Christ Sent Me to Preach the Gospel

Truthfully, before God, what
were your thoughts at that very moment when I stood up and walked
up here to the pulpit and opened my Bible? Honestly, before God. Well, I wonder how long he'll
preach this morning, somebody thought. I wonder what we're
going to have for lunch. I wonder what time company is
coming. Oh, my soul, you know, the world,
and even sometimes professing Christians, have a dim view of
preaching. But you know the Word of God
gives a prominent place to the preaching of the Word. Did you
know, did you ever notice that? Preaching. The Word of God gives
a very prominent place to preaching. Let me read you a few verses.
In Matthew 3, verse 1, in those days came John the Baptist preaching. Our Lord said none are born of
woman greater than John the Baptist. And what did he come doing? not
reforming the world, not changing the government, not conquering
nations. He came preaching. He was the
forerunner of the Master, and he came preaching. All right. Matthew 4, 17, from that time,
Jesus, Jesus Christ, our Lord, the Son of God, the One by whom
all things were made and for whom all things were made, what
does it say? He began to preach. Jesus Christ
began to preach. In Mark 16, 15, our Lord had
been crucified, buried, risen from the grave. He had appeared
to many. He assembled his disciples before
him. He was about to ascend back to
the Father. And his disciples sat before
him, and our Lord gave these instructions. All authority is
given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore, and do what? Organize churches,
reform the world, straighten out the governments. He says, Go ye and preach the
gospel to every creature. That's what he sent them to do.
And then in Romans 10, 13, now listen to this. If you want to
follow these, I'm going to read several verses. Romans 10, 13. He doesn't have the power to
save unless he's the Lord of the Bible, the Lord of heaven
and earth. How shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? And then in the text I read a
few moments ago, verse 21, it says, the last line, it pleased
God. It pleased God. It was in God's
good pleasure. David, where is your God? He's
in the heavens. And he hath done whatsoever he
pleased in the heavens, earth, the seas, and all deep places.
And it pleased him by the foolishness of preaching. You may think it's
foolishness. to save them that believe. And
then turn to 1 Corinthians 15, and listen to Paul. 1 Corinthians
15, 1, Paul said, Brethren, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you
the gospel which I preached to you, the gospel which I preached,
which you have received, and wherein you stand, by which you
are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached to you. unless
you believed in vain. How did they receive the gospel?
It was preached to them. Now I want you to take your Bibles,
and everybody here that has a Bible, turn to Titus chapter 1. Everybody
that has a Bible, I'm going to give you time to find it. This
is a verse of Scripture. This is one of those verses that
you don't see unless you're studying the subject. You just read over
it. But I've studied this week the
subject of preaching. The Bible gives a prominent place
to preaching. John the Baptist preached. Our
Lord preached. He sent his disciples to preach.
He said the only way a man is going to believe on Christ and
call on the name of Christ is to hear him preach. And here
in Titus chapter 1, now look at it, verse 1 through 3, Titus
1, Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, according
to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the
truth, which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which
God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began, but hath
in due times manifested his word. How? You looking at it? There it is, isn't it? Through
preaching. That's how he manifests his Word,
through preaching. Now, I weep over what's happening
today. My heart is genuinely broken
over what I see taking place. I don't know whether you see
it or not. I see it. I'm not, I don't believe an alarmist.
I'm trying to be a realist, but I weep. and grieve over what
I see happening today. The whole religious world is
making every effort, and this is a subtle maneuver of Satan. The whole religious world is
making every effort that they can to do away with what? Preaching. There aren't many great preachers. There aren't many great sermons
preached today. There aren't many powerful sermons. And I'll tell you what's happening.
We're ordaining and hiring ministers of music, ministers of education,
ministers of missions, ministers of evangelism, ministers of visitation,
and we just about run dry on ministers of the Word. Turn to Acts chapter 6. Let me
show you a scripture. Acts the 6th chapter. Now these
are the men who walked with Christ. These are the men who were the
apostles. These are the divinely inspired
men who wrote the scriptures. These are the men of whom it
was said they turned the world upside down. These are the men
who received their gospel directly from the Master. These are the
men who in their doctrine were infallible because they were
divinely, verbally inspired. And I want you to listen to them.
