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Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for those kind, generous words. I fear you flatter me. I am an Englishman, I confess, as you have heard, but not a run-of-the-mill Englishman. Having lived in Ireland for thirty-one years, I wouldn't dare to say I was a perfect Irishman yet, but I'm certainly a considerably improved Englishman. I'm sure, as I do, you feel it a great honor to be present here this evening with our dear brethren, whom God has called and to whom he has committed so rich and so noble a ministry. As we have listened to them, I suspect in your heart, as in mine, there is a teeny little wit of jealousy that God would call me to such a noble work as he had called them. Who of us wouldn't give his right arm, his right eye, a right hand to be commissioned a messenger for our Lord? But he who is sovereign calls one to this and one to another. And so, for our meditation, shall we read again the words of our blessed Lord? That he used as he briefed his apostles for their first evangelistic mission. They are recorded in Matthew chapter ten. Matthew chapter ten, And for the moment, we shall just read three excerpts from that long passage. First of all, Matthew ten verse fourteen: And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, as you go forth out of that house or out of that city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Verse twenty three: But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next. For verily I say unto you, you shall not have gone through the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come. Verse twenty eight. And be not afraid of them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both bo- soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone, therefore, who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father, which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father, which is in heaven. Think not that I came to send peace on the earth, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. And may the, the blessed Lord who spoke those words so long ago speak them again to our hearts this evening. This weekend, I suspect, like me, you are looking forward to a very joyful time before the Lord. To relish and to savor and to soar up for coming dull days, the sheer joy of hearing the servants of the Lord relate how marvelously the Lord has blessed them. Wouldn't we like to stand with them in their sometimes lonely harvest fields and feel the joy and the thrill of reaping the sheaves and bringing them home for the master? We may get some of that joy this weekend by proxy, so to speak, as we listen to them and feel that we are in that same great army of the Lord. Let us not give the impression, any of us, least of all us speakers, that serving the Lord Jesus is a dull and sorrowful and all the while a sacrificial thing. I think sometimes that the archangel himself bites his nails with envy, if archangels had nails to bite, and it was a suitable thing to do in heaven, that they aren't chosen and that they aren't called to serve the Lord of glory and to share in the joy that makes even angels' heart ring with delight. The joy of sinners repenting and coming home will be one of the chief joys of heaven. And if we would like a little heaven on earth, there's no harm in our enjoying some of it here. For all that, nothing will be able to disguise from us by the time this weekend is over, that we are engaged on very serious business. We are not here to be entertained. We shall be taking our deliberations before the Lord as individuals and as a whole group against a very serious, a gravely serious backdrop. And I want us to think this evening for a few moments of that great backdrop against which we deliberate, against which we go out to serve. There is the backdrop of our world that has so changed in this last year. I shall need, not need to remind you of it or to dwell long on it, save to observe what you have all observed, that in these last 12 months, the very face of the whole world has been changed in a way that two years ago, none of us, I suspect, ever dreamed, though we prayed very often, never dreamed that anything like it would be seen in our lifetimes, or that it could possibly happen so soon. With those changes have come unparalleled and staggeringly great opportunities. They call upon our interest, upon our time, upon our thoughts and prayer and energy and giving and ingenuity are surely irresistible. For the blessed Lord, who has himself opened these doors in such a spectacular way and given us these opportunities, will be expecting us surely, to make use of them to the full. And if we were to let them idly pass by, would be very difficult to account for our behavior, wouldn't it? When at last we stand before the Lord. We serve these days against the backdrop of a world completely changed with unimaginable opportunities. You will not need me to remind you either that in two months time, less or a little more, the whole of the Middle East could be engulfed in a hideous war, costing the lives of thousands of the armed forces of the nation, and of the civilians of many countries. What the repercussions of that war would be, who can tell? Whether there is a war or there isn't a war, present situation has put upon the international agenda a topic that now must be faced urgently. All the nations are saying it. That is the topic of Israel and her neighbors. The situation is such as we could scarce have thought of as happening in our lifetime. Two years ago, whatever America did in the Middle East, Russia was obliged to do the very opposite, and vice versa. But with the change, America and Russia stand, if not shoulder to shoulder, yet broadly on the same side. And politicians of many countries resisting Saddam Hussein's efforts to involve Israel at this stage nevertheless are saying, but when this present phase is over, we must now tackle the problem of Israel. The last thing I would wish to be would be a prophecy monger, but it seems to me we have moved a significant step forward towards that time, however long delayed it may be, and none