Do You Have Beautiful Feet

Well, I want to speak this morning, the title of my message is Do You Have Beautiful Feet? Do You Have Beautiful Feet? And obviously, the Bible is not talking about physical feet, the beauty of a physical foot. But Isaiah 52, let's look at v. 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him whom brings good news. What is this news? Who publishes peace. Who brings good news of happiness. Who publishes salvation. Who says to Zion, Your God reigns. Your God is sovereign. The voice of your watchmen, they lift up their voice together. They sing for joy. Joy. They're pretty happy. For eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into sinning. You waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord has comforted His people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations. And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. And then if you turn your Bible, hold your place in Isaiah 52. If you want, turn to Romans 10. I'm just going to read where Paul quotes this there, refers to it, and he shows that this is talking about a lot more than Israel physically being delivered, but it's ultimately pointing to the good news of salvation of Jesus Christ. That's the great news that messengers are bringing today. And we see him quoting this in Romans 10. Verse 14, How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written in Isaiah 52, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what He has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. So obviously, the answer to the question is do you have beautiful feet? It's not too complicated. Romans 10 could help you answer it. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? Are you using your feet to move and position yourself? And then in that position of being around people, are you using your mouth to open and declare the words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? And those who hear and receive that Word will be absolutely grateful that you used your feet to position yourself near them and used your mouth to open it and declare the glories of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so in Isaiah 52, back there, over the mountains, these messengers are coming. They're declaring there's peace. They're declaring there's peace. And if you were under siege, if your cities were being taken and there was a message of restoration, of deliverance, that's really good news. And for a physical nation of Israel, that was good news. But how much better news is that for sinners who are in bondage to their sin that there is a way out? And people can tend to forget where this is put in Isaiah 52. What follows, even in this very chapter, is all of these prophecies about the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death. I mean, if you look at v. 13, he goes on, v. 14, "...as many were astonished at You. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of children of men. So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of Him, the Lord Jesus. For that which has not been told, they see. And that which they have not heard, they understand. Who has believed what He has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" And then he goes on, "...for He, Christ, grew up before Him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him. And no beauty that we should desire Him." Christ was not physically beautiful. And let's just think of this for a moment. The world's looking for beauty, right? I mean, the world is looking for beauty. And the Bible tells us there is something that is very beautiful. And it's something you want to be said of you in your life that the imperishable beauty of the feet that position themselves around those who know not the truth and use their lips to proclaim the Gospel that I've had beautiful feet my whole life. That's what you want to have. And you don't want that to fade. That's a beauty we want to watch over. How am I using my feet? I mean, what do feet do? If you're going to get out there, how are the majority of us going to get there? With our feet. Now, Sharon has got to use her wheelchair, but the point is there's movement. There's movement happening. And the beautiful thing is the movement that happened to go over that mountain and then the news to proclaim that news. But let's think, the world is looking for beauty. They want something lovely in quality. Pleasant. They want something delightful. The world looks for beauty in areas that are only temporal. In a moment, it perishes. You know, think of the world. The world praises the woman who at 60 looks like she's 30. Right? I mean, you just go to news.google. I've seen that as a title. Just the title of an article. They're praising someone. Because at 60, they still look like 30. Guess what? At 150, she'll look like the other person and they'll all be dust. It's temporal. It vanishes quickly. Proverbs 31 says beauty is vain. Referring to outward beauty. It's fleeting. It's there and then it's gone. The person has outward beauty. It's gone. No matter how hard they seek to maintain it. James 1, verse 11, For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass. Its flower falls and its beauty perishes. We've got all these blue bonnets in our yard. Those blue bonnets will not be there in a couple of months. They're going to perish. Maybe some more will grow up, but ultimately, that color will fade from the nice blue to a more faded hue and eventually it will shrivel up and it will die. Its beauty is going to perish. And here, James says, So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. As Christians, we want to be pursuing that which will not fade away. It's not going to leave us. So why does the world, all the places they look for beauty, it perishes. Why is this? The world's thinking is wrong. And we don't want our thinking to be wrong. When you think about 1 Samuel 16, it speaks of the wrong way to find a proper king. What did men look for for a proper king? What were they looking at? Outward appearance. And there Saul is. David, different type of guy. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. See, I hope after this message, the next time you look in the mirror, which we all need to look in the mirror to make ourselves somewhat presentable, or else it would be unloving maybe to not do that, but I hope the next time you look in the mirror, you're thinking, do my feet look beautiful? Not the physical feet. But have I used my feet to move in a direction where I put myself around those who don't have peace? And then I use my lips and open them to declare the good news that there is peace, there is happiness. Am I publishing salvation? Am I saying that God reigns? And if we needed anything to show us that God puts very little emphasis on outward beauty, it would be the fact that the Lord Jesus Himself, when He chose to take upon Himself human flesh, did not choose a body and design a body for Himself that was physically attractive in the world's eyes. That speaks volumes. He had no beauty that we should desire Him. So 1 Peter, we're thinking about beauty still. We hear it talked about beautiful feet. 1 Peter 3-4 says, "...Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit." So there can be a beauty in the heart that doesn't perish. Of a Christ-like character. And in God's sight, this is very precious. This is very precious. So let's make a couple observations from this passage. And then I want to look at some examples of people with beautiful feet. I'm going to bring them up here, not up here physically, but I'm going to talk about them and show you how their feet were very beautiful. In the Bible, and then ultimately in church history. I want to give some examples. I want us to be stirred up as I've been stirred up in different biographies that I've read over the years. So just to make sure I was clear on this, here it says, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet. The feet are the part that I choose to go in a certain direction and move. You can't go if you don't choose to use your feet and go in that direction. How did the brethren get to Nepal? Did we drag them to the airport and send them off? That didn't happen, did it? They used their feet. They got up. And then when they got to Nepal, getting to Nepal, that does not make your feet beautiful. What does it say here? How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who bring. It's what you're bringing. And what did they bring? Good news. What did our team ultimately bring? The good news of the Gospel. If we just went over there to have a medical clinic and not share anything about Christ, those people there would not say how beautiful the feet of you people who came over here. Because their ultimate problem, even if they had a physical healing, their ultimate problem of their sin is not taken care of. So, how are my feet beautiful if I position myself in a place and then I proclaim the Gospel in that place where I've positioned myself? You can't just sit in your room and just proclaim the Gospel there. I realize you could technically through the Internet. But you've got to move. You've got to go. You know, you're leaving work and there your co-worker is out by the car. You don't just speak in your own car. You walk over to his car, engage in a conversation. There's proclamation. So there's movement with the feet by which you position yourself. Then there is proclamation with the lips of a biblical Gospel. And that's how your feet are ultimately going to be said as beautiful by those who receive the good news if they receive the good news. So, let's look here at this news that's being published. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who bring good news, who publish peace. Peace. Again, there's a physical peace for Israel. What's man's great war? Who's their war with? You've got to speak up louder. God. And what's the big thing abiding over their head do them from God? God's wrath. His righteous indignation and justice against them for their sin. And so, imagine a person in a village and they feel this guilt in the conscience. I mean, they're not at peace. They've tried their idols. They've tried their little sacrifices of their lambs. Maybe even some, like in the Old Testament, sacrificed their own children. And there's no peace for the conscience. They still have a sense that God is angry with them and that the wrath of God abides over them. And here you've got someone coming over that mountain. They go through that high place. It could be one interpretation. They're going through an obstacle. They get over that mountain and they proclaim peace. You can have peace with God. You can have that wrath removed. You can have rest tonight in your conscience because Christ died on the cross as a sacrifice to bear God's wrath due to you for you. That is the precious news of the Gospel. Peace. And what does true conversion bring? Happiness. It's news of happiness. Legalistic religion, rule-keeping religion where that's the emphasis, that doesn't make people happy. But the true Gospel brings joy. It publishes