Open your Bibles tonight to Ephesians
chapter six, sixth chapter of the gospel of Ephesians. 500 years ago last week, Monday
last week, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 theses to the church
door in Wittenberg, Germany, beginning the Protestant Reformation.
Of all the reformers of that era, I probably have less in
common with Martin Luther than with any of the other men, but
there are none of the reformers that I esteem more highly than
Luther. Luther was bold, dogmatic, unrelenting,
a manly, laboring pastor who didn't know the meanings of the
words back up or back off. There was fire in his soul. He
burned with passion and it did nothing by halves. He was wholeheartedly
committed to the cause. On one occasion, when he was
in time of great spiritual conflict in his soul with Satan, the conflict
was so very real that it almost took on a physical manifestation
in a sense. Suddenly, the fiery, passionate
Martin Luther, in his great anger with Satan and his hellish assaults
against him, grabbed the equal on his desk and threw it against
his wall, throwing it at the devil. The wall, of course, had
to be splattered all over it, and it stood on the wall in his
study for many years as a vivid reminder to all who saw it of
Luther's spiritual conflict and the intensity of the man. It
is that very conflict Paul writes about in this sixth chapter of
Ephesians. Let's begin reading in verse
10. Finally, my brethren be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Wherefore, take heed or take
unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with preparation
of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield
of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench the fiery darts
of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the spirit, which is the word of God. Every true believer is
a soldier at war, enlisted in the army of Christ beneath the
banner of the cross. And in this portion of Holy Scripture,
the Apostle Paul is describing the believer's armor as a warrior
in the cause of Christ. Allegorically, he uses the armor
that was used by the ancient Roman soldier and describes each
weapon of the soldier as a weapon spiritually for God's people
in this world. Let's look at verse 15 for our
text this evening, as I try to tell you what the scriptures
mean by this word. And your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. Paul is here describing the shoes
of gospel peace. He tells us to stand, to stand. Standing with your feet firmly
planted. regardless of the assault, regardless
of the trouble, stand, how? With the shoes of the gospel
of peace fixed on your feet. We are all the days of our lives
in this world engaged in a life and death conflict, in hand-to-hand
combat with the world, the flesh, and the devil. If you go to war,
you must be prepared and equipped, prepared and equipped with the
whole armor of God, the girdle of truth, the breastplate of
righteousness, and the shoes of gospel peace. Now, shoes are
very important. You can be injured in your arm.
injured in your back, injured in your ribs, injured in your
shoulders, but if your feet are knocked out from under you, you
have no benefit and you've lost all mobility. As most of you
know, I used to be a shoe salesman. And we sold shoes for all kinds
of purposes. Our store wasn't like these,
what do they call it, foot lockers they have in the mall now, but
we sold a lot of shoes. We sold some dress shoes. And
I have sold work boots and worn them. I used to work in a factory
where they made commercial dishwashers, Champion Dishwasher Machine Company,
when I was just a boy, and we had to wear steel-toed shoes
to keep from cutting our toes off. When I was a boy, I played
line in football. I always played tackle or guard,
and the linemen wore high-top football shoes, the reason being
we didn't have to move a lot very fast. We just had to hold
the ground and use the strength of our feet and our arms to get
the job done. And those high-top shoes gave
strength and stability to your ankles. The backfield fellas,
the fellas who were real fast, they wore those low-cut things.
But we wore high-top football shoes with cleats to firmly grip
the ground. Paul's direction here is this.
Stand, therefore, having your feet shod. with the preparation
of the Gospel of Peace. It's an allusion to the boots
worn by the ancient soldiers of Rome in battle. This was a
very important part of the warrior's armor. Usually, the boots were
made of leather and brass. They had short nails protruding
from the soles, as we have cleats in athlete's shoes today. Those
boots were made to cover the soldier's feet. his ankles, and
the lower parts of his calves. Those boots preserved the soldier's
feet, gave him stability and strength to hold his ground.
They secured his feet in marching, and they secured his feet standing
his ground. What Paul teaches here is that
we must have the gospel of peace to protect us, to aid us in our
march through this world. to enable us to stand firm in
the day of conflict and trouble. What is it that holds a man firm? What is it that holds a woman
steady in the midst of difficulty, trouble, heart trouble, soul
trouble, trouble in this world? We're not to furnish ourselves
with any armor of carnal weapons, but having the preparation, the
word preparation here really has the idea of foundation, having
the preparation of the gospel under our feet, wearing shoes
of gospel peace. The believer, the soldier of
Christ, the child of God is sustained and prepared to go on in his
march through this world. What keeps you going? What holds
you steady? What holds you in your path?
