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Last week before I left my home in London, England. I walked one last time to Brook Street and I stood there with the crowds going up and down and the automobiles honking in the midst of a cacophony of noise. And I gazed again at number 25

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my eyes were riveted on the floor that you and I would call the second floor, the one, the English called the first floor. Those three windows caught my attention again. And as I studied my camera and took some shots and as the people bumped along the

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road looking at me and wondering what was significant about that house. But I thought to myself again, as I saw it last week, it was there on that floor that it happened and the impact has gone around the world and continues to penetrate. Even as we

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speak, his name was George Friedrich Handel. All of the events that led to that summer day have been told many times. But on August 22nd, he walked into that little suite of rooms, closed the door and began to write and did not come out again for

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24 days and 24 nights until he finished on September 14th. And when the 24 days were up, what lay in front of him were 260 pages of manuscript. Messiah was finished. He had written this music about the vindication of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Within six

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days, he had finished part one. It took nine more days to finish part two, which is really the heart of the whole piece as he came to the end of part two, when he describes the triumphal return of Jesus Christ back in to heaven. And as

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he describes the gospel of Christ going forth around the world, some rejecting but most accepting as he describes the vindication of the gospel. He began to write the hallelujah chorus. When his assistant came in on the evening of September 5, he found Handel bathed in tears

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and Handel looked up and said to him, I did think I did see all heaven for me and the great God himself. He had caught musically the triumph of the good news, a triumph that had riveted down through the centuries to encompass his own life. And

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one that he has sent, echoing down through the centuries. Since then, 3000 people gathered together at his funeral in Westminster Abbey and they sang it again and it was thunderous and it was triumphant. And so Henry Van Dyke, a professor of English Literature at Princeton University

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when he was invited to go to Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In the fall of 1907, walked around the campus and looked again at the beauty of the scenery in the Berkshire mountains. He thought of the beautiful Messiah and hummed part of it to himself. And

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then he thought of Beethoven's music, the beautiful ninth symphony. Probably the last of the things that Beethoven wrote, the most powerful of all the symphonies. The one finished in 1824 the one that he wrote when he was totally deaf and could not understand or hear all

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that he was writing, he began to hum the ninth symphony, the hymn, The Joy. And then one morning, he came down to breakfast where he was sitting with the president of the college, Harry Garfield, the son of James Garfield, a former president of the United States.

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And he said, I've written a hymn for you. It must be sung to Beethoven's hymn to Joy. It was inspired by your mountains out here, the Berkshires. And that was a song that we just sang. He didn't give a title to it. We usually called it

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Joyful. Joyful because he opened with that for this lectureship. We gave it our own title and we put it in the back of the program. And instead of using the first phrase, we used the last phrase, we called it the Triumph Song of Life. When Jesus

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said, I will build my church, he also said the Gates of Hell will never prevail against it. It has built into it, a sense of triumph. It has had its enemies down through the centuries. From Celsus in the second century to Voltaire in the 18th to

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uh our own centuries of opposition. Voltaire smirked in his own century that Christianity would be over by the beginning of the 19th, even though it took 12 men to start it. He said one man could destroy it. The difficulty with Voltaire is he had never met

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our n hope or a whole generation of our n ho when the 19th century dawned the faith was still there. Another man that he hadn't met was Timothy Dwight. When the Board of Regents of Yale College went looking for a president. In 1795 they found the

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man they wanted. All right, teaching school in Greenfield, Connecticut and they asked him to come and leave the school. He said that he would, he had some conditions. Number one, he wanted to teach a course in moral philosophy. Number two, he wanted to teach a class

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in Christian. Evidences. Number three, he wanted to be the chaplain as well as the president and he wanted to preach every week in Yale Chapel. The board was stunned, they hadn't offered those courses in decades. It was the lowest period of vibrancy in the history of

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American religion. Less than 3% of the American was going to church anywhere in the years. In the 17 nineties, the year before Thomas Payne's book had come out, the age of reason, it was the new Bible, everyone was reading it, but they wanted him to come

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and they said you can come, even with those restrictions, you can still come. And so he came to Yale in 1795 and he began to teach his course in moral philosophy and the one in Christian evidences and he began to preach week after week to an

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audience, one student, sometimes two, his own family didn't come. But he remembered his grandfather, Jonathan Edwards. And now he had started a revival 60 years before and he believed that he could do it again. He went into the debate class and since he was president, it

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was his obligation, his choice to pick the debating topic, he chose the topic is the Bible, the word of God and said to the students you can pick whichever side you want. They all wanted the negative. No, it isn't. The champions of infidel, marshaled their forces.

