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[0:00] If you would take your Bibles and go to 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 6. As a starting point, we'll look at 1 Corinthians 6 verses 19 through 20.

[0:21] In that black Bible in the chair in front of you, you can go to page 133. If you're visiting with us, page 133, you can find that black Bible and pull that out.

[0:40] I'm going to read 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20. This is familiar.

[0:53] Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you're not your own? If you've been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.

[1:11] I'll read this to you as well, and I'll tell you my reasons in just a moment. Psalm 119, verse 9. How can a young man keep his way pure by keeping it according to your word?

[1:23] Verse 11. Your word I've treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you. The 1 Corinthians passage was a passage that was given to William Borden on his birthday, his eighth birthday.

[1:43] It was given to him by his mother. Those verses were keynote verses of his life. The psalm passage that I read were verses that he put up over his door of his dormitory that he was staying at, Yale.

[2:00] He was going to Yale University. Yale College. So we're doing a biography sermon, which I do one every year.

[2:11] At least once a year I do a biography sermon. And I always put up here my reasoning. What's my reason for these kinds of messages? The reason is so that it would awaken in us a deeper love for the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel.

[2:26] Bringing a deeper love for others in Cottonwood, Jerome, the Verde Valley, Arizona, the United States, and the world. That's the method to my madness.

[2:44] And as one dear brother put it, I think the fear of foolishly wasting our lives often holds us back from taking risks for the gospel.

[2:58] It's so true. And that's why I do messages like this. I read a biography and I take these things. What are the things that we can take away from this person's life?

[3:09] So I did it on William Whiting Borden, who was born November 1st, 1887. He died when he was only 25 years old.

[3:22] On April 9th, 1913, from spinal meningitis. He grew up, Mr. Gilsmer, in Chicago.

[3:34] And one of the wealthiest families of Chicago. His father was a millionaire. There were no billionaires in the world at that time.

[3:47] So William was set to have a nice upbringing, a huge salary, a comfy job, a ginormous inheritance. But God had bigger plans for William.

[4:00] His mother converted to Christ in 1894 and began attending Chicago Avenue Church, Moody Church. She took her kids to church and it was William, under the preaching of Dr. R.A. Torrey, many of you might know him, he came to Christ.

[4:18] He got saved. He was like seven, eight years old. He passionately read the Bible, even from this age. He was determined to live out the Christian life, even at such a young age.

[4:34] When he graduated from high school at 16, his parents gave him, as a gift, a trip to travel around the world.

[4:46] He visited Japan, China, India, Egypt, Europe, other places. And it was at this time, he began to desire to go into missions.

[4:56] And he believed he should prepare for the mission field at 16 years old. He entered Yale University in 1905 when it was somewhat conservative.

[5:09] He attended Princeton Seminary. He decided to be a missionary to the Muslims of northern China and decided to learn both Arabic and Chinese, the two hardest languages in the world.

[5:23] And he decided the best place to do that would be there in the Middle East. So he went to Egypt. And he was there in Egypt to train. And he was there three months or so, I think.

[5:43] Three, four months he was there. He contracted cerebral meningitis and died. Not having a step foot in the mission field that he wanted to go to.

[5:57] It's believed that when he renounced his fortune to go into missions, he wrote in his Bible, no reserve. After graduating from Yale, he wrote later, no retreat.

[6:12] Just before he died in Egypt, he wrote, no regrets. So the title of the message is William Borden, No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets.

[6:30] And let this be an inspiration and a motivation for us. The gospel motivates us, right? God's grace in Christ motivates us.

[6:42] But we also have the witness of others around us or those that are part of the church in heaven. We look at their lives and we can take things from their life to emulate in our own lives.

[6:56] And that's what we'll do today. I read this book, short little book, Borden of Yale by Mrs. Howard Taylor. Thank you, Daniel, for letting me borrow it. A great book.

[7:06] I would encourage it's easy to read. A 10-year-old can probably breeze through this really well. I think it's a great book for teens, junior high and high school students and even college students.

[7:22] I think that's a perfect book for all of you. Because as we briefly take a look at his life, he stands as an exemplary person for Christian teens to emulate because when he was 16, he started thinking about missions.

[7:35] And when he was 17 years old, he was the one who started the Yale mission, Yale Hope Mission. He started when he was 17 years old. An amazing person.

[7:48] So, what are some principles we can take away from his life? What aspects of his life can we green? I have six of them for you.