In Acts chapter 6, they had a little problem in the church between
the Grecians and Hebrew widows. Some of them were neglected.
So the 12 verse 2, these apostles called the multitude of the disciples
to them and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word
of God and serve tables. What have preachers done? Just
hold that right there, and don't leave that. What have preachers
done today? The very things that the disciples
feared, the very thing that these twelve apostles warned about. They've left the Word of God,
they've left the study, they've left preparation of messages,
and they've gone out to knock on doors, visit the sick, attend
the club meetings, attend board meetings, All of these things,
everything but the study of God's Word. Brethren, verse 3, look
ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy
Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But
we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry
of the Word. That's what God called his preacher
to do, and that's all God called his preacher to do. He didn't
call him to be a songbird. He didn't call him to be a church
visitor. He didn't call him to be a doctor. He didn't call him
to be a toastmaster. He didn't call him to give devotions
at the PTA. I wouldn't hurt your feelings
for anything if I could get out of it, but you can't preach the
Word without hurting somebody's feelings. He called him to preach. We have organized Sunday schools
and there's nothing wrong with a Sunday school that's properly
run and the Word of God is taught. But we have training unions,
missionary circles, fellowship clubs, soul winning teams, ball
teams, church suppers. Most preachers today are spending
most of their time counseling, family counseling. We've relegated
to the scrap heap the one means that God has ordained, Titus,
the book of Titus says, for the manifestation of his word. What
is it? Preaching. Preaching. Preaching. God speaks to his people through
the preaching of the word. We have more and more music.
I love music. You do too. We have choirs for
every occasion and choirs for every age. We have all night
singing. We have quartets and trios and
duets and solos. And go to the average church
service. Music, music, music. Announcements. Recognizing visitors,
passing out cards, shaking hands, praying for the sick, promoting
programs, advertising what's going to take place all week,
everything, but the preaching of the Word. That's what I say, it's a shocking
thing, but it's a maneuver of Satan, and it's a subtle thing. And you can go to the average
church today, and things started about 9.30 this morning. in the
average church and you have all of the different preliminaries
and assemblies and all of the different socials planned and
officers elected and all the different cards marked and people
counted and money counted and bisted and fellowshipping and
then they come out in the auditorium and the people's names are called
and bisters are recognized and happy birthdays sung and announcements
are made and the people have been there for two hours And
it gets on towards 11.30 and finally a fella gets up and everybody's
so worn out and so tired out and so weary of the day and he
gets up and reads a few verses and says a few words and they
go home. They haven't had what God called us to do, preach the
Word. preach the Word. Everything in
this world but the preaching of the Word. And I wax bold to
declare this to you and to this city and to all this world. All we need, all we need in our
time for the blessings of God to rest upon our churches and
the mercy of God to rest upon our homes is to return, Brother
Jeff, to one thing, the preaching of God's Word. preach the Word. If all of the socials and organizations
and all of these fellowships, we are doing everything we can
to get people to God's house, but the one thing God told us
to do, and that's preach to them. We are doing everything in the
world when we get them there to hold them there and to keep
them there, everything but the one thing God told us to do,
preach to them. We're trying to win souls to
Jesus and get people ready to go to heaven and keep people
out of hell by talking to them and witnessing to them and giving
tracts to them and showing movies to them and entertaining them
and doing everything but what God told us to do, preach to
them. We're doing everything to comfort
the bereaved and to lift the depressed and to console the
sorrowful. Everything in the world, but
the one thing God told us to do, preach to them. We've created these little clichés,
these abominable religious clichés. Listen to this. Now you listen
to this. Listen to this little phrase. I'd rather see a sermon
than hear one any day. I'd rather one walk beside me
than merely show me the way." Now, you sit there a minute and
think about that. If you like that, if you think that's good,
if those are your sentiments, you've missed something. And
you've fallen right in with this present-day conspiracy to do
away with the One way that God has chosen to reveal his Son,
that's through preaching. Now that's pretty, and that's
sentimental, and that's emotional, and that sounds good, and that
encourages human example. I know what they're saying. I
don't want to listen to a man preach on Sunday that got drunk
on Saturday. I understand that. I don't want
to listen to a man preach on Sunday and tell me the way to
heaven who is dishonest in his business dealings and is a liar
and a cheat and an adulterer and takes God's name in vain.