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Dwight said that I'll take you on myself. And he debated them himself later when he had destroyed them. He criticized them not for their impiety but for their lack of knowledge. He criticized them for their ignorance that their thinking was not as original as, not as

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deep as they thought it was. And he made religion respectable again on the Yale campus. It was so fruitless to even light the fires in Yale Chapel that he preached in an overcoat and gloves on and, and a scarf around his neck. To that one student

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or two students. It was no better at Dartmouth where the attendance was one or at Princeton where the average attendance was three. But he kept preaching and when it was darkest in 1799 1 night as he was reflecting on acts chapter two verse 42 when the

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early church was devoted to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers. He thought of his little group there in Yale and their devotion to the words of scripture, to the fellowship they enjoyed together and to the celebration of

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the Lord's supper, to the life of prayer. And he sat down that night and wrote the that has become the oldest hymn in our hymn book. No other hymn has come from America between 1620 1824. Only one hymn from that 200 year period that night in

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the darkness of his own study, he wrote, I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord, the House of Thine abode the church, our blessed redeemer saved with his own precious blood. I love thy church. Oh God. He talked about the tears that had fallen. He talked about the great

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hope that he had for the future of the church. Is it any surprise that a man like that could start a revival? It hit in the school year of 1801 but it could not be contained in Yale. It leaped across New England, leaped across the mountains

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in the third week in August. In 1801, 30,000 people showed up in their wagons and buckboards at Kane Ridge meeting house to listen to Barton Warren Stone preach the gospel of Christ. It became a part of our own roots in the restoration movement. And the song

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that they were singing was I Love Thy Kingdom. Lord, the triumph of the faith, the light has shone and the darkness has not overcome it yet. When we began working through the Book of Acts Ch Turner a long time ago in the Hastings Bible Dictionary in

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1905 suggested that one way of looking at the Book of Acts would be to see those growth passages that appear six times. He says that there are six natural outlines in the Book of Acts and each one describes the progress of the Gospel and each one

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ends with a great growth statement. The first goes from chapter one verse one to chapter six, verse seven. It describes the growth of the church in Jerusalem. It centers on Peter Barnabas is introduced and it ends with this line. So the word of God spread the

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number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. In the second section, it emphasizes the Greek speaking Jewish teachers and the gospel goes to Samaria and it goes up along the coast and um it penetrates into the

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heart of people who are living in the northern section. And even though Steven uh is killed during this section through the preaching Stephen and Philip and uh the conversion of Saul, the church continues to grow and we have this line in chapter nine verse 31. Then

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the church throughout Judea Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. It grew in numbers living in the fear of the Lord. In the third section, the church moves to Antioch and Paul and Barnabas work together there

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and the church comes out of Antioch as a radiating center. And the section ends in chapter 12 verse 24. But the word of God continued to increase and to spread. Coming into the fourth section, we come to the first missionary journey and the Great Jerusalem conference,

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the church has to decide what it's going to do with the gentiles. Can they become Christians? And when that decision is made, chapter 16, verse five, trumpets forth this line. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and brewed daily in numbers on into the fifth

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section. The second missionary journey, the third missionary journey, even though Paul is central Silas comes into picture and Timothy and Luke and Aquila and Priscilla and Apollos. And when the journeys are over, the author writes in chapter 19 verse 20 in this way, the word of

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the Lord spread widely and grew in power in the sixth and last section of the book, Paul returns home to Jerusalem and then appeals to Rome and makes his journey at Rome. And when the book comes to an end, Luke, the author closes with this line

