Will you please turn with me tonight to Genesis chapter 14. Genesis chapter 14, beginning in the first verse. And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Ariok, king of Elishar, Keteleomar, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of nations, that these made war with Bira, king of Sodom, and with Bershah, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Adma, and Shinabir, king of Zeboam, and the king of Bila, which is Zoar. I've been practicing. All these were joined together in the vale of Siddam, which is the Salt Sea. Twelve years they served Keteleomar. In the thirteenth year, they rebelled. And in the fourteenth year came Keteleomar, and the kings that were with him, and Smoth, the Rephaims, and Ashtaroth, Canaim, and the Zuzims of Ham, and the Emims in Shever, Keriathim, and the Horites in their Mount Seirah, unto Elperan, which is by the wilderness. And they returned, and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites that dwelt in Hazes, Zontamar. And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Adma, and the king of Zeboam, and the king of Bila, the same as Zoar. And they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddam, with Keteleomar, the king of Elam, and with Tidal, king of nations, and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Ariok, king of Eleazar, four kings with five. And the vale of Siddam was full of slime pits. And the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there. And they that remained fled to the mountain. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their vittles, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom and his goods, and departed. And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram, the Hebrew, for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Ischal, and brother of Aner. And these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his brother, that is Lot, literally his nephew, but spiritually, kinship -wise a brother, was taken captive, that he armed, Abram did, his trained servants, born in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them to Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return from the slaughter of Keteleomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Sheba, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. Let's read it again. Blessed be the Most High God, who has been responsible for, if you please, delivering thine enemies into thine hand. And he gave him tithes of all. It is not my purpose tonight, to course you into a decision, as to what you ought to believe, about American involvement in Vietnam. The pro or the con is up to you. I do, however, want to shed some light on the subject, that I think has been vastly overlooked, if not totally ignored, to allow you more intelligently, intelligently to make your own decision. Although, to the contrary, it may seem to be true, you do me an injustice to color me a hawk tonight. Admittedly, I am just about as confused as most of you are. I do want, however, to point out some things that need to be clarified and called to the attention of Christians and of Americans. 29 years ago, this very Sunday, Pearl Harbor was bombed and America's involvement was underway in what has been called the Second World War. It was, in reality, the Third World War. The Second World War is what they call the First World War. The real First World War is the story I have just read. It involved the entire known population of all the world and was centered over the fact that 400 ,000 men in one army had captured the wrong man. Abraham's nephew, Lot, had been taken captive. Now, to be sure, he was a backslidden Christian, but he was still a very important person in God's plan and purpose. When they got hold of Lot, they got hold of something they just couldn't buy. The Bible says, Touch not mine anointed. And our God has his way of protecting his interests. Amraphel, Ketaleomor, Ariok in title, went to war against, fought and conquered, to solidify all of this that I've said, Berah, Berah, Bershah, Shinab, Shemabir, and Zoar. And so all nine of these were now one. And of constraint, of a lead, willingly, a constraint at first, but ultimately, as all of them were blended into unity, began willingly to give their allegiance to King Ketaleomer. Now, there were different little skirmishes that took place round about. Different attacks upon this legion. Raphims, Zuzims, Emims, and the Horites joined a revolution against Ketaleomor and his nine tribes and were defeated and taken captive. So now, they too are assimilated, and we have 13 armies of 13 nations, the entire world at that time, under the command of King Ketaleomer. Adma and Zaborim, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, next join the revolt, and they are put down by Ketaleomer and his 13 tribes. They are set to fight, and on their way home back to their small countries, fall into a slime pit. They are destroyed. In the process, they take captive the nephew, Lot, of Abram, God's special man. Abram organizes his servants, all 318 of them, into an army, and they devise a very wise plan by which they will attack 400 ,000 men and free their nephew, the beloved Lot. It is ridiculous to suppose that one man commanding 318 men could do anything that absurd and pull it off. And yet, the Bible tells us that they did so without a single casualty. Obviously, there was a higher power involved. Obviously, there was more at stake than a few armies fighting against each other. Obviously, there was a divine revelation. A divine plan was given as to how to wage the war. And it seems that God was with them in the war. And obviously, the blessings of God were upon him at the conclusion of the war because they