How can a sinful, vile, wretched,
worthless man, a doomed, damned sinner, come to the holy Lord
God and find acceptance with Him? Does that interest you? Turn
with me to Exodus chapter 3 and I'll show you the answer. Moses kept the flock of Jethro
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock
to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God,
even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he
looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he
turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of
the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. Now Moses drew near to the Lord,
but before Moses drew near to the Lord, the Lord appeared to
Moses. And I know this, no sinner will
ever come to God until God comes to the sinner. It won't happen. It won't happen. First the Lord
appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a
bush, and then Moses turned aside to see the Lord God. That is always the order by which
God saves sinners in His grace. First the Lord came in the garden
seeking Adam. and him seeking Adam calls Adam
to seek him. The Lord God first appeared to
Abram, and when he appeared to Abram, Abram sought his face. The Lord Jesus made himself known
on the Damascus road to Saul of Tarsus in that great revelation
of himself, and Saul of Tarsus then came to the Lord. Next we
are told in verse 4, God called unto him out of the bush, and
he said, Moses, Moses. Now obviously, the call was personal. I say obviously, it's obvious
to you, because God's made it obvious to you. Most folks in
this religious world have no idea that the call of God is
a personal call. But not only was it a personal
call, It was an effectual call. That we know because Moses responded
to the call. And no sinner, no sinner will
ever come to God trusting his son, except God Almighty call
you by omnipotent, irresistible mercy personally. He calls his own sheep by name. And when He calls them, He leads
them out. He always does. And no sinner
will ever come to Christ until the Lord Jesus reveals Himself
to that sinner. You can't trust an unknown Savior
any more than you can come back from somewhere you've never been.
True saving faith is the result of Christ revealing Himself to
you. Hold your hands here, let me
show you a passage in Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 12. Faith is not that which causes
God to be gracious to us. Faith is our response to God's
gracious revelation of himself. Faith in Christ is not that which
man musters within himself. but rather it is that which God
gives when He reveals His Son in you by His Almighty Spirit. Zechariah 12, verse 10. Now I
will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon Me whom
they have pierced. I'll pour out my Spirit upon
the house of David, upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, my
chosen. And when I pour out my Spirit
upon you, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And
looking upon me, they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his
only son, and shall be in bitterness for him. as one that is in bitterness
for his firstborn. Repentance is not something that
you must muster which will qualify you for God's grace. You will
never experience repentance until Christ is revealed in you and
He causes you to look to Him and looking on Him You mourned
for Him. And bitterness is in you because
of what you are and all that you are and have done. God who
commands light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Oh, thank God for His grace. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Now, look at verse 5. Here's
my text. And he said, Draw not hither,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground. The only way a sinner can ever
come to God is barefoot on holy ground. Now that's my subject. I want to show you what it is
to stand before God Almighty barefoot on holy ground. There are three things in this
verse of scripture, we'll look at them line by line, which tell
us something about how it is we can and must come to God. First, there is a prohibition.