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for two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to him boldly and without hindrance, he preached the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. The Book of Acts comes to an end with Paul in the

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center of the world, with the Roman Empire going all the way to the Thames in one direction and the tigris and the euphrates in the other. And even though there is imprisonment there, even though there are limitations, the word of God goes forth in all of

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its freedom, teaching about the Kingdom of God and the lordship of Jesus Christ. We hope you're planning to stay all week as the Book of Acts is developed as we look for the third millennium, which is now only less than 13 years away. We have selected

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this year six men who are full time preachers of the gospel, who are out there serving every day in churches and they are good churches and they are growing churches and they have come to study with us about the Book of Acts and, and the principles

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in the Book of Acts that we might use to create triumph and growth again in the church. Tomorrow morning, Bill Love from Bering Drive in Houston, a wonderful church that reaches out in its hospital ministry to everyone who comes to Houston and has such a great

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ministry to unwed mothers and it's such a mission church. And tomorrow night, Mike Cope comes from that 3000 member University church on the campus of Harden University, a church that gives over half of its budget to mission work and has such a great counseling ministry. And

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on Thursday morning, Phil Ware from west over hills in Austin, a church of 800 that has reached out and touched its community through its counseling ministry, through its ministry to the Hispanics, through its ministry to the deaf, through its mission work around the world. Thursday night,

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Jim Woodruff from a little mission church in Massachusetts of 230 a group of professional people who are reaching out and bringing their neighbors and their associates at work, a church that has a family ministry that is touching so many lives Friday morning rubble Shelley from Ashwood

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church in Nashville, Tennessee, a church that is so involved in the work at Uganda that rubble has been there twice in recent months as that church penetrates Uganda, a church that has reached out so in such difficult surroundings, to touch their community and to touch those

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who are hurting in their community and have offered so much counseling and help. And on the final night, Lynn Anderson from the Highland Church in Abilene that has given its life to media and to radio and television. And in developing a great singles ministry, these men

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who work day in and day out in the, in the churches will come and open the book of Acts and dream with us about the third millennium and the triumph of the good news all around us. We hear the obituaries and we read them. People think

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the church of Jesus Christ might be on its last legs. The church might be experiencing a great decline. It may never pull out of this decline. Oh, that we knew our church history better. I know you've been shaking, wondering if I'll give you 50 illustrations from

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church history of the triumph of the faith. I will content myself with just this one. A long time ago, there was a good king who lived in England. His name was Edwin. He is remembered today by the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is named for him.

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He was a religious king and followed the teachings of all the various priests around him and lived up to the pagan religion of the day. And then one day, a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ showed up, his name was Paul Linus. The year was

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627 AD and the city was York, England. Paul Linus began to preach about a message of good news that had never heard before. That love is stronger than hate and that hope is stronger than despair and that light is stronger than darkness and that life will

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out conquer death. And as he listened to the story, we have a God who made himself known in the person of Jesus Christ and who offered salvation, the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. Edwin decided that he ought to respond to this message, but he

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wanted to know how his chief priest would react. Kofi, the priest came front and center. You would expect him to be jealous. You would expect him to react negatively. But what he said was this your majesty? Let us give careful consent to this new teaching for.

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I frankly admit in my experience, the religion that we have hitherto professed seems valueless and powerless. Therefore, if on examination, you perceive that these new teachings are better and more effectual, let us not hesitate to accept them. And another wise man came forward and he looked

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at the king and he gave this illustration, your majesty. When we compare the present life of man on earth with that time of which we have no knowledge. It seems to me like the swift flight of a single sparrow through the banqueting hall where you are

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sitting at dinner on a winter's night with your fans and your counselors in the midst. There is a comforting fire to warm the hall outside the storms of winter, rain and snow are raging. This sparrow flies swiftly in through one door of the hall and out

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through the other while he is inside, he is safe, he is comforted from the winter storms. But after a few moments of comfort, he vanishes from sight into the wintry world from which he came. Even so man appears on earth for a little while. But of