I agree with you. I don't want to hear him preach
either. I don't want to hear anybody teach Sunday school. It's a crook.
But brother, let me tell you something. It's not by human
example that men are saved. It's by the Word of God. If you
think you're going to get your husband saved by being a good
little girl, you're mistaken. He's going to have to hear the
gospel. I recommend that you be a good little girl, but that's
not the way God saves sinners. If you think that you're going
to point somebody to Christ by being nice, you're mistaken.
They're going to have to hear the gospel. It's by the Word of God that
men are broken and convicted and convinced of sin. It's by
the preaching of the Word of God that a sinner comes under
conviction and sees his inability and cries for mercy. It's by
the preaching of the gospel of Christ that a man sees his substitute,
his redeemer, his mediator, Christ's grace and blood to cover his
sin. It's by the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ that men call on God for his grace. Turn to Romans 1 verse 16 and
listen to this. Romans 1 verse 16. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of example either.
I think we ought to set good examples. I'm not ashamed of
morality. I think we ought to be moral
people. I'm not ashamed of goodness. I think we ought to make an effort
to lead a good and wholesome and holy life. But listen to
his words. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
It is the power of God unto salvation. It is the power of God. The gospel. Look at Romans 10, verse 17. Now listen to this. Romans 10,
17. Faith cometh by hearing. How
does faith come? By seeing a good example set. If Jesus Christ had come to this
world and walked this earth and only been the holy man that he
was and never offended God nor God's law as he didn't, never
knew any sin and gone back to heaven, how many people would
be saved? None. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinned against
him must die. Christ had to shed his blood and die for our sins.
Christ had to offer himself a sacrifice, a sin offering. He had to pay
the debt. He had to enable God to be just
while he justifies the ungodly. There's got to be a Redeemer. Paul says here that faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Turn back to our text in 1 Corinthians
1. Now, I want you to listen. God
sent me to preach the gospel. Preach the gospel, and believe
me, all we need, all we need, and I believe that true believers
and true godly men and women and true Christians They have
a hunger and a thirst to be fed from the table of the Lord. They
want to come to the house of God on Sunday. They don't want
to be patted on the back and bragged on and read their names
in the bulletins and carry on all of this so-called fleshly
fellowship. Fellowship is sweet and good,
but brethren, I want to meet God, don't you? I want to hear
from God. Oh, to go and see it. And just
while you're sitting there thinking, the man who gets up there is
going to have a word from God. The man who gets up there is
going to have a word of grace, a word of peace. He's going to
tell me about my Lord. I'm going to leave here with
joy in my heart because my sins are forgiven. That man is not
going to get up there and club me in the head with the law.
That man is not going to get up there and give me certain
requirements to walk by which I cannot keep. That man is not
going to send me away in despair. And that man is not going to
stand up there and beg me to buy this and buy that and buy
the other and give to this and give to that and give to the
other and build this and build that and build the other. He's
going to preach my Lord. Wouldn't that be good? Talk about
revival. Most church problems are not
over the gospel. Most of your church problems
are started by these things that we're doing in place of preaching
the gospel. That's where they are. And Paul
said here in verse 17, Christ sent me not to baptize. Look
at verse 17, just mentally underscore that statement, Christ sent me
not to baptize. Now Paul's not discounting the
importance of baptism. He had the same commission as
the other apostles. Go ye into all the world and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Paul baptized some. Most of the people who were converted
under his ministry were baptized by other men. He baptized the
household of Stephanus and somebody else, he said, but he said, I
didn't baptize anyone else. God didn't send me to baptize.
What he is saying is this. My chief business is not to baptize
and to organize and to promote. My chief business, above all
things, is to preach the gospel. That's my chief business. Let
us, brethren, Paul's not discounting baptism. Now get this, what he's
saying, God sent me not to baptize. And some people use that and
say, well, baptism's not necessary. Baptism's not essential. Baptism's
not important. There's nothing to baptism. Paul
discounted it right there. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. Paul is saying, Paul got the
same commission the other apostles got. But what Paul is saying
is this, let us sing. But that's not why we're here.