of us knows how long it will be delayed, we have moved a significant step forward to that time of which the prophets speak in abundance, when all the nations of the earth shall come against Jerusalem in the day of the Lord's controversy, both with Jerusalem and with the nation. They shall be dealt on that time, they shall be dealt with, as scripture assures us, by the coming of our blessed Lord Jesus in power and great glory. But the very mention of that event leads me now to what is my main preoccupation this evening, and that is to sketch in once more before your accustomed eyes the great backdrop against which not only we serve in this advanced age, but the backdrop against which all God's servants all down the Christian centuries have been called upon to serve. That backdrop that gives the energy and the zeal and the godly sense of haste, the nerves, the muscles, and drives the tired bones onward. Three great elements there are in that backdrop, as we learn from the briefing that our Lord gave his apostles when first they went out to preach for him. The first element is the final judgment of men and the parts that we must play in that. Secondly, the expectation of the coming of the Son of Man in power and great glory, and the implications that has for us in the tactics and the timetable that we propose to ourselves for the accomplishment of the Lord's work. And finally, shining brightly and warming our hearts and cheering our spirits, prospect of a coming great day of reward. I say it is not only we who serve the Lord against this awesome background. You will have noticed in your reading of Matthew chapter ten that our Lord sketched in this background, even for his apostles, when they went on their first little missionary journey through the villages and towns of Palestine. It was a very short-lived missionary campaign. They were told to go out in front of the blessed Lord to all those towns and cities whither he should come, to prepare the people for his coming and to preach them the gospel of the kingdom of God. And they went and they did their task, and within comparatively short time of a few months or even perhaps a year, who knows, they came back to the Lord Jesus with tremendous excitement in their hearts to tell the Lord Jesus of all the wonderful things that had happened and the tremendous thrill that they had received from serving him. It was, I say, therefore, a very short-lived and a restricted missionary journey. They were explicitly told that they were not to go even to the Samaritans, let alone to the Gentiles, simply to the cities of Israel. And it was over in a few months. And yet, and yet... And yet, as they went out on that comparatively short missionary journey, our Lord sketched in before them the great and the solemn and the awesome backdrop against which they went out to preach. Said he, whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words as you go forth out of that house or out of that city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. They were to go out and preach, however briefly, against all the solemnities of the final day of judgment. See how the Lord Jesus reminded them of the gravity of the task they did. For what they did and what they said, the very words that they preached, would one day be called in evidence in the august courtroom of the final judgment. Whosoever does not receive your word, said the Savior. Mark what he said. He didn't simply say, whosoever shall not receive my word. He said, whosoever shall not receive your word. It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Of course, we must not exaggerate. Our Lord was talking to men whom he had appointed to the special task of being apostles. They were men sent out inspired by the Lord himself, and in the strict sense, to receive an apostle is to receive the Lord Jesus. To receive what an inspired apostle says by word of lip or by his written word is to receive the words of the Lord Jesus. We are not in that same rank, are we? We are not in that same sense apostles. And yet, and yet. There is many a man and woman, some of them here in Newton Abbs, many a man and woman, and the only word of Christ they will ever hear will be through our words, through your lips, through my lips, and upon what they do with the words that thus you speak, my brother, my sister, may hang their eternity. There is no such thing as giving a little word in the gospel. Or if there is, I don't know what a big word would be. Our blessed Lord Jesus, who is to be the judge and that the solemn great white throne, has told us in language that we can bear and understand what some of the proceedings will be. As the case of the people of Capernaum, for instance, comes up before the judge. Witnesses will be called. The Queen of Sheba will be asked to stand up in court and to speak before the judge of all the earth. Before these miserable people of Capernaum, and to witness as to what amount of evidence of God's light and truth she had. And she will say, but I only had a little. All I had was a faint rumor in my country, that way out in the blue there in Palestine, there was a king appointed by God, and through his lips divine wisdom could be heard, and my heart was so full of desire to hear the wisdom of God that I came, though sun scorched, miles through the desert. To hear Solomon. The judge will draw the solemn imprecations for the men of Capernaum. In their very streets across the road preaching was the greater than Solomon, and they couldn't trouble themselves to cross the street to hear him. In that great day. Who shall say? There will maybe stand up a woman. And when the judge has to pronounce the words of departure, the judge will have to say, my dear good woman, you could have been saved, couldn't you? For you heard the gospel. Your next door neighbor was a believer. Do you not remember the morning when your next door neighbor and you were hanging out the linen in the garden, and you fell talking over the garden fence. And you remember the words she spoke, don't you? Words, my good woman, and you knew that you ought to believe them and be saved. And you sealed your hearts against the