Romans chapter 10. It wasn't unusual for the Apostle
Paul to go back to the Old Testament and draw forth a statement from
one of the Old Testament prophets Indeed, he does that here in
chapter 10 and verse 15. And this is from the scripture
that I read to you just a bit ago. He says in Romans 10-15, and how
shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, And we read
this out of Isaiah chapter 52. As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Here's the title of my message,
Beautiful Feet. Beautiful Feet. God himself speaking
through his inspired apostle who quotes for us an inspired
prophet. He says that the feet of God's
servant, the feet of the man of God, the feet of the preacher
of the gospel of peace, the feet of the man who preaches the glad
tidings of good things, That man who faithfully preaches Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, he has beautiful feet. It's not talking about literal
feet. You wouldn't want to see my feet
this morning. But he speaks of it this way
because the feet of God's servant are
beautiful. Because they carry the man who
carries the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's why they're called beautiful
feet. Now let's look at this in the
context. Go back to verse 12. In verse
12 he says, there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek. There's no difference as to our
sinful state before God. The Apostle has said back in
the third chapter, we before proved both Jew and Gentile all
under sin. That is, we're all under sin's
dominion, we're under sin's control, we're under sin's very power,
and we're under the authority of sin. There's no difference. There's no difference as to our
guilt before God. There's no difference as to our
inability to believe this gospel. There's no difference between
our spiritual deadness. There's no difference as to what
we deserve. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's no difference as
to what the law says about us. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped. That's every mouth of the Jew
and every mouth of the Gentiles. That every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God. There is no
difference. There is no difference as to
our inability to produce a righteousness with which God is pleased. There
is none righteous, we read in the third chapter of Romans.
No, not one. There is no difference in our
need for divine mercy. There is no difference in our
need for divine salvation. There's no difference in our
need for forgiveness. There's no difference in our
need for life. There's no difference in our
need for righteousness. There's no difference in our
need of the sacrifice of a suitable Savior. There's no difference
in our need of the blood redemption of Jesus Christ the Lord. There
is no difference. That's what he says. There is
no difference. And then he says this for the
same Lord, the same Lord, not a different Lord for the
Jew, or one Lord for the Jew and another Lord for the Gentile,
but the same Lord over all, is rich in all that call upon Him. The same Lord. There's not a
God for this group and a God for that group and a God for
yet another group. There's one exalted Lord. And
that one exalted Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I know
He was already the Lord before He came into the world. But as
the man The God-man, as the mediator, he was faithful to do the work
that the Father gave him to do. The work assigned him in the
covenant of grace. And that God-man, having redeemed
God's elect, that shepherd having laid down his life for his sheep,
having faithfully executed the office of Savior, having saved
His people from their sins, He's gone back to glory, He's taken
His seat in the heavens, and God said, I've made that same
Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. He's the Lord. He's the same Lord overall. Overall. That is, there's no
limitation to His Lordship. There's nothing left out of His
Lordship. There's no group of people who
are exempt from His authority. He's the Lord overall. He doesn't want to be the Lord.
It isn't that He's going to be the Lord. He is the Lord. And He's the Lord right now. Was it not Thomas who looked
at Him after His resurrection and said unto Him, My Lord and
my God. He's my Lord and He's your Lord. This is the one that the apostle
is speaking about. He's the same Lord over all. And watch this, He's rich. He's
rich as God because all the perfections of God dwell in Him. All of the
attributes of God belong to Him. He's rich as God. He's rich as
man. He's rich in grace. He's rich
in mercy. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ Jesus. He's rich unto, watch this, unto
all that call upon Him. Isn't that wonderful? He's rich. He's rich in forgiveness. He's
rich in salvation. He's rich in life. He's rich
in righteousness to everybody who calls upon Him. Oh, may God give us the desire
to call upon Him in earnestness and out of need. He's rich. He's rich. "...to all who call
upon Him." Notice verse 13, "...for whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved." And this is a quote out of Joel
chapter 2 and verse 32. So again, he goes into the Old
Testament and he draws forth the words of an Old Testament
prophet. What is it to call upon the name
of the Lord? In short, it's this. It's to
worship God. That's what it is to call upon
the name of the Lord. Go all the way back to the last
verse of Genesis chapter 4, and it says, Then began men to call
upon the name of the Lord. Now, we believe that Adam and
Eve, they worshipped God. We believe and we know that Abel
worshipped God by means of the sacrificial lamb. But at the
end of chapter 4, when Seth was born and after Seth grew up,
he led people in public worship. Men began to gather together
for worship, just like we've been gathered together this morning
by the Spirit of God for public worship. What are we doing? We're
calling upon the name of the Lord. That's what we're doing.