salvation that we can be saved from our enemies, that we're going to be delivered from the power of sin and the penalty of sin. And we've got to ask ourselves, is the message I'm bringing biblical? Because it's not just enough to go. Is what I'm saying actually biblical and according to the Scriptures? Think of the Pharisees. Did the Pharisees go? Did they use their feet? Yeah, I mean, this verse has been referred to a lot in our church. It's a radical verse. Matthew 23, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! What did they do? Travel across the street to make a convert? No, you travel across sea and land. Were they going? You better believe it. Land and sea. They were giving their lives for a false message. Land and sea to make a single proselyte. And when He becomes one, you make Him twice as much a child of hell as yourself. By making someone twice a child of hell, is that good news for them? Are they going to thank you years down the road for making them twice a child of hell? No, they're not going to be thanking you for that. But if you bring a biblical Gospel, their sins are forgiven. They've got peace with God. Well, that's good news. Another thing here about this message. Look what it says. It says to Zion, Your God reigns. Is that part of your message? Paul quotes this in Romans 10. He quotes Isaiah 52 about publishing good news. But when you go look at the context here, what's one of the things that's being communicated? That God reigns. That God is sovereign. So we could actually say part of a biblical presentation of the Gospel is telling the person about the Sovereign Lord. That He's sovereign. That He's fully in control. That He reigns. That He rules. That should be part of our message. God reigns. And obviously, if God was not reigning, there would be no way He could forgive our sin. It wouldn't really give comfort, right? If there wasn't this conference that God is seated on the throne. He does what He pleases. Just make you think of Daniel 4. It says, at the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me. And I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And He does according to His will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay His hand or say to Him, what have You done? No man can say to God, what have You done? Because He does as He pleases. He's sovereign. He rules. He reigns. That's part of our message. And that's really good news for someone who is dead in their sins. Let's think for a moment, Isaiah 52, how beautiful it says the feet are upon the mountains. Let's think about the mountains. Mountains. Do the mountains represent an obstacle that the messenger must go through in order to bring the message? I mean, obviously here, he needed to go over a physical mountain. He could have opted out of doing that because of the difficulty. Or, do the mountains represent a high place by which your speaking goes further into more people? In Isaiah 50, verse 9, it says this, go up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news, and pass over it? No. Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news, lift it up, fear not, say to the cities of Judah, behold, your good. So the idea could be how beautiful are the feet of the person who positions themselves in a place where the most can hear. They're publicly proclaiming Christ. And isn't it amazing? What did the apostles do in the book of Acts? Did they hide in a closet? No. They went to the streets. They went to public places. And they declared the good news of Jesus Christ right there. And many came to joy and to happiness. So those could be an obstacle. It could not mean too much. What can you read into it? It could mean, like Isaiah 40 refers to, getting up to a high place and from that high place, lifting your voice as loud as you can that all can hear about the Gospel. So another question, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news? Who are the feet beautiful to? Do most people look at the Christian, let's say missionary, the ones who are sent to a foreign land and they actually go over physical mountains, they get to that village, say like our brethren just did in Moogoo, if we went over there and asked, do you consider it a beautiful thing that they position themselves over here to proclaim the Gospel? Would everyone in that town say they considered it a beautiful thing? No. Many would probably say, I wish they did not come. I wish they came and did medical. Assuming the tooth mat pulled the guy's jaw is healing okay. Yes, do medical. But that good news of Christ? Tim just mentioned in an update this morning on WhatsApp to us that there were some, they would say to the person, we'll pray for you to be healed, but we must pray in the name of Jesus Christ. And they said, no, no, you can't do that. I don't want your prayers if it's going to be in the name of Jesus Christ. You see, the arm of the Lord has not been revealed to them. It's not good news. And those people's feet aren't beautiful. Their movement to get there is not precious in their eyes. But the person who's converted, they look at that missionary, they look at that co-worker, they look at that mother who is publishing good news to her children, and they are so thankful that they move themselves and proclaim that news, they want to fall down and kiss your feet. They're that grateful. They see it as beautiful. That's the beauty we want to maintain to the end. We all want to have beautiful feet. We want to have people who can say, boy, James has some beautiful feet. That he moved