frequently asked, what is the
call to the ministry? How can I know if God has called
me to preach the Gospel? One answer to those questions
is found in Isaiah chapter 6. Here in the 6th chapter of Isaiah
we have a detailed account of Isaiah's call to be God's spokesman
and of Isaiah's response to that call. The climax of the passage
is our text this evening, verse eight. Isaiah has seen the Lord
Jesus Christ in his redemptive glory. Seeing Christ glorified,
Isaiah confessed his sin before God. And confessing his sin,
he experienced the blessedness of redemption and forgiveness
by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Now let's read verse eight. also
I heard the voice of the LORD saying, Whom shall I send, and
who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send
me. Let's back up to verse 1 and
read this in its context. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings, and with
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me for I am undone because I'm a
man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken
away and thy sin is purged. heard the voice of the Lord saying,
Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here
am I, send me. Now listen very carefully to
these five statements I want to make by way of introduction.
They are facts plainly revealed in Holy Scripture, facts that
I try to to you in various ways very often. Number one, the Lord
God has decreed from eternity to save a great multitude of
sinners for the glory of His own great name and they must
be saved. They are elected, adopted and
predestinated to be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
God hedges them about with His goodness. throughout the ages
and throughout the days of their lives and sweetly holds them
by his hand until he reveals Christ in them. These elected
ones are the objects of God's grace. They are all the objects
of God's grace. They are the only objects of
God's grace. We do not hedge when it comes
to preaching God's sovereignty in grace. Election and predestination
are Bible terms in which we rejoice and things we rejoice to think
about, to give thanks to God for, and to proclaim to men. Number two, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's son, has redeemed that elect multitude, God's chosen. and he must have them with him
in heaven for the satisfaction of his soul's travail. There
is no possibility that any sinner for whom Jesus Christ shed his
blood at Calvary shall perish at last under the wrath of God. Now this Teaching of Scripture
is sometimes called limited atonement, sometimes effectual redemption.
The point being that Jesus Christ has effectually accomplished
redemption for his elect. All for whom the Savior died
must be with him in glory. Otherwise, Christ is a failure
in that which is the very purpose for which he came into this world.
And the scriptures declare plainly, he shall not fail. Now this issue of limited atonement,
of effectual grace, or of effectual redemption, is without question
the crucial issue of the gospel. It is the place, I have said
many times, where the battle for truth rages in our day, but
I'm more and more convinced it is the place where the battle
for truth has always raged. Men trying to conciliate rebels. Men trying to get along with
folks who despise God compromise this point of doctrine quicker
than any other. And we live in a day when men
who try to give lip service and say they believe in limited atonement
run as fast as they can away from the term and run as fast
as they can away from the teaching in the scriptures of Christ's
effectual accomplished redemption for his elect. Suggesting there
we've got to say there's some way in which God loves all men
Some sense in which Christ died for all men some sense in which
God the Holy Spirit tries to save all men to suggest To suggest
that Christ died for folks are in hell is an utter denial of
his Godhead as much so as if you denied his virgin birth and
It is a declaration that the Christ of God is a failure. This place we will not back up,
God helping us. Our message will not change,
God helping us. I pray that when my voice is
no longer heard from this pulpit, this message continues to be
heard. sinner for whom atonement was
made shall be with Christ in glory for he shall see of the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Number three, God
the Holy Ghost by sovereign, omnipotent, irresistible mercy
and grace, regenerates every chosen redeemed sinner at the
appointed time of love, and calls that sinner to life and faith
in Christ, creating life in him, creating faith in him, performing
the operation of his grace, causing the chosen redeemed sinner to
believe on the Son of God. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. It is the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. In other words, salvation
is of the Lord. Grace never fails. The Spirit
of God has been sent into this world to savingly apply the benefits
of Christ's finished work to his redeemed ones. Number four. sinner who comes to God by faith
in Christ shall be saved. But Brother Don, what if I'm
not elected? What if I'm not redeemed? What if I'm not called?