And all who worship Him, everyone who extols Him, Everyone who
honors God in your heart, everyone who bows before God as the God
of Scripture, as the God of heaven and earth, as the God who is
Lord over all, everyone who truly worships God from the heart according
to truth, the Scripture says, they shall be saved. They shall
be saved. They shall be rescued. They shall
be delivered. Now watch this. In verse 14,
now, having said this, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved, this presents a problem. What is the problem? Well, it's just this, verse 14,
the first statement. How then shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? Okay, whoever calls upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But who is really going to call
upon the name of the Lord to be saved if you don't believe
Him? In other words, if you don't
believe the Lord, if there isn't God-given faith, then you're
not going to worship Him. In order to really worship, in
order to really exalt, in order to really extol the name of the
Lord, you must believe Him. You must rely upon Him. Or as
the Amplified Version says, you must adhere yourself to Him. You must have confidence in Him.
Here is a fact. Every man calls upon the God
that he believes in. That's right. Every man worships
the God he believes in. Here's the problem. We don't,
by nature, believe the right God. Because we don't know who
He is. You see, every man, by nature,
is religious. We're all religious. But our
religion is distorted since the fall. Our ideas of God are wrong. They're wrong. God said to Israel,
you thought that I was just like you, that I was such and one
as yourself. God said, I'm not like you. Our
thoughts of God are wrong. They have to be corrected. So
in order to worship this God, we've got to believe Him, but
we've got to believe Him as He's revealed in the Scriptures. Which therefore leads to yet
another issue, which the apostle raises, and here's the next question,
and how shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? Of whom they've not heard. I'm
going to be going to the water every once in a while, so I'm
sorry you don't have yours. But I find my vocal cords get
dry. They get dry. So I have to get
a drink of water every once in a while and you'll have to forgive
me. He says, and how shall they believe in him of whom they've
not heard? Now, not only how can you honestly
from the heart worship the God, the God of the Bible, unless
you believe him and rely upon him. But then furthermore, there's
this question, how can you believe on the Lord if you've never heard
of him? if you've never heard of Him.
In other words, you cannot believe an unrevealed God. You can't
believe, you won't believe a God you don't know anything about.
A God you have no knowledge of. You say, well, how much about
God does a man have to know to believe Him and then to worship
Him? Well, I know this, there can't
be worship without some knowledge of God. You've got to know who
you've offended. Doesn't a man have to know who
he sinned against? And doesn't a man have to realize
that before this great God, he is guilty? That God demands that
which he can't produce? Doesn't a man have to know that
this God is great and glorious and mighty? I'm not saying we have to be
theologians. I'm not saying that we have to
know everything there is to know about God. Nobody can know everything
there is to know about God. But you've got to know that He's
the Lord. You've got to know who Christ
Jesus is. You've got to know that He's
divine. That He's the Son of God. You've got to believe that
He's the Son of God. You've got to believe that He's
man. You've got to believe in your heart that you yourself
are a lost sinner before this great God. And that you have
no ability to save yourself. And that if you are to be saved,
this great God must save you. You see, all over this city today
and all over the United States and much of the world, preachers
are standing before people today saying, just believe on Jesus.
Well, the question is, who is Jesus? Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? Can He be identified? Do I have to know anything about
Him? Or can I just go and face Him in eternity without any knowledge
of Him whatsoever? I've got to know something about
God. Well, how are you going to know
anything about God unless you hear about Him? You've got to hear about Him. He's the one in whose hands you
are. You see, the Lord's not in your
hands. We all, good many of us at least,
grew up under this teaching that the Lord Jesus is in our hands
to do with what you will. We used to sing that song based
upon what Pilate said, what will you do with Jesus? What will
you do with Jesus? That's not the issue. The issue
is what will Jesus do with you? He's the sovereign King. You've
got to know that He's the authority. You've got to know that He's
the King, that He's the Lord. He's the Lord. That thief on
the cross, you spoke about him a couple of Wednesday nights
ago. He said, Lord, remember me. He recognized the Lordship
of Jesus Christ. The poor leper. Met the Savior
at the foot of the mountain and said, Lord, if you will, you
can show me mercy. He recognized the Lordship, the
authority, the power of King Jesus. He's not a doormat to
hell or to heaven. He's not a health insurance policy. He's the Lord of glory. You've
got to know who He is. Well, how are you going to know
who He is unless somebody tells you about Him? We gather together in our meetings
so that somebody can tell us about the Lord. Tell us of His glory. Tell us
of His might. Tell us of His authority. Tell
us of His blood. Speak to us of His righteousness.
