Where Is It? Compromise in Missions

by Ken Becker

Ken Becker is a graduate of Bob Jones University where he received his M.A in 1959 in the School of Religion. Rev. Becker pastored for three years before being called to his present position of Executive Secretary of Gospel Fellowship Missions, a faith mission organized in 196? through the leadership and influence of Bob Jones University. His overseas missionary trips include countries of Sweden, Germany, Lebanon. Puerto Rico, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.

Maintaining a stateside monthly deputation ministry since 1962, Mr. Becker has covered over 600 churches in 4? states presenting mission work through conferences, missionary revivals, and slide programs.

In an era of rapid change, one might assume that the changes coming in evangelical missions are to be expected and not suspected. The credulous generalization which approves or justifies change as an effort toward modernization, efficiency, and improvement is now being applied to the current missions scene, with the result that “blindness in part is happened,” affecting alike hard-working missionaries, conscientious administrators, and sacrificial supporters.

Another widely-held impression, that has been devastatingly harmful to missions, is the high esteem heaped on it, unworthily, as the sacred cow of Christianity. The credulous saint, with his pastor’s wholehearted encouragement and the mission board’s undying gratitude), has too readily assumed that everything is right with missions—at least enough to refrain from sullying its reputation by public clamor.

Well, is something wrong? Indeed, something IS wrong! Not only that, something has been wrong for years—about 75 years, in fact. I say this not as an enemy, but as an ardent proponent and steward of the proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. As an “insider,” I feel constrained to devote some articles to inform and perchance instruct the friends of missions regarding serious trends and issues affecting missionary effort in the world today.

WHILE MEN SLEPT —

So serious have been the problems within missions, one might suspect it has been bent on its own self-destruction since the days of its early successes. The threats from without have been inconsequential, but from within has arisen all manner of subtlety, perversion, and unfaithfulness. For example, the birth and growth of world-wide ecumenism is directly attributed to missions. Missions can also be blamed for the national church revolt against mission domination and reliance upon colonialist governments, among other things. Since missions—or any religious movement, for that matter—has had little ability or inclination to correct its own problems, the voice of the people, in this case the supporting churches, must be raised and heard. But where has that voice been? Hosea admitted: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). If this is the reason, it behooves us who have given of our lives and possessions for this noble cause to sit down and learn, analyze,
pray, and act. that’s their sales pitch. 1 read the ads in the paper this week and sure enough, there it was. “come and see this one, loaded [with extras.” So here we have a sermon loaded with extras. You say. “Preacher, what are you getting at?” Well, remember that Scripture in Psalm 103 that we read. “Forget not all His benefits”—well, go back now to Psalm 66:19 and notice what it says: “Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits.” Now go on to Psalm 116. verse 12 and there it says. “What shall I render unto the Lord for ALL His benefits’1” or “His extras.” That’s what He’s talking about.

It’s His extras.

1 If a believer and an unbeliever are equal in all areas Isuch as intelligence, physical appearance, talents, and ability, the believer ought to be head and shoulders over the unbeliever because of all the
extras he has as a Christian. If you’re a Christian, you ought to be more honest than an unsaved person. If you’re a Christian. you ought to be more straight-forward in your dealings. If you’re a Christian, you ought to be totally detached from anything that is worldly. Let’s notice seven extras a Christian possesses.

I. REDEMPTION BY GRACE

First of all, we have redemption by grace. Ephesians 1:7 gives us this verse that most of you know, and yet what a verse it is. And it’s an extra for the Christian. Redemption by grace. Ephesians 1:7—”In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”
Have you ever thought what that means? To be redeemed?

You must realize, in order to understand all of its implications, just what redemption implies. First of all. you must realize that before you are saved you are a slave to sin. This is why we have the drink problem in America. This is why we have a dope problem. This is-.why we have, a lying problem and a cheating problem. This is why there’s a problem with adultery and fornication. This is why there are problems in our homes and bickering and fighting and arguing. Why? Because the person OUTSIDE of Jesus Christ is a slave to sin. The Bible says, “Know ye not to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are.”