say, God hath blessed thee and given thee the victory. It is rational to even the most casual observer that 318 do not normally defeat 300 ,000 to 400 ,000. It was indeed a miraculous circumstance. And so we come in the 14th chapter of the very opening book of the Bible to the very stark and amazing fact that here in the first worldwide war, God was blessing, leading, and rewarding a participant in the war. And so, as he not only blessed them and rewarded them with victory, we are faced as Christians with the immediate awesome question, is war ever right? Can a man ever say that he is on God's side or that God is on his side when he is fighting a war? For the first time in our history, we have the sociological phenomenon of great numbers of our people apparently, although I am still firmly convinced that it is not the silent majority, but the most microscopic of silent minorities that speak, that are directly opposing their government's involvement in a war. Not particularly because this war is wrong, although that was originally the proposition. But now the peace demonstrators have evolved into a new philosophy whose battle cry is, all war is wrong. While they may be right in precept, they are not right in approach. For war, while it is not good, is sometimes necessary. It is not good to have criminals and lawbreakers and arsons and rapists and murderers. But they are a fact of the society man has created and must be dealt with. And when one man arrests another man, breaking a law, he is dealing in the area of criminology. When one nation arrests another nation, breaking those same laws, he is dealing in the area of international war. War is a tragedy of the human race. It is a necessity in the sociological context that man without God has created for himself. There are over 240 wars in the Bible. It is interesting to note to me that no statement in the Bible specifically says it is wrong to go to war. To the contrary, many times God sent his people in to battle, gave them the plan, gave them the victory, and honored them with that victory. The sixth commandment does not say, thou shalt not kill. It literally says, thou shalt do no murder. And there is a difference in merely murdering someone and in killing an individual. There are different ways, different motives, and different means by which a life can be taken. Now, I raise the question tonight, who are these people? Who we, I do not need to go into the issue of what they believe that are opposing American involvement in the war. You know that. Now, I am going to point out some of the things that those on the other side do not seem to be getting clearly across to us. But I do want tonight to raise the question about the people who are themselves opposing this particular war. As I said, it is not my intention to sway your thinking. It is my intention to point out some facts that hitherto in the average American's mind have obviously been neglected. You shall then sit as judge and jury and make your own decision. The following are recorded FBI authenticated American facts. Number one, a great body of the peace demonstrators are frustrated preachers. They are strikeouts in the ministry. They are failures with the gospel. Their altars are not wet with the tears of converts. They do not preach to mighty crowds. Their attendance is not growing. Their crowds are small. They are shriveling up. Their churches are dying because they have no authority about their ministry. You will find, if you survey them, that 95 % of the preachers who are demonstrating against the war in the streets and are leading against demonstration disbelieve the vicarious suffering of the death of Christ on the cross, blood atonement, the virgin birth, the infallibility of the scriptures, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is no sense of conflict. There is no conquest. There is no sense of victory. There is no sense of fulfillment. They have no gospel to preach. Consequently, they have no gospel results. They are frustrated. They are not soul winners. They are not winning the day for Christ. They are not building great churches. They are not turning nations to God. They are not seeing people saved. Most of them do not even believe in people being saved, let alone even being lost. Consequently, some kind of psychological fulfillment is found in the fact that they are engaging in a secondary war. They are trying to be idealists who are solving all of the problems on mass basis because they have no gospel to preach that solves personal problems on an individual basis in the hearts of men where the battle really rages in the souls of men that are lost without God and consequently turn to a second -rate kind of fulfillment for their ministries. Number two, many of them that oppose the war are simply cowards. I did not say all of them. There are many brave men fighting in Vietnam who wish they were not there. I dare say all of them wish they were not there. I hope that I am never there. I hope that you are never there. I would hope that none of us ever go to war. And many of the bravest men oppose the war. But I am also pointing out to you that there is a segment that opposes the war simply because they are afraid. On the national CBS television broadcast recently, in the 1968 elections, one man in the, I'm sorry, in the Democratic Convention in Chicago, one man was asked the question who was a demonstrator, sir, why are you demonstrating? Why do you oppose the war? Without apology, this 21 -year -old boy said, simply because I don't want to go to Vietnam and fight and die. I am afraid of war. I am afraid of death. I noticed that he did not mind enjoying the benefits that are the freedom of death. demonstration which were paid