Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2674
“What I tell you in darkness, speak in light: and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.” Matthew 10:27.
I HOPE that many who are now present desire, beyond everything else, to be useful to their fellow creatures. We do not want to go to Heaven alone—we are most anxious to lead others to the Savior! I remember a very remarkable telegram which was sent from England by a lady who had sailed from New York with all her children. She landed in England after being shipwrecked and she sent her husband this brief but suggestive telegram, “Saved—alone.” Ah, that last sad word seemed as if it took almost all the sweetness out of the first one. “Saved alone.” May that never be what we shall have to say as we enter Heaven, but may we have the privilege of saying, “Here am I, Father, and the children whom You have given me.” May it be my joy to be able to say, “Here am I and all my congregation, saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.”
So we begin with the assurance that all of you who know the Lord want to be useful, but, if that is to be the case, preparation is necessary. You say that you are going out to battle, young man, do you? Well, do not be in such a hurry! You have no rifle or sword—you will be in the way of the other soldiers rather than an addition to them. Unless you are, first of all, properly trained, you will certainly make a failure of your soldiering. The man who jumps into the army is not a warrior all at once—there must be drills, there must be a certain course of training before he can be of any service to the Queen. So is it with Christ’s disciples. He did not send them out to preach at once—He called them from their former occupations—but He kept them with Himself for a time till they had learned at least some of the lessons they were to impart to others, for how could they teach what they did not know? Can a thing which is not in a man come out of him? And if it has never been put into him, how can it be gotten out of him? So our Savior, in the words of our text, encouraged His disciples to proclaim, even from the housetops, the Gospel which He had revealed to them, but He also gave them to understand that, first of all, they had need of preparation before they would be qualified to deliver their message. “What I tell you in darkness, that speak you in light: and what you hear in the ear, that preach you on the housetops.”
I. I want, first, to speak to you who desire to work for Jesus, concerning His own definition of AN INVALUABLE PRIVILEGE FOR ALL CHRISTIANS—“What I tell you in darkness.” “What you hear in the ear.”
From our Lord’s words, I learn that it is the great privilege of Christians to realize, first, that Christ is still alive and still with His people, still conversing with His chosen ones, still, by His Divine Spirit, speaking out of His very heart into the hearts of His true disciples. Christ was born an Infant, but He is no Infant now. Christ died, but He is not dead now. He is risen! He has gone up into His Glory! He sits upon the Throne of God, but, at the same time, by a very real spiritual Presence, He is with all His people, as He said to His disciples, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” And there is nothing that can so fit a man for holy service as to have Christ’s eyes looking into his eyes and reading him through and through—and to have Christ’s pierced hand laid on his heart till the very imprint of its wound is reproduced, filling that heart with a loving grief for others!
“Oh,” says one, “I think that I could speak for Christ if that should ever be true to me!” Ah, my Friend, you will neverspeak aright until it istrue to you! Not with those mortal eyes will you see Him, but your heartshall behold Him without any help from those dull eyes. Not with your ears shall you hear His voice, but your heart shall attend to His
message without the use of those poor impediments of ears. You shall know that He is with you—you shall be sure of it—for His life shall touch your life, His Spirit shall flood your spirit and then, but not till then, shall you be fit to speak in His name! That is the first part of this invaluable privilege—we are permitted to realize our Lord’s Presence with us personally.
Next, we are enabled to feel Christ’s Word as spoken to us—“I tell you.” The message of the Gospel is applied directly and distinctly to our own soul by Christ! We do not look for any new Revelation, but we do expect the old Revelation to be made known to our hearts and consciences in all its wondrous power. We expect that the Words which Jesus spoke should ring in our souls with such music as they evoked when He first uttered them and that we should, by the working of His Spirit, feel the force of those Words just as they did who heard Him with their outward ears! And we shall never fully preach the Gospel till then. A man may go to Seminary, he may learn all about the letter of Scripture, but he is no minister of God if he has not sat at Jesus’ feet and learned of Him. And when he haslearned of Him and the Truth of God has come home to his heart as his own personal possession given to him by Christ, then shall he speak with more than mortal power, but not till then! Step back into the rear rank, Sir, if Christ has never spoken to you thus—and wait there until He has done so. If the Master has given you no message, do not run—what is the use of running if you have nothing to tell? Do you think that you are to make up your own message as you run? Ah, then, you are not Christ’s servant, for His servant waits until he has heard the message from his Master—and then it is both his duty and his privilege to proclaim it just as he has heard it! “What I tell you in darkness, that speak you in light: and what you hear in the ear”—“I myself whispering it into your ear, that you may receive it directly from Me—this it is which you are to go and proclaim upon the housetops.”