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Amen. Okay, so Job chapter 13, and in Job 13, I'm sure many people know about this book, but he's answering his friends' attempt to explain the tribulation that he's going through. He's lost all his children, his business, his wealth, he's covered head to toe in these sore boils, and basically his so-called friends are telling him that it's chastisement, he's bought it upon himself, it's his fault. It says in verse 1, it says, he says, Lo mine eye have seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it. What ye know, the same do I know also. I am not inferior unto you. Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value. Oh, that ye would altogether hold your peace, and it should be your wisdom. And the title of my sermon today is based upon verse 4, but rather than physicians, the title today is Missionaries of No Value. Missionaries of No Value. I'd like to pray before we continue. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for, well, you know, the many great lessons you give us in your word, and this one today, you know, that I'm going to preach today, Lord, just help me to preach this just clearly and accurately and boldly and just in a way that everyone will really just understand a message that I've been thinking about this week, Lord. And, Lord, just help everyone to take it in and be edified by your word as well, Lord, and help all these things to be done in Jesus Christ's holy name. Amen. So what am I talking about when I use the word missionary, if anyone's wondering? A missionary is someone sent by a church in an area to evangelise. Now, sometimes this will be combined with other works, so you'll get sort of medical and teaching type missionaries around. But if it's a Christian missionary, the primary goal should be, and is at least usually claimed to be, the preaching, the spreading of the gospel. Okay, that's what a missionary should and usually claims to be doing. Now, there have been some famous missionaries of the past that you may have heard of, names such as William Carey, I think he was in India, Hudson Taylor, David Livingston. I remember, I think we had some of these at my secondary school were like the houses, kind of like groups of the school were named after these. Eric Liddell, if anyone remember that one, that was a rugby player and sprinter that they completely quared off in the movie Chariots of Fire. Anyone ever seen that movie? Absolutely horrendous. He's running like this. It's terrible. The actor was a sodomite. Yeah, it was appalling. But anyway, and I think in it, they're trying to make this point of him not wanting to run on the Sabbath, the whole thing. It's a wicked movie anyway. But anyway, let's move off movies and carry on with the sermon. But missionaries, look, they're not a thing of the past. So if anyone's just thinking, oh, it's these guys in kind of combat fatigues and stuff, going out to the jungles and things far out lands, you know, there's a lot of missionaries out there today. And especially nowadays, probably the most common or in fact, by far the most common is what they call the short term international missionary. Okay, so the short term missionaries, these are those that spend as little as a week outside of their cultural context, they'll call it so. Now, it's hard to estimate, but the estimates are as high as maybe 2 million alone from the US, okay, of these short term missionaries. So these are sort of churches where they're like, we're going to go for a week to wherever, we're going to go for two weeks, wherever, maybe, maybe even less, you know, and we just go and do a bit of missionary work and come back. And they reckon sometimes per year, it could be as many as 2 million just from the US. And by the way, churches here do that as well, I use the word church loosely. Now, long term missionaries who have crossed national borders for at least two years is estimated at approximately 430,000 in 2021. And that's throughout the world, okay, so that's not just from the US. Now, admittedly, most of these aren't even Baptists, okay, let alone Baptists preaching grace through faith. However, just for an idea of how many so called Christian missionaries are out there. Now, when it comes to independent Baptist missionaries, because that's what we're a bit more interested in, aren't we here, there are approximately 6000 missionaries, and that's not including their families, okay, so that's basically, theoretically, men of God, and then there's families supporting them as well. Now, I was looking at some research, which was taken from 25 independent Baptist mission boards, which represented they reckon around 3000 missionaries, about half of the missionaries from these 25 boards from 2022. And these were the nations with 50 plus known missionaries, okay. So and again, we're talking about long term missionaries here, not the short term ones. So you had Brazil, okay. And obviously, I think most would be aware that a lot of these are going to be coming from the US. So Brazil will be an obvious one. Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Canada, Philippines, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, and there's one more anyone want to guess what the other one is in these top ones with 50 plus anyone want to guess? No one's willing. Come on. No. UK. Yeah, UK. It felt like it was leading to South Africa, didn't it? But no, the UK. So yeah, the UK. As far back as in 2005, these were the top five most evangelised nations by fundamental Baptist missionaries. Number one was Brazil with 253. Number two was Mexico with 206. Number three was the Philippines with 118. And number four was the United Kingdom with 112 missionaries. 112 missionaries in the United Kingdom. Number five was Canada with 104. That was a total of 793 of these missionaries counts in 2005. Now, according to, this was researched by a guy called Gil Anger or Anger, I'm not sure, maybe he was angry, I don't know, in 2005. That was apparently 30% of all fundamental Baptist missionaries located in these five countries. So 30% of all missionaries were in these five countries alone. So nearly a third. With the UK sitting at number four, like I said, with 112 missionaries in 2005, which is when I was 24 years old. And do you know how many of those missionaries or their disciples have knocked on my door or any of the doors where I've lived in that time? I want to take a guess. It's a big fat zero. Yeah, a big fat zero. In fact, has anyone here ever had an independent Baptist missionary with the correct gospel knocking on their door? No? Not one. Yet apparently we're in the fourth most evangelised nation by people that are meant to have the right gospel. Yet not anyone in this church has ever had anyone, does anyone know anyone, that's had an independent Baptist missionary or any of his flock knock on their door? Something's amiss there, isn't it? Apparently we're a massively evangelised nation. Anyone ever been stopped in the street by an independent Baptist missionary at one of his church with the gospel? You can't put your hand up if you, it's not going to ruin my server. Because if there's one or two, even if there was five of you, it'd still be a disgrace, wouldn't it? What's going on? What are they doing? Because apparently a load of them are coming here as well. And look, do you think that that's just because it's the UK? Anyone think that's just, it's a bit wet and chilly, isn't it, mostly year round, although we're looking out of glorious blue skies today. It's not because it's just the UK. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest to you that it's the same case for the vast majority of those 6,000 odd independent Baptist missionaries out there. I reckon that hardly any of them are knocking doors and going out and preaching the gospel, are they? Because where are they all? Where are they all? Do you know why? Because most of them are missionaries of no value, okay? Most of these are missionaries of no value. Look at Job 13 again. Now obviously Job is a saved man of God, okay? In Job 19 and 25 he said, for I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, okay? Job was saved by the only way that anyone ever got saved and that was by faith in, at this point, the coming Christ, okay? But here, like with the unsaved, with the lost, he could do with a man of God to give him some godly counsel here, couldn't he? Okay, look, he needs someone to say, he's in a bad time in his life. I mean, I don't think it could get much worse than what Job's going through, yeah? He needs someone to say, it sounds like a trial, Job, but you can make it through this, yeah? You can make it through this, let me help you, let me support you, instead of trying to accuse him of wickedness, yeah? Maybe he could do with someone comforting him to remind him that God will come through, to remind him of the, maybe of just the glory that awaits anyway. Even if it just ends up badly here on earth, you've got, you've got eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ in glory. That's what he could have done with. However, they're useless, aren't they? They're useless. In Job 16, 2, Job says, and you don't have to turn there, we're going to stay in Job 13, he says, I have heard many such things, miserable comforters are you all. Miserable comforters are you all. They're like the majority sadly of the missionaries of our day. They're not fit for purpose, are they? They're not fit for purpose. The unsaved need to hear something from God, don't they? That's what the unsaved need. What Job needed was something godly, didn't he? He needed something from God, and the unsaved need that as well. They need a real soul winning missionary to take them to one side with the word of God, don't they? And look, they need a man of God with a King James Bible and some boldness, don't they? To preach, to preach, well, to open their mouth and preach them the gospel. That's what they need. In Job 13, Job said, lo, mine eye have seen all this, my near have heard and understood it. What ye know, the same do I know also, I am not inferior unto you. Do you know what's out there? What's out there in the world, in the world of, and sadly in very receptive places as well. Too many men with dusty Bibles, dusty old Bibles trying to reason for the existence of God. I've been around these, I've been around the so-called missionaries in this nation doing exactly that. Their Bible stays shut. Their Bible stays shut with a load of dust building on the top of it while their idea of evangelising people is trying to prove the existence for God. It's trying to show them why God's real and why God is, you know, God does actually exist. He said just opening the Bible and preaching the gospel, right? Too many men as well telling the lost about their changed lives. Too many people preaching themselves instead of Jesus Christ. Telling everyone about how much better they are now that they're saved. Look at the changes in my life, look at me, instead of look at what the Lord Jesus Christ did for you. There's a lot of people out there like that, a lot of so-called missionaries out there like that. But what they should be doing is preaching the word of God. Verse 3 said, surely I would speak to the Almighty and I desire to reason with God. And whether it's someone like Job going through tribulation or the billions of lost people out there, there's one thing that they need is the word of God, don't they? That's what they need. It's the word of God. It's all about the word of God. Keep a finger here and turn to 1 Thessalonians in chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians 2. And whilst you turn now, I'm going to read Hebrews 4.12. I'm reading Hebrews 4.12 while you turn to 1 Thessalonians 2. And Hebrews 4.12 says, For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And that's part of our memory challenge this last six weeks. It's a great verse of the Bible, isn't it? Because it is all about the word of God. It's not the missionary's worldly wisdom that's quick and powerful, is it? It's not the missionary's worldly wisdom that's sharper than any two-edged sword. Here's way to debate the existence of God or his way of showing you how amazing he is. It's all about the word of God. 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13. Verse 13 says, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as a word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. It's the word of God that gets people saved, isn't it? A spirit-filled man or woman of God preached the word of God is what the lost need, don't they? Okay, that's what they need all over the world. There's no difference. Wherever you go, they need the word of God. Oh, well, I've gone to this area. These guys need me to prove this a bit more. These guys need me to disprove whatever religion that they hold. No, they need you to show them the word of God. They need you to preach them the word of God. It's all about the word of God. Go back to Job 13. Sadly, most missionaries out there, most independent fundamental Baptist missionaries out there aren't doing that. They aren't going across the world to preach the gospel. Like Job's so-called friends, they're of little to no use. Verse 4 says, but ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value. And you know what? There's a lot of spiritually sick people out there that need healing, aren't there? There's a lot of spiritually sick people out there that need healing. When the scribes and Pharisees were criticizing Jesus for hanging around with publicans and sinners, in Mark 2 17, you have to turn there, it says, when Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, they that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Jesus is a great physician, isn't he? And you know, we sing a hymn called the great physician, don't we? Jesus is a great physician. He could take the spiritually terminally ill and heal them in a split second. How did you know that? He could take the spiritually terminally ill and heal them just like that, can't he? And if you're saved, then you also have that ability. You have the ability to heal the spiritually sick through the Holy Spirit and your spiritual scalpel, which is the word of God. It's a sharp spiritual scalpel there. But when it comes to these lame physicians, these worthless