[7:59] And how I'm going to put them is in an exhortation type manner. For example, what I'll do is say, be passionate for the gospel or for missions or for evangelism.

[8:15] For Borden, evangelism and missions went together. God's grace motivated this young man. I mean, I mean, he was just driven by the gospel and driven for the gospel.

[8:33] When he was on his world trip, it was then he began to desire to be a missionary. The trip impacted him tremendously, especially as he visited China and India and Egypt.

[8:44] He was just so overwhelmed from what he called heathenism. Heathenism. His mother rejoiced at it. His father said, wait till you're 21, then you can figure out your vocation.

[9:00] But his desire to be a missionary never wavered. He even looked forward to it with anticipation. There was an experience where he did not give someone the gospel.

[9:14] He felt horrible about it. He made it a point at that time to be faithful in evangelism, actively and vigorously looking for opportunities to give someone the gospel. And so when he was at Yale, 17, 18 years old, he began meeting with a couple of friends for morning prayer and Bible study.

[9:35] The numbers grew. I think he ended up having like a thousand guys towards the end of his years at Yale.

[9:45] in his Bible studies and prayer time. They divided, they would divide up the student body, assigning certain ones among them to reach those at Yale who were unsaved.

[9:57] Now you have to understand something. Yale and Princeton, they used to be Christian colleges. Liberals never start their own colleges. They only take the ones from conservatives. You know that, right?

[10:09] They never start their own. They just take the ones from conservatives. So Yale, beginning in the early 1900s, the thing that's called higher criticism, it began to make its way into the universities that once held strong to the faith.

[10:26] Princeton held strong to the faith. So did Yale, but they soon caved in. Yale began to waver. Students who were entering Yale were unsaved, but by his last year at Yale College, 1,000 students were attending Bible study due to his efforts, his passion for the gospel.

[10:49] And Borden loved to reach the toughest person, a notoriously ungodly student at Yale that no one wanted to approach. Borden would say quietly, put that one down for me.

[11:02] He became deeply impacted at a missionary conference, especially by one of the speakers named Samuel Zwimmer, who showed the facts about the Muslim world.

[11:16] At one point, Dr. Zwimmer said this, quote, is going to cost many a life. And it was at this time, Borden would commit himself to work with Muslims in an unoccupied area.

[11:28] There was 200 million Muslims. They were the hardest and most neglected. But these difficulties, they did nothing but attract Borden. He loved the challenge. He requested to be a part of China Inland Mission, CIM, and to go to the Muslims in China.

[11:49] Specifically in Gansu. Gansu was an isolated part of China at the time with many Muslim Chinese. But he never thought of missionary work, even in its hardest place as a sacrifice.

[12:03] In the book, Mrs. Taylor, she was talking about him. She says, quote, to him it was privilege of the highest order, end quote. It was nothing but joy to be a missionary. He accounted the cost, but he never flinched for a moment.

[12:22] And this not only shocked other Christians, but it shocked the world. even the newspaper newspaper in Chicago that, quote, a man of his age and prospects who turned away from all the world could offer and devote himself to a life of loneliness and hardship in a remote province in China.

[12:42] They were dumbfounded. But it's because he understood the importance of the gospel. He was passionate for the gospel. That God is holy and righteous.

[12:55] He's our creator. We owe everything to him. We are sinners. We should be condemned. And yet, God sent Jesus who lived. He was the perfect sacrifice.

[13:05] He died for sinners. He resurrected from the dead. And the response is to repent and trust in Christ. That's the gospel truth. And that motivated Borden.

[13:16] He was passionate for the gospel. Passionate for evangelism and missions. Someone expressed that they were surprised he was, quote, throwing himself away as a missionary.

[13:29] Borden responded back, you have not seen heathenism. A classmate said, quote, Borden was a missionary first, last, and all the time.

[13:46] And while he was in Egypt, he would hand out these kutbas. These kutbas, they began with verses from the Quran, but they led up to clear teaching from the Bible.

[13:59] He was already setting up to hand these out. He got a group of the different American Christians and missionaries that were there. There were 800,000 people in Cairo, Egypt.

[14:12] And he was setting up a group where they were going to hand out these kutbas to every single person in Cairo. I mean, he was planning this out. This is how this guy was thinking. He was driven. Which leads us to number two.

