The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, and believers should not be ashamed of it. It illustrates this power through dramatic accounts of transformation, such as the hydroelectric project at Nyan Kundi, the taming of elephants, and most notably, the conversion of Okalufu, a cannibal from a leopard society. Okalufu's profound transformation and his earnest desire for governmental forgiveness after receiving God's forgiveness highlight the gospel's ability to change lives from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. The message concludes by urging believers to actively share this life-changing gospel with others, emphasizing the personal, person-to-person nature of evangelism.
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I'd like to give an item for a prayer, and if you'd like to show that to me, the effort that's being made in England through pinterest Christians in England to cooperate in evangelism, seeing the godless conditions as we see in America. The contrast is perhaps even more marked in England in the last days. I'd just like to read this one. paragraph. I think this is from Tom Houston, who's a very good friend of mine. He was pastor of the Baptist Church in Nairobi, Kenya for some years, and he knew it very well.
This is the letter he writes, I think in retrospect, as he reviews the year, the highlight of the year may prove to be the assembly of nationwide initiatives in evangelism. Knockingham University in September, for whose planning I was responsible, supported by a good committee and excellent staff. More than nine hundred people came from every county in England and from all the denominations with good representation of their leadership. It was a highly motivating event whose impact on evangelism will be felt for some time to come. I must pray as we go into that program.
the nationwide initiative in evangelism in India I'm going to refer back to Romans chapter one I had the privilege of speaking on this last Lord's day in evening and the time got away from me and I hardly touched the last item the three subjects were and this is Romans chapter one verse fourteen I am Vetter, and the second was, verse fifteen, I am ready to preach the gospel. And the third was, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And I hardly had time to touch on that. I'd like to emphasize that this morning and give an example, one of the examples of the power of the gospel in Zaire. I feel that these accounts of some who have come to know the Lord Jesus, dramatic, can cause the difference between darkness and light was so very evidently evident in their cases that I can pass them on and we can be rejoicing together in what God has done. Notice this sixteen verse. I might mention for some who have come in in the course of the week that I was using this as an outline of our own personal history, connection with going out to serve the Lord, in which I was telling that my grandfather was led to Christ through the faithful ministry on the corner of a black man in Aberdeen, Scotland, Dr.
Christopher James Davis, and how as a family we had sense of tendership to the black people to give them the gospel. And then I was telling how the Lord called me as a young man when I had a Christian young man, when I had ambition for a career in advertising and was studying those things that have to do with the graphic arts, ideas that go into the advertising business and how the Lord turned me around as a missionary was testifying at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, where I was attending evening classes and working during the day in a commercial art and engraving studio, which I at eighteen was the production manager.
And how the Lord that night spoke to me, as the missionary spoke to Jeremiah eighteen about the potter and the clay, emphasizing our need to put our lives into the hands of the Lord as clay, in the hands of a potter to be molded and made according to his will. And this was a changing time in my life. And I told how the family went out in Africa in nineteen twenty nine to serve the Lord there. And the third of these three phrases, I am debtor, I am ready to preach the gospel. The Lord led me to understand that night in Los Angeles. Is verse sixteen, which is the purpose of it all.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation. everyone that believe it. Well, you know, there are all sorts of kinds of power. I remember when we first out there in Africa ventured out to have electricity in our home. We had one of these wind chargers. We put a propeller up in the wind, and as the wind blew, it charged the battery. So we had, every evening, every night, we had electricity in our home from this battery. because of the power. Of course, we needed a charger. We needed the propeller in order to get the power and utilize the power.
And some of you may know we have struggled for some years now to get some sort of power for Niyankundi, the mission station in northeastern Sair. And the purpose of that is that we've been buying diesel fuel at great cost. to provide electricity for Nyan Kundi, for our homes and for the hospital and for the various school buildings and so on. And it's only now that we have realized the advantage of the electrical power from a hydroelectric plant, from the gold mines that are not too far from Nyan Kundi. We've had to build a power line from Nyan Kundi for eighteen miles, and we had to get electric, so I say, metal towers, three-legged metal towers to lift the wire into the air, to carry the current from this point of contact.
Actually, the hydroelectric plant is farther along, but to get the power from a point where we could make a contact with them is about eighteen miles. This whole project has taken us about eight years to accomplish, but we're happy to say this. In the first of August last year, we've had electricity in any quantity we want at Nyan Kundi since for twenty-four hours a day. And the cost is exactly one-th of what we were paying when we were generating our own power with the caterpillar engined and general electric generator, given this thirty-five kilowatt power.