The Lord God said, draw not nigh, and then there is a prerequisite,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet. And then he speaks of a
place, the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. First, the prohibition. When
Moses answered God's call, and he turns aside to see this great
sight, why the bush is not burnt. The Lord God said to Moses, stop
right where you are. Don't take another step. Don't
you come near me. Don't you come to me. You dare
not come to me. Draw not nigh hither. What a strange thing. Does God
call a man Does God call a woman, does God call a sinner only to
tell him he cannot draw nigh to Him? Yes sir, He always does. He always does. He will convince
you that you cannot draw nigh to Him before ever He grants
you the grace to draw nigh to Him. He will convince you that
you dare not approach Him if ever He grants you grace to approach
Him. You and I simply cannot come
to God. We cannot stand before God. We
cannot obtain mercy and acceptance with God in our natural, fallen,
sinful state. This is what the book says. You
can read it for yourself in Leviticus 22. Whosoever offereth a sacrifice
of peace offerings unto the Lord, to accomplish his vow or a free
will offering in thieves or sheep, whoever it is that comes to worship
me, anybody, you want to come to worship God? It shall be perfect
to be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein. You can't bring God anything
and expect acceptance with God except perfection. He says, I
the Lord your God am perfect. And that means He demands perfection. He won't accept you with any
blemish in you. He won't accept you with any
spot in you. He won't accept you with any
failure in you. Walk before me and be thou perfect. It is written, without holiness
no man shall see the Lord. Holiness. That's not the best
holiness you can give. That's not the best you can do. That's not your most sincere
effort. That's holiness. Holiness. Holiness. Absolute Unblemished,
untarnished, undiluted, untarnishable, perfect holiness. Preacher, are
you saying the only way sinners can come to God is if they're
perfect? That's the only way. That's the
only way. Not only does God prohibit us
from coming to Him as fallen sin for men and women, He warns
us plainly that if we only had eyes to see it and ears to hear
it, He warns us plainly that if we dare attempt to draw near
to Him, making ourselves holy before Him, we shall be slain
by Him. Turn to Exodus 19. I want you
to see this. So often people talk about God's law, and they
think about God's law as where the Lord is setting before us
here rules and regulations and principles by which we are to
make ourselves better before Him. rules and regulations and
principles by which we are to make ourselves holy. Now I realize,
I'm fully aware, that most people would not say make ourselves
holy for justification. But now, once we're justified
by the blood and righteousness of Christ, we surely must make
ourselves holy by our works and sanctification, so that we are
given a holy nature, but we Make it better and better and better
until at last we're right for heaven if we are obedient to
God's law. Oh no, that's not why the law
was given. And that is not the sanctification this book talks
about. That's the sanctification of works religion and its idolatry. The law was given, given by God
specifically to declare to us the impossibility of you and
me doing anything by which to make ourselves holy. Look at
it. Exodus 19, verse 11. God spoke to Moses and said,
Be ready against the third day. For the third day the Lord will
come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai,
and thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about. He said,
Moses, for the next three days you put fences up all around
this place. Set bounds to the people. Set
these bounds upon Mount Sinai. I say, take heed to yourselves. Pay attention to what you're
doing. God's about to appear. Pay attention to what you're
doing. God Almighty's about to speak to you. Take heed to yourselves
that you go not up into the Mount or touch the border of it. Whosoever toucheth the Mount
shall be surely put to death. There shall not an hand touch
it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through, whether it be
beast or man. It shall not live. When the trumpet
soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. As it was when
the Lord appeared to Moses, back here in Exodus chapter 3, The
Lord told Israel to come to the mountain, and here at this mountain
to see and hear His voice. But He demands that they come
no closer. He says, come up to the mountain,
but don't you touch this mountain. Don't come any closer than to
right here where I set the barrier between you and me. And if you
do, if you even touch it, I'm going to kill you. What? You mean preacher? God didn't
give His law for us to obey it? No, He didn't. No, He didn't. You can't. You can't. But surely
you don't mean us to take that absolutely. I wish you understood
just how absolutely I'd mean for you to take that. God did
not give a law for you and I to obey by which to make ourselves
good before Him. Read on. Verse 16, Exodus 19. And it came to pass on the third
day, in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings
and thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet
exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. If ever you see what is written
in the law, I promise you You will tremble before God's holy
law. They trembled. And Moses brought
forth the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood
at the nether part of the mountain. He brings them up to Mount Sinai
and they stand way out here where God told them to set the boundary.