And beloved, listen, there are folks all over the world that are addicted to sin. They’re a stave to sin; they’re hooked on sin; they’re on a trip brother, and they’re going down. Therefore, because of the fact that they are a slave to sin. they are in the slave market of sin and someone has to go in and get them out. They can’t redeem themselves. There’s not enough power and ability to redeem ourselves, therefore someone is going to have to go in and break the power of cancelled sin and set the prisoner free. And praise God. I have the One who has done it! And that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. For the Bible tells us that He has redeemed us.

“For we were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.” We’re redeemed! The Bible says,

“Through His blood, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Jesus Christ went down to that slave market and in that day that slave market was on the cross of Calvary. There on the cross of Calvary and there in the empty tomb Jesus redeemed us from the curse and from the slavery of our sin so that we. who by faith believe on the Lord Jesus, might be set free. Oh, listen to me, Jesus can set you free! You got a habit? Jesus can break it. Are you addicted to something today? Is there some sin that’s got you by the throat? Is there some habit that’s pulling you down? Are you feeling that today you just can’t break loose? Then Jesus
Christ can set you free! Oh, what a wonderful thing!

I had a man in my office this week and he was talking about redemption. I said. “Sir, have you ever thought about what the word ‘redemption* means in the Greek?” He said, “No. I never heard that.” I said. “Sir. I just wrote down (he three words that mean redemption in the Greek. Let me share them with you. The first word for redemption in me Greek is ‘agorazo’ and that simply means to buy in the market In those days they took the slaves or servants down to a common market. The buyers would come and they would bid upon the slaves and when they paid the price they would take the slave and that slave would be his. And that’s why the Bible says we’re not redeemer! with corruptible things such as silver and gold. Jesus didn’t go down and lay down some money for our redemption. He laid down His precious blood! He found us as a slave to sin in the slave market. And the word is ‘agorazo*. “I said, “Sir, here’s one that’ll thrill you even more than that. There is another Greek word meaning redemption from (he same word ‘agorazo’ but they put an *ex’ in front of it, making it ‘cxagorazo.’ The word ‘ex’ means out of and it implies this—that when Jesus went down to the slave market to buy us. not only did He pay the OUT OF the market never to be put on sale again. Oh, that’s the victory! It’s one thing to be a slave sold under sin and someone pays your price, but another, when my Saviour walked down to the slave market and on Calvary’s cross with His precious blood, paid my price, He rose triumphant from the grave so that I could never be put on sale again.

That’s redemption! Then the other word is ‘lutroo’ which means ‘to loose’ by paying a price and that’s what my Saviour did. He loosed me, He set me free.” All hail the power of Jesus’ name—He set me free! And that’s what we have. Christian. Listen to me. This is the first benefit that you have of being in Christ, you have redemption by grace.

II. REMEDY FOR GUILT

Not only do you have redemption by grace, but you have remedy for guilt. One of the great problems in the world today is that of guilt. The Bible says, “That we may all stand guilty before God.” And we ARE guilty. But the trouble is we have today a vast increase in guilt. There has always been guilt, but it seems like today with so much looseness and perversion and immorality that the problem with guilt is worse than it has ever been and the world does not know what to do with it. A psychiatrist will tell you that people escape guilt in three different ways. First of all, they will try to suppress guilt. I’m not saying the psychiatrist says to do this, but this is what the world does to get rid of guilt. They try to suppress it through the means of alcohol, through the means of dope, or through the means of drugs, and sex. Today tranquillizers are outselling all other drugs because there are folks who are hooked on sin and are trying to suppress it. Now I’m not saying there isn’t a time and place for certain tranquillizers, but I am saying that when a person cannot be happy unless he is sedated, brother, there’s something wrong. We need to be set free, and this guilt problem that we have cannot be suppressed. It’s not the answer. Others say, “Well, I can’t suppress my guilt so I’ll transfer it.” They pass it on. They blame it on the other guy. It’s the other guy’s fault. You’ve heard it, you know what I mean. Your child comes home from school with an “F” and the parent says, “Honey, what happened to this? This is an “F”. This isn’t right.” The child replies, “The teacher didn’t tell us. The teacher didn’t even warn us. The teacher just said. Pull out your papers and start writing.’ That’s not fair; she shouldn’t have done that to us and therefore, it’s not my fault I got an ‘F’ It’s the teacher’s fault.” That’s called transferring guilt and that happens every day. You let a man get a ticket: “It’s not my fault, officer. It’s yours. You had no business hiding behind a bush when I was going 90 miles an hour. You should have been sitting out in the open so I could see you and slow down.” So they transfer the guilt.