If you come to Christ, you're elected, you're redeemed, you're
called. The proof of election, the proof
of redemption, the proof of calling is this blessed gift of faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. that cometh to me," the Savior
says, I will in no wise cast out. Believe on the Son of God
and all the grace of God, all of God's salvation is yours in
Jesus Christ the Lord. Now, hear this fifth thing. No sinner can or will be saved
apart from the preaching of the Gospel. This is how God saves
his elect. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, we read in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, that the excellency,
the power may be of God and not of us. God has put in our hearts
and trusted to our hands the treasure of the gospel. What a trust, what a trust. God has put into our hearts and
trusted to our hands the treasure of the gospel that we may carry
the message of grace and salvation to the four corners of the earth,
proclaiming God's salvation in Christ to men and women everywhere. Mr. Spurgeon rightly said, the
word of this salvation avails not until it is declared in the
ear. It must be published or men cannot
hear it. And not hearing, they cannot
believe. And not believing, they cannot
be saved. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. In other words, God won't save
anybody except by the preaching of the gospel. and he has promised
that he will save every chosen redeemed sinner by the preaching
of the word. Oh, what a treasure then. God
puts in our hands the gospel of his grace and says, go tell
sinners how God saves sinners and I'll save my people. What
a privilege, what a privilege that God might trust to you and
me this great treasure and this great privilege. The men and
women of this world are perishing all around us for lack of knowledge. And it is our responsibility,
yours and mine, to tell them how God saves sinners by his
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of God's people All of them
are missionaries. All of them. You who are gods
are a people sent on this earth in this generation with a mission
from God. And our mission in this world
is to preach the gospel to all men. I'm calling for some volunteers. Volunteers sent of God to go
tell the world God's dear Son and His saving grace. As I prepared
this message for me and for you, I prepared this message with
this in mind, O Spirit of God, us to know the blessedness of
this call, this commission given us, and make us willing, voluntary,
devoted servants of our God to make this generation know the
gospel of your grace. And let's look at Isaiah 6, 8
for a few minutes and I want to show you four things in this
text of Scripture. Here's the first thing. Let's
look at the call of God that Isaiah heard. Also I heard the
voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go
for us? Here is a man, nothing more than
a man, a man of flesh and blood like us, a man full of weaknesses
and corrupted by sin, but he's a man called of God clothed with
divine grace and sent with divine authority. Who is this man? He's a man chosen of God. Now notice the wording of our
text, the Lord. This word Lord is Adonai, the
cause, the stay, the support. The Lord said, whom shall I send? It is though there were an eternal
counsel, And a question was raised, as though the Lord God had said,
who shall be the man chosen? Who shall be the object of my
love through whom the unsearchable riches of Christ shall be proclaimed? You see, election is the fountain
of everything in the works of God. Election is the fountainhead
of all God's works. Election is spoken of in scripture
primarily as election unto salvation. All of God's chosen ones were
elected by God before the world began unto salvation. There is also an election to
specific service in the kingdom of God That's how the word is
used in first in John chapter 16. You don't need to turn there's
very familiar to you John 15 rather in verse 16 Our Lord is
speaking to his disciples these preachers and he says you have
not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that you
should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain
and Whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name he may
give it you the question back here in Isaiah 6 Speaks of God's
choice of this man Isaiah but it also implies that the man
called of God is one who cheerfully and willingly, voluntarily responds
to God's gracious call. God says, whom shall I send?
That speaks of God's choice, God's will. But he also says,
who will go for us? And that speaks of man's will.
Now listen to me. Though man is not saved by his
will, he's not saved without his will or against his will. The book says, thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. The sovereign grace of
God, the purpose of God and predestination does not in any way violate man's
will or destroy his responsibility. Salvation is determined by the
will of God alone. But salvation only comes to sinners
who have been made willing to trust the Lord Jesus. If you
trust Him, it'll be because you want to. If you bow to Him, it'll
be because you want to bow to Him. And that will has been changed
because God made you willing in the day of His power. Even
so, it is God's will that determines who will preach the gospel. But
no man is sent of God to preach until he's made willing to go. The servant of God must be impaled
by divine election. There's no question about that.