And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord
descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as
the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet
sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and
God answered him by a voice. Verse 18. And the people saw
the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet
and the mountains smoking. And when the people saw it, they
removed and stood far off. They backed up, stood back and
kept backing up and they said to Moses, Speak thou with us. Moses, intercede for us. We need somebody to stand between
God and us, to stand in our stead. You speak for us, or speak with
us, and we will hear. But let not God speak with us,
lest we die. And then God gave His law to
Moses in what's commonly called the Ten Commandments. But even
as He does so, as He commands people to worship Him, and commands
us to worship Him. He warns us, you don't dare put
your hand to this. He said down in chapter 20, verse
24, you come to worship Me, you come worship Me on an altar made
of earth, an altar of my making. In verse 25, he says, if you
make an altar of stone, okay, you can bring an altar of stone
too. An altar of my making, but don't mend it. Don't adorn it. Don't do anything to it. He says,
if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build
it of hewn stone. Now watch this. For if thou lift
up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Now let me tell
you what that means, exactly what that means. You put your
hand to make righteousness. Put your hand to the finished
work of Christ who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. You put your hand to it and you've
polluted the sacrifice and God will kill you forever. He says, neither shalt thou go
up by steps unto mine altar. You don't come to Christ by degrees. You don't come to Christ step-by-step. How often have you heard fellows
saying they're the first step toward salvation? There ain't
but one step, and it's not a step. You come to Christ all at once
and get him all at once. There are no steps to this thing
called holiness and sanctification and righteousness and redemption.
There are no steps to this thing called salvation. We come to
him by faith alone. If you climb the stairs, your
nakedness, he says, is going to be exposed. And when God sees
your nakedness, your sin is what he's talking about. Throughout
this book, Moses' son, Ham, came in and uncovered his father's
nakedness. Moses' son, Ham, came in and said, look yonder boys,
we always knew that's what daddy was. He uncovered his sin, publicized
his sin. And throughout this book, that's
what nakedness represents. Sin. And God Almighty says, if
you attempt to climb up by stairs to worship me by works of your
own deeds, your nakedness is seen in the righteousness you
think you present. How thankful we ought to be.
God doesn't require us to produce righteousness for ourselves.
At all. Ever. God doesn't require us to produce
righteousness for ourselves at all or ever. No sir. And if you try, you've missed
Christ. That's all there is to it. That's all there is to it. Shelby
and I were reading the other day in Hebrews chapter 12. You're
not come to the mouth that might be touched. that burned with
fire unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of
trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated
that the word should not be spoken to them any more. For they could
not endure that which was commended, and if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart."
They couldn't endure it. Thank God You are not come to
Mount Sinai. Not if you trust the Son of God.
You are not come to Mount Sinai, and you will never return to
Mount Sinai. But rather, ye are come unto
Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and the blood
of sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.
All right now, back here in our text. The Lord God gave this prohibition,
draw not nigh, but blessed be his name, God's word doesn't
end there. It is a prohibition that makes
way for a door open, a door of hope set before us, giving us
a prerequisite, a requirement that God will allow us to come
to him. He says, draw not nigh hither. And his next word is, put off
thy shoes from off thy feet. God required Moses to come before
him barefoot. Well, put off your shoes of curiosity. Yeah, but it's more than that.
It's more than that. Put off your shoes of vain speculation. Boy, I want to see why this bush
isn't burnt. I want to see why there's no
smell of smoke in the bush. Yeah, but more than that, more
than that. In Exodus chapter 40, you can read it later, God
required Moses and Aaron and Aaron's sons, whenever they came
to the tabernacle, whenever they came to do service to God in
that holy place, He required them to wash, every time they
came to the tabernacle, to wash their hands and their feet in
the holy water of that holy labor of brass that was set before
the tabernacle. And then they go into the holy
place and do all their service in the holy place, barefoot before
God. Barefoot, always. No man was
allowed to enter God's house. No man was allowed to do service
in God's house. No man was allowed to offer any
sacrifice in God's house until he washed in that labor and was
barefoot before the Lord. Now that's significant. That's
significant. What does it mean? First, obviously,