Let us pray. But that's not the chief and
important thing. Let us give, let us baptize,
let us partake of the Lord's table, let us fellowship, let
us exhort one another, let us encourage one another, let us
fellowship with one another, let us pray for one another,
let us bear one another's burden, let us do all the things that
our Lord hath given and our Lord hath commanded, but our chief
calling is to preach the gospel. is to preach the gospel. That's
what he's saying. God didn't send me to baptize. I'm not discounting
baptism. Men who have saved, men who know
Christ, want to follow the Lord in baptism. But God sent me not
to baptize. That's not my chief calling.
You can't organize the gospel. They say that Wesley, John Wesley,
organized Whitefield's ministry. Whitefield was not an organizer,
he was a preacher. And if you want my personal opinion,
I think most of these organizers have just about destroyed the
works of most preachers of the past. God sent me not to baptize,
but to do what? To preach the gospel. There underscore
two words. I sat and looked at this a long
time yesterday. God sent me not to baptize, but
to preach the gospel. Brethren, they're not two gospels.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11, 3, they'll come to you preaching
another gospel. They're not two gospels. He said, I am surprised that
you have gone to another gospel, though we are an angel from heaven
preaching unto you any other gospel. Let it be a curse, whether
it be a liberal gospel or a social gospel or a conservative gospel
or whatever. There's just one gospel. God
sent me not to organize, to baptize, to promote, but to preach THE
gospel. The gospel. There's just one
gospel. There's no more two gospels.
There are not two gospels any more than there are two gods.
There are not two gospels any more than there are two atonements.
There are not two gospels any more than there are two saviors.
There's one gospel! And I'm telling you this, we'd
better find out what that gospel is. I am searching this book for
my benefit and for yours, too. We preachers, I tell you, we'd
better get in the study of some folks who are going to give an
account of what they're preaching and what they're believing to God
Almighty. We're not playing games. We're in serious business. Study to show thyself approved
unto God a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth." What is the gospel? Paul said, Woe is unto
me if I don't preach the gospel. Woe is unto me if I do not preach
THE gospel. Not some gospel, not a gospel,
not any gospel, THE gospel. I'm not ashamed of THE gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation. It'll save Jew and Gentile. And
he said, if any man preach any other gospel, I don't care if
it's an angel. Let him be accursed. Let him
be anathema when Jesus comes. What is THE gospel? Well, I'll
tell you first of all. Turn to Romans 1. I know this,
and I just put down here what I know. And no suppositions here,
this is just 1, 2, 3, 4, what I know. Number 1, I know that
the gospel, THE gospel, is, John, the gospel of God. I know that.
I can start right there. This gospel is the gospel of
God. And man didn't plan it, and man
didn't purpose it, and man didn't plan it, God did. This is the
gospel. That's what Paul said. Paul,
verse 1 of Romans 1, a bondservant, that's a bondslave of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, and I'm separated to the gospel of
God. That's the gospel, not the Baptist
gospel, not the Catholic gospel, not the old Puritan gospel. The
gospel I'm interested in knowing and loving and believing and
preaching and declaring to you is the gospel of God. And that means God planned it.
God planned it. God said, I will be merciful
to whom I will be merciful. Not only did God plan it, but
God executed it. In the fullness of time, God
sent his Son into the world. God did it. For God so loved
the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God sent
him. God planned it. He was the Lamb
slain before the foundation of this world. God sent him in the
fullness of time. It pleased God to bruise him.