So there are presses and the hospital and the homes all using electric power that just comes from the water. Tonight I'll be showing a picture of this river going down, not actually the water power project, but nevertheless the Shari River. Power utilized. So there it is, a turbine in the water utilizing that water power. giving us electricity at Nankundi and for their own gold mines they carry on their work. Power. I remember too, the one time I was asked to go and kill an elephant that was destroying a field of corn just around the side of the hill at Nankundi.
I went over there early in the morning with a gun, sat waiting in the door on the huts there, waiting for the elephants to leave. Actually, there was only one elephant that morning. I could hear him smashing the corn stalks as he was eating some and just walking and trampling on the others. And as the sun was coming up, I was getting ready to go and take a shot, but he went off into a forest, a little forest that was not far away, the finger of Elijah forest, and I couldn't shoot him. He went off into the forest, and then, rather foolishly, I followed after him. had an African who was carrying the gun so that when the time came to shoot my hand wouldn't be trembling, but I would be able to get a good shot.
We often do that. He went in, followed him in, and we had no difficulty knowing where he went, because he just left a slot of open country wherever he, opened his brush wherever he went. And as I was waiting and getting ready, and the gun was still in the hands of the gun bearer, suddenly he rose up with great furor and came in my direction. Fortunately, their eyes are not very good. Did he see me? He sensed those there, and he passed by very close on the side. Well, how the gunbearer was so excited, he threw the gun up in the air. It came down. I followed it, and when we went, following the elephant,
where it had gone, it had gone into another piece of forest, a little farther along, and then going down had touched a tree, leaned against a tree, it was a large tree, and had just broken it off. And I thought, oh, my, all that power is going to be wasted. We could only utilize that power. Well, I got the elephant, and of course the people were delighted. They had a lot of meat for several days. They eat everything. very much enjoyed. But some years later, I visited a farm in northern Pradesh, Nayar called the Gangarana Bodhio, where the since we're training young elephants.
And I saw seventy-five elephants being trained. They could get them when they're young and train them to do all sorts of garden work. They were pulling plows and pulling carts of this and that and doing things that required a lot of strength. Power. Well, this power we have here, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation. But even as to get to water power we need a turbine or wind power we need a propeller, it has to be that initial thing that gives us the means of availing ourselves of available power.
And for salvation, God's power is the gospel. And as we give the gospel in a miraculous way, lives are changed. those who are walking in darkness see the light of life. The Lord said, If any man follow, I am the light of the world. If any man follow me, he shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. But his joy has been to see so many out there in Africa turning from darkness to light. I think of that verse I often quote of Paul when he was giving his account to Tina Griffith. He said, He had seen the Lord on the road to Damascus, the Lord said, I send thee to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.
They might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. And he said, Whereupon, O King, I was not disobedient to the heavenly this. He went right away preaching the gospel. And so it's been wonderful out in Africa to preach. Gospel and see what God is doing. One day I was walking along in an African village and I saw a boy sitting in the door of his hut and he was he was cleaning an arrow he was a knife in his hand he was trimming an arrow and I like to get people talking on almost any subject so we can get to the gospel eventually and so I said what are you doing?
He said I'm cleaning my arrow and I said Let me see it. And he did. And I looked at it. And in order to get him to talk, I said, it doesn't look to me that it's very straight. Is this a good arrow? And he was quite angry. He jumped to his feet and he said, Don't you say my arrow is a bad arrow. It's a good arrow. I killed an antelope buck with that last week. And the whole village had meat. And you're calling my arrow a bad arrow. I know it's a good arrow. It worked. And that's the way I feel about the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.
But that, which is, if you like, the turbine or the propeller, that which is the means of availing ourselves of the power of the gospel, is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in these days. Because it's God's power for salvation to everyone that believes. And that's why we urge men and women believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to be saved. I want to tell you this morning about a man by the name of Okalufu. I don't expect you to remember the name Okalufu. Okalufu. I went out to a place in the tribe. It's the same tribe of which the man I spoke of yesterday, Marcel Kimreki, had gone.
But this village had not ever had the visit of a missionary. And they heard that, as we went and preached and gave the word, that sooner or later they built a little building, and those who had believed the Gospel were in this building to study the Word of God. And so they, in anticipation of my visit, they built a little chapel. Very, very simple, of course. They built this chapel, and when I went to the village, there they were sitting, and they heard I was coming, and... The first time I'd ever been there, the first time any white man, as far as I know, any missionary certainly had ever been there. And they were sitting around this little chapel that they built, and they were smoking their plates and waiting for me to come and tell them the gospel.
