Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1847
“Therefore lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. But be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:21,22.
BRETHREN, it is a good thing to be under the sound of the Word of God. Even if the very lowest motive should induce persons to come to hear the Gospel, it is, nevertheless, a good thing that they should come. We have heard of some who have even come to steal—and yet the Word of God has stolen into their hearts. In many cases, in olden times, spies were sent to hear the Protestant divines who preached the Gospel—and these took notes of all that was said, with a view to accuse them of false doctrine that they might be punished—yet in several cases, the spies, themselves, were converted! Such is the power of the Gospel of Christ, that it woos and wins, even, its greatest enemies. He that comes near to its fire, even with the intent to quench it, may find himself overcome by its heat.
Master Hugh Latimer, in his quaint manner, when exhorting people to go to church, tells of a woman who could not sleep for many nights, notwithstanding that drugs had been given to her. She said that if they would take her to her parish church she could sleep, there, for she had often enjoyed a quiet slumber under the sermon. And he goes the length of saying that if people even come to the sermon to sleep, it is better than not to come at all for, he adds, in his fine old Saxon, “they may be caught napping.” It is even so. A sick man does well to live where there are physicians, for one day he may be healed. If men are in the heat of a battle, they may be wounded—if they come where Gospel arrows are shot, they may fall under them. Plants that grow in the open are likely to be watered when the shower falls. We dare not say to any man who wills to enter the House of Prayer, “You must not come because your motive is gross and low.” No, you are welcome, anyway! Who knows but that, being in the way, God may meet with you. Being where His Truth is preached, you may hear it—and “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
Yet it will strike you at once that though it is well to come to the hearing of the Word of God in any case, yet it is better to come in a better way. We should endeavor to gather the most we can from the means of Grace and not pluck at them at random. A farmer may feel that there will be sure to be some crop upon his land if he does but seed it, but, if he is a wise man, he is not satisfied with a bare crop—he fertilizes his land heavily and tills it well so that it may bring forth a large return to him—for in these times, the largest harvest is no more than he needs. So, my Brothers, let us so use the holy ordinance of preaching that we may extract the largest possible amount of gold from the ore. Let us so come into the solemn assembly that we may hope to meet with God, there, for this is the chief end of our gathering together. And let us so behave ourselves before the coming, in the coming and after the coming, to the sanctuary, that we may gain the greatest possible profit by our coming together. To hear the Word of the Lord is often made, of the Spirit of God, to be life to dead souls and the most eminent means of further quickening to those who are already alive unto God. Let us not lose a grain of the blessing through our own fault. The Word of the Lord is precious in these days—let us not trifle with it.
This morning I shall handle my text with the earnest design of teaching you how to hear. Oh, that the Spirit of God may graciously help me! First, let us note what to do before the sermon—“Lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.” Secondly, let us learn how to behave during the sermon—“Receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls.” And thirdly, here is the instruction for after the sermon—“Be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
I. Let us consider the fit and proper preparation for listening to the Gospel, or what is to be done BEFORE HEARING. It will strike every man who thinks about it, that there should be some preparation of the heart in coming to the worship of God and to the hearing of the Gospel. Consider who He is, in whose name we gather, and surely we cannot rush together without thought! Consider whom we profess to worship and we shall not hurry into His Presence as men run to a fire. Moses, the man of God, was warned to take off his shoes when God only revealed Himself in a bush—how should we prepare ourselves when we come to Him who reveals Himself in Christ Jesus, His dear Son? There should be no stumbling into the place of worship half-asleep; no roaming there as if it were no more than going to the theater. We cannot expect to profit much if we bring with us a swarm of idle thoughts and a heart crammed with vanity. If we are full of folly, we may shut out the Truth of God from our minds. We should make ready to receive what God is so ready to bestow. If he was condemned, who came to the wedding feast not having on a wedding garment, what shall we say of those who habitually come into the festivals of our Lord and never think of being meet to be partakers of His royal dainties? What shall we say of those who defile the temple of God by never seeking to have their souls washed from the filthiness of their sin? Certainly there should be a serious preparation when a sinful creature draws near to the most holy God!