words of mine that your next door neighbor spoke. And now, it is too late, forever. And you, sir, at the mealtime in the factory. And you sir, if they do have any spare time in the stock exchange. And in those thousand and one ways where God in his wisdom uses each one of us to convey his words. Shall we not remember that we speak them against the backdrop of the final judgment. You say, who is sufficient for these things, the thought that somebody's eternity might in some sense depend upon what I say. What responsibility it brings, doesn't it? Suppose I were to say it in an unfriendly, bigoted kind of a way, so that my neighbor couldn't distinguish between the lovely message of the gospel I was trying to get across and my bigoted, hard-hearted, bitter A speech. speech. How shall I speak it well enough? If such great things hang upon what people do with the words of gospel I speak. Who is sufficient for these things, says Paul. Our sufficiency of God, so says Paul, we are a sweet fragrance to God, are we not? We are a sweet fragrance of Christ to God. A fragrance in them that perish of death unto death, and in those who are saved of life unto life. God, in his infinite mercy, has overcome us like ancient Roman generals used to, uh, overcome the thugs of the English that lived in southern England. And he's chained us to his chariot, and he's on his way to his great triumph, like a Roman general ascending to the capital in Rome. And as all the fragrance and the incense is burned around the successful general, some of the fragrance attaches to us, doesn't it? And as in his great procession, we go through the streets and lanes and homes of our cities and towns. To some, we become a fragrance of life. Christ, the great author and giver of life. All that our lives might be drenched in the delightful perfumes of the person of the Lord Jesus. Does not the very solemnity of our task drive us again and again and ever and again into the company, into the feet of the blessed Lord Jesus. Something of his perfume and his grace might begin to envelop and to drench our lives. That as we pass by, so to speak, men might smell a perfume of life to life amidst the rotting stench of a morally dying world, and thus be brought to salvation. But to some it will be that our very preaching of Christ shall for them carry the smell of death. For to reject him. What can it be? But eternal death, not annihilation, but eternal conscious turning in of the soul against itself, shutting out the God of glory and his salvation. The consequences of which will be conscious torment. But it will justify God, won't it? Ah, the wonder that God shall be able to say in that day, oh, how often, how often, how often would I have gathered you? I sent Mr. Smith. I sent a carpenter, I sent a fisherman. I sent a medical doctor, I sent a housewife, I sent a nurse. But you could have been saved. But you wouldn't. The second element in the backdrop was when our Lord Jesus advised them as to what their tactics and their timetable ought to be. Said he, when they persecute you in one city, flee to another. Don't think that you are obliged to stick your toes in and remain in the first city, whatever happens. If they persecute you there and will not hear you, flee to another. Because, gentlemen, said he, you haven't all the time in the world, you know. You will not have completed. Thus says, uh, the original word. You will not have completed. There's no verb for going through. You will not have completed the cities of Israel until the Son of Man be come. It is common knowledge that the commentators find this verse very difficult to understand. So you'll certainly excuse me when I, uh, fail to throw much light upon its detailed difficulties. You will not have gone over the cities of Israel until the Son of Man be come. Come in what sense? Some have said come because they went in front of him and he came after. He's talking about his coming to them at the end of those twelve months or whatever it was that they went out on their missionary journey. But if that is so, say others, why did our Lord use the exalted title, the coming of the Son of Man? Isn't that the title he uses of himself when he speaks of coming in great power? But how can it be, say others, that he would say to the apostles who stood there on two legs in front of him, you will not have gone over the city of Pa- cities of Palestine until the second coming. Surely they did, you say. So some say what he meant by the Son of Man coming was a rather symbolic way of talking to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD seventy, When judgment fell upon Israel, not only for their rejection of the Savior, but for their rejection of the apostolic witness of the gospel. And maybe they are right. Being old and old fashioned, I myself prefer the traditional explanation, that when he talked about the coming of the Son of Man, he was referring to his coming in power and great glory. I prefer to think about what is involved in completing these cities of Israel. What does it mean? There is no verb for going through them, it's simply when you're finished, when you have completed the cities of Israel. Well, you won't have completed them until the Son of Man comes. What does it mean to complete the city? In terms of witnessing for the Lord. The apostles certainly worked hard in the early days of the Acts and until AD seventy. But even then, according to scripture, with those long years, nearly forty years between the Ascension and AD seventy, they hadn't completed the cities of Israel, so says our Lord. Have they been completed yet? Incidentally, has Newtownards been completed? You say the trouble with Newtownards is you work hard for a whole generation, and lo and behold, when you think you've completed it, another generation has gone up to you haven't completed it. Yeah. And three or four generations work hard at England and manage to stage an evangelical revival and give them five minutes, and they've gone back to paganism. They need to be completed all over again, don't they? And talking about completed, we can hardly call those parts of the world completed that haven't even