And then, of course, the third way is to ignore guilt. What do I mean? Well, they say, “I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in God.” You know what they are saying? “I’ve got so much sin m my life that I can’t face up to God so the best thing to do is to do away with God. That way you don’t have to face Him.” Or they resort to evolution! We came from the monkeys. We came from animals. There’s no great person behind us. We are just an evolutionary chance and because of this we will never have to give an account to anyone greater because at the present time we are the greatest force in evolution. “I’m the highest being, see?” And they keep thinking that they’re going to evolve and they’ll be God someday, but that won’t work. Listen to me, all over the world today people are committing suicide. I saw in the paper where one of our Pulitzer prize winners for poetry jumped off the bridge in Minnesota. We’re seeing suicide on every side. Last week in Tampa a teenager committed suicide. It’s happening every week, everywhere. Why? I don’t know the details and I wouldn’t want to know them. But 1 know this, that when there is no answer for guilt, suicide is many times the outcome. Many times today we’re finding out that people cannot handle guilt. They cannot suppress it. They cannot transfer it. They cannot ignore it. But praise God, Christian, listen to me. If you’ve been blood bought, if you’ve been redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, you have a remedy for guilt of which the world knows nothing. And so that’s another extra. That’s another benefit—think of it! Redemption by grace, remedy for guilt.

III. RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Then, of course, we have a relationship with God. We Christians have a relationship with God of which the world knows nothing. The Bible tells us that when Adam and Eve sinned that Adam and Eve died. but they didn’t die physically, they only died spiritually. They had been walking and talking with God. They had been having fellowship with Him. Oh what a wonderful day that must have been when Adam and Eve had perfect fellowship with Him. But suddenly Satan came in and sin came in. Adam and Eve were then hiding from God and trying to run away from a God with whom they had had such sweet fellowship. Why? Because the relationship between man and God was broken when sin came in. And when you and I come into this world, we come into it out of fellowship with God. We’re dead in trespasses and in sin and there’s no fellowship whatsoever. But oh, by faith when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, that relationship, that gap is bridged and we’re back in right relationship with God. God who once would have been our judge becomes our Father.

The Bible says that when we’re saved that God gives us the Holy Spirit and the Spirit cries out, “Father.” You’ll find out as you pray. “Our Father, which art in heaven” that there’s a relationship there because the Bible says, “to as many as received Him. to them gave He power to become the sons of God. even to them that believe on His name.” So God becomes our Father. The Bible says that the Son becomes our joint-heir because when the Spirit of God comes in, not only are we back in right relationship with God. but we become, an heir a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. He becomes our Elder Brother. God is no longer some far-off being, but there is a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father and with His Son, the Lord Jesus. any time any place, we have that privilege of having fellowship with Him.

The Spirit becomes our Comforter for Jesus said, “If I go not away, the Comforter cannot come.” Therefore, we have a complete relationship with the Godhead: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three persons in this one God become real to us, become personal to us, and we’re in right relationship with all of them the moment, by faith, we accept Jesus Christ. So you see, we’re loaded with extras. We have redemption by grace, we have remedy for guilt, we have relationship with God, but that’s not all. We also have righteousness as a garment.

IV. RIGHTEOUSNESS AS A GARMENT

The Bible says that all our righteousness is as filthy rags. When God looks down upon the world, although you may be wearing the latest suit or the latest dress or the latest style, God doesn’t see you decked out in your Hart, Scnaffner and Marx. God doesn’t see you in your latest finery. God doesn’t see you. teenager, so to speak, in your maxis. Let me just say this. God sees you in your actual robes and if He sees you NOT in Christ. He sees you in robes that are made of rags. They’re filthy, wicked rags, just rotten rags, putrefying rags, rags (hat have been used to wipe up sores filled with all putrefication Oh, listen to me. that’s how God sees you today if you’re not IN CHRIST. He sees you in your own righteousnesses and sees them as rags. But oh. what a wonderful thing the moment by faith we accept Christ. He takes our rags, our wicked, foul, filthy rags and He takes that spotless sinless robe and He wraps that around our shoulders and He cloaks us with His righteousness. And some glorious day the Bible says, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the Marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.” Oh praise God, one day when we go before the Lord, we’re going to be clothed visibly, although now we do not see our robe of righteousness. It is a robe of righteousness that God has given us by faith. One day, in actuality, we’ll be walking around in these perfect, spotless robes. Why? Because they’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb. What a wonderful thing! You know, that’s ours! Christian, you ought to go home today and say “hallelujah!” So there you have it. Look at the extras. Everything that God has for you—redemption by grace, remedy for guilt, relationship with God, righteousness as a garment. But notice. Christian, you also have resources for guidance.