[14:27] He was passionate for the gospel, missions, and evangelism. I mean, he was be passionate for people. Be passionate for the gospel and be passionate for people or ministry. Even at a young age, he would serve others.

[14:41] He would work hard at it. He would make the most of his time. He was involved in Bible groups, mission study classes, daily prayer groups, Wednesday evening Bible study, volunteer group means.

[14:55] He started a mission and he was doing all this stuff while he was even at Princeton and then he was managing the large financial business because his father died, I think when he was at Yale or just before he went from Yale to Princeton.

[15:08] I think that was when. And so he got access and he took care of the family business. He was a millionaire and he was making all these large financial transactions while he was trying to do his studies and do all these different Bible studies and ministering to people.

[15:21] He loved people. He loved ministry. I told you, at Yale, he started the Yale Hope Mission which provided food, shelter, and the gospel to the city's hurting outcasts.

[15:35] God used the mission to bring many men to saving faith in Christ. One person wrote about this, quote, William might often be found in the lower parts of the city at night on the street in a cheap lodging house or some restaurant to which he'd taken a poor hungry fellow to feed him seeking to lead men to Christ, end quote.

[15:58] It was more important to him that people knew him as a Christian. He enjoyed life, he enjoyed people, he enjoyed ministry and he didn't dress like someone who was wealthy.

[16:10] He wore ordinary clothes. No one knew he was a millionaire. He didn't act like it. How passionate are we about the gospel?

[16:23] Do we have a heart for ministry? Do we have a heart for people? Do we have a heart for each other? Grace should be the thing that's driving us. God's grace to us and the gospel should drive us to minister to each other and proclaim the gospel to each other.

[16:38] proclaim the gospel to others. One person who was converted from the Yale Hope Mission said this, quote, He seemed to reach out and win you. I watched him from night to night and always, as soon as the invitation was given to come forward, he would be off the platform and right down among the men.

[16:58] He had a habit of putting his hand on a man's shoulder and they most always break down when he spoke to them. As one person said, he had an abiding passion for the souls of men.

[17:14] It was his constant thought. It seemed never absent from his mind. Let's be a people who are passionate for the gospel. Let's be a people who are passionate for people, for ministry.

[17:27] Three, be passionate for the word of God. He loved the Bible.

[17:38] He loved the word of God. When he first came to Christ, he was reading it even as a little boy. He was so well grounded that anything contrary to the truth of God's word brought an energetic reaction to him.

[17:53] This whole higher criticism and the doubting of the historicity of Genesis and supernaturalism that takes place, the miracles of the Bible. Oh, he vehemently opposed that.

[18:07] He said this, quote, I am thankful for the teaching I received at the Moody Church and Institute before I was 15 years of age because it kept me firm in my beliefs in spite of opposition and criticism.

[18:19] The deity of Christ, his vicarious atonement, and the inspiration and authority of the Bible had been indelibly impressed upon me. Said Borden. He remarkably handled Scripture, believing in the inerrancy of the Bible, a doctrine, quickly washing away within Christianity.

[18:41] Yale used to be strong in the Scripture, strong in the truth, same with Princeton. And they were falling away. They were doubting the historicity and the inerrancy of the Bible.

[18:52] But Borden believed the Bible from beginning to end. He believed it was the Word of God that was authoritative for one's life and he believed it and he lived by it. He had instant, full obedience to God's will.

[19:06] He didn't waver, procrastinate, or consider how he felt about it. That didn't matter to him. He just did it. It was the keynote of his life. He had instant, glad obedience.

[19:18] Whenever God's Word said, he was determined to obey it. Do we love God's Word? Are we in God's Word, reading God's Word, studying God's Word?

[19:30] As we're coming to a new year, maybe you want to start reading a portion of Scripture. Maybe you want to start reading through the Bible in 2017. How much time do we spend in God's Word?

[19:42] One person said this about Borden, quote, the purpose of his life has been to turn many to righteousness. The Bible was the source of all his power. He learned it.

[19:54] He loved it. He lived it. And made him what he was. And I am hearing from all parts of the world testimonies from men and women who were drawn to give their lives to the Savior through his teaching.

[20:07] That is a noble purpose to live for, is it not? Be passionate for the Gospel, for people, for the Word of God.

[20:17] Number four, be passionate for Christ. He was thoroughly devoted to Christ, devoted to His Word.

[20:31] While he was in India, he wrote this to his mother when he was 16. I also pray that God will take my life into His hands and use it for the furtherance of His kingdom as He sees best.