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what went before this life or of what follows, we know nothing. Therefore, if this new teaching has brought any more certain knowledge, it seems only right that we should follow it. And the other elders and wise men agree. And so Kai gave the sign, he asked

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for a stallion, he asked for a torch, he rode to his temples where they had worshiped the pagan gods, he burned it down himself. And then that great historian, the venerable Bede writing 100 years later tells us the story in these words. So King Edwin with

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all the nobility of his kingdom and a large number of humbler folk accepted the faith and were washed in the cleansing waters of baptism in the 11th year of his reign, which was the year of our Lord. 627 30,000 baptisms occurred in the next six years.

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It was a glorious age. Some would say well, but Edwin died six years later, a new king came on the throne. Paulinus had to flee. It all ended in failure. No, the church of Jesus Christ pops up here and it pops up here. There are moments

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of decline here and moments of growth here, but the faith was moving on. So many fronts at once. I wonder 1000 years from today 1000 years ago tonight, if there were doomsayers, then who said the church was on its last legs? Think about it. April 21

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9, 87. The dark ages wasn't much good going on in the faith. There was some strength over in Clooney. The largest church building in the world was in central France at Clooney, but Rome was in eclipse. The Papacy was going through a series of the worst

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people who ever sat on that throne. England had one good man in Dunston, but he was almost at death now and would die the next year. And the reforms he had tried to bring about had been helpless. It would have been very easy 1000 years ago

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tonight to say the church is on its last legs. It's dying in England. It's dying in Italy. There's no hope for it anywhere else little did they know that the very next year in 988 Vladimir would be baptized into Christ in Russia and become the apostle

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to the Russians. And Christianity would flourish in Russia for the next 800 years. They had no idea then about the coming of John Wickliffe and John Huss and Martin Luther and John Calvin and the Wesley and Whitfield and Erasmus and Alexander Campbell and George Pepperdine. Oh,

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there was so much more yet to come, but 1000 years ago it looked pretty bleak. I wonder about 1000 years from now. I wonder what the future holds for our fellowship. I wonder about the triumph of the good news. Will it be there again? In Greek

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mythology? We read the story of Procrustes. Do you remember him? The man who had the house ideally situated halfway between one city and another city and people would spend the night there because it was so convenient and the food was so good and the bedrooms were

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so big and there was no charge. There was only one catch. You had to fit pro crusty's bed. Those who fit his bed enjoyed it and told their friends you ought to come. Those who didn't fit it were never heard from again. Those who were too

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short in the middle of the night, the house doctor came and stretched their legs out until they fit the bed. Those who were too tall, the house doctor came along and saw it off their legs. And when the restaurant movement started in this country, our forefathers

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used to say creeds are pro crust beds. We have to get rid of these creeds and go back to the free word of God. We have to be free men and women in Christ. We can't stand this limitation. Anymore. Let's get rid of these pro crust

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beds. And the answer they got was yes, let's do it. Alexander Campbell stood up at the Nathan Rice debate in 1843 and he thundered forth to that crowd. If your creed contains more than scripture, it contains too much. If your creed contains less than scripture, it

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contains too little. If it contains the same as scripture, you don't need it anyway. Go to scripture. We believe that then. But what are the pro crust beds now? What are the limitations now? What are the traditions now that have bogged us down? Do we have

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an agenda for the future? Have we thought out what we need to do to bring triumph again in the third millennium tonight? I'd like to offer some suggestions strictly mine and totally uninspired. Number one, I think we're going to have to break out of our isolation.

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There was a day when Alexander Campbell traveled around the country from New Orleans, Louisiana to Jackson, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee, to Philadelphia, New York. Boston. And he preached in the largest church buildings in town, be the congregational Baptist, the largest Unitarian church in Boston, Tammany Hall

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in New York. And when anybody would come anywhere close to Bethany College, he would bring them over to speak to his students in chapel because he trusted his students, knew how to handle truth and could spot the false teachers and could support the proper teachers there

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was a time when we were involved in dialogue and we were involved in exchange of ideas. I talked to a church leader not long ago who said, you know, in my generation, we felt that the only way we can maintain our uniqueness was to do it

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in isolation. It will be up to your generation to break back into contact with the religious world so that we're not just preaching to ourselves. It seems to me that the time has come for us to open up and enter into dialogue in the religious world.