But he must and will make by the grace of God, his own determination
to the work. Turn over to second Corinthians
chapter five. Here's another thing. That man who is called
of God represents God as an ambassador represents his king. 2 Corinthians 5, 18. And all things are of God who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry that is the service of reconciliation. God
has given us this blessed ministry, this blessed service of reconciliation,
of going about the business, of proclaiming reconciliation
accomplished by God, and calling for sinners to be reconciled
to God, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world,
reconciling the world of his elect unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed to us the word
of reconciliation, the gospel of God's grace. Now then, we
are ambassadors for Christ. as though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's head, be ye reconciled to God. You and I who are gifted of God
with the gospel of his grace. You and I who are chosen of God
and trusted with this gift, this treasure of his grace, as we
seek to make Christ known in this generation. Our laborers
together with God. God's ambassadors. The Lord says,
who will go for us? Who will go to represent and
speak for God? I pray that God will be pleased
to make you and I, men and women, who go about our lives to represent
and speak for God. And oh, may God be pleased to
call more men from this congregation and send them out to preach the
gospel. But this word from God addresses each of us. You and
I who are God's are his witnesses. His witnesses. What is a witness? What is a witness? A witness
is somebody who tells what he has seen, what he knows, what
he experiences. A witness is not someone who
tells someone what somebody said. He's not someone who tells someone
what somebody else told him. He's not someone who tells somebody
things that he thinks about or he's guessing about. A witness
is a man or a woman who tells others what he's seen for himself,
heard for himself, experienced for himself, knows for himself. You who are God's are his witnesses. We're sent into this world as
the representatives of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We are all, all who believe,
God's witnesses to perishing sinners. I am a public preacher. You others are not. But you are
just as much the witnesses of Christ, called and sent of God
in your sphere as I am in mine. to tell out the wonders of redemption
and grace in Christ. God's ambassador carries God's
message, substitution, redemption accomplished, the person and
work of Christ. And God's ambassador is armed
with God's authority. The Lord God says, touch not
mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. That doesn't just apply
to this man preaching to you. It applies to all God's anointed. Who are believers all who are
gifted with life by the Spirit of God? So that we go about our
business in this world telling sinners about Christ. I don't
mean by that That you're to buttonhole everybody you see and try to
twist their arm and make them make a profession of faith I
do mean by that you to give your life to the furtherance of the
gospel whatever God gives you opportunity and ability to do
to make Christ known in this generation. I suppose I'm going
to embarrass her, I know I will because I know Evelyn. Evelyn
sitting back here has spent a lot of time getting folks to translate
my sermons, both things written and things preached into Chinese. And Because she wants to witness
to folks in that part of the world and she can't do it. She can't do it. But, uh, she
can use what God's put in her hands and pay somebody else to
do it and then get somebody else to look it over and be sure it's
translated, right. And then distribute it. That's what I'm talking about. It is our privilege and our responsibility
to seize every opportunity for the furtherance of the gospel
and the cause of Christ. I want every one of you to hear
God's call. Whom shall I send and who will
go for us? And I want every one of us to
respond to God's call like Isaiah did. So secondly, let's look
at the response of faith. When Isaiah heard God's gracious
call, he responded, here am I, send me. The response of faith
is always the same. It's not a response that you
tell fellows how they're supposed to respond. The response of faith
to God's call is always the same. It asks no questions, considers
no cost, offers no conditions. It's free, voluntary, unqualified
surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord God appeared to Abraham
and said, Abraham, Abraham. He said, here am I, Lord. The
Lord God called Jacob and Jacob said, here am I. The Lord called
for Joseph to go down and take care of his brethren and Joseph
said, here am I. God spoke to Moses out of a bush,
and Moses said, here am I. The Lord God called Samuel when
he was just a boy, and Samuel said, here am I. The Lord called
an old man named Ananias to go to a man named Saul, to whom
the Lord had been gracious, and Ananias said, here am I. In the
kingdom of God, all service is voluntary. It's all voluntary. That which is given or done As
a result of a preacher or somebody else priming and pumping and
pulling and pushing and promoting is not of God. All service in
God's kingdom is voluntary. I, uh, I call on you men and
women to do a lot of things, but you have experienced something.
If you haven't observed it, I'll say it now so you can know the
reason. If I call on you and ask you
if you'd like to do something, whatever it is, doesn't matter
whether it's opening the door or picking up rocks or mowing
the grass or turning lights on or entertaining somebody in your
home, whatever it is, if you just indicate that you don't
want to do it, you'll never be asked again. That's all it takes.