and went over here and he told me this truth and God opened my eyes and the Lord revealed His arm to me. And I've got peace with God. There's nothing greater than that to have peace with the Lord. So what is true beauty that lasts? It's the one who's sent by God publicly proclaims the Gospel, that God reigns. The one who brings true happiness and peace. Not a false message. And what's beautiful about the feet is that the feet carry the person to that position where they proclaim the Gospel to lost sinners that they might be saved. And this is lovely in God's eyes. When we evangelize the lost, when we open our mouths, it's lovely. It's beautiful. It's precious. Precious not just in God's eyes, but the person who gets converted. And these messengers are not depressed. Look at v. 8. The voice of your watchmen, they lift up their voice. Together they sing for joy. People who receive the news. If you're going to take the news that's news of happiness, you better be happy. I mean, to some degree, there's a sober reality of eternal things. But if we're joyless, that's not too good. So may God give us great joy. We're not just doing things out of mere duty, but there's a love of Christ that's controlling us, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:14. So, ask yourself, what are you doing with your feet? What are you doing with your feet? Most of us will never be sent to a foreign land. But we have our own sphere of people at war with God still that you know. And you've got feet to get you to a position, and it's worthless to get to the position if there's no proclamation. If there's no opening of the mouth. So what am I doing with my feet as far as where am I going and moving? And what am I doing with my mouth as far as what I am saying? That's the only way someone will look at you and say how beautiful, upon fill in the blank, the streets are the feet who brought good news to our house and told us about the salvation that alone is in Jesus Christ. We had the false salvation in Mary. We're trusting in our works. And they came and challenged our Catholicism. And God opened our eyes. How precious. They want to bow down and kiss the feet of that person who brought that good news to them. I was thinking about this word publish. Who publishes salvation? There are book publishing companies that publish a lot of books. Is it just a matter of publishing a lot of content? No. What is in the content? So the content matters. So let's think now of some examples of beautiful feet. From the Bible and from church history. And again, what am I saying? Think of examples of people who position themselves in a spot to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul quotes this in Romans 10. The ultimate deliverance is not Jerusalem, but it is the sinner being saved from their sin and the wrath of God. The war is over. You can have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ as Romans 5 mentions. So, beautiful feet. I kind of already hit on this, but you all have your own sphere. You all have your own field in which you're laboring to harvest. I realize Romans 10 mentions those who are sent. But all of us to some degree have opportunities by which we can proclaim. And think, who was a new convert that was sent by Christ to go over the mountains and proclaim good news? The demoniac just got converted and Jesus sends him to go and tell his family of how I've had mercy on you. And I'm sure it doesn't say specifically what happened, but if like the woman at the well who went home and saw revival, if that happened, those people would think how beautiful are the feet of this man. Here he was in a graveyard cutting himself, chained up at one point. He broke the chains. And now he's telling us how to have peace with God. So the demoniac has very beautiful feet. Not that physically attractive. I'm sure after all, cutting himself up, he had some scars. But it doesn't matter. That's how man looks. We don't look like that. We want to get to the end and have beautiful feet. Even if our body is decaying and rotting away, which it will, how are my feet? We need a mirror on the floor. We look at the feet. Are those feet moving? Are my lips proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ? I think some of you might have a lot more beautiful feet than you realize. You might think your feet are ugly and they're not positioning themselves to proclaim. But again, think about the mothers. You're daily in a spot to position yourself to say something to that. Rather than avoid confrontation when you're disciplining your children, you're able to go to the heart of the matter and tell them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And you're daily bringing that, heralding it to them. That's a beautiful thing. Telling the truth. Those at your job, you have opportunities. All of us, we need to keep praying for labors to be sent into the harvest. Many of us will not go. Listen to this, Asahel Nettleton. He was mightily used of God many years ago, hundreds of years ago, and in his memoirs it says this, it is striking that while Nettleton and Mills seem to have the first in their country, America, in recent days to devote themselves to missionary work, neither of them were permitted to go and be missionaries. It happened to them as to David in relation to the building of the temple. They did well that it was in their heart to go to the heathen, but the honor of actually going was reserved for others. But even if we don't go, we've got all sorts of opportunity here. We don't want the