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I'm so proud that at this lectureship this year, we're honoring Homer Haley from the conservative churches of Christ that we've hardly said hello to for 30 years as they've gone about doing their work and preaching gospel and building their churches and the independent churches are here

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tonight and sitting on the front row and other places. We've hardly got to know them since we said goodbye in 1900. It's good to see you Alger. Hello again. After 80 years, they've been going their way and building their churches, but they're here teaching on this

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program tonight. I think of Joseph Bryant Rotherham in England who was a man who, when he went into a bookstore one time and stumbled onto a copy of the Millennial Harbinger. He read it and obeyed it and found out about the restoration movement and was baptized

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into Christ by Peter Stephen in the River D and then he wrote in his diary. Now I have room to grow and to his very death, he never lost that view of the movement. It was room to grow. But when he lived in London and he

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was preaching for the Laurie Hall Church of Christ, he spent every Friday night down at Westminster Chapel listening to the preaching of G Campbell Morgan, that legendary preacher and Morgan saw his face out there and wondered who it was. And later in his own autobiography, G

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Campbell Morgan wrote these lines. When in the fall of 1904, I began my Friday night Bible school in London. I soon noticed a face which attracted me and from the first, it helped me, it was the face of an old man in which all the enthusiasm

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of youth seemed shining. Week after week, I saw it before me, keen appreciative and sympathetic. I learned to look for it and to feel that the man was helping me in my work by his delight in the word of God. It was evident that this was

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no novice who was hearing these things for the first time, but rather one who was altogether familiar with what I was saying. I later discovered that it was Joseph Bryant Rotherham, the translator of the emphasized Bible, which I already prized and delighted and which was in

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my library. This to me was a great surprise and joy. I became acquainted with him. I found him a man of scholarship. I found him with the faith of a child. The simplicity of a child, Rotherham thought that not nothing unusual about that, that he would

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preach on Sundays to his own people and learn through the week from anyone who could teach him. There was a time when truth was unafraid and we could go out and preach anywhere and invite anyone in. We need to open up again and get back into

00:24:12.510 - 00:24:30.380

dialogue. Dialogue has become sort of a bad word. People think that it's an essay and compromise, but it's a word that talks about humility and courage. As people sit down together and in thoughtful conversation, they agreed to listen as well as speak and they agree to

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learn as well as teach. Secondly, I think that we'll need to not be afraid of scholarship. We've tended to give our students a hard time. Those who tried to think can be scholarly and we've often run them off, but they're not our enemies, they're our friends.

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We need to encourage our young people in the life of scholarship and our ministers in the life of scholarship. We ought to be grateful to be a part of a heritage that could produce uh Alexander Campbell or AJ W mccarthy or a William Green. When William

00:25:00.422 - 00:25:11.666

Green retired in Santa Barbara and was an elder where I was preaching, he would not move into our community until he could find a house that was close enough to the bus stop that he could go to the University of California every day and study and

00:25:11.676 - 00:25:23.845

keep learning. He would not agree to move to Santa Barbara until we said yes, you can teach a class on Sunday morning. What do you want to teach? He said, archaeology. He said, do you know anything about archaeology? He said no, but I need to learn

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and time is short. He said I want to teach on Wednesday night, he taught a class in early church history. On Monday night, he took a class in Spanish. I said, brother Green, you already teach eight languages. Why do you need to know Spanish? He thought

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he ought to know it. Tuesday night, he taught a class in New Testament, Greek Thursday night. He led a home Bible study. He was almost 80 years old, but he was still growing and learning a childlike faith. Thank God for scholars who've given us this kind