That's all it takes. Well, you wouldn't ask a second
time? Oh, no, nothing. If you don't want to do it, Bill,
don't do it. It's just that simple. It's just that simple. You see
everything done for God is done voluntarily freely because you
want to Everything given is given voluntarily freely because you
want to every service performed Voluntarily freely because you
want to if you want to be at services, man I'm delighted for
you to be here. If you don't want to be I'm not
going to try to twist your arm make you go. I If you want to
do something for one of the preachers, missionaries, I'm delighted for
you to do it. If you don't want to, I'm not gonna twist your
arm trying to get you to do it. It's not gonna happen. God's people
serve Him because they want to. God's servants serve Him freely
and voluntarily. Well, if that's the way things
work, we'd soon go out of business. Well, let's go out of business
then. It's just that simple. It's just that simple. Isaiah
was a man who knew and felt his own unworthiness to serve God. Now that's the man who'll serve
him. Isaiah felt and knew how utterly
unworthy he was to serve God. No one will ever be useful in
the cause of Christ who entertains flattering notions about his
own worth, ability, and importance. God just won't use anything that's
not broken. He won't do it. He won't do it.
Some folks are too important to be used of God. Some folks
are too noble to be used of God. Some folks are too smart to be
used of God. Some folks are too busy to be
used of God. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. A broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. I often think about Acts 27 and
the shipwreck. Paul told the fellow, say, y'all
stay on board. If you abandon the ship, you're
going to die. But if you stay on board, no life will be lost.
And they stayed on board. And man alive, everybody on that
ship must have been cussing Paul. They ran into a horrible storm. They finally had to just turn
the rudders loose and let her drive. And that ship went rushing
right against the shore and broke in pieces. And not one life was
lost. Some folks swam to shore and
others came to shore on broken pieces of the ship. God never
uses anything but broken pieces. And let me remind you of the
way Isaiah was broken by God. This is how God breaks centers. He did it with a stroke of providence.
Read the 107th Psalm and see how God intermingles his grace
with his providence. Isaiah had a king whom he admired. one of his own near kinsmen,
Uzziah. And Uzziah got too big for his
britches, and he went into the holy place as though he were
one of God's priests. And Uzziah died suddenly under
the obvious stroke of divine judgment. And Isaiah said, in
the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. When God destroyed what I was
trusting, I saw the Lord. When God destroyed my crutch,
I saw the Lord. When God destroyed my prop, I
saw the Lord. When God destroyed that on which
I lean, I saw the Lord. And then Isaiah saw Christ in
his exalted glory. He saw him sitting on a throne
high and lifted up as his Redeemer King, having accomplished redemption.
And we're told in verse three that he saw God's holiness, the
holy character of God. And then he experienced the joy
of pardoning grace, blood atonement, forgiveness of sin by Christ
Jesus. And when all said and done, Isaiah had an awful sense
of God's presence. He set his train, filled the
temple. Smoke filled the house. The doorpost shook in his presence. Isaiah said, now, Lord, here
am I. Send me. He was a pardoned sinner,
given opportunity to be of some service to God. He knew not what. He knew not where. He knew not
how. but he sees the opportunity.
Here am I, send me. It is as though Isaiah said,
Lord, I don't know where you may be pleased to use me or how,
but oh my God, my great God, if you'll use me in any way for
anything, anytime, here am I. It was the response grateful
heart. God, You saved me by Your grace.
Lord Jesus, You've redeemed me. Spirit of God, You've given me
life and faith. What is it You want from me?
Here I am. Here I am. I recall when first
the Lord revealed Himself in me. Word got out that Fortner
had got religion. And before I went back to school
the next fall, rumor was around Fortner was gonna be a preacher.
And Fortner couldn't even read. I just, but rumor got around
he was gonna be a preacher. Because in religious circles,
as in folks influenced in religious circles, the meaner and more
hellish a fella he is, if he gets a little religion, he's
gonna be a preacher. thought never crossed my mind.