for by the blood of other boys who weren't afraid to die. Number three, many of them are simply professional agitators. I do not say that everyone opposes the war as a communist. That would be absurd. It would be ridiculous. Obviously, many great Christians, many great statesmen, and many great Americans oppose the war in Vietnam. But I do say that there are many of them who, while they may not be communists themselves, are obviously playing into the hands of the communists who like nothing more than to see this country turn apart with internal dissension. I repeat, the communist manifesto said many years ago, quote, we shall take Eastern Asia, then Europe, thereby encircling India, thereby encircling the United States of America, and then we shall start a war. No. Then we shall attack. No. Then we shall await America's inner decay and victory will be ours. Every day stories come out of Vietnam of goodwill and good wishes and encouragement from men in Hanoi, in government, in high places, in communist circles, who encourage and support the anti -war demonstrators. They are certainly agitators who are at least, if not for this purpose, contributing greatly to the internal dissension of this country, which directly plays into the hands of communism. Number four, many of them are social incorrigibles. They are simply dropouts, misfits from life. I talked to a boy the other day who was a hippie. There are hippies and then there are hippies. This boy said to me when I tried to talk to him about Christ and about life, he had absolutely no use and no relationship to organize society. I said, where are you going? He said, Oregon. I said, how do you intend to get there? He said, I'm going to hitchhike. I said, with whom? He said, with somebody who's driving a car or a truck. Now here's a boy who's going to hitchhike a ride on the back of organized capitalism. Somebody who owns that truck line, who puts in eight hours a day, who's trying to make an honest dollar to get him where he's going. I said, what are those things around your ears? He looked at me like I was silly. He said, those are glasses. I said, there's somebody. Why do you wear them? He said, so I can see. I said, somewhere there's a school that somebody didn't burn down that paid the price to educate an optometrist that had sense enough to prescribe and grind and make and sell you those glasses. Without that man, you wouldn't have any way to get there. What are you going to eat when you get there? And you can imagine on and on and on the story went. It is absolutely impossible to drop out of society. Somebody's going to have to make the food you eat. Somebody's going to have to give you the penicillin to stop the venereal disease that you're getting the way many of you live. Somebody is going to have to take care of you. Somebody will have to dig a hole and put you in it when you die. We live not to ourselves. We die not to ourselves. Whether we live or die, we influence other people. Society is of God. It is ordained of God. It is what makes sense. And I have found that the man who simply drops out of life because he's mad at society finds it totally impossible to live by the philosophy he purports to propose. Fifthly, many of them that oppose our involvement into this particular war are idealistic and immature. Good people, good kids, but pitied in that they are simply uninformed. Many of them are noble in their aspirations, but they're not thinking. they're just participating. Many of them are merely parenting what they have heard a non -thinking professor say who is merely parenting the expression of some other non -thinking professor. In 1966, in an experiment, the people who run Candid Camera went to a large city and got 30 persons, paid them to walk around in a circle in front of a federal building. You remember it? Carrying a sign. We're against it. Down with it. No, it's wrong. They gathered a crowd, and each one of them, every time they made the circle, tried to give one of their placards to a bystander that was observing. Within the course of 14 minutes, 27 of them had been successful in giving away their placard to somebody else who joined the parade. They didn't have any idea what they were opposing. They were just one of the crowd. They just got in. Non -thinking people, idealistic, but immature and uninformed. Sixthly, many of them, I want to be very honest and very fair and say, are mature, intelligent, thoughtful people, and sincerely oppose this particular war. I remind you that there are wars, and then there is war. They envision themselves as the saviors of the world. Frankly, I think they are the most to be pitied at all. We are dealing with one area. The area is peace. The only one in this world who has the final authoritative message on what is peace and how peace is obtained is the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. And he is absolutely and totally ignored by most intelligent, mature thinkers today. What a shame that him who could give peace, the Prince of Peace, is never consulted. I want to see wars stopped. I want to see ignorance and poverty and disease and sin and crime and prejudice and wrong abolished and obliterated forever. But I feel that many persons today are standing on the sidelines watching a little ant as though he were trying to gnaw down the Hoover Dam. Now it may be right that the dam ought to go, but as they yell and cheer and jeer, they're wasting their time and so is he. If you really are interested in world peace, I dare you, I challenge you, I exhort you, yea, I command you in the name of heaven by the authority of God that you will read this Bible from cover to cover and you will discover something. And that is that at the heart of every