Having on the shoes of gospel peace. You see God's church is
an army in motion. I first wrote down today earlier,
the God church should be an army in motion. That's not true. God's
church is an army in motion. Our savior said, go ye therefore
into all the world and preach the gospel. God Almighty has
put every one of his children as soldiers in his church on
the march and therefore shoes are provided for our feet. You
have the helmet of salvation because you're to be thoughtful.
Your heart is covered with the breastplate of righteousness
because we are people of feeling. You have the whole nature protected
by the shield of faith because we're called to persevere unto
the end. And we're given the sword of
the spirit to put in our hands by which we're to assail the
foes. And we have the shoes of gospel peace for our feet. Shoes by which we may march against
the gates of hell and stand firm in the heat of battle. You and
I must never be passive, inanimate, motionless. God works in us to
will and to do of His good pleasure. His grace is the great power
that secures our salvation, but His grace is also a motivation
for life. You see, grace, God-given grace
imparts life, life more abundantly, life that's full of life, life
that enjoys activity and rejoices in it. The Lord God never intended
that His people should be cold, dead, unfeeling statues. Rather, He means for us to have
life, and to have life more abundantly, full of energy as we seek to
serve Him. He's given us feet, and He intends
us to use our feet for Him. Satan, the great adversary of
our souls. Satan, the great accuser of the
brethren. cannot bear a man who serves
God earnestly. You can mark it down. You seek
to serve the cause of Christ and serve him earnestly, you
do damage to the kingdom of darkness. So Satan is constantly assails
you. He constantly throws his fiery
darts at you. He constantly accuses you. Apollyon,
the dragon of hell, is always in a rage against you. The devil
simply will not leave such a man alone. The fiend of hell seeks
to destroy him. Seeks to destroy his character
by slander. Seeks to injure his communion
with God to spoil the simplicity of his faith. to make him proud
of what he's doing or make him despair of success. Satan will
do anything he can to bruise the heels of those who seek to
serve the Redeemer. He tries in every way possible
to trip you up. Because of all these dangers,
in infinite mercy, God has given us shoes with which to stand. Shoes of gospel peace. Shoes that will hold your soul
steady in trouble. Hold your heart steady in difficulty. Hold your mind fixed when assaults
come. The gospel does for the believer
what the iron spiked boots did for the Roman warrior. The gospel
makes the believer ready to march. Gives him a firm foothold and
defends him against the snares of the devil. Let's look at this
in three different ways. First, understand this. Every
believer, every child of God, every soldier in Christ's army
is prepared for battle with the gospel of peace as shoes for
his feet. The gospel of God is the good
news of redemption by the blood of Christ. It is a message of
hope, mercy, and grace from the God of heaven to poor sinners.
And the gospel is full of blessings. Any one of them would outweigh
the world's worth itself. The gospel is as free as it is
full. It's everlasting and it's immutable. We can never overestimate the
worth of God's gospel. We can never exaggerate it. Paul
takes from this choice gospel, its most excellent essence. What
is sweeter about the gospel than the peace God gives by it? The peace God gives by it. And from this peace, he tells
us that shoes are prepared for our feet, being shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace, The child of God walks
as a man over the lion, over the serpent, over the cockatrice
den, and is unharmed. He walks over the burning coals
of malice, slander, and persecution, and is unscathed. What better
shoes could our souls require? Gospel peace provides us shoes
suitable for the feet of every soldier and every pilgrim marching
to Zion. The gospel proclaims the accomplishment
of peace by Jesus Christ the Lord. Peace made by the blood
of his cross. When God created the world and
created the first man in it, Adam walked with God in the garden
in the cool of the day in sweet peace and communion. I often
try to picture what kind of communion it must have been. the Lord Jesus
Christ walking with the man he had made in his image in sweet
communion. But when Adam sinned against
God, the peace was broken, and God and man had been at odds
ever since. There erupted a quarrel between
the holy triune God and fallen man. Adam, our father, led the
way to rebellion and all his children coming after him have
followed in that way. This is a mutual universal quarrel. All men and women by nature are
at war with God. Children of wrath is how they're
described. The carnal mind is enmity against
God, not at enmity, enmity. That means everything about human
nature hates God. Everything about man hates everything
about God. It is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. The Apostle Paul tells us that
being alienated from God and enemies in our minds, we are
forever opposed to God. Man's understanding, his heart,
his will, his nature, his mind, his thought, everything opposed
to God. because man is in arms against
God. God in justice is opposed to
every man. God in justice is opposed to
every fallen human being. God in justice is opposed to
man. The scripture says God is angry
with the wicked every day. God is angry with the wicked
every day. I have heard all my life as a
believer from preachers and teachers and theologians who know better
but lie to folks. God hates man's sin but he loves
the sinner. The book of God never talks like
that. God is angry with the wicked every day. We can't wrap our
minds around the wickedness, the ungodliness, the mass rage
of this society Each one hell-bent in opposition against the other.