V. RESOURCES FOR GUIDANCE

You actually have all the resources of God for guidance. Think of that! Every born again believer has the Word of God as his weapon. The Bible says, “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path- way.” David said, “Thy Word will I hide in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.” We have Gods Word as a lamp. It’s a guide and it is to guide us like a compass. 11 is like a light in a storm. We have God’s Word and as a believer, you have all of the Word of God to be able to claim, to be able to read, to be able to believe, to be able to stand upon. All this is ours. The un- saved have no right to the Word of God except the plan of salvation. The unsaved have no promise that they can say, “This is mine,” except the plan of salvation But we as believers can claim the Word of God for our guidance.

Not only that, we also have access to the Throne of Grace. Beloved, do you realize that right now, if suddenly into your home tragedy strikes, you can drop to your knees and in a second of time you can be connected with the Throne of Grace. That’s yours! That’s mine! Every day. “‘What a friend we have In Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear; what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.”

This past week I sat in the waiting room of the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital and as I put my arm on this lady’s arm and said to her, “Ma’am, are you saved?” she said, “I’ve been praying for my boy, I’ve been praying for my boy.” I said, “Ma’am, are your prayers getting through?” She said, “1 don’t know, I hope so,” 1 said, “Well, let me ask you, are you saved?” She answered, “No, preacher, I’m not.” I said, “I’ve got news for you, your prayers aren’t getting through. Would you like to get through?” She said, “I sure would.” And one hour later there in the hospital room she said, “Lord Jesus, come into my heart and save me, a sinner.” Oh now her prayers are getting through.’ In that very second of time when she bowed her head and invited Christ into her heart, she had resources for guidance now that she never knew before. She has the right to call Him Father and the right to come into His very presence and let her petitions be made known. The Bible says, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” on Christian, listen to me. I believe you’ve got a lot of extras you aren’t using;. Get in your car and go home and don’t turn the air-conditioning on. Get in your car and don’t push the button and roll the windows down. Get Into your car and don’t use the automatic transmission and don’t turn on the radio. Get into your car and don’t use the key. Get into your car and don’t take all those extras you’ve got there. Brother, you’re not going very far. You’re not going to get too much out of that car. Those extras, those things that they put on there to make money, are for your convenience; you use them. Christians, we are to use them today. Every day we ought to claim these promises and claim our resources and draw upon them—not just when we’re in trouble but daily we are to call upon Him.

Not only do we have the resources of His Word and of the Throne of Grace, but we have the resources of the indwelling Spirit of God. Folks, listen. Do you realize mat the only person that really has a purpose for living is a believer? Do you know that all unsaved people, regardless of their ambitions and their plans, their promotion and everything that they have, are only existing? But a believer is more than existing.

He is here with a plan and a purpose. God has a blueprint for his life. And as a believer, when you come to Calvary. Jesus lays out the blueprint and says, “Look what I’ve got planned for you.” And yet, do we claim it? Do we really step out and claim the promises? Do we really use our resources? Or do we say, “Well, Lord, I’m saved now. Hands off. I want to live my own life.” If you do, you’ll mess it up too. But as a Christian, you have resources for guidance.

VI. REFUGE FOR GRIEF

Not only as a Christian do we have redemption by grace, remedy for guilt, relationship with God, righteousness for a garment, resources for guidance, but we have a refuge for grief. Do you know that the Christian alone has this refuge?