it has respect to the matter of reference. As you know, it's
still customary in Asian societies and countries for people to take
their shoes off before they enter a house. It's an act of courtesy,
just common courtesy, a show of respect for the house and
the people who live in it, much like that which is shown by a
gentleman. I started to say that which used
to be, but it is still shown by a gentleman. When he enters
a house, he takes his hat off. In a public place, you take your
hat off. Just because of respect. That's all. A man meets a lady,
opens the door. Just because he wishes to show
respect for the lady. That's all. Some fella stopped
in the store one day and opened the door for a lady. He said
just, woman looked at him kind of gruffly and said, just because
I'm a woman, that don't mean you have to open the door for
me. He said, ma'am, you're being a lady and not being a lady got
nothing to do with me opening the door. This is what I do because
it's proper. It's respectful. Certainly, that
is one thing God required of Moses and requires of us all. When he says, put off your shoes
from off your feet, the Lord God demands that we reverence
Him. The Lord God Almighty cannot
and will not be worshipped by any who do not sanctify His name
in their hearts and reverence Him. But there's more. You can look at it later. Again,
I encourage you to do so in Deuteronomy 25. Yes, we must show reverence
to God. We can never come to Him without
reverence. The psalmist says God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all
them that are about Him. But there's more to this matter
of being barefoot before God than reverence. Barefootedness,
if I can use that term, is used in the scripture to speak of
shame. You remember God's law given in Israel, that if a man
has a brother, and his brother dies and he has a wife and children,
then according to God's law, Deuteronomy 25, he is required
to take his dead brother's wife, marry her, and raise up children
to his dead brother in the name of his dead brother. But there's
an exception. God gives an exception. He says,
you don't have to if you don't want to. But you're going to
bear the shame forever. Man says, oh, I can't do that.
You remember when Boaz was about to take Ruth? He said, there's
one who's a closer kinsman than you, and we've got to do business
with him first. And the kinsman said, oh, yeah,
I'll take it. Then Boaz said, if you take Ruth,
you've got to take care of Naomi. And then you've got to raise
up a family to your brother Elimelech. And the fellows said, oh if I
do that, that's going to mess up the inheritance of my sons.
I can't do that. You take it. You take it. And
that man is brought to the city, to the gates of the city, before
the elders. And his shoe is unloosed. And
Ruth spits in his face, according to the law back in Deuteronomy
25. God says, if you refuse to take her, you go before the elders
of the city, And this woman commits an act of public humiliation,
the reproach of which you shall bear to the day you die. She
will unloose your shoe from off your foot and spit in your face
before all my people. And from that day to the day
you die, your name shall be called, He that has his shoe loosed. So that it's a shameful thing.
Are you beginning to get the picture? God requires all who
come to Him, to come to Him ashamed. Shamefully. Bearing your shame
before Him. as a people ashamed of themselves. Ashamed to approach Him. Ashamed
to turn our faces toward Him. Acknowledging that we are altogether
unworthy to lift our eyes toward Heaven or call on His name. Unfit
for the company of God Almighty. Ashamed. And again, turn to Isaiah
20. I want you to look at this one.
Another thing associated with being barefoot is nakedness. Nakedness. Now remember, all
the way through the Old Testament, nakedness symbolizes and portrays
sin. Here in Isaiah chapter 20 verse
2, at the same time the Lord, spake the Lord by Isaiah the
son of Amos, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins,
and put off thy shoe from thy foot, and he did so, walking
naked and barefoot. Now I have no question at all.
I know there's folks who seem to look at something like this
and try to state the ridiculous. God didn't have his puppet walking
around for three years buck naked. No, he didn't. No, he didn't.
The thought would be indecent at best. That's not what it is. God commanded him to take off
the sackcloth with which he girds his upper body in modesty and
take off his shoes. So he walks around exposing the
shame of his nakedness barefoot and defenseless for three years. That's a pretty good picture
of what God said for Moses to do. Draw not nigh hither. Put off your shoes from off your
feet. You stand before me in the shamefulness
of your nakedness, helpless, acknowledging who and what you
are. Let me give you the New Testament
parallel. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Confess sin. Not to a priest and not to a
Baptist preacher. That's easy done. Not even to
the church. That's easy done. Because that's
talking sinner to sinner. Not only is it easy, Doug, it
is something in which the whole religious world gloats and delights. Listen to folks. Sometimes you
fool enough to attend places where they do that kind of stuff,
or fool enough to listen to it on television. They gloat in
confessing their sin. Gloat in what they're saying.