missionaries out there, for me, I boil it down to two types of physician. So number one is a con artist and number two is a retiree. So you've got number one, the con artist, and number two, the retiree. We're going to look at the con artist first. So this is a physician or doctor who's blagging it. Maybe he's got a fake degree, or maybe he's got one in some pseudoscience like psychiatry or something useless. And he can't really heal you, but he'll convince you that he can. So he can't actually heal you, but he will convince you that he's able to heal you. And some of these are good blags. I was reading some stuff a while back, and as you do about serial killers, there was ones that actually were never ever qualified to be a doctor. And I can't remember the name of this guy. He basically blagged it, pretended he was a doctor, and basically just wanted access to people to kill him. I think it might have been psychiatry, in fact. But there's a lot of fakes out there. Did you know that? There are fake doctors, fake quacks out there. There are those that are in sort of just clown doctor-type professions, where really they get a doctorate, but it's a nonsense, right? So he can't really heal you. And for me, that's most missionaries out there today. So when we're looking at ministry, that's just the vast majority. Not just in Christianity, but I would say in IFB circles too, it's still the majority. And something that you have to understand is that, because a lot of people, they talk about the old IFB, and we were talking about this a bit in South Africa as well. And you can come away just kind of thinking, well, that's just the old IFB. It's always been like that, but it hasn't, okay? Look, the old IFB, the independent fundamental Baptist, had some great men of the past, okay? Men like Jack Hiles. We were listening to a bit of Curtis Hudson, for example. There are many great men. And you know what? Do you know what? The vast majority you haven't even heard of, okay? There are churches out there all over the world, there have been, where there have been great men of God preaching the word of God, getting out there soul-winning, inspiring others, getting out there preaching the gospel. Look, that's been the world over. Look, the glory days of the independent fundamental Baptist movement was probably around those days though. It's got to the late part of the last century with men like Jack Hiles and others, who were basically becoming mega churches, but not because they were rock and roll and preaching feel-good sermons, because they were out soul-winning and they were doing the things of God and they were just smashing it, okay? However, do you know what happened? It got infiltrated. That movement got infiltrated by a load of repent of your sins and other false brethren. That's what happened. Okay, it's not that that, so what we see now when you go to most IFB churches and there's some guy behind there basically in one way or another eventually preach repent of your sins, okay, that's not what it should have been. That's not what it was meant to be. That's not what these people did believe. It just got infiltrated with time. So now we've got this situation where you think of the IFB, just think a load of repent of your sins and lame churches where no one goes out soul-winning, but that's not what it was, okay? It's been infiltrated. It's something we have to be careful of, don't we, because great movements get infiltrated. And if you think about all the revivals throughout the Old Testament when the nation started winning and battling and everything else and they get a good leader and things start happening, what happens in the next generation or two afterwards? It all goes downhill again, okay? And that's something we have to be really careful about here and that's why it's so important what we do with our children, don't we, and what we do with their children and what we do going forward. It's not just about the now, is it? It's about the future as well, okay? So that's what's happened for me with the Independent Fundamental Baptist and these repent of your sins guys are everywhere, okay? They are absolutely everywhere. And do you know what? It's no different when it comes to missionaries. You think, well, yeah, but to go abroad you'd have to have a bit of zeal for preaching the gospel, wouldn't you? No. Do you know what? Most of them have a zeal for preaching a false gospel. Most of them have a zeal for going abroad and running some repent of your sins just clown outfit somewhere and basically taking and just either destroying saved people or just drawing in people that maybe would have been receptive to the gospel into their false work salvation. You know, the UK, like I said, they had 112 Independent Fundamental Baptist missionaries in 2005. How many churches today and in the last, for those of you that have been looking for the last best part of a decade, how many of those churches are preaching the correct gospel loud and clear? Hardly any, right? So do you know what that tells me? That tells me that all those missionaries either the saved ones failed or they were false prophets. They were false prophets coming to this nation preaching a false gospel. It's wicked, isn't it? Absolutely wicked. And you know what? For me, that's the same all over the world. Okay? Talk to the guys out in South Africa, that's the same out there. They've just got missionaries come out there and this is the same. You talk to the brothers stuck here in the Philippines. It's same with the so-called missionaries. That's an evangelized nation. But what are most of them preaching? Repent your sins. Repent of your sins, lordship, salvation or something similar, some form of work salvation. And this is across the board, isn't it? And you go, oh, what is it that bad? You know, maybe they just sit there, not a bit off. Okay, believe me, they're not. When it comes to the gospel, the gospel is so simple, isn't it? I was preaching this out there. How hard is it? How hard is it to preach the gospel to someone? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. How hard is it to understand what real repentance is? It's a change of mind for what you did believe faith in Christ. How hard is that to explain to someone? It's easy. And if a man behind a pulpit can't explain that, I'll tell you why. It's one of two reasons. One, they shouldn't be behind a pulpit and they're not qualified. They don't have conviction enough in their real faith and that they're confused and everything and they shouldn't be preaching. And that's pretty rare. Number two, they're a false prophet. They're a subtle false prophet, but they're a false prophet because it's not hard, is it? The gospel is easy. The gospel is simple. The gospel is Jesus Christ did it all. You don't have to do a little bit, a little bit of your own stuff because his death on the cross wasn't enough. His death on the cross was only for some of your sins. You've still got to kind of repent of some and get rid of some yourself because Jesus Christ's blood just wasn't enough. That's basically what they're saying, isn't it? And what is it? Just work salvation. It's always work salvation. It's always