I talked with one of our men this morning whose uncle had passed away. He told me, “Brother Brads haw, I want you to know I fed closer to the Lord than ever before.” He said, “Through (his time, these two or three days when everything has been so hectic, I’ve felt closer to the Lord. It seems so real.” Why can a peliever say mat? Because he has refuge for grief. Listen to me, the Bible says, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” God said He has given us these divine promises: these .things we can stand upon in these days of trials and grief.

Christian, one thing you’ll have more than the unsaved has—is your share of grief. In fact, 1 think the Christian has more grief in many ways because the devil seems to throw more things at you than he does the unsaved. The unsaved are already shackled and salted away, so to speak, but the Christian is trying to live for God and Satan comes and pulls you down. But listen to what you have in the hour of grief* If something’s gone wrong, something you don’t understand, aren’t you glad you can say, “Well brother, ‘all things work together for good to them that love God’.” Do you know that I visited a lady in the hospital this week who is dying with cancer who knows it and has accepted it. She thanked the doctor for being honest with her and telling her how serious she was. But do you know what she told me when I had prayer with her? She said, “Remember, Brother, Romans 8:26.” Now that’s what I’m talking about, a refuge for grief. When we’re persecuted we can hide in the shelter of the Lord Jesus, knowing that they hated Him without a cause and they’re going to hate us without a cause.

Then, of course, there are financial difficulties, and who doesn’t have those? We have the promise, “My God shall supply all your needs.” When death comes as it did this week in two families, what do we haw in grief? What’s our refuge? And of course, Paul said, “1 would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. For we believe that if Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that have died in Christ will He bring with Him. For this is the Word of God, that the dead in Christ will rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, in the air. and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.” What’s our comfort in grief? The fact that because He lives, we too shall live. We have that.

I’ve seen the unsaved go to pieces and carry on like heathens. I’ve seen the unsaved run screaming from the funeral room unwilling even to look at death. Oh, but praise God! I’ve seen the believer whose husband or child or friend has been taken stand there and say. “Praise God Isn’t it wonderful?

I’ll see him again.” We’ve noticed this morning that we have redemption by grace: we have remedy for guilt; we have relationship with God; we have righteousness for a garment; we have resources for guidance; we have a refuge for grief. Listen to the last one We have a residence in glory. VII. RESIDENCE IN GLORY We have a home reserved for us eternal in tbe heavens. You know today is the big “bowl game” over here, but I’m not excited about it. A lot of folks are excited about it I’m not excited about anything that – takes the place of the house of God. I’m not excited anytime- even if it were the Super Bowl— if it happens on Sunday I’m not for it. But that’s incidental.

There are folks today who are reserving their places. In fact, I doubt that you could buy a ticket now. They’re gone. There will be a few scalpers standing outside trying to make a fast buck, but basically every seat in that stadium will be taken for the game. And every seat in that place is a “reserved seat.” You have to have a ticket to get in and when you get in, if you’re late, your seat will still be there because it’s reserved. I believe that when we walk down that golden street there’s going to be a name plate and a number on every home, brother. And I don’t know what home is going to be mine and what’s going to be yours, but I’ve got news for you, I’m going to live in a home in which I’ve sent up materials there to build. And if I’ve sent up plenty of materials. I’ll have plenty of home. If I just get in by the skin of my teeth, 1 may have a golden tent, brother, but I thank God it’ll be mine. It’s reserved for me eternal in the heavens. He said. “In my Father’s house are many mansions and I go to prepare a place for you.” Isn’t that something?

Now listen, Christian, everything I’ve mentioned to you today is YOUKS. It’s one of those extras you got when you knelt at the foot of the cross. All you were wanting to do was to get saved, but I’ve got news for you. God didn’t just SAVE you. He saved you all right, but when He saved you, He completed you And that’s why we are told we are complete in Him, nothing to be added. We have redemption by grace; we have remedy for guilt; we have a relationship with God; we have righteousness for a garment; we have resources for guidance; we have a refuge for grief; and praise God, we have a residence in glory waiting for us.

Are you ready? Unsaved friend, you don’t have any of these. That final call may come today. If it does, it will be too late. But Christian, listen to me now, with all of these benefits that you have, what are you griping about? What are you complaining about? What are you defeated about? Claim the promises. Stand upon them. Be “more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Let’s pray.

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