world problem, there is still the basic issue of sin. And if you're going to give your allegiance and your education and your intellectuality and your heart and your power and your prowess and all that you are to really bringing peace in the world, rather than bringing speeches and running around painting broken cross signs on buildings and waving two fingers ridiculously in the air, that you will do the only thing in this world that will ever bring one bit of peace to anybody. And that is be a winner of men to Jesus Christ. The Bible says there'll be no peace. It will not get better. It'll get worse. Man is creating a hell for himself. And the only thing we can do to have peace anywhere is to bring peace in the hearts of men who are the troubles, the causes of the trouble. Peace begins in the heart. Out of the bite, out of the heart proceed the issues of life. Monday night, I preached in Austin at the dedication of a great church auditorium. On the airplane, a young lady came and said, aren't you Brother Bassanio? I said, yes, I am. She said, may I be seated here? And I said, certainly. We had a nice conversation coming back. She's graduating from the University of Texas in the spring. I said, what are you going to do with your life? She said, that's why I wanted to talk to you. I'm going on the staff of Campus Crusade, and I'm going to help open up some new work around the world, and we're going to do our best to bring peace through the Prince of Peace. I said, praise the Lord for you. That's my kind of demonstrator. That's the way to have peace. You talk about involvement, that's the way to do it. And I repeat the words of Abraham Lincoln when he said that no man is truly ignorant who has a knowledge of the Word of God, and no man is truly educated who does not have a knowledge of the Word of God, that every president and senator and professor among us ought to go to the Bible and find out what the Prince of Peace said about how to have peace and then get about doing it rather than dealing with the symptom, rather than the disease, which is getting us absolutely nowhere. Amen, Brother Bassanio. That's good preaching. Now, he did go to war. There are times that war is important. There are times that war is the best thing. Cancer is not good, but cancer exists. And the doctor has declared war on cancer. The rape of countries like Czechoslovakia and Hungary and Red China, when 20 million people were killed, is not good. But sometimes good people have to declare war on evil. Crime is not good, but a good government must declare war on error. The principle of right versus wrong is as old as life itself. In fact, the Battle of Armageddon is the final battle of the ages when our Lord, who declared war on Satan and evil and wrong, will be consummated in the Valley of Megiddo about the hills of Jerusalem. He did go to war. He had to go to war. It was necessary. Today, there are 46 wars in the world. There's war on crime, war on poverty, war on disease, war on error on every hand. Any society must have its jails, its law enforcement, its crusades, its wars, if you please, against error and wrong. Without it, you have chaos and you have absolutely no society at all. Now, the question comes to my mind, is this particular war justified? Are there any issues that are at stake that make it important and just and honorable and right for Americans to be involved in a war against communism and a communist takeover in Vietnam? I believe that the basic precept upon which this must be answered is the same thing upon which this was settled. Lot was not just a nobody. Lot was somebody. He was God's man and had to be rescued. You see, there was a spiritual principle at stake. Now, in my own Bible, I find the words, He that will not defend. That word does not just mean put up your dukes, although that's included. It means provide, means he that will not provide for his own house, means he that is will not defend, will not care, will not meet for the totality of every need of his own, is worse than an infidel, and hath denied the faith. I repeat, the Bible says, He that does not make every provision, that includes physical safety, of his own, his own family, is worse than an infidel, and hath denied the faith. If one man comes to me and says, I'm going to attack your family at midnight tonight, I'll take a gun and be prepared to kill him. If two men come and say, We're going to attack your family, I'll take a gun and kill both of them. If two million men come and say, We're going to attack your family tonight, and destroy them, and attack them, and kill them, that's war. That's war. The principle of right against wrong, of international policing of evil, is as eternal as life, and is as right as heaven. Our God created hell, for the lawbreakers, the outcasts, the discards, the rejects from life, yonder in the word of God. Abraham took 318 people, and went into battle against 400 ,000. Washington knelt in the snow at Valley Forge, and a handful of 13 colonies, and a ragtag, bobtail group of soldiers, defeated the mighty British Empire. Once again, because there was a spiritual fact at stake. The individual of the soul, the right of the individual, the authority of the individual, the dignity of man, the free worship of God, all were being attested. Now again, I raise the question, are there spiritual precepts involved, in the war in Vietnam? I remind you, that they have said, quote, We will take Eastern Asia, and Europe, and India, thereby encircling the United States, and victory will be ours. Less than three years ago, Mao Zedong said, America is rotting from the inside. Within the hour, she will fall, like a ripe plum, into our hands. Like vultures poised for the prey, communism is