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of illustration and example. Third, I would suggest that we need to encourage those Mavericks in the congregation, those radicals, we've given them a hard time too. But the word radical at its root, redd X just means root. And the radical is a person who wants to

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get back to the roots. The difficulty with the radical is that at first glance, he seems unloyal and we get frightened by him. He's a different voice. He's a maverick and also he's guilty of two sins that he has to be very careful about the sin

00:26:20.859 - 00:26:32.890

of being self righteous and the sin of being rude. He does not mean to be self righteous or rude. And deep down, he is very loyal to this tradition that he loves and cares for. But he wants to know what is the purpose of the church

00:26:32.900 - 00:26:47.541

and where are we going and why are we doing this? And oftentimes we allow him to put us off. We need to embrace our Mavericks, our radicals and make them make us rethink the purpose of the church to determine again where we're going so that we

00:26:47.552 - 00:27:03.212

can break out of the pro crust beds. We need to have a fellowship where we can say, I'm sorry, I made a mistake and there's room for mistakes and room for forgiveness and room for forbearance, room for compassion. We need to have a church that has

00:27:03.222 - 00:27:20.933

drunk deeply from John 13 and knows the foot washing passage left and right, not so much in the literal exercise of foot washing, but in a church that reaches out and serves its people. We need to remember that in the doctrine of holiness and of service,

00:27:20.943 - 00:27:35.813

we come close to knowing our Lord. We need to involve all of our members of the church. We need to realize that evangelism is not a professional job, but evangelism is something that we're all called to by the grace of God. We need to remember the

00:27:35.823 - 00:27:54.056

great summary of Ephesians 14 chapter four verse three. What for chapter four verse 13, what is the purpose of the church? Paul says, unity, maturity and Christ likeness. He reminds us of the unity that God has called us to calling us out of our alienation, calling

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us out of our isolation, to maturity of faith, maturity of knowledge, maturity of character, and then putting on us the stamp of Jesus Christ and feeding us back into society as his, as his people bearing his love. What is it that will really last in the

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third millennium? If Christ does not return soon, what will be permanent in that millennium? I thought of the Crimean War and I went to study it because I wanted to put against her proper background. One lone girl with a lantern in her hand, going from bedside

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to bedside as the soldiers kissed her shadow as she passed. I could remember her name. All right. It was Florence Nightingale, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what that war. But I remembered that when she was out there and the bullets were whizzing

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around, she grabbed those bullets and formed them into a cross. And I went to see her grave this year and I saw inside the church house that cross made of bullets. What is it? It is really permanent love which never fails and the evidence of it

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is a cross. It seems to be love's defeat. But across people scoff at it and smirk at it and laugh at it and get angry and nail it fast. But across it keeps coming back like the return of spring. Father, forgive them. They don't know what

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they're doing. You cannot defeat that. If we could be a people of love and a people of compassion united again maturing in the face and one who are known for their Christ likeness, one who bear the very stamp of Jesus Christ. Then the triumph would be

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there and the faith would grow and prosper. We've heard many voices coming down through the centuries. But the voice of Jesus Christ speaks above all of those. He speaks pardon to a troubled heart and peace to one who is struggling. He speaks and at his voice,

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the blind see and the deaf can hear he speaks and Lazarus comes forth from the grave, he speaks and at his bidding, men and women go forth around the world to set up his standard. He speaks and George Pepperdine has a dream and builds a school

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and the students come and Otis Gatewood and Roy Palmer go out to Germany and preach in the footsteps of Hitler. And then Harold Payton and Howard Bybee and Carl Mitchell and Mel Pow. All and uh other Pepperdine students go to Italy, Bernard Howell and others and

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set up the standard. And as I watched graduation on this stage, Saturday, I saw those students and thought of how many are going to different parts of the globe? And I thought in 50 years, what a tremendous triumph there has been here on this campus as

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the word has gone forth. I wonder about 1000 years from tonight. I wonder 1000 years from tonight if Christ is not returned when archaeologists are digging in the ruins of San Francisco and Los Angeles. If there are people still living somewhere here along the Malibu, I