[20:42] Wow! How many 16-year-olds do you know that write something like that? How many 16-year-olds do you know that are driven like that? He believed everything had to be tested and have Christ approval before he would even do it.

[20:59] One professor wrote this, quote, His complete consecration and devotion to Christ were revelation to me and His confidence in prayer a continual inspiration.

[21:10] when you're reading through the book Borden at Yale, of Yale, you read about different professors that had him both at Yale and at Princeton.

[21:21] They were just so taken by Borden and just the things that he would write and how he would converse with them that even they were just so stricken by the way he lived his life.

[21:37] And he was 10, 20, 30 years younger than these men. Thoroughly devoted to Christ. His entire life was spent for Christ, quote, scarcely a moment of it wasted.

[21:52] And as he said his motto, not my will but thine be done. Mrs. Taylor wrote this, quote, no reserve, no retreat, no regrets had any place in William Borden's consecration to God.

[22:13] How's your passion for Christ? How's our passion for the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we driven for the gospel? Are we driven to Christ? number five, be passionate for prayer.

[22:30] Be passionate for the gospel, passionate for people, passionate for the word, passionate for Christ, passionate for prayer. He was committed to prayer at one time he earnestly prayed for mission work and for God's plan for his life.

[22:47] One person said this, he was the easiest man to pray with I've ever known. And Borden would just, something would be happening, he would just be talking with you and he'd say, hey, can we pray about this?

[22:59] He'd just stop and pray right there. That's just how he did it. That's how he lived his life. Prayer, prayer was his most important work, the breath of his life.

[23:13] He was willing to give financially to different works and he was able to do this. But he would also force himself to pray for God to supply. There were so many times where the mission work, whether at Yale Hope Mission or other instances of mission work or Christian works, the ministry would lack funds.

[23:38] And Borden knew of all the money that he had, he could just give that money and it'd be taken care of. and he was tempted to do that but what he would do, he would keep himself from doing that and instead he would take, excuse me, he would spend hours of prayer with other people praying for God to provide for that specific work and he would watch with the others God provide for that work instead of him just writing the check.

[24:07] That's how devoted he was to prayer. Be passionate for prayer and then number six, be passionate for giving or serving.

[24:21] He was a hard worker whether it's ministry, school, work, play. He was an excellent student in high school at Yale and Princeton and yet he never just gave financially.

[24:35] He wanted to be with people. He wanted to serve people. He wanted to give himself to them. He was involved in the lives of people. His responsibilities were unbelievable.

[24:46] He was taking care of the family business, doing school, Bible studies, trip to New York, New Haven, Chicago, faithful to his studies and yet he would still take time, even when he was at Princeton, he would go and see how things were going at the Yale Hope Mission and be there among the people.

[25:01] That's the type of guy he was. I mean, this guy's like 19, 20 years old when he's doing this. One friend of his who was Syrian said this, quote, He did not think that there was anything impossible to do in the service of the Lord.

[25:19] He was very fond of Muslims. He was kind and meek. Born and generously gave himself to others physically and financially.

[25:32] Financially, he was the largest giver to the street preaching on the streets of Chicago, the Sunday school, the expenses of the church. He left $100,000 to the church in Chicago.

[25:47] He donated, so he had already set up donating $1 million dispersing it in four different parts. A four, a quarter of it went to Chicago, a quarter of it in other homeland parts, about a third went to China and the rest of it to foreign countries and missions.

[26:05] This is how this guy thought and this is how he would give. He gave a portion also to the National Bible Institute which is now known today as Mooney Bible Institute.

[26:19] Now he had a stipulation though for the money that he would give. Listen to the stipulation. Quote, Only such men as held absolutely to the deity of Christ, vicarious atoning death, that's what he would do.

[26:34] Missionaries, he would give to, the stipulation, who are sound in the faith, believing in the doctrine of divine inspiration and authority of the scriptures, the doctrine of the trinity, the deity of Jesus, and the substitutionary death of our Lord.

[26:46] Those were stipulations. To keep from liberalism, which was taking over Yale and Princeton and all the major seminaries and universities at that time, to keep that from happening, he wanted to give towards those who believed in the things that we believe.

[27:02] That's the type of person Borden was. Let me read to you how he's described who is, who was William Borden.

[27:18] This was William Borden, a Chicago friend, said this. Quiet, but powerful. Sane little, but doing much. Rich, but self-denying.