what we're battling with pretty much 99% of the time it's work salvation, isn't it? In one way or another. And these guys are everywhere and that includes missionaries. And do you know what? It's a battle out there. It really is a battle out there. And I think, you know, sometimes we forget what a battle it is. Sometimes we think, well, there's these independent Baptist, they're doing stuff. Look, we're all saved here, aren't we? I hope everyone here is saved. Okay. So therefore we're in the battle and it is a battle because while God's children are stacking on the job, the devil's children are out there evangelising the world with their false gospels. Because do you know what the vast majority of people that I stopped in South Africa to preach gospel to believed? In fact, what every single one believed that they had to do some sort of work. So I had to repent of their sins. That's what they all believe. Now, is it because they innately deep down believe that? No, it's because they preach a false gospel because look, they're everywhere. The false prophet. In fact, while we were preaching, we're preaching a park on the first day and, and, and in the morning, I mean, we were just racking up the salvation. There's a huge park in the centre of Pretoria. Everyone's just finding people who want to hear the gospel, young, old, you name it. We go and stop for lunch. We come back in the afternoon and then suddenly there's a false prophet there with welcome packs for his church. He's just grinning, smiling, false prophet. And he was, he was in people's faces and I'd just gone to this couple, try to preach him the gospel. They'd rejected me. And then within five minutes, this guy comes over and he's just talking at them, talking for about half an hour. Cause I was silent partnering someone else just further along while I'm just looking at this guy at the corner of my, wanting to go and rebuke him, but kind of thinking I should really stay here and not cause an issue. He's hopefully getting these guys safe. And this guy's just, just out there, just, just talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, talking. At the end of it, they come away with packs to his church. These guys are, look, they, they, they will, they preach hard, right? Some of them are, you know, they'll, they'll come per se and land to find one Proselyte, right? And then what are they going to do with them? Make them twofold more to try to hell than themselves, won't they? So look, here's the thing with this as well is not only is the enemy peddling his work, salvation everywhere, and there's many ways of that, but, but you know what an IFB church does that's peddling that? They make it sound biblical. That's the worst thing about them. These are the worst types of false prophets because they make it sound biblical. They target people that actually believe the Bible's the word of God. They target people that want to hear what the Bible says, don't they? So for me, a lot of the time they're targeting people that I believe at one point were probably right for salvation. They were ready to hear the gospel. They're ready to hear the Bible. They believe the Bible's the word of God. And then they have a false prophet who looks like us, who walks like us, who talks like us. Look, they'll wear, they'll wear the suits. They'll carry the King James Bible in their hand. They'll say the King James is the word of God. Everyone's are menning. Their wives, their adults are wearing skirts and dresses and dressing like ladies and men are trying to behave like men and everything else. And then they're coming to people who, and they're going, look, look what the Bible says. And then they're going to verses that say things like repent and believe and just adding in, you've got to repent of your sins. And it's wicked, isn't it? These are the worst types of scum out there. They really are. And we look at them and go, well, they're just, they're not that far off. They're probably the least worst type of scum. But the truth is it's the opposite. They're the most cunning type of scum out there because they're preaching the Bible. They're claiming to believe the Bible. They're claiming to study the word of God. And then they're preaching, work salvation through it. Okay. They're misusing, they're mishandling, in fact, even worse. They're deceiving people with God's word. Okay. That is wicked, isn't it? And these people are everywhere and there's missionaries like this everywhere. Just like Job's friends though, they are forgers of lies, aren't they? They're forgers of lies. And like I said, it's not that they're just a little mixed up, a little confused, use different terminology. They're conning people. Okay. These are con artists. They're pretending to be men of God. They're leading people to hell. Now, you don't have to turn there. Romans 11, 6 just makes it clear. Okay. It's one or the other. Okay. It's clear as day. It's not, well, there's a little bit, just a little bit of repentance as long as they kind of believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 11, 6 says, and if by grace and is it no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works and is it no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. It's one or the other, isn't it? There's no bit of both. And look, if you're sitting here today and you're still a bit unsure, you're still a little bit on the fence with this. Well, you know, surely you've got to at least be willing to follow the Lord in his commandments. That's still some works, isn't it? It's no more grace. If you're sitting here going, well, yeah, but look, I'm sure people can still get saved if they, you know, at least they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but maybe they're a bit, they think that they can maybe lose their salvation if they're really bad. It's still a bit of works, isn't it? There's no more grace. You're unsaved. And there are people out there, look, there's a lot of people out there that believe that. There was some pastors, I know my friend of mine was at a church in Scotland where the pastor eventually came out with it, that he believed that people, is he possibly a missionary? I think he might be actually. This is a missionary, another missionary who believed that someone who thinks they can lose their salvation can still be saved. How does that work? Anyone tell me how that works? Someone who believes that you're still working, you were at that church, so I forgot, yeah. And again, these guys come out with it a lot further down the line, don't they, brother? So you can be going there and persevering. And we've all been at places like this, yeah, persevering at these churches. And then years down the line, they come out with, oh yeah, but you can still be saved if, you know, they're still saved if they think they can lose their salvation. But they're believing it works. And it's no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. But look, they're everywhere, they're everywhere. So you've got these types of missionaries out there. But do you know what gets me angrier than physician number one? And I'm not just saying this for the sake of this sermon. What gets me