ready, is militated, and is poised, to take over America, and control of the world. Are there spiritual precepts involved? I remind you that there is no question as to whether they're coming. There's only one question, and that's when are they coming. There is no question as to whether we will fight them. The only question is where we will fight them and when we will fight them. And I believe that a spiritual principle is indeed an overriding one. Number one, communism is militantly atheistic. I repeat, communism is militantly atheistic. The biggest reason for the stalemate in Vietnam is that our leaders have not yet realized that we are fighting a spiritual warfare. You do not fight ideologies with bombs. You cannot fight dreams with bayonets and prayers and hope and philosophies with bullets. General MacArthur said when leaving the Philippines, the very gateway, the very key to all of Asia, unless you send a thousand missionaries and send them damn fast, you'll send a hundred thousand troops. MacArthur was wrong. Now, I believe that it is the privilege of every man to choose to believe exactly what he wants to believe. I may not agree with you being an atheist. If you want to go to hell, that's your privilege. I mean, it's a free world. You don't have to believe in God. I will fight for Madeline Murray O 'Hare's right to believe what she wants to believe. But I will not fight for her believing. I'll not fight for what she believes. I'll fight for her right. Now, nowhere there have been times through the dark ages of Christian history when men have gone to war to constrain and force Christianity upon other nations. This was wrong. And every Bible -believing Christian in the world hates those holy wars. But, ladies and gentlemen, the communists would force their way of atheism by force, by militant constraints, upon the peoples of the world. They are openly anti -God. A young lady was saved in Brother Knizel's mission work in Guyana. She was a very militant communist at a place called Canal No. 5. We talked to her one night, and she said, the main thing that communism is, is hate. It's hate. It's hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. What, in essence, is the message of Christianity? It's love. Love. Love. It is anti -God. Now, if a man wants to hate, if he wants to disbelieve God, if he wants to be an atheist, that's his privilege. But at the point of a bayonet to constrain and force another man to believe it, it's not his privilege. And America is fighting against communism, and we'll fight against it around the world. As John Kennedy said, we shall stop it. We shall oppose it with all that we have, wherever it rears its ugly head. To be sure, we hate this war. In the war between the states, it took 72 cents to kill a soldier. In Vietnam, it took, in the Second World War, it took $50 ,000 to kill an enemy soldier. Today, it takes $3 million an hour to carry on the war, and $275 ,000 to kill every enemy soldier. What are we fighting for? What is the purpose? First, why do we force? Why do we fight to the death? Anyone constraining, whether it be Christianity or atheism, belief or not belief, of constraint, at the point of a gun, a man jeopardizing a man's ability to make his own decisions. Because we believe a man has the right to choose for himself. You know what's ultimately at stake in Vietnam? It's nothing but that a few, little, nameless, faceless, poor, small people, unknown, unloved, unnamed, have the right to be communists if they want to be communists, or Christians, or Democratic, or Republicans, or whatever they want to be. That's the issue. And good men must oppose error of constraint at every hand. Number two, as I said, the record of communism is well known. There is no question about it. 20 million people died in China. In Czechoslovakia and in Hungary, the world may never know what the ultimate statistics were. Boys and girls are denied the right to go to Sunday school and church. They're denied the right to make their own decisions. If you go on a plane tonight, and you can do so, to Moscow, they will be very sure, very swift, the interest agency, to point out to you quickly, yes, we have a church. Come and visit the First Baptist Church of Moscow. Yes, the First Baptist Church of Moscow is open, but there are 700 churches that are closed. It is the only Baptist church that's open in all of Moscow. And they have 30 services every Sunday. And they say there are thousands more outside trying to get in than can get in. I wonder what would happen if something like that would happen in America. Oh, what a pity it is that we have the right, we have the privilege to go to church, and we abuse it. The vast majority of the members of anybody's church in America have not been in many years. Secondly, there is the issue of the dignity of man. The basic right of men, mentally and physically, to be free. Communism would legislate what man is. It takes away the right of choice. It reduces him to an animal. It would annihilate the individual. Listen, in a communistic society, in a communistic society, the state is everything. And men are sacrificed to the state. In a capitalistic society, it is equally unfortunate that materialism is everything. That man is everything. And I equally oppose the gods of materialism as I oppose the gods of communism. But in a Christian society, Jesus Christ is everything. God is everything. The state owns everything to the communists. Man owns everything to the capitalists. But under God, the Lord owns everything. I remind you that we are not giving God anything when we pay our tithes. We're only giving back to God what he already owes and what he already owns. Communism reduces the dignity of man. It makes