beauty of our feet to fade. We don't want our zeal to dwindle. Dave Mathis, he says, the feet of those who leave behind family and friends and familiarity to adapt to language and custom and place are still the most beautiful feet in the world because they echo the journey of the nail-scarred feet that left behind heavens, everything, to come to us in our nothing. And Christ is the supreme example, isn't He? He left the glories above to come down here. And so, you can look at the most hideous place in the earth, and you can think of going from where you're at now and the comfort you have now to there, and you're never going to find an example that's going to beat what Christ has done, leaving glory above and coming down to this, taking upon Himself flesh. None of us are ever going to take a more humble position than Christ and His incarnation. You can't beat it. Think about John the Baptist. He had very beautiful feet. He came saying, repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. What happened to him? They cut his head off eventually. Think of the beautiful feet of Philip. Philip went down to the city. He went down. He could have chosen to go in the other direction. He went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. People believe. You think of Acts 8. When the angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise, go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. I don't want to go. He went. He didn't say, I didn't want to go. And what did he run into there? He ran into the Ethiopian eunuch and the Ethiopian eunuch was reading this very next chapter in Isaiah 53 and that eunuch got converted and baptized. How beautiful are the feet of Philip. And it even says here, so Philip ran to him. The Spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. And Philip casually walked. No, he ran. He was quick to obey. And he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and then he explained these things to him. You think about the Apostle Paul. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11. You want to talk about beautiful feet? You want to talk about a man who put himself in a position and he went to places of severe danger in order to proclaim the biblical Gospel, rebuke heresy, and exalt Jesus Christ? You're going to have a hard to find a biography of a man who went through as many things as Paul did. 2 Corinthians 11-23. Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I am talking like a madman with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings. He's saying these things because he's defending his ministry. He's not in a proud way. Often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers. I mean, he could have just said danger everywhere. In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night. In hunger and thirst, often without food. In cold and exposure. And apart from the other things, there's the daily pressure on me of the anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak? Am I not weak? Who is made to fall? Am I not indignant? And here he boasts ultimately in the Lord. But there Paul is. Did Paul have beautiful feet? I mean, think of how many people were utterly grateful for Paul that he went to the places he did and proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ that they might be saved. And yet at the same time, think of how many people hated his guts and wanted him dead. So there's many more examples in the Bible. I want to think of some outside of Scripture. Think about our brethren over there in Lebanon. They're still over there publishing good news. There's a lot of mountains over there physically that they've had to go over. How many trials they've suffered. Here this lady, Siham, is still alive. I mean, we mentioned her last week. She's coughing up blood. That was three days ago. She's constantly coughing up blood. This Muslim is still alive. Dan and Crystal visited a couple days ago publishing good news, telling her of salvation, telling her God reigns. We hope, we pray, that before she dies, she will look at them and see they have beautiful feet, because only if she sees the news as beautiful will she see the feet that brought it there as precious. And may that happen. Again, our team in Nepal, in some way, there's an example here of them going over there to Mugu and the different things they have endured, which is nothing compared to what Paul went through, but still, it's something. We're all trying to build up tolerance in our ability to endure and suffer as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, but to bring news of happiness. You know how many people in the world would be happy if there really was a cure for cancer? I mean, all the news channels would be publishing that, right? And here, that's very small. Cancer is small compared to your sin. And the cure for sin exists, and it's existed for thousands of years. Even in Isaiah's day, it existed before Christ came. There were these prophecies. All the way to the beginning, men called upon the name of the Lord. And men don't want to publish the news because they don't see it as beautiful, because they love their sin, and they see their sin as beautiful. And what a shock it's going to be in hell. The anguish there. Think about the beautiful feet of the Bowdoins and Beers families. They were friends of Anthony Norris Groves. Not many people have heard of them. When I did the biography on Groves, I referenced them. They were missionaries in India. And they would talk about Jesus boldly and earnestly in all the