angrier than the false prophet reprobate? Because look, they're reprobates, right? They're reprobate concerned of faith, they've been given over, they're done, they're full of all sorts of wickedness, they're full of this stuff. Okay, they're already, it's too late for them, okay? Look, you know, a duck's going to quack like a duck, okay? It shouldn't be that shocking. Do you know what gets me angrier than the con artist is number two, the retiree. The retiree. So this is a genuine doctor that's hung up the stethoscope. He just gives a bit of advice to the family and friends now and then, okay? So he's sunning himself in a tropical country most of the year on a healthy retirement fund, okay? And there's doctors out there like that. And you probably wouldn't begrudge these people because they're doctors, they're physicians, they've earned their retirement, haven't they? However, the problem is when this comes to missionaries, because they're not meant to be retired, okay? So these guys aren't meant to be retirees. The retirement fund is tithes and offerings. It's God's money, okay? From supporting churches. Most of these guys are actually of healthy employment age, okay? So instead of getting a proper job or treating God's work as a proper job like they should, they stack on a job. They do the bare minimum. They treat God's work like a little retirement hobby to keep them from getting bored. That's what a lot of people are out there in these nations doing, and people in this nation doing that as well. There are billions of souls to save. There are churches to plant, men to train up, false prophets to battle. It's a battle, isn't it? And what are these guys doing? They've got their feet up, or worse still, they've gone somewhere where they're not even capable of working effectively, okay? And there's a lot of these. So look, I'm an English speaker, yeah? I don't speak another language well, well enough to even consider myself semi-fluent, okay? I'm like most English people in this nation who are like that. I blame the schools, okay? Okay, where am I going to go if I decide to be a missionary? Would it be sensible to go somewhere where they speak another language that I don't know? Anyone think that would be a sensible choice? It wouldn't, would it? Because what am I going to do in that place? I'm going to end up spending half my time having to learn the language when I could have been out there soul-winning, couldn't I? In fact, I'm not going to get any souls saved because I can't even speak the language, okay? So instead I'm just going to be getting paid because I'm going to need someone to support me, aren't I? Because I've gone out as a missionary. Oh don't worry guys, you all like, you all support, or ultimately it comes from offering, because a lot of the time it's not just a tie. A lot of the time these guys will ask for extra offerings on top. So they'll put out, I was at a church where they'd be like, we need, you know, we're doing an extra fund for the missions out in the Philippines it was, yeah? We need some extra money. And then they had this, it's funny they had like this wooden, you remember this thing brother, like this weird wooden sort of, it was like a kid's piggy bank this long. I think it was meant to look authentically like Filipino or something. And then it was like, just get, we'll fill it up and then eventually we're going to smash it open and send it to someone out there who is very likely doing nothing at all. And this was on top of your tithe, okay? And a lot of people are like, look man, I'm helping out, I'm giving money. I don't go and preach the gospel, but at least I'm giving money to someone that does, because that's what goes on with a lot of these churches, okay? So what they basically do is they justify their own doing nothing and they go, we are big on supporting missionaries here, okay? Because we believe in the gospel going out everywhere. But so instead of going out and preaching the gospel anywhere, we just send money to so-called missionaries. And that church we're at, I mean, he had on the side wall, he had a map of the world and he had all these flags pointing to all these different areas. And then they would kind of, they'd have like a line come out and then they'd have like a picture of the missionary and his family where he is in his place. And then they would send us these update letters and you get these emails, man, they were painful, okay? And it'd be like, seriously, it'd be like, praise God this week, I managed to talk, mention the name God to someone. Seriously, this stuff, okay, yeah? We managed to get God into conversation during the English lessons I've been having or something, you know? Sorry, not the English lessons, in the language lessons I've been having, you know, for the last year on everyone's offerings. It's nuts. And what are they really, they're just, it's basically like retirement, it's retirement holiday. But a lot of them aren't retirement age. And it's not just them, like their families are getting funded as well, you know, little johnnies, you know, going to probably private language school and everything else there. And they're just, and it's expensive stuff. But what are they doing? Nothing. They're not doing anything. They're basically sitting, they're retired. They're like a retiree, just sitting there with their feet up, doing a bit of language lessons on the side so they can get to know the people in the culture a bit more. And that's wicked, isn't it? How wicked is that? You're working, for God, you should be working with your heart and soul, you should be putting your effort into it, you should be doing the best you possibly can. And instead, they're just relaxing, getting paid to slowly learn a language. According to Babel, yeah, according to Babel, here's something interesting. Around 237 million people in Africa speak English. Anyone want to take a guess at how receptive Africa is? Very, very, very receptive. Do you know how we know it's very receptive? Because when we go out soul winning here, we generally, a lot of the time when we're looking for marathons and things, look for areas where there's a high amount of Africans because they're so receptive to the gospel. And look, you generalize it, that's the truth. So what would you do if you're out in Africa? What do you think you'll probably spend your time doing? Soul winning, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you go and preach the gospel out there, but these guys aren't preaching the gospel. What are they doing? Half of them aren't even tracting. We'll talk about that in a minute. What they do is they basically just sit around, sit around, do a little bit of church work sometimes. And like obviously being in Africa inspired me to write this sermon a bit because I'm looking around thinking this place is so receptive and they're not even on the top, you know, they don't even have the 50 plus missionaries off that first one I looked at. They were I think another two levels down in South Africa at least and most of the nations of Africa where it was like only a lot less. But wouldn't that be the place where you'd go? If you're an English speaking