But God in his providence opened doors where folks were asking
me to come tell this group of folks or that group of folks
what I could about God and the gospel of his grace. And I knew
I was utterly incapable of doing it. I just an ignorant pup. I didn't
know anything. I didn't know anything. But what
do you do? I can either say no, or I can tell you what God's
taught me. I can't tell you what he taught
you. I can tell you what God taught me. And God opens doors
and opens doors and God opened the way. And oh, how honored,
how honored that God should open the way for me to tell anybody
about his goodness and grace in Christ Jesus. Isaiah's surrender
was unreserved surrender. Here am I. Send me. Send me wherever you will, wherever
you will. Some time ago, I had connection
with a man who wanted to preach, wanted to be a pastor in the
worst sort of way. He kept trying to make a way
for himself, kept trying to make a way for himself. Finally, I
asked him, I said, would you like to go to Alaska? I can arrange
it. No, I couldn't go there. That's where you can't go there,
you can't go anywhere. Would you like to go to Ballymunny
Island? There's a group over there been looking for a pastor
for 20 years. No, I couldn't do that. Well, if you can't go
there, you can't go anywhere. You mean you gotta go where God
sends you? That's the only place you can
go. That's the only place you can go. Only where God opens
the door. Doesn't matter what's appealing
to you or unappealing to you. Doesn't matter what's attractive
to you or unattractive to you. When I first went to Lookout
to preach, the folks called me to come up there and preach.
I didn't know what time they'd been through a lot of difficulty.
But Faith was nine months old. Is that right? Nine months old?
Maybe not that old. But we went up in October. And if you hadn't been to West
Virginia back in those days, After the first snow, you never
saw ugly. Everybody burned coal. And we
went up there by seven inches of snow on the ground, and it
was all black. I'd never seen black snow before.
Everywhere, everything was just black, had a little white underneath
it. Just black and dirty, soot everywhere. Everywhere. The church
building, they'd been fussing about whether or not to replace
the building for years, and the rafters had broken, the walls
were bowed out like this. Hadn't been painted in years.
The parsonage started walking to the front door, and there
was a hole in the front porch big enough for me to fall through,
and I was a big fella. And cabinets were falling off the wall, and
the tiles buckled up in the kitchen. And the whole weekend, Faith
was sick and crying. I mean, she cried all the way
up there, cried except when she was asleep all the time we were
there, and cried all the way home. And we got in the car and
Shelby said, please tell me they didn't ask you to come back.
I said, I'm going back in two weeks. And she started to cry. You don't choose where you go.
You go where God sends you. You go where God sends you. Isaiah's
surrender was a surrender of gratitude. It was unreserved. And it was a commitment of faith. I'm in your hands God, do with
me as you will. I'm in your hands, use me as
you will, and I will be highly honored of you. Now, here's the
third thing. Here's the commission God gave
His servant Isaiah. Go and tell this people. You see that, verse nine? And
he said, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand
not." In other words, I'm sending you to a whole passel of rebels. I'm sending you to preach to
folks who won't hear you. They won't hear you. They won't
hear you. When they get done with you,
they're going to cut you in two. Go, hear ye indeed, but understand
not. See ye indeed, but perceive not. No promise of success to this
man. make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert
and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? He said, stay with
it till there's nobody to preach to. And he answered, until the
cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate, Lord have removed men far away,
and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land." Go
tell this people what you've seen, what you've heard, what
you've experienced. Tell this people of God and His
glorious holiness. Tell this people of redemption
by Christ Jesus. Tell this people of salvation
accomplished. Tell this people of sure mercy
through blood atonement. Tell sinners too. of sin and
judgment. Tell them, tell them the truth. Speak that which God has given
to you and then tell them of sure mercy and salvation. Tell them God's going to save
somebody. Verse 13, yet in it shall be
a tenth and it shall return. Now here's the fourth thing.
I can't miss this opportunity to tell you about another prophet
called and sent of God. In verse 8 in our text, the verse
begins with the words, also I heard as if to indicate a change. It
appears to me that this last section of the chapter refers
not so much to Isaiah and God's servants, gospel preachers, but
to God's righteous servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, that prophet
of whom Moses spoke in Deuteronomy. I have to tell you, this never
occurred to me until reading Hawker's commentary on this some
two or three years ago. In the first seven verses, Isaiah
tells us what he had seen and heard in special relation to
himself. But here he tells us what he
was witness to. Regarding the accomplishments
of our blessed Savior as our surety in the covenant of grace
in the fulfillment of God's purpose by him Before time began in old
eternity in the everlasting covenant of grace the triune God spoke
to one another But that shouldn't surprise us when God was about
to make man God the Lord Elohim said Let us make man in our image
and after our likeness. In Genesis 11, when the Lord
was about to come down and confuse the tongues at Babel, the Lord
said, let us go down and confuse their tongues. And when the Lord
God stood forth in covenant grace, God speaks to God and says, whom
shall I sin and who will go for us? And our Lord Jesus Christ,
our surety, our mediator, our covenant representative said,
he stepped forth and he said, here I am, send me. Turn to Psalm
40 and I'll wrap this up. Psalm 40, verse seven. The Lord Jesus is speaking. There's
no question that this is our savior speaking because in Hebrews
chapter 10, God the Holy Spirit tells us this is Christ speaking.