He was smitten of God and afflicted. And this gospel God planned and
God executed, God applied. Paul said, it pleased God who
separated me from my mother's womb. It pleased Him to reveal
His Son in me. Not only did God plan it and
God execute it and God apply it, but God Almighty will perfect
it. I don't need somebody, some church
Preacher, take me to the cemetery. That's all preachers think they're
supposed to do, is marry young people and bury old people. And
they get used to Solomon, take them to the cemetery, quoting
Psalm 23. I need somebody to take me out
of the grave. That's what I need. I know I'm
going to the grave. Preachers sent today to be the
pacifier, you know, and get along with everybody, and be the good
neighbor, and make everybody happy, and get them a happy church
fellowship. And when they die, visit them
when they're sick and console them and comfort them. And then
when they die, say a few good words and take them to the seminary
and put them down, and then go back to church and get somebody
else. Brethren, I need somebody to preach to me and to teach
me about Him who can take me out of that grave. I can get
there by myself. All I have to do is just shoot
my brains out and I'll get there. But I need someone who can take
my vile body and raise it into the likeness of His glorious
body. Why don't you tell me about Him, won't you? Why don't you
tell me? Why don't you spend your time
telling me about Him? About Him who loved me, Him who
can make this corruptible, put on incorruption, and this mortal
immortality, and this weakness, strength, and this shame, glory.
Tell me about Him who has the power to perfect what He starts. I can make my decision, but who's
going to decide for me to come out of that grave? Only God. Let me ask you three
questions. You think about this now. I'll
give you something to think about this morning. Number one, does
God have the power to save whom he will? Huh? Does he have that
power? Does the God of glory have the
power, the immutable, absolute, unconditional, total power to
save whom he will? I don't care if it's the President
in the White House or the worst kidnapped rapist in the Federal
Correctional Institute, Maximum Prison, padded cell. Can he save either one of them?
Well, you say he certainly can. He's God. He's God. He saved Saul of Tarsus. He saved
me. He saved him. All right. Secondly,
does God have the right to save whom he will? Does he have the
right? Must God wait on the will of
the creature? Must the God of glory subject
all of his purpose and glory to the will of the creature and
wait to see what the creature will do before he can act? Does
not God have the right? You choose your presidents, you
choose your governors, you choose your Senators, you choose your
congressman, you choose your job, you choose your school,
you choose your resident, you choose your home, you choose
your church, you choose your drug store, you choose your food
store, you choose your wife, but God just has to sit back
and take whomever he can get. I don't believe that. I don't
believe that. I believe God is on the throne.
I believe he not only has the power to save to the uttermost
them that come to God by Christ, but I believe God's got the right
to pass by the foolish, by the wise and prudent, and choose
the foolish. I believe God's got that right. I believe God's
got the right to save whom he will. I believe this gospel is
the gospel of God. I believe God's the author and
finisher of it. I believe God's the alpha and
omega of it. I believe mercy is from the hand of God, and
totally and freely from the hand of God, and only from the hand
of God. I believe that mercy is from God's hand, that God
has the power and God has the right to do with his own what
he will, as much as the potter has power over the clay to make
one vessel into a beautiful, lovely lamp and another vessel
into a garbage can, if it's his will. Our Lord Jesus said that. He lifted his eyes to heaven
and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've
hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them
to me. It seemed good in your sight. Third question. Does God have the power to save
whom he will? Does God have the right to save
whom he will? Let me ask you this, thirdly. Will any man,
will any woman, will any young person, will any person be saved
without God's prevenient, merciful, wooing, calling, revealing grace. You reckon anybody will call
on God if God doesn't call on him? You reckon anybody will
ever love God who was not, first of all, the object of his love?
You reckon anybody will ever seek God who was not, first of
all, sought by God? This gospel is a gospel of God.
And then I'll tell you something else, verse 2. It's the ancient
gospel. I know this, John. I know it's
God's gospel. Secondly, I know it's the one
gospel that Moses preached and Abraham preached and Jacob believed
and Isaiah preached, he says here, which he promised afore
by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. That's this gospel. It's the
ancient gospel. I know that about it. I know
it's the gospel of God. I know it's the ancient gospel.
I know it never has been but one gospel. Those sacrifices
in the Old Testament couldn't save a fleet. They never were
designed to save. They never were given to save.
Animal blood cannot put away man's sin. They were types. They were pictures of Christ.
They pointed to Christ. But they preached the gospel.