missionary, what would you think? Should I go to Iraq or should I maybe go to Africa? Should I go to China where I don't speak the language or should I go to Africa? Surely you'd go to Africa, wouldn't you? Or somewhere similar, somewhere receptive where they speak English. Now look, if you speak another language, great, reach somewhere else, but I'm not going to go somewhere where I don't even speak the language. And do you know what they have in South Africa? Instead of people out preaching the gospel, they've got a load of language lesson retirees who are keeping, you know, keeping themselves busy with a bit of language, learning it. And I believe they have the same in the Philippines as well from what I can tell and other very receptive places to the gospel. A load of retirees in fact, they've got a pointless job, not just learning the language, but they've got this pointless job posting tracks, a lot of them. So that's about as far as it goes. They've got a kind of well keep me busy job, keep up a bit of exercise in my retirement by posting tracks through doors. Anyone tell me what posting tracks through doors will achieve? Nothing. You ain't getting people saved with a tract. Can someone show me in the Bible where someone got saved reading a tract or reading a verse of the Bible? Anyone pointing it out in the Bible? So why do these guys suddenly believe that they're going to get people saved handing out hundreds and thousands of tracks? It's nonsense. Turn to Romans 10. My Bible says in Ephesians 1 13, when speaking of Jesus Christ, in whom he also trusted, after that ye heard, heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit promise. When did they trust Christ? After they heard, heard the word of truth. We just read 1 Thessalonians 2 13, which said, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God, which he heard of us, what did they do? They heard it. The word of God, which he heard of us, ye received it not as a word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. This is a consistent theme in the Bible. Romans 10 13 says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Verse 14 says, how then shall they call in him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they hear unless some spineless lazy retiree gives them a tract? Is that what it says? No. How shall they hear unless some glorified postman drops a track through their door? Because that's what these guys are. Do you know what would be more cost effective? Would be just to pay the local post service, give them a box of tracts and get one added every time they go to the door. And then they wouldn't have to pay the retiree missionary to go out there with his family, with his feet up, doing very little else. That would be cost effective, wouldn't it? And do you know why we don't contact the local post services in all these receptive countries and give them our tracts? Because it's useless. Because no one's getting saved with a tract. Because the Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Does it come by reading? Okay, you need someone safe to explain it to you. That's why you can read. That's why we come across people. I had a guy I was telling you a little while back, who said, I've read the Bible more times than you. And I was, I've read it 17 times. And he still believed it worked salvation, because they don't get it. They don't understand it, do they? But what they need is someone preaching the gospel to them. Verse 15 says, And how should they preach except they be sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for as I say, Lord, who has believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So verse 15 said the feet of them that not deliver tracts, the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. That's what we're called to do. He said in verse 17, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And these guys aren't just in tropical climates, by the way. So I had a previous missionary pastor who was supported by Ascending Church, and this guy, he was in the London area, okay, sent from the US with his family, you know, and basically he did tracting, I think, on a Tuesday for one hour maybe, an hour and a, I might be getting this one maybe an hour and a half, and on a Saturday morning he'd do tracting for an hour and a half. So he basically just sat, sorry, stood in Sutton just going, come to church, come to church, come to church, come to church. Okay, you go, okay, well he must look. And admittedly, okay, there's a difference between being a missionary that passes a church and a missionary whose sole focus can just be soul winning. Yeah, there's a lot of work that goes into passing a church. However, he had one church service a week on a Sunday morning with a 40-odd minute sermon, was the average. Okay, so this guy, he wasn't doing any of the rest of it, he wasn't organising anything else, he wasn't dealing with any of the other stuff that comes from having three services and all the other things that go with that. He had one service in the morning and all he could find time for was handing out tracts to people for two hours a week. That's horrendous, isn't it? And this guy is a fully employed missionary who's come to the UK to evangelise the nation and he's handing out tracts for two hours a week. I mean, that's bad, isn't it? And you know what, there's worse than that out there as well, okay. I mean, there are ones that aren't even going out and handing out the tracts. They're just sitting there just going, well, you know, if they come to church we'll get them saved. And then they're sending back reports going, oh, this week we had a family come in, praise the Lord and everything else. And he said that some of it, he was telling me, he was bemoaning the fact that some of the supporting churches, because it wasn't just his church, they have different churches supporting, wanted to see kind of, well, what are we getting back for our money type thing. So they would want to know how many people are coming to church, how many are getting saved and everything else. Well, very few because he's not doing what God says and go out and preach in the Gospel. And then what does he do when they get to church? Preach the Gospel every week. So then what happens to everyone in the church? All they're doing is hearing the Gospel every week. Instead of getting built up and learning and strengthened to go out and preach the Gospel themselves and to be able to win that spiritual battle and go out and serve the Lord, they're just hearing the Gospel every week and then going home and having a week off God. Most of them. Crazy, isn't it? So I was having a think about this, yeah. Do you know how many souls you could save in a receptive nation though? Because look, these guys that come here, and this is a very evangelised nation, it's just a receptive nation. Look, it's not very unreceptive, okay. There are places where, you know, you're hard pressed to find people that even want to hear the Gospel, okay. We're probably somewhere in between here, aren't we? So I'm not saying, look, if they were, look, this is somewhere where, yeah, look, everywhere needs people preaching the Gospel. But do you know