villages. Sleeping at night in a small tent. Wherever there was an idol festival or mass bathing in the sacred river. That's like a mountain, right? A lot of people there. If you take that ghost of the mountain, meaning to get to a high place, proclaim it for many to hear. Here this mass bathing is. All this festival, they would go there with tracts, reading, and preaching from dawn till dusk. Especially during the cholera epidemics that followed every season of heavy rain. The two couples were kept occupied for days on end. Prescribing medicine. Nursing the sick. Many patients gave thanks to the good God and heard their prayers for healing. But it was six years before they saw their first convert. Six years. Every day, relentlessly, these couples evangelized from dusk to dawn. And in six years, they saw a convert. And they did this labor with very little financial support for ten years. And you know who was the first one who really started financially supporting them? George Mueller. He began to support them in 1846. The Bowdoins and Beers, they said, the Lord has brought down our appetites to what He gives us to feed them on. You see? When you're those natives and you finally believe that truth and you see the sacrifice these people went through by positioning themselves in your dark country to give you that Gospel, you look at them and say, you've got beautiful feet. Thank you for moving and coming here. It was hard going week after week. They preached in the Polcott Market. William Bowdoin found the inhabitants utterly hardened against his message. Despairing of any progress. Ready to abandon the work. It's not easy. He fell to his knees in the public street and he cried, O Lord, let the Word take hold upon this people. He and Elizabeth felt they should remain one more week. Devoting that week to prayer, not evangelism. Prayer. Then the first converts were given. A former concubine, a shoemaker and his wife, and a traveling tradesman. And so it was in Polcott in 1942 that the first group of Indian Christians and the God of Ari Delta came together. How beautiful the feet of those two couples who endured what they did physically, financially, and they were proclaiming the Good News. And here, felt like giving up, they cried to the Lord. And He heard and He saved. Because He has many sheep. A.J. Gordon on the Holy Spirit and Missions, page 139, he says this, it was seven years before Cary baptized his first convert in India. Seven years. It was seven years before Judson won his first disciple in Burma. Morrison toiled seven years before the first Chinaman was brought to Christ. Mofatt declares that he waited seven years to see the first evident moving of the Holy Spirit upon the people in Buchanan's Africa. Henry Richards wrought seven years on the Congo before the first convert was gained at Banza-Manteca. Seven years. Seven years. You don't want to read too much into that number, but look, positioning yourself to proclaim is not something you do with your coworker, with your kid on the missions field, and you just proclaim a week and you get all this fruit, right? I mean, that could happen like in the book of Acts. But you might be there seven years proclaiming that Good News to that coworker, to that child, to whoever, to these people in Nepal, these girls all the way back from Assam, India, who've heard so much truth from the team. During these years, it's not just some peaceful evangelism. You hear about these people. Seven years for the first convert. Well, add in there, it was seven years of suffering in most cases before they saw their first convert. It wasn't seven years of peaceful evangelism in the street. In Adenarm Judson's biography, I've been reading through this version. There's two volumes. Pulling the eye tooth from a live tiger. That's how hard it is to get a convert was the idea. It's like going to a live tiger and trying to pull out the tooth. That's how hard missions is, he felt. Judson remarks, when the missions did not meet the slightest success, they began to be neglected by all the Christian world. They're not sending people out now. No beautiful feet coming upon these foreign lands. No one publishing peace. Why? They're not seeing success. Missions was neglected. And he says this, tell them to look at Bengal where Dr. Thomas had been laboring 17 years from 1783 to 1800 before he saw his first convert, Krishna. Seventeen years. I've only been a Christian going on 12. I haven't even made it to 17. Imagine 17 years in one place, no converts. We take it for granted. The church grows. People get converted. In the beginning of this church, as Tim recalls, more people died than got converted. The Lord was testing. Will you remain faithful? Will the truth be proclaimed? Dr. Thomas spent 17 years. He did not quit. He saw a convert. What beautiful feet that man had. Judson says this, people will ask him, what prospect of ultimate success is there? What prospect? Don't you like that? Like we're going to be able to determine how well the business is going to go? Listen to what Judson said. He said, as much as there is an almighty and faithful God who will perform His promises and no more. Well, that's pretty good prospects, right? Let me read that again. What prospect of ultimate success? As much as there is an almighty and faithful God. This text says your God reigns. He's almighty. And who will perform His promises and no more. So that means we have guaranteed success. Judson said, if this does not satisfy them, beg them to let me stay and try it. And to let