Oh, tell us of His greatness. Not a Jesus who needs us, but
the Lord Jesus whom we need. This is the need of the hours
for somebody to declare who He is. And so here's what the apostle
is saying. How can you worship the Lord
if you don't believe Him? And how can you believe in the
Lord if you don't know anything about Him? I had a big discussion with a
man several years ago, and he said, well, listen, all a person's
got to do is just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
I got scripture on that Acts chapter 16. I said, yeah, but
in saying believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul
and Silas, they identified who He is. He's the Lord. He's Jesus. He's the Savior nobody else can
save. He's Christ. He's the sent one. This is not a salvation based
on ignorance. Like I say, I'm not insisting
that people cross every T, but I know this,
before God reveals Himself to your heart, in saving mercy,
He's going to show you that He's the Lord. He's the Lord of glory. Now before I go to the next question
in this statement, There is something else that needs to be emphasized
on this particular point. Look at this expression again. How shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not heard? Let me give you three other translations
on this verse. One of them reads this way. How
shall they believe in Him whom They have not heard. In other
words, the word of is left out. Here's another one. How shall
they believe in him whom they have never heard? Yet another,
and these are correct translations, reads this way. How shall they
believe upon him whose words they have not heard? This is
a very acceptable way of reading this statement. Put them together. This is what you've got. How can you worship the Lord
if you don't have confidence and believe the Lord? And how
can you believe the Lord unless you heard from the Lord? Unless
you heard His voice. unless He's spoken to you. Let
me ask you a question. Can you believe the gospel of
God's grace if God doesn't speak to you? No. No. All who call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved. Yes, that is true. But how can
you call upon the name of the Lord if you don't believe Him?
And how can you believe Him unless He speaks to you? unless you hear His Word. I do
know this, you've got to hear His voice. You've got to hear
His voice. John chapter 5 and verse 25 says
this, Verily, verily, the Son of God said unto you, this is
what He says, Verily, verily, I say to you, the hour is coming,
and now is when the dead shall hear The voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall live. Our text says, how shall
they believe in Him whom they have not heard? You've got to hear His voice. You've
got to hear His voice. Well, that poses another problem. How are we going to hear from
Him? Will He come to us literally today? Will He walk up the front
steps and enter into the vestibule and walk down the aisle and step
up before us and speak to us? Is that how we're going to hear
His voice? Is that how we're going to hear the words of the
Lord God of glory? Will He come to us literally
today? Well then how does He speak to
us? How will we hear His voice? Verse 14 again, the next statement,
and how shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they hear without a
preacher? Sinners must hear Him who speaks from heaven. We must,
we must Those of us who are by nature spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins, we must hear the voice of Him that raises the spiritual
dead. Sinners must hear from the Lord. And here is the astonishing,
amazing fact. When you hear one of God's preachers
declaring the gospel of God's saving grace, declaring Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, declaring the message of grace and mercy
and salvation in Jesus Christ alone, when you hear that message,
you're hearing the voice of God. You see, that's what makes this
service so serious. Because we're not merely hearing
the voice of a man. Through the preaching of the
gospel, it's the Lord who's speaking to us. It's the Lord who speaks
to our hearts. It's the Lord's voice that we
hear. And you who are the people of God, isn't this your testimony
that so often in the past, so many, many times, you've left
this building and here's what you've said. The Lord spoke to
me today. Well, how did He speak to you?
How did He speak to you? Through His servant, who's been
given the message, and by the power of the Spirit, He delivers
the gospel. And in the words of the preacher,
who is nothing but a sinner saved by free grace, A sinner washed
in the blood of Christ Jesus. A sinner robed in the precious
righteousness of the Son of God. As that man speaks to you, you
hear the very voice of God in your soul. This is what the scripture
is saying. How shall they hear without a
preacher? Now that raises another question.