And folks gloat in condemning it, as if they're better. And
folks gloat in saying, we forgive it, as if they really do. Oh,
no, no, no. This business of your relationship
with God is all together between you and God. Your heart and His
heart. Totally so. That's the reason
we don't have altars and invitations and confessional booths and all
that nonsense in churches where God's worshiped. We don't. We
don't have them. Why? You've got to confess your
sin to God. And I'm not talking about confessing,
well, when I was a little boy, I cheated on tests at school,
or I stole some apples off a fellow's tree next door, or I robbed a
bank when I got older, or I killed somebody. That's not it. That's
not what it is to confess your sin. It's to rip open your heart before God Almighty and acknowledge
what you are. God, be merciful to me. God, look on the blood sacrifice
of your darling son and be propitious, be merciful to me. I am the sinner. not comparing yourself with Bobbie,
but with him. I am the sinner. The Lord God will never put the
shoes of grace on our feet as sons in his house, as described
in Luke 15, until we take off the shoes of our filthy self-righteousness
in the mountain of his holiness. Look at verse 5 again, Exodus
chapter 3 verse 5. Look at the last line of the
verse and you'll see why we must come to God just this way. He
said, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place, that is because the place, not the place whereon
you're about to stand. The place whereon thou standest
is holy ground. You see, the believer's standing
with God doesn't change when he experiences grace. Our standing today is exactly
like it was in eternity when God Almighty accepted us in the
beloved. Our standing doesn't change when
we come to experience His grace. The only thing that changes is
something inside of us. Inside us, he said, pull off
your shoes, for the place whereon thou standest permanently is
holy ground. If we come to God, we must draw
nigh to God. We must come barefoot to stand
upon a place called holy ground. Well, what's that mean? We're
going to take us a trip to Israel. We're getting together a cruise
to go to the Holy Land. We're going to take a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land. We're going to go to the place
of the Holy Nativity. We're going to go to the Holy
Tomb. No. No. No, the dirt over there
is dirt just like Kentucky. I don't think it's quite as rich,
really. Nothing special about it. Nothing special about it.
Just dirt. Well, what makes this holy? God's
there. That's all. That's all. God's there. The Lord God came
down here to meet Moses at this place. The Lord God came down
here to reveal Himself to Moses at this place. The Lord God came
down here to speak to Moses at this place. The Lord God came
down here at this place to draw Moses to Him. That makes it holy. You remember how Jerusalem is
described in the Old Testament? Once God set his temple in Jerusalem,
he said, I have set my temple in my holy hill of Zion. That made it holy because the
temple was the holy place. The tabernacle, he tells us,
is holy because of my glory that is present there. This is exactly
what the scripture says. There will I meet with the children
of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory."
Inside the tabernacle, the holy place, and then the most holy
place, separated from the holy place by a thick veil, because
in that most holy place, is the ark of the covenant, the broken
law, the mercy seat, and the blood of atonement, and the glory
of God. And God said, that's where I'll
meet you, and I'll commune with you, right here in the place
of sacrifice. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. And
all of those things typify just one thing. Just one thing. the tabernacle,
and the ark, and the mercy seat, the temple, and the holy place,
and the holy of holies, all portrayed Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
and redemption by Him. Christ is the holy ground on
which sinners stand and find acceptance with God, only Christ. Holiness is that attribute of
God spoken of throughout the scriptures by which he is entirely
distinct and separate from all his creatures. Holiness refers
to God's whole, glorious, and perfect being. God's holiness
is his infinite supremacy, his infinite distinction from all
creation. And this is the message. This
is the message. When John said, we've seen and
we've handled the word of life, and we've tasted the word of
life, we've tasted the word of God. And then he summarizes what
he's telling us about this word. He said, this is the message. This is what God Almighty sends
us everywhere to proclaim to men. This is the message of this
book. God is light. And in Him is no
darkness at all. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. All in accordance with His perfect,
absolute holiness. God's holiness. He cannot and
will not accept any who are not holy, perfect, and undefiled. He says to Abraham and to all
Abraham's sons, walk thou before me and be thou perfect. Peter put it this way, just to
make sure you understand. Turn over there if you will,
1 Peter chapter 1. I'm not just trying to tell you something
that applies where it doesn't apply. Peter takes the very word
that God gave to Abraham, and the word continually given through
the book of Leviticus in the ceremonial law, and applies it
to you and me today. He says in verse 15, As he which
hath called you is holy, so be ye as holy as you can be. I think I've got a hundred dollar
bill tucked away in my wallet. I'll give it to anybody who's
got a Bible of any translation written by anybody who says that.