you come and give us our bread. Or if they are unwilling to risk their bread on such a forlorn hope as had nothing but the Word of God to sustain it, beg of them at least not to prevent others from giving us bread. And if we live some 20 or 30 years, they may hear from us again. If we desert it, the blood of the Burmans will be required of us. And he's quoting what Paul says in Acts. What we read in Ezekiel. We have responsibility. I know I've referred to this, but here another example of beautiful feet is Daniel Smith. Who's read that biography? The Heavenly Pilgrim? Daniel has? Evan has? Very short, good. It's a good biography. There's not a slow point like in Patton's big one. It reads very smoothly. Page 76. You want to think about beautiful feet? He says this, Two young men who came, and he's in the middle of China, 1900's, and they stayed for training in the Bible school, were led to us in a strange way. When the nationalist armies were retreating before the communist advance, the only chance of refuge was to go to south Indochina and make a plea for sanctuary. While in Kunming, I met a fine young Christian soldier in this army. So they retreated. He's in Kunming of all places. And he meets this soldier. And I shared with him our whereabouts in the mountains and the work we were doing among the tribes. He's explaining how these two young men came to be there. Retreating through the southern parts of Yunnan, the army passed through areas in the south occupied by tribesfolk. To a group of them, this young soldier told out the story of salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus and advised them to seek us out away on the northern mountains so that I might come and share the message with them. So the soldier said, go find Dan Smith. What this faithful witness said that day took root downward in the tribesmen. They appointed two to go and seek us. And they took with them a large bag of meal for provision in the way. But the boys lost their way trying to find the missionaries. And were two months on the journey. So no one's coming to them except this soldier who had told them the truth. So they're going all the way to Dan Smith. When they finally found us, I shall not easily forget their first two questions. They were thin with hunger, but they did not ask for food. They were weary with journeying, but they did not ask for rest. Their clothes were the worst for wear, but they did not beg for clothes. The first question was this, where is the book? The second question went like a knife to my heart. How is it, asked one, that you have never come to us? Those simple searching questions need no comment. They stayed with us two years and then well-trained, we sent them back as evangelists to the tribe of southern Yunnan. You know what? We've got to keep our passion for missions going. And I'm sure when the team gets back and we're hearing updates about Nepal, it's going to help re-quicken some desire in our hearts with this fresh sight on the field that they have seen. And that's a good thing. And we want to keep praying as a church for the Lord of the Harvest to raise up labors to be sent into the harvest. Because there are so many needs. There are so many people who have not heard the good news of Jesus Christ. And we want to be a church known for sending out people with beautiful feet who might even actually go through physical mountains or wherever they go. They're going and proclaiming publicly that Jesus is the Christ. That He is the way, the truth, and the life. And the only way a condemned sinner can be right with God is through the blood sacrifice of the Holy Perfect Son of God. And that actually happened. It was prophesied about in Isaiah 53. And hundreds of years later, Christ actually came as a man. He perfectly did obey God's law. Had a perfect record. And then He went to that cross. He bore His Father's anger due to us in our place. That is the glorious good news of the Gospel. And that's what we want to be publishing. Christ. And I want to just, in a couple of minutes before closing, I want to read something out of Adonai Judson's volume 1 of Pulling the Eye Tooth from a Live Tiger, page 356. They endured so much suffering. He had just been in prison for two years. And his wife was going to him constantly trying to keep him alive. And as she's doing that, she's got this newborn baby Maria that she's trying to keep alive at the same time. And at some point, she got spotted fever. Had to have her head shaved. Had all sorts of illness. And she couldn't even walk. Judson couldn't walk. And a Bengali servant is the only one who kept them alive. The Lord used that Bengali. And they got sent to this prison. He was in one prison, and they got sent to another place where the main general was going to come. And he was going to sacrifice all of the white men there to their false god. They're going to be sacrificed. Burned alive. Thankfully, that general somehow was accused of treason and got executed. And that kept them all alive. But on the way to this spot, it was eight miles. And he's already been through torture, beatings, being hunt upside down. Listen to this. It was in May, one of the hottest months in the year. And it was 11 o'clock in the day. "...so that the sun was intolerable indeed. They had proceeded only half a mile..." And this is Anne writing about Abed-Niram to his brother. "...They had proceeded only half a mile." They have an eight-mile journey. They're half a mile in. "...Your brother's feet became blistered. And so great was his agony, even