heard at all, can we? And the Lord is coming. We have all the time there is. Oh, shall we not scratch our wooden heads? Think hard in our hearts as to our sense of proportion and timetable. If they reject you here, says our Lord, well, that's sad, but never mind, go somewhere else because there's an urgency in the task, and even so, it will not all be finished before the Son of Man comes. I would like, but oh, what a wish it is, and a fanciful wish it is. I would like to be able to say to the Lord, but Lord, I, I did as much as I could. Oh, what should we say if he came and the task was incomplete and we had to confess it was incomplete because we dawdled and frittered away our time and had no sense of proportion of the vast need of this vast world. There's a task to be done if it can't be finished, but to be done as best it can be before the Lord Jesus come. God give us in these hours of our weekend deliberation to have a renewed sense of proportion and of the time that is given to us as responsible men and women in the work of the Lord. And finally, the third element in the great backdrop against which they were to preach was the lovely, bright, glorious Glorious prospect. prospect of the day of reward. Oh, let it shine brightly in our hearts. Wisely enough, the organizers of this weekend have set a topic on it. They should have got a better preacher, but they set the topic of reward at the end of our study, because we need it, don't we? I never cease to be amazed as I hear the story of the valiant men and women that God has, and hear of their suffering, and hear how they have triumphed through it, and believe still, in spite of all the fiery darts that his satanic majesty can hurl against them, I never cease to be amazed at the wonderful strength of the hold that God has upon his people through the love of Jesus Christ our Lord. Men and women gritting their teeth and through their tears saying, and in spite of what life can do, I believe, and I love the Savior. Our Lord was nothing if he wasn't candid. He warned his apostles there would be persecution. He warned them that even their families might sometimes bitterly disown them. Sometimes they would face death itself. There's no thought of feather bedding the servants of the Lord. He knew also what would churn away in their breasts, the fears that torment so many of us. We shouldn't suppose, should we, when we read the great exploits of the mighty Apostle Paul, that Paul was a man who never felt the tremor of a fear in his breast ever. He was like a concrete block. Confesses to us that when he came into Macedonia, outside, he said, there were fightings and inside fears. And he will get a bigger reward for it. He learned to cope with his fears and overcame them for the Lord's sake. The very hairs of your head are numbered. That doesn't mean that you'll never lose them. Witness a lot of people present. They're all numbered, though most of them are gone, my good sir. And if God observes the fall of a hare, then most assuredly he observes it when we fall in death. And we are asked to trust him, to dare to believe that not only our souls, but our very bodies are dear to him, valuable to him, of how much more value than many sparrows. Let the gift of his son to Calvary tell us exactly how much. He knows how we have to wrestle with fear. But he reminds us of the issues at stake. Whosoever denies me before men, I must deny before my Father. Whosoever confesses me before men, him will I confess before my Father and the holy angels. Whoso loses his life for my sake, the same shall keep it. For be assured of this, says our blessed Lord. You'll never do anything for me, but what you will be adequately rewarded. He knows by experience what he talks of. It's written of him as one of the secrets that steeled him to endure the cross and despise the shame, that he had calculated the reward that would be his. And for the joy that was set before him, he He measured measured what he must suffer and paid its price. Though who will ever get round to explaining to me, I know not. However, the Lord of Glory thought that I should qualify to be a part of that joy for the sake of which, and for the reward of which, he endured the cross. He who was sustained in his own suffering by the thought of reward urges upon us to consider his faithful promises. That there comes a day when all we have done for him and suffered for him will be rewarded. So be it, it was only a cup of water given in the name of a disciple or a prophet. It shall receive its reward. That isn't, that does not mean that all you have to do is to give a cup of water, and that's enough, and you'll get a reward. Does he? It means that if all you have to give is a cup of water, then when you give it, be assured you'll be rewarded. Giving a cup of water in Northern Ireland is rather easy, isn't it? If you and your fellow Christian worker had to cross the Gobi Desert to get to evangelize some part, or the Sahara for that matter, and you'd lost your way, and you were both dehydrated, and you only had one cup of water left. Enough for one to survive on, but not two. Pray, would we find the courage to give the cup of water to the other man, if he better than ourselves could carry on the work of the Lord. But even if it only be a cup of water, in Northern Ireland, where they have a super abundance of water and of cups. Let us see to it that we give it to the Lord in light of his reward. Oh, how shall recompense his smile, the sufferings of this little while. May the blessed Lord speak his words in our hearts. Shall we pray? Gracious Lord Jesus, sovereign Lord, our Redeemer. Thou who did speak these words to thy apostles of old and has spoken them again in our hearing this evening, draw near, we beseech thee, in these coming hours, in these coming days, and speak again, renewing our vision, renewing our proportion, renewing our love and our zeal, that we might serve thee well, gladly and lovingly and efficiently against the day of thy soon coming again. Bless us now and bless the food for which we thank thee and our fellowship together through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.