Psalm 40 verse 7, Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of
the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. And then it tells us what he
preached. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation. And that which
our Lord Jesus Christ declared, God has sent us to declare. All
that, only that, and all of that. righteousness, God's faithfulness,
God's salvation, God's loving kindness and God's truth. And I'm certain that this vision
that which Isaiah tells us he heard in verses 8-13 speak of
our Lord Jesus because God the Holy Spirit tells us in John
12 that is talking about Him. Judgment, God brought by Him,
Until there was not a man left in Jerusalem, the nation was
destroyed. But a tenth shall hear, and they
shall return. And he sent his gospel into all
the world. And you know how he did it? He
sent men and women like you and me, telling what they knew, what
they heard, what they saw, what they experienced. They went everywhere
gospeling. Gospeling. It's a good word. Gospeling. Folks gossip. I started to say
you ladies, but men are just as bad. You get together and
gossip. Rather than gossiping, try gospeling. You will find not near as many
folks interested in hearing you but you might find somebody interested.
Gospeling, telling folks good news, God's righteousness, God's
faithfulness, God's salvation, God's loving kindness, God's
truth in Christ the Lord. For that purpose, we have been
sent of God into this world. Our Savior declares to his church,
As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. Why on this earth has God Almighty
put Merle Hart in this world, a carpenter? They put him in
here to frame houses, build houses and erect things. Nah, lots of
folks do that. Why has he left you here for
80 years? Why? Just for one reason, to
tell out the gospel. That's all. And if you don't
do that, you don't do anything worth doing. Just to make known
the gospel. How can you do that? By whatever
means God gives you. Brother Bob Pontius said to me
many times, he'd be over here doing something, and I said,
Bob, you don't have to do that. He said, he said, Brother Don,
I can't go preach, but I can do this so you can. That's what
I'm talking about. You give yourself to the cause
of Christ. Like David putting on, taking
his sling and going out to meet Goliath. He says, is there not
a cause? But that man will swallow you
whole. That don't matter. There's one thing I can do. I
can go meet him. Let's see if he'll fall. Let's see if he'll
fall. Lord God in His wise and good
providence shut John Bunyan up in Bedford Jail for twelve years. Oh, what a horrible thing. No,
it's a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing. While
he was in Bedford Jail those twelve years, he wrote for us
a the book that has been translated into more languages and published
and sold more times than any other book in history except
the Bible called Pilgrim's Progress. If you haven't read it, you ought
to. You ought to read it a couple of times anyway. Elijah came
to that widow of Zarephath and he said, honey, I'm hungry, make
me something to eat. And she was out gathering sticks.
She said, all I've got is a little bit of oil and a little bit of
meals, the last thing I've got. And I'm gathering this firewood
to build a fire and bake a loaf for my son and me so we can eat
it and die. And Elijah said, make me one
first. What a thing to say. What a thing
to say. She understood the reason why.
He's God's prophet on God's errand, on God's mission. And you know
what that woman did? She took her little bit of oil
and her little bit of meal and made that prophet something to
eat. And he went on his way and she
and her son ate from that oil and that meal for many days to
come. What did she do? did what she
could. She did what she could. She did what she could. Oh, God. Oh, my God, give me grace to
do what I can for the cause of Christ, for the salvation of
Your people, for the glory of Your name. And I beg of prophet of God, our Savior. Make the word effectual to those
who hear. Go and make the way. Moses said,
God will raise up to you a prophet and you'll hear his voice. Oh
God, make your voice heard by the preaching of the gospel as
we endeavor to make Christ known. May God the Holy Ghost give us
grace. that we may follow our Savior's example as Jehovah's
righteous servant, as God's prophet, and give ourselves wholly to
this blessed work, to this blessed cause for which God created us,
and the cause is trusted to our hands. Go ye into all the world
and teach all nations. baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I
am with you always. Till time shall be no more, I'll
be with you. I'll be with you. And what you
do will prosper. I'll see to it. Amen.