at this early period, that as they were crossing the little river, he ardently longed to throw himself into the water to be free from misery. But the sin attached to such an act..." Suicide. "...alone prevented it. They had then eight miles to walk. The sand and gravel were like burning coals to the feet of the prisoners, which soon became perfectly destitute of skin. In this wretched state, they were goaded on by unfeeling drivers. Mr. Judson's debilitated state and the consequence of the fever he had at this point, and having taken no food that morning, rendered him less capable of bearing such hardships than other prisoners." In the end, people carried him and he made it. But some died. But I was just reading that yesterday morning and I thought, here's this idea of beautiful feet. Look what this man's physical feet went through to just get the good news to these Burmans. I mean, my foot being destitute of skin, and you're just walking, being tortured. Wouldn't you think the first thought would be I can't wait to get out of this cursed country. Did Judson finally get out and flee back to America? He did not! He stayed! And then, year after all this ended, around that time, his wife died, and then their little baby died. And last thought here, listen to this. It's so important that we never get caught up in anything but publishing the Gospel. We could look at our church as a printing press. You could say, what are we publishing? Now? Ten years from now. And listen to this. Anne is dying. His wife. Let me just mention something. So basically, they're in this city. They've built their new house after they've gotten out and the British government is taking over. And Judson was a valuable translator. Anne, maybe there was some money involved. Even though he gave it all right back to the mission, he never thought of any money he made as his own because he was under a mission. But his wife and him determined he would go to the Capitol to be involved with some political things. With politics. And his goal was he wanted them to put in the law that it would be okay if someone converted. Because right now, that was not tolerated. Kind of like in Nepal, you can't make a convert there. It's not tolerated. Should our team spend all their energy trying to change Nepali law? And so Judson went there. Right when he got there, he realized they were not going to add that into the laws even though the British had taken over. And he was really depressed by that. It was during this time when he was gone that his wife died. And listen to some of her last words. We're on page 414. Page 414 in this. Listen to this. He had heard this at some point. And her last words, I guess she had a last phrase, but last words spoken of him in her last request to Dr. Richardson. Listen to this. Her medical attendant was that he would convey to her husband her earnest entreaty that he would never consent to enter the service of the British government. Never do politics was the point. But confine himself exclusively to the duties of his religious mission. That was one of the wife's last requests. Tell my husband, don't get involved with this whole British government thing. Don't get consumed with politics and using your translation efforts for that. But make it all about Christ. Will some of you maybe in the church get involved in politics and God call you to that? That's different. But us as a church, and more specifically, a sent one as a missionary in a foreign land, that's not what we go over the mountains to do. We don't go over the mountains to just do medical missions. We don't go over the mountains to try to work with the government so they tolerate someone being a Christian. We go over the mountains with the short time we have to publish the good news of the Gospel. And women like Seaham are dying right now. And what if the team over there is consumed with other things? And she would not have heard of this good news of Jesus Christ. And we've got to keep praying today that she will hear and believe and the arm of the Lord will be revealed to her and that she'll be converted and saved from the wrath to come and have peace with God through the blood of the Lamb. Let's pray. Father, we thank You, Lord, that You have given us good news. We thank You, Lord, that there is a Gospel. We thank You, Lord, that there is peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we are utterly thankful You are so good to us to have revealed Your arm to us. And Lord, again, I pray, Lord, we want to not persistently... Lord, we want to be like Bodin's and Beer's. After seven years, no converts, and they just fell down on the street and cried out to You. Lord, we cry out to You, will You not save Seaham? Father, will You not save this Muslim in Lebanon who will die of cancer so soon, it seems? Lord, have mercy on her. Lord, open her eyes. Lord, hear our cry. Lord, Your arm is not short that it cannot save. Lord, make the feet of the team in Lebanon beautiful to her for having positioned themselves in that place to proclaim the Gospel. Lord, I pray You would help all of us to continue as opportunity prevails and not as opportunity prevails, but creating opportunity and positioning ourselves and going. Lord, give us opportunity to preach Christ. Lord, we pray You'd save family members. We pray You'd save our children. We pray You'd save co-workers. Lord, we pray the Word of God would speed ahead and be honored and manifest itself in powerfully converting people. Lord, we just commit ourselves to You. In Christ's name, Amen.