The serpent in the wilderness preached the gospel. The rock
in the wilderness preached the gospel. The tabernacle in the
wilderness preached the gospel. They all pointed to Christ. Thirdly, I know this, John, that
it's the gospel of God, it's the gospel, the ancient gospel,
and I know this thirdly, look at verse 3, it's the gospel concerning
Christ, his Son. That's who it's concerned. It's
got nothing to do with what I do with it, you do with it, or anybody
else. It's concerning his son. The gospel is a person. The gospel
says God must be just. God must be just. God sits on
a righteous throne, a just throne, a throne of truth. And in order
to save a sinner, in order to justify an ungodly man, he's
got to be true to his justice and his righteousness. The law
must be honored. So in order to save this guilty
creature, God sends His perfect Son down here in the likeness
of sinful flesh. His Son came down here to this
earth and was numbered with the transgressors and clothed Himself,
robed Himself, made Himself in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And as a man, as a human being, Jesus Christ walked on this earth.
And everything that God Almighty in His righteousness required
of me, Christ fulfilled as a man. Everything that God Almighty
in His truth, the truth of the heart and the truth of the thoughts
and the truth of the affections and the truth of the motive,
everything God required in His truth of me, Christ my Savior,
my substitute, my representative, did everything God required.
Everything God required in His holy law, moral law, judicial
law, ceremony law, law of the home, any law. Everything God
Almighty required in His law of me, Christ's dear. And then God's justice. God,
the gospel says God must be just, He must be true, He must honor
His law, He must punish sin. God's got to punish sin. Sin
must be punished. Sin can't go unpunished. It can't
do it. God must punish sin. So that
sin, as God said, shall surely die. The wages of sin ought to
be death, could be death, should be death, might be death. The
wages of sin is death. That's the reason the Bible says
without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness. Because
God being God, being just and holy and righteous, must punish
sin. There's no way around it. So
Jesus Christ came down here, that's why he went to the cross.
Not as an example, not as a reformer. He went to the cross as a substitute
to pay for my sins. You see that? That's the gospel. God didn't, when Christ came
down here, he didn't come down here to make an offer, he came
down here to pay a price. He came down here to pay a price.
He came down here, this gospel is the gospel of God, it's the
ancient gospel, it's the gospel concerning his Son, who he is,
he's God! What did he do? He came down
here to this earth in human flesh and obeyed the law. He knew no
sin. Why did he do it? That God, the
holy, just, righteous God, might be holy, just, and righteous,
and still forgive me. That the God of heaven, who said,
I will, and no one is clearly guilty, can still stand by that
and clear me. That's why. I'm going to give
you an old illustration, but I still love it. Some of you
have heard it before. But there was a little old country
school way up in the hills somewhere, a one-room school. Everybody
went to that school from the first grade through the eleventh
or twelfth grade, and they had little kids in there six years
old and big old kids in there seventeen, eighteen years old.
And it was years ago, and they had one teacher, and some of
those boys were so mean, oh, they were so mean, they couldn't
keep a teacher. Couldn't keep a teacher. Teacher
teached a little while and then quit. He or she couldn't cope
with those boys. They were so mean and tough,
and they just prided themselves on running a teach-off, because
when they run a teach-off, they didn't have to have school. Didn't
have no teachers. Didn't have no school, you know.
So finally they came to school one morning, the bell rang, and
the word got around the community had a new teacher. And they got
to school, and there stood this little old dried-up fella, about
so tall, you know, and skinny, and glasses on the end of his
nose, and standing there in front of the school, and the kids were
going in, and boy, those old boys took one look at him, you
know, and they thought, he won't last long, we'll run him out
in no time. And they all came in, sat down,
put their feet up on the desk, you know, and whistled a little
while, you know, and throwed a paper wad, and the teacher
got up and After he got them about halfway quiet, he said,
now, young people, he said, this is your school. Well, they knew
that. They took over a long time ago,
you know. But he didn't mean it like that.
He said, I'm going to let you make the rules. Boy, that got
them quiet. They sat up, you know. They'd
been abiding by other rules, and they sat up, you know, and
listened and looked at him. He said, we'll let you make the
rules this morning. I'm going to let you make the
rules and let you set the punishment." Now, this was new. So he said,
all right. And he got up there at the blackboard
and got him a piece of chalk and he said, now what's the first
rule? And one big old boy in the back
stood up and said, well, I'll tell you, teacher, there's been
a lot of lunch stealing around here. I think we ought to make
a rule you can't steal lunches. Well, he wrote that on the board,
you know, you can't steal lunches. And he said, well, what if somebody
steals the lunch? What are we going to do? Well,
those same old boys said, I think you ought to have to take your
shirt off and get ten licks across his bare back. Teacher said,
that's kind of rough, isn't it? Well, you ought not steal lunches.