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wonder if they'll still be believers? I think so. I think somewhere within the sound of my voice, there will be some people who are devoted to the apostles, teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayers because Christ said he would build

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his church and the gates of hell would never prevail against it. Over 100 years ago, John Henry Newman sat down to write his idea of an ideal university. He published it under the title, the idea of the university through the years. Many have come along and

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tried to say that describes us that city situated in a bay in a romantic region. Listen to his words again. I contemplate a people which has had a long night and will have an inevitable day. I am turning my eyes towards 100 years to come and

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I dimly see the island. I am gazing on become the road of passage and the union between two hemispheres and the center of the world. I see its inhabitants rival Belgium in population, France, in vigor and Spain in enthusiasm. And I see England taught by advancing

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years to exercise in its behalf that good sense, which is her characteristic towards everyone else. The capital of that prosperous and hopeful region is situated in a beautiful bay, near a romantic region. And in it, I see a flourishing university which for a while had to

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struggle with fortune but which when its first founders and servants were dead and gone, had successes far exceeding their anxieties thither as to a sacred soil, the home of their fathers and the fountain head of their Christianity. Students are flocking from east and west, from north

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and south, from America and from Australia, from India and from Egypt from Asia minor with the ease and the rapidity of a locomotion not yet discovered. And last though not least from England, all speaking one tongue, all owning one faith, all eager for one large true

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wisdom. And then when their stay is over, going back again to carry over all the earth, the message of good news, peace on earth, goodwill toward men. Many schools have claimed it, Juan Adams and why not now, why not this campus be a place where the

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good news goes forth around the world where students come for four years, inspired by the faith and then go to give their lives. It's happened for 50 years, I believe if George Pepperdine was here tonight. He'd be pleased that all of you are here. Pleased at

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the growth of this school. Pleased at what Brother Hogan has accomplished in these churches in Los Angeles. Please please, at the people who now head this school and give it direction, please at the students who are coming and equipping and being trained and going forth to

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serve. Do you have anything in all of your life that you believe so deeply that you would hold on to it though? The heavens fall? I have one such in my life. That's not many, but I think perhaps one is sufficient and it was given marvelous

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expression a long time ago by a superlatively gifted man who, although he was just a tent maker, nevertheless found real joy and meaning at the center of his life. His words were these for, I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor demons, nor

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Principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ, Jesus, our Lord. When the bombs were falling on London, King George sat down at

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the radio to give his New Year's Day address on January 1st 1940 he was a shy man and spoke with a stammer. He did not appear to be a man of great strength. The nation huddled around the radios and on that day he gave them this

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line from a little known poet. I said to a man who stood at the gate of the year, give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown. And he replied, go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.

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That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way. My grandmother always talked about walking hand in hand with Jesus. Seems sort of silly to me when I was a little boy. It's amazingly how profound that seems. Now, I think she

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was probably right. I think she did walk hand in hand with Christ. I think those English people put their hand in the hand of God when everything else was gone and they survived the doomsayers tonight, say the church doesn't have much left, it's going to die.

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I would urge you not to bet on those obituaries. The church of Jesus Christ has amazing resilience and vitality. And when the tide has gone as far as it goes, it comes back with staggering strength and the church is on the March again and the great

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days are ahead of us. And the church is moving forth from your local church and from this campus and from our lives, when the triumph of the good news becomes a reality in our lives and in our churches and in our communities, it becomes a reality

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around the world. Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ, Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant and was made

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in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death and death on a cross. Wherefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus,

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every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. And so a year after his conversion, Charles Wesley sat down at his house at number four Charles Street in Bristol England and tried to describe the

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feelings of his heart and he wrote Christ. The Lord is risen today. Hallelujah. We often sing that on the first day of the week, the day of resurrection. But every time we see someone baptized into Christ, we see reenacted the resurrection of Jesus Christ as they

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arise to walk in newness of life. Christ is being raised on a daily basis around the planet Earth. Tonight, as we close, let us stand together and sing Wesley's great hymn on page 235 right on