if you went to a receptive nation, I was having a think about this. I was thinking if you weren't running a church and you were just soul winning in a place like Africa, and when I say Africa, Africa is a big place, maybe one of the receptive nations in Africa, you could well expect, I think, to get anywhere between 30 and 100 souls saved a week. I truly believe that. If you were just putting in, and look, it's spiritually exhausting preaching the Gospel, okay. So I'm not saying, right, you should be doing 12 hours a day, you know, preaching the Gospel. But there are so many people, you're not just walking around trying to find someone to listen. People want to hear the Gospel, okay. You could comfortably get saved, I would say, in a week, easily. Like if you were soul winning six days a week, easily five a day. And it could be, to be honest, it could be more like 15 a day. You could go up to, look, at some place, because a lot of time you get in groups. I mean, I've got a group on the Sunday of, I think there were nine kids there, two of them had already just heard the Gospel, seven kids, and they all want to hear, okay. They all want to call on the name of the Lord. They're not like here where you maybe get seven kids of varying ages, and some will be messing about, some will be, oh boy, some will be trying to distract the others. They're, they're just like, I want to hear, I want to hear this man of God with the Gospel, with the Bible, yeah. And you can get that there a lot as well. You could get a lot of people saved. Think how many people that would be. If you're getting 100 a week, I mean, you're talking like 5,000, aren't you, in a, in a year, plus, I mean, that's one man, one man soul winning, day after day out there. Imagine what you could be, and that's not to count, that's not going into schools, that's not going into schools and preaching to 30 plus kids at a time, like people do, don't they, when they go out and they really want to, and they're zealous, and they want to get people saved. That's not, that's not also counting all those people that get saved, those ones that then go on to want to be discipled and want to do the same. And what a knock-on effect, you could do amazing things with a few people with the Gospel, can't you? Think what can come from that. That's thousands saved per year per person. And like I said, how many of them could go on to do something similar if you then had a proper church training soul winners as well? And obviously, look, it's not just about preaching the Gospel, we want to be training people up, teaching them, getting them to be able to do the same as well. And do you know what that tells me? That it's an absolute disgrace what's going on in these nations. It's a disgrace to have a church out in South Africa or anywhere like that, and here, and anywhere, but it, I would, it's even more vexing when you see it in a place where people are literally just begging to hear the Gospel and they won't even go out and open their mouths and preach the Gospel. It's bad, isn't it? They're crying out for the Gospel and what you've got instead, you've just got a load of lazy delivery men. It's all that they are, they're just, if they're even bothering to pop tracks with dogs, if they can even be bothered, it's a disgrace. Holiday makers, language learners, that's what they all are, just a load of lazy, just can't even be bothered, lazy language learners, just out there, just, well, I might learn this language, maybe in 10 years I might be able to preach the Gospel in it. Why don't you learn it before you went, on your own time, buddy, or go somewhere that you actually can preach the Gospel? And there's a lot of those out in these places, right, and instead of what they should have, they should have men following the examples we see in the Bible. What are the examples? The Apostle Paul, Silas, Barnabas, Timothy. What was Timothy told in 2 Timothy 4-5? But watch down all things, endure afflictions, do the work of a postman. He didn't say do the work of some sort of flier hand around, no, do the work of an evangelist, make foolproof of thy ministry. He was told to do the work, he said do the work of an evangelist, didn't he? Because it's work, because you're working for God, and whether you're doing that voluntary or you're doing that and getting paid, it's work, and when we're doing things for God, we should do it as, anything we do, we should do as unto the Lord, but when you're directly doing it for God, even more important, and isn't it bad out there? It really is, it really is. Instead, we've got a load of missionaries of no value. Job said in verse 14, but ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value, and whether they're the forgers of lies, the con artists or the retirees, those lazy holiday makers, they're all physicians of no value, they're not doing anything, are they? They're not achieving anything, they're not actually, they're not fit for purpose, and do you know what they should all do? They should just shut up and go home, really. Shut up and go home and leave it open for people to go, because a lot of them are just doing more harm than good anyway, because people are just like, what on earth? In fact, obviously, the ones preaching lies, definitely, if only they could just shut up and go home, and what they should do is let someone with a real work ethic, someone saved with a work ethic, go there and roll his sleeves up and get preaching, okay, and that's what should be happening. He said in verse 5, Job said, oh, that ye would altogether hold your peace, that means be quiet, and it should be your wisdom, okay? People, these physicians of no value, these people that just use us, they do better just to hold, keep their mouth shut. Instead of what do they do, they try and justify what they do, don't they? And we see this in churches around here, they try and justify non-soul winning, so they actually do harm to the cause, because if they're preaching behind a pole pit, they're just encouraging their flock to not go out, because they don't, so they're trying to cast shade on it, they're trying to go, well, did they get to church? They do all that stuff, did they really get saved? Have they come to church and all that stuff? And then it's like, wait a second, do you even believe the gospel? Do you believe that it's just grace through faith, or do you believe that it works afterwards? And look, I'm not saying they're all out of sake, because do you know what it is? A lot of them, they're just trying to justify their lack of work, they're trying to justify their laziness, they're trying to justify their can't be bothered to go out and preach the gospel. And you know what, it's something, and obviously I'll be thinking about this, it's something we could do from this church, okay, we can find ways of accessing these receptive nations, it's really made me think about it a lot, because whether it's planting churches, sending out missionaries, or organizing missionary trips, those short-term missionaries, yeah, like we're talking about where there's millions going out from churches which probably don't even believe the gospel. I remember when I was at