man, the pawn, the plaything, sacrifice to the all -important God of the state. Our Savior dignified man by becoming a man. He could have chosen to become an animal. Through the animal, the mineral, the biological, the astronomical kingdom, he could have chosen to save the world. But he did not come as a plant. He did not come as a lamb. He did not come as an angel. He became a man. And he dignified man. The Heavenly Father marked man as priceless by dying for him on the cross. He loved man. He made man. It was to the world that he came. God made the world for man. Man is the object of divine love. God would exalt the man. God would honor the man. God would dignify manhood. Communism reduces the dignity of man to the servanthood of the state. Number three, there is simply the matter of our responsibility to others. We live not to ourselves, and we die not to ourselves. To whom much is given, much is required. The Bible asks the question, Am I my brother's keeper? And the answer through the ages has been a clarion and resounding yes. When in the providence of God, a nation such as America is raised to the high tentacle of influence and prestige and power as has this nation, she cannot stand idly by and watch the rape of her sister nations. When a nation is thrust by circumstances not of its free will into a place of leadership and prestige, it dare not stand aloof. It must speak. Responsibility to our children, to our God, to ourselves, to our fellows does not end at California or New York City. It goes around the world. We have responsibilities. Since 1954, our government has engaged in the CETO Pact, and John Kennedy said, As long as we have the power to live, we will give that power power to the people of the world to defy communism at every hand. America is committed to any force, whether it be in America or beyond America, that forces any way of life, religion, or absence upon it of any man. The rule of the people, not the rule of the state, is of importance. Then there is the matter of our own personal safety. Psychologists tell us that there are absolutely no totally unselfish acts. Now that's not wrong, that's good. A man who has no love for himself, no good healthy self -image, is a candidate for the asylum. He has serious mental problems. The Bible says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God as thyself, with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself. It's healthy to have a good self -image. And all of us are concerned about protecting ourselves. To the contrary, when men are Christian men, they have an increasing responsibility to protect themselves and their families, not only by virtue of the fact of the dignity of man, the command of the Lord, the obvious instruction of the Word of God, but also by the fact that the Spirit of God lives in born -again temples. We are the temples of the living God. Communism has given us an ultimatum. And for us to let them come as far as they want and where they want and do whatever they want is merely to give them a gold -plated invitation into our shores and our cities and our schools and our homes and our bedrooms. Our own personal safety is ultimately going to be at stake. I remind you again that our Lord said, he that does not provide for his own house and all of the ramifications of that safety provision is worse than an infidel and has denied the faith. The last word is simply this. There is the matter of the gospel in Asia. Listen closely. Before Jesus Christ comes back to this world, before he steps from the very precipice of heaven and says it's closing time, boys, it's time to wrap it up, I believe the Bible does give us hope for a great worldwide revival. Because it says in the last days, evil and good in parallel form will increase. Yes, evil will get worse, but the Bible says good will get better. There will be more righteousness as well as more unrighteousness. The Bible gives hope. And it is only when the last convert has been saved, only when the last gospel testimony has been given, that our Lord will come and call a halt to world events. Now listen closely. South America, with few isolated exceptions, is closed to the gospel of the New Testament, but primarily due to state religion. Europe has closed its ears to the gospel. Two one -hundredths of one percent of the people go to church in Europe. Modernism and communism, in once great steeple churches where the gospel was heralded, that no longer believe anything, have brought the death knolled to Europe. In the United States, we've done pitifully better here. But ladies and gentlemen, there's one segment of society left, un -evangelized, ready, receptive, where the gospel is wide open. And it will be when this evangelization has been completed, that Christ will come and not un -tell. I believe one of the reasons God has kept America in that place, giving the freedom of the people as much chance as possible, is because the evangelization of Asia is at stake. You say, what do you mean? Perhaps it's because of their small stature. Perhaps it makes them humble. But for some reason, it is easier to reach the Asiatic. It is easier to win him to Christ. It is easier to preach the gospel with blessing and results there than any segment of life around the encircling globe. I've had missionaries tell me if I would come to the foreign field and come to Asia, that we could have crowds of 30 and 40 and 50 ,000 people. And I preached in some of those places, and consistently, 50, 70, 80, 90 percent, Harvey and I, converts, Harvey and I were in a place in South America that was primarily Indian, East Indian, people that were small, people that were humble, people of Asiatic extraction. We started putting up a tent in the town square