in heaven. But how long did she live? Eight years. And at thirty-one, she was taken home to heaven. And God gave us the privilege together of witnessing Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the end of the earth. And one day I'm walking down the streets of Singapore and I'm going to speak in a place. And a man says, Are you the fellow that we met back there? And remember that girl that you gave the track to? And he said, I'd like you to have this track.
It's out of print long ago. And how do we know if the Lord reaches you and reaches me just where we'll go. The one thing that throws my heart into life and God's message to you and God's message to me, arise and go. Now, I don't know just where you'll go. I had never dreamed where He would take me or send me. But there's one thing I do believe that God's message says, arise. Why does He say, arise? Because most of us are quite willing to fold our hands. Most of us are quite willing to go the line of least resistance.
But in the things of God, it's no easy task to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It demands courage in grace and grit. It demands everything a man caught. And when you come to the final analysis, self must go. And you're here to take up the cross. And I don't know too much about it. But God's message is arise. Why? He said it to Joshua. But God knew what was ahead for Joshua. Going into a strange country with seven terrible type of people. We got lost to their Martha immorality today.
God's message was to Isaiah. Arise and go. God's message to Jonah. Arise and go. And God's message to the evangelist in chapter eight of this book was arise and go. We'll hear it tonight. God's message to Cornelius. Arise and go. Why? Because you and I have a message. And this message concerns the Lord Jesus Christ. And I need to shake off the lesser of you. I need to shake off my slothfulness. I need to have the voice of the Spirit of God speaking to my heart. See, you can still do something. Some of the happiest and most blessed experiences in life is to meet up with somebody who's walked with God down through the years. And they really love the Lord. And they're getting on in years.
And sometimes they think they're finished. It's wrong. You have your prayers that go up to cause. You have your life. And what an encouragement today. That's why God gave Paul a Timothy. And how much we needed in the things of God today. But when I was starting out as a young man, I remember it so well. Three of the greatest leaders over this country. But I got no encouragement because I was just starting up and I wanted to go away and get trained and further education. And so when I suggested I was going to one of those theological cemeteries, they all went this way because none of them had been there.
And then they all began to worry that I wouldn't come out the right way. And now I find myself again and again on the same platform with some of these men. And if there's one thing that I owe under God, it's men like Harold Harper, so I saw his boy out. And I said, your dad helped me so much as a youth. I'm so thankful just to see you and be with you and to spend a little time with you and have prayer. And the fellow looked at me and said, not many men do this, brother. Well, I said, I'm here because your father was that way with me. And oh, today, what an encouragement our lives can be one to the other.
Because when it comes to the message of the cross, when it comes to the caring force of the gospel, we have our backs to the wall. We are in the midst of a terrible day. And many people don't realize what's happening here with all the demonism that's rampant over the United States. And when I see the terrible decline in the landslide when it comes to our assembly, and the things that are actually covered over, and the politics in Christian things today, I go, oh, Lord, keep me. Lord, help me to keep the right kinds of a light and to be guided of God because these men didn't get their directions from a board.
They didn't get their support from some kind of a group. They got their directions from God. They got their marching orders from their commander in chief. And they put their hands into the nail-scud hand of the Son of God and said, Lord, you leave me. And sometimes trying to get in to have me. If it doesn't come on a Tuesday or Wednesday, there's no hope. If you just don't fit into the schedule, nothing can be changed. And that's why it's all the difference in the world coming to a place where there's a measure of liberty. And where there's a fellowship that you know this is the Lord's doing, it's marvelous in our eyes. But I have this confidence, I have this assurance that he which has begun a good work, he'll put the finishing touches on it till the day of Jesus Christ.
And I have come to this realization that in spite of the things that may happen to us in life, that we can look up into the face of God and we can really know as for God, His way is perfect because He's too wise. to earth and to loving to the unkind and nothing will book its purpose in relation to your life and my life because the counsels of God shall stand and there be many a person on the mission field today if only they had submitted themselves to the Lord. There are different types of missions. There are such a thing as they call home missions. I don't see much difference.
There are such a thing as four missions. but the best mission in all the world is submission. And not many of us learn that one. And when we learn to bow to the authority of Christ and recognize His Lordship, and when we know something of what these people need, the leading and the control of the Holy Spirit of God, we'll have such an assurance in our life. Oh, we'll be able to cast away our fears. We'll be able to rise up in our timidity and our lack of ability and gift. And we'll be, oh, Lord, take us. Use us. Just as I am and when and where. Use us. And you know, the Lord is able to take your life and to take your life.
And he can keep the best wine to the end. And he can fill and thrill your heart. And it can make you what we started out our meeting this morning, a channel of blessings. Because God's purpose in saving you was to make you a blessing to the ends of the earth. How did we do it? You touched this one, that one, and the other one, and that light reached it out. And there's no telling where our light reached out. And that's why meeting people here and around this part of us. Someone met me way over there. Someone met me away in England. I arrived at Phoenix. And I go into the morning meeting and here's a brother because his son has asthma. He'd come all the way from Mombasa.
He says, remember the last time you met me in a little assembly away down in the eastern coast of Africa. And I thought, what a small, small world. And you cut your life away over there, away over there. And those lives reached out. And God's purpose for you and God's purpose for me is to make us a channel of blessing even to the ends of the earth. May the Lord stir our hearts by the spirit of God to realize what C.T. Studd said years ago and put it into a famous cover. Only one life will soon be done. Only what's done for Christ will last. He's alive.
Arise. And be marked by assurance. because of this is yet to be. Shall we sing in closing? We're saved to tell others. Four hundred and ninety-two. We're saved to tell others. All together, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, the man, not the man, not the man.
for the Christ of Calvary. Send them to me by you, to give them where to be. I'll see it. Oh, let them send. If I am God, for all is there ever be.