an evangelical church, when I was first seen, when I was first saved, and this place, they weren't, oh yeah, we're doing all this work out in, I can't remember where it was, and they're sending out like some of these kids are going out there to like dig a hole or something, you know, none of them are actually preaching the gospel, they're just out there digging holes and going, oh we're improving sanitation, oh great, improving sanitation, how about you preach the gospel while you're doing it? How about you go out there and do what you're meant to do as a Christian and preach the gospel? But it's just short, isn't it? But we can, can't we? And we hopefully, look, if we've got, hopefully here people have an appetite to get people saved, don't they? And if we have an appetite to get people saved, it would be sensible, wouldn't it, to find a way of getting to the most receptive places. And look, we should hit our local, look, we should make a difference in this nation as well, okay, we want our church to be able to function here, we want things to go our way here as well, it's important we get people saved for those reasons alone, let alone the fact that yeah, we want to reach our nation, we want to reach our families, our friends, our people. However, we also want to go and get other people saved, don't we? We do. And look, I'm talking about the Great Commission, and the Great Commission isn't limited for us to just the UK, is it? Turn to Matthew 28, and while you turn to, I'm going to read Psalm 96 and verse 3, you turn to Matthew 28. Psalm 96 3 says, declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people, all people. And he's actually, it comes from I think 1 Chronicles, which talks about it being among all nations, it's the same thing, we should be going everywhere with the Gospel. Matthew chapter 28, that is the Great Commission, verse 19 in Matthew 28 says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, all nations, baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, lo I am with you, all way even unto the end of the world. Amen. That's the Great Commission, do you know what that Great Commission is for? That's for each and every one here, because I think when you're first saved, you're looking at these things, you're looking out sort of, you know, at these missionaries, you kind of think, oh man, that's for like someone else, isn't it? That's for someone who's kind of maybe a bit more out there to be able to go to this foreign land and to be able to do that stuff, but the more you grow as a Christian, the more you realise, no, that's for us, that's for every single person here that's saved, has the ability to get people saved and this Great Commission is for you to go to all nations, we're all physicians, aren't we? We're all missionaries, every person here is a potential missionary, so look, if you're sitting here thinking, well okay brother Ian, that was a nice little kind of, you know, expose on kind of the clown missionaries out there and everything else, what can I take from this? Well, what you can take from this is don't be a missionary or a physician of no value, okay? And as this church grows and as hopefully, and look, things might not work out, I hope they do, okay? I'm praying and I hope everyone's going to pray for things to work out there, you know, and we're going to have hopefully a way of doing some great work, you know, from a base hopefully in South Africa and many, many receptive nations around that, but even if not, we want to keep looking for those doors, aren't we? A way to go to places, a way to preach the gospel, a way to get out there, a way to get people from this church out there as well, and I want everyone to pray for that, to be open to that, to want to get out there and preach the gospel to people, right? And it's not just a sort of, well I go once a week, you know, in Basildon or whatever, box tick, no, if we're not going to do it, who's going to do it? Who's doing it out there? Because I tell you what, I've just been out there and they're not doing it, look, obviously there's some people, they're doing it, but look, they need structure, they need help, they need organization, because if not, without that, it will eventually, it's going to go sour, they'll have problem people come in, they're going to have all of that, they need some church structure, they need some power behind them as well, okay, they need an ordained church behind them, but what's out there? Just a load of clown missionaries, a load of physicians or missionaries of no value, okay, and if we're not going to go out there, who is? Who is? You know what, for NIFB churches, other than obviously there's a church down in Cape Town there, Pastor Bogart's church, other than that, there's no one else near enough, I think a lot of the US churches have to stop kind of either here or France or somewhere on the way there, I don't think they even have direct flights there, no, we're close and it might not seem it when you get an 11-hour flight or something, but we are close, okay, and we can affect, we can really do a work in Africa and many nations in Africa are just crying out for the gospel, aren't they, but we need to be behind that, we need to then kind of start thinking about that and start praying for that and start kind of, you know, thinking about outside of this nation now, right, and look, we've got started, it's been great, you know, and it's taken, look, we've had to cement our position in this nation and look, we're starting to be, you know, to be something here now, aren't we, and we've been getting, we've got well over a couple of thousand people saved around and we're doing some work here and we're preaching the truth here, but we want to look further the field now as well, don't we, right, and that's something, that's going to be an ongoing goal for our church. On that, we're going to pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for, well, for your gospel, Lord, thank you that, you know, that we are those physicians that, you know, are able to go and heal the sick, Lord, help us to go out there with your gospel, Lord, to take that job seriously, to want to get out there to places where the people want to hear the gospel, Lord, and to go to those places where people are crying out for it and to preach the gospel loud and clear, to do what sadly so many seem to be failing in doing so many churches out there, churches which seem to have the right gospel, Lord, that believe the truth, just don't seem to be doing what you want them to do, and that's just to go and boldly open their mouth to declare, you know, the gospel to them. Help us to be a church that has a heart for that, has a real heart for missions, not sending money to useless retirees, sitting around doing nothing but a church which actually tries to make things happen, to get out there, preach the gospel, to open our mouths, Lord, and do what we're all called to do, Lord. Help us, help us to, though, not forget the work that we have here as well, help us to get out this afternoon and find a loss here, Lord, help us get people saved and help us to return for this evening's service, just now and for all this.