Verse 15. And how shall they preach? Except
they be sent. In other words, there must be
a divine commission. A divine commission. The Lord said to the false prophets
through Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 23, 21, I have not
sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken through them.
I've not spoken through them, yet they prophesied. You remember
when Absalom died? Word had to be taken back to
the king, and a man whose name was Ahimaaz, he approached General
Joab, and he said, let me run and bear the tidings to the king.
Joab said, you have no message? And Joab said, Kushai, come over
here. You saw what happened, yes sir? Go tell the king." So
Kushai sets off running. He's sent by Joab. And this man
Ahime asks, he comes to Joab and he says, let me run too. Joab says, you have no message.
I'm not sending you. But he said, I'm a fast runner.
Let me run, Joab said, in essence, get out of my face, go ahead
and go. And the watchman, watching out from Jerusalem, sees a messenger
coming because here's what happened, Ahimaaz, he was a very gifted,
he was a gifted runner. And along the way he passed Cushiah. The watchman tells David, he
says, I see somebody running, it's Ahimaaz. David says, he's
a good man. And the watchman says, well,
I see another one. It's Kushai. David said, well, he's got news,
too. And Ahimeaz, he runs up to the king. But he doesn't have the message.
He wasn't sent. David said, what about my son?
Ahimeaz said, well, I didn't exactly see what happened. Get
out of the way. I want to know about my son.
Kushai steps up, and he tells him. He was sent. This is what we want. This is
what's got to be in all of this puzzle as it fits together. There has to be a man sent from
God with the message. And the message is about the
king's son. The King's Son. And it's about
the death of the King's Son. And it's about the reason the
King's Son had to die. That God might be just and justify
the ungodly. It's all about the King's Son.
God's messenger sent by the Lord with the full authority of God
Himself. They have the right message.
They have the right message. We read in John chapter 1 and
verse 6, there was a man sent of God, whose name was John. You see, if there is a sent man,
there's got to be a sender. And the Lord is the one who sends
His men. And He sends them where He wills. He doesn't send His men everywhere.
You remember in Acts chapter 16, the Apostle Paul, he wanted
to go deeper into Asia and preach and the Spirit of God said, no,
no. He'd go into Philippi and preach
the gospel there. But Lord, I want to go into Asia.
Look at all the people. No, go into Europe and preach
the gospel. Now listen, God has the exact
number of messengers He wants and the exact number of messengers
He needs and He sends them where He wants to send them. Now they've
all got the same message. But God has the right to send
His messenger here and not send it over there. To send His messengers
to this country and let other countries remain in pagan darkness
He has the right to send His messenger to preach to those
in your household, and He has the right not to send His messengers
to preach to those in your household. You see this? It's the Lord who
does all of this. It's the Lord. God's preachers go forth preaching. Preaching. As it says in verse
15, how shall they preach except they be sent? And as it is written,
how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Why are the feet
of the preacher said to be beautiful? They are not beautiful because
he dresses differently. They're not beautiful because
he has talents and abilities and gifts. His feet are not beautiful because
he wears a robe. His feet are not beautiful because
he wears a backward collar. His feet aren't beautiful because
he has such charisma and he's such a great orator that he can
draw a tremendous crowd. No. His feet are beautiful because
He proclaims the gospel of God's free grace in Christ Jesus. He
declares the message that God has stored up in the person and
work of Jesus Christ, all of the fullness of His grace and
mercy for sinners. He tells people who Christ is. and what the blessed Savior did,
and the reason that He did it. And as the message goes forth,
as the voice of the commissioned servant of God is heard, so the
voice of God Himself is heard. Where is it heard? In the hearts
of God's elect. This is a tremendous thought.
And I've had several days to be thinking about this and I've
had this message on my mind even before I had the surgery. That
God speaks to sinners through his preachers. Look at Ephesians
chapter 2. The book of Ephesians chapter
2. Look at verse 13. But now, in
Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ. And He is our peace, who hath
made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 15,
having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in the ordinances, for to make in himself of twain
one new man, so making peace, that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby."
