****THE SOLID ROCK
Edward Mote was not raised in a godly home. He didn’t have the advantage of an early exposure to the Word of God. His parents, who managed a pub in London, often neglected their son who spent most of his Sundays on the streets of the city.
About his own childhood, he said: “So
ignorant was I that I didn’t even know there was a God.”
But, eventually, Edward heard the Good
News of the Gospel. He believed and was baptized at the age of 18 years. That’s
grace! And that’s the only basis for our Salvation.
Edward worked as a cabinetmaker for 37 years but it wasn’t until after his 55th birthday, that he became the pastor of a Baptist church in Horsham, Sussex. And for the next 21 years, Edward did not miss a single Sunday preaching the Word of God.
He was so well-loved by his congregation that they offered him the title deed to the church building. But, to that, he said: “I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit; and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that.”
I am amazed at that statement. It was
profound. Edward Mote understood that the church is not about a building; it’s
about the pulpit. It’s about the preaching of the Written Word of God which is
inseparable from the Living Word of God.
I once had a pastor who referred to his pulpit as the SACRED DESK. He placed a small, engraved plaque on the top. For anyone who ever stood behind it, the engraving was a simple reminder from the pages of scripture that said, “Sirs, we would see Jesus.”
There is a good reason that so many
churches place the pulpit right up front in the center of a raised platform. It
is there to expose, elevate, and expound the Word of God so that the people can
clearly see Jesus.
Edward Mote wrote the hymn, “THE SOLID ROCK,” at the age of 37.
It is listed among the greatest hymns of the Christian faith. It reminds us
that our salvation, our only Hope, is in the shed blood of Jesus (a sacrifice
for our sin), and His righteousness is imputed to us.
Simply put, “I owed a debt I could not
pay; Jesus paid a debt He did not owe.”
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