Cause a man to walk into a church building like this and try to
murder everybody in it. Cause a man to arm himself and
get in a hotel window and shoot everybody he can. We can't get
our minds around that. We can't grasp the things that
happen in this evil world until you understand God Almighty,
God Almighty is angry with the wicked every day. And he uses
wicked men to show his anger against the wicked. The Lord
God has bent his boat. He's made it ready. He also has
prepared for him the instruments of death. God has set up the
royal standard of his law in defiance of all the sons of Adam.
He says, according to his law, the soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And he shows it to us day after
day. All men have rebelled against
the crown of heaven. All men are traitors to the dignity
of God's majesty. And as such, God has taken the
field against man with the fire and sword of divine vengeance.
Yes, the God of heaven, whose name is love, whose name is holy,
whose name is reverend, is God full of anger, wrath, and fury
against the sons of men. God Almighty, at every place
where sin sets its foot against him, sets his wrath against man,
fallen man rebelling against him. As man is altogether sinful,
so he is altogether cursed. Cursed when he gets up in the
morning. Cursed when he goes out to the
field. Cursed when he labors in the
day. Cursed when he comes home in the evening. Cursed when he
lies down at night. Cursed when he arises again in
the morning. All together cursed. God is so
angry with man that it is written, even the sacrifices of the wicked
are an abomination to him. Even what men do in an attempt
from their own sinful natures to make a pretense of honoring
God. Even what men do in their own sinful natures and what men
call great deeds of philanthropy is an abomination to God. God
won't accept it. You see, on God's part, this
is a righteous quarrel. He has every reason to be angry
with man. Sin is the breach of God's will. It is the transgression of God's
law. It is the affront of God's holiness. It is rebellion against
God's throne. Sin is the assault of man against
God's very character. It is the attempt of man to rob
God of his glory. Sin is man's attempt to rape
the Almighty, shove him off his throne, and assassinate the God
of glory. That's what all sin is. Call
it by its right name. Sin is man's hatred of God. Yes, God has every reason to
be angry with man. We are shocked when we see such
things on the news as we have seen in recent days, the terrorism. the hideous site of murder, the
ungodliness, the sodomy, the promotion of adultery, fornication,
the promotion of everything evil. We're shocked by things that
we see, but we shouldn't be shocked by any of it. God has a reason
to be angry with man. God has a reason for the earth
to be in such turmoil. God has a reason why men should
live constantly in war and in fighting and in death, in sickness
and in judgment. But on man's part, the quarrel
is altogether unrighteous and unreasonable. God Almighty has
done nothing to deserve our enmity. What has God done that you should
be angry with Him? What has God done that a man
should hate Him? What has God done that a man
should blaspheme Him? What has God done that a man
should oppose Him? Unless this quarrel is taken
up by a suitable daysman, by a satisfactory mediator, it will
be an everlasting quarrel. Death has a way of taking care
of things. It ends all other feuds, but
not this one. Death brings the sinner into
an endless state of misery and torment where he goes on forever
and ever hating and cursing and blaspheming God. Hell is a place of darkness where
men and women forever hate and curse one another, and forever
hate and curse and blaspheme God. And it is a place where
God goes on forever, hating and plaguing and punishing man with
his judgment. Man's condition by nature is
enmity against God. He's under the sentence of wrath,
of death, of condemnation, of judgment. But the gospel is a
message of peace. A message that proclaims peace. Not the possibility of peace.