Who is this? This is the Son of God. Back
in chapter 1, He redeemed us by His blood. Therefore, we have
the forgiveness of sins. He's been made the head of the
church. That's what He says at the end of chapter 1. He's the
one in whom we have life. And He's the one who made peace
by the blood of His cross. And He's the one who brings Jews
and Gentiles together into one church. We have peace. But now, how did that message
come to us? That is, how did we hear about
peace by the blood of Jesus Christ? Look at verse 17. and came and preached peace to
you which were afar off, and to them which were not." Now
who's the preacher? The Lord Jesus Himself. Now He's
the preacher. Because if you look back in verse
16, He's the one who reconciled us. Verse 14, He's the one who
is our peace. And in verse 17 it says, He came
and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them which
were not. Who are those who are not? The
Jews, right? Who are those who are afar off?
The Gentiles. He preached peace to the Gentiles. But now wait a minute. Did our
Lord go into the Gentile countries and preach in the four Gospels? No. In fact, He even told His
disciples, don't go to the Gentiles. You preach to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. He didn't give them a commission
to preach to the Gentiles until after His resurrection. He said,
go in all the world and preach the Gospel. So here's the question. Did our Lord preach to the Ephesians? Did he preach peace to the Ephesians?
Well, not literally, but through the Apostle Paul he did. When they heard the voice of
God's servant preaching peace by Jesus Christ, When they heard
the voice of the man of God saying, He is our peace. He made peace
with God by the blood of His cross. He reconciled us. He redeemed us. He saved us. He made us righteous in Himself.
He washed all of our sins away. When they heard the voice of
the apostle Paul preaching the gospel. Here's what the Spirit
of God says through Paul. They were hearing the voice of
the Lord of glory. They were hearing the voice of
Christ Jesus. Look over in chapter 4. Look
in chapter 4. He talks to the Ephesians and
he says, don't live like the heathen. Don't live like the
heathen. Look at verse 17, chapter 4. This I say, therefore, in testifying
the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk,
in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. who
being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness,
to work all uncleanness with greediness, but you've not so
learned Christ. Watch this. If so be ye have
heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Here's what the apostle said.
Don't live as the Gentiles live if you've heard the voice of
the son of God. If He's spoken to you, well how
did they hear His voice? How did God speak to them? He
spoke to them through His servant. Let me give you another illustration
of this. 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. I had been given instructions
to only speak for a few minutes, and I didn't know how long I'd
be able to speak, but guess what? I'm still going. So I'll just
keep on going, but I want to share this with you. In 1 Peter
chapter 3, look at verse 18. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust. You think of it, when he was
suffering for our sins, he was the just one. He was the righteous
one. Suffering and dying for the unjust. Why is that? To bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. By which also he went and preached
unto the spirits in prison. Who suffered and who died? Christ.
Who preached to the spirits in prison? Christ Jesus. He's the preacher. When did that
happen? Now, that did not happen at His
death. He did not go into hell and preach
to anybody. He didn't preach to the damned
souls who are suffering the wrath of God. Where did our Savior go when
He died? He went to paradise. He went
to paradise. Well, when did he preach to these
spirits that are now in prison? Look at verse 20. When sometime,
which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering
of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing,
wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. Those, here's what the Apostle
is saying. The Apostle Peter is saying this.
Those souls who died in the flood, multitudes of them, they heard
the voice of Christ Jesus preaching. How did they hear his voice?
Through Noah. And guess what? 2 Peter chapter
2, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. They heard a preacher of righteousness. The righteousness that God demands. The righteousness that we can't
produce. And Noah preached the righteousness
of God is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Noah preached
there's safety, there's deliverance, there's salvation in this ark
that I'm building. And as Noah sounded forth the
word, It was the Lord. It was the Lord's Word going
forth. Can I give you one other scripture?
John chapter 10. John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Look at verse 15. As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father. And I laid out my life
for the sheep. There's substitution. The shepherd,
the good shepherd gave his life for the sheep. As it says up
in verse 11. Now look at verse 16. And other
sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. I must bring them. Even as I
must lay down my life for them, I must bring them. But here is
the question. How is He going to bring them?
They shall hear my voice. He calls His sheep. So that he
says, and he says there should be one fold and one shepherd,
he says in verse 27, my sheep hear my voice. Listen, the sheep
of the Lord who are here this morning, the sheep of the Lord
who are watching by way of the internet this morning, you hear
his voice. You hear the voice of the shepherd.