to have a revival that night. And while we were putting up the tent on that opening Saturday, Harvey, remember, a crowd of 300 people gathered. I said, Man alive, why wait tonight? Let's go. And I jumped up on top of the piano and started preaching. And I preached the gospel to those 300 persons and sang one verse, and 65 adults were saved, including seven Buddhist priests. These people can be reaped. Now listen closely. I say to you, sorrowfully, that Baptists have not done the best job. Men like Ron Merrill and many others are giving us great strides. We're making progress. But the Presbyterian, the Assemblies of God, Christian Missionary Alliance, World Vision, inter -nominational groups, are and have been for the years making great strides in Vietnam. Ladies and gentlemen, listen closely. Vietnam is the gospel breadbasket for all of Asia. It is the only place where the total Christian work is entirely self -supporting. I repeat, most of the evangelistic work, the spreading of the gospel that is successfully being completed across Asia, is being done through the gateway of Vietnam. It's the gospel breadbasket. There we have great citadels of truth. There we have seminaries. There we have our great printing presses. There the Bible goes out. There are radio stations. There are self -sustaining churches, as in no country around all of Asia. And our missionaries tell us, and people in World Missionary Enterprise agree, that when Vietnam falls, the doors to Asia will be closed forever. However, the gospel of Jesus Christ, I don't know about you, but that gives me goosebumps. The devil hates Vietnam. The devil would destroy Vietnam. Now, it is there that the gospel has had its greatest impact. Could it be that is the reason why our God, for reasons unknown to us, has constrained us to stay there to the glass -ditch stand and help give those people freedom and keep the door open for a man? Now, when that man hears the gospel, I don't say he has to be a Christian. If he wants to reject the gospel and die without Christ, it is his privilege. We should bleed and die for him to have the right to make the choice. Now, that's what we're talking about. That's what it's all about. That's the urgency of the thing. Satan hates it. He would destroy it. Every politician, you'll hear it again in 72, all of the candidates will be running on the same platform. They're all for it. An honorable end to the war in Vietnam. To which I say, hear, hear. I agree. Nothing would please me more. That's why I say, don't label me a hawk. Frankly, I don't have the answer. I admit I'm about as confused as you are. They're all in favor of an honorable conclusion. The problem is nobody can tell us how to have an honorable conclusion. I'm saying this. If you really want peace, you will vote for men of great Christian conviction who will do all they can to swing their weight to bring our president, our Senate, our Congress, our legislators from the top to the bottom to her knees before God. Vote for men that will fight against obscenity and fight against dope and fight against pornography and all these things that are robbing us from our vitals. Don't allow Jehovah God's words to be declared in schools everywhere the gospel has the right to be preached without faith or without fear, without favor. If you really want to bring peace, you will dedicate yourself to being a missionary, to working with campus crusades, to being a Baptist preacher, to doing something to take the gospel around the world and tell men that the prince of peace in the heart is the way to have peace. For then and then alone will any kind of peace come to this world. Oh, how I pity them. How I feel sorry for that little ant chewing down the dam. I'm for him. Maybe the dam ought to go. But he will do absolutely no good. And if you would read this Bible and understand its precepts and know what sin is and what God's plan is from Genesis to Revelation, you would know that this world will not get better and that the only peace you will ever contribute to a dark and dying world is as you give of yourself, of your money to this mission offering, to winning people to Christ, with your tithe and time and dedication and testimony to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. For then and then alone will this world know anything of peace. Peace comes in the heart. Peace comes through Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Now you say, Preacher, what kind of an invitation are you going to give? For us all to come down and surrender to join the Marines? No, that's not exactly what I had in mind. I do not know what our Lord has spoken to you about tonight, but I do know this. If your pocketbook is closed, if your lips are sealed, if your influence is not given to Jesus Christ, then you ought to come and rededicate your life to giving, to witnessing, to serving our Lord Jesus Christ. Tomorrow night, the four or five thousand members of our church ought to be across the city spreading the gospel, how men can find peace from north the south and east to west. But with all the training we can do, we shall muster perhaps a hundred. And then yell, O God, give peace. We know how to have peace. We know the answer to peace. We have the message of peace. The first Christmas sermon was, peace on earth. Let's start witnessing. Let's start giving. Let's start singing. Let's start running men to Christ. Let's start spreading the gospel of Jesus, and then we'll have peace. May we stand and pray. Our Heavenly Father, we love thee. We ask thee to speak to our hearts, to stir and dedicate us to being the kind of men and women that we ought be in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you sing a verse of God's blessing?