Peace made. Peace made by the blood of Jesus
Christ God's darling son. Until the gospel comes, there's
no hope of peace. Until the gospel is heard, the
sinner has no hope of anything but judgment and wrath and misery. But when the gospel comes, the
gospel proclaims peace by Christ our substitute, in whom God was
in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. That one who was
made a curse for us has taken from his people all the reason
for God's anger and wrath and judgment. He was angry with me,
the prophet said, but now his anger is turned away. That's
the message of the gospel. Oh, blessed be God. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, God's own dear son, has intervened on our behalf. He took up the quarrel and made
peace through the blood of his cross. God demanded righteousness,
Christ gave it. God demanded blood, Christ gave
it. God demanded death, Christ gave
it. Being the God-man, Christ our
mediator satisfied the quarrel. When we were enemies, When we
were enemies, what a word, when we were enemies, we were reconciled
to God by the death of his son. Now don't misunderstand the scriptures. This book never talks about God
reconciling himself to his people. There never was a time when God
wasn't reconciled to his people. There never was a time when God
was opposed to his people. His law, yes. His justice, yes. His holiness, yes. But God Almighty
loved his own with an everlasting love. His people were in rebellion
against him. We hated him. We were his enemies. And God in Christ not only found
a way by which to bring his people back to himself, he brought them back. And then
in the preaching of the gospel, he comes by the power of his
Holy Spirit and proclaims peace in the conscience, assuring us
that peace was made by Jesus Christ for us. As surely as he
gives faith in Christ and as instantly as he gives faith in
Christ, he assures the believing sinner of peace. Peace. He tells us by the blood of Christ,
sin is gone. And since sin is gone, guilt
is gone. And since guilt is gone, condemnation
is gone. Since condemnation is gone, judgment
is gone. Since there's no sin, there's
no reason to be any longer fearful of God. Let a man know that his
sins are forgiven for Christ's sake. That he's reconciled to
God by the death of his son. That between him and God, there
is no wall of separation. Oh, what joy then floods his
soul. We know that God looks on us
as being cleansed from every speck of sin by the blood of
Jesus Christ, who was manifested to take away our sins. and in
him is no sin. We are accepted in the beloved,
forever reconciled to God, and the Lord God by his Spirit conquers
the rebel's heart, causes the sinner who believes on the Son
of God It causes the sinner who sees Christ crucified, Christ
revealed in his heart, it causes that sinner to raise up the white
flag of surrender and stack arms before the King of heaven and
bow to him as Lord and King. And now we walk peacefully with
him through the roughest places of our pilgrimage. Walking in
communion with God, we have peace. walking with the promises of
God in our hand by the gospel, we have peace. Oh, weary pilgrim. Oh, war-worn soldier. Ever look over the book of God's
promises and be at peace. Be at peace. There's no reason
to fear, for perfect love casteth out all fear. Perfect love. Who has such perfect love? Every
believer. John's not talking about you
loving God perfectly. That doesn't happen. But the
revelation of God's perfect love for you, that'll give you peace. Perfect
love casteth out all fear. There's no fear in love. Let
us walk by faith, trusting the Lord Jesus. Walk in joy, having
all in Him. Walk in peace, knowing His presence. And the peace of God will keep
your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Turn over a few
pages to Philippians 4. Philippians 4. Look at verse
4. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. Let
your moderation Your moderation. That particular word, translated
moderation, is only used one other place in the Word of God.
And there it's translated gentleness. It talks about the gentleness
of Christ. Let your gentleness be known unto all men. Gentleness. Gentleness. Not the gentleness
of a baby. No, no, no, no. The gentleness
of a man. who has nothing to fear, gentleness,
your ease of mind, your ease of heart, your peace of soul. Let it stand in stark contrast
to the troublesome ways of this world and troublesome people
of this world and be at ease. Let it be known unto all men.
How come? The Lord's at hand. The Lord's
at hand. He's God at your elbow. He's God at your beck and call. He's God at your every need. Be careful for nothing. You don't
have to fret about anything. But in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known
to God. Tell God what you need. Tell God what your troubles are.