You know, we always ask as we're doing visitation work, safari work out there, Lord, need us to ask, prepared by the Holy Spirit of God. And this was certainly the case, because I preached the word. And one man who trusted the Lord, in the course of the several days I was there, was Ocalufo, an elderly man, a poor little-looking man, and yet his heart was touched. He just lifted his heart to the Lord and very evidently trusted Christ as his Savior. And then a day or two later, as I still was in the village, giving a little follow-up instruction from the scriptures, He came to me and he said, I'm so happy that God has forgiven my sins.
But he says, you know, I'd like the government to forgive my sins too. Because the Lord has forgiven my sins, I know. Isn't it right that he's forgiving my sins? I said, well, certainly you forgive your sins as you confess to him because of the efficacy of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, he said, you don't know, but he said, I'm a I'm a munyota. And that's a word that gives terror to the hearts of many people because there is a leopard club out there, a leopard society out there, known as the vagnota.
Vagnota, singular would be a munyota. A man who is a munyota is a cannibal who is one member of this leopard society in which the members wear leopard skins on their bodies and they creep into a village in the evening when people are sitting around their campfires and in their hands they have an instrument, a wooden handle, and on the end of the handle there are pieces of metal that are shaped to simulate leopard's claws and they creep in, a number of them together with their leopard skin skins on their bodies, creep into this village and select a victim and go to this innocent person, an older person, usually, and plunge this into this person's neck and then carry the person off, the body off, for cannibalistic purposes.
This was quite a while ago, you know. Although it does sometimes break out from time to time. At the time I met this man, as the Belgians were hanging anyone who was convicted of being a mungyota. And here he is saying to me, I am a mungyota. From one sense, I was just rejoicing, the Lord has saved a cannibal. Praise God for that. But then he went on to say, I know the Lord has forgiven me. I've trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. God has forgiven me. But I have sinned against the government. I think the government should forgive me too. He said, I think I'm going to go and ask the government to forgive me. forgive me for being a muñata. I'm not a muñata anymore.
I'll never be a muñata again. What do you think I should do? I had a problem answering that one. He finally decided that he would go. And so I wasn't there then. I'd gone back to my village and our mission station. He went to the government official three days' walk, and he arrived at a room where the government official was. And he came to the soldiers who were standing there in front of the office. He said, I want to see the administrator. I have something to tell him. They said, you want to talk to him yourself? Yes, I want to talk to him. Well, he said, they said, you sit down under the tree and we'll tell you when you can come.
So he sat under the tree all morning and they didn't call him. And at noon time the administrator came out and they all stood at attention and off he went to have his lunch. And then the Oh, Kalufu was somewhat disturbed. He said, I asked you to let me talk to him. I want to talk to him. Well, don't worry, he'll be back at two o'clock. You can talk to him at two o'clock. And so he sat under the trees of war. And at two o'clock the administrator came back and the soldiers were at attention and the bugles were sounded again and all the formality of a military type of administration. And he went into the house. And again, Kalufu wanted to get in.
They said, well, all right, we'll go and tell. And they went and said, there's an old man out here. He's been waiting since morning, wants to see you. What did you want to do? Well, he said he wants to tell you privately. So he came in, and stood in front of the administrator, told him, he said, I have trusted the Lord Jesus as my Savior. My Savior, the administrator, was Catholic, and very definitely under the control of the priests of the area. And he was listening to the story as this simple man was telling how he had found peace for his heart through trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, you know, I have been a bad man. He said, I have been a muñeta. And man said, what? Yes, I have been a muñeta, a cannibal.
Yes, but God has forgiven me my sin. And I'm coming in and asking you to forgive me, the Belgian government, to forgive me for my sins. He said, I don't believe a word. Where's your leopard skin? Where's the claw? that you use to kill people in your cannibalistic raids on villages. We said, that's at home. Go and get it, and I'll believe you. Giovanni. And so he turned, and off he went his three days back into his home and got his leopard skin and his claw and came back all the way to the administration. And when he arrived back, the soldiers didn't tell him to sit under a table. They immediately ushered him in. They'd heard the story, and they knew he was a manyota.
And they were all afraid of the manyota. and the administrator said, Oh, man, you're back again? Yes, I'm back again. I'm asking you to forgive me. God has forgiven me. I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. He couldn't avoid giving a testimony every time he spoke, according to the way the story is told to me. And the man said, Well, is this leper skin? Yes, he looked at it. Nice leper skin, old leper skin. I think the administrator straight up thought, Well, this would be a nice curio for me to take back to Belgium. That's my own thinking. At any rate, he looked at the man he couldn't believe. Here's a man confessing to something that was known to be punishable by hanging.