[27:31] Humble in spirit, but imperial, and purpose. A general in organization, but always willing to be a private in service. He declined our urgent invitation to preach in the Moody Church on the ground that he was not capable, but he was not ashamed to tell of his faith in Jesus on the street corner.

[27:55] His heart went out to the uncared for, Christless millions of Ken Sue, but he did not overlook the worthy widow, orphan, and cripple in the back streets of Chicago.

[28:08] That's the type of person Borden was. Dr. Swimmer said he was a man with the frame of an athlete, the mind of a scholar, the grasp of a theologian as regards to God's truth, faith, and the heart of a little child full of faith and love.

[28:28] Dr. Swimmer had two, I think, two children and his kids used to love to be there with Borden. They would sit on his lap. He was this big, burly guy. They used to try and tackle him in Yale University and he would just throw guys off like they were nothing.

[28:46] They used to play a game, he came up with a game where one guy would turn around and all the guys would be behind him and then one guy would slap that guy and the guy would have to turn around and try and figure out who did it.

[28:57] Borden loved that game. One of his friends figured out when they would come after Borden figured out all you gotta do is just give in to him then he'll leave you alone because he would have mercy upon you but if you try and fight him oh he'd come after you.

[29:11] So here's this big, burly guy that's why he was just he was an athlete. I mean he was huge, big and he was so soft and he was a millionaire. We just love people.

[29:24] The response to his death Princeton Seminary Bulletin said this quote no young man of his age had ever given more to the service of God and humanity. Dr. Zwimmer wrote a book about Borden's life he translated it into Arabic 35,000 copies were put into Muslim hands.

[29:47] Dr. R.A. Torrey wrote this quote I know of no young man in this country or in England from whose life I expected greater things but God has his own way of carrying out his purposes end quote.

[30:03] Another person said this about his death quote the length of time God permits us to stay here is not related to a certain amount of work he wants us to do so much as to a certain closeness of relationship to himself he wants us to attain.

[30:21] And one quote that I'll put up here about Borden person said this sure would day I have absolutely no feeling of a life cut short a life abandoned to Christ cannot be cut short cut short means not complete interrupted and we know that our master does no halfway jobs we must pray now that those whom God wants this to appeal may listen Mrs. Taylor puts a poem at the beginning of one of her chapters which is a great description of Borden but also even an encouragement to us as we look at his life here's how the quote goes many crowd the Savior's kingdom few receive his cross many seek his consolation few will suffer loss for the dear sake of the master counting all but dross many sit at Jesus table few will fast with him when the sorrow cup of anguish trembles to the brim few watch with him in the garden who have sung the hymn but the souls who love him truly both in woe and bliss these will count their very hearts blood not their own but his

[31:47] Savior thou who thus has loved me give me love like this so what's my reason for these kinds of messages my desire is to see what I want to see awaken in us a deeper love for the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel bringing a deeper love for others in Cottonwood Jerome the Verde Valley Arizona the US and the world that we would be passionate for the gospel we'd be passionate for people and ministry for the word of God for Christ prayer we're passionate to give and to serve each other just like this young man was father thank you thank you for men like William Borden and father for those of us that are in our 30s and upwards in our 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s we want to pray for these young people for those in their 20s all the way down to the younger ones the little ones

[33:20] God we pray for them we pray that they will expect great things from you and attempt great things for you we pray that the faith that's preached to them week in and week out the truth that they hear will become their own the faith that they hear about will become their own we pray for them that you would work in their hearts and you would bring about as they say the millennial generation the millennial generation that box the truth and absolute truth and the scripture that you would raise up amongst us a generation of young people who are driven passionate who love

[34:29] Christ who think outside the box and our love for Christ for your word for the gospel for people for prayer for giving for serving we pray you will work among them and we know that only you can change hearts only you can change their lives so we ask for you to move amongst them and maybe they won't stay here we're unnecessarily praying that they stay here we're praying that wherever you take them you will use them for your glory and we can be able to say wow what an amazing God we serve if you would take some time and reflect and ponder what we've seen from the life of

[35:35] William Borden the exhortation that we've contemplated so take some time to contemplate that and to think through that so we'll have our moment of silence then we'll do our worshiping and our giving we'll sing our final two songs in our closing prayer prayer so think ponder pray maybe pray for the young people pray for us the church we will be this type of people together will and may please pray Thank you.