That's not what it says. And yet that's what preachers
say about it all the time. The Lord saved you, now you try
to be holy. And they talk about fellows who
are holy and holier and the most holy man ever met. What foolishness. What blasphemy. No. God says, so be ye holy, just
like I am, in all manner of conversation, in all your life, because it
is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. Now, I want you to know
the blessedness of what I'm about to tell you. Oh, may God make
this blessedness yours. Coming to God by faith in Jesus
Christ, sinners stand barefoot on holy ground as holy as Christ
himself, who is that holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. Follow peace with all men. Paul
said, I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. He said, I'm seeking Him and
laying hold of Him and clinging to Him and I cannot turn from
Him. Who is that holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord? And that's exactly the meaning
of Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14. People say, where are you? You've
got to do holy things. You've got to live a holy life.
And please don't misunderstand me. I know you don't. I know
you won't. At least not you sitting here. Yes. Live before God Almighty with love
and faith and consecration and devotion to Him. Separate yourselves to Him. devote
yourselves to Him, walk before Him in godliness and faith, but
don't ever presume that you are capable of making yourself holy. Either Christ is all your holiness
or you ain't got any. Either He is all your righteousness
or you don't have any. He is that holiness by which
we are made holy. He said, I sanctify myself that they may be sanctified. I've come here to produce holiness
as a man. A man who is himself God. A holiness of infinite worth
for you. that they may be holy. Now, let
me show you something of the blessedness of being barefoot
on this holy ground Christ Jesus before the Holy Lord God. When
the Lord says to a poor sinner like you and me, pull off your shoes and come
in. He is displaying the indescribable
hospitality of his being, saying, Come and welcome." You mean pastor,
a sinner, like me, no matter who he is, no matter what he's
done, no matter how vile, no matter how he has despised and
hated his God, God Almighty welcomes the sinner and stands him in
perfect holiness before himself. That's it. He delighteth in mercy. As a rule, as a rule, and I realize
we live in a pretty ruler society, but as a rule, the only time
you will ever see grown people barefoot is at home, or somewhere
where they're so comfortable that they feel completely at
home. I am, I am, I am completely at home. in Jesus Christ his Son. A man who wants fear and quaint. Thought of God completely at
home and comfortable in his presence. Find me a person who is running
around barefoot and I'll show you someone who is completely
confident that there's no danger before him. You try to picture things in
your mind? Let me give you a picture of what I'm saying. You picture
a small child out yonder in his daddy's yard, running around
through the grass in his daddy's yard, barefoot and playing. Never looks over his shoulder.
Never pauses to think or something might get in the way. He's in
his daddy's yard. He's completely serene and at
peace because he's in his daddy's yard. My wife, like some of you,
was a praise to country girl and it's hard to keep shoes on
her feet when she's at home or even here in the office where
she feels at home. She runs around barefoot all the time. What can
be more peaceful to picture than a woman going about her day-by-day
life barefoot in her own home because she is totally comfortable
and without fear in her house. There's nobody there that needs
to be impressed. Nobody there that she's got to
be fearful of what they're going to think about her being barefoot.
Nobody there to look at the shape of her toes and be critical of
that. Nobody. She's at home. That's what it is. To stand before
God, barefoot on holy ground. And that's the only way sinners
can stand before the captain of the Lord's host, Joshua. Saw that man with a sword drawn,
he said, are you for us or against us? And he said, I'm the captain
of the host of the Lord. Take off your shoes and stand
before me. And Joshua reached down, took
off his shoes, and stood before that mighty, terrible man before
whom all the world quakes in peace.