And where's the claw? Here's the claw. He looks at these two things and he says, Well, why are you telling me this? Don't you know I can have you hang for this? You can die for this. Yes, Barna, I know that. But God is forgiven. And I want the government to forgive me today. Well, the man thought some time and... Maybe he thought, well, I'll take these curios home. And anyway, he said, you've been a very bad man. I'm going to put you in prison because you've been such a bad man. Three months in prison. And he just marked a thing for disorderly conduct or something like that and gave him a soldier notice and said, take this man to prison for three months.
And he said that after three months, will you forgive me? Go to prison. Yes, you will forgive me. And so he went to prison. Well, one of the joys in the story is that when he got down there to prison, and he knew that three months more he was going to be free, forgiven by the government, he just opened his mouth and told people about the Lord Jesus Christ. What a good day. Day after day he was telling about salvation and peace through Christ. Oh, how we praise God for how he works in the hearts of poor people like this. and they know the Lord Jesus Christ. And one after another individuals wanted to know more about the Lord, and some profess to Christ.
He trusts Christ as Savior. And then the priests in the area heard about it. And so he went to the administrator and he said, What is this I hear about you're having put a Protestant evangelist into the prison? He's converting the whole prison. Get him out of there. Get him out of there. And of course the administrator... was fearful about this. And so he said, oh yes, I'll let him go. I'll get him out right away. Don't leave him there. He's going to turn the whole prison into Protestants, quoting the priest. And he said, yes, I'll take, just leave it in my hands. I'll take care of it right away. Well, then the administrator sent a soldier down and said, tell a califu to come up here and bring any things he has because I'm going to let him go.
And so it brought so Kalufa up to the man and he came up wondering why he was bringing these things. And the man said, Okay, O Kalufa, you can go home now. But one, I've already done six weeks of the three months, you said. Never mind. I'm going to let you go. He said, Will you forgive me then and let me go? Yes, you can be forgiven. Wait, I'll find it. It's all free. There's your paper. You can go home now. Well, what a joy it was to the old man's heart. He thanked the man. Thank you very much for what he had done in forgiving and letting it go. And he went back to his stories. Well, I knew O Khalifa for the following years, while he still lived.
He was there in his village, a humble believer, one who knew the Lord Jesus and rejoiced in himself. And so when we say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, the power of God unto salvation, and thinking of many, many out there whose salvation was remarkable in that they were turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, and having forgiven us of sin, that many of them became active witnesses for Christ in the land. I wonder if in our own lives we who have known the Lord Jesus, probably all of us, known the Lord Jesus for many years.
If we are as active telling others of the Lord Jesus. It's impressed me as we travel around and as we go to gas stations and as we meet people here and there that we are perhaps definitely the one the Lord is counting on to give the message. We try to bring it in. A little word of testimony here and there. And don't despised the idea of passing on the track because I could give you stories of some who have trusted the Lord when they found a track and they were reading in their village back at home, reading it, reading it and they found the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we're speaking about the need in England for missionaries and the Christians banding together in the evangelical initiative of the country of England, how much, perhaps even more, we can say, are we here in America and in Canada? The need for active witness for the Lord Jesus Christ as individuals. But we may know something about this power in the lives of others, those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know of a greater thing on earth than to have someone who has been living in sin and far from God whose who knows the power of the gospel in his life, a strong salvation, to kind of bring your hand and thank you that you've gotten to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You have in that first chapter of John, you know how Andrew, and then Philip, Philip rather than Andrew, how they brought the friends to the Lord Jesus Christ. We just answered that for a moment and get it right in closing the... marks we have to make. First of all, we have the disciples, and then Andrew. We get Simon Peter. He finds his own brother. Simon left him. We have found the Messiah, and he brought him to Jesus. We put him down.
We have Philip as bringing in Matthew. That's who you are. This is it. person to person, and it's the power of God on salvation to everyone who did this. Our gracious Father, we're not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. We felt its mighty power in our own lives. As we've come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, as we've come to enjoy Him in daily fellowship, as we put our lives into his control day by day. That Holy Spirit will use our witness.
Thank you, Lord, for the witness here at Park of the Palm. We come from many places and we'll be going back to many places. Give us, Lord, that we may go to plant the seed of the Word in those areas where we are, to have an effective testimony, each one of us, for the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that which we are offering, in the energy of the Holy Spirit of God is not ours, but it's this wonderful thing, the gospel of God's redeeming grace through faith in the Lord Jesus. Thank you for these times together as we praise you for thy faithfulness and seek thy blessing this day in the name of our Lord Jesus.