You who love the gospel of grace, of substitution and satisfaction. Have you heard the voice of the
Lord this morning? Has He spoken to you this morning?
Indeed He has. He has. He does so as His word
goes forth from His preacher. We hear His voice. And I said
that was the last verse. I lied because I've got one more.
Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter
10. Our Lord has sent forth the 70
to preach the gospel. And He says this to them. In
verse number 16. Luke chapter 10 verse 16. He
that heareth you, heareth me. That's what I'm trying to say.
He that heareth you, heareth me. Why is that? These men had been commissioned
by the Lord. These men had been sent forth
to preach the gospel of the kingdom. Back in verse 9, he says, you
go forth and you say to people, the kingdom of God has come not
to you. The king has come. And his kingdom
is grace. His kingdom is salvation. You
go forth preaching the gospel. And the Savior says, know this,
he that hears you, he's hearing me. And he that despises you,
He's despising me. And he that despiseth me, despiseth
him that sent me. Micah warned the people in his
day. And most of them wouldn't listen.
But Micah said this in Micah 6, 9. The Lord's voice crieth
unto the city. But wait. Wait, Brother Micah. I thought that was your voice. Micah says, as I preach the word
of the Lord, it's the Lord's voice going forth. Don't ever
minimize the importance of preaching. I know we live in a day when
preaching is impugned. People don't much like it anymore.
You go into a lot of religious establishments, the pulpit isn't
even in the middle anymore. They moved it over to the side,
which is an indication of what they think of preaching. Religious theatrical presentations
have replaced preaching. Religious skits have replaced
preaching. Religious movies have replaced
preaching. I heard somebody say the other
day, I've never been so blessed as when I went to that gospel
singing at such and such a church. Well, it doesn't say, it doesn't
say that God is pleased by gospel singing to save them that believe. It doesn't say that God's pleased
to save those that attend a theatrical presentation. It says, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. This is serious business here.
You see? I'll give you this story. Several years ago, I was preaching,
and I have been known to call down those who are disturbing
others. I don't like to do it. but sometimes
it's necessary. And there was a mother who brought
in a toddler. I was sitting on the platform.
I had someone to read the scripture. She came in just as the service
began. And I said to this brother, I
kind of tugged on his sleeve, and I said, when you go to get
your position, when you take your place in the congregation,
Would you go tell that lady who just brought that little toddler
in, who's already disturbing, that I said, we have a nursery
in the basement. Please take this little one to
the nursery." So he read the scripture and
prayed and he left and went back. He tapped her on the shoulder
and he gave her my message. She didn't take heed to it. Big
mistake. And he just looked at me and
went, what are you going to do, forcibly remove somebody? Well,
you can't do that. And so I began to preach. And
here's this little toddler making noise. And she's back there and
people around looking back. And I just stopped. Finally, it dawned on her that
I wouldn't talk anymore. And I said, ma'am, excuse me,
you're going to have to take that little toddler out of here.
Have a nursery in the basement. There's a cry, we had a cry room
back there. Where you can go back there,
I started to say, bulletproof glass. I hadn't resorted to that yet.
Soundproof glass. Oh, she was up and out. And after
the service was over, I'm in the vestibule grieving. And I
don't like to do that, but listen, I'm not going to compete with
a baby. I'm not going to compete with a toddler. What I've got
to say is very, very important. So I was greeting people, and
she came out, and she said, who do you think you are? I said, well, I'm a sinner saved
by grace, called to preach the gospel, and I come forth with
the word of God, and I couldn't let your little one interrupt
what I was saying. She said, I'll never be back
to this church. I said, well, Maybe not. But then again, God might draw
you back to hear the word. And she left. Listen, you want to hear from
God? You want to be entertained? Go somewhere else. You want to
play games? Go somewhere else. If you think
this preacher is going to compete with little children and somebody
making a racket, It's just not going to happen. Why not? Because
when I preach the gospel of grace, it's the voice of God. You want
to hear from the Lord? What's the song? 272. The Solid Rock. 272. Let's stand together. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Christ the solid rock I
stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking
sand. When darkness veils His lovely
face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
vale My anchor holds within the veil On Christ the solid rock
I stand All other ground is sinking sand All other ground is sinking
sand of His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand. When He shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in Him be found, Rest in His righteousness
alone, Fall blessed to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sand. All other ground is sinking sand.