Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1193
“And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girds on his harness boast himself as he that takes it off” 1 Kings 20:11.
THESE two kings were about to proceed to war and they irritated one another by insulting messages. That was the custom of all combatants in the old heathen times. They seemed to delight in stinging each other and exciting each other’s worst passions before they commenced the battle. Let it not be so among us. If we have to contend for the Truth of God let us endeavor to do it in the kindest spirit. And if we must smite, let it always be with the iron rod of Truth held in the hand of love, wounding none, nor exulting over them, but breaking in pieces their errors and their sins by the help of God. The blow will be none the weaker for being divested of anything like an evil spirit and an ungenerous temper. Speak the Truth firmly and contend earnestly for it, but never manifest a bitter spirit. Bring up the weightiest arguments you can find, but let them be accompanied with courtesy and kindness, for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God—and it is ill for a Christian soldier to imitate the manners of the heathen.
However insultingly intended, the text we have quoted contained a great deal of common sense. It is, in fact, a proverb of the wise, and we intend to use it so. It is right to learn, even from the lips of the wicked—for they are seldom so foolish in worldly things as they are in spiritual. Professing Christians might learn much from the children of darkness if they would take the trouble to do so, for are they not in their generation wiser than the children of light? Our text was the utterance of Ahab, who was one of the vilest kings of Israel! He greatly provoked the Lord to anger—still, what he said has wisdom in it—so let us try to profit by it.
Do you remember how the Israelites of old went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his knife and his axe? It is good to make our enemy turn the grindstone on which we may sharpen the weapons which we intend to use against him! The expressions used by a godless man may be taken from his mouth—washed and carefully cleansed of the sand of sin—and what remains of golden grains may be turned to good account. Full many a pearl has been discovered in an oyster shell on the dark bottom of the sea—throw away the shell, but keep the pearl! On a dunghill, a diamond sometimes has been found—it is not to be rejected because of the place where it lay!
The text is peculiarly adapted to those who are commencing the battle of the Christian life. The young man who is newly converted is girding on his harness. He has newly made the profession of his faith and has come forward to be baptized and united with the Church. He is girding on his harness and soon he is going back to the warehouse where they will know that he professes to be a Christian. Or he will go home to a family whose other members have no respect for the things of God and he will have to bear witness among them. The young woman has to go back to her friends who have not the same love to Jesus that she has, to commence her lifelong testimony in their midst.
You are girding on the harness, then, dear young Friends, and the text is for you—“Let not him that girds on his harness boast himself as he that takes it off.” It will do, also, for young men and women who are commencing life for themselves, lately married, beginning housekeeping and intending to do well—opening a new shop with such fair prospects—moving to a new farm with such bright hopes. It may be a word in season to such. Girding on the harness, you have not put it off yet and, therefore, do not boast! It will also do for my new students who have just come to college. May they be preserved from the tendency to boast, which is natural enough, but is as silly as it is natural!
Perhaps I address some young minister who is commencing his ministry, or some worker for Christ who has begun in the Sunday school, or taken a district for distributing tracts, or entered upon some other new labor. There are many other things which I need not mention here, but which each one of you can think of for yourself—and more especially if you happen to be in the condition intended. “Let not him that girds on his harness boast himself as he that takes it off.”
I. Let us think a little upon this ancient saying and remember, first, that THERE IS, IN THOSE WHO NEWLY PUT ON THEIR ARMOR, A GREAT TENDENCY TO BOAST. This is not at all remarkable, because, first, it is the nature of all men, more or less, to boast. Human nature is both poor and proud. It is so poor that it is naked and miserable. And yet it is so proud that it claims to be rich, increased in goods and to have need of nothing. If men carried their heads where they should, they would not be among the stars, but down in the dust—yet the less goodness poor mortals have, the more pride they usually manifest. The Pharisee who has been making a meal of a widow’s house opens his mouth, while yet he is gorged with his robbery, and cries, “God, I thank You that I am not as other men!” And Herod, who has been murdering a holy Apostle and ought to be repenting of his great wickedness, assumes to be a god, and listens with delight to the flatteries of his foolish subjects. The poorer, generally the prouder—and those who have the least to boast of are those who brag the most.