All right, that's the punishment. So he wrote it up there. And
they went on down. They wrote ten, twelve rules.
And you know it worked. Those young people made the rules,
and they set the punishment. And they had some order around
that school. They had some rules. They had some law. They had some
order to a one day. That old big boy that made that
first rule about the lunches came in and said, teacher, came
in at recess and said, somebody stole my lunch. It ain't in my
desk. And so the teacher got everybody in class. This was
the first test. And he said, all right. He said,
somebody's broken rule number one, and we got to punish them.
And he said, who, who stole the lunch? And they waited a while,
and finally a little old bitty skinny boy, you know, young,
eight, nine years old, held up his hand, and teacher said, Billy,
come on down here. And he came walking down. He had on an old coat, you know,
a pair of overalls, and the coat was pinned up here like that,
you know. And he came down the aisle, and
he's so skinny, so frail, a little matted hair and dirty. He's from
a poor family. He said, Billy, did you take
that boy's lunch? Take Jimmy's lunch? Yes, sir. Why? I was hungry. Didn't you have no lunch? No,
sir. No breakfast? No, sir. When's the last time
you ate? Sometime yesterday. Well, you knew the rule. Yes,
sir. Take off your coat. Don't make me take my coat off.
Take off your coat. You know the rule. Ten lashes
on the bare back. Don't make me take my coat off.
Take off your coat. He took off his coat and he didn't
have on a shirt. All he had on was those overalls. And big old
tears in his eyes, and tears in the eyes of the teacher, and
tears in the eyes of the kid. Teacher pulled open his drawer,
and he got that rod out of the drawer, you know, and he said,
bend over this desk, son. And just when he started to bend
over the desk, there was a voice in the back that said, Teacher,
don't you whip that boy! Teacher looked up, and it was
Jimmy. Fella made the rule. Fella's lunch was stolen. Fella
reported it. Now he said, Jimmy, he said,
you made that rule and you set the punishment. I didn't. And
you set ten lashes across the bare back. And that's what he's
going to get. And old Jimmy started down there and he said, teach
us. I said, don't you whip that boy. He said, now son, let me tell
you something. The law is the law. And if we don't have that
law, we're not going to have a school. And that's the reason
we have a school, because of the law. And the law must be
kept or the law must be punished. The offenders got to pay. And
this boy's going to get ten lashes. He broke the law. Because the
law is more important than the individual in this case. It's
got to be, got to stand. And Jimmy came walking down.
He said, well, teacher, he said, wonder if I could take his licking
for him. And the teacher said, well, if
that's what you want to do, yes, that's what I don't want that
boy to be with. I'm going to take it for him. The teacher
said, somebody's going to take this with him. Somebody's going to
pay that price. And old Jimmy started taking
off his shirt and his coat, you know, and he laid across that
desk, and the teacher just put it on him good, thin lashes.
And when the teacher got through, old Jimmy stood up, his back
was red. He put his shirt on and let old Billy stand there
crying. Billy slipped his arms around him and said, Jimmy, thank
you for taking my licking for me. The law was fulfilled. The punishment was afflicted.
The guilty went free. That's what Christ did. He took
my licking. I stole the lunch. I committed
the sin. I broke God's law. But God's
law is going to stand now. I don't care what anybody says.
His law is going to stand. The guilty is going to be punished.
And Jesus Christ came down here, and He took my place, and He
paid my debt. And God sent me to preach it.
Not with wisdom of word, lest the cross of Christ be made of
non-effect, but to preach it. The glorious gospel of God, the
gospel of good news, the ancient gospel, the gospel concerning
His Son, the gospel of substitution, the gospel of grace, the gospel
of mercy, mercy to the guilty. You ever been there? God sent
me to preach the gospel. Our Father enabled us to preach
in this day of organized religion, in this day of social gospel.

Christ Sent Me to Preach the Gospel

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Christ Sent Me to Preach the Gospel

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