Cry out to God when you can't cry to anybody else. And the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep. Shall
keep. like a sentinel keeps guard over
the city. The peace of God shall guard
your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The gospel is called
the gospel of peace because it gives us peace and because it
brings us to peace with God and it teaches us to be peaceful
with one another. I don't mean teaches us that
we should be. It does that. It teaches those who are taught
of God to live in peace with one another. So that in Christ,
all those things that divide men and women are pushed aside. They're pushed aside. natural distinctions of race,
of sex, of culture, of class, of education, those things that
divide me on this earth, they're nothing in Christ because we
are one in Christ. That being the case, there should
be nothing to divide me in my heart from any man or woman in
the kingdom of God. As much as possible, live peaceably
with all men. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Not that we
earn this privilege of being God's children by being peacemakers.
Not at all. Oh no, oh no. God's children are peacemakers.
Proud rebels stir up strife. Proud rebels keep the stuff brewing
all the time. Not God's people, the peacemakers.
Peacemakers. Our Lord Jesus wore these shoes,
didn't he? He said, peace I leave with you. My peace give I unto you. He
always lived in communion with his father. He always sought
the good of his brethren. For his enemies, He had nothing
but prayers and tears. God teach me more to be like
my Savior. As peace kept him all the days
of his life, so it will keep us. You never find him worried,
disturbed, or frustrated, even when he was in deep trouble of
soul, because his feet were shod with peace. Let me say a little
bit about the preparation of the gospel of peace. The preparation
of the gospel was made by God himself before the world was
in the everlasting council of peace. The triune Jehovah provided
Christ to be our mediator and accepted him as our mediator. In the fullness of time, he came
here and accomplished peace. God in his infinite wisdom could
not have devised a more suitable method of salvation and grace
that would be more advantageous for his glory and the good of
man than that which he's devised by Christ our mediator. By the
death of Christ, God displays all the horrid hideousness of
our sin. Oh, what a crime sin must be.
that the only way God can forgive it is by the sacrifice of his
son. At Calvary, God displays the
fullness of his strict justice. Oh, how pure, how just, how righteous,
how holy God must be. When he found sin on his son,
he slaughtered his son in all the fury of his wrath. Through
the sacrifice of his own dear son, God gave the fullest possible
display of his infinite mercy, grace, and love for sinners. Oh, how he must love me. He gave himself for me. What a wondrous gospel the Lord
God has given us. And then having prepared peace
for us, He comes and proclaims peace in the heart. But before
he proclaims peace, he prepares the object of his mercy for peace. He destroys every false hope. This is one of the ways by which
true believers are distinguished from religious professors. Religious
folks get their religion by going to church and making the decision.
Or somebody talks them into making a profession of faith. Or talks
them into being baptized. Or they see a scary movie and
they're scared into making a profession of religion. Or the preacher
tells horror stories from the pulpit and they're trembling
and talked into making a profession of faith. The believer is one
whose heart has been prepared by God. The law of God exposing
his sin and his guilt. The law makes the sinner tremble. By the gospel, God comes, revealing
Christ, and breaks the sinner's heart, crushes his rebellion,
and he sends forth his spirit as the messenger of peace in
our souls, and God the Spirit speaks peace to the soul. And
the Lord God graciously prepares all his children for the pilgrimage
to glory with the gospel of peace. The word preparation here, simply
means to make ready and firmly establish, to fix upon a firm
foundation. And the Lord God puts all His
children on the foundation He has laid and He builds the house
of our hope on that solid rock And the winds blow against the
house, and there it stands. And the floods rise against the
house, and there it stands, fixed upon this foundation of peace. And God makes his people, by
his grace, ready to march through this world with peace, being
firmly established in the gospel. And one last thing. Let me show
you a little bit about the value of these gospel shoes. Oh, I
rejoice to tell you from much experience, these shoes fit the
feet of every safe sinner perfectly. Perfectly. Did you ever try to
wear shoes that didn't fit? My dear wife has on occasion,
she's quit doing it now, but she has on occasion, bought shoes
on sale, got a good buy, try to make them fit. That hurts,
doesn't it? They just hurt. They're just
too tight. They won't fit. They just won't
fit. Some of my friends down in Cherokee,
North Carolina, some of my Indian friends told me how the Indians
used to break the boots in. Said they'd put them on and just
soak them in water. Just go wading in the creek and
then wear them until they're dry. That way they'd fit. That's
a tough way to make shoes fit. That's just a, why not get them
to fit to start with? Here are shoes that fit our feet. Multitudes would put you in shoes
of law and works, but they're tight, they pinch, they hurt,
they involve so much tugging and pulling, and when you get
them on, you just can't walk in them. They're impossible to
wear, but these shoes of gospel piece, oh, how comfortable they
are to walk in. These shoes fit the feet of every
Mephibosheth and work miracles, causing the lame to leap and
dance before God. This is an old shoe that's just
suited for us. It helps our infirmities, heals
the wounds of our sins, and strengthens our weak knees. The preparation
of the gospel of peace is a shoe that gives firm foothold. Habakkuk must have been thinking
about these shoes when he sang, the Lord God is my strength.
He will make my feet like hinds feet and he will make me to walk
upon mine high places. Nothing helps a man or a woman
to stand fast in the Lord like the gospel of peace. Men and
women established in truth. aren't turned aside and tossed
about with every wind of doctrine. Here's something intriguing as
it might be. Man, that just doesn't sound
right. How come? Because it ain't right. It ain't
right. They've been established in peace. Temptation doesn't
shake them with a snare. Assaults don't move them. Fear
won't make them flee. I've probably told you this before,
but it'll bear repetition because I like to tell the story. I'm
from North Carolina. North Carolina boys have the
nickname from a long time ago of Tar Heels. Now, there's lots
of speculation about where it came from, but I like this story
best. At the Battle of Chickamauga,
the fellows were commanded to retreat. The Yankees were taking
the ground. And soldiers started to retreat,
draw back. But the Carolina boys stood their
ground. And some fellas said as they were retreating, those
Carolina boys stick like they got tar on their heels. Adds
the picture, the gospel makes you stand and stand firm so that
you don't flee in the heat of fear. Our shoes are driven into
the eternal truths of God. They're like bold anchors holding
us firm. Our creed is interwoven with
the personal experience of God's grace, and we simply can't draw
back. We have nothing to do with what
men call universal atonement, atonement that does nothing.
We have nothing to do with free will, works, religion. We rejoice
in free grace and effectual atonement. Substitution, sovereignty, and
satisfaction are the cleats that hold our feet in place on the
steepest slopes. They're the gospel boots holding
us firm. The shoes of which Paul speaks
here are suitable for everything. They're suitable for marching
through this world. Suitable for us to continue on
our way. Suitable for us to persevere
in the king's highway. suitable for climbing. Do you
ever practice the holy art of spiritual climbing with the spirit
of God leading you by the heart? By the gospel, we come here sometimes
and climb to Mount Tabor and behold Jesus only. Sometimes
the word comes to us by the power of God's grace and we go to the
heights of Mount Pisgah and by the gospel, we have a vision
of glory land awaiting us. And how blessed are those hours
when by the gospel, we can ascend to Herman and commune with God. And God speaks by his word to
our souls as friend with friend. The gospel of peace. These are
the shoes in which God's people walk. The heart that's prepared
with peace, the peace of the gospel. have shoes just suited
for running his race well, and for walking through the dark
valley in peace, and standing firm with the gospel of peace,
fighting the good fight of faith. Stand therefore, Paul says, having
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Then
my brother, my sister, We will be able to say with the Apostle
Paul, I'm ready. I'm ready. He is the strongest,
ablest man in the world who has peace. He's a terror to everybody
else. A terror to everybody else. Last
night we got home late and Shelby had to do some stuff and I sat
down and flipped on an old western, didn't last very long. I forgot
the name of it, doesn't matter. But it was a gunslinger as the
westerns always had. And there was a, he had the whole
town terrified. And then the last fellow he killed
scared him to death as he was dying. Scared him to death as
he was dying. He said, I saw a man this morning
that wasn't afraid to die. And that terrified him. That
terrified him. The strongest, ablest man in
this world is the man who has peace. His feet shod with the
shoes of gospel peace. The peace of God that passeth
all understanding. And that makes him ready to do
whatever work God gives him, to fight the good fight of faith,
to suffer reproach, to preach the gospel, ready to die. ready
to meet God. Oh, may God the Holy Ghost put
the shoes of gospel peace on your feet. And may he every day
put those shoes on my feet and give us grace every day to walk
through this world in the shoes of gospel peace and stand firm
before every foe in the midst of every trial, in every adversity,
in every heartache